All Are Welcome
Read the Text: Acts 10
Memorize the Text: He knelt down and cried out with a loud voice, “Lord, do not hold this sin against them!” And after saying this, he fell asleep (Acts 7:60)
Consider the Text: Acts 10
The kingdom of God welcomes all who would come by faith in Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior. This truth challenged the early church because the truth forced them to accept non-Jewish individuals into the body of Christ. For a Jew, these seemed to go against every teaching they had ever learned. As Jesus prepared to ascend to heaven in Acts 1, he declared that the mission field for the gospel included Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and the ends of the earth. He detailed the mission field as stretching beyond the Jews and including Gentiles. This truth and the struggle with this truth appear front and center in Acts 10 with the vision of the apostle Peter.
Peter received the message of REDEMPTION BEING AVAILABLE FOR ALL. The Lord challenged Peter and his worldview through a vision. This vision provided the opportunity for Peter to respond to the Lord concerning the cleanliness of available animals for consumption. Peter’s negative response to the Lord centered on his Jewish background and upbringing. The Lord informed Peter of the new worldview that must be accepted as a follower of Christ. This worldview centered on the truth that all God created is clean, meaning that all humanity could receive the gospel. We should not be too critical of Peter. Often contemporary believers view others through the lens of social and cultural worldviews that hinder us from sharing the gospel.
Peter demonstrated the DISTRACTION OF PERSONAL PREJUDICES AND WORLDVIEWS. Peter struggled to readily engage Gentiles with the gospel due to his Jewish prejudices and worldview. These served as distractions from fully obeying the Lord and carrying out the command to go and be his witnesses. The struggle came because the non-Jewish people represented people different from him and held to another form of lifestyle. Thus, Peter struggled to engage them authentically. Today, believers can allow personal views, prejudices, and worldviews to creep in and keep them from sharing the gospel. Often, when people are not like us, we tend to hold back from complete obedience to be the messengers of the Lord.
Peter followed the Lord’s leading and displayed the POWER OF THE SIMPLE GOSPEL. Peter responded to the vision of the Lord by going and sharing the gospel with Cornelius and his family. Peter did not attempt to become overly creative or manipulative in his presentation, but he shared the message of the gospel simply and pointedly. He trusted that the gospel alone contained the needed power to lead Cornelius and his family to respond to the grace of God. Today, we need to remember the power of presenting the gospel. We need to present the message with simplicity and directness readily. We need to call on the hearers to respond to the message and trust that the Lord is using the message of the gospel to challenge the hearers' hearts.
The church today must remember that the gospel needs to be presented to everyone so that all would have the opportunity to respond to the message of redemption. Thus, the church today needs to identify the possible distractions of personal prejudices and worldviews that would cause us to become selective with the gospel message. We must rest in the power of the simple gospel and participate in making the message known. What would the Lord reveal to you as a hindrance to gospel obedience? How can you better rest in the power of the gospel?
This blog is part of the Coffee and Quiet Time with Jesus Devotional Series found at equippingfaith.com. Join the journey of reading through the New Testament this year. More information can be found at equippingfaith.com.
