Acts 11:19-24 Fill Your Life with Love!

Acts 11:19-24  Now those who had been scattered by the persecution that broke out when Stephen was killed traveled as far as Phoenicia, Cyprus and Antioch, spreading the word only among Jews.  Some of them, however, men from Cyprus and Cyrene, went to Antioch and began to speak to Greeks also, telling them the good news about the Lord Jesus.  The Lord’s hand was with them, and a great number of people believed and turned to the Lord.  News of this reached the church in Jerusalem, and they sent Barnabas to Antioch.  When he arrived and saw what the grace of God had done, he was glad and encouraged them all to remain true to the Lord with all their hearts.  He was a good man, full of the Holy Spirit and faith, and a great number of people were brought to the Lord.

In the above focus, we see in Antioch the beginning of an active ministry to the Gentile world.  Jesus in his life primarily ministered to the Jews, healing and doing wonderful miracles.  However, He did interact with the Gentiles at times.  He told a Canaanite woman that his ministry was to the Jews, not to the Gentiles, those who are outside of God’s law and regulations.  “It is not right to take the children’s bread and toss it to the dogs.”  He did deliver the woman’s daughter from demon possession because of her statement to him that even the dogs eat the scraps from the table.  Also we find Jesus healing a Centurion’s young servant who is paralyzed.  Jesus healed this Gentile's servant because Jesus was amazed by the strength of the Centurion's faith.  I have not found anyone in Israel with such great faith.  (Matthew 8:10)  Jesus then told his listeners that many Gentiles would be in the kingdom of God.  I say to you that many will come from the east and the west, and will take their places at the feast with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven.  (Matthew 8:11)  In this morning’s focus we see Jesus’ words being fulfilled in Antioch.  The Lord’s hand was with them, and a great number of people believed and turned to the Lord.  These Gentiles were no longer dogs, a derogatory description, but now people by the grace of God transformed into a new people, forever known as children of the living God.  Jesus said you must be born again to be right with God.  When right with God, Gentile and Jews will occupy the Kingdom of God, for all born-again people are God’s children.  No longer are they separate, but in the house of the Lord, they are one people.  After Stephen’s martyrdom, the Jewish Christians did not have this vision of the oneness of both Jews and Gentiles in Christ.  The Jewish Christians were spreading the Good News of Jesus being the Messiah only to other Jews.  For them the Good News had restrictions, for Jesus came to them, not to the Gentile world.  He was their Savior, not the Savior of the outsiders.  However, Peter in a trance received an expanded vision of God’s grace.  Christ's death and resurrection was for all humankind.  God told him in his trance not to call anything unclean if God has made it clean.  The Gentiles were no longer to be considered unclean dogs, scavengers, but people who God desired as his own.  When Cornelius’ household was baptized by the Holy Spirit, Peter had to accept the truth that the Good News was for the Gentiles too.  But many Jewish Christians were reluctant to believe faith alone in Christ’ work on the cross would bring complete acceptance by God.  For a while they held onto a belief that faith in Christ plus the law brings righteousness to people, but now we see in Antioch the uncircumcised coming to the Good News with glad hearts.   

As with the introduction of the Good News to the Jewish people, healing and miracles accompanied the ministry.  Paul’s ministry was so powerful that even aprons and handkerchieves that touched his body brought healing and deliverance to the Gentiles.  This reminds us of Jesus’ ministry; people gathered around him, pushing and shoving to get close to him.  The woman with the issue of blood for many years found healing by touching Jesus’ garment.  Jesus radiated power from his being, so did the disciples.  The Spirit of God was actively supporting the Good News with supernatural happenings.  In Jesus’ life God was doing marvelous deeds, beyond what any man could do.  By and through these works, God was validating Jesus as being the Messiah, sent from above to give life to anyone who believed In Jesus and his works.  Very truly I tell you, the Son can do nothing by himself; he can do only what he sees his Father doing, because whatever the Father does the Son also does.  For the Father loves the Son and shows him all he does.  Yes, and he will show him even greater works than these, so that you will be amazed.  For just as the Father raises the dead and gives them life, even so the Son gives life to whom he is pleased to give it.  (John 5:19-21)  In Antioch and throughout the Gentile world, disciples of Jesus were ministering the Good News with power, the same power that Jesus manifested, given to him from his Father.  The disciples were displaying the power Jesus had to a dark and dying world.  To open the eyes of the blind, the world had to see miraculous deeds done in the name of Jesus.  People had to know that God sent these disciples to them.  They had to realize the voice of God was being heard from these followers of Jesus, that they spoke words empowered by the Spirit of God.  Jesus had castigated the leaders of the Jewish society because they ignored the works of God manifested through him, choosing to have their fleshly ears stopped to the Good News of the Messiah in their midst.  By not accepting Jesus as the Messiah, they were deaf to God’s voice and blind to his deeds.  The Father who sent me has himself testified concerning me.  You have never heard his voice nor seen his form, nor does his word dwell in you, for you do not believe the one he sent.  (John 5:37-38)  In the above focus, we see the Gentiles' ears being opened.  They are seeing the nature of God through the miraculous deeds performed in their midst.  They see lives transformed from darkness to light; all of this accomplished by faith in Jesus Christ.  The persecution of the church in Jerusalem spawned the ministry to the Gentile world.  Now those who had been scattered by the persecution that broke out when Stephen was killed traveled as far as Phoenicia, Cyprus and Antioch, spreading the word only among Jews.  Some of them, however, men from Cyprus and Cyrene, went to Antioch and began to speak to Greeks also, telling them the good news about the Lord Jesus.  At the end of Stephen’s life, we see Stephen asking the Lord to forgive those who killed him.  Stephen’s request was probably honored, but the Lord had greater plans than just to forgive his killers; he would use this killing as an avenue to reach the Gentile world. 

These new believers in Antioch, Jews and Greeks alike, would spread the Good News to the world.  They would be imitators of God, displaying the nature of God to the whole world--a new people had been born.  Imitate God, therefore, in everything you do, because you are his dear children.  Live a life filled with love, following the example of Christ.  He loved us and offered himself as a sacrifice for us, a pleasing aroma to God.  (Ephesians 5:1-2)  A new people had to be born, for the nature of men and women since the fall has not been pleasing to God.  Before Noah’s time, the nature of people had become so much unlike God, that He repented of creating humans.  The earth was corrupt in God’s sight and was full of violence.  God saw how corrupt the earth had become, for all the people on earth had corrupted their ways.  (Genesis 6:11-12)  Violence and corruption had permeated men and women completely.  To the Christians in Ephesus, Paul tells them to discard their old nature.   Since you have heard about Jesus and have learned the truth that comes from him, throw off your old sinful nature and your former way of life, which is corrupted by lust and deception.  (Ephesians 4:21).  Instead, clothe yourselves with the nature of God: love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.  (Galatians 5:22)  Jesus understood well the nature of flesh so He said, You must be born again.  Let the Spirit renew your thoughts and attitudes.  Put on your new nature, created to be like God—truly righteous and holy.  (Ephesians 4:24)  Of course the new nature comes only through the presence of the Holy Spirit in lives.  Human's volition is never taken away, but faith in Christ’s work on the cross brings the Holy Spirit to us.  With the Holy Spirit’s residence, we have the ability to be kind and gentle, even to our enemies.  The Ephesian Greeks were learning to take on the likeness of God, jettisoning their old nature of darkness and death.  All humans without God in their lives live in ignorance to God’s light and life.  But even the light of the law did not deliver the Jews out of their fleshly darkness.  They chose to reject the goodness of God, serving the wickedness of their neighbors' gods.  In Zechariah 7:8-10 we hear the prophet revealing the evilness of the Jewish society.  The Jews were violating the likeness of God by not administering true justice, by not showing mercy and compassion to one another, oppressing the widows and the orphans, the foreigners and the poor.  All of these attitudes and actions God hates, so judgment rained down on them.  They finally were dispersed to other lands, once again slaves to foreigners.  But now in the above focus, we see Good News has come to all people, whosoever will is the call to all people.  All who come to the Lord in faith will find the God of mercy: the God who transforms the very nature of human beings.  These Antioch Christians discovered a new way to live: lives of blessing and love to all people, the poor, the orphans, the widows, the foreigners.  No longer would despicable actions and attitudes of hate and anger fill their hearts, for the Holy Spirit has come to them to teach them of a new way to know God.  However, even in Christians, volition is never taken from people, but Paul encourages all Christians to keep in step with the Holy Spirit.  Imitate God, therefore, in everything you do, because you are his dear children.  Live a life filled with love, following the example of Christ.  He loved us and offered himself as a sacrifice for us, a pleasing aroma to God.  (Ephesians 5:1-2).  Let us be a sweet aroma to God, not a sour and distasteful smell to God and to the world.  Each day provides a new opportunity to show forth the love of God and the fruit of the Spirit to a hurting world.  Bless you today!  

 

Acts 11:1-18 Families Shall Be Blessed!

Acts 11:1-18  The apostles and the believers throughout Judea heard that the Gentiles also had received the word of God.  So when Peter went up to Jerusalem, the circumcised believers criticized him and said, “You went into the house of uncircumcised men and ate with them.  ”Starting from the beginning, Peter told them the whole story: “I was in the city of Joppa praying, and in a trance I saw a vision.  I saw something like a large sheet being let down from heaven by its four corners, and it came down to where I was. I looked into it and saw four-footed animals of the earth, wild beasts, reptiles and birds.  Then I heard a voice telling me, ‘Get up, Peter.  Kill and eat.  “I replied, ‘Surely not, Lord!  Nothing impure or unclean has ever entered my mouth.’  “The voice spoke from heaven a second time, ‘Do not call anything impure that God has made clean.’  This happened three times, and then it was all pulled up to heaven again.  “Right then three men who had been sent to me from Caesarea stopped at the house where I was staying.  The Spirit told me to have no hesitation about going with them.  These six brothers also went with me, and we entered the man’s house.  He told us how he had seen an angel appear in his house and say, ‘Send to Joppa for Simon who is called Peter.  He will bring you a message through which you and all your household will be saved.’  “As I began to speak, the Holy Spirit came on them as he had come on us at the beginning.  Then I remembered what the Lord had said: ‘John baptized with water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit.  ’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?  ”When they heard this, they had no further objections and praised God, saying, “So then, even to Gentiles God has granted repentance that leads to life.”

In the above focus, Peter recounts to the Jerusalem believers his reasons for going to Cornelius’ house.  Six Jewish men accompanied Peter to Cornelius’ house in Caesarea.  These six men would verify Peter's account of the happenings there.  This experience of Peter was hard for the Jews to accept.  Gentiles for generations had been considered by the Jews to be outside of knowing the God of creation.  For the Jews they were God's chosen people; they had the law; they had the light of God.  This light was given to them on Mount Sinai.  The law was specifically for them and their households.  To them, the Gentiles lived in darkness.  Before the Israelites entered Canaan, Moses and Joshua warned the Israelites not to associate with the Canaanites when they entered the Promised Land.  They were instructed through war and violence to cleanse Canaan of the wicked six tribes that existed there.  This did not happen, and what followed was the contamination of the Jewish people by the wicked influences of these six tribes.  The corruption of God’s chosen people was so complete that God finally dispersed the Israelites to the surrounding countries; once again they became slaves to foreign people.  This history of the Jews falling from the grace of God by associating with the Gentiles was ingrained in the Jewish Christians.  Consequently, they needed real proof that God was opening salvation to the uncircumcised.  After hearing Peter’s account of what happened at Cornelius’ house, they had to conclude: even to Gentiles God has granted repentance that leads to life.  This battle of acceptance of the Gentiles into the household of the redeemed of God was not easily won.  Not even in Peter’s heart, for Paul had to confront Peter directly in Antioch when Peter chose only to eat with the Jerusalem Jews and not with the Gentiles of Antioch.  When Cephas came to Antioch, I opposed him to his face, because he stood condemned.  For before certain men came from James, he used to eat with the Gentiles.  But when they arrived, he began to draw back and separate himself from the Gentiles because he was afraid of those who belonged to the circumcision group.  The other Jews joined him in his hypocrisy, so that by their hypocrisy even Barnabas was led astray.  (Galatians 2:11-13)  Even Barnabas was led astray whose primary mission was to preach to the Gentiles.  However, for centuries Jews were considered to be a separate people from all others on the face of the Earth.  In the Old Testament, Ezra, a head priest in Israel, lamented over the wickedness of the remnant of Israel who were allowed to occupy Judea again.  He observed that the remnant were contaminating themselves by marrying the Gentile women of the land.  Because of this wickedness, he feared God would disperse again even the remnant from the land.  But now, our God, what can we say after this?  For we have forsaken the commands you gave through your servants the prophets when you said: ‘The land you are entering to possess is a land polluted by the corruption of its peoples.  By their detestable practices they have filled it with their impurity from one end to the other.  Therefore, do not give your daughters in marriage to their sons or take their daughters for your sons.  Do not seek a treaty of friendship with them at any time, that you may be strong and eat the good things of the land and leave it to your children as an everlasting inheritance.’  (Ezra 9:10-12)  This condition of not associating with the Gentiles had held for many centuries.  Now Peter is telling the Jews that God has opened the door of salvation to all people, very hard tor the chosen to conceptualize.

The gift of God, the infilling of the Gentiles with the Spirit of God with evidence of tongues, was the convincing element that the grace and mercy of God had come to the uncircumcised.  As with them on Pentecost, all of the disciples of Jesus were filled with the Spirit, no exceptions.  Now they hear that all the household of Cornelius and all of the others in his house were filled with the Spirit of God, no exceptions.  The gift of the Spirit was given to all of them as was true on Pentecost.  When the day of Pentecost came, they were all together in one place.  Suddenly a sound like the blowing of a violent wind came from heaven and filled the whole house where they were sitting.  They saw what seemed to be tongues of fire that separated and came to rest on each of them.  ALL of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit enabled them.  (Acts 2:1-4)  Therefore, as with the Jews, all the Gentiles in Cornelius’ house who believed that Jesus is Lord received the gift of the Holy Spirit with no exceptions.  This infilling verified what Peter saw in his trance: Do not call anything impure that God has made clean.  As Peter was explaining the way of salvation to the Gentiles, the Spirit filled them, indicating they believed that Jesus is the Son of God.  Their faith in Jesus as the Son of God made them right with God.  For part of knowing Jesus is to accept his work on the cross, the cleansing of the soul through his sacrificial blood.  The Spirit of God abides in a cleansed soul.  The evidence of the purity of their souls is the infilling of the Spirit.  A pure soul allows the Spirit of God to come and change the very nature of a person.  As the Christians heard this news of God’s favor on the Gentiles, they realized God shows no special favor to just the Jewish people.  All people are open to God’s love and mercy; all are open to eternal life with him.  The blood of Jesus has paid the price for sin, for all people.  The Jews who are listening to Peter’s account of what has happened at Cornelius' house realized that a place of being right with God does not come from being a chosen people or from having the law of God directing their society.  Being right with God comes through accepting the gracious work of Christ through faith.  They could not deny this fact, for the Cornelius household received the infilling of the Spirit.  How could they hold out that only the circumcised can know God.  No longer would salvation come only to the circumcised.  The cross broke down all separation between people: all can know God.  The truth of the promise given to Abraham has come to fruition through the work of the cross. “I will make you into a great nation, and I will bless you; I will make your name great, and you will be a blessing.  I will bless those who bless you, and him who dishonors you I will curse, and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.  (Genesis 12:2-3)  Abraham’s name is great because he carried the Seed of redemption: Jesus Christ.  Through Abraham's lineage Jesus would come to earth.  This lineage would be called The Chosen, those who carry the Seed of eternal salvation to all people, everywhere: all the families of the earth shall be blessed.  Now, the early Christians understood this promise had been realized.  The story of Cornelius and his household being filled with the Holy Spirit was the fulfillment that all nations will be blessed by THE PROMISE given to Abraham.  Abraham was a man of faith.  Now all those who receive THE  PROMISE, Jesus Christ, by faith will be blessed as Abraham was blessed with eternal life.  As with the infilling of the Holy Spirit, there will be no exceptions.  

What is the key to knowing God, to being right with God, and to experiencing eternal life?  Why was the whole household of Cornelius infilled with the Holy Spirit?  Their faith in Christ’ work and not their own works brought salvation to them, causing them to be filled with the Spirit of God.  In Luke 16, we see Jesus warning the disciples about the leaven of the priests.  The Pharisees and the Sadducees had seen and heard of Jesus’ marvelous acts: his healing of people, delivering people from demons, and performing many wonders.  Yet, they would not believe in his divinity or that He was sent to them from God.  In this chapter, we see the disciples arguing amongst themselves about not having bread on their journey across the lake.  Jesus hears them and warns them of the yeast of the priests: unbelief.  He asked them, why are you arguing, have you forgotten already that I am with you.  Did you not see me provide 4,000 and 5,000 with bread?  Do you not believe in my divinity, that I am in this boat?  Your faith is like the Pharisees and Sadducees, ignoring the works I have done that no man from the beginning of time has done.  In today’s focus, the Jerusalem Jews cannot ignore the work of the Holy Spirit baptizing the Gentiles with the Spirit of God.  The baptism reveals the door of salvation has been swung open to the uncircumcised.  The truth is that Jesus is in the boat of the Gentiles and the Jews.  There can be no arguing of that now after the Gentiles are infilled with the Holy Spirit.  The truth is that Jesus is accepted by the Cornelius household as the Son of God.  They accepted what Peter said about Jesus: You are the Anointed One, the Son of God.  Jesus tells Peter the Spirit of God has said these words through you.  Yes, your proclamation is true and upon this proclamation I will build my church.  This proclamation will be called, Peter, the rock.  I will bind or release people based on the truth that I am the SON OF GOD.  I can do anything God asks me to do.  In today's focus we see Jesus releasing a whole group of people from darkness: the Gentiles.  They will know him as the Son of God through faith in his works and not their own works.  As with the believing Jews, the Gentiles will be filled with the Holy Spirit.  Their abiding faith in Christ will sustain them through every vicissitude of life.  The yeast of the Pharisees and the Sadducees, the doubting of God’s work in Jesus Christ, will not be their inheritance, for that leads to eternal death; instead, their inheritance will be eternal life through the works of Jesus on the cross.  Forever, the redeemed Gentile and the redeemed Jew will abide with God.  The door to eternal life has been forever opened up to all people, everywhere.  Today, praise God that you have entered that door, that your name is written in the Lamb’s Book of Life, and that your inheritance is secure.