I would like to continue our discussion from this morning’s class. For those of you who were not able to make it you really are missing out and unfortunately you will be a couple steps behind. So in order for you to catch up listen carefully and I would ask that when you get home you would read Acts 10. I am not going to read it now, but I am going to reference it for most of the sermon.
As we talked about in class this morning there were a lot of boundaries placed between the new church, known as the Way and the gentile world. There were barriers put firmly in place between those of Jewish decent and the rest of the world. As we read the Old Testament we will notice a theme throughout and becoming clean and remaining clean. In order for us to be in relationship with God, in order for us to be in the presence of God we must be clean. So Old Testament Levitical law becomes a constant dialogue on what it means to be clean and how to remain that way. To be clean meant access to God through the temple. Those who were unclean were not allowed in or near the temple, but remained in the outer courts. So being clean was extremely important in Jewish culture. There was no salvation for the unclean. As we see in the Old Testament, remaining clean was seemingly more difficult than becoming clean. Every time someone came into contact with something unclean it meant they became unclean and must be purified again in order to enter into the presence of God once again. The religious leaders of the day took this even farther to introduce a set of more than 600 ever expanding laws as to how to remain clean. One of the most contrary laws in regards to the spirit of the Law was that no Jew could enter the house of a gentile, they could not dine with gentiles, and contact was limited. Because one could become unclean by being in contact with someone unclean and the gentiles were unclean, it meant Jews should not have contact with gentiles. This left some very obvious and clear boundaries and barriers for Judaism and for event the early church.
Remember we are all raised within some kind of tradition or another and it is extremely difficult for us to break free from that tradition even when it is wrong. This is true for us and it is true for the early church. The apostles and the early church struggled with the acceptance of gentiles and for the most part excluded gentiles from their gospel calling for the time until Acts chapter 10. Then Peter received a vision from God showing that God is the God even of the gentiles, and they are only unclean if he declares them unclean. And so God sent Peter to the gentile Cornelius to minister and to baptize. That is when Peter had the revelation of what Christ truly means for creation. There are no barriers and God will reach out and receive all. Paul tells of this monumental achievement through Christ in Ephesians 2:13-22, turn there and we’ll read it.
But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ. 14 For he himself is our peace, who has made us both one and has broken down in his flesh the dividing wall of hostility 15 by abolishing the law of commandments expressed in ordinances, that he might create in himself one new man in place of the two, so making peace, 16 and might reconcile us both to God in one body through the cross, thereby killing the hostility. 17 And he came and preached peace to you who were far off and peace to those who were near. 18 For through him we both have access in one Spirit to the Father. 19 So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God, 20 built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone, 21 in whom the whole structure, being joined together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord. 22 In him you also are being built together into a dwelling place for God by the Spirit.
Christ’s coming brought about a dynamic that the world had not experienced since creation. It was something it did not know how to deal with and still to this day does not know how to deal with. We like boundaries and barriers. They make us feel safe and secure. Ever since sin entered into the world humanity has had a tendency to separate and divide based on any common mark that could distinguish one group of people from another. Whether it be skin, ideology, music, or clothing we always have found ways to separate ourselves. But when Christ came he broke all kinds of chains. He broke the chains of sin that held sway over our lives. He broke addictions, he broke hopelessness. He broke violence, and he even broke division. When Christ came to die he did not come for one people group or even for the church. Christ came for all of creation and made no distinction between us. As the church began to experience the realization of this something changed.
As we read Acts up through chapter 10 we see amazing growth within the church in Jerusalem. They multiplied by the thousands. But God was not satisfied with thousands. They grew faster than anything we could dream of, how we desire that kind of growth. But despite their success, they were still stunted from what they were supposed to be. The church was not supposed to grow simply by the thousands. When Peter goes to Cornelius he starts something. The gentiles have received the Holy Spirit and thereby God has poured himself out on all flesh. There are none that are outside his reach. Once this happened the church stopped growing and it started exploding. When the barriers of separation and division were removed the church exploded into an unstoppable movement that could not be contained. But these barriers that were removed were eventually replaced by other barriers. The church throughout the years became lazy and separated and divided all over again undoing the very work of Christ. If we are to see the explosion of growth and salvation within our world and community then we must allow Christ to remove the barriers and division between us and those who we have declared in some form or another different from us. When we allow the Spirit to tear down boundaries we have put in place, then we will see the growth of the Kingdom of Heaven. As I asked in class what kind of barriers have we put up that we need to allow the Spirit to tear down?
Well there are all kinds, and for each one of us they are unique. Whether it be kids with saggy pants, drunks, prostitutes, child abusers, homosexuals, rich, or maybe just lazy people Christ has removed such division. We can be one with them and they can receive the Spirit just as we have. Peter had this realization as he was speaking to Cornelius. It is in Acts 10:34-35.
So Peter opened his mouth and said: "Truly I understand that God shows no partiality, 35 but in every nation anyone who fears him and does what is right is acceptable to him.
Anyone who fears God, and does what is right is acceptable to him. This means also means anyone who is willing to as well. No one is out of the reach of God. Something that Israel had to learn the hard and I pray we don’t have to learn it in the same way, is that God does not show partiality. Israel had this sense of entitlement about them as if somehow they were in fact the only children of God and they deserved it because they were better than everyone else. God did not choose Israel because of their holiness or righteousness. As we see in scripture there were people far more righteous than the people of Israel who were not from the tribe of Israel. For example, Melchizedek, Ruth, Rahab. It was not uncommon in the story of Israel for an outsider to be used and chosen by God. The only reason God chose Israel as his own was because of his grace. The only reason God has chosen us as his own is because of his grace. Israel forgot that, a lesson that we should learn from. All creation is God’s creation. All were designed to be pleasing to him, even the dirty ones. We need to remember that no matter who we are or who they are, whether they be a dirty sinner or simply someone from another denomination, God does not show partiality. Even if one party is right and the other wrong God doesn’t pick favorites, they are all his children. I think this is one of the most deceptive barriers we have put between ourselves and everyone else. The barrier of I am right and you are wrong. It doesn’t matter much to God, and more importantly it is not enough to put the barrier back up that Christ has removed.
Even if we can get comfortable with this though, we can only stay that way for so long. Yes I can deal with the dirty, misled, and sinful person, but eventually they must become like me. We can accept the gospel is for everyone as long as when they read scripture and come to an understanding, their understanding is the same as mine. As long as they are on a path to looking more like me then I can deal with their differences and believe that God desires them just as much as me. We actually believe that when we read scriptures like that in Philippians 3:15 and it says that we should simply hold onto what we know is true and the rest will be revealed, that what will be revealed is that we are right and they are wrong. Christ is constantly tearing down division and barriers and we are constantly replacing them with new ones. This is something that we need to hear loud and clear. God does not show partiality even towards us. We are all his children.
That is difficult to take in, but ultimately until we are able to accept this we will never see the explosion that takes place when Christ is at work. Imagine for a minute the border of the United States. It is a controlled border in which nothing is allowed in or out without inspection, unless of course you manage to find a way to do it illegally. Crossing the border slows everything down. When I travel to MI it is 405 miles from here to Rochester College if I travel through Canada. It is 530 miles to travel strictly through the US. It should be much shorter to travel through Canada, but because of the borders it can actually take me a couple hours longer than state side. This is because boundaries inhibit and slow down travel. Now imagine if there was no border. I would take the Canada side every time. The same is true with the church. When we allow boundaries and divisions to sit between us and the lost, between us and other denominations, or between each other we inhibit and slow the spread of the gospel and the growth of the kingdom of Heaven. When we allow Christ to work and those barriers are removed that is when we see an outpouring of the Spirit that cannot be contained.
Faith in God demands that we trust in him and we allow him to work. It means we allow him to tear barriers down with no hesitation or fear. Faith means no caution because we know that God is working. There absolutely never reason to hesitate as to whether the gospel should be shared with this person or not. There should be nothing hindering our approach to those who are different than us. We should be able and willing to love any, because with Christ he has made us one. So I will ask one last time, what kind of barriers have we put in place that we as a church and individuals need to tear down in order to see an explosion of the gospel?
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