Review:
God Shows No Partiality.
- Don't think you're Someone. (Acts 10:21-26)
- Don't look down on Anyone. (Acts 10:27-33)
- The gospel is for Everyone. (Acts 10:34-48)
Review: Gal 6:3
Review:
Deuteronomy 10:17 - the awesome God who does not show partiality nor take a bribe.
Job 34:19 - Who shows no partiality to princes Nor regards the rich above the poor
Romans 2:11 - For there is no partiality with God.
Galatians 2:6 – God shows no partiality
Galatians 3:28 There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is no male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.
Ephesians 6:9 - ...there is no partiality with Him.
1 Peter 1:17 - If you address as Father the One who impartially judges...
Sermon Notes (PDF): BLANK
Hint: Highlight blanks above for answers!
-
00:00-00:01
Acts chapter 10.
00:03-00:05
I want to tell you this story.
00:05-00:08
Several years ago, I was actually visiting someone in the hospital.
00:10-00:18
And after my visit, I'd gotten on the elevator and went down a floor - it was up at Butler Hospital, I think six floors.
00:21-00:26
The next floor, this young lady had gotten on the elevator.
00:26-00:29
And I could tell just by looking at her.
00:29-01:27
were all red and puffy and her makeup had run. And it's obvious immediately to me, this young lady had been crying. So immediately my mind starts racing, like what just happened to this young girl? I mean, she was obviously crying. Did she just, was she up here visiting her grandma and her grandma got some bad news? Or maybe she has a child that was in an accident and had to be rushed up here and he's in the emergency room and things aren't looking good for him, or maybe her husband, maybe he was just diagnosed, and my mind is just racing like a thousand miles an hour. I wonder what could happen. But then I'm thinking, I'm on an elevator with this woman, and is this an opportunity to try to minister to her? But I only have like 20 seconds here on the elevator, so what do I do? My mind's just like, like flying. Is there a word of hope or encouragement that I could give her? Should I just offer to pray with her? Should I invite her to church? What should I do? Because this girl's obviously and crying, what can I possibly do to try to minister to her?
01:27-01:28
And my mind's just racing.
01:28-01:30
I'm almost in panic mode.
01:31-01:32
Like, I've got to do something here, God!
01:33-01:35
You put this person in my life to minister to, I've got to do something!
01:35-01:37
My mind's just racing, racing, racing.
01:38-01:42
And finally, the girl looks up.
01:44-01:55
She throws her arms in the air and she says, "I'm an ant!" And I said, well, congratulations, young lady.
01:57-02:04
And the reason I tell you that story is because that's a lighter example of a serious truth.
02:06-02:10
We tend to judge people by what we see, true or false.
02:12-02:28
Today, on a much more serious note, you have some police officers that would wrongly use and abuse their power to see all minorities as criminals, which is wrong.
02:29-02:35
But then the other side is wrongly viewing all police officers as evil and racist.
02:37-02:49
We live in a day where you would think we would be beyond this, especially in the United States of America, we would be beyond this judgment based on appearance thing.
02:50-02:52
We're supposed to be the melting pot, right?
02:53-02:55
But sadly we see it more than ever.
02:58-03:08
There is nothing new under the sun because prejudice, racial hatred was even more blatant in the time that the book of Acts was written.
03:08-03:12
You know, during this time, The Jews had nothing to do with the Gentiles.
03:14-03:19
Actually, the Jews called them dogs, which to me doesn't sound like an insult.
03:19-03:20
I love my dog.
03:20-03:21
I think my dogs are great.
03:21-03:28
But when they were calling them dogs, they weren't thinking about your little fluffy dog with the ribbon that eats off your fork at dinner time.
03:29-03:30
Not that mine does that.
03:31-03:32
Mine doesn't even have a ribbon.
03:32-03:33
But they weren't thinking of that.
03:33-03:42
They were thinking of these wild dogs, these garbage eaters, these disease-carrying, filthy things.
03:42-03:45
And that's how Jews referred to Gentiles.
03:45-03:46
They're dogs.
03:46-03:48
They're nothing but dogs.
03:49-03:51
Jews would not associate with Gentiles.
03:52-03:56
The Jews believed that to associate with a Gentile made them unclean.
03:59-04:03
Jews wouldn't eat food that was prepared by a Gentile.
04:03-04:07
They wouldn't use utensils that were touched by a Gentile.
04:08-04:09
How did that happen?
04:09-04:17
You see, if you go back to the Old Testament, God had told ancient Israel not to be like the surrounding nations.
04:18-04:20
That's the purpose of the Old Testament law.
04:20-04:22
This is going to set you apart.
04:22-04:23
Don't be like them.
04:23-04:33
And somehow over time, in the general Jewish mindset, it went from don't be like them to have nothing to do with them.
04:35-04:46
And that's why Acts 10 is so huge because this chapter, the account that is being told to us in this chapter changed the course of church history.
04:48-04:55
We started this last week. We saw that the Holy Spirit came to Cornelius in Caesarea to send for Peter who was in Joppa.
04:58-05:01
So Cornelius sent men to get Peter.
05:01-05:05
Meanwhile, Peter had this vision. Do you remember the vision we talked about last week?
05:05-05:08
He saw the sheets descending from heaven.
05:08-05:12
It was full of all kinds of animals, and God told him to kill and eat.
05:14-05:21
And Cornelius' men show up while Peter is still trying to figure out what the vision means.
05:23-05:36
During that time, the Holy Spirit said to Peter, "Go with them." And what we see in Acts 10 is the Gospel, the salvation that is of the Jews from the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.
05:37-05:39
The Gospel is going to the Gentiles.
05:40-05:43
And in this passage, Peter learns a huge lesson.
05:44-05:45
It's on your outline. Here it is.
05:46-05:48
God shows no partiality.
05:50-05:55
As we look through this passage, we're going to be looking at how to live like we believe that.
05:56-05:57
God shows no partiality.
05:57-05:58
How are you doing there?
06:00-06:12
Let's pick up in verse 21 we left off last week, jot this down. God shows no partiality. Number one, don't think you're someone. Don't think you're someone.
06:15-06:48
Look at verse 21. "And Peter went down to the men," came from Cornelius to Petium, "Peter went down to the men and said, 'I am the one you're looking for. What is the reason for your coming?' And they said, 'Cornelius, a centurion, an upright "God-fearing man who is well spoken of by the whole Jewish nation was directed by a holy angel to send for you to come to his house and hear what you have to say." So he invited them in to be his guests.
06:49-06:54
The next day he rose and went away with them and some of the brothers from Joppa accompanied him.
06:54-06:56
And on the following day they entered Caesarea.
06:57-07:07
Cornelius was expecting them and had called together his relatives and close friends." Okay, so this was a Gentile that...
07:07-07:10
The Jews liked this guy, even though he was a Roman centurion.
07:11-07:13
So Peter comes, he calls his relative, close friends.
07:14-07:19
Verse 25, "When Peter entered Cornelius, met him and fell down at his feet and worshipped him.
07:20-07:23
But Peter lifted him up saying, 'Stand up.
07:25-07:31
I too am a man.'" Number one, don't think you're someone.
07:33-07:58
But I want you to see - we're going to stop here in the passage for a second - but I want you to see when Peter came in, he didn't say to the Gentile who had bowed down before him, Peter didn't say, "Okay, now, kiss my ring." Peter didn't say, "You may refer to me as the most holy Reverend Peter." What did he say?
07:59-08:26
He says, "Get up. I'm just a man." Galatians 6:3 says this, "For if anyone thinks he is something, when he is nothing, he deceives himself." "For if anyone thinks he is something, when he is nothing, he deceives himself." Do you know the Bible says in many passages, many different ways, the Bible says you can deceive yourself.
08:27-08:27
Do you know that?
08:28-08:30
Several years ago, I preached a whole sermon just on that.
08:31-08:36
You can deceive yourself, and it would almost be funny if it wasn't so horribly tragic.
08:37-08:38
What happens?
08:38-08:45
The Bible says, by nature, our hearts are deceitful above all things.
08:46-08:50
It would be bad if I lied to you and I tricked you and you fell for it.
08:50-08:51
That would be bad.
08:51-08:52
But it's even more tragic.
08:52-09:02
The Bible says that by nature, You can lie to yourself, and then you turn around and you believe the lie that you just told yourself.
09:02-09:03
That's deceiving yourself.
09:04-09:08
And Galatians 6.3 says that you can deceive yourself how?
09:09-09:13
By thinking that you're something when you're nothing.
09:14-09:18
Okay, this isn't like an attempt to lower your self-esteem.
09:18-09:20
This is an attempt to bring you into reality.
09:22-09:23
You tell yourself the lie and then you believe it.
09:23-09:29
You can say, "You know what, Pastor Jeff, you are pretty awesome." Then I say to myself, "You know what, Self?
09:30-09:35
You're right, I am pretty awesome." And then I lie to myself and say, "People should respect you more.
09:36-09:39
People should..." You know what, you're absolutely right, they totally should.
09:39-09:46
And you have this whole internal conversation where you're lying to yourself and then you're believing the very lies that you're telling yourself.
09:53-09:58
See, in this passage, this is why we as a church, we don't worship or pray to the saints.
10:00-10:02
Biblically, the Bible says that we're all saints.
10:03-10:05
If you're in Jesus Christ, you've been pronounced perfect.
10:07-10:09
No one is higher than anyone else.
10:11-10:21
At the end of the day, you were a sinner, saved by the grace of God in Jesus Christ, and that makes you no different than anyone else.
10:23-10:29
And the truth is anything that is good in you at all is of God anyway.
10:31-10:32
So don't be deceived.
10:33-10:34
Don't think that you're someone.
10:35-10:39
Secondly, don't look down on anyone.
10:39-10:40
Don't think that you're someone.
10:41-10:42
Don't look down on anyone.
10:43-10:46
Let's pick up in the passage verse 27.
10:47-10:52
And he talked with him, and he went in and found many persons gathered.
10:54-10:56
And he said to them, listen to this, this is from Peter.
10:57-11:14
And he said to them, these Gentiles, "You yourselves know how unlawful it is for a Jew to associate with or to visit anyone of another nation." Like you guys realize this isn't really like the way it goes.
11:14-11:15
I'm a Jew and you're a Gentile.
11:16-11:22
You know it's not lawful for me to be here." Look at this last phrase.
11:25-11:37
"But, God has shown me that I should not call any person common or unclean." Common or unclean.
11:39-11:46
You see, that vision that Peter got with the sheet and the animals, Peter was starting to put some pieces together.
11:46-11:50
You know, that vision was about more than just animals.
11:50-11:54
That vision was about more than what I'm allowed to have on the lunch menu.
11:54-12:02
Peter started to realize, God was showing me something that had more to do with animals.
12:04-12:06
Peter was finally getting it, but there was a question remaining.
12:06-12:07
Look at verse 29.
12:09-12:13
Peter says, "So when I was sent for, I came without objection.
12:14-12:20
I asked them, 'Why are you sent for me?'" So the question remains, why?
12:21-12:40
Peter says, "I'm starting to understand this vision that God gave me, but I'm still not sure why you asked me to come." Cornelius said, "Four days ago about this hour, I was praying in my house at the ninth hour - that's 3 P.M.
12:40-12:51
And behold, a man stood before me in bright clothing and said, Cornelius, your prayer has been heard and your alms have been remembered before God.
12:52-12:55
Send therefore to Joppa and ask for Simon, who is called Peter.
12:56-13:00
He is lodging in the house of Simon, a tanner by the sea.
13:02-13:05
So I sent for you at once, You've been kind enough to come.
13:06-13:16
Now therefore, we are all here in the presence of God to hear all that you have been commanded by the Lord." I love that last phrase.
13:16-13:18
It's like the preacher's dream crowd.
13:19-14:07
They're like, "We are assembled, and we are waiting, and we are listening for you to tell us everything that the Lord commanded you to tell us." This was such a radical scene, and I know sometimes we can be reading Bibles and kind of skim over something like this but if you can just if you can just put yourself in this scene for a second here you have this this Jewish man Peter who brought some other Jews with him six of them actually we'll find out later go into this Gentile centurions house he has all his family and friends there this was such a radical thing considering how much the Jews hated the Gentiles and right now somebody's sitting here in church going You know what, Pastor Jeff, I'm still thinking about you telling us how much those Jews hated those Gentiles.
14:07-14:10
And I just want to say, Pastor Jeff, shame on them.
14:11-14:16
Shame on those first century Jews for looking down on people. Shame on them!
14:16-14:19
Shouldn't they know? Shouldn't those Jews have known?
14:20-14:22
Well, hang on before we start pointing fingers.
14:27-14:29
Is there any group? I'm just asking you now.
14:29-14:34
Let's step away from the text for a second and think about these concepts.
14:35-14:39
Is there any group that you don't think we should evangelize as a church?
14:43-14:44
What if...
14:45-14:48
We saw the small group video about all the...
14:48-14:52
That was several small groups coming together to minister to a family in our church.
14:52-14:55
But our small groups all do outreach projects.
14:55-15:04
And what if one of our small groups was planning on reaching out to Syrian refugees and asked you to come?
15:06-15:11
Is there somebody here that would be like, "I don't want anything to do with those people"?
15:13-15:15
What if our church was making a plan?
15:15-15:20
We were going to bus people from the homeless shelter to church every Sunday.
15:21-15:28
We're going to buy a brand new bus and we're going to go down to the homeless shelter, going to bring in 50 homeless people every Sunday?
15:30-15:33
What if you were asked directly to do prison ministry?
15:35-16:19
Say, "Hey, we go into the prison on certain Friday nights and share the gospel with the inmates there, and we'd like you to come." Would you say in any of these situations, or I could list a thousand more, but in any these scenarios would you say you know I really don't think the church needs to be involved with those people would you say that I oughta pastor Jeff that's that's different no not to the first century Jew it was no different whatsoever and like them please hear me I want to read this because I want to say this very carefully.
16:21-16:34
Like those first century Jews, every one of us in this room probably have some degree of sinful prejudice against some demographic.
16:35-16:37
True or false?
16:38-16:40
I'll say that again, I'm going to give you a chance to answer.
16:41-16:42
We can be honest here, right?
16:43-16:50
Every one of us in this room probably have some degree of sinful prejudice against some demographic, true or false?
16:52-16:54
It's hard to say that, isn't it?
16:55-16:58
It's probably true. Some degree.
17:00-17:01
Against somebody.
17:05-17:12
Peter, that's what I love about this passage, is because Peter owned up to it. Peter didn't pretend it didn't exist.
17:14-17:18
He just walks in and he goes, "You guys know it is so not cool for me to be here.
17:18-17:21
You know that, right?" He just owned up to it.
17:23-17:28
And I think in doing that, it was God's way of breaking down some of those prejudices.
17:31-17:55
I think it was John Stott had said, "Acts chapter 10 isn't so much about the conversion of Cornelius as much as it's about the conversion of Peter. Not coming to Christ, but the way that God changed Peter's mind about the way that he thinks of the Gentiles. I think there's a lot of truth in that. Peter owned up to it. He says, "God has shown me." You see that?
17:55-18:25
He says, "God has shown me." God has shown you what? I should not call any person common or unclean. He says, "Here's what God showed me with the sheet and the animals and all of that. God was showing me that I shouldn't look down on anyone, even you Gentile dogs." So God shows no partiality. Don't think you're someone. Secondly, don't look down on anyone.
18:26-18:32
Thirdly, this is the main point here, the gospel is for everyone.
18:34-18:36
The gospel is for everyone.
18:37-18:47
Verse 34, "So Peter opened his mouth." Now when the Bible says that, that seems like kind of a weird phrase to us.
18:47-18:54
Like Peter stood up before them and he's like, "Peter, why are you opening your mouth?" It was an expression.
18:55-19:19
it meant was, what he was about to say was very, very, very important. Okay? So that's why Luke records it that way. Peter opened his mouth. He's about to say something really important and what is it? This is the servant here. "Truly, I understand that God shows God shows no partiality.
19:21-19:23
Peter says, "I get it now.
19:24-19:25
I get it now.
19:25-19:31
God shows no partiality." And the Bible speaks so much about this subject.
19:31-19:37
I didn't even realize how much the Bible emphasizes this truth until this week when I was really digging in.
19:38-19:39
Can we put those verses up?
19:41-19:42
Just flying through these.
19:42-19:43
It's all through the Bible.
19:43-20:07
Deuteronomy 10.17, "The awesome God who does not show partiality." Romans 2.11, "For there is no partiality with God." Galatians 2.6, "God shows no partiality." Galatians 3.28, "There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, no male and female, for you are one in Christ Jesus." That means no partiality.
20:07-21:03
Ephesians 6.9, "There is no partiality with Him." 1 Peter 1.17, "If you address as Father the one who impartially, impartially, judges. It is all through your Bible, this concept over and over and over. God shows no partiality. And it might not seem like a big deal. It might not feel like, "Pastor Jeff, why are you so excited about this? Why does this seem like such a big deal to you?" Well, it might not seem like a big deal until you realize that this is just one more way that we are completely different from God. Because who among us is completely impartial? Don't get don't get magnanimous on me. "I don't see color Pastor Jeff. I see all people the same.
21:03-21:11
I treat all people the same." Really? We talked about as a church kind of thing.
21:12-21:18
Now I'm going to zoom in and make it a little more individualized and personal.
21:21-21:22
What about you?
21:22-21:25
Are you impartial?
21:27-21:29
I'm going to give you a couple scenarios.
21:29-21:32
I just want you to think about how you would react in these situations.
21:34-21:34
You're getting on an airplane.
21:37-21:42
And two men are in line behind you getting on the airplane.
21:43-21:45
And those two men look like they may be Muslim.
21:49-21:56
Does that make you think any different than if you would have turned around and there were non-Muslim looking people behind you?
22:00-22:01
What about at your workplace?
22:01-22:02
You have to hire someone.
22:03-22:05
You have to hire someone at the workplace.
22:05-22:09
And in come two applicants.
22:09-22:15
One is this elderly person who is the same sex as you.
22:16-22:21
And the other applicant is a very attractive, opposite-sex person.
22:23-22:24
How impartial are you?
22:26-22:29
Even before the interview starts, are you impartial?
22:30-22:32
Let's say you're having a yard sale.
22:35-22:40
And sometime during the day a group of people pull up in a beat up rusty old car.
22:43-22:54
And after a while you notice that something is missing that you know you didn't sell, but something from your yard sale is missing and those people have gone on.
22:55-22:59
You automatically assume you know who the culprit was?
23:02-23:23
Parents, what if your child befriends a kid at school who has serious hygiene issues, and you find out that this child's parents and this child, they live in a part of town, but you're not sure you want your kid hanging out with kids from that part of town?
23:25-23:25
How impartial are you?
23:28-23:34
Listen church, right, wrong, or indifferent, you evaluate people based on their looks all the time.
23:34-23:35
You do.
23:36-23:37
You do.
23:39-23:47
That's why when the Bible says, you know, God is not partial, God shows no partiality.
23:48-23:53
You know the Greek word for no partiality?
23:54-23:55
is literally this.
23:56-24:12
The Greek expression is "doesn't receive a face." So literally, if you're reading this in the Greek, it would say, "God doesn't receive a face." What in the world does that mean? Think about it.
24:12-24:15
Receiving a face means just taking people at face value.
24:15-24:20
I look at you, I automatically think some things about you just because of your face.
24:24-24:26
The Bible says God doesn't do that.
24:26-24:28
God doesn't look at your face and evaluate you.
24:28-24:29
Where does God look?
24:29-24:31
God looks in here, doesn't He?
24:31-24:32
He looks in here.
24:33-24:34
He sees your heart.
24:37-24:40
That's just one more thing that makes God so awesome.
24:40-24:42
He doesn't care about externals.
24:42-24:43
God doesn't care who your parents are.
24:44-24:46
God doesn't care how much you can bench press.
24:46-24:49
God doesn't care how much you spend on getting your hair done.
24:50-24:55
God doesn't care about the color of your skin, the color of your car, or the color of your shoes.
24:57-24:59
God's simply looking at your heart.
25:00-25:04
With Peter going into this encounter, Peter definitely would have been partial.
25:05-25:07
I know for a fact that he was.
25:07-25:09
It comes up later in Galatians.
25:10-25:11
We'll get to that later.
25:12-25:14
But Peter had some of this in him already.
25:14-25:16
It would have been part of his upbringing.
25:16-25:19
I'm not necessarily blaming Peter.
25:20-25:23
I'm just saying he was a first century Jew. It would have been ingrained in his culture.
25:24-25:26
You don't hang out with those filthy Gentiles.
25:29-25:32
And here it's starting to sink in. God's different.
25:32-25:34
God's different. God's different.
25:35-25:43
God doesn't see these pristine, shiny Jews over here and these horrible, filthy, nasty Gentile dogs over here.
25:43-25:49
God doesn't see two groups like that.
25:51-25:54
And a lot of the ancient world was divided up that way. Did you know that?
25:55-26:01
Like, to the Greeks, the world was divided into two categories.
26:02-26:07
You were either a Greek or you were a barbarian.
26:07-26:08
Do you know where that word comes from?
26:09-26:12
A barbarian was anybody that didn't speak Greek to the Greeks.
26:13-26:16
And to the Greeks, people spoke other languages.
26:16-26:21
it just sounded like they were going "bar, bar, bar, bar, bar, bar, bar." That's what it sounded like to them.
26:22-26:25
So they called them "barbarians." That's where that word comes from.
26:27-26:41
So they had the world divided up as Greeks and barbarians, the Jews had it divided up as Jews and Gentiles, and Peter says, "You know what? I see now that God doesn't divide us up like that." So what does he do? Look at verse 35.
26:43-26:53
But in every nation, anyone who fears Him and does what is right is acceptable to Him.
26:54-26:57
Fears Him and does what is right. What does that even mean?
26:58-26:59
How can I be acceptable to God?
27:00-27:04
Well, fearing the Lord, that's another way of saying reverence.
27:04-27:06
That's reverence for God.
27:08-27:10
Peter says, "And does what is right." Well, what is right?
27:11-27:15
Who determines what is doing what is right in order to be acceptable by God?
27:16-27:19
Well, what is right is believing in the gospel of Jesus Christ.
27:19-27:21
That's why Peter rolls out the gospel, that's the next thing.
27:21-27:25
You have to do what's right. Well, what's right? Believing in Jesus. That's what's right.
27:25-27:28
And let's look at this, verse 36-43.
27:30-27:32
Peter rolls out the gospel.
27:32-27:40
"As for the word that he sent to Israel, preaching good news of peace through Jesus Christ, He is Lord of all.
27:40-27:43
You yourselves know what happened throughout all Judea.
27:45-27:53
Beginning from Galilee after the baptism that John proclaimed, how God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and with power.
27:54-27:57
He went about doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil.
27:57-27:58
For God was with Him.
27:59-28:06
And we are witnesses of all that He did both in the country of the Jews and in Jerusalem.
28:09-28:11
put him to death by hanging him on a tree.
28:14-28:18
But God raised him on the third day and made him to appear.
28:20-28:28
Not to all the people, but to us, who have been chosen by God as witnesses who ate and drank with Him after He rose from the dead.
28:28-28:41
And He commanded us to preach to the people and to testify that He is the One appointed by God to be judge of the living and the dead.
28:42-28:50
To Him, all the prophets bear witness that everyone who believes in Him receives forgiveness of sins through His name.
28:53-28:56
So Peter hits all the major points of the Gospel, doesn't he?
28:57-28:59
Is Jesus anointed by God?
28:59-29:00
He proved who He is?
29:00-29:02
He was crucified. He resurrected.
29:02-29:06
He's working through His people right now ultimately, he's going to be the judge.
29:09-29:10
Look at verse 43.
29:12-29:15
There's a great summary of the Gospel message.
29:16-29:17
Just break it down.
29:19-29:22
All the prophets bear witness about Jesus.
29:22-29:26
What? That everyone - who's the Gospel for?
29:28-29:28
Everyone.
29:28-29:31
What about those stupid barbarians?
29:31-29:31
Everyone.
29:33-29:35
It's about the Gentile dogs.
29:35-29:36
Everyone.
29:36-29:38
The Gospel is for everyone.
29:40-29:41
Everyone who what?
29:41-29:42
Believes in Him.
29:44-29:48
So, what do we need to do to get saved?
29:48-29:50
It's nothing that we can do.
29:50-29:54
It's simply believing in what Christ has done for us.
29:54-29:56
It's believing in Him.
29:59-30:01
receives forgiveness of sins.
30:03-30:04
That's the result.
30:05-30:09
Everyone who believes in Him receives forgiveness of sins.
30:09-30:12
Your sin penalty is erased.
30:13-30:15
God has forgiven you of all your sins, past, present, and future.
30:16-30:18
You are pronounced not guilty.
30:19-30:27
You're going to stand before the judge someday, Jesus Christ, but you already have the promise being pronounced not guilty.
30:30-30:31
How can you say that?
30:31-30:35
Because everyone who believes in him receives forgiveness of sin through his name.
30:38-30:43
I was reading this week, and I tried to imagine - do you ever do that when you're reading the Bible?
30:43-30:46
You try to imagine a tone of voice and how they said it and things like that?
30:46-30:47
Do you ever do that?
30:47-30:48
Just me?
30:48-30:49
Some of you do that? Okay.
30:50-31:10
Well, when Peter was preaching this sermon, got the what he said in verse 43. Look at verse 43. Which word do you think Peter emphasized? I wasn't there. I didn't hear it, okay? But I have a really strong suspicion that I know which word Peter emphasized. Anybody want to take a guess?
31:12-31:27
Yeah, everyone. Don't you think that was the word he emphasized? He's like, "I just realized that God shows no partiality." And then he's ruling out the gospel. I as bear witness that everyone who believes, everyone.
31:29-31:30
I think that was the word that he hid.
31:33-31:39
Because while Peter was still saying these things, the Holy Spirit fell on all who heard the word.
31:40-32:08
And the believers from among the circumcised who had come with Peter were amazed because the gift of the Holy Spirit for they were hearing them speak in tongues and extolling God." You see here, this was sort of like Pentecost for the Gentiles, wasn't it?
32:09-32:16
Like the Jews had Pentecost back in Acts chapter 2, but how do we really know that the gospel is for the Gentiles?
32:17-32:18
How do we really know that God is speaking to us?
32:18-32:21
God wants to include them into this plan of salvation.
32:21-32:33
I think this was sort of like their Pentecost, because the Holy Spirit comes upon them and obviously performs signs through speaking in tongues.
32:37-32:38
Gentiles Pentecost.
32:40-32:54
And Peter declared, "Can anyone withhold water for baptizing these people who have and he commanded them to be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ.
32:55-32:59
Then they asked him to remain for some day.
33:00-33:05
They immediately demonstrated their new life and commitment to Jesus by being baptized.
33:08-33:19
Though God shows no partiality, in other words, no partiality, The Gospel is for everyone.
33:23-33:27
Another word for everyone the Bible uses is whosoever.
33:28-33:31
Do you know there's two big whosoever's in the Bible?
33:31-33:32
Did you know that?
33:32-33:35
There's two really big whosoever's in the Bible.
33:35-33:41
The reason I say these are two really big ones is because you're in one of these categories.
33:43-34:47
The first one is very familiar, John 3.16, "For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son." That's "Whosoever believes in him will not perish but have everlasting life." There's another "whosoever" that comes at the end of the book, Revelation chapter 20, verse 15 says, "Whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire." "Whosoever receives Christ, he receives the Lord and Savior." Whosoever receives Christ is saved from sin and from hell, because God chose no partial.
34:50-34:54
Father in Heaven, this is why we worship You.
34:55-34:56
You are not like us.
34:58-35:06
The Bible says, "Yes, we were made in Your image, but God, We worship you because you are so different from us.
35:06-35:15
And it's hard for us to even wrap our finite brains around the concept that you show no partiality.
35:18-35:22
You love anyone in this room just as much as you love Billy Graham.
35:25-35:36
The same opportunity for salvation is for anyone in this room as you would offer to First sinner on the planet, you show no partiality.
35:39-35:45
Father, I pray for us as a church, because the truth is we're all like Peter.
35:46-35:51
We all are partial in some sense.
35:51-35:58
We all might have, even if it's just a little tiny bit, some prejudice within us.
36:14-36:21
We thank you, Father, as this is an audience of mostly Gentiles.
36:22-36:29
We thank you, Father, that this awesome plan of salvation was to include dogs like us.
36:30-36:30
We thank you, Father, that we are a church.
36:30-36:33
We worship you, Father.
Small Group Questions (Whole Group):
Read Acts 10:21-48
*Be honest – ever feel like someone, or a demographic of "someones" didn't deserve to be saved? How should we deal with those feelings?
How did Peter’s vision show him not to call PEOPLE common or unclean, when the vision displayed a sheet and animals (Acts 10:28, see also Acts 10:11-13 in this chapter)?
How does the Gospel unify people groups despite radically different backgrounds?
Breakout Questions:
Pray against our prejudices.