Christ is Life Podcast

I hope you brought your Bible. If you did, I want to invite you to open it up to Acts. Chapter 10. Acts. Chapter 10, we've been in this message series called life in the Spirit, where we've been working our way verse by verse all the way through the book of Acts. And today we're going to be picking up in verse one of chapter 10, and chapter 10 is an important chapter. I mean, everything in the Bible is important, but sometimes things really stand out in a way that they offer even more significance. For some reason Acts chapter 10 is one of those chapters. In fact, the late pastor and theologian James Montgomery Boyce stated this, and I quote, The 10th chapter of Acts, is one of the most important chapters in Acts, perhaps also one of the most important chapters in all of the Bible. What we see happen in Acts chapter 10 and even into Acts. Chapter 11 is a significant event that impacts the life of the early church and everyone around the world and still us today. And because it's such an important chapter, and because it's a long set of material, we're going to break it up a little bit and not look at it all at one time. And so today, we're going to look at Acts 10, verses one through 23 and then we'll pick up in verse 24 next week, and look at the rest of this section and what was so significant about it. But here's the way that Luke starts off in this 10th chapter of Acts beginning in verse one. He says, at Caesarea, there was a man named Cornelius, and he tells us that he was a Centurion in what was known as the Italian regiment. So we learned a lot just right off the bat about who Cornelius is. He's a Roman soldier. He's a leader in the Roman army, a centurion, which meant he was in charge. He was a leader over 100 other soldiers, and he was a part of this Italian regiment, or sometimes what's translated as a cohort, which meant there were 600 soldiers. So there would have been six Centurions who were in charge of 100 men each, and Cornelius was one of those men. Verse two, we learn a little bit more about him. Even here, Luke tells us that he and all of his family were devout and God fearing, and that he gave generously to all in need and prayed to God regularly. When we see that Luke describes him as being devout and God fearing, these are terms that mean that even though Cornelius was a Gentile, even though he was a Roman soldier Gentile, he believed in the God of the Jews, the one true God, and that he tried to follow and honor the Jewish laws and customs. But he had not been fully incorporated into the Jewish community, yet through circumcision, that is what it means when Luke is using these terms, that he was devout and God fearing. In this way, we're also told that he had a generous heart, because he gave generously to those who had need, and he prayed to God regularly. And so Cornelius seemed like a good man. I mean, he seemed like he was involved in a lot of really good activities and things to give out of the things that he had to help provide for other people in need, and to pray regularly. These are certainly good things. They're things God would want all of us to do. But one of the things that we need to highlight when we come across people being described in this particular way is this, even though it appears that he was doing good things and he's praying to God and he's being religious and he's he's devout, and seems very sincere in what it is that he's doing guys, he was still just as far away from God as the most rebellious sinner, whose actions we would describe as absolutely despicable, he was just as far away from God. How do we know so? Because that's what Scripture teaches us. Romans, 323, All have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. And all, of course, means all, even Cornelius. And anyone who's doing good Romans 310 says there is no one righteous, not even one. And we're even told that all of our righteous acts are like filthy rags when you compare them to a holy and a perfect God. And so we need to be clear about this, even when we see that Cornelius is described as religious. He's described as devout. We see him doing really good deeds. Cornelius was still missing eternal life because he was a sinner separated from God and did not have Jesus in his life. This is what First John. Five tells us that He who has the Son has life. He who does not have the Son does not have life. And guys, we need to be aware not just of the fact that this was true of Cornelius at this point in time, but it could be true of some of us. It is very possible to come to church each and every single Sunday and to do good things and be a part of very religious activities and still be missing eternal life from Christ that can only be found in Christ. Sometimes, when I hear people describing themselves and their testimony and what it was like growing up, and in thinking about it, in the fact of these lines right here, I hear people often say that, well, my mom and dad taught me right from wrong, and often that's a shot at mom and dad's not teaching their kids right and wrong today, and they're trying to make sure that that stands out as the most important thing about them in their childhood was that their mom and dad taught them that there was a difference between right and there was a difference between wrong and that's certainly not a bad thing. But sometimes people will say that, as if it is the most important thing, you can know the difference between right and wrong, you can even try your best to avoid most things and avoid all of those things and do mostly right things along the way, but that will still not earn you eternal life. You'll still be as far away from God as the most rebellious sinner that there is out there, even if you know right from wrong and were raised the right way, you're just as far as God from anyone else. Salvation is a gift. It's something that we receive. It is not something that we earn. We don't find our way through to salvation through religious practices or trying to be good. And this is the place that Cornelius was in. This was the situation that Cornelius and his family were in, but God being a loving and a caring God that sent Jesus to die for all people is about to sovereignly orchestrate some things in his life that will reveal this truth about him missing Jesus and that him being devout and God fearing and giving generously to those in need, and praying to him regularly were not anywhere close to being enough to merit His salvation. So let's see what happens. As Luke continues in verse three, he says, 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 to Joppa to bring back a man named Simon, who is also called Peter. He is staying with Simon, the tanner, whose house is by the sea. So we can already see that God is going to some pretty great lengths to get Cornelius's attention here. I mean, first of all, he sends an angel to him. I mean, that's a pretty big deal to get someone's attention. And then we see that he's going to great lengths to have him to send some men to go find Simon Peter, who's all the way over in this area called Joppa, which is at least 30, about 35 miles away. So that's not necessarily a short trip, especially in that day and age. And they have to travel there. They'd have to convince Peter to come back, and then they have to travel all the way back. And this is all even though we haven't gotten there yet. So that can Peter can share the gospel with them, reveal the truth about the things that we just mentioned a second ago. So the question is, why would God go to all of that trouble? I mean, he's sending him a vision with an angel right there. Why wouldn't the angel just share the gospel with him? If that's what this whole thing is ultimately going to be about, certainly
would be much easier. He's right there.
There's several reasons for this. First and foremost, God created us as the church. Gave us new life in Christ to use us as the ones who would share the gospel with other men, not to angels. He's entrusted that to us as His sons and daughters. But number two, also, because God didn't have just a work to do in Cornelius's life, he had some work to do in Peter's life, there were some things that Peter was believing that were not true about his new life in Christ that he hadn't quite learned yet, and because he hadn't learned those and was believing false things about it, then it was leading him to act out in false ways and do things that didn't align with his new character and his new heart and who he now was in Christ. And so he wasn't just going to grab Peter for Cornelius. It was also going to be for. For Peter as well. The third reason about going to all of this trouble is because, again, we've already highlighted, it's chapter 10, and what happens here is a huge deal, a very significant thing that is going to happen in the life of the early church. And because it is such a big deal, it took Peter Jesus needed Peter to be the one to kind of authenticate what it is that was going to happen here, people were going to have questions. They were going to wonder if this is really what is true and what was happening. And Peter, being a leader in the church, knew would carry weight if he was able to tell them that, yes, this is what happened and what God was up to during this time. So now that he were told about this vision that he had. Let's see how he reacts and what it is that he does. In Verse seven, it says, 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, and he told them everything that had happened and sent them to Joppa, he he did what the angel asked him to do. Now you may be thinking, Yeah, well, if an angel appeared to me, I'd certainly do what he told me to do as well. And maybe that's true, but let's also be honest. I mean, the angel didn't tell him what this was necessarily all about. I mean, he said, go send, you know, over here, and get this guy named Peter. And sometimes when, when God starts to reveal different things to us, and we don't really understand what it is that's going on in our own lives. We're kind of like, Did he really say, you know, is that really God speaking to me about those things? I don't even know what this is all about. I'm gonna walk all the way over there and tell this guy named Peter to come and he can be like, why I don't even and then we're gonna be looking stupid, right? And so a lot of times, we try to talk ourselves out of these new things that God is doing in our lives when we don't understand them. Cornelius trusted that God was up to something and open to whatever it is that he was doing in and through this. And it's our job to do the same thing when the Spirit is speaking to us about new things in our lives, even when we don't see it yet and begin to understand it. This is also going to come up, not just in Cornelius's life, it's going to come up in Peter's life, as we just kind of revealed a second ago. But here's the thing, the angel, God, through this angel, has revealed all of this to Cornelius and to go get Peter, and he's sending men on the way. But Peter doesn't know it. Peter has no idea that this vision has gone on, that an angel has happened, and that he's supposed to go. And so God's got some work to do in Peter's life to prepare him to get ready to go with these men. And that's where we see God show up next beginning in verse nine, it says about noon on the following day, as they were on their journey and approaching the city, Peter went up on the rooftop 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 and something like a large sheet being let down to earth by its four corners, it continued all or contained all kinds of four footed animals, as well as reptiles and birds and then, 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, we're told, and immediately the sheet was taken back to heaven. Now. Now, why is this such a big deal? I mean, why is Peter reacting so strongly and so harshly here? And why did it take the three different times to have this conversation around this idea, this vision that he was presenting here. Well, the reason is because, under the old covenant that God had made with the Jewish people, God had given them strict dietary laws regarding clean and unclean foods. There were some foods that were labeled as clean and others that were labeled as unclean, and you were not supposed to eat the unclean ones, and you could eat the clean ones. You can read a lot more about that in Leviticus, chapter 11, if you want to go back this afternoon and read those, you can go way into detail that we don't have time for right now. But one of the questions that many of us have when we see that, or maybe we understood that for a while, that that was true, but we go, why? I mean, what was that even all about? Well, it's about a couple of things. First and foremost, God was trying to set them apart. He was working with this chosen nation to set them apart so that they would be distinct, so that they would be visibly different, and notice that there was something different, not just about them, but the God that they believed in, the one true God. And what God was doing that for was not just for them, but a work that he was going to do in and through them, for all people that we see all the way back. Revealed in Genesis 12, but they had missed it. And so the food laws were a part of that kind of thing, setting them apart, making them distinct from the way other nations handled this kind of thing. The second reason is just simply that God was holy himself. He is holy. And they, as a people, were not holy. They were not clean, and so they were a number of things that he was highlighting as clean and unclean, and trying to differentiate between that which is not good and that which is good, or the difference between them and God. And I think when we we ultimately see this, it's part of the the law in the way that even Paul talked about it and the purpose of it in Romans, when Paul's writing under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, in Romans, he teaches us that God gave the Law. The reason that he gave the Law was to reveal our sinfulness. Was to show us that we are unclean, we can't make ourselves clean, and that we are in need of a Savior, that we need someone else to make us clean. We need someone else to make us whole before him as a perfect and a holy God. So that's ultimately what even the food laws were all about, along with the moral law and the ceremonial law and and the sacrificial law, and in all of those things, was to reveal to us that we were unclean. He's clean holy, and we're in need of a Savior. But Peter didn't understand that. Yet. He didn't really get that. All he knew is that all he had ever been taught as a good Jewish person, even from a little kid as a little Jewish boy, was, stay away from these foods. Stay away from unclean foods. Do not eat unclean foods. But all of a sudden, God's now through this vision trying to tell him to eat these things. And so he pushes back. No, no, it's not right. I will not do it. It's why it took him three times, because he had to show Peter this over and over, because it was so ingrained. I mean, just so ingrained into part of his thinking it was so black and white. I mean, this is right, this is wrong. And even though God is the one telling him to do this. It was so ingrained. No, this is not true. Same thing happens in our lives, right? Sometimes the Holy Spirit begins to reveal something different to us. It's it's something different than that what we believe to be true. Maybe it was something we read about in Scripture. Maybe it was something a former pastor said, or or someone a Sunday school a Sunday school teacher had taught us us, or someone that we saw on YouTube that we respected, and we believe one thing, and all of a sudden the Holy Spirit is trying to reveal something new about what we've heard before. And our first reaction oftentimes, no, no, no, that is not true. That's false teaching right there. And we automatically pick up on that and make our mind and begin to push back and say, I will not go there. This is what happened to me. I remember this happening whenever God began to reveal more to me about his grace and about how we as New Covenant Christians are dead to the law that we don't try to live the Christian life through obeying the law. I pushed back. I was like, no, no, that is not true. That's not true. I've heard from other pastors, my Sunday School teachers my whole life, people have been saying other things that are sound opposite than that. And so that's not true. And so like Peter, it took three times it's not really true.
Took a lot more than three times
for him to reveal that to me, because I pushed back a lot. Took a lot for me to be open to that and for him to change my mind about New Covenant Christianity, how we don't live the Christian law life by focusing on Old Testament, law that we've been separated from it, that we now live by the Spirit. But God just kept taking me back to Scripture. Every time I would push back, he would, okay, well, what about this? Jason and he would point me to passages like Romans, seven, four through six. Says, so this is the apostle Paul, again, writing under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. This is God giving him the very words to say. Who says so, my brothers and sisters, the rest of you who are in the church, who have put your faith and trust in Jesus and are like me, you also died to the law. How, through the body of Christ, now, by dying to what once bound us, we have been released from the law so that we serve in the new way of the Spirit and not in the old way of the written code. I mean, there it was, right. There God's Word. Were stating it pretty clearly what I was having such a hard time believing in in that moment. But the spirit had to keep coming back to kind of prove to me, because I did not want to believe it at first.
Peter didn't want to believe it either.
I know, Lord, you're telling me to eat these foods, but no, no, I'm not doing it. I don't I'm not buying it. And so he had to come back three times to be able to show him and and now, as Luke continues, he shows us that that it's certainly about the food laws, but it's also about even so much more. Verse 17, says, While Peter was wondering about the meaning of the vision, the men sent by Cornelius found out where Simon's house was. Simon the tanner and stopped at the gate. They called out, asking if Simon, Peter who, or Simon who was known as Peter, was staying there. And 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 and do not hesitate to go with them, for I have sent them now. Why would Peter be hesitant to go with them? Well, the main reason is because these men were Gentiles. These men were Gentiles. They were Roman soldiers. They were Gentiles. They were not Jewish. And we're going to get much more into this next week. But another thing that was so ingrained into a good Jewish person's thinking, aside from all of these dietary food restrictions and unclean and cleaned foods, was that you were not to associate with Gentiles. You're not to associate with them. Gentiles were also unclean. They didn't follow the same dietary laws. They didn't follow God's moral law, his sacrificial law, his ceremonial laws, any of the laws. And the Jewish people were to stay separate. They were to stay away. The thing was, even though God had called them to be separate, it was for other reasons than what they took that to mean. And they had they had missed his intentions. They had become prideful.
They become prejudice
against them, even calling these Gentiles dogs and demeaning them, devaluing them, saying they're just not worth what I've stepped on it is on the bottom of my shoe, I'm so much greater than they are. And so the spirit would have to say something to Peter, like, listen, I know when these men knock on the door, you're going to be pretty hesitant to go with them. He doesn't specifically tell them why, that they're Gentiles and all of the above, but this is why, because they're Gentiles, and the first thing he's going to do is slam the door in their face and run right. But listen, don't hesitate. He says, because I've sent them, I'm in this. I'm even working in and through them, and going to show you that that's what this is ultimately even all about and so let's see how Peter responds. Beginning in verse 21 says, Peter went down and said to the men, I'm the one you're looking for. Why have you come? The men replied, we've come from Cornelius, the Centurion. He is a righteous and God fearing man who is respected by all the Jewish people, a holy angel told him to ask you to come to his house so that he could hear what you have to say. Then Peter invited the men into the house to be his guest. Guys. That is no small thing. I mean, again, we're talking about Gentiles. They were they were dogs, they were unclean. You stayed away from Gentiles. You saw a Gentile in public. You walked far around and away to make sure that you were nowhere near them. They would certainly never allow one into their home or consider eating a meal alongside of them. And so for Peter to take this step that we see here shows us that he was starting to be open about what the Holy Spirit was saying to him. He may have pushed back three times like, no, no, I'm not doing I'm not doing it. I'm not doing it. But now he was beginning to soften his heart. He was beginning to be open to what God was was doing. And he had told him not to be, not to hesitate going. And so he didn't hesitate to to let them in and begin to even take this step here, ultimately, what we're what we're going to see as this continues, and this is the first step into this. Is that what God was doing through this vision that he was showing Peter was not just about the food laws. It was also about the Gentiles. It was about the Gentiles and how they were not to be seen as unclean, how they were not to be seen as those who should. Not or could not be saved that were unsavable, that Jesus died for all people's sins, regardless of race, nationality, past mistakes, anything else, all people could be saved in part of his church if they would just
respond in faith.
But the deal is is in order to reveal that to Peter, God really had to, first and foremost, show him that the food laws had been dealt with at the cross as well. Because again, how would they ever really be able to receive the Gentiles into their lives to share the gospel with them if they couldn't even gather around a table together and share a meal, and even if he did share the gospel with them and they were invited into the community. Do you remember Acts two the Holy Spirit, what life in the Spirit looked like after 3000 people got saved? The first thing that Luke tells us about his community and how they all shared their lives together, and they shared meals together, and they were in homes together, and so even if he shared the gospel with them and didn't share a meal ahead of time, then the Spirit was going to lead them into that. But they couldn't do that. They were just, what is this going to be like? You're going to have to have your Jewish Christians, and this is the way that we approach meals and certain things, and you have your Gentile Christians in the way, and God's like, no, no, I'm not up to doing two separate things here. This is one thing that I'm doing among all of you, is he had to show Peter that he had dealt with these food laws at the cross to open him up and the others in the church to God, even receiving the Gentiles in the first place. And so this is what the Spirit was up to in in both of those ways, to reveal through the cross, Jesus dealt with the sacrificial, ceremonial, moral and food laws, he had fulfilled the law. It's what he said he came to do. And number two, to show that the gospel was open even to the Gentiles, which we'll touch on more next week, but for this week, what does life in the Spirit look like? From this passage, what do we learn here? Two things I want to highlight. Number one, life in the Spirit means that he will sometimes need to change our minds about his truth. Think, think again with me at what was taking place with Peter. In this text, Peter had put his faith and trust in Jesus, Christ for salvation. He had been made into a new creation. He had received a new heart, the Holy Spirit. Was doing these miraculous things. Tons of people were getting saved. He was sharing the Gospel all over the place. But yet, even though all of these things had happened, Peter was still believing in some things that were not actually true. He was believing that certain foods would make you clean if you ate them, and other ones not clean, and that the Gentiles were unsavable, both of which were not true, even though the Holy Spirit was dwelling in him, and he was doing so much good in the early church, and all the things that God was up to in his kingdom work. But God had to reveal this new truth to him because, because there were some things, some false beliefs that he had, even though he was changed, even though he was transformed, he still had some false beliefs, some old beliefs that the Holy Spirit needed to reveal to him were true. The same is true of us, of course, right? Even though we put our faith and trust in Jesus, even though we become brand new creations in Christ, we receive a new heart, the Holy Spirit can begin to work in us and through us to do his kingdom work. There are things in our lives that will be false beliefs, things that we thought were true, maybe about what our lives were about before we came to know Christ that he needs to correct and align with, what is the truth and the way it plays out now, but also it could be about things that we've even learned along the way as Christians, things that we've learned in the church along the way that God wants to reveal to us didn't really line up with His truths, after All. And so when that happens, the question is, Will Will you be open to the Spirit's leading when he's trying to reveal new things to you, or will you close your heart off and harden your heart to those new things that he is showing you? I've already revealed how I pushed away multiple attempts to push away and to to harden my heart against the things that that the spirit was teaching me around New Covenant Christianity and Old Covenant law and how it was different from things I'd been even taught in the church.
I wasn't open to it in the. The beginning,
there are some people who
have been a part of our church who heard new teaching, things that maybe God was trying to reveal to them about false beliefs that they had and what's actually true, and what we see in God's word, who didn't have an open heart about that closed their heart and are no longer here because of that.
But there are many of you who are here today
who felt the Holy Spirit doing the same thing in your own heart, and you may have even pushed back at first like I did, but you stayed open, and you said something like, God, I don't know if this is true. It doesn't sound true. As a matter of fact, everything in me says that what I'm hearing is not true. But if it is, if it is and I've just missed it along the way, then I'm open. Would you confirm it to me? Would you reveal it to me? Would you illuminate your truths to me in this way? And when we do that, he will, and a number of you who wrestled with that and gave him room have come to see what God was up to in all of that, and you're experiencing this abundant life in Christ now that you had the moment you said yes to Jesus, but you never really were able to experience because you didn't. You were living with some false beliefs, some things that you saw thought were true about you or a god, and what this whole Christian life was about, but weren't really about that, specifically what we're even talking about in relation to what Peter learned today, because law is law. They don't talk about food laws, ceremonial laws, sacrificial laws. Law is law for an Old Testament Jewish person. So the second thing we need to just make sure we're being, again, very specific about, and I've already kind of highlighted it, but just to make sure we don't miss it. Life in the spirit means that we as New Covenant believers do not live by the written code any longer, the law. We live by the Spirit, as I read in Romans chapter seven. When we see that written there, we even see that the apostle Paul, I mean, I mean, right after writing those things that we looked at at the beginning of chapter seven, he gets into this struggle. And people talk about it all the time, how Paul said stuff like, Man, I do the things I don't want to do sometimes, and I don't do the things that I want to do sometimes we're going see, even for Paul, he couldn't live the Christian life. It was just too hard, even for that super Christian that's over there. But that's not what Romans seven and what he's talking about, if you go back and you look at the passage, it flows out of him, talking about the law. What Paul is describing there is the struggle of trying to live life by and through the Old Covenant law. It didn't work before he became a Christian, because all he found himself doing when he was a good Jewish person and trying to follow the law was he couldn't do what he wanted to do, and sometimes the things that he wanted to he could. I mean, all of those struggles there. And then when he came a believer, he was like, now I still can't do the things that I am wanting to do or that I can't. You know, he's it's all why? Because he's trying to live it through law. This is the struggle. It doesn't work. It wasn't what it was designed for. The law was was introduced to help us see our need for a Savior, and if we put our faith and trust in Jesus to be our Savior, we have that savior now. We have new life in him, and he, through the Holy Spirit, becomes our guide for our actions and our behavior and our character and all of those things. And as a matter of fact, he's already done all of that work to to make that line up with him in your union with Christ, and as we make ourselves available to him as the branch in the vine, in and through us, he's the one that will produce those good works and the actions and the character and the life decisions and the things through us as we simply just live life in the Spirit, we keep our eyes fixed on Him and trust in Him and what it is that he is doing. So my hope and my prayer for you is that if, if you're a believer today and and you just, I mean, you live your life as if, man, I know everything about what is true and what is not in this book. I mean 100% black and white, that if the Holy Spirit began to bring some new things up to you that went a little bit against what it is that you've learned or you thought you interpreted one way in this will again, you remain open to that. Or you. To be prideful and go, No, I know what that means. I've got it all figured out. My hope and my prayers that will be open to what God is doing, and just say, Okay, God, if this is your truth, and show me, I'm going to step in and wait for you to speak and continue to do that. And if you're here today and you've never put your faith and trust in Jesus. Maybe you, maybe you find yourself in Cornelius situation. Boy, you thought coming to church, you thought being religious and devout and giving money away and doing good things and helping people or man, God's going to look favorably upon me. And then you hear us talking about they're no one righteous, no one good, and all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. And you're going, what do now? Well, what you do now is you begin to recognize that you are actually a sinner and separated from a holy and perfect God. Is to receive His free gift of salvation by putting your faith and trust in Him and recognizing that he's the only one who can make you good ultimately. And so my hope and prayer is that that's a step you'll take today. And if that's not you, you're going, yeah, maybe that was Cornelius story, but that's not mine. I'm kind of on the other end of the spectrum. There's nothing about me that's devout and religious and moral and good in any way. I know the depths of my sin, and I'm the rebellious sinner that you were talking about earlier. And so you know what about for me? Well, the same gospel is for you. I mean, this is the same Jesus who turned to the thief on the cross and said, today, you'll be with me in Paradise because he believed in Jesus and that Jesus was dying on the Cross for his sins. And so this is for you, too. And so wherever you're at, if the Lord is leading you to respond in any particular way this morning, about this text, my prayer is that you would be open as we pray together.