Latest / A Chapter a Day Bible Reading / November 20 - Acts 11

Transcript

November 20 - Acts 11 · A Chapter a Day Bible Reading

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  Hello friends. Sean here.
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  It's Wednesday. It's the 20th of November.
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  How are you going? I hope you're going well.
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  I hope that today is looking like a good day or has been a
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  good day, depending on where you are right now and what part of
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  the day you're up to. Ah, but wherever you are, you
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  have chosen to set aside a moment where we are going to
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  continue through this incredible story of Jesus church growing in
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  this book of Acts. And today is is this incredible
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  story. I don't know whether you have
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  ever had this experience where you are going along in your
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  faith and your life. And well, we live in a very
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  individualistic society, don't we?
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  Where our faith can often feel like a very personal thing,
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  where our relationship to God is between US and God.
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  And then we see something or we hear something, or we experience
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  something communally of God or someone else's experience of
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  God. And we think, my goodness, God
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  is so much bigger than my consciousness was allowing.
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  And God surprises us. Well, this reading today is
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  exactly about that. When the Jews think they know
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  exactly how God operates and that he is their God.
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  And all of a sudden they discover, Oh no, our God is
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  actually the God of the whole universe, not just our little
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  tribe. So this is probably a very good
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  timely notice for us to blow open our concept of how big and
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  how broad and how incredible God actually is beyond our little
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  human understanding. So let's share the story
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  together, showing as we read together Acts Chapter 11.
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  Soon the news reached the apostles and other believers in
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  Judea that the Gentiles had received the word of God.
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  But when Peter arrived back in Jerusalem, the Jewish believers
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  criticised him. You entered the home of Gentiles
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  and even ate with them, they said.
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  Then Peter told them exactly what had happened.
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  I was in the town of Joppa, he said.
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  And while I was praying I went into a trance and saw a vision.
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  Something like a large sheet was let down by its four corners
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  from the sky, and it came right down to me.
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  When I looked inside the sheet, I saw all sorts of tame and wild
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  animals, reptiles and birds, and I heard a voice say, Get up
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  Peter, kill and eat them. No, Lord, I replied.
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  I've never eaten anything that our Jewish laws have declared
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  impure or unclean. But the voice from heaven spoke
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  again. Do not call something unclean if
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  God has made it clean. This happened three times before
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  the sheet and all it contained was pulled back up to heaven.
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  Just then three men who had been sent from say, Saria arrived at
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  the house where we were staying. The Holy Spirit told me to go
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  with them and not to worry that they were Gentiles.
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  These six brothers here accompanied me, and we soon
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  entered the home of the man who had sent for us.
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  He told us how an Angel had appeared to him in his home and
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  told him, Send messengers to Joppa and summon a man named
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  Simon Peter. He will tell you how you and
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  everyone in your household can be saved.
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  As I began to speak, Peter continued.
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  The Holy Spirit fell on them just as he fell on us at the
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  beginning. Then I thought of the Lord's
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  words when he said, John baptised with water, but you
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  will be baptised with the Holy Spirit.
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  And since God gave these Gentiles the same gift he gave
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  us when we believed in the Lord Jesus Christ, who was I to stand
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  in God's way? When the others heard this, they
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  stopped objecting and began praising God.
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  They said we can see that God has also given the Gentiles the
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  privilege of repenting of their sins and receiving eternal life.
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  Meanwhile, the believers who had been scattered during the
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  persecution after Stephen's death travelled as far as
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  Phoenicia, Cyprus and Antioch of Syria.
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  They preached the word of God, but only to Jews.
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  However, some of the believers who went to Antioch from Cyprus
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  and Cyrene began preaching to the Gentiles about the Lord
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  Jesus. The power of the Lord was with
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  them, and a large number of these Gentiles believed and
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  turned to the Lord. When the church at Jerusalem
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  heard what had happened, they sent Barnabas to Antioch.
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  When he arrived and saw this evidence of God's blessing, he
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  was filled with joy, and he encouraged the believers to stay
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  true to the Lord. Barnabas was a good man, full of
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  the Holy Spirit and strong in faith, and many people were
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  brought to the Lord. Then Barnabas went on to Tarsus
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  to look for Saul. When he found him, he brought
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  him back to Antioch. Both of them stayed there with
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  the church for a full year, teaching large crowds of people.
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  It was at Antioch that the believers were first called
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  Christians. During this time some prophets
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  travelled from Jerusalem to Antioch.
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  One of them, named Agabus, stood up in one of the meetings and
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  predicted by the Spirit that a great famine was coming upon the
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  entire Roman world. This was fulfilled during the
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  reign of Claudius, so the believers in Antioch decided to
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  send relief to the brothers and sisters in Judea, everyone
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  giving as much as they could. This they did, entrusting their
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  gifts to Barnabas and Saul to take to the elders of the church
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  in Jerusalem. Ah, Jesus, you are supreme.
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  You are so much bigger than we often in our human limitation
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  are able to give you credit for. But here we see that you and
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  your love for humanity is so much greater than we can
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  possibly imagine. And it's all so easy for us in
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  our modern context to read the story and say, well, of course
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  the gentiles are included in your plan.
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  But Lord, I wonder, in our lives, in our context, who are
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  those that we would struggle to imagine?
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  Have a place in your Kingdom, Lord, open our hearts that we
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  are not limited by the societal values and prejudices that we
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  are exposed to and that shape us and our thinking, but that we
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  can be shaped by your heart, your heart of grace and
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  inclusion. Lord, help us to be an ongoing
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  conduit of your love and grace in this world that through US,
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  people could see and experience the evidence of your presence in
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  our lives and in the world. Our Lord, empower us, transform
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  us, and send us to love unabashedly and continually
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  point back to you. We love you so much Jesus, and
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  we thank you for first loving us.
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  We pray this all in your name, Amen.