When God Is Initiating Something New
Notes
Transcript
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. And he became hungry and wanted something to eat, but while they were preparing it, he fell into a trance and saw the heavens opened and something like a great sheet descending, being let down by its four corners upon the earth. In it were all kinds of animals and reptiles and birds of the air. And there came a voice to him: “Rise, Peter; kill and eat.” But Peter said, “By no means, Lord; for I have never eaten anything that is common or unclean.” And the voice came to him again a second time, “What God has made clean, do not call common.” This happened three times, and the thing was taken up at once to heaven.
Now while Peter was inwardly perplexed as to what the vision that he had seen might mean, behold, the men who were sent by Cornelius, having made inquiry for Simon’s house, stood at the gate and called out to ask whether Simon who was called Peter was lodging there. And while Peter was pondering the vision, the Spirit said to him, “Behold, three men are looking for you. Rise and go down and accompany them without hesitation, for I have sent them.” And Peter went down to the men and said, “I am the one you are looking for. What is the reason for your coming?” And they said, “Cornelius, a centurion, an upright and God-fearing man, who is well spoken of by the whole Jewish nation, was directed by a holy angel to send for you to come to his house and to hear what you have to say.” So he invited them in to be his guests.
The next day he rose and went away with them, and some of the brothers from Joppa accompanied him. And on the following day they entered Caesarea. Cornelius was expecting them and had called together his relatives and close friends. When Peter entered, Cornelius met him and fell down at his feet and worshiped him. But Peter lifted him up, saying, “Stand up; I too am a man.” And as he talked with him, he went in and found many persons gathered. And he said to them, “You yourselves know how unlawful it is for a Jew to associate with or to visit anyone of another nation, but God has shown me that I should not call any person common or unclean. So when I was sent for, I came without objection. I ask then why you sent for me.”
And Cornelius said, “Four days ago, about this hour, I was praying in my house at the ninth hour, and behold, a man stood before me in bright clothing and said, ‘Cornelius, your prayer has been heard and your alms have been remembered before God. Send therefore to Joppa and ask for Simon who is called Peter. He is lodging in the house of Simon, a tanner, by the sea.’ So I sent for you at once, and you have been kind enough to come. Now therefore we are all here in the presence of God to hear all that you have been commanded by the Lord.”
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.
In order for Peter to be faithful to preach the gospel to Gentiles, God had to work on him a bit. In fact, the entire church, at this point, was in need of renovation. It’s not that they were in disobedience or sin. It was just that they had yet to bridge the gap between Jews and Gentiles with the gospel message.
This is understandable given their context, upbringing, Old Testament theology, and human limitations. They were simply ignorant to the full scope of God’s plan and his heart for the pagan nations.
Convicting Peter of the mission to the Gentiles was God’s first step for showing the Jewish Church that God was grafting gentiles in family of God.
Main Idea
God had to convince Peter that gentiles were acceptable candidates for gospel conversion.
There were four steps necessary for this to happen.
The First Step… in verses 9-16
God Had To Prepare Peter
God Had To Prepare Peter
God had to marinate Peter with a supernatural vision.
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. And he became hungry and wanted something to eat, but while they were preparing it, he fell into a trance
God used natural aspects of Peter’s human experience for the purposes of initiating his preparation.
Peter is hungry. And, obviously tired from his mission endeavors.
and saw the heavens opened and something like a great sheet descending, being let down by its four corners upon the earth. In it were all kinds of animals and reptiles and birds of the air. And there came a voice to him: “Rise, Peter; kill and eat.” But Peter said, “By no means, Lord; for I have never eaten anything that is common or unclean.”
As Peter sees all the animals, including ceremonially unclean animals, God instructs him to do something that, upon initial instruction, seems to contradict something that was clearly an instruction from God to the Jews.
When God told Peter to do this, he objects!
“This doesn’t seem to fit something you told us to do in the past!”
“How can you want me to do this now when it was so clear back then that you didn’t want us to do this!”
This is significant, because, associating with Gentiles was also something Jews were not to do. Eating unclean foods and associating with unclean people are things Israelites were told not to do!
Peter is being prepared to see glorious and incredible implications of the gospel.
And the voice came to him again a second time, “What God has made clean, do not call common.” This happened three times, and the thing was taken up at once to heaven.
Here are the amazing and glorious implications: all food is now up to eat. and gentiles are also going to be up for entrance into the family of God.
God is preparing Peter to embrace these scandalous implications of Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection.
He had to marinate Peter so deeply and prepare him so much so that he had to tell him this three times!
God Had To Prepare Peter
God Had To Prepare Peter
The Second Step… in verses 17-20...
God Had To Instruct Peter
God Had To Instruct Peter
Now while Peter was inwardly perplexed as to what the vision that he had seen might mean, behold, the men who were sent by Cornelius, having made inquiry for Simon’s house, stood at the gate
Peter is pondering all of what he has seen.
He’s probably thinking:
“how am I supposed to react to this vision?”
“What does, “don’t call unclean what I’ve made clean.” mean for what I eat and who I associate with?”
I wouldn’t be surprised if he’s silently praying and conversing with God about this:
“God, please show me what this means?”
“God, this doesn’t make sense to me. This seems to contradict what you’ve said before.”
All the while, God is working in places where Peter can’t see and is about to give him instructions on what to do next.
and called out to ask whether Simon who was called Peter was lodging there. And while Peter was pondering the vision, the Spirit said to him, “Behold, three men are looking for you. Rise and go down and accompany them without hesitation, for I have sent them.”
Now the men sent from Cornelius, who had his own amazing vision, are calling for Peter.
Think about the timing of this!
Maybe you’ve experienced something like this. God is initiating preparation in your heart about something, then in the midst of the preparations (answered prayers, a vision, a thought, something), God sends someone your way confirming your preparation or even calling you to do something that is way to weird to be a coincidence.
If Peter were to just say, “this is just a coincidence, I can ignore it.”, he would have missed out on the amazing and glorious things God was about to do in his life and for the church.
At this point, it is of paramount importance that Peter see this is God working and get ready to obey.
And to prove the coincidence isn’t just a coincidence, God gives Peter instructions. An Assignment.
“Rise and go down and accompany them without hesitation, for I have sent them.”
I'’m sure Joshua 1:9 would be very comforting at this point.
Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be frightened, and do not be dismayed, for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go.”
God says to Peter, “Peter, I’m in this. Just trust me. I’m going to show you something. I’m taking you and the church somewhere. Just obey me. Everything is about to make sense. I know it doesn’t make sense right now. But it will!. Rise and go down and accompany them WITHOUT hesitation,”
God Had To Instruct Peter
God Had To Instruct Peter
The Third Step… in verses 21-33
God Had To Confirm It to Peter
God Had To Confirm It to Peter
And Peter went down to the men and said, “I am the one you are looking for. What is the reason for your coming?” And they said, “Cornelius, a centurion, an upright and God-fearing man, who is well spoken of by the whole Jewish nation, was directed by a holy angel to send for you to come to his house and to hear what you have to say.” So he invited them in to be his guests.
The next day he rose and went away with them, and some of the brothers from Joppa accompanied him. And on the following day they entered Caesarea. Cornelius was expecting them and had called together his relatives and close friends. When Peter entered, Cornelius met him and fell down at his feet and worshiped him. But Peter lifted him up, saying, “Stand up; I too am a man.” And as he talked with him, he went in and found many persons gathered. And he said to them, “You yourselves know how unlawful it is for a Jew to associate with or to visit anyone of another nation, but God has shown me that I should not call any person common or unclean. So when I was sent for, I came without objection. I ask then why you sent for me.”
And Cornelius said, “Four days ago, about this hour, I was praying in my house at the ninth hour, and behold, a man stood before me in bright clothing and said, ‘Cornelius, your prayer has been heard and your alms have been remembered before God. Send therefore to Joppa and ask for Simon who is called Peter. He is lodging in the house of Simon, a tanner, by the sea.’ So I sent for you at once, and you have been kind enough to come. Now therefore we are all here in the presence of God to hear all that you have been commanded by the Lord.”
Peter had to hear the account of what happened to Cornelius twice!
Two times Peter had to be told what happened to Cornelius.
Cornelius’ vision and leading from God was meant, not only to have Cornelius experience God and receive instructions.
It was meant to be a testimony to Peter, to help Peter understand what God was trying to teach him and get him to do.
God wants Peter to invite these Gentiles into the family of Christ.
Look at just how God prepared this harvest. I love this!
And on the following day they entered Caesarea. Cornelius was expecting them and had called together his relatives and close friends.
Cornelius called his entire family and all of his close friends to be a part of what was about to happen next.
And after Cornelius recalls the story to Peter, he says this.
So I sent for you at once, and you have been kind enough to come. Now therefore we are all here in the presence of God to hear all that you have been commanded by the Lord.”
“We are all hear!” Tell us! Tell us Peter!
I Love how Cornelius is anticipating what God is about to do. God brought Cornelius to this point.
All of this, was confirming to Peter what God’s been trying to tell him.
Gentiles were acceptable candidates for gospel conversion.
God Had To Confirm It to Peter
God Had To Confirm It to Peter
The Fourth Step… in verses 34-35...
God Converted Peter
God Converted Peter
Remember last week, I told you that both Cornelius and Peter where in need of a conversion.
Cornelius needs to be converted to Christ. And Peter needs his views about Jewish exclusivity to be converted.
We are about to see this occur for Peter.
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.
Peter gets it.
He gets it.
When Peter says “but in every nation anyone who fears him and does what is right is acceptable to him.” He isn’t saying that they are acceptable as in, acceptable into heaven by their own merit.
He is saying they are acceptable to God for entrance into His family. Their race, color, and nationality are not deterants regarding their potential for conversion to Christ.
All people are now able to receive everlasting life through faith in Christ and repentance of sin.
And now, Peter will never be the same. In fact, the church will never be the same.
This changes everything!
Now there is a much bigger place to fish from.
Peter was a fisherman who, most likely, only fished in the sea of Galilee. In fact, that’s where Jesus told Peter he was no longer going to be fishing fish, but now he will pour out his life fishing people. He only knew what it was like to fish for people among the Jews. Just like he only knew how to fish for fish on the sea of Galilee.
I’ve been on the Sea of Galilee. It’s not that big!
Immagine going from a small fishing boat on Lake Tahoe to fishing on a big fishing boat in the Atlantic Ocean!
Do you see though how God had to do all sorts of things in order to get Peter to the place where he finally got it?
God Converted Peter
God Converted Peter
Conclusion
God had to prepare Peter
God had to instruct Peter
God had to confirm it to Peter
God converted Peter
I believe we can all look at all these steps and see that there are times in our lives, when God is trying to take us somewhere, or even take his church somewhere, and he does all four of these steps to fulfill his purposes for us and around us.
Sometimes, when God is going to do something new, in you life, or in the Church’s life...
He has to prepare you. He has to prepare us.
He has to instruct you.
He has to confirm it to you.
He has to convert you. Because we can be so hard headed sometimes. God loves us and walks us through this process so we can see beyond our own vision.
God may not be trying to convince you that gentiles are acceptable candidates for gospel conversion. But perhaps he’s been doing something personal in your life. Trying to get you to where he wants to take you. Not only for your benefit. But for the churches benefit.
Maybe you have been fighting conviction regarding your response to the gospel of Jesus Christ.
Maybe God has prepared you for entrance into His family. Maybe he’s been instructing you through his word and through my preaching. Maybe he’s sent confirmation after confirmation to you showing you that you need Jesus. And you must forsake all for the sake of taking hold of him. Maybe God is converting you.
Is he?
Or, maybe you are a christian, and you’ve been resisting his leadership.
Is God preparing you for something? Has he given you instructions, that he wants you to “not hesitate” with? Has he confirmed a calling on your life? Or has he confirmed a direction you need to go? Has he converted your thinking about a particular thing he’s calling you to?
I encourage you. Don’t fight God when he is trying to do something new and exciting in your life.