Gone global

In Acts 10 the Apostle Peter was called by God to put aside the Jewish purity laws which had distinguished Jews from everyone else for fifteen hundred years! Why did God so abruptly discard such an important part of Jewish identity? What was to be gained? Nothing but the entire world. Join us as we unpack God's amazing strategy to redeem mankind as the church goes global.

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Bible Reading

Acts 10:1–16 ESV

1 At Caesarea there was a man named Cornelius, a centurion of what was known as the Italian Cohort, 2 a devout man who feared God with all his household, gave alms generously to the people, and prayed continually to God. 3 About the ninth hour of the day he saw clearly in a vision an angel of God come in and say to him, “Cornelius.” 4 And he stared at him in terror and said, “What is it, Lord?” And he said to him, “Your prayers and your alms have ascended as a memorial before God. 5 And now send men to Joppa and bring one Simon who is called Peter. 6 He is lodging with one Simon, a tanner, whose house is by the sea.” 7 When the angel who spoke to him had departed, he called two of his servants and a devout soldier from among those who attended him, 8 and having related everything to them, he sent them to Joppa. 9 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. 10 And he became hungry and wanted something to eat, but while they were preparing it, he fell into a trance 11 and saw the heavens opened and something like a great sheet descending, being let down by its four corners upon the earth. 12 In it were all kinds of animals and reptiles and birds of the air. 13 And there came a voice to him: “Rise, Peter; kill and eat.” 14 But Peter said, “By no means, Lord; for I have never eaten anything that is common or unclean.” 15 And the voice came to him again a second time, “What God has made clean, do not call common.” 16 This happened three times, and the thing was taken up at once to heaven.

Acts 10:34–48 ESV

34 So Peter opened his mouth and said: “Truly I understand that God shows no partiality, 35 but in every nation anyone who fears him and does what is right is acceptable to him. 36 As for the word that he sent to Israel, preaching good news of peace through Jesus Christ (he is Lord of all), 37 you yourselves know what happened throughout all Judea, beginning from Galilee after the baptism that John proclaimed: 38 how God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and with power. He went about doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil, for God was with him. 39 And we are witnesses of all that he did both in the country of the Jews and in Jerusalem. They put him to death by hanging him on a tree, 40 but God raised him on the third day and made him to appear, 41 not to all the people but to us who had been chosen by God as witnesses, who ate and drank with him after he rose from the dead. 42 And he commanded us to preach to the people and to testify that he is the one appointed by God to be judge of the living and the dead. 43 To him all the prophets bear witness that everyone who believes in him receives forgiveness of sins through his name.” 44 While Peter was still saying these things, the Holy Spirit fell on all who heard the word. 45 And the believers from among the circumcised who had come with Peter were amazed, because the gift of the Holy Spirit was poured out even on the Gentiles. 46 For they were hearing them speaking in tongues and extolling God. Then Peter declared, 47 “Can anyone withhold water for baptizing these people, who have received the Holy Spirit just as we have?” 48 And he commanded them to be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ. Then they asked him to remain for some days.

Introduction—Truganini & Robinson

This week I caught a show called Big Ideas on Radio National where they were talking with the author of a book about Truganini, a well known Tasmanian aboriginal woman. The tragedy of her life is difficult to measure or even understand from our sheltered perspective. She lived in the midst of the dissolution of her culture caused by the sudden influx of British settlers who simply exerted a claim over vast swathes of Tasmania that had once been the exclusive preserve of diverse Aboriginal people groups. However, such suffering it is hardly unique. Human beings have been doing this to one another since the dawn of creation. Our current guilt about it is, in fact, the historically remarkable thing—rarely has a culture felt such regret over doing what human cultures have always done.

The thing that interested me the most in the story, though, was a character called George Augustus Robinson. This man was a British settler who delighted in the Aboriginal culture, and genuinely wanted the best for the Aboriginal people. He was an evangelical Christian, and so he not only wanted the Aboriginals to be safe, but to be eternally safe. He noticed that the relationship that the Aboriginals had with their land was both an admirable one, but also a deeply religious one. He saw this religious connection as a barrier to their acceptance of the gospel, and so he spent much effort in attempting to remove the Aboriginals from their land. This had the added side benefit of removing their interference with the settlers who were taking over the land.

Despite Robinson’s efforts, no adult aboriginals converted to Christianity, only those whom he gathered when they were young.

Now, you can imagine the people talking about this on the ABC had absolutely no sympathy with Robinson’s religious motives, although the author did admit that he genuinely cared about the Aboriginal people, a relatively unusual attitude at the time.

This is a complex story, with complex and mixed motives and consequences on both sides, like much of Australia’s story, to be honest. I’ll reflect on this a little in a moment, but first I want to talk about the story in the Bible, which is also a complex story.

Context

First, where does this story fit in The Journey, in the Bible’s account of human history?

Remember that God created the whole world, and that all people are descended from the first human beings, Adam and Eve, the father and mother of us all. God made this two in perfection, but they rebelled against him, and we have all inherited their attitude and behaviour, living in a fallen world in rebellion against our loving creator.

But God was determined to make a way for us to return to him, if we so desired, and so he chose a family, the family of Abraham, and from him a nation, the nation of Israel, and from the nation God himself came as the God-man Jesus, to die for us to make a way back to him. Jesus could not be held down by death, and rose again, so that we too could escape the bonds of death and live with God forever. Jesus ascended to heaven to sit at God’s right hand and sent his Holy Spirit on his disciples that they might have the power to live out his love and bring the good news of this message to people.

But, at this time, all of Jesus’ disciples were Jews, and the Jews were a fiercely patriotic people. God had given them a Law through Moses when he led them out of their slavery in Egypt into their own land, and this law had taught them how to stand apart from the rest of the nations. This law had taught them how to be holy. For almost one and a half thousand years this law had defined who the Jews were.

Disagreement over the Temple and the scriptures given after the Law had created a rift between the Jews and the Samaritans, and yet the followers of Christ overcame this difference, and the Holy Spirit was poured out upon the new Samaritan followers of Jesus in Acts 8.

Acts 8:14–17 ESV

14 Now when the apostles at Jerusalem heard that Samaria had received the word of God, they sent to them Peter and John, 15 who came down and prayed for them that they might receive the Holy Spirit, 16 for he had not yet fallen on any of them, but they had only been baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus. 17 Then they laid their hands on them and they received the Holy Spirit.

What, then, was the next step? The Law and it’s holiness code formed a great barrier between the Jews (including the Samaritans) and the Gentiles (the rest of the nations of the world). Jews could not eat the same types of food as Gentiles, they could not work on the seventh day and so could only do business independently (not in partnership), they could not marry Gentiles, they could not wear the same types of clothes, their lives were different from birth onwards. How could this barrier be overcome? How could the gospel go beyond Samaria?

The removal of purity laws

At the beginning of Acts 10, we find Simon Peter in Joppa. You may remember Joppa as the town from which the prophet Jonah sailed. Jonah’s mission was to preach to the gentiles, a mission that he fled from. And here in the beginning of Acts 10 we find God giving Simon Peter a mission to the gentiles, just like Jonah. And, just as Jonah found his mission difficult to accept, so did Peter.

After fifteen hundred years of obediently eating only food that is clean according to the law, God abruptly asked Peter to eat food that is unclean according to the law. When Peter refused, God simply declared that this food was now clean. And with that, the great barrier between Jews and Gentiles was gone!

Now, of course it wasn’t that simple. Peter only realised God’s purpose because God had simultaneously sent servants via Cornelius to invite Peter to preach. And Peter himself later went back on his conviction for a short while, something that Paul complained about in Galatians:

Galatians 2:11–14 ESV

11 But when Cephas came to Antioch, I opposed him to his face, because he stood condemned. 12 For before certain men came from James, he was eating with the Gentiles; but when they came he drew back and separated himself, fearing the circumcision party. 13 And the rest of the Jews acted hypocritically along with him, so that even Barnabas was led astray by their hypocrisy. 14 But when I saw that their conduct was not in step with the truth of the gospel, I said to Cephas before them all, “If you, though a Jew, live like a Gentile and not like a Jew, how can you force the Gentiles to live like Jews?”

You see, the removal of this barrier was not easy for people to accept, even those who were closest to Christ and who had received visions from heaven explicitly teaching them about it.

Why is it so hard to put aside these barriers? Let’s look at Peter’s sermon and see if that helps us understand.

Peter’s Sermon

When Peter arrived at Cornelius’s home, full of God-fearing gentiles, he finally understood the vision God had sent him, and he said:

Acts 10:34–35 ESV

34 So Peter opened his mouth and said: “Truly I understand that God shows no partiality, 35 but in every nation anyone who fears him and does what is right is acceptable to him.

Peter went on to recount Jesus ministry, and concluded with

Acts 10:43 ESV

43 To him all the prophets bear witness that everyone who believes in him receives forgiveness of sins through his name.”

So Peter was saying that God has no favourites. He doesn’t favour British, or American, or Chinese, or Aboriginal, or African. He doesn’t favour black or white. He doesn’t favour male or female. All God wants is for each person to believe in Jesus Christ, which is expressed through reverence and right behaviour. We don’t come to Christ as a perfect reflection of God’s beauty and goodness, but his indwelling Spirit transforms us into that, not our own efforts!

We are so used to these concepts that it’s hard to grasp what they really mean, so let’s go back to the story about Truginini and Robinson.

Truginini & Robinson redux

Now, if Robinson had really understood the message that God gave Peter in Joppa, and which he shared with Cornelius in Ceasarea, would he have done anything different?

The amazing power of the Holy Spirit enables Christians to live in the world, in their pre-existing cultures, and yet love and honour God. Isn’t it possible, then, for Aboriginals to continue in a deep relationship with their land, one that is profoundly different from European ways of life, while still worshiping God? If they believe in Jesus and repent of their sins, why can’t they be nomads rather than farmers? Is the Holy Spirit too weak to overcome religious myths, Aboriginal as well as European, with a knowledge of God granted through his word? Did the Irish, for example, a deeply pagan people, need to be moved from Ireland to be transformed by Christ?

Clearly, God can work in any culture, transforming it into something increasingly holy and good for those who love him.

Now, you may be feeling a little uncomfortable as I talk about this. I am talking as if Aboriginal culture is somehow imperfect, as if God needs to transform it because it is not already good and holy.

Well, guess what, that’s another implication from Peter’s speech: all human cultures are corrupt and need transformation. In fact, the whole story of the Bible confirms this. Humanity fell at the beginning of time, and we are all corrupt. All human constructs carry that corruption, and so all cultures are corrupt.

Now, you might say, “Aren’t the Bible and the church human constructs, too, and aren’t they therefore corrupt as well, and so no better than these other cultures?”

That could be the case. It could be the case that the Bible is just a book written by a bunch of people, in which case it has no greater authority than the dreamings of Aboriginal cultures. And it could be that the church is just a human construct, and so it has no authority to call people to conversion, to join their lives to Christ.

That could be the case. It could also be the case that the COVID-19 is transmitted via 5G mobile networks. However, the overwhelming evidence is that viruses aren’t transmitted via mobile networks and that the Bible is, in fact, what it claims to be:

2 Timothy 3:16 ESV

16 All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness,

The historical reliability of Scripture, its extraordinary prophetic power, its astonishing insight into the human condition, and its amazing unity and diversity all argue powerfully for its supernatural origin. In the same way, the very existence of the Church, despite consistent persecution of many types, its inhuman message, and its remarkable transformative power in the lives of millions through the ages all argue for a movement that has supernatural origins.

In the book of Acts, Luke is at pains to attribute the growth of the church to the Holy Spirit. At Pentecost the Holy Spirit added three thousand to the church.

Acts 2:41 ESV

41 So those who received his word were baptized, and there were added that day about three thousand souls.

And God continued to add people:

Acts 2:47 ESV

47 praising God and having favor with all the people. And the Lord added to their number day by day those who were being saved.

God continued to add believers in Samaria, as we saw. And finally he began the ministry to the Gentiles with Peter and Cornelius, a ministry which continues to this day. At each point the Holy Spirit brings transformation and power. Indeed, Paul is so persuaded that the Church is not built by human hands that he says:

2 Corinthians 12:7–10 ESV

7 So to keep me from becoming conceited because of the surpassing greatness of the revelations, a thorn was given me in the flesh, a messenger of Satan to harass me, to keep me from becoming conceited. 8 Three times I pleaded with the Lord about this, that it should leave me. 9 But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me. 10 For the sake of Christ, then, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities. For when I am weak, then I am strong.

How about us?

How does this affect us?

I believe that all of us constantly struggle with idea that God’s power to save is greater than any barrier. The first battle in the church was with the “circumcision party” as Paul called them in Galatians. They believed that we could not be saved without cultural barriers and distinctives to protect us. Many Christians have struggled with race as a barrier. Culture has also been a constant barrier, because we keep forgetting God’s radical unification of Peter & Cornelius. Today we struggle with identity as a barrier, we think that an individual’s ideas of their own gender, purpose, or desires can block God’s purposes.

And yet, only our rebellion can separate us from God, and only because he honours our choice to reject him.

So, as those who follow Christ, as Christians, there are two things that we can have confidence in, that we can build our entire lives on. In fact, there are only two things in this world that we can safely build our lives on:

Everyone needs Christ. We shouldn’t think that some cultures are more holy than others, including, I must emphasize, our own. Even with a long history of Biblical input into our culture we have managed to remain greedy, selfish, and deceitful. Every culture does have the gifts of what is often called common grace--God’s goodness reflected in human behaviour--and these are precious gifts that can be used to point to God. And some cultures have been blessed by the influence of the church, but this does not make the culture itself worth more, any more than a Christian is worth more than one who has yet to repent.

The only refuge is in Christ’s word and body, the church. We need the church because none of us is wise or strong enough to stand on our own. And our culture is, by its nature, in constant rebellion against God—a rebellion that the Church is always fighting. In our weakness and foolishness God gathers us together and uses us in ways that shame the strong and wise of the world. Many people claim to remain close to Jesus while drifting away from his body, but I fear that is not possible: Jesus is preparing the church as his bride for all eternity—if we are not part of the church, if we do not love our brother who we can see, how can we claim to love Christ who we don’t see? Yes, the church is broken and weak. But it is in this weakness that God has always shown his power. The fact that a broken, weak movement like the Christian church has not only survived for two thousand years, but transformed nation after nation, points to God’s power and God’s power alone.

So as you go out today, remember that you are part of something holy and precious. Something to cling to. God is at work in us, as messed up as we are. And he wants to be at work in our neighbours as well, in the midst of their messy lives. Don’t be ashamed of the gospel, and remember that God works especially in the midst of human weakness.

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