March 9, 2014
Scripture:
Scripture:
Hymn 346 – Jesus who lives above the sky
Prayer
We’re nearing the end of the story of King Josiah. We have seen that he did that which was right before the Lord.
2 Chronicles 35:1-18
Josiah and Israel were getting ready to celebrate the Passover. The Passover was instituted while the children of Israel were in Egypt. Every household was to kill a lamb and paint the blood on their doorposts to shelter the house from the angel of destruction. Later, God instructed them to observe the Passover once a year. Sadly, it was only during Josiah’s and Hezekiah’s reigns that the Passover was kept. Josiah instructed the priests to get everything in order for the Passover. They needed to return the Ark to the temple since it had been taken out. This morning, we were looking at the Passover as a picture of the Lord being our sacrifice. Jesus died so that we could be sheltered from God’s judgment. During the Passover, Josiah and the children of Israel sacrificed 41,400 animals: Jesus only had to die once.
Josiah read the word of the Lord, and then he was able to lead the children of Israel in the right way. As we read the Bible, it goes into our hearts and we can bless others by sharing what we read. The only way you can get any tea out of a teapot is by filling it first. The only way we can share anything from the Bible is by reading it.
Mary (Lazarus and Martha’s sister) sat at Jesus’ feet and learned from Him. Her heart was getting filled. At a later time, Jesus was having dinner with this family. Mary brought some ointment and poured it on Jesus’ feet and wiped it with her hair. This was her heart overflowing with thankfulness for the Lord. When we are young, we need to listen when our parents read the Bible: this is a way to fill our hearts with the Bible.
When Josiah read the words of the Lord, he followed them. When God tells us to do something, we need to do it, too.
Acts 10:1-23
In this chapter, we reach a wonderful new stage in the spread of the Gospel: the bringing in of the Gentiles. Up until this point in history, God’s people—the Jews—had had a wall around themselves: the law. It was the law that kept them separate from the Gentiles and their false gods. The Jews had received God’s word first, but now the Lord uses Peter to bring it to the Gentiles.
Peter was the man who opened the door of a new relationship with Jesus Christ for the Jews. He called them to repentance back in chapter 2, and this new system was quite different to what they had been used to in Judaism. When Peter and John healed the lame man at the temple gate Peter told the Jewish leaders: “Be it known unto you all, and to all the people of Israel, that by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom ye crucified, whom God raised from the dead, even by him doth this man stand here before you whole. This is the stone which was set at nought of you builders, which is become the head of the corner. Neither is there salvation in any other: for there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved.” (Acts 4:10-12). That was different for these Jews!
Jesus had given Peter the keys—the authority—to open the kingdom of heaven to the Jews, and now to the Gentiles. The Jews were God’s chosen people and so had gotten into the kingdom on special ground. Now there is a new chosen people—chosen out of both Jews and Gentiles—to make something special: the Body of Christ. Being Gentiles, this is an important chapter for us.
The Gentiles had no hope or promise from God, and yet they were brought into His covenant. Look at Rahab, she had no hope, yet she was a person of faith, and was graciously brought into God’s covenant. Ephesians 2:11-12 gives us the substance of which Rahab was a type. We, though Gentiles, have been brought into the blessing of God. It’s good to look at this chapter, because this is the story of where it all began.
The preparation for the bringing in of the Gentiles was easier for Cornelius than it was for Peter. Cornelius was a Gentile, but was a devout man who reverenced God with all his house. (That’s more than can be said of our nation, or even some Christians.) How did this happen? We don’t know for sure, but we do know that Phillip preached in Caesarea after being caught away from the Eunuch. Maybe his preaching had some effect on Cornelius. We don’t know for sure, but this we do know: Cornelius was a man with a spiritual bent.
God had His eye on Cornelius and honoured his prayers and good works. Of course, the Lord knew that Cornelius needed more than this, so He arranged for him to be brought the truth and gave him instructions accordingly. An angel of God told him to send to Joppa for Peter, and Cornelius wasted no time in obeying. He took this vision very seriously. After telling two servants and a soldier what he had seen, Cornelius sent them off to Joppa.
The journey to Joppa seemed to take a couple of days, and as these servants approach Joppa, the scene changes to Peter’s side of things. He was praying up on Simon the tanner’s housetop, and was hungry. While they prepared some breakfast for him, though, Peter fell into a trance. Vv.10-12 tell what he saw: a sheet with all kinds of animals in it. According to the law, some of these animals were clean and some were unclean; but here they were all mixed together. Something had happened and the rules had changed. What had happened was Calvary. Jesus had died, not just for the Jews, but for “whosoever will”. Peter was told to rise, kill, and eat, but he said, “Not so, Lord; for I have never eaten any thing that is common or unclean. And the voice spake unto him again the second time, What God hath cleansed, that call not thou common.” This happened three times, and the sheet was taken back to heaven. As we said, laws like these built a wall around the Jews, but things are new in Christ, as Colossians 3:11-12 tells us. While Peter was wondering what this vision meant, the Holy Spirit told him that three messengers were waiting for him, and that he should go with them. And there they were, at the gate. If there was any doubt in his mind, this would have confirmed that God had sent these men.
Before Calvary, if anybody wanted to get to God they had to go through the Jewish system of works. That’s what Rahab had to do, and that’s what Cornelius was doing. He did all these works, but never had peace in his heart. He had to learn through Peter—who had had to learn himself—that you no longer got to God through works, but through the cross. The Lord was working to bring this praying seeker and this praying servant together, and neither would be the same again.
Hymn 330—A message came from heaven
Prayer