A New Door Opened

SERMON: 2012-06-10--ac1293--a-new-door-opened-part-2 SOURCE DURATION: 00:34:01.000 PROPOSED CUTS: 1 CONFIDENCE: 1.00 APPROVED: false REASON: The recording begins with expository sermon material (segment [0]). The recording ends with a sustained acoustic music interval (segments [243]-[254]), and per instructions, the boundary must be placed at the end of this musical segment. Acoustic segmentation found sustained music at the end edge and moved the boundary to the adjacent transcript segment. ACOUSTIC EVIDENCE: available ACOUSTIC MUSIC INTERVALS: 00:30:30.940-00:33:57.520 ACOUSTIC SPEECH OVERLAP: yes ACOUSTIC BOUNDARIES APPLIED: end Inline CUT markers identify each proposed audio boundary after the relevant word. --- ORIGINAL TRANSCRIPT WITH PROPOSED CUTS MARKED --- We were looking last week at Peter's vision of clean and unclean animals in Acts chapter 10. And saw that the purpose of the vision was to break down the centuries-old barrier between Jews and Gentiles. Up until this point in time, the early church was fully convinced that the benefits of the gospel were for Jews only and not for Gentiles. The Gentiles were simply too unclean and so the purpose of the vision in Acts chapter 10 was to show Peter that in Christ the dividing wall between Jew and Gentile was broken down and that the blessings promised to Abraham were also for the Gentiles. And that is why then the Lord Jesus in this vision instructs Peter to kill and eat the clean and the unclean animals. And that is why Peter, once the lesson gets home to him, says in verse 34 and verse 35, "I now realize how true it is that God does not show favoritism, but accepts men from every nation who fear him and do what is right." And that's where we pick up the story this morning. And in the time that we have, let's look together at how the story continues to unfold. The first thing I want us to notice as the story continues to unfold is that the Lord himself now clarifies the vision for Peter. Verses 17 through 20, "While Peter was wondering about the meaning of the vision, the men sent by Cornelius found out where Simon's house was and stopped by the gate. They called out, asking if Simon, who was known as Peter, was staying there. While Peter was still thinking about the vision, the Spirit said to him, 'Simon, three men are looking for you, so get up and go downstairs. Do not hesitate to go with them, for I have sent them.'" Two things in those couple of verses that are worth noting for us, I believe. And the first is that as Peter is pondering the vision, the delegation from Cornelius arrives. The men sent by Cornelius found out where Simon's house was and stopped at the gate. They called out asking if Simon, who was known as Peter, was staying there. The timing of that is rather remarkable because if you think back to how the story developed, Cornelius had his vision on what we can call day one, three o'clock in the afternoon. Peter had his vision the following day at three o'clock in the afternoon. So the messengers were sent before Peter even had the vision, and so they arrived shortly after his vision was completed. Scripture says while he was still pondering, the men were there. That's more than coincidence, and sometimes the Lord will use the circumstances of our lives to confirm what it is that he's trying to tell us and to give clarity. Second thing that I want us to notice in those couple of verses that we've just read together is that the Holy Spirit then steps in and he further confirms the vision. Listen again to how that goes in the passage. While Peter was still thinking about the vision, the Spirit said to him, "Simon, three men are looking for you, so get up and go downstairs. Do not hesitate to go with them, for I have sent them." So now here we have an angelic appearance to Cornelius. We have a vision given to Peter, and we have the Holy Spirit getting in on the action, speaking to Peter also. Why such divine involvement? Well, I suspect it is because the Lord wants to make sure nobody gets it wrong and that his redemptive purposes for the Gentiles gets fulfilled. Think this through with me a little bit. I don't know about your experience, but my experience has been in trying to listen and to discern the Lord's will that a lot of times the Lord gives us a lot of latitude in terms of what it is that we do or what it is that we don't do. You know, sometimes you feel a prompting, "I should go here," or "I should say this," or "I should do this," and sometimes you feel strongly enough about it that you actually step out into it. Sometimes it works out, sometimes it doesn't work out. Other times you just sort of write it off and say, "Well, you know, I don't really believe that's the Lord," and if it is, "I don't really know if I want to do what it is that he's calling me to do," and most of the time you don't get struck dead, fortunately, and most of the time the Lord gives us a lot of latitude to make the kind of decisions that we need to make. But every so often something will happen and the Lord will insist on something and he will not let us go. I can think back, for example, to the time that I was called to my first church that I pastored out in Alberta. It was clear as mud, and I just said, "Lord, if this is of you and this is an open door, I'm stepping into it." On the other hand, back in 1978 and '79 when the Lord called me to this community, long before most of you even knew that I existed, it was so clear there was no doubt about the fact that that was God's call on my life. So here you have Peter having to overcome centuries of prejudice and centuries of cultural difference, not only, but centuries of religious difference. The Lord knows how hard it is to move the church into this new area of embracing Gentiles, and so he sets it up one, two, three, so there can be absolutely no mistake that this is what he wants to happen. So Peter, clued in when the men came to the door and the Holy Spirit spoke affirmation into his life that, yes, God was about to do something new and he was to go with them to the house of Cornelius, who you must remember was a Gentile, and Jews did not visit the homes of Gentiles. So the story goes on and Peter invites them into his house, they spend the night, and then the next morning together with six of the brothers of Jompa, we learn in the next chapter, they headed out over to Cornelius' house, arriving there the next day. It took them a lot longer than it took Cornelius' delegation to get to Jompa. I suspect the soldier probably had a horse, the rest of them had to walk, it was a good 30 or 40 kilometers or miles between Jompa and Caesarea. So the next thing that happens now is that Peter, when he arrives at Cornelius' house, receives a grand reception. Listen to the passage as it goes on and again you can follow along either on the screen or on your sheet. The following day, he that is Peter and the people with him arrived in Caesarea. Cornelius was expecting them and had called together his relatives and close friends. As Peter entered the house, Cornelius met him and fell at his feet in reverence, but Peter made him get up. "Stand up," he said, "I am only a man myself." Talking with him, Peter went inside and found a large gathering of people. And Peter said to them, "You are all well aware that it's against our law for a Jew to associate with a Gentile or visit him. But God has shown me that I should not call any man impure or unclean, so when I was sent for I came without raising any objection. May I ask why you sent for me?" And then as the story goes on, Cornelius reviews his vision. He says, "An angel came to me and told me to send for you at Joppa, and that is why you are here now." And then that particular passage ends with the latter part of verse 33. These words, "So I sent for you immediately and it was good of you to come. Now we are all here in the presence of God to listen to everything the Lord has commanded you to tell us." Again, in that whole passage, two very interesting and important things that we need to know. And the first is that Cornelius demonstrates a deep sense of reverence in the presence of Peter. Verse 25, "As Peter entered the house, Cornelius met him and fell at his feet in reverence." And of course the story goes on to say that Peter immediately raised him up because he said, "I'm only a man myself. Don't confuse me with Goan." But there's an important principle here that Cornelius understood. And that is the fact that Peter wasn't just anybody, he wasn't just any man. He was an emissary of God Almighty. And so as the spokesperson for God, he knew that he needed to give respect, if you will, to the person who was coming to him with a message from God. And it reminds me of what Jesus said to his apostles many years earlier when he sent them out. He said, "He who listens to you listens to me. He who rejects you rejects me. But he who rejects me rejects him who sent me." And Matthew chapter 25 teaches us that on the final day of judgment, the nations of the world are going to be judged by what they have done with the emissaries of Jesus. And a lot of people think that passage where he talks, you know, "I was poor and I was thirsty and naked and you did it or you didn't do it for me." They think that refers to poor people and perhaps it does at some level. But the primary meaning, I'm convinced, is that the brothers of whom he speaks there are the emissaries of Jesus whom he sends to the nations. And as the nations embrace the emissaries of Jesus, they embrace Jesus and they embrace the Father who sent Jesus. And to the degree to which they reject the emissaries of Jesus, they reject Jesus and they reject the Father who sent Jesus. And on the day of judgment, that's how the nations are going to be judged. It's going to be by what they have done with those who have represented Jesus Christ. And that's why Cornelius here gets it. He knows that he stands in the presence of an emissary representing the Lord himself. And the other thing that's really fascinating about all of that is that Cornelius demonstrates a willingness to listen and to obey. Listen again to verse 33. Cornelius says, "It was good of you to come. Now we are all here in the presence of God to listen to everything the Lord has commanded you to tell us." We are all here in the presence of God to listen to everything the Lord has commanded you to tell us. One of the things that really struck me two years ago when Wiebe and I did that trip through China and spoke to many church communities in China was the eagerness of the Chinese believers to live their lives by the word of God. They studied Scripture eagerly, not simply to arrive at greater insight and wisdom about all the theological details of the universe, but with a view of doing what God wanted them to do in their practical everyday life. And I remember thinking back then when I sort of witnessed that kind of enthusiasm for Scripture and obedience to it, how different that is in some ways from so much of what we find in the Western world. Because we love Bible study, some of us do, and we love speculation, some of us do. But we spend sometimes so much time trying to convince ourselves that Scripture doesn't really mean what it says that it means so that we don't actually have to practice what it says it means. I remember Tony Campolo at a conference in Toronto some time back that some of us were involved in, did a workshop for our music team, led the worship. And I'll never forget Tony Campolo's speech where he said, you know, he got converted at one stage in his life and read the Bible and he just assumed that it was meant to be lived. He said until he went to seminary, and at seminary he learned what all you didn't have to do, what it said you were supposed to do. And it took him a long time to come back around to the seriousness of Scripture. Well, here we have Cornelius, a God-fearing Gentile, who says, "Whatever it is that you tell us to do on behalf of God, we want to do it." And what a lesson that is for you and me. Because I can tell you, over the years, the people who go places with God, who get greater understanding, who get greater insight, who come into their calling, who live in the power of the Holy Spirit, are people whose hearts are set on, "Lord, whatever your will is, I want it done on earth as it is in heaven, and I want it done first in my life." And people like that repent quickly when they fail, as we all do. They study Scripture eagerly to find out what it looks like in terms of everyday living. Because, you see, the Bible talks about the obedience of faith. Becoming a Christian isn't just believing that Jesus died so that one day I can go to heaven. It is submitting to His Lordship and saying, "I want to live my life by your word and by your truth. And when I fail, then I'm going to come to you in repentance, asking for forgiveness. Lord, I want you to change me from the inside out." Are you with me? It's not just the talk that matters. It is the walk that counts. So, that, of course, sets the stage for Peter's Gospel presentation. That begins at verse 34, "Then Peter began to speak." And if you look at the passage, you will notice it carries on from there through to verse 44. And rather than read that whole piece, let me highlight just three things that he hits hard as he now preaches the Gospel to Cornelius and all the people that are gathered there. He starts by outlining the mission of Jesus, verse 37 into 38. You know how God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit in power and how He went around doing good and healing all who were under the power of the devil because God was with him. I love that verse, and in my own life and ministry that has played a very key role, because it so clearly sums up the mission of Jesus. He's come to set captives free. And you know that by nature, we're all under Satan's power. We cannot deliver ourselves, but Jesus comes. And if you look at the Gospels, you will see how repeatedly He comes to people under Satan's power. He declares freedom in the name of God, and then He empowers the church to carry on that mission to bring restoration and to bring healing so that people can be delivered from Satan's power and be yielded over against God to do His will and to walk in His ways. The mission of Jesus is the mission of setting captives free. And then Peter goes on to emphasize the fact that Jesus does this through His death and resurrection. Verse 39 and verse 40, "They killed Him," that is, the unbelieving Jews killed Jesus by hanging Him on a tree. That's significance, because to be hanged on a tree in the Old Testament was to experience the wrath and the curse of God. It was reserved for the worst of the worst of the worst. They killed Him by hanging Him on a tree, but God raised Him from the dead on the third day and caused Him to be seen. He goes on to say, "Of this we are witnesses." He goes on to say, "This Jesus is going to be coming again to judge the living and the dead. He's going to judge everybody by His standard, and there is salvation in no other name." And that's the final thing for us to notice here then, that salvation is by faith in Jesus. All the prophets testify about Him, that everyone who believes in Him receives forgiveness of sins through His name. And now is when the story gets really interesting, because what happens? The Holy Spirit falls on the whole assembly of Gentile believers. While Peter was still speaking these words, the Holy Spirit came on all who heard the message. The circumcised believers who had come with Peter were astonished that the gift of the Holy Spirit had been poured out, even on the Gentiles, for they heard Him speaking in tongues and praising God. Again, just very quickly, a couple of things to notice there, Peter gets interrupted while Peter was still speaking these words, "The Holy Spirit came on all who heard the message." Why did Peter get interrupted? Because it made it possible for him, as the next chapter shows you, to go back to the people who criticized him for taking the gospel to the Gentiles, that it was God's fault and it wasn't His fault. Beautiful. Because you see, if Peter had prayed for the Holy Spirit to come on the Gentiles and the Holy Spirit had come, they could point fingers to Peter and say, "You had no business doing that." But as it is, Peter gets interrupted, and as he says later on, "Well, who was I that I could argue with God?" You want to talk to somebody? Go talk to God about it. The other thing that's really interesting here, and it's very insightful, is that Peter's companions are amazed. I love the way that is worded. "The circumcised believers who had come with Peter were astonished that the gift of the Holy Spirit had been poured out, even on the Gentiles." Now, just keep that verse up for a moment. They are circumcised believers. This, I believe, is the first time in the book of Acts that Luke introduces the distinction of circumcised believers. That is to say, Jewish people who had become Christians, who had a hard time letting go of the Old Testament laws of circumcision. Later on, in the early church, this became a huge fight, so much so that Peter, who had this revelation about the inclusion of the Gentiles, wavered and separated himself from Gentile believers because he wasn't supposed to be hanging around with unclean members. I think Peter picked the six companions in Joppa from the circumcised community to give some credibility to the fact that God was at work. And you get a picture here of how big that gap was when the Bible says they were astonished. And that word in the Greek is again that word. It's related to the word "ecstasy." They were beside themselves. They were totally overcome. They were totally overwhelmed. Like, this is not how it's supposed to happen. Unless you were circumcised, unless you were part of the Jewish community, you don't belong to God. And now here's God coming along, and he takes these Gentile believers. Remember, they're bad dudes. And he is pouring out the Holy Spirit on them in exactly the same way as he did on us at the beginning. That is to say, there was speaking in tongues, there were prophetic utterances, and there was incredible joy in praising God. And so the story then goes on, and we don't have time to look at it. Peter says, "Is there anything to keep them from being baptized?" And everybody agrees there is not. And now for the first time, you have Gentile believers who become fully incorporated into the body of Christ. And I love the way the Apostle Paul put it in those words with which we began our service this morning. He says in Ephesians chapter 2, "He that is Jesus came and preached peace to you who were far away and peace to those who were near. For through him, we both, Jew and Gentile, have access to the Father by one Spirit. Consequently, you are no longer foreigners and aliens, but fellow citizens with God's people and members of God's household built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets with Christ Jesus himself as the chief cornerstone." So what's in it for you and for me? It means that God is not a respecter of persons. And it might just be that you're here this morning and you say to yourself, "I don't really have a right to be here. Church is not my thing. I don't come out of a churchy family. I haven't lived in a churchy way. If only you knew all the things that I have been into, God couldn't possibly want me." Or maybe you're here and you say to yourself, "You know, I've always been a pretty decent dude or dudess. I was raised in a Christian home. I've gone to church all my life, and yes, I haven't been perfect, but not as nearly imperfect as a lot of other people that I know. And I know the Bible, and I try to be good, and I have a right to belong to God because I've been baptized, I belong." And the Bible says to both of you, you're wrong. Because Jesus came to break down the dividing wall between Jew and Gentile. He came to bring near to God the Father those who were far off, that is, those who were unbelievers, and those who were near, which was the Jewish community. And through Him, says Paul, we both have access to one God through one Spirit. What counts is not your background. What counts is not where you've been. What counts is not whether you've been good or whether you've been bad. What counts is not your credentials. It's not your pedigree. It's none of the things that matter in the world. What counts is one thing only. Have you been to the cross of Jesus? Do you believe that you are a sinner at heart and that you fall short of the glory of God? Do you believe that Jesus died on the cross to pay for those sins, that He was raised for our justification, and that by faith in Him, we become the righteousness of God, and we belong to God because God before us, who can ever be against us? Isn't that true? Amen. And so that's your confession this morning. Join us as we celebrate Communion, because in the participation in Communion, we acknowledge those three things. I'm a great sinner, Christ is a great Savior, and by Him and through Him, we belong to the family of God. So stand with me as we pray and as we start moving into Communion. Father, in a few moments, we're going to sing just as I am without one plea, but that your blood was shed for me. And we come to you, Lord Jesus, not on the basis of our righteousness or the lack thereof, but on the basis of the righteousness of Jesus. It may well be that some of us think we're too bad, we're too far gone, we've done too many bad things, our lives could never ever really change. But the story of Cornelius shows that the drug-dealing neighbors get invited to the same party that the good church-going folks get invited to. And Lord, it may be too that we're here and we are secretly superior in our hearts, because we know what the rules are and we try to live by the rules. But by the works of the law, no man will be justified. And so we come on level ground to the cross. We confess, Lord, our sins or failures or shortcomings. We ask you to wash those all away. And as we drink the juice and eat the bread, we pray that your Holy Spirit will impart to us the benefits of Christ, so that we may grow up into that holy temple in the Lord, where God dwells through his Spirit. And we'll be careful to give you the glory. In Jesus' name, Amen. [CUT] [PROPOSED CUT 1 START at 00:30:30.940; remove through 00:34:01.000] [piano playing] Just as I am without want be, but that thine love was shed for me. And that the midst become to thee, O Lamb of God, I come, I come. Just as I am and waiting not to rid my soul of one dark blood, To thee whose blood can cleanse each blood, O Lamb of God, I come, I come. Just as I am the cross above, with many a cross, with many a hand, By needs and fears within, with Thou, O Lamb of God, I come, I come. Just as I am who wrencheth by, side-wringers healing of the mind, May all I need be to find, O Lamb of God, I come, I come. Just as I am, Thou wilt receive, will welcome, pardon, cleanse, redeem, Because I promise, I believe, O Lamb of God, I come, I come. [CUT] [PROPOSED CUT 1 END at 00:34:01.000; resume after this marked segment]