Living Waters of Grace 10.21.25

This is Living Waters of Grace, the teaching ministry of Clark

Wofford, senior pastor of Calvary Chapel of Westmoreland,

County of Greensburg, PA. Now here's Pastor Clark as he

continues teaching through God's Word.

We think there's got to be strings attached, so there's got

to be something else other than disgrace.

And then when God's grace begins to apprehend our heart, we begin

to experience God in a way that humanly can't be comprehended

apart from grace. Grace is what gives you the

ability to forgive and forget. Grace is the ability for you to

receive forgiveness and accept the fact that Jesus did forgive

you of all your sins. The word grace comes from the

Greek word charis, which means unmerited favor and the divine

influence upon the heart as reflected in life.

Today. Pastor Clark will share many

examples of what grace is and what it looks like in the life

of a follower of Jesus. As you listen today, maybe ask

yourself, does the grace of Jesus mark my life?

And if the answer is no, then you'll want to listen to the end

of today's broadcast as Pastor Clark shares more.

When the grace of God marks your life, that same grace begins to

spill out into the lives of those around you.

You will begin to overflow. Now here's Pastor Clark in Acts

Acts 11 · chapter mention

Chapter 11 with today's edition of Living Waters of Grace.

Acts Chapter 11 and we're reading about the the issue here

Acts 11 · chapter mention

of Peter who had thus given the gospel to Cornelius a Gentile in

Acts chapter 10. And now Peter's heading up back

Acts 10 · chapter mention

to Jerusalem and we'll see what he has to deal with here.

So it says in verse one. Now the apostles and brethren

who were in Judea heard that the Gentiles had also received the

word of God. So these guys in Jerusalem are

legalists, they're Christians, but they're under the bondage of

religion. They believe that in order to be

a real Christian, you had to be become a Jew and you had to be

circumcised, and you had to follow the traditions and the

laws of Moses in order to be a real believer.

They had prejudice against Gentiles, Jewish people and

Gentiles didn't get along back in those days.

In some cases today there's still issues between these two

races. But nonetheless, it was all

based upon this idea that this is the way you do worship, this

is the way you do faith, this is the way you follow Jesus.

And the problem in in the world of Christianity Today is that

you have all these different denominations with everybody

sort of having a preference of how things should be done.

And we need to have our hearts open to the fact that the Lord

works in many, many different churches in different ways with

the same gospel. If a church is a Bible church,

and it's a church that believes in the Trinity and the virgin

birth and the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus Christ,

and the Bible being the inherent word of God, that's the

foundation. Everything else is up to

negotiation. Whether someone uses guitars or

drums or candles or incense, those things are really

secondary, aren't they? But many times people get

uptight about different things and how people do things.

So the Jewish people here at this time were very, very

struggling in regard to Peter because he had spent time in the

House of Cornelius, Peter being Jewish, Cornelius being a

Gentile. So when Peter came up to

Jerusalem, those are the circumcision contended with him

saying you went into uncircumcised men and ate with

them. I mean, that's a big deal.

Back in those days. You do something like that.

You are going against all your core beliefs that you've ever

had as a Jewish person. And as a result, they had this

struggle and they had this difficulty.

And so Peter explained it to them in order from the

beginning, saying, I was in the city of Joppa praying and in a

trance I saw a vision and object descending like a great sheep

let down from heaven by four corners.

And it came to me. And when I observed it intently

and considered, I saw 4 footed animals of the earth, wild

beasts, creeping things, and birds of the air.

And I heard a voice saying to me, Rise, Peter, kill and eat.

But I said, not so Lord, for nothing common or unclean has at

any time entered my mouth. But the voice answered me again

from heaven. What God has cleansed you must

not call common. Now this was done three times,

and all were drawn up again into heaven.

And so we see this, this vision that Peter had, and he grew up

as a Jew. He grew up with all these

traditions and he was used to doing things a certain way.

And God is preparing him now to take the gospel to Gentile

people, to be with people that he would normally not want to be

around, that he would consider unclean.

And so God gave him this vision and, and Peter had to have

everything like 3 times. If you remember, the Lord told

him he was going to deny him three times, right?

And then after Peter's denial and he got right with God again,

the Lord asked him a question three times.

Do you love me, Peter? Sort of hard headed, right?

Thick skin or whatever you want to call it.

He just was a different kind of individual.

And the Lord had to make sure he understood this vision.

That's not one time, but three times.

So I think we're all a lot like that.

We need to hear things more than one time, especially when

they're from the Bible, because it takes a while for things to

to settle in and for us to consider what it is that the

Holy Spirit wants us to understand when we're hearing

the words, when we're reading the word, when we're being

taught the word. And so in this specific vision,

all these UN kosher animals are in this blanket and he's given

the permission by God that he can now eat these things that he

was at one time told it would be a terrible sin, an abomination

actually to eat these kind of things as a Jewish person and

even challenges the the Lord in regard to this one.

In verse 7, when the Lord says rise, Peter kill and eat, he

said, not so Lord, for nothing common or unclean has at any

time entered my mouth. But then the Lord from heaven

speaks what God has cleansed you must not call common.

So about the third time this happened, Peter began to be more

open to something. Perhaps he didn't quite

understand yet. Now you got to understand in in

the Christian life and and learning about the Lord, Not

everything dawns on us all the sudden, right?

We don't grasp everything clearly.

Many times it takes a while to really understand what the

Bible's saying in certain areas. Some things are more difficult

to understand. And a big issue in Christianity

is it's a, it's a faith and I'm going to call it a religion.

It's a movement of God's spirit, supernatural that is based upon

grace, right, based upon grace. And we're not really able to

understand grace or receive grace the way God intends us to

experience grace. Grace is liberating.

Grace is freeing. Grace is transformative.

Paul was an apostle of grace. Everything he taught is about

the grace of God. That none of us deserve

anything. None of us have the capacity to

earn anything. Grace is a gift.

And when we first hear about grace, it's almost too good to

be true. We think there's got to be

strings attached or there's got to be something else other than

disgrace. And then when God's grace begins

to apprehend our heart, we begin to experience God in a way that

humanly can't be comprehended apart from grace.

Grace is what gives you the ability to forgive and forget.

Grace is the ability for you to receive forgiveness and accept

the fact that Jesus did forgive you of all your sins.

Grace is the ability to give other people some latitude

without being critical or judgmental.

Grace is to be able to forgive a Pagan or pray for people who

don't know Christ. Grace is to be able to live in a

country that is so divided that all you want to do is think

about ways that you can tell people about Jesus.

Because that's the only answer to the unbelieving, Pagan,

immoral mindset, the grace of God.

We can't respond or behave or act any differently as a fallen

people apart from the grace of God changing our hearts and

making us like Jesus. And so Peter is now about ready

to understand grace in a way that he's never experienced

before. And so as he finishes this

vision, he's done with this vision.

It says in verse 11, soon as this vision is done in the in

the, the cloth in the blanket goes back up into heaven.

At that very moment, three men stood before the house where I

was, where he was having been sent to me from Caesarea.

Three men stood there. He just heard three times God's

truth regarding grace and three persons represents the Trinity.

It's interesting how numbers are so significant in the Bible.

The three, the Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

One, God manifests in three persons.

So there's three men standing at the house.

These men were sent from Caesarea.

These are Gentiles now up until this point, before the vision,

if they would have been at the door, he might have said, well,

nice meeting you. There's a bed and breakfast down

the road. You can go there.

I'll catch up with you later outside.

You would never invite a Gentile into your house.

That's how dark the discrimination and prejudice

was. So in verse 12 it says then the

Spirit told me to go with them, dotting nothing, doubting

nothing. He listened to the Holy Spirit

and he knew completely that this was what God had ordained him to

do, to meet these three guys and to go with him.

He was told this in the vision back in chapter 10.

We know not only did he go with them, but he invited him into

the house and he, he took care of them for a while and fed them

and, and all this bondage of prejudice was completely

destroyed and broken down, wasn't existing anymore.

Moreover, these six brethren accompanied me and we entered

the man's house. Now Peter didn't go into as much

details of what happened in chapter 10 because you got to

realize he's talking to legalists.

He's very careful in keeping the main focus of the message very

clear and simple to accept. He didn't get into the thing

that God said to Cornelius was an honorable man.

He he gave offerings or whatever.

He didn't set it up to justify anything and the and the Gentile

mindset that would be unacceptable to a Jewish

authority or Jewish spiritual leader at the time.

So Peter was wise enough when he went, he didn't go himself.

He needed some witnesses because he has to now give an account

before the leaders in Jerusalem, what he did, why he was there,

what went on, what actually happened.

And these six brethren with him were witnesses.

So we enter the man's house, verse 13, And he told us how he

had seen an Angel standing in his house, who said to him, send

men to Joppa. This is where Peter was living

with Simon the Tanner at the time, and call for Simon.

His surname is Peter. Who will tell you words by which

you and all your household will be saved.

And as I began to speak, the Holy Spirit fell upon them, is

upon us at the beginning that the irony of this whole

situation is that Peter is a apostle.

He's a preacher, He's gifted. And I'm sure he had a big plan

in this message. He might have had three points,

five points, 6 points. He was just getting started.

And the Holy Spirit fell down and said, Peter, you don't need

to say anything else. I'm going to save these people

supernaturally. And the Holy Spirit fell and

they believed and they got saved.

And I love this because Peter didn't say, Lord, I'm not done

with my message yet. Peter's learning to trust God

more obviously and depend on him more.

And so the Holy Spirit falls on these people, and he says to

these authorities in Jerusalem, what we saw, what we

experienced, me and the six witnesses and all the people in

the house, the same thing that happened to us back in Acts

Acts 1 · chapter mention

chapter 1 and 2, when the Holy Spirit fell in the upper room.

And 120 people had experienced this phenomena of the baptism of

the Holy Spirit and had the evidence of that specific time

of tongues. And there was other times in

Acts where the Spirit fell that tongues weren't manifest, but

nonetheless they're a legitimate gift.

And they were manifest in the beginning of Pentecost and in

this case, and it was so important that they would

experience salvation the same way the Jews did as Gentiles.

So the Jewish people wouldn't be able to say, well, this isn't

legitimate, they didn't have this experience or whatever.

And so I remembered the the word of the Lord, how he said, John

indeed baptized with water, but you shall be baptized with the

Holy Spirit. If therefore God gave them the

same gift as he gave us when we believed on the Lord Jesus

Christ, who is I that I could withstand God.

So he he throws it back on them and just ask the question.

He's humble when he's sharing this with these people, these

leaders, and he's not pushy. He's just stating the facts.

When they heard these things, they became silent.

And that's a miracle in and of itself for these Jewish leaders

to not come back with some kind of altercation or defense that

this isn't legitimate. It says when they heard these

things, they became silent and they glorified God, saying then

God has also granted to the Gentiles repentance to life.

Isn't it wonderful that there is no discrimination from God our

Creator? That all men are created equal?

No one is better than anyone else.

No race is better than anyone else.

No country is better than anyone else.

We're all level at the foot of the cross, aren't we all have

sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.

There's none that doeth good. No, not one.

The Bible says that's the whole human race to God in his mercy

through the gospel chooses to save people and continually

saves people over and over and over again through the simple

preaching of the word. And what excites me whenever I

read this, I think about even today as a pastor, I'm here

endeavoring to want to do the best I can to to feed you guys

and give you what the scriptures are saying.

But I'm not stupid enough or foolish enough to think that God

cannot circumvent what it is I'm saying and speak to you

individually while you're sitting here and you're hearing

something from God that has to do with your life and where

you're at and what's happening with you that I didn't even say

or talk about today. Somehow God does meets you here

in your seat as you're hearing His word.

He talks to you about things that He wants you to know about,

things he wants you to consider or reflect upon.

And so Peter sort of like moving off the map here is the focus,

focus in the 1st 11 chapters of Acts.

Now the focus is going to shift more to the Paul.

We'll see Peter again in chapter 12 here.

But now Barnabas, he is now on the scene.

You remember Barnabas, he's the guy that gave the property to

the early church in the beginning.

He donated property and Anas, Anais and Sapphira was sort of

jealous of what he did and they wanted to be recognized like

Barnabas. So they they lied and they said

they were given whatever to God that they didn't give and ended

up dying and getting dragged out of the church.

The Lord just dealt with her. They're lying and quite sobering

experience in those early days. Barnabas was a, a man of great

comfort and he was an encourager.

And this is just the way he always was.

Matter of fact, whenever Paul, Saul got converted on the on the

road there to Damascus and, and everybody's afraid because Paul

was a persecutor of Saul was a persecutor of Christians before

he was called Saul. Barnabas was able to meet with

Saul and see that his conversion was legitimate, that what

happened to him was a miracle, and that he really got saved.

And then he was able to go up with Barnabas to Jerusalem later

to meet the religious leaders at the time, the Judaizers, and

tell them, hey, don't be afraid of Saul.

He's one of us now. He's our brother.

And so Saul also is aware of the fact that whenever Saul was

called into the ministry that the Lord told him he would take

the gospel to the Gentiles. The Jewish member of the

Sanhedrin, a Pharisee now born again, becomes an apostle

because he's an eyewitness of Christ on that road.

And he goes up after his meeting in Jerusalem and they sent him

to Tarsus for they figure, 8 to 12 years.

So he's up there by himself, not with anybody else, studying,

learning. He didn't go into the ministry

the next day after he got saved. He was used the next day after

he got saved. He did speak in the synagogues,

but there was a lot for him to learn and hear from the Lord.

Eventually he wrote most of the New Testament.

So Barnabas in his mind, they're sending him.

We'll continue to read here. Now verse 19.

Now those who were scattered after the persecution that arose

over Stephen, you remember Stephen was martyred few

chapters back. The first martyr, Christian

martyr in the, in the New Testament, these people then

were persecuted and they traveled as far as Phoenicia,

Cyprus and Antioch. So they're, they're spread out

and they're preaching the word to no one but the Jews only.

So initially these people that are in in Jerusalem are, are

being spread out because of the persecution, but their focus

again is just Jewish people. But some of them were men from

Cyprus and Cyrene who when they had come to Antioch spoke to the

Hellenists. You remember the Hellenists were

the Greek cultural Jewish people preaching the Lord Jesus and and

the hand of the Lord was with them and a great number believed

in and turned to the Lord. Now now recognize in this

section of Scripture here that these were people like you and

me. They weren't, I'm not an

apostle. You aren't either.

You know, we're, we're just like normal believers.

We all have different spiritual gifts, but we're just like

normal everyday people, right? These people were normal

everyday people that were pressed out because of the

persecution and they were out there telling other people about

what Jesus did for them and as a result of their communication in

their marketplace and their neighborhoods where they live,

that kind of stuff, A great number of people believed and

turned to the Lord. None of them said, well, we got

to wait till the apostles come up or wait till Peter comes up

or Barnabas or Saul or James or whatever.

No, like it was so infectious the the work of God's Spirit and

the lives of people like you and me, which it should be that way

still, right? That's why we're studying Acts

to get revived, to learn more about how we can be used by the

Lord in these kind of situations, right?

That they had an impact and all these people believed and turned

to the Lord. Then news of these things came

to the ears of the church in Jerusalem.

So they're hearing what's going on.

The Lord is bringing a harvest. People are getting saved.

So they think about who they sent out already that God has

used. Now Barnabas is going to go as

far as Antioch. They're sending Barnabas up

there as a leader. And when he came and had seen

the grace of God, the grace of God, right?

When you see the grace of God, it attracts you.

I want the grace of God to be poured on in here, that there's

not enough room for people to come, not because of us, but

because of the grace of God. I'll tell you an interesting

story. I was on a Zoom call this week

and I was with a man who is a devout Roman Catholic.

Him and his wife, they happened to live in a garden apartment up

in North Jersey, right by the Calvary Chapel, the large

Calvary Chapel up in North Jersey.

Pastor Lloyd Pulley, who's on our radio pastor's at church,

and they would watch every Sunday these cars come and there

was an overflow so people would park in the garden apartment

parking lot. And he said to his wife, this

guy Nix's name, he says, honey, what's what's going on here?

Is that like a cult up there or what?

These people, they get out of their car and they have an aura

about them. He, the Holy Spirit, was helping

them to see the glory of God on the faces of these families.

And it was attracting him, the grace of God on these people

like us just getting out of their car, walking into church.

He said, you know, we had to go over there sometime.

She says, yeah, why not? Why don't we go over there?

So they went over and the first Sunday there for the first time

in their lives, he told me this after the business Zoom call.

He said, I want to talk to you about something off the record.

I see you're involved. Involved with Calvary Chapel.

Yeah. And I said, yeah.

And so then he begins to open up.

I want to tell you what happened.

He said he went in. And for the first time in their

lives, they heard the simple gospel.

Thanks for joining us on this journey through Acts.

On today's edition of Living Waters of Grace, Pastor Clark

shares that one of the most remarkable things about the book

of Acts is how it shows the disciples transformation.

The followers of Jesus we meet here are very different from the

often confused and fearful disciples in the Gospels.

After Jesus's death and resurrection, and especially

through the power of the Holy Spirit, the apostles experienced

a profound change in their hearts and boldness.

Their faith became unwavering, and they move forward with

courage to spread the gospel despite opposition and hardship.

Acts reminds us that the same Spirit who empowered them is at

work in US today, shaping our hearts and giving us strength to

live boldly for Christ. Living Waters of Grace is a

ministry of Calvary Chapel Westmoreland.

If you're in the Greensburg, PA area, we invite you to join us

this Sunday at 10:30 AM at 400 E Pittsburgh St.

Unit 6B. Visit calvarychapelonline.com

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joined us today in Axe TuneIn again soon for another edition

of Living Waters of Grace.