God's Heart For The Lost | Acts 10:1-33 (Feb 20) Mike Armstrong

Hello and welcome to the Redemption Church Podcast.

We're a church in Newmarket, Ontario, Canada that exists to glorify God through the fulfillment of the Great Commission and the spirit of the Great Commandment.

Thanks for joining us today.

And uh and so here we go, Acts chapter 10.

Acts 10 · chapter mention

If you want to get your Bibles open and uh turned there and uh ready to go, um I don't know if you can even remember the month ago when I was here, uh, but we talked about um or we looked at God's heart for us.

I don't know if you remember that, but the Lord's heart that he has for us.

We explored the the question, uh what comes most naturally or instinctively to God when he considers me or he considers you?

What emotions or affections or desires as God experiences those things perfectly?

Like what does he what does he experience when he looks at us?

What's his gut instinct?

How does he move towards us?

You know, we consider our our weaknesses and our brokenness, the good days that we have, the bad days that we have.

Really the question is, what does he really think of you and I?

What does he really think?

You know, is does does the Lord look at you and me and feel disappointment?

I mean, I think some of us naturally, that's what we imagine God thinking.

Man, this guy can't can't put it all together, right?

Again, we've been through this with her and she just can't figure it out.

You know, some of us think maybe that that God just doesn't care.

Isn't it amazing how we, you know, we tend to take our experiences with our own earthly fathers or or or or authorities that we have had over us and and naturally transfer that to God, those things to God, and assume that as those men, those people have been in my life, that must be how God operates.

That must be how he feels about me.

My father was always so impatient, and so therefore the Lord must be impatient as well.

But isn't it interesting, isn't it amazing that God is perfect in these things and that he loves us so deeply?

And again, if you remember, we looked at Hosea chapter 11, and we saw there that shockingly, it's his his warm and tender compassion that stirred up, and it's his love that engages us, not, interestingly, not on our best days, it doesn't say, but actually on our worst days and our darkest moments.

Hosea 11 · chapter mention

Remember, it was Israel's stubborn resistance of God and his lordship over them that provoked his love and care for them.

They just rebelled over and over and over and over again, and consequences were coming, and yet the Lord says, How can I, how can I destroy you basically?

How can I give you up?

My heart recoils within me.

His love is stirred up in those moments.

Pretty amazing to consider because I think so many of us we think, well, I gotta behave well in order to get that love from God.

I need to perform, I need to be perfect.

Good little Christian boys and girls, and only then will God throw me a bone or be kind or be gracious.

But interestingly enough, it's in our darkest moments that he is provoked towards loving and caring for us.

Well, today what we're gonna look at is, and what we're gonna see, is that God's heart is not just for you and I as his followers, but he actually has this love, this care for the lost as well.

In Acts chapter 10, uh maybe many of us have read it before, but it's really this stunning picture of God's love and God's grace, his saving grace expanding outwards.

Acts 10 · chapter mention

Okay, not just focused on the Jews, not just focused on Israel, but on the Gentiles as well.

And we're gonna see that as his heart is to move towards the world, right?

A world that is rejecting him, he's actually working to change our hearts along the way in the process to desire the same thing that he desires.

Okay, so we are we are back into our Acts series.

And some of you might be like, Acts series?

When did we start this?

Well, we started this a long time ago.

We've actually been away from it for just over a year.

And that was kind of the idea as we started it.

Acts is a long book.

We're gonna we're gonna start in chapter one and just work our way verse by verse, word by word, all the way through.

We're gonna take breaks from time to time based on Christmas and summer and different things as the Lord leads us and and gives us specific words for specific seasons and situations.

And and so, really, what we're doing here is we're coming back to Acts for the third time and starting Acts part three.

And so for the next, again, foreseeable future, we're gonna be working our way starting uh in chapter 10, verse 1 today.

Uh, but some of you uh have probably been coming to our church for less than a year.

You weren't you you missed all the first part or or the first two parts, and and uh for those of us who are here for that, it's a long distant memory and we don't remember much of it.

And so I want to give us just a really kind of basic overview of where we've come from so far and what Acts has been about, so that we can hit the ground running here.

Well, Acts chapter one really starts off with Jesus giving his final marching orders to his disciples before he ascends, before he goes to be with his father.

And he says to them in verse eight, this is really important here because it tees up the rest of the direction for the entire book.

Okay, he says to them, but you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, in all of Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.

He says, This is the way that it's gonna go.

Holy Spirit's gonna come, which it does in chapter two.

It's gonna it's gonna fill you, it's gonna give you the power and the direction, the wisdom that you need, and you are gonna go out from here.

You're gonna you're gonna be my witnesses, my ambassadors.

We're gonna plant churches, and we're gonna see that start in Jerusalem and then expand outwards into Judea and Samaria and then the ends of the earth.

Okay, so the first seven chapters of Acts are this work in Jerusalem as God is building his church.

And again, I said the Holy Spirit fell on the apostles, and from that moment on, anytime anyone got saved, they would have the Holy Spirit residing in them.

And so he uses the Peters and the Johns of the world to share the gospel, and people started getting saved by the thousands.

You remember in chapter two towards the end there, the church starts to form.

They had all things in common, and we see them coming together as this tight-knit community, and they needed each other.

We see them starting to minister to the gospel, and people started getting saved by the thousands.

You remember in chapter two towards the end there, the church starts to form.

They had all things in common, and we see them coming together as this tight-knit community, and they needed each other.

Christ, whether you like it or not.

We see them continuing to work uh out the the in the power of the Lord.

We see signs and wonders that are that are done, and the Lord is healing people, and we see again the persecution ramp up in the face of all of that.

Okay, in chapter 7, we see Stephen as the very first martyr get get killed for his faith.

And we're introduced to the apostle Paul.

Well, his name is Saul at the time, and in chapter 9, we see him get saved radically, and it's it's through chapter 8, 9, and and 10, actually all the way to 12, where we see this shift now of direction.

Where they've been focusing on Jerusalem, and now they're starting to work their way out into Judea and uh and Samaria.

And then where we left off again uh a short year ago was with uh the apostle Peter and him uh healing Aeneas and and and also working in Joppa to restore a Tabitha to life.

And so uh Peter is is in this area, and he's staying in Joppa for many days, and that really brings us to our passage that we're gonna look at right now, starting in chapter 10 with Peter and Cornelius.

And so we've got three things for us here today, a little bit longer intro than usual.

Okay, but three things.

God's heart for the lost, first of all, extends to those we might never consider reaching.

Okay, we might never consider reaching.

Take a look at verse uh one with me here of chapter 10.

It says this at Caesarea there was a man named Cornelius, a centurion of what was known as the Italian cohort.

Okay, so just so we understand here, Cornelius is a Roman soldier.

Okay, and he and he held the rank of centurion, as it says, which means that he was in charge of a hundred men.

Okay, centurion, century, a hundred, uh pretty straightforward, I think.

Okay, now a cohort, says he was part of the Italian cohort, that was a group of 600 men with six centurions in command.

And ten cohorts, it doesn't go into this, but ten cohorts made up what was called a legion, as you probably heard of before as well.

Okay, now centurions, these guys were extremely well paid.

Okay, they were they were wealthy, they would have been very well known in society, okay, they would have been blue check marks in their Twitter and Instagram accounts.

Okay, they were well-known guys.

You know, verse 2 goes on.

It says that that Cornelius was a devout man who feared God with all his household, gave alms generously with the people, and prayed continually to God.

Okay, so what we're seeing here is that Cornelius is a little different.

Okay, it says that he was a devout and God-fearing man, meaning that he he believed in God, and yet, as we're gonna see as the story plays itself out here, he hadn't yet fully converted to Judaism.

He hadn't gotten saved yet.

He hadn't put together all the pieces.

But again, he he took what belief he had in God very, very seriously, as we see.

He likely had some affiliation with the local synagogue in Caesarea.

He clearly led his family to worship Israel's God.

Okay, that he gave alms generously.

This meant that he gave gifts to the poor.

Okay, so he's a pious man, he was passionate about the things of God, he genuinely cared for people and the disadvantaged specifically.

So he's a good guy.

Okay, uh Cornelius was an upstanding gentleman, upstanding citizen, cared for the people that he ruled over.

Okay, but again, as the story plays out through chapter 10, we're gonna get to 34 to the end next week and look at part two of God's heart for the lost.

But as we as we kind of, as the story plays itself out, we come to understand again that he's not saved yet.

He's not he's not born again.

He's certainly hungry for the things of God, he's a seeker, he's definitely trying to do all the right things.

He's he'd be a regular church attender, he's involved in community life, like we've seen.

You know, maybe like that person that you know gets invited to church and and gets you know swept up in everything that church life is all about.

But again, they just quite haven't quite put it all together quite yet because they haven't responded to the gospel.

Right?

It hasn't clicked, they haven't received Christ as Savior yet.

Okay, so think about Cornelius as a red apple.

Okay, as red as it gets, he's ripe for the picking, he is primed for the gospel.

It's just that he hasn't heard it yet.

Remember that the church had not yet expanded out into Caesarea yet.

Okay, now with all of this in mind, okay, consider that Cornelius represents in this story the person that we might least expect to get saved.

The person that you and I would maybe not really naturally consider reaching out to with the gospel.

We already know that the Jews didn't exactly have much love for the Gentiles at this point in general, right?

Or the Romans, you know, the Greeks specifically.

Okay, and the feeling was very much mutual.

They didn't love each other, they kind of put up with each other, and you know, on top of these deeply held discriminations, Cornelius, remember, he's a key Roman military official, right?

In charge of keeping the peace and maintaining Roman rule in this region.

Okay, so there were, you know, there would have absolutely been times where tensions would have risen significantly between these two people groups, between the Jews in this area and the Gentiles.

And again, remember that in the life of the early church, most of the ministry that had been done up until this point had been focused on Jerusalem and the Jews specifically.

Again, remember, chapters 1 to 7 focuses on that.

It's not until chapter 8 that we see this expansion starting to happen where the Lord is setting his sights on reaching Judea and Samaria.

Okay, so at this point in the narrative here, the church just wasn't all that experienced yet in reaching Gentiles.

Okay, that ministry had begun.

We saw Philip in Samaria, we see him minister to Simon the magician, if you remember that story, in the Ethiopian eunuch.

We went through all of that.

Okay, we saw Peter, like I said, in Lydda and Joppa, he's ministering to Aeneas, this lame man, and we see him be used by the Lord to raise Tabbit from the dead.

Okay, so we see this happen starting to happen, but all of this ministry and this evangelism and the church taking ground was all still in its infancy.

The early church and and the apostles, they were still learning that the heart that God had for them as Jews actually extended to those they themselves hadn't generally considered reaching with the good news.

Cornelius being this great example of maybe the last person the church would have expected to get saved.

Okay, but God's heart here for the lost is fierce.

It's strong, it's passionate.

And Peter himself is at the center of this story, as we're gonna see here in just a second, but he he writes years later in 2 Peter 3, verse 9.

2 Peter 3:9

He says, The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promises, some count slowness, but is patient towards you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance.

Right?

That is the heart of the Lord for the loss.

It's to reach sinners, it's to save sinners, it's to sanctify sinners, it's to satisfy sinners.

If understanding the heart that God has for you and I is so critical, and it is, right, so is understanding that is hard that his heart extends to other people as well.

Even the types of people that we wouldn't naturally think about reaching ourselves.

Okay, so as an exercise here for just a second, try and try and think for a moment about the various people within your orbit, within your own life, who you don't ever really think about having an impact on for Christ.

Isn't it amazing how as soon as I say that, like one or two or more people automatically come to mind?

Right?

People that you're like, and I I don't spend any time thinking or praying for them or talking to them about the gospel.

I wouldn't even really naturally on my own consider it.

Right?

Those are the very people that God's heart burns for.

Those are the very people that he wants to redeem.

Okay, so think about those those neighbors on your street.

Right?

I was considering that this morning and this week and and realizing to my shame, there are people in my neighborhood that that I think, man, they're like, again, deep down, if I'm honest, I'm like, man, they're so far gone.

Right?

I I see what they post online, it's a train wreck.

Right?

I I I I see how they interact with one another.

It's not good.

I I hear the screaming coming through the walls.

Right?

I see this, and I don't naturally have a heart that goes out to them.

I have a heart that is is sick of them and wants to distance myself from them.

We all have these kinds of people in our lives.

Maybe for you as a family member.

You've just experienced your entire life over and over, decades of this person disappointing, this person being toxic, this person being horrible, and you've just written them off.

Right?

And forget it, like they're just so far gone, it's it's not gonna happen.

And I'm gonna focus my energies elsewhere.

Maybe considering who Cornelius was and and what he did, we maybe even need to think about our own government officials and those in leadership and power over us.

Now, keep in mind, again, I I wrote this sermon like four weeks ago.

And just you consider if you're you know tracking with what's going on in Ottawa alone, just what's been happening in the last week.

And and for me, I'm just being honest with you, it gets harder and harder and harder to not hate, to not be disgusted, to not be grossed out and be burdened and just angry about what's taking place when you consider the Trudeau's and the Freelands and and others.

And yet we're reminded here that God's heart is for these people, right?

And our heart needs to be as well.

I mean, let's allow the Lord here to really turn our eyes and our hearts outward and again, not just grow an awareness that God's mission extends to others.

Wow, that's that's helpful information.

Not just that, but to really start to embrace the part that we're to play in that.

Right, which really gets us to the second part of the story here and Peter's involvement.

God's heart for the lost will be made known to them one way or another.

Okay, take a look at verse 3 now with me.

We're gonna move our way through the rest of this a lot more quickly.

Take a look at a special way here that the Lord reaches Cornelius.

This is kind of wild.

It says, about the ninth hour of the day, so we're talking 3 p.m.

here, he that's Cornelius, saw clearly in a vision an angel of God come in and say to him, Cornelius, and he stared at him in terror.

Okay, so this is this this response of terror.

That's the standard response whenever anyone encountered an angel in the scriptures.

It wasn't like, oh, they're adorable, precious moments.

No, they were they were fearsome, they were they were terrifying situations, okay?

And that's his response.

He looks at him in terror, and he says, What is it, Lord?

And he, now the angel, said to him, Your prayers and your alms have ascended as a memorial before God.

Okay, so God's taking notice of him.

He says in verse 5, and now send men to Joppa and bring one Simon who is called Peter.

Okay, now keep in mind, Joppa is about 50 kilometers south of Caesarea, and where we last left off with Peter in that miracle of raising Tabitha back to life.

Verse 6 says, He is lodging with one Simon, so another Simon, a tanner, means he's a leather worker whose house is by the sea.

When the angel who spoke to him had departed, he called two of his servants, this is Cornelius' servants, and a devout soldier, likely meaning that this soldier also feared the Lord.

So he called them from among those who attended him, and having related everything to them, the vision, he sent them to Joppa to go for Peter.

Verse 10 tells us that he became hungry and wanted something to eat.

But while they were preparing it, he fell into a trance, and saw the heavens open, and something like a great sheet descending, being let down by its four corners upon the earth.

In it were all kinds of animals and reptiles and birds of the air.

Okay, so not exactly your everyday dream, kind of interesting, strange situation.

Verse 13 says, And there came a voice to him, Rise, Peter, kill and eat.

Okay, every carnivore's favorite verse.

Okay, verse 14 now, but Peter said, By no means, Lord, for I have never eaten anything that is common or unclean.

And the voice came to him again a second time.

What God has made clean, do not call common.

This happened three times, and the thing was taken up at once to heaven.

Now we're gonna come to see what this meant exactly a little bit later as again as the story goes on.

But at this point, even Peter's confused.

He's like, what's up with this like white bed sheet coming down with a bunch of animals in it, and I'm being told to kill them and eat them?

Like, this is not an everyday situation.

Okay, but for now, I really want us to kind of zero in here on the uniqueness of all of this, of how the Lord makes himself known to Cornelius.

Okay, it's through vision.

He shows up in this vision and tells him to go find to go find Peter.

Okay, so remember that at this point in time the gospel again had not reached Caesarea.

Okay, but notice here how how Christians not yet arriving in Caesarea to preach the gospel doesn't hinder the Lord.

It doesn't stop his plan, it doesn't limit his effectiveness to say.

People from their sins, which which tells us something very awesome and powerful about God's heart.

His heart is to make Christ known to people one way or the other.

He's not limited.

And here specifically, he communicates to both Cornelius and Peter through these, through these corresponding visions.

You know, I call this particular way of reaching the lost unique.

They all use that word unique, but it's not to say that it happened exclusively in this moment and then never again.

That's not the case.

I'm definitely not saying that this doesn't happen today, even.

Maybe you'd be surprised to hear me say that.

But this kind of thing actually does happen today.

Ange and I have a friend of ours from the US in ministry, and he has this amazing ministry that he has started and been a part of in Athens, Greece.

And uh there have been actually multiple reports of Jesus revealing himself to them in dreams, okay, and either saving them through the dream, presenting the gospel itself in the dream, or by connect by showing up in a vision and then connecting them randomly with believers right afterwards, who get them connected to a local church and preach the gospel to them.

There are reports of this exact same thing happening in enclosed Muslim countries as well, where it cannot be chalked up to some weird demonic experience or some hallucination or indigestion or whatever.

Because these people actually share, they wake up and they share what this person has spoken to them, and it's the gospel word for word.

Or again, soon after by the Christian that they meet.

All of this to say the Lord is incredible.

He's amazing to do this, it's hard for the lost.

It's so obvious, right?

It's so clear when you read these verses or or hear the testimony of people who've experienced visions and dreams like this.

I mean, as you and I hear that, there should be a certain sense of wonder and awe that is kind of inflamed in us as we get this kind of insight into the heart that he has.

But I don't know, maybe as I kind of share those stories and you read this passage, maybe your heart starts to go in a little different direction, or your mind starts to go in a bit different direction.

Maybe to the thought of, well, wait a second here, not not everybody gets the dream.

Right?

Not everybody gets the vision, not everyone hears the gospel.

So how am I supposed to reconcile God's heart for the lost with the fact that according to scripture, some do go to hell without hearing the gospel explicitly.

And maybe you've even wondered, like, man, it seems kind of unfair for God to send innocent people to hell who've never heard the good news before.

I mean, I think that's something that pretty much every person wrestles with at some point in their walk with the Lord.

It's a legitimate thing.

I'm not here to bash on you if you've had those questions or you have them now, but if that is you, keep in mind something really important here.

That there's actually no such thing as an innocent person.

It's easy for us to think that, but deep down in all of our hearts we're guilty.

Every single person.

Romans 1 makes it just so clear that God has actually made his existence known to every single person.

It says there in Romans 1, through the things that have been made, okay, meaning creation.

Creation.

We go out into creation and and and deep in our souls, deep in our in our in in our understanding somewhere, we recognize, every person has been wired to recognize that that someone or something made this.

It just doesn't pass the sniff test, really, to think that all of this is just random.

You go to the Grand Canyon, you go to the mountains out west, you go on a canoe trip up north, and you're like, this is awesome.

There's design written into every single shred of it.

Right?

And we've been hardwired in some way to not just know that God exists, but in some way to actually seek Him out.

That's why Romans 1 says that we are without excuse.

Right?

Every person is without excuse.

Maybe you've wrestled with some of those questions before, or perhaps if you tend to struggle with why God saved some and and not others, and you're trying to reconcile the fairness of that, try to instead consider how wild it is that he saves any of us at all.

No one is deserving of rescue.

We aren't.

We all deserve, strictly speaking, punishment.

We've all transgressed God's law.

We all deserve wrath.

It's not a pretty picture, it's not a fun thing to consider, but it's true.

Remember that God is a good God.

And we are not, strictly speaking, good people.

The world will try to tell you otherwise.

But it's just not true.

We all deserve this.

Apart from Christ's righteousness transferred to us at salvation, we all deserve this punishment.

Okay?

So his purposes, we have to, I think, reconcile as believers that his purposes and who he saves, those are his.

Again, his heart is for us.

Right?

It's for you and I, and and for those out there.

Okay, all who are lost.

And he will be made known.

Okay, through creation at the very least, Romans 1 tells us.

Through the gospel being proclaimed by faithful churches, faithful believers, and even sometimes in unique ways like visions and dreams.

Alright, let's get to this last thing here.

God's heart for the lost can become our heart too, if we're open to it.

Check out verse 17 with me here.

We're gonna read a big chunk.

It says, Now while Peter was inwardly perplexed as to what the vision that he had seen might mean, behold, the men who were sent by Cornelius, having made inquiry for Simon's house, stood at the gate and called out to ask whether Simon, who was called Peter, was lodging there.

And while Peter was pondering the vision, the vision that God gave him, the Spirit said to him, Behold, three men are looking for you.

Rise and go down and accompany them without hesitation, for I have sent them.

And Peter went down to the men and said, I'm the one you're looking for.

What is the reason for your coming?

And they said, They relay the story.

Cornelius, a centurion, an upright and God-fearing man who was well spoken of by the whole Jewish nation, was directed by a holy angel to send for you to come to his house to hear what you have to say.

Verse 23, so he, this is Peter, invited them in to be his guests.

The next day he went away with them, and some of the brothers from Joppa accompanied him.

And on the following day they entered Caesarea.

Cornelius, uh what does it say here?

Cornelius was expecting them and had called together his relatives and close friends.

Verse 25, but when Peter entered, Cornelius met him and fell down at his feet and worshipped him.

Don't worry, Peter puts an end to it.

But Peter lifted him up, saying, Stand up, I too am a man.

And as he talked with them, he went in and found many persons gathered.

And he said to them, You yourselves know how unlawful, interesting word, how unlawful it is for a Jew to associate with or to visit anyone of another nation.

Okay, now let me clarify this for a second.

Okay, Peter doesn't mean that it's unlawful in the sense that it actually violates God's commands, okay, because it didn't.

Okay, so then what does he mean here?

Well, what he means is that associating with Gentiles broke Jewish traditions.

It broke the traditions which the Jews themselves had created.

Remember, they've added all kinds of rules and laws on top of God's uh commands, and they've added these things on to try and make themselves appear more holy and to also be able to visually identify and judge who is holy and who is not.

Hey, you're following all of our rules, you're a good person.

You're not following all our rules, repent.

Right?

That's that's what this was really all about here.

And so they had made up so many extra rules around how to be ceremonially clean that it came became pretty much impossible for them to have any interaction with Gentiles without becoming ritually unclean.

You remember all the extra rules they'd added on to the Sabbath day alone?

They couldn't lift a finger, they couldn't do any good even without without defiling themselves.

Okay, so what's Peter saying here?

Well, well he's he's really saying, according to many of my Jewish brothers and sisters and our traditions, it's not even cool for us to be hanging out right now.

This is not really a good thing.

But then notice what he says and what he's just come to learn.

Okay, verse 28.

He says, But God, but God has shown me that I should not call any person common or unclean.

See what's taking place?

He says, So when I was sent for, I came without objection.

I ask then why you sent for me.

Okay, so so Peter is explaining to them something that he has just learned, what he has just been taught by the Holy Spirit.

Okay, something utterly critical about the heart of God, his plan of salvation, and the ministry of the gospel.

Okay, and it is this write this down.

God's favor is available to everyone.

God's favor is available to all.

That's what Peter has just learned.

Just as he's had this vision, he's learned through his vision, that he's not to make distinctions between common or unclean foods, okay, which was again tied very heavily to you know the old covenant and then again convoluted by all the extra rules and traditions and the legalism that the Jews mixed in with all of it.

Okay, Peter's realized here that he's not to regard any person as common or unclean.

That's what God has taught him through this vision, meaning that God's grace, salvation, has come for all.

Okay, whether you are a Jew or whether you are a Gentile.

Okay, that the cross and the resurrection has ushered in a new covenant, and God is making it very clear that salvation is available to literally everybody.

There is no distinction.

Following rules, following laws, following traditions, none of that makes you righteous before God.

We've all broken them.

We've all broken every single one of them.

The Jews, us, everybody.

Okay?

It doesn't make you more righteous than those who don't follow those things.

This is what Peter is learning.

It's Christ's righteousness imputed to you and I through faith in him that makes us clean before God.

All right, that's it.

Now keep going here.

Verse 30, we're gonna finish this off.

It says, and Cornelius says, Okay, so he relates his experience now.

He says, Four days ago, about this hour, I was praying in my house at the ninth hour, and behold, a man stood before me in bright clothing at the angel, and said, Cornelius, your prayer has been heard and your alms have been remembered before God.

Send therefore to Joppa and ask for Simon, who is called Peter.

He is lodging in the house of Simon, a tanner by the sea.

So I sent for you at once, and you have been kind enough to come.

Remember that sentence.

You've been kind enough to come.

Now, therefore, we are all here in the presence of God to hear all that you have commanded by the Lord.

Like Peter, you've got a you've got a captive audience.

We cannot wait to hear what you have to say to us.

Now, one of the many things that's so phenomenal about this passage is that we're getting a window into the change that's happening within Peter's heart in real time.

Okay, don't minimize or or or glance over what's happening here.

Okay, okay, the heart that God has for the lost, okay, for Cornelius and his friends and and his family, okay, is the heart that he has for everybody.

Okay, not just one people group, not just one ethnicity, not just one class.

And notice that this is becoming Peter's heart as well.

Okay, as he submits himself to the Lord's instructions, as he obeys the call and goes to proclaim the gospel to Cornelius and his household.

Now, like I said earlier, next week is part two of this, of God's heart for the lost.

We're gonna see exactly what God prompts Peter to share.

But for now, let's really consider where our own hearts are at when it comes to all of this.

Where are our hearts at before the Lord?

Are you and I, are we are we truly open to God's heart becoming our heart?

Meaning, are we are we humbling ourselves?

Are we submitting to him in in everything?

Are we actively, actually inviting him and pleading with God to make our hearts like his?

So that what he loves, we love.

Or have we gotten ourselves into a season here, a rut where we're kind of doing the opposite?

Where we plead with God, and we've all done it, right?

God, make your heart like mine.

What I want, Lord, would you bless that?

Would you would you would you be as fired up about the things of me as I am?

Right?

Where we want life to be about us, we want it to be about what we want.

When we desperately implore Him to grant us all of those desires, no matter how self-centered, frankly, or short-sighted or temporal they might be.

You notice how easy it is to get stuck in that kind of mindset?

That kind of that kind of rut?

Maybe it's happened quite subtly to you, or maybe it's kind of obvious and you're ignoring it and you're fighting against it, and you're still like, it's my will, Lord, be done, not yours.

Where are we at in that battle?

What I want to do here is give us all a few moments here to kind of work these things out before the Lord, to lay our hearts before him uh once again.

And we're gonna do that through uh communion.

Joel's uh making his way back up here uh on the stage, and it's communion Sunday, and we're gonna have an opportunity now to remember uh who our Savior is and what he's done.

And that's uh really what communion is.

Jesus had a final meal with his disciples before going to the cross, and he told them, do this in remembrance of me.

And ever since that the church has been uh having communion where we where we remember, we reflect upon Christ's death, his broken body, his shed blood for us.

And so that is exactly what we're gonna do.

And we know that as we do this, uh we need to examine our own hearts.

The the scriptures themselves tell us to do this.

I want to read here just about communion and the Lord's Supper, uh, here from 1 Corinthians chapter 11, and then I'll explain exactly how we're gonna do this here today.

1 Corinthians 11 · chapter mention

But it says this it says, For I received from the Lord what I also delivered to you.

That the Lord Jesus, on the night when he was betrayed, took bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it.

He said, This is my body, which is for you.

Do this in remembrance of me.

In the same way also he took the cup after supper, saying, This cup is the new covenant in my blood.

Do this as often as you drink it in remembrance of me.

For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord's death until he comes.

Whoever therefore eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty concerning the body and blood of the Lord.

And then this let a person examine himself then, and so eat of the bread and drink of the cup.

And so that's exactly what we want to do.

We're gonna give you a few moments here as Joel prays to get your hearts right, to consider what we've been talking about through Acts chapter 10 today.

Acts 10 · chapter mention

To to to lay your heart before the Lord again and say, God, I I've I've grabbed my heart, I've held on to it, I've I've been trying to force my desires on you, Lord.

Would I confess those things and ask your desire that your desires would become mine?

Would you ask the Lord to give you a heart for the lost the way we see that He has it here in Acts chapter 10?

Acts 10 · chapter mention

Would you take a few moments and just consider the various ways specific to you that your sin has been creeping in and dominating, sin that you haven't dealt with could be really anything?

Is there a relationship with anybody here or anybody in your life that's not in a great place?

Would you would you resolve to see that made right?

These are the things that we want to lay before the Lord as we remember his death, remember what it took to secure our salvation.

To remember that, be humbled, be stirred and motivated again by the gospel of Jesus Christ.

And so, as we've been doing over the last while here, is we've got these cups, and you would have seen that on the table as you have uh walked in.

And these cups have that uh really amazing piece of styrofoam in the top that's to represent the bread, right?

It's on the very top layer, and then underneath that is is the juice that represents Jesus shed blood.

In just a moment, I'm gonna go uh sit down and join you as we think about what Christ has done.

Again, as we give our hearts back to the Lord, as we need to do time and time again.

I would also just say before we do this, the communion is for believers.

It is for those who have put their faith in Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins.

I know sometimes the temptation might be to come to church and you would admit, like, I don't follow Christ, but I'm gonna do this because this will get me closer to God.

If I drink this juice and eat this, this is gonna get me closer.

None of our actions get us closer to God.

It is Christ's actions on our behalf when he lived the perfect life, died in our place, and rose again.

It is those actions that get us close to God.

And if we would confess our sin and repent and lean into what Jesus did for us, believe that what he did was for us, trust in that action, then we would be saved.

And I would just encourage you, if you're here and you know you're not a follower of Jesus Christ, turn to him today.

Turn to him right now, confess your sin, embrace him as Lord, then take communion.

So again, we're gonna give you a couple of moments here to go to the Lord, and then you can take communion on your own time when you're ready.

I will come back up uh when we're good and ready, and I will close our service down in prayer.

So let's go to the Lord now.

The name of God in my place, your blood poured out my sting erased it was my death, you die, I am raised to life hallelujah, the lamb of God, the lamb of God in my place, your blood poured out my dream raised towards my death, you die, I am raised to life hallelujah, Lord, we come before you now and we rejoice in what you have done for us.

Lord, we rejoice that you had a heart, the heart of love to come and take care of our massive sin problem.

Lord, we thank you that you put yourself in our place by suffering the wrath of your Father.

Lord, that's wrath, that's punishment that we had coming to us.

And God, we confess that our hearts and our minds and our very lives have a hard time really absorbing the gravity of that, the massive impact of that.

So, Lord, would you continue to soften us?

Would you continue to teach us?

Would you continue to show us how awesome you are?

Lord, as we see the heart that you have for us, and as we come here each and every week to explore that a little bit more deeply, Lord, I pray that we would be shaken and stirred and moved by the fact that you have this love for the world out there.

We're living in a time where it's very easy to feel like it's us against them.

Lord, it's very easy to be disheartened.

It's very easy to be angry even as we look at what's taking place in our country in Ottawa.

As we see some of the decisions that have been acted upon this week alone.

Lord, would you have mercy?

Lord, would you give us pure hearts?

Lord, would you give us a heart for you, a heart for other people?

People are hearting preachers, people need the gospel.

So Lord, I pray that you would have your way in us and in our country.

And Lord, I pray through all of this you continue to do a deep work in us, Lord, showing us your heart.

Lord, continue to allow these things to settle on us.

Lord, I pray that we would be eager to come right back here next weekend and continue to unpack your approach to saving sinners.

And remember that we were counted among them not too long ago.

So, God, help us to rejoice in these things.

Lord, we thank you for your kindness to us.

Lord, we pray all of these things in the powerful name of Jesus Christ.

Amen.

Amen.

Well, again, thanks for coming today, church.

Have a great, great week.

And we'll see you right back here next Sunday.

You're loved.