“Greater Works Than These, pt.1 (Acts 9:32-11:18)” | 5/1/22

Acts 9:32-11:18 | 5/1/21 | Will DuVal

“Mahatma Gandhi shares in his autobiography that in his student days in England, he was deeply touched by reading the Gospels and seriously considered convert[ing] to Christianity, which seemed to offer a real solution to the caste system that divided the people of India. One Sunday, Gandhi attended church services and decided to ask the minister for enlightenment on salvation and other doctrines. But when Gandhi entered the sanctuary, the ushers refused to give him a seat and suggested that he go elsewhere to worship with his own people. He left and never came back. ‘If Christians have caste differences also,’ he said to himself, ‘I might as well remain a Hindu!’” (Hughes, 149) The conclusion for Gandhi was clear: “I like your Christ, but not your Christians.” 

Speaking of Jesus, he said some pretty SHOCKING things in his life - “Love your enemies”, “Before Abraham was, I am”, “You must eat my flesh and drink my blood”, “It’s harder for a rich person to enter Heaven than for a camel to go through the eye of a needle”. But of all the astonishing statement Jesus made, his words from John 14:12, from which I derived our sermon title this morning, may be the most absolutely astounding of all: 

“whoever believes in me will also do the works that I do; and greater works than these will he do, because I am going to the Father.”

Now, quick show of hands: how many of you have ever… walked on water? Calmed a thunderstorm? Fed 5,000 people with 5 loaves of bread and 2 fishes? Brought someone back from the DEAD - I’m not talking resuscitation - some of our physicians may have actually performed CPR; I’m talking RESURRECTION… of someone who was DEAD dead! Like, 3 DAYS dead! 

Okay, seeing no hands, I have a question for you, that will set the stage for the rest of this sermon: “What ARE these “greater works”, then, that WE - you and I; cuz Jesus wasn’t just talking to his 1st c. disciples in John 14; he said, “WHOEVER believes in me”; raise your hands if you believe in Jesus… Okay, YOU are supposed to be doing even “greater works” than JESUS! So… What ARE they? What could they POSSIBLY be? What could be greater than miraculously healing the sick, feeding the hungry, RAISING THE DEAD?! 

Well, this morning we find the answer, in Acts ch9, v32, stretching ALL the way to ch11, v18. 78 VERSES. This is the longest passage we will examine in our study of Acts. And fair warning up front: I DID decide halfway through prepping for this sermon that I’m gonna HAVE to break it up into a TWO-parter. So we will hold off on FINISHING the second half of ch10, and the first part of ch11 until next Sunday. But the biblical REAL ESTATE devoted to this passage points us to its relative IMPORTANCE. In fact, I would argue that what will unfold over the next 78 verses is the SECOND most important event in the life of the early Church, after Pentecost in Acts ch2; and it is arguably the SINGLE most important event in the history of the Church for YOU, personally. One last poll: raise your hand if you are NOT Jewish… This story is the SINGLE most important in the book of Acts for me and you, because WITHOUT it, none of us would be sitting here, worshiping Jesus this morning. 

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  Quick Recap: In Acts 1:8, Jesus commissioned his disciples to “be [his] witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.””

  They have now witnessed in Jerusalem - immediately AFTER the Holy Spirit descended on them in ch2. 

  They’ve witnessed in SAMARIA - Philip sparked revival there, back in ch8. 

  They’ve witnessed in “ALL Judea”, the very EDGES of the Holy Land, from Gaza in the south (the Ethiopian eunuch), to Damascus in the north (Saul’s conversion). 

  NOW all that’s left is “the ENDS OF THE EARTH”! And chapters 9-11 here are gonna throw the door WIDE open for that explosion of the gospel into ALL the nations. 

  But interestingly, having spent the last TWO Sundays examining the conversion and early ministry of Saul of Tarsus, the spotlight now SHIFTS, back to the apostle PETER. Saul, who will become the apostle Paul, will eventually become the greatest missionary to the Gentiles. But he’s not the FIRST. God chose PETER for that honor. WHY? 

  Well, perhaps it was for the sake of the mission’s credibility in the eyes of the CHURCH; we’ll see in ch11 next week that many of the Jewish Christians in Jerusalem had serious reservations about including Gentiles in their Jesus movement. But the fact that PETER, “Jesus’ rock”, included them must have carried a lot of weight. 

  Or perhaps God chose Peter for the sake of the Gentiles; news of Peter’s ministry had likely traveled BEYOND Jerusalem by this point, so maybe the Gentiles were more apt to receive the gospel from HIM. 

  But I think more than anything else, God chose Peter for the sake of… PETER. Because God’s mission to the Gentiles needed to have credibility in PETER’S eyes. And because the Gentiles to whom Peter will preach weren’t the ONLY ones who needed a change of heart. Peter ALSO needed to be “converted”, in a sense; he needed to be CHANGED, to see people, ALL people, and to love them, like JESUS does. And guess what, brothers and sisters: SO DO WE, this morning. 

  Kent Hughes says, (142): “Jesus had commissioned his disciples to go into ALL the world and preach the good news… But six years after the cross, the Christian movement [still] remained distinctly Jewish. In Peter’s case, despite all of his love and devotion for Christ, his unfortunate attitude [toward Gentiles] could have strangled his ministry and reduced Christianity to just another sect of Judaism… [But] this text has as much to say to us as it did to Peter… How we look at those around us is crucial”. So as we work our way through PETER’S story this morning, don’t forget that; we need to keep asking ourselves that personal question: “How do I look at those around ME, who have not yet been reached by the gospel?” 

  Let’s pray…

  This passage is God’s answer to the question, “What ARE the “greater works” to which Jesus has called us, as his followers?” So here’s your 3 point outline, in the bulletin: First, we’ll recognize what they’re NOT. Second, we’ll establish what they ARE. And third, NEXT week, we’ll identify the OBSTACLES that PREVENT us from actually doing these “greater works”. Okay? What AREN’T they. What ARE they. And what KEEPS us from them. 

  #1 - What AREN’T they? Well, for starters, our “greater works” than Jesus are NOT HEALING the SICK (9:32-35). Look with me at ch9, vv32-35:

  “Now as Peter went here and there among them all, he came down also to the saints who lived at Lydda. (~25 mi NW of Jerusalem; on the map…) 33 There he found a man named Aeneas, bedridden for eight years, who was paralyzed. 34 And Peter said to him, “Aeneas, Jesus Christ heals you; rise and make your bed.” And immediately he rose. 35 And all the residents of Lydda and Sharon saw him, and they turned to the Lord.”

  This is a GREAT work that Peter did, no question. But Jesus did better. Because in John 5, Jesus healed a man who’d been paralyzed not for 8 years, but for 38 years! Moreover, in LUKE 5, Jesus healed another lame man not just physically; but SPIRITUALLY! Jesus forgave his SINS; healed his SOUL, eternally! 

  That’s why Peter’s healing of Aeneas here only merits FOUR verses; Luke is emphasizing that healing the sick, while wonderful, is NOT the “greater work” to which Christ has called us.

  Nor even is RAISING the DEAD! (9:36-43) Consider vv36-43:

  “Now there was in Joppa (now we’re another 12 mi NW of Lydda) a disciple named Tabitha, which, translated, means Dorcas. She was full of good works and acts of charity. [her name, which means “gazelle” in both Aramaic and Greek, suited her, because she was grace-full and grac-ious] 37 In those days she became ill and died, and when they had washed her, they laid her in an upper room. 38 Since Lydda was near Joppa, the disciples, hearing that Peter was there, sent two men to him, urging him, “Please come to us without delay.” 39 So Peter rose and went with them. And when he arrived, they took him to the upper room. All the widows stood beside him weeping and showing tunics and other garments that Dorcas made while she was with them. 40 But Peter put them all outside, and knelt down and prayed; and turning to the body he said, “Tabitha, arise.” And she opened her eyes, and when she saw Peter she sat up. 41 And he gave her his hand and raised her up. Then, calling the saints and widows, he presented her alive. 42 And it became known throughout all Joppa, and many believed in the Lord. 43 And he stayed in Joppa for many days with one Simon, a tanner.”

  Now, in any OTHER book, this story would be the CLIMAX and the focal point of the whole thing. There’s an entire INDUSTRY of books out there devoted to retelling the stories of people who technically died and claim to have glimpsed HEAVEN, before being resuscitated and sent back down to earth - “Heaven is For Real”, “To Heaven and Back”, “Touching Heaven”, “Flight to Heaven”, “Proof of Heaven”, “Miracles from Heaven”, “90 minutes in Heaven”, “Nine Days in Heaven” - if you’re fortunate enough to die and then be resuscitated, you are set for LIFE! I’m talking book deals, speaker circuit, the whole 9 - but HERE, in the book of Acts, despite being one of only TEN resurrections in all of Scripture, Dorcas only gets EIGHT verses! 

  Because once again: still not a “greater work” than JESUS. After all, OF those 10 resurrections, Jesus was personally responsible for HALF of them: he performed 3 of them (Jairus’ daughter, the widow of Nain’s son, and his friend Lazarus), he personally experienced a fourth, when HE died and was raised, and even Jesus’ DEATH precipitated a fifth resurrection, when the saints in Jerusalem rose from their graves. 

  So, sorry Peter, but even raising Dorcas from the DEAD is still not a “greater work” than Jesus! 

  But we do get a little foreshadowing glimpse here of the “greater work” that is to come in ch10, at the very end of ch9, when we read that: “[Peter] stayed in Joppa for many days with one Simon, a tanner.” You say, “I don’t get it: he Airbnb-ed with a taxidermist; what’s the big deal?” Well, Tony Merida explains (146): “A tanner was rendered perpetually unclean by the Jews because he dealt with dead animals in order to convert their skins into leather.” Hughes adds (143): “Tanners were ostracized and had to live at least 50 cubits outside of town. Rabbinical law stated that if a betrothed woman discovered that her fiance was involved in tanning, she could break the engagement.” 

  So what is God doing, sticking Peter in a TANNER’s house for “many days”? He’s preparing him, for the “greater work” that God’s gonna do through Peter and INSIDE Peter, in ch10. Let’s read on; ch10…

  V1: “At Caesarea [now we are 31 mi due north of Joppa, right on the coast. But moreover, this is the capital of the Roman occupation of Israel; and Caesarea is right on the EDGE of the Galilean border with exclusively Gentile territory. So “the Jews hated Caesarea. They called it the ‘daughter of Edom’, a place of ungodliness, a symbolic name for Rome” (Merida, 146). Because it was just commonly accepted in those days that Jews hated GENTILES. Jewish midwives were actually forbidden from aiding a Gentile woman in childbirth, because they would be helping to propagate Gentile vermin” (Hughes, 142). But Caesarea is right on the BRINK of Gentile land. Ok, so THERE, at Caesarea,] there was a man [a GENTILE man] named Cornelius, a centurion [a Roman soldier] 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. 

  Now, it’s important to pause here and note, as Merida does, that “Though Cornelius was a religious man, he wasn’t a regenerate one. Cornelius was like Nicodemus - the man to whom Jesus spoke the words of John 3:16 - in that he was pious and respected. [But as] Jesus told [Nicodemus], “You must be born again.” Even a “good” man must be radically converted. The gospel isn’t just for irreligious people; it’s for religious people too” (147). So Cornelius needs to hear the GOSPEL. The gospel, Romans 1:16, is “the power of God for salvation to everyone who BELIEVES, to the JEW FIRST, but ALSO to the…” Gentiles. But how can this Gentile believe in the gospel, unless someone PREACHES it to him, and how can someone PREACH it, unless they’ve first been SENT. So God is about to send PETER:

  v3: “About the ninth hour of the day he saw clearly in a vision an angel of God come in and say to him, “Cornelius.” 4 And he stared at him in terror and said, “What is it, Lord?” And he said to him, “Your prayers and your alms have ascended as a memorial before God. 5 And now send men to Joppa and bring one Simon who is called Peter. 6 He is lodging with one Simon, a tanner, whose house is by the sea.” 7 When the angel who spoke to him had departed, he called two of his servants and a devout soldier from among those who attended him, 8 and having related everything to them, he sent them to Joppa.”

  Let’s keep reading…

  v9: “The next day, as they were on their journey and approaching the city, Peter went up on the housetop about the sixth hour [NOON] 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.” 16 This happened three times, and the thing was taken up at once to heaven.”

  What in the world is going on here? Well, God appears to Peter in a “trance”, a dream or vision as he often does elsewhere in Scripture - think of Jacob’s ladder, God’s calling of the prophet Samuel, his appearing to Joseph, to tell him not to divorce Mary - LOTS of examples both in the Bible and even still today, of God working through a dream or vision. But PETER knows enough to understand that even such a revelation, allegedly from God, must still be TESTED by God’s word. God doesn’t contradict himself. So if you try and tell ME that God spoke to you, and told you to LEAVE your wife and kids and go marry some other woman, I’m gonna point you to Matthew 19 and warn you that I don’t know whose voice that was speaking to you - maybe it was Satan’s, maybe it was just your libido - but I can tell you confidently that it was NOT God’s voice. Cuz God doesn’t contradict himself. So 1 John 4:1, we’ve got to “test the spirits [by God’s WORD] to SEE whether they’re from God” or not. 

  Now, to Peter’s credit, I think he’s trying to test this vision of the sheet here. Because Peter was a good Jew. So he was very familiar with Leviticus ch11, and the OT kosher dietary restrictions. So even though Peter is super HUNGRY, when he sees this SHEET coming down from heaven, carrying the most delicious looking coconut shrimp you’ve ever SEEN, and bacon-wrapped scallops, and bacon-wrapped pork tenderloin - basically EVERYTHING tastes better wrapped in bacon - but it’s FORBIDDEN! So when he hears, “Peter, EAT it!”, he replies, “No WAY, God!” Leviticus 11! It’s unclean.

  But he’s forgetting Mark ch7, where JESUS had already declared, “There is nothing outside a person that by going into him can defile him, but the things that come out of a person are what defile him.” …(Thus Jesus declared all foods clean.)” (vv15, 19) 

  Peter has missed out on 6+ years of bacon he could’ve been eating! 

  But you and I know this isn’t just a vision about bacon. Peter doesn’t know about Cornelius’ vision yet, but WE do. WE know this is really a vision about GENTILES. Hughes explains (145): “The four corners of the sheet correspond to the four points of the compass - north, south, east and west. The sheet’s contents [represent] the swarming millions [of people] that populate the earth. Cornelius, all his soldiers, all his servants, all the Roman people, all other nations on the face of the earth - all mankind bound up together.”

  This is a VISION about the “greater work” to which God was calling Peter, and to which he is STILL calling us today: #2 - the work of EVANGELIZING the NATIONS (10:1-48). Of REACHING ALL people, with the good news of JESUS. 

  It’s the work of “making disciples of ALL the nations”, “panta ta ethne”, Matthew 28:19.

  The work of being Jesus’ witnesses “to the ends of the earth”, Acts 1:8. 

  Of preaching the gospel to ALL of creation, Mark 16:15. 

  THAT’S what Peter is being called to, or rather, REMINDED of his having already been called to - 6 years AGO! When Peter and his fellow disciples-turned-apostles (they were once “followers”; but now they’ve been commissioned as “sent ones”) they RECEIVED that “Great Commission”, to GO, to ALL the ethne. 

  But they’ve not yet gone to a SINGLE Gentile. 

  And Peter’s reaction here, his VISCERAL reaction to this vision from God, explains why: Peter HOLDS HIS NOSE. ““By no means, Lord; I don’t want to be DEFILED by that which is common and unclean.”” And I suspect by the second or third occurrence of this vision, Peter was starting to realize this wasn’t just about food either. 

  But it’s been so INGRAINED in him, Peter’s been so INDOCTRINATED to DESPISE Gentiles, all his life. Just stepping foot inside a Gentile’s house would make a Jew “unclean”; or so they THOUGHT. See, that’s the thing: the Pharisees had added all KINDS of laws, their own “oral interpretations of the law”, that they put on par with God’s actual revealed law in the Torah. It’s true that God had given His people, Israel, His Law in order to CONSECRATE them, to set them apart for Himself, as HOLY. As different, from the other nations around them. But over the centuries, the Jews had forgotten WHY he did it; it was so that he could BLESS those other nations THROUGH them! THAT was the covenant God had made with Abraham, all the way back in Genesis 12: “ I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you… so that you will BE a blessing… in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.” (vv2-3)

  But here Abraham’s descendants are, some 2,000 years later, not looking for ways to BLESS the other nations, but rather inventing their own laws to avoid even having to ASSOCIATE with them! That’s why the Jews were appalled when Jesus went out of HIS way to bless Gentiles. To HEAL another centurion’s servant (in Matt 8), and then praise that centurion for his faith, that was unparalleled in all of Israel. 

  Jesus went out of his way - he sailed all the way across the Sea of Galilee! - just to meet with one demon-possessed GENTILE man, and HEAL him. Who lived, oh by the way, in a cemetery in the middle of a bunch of PIG farms - talk about UNCLEAN! 

  But Jesus declares, “What God has made clean, do not call common.” 

  He’s not just talking about BACON, friends; he’s talking about Gentile BELIEVERS, who Jesus wants to MAKE clean, by washing them, washing US, in his blood. 1 John 1:7 - “the blood of Jesus… cleanses us from all sin.” And God is making it abundantly clear here: that’s not just a promise for the Jews. 

  As a matter of fact, if God’s people had been paying a little closer attention, God’s heart for the Gentiles, the “nations”, the “ethne”, same word in the Greek - it was there all THROUGHOUT the OT. And I want to spend the REST of our time this morning showing it to you:

  The most obvious parallel is the prophet JONAH. Who could RELATE to Peter’s revulsion here at the mere thought of being contaminated by unclean Gentiles. When God called JONAH to go preach to a people he reviled, the Ninevites, Jonah instead boarded the first ship for TARSHISH, headed in the exact opposite direction! And even AFTER Jonah spent 3 nights in the belly of a whale - that’s what it took to get him on board with God’s plan - and he got spit out, only to preach the most PATHETIC sermon you’ve ever heard in Nineveh, half-heartedly calling them to repentance, yet God USED it, in SPITE of Jonah, to spark a Great Awakening amongst the Assyrians… Jonah’s reaction was to POUT. God had to reprimand him for WANTING the Ninevites to DIE and burn in HELL. Because God makes it clear, Ezekiel 33:11, that He takes NO pleasure in the death of the wicked, not even wicked GENTILES.

  But the story of Jonah is just the tip of the iceberg that IS God’s heart for the nations: 

  After God’s initial covenant with Abraham, He reiterates his promise to Abraham’s son ISAAC, in Genesis 26:4 - “in your offspring all the nations of the earth shall be blessed”

  And then to HIS son, JACOB, in Genesis 28:14 - “in you and your offspring shall ALL the families of the earth be blessed.”

  God even wants to get through to the EVIL rulers of the nations, rulers like Pharaoh, in the book of Exodus - to whom God says, “for this purpose I have raised you up, to show you my power, so that my name may be proclaimed in all the earth.” (9:16)

  And why did God make his people stay in slavery for 400+ years anyway? God tells us: “for the iniquity of the Amorites [was] not yet complete.”” (Genesis 15:16) In other words, God was SO patient, giving even the Gentile Amorites who had moved INTO the Promised Land every possible opportunity to repent and trust in Him, that God wouldn’t let Israel forcibly RETAKE the land from them until they had sinned so much that they deserved every BIT of the conquest narratives we read in the book of Joshua. Such was God’s patient heart for even those wicked Gentile nations. 

  And when God DID finally lead his people out of Egypt; why’d he let Pharaoh chase them all the way to the edge of the Red Sea? Exodus 14:4 “I will harden Pharaoh's heart, and he will pursue them, and I will get glory over Pharaoh and all his host, and the Egyptians shall know that I am the Lord.”” God did it as a WITNESS to the EGYPTIANS! They worshiped their Pharaohs as gods; but Yahweh was saying, “Nuh-uh, I am God! And I want YOU to KNOW it, to know ME!”

  And every time Israel rejected Yahweh as THEIR God (Exodus 32 and the Golden Calf… Numbers 14 and the Fearful Spies…), and Moses had to intercede to save them, what was his appeal before God? “if you kill this people, then the nations who have heard your fame will say, 16 ‘It is because the Lord was not able to bring this people into the land that he swore to give to them” (Num 14:15-16) - “God, just consider what kind of WITNESS this will be to the NATIONS!”

  And even when God rightfully punishes sin, the SIN of the nations, in the book of Joshua, by commanding Israel to destroy the Canaanites, we hear stories of GRACE, the prostitute RAHAB - when the WHORE is the most God-fearing person in town, you know you’re dealing with a wicked people! - And yet God SPARES her, in His mercy. 

  Ruth, a Gentile Moabite, who God also redeems; BOTH of whom - Rahab and Ruth - will later appear in the direct lineage of JESUS. 

  You may remember from Sunday school the famed WISDOM of King Solomon; but do you know WHY God made Solomon so wise? In 1 Kings 10, the Queen of Sheba, this foreign, Gentile ruler, hears rumors of Solomon’s wisdom and she pays him a visit to see for herself, and she ends up WORSHIPING HIS GOD, the one TRUE God, Yahweh, for how he has blessed Solomon and all Israel. Here again, Israel is blessed to be a blessing to the nations. 

  In Solomon’s TEMPLE, why is there a “Court of the Gentiles”? Because God said, “my house shall be called a house of prayer for ALL peoples.”” (Isaiah 56:7)

  God’s heart for the nations is why He punishes his OWN people, Israel; in Ezekiel 36, God says: “I will vindicate the holiness of my great name, which has been profaned among the nations, and which you have profaned among them. [So] the nations will know that I am the Lord” (v23)

  God’s heart for the nations is woven all throughout the POETRY of the PSALMS: 

  Psalm 96: “Declare his glory among the nations,

      his marvelous works among all the peoples!” (v3)

  Psalm 67: “May… your way may be known on earth,

  your saving power among all nations.

  Let the peoples praise you, O God;

   let all the peoples praise you!

  Let the nations be glad and sing for joy,

  for you judge the peoples with equity

  and guide the nations upon earth. ” (vv1-6)

  God’s heart for the nations is the eschatological hope to which the arc of redemptive history is bending: Isaiah 43: “All the nations [shall] gather together,

      and the peoples assemble… let them hear and say, It is true.

  “You are my witnesses,” declares the Lord,” (vv9-10)

  Isaiah 66: “the time is coming[c] to gather all nations and tongues. And they shall come and shall see my glory” (v18)

  Zechariah 8: “Many peoples and strong nations shall come to seek the Lord of hosts in Jerusalem and to entreat the favor of the Lord.” (vv22-23)

  And friends, THAT’S just the selected excerpts from the OLD Testament. God’s heart for the nations becomes even CLEARER in the NEW Testament, which we don’t even have time for. But here’s what I want to LEAVE you with, this morning: just 2 things. 

  1) First, by way of CHALLENGE, and Application: Kent Hughes claimed that “this text has as much to say to us as it did to Peter”; what is God saying to YOU through this text? Who are the people-groups that YOU most struggle to love? Who you’d be most tempted to say “By no means, Lord!” if God called you to preach to them, and board the first ship for Tarshish instead? 

  If this were youth group - I was thinking back to hands-on activities from my youth pastor days - I’d have had the ushers give you all a NAPKIN on your way in this morning, representative of Peter’s sheet here. And here at the end, I’d invite you to write down the names of those people and people groups you are tempted to call “unclean”, unworthy of being GRABBED by the good news of Jesus. 

  LGBTQ. 

  Democrats. 

  Trumpers. 

  Marxists. 

  White supremacists. 

  Russians. 

  Illegal immigrants. 

  The homeless. 

  Welfare queens. 

  Karens. 

  But then I’d read Ephesians 2:1-3 aloud for you, and remind you that “YOU were dead in the trespasses and sins in which YOU once walked, following the course of this world… by nature [a] child of wrath, just like the rest of mankind.” So I’d have you write your OWN name, in big letters, right in the middle of the napkin. Because Romans 3: ALL have sinned; NO ONE is righteous. We ALL belong on that “unclean” sheet!

  But then I’d read the REST of Ephesians 2, and encourage you with the good news of the gospel - that Jesus died even for a filthy GENTILE sinner like you: “Remember that you were… separated from Christ, alienated from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world. 13 But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ… So then you are no longer strangers and aliens,[d] but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God.” (vv12-19) 

  And NOW, brothers and sisters, Christ’s mercy and kindness towards US, is meant to inspire us, to turn around and bless OTHERS with that same grace and love. 

  Who is the CORNELIUS who God is calling YOU to serve as a “Peter” for, this week? Their hearts can’t be CHANGED by the power of the gospel from rejecting GOD toward EMBRACING God, until OUR hearts are changed by the gospel from rejecting THEM towards loving THEM. 

  2) But secondly, by way of encouragement - cuz every sermon should leave you feeling both challenged AND ALSO encouraged - so when you DO fail to love others perfectly like JESUS does, and you find yourself going BACK to those old patterns of thought, judging and condemning those Christ has called you to love and serve and evangelize, calling “common” what God is making “clean”, be encouraged by v16: Peter had to have this vision THREE TIMES, before he finally got the message. Peter was a slow learner too. He denied Jesus 3x. Jesus had to ask him “Peter, Do you LOVE me?” 3x. And now he needs this VISION of God’s heart for the NATIONS 3x. And even AFTER this, Peter will slip back into his old ways from time to time. Years later, the apostle Paul will have to call Peter out in Galatians 2 for refusing to let Gentiles sit at his lunch table. 

  And you’ll slip up too. That’s when we fall back on the good news of the gospel again. That it’s not OUR love for others that justifies us in God’s eyes, but rather Christ’s love for US. That while we were yet unclean sinners, the precious “ blood of Jesus cleansed us from all sin.”