“Don’t Stand in God’s Way”
[Acts 11:1-18]
February 14, 2010 Second Reformed Church
The Gospel had spread to the Jews and Jewish converts in Jerusalem and Judea and Samaria, but until the Scripture we looked at last week, it had not reached out to the ends of the earth as Jesus said it would. It had not been received by a Gentile.
Last week we saw Peter receive a vision of clean and unclean animals, and God told Peter three times to eat the animals that were before him. Being a good Jewish Christian, Peter kept the kosher laws and told God, “no,” but God told Peter not to call unclean what God had called clean.
Cornelius was a Roman soldier, a Gentile, who, with his family, had come to believe in the God of the Jews, the Jewish Scriptures, and the promise of a Savior to come. They had not converted to Judaism, but they prayed and gave alms.
Cornelius also had a vision, and in it, he was told to send for Peter. When Cornelius’ men arrived where Peter was staying, Peter understood the vision he had received – that the Gospel was to be preached to all peoples including the Gentiles.
So Peter returned to Cornelius’ home and preached the Gospel to him and his whole household, and the Holy Spirit indwelt them and they all spoke in tongues and praised God. When Peter saw this happen, he understood that the Gentiles would receive the fulness of salvation – like the Jewish believers – so they must be baptized as well. And they were.
In this morning’s Scripture, Peter returned to Jerusalem, and those of the circumcision party – that is, those who believed that the Gospel was just for the Jews – confronted him and asked him how he could break God’s Law – going into the home of an uncircumcised Gentile and eating with him – not to mention (as it is implied) that he would preach to them and baptize them.
In answer to them, Peter recounted all that had happened to him during the previous few days that led him to the home of Cornelius – and then the events that happened there.
Then the Holy Spirit reminded Peter of what Jesus had said, “John baptized with water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit.” It was obvious to Peter and the six men with him that Cornelius and his household had been indwelt by the Holy Spirit – they had been baptized by the Holy Spirit. They had received the indwelling of God the Holy Spirit in exactly the same way that they had received Him. So, Peter knew that the Gentiles and the Jews were now completely equal before God and in the reception of the Gospel and its benefits. Therefore, he had to baptize them. If he did not, he would be standing in God’s Way, and who was he to stand in God’s Way?
The apostles and the brothers agreed with Peter and what he had done based on receiving the Word of Jesus as the Word of God and seeing the fruits of the indwelling of the Holy Spirit.
What was going on with the circumcision party in Jerusalem? Was this merely racism on their part? Was it simply because Cornelius and his household were not Jews that they were angry?
No. Remember what Peter had said to Cornelius when he first arrived at his house, “You yourselves know how unlawful it is for a Jew to associate with or visit anyone of another nation, but God has shown me that I should not call any person common or unclean” (Acts 10:28 ESV). Peter stated the same objection that the circumcision party made: it was against the Word of God – it was against God’s Law – for Jews to associate with Gentiles.
The circumcision party was asking Peter if he had forgotten God’s Law – if he thought that through sin he could bring about something good – that is, the conversion of the Gentiles. But we see that Peter had not forgotten God’s Law, in fact he stated it to Cornelius. But Peter also told Cornelius that God showed him that that Law was no longer in effect.
How did God show him that? But indwelling Cornelius and his household and evidenceing the same fruits of the Spirit – speaking in tongues, praising God, etc. – that the apostles and disciples had experienced on the Day of Pentecost. Peter understood through his vision and the events at Cornelius’ house that the Ceremonial Law – including what things are clean and unclean – was for the biological nation of Israel until the Incarnation of God – Jesus Christ. Now, the Ceremonial Laws are no longer mandatory.
But didn’t Jesus say, “Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them. For truly, I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not an iota, not a dot, will pass from the Law until all is accomplished. Therfore, anyone who relaxes one of the least of these commandments and teaches others to do the same will be called the least in the kingdom of heaven. For I tell you, unless your righteousness exceeds that of the Scribes and the Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven” (Matthew 5:17-20, ESV).
Is Jesus contradicting Peter? Is Jesus saying that all of the Law must be followed by all people until the end of this age? No. What Jesus is saying is that the Law remains exactly as it is and exactly who is was intended for, but the keeper of the Law must understand that some of the Law is fulfilled and accomplished in and through Jesus and His Work. Some of the Law is only for biological Israel under the rule of God. Some of the Law completes its work in pointing to Jesus and by being fulfilled in Him. (Yet, some of the Law – the Moral Law – remains for all of eternity.)
For example, according to the Law of God, we are to offer daily blood sacrifices to God. Have you engaged in daily blood sacrifices according to the Law of God? If you have, it might be best to keep it to yourself. The blood sacrifices were part of the Ceremonial Law that has been fulfilled in Jesus. As the author of Hebrews wrote, “For Christ has entered, not into holy places made with hands, which are copies of the true things, but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God on our behalf. Nor was it to offer himself repeatedly, as the high priest enters the holy places every year with blood not his own, for then he would have to suffer repeatedly since the foundation of the world. But as it is, he has appeared once for all at the end of the ages to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself. And just as it is appointed for man to die once, and after comes the judgment, so Christ, having been offered once to bear the sins of many, will appear a second time, not to deal with sin but to save those who are eagerly waiting for him” (Hebrews 9:24-28, ESV).
The author of Hebrews explains that the imperfect blood sacrifices offered by humans had to be offered again and again and again, but Jesus has offered up Himself once for all those who will believe from Adam throughout the end of the ages. Jesus fulfills and completes the sacrificial system. No more sacrifices are necessary, because His Sacrifice was enough for all forever. So, this ceremonial law is not done away with, per se, but it is fulfilled in Jesus.
Does that make sense?
In this morning’s Scripture: God’s Law that a Jew should not enter the home or eat with a Gentile is fulfilled in Jesus such that it is no longer a violation of God’s Law – in fact, it is the fulfillment of the Gospel Promise to spread the Gospel to the ends of the earth.
If Peter had agreed with the circumcision party’s error – that this ceremonial law was not fulfilled in Jesus and, thus, they were not allowed to enter the home of a Gentile, Cornelius and his household would not have heard the Gospel and the Gospel would not have gone to the ends of the earth. He would have stood in God’s Way.
They had rightly believed that all of the Scripture is the Word of God and must be obeyed, but they had mistakenly assumed that there would never be any change – in the sense of fulfillment – in any of the Law. Peter set them straight on that.
And we should understand that as well – as we said last week – we are not to hold people to requirements that God does not hold them to. No matter what we think is good or proper, if God has not commanded something about an issue, we have no right to command it. For example: some people like men to wear ties in church. But nowhere in the Scripture do we find a moral law that states men must wear ties in church. Therefore, we may not require it of those who worship with us.
But our problem doesn’t seem to be making people keep laws that don’t need to be kept – whether they be fulfilled laws or non-existent laws. No, that does not seem to be our problem. That does not seem to be the problem in the churches in this area. We are more likely to stand in the way of God by saying, “Well, yes it says such and such in the Bible, but I don’t believe it.” Or, “Yes, it says such and such in the Bible, but I’m don’t agree because of x, y, z.” Have words like that every crossed your mouth?
“In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth” (Genesis 1:1, ESV).
Well, yes, the Bible says that, but science has proved that a “big bang” occurred and then everything accidently came into being.
With the exception of all the hoaxes, “missing links,” and the lack of a single piece of supportable evidence, that’s true.
“Now the word of the Lord came to me, saying, ‘Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, and before you were born I consecrated you; I appointed you a prophet to the nations’” (Jeremiah 1:5, ESV).
Well, yes, the Bible says that at the moment of conception there is a real human being, but science has shown it is only a fetus.
That’s absolutely true, except for the fact that fetus is Latin for baby, so the argument is, “It’s not a baby; it’s a baby.”
“For this reason God gave them up to dishonorable passions. For their women exchanged natural relations for those that are contrary to nature; and men likewise gave up natural relations with women and were consumed with passions for one another, men committing shameless acts with men and receiving in themselves the due penalty for error” (Romans 1:26-27, ESV).
Well, yes, the Bible says that, but we now know that homosexuality is biological, so we should merely encourage monogamy.
Whether that’s true or not, it misses the point – whether or not homosexuality is biological is moot – the point is that God has forbidden homosexual acts, regardless of why one desires them.
But that’s not fair. It’s too confusing. The Bible was written so long ago, don’t we have to get with the times?
Here’s the crux of the matter: what is this Bible? We call it the Word of God, what do we mean by that?
Paul wrote, “All Scripture is breathed out by God...” (II Timothy 3:16a, ESV). The word that is translated “breathed out,” qeo/pneustoj, theopneustos, means “the Scriptures as communication that has been ordained by God's authority and produced by the enabling of his Spirit; strictly God-breathed; hence divinely inspired, inspired by God” (Bible Windows).
All of the Scripture – all of the sixty-six books of the Bible – although they were written down by humans, were superintended over by God such that what we have received is God’s Word, Holy and Inspired, Inerrant and Infallible.
Peter was challenged by the circumcision party, based on God’s Law, for going to a Gentile, preaching the Gospel, and baptizing him and his household. Peter explained to them that this law – part of the Ceremonial Law – was fulfilled in Jesus, and now expands into bringing the Gospel to the whole world, fulfilling the promise that was made to Abraham.
When the circumcision party understood that the Gentiles had received the indwelling of the Holy Spirit, just as they had, they understood how the one law had been fulfilled and another taken precedence.
When the circumcision party understood what the Word of God actually said they fell silent and glorified God. When they realized that Peter did act according to the Word of God, they repented and received what he did based on it’s being according to God’s Word.
Do we receive the Word of God as truly being God’s Word? Or do we question it? Deny it? Try to twist it into something more acceptable? If God has said something that we don’t understand or don’t like, do we humbly submit ourselves to God, or do we stand in God’s way?
There are things in the Bible I don’t have a good explanation for. There are things in the Bible that I wish were different. But there is every reason to believe that every word contained in these sixty-six books is the Holy Word of the One Almighty God – as written down by humans, in their own times and styles, yet perfectly. So I may wrestle with a passage – and I encourage you to wrestle with those passages that trouble you – don’t stop wrestling with them until God gives you peace about them. But do not deny that God has said what God has said, or you will find yourself standing in God’s way.
Let us pray:
Almighty God, as sinners, we find passages of Your Holy Word not to our liking. We are willing to close our eyes to sin or to fold under certain arguments. But You are Holy, and You will not allow sin in Your Sight, much less to stand in Your Way. We thank You for the gift of Your Word. We thank You for the Gift of God the Holy Spirit Who lives in us and helps us to understand Your Word. We ask that You would humble us and help us to receive everything You have said, to walk in Your Ways, and to submit to Your Will, even when we don’t fully understand. For You loved us so much that you sent Your Only Son to die in our place, and it is in His Name we pray, Amen.
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