All are welcome to the Table
Notes
Transcript
What do I want them to know? All are welcomed
Why? It shows us and encourages us to invite everyone
What do I want them to do? Welcome any and everyone to Jesus’s family
Why? People long to be a part of God’s family
What do I want them to feel? Challenged, encouraged, and believing that God can do anything
Why? It brings hope to other and them
ME/WE
To belong to a group or a team or club you or I or we are going to need to meet the entrance requirements.
We see this with wanting to be a Browns football player there is a basic requirement that you are going to need....what is that requirement? you are going to need to be able to play football at a professional not recreational level....you need ability not just desire
We see this with jobs, if you want to part of a team of graphic designers you are going to need to have the ability not just desire to be a part of the team.
Other groups such as home school group or a political group the entrance requirements are not based on ability but on belief and behavior.
To be a part of a home school group you need to believe it is a good thing and behave your way in line with that belief...
Other groups such as socorities, fraturnities, and gangs the enterance requirments are is gained through certain ritual practices.
You do this things and you are in.
Why? Why are there entrance requirements?
Purity: To keep the group focused, unified, around what it is about....that it is a Cleveland Browns fan club group we do not let the Pittsburg Stinkers in the group, they would stink it up
Protection: If were apart of a Crime watch group trying to stop CRIME it would not be WISE or GOOD to have an active CRIMINAL apart of the group plotting scheming around the CRIME WATCH groups to stop crime.
Pride and power: To keep certain people out in a hurtful....(some groups were birthed out of pride because of insecurity) born this way or become this way....though they might say it is for purity and protection.
We see this BLACK and WHITE people from the past…black were slaves and white people were owneres.
Critical Theory, it challenges the power structure of the day, but not only that it wants a powerless group to become in power. Flip flop.
Elder brothers churches, either born this way or become this way....these are the churches who accept those who look the part and exclude those who do not look churchie
BUT IS THIS WHAT THE CHURCH IS SUPPOSE TO BE?
THE ENTRANCE REQUIREMENTS FOR YOU TO ENTER THE CHURCH IS THAT YOU MUST ACT LIKE A CHRISTIAN BEFORE YOU BECOME A CHRISTIAN? IS THIS HOW GOD INSTITUTED THE CHURCH FAMILY, THE EKKLESSIA?
Let’s pause here for one minute....and let me clarify and define the church is not a team or a group or a club but a family of priests adopted by God.
To become apart of God’s ekklessia what are the entrance requirments?
How you become a part of that family is something the church has struggled with for years, though it should not be a struggle.
Before we talk about the family of God, lets remember who can be a part of the family of God.
Who can be a part of the family of God?
Jewish people?
Moral people?
But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.”
Now the Lord said to Abram, “Go from your country and your kindred and your father’s house to the land that I will show you.
And I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing.
I will bless those who bless you, and him who dishonors you I will curse, and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.”
This mystery is that the Gentiles are fellow heirs, members of the same body, and partakers of the promise in Christ Jesus through the gospel.
Christianity is the most inclusive religion....Christianity is thee only religion that says all are welcomed to belong.
But how do we become apart of the family of God?
This is an issue for the first century church and us today.
Some churches say to belong to family of God you need to act like a Christian before you become a Christian.
Many people think this way.
People say I cannot come to your church for if I did the church would burn down because God would strike it down. (I’m so bad)
When I get cleaned up then I will come to church.
I can only be apart of the church if I look good.
If we all took off our masks the world would see we all messed up, we need a savior, but what we do is mask up…we do not take the position of Apostle Paul or Martin Luther who said I am the worst sinner....we show we are close to perfection.
We are going to see this take place in the passage we are opening up to today.
In the early church they knew that Jesus was for anyone and everyone, but they also believed for you to become a Christian you also needed to follow Jewish laws and customs.
You need to convert to Judaism, specifically it comes up several times
dietary food laws, kosher laws,
and circumcision....then after that you can become a Christian, a Christ follower.
The entrance requirements become like a Jewish person then you can become a Christian.
This is what Peter thought, even though he had been told otherwise....Peter needed and we need at times is not information but revelation.
At Caesarea there was a man named Cornelius, a centurion of what was known as the Italian Cohort,
a devout man who feared God with all his household, gave alms generously to the people, and prayed continually to God.
What’s the context
We are in Caesarea Show picture, capital of Rome in Israel
Cornelius is a centurion…he oversaw a 100 military men, a leader of leaders
He feared God, the OT God, he gave alms, money, prayed, but did not know about Jesus....He did not worship Mithra
God did not want it to stay that way…Cornelius and his household and friends needed to know about Jesus....I want the church to realize the entrance qualifications to become apart of the family of God. - This was a least likely place....many Roman military people worshipped Mithra…Jesus was not really accepted.
what happens? God brings revelation
About the ninth hour of the day he saw clearly in a vision an angel of God come in and say to him, “Cornelius.”
And he stared at him in terror and said, “What is it, Lord?” And he said to him, “Your prayers and your alms have ascended as a memorial before God.
And now send men to Joppa and bring one Simon who is called Peter.
He is lodging with one Simon, a tanner, whose house is by the sea.”
When the angel who spoke to him had departed, he called two of his servants and a devout soldier from among those who attended him,
and having related everything to them, he sent them to Joppa.
31 miles north
Angle comes and says, “Cornelius go send some men and get Peter who’s in Joppa”
Why? We don’t know why at this point
Pause: many times God will speak to us to do something but we do not know why yet
What does Cornelius do? He send the men to go get Peter....Immediately
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.
And he became hungry and wanted something to eat, but while they were preparing it, he fell into a trance
and saw the heavens opened and something like a great sheet descending, being let down by its four corners upon the earth.
In it were all kinds of animals and reptiles and birds of the air.
And there came a voice to him: “Rise, Peter; kill and eat.”
But Peter said, “By no means, Lord; for I have never eaten anything that is common or unclean.”
And the voice came to him again a second time, “What God has made clean, do not call common.”
This happened three times, and the thing was taken up at once to heaven.
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
About noon Peter goes on the roof to pray and enters a trance and during that time a sheet of that had unclean animals on it and a voice said eat and Peter said NO, I am not doing that, we are not supposed to eat that....the voice said “do not call something unclean that God has made clean”
3 times
Peter was perplexed?
Was this a bad breakfast I had this morning......
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
and called out to ask whether Simon who was called Peter was lodging there.
And while Peter was pondering the vision, the Spirit said to him, “Behold, three men are looking for you.
Rise and go down and accompany them without hesitation, for I have sent them.”
And Peter went down to the men and said, “I am the one you are looking for. What is the reason for your coming?”
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.”
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.
Processing and Spirit says go
What’s going on here
An angel comes to Cornelious to send men to Joppa to get Peter.
Peter gets a vision 3 times about eating unclean animals
Gentile from Joppa show up at his door.
He invites them in and they spend the night
-what!?! Jewish people did not invite Gentiles into their house and especially to spend the night.
Peter invites him in but he is breaking all of these rules and regulations.
No Peter, a devote Jewish person would say that was not God....they need to become completely Jewish first then you can invite them in and spend the night.
Continue reading
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.
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.”
30-50 people could fit inside Cornelius house
Peter is saying I have the revelation....not only does God invite everyone, he does so without an entrance requirement of anything, you do not need to be Jewish first then Christian.
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.”
Cornelius says God called you to come, we obeyed, and God has something He wants you to say to us.
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.”
While Peter was still saying these things, the Holy Spirit fell on all who heard the word.
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.
For they were hearing them speaking in tongues and extolling God. Then Peter declared,
“Can anyone withhold water for baptizing these people, who have received the Holy Spirit just as we have?”
And he commanded them to be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ. Then they asked him to remain for some days.
No Jew, not Gentile, no Greek.
Believes not behaves, not follows the rituals, but believes in him
The entrance requirements to enter the family of God is belief in Jesus
Jesus is the one who makes us pure
Jesus is the one who calls us priest
God is saying that to us....
I want to bring the Cornelious’s and there household to faith....Will you go and lead them to God?
They are the unlikely
Roman military leader
Pray for them and preach to them
Romans 10:14
How then will they call on him in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in him of whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without someone preaching?
Stop looking how they do not measure up to Christian standards
Stop disbelieving God can lead anyone to God.
And he said to them, “The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few. Therefore pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest.
Belong to the family
And for those who are concerned about them becoming like Jesus…remember we will all needed and still need Jesus and the church to become like Jesus.
Let Jesus and the church help them work out their sanctification....We are all a work in process....Do yo know that most people of the Bible took over 3 years before they were fully used for ministry.....
And I am sure of this, that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ.
I saw this in my youth group growing up.
Our youth group was a group you would never put together, but Jesus put us together.
We unified around Jesus
Prom Kings and Queens, Validvictorians, athletic state winners, goths, punks, skaters, theater people, band people, dorks, geeks the list goes on..
All of entrance was Jesus
Then we also started to invite our friends to this gathering,
Athestis who such as sororities, fraternities, and gangs the entrance requirements are is gained through certain ritual practices.
Drunk, partiers…then Jesus got a hold of them and Jesus changed them…the church walked along side them.
What God is calling Renew to be is place that unifies around Jesus, to be a place for all are welcomed to come home.
Calling people home
SHOW PICTURES OF CAESAREA
Jesus is the one who makes us pure
YOUTH GROUP was a mixture of all different types of people