The Essence of Faith

Illustration—Dress code

Now, I don’t know if any of you have had this sort of experience, but let me share it and we’ll see.

Imagine that you’ve heard about this fantastic new restaurant that serves your favorite sort of food, and it’s not too expensive, either. So you make a booking to go along with your family or friends—it’s so good you have to book ahead weeks. You’ve been looking forward to this for ages, and you turn up to the restaurant, your party’s all nicely dressed and ready to enjoy themselves. But at the door the maitre d’ looks you up and down, and says, “I’m sorry, but you can’t come in because you’re not wearing a tie.” Or, for women, “you can’t come in because you’re not wearing a dress.”

I don’t know about you, but I would be tempted to say, “What does a tie or dress have to do with me or my fellow diners enjoying a good meal?” It seems completely unfair to place restrictions on participation that have nothing to do with the essence of that thing. A restaurant meal is not a formal ball. The essence of a restaurant meal is eating, not prancing around showing off how wealthy, good looking, or nimble your are. (I might have given away my feelings towards formal balls there!)

Have any of you had similar experiences, where you are denied access because of some requirement that has nothing to do with the essence of what you are denied?

[Time for answers.]

Bible background story

Well, our Bible passage for today is all about how God removed a restriction that no longer related to the essence of a relationship with him.

We’re going to just read the last part of this story in Acts 10, so first some background.

The apostle Peter, who is still effectively the main leader of the church, is up in Joppa for some reason. Christians must be under a bit of persecution, because he’s staying at a tanner’s house, which would have been out of town so faithful Jews could avoid the unclean bodies of dead animals that were a part of the tanner’s trade.

While Peter’s there, he goes up to the roof for a bit of private time in the middle of the day. He’s feeling hungry for some reason, and suddenly, while he’s praying, he sees the heavens open up. Peter would have recognised this as an indicator that he’s about to receive important information from God. Down comes this sheet, full of clean and unclean animals, and a voice that Peter recognises as Jesus tells him to eat. But Peter’s too good a Jew for that—he has never, and will never, eat unclean or “common” food. But Jesus says, “What God has made clean, do not call common.” This happens three times in a row, just in case Peter didn’t get the message the first time.

As this finishes up, and Peter is wondering what is going on, the Holy Spirit tells him that three guys have come to collect him and he should go with them. These three guys had been sent by a Roman Centurion named Cornelius who lives in Caesarea, 60km up the coast from Joppa. This guy, and his whole household, was actually a faithful follower of Yahweh, who gave generously to the poor and prayed regularly. A couple of days before he had been praying and God had told him to send these three men down to Joppa to collect Peter.

Fortunately both Cornelius and Peter listen to God, and so Peter ends up at Cornelius’s place in Caesarea, where Cornelius has invited a bunch of people to hear whatever it is that Peter has to say. After he has explained the situation to Peter, it becomes very clear to Peter what he is there for.

Let’s now turn to the Bible’s account.

Bible

Acts 10:34–48 NLT

34 Then Peter replied, “I see very clearly that God shows no favoritism. 35 In every nation he accepts those who fear him and do what is right. 36 This is the message of Good News for the people of Israel—that there is peace with God through Jesus Christ, who is Lord of all. 37 You know what happened throughout Judea, beginning in Galilee, after John began preaching his message of baptism. 38 And you know that God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and with power. Then Jesus went around doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil, for God was with him. 39 “And we apostles are witnesses of all he did throughout Judea and in Jerusalem. They put him to death by hanging him on a cross, 40 but God raised him to life on the third day. Then God allowed him to appear, 41 not to the general public, but to us whom God had chosen in advance to be his witnesses. We were those who ate and drank with him after he rose from the dead. 42 And he ordered us to preach everywhere and to testify that Jesus is the one appointed by God to be the judge of all—the living and the dead. 43 He is the one all the prophets testified about, saying that everyone who believes in him will have their sins forgiven through his name.” 44 Even as Peter was saying these things, the Holy Spirit fell upon all who were listening to the message. 45 The Jewish believers who came with Peter were amazed that the gift of the Holy Spirit had been poured out on the Gentiles, too. 46 For they heard them speaking in other tongues and praising God. Then Peter asked, 47 “Can anyone object to their being baptized, now that they have received the Holy Spirit just as we did?” 48 So he gave orders for them to be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ. Afterward Cornelius asked him to stay with them for several days.

The Essence of Christianity

What an amazing story! After thousands of years of exclusive relationships based on family lineage, first with the line of Seth, Adam and Eve’s third son, then with Noah, then with Abraham, then with Jacob and his descendants, God is finally opening up his chosen people to everyone in the world.

Now, it’s important to recognise a key feature of Peter’s vision here. Peter saw a sheet full of unclean and clean animals, yet he refused to kill and eat any. Why didn’t he obey God’s command by killing and eating a clean animal?

Well, it’s because he considered the clean animals “common.” The word “common” used this way represented a Pharisaical concept which Jesus encountered in Mark 7:

Mark 7:1–4 CSB

1 The Pharisees and some of the scribes who had come from Jerusalem gathered around him. 2 They observed that some of his disciples were eating bread with unclean—that is, unwashed—hands. 3 (For the Pharisees and all the Jews do not eat unless they give their hands a ceremonial washing, keeping the tradition of the elders. 4 When they come from the marketplace, they do not eat unless they have washed. And there are many other customs they have received and keep, like the washing of cups, pitchers, kettles, and dining couches.)

The word “unclean” in verse 2 here is actually the word, “common.”

The idea was that, since the Torah taught that the uncleanness of a dead body could be passed to someone who touched it, so too could the uncleanness carry on, and so there was this category of “common” things that might have touched unclean things, but were not inherently, in themselves, unclean. These so-called "common” things were not unclean in the strict sense, but neither were they considered clean enough to be safe for someone who wanted to keep themselves clean. The clean animals in the sheet in Peter’s vision would have been rendered “common” by their intimate contact with the unclean animals in the sheet with them. And, of course, Gentiles fell into this category, even God-fearing ones like Cornelius.

Jesus had already explained his position on this immediately after his run-in with the Scribes and Pharisees, which we find just a few verses later in Mark 7.

Mark 7:14–23 NLT

14 Then Jesus called to the crowd to come and hear. “All of you listen,” he said, “and try to understand. 15 It’s not what goes into your body that defiles you; you are defiled by what comes from your heart.” 17 Then Jesus went into a house to get away from the crowd, and his disciples asked him what he meant by the parable he had just used. 18 “Don’t you understand either?” he asked. “Can’t you see that the food you put into your body cannot defile you? 19 Food doesn’t go into your heart, but only passes through the stomach and then goes into the sewer.” (By saying this, he declared that every kind of food is acceptable in God’s eyes.) 20 And then he added, “It is what comes from inside that defiles you. 21 For from within, out of a person’s heart, come evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, 22 adultery, greed, wickedness, deceit, lustful desires, envy, slander, pride, and foolishness. 23 All these vile things come from within; they are what defile you.”

Jesus is here pointing to the nature of our relationship with God, whether we are God’s people or not: it is our heart’s orientation that matters.

It’s not the things that we do that make our heart pure, whether it’s eating certain foods, or even getting baptised or going to church. Rather, we do these things, we get baptised, we come to church, we love one another in many ways, because our hearts are pure.

How do our hearts become pure? That is the essence of our faith, of our Christianity, and that is why Peter tells Cornelius and his family about Jesus.

As Peter says, and this is the last sentence of Peter’s final sermon in the record of Acts, so it’s worth paying attention to:

Acts 10:43 NLT

43 He is the one all the prophets testified about, saying that everyone who believes in him will have their sins forgiven through his name.”

Jesus, Peter says, is the one that God’s word points towards! We don’t gain pure hearts and so become God’s children by keeping ourselves apart, by doing the right thing, by avoiding commonness. Rather, it is ongoing belief in Jesus that purifies our hearts. Faith in Jesus’ name sets us free from sin. Accepting Jesus as Lord of our lives rescues us from our rebellion.

That’s it.

We don’t need to be wearing a tie or a dress. We don’t need to tick off some list of activities. We don’t need to be able to recite some creed. We just need to make Jesus our Lord.

Keeping the Essence, Losing the Ties

How do we—as Jesus’ disciples, his followers, gathered together—how do we make sure that we get this right?

After all, Peter was not told in his vision to call unclean things “clean.”

Acts 10:15 ESV

15 And the voice came to him again a second time, “What God has made clean, do not call common.”

No, he was told “What God has made clean, do not call common.”

How do we make sure that we understand the essence of faith, and don’t confuse unclean things with merely “common” or even clean things? After all, Jesus warned us:

Mark 7:20–23 NLT

20 And then he added, “It is what comes from inside that defiles you. 21 For from within, out of a person’s heart, come evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, 22 adultery, greed, wickedness, deceit, lustful desires, envy, slander, pride, and foolishness. 23 All these vile things come from within; they are what defile you.”

We can’t come to Jesus and expect to remain unchanged. If you look at many of these things Jesus says make us unclean, they are things our society values or at least considers acceptable. Things like evil thoughts, sexual immorality, adultery, greed, deceit, lustful desires, envy, and pride. Yet Jesus calls these “vile things.” So it is quite easy for fallen humanity to get confused over what is clean and unclean, pure and vile.

I think there are three things we must do to allow people to come to Christ without barriers, while preserving the essence of salvation.

1. All sinful

1. Recognise that we are all born with impure, sinful hearts, and that we all struggle with bodies that still yearn to sin.

When the rich young ruler approached Jesus to ask him how to get to heaven, he called Jesus “good teacher.” What was Jesus response? [allow time]

Mark 10:18 ESV

18 And Jesus said to him, “Why do you call me good? No one is good except God alone.

If we remember that this is a struggle we all share, we can have a posture of compassion, rather than judgement, because we’ve all been there (and are still there, to some extent).

2. Focus on Jesus

2. Focus on Jesus

One of the problems with the human heart, is that it wants to be in control. That’s why most religions place us in control: we have to work to appease or please the Gods (or God); we must seek to find our true self; we must define our own identity. But the Jesus of the Bible doesn’t let us do that. He says weird things like,

John 6:63 NLT

63 The Spirit alone gives eternal life. Human effort accomplishes nothing. And the very words I have spoken to you are spirit and life.

That’s humbling, and we need to remember it.

3. Recognise our family

Finally, 3. Recognise who our real family are

Jesus gave us to one another to care for each other. He knew—he knows—how hard it is to live as his follower, so he made sure to support us. The church is not just an institution, a social club, or a force for change. Hear what he told his disciples:

Mark 10:28–30 NLT

28 Then Peter began to speak up. “We’ve given up everything to follow you,” he said. 29 “Yes,” Jesus replied, “and I assure you that everyone who has given up house or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or property, for my sake and for the Good News, 30 will receive now in return a hundred times as many houses, brothers, sisters, mothers, children, and property—along with persecution. And in the world to come that person will have eternal life.

We receive now—not in heaven, but now—a hundred times as many houses, brothers, sisters, mothers, children, and property—along with persecution. That’s the reality of our lot in this world. Overwhelming family, along with persecution.

And it’s true! I’ve been around the world, and wherever I go I find my family in Christ. Much to Atalia’s annoyance, we can stay with Christian brothers and sisters, and enjoy fellowship with them. It’s amazing. And, yes, we do receive persecution, of all kinds.

So, thanks to God’s wonderful rescue plan, we can come to Jesus from any nation or culture. We need only recognise that we are sinful creatures, focus on Jesus, and embrace our new family, and Jesus works a wonderful transformation.

Let’s pray,

Father we thank you that you sent your son Jesus, to break down the barriers between sinful humanity and you, our creator. We thank you that we can come to you and receive new, clean hearts. We thank you that you have given us your Word to show us Jesus and guide us into this new life. And we thank you for the gift of one another—our new, super-extended family.

Help us to value all these things and to press into them with enthusiasm and commitment.

In Jesus’ name,

Amen.