LET GOD SHOW YOU

Religion

This sermon was recently preached at the Cornerstone Baptist Church in Cherry Log, GA by Rev. Paul Mims.

Acts 10:1-11:18

We all grow up with ideas that we have to outgrow. We were living in Jacksonville, Florida where I was born. But when my parents were divorced due to my father’s alcoholism and abuse, my mother took me at age three and returned to her father’s farm in Brooks County in South Georgia. We lived there until my mother went out on her own and bought a beauty shop in Quitman, Georgia. We lived in a small apartment and it was the two of us against the world. I was eleven years old. This was the time of segregation when blacks could not attend our schools, our restaurants, our theaters, our churches, and had to enter the back door if they were in service in our homes. We were only eighty five years from slavery when I was on the farm and blacks were still looked upon as chattel. So this formed my beliefs about the black race. It was not until I was in college that my views of race begin to change. God showed me that a minister of the gospel of Jesus Christ cannot be prejudiced about any human being. The gospel is for all people everywhere and God’s love is extended without any favoritism.

Our scripture passage today is one of the great turning points in the expansion of the church. It was the first time that a Gentile was allowed into the fellowship of the early church. So you can see what a momentous event this was for it opened the way for you and me to be accepted into the church of Jesus Christ.

His name was Cornelius. He was a Roman Centurion stationed at Caesarea, the Roman headquarters in Palestine. Our veterans that we honor today will appreciate the organization of the Roman army. First, there was the legion – which was made up of 6,000 men and was about equal to a division. In every division there were ten segments called cohorts – which were made up of 600 men which is similar to our battalion. The cohort was divided into centuries of 100 men led by a centurion. This is similar to a company in our army. The centurion was the equivalent to our Sergeant Major. These centurions were a strong force in the Roman Army and there are several mentioned in the New Testament. Let’s look first at

I.A MAN WHO WANTED TO KNOW GOD. (10:1-7)

Cornelius was a God fearer. This was a term for Gentiles who had become tired of pagan gods and the frustration of their family faiths and had attached themselves to the Jewish beliefs of one God. They did not accept the Jewish ritual and laws, but were attracted to the monotheism of the Jewish faith. They attended the synagogue and often did things to help the congregation.
Cornelius “gave generously to those in need and prayed to God regularly.” During one of his prayer times an angel appeared to him and called his name. When he said, “What is it, Lord?” The angel said, “Your prayers and gifts to the poor have come up as a memorial offering before God. Now send men to Joppa to bring back a man named Simon who is called Peter.”

What grace God extends to those who seek him! Cornelius did not really know God, but he was searching for him. This search made him love God’s people and have a compassion for the poor. And God took note of it. When a person is seeking God and acts on the light and understanding he or she has God will bring about a fuller and deeper revelation to that person. God wanted to satisfy the longing in his heart and show him the Savior.

Listen to this conversion of General William Dobbie. “I came to the Lord Jesus Christ and trusted Him as my Savior when I was a boy at Charterhouse School, getting on for fifty years ago. It came to me in this way. I felt the burden of sin. Even boys can feel that, and I certainly did. And that burden was a very grievous burden to me.

One Sunday evening I suddenly realized that He had died in order to put away my sins and to blot them out. And God, for Christ’s sake, that evening, forgave my sins and blotted them out; and I have not been able to doubt from that day to this that that was a real and final transaction, and that all my sins—even those which I have committed since then, and they have been many—have all been put away once and for all. I could not doubt that, because it depends upon what He did, and not upon what I have done.
I would not dream of facing life in the army or out of it, without Christ. I do not know how people can go on trying to live without Him, especially in these troublous and anxious days in which we live.”

II.A MAN WHO WANTED TO SERVE GOD. (10:9-22)

At the same time, God was preparing to show Peter how he must change his views about Gentiles so that the gospel could be given to them. The devout Jew believed that the Gentiles were outside of God’s favor. Some even went so far as to say that help should not be given to a Gentile woman in time of childbirth because that would fill the world with another Gentile. They would not enter the house of a Gentile nor allow a Gentile to enter their houses. They observed the strict food laws of the Mosaic law.

Peter was staying at a home on the coast as a guest of Simon, a tanner. At midday, he went up on the roof to look out over the sea and to pray. He became hungry and saw in a vision something like the sail of a ship being lowered from heaven which cradled various kinds of animals, reptiles, and birds. A voice said, “Rise, Peter, kill and eat.” “No, Lord, for I have never eaten anything impure or unclean.” This would mean pork, shrimp, lobster, among the many. The voice replied, “Do not call anything impure that God has cleansed.” This happened three times and the great sail was taken back to heaven. While Peter was thinking on the meaning of the vision the men that Cornelius sent were knocking at the door and the Holy Spirit said to Peter, “Get up and go downstairs. Do not hesitate to go with them, for I have sent them.”

The next day, Peter arrives in Caesarea and finds a crowd gathered at the home of Cornelius to hear what he has to say. Barriers to the gospel are breaking down in Peter’s experience. He is going to cross the threshold of a Gentile’s home. The Gentile wants to know about his Lord and Savior, Jesus the Christ. If he understands that the message in the vision he had seen the previous day is that he is not to consider the Gentiles unacceptable to God, then a great door will be opened for the evangelization of the world beyond the Jews. If he had not seen this, it is possible that the Jewish Christians would have wanted Christianity to be just an extension of Judaism. This was the method that God used to broaden Peter’s vision that the Gospel was for all people.

In his autobiography, Mahatma Gandhi wrote that during his student days he read the Gospels seriously and considered converting to Christianity. He believed that in the teachings of Jesus he could find the solution to the caste system that was dividing the people of India.

So one Sunday he decided to attend services at a nearby church and talk to the minister about becoming a Christian. When he entered the sanctuary, however, the usher refused to give him a seat and suggested that he go worship with his own people. Gandhi left the church and never returned. “If Christians have caste differences also,” he said, “I might as well remain a Hindu.” That usher’s prejudice not only betrayed Jesus but also turned a person away from trusting Him as Savior. Our Daily Bread, March 6, 1994.
III.THE GOSPEL FOR ALL PEOPLE. (10:23-48)

Peter was welcomed by Cornelius and his friends. He said to Peter, “Now we are all here in the presence of God to listen to everything the Lord has commanded you to tell us.” Then Peter began to speak: “I now realize how true it is that God does not show favoritism but accepts men from every nation who fear him and do what is right.”

This was a tremendous learning experience for Peter. All of us have to relearn some beliefs and change them if necessary to be servants of God. What beliefs do you have that need to be enlightened and changed? What does God need to show you about you? Perhaps that would be the key to truly effective service in the Kingdom for you.

Notice the message that Peter gave to the assembled group. God sent Jesus to Israel telling the good news of Peace. He was anointed with the power of the Holy Spirit and went around doing good and healing all who were under the power of the devil. They killed him by crucifixion, but God raised him from the dead and he was seen by many witnesses. He commanded us to preach to the people and to testify that he is the one that the prophets spoke of who will be the judge of the living and the dead. Everyone who believes in him will receive forgiveness of sins through his name.

Jonathan Edwards (1703-1758) was a brilliant theologian whose sermons had an overwhelming impact on those who heard him. One in particular, his famous “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God,” moved hundreds to repentance and salvation. That single message helped to spark the revival known as “The Great Awakening” (1734-1744). From a human standpoint, it seems incredible that such far-reaching results could come from one message. Edwards did not have a commanding voice or impressive pulpit manner. He used very few gestures, and he read from a manuscript. Yet God’s Spirit moved upon his hearers with conviction and power. Few know the spiritual preparation involved in that sermon. John Chapman gives us the story: “For 3 days Edwards had not eaten a mouthful of food; for 3 nights he had not closed his eyes in sleep. Over and over again he was heard to pray, “O Lord, give me New England! Give me New England!’ When he arose from his knees and made his way into the pulpit that Sunday, he looked as if he had been gazing straight into the face of God. Even before he began to speak, tremendous conviction fell upon his audience.” Source Unknown.

Notice what happened while Peter was still speaking – “the Holy Spirit came on all who heard the message.” The Jewish believers were “astonished that the gift of the Holy Spirit had been poured out even on the Gentiles. For they heard them speaking in tongues and praising God.” This was just like the Jerusalem Pentecost. Could it be that God would treat Jew and Gentile just alike?

Then Peter called for these Gentile converts to be baptized for he said, “They have received the Holy Spirit just as we have.”

IV.THE CHURCH ACCEPTS THE GENTILES. (11:1-18)

Now it had happened. The first Gentile converts were accepted by the Apostle who was the recognized leader of the church. After spending a few days with the new believers, Peter goes to Jerusalem to tell the Apostles and other leaders in the church about his experiences. They said, “You went into the house of uncircumcised men and ate with them?” But when he told them about his vision and the vision of Cornelius, and the way that God led him to his house, they had no further objections and praised God, saying, “So then, God has granted even the Gentiles repentance unto life.”

The way was now opened for an unhindered Gospel to go forth to all nations.
But the important question is “Has it come to you?” Are you a seeker after God? The peace and joy that believers know can be yours if you will repent of your sins and turn to faith in Jesus as your Lord and Savior.

St. Augustine, who was a riotous sinner before his conversion said, “I was weeping in the most bitter contrition of my heart, when I heard the voice of children from a neighboring house chanting, “take up and read; take up and read.” I could not remember ever having heard the like, so checking the torrent of my tears, I arose, interpreting it to be no other than a command from God to open the book and read the first chapter I should find. Eagerly then I returned to the place where I had laid the volume of the apostle. I seized, opened, and in silence read that section on which my eyes first fell: “Not in revelry and drunkenness, not in licentiousness and lewdness, not in strife and envy; but put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh, to fulfill its lusts.” No further would I read, nor did I need to. For instantly at the end of this sentence, it seemed as if a light of serenity infused into my heart and all the darkness of doubt vanished away.” Augustine, Confessions

PRAISE BE TO HIS NAME!

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