Distinctives of the Gentile Christian church, Acts 11

Last week as we looked at the previous chapter, we studied the way in which God brought the gospel to the Gentiles.  If you will remember, Peter had a vision in which he saw a great sheet lowered down out of heaven with all kinds of animals and creatures in it, which contained animals considered both clean and unclean.  And I will not take the time this morning to review the details of that story.  Peter himself reviews it once again in this chapter as we have just read. 

But I would ask you to consider the importance of such an event in light of the fact that the Holy Spirit inspires Luke to recount the details of this event three times.  There were surely many other things that happened in the church that were noteworthy in the 10 years or so between the day of Pentecost and the church starting in Antioch. But God chooses to review this one event in detail, occupying almost 2 chapters out of 28 altogether in the book of Acts.  In fact, in these chapters, we find that this story is recounted three times.  Now it is significant when God mentions something once.  That should be enough.  After all, it is written down, so that we might read it as often as we like.  But to have it written down three times shows the great emphasis that God makes of this event. 

So the question for us then as we look at this is why?  Why does God make such a great deal out of the conversion of the Gentiles?  And the answer is that it is significant because it was a major step in the progression of the gospel, when the church is opened up from being strictly a Jewish religion to encompass the entire world. 

When God originally gave Abraham the promise of a seed, God said in Gen. 26:4, "I will multiply your descendants as the stars of heaven, and will give your descendants all these lands; and by your descendants all the nations of the earth shall be blessed.”   The first part of that promise to Abraham had been fulfilled through God’s covenant by Abraham’s seed producing the nation of Israel, through whom was promised the Messiah.  But now the second part of that promise was being fulfilled in all the nations of the earth becoming blessed through the gospel of the Messiah.  The Gentiles were now being included in the church.  And this is a major thing in the history of the gospel, but it does not come about without causing serious consternation among the believing Jews. It’s going to change their whole way of thinking.  It’s going to affect their inherent prejudices against the Gentiles.  That is why when Peter comes back to Jerusalem, he finds that word of the salvation of the Gentiles has beaten him back there and the believing Jews in the church at Jerusalem are ready to take him to task for it. 

So Peter patiently reviews for them the whole situation, everything that happened just as God brought it to pass.  He culminates his argument by saying in vs.17 "Therefore if God gave to them the same gift as He gave to us also after believing in the Lord Jesus Christ, who was I that I could stand in God's way?"

Then notice their response in vs.18, “When they heard this, they quieted down and glorified God, saying, "Well then, God has granted to the Gentiles also the repentance that leads to life."  Now that phrase is really the starting point of my message today that I would like to develop this morning.  “God has granted to the Gentiles also the repentance unto life,” is how the KJV reads. 

I want to show you how the new born Gentile church in Antioch responded to the gospel.  I want to show from this chapter the characteristics of Gentile church.  And I believe that we will see in this account many similarities between what happened on the day of Pentecost when the church in Jerusalem was born, and what happens in Antioch as the Gentile church is born.  Because it is the same church.  As Paul would declare later in Eph. 4:4-6  “There is one body and one Spirit, just as also you were called in one hope of your calling;  one Lord, one faith, one baptism,  one God and Father of all who is over all and through all and in all.” 

This is why this passage is so significant.  And this is why the Holy Spirit confirms it three times.  Because there is not a Jewish faith and a Gentile faith.  There is not a church in Jerusalem and a church in Antioch.  But there is one church, one body, one Spirit, one faith, one baptism by which all are baptized into one body.  There is no more Jew or Greek, no more Israelite or Gentile, but one man in Christ.   And from that foundation, the local church in Antioch will grow and be a part of the body of Christ.  And in a moment we will look at some characteristics of this church that are evidence of being in the body.  But first I want to camp out on the aspect of being born into the body.  And that is highlighted by the phrase, God has granted to the Gentiles also the repentance which leads to life.

If you have been in attendance over the last few weeks, then you might have taken notice of several of my attempts to clarify the way you are made a part of the church of God.  Before we can be part of the church, there must first be a supernatural conversion by which sinful men and women are born into the family of God.  If the church is, as the Bible states the body of Christ, living temples of His Spirit, a holy priesthood, then there must be a supernatural means by which unholy, sinful men are transformed into sons of God and indwelt by the Spirit of God to do the works of God.  That is the distinctive of the church. 

The church is not an institution, it is not an establishment, it is not a 501-3C organization, it is not a building.  But the church is the body of Christ wherein He dwells in His people.  You cannot enter this spiritual body by birth, or by nationality, or by certain rights of government.  Membership in Christ’s church is conferred by God, through Christ, for God’s purposes.  It is entirely possible to be a Catholic, or Methodist, or Baptist, or any other denomination, and yet not be part of the church of God.  It’s possible to belong to a denomination and not be in the body of Christ.  In fact, no one can be a part of the church, unless they are born again by the Spirit of God. The Spirit of God residing in you, makes you a part of His body.

I believe that all the problems besetting the church today find their roots in this principle.  Churches are trying in all sorts of ways today to attract the world into the church.  The problem is that the church is not made up of unsaved people, but of born again people. 

The problem is that unsaved people are described in the Bible as being dead.  You can have a body but be dead, to not have life.  And that is the natural state of all men. Eph. 2:1 “And you were dead in your trespasses and sins.”  It goes on to say that all men are dead in their sins.  But in vs. 4 he adds, “But God, being rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in our transgressions, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved).”

Now that is wonderful news, but how is it accomplished?  How does this transformation from being dead to being made alive happen?  You see, there is a serious problem today in the church, because there are many that have a form of religion, they claim to believe the tenets of the gospel, they tacitly believe in God and that Jesus died on the cross for our sins, and yet they are unsaved.  They have not been born again.  And that is obvious by the lack of  fruit in their lives.  It is obvious that they do not have the life of Christ living in them.   That is the mark of being the body of Christ, is it not?  That the Spirit of Christ lives in your body?  Is that not what it means to be made a part of His body, the church? As 1Cor. 6:19 makes clear; “Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and that you are not your own? For you have been bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body.”  That is the acid test of being born again.  That is the test of whether or not you are in the body or not in the body, in the church or not in the church.  I don’t care if you have a paper signed by someone or not.  I don’t care if you have been baptized or not.  If you do not have the evidence of the Spirit of God living in you and through you so that you are not your own anymore, but you are bought with a price and therefore you glorify God in your body, then you obviously are not in the body of Christ at all.  If that is the case in your life then I hope to God that you have your eyes opened to see that.

So how does one become born again into the body of Christ?  It starts with Acts 11:18, God granting the repentance unto life.  To receive that life of God in your dead body, you must repent.  What does it mean to repent?  I will start by saying what repentance is not.  Repentance is not just feeling sorry about the predicament or crisis you may find yourself in and wanting to get out of it.  That is not repentance.  Repentance is not just crying a few tears because you got emotional when you considered some experience of your past.  The Bible says that Judas went out sorrowful, and later tried to return the money which he had received from selling out Jesus, weeping bitterly over what he had done and yet he was not saved because he had rejected Jesus as His Savior.  It’s possible to feel remorse, to cry bitterly, to want to undo certain elements of your past and yet not be saved.

True repentance is coming to a point of hating your sin, mourning over your sinful condition, seeking to be cleansed of it, changed from it, delivered from it.  True repentance, according to the Psalmist David, is a broken and contrite heart.  It is coming to understand how much of an affront your sin is to God, that it has caused there to be eternal separation from God and deserves the wrath of God.  That is the precondition of the heart that leads to repentance.  It is hungering and thirsting for the righteousness of God and being willing to forsake and leave all that is sinful and offensive to God. 

I’m sure that there are some here that are hearing this who say, “Does repentance really have to be so drastic? Aren’t you being a bit overly dramatic?”  And the answer is yes, we do need to be so radical when describing repentance, because there is a tendency to think that we are not so bad, and by adding a little bit of religion to my life, I will be just fine.  But that is the devil’s lie and believe me, he has caught a lot of people up in it.  No a little bit of religion is a dangerous thing.  Because unless you come to the end of yourself, unless you realize that you are dead, that you are in your sins and need supernatural deliverance, a completely new life as a gift  from God, then there is no salvation.  Because true repentance is being willing to surrender all that you are, to die to yourself, for the sake of knowing Jesus Christ as the Lord and Savior of your life.  And that is the repentance that  leads to life.

So that is how the Gentiles in Antioch were saved.  That was how the Jews in Jerusalem were saved.  That is how all men are saved.  And as such, they are then born again, given new life in the Spirit, which is life in Christ’s body.  They are born into the church.  The church starts by conversion, salvation.  And now there are just a few things I want to point out briefly in regards to the distinctives of the new born Christian church of the Gentiles.  What things are emblematic of the believer AFTER you become a Christian.  After you are born into the church.  The following is the evidence that you have new life and are part of the body of Christ, that Christ now lives through your body.

One quick note before that though that I should point out about this church’s location.  Antioch was the third largest city in the Roman Empire.  And we all know how corrupt the Roman Empire was don’t we? Especially Rome was a terribly hedonistic, depraved place.  A place where every sort of abomination was openly practiced.  But I bet you don’t know this;  Antioch was considered the river that corrupted Rome.  In other words, Antioch was much worse than Rome.  For one, prostitution of every kind, of the vilest sort was practiced there openly in the worship of the goddess Daphne.  So I find it ironic that God picks the vilest culture in the known world to start the first Christian church of the Gentiles.  Now I say that in light of the recent proceedings in the Supreme Court here in America.  Christians are bemoaning the state of the Union.  And what has become of America.  But God has placed the church to be the light in the darkness.  And the darker the night, the brighter the candle seems to be.  So I would say to you, don’t despair that the wicked are wicked.  But rather I encourage you to strengthen and encourage one another as we are the church of God, and Jesus promised that the gates of Hell will not prevail against it.  This is not the first time in the history of the church that governments have aligned themselves in opposition to the church.  But I can tell you this;  The Roman Empire has been long gone from the scene, but the church of God stands firm.  The Bible was written thousands of years before the Constitution of the United States, and it will still stand thousands of years after the United States is long gone. The word of the Lord endures forever. Matt. 5:14-16 "You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden;  nor does anyone light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on the lampstand, and it gives light to all who are in the house. Let your light shine before men in such a way that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father who is in heaven.”

So let’s look now at the distinctives of the first Christian Gentile church. The first sign or evidence that it was the living church of Jesus Christ in Antioch was that it was characterized by preaching the Lord Jesus.  Vs. 20, “But there were some of them, men of Cyprus and Cyrene, who came to Antioch and began speaking to the Greeks also, preaching the Lord Jesus. And the hand of the Lord was with them, and a large number who believed turned to the Lord.”  Folks, in God’s church, preaching is not on the back burner, but it is the means of God declaring His gospel and His will to His people.  The church at Jerusalem was founded on the Apostles doctrine.  Peter and the Apostles were preaching the gospel and the multitudes were convicted and called upon the Lord to save them.  The same thing happens here.  They are preaching the Lord Jesus, and the hand of the Lord, the power of the Lord was with them and many turned to the Lord.  The Christian church is a preaching church.  The distinctive of the church is not what kind of music you play, or the programs you have, but whether or not you preach Jesus.  1Cor. 1:21 says, “it pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe.”

Second, there was the testimony of their salvation.  Vs. 22, “The news about them reached the ears of the church at Jerusalem, and they sent Barnabas off to Antioch.” When these new believers were saved in Antioch word soon spread 300 miles back to Jerusalem that there was a new church growing in Antioch.  So the elders of the church of Jerusalem, the Apostles, sent one of their choice men to go there and determine what was going on.  Let me tell you something, when you are genuinely saved, people are going to hear about it.  You will not need to be told by a preacher that you need to be telling people about your salvation.  It is a natural outcome of being saved.  You want people to know about your salvation because something fantastic has happened in your life and you want to share it with others.  That is a natural thing when you’re born again. 

Not did their testimony reach Jerusalem, it also reverberated among the unsaved people of Antioch.  Vs. 26 says that they were first called Christians in Antioch.  You know, when the people of Antioch called them Christian they weren’t being complimentary, it was meant to be derogatory.  It would be quite some time before Christians embraced that title for themselves.  But the interesting point is that their lifestyle was different enough that the world had to coin a phrase to describe them.  And the word the world chose indicated that they were considered to be like Christ.  That’s not a bad thing to be characterized by the world as, is it? To be said about you that you are like Christ. What a testimony that is.

Thirdly, there is the witness of the grace of God in their life.  Vs. 23, “Then when he arrived and witnessed the grace of God, he rejoiced and began to encourage them all with resolute heart to remain true to the Lord.”  What did Barnabas see there in Antioch which made him rejoice?  The grace of God.  You know, it’s one thing to claim the grace of God, but it’s another thing to exhibit the grace of God, isn’t it?  A lot of people today want to claim the grace of God but continue right on living the same way they always lived. 

Listen to how Jude describes those people who claim grace but live lives that are unchanged. Jude, vs. 4 “For certain persons have crept in unnoticed, those who were long beforehand marked out for this condemnation, ungodly persons who turn the grace of our God into licentiousness and deny our only Master and Lord, Jesus Christ.”  What he is saying is they claim the grace of God but use it as a covering for continuing in sin, denying their Master who is supposed to be living through them. 

But the Christians in Antioch aren’t guilty of that.  What Barnabas sees when he arrives there is the witness of their lives that the grace of God has changed them.  What transpired spiritually is being lived out physically.  The grace which they received is evidenced by an overflowing of grace,  being spilled out into the church around them.  Grace means gift.  As they received God’s gift, they gave in like manner to others.  They served one another, as they served the church. 

Fourthly, the church was taught the word of God.  Barnabas goes and gets Saul to help him teach this church and they teach them for a year.  I’m going to read in between the lines there a little and suggest that encompasses a bit more than meeting for an hour once a week.  I’m going to suggest that it followed the pattern of the church in Jerusalem which we were told met daily in Solomon’s portico and were taught by the Apostles. Act 2:42 “They were continually devoting themselves to the apostles' teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer.” And you want to know how I can confidently say that was happening at Antioch?  Because Barnabas had been trained in the church at Jerusalem.  He was the one in chapter 4:36 who sold a piece of land and brought the money and laid it at the Apostles feet.  So I am sure that he replicated that same style of church there in Antioch.  That would have been the reason that the Apostles sent him to replicate in Antioch the same pattern that he had learned in Jerusalem.  And so to help him do that, he brings in Saul, who will later become Paul.  And there we see another important principle of church, there is discipling.  A true disciple makes disciples. Taking someone under your wing and teaching them and encouraging them to become more effective witnesses for Christ.  That’s what the name Barnabas means, by the way, Son of Encouragement.

Then lastly, a distinctive of this church was that they were a giving church.  This falls in line with the grace of God that Barnabas witnessed when he first came.  Because they received grace, they wanted to be gracious, to give, to help others and help the church.  In vs. 27, we read that some prophets came down from Jerusalem, and by the Spirit of God disclosed to them that there was going to be a severe famine, which would hit Jerusalem and all Judea really hard.  God disclosed that to the church at Antioch so that they could help those who had helped them.  That is the Biblical principle found in Rom 15:26-27  where some years later Paul writes, “For Macedonia and Achaia have been pleased to make a contribution for the poor among the saints in Jerusalem.  Yes, they were pleased to do so, and they are indebted to them. For if the Gentiles have shared in their spiritual things, they are indebted to minister to them also in material things.” 

The principle was and is that those who share spiritual things are to be shared with in return by your physical things.  That giving is not supposed to be under compulsion, but as a result of the grace that was given to you.  If you received the gift of grace, then is it not reasonable that you return gifts graciously?  Paul would say in 1Cor. 9:11 “If we sowed spiritual things in you, is it too much if we reap material things from you?” 

The church of Antioch willingly, gladly gave to the elders in the church at Jerusalem. Acts 11:29 “And in the proportion that any of the disciples had means, each of them determined to send a contribution for the relief of the brethren living in Judea.” According to the proportion of their means.  Luke isn’t talking about tithing here.  Tithing is an Old Testament law, but it has an even older precedent.  Abraham gave tithes to Melchisadek long before the law was written.  While it is not a law for New Testament believers, it continues to be a principle, and it is evidence of a new life in Christ.  Now that you are saved, you should realize that God has given you gifts not just to help yourself, but to help others.  And your first responsibility is to the church and to those who teach you the gospel. 

I find it extremely uncomfortable to talk about giving to the church.  So many preachers have abused this principle that I feel it has a detrimental boomerang affect.  Consequently we go out of our way to not pass an offering plate or try to get people to pledge money or anything like that.  I would rather suffer financially than cause the church of Christ to suffer.  But my reticence does not eliminate the principle that the Bible clearly teaches, and furthermore to omit teaching that principle deprives you of the benefit of giving.   There is a blessing that comes from God from giving with a cheerful heart.  The Lord loves a cheerful giver.  There is a blessing that God gives to those who honor Him with the first fruits of their income.  And furthermore, it is evidence of a new life in Christ.  Christ was anything but selfish.  He gave His very life for us, that we might have life in Him. So if Christ is living in us, through us, then that will become evident by our generosity towards His body.

So just to recap quickly, there cannot be a true church without people who are truly saved.  Salvation begins by repentance which leads to new life.  Life in the church is evidenced by certain distinctives, which are characterized by preaching the Lord Jesus first and foremost, secondly a vibrant testimony of your salvation, thirdly the witness of the grace of God in your life, fourthly regularly being taught the word of God in a Bible teaching church resulting in making disciples,  and fifthly, being gracious, willing to give generously and liberally to supply the needs of the church, so that the gospel goes out to the world unhindered.

I hope that in the closing minutes of this service today, you will examine your life in light of this testimony of this early church and see if there are areas in which you have fallen short.  Maybe you have fallen out of regular fellowship and need to get back into a Bible teaching church where you can be discipled and begin to make disciples.  Or maybe you recognize that you have never truly repented.  There is not any evidence of Christ living in you because you have never been born again by the Spirit of God.  I’m here to tell you today the good news, that God is not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.  Don’t leave this place today without calling on the name of the Lord in faith and repentance so that you might be born again.  I would be happy to talk to anyone that wants to know more how they can be saved directly following the service today. 

God’s great drama of redemption of the Gentiles, Acts 10

In Matt. 16:19, Jesus told Simon Peter that  “I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven; and whatever you bind on earth shall have been bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall have been loosed in heaven.”  As such, Peter had a unique ministry.  This verse does not establish Peter as the first Pope, as some would try to say, but he is a special emissary of Christ as the chief representative of the  apostles to open doors to the kingdom of God that had formerly been closed in Judaism.  Once these doors are opened, we are going to see in our study of Acts that Peter starts to gradually fade from the scene, and the Apostle Paul becomes the focus of the ministry of the gospel to the world.  Peter’s ministry was primarily to the Jews, and Paul’s ministry was primarily to the Gentiles.  Of course there was much crossover. 

But Peter is used by God to show that while salvation is from the Jews, it will go beyond Jerusalem to the rest of the world. Peter and the rest of the apostles were headquartered in the church in Jerusalem.  God first gave the gospel to the Jews through Peter and the apostles.  But now we are seeing the gospel spread outward, even as Christ said it would, from Jerusalem, to Judea, to Samaria and to the uttermost parts of the world.  And to do that, God uses Peter in a special way to symbolically unlock the doors to each new region.  That is why we saw Peter first unlock the doors to the Jews on the day of Pentecost in chapter 2, then he unlocked the doors to the Samaritans in chapter 8, and now we see him using the last key to unlock the door to the Gentiles in chapter 10. All in all, a span of about 10 years from Pentecost to Caesarea. 

And each time Peter unlocks the next door, we see a confirming act by the baptism of the Holy Spirit to show that these new believers are part of the body of Christ, the church.  That is the significance of the baptism of the Holy Spirit in Samaria and now in Caesarea.  Each time the gospel moves to a new people, there is an accompanying sign of the Holy Spirit to show that they are now considered a part of the church body, just as the Jews were.  On the day of Pentecost the converts were made up of Jews, not only from Israel, but those Jews who had been scattered all over the Middle East and were visiting Jerusalem for the feasts.  Then the second baptism of the Holy Spirit is given to show that the Samaritans, who were considered half breeds by proper Jews, were now brought into the new covenant through the blood of Jesus Christ and were part of the body as well.  And now the gospel moves even further out to include the Gentiles, who formerly were completely outside of the prior covenant with Israel.  They now receive the gospel as well and there is the confirmation of the Holy Spirit with the same sign that He gave to the Jews at Pentecost, the half breeds of Samaria, and now to the Gentiles.

Now today we want to look specifically at how God unlocks this last frontier of the gospel, which is the Gentiles.  The name Gentiles of course is given to all non Jews.  This title would include those of us listening here today.  We too are Gentiles.  And so this is particularly our history as Christians.  Now there are four acts to this great drama of God.  And the first act is that of preparation.  God had to prepare not only the Gentiles, but prepare the apostles, particularly Peter in this case as the chief representative of the church.

Peter had to be prepared because Jews and Gentiles were traditionally enemies of one another.  Jews had been given strict laws concerning diet and dress and customs in order to keep them isolated from intermarrying and intermingling with the pagan cultures that lived around them.  God knew that if they had no social restrictions upon them they would soon be influenced by the neighboring pagan people and end up adopting their idolatrous ways.  So God had specifically given strict guidelines to keep the Jews separate from the Gentiles. 

But that had morphed into something that God had not designed, and that was a hatred of the Jews for all things Gentile.  And that had resulted in the Gentiles hating the Jews right back.  But God’s plan was to use the gospel to reconcile all men, Jews and Gentiles to Himself.   From a Gentile’s perspective, they knew that they were considered enemies of Israel, and therefore they assumed, enemies of the Jewish God as well.  The fact is though, all men are by nature enemies of God.  Because all men are by nature sinners.  And Paul in Romans 5:10 says our sin nature makes us enemies of God. But God’s plan was to reconcile man to Him through Christ.

And He is going to use Peter to do that.  But first, God has to prepare Peter because of his natural prejudice towards Gentiles.  And at the same time, God prepares the Gentile.  God uses the agency of the Spirit as the first step in the process of salvation.  Jesus said in John 6:44, “No one can come to Me unless the Father who sent Me draws him.”  So to prepare the heart of both the centurion and of Peter, the Holy Spirit works in each of them through a vision.

Let’s look first at Cornelius, the centurion.  Verse 2 says that he was a God fearing man, who gave alms to the Jewish people and prayed to God continually.  Added to the fact that he was a Gentile is the additional stigma that he was a Roman soldier.  Yet amazingly, this man was seeking after the God of the Jews.  He had done so by giving alms to the Jewish people, probably to their synagogue.  He had come out of pantheism to the conclusion that the God of the Jews was the only true God and he prayed continually to Him.  It’s likely that he followed the formula of most devout Jews, by praying three times a day, 9am, Noon and 3pm. 

It’s interesting to note that this text shows that a person can be very religious and yet not be saved.  They can be morally a good person. They can be religious and even pray fervently and yet they are not saved.  There are many people like Cornelius today.  They worship God after a manner of speaking. They are religious. They belong to a church.  They believe in God.  And yet they are not saved.  The difference between Cornelius and most people in this situation though is that Cornelius knew that his religious efforts were not enough to save him.  Many people today are satisfied that their good character and moral compass and their religious efforts are enough to please God.  They follow the logic of Martin Luther before his conversion, that a good God will accept those who do their best.  But not Cornelius.  I believe that as he considered the God of the scriptures, he was convicted ever more of his sinfulness and how far short he was of the kingdom of God.  And so he prayed continually that God would show him the way of salvation, that he might be righteous before God.

Well, God heard his prayers and sent an angel to tell him to send for Peter.  For the last couple of weeks I have raised the question of why God designed man to be the instrument of His gospel.  Why not use angels to write in the sky the flaming letters of the gospel, or declare it from their mouths as they are revealed in their full glory?  And the answer is that God uses fallen sinful men to declare the gospel, because man can be redeemed, whereas angels cannot.  God could have used the angel to convey the message of the gospel to Cornelius, but instead the angel tells Cornelius to send for Peter to come from Joppa who wil tell him how to be saved.  Peter could give testimony to the gospel because Peter was a testament to God’s grace, God having saved a sinful man such as Peter and restored him who had denied the Lord to the position of a preacher of the gospel.  Peter was a living testimony to God’s grace.

And then at the same time, God must prepare Peter’s heart.  But God will also confirm His word spoken to Cornelius.  I think that is important to see here.  I don’t think God very often speaks in visions today since we have the completed word of God already written down for us as a more sure word.  But in that age, the New Testament scriptures had not been written, and so God did occasionally speak through visions.  But even then, God needed to confirm the vision of Cornelius to Peter by the word of God in a vision.  Consequently, when the delegation from Cornelius shows up even as Peter is still in the vision, the Spirit tells him to go with the men who are at his door.  If Peter had not had the vision, then why should he have believed these Gentiles?  He probably wouldn’t have gone with them.

You know, the early Christians were taught that they were to confirm every fact by two or three witnesses.  We need to be careful about people claiming to have some vision from God that is not confirmed by scripture.  I’ll never forget getting ready to go out of the country once on a short term mission trip and some lady called me and told us that she had a vision that I was killed in the plane so I should not go.  Well, I went anyway, because her vision was not something that was confirmed to me by God. And it’s obvious her vision was not from God because I stand here before you today. Colossians 2 warns us about false prophets taking their stand on visions they have seen, inflated without cause in their fleshly minds. 

But there is another reason for Peter’s vision and that is to show that God is not a respecter of persons.  In the dream Peter sees a great sheet let down from heaven with all kinds of animals and creeping things in it.  And a voice from heaven calls out, “Arise Peter, kill and eat.” And Peter responded, “No Lord, I have never eaten anything unholy or unclean.” And each time the voice responded, “What God has cleansed, no longer consider unholy.” This happens three times, not only for confirmation, but also for emphasis.  Now I could go off on a tangent here and say this proves that God’s plan is not for us all to become vegans.  But while that may be true that is not the point of the vision.  The point of the vision was to show that the dietary laws regarding clean and unclean animals not longer pertained to the church.  We are free from the dietary restrictions of the Jews. But there is a greater purpose even than that, which is that Jewish dietary restrictions were not simply for health reasons, but for social reasons.  It was meant to put a wall up between  the social customs of Jews and Gentiles so that they would not intermarry and cohabit and live together, and as such the Jews would become corrupted by the immorality of the Gentiles. 

Now God through this vision was eradicating that wall of separation, so that there would be no more Jew and Gentile, but all men would be able to receive the gospel.  Peter doesn’t understand all of this at first.  Peter is hungry, he was waiting for lunch to be fixed and so he went up to pray until it was ready.  So what Peter is thinking about is food, not about evangelism.  But when the men from Cornelius knock on his front door, the Spirit of God tells him go with them without misgivings, because the Lord had sent them himself.  And that is when the light starts to dawn on Peter.  It will take a couple of more days to sink in, but when he eventually gets to Cornelius’s house and hears what he has to say, then he will finally understand what it is that the Lord desires out of this; that God is not a respecter of persons.  But that whosoever will may come to salvation.  As 1 Tim. 2:4 says, God “desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth.”

There is one other matter in regards to preparation that we don’t want to miss, and that is prayer.  God prepares as man is praying.  God uses our prayers, requires our prayers, and answers our prayers in mysterious ways.  It is mysterious that He should desire us to participate at all.  But He does, telling us to pray at all times. To pray earnestly and fervently.  And what happens so many times is that prayer precedes revival. Prayer conditions the sinner’s heart to receive the word, and the saints heart to present the word.  I like the fact that both Peter and Cornelius were engaged in regular scheduled prayer when God intervenes.  Do you schedule your prayer time?  I think you should.  Otherwise it will not happen.  These men were praying at the regular customary prayer times which were three times a day.

The second act in this drama we will call the explanation.  Peter hears the message of explanation from the delegation at his door.  He invites them in to lodge with him overnight, which was already evidence of a great work that had begun in his heart, since Jews would not allow a Gentile in their house.  The next day, Peter gets 6 believing Jews to accompany him and he travels for two days to go to see Cornelius.  When he arrives, Cornelius falls down at his feet to worship him.  But Peter urges him to get up and says “I too am just a man.” 

Today in St. Peter’s Cathedral in Rome, thousands line up to kiss the toe of Peter’s statue so that the toe is completely worn away.  These poor people need to be taught that Peter forbad the worship of him, since he too was a sinner saved by grace, a man just as we are.

Cornelius gives his explanation of why he had summoned Peter and what he wanted from Peter in vs. 30.              He told of the appearance of the angel and his obedience in sending for Peter as he had been instructed.  You know, this is a good illustration of how faith is always tied to obedience in some form or another.  It is not just enough to claim to believe, but faith is to trust in obedience and follow instructions.  Perhaps that is why God chose a soldier to be the first convert of the Gentiles.  He knew how to obey instructions.

Notice that what is being taught here is Cornelius’s morality, his sincerity, his belief in Judaism was not enough to save him.  There are not many roads to heaven.  There are many roads to hell.  There is only one way to God and that is through the righteousness of Jesus Christ.  Jesus said in John 14:6  "I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father but through Me.”

Secondly, note that God sees hearts, not skin color or race or nationality.  No matter where a man might be, if he truly seeks salvation from God then God will see his heart and answer his prayers.

And third, note the attitude on the part of Cornelius and those assembled in his house.  This is the attitude of a congregation that would hear from God; they were all present, they wanted to hear the word, and they listened attentively, believed with their whole hearts, and obeyed.  They were the shining example of a receptive congregation.

And that leads us to the third act in this drama of redemption, the act of proclamation.  God has ordained according to 1Cor. 1:21 that by the “foolishness of preaching to save them that believe.”  Peter didn’t start out with 8 worship songs and a skit, he just went right into proclaiming the gospel of Christ.  They already were practicing religion.  They needed to be saved.  And Rom. 10:17 tells us that “faith comes from hearing, and hearing by the word of Christ.”  Faith is not founded on feelings, or experiences or sincere hopes, but on the written promises of God. 

I believe we just get a glimpse into Peter’s sermon here, I don’t think this is much more than an outline.  But Peter preaches Christ; the life, and death and resurrection of Christ. That Jesus is the fulfillment of all the promises of the prophets.  His plan of salvation starts with the standard of salvation;  fearing God and doing what is right. That is the outcome of salvation.  That is the way of life for a Christian.

Peter then summarizes the historical basis for the gospel through the life of Christ.  Jesus was anointed by God, filled with the Holy Spirit, whose works were evidence that God was with Him.  And yet He was put to death by hanging on a cross.  But God raised Him up from the grave the third day, and it was witnessed by the disciples who ate and drank with Him.  Jesus then ordered them to preach the gospel and to testify to everyone Jesus is the Messiah who now lives and has been appointed by God as the Judge of the living and the dead.  And that whoever believes in Him has received forgiveness of sins.

That is the gospel in a nutshell.  That God sent Jesus to be the promised Messiah, who would take the sins of the world upon Him, and die on the cross in our place, so that we who believe in Him and confess Him as Lord, will receive forgiveness of sins. The essence of sin is that we substitute ourselves for God.  And the essence of salvation is that God substitutes Christ for us.  2 Cor. 5:11 says it this way, “God made Jesus, who knew no sin, to become sin for us, so that we might be made the righteousness of God through Him.”  This is the good news for all that recognize that they are outside of the kingdom of God.  That their righteous efforts are not able to outweigh their sinfulness.  But by calling on the name of the Lord, believing in Him, we might receive the gift of righteousness which was purchased by Christ for us.  Whosever believes in Him will receive forgiveness of sin.  That is the only way to achieve the righteousness that God demands.

And that leads us to the last act, validation. Now when they heard this good news, the whole assembly immediately believed.  The indication there is that Peter had not even finished his sermon and they believed.  They were ready to accept the gospel.  So simply believing that Christ had died for them, and trusting in Him as Lord and Savior, they received the righteousness that comes on the basis of faith.  The righteousness of Christ.  By believing, their sins were transferred to Christ, and Christ’s righteousness was transferred to them.

Now Peter and his delegation cannot see such a transaction.  So God arranged a demonstration to show him and his church members that these people had been saved in the same way as they had.  And God does that by the same baptism of the Spirit that came at Pentecost and in Samaria, testifying through the Spirit that they were now in the body of Christ, the church.

And not only was there validation by the Holy Spirit, there was validation by the obedience of the new believers.  Peter orders them to be baptized, as a testimony to the world of their faith in Jesus Christ.  Notice these Gentiles are not saved by baptism, but having already received the Spirit of God they are baptized in water in obedience as evidence of their salvation.  Salvation results in obedience from the heart.  From this point on, there will not be a visible manifestation of the baptism of the Holy Spirit that accompanies salvation except for one more time when a remote band of John’s disciples in Ephesus are brought into the church.  But the baptism of the Spirit was specifically to show that God has accepted all races and all nationalities into the kingdom of God, the church.  But from now on the order will be to hear the word, believe in Christ as Lord, and then be baptized and join with other believers in the local church to serve and worship God in obedience. 

So in closing, don’t lose sight of the big picture presented here in this chapter.  God is not a respecter of persons.  God looks at the heart, not at race or outward appearance or skin color or nationality.  And the good news of the gospel is that by faith in Jesus Christ, salvation is made available to all men everywhere who will confess Jesus as Lord, believing in what He did for us on the cross, that we might receive forgiveness of sins.  I hope that you have the same attitude as the congregation in Cornelius’s house.  I hope that today you will immediately call upon the Lord in faith and repentance that you might be saved.

And for those of you that have already been saved, I pray that you will be prompted through this account to be obedient to what God has asked of us.  To not only fear God and obey righteousness, but to be baptized as a testimony to the world, and then to be His witnesses throughout the world, taking the good news of the gospel to every living person, recognizing that we are chosen by God to be His representatives to a lost and dying world who need to hear the good news.  

The edification of the church, Acts 9:31-43

Just the other day I saw an advertisement which was marketed to women (and I think that women today have become very susceptible to this marketing ploy in particular) and this ad was declaring that yes, women, you can have it all. I’m not sure what they were selling, but I understood the message they were conveying very well.  When I saw that ad I couldn’t help but think that Christians are especially vulnerable to this type of thinking as well.  The idea that somehow being a Christian will bring about both spiritual and physical blessing in my life, and so I can have the best of both worlds.  I can have the best of heaven, and the best of this world.  Even as a pastor, I find myself falling victim to this type of expectation.

But I am here to tell you today that while there is definitely a physical as well as spiritual blessing that comes from being born again,  at the same time there is a real cost to being a disciple of Christ.   Paul said in Phil.3:7, that “whatever things were gain to me, I have counted as loss for the sake of knowing Christ.”

He goes on to say in the next verse; “More than that, I count all things to be loss in view of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them but rubbish so that I may gain Christ,  and may be found in Him, not having a righteousness of my own derived from the Law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which comes from God on the basis of faith,  that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death;  in order that I may attain to the resurrection from the dead.”

Now of course Paul was the same as Saul who we looked last week as we studied his conversion on the road to Damascus.  His conversion meant that he left all that he was as a Pharisee, a member of the Sanhedrin, his position of authority in Judaism and his station in Jewish society.  Once he realized who it was he was persecuting, none other than the Messiah, the Son of God, he gladly left it all to serve Christ.

The church that Saul had been persecuting had counted the cost of being disciples as well.  The whole reason that they ended up in Damascus and Lydda and Joppa and such places was because Saul had hunted them like animals.  Many of them had left their jobs, their homes, and their families and fled to these cities to escape the persecution which had started in Jerusalem, and then continued to follow them to other regions.  It’s important to realize that the early church counted the cost of following Christ and many paid dearly for that decision.

But an unusual thing happened as a result of Saul being converted.  Suddenly, the major enemy of the church had been converted to it’s greatest ally.  Saul had been the authority of the Sanhedrin who had been hunting these early converts.  So when he became a Christian, there suddenly was a peace that enveloped the church from a lack of organized persecution.

And there is another thing which is helpful to realize.  The emperor of Rome at that time was a horrible ruler by the name of Caligula.  Right about the same time that Saul was converted, Caligula decided that he would put his statue in the temple at Jerusalem.  After all, the Romans believed that the emperor was to be worshipped as deity.  And so he decided to set up his statue in the Jewish temple which would have effectively desecrated the temple.  To make sure this happened, he sent an army to Jerusalem with orders to kill or enslave anyone that opposed his orders.

Ultimately, Caligula did not achieve his goal of erecting his statue in the temple.  Josephus records that Herod was able to dissuade Caligula from going through with that plan.  But not without throwing all of Judaism into an uproar.  If his plan had gone through he whole system of Judaism would have been desecrated, and consequently the power base of the Sanhedrin and the priesthood would have been overthrown.  And so there was quite some time there when the Jewish religious leaders were too busy with Rome to worry about the Christians.  So there ensued a period of peace in which the church now found itself after much persecution.

Now that is the context  which we come to in our text today.  And we are going to be looking particularly at vs. 31 which describes what the church did during this time of peace.  The remainder of the chapter which we read is really just illustrations of what is described in vs.31.  But to start with, I want to spend some time looking at this very important text in vs. 31, and to help us understand it better, I am going to read it again, but this time using the NKJV which I think employs some better word choices.

“Then the churches throughout all Judea, Galilee, and Samaria had peace and were edified. And walking in the fear of the Lord and in the comfort of the Holy Spirit, they were multiplied.”  This verse is really a key verse in all of Acts that we have studied thus far.  It is like a vantage point on a mountain path where you are able to stop and rest for a while and survey  the vista that falls away behind you.  And as such, it sets forth some important doctrine in regards to the church that we need to look closely at if we are going to replicate the pattern of the first church of the apostles.  It really gives us a simple outline for success in the church, not according to what society might deem success, but according to the Lord’s template for success as evidenced by the first church. 

Someone was asking me the other day if I had other pastors that I could talk to and fellowship with.  And I told him that though I really desired such fellowship, I rarely am able to enjoy it, because I do not share many of the accoutrements of what is considered to constitute church today.  I don’t have a permanent building. I don’t have any paid staff.  And there are several other things that seem to be lacking from what is considered “church” that seem to set me apart from other pastors which serve to inhibit developing that kind of fellowship. 

But I find myself encouraged in our study of Acts as we look at the churches that are pictured there, because I feel that our church more closely resembles their pattern than what is commonly considered church today.  These early churches met outside, or in homes.  They had little external signs of organization, and yet according to scripture, they were successful, vital, living temples of God that operated in the power of the Spirit.  And so I find comfort in that association.

So we’re going to see in this verse an outline of God’s plan for a successful church.  First of all, notice that the verse starts out by saying that they enjoyed peace.  I’ve already explained how that happened on a physical level, by the conversion of Saul and the aggression of Rome against the temple.  When Saul is taken off the scene there is no one hunting the church anymore.  They are able to meet openly in relative peace.  And since the Jews are busy defending their own religion against the Romans, the church is able to continue to enjoy that peace for some time. 

But there is another type of peace that needs to be understood that is more important than any sort of physical rest or the cessation of hostilities.  And that is the peace that can be had with God.  Without knowing Christ, you cannot have peace with God.  Last week I talked about Saul being an enemy of the church, and by extension an enemy of God, and how we all as well are considered enemies of God in our natural condition.  But conversion means that we are made friends of God.  Just like Saul was an enemy of God until he met Jesus Christ on the road to Damascus and then he became a friend of the church and a son of God, so we that were once considered enemies now have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. 

Rom. 5:1 says, “Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.”  What that is talking about is that Jesus paid for our sins on the cross.  He took on Himself the penalty that was due us, and died in our place, that we might be made righteous through His blood.  We are justified by faith in what Christ did for us on the cross.  This is what conversion means.  This is what it means to be born again.  To call upon the name of the Lord Jesus for the remission of your sins, and by faith in Him, as the Son of God,  receiving the adoption as sons of God as a free gift. 

When this happens in your life you automatically are born into the church.  You don’t have to be baptized or circumcised or be voted in or anything but be born again and you become part of Christ’s body.  Baptism does follow salvation, but each in it’s order.  We are justified by faith alone and are made part of Christ’s church by birth.

So as a result of salvation there is a peace that passes all understanding.  There is peace with God that is better than world peace.  There is a peace with God that is better than the absence of wars.  In fact, as a Christian, even in persecution, even in wartime, we can be at peace because we know that we belong to God, and God has promised that He will never leave us or forsake us, and has promised us resurrection from the dead into eternal life with Him.

But oftentimes physical peace can be a mixed blessing. Times of peace tend to be dangerous to the church.  It is easy at those times to be lulled into a sense of complacency. We have to guard against abusing whatever peace God gives by idleness or serving ourselves, but use that time wisely to do the work of the kingdom.  I’m afraid that the relative time of peace that the church has enjoyed in America has only served to make it indolent and lazy, so that we are glutted on the fatness of the church to our ruin, rather than using that time to be employed in service to it.

But not so in the first churches.  They were industrious in this time of peace, so that it became a productive time for the church, rather than a time where they thought they might relax now that hostilities were ended.  You know, I have nothing against vacations or taking time for a sabbatical.  It can be very beneficial.  However, I am dismayed to see Christians often only become zealous for the things of God when they are in a crisis.  And then as soon as the heat lets up, they start to drift away.  They use that time of peace to serve themselves and basically reward themselves, often at the expense of the church or the things of God.  Consequently, a lot of Christians live in a see saw state, going from crisis to crisis, interspersed with periods of self indulgence and never grow into maturity and bear fruit.

So the first characteristic of these successful churches was that they used this time of peace for the good of the kingdom.  They showed their love for God and their gratitude for His providence by responding in this time of peace with greater industriousness for the things of God.

The second characteristic is described in the next phrase; being edified.  Edified is a Bible word.  And some think that we should avoid Bible words.  I don’t subscribe to that view, obviously.  If God said it, I think we should learn what it means and use it. But simply put, edified means to build up. The church was built up.  It was strengthened, it matured.  It grew up, if you will.  Man, if there was ever a day when the church needs to grow up, it is this day and age. 

We’re going to look more fully at Ephesians 4 in a moment, but for now look at vs.14. “As a result, we are no longer to be children, tossed here and there by waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, by craftiness in deceitful scheming;  but speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in all aspects into Him who is the head, even Christ.”

Edification then comes as a result of learning sound doctrine so that we are not deceived by every false doctrine, but grow up into maturity in Christ.   Now how is that maturity as a result of sound doctrine accomplished in a practical way?  Back up in Eph. 4 to vs. 11 and we see how Christ has gifted his church with pastors/teachers who will teach the church, equipping them for service. Eph. 4:11-13 “And He gave some as apostles, and some as prophets, and some as evangelists, and some as pastors and teachers,  for the equipping of the saints for the work of service, to the building up/edification of the body of Christ;  until we all attain to the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a mature man, to the measure of the stature which belongs to the fullness of Christ.” 

The gifts Christ has given to edify the church are first of all a firm foundation in the apostle’s doctrine.  This is nothing less than the scriptures of the New Testament.  The apostles were given the words of Christ and wrote them down through the agency of the Holy Spirit for our edification.  You cannot be built up in your faith without a firm foundation of the Word of God.  Our faith is not founded upon experiences or feelings, but on the promises written in Christ’s blood. 

And then Christ gave to the church pastors/teachers, that’s really one office, not two, who teach the word to the church in order to equip them to do what?  The work of service, for the edification of the body of Christ.  Folks, one of the faults with the modern church today is the attitude of consumerism that pervades it’s congregations.  The attitude that somehow there is this great divide between the clergy and the congregation.  And so the congregation just shows up, gets a spoonful of something resembling baby food stuck in their upturned mouths and then off they go back to the world for another 6 ½ days.  But that is not the way God designed the church.  Peter says in 1Pet. 2:5  that God deigned the church to be constituted by members who are “living stones, are being built up as a spiritual house for a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.”  The work of ministry is to be performed by the saints in the church

So edification then results in mature Christians who are equipped through sound doctrine and teaching so that they might be the instruments by which God builds the church, to offer up spiritual sacrifices.  They are the church, not just going to church.

And how is this done, practically speaking?  Well, as you are taught the word of God, you then walk the word of God.  To walk means to live it out.  And that is the next point of our text; “walking in the fear of the Lord.”  I’ve mentioned the fear of the Lord in a lot of sermons lately.  But what I want to make sure is not missed is the word “walking.”  It means to live out in day to day life what you have been taught.  I believe this is the greatest disconnect between the church and the watching world today.  The church is far too often rightly accused by the world of being hypocrites.  We claim the power of God to deliver, and yet we live as if we are still in captivity to sin.  We claim that Jesus is able to save, and yet we seem powerless to be able to live godly lives.  The fact is, I cannot believe that many people who profess to be Christians are indeed born again.  They obviously have not died to the old man, to be raised to new life.  That is how the scripture defines being born again.  But some seem to have not died to anything.  But like the example I made at the beginning, they think that Christianity is a means of great gain, that they can gain the world and gain heaven as well.  But that is not the doctrine of Christ who said, “take up your cross and follow Me.”  We must die to sin, if we are to live with Christ.  We must repent of our sin and call upon God to remake us, to give us a new heart, and new desires.  When that happens, old things will then pass away, and all things become new. 

We must walk in the fear of the Lord.  If I am a child of God and walk contrary to His commands, then I must expect that He will chasten me. Heb 12:6-8 “FOR THOSE WHOM THE LORD LOVES HE DISCIPLINES, AND HE SCOURGES EVERY SON WHOM HE RECEIVES. It is for discipline that you endure; God deals with you as with sons; for what son is there whom his father does not discipline? But if you are without discipline, of which all have become partakers, then you are illegitimate children and not sons.”  But we aren’t supposed to remain children, remember?  We are to grow up into maturity, after the example of Christ.  So then what do we do?  We do like Christ, we do all things to please the Father.  We do His will.  We don’t do anything that He would be displeased with.   As mature Christians, our fear of the Lord is not of being punished, but of disappointing Him, or displeasing Him, or bringing shame upon His name.  And that becomes our motivation. 

When I was a child I feared the paddle of my dad when I did wrong.  But when I became older I feared the shame that I might bring upon him.  So it is with God, I love Him, and I know He loves me, and yet I reverence Him so much that I dare do nothing to displease Him or bring shame upon His name.

I’m afraid the church today in many circles cares nothing about pleasing the Lord.  The consumer mentality is all about the Lord pleasing me, and pleasing myself.  I’m not suggesting that we all go join a monastery and wear long robes and take vows of silence.  On the contrary, I am suggesting that we all walk in this world circumspectly, reverently, living holy lives that will be a testimony to the watching world and not bring shame upon the cause of Christ.

And we do that by the power of the Holy Spirit. That brings us to the next phrase in our text, “and in the comfort of the Holy Spirit.” Walking in or by the comfort of the Holy Spirit.  Comfort may give the wrong idea, it is not speaking of cushions, but the prodding or encouragement of the Holy Spirit.  The Holy Spirit urges us on. Comfort is translated from the Greek word paraklēsis, which means  to come alongside.  As we are taught the word and apply the word in the fear of the Lord, then the Holy Spirit comes alongside of us to help us, to encourage us, convict us, prod us, as He sees fit.

We have comfort in the Holy Spirit because we know that we have the power of the Holy Spirit to enable us to do whatever God tells us to do.  That is the way we are able to walk in the fear of the Lord.  We can walk according to God’s commands because He has given us the Helper, to strengthen us, to empower us, and equip us with the gifts of the Spirit.  That is our comfort, our encouragement, that whatever God has called us to do, He will empower us to do if we but yield to Him to walk in the power of the Spirit.   It’s not talking about some mystical euphoric or ecstatic feeling that may come and go, but it’s talking about the steady help of the Holy Spirit as we yield to His urging, to do whatever it is that God desires us to do.

Now when we are at peace with God, employing ourselves in that peace to be about the things of God, when we are edified by the teaching of the word of God, when we are walking in the fear of the Lord and in the comfort and strength of the Holy Spirit, then the church will be multiplied. The last point of our text; multiplied. This is the pattern for church growth.  It is not necessarily in some program, or some church ministry, but it is one person at a time becoming built up, and living out what they believe through the power of the Holy Spirit, and that testimony multiplying to bring about the conversion of another person.  I’ve said it many times before in various ways, but the testimony of a transformed life is the greatest witness of the gospel of all. 

We are testaments to His grace.  This is the answer to the rhetorical question I asked last week, which was why does God choose frail and failing men to be His ministers?  Why not let angels write upon the sky in flaming letters the merits of His gospel?  And the answer is that angels have never been redeemed.  We have known the depths of depravity, having been enslaved to sin, and now we have been supernaturally exalted to become sons of God by the graciousness of God and the atonement of Jesus Christ.  That transformation is what makes us much better witnesses of His grace than angels could ever be.  If God can save a wretch like me and make me a minister of His kingdom, then there is hope for anyone.

Now then in closing I will just mention the two miracles that the author Luke includes in this passage by way of illustration of this power of a transformed life.  In the first example, a man laid paralyzed for eight years in his bed.  And the Apostle Peter comes by him and calls out to him, “’Aeneas, Jesus Christ heals you; get up and make your bed.’ Immediately he got up.   And all who lived at Lydda and Sharon saw him, and they turned to the Lord.” 

This miracle simply illustrates what we have been discussing.  The power of God to make a man that could not walk, walk once again, became the testimony of a transformed life that turned everyone who lived in the towns of Lydda and Sharon to the Lord.  Don’t get so enamored at the thought of a miracle that you miss the greater miracle represented here.  God is able to make Christians to walk in the fear of the Lord and in the comfort and strength of the Holy Spirit, so that He might cause many people to come to the Lord.  That is the power of a transformed life.  The miracle of my salvation and your salvation is to make us walk in newness of life, and those who see that transformation as old things pass away and all things become new are encouraged to come to Christ themselves.

And the second miracle illustrates pretty much the same thing.  Peter is called to the house of a believing woman that had died.  And Peter goes there, perhaps not knowing how God might use him, but being willing to be used, he was available.  Such an important principle by the way.  That we might just be available and show up when we are called. Don’t let the devil convince you that you have nothing to offer to the service of the church.  If God can use 2 fishes to feed 5000 then He can use you in His service if you will just make yourself available.

So after Peter arrived, he put everyone out of the room, and prayed, and said, “Tabitha arise.”  And she arose and Peter presented her alive.  Once again a mighty miracle authenticating the doctrine of the apostles.  But I think the point that Luke is making again is the power of God to transform a life.  To take what is dead and make it alive.  That is what happens in conversion, is it not?  We who were dead in our trespasses and sins have been made alive unto Christ.  And what is the result of this conversion?  The testimony of this woman’s new life caused many to believe in the Lord. 

You may say, well do we have the power to raise the dead or heal people?  No, and neither did Peter.  God has the power to heal and raise the dead.  But we need to realize that Peter was not sent to every home in Israel where someone died.  God used this miracle to illustrate the power of God to save.  Which is the greater miracle?  To raise a person to life again only to have them die once more in a few years time, or to raise a person to life again so that they may never die?  I would say the greater miracle is the miracle of salvation.  And that miracle is available for you today if you have never received it.  Simply call out to God in repentance and faith in Christ that you might be born again.  Whoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.

And then Christian, if you have experienced that miracle of salvation, you’ve been transformed from death to life, then you need to walk in the fear of the Lord and the power of the Holy Spirit that you might multiply that salvation to others.   You do that by submitting yourself to the preaching of the word by a Bible teaching pastor, and be edified, built up in maturity, doing the your work of service as a part of the local body, walking in the fear of the Lord and in the power of the Holy Spirit, and in so doing make disciples.  Multiply yourself over and over again, by the testimony of the supernatural transformation of your life.