We are all susceptible to this problem – prejudice. We look at people with coloured glasses.
• We find it hard to relate to people who differ from us. It can be cultural, racial or simply some preferences.
• It is based on a preconceived notion. We can’t run away from it. Anyone can be affected by it.
• That’s why we need to remind ourselves - to see people the way God sees them. To see the world with the eyes of Christ.
It is not easy for us. It is not easy for Peter.
• More so for Peter and the Jewish believers, because of their generations of belief in God’s Law and their religious practices.
• They had been following God’s Law all their lives and saw the fulfilment of God’s prophesy - Jesus their Messiah has come to rescue them.
Now the Lord is telling them to share that ‘privilege’ with the rest of the world.
• It is one thing to hear what Jesus tells them – go and make disciples of all nations, but it is quite another to cross the cultural and racial divide and do it.
• In their immediate context, they are to share this ‘Saviour of theirs’ with the Gentiles, the kind who has never lived by their laws, not circumcised the ones unclean and ungodly.
But the time has come for that to start, and the Lord will start with Peter.
• This event happens about ten years after Pentecost. So you can see, for ten years they have not reach beyond their own race.
• They have traveled beyond Jerusalem, but they had not crossed the racial line.
Now is the time. There is a devout and God-fearing Gentile and his family, all ready to hear about Christ.
• But first, man needs to overcome their prejudices.
• I can empathize with Peter. I will feel the same way too.
• We all find it hard to initiate a move to connect with someone who is very different from us. They are just so unlike us.
• Put it the other way around, they are people we do not like.
In fact, we sees a little of this already happening within the church.
• Acts 9 tells us Saul after his conversion finds it hard to integrate into the church after his salvation, at first in Damascus and then in Jerusalem.
• 9:26 “When he came to Jerusalem, he tried to join the disciples, but they were all afraid of him, not believing that he really was a disciple.”
Have you ever been ostracized? All alone and just can’t get into the clique?
• Then you would understand how Paul felt at the beginning, within the body of Christ!
• Thank God, there are people like Barnabas. 9:27 says he came forward and did some explaining and tried to bridge the gap.
Prejudice happens when we have preconceived notions of people.
• And if left unchecked, it could become a deep-seated divide.
• We thank God for Barnabas. We need more ‘Barnabas’ today.
How can we overcome prejudice?
(1) GET TO SEE THE WAY GOD SEES
Everyone is a prisoner of his own experiences. We read things only from that perspective.
• To get the true picture, we need God’s revelation. We need to see things the way God see things. We need to see people the way God sees people.
When he was praying, Peter saw heaven opened up and something like a large sheet being let down to earth, with many unclean animals on it.
• God says, “Get up, Peter. Kill and eat.” (10:13) Peter reply was: “Surely not, Lord! I have never eaten anything impure or unclean.” (v.14)
• God said, “Do not call anything impure that God has made clean.” (v.15)
• “Yes, according to the Law, you should not eat unclean animals. But now I’ve made them clean, not according to the Law but by My grace. So these ‘unclean’ ones are made clean.”
All men can be saved today, not by the observance of the Law but by God’s grace!
• We are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus. There is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female, for you are all made clean in Christ. (cf. Gal 3:26-28)
And the Bible says this exchange happened 3 times! (v.16)
• God has to convince him, almost. It is difficult for Peter to accept that God cares for people whose traditions, morality, and way of life is so repulsive to him.
• The Gentiles were looked upon by the Jews with great contempt. They were even called dogs (cf. Matt 15).
It is difficult to change something that has already become a part of you.
• It is so easy to justify yourself, to tell yourself that you are doing it right, that you are better than others, that you are righteous one.
• And that’s the problem. Prejudice comes out of such an attitude. Behind all prejudices is a heart that feels self-righteous, just and good.
I look at Jesus, and find Him going the other way. He is often countering the norms.
• We say, “An eye for an eye, a tooth for tooth’ and the Lord says love your enemies.
• We say, forgive him 7 times and the Lord says, seventy-seven times!
• Response justly when you are hit and the Lord says if someone strikes you on one cheek; turn to him the other also. If someone forces you to go 1 mile, go with him 2 miles.
The Lord challenges human norms.
• What you see as right is not always right. What God sees is right is always right!
• That’s the way to fight prejudice. How you see a person is not always right, but how God sees a person, that’s always right!
• And if God loves him, and forgives him, and extend grace and mercy to him, then we are called to do the same.
It’s not about rightness or justice. It is about mercy and grace.
(2) GET TO TREAT OTHERS THE WAY YOU WANT TO BE TREATED.
The first point to overcoming prejudice is to learn to treat others the way God would treat them. The second is to treat others they way you would want them to treat you.
What did Peter do eventually? He followed the three men who came to escort him and went to Cornelius’ house.
• His whole family (and probably entire clan) has already gathered and waiting.
• Peter shared the Gospel and before he could even finish, 10:44 says:
• 44While Peter was still speaking these words, the Holy Spirit came on all who heard the message. 45 The circumcised believers who had come with Peter were astonished that the gift of the Holy Spirit had been poured out even on the Gentiles. 46 For they heard them speaking in tongues and praising God.
The Spirit of God rubber-stamped the event, giving His approval.
• If Jesus could forgive, from the cross, those who yelled for His crucifixion, what would hinder Him from offering forgiveness to Gentiles who are willing to turn in repentance?
• God’s scope of forgiveness extends beyond the limits of our understanding. His grace is greater than what we think or like to believe.
• We cannot define who is worthy of God’s grace, because all is worthy of His grace.
God gave Peter and his Jewish group a clear heaven-sent authentication, that the Gentiles are accepted into His Kingdom, just like them.
• “God does not show favouritism.” (10:34) KIV: God is no respecter of persons.
We wish that this one event would change Peter completely.
• It did help, but the old attitude did surfaced again some time later.
• Paul wrote about it in Gal 2:11-14.
• Gal 2:11-14 “11When Peter came to Antioch, I opposed him to his face, because he was clearly in the wrong. 12Before certain men came from James, he used to eat with the Gentiles. But when they arrived, he began to draw back and separate himself from the Gentiles because he was afraid of those who belonged to the circumcision group. 13The other Jews joined him in his hypocrisy, so that by their hypocrisy even Barnabas was led astray. 14When I saw that they were not acting in line with the truth of the gospel, I said to Peter in front of them all, "You are a Jew, yet you live like a Gentile and not like a Jew. How is it, then, that you force Gentiles to follow Jewish customs?”
When Peter was with the Gentile believers, he eats with them because we are all one in Christ (the lesson he has learned from Acts 10).
• But when some Jewish Christians came from Jerusalem, he distanced and separated himself from them. He re-drew that line of distinction.
• Paul rebuked him for such inconsistency, for this hypocritical behavior.
Prejudice can be very deep-seated and if we are not careful, we can get sucked into it again.
• Even the best of Christians like Peter can falter. He was the leading apostle in the church, but he too has his weakness and needed someone to point that out.
• We all need that today. It would really be sad if we have no one to be our “mirror” in life. We need someone to show us our flaws and dirt.
• Without that, we won’t grow. We won’t learn. Humble yourself and be willing to accept feedbacks. They are not always right, but we are always better off listening to them.
(3) ACKNOWLEDGE AND ACCEPT THE DIFFERENCES
In Gal 2:12 we read that when the Jewish Christians arrived, Peter “began to draw back and separate himself from the Gentiles because he was afraid of those who belonged to the circumcision group.”
• We should not let this happen. Forming cliques is natural and fine, but we cannot allow it to form a big divide. As one body in Christ, we need to care for each other.
• One of the risks PM Lee mentioned at the National Day Rally was concerning segregation. People of different religions have separate exclusive circles and not integrating with those of other faiths.
• This is understandable, because we have a preference to stay with our own group (birds of the same feather flock together). This is the PULL factor, but we also have the PUSH factor. We cannot tolerate others who are different.
That is why we need to pray for unity in the Body of Christ.
• There will be Jews and Greeks, slaves and free, male and female, and we are all one in Christ.
• We need to embrace these differences. Not everyone will be like you.
• Be respectful of differences. You need to be able to agree to disagree. Even if you don’t see eye to eye with someone, you can respect their opinion.
I read a quote from Mother Teresa: “If you judge people you have no time to love them.”
• I learn something from this. We say that faith and fear cannot co-exist in our heart at the same time.
• I realize too that judgment and love cannot co-exist at the same time. When I am judging someone, I do not love him. When I love, chances are I am not judging him.
Let us learn from Jesus. He loves all without prejudice.
• It is not easy, as we’ve seen. Even the great disciple Peter falters.
• But by the grace of God, we can grow out of it. Let us grow to be more loving, more gracious, more forgiving… just like our Lord Jesus.
