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Past Ponderings

Sunday, February 24, 2019

PONDERING...What If God’s Word Challenges Your Understanding? (Acts 9:43-10:23)

What If God’s Word Challenges Your Understanding? (AM Sermon Notes)
GIST: We must love and trust God more than our preconceived notions.
SCRIPTURE: Acts 9:43-10:23
This morning we’re going to spend some time walking into Acts chapter 10. What happens in this chapter is the longest and most repeated narrative in the entire book. This tells us...it’s a big deal. What we end up seeing is God saving Gentiles. Praise the Lord for that. It’s huge! My salvation is dependent upon what we see God clearly demonstrating in this passage. However, before we get there, we need to look at how God first knocks down some cultural walls using two men from very different walks of life. Again, He reminds us that our expectations aren’t the gold standard, and His plans often involve shaking us up.
Rather than read the whole passage in one chunk this morning, we’re going to read each section as we come to it. As we do so, the question I want us to be asking ourselves is→ what if God’s Word challenges our understandings? What if what you believe doesn’t fit with what God tells you? What if what you think you should be doing isn’t what His Word tells you should be done? What if your circumstances shake you? What if they aren’t what you thought should be happening to someone like you? Well, our gist is this: We must love and trust God more than our preconceived notions. That’s easy to say...and super hard to live. Let’s pray and then look at how this is broken down in the lives of these two very different men.
First, we see a centurion named Cornelius who was→

I. A Good Man Who Wasn’t Good Enough (1-8)
"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.“
Let’s start by making a few observations about this man. First, in station→
He Was A Centurion of The Italian Cohort. This means he was over 100 soldiers. This was a highly prestigious and well paying position. He would have made about five times that of a regular soldier and carried with him the respect his position demanded. These men were considered incredibly honorable. The Italian Cohort he was a part of would have been a group of about 1,000 men. So, he would have been one of 10 men leading this large force. This large force which was viewed by the Jews...as the enemy. As much respect as this man’s life afforded him, he would not have been someone Jewish Christians would have been looking to as a candidate for “first gentile conversion”. Nonetheless, →
He Feared God. The term used here expressed that he believed in and worshiped God, but was not fully converted to Judaism because he remained uncircumcised. This was a positive trait. One of amongst many. As we see, also→
He Took Care of the Needy. He gave alms to “the people” which in this context seems to imply, at least in part, the Jewish residents. Rather than abusing his authority as a leader of the occupying force, he used his position to help those in need. Also→
He Prayed Continually. In fact, when we first encounter him, that’s what he’s doing. It’s about 3:00pm (a Jewish hour of prayer), he’s praying, and God comes and speaks to him! He was a good man. He was a sincere worshipper. But, →
He… Needed Jesus. This is a conversation we had in youth a couple Sunday evenings ago. What do we say when people accuse us of being exclusive in our claims that Jesus is the only way to Heaven? Aren’t there equally sincere people who believe in other gods? There are. Cornelius is an example of this. However, Jesus worked in his life to show him that as sincere as he was and as helpful as his actions were, he was still missing something. He was sincere, but he wasn’t saved.  We need to camp out here for just a second. Just being religious, in whatever form that might take, does not mean you’ve given Jesus saving control of your life. Probably the number one response I would get when sharing the gospel door to door and in the park would be, “I am baptist, or catholic, or methodist...or whatever.” This answer was given as if aligning yourself with one of those church traditions someone was equivalent to not needing to be talked to about being saved. “That box has already been checked, so just leave me alone.” The problem is there are many baptists, catholics, and methodist (among all others) dying and going to Hell because their church affiliation is about something they do, maybe even passionately, rather than the Savior they know!
And honestly, we need to take seriously the other side of this coin too. Maybe you’re not even sincere at all. He took it seriously, but it wasn’t enough because he didn’t know Jesus yet. You’ve been exposed to the truth of Jesus. How seriously are you taking Him? Is this just something you do, maybe even just casually? Is there junk in your life that you know dishonors God, but you won’t let go of? Hold that thought. See, he was good, but not good enough, and rather than be offended by this, we see→
He Has An Immediate & Positive Response. He listened. Do we? As I was studying back over this passage early in the week, I was struck by this. At this point, Cornelius is not yet a Christian. His understanding is incomplete. Nonetheless, he is still living his life better than me. He doesn’t know the full truth about who God is and how He has been revealed in Jesus. Still, he takes God seriously, and this results in a life of service and prayer. Can you say the same about your life? I read a very convicting book this week by Henry Blackaby title Holiness (I recommend it to you all, and will undoubtedly be referencing it more in the future). In it, he made several statements that struck me across the face. One was something along the lines of if we really take God seriously and believe what He says about prayer, then we’ll be seriously and constantly praying. If we don’t, then we’ll always come back to saying, “well, that’s always been a weak point of mine.”
This is something that has been hitting my heart again and again. If we want to see real change and genuine revival, we must take personal holiness seriously. I want to ask this again. What junk is in your life that is more important than God? What sin is in your life that you’re not willing to give up? Maybe you’re ignoring it hoping it will go away, but it won’t. Your life here is short. Are you making it count? My little brother keeps posting this C.T. Studd poem on facebook, and I think it’s incredibly fitting: “Only one life, twill soon be past. Only what’s done for Christ will last.”
So that’s what we see in Cornelius, a good man who wasn’t good enough. Yet, when he is called to go deeper, he acts immediately because he wants to be changed. Maybe that truth shakes you, too.
The next guy we see is one we’ve come to know very well. Peter→

II. A Follower Who Needed To Go Further (9-23)
“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. 17 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 18 and called out to ask whether Simon who was called Peter was lodging there. 19 And while Peter was pondering the vision, the Spirit said to him, "Behold, three men are looking for you. 20 Rise and go down and accompany them without hesitation, for I have sent them." 21 And Peter went down to the men and said, "I am the one you are looking for. What is the reason for your coming?" 22 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." 23 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.” Let’s make a few observations about Peter, too. First→
He Was A Mighty Disciple. Peter has been used by God to do some incredible things. Last week, we saw him used to heal a man paralyzed for eight years and raise a dead woman. Moreover, he has been a mighty proclaimer of the gospel and thousands have come to know Jesus because of his testimony. However, →
He Had A Stubborn Track Record. Throughout his time with Jesus, he consistently stuck his foot in his mouth, and we see a bit of that emerging here again. That’s why Jesus is so intentional about the way He prepares Peter for what He’s about to do in his life. In fact, we even see in this passage that→
Jesus Did Some Prep-Work☺️. Peter is about to be taught a very important lesson about what it means to be clean and unclean, and technically, he’s already unclean☺️. Look back at Acts 9:43. This is the only verse we didn’t cover last week because it really ties more into what’s happening here. “And he stayed in Joppa for many days with one Simon, a tanner." This might not seem like that big of a deal, but the tanning profession dealt with dead animals which made the person ceremonially unclean. That, along with the smell associated with the job, is why these individuals tended to live on the edge of town by the shore. Nonetheless, Peter has been staying here for several days, and it is in this context that he gets his vision. It’s noon. He’s hungry. While the meal is being prepared, he goes on the roof to pray, and gets this vision of animals. A sheet came down with animals from every kind (compare with list from Genesis 6:20), and God tells Peter to kill and eat. That’s when we see that→
Old Habits Die Hard. First, he tells God...No! Let’s just pause there for a second and note how serious this is. It’s been noted by people far wiser than me that you can’t say, “No, Lord”. If you say, “No”, then He’s not your Lord! He’s the sovereign God. We can’t at one point claim that and at the same time tell Him we won’t listen to what He says. That logic doesn’t fit. Nonetheless, in this context, Peter’s upbringing is so ingrained, that he can’t even fathom doing what God is telling him to do...even though it is GOD who is telling him to do it.
So, he’s shown the vision 3x, but is still perplexed. He doesn’t get it. It’s easy to be really hard on him here, and we should learn from his mistakes. Imagine being in his shoes though and having your lifelong expectations flipped. The implications behind this vision are HUGE. He’s being shown that the entire ceremonial law is now fulfilled in Jesus alone. Everything he believed about how he was supposed to live his day to day life was being called into question. In fact, it’s being called null and void. I think we can understand why he’s shook.
After seeing the vision, he’s told not to hesitate when the people arrive, but to go with them. That’s not exactly how things pan out. Instead, upon seeing them, he asks “Why are you here?” and then goes with them the next day! His response to God’s shaking is not as immediate as Cornelius’. Nonetheless, his deep-set prejudices are being challenged, and he is responding. He takes them in as guests and leaves with them, neither of which would he have been willing to do if God had not upset his apple cart. Praise the Lord he went, because tonight we’ll see that it’s this crushing of cultural expectations that leads to Gentiles first being saved. As a gentile congregation, we cannot but rejoice in that! Still yet, it took Peter listening to something he did not want to hear.

TAKEAWAYS
Ok, so as usual, I couldn’t control myself, but did some “taking away” throughout. Here’s the summary ☺️. Our guiding question for today was: What If God’s Word Challenges Your Understanding? I wanted to repeat that because I know I might have seemed to chase several rabbits throughout this content. Well, when that happens (being challenged by God, not me chasing rabbits☺️)→
1.  We need to be humble enough to admit our understanding of the world is not perfect.
2.  We need to be in God’s Word enough to be challenged by it.
3.  Because-->our lives should be defined by our love of God, not our commitment to human traditions. We have to take personal holiness seriously. We have been called to live this life for Jesus. Are we? Or do we live like everybody else, but come to church most Sundays to set ourselves apart? Again, what is in your life that shouldn’t be there if your to wholeheartedly be following Jesus?
4.  When faced with a dilemma, we need to prayerfully remember God’s Word must always trump our preconceived notions. He’s God. We’re not.


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