Invited to God's Plan
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1 The apostles and the brothers and sisters throughout Judea heard that even the Gentiles had welcomed God’s word.
2 When Peter went up to Jerusalem, the circumcised believers criticized him.
3 They accused him, “You went into the home of the uncircumcised and ate with them!”
4 Step-by-step, Peter explained what had happened.
5 “I was in the city of Joppa praying when I had a visionary experience. In my vision, I saw something like a large linen sheet being lowered from heaven by its four corners. It came all the way down to me.
6 As I stared at it, wondering what it was, I saw four-legged animals—including wild beasts—as well as reptiles and wild birds.
7 I heard a voice say, ‘Get up, Peter! Kill and eat!’
8 I responded, ‘Absolutely not, Lord! Nothing impure or unclean has ever entered my mouth.’
9 The voice from heaven spoke a second time, ‘Never consider unclean what God has made pure.’
10 This happened three times, then everything was pulled back into heaven.
11 At that moment three men who had been sent to me from Caesarea arrived at the house where we were staying.
12 The Spirit told me to go with them even though they were Gentiles. These six brothers also went with me, and we entered that man’s house.
13 He reported to us how he had seen an angel standing in his house and saying, ‘Send to Joppa and summon Simon, who is known as Peter.
14 He will tell you how you and your entire household can be saved.’
15 When I began to speak, the Holy Spirit fell on them, just as the Spirit fell on us in the beginning.
16 I remembered the Lord’s words: ‘John baptized with water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit.’
17 If God gave them the same gift he gave us who believed in the Lord Jesus Christ, then who am I? Could I stand in God’s way?”
18 Once the apostles and other believers heard this, they calmed down. They praised God and concluded, “So then God has enabled Gentiles to change their hearts and lives so that they might have new life.”
Invited to God's Plan
Invited to God's Plan
Do you remember learning about Murphy's Law, it said, "If anything can go wrong, it will." There are a thousand variations of that law, such as, "Buttered toast, when falling to the floor, will always fall face down."
One day in this particular house the toast fell to the floor, and to the amazement of the family, it landed buttered side up. Immediately the scientists were called in to analyze this. Did this really refute Murphy's Law, which said that "buttered toast, when it falls to the floor, will always fall buttered side down"?
The scientists secured the kitchen, told everybody not to touch anything. They took pictures and brought in their instruments, weighed and analyzed everything. They created a computer model, tested it. They reached the conclusion that Murphy's Law was intact. The woman had simply buttered the toast on the wrong side.
We love laws. Laws give us the assurance of an orderly universe, where there is consistency and order. When there is consistency and order, then there is predictability. If the bread always falls with the buttered side down, then we know what to expect from life, and we aren't going to get our hopes up. Life is just a whole lot easier that way. Life is much more comfortable for us when there are no surprises. (1)
Our scripture text this morning is about Peter retelling what had happened in the previous chapter to people who up until that point had been left out when it came to hearing the Gospel message preached to them.
Do you recall Jesus last words to the disciples before ascending into heaven? He said to them:
8 Rather, you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.”
That prophecy by Jesus was rapidly being fulfilled up until this incident. The disciples were in Jerusalem on the day of Pentecost when the Holy Spirit came on them with power and they began to preach the Gospel. The people in Jerusalem where hearing the Gospel and were coming to faith in Jesus. This spilled over into Judea, the area surrounding the city of Jerusalem. The Jews were hearing the Gospel and we being invited to follow the Messiah.
When Stephen was killed for the sake of the Gospel the church was scattered because of the persecution that broke out. Saul was heading up the persecution of the church. Philip the Bible tells us went to Samaria and began preaching to them. The Samaritans were a mixed race of people. They had a Jewish ancestry and the ancestry of some of the other nations around mixed in. When word was received in Jerusalem that the Samaritans were coming to faith Peter and John went to check it out. Peter and John laid hands on them and the Samaritans received the Holy Spirit.
The only people group left from Jesus prophecy were those in the “ends of the world.” It can be inferred from Jesus words that he is talking about the gentiles. He talking about us. The Gospel that the disciples were to be witnesses of is for you and I as well. The gentiles are not to be left out.
Let me tell you this, God has a plan for His Church. He has a plan for you and I to be involved in what He desires to happen through His Church. He is looking for us to be available and obedient to Him. That is exactly what He was looking for in Peter, availability and obedience. You see, when God sets a plan in action He provides all the necessary resources to accomplish what He wants accomplished. The Apostle Paul wrote:
20 Glory to God, who is able to do far beyond all that we could ask or imagine by his power at work within us;
21 glory to him in the church and in Christ Jesus for all generations, forever and always. Amen.
Paul wrote there that God is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine. Just when you think that you’ve got it all figured out and contained then God goes way beyond what we ask or imagine. Just when we think that we’ve got God in a box and have our plan established that God does immeasurably more than all that we could ever have dreamed of. That word immeasurably means “incapable of being measured - limitless[2]” We can’t even begin to measure what God has in store for us and that is what Peter found out.
When God does what he did for those new believers at Caesarea others are going to hear about it. The Christians back in Jerusalem and Judea heard about what had happened in Caesarea and Luke writes:
2 When Peter went up to Jerusalem, the circumcised believers criticized him.
3 They accused him, “You went into the home of the uncircumcised and ate with them!”
Those Jewish believers there in Jerusalem had forgotten that the message of the Gospel was going to go into all the world. They forgot that and became critical of Peter. They couldn’t praise God for what God did through Peter, the criticized Him.
That can so easily happen today. When a church begins experiencing a movement of God in them other people and churches can become jealous and critical of what is happening. Rather than praising God for what God is doing people sit back a nitpick what is going on.
That doesn’t mean that we accept at face value everything that happens in a church because if you watch TV preachers or read about them you often hear about some strange stuff. But, we should be excited and encouraged when God begins moving in a group of people so that people are coming to faith in Jesus.
These Jewish believers were holding on to their old ways and the law. They couldn’t accept that Peter had gone into the home of gentile and had a meal with him. Luke tells us there in verse 4 “Peter told them the whole story.” Peter wasn’t just going to hear the criticism or even respond to the criticism he tells them the whole story of what happened.
That is how gossip works. You hear a small piece of news and then you speculate about what might be going on and run with it and begin telling others as if it is the truth. Gossip needs to be stopped before it can take a foothold because it can ruin an individual or a church. The Jewish believers only got as far as Peter going into a Gentile home and eating with them. They didn’t get to them coming to faith and receiving the Holy Spirit. Peter here in chapter 11 is telling them the whole story and he starts with the vision that he had while he was on the rooftop of a home in Joppa spending time in prayer waiting for the noon meal to be prepared.
Peter tells those who are gathered that he has this vision of what looked like a large sheet being let down out of heaven with all kinds of creatures on it and that he hears a voice that tells him to get up and to kill and eat. Peter says in verse 8 that he replied to the command by saying:
8 I responded, ‘Absolutely not, Lord! Nothing impure or unclean has ever entered my mouth.’
Based on what Peter says the animals that were on that large sheet were animals that the law prohibited the Jews from eating. Peter is telling God that he has always kept the law and remained pure when it came to the food that he eats.
Peter tells us there in verse 9 that God speaks to him again and says “Do not call anything impure that God has made clean.” The law that Peter was referencing when he said he had never eaten anything that was impure or unclean came from God. It was not man’s law, but it came from God and here God is telling him to eat those things that prior to this time had been prohibited for the Jews. Of course we know now that God was using this to prepare Peter for what was about to happen in Caesarea.
Three times Peter tells those gathered there that this sheet was let down from heaven with Peter being command to kill and eat and three times Peter says no. Three must have been Peter’s number. Three times he denied Christ, three times he said that he loved Jesus and here three times Peter says that he’s committed to obeying the law of God.
God wasn’t content with Peter’s response because God was pulling Peter out of his comfort zone. It is easy to get comfortable in our faith and the practice of our faith. When the Holy Spirit begins to move in our lives we get a little nervous, we get a little uncomfortable. God understands that. Look at what Peter says there in verse 12:
12 The Spirit told me to go with them even though they were Gentiles. These six brothers also went with me, and we entered that man’s house.
God was taking Peter out of his comfort zone but Peter was being obedient to God and he went with the men that came from Caesarea. Peter even tells Cornelius back in chapter 10 that he is being obedient to God. Look at verses 28 and 29 of chapter 10:
28 He said to them, “You all realize that it is forbidden for a Jew to associate or visit with outsiders. However, God has shown me that I should never call a person impure or unclean.
29 For this reason, when you sent for me, I came without objection. I want to know, then, why you sent for me.”
Peter on that rooftop had a spiritual breakthrough because of that vision. Peter came to understand that the Gospel was not just for the Jews, it was for everyone. We need to be reminded of that occasionally. Life is messy at times. God brings across our pathway people that because of poor choices have made a mess of their life. I don’t know about you but when I ran away from God and his calling on my life I was making a royal mess of my life. The Holy Spirit didn’t tell me to clean up my act and then I could come back to church. No I was drawn by the Holy Spirit back to the church and it was there that the Holy Spirit began the work of restoring me into a right relationship with the Father.
When God brings someone across our pathway who comes from a messy background we don’t tell them to clean up their act first and then we’ll tell them about Jesus. No, a hundred times no! We tell them about Jesus and we allow the Holy Spirit to do the work of reconciling them to the Father. We tell them about a Father who loves them and wants to have a relationship with them. We tell them about Jesus, our savior who died for them so that the can be set free from sin and the bondage of sin. Jesus who said “He whom the Son sets free is free indeed.” We tell them about the Holy Spirit who wants to live within them and transform them into the person that God wants them to be.
Peter with his spiritual breakthrough goes to Caesarea and didn’t raise any objections with God because it was God’s plan for Peter. We must have that same obedience when the Holy Spirit invites us to join Him in what He is doing in the world to reach people for the Gospel.
Peter arrives at Cornelius’ house and Cornelius explains to Peter why he sent for him. Cornelius told Peter that he was told to send for him and that
14 He will tell you how you and your entire household can be saved.’
That is the message that we have been entrusted with. The message of the Gospel has the power to save those who are lost. There are people all around us who need to hear the message of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. There are people all around us who are very close to accepting Jesus as their savior if we would but invite them to join with us on this journey as Christians. The Holy Spirit is already at work in their lives just as He was at work in the life of Cornelius.
May it never be said of us that we would say “We don’t want those people.” There are churches today that proudly say that they are inclusive of all people. The problem is that they have changed their core beliefs and adopted the beliefs of the world in order to be inclusive.
The Gospel message is inclusive; it invites everyone to come.
All are invited to come to repentance because of what Jesus has done. The Gospel message doesn’t invite people to come and stay the way they are. We don’t change our beliefs; we don’t change the scripture to make the message more inviting. No, we allow the Holy Spirit to work in people’s lives to change them to what God wants them to be.
Peter told them that as he was speaking to those gathered in Cornelius’ house that “the Holy Spirit fell upon them just as it had upon us at the beginning.” Peter didn’t even get a chance to get his three-point message completed. The Holy Spirit had already prepared the hearts of Cornelius and those of his household and when Peter began his message about Jesus the Holy Spirit interrupted what Peter had planned to say and fell upon all of them and they were filled with the Holy Spirit.
Oh that the Holy Spirit would interrupt our plans and fill us anew and afresh with His power to accomplish all that He has in store for us.
Peter then said in verse 16:
16 I remembered the Lord’s words: ‘John baptized with water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit.’
This was a God ordained and orchestrated event to bring the Gospel to the Gentiles and to open the door to the further spreading of the Gospel throughout the world. Peter quotes to them the words of Jesus. He is remembering what Jesus said just before he ascended to heaven. Jesus told them in Acts 1:8:
8 Rather, you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.”
But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.
God the Holy Spirit is still today being poured out on people. The power that was promised to those first disciples is the same power that God pours out on us today. This event is more than just about Cornelius and Peter. This event is about God. When those who at first criticized Peter heard what happened they were left to do the only thing there was to do. All their criticism was silenced. Luke writes in verse 18:
18 Once the apostles and other believers heard this, they calmed down. They praised God and concluded, “So then God has enabled Gentiles to change their hearts and lives so that they might have new life.”
The Gentiles, those were excluded had heard the Gospel and they repented and were born again. God the Holy Spirit was poured out on them in power just like He had on the disciples.
It’s not about our plans. It’s not about what we want. It is all about God’s plan. God is going to accomplish His plan. He desires to use us. He invites us to be obedient to Him as He works through us to take the message of the Gospel of Jesus out into our broken world. He is calling you and I to be obedient to Him today. He invites us to be filled with the power of His Holy Spirit to accomplish the work that He has called us to do.
God invites us join with what He is doing currently in the lives of those around us. He invites us to go, to go into the world and make disciples. He is already there by the power of the Holy Spirit working in people’s lives. He is just waiting for us to show up to where He is at.
(1) Mark Trotter John 2:13-22 | What If He Shows Up? | Sermon and Worship Resources (sermons.com)
(2) "immeasurably". Dictionary.com Unabridged. Random House, Inc. 22 Apr. 2016. <Dictionary.comhttp://www.dictionary.com/browse/immeasurably>.