A New Day

Exeter Temple Message notes: Sunday 7^th June 2015

Bible Reading:  Acts 10

That people other than just the Jews would understand and receive the gospel of Christ was always on God’s heart but Peter found it hard to let go of his preconceived ideas, become open and to realise that it was a new day.                                                                                                                                      1.  Upsetting Convention                                                                                            

It may be hard for us to understand how earth-shaking the events of Acts 10 were. The changes God brought to pass reverberated in the early church for the next 50 or 60 years.

From their birth Jewish children were taught about what food was permissible and what was forbidden. The vision told Peter to eat what was forbidden. To do that was so against the grain that the command was given three times. “Do not call anything impure that God has made clean.”  As Peter went to meet the Gentiles who had turned up looking for him he began to realise that God’s words were not just about food but about non-Jews. 

All his life Peter had been taught that everybody that wasn’t a Jew was unclean. Now God was asking Peter to share the gospel with them and he was full of reservations as it went against all his conditioning and training.  When he arrived at Cornelius’ house he made sure they knew that he was obeying the Holy Spirit but he was acting against his natural inclination.

Today must be prepared to look for and follow the verdict of the Holy Spirit and be prepared for the Holy Spirit to overrule our conventions and attempts to confine Him to our restrictions.

Convictions and conventions may not be the same thing. The Holy Spirit may lead us out of our convention but he will not lead us out of true Bible based convictions.

The Holy Spirit in leading Peter to Cornelius was not contradicting Scripture but the prejudice that had grown up around it.

This is a good guide for us. 

There may be occasions when we sense an inner voice telling us to do something. If it is the Holy Spirit it may go against our preferences but it will not be contrary to the teaching of the Bible. 

2.  Embracing the unknown

Peter was not called to come to an intellectual conclusion that the message of Jesus can be passed on to Gentiles but he was given immediate opportunity to put theory into practice.

For Peter this was to embrace the unknown and to cross a barrier he had not been across before.  It would take as much faith to preach the gospel to Gentiles as it did to get out of a fishing boat and walk on water.

We may find it hard to admit even to ourselves that we might have prejudice in our hearts.

Is there anyone or are there a group of people that you have excluded from your life?

If God is prepared to welcome them, so should we.  He wants us to embrace that person or those people with His love because just as Peter found out, God equally loves us and everyone else on this earth.

Changing your belief system and view of the world as you have been taught is a dramatic challenge for most.
From time to time it’s good to ask our Lord Jesus to search our hearts to see if there is any sin of prejudice there. If it is, then we need to be willing to let the Holy Spirit dissolve the prejudice. 

3. Risking Criticism

Obedience to God in this matter would not be just a matter for himself but other people. We cannot pretend that our decisions won’t make a difference to other people or that other people won’t have their own opinion about what we are to doing.  Peter knew that if he went to Cornelius house he would be criticized and when he did he took 6 Jewish Christians with him. He knew that his action would be closely scrutinized by the Church leaders in Jerusalem. 

After Peter returned to Jerusalem from baptizing Cornelius & his household, we read: “…the circumcised believers criticized him, and said, ‘You went into the house of uncircumcised men and ate with them.’” Acts 11:2-3

In the past Peter had worried about the opinions of other people and that had led to his denial of Christ.

It hurts us when we lose favour, love and recognition of people, especially of those whose respect is important to us.  We often make every effort to please others but when we do that sometimes we are in danger of losing favour with God and Peter had come to the point in his life now, where he would make a  decision to do what God says even if people around him might be displeased.

When we risk obeying God’s prompting we receive God’s commendation and that is worth everything. It means we can fully receive the love of God. This is actually our deepest longing, even though we don’t always recognise it as such.  However hard they try people cannot give us as much love as God and we will never be satisfied by “people pleasing.” 

Whilst obedience to God always leads to his blessing but we can never be sure of getting love from people because we fulfil their demands. There are too many people to please and also people change their expectations of you. God is the one person we can rely on. 

God gives us people to support us but there are needs in us they cannot meet and we shouldn’t expect them to.  But no other human being can create happiness for us.   Paul said, “My God shall supply all your need according to this riches in glory by Christ Jesus.”  (Philippians 4:19)

God wants you and I to discover a life of true fulfillment based on what you are as a person in Christ and not on the moods and whims of people around you.

It is not that we shouldn’t be concerned about how others see us or be so arrogant that we never listen to other people but it is telling us to care more about what God thinks than what man thinks.

The purpose for our lives is to please God. We were created to serve him.

4.  Leading people to Christ

God did not set all this up just so Peter would overcome racism, although that was a good outcome.  At the heart of this story is a man and his household who were searching for God and for salvation. The good news  of this story is that God cared enough about this man to send Peter to tell him about Jesus.

The good news is that God is still in the business of meeting with men and women who seek after him today. Many people today can testify to how God sought them out, sent people to them to help them find their way.

Of course God cannot enter a heart that refuses him entry. Jesus says, “Here I am I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door I will come in.”

Cornelius eagerly invited God to come to him through the ministry of Peter.  I pray that we would all be as eager to receive as he was.

And there was Peter, God’s servant who reminds us of the necessity of keeping open to God’s Spirit for the new things he wants to achieve through you and I. 

We are reassured that if we step out of a closed mind, a closed heart, a closed restricted service for God he does not simply kick us out into the open and say get on with it he takes us by the hand and leads us out and stays with 

Be challenged enough to let God deal with barriers in your heart and life. Be fired up to tell others, who need to hear the glorious news that Jesus Christ, died and rose again for them

Contrast the gradual opening up of Peter with the eagerness of Cornelius. He receives a vision and a command and immediately acts upon it.  He sends two servants and a soldier to find Peter and when Peter arrives he says “Now we are all here in the presence of God to listen to everything the Lord has commanded you to tell us” (Acts 10:33)

He was eager to receive, eager to enlarge his understanding of God.

Some children playing on the beach got occupied with a pond one of them had made by blocking a tiny stream.   One little boy suddenly looked up to notice that the tide had come in and shouted to his mates   “Come on you lot this ain’t the ocean, that’s only a pond.”  

God wants all of us to experience God’s ocean of love and power.

Will we. like Cornelius run eagerly towards it?

Blessings 

Alan and Carol