BREAKING BARRIERS AND BUILDING BRIDGES
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· 260 viewsGod calls Peter to lower the gates and let Gentiles into the Kingdom.
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Building Bridges and Breaking Barriers.
Building Bridges and Breaking Barriers.
1 Now there was a man at Caesarea named Cornelius, a centurion of what was called the Italian cohort,
2 a devout man and one who feared God with all his household, and gave many alms to the Jewish people and prayed to God continually.
3 About the ninth hour of the day he clearly saw in a vision an angel of God who had just come in and said to him, “Cornelius!”
4 And fixing his gaze on him and being much alarmed, he said, “What is it, Lord?” And he said to him, “Your prayers and alms have ascended as a memorial before God.
5 “Now dispatch some men to Joppa and send for a man named Simon, who is also called Peter;
6 he is staying with a tanner named Simon, whose house is by the sea.”
7 When the angel who was speaking to him had left, he summoned two of his servants and a devout soldier of those who were his personal attendants,
8 and after he had explained everything to them, he sent them to Joppa.
9 On the next day, as they were on their way and approaching the city, Peter went up on the housetop about the sixth hour to pray.
10 But he became hungry and was desiring to eat; but while they were making preparations, he fell into a trance;
11 and he saw the sky opened up, and an object like a great sheet coming down, lowered by four corners to the ground,
12 and there were in it all kinds of four-footed animals and crawling creatures of the earth and birds of the air.
13 A voice came to him, “Get up, Peter, kill and eat!”
14 But Peter said, “By no means, Lord, for I have never eaten anything unholy and unclean.”
15 Again a voice came to him a second time, “What God has cleansed, no longer consider unholy.”
16 This happened three times, and immediately the object was taken up into the sky.
17 Now while Peter was greatly perplexed in mind as to what the vision which he had seen might be, behold, the men who had been sent by Cornelius, having asked directions for Simon’s house, appeared at the gate;
18 and calling out, they were asking whether Simon, who was also called Peter, was staying there.
19 While Peter was reflecting on the vision, the Spirit said to him, “Behold, three men are looking for you.
20 “But get up, go downstairs and accompany them without misgivings, for I have sent them Myself.”
21 Peter went down to the men and said, “Behold, I am the one you are looking for; what is the reason for which you have come?”
22 They said, “Cornelius, a centurion, a righteous and God-fearing man well spoken of by the entire nation of the Jews, was divinely directed by a holy angel to send for you to come to his house and hear a message from you.”
23 So he invited them in and gave them lodging.
And on the next day he got up and went away with them, and some of the brethren from Joppa accompanied him.
24 On the following day he entered Caesarea. Now Cornelius was waiting for them and had called together his relatives and close friends.
25 When Peter entered, Cornelius met him, and fell at his feet and worshiped him.
26 But Peter raised him up, saying, “Stand up; I too am just a man.”
27 As he talked with him, he entered and found many people assembled.
28 And he said to them, “You yourselves know how unlawful it is for a man who is a Jew to associate with a foreigner or to visit him; and yet God has shown me that I should not call any man unholy or unclean.
29 “That is why I came without even raising any objection when I was sent for. So I ask for what reason you have sent for me.”
30 Cornelius said, “Four days ago to this hour, I was praying in my house during the ninth hour; and behold, a man stood before me in shining garments,
31 and he said, ‘Cornelius, your prayer has been heard and your alms have been remembered before God.
32 ‘Therefore send to Joppa and invite Simon, who is also called Peter, to come to you; he is staying at the house of Simon the tanner by the sea.’
33 “So I sent for you immediately, and you have been kind enough to come. Now then, we are all here present before God to hear all that you have been commanded by the Lord.”
34 Opening his mouth, Peter said:
“I most certainly understand now that God is not one to show partiality,
35 but in every nation the man who fears Him and does what is right is welcome to Him.
36 “The word which He sent to the sons of Israel, preaching peace through Jesus Christ (He is Lord of all)—
37 you yourselves know the thing which took place throughout all Judea, starting from Galilee, after the baptism which John proclaimed.
38 “You know of Jesus of Nazareth, how God anointed Him with the Holy Spirit and with power, and how He went about doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil, for God was with Him.
39 “We are witnesses of all the things He did both in the land of the Jews and in Jerusalem. They also put Him to death by hanging Him on a cross.
40 “God raised Him up on the third day and granted that He become visible,
41 not to all the people, but to witnesses who were chosen beforehand by God, that is, to us who ate and drank with Him after He arose from the dead.
42 “And He ordered us to preach to the people, and solemnly to testify that this is the One who has been appointed by God as Judge of the living and the dead.
43 “Of Him all the prophets bear witness that through His name everyone who believes in Him receives forgiveness of sins.”
44 While Peter was still speaking these words, the Holy Spirit fell upon all those who were listening to the message.
45 All the circumcised believers who came with Peter were amazed, because the gift of the Holy Spirit had been poured out on the Gentiles also.
46 For they were hearing them speaking with tongues and exalting God. Then Peter answered,
47 “Surely no one can refuse the water for these to be baptized who have received the Holy Spirit just as we did, can he?”
48 And he ordered them to be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ. Then they asked him to stay on for a few days.
Profound gleanings from the Passage:
Profound gleanings from the Passage:
God’s Plan for reaching the world launches from Joppa to Caesarea!
How many missionaries to the Gentiles did god send? Basically one sent, Jonah. He too went to Joppa but to run the opposite direction. He didn’t like like the Assyrians. They did evil. They looked crooked. Perhaps his family had lost loved ones to some Assyrian soldiers or conquest. In fact, Jonah hoped they died. Now the existence of the Book of Jonah can be seen as a sign of his bigoted heart being changed and seeing Yahweh’s love for all people.
Peter on the other hand hear’s God. Struggles to accept people from a different ethnic background. Seriously God had to tell him 3 times. I don’t know about you, I hope I’d get the message after 1 conversation with an Angel.
Look at Slides. Joppa about 30 miles from Caesarea. Joppa is where Jonah tried to avoid going to the Gentiles. Joppa is where God relaunches the missionary effort to the Gentiles.
How many trips do we know where Jesus took the disciples outside of Galilee or Samaria?
Well if you count Egypt, you can add one. but in His adult ministry, we only have Him Going to the main city of Asia Minor. Herod has a palace here. Mount Hermon where a bunch of bad things happened in the Jewish mind.
If I were to ask you, why is the world so bad. If you had any Bible knowledge you’d probably say, well, the Fall of Adam and Eve, our sin nature, you would probably also add the Devil prowls. Some of you might also say the curse of the Fall.
But a Jew would also add, what happened on Mt. Hermon. See it’s there that the Jews of Jesus day would say that the Watchers, we’d call them rebellious angelics came down in Genesis 6. They took earthly wives and began to teach people the art of war and conquest. So this is real spiritual warfare.
They had the Gates of Hades there. That’s where Jesus preached and taught Peter would break the bars of spiritual prisons and free the Gentiles. The church unlike how Jews saw things needed to go on the offensive and reclaim the lands.
See this is also the land of Goliath’s. Giant clans had lived there. The Danites did not get rid of the giants, they like Lot just settled for compromise. God wants to reclaim the people and the land from the bad guys.
1 Now there was a man at Caesarea named Cornelius, a centurion of what was called the Italian cohort,
5 “Now dispatch some men to Joppa and send for a man named Simon, who is also called Peter;
Peter will go when Jonah ran.
3 But Jonah rose up to flee to Tarshish from the presence of the Lord. So he went down to Joppa, found a ship which was going to Tarshish, paid the fare and went down into it to go with them to Tarshish from the presence of the Lord.
Peter will defeat the power hold of Hades!
18 “I also say to you that you are Peter, and upon this rock I will build My church; and the gates of Hades will not overpower it.
2. God hears the Prayers of people who seek Him. (This also speaks to the question of those who have never heard.)
2 a devout man and one who feared God with all his household, and gave many alms to the Jewish people and prayed to God continually.
3 About the ninth hour of the day he clearly saw in a vision an angel of God who had just come in and said to him, “Cornelius!”
4 And fixing his gaze on him and being much alarmed, he said, “What is it, Lord?” And he said to him, “Your prayers and alms have ascended as a memorial before God.
34 Opening his mouth, Peter said:
“I most certainly understand now that God is not one to show partiality,
35 but in every nation the man who fears Him and does what is right is welcome to Him.
36 “The word which He sent to the sons of Israel, preaching peace through Jesus Christ (He is Lord of all)—
20 For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes, His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly seen, being understood through what has been made, so that they are without excuse.
Many people want to know about those who never heard. I truly believe God has given Natural revelation that a person would humble themselves to the God who made this AWESOME wonder of the world and the universe. However, natural revelation does not offer salvation, only Christ does.
So notice how Cornelius was a God fearer and seeker.
Such ones God seeks
22 “You worship what you do not know; we worship what we know, for salvation is from the Jews.
23 “But an hour is coming, and now is, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth; for such people the Father seeks to be His worshipers.
The one who comes into the light that he or she has, God sends more light. He did so with Cornelius. Why would we doubt that God still does that.
The other thing I would say, if you don’t believe and that is your excuse not to believe, WHATABOUTISM, well you already be fact of asking that question reveal that God has given you the WORD. So believe on Him and either GO like Peter or help send others to go through faithful generous giving to church and missions.
If you heard the Gospel, you are without excuse. If you’ve heard of Jesus and said, Ah, he’s just another prophet, teacher, you are without excuse. Just remember
2.3 billion people claim to be Christians in world today. Without excuse.
1.7 billion Muslims. They have Jesus in their Holy books, without excuse. They know enough not to relegate Him to merely human or a prophet.
1.2 billion Hindus. They incorporate all the gods in their religion. they have Jesus as A god, not The WAY THE TRUTH AND LIFE. They have enough light to seek Him. They are without excuse.
But do you see how I covered over 6 billion immediately who have enough light to cry out to God for Jesus.
Now we need to cry for them and call out to them to break past their indifference or hardness. But I didn’t count the millions of NONES who know about Christmas and Easter, but don’t want it.
So yeah, there are some areas of the world that have never heard the name of Jesus, but that’s fairly few. Certainly not everyone has the access to open Gospel preaching. But I didn’t even get to China where the faith is spreading like wildfire.
So yes, we should be more concerned, but that is not an excuse. God has given truth, people suppress it. But God does not give up.
People Satan build barriers and bars, Jesus calls us to build bridges.
We should have no problem telling others Black Lives matters when we see injustice against blacks.
We should remind them that the greatest solution is to break down barriers that people see our character, like Jesus sees Cornelius, and not the color of our skin. It’s that simple. And where we see barriers to keep people from what is just, we should have no problem calling for reform.
However, we should seek the greatest reform, the reform of a heart that gets changed by the Holy Spirit.
3. God Puts no barriers between a person and His family.
What I don’t see:
They were not saved because they were circumcised.
They were not saved because they lived in the best house.
They were not saved by being vegan, they like bacon, that’s grace food, or by keeping Kosher.
They were not saved by being baptized. For those who thought baptism caused one to be saved or receive the Holy Spirit, listen to Peter. How can we keep baptism from them as THEY ALREADY RECEIVED THE SPIRIT.
Cornelius and his household heard the word and received God’s promise to save by believing.
He didn’t get born again first in order to believe, but he believed and received the second birth. That’s how the text of the Bible presents it. I know there as so many churches that want to baptize babies and want to say that baptism makes them get the Holy Spirit. There are groups that will say even adults need the water to receive the Holy Spirit. And there are others who want to say, you need to be born again in order to believe. I just don’t see those thoughts sustainable from the text of Scripture. I understand that when they got some philosophy or a sermon on an isolated text that seemed right when they heard it.
Beloved, God had to repeat “eat” to Peter 3 times. That’s thick headed. Do you really think God would make salvation so confusion. Folks, it really is that simple to start a relationship to Christ. Hear and believe!
Paul makes that clear for you in
13 for “Whoever will call on the name of the Lord will be saved.”
17 So faith comes from hearing, and hearing by the word of Christ.
No ethnic distance.
28 And he said to them, “You yourselves know how unlawful it is for a man who is a Jew to associate with a foreigner or to visit him; and yet God has shown me that I should not call any man unholy or unclean.
b. No traditions to trip people.
44 While Peter was still speaking these words, the Holy Spirit fell upon all those who were listening to the message.
45 All the circumcised believers who came with Peter were amazed, because the gift of the Holy Spirit had been poured out on the Gentiles also.
c. Believing TRUST alone grants one Freedom in Christ and Acceptance in His Family.
47 “Surely no one can refuse the water for these to be baptized who have received the Holy Spirit just as we did, can he?”
48 And he ordered them to be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ. Then they asked him to stay on for a few days.
Questions for Reflection:
Are there any barriers that keep you from loving people who appear different? Revelation 7:9
What traditions of faith comfort you?
What traditions caused you to struggle?
Study the passage. If you know you believe in Christ, how has the Devil kept you from resting in Christ’s joy?
Has God been prompting you to speak with someone about the faith? What have you done in response?