9th Sept 2010

Acts 10:1-23-48 – Peter at Cornelius’ House

• “Spirit trumps System pt 2”.
• When does the Spirit turn into a system?
• This passage, following on from yesterday, teaches me the importance of discerning between the Spirit’s intention and a system’s instigation.
• Through the Holy Spirit the Jews had been warned to keep themselves somewhat separate from the gentiles in order to avoid the temptation of idolatry which had traditionally been their biggest weakness.
• Therefore some divine wisdom was required from them regarding to what extent they should connect to the gentiles. For instance marrying an unbeliever would be foolish because it would limit one’s ability to follow God and create all manner of tension, temptation and trials that would be unfair to both husband and wife.
• Eventually these divine commands led to human systems being put in place. The oral law or as Jesus called them the ‘traditions of men’ instigated a much deeper rift between the Jews and gentiles than Jesus ever wanted. The mishna commanded things like;
1. Jews cannot remain alone with a gentile
2. Leave cattle at their inns
3. Assist them in child birth
4. Suckle their children
5. Travel with the to certain festivals
6. etc.
• Peter had to be set free from a typical human tendency; when someone is associated with something unclean we start seeing them as unclean. When someone does something we should not touch; we start seeing them as someone we should not touch.
• But Jesus wants us to touch everybody!
• As I mentioned yesterday, the Jews were to live above the line, living in community in such  way as to be a light to the gentiles, a model of heaven on earth. The gentiles did not have to convert to Judaism but could still have ‘a place in the world to come’.
• I have to be careful not to fall into the same human trap. I must not move from Spirit to system. I have to be careful of this in two ways:
1. I must not avoid people who touch things I should not touch
2. I must not label things sin that are not.
• This second point also creates ungodly rifts and separations. It is bad enough that Christians avoid sinners because of their sin but we make it even harder to establish God’s Kingdom by avoiding other Christians because of the things that our systems label sin.
• Our separate systems label separate things as sin.
• It was hard for me to believe that those who went to church in Texas and hunted animals for sport could be truly Christians. But that was more to do with my culture than scripture.
• It is hard for some American Christians to believe that a European person who goes to church and consumes alcohol for pleasure can be truly a Christian. But again that is more to do with their culture than scripture.
• When the Spirit is replaced by Systems; Scripture tends to be used and misused.
• Or a as a friend staying with me right now [Ian Green] reports;
• When the Dutch Christians found out that the German Christians drank beer, they we so shocked their cigarettes fell out of their mouths!
• Peter, set free from this, experienced God pouring out His spirit on a people he would previously have avoided – avoiding them would have led to avoiding God.
• Praying today to be led by the Spirit through Scripture in order that I don’t replace it with a system.