Blinded by Differences

Never Going Back  •  Sermon  •  Submitted   •  Presented   •  30:08
0 ratings
· 204 views
Files
Notes
Transcript
NOTE:
This is a manuscript, and not a transcript of this message. The actual presentation of the message differed from the manuscript through the leading of the Holy Spirit. Therefore, it is possible, and even likely that there is material in this manuscript that was not included in the live presentation and that there was additional material in the live presentation that is not included in this manuscript.
Engagement
This week, we saw the political differences that have divided us as a nation come to a head as insurrectionists and rioters entered the Capitol Building in order to try and stop the orderly transition of power in our country. Unfortunately, many of those who engaged in that political violence did it under the flag of Jesus. A giant cross was erected in front of the Capitol building and signs emblazoned with the words “Jesus saves” and “Jesus 2020” were present throughout the crowd. One person had a banner that read “Jesus is my Savior. Trump is my President”. Another of the rioters brought a Christian flag into the Senate chambers.
Unfortunately, this was the inevitable result of a political process that is built upon accentuating our differences - differences that blind us to the fact that others are not enemies to be defeated, but rather people made in the image of God and loved by a God who wants to have a personal relationship with them.
Tension
Some of you may have seen this post on social media this week. [Be the reason someone loves Jesus. Not the reason they hate Christians.]
Unfortunately, on Wednesday a lot of people who claimed to be Christians became a reason for people to hate Christians rather than a reason to love Jesus. And that breaks my heart and I pray that it breaks your heart, too.
But I also know how easy it is to sit here and point fingers at some of those people and fail to recognize that I, too, have been blinded by some of things that make me different from others. And even though I didn’t take part in that violence this week, there is always a danger I will allow my differences to also become a reason for others to hate Christians rather than love Jesus. And I’m pretty sure that could easily happen in your life, too.
Truth
Today we continue our series “Never Going Back”. In this series we’re exploring some issues that can cause us to get trapped in the past and not move forward in the way that God desires. This morning we’re going to talk about how our differences can blind us and prevent us from carrying out our mission of bringing the kingdom of God close to those who are not yet a part of it.
We’re going to look at the story of a man who spent 3 years as Jesus’ right hand man, a man who was empowered by the Holy Spirit to preach a sermon that led to 3,000 people committing their lives to Jesus, a man who was one of the key leaders in the early church. But he was also a man who was blinded by his differences - differences that threatened to hinder his ministry and keep him from carrying out his God-given mission. By now, you have probably figured out I’m talking about Peter.
The events in Acts chapter 10 occur about 10 years after Peter preached that powerful sermon on the day of Pentecost. Peter has spent those ten years boldly preaching the gospel and ministering in the name of Jesus. But God is about to intervene in his life to help him deal with an area of spiritual blindness.
Although I preached a message from this same passage a little less than 2 years ago, my guess is that you’ve probably forgotten it by now. And even if you did remember some of it, it certainly won’t hurt to be reminded of what this passage teaches us about not being blinded by our differences.
We don’t have time to read the entire chapter, so I’m going to summarize parts of the story and then we’ll look at parts of it in more detail.
This chapter is the story of two men who are separated by about 30 miles geographically, but whose differences separate them far more.
Cornelius is a Gentile Roman soldier stationed in Caesarea, the provincial capital that was home to the governor. [Show map] Under the governor’s command were 3,000 soldiers, including the elite Italian cohort. Cornelius served as a centurion, which meant he was in charge of 100 soldiers. He is a Gentile, who was not yet a disciple of Jesus as the story opens. We are told that he was a God-fearing man who gave generously to the poor there in Caesarea and who prayed frequently.
Peter, a Jewish apostle of Jesus, was staying with Simon the tanner in Joppa, about 30 miles to the south, the same city where hundreds of years earlier the prophet Jonah had embarked in his attempt to flee from God. He was a Jew, and as we’re going to see, he had some deep seated prejudices against the Gentiles that God needs to tear down so that the advancement of the gospel would not be hindered.
In the first part of the chapter, both men are praying and they both have a vision from God.
In his vision, Cornelius is told to send some men to Joppa to bring Peter back to his house.
In Peter’s vision, he sees a sheet descending from heaven with all kinds of animals on it and he is told to eat. But because of his understanding of the Bible and his religious upbringing, Peter refuses to do that because there are some animals that the Jews considered to be “unclean” on that sheet. That vision is repeated two more times. I’ll be honest, this is one of my favorite passage in the Bible because it means I can eat baby back ribs, pulled pork, and bacon.
But the vision was not really about food at all. Jesus had actually already settled that issue years earlier:
Mark 7:18–19 ESV
And he said to them, “Then are you also without understanding? Do you not see that whatever goes into a person from outside cannot defile him, since it enters not his heart but his stomach, and is expelled?” (Thus he declared all foods clean.)
The vision was intended to confront Peter’s prejudices against the Gentiles that were hindering his ability to bring the gospel to them.
As Peter is pondering his vision, the men that Cornelius had sent to his house arrive there and invite him to come speak to Cornelius and his household. And in verse 23, we see that God is already beginning to break down some of Peter’s prejudices:
Acts 10:23 ESV
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.
When we understand the mindset of a first century Jew, it is shocking that Peter would invite these Gentiles into the house where he was staying. Peter and his fellow Jews had come to believe that it was wrong for them to either enter the house of a Gentile or to allow a Gentile to enter their house. That belief had been developed by reading the Scriptures through the lens of their own preconceived ideas about the Gentiles and cannot be found anywhere in the Bible. But the fact that Peter was willing to invite these Gentiles into his house is evidence that God is already working in Peter’s heart.
Let’s pick up the account in verse 24:
Acts 10:24–33 ESV
And on the following day they entered Caesarea. Cornelius was expecting them and had called together his relatives and close friends. When Peter entered, Cornelius met him and fell down at his feet and worshiped him. But Peter lifted him up, saying, “Stand up; I too am a man.” And as he talked with him, he went in and found many persons gathered. 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 when I was sent for, I came without objection. I ask then why you sent for me.” And Cornelius said, “Four days ago, about this hour, I was praying in my house at the ninth hour, and behold, a man stood before me in bright clothing and said, ‘Cornelius, your prayer has been heard and your alms have been remembered before God. Send therefore to Joppa and ask for Simon who is called Peter. He is lodging in the house of Simon, a tanner, by the sea.’ So I sent for you at once, and you have been kind enough to come. Now therefore we are all here in the presence of God to hear all that you have been commanded by the Lord.”
We should give Peter a lot of credit here. Although he reminds his audience that he shouldn’t even be there according to his understanding of the Jewish law, he is not so dogmatic in his beliefs that he holds to them even when God reveals that they are not valid. Notice in verse 28 he says, “God has shown me...”. We’ll come back to what God had shown him in just a moment.
Cornelius then explains that he has asked Peter to come speak to him and his family because of the vision God had given him four days earlier. So he and his family are now ready to listen to the message from Peter.
Acts 10:34–43 ESV
So Peter opened his mouth and said: “Truly I understand that God shows no partiality, but in every nation anyone who fears him and does what is right is acceptable to him. As for the word that he sent to Israel, preaching good news of peace through Jesus Christ (he is Lord of all), you yourselves know what happened throughout all Judea, beginning from Galilee after the baptism that John proclaimed: how God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and with power. He went about doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil, for God was with him. And we are witnesses of all that he did both in the country of the Jews and in Jerusalem. They put him to death by hanging him on a tree, but God raised him on the third day and made him to appear, not to all the people but to us who had been chosen by God as witnesses, who ate and drank with him after he rose from the dead. And he commanded us to preach to the people and to testify that he is the one appointed by God to be judge of the living and the dead. To him all the prophets bear witness that everyone who believes in him receives forgiveness of sins through his name.”
The main idea is pretty easy to see here:

At the cross, Jesus put to death whatever divides us

In his vision, God showed Peter that in His eyes, all were equal - both Jews and Gentiles. God shows no impartiality so therefore the good news of peace through Jesus is available to all who will put their faith in Him. So whatever differences there might be that blind us and divide us, they have been overcome by Jesus on the cross.
I love the way Pastor John Piper expresses this idea:
The bloodline of Jesus is thicker, deeper, stronger than the bloodline of race, ethnicity and family.
As this chapter began, we see that Peter is blinded by his differences with the Gentiles. He sees them as enemies rather than as people that were loved by God just as much as he was. Or to phrase it in a way that is more consistent with Piper, the most important bloodline to him was that of race and ethnicity. But by the end of the chapter we see that the blood of Jesus overcomes those barriers and removes the blinders that caused Peter to view the Gentiles as his enemies.
Jesus also wants to remove the blinders in our lives that we have allowed to exist because of our differences with others. That is something He desires to do regardless of the source of those differences - race, ethnicity, citizenship, which schools we attended, which sports teams we root for, and yes, even our politics.
Application
Se let’s see what we can learn from this passage about...
HOW TO LET JESUS REMOVE MY “BLINDERS”
Ask God to help me see clearly
As you’ve probably noticed, when I read the Scripture passage from my Bible each week, I have to put on my reading glasses. That is because as I have aged, my eyes need some help to see clearly the words written on each page.
In a similar way, I think we all need some help to see the blind spots in our lives. Most of us probably think that we don’t have prejudices, but the truth is that in many cases we have them, but we just don’t see them. That was certainly true for Peter. I think if you would have asked him if he was prejudiced against Gentiles before this experience, he would have said “no”. Or at least he would have rationalized that prejudice. It took God’s intervention to get him to recognize that he had a blind spot.
Several years ago after a police shooting in Milwaukee, Wisconsin a newspaper there ran a poll in which they asked “Does the city of Milwaukee have a race problem?” How many people do you think answered “yes” to that question? 98%. They then asked a follow up question: “Are you a racist?” How many people do you think answered that question “yes”? Only 2%. If people really answered that question honestly, there is little doubt in my mind that nearly 100% would have answered “yes” to that question. But almost all of them were blind to their own prejudices.
So the first step we all need to take if we want Jesus to remove our blinders is to ask Him to reveal our prejudices so that we can deal with them.
Be willing to engage others on “their turf
I am pretty certain that one of the main reasons we develop prejudices is that we haven’t taken the time to engage people on their turf.
For Peter, that meant leaving the comfort of the house where he was staying in Joppa and travelling 30 miles to a Roman stronghold where he wouldn’t be particularly welcomed as a Jew. And then once he got there, he had to enter the house of a Gentile, something that he had likely never done before.
As many of you know, early last year I began delivering food for Mobile Meals of Southern Arizona one day a week. I originally did that with the idea of trying to do what I could to help others during the COVID pandemic. But God has used the time I spend doing that each week for another purpose in my life.
My route takes me to a part of town where I would probably never go otherwise. And as I deliver meals there each Tuesday, I have interactions with people who are so different than me. Many of them are of a different race, some of them are homeless and others live in cramped, old apartments. I am almost certain that some of them make their living by engaging in illegal and/or immoral “jobs”.
It hasn’t happened overnight, but as I have interacted with these people on their turf over the last 9 months or so, God has broken down some of my prejudices and given me a heart of compassion for these people. And little by little, I am beginning to look past our differences and see all these people as those who God wants to love through me. That would have never happened if I had just observed that situation from a distance.
Listen
We’ve talked about this several times recently, so I’ll just touch on this briefly.
You’ll notice in this account that before Peter is ready to speak to Cornelius and his family, he first has to listen. Most importantly, he had to listen to God, but he also listened to Cornelius’ story before he spoke.
Far too often, we’re so focused on making a point, that we fail to genuinely listen to others. Instead of listening to really understand the other person, we’re already formulating our response and we often miss out on the opportunity to learn something about the others that would allow us to minister to them more effectively.
Make sure I “read out” of the Bible and not “read into” the Bible
Peter’s ideas about the Gentiles had been developed because he took his own preconceived ideas and then tried to interpret the Scriptures in a way that supported those ideas. And we can easily do the same thing and use the Bible to try and justify our prejudices.
When we read the Bible, we can use one of two approaches:
We can use exegesis. I could give you a big long seminary definition of this process, but it basically means that I read the Bible, let the Bible speak to me and then adjust my life to conform to the Scriptures. Or we could say it is reading out of the Bible.
We can use eisegesis. That is a process in which I take my own preconceived ideas and then either try and find Bible passages that will support those ideas or twist the meaning of the Scriptures to fit those ideas. Or we could say that it is reading into the Bible.
Let me give you a quick example of that approach. This is one I’ve actually seen people use to support their political agenda. Maybe you’ve even seen someone post this verse to support their conservative political views:
Ecclesiastes 10:2 ESV
A wise man’s heart inclines him to the right, but a fool’s heart to the left.
Now obviously that particular verse has nothing to do with politics. But if you try to read into the Bible rather than read out of the Bible, when you come to that particular verse in your Bible reading, it’s easy to misuse it like that.
This is why we encourage all of you to consistently read the Bible in a systematic manner so that you are exposed to the entire Bible and that you read Scripture in its context. Even this year, where we are taking a little different approach with our Bible reading plan, we are usually reading an entire chapter of Scripture and not just a verse or two taken out of context.
Point people to Jesus
The main idea that we’re developing today is...

At the cross, Jesus put to death whatever divides us

If that is true, and I believe it is, then ultimately the only way we can permanently overcome the prejudices that come from our differences is to allow Jesus to do that. The solution to our differences is not political, it is Jesus.
Notice that when Peter finally speaks, he talks about Jesus and points Cornelius and his family to Him. He doesn’t focus on his ideas or try to persuade them to come around to his way of thinking or even try and convince them to become Jews. He just points them to Jesus.
And you’ll notice here that he doesn’t get into an argument over theology. He merely proclaims the basics of the gospel: Jesus came to earth and lived a sinless life. He died on the cross and rose from the grave on the third day and appeared to Peter and to others and commanded them to preach this good news to all people. And everyone who puts their faith in Him will have their sins forgiven.
And then he leaves the results to God. That is what we are called to do, too. We are never going to argue anyone into the kingdom of heaven. We are merely called to point people to Jesus and let Him change them from the inside out.
Action
As we close, I want to help you get started in applying the principles that we have just talked about. In just a moment, we’re going to have a quiet time for you to pray and consider how God might want you to apply what you’ve learned today. Here is what I want to encourage you to pray about:
Ask God to reveal my personal prejudices
Consider what concrete steps I can take to engage with and listen to people who are different than me
Commit to “reading out” of the Bible and letting it change me
Inspiration
This week let’s all be the people who are the reason that somebody loves Jesus, not the reason they hate Christians.
Related Media
See more
Related Sermons
See more