Latest / Growing Together in the Gospel / Acts Series Part 14: There is Nowhere that the Gospel Will Not Reach: Peter's Vision and the Baptism of a Roman Centurion

Transcript

Acts Series Part 14: There is Nowhere that the Gospel Will Not Reach: Peter's Vision and the Baptism of a Roman Centurion · Growing Together in the Gospel

0:00
SPEAKER_01: Welcome back to Grand Together in the Ghost again as we look at the EVS.
0:07
SPEAKER_01: We saw that nothing.
0:13
SPEAKER_01: Last week not.
0:15
SPEAKER_01: We discovered that not only can we stop this evening.
0:22
SPEAKER_01: Not even so.
0:26
SPEAKER_01: This week.
0:31
SPEAKER_01: We discovered the only thing.
1:04
SPEAKER_00: Is there anyone else or anywhere else?
1:14
SPEAKER_00: Medicines that can cure infections that would routinely cure people.
1:18
SPEAKER_00: Most of you shouldn't be here because of something you picked up as a child, something that happened, you wouldn't have been cured, and yet you went to the doctors, they gave you a pill, you ate it, and here you are.
1:29
SPEAKER_00: As routine, as ordinary, flying across continents in a matter of hours.
1:34
SPEAKER_00: Being in one part of the world, and then a day later on the complete opposite side of the world.
1:40
SPEAKER_00: No, no, I'm not impressing you today.
1:41
SPEAKER_00: Artificial joints that restore mobility.
1:44
SPEAKER_00: Anyone got a new hip?
1:46
SPEAKER_00: Parts of you that have been replaced.
1:48
SPEAKER_00: That's like, oh I've got to get a new hip.
1:50
SPEAKER_00: Oh dude, okay.
1:52
SPEAKER_00: Literally, we just talk about it like it's the most water available at any moment.
1:57
SPEAKER_00: Another time, another place, another point in history, all of these things would have been absolutely astounding, and yet they become so familiar to us.
2:05
SPEAKER_00: And today as we come to Acts chapter 10, we are gonna see something that is the most important part perhaps in the whole Bible.
2:12
SPEAKER_00: And yet we're gonna see it and probably go, oh, that's that's fairly run-of-the-mill, fairly ordinary.
2:18
SPEAKER_00: And it's around this idea of foreigner.
2:21
SPEAKER_00: Now, if I go to Guatemala, I am the foreigner there.
2:24
SPEAKER_00: I'm in a different country.
2:25
SPEAKER_00: If people from other countries come here, then they are the foreigner.
2:28
SPEAKER_00: Foreigner is an odd word because it depends on where you are and where you stand and where you're from.
2:32
SPEAKER_00: In the Jewish custom, there were two categories of people.
2:36
SPEAKER_00: There were God's covenant people, and there was everyone else.
2:40
SPEAKER_00: The foreigners, the Gentiles is the language they use.
2:43
SPEAKER_00: Anyone who wasn't from Israel was a foreigner, those on the other side of the dividing line.
2:48
SPEAKER_00: And here in Acts chapter 10, we see that God addresses that line.
2:52
SPEAKER_00: Acts 10 isn't significant because one man becomes a Christian, although that's always amazing.
2:57
SPEAKER_00: But this is the breaking down of a wall that has been built so high.
3:01
SPEAKER_00: The separating, the changing of something that was so ingrained, so a part of their thinking, that for us it's so ordinary, but for them would have been truly astounding.
3:10
SPEAKER_00: Acts chapter 10 is when God's plan unfolds and truly goes global.
3:15
SPEAKER_00: Up to this point, it's been in one place, in one time, one people, and although there have been hints of it spreading a bit further, and God being a blessing to the ends of the world, it has never happened until this moment.
3:27
SPEAKER_00: This is the moment where we see all the nations are going to be blessed through Abraham and his people.
3:34
SPEAKER_00: All the nations will praise the Lord.
3:36
SPEAKER_00: Isaiah talked about this.
3:37
SPEAKER_00: All nations would stream to God's mountain.
3:39
SPEAKER_00: Again and again, God says, salvation goes to the ends of the earth.
3:42
SPEAKER_00: The promise is there, and the prophets keep talking about it, and the scriptures talk about it, yet somehow God's people never really took it in.
3:50
SPEAKER_00: They never really understood it.
3:51
SPEAKER_00: They'd heard it, they'd heard the sermons, they'd heard the proclamations, they heard the promises, but they didn't hadn't received it.
3:57
SPEAKER_00: Aren't you glad that we're not like that today?
3:59
SPEAKER_00: We don't have to hear sermons again and again, do we?
4:02
SPEAKER_00: We hear it once and we're sorted, aren't we?
4:04
SPEAKER_00: We don't need to have it repeated.
4:06
SPEAKER_00: We are very much like them.
4:08
SPEAKER_00: And here in Acts chapter 10, we see that God takes something that is so ingrained and flips it on his head.
4:14
SPEAKER_00: So let me read from the start of chapter 10.
4:17
SPEAKER_00: We have in the last few weeks, if you remember, we've done the Ethiopian eunuch, where the question was, what can stop you from coming to God?
4:24
SPEAKER_00: Is there a barrier between you coming to God?
4:26
SPEAKER_00: And our answer was, there is nothing.
4:28
SPEAKER_00: There is no thing that can stop you.
4:30
SPEAKER_00: Jesus has taken it away.
4:31
SPEAKER_00: There is nothing that means you must be an outsider.
4:34
SPEAKER_00: Then last week we saw a different story.
4:36
SPEAKER_00: We saw the story of a sorry, not that one.
4:39
SPEAKER_00: We saw the story of Paul.
4:42
SPEAKER_00: Of Paul becoming a Christian, of a man who is an enemy of God, becoming a follower of Jesus.
4:47
SPEAKER_00: And we said, Well, is there anyone who is outside of God's grace?
4:50
SPEAKER_00: And our answer was, there is no one.
4:52
SPEAKER_00: There is no thing, there is no one.
4:53
SPEAKER_00: And this week we come to another answer where we find Cornelius.
4:58
SPEAKER_00: It says at Caesarea there was a man named Cornelius, a centurion, and centurion in what was known as the Italian regiment.
5:04
SPEAKER_00: He and all his family were devout and God fearing.
5:07
SPEAKER_00: He gave generously to those in need and prayed to God regularly.
5:11
SPEAKER_00: So this man is a Gentile, so he is not part of the people of God.
5:15
SPEAKER_00: He's a centurion, so he's not just a gentile, he's an occupying force.
5:18
SPEAKER_00: He's come in, he's a foreigner who's come in and has settled in their land, but he's not welcome there, he's not wanted there, and yet there he is, stationed.
5:26
SPEAKER_00: But it does say he's a God-fearing man, he's someone who either the God of Israel or the idea of God, he believes in a God, that's what that language means.
5:34
SPEAKER_00: He gave generously, he believed that the gods are to be honored and to be obeyed, and so he's doing these things.
5:40
SPEAKER_00: And it says one day about three in the afternoon, he had a vision.
5:43
SPEAKER_00: He distinctly, so this isn't something that he sort of made up, this is something he distinctly saw, an angel of the Lord, who came to him and said, Cornelius.
5:53
SPEAKER_00: And Cornelius stood there, stared at him in fear.
5:56
SPEAKER_00: What is it, Lord?
5:56
SPEAKER_00: he asked.
5:57
SPEAKER_00: And the angel answered, Your prayers and gifts to the poor have come up as a memorial offering before God.
6:02
SPEAKER_00: Now send men to Joppa to bring back a man named Simon who is called Peter.
6:06
SPEAKER_00: He is staying with Simon the Tanner, whose house is by the sea.
6:10
SPEAKER_00: One of the most encouraging things about this is something we often forget.
6:16
SPEAKER_00: God is at work in the world long before we ever get there.
6:20
SPEAKER_00: In terms of the gospel being spread, we tend to have this idea in our age, if we don't do it, then it's all going to fall apart.
6:26
SPEAKER_00: If we aren't active, if we aren't busy, if we aren't doing these things, then nothing will happen.
6:31
SPEAKER_00: And it puts the pressure on us and the onus on us, and it's why when we say evangelism, we all go, and we don't like hearing about it, and we think, no, not that one again.
6:39
SPEAKER_00: Move on to another topic.
6:40
SPEAKER_00: But here we see the antidote to that.
6:43
SPEAKER_00: Peter is not about to do something for God.
6:45
SPEAKER_00: God is already at work before Peter gets there.
6:48
SPEAKER_00: Sometimes we imagine we are taking, we talk about that, we're going to take the gospel to this place, we're going to take the gospel into that land, we're going to take the gospel to this people.
6:56
SPEAKER_00: But here we're reminded we don't take the gospel anywhere.
6:59
SPEAKER_00: We join God where He has already gone.
7:01
SPEAKER_00: We partner with God in what He is already doing.
7:04
SPEAKER_00: We simply step into what God is already at work in.
7:07
SPEAKER_00: God is already at work in the neighbor that you are praying for.
7:10
SPEAKER_00: He's already at work in the family member that you long to come to him.
7:13
SPEAKER_00: He's already at work in the colleagues around you.
7:16
SPEAKER_00: You may think you're introducing them to God, but more often than not, God is preparing their heart.
7:20
SPEAKER_00: He's reaching out to them, he's been showing himself.
7:23
SPEAKER_00: Doesn't mean they haven't been saying no to him, but God has been doing it before you ever stepped onto the scene.
7:28
SPEAKER_00: Evangelism is rarely, if ever, about taking God somewhere.
7:31
SPEAKER_00: It's about joining him where he is working.
7:34
SPEAKER_00: And here we see that emphasized.
7:36
SPEAKER_00: And so he goes.
7:38
SPEAKER_00: And we find that he has to prepare Cornelius, and Cornelius sends the people, but then God has to do something else.
7:44
SPEAKER_00: He has to prepare Peter.
7:46
SPEAKER_00: And so it says, about noon the following day, while they're on their journey, the men are on their way to him and approaching the city.
7:52
SPEAKER_00: And Peter doesn't know anything is going on.
7:55
SPEAKER_00: He goes up onto the roof to pray.
7:56
SPEAKER_00: He becomes hungry.
7:57
SPEAKER_00: You ever do that when you pray and you get distracted?
8:00
SPEAKER_00: Your mind gets filled with anything by what you're meant to be praying for.
8:03
SPEAKER_00: He becomes hungry and he wants something to eat.
8:05
SPEAKER_00: And while the meal was being prepared, he fell into a trance.
8:08
SPEAKER_00: He saw heaven open, so he has this vision.
8:11
SPEAKER_00: He saw heaven opened, and something like a large sheet being let down to earth by its four corners.
8:16
SPEAKER_00: It contained all kinds of four-footed animals, as well as reptiles and birds.
8:21
SPEAKER_00: That a voice told him, Get up, Peter, kill and eat.
8:24
SPEAKER_00: There's a few assumptions in here that we just need to clarify.
8:27
SPEAKER_00: These animals being brought down in the Jewish custom, there are certain things you ate and you didn't eat.
8:31
SPEAKER_00: These things distinguished you and marked you out as people of God.
8:34
SPEAKER_00: There are different versions of why they did that, but really it's this there are markers on God's people.
8:40
SPEAKER_00: There are certain things that for thousands of years they have done things a certain way, some of them because they are morally right, some of them because it simply marks them out as we are different.
8:47
SPEAKER_00: We are set apart.
8:48
SPEAKER_00: We do this because we belong to God and because he says so.
8:52
SPEAKER_00: We love him and so we do it.
8:53
SPEAKER_00: And part a big part of that was their diet and what they ate and those customs.
8:56
SPEAKER_00: And so forefooted animals, reptiles, birds, these are certain things that they weren't allowed to touch, let alone eat.
9:02
SPEAKER_00: And so this blanket comes down with all these foods that Peter has never touched, never been allowed to touch, but maybe wouldn't have even recognized, but they're brought down and a voice tells them, Get up, kill and eat.
9:15
SPEAKER_00: Peter's response is good and it's faithful and it's right.
9:19
SPEAKER_00: Surely not, Lord, Peter replied.
9:21
SPEAKER_00: I have never eaten anything impure or unclean.
9:25
SPEAKER_00: The voice spoke to him a second time.
9:30
SPEAKER_00: This happened three times, and immediately the sheep was taken back up to heaven.
9:35
SPEAKER_00: Peter is praying, and he's not rebelling against God.
9:39
SPEAKER_00: He's not pushing God back, but his sincere obedience has created a barrier.
9:44
SPEAKER_00: His way of doing things is now limiting what God wants to do, and there is a shift in God's purposes.
9:51
SPEAKER_00: God is not talking about the food necessarily, he is talking about people.
9:55
SPEAKER_00: And so he tells him, get up and eat.
9:56
SPEAKER_00: It happens three times.
9:58
SPEAKER_00: We're going to come on to in a few weeks about hearing God's voice and what that looks like.
10:01
SPEAKER_00: But just notice that Peter is the man who has to be told things three times.
10:06
SPEAKER_00: I wonder if this was a little thing of how he got his attention.
10:09
SPEAKER_00: It's not that Peter wasn't listening, it's when Peter denies Jesus, how many times does he deny him?
10:14
SPEAKER_00: Three times.
10:14
SPEAKER_00: And when he restores him, how many times does Jesus say, Do you love me?
10:18
SPEAKER_00: Three times.
10:18
SPEAKER_00: And so when he's trying to get Peter's attention, it seems that God speaks in threes, and then Peter goes, Oh, okay, right, I get it now.
10:26
SPEAKER_00: Not that he was slow to learn.
10:27
SPEAKER_00: I think this is kind of, I don't know, you know the idea of a love language, the way that God, and that's what God does.
10:32
SPEAKER_00: He knows how to speak to you.
10:33
SPEAKER_00: He knows how you hear him, different to how I hear him, to how others he knows his children and what gets their attention.
10:39
SPEAKER_00: I imagine God going, right, Peter's not going to get this the first time, so we've got to do it three times to make sure that he really gets this because this is so important.
10:46
SPEAKER_00: He tells him three times get up and eat, kill and eat, kill and eat.
10:51
SPEAKER_00: And Peter says, No, I can't, no, I can't.
10:53
SPEAKER_00: And he says it the third time.
10:55
SPEAKER_00: And the next day, Peter starts out.
10:57
SPEAKER_00: We don't really know what Peter makes of that.
10:58
SPEAKER_00: He's obviously still pondering this and trying to figure out what was that about?
11:01
SPEAKER_00: What did that mean?
11:02
SPEAKER_00: That doesn't make any sense.
11:05
SPEAKER_00: That's breaking my tradition.
11:06
SPEAKER_00: That's breaking the barriers that we have and the walls that we put in place, these things that protect God's people and guard them.
11:12
SPEAKER_00: Surely he doesn't mean that.
11:14
SPEAKER_00: So he sets out and they go along from Joppa, and they go along and they arrive in Caesarea, and Cornelius is expecting them.
11:20
SPEAKER_00: He called them together, all his relatives and his close friends.
11:23
SPEAKER_00: And as Peter entered the house, Cornelius met him and fell at his feet in reverence.
11:27
SPEAKER_00: But Peter made him get up.
11:28
SPEAKER_00: Stand up, he said, I'm only a man myself.
11:30
SPEAKER_00: The humility of Peter.
11:32
SPEAKER_00: And while talking with him, Peter went inside and found a large gathering of people.
11:36
SPEAKER_00: He said to them, You are well aware that it's against our law for a Jew to associate with or visit a Gentile.
11:42
SPEAKER_00: So he's saying, I'm I'm not doing what I'm supposed to be doing here.
11:45
SPEAKER_00: But he's finally clicked.
11:47
SPEAKER_00: God has shown me that I should not call anyone impure or unclean.
11:51
SPEAKER_00: Not the most tactful way of putting it.
11:54
SPEAKER_00: But he makes a point.
11:56
SPEAKER_00: I should not call anything impure or unclean.
11:58
SPEAKER_00: So when I was sent for, I came without raising any objection.
12:02
SPEAKER_00: May I ask why you sent for me?
12:05
SPEAKER_00: Cornelius explains, well, I had this vision, that this vision from God that I was to send to for a man called Simon or Peter from Joppa to come and meet with me.
12:13
SPEAKER_00: And then Peter begins to speak and he says, I now realize, it now all makes sense how true it is that God does not show favoritism, but accepts from every nation the one who fears him and does what is right.
12:26
SPEAKER_00: And that is the astounding thing that most of us go, yeah, of course.
12:31
SPEAKER_00: Because we here are, I would guess, mostly Gentile.
12:35
SPEAKER_00: We are not the covenant people from Israel.
12:37
SPEAKER_00: There might be some, I don't know, but most of us would be those, the foreigners, the outsiders, those who aren't part of that covenant people.
12:45
SPEAKER_00: And here it blows Peter's mind that God, God isn't just for Israel.
12:50
SPEAKER_00: God loves the world.
12:52
SPEAKER_00: That Jesus came to save everyone, that anyone and anywhere can come.
12:57
SPEAKER_00: And I thought this was limited.
12:59
SPEAKER_00: I thought the kingdom was Israel.
13:00
SPEAKER_00: I thought we were going to get rid of the Romans, we'd have the promised land, and everything would be good.
13:04
SPEAKER_00: And his mind has expanded in a way that we can't quite comprehend, but for him, revolutionizes the whole worldview.
13:13
SPEAKER_00: God is for the world.
13:15
SPEAKER_00: And God's kingdom can come to anywhere on earth.
13:22
SPEAKER_00: And while Peter was speaking these words, the Holy Spirit comes on all who heard the message.
13:27
SPEAKER_00: There's a wonderful thing that the Holy Spirit sometimes settles an argument without you need to make an argument.
13:31
SPEAKER_00: I always remember when I was in college going to a conference, and I can't remember, I wish I could what the debate was.
13:36
SPEAKER_00: There was a big debate going on, some theological nuance that people were going back and forth.
13:39
SPEAKER_00: I just remember one of our lecturers standing up and going, chill out and trust the Holy Spirit.
13:45
SPEAKER_00: I loved it because it was the kind of people who think the Holy Spirit isn't meant to talk or do much anymore.
13:49
SPEAKER_00: But the Holy Spirit is meant to guide us into truth, to guide us into righteousness, and you can chill out and trust the Holy Spirit.
13:55
SPEAKER_00: And here he settles the argument.
13:57
SPEAKER_00: There might have been someone going, Oh, actually, I don't think the Gentiles should become, it doesn't matter.
14:01
SPEAKER_00: The Spirit's decided.
14:02
SPEAKER_00: He's filled them, he's changed their hearts, he's renewed them.
14:05
SPEAKER_00: We can't argue with that anymore.
14:06
SPEAKER_00: And so the circumcised believers who had come with Peter were astonished that the gift of the Spirit had been poured out even on Gentiles, for they heard them speaking in tongues and praising God.
14:15
SPEAKER_00: The debate is settled.
14:16
SPEAKER_00: God has confirmed it, not just with visions and Peter's heart being changed, the leader of the church being transformed in his view, but the spirit confirming this.
14:25
SPEAKER_00: He has settled the argument, and now all people, all people can come to God.
14:32
SPEAKER_00: That remains our calling.
14:35
SPEAKER_00: Because we may not think of the foreigner.
14:37
SPEAKER_00: That's not us because we are the foreigner, so it doesn't quite resonate.
14:40
SPEAKER_00: But there are perhaps people groups, people who are unlike us, people who are different to us, who act different or think different or come from different places and different backgrounds, and there can be in our minds a barrier that we say it can go anywhere, but it's not going to go to them.
14:55
SPEAKER_00: It could go anywhere, but it's unlikely to go to them.
14:58
SPEAKER_00: But here we're seeing that anyone can come.
15:01
SPEAKER_00: Because God's grace is bigger.
15:03
SPEAKER_00: Now there's a tiny detail in here that we sometimes miss that I think helps us understand what's going on on a bigger scale.
15:10
SPEAKER_00: Because Peter is in a place called Joppa.
15:13
SPEAKER_00: And Joppa, if you are an Israelite like Peter, would have rung a bell in your mind.
15:17
SPEAKER_00: Because there's another story in the Bible about a guy who's sent to preach the gospel to a group, and he leaves them and he's in a place called Joppah.
15:24
SPEAKER_00: It's found in the book of Jonah.
15:26
SPEAKER_00: No Jonah?
15:27
SPEAKER_00: So Jonah, sorry, I've got to find it on here, because I'm all over the place this morning.
15:30
SPEAKER_00: Here we go.
15:31
SPEAKER_00: Send men to Joppa and bring back a man named Simon who is called Peter.
15:35
SPEAKER_00: Now in Jonah, we're told that Jonah is met by God and he says, Go to the great city of Nineveh and preach against it, because its wickedness has come up before me.
15:42
SPEAKER_00: But Jonah ran away from the Lord and headed for Tarshis.
15:45
SPEAKER_00: He went down to Joppah, where he found a ship bound for that port.
15:48
SPEAKER_00: So Joppa's the place where Jonah says, No God, I'm going this way.
15:52
SPEAKER_00: I'm not going to those people because they are foreigners.
15:56
SPEAKER_00: Now, as a Sunday school student, you all learnt that Jonah ran away from God because he was afraid.
16:02
SPEAKER_00: Yeah?
16:02
SPEAKER_00: He was afraid that he didn't want to preach it, but that isn't what Jonah says.
16:06
SPEAKER_00: So let me review.
16:07
SPEAKER_00: You should always read the Bible because what the Bible actually says is always better than what we think it says.
16:11
SPEAKER_00: So we always think Jonah ran away because he was afraid.
16:14
SPEAKER_00: But later on, what happens is Jonah preaches, and the people turn from their evil, and God relented.
16:20
SPEAKER_00: He didn't bring the destruction he had threatened.
16:22
SPEAKER_00: And the next verse it tells us why Jonah ran away.
16:25
SPEAKER_00: He says, This, Jonah, this seemed very wrong.
16:28
SPEAKER_00: God has saved these people, he's delivered these people, and it seemed wrong to him.
16:32
SPEAKER_00: He became angry and he prayed to the Lord.
16:34
SPEAKER_00: Isn't this what I said, Lord, when I was still at home?
16:37
SPEAKER_00: That is why I tried to forestall by fleeing to Tarshis.
16:41
SPEAKER_00: I knew that you are a gracious and compassionate God, slow to anger and abounding in love, a God who relents from sending calamity.
16:48
SPEAKER_00: I knew you were going to love them.
16:50
SPEAKER_00: I knew you were going to forgive.
16:52
SPEAKER_00: You always do this.
16:53
SPEAKER_00: You're always good to people who aren't good.
16:55
SPEAKER_00: You're always merciful to people who don't deserve mercy.
16:58
SPEAKER_00: You're always forgiving to people who sin against you.
17:00
SPEAKER_00: That's why I ran away.
17:02
SPEAKER_00: Jonah wasn't afraid.
17:04
SPEAKER_00: He was very aware of God's love to the extent that he was going, I'm and you abound in love.
17:09
SPEAKER_00: You are so good to us, you are so merciful, and I love it, but I don't want them to love it.
17:14
SPEAKER_00: I don't want them to have it.
17:16
SPEAKER_00: I don't want them to experience your goodness because they are not like me.
17:20
SPEAKER_00: They don't deserve it like I do.
17:22
SPEAKER_00: They don't haven't earned it like I have.
17:25
SPEAKER_00: They aren't seeking it like I am.
17:28
SPEAKER_00: And so he runs away.
17:30
SPEAKER_00: And here again, hundreds of years later, we find Peter in Jopper, and God says, I want you to go to a Gentile people.
17:38
SPEAKER_00: And here's the tension.
17:39
SPEAKER_00: Is Peter going to say yes?
17:41
SPEAKER_00: Because Jonah said no.
17:42
SPEAKER_00: No, because your love is only for us.
17:45
SPEAKER_00: Your love is only for me.
17:46
SPEAKER_00: You abound in love, but I want to keep it, I want to contain it and keep it for myself.
17:50
SPEAKER_00: I don't want to share it.
17:52
SPEAKER_00: But Peter, thankfully, and it changes church history, it's changed the world.
17:56
SPEAKER_00: The fact we are here today is because of Peter's decision to say yes.
18:00
SPEAKER_00: Because he was aware God's love is not to be contained.
18:04
SPEAKER_00: It spreads to everyone, everywhere.
18:08
SPEAKER_00: It goes beyond their borders.
18:10
SPEAKER_00: And so another man from Joppa makes a different decision, and the love of God is extended to all who call on his name.
18:20
SPEAKER_00: Jonah doesn't doubt God's power, doesn't doubt his mercy.
18:24
SPEAKER_00: In fact, he knows it perfectly well.
18:25
SPEAKER_00: But the problem is in him.
18:27
SPEAKER_00: He thinks it's just for him.
18:29
SPEAKER_00: And suddenly Acts 10 takes on a different flavor for us.
18:33
SPEAKER_00: Us who perhaps have come to know God's love and his goodness, received his mercy, but that temptation to say, we've got it good, haven't we?
18:40
SPEAKER_00: I've got my ticket to heaven.
18:42
SPEAKER_00: I'm good with God, he's with me in my life.
18:45
SPEAKER_00: But if it stays just here, then I am no different to Jonah.
18:49
SPEAKER_00: That goes, I don't want you to love those people.
18:51
SPEAKER_00: Because those people are really messy.
18:53
SPEAKER_00: Those people, they're outside.
18:55
SPEAKER_00: I know that you want to forgive them, I know you want to love them, but but I'm not ready to.
19:01
SPEAKER_00: But God calls us to the ends of the earth, to everywhere, everyone, at all times.
19:09
SPEAKER_00: You see, if Satan can't stop the gospel, when it seems from history that he can't, he will try to shrink it.
19:15
SPEAKER_00: He can't stop Jesus building his church, but he can try and make us think smaller.
19:20
SPEAKER_00: He can try and persuade us that our Christianity is only about what happens for an hour on a Sunday.
19:24
SPEAKER_00: And if he does that, he wins ground.
19:27
SPEAKER_00: If he convinces us that our faith belongs in a church building, then he wins ground.
19:32
SPEAKER_00: If he can persuade us that the gospel is for people like us and not people unlike us, then he wins ground.
19:37
SPEAKER_00: If he can make us think that the ministry of sharing the love of God is for pastors and everyone else just attends, then he wins ground.
19:44
SPEAKER_00: And Acts that we see here is refuse to bow down to that.
19:47
SPEAKER_00: The gospel has spilt over every boundary.
19:50
SPEAKER_00: Is there anything that can stop someone from coming to God?
19:52
SPEAKER_00: There is nothing.
19:53
SPEAKER_00: Is there anyone who is outside of God's grace?
19:56
SPEAKER_00: There is no one.
19:58
SPEAKER_00: Is there anywhere where the gospel cannot be taken?
20:00
SPEAKER_00: There is nowhere.
20:02
SPEAKER_00: No thing, no one, nowhere.
20:07
SPEAKER_00: And we just have to stand astounded that the gospel crosses all ethnicity, nationality, class, culture, language, geography, every human being in every part of the world, the kingdom of God comes to them.
20:22
SPEAKER_00: Because that's how you stop being a foreigner.
20:24
SPEAKER_00: You either go in and live in another country and you become a citizen and a resident there, or that country moves its boundaries so that you become a part of it.
20:34
SPEAKER_00: And what Jesus has done is he's brought the kingdom of God and its boundaries know no limit.
20:39
SPEAKER_00: Its boundaries are spreading and spreading and growing and growing.
20:42
SPEAKER_00: The kingdom is coming, and because of that, all who hear the name of Jesus, all who see him, are invited to become a part of it.
20:50
SPEAKER_00: And so later on, Paul would write in Ephesians, he says, Consequently, you are no longer foreigners and strangers.
20:57
SPEAKER_00: That's what we were forigners and strangers, but now you are fellow citizens of God's people and also members of his household built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus Himself as the chief cornerstone.
21:09
SPEAKER_00: This will most of the letters in the New Testament, Romans, all of them, most of them are trying to wrestle with this idea.
21:15
SPEAKER_00: What we've got Gentiles and Jewish people worshipping the same God?
21:19
SPEAKER_00: That doesn't make sense.
21:21
SPEAKER_00: How can we get along?
21:22
SPEAKER_00: We've got such different backgrounds and worldviews and understandings, and yet the dividing wall has been torn down.
21:28
SPEAKER_00: In Ephesians, he says, He himself is our peace.
21:33
SPEAKER_00: He himself.
21:34
SPEAKER_00: We don't have peace, Jesus is our peace.
21:37
SPEAKER_00: Because we have Jesus, we are one together, we're united.
21:40
SPEAKER_00: And if this chapter hadn't happened, none of us would be here.
21:44
SPEAKER_00: If this chapter hadn't happened, we wouldn't be trying to share the gospel, we wouldn't be singing together.
21:49
SPEAKER_00: But because it has, we are no longer foreigners and strangers to each other, we are citizens.
21:55
SPEAKER_00: I love the idea of citizens because you can go to another country and be a tourist.
22:00
SPEAKER_00: Some of you will do that this summer.
22:01
SPEAKER_00: You go, you you see the highlights, you expect to be served, you might write a review of whether you liked it or not, but you don't pay taxes, you don't vote, you don't invest in schools or hospitals, you don't worry about what the country will be like in 20 years' time because you'll be gone soon.
22:13
SPEAKER_00: You're just there to receive and to make the most of it.
22:16
SPEAKER_00: But if you're a citizen, then you belong.
22:20
SPEAKER_00: You contribute, you invest, you carry responsibility.
22:24
SPEAKER_00: And sometimes Christians can drift into becoming tourists in God's kingdom.
22:29
SPEAKER_00: I get all the benefits, I enjoy what I see, I get the teaching, I appreciate the ministries, but citizenship is something richer.
22:36
SPEAKER_00: I serve, I pray, I give, I disciple.
22:40
SPEAKER_00: Not because I've got my ticket to heaven, but because he's made me a citizen.
22:44
SPEAKER_00: I was a foreigner, but I've been brought near.
22:47
SPEAKER_00: And as I look at my brothers and sisters around me, I don't see strangers and foreigners anymore.
22:52
SPEAKER_00: I see brothers and sisters part of the same household.
22:56
SPEAKER_00: And that is beautiful.
22:58
SPEAKER_00: I love the way that God is bringing new family members to us as a church.
23:02
SPEAKER_00: I love that He is extending the boundaries, He is moving his boundaries of His kingdom so that more and more people are brought in because that is what we're going to see at the end.
23:11
SPEAKER_00: Every tribe, every tongue, we said, I think you read it, isn't you, Chabel?
23:14
SPEAKER_00: That every nation standing there in Revelation before the Lamb of God, praising him with one voice.
23:22
SPEAKER_00: This is the goal.
23:23
SPEAKER_00: And the church is meant to be a little piece of that on earth until we get to our true home in heaven.
23:30
SPEAKER_00: This is where we belong.
23:32
SPEAKER_00: And because Peter was willing to go to Cornelius, he hears what Cornelius says and he responds, he preaches the gospel.
23:38
SPEAKER_00: Jesus came and he lived among us, he took on our humanity, he dies on the cross and he resurrected to new life.
23:44
SPEAKER_00: And the through that there is forgiveness of sin proclaimed to all, and all who call in his name are made part of the family of God.
23:51
SPEAKER_00: And so we've seen the pattern.
23:54
SPEAKER_00: We're calling this Act 3.
23:56
SPEAKER_00: We had Act 2, and Act 3 was the spread of the gospel, and the spread started with the gospel being scattered.
24:01
SPEAKER_00: And then in Acts chapter 8, we saw that any outsider can be welcomed.
24:04
SPEAKER_00: In Acts chapter 9, we saw that any enemy can become a brother.
24:08
SPEAKER_00: And in Acts chapter 10, we see that there are no foreigners in God's kingdom, for we're all citizens of his kingdom.
24:16
SPEAKER_00: No thing, no one, nowhere that the gospel will not go to.
24:21
SPEAKER_00: The only thing that can stop it is your no.
24:24
SPEAKER_00: Can anything stop anyone coming from God?
24:26
SPEAKER_00: There's no thing apart from their no to God.
24:30
SPEAKER_00: There is no sin, there's no past, there's no failure that can stop you, but your no can.
24:35
SPEAKER_00: Is there anyone that cannot be reached by God's grace?
24:37
SPEAKER_00: There's no one.
24:38
SPEAKER_00: Even the worst enemy, the persecutor, Paul, can be transformed by the gospel.
24:42
SPEAKER_00: But if he'd said no, it would have remained distant.
24:46
SPEAKER_00: Is there anywhere the gospel can't go?
24:48
SPEAKER_00: There's nowhere.
24:49
SPEAKER_00: There's nowhere that we can't carry God's presence and his fragrance.
24:52
SPEAKER_00: There's nowhere that we can't proclaim unless we say no.
24:57
SPEAKER_00: And so leave us with that.
24:59
SPEAKER_00: Peter could have followed the same pattern as Jonah.
25:03
SPEAKER_00: I've got your grace, I've got your goodness, I need not worry about anyone else.
25:07
SPEAKER_00: No.
25:08
SPEAKER_00: It's such a simple word, but it contains such power.
25:12
SPEAKER_00: But a word that contains an equal amount of power is yes.
25:17
SPEAKER_00: Yes to God.
25:18
SPEAKER_00: Yes to what he wants to do.
25:20
SPEAKER_00: Yes to the depth of his love and the breadth of his love.
25:22
SPEAKER_00: We thought about this idea of the last few weeks, the ocean.
25:25
SPEAKER_00: The ocean that is deep enough to cover everyone, deep enough to wash every stain, every sin, deep enough to fill us and surround us and transform us, deep enough and wide enough that it touches every continent on this earth.
25:39
SPEAKER_00: There's nowhere that it cannot go.
25:43
SPEAKER_00: Do you have any boundaries?
25:45
SPEAKER_00: Any boundary lines that you've drawn?
25:48
SPEAKER_00: If you do, you may find that God has a habit of stepping over them.
25:52
SPEAKER_00: Do you have any limitation on what God can do?
25:55
SPEAKER_00: Any idea that God might do, but I don't think he's really got the heart for it.
26:00
SPEAKER_00: God wants to expose those and show the depth and the breadth of his love.
26:05
SPEAKER_00: Because that same love for them, for the other, for the different is the love that he has for you.
26:12
SPEAKER_00: And so we are increasingly, as we go through Acts, expounding God's love.
26:17
SPEAKER_00: It's getting bigger and bigger, wider and wider, deeper and deeper, more and more beautiful, I hope.
26:24
SPEAKER_00: And our prayer is that as we continue, we would not just receive it, but we would then go, I want to share this.
26:30
SPEAKER_00: It's filled me up to a point where I can't contain it anymore.
26:33
SPEAKER_00: It's too much.
26:34
SPEAKER_00: And it is, it should feel like it's too much.
26:36
SPEAKER_00: The only release you have is to share it with those around you.
26:39
SPEAKER_00: Let it overflow.
26:43
SPEAKER_00: And do not worry about those around you.
26:46
SPEAKER_00: There is nothing that can stop them.
26:48
SPEAKER_00: There's nothing that they've done.
26:50
SPEAKER_00: There's no enemy that God can't redeem.
26:52
SPEAKER_00: There is nowhere that the gospel will not reach.
26:55
SPEAKER_00: Our role is to be faithful.
26:57
SPEAKER_00: Just as Peter was.
26:59
SPEAKER_00: Faithful.
27:00
SPEAKER_00: God showed me this, God has told me this.
27:02
SPEAKER_00: I will be faithful.
27:03
SPEAKER_00: God is sending me here, God has asked me to speak, I will do so.
27:07
SPEAKER_00: These are the people God has put in my life to pray for, to bear up, and so I will do that.
27:11
SPEAKER_00: Trusting He is at work.
27:13
SPEAKER_00: And his love goes further than I ever dared dream.
27:17
SPEAKER_00: Let's pray, shall we?
27:18
SPEAKER_00: As we consider where this speaks to us today.
27:21
SPEAKER_00: Father, we thank you for a gospel that is wider and deeper and more glorious than we ever dared imagine.
27:28
SPEAKER_00: We thank you that your love crosses every boundary, it overcomes every obstacle, it goes further and further.
27:35
SPEAKER_00: Your compassion and your goodness, it knows no ends, it knows no limit.
27:41
SPEAKER_00: We thank you that we who call on your name have received that love.
27:47
SPEAKER_00: We thank you for the grace that you have poured out and the way you have shaped us.
27:51
SPEAKER_00: And yet perhaps we see something of Jonah in ourselves.
27:55
SPEAKER_00: Not that we are afraid, but that we we just don't believe that that same love we have received should extend to others.
28:01
SPEAKER_00: For whatever reason, we see people as outsiders, we see them as unworthy, there is an arrogance in us or a pride.
28:07
SPEAKER_00: But we pray today, Lord, that you would break that.
28:10
SPEAKER_00: That we, like Peter, would see there is nothing unclean.
28:14
SPEAKER_00: That there is nowhere that your gospel cannot reach, that your kingdom is for all the nations.
28:21
SPEAKER_00: For others of us, Lord, this will just seem so obvious.
28:24
SPEAKER_00: Of course it is.
28:25
SPEAKER_00: God so loved the world, those words we say them, but we don't realize the power and the revolutionary idea that they contain.
28:34
SPEAKER_00: So today would you amaze us again, Lord, that this gospel was not for one people in one time.
28:40
SPEAKER_00: It was not limited, that you saw every human being, you saw every heart, you saw generations and generations, you saw tribes and tongues, you saw all the boundaries that we would draw, all the institutions we would create, all the governments that we would set up and the ways that we would divide ourselves from others, you saw all of it, and you said, I want all of it.
29:02
SPEAKER_00: And you came and the price you paid was enough for every single person, that all who call on the name of the Lord would be saved.
29:10
SPEAKER_00: So may we be overwhelmed again by the depth of that love.
29:14
SPEAKER_00: The extent that you're willing to go to.
29:28
SPEAKER_00: Even today in this church, Lord, if there is a barrier between us and our brother, would you tear it down?
29:34
SPEAKER_00: If there is distance between us and those who are here around us, Lord, would you tear it down?
29:40
SPEAKER_00: For we are one in Christ, fellow citizens, your household.
29:47
SPEAKER_00: May you grow us in that beautiful unity.
29:50
SPEAKER_00: May you grow us in that diversity where we come in one name for one purpose.
29:58
SPEAKER_00: Praise you, Jesus, for you are our King.
30:02
SPEAKER_00: May your kingdom come.
30:06
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
30:10
SPEAKER_01: Thank you for joining us on Growing Together in the Gospel today.
30:14
SPEAKER_01: We hope you've enjoyed the challenge presented in the teaching and would welcome your thoughts or questions that you can direct to us through the podcast.
30:22
SPEAKER_01: Just look for the Send Us Your Questions link once you open an episode.
30:26
SPEAKER_01: And if you're interested in exploring things further, you'll find our website is packed with information too.
30:32
SPEAKER_01: We meet on Sundays at 10.30 in the morning, where, through a crash, classes for young people, and really good coffee, everyone is looked after.
30:42
SPEAKER_01: There really is something for everyone at LBC.
30:46
SPEAKER_01: So please don't be shy.
30:48
SPEAKER_01: Why don't you drop us a line or come and see us?
30:51
SPEAKER_01: We'd really love to meet you.