Series: The Way of Unity Walking Through Valleys of Disagreement Peter's Exploratory Committee BY DR. JOHN STEPHENS September 11, 2016 TO CATCH THE SERMON Click here to listen to the audio-only version. (Good for when you re in the car or doing something else.) SCRIPTURE Click here to watch the video version. (Includes the scripture, special music, and video of the sermon.) If you would like to receive short daily snippets from the sermon to help you live out your faith Monday-Friday, text sermon to 555-888. 34Then Peter began to speak to them: I truly understand that God shows no partiality, 35but in every nation anyone who fears him and does what is right is acceptable to him. 36You know the message he sent to the people of Israel, preaching peace by Jesus Christ he is Lord of all. 37That message spread throughout Judea, beginning in Galilee after the baptism that John announced: 38how God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and with power; how he went about doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil, for God was with him. 39We are witnesses to all that he did both in Judea and in Jerusalem. They put him to death by hanging him on a tree; 40but God raised him on the third day and allowed him to appear, 41not to all the people but to us who were chosen by God as witnesses, and who ate and drank with him after he rose from the dead. 42He commanded us to preach to the people and to testify that he is the one ordained by God as judge of the living and the dead. 43All the prophets testify about him that everyone who believes in him receives forgiveness of sins through his name. (Acts 10:34-43, NRSV) 1
SUMMARY Acts 10 is the story of Peter's vision from God to go forth and proclaim the Gospel to the gentile Cornelius, a Roman centurion. Peter was told to do something that ran counter to an established set of beliefs and values which he firmly held to be true he had learned them from the Torah. Yet, he trusted that the voice he heard was the voice of God. And that voice moved him beyond those established beliefs and values! Is this a contradictory message from God? In verse 34, Peter confirms the message is from God - God shows no partiality. In every NATION (this is ethnicity, not nation-states), ANYONE who fears God and does what is right is acceptable to God. Philip breaks the walls between Jews and Samaritans. Peter breaks the walls between Jews and Gentiles. BOB S COMMENTS Peter s speech in Acts 10:34-43 takes place during the conversion of the first-ever Gentile to the Christian faith the Roman centurion, Cornelius. That event witnesses to a tectonic shift that disrupts the theological landscape. Peter clarifies the issue in Acts 10:28 -- You yourselves know that it is unlawful for a Jew to associate with or to visit a Gentile. This reality is about to change for Peter who finds himself INSIDE Cornelius house. For Peter to go to the house of a gentile, therefore, is WAY outside his comfort zone. But he went in response to a movement of the Spirit. While there, Peter realizes that with God there is no partiality when he witnesses Cornelius conversion to faith in Christ. When Christ takes place as Lord of all, even what we once knew as normative and lawful is disrupted! Peter says in verse 35: in every nation anyone who fears (God) and does what is right is acceptable to (God). His point is that ethnic identity cannot define who can rightly fear God and work justice ( work dikaiosune or do what is right ). Peter s realization finds its meaning amid first century life that thrived on ethnically defined distinctions. It was common to define God s favor in terms of ethnic association and draw boundaries separating the ethical and the just along the same lines. To the Romans, non-participation in their culture revealed one to be unlearned in divine things and unvirtuous; those who were not yet graced by Roman life, law, and order remained theologically misguided barbarians. Similarly, several Jewish writings equate participation in Judaism (keeping the law and worship of the one God) with the pursuit of virtue and working of justice (dikaiosune, same word as above). In other words, right living in relation to all things divine and human was found within 2
Judaism they believed. Gentiles, because they are not of Abraham s seed, cannot participate. They are outside the covenant, therefore, they cannot experience the benefits of God s blessing nor be among those who bring God s light to the world. This is what Peter firmly believed prior to this revelation. He had been told this his entire life. This is what, he had been told, the Torah taught. It is impossible to overstate how paradigm shattering this was for Peter. The dietary laws contained in the Torah, and which Peter had already broken in response to a Spirit vision, were a matter of both identity and survival for Jews. In being faithful to this movement of the Spirit, Peter has no scripture or tradition to easily fall back on, at least none that he had been taught. But Peter s divinely initiated revelation significantly reframes the understanding of divine acceptance in the first century! Peter s speech concerns who can participate in the community that witnesses to God s salvation. And it has nothing to do with ethnicity, as he had been taught, and as both Jewish and Roman culture believed. Peter s summary about Jesus in verses 36-43 functions as the replacement narrative to this ethnically constructed way of evaluating humanity. Peter defines the good news as, There is peace through Jesus Christ, Lord of all, who was empowered by the Holy Spirit and who worked good deeds, healing all those oppressed by the devil. According to Peter, it is because God was with him that Jesus was compelled to do these things. This calls to mind Jesus mission in Luke 4:18-19: The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, Because he has anointed me To bring good news to the poor; He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives And recovery of the sight to the blind, To let the oppressed go free, And to proclaim the year of the Lord s favor. Jesus calls his followers to be his witnesses. Peter s summary and Jesus citation of Isaiah 61 in Luke 4 provide the essential skeleton of that witness. The focal point and nature of God s work are defined by Jesus mission and community of disciples bearing witness to it, not by participation in one particular ethnically defined existence. Why is it no longer unlawful for Peter to eat with Gentiles? Because Gentiles value before God -- and thus their ability to witness to Jesus -- is no longer determined by participation in ways of living particular to certain ethnic or social groups. Rather, it is by Christ s mission. As Paul puts it, we no longer evaluate from a human point of view (2 Corinthians 5:16). 3
God s initiative challenges us to live and think as if others ways of living -- not just of different ethnic groups, but of those less educated or of a different political persuasion -- can display the fear of God and working of justice in their own ways and contexts, without thinking they need to be informed about the correct ways to do it by us who think we might have the upper hand on understanding God s ways. We are forced to consider the narrowness and short-sightedness of our own vision and the breadth and depth of God s. QUOTES OF THE DAY "God s Spirit is always willing to give us clarity. John Stephens When you're finally up on the moon, looking back at the earth, all these differences and nationalistic traits are pretty well going to blend and you're going to get a concept that maybe this is really one world and why can't we learn to live together like decent people? -- Frank Borman Our most basic common link is that we all inhabit this planet. We all breathe the same air. We all cherish our children's future. And we are all mortal. -- John F. Kennedy APPLICATION 1. God s Spirit is always moving, always preparing, always fulfilling. But we often get so entangled in our old paradigms, we lose sight of what God is doing. See, I am doing a NEW thing! Now it springs up; do you not perceive it? (Isa. 43:19) In your perception of God, is God all wrapped up neatly in a box? If God were to reveal a new thing, would you be able to perceive it? Do you allow the Spirit to challenge you? 2. Peter perceived God s new thing from a rooftop in Joppa, beside the Mediterranean Sea (just south of today s Tel Aviv). Where is your rooftop? Where is that space where God can show you something new to break you free of your routine, your entanglements, your programming to hear the Spirit speak? 3. Pray the prayer below if these questions have left you wondering. PRAYER O God, there are millions of people, just like Cornelius; people who are outside the faith, some looking for you and some not even knowing you exist. Others of us are inside the faith, but we have grown content with our status as insiders. We ve lost a sense of urgency or passion about those outside the faith. We ve become entangled in our sameness, our routine. We ve even wrapped you up in a box. We don t expect nor look for the movement of your Spirit because that would be beyond our control. It could take us outside our comfort zone, 4
especially with outsiders. Cleanse us from any prejudice or preconceptions with which we excuse our silence. Help us to know in our souls that, as you revealed to Peter, God shows no partiality. Let us never withhold your blessing when it is within our power to give it. In Christ s name. Amen. (This material compiled by Rev. Bob Johnson and does not necessarily reflect the thought or intent of the preacher of the day. This material was inspired by the sermon and supplemented by commentary from Kyle Fever, Director of Beyond Ministries Ingham-Okoboji Lutheran Bible Camps, Lake Okoboji, Iowa and found at www.workingpreacher.org.) 5