Do not stand in God’s way but be bold!
Acts 11:1-18
Key verse 17 17 So if God gave them the same gift he gave us who believed in the Lord Jesus Christ, who was I to think that I could stand in God's way?"
Have ever a thought come across your mind that you are standing in God’s way?
Peter as the head of the newly established church was in God’s way. It was about how Peter would handle the wild animals such as wolves, pigs, foxes or vultures, and crocodiles. According to what he knew of God’s law, he would not eat those animals. Of course, I mean symbolically in a spiritual sense. They were usually not living within the perimeter of his daily activities. Also, he did not want to deal with such animals because of a very sound reason. Nevertheless, he was in God’s way.
But with the help of God, he went along with the Lord and came to know the amazing power of God in His perfect will for the Gentiles.
We also often stand in God’s way even with good and godly intentions. What in us often make us stand in God’s way? How can we avoid this? Today’s passage will enlighten us in this regard. May God help us find how we can move along with Him.
As we studied in ch 10, Peter went to the house of a Roman officer, Cornelius, at Caesarea and there he preached and the entire household of Cornelius received the Holy Spirit. Also, he ate with them. When this news got to Jerusalem, certain members of believers raised a great concern on what Peter did.
2 So when Peter went up to Jerusalem, the circumcised believers criticized him 3 and said, "You went into the house of uncircumcised men and ate with them."
Here, since all the believers were Jews and they were all circumcised, it is good to interpret ‘the circumcised believers’ as ‘some of the circumcision’; i.e. some among believers who strongly felt that all believers must be circumcised in order to be fully God’s chosen people Israel even through the grace in Jesus.
What did they believe? Why was it considered wrong for them to enter into the house of a Gentile and eat with them?
Circumcision is cutting off the foreskin that God instituted for his people as the token of one’s will and action to abide by their covenant with God. In order to keep his people as God’s, God further mandated circumcision (Gen 17:10-11). This covenant was fully enumerated in the Law of Moses, of which circumcision was again reaffirmed as the mark of Gods people. Having circumcision is an internal as well as an external expression of one’s commitment to God’s covenant in the Law of Moses. If anyone is not circumcised, he is to be cut off from his people (Gen 17:14). In this way, God did not leave any middle ground regarding circumcision and its practice.
In it they had pride, sense of superiority as God’s chosen and holy people. So when one does not have a circumcision, he is considered to have no will to comply with God’s covenant and cannot be considered God’s people. Simply he has no binding covenant with God. Because of this, Jews often combine baptism with circumcision at the same time. Like this, circumcision was the mark of distinction as God’s holy people. This distinction is made in the sense of good against bad, godly against ungodly, and holy against unholy. In practice, such holiness was expressed by dissociating themselves with the practice and lifestyle of the Gentiles. Because of this, Jews even would not sit with the uncircumcised and all the more eating with the uncircumcised was an unthinkable thing because the law forbids them to eat any unclean animals, which many gentiles enjoy. This has been the practice of the Jew over 2000 years and such lifestyle has become so attuned to their way of life. In all, the circumcision was a mark of the covenant of the Law and this stood tall above all the rules of life as God’s chosen. This could not be in any way violated.
Peter was the head of the newly created church, a new Israel created by the grace of Christ. He, as well as the rest of the believers, believed that the circumcision was still binding covenant with the Lord. To their eyes, Peter, their chief, whatever the reason, did something that no member of the circumcision group would dare to do, violating the most basic tenet of God’s chosen people, a Jew. Did he violate the Law of Moses? This was a very serious question and Peter had to answer this question.
First, God led him
After the persecution in Jerusalem broke out, many believers scattered away from Judea to different parts of Israel. Peter also moved away from Jerusalem and traveled to Lydda and then to a coastal city Joppa. There, Peter did a substantial work of God, by healing a widow Tabitha and then, he stayed for a while. This story ends in this way: “Peter stayed in Joppa for sometime with a tanner named Simon.” (9:43) It seems to implicate an idea that Peter was stuck there because he could not go back to Jerusalem because of the on-going persecutions and at the same time he could not find any other place to preach the good news or God’s leading. If we take this verse in such light, then it was possible that Peter was stuck there because he had no mind to preach to the Gentiles and there were no place to go to preach to the Jews. He was surely searching for God’s will in such indeterminate situation. This understanding is more plausible as we take God’s leading of Peter for the next movement.
Have you had such a moment in your life as ministers of God’s work? More often than I would like to accept, such things happened to my life. My own laws or rules of life, which I certainly believed to be of God, bound me and I was stuck by those rules and limitations and could not find any outlet for the next movement.
In such situation, God made a visit to Peter in vision. In this vision, a sheet with four footed animals was let down, (10:12 It contained all kinds of four-footed animals, as well as reptiles and birds.) with voice saying “Peter get up and kill and eat,”
But for Peter, it was an unthinkable thing to do. He never thought of eating such animals and the law of God forbid. So Peter said this;
8 "I replied, 'Surely not, Lord! Nothing impure or unclean has ever entered my mouth.'
This was met by a strong word of rebuke from Jesus.
But 9 "The voice spoke from heaven a second time, 'Do not call anything impure that God has made clean.'
Soon the sheet with many four-footed animals went up and came down again for the second time. The voice said again “Peter Get up and kill, and eat.” At this time Peter again said the same thing. In this second refusal, he might be saying in his heart that “such thing never entered my mouth, I have never had such an experience before and I am not willing to break that. How can I eat such unclean animal?” Truly it was an impossible proposition for Peter. But God’s will was stern. For the third time, the sheet with such ugly and unclean animals came down and third time God spoke. Yet for the third time Peter rejected. We can see how strong Peter was in his will and conviction. Like this Peter shared exactly the same will and sentiment with the circumcision group regarding the Gentiles. So in his mind as well as in the minds of this circumcision group, circumcision shall not be broken since it was an inviolable principle of life. Such conviction in faith and strong will to follow is very good and commendable. But if such will and conviction to follow is limited to or ground on his or her understanding, then it is problematic. No matter how strong or how good-willed the conviction it might be, it made him stand in God’s way. In this way, Peter vividly described his resistance to God’s leading because they were also standing in the way of the Lord if they persist in demanding circumcision. We can see how strong Peter’s feelings were and how difficult to break that habit or that righteousness, or that inability to go beyond his own comfort zone. It was like a boxing match between God and Peter.
Second, God orchestrated all for him.
If nothing happened after this vision, then the vision would have been considered just as a dream. But as soon as the vision was over, this happened;
11 "Right then three men who had been sent to me from Caesarea stopped at the house where I was staying.
According to the three men, their boss, Cornelius, had a similar vision and in that vision, he was told to send for Peter. So the vision that Peter saw was real and from God. God sent a vision to Peter and at the same time, he sent the vision to Cornelius. What was God doing? In this way, God set a irrefutable mark of his hand through this event by coordinating all people so that His will might be clear to all, leaving no trace of doubt or question. God knew also how difficult it was for them to accept this new will. His purpose was to save the Gentiles through the Gospel. Peter, the top leader of the church, must lead this so that the whole church may follow through.
But was Peter convinced that the vision was from God and real when he heard the three men’s word from Cornelius? Yes, he could be. But at the corner of his heart, there was lingering doubts and fear on this invitation. While he was hesitating, what did the Spirit do?
12a The Spirit told me to have no hesitation about going with them.
Even after hearing the three men’s story on how God led them, Peter was reluctant to go with them. But the spirit told him not to hesitate but to go with them. This was the final nudge for Peter to make a decision of faith. So Peter went to Cornelius house with six of his brothers. There he began to speak the message of Jesus. Then suddenly something that he never imagined happened.
15 "As I began to speak, the Holy Spirit came on them as he had come on us at the beginning.
What did he mean by this? When the Holy Spirit came on Jesus disciple for the first time, it was like this; Acts 2:1-4
When the day of Pentecost came, they were all together in one place. 2 Suddenly a sound like the blowing of a violent wind came from heaven and filled the whole house where they were sitting. 3 They saw what seemed to be tongues of fire that separated and came to rest on each of them. 4 All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues x as the Spirit enabled them.
Peter was not referring to his personal feelings when he received the Holy Spirit at that time. Instead, Peter was describing what he saw that was happening before his eyes among Cornelius and his household members exactly like what he saw when the Holy Spirit came on the one hundred twenty disciples. There was a blowing of violent wind, tongues of fire coming on them, and as the result people were speaking in tongues. He vividly remembered that moment. Exactly the same thing was happening on the entire household of Cornelius. It was like a second Pentecost. These were objective findings that Peter and the six men saw them happening just in front of their eyes. To the eyes of Peter and the six men, without any trace of doubt, the Holy Spirit was coming upon those Gentiles. It was so remarkable that even Peter himself was so amazed. Why?
First, their receiving of the Holy Spirit is God’s unreserved acceptance as His people and expression of giving out His salvation: God gave this message to Cornelius:
14 He will bring you a message through which you and all your household will be saved.' (11:14)
This was the message for salvation. He saw the salvation of these gentiles. Peter reiterated this in ch 15:8
8 God, who knows the heart, showed that he accepted them by giving the Holy Spirit to them, just as he did to us.
So sending of the Holy Spirit is a seal of unreserved acceptance and salvation of them as God’s people.
Second, he was shocked because this salvation came about only after few minutes of his talk as he said ‘as I began to speak?’ What did it imply?
a. An unreserved acceptance as his people came to them only by preaching and listening to the message of Jesus. Nothing else! There was no baptism of water, no expressed repentance. There was only one thing, listening to message and acceptance or belief in that message.
Up to this time Peter’s way of thinking about God’s blessing through baptism of holy spirit was like this; In order to know Peter’s way of thinking regarding the coming of the Holy Spirit, I like to look at Acts 2:38-39
38 Peter replied, “Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins. And you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. 39 The promise is for you and your children and for all who are far off—for all whom the Lord our God will call.”
This was the first message of Peter at the Pentecost for over three thousands of people, who were all Jews (all were circumcised). These Jews needed first to repent and then to be baptized in the name of Jesus, and only after that, they would receive the Holy Spirit as a gift of God. This was true because their hearts were still in unbelief, unrepentant up to this time. The same understanding is found in Peter’s speech before the Sanhedrin.
32 We are witnesses of these things, and so is the Holy Spirit, whom God has given to those who obey him.”(5:32)
If that obedience has to be there in form of repentance and circumcision, then in this word also some prerequisite is necessary before receiving the Holy Spirit. Such understanding is also found in what Peter did for the Samaritan believers as well(8:14-17). In this way, until this time, Peter believed that man’s decision expressed in form of repentance and expressed faith must be preceded before the coming of the Holy Spirit. Circumcision is the most important part of expressing that commitment to God’s will. Quite contrary to his understanding, these gentiles did not have any of these but were given the full seal of salvation by sending the Holy Spirit only after listening few minutes of the message of the Gospel!
b. God pours out the Holy Spirit without distinction between the Jews and the Gentiles.
One thing clicked his mind.
16 Then I remembered what the Lord had said: 'John baptized with1 water, but you will be baptized with2 the Holy Spirit.'
What did he mean by remembering this? John, the Baptist, said this when he introduced Jesus to the crowd. (Mark 1:15) Also, Jesus, just before his ascension, told this to his followers the same thing (Acts 1:5 5 For John baptized with water, but in a few days you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit.”) So his surprise was not in the fact that Jesus can and will baptize people while John the Baptist could baptize with water only. Rather he saw something far different thing on when and how the Hoy Spirit came on them.
We do now know how long Peter spoke to them before the coming of the Holy Spirit on them. But it says, ‘as I began to speak’. It may have taken only a few minutes or longer (10:34-43 ten verses). One thing was clear that coming of the Holy Spirit happened long before he could make concluding remarks such as asking for their repentance or decision to commit to Jesus the Lord.
This was an amazing event; few minutes before the message, those people were ‘all kinds of four-footed animals such as street dogs, lions, pigs, wolves, and reptiles and birds! In a matter of few minutes of hearing the message of the Gospel of Jesus, they received the Holy Spirit. It is the power of the Gospel that cleaned all the dirtiness and wildness of these beasts and made them clean! The message of the Gospel has power over all kinds of beasts, reptiles, and birds! In this event, the most vivid display of the power of the words of God, i.e. the Gospel of Jesus! In all our witnessing we can and must rely on it, the message of the salvation in Jesus, the Gospel. Peter was surprised in few aspects, as I have mentioned before. But the most striking thing of this event was the power of the word of the Gospel that brought such powerful change in the lives of these beast-like gentiles!
How could it be possible?
John 16:8-11 “And He, when He comes, will convict the world concerning their sin and righteousness and judgment; concerning sin, because they do not believe in Me; and concerning righteousness, because I go to the Father and you no longer see Me; and concerning judgment, because the ruler of this world has been judged.
The world filled with beastly nature has been convicted concerning sin and its judgment! The Holy Spirit has been doing it! He is at work even now among these beasts!
Just to the eyes of Peter, it seemed that only through the few words of the message of the Gospel, they repented, believed and received Holy Spirit. But God said this to Peter even before he gave the message;
• 9 “The voice spoke from heaven a second time, ‘Do not call anything impure that God has made clean.’
God said this not just once, but three times. The Holy Spirit was at work even before Peter went and preached the Gospel of Jesus. The whole world is under this conviction! We should not fearful about these beasts, reptiles, and ugly birds!
Peter was held back sitting and waiting for something at Joppa despite the fact that Jesus told him clearly to preach to the world. Why? Was it a fear? Was it a sense of pride as a Jew? I believe that Peter was in a situation arrested somewhere in between these two. But God had sent the Holy Spirit and the Holy Spirit had been working among them. This clearly tells us how important it is to rely on or count on the power of the Holy Spirit as we preach the Gospel.
Messages can be sorted out into three kinds; one that relies heavily on human reasoning, and one relies heavily on human ethos. These two are appealing to human facilities so that they may change! We cannot neglect both. But the most important thing is neither human reasoning nor human ethos but is the power of the Holy Spirit! Simply rely on God and His power!
Peter concluded this;
17 So if God gave them the same gift he gave us who believed in the Lord Jesus Christ, who was I to think that I could stand in God's way?"
Simply it was a gift from God. It was a gift to Peter and 120 people. Also, it was a gift to these Gentiles! The Gospel of Jesus has that power to bring a gift to these people! Only by the power of the word of the Gospel, God bring changes in the lives of all, Jews as well as the gentiles, even the beast-like gentiles! It is by God’s grace only that they are saved.
This is clear evidence that God would not count anything that men have done to earn God’s blessing. Peter followed Jesus from the start of Jesus ministry and was the first to confess Jesus as the Lord. Literally, he left everything behind to follow Jesus. Nevertheless, Peter was saved not because of what he did such a good works, but because of Jesus’ grace. Only did Peter and the circumcised stand in God’s way? Martin Luther once did think in such a way that he made out all effort to assure himself of his own salvation. But that assurance never came to him even if he wanted it so much and did everything possible. Men’s mind under the power of sin is framed to do something in order to earn his righteousness. This tendency is ever existing and drives people to do various things even after receiving God’s grace in Jesus. A demand for circumcision is the prime example of such understanding. If one does so, he or she is standing in God’s way. Every day we are fed on one unexpressed truth; we get what we work for; we harvest what we plant. The world is running in this principle. God made it in such way. But God has done away with it by leading Peter step by step to introduce new truth. Make no mistake! God’s intention and will to bless by faith only is starkly revealed in what Jesus did to save Cornelius and his household. God molded Peter to accept, to believe, to practice that faith! It was very difficult for him or for anyone to turn from the belief in get-what–you-do system to the belief only in the blessed-by-faith system because the entire human race has been living get-what-you-do system since the fall of men. Now as God irrefutably attested his way of blessing, we all ought to change our system of how we get; it shall not be get-what-you do system but blessed-by-what-you-believe system. You BELIEVE Christ, the truth, the life, the way and you are blessed. You get as much as you BELIEVE! So says Paul, the righteous shall live by faith from the beginning to the end!
Why did God labor so much to bring changes in the mind of Peter? Peter, the head of the Church must change to God’s plan and purpose. At the same time, the church must change her attitude. She must discard the only ideas and understandings. Her standing must be very clear and crisp, leaving no ambiguity in regard to the salvation of men.
Lastly in this way God opened the door of salvation for all human races. I often wonder how pigs, reptiles, and hawks can be changed to be holy for I know and see how they are so vulgar, grisly, brutal, heartless, and senseless. Yet it is possible because the salvation of these people does not depend on them but on God’s grace, the grace that crucified His only begotten son on the cross for the sins of the world. In this regard, no one in the world, those living in a jungle, those living in the seas, and even those living in the deserts, are excluded from God grace and the salvation is available for them. God’s hope is open to every human being on the earth. Likewise, we can have hope for every human being as well. Praise God for his amazing grace and his utmost will, wisdom and love for human races! His mercy extends to the ends of the earth. The richness of grace is reaching to every human being on the earth! We ought to accept, to believe and to preach be-blessed-by-faith!
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