Acts10

Transcript

This transcript was generated automatically from the audio and may contain small errors.

My name is Steve Beckwith. I go with Carrie. She's the one that read scripture so well just a few minutes ago. I'm a retired pastor and if I pastor Drew enough he'll let me preach every once in a while. So that's what's happening today but I'm glad you're here. You know we've been in this series of messages in the book of Acts called Pass the Edges and it's been about how God has pushed the gospel from Jerusalem into Judea and Samaria and you're gonna see even further today and we're gonna be in Acts 10 and in Acts 10 the title of the message today is good things happen. Good things happen and as I thought about this I wanted to share some good things that that have happened to me recently. So I went and got a haircut now that's not the good thing although some people might think so. I went got a haircut and I had the sweetest conversation with the young lady that was cutting my hair. As a matter of fact I was hoping she'd be here

today but but I don't see her but at any rate it turned into a spiritual conversation and one thing led to another and it was just a it was just a precious time. It was just one of those times when when she really got very transparent and she shared she's seven months pregnant she's fixing to move to Shreveport where her husband who's in the Air Force is is training and she doesn't really have a church home right now but she has professed faith in Christ and and it just really turned into a neat little interaction and I was blessed by it and and I hope she was too. And then another thing on my list of good things that God is doing right now is I'm getting to play pickle ball with my grandson on Fridays and he's trying to me he doesn't beat me real bad most of the time but it's just been a blessing to be with him and and to be able to do that and and just enjoy time together. And another good thing that

God's doing in my life right now is Karen I have a daughter that lives in New York City right now and it looks like she's gonna be moving back to Texas and that her being in New York City she's single it's been good for our prayer life hadn't it Carrie for her to be there but but it'll really be good if and it looks like she's gonna be moving back to Texas and it might be staying for us with us for a while while she gets reestablished here but and then one other thing that I want to mention was getting to take a once in a really once-in-a-lifetime trip to South Asia this coming summer with with some friends I hope we're still friends Drew when we get back Drew's when we get back but but just really looking forward to that and what God might do in that and and you might feel like those good things they don't have any relationship to one another but they really kind of do and I hope you'll understand more

what I mean by that as we look at Acts 10 so if you have you copy of scripture open it or bring it up on your screen whatever whatever you're using and and let's look at verses 1 through 8 of chapter 10 of the book of Acts at Caesarea there was a man named Cornelius a centurion of what was known as the Italian cohort a devout man who feared God with all his household gave alms generously to the people and prayed continually to God now so here Luke's sharing this guy's resume with where he's from what his name is he's a centurion I looked this up and centurion is kind of equal to an army captain they were called centurions because they usually had a hundred men that were under their command but not that's not that's his work life but look at his spiritual life as far as being a devout man who feared God and gave alms that was one of the things that the Jewish people especially were thought

was very important and and prayed continually so about the ninth hour it says in verse 3 of the day he saw in a vision an angel of God come in and say to him Cornelius and listen to this and this guy's a soldier he's a he's been in a scrape or two and he stared at him this angel in terror and said what is it Lord and he said to him your prayers and your alms have ascended as memorial before God and now send men to Joppa and bring one Simon who is called Peter he is lodging with one Simon a tanner whose house is by the sea when the angel who spoke to him had departed he called two of his servants and a devout soldier from among those who attended him and having related everything to them he sent them to Joppa now the first thing I want you to catch in this sermon in this passage of Scripture actually this morning is God greatly or gently leads in ways that we can grasp God gently leads in ways that

we can grasp now when you look at what happened to Cornelius you might question the word gently but God in his kindness does what it takes to get our attention doesn't he and some of you can testify to that first hand maybe you can even testify to it from what what's taking place this very weak but God in his kindness speaks to us and he and he gently leads in ways that we can get it he puts it down there at a level that we can get it and and that's what was happening with Cornelius but at the same time God's leading in another place and I want you to look now at verse verse 9 and following okay 9 9 through 16 the next day as they and that's that group of the three emissaries from Cornelius as they were on their journey and approaching the city the city of Joppa Peter went up on the housetop about the sixth hour to pray and he became hungry and wanted something to eat now from what I understand they have people

at this time they had a morning meal and an evening meal is too hot during the middle of the day to eat and maybe Peter had missed that morning meal maybe he just got hungry for whatever reason but he's hungry and he wanted something to eat but while they were preparing it he fell into a trance and saw the heavens open and something like a great sheet descending being let down by its its four corners upon the earth in it were all kinds of animals and reptiles and birds of the air and there came a voice to him rise Peter kill and eat but Peter said by no means Lord for I have never eaten anything that is common or unclean he was a good Jew and he had stuck with the dietary laws as he understood them I've never eaten anything that is common or unclean and the voice came to him a second time what God has made clean do not call common this happened three times and then this this thing the sheet was taken up at

once to heaven so here Peter is and he's having this experience with God and and he's not really sure what's going on but God is speaking to him as well isn't he and as God speaks gently to Peter he's he's gonna take he's gonna take a little more slow of an approach with Peter do y'all know about Peter you know Peter's kind of a kind of one of those guys that I love him because I can I can relate to him he kind of he kind of only opens his mouth to insert the other foot you know he's one of those guys that that kind of can can not always do the best and and yet here God is just kind of gently nurturing him along and he starts out with this vision of the sheet with these things that he would never eat and yet God's telling him hey what I've put before you don't call it unclean don't call it common so God is is gently leading in ways that Peter can understand and he and he does that for you and I and maybe you can

relate real strongly to that maybe maybe you that's fresh in your experience maybe it's been a while since you've really sensed God leading in your life but God's certainly willing and able to do that which is necessary to lead us well now look at verse 17 now while Peter was inwardly perplexed okay what in the world was this about this the sheep from heaven as to what the vision that he had seen might mean behold the men who were sent by Cornelius this trio of guys that Cornelius had sent having made inquiry for Simon's house stood at the gate so they were right outside of where Peter is up on the roof and called out to ask whether Simon who was called Peter was lodging there and while Peter was pondering the vision the spirit now this is a little different he's had this vision but now look look at how God's speaking the spirit said to him the Holy Spirit behold three men are looking for you rise and go down and

accompany them without hesitation for I have sent them and Peter went down to the men and said I'm the one you're looking for what is the reason for your coming and they said Cornelius a centurion an upright and God-fearing man who's well spoken of by the whole Jewish nation was directed by a holy angel to sin for you to come to his house and to hear what you have to say so he invited them in to be his guest so now this this trio has shown up and they've they've they've interacted with Peter and Peter has has has kind of spoken with them and again Peter still I think a bit in a fog as to what's going on exactly but but he's at least spoken to them and invited them to come into his home so so I want to give you a little pop quiz see if anybody's still with me I know college is almost over Jed's home you're done right Jed yeah so but you one more quiz you got one more quiz in you don't you and this is a this is a team

participation thing okay so by what means did God lead them at this point and I'm talking about both of these guys corneal and st. Peter by what means did God lead them come on this is this is that lie group out loud group participation Holy Spirit had had spoken to Peter so there was that an angel had showed up and spoken to Cornelius how many of y'all have had that experience okay yeah that's kind of what I thought and what else a vision and how many of y'all have had something like that yeah I can say I can actually say I've had something like that and some of some of the other others have it may not be something that you want to talk about a whole lot I know the vision I had I just felt like I was I was actually in a place out looking over a group of houses and I felt like God was calling me to to minister there and and he ended up doing that very thing and maybe maybe something like that so

how many of y'all can relate to the Holy Spirit just kind of spoke something in your life yeah yeah yeah that's that's a lot of us and and maybe you don't know exactly what that looks like or how to describe that but but it does happen and and it's and it's it's one of those things that sometimes we wonder if it's really the Holy Spirit if we're just talking to ourselves anybody ever have that thought you know I'm just trying to leave myself here it's but but the Holy Spirit does want to speak into our life and he does now I've got some friends that are dancers how many of y'all are dancers I see those proud hands and and this these people that I know they took up ballroom dancing okay you know kind of the what's the TV show Dancing with the Stars kind of that style of dancing I thought oh my goodness that's just that he just way beyond me I can't hardly put one foot in front of the other and I've got some other friends that did

square dancing okay anybody participated there they they loved it they really had fun with it and evidently it can be really fun and I don't like I say I don't know anything about dancing except I've heard this one cardinal rule and you tell me if I'm wrong the cardinal rule is that somebody has to lead and somebody has to follow when your couples dancing right is that is that accurate and if it doesn't go that way then it's not gonna end well right somebody could get actually hurt physically hurt well that's the way God wants to work in our lives he is purposely trying to lead us in in ways that will glorify him and that will fulfill us and give us meaningful life this life this abundance of life that he has for us it flows out of that that leading of God that Holy Spirit leading in our lives and and I hope you can relate to that because I have a second question for you and and and this is

not an out loud question this this is a internal question by what means has he led you when you when you think about how God's led you in the past and some of you already shared you got to giving you a vision for something or God's spoken in your are there other ways God's led you has got every when you're reading your Bible either in a maybe a Sunday school class or a Bible study or worship service and you just felt man God's telling me to to do something here God's leaving me here or have you ever have you ever just in the maybe you were driving in your car and the quietness you're praying about something and God says yeah or have you ever had somebody just and sometimes it's even somebody unexpected just speak something into your life and you realize hey that's what God wants me to do that goes about this in a variety of different ways but man he does not have a speech impediment God is able to speak and he's able to speak

in ways that we can get a hold of it that we can grasp it that we can understand it you know I looked up the word disciples don't know that word you know Christians were actually called disciples for a long time before they were called Christians and and you know what the word disciple means I pulled out a little Bible definition can you see this it's one who follows another person or another way of life and who submits himself to the discipline the teaching of that leader of that way that's what God's God's calling us to you remember what what Jesus said to the first the very first apostles said come follow me don't follow me and some of them he told come follow me I'll make you fishers of men but come follow me God wants to to lead you and and he is perfectly able to lead you in ways that will will transform you and bless you and if I ask you right now this question how's it going what what might God be

trying to lead you into right now now I mentioned earlier that that maybe maybe you can relate strongly to this idea and maybe it's been a while since you've really sensed God leading you anywhere but what do you think's up when you go through a stretch like that God's hasn't if God hasn't led you recently what's going on there you know sometimes we we do things create some distance sometimes we we hear but don't obey but we need we need to be aware that God wants to lead us because number next on the list is we can respond positively or negatively can't we we can respond positively or negatively now look at Cornelius is responsible let's jump back for just a minute to verse of 7 and 8 when the angel who spoke to him had departed he called two of his servants and a devout soldier from among those who attended him and having related everything to them sent them off to Japa so what was Cornelius his response to

God's leading I mean you really had to give him a a plus 100 smiley face wouldn't you my wife taught elementary school as you can tell yeah you really have to give him a good mark for that because not only did did Cornelius obey but he did it did it say it when the angel left angel left he's on it he's doing it right yeah and you know there's this old thing about what is delayed obedience disobedience yeah yeah but that's not Cornelius and and and so he actually just just does exactly what God told him to do what about Peter look at Peter's response so he invited them in to be his guest the next day that's verse 23 he rose and went away with them and some of the brothers from what's what would you give how'd you score Peter pretty good right I mean I mean you saw the vision he didn't really understand it but he saw it and and and then it started to make a little sense when he when these Gentiles come and and

then the spirit kind of whispers in his ear and he does it he does it but we all know that that while we can respond positively we can also respond natively you know there's some little short Bible verses in there in the writings of Paul and one of them it says in this is in Ephesians 431 says this and do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God do not grieve and one of the ways that we can respond negatively as God tries to lead us is we can we can grieve the Holy Spirit and and that word that word grieve means it's the anguish that we feel after significant loss it's really interesting to me that we can we can cause the Holy Spirit to be grieved feel anguish over loss because when we don't follow God something gets lost the good results that might have taken place our own follow ship and and and relationship something gets lost and and so it grieves the heart of God the other little negative verse that I found

is do not quench the spirit and that word quench it means to extinguish a fire is there's one translation that actually uses that that terminology you do not extinguish the Holy Spirit's fire how can we put out the spirits fire when we don't follow his lead well that that that wants to energize and and those people we we've pushed it aside when we don't follow that which would really really excite us have you I'm sure several of you if not every one of you have been in a situation where it was kind of exciting to follow Jesus you didn't know how it's gonna turn out we can quench that when we when we disobey and unfortunately there's just whole lots of illustrations of this in Scripture y'all y'all remember a guy named Jonah yeah Jonah when it was called to Nineveh remember what happens just just look at this for just a minute Jonah 1 1 now the Word of the Lord came to Jonah the son of Amatai saying rise

go to Nineveh that great city and call out against it for their evil has come up before me but Jonah rose to flee to Tarshish from the presence of the Lord he went down to Joppa and bought a and found a ship going to Tarshish so he paid the fare and went to onboard to go with them to Tarshish away from the presence of the Lord there's a little something even suspect in that phrase in there yeah God says Jonah go this way and which way did Jonah go he went that way yeah and and it wasn't I mean here's a great man of God Moses right yeah and what happens at the burning bush you remember God does this thing where he has this bush burning to get Moses's attention to get him over there and then when Moses comes over there says hey Moses I've got a job I've got a deal for you I want you to go to Pharaoh who he had had encounters with in the past leaving people out and how does Moses respond wrong number you got the wrong

guy God that's that's not for me and then God says yeah but I got these great tricks you could do and he shows Moses how you can throw his staff down it becomes a snake and how you put his hand in his cloak and it becomes leprous and he puts it back and Jonah says yeah but you got the wrong guy God and in one of Moses's excuses I don't speak well and look at God's response to that in Exodus 4 13 and 14 but he God said oh my lord please send somebody else you got the wrong guy then the anger of the Lord was kindled against Moses now you never want to be the Moses name in that in that sentence do you I sure don't and he said is there not air in your brother at the Levite I know that he can speak well and any and he made a work around but here Moses was he was just responding negatively and I just want to remind you this is a verse I found in Romans 8 14 for all who are led by the Spirit of

God our sons of God listen if you want to be reassured and refreshed and know that you're in the right place in your relationship with God follow him follow him walk in obedience to to what it is that he might be be doing in your life and and when you look back at the past have you done have you responded to the gentle leading of the Lord in the past you know chances are the reason you're Christian is because you responded positively to God's leading chances are if you're a member of this or some other church the reason you did that is because you responded positively to God's leading and hopefully if you've ever done anything in service for the kingdom of God you did that because you were making a positive response to God's lead in your life but I just remind you today that folks it's not a one-and-done situation just because we once followed God's leading at some point in the past that doesn't mean okay

you're good no God in his in his desire for an intimate relationship with us wants to continually lead us day by day and walk with us in paths of righteousness the Bible says for his name sake for his glory for his honor and for our good and I don't know what's currently going on in your life but might not be leading you even today how are you doing with that because God has a work that he wants to do in your life let's go back to our text for a minute in verses 24 through 29 look at what happens next the next day he grows and went away with them and some of the brothers from Joppa accompany him Peter is really smart here in that when he when he responds to Cornelius invitation he takes some friends with him he take as a matter of fact we find out later it's a group of six that went with him and and on the following day they entered Caesarea Cornelius was expecting them and he had called together his

friends and close his relatives and close friends so Cornelius had gathered a whole bunch of people and when Peter entered Cornelius met him and fell down at his feet and worshiped him but Peter lifted him up saying stand up I tell him a man and he talked with him he went in and found many persons gathered and he said to them you yourselves know how unlawful it is for a Jew to associate with or to visit anyone of another nation but God has shown me that I should not call any person common and unclean hey you got the message didn't he yeah so when I was sent for I came without objection I asked then why have you sinned for me so here Peter is and he's done the right thing and he's responding well he's following God's leadership there's still a little bit of of a question in his mind but but hey good things have already happened and I just again I would just worry remind you with this final idea that when we

follow God is glorified and people are blessed and at this point who had been blessed don't you think Cornelius had been blessed by this point hey I sent that I just did what the angel told me to do and here Peter is it worked God God convinced him to come you think Peter's blessed at this point I'm sure he's still kind of a bit in a I don't know if Peter actually ever came out of a fog but I'm still I'm sure he's still a little bit confused about what's going on here but but he knows God's led him and he knows now that vision of the sheep it makes sense now he understands why God wanted him to accompany these guys and so there he is right there but but then it gets even gets even better I think so Peter opened his mouth verse 34 so Peter opened his mouth and said truly I understand that God shows no partiality but in every nation anyone who fears him and does what is right is acceptable to him as for the word that

he sent to Israel preaching good news of peace through Jesus Christ you yourselves know what happened throughout all Judea beginning from Galilee after the baptism that John proclaimed how God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and with power he went about doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil for God was with him and we are witnesses of all that he did both in the country of the Jews and in Jerusalem they put him to death by hanging him on a tree but God raised him up on the third day and made him to appear not to all the people but to us who had been chosen by God as witnesses who ate and drank with him after he rose from the dead and he commanded us to preach to the people and to testify that he is the one appointed by God to be the judge of the living and the dead to him all the prophets bear witness that everyone who believes in him received forgiveness of

sin through his name what's Peter just shared the gospel and man if you've ever got to share the gospel especially fully with anybody I'm not I enjoyed this little Christian this little spiritual conversation that I had with this this lady who cut my hair but man when you get to share the gospel it is thrilling it is exciting and if you've ever been a part of that you know what I'm talking about and here Peter has had the opportunity to do that and what's going on in Cornelius and his clan what's going on in their hearts and minds right now oh my goodness they're understanding God in a whole new way God it's not just Yahweh of Judaism but God is God in the flesh in the form of Jesus Christ who has come and paid the penalty for our sins and and now we can have forgiveness and we can have this whole new relationship with God that comes by faith in him and so they've heard Peter shared the gospel

and they've heard and they've received the gospel and Wow God is doing this this wonderful this miraculous thing in their hearts and lives and and when we follow God is glorified but then it even gets better look at verse 44 while Peter was still saying these things the Holy Spirit fell on all who heard the word now that might not be common verbiage to you the Holy Spirit fell on them but man something special is happening here see if you can understand what and the believers from among the circumcised who come with Peter were amazed because the gift of the Holy Spirit was poured out even on the Gentiles see up to this point only the the Christian movement was Jewish and now it's jumped this it's gone beyond the edges and these Gentiles are expressing this Holy Spirit anointing that was familiar to Peter by the way for they were hearing them speaking in tongues and stolen God then Peter

declared can anyone withhold water for baptizing these people who have received the Holy Spirit just as we have and he commanded them to be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ then they asked them to remain for some days as a matter of fact as Peter's sharing this story to the his other Christian friends who are Jewish and who are questioning him going to Gentiles he uses the terminology hey and this is in 1115 as I begin to speak the Holy Spirit fell on them just as on us at the beginning just as the Holy Spirit had come on them at Pentecost if you're familiar with Pentecost and how God the Holy Spirit came in this whole new way at Pentecost now we've got a Gentile Pentecost where God's come in this whole new way on people who weren't Jewish now who's being blessed in these moments who's being blessed and that Cornelius is clan is experienced something they have never experienced before but but

extrapolate that on out who else is being blessed when this happens let me ask it this way how many y'all are Jewish how many y'all are Gentiles yeah hey this is this is our blessing this is for us now maybe God could have gone about it another way but but listen the reason that we have faith in Christ is because God burst the bonds of Judaism and extended the good news about Jesus Christ in the kingdom of God beyond just Jewish people out to Gentiles of which I are one and I'm grateful to God that he was willing to do that because I'm blessed today because of what happened then and if you're not Jewish you are too God was doing something that was amazing that was supernatural and it extended his love and his blessing to those around him and that's often the way it works when we allow God to lead and we respond in positive ways we got a we got a phone call this week from our another daughter we have a

daughter that's that lives in Alabama and they have a homeless person that's come to their church homeless Joanna and Joanna is Joanna is doing what homeless people often do Joanna is just she's taking things without asking and Joanna is she's asking people for money everybody she's not real selective going one-on-one asking people for money and and so they had a they had a put Joanna this isn't Joanna's picture but an image of a homeless person so so Joanna has a meeting with the pastor and some and my daughter's on staff there and some other people were in this meeting and Joanna Joanna's as soon as she gets in she says am I being kicked out of the church the pastor said no we love you we're just trying to figure out how to help you you see they're they're trying to they're trying to follow God's leading because they know if they can it'll bless Joanna

but it's blessing the church it's stretching that church and and you know most of us smell okay here in here this morning but Joanna's doesn't and you gotta if you're gonna sit by Joanna in church you're just gonna have to deal with that but you know what God uses those kinds of things to bless in those kinds of things he is honored when we do things for the least of things when we do anything that's it's in step with the Holy Spirit's leadership God is honored and we're blessed so today I just want to ask you where are you and all that and if it's been a while since you've really felt led by the Lord to to do anything I would invite you and we're gonna have a moment of invitation I would invite you just open your heart to God this morning and maybe maybe you need to open up your heart to God and say God I want to follow you to salvation I need to let you lead me into a new relationship with you or maybe you need

to open your heart and ask God for restoration you need to come back to God it's not that he quit speaking it's that you quit listening and he's calling he's drawing you right now saying you come come to me I love you I want to be with you you need to be with me and maybe there's something going on in your life right now where you just really need the Holy Spirit to lead you maybe it's a crisis maybe it's a challenge God wants to lead he's the perfect dance partner we'll follow we'll be blessed stand with me and we pray together father we we enter into this time of invitation and Lord we just ask you to move among us and Lord as Peter and Cornelius as their obedience as their willingness to follow your leadership blessed even down to this very day blesses our lives those of us who are Gentiles Lord we we could be a blessing to only you know who all when we follow you what I don't know what the people

in this room I don't know what their challenges are today I don't know where you might want to leave them paths of righteousness for your name's sake Lord I pray in the quietness of these moments we have gotten our souls