Sermon Tone Analysis

Good News

Fantasy Baseball

The first time I won Fantasy Baseball

Something that is incredibly meaningful and good news to me, but seemingly irrelevant or even annoying to others.

I often feel the same way about the actual Gospel.

I think:

They aren’t interested

They won’t care

They’ll get annoyed with me

And then I start to believe:

I should leave “that part of my life” out of our relationship

There’s nothing I can do about it

It doesn’t matter if they know anyway

Acts 10 tells a story that we can relate to.

When:

A few years after the death and resurrection of Jesus.

Just after the conversion of Saul.

At the beginnings of the apostles’ missionary journeys around the Mediterranean.

Where:

Caesarea (Maritima) (to cut) (the sea): major city

Joppa: close to modern Tel Aviv

Who:

Cornelius, a centurion

A gentile

Peter, aka Simon Peter

A disciple (an infamous one)

Law-abiding Jew

Peter had the hungry sleepies.

Can’t blame him.

Who knows if Peter recognized this as a vision from God, or if he just thought he was literally so hungry he would eat any four-footed animal, reptile, or bird.

Okay, here is where Peter shows himself.

Peter, law-abiding Jew, will not eat impure or unclean animals.

This is Peter trying to do what is right in the eyes of God.

But watch how God responds:

Why would God say that?

Why would God give Peter that vision that day?

The men find Peter and invite him to Caesarea to meet Cornelius and Peter agrees to go the next day.

This is where we see that when we tell this story, we almost always tell it as the amazing good news that after Jesus’ death and resurrection, God now welcomes ALL people (including Gentiles) in to his people here on Earth—and that is indeed the best news!

Cornelius and his family are converted and:

But the critical point of the story for us to see tonight is that Cornelius and his family are not the only ones God converted that day.

Peter was converted too.

How we know: “But God has shown me...”

Peter wanted to change the world, he wanted to spread the Gospel, he wanted to see the world claim Jesus is Lord, but before he could do that, God completely transformed foundational ideas Peter had about what that meant.

Before Peter could go and participate in this amazing work of Jesus’ kingdom, he had to be stopped dead in his tracks, prayerful, and changed by God.

Cornelius didn’t actually need Peter to receive God and follow Jesus—but through this encounter we get to see that as God was sending Peter to work in his Kingdom, he was continually doing Kingdom work in Peter.

If we feel like we have good news to share, we are like Peter today.

I share this story and these words to invite you in to asking these questions of yourself and of God:

What are the times, places, situations where I feel “stuck” in sharing good news?

What ideas and beliefs do I have that God wants to change?

How does God give me vision and ideas for how to proceed?

As you reflect and pray on those today and later, let me also offer you some encouragement from this story and from myself:

God may give you “big vision” and he may not.

Neither one is better than the other.

What’s important is the lifelong journey of faith and trust.

Consider that these two traits of Peter in Acts 10 might just be the secret for all of us to changing the world and spreading good news:

Hospitality

Friendship

Still nobody cares about Fantasy Baseball, and my wife Celeste is the perfect example.

But let me tell you about the last 4 years of life:

How I invited her in to my life with baseball (and how I didn’t)

This might just be how God does things, and it may just be that he has equipped you, in every way possible, to live out the same kind of hospitality and friendship that Peter and Cornelius had.

Remain open to God shattering your existing thoughts and giving you new ones.

And remember Peter’s words as he reflects and realizes what God is up to in Acts 10:

“It’s God’s own truth, nothing could be plainer: God plays no favorites!

It makes no difference who you are or where you’re from—if you want God and are ready to do as he says, the door is open.

The Message he sent to the children of Israel—that through Jesus Christ everything is being put together again—well, he’s doing it everywhere, among everyone.