Confirmation of God’s Work in the World
Acts 11:1-18
Sermon by Rick Crandall
McClendon Baptist Church Jan. 31, 2007
*Have you ever seen the Hand of God at work in your life? Most of us can say absolutely yes. And I hope you can too.
*God wants us to see His Hand at work in our world, and here in the Word of God we can see four reasons why.
1. First of all, God works to enlighten us about what matters.
*God definitely wants to enlighten us about what matters. We can see how important this is when Peter returned to Jerusalem. Listen again to vs. 1-3:
1. Now the apostles and brethren who were in Judea heard that the Gentiles had also received the word of God.
2. And when Peter came up to Jerusalem, those of the circumcision contended with him,
3. saying, "You went in to uncircumcised men and ate with them!''
*Sometimes God’s people get their priorities out of balance. The Christians in Jerusalem heard that the Gentiles had gotten saved. That is great news! Nothing in this world is more important to God than that, and we know this because God paid the highest possible price for our salvation.
*So when Peter got back to Jerusalem, was it, “Praise the Lord; those people got saved!”? No. It was, “Peter, what’s the matter with you!?! We can’t believe you went into a Gentile’s house and even ate with him. That’s disgusting!”
*God knew that when Cornelius got saved there was going to be contention in the church at Jerusalem. So (as Peter was about to tell these mixed-up believers) God showed His Hand at work in a powerful way. God sent the angel to Cornelius, and He sent the vision to Peter, knowing that these signs would help persuade the contentious believers that God did mean to save the Gentiles.
*God’s people had gotten their priorities out of balance, and sometimes we do the same thing. It’s easy to see why. We live in a world that is upside down.
*You may have never heard of him, but David Beckham is a soccer star from England. He was all over the news a couple of weeks ago, partly because he signed a 5-year contract with the Los Angeles Galaxy soccer team.
*That contract to play soccer was reported to be worth an incredible $318 million! Sixty million dollars a year for playing soccer! (1)
*We live in a world that is upside down. We’ve gone from Rhett Butler’s famous last words to Scarlett O’Hara, to the point where you can’t turn on the TV for long without hearing the Lord’s name in vain, and now the “S” word too.
*I could give a hundred other examples tonight. We live in an upside down world, and often we Christians get our priorities out of balance. So God reminds us of what is important. God calls us back to the main things:
-Worshiping & witnessing.
-Holiness and helping others.
-Love for God and love for our neighbors.
2. God works to enlighten us about what matters, and to encourage our to trust in Him.
*That is the 2nd reason. He wants to encourage us to trust Him. And this is what the Lord was doing when He sent the 3-fold vision to Peter.
*Listen to Peter’s story in vs. 4-12:
4. But Peter explained it to them in order from the beginning, saying:
5. "I was in the city of Joppa praying; and in a trance I saw a vision, an object descending like a great sheet, let down from heaven by four corners; and it came to me.
6. "When I observed it intently and considered, I saw four-footed animals of the earth, wild beasts, creeping things, and birds of the air.
7. "And I heard a voice saying to me, `Rise, Peter; kill and eat.'
8. "But I said, `Not so, Lord! For nothing common or unclean has at any time entered my mouth.'
9. "But the voice answered me again from heaven, `What God has cleansed you must not call common.'
10. "Now this was done three times, and all were drawn up again into heaven.
11. "At that very moment, three men stood before the house where I was, having been sent to me from Caesarea.
12. "Then the Spirit told me to go with them, doubting nothing. Moreover these six brethren accompanied me, and we entered the man's house.
*God acted in amazing ways here to build up Peter’s faith. For some reason in vs. 12, Peter left out the last part of the sentence when he gave his report. But if we look back at Acts 10:20, we see that the Holy Spirit actually said: "Arise therefore, go down and go with them, doubting nothing; FOR I HAVE SENT THEM.''
*"Arise therefore, go down and go with them, doubting nothing;"
-Why? -- God said: "For I have sent them."
*God wanted Peter to know that he could trust His leadership, and the Lord wants us to trust Him too. In unusual situations, in difficult situations, in unexpected situations, God wants us to know that we can always trust in Him.
*So sometimes He gives miraculous displays of His power, like Peter’s vision in vs. 5-10. Sometimes the Lord also arranges special circumstances or timing, as we see in vs. 11, when those 3 men showed up at the gate “at that very moment.”
*Then there was Cornelius’ angel in vs. 13-14. God is always working to build up our faith in Him. Best and most often, He does this through His Holy Word, but sometimes He also gives miraculous displays of His power.
*Bro. Savoie had an experience like that when he was a little boy. There was some kind of big storage container for rice near their house. It was like a big metal box with a hole on top.
*One hot summer day Bro. Savoie got curious about it, and he dropped into the hole. It only took a few seconds to realize there was no way out. The hole was too high to reach and he was trapped! No one knew where he was.
*Bro. Savoie was scared to death and tried to jump up, but it was impossible And it was unbearably hot. It was probably 140 degrees in there as the sun beat down and turned that storage container into an oven.
*Bro. Savoie began to grow weak and faint, and he most likely would have died in that container. But just as he was about to black out, something or someone mysteriously, miraculously lifted him out of box. He had no idea how it happened. He only knew that God saved him. (2)
*All of his life he could look back and remember the Hand of God at work that day. In every challenge or trial or tribulation, Preacher had an extra reminder that he could always trust in the Lord.
*Think of all we would have missed if God hadn’t intervened that day. Think of all of the blessings we have because God acted in an extraordinary way. You see, God wants us to know that we can trust Him too.
3. God works to encourage our trust in Him, and to energize our witness for Him.
*God energized Peter to tell Cornelius the Good News about Jesus Christ. We can see it all coming together in vs. 12-15, as Peter said:
12. "Then the Spirit told me to go with them, doubting nothing. Moreover these six brethren accompanied me, and we entered the man's house.
13. "And he told us how he had seen an angel standing in his house, who said to him, `Send men to Joppa, and call for Simon whose surname is Peter,
14. `who will tell you words by which you and all your household will be saved.'
15. "And as I began to speak, the Holy Spirit fell upon them, as upon us at the beginning.
*There was a lot working against Peter witnessing to Cornelius that day. His religious background told him not even to go into Cornelius’ house, but God overcame all of that.
*Today there is also much against us sharing the Good News about Jesus Christ, like sinfulness (the sinfulness of others and our own sin). Even our schedules work against our witnessing. Most of us are extremely busy, maybe too busy and that hinders us. On top of that, you can be sure that the devil is doing everything he can to keep us from witnessing, but God works so that we will witness.
*Most eyes will be on the Colts and the Bears this Sunday, but think of the team God has put together for witnessing! In vs. 13, there was an angel, but an angel wasn’t enough. God put His people on the witnessing team too. He lets us be partners in the most important work in the world!
*Best of all, God, himself is on the team. We know this because those words the angel talked about in vs. 14, those words which would save Cornelius and his family, those words were words about Jesus Christ. How He loves us and came into the world to die for our sins. How He rose again and will save all who trust in Him.
*These words also assure us we are on God’s team when we witness for Him. But we also see God on the team in vs. 12, when the Holy Spirit led Peter, and in vs. 15, when the Holy Spirit fell on the new believers. In all these things, God was working to energize His people to witness the way we should.
*Randy Arnett is one of our IMB Missionaries in West Africa, an area where the non-Christian population equals the total population of the U.S. But Randy is optimistic about those people hearing and receiving the good news of Christ.
*Last Summer Randy said, “God has created a people here who want to worship Him. They just don't know it yet.” (3)
*Randy must have seen the Hand of God at work in His life. Have you?
*God works so that we will witness. And if you know Jesus Christ as your Savior and Lord, God is working in your life to help you to witness for Him. God will show His Hand at work:
-To those who will seek Him
-To those who will follow Him
-To those who will trust Him
-To those who will receive Him
-To those who will believe in Him
-To those who have faith in Him.
*Look back at your life. Can you see the Hand of God at work in your life? If you can’t, then honestly, you may not be saved. But if you can look back and see the Hand of God at work in your life, then know that He is wanting you, moving you, energizing you to witness for Him.
4. God works to energize our witness for Him, and to establish a life-changing relationship with Him.
*God wants to change our lives in an extraordinary way, and we see some examples of that in vs. 16-18, where Peter said:
16. "Then I remembered the word of the Lord, how He said, `John indeed baptized with water, but you shall be baptized with the Holy Spirit.'
17. "If therefore God gave them the same gift as He gave us when we believed on the Lord Jesus Christ, who was I that I could withstand God?''
18. When they heard these things they became silent; and they glorified God, saying, "Then God has also granted to the Gentiles repentance to life.''
*What a change! Peter, who would have never gone into a Gentile’s house, now says, “Who was I that I could withstand God?” And the Jewish Christians in Jerusalem, who didn’t have a clue about what really matters to God, now glorify God, saying, “God has also granted to the Gentiles repentance to life.”
*And the greatest change of all came to Cornelius and the people he invited to hear the Good News. They were saved! They started that day headed to hell, but now their sins are forgiven and they are living forever in Heaven, because they put their faith in Jesus Christ and received Him as Savior and Lord.
*God’s Hand was at work to save souls and change lives. Today God still wants to save souls and transform lives. God still wants to give people eternal, abundant life.
*So here are the two great changes: the first is salvation. We hear the Good News about Jesus Christ. We believe what the Bible says about our sin, about God’s love, about the Cross, about the resurrection. And believing, we turn to God and open our hearts to receive Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord.
*Two great changes: Salvation and submission. We begin to follow God. We trust His will and His ways, even when we don’t understand exactly what He is doing in our lives or why. We trust Him anyway and we obey Him.
*We live a life more and more submitted to God, a life more devoted to the Lord, “Who was I that I could withstand God?” This is extraordinary evidence, perhaps the most reliable evidence of the Hand of God at work in our world.
*D.J. Drummond is a young college student from Houston Texas. He is a good commentator and I read his blog on the web sometimes. A few weeks before Christmas, D.J. was diagnosed with cancer, a type which has no known cure and while slow-growing kills half of its victims within ten years of its 1st symptoms.
*A couple of weeks ago, D.J. was reflecting on Paul’s testimony in 2 Cor 12:7-9. There Paul said:
7. And lest I should be exalted above measure by the abundance of the revelations, a thorn in the flesh was given to me, a messenger of Satan to buffet me, lest I be exalted above measure.
8. Concerning this thing I pleaded with the Lord three times that it might depart from me.
9. And He said to me, "My grace is sufficient for you, for My strength is made perfect in weakness.'' Therefore most gladly I will rather boast in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me.
*And D.J. wrote:
“My cancer is growing. How fast, I cannot say, but it is more difficult now than it was last week, both in what I can do and in terms of pain. I won’t dwell on that here, except that it has brought unexpected blessings of perception, perhaps a few insights. That verse from Paul was one I thought I understood, but I have a different take on it now. Obviously, I have no idea what Paul’s “thorn in the flesh” was, although I cannot help but consider my similarity when I feel a jab in my side, unexpected and sharp. I imagine Paul thinking from time to time, that maybe he has gotten past the problem, when suddenly he feels it again, maybe when he tries to sleep, maybe while eating, but a nasty reminder that he is never free from it. It seems quite apt to call such a thing a “messenger from Satan, to torment”.
But maybe it’s not quite the same for me. Where Paul calls his pain a messenger from Satan, I believe mine is a reminder from God. I am reminded that we all must die one day, that all sorts of things we might think are important are really just vanity and selfish pursuits. I am reminded that many people are in pain, sometimes temporary and sometimes permanent, sometimes minor and sometimes a torment, sometimes it seems just part of life which we all must face, and sometimes a singular injustice we did nothing to deserve. On the one hand, I sometimes complain that every time I seem to start getting things to go well in my life, something seems to happen which ruins it all. On the other hand, I have seen children with cancer, and people who found out too late to do anything but wait for death, and I am ashamed of my own complaint. Sometimes I feel that I do not receive what I have worked for, that I am cheated of justice and my right reward, but then I see others who have been cheated to a greater degree, and for much longer, and again I am silenced by that rebuke.
I think about things, especially at night when I am having trouble getting sleep. I realize that I live for a purpose, and I want very badly not to screw up the things that matter. I do not just desire to be a good husband and father, I need to be the best husband and father that I can possibly be. I do not simply want to live in service to God and as a witness to His love, I need to do so. I do not simply wish to help people understand what hope and joy and peace are really like, I need to do my best to help people find those things if they desire them.
Even if I beat this thing, I am aware that the clock is running.
Painfully aware.” (4)
*There is a life: saved and submitted to God, a life that sees God’s Hand at work in our world. And God wants us to see His Hand at work in our world:
-To enlighten us about what matters.
-To encourage our trust in Him.
-To energize our witness for Him.
-And to establish a life-changing relationship with Him.
1. OptusNet Sports News - Beckham joins LA on massive contract - 7:29 AM January 12 - AFP - Source: Reuters
2. Herman Savoie pastored McClendon Baptist Church for over 33 years from 1966-1999. He passed away on Dec. 15, 2005. This story was also used in “Don’t Miss Your Miracles” - Hebrews 1:1-9 - Sermon by: Rick Crandall - McClendon Baptist Church Dec. 21, 2005
3. In Other Words January2007_2 (IN OTHER WORDS... began in 1991 and is produced by Dr. Raymond McHenry, Senior Pastor of the Westgate Memorial Baptist Church in Beaumont, Texas. 6130 Barrington ~ Beaumont, Texas 77706 (800) 553-4697 www.iows.net)
4. Posted by D.J. Drummond at stolenthunder.blogspot.com - 8:31 a.m. Tuesday, January 16, 2007 - What Paul Taught Me About Pain.
