EXPANDING OUR HORIZONS
Posted by: bhfbc <bhfbc@...>
January 9, 2005
Text: Acts 10:34-43
News of the devastation along Southeast Asian coastlines of the
earthquake-triggered tsunami has continued to overwhelm the normal
senses. Our everyday minds cannot embrace the enormity of this tragedy.
Indeed, we do not want to, in all likelihood, but compassion stemming
from our belief that all people in need merit assistance forces us not to
forget what has happened.
The amount of assistance coming to those devastated peoples and the
mobilization to deliver donated resources from around the world are also
staggering. Notable among the contributing nations is Australias
assistance to Indonesia. It was Australians who bore the brunt of a major
terrorist attack on Westerners in Indonesia. In spite of that, Australia
has joined in this international effort to bring relief to the tsunami
disaster areas.
Expanding our horizons has been a challenge to humans throughout history.
It is easy to become entrenched in familiarity. It is not always easy to
accept new concepts. When it comes to our Christian faith, however, God
makes it clear that we are to expand our horizons. Now I think that
Christians today understand this pretty well. There may be some who still
hang on to certain prejudices, but any of us who have any sense of
historical Christianity know that Jesus came to save not just the Jews.
However, those earliest believers did not have a history of the faith to
draw from like we do. Consequently, those early Christians, as
represented by Peter, had to learn some new lessons.
We well know that by the time of Jesus, and during the early years
following his resurrection, many in the Jewish faith were pretty secure
in their knowledge that Gods blessings applied to them. There were some
rather firm divisions between the Jews and the Gentiles. Of course, a
Gentile was anyone not Jewish. Little wonder they have gained so many
enemies over the centuries. A traditional Jew did not care for the habits
and beliefs of the Gentile. It was not a good thing for a son or daughter
to marry a Gentile. Even though some Gentiles sought spiritual knowledge
from Judaism, a Gentile was hardly ever fully integrated into Jewish
community and society. There were just too many barriers to overcome.
However, we make a mistake if we believe that this is how God intended it
to be. Certainly, there were enemies of Gods people who God struck down.
There were times when the Israelites had to fight for their survival, and
God ensured their victories. Nevertheless, Gods compassion reached a lot
farther than just His tribe of Israelites. God wanted His people to have
compassion for the widowed and the orphaned and the downtrodden. The
alien - that is, the foreigner - was supposed to receive justice from
the Hebrews. In fact, we note that Jesus own blood line included Gentile
members. When Jesus taught and healed, he had praise for the faith
expressed by some Gentiles. He spoke to Samaritan women. He taught and
lived a faith that expanded horizons by going beyond the Jewish-Gentile
boundaries of his day.
The disciples had some more learning to do, though. Acts 10 is about the
interaction between God, Peter, and the Cornelius household. God directs
Cornelius, a Gentile, to send for Peter. God prepares Peter for the visit
through the vision in which Peter is told to eat some food that was
supposed to be unclean. The lesson for Peter was that God can cleanse the
impure, and that salvation through Christ is an invitation for the
Gentile as well as for the Jew.
After Cornelius and Peter shared their stories about Gods visits with
them, and His instructions to them, Peter declared, 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. The boundaries of the early
church were beginning to expand.
Recognizing the presence of God in all of these events, Peter both
proclaims and teaches the testimony of Jesus saving works to the
Cornelius family and to those who accompanied him from Joppa. You know
the message God sent to the people of Israel, telling the good news of
peace through Jesus Christ, who is Lord of all. The message from God is
identified as good news. In fact, it is good news of peace. This is
because that Gods message brings notification of the reconciliation
available between God and man. All who are seeking God, and we all seek
God, discover that God has made the way to relationship and fellowship
with Him possible. This brings peace to the seeker, which is, indeed,
good news. In the same sentence, Peter declares that it is Jesus Christ
through whom the message of God is given, and that Jesus is Lord of all.
Peter is not being abstract by merely saying that Jesus is Lord of all
the universe and everything in it. Of course God has power over all
creation, Jew and Gentile alike. What Peter acknowledged here is that as
Lord of all - Lord of both Jew and Gentile - then both Jew and Gentile
could come to God through the Lord Jesus Christ. No special hoops for the
Gentile to jump through; no special favors for the Jew to receive. Simply
salvation for all coming to God through Jesus Christ. Recall that Peter
has left Jerusalem and is in Caesarea, which is almost in the province of
Syria. Just as Luke promised, the gospel message is spreading from Judea,
past Samaria, and eventually to the ends of the earth.
Peter goes on to make known to these Gentiles the great salvation work of
Jesus death and resurrection. We are witnesses of everything he did in
the country of the Jews and in Jerusalem. They killed him by hanging him
on a tree, but God raised him from the dead on the third day and caused
him to be seen. He was not seen by all the people, but by witnesses whom
God had already chosen by us who ate and drank with him after he rose
from the dead.
This great salvation event was done as much for the Gentiles sake as it
was for the redemption of Israel. Peter testifies to the agonizing death
that Jesus suffered. His reference to "hanging him on a tree" uses the
language and images from Deuteronomy 21:22-23, which depicts the contempt
and cursedness of one punished by crucifixion. But the cruel death could
not contain the redemptive work of Jesus. But God raised him from the
dead on the third day
Peter describes the apostles' experience as
chosen witnesses to Jesus' miraculous resurrection, a testimony of the
gospel that they would now go on to preach before all nations. The
apostles were witnesses to Jesus' earthly ministry and to the stunning
events of the cross and resurrection. Along with his previous revelation
that God shows no partiality between Jew and Gentile, the Christ-event
now demonstrates for Peter and Cornelius their common bond. Christ's
triumph over death and his saving resurrection were not just for the
obedient of Israel. Christs triumph is a gift of salvation for all
nations. The resurrected Christ is the one God has ordained as "judge"
(v.42). But not a judge in the sense that those speaking then might have
experienced. Christ's judgment consists of granting forgiveness to
"everyone who believes in him" (v. 43).
The significant meanings of this message are seen immediately. Combining
divine impartiality with the gift of Jesus' redemptive resurrection
transforms Peter's mission. The gift from Christ to which Peter witnesses
before Cornelius extends salvation itself to all people, Jew and Gentile,
who receive the gospel and believe its Good News.
Immediately following Peter's testimony, the Holy Spirit falls upon
Cornelius' household - this Gentile household - and Peter calls for them
all to be baptized. Follow this testimony in verses 44-48. While Peter
was still speaking these words, the Holy Spirit came on all who heard the
message. The circumcised believers who had come with Peter were
astonished that the gift of the Holy Spirit had been poured out even on
Gentiles. For they heard them speaking in tongues and praising God. Then
Peter said, Can anyone keep these people from being baptized with water?
They have received the Holy Spirit just as we have. So he ordered that
they be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ. Then they asked Peter to
stay with them for a few days. With this act, the apostolic witness and
the church's future have expanded their horizons. The world is suddenly
Peter's mission field. All who will hear the testimony about Christ and
all who believe are now fully understood to be brothers and sisters in
Christ.
In this account, the full extent of Christs salvation work has been made
clear. The groundwork is laid for the appearance of converted Saul and
for his commissioning to be a missionary to the Gentiles by the Jerusalem
church. This is part of the reason, then, why the Christian faith has
been throughout the centuries, with very few exceptions, the faith that
has spread around the globe bringing salvation to millions. It is also
part of the reason why the greatest source of charity, both spiritual and
material, has come from Christian believers willing to give sacrificially
for the cause of Jesus Christ, who is Lord of all. Just as it was for
Peter, it is for the sake and glory of our Lord Jesus Christ that our
horizons have been expanded.
Rev. Charles A. Layne, pastor, First Baptist Church, Bunker Hill, IN