The Mission: Believe God’s Plan is Always Good
Acts: The Mission of the Church • Sermon • Submitted
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Over the past couple of weeks we have been considering a passage which serves as the hinge for all other events in the book of Acts. The dispensation of grace which began in Acts 2 has been full of merciful acts not only toward the Jews, but also toward the Gentiles. Peter declared in Acts 10:34-35,
“Truly I understand that God shows no partiality, 35 but in every nation anyone who fears him and does what is right (obeys Him) is acceptable to him.
So, Peter obeyed God and shared the Gospel message to Cornelius and his guests. Peter’s audience was familiar with Jesus. In verse 37, Peter said, “You yourselves know what happened throughout all Judea.” They were aware of Jesus, His works, and crucifixion, but, according to verses 40 and 41, they did not know that Jesus had been resurrected.
Peter was not only called to preach salvation to the Gentiles, but as we will discover this morning, Peter was to also lead, guide, and direct the Jewish Christians to accept God’s good plan. We are going to complete this particular narrative this morning and also consider the implications of a very important theme. (Pause)
God’s plan is always good and through His good plan...
Peter Planted a Gentile Church in Caesarea (v44-48)
Peter Planted a Gentile Church in Caesarea (v44-48)
God left no doubt that it was His plan to save Gentiles.
The Holy Spirit fell on all who heard the word. (10:44-46)
The evidence was irrefutable: the Spirit came similarly to the day of Pentecost leaving no doubt.
Acts 10:44–46 (ESV)
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.
Peter and the six men who accompanied immediately understood what took place. Just like before, God used speaking in tongues to prove salvation had come to the Gentiles. There was no other way such a miracle could have occurred. Just like the Day of Pentecost, tongues was directly connected to the Spirit’s indwelling and this word suggests, just as in Acts 2, that these people spoke real languages which that they had not studied or learned on their own.
The gift of tongues, miracles and other signs that took place in the book of Acts was, I believe, designed by God to counter our human stubbornness. Moving people to believe something is often a hard thing: we are slow to believe God’s plan, Peter was slow to believe God’s plan, and so it was very important Peter and these six Judeo-Christians recognized God’s good plan of salvation was extended to the Gentile nations.
God left no doubt through this miracle that the Spirit descended on genuine believers, but He also gave another sign...
The Holy Spirit caused believers to extol God. (10:46)
Additional proof of this group’s salvation came in the form of extolling God. “Extol” means “to make God great,” and “to make God greater than everything else.”
Since the day of the fall in the Garden of Eden, it has been our sinful nature to make ourselves great and else small. Therefore, making oneself small and enlarging, magnifying God is further proof that the miraculous occurred. Extolling God is not natural. Peter and the six men could spot fake worship from a mile away!
Evidence was conclusive: salvation had indeed come to the Gentiles. What must be done right after salvation? Baptism, so...
The Gentile converts were immediately baptized. (10:48)
This verse is interesting. Peter didn’t suggest the converts be baptized in the near future, or to consider being baptism. Upon salvation, Peter immediately commanded the Gentiles to be baptized.
When was the last time you heard someone command another to be baptized? We have been discussing this the past couple Wednesday nights. Why might Peter have commanded baptism here?
First, it is quite likely that no church had been established in Caesarea up to this point in time. These believers would continually be together praising God and praying just as the Jerusalem believers had done. It was important for them to immediately obey and by being distinct and separate from other religions.
Second, the members of the Caesarea church needed discipleship. They learned that baptism is important for God’s children and they also needed authority to continue baptizing other believers so the local Caesarea church would continue. These believers were now responsible, as Jesus witnesses, to propagate the Gospel in their community.
Third, these baptisms were yet another definitive sign to prove to the Jews that salvation had indeed come to Gentiles on a large scale. These baptisms proved this Gentile church was just as viable as any Jewish church.
It pleased God to save Cornelius and his guests. It was good that Gentiles from that day forth would also be God’s witnesses in Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and the ends of the earth.
Peter believed that God’s plan was good, but the Jewish Christians needed to be convinced of this. They were concerned that Peter broke Jewish law, so Peter traveled to Jerusalem to testify of God’s good plan to the Jewish church.
Peter Conveyed God’s Good Plan to the Jewish Church (11:1-18)
Peter Conveyed God’s Good Plan to the Jewish Church (11:1-18)
but he faced much doubt and criticism. What he knew to be good seemed like evil.
(Ignore reading) Peter faced criticism (11:1-3)
Lets look at what took place in this council in...
1 Now the apostles and the brothers who were throughout Judea heard that the Gentiles also had received the word of God. 2 So when Peter went up to Jerusalem, the circumcision party criticized him, saying, 3 “You went to uncircumcised men and ate with them.”
Here, we are told that the circumcision party opposed Peter. This group did not officially exist like the the Pharisees, Sadducees, or Hellenists. This was simply a term coined to identify Jews who had no problem with Gentiles accepting salvation, but anyone believing in Jesus needed to be grafted into the Jewish faith through circumcision.
Interestingly enough, these people raised no concerns about Gentile salvation, which was the most important topic! They were not concerned what was taking place in the heart, but most concerned about what people looked like, what they ate, and who their ancestors were. Peter had been fraternizing with unclean people and they were very concerned about this.
Remember, Peter had just learned this lesson and completely understood where they were coming from. So...
Peter defended God’s good plan (11:4-17)
We call this apologetics. Peter had a reasonable argument to justify his actions. Let’s continue reading in...
4 But Peter began and explained it to them in order: 5 “I was in the city of Joppa praying, and in a trance I saw a vision, something like a great sheet descending, being let down from heaven by its four corners, and it came down to me. 6 Looking at it closely, I observed animals and beasts of prey and reptiles and birds of the air. 7 And I heard a voice saying to me, ‘Rise, Peter; kill and eat.’ 8 But I said, ‘By no means, Lord; for nothing common or unclean has ever entered my mouth.’ 9 But the voice answered a second time from heaven, ‘What God has made clean, do not call common.’ 10 This happened three times, and all was drawn up again into heaven. 11 And behold, at that very moment three men arrived at the house in which we were, sent to me from Caesarea. 12 And the Spirit told me to go with them, making no distinction. These six brothers also accompanied me, and we entered the man’s house. 13 And he told us how he had seen the angel stand in his house and say, ‘Send to Joppa and bring Simon who is called Peter; 14 he will declare to you a message by which you will be saved, you and all your household.’ 15 As I began to speak, the Holy Spirit fell on them just as on us at the beginning. 16 And I remembered the word of the Lord, how he said, ‘John baptized with water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit.’ 17 If then God gave the same gift to them as he gave to us when we believed in the Lord Jesus Christ, who was I that I could stand in God’s way?”
Did you note Peter’s calm response in those verses? He simply stuck to what was true. He was an ambassador of God. As such, Peter was to help these people understand that no one was unclean, no food was unclean, and the Gentile church in Caesarea was clearly God’s will. Peter’s arguments were wholly focused on God’s power. Peter even told the council of his own doubts and struggles with God! Peter was weak, but God was strong! I encourage you to read Acts 1:1-18 this week and list all the ways Peter’s speech declares God’s power! God’s power always prevails. Let’s read Peter’s words again in verse 17...
17 If then God gave the same gift to them as he gave to us when we believed in the Lord Jesus Christ, who was I that I could stand in God’s way?”
The council could have chosen to fight God’s good will, but praise be to God that a church split did not occur that day!...
The Jewish church accepted God’s good will. (11:18)
God’s power was again revealed...
18 When they heard these things they fell silent. And they glorified God, saying, “Then to the Gentiles also God has granted repentance that leads to life.”
Doubters’ criticisms were put to silence, God’s good plan put to silence the foolishness of ignorant men. God’s goodness should always result in verbal, exultant praise and here, for the first time Jews praised God for extending His saving grace to the peoples of the ends of the earth!
What does this mean?
What does this mean?
From these verses, we see three different responses toward God’s goodness and I want to spend the remainder of that time highlighting those responses. One of my favorite Bible verses is...
11 For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope.
God only has good plans for his people and never allows anything to happen to us except good things. God uses everything in life only to cause our well-being, spiritual longevity, faith, and hope. We can measure the extent of our faith by considering these three stages of faith and three stages of belief in God’s goodness. The first stage is doubt and is a stage we tend to spend a significant portion of life in...
We doubt God’s plan is always good.
Simply put, when we doubt or struggle to accept the things that occur in our life as good, we can know our faith is weak. This was Peter in the first half of Acts 10! Each time God revealed the vision to him, he told God “no.” Peter doubted that God’s plan was good. Peter thought God’s goodness meant eating kosher foods and cultural segregation and struggled to wrap his mind around this new concept.
What does a person think/say that reveals what level of faith they have in God’s goodness?
“It has always been done this way.”
Routine is safe and comfortable. Please don’t misunderstand me. Doing things the same way is not always bad. In fact, it is wise to form habits which prevent personal growth and protect us from sin.
This thinking becomes sinful when habits are the safety net instead of God being our safety net. Routine becomes sin when we prevent sin with patterns instead of faith. All things should be accomplished with much prayer; therefore we are to rely solely on God’s goodness.
This line of thinking also becomes sinful when our personal habits are the standard for everyone else to live by. This was the Pharisees’ issue. They turned God’s law, which was faith-based into a work-based salvation. The habits they personally formed to prevent their own sin became the gold standard for everyone else to also live by.
This was the critical flaw of the Jerusalem council in Acts 11:1. Imposing our own thoughts and standards on others is not grace-based living. Our own habits do not necessarily apply to other Christians. Each must work out their faith on their own. When we apply laws, rules, habits, and structure to all other people we are not allowing for God’s grace to work in them and through them in God’s own good plan.
10 Why do you pass judgment on your brother? Or you, why do you despise your brother? For we will all stand before the judgment seat of God;
13 Therefore let us not pass judgment on one another any longer, but rather decide never to put a stumbling block or hindrance in the way of a brother. 14 I know and am persuaded in the Lord Jesus that nothing is unclean in itself, but it is unclean for anyone who thinks it unclean.
12 Therefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, so now, not only as in my presence but much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling,
This was the lesson the Jerusalem council had been learning and this leads to the second thought of the doubter...
“I must be in control.”
Perhaps we seek control in an area because someone hurt us this way before. The error when we think this way, is that we know how to do something better than God. We are good & God is not.
A certain young man in one of our group homes greatly struggled with authority and especially his houseparent’s authority. He loved his houseparents, but in almost every area of life he had to do things his way. One day he wanted to make a special dessert for the family, which he knew they all would love, his housemother set the recipe on the counter and helped him gather all the ingredients and the youth got to work. Out of the corner of her eye, while she was preparing the other parts of supper, she noticed the youth making mistakes. She commented that he was not following the instructions, the recipe and asked him how he thought the dessert would turn out. The youth responded, “It doesn’t matter, Aunt Sarah. I know how to make this and don’t need the recipe. I’ve got this.” To his great disappointment, he in fact “did not got this” because his dessert was a flop. When processing this disaster later in the evening, the youth still refused to acknowledge that someone else, the recipe author, knew how to bake better than him.
We often act just like that young man. We have the cookbook, God’s written word. In it is contained everything for life and Godliness, yet we ignore the instructions which will lead to joy, peace, contentment, and Godliness. “I can do it myself.” I can do it my way and it will be all right in the end.” That is not what God’s Word says.
When people doubt God’s goodness or are seeking to understand His goodness, another popular question is this...
“Why do bad things happen to good people?” (Jer 29:10-12)
If we consider Jer 29:11 again we find that the surrounding verses deal with this exact question.
10 “For thus says the Lord: When seventy years are completed for Babylon, I will visit you, and I will fulfill to you my promise and bring you back to this place.
Bad things don’t happen to good people. There is none good. Bad things happen because people are bad. Jesus himself said, “Why do you call me good? There is none good but the father?” Sometimes bad things happen to us because we who have also violated God’s perfect law, deserve it. God is good to allow us to experience what we deserve.
Adam and Eve were removed from the Garden of Eden because they broke God’s law. The flood occurred because because, as recorded in...
5 The Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intention of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.
Israel did things their way and left God’s recipe book on the shelf and forgot it was there. God determined Israel would be held captive for 70 years by their enemies because they deserved it.
Bad things drive us toward the Good God and when we turn to Him, He will hear and respond in forgiveness. His forgiveness will then produce faith, peace, joy, and hope in Him who is always good.
11 For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope. 12 Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will hear you.
The stage of faith is doubt in God’s goodness and is a stage that even long-time Christians struggle with and often return to. You may have guessed that the third stage is “We believe God’s plan is always good.” Because that is what we should be faithfully thinking and that is what our actions should always be reflecting. The truth though is that most of us are characterized by this next point...
We know God’s plan is always good.
At first the the Jewish church doubted God’s goodness in Acts 11 but they grew to accept and appreciate His good plan. We know these early Christians were fully convinced in God’s power. Remember how they witnessed God’s judgement on Ananias and Sapphira? Remember how they rejoiced when Peter and John were miraculously from prison? Remember the great signs and wonders they experienced?
Even though they knew these things, they still doubted that God could accept the Gentile nations. They doubted God’s plan was good and they they initially failed act accordingly.
What does this person think/say when they know His plan is good, but don’t act on that knowledge?
“It just doesn’t make sense.” (Ps 92:6-8)
Peter and the Jewish Christians just couldn’t wrap their minds around how God could work good by doing something so radical! They knew they should submit to God, and they knew that submitting to God always produces good and we know they knew this because Peter relented to God’s will in Acts 10:21 and the Jewish Christians accepted God’s will in Acts 11:18.
God’s will doesn’t seem logical and we ought to never rely on human logic because everything human is flawed and tainted by sin.
Psalm 92:6–8 (ESV)
6 The stupid man cannot know; the fool cannot understand this: 7 that though the wicked sprout like grass and all evildoers flourish, they are doomed to destruction forever; 8 but you, O Lord, are on high forever.
15 ... the Lord is upright; he is my rock, and there is no unrighteousness in him.
God’s goodness doesn’t make sense because sin has addled our brains. Sinful thinking pervades human reasoning, this is why it is said that “the just should live by faith.”
The next thought a struggling person thinks was one that Peter himself verbalized in Acts 10:14. He said...
“No, God.” (Acts 10:14)
That is spelled N.O. not K.N.O.W.!
Why would we ever want to earn God’s wrath? Why would we ever choose to experience God’s good discipline instead of God’s good blessings?
Sometimes we say “No” because we just don’t see how God’s plan will work. We just can’t convince ourselves and we prevent the Spirit from convincing us...
Other times, we tell God “No” because simply don’t want God’s goodness. Oh, we believe in God’s goodness, but our way is more important than God’s.
Jonah was just like this and his words astound me every time I read them but we have a lot in common with Jonah. He told God, “I knew that you were gracious, merciful, and slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love, and you withhold justice from those who deserve it.” Jonah didn’t doubt God’s goodness for a second! In fact, he whole-heartedly believed God was good. Jonah wanted God to be evil instead of good, but God would never, never, never do anything but good, so he ran away.
God’s goodness is incredible because He can never and will never do anything but produce good in his children’s lives, or in the lives of the wicked. Even if His plan doesn’t make sense or we think He is asking too much of us we must obey God.
The final stage of faith is when..
We believe God’s plan is always good.
Peter wrestled to believe God’s plan was always good. He knew God’s plan was good, but he didn’t actually believe until he he heard and obeyed as God told Cornelius to do. The
What does this person think/say?
“Yes, God.” (10:33-35)
This simple answer definitively sets apart the hearers and doers. Belief is linked to “akouo”... hear and do. We can’t say we believe God if we are not actively doing God’s will. James 1 says we are hearers only, we only know God’s will, so we can’t say we believe God when we are hearers only.
We have learned it is best when we respond “yes” right away, for when we don’t respond immediately we risk incurring God’s wrath and dealing with the anxiety, guilt, depression, discouragement, and consequences that will come as a result of our unbelief. If something is God’s will, he will work to complete it, so it is best for us to respond immediately to God’s will.
Finally, the person who is hearing and doing...
Continually “extolls” God! (10:46, 11:18)
If you look at the text in Acts 10:46, this was the natural and immediate response of Cornelius and his guests when the obeyed God’s will. Look at Acts 11:18. The assembly in Jerusalem moved through every stage of belief. They doubted, then became aware of God’s good will, and finally in verse 18, they submitted to God’s good will and again obedience naturally caused them to magnify God and publicly praise Him.
No one else can worship like believers who are convinced of God’s greatness! How does the world know we are Christians? Because our obedience produces praise.
Closing Thoughts
Closing Thoughts
If we are to successfully complete our mission, we must firmly know God is Good and decisively act in belief. Ps 34: 8 encourages us to...
Psalm 34:8 (ESV)
8 Oh, taste and see that the Lord is good! Blessed is the man who takes refuge in him!
The God’s love is good, His mercy is good, His patience is good, His kindness is good, His justice and judgments are good, and even His wrath is good. God uses all His attributes to work nothing but His good pleasure in creation. All that comes from him is only good as He continually works to make us more perfect.
As Peter grew in the faith, he became convicted of this. His own words recorded in 1 Peter 2:15 states his firm conviction that mission success wholly depends on reflecting God’s goodness to the world. He wrote...
15 For this is the will of God, that by doing good you should put to silence the ignorance of foolish people.
Why do we struggle to give up sinful habits? Why do we wait so long to submit to what we know is right? Why does obeying God seem scary or crazy sometimes? (Pause) It is because we are not fully convinced of God’s goodness. I encourage you this week taste and see that the Lord is good and to submit to our good God more and more often and more and more quickly.