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Background Information Context of the story Jesus had left his disciples and ascended into heaven. At Pentecost the Holy Spirit empowered the disciples with fire to spread the good news about Jesus. Two of his disciples, Peter and John, had been arrested by the Jewish authorities several times for stirring the people with their teaching about Jesus. People were being healed. Tabitha was raised from the dead. The Jewish council, guardians of all things sacred were becoming alarmed. We need to remember that Peter and the apostles as they were now called, were Jews before they were Christians. Because Judaism was viewed as an exclusive religion it was a natural step for these Jewish Christians to believe that Christianity was only for the Jews. Then Peter has a dream and an encounter with devout Gentiles who want to become Christian. This changes his view and he realizes that Christ came also to the Gentiles. This marks a major shift in attitude. But not all of the early Christian leaders are convinced. So Peter went to Jerusalem to explain this sudden change to these Christian leaders. {11:1} Now the apostles and the believers who were in Judea heard that the Gentiles had also accepted the word of God. {2} So when Peter went up to Jerusalem, the circumcised believers criticized him, {3} saying, "Why did you go to uncircumcised men and eat with them?" This was the first assembly of the Jewish Christian church to deal with conflict. The Jewish Christians were concerned that to include Gentile or non-Jewish Christians at their table fellowship would defile them. Jewish purity laws had been in effect for a couple thousand years. All of a sudden now it was okay to hang out with Gentiles? {4} Then Peter began to explain it to them, step by step, saying, {5} "I was in the city of Joppa praying, and in a trance I saw a vision. There was something like a large sheet coming down from heaven, being lowered by its four corners; and it came close to me. {6} As I looked at it closely I saw four-footed animals, beasts of prey, reptiles, and birds of the air. {7} I also heard a voice saying to me, 'Get up, Peter; kill and eat.' {8} But I replied, 'By no means, Lord; for nothing profane or unclean has ever entered my mouth.' {9} But a second time the voice answered from heaven, 'What God has made clean, you must not call profane.' {10} This happened three times; then everything was pulled up again to heaven. Joppa was a coastal city on the Mediterranean Sea. Peter is not sleeping, but praying when this vision comes to him. Reptiles and birds were considered especially unclean to a pious Jew. Peter is a good Jew and has obeyed food laws from childhood and so he refuses God’s command to eat what was in the sheet. Then Peter hears the statement that begins a revolution to extend the gospel to the Gentiles without requiring them to become Jews. "What God has made clean, you must not call profane." {11} At that very moment three men, sent to me from Caesarea, arrived at the house where we were. {12} The Spirit told me to go with them and not to make a distinction between them and us. These six brothers also accompanied me, and we entered the man's house. {13} He told us how he had seen the angel standing in his house and saying, 'Send to Joppa and bring Simon, who is called Peter; {14} he will give you a message by which you and your entire household will be saved.' Already the Spirit is changing Peter’s long held belief about the Gentiles being unclean. He accompanies three men to the home of Cornelius, a Roman centurion in Caesarea, who believed in God. He had a vision of God telling him to send for Peter. {15} And as I began to speak, the Holy Spirit fell upon them just as it had upon us at the beginning. {16} And I remembered the word of the Lord, how he had said, 'John baptized with water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit.' {17} If then God gave them the same gift that he gave us when we believed in the Lord Jesus Christ, who was I that I could hinder God?" {18} When they heard this, they were silenced. And they praised God, saying, "Then God has given even to the Gentiles the repentance that leads to life." Remember that Peter is sharing this story with the Christian leaders in the Jerusalem church. These were the ones who had received the gift of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost. Peter tells them that he witnessed the Spirit falling upon the household of Cornelius. He sees with his own eyes that Gentiles can receive the gift of God’s Spirit. The response of the Jewish Christians is quite different than that from the Jewish Council. This witness from Peter, a key disciple of Jesus himself, is enough to change their minds. Their response was silence and then praise to God. It was true! Salvation was also given to the Gentiles without them having to become Jews. WHAT GOD MIGHT BE SAYING TO US THROUGH THIS SCRIPTURE I never enjoyed history when I was growing up, but I do now. The reason I do is because now I want to see the patterns of human thought and values over time. What were Roman Catholic leaders thinking when they put others to death because they believed and preached something different? What attitudes led to the horrible actions of enslaving Africans to work on southern plantations? Historians talk about paradigm shifts. "Paradigm shift is a concept that conveys the changing of the way we view the world. It is not so much a matter of a change in the content of our world as it is a shift in our understanding. It is important to understand that a paradigm shift is not a matter of seeing things more clearly. Rather, it is like perceiving the universe in a different color...." What we have here in this story is the beginning of a major paradigm shift in how Jewish Christians looked at non-Jews. Instead of demanding that male Gentile Christians get circumcised, Peter realizes from his vision and his experience with Cornelius that this is not the case. God’s Spirit is offered not only to the circumcised, but to everyone. Have you experienced a paradigm shift in your life? Did you used to think one way, and then something happened, and now you think a different way? As a child I used to think that black people were angry, poor, and scary. But I was growing up in an all-white neighborhood, in an all-white school, and an all-white church! Then a youth minister got me to go to a church camp where I was a big brother to two black boys from inner city Cincinnati. For the first time in my sheltered life I looked past skin color to the heart. That experience changed my attitudes towards blacks and a personal paradigm shift was born. The problem today is that there are countless people who grow up without experiences with people from other cultures. How will their attitudes change? One of the reasons the Church of Jesus Christ exists is to be a catalyst for paradigm shifts. We are here in order to help others view this world through the eyes of God. History has shown that the Church has at times been afraid to confront powerful people and challenge their views of humanity. Have there not been times when we were too fearful to be a minority voice speaking out against an injustice? For years after WWII the German church was paralyzed because it had failed to challenge Hitler’s vision of a world without Jews, or others he considered inferior. Let’s face it. We want a comfortable Christianity! We want a church without conflict. We don’t want to confront unjust systems. Peter had a choice. He could either learn from his vision and grow and change his thinking. Or he could stick with his religious tradition. We cannot underestimate Peter’s decision here. What he did paved the way for Paul’s ministry to the Gentiles and to you and me! If Peter had not allowed the Spirit to change his mind, Christianity would have likely faded away as an obscure Jewish sect. Instead, Peter faced his fears. With the help of the Holy Spirit he changed and grew! Suddenly he was given a new view of the world, a view where all people were included in God’s new kingdom…a view where grace replaces legalism…a view where acceptance reigns over exclusion. This makes me wonder. What views do I currently have about the world that are not in line with God’s vision? What views do you have that need a fresh vision from God? Do you need to change your view about homosexuality? If not, then how can you be sure? Do you need to change your view towards the poor? If not, then how can you be so sure? Peter surely was convinced before his vision of the sheet and animals that the Holy Spirit was only given to the Jews. The point is that whatever our beliefs, whatever our world view, we can trust God to be open to a new possibility. We can give ourselves to God’s view of the world. We can change and grow. A wise, old Middle Eastern mystic said this about himself. "I was a revolutionary when I was young, and all my prayer to God was: 'Lord, give me the energy to change the world.' As I approached middle age and realized that my life was half gone without my changing a single soul, I changed my prayer to: 'Lord, give me the grace to change all those who come into contact with me. Just my family and friends and I shall be satisfied.' Now that I am an old man and my days are numbered, I have begun to see how foolish I have been. My one prayer now is: 'Lord, give me the grace to change myself.' If I had prayed this right from the start, I would not have wasted my life." God help us all to see our world through the eyes of the Spirit! |
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07.11.04 - BYOB Series: Peter (Acts 11:1-18)
