A Taste of Heaven

be with you all. I just want to say I've been going to church my whole life and this is the first church that ever started before it was supposed to start on Sunday school. So I don't know if that if that's what that means but that's pretty remarkable. Yeah, it's a privilege to be here. Enjoyed getting to know a lot of you and to meet more of you and look forward to continuing to do that this weekend and pray. I continue to pray for wisdom for us and for you as we kind of consider this the possibility of us continuing our relationship in a very formal way. So it's exciting and I'm grateful to be here. This morning we're going to look at the book of Acts, as Keith said, and we're going to catch a glimpse, we're going to take a minute and actually look into heaven. Now, it's not because my teaching is so fantastic that heaven just comes down when I speak, but in Acts, in the middle of Acts, the church is kind of growing and being formed. We actually do get a peek into what heaven is going to be like. you're here on a Sunday morning, chances are you've thought about heaven some, you've thought about what heaven might be like, and so this morning we're actually going to get a little bit of information about what heaven might be like. The way that we do Sunday School at my church and what I'm used to is participation, asking questions, having people read and stuff like that. So I've asked Keith to make the mic available so we can continue to do that. So I'm going to ask for volunteers to read, I'm going to ask questions, and I'm going to wait until somebody answers the question. So we can have a lot of uncomfortable silence or you can just get comfortable and speak out. So that's how we do Sunday School. We're going to be in Acts chapter 9. And we're going to start in verse... Verse 32, but let me set a bit of context since we're just jumping into a book here. Acts starts out with Jesus commissioning His apostles to be His witnesses into Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and into the ends of the earth. And this is something that Jesus tells them to do, but He doesn't tell them to go out in their own strength. He's going to send the Holy Spirit, the Helper, to empower them and enable them to do that. And so, we have in Acts chapter 2, Pentecost, where the Spirit comes down It comes down like fire, like a mighty rushing wind, and the apostles receive the Holy Spirit. They're speaking in tongues. They're testifying to God. People around them are hearing them. It's drawing this crowd. And then we see the beginnings of this witness of the gospel pushing outward, of Peter preaching the gospel to the Jews there, many people believing. And then for the first couple of chapters of Acts, that's what's happening. The apostles are preaching, people are responding to the gospel, and things are going well. And there's opposition coming from the Jews that are rejecting the gospel. And so that's kind of the state of the church for a few chapters, and then everything changes when Stephen is martyred for preaching the gospel. Stephen is preaching, they stone him to death, and because of that, this intense persecution arises. It's headed up by Saul, who later becomes Paul, and he causes the church to be scattered throughout the surrounding regions. So they leave the comfort, the home of Jerusalem, and now they're being pressed outward from Jerusalem into the surrounding regions of Judea and Samaria. And so what looks like a very dark, a very hard time for the church is actually a place where God is providentially using that opposition, using their challenges and their difficulties to spread his gospel, to take the gospel as Jesus had commanded the apostles from Jerusalem into the surrounding regions of Judea and Samaria. In chapter 9, something remarkable happens, and Jesus appears to Saul on the roads of Damascus, he's converted, and Jesus claims him for himself, and then the persecution really ends. So Saul, who had been the chief persecutor of the church, is now He's now a Christian. He's now the person he was persecuting. And so the persecution kind of dies off. And so in the middle of chapter 9 there, verse 31, it says the church throughout all Judea and Galilee and Samaria had peace and was being built up. And walking in the fear of the Lord and in the comfort of the Holy Spirit, it multiplied. So here you have this statement of like, we have a healthy church, a growing church, and they're fulfilling the mission that Jesus has commissioned them on. From Jerusalem into Judea and Samaria, and now we sort of have this sense of anticipation that the one stop that's left for the gospel is going into the ends of the earth. And so that's where we're going to pick up this morning. So I need a volunteer to read from chapter 9, verses 32 through verse 43. There we go. Who wants to be brave and read that? Yeah, go ahead. And there he found a man named Aeneas, bedridden for eight years, who was paralyzed. And Peter said to him, Aeneas, Jesus Christ heals you. Rise and make your bed. And immediately he rose. And all the residents of Lydda and Shon saw him, and they turned to the Lord. Now there was in Joppa a disciple named Tabitha, which translated means Dorcas. She was full of good works and acts of charity. In those days she became ill and died, and when they had washed her they laid her in an upper room. Since little was near Joppa, the disciples, hearing that Peter was there, sent two men to him urging him, Please come to us without delay. So Peter rose and went with them. And when he arrived, they took him to the upper room. All the widows stood beside him, weeping and showing tunics and other garments that Dorcas made while she was with them. But Peter put them all outside and knelt down and prayed, and turning to the body he said, Tabitha, arise. And she opened her eyes, and when she saw Peter she sat up. And he gave her his hand and raised her up. Then calling the saints and the widows, he presented her alive. And it became known throughout all Joppa, and many believed in the Lord. And he stayed in Joppa for many days with one Simon, a tanner." Okay, thank you. So what I'm going to do is, we're going to start off just asking some very basic questions to understand the text, make sure we get what's going on, and then we'll kind of work through it from there. So, we see in verse 32, what is Peter doing? He's traveling, I heard it. Yeah, he's traveling, right? So the church has been scattered throughout the region, and so Peter now, instead of having everybody kind of in one centralized location in Jerusalem, he as an apostle is going through the region. He's traveling, he's ministering to the churches, and he's preaching to them, he's teaching them, he's spending time with them, he's encouraging them, the church is being built up. But something unusual is happening here, and we get that, we get a few indications it's going on. So we see he is making his rounds through the region and he gets to Lyda. And what happens at Lyda? Yeah, he finds this man named Aeneas who's paralyzed, who's been paralyzed for eight years, and he heals him. He heals him, so Aeneas says he immediately rose, and then what happens after that? What's the action that results from this healing? Yeah, the whole region turns to the Lord, right? And we see that throughout the New Testament. All the miracles, everything that's taking place isn't just, they're not merely signs of power and authority, they're signs of power and authority that point to an authority that's given by God, that Jesus has, and they point to something more, and that Jesus is God, and that these people are turning to the Lord because of that. So they're not just coming to Peter, he's not just a doctor who's healing people, they're turning to the Lord. There's faith and repentance going on. So let's move on now to the next little story that we read. So he's near Joppa. Yeah, he's in Lydda. And there's in Joppa another disciple. And what is her name? Tabitha. And what happens with Tabitha? She dies, right? And so we have a little bit of detail about Tabitha. I think we see a little bit about her life, that she's just this godly woman. She's a saint participating in the ministry there. She wasn't an apostle. She wasn't a teacher necessarily, but she was faithful. She lived in the context of the church. She used the gifts that God had given her for the good of the church, and she died. And we just get a little bit of texture there, a little sense of realness where we're inside the story, we're in the context there, and we're learning about the church community and that sort of thing. So she's dead, they're telling Peter about it, and what happens? Yeah, she's raised from the dead, right? Which, I mean, let's be honest, that is a remarkable event, right? A resurrection from the dead is big news. And then again, what happens? What's the following action from this miracle? Yeah, so again, these signs and wonders are taking place and what's happening? People are turning to the Lord. So that's what's going on here. Now, those of you that have been in a church a while know your Bibles well. I wonder if there's a familiarity, if these miracles sound familiar to you. Are they ringing any bells for you? Do you feel like you've heard this before somewhere? I'm seeing some nods. Where have we seen something like this happening before? What's that? I'm sorry? in the Gospels, right? We see Jesus doing similar miracles, right? So this paralyzed man, Aeneas, bedridden for eight years, there's a story about Jesus who healed the paralyzed man, right? His friends brought him, all four of them carried him to the house. They couldn't get in because of the crowd, so they had to take tiles out of the roof and lower Jesus down through the ceiling. I mean, lower the paralyzed man down to Jesus through the ceiling. Everybody remember that? If you go back in your mind, I think it's Luke chapter 5, what's happening in that story, remember, Jesus looks at the man, he's paralyzed, and what does he say to them? Does he immediately say, I heal you, get up? Your sins are forgiven, right? Because of his sins are forgiven. And then there's a dispute with the Pharisees over, does he have the authority to forgive sins? And he says, what's easier to say, your sins are forgiven, or take up your bed and walk? And of course, it's easier to say your sins are forgiven. There's no external evidence to show, to demonstrate somebody's sins have been forgiven. But he says, in order to show you that I have authority to forgive sins, I say to you, get up, take up your pallet and walk. So we see Jesus' authority, these miracles pointing to a divine authority of a kind of healing that takes place, not just in this life, but in the next as well. And so a similar kind of thing taking place with Tabitha. The Resurrections. We have record of several Resurrections performed by Jesus. The language here is very similar to Jairus' daughter when he tells her, little girl, get up. The word for little girl is Talitha. And the word for this woman's name is Tabitha. So the language is almost exactly the same. When Peter says, I say to you, rise, it's almost as if we're supposed to hear Jesus' words, the echo of Jesus' words saying, rise. And if you remember to the resurrection of Lazarus, there's another discussion. And Jesus raises Lazarus, not just because his sisters were mourning, not just because it was sad, but to show that he was the resurrection and the life, to show that he had authority to raise the dead. And so we see this taking place. And one thing we should notice, if you'll go back to the story of Aeneas, who actually heals Aeneas? Jesus Christ heals you, right? Peter says, Aeneas, Jesus Christ heals you. He's not healing on his own authority. He doesn't have some miraculous power that he's earned or gained. It's Jesus Christ at work through him. And with Tabitha, we don't see it explicitly, but what does Peter do before he heals Tabitha, or before he raises Tabitha from the dead? He prays. Yeah, I heard it somewhere. He prays, right? So he's dependent upon Jesus. It's Jesus' power at work through Peter. Which is really reiterating something that we saw if we were to look at the beginning of Acts. That Acts is part two, that Luke is the first volume, and it's about all that Jesus began to do. And now in Acts we see not that Jesus is in retirement, not that he's passed the baton on to somebody else, but that he is still at work among his church. He's still alive, he's reigning, but he's working. And it's true for us today that Jesus is still alive. He is still at work. That it's not us, it's not our power, it's not our authority. We all, as disciples of Jesus, go in His power and in His authority. And that's how He manifests His glory. That's how He's at work in the world. But I think we see in this text, again, I started off with this question about heaven. Don't we see here a small picture, a taste of what heaven is like, this reversal that's taking place? where somebody who's been paralyzed for eight years all of a sudden can get up and walk, where this woman who is dead, who's apparently struck down, she fell ill, she was a blessing to the church, she was doing good work, and now, you know, so it wasn't bad things happened, it wasn't judgment that came upon her, she got sick and she died. And all of us, I think, have had experiences in this life where we see the curse of the fall, we see sin and its effects taking place on us, taking place on people we love, And here we catch a glimpse of what happens when Jesus comes, when Jesus makes his glory and his presence known. Those things are reversed. That's what he came to do. So we catch a glimpse on the nature of Jesus's kingdom, the nature of heaven, where sickness is reversed, where even death is reversed because Jesus has triumphed over it. I wonder if we, this morning, I mean, do we really believe that? Do we really look to a Jesus who has that kind of power, who has that kind of authority? who has triumphed over sin and death. When we face, when we deal with difficult issues in life, when we watch the news and see all the horror things, terrible things going on, do we have a sense of longing and desire for Jesus and his return in a world where bad things don't happen like that? I think that's one of the things this text really asks us is to groan, to long for the world that Jesus has died and been raised to recreate. I think that's one of the things that really stands out to me about this passage is just to long for a kingdom like this where sickness and death are no more. Any questions or comments about this first section? All right, somebody's gonna have to be brave eventually and just make a comment or ask a question, but I'll give you a pass here. All right, I need another volunteer to read chapter 10, verses one through eight. Go ahead. At Caesarea, there was 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 three in the afternoon, he had a vision. He distinctly saw an angel of God, who 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 back 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 was one of his attendants. He told them everything that had happened and sent them to Joppa. So who do we meet in chapter 10 verse 1? a man named Cornelius, right? And what we're going to see unfolding here is this kind of dual, these two stories that are taking place simultaneously that are eventually going to be converged to one. And what we've just read is part of that. So it's not, these aren't unrelated. This all is now starting to take place, you know, like a TV show where you're seeing this scene's happening here and meanwhile this is happening and the events are related but they're taking place at the same time. So we're seeing them side by side. What does the text tell us about Cornelius? He was a centurion, okay? Now, what is a centurion? He was a soldier, a Roman soldier, and he wasn't just a soldier, he was an officer, a chief centurion, you know, cent comes from a hundred, so he's some kind of captain over about a hundred soldiers, and so that made it Not just bad, but really bad for the Jews of the day, right? Let's get back into the first century. The Jews have been, their land has been taken over by Rome, we're occupied by this foreign army, they tax us, they mistreat us. And so Rome represents the bad guys in general. And then the soldiers are the worst because they're the ones who are actually on the front line. They're the ones actually doing all this stuff. They're the ones who ride into town and assemble all the people and make them stand in line and pay their taxes. They're the force of Rome. So for Cornelius to be a centurion was to label him in an Israelite mind as an enemy. He was not a friend of the Jews. He was an enemy of the Jews being a centurion. What else does it say about Cornelius? He was a God-fearer, right? So this guy who's supposed to be an enemy, by all accounts, to the Israelites, is a God-fearer. So it means that he worshipped God, we're told he prayed, he gave gifts to the poor, gave gifts to the sanctuary or the synagogue. He was identified, very much spiritually, with the Jews. So we've got this kind of tension that built up in Cornelius of, well, what is this guy? It'd be like, I guess, like somebody coming here and saying, well, you know, I'm a big Virginia Tech fan, but I'm also a big Cavaliers fan. Or, you know, I'm a diehard Democrat and a Republican. Like, we've got these two identities that are incompatible, right? I'm holding this and this at the same time. Cornelius is a Gentile, a soldier, a Roman soldier, a centurion, and a God-fearer. So he's an enemy and a friend of Israel. But what happens? So we get this introduction that he's a centurion, but he's also a God-fearer. And what happens in this story? Yeah, he sees this vision and an angel comes to him, right? Which is not... What is Cornelius' initial reaction? He's in fear, right? So this wasn't a precious moments angel. This was a terrifying angel. God, you know, in the sending an angel, a divine appearance coming to him. This is a scary thing. But what did the angel say to him? Yeah, that God is pleased. He's remembered him. And I think that's language you've heard preached through Exodus. That it wasn't that God had forgotten about Cornelius and now he remembered him, but that he's brought to the forefront. He's on God's radar screen and he's going to be, God is going to be at work in and through Cornelius' life. So this is good news. God has remembered. Your prayers and alms have ascended as a memorial before God. So what does he tell Cornelius to do? Yeah, to go get Peter. So I think it's important that we're not, we don't see this angel, you know, Cornelius, here is Cornelius. Apparently he hasn't heard the gospel, we don't know what he does or doesn't know about Jesus. He's a God-fearer, he's worshiping God, he hasn't completely converted to Judaism by being circumcised, but he's identifying himself with the people of God. And yet, the angel doesn't just come and say, Cornelius, bud, you're doing a great job, keep it up, see you in heaven. He says, send for Peter. There's a bigger purpose. There's something going on here that God is doing in Cornelius' life. So now we're going to shift in the story. We see Cornelius. He obeys. He says to send for Peter. And so he does. He sends his soldiers to go get Peter. And then now we're going to shift scenes to a very interesting text. So somebody, if you will, read chapter 10, verses 9 through 16. Yeah, go ahead. The next day, as they were on their journey and approaching the city, Peter went up on the housetop about the sixth hour to pray. And he became hungry and wanted something to eat. But while they were preparing it, he fell into a trance and saw the heavens opened 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. And there came a voice to him, rise, Peter, kill and eat. 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. OK, thank you. So, this is meanwhile. The soldiers that Cornelius has sent are on their way, and then who do we switch back to? Peter, right? We're back with Peter, and what's he doing? He's praying, right? He's up on that rooftop, he's praying, and he gets hungry, and then what happens? Yeah, he has this incredible vision, right? He's hungry, so he's feeling internally this hunger, he falls into a trance, and he has this vision of food being let down to him. It says he saw the heavens open, and something like a great sheep descending, being let down by its four corners upon the earth. So as I see this in my mind, this is a red and white checked kind of tablecloth type of thing that's coming down. It's sort of a heavenly picnic. And what's in it? What does the text say is in it? Yep, all kinds of animals and reptiles and birds, which might not immediately stand out to us. And then Jesus says some of my favorite words in the whole Bible to Peter. What does he say? Rise, kill, and eat. I love to hunt, so this is just one of those verses. I meditate on this all the time. And I love to eat, so it's both. Yeah, rise, kill, and eat. Now, what does Peter do? Does he say, okay? What does he do? Yeah, he objects on the basis that it's unclean. So, if we're familiar with the Bible, we know Peter's personality, that he's not shy about objecting. He's not shy about taking Jesus aside and saying, no, that's not what's going to happen. Yeah, everybody else is going to deny you. I'm not going to deny you. We know Peter's personality. from the Gospels, and so it's not surprising that he objects, but what's the basis? I think we already said it. What's the basis that he objects? Yeah, because of law, because it's unclean. So what does it mean for food to be unclean? What does that mean? What is he talking about? Yeah, I think I heard somebody say it's food that was forbidden by law, right? If we go back to Leviticus and Deuteronomy, we see that God had given Israel specific foods that they were not allowed to eat. Now, I don't expect anybody has memorized this, but I did a little bit of research, and I'll just read to you from the text some of the things that Israel was not allowed to eat. These are the animals that are listed as unclean. So, animals that do not chew the cud, like pigs, or do not have a parted hoof like camels, hares, rock badgers. Animals that come out of the sea that don't have fins and scales. Certain birds like eagles, spirited vultures, black vultures, kites, falcons, ravens, ostriches, nighthawks, seagulls, hawks, little owls, short-eared owls, barn owls, tawny owls, carrion vultures, cormorants, storks, herons, hoopos, bats, insects that don't have wings, winged insects that don't hop, mole rats, mice, great lizards, geckos, monitor lizards, lizards, sand lizards, chameleon snakes, centipedes, millipedes, and some more stuff. Now, if I'm having lunch with any of you today, and this is the menu, pork would be my preference, just to put it out there. All these foods were unclean for Israel. Now, what did that mean? What was the purpose of God telling Israel, you can't eat these things? Yeah, to set them apart, to make them a nation separate from the other nations of the earth. That was one of the big reasons, to make them distinct. Some of these things may have had idolatrous practices tied to them, some of them may have just been ways that the people of those lands express their own independence from God, and so God says, no, you're not going to partake of these things. You're going to be separate. You're going to be my people, and you're going to be known, among other things, by not eating these certain things. And that's one thing, right? Food does that for us, right? There's an identity. I mean, in our day and age, it's very different when you can go to the grocery store and buy all kinds of different stuff, but there's a real sense in which Even now I think that each family kind of has their own style of eating. Each family kind of eats certain foods and doesn't eat certain foods. There's a real identity that takes place around food. What else did the law do? So it made Israel distinct from other nations. What else did the law serve to do? Okay, yeah, yeah, there's an issue tied to obedience that as they're obeying God, as they're faithful to Him, that it protects them. It was a provision for His people. Yeah, and I think that's part of the relationship that existed, that it made Israel just holy enough to be the people of God, to be in communion with God, right? So it set them apart not only from other nations, but for God in a holiness, in sort of a sphere, in a realm of holiness. It didn't make Israel perfect. We see that through the whole Old Testament. It didn't make them perfect. They weren't saved by the law, but it made them provisionally holy enough to be the people who communes with God. So we see that. We see that in the law, and that's what this food did. But now when Jesus comes on the scene, what does he teach specifically about food? There's a certain chapter where Jesus actually talks about this idea of clean and unclean. Yeah? Exactly, yeah. Yeah, this whole idea of clean and unclean, the Old Testament... food laws were actually a metaphor that were supposed to teach Israel something about themselves. That food is physical. It's a physical transaction that takes place. It comes in and it goes out. It doesn't make someone evil. It doesn't make someone do evil things. But the fact that we're unclean, the fact that we're evil, is evident in what comes out of our mouths. The fact that there are horrible things inside of us, in our hearts, that produce fruit of this kind of speech and the kind of terrible things that we do. That all flows from the heart. So what is that What are the implications of that for food? What does Jesus say in that passage? I think Mark actually adds kind of a parenthesis of what Jesus meant by that. Yeah, he says, in doing so, Jesus declared all foods clean. So Jesus had already had this conversation with his disciples, right? Food is not the issue. All foods are clean. The issue of being clean or unclean before God is not an issue of what you eat or don't eat. And by implication, a lot of it is not what you do as it relates to the law in general. Something else that Jesus taught as it relates to this is in terms of our relationship with God. Remember in Matthew chapter 5, Jesus said, look, I didn't come to abolish the law. I came to fulfill the law, right? So Jesus, his life and ministry, the goal of his ministry was to fulfill the law, to fulfill all of Israel's obligations to God in terms of the holiness code that they were given. in the Old Testament. Jesus came not to just say, none of this is important, none of this matters, but to fulfill it, to fulfill all of Israel's obligations to God, to be holy on behalf of Israel. And so we see that Jesus had done that. That's what the gospel was about, right? Jesus being clean, being holy, presenting himself as a sacrifice to God on behalf of his people to sanctify them, to cleanse them before God, to make them clean, to make them holy. So the question I think we get here is, and we just start to think about this is, what is it that makes us closer to God? I think I heard it. Yeah, Jesus, right? Jesus makes us closer to God. The gospel is what makes us closer to God, right? So I think we as church people, as religious people, I've been going to church my whole life, it's ingrained in me to be here on Sunday morning. I think one of the things we need to ask ourselves is, are there things that we do that make us closer to God, that make us feel closer to God? Are there things, you know, that we gather on Sunday mornings? Is God happier with us because we're here on Sunday mornings instead of staying at home watching, you know, whatever? Is He happier because of that? Is He happier with us because of certain things that we do or don't do, certain things that we watch or don't watch, that we say, certain words we say or don't say, even certain things that we eat or don't eat or drink or don't drink. Are there things that we do, the way we go about our lives, supposing that what we do or don't do makes God just a little bit happier with us, a little bit, makes us a little bit more acceptable to him, a little bit closer to him. Are there things we do? Absolutely, right? We're hardwired to do that. We want to do that. We love to create. We actually love law. And it sounds weird to say that because the idea, you know, a lot of us drove here over the speed limit, so we don't like all laws, but we like the laws that we create. We like to create a system whereby we declare ourselves right before God, whereby we feel right before God. But what does the Gospel tell us? Yeah, our works, our deeds are something in response to what Jesus has already done for us. Jesus has already made us clean. He's already made us right before God. He's already made us as close to God as we can possibly be, right? So we don't do anything to earn that. And what Jesus is telling Peter here is, as soon as you start to try to do that, you're actually distancing yourself from God. As soon as you try to be holy on your own, you've left the gospel, you've left the realm of what Jesus has done, and now you're trying to earn your salvation by yourself. I think another question here is what, and this is really what the text is driving toward, is what makes us different from other people? So we have the issue of Israel's closeness to God, that the law sort of made them provisionally holy, but Jesus actually made them holy to where they could commune with the living God. What makes us different from other people? Yeah, exactly, exactly. There's this amazing transition that's being brought out in this passage that for centuries the Jews had practiced their identity as being the separate people, being different, being holy and set apart and the chosen people of God. That was what it meant to be an Israelite, to be God's people. chosen by God and different and in some ways in their own minds even better than everybody else in the world. So there was a real hatred in the hearts of the Israelites toward Gentiles, toward Samaritans, toward people who were not sort of in the circle of God's people. And yet we have these words from Jesus that are pretty amazing, right? That what God has called clean, about what God has made clean, do not call common. In other words, the distinction that's in your mind that exists between all these different people groups, all these different nations and things, All of that has been wiped away through the work of Christ. And now, the distinction that runs through all humanity, there still is a distinction, but it runs along the lines of, is this person in Christ, or is this person apart from Christ? And that's the only distinction that we should make between people. So, that's one of the questions I think we need to ask ourselves is, are there ways that we draw distinctions? Are there ways that we make distinctions between people? That we say, this is sort of the end group, this is the people that I associate with, or these are the people that I love and care for, and the people outside of that group are not. So sometimes I think we can make distinctions based on things like race, based on socioeconomic status. Those kind of distinctions where we can just look at somebody and say, yeah, that's kind of an unclean person, I'm not gonna, spend my time, I'm not going to invest myself relationally in that kind of person. So I think we have those tendencies. We still, in our culture even, make those kinds of distinctions where there are some people that we associate with and some people that we don't. But I think it goes deeper than that. As Christians, I think, and I see this in my church, I see this in my own life, is some of us can go beyond that where it's not, we're not, at least outwardly, we're not racist, we're not, we don't discriminate based on socioeconomic lines. But one thing that I do see a lot in Christian culture now is a kind of tendency to make two types of spheres, like a sphere where we socialize and we connect with these people at a friend's level, and then we do ministry kind of over here in a very different sphere. So for some of us it's easier to take a short-term mission trip across the world to go do ministry among people that are very different from us, but to go across the street and share the gospel with our neighbor is something that we would not dream of doing. We kind of make these spheres where it's okay to do one thing, but we would never do this. Where we socialize with one group and we do ministry among another group. And I think subtly in those ways we make distinctions in our own minds of who really needs the gospel. This person, these people over there who are so different from me, they really need the gospel. But this guy is kind of okay, he really doesn't need the gospel. Or we make distinctions based on who's worthy of the gospel. That these kind of people are worthy of the gospel and these people really aren't. And I think Jesus' words here really should serve as a rebuke to us to make sure we don't make those kind of distinctions that he himself hasn't made. The distinction that God has made through Christ is in the gospel and out of the gospel. And so our obligations to people inside of the gospel are very different, but our obligations to those outside of the gospel are still real and still there that we want to evangelize, we want to reach those outside of the group. And then I think there's another way, I'm not sure, I don't know this church well, so I don't know how much this comes into play here, but I think there are ways that we can even make those distinctions among other Christians, that there are Christians who are clean and Christians who are unclean. And there are people who believe the Gospel, who claim the name of Christ, but maybe they have different theological, you know, slightly different theological convictions, not necessarily outside the Gospel, but maybe they believe slightly different things. And I think there's a tendency for us to kind of develop a kind of pride, a kind of religious pride that says, my system is better and therefore, you know, I don't want to be identified with, I don't want to associate with those kind of people that believe slightly differently. I'm not talking about people who clearly don't believe the gospel, who teach something, who claim to be Christians, but don't actually affirm the gospel. I'm not talking about those people. The Bible tells us what to do with those people. But there are people who are Christians, who are faithful, who love the gospel, and yet maybe have slightly different theological convictions. And we need to make sure that we look at those people as brothers, as fellow citizens of Christ's kingdom, and not as those outside, not as those that we should be embarrassed of, that we should be ashamed of. Jesus says, what God has made clean do not call common. And I think we can run in danger at times of calling common what God has made clean, calling unworthy, calling second-class what God has elevated to his presence, to his table. Any questions about that? Comments? Do you see that in your own life? Do you see the tendency to want to make those kind of distinctions among people? As far as among Christians, I go to a church in a seminary town that has a lot of seminary students, and I think there's a tendency to be very theologically and methodologically precise, to say, we have this theological system and this is the right way, and so there can just be a sense of pride in which you get together you hear about other people are Christians, and there's a sense of skepticism, where we meet somebody else who's a Christian, and maybe they go to that particular church, or they hang with this group, or they're in this campus organization, and we think, yeah, that's the junior varsity league here. We're the varsity, we're the A-team Christians, and that over there is the second class. So maybe we don't, it's not that we don't necessarily fellowship with them, but we just kind of look down upon them, we're here to, help them we know the right way and they don't know the right way. We have experienced Christ in a more deep way than they have and so there's just a difference in the way that we relate to those kind of people instead of seeing them as brothers and sisters, as fellow citizens, as co-heirs with Christ and to see a real brotherly love toward them that maybe, I mean, I want to affirm, we want to labor for maturity in Christ. We want to labor for healthy churches. But we want to labor as brothers and sisters and not as those who have it right and those who don't, and those who are proud and arrogant in their spiritual righteousness that they somehow have it right and the other people don't. Yeah, Jim? I think what I've learned, and I can speak for myself, I guess, that it comes out in that arrogance of that, whether it's ministry to someone out that's not a Christian, or even within Christian circles, that I won't learn anything from them. I'm going to give to them what I won't get from them. And my experience has been humbling in that most of the time when I go to give to someone, I give way more. And I think that's a way, at least for me, I draw a distinction, something that I would talk Yeah, no, I think that's exactly right. I mean, even in the context of a discipleship relationship where you're meeting with somebody, maybe somebody who's younger, maybe somebody who's new in the faith, and you're there to teach that person. But so often, exactly like you said, you learn so much about the gospel, about the richness, about the depth of Christ's love through those interactions. And there's just, yeah, it's a very humbling effect that it should produce in us. Yeah, any other thoughts about that? That's very true. Especially those who claim the name of Christ and who clearly are professing the gospel, there's a profound sense in which we, sitting here in Charlottesville, Virginia on a Sunday morning, have more in common with believers in Uganda and Mongolia and places all over the world than we do with our neighbors who work similar jobs, who have very similar looking lifestyles. That our unity with those believers all around the world is so much closer because we're all in Christ. And that's exactly what this text is trying to bring out, is that the divisions that we see that look so obvious to us are actually false, and the divisions that we should see are in and outside of Christ. That's the dividing line that now runs through all of humanity. Right. Exactly. Yeah. Yeah, I would definitely affirm that. So I'm not saying that there's no theological differences, that those things don't matter or they're not important, but it's the way that our sinful hearts can kind of turn those to say, because we have theological differences, maybe because we seem to have a better understanding of Scripture, we want to take that and mean, therefore, we are better than this person. That's not at all what we want to do. But yeah, that's a helpful point. of spiritual pride. I mean, I think it's really feeding on texts like this to just to remind ourselves that we, I mean, it's so much of the Christian life comes back to preaching the gospel to yourself, right? Remembering that I'm not justified before God, I'm not closer to God, I'm not better before God because of anything that I do. All of our righteousness is as filthy rags, is what Isaiah says, right? So everything, all our best days, on my best day when I did a long quiet time and I evangelized and I discipled somebody, my best day, the best efforts that I can present to God is a filthy Rav's day. It's an F minus. Even though in my mind it's an A plus, in God's mind it's an F minus. If I'm earning my righteousness before Him, I've got nothing. But in Christ we have this amazing, amazing, I mean the gospel is just this amazing promise that we take all of our righteousness and we throw it away. We forget what's behind and we press on to what's ahead, and we depend on Christ entirely. I mean, it's easy to talk about that. It's just very hard to apply and continue to press that into our hearts. Yeah? Right. Right. That's exactly right. Yeah. Yep, that's exactly right. Yeah, we see that exact thing happen in Peter's life. He gets it, we think he's got it here, and then he doesn't get it. So Peter is a great help. I don't know who was first here. Yeah, we'll go left to right. Go ahead. I'm sure you'd like to move on to the next question, but one thing that my husband told me that made this thing a lot more practical is that within a congregation of practical people, you often have to decide how you are going to behave and what you believe on a certain issue, and to have community on that. right right right And it may affect, I mean, those kind of decisions may affect our practical fellowship with, you know, we don't, as a Baptist church, we're not going to be members with a Presbyterian church because we differ on that issue, but we're also going to affirm if we're doing campus outreach, we're not going to say, don't listen to the Presbyterians, this is the actual, this is the Baptist gospel, you know, we don't talk like that. Yeah. Yeah. Exactly. Yeah. That's helpful. Yeah. I'm just wondering, just taking a big picture perspective, what are we facing in the world and in the church? It seems to me we're facing far more difficulty on people despise doctors, even in church. Yeah. Yeah. Mm hmm. Yeah, no, I mean, I think that's definitely true, that there is that sense. But I think with those kind of conversations, you kind of have to press on, well, what does it mean that we have no creed but Christ? I mean, that statement doesn't hold any... I mean, that's not a helpful statement to make in terms of how are we going to organize our church. Well, we're just going to do it the way Jesus did it. Well, that doesn't help to practically flesh out what does that mean. So I think those kind of conversations, even there, you've got to have some traction, something to hold on to, or else you can't make any decisions. Yeah? I was going to say, in response to that, I had another point, that throughout the whole time, it's never going to change. The crisis is always the gospel. The church has got to get the gospel right. If you get the gospel right, the secondary things are going to come. In regards to having issues with people, I've sincerely struggled with the whole Calvinism, Martinism thing for a long time. And finally, something came back to me, I read in a book about how people change, about what is your identity, forever. I wasn't identifying myself as a Christian, I wasn't identifying myself as Jesus. Like, I believe in the sovereignty of God and this person doesn't, and they're wrong. And now, it's changed my life dramatically, and relationships with people. To say, do you love Jesus? If you love Jesus, there's nothing else that's more important to me. And if Calvinism comes, or homeschooling, or whatever else it is, great. But without Jesus, none of that matters at all. Yeah, that's exactly right. Yeah, and I think that's what Peter would have us say. Yeah, one more, and then we'll move on. We all struggle with this, I think, in one way or another. One of my treatments is to take myself back to Philippians chapter 2, imitating Christ's humility, and go through that, read that two or three times, and that will help cure you very quickly. That's exactly right. That's exactly right. Okay. Let's get somebody to read 17 all the way to 33. Do I have until 1030 or 1025? 1030. 17. 17, yeah. Now, while Peter was inwardly perplexed as to what the vision that he had seen might mean, behold, the men who went by 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 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 am the one you are looking for. What is the reason for your coming? And they said, Cornelius, a centurion, an upright and God fearing man who is well spoken of by the whole Jewish nation. was directed by a holy angel to send for you to come to his house and to hear what you have to say. So he invited them in to be his guests. The next day he rose and went away with them, and some of the brothers from Joppa accompanied him. And on the following day they entered Caesarea. Cornelius was expecting them and had called together his relatives and close friends. When Peter entered, Cornelius met him and fell down at his feet and worshipped him. But Peter lifted him up, saying, Stand up, I too am a man. And as he talked with him, he went in and found many persons gathered. And he said to them, You yourselves know how unlawful it is for a Jew to associate with or to visit anyone of another nation. But God has shown me that I should not call any person common or unclean. So when I was sent for, I came without objection. I asked then, Why you sent for me? And Cornelius said, 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 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. Now, therefore, we are all here in the presence of God to hear all that you have been commanded by the Lord. Thank you. So. Peter's inwardly perplexed, right? Which I think should comfort us, that sometimes when we read the Bible, if we don't understand it immediately, sometimes we're inwardly perplexed, that that was Peter's reaction to Jesus' words. He's chewing on them, he's wrestling with them, and we're going to see that all the conversations we just had didn't sort of sink in immediately, and it just clicked, and here it goes. No, Peter's wrestling with this, and he's come into terms over several hours with what Jesus has said. So we're seeing the conversation now, so we saw a little bit of what heaven is like. We're entering the conversation of who's going to be there. So now it's not Jews and non-Jews, it's those who are in Christ and those who aren't, is what Jesus is saying by this whole distinction of clean and unclean. Those who are in Christ is this heavenly picture that we're getting. So now what happens in the next section, we just see this, the pace kind of come to this grinding, almost halt, where the motion has slowed down tremendously. This is probably one of the most detailed passages in all of the scripture. We just have hour by hour what's taking place, who's doing what, what they're saying, what's going on. And so we see, not only that, but we see these divine fingerprints, right? Starting with Starting at the very beginning where Peter was positioned strategically in Lydda and then to Joppa, so he's making these movements where now he's a day's journey away from Caesarea. So God has strategically positioned him to be within reach of Cornelius. And then we start to see all this, hear the divine voice, where this angel comes and says to Cornelius, send for Peter. And then Jesus comes and tells Peter, don't think of anybody as unclean, who I've made clean. And then the Holy Spirit again, like as Peter's in this vision saying, hey, these guys are here to see you, kind of head down from the rooftop. So we see all these divine fingerprints. And so what Luke and what the Holy Spirit want us to make no distinction is that God is doing this. God is the one who's making this happen. This is nothing short of divine work. And then we start to see in Peter's own life, even though he's inwardly perplexed, even though he's wrestling with this, we start to see this wall, this division coming down in Peter's own mind. So what happens? The Holy Spirit sends Peter down, and these guys say, hey, Cornelius sent us, and what does Peter do at the end of that paragraph? Verse 23. He invited them in. Yeah, as his guests. So here, remarkably, This Jew, Peter, who had probably never had a Gentile in his house, invites these guys sent from Cornelius in. So even though he hasn't fully wrapped his mind around what's going on, he's starting to get it. He's starting to remember what Jesus has been teaching. He's starting to understand, look, clearly God has sent these people. They're clean. So we're going to have house fellowship. We're going to eat together at the table. I, as a Jew, have never done this in my life. I'm going to sit down at a table as equals and eat with these Gentiles. David, it gets better than that, right? So the next day, they go to Cornelius' house. And then Cornelius welcomes him in. Cornelius is so excited to see Peter, he falls down almost in kind of an act of worship. And Peter tells him to stand up. And what does he tell Cornelius? I too am a man, right? Those are such prophetic words, aren't they? That as we look out, As we look out, what we should see is not this person different from me because of their clothes or because of their skin color or anything. I too am a man. There's an amazing sense of unity that comes from Peter's word. Very prophetic. And then what happens? He says in verse 28, what does Peter say about this whole situation? Yeah, this is unlawful. This is awkward. I am a Jew. Now this is a step beyond. So not only am I having Gentiles in my house, I'm now a Jew residing in a Gentile's house. That is unprecedented. That, as Peter said, according to the day's custom, would have made him ritually, ceremonially unclean. So now in the Jew's eyes, he's unclean before God. But what does he know? He knows that God has told him not to call any person common or unclean. Now, before God, in Christ, we're all here together. But notice they're not kind of coming together and just singing like, I'm so glad I'm a part of the family of God. That's not what's happening, is it? This awkward tension is building toward the moment where Cornelius says, look, I've gathered my whole family here, my family, my friends, we're all here to hear what you have to say. In chapter 11 he's going to go on to say, we're all here to hear the message of salvation from God. Now, anybody who wants to evangelize would love... I mean, that's kind of on the silver platter, right? Please, sir, will you tell me the gospel? Like, who wouldn't want to share the gospel with somebody like that? So, that brings us to the last section here, beginning in verse 34. So, somebody would read 34 all the way to the end, 48. Then Peter opened his mouth and said, In truth I perceive that God shows no partiality, but in every nation whoever fears Him and works righteousness is accepted by Him. The word which God sent to the children of Israel, preaching peace through Jesus Christ, He is Lord of all, that word you know, which was proclaimed throughout all Judea, and began with the Holy Spirit and with power, who went about and began from Galilee after the baptism which John preached, how God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and with power, who went about doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil, for God was with him. And we are witnesses of all things which he did, both in the land of the Jews and in Jerusalem. whom they killed by hanging on a tree. Him God raised up on the third day and showed him openly, not to all the people, but to witnesses chosen before by God, even to us who ate and drank with him after he arose from the dead. And he commanded us to preach to the people and to testify that it is he who is ordained by God to be judge of the living and the dead. To him all the prophets witnessed that through his name whoever believes in him will receive remission of sins. While Peter was still speaking these words, the Holy Spirit fell upon all those who heard the word. And those of the circumcision who believed were astonished, as many as came with Peter, because the gift of the Holy Spirit had been poured out on the Gentiles also, for they heard them speak with tongues and magnify God. Then Peter answered, Can anyone forbid water, that these should not be baptized to have received the Holy Spirit, just as we have? and he commanded them to be baptized in the name of the Lord. Then they asked him to stay a few days." Okay. So Peter opens his mouth and he begins to speak. He says, truly now I understand. And what is it that he understands? Yeah, God shows no partiality. The Gospel is for everyone. This isn't a Jewish thing. The Gospel is for everyone. Now, very quickly, what do we see about the Gospel in this text? In Peter's sermon, what is the essential elements? What is the Gospel according to Peter's sermon? It's a message about... Yeah. It's about Jesus, right? Jesus, who he was, what he came to do, what his ministry on earth was like. So he came. He's God and man. He came. He was preaching peace, he was healing, he was exercising authority over demons, all this stuff. He was murdered, he was crucified by the Jews, and he was hung on the tree as a curse. So if you wonder, is there substitutionary atonement there? Yeah, there's substitutionary atonement, because cursed is anyone who would hang on a tree, right? So Jesus was hung on a tree, an innocent man, as a curse to bear the curse of sin for the people of God. But he didn't stay there. He was raised from the dead. His resurrection was witnessed by those to whom he commissioned with this gospel message. And so, he's raised from the dead. He's been sent. He's been appointed by God to judge the living and the dead. And forgiveness of sins. Salvation is found in his name. And Peter is still preaching, right? This is still going on. Peter is explaining the gospel message. Maybe he's getting into the ascension and the resurrection. But what happens? Peter gets interrupted by somebody. Who interrupts him? The Holy Spirit, right? All of a sudden, so just, you know, you're there, here in Cornelius' living room, Peter's teaching these people, and all of a sudden, the signs of the Spirit come. I don't know if it's exactly as Pentecost, with the wind and the fire and all that, but the Holy Spirit comes, and these Gentiles, these people who are completely separate, completely distinct from Israel, what do they start doing? Speaking in tongues and extolling God. So here, we see the same manifestation of the Spirit that we saw in Samaria, which was very surprising, which we saw in Acts chapter 2, when the Spirit first comes, when salvation is brought from God into the Jews. So we see the expansion taking place, right? In Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and to the ends of the earth. We see the Spirit kind of manifesting Himself very particularly at these important junctures. So, most of us, when we were converted, I would think, probably didn't have a manifestation of the Spirit like this. But it's because we see these strategic times, the Spirit manifesting itself as the gospel goes forward. And it has a profound impact on the believers there that saw this, doesn't it? What do they say when they see all this happening? What do they say? What happens to the believers? They're amazed, right? And they comment that the same thing has happened to them, right? Peter comments on it. So the believers are amazed and they say that the Holy Spirit is poured out even on the Gentiles. And then Peter says what? who received the Holy Spirit just as we have. Our experience is exactly the same. Our relationship to God is exactly the same. All the divisions that took place, everything in our mind that said these people are different from us is now gone. All our fundamental identity now is exactly the same. We've all received the Spirit. We're all in Christ. And there's a fundamental unity, a leveling that's taking place by the Gospel's effect in their lives. So we see that they're baptized. Peter says, you know, can anyone withhold water for baptizing these people to receive the Holy Spirit just as we have? So they're identified publicly before the church with Christ and his people in his death and resurrection. That's what takes place with baptism. And then I think one of the most amazing verses in the whole New Testament, they ask him to remain with him for some days. So here, Peter, someone who wouldn't have spoken to these people, wouldn't have had any dealings with these people before. Now he's in Cornelius' home, staying with him. And they're gathered together around meal, maybe, I don't, Cornelius, Caesarea Philippi is on the seas, so maybe they had seafood that Peter wasn't allowed to have before, maybe they had rock badgers, who knows. But they were able to eat and fellowship together, which again, I started this off with a glimpse of heaven. Isn't that a picture of heaven? When people come together in the gospel, praising God, rejoicing in Christ, and fellowshipping together, they taste heaven. We see in Revelation chapter 7, what happens? That there's people from every tongue and tribe and nation around the throne of God, praising Christ. We see in Revelation 19 that the whole universe is consummating in a fellowship meal, in a marriage supper of the Lamb, the biggest party that there's ever been. people from every tongue and tribe and nation around a table together in food. And so that's the vision we have, and we get to experience that now in the local church. This is why I love the local church, is because we get to experience now, we get to rehearse what we'll be doing for all eternity. Fellowship around the Word of God in the Gospel, coming to hear the Word preached, coming to sing it and speak it to each other, and then in life. We don't just do Sundays and then leave. We are in each other's lives. We're in the Gospel, we're having fellowship with each other. That's why the church is such a wonderful thing. Any comments or questions about that? Yeah? Right. That's exactly right. Right. Right. That's exactly right. Yep. Yep. That's exactly right. Yeah, if you want to meditate on that this afternoon, read Ephesians 2, 13 to 21. But now I've kept you four minutes over, and that's not a good start. So let me pray first quickly, and then we'll dismiss. Our Father in heaven, we marvel at the gospel. Lord, we marvel that we who don't deserve salvation Could be called your people, could be called a holy nation, a royal priesthood, a people for your own possession. We marvel at that truth and we praise you because of Christ, because of a kind of love that would leave heavenly glory. and would humble Himself, Lord, not just to a life on earth, not just to a hard life on earth, but to death, to a criminal's death on a cross. And Father, we thank You for Christ, for the work that He's done on our behalf, for the way that He brings us to You, the way that He's united us with each other. And Father, we pray that in response to the Gospel, not to earn anything from You, not because we can earn anything from You, but just in response and following in His footsteps as His disciples, Lord, that we would lay down our lives for each other. Father, we pray now that you would open our ears and hearts to hear what your Spirit would say to us as we go to hear your Word preached. And we pray in Christ's name. Amen.