Acts 10:1-48
We continue our study of the Book of Acts, and we now come to chapter 10. It opens with a Gentile soldier named Cornelius, who is told by God in a vision to send for Peter. Meanwhile, Peter is in another town and it’s late in the afternoon and he is tired and hungry. Someone starts preparing a meal for him, and while he waits, he falls asleep and dreams of food.
The description of Peter’s dream begins in verse 11…
11 He saw heaven opened and something like a large sheet being let down to earth by its four corners.
12 It contained all kinds of four-footed animals, as well as reptiles of the earth and birds of the air.
13 Then a voice told him, "Get up, Peter. Kill and eat."
14 "Surely not, Lord!" Peter replied. "I have never eaten anything impure or unclean."
15 The voice spoke to him a second time, "Do not call anything impure that God has made clean."
16 This happened three times, and immediately the sheet was taken back to heaven.
17 While Peter was wondering about the meaning of the vision, the men sent by Cornelius found out where Simon’s house was and stopped at the gate.
18 They called out, asking if Simon who was known as Peter was staying there.
19 While Peter was still thinking about the vision, the Spirit said to him, "Simon, three men are looking for you.
20 So get up and go downstairs. Do not hesitate to go with them, for I have sent them."
21 Peter went down and said to the men, "I’m the one you’re looking for. Why have you come?"
What follows is that Peter accepts this invitation. And Peter and Cornelius have a conversation – two people of two cultures – and we pick up in verse 34.
34 Then Peter began to speak: "I now realize how true it is that God does not show favoritism
35 but accepts men from every nation who fear him and do what is right.
36 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.”
This passage continues with Peter preaching about Jesus and the Resurrection. Up until this time, Christianity was largely a Jewish religion. Jesus was a Jew. The first believers were Jews. Jesus came to fulfill Jewish prophecies about the coming of the Messiah. But now the Gentiles, the non-Jewish people begin to accept Christ as Savior, and this is a radical turn of events for those who may have thought that Jesus was only for the Jews.
We pick up in verse 45…
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. Then Peter said,
47 "Can anyone keep these people from being baptized with water? They have received the Holy Spirit just as we have."
48 So he ordered that they be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ. Then they asked Peter to stay with them for a few days.
(NIV)
When I was growing up, my family got together for big dinners all the time.
We ate in different homes, and every one of them was different.
At my sister’s house, she was young and newly married, so we would sit at individual TV trays and eat frozen dinners.
At my grandmother’s house, we always ate using her china and her silver.
But the one I loved most was Aunt Mattie’s house. It was great. She and Uncle Roy were farmers and lived in the country and their food was freshly grown.
Now, one thing about Aunt Mattie is that she could talk up a storm. And one day we all sat down at the table to eat, and Aunt Mattie is going on and on about something and not one of us was paying her one bit of attention.
We are all waiting for her to stop talking so we could have the blessing and start eating.
Uncle Roy finally had enough of it and started praying.
Aunt Mattie kept talking.
Uncle Roy’s prayer started with, “Dear God! Thank you for the food that is on this table. It gives me hope that my wife will start entin’ and stop talkin’.”
Aunt Mattie kept talking throughout the whole prayer.
We started eating. And the food was great, and we all grew silent. Even Aunt Mattie stopped talking.
And after dinner Aunt Mattie finally asked, “Did we remember to pray and give thanks?”
Christians give thanks at mealtime. It is a great tradition to pause for prayer and give thanks before eating.
In the Christian family, it is good table manners to pray before a meal.
In this morning’s New Testament lesson, I want to move us through the vision that Peter has and to think about some common table manners that can give us some spiritual insights.
And the first one comes straight from my Uncle Roy – WE SHOULD GIVE THANKS FOR WHAT WE RECEIVE FROM GOD.
Look at Peter in the New Testament Lesson. He has a vision in which he sees food, but the food is a symbol of something else. The vision is not really about food. It is about people – and the kinds of people that God wants in His family.
And God wants us to receive and give thanks for all of the different types of people in His family.
Peter was Jewish. In the beginning, all Christians were Jews. Jesus was a Jew. Jesus was the fulfillment of Jewish and Old Testament prophecies about the coming Messiah. Peter thought in terms of Christ coming only for the Jews. It was hard for him to think beyond that limited view and to think of something new – and that is what this vision is all about.
It is a lot like thinking of Christianity as being ONLY for Whites, or ONLY for African Americans, or ONLY for English speaking people.
Peter thought that Christ was for the Jewish people, maybe for a few Gentiles or non-Jews, but he really thought early on that Christ was primarily to be for the Jews.
God challenges that way of thinking and encourages Peter to change. And God does this in a vision in which Peter sees all these different kinds of food.
Peter, even as a Christian, retained his Jewish culture and law. And people of that culture were bound by dietary laws from the Old Testament that Christians today are not bound by. In the Old Testament, there was a long list of food that was considered unclean, and that should not be eaten.
In Leviticus 11, we can read about this list.
The camel, the rabbit, the pig – all unclean.
The vulture, the eagle, the owl, the hawk, the bat – all unclean.
All insects were unclean – except locus, crickets and grasshoppers!
The weasel, the rat and the lizard – all unclean.
And Peter wanted to be obedient to these religious rules.
In our New Testament Lesson, Peter is hungry, and he is waiting for the meal to be prepared, and he dreams about food.
In his dream, he sees something like a tablecloth being brought down from heaven, and on the cloth are all sorts of food, including some of the food that is on the list of unacceptable, unclean food.
Peter refuses to eat what is before him, insisting that he would never eat anything unclean. And then the Almighty reminds him that God makes the rules and he is to eat what’s on his plate! In his vision, Peter is told, “Don’t call anything unclean that God has made clean.”
Peter is trying to understand this vision when he receives an invitation to visit a Gentile named Cornelius. And he begins to understand his vision. The vision is not about food– it is about people.
In the same way that Peter tried to reject certain types of food in his Vision – Peter – and all of us – often reject certain types of people.
Are we ready and willing for anyone to come into this church?
Do we always give thanks to God for the people He sends to be with us in church?
Sometimes people feel uncomfortable with certain folks coming to church. It might be a matter of race. Or it might be economics – the uncomfortable feeling of being near someone who is too poor or too rich. It might be the differences of educational levels. Maybe they are too conservative or too liberal.
How many times do we make distinctions about the people God wants us to let into our lives.
The point of this Vision of Peter’s is that the first Christians, who were all Jews, should welcome EVERYONE into the fellowship of Christians – even the Gentiles. And thank God – because we are Gentiles.
And in the same way, we need to welcome everyone into the Kingdom of God and into this church.
We should give thanks to God for whomever He brings into this church.
It is good table manners to give thanks to God for whatever he puts on our plate at the table – it is good spiritual manners to give thanks to God for whomever he leads through those doors.
Second Table Manner: ACCEPT YOUR GUESTS AS THEY ARE.
The old classic book "To Kill A Mockingbird" a story is told through the eyes of a young girl named Scout. One evening, one of her classmates named Walter Cunningham joins her family at the table for a meal. Suddenly, Walter asks if there is any molasses in the house. The father of the house, Atticus Finch, asks the family’s servant to bring the syrup.
The book says, “Walter poured syrup on his vegetables and meat with a generous hand. He would probably have poured it into his milk glass had I not asked what the sam hill he was doing. Walter put his hands in his lap and ducked his head. Atticus shook his head at me and I said, ‘But he’s gone and drowned his dinner in syrup. He’s poured it all over everything.’
“It was then that Calpurnia requested my presence in the kitchen. She was furious, and when she was furious Calpurnia’s grammar became erratic. She squinted down at me and said, “There’s some folks who don’t eat like us, but you ain’t called on to contradict ‘em at the table. That boy’s yo’ comp’ny, and if he wants to eat up the tablecloth, you let him. You hear?
That’s when the young girl protests and says, “He ain’t company. He’s just a Cunningham.” – which is to say, “He’s different.”
“Hush your mouth,” the woman says. “Don’t matter who they are, anybody sets foot in this house is yo’ company!”
When we have company at our dinner table, it is good table manners to accept them as they are.
It is good spiritual manners to accept guests in our church as they are.
We live in a nation that is becoming more and more multi-cultural, and our churches are becoming more and more multi-cultural. It will either happen quickly or slowly, but it will happen. And we will see people in our churches – including Good Shepherd – who do things differently. Sometimes they do things better – sometimes not. Mostly their ways are not better or worse – they are just different from us and we are different from them.
And we just need to respect and accept whoever comes to God’s Table, who comes to God’s fellowship.
When we ignore or treat badly people who have not yet received Christ we are failing to follow Christ’s model.
Jesus did it properly. He went to the homes of publicans and sinners and ate with them. The whole time the "super-righteous" were scorning Him for keeping company with sinners. He replied, "Those who are well do not need a physician, but those who are sick. I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners, to repentance." (Luke 5:31,32)
You can’t always choose the people God sends into your life with whom He wants you to share the Good News.
We can’t just choose folks who dress like us and talk like us and look like us and act like us. THE GOOD NEWS IS FOR EVERYBODY - WHETHER THEY’RE LIKE US OR NOT! And we need to accept them as the Almighty has already accepted them.
Third table manner: DON’T HOG THE FOOD!
We all have different experiences at family meals. My first roommate in college had terrible table manners, and I guess he realized that people had noticed his lack of manners. He explained that he had 11 brothers and sisters. He said, “If I didn’t act fast and grab a biscuit, there might not be one left for me. And if I didn’t yank my hand back quickly enough, somebody my grab my hand thinking it was a biscuit and take a bite out of it!”
Everybody is hungry for the Good News about Jesus! Some folks just don’t know that’s what they’re hungry for. They know they’re hungry. They try to satisfy their hunger with a million different ways. But only Christ satisfies.
Do you remember a time when you were hungry and searching for God? Do you remember wondering "where did I come from?"
"Why am I here?"
“What is my purpose in life?”
Don’t be like my old college roommate – don’t hog the food. There is plenty to go around! We need to be sharing the spiritual food that God gives us with those who out there, in the world, who are spiritually hungry.
Peter was called upon to feed Cornelius by not hogging the food – by not hogging the spiritual teachings
What amazes me most in all of this is that Peter was able to accept this change! He struggled with it, and later in Acts we see this struggle more clearly – but he knew it was the right thing to do.
What a dramatic change it was!
Now, what does that have to do with us at Good Shepherd?
I’ve only been here a little less than a year, and I think this is a welcoming church. I know you made me and my wife feel welcomed. I see different types of folks come and worship with us and what I see is that we are thankful to God for all of these people. We are not rude to anyone who comes to God’s table.
So why should I preach this sermon, that sounds like I’m preaching to the choir.
Because we are about to experience a change in our church.
In a little more than 60 days, our church will have a program that has been conducted in over 12,000 other congregations. You may have seen signs and banners at other churches – “The 40 Days of Purpose.”
I don’t want to say a lot about that program now – but don’t worry – in the days to come you will hear more and more about this program.
But I will say that it is a 7-week program that seeks to answer the question, “What on earth am I hear for?”
AND it is an opportunity for us to invite other people to join us in seeking an answer to that question – to other questions.
We expect to have a lot of guests in our church at that time.
We need to be thankful for whomever God brings through those church doors.
We need to accepting of whomever God brings through those church doors. They may never have been in a church before – they may not know when to stand or sit – and they may never have heard any of our songs. They may even ask where we keep the molasses. But we need to accept them – in the name of God, we need to accept them.
We need to be generous with the Good News and share with others the love of Christ – don’t hog it for yourself – there is enough of God’s love to go around.
And we need to be ready for some changes that we cannot – at least at this point – anticipate. But be warned – God can do some wonderful and some new things through this 40 Days of Purpose.
And change is hard.
I read an interesting story about change, and how some people are reluctant to change.
Chuck Yeager, the famous test pilot who broke the Sound Barrier in the 1940s, was flying an F-86 Sabre over a lake in the Sierras when he decided to buzz a friend’s house near the edge of the lake. During a slow roll, he suddenly felt his aileron lock. Says Yeager, "It was a hairy moment, flying about 150 feet off the ground and upside down."
A lesser pilot might have panicked with fatal results, but Yeager let off on the G’s, pushed up the nose, and sure enough, the aileron unlocked. Climbing to 15,000 feet, where it was safer, Yeager tried the maneuver again. Every time he rolled, the problem recurred.
Yeager knew three or four pilots had died under similar circumstances, but to date, investigators were puzzled as to the source of the Sabre’s fatal flaw. Yeager went to his superior with a report, and the inspectors went to work. They found that a bolt on the aileron cylinder was installed upside down.
Eventually, the culprit was found in a North American plant. He was an older man on the assembly line who ignored instructions about how to insert that bolt, because, by golly, he knew that bolts were supposed to be placed head up, not head down. In a sad commentary, Yeager says that "nobody ever told the man how many pilots he had killed." (From "Yeager" by Chuck Yeager, Bantam, 1985)
I wonder how much of the work of God we may have killed by not listening to God; by not being willing to think in new ways.
Like Peter, we are stubborn, obstinate, and down right hardheaded sometimes when it comes to change.
But hopefully, like Peter, we can change and accept new people into our lives – who may be different, but who are in every way children of God.
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Written by Maynard Pittendreigh
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