Presently the Lord Jesus is walking me through the book of Acts. He is not having me teach word by word, but rather he is pointing out to me the things he wants me to focus on which can be applied to our lives today. And the story of Cornelius and Peter is a great story from which to teach some critical biblical truths. So I am reading now in Acts, chapter 10. But due to the length of the passage, I will summarize a lot of it.
Cornelius was a Gentile, but he was a devout man who feared
God with all his household. And he prayed continually to God. And so God
visited him in a vision whereby an angel of the Lord spoke to Cornelius. The
Lord let him know that he was listening to Cornelius’ prayers and that he
honored them and him. And so he instructed him to send some men to Joppa to get
the apostle Peter. And so he did as the Lord said.
Now, while the men were on their way to get Peter the Lord
also visited Peter in a vision. I just love how the Lord works, don’t you? He
coordinates things together so beautifully! In Peter’s vision a voice spoke to
him and told him to kill and eat food which was formerly forbidden for a Jew to
eat. So Peter refused. But the voice spoke a second time, “What God has made
clean, do not call common.” And this happened three times.
Peter was uncertain of the meaning of the vision, though,
and then the men who were sent by Cornelius arrived. And the Spirit told Peter
to go down and accompany the men without hesitation, for the Lord had sent
them. So the next day Peter went with them. Cornelius was expecting them, so he
called together his relatives and close friends. Peter asked Cornelius why he
sent for him, and Cornelius told him about his vision from the Lord. Cornelius
then invited Peter to speak to him and to his relatives and friends.
Acts 10:34-35 ESV
“So Peter opened his mouth and said: ‘Truly I understand that God shows no partiality, but in every nation anyone who fears him and does what is right is acceptable to him.”
Under the Old Covenant there was a separation between Jew
and Gentile, and Gentiles were not only non-Jews, but they were regarded as
spiritually unclean. So Jews didn’t normally associate with Gentiles or with Samaritans
who were a mixed race of Jew and Gentile. But Jesus’ life, death, and
resurrection changed all of that and now all who believe in Jesus Christ,
whether Jew or Gentile by physical birth are one people, no longer two.
But this was something Peter was just now in the process of
learning, and it took him a while to fully put it into practice, too. For this
was a big but necessary transition. He had to get over his prejudice against
Gentiles like he had to get over the fact that food that was once ceremonially
unclean was now sanctified by faith in Jesus Christ, and it was okay for him to
eat, which was the purpose of his vision.
Does personal prejudice against anything or anyone keep you
from obeying the Lord? I think many professing Christians get stuck on
religious tradition and they let those traditions hinder their walks of faith
and their obedience to the Lord. Do you see it? They also let those religious traditions
keep them from loving the family of God as they ought to love them, and so they
end up rejecting those who do not follow their religious traditions.
Then, back to Peter here, he gave out the message of the
gospel to those who were listening to him. And he told them that everyone who
believes in Jesus receives forgiveness of sins through his name. And while
Peter was still speaking, the Holy Spirit fell on all who heard the gospel
message. And the gift of the Holy Spirit was poured out even on the Gentiles.
Amen! And then Peter commanded that the new believers be baptized in the name
of Jesus Christ. So, they believed, they received the Holy Spirit, and then
they were baptized, in that order.
And yes, they also spoke in tongues. But not everyone who
believed in Jesus and who received the Holy Spirit within them, as recorded in
the Scriptures, spoke in tongues. So, we must guard against making that part of
this a doctrinal teaching, for other Scriptures teach that not everyone speaks
in tongues, that it is one of the lesser gifts, and it is much better to prophesy.
And sometimes “tongues” meant/means they were speaking in actual known
languages, like at the day of Pentecost.
Religious Prejudice
But that just leads me back to where I was talking about
this subject of religious prejudice based on religious man-made traditions
and/or misinterpretations of the Scriptures. For there are people who disregard
the gift of tongues altogether, and there are people who greatly abuse and
misuse the gift of tongues, and then there are people who are prejudice against
anyone who doesn’t speak in tongues, and all those are wrong.
And then there are people who, because of their religious
traditions, think that everyone who professes faith in Jesus Christ needs to be
seated in a church building, which is falsely called “church,” on a Sunday
morning or a Saturday evening, and that they need to go through a religious ritual
of singing songs, listening to announcements, the taking of the offering, and
then listening to people called “pastor” preach a sermon which may or may not
be biblical at all. And if they don’t, they think they are backslidden.
But they are missing the whole context of what they wrongly
quote. For Hebrews 10:25 doesn’t just say that we are not to neglect meeting
together with other believers in Jesus. In context it is instructing us that we
are to draw near to our Lord with a true heart in full assurance of faith, with
our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with
pure water, which is not physical water, but the Spirit of God, I believe.
And we are to hold fast to our biblical faith (of God) in
Jesus Christ without wavering, i.e. we are to be putting the word of God into
practice in our daily lives. And then we are to stir up (provoke) one another
to love (preferring what God prefers) and good works (the works God prepared
that we should walk in them), not neglecting meeting together, but encouraging
(exhorting, urging, provoking, supporting, helping) one another to walk in
holiness and in righteousness and no longer in sin.
But if all we do is show up for a Sunday service and sit
through a traditional church service, that is not fulfilling Hebrews 10:25. The
purpose of our gatherings is not to go through the motions of formalized and
traditional church services. But it is so that we, as the body of Christ, are
using the gifts of the Spirit given us by God to encourage and exhort and provoke
one another to forsake our sins and to obey our Lord and to walk in
righteousness and in holiness, and in the power and wisdom of God.
[Matt 5:13-16; Matt
28:18-20; Jn 4:31-38; Jn 13:13-17; Jn 14:12; Acts 1:8; Acts 2:14-18; Acts
26:18; Rom 10:14-15; Rom 12:1-8; Rom 15:14; 1 Co 12:1-31; 1 Co 14:1-5; Eph
4:1-16; Eph 5:17-27; Php 2:1-8; Col 3:16; Heb 3:13; Heb 10:23-25; 1 Pet 2:9,21;
1 Jn 2:6]
An Original Work / September 11, 2012
Bombs
are bursting. Night is falling.
Jesus
Christ is gently calling
You
to follow Him in all ways.
Trust
Him with your life today.
Make
Him your Lord and your Savior.
Turn
from your sin. Follow Jesus.
He
will forgive you of your sin;
Cleanse
your heart, made new within.
Men
betraying: Our trust fraying.
On
our knees to God we’re praying,
Seeking
God to give us answers
That
are only found in Him.
God
is sovereign over all things.
Nothing
from His mind escaping.
He
has all things under His command,
And
will work all for good.
Jesus
Christ is gently calling
You
to follow Him in all ways.
Men
deceiving: We’re believing
In
our Lord, and interceding
For
our nation and its people
To
obey their God today.
He
is our hope for our future.
For
our wounds He offers suture.
He
is all we need for this life.
Trust
Him with your life today.
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