One God For All! - A Tale of Peter and Cornelius

This past Sunday (April 24th) I preached over the text found in the 11th Chapter of Acts, verses 1-18.  This was a two parts in one sermon really in that the first half was given from a manuscript and the second half was done in my more usual informal style.  I've included the video of the sermon below for those that may choose to take a listen.

In these verses, we find the beginnings of the Early Church reaching out to the gentiles.  Now the earliest recruits to come into the Church from the gentile ranks were almost entirely from those gentiles who were already 'God-Fearers', those who were practicing the ways of the Jewish people but who had not yet made the final step into becoming fully Jewish.  For many of these potential converts, the stumbling block was the act of circumcision.  The inclusion of these gentiles within the 'Jewish Christian' or 'Jesus Movement' was a sticking spot for the Apostles and even more so for the other Jewish sects of their time.  This continued recruitment of gentile God-Fearers who did not completely convert to Judaism, played no small part in the ultimate fracturing of the 'Jesus sect' from its parent Judaism.

I won't belabor this point any further, but I do talk about it more in the sermon.

We are all too often guilty of excluding others from our realm of potential recruits into Christianity because we have some form of bias or another.  They don't look like we do, they don't talk like we do, or I don't like him/her so I'm not going to talk to them about my Christian faith.  All of these are sins of omission, we've purposefully and for our own personal comfort or angst discounted an individual or individuals from our duty to take the word of Christ to all the people.

Peter in these verses retells how he too went through a change of heart from exclusion to inclusion.  Of course, as I mention in the sermon, even Peter was not immune to backsliding as we learn in the letter called Galatians.  There Paul relays how under pressure from men sent by James that Peter reverted to discriminating towards the gentile converts.  We too are all too prone to bowing to social pressure in our perception of others.

Let us strive to remember that our God is a God for all, and not just for those whom we feel are worthy of God's love...

Be a blessing to someone today!

In His constant grace & love,
Roy

Acts 11: 1-18 NRSV
1 Now the apostles and the believers who were in Judea heard that the Gentiles had also accepted the word of God. 2 So when Peter went up to Jerusalem, the circumcised believers criticized him, 3 saying, “Why did you go to uncircumcised men and eat with them?” 4 Then Peter began to explain it to them, step by step, saying, 5 “I was in the city of Joppa praying, and in a trance I saw a vision. There was something like a large sheet coming down from heaven, being lowered by its four corners; and it came close to me. 6 As I looked at it closely I saw four-footed animals, beasts of prey, reptiles, and birds of the air. 7 I also heard a voice saying to me, ‘Get up, Peter; kill and eat.’ 8 But I replied, ‘By no means, Lord; for nothing profane or unclean has ever entered my mouth.’ 9 But a second time the voice answered from heaven, ‘What God has made clean, you must not call profane.’ 10 This happened three times; then everything was pulled up again to heaven. 11 At that very moment three men, sent to me from Caesarea, arrived at the house where we were. 12 The Spirit told me to go with them and not to make a distinction between them and us. These six brothers also accompanied me, and we entered the man’s house. 13 He told us how he had seen the angel standing in his house and saying, ‘Send to Joppa and bring Simon, who is called Peter; 14 he will give you a message by which you and your entire household will be saved.’ 15 And as I began to speak, the Holy Spirit fell upon them just as it had upon us at the beginning. 16 And I remembered the word of the Lord, how he had said, ‘John baptized with water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit.’ 17 If then God gave them the same gift that he gave us when we believed in the Lord Jesus Christ, who was I that I could hinder God?” 18 When they heard this, they were silenced. And they praised God, saying, “Then God has given even to the Gentiles the repentance that leads to life.”

Finally, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is gracious, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, let me think about these things. What I have learned and received, let me do; and the God of peace be with us all.

Amen.