Acts 10:44-48

Father, we thank you for your word. We thank you for the gospel, the good news of the kingdom. Father, let your spirit today we pray through your word, mold us and shape us and transform us, that we would be a people being ever conformed to Jesus our Lord, that we would be a people to give glorious witness to you, to your name, and this earth, among a people, so desperate for hope. Father, we thank you for the hope we have in Jesus, and we thank you that you give us the privilege to be able to share that hope, indeed, to command men to believe in Christ, the only Savior. Father, we ask that you would be glorified through your church, and it's in Jesus' name that we pray. Amen. Acts chapter 10 beginning in verse 44, hear the word of the Lord. While Peter was still speaking these words, the Holy Spirit fell upon all those who heard the word, and those of the circumcision who believed were astonished as many as came with Peter, because the gift of the Holy Spirit had been poured out on the Gentiles also, where they heard them speak with tongues and magnify God. Then Peter answered, can anyone forbid water that these should not be baptized, who have received the Holy Spirit just as we have? And he commanded them to be baptized in the name of the Lord, then they asked him to stay a few days. This is the word of the Lord. The name is being come out. Well, today we will finish the narrative, the Cornelius narrative from the book of Acts, and today we get to the highlight or to the climax of the story when God pours out His Spirit upon these Gentiles. We're gonna look at three things that we see in our text today. We're gonna look at the baptism in the Spirit. We're gonna look at baptism in water, and we're gonna look at hospitality. Three very important, but not unrelated things in the body of Christ that should be present in the church always. In the first two verses, verses 44 and 45, Luke tells us that while Peter was still speaking these words, the Holy Spirit fell. And the first thing that should be noted is that the Gentiles received the Holy Spirit, or as Jesus said in Acts chapter one, verse five, they were baptized with the Holy Spirit. The baptism in the Spirit through that, the Gentiles were brought into the church by God. So the Gentiles' inclusion by God came about through the outpouring of God's Spirit. The language Luke uses to describe how the Holy Spirit fell upon, verse 44 uses that word, that phrase, the Holy Spirit fell upon and then later and was poured out, we see that in verse 45, so the Holy Spirit fell upon and was poured out upon these Gentiles. And this language links us back to the pouring out of the Spirit upon the Jews at Pentecost, and later when the Holy Spirit was said to fall upon the Samaritans. Now the Gentiles have also received the outpouring of the Holy Spirit and they therefore now have a place among God's people. Paul writes in 1 Corinthians 12, 13, for by one Spirit we were all baptized into one body, whether Jews or Greeks, whether slaves or free, and all have been made to drink into one Spirit. This signifying the baptism by the Spirit, which is what Peter and the others are witnessing here in the home of Cornelius. Yet God is allowing them to see it in a very visually objective way so that there can be no doubt that God has baptized these Gentiles into his body by the one and only Holy Spirit. The second thing we see is the untimely nature of the Spirit's arrival. Throughout this narrative in Acts chapter 10, there is an emphasis on what appears to be the coincidence of timing that's taken place throughout the story. Of course we know that there is no coincidence here. Rather it is God orchestrating the timing of all of these various events in such a way that his hand is so clearly seen in these affairs involving Peter and Cornelius that the Jews cannot deny it. We have seen the amazing thing, the amazing timing for instance of Peter upon the rooftop praying and contemplating his vision from God at the exact moment three Gentiles show up at the gate of Simon's house. At that very moment, the Lord speaks to Peter and instructs him to go down to meet three men who have come for him. He was to go with them questioning nothing, the Lord instructs him. And Peter goes to the house of Cornelius and while he is speaking, the Spirit seems to interrupt him as it descends upon, as he descends upon all the Gentiles gathered there in that home. The timing of this outpouring of the Spirit and all the events leading up to it show clearly God's providential hand in all of these things. The gift of the Holy Spirit had been poured out on the Gentiles also is what Peter declares. The outpouring of the Spirit accomplished all that God intended. Luke records those of the circumcision who believed were astonished as many as came with Peter. Remember Peter brings six Jewish brethren with him when they make the journey to meet Cornelius. And Peter and these six brethren who are with him are witnessing the outpouring of the Holy Spirit upon the Gentiles. And they use this phrase, this word also because remember it is likely they were there, we know Peter was there on the day of Pentecost. Very likely these six brethren with Peter may have been there on the day of Pentecost. And they saw the Spirit of God poured out upon the Jews. Later they know it was poured out upon the Samaritans and now lo and behold it is poured out on the Gentiles also. There was no denying God had accepted the Gentiles and gave them a place in the people of God. They were now cleansed vessels fit for the Spirit's habitation. Remember the vision of Peter up on the rooftop, the sheet, the sale-like sheet is lowered down for this fishermen to see and there were all sorts of animals cleaning, unclean inside. This sheet and God instructs Peter arise, kill and eat and immediately Peter says, Lord, nothing unclean has ever crossed my lips and three times God instructs him. And then finally God says to Peter, do not call unclean what I have called clean. And at that very moment these Gentiles are at the gate looking for Peter, no accident, no coincidence, this is God's timing to make sure that Peter gets this because what Peter is getting ready to travel and experience with something that Peter could not have imagined. But he didn't have to imagine it, he witnessed it firsthand. And so did the Jews who were with Peter. The Gentiles had received the gift of the Holy Spirit just as the Jews did on Pentecost. Now not only Jews and Samaritans, but Gentiles have received this precious gift of the Holy Spirit. The Gentiles were no longer to be considered unclean but have become holy by God's providence and grace through faith in Jesus Christ and by the outpouring of the Spirit. It is important that Luke refers to the Holy Spirit as a gift. There is no way to earn such a gift. It is the gift of God's grace. You did not earn the Holy Spirit that indwells you if you are trusting in Jesus today. In fact, the Holy Spirit came to you, raised you from death to life and gave you a heart to believe, to trust in Jesus until God put his spirit in you until God raised you from death to life, you could not trust in Jesus. You could not believe in Jesus. You could not desire Jesus. You could not seek after Jesus until God raised you up from your state of sin and death and gave you a heart to do so. And Peter and these Jewish witnesses understand this is what's happened to these Gentiles. And so now they were to no longer be considered unclean, unfit for they too have become temples of the Holy Spirit. It's important that Luke uses this word gift to describe the Holy Spirit. And this spirit was poured out upon the whole household of all gathered there. We were told quite a bit of detail about Cornelius, but we weren't told anything about the other people. We were just told that he was there with all of his household and friends and family and all of those people. We don't know what their belief was before they came into this house, but we know that God poured out his spirit on all of them that were gathered there. So there is a communal nature to the outpouring recorded here. The whole household gathered there received the outpouring of the spirit. And as we move forward in the book of Acts, we're going to see the narrative shift largely to a corporate expression of the church. We each have a personal relationship with the Lord, but there is an overriding corporate purpose in all of our personal relationships to Jesus. With the outpouring of the spirit, each believer is given power from on high, but that power given to each believer personally is for the empowerment of the corporate body. Our salvation requires that we function in the corporate body of Christ and that we're made members of. The Holy Spirit makes us a member of the body of Christ by baptizing us into that body. And as we become members of that body, we are to function corporately together. I mean, it would be nice, you know, if we could just like disconnect our hands from our body and have our hands go do a certain task and then we can go over here and think about things and we couldn't do anything because our hands would not be with us. But we could think about a lot of things while our hands were doing all of this work, but you notice it doesn't work that way. Your hands do not work disconnected from your body, neither do your feet and neither does anything else. And if your body is disconnected from the head, it certainly doesn't work. Certainly it doesn't function. And so God made the members of the body to actually function together because no member of the body can actually function apart from one another. This Gentile pinnacost so to speak, set the stage for major changes that would come and we'll see those changes when we get to Acts chapter 15. This event will be referred to again as having great significance in God's plan for the salvation of the world. The Holy Spirit was a distinguishing mark for Israel and with this outpouring of the same Holy Spirit upon these Gentiles, it was made clear that God has brought the Gentiles into the fold of His people and the presence of Peter and those Jewish witnesses with Him. God brought heaven down to earth with the outpouring of His Spirit upon these Gentiles, thus making them the temple of the Holy Spirit. Until that time Gentiles had a very limited place in the temple, going into the temple beyond the court designated for them by name, the court of the Gentiles, going beyond that, further into the temple carried the threat of death and the temple there was a very prominent signs so that any Gentile there that crossed that certain point was subject to the death penalty. But now with the resurrection of Jesus, the words of Christ being fulfilled, Christ did raise up His body in three days as He foretold and within a generation, the earthly temple along with the earthly Jerusalem would be destroyed. Now in Christ has signified by this outpouring of the Holy Spirit, God has made the Gentiles into holy vessels to contain the glory of His Holy Spirit and carry forth the message of the gospel. All the nations now have access to the very holy of holies. And are made an integral part of God's new temple community, the church. That's what you are. Each of you, according to scripture, are the temple of the Holy Spirit, if the Holy Spirit indwelled you. And you are as the church, the new temple community. In fact, you are the temple of God in the earth today made up of living stones that God has called forth, brought forth to raise up His holy house. The Gentiles are no longer limited in terms of their access to the very presence of God. And as a result of this significant event in the home of Cornelius, along with the ministry to the Gentiles God would give to the Apostle Paul, there is no longer a distinction between Jew and Gentile in the eyes of the Father as we come to Him through Jesus Christ. Writing to the Gentiles in Galatia, Paul pin these words from his letter to the Galatians, chapter three, verses 26 through 29. Paul writes, for you all are sons of God through faith in Jesus Christ. For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ, there is neither June or Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is neither male nor female, for you all are one in Christ. And if you are Christs, then you are Abraham's seed and heirs according to the promise. That is an amazing declaration to the Gentile church, to Gentiles everywhere. You, probably mostly are Gentiles, are Gentiles, unless you're Jewish. But it doesn't matter whether you're Gentile or whether you're Jew, it doesn't matter what you are, what your nation or ethnic background is. You are one in Christ because God doesn't see those distinctions in his son, he only sees that we are now born again and may part of the one new man which was created in himself through the cross. The level of Gentile inclusion and temple language becomes explicit. In Paul's letter to the Ephesians, he writes, now therefore you are no longer strangers or foreigners, but fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God, having been built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief cornerstone and whom the whole building being fitted together grows into a holy temple in the Lord and whom you also are being built together for dwelling place of God in the spirit. In 1 Peter 2.5, Peter speaks of God choosing living stones, building up a spiritual house out of living stones, building up a holy priesthood to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ and those living stones come from every tribe, from every tongue, from every nation. Those words I just read from Ephesians 2.20, having been built on the foundation of the apostles, leaves no doubt a part of that foundation was being laid through Peter in the house of Cornelius when God poured out his spirit upon the Gentiles that day. Now in Christ the nations do not just have a place in God's temple, but they have been woven into the very fabric and structure of it, being described as living stones in Christ, we have full access to the very throne of grace coming before our Father in heaven by a new and living way made for us by the blood of Jesus. Every week that we lift our prayers up to God, we lift them up knowing that God invites us to His very presence through this new and living way by the blood of Jesus and He invites us to the throne of grace to bring our prayers and our petitions. And just as you've been made accepted in the blood, you've been made holy by the blood of Christ. This is the new reality for the nations, for the Gentiles in Jesus Christ. So the Gentiles by the baptism of the Holy Spirit were brought into the church. That was their inclusion in the church, signified by that outpouring. In verses 46 through 48, let me read these last three verses of our text for us. Verse 46, for they heard them speak with tongues and magnify God, then Peter answered, can anyone forbid water that these should not be baptized who have received the Holy Spirit just as we have? And he commanded them to be baptized in the name of the Lord. Luke's words in verse 45 from form a picture for us. Peter and the men with him were practically overwhelmed. This word here translated in your Bible, in your English Bible, this word translated astonished or amazed, it literally means they were practically overwhelmed. In other words, they could not believe what they were seeing except they were seeing it. They could not believe what they were experiencing except they were experiencing it. And God made sure that they were there to see and experience this outpouring upon the Gentiles. Those of the circumcision who believed were astonished were overwhelmed because the gift of the Holy Spirit had been poured out on the Gentiles also. They were astounded because the Holy Spirit is being poured out on these Gentiles. Remember the six that were with Peter didn't have a vision like he did. They only heard Peter's vision. They heard Peter's report and not that they may have doubted Peter's report, but when they see what's happening here, Luke describes them being practically overwhelmed by the experience. In other words, they knew the meaning and the significance of these divine happenings. And just as on the day of Pentecost, perhaps even some of them had experienced, they heard them speak with tongues and magnify God. There was no denying what was happening. And Peter, it upon witnessing this outpouring of the Spirit as his speech is interrupted by this outpouring, Peter cries out, can anyone forbid water that these should not be baptized? These Gentiles who had received the Holy Spirit just as we have, the power of what was happening was so significant that Peter was compelled to act. This, the way Luke writes this, it's almost like an immediate reaction that Peter is having and he blurt out this question, can anyone forbid water that these should not be baptized to have received the Holy Spirit just as we have? So Peter is compelled to act and his action was in direct obedience to the command of Christ. Jesus commanded his disciples to go therefore and make disciples of all the nations baptizing them. Peter's first action upon seeing God pour out his Holy Spirit upon these Gentiles was to baptize them and response to the moving of God's Spirit, Peter asked the rhetorical question, can anyone forbid water that these should not be baptized? And the obvious answer is no, no one can forbid water that these should be baptized. Peter then commanded them to be baptized in the name of the Lord. The baptism of these Gentiles with water was a result of God baptizing them with his Holy Spirit. This is not given to us, hear me church, this is not given to us as a formula by which we are to pattern baptism today. In other words, you don't wait until you see someone receive the Holy Spirit and then you go baptize them. No, that's not the point here. Not at all. This was an event that could not have come about any other way. The Jews would never have baptized unconverted Gentiles and then embrace them as holy and acceptable to God that would never have happened unless they had first seen God accept them and make them holy by pouring out the very same Holy Spirit that they themselves have received. Thus the untimely pattern of events throughout this narrative that gives clear witness to the divine hand of God. Peter understood full well what he was doing when he baptized these Gentiles. He was bringing them into the church of the Lord Jesus Christ. The application of water only confirmed what God had already demonstrated by his spirit. And upon baptism these Gentiles became full covenant members of Christ's church. Just as Jews historically were, Gentiles were now made part of God's covenant people. And just as with the Jews at Pentecost when Peter cried out, repent and be baptized, Acts 238 or with the Ethiopian unit who begged the question, what hinders me from being baptized? Acts 836. So Peter immediately baptized these Gentiles for inclusion into the church of the Lord Jesus Christ. In Romans 815 the Spirit is called the Spirit of adoption by whom we cry out, Abba, Father. This Spirit of adoption had now brought these Gentiles into the family of God, making them children of God. This is the same Spirit by which you and I cry out to our Father, Abba, Father. As the Jews were hesitant to welcome Gentiles God gave Peter a double sign, a vision and then the descent of the Holy Spirit upon these Gentiles gathered in the home of Cornelius. And just as Peter had experienced at Pentecost, this compelled Peter to act and to baptize these Gentiles in obedience to Jesus. The baptisms that were performed that day resulted from a threefold witness that was seen at Pentecost and also witness among these Gentiles. In other words, what was witnessed by the Jews at Pentecost was witnessed by the seven Jews in the home of Cornelius, Peter and his six brethren. So think about this. Peter witnessed in these Gentiles the outpouring of the Spirit, the speaking in tongues and the declaration of God's praise. Those were the three witnesses we see at the day of Pentecost. These are the very same three witnesses, Peter and his six friends are seeing in the home of Cornelius. In other words, there was no way for them to deny the reality of what was happening. There was an audible, visual and objective demonstration of the Spirit coming upon the Gentiles. The Jews could not deny it, thus Peter immediately obeyed the command of Jesus and he baptized him. So what about baptism today? What is baptism today? What baptism today is the same as it was then. It is our inclusion in the church. Just as water baptism applied to those Gentiles brought them into the church, water baptism applied to God's people today brings them into the church. The command to baptize is still enforced today. If you have not been baptized into the Lord's church, I would encourage you to do so. Baptism is commanded by the Lord Jesus. The Gentiles in Acts were baptized as a point of obedience to Jesus. And if you are trusting in Jesus and have not been baptized, then it's appropriate for you to be baptized. Don't delay, just do it. We can do it any Sunday. And I know we're gonna have a baptism here in the very near future. So if you're one, you say, I've never been baptized, but I love Jesus. I trust Jesus, I count myself one of his children, but I've never been baptized. Well, you come talk to me or talk to one of the elders and you need to be baptized. This is what Peter did without delay. He baptized these Gentiles. There is no test you need to take. There's no depth of knowledge you need to prove. There is only the simple act of obeying the Lord's command to baptize disciples in the name of the clover and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Parents under the old covenant would have circumcised their eight day old son as a sign of the covenant. And he would have been welcomed into the covenant community of God's people. And he would have been raised up in the faith, taught specifically taught the faith. Yes, they would have talked to him about the faith. Even as a little child, in fact, God commanded it in his word. And so parents thought nothing of it, it was what God commanded. So they would take that eight day old son, they'd get him circumcised and he would become a covenant member of God's people. No questions asked. And the expectation is that he would grow up a faithful Jew, faithful in his worship of God. In the new covenant, we know circumcision is no longer required, Acts chapter 15. But baptism is Matthew chapter 28 verse 19. Now under the new covenant, the sign of the covenant is not exclusive to Jewish little boys or Jewish males. Now the sign of the covenant, baptism, unlike circumcision is applied to all who come under the covenant of grace in Christ, both Jew and Gentile as well as male and female, receive the sign of baptism to signify inclusion in the church, which is God's covenant people. Now in Christ, baptism is the sign of the covenant administered to those born into covenant families. That's why we baptize babies here. Children born to covenant parents, whether it's a covenant father and mother or a covenant mother or a covenant father. Paul says to believing parents, you know your children are holy, set apart because the parents are. That doesn't mean the children are automatically saved, but it absolutely means that God has made promises to those parents, for those children and you parents should believe those promises. You parents should stand on those promises, and you should baptize those babies and bring them into the covenant community of God's people and then you are to raise them up in the fear and nurture of the Lord so that when they are old, they will not depart from it. That's God's promise to you as a parent. Where to raise our children is covenant members. If you are a member of the covenant, somebody ask me one time, why don't you just go out and baptize all the babies? Well, because all the babies are members of our children of covenant parents, but every child of a covenant parent should be baptized in my opinion. Now in Christ, baptism is the sign of the covenant administered to those born into covenant families. It is the sign given to those who come into covenant with God by grace through faith. The covenant family of God is the church and we are welcomed into the covenant with the sign of water baptism just as they were in Peter and Paul's day. Baptism is the sign that signifies membership in the church of the Lord Jesus Christ. Now in Christ for Jew or Gentile, for male or female or for any who are welcome into God's covenant community, baptism is the sign of covenant membership. Baptism also implies obedience to all that Jesus commands. This is what Jesus says. Go make disciples of the nations, baptizing them and teaching them to obey all that I have commanded. So whether baptized a child or adult, I was 23 years old when I was baptized. Whether baptized a child or adult, we are to grow in our obedience to Christ as we grow in our faith in Christ. So upon seeing God pour out his spirit upon these Gentiles, immediately Peter commands that they be baptized and they were. And here at the end of the narrative after the Gentiles had been baptized, Luke writes, then they ask him to stay a few days. This brings us to hospitality. The baptism in the spirit is our inclusion with God, it's the inclusion of the Gentiles through the baptism of the spirit. It's our acceptance by God, remembering Paul writes in Ephesians, he has made us accepted in the blood, he made us accepted. He did that by giving us his spirit, raising us to lie, giving us a heart to love him as he poured his love into our heart. And water baptism is our inclusion in the church, in the visible church, in the covenant community of God's people. Well, hospitality is the inclusion of one another. They ask him to stay a few days, indicating that Cornelius and the other Gentiles ask Peter and those with him to stay, offering them hospitality. The word hospitality is not used here, but the concept it conveys certainly is. In fact, the word translated hospitality, our word hospitality is the Greek word, phylozenia, which literally means, literally means to entertain strangers. And this word is only used two times in the New Testament. It's used once in Romans 12, 13, where Paul is expressing how a Christian should live and one of the characteristics of the Christian life, he writes these words, distributing to the needs of the saints, given to hospitality, given to phylozenia, given to entertain strangers is literally what this means. And we see it in Hebrews chapter 13 verse two, where the writer of Hebrews uses the literal translation, exhorting us to literally entertain strangers. He writes, do not forget to entertain strangers. Do not forget to practice hospitality, what is being said here. For by so doing, some have unwittingly entertained angels. The Greek word, phylozenia, is literally translated here in its proper meaning, which is to entertain strangers. Well here in Acts chapter 10 verse 48, we see Cornelius was extending hospitality by entertaining these strangers that had come to his house. And even though they were bid come by God himself, Peter was also extending hospitality by accepting and receiving the gesture from Cornelius to refuse the invitation could have been seen as both a failure to receive and to extend hospitality. Think of a handshake. A failure to receive a handshake is also the failure to extend a handshake. So it is with hospitality. And so when Cornelius extends hospitality to Peter, it was like extending a hand for a handshake. If Peter would not have extended his hand and taken the hand of Cornelius and returned that hospitality, that would have been a failure. But Peter didn't, Peter remained with them. Peter accepted the hospitality that was extended. So along with the desire to extend hospitality, you can imagine all that Cornelius wanted to know and hear from Peter concerning Jesus and the gospel of the kingdom. As these Gentiles had been welcomed into the church by these Jews, they wanted to extend hospitality to Peter and those with him. Peter would receive and also extend hospitality in his own way by accepting the invitation for fellowship among these new found brothers. Hospitality is an important part of the Christian life. In our modern vernacular, hospitality has come to mean much more than entertaining strangers. Through hospitality, we facilitate the inclusion of one another in our life together in the body of Christ. That's why, now you may think, sometimes we harp on you here at Christ's fellowship, but this is why we continually encourage you to be involved in the various things that are taking place in the body. It doesn't mean that you have to open your house and have a big party on a regular basis. But when hospitality is extended to you, whether it's from an individual or whether it is the body of Christ's fellowship church extending hospitality and saying to you, let's all gather for mission meal. Let's all gather for whatever it might be that we're doing. Or you gathering with one another, we see this in the book of Acts in particular, we've already covered this where Luke records that the early church practiced this hospitality, they wrote bread from house to house. They made it a regular something they did on a regular basis. And so there are many ways we can practice hospitality, both by giving and receiving. We can do this in both small and great ways. Hospitality is vitally important in building Coenania, which is a word that simply means fellowship, but our English word fellowship doesn't accurately describe what Coenania really is conveying. The best way I can say it is that it is our deep and meaningful fellowship. It's not just, hi, how are you? Hope you have a great day. Oh, I'm gone. It is deep and meaningful fellowship. It's the building of relationships and you can't build deep and meaningful relationships with surface conversation and occasional meetings as you pass one another. I mean, we have our, you know, pass the peace here on each Sunday, each Lord today. And I love it because, you know, people love passing the peace. You know, you turn you loose for fellowship and you would go until you just would go. And we call you that from that fellowship, not because we're fellowshiped in, but we want you to understand that. That's just a taste of what God wants us to have on a regular basis as we build deep and meaningful fellowship through hospitality. Therefore, hospitality strengthens the body life of the church and the New Testament church, especially we see table fellowship was vitally important and became a continual part of their fellowship together as the church gathered. And they continued to break bread from house to house. Yes, that involved having communion, coming to the Lord's table, but that was not all that they did. There was also the simple fact that they ate their food together with gladness and simplicity of heart, praising God. In our 21st century world, more and more technology makes it easy for us to isolate and become lost in the virtual worlds we create simple table fellowship has been largely lost in many families and among many people. Hospitality continues to be a vital part of the life of the church and I believe it will become even more vital as technology continues to advance and rob us of these tangible, relational, human experiences. With Cornelius invited Peter and his friends to stay for a few days, there was the certain understanding that they would break bread together in table fellowship. All the appropriate graciousness of hospitality would be extended. They would eat and drink and fellowship together under one roof just as Peter would have done with any of his Jewish brethren except these are Gentiles. This indeed was a new day and the extension and reception of such hospitality between Jew and Gentile proves it. Today we take such hospitality and inclusion for granted, but not so at that time. At that time it was exceptional for Jew and Gentile, slave and free, rich and poor to practice such hospitality together. Thankfully it would not remain exceptional. The gospel reality that all have fallen short of God's glory no matter who. And that there is only one remedy and one savior for our sin has broken down the dividing walls across cultures and across time. The gospel of Jesus Christ is the greatest liberator the world has ever known and it continues to be. Gospel driven hospitality is therefore synonymous with gospel driven love for one another. Inclusion is to be the norm in the church. And although there is distinction in terms of function within the body, there is no distinction in terms of who are members of the body. All who are in Christ are members of his body. In terms of our identity, the gospel means that Christ is all and in all. So it is true still today. Our hospitality is to extend to all who may receive it. Whether stranger or friend or even foe and the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Let us prepare to come to the Lord's table. Here is your charge, church. Pay attention to the patterns that God reveals to us in his word. You know, one of the reasons that we encourage you to do the Bible reading challenge or whatever method you use. But the discipline of reading through the scripture on an annual basis allows you to look with an overview of how God works and moves through his creation, through history, through his story, through humanity. And God has a pattern of doing amazing and cosmos changing things in the most unusual ways and in the most unusual places. Think a manger, think the cross or in this case, as one commentator said, in a quiet corner of the Roman Empire in the home of a Centurion, a rip in the fabric of space and time has occurred. Not in a royal place, not in a holy place, but in a domestic place, in a home, in a house. God poured out his spirit and literally changed the world. Patrick Shreiner wrote in his commentarian acts, God is not a verse to working in the corners of society. This is why you and I are never without hope because God works very often in the most obscure, yet the most powerful ways. God uses unseen and foolish things to confound the wise. He uses the wheat to put to shame the mighty. He uses things that are not to bring to nothing to things that are so that no flesh, shagorean, his presence, as the world watches the headlines and the headlines. We, the people of God, must remember that God is working as He always has in unseen ways, in unseen corners of the world, in the lives of countless, nameless, faceless individuals from every tribe, from every tongue, from every nation, to accomplish His divine will and purpose. Many of the most powerful events taking place in the world, taking place in obscure places, and obscure ways among God's obscure people. And this is why the scripture exhorts us in Zachariah 410, asking the question for who has despised the day of small things. As the people of God, He has shown us throughout His dealings with humanity that He works through small things, and it is the small things that ultimately lead to the great and significant things. You must not forget that. If you feel obscure, that is perfectly fine. Those of the world who lack eyes to see and ears to hear who walk in the wisdom of this world, while rejecting the wisdom of God, or forever looking for the next big or flashy thing. All the while, God is working through the small, mostly unseen and very often despised, things despised by this world. What we see throughout scripture is that God most often works through those people, and those situations that are the most unremarkable. This is consistent with Paul's words in First Corinthians, where he writes that God purposefully uses foolish, weak, and base things to confound the wise and to accomplish His plan and His purpose. In the eyes of the world, and all those who deem themselves of any importance, you may fit into that foolish, weak, or base category. I know I certainly do. And if so, then rejoice. For you are the right man, you are the right woman for the task at hand that God has for you. Now, go out and accomplish that task for God, no matter how menial, no matter how mundane or repetitive it may be. Open your eyes of faith, for God is working most powerfully through the most obscure and the most daily of tasks. Much of what God is doing right now will never be known for us, perhaps in our lifetime, but in generations to come, the fruit of what God is doing through the obscure right now will be lived in the generations coming after us. So let us be faithful, faithful to God and faithful to put our hand to the plow and not look back. Amen? Let's sing our thanks to God. Amen. Amen. The Lord bless you and keep you, the Lord make his face to shine upon you, and be gracious to you. The Lord lift up his countless upon you and give you peace. The Lord be with you. The Lord bless you.

Acts 10 · chapter mention Acts 10 · chapter mention Acts 15 · chapter mention Acts 15 · chapter mention Matthew 28:19 Hebrews 13 · chapter mention Acts 10:48