Pass the Ribs!

Intro:

Genesis 12:1–3 CSB

1 The Lord said to Abram: Go from your land, your relatives, and your father’s house to the land that I will show you. 2 I will make you into a great nation, I will bless you, I will make your name great, and you will be a blessing. 3 I will bless those who bless you, I will curse anyone who treats you with contempt, and all the peoples on earth will be blessed through you.

Acts 10:9–16 CSB

9 The next day, as they were traveling and nearing the city, Peter went up to pray on the roof about noon. 10 He became hungry and wanted to eat, but while they were preparing something, he fell into a trance. 11 He saw heaven opened and an object that resembled a large sheet coming down, being lowered by its four corners to the earth. 12 In it were all the four-footed animals and reptiles of the earth, and the birds of the sky. 13 A voice said to him, “Get up, Peter; kill and eat.” 14 “No, Lord!” Peter said. “For I have never eaten anything impure and ritually unclean.” 15 Again, a second time, the voice said to him, “What God has made clean, do not call impure.” 16 This happened three times, and suddenly the object was taken up into heaven.

Review:

Sermon #1: Israel where yall from

The Contemporary Nation is Israel is the result of a concerted effort by England and the states to give displaced Jews a place to reside without regard to the condition of the Palestinian that already abided there

Sermon#2: Israel: Persecution or Wrath?

There is difference between Persecution and Wrath. It is imperative that we are able to discern the difference. The current citizen’s of Israel have catagorically rejected the Messiah. So it seems strange that they would be under persecution rather than wrath. Especially with our knowledge of the OT during the prophets whereby which they were enslaved by other nations to get their attention to turn them back to Christ.

Sermon #3: Abraham I promise too

The Genesis promise is a marriage proposal from God to Abraham. God is committing himself to abraham welfare because of Abraham’s willingness to follow God. The By-product of Abraham faith spilled over to Abraham’s ethnic descendants and ultimately to his spiritual children.

Sermon #4: Christ the second person singular

The 7x “You” in the promise was ultimately a reference to Christ. Not the Ethnic Nation of Christ.

OT testament illusions to One Nation under Christ

The Psalmist

Psalm 22:27 CSB

27 All the ends of the earth will remember and turn to the Lord. All the families of the nations will bow down before you,

Psalm 117:1 CSB

1 Praise the Lord, all nations! Glorify him, all peoples!

Psalm 18:49 CSB

49 Therefore I will give thanks to you among the nations, Lord; I will sing praises about your name.

These songwriters under the inspiration of the Spirit wrote songs about a day in the future where all the nations would be at the throne

The Prophets

Deut 32:43

Isaiah 42:6

Isaiah 60:3

Jeremiah 16:19-21

Zechariah 2:11

Isaiah 56:1–8 CSB

1 This is what the Lord says: Preserve justice and do what is right, for my salvation is coming soon, and my righteousness will be revealed. 2 Happy is the person who does this, the son of man who holds it fast, who keeps the Sabbath without desecrating it, and keeps his hand from doing any evil. 3 No foreigner who has joined himself to the Lord should say, “The Lord will exclude me from his people,” and the eunuch should not say, “Look, I am a dried-up tree.” 4 For the Lord says this: “For the eunuchs who keep my Sabbaths, and choose what pleases me, and hold firmly to my covenant, 5 I will give them, in my house and within my walls, a memorial and a name better than sons and daughters. I will give each of them an everlasting name that will never be cut off. 6 As for the foreigners who join themselves to the Lord to minister to him, to love the name of the Lord, and to become his servants— all who keep the Sabbath without desecrating it and who hold firmly to my covenant— 7 I will bring them to my holy mountain and let them rejoice in my house of prayer. Their burnt offerings and sacrifices will be acceptable on my altar, for my house will be called a house of prayer for all nations.” 8 This is the declaration of the Lord God, who gathers the dispersed of Israel: “I will gather to them still others besides those already gathered.”

Always: No one is above the law for there is no partiality with God

I. Time for Dinner

Acts 10:9–15 CSB

9 The next day, as they were traveling and nearing the city, Peter went up to pray on the roof about noon. 10 He became hungry and wanted to eat, but while they were preparing something, he fell into a trance. 11 He saw heaven opened and an object that resembled a large sheet coming down, being lowered by its four corners to the earth. 12 In it were all the four-footed animals and reptiles of the earth, and the birds of the sky. 13 A voice said to him, “Get up, Peter; kill and eat.” 14 “No, Lord!” Peter said. “For I have never eaten anything impure and ritually unclean.” 15 Again, a second time, the voice said to him, “What God has made clean, do not call impure.”

(EXP)(9) Luke lets us know as they(Cornelius and his servants) were traveling Peter went to the rooftop of Simon the tanner to pray at lunchtime. Luke is meticulously giving us these details so that we can see the providential nature of this divine appointment. This appointment was set up by God. Luke wants to us know prophecy is being fulfilled. Luke wants us to know the vestiges of the OT seperation laws are being destroy. Or as Paul put it in Ephesians “The middle wall of seperation” is being obliterated.

(10) During his prayer time Peter became hungry and fell into “a trance”

trance: The state of being outside oneself!

(11) Peter saw heaven opened and what looked like a large table cloth coming down from heaven covering the earth.

(12) In it were an amalgamation of clean & unclean, pure & impure animals.

(13) While in the trance Peter hears a voice call “Rise, Kill and Eat!”

(14) Peter responds “No Lord! For I have never eaten anything impure and ritually unclean!” Peter emphatically checks the voice! NO!(Surely not) I have keep the law concerning dietary laws and I am not breaking them. Got to respect “Ole Pete” he is certainly a man of conviction. He standing 10 toes down to this supernatural voice speaking to him during this trance like state.

(15) The voice respond emphatically “What God has made clean, do not call impure!” The command of God is direct refutation of what Peter just said. This statement has both a physical and spiritual interpretation.

Has made-made: is in the Aorist tense-meaning a simple, completed act in the past. The act is more important than the time it happened.

The voice made it clear to Peter. God has made it clean!!!! If God has made it clean it is no longer up for discussion, it is settled.

(16) This happened 3x for emphasis and because “ole Pete” has a hard head. Notice (17)

Acts 10:17 CSB

17 While Peter was deeply perplexed about what the vision he had seen might mean, right away the men who had been sent by Cornelius, having asked directions to Simon’s house, stood at the gate.

(17) Pete was deeply “perplexed” at a loss or confused about the vision. This is what deconstruction looks like in real-time. The finally word the “The Lord gave him was clear and unambiguous. “Rise, Kill and Eat!” Peter was dealing with the emotional, spiritual and physical ramifications of that statement. Jesus had already taught the disciples in Mark 7:14-19

Mark 7:14–19 CSB

14 Summoning the crowd again, he told them, “Listen to me, all of you, and understand: 15 Nothing that goes into a person from outside can defile him but the things that come out of a person are what defile him.” 17 When he went into the house away from the crowd, his disciples asked him about the parable. 18 He said to them, “Are you also as lacking in understanding? Don’t you realize that nothing going into a person from the outside can defile hi 19 For it doesn’t go into his heart but into the stomach and is eliminated” (thus he declared all foods clean).

Jesus said this statement while he, himself keep all the food laws of the OT. He is teaching a lesson. There is nothing “unclean or impure” about any food. The foods in the OT were not called “unclean or impure because there was something intrisical or ontologically impure about them. They were called impure for other reasons.

Deuteronomy 14:2–4 CSB

2 for you are a holy people belonging to the Lord your God. The Lord has chosen you to be his own possession out of all the peoples on the face of the earth. 3 “You must not eat any detestable thing. 4 These are the animals you may eat: oxen, sheep, goats,

Deuteronomy 14:21 CSB

21 “You are not to eat any carcass; you may give it to a resident alien within your city gates, and he may eat it, or you may sell it to a foreigner. For you are a holy people belonging to the Lord your God. Do not boil a young goat in its mother’s milk.

(21) You will notice God said you can give it to the foreigner living among you, or a foreigner from another country, but you are not consume. If these foods were intrisically bad or evil why would they give it to a foreigner to eat.

Leviticus 20:22–25 CSB

22 “You are to keep all my statutes and all my ordinances, and do them, so that the land where I am bringing you to live will not vomit you out. 23 You must not follow the statutes of the nations I am driving out before you, for they did all these things, and I abhorred them. 24 And I promised you: You will inherit their land, since I will give it to you to possess, a land flowing with milk and honey. I am the Lord your God who set you apart from the peoples. 25 Therefore you are to distinguish the clean animal from the unclean one, and the unclean bird from the clean one. Do not become contaminated by any land animal, bird, or whatever crawls on the ground; I have set these apart as unclean for you.

(22-25) Yahweh said (23) don’t follow the statutes of the nations I am driving you out from. Then in (25) he went to clean and unclean animals. Part of this seperation involved food. God wanted the people of Israel totally set apart from other nations. Not in an arrogant sense because they were better but because they served a better God. God is using the israelite people to contrast himself against the gods of the nations.

So no food has very been intrisically bad. And this squares with Genesis that declared everything God made as “good”

Then what’s going on with this story? Help us Luke!

Acts 10:17–23 CSB

17 While Peter was deeply perplexed about what the vision he had seen might mean, right away the men who had been sent by Cornelius, having asked directions to Simon’s house, stood at the gate. 18 They called out, asking if Simon, who was also named Peter, was lodging there. 19 While Peter was thinking about the vision, the Spirit told him, “Three men are here looking for you. 20 Get up, go downstairs, and go with them with no doubts at all, because I have sent them.” 21 Then Peter went down to the men and said, “Here I am, the one you’re looking for. What is the reason you’re here?” 22 They said, “Cornelius, a centurion, an upright and God-fearing man, who has a good reputation with the whole Jewish nation, was divinely directed by a holy angel to call you to his house and to hear a message from you.” 23 Peter then invited them in and gave them lodging. The next day he got up and set out with them, and some of the brothers from Joppa went with him.

(17-19) While Pete is on the roof still seeking clarity on the vision he gets word from the Spirit that he has three visitors sent by God.

(20-23) Peter is informed that a “resident alien” one who is not Jewish by blood but a prationer of Judaism named Cornelius had a divine visitation from an Angel who told him to find you and invite you back to his house to preach a sermon!!!

The Lord orchestrated this whole event. Cornelius had a vision at 3pm(send someone to get Pete), and Pete had a vision at 12pm the next day (What God has made clean, do not call impure) because of the magnitude of the event God supernaturally spoke to both Cornelius and Pete.

Peter lets them stay the night then the next morning they set out to Cornelius home in Ceaserea.

Acts 10:24 CSB

24 The following day he entered Caesarea. Now Cornelius was expecting them and had called together his relatives and close friends.

(24) Cornelius filled his house with family and friends to hear the word that Peter had for them..

Acts 10:26–28 CSB

26 But Peter lifted him up and said, “Stand up. I myself am also a man.” 27 While talking with him, he went in and found a large gathering of people. 28 Peter said to them, “You know it’s forbidden for a Jewish man to associate with or visit a foreigner, but God has shown me that I must not call any person impure or unclean.

(EXP)(26) Peter refuses to be worshipped by Cornelius. This is critical to the understanding of this text. It would have been common in the Roman world for man to immediately bow in the presence of a dignitary. Cornelius is being respectful. Peter corrects him. “I myself am also a man!” don’t worship or venerate me. There is only one person in this New Relationship that deserves this type of treatement and it ain’t me. “this is coming from Peter who by all accounts is the most important person in the dissemination of this message to the world.” Peter was the first preacher in Acts after pentecost.

(27-28) Peter entered the room and saw a room full of Gentiles! Not hellenized Jews! These were European Gentiles. We know that because of Peter statement in (28) Peter tells us the common practice for Jewish People in the 1st century as it pertains to sharing a meal with Gentiles. “Jewish people do not associate nor visit foreigner’s” This is related to the earlier passages in Lev & Deut. We are to be Holy and Set apart. Then Peter exegetes the text for us.

(28) “God has shown me that I must not call any person impure or unclean” This is a profound statement by Peter it tells us two things he understands now about the vision:

Physical Revelation: The Mosaic Food Laws are no longer required. The Food laws were put in place for several reasons

Worship Distinction-Following the food laws reminded the people of their connection to God and his requirement to be Holy

Moral Distinction-Following them made them an example to the nations by the uniqueness of their diet.

Social Distinction -Food was the central method and means of handling business. Think of ancient meals as current Zoom Meeting. Trade happen at dinner, Treatise were signed at dinner, Marriages were setup over dinner. They way God keep Israel from immersing themselves into other countries was the food laws. God demanded the people trust in him and not in their relationship to other countries. They didn’t need to formulate allainces nor marry the women from other kingdoms they are to trust him.

Spiritual Revelation: By removing the food laws God has invariably opened up the door for fellowship to happen between Israel and the Nations. These 12 disciples have a message that needs to be spread and God remove the greatest barrier and that was food. Peter understood that the animals represented the Gentiles.

Peter also understood something even more profound there is nothing unique about the Ethnic Children of Israel. The Children of Israel had come to have an exalted view of themselves as the chosen of God. God is humbling the Israelites and Exalting the Gentiles. They table they could not come to at one time is now a table they are welcome too. Not as servants but as equals.

Peter had to go through his own personal deconstruction. That is why the vision was perplexing him. He began to realize God is in this thing. The Middle wall of Partition that Paul talked in ephesians 2:11-14

Closing

Ephesians 2:11–14 CSB

11 So, then, remember that at one time you were Gentiles in the flesh—called “the uncircumcised” by those called “the circumcised,” which is done in the flesh by human hands. 12 At that time you were without Christ, excluded from the citizenship of Israel, and foreigners to the covenants of promise, without hope and without God in the world. 13 But now in Christ Jesus, you who were far away have been brought near by the blood of Christ. 14 For he is our peace, who made both groups one and tore down the dividing wall of hostility. In his flesh,

Open the Door of the church