Sermons Worth Stealing - Pt 7

Now the apostles and the brothers who were throughout Judea heard that the Gentiles also had received the word of God. So when Peter went up to Jerusalem, the circumcision party criticized him, saying, “You went to uncircumcised men and ate with them.” But Peter began and explained it to them. (Acts 11:1-4 ESV).

The whole of Peter’s sermon introduced in our reading today goes beyond these few verses. And, there is much more to explore than we will have time to do so in this format. However, I want to minimally begin to draw our attention to a central truth that is essential in the mission of the Gospel. Simply put, it is a work of grace for all men who are called to be the children of God. Having pastored churches through the tumultuous times of the seventies and eighties I can identify with Peter in this text. He has been “called on to the carpet” for his “shameful” behavior with the gentiles (uncircumcised men). Why, he even ate with them… my, my! I could tell the stories of similar experiences whether it was baptizing the first black in our First Baptist Church of the “county seat” town in East Texas, or starting missions to other racially different peoples in our building in North Texas. I must confess I was not nearly as subtle as Peter. My approach was to simply declare the truth that the Gospel was for all men. That was not as well received; however, it has stood the test of time as these efforts have produced great ministries these decades later. It should be noted elsewhere in the book of Acts even those who are the most God-fearing and ethical, namely, the Jews, are told that they must repent and believe in order to be saved. The Jews at Pentecost were called "devout men" (cf. Acts 2:5) like Cornelius was called a devout man (cf. Acts 10:2). But Peter ended his first sermon (cf. Acts 2) by calling even devout Jews to repent and be baptized in the name of Jesus for the forgiveness of their sins (v. 38). So Luke is not trying to tell us in this book that devout, God-fearing people who practice what's right as best they know how are already saved and without any need of the gospel. The gospel got its start among the most devout people in the world, namely, the Jews. They had more advantages in knowing God than any of the other peoples of the earth. Yet they were told again and again: devoutness and works of righteousness and religious sincerity does not solve the problem of sin. There is no place, nor people, who do not need the truth of the Gospel. We must separate ourselves from every human barrier to this mission. We must believe the only hope is to believe on Jesus. It was true then, it is true today; and, it is true for all men everywhere!