The Pentecost Effect – The Gospel Is For All

Sermon -The Pentecost Effect – The Gospel is For All

Scripture - Acts 11:1-18 “Soon the news reached the apostles and other believers in Judea that the Gentiles had received the word of God. But when Peter arrived back in Jerusalem, the Jewish believers criticized him. “You entered the home of Gentiles and even ate with them!” they said. Then Peter told them exactly what had happened. “I was in the town of Joppa,” he said, “and while I was praying, I went into a trance and saw a vision. Something like a large sheet was let down by its four corners from the sky. And it came right down to me. When I looked inside the sheet, I saw all sorts of tame and wild animals, reptiles, and birds. And I heard a voice say, ‘Get up, Peter; kill and eat them.’ “‘No, Lord,’ I replied. ‘I have never eaten anything that our Jewish laws have declared impure or unclean.’ “But the voice from heaven spoke again: ‘Do not call something unclean if God has made it clean.’ This happened three times before the sheet and all it contained was pulled back up to heaven.

“Just then three men who had been sent from Caesarea arrived at the house where we were staying. The Holy Spirit told me to go with them and not to worry that they were Gentiles. These six brothers here accompanied me, and we soon entered the home of the man who had sent for us. He told us how an angel had appeared to him in his home and had told him, ‘Send messengers to Joppa, and summon a man named Simon Peter. He will tell you how you and everyone in your household can be saved!’ “As I began to speak,” Peter continued, “the Holy Spirit fell on them, just as he fell on us at the beginning. Then I thought of the Lord’s words when he said, ‘John baptized with water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit.’ And since God gave these Gentiles the same gift he gave us when we believed in the Lord Jesus Christ, who was I to stand in God’s way?” When the others heard this, they stopped objecting and began praising God. They said, “We can see that God has also given the Gentiles the privilege of repenting of their sins and receiving eternal life.”

Introduction: The Holy Spirit is in the business of Kingdom Expansion. When the Lord Jesus Christ spoke of the kingdom He was planning to establish, he said, “The kingdom of heaven is like unto a grain of mustard seed, which a man took, and sowed in his field: which indeed is less than all seeds; but when it is grown, it is greater than the herbs, and becometh a tree, so that the birds of the heaven come and lodge in the branches thereof” (Mt. 13:31-32).

From the very beginning to the natural eye, it must have appeared that the Christian movement was destined for failure. Its founder, crucified, the movement persecuted, and the membership scattered. Yet like a root out of dry ground, the Lord’s church not only survived, but they also shook this planet to its very core. They became effective witnesses, telling people about the Lord Jesus Christ everywhere—in Jerusalem, throughout Judea, in Samaria, and to the ends of the earth. Now the movement spreads into the Gentile arena. Did Jesus really mean take the gospel to the ends of the earth? Is it really for everybody? Including the porkchop eating, uncircumcised Gentiles? The invading Romans? Everybody?

In Acts 11, Peter came to the realization that the gospel was for all, no restrictions or exclusions, based on nothing but faith through the grace of God! Neither God, nor Jesus, nor the Holy Spirit are prejudiced in any manner. They would not have the greatest promise ever made exclude anyone. Even though the New Testament is plain in its teaching, that whosoever will can come, all have equal opportunity to be put right with God, without conditions or exceptions. According to Genesis 1:27, all men and women are created in God's image; therefore, they are equal in value and worth.

How many things in our world are equally open to all men? God's word is very clear in telling us that all men are created by God, all have value, and every single person can be a child of God, receiving the full inheritance of heaven. Generally, religious systems are designed to unite a faith community, denominations divide one faith community from the other faith communities. We build denominations on convictions, common values, moral ethics, rules and goals. Why? Because they think that their path is the “right” path and others are wrong. The Holy Spirit will lead us beyond our narrow view and help us see what God is doing now! We make rules about How God can use women, the role of children, who can lead a church or serve in positions of authority. Yet God can use anyone or anything. Good has a history of using women, children, donkeys, roosters, and even fish. He is Sovereign. He can do what He wants to do and how He wants to at any time He wants to.