Acts 11:1-18
Notes
Transcript
Are you standing in God’s way?
Are you standing in God’s way?
A good leader can catch a vision and be able to communicate it well to those he is leading.
You can tell his reputation, with those closest to him, to bring the vision to life by whether they follow and work with him or not.
But a good leader is able to listen, adapt and create unity in order to bring about the greater vision.
God is ultimately the visionary and greatest leader.
God is never surprised by the future and nothing catches Him off guard.
He has sustained the church and has been able to keep it relevant and cutting edge for more than 2,000 years.
He didn’t do this by keeping things the same.
Change, one way or another is difficult for everyone, but change is and has always been a part of God’s strategy for ministry within His church.
Real change can only happen if a spiritual leader is first on board with where God is leading, verses trying to lead God to where you want to be.
Peter had no idea what was about to happen that day when he went up to the roof top of a friend’s house in Joppa.
He had no idea how drastic things were going to change or what the impact around him would be.
He had no clue how even though culture was flowing in one direction, God would use him to go the other way into His perfect plan.
But, isn’t that how God works?
When God moves, and wants us to catch His vision and direction, it’s so far from what we could have ever imagined.
…It’s so much much better!
Talk about changes and challenges in ministry here at FCC since I’ve been here.
Talk about Covid and the struggles, the changes and challenges.
But in all of this, God is not surprised by anything, it has all been a part of His plan to humble us as a church and to accomplish His will.
Even if that means we are completely out of our comfort zones at times!
One of the greatest priorities for a spiritual leader, and any Christian for that matter, is to never take a first step without first obeying what God is telling you to do.
Simply put, the greatest first thing we can do is “get out of God’s way” and let Him lead!
Today as we unpack our passage, and learn from Peter, we will discuss some steps that we can take in order to know how to accomplish God’s will, and go to where He is calling us in our life.
LET’S PRAY
Our passage today is the third retelling of what God did in Caesarea at Cornelius’ home but Luke records this story three times because it’s obviously important.
An amazing event happened at Cornelius’ home however it wasn’t just to be contained inside that home alone.
A new standard or expectation was set among the Jewish believers and all believers for that matter.
That salvation was for not only Jews, but for Gentiles and to the Jew that pretty much meant it was open to anyone and everyone.
So, Peter in our Scripture today gives us three pieces of evidence to support this:
His vision on the roof (Acts 11:5-11)
The witness of the Holy Spirit (Acts 11:12-15, 17)
The witness of the Word (Acts 11:16)
God testified through the Holy Spirit which was crucial to see that the Gentiles could receive salvation.
READ ACTS 11:1-18
READ QUOTE FROM BOICE COMMENTARY (PAGE 189)
We can see that right off the bat, Peter’s Jewish brothers gave him a hard time right off the bat, “You went into the house of uncircumcised men and ate with them?”
How could you?!
And rather than rebuke and correct his fellow Jewish Christian brothers, he takes his time to graciously explain what had happened.
Egyptian law states that you need 7 witnesses to prove a case.
Roman law says that 7 seals were required to validate a document.
Peter brings along 6 men, Peter plus 6 equals 7 so he has all the witnesses he needs to validate a case.
Peter had no idea what was going to happen before he went to Caesarea however he felt it was going to be big and required the perfect amount of witnesses to prove his case.
So, here he is in front of his fellow Jewish believers, with his 6 other witnesses explaining his case.
He could’ve just said, just ask those dudes over there and they’ll back me up- he explains.
He says, this is how it happened:
Peter was praying on a rooftop.
Peter was seeking the will of God. He wasn’t on that rooftop for any other reason. He knew the Lord led him there and he was being obedient.
This brings up a great question: How can we know the will of God? How can we know whether what we are doing right now is what God’s plan is for our life or not.
To understand how to do God’s Will we need to know that God will never ask us to do something that is contrary to what He says in His Word.
Is what you are doing right now in your life contrary to what you’re supposed to be doing according to God’s Word?
Are you praying and seeking God’s Will or trying to get what you want and push your plans on Him in the form of a prayer request?
We must look to God regularly through prayer and reading His Word in order to take the first right step.
Peter received revelation from God in the form of a vision.
Peter’s vision was not unique to us, but it was to a Jew.
Jews knew what they could and couldn’t eat according to the law, and Peter’s vision was pretty clear that it’s now okay to eat things that weren’t kosher.
More than the eating part, it was clear that from his vision he was to go where he had never gone before, inside a gentile’s home and eat with him. To eat what he was eating.
Peter had a vision, a revelation but he was an apostle.
Today there are no new apostles or new revelations to add to God’s Word.
What was written is final and anything added or edited would be against God.
This is how false religions were and are formed, they pick(ed) parts they liked, made up some stories to add to it- revelations and glitter and they attract vulnerable people.
TALK ABOUT WHAT I”M LEARNING IN CLASS AND GODS AND DEITIES CLAIMED BY LEADERS RESULTED IN POWER OVER THE PEOPLE. BURIED WITH THEIR TREASURES FOR THE AFTERLIFE BUT COMMON PEOPLE DIDN’T HAVE TREASURE OR THE SAME AFTERLIFE AS THEIR LEADERS.
Peter’s revelation was directly form God and opened his eyes to the fact that salvation did not show any favoritism, whether poor or rich, Jew or Gentile salvation was for all and that eating with Gentiles or without, the things labeled as “defiled or unclean”, in God’s family are not..
11 What goes into someone’s mouth does not defile them, but what comes out of their mouth, that is what defiles them.”
James Boice said that “God was purifying people’s hearts in stead of their dishes.”
God was telling Peter in this revelation, vision that he shouldn’t call unclean those who God was calling to faith in Christ.
Like we said a few weeks ago, are we praying people toward salvation in Christ or wishing and hoping they wouldn’t join us in heaven?
That would reveal a lot about our heart.
3. While Peter was in prayer and after the vision, the men came to him from Cornelius’ home.
God’s timing is not accidental, it’s always purposeful.
Often times in our lives we don’t always see God’s hand in our circumstances but He has a purpose for when and why things happen.
This was true now for Peter’s circumstance.
So often as believers we make decisions based on our circumstances without praying or studying Scripture and it’s a mistake.
Our circumstances change all the time but we should look to how Peter sought out the Lord.
He prayed.
He recieved revelation through a vision and in the same way today we receive all the revelation that we need from God’s Word.
His circumstances began to fall into place, not by him manipulating them but by him following the Lord’s leading.
4. After Peter followed these steps to following God’s plan he decided on bringing 6 witnesses.
Having confirmation of other brothers and sisters with us during an event where God works miraculously is not only encouraging but powerful as it is reinforced in testimony.
Some of my most fondest memories of doing camps in youth ministry was talking with the other leaders after camp.
We were able to testify and share stories of how God impacted so many kids’ lives!
And then to hear the kids get up in front of the church and share their experience and sit back and say, yea… we were there, that did happen!
It’s exciting, that’s what the witnesses experienced with Peter that day.
I will say that not all circumstances where God calls us are enjoyable, when Peter was flogged, though he counted it as a blessing to suffer for Christ, was probably not all enjoyable.
We’re not always going to enjoy following the path that the Lord has for us but as we look back after we will see how it was crucial for our growth and faith in Him!
6. God blessed Peter’s preaching.
The people in Cornelius’ home heard and accepted the gospel message gladly.
And God clearly showed His acceptance on the Gentiles by sending His Holy Spirit.
That had to be the shock and awe moment for Peter to see how serious Jesus was when he said, the gospel will go out all over in Acts 1:8.
So the people began to praise God and worship Him.
15 “As I began to speak, the Holy Spirit came on them as he had come on us at the beginning. 16 Then I remembered what the Lord had said: ‘John baptized with water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit.’
Jesus said this in Acts 1:5...
5 For John baptized with water, but in a few days you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit.”
11 “I baptize you with water for repentance. But after me comes one who is more powerful than I, whose sandals I am not worthy to carry. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire.
John the Baptizer prepared the ground for Jesus, Jesus promised the Holy Spirit and the church age began when the Holy Spirit came on the scene in Acts 2.
Later after the Holy Spirit came 3,000 were added to their number.
Then after Peter’s second sermon 5,000 were added.
Soon after the gospel was being accepted by the Samaritans and the Holy Spirit fell on them.
The Lord’s promise and salvation continued to spread and apply to more and more people!
God does not show favoritism when it comes to salvation and it was clear that that was the case with Cornelius and his household, Gentiles became saved and ushered in a new reality for everyone.
17 So if God gave them the same gift he gave us who believed in the Lord Jesus Christ, who was I to think that I could stand in God’s way?”
I almost see this as Peter’s mic drop moment to end his testimony to his Jewish Christian audience.
Are you getting in God’s way today?
If so, how?
How could you get back on track to doing God’s will instead of your own will right now in your life?
It’s not too late to do things different, change is hard but good thing it doesn’t depend on you… or me.
It depends on our obedient heart and to allow God to do His work through His Holy Spirit.
18 When they heard this, they had no further objections and praised God, saying, “So then, even to Gentiles God has granted repentance that leads to life.”
The fact that Gentiles had the opportunity for salvation started to drive a wedge between the Christian community and the Jewish temple and we’ll see that continue to develop in Acts.
This wedge became more evident as Jewish Christians accepted Gentiles as brothers and sisters.
But for Peter’s audience they were praising God for what had happened.
Maybe also they were praising because they could finally eat bacon!
Just kidding ;)
Here’s some great takeaways that Chuck Swindoll lays out for us from our passage today:
Some changes are unavoidable. Methods will change but the message of Christ should never be changed.
Adjustments are required for change to happen. When we get comfortable with how things are we are more likely not to change. We can’t allow ourselves to get so hard set on the way things are when God is leading in a new direction with the same message.
No matter what, in the end all change must line up with Scripture. In my short 15 years of being on staff in church ministry (2 churches) I have heard countless times people misusing Scripture and nonsense Theology in order to block change from happening. If Jesus were here with us today we know His message wouldn’t change but for sure His methods would. He never healed in the exact same way and he always met people where they were at in life but the content and intent remained the same.
So, today are you standing in God’s way?
Not that we can stop God, but it would be a lot easier for us, if we decided to be obedient rather than fight His will.
Pray, seek Him, read Scripture and do His will.
LET’SPRAY