church

INI
Cantate, the Fourth Sunday after Easter
April 28, 2013
Ascension Lutheran Church, Tacoma WA
Paul Naumann, Pastor

PEOPLE vs. SIMON PETER
Acts 11:1-18

To God, alone wise, be glory through Jesus Christ forever. Amen. This morning
we turn our attention to the Book of Acts, chapter eleven, verses one through
eighteen, as follows:

Now the apostles and the brothers who were throughout Judea heard that the
Gentiles also had received the word of God. 2 So when Peter went up to
Jerusalem, the circumcision party criticized him, saying, 3 "You went to
uncircumcised men and ate with them." 4 But Peter began and explained it to
them in order: 5 "I was in the city of Joppa praying, and in a trance I saw a
vision, something like a great sheet descending, being let down from heaven by
its four corners, and it came down to me. 6 Looking at it closely, I observed
animals and beasts of prey and reptiles and birds of the air. 7 And I heard a
voice saying to me, 'Rise, Peter; kill and eat.' 8 But I said, 'By no means, Lord;
for nothing common or unclean has ever entered my mouth.' 9 But the voice
answered a second time from heaven, 'What God has made clean, do not call
common.' 10 This happened three times, and all was drawn up again into
heaven. 11 And behold, at that very moment three men arrived at the house in
which we were, sent to me from Caesarea. 12 And the Spirit told me to go with
them, making no distinction. These six brothers also accompanied me, and we
entered the man's house. 13 And he told us how he had seen the angel stand in
his house and say, 'Send to Joppa and bring Simon who is called Peter; 14 he
will declare to you a message by which you will be saved, you and all your
household.' 15 As I began to speak, the Holy Spirit fell on them just as on us at
the beginning. 16 And I remembered the word of the Lord, how he said, 'John
baptized with water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit.' 17 If then
God gave the same gift to them as he gave to us when we believed in the Lord
Jesus Christ, who was I that I could stand in God's way?" 18 When they heard
these things they fell silent. And they glorified God, saying, "Then to the
Gentiles also God has granted repentance that leads to life." This is the Word
of God.

In the Name of our Savior Jesus Christ, a Light to lighten the Gentiles, and the
Glory of His people Israel, Dear Fellow Redeemed,

Brown vs. Board of Education was a case argued before the Supreme Court of
the United States in 1954. It was a test case. So called, because it tested the
constitutionality of laws allowing school boards to discriminate between white
and black students, in effect excluding black children from certain schools. Its
landmark decision was issued on May 17th of that year, in which the Court
ruled that such discrimination was indeed unconstitutional. It was a huge step
forward for civil rights in this country.

The idea that a child could be excluded from school solely on the basis of his
ethnic background seems absurd now. But back then there were deeply-held
convictions on both sides of the issue. Well, what would you think about the
idea that mere ethnicity could exclude someone from the Christian Church?
That you couldn’t be saved, e.g., if you were Samoan, or Chinese, or British?
Seems silly, doesn’t it? But to believers in the first century Jerusalem, it didn’t
seem silly at all. In fact, they were convinced that only ethnic Jews could be
saved, and everybody else was excluded! But Peter stood his ground to defend
God’s truth. He brought a sort of test case on the subject. This morning we’re
privileged to listen in on the courtroom drama. At the same time, we’ll test our
own attitudes on the question of who qualifies for admission to the Christian
Church. Our theme today:

PEOPLE vs. SIMON PETER
A Test Case on Discrimination in the Church
I. The circumcision party opens for the prosecution.
II. Peter offers a spirited defense.
III. God delivers the final verdict.

In our first reading this morning, we heard what happened at the house of
Cornelius in Caesarea. Cornelius was rather an important man – a centurion in
the Roman army. He was well-known as a friend to the Jewish people. But he
wasn't Jewish himself, and therein lay the problem. Peter was sent by God to
preach the gospel of Jesus Christ to Cornelius and his family, so that they would
believe in the Lord and be saved. Seems pretty straightforward. More believers,
more people in the church, more saved sinners to share heaven with one day!
What's not to like? But when Peter got back to Jerusalem, he found that the
news about these Gentile converts had arrived before him. And some of his
fellow Christians, all of whom were Jewish, were very unhappy about it.

This clique of Christians was known as "they of the circumcision," or simply
The Circumcision Party. They were new Christians (at that point they were all
new Christians) who didn't understand the concept of Christian liberty. They
believed in Jesus, but they also believed that it was necessary to keep on
observing the law of Moses, with all its regulations about clean and unclean
foods, keeping the Sabbath day, and the most strict requirement of all – never
associating with Gentiles! They felt that Peter had done wrong by associating
with Gentiles, and they were going to put their foot down about it. They would
make this a test case – THE PEOPLE vs. SIMON PETER. And they began
their prosecution by leveling a very sharp accusation: So when Peter went up to
Jerusalem, the circumcision party criticized him, saying, “You wnet to
uncircumcised men and ate with them!”

Again, this sounds silly to us. But think about it from their perspective. For
2000 years, from Abraham to Jesus, it was the Jews who were The people of
God. They kept themselves strictly separate, as God had commanded them in
the book of Leviticus: "… You shall distinguish between holy and unholy,
between clean and unclean, between the animal that may be eaten in the animal
that may not be eaten." – Leviticus 10 and 11. Yes, things had changed. Their
Messiah Jesus had arrived, had lived and died for them, and risen again from the
dead. He had ascended back into heaven, and shortly thereafter had sent the
Holy Spirit upon them in a miraculous way on the day of Pentecost, thereby
inaugurating the New Testament Christian church. But up to this point
everyone in that church had something in common – they were all Jewish! Was
that all to change now? They found it hard to accept, so they brought the sharp
accusation: "You went to uncircumcised men and ate with them!" They all
ganged up on him. It was THE PEOPLE vs. SIMON PETER.

Does this sound familiar, by the way? Wasn't this the same thing the Pharisees
were always bothering Jesus about during his ministry? When all the tax
collectors and the sinners drew near to Him to hear Him. 2 the Pharisees and
scribes complained, saying, "This Man receives sinners and eats with them."
--Luke 15:1-2. Same thing. "We're the people of God! We're the righteous ones!
You can't go to those others, those sinners, and associate with them!" But you
remember Jesus’ reply: "Those who are well have no need of a physician, but
those who are sick. 32 "I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners, to
repentance." --Luke 5:31-32.

Do we do that, I wonder? Take certain classes of people, or certain ethnicities,
or even certain individuals we know, and mentally disqualify them for the
church? Do we look down our noses at them and think, " They’re not like us.
We’re good Lutherans. They don’t belong here!” God forbid! It's good to remind
ourselves, once in a while, that WE are not the original people of God. In fact,
you and I are outsiders. After all, we’re not Jewish. We're "sinners of the
Gentiles," too, just like Cornelius and his family. In PEOPLE vs. SIMON
PETER he's arguing our case. He's contending on our behalf!

So that raises the stakes a bit, doesn't it? We're a little more interested in
Peter's remarks, now that we realize that you and I are the very Gentiles he's
defending. Well, you'll be glad to know that Peter offered a spirited defense on
your behalf. "He explained it to them in order." He laid it out for them
carefully, point by point. He let the facts speak for themselves. He knew he was
right, because he had his information directly from God. We heard in our first
reading this morning about the vision that was given by God to Peter. He said
he saw "…a great sheet descending, being let down from heaven by its four
corners, and it came down to me. Looking at it closely, I observed animals and
beasts of prey and reptiles and birds of the air." That phrase "looking at it
closely," by the way, was a mild translation. Ever seen in cartoons were
characters’ eyeballs pop out of their skull? –That’s closer to the meaning of the
Greek phrase here. Peter was shocked! Why was he shocked at the suggestion
that he take from among these creatures to provide for his food? Because all
these animals and birds were the ceremonially unclean creatures that God
prohibited Jews from eating in the Old Testament law of Moses. And Peter had
strictly kept the law of Moses. He had eaten kosher all his life..

In fact, Peter was as strict a Jew (or stricter!) than any of those who are now
accusing him. That’s why he said, "by no means, Lord! For nothing common or
unclean has ever entered my mouth!" But God had a message for Peter. Christ
had fulfilled the law. In the New Testament church there was no longer to be
any distinction between clean and unclean foods, nor between clean and
unclean believers. What God has made clean, do not call common. The vision
was repeated three times for emphasis, so there could be no doubt. Holiness is
not determined by people, but by what God himself has ordained as holy and
clean.

“And behold, at that very moment three men arrived at the house in which we
were, sent to me from Caesarea." Note: “at that very moment." It was no
coincidence; the Holy Spirit had given Peter the vision, and now the Holy Spirit
was giving him its interpretation. By the way, have you ever noticed how God
sends to you the very people you need, at the very moment you need them? Not
only that, but he sends you with the message of the gospel to the very people
who need to hear that message at that moment! Peter traveled with the
messengers from Joppa to the home of Cornelius in Caesarea, about 36 miles
away. For, "… the Spirit told me to go with them, making no distinction." And
what did he find when he got there? Cornelius had been prepared by the Holy
Spirit too! God had told him, "send to Joppa and brings Simon who is called
Peter; he will declare to you a message by which you will be saved, you and all
your household."

"A message by which you will be saved!" What wonderful news! How can a
person be saved eternally, and find everlasting life? Not by good works. Not by
struggling and striving, or by self-denial, or by becoming a monk or hermit. But
simply by hearing the message! By hearing the same message that you're
listening to right now. The message of a Savior, who was sent by God to
redeem us! The Savior who stepped into our shoes, and God's law, for us, in all
those places where we have broken it. A Savior who walk the road of sorrows
to Calvary, who shed his blood and died to pay the price of our sins.

The same message you're hearing now is the message the family of Cornelius
heard that day. And what happened? Not only did they believe, not only did the
Holy Spirit put faith in their hearts and turn these Gentiles into Christians, but
he poured out on them the same miraculous gifts that the apostles received on
the day of Pentecost! Peter says, "as I began to speak, the Holy Spirit fell on
them just as on us at the beginning." The miracle of tongues – the ability to
instantly speak foreign languages – was given them. On Pentecost this enabled
the apostles to preach the gospel to the foreigners who were in Jerusalem. On
this occasion, it served to underline the main message God was trying to get
across: in the New Testament church there was to be no distinction made
between Jewish believers in believers of other nations. Peter reasoned with his
accusers, "if then God gave the same gift to them as he gave to us when we
believed in the Lord Jesus Christ, who was I that I could stand in God's way?"

Peter couldn't, and neither could those accusers of the circumcision party. God
had delivered his final verdict. The judge had spoken once and for all, and all
that remained was for the petitioners to receive and accept the verdict. "When
they heard these things they fell silent. And they glorified God, saying, then to
the Gentiles also God has granted repentance that leads to life."

We are Gentiles too. We too have heard and believed the message of Jesus
Christ, the only name given under heaven by which we must be saved. To us,
too, God has granted repentance that leads to life. Can we now stand in God's
way? Can we discriminate, and determine who is worthy to hear the message of
the gospel and who isn't? No. Peter and his fellow Jews weren’t permitted by
God to do that, and neither are we. That is God’s prerogative. And in His eyes
there are no lost causes, for with God all things are possible. That coworker of
yours who seems so against religion, that relative who constantly needles you
about your faith, the person sitting next to on the plane with multiple piercings
and tattoos – if you don't know anything else about these people, you know one
thing. They’re sinners, just like you. They need Christ, just like you do! Today
we've learned the same lesson apostle Peter did: "In truth I perceive that God
shows no partiality. 35 But in every nation whoever fears Him and works
righteousness is accepted by Him.” --Acts 10:34-35.

Brown vs. Board of Education: unfortunately, that case didn’t end
discrimination in America. Far from it. Same thing in PEOPLE vs. SIMON
PETER. The fact that Peter won this argument with the circumcision party
didn’t end discrimination against Gentiles in the Church, either. It actually got
worse. There would be further trouble, especially in Galatia, where false
teachers would continue to insist that in order to be saved you had to keep the
Law of Moses. From our perspective it seems like nonsense, and so it should.
Christ has fulfilled the Law for us and delivered us into a glorious Gospel
freedom. It is a freedom that is offered equally to people of every race and
ethnicity on the face of the globe. For as Paul says, There is no distinction
between Jew and Greek, for the same Lord over all is rich to all who call upon
Him. 13 For "whoever calls on the name of the LORD shall be saved."
--Romans 10:12-13. Case closed. AMEN.