Leftovers - Acts 10 & 11

Happy Monday, Pastor Matt, Pastor Chris here with you,

fresh off of Acts Chapter 10 yesterday.

Acts 10 · chapter mention

So making our way through this account of the multiplying

church in our Sunday sermon series, you're talking about

Peter and Cornelius. Yesterday I really wanted you

said it the first time and I really wanted that moment from

from the Christmas movie Cornelius.

OK, now wait a minute. Wait, what is that reference?

Again, isn't that from Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer?

Or am I? It's just like I actually I

don't know if I know that reference.

What? Oh man, now I have to look it

up. Really.

OK, I I I don't love. Yeah.

So Cornelius from is Yukon Cornelius.

Yes. From 1964.

Stop motion. Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer.

You've never. Seen I love I love that stop

motion Rudolph movie because I think those things are just

great, but I don't I don't recall that moment.

Oh man, I might be OK. I might be dreaming and

imagining and I don't OK, I it could be ruined.

Everything isn't. You could be.

Now I need to find. Now you just need to look on

YouTube. And so anyway, yeah, as far as

Peter and Cornelius, you know, it's a it's a fun odd couple

kind of kind of story and kind of moment.

And so there's a lot of things that we didn't get a talk about

yesterday during Sunday service that we're going to bring out

today. So as like a quick preview, you

know, I didn't talk about any of the first several.

You know, I think we started on verse 30 and then we didn't

cover any of Chapter 11, which is kind of the fallout and the

natural thing that happens after, you know, after what we

heard yesterday. So there's a lot to cover today,

but have you found anything on this moment that you think

exists with like Screaming I? Thought he just.

Like. Galloped off into the forest or

something and just yelled Cornelius.

I could. I could be really, awfully,

terribly wrong here. I yeah, I maybe shouldn't have

jumped into that without fully knowing what I was getting into.

And I can't really find a clip of it.

If anyone knows. I feel like I wasn't a crazy

person, but maybe I am a crazy person.

So yeah, if anyone knows what I'm talking about, they already

that or I just imagined that and some absurd thing about you

yelling Cornelius on stage for this.

So anyway, sorry that was wow, that was Monday Fog brain Matt

starting us off here on the pod this morning.

Speaking of that, we're already nearly we had staff meeting this

morning and feeling like we're already there's a week left in

June, but we're already at the end of June talking about like

kick off Sundays, like 10 Sundays away that we're already

talking about for falls now. Yeah, it's.

So we just wanted to chat. And in lieu of the regular would

you rather segment we were just talking about things of summer

that we still have time for that we still want to do or make time

for in summer or things that 3-4 weeks into summer we're just

done with. It's OK.

This season is is here and it happened and we experienced it,

but bring on fall. So are there any things you're

you're sick of with summer so far?

Here's, I mean, I don't, it's so weird.

I was just telling my wife about this earlier, like a couple days

ago and she like she looked at me funny.

And then I tested out the same idea, I think, on my brother.

And yeah, his response was like, what?

That's ridiculous. And so here's here's the thing.

The older I get, the more I want to wear jeans all of the time.

Like pants, I want to wear pants all the time.

So like even wearing shorts today, it is out of like some

level of spite because I'm like, I don't really want to wear

shorts, but I also don't want to sweat my face off every time I

go outside. So like, yeah, for whatever

reason, the older I get, like the less likely I am to want to

be in anything really above like 75°.

And so, yeah, by the time like summer's in full swing, man,

like it's, it's hot. And you know, all you all, all

you've friendly pool people who are like, yeah, let's go to the

pool. And like, yeah, I'm, I'm happy

for you. But like no man like I I would

love to wear pants year round and never have to wear shorts.

I gave into the shorts thing recently.

I feel that, I feel that and there just comes a point I'm a

hot bodied person and I just can't do the pants anymore.

So I felt fine about it today. I was, I was rocking the shorts

and I was just, it was very hot out this morning.

It was hot and stuffy and humid all weekend.

It still was this morning and I, it felt appropriate.

I just felt I should be wearing shorts right now so.

I think the other thing, if I can add on, I think the other

thing that makes summer like, hey, this we can be done with

this is like, you know, you close up your house and you turn

on the AC and I, I love having like windows open and like fresh

air coming through the house and stuff like that.

And so after a while it just feels very stuffy in the house

when you only have the AC kicked on and there's no windows open.

So those would be like two things where I'm like, OK, I'm,

I'm good with summer, like being done quickly.

Yeah, those, those would be like two things.

Done with those things. Yeah, I mean the house.

You know what? I don't know, It just feels

stale when you can't open the windows.

I saw a meme going around Facebook or the interwebs or

somewhere yesterday that was at least it wasn't.

At least it isn't snowing. It'd be really tough to shovel

snow in this heat. That's OK.

Yeah, I see what they did. There couple different ways of

humor there, but I like that. I like that.

I was of course, there's that thought with the hot, the hot

weather. Well, it's it.

Would you rather have this or would you rather have snow?

And yeah, I think I'd still rather have this than.

Oh, than snow. Yeah, of course.

Yeah, of course. So no, I don't know that I'm

fully ready. I don't know that I'm sick of

anything in summer yet. I am.

I am sick of maybe other people's kids have have done

this too, but their favorite phrase is I'm bored and that

doesn't usually happen until it has.

This summer though, and I don't know, after being off of school

for just a couple weeks, really only this is only their third

week off of school really for for them to be bored and out of

things to do. We got a, we got a lot of summer

left if you're already bored with things.

So no. Other than that we're pretty

routine. Like they're at the pool a lot,

bikes and scooters a lot outside.

So maybe I don't, maybe they are bored.

They shouldn't be bored. There's no way they shouldn't be

bored. And I'm not really sick of

anything so far in summer. So we have a couple things I

guess. We just got back from Eau Claire

this weekend. We were up at the at the Eau

Claire River over the weekend and it was pretty much the same

weather as here. It was just also oppressively

hot on the river. Don't have a whole lot of other

huge things or to do's. I'm I'm just, I'm enjoying the

little bit slower pace, the little less craziness of summer

so far. So I don't know if I have

anything. I feel like this is left out at

this point. We got fair season stuff coming

up too and. You know what I do love?

I love the fact that like people, well, we just got

invited to a cookout on like Saturday night and it was

fantastic. And it was like a pretty much a

pop up thing. And people are willing to do

that so much more often. And so I, I, I love that part of

summer, like the pretty constant social gatherings that you can

find yourself in. But I don't think it's, you

know, unless you're just kind of an introvert, I don't think it's

hard to find those things because somebody's cooking out

somewhere and you're like if. You want to find those things,

you can. If you don't want to find them,

no, it's fine. But it's like, dude, I'll, I'll

bring aside or whatever and let's, let's do something

together. And I and I love that part of

summer. Everybody feels like it seems

like they have more freedom to do those things.

Yep, and I've been tunes in town on Tuesdays.

Oh yeah, the farmers market, it's become its own thing on

Thursdays. There's plenty of stuff to go to

and and do and be out and about for SO.

I actually think, you know, and I've told other people this I

give a lot of credit to to the city of DeWitt and the people

who organize this stuff. Like for a town of a little over

like 5000 people, this is one of the busier, like, you've got

things to do kind of towns that I've ever seen because, you

know, having lived in a town that's almost three times this

size and as an adult, like, I'm bored.

You guys don't there's nothing to do in this city.

Now, DeWitt, like it doesn't seem to really have that

problem. So, you know, a lot of props to

those who organize events around our city.

This Cornelius clip doesn't exist.

I don't know if it was some some spoof or I'm just a crazy

person. I must have imagined Yukon

Cornelius just it was almost like a high host silver sort of

thing that I feel like he just like runs off into the

wilderness Cornelius. But that could have just been a

figment of my consciousness. If anyone knows what I'm talking

about or or maybe can disprove my craziness, feel free to drop

that in the comments or the on the Facebook post.

But yeah, sorry, total. Segment of your imagination.

I was in the sound booth yesterday and you and you said

that, Peter and Cornelius, and that is what came to my

consciousness. Maybe there is something?

There. Either that or I just had a

hyperactive imagination in the moment.

I'm not, which would be uncommon for me, but wow.

Anyway, that was sorry, that was weird.

I may have spotted off on something completely untrue.

So Yep. Anyway, yeah.

Anyway, here we are. We're on the show today.

Chris kind of took the middle ending of chapter 10 yesterday

with Cornelius and Peter, and there are some things kind of

prefacing their interaction at the beginning part of chapter

10. And there's also another bookend

at the in the beginning and middle of Chapter 11 that's kind

of Peter's fallout or explanation, kind of

justification of explanation really is a better word maybe

than justification of his actions and, and of his

interaction with Cornelius. So we're going to jump into

those, just provide a little more depth and context for what

was really happening here in Acts chapter 10.

Acts 10 · chapter mention

So start us off. I can read the first couple of

verses in Acts chapter 10 and you can kind of give us your

Acts 10 · chapter mention

reflection of what's happening and we'll, we'll go back and

forth here. So Acts chapter 10, Cornelius

Acts 10 · chapter mention

calls for Peter is the editors heading here at Caesarea.

There's a man named Cornelius, a centurion in what was known as

the Italian regiment. He and all his family were

devout and God fearing. He gave generously to those in

need and prayed to God regularly.

One day at about 3:00 in the afternoon, he had a vision.

He distinctly saw an Angel of God came to him and said

Cornelius. Cornelius stared at him in fear.

What is it, Lord? He asked.

The Angel answered. Your prayers and gifts to the

poor have come up as a memorial offering before God.

Now send men to Joppa to bring back a man named Simon who is

called Peter. He is staying with Simon the

Tanner, whose house is by the sea.

When the Angel who spoke to him had gone, Cornelius called two

of his servants and a devout soldier who is one of his

attendants. He told them everything that had

happened and sent them to Joppa. So we have this vision Cornelius

gets and he's kind of he's given the game plan.

He's given the step by step here, go and do this another

dude with two names. Go, go find this man.

He's he's this name, but he's also called that.

I don't know, I don't know. It's like all of these, all of

these characters have two names that sound nothing.

I shouldn't say characters, actual people, actual people,

but they also had two names that weren't they didn't sound

anything like each other. But anyway, and he's also

staying with this other Simon. So look for the House of the two

Simons by the sea. What what happened here for

Cornelius? That God broke into his life.

Well, and here's the thing, Cornelius himself is such a

unique individual of his time. We, we maybe briefly touched on

it yesterday, but like quite honestly, for a guy of his

standing in stature within society, he's a centurion over

100 soldiers. This is not an easy point in

life to get to in your career. So like he's pretty advanced in

his career, but for some reason, for some reason, he believes in

the God that the Jewish people believe in.

And it makes no sense coming out of Italy, you know, that he

would do that. And so like I, I, I actually

have a lot of questions that I can't have answered for me.

Like, you know, how would how would he even come upon this

faith having been from like where he was from?

And then like, you know, I don't know if those things can be

answered easily. But, and here's the other thing

that we know about him, He's not what we would call a proselyte.

So in other words, like he came into faith, but he didn't go

through the Jewish ceremonial circumcision.

So he is not like a full on adapted Jewish person.

He just believes in the Jewish God of the of the Bible.

Not a cultural Jew, doesn't follow rights and practices or

traditions or things, but beliefs.

Definitely believes. And so The thing is like what we

do know is that although like he's a quote UN quote good guy

and the Jewish people around him see that like there's still this

sense that like he can't really be trusted.

He can't. So I don't I don't know.

It's a really strange dynamic and for the fact that like God

of the Bible comes, you know, and and gives him this vision,

that's a really remarkable thing.

Do we, I mean, do we even see that elsewhere in the Bible

where God is just like breaking in on somebody who isn't really

of this kind of faith background?

Let me think I don't. Sometimes, I mean Rahab, it was

revealed that OK, these guys are going to come and they're going

to need safe passage. So I think we do have example

and instance of that even last week with Paul, I guess was

aware it's not exactly the same as him breaking into Paul's life

because Paul was aware at least of the enemy that he was

fighting against and and persecuting.

So Paul was maybe acknowledging God in that way.

Rahab, it would have been maybe a little random.

Even Moses though wasn't like looking for, he knew about God,

but he wasn't looking for God. He wouldn't have had this innate

No, he wasn't seeking God for sure, for sure, right you've.

Been hanging out for the last 40 years, just kind of like, yeah,

well I guess this is my life now.

Yeah. So I think, I don't, I don't

think the encounter is at all. I don't know out of bounds or

surprising. What I think is interesting is,

is more what you're talking about.

We don't have this pretext history of how Cornelius knows

these things. It's certainly an argument that

would support natural revelation.

There's there's been something that has been revealed either

either in nature or just the power he, he heard about God

somehow, whether it was orally, whether it was by someone

speaking the word or maybe it was Old Testament scrolls,

scripts that he had read or even, or even just teachings of

Jesus that he had heard by word of mouth.

Because you again, you, you talked about that too, how this

was, that's how this was and spreading.

We don't know for sure. But it does speak to the fact

that whatever it was, whether it was the spoken word of God or

the written word of God, or just the revealed power of God in

creation that worked and changed Cornelius's life to the point

where he doesn't kind of do this about face.

He distinctly saw an Angel of God, verse 3 says, who addressed

him by name. And Cornelius staring at him in

fear said, what is it Lord? So he not only had enough

knowledge to be devout and giving generously and praying to

God regularly, but he also didn't have any doubt that it

was God speaking to him either. So that's that testimony that we

don't have a background for I think is also just wildly

encouraging to as much as we like to hear, I think everyone's

everyone's story, at least it could be a conversation that

happens within those that go to the same church.

Like how did how did you come to Christ?

How did, how did you come to faith like that?

We don't have that story for Cornelius.

Not not indefinite terms, right? Which is too.

Bad. I mean it.

It had to have been an interesting scenario that caused

this man to meet the God of the Jews and to, and to, you know,

essentially kind of fall into like, Oh my gosh, this, this is

the real deal. Like I've, I've, I've seen all

these other gods. You know, we've got the God of

this and this and this and this and all these things across my

culture. But here's a culture that

worships the one true God of all of creation.

There was clearly something appealing to him about that

message. And, and you know, of course,

like we can't limit the fact that God through the Holy Spirit

is probably already stirring in this man's heart.

I think I've heard this way before and it makes a lot of

sense to me. We have never sought after God

before. He was already seeking us,

right? And so like, if, if Cornelius

is, you know, looking for God and trying to find some clarity

in who the God of the universe is, that means God was already,

you know, knocking at his door in the 1st place, right?

It's. Not God isn't just holding on

holding on to this thing and funny this comes up and God's

like oh you want you want a piece OK all right yeah come on

No, the the invitation is has already been given and that's

that's the example that we have got God initiates and and we

respond right that's that's in creation that's in sending his

son. That's that's how this

relationship with God where he's not waiting for us to and him

and him acting in surprise. You, you want this or or you

want this to be a part of it. No, it's already been it's

already been graced. It's already been offered.

It's already been given. And Cornelius at some point

responded in kind. Responded.

In the. Affirmative that yes, this, this

is what makes sense. This, this God, this practice.

And we also see the freedom that he has to to have this

relationship, but not necessarily all the like

cultural tradition of that he's not bound by these laws or or

rights or practices that some of the Jews were still practicing.

We get into the writings of Paul and he calls out some more of

those that about their their habits and regular practices

that aren't really necessary for for them to have in faith.

And he somehow it's good that he was apart from that culture, but

can still have this saving faith without those things we see.

We see that drawn out in his relationship, too.

Yeah. And then?

That's actually one of the one of the problems that the early

church is going to wrestle with is do I need to be Jewish in

order to believe in Jesus? And by by being Jewish, what I

mean by that and what they were struggling with is like, do we

need to continue to practice these things that are our people

have been practicing as cultural norms and religious norms for

the last couple thousand years? You know, do I have to do that

in order to fully embrace Jesus Christ?

Or does Jesus Christ in some unique way stand alone from all

of these rituals and from all these sacrificial days and all

this kind of stuff? And you know that that question

does get answered throughout the New Testament.

But you can imagine that for those who are, like, living in

this time, especially the early church leaders, that this must

have been pretty stressful for them.

Like, what do we hold on to religiously and what can we let

go of? And yeah, throughout the book of

Acts and then the letters of Paul and in other places, like

you're going to see how that plays out.

That brought a thought to mind for me.

I was reading through some prep for this week and just thinking

about people not needing, necessarily needing to be

Jewish. I was thinking about the the

encompassing nature of the not the nation of Israel, but the

people of Israel as as it relates to us, even as it

relates to a big sea church Christians this week.

There's there's a definition of Israel that can be translated or

understood as one who wrestles with God or one who struggles

with God. That's kind of the idea given

when when Jacob was in the wrestling match there.

And I think that just kind of struck me this week.

The the more literal understanding of it is, is one

who allows God to prevail, one who lets God prevail or relies

on God to prevail. But within that we have our own

wrestling, our our own struggling of letting go.

And you, you brought that up to the, the dying to self and, and,

and letting that, letting that go, letting our cares, our

justifications go. But in thinking about that one

who wrestles with God or one who struggles with God, that's all

of us to some degree, right? If, if we're talking about

Israel, the label of Israel and the people of Israel being God's

chosen people. So, so get out of the

nationalistic yes, there is a sovereign nation of Israel and

Jewish people are most closely associated with that.

We see that here, though those those walls already being broken

down in the early church in the in the 1st century church.

It's not one who affiliates with with Jewish culture anymore.

It's it's neither Jew nor Greek nor slave nor free.

This is this is all that that I don't know, maybe maybe that's

too much to say that the umbrella of Israel, of God's

chosen people. But I think that idea of one who

wrestles with God, one who struggles with God applies to

all of us. Yeah, absolutely.

I, I think you're right about that.

And the, the other interesting thing too, that I, that I'm

thinking through as we're talking this out is that when

Jesus arrives and then when he dies and is resurrected in a

sense, there, there are so many major cultural shifts and

issues. So I mean, like, OK, so like now

am I included in Israel if I'm Cornelius, even though I never

was a proselyte who who turned Jewish, am I included in this

world and in this faith? The other, the other major

shift. And there's so many of them

like, oh, now I don't need to go to the temple anymore.

Now I don't need to sacrifice anymore.

Now I don't need to worry about this day or that day.

And like, I don't even know, like if you're in the if you're

a part of the early church and when you're one of the church

leaders and you're like, OK, so Cornelius is in Israel, but

Cornelius is never coming to the temple.

And he's like, I don't even know how you kind of wrestle through

some of that stuff early on. It would it had to have been so

difficult for them to figure out what does life look like now in

Christ? How free am I really, you know,

and these questions must have been incredibly difficult for

them. And so as we read the New

Testament, I think one of the things that we need to do is

like, really like take it easy on people who are experiencing

things that quite frankly, they had no idea we're coming.

And there's no playbook for this, quote UN quote, right.

They're, they're figuring this out in real time through the

Holy Spirit and through the way that God is challenging them in

a lot of ways and moving them into a new, into a new kind of

faith. Yeah.

And. We saw that even a couple weeks

ago we talked about the the baptism thing.

Maybe there was a redo of sorts of of baptism that maybe wasn't

done in the in the name of all the Trinity, in the name of the

Father, Son and the Holy Spirit. So we we see that there's a

little bit of this figuring out because there wasn't a blueprint

exactly that it was go and make disciples and baptize them and

going to send a helper with you. But other than that, it sounds

so simple and yet there's not markers, there's not, there's

not boundaries or a guidebook like you said, or, or things

like that. So we see we have instances like

this with Cornelius where it's far outside maybe the mold that

we feel like should be because even within some of those

practices, the the temple is there, there's still

encouragement to gather. I think there's probably even

still room for those sacrifices to either change what it looks

like to sacrifice or even for those sacrifices to still be God

honoring. Does that make sense?

For it to still be not given, not done, not acted on the way

that still I need to do this to maintain or earn my salvation,

But as an act of worship, as an act of sacrifice, an act of

trust in God that no, this is, I'm still committing this to

you, God, this is yours. It was given to me.

It was, it was blessed with. And I'm engaging in this act of

trust with you. So I think I don't.

Yeah, I guess that that's the best position.

Not a blueprint for it. I don't.

I don't know for sure what it looks like, but apparently what

it looks like in Cornelius is good, right?

Yeah, absolutely. Well, we shouldn't stay there

too long. We've already been there for a

while, but you know, Peter then has a vision.

So what we didn't get a real chance to lay out yesterday.

And I almost felt bad. I was like, because if you've

never heard this story and I and I start you off at verse like

30, do you have any idea what's going on?

So I actually felt a little bit bad about that.

So no, we have. A vision from Peter for Peter as

well. Acts 10, verse 9 About noon the

Acts 10:9

following day, as they were on their journey and approaching

the city, Peter went up on the roof to pray.

He became hungry and wanted something to eat.

And while the meal was being prepared, he fell into a trance.

He saw heaven opened in something like a large sheet

being let down to earth by its four corners that contained all

kinds of four footed animals as well as reptiles and birds.

And then a voice told him, Get up Peter, kill and eat.

Surely not, Lord, Peter replied. I've never eaten anything impure

or unclean. The voice spoke to him a second

time. Do not call anything impure that

God has made clean. This happened three times, and

immediately the sheet was taken back to heaven.

While Peter was wondering about the meaning of the vision, the

men sent by Cornelius found out where Simon's house was and

stopped at the gate. They called out asking of Simon,

who is known as Peter was staying there.

While Peter was still thinking about the vision, the spirit

said to him, Simon, three men are looking for you, so get up

and go downstairs. Do not hesitate to go to them

for I have sent them. Yeah.

OK, first and foremost, I if this doesn't catch your

attention, I, I don't know what what will.

But like Peter just straight up is like no like God.

God is like giving him a command like Peter, get up rice, kill

and eat. And he's like, no, no, I'm not

doing that. Like man, bold move again.

Like this, this man, like he, he is built different.

Because you know, if I had AI would like to think that if God

gave me a vision and inside that vision, he's like, hey, by the

way, I'm going to ask you to participate in something that

you maybe previously wouldn't have done.

I'd be like, no, it's fine. Whatever you want is fine.

You just tell me what to do. But being Peter just as

outright, like, no, I'm not doing that.

I've never done that. Would never do that.

Forget it. That's remarkable to me.

And that's the. Part of this because he still

responds with Lord. That's the part that confuses me

about this. And I like you.

I'd like to say that if a vision from God broke into my psyche, I

would be sure about what he was saying.

But somehow within this, Peter seems to acknowledge that this

message is from God and still has the cocones to say, Nah,

man, not following, not following your plan.

That's what's that's what's weird to me.

Could what I I I understand the wrestling with is this actually

from God? Like is, is this voice from God

And we've talked about that and how to know how to hear.

It's it's by the written word that we are familiar with the

voice of God and and what his commands sound like, what his

voice and inflection sounds like.

I don't get the being convinced that it is God and being Nope,

that's not for me. I'm I'm not going to do that.

I want no part of this. I would hope at the being

convinced that it is God part I'd be yes, sign me up here we

go well and the. Thing.

Maybe The thing is too, and this is.

This is really an odd thing about this whole moment.

But we know from scholars that this wouldn't even, this

wouldn't have even been a normal time for Peter to eat.

It would have been a normal time for him to be praying.

So think about this. OK, so this is this is actually

kind of a normal prayer time for Jewish people.

And so he goes into kind of the the roof area, which also would

have been an area that's probably enclosed and shaded

just a little bit. So that way during the heat of

the day, you could go up there, catch a breeze, but not melt,

right. So he's up there doing all all

this kind of stuff. And it says that somebody's

going to prepare a little bit of food for him.

So scholars are like, you know, it's, it's funny that he's

having this vision while he's hungry and this, you know, this

thing kind of over him probably resembles a sheet.

And so in a lot of ways, like God sets him up to have this

vision because even the, the set up around him is like, I'm

hungry. Here's this sheet that's going

to come down. And so anyway, that's just kind

of fun, interesting background stuff.

But for Peter's sake and for, you know, to kind of support

him, you know what, dude? If you've, if you've never eaten

pork your whole life and then all of a sudden, you know, it's

just fair game. All of a sudden.

It's fair game. Yeah.

I don't know, I don't think I could make the 180 turn that

fast either, you know, because, gosh, I'm trying to think of a

food that, you know, might taste good, but I would have like,

some moral issue eating. OK.

Oh, no. Oh, no.

I don't know if I'm going to go there.

Let's let's say you probably know.

What did you do? No, let's say in a weird

scenario and this is really bad, but let's say in a weird

scenario, it's like, hey, all of a sudden God said God comes down

to me and vision says, Hey, you should, you should start eating

dogs now. I'd be like, I'd be like, Lord,

come on, man, we shouldn't do that.

But you know, but I don't think that's the.

Same thing that's happening. You don't think so?

Because I, I think, I think we're looking at Peter and

Peter's like this is disgusting. There's no way I'm going to do

that. My whole life I've been raised

to be like, no, you don't eat that thing, right?

But there's. Other people that do eat pork,

there's not there's not a large statement in the population that

is saying you should. That's that's why I don't think

you are doing it's not like a cultural.

It was there was a different culture that did regularly eat

pork and they were sizeable. Oh, OK.

But the dog thing is, Dang it. Maybe in other?

Maybe in other countries, but I'm just like I'm saying in his

cultural society, right there were non Jews who ate pork all

the time. I don't think one of these

summer cookouts that you're going to it's just like a

different group of people and they're like, hey, guess what?

Guess what we're having like, I don't think.

The pork was still. In relatively close proximity to

his life, yes. Dang.

It well see, it's a good thing I didn't come out with that

yesterday as like, hey, let's compare these things because you

know, apparently that does not work so.

I don't think that was the same thing.

All right, We've both shot ourselves in the foot so far on

this episode. So that's that's going really

well. To your greater point though, I

do understand, because even if it was, even if it was, have you

ever met someone who's never eaten bacon?

I oh, I don't know if I have but.

No. I mean, I, I I've known like,

you know, Muslim people, so I guess we never talked about it,

but I'm, but I'm sure they haven't, but I can I.

Can kind of understand they're coming this point of yes, this

thing is delicious and mostly socially acceptable by others at

least to eat and it is delicious, but you've never

eaten it. You don't you don't know what

you're missing out at. You don't know why it would be

good to eat. I can understand that from

Peter's perspective of I've never had this stuff before and

I've lived my life just fine Why why do I need to have it?

Why? Why?

Oh, that's. True, right?

Like. That's true.

It's more just I've been OK. I don't need to all of a sudden

just like throw this all away and and jump into this.

But that's. That's really that's not the

point, right? That's that's neither here nor

there. The the greater lesson that you

drew out yesterday is how this sets up Peter to act and

interact with Cornelius, right? Yep.

Absolutely. So the next.

Day verse 23. Peter started out with them, the

men that that Cornelius sent. The following day he arrived in

Caesarea. Cornelius was expecting them and

had called together his relatives and close friends.

As Peter entered the house, Cornelius met him and fell at

his feet in reverence, but Peter made him get up.

Stand up. I am only a man myself.

While talking with him, Peter went inside and found a large

gathering of people. He said to them, you're well

aware. Is it against our law for a Jew

to associate with or visit a Gentile?

But God has shown me that I should not call anyone impure or

unclean. So when I was sent for, I came

without raising any objection. Why have you sent for me?

So right that's that's the bigger part of the vision.

It started with a smaller lesson, learning that Peter,

you've cast out this now arcane dietary restriction and command.

You've you've raised objection with it.

Now I'm going to go send you to a person that I that I'm

planning to that I already I've already worked in their life.

I've already made them clean, right.

That's that's the phrases here that are not impure or unclean.

You're going to judge them because they're not like you,

because they're not Jewish like you.

They're of gentile descent. So that's, that's the greater

object lesson here, right. That's worth in and through

Peter's psyche. Yep.

Yeah, of course. Because I mean the, the, the

food laws. And here's the thing, if you

want to find those food laws, by the way, you can go back to the

Leviticus 11 and one of the riveting.

Riveting stuff. But actually one of the things

that you know, is asked here of this text is did God just change

his mind? Think about it.

So if God establishes these food laws and then, you know, we Fast

forward to the New Testament and Jesus speaks to this because you

hear and Jesus, and thus Jesus declared all foods clean.

And then we get this moment in the book of Acts, you know,

where God says no Peter, like get up and rise and kill and

eat. So, you know, one of the

questions that comes out of this is does God change?

Here's how I've probably heard it best explained.

And actually there were two different pastors who use the

same illustration and, and, and it makes sense in my head and

how they kind of worked through this idea.

Does God change or what's going on here?

They give the illustration of, OK, so you're on one side of the

street and your child is on the other.

It's an incredibly busy intersection.

And they start to walk out and you say, no, stop, stop.

Don't, don't come here yet. And then you know, you knowing

better, the light turns a different color.

And so then traffic is it's safe for them to cross.

And now you're, you're saying, no, it's time for you to come,

come with me now. And so they kind of took the,

the angle of like, no, God doesn't change, but there is a

time in a season for all of these things.

And it is now a safe time from God's perspective to open up the

door to this wider world of things.

Prior to that, like, no, you are set apart.

I'm making you intentionally different than the people around

you so that you can show who I am through the law.

But now as, as the world opens up through the person of Jesus

Christ, now God is saying, OK, it's it's time for you to, to

walk forward and, and start to open up to some of these things

that my son has, you know, because he's Jesus fulfilled all

of the ceremonial law. We still have the 10

commandments after Jesus, but he has thus fulfilled all

ceremonial law. And so those things aren't a

part of that faith anymore, right?

And. That's the bigger part of what

has changed too. They no longer have to go

through these sacrificial offerings or things.

Jesus has done that and that has changed how the people of God

interact with God in that moment was changed once and for all by

Jesus. So I like that though, and it

it's not God changing his mind or moving the goal posts as it

were just now. This is what makes up the life

of a Christian. This is this is what makes up

salvation and obedience and faithfulness.

And actually it doesn't. It doesn't look like calling

things provided from God and that's that's the bigger

offense. I feel like here God provided it

for him, gave it to him and he almost Peter almost reacts like

Jesus did with the devil in the desert of get get away from me.

I'm not I'm not going to do this.

Do not put the Lord your God to the test or do not like man

shall not live on bread alone. But everywhere it seems, it

seems like he could almost respond with those things.

It feels like he's being tempted by God somehow, but apparently

he needed that interaction to get the message again.

You, you brought up yesterday. His theology was still kind of

shaky, and it took a moment like this for God to show him you're

going to go meet this guy that you're going to.

You judge him on appearance. You judge him on standing.

You would consider him unclean and not a believer.

But I've already, I've already marked him.

I've already changed him. I've made him clean and pure.

And you've got to get this through your head, Peter.

And how and how difficult again, must that have been to embrace,

you know, this, this man as a brother?

Because that's what Christianity calls us to do when we are in

the same faith under the umbrella of the grace of Jesus

Christ. Man, we are, we, we are called

to look at these people of different cultures, different

realities really socio economically or otherwise.

We're called to look at them and say, yeah, you're, you are my

brother or my sister in Christ. In fact, because we have this,

this family in common through our faith, that bond is, is

something that I mean, think about it this way.

Have you ever thought about the fact that you have people on the

other side of the planet who don't speak the same language as

you, who don't have the same cultural norms as you, who look

vastly different from you and they dress differently?

And man, God says you guys are related.

You guys are family and even if you can't communicate that

easily, I have bonded you together in your faith.

I think that's a really remarkable thing.

And that must have been very difficult for Peter to walk into

that house and after an entire lifetime of prejudice, basically

saying, OK, I, I, I need to do a 180 right now.

That's not easy to do. But that's what God called him

to do in that moment. He did and.

It wasn't only him we see at the beginning of Chapter 11 after

he's had this interaction with Cornelius, the 11 verse one, the

apostles and the believers throughout Judea heard that the

Gentiles also had received the word of God.

So when Peter went up to Jerusalem, the circumcised

believers criticized him and said you went to the House of

uncircumcised men and ate with them their.

Reaction is not great, no, and this isn't.

Just Peter's problem, apparently.

There there is the large core of believers who did not understand

that the gates were down, the bounds were down it it was to

the ends of the earth and the opportunity for God's grace and

salvation was opened to every tribe and tongue, right.

So Peter, after he recounts he basically it's just a rehash of

the vision in chapter 10. Basically, he tells him exactly

what happened and his interaction with Cornelius and

he gives them kind of the conclusion though in verse 15,

as I began to speak, the Holy Spirit came on them as had as he

had come on us at the beginning. And then I remember what the

Lord had said. John baptized with water, but

you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit.

So if God gave them the same gift he gave us, who believed in

the Lord Jesus Christ, who was I to think that I could stand in

God's way? Man full Sir, he gets it.

He gets it now, right? And he's needing to bring them

on board and their response verse 18, when they heard this,

they had no further objections and praise God saying so then

even to Gentiles God has granted repentance that leads to life.

So. We have this through through

this one outlier and there were there had to be more outliers.

This is the one that Luke records and that we have that we

have this story of this interaction with Peter, but

through this one instance, it's made clear to the early church

and the multiplying church. This is far reaching beyond your

expectations. It's still not an exclusive

club. This is for every nation,

culture, people that this is happening and baptized with the

Holy Spirit. God gave them the same gift.

You can't get in the way of this happening one way or another.

So you can either get on board or God's going to work without

you, right. So we have this awesome example

from, from Peter with Cornelius and, and it not only changes his

thing, I think it much more informs his own theology too.

But it also sets the table for these households, this early

Church of everyone, literally everyone.

You go back to Jesus, the parable of, of who is my

neighbor and, and the Good Samaritan and, and those things.

It comes full circle back to this, this guy that you maybe at

one point would have thought was your enemy.

He's culturally different from you.

And you're kind of judging and unsure from where he's at.

I've worked in his life just the same as I've worked in yours.

And it's not your place to tell me that I can't change this

life. Oh man.

Amen to that. It is not our place to speak for

God in terms of like keeping people out, you know, like we're

we're kind of checking people at the door and we're like, well,

actually, you haven't done enough or you haven't shifted

enough. God says that's all baloney.

I will, I will be in the life of the of whoever I want to be.

And you can't really stop that. And I need, in fact, I need you

to embrace it because you know, what God is doing here is he's

pushing a world level movement, right?

Because if you, gosh, if you're the creator of all the universe

there, there's nothing that you've created that you don't

want for your own, otherwise you wouldn't have created it.

And so like, regardless of the fact that we don't worship the

same way and you know, we, we look different and speak

different, that does not matter. Like no one culture.

And that's why Christianity is really unique because no one

Cultural Center holds Christianity as like this is

ours and everybody else needs to bend to meet us where we are.

No, there isn't a single singular Cultural Center of

Christianity. Not in the same.

Way as other world religions? No way.

Christianity is you. It's it's played out uniquely in

each different culture, with the same heart and value and

theology at the center of it, but it can look vastly

different. And yet it's still the same God.

I don't think you can. I don't think you see that in

other religions necessarily. Like, it has to look like this

and this and this and this, and these are the boxes you need to

check if you're going to be, you know, this kind of person.

And Christianity just does not have those strings wrapped

around it. Not at all.

And that's a beautiful picture. I also think it's a little bit

of a danger for us as Christians too, because who do we associate

with? Who do we gravitate to?

People that are like us, right? We, we like people that have

similar interests or we, we might even at times kind of pre

decide, well, they're not going to want to hear about Jesus.

They're not, they're not like me, they're not like me in this

way, or they don't like these things And and I do like those

things. So why would why would they like

Jesus? Why would I bring this to them

there and we and we kind of self select them that we answer for

them. And that's what Cornelius was on

the surface. I don't think he was someone

they would have been excited to bring the message of Jesus, or

at least not hopeful for. Oh yeah, this guy, he'll love

this. He'll love this pitch, right.

I think we all have people in our lives that we prejudge and

may and that might sound extreme.

I don't I don't know that it's necessarily in the we're damning

them to hell sort of way, but we're prejudging their

receptiveness to the gospel. And that's not part of the Great

Commission, right? It's not go and preach and

convince them that you're right that there's not that subtext.

It's just go teach and it's kind of on them to respond right

there. There isn't, there isn't that

human pursuit. It's just it's just faithfulness

to that calling. So that's that's something I

think for us to think about too. Because I've also, I hope

there's not those of you in this church that are that are

struggling with that and kind of pre selecting, pre opting out

people in your lives to the message of the gospel.

Because I also have heard from others of you that have kind of

no holds barred sort of with even close family and friends

that throughout your whole life they've never wanted anything to

do. And you're just speaking Jesus

into their lives. And they're responding.

And, and some of them and some of them are now listen now

listening to Christian radio or tuning into messages on Sunday.

And yeah, maybe they don't fully understand it or they need a

little helping hand along the way, like with the Ethiopian

last couple weeks ago. How, how am I supposed to

understand this if there's no one here to explain to me?

You might be in those phases with them, but the first part is

sharing if if we let ourselves be at a point where we've

prejudged and that's the people that Peter's coming back here to

like why, why we're even spending time with this guy.

He can't he can't have the same salvation that we had.

These people are those people. These people aren't included in

the people of God. We we got to be on guard for

that. It, it, it's less than even

condemning them to hell, but it's, it's that fact that if

there's anyone in your life that you are pretty convinced is

condemned to hell right now, like those should be the ones

we're sharing with, right? You know what?

Honestly, like you, you bring up a fantastic point off of, you

know, this moment in Chapter 11 and you know, it's, it does in

some ways come down to asking ourselves an honest question.

Is the God in my own head too small to do such a thing with so

and so or that kind of person? If the God in your head is too

small to, you know, change that person, then you're not

worshiping the God of the Bible because the God of the Bible can

do whatever he pleases and he will.

But he's calling us to be faithful ambassadors in in those

moments. And that's what Peter did.

He was a faithful ambassador to the gospel, even though it

probably made him wildly uncomfortable.

He went anyway. And you're right.

I man, I hadn't thought about it that way, but that was spot on.

Like, have I prejudged this person out of the gospel?

Like I'm not even going to try, you know, and I guess I'd never

thought about it that way before.

So like, I love that. Like that makes a lot of sense

in my head. You can't.

When you're sharing the gospel with someone or whatever you,

you can call it preaching, evangelizing, testimony, you

whatever, you can't make them say yes that there's no manner

of conviction or convincing or whatever.

You you can't convince them to say yes.

But also, please don't pre answer no for them right?

We we also can't put ourselves in that position.

Amen. That's.

That's amazing. I thank you for bringing it up.

Like I said, I I don't think I've ever thought about it that

way, but that's that's eye opening.

And you're right, that's exactly what we need to not do.

Yeah. Anything else from Cornelius?

I got to find the thing. Now you're going to make it's

got. To be from it's probably some

spoof that someone did that was just like, I don't know the that

apple banana, apple banana. I don't know.

Now I'm oh man. See, I need to get off.

Here we go. Here we go you and well get off

of social. Media for a while apparently I

just now it's AI is just populating things in my

consciousness right I don't even have an error link that's.

See, now, now soon we need to have an AI conversation.

Oh man. Because anyway, all right.

Thanks for hanging with us for a little leftovers on Acts 10 and

11. Hope you have a blessed week

Church. Enjoy the heat.

Thanks for hanging with us. Stay frosty.