Proclaim 3: Witnesses to the Distant
Notes
Transcript
Bookmarks & Needs:
Bookmarks & Needs:
B: Acts 10:34-43
N:
Opening
Opening
Good morning, church family! It’s been an exciting week here in NM as far as the weather is concerned. I think we’ve had every season since Thursday. If you are joining us online and you live somewhere else in the U.S., I actually was caught in sleet on Friday dressed almost exactly like I’m dressed now. And when I went outside at first, I was perfectly comfortable. But it’s a beautiful day here today, and I’m glad that we are here to worship together.
How many of you remember when we were subscribed to a thing called “Pray 4 Every Home?” Well, that service kind of fell apart (not sure why), and they stopped updating it and for a long time, we couldn’t get a hold of anyone to find out what was going on. Well, a new organization has picked up Pray 4 Every Home’s idea, and made it better. We are now subscribed as a church to “Bless Every Home.” Each one of us lives in a neighborhood, and we have the opportunity to be a lighthouse in that neighborhood as we intentionally live out the Gospel. We’re asking each member of our church family to consider becoming a “Light” to their neighbors and living intentional pray-care-share lifestyles. Becoming a light is free and confidential. You’ll receive a map and list of your closest (usually) neighbors, and you’ll receive email reminders at the frequency you choose to pray for your next five neighbors that day. You can visit https://blesseveryhome.com/light/?cust=11923 to register and connect with our church family on Bless Every Home. We invite you to do this if you’re online as well, even if you’re in another city or state!
Today is our last week focusing on our annual offering for North American Missions, also called the Annie Armstrong Easter Offering. Our church goal this year was $15,000, and I said last week that I was certain we would exceed that goal, and I was right! As of last Sunday, we have received $16,499.25 for this offering! Thanks so much for your faithful and sacrificial giving to this offering. It is so important for church planters like Jacob & Francine Zailian, who we met on the video earlier. If you haven’t been able to give toward our goal yet, you still can. We’ll give a final total for this offering next week.
For those of you who don’t know, we have several annual special offerings that we do: the Lottie Moon Christmas Offering for International Missions in December and January, the Annie Armstrong Easter Offering for North American Missions in March and April, World Hunger/Disaster Relief Offering in July, and the Mission New Mexico State Mission Offering in September and October. But we only have one “one-day” annual special offering, and that is our Mother’s Day Offering, that we take up to directly support the New Mexico Baptist Children’s Home in Portales, NM. We will have more information about that offering on Mother’s Day, but I just wanted to give you a heads up about it. Our church goal for that offering is $4,500.
We are nearing the halfway point in our series looking at seven sermons in the book of Acts, considering what the early church believed about the Gospel, and how that belief determined what they both said and did. And from that, we are giving some thought and prayer to how that example challenges us to engage with our world with the message of the Gospel. We’ve looked at two of the earliest sermons in the book of Acts in chapters 2 and 4, respectively, and today, we will be in Acts 10. As we read the Word of the Lord together this morning:
34 Peter began to speak: “Now I truly understand that God doesn’t show favoritism, 35 but in every nation the person who fears him and does what is right is acceptable to him. 36 He sent the message to the Israelites, proclaiming the good news of peace through Jesus Christ—he is Lord of all. 37 You know the events that took place throughout all Judea, beginning from Galilee after the baptism that John preached: 38 how God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and with power, and how he went about doing good and healing all who were under the tyranny of the devil, because God was with him. 39 We ourselves are witnesses of everything he did in both the Judean country and in Jerusalem, and yet they killed him by hanging him on a tree. 40 God raised up this man on the third day and caused him to be seen, 41 not by all the people, but by us whom God appointed as witnesses, who ate and drank with him after he rose from the dead. 42 He commanded us to preach to the people and to testify that he is the one appointed by God to be the judge of the living and the dead. 43 All the prophets testify about him that through his name everyone who believes in him receives forgiveness of sins.”
PRAYER
We all deal with preferences. We all have favorites. I personally prefer the color blue, in most shades until you start getting too purple-y. I would generally rather read a book than watch a movie, however, I think I would prefer to play a video game than either of those. I mostly don’t like country music, I really enjoy nostalgically listening to 80’s pop and rock, but most of the time, I prefer Christian music—contemporary or praise—to either of those. My favorite single food item is bratwurst, and in my opinion, my wife’s chocolate cake is the best cake I have ever eaten. Melanie is also my absolute best friend, and I prefer her company over any one else’s in the world. We all have favorites—Favorite friends, favorite family members, favorite places, favorite pastimes. We all live out our personal preferences every day. And usually, that’s not really a problem, because most of our preferences aren’t particularly consequential—they don’t really change anything or lead us astray. Sure, some of them do, but most of them… not so much.
But those ones that DO matter… these are the preferences that we need to seriously pay attention to. How or with whom we spend our time? What do our finances say about our priorities and preferences? Do we want to actually BE holy, or do we just want to LOOK holy? Is there anyone out there whom we would prefer not to serve, or prefer not to have to share the Gospel with? These are much more serious, and much more difficult to answer honestly.
Fortunately, what we see in today’s passage is that God isn’t like us in this way. He doesn’t prefer one of us to another as far as His love is concerned. The Gospel is for everyone.
Between what we looked at last week in chapter 4 and this passage, we see that most of the proclamation of the Gospel is taking place among the Hebrew people, and then as the disciples were scattered, among people like the Samaritans (a people of mixed Jewish heritage). Just before our focal passage here in the book of Acts, we are introduced to a centurion in Caesarea named Cornelius. Cornelius was a Gentile—a non-Jewish person. However, Cornelius was a man who feared God, and he is shown a vision of an angel who tells him to send some people to bring the apostle Peter, who was in Joppa at the time, some 32 miles south of Caesarea down the Mediterranean coast.
Peter, even though he is a Hebrew man and the Law said that it was wrong for him to enter a Gentile’s house, willingly goes with these men who had been sent to get him, and makes the journey to Cornelius’ home in Caesarea. And in calling Peter to do this, God changes the trajectory of the sharing of the Gospel in the ancient world. Instead of the Jews being the primary focus of the Gospel message, the door is flung open wide for the word to be shared with everyone, everywhere. Peter’s message is not substantially very different from the messages that we saw in chapters 2 and 4: He speaks of the ministry of Christ, His crucifixion, and His resurrection. The major difference here is Peter’s audience.
I’ve titled this message “Witnesses to the Distant.” In this passage, we see three layers of distance that the message of the Gospel covered through Peter’s obedience to go and share with Cornelius. We are called to cover those same three layers in our own lives.
1) Witnesses to the spiritually distant (the lost).
1) Witnesses to the spiritually distant (the lost).
First, we see that Peter was a witness to the spiritually distant. Being spiritually distant from God was Cornelius’ major issue. While yes, he feared God and prayed to Him, that didn’t make solve his spiritual issue. I wonder if his fear of God is why God chose to immortalize him in Scripture as the first Gentile that Peter would share the Gospel with. But he was still lost, still bound for an eternity apart from God.
Paul wrote about the status of the Gentile before trusting in Christ in Ephesians 2:
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.
Those who are without Christ are without hope and without God. This is where Cornelius was. This is why he sent the men to go and retrieve Peter from Joppa. What they said to Peter was very telling:
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.”
There was something missing, something that Cornelius still needed to hear. He needed to hear about the truth of what Jesus had done for him, because as Peter said in what we looked at last week in chapter 4,
12 There is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to people by which we must be saved.”
If you have never trusted in Jesus for your salvation, you have the same problem that Cornelius had. And Jesus didn’t beat around the bush about the state of those who do not believe in Him. Jesus is the only way to be saved, because only He is the mediator between holy God and sinful man, because He is fully God and fully man. Because of our sin, our choice to do things our way, our desire to be our own “gods” and to resist obedience to the Lord, our relationship with Him is ruined. We deserve to be separated from Him, because He is perfect, and we are not. But God made a way for our relationship with Him to be set right again—that Jesus died on the cross to take our place in death, taking the punishment that we deserve for our sin.
18 Anyone who believes in him is not condemned, but anyone who does not believe is already condemned, because he has not believed in the name of the one and only Son of God.
36 The one who believes in the Son has eternal life, but the one who rejects the Son will not see life; instead, the wrath of God remains on him.
Jesus took the wrath of God in our place when He died, and then He overcame death and rose from the grave according to Scripture, as Peter testified in verse 40 of our focal passage:
40 God raised up this man on the third day and caused him to be seen,
And Jesus ascended into heaven, never to die again. If we stop trying to go our way, trying to make it on our own, and instead, surrender ourselves in faith to the completed work of Jesus, trusting in what He has done to save us, then we receive forgiveness of our sins, we are set free from sin’s mastery over us, and we are guaranteed eternal life. Then, we are no longer spiritually distant from God, and in fact, we brought near:
13 But now in Christ Jesus, you who were far away have been brought near by the blood of Christ.
Everywhere we look, we are surrounded by those are spiritually distant from God. We don’t have to travel 32 miles on foot to find them. They are in our families, in our neighborhoods, in our workplaces, on our teams, in our classes… everywhere. And their biggest problem, even if they don’t realize it, is that they are without hope and without God in the world. When Peter proclaimed the message of salvation to Cornelius and his family and friends, he was doing what he was called to do: to follow in the footsteps of Jesus, because Jesus Himself came to seek and to save the lost:
10 For the Son of Man has come to seek and to save the lost.”
And we are now called to follow that same path: to join Jesus in His mission to seek and to save the lost. A couple of years ago, we had a focus over the summer called “Who’s Your One?” where we challenged each member of the church family to consider who was ONE person they could share the love of Christ with that year. And I’m thrilled to say that we have seen people come to faith through the consistent, sincere relationship and sharing of the Gospel since then. But I ask you again this morning: Who’s your one? Who is someone you can tell about Jesus? The lost are all around us, and they are distant from God. We have the message of hope, because we have the message of Christ.
So the first layer of distance we see here is that Cornelius was spiritually distant. But not only was Peter a witness to the spiritually distant, but to the socially distant as well.
2) Witnesses to the socially distant (the outcast or unlike us).
2) Witnesses to the socially distant (the outcast or unlike us).
I don’t mean because of a pandemic. While Cornelius’ greatest issue was the fact that he was spiritually distant, this wasn’t really much of a problem in Peter’s perspective. The biggest issue that Peter likely faced was the fact that Cornelius, along with all his household and closest friends, were not like Peter. They ate things that Peter normally wouldn’t eat. They did things that Peter normally wouldn’t do, and they didn’t do things that Peter thought were proper and good. In short, they were “unclean” according to the Jewish law. These Gentiles were socially distant.
Fortunately, God had set the stage for Peter before the men arrived to pick him up:
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.
Food restrictions were (and still are) a big deal for the Jewish people. For God to tell Peter to “kill and eat” animals that didn’t pass the test of “cleanness” would have been shocking to Peter, and he refuses to do so. Then God responds with this statement, “What God has made clean, do not call impure.” He sees this vision three times (also a big deal in Hebrew thinking: to say something three times was to multiply its force). Even though the initial vision isn’t completely clear to Peter, the interpretation presents itself very quickly, as the men arrive to ask him to go with them. When Peter arrives at Cornelius’ house, he explains:
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.
Peter understood that God wasn’t really showing him this vision so that he could have pork chops or shrimp scampi at his next meal. The Lord was giving Peter a heads up about what he was about to do in his ministry. He was showing Peter that there is no one that Peter should not be willing to tell about the Gospel—even someone radically different from himself.
This is because the Gospel is for everyone:
34 Peter began to speak: “Now I truly understand that God doesn’t show favoritism, 35 but in every nation the person who fears him and does what is right is acceptable to him. 36 He sent the message to the Israelites, proclaiming the good news of peace through Jesus Christ—he is Lord of all.
God doesn’t look at outward appearance, race, nationality, or societal class when He makes His offer of salvation. All who would fear God and do what is right (believing in Christ) are “acceptable” to Him, or welcome to come to Christ in faith. This is because Jesus truly is “Lord of all.” He is sovereign over all people in all places at all times, and only through Him is forgiveness of our sins available, as Peter said at the end of our focal passage:
43 All the prophets testify about him that through his name everyone who believes in him receives forgiveness of sins.”
Everyone who believes in Him receives forgiveness of sins.
Since that is the case, there is no distinction in who may or may not be saved. The foot of the cross is the great equalizer. None is better or more important than any other, because we have all sinned and fallen short of the glory of God, and we all need Jesus, so social, economic, or racial distinctions should fall by the wayside when it comes to who needs to hear the Gospel, who the Gospel applies to, and who we are willing to share with and serve in the name of Jesus Christ. This is why I asked the question at the end of my opening illustration: “are there those whom you would prefer not to serve, prefer not to have to share the Gospel with?” This is because, just as those who are lost today have the same problem that Cornelius had in that they were spiritually distant, we often have the same problem that Peter had: that we see people as socially distant.
When it comes to the offer of salvation through faith in Christ, the offer is for all, and those who believe will be saved. And once they we are saved, there is also no more room for being socially distant from each other in the body of Christ. And I don’t just mean in this church family. I mean throughout the body of Christ in the world. None of us, if we belong to Christ, is better or more important than any other:
27 For those of you who were baptized into Christ have been clothed with Christ. 28 There is no Jew or Greek, slave or free, male and female; since you are all one in Christ Jesus.
11 In Christ there is not Greek and Jew, circumcision and uncircumcision, barbarian, Scythian, slave and free; but Christ is all and in all.
These passages aren’t to say that we lose all distinction between ourselves. It’s that those distinctions don’t determine our importance in the body. God made men and women. God made various races, various stations in life. And that variety is a beautiful thing because it is God’s design. We who are in Christ belong to one another, are to love one another, and are to serve one another, without regard to race, class, nationality, or whether one is a man or a woman.
So we see that Cornelius’ problem was that he was spiritually distant. Peter’s problem (which God solved ahead of time) was that Cornelius was socially distant. And the final problem that existed between the two is that they were physically distant from one another.
3) Witnesses to the physically distant (the nations).
3) Witnesses to the physically distant (the nations).
To say that Cornelius was physically distant from Peter when he was only 32 miles away seems silly to our ears. 32 miles? That’s about how far Moriarty is from Albuquerque. We can drive there in a half an hour. But would you want to walk there? Probably not. According to Acts 10, the total round trip that the men who Cornelius sent to retrieve Peter took four days: two days to get there, a stay overnight, and then two days back. For Peter to travel back with them was an investment of time and energy.
But this is what Jesus has called us to, church. The last thing that Jesus said before His ascension in the first chapter of the book of Acts shows this concept of the greater and greater distance that the church would have to go in order to proclaim the Gospel as Jesus had called them to:
8 But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come on you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.”
When the persecution of the church really took root and started after the martyrdom of Peter in Acts 7, the disciples were scattered throughout the Roman world, getting further and further away from their “home base” of Jerusalem. In Acts 8, we see Philip’s missionary endeavors, which were later joined by Peter and John. We see Peter’s missionary work in chapters 9 and 10, and then the work of Barnabas and Paul in chapter 11 and on. These men chose to follow the Lord by being missionaries, both by intentionally going to places, and by intentionally sharing the Gospel in whatever places they found themselves.
At the close of the Gospel of Matthew, we find the Great Commission:
19 Go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 teaching them to observe everything I have commanded you. And remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”
We tend to take the first word, “Go,” as the command here. But it’s not. The command is “make disciples.” The going is passive. But that doesn’t really change the force of the commission. Even though the going is passive, it is that way simply because it is assumed. We’re all going to “go” places. And since we are going to go places, we are to be intentional about obeying Christ’s command to make disciples of all nations. Since the going is assumed, it makes no difference whether we go on purpose or have purpose as we go. The command is the same.
But for some, there is the call to go to a particular place and share the hope of the Gospel, and the church is to send those people out in order to fulfill that calling:
14 How, then, can they call on him they have not believed in? And how can they believe without hearing about him? And how can they hear without a preacher? 15 And how can they preach unless they are sent? As it is written: How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news.
Paul intentionally wanted to go where people had not heard the Gospel message, so that he could be a part of a new work, seeing new people come to faith in Christ:
20 My aim is to preach the gospel where Christ has not been named, so that I will not build on someone else’s foundation,
Maybe the physical distance you have to cover is across the street or down the hall. Maybe it’s going and serving somewhere in Albuquerque or wherever else you might live to tell people about Jesus. Perhaps it’s somewhere else in the State, like the students are going to do this summer in Portales and Roswell. Or maybe it’s somewhere substantially more distant: across the country, or maybe even around the world. Are you willing to surrender to the call of Christ to cover that physical distance between you and the one who needs to hear the Gospel from you?
Closing
Closing
I want to close by just briefly reading the result of Peter’s message, brought about by the work of God through the presence of the Holy Spirit:
44 While Peter was still speaking these words, the Holy Spirit came down on all those who heard the message. 45 The circumcised believers who had come with Peter were amazed because the gift of the Holy Spirit had been poured out even on the Gentiles. 46 For they heard them speaking in tongues and declaring the greatness of God. Then Peter responded, 47 “Can anyone withhold water and prevent these people from being baptized, who have received the Holy Spirit just as we have?” 48 He commanded them to be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ. Then they asked him to stay for a few days.
If you’re spiritually distant, God has given you a way to come near: Jesus.
If you’re a believer, but you’re socially distant, and you struggle with your willingness to share the Gospel with those who are not like you, I call on you to repent. They need Jesus to, and He died for them as well.
For all of us who are in Christ, what is the physical distance we need to cover to share the Gospel with someone? Bless Every Home is a great resource to help you in this, and for you to further develop your heart for your neighbors.
Reflection time, offering.
PRAYER
Closing Remarks
Closing Remarks
Following the U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling regarding prejudicial treatment of churches by lockdown rules in California, the New Mexico Department of Health issued an updated Public Health Order on Friday allowing all houses of worship in the State to operate at 100% capacity for religious services, regardless of the red/yellow/green/turquoise/chartreuse/etc. status of the county in which the church operates. This is exciting, but it doesn’t change recommendations like masks, and physical distancing is still recommended to the greatest extent possible. We will have a meeting this week to finalize our plans for reopening Bible study, children’s ministry, and student ministry on site, and we will have more information for you next Sunday morning. However, let me be clear this morning that we will not be resuming in-person Sunday morning Bible studies on either of the next two Sundays.
Bible reading: Acts 14 today. Calendar on the website.
Instructions
As I said at the beginning of service, it’s a beautiful day outside, so plan to hang out in the courtyard for a bit before you go off to lunch.
Benediction:
20 Now may the God of peace, who brought up from the dead our Lord Jesus—the great Shepherd of the sheep—through the blood of the everlasting covenant, 21 equip you with everything good to do his will, working in us what is pleasing in his sight, through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory forever and ever. Amen.