What God has made clean
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Diet is something that we hear about a lot these days, food is very important to us we need it for nourishment. It is pleasurable to us. It can be a love language for some, when they make a meal for you they are showing you how much they love you and want to share with you. Food has healing properties, we know that certain foods are high in antioxidants, vitamins, or riboflavin, even some fats are good for our bodies. We can’t go overboard with fats but we do know that fats help our bodies to absorb vitamins and they can affect our cholesterol. Healthy fats raise our good cholesterol and lower our bad cholesterol. So yes even fat can be good for you!
Today we have so many diets, we have plant based diets vegan/vegetarian, low carb (keto, Atkins) Mediterranean, Paleo, intermittent fasting, and therapeutic diets such as DASH. There is nothing wrong with any of these diets, some people do them by choice or they may be prescribed for them. Sometimes they are temporary, you may need to do it to prepare for an event or surgery or they can be lifelong. Today we are going to look at how a change of diet affected the church.
9 The next day, as they were on their journey and approaching the city, Peter went up on the housetop about the sixth hour to pray. 10 And he became hungry and wanted something to eat, but while they were preparing it, he fell into a trance 11 and saw the heavens opened and something like a great sheet descending, being let down by its four corners upon the earth. 12 In it were all kinds of animals and reptiles and birds of the air. 13 And there came a voice to him: “Rise, Peter; kill and eat.” 14 But Peter said, “By no means, Lord; for I have never eaten anything that is common or unclean.” 15 And the voice came to him again a second time, “What God has made clean, do not call common.” 16 This happened three times, and the thing was taken up at once to heaven.
Peter had a bit of a problem here.. He was a Jew and as such he had a diet that was prescribed in the scriptures for them to follow. The levitical law told them exactly what they could eat and what was forbidden for them to eat. In the verse it mentions reptiles and they were definitely on the exclusion list!
29 “And these are unclean to you among the swarming things that swarm on the ground: the mole rat, the mouse, the great lizard of any kind, 30 the gecko, the monitor lizard, the lizard, the sand lizard, and the chameleon. 31 These are unclean to you among all that swarm. Whoever touches them when they are dead shall be unclean until the evening.
So any reptile was not to be eaten indeed it was not meant to be touched! I know some of us are thinking good! I don’t want to touch any reptiles anyways! Good law I am all in! Whatever you say Lord! Today what was levitical law is now considered kosher. It’s the separation of clean and unclean animals. This means that you don’t eat any pork, shellfish, birds of prey AND the butchering and preparation follow specific rules. This was Peter’s diet for his whole life until he receives this vision from the Lord. Imagine your whole diet being turned on it’s head when you went to pray? Here you are praying to God, thanking him for how great he is, for the things that he has done for you and others. You might even be entering into intercession for others and then… Here comes this vision.
Like Peter I think a lot of us would question it. God? Are you telling me I have been doing this wrong all this time? I don’t even know what to do with some of these animals. Never cooked them before don’t know how to prepare them.. What goes with catfish? Do latkes go well with them? Can I have it with a side salad? Help me out here Lord? However God tells him to kill and eat 3 times and then says what God has made clean do not call common.
17 Now while Peter was inwardly perplexed as to what the vision that he had seen might mean, behold, the men who were sent by Cornelius, having made inquiry for Simon’s house, stood at the gate 18 and called out to ask whether Simon who was called Peter was lodging there. 19 And while Peter was pondering the vision, the Spirit said to him, “Behold, three men are looking for you. 20 Rise and go down and accompany them without hesitation, for I have sent them.” 21 And Peter went down to the men and said, “I am the one you are looking for. What is the reason for your coming?” 22 And they said, “Cornelius, a centurion, an upright and God-fearing man, who is well spoken of by the whole Jewish nation, was directed by a holy angel to send for you to come to his house and to hear what you have to say.” 23 So he invited them in to be his guests. The next day he rose and went away with them, and some of the brothers from Joppa accompanied him.
While Peter is still contemplating what this vision he has received means, three men are inquiring about him. These three men are gentiles sent by Cornelius. Now Cornelius was a roman Centurion he was part of the Italian band or cohort and he knew God. However he was a Gentile, despite being so he had a vision of his own from a angel that told him to send men to go out and get Peter and bring him back. He was going to be a guest at his house. Back then and even today, when you go to someones house you usually eat what they set before you. I know now we have to take this into consideration but in that day, you could not just run up to the grocery store and but gluten free bread or tofurkey. What was set in front of you was from what was available in the area. Also it wasn’t like Peter was going to be able to bring his own foods with him either.
Being Italian it was very likely that they ate pork and it was highly likely that they didn’t prepare foods according to the levitical law. God was preparing Peter to launch into a ministry to the Gentiles this was the beginning of a new phase of the church and while Paul has already started this in his trips to Arabia and Syria, this was expanding out more with Peter.
There is a story of a missionary who went to Korea, she stayed with a family there and Koreans eat in a family type setting. She was there for months and had developed a taste for a particular dish that they had served her during her time there. When it was time for her to go the family asked her what her favorite dish was so they could prepare it for her last meal with them. She told them the dish and they prepared it, they whole time that she was there she never asked what the dish was made of but since it was her last day she decided to ask. When she asked the about the dish they told her it was dog.
When you go to other countries and visit people that may not live in our modern world in the US you may have to put your thoughts of diet aside. They may not have the foods that you are used to available to you. And in some cultures its considered offensive to turn away the food of your host.
23 So he invited them in to be his guests. The next day he rose and went away with them, and some of the brothers from Joppa accompanied him. 24 And on the following day they entered Caesarea. Cornelius was expecting them and had called together his relatives and close friends. 25 When Peter entered, Cornelius met him and fell down at his feet and worshiped him. 26 But Peter lifted him up, saying, “Stand up; I too am a man.” 27 And as he talked with him, he went in and found many persons gathered. 28 And he said to them, “You yourselves know how unlawful it is for a Jew to associate with or to visit anyone of another nation, but God has shown me that I should not call any person common or unclean.
So now we get a little deeper into the problem with the dietary restriction, it wasn’t just about the food… it was also about the laws that the Jews kept. They were not supposed to associate with those who were not Jews! Sure they could associate with those that decided to become part of the Jewish faith, they could convert but that isn’t what is happening here. Peter recognizes that God is doing a new thing and that he is expanding the kingdom beyond just the Jews. This is why he was willing to go into the Gentiles house without objection. As Paul states in.
26 And he made from one man every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth, having determined allotted periods and the boundaries of their dwelling place, 27 that they should seek God, and perhaps feel their way toward him and find him. Yet he is actually not far from each one of us, 28 for “ ‘In him we live and move and have our being’; as even some of your own poets have said, “ ‘For we are indeed his offspring.’
I heard recently that the KKK are rebranding themselves, they now want to go by the Knights Party. I watched an interview and the “Pastor” stated that if someone jewish decided that they wanted to join he doubted if it would be possible. You can rebrand all you want but if you have not changed the product the results will be the same! I can’t even be mad at them anymore, they are missing out by staying with the same diet that hasn’t been working for them for years!
However the church still has it’s own lessons to learn in this area. The church today still remains very segregated every Sunday morning. If God made us all and we believe that why do we remain within the same cultural diet?? Let’s get back to Peter.
34 So Peter opened his mouth and said: “Truly I understand that God shows no partiality, 35 but in every nation anyone who fears him and does what is right is acceptable to him.
Peter has come to understand that Paul would later write in Romans
28 For we hold that one is justified by faith apart from works of the law. 29 Or is God the God of Jews only? Is he not the God of Gentiles also? Yes, of Gentiles also, 30 since God is one—who will justify the circumcised by faith and the uncircumcised through faith. 31 Do we then overthrow the law by this faith? By no means! On the contrary, we uphold the law.
We don’t have to hold to Jewish laws to be Christians. There is a lot to the Jewish culture that I think we need to understand in order to grow and and be more complete but as gentiles we don’t walk in that in fact as Jews they are not longer required to walk in some of those laws. As Jesus said I came not to abolish the law but to fulfill it. The ten laws still apply in everything that we do.
Getting back to Peter, he then proceeds to preach the good news to the people. He talks about who Jesus was and about the time that He has spent with him. He proclaims that he has been commanded by Christ himself to preach and that Jesus is coming back to judge the world.
44 While Peter was still saying these things, the Holy Spirit fell on all who heard the word. 45 And the believers from among the circumcised who had come with Peter were amazed, because the gift of the Holy Spirit was poured out even on the Gentiles. 46 For they were hearing them speaking in tongues and extolling God. Then Peter declared, 47 “Can anyone withhold water for baptizing these people, who have received the Holy Spirit just as we have?” 48 And he commanded them to be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ. Then they asked him to remain for some days.
If Peter had not trusted in the vision that he had received from God, if He had stuck with what he knew and didn’t contemplate what He had been shown. He would not have been used by God to save the Gentiles that day at Cornelius house. What God has called clean… don’t call common. There are a lot of things happening in the Christian world right now that make me shake my head. We need to watch our diet, some things are being said and done by church people that don’t line up with the word but when God has a revelation for you, consider it. Don’t be quick to call it unclean, but. also make sure that it lines up with His word.
