A few things really stood out to me from this chapter. Again it is a very exciting story as now God is leading Peter to bring the Good News to Gentiles.
I find it very interesting as we encounter persons such as Cornelius who is a devout, God fearing man. Even though he isn't a Jew, he has recognized that Yahweh is the true God and he and his whole household fear God. He additionally regularly gives money to those in need and prays continually to God. Here is an example of a man who fears and trusts God, even though he doesn't fully know who God is. And since there apparently no one in his town to speak to him about Jesus, God tells him to send to Joppa for Peter. Both Joppa and Caesarea were on the coast, but they were quite some distance apart. I've heard of recent stories where God has spoken to Muslim Imam's in Pakistan with no witness of Jesus in their town to go to another town and find certain believers who are able to tell them about Jesus. It is exciting to see God working in such ways to bring his word to those who don't have an immediate witness to Jesus nearby!
I also think it is interesting to see the prejudice and bias that had been worked into Peter in the Jewish culture of that day to the point where it was "illegal" for him to visit the house of a non-Jewish person. But God is faithful and spoke clearly to Peter and showed him three visions telling him not to call unclean what God has made clean. We'll see these prejudices come up later in Acts as well, but God is faithful to work with us to change us. I think that it is important for us to recognize that these things happen from two perspectives: 1) recognize that just because people have come to Christ and are filled with the Holy Spirit and even if they are leaders, it doesn't mean that all of their old preconceptions and biases are gone. They can and do still have sinful attitudes and actions. 2) Recognizing this, we need to be patient with one another, praying, talking and asking God to bring us all into a full realization of his plans and purposes so we can love those around us as God loves them. We need to be humble ourselves recognizing that we ourselves are in this situation and we have sinful attitudes and actions (though as always it is hardest to recognize our own sinful attitudes and actions) and recognize that God keeps working on and in us. So we need to both be vigilant to examine ourselves, allow God to speak to us to correct us, and be able to listen when others are speaking and highlighting areas were we need to change and grow. This last area is hardest for us, but we need to recognize that fact and choose humility, openness and honesty so that God can be exalted and honored in and through us.
It also struck me that just as we saw Jesus have a life of prayer, we see Peter here exhibiting that same characteristic that he had gone up onto the housetop to pray when God spoke to him and showed him the visions. He probably would never have gone with the men from Cornelius if he hadn't been there in prayer listening to God. This again highlights the absolute necessity of prayer, prayer and more prayer. Lord Jesus, please put in me a deeper hunger for you and a need to spend more time with you in prayer!
As the other messages/speeches and sermons have been interesting, this one is especially interesting to me since here Peter is speaking to Gentiles who haven't witnessed who Jesus is and what he did. This comes closer to the normal situation that we face in speaking to others about Jesus.
I think it also interesting that the Holy Spirit works in yet a different way in this situation. In this case the believers are filled with the Holy Spirit before they are baptized in water. And then Peter baptizes them. It just goes to show that we cannot put the Holy Spirit in a box. He is God and he works in the way that he wants when he wants. Holy Spirit, I need more of you and want more of you. Please work in my life and help me not to quench your works with my preconceived ideas! This is your world and I give my life to you, so do as you desire!
From Cornelius, I have seen one of the way how we can listen to God's voice.
ReplyDeleteDevout and God-fearing and gave generously to those in need and prayed to God regularly.
Even though he didn't know about Jesus clearly, he is hunger for God's voice and ready to listen.
I pray Jesus Christ I get hungry for your voice more and more!
Even though I believe in Jesus now, I still have some sinful attitudes. E.g., I want people, especially close family members, to do something according to my expectation and standard. If they don't, I will feel unhappy and this leads to temporarily tight family-relationship. I need to pray to God in these situations and change my attitude.
ReplyDeleteDiscrimination and racism are totally incompatible for Christians, and yet many Christians don't seem to get this. There can be no "worthless" or "outcast" or "subhuman" people groups in our eyes. Every single person on Earth is somebody made in God's image and somebody that Christ died for. It is interesting that even Peter, who blazed this evangelistic / missionary trail, falls back into old patterns later on and had to be confronted by Paul.
ReplyDeleteGalatians 2:11-12: "But when Cephas came to Antioch, I opposed him to his face, because he stood condemned. For prior to the coming of certain men from James, he used to eat with the Gentiles; but when they came, he began to withdraw and hold himself aloof, fearing the party of the circumcision."
I think it is interesting how the Lord speaks to Peter in this situation concerning going to Cornelius' house. First, Peter was in a trance and saw a vision. It seems like the vision of the unclean animals and God saying to get up, kill, and eat is not directly related to going to meeting to preach to the Gentiles. I think it's interesting that the same vision and words are repeated three or four times before Peter wakes up. When Peter is told that Cornelius has sent for them, the Holy Spirit more directly tells him to go with the men. Somehow Peter understood that the vision was showing him that God allowed meeting with and preaching to Gentiles in their personal homes and spaces.
ReplyDeleteDoes Peter's vision also actually mean that God was calling those animals clean for eating? Or was it only a metaphor for opening up work with the Gentiles? I thought God did not command the people to be totally separate from the Gentiles, except in the matter of marriage--the Jews were not to intermarry with people who worshiped other gods. So did God at that time also change the ceremonial rules for clean and unclean animals?
Jesus had already declared all foods clean (Mark 7:19), so this rule didn't change just at this point. Whether or not the disciples had fully understood Jesus' statement is not certain but clearly Peter either hadn't or had gone backward - as we all unfortunately do at times. Jesus was just working on them, one step at a time, and dealt with each issue in his time and as they became important.
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