团契与门徒训练

Live Out Your Mission in love (Acts 10:1~11:18)

2017.05.21Stephen Cha

Jesus has no plan B. He sends us, empowered by the Holy Spirit, to be his witnesses to everyone near and far, and the gospel breaks down every wall between peoples.

God sees the heart, not outward appearance (vv. 1-8)

Cornelius was a centurion in Caesarea who feared God, gave generously, and prayed continually, and people respected him as upright and moral. Yet his good life did not save him by itself. God sent an angel to tell him to send for Simon Peter, who would tell him the message through which he would be saved. Like Nicodemus, who needed to be born again, we cannot become right before God by being good people. God sees the heart and the soul, and he responds to a seeking heart with his grace.

Peter's old barriers are broken by God's vision (vv. 9-16)

At noon, while Peter was hungry and waiting for a meal, God gave him a vision of animals from heaven and told him to get up, kill, and eat. Peter refused three times, because he had always kept the dietary law. But the voice said, What God has made clean, do not call unclean. The dietary law was given to help people see what was holy, but Jesus came and broke the wall between Jews and Gentiles. Peter already preached that Jesus is Lord of all, yet his habits said otherwise, so he had to be corrected.

Our words must match the way we live

Peter's correction applies to us as well. We often say many things, but what we do can speak louder than what we claim to believe. The speaker shares a story from youth ministry, where he pushed students to keep their disciplines and forgot the grace he was teaching. A friend asked him whether he had forgotten grace, and his wife reminded him that he was the person to face the hard issue in his life. We need to let the gospel correct how we relate to others, so that our practice is consistent with what we profess.

The church becomes one family in Christ (11:1-18)

When Peter returned to Jerusalem, those from the circumcision party challenged him for eating with Gentiles. Peter explained what had happened, and when they heard that the Holy Spirit had fallen on the Gentiles, they accepted it, were silent, and turned to God in worship. Peter pointed to one Lord, one Spirit, and one baptism, showing that God himself was bringing Gentiles into one family. The church had to learn to see what God was doing rather than what they saw outside, and they concluded that God had granted repentance to the Gentiles.

Be a blessing wherever God places you

Acts 1:8 is the key verse of the book: when the Holy Spirit comes upon you, you will be his witnesses in Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and to the ends of the earth. We cannot do this by our own strength, but must surrender, obey, and make ourselves available so that the Spirit can empower us. We are sent first to those close to us, then to those we find hard to associate with, and finally to those we may not even know or care about. The sermon offers a way to live this out: bless, begin with prayer, listen to the Holy Spirit, listen to people, eat, serve, and share the story of Jesus.

Apply to Life

  • Let us begin with prayer and listen to the Holy Spirit as we go to people near and far from us.
  • Let us look at people the way God sees them, looking at their hearts rather than their outward appearance.
  • Let us examine our habits and prejudices and be willing to be corrected by the gospel.
  • Let us welcome people of every culture and background as one family in Christ.
  • Let us be a blessing to those around us by serving them and sharing the story of Jesus.

This summary was made automatically from the sermon's captions and may differ from the sermon.

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