March 30, 2014
Scripture:
Let’s turn to John 14:3. “The Lord shall come again!” It has been a privilege to have these thoughts before us this morning!
Hymn 26 – In rags and in ruin, without and within
Prayer
Today we’re going to look at the story of prodigal son. This is the third part of our parable. The three parts are joined together with the similarity that something gets lost, then found, and finally there was joy. In the first parable, a sheep was lost; and then in the second it was a coin.
Luke 15:11 - 13
We see that there was a man that had two sons. We know that the two sons were not twins, because the younger one wanted to leave home. The younger one asked for his portion of the inheritance early so that he could leave home. Why do you think he wanted to leave home? In a book that I was reading recently, Gary Richmond tells a story from his childhood: one day when he was 5 years old, he wanted to leave home because he was tired of all the rules. He went to his mother and told her that he wanted to leave; his mother went along with it and helped him prepare a suitcase of clothes and put together some food for his trip. As they were saying goodbye, Gary started to cry. His mother asked why he was crying. He replied that he didn’t know where to go. She asked if he wanted to stay home and he said yes. His mother told him that if he wanted to be at home he had to obey the rules; Gary agreed and they went back inside. I believe that most young people want to leave home because they don’t want to follow the rules. They think that they could have more fun if they got to choose what they were allowed to do. The son in our story received his inheritance and left for a far away country. He must have felt really good with money in his pocket, free to do whatever he pleased, and ready for fun. It is interesting that the word fun is not in the Bible. Did you know it possible to have fun and not be happy? In Psalm 1 it says, “Blessed is the man…”; in the French it says, “very happy.” This is not speaking of the people that run away and do their own will, but the people that are doing God’s will. Many people think that rules are there to keep them from having fun. God wants us to be happy, but when you break away from God’s will there is no happiness.
Acts 11:1-21
Here in Acts 11, we get a retelling of what happened in chapter 10. Repetition like this makes us realize that something is important. The Gentiles being brought in was a big thing, and difficult for the Jewish believers to get their heads around. The apostles and brethren at Jerusalem—the Jewish headquarters—weren’t too happy when they heard what Peter had done. When he came to Jerusalem those of the circumcision contended with him. Peter was on the carpet, but Jesus had given him the keys of the kingdom. He had opened the door of salvation to the Jews, and now God had had him open it for the Gentiles. He was a special man, and had been specially prepared for this mission.
Unity characterized the early Church. They agreed with one another on issues, and there was oneness of spirit among them. God opening the door to the Gentiles was hard for the Jews to accept because they were God’s chosen people and other nations were worthy of being despised. However, now that an individual had opened the door for the Gentiles, the leaders and church fathers got together to talk over this topic. They charged Peter with eating with the uncircumcised, but Peter told them, “Listen to my story.” He then told them in order what had happened, and they all went over the issue step by step.
Peter told them how he was praying and had seen the heavenly vessel. He told them what was in it (live unclean animals), and how he had been told to slay and eat. This would have been repulsive to a good Jew, and Peter said, “Not so Lord.” The vessel came from heaven, and Peter knew he was talking to the Lord. The Lord told him, “What God has cleansed, don’t call common.” Calvary has accomplished more than salvation, and the Gentiles didn’t need to worry about clean and unclean animals, only a couple of necessary commands. (Which is great, because we get to eat bacon!)
God had arranged things so that Cornelius’ servants arrived just as Peter’s vision ended. The Spirit told Peter that they were looking for him, and that he was to go with them. During this whole story, none of the other believers interrupted Peter. They were totally silenced by his account of how the Godhead chose to work through him.
So Peter went to Cornelius, and Cornelius told him how an angel had told him to send men to Joppa. Cornelius wasn’t heathen, he was a converted man who wasn’t yet saved. The angel had told him that Peter would speak words through which he and his household would be saved. (Each needed to believe that word individually, though. His house wouldn’t be saved through his own belief.) As Peter began to speak, the Holy Spirit fell on them, just like—Peter tied this back to the Jews—the Holy Spirit fell on the Jewish believers at Pentecost. Peter used the words “them” and “us”, but these men were finding that there was no longer a “them” and an “us”. All were one in Christ Jesus.
A big event like this was necessary to convince the Jews that God had opened the door of salvation to the Gentiles. Paul says that “the Jews require a sign” and God gave them one here. They were God’s chosen people, and it took something like this to make them believe that the Gentiles were allowed into the kingdom of God. The Lord had told them, though, in John 10 that, “Other sheep I have, which are not of this fold: them also I must bring…and there shall be one fold and one shepherd.” They must have wondered what it was He meant, but it’s precious for us to be able to watch how God worked to bring us Gentiles into His fold!
Hymn 198 — There is a name we love to hear
Prayer