Change for Good (Acts 10:34-36, 43-46a)

A sermon preached on July 28, 2013 at Hebron Baptist Church,
Denham Springs, Louisiana by Pastor Joe Alain.

Peter is in the city of Caesarea at the home of Cornelius where a gathering of family members, friends, and coworkers has been assembled, all anxious to hear what Peter has to say to them.
Scripture Reading: Acts 10:34-36, 43-46a

A Self-Evident Truth
Your willingness to grow, to change determines what kind of impact you will make for good on people the few short years that you are on this planet. Change for good is self-evident and true in every area of our lives. Your ability to grow, to change impacts the field that you work in. If you continue to grow, to adapt, to change, to learn, your vocation will more than likely remain fresh, you will enjoy your work more, and consequently you will make a greater impact on your job.

If you have a positive attitude towards learning, if you’re open to grow, you will probably enjoy school more, it will be more rewarding and you will have a better overall experience. In your relationships, if you remain open to change, to learn some new skills, to grow, your relationships can grow and be more enjoyable rather than becoming stagnant. One of the keys to healthy  relationships is your ability to grow, to learn some new skills, to change. Healthy personal relationships, solid marriages, parenting skills, these are not dropped down from on high, they are learned and they can be improved, and if you will let God work in your life and remain open to change, if you will seek to learn some new skills, your relationships can improve, your parenting can be more of a joy.

This truth of changing for the good is also evident in our spiritual growth, our spiritual relationships. Your willingness to let God work, to grow, to change determines what kind of Christian life you will experience, and what kind of impact you will make in the lives of people for the Lord. Jesus came to give us life and life to the full (Jn. 10:10), but we have to let God work, we have to be willing to change to experience God’s abundant life.

We see this principle of Change for good at work in the life of Peter. Peter, we know him as impulsive, he tends to engage his mouth before his brain, he’s a little hard-headed and stubborn. But what we forget about Peter is that he was passionate for God, he was completely sold out to Jesus and His kingdom, and he was willing to change his mind, his thinking, his prejudices, he was willing to grow, to change life-direction, to change for good.

Growing Up Jewish
Peter was Jewish and being Jewish he had been raised as a Jew with all of the cultural trappings of Judaism, including very detailed laws on what was considered clean and what was considered unclean. There were strict regulations that governed what one could eat and what one could not eat, even what you could touch. These regulations about what was considered clean and unclean were originally designed as a teaching tool to show God’s people that God is holy, he’s different, he has a claim on the lives of His people, and as such, his people are to be different, they are to reflect holiness in every aspect of their lives. “Be holy,” God says, “for I am holy.” But somewhere along the way, these ideas of clean and unclean became rationalizations for accepting some people while rejecting others.

God choosing Israel was to lead them to great gratitude and humility, but instead they felt as if they were the privileged while the Gentiles or non-Jews were considered unclean, they were outside of God’s realm. Non-Jews even at best were considered 2nd class members. The temple area complex where the people worshiped had a special reserved section for Gentiles called the Court of the Gentiles. This was the outermost part of the complex and no non-Jew could come any farther (see Acts 21:27-32). So no Gentile could ever hope to have complete access to God. God of course had nothing to do with this. His people had misinterpreted his Word.

Things have changed now that Peter is a Christian. His life has been changed, his heart has been opened to the truth. Peter is growing, he’s changing his preconceived views, he’s open to God and he wants to follow Jesus. And because he’s open to God’s truth and willing to yield to Him, he’s going to be used greatly to bring the Gospel to new places.

Peter’s Story from Prejudice to Acceptance
Here’s the story. In Acts 10 we discover that Peter is in Joppa (v.5). Peter has had a busy week in Joppa for it was here that his prayers for the healing of Tabitha were answered by the Lord and she was raised back to life (9:40-42). Peter stayed on in the port city of Joppa in the house of Simon, perhaps for a little seaside R & R on the Mediterranean.

One day while he was in Joppa Peter went up to the roof to pray, a common practice (v.9). As is often the case for Christians worshiping, and seeking God through the spiritual disciplines, these things seem to bring out the hunger in us. So Peter while he’s praying falls off into a sleep of sorts and he begins to dream about Sunday dinner. In this trance he sees a sheet let down from heaven and it is filled with all kinds of critters (v.12). There’s steak and pork roast and gator tail and duck! And then he hears a voice telling him to “Get up . . . Kill and eat” (v.13). It’s dinner time.

But there’s a slight problem because much of what Peter sees is not on the authorized Jewish menu. Peter interrupts and confidently affirms, “I have never eaten anything impure or unclean” (v.14). Peter was known for his “I never” statements, some of which he had to eat. Be careful about those “I’ll never . . .” statements, you may have to eat your words. But Peter is going to discover that God is not simply changing Peter’s lunch options, God is teaching him about people, people who God created, people for whom Christ died. “Do not call anything impure that God has made clean” (v.15). Maybe because Peter is a little hard-headed, he had to tell him three times (v.16).

Now while Peter is pondering all of this there’s a knock at the door (v.17). A man named Cornelius has also had a visit from the Lord telling him to send men to find Peter for he has something very important to tell him. The next day Peter and some of the “brothers from Joppa” as well as the three men who were sent by Cornelius started out towards Caesarea (v.23). Cornelius had been expecting them and had called all of his relatives, close friends, even people he worked with together (v.24). This God-fearing devout man was ready to hear the story of Jesus. It is beautiful how God works and prepares people to hear the Gospel. How many people are willing to hear about Jesus but are just waiting for someone to tell?

Peter was taken aback when Cornelius bowed in reverence to him. Peter made him get up telling him he was just a man himself (v.26). And when Peter went inside he found a large gathering readied to hear the message of Jesus. To ease the tension that probably Peter was feeling, the first thing Peter said was that he reminded them that according to Jewish law he shouldn’t even be there, “But God has shown me that I should not call any man impure or unclean” (v.28). Peter has been listening and learning and growing.

Peter then begins to share his journey of discovery, how God has shown him that every man is equal in the sight of God. “I now realize how true it is that God does not show favoritism but accepts men from every nation who fear him and do what is right” (vv.34-35). This truth too is self-evident but sometimes it takes some time to arrive at this conclusion. Our founding fathers arrived at this conclusion, a conclusion that was shocking then and one we’re still trying to figure out how to practice. The opening of the United States Declaration of Independence, written by Thomas Jefferson in 1776, states as follows: “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness.”

Tearing Down the Wall of Partiality
Even though Peter had been raised to be prejudiced towards Gentiles, non-Jews, he had been open to learning from God the truth about other people. Jesus, Peter discovered is “Lord of all” men (v.36). He is the one mediator who makes us at peace with God and with each other (“peace through Jesus Christ,” 36). It is partiality, favoritism that divides us, that causes us to build fences rather than bridges. Partiality threatened the expansion of the Gospel and for the Gospel to spread to all people, hearts and attitudes would have to change and they did. And this is why God speaks so much on the subject of partiality. It is partiality, favoritism that continues to divide us not only in our church but in Christendom as a whole. God must be grieved because of sinful hearts and inability to come together under the banner of the cross of Jesus! If we cannot treat one another with love and respect, how will we love people who are on the outside?

God’s been talking about this problem of favoritism for a long time. God told his people in Leviticus 19:15, “Do not pervert justice; do not show partiality to the poor or favoritism to the great, but judge your neighbor fairly.” God specifically told his people to look after the aliens (no, not the ones from outer space but), the strangers, to welcome them, and to remember that they too once were outsiders. “Do not mistreat an alien or oppress him, for you were aliens in Egypt” (Ex. 22:21). To welcome outsiders is to fulfill the whole law, the royal commandment as James calls it, the great or first command that Jesus issued to love God and love your neighbor. To the question that the Jews asked, “who is my neighbor?” is the simple answer – every human being is your neighbor. “My brothers, as believers in our glorious Lord Jesus Christ, don’t show favoritism” (Jas. 2:1). Showing partiality, playing favorites destroys the common love relationship that God desires to see exist between us. 

Because Peter was willing to change, to accept truth even when it contradicted what he had been taught was true, he was able to leave a legacy of love of impacting countless people for Jesus. Peter was able to tell Cornelius and all who had assembled the wonderful story of Jesus and his love. This Jesus, Peter said was anointed by God and went about “doing good and healing all who were under the power of the devil” (v.38). He was killed by “on a tree, but God raised him from the dead on the third day” (v.39b-40). We are witnesses of these things (vv.39, 41). And what we saw was the salvation that the prophets saw with the eye of faith. “All the prophets testify about him that everyone who believes in him receives forgiveness of sins through his name” (v.43).

He’s Our God Too!
While Peter was speaking “The Holy Spirit came on all who heard the message” (v.44). This was a visible demonstration of salvation coming to those who heard and accepted the message. It was both to show to these “hungry-for-God Gentiles” (non-Jews) that the living God was their God too. This was also visible confirmation to the Jews who were there that the Gentiles were being welcomed by God Himself into His kingdom. The Jewish believers that witnessed this outpouring of the Holy Spirit were seeing something very similar to what had happened in Jerusalem on the Day of Pentecost.

God was visibly saying, “My Gospel is for all people!” And Peter affirms their equality in the kingdom by saying to both Gentiles and Jews, “Can anyone keep these people from being baptized with water? They have received the Holy Spirit just as we have” (v.47). They were then “baptized in the name of Jesus Christ” (v.48). They are part of the one family of God where “There is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. If you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise” (Gal. 3:28-29).

Life Evaluation
Your willingness to grow, to change determines what kind of impact you will make for good on people the few short years that you are on this planet. Here’s few questions to help you evaluate what kind of impact for good you will make. 

1. Are you willing to grow, to change for good?
Are you willing to be adaptable, flexible? To be like the clay in the potter’s hand? When we understand that the Gospel is bigger than us and our needs, when we understand that this is really not all about us, then we won’t have a problem growing and changing. When Peter understood there were countless lives at stake, people that God Himself created and loved, how could he do anything else but be willing to grow, to change? 

2. Will you begin to relate to God on a deeply personal level?
Peter prayed, he talked to God, he walked with the living Jesus, he listened to God’s voice and followed His will. He grew and was changed because he related to God on a deeply personal level. God uses the spiritual disciplines of prayer and fellowship with Him and his word to grow us, to conform us, to change us into his image. Jesus has to change us from the inside out. Paul says we are to offer our bodies as living sacrifices to God, then he says, “Do not be conformed any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind” (Rom. 12:2). Why does it seem that some people make a greater impact than others? It is because they relate to God on a deeply personal level. They live their daily life before the presence of the living God. They want to grow and they are relating to God, letting Him shape them.

Some people put a cap on what God is going to do in their life, their stuck in a rut which is really just a grave with the ends kicked out. You can make an impact in the lives of others but you have to be willing to grow, to change. And that happens as you relate to God on a deeply personal level. Your willingness to grow, to change determines what kind of impact for good you will make on people the few short years that you are on this planet. You don’t have long to get this right. There’s no time to waste. It’s time to let God work in you!



For His Glory!
Pastor Joe
"Phil. 1:3"