GOD DOES UNEXPECTED THINGS - Acts 11:1-18

all right if you have a Bible or an app

let's open it up We are back in the book

of Acts as we tackle week 28 of our

sermon series and we're going to be in

Acts chap 11 We're going to be looking

at 18 verses Now because we have our

ministry fair I am going to try rather

hard to keep my sermon to 20 minutes

although I probably will not I can't

promise you that I can We're going to

look at an incredible picture that we

have seen multiple times if you've been

with us over the last couple weeks as we

look back on Acts chapter 10 for example

Acts 10 · chapter mention

where where Peter receives this vision

from heaven It's a vision of a sheet

that is descending from heaven We'll

read as Peter recounts his vision and at

the same time tens of miles away there

is a Roman centurion by the name of

Cornelius who likewise receives a vision

from God And what you have happening

here is this

divine orchestration of God bringing two

people who are polar opposite of one

another from different belief system

different cultures different traditions

bringing them

together under the banner of the gospel

So as we look here at Acts chap 11 Peter

begins to recount his vision We'll begin

here in verse one Says "Now the apostles

and the brothers who were throughout

Judea heard that the Gentiles had

received the word of God." Now mind you

this is before Peter has made his way

back and yet word is traveling fast

So when Peter went up to Jerusalem the

circumcision party criticized him saying

"You went to uncircumcised men and ate

with them." But Peter began and

explained it to them in order Now what

we have happening here in verses 5-1 17

is going to sound pretty familiar to us

because we've already read it back in

Acts chap 10 Peter is recounting this

vision He is explaining to them the

story of God giving him a vision It's

not any vision It's not a random vision

It is a vision with purpose What's that

vision Peter begins to say in verse 5 I

was in the city of Japa praying and in a

trance I saw a vision something like a

great sheet descending being let down

from heaven by its four corners and it

came down to me Looking at it closely I

observed animals and beasts of prey and

reptiles and birds of the air And I

heard a voice saying to me this is key

right here These words that Peter hears

from heaven Let me tell you why this is

so important Because remember Peter is

Jewish His entire life has been molded

formed and shaped by Jewish laws by

Jewish purification and and ceremonial

rituals Jewish culture and tradition And

when Peter hears this voice from heaven

it is

shocking because Peter has not been

formed and shaped by a belief system

that would allow him to eat anything

that is unclean Let's see how it plays

out This voice from heaven said "Rise

Peter kill and eat." Peter responds "I

said by no means Lord for nothing common

or unclean has ever entered my mouth."

But the voice answered a second time

from heaven "What God has made clean do

not call

common." This happened three times

That's very significant We'll get into

that later on this morning And all was

drawn up again into heaven And behold at

that very moment three men arrived at

the house in which we were sent to me

from Cesaria And the spirit told me to

go with them making no

distinction Who are the men sent by They

were sent by Cornelius who is Roman To

put another biblical phrase on that who

is a gentile We've heard this phrase

before A gentile is an umbrella term

that defines anyone who is not

Jewish You were either a Jew or you were

a non-Jew If you were a non-Jew you were

a Gentile You did not hang out with

someone who was not from your

neighborhood who didn't go to the same

church who didn't think like you thought

who didn't eat like you ate who didn't

dress like you dress You did not hang

out with them lest you be considered

unclean And now Peter has these men who

according to Jewish rich and deep Jewish

tradition and history their boss has

received a vision just like Peter They

go to summon Peter And

Peter makes no distinction between Jew

and Gentile This created an issue Did

you pick up on that What issue did it

create Back up in verse three It says

"You went to uncircumcised men and ate

with them." More on that here in just a

moment These six brothers verse 12 also

accompanied me and we entered the man's

house He told us how he had seen the

angel stand in his house and say "Send

to Japa and bring Simon who is called

Peter He will declare to you a message

by which you will be saved you and your

household As I began to speak the Holy

Spirit fell on them just as on us at the

beginning It's a reference to

Pentecost And I remembered the word of

the Lord how he said "John baptized with

water but you will be baptized with the

Holy Spirit If then God gave the same

gift to them as he gave to us when we

believed in the Lord Jesus

Christ Don't miss Don't miss what Peter

says Who was

I that I could stand in God's way I'm

jumping the gun here but I want to

challenge us with this this morning

So often we will not recognize a

movement of God because our selfish

preferences stand in the way Because our

own desires stand in the way Because we

operate under a kingdom mentality of

self rather than a mentality of God's

kingdom And God is always working God is

always moving And God is always

orchestrating things to bring about his

plan his purpose and his will And it

could be that today the reason you are

not recognizing God's movement in your

life is because you are standing in the

way Verse

18 When they heard these things they

fell

silent and they glorified God saying

"Then to the Gentiles also God has

granted repentance that leads to life."

And all God's people said "Amen." Lord

would you bless your word Holy Spirit

would you stir our hearts this morning

You know if you're like me then maybe

you are a person who loves to have a

rhythm that is uninterrupted in your

life Maybe you're very organized Maybe

you wake up and your day is already

ordered out And when something shifts or

takes you off rhythm and and throws your

entire order offkilter it could create

some frustrating moments maybe emotions

of anger or doubt And although God

indeed is a God of order did you know

that God often does not work according

to your plan and my

plan Often what we find is that the God

of the scriptures most often is a God of

interruption What does that mean God

will interrupt your rhythm in order to

point you to his greater purpose God

will interrupt your plans in order to

demonstrate the power of his plans As a

matter of fact the scripture is filled

with references to this The Psalms and

the Proverbs will declare things like

this Many are the plans in a man's heart

but it's the purpose of God that

prevails Elsewhere we'll read that there

is a way that leads to life that's found

in Christ But there is also a way that

leads to death and that has a life that

is addicted to sin evil and

chaos God is a God who many times will

do unexpected things in our life And

when we look here at Acts chap 11 we

find God doing exactly that God moving

in

unexpected ways and he does unexpected

things in order to point us to his

greater

purpose If you're taking notes this

morning I want to show you four scenes

that play out in our passage this

morning Four scenes that will move the

people of God from criticism to

worship from doubt to joy As Peter

begins to explain a movement of God that

happened in the most unexpected way if

you're taking notes here's the first one

Don't resist the work of

God I've said it before Often times God

is moving and God is working And the

reason we don't recognize it is because

we stand in the way Go back with me to

verse one

Now the apostles and the brothers who

were throughout Judea heard that the

Gentiles had also received the word of

God So when Peter went up to Jerusalem

the circumcision party criticized him

And what did they say They brought this

accusation against Peter And the

accusation is this You went to

uncircumcised men and ate with them

You know in some way we've all

experienced this criticism or we've

experienced this resistance to God's

work Maybe we've been on the side of the

one who's been critical of the one who's

resisted a movement of God for whatever

reason mainly because of the sin in our

own life Or maybe we've been on the

receiving end where someone has not

believed a movement of God in our life

They've pointed to past They pointed to

former sins and they've not recognized

God's work in our life if they become

skeptical But this unexpected movement

of God has now begun to spread far and

wide It went from Cesaria to Jerusalem

to Japa to the neighboring regions And

instead of joy instead of celebration

what did they do They criticized

Not for preaching heresy not for Peter's

lack of faith but because Peter went to

someone's

house You went to uncircumcised men and

ate with them What we find here is this

is a major heart

issue Peter was crossing religious

boundaries He was crossing social

boundaries He was operating now outside

of culture history and deeprooted

traditions And it upset people How often

can we relate to

this They didn't recognize the miracle

because they were too focused on the

method They didn't recognize a movement

of God because they were too focused on

selfish preferences Those people don't

look like us Peter They don't act like

us They don't dress like us They don't

vote like us They don't watch or listen

to the same things as us Peter how in

the world could you go to

them And I love how Peter

responds Peter doesn't give a

defense Peter doesn't give his opinion

What does Peter do Peter simply shares

the story I received a vision from God

And so here's here's the takeaway from

this

You can either resist what God is doing

or you can rejoice at what God is doing

You can complain at the way God is

moving in the lives of his people Or you

can choose to step into praise and

worship on how God is moving in the

lives of his people They missed the

miracle because they were focused on the

method So what about

us What about you Are there areas in

your life where you are resisting

God Maybe turning from him simply

because it doesn't fit into your plan I

get it You've planned out your day

You've planned out your year You've

planned out your weeks Maybe some of us

we have the next 5 to 10 years planned

out for

us Let me tell you right now it will

never go according to your plan

It will always go according to

God's And the quicker we step into that

truth the quicker we step into what God

is doing and how he is moving the better

off we will be Circumstances may not

change Your season of life may not be

any different But I'll tell you what

will change Your

heart the way you think about it the way

you perceive it your focus and your

perspective begins to shift And here in

just a moment we'll learn about the

shift of the uncircumcised party as they

now glorify God As they now recognize

that the same spirit that saved them and

filled them on the day of Pentecost is

the same spirit that indwells all

believers And another question to

confront this morning is does that

spirit dwell in you

Let's never let the

method allow us to miss the

miracle Let's not be so committed to our

plan that we resist the purpose of God

This this goes right into segus right

into the next scene that we see here in

our passage and that's this that we are

to trust God's will I think of all the

scenes that we see here in our passage

This is my favorite one because for

Peter it was very easy to trust God's

will He literally saw a sheet descending

from heaven He literally heard a booming

voice from the sky And so if you're

anything like me you read this and it

creates a tension for you Sure if I had

a vision of a sheep descending from the

sky and if I heard a booming voice from

heaven telling me what to do then I

would absolutely trust God's will

Here's the reality though God's will

sometimes is displayed to us very

clearly Other times and oftentimes it's

displayed to us very

subtly The question is not why won't God

clearly show me what to do next The

question is will you obey

just as long as God shows you the next

step

He may not show you the full picture

Often times he doesn't But he'll show

you just enough so that you can take the

next step of obedience Go back with me

Starting in verse four Peter began and

explained to them in order I was in the

city of Japa praying and in a trance I

saw a vision He begins to share the

story He's not defensive He's not being

opinionated He is saying "Hey this is

the reason I was there I saw a vision

And then notice in verse nine what Peter

says that the voice says "What God has

made clean do not call

common." Peter's sharing God's purpose

God's plan here for the salvation of

nations We've been saying it often

throughout the last couple of weeks in

this series the fulfillments of what the

prophet Isaiah declared that salvation

will go to the ends of the earth It's

not a salvation of a particular nation

of a particular people group of a

particular political party It is

salvation of all people And what does

that mean That means every people group

every tribe every language every culture

every ethnicity will be represented in

the kingdom of God There's a beautiful

mosaic a tapestry of his creative people

the ones that he breathed life into His

imagebearers joined

together under the banner of his glory

to praise and worship him for all

eternity This should move us into

greater trust of God's will But notice

here what Peter highlights in verse

10 Peter said this happened three

times Now if you're familiar with the

pattern scripture this is a pattern we

see that's really prevalent throughout

the Old Testament and New Testament The

number three is an indicator of

wholeness of completion of of finality

to to hear something once you might

believe it you might not To hear

something twice is is added emphasis and

credibility To hear something three

times in Jewish culture and in Jewish

tradition was to say this is absolute

truth And when Peter declares this

happened to me three times it signified

that this confirmation from God was even

stronger that that God wasn't just

working on Peter He wasn't just working

through Peter but but likewise God was

also preparing Cornelius Now now let me

pause here and and let me focus on this

for just a moment as God is working in

you right now Whatever it is

maybe may maybe God has a promotion at

work for you Maybe maybe God's working

through your finances Maybe he's working

through your health Maybe he's working

through relationships Maybe you you are

in a season where you feel God is

working I want you to know that whoever

else is involved in what God is doing in

your life whoever else is on the path

that God has laid before you God is

working in that and through that as

well We serve a God of the

orchestra who is commanding and

declaring every tone every melody every

note to be played He has your life

planned

out And the scripture says that no

matter what is on that path no matter

how that plan plays out in your life it

is for his glory church it is always for

his glory And watch this It is for the

good of his people Which is why the

brother of Jesus James could say that

through trial and tribulation I discover

a joy that's

unspeakable That's why Paul could

declare to the church in Rome that it's

through trial and suffering that that

hope is magnified Why Because I know

that the God who saved me and the God

who works through me he has finished the

story And that story is one of victory

one of salvation one where we will be

with him for ever and ever And so Peter

arrives He arrives to Cornelius home

What does he find He finds a man who is

ready to receive the message He has

already been prepared God's will is

coming to pass Two individuals from

separate sides of the track from

different traditions histories and

cultures both trusting in God's will to

bring about

what The truth that God's spirit is for

you It's for me It's for everyone who

calls upon his

name Now again I I I get that we don't

have this Peter

moment We don't experience Moses moments

with the burning bush We don't

experience Elijah moments with booming

voices from the

sky But I tell you what we do have We

have the written word of

God In these last days God has spoken to

us through his son Jesus And let me tell

you Jesus is more than

enough Jesus is all that we will ever

need Let me tell you why faith is so

important The scripture declares

"Blessed are those who have not seen and

yet

believe." Did you know in the ministry

of Jesus right throughout his gospel

ministry the people were so

hardarted against the ministry of

Christ that this was declared even if

someone was resurrected from the grave

you still wouldn't believe

It's a clear example of a Paul writes to

the Corinthian church that there is this

veil of sin that blinds you from God at

work So what do you do You don't resist

the movement of God You step into a

movement of God You rejoice at the

movement of

God No matter the method you rejoice in

the

miracle You trust in God's will You

trust in God's plan

And the question isn't will God make

this clear enough The real question is

am I ready to

obey even if he only shows the next

step God confirms his will sometimes

clearly sometimes slow but always enough

for

obedience Let's look at the third

picture we see here in our passage It's

this God gives the same spirit to all Go

with me to verse 15

Peter says "As I began to speak the Holy

Spirit fell on them just as on us at the

beginning." This is

critical What is Peter declaring

Peter he's saying this is not a lesser

version This is not a different spirit

There's not a different plan for them

The same God who saved us The same God

who spoke creation into existence is the

same God that dwells in those who were

once considered our

enemies The ones who were once

considered unclean The ones that we

would turn our backs on The ones that we

would declare have no business in the

kingdom of God God is clearly

demonstrating that the same spirit that

has saved them that descended on them in

Pentecost that erupted in manifestation

of tongues is the same spirit that saves

others that saves

all And then

Peter Peter he declares "If God gave

them the same gift as he gave to us when

we believed in the Lord Jesus Christ who

was I that I could stand in the way?"

Right That's the

question Who are we that we should stand

in the way of God's plan God's power and

God's purpose I'm a firm believer in

this I've experienced it in 20 plus

years of ministry I'm a firm believer

that that churches are often halted and

stopped against the type of outreach and

the type of impact they can have in the

communities in which they exist Not

because of exterior factors but because

of interior

turmoil Maybe you've heard it this way

before We are our greatest enemy

You know I've been in a tension over the

last couple of weeks I don't know what

God is doing in my life I I don't know

what God is stirring in me But but but

there's been a a tension of of

dissatisfaction And as I was as I was

thinking this week this term came to

mind a holy

dissatisfaction And not that I'm

ungrateful for what God has done And I

am I'm

absolutely thrilled and continue to

remain in awe of how God moves in this

place through our church through your

lives and in our community But but

there's something in me that just craves

more of

God And so I've been going through

particular spiritual disciplines trying

to to pinpoint what it is And then I had

this epiphany I was able to verbalize it

with friends able to verbalize it with

staff And I and I had this epiphany this

this this Holy Spirit moment where where

God just revealed to me that that often

times where we experience the greatest

parts of his presence is when we just

sit in the

tension And maybe right now you're

sitting in the tension of

something Maybe a relationship maybe

marriage maybe maybe family related

workrelated maybe you're sitting in the

tension of something and you're wanting

to know God's next move What is his plan

behind this

God speak to me clearly And and though

it may often feel like God is silent

church let me tell you God is never

silent The best way I've heard it

explained before is when a parent is

teaching their child to walk what what

what does a parent do as that child

begins to take their first step their

second step their third their third step

What does a parent do The parent begins

to draw back The parent begins to draw

back Not because the parent wants to

distance

themselves in some chaotic or evil way

from their child but the parent distance

themselves in order that the child would

draw

nearer that the child would recognize

and gaze upon the beauty and the glory

that exists in front of them And what is

there when that child makes it to mom or

dad There's rejoicing And and often

times in the tension what what we can

experience is that moment where where

God is pulling us in He is drawing us in

And what do we do in that time We trust

God's

will We be filled We are filled with his

Holy Spirit We don't resist his work And

sometimes because of selfish

preference we're not surprised by what

God does We're offended by what God

does This is what Peter's bringing to

light here when he says "Who was I to

stand in God's

way Who was I to gatekeep the

truth Who was I to say there's there's

there's only one way for these things to

be done?" We're no strangers to that are

we

not For some of us there's only one way

to get a water

burger right Number five mayo no mustard

extra bacon a whole jalapeno on the side

spicy regular ketchup Amen Right there

There's only one

way for us to do

things And when something else is

introduced to us we criticize we scoff

we stand in the way But here's what God

wants to do for us

God wants to stretch us God wants to

stretch our categories stretch our

preferences stretch our pretenses He

wants to confront our

biases We're not

gatekeepers in that we only share the

gospel with people who we think should

hear the gospel This is what was

happening here They did not believe that

God's spirit was for

all But it

is let's look at the fourth picture here

is that God's work leads to worship Did

you recognize that Did you recognize the

shift that took place from verse one to

verse 18 Let me read it When they heard

these things they fell

silent I love

how how Luke is sharing this picture I I

think of course this is this is just me

thinking Luke wrote the Gospel of Luke

right You all should have knew that Luke

wrote the Gospel of Luke Luke was a

gentile And so Luke who's writing the

history of the New Testament church I

can imagine the the joy and the angst

and the excitement that he's feeling as

he gets to share this Because later on

we'll learn in our series in Acts

Acts 15 · chapter mention

chapter 15 this is going to be very

profound This is going to be the case

study for the Jerusalem Council in Acts

Acts 15 · chapter mention

chapter 15 as they finally declare that

Gentiles are part of the kingdom That

the same spirit that filled the Jews is

the same spirit that fills everyone else

who calls upon the name of Jesus And so

when they heard these things they fell

silent and they glorified God

Silence is often a precursor to

glory So don't feel

ashamed Don't give

up Press against your doubt if you are

in a silent season because God's glory

is on the way God's glory is coming

And what is

said then to the Gentiles also God has

granted repentance that leads to

life from critic to

worshipper The gospel's

advancing They were skeptical But now

they began to celebrate They realized

that they were witnessing something big

Bigger than themselves bigger than their

categories bigger than their traditions

bigger than their preferences They were

witnessing this firsthand And when God

works in unexpected ways right Here's

here's the question Do you worship Do

you

rejoice Or do you

withhold Do you

criticize because your favorite song

wasn't

sung because you didn't like what the

preacher

wore because maybe the coffee wasn't

good What preferences Right This is

hitting close to home Here's the reality

Every single one of us have preferences

in this room We have preferences of what

a church service should look

like When those preferences aren't met

do you so glorify

God If not you're worshiping an idol An

idol of your own making You're

worshiping a god that is not in the

scripture It's a god of your own making

A kingdom of

self Now don't get me wrong Preferences

can be a good thing wants desires can be

a good thing God has granted us emotions

and and feelings But but when those

emotions and feelings become the only

thing worthwhile is when we get it wrong

Remember I've said it often Good things

can become bad things if the good things

become the greatest things We never want

to live life that way We want to live

life in tandem with who God is with what

he desires for us And one of the ways in

which we do that is we recognize and

step into how he's moving and how he's

working And let me just close with this

Do you know how we do that We do that by

crucifying the

flesh When the spirit is moving in your

life the flesh wants to fight

back Our default setting is sin It is

natural for us to rebel against the God

of creation Which is why we constantly

need to be filled with the spirit We

need to be filling our hearts our minds

our being with the things of God which

is why prayer is so vital Reading the

scriptures is so vital Following

spiritual disciplines is so vital

Serving in ministry is so vital Because

the more we fill our things with the

things of God the less we're being

filled with the things of this world And

the more we are filled with the things

of God the more we recognize how God is

moving And this box that we've created

this box of preference prejudice and

pretenses that says God can only fit in

this box and people who honor God can

only fit in this box those boundaries

begin to explode And we realize that

God's kingdom is limitless Don't limit

what God has declared

limitless And so this is not just a

turning point for Peter This is a

turning point for the

church So let me just ask you this What

what have you been

resisting

today Have you been resisting the

unexpected work of

God because maybe his plan doesn't

follow your plan or his purpose follow

your

purpose And may we be like

Peter who boldly declares after sharing

the truth of what God had did in his

life and the life of Cornelius and his

family and by extension the gentile

world May we be like Peter that says

"Who am I Who am I to stand in God's

way?" Would you pray with me

Lord thank you for your

word Thank you how we are

reminded that you are a God at work that

you are a God who

moves that you are a God who

speaks May we never take for

granted the things that you call us

to And Lord sometimes the greatest

challenge is just stepping outside of

ourselves so that we can step into what

you're doing Lord I pray that those

shackles of preference pride and

selfishness that today in the name of

Jesus would be

broken Holy Spirit would you fill this

place And would we not leave here until

whatever it is that is holding us back

has been released at the foot of your

throne In Jesus name we pray All God's

people said "Amen