[Machine transcription]
Christ is risen. He has risen indeed. Hallelujah. In the name of Jesus. Amen.
Dear Saints of God, this is a â what is the Old Testament about? That is a question
that is important for us to be able to answer. What is the Old Testament concern itself with?
Jesus says in John chapter 5 to the Pharisees, you search the Scriptures, thinking that in
them you have life, not knowing that these are they that testify of me.” So we know
that the Old Testament is about Jesus.
When Jesus is walking on the road to Emmaus, He is there with His two disciples and He
begins, it says, to open up the Scriptures from Moses and all the prophets to teach them
that it was necessary for the Messiah to suffer before He entered into His glory. So not only
is the Old Testament about Jesus. It’s about the suffering and the glory, the resurrection
of Jesus.
But there’s even a little bit more from our first lesson in Acts chapter 10, where Peter
is preaching in Cornelius’ house, and he says this, to him, to Jesus, all the prophets bear
witness that everyone who believes in Him receives forgiveness of sins through His name,
so that the Old Testament is not only about Jesus, it’s about His suffering and death,
but it’s not only about His suffering and death, it’s about His suffering and death
for you, for the forgiveness of all of your sins. And this is really helpful because people
say, Pastor, how are the people in the Old Testament saved since Jesus had not yet been
born and lived and suffered and died, rose again in the grave from them, how were they
saved? Well, the answer is, the same way you are, through faith in the name of Jesus. By
His name, all of our sins are forgiven. And this is what Peter preaches.
I want to think a little bit more about this first lesson from Acts chapter 10 because the
context of this preaching is really quite wonderful. It’s Peter’s sermon in Caesarea
at the house of Cornelius, but how in the world does he get there? This is going to
be one of the key, by the way, the key passages in the book of Acts because⦠and we should
notice that because we’re reading it and we’re like, hey, wait a minute, something
is happening in the wrong order. They’re receiving the Holy Spirit before they’re
baptized. That’s not how it’s supposed to work, and that’s right. The Holy Spirit
is teaching Peter and all the apostles about His kingdom.
Him. Jesus said that you will be my witnesses, when the Holy Spirit comes upon you, you will
be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and then Judea, and then Samaria, and then to the ends of
the earth. So that the gospel was to go out to every corner of the world, but the disciples
were admittedly a little bit slow to embrace this calling. Now, they would go a little
bit, but they were not sure if the gospel should be preached to the Samaritans, and
they were pretty sure that it shouldn’t be preached to the Gentiles.
So Peter finds himself in a little town called Lydda, which is close to Joppa, a seacoast
town. Joppa was famous because Joppa is the town that Jonah went to to sail the wrong
way. You know, God called Jonah to go to Nineveh, which is east, and Jonah goes to Joppa and
sails to Spain, which is west. But there was a woman in Joppa, Tabitha, who had died, and
they heard that Peter was close by, so they sent to Peter, and Peter came and he knelt
down and he prayed, and Tabitha was raised from the dead. It’s an incredible story, Acts
chapter 9. So Peter was staying there in the house of Simon the Tanner, and he was praying.
In fact, he was praying on the roof. This is what the stained glass window here is recounting,
the vision of Peter as he’s on the house, on the roof of Simon the Tanner, and the Lordâ¦
and it says in the text that Peter is hungry, and so the Lord in a vision lowers a huge
sheet from heaven, like a picnic thing. You’ve got to imagine, like Peter’s pretty excited
to see what’s on the sheet, and he unfolds the sheet and he finds spread out before him
a feast of all of these unclean animals. That’s why the artist who did it has like
a snake and a spider, all of these unclean animals for Peter to eat. And so the Lord
in a vision spreads these unclean animals out in front of Peter, and then He commands
them, rise and eat. And Peter says, Lord, I can’t⦠no unclean thing has ever crossed
my lips. Peter’s whole life has kept the law of the Old Testament, the law of the kosher
laws. He’s never eaten any unclean animal. And the Lord says to Peter, what I have called
clean, do not call unclean. And then the sheet is taken up into heaven and it comes down
a second time, and the Lord says, kill and eat. And he says, Lord, I can’t⦠no unclean
thing ever crossed my⦠what I have called clean, do not call unclean. And a third time
it happens, and as Peter is reflecting on this vision and also hoping for lunch, a visitor
Peter comes from Caesarea, way up the coast, this pagan town, Caesarea, from the house
of Cornelius, who was sent by Cornelius, who also had a dream, saying, go and get Peter.
Now Cornelius was a Gentile, and Peter, when he receives the summons to go to the house
of Cornelius, realizes what the vision was about, that Peter was considering the Gentiles
to be unclean, to be unfit for the kingdom of God, to be unworthy of the gospel. But
the Lord was teaching him something different. What God has called clean, do not call unclean.
Now, this has application for us. It has first application when we consider ourselves to
be unclean, when we consider our own sin, our own breaking of God’s commandments, our
own unholiness, our own failures, and we think to ourselves that we are unclean, that we
are unworthy of the Lord’s mercy, that we’ve wrecked ourselves, that we’ve spoiled ourselves,
that we’ve made ourselves unfit for the holiness of God. True enough. It’s true. I’m a poor,
miserable sinner. We’ve sinned against the Lord in thought, word, and deed. If the Lord
would keep a record of sins, who could stand? Not a single one of us. But the Lord has declared
you clean. In the absolution, all your sins are forgiven. In the Lord’s Supper,
all your sins are forgiven. In the flood of baptism, all your sins are forgiven.
And the Lord has declared it to be true, and His word stands forever, that you,
you, dear Christian, are clean. Not a sin sticks to you. You are holy. You are perfect.
And not only has the Lord declared you to be clean, but He will defend that cleanliness.
He says, what I have called clean, do not call unclean. The Lord refuses to let you
declare yourself to be unclean or anyone else to declare you to be unclean, the world,
the flesh, the devil, your own sin, your conscience, it does not matter. The Lord has
declared it, and it stands true. You are clean. Can you⦠This means that you are ready
to stand on the judgment day. You are ready to stand before the Lord. When He brings
out the rolls, when He gives the commandments, all these things, and now it comes to the
judgment⦠This is not a frightful day for you. It’s not a scary day. He’s declared
you clean. And He has declared your neighbor clean. The person that you hate, clean. The
person that sinned against you, clean. The person that you despise, the person that disgusts
you, the Lord Jesus has died for them, too. And we pray that they would know it. We work
that they would know it.
This is what’s going on with Peter, right? Peter would look on the Gentiles, and this
is the temptation of the Jews to look on the Gentiles with disgust. I mean, I suppose
the same thing would happen if the Lord lowered the plate and there was a snake and a spider
on it for you to eat. That’s how they thought of them. They weren’t Jewish. They were
the goyim. They were far from the kingdom of God. But no one can we⦠we can think
of no one with disgust in that way. Not if the Lord Jesus has decided to be their brother
and He has. Not if the Lord Jesus has decided to be their Redeemer and He has. Not if the
Lord Jesus loves them and He does. Every person that you meet is died for by Jesus, loved
by Jesus. So Peter follows the servant and goes to the house of Cornelius, and this helps
put his sermon in context. I’d like to read it to you again with this background there,
verse 34.
Peter opened his mouth and said, “‘Truly I understand now that God shows no partiality,
but in every nation, anyone who fears Him and does what is right is acceptable to Him.
As for the word that He sent to Israel, preaching good news of peace through Jesus Christ, He
Lord of all, you yourselves know what happened throughout all Judea, beginning from Galilee
after the baptism that John proclaimed, how God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy
Spirit and with power. He went about doing good and healing all who were oppressed by
the devil, for God was with him. And we are witnesses of all that he did, both in the
country of the Jews and in Jerusalem. They put him to death by hanging him on a tree,
but God raised him on the third day and made him to appear, not to all the people, but
But to us who had been chosen by God as witnesses, who ate and drank with Him after He rose from
the dead, and He commanded us to preach to the people and to testify that He is the one
God appointed to judge the living and the dead, to Him all the prophets bear witness
that everyone who believes in Him receives forgiveness of sins through His name.
Everyone who believes, not just the Jew, but the Gentile, not just the good, but the evil,
not just the close by, but also the far off, not just the people that you think would make
good Christians, but absolutely everybody.
Now Peter is preaching this, but the text indicates that while he says that I understand
that God chose partiality, he had not fully grasped the concept.
So God the Holy Spirit is going to give him a kick in the pants.
And it happens in this way, that while Peter is still preaching, the Holy Spirit comes
and falls on all these pagan Gentiles and they start to confess Christ and
speak even in tongues. So that Peter says, I guess we’re gonna have to baptize them
now. Right, that they will be our brothers and sisters in Christ. So Peter says, can
Can anyone withhold water for baptizing these people who have received the Holy Spirit?
Just as we have.
And they were baptized in the name of Jesus, and they begged Peter to stay and keep teaching
them.
Dear saints, this is absolutely stunning.
And by the way, you can read for your homework the next things that happened, especially Acts
chapter 11, because Peter is going to get called to the carpet for this.
He’s going to get called before the church in Jerusalem, and they’re going to say, what
are you doing in Caesarea?
What are you doing baptizing these Gentiles and Peter is going to tell them the story
of what happened, which is that God shows no partiality.
That God loves the least.
That Christ forgives all sinners.
That Jesus loves the lowliest, the poorest, the most unclean.
that Jesus comes for all people, including even me, and including even you.
So we rejoice.
What God has called clean, do not call unclean.
Dear saints, this is our hope, this is our life, this is our peace.
In the name of Jesus, amen.
And the peace of God which passes all understanding,
guard your hearts and minds through Jesus Christ, our Lord.
Amen.
