Unstoppable - Good News For Everyone Series

Unstoppable – Good News for Everyone

11/5/17

Acts 10

In his book, "An Uncompromising Faith Lived Out w/ Grace," Michael Ramsden shares of an Iranian pastor who drove w/ his wife to buy water in an Iranian village. Before entering the store the pastor noticed an intimidating man holding a machine gun leaning against the wall outside the store. His wife looked at the man's face and the gun, then put a Bible in her husband's hand and said, "Give that man this Bible." Her husband looked at the man and replied, "I don't think so." But his wife persisted, "I'm serious – give him the Bible." Avoiding her request, the pastor casually said, "I'll pray about it." After entering the shop to purchase the water, he climbed back into the car and started to drive away. His wife said, "I guessing you didn't give him the Bible?" Looking straight ahead, he replied, "No, I prayed about it and it wasn't the right thing to do." She quietly said, "You should’ve given him the Bible," and then she bowed to pray. The pastor then turned to his wife and said, "Fine! If you want me to die, I will." Upon returning to the store, the pastor approached the man w/ the machine gun and placed the Bible in his hand. When the saw it was a Bible, he started crying and said to the pastor, "I don't live here! I walked for (3) days to get to this village. But (3) days ago an angel appeared to me and told me to walk to this village and wait – b/c someone was going to come and give me the Book of Life. Thank you for this book."

God amazes me w/ His relentless grace. In my life I’ve heard story after story of Divine appointments where the H.S. has shown up in amazing ways to express His love and win people to faith.

When I lived in MS, there was an Indian man in my ministry who grew up Hindu but always struggled w/ his idea of God. One day, after years of searching for more, Kenny prayed a simple prayer to an unseen God asking Him to reveal Himself. Kenny said he knew there had to be more b/c what he’d been taught growing up just didn’t seem to add up. W/in weeks of praying, out of the blue he was presented w/ a Bible – which Kenny read cover to cover in 2 weeks and then gave his life to Christ. Kenny would often say, the moment I opened the Bible I knew I had found the God whom I had been looking for my entire life.

In Acts 10, we read of another remarkable conversion where God shows up in an amazing way to reveal Himself to a man named Cornelius – but in this particular story, there’s more to the story than just the conversion of a Roman soldier.

If you’re just joining us, we’re in a study in Acts about the unstoppable ministry of the H.S. In particular, we’ve discovered that the gift of salvation and the ministry/growth of the church have never been, nor will ever be, a work of the human ingenuity, effort, or ability, but solely the work/influence of the H.S.

We saw this last week in Acts 9, when the H.S. miraculously confronted/rescued a resistant soul by the name of Saul. In Acts 10, we find a similar story, only Cornelius wasn’t resistant, but an unclean, undeserving Gentile.

From the fall, God’s had a plan to redeem His creation yet somewhere along the way this message was lost. I was reminded of this in Israel as we stood on the Mt. of Olives overlooking the Temple site. From the beginning God so loved the world He gave His only Son… but the Israelites missed that memo and thought they were a special people for a different reason. They saw the Gospel exclusive for them instead of understanding that God was using them to express His love/grace thru them to all people.

This is why Jesus got so upset in the Gentile Courts in the Temple and began turning over the tables. It is b/c in this court the Israelites were supposed to be sharing the news of God’s love/grace to the nations; instead they were excluding the nations and exploiting the people for selfish gain.

I God Meets Us WHO We Are

At Caesarea there was a man named Cornelius, a centurion in what was known as the Italian Regiment. He and all his family were devout and God-fearing; he gave generously to those in need and prayed to God regularly.

As a centurion, Cornelius was a commander of 100 soldiers, but we discover he was a man spiritually-minded man searching for answers to satisfy his soul. Cornelius was a Gentile seeker. As a Roman, he certainly was raised in the pagan idolatry of all things Rome – and yet we learn from the text that like my friend Kenny, he realized while living in/around the Israelites that there had to be more and He was finding something in this God named Jehovah.