Sermon Tone Analysis

Introduction

What would you say if someone told you, “You Christians are all just hypocrites!

You think you’re holier than everyone else, but you are just as bad as they are!”

Or what about, “You Christians are so judgmental!

You think you’ve got it all right, and you think everyone else is wrong!”

Should Christians stop caring so much about holiness?

Should Christians stop drawing lines between right and wrong?

True and false?

Saved and unsaved?

Those in and those out of Christian fellowship?

In our passage today, one might be tempted to think that the point is to obliterate any and all lines of separation… between those who are acceptable before God and those who are not… between the “clean” and the “unclean.”

However, as I hope to demonstrate (and, Lord willing, I will), the New Testament is just as clear as the Old about drawing lines between those who are in and those who are out… those who enjoy God’s blessings and those who remain under His curse.

The difference (one major difference) between the old covenant and the New is that the New Covenant is accessible on the basis of who Jesus Christ is and what He did (and does).

This is not to say that people were “saved” differently in the Old Testament than they are in the New… But it is to say that there were many laws and rules in the covenant God gave to Moses that were never meant to save anyone… rather they were always meant to grab sinners by the shirt-collar and direct their attention toward the one Mediator or Savior which God had planned to provide since before the beginning.

Well, I’m already getting ahead of myself, and I’ve already used some pretty churchy words without explaining them much, so let’s get into our passage for today, which picks up where we left off last Sunday.

In Acts 10, God revealed that His promises of blessing and forgiveness, and even His promise of the Holy Spirit was going out far beyond ethnic descendants of Abraham.

God made it clear that the gospel, the message of the kingdom of Christ, was for both Jews and Gentiles… anyone who would repent and believe.

But not everyone was so quick to embrace this monumental revelation… and that’s where we pick it up in our passage today.

Scripture Reading

Acts 11:1–18 (ESV)

1 Now the apostles and the brothers who were throughout Judea heard that the Gentiles also had received the word of God. 2 So when Peter went up to Jerusalem, the circumcision party criticized him, saying, 3 “You went to uncircumcised men and ate with them.”

4 But Peter began and explained it to them in order: 5 “I was in the city of Joppa praying, and in a trance I saw a vision, something like a great sheet descending, being let down from heaven by its four corners, and it came down to me.

6 Looking at it closely, I observed animals and beasts of prey and reptiles and birds of the air.

7 And I heard a voice saying to me, ‘Rise, Peter; kill and eat.’ 8 But I said, ‘By no means, Lord; for nothing common or unclean has ever entered my mouth.’

9 But the voice answered a second time from heaven, ‘What God has made clean, do not call common.’ 10 This happened three times, and all was drawn up again into heaven.

11 And behold, at that very moment three men arrived at the house in which we were, sent to me from Caesarea.

12 And the Spirit told me to go with them, making no distinction.

These six brothers also accompanied me, and we entered the man’s house.

13 And he told us how he had seen the angel stand in his house and say, ‘Send to Joppa and bring Simon who is called Peter; 14 he will declare to you a message by which you will be saved, you and all your household.’

15 As I began to speak, the Holy Spirit fell on them just as on us at the beginning.

16 And I remembered the word of the Lord, how he said, ‘John baptized with water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit.’

17 If then God gave the same gift to them as he gave to us when we believed in the Lord Jesus Christ, who was I that I could stand in God’s way?” 18 When they heard these things they fell silent.

And they glorified God, saying, “Then to the Gentiles also God has granted repentance that leads to life.”

Main Point

God makes sinners holy through the person and work of Jesus Christ, and Christians are to both enjoy and fight for fellowship with one another on the basis of shared repentance and faith.

Message Outline

The Criticism

The Explanation

The Rationale

The Conclusion

Three Takeaways

Message

1) The Criticism (1-3)

You broke the ceremonial law!

At least some Christians in Jerusalem, those Luke says were among “the circumcision party” (v2) criticized Peter for breaking some major aspects of the Mosaic covenantal law.

Specifically, their criticism was, “You went to uncircumcised men and ate with them” (v3).

Why did Luke call these Christians in Jerusalem “the circumcision party” (v2)?

This is the first use of the phrase, but the New Testament uses it several times.

Positively, it simply refers to descendants of Abraham, sometimes even to Christians of Jewish descent (Acts 10:45; Col. 4:11; cf.

Rom.

4:12).

Negatively, it refers to a group of people among various Christian churches who held the view that the only way to be truly Christians was to believe in Christ and to adhere to the Mosaic covenantal laws (Gal.

2:12; Titus 1:10; cf.

Acts 15:1-5).

Why were they so upset that Peter “ate with” (v3) uncircumcised Gentiles?

This was the same accusation Jesus got when He “ate with” sinners (Luke 5:30, 15:2).

The Mosaic covenant included dietary and social laws, especially outlined in Leviticus.

“Flesh [or meat] that touches any unclean thing shall not be eaten” (Lev.

7:19).

“the person who eats… while an uncleanness is on him, that person shall be cut off from his people” (Lev.

7:20).

“if anyone touches an unclean thing, whether [a] human uncleanness or an [b] unclean beast or any unclean detestable creature… [c] that person shall be cut off from his people” (Lev.

7:21).

“unclean” humans were those with some disease, often associated with bleeding (Lev.

12, 13, 15).

“unclean” animals were camels, rabbits, and pigs, among many others (Lev 11:1-7).

To eat or even to touch them would result in sharing their “uncleanness” (Lev.

11:8).

Note that the result of uncleanness was being “cut off” from the people of Israel… the only people in the whole world with whom God had made a covenant.

So, for a God-fearing, Mosaic-covenant-obeying descendent of Abraham, their relationship with God and their identity as a member of the people of God in the world was directly tied in to what they ate and who they associated with.

Why was the ceremonial law there in the first place?

Cleanliness… Holiness… Sanctification!

Leviticus picks up where Exodus left off.

God had just filled the tabernacle with His presence (Ex.

40:34), and He then proceeded to give Moses specific commands for their priest-mediated ceremonies, which were all-of-life-encompassing.

Leviticus is all about holiness; how to be holy and why to be holy.

A summary of the whole book of Leviticus is expressed in chapter 10: “You are to distinguish between the holy and the common, and between the unclean and the clean, and you are to teach the people of Israel all the statutes that the LORD has spoken to them by Moses” (Lev.

10:10-11).

And the reason for this distinction between the “unclean and the clean” is stated in chapter 11: “For I am the LORD your God.

Consecrate [or separate] yourselves therefore, and be holy, for I am holy… I am the LORD who brought you up out of the land of Egypt to be your God.

You shall therefore be holy, for I am holy” (Lev.

11:44-45).

These ceremonial laws, including diet and social interaction, were radically different from every other culture in the world… And, the holy God had not given His covenant to anyone else… Therefore, every other people or nation or tribe was by definition “unholy,” “defiled,” and “unclean.”

A parallel in our own day is legalism.

Defining our terms:

Legalism is the idea that obedience of some kind is how you get into and/or maintain right relationship with God.

The legalism of the first-century Jews was unique.

They could at least argue that their demand for obedience-based participation in God’s covenant had some biblical warrant… The Mosaic covenant did have some works-based stipulations (Ex.

19:5)!

Legalism is a natural (fallen, post-Genesis-3) human tendency.

We are quick to create rules, check the boxes, and then judge everyone by those rules.

If your pride takes the shape of optimism, then you probably think you’re following the rules pretty well, and you sometimes judge others, looking down on them for not doing as well as you.

If your pride takes a pessimistic shape, then you probably think you’re doing horribly, and you cynically judge others, especially despising those who appear to be doing better than you.

While most Christians today are not arguing for a return to the holiness code (Leviticus), every generation and every church and every Christian must carefully and vigorously resist legalism.

The Bible certainly does give us commands that we should obey.

But we must never confuse the Bible’s commands with the good news of the gospel.

And we must beware that our own culture and preferences can easily become convictions, which can in turn become universal laws.

We must fight against legalism, and we must fight for true Christian fellowship on the basis of that shared hope we have in God’s grace in/through Jesus Christ.

Legalism of any kind (Old Testament or New, before Christ’s earthly ministry and after) fails to understand the true ground or basis of God’s gracious covenant.

So, what is the true ground or basis of God’s gracious covenant?

2) The Explanation (4-12a)

God said so...

When Peter “began [to] explain” himself (v4) to his Jewish Christian brethren, he told them that God had revealed, in this special way, that He had made “clean” or “καθαριζω” [think a cathartic experience] what once was “common” or “κοινος” [defiled or impure] (v9).

God Himself specifically said that the ceremonial laws (i.e., the holiness code) of the Mosaic covenant no longer set the dividing line between the “clean” and the “unclean.”

...But not because God had changed His mind, or because the Mosaic covenant didn’t matter anymore!

Jesus never broke the Mosaic covenantal law, and He never told anyone else to do so either.

Don’t forget that it was Jesus who said, “Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them.

For truly, I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not an iota, not a dot, will pass from the Law until all is accomplished.

Therefore whoever relaxes one of the least of these commandments and teaches others to do the same will be called least in the kingdom of heaven...” (Matt.