Taking My Witness Beyond My Limits
Posted by Randy | Labels: Acts, Cornelius, Evangelism, Gentiles, Mission, Peter, Witness | Posted On Monday, October 19, 2009 at 12:01 AM
Today's reading from Acts 10-11 shows us a watershed moment in the spread of the Christian faith. Up until this point, the apostles had limited their teaching and preaching to specific Jewish audiences. After all, they were Jewish, Jesus was Jewish, and so they had no real reason to go further. For Jews, the world was divided into two basic camps: Jews, and everyone else, whom they called Gentiles. Some Gentiles had probably come to faith in Christ, but the apostles weren't seeking them out. With the persecutions in Jerusalem (that killed Stephan), the apostles and disciples began to fan out, beyond the Jewish lands and culture. At the same time, God opened a new door through a Gentile named Cornelius.
Cornelius was a Roman centurion or army officer in Caesarea who was seeking after God. He was a part of a class of people the Jews called "God-fearers," who were Gentiles but seeking the God of the Jews. Cornelius receives a vision from an angel to seek out Simon Peter. Shortly afterwards, Simon Peter also has a vision, where he was shown animals that had been forbidden for Jews to touch or eat. Now a voice says to him, "'Get up, Peter; kill and eat them.'" (10:13 NLT) Peter cannot imagine doing this because it goes against so much that he had been taught as a faithful Jew. But the voice says to him, "'Do not call something unclean if God has made it clean.'" (10:15) Simon Peter was being challenged to freedom in his faith in ways he had never imagined. He was being challenged to put behind him rules for rules' sake, and instead look at life and existence from God's point of view.
Immediately after his vision, Peter is summoned to visit Cornelius, and he goes. Entering the home of a Gentile again went against so much Peter had been taught as a Jew, but God was expanding his vision. He shared the story of Jesus with Cornelius and his guests, and the Holy Spirit fell upon them. "The Jewish believers who came with Peter were amazed that the gift of the Holy Spirit had been poured out on the Gentiles, too." (10:45) And immediately afterwards, they were all baptized. Peter and his Jewish friends were discovering that the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, the God of David, was not just the God of the Jews - He was the God of all people.
There are huge implications in this event for us today. Sometimes I find myself trapped by old ways of thinking, that only certain people could or would put their faith in Christ. When I see folks who have lived very far from God, when I see folks from other religions and lands, I sometimes have a hard time seeing them as potentially being followers of Christ. So, I do nothing. But God led Peter from the Jews to the Gentiles, to open the door of faith to people Peter would have never imagined could or would respond. Who am I overlooking today? Who do I dismiss as someone who would never be interested in faith in Christ, who could never change? How much am I limiting how God wants to work in and through me?
I've discovered that because God gives me free will, my thoughts can often prevent me from being open to all God wants to do. Yet, the Bible shows us there is no one beyond God's reach. Every single human being born on this planet is a sacred creation of God's, whether they recognize that or not. And every single person needs what Jesus Christ has to offer, because he came for all.
When Peter explained to the remaining apostles and believers in Jerusalem what had happened, they were at first concerned. But as soon as they heard that the Holy Spirit had come into the lives of these Gentiles too, they realized God was doing a new thing. "...'We can see that God has also given the Gentiles the privilege of repenting of their sins and receiving eternal life.'" (11:18)
With this event, the apostles began to understand for the first time that Jesus died for all people, not just the Jews. It would radically change their outreach in the coming years. Today we need to ask ourselves if we are unintentionally standing in God's way to reach people that we never imagined could be reached. Just because they don't look like me, or have different backgrounds, or have sinned more than I think I have doesn't mean they are outside God's love or reach. And if God wants to reach them, am I willing to be used by Him if that is His will. Will I go where it's uncomfortable for me, as Peter did, in order to be faithful to my calling from God to carry out His witness? I know I need to be a lot more open to how God wants to work. What about you - who could God use you to reach?
