Not these or those, Everyone

Acts 10:1-23 from the daily reading in the One Year Bible

Now there was a man at Caesarea named Cornelius, a centurion of what was called the Italian cohort, ² a devout man and one who feared God with all his household, and gave many alms to the Jewish people and prayed to God continually. ³ About the ninth hour of the day he clearly saw in a vision an angel of God who had just come in and said to him, “Cornelius!” ⁴ And fixing his gaze on him and being much alarmed, he said, “What is it, Lord?” And he said to him, “Your prayers and alms have ascended as a memorial before God. ⁵ Now dispatch some men to Joppa and send for a man named Simon, who is also called Peter; ⁶ he is staying with a tanner named Simon, whose house is by the sea.” ⁷ When the angel who was speaking to him had left, he summoned two of his servants and a devout soldier of those who were his personal attendants, ⁸ and after he had explained everything to them, he sent them to Joppa.

⁹ On the next day, as they were on their way and approaching the city, Peter went up on the housetop about the sixth hour to pray. ¹⁰ But he became hungry and was desiring to eat; but while they were making preparations, he fell into a trance; ¹¹ and he saw the sky opened up, and an object like a great sheet coming down, lowered by four corners to the ground, ¹² and there were in it all kinds of four-footed animals and crawling creatures of the earth and birds of the air. ¹³ A voice came to him, “Get up, Peter, kill and eat!” ¹⁴ But Peter said, “By no means, Lord, for I have never eaten anything unholy and unclean.” ¹⁵ Again a voice came to him a second time, “What God has cleansed, no longer consider unholy.” ¹⁶ This happened three times, and immediately the object was taken up into the sky.

¹⁷ Now while Peter was greatly perplexed in mind as to what the vision which he had seen might be, behold, the men who had been sent by Cornelius, having asked directions for Simon’s house, appeared at the gate; ¹⁸ and calling out, they were asking whether Simon, who was also called Peter, was staying there. ¹⁹ While Peter was reflecting on the vision, the Spirit said to him, “Behold, three men are looking for you. ²⁰ But get up, go downstairs and accompany them without misgivings, for I have sent them Myself.” ²¹ Peter went down to the men and said, “Behold, I am the one you are looking for; what is the reason for which you have come?” ²² They said, “Cornelius, a centurion, a righteous and God-fearing man well spoken of by the entire nation of the Jews, was divinely directed by a holy angel to send for you to come to his house and hear a message from you.” ²³ So he invited them in and gave them lodging.

There is a false notion that if Jesus were to come back and live among us today He would have nothing to do with the church, that He would rather associate with those outside the church than with those who were in the church. I suppose they base their thought process on the truth that Jesus was very critical of the religious leaders in His day. He often challenged and condemned their hypocrisy and their man made rules, regulations and traditions. He did associate with the outcasts of society, with sinners, tax collectors and women. But to think that Jesus would not be interested in those who seek Him through religious activities, through church membership simply does not line up with what scripture says. Jesus Himself was a practicing Jew. He observed the God ordained requirements of the Jewish faith. From the time He was young He treasured the temple, His Father’s house. In Luke 2 there is an account of a time when Jesus was twelve years old and had gotten separated from His parents, after searching for Him for some time they found Him in the temple. Jesus said: “Why is it that you were looking for Me? Did you not know that I had to be in My Father’s house?”(Luke 2:49)    Matthew 4:23 says:  Jesus went throughout Galilee, teaching in their synagogues, preaching the gospel of the kingdom, and healing every disease and sickness among the people.  In Matthew 10:5-7 Jesus sends out His disciples for the first time saying:  “Do not go in the way of the Gentiles, and do not enter any city of the Samaritans;  but rather go to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.  And as you go, preach, saying, ‘The kingdom of heaven is at hand.’”

In the book of Acts, the accounts of the early church we see this same tendency continuing. Most of the early converts were Jewish people. In the account of the Ethiopian eunuch, in Acts 8:27-31 it says: He had come to Jerusalem to worship  and was returning, seated in his chariot, and he was reading the prophet Isaiah.  And the Spirit said to Philip, “Go over and join this chariot.”  So Philip ran to him and heard him reading Isaiah the prophet and asked, “Do you understand what you are reading?”  And he said, “How can I, unless someone guides me?” And he invited Philip to come up and sit with him.      In today’s account we see again that the Holy Spirit is again moving on the heart of a seeker and the heart of a servant to bring them together for a divine appointment.  The text says: About the ninth hour of the day he clearly saw in a vision an angel of God who had just come in and said to him, “Cornelius!”  And fixing his gaze on him and being much alarmed, he said, “What is it, Lord?” And he said to him, “Your prayers and alms have ascended as a memorial before God.  Now dispatch some men to Joppa and send for a man named Simon, who is also called Peter… On the next day, as they were on their way and approaching the city, Peter went up on the housetop about the sixth hour to pray… While Peter was reflecting on the vision, the Spirit said to him, “Behold, three men are looking for you.  But get up, go downstairs and accompany them without misgivings, for I have sent them Myself.” Peter went down to the men and said, “Behold, I am the one you are looking for; what is the reason for which you have come?”  They said, “Cornelius, a centurion, a righteous and God-fearing man well spoken of by the entire nation of the Jews, was divinely directed by a holy angel to send for you to come to his house and hear a message from you.”     

In Jeremiah 29:12-14 God says: Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will hear you.  You will seek me and find me, when you seek me with all your heart.  I will be found by you, declares the Lord   In John 6:44 Jesus says: No one can come to Me unless the Father who sent Me draws him.  These are not a conflicting ideas. It is not that we are either seekers or needing to be drawn. Rather, God draws people to seek Him. Jesus says:  Behold, I stand at the door and knock; if anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and will dine with him, and he with Me.(Revelation 3:20) In Matthew 7:7-8 Jesus says:  “Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you.  For everyone who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it will be opened.   It is not the doors of the church which are either the entry way or a hindrance to Jesus. Rather it is the door of the heart that Jesus is concerned with. He came to seek and save the lost. Jesus hasn’t changed. If He were to walk among us today He would still love the unlovely, He would still associate with outcasts and sinners. Jesus would also, “as was His custom”, teach in the churches, minister to and among those who seek Him in scripture.

When we believe and proclaim that Jesus would be for either one group or the other, we limit who He is at best and we believe and promote a lie of the devil at worst.

Heavenly Father, Lord Jesus Christ; precious Holy Spirit thank You for drawing me that I might seek You. Thank You for knocking on the door of my heart and opening when I knocked. Forgive me for limiting You with my finite mind, for believing that You are only interested in these or those. Help me to understand and declare the truth that You, God so loved the world, that You gave Your  only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life. You are not a God of either those in the church or those outside the church, but rather are a God of whoever believes that Jesus Christ is their Lord and Savior.   Amen