Showing posts with label Acts 10. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Acts 10. Show all posts

Thursday, June 21, 2012

To the Uttermost Parts of the Earth - Acts 10 - The Kingdom of God is Bigger than Us part 5


Acts 10 is the crux of the matter.
Without it, there would be no Christians as we recognize them today.

The early readers of Acts probably would have been challenged by the acceptance of murderer Saul/Paul into their community (Acts 9). But Cornelius (Acts 10) was another matter altogether. Saul may have killed people, but this man was an uncircumcised Gentile, an agent of the Roman empire, for goodness' sake.

If the boundaries of the Kingdom weren't drawn before Cornelius, where in the world were its' boundaries?

Here we see the apex of the message Acts 6-12 tells us of the story of this early Christian community's first steps toward an inclusive and universal message and practice.

(please see the introduction to Acts 6-12)


Acts 10:9b-15 (ESV)
Peter went up on the housetop about the sixth hour to pray. 10 And he became hungry and wanted something to eat, but while they were preparing it, he fell into a trance 11 and saw the heavens opened and something like a great sheet descending, being let down by its four corners upon the earth. 12 In it were all kinds of animals and reptiles and birds of the air. 13 And there came a voice to him: “Rise, Peter; kill and eat.” 14 But Peter said, “By no means, Lord; for I have never eaten anything that is common or unclean.” 15 And the voice came to him again a second time, “What God has made clean, do not call common.”

Luke's two books, the Gospel of Luke and Acts, record a progression in the message of the Kingdom of God steadily moving from the neighbourhood of Galilee outward to the heart of the Roman Empire. But more dramatic than the geographical movement of the message is the cultural one. Jesus of Galilee was a devout Jewish man, following the covenant of Moses perfectly and with reverence. During his ministry, Jesus still reaches his hand out beyond the boundaries of his native religion to Samaritans, a cultural and religious minority one degree removed from his Jewish heritage, and traditionally excluded by his people. Luke also records a story of Jesus reaching out to heal the servant of a Roman Centurion. This willingness to reach out the message of Kingdom freedom to a wealthy man in the pocket of the violent empire was radical, and possibly very controversial as well.

With this and other stories like it, Luke begins to present the idea that the Kingdom of Heaven can be and is Good News for everybody, everywhere, not just one cultural or religious tradition. In Acts 1:8, Jesus commissions his followers to go and be witnesses of the truth of the Coming Kingdom of God to Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and the world. It is unlikely that the disciples truly understood the universality of the message at this point, but this command and prophecy would be fulfilled in their lifetime. The Kingdom of God was Good News of the Great Reversal in which the empires would crumble under the weight of living communities empowered by the Holy Spirit to live generously, justly, mercifully, and wisely even in the face of oppression and death. For each citizen of this Free Kingdom that the empire destroyed, innumerable seeds would be scattered to spread the living Kingdom further into the cracks of it's dead concrete foundations. Their perseverance would be the empire's ruin.

Such news is immediately accepted as hopeful when presented to the oppressed, the lonely, the poor, and the marginalized. But Luke, the educated Greek doctor, writes these letters to the powers of the empire itself. Luke and Acts are both addressed to Theophilus, who Luke calls “Most Excellent”, a title reserved for ranking officers of Rome. Slowly but surely, he has shown that this Great Reversal is good news even for those living outside of Jesus' inner circle. This Good News is for the oppressed, that they no longer need to live under oppression. This Good News is for the oppressors, that they no longer need to oppress. It is Good News for privileged Theophilus, for educated Luke, and even for the violent oppressive forces that kept the poor Jewish people of Palestine bound.

No one needs the message of love more than those consumed and bound by hatred.

The beginning of the story of the early Kingdom Community is the manifestation of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost, when the first Jesus People are given the miraculous gift of communication in languages unknown to them. The Good News spreads quickly to Jews from every region of the diaspora, speaking all languages of the known world. Luke has shared the exciting story of Samaritans who receive the Holy Spirit, the living seed of the Kingdom. He carefully relates that Peter himself, likely the most respected of the early apostles, witnessed the baptism of these outsiders into the new Jesus community. An Ethiopian Jew received the Good News by the leading of the Holy Spirit through the early Jesus Follower, Philip.

Saul was one of the most zealous of the first intentional persecutors of the Jesus People. He traveled in order to hunt them down and squash the message of freedom that they lived and preached. Even he was offered the freedom of the Kingdom, and upon hearing the truth, he began sharing it with others in the same passion he had once tried to silence it.

Because no one needs the message of love more than one consumed and bound by hatred. The Good News for Paul was that he no longer needed to hold onto and live by his earthly power and influence. Such power is as much a poison to those who hold it as to their victims.

With the story of Saul, Luke finally leads us to the event that opens his entire message to the world. The most radical message was and is available to those who had no previous understanding or faith in the law of Moses, to those who had no family or traditional cultural connection to Jesus and his people, even to those who had given their lives to oppress such people. It was a message of freedom even for citizens of the empire that had unjustly executed Jesus as an insurrectionist.

Acts 10:1-2 (ESV)
At Caesarea there was a man named Cornelius, a centurion of what was known as the Italian Cohort, 2 a devout man who feared God with all his household, gave alms generously to the people, and prayed continually to God.

Luke presents this citizen of Rome as a devout man, but he certainly wasn't a follower of Moses' law. He had never entered God's covenant by the symbol of circumcision. As good as he may have been, he was as outside the old covenant as Luke himself. Cornelius receives a vision that a man is going to come and share a message with him, and that the man and message are from God.

Meanwhile, Peter receives a vision as well. In it, God shows him animals that the law of Moses had said he was not allowed to eat. As a part of God's covenant people, he had never touched such things. God tells him three times that he is no longer allowed to call common or unclean that which God has called clean.

Just as Peter had been present to witness the Holy Spirit fall on the Samaritans, it is important for the story that the witness of this Gentile conversion also be by such a respected man of the early community. This was not to be a one-time event, but the crest of a new movement in God's Kingdom that Peter would bring back to share with all the followers of the Way.

When Peter enters Cornelius' house, he wastes no time in sharing the news of Jesus, and the conviction that he is right to share it even with this outsider.

Acts 10:24-29 (ESV)
24 And on the following day they entered Caesarea. Cornelius was expecting them and had called together his relatives and close friends. 25 When Peter entered, Cornelius met him and fell down at his feet and worshipped him. 26 But Peter lifted him up, saying, “Stand up; I too am a man.” 27 And as he talked with him, he went in and found many persons gathered. 28 And he said to them, “You yourselves know how unlawful it is for a Jew to associate with or to visit anyone of another nation, but God has shown me that I should not call any person common or unclean. 29 So when I was sent for, I came without objection. I ask then why you sent for me.”


Peter boldly shared the word with these non-covenant foreigners. He shared the story of Jesus' life and ministry, his execution and resurrection, of forgiveness from sin and freedom for all who would receive the Kingdom.


Acts 10:44-48 (ESV)
44 While Peter was still saying these things, the Holy Spirit fell on all who heard the word. 45 And the believers from among the circumcised who had come with Peter were amazed, because the gift of the Holy Spirit was poured out even on the Gentiles. 46 For they were hearing them speaking in tongues and extolling God. Then Peter declared, 47  “Can anyone withhold water for baptizing these people, who have received the Holy Spirit just as we have?” 48 And he commanded them to be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ. Then they asked him to remain for some days.

The floodgates were open. The fulness of the message of freedom in the Kingdom had now arrived. This would be a great challenge to the early believers, opening the doors of their Kingdom Communities to citizens of the very empire they were resisting. In fact, this story of inclusion and universality, that the freedom of Jesus was available to the whole world regardless of any previous action, and without any need for conversion to a legalistic code, would be the heart of most of the rest of the New Testament. Saul himself, the zealous persecutor of the Way, would become one of the most effective ambassadors and advocates to and for the foreigners and outsiders. With every step outside the inner circle, the message would widen in its ability to receive anyone, anywhere who also desired to be free and leave the control of the empire for the justice of the Kingdom.

And it is this message that would allow all of us and any of us who would read these words today to receive the Kingdom into our hearts and lives. No bondage, creed, ethnicity, class, gender, sin, or distance can keep any one of us from the love and freedom offered by the life of Jesus. That's good news.
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vv1-8 – A Gentile is called to Salvation by God. It’s significant that it was Peter, not Paul, who went to him.
vv9-23 – Peter is the first of the apostles to be given the message from God that the gospel is also for the Gentiles.
v28 – The significant beginning of the change, the gospel to the Gentiles.
vv34-35 – AWESOME!
vv44-46 – The gift of the Holy Spirit and tongues came with the preaching of the gospel. Again ALL who are present receive. This is a sign to the Jewish believers that God certainly has accepted Gentiles as well. In this case at least, the evidence to Peter that they had received the Holy Spirit was that they were able to speak in other tongues.
v48 – Water baptism in the name of Jesus Christ and The baptism of the Holy Spirit are two separate events.


(Click here to read Acts 10)
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Saturday, June 16, 2012

The Kingdom of God is Bigger Than Us – series intro - Acts 6-12



The Kingdom of God is bigger than us. In fact, the story of the message, demonstration, and growth of the gospel in Luke and Acts is one of explosive power that simply cannot be contained to one people group or region, whatever the consequences. The good news is that the Good News is for everyone. Our lives are lived out for the justice and love of others, a community facing outward to neighbours, strangers, and even enemies.

It is hard to be inclusive. It is hard to invite someone new into your family. Adoption is emotionally complicated. In-laws are sometimes cause awkward relationships. Our communities and families have histories - shared memories both good and bad. With those we are closest we have experienced the same joys and the same sorrows.

When Jesus spoke to his neighbours and comrades about loving their enemies, he spoke to people whose very identity was formed as a people rescued from slavery. Their nation as a nation was birthed from deliverance out of an oppressive empire that had held them enslaved.

The history of Jesus and all the Jewish people was one of wrestling. They wrestled with God as their forefather Jacob had wrestled with the angel of the Lord until he'd been blessed. His name was changed to Israel that night, which means the one who contends with God.

These Israelites, the God-wrestlers, knew what it meant to follow and honour their deliverer. Yahweh had delivered them from slavery in Egypt, and then clearly defined their relationship by his covenant law. When Israel disobeyed that covenant, they would become enslaved by empire, the Babylonians or the Persians. But then they would repent, and God would deliver them again.

Jesus now spoke to these people, with this rich history, under oppressive and violent occupation by Rome, the new empire and world power. This was a people who knew well who their enemies were. Their enemies had power. They had armies and kings and land upon land. They saw their enemies in uniforms. They were forced by their enemies to carry heavy loads without pay. They were taxed and abused.

It is no surprise that the Pharisees would emerge, this sect of religious people that taught the people to obey every aspect of the law code to the finest detail. They believed that God would rescue them from their enemies, as he had many times before, when Israel would just show their repentance and turn back to their faith, as they had many times before.

The sort of inclusion and universality of love that Jesus preached was so far beyond anything his people had ever imagined, even his disciples did not fully understand until long after Jesus was gone. When Jesus said they should love their enemies, he was including Romans. He was including forgiveness for all those who had ever done them wrong.

The Gospel, the good news of the New Kingdom wasn't only good news for the oppressed and the poor. If they would receive it, the Gospel was also for the oppressor. The good news was that they no longer needed to oppress. They could leave the empire. The good news meant that the rich didn't have to be rich anymore. The uncertain and transient foundation of wealth could be traded for the sure foundation of true, God-empowered life in the Eternal Kingdom. The Great Reversal was good news for any who would receive it, no matter what it cost them. Their power and riches were nothing.

Jesus died an innocent man, betrayed and accused of insurrection, executed unjustly by an oppressive empire like all the ones that had oppressed his people before them. And from the cross, he forgave them. He forgave those agents of the old empire that put him up there on the cross, beat and mocked him, the agents that had refused his message of love.

No injustice had ever been more severe than the one that was incurred by Jesus that day. In forgiving these outsiders, these enemies, Jesus opened the door for every one of those enemies and nations that had come before them. He opened the door to all who would come after.

He recognized the machine. He condemned the machine. He even raged against it. But he forgave the machinists.

This must have been unimaginably difficult for the early Jewish believers to accept. Even on the night of his betrayal and arrest, the followers of Jesus had shared Passover with him. They remembered vividly that they were a people who had been many times oppressed by other nations. Their history, their memory, their everyday experience, their very law code all told them that they must be exclusive to survive.

But Luke, the Greek doctor, writes his letters to the ranking Roman official, Theophilus, because from the first stroke of his pen, the story had already become universal. The code wasn't restricted to the words on stone carried from the mountain by Moses. Moses' first five books, the Torah, the Pentateuch, the Law, were celebrated every year at Pentecost. These boundaries defined in these books made it clear exactly who was in and who was out. They gave foundation for a history that bound families together tightly. But God's story was bigger than one people's history or one ethnicity or one country or piece of land.

This is the radical story of that great expansion of the boundaries of God's covenant. This is the last days, and the Holy Spirit is being poured out on all flesh (Acts 2). The new Pentecost is the law written on the hearts of humankind. The Holy Spirit is the living presence of God that could now speak directly to all people, without priests or veils or temples required. There is now only one mediator necessary, and no other human being or tradition can come between Jesus and those who put their trust in him.

We must never forget as Christians that the revolutionary and even offensively difficult challenge of radically inclusive love is the foundation of our faith. The early church in Acts was continuously challenged with how they may change to include others. They consistently denounced as heretics any who would place traditions or legal restrictions on people who would come to Jesus. The pattern of Luke through Acts is arms opened wider and wider, not boundaries strictly drawn.

Let us never forget how good our Good News is. Let us never forget the spirit in which our faith was planted. God's is a love big enough to include even his enemies. That includes us. The early church were challenged and rejoiced when they realized how wide the saving grace of God was. Let us do the same, welcoming and rejoicing when challenged with God's love for our enemies.

Who is beyond salvation? Who is beyond the love of God? 

Where are the limits of our own love?

I believe the challenge for each of us, and for us as a body is to ask this of ourselves. Is it a people group? A nation with which our empire is at war? Is it a certain people we've judged as especially sinful? Is it the ruling class? The military? The poor? Perhaps our challenge is the same as these early Christians. Let us rejoice to know that freedom from judgment and oppression and fear and even death has been offered as freely to those who we would call our enemies as to us.

Let us find ourselves among tax collectors and sinners and outcasts. Let us share our healing and our love with soldiers as much as widows. Let us live contrary to empire, and see it crumble from the roots of God's love through us. 
New entries in this seven-part series will be posted each day this week at 8am. 
 
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