8th Sept 2010

Acts 10:1-23 – Cornelius calls for Peter/Peter’s vision

• “Spirit trumps System pt 1”.
• In some ways just as the four gospels are the story of Jesus’ work, so Acts is the story of the Holy Spirits’.
• He is the central character whose nature is communicated through the stories of how He connects with the people He meets.
• Cornelius is a centurion. A noble soldier and God-fearer.
• The Jews believed that God-fearers had a place in the world to come. They need not become Jews but must only abide by what was sometimes called the Noahide Laws. This meant that they need not obey the traditions and commands that the Jews lived by such as circumcision etc.
• The reason the Jews must obey these laws was to help them be an example of God’s community. They were meant to be a shining light, a nation that lived above the line. This however is not what happened and instead these traditions and religious systems often led them to become poor examples of God’s ideals.
• God is still looking for a people who will live above the line.
• Cornelius is given a vision and sends people to a place that would have seen strange to him. The home of Simon the Tanner.
• A tanner was someone who worked with the skin of dead animals. His home would have stunk and would have been seen by many Jews as an unclean place. His occupation would have made him despised by many.
• Yet Cornelius obeys without question.
• In the Planet of the Apes - Cornelius is the name given to the Chimpanzee who first opens his heart, home and mind to the ostracized human being.
• Peter the next day receives a vision as well.
• God is preparing him with what some see as metaphor… God is showing him not to call any man too unclean or impure to have a relationship with.
• When the men turn up; Peter invites them to be his guests.
• Although at the time of their arrival Peter still does not fully understand the vision, he realizes God is teaching him something;
• The world you cannot enter is the world you cannot reach.
• It is an important lesson for anyone trying to live above the line.
1. Sometimes it is wrong for me to enter into a sinful environment. Not because there is sin in that environment, if that were true, I would be condemning Jesus.
2. It is wrong for be to enter because of the sin in me looking to connect with the sin in the environment.
3. Only God knows the true reason why I want to enter a sinful environment.
4. At the same time, only God knows the reasons why we won’t enter a sinful environment.
• Sometimes our systems protect us from what we know the Spirit wants us to do.
• Peter, to his credit, does not allow this to happen to him in this situation and the benefits are clear to see in tomorrow’s passage.
• Praying today for an honest heart.