The Apostle Peter Confronts Prejudice
Acts 10:1-35
A Christian is one who is walking in all the light of God. Acts 10 we have the story of two Leaders, one a Roman leader and one a Jewish leader. One was looking at life through the lens of a God fearing Gentile and one through the lens of a Christ-honoring Jew. Both leaders were open to walking in the light of the Lord.
Changing your belief system and view of the world as you have been taught is a dramatic challenge for most. For some it is an impossible barrier to cross. Many would rather fight than switch their belief system.
From time to times it’s good to ask our Lord Jesus to search your heart to see if there is any sin of prejudice there. If it is, then we need to be willing to have him who is our life dissolve the prejudice---he is the only one who can do it---so that we can continue to enjoy the "unity of the Spirit" at this Christian fellowship and with other Christians around this community and the world.
# I remember studying the Gospel of John in a large class at Asbury Seminary in Wilmore, KY. We were studying the 4th chapter of the Gospel of John. Dr. George Allen Turner commented on the barriers that Jesus broke in going through Samaria and talking to the Samaritan Woman. He noted that Jesus broke gender barriers, cultural barriers, traditions and race barriers. Jesus, a teacher and Rabbi spoke with a woman of the world and a Samaritan at that. Dr. Turner said that God’s word was plain, Race prejudice is wrong and evil.
One of the students from deep Alabama stood to his feet with his face turning beet red. He said he could not accept that interpretation. He would not call a black man his brother. Because of the racial stand of the seminary he dropped out of school rather than change his beliefs.
The Apostle Peter was a product of his Jewish upbringing. He believed that the Gospel was primarily for the Jews and not the Gentile world.
Acts 10 tells the story of how Peter’s beliefs systems were turned on their head. His experiences radically changed his teaching about the grace of God.
I. The Lord Prepared the Way for Peter to Confront Ungodly Prejudice
Acts 10 is about two visions, one by the Apostle Simon Peter in Joppa and the other by Cornelius a Roman Centurion in Caesarea.
(Acts 10:1-8) Cornelius was a leader of 100 soldiers in an Italian Regiment of 600 men. He was located in Caesarea the main seaport of Palestine and the capitol of the Roman Government in that Area. Cornelius feared God with along with all his family. He was a devout seeker after the Lord.
At three in the afternoon, the Jewish hour of prayer, Cornelius was praying and an angel of the Lord spoke to him plainly: “Your prayers and gifts to the poor have come up as a memorial offering before God. Now send men to Joppa to bring back a man named Simon who is called Peter. He is staying with Simon the tanner, whose house is by the sea.”
(Acts 10:9-23) Simon Peter is staying in the home of Simon the Tanner. The house is located outside the city of Joppa by the Sea thirty miles from Caesarea a day and a half journey by foot. Simon the Tanner’s house was by the sea because his Tanning business used sea water and he was outside the city because he handed dead animals that rendered him unclean.
The next day after the Angel has appeared to Cornelius his devout soldier and two of his servants were on their way to Joppa to find Peter. As they were approaching the town Peter went out on the balcony to pray. It was about noon. While lunch was being prepared, he fell into a trance. He saw the skies open up. Something that looked like a huge blanket lowed by ropes by its four corners settled on the ground. Every king of animal and reptile and bird you could think of was on it. Then a voice came: “Go to it, Peter – kill and eat.”
Peter said, “Oh, no, Lord. I’ve never so much as tasted food hat was not kosher.” The voice came a second time: “If God says its okay, its okay.” This happened three times, and then the blanket was pulled back up into the skies.” (It happened three times to make it clear to Peter this was a vision and not a mere dream)
As Peter, puzzled, sat there trying to figure out what it all meant, the men sent by Cornelius showed up at Simon’s front door. They called in, (the custom then was to call out from the front of the house and not knock on the door) asking if there was a Simon, also called Peter, staying there. Peter, lost in thought didn’t hear them, so the Spirit whispered to him, “Three men are at the door looking for you. Get down there and go with them. Don’t ask any questions. I sent them to get you.”
Peter went down and said to the men, “I think I’m the man you’re looking for. What’s up?”
They said, “Captain Cornelius, a God fearing man well-known for his fair play – ask any Jew in this part of the country – was commanded by a holy angel to get you to come to his house so he could hear what you have to say.” Peter invited them in and made them feel at home. This was a radical step for Peter, to invite Gentiles into the home of a Jew. God was at work in Peter’s heart and Peter was open to the truth.
The opposition between Jews and Gentiles then is same as it is today in Israel between Jews and Palestinians, or like Protestant and Catholics in Northern Ireland, Muslim to a Bosnian Serb or Turk among Greeks.
Have you had turning points in your life when you had to confront your prejudices?
Last month when Gordy and I attended the PK Clergy Conference in Phoenix I had one of my prejudices challenged. In Florida I was acquainted with New York Jews that traveled back and forth to give oversight to their investments. The Jews I knew claimed to be agnostics and had no regard for either their Godly heritage or the Christian heritage. I didn’t think Jews would come to Jesus until the end times.
At the PK conference there were 300 Messianic Rabbis in attendance. Several of the Jewish leaders spoke and said that a revival is taking place among the Jews. Many Jews are turning to Jesus as their Messiah. The speakers noted that a similar revival is taking place today that took place following the 1967 Six Day War when many Jews became followers of Jesus their Messiah. The Messianic speakers presented lessons from Romans 10 – 11 that Israel will be restored with thousands turning to Jesus as their Messiah.
After hearing the Messianic speakers my bias that very few Jews were turning to Jesus was changed. I’m going to do all I can to get acquainted with Rabbis in our area.
God prepared Peter’s heart to accept Gentiles as equal under the Grace of God. Peter was obedient and walked in the truth and reversed his prejudice thinking. Paul wrote in Galatians 3:8 “There is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female.”
Are there prejudices that you need to confront in you Life. You can be prejudiced against people for their race, color or creed. You can be prejudiced against anyone you feel superior to.
Dr. Tony Campolo tells of a time he was walking down Chestnut Street in Philadelphia. There was a filthy bum, covered with soot from head to toe. “He had a huge beard. I’ll never forget the beard. It was a gigantic beard with rotted food stuck in it. He held a cup of McDonald’s coffee and mumbled as he walked along the street. He spotted me and said, “Hey, Mister. You want some of my coffee?”
I knew I should take some to be nice, and I did. I gave it back to him and said, “You’re being pretty generous giving away your coffee this morning. What’s gotten into you that you’re giving away your coffee all of a sudden?”
He said, “Well, the coffee was especially delicious this morning, and I figured if God gives you something good you ought to share it with people.”
I figured, this is the perfect setup. I said, “Is there anything I can give you in return?” I’m sure he’s going to hit me for five dollars.
He said, “Yeah, you can give me a hug.”
I was hoping for the five dollars.
He put his arms around me. I put my arms around him. And I realized something. He wasn’t going to let me go. He was holding onto me. Here I am an establishment guy, and this bum is hanging on me. He’s hugging me. He’s not going to let me go. People are passing on the street. They’re staring at me. I’m embarrassed. But little by little my embarrassment turned to awe.
I heard a voice echoing down the corridors of time saying, I was hungry. Did you feed me? I was naked. Did you clothe me? I was sick. Did you care for me? I was the bum you met on Chestnut Street. Did you hug me? For if you did it unto the least of these, my brothers and sisters, you did it to me. And if you failed to do it unto the least of these, my brothers and sisters, you failed to do it unto me.
—Tony Campolo, “Year of Jubilee,”
II. Peter was Obedient to God’s call to cross racial and social barriers. (Acts 10:23b-36)
The next day Peter started out on the 30 mile journey from Joppa to Caesarea with some of the brothers from Joppa. Peter wanted eye witnesses of his visit for his later report to the Jerusalem council. Peter and his traveling companions arrived the next day entered the house of Cornelius. Cornelius was expecting them and had gathered all his relatives and friends for the occasion.
Peter explained that he was only willing to come after God made it clear that His Grace extends to both Jew and Gentile. Cornelius told Peter of his vision and how God had named Simon Peter as a man who could bring him good news. (Cornelius, a Gentile, only knew about the Jewish teachings of the Old Testament and he needed to embrace Jesus as His Messiah.)
Acts 10:34-36 the Apostle Peter gives timeless truths: “Then Peter began to speak: ‘I now realize how true it is that God does not show favoritism but accepts men from every nation who fear him and do what is right. You know the message God sent to the people of Israel, telling the good news of peace through Jesus Christ, who is Lord of all.”
Martin Luther King in his “I have a dream” speech was saying the same thing Peter learned.
“I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: “We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men are created equal.” . . . I have a dream that my four children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character. . . . When we let freedom ring, when we let it ring from every village and every hamlet, from every state and every city, we will be able to speed up that day when all of God’s children, black men and white men, Jews and Gentiles, Protestants and Catholics, will be able to join hands and sing in the words of the old Negro spiritual, “Free at last! Free at last! Thank God Almighty, we are free at last!”
—Martin Luther King, Jr., August 28, 1963
As a local church we want to make all people feel welcome – regardless of culture, color or creed. We want to be colorblind just as Jesus was. He looked at the hearts of people.
One of the religious leaders I have great admiration and respect for is Dr. John Perkins, African American Pastor and Urban leader. He has spoken at a number of Free Methodist Conference gatherings. He tells how with much pain he overcame his prejudices against whites.
I’m quoting what he said at his court trail on February 7, 1970. “When I got to jail and saw the people in jail, of course I was horrified as to why we were arrested and when I got in the jail Sheriff Jonathan Edwards came over to me right away and said, “This is the smart nigger, and this is a new ballgame. You’re not in Simpson country now; you are in Brandon. He began to beat me and from that time on they continued beating me.”
He later was released from jail, but in July of that same year had a heart attack. In the hospital he had a lot of time to think. He thought about blacks and whites. He thought about how, in a country that claimed to stand for “liberty and justice for all,” a black man in Mississippi could get no justice. He thought about how in Mississippi ‘Christians’ were the most racist whites of all.
He said the Spirit of God worked on him and the image of the cross of Christ formed in his mind. Jesus understood his suffering. John Perkins read Matthew 6:14-15, “For if you forgive men for their transgressions, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But, if you do not forgive men, then your heavenly Father will not forgive your transgressions.”
He said to receive God’s forgiveness, “I was going to have to forgive those who had hurt me. As I prayed, the faces of those policemen passed before me one by one and I forgave each one. Faces of other white people from the past came before me, and I forgave them, I could sense that God was working a deep inner healing in me that went back beyond February 7, 2970. It went clear back to my earliest memories of childhood. God was healing all those wounds that had kept me from loving whites. How sweet God’s forgiveness and healing was?” (From With Justice for All by John Perkins)
This week let’s practice Matthew 6:14-15. May people around you know you are a Christian by your love.
