Participants: Jim & Mark Howard
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. |
Revised 2014-12-17