Books of the Book: Acts

Breaking Down Barriers

Three Angels Broadcasting Network

Program transcript

Participants: Jim & Mark Howard

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Series Code: ABOTB

Program Code: ABOTB00013A


00:21 Welcome back to Books of the Book.
00:23 I'm Pastor Mark Howard and I'm here with my co-host, my brother
00:27 Jim. We're studying in the book of Acts. And wow! The book of
00:32 Acts has so many powerful acts in it, doesn't it? Yes it does.
00:37 It doesn't slow down yet. We are going to be in chapter 10 today.
00:42 In fact, I want to recap a little bit of chapter 9 right
00:46 after we pause for a word of prayer and ask God to bless
00:51 our time in study. Father in heaven, we thank you
00:56 for the privilege we have of studying your word and coming to
00:59 know you and Jesus Christ whom you have sent. We pray the Holy
01:01 Spirit would guide our study right now and we ask it in
01:05 Jesus' name. Amen. In our last episode we read
01:12 about the conversion of Saul or Paul in the New Testament church
01:16 and that was the bulk of our discussion, but right toward the
01:20 of chapter 9 the Bible went on to tell us some of the things
01:25 that were happening in the ministry of Peter. It gives a
01:29 brief report of the healing of a man named Aeneas which seems
01:34 to be kind of a segue into the healing of a worker in the early
01:39 church named Tabitha or Dorcas, one is Greek and one is Aramaic.
01:44 Both names actually mean a gazelle and it's likely that it
01:49 referred to Tabitha's energy in helping the early church.
01:55 But she got sick and passed away and they had prepared her for
01:59 burial but they heard that Peter was in the area and they sent
02:04 for him. So Peter came to Joppa where Tabitha lived and he
02:08 actually, by the power of the Holy Spirit, raised her from the
02:12 dead. This is the first event that we've seen like this in the
02:16 New Testament church since the ascension of Jesus. So again, we
02:20 have a powerful miracle and the Bible tells us in Acts chapter 9
02:24 verse 42, It became known throughout all Joppa, and I'm
02:28 sure, Jim, that it spread beyond Joppa and the message went out
02:33 again that Jesus is alive and well in his church in the person
02:37 of his saints. Now we carry on into chapter 10. In fact, the
02:42 last verse of chapter 9 tells us that Peter remained in Joppa
02:46 with Simon a tanner and this leads us into chapter 10 verse 1
02:51 And the Bible tells us, There was a certain man in Caesarea
02:55 called Cornelius, a centurion of what was called the Italian
02:59 regiment, a devout man and one who feared God with all his
03:03 household and obviously as he was of the Italian regiment he
03:06 was a gentile man, but he feared God with all his household and
03:10 gave alms generously to the people and prayed to God always.
03:14 Verse 3 says, About the ninth hour of the day he saw clearly
03:17 in vision an angel of God coming in and saying to him, Cornelius.
03:22 And when he observed him he was afraid. You know, it just grabs
03:25 my attention here, Jim, that when we were in our last chapter
03:30 God came to Ananias and he said Ananias and then Ananias said
03:34 here I am Lord. And here he says Cornelius and he waits for a
03:37 response. Much like we saw with Peter when he healed the lame
03:41 man and he said, Look at me. God wants to make sure he has our
03:45 full attention here. Cornelius, he says, in verse 4. When he
03:49 observed him he was afraid and said what is it Lord. So he said
03:53 to him your prayers and alms have come up for a memorial
03:58 before God. Now send men to Joppa and send for Simon whose
04:02 sir name is Peter. He is lodging with Simon a tanner whose house
04:06 is by the sea. He will tell you what you must do. And when the
04:11 angel who spoke to him had departed, Cornelius called two
04:14 of his household servants and a devout soldier from among those
04:18 who waited on him continually. So when he had explained all
04:22 these things to them, he sent them to Joppa. So there's our
04:26 introduction of quite an interesting account that you're
04:30 going to pick up on here. Yes. Now comes a very
04:34 interesting vision that God gave as a gift to Peter and it picks
04:37 up in verse 9. So it says the next day as they went on their
04:42 journey and drew near the city, Peter went up on the housetop
04:46 to pray about the sixth hour. And so Peter goes up about the
04:51 sixth hour and he's diligent to spend time in prayer and make
04:55 sure he maintains his connection with God. But in verse 10 it
04:59 says then he became very hungry and wanted to eat but while they
05:04 made ready he fell into a trance So you can only imagine, here he
05:09 is, it's suppertime, he's starting to get hungry, he falls
05:14 into a trance. You know if I drift off if I'm really hungry
05:20 I might dream of banana splits or a burrito, who knows what.
05:24 But anyway this is sort of what ends up happening because in
05:29 verse 11 it says, He saw heaven opened... he fell into a trance,
05:33 and saw heaven opened and an object like a great sheet bound
05:37 at the four corners descending to him and let down to the
05:41 earth. In it were all kinds of four-footed animals of the earth
05:45 wild beasts, creeping things and birds of the air. And a voice
05:50 came to him, Rise Peter, kill and eat. But Peter said, Not so
05:55 Lord, for I have never eaten anything common or unclean.
05:58 And a voice spoke to him again the second time. What God has
06:02 cleansed you must not call common. This was done three
06:05 times and the object was taken up into heaven again. Now for
06:10 our viewers we need to just give a little explanation here
06:16 that when the Bible is referring to in this particular trance, in
06:21 this vision that Peter had, these wild beasts and creeping
06:25 things and being common, we have to recognize that in the Bible
06:31 there were certain meats, certain foods that were
06:34 considered clean and certain ones were unclean. There was
06:38 both ceremonial cleanness and uncleanness. We saw in the
06:41 gospels where the Pharisees felt like they needed to wash their
06:44 hands so that any food that may have been touched by gentiles
06:48 they could remove that ceremonial uncleanness so that
06:52 they wouldn't be defiled in that way, but there was a genuine
06:56 clean and unclean distinction between meats that started all
07:00 the way back in the times of... well from the very beginning
07:04 but we see it in the days of Noah when as the animals walked
07:07 onto the ark they walked in pairs, in twos, but also in
07:12 sevens. The ones that were clean went in sevens because after the
07:18 flood there would be need to eat the flesh of animals as well
07:22 as offer sacrifices of these animals. And so we have this
07:27 distinction between and unclean and that continued in the book
07:30 of Leviticus. We see in Leviticus chapter 11 that God
07:33 made this distinction between clean and unclean beasts, those
07:37 that could be eaten and those that were not permitted to be.
07:40 So Peter sees all these coming down on this sheet and this
07:44 voice saying, Rise Peter, kill and eat, and he's saying I don't
07:48 understand. I've never eaten anything like that of course
07:50 Lord, I wouldn't be disobedient. They were considered an
07:53 abomination, right. As you keep reading it just makes me think
08:00 of those who read this passage...
08:02 Well this passage is often cited as a reason or as an evidence
08:08 that those dietary restrictions no longer apply in New Testament
08:13 times. People say well Acts chapter 10, that's what Peter's
08:16 vision showed. So they say look, after the
08:20 death of Jesus apparently there was no more distinction between
08:23 clean and unclean and this vision revealed that. They're
08:27 just certain that the meaning of this particular vision is
08:32 that now we should be permitted to eat animals regardless of
08:35 whether they're clean or unclean according to the Bible.
08:38 But notice verse 17. Verse 17 says but now while Peter
08:43 wondered within himself what this vision which he had seen
08:47 meant, behold the men who had been sent from Cornelius had
08:51 made inquiry for Simon's house and stood before the gate.
08:54 So Peter is trying to figure out what did this mean. So while
08:58 there may be some who say well it's clear, it says it right
09:02 there; now all of these beasts are clean and we can eat them,
09:06 apparently it wasn't so clear to Peter. They saw this literally,
09:11 those who use this to justify the idea that there's no more
09:16 distinction, but Peter clearly knew from the very beginning
09:19 that this was not to be taken literally and he was trying to
09:23 figure out what the symbolism of the prophecy really meant.
09:27 Furthermore, just one more point on that; some claim that there's
09:30 certain statements of Jesus that make it clear that there's
09:34 no more distinction between clean and unclean foods but
09:37 Peter put that out of possibility as well when he
09:41 says, Lord I have never eaten anything common or unclean.
09:44 If Jesus had made a statement making no distinction then
09:48 there's no reason for Peter here long after... That's exactly
09:53 right. Apparently Peter didn't hear from the Lord that all of
09:58 these things were okay to now eat regardless of their
10:02 distinction between clean and unclean.
10:03 That's right. So Peter never does take anything from the
10:05 sheet. It goes up and he's scratching his head about what
10:09 it means and the Bible goes on to tell us that these men come
10:12 from Cornelius and as they're coming into the front gate the
10:15 Lord actually speaks to Peter and he tells them, they're
10:18 coming in and you need to go out and meet these men and doubt
10:22 nothing and go with them. So Peter goes and meets the men and
10:25 follows them to the house of Cornelius. Now we're jumping
10:29 ahead to verse 24 and it says, And the following day they
10:33 entered Caesarea. Now Cornelius was waiting for them and had
10:36 called together his relatives and close friends. As Peter was
10:40 coming in Cornelius met him and fell down at his feet and
10:43 worshipped him, but Peter lifted him up saying, stand up, I
10:48 myself am also a man and as he talked with him he went in and
10:52 found many who had come together. Then he said to them
10:55 You know how unlawful it is for Jewish men to keep company with
11:00 or to go to one of another nation, but God has shown me
11:04 that I should not call any man common or unclean. Here's where
11:08 Peter gets the understanding this is what the vision meant.
11:12 That which is now clean which God has cleansed is not the
11:16 animals but God is showing that there is no distinction here
11:19 between Jew and Gentile. Jim, this is interesting in light of
11:24 the fact that in one of our previous episodes the stoning
11:29 of Stephen, we briefly touched on the fact that there is a
11:35 a prophecy in the Old Testament scriptures in the book of Daniel
11:38 chapter 9 where God gave his nation of Israel one last
11:43 probationary period and that probationary period for the
11:48 nation came to a close with Stephen's address. And it's
11:52 interesting that since that time, and I should interject
11:56 here, that that doesn't mean that God won't save Jews, the
12:00 point is that as a nation as being a favored nation that
12:04 probation closed. They were no longer the vessel of truth, the
12:08 ones especially chosen to carry that. Now Jews and gentiles with
12:12 faith in Christ are all part of the same body.
12:14 And we don't have to assume that because immediately we start to
12:17 see a shift. First of all, right after that we see Phillip going
12:21 and baptizing the Ethiopian eunuch who was a gentile. We see
12:25 Saul's conversion and I want to refer to Acts chapter 22 where
12:29 Saul recounts his conversion there and it's interesting how
12:33 he says in verse 20 of Acts 22, And when the blood of your
12:37 martyr Stephen was shed, I also was standing by consenting to
12:41 his death and guarding the clothes of those who were
12:44 killing him. Then he said to me, that is the Lord, Depart for I
12:48 will send you far from here to the gentiles. And now we come
12:52 to Acts chapter 10 and we see Peter who the Lord in a special
12:57 revelation comes to him and to Cornelius and puts them in
13:00 connection and again we see the gospel going to the gentiles.
13:04 So very clearly we're seeing a shift in the early church where
13:07 the gospel is being opened more fully to the gentile nations.
13:11 So here in the beginning of this chapter we have Cornelius, a
13:15 gentile, that God is speaking to him and he is one who believes
13:18 in God but he doesn't have all the truth that the Jewish nation
13:22 has been entrusted with. So God wants to bring him in connection
13:25 with Peter. But he knows that Peter is not going to be very
13:30 likely to do that, as Peter himself said, in his address
13:34 later in verse 28, You know how unlawful it is for a Jewish man
13:37 to keep company with or go to one of another nation. So God
13:41 knows that in order for Cornelius to gain the benefit of
13:44 the church and Peter's preaching and teaching, he's going to have
13:48 to help him bring down the barriers that exist for him to
13:52 share his message with the gentiles. And so it is that he
13:56 gives this vision and Peter's trying to figure out what it
13:59 means and while he's trying to figure out what it means, here
14:03 comes the representatives from Cornelius and God says go with
14:07 them doubting nothing and as he's going I'm certain that he
14:11 begins to understand that vision was to teach me that now there
14:16 is no unclean, there is no common person, in terms of one
14:19 being more favored than another but rather all are equal and the
14:25 gospel now needs to go to Cornelius and to all gentiles.
14:28 We see the succession, like you said, in chapter 8, chapter 9
14:32 and chapter 10. Powerful. Well we're going to keep diving into
14:35 this message that Peter then shared with Cornelius, but
14:39 before we do we need to go to our break. So come back very
14:43 soon and we'll get started again in the book of Acts.


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Revised 2014-12-17