Living Stones – Saturday, February 3, 2018
Astonished
Acts 10:45
And those of the circumcision who believed were astonished, as many as came with Peter, because the gift of the Holy Spirit had been poured out on the Gentiles also.
What did God go and do now?
Peter would not stop himself. He arrived at the house of Cornelius the Gentile and there he said to them, “You know how unlawful it is for a Jewish man to keep company with or go to one of another nation. But God has shown me that I should not call any man common or unclean.” Acts 10:28.
Peter remained conscious that he was operating outside of the box. He wasn’t sure where this was going but he was doing what people like to say – he was trusting God where he couldn’t trace Him. Peter’s vision of the sheet with the unclean animals being pronounced clean was a metaphor for the Gentiles being brought into the Kingdom of God but Peter was still struggling with the concept even though he was in the Gentile’s house.
Something major was about to take place in the Kingdom of God and Peter was at the forefront of God’s new move. In order to appreciate what was happening, we need Paul’s help to summarise the condition of the Gentiles. “Therefore remember that you, once Gentiles in the flesh—who are called Uncircumcision by what is called the Circumcision made in the flesh by hands— that at that time you were without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world.” Ephesians 2:11,12.
We had no hope and we were without God in the world?! That is a damming condition for us to be in, but the Jews were ok with that because, as far as they understood, things were as Jesus told the woman at the well, “You worship what you do not know; we know what we worship, for salvation is of the Jews.” John 4:22.
Salvation is of the Jews. The religious order was in place and nothing was ever going to change that. Except that now God was about to do a new thing. He was about to fulfil the prophecies of old. Someone called me this week, after some devotionals on this theme of God doing a new thing and pointed out to me that a certain heretic was using this construct as a basis for exploiting members of his ‘church.’ He claimed that what he was teaching was a new thing that God was doing and others were not yet aware of it!
God is of consistent character, and nothing that He does, new or old, is ever inconsistent with His revealed and known character. The immutable God, who is “the same yesterday, today, and forever” does new things in keeping with His established character.
When God called Abram, back in Genesis 12, His promise included this, “in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.” Genesis 12:3. Later the Prophet Isaiah wrote ““And in that day there shall be a Root of Jesse, Who shall stand as a banner to the people; For the Gentiles shall seek Him, And His resting place shall be glorious.” Isaiah 11:10. And then Jesus in what is called the great commission instructed “Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit,” Matthew 28:18.
When Peter was called to the home of Cornelius we had come to a pivotal moment in the spiritual history of the world. The Gospel was about to break out of its Jewish garrison and God’s intention was about to be implemented. God, the husbandman, to use an old-fashioned King James era term, was about to do the grafting as the Apostle Paul describes in Romans 11, “you, being a wild olive tree, were grafted in among them, and with them became a partaker of the root and fatness of the olive tree,” Romans 11:17.
God had the challenge of getting past centuries of Jewish thinking that missed the heart of God in His call to Jewish exceptionalism, to here use an American political term. The Jews were to be separate to demonstrate God’s call and election and God righteous requirements of those who follow Him. It was not meant to be an everlasting exclusive prison.
Peter’s kneejerk reaction to the vision was to resist and call on is Jewish background to resist the move of God. But God, whose plans would not be thwarted by men’s limitations, was also giving a vision to the Gentile Cornelius. For me, Cornelius was a significant man in Christian history who does not often get the recognition he is due. Cornelius’ living room became the virtual birthplace of gentile Christianity because of his openness to God.
This awkward moment in Cornelius’ house was sorted out by the astonishing arrival of the Holy Spirit upon the Gentiles. It is amazing to see Peter arranging a baptismal service before even conducting convert class. And in a flash, he moved into the Guest Quarters when he had said earlier that “unlawful it is for a Jewish man to keep company with or go to one of another nation.”
Science and technology, style and fashion, and, arts and culture, are creating new divisions among people within societies and across societies globally. As the church, we are going to be challenged to break new barriers as God continues to move to seek and save the lost. We will probably have to give up centuries of thought to embrace what God is doing. When He does we should not be astonished.
Think about these things:
- Do you ever think of yourself as being in a religious box?
- Are you able to determine whether new thinking about life and ethics are consistent with the teaching of the Bible?
- How could we better prepare ourselves for spreading the Gospel in a New Age?
Prayer focus:
Let us pray today that we would be prepared and equipped for the new thing God will do to reach those in this New Age.
In His Grace
Pastor Alex