November 22, 2009

Acts10:1-16, 34-43

As we continue our sermon series from the book of Acts – I want to talk this morning about conversion.

This story in Acts 10 is about two people’s conversions – Cornelius’ conversion and Peter’s conversion.

Now, the word “conversion” is not actually used in this passage, but the stories told here are stories of people who – in their encounter with Jesus – change their mind and life.

So, to be converted is to change your mind about Jesus and to begin following him with your life.

To understand the meaning of conversion for Peter and Cornelius there are several things in this passage we need to know about Cornelius and Peter.

1. For Cornelius, we need to know that he was a Gentile. Up to this point in the book of Acts the followers of Jesus all come from Jewish background. This is a Jewish church.

Cornelius, though, is a Gentile and Jewish people were not to have anything to do with Gentiles.

1. Secondly, we need to know he was also a Centurion.

He is a Roman Army officer stationed in Caesarea – the capital of that province and the headquarters for Roman governors.

Caesarea also had a huge temple dedicated to Caesar. For the Romans – Caesar was god!

As a centurion in Caesar’s army Cornelius had pledged his highest allegiance to Caesar to kill and die for him. And he was in charge of one hundred men who were also committed to the same thing.

1. Luke also tells us in this story that Cornelius was a God-fearer.

A God-fearer was a Gentile who was attracted to the Jewish faith, but was not a convert to Judaism.

Cornelius was a devout man. Luke writes in verse two “he feared God, gave alms generously to the people, and prayed constantly to God.”

In verse 22 we learn that Cornelius “was well spoken of by the whole Jewish nation.”

Now, when we read this story we often overlook much about Cornelius’ life but for Luke to have Cornelius be the first Gentile convert to Jesus is nothing short of a miracle.

Cornelius is not just any Gentile – he is one of Caesar’s finest. Even though he was a God-fearer and respected by the Jewish people he was still committed to fight for the Roman Empire.

Most Jews hated the Romans and wanted to overthrow them. The conversion of Cornelius to Christ is just as stunning as Paul’s conversion to Jesus.

Paul, you know, had been a fierce of enemy of Christians from within Judaism. Now, a hated enemy from without Judaism is also being drawn to Christ.

The issue for the church was – will these Jewish followers of Jesus accept Cornelius, a Gentile?

The other conversion in our story this morning is Peter’s conversion.

Peter is an Apostle – one of the twelve disciples and a leader in the Jerusalem church.

Peter had been with Jesus from the beginning and was the first to announce that Jesus was the Messiah – God’s anointed one.

Peter had already been converted to Christ, but Peter needed to be converted in some new areas of his life.

The issue for Peter and the early church was – “can Gentiles be saved?”

Up until this time, the church had believed that one must become a Jew before being able to experience the grace of God.

Peter was a good Jew. He had been taught that it was unlawful for a Jew to associate with or even visit a Gentile.

Peter, as we know, was a strong-willed person with deeply held beliefs. He wasn’t easily changed!!

So, when Peter – in his vision – sees a sheet coming down from heaven with unclean animals on it and he is told to “kill and eat” – Peter is absolutely horrified!

His first response is – NO WAY!

Peter has never eaten anything unclean and he has no plans to start now.

At first glance we might say – “what is the big deal Peter – it is only food?”

But the issue here is not just food – it is Jewish identity.

The Jewish dietary laws were a distinctive identifying mark of Judaism. These dietary laws demarcated faithfulness in the midst of incredible pressure to forsake the faith and become like everyone else.

The Jewish people were constantly being pressured to drop their particularities and just become good citizens of the Roman Empire.

It is only after Peter meets Cornelius that he realizes the vision is not really about the food he should eat – but about the people he is called to love.

The question for Peter is – “who can he eat with? Who will he allow at his table? Who will he love?”

Even though Peter was already a follower of Jesus – he needed to be converted again to accept the Gentiles into the Body of Christ.

We have here, then, two conversions. Cornelius changes his mind about Jesus and accepts him as the Messiah. Peter changes his mind about Gentiles and accepts Cornelius as a brother in Christ.

Now, I want us to think together for a moment on what implications this story might have for us and our time.

1. One implication of this story is that the Good News of Jesus Christ is for all people.

When Peter meets Cornelius his stunning confession in verse 34 is – “I truly understand that God shows no partiality – no favoritism – but in every nation anyone who fears God and does what is right is acceptable to God. You know the message he sent to the people of Israel – preaching peace through Jesus Christ – Jesus is Lord of all.”

Peter’s eyes and heart are opened for the first time to see that God’s agenda in the world through Jesus is the reconciliation of people from every race and tribe and nation. In God’s kingdom – the playing field is level – all are welcome to the table.

Last Sunday we looked at Acts 7 and then today I skipped over chapters 8 and 9 in order to get to chapter 10. But in those two chapters – we also have the stories of other conversions.

In chapter 8 – Luke says the gospel goes to the Samaritan people. The Samaritans were a people of mixed race. The Jews called them half-breeds and they despised them.

Yet the Holy Spirit falls on the Samaritans as it did on the Jews and they join the table fellowship too.

Next, Luke has an Ethiopian Eunuch, a black man from Africa, reading from the prophet Isaiah, but he doesn’t understand what he is reading. After Philip explains it to him – he receives the gospel and is baptized.

As a Eunuch, he was an outsider and in Jewish faith a Eunuch could never participate fully in the faith and community of Israel and its temple.

So, now we have not only the hated Samaritans joining this new Christian community but we have a Eunuch – an outcast also becoming a recipient of God’s grace and welcomed to the table.

Then, in Acts 9 we have the story of Saul – a devout enemy of the church – meeting Jesus on the road to Damascus and being converted into Paul – a brother in Christ.

And now, in chapter 10 we have Cornelius – a Gentile and Roman soldier – becoming part of this new Christian community.

For Peter to proclaim – “God shows no partiality” was a huge awakening for him. Before Peter saw this vision of the sheet coming down and God telling him to “kill and eat” – Peter would never have imagined a Samaritan, a Eunuch or a Gentile sitting at the table with him.

When Peter gets to Cornelius’ house – Luke writes that Peter staggered in nervously – “you guys know I am not suppose to be here. You know it is unlawful for a Jew to visit a Gentile but God showed me I should not call anyone profane or unclean.”

After nervously blurting that out Peter adds – “what in the world am I doing here anyway?” And then Cornelius explains his own vision to Peter and that he wants to hear what God has to say through him.

Finally, after listening to Cornelius’s story, Peter gets it. Peter had to be confronted by his own prejudices before he understood that all people – everyone who believes in Jesus will receive forgiveness of sins through his name.

In our day, how many of us – like Peter – can’t quite imagine the soldier returning from Iraq, or the drug addict, or the corner prostitute, or the Wall Street broker, or a member of the Taliban, or one of Rush Limbaugh’s ditto heads ever being converted to Christ?

Many of us have individuals in our mind who we think would never be a candidate to follow Jesus and become part of a Mennonite church.

Our tendency is to prejudge people based on their background, the nature of their job, where they live, the kind of car they drive, their level of education, or how they look and we say to ourselves – “that person would never come to church here. We are too different”.

And what we forget is that God’s Spirit is already at work in the Samaritan, the Eunuch, and the Gentile – the very people we have written off and counted out.

We forget that there is a power at work here other than our own, other than human power and human ways.

The reality is that most of us do not go to the outcast Samaritans and Eunuchs on our own.

When we are left to our own devices we go to the people we have the most in common with.

Yet the Holy Spirit loves to thrust us out of our comfort zones and to take us to strange places and strange people.

And so this morning – who are the Samaritans, Eunuchs, and Gentiles God is taking us to? On our “sheet from heaven” who is God asking us to reach out to and embrace with God’s love? Who is God inviting to our table?

1. Another thing this story makes me aware of is to be careful what I label as clean and unclean.

Church history and Mennonite history is full of divisions over things we were sure were unclean. Divisions over things like clothes, music styles, attending movies, playing cards, use of alcohol, having a TV and so forth.

The concern, like Peter’s, has often been over our “identity and distinctiveness”. In trying to be a faithful and pure church, we have watched carefully who sat at our table.

In trying to be distinct, our human tendency is to focus on things like food and clothing, instead of on how the gospel makes us different in relation to wealth, power, prestige, security and treatment of others.

• It is often okay to be captive to the idols of mass consumerism – as long as we don’t watch R-rated movies.
• It is acceptable to spend our entire life pursuing the American dream – as long as we don’t mow our lawn on Sunday and we give a tithe.
• Or it is fine to be indifferent to world poverty and hunger – as long as we don’t curse or drink beer.

You see, it is so easy to do what Jesus blamed his disciples of doing – “straining out gnats while we swallow camels” (Mt. 23:24)

Now, I have also heard this story used to condone about every activity you can imagine as though nothing is unclean.

But this story is primarily about whether Gentiles have to become Jews before they can become Christians. For Mennonites this would be like asking – do people have to become ethnic Mennonite before they become Christian? Do they have the right last name? Did they go to the right college?

Also related to this story – I have been told many times that since Cornelius, a Roman soldier, wasn’t told by Peter to leave the military that means it must be okay to serve in the army.

And it is true; we don’t know what happened to Cornelius, but I doubt that he returned to business as usual. We also know that other scriptures speak to this issue and for the first three centuries all the teachings of the early church opposed participating in the military or if one stayed in the military they were not to kill anyone.

Even the Didache, one of the oldest instruction manuals for preparing new Christians for baptism taught them –

• Not to kill anyone.
• Not to have sex with other people’s spouses.
• Not to abuse your children.
• Not to abort fetuses.
• Along with many other things.

So, yes we need to be very careful what we label as clean and unclean and be willing to change when the Spirit moves, but following Jesus does have its radical implications for how we live in the world as redeemed people.

1. And then lastly this morning, this story reminds me that conversion is an ongoing process.

Peter, the Apostle, needed to be converted again. He was still growing and changing and being transformed.

Acts helps us see that repentance, change, and turning again and again to Jesus is part of the Christian lifestyle. Conversion doesn’t just happen once in our life.

Peter’s conversion suggests that the mission field is inside our sanctuaries as much as it is to outsiders. Too often our mentality as Christians is – “we’re saved. We have become Christians. We’re done. We’ve arrived.”

But that isn’t true. The need for new conversion, fresh transformation, changed minds, healing, and deepened faith continues throughout life. We need to keep saying yes to Jesus.

God does take us, as the old hymn says – “just as I am without one plea”, but God doesn’t leave us just as we are. God continues to speak to us and to transform us.

So, like Peter we need to be open to being converted again and again and again.

And we also notice in these stories that conversion happens differently for different people. Some will have dramatic conversion experiences like Paul, but many of us will gradually come to new understandings like the Eunuch, as he was reading the bible.

These stories in Acts help us see that we all come to Christ differently. There is no one set pattern for coming to Jesus. God works with us where are and continues throughout our life to mold us and shape us more in Christlikeness.

The question for each one of us today is:

• Do you feel the persistent and gentle pursuit of God in your life?
• Have you ever surrendered all that you are and have to Christ?
• And if you have – do you like Peter need to be converted or changed in some new ways today?

This morning when you came in you received a napkin.

This napkin is your “sheet from heaven”.

I want you to take a minute in silence to reflect on this story of Cornelius and Peter.

• What is on your sheet from heaven this morning?
• What prejudices is God speaking to you about?
• Who are you being called to love?
• Who is God inviting to your table?
• What do you need to repent of?

I invite you to take your napkin, open it up, and write down anything that comes to you.

After a few minutes of silence, Brian will lead us in the STJ #4 – You’ve got a place at the welcome table.

As we sing that hymn, I invite you – if you want to – to bring up your napkin and put it on the table as your offering to God.

As your way of saying – God, I am yours – change me and transform into your image.