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 Jopa 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 4
footed animals on 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 has happened three times, and then it was all pulled up to
heaven again. Right then, three men who had
been sent to me from Caesar 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 appeared in his house and say, sent to Jopa for Simon,
who's called Peter. He'll bring you a message
through which you and all your household will be safe.
As I begin 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. So we're looking at Acts 11-1 to
18, which, for those of you who were here last week, you'll find
very, very familiar. But I just want to start with an
introduction. So we live on planet Earth.
Yeah. And planet Earth is spinning
through space, and the moon is spinning around the Earth.
And the planets, Mars, Venus, Mercury, they're spinning around
the Earth as well, aren't they? Yeah.
And the sun, that's spinning around the Earth as well.
And the Earth that's at the centre of the solar system.
That's right, isn't it? And all the other solar systems
and galaxies are spinning around the Earth and the Earth is in
the middle and the Earth is at the centre of the universe.
That's correct, isn't it? No, no, Hopefully you know that.
But 1000 years ago that probably would have been that, that that
was kind of accepted scientific thinking about the solar system,
that the Earth was at the centre of it and that the sun and
planets orbited around the Earth.
It's sort of like a geocentric kind of model.
And so an accepted way of thinking about something.
We call that a a paradigm and that was the accepted way of
thinking about the solar system and the Earth 1000 odd years
ago. But sometimes the accepted way
of thinking about something, it can be wrong and slow.
Actually through the work of scientifically like Copernicus,
Galileo, Kepler, it was shown by I think the late 1600s and then
generally accepted after that, actually the Earth wasn't at the
centre of the universe. The Earth wasn't even at the
centre of its own solar system. The sun was.
So the scientific model, the way of thinking about things, it
shifted. We call that a paradigm shift.
The way of thinking shifted and moved to something that was
actually true and correct. And this is important because
actually, if the sun is at the centre of the solar system on
the Earth, that changes a lot of things about how you think
about. Now this is at the limits of our
knowledge, gravity and stuff and travelling in space and, and all
that sort of stuff. But your fundamental assumptions
shift, don't they? And they open up new ways of
understanding things. And we can think of loads of
examples of paradigm shifts in human history.
You know, for instance, the infectious diseases aren't
spread by bad air, but by germs, by microbes, by viruses,
bacteria. That kind of those shifts in
understanding really, really change things.
Why am I going on about paradigm shifts?
Why am I going about changes in thinking?
Because actually what we heard about in Acts 10, does that come
up right? Yeah.
OK. What we heard about in Acts 10
last week and is repeated in Acts 11 this week, it's a
paradigm shift. It's the Jewish Christians of
the of the day undergoing a change in their thinking and
recognizing that the way they were thinking was wrong.
And it's summarized in verse 18. When they heard this, they had
no further objections and praise God saying so then even to
Gentiles, Gentiles being someone who's not a Jew, so everyone
else, God has granted repentance that leads to life.
So this change of thinking is that anyone, not just someone
born Jewish, can be saved and can become a Christian.
And so one of the things I want to make sure that we do this
morning is that for us as Christians here today, we really
understand the implications of what Luke has recorded in Acts
10 and 11. I do want to make one thing
clear before we go any further, though, which is that God's way
of thinking does not change. His paradigms don't shift.
So even when we were 1000 years ago thinking that the earth was
at the center of the solar system, God knew that wasn't the
case. He's a creator.
He knew the sun was at the center of the solar system.
Of course he did. And God's always known that
infectious diseases have been spread by bacteria and viruses
and so on. So it's also true that God has
always intended that all peoples know forgiveness and salvation
through Jesus. It's always known that it's
always been true, and it's there in the Bible as well.
We promised Abraham as have put up there and all peoples on
earth will be blessed through you.
Jesus is the descendant of Abraham.
So Acts 1011 is really just everyone else catching up with
what God has already known and has been saying but wasn't fully
understood. So just that's just by way of
introduction. And I've got three main points I
want to go through today, but I just want to make sure we all
understand what's going on in the passage.
Probably if you're here last week, you've got a really good
understanding, but I just want to split it up into three trunks
and we'll go, we'll go through it.
So the accusations. So this, we see this in verses
one to three. So the events of of Acts 10 can
be summarized in very simple terms.
Cornelius, a Roman centurion, not a Jew and his household,
they become Christians. That's that's what happens,
isn't it? And news of this got out to the
believers in Jerusalem and the surrounding area, Judea, and
these believers would all be Jewish Christians, bought up as
Jewish, but then trusting in Jesus and becoming Christians.
Camillius and his family of Gentiles and historic household,
not Jewish. So when Peter comes back to
Jerusalem, the believers there don't greet him with kind of
praise and joy. Well done.
Great. And they agree with an
accusation. Basically what it boils down to
is what were you doing going into that Gentiles house?
He's unclean. He doesn't follow our laws while
he is eating with him makes you unclean.
Peter, you know what's going on there.
Why are you spending time with these unclean Gentiles?
And so their way of thinking that the paradigm they operated
under even now, even though they're now Christians, is that
there's, there's still a separation, there's still a, a
difference, a barrier between those who follow the Jewish law
and those who don't, don't ring God's family and those who are
not. That's their accusation.
They're asking for Peter to account for his actions,
essentially. And so in, in the main body of,
of the bit we've just read in verses 4 to 15, Peter basically
explains what happened. It's a little recap of chapter
10 that we heard last week. And, and there's two key points
I just want to emphasize from this just to jog our memories.
So the first is, if you remember, Peter had a vision and
it was a sheet with animals on it, all sorts of animals, wild
animals, all sorts. And some of those animals will
be animals that would be unclean, animals that Peter
should or any Jew should not eat.
But in the vision, God says to Peter, get up and eat.
And Peter protesting, no, I'm not going to eat anything that's
unclean. I'm not going to eat anything
that's unpure. That's never happened.
That won't happen. But look at God's response in
verse 9. Do not call anything impure that
God has made clean. We're going to keep coming back
to that verse. This isn't just about food.
God declares what is clean or unclean.
God declares what is impure or pure.
God declares what is holy or unholy.
Not just declares God makes clean what is unclean, makes
pure what is impure, makes holy what is unholy.
And so after the vision is finished and there's a knock,
there is then a knock on the door and Peter's asked to go to
a Gentiles house. And he goes, because this
vision, which happened three times to get the message across,
he's now on some level understanding that this vision
was not just about eating, but about something much bigger.
Which brings us to the kind of second point, which is that
Cornelius and his household become Christians, the unclean
Gentiles, if you like, remember Gentiles, someone who's just not
a Jew become clean Peter and verse 1415 he tells them about
Jesus. You can read the longer version
of that in Acts 10. That's his message.
We know we know that's what his message, simple message and even
before he finished speaking, the Holy Spirit came on those there
on Cornelius in this household, just like in almost exactly the
same way it came on the 1st believers at the time of
Pentecost. It's very similar.
And so there's no doubt for Peter and the other those are
the Jews that are with him that God has saved this household.
He's given them the Spirit. So they're Christians just like
people turn this fellow travelers off.
It's not in doubt. So he explains this to his, the
people who are sort of accusing him, saying what you're doing.
Oh, sorry. And then in the last couple of
verses, we see understanding and resolution.
So Peter then wants to summarise what this means to the is, is
Jewish Christian hearers. And we see that in verse 16 and
17. He says seeing Cornelius in his
household, filled with the Spirit, he says that's exactly
what Jesus promised to his disciples, to his followers, to
those who believe in him. And so given that God is acting
in this way, sovereignly, graciously acting to save
Cornelius and these people, what am I supposed to do?
Say no, God, you've got this wrong standing God's way.
I said, no, you're not supposed to save these people.
Of course not. It's like a Pebble trying to
prevent a tsunami. Peter makes clear this is God
acting to save, and he saved those people in exactly the same
way as he saved the people who are now questioning what went,
what went on. And so the outcome is a good
one. The accusers, as we see that in
verse 18, are satisfied, more than satisfied.
They turn to praise God and say so.
Then even to Gentiles, God has granted repentance.
Turning back to God that leads to life, meaning really simply,
God can save anyone. You'd have to be Jewish or
follow special laws to know that you need salvation.
Turn from your sin, put your faith in Jesus and be saved.
And so we see that this this way, this change in this way of
thinking, this paradigm shift for these early Christian
believers is well underway. And this shift of thinking, this
true understanding of God's purposes, is what will be
driving us forward through the rest of the book of Acts as we
see the good news of Jesus being spread out far and wide with
everyone, no matter their religious background, because
God can make anyone clean. So what are the implications of
this? What is God trying to show us?
From this passage, I want to suggest three things.
You are clean. We are clean.
Anyone can be clean. So you are clean.
And a Christian is clean. A Christian is pure, is holy and
is blameless. If you're a Christian here
today, believe it or not, I am describing you and you may not
feel that that like that, but it is true.
Verse 9 is true for us. Do not call anything impure that
God has made clean. So I mean, this is fundamental
to our Christian faith. But we've got to understand from
this passage that as a Christian, no matter your
background, your faith journey, your current struggles or sins,
you are clean and right before God.
But we get this wrong. I'm going to try and explain
this by way of a picture. So this is Montague Chewbacca
McKinnon, also known as Monty, my dog.
He is filthy in this picture. He has rolled in mud, frankly,
has rolled in fox poo. He loves it.
He stinks. He is unclean and filthy.
Now if I was to try and let Monty clean himself it would not
go well and that's for two reasons. 1, he quite likes the
smell of fox poo I think. And secondly, when we give him
Sophie's, Porsche just can't hold it and he just can't scrub
himself, you know, he just, he just can't clean himself.
He just was not going to be able to clean himself at all.
To get clean he needs someone else to clean him.
Usually that's me or Jenny, and sometimes we even take him to
the groomers and he gets all fluffed up and he even smells
nice. So once he's cleaned properly,
we've had a really good go because it takes a lot of work.
He ends up like this, nice and fluffy and clean.
So just as Monty can't clean himself, we can't clean
ourselves of our guilt, our sin, our shame, or make ourselves
right with God. God has to do that.
God does do that. God does make us clean.
But the problem is we sometimes keep trying to make ourselves
clean even though we are already are.
And we rob ourselves of the joy of the gospel.
We rob ourselves with the joy of the gospel.
We've got to remember what our true identity is, who we are.
We are in Christ, we are clean, as it says in two Corinthians 5I
put there. Therefore, if anyone is in
Christ, here's a new creation. The old has gone, the new has
come. So if you're Christian, if
you've put your trust in Jesus, you are clean and to paraphrase
some song lyrics, you're accepted, you're forgiven,
you're a child of God. You are chosen, not forsaken.
God is for you, not against you. God says you are clean and you
are. So if you're a Christian here
today, please don't fall into the trap of thinking you need to
do this thing or stop that thing to be clean, to be acceptable to
Jesus. Don't think by your own efforts
you can remove that stain of sin that you still see in your life.
Come to Jesus in repentance, turning to Him, and in faith.
Remember who you are. Christ is in you.
He's given you His Spirit, just as He gave it to Peter, to
Cornelius, and to all Christians.
I think being a Christian is miserable if we fall back or get
into habits of doing things. To make yourself clean, to make
yourself right with God. Have you fallen into that trap?
Have you forgotten the joy of the gospel that God has made you
clean, forgiven your sins and declared you right with Him,
adopted you into His family? Rejoice in His boundless grace.
It's made you clean. Don't call yourself impure, what
God has made clean and yes, you know, good deeds, turning away
from sin. All these things should be a
result of who we are. They're driven by our identity
in Christ, not by us trying to make ourselves clean.
We are clean. So the question that Acts 11
starts to raise and we'll see again in Acts, In fact, it's
addressed multiple times in Paul's letters to the early
churches. This are all Christians equal?
Is there a 2 tier system of salvation?
Are Jewish Christians or certain Christians more special than
other Christians? Well, verse 17 makes this clear.
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? Peter and his fellow early
Christians now recognize that God is saving anyone, bringing
them into the church family. So what does this mean for us?
Well, if I'm clean, that means a Christian sitting next to me is
clean. If I am pure, that Christian
sitting on the other side of the room is pure too.
If I'm right with God, that Christian has way different to
me is also right with God at church.
Finally, we're all clean before God because God's made us clean.
There's no gradations of that. I'm not more clean than you.
You're not more clean than me. You're not more right with God.
I'm not more right with God. We are all holy and all in
Christ as put it up in Colossians there Paul's letter
to Colossians in verse verse 11 from chapter 3 here there is no
Greek or Jew, circumcised or uncircumcised, barbarian,
Scythian, slave or free. But Christ is all and is in all.
Now, I don't think we have any Greeks with us today if we do
Calimera, but we do have people who are born in different
countries from around the world. We have people of different
ages, different ethnicities, different neurodiversities,
different. We can say all sorts of
differences. And these differences are real,
they are important and they make us who who we are.
And God does rejoice in our identities, our differences, our
gifts and experiences. But the point of God making us
clean is that these differences are not 'cause division between
us. Have you ever maybe looked down
on a Christian because they're different to you in some way?
Or have you sort of unhelpfully worshipped another Christian,
put them on a pedestal because they're different to you, or
compared yourself to another Christian?
Do you associate with certain types of people?
Are Christians but not others? And if you have, you're not
alone. And so to overcome these biases
and prejudices, we need to get back to the gospel.
Do not call anything impure that God has made clean.
God's made you clean, whoever you are.
So we're equal and united in Christ.
We've all been given the same gift of the Holy Spirit.
He lives in all of us who are Christians.
There's no difference in that regard.
Praise God for our differences, but praise him also that we are
all in Christ. So let's joyfully treat each
other well, value each other highly, work with each other,
care for each other, encourage one another, pray for one
another, bear each other's burdens because we are all in
Christ. Final point, anyone can be
clean. So if God makes you clean,
anyone can be clean. So Cornelius wasn't Jewish, he
was God fearing, but he didn't know Jesus.
Peter told him about Jesus. He trusted in Jesus, he received
God's spirit and he became a Christian.
Peter, he was born a Jew, humble origins, he was a fisherman.
He spent three years with Jesus, but he denied him at the time of
Jesus death. But it was Peter who God chose
to make this initial public breakthrough, sharing the good
news of Jesus out to all people. He's a Christian.
Saul who became caught. Paul, born a Jew, schooled in
all the minute legalities of the Jewish law, was someone who
hated Christians, actively persecuted them, and pursued
their arrests and deaths. We saw a few weeks ago, didn't
we? He too was made clean by God and
became a Christian. So God made these three
individuals clean so he can make anyone clean.
No one's too unclean, no one's too sinful, no one's too bad,
too evil, too different to be beyond God's saving grace.
Anyone can trust in Jesus, repent and have new life and be
declared clean. So if you're not a Christian
here today, we can be, We absolutely can be Jesus who was
crucified and died on the cross that three days later rose to
life and is now the judge of the living and the dead.
If you believe in Him, you can receive forgiveness of sins
through His name. Those words are just what Peter
preached 2000 years ago to Cornelius.
I'm just repeating them. Turn to God, trust in Him,
receive his Spirit, be declared clean by God.
And for those of us who are Christians, well, let's remember
this good news message we have is for everyone.
It's not just for people like us.
It's not just for people we like, it's for everyone.
Let's be generous in getting the message out to all kinds of
people in all kinds of different situations.
Let's not be afraid of sharing it with the most unlikely person
because that might be the very person that God's been working
on through his Spirit. And let's not fall into the
mistake of thinking, thinking that people need to have achieve
a certain level of behavior or goodness or understanding before
they hear the gospel. They don't because they can't
make themselves clean. They don't need buffing up.
They just need to hear the message, the good news of Jesus,
and that's what's going to make them clean.
That's what saves them, and that's what's going to result in
real change. So let's not be shy about
sharing this amazing news that we have with anyone and
everyone. So just to finish, do not call
anything impure that God has made clean.
God says you're clean. So stop trying to clean yourself
up and remember your identity in Jesus Christ.
God says do not call anything impure that God has made clean.
Your brothers and sisters in Christ in this church have also
been declared clean and have the same spirit in them as you.
So let's care for each other well.
Let's not let our differences cause division between us.
Do not call anything impure that God has made clean good news of
Jesus. It is for everyone.
It can make anyone clean, so let's make sure sure we share it
with everyone we can.