Latest / The Daily Word / October 19 – The Gospel Is for Everyone
Transcript
- Cory: Good morning, good afternoon, good evening, good we hours of the night, whenever you are joining us. Welcome to the Daily Word Podcast from Lakeshore Christian Fellowship. My name is Corey Barnes, and it is my privilege to pastor Arktopic Campus. I'm excited to be sitting down with you for another Daily Word episode where we're going to be doing a devotion based on the New Testament portion from our life journal Bible reading plan. Today is October the 19th, and we have Acts chapter 10 and 11 on the docket. You probably are noticing that we're going back through portions of the New Testament that we've already covered this year. If you've been following the reading plan or listening to the podcast, then you'll notice that we've we've definitely already done these these chapters. And that's because the life journal takes us through the New Testament twice in a year. And so this is our second pass through on Acts chapter 10 and 11. Are you noticing things that didn't stick out to you the first time? Or things maybe pointing out the Holy Spirit pointing out some things afresh to you. that's that's the whole point is that no matter how many times we read scripture. we we get we glean new things from it. It's because it's a living, breathing document. It's the word of God speaking to us. Now, if you were with us earlier in the year when we went through the book of Acts, then you may remember me telling you that it's pretty obvious that one of the Holy Spirit's purposes or intents in inspiring. Luke to record the book of Acts is so that we could know to tell the story of how the gospel spread from just the small little cluster of Jews in Jerusalem and the surrounding area out to the greater world, out to non-Jewish people, to the Gentiles. How how did the gospel go from just being here to suddenly being all around the globe? That's part of what we see being demonstrated and shown to us throughout the book of Acts, and we see a pretty pivotal chapter, a couple chapters here in 10 and 11 that tells a pretty major part of that story. And that's this this vision that that Peter has in tandem with the Lord sending telling Cornelius that he was going to send someone to him. this is a pretty massive happening in the early church, and we can see why, because this is the first time that the gospel has spread to Gentiles, and the Jews in Jerusalem, the Jewish believers, recognize that salvation, repentance to life is how they phrase it. Is available to all, not just the Jewish people. Now, one one of the things I like about the fact that we're reading multiple chapters of the New Testament at a time is that it gives us the opportunity to glean s from some of the larger themes that the biblical authors are weaving throughout. their writings. in and in this instance, I think what stood out to me most was the fact that look to the look, Luke took the time to tell the narrative of Cornelius's house receiving the gospel twice. First he narrates it in chapter 10, he gives all the details, all the account, and then When Peter comes back to Jerusalem in chapter 11, Luke could have just written and Peter told them what had happened at Cornelius' houses, and they were amazed. But instead of just taking that shortcut, which any reader would have just read the account and wouldn't need to be refreshed on the circumstances, instead of doing that, Luke has Peter tell and explains everything that Peter shared. to the Jews at Jerusalem. And I think that that just stood out to me as significant because writing, ink, paper, all these things in the ancient world, they it wasn't like us that just throw, you know, a couple thousand words in a word doc and then erase it or have AI condense it down for us. it was precious. It was expensive. People weren't just blogging and and throwing words out into the ether back then. No, it was considered precious because everything that he recorded, not only did he have to spend the time and his his resources on materials to write it, if this was a circular letter, which we can s suppose it was, that this was meant to be carried on and passed on, everything that Luke wrote wrote he would know would have to be copied and scribed. and it would have to increase the length of this document that would be sent out, which meant incurring more expenses. So instead of taking the choice to condense down his writing, Luke made the intentional decision, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, to have Peter recount the whole story of what happened again. And I think that that is significant because it tells us it's really hammering home this story this story of Gentiles for the first time receiving salvation. This was incredible to the the Jewish believers at the time. Peter came back and they interviewed him. He tells the story and verse 18 of Acts 11 tells us when they heard these things they became silent and they glorified God, saying Then God Has also granted to the Gentiles repentance to life. What they realize in this moment is a realization that you and I need to have as well. And that is that the gospel is for everyone. Now, the division here would have been Jew and Gentile. The division in our contemporary lives is. likely more complex. there are a lot of people who live lives that to those who have a Christian worldview, people s in sin live lives that are just absolutely repugnant to us. Some people are in sin patterns that are we feel disgusted by because we live try endeavor to live our lives by scriptural standards. And then there are people that that are that are caught and lost, and they are just living their lives doing things that are really hard for us to reconcile and make us uncomfortable. Well, it was the same story with Jews and Gentiles. Not only did Gentiles eat all the things that Jews would have decided considered disgusting, I've heard the comparison of like the fact that a Gentile would eat pork, like That's hard for us to comprehend in our culture now, but I have traveled to India and I have met people from from from nations and people groups that regularly ate dog meat. I've met men who have eaten dog. And that to us is absolutely repugnant, absolutely disgusting. And that's the kind of comparison just to start with. That Jews and Gentiles were dealing with, not to mention all the sexual sin that Gentiles engage in, all these things, made these people seem beyond redemption, seem beyond salvation to these Jewish Christians. And here Luke spends the time to tell the story twice just to make sure that not only did those Jewish believers Get it in Jerusalem, but every reader of the book of Acts would really walk away, understanding that no, none of that matters. Do not call filthy what I have called clean. The gospel is for everyone. So let's talk application. Is there anybody that you would consider would deem beyond the grasp of the gospel? Is there a person or kind of person that you might encounter in the grocery stores and rub shoulders with that you're kind of naturally repulsed by. This this can fit all kinds of different demographics and shapes and sorts of of what it is that that upsets our personal sensibilities. But do you have any of those? And the truth is more than likely most of us probably do have something like that. And we have to recognize the fact that we cannot call filthy what God has called clean. The gospel was for these Gentiles. Now, when they met Jesus, when these Gentiles met Jesus, you can bet that that sanctification began. And Paul spent a lot of time talking about sin patterns and all these things and rebuking Gentile ways of doing life in his epistles and clearing out and making things. Plain so that the Gentiles could understand you're entering into a new kingdom. But but the fact that they weren't there before they received the gospel didn't make them unworthy of receiving Jesus' sacrifice and entering into relationship. Jesus is desirous that all mankind would come to know him. So we don't have to worry about people that are receiving Jesus getting clean. Before they meet Jesus. The old saying is, you don't clean a fish before you catch it. No, the gospel is for everybody. And can I lovingly expound on the grace and mercy and love of Jesus to every kind of person that I may meet? Am I willing to take Peter's boldness in this instance and allow that to inspire me? Because it was Big step for Peter to go and preach the gospel to Cornelius' house. Just like for us, it may be a big step for us to share our faith with people that live lives that are hard for us to reconcile. So let's pray today that the Lord would give us all the boldness that we need to do. That Father, I thank you. I thank you that you're highlighting the fact that you love all humanity, that the gospel is for everyone. And I pray that you would give us boldness. To be able to just love and share you with people that we may not be the most comfortable doing that with. Lord, they are precious to you. They are on your heart. And because of that, we believe you can make them precious to us and you can make them big in our heart. And you can help us to overcome the distaste of sinful patterns enough. to come in and share the gospel of Jesus Christ with them so that they can enter into relationship with you. We love you, Jesus, and we thank you that we can believe you to give us that boldness. And we claim it right now in the name of Jesus. Amen.