I love the lessons John Piper draws from the text about Cornelius and Peter in his sermon What God Has Cleansed Do Not Call Common.....
So there are really two lessons in this text for today. One is that no human being is common or unclean. None is to be spurned, shunned, rejected, despised because of his ethnic origin or race or culture or physical traits. Christians should have no part in the kind of renewed racism that is cropping up around our land, for example, in the white supremacist groups on the university campus.
The second lesson from the text is that in every nation—that is, every ethnic people group around the world (v. 35)—there are people being prepared by God to seek him with acceptable prayer. This means two things for us as we approach our annual Missions Fest.
One is that many of us should go. Cornelius would not have been saved if no one had taken him the gospel. And no one will be saved today without the gospel.
The other is that we should be full of hope and expectancy that this is the sort of wonder God is willing to work in making connections between the groping of unreached peoples and those willing to take the gospel to them.
So let us wash our minds and our mouths of all racial slurs and ethnic put-downs and be done with all alienating behaviors. And let's be the good Samaritan for some ethnic outcast, and let's be the Christ for some untouchable leper, and let's be the Peter for some waiting Cornelius.
The story of Paul's conversion is a reinforcement of this lesson too. Though he was not from a different race, he was radically and passionately opposed to Jesus Christ. So, not just any race or culture - but any person, regardless of how great a sinner they are, how bound by Satan they may seem, how far from God they may appear, NO ONE is beyond the reach of the grace of our mighty God.One apparent contradiction to our whole "predestination" vs "free will" discussion we've had going on in various blogs is Piper's comment ....
Cornelius would not have been saved if no one had taken him the gospel. And no one will be saved today without the gospel.
This is why I still think free will and free choice is somehow integrated with God's sovereignty. Peter had a choice of whether or not to go to Cornelius, and once there, whether or not to preach to him. Cornelius was not saved before Peter preached the Good News to him - the Bible is clear that we will not be saved apart from believing on the name of the Lord Jesus Christ.
More interesting food for confusing thought! ;)
Tomorrow's passage: Acts 12:6-14:20
3 comments:
A wise practice on Bible reading and studies...keep on am following!
I agree, Tammy. I believe that God's ultimate plan will come to pass because of AND in spite of the choices we make to follow Him and act according to His will. I know that there are times when people choose not to do what they know God wants them to do - the story of Jonah, for example. It is clear what God's will is, where he wants you to go or what he wants you to do, but you choose whether to go or not. The consequences of his actions ensured that he went anyway, so one could say it was because it was pre-destined, but he still made the choice.
I recently read something about a Christian author who had, for a number of years, written romance novels. She felt a little uncomfortable about it (although I don't think they were the graphically descriptive kind), but because she was published and made money she took this to mean that God was okay with it. I don't remember what events occurred to change her mind, but in the end she realized that she actually was not following God's will and she changed the type of books she wrote.
I also know that there are times where God makes sure we're at a certain place at a certain time, or NOT at a certain time. I've seen recent examples of this in my friends' lives and my own.
Food for thought.
Either that was Francine Rivers, or she has a very similar story!
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