Getting Out of God's Way
Preached by David McHale
July 26, 2020
Scripture Reading
Acts 11:1-18
1 Now the apostles and the brothers who were throughout Judea heard that the Gentiles also had received the word of God. 2 So when Peter went up to Jerusalem, the circumcision party criticized him, saying, 3 “You went to uncircumcised men and ate with them.” 4 But Peter began and explained it to them in order: 5 “I was in the city of Joppa praying, and in a trance I saw a vision, something like a great sheet descending, being let down from heaven by its four corners, and it came down to me. 6 Looking at it closely, I observed animals and beasts of prey and reptiles and birds of the air. 7 And I heard a voice saying to me, ‘Rise, Peter; kill and eat.’ 8 But I said, ‘By no means, Lord; for nothing common or unclean has ever entered my mouth.’ 9 But the voice answered a second time from heaven, ‘What God has made clean, do not call common.’ 10 This happened three times, and all was drawn up again into heaven. 11 And behold, at that very moment three men arrived at the house in which we were, sent to me from Caesarea. 12 And the Spirit told me to go with them, making no distinction. These six brothers also accompanied me, and we entered the man's house. 13 And he told us how he had seen the angel stand in his house and say, ‘Send to Joppa and bring Simon who is called Peter; 14 he will declare to you a message by which you will be saved, you and all your household.’ 15 As I began to speak, the Holy Spirit fell on them just as on us at the beginning. 16 And I remembered the word of the Lord, how he said, ‘John baptized with water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit.’ 17 If then God gave the same gift to them as he gave to us when we believed in the Lord Jesus Christ, who was I that I could stand in God's way?” 18 When they heard these things they fell silent. And they glorified God, saying, “Then to the Gentiles also God has granted repentance that leads to life.”
In the book, The Hobbit, by JRR Tolkien, Bilbo Baggins, the main character, is the preeminent home-body. He loves the comforts of his quaint, comfortable, warm, and well-taken care of hole in the ground. Everything has its place. His pantry is full. His floors are clean…And then the dwarves come and change everything. As uninvited guests, they eat his food, the move his things, they soil his floors, and they far overstay their welcome. But they came for his help, they were inviting him on an adventure, a good journey to war against evil and reclaim their home land. Rather than joining in, Bilbo was befuddled about their disregard for his doilies. His comfort was his calling and he was content for it to stay that way. This is us. We like things to go the way we think they should go. We don’t like surprises that work against our comfort or convictions. In this, we can often get in the way of something glorious happening.
We see this in Acts 11. As we prepare to get into our text, you’ll notice that it is quite similar to our text from last week. 11 out of the 18 verses of our text are a recounting of what happened in chapter 10. However, the repetition of this story is not redundant, but purposeful. The content of the story may remain the same, but its context and its outcome is different. Peter preaches the gospel to unbelieving Gentiles in Acts 10 and, in Acts 11, he preaches the gospel to the Jewish Christians in Jerusalem.
The Criticism of the Jews
Word of Peter’s journey to the Gentiles in Caesarea had spread like wildfire. Peter had preached the gospel to them, they came to faith in Christ, they were baptized with the Holy Spirit. And what is the Jews’ response? “Peter, you have some explaining to do. You ate with Gentiles?” Their primary concern is not the power of God, but the policing of the law. They criticized his communion with the Gentiles and totally bypassed what resulted from it. This happened for two reasons:
1. The Jews were legitimately abiding by the law that was graciously given by God for their good. This law purposefully set them apart from the world. In this passage, the Jews are named the “circumcision party,” because one of the primary expressions of the law was circumcision. Circumcision was given to the people of God as a physical sign of being members of God’s people and recipients of His blessings. It, and the rest of the law, was a good gift.
2. But the law was never supposed to be an end in itself, but a means to reveal the good character and will of God, His favor, righteousness and truth. However, the Jews used the law, and its physical sign of circumcision, as a tool to bolster their position as insiders and as a justification for their disdain for outsiders. They saw it as a barrier primarily separating them from the world, rather than setting them apart for the world. As a result, the law became primarily a statement about the uncleanness of the world, rather than a statement about the Lords delight in and unmerited favor for His people. This posture produced pride, rather than a humble delight in the Lord that overflows into a love for the world.
This what God had promised all along. God’s heart for the people of God has always been that they would be a blessing to the nations. Jesus Himself showed this. His obedience to the Father drew Him near to the lowly, the sick, the unclean, the destitute, the outsider. Jesus ate with tax collectors, sinners, Gentiles, so the question is, “why were the Jews so concerned with Peter doing the same?” The Jews were so concerned with their adherence to their interpretation of the law and its application, that they failed to see the glory of what God was doing right before their eyes.
Summarize Luke 13 story – “Now Jesus was teaching in one of the synagogues on the Sabbath. And behold, there was a woman who had had a disabling spirit for eighteen years. She was bent over and could not fully straighten herself. When Jesus saw her, he called her over and said to her, “Woman, you are freed from your disability.” And he laid his hands on her, and immediately she was made straight, and she glorified God. But the ruler of the synagogue, indignant because Jesus had healed on the Sabbath, said to the people, “There are six days in which work ought to be done. Come on those days and be healed, and not on the Sabbath day.” Then the Lord answered him, “You hypocrites! Does not each of you on the Sabbath untie his ox or his donkey from the manger and lead it away to water it?” As he said these things, all his adversaries were put to shame, and all the people rejoiced at all the glorious things that were done by him.”
The Jews continually missed God’s movement of grace because they saw the law as the ultimate end, rather than a tool to know and relate with the living God. (That’s what the Sabaath was for!) And here in Acts 11, it happens again. God knew they would resist, in the same way, that he knew Peter would resist. So, God graciously moved in such a way that makes it abundantly clear that was His will, not the will of man.
The Movement of God
Peter didn’t plan this. Cornelius didn’t plan this. This is a story about the movement of the Triune God! Let’s go through the story again:
1. God reveals himself to Cornelius
2. God tells him to send men to Joppa and find Peter
3. God declares to Peter that no food or people is unclean
4. God tells Peter that three men are looking for him and that he should go with them without hesitation
5. God told the Gentiles to listen to what Peter had to say
6. Peter preaches a 9-verse sermon
7. Before he even finishes, the Spirit of God falls on the Gentiles and applies the truth of the Gospel to their hearts
This is a movement of God, Peter, Cornelius, the other Gentiles are along for the ride.
1. What does Peter do? He listens to God and testifies about what God has done in Jesus. He shares news. He testifies as a witness to who Jesus is and what happened, namely that he lived, died, and rose again. He doesn’t even interpret very much.
2. What does Cornelius do? He listens to God and sends men to go get Peter.
3. What does Cornelius and the Gentiles do? They listen to the gospel, which has no call to action, and receive the Spirit, through whom they speak in tongues and proclaim how great God is.
4. What does God do? Everything else.
The spread of God’s gospel to the Gentiles was absurdity to the Jews. Here is God drawing near to an uncircumcised and unclean people. Even more, the Gentiles don’t simply come to faith in Jesus or just start praising God. God takes up residence within them. The Spirit of God invades what was formerly deemed unclean and shows His glory there.
Fulfillment of Ezekiel 36:23-27 - “And I will vindicate the holiness of my great name, which has been profaned among the nations, and which you have profaned among them. And the nations will know that I am the Lord, declares the Lord God, when through you I vindicate my holiness before their eyes. I will take you from the nations and gather you from all the countries and bring you into your own land. I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you shall be clean from all your uncleannesses, and from all your idols I will cleanse you. And I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes and be careful to obey my rules.”
Acts 10-11 is a clear fulfillment of Ezekiel 36. The Lord vindicating His name by bringing in the nations, invading stony hearts and exchanging them for soft hearts that delight to do His will. It is this global mission of God that transcends the social barriers that divide the world. And all of it is done through the person of Jesus. For it is “Christ who has broken down in his flesh the dividing wall of hostility by abolishing the law of commandments expressed in ordinances (think, circumcision), that he might create in himself one new man in place of the two, so making peace”
In the new covenant, it is not circumcision, the work of our hands in our flesh, that makes us the Lord’s, it is the work of Christ in His flesh and the Spirit’s dwelling in ours that makes us His, transforms our hearts, and brings unity in the Body of Christ.
This movement is grand and glorious! That is why Peter says in 11:17 when he recounts the story to the church in Jerusalem, “who was I that I could stand in God’s way?”
The Reckoning of the Church
In the same way that Jesus puts the Pharisee to shame in Luke 13, the radical gospel of grace silences the church. They have no further critique, no counter argument. Their silence is a symbol of their humble reckoning with God’s gracious movement toward the Gentiles. But their silence was only temporary. And they glorified God, saying, “Then to the Gentiles also God has granted repentance that leads to life.”
The living Christ had won them over through his servant Peter. They move from critique to praise, which is the right response to God’s gracious inclusion of the Gentiles. God’s welcome of the Gentiles is not just gracious, it is glorious!
Paul says that it is the mystery that was hidden for ages and has now been revealed through the Lord’s holy prophets and apostles through the Spirit. He goes on to say that this was the plan from the beginning and in it God purposed to reveal the manifold wisdom of God to the rulers and authorities in the heavenly places. Not only were the Jewish Christians silenced, but Paul gives us a sense that the spiritual principalities are shocked and in awe at the wisdom of God displayed through the church!
Are we In God’s Way?
The glory of God in the church is that its doors are open wide! Jesus is eager to pursue, welcome and wash all who would come! The question for us today is, “Are we?” Or are we standing in God’s way? Many of us would say of course not. We believe god’s grace is for anyone. Yet, it is our behavior that reveals our beliefs. Does our life reflect the radical inclusivity and dignifying nature of His grace.
Like the Jews, we so often twist God’s law in such a way that turns us as His people into a predominantly exclusive people. We are more passionate and outspoken about what we are against, than about what we are for. There are things that we are and should be against. But we can so easily use the law as a weapon, rather than a lens through which we see the world and seek to walk in obedience to God and love for His world. We wield our convictions in a way that builds barriers rather than bridges. We see the law as something that purely condemns, rather than something that was made to drive us and others to the welcoming grace of our Christ.
Have we deemed certain people unclean? Do we scoff at those living certain lifestyles, like addiction or homosexuality. Do we avoid people and say “we don’t want to communicate approval of their sin,” when it can often be due to a disdain for them that does not reflect the mercy of Christ toward us in our sin. Jesus ate with those that the religious folk deemed unclean. What might the Lord do if we drew near to the same people He did?
But this doesn’t just apply to the extremes. One very practical place that we can apply this is in our community groups. It is so easy for our communities to become exclusively inwardly focused. We naturally drift toward the formation of cliques rather than grace-grounded, commissioned communities. We want to be comfortable, but the grace of Jesus leads us to uncomfortable places and people and gives us the guidance and power to follow Him there.
Why not maintain an open chair policy in your community group so that anyone can invite a visitor on any given week? What if one of your group members meets or knows someone who doesn’t know the Lord, maybe they are interested in spiritual things? Would they be welcome in your group?
Yes, trust is hard to come by and when you build it, there is a safety that helps us share our needs. Welcoming a new person may mean you won’t feel as comfortable sharing your needs. But, what are we here for as a church, if not to draw people into a community of grace? Our fellowship as believers is a river not a pool. God’s grace flows to us and through us. We can’t be like the Jews here. The spread of the Gospel is at stake.
And yet, if we find that we are being like the Jews or you take this as a guilt-trip, Jesus says, “Come to me.” Return to me. Let me show you my unmerited favor. Let me show you the delight I have for you and the delight I have for the people around you. Like with Peter, He invites you to participate with Him in what He is doing. Like Bilbo, He is inviting you into a great adventure that may ask you to leave the comfort of home, but promises the joy of loving those that He does. And in our participation, we touch the heart of God for the outsider and find our delight in God increase as a result. He is inviting us to walk with Him and witness what He will do, if we just get out of His way.
