Show Me Your Friends and I'll Show You Your Future

Today’s reading from Romans 16 is certainly different than much of what Paul has written in Romans.  Many Biblical scholars and Christian leaders over the centuries have opined that Romans is perhaps the most comprehensive and complete work of the New Testament in helping us to understand the entire Gospel.  It is packed full of deep and significant theology to help us understand sin, salvation and perseverance in our walk with Jesus.

And yet here in Chapter 16, Paul devotes almost the entire chapter to the recognition of other apostles and disciples of Jesus with whom he has deep friendships and relationships.  By my count, he takes the time to specifically mention 27 people that have been influential in his life and ministry.  Not to mention the various mentions of entire households and families.  That’s a lot of people!

Paul was the greatest missionary in history, and yet he knew that he was dependent on the commitment and passion of other believers to help him in continuing the work that he had started.  As I read through Paul’s list of shout outs, there’s not one particular name that stands out to me.  In the rolls of Church history, this is not a list of the who’s who and none of them made it into what many people call the Faith Hall of Fame in Hebrews 11. 

These were just ordinary men and women who loved Jesus and were consumed with a passion to build His Church in the world, and to serve in whatever ways they could according to their giftedness.  It’s certainly something that I understand and appreciate as a pastor of a church full of ordinary people living our lives for an extraordinary God.

This is more than relational sunshine and lollipops though.  There’s a very important life lesson in this for those of us who are trying to follow Jesus faithfully and fully in our lives today. 

I read a quote that a friend on Facebook shared today from Joel Osteen.  “You need to associate with people that inspire you, people that challenge you to rise higher, people that make you better.  Don’t waste your valuable time with people that are not adding to your growth.  Your destiny is too important.”  I know that some of you that know me and have heard me preach might be shocked that I’d share a Joel Osteen quote, but this is so true. 

It’s a principle I’ve seen at work my entire life – not just in ministry, but every day.  You show me your friends, and I’ll show you your future.  We become like the people that we allow to influence us the most. 

Some Christians take this to an unhealthy, legalistic extreme and shun a relationship with anybody that’s not a Christian.  Paul didn’t do this, and we shouldn’t either.  We are commanded by Jesus to be salt and light in the world, not to retreat into holy huddles all the time.  But this is about who we allow to have the most influence in our lives.  

Think about your 5 closest friends, the people with whom you “do life.”  Do they have the characteristics of somebody that loves Jesus and loves The Church?  Are they like Paul’s friends? 

Are they like Phoebe, who has been a great help to many people in the cause of the Kingdom of God?

Are they like Priscilla and Aquilla, people who work first and foremost for Jesus and who are willing to risk their lives for you?

Are they like Andronicus and Junias, who loved Jesus and His Church so much that they were willing to risk prison and are outstanding witnesses to Jesus?

This is a list of friends and fellow laborers for the Kingdom who have outstanding faith, exhibited by sacrificial character and commitment to building The Church.

You see, I am where I am in my life because I’ve always made a conscious decision to surround myself with these types of people.  When I was a new Christian – about 17 or 18 years old – a Christian adult that I trusted told me, “Show me your friends and I’ll show you your future.”  He was so right!  I’ve had to walk away from a lot of situations and some relationships in the 20+ years I’ve been a follower of Jesus because I knew that those situations and relationships would drag me down.  I have many relationships with people who aren’t Christians, or aren’t as committed to Christ as I might be, so that I might be this kind of person in their lives.  But I’m careful to not allow their opinions and lifestyles to change who God has called me to be. 

Are these the kinds of friends that you have in your life?  Are you spending time with people who encourage you to grow in your faith; who challenge and inspire you to take risks for God, or are you spending time with people who drag you down?  Are you allowing others to speak into your life who are mature in the faith and encouraging your personal spiritual growth, or are you making decisions by taking polls on Facebook or from people who know nothing of what it means to be committed to Christ?

If you want to grow and fulfill your God-ordained destiny and calling in your life, it’s time to check your friends and the people that you’re allowing to have the most influence in your life.  I thank God that my closes friends challenge me and inspire me.  I thank God that there are people in my life who encourage me in my faith. I hope you have some of the same kinds of friends. 

Everybody Wants a Revolution But Nobody Wants to do the Dishes

I read the quote in the title of this blog this morning on a friend’s Facebook wall.  Not sure what the original source of it is, but it wasn’t me.  And it hit home for me today in light of today’s reading from Romans 11.

As a pastor and leader, sometimes – actually a lot of the time – it’s difficult for me to focus on what’s right now instead of what’s next.  It’s not just something that poses a challenge for me as a pastor, it’s who I’ve been my entire life.  I always want to know what the next big, fun or exciting thing is.  One of our 3 kids is exactly the same way.  That kid, and I, can be in the midst of some great and wonderful event or family adventure and already be thinking down the road to what the next wonderful event or family adventure will be.  It’s hard to be in the moment, and focusing on what God has placed before us right now, when we’re always thinking about the next big thing.

The Apostle Paul’s writings are filled with great and godly visions of mission and ministry.  If one thing marked Paul’s life, it was adventure and danger as he lived out God’s calling on his life.  As I read Scripture, I almost always read with an eye towards that next big thing in my life and my ministry.  I want to see a revolution of God!  Wanting to see a revolution and a movement of God is a wonderful thing!  It’s a God thing. 

But doing the dishes can be too.  Or taking care of your kids and home; digging ditches; counting beans; setting up and running computer networks; building houses; teaching a class room full of eager and not-so-eager students; offering care and compassion to your patients or clients.  Whatever you do for your “day job” or during the 9-5 is just as important in your calling to live for Christ as doing the big, hairy audacious things that God lays on your heart.

Paul has spent most of Romans 9, 10 & 11 lamenting the fact that so many of his fellow Israelites haven’t yet trusted Jesus as their Lord and Savior and haven’t yet acknowledged him as the Messiah.  Paul’s burning passion and purpose in life was to carry the Good News to the ends of the earth, despite the cost and the challenges.  Paul was a man who was consumed with a vision of spiritual revolution in his time and culture.

But Paul also was consumed by his responsibility to do the dishes.  That is, he understood the importance of living in the here and now in what he called in Philippians the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus.  Paul knew that the revolution would only come about through obedience in the small things, and making intimacy with God the primary focus of his life. 

In Romans 11:33-35, he wrote these words:

"Oh, the depth of the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God!
How unsearchable his judgments,

and his paths beyond tracing out!
'Who has known the mind of the Lord?
Or who has been his counselor?' 

'Who has ever given to God,
that God should repay them?'
For from him and through him and for him are all things.
To him be the glory forever! Amen."

Did you notice the language that Paul uses here?  It’s rich and wonderful and speaks deeply to us in the everyday-ness of our lives. 

God’s wisdom and knowledge are deep riches!  We don’t get wisdom and knowledge by always being busy and thinking about the next big thing.  We get the wisdom and knowledge of God by seeking Him daily in prayer and Bible study and fellowship with other believers.  We get wisdom and knowledge of God by living for Him and His glory in the everyday things that are before us – the dish washing, the ditch digging, the teaching and loving and serving. We get satisfaction from living obediently to God right here and right now. 

He closes by expressing a reality that I struggle to grasp: In God is everything that I need!  If I can’t find everything I need in God, and can’t find satisfaction and joy in the small, everyday, ordinary things, and living a life of quiet obedience, I’m never going to find it in the big things.  In fact, chances are, that if we can’t do this in the small things, God will never even give us opportunities to be faithful in the big things. 

In my Twitter feed, I follow quite a few Christian leaders and pastors.  One of them is Dr. Tim Keller, who has been a faithful pastor and church leader for decades.  This morning, he shared this thought: “Everybody has something, that if they lose it, they won't even want to live life anymore. That is what you're worshiping.”

What are you worshipping today?  Chances are, many of us are worshipping a vision for our lives that is not of God.  Where has God called you to serve Him and love Him today?  Are you satisfied with that?  Or are you worshipping a vision of a revolution?  Maybe you’re worshipping a vision of more stuff, prestige and titles.  Maybe you’re worshipping a vision for you life that has nothing to do with having Jesus at the center of it.  If you lose the vision you’re worshipping, or if it never comes to fruition, you’re going to be sadly disappointed. 

But when we bow in worship to King Jesus; when we quiet ourselves to drink deeply from the wells of his wisdom and knowledge; and learn to be satisfied with Him and all that is in Him, we will never be disappointed.  We’ll be perfectly content doing the dishes, knowing that we are doing it for His glory and for His Kingdom. 

Ugly Feet and Pedicures

My feet are nasty.

Size 13.

Callouses all over. 

They sweat.  A lot.  And smell bad.  When I get new shoes, they lose that new shoe smell in about 10 minutes.

My big toes are shorter than my second toes, and I have more hair on my big toes than I have on my head. 

Once in awhile I have these intense flare ups of Athlete’s Foot that itch and burn like crazy from the nasty, yeasty fungus that grows in all that sweat. 

Did you just throw up in your mouth a little bit?  Sorry. 

As a guy, I don’t think about my feet very often, unless they’re itchy or hurting.  Don’t really care what they look like.  Sometimes in social situations or when I want to get close to my wife at home, I care mildly about how they smell.  I know they’re ugly and nasty, and I just don’t care.  I think most guys are like that.

I’d get a pedicure – minus the nail polish of course – but I couldn’t subject another human being to that.  It MIGHT make my feet a little less ugly and stinky and itchy. 

Let’s face it, most of us don’t think about our feet much – at least guys.  Women might spend a few bucks a couple times a summer to have somebody try to take the nasty away through a pedicure.  Other than that, feet are something we generally don’t pay much attention to and often try to hide. 

But today’s reading from Romans 10 has made me think about my feet.  And I hope it makes you think about your feet too.  No matter how little or how much you might normally think about your feet, when we have decided to follow Jesus and carry the Good News to the world, our feet are beautiful! 

In Romans 9&10, Paul is in the midst of talking about his longing for his fellow Israelites to trust in the saving work of Jesus Christ, and to quit relying on their ancestry and rules to be made right with God.  It’s an incredibly deep longing for Paul – even overwhelming to him and causing him great sorrow and anguish (Romans 9:1&2).  In Romans 9:3&4 he even goes so far as to say this: "For I could wish that I myself were cursed and cut off from Christ for the sake of my people, those of my own race, the people of Israel."

That’s a deep passion for people who don’t know Jesus.  A passion that most of us know nothing about.

Finally, in the midst of Chapter 10, Paul gets around to talking about how his fellow Jews can be made right with God through faith in Jesus Christ, The Messiah.  Although he is writing a book called Romans, he’s writing primarily to Christians of Jewish ancestry living in Rome, and exhorting them to share the Good News with their fellow Jews who haven’t yet trusted in Jesus for salvation.  In v.14 he asks, “How, then, can they call on the one they have not believed in?  And how can they believe in the one of whom they have not heard?  And how can they hear without someone preaching to them?” 

Chances are good that you know somebody – probably a lot of people – who haven’t yet called on the name of Jesus.  Chances are good that you know somebody – probably a lot of people – who probably really haven’t even heard about the incredible grace and truth of Jesus Christ.  Like Paul’s fellow Jews, you probably know many people who have some idea of who God is; who have some idea that they’d like to know God; and have some idea that being a good person and following the rules will make them right with God.

And this is where your feet come in.  In v. 15, Paul says, “How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news!”

Are your feet beautiful?  Not pedicured or nice smelling or callous free.  Are you feet beautiful in the sense that they are carrying you to bring the Good News of the Gospel of Jesus Christ to people in your life that don’t know Jesus? 

For far too long, the feet of the church have been ugly feet.  Feet that carry hatred.  Feet that carry arrogance and pride.  Feet that carry condemnation.  Even feet of indifference and apathy are as ugly as feet of hatred, arrogance, pride and condemnation.  Not feet that carry the Good News of truth AND grace.  I don’t know about you, but I want to be known as a person that has beautiful feet because I’ve brought Good News to people who have never heard it. 

What do your feet look like?  Hatred?  Arrogance?  Pride?  Condemnation?  Are you indifferent and apathetic, afraid or unmotivated to go to those who need Good News?  Go ahead and take off your shoes and socks.  Nobody’s looking.  Check out your feet.  Need a spiritual pedicure?  Ask God to give you one, and He will!  Start living today with the realization that your feet can be beautiful! 

Unashamed

Today the SCOTUS (Supreme Court of the United States) has already ruled, and will be ruling further, on cases brought to it concerning same-sex marriage in the United States.  Back in March I shared some articles that I thought would be particularly helpful for Christians trying to understand the Biblical framework for marriage and sex, so if you haven’t read those articles already, here’s the link.

In a ruling already handed down this morning, SCOTUS struck down part of the Defense of Marriage Act, which was enacted by Congress in 1996.  This ruling simply means that the federal government will have to recognize same sex marriages with regards to federal benefits.  SCOTUS refused to rule on California’s Proposition 8, indicating that it is likely to continue to allow states to define marriage according to the democratic process. 

What it all means now, and in the future, is anybody’s guess.  But it does show us that cultural views about marriage and sexuality – not just American culture, but western culture in general – are rapidly changing.  So what has changed for The Church of Jesus Christ?  What changes for Christians today?

Not much really.  As Ed Stetzer says over on his blog today, “We must realize that believing what the Bible says about sexuality will increasingly put us at odds with our culture.”

Truth is, it always has. And not just in regards to sexual behavior, but in regards to all human behavior.

It was as true for the Apostle Paul when he wrote these words in Romans 1:16 (our Bible reading for today) 2,000 years ago as it is today: “For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek.”

I don’t know where the idea comes from that somehow cultural moral drift today is any worse than it has been in previous generations.  Sin, and the consequences of sin, have always been there.  Maybe the only difference is that now sin has become more culturally acceptable and less something that should be done in private.

When Paul was writing to Christians in Rome, he was writing to Christians in a culture full of all kinds of darkness and twisted practices.  But there he was, right in the midst of it, standing up and expressing his confidence in the power of the Gospel to change lives for eternity.  Paul understood that the way to change a culture began with confidence in the person and work of Jesus Christ, and continued with a bold proclamation of what Christ has done for the entire world.  Like Paul, our public conversation and engagement does not begin with shouting down those we see as the opposition, but in loving and walking along side of those who are walking in darkness. 

Although the rest of Romans 1 seems like some of the most harsh and hopeless words of Scripture, the reality of sin’s bondage and stranglehold on our lives sets the table for us to experience the incredible grace of Jesus Christ.  In v.v. 18-32, Paul talks about the reality of sin and the spiritual reality of those who reject God and reject the grace that He has generously and kindly shown to us in Jesus Christ.  In v.18, he talks about the reality of unrepentant sin and how it brings God’s wrath against us.  In v.v. 19-25 he talks about the foolishness of worshipping the creation instead of our creator.  And in v.v. 26-32, he talks about the fruit of that disobedience. 

Despite that incredibly dark and depressing description of the effects of sin in our lives, Romans is a book of incredible grace!  Paul was a man who understood and experienced this incredible grace, and as a recipient of grace he knew that his calling in life was to be a merchant of grace.

Although Paul’s understanding of grace, and our need for the grace of Jesus, put him at odds with his cultural surroundings, he stood as one who was unashamed of that grace, and the power of the Gospel.  While Paul was disturbed by the cultural decay and rot that he witnessed around him, his ministry was not fueled by disgust or hatred.  His ministry was fueled by grace and by incredible confidence in the power of Christ to break every stronghold and stranglehold of sin in people’s lives.  We know that in many of Paul’s other letters, and in Acts, that Paul’s confidence in the Gospel caused great personal trouble for him.  He was arrested multiple times; imprisoned; beaten; and the cause of riots.  But we also know that Paul’s confidence in the Gospel changed thousands of lives during his days on earth, and hundreds of millions of lives since God used him to write these words to us. 

We have before us today the same opportunities and challenges that Paul faced as he lived out God’s calling on his life.  The opportunity to love people with incredible grace.  The opportunity to share the truth of sin and what life is like without Jesus as our Lord and Savior. 

It doesn’t help us to speak and act in ways that demean others and dishonor Christ.  But it also doesn’t help us, or help others, to capitulate to the culture.  As Christians, we must remain focused on our mission to be The Church of Jesus Christ, having great confidence in and being unashamed of the Gospel of Jesus Christ while at the same time loving and showing grace to those who need Jesus the most. 

Despite what our culture, or our Supreme Court, says, Jesus is still the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords.  The Word of God is still living and active, and sharper than any two edged sword.  The holy and righteous demands of God have not changed.  Our mandate as The Church to love others as we love ourselves, and to preach the Good News to the ends of the earth has not changed.  As Ed Stetzer said today, “We can either get furious at them . . . or we can respond like Jesus.  After all we can’t hate a people and reach a people at the same time.” 

Jesus lived this out.  Paul lived this out.  The question now, for The Church today, is will we live this out?  We will continue to be unashamed of the Gospel of Jesus Christ for the power of salvation and will we continue to love people like Jesus loved people?  This is why The Church exists – to show the world the love of Jesus and to share unashamedly with the world the truth of Jesus Christ. 

What Grace Looks Like in Real Life

Go take 3 minutes and watch this video of one of my favorite guys in the world, Willy Robertson:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K058jdOpvAI

As we've been walking through our daily readings in Acts the past week or so, we've seen God preparing and calling his apostles to preach the Good News to the Gentiles.  I've talked about what a monumental shift this was in thinking for men like Paul and Peter.  I've talked about how difficult it would have been for these Jews to not only associate with Gentiles, but to share a message with them that would include them in the family of God.

Simply put, all the struggles of the apostles in the Gentile world were a struggle to understand grace.  What Willy Robertson said in 3 minutes is what took men like Peter and Paul years to understand.  What Willy Robertson explained is what grace looks like in real life.  

In today's reading from Acts 15, we see God's plan for adopting the Gentiles into his family continue to unfold.  In Jerusalem, as Jesus' Church was growing, their was constant conflict about what to do with the Gentiles.  Some of the Jews who were leading the church were telling the Gentiles that they had to be circumcised (and circumcision was EVERYTHING to a Jew) in order to be a part of God's family.  V2. tells us, "This brought Paul and Barnabas into sharp dispute and debate with them. So Paul and Barnabas were appointed, along with some other believers, to go up to Jerusalem to see the apostles and elders about this question."

And then Paul swallows what remnants of his Jewish pride that may have remained and made it clear that salvation and membership in the family of God isn't about circumcision or what we do externally.  It's about grace - about what Jesus does in our hearts.  Look at v.v. 8-10

 God, who knows the heart, showed that he accepted them by giving the Holy Spirit to them, just as he did to us.  He did not discriminate between us and them, for he purified their hearts by faith. Now then, why do you try to test God by putting on the necks of Gentiles a yoke that neither we nor our ancestors have been able to bear?   No! We believe it is through the grace of our Lord Jesus that we are saved, just as they are.” 

This is incredibly liberating and freeing news - in Jesus Christ, the gates of heaven have been thrown open to all who would call on his name for salvation.  Heritage, race and nationality didn't matter.  What mattered was faith in this grace that has been revealed.

One of the things that I love about Duck Dynasty is the emphasis on faith and living for God's glory.  Every time I see snippets of talks or speeches that Willy, Jase and Phil provide, I love that God has elevated these men to the position in our culture that they occupy.  Are they perfect?  Absolutely not, and they'd be the first to tell you that.  But they get it!  They get grace.

In the video link above, we see the reality of what grace looks like in real life.  When Willy says, "He's bi-racial, he doesn't look like us . . . That's what God did with us, he took us in . . .
I can look at my 2 sons I have and literally see the New Testament unfolded right there;" he's describing what every single follower of Jesus Christ has experienced because of his grace.

God doesn't hang an unbearable yoke around our necks.  He invites us, by faith, to come and trust what he's done for us through his precious son Jesus Christ.  We don't look like Jesus before he saves us - far from it!  But he saves us anyway.  He takes us in to the family of God, and adopts us not just as children but of heirs of the riches of heaven.  

Sometimes it's difficult in the times we live in to look at different people and think that God wants them to be a part of his family.  They don't look like us.  They don't act like us.  They don't have the same values that we have.  But that is where the beauty of grace comes in - it's not about the outside, it's about the heart.  It's about the fact that every person, from the moment of conception, has been made in the image of God and has infinite worth and value in God's sight.  

The next time you're tempted to look scornfully on people who are different than you, remember Willy Robertson and remember Paul's words here in Acts 15 about what grace looks like in real life. 

What the World Needs the Most

In today’s reading from Acts 13, we find Paul and his companions in the city of Pisidian Antioch.  Pisidian Antioch was a melting pot of many different cultures and it’s the first place that Paul preached the Good News to a Gentile audience. 

Paul began his ministry here, as became his pattern in later chapters of Acts, by first going to the Jewish synagogue and reading from the Law and the Prophets.  V.15 tells us that after he read from the Law and Prophets,  “ . . . the synagogue rulers sent word to them, saying, ‘Brothers, if you have a message of encouragement for the people, please speak.’”

“If you have a message of encouragement.” 

I’m a big believer in the fact that people today need encouragement.  Encouragement literally means to give courage to somebody.  Who doesn’t want somebody to give them courage? 

Here’s where it gets tricky though for the follower of Jesus.  The greatest encouragement we can give to people is the Good News of Jesus Christ.  This is not the encouragement that most people want to hear, and it is not the encouragement that most people think they need.  But what the world needs the most is the kind of encouragement that Paul gave to the people gathered on that day in Antioch. 

Given the green light to share encouragement with the people gathered before him by the leaders of the synagogue, Paul explains how all of the Old Testament Law and Prophets point to the greatness of Jesus.  In v.v. 38&39, Paul makes the ultimate point of his discourse: "Therefore, my brothers, I want you to know that through Jesus the forgiveness of sins is proclaimed to you.  Through him everyone who believes is justified from everything you could not be justified from by the law of Moses.”

What the world needs the most is to know that forgiveness for sins and reconciliation with God is available to them through the person and work of Jesus Christ.  The world doesn't need encouragement to keep on walking in darkness.  The world doesn't need encouragement to seek satisfaction and meaning through their work or leisure.  The world doesn't need encouragement to manage their sin on their own.  The greatest encouragement that Paul could give, and that we can give today, is that everything in life is about becoming a follower of Jesus and being justified with God through what Jesus has done for us in his death and resurrection. 

Paul and Barnabas continued their work in this city for a few weeks further, and in v.44 we’re told that “On the next Sabbath almost the whole city gathered to hear the word of the Lord.”  The whole city didn’t gather because the apostles were performing signs and wonders in that place.  The whole city didn’t gather because the apostles were giving away free stuff.  The whole city didn’t gather because the apostles were offering self-help or mealy-mouthed, politically correct personal motivation.  The whole city gathered because the apostles were preaching what they really needed to hear: the life-changing, world-tilting message of the Good News of Jesus Christ. 

As the Word of God was faithfully preached with authority and boldness, lives were changed because the people were getting what they needed the most.  In v.48 we’re told that the Gentiles who heard the Good News – the people who were the furthest from God – “were glad and honored the word of the Lord; and all who were appointed for eternal life believed.” 

Do you really want to see lives changed for eternity?  Do you really want to see God do a revolutionary thing in your home, your neighborhood, your community and your city?  Then preach the Good News without apology and without shame.  Give people what they need the most – The Good News of Jesus Christ. 

Doing What You Think You Can't Do

As we looked at Acts 9 yesterday, we talked about the feeling of “I can’t do this,” and learning to press into the grace and power of Jesus in those times in our lives.  One of the things that I love about the book of Acts – one of my favorite books of the Bible – is that it’s full of moments like this.  Ordinary people called by an extraordinary Savior to do extraordinary things.

Today’s reading from Acts 10 is a great example of God doing through us something that we could never imagine ourselves doing on our own.  The story begins with a soldier (a centurion in charge of 100 other men) named Cornelius, who lived in Caesarea.  Cornelius was a Gentile, and not yet a follower of Jesus, because the Good News had not yet been preached to the Gentiles – Greeks, Romans and people of other ethnicities outside of the Jews.  But Cornelius had a seeking heart and a desire to know God.  We’re told that he prayed and that he gave gifts to the poor.  God saw in Cornelius the desire to know Him, and so God chose him to be a follower of Jesus. 

Immediately, God used Cornelius to call Peter, who was in Joppa about 30 miles from Caesarea.  Peter is at the center of action in the first several chapters of Acts.  You might remember that Jesus told Peter that he would be the rock upon which He would build His church.  Peter was preaching to the Jews who had not yet trusted in Jesus; performing miracles by the power of the Holy Spirit in Jesus’ name; and discipling and teaching Jews who had decided to trust in the salvation of Jesus. 

But Peter had a problem.  He was a Jew, and he was repulsed by Gentiles.  All of his ministry, since the day of Pentecost, had been to the Jews.  In his mind, although he knew that salvation would be for the Gentiles eventually, he could never have started to wrap his mind around the fact that God would use him to also reach the Gentiles.

But in Acts 10, we see God breaking him down and preparing to do what he never imagined he could.  When God tells Cornelius to call for Peter in v.v.5&6, we learn that Peter is staying with Simon the tanner.  Most of us would skip right over that, but it's important.  Being in the presence of a tanner would have been an absolutely revolting thought for a Jew.  They worked with the skin and carcasses of all kinds of dead animals – many of which were unclean when alive, and all of which were unclean for a Jew after they had been dead for a certain period of time. 

And then God really breaks it down for Peter in the vision that He gave to Peter in v.v. 9-16, where God revealed to him in an incredible and beautiful way that under the new covenant with Jesus, uncleanliness wasn’t a matter of flesh and bones, but a matter of the heart.  God was showing Peter not only that it was time to include the Gentiles in His plan of salvation, but that Peter would be the first to intentionally take the message of the Gospel to the Gentiles. 

And in v.28, Peter expresses to Cornelius and the others what God has revealed to him in the vision: "You are well aware that it is against our law for a Jew to associate with a Gentile or visit him. But God has shown me that I should not call any man impure or unclean.”

Those are a whole lotta words to say this: God has shown Peter that he absolutely HAS to do something he never thought he could do. 

And today is about more than getting through a difficult time of “I can’t do this.”  Today is about moving beyond that and joining Jesus on his mission through The Church – reaching the world with the Good News of Jesus Christ.

I find a lot of hope and encouragement from Paul’s words in Romans 8:28 – “And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who^[i] have been called according to his purpose.”  This verse has so many implications for the life of a follower of Jesus Christ, and in learning to do some of the things we never thought we could do. 

One of them is NOT that God will give you everything that you want. 

This verse is about God using our trials and the things that frustrate us and wound us in a redemptive way to form us into the image and likeness of Jesus Christ.  Just as God used a trial and struggle in Peter’s life to prepare him to see the greater glory, grace and power of Jesus, so he uses these things in our lives to prepare us for mission and ministry so that we would see His greater glory, grace and power.  Also, please make sure you know that this verse is for PEOPLE THAT LOVE JESUS.  Not those who reject him or walk in determined disobedience to him.

So if you love Jesus and have staked your life on living for him and giving him everything – as Peter did before God opened his eyes in Acts 10 – you can know that everything you’ve experienced to this point in your life is preparing you to do what God has planned for you to do.

I think one of the biggest practical lessons that we can learn from Acts 10 is that God has made salvation and righteousness available to EVERYBODY who would repent of their sins and trust in the person and work of Jesus.  This is hard for me to remember, let alone live out, sometimes. 

When Christians who love Jesus and desire to see people walking and living in righteousness and truth look around our culture, it can be very difficult to feel love and compassion for those we see and know that are rejecting Jesus and living in defiance of God.  This was Peter exactly before Acts 10!  He loved Jesus.  He desired to see people living in righteousness and truth.  And he struggled to love them and care about them.  To him, they were all outsiders.

But because of God’s power and kindness in his life, Peter was changed from the inside out.  As Jesus loved the enemies of God (including you and me) and gave his life for them to reconcile them (us) to God, so Peter began to love who he viewed as the enemies of God and began to give his life in service for Jesus so that they would be reconciled to God.

And we see that God was faithful to do through Peter what he had prepared Peter to do.  In v.44, it says “While Peter was still speaking these words, the Holy Spirit came on all who heard the message.”  Through the power of the Holy Spirit, these Gentiles were saved and reconciled to God!

Is there a person or group of people in your life that you can’t stand?  Is there a person or a group of people in your life that you think is beyond the grace of Jesus?  First, ask God to change your heart towards them.  Ask him to let you see them as he sees them – as precious and valuable (see Luke 15 if you’re having trouble imagining how God sees lost people).  And ask God to give you love and truth to share with them. 

Even if you think you can’t do it.  If you think you can’t do it, you’re right.  But God can do it through you, just like he did with Peter!  Press into his power and his grace, and watch him use you to change the world around you – one person at a time.