January 15, 2012
Dear friends in Christ.
When Thomas Jefferson penned the Declaration of
Independence back in 1776, he included some words which are very familiar to
just about every American. “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.” Basically what Thomas
Jefferson was saying was that every single person on this planet has been
created equally, and every single person on this planet has certain rights
which cannot be taken away from them.
Well, as Christians, we have a similar declaration in the words which
Jesus spoke when he told us to go and make disciples of all nations… Basically
what Christ was telling us is the message which the Bible proclaims to us from
cover to cover—the message that the Gospel is for all people. Yes, the Gospel is for all people! This truly is the lesson that Peter learned in
our text today, for as he himself said: “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.” (Acts 10:34-35).
But what is it that led Peter to this sort of
understanding. What was it that made
Peter realize just what the Lord had meant when he said “all”? Well, to fully understand it, we must go back
in time about four days where we will meet a man named Cornelius. The Bible tells us that Cornelius was a
centurion in what was known as the Italian Regiment. He and all his family were devout, God
fearing people. He gave generously to
those who were in need, prayed to God regularly, and he was a gentile. One day as Cornelius was praying, he had a
vision in which an angel of God came to him and told him his prayers had been
answered. He was to send a messenger to
Joppa, about 30 miles away, and ask Simon Peter to come to Caesarea. So that’s what Cornelius did. He called two of his servants and a devout
soldier and sent them off to Joppa.
Now if we were watching this happen as if it were a television
program, we would see Cornelius giving orders to his men. We would see them start their journey around
four or five in the afternoon. We would
travel with them until they came to their camp site. Then, when they had bunked
down for the night, the scene would change to the next day around noon. A little subtitle would flash up on the
screen saying, “Joppa” and we would immediately be taken to Peter’s house. We’d watch as Peter grew more and more
hungry. We’d here him ask when lunch
would be ready and then tell the people in the house that he was going up to
the roof to pray while lunch was being prepared. Then, as Peter was walking up the steps to
the roof of the house, the shot would widen out so we could see Peter’s house
in one corner and the three men whom Cornelius had sent in the other. Then, while the men were coming into the
city, Peter was up on the roof praying. While he was praying he fell into a
trance and he saw before him a great sheet filled with all the animals that
dwelt on the earth, both clean and unclean.
It was being lowered to the earth before him and a voice told him to
slaughter an animal and eat it. When
Peter heard this he cried out, “Surely not, Lord I have never eaten anything
impure or unclean.” (For even though
there were clean animals in the sheet they had come into contact with unclean
animals and had themselves become unclean.)
But the Lord responded, “Do not call anything impure that God has made
clean”
As Peter was sitting on the roof wondering about
this vision, the three men came to his house asking for him, and the next day
they left for Caesarea. When they
arrived at the house of Cornelius, Peter would have undoubtedly been a little
hesitant, because he was about to enter the house of a gentile and associate
with them. This was something that was
strictly forbidden by the laws of his people.
Just as eating ham was something detestable to the Jews, associating
with gentiles was an abominable practice for his people. Yet, as Peter came to the door he probably
remembered the vision the Lord had given him, and it started to make
sense. When he went inside and asked
Cornelius why he had sent for him, Cornelius told him that an angel of God had
told him to send for Peter. That is when
Peter cried out, “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.” (Acts 10:34-35). It was in this
way that the Lord taught Peter the lesson that the Gospel was meant for all
people. Though it was undoubtedly
difficult for Peter to go into the house of a gentile, he knew that he could
not call them unclean, because the Lord had made them clean. He knew that he could not deny the Gospel to
them, because the Gospel was truly for all people.
This is the lesson that the Lord God is teaching us
today as well! He is teaching us that
the Gospel is for all people. Yet how
often don’t we forget that? How often
don’t we forget that when God says the Gospel is for all people he means all
people? All too easily we grow content
in our little church circle and think to ourselves, “If someone wants to hear
about God’s Word, why don’t they come to church?” All too easily we fall into the notion that
we really shouldn’t be bothering people with this religion stuff because they
all must belong to one church or another.
All too easily we start to think that since we are giving money to Synod
to send missionaries out into the world to spread the news of the Gospel, we
don’t need to do any kind of mission work at all. Yes, when we get complacent in our religious
lives and grow comfortable in seeing only the same faces Sunday after Sunday,
we start to forget God’s lesson that even we are missionaries commissioned to
spread the Gospel to all people.
What better place for us to start than right here in
Le Sueur! For as you already know, we
have a world mission field right out side our front doors. We have an opportunity to take the Gospel to
another culture, just like Peter did.
Though the idea of teaching the Gospel to the Hispanic people in our own
city might be as nerve racking to us as it was for Peter to go into the house
of Cornelius, the Gospel is for all people. Salvation comes only through faith
in Jesus Christ. Without faith in Christ
there is no salvation, and anyone who claims to have faith and yet does not
know their Savior, will completely miss out on the salvation that the Lord
promises to all who believe.
This is the lesson that the Lord Jesus is teaching
us today. He is teaching us that the
Gospel is for all people. This is the lesson the Lord taught us when John
baptized Jesus. This is the lesson that
Isaiah explained us as he prophesied about the Lord’s servant who would bring
justice to all the nations. This is the
lesson that Peter learned when the Lord sent him to the house of Cornelius, and
this is the lesson that we are learning today.
And the application of that lesson is quite simple.
For now that we have come to the understanding that
the Gospel is truly for all people, it quickly follows that it is now our
mission to proclaim that Gospel message to the World. And if you think about it, who better to take
that message to the world than you and me! [We] “know the message God sent to the
people of Israel, telling the good news of peace through Jesus Christ, who is
Lord of all. [We] know what has happened throughout Judea, beginning in Galilee
after the baptism that John preached-- how God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with
the Holy Spirit and power, and how he went around doing good and healing all
who were under the power of the devil, because God was with him. ‘We are witnesses of everything he did in the
country of the Jews and in Jerusalem. They killed him by hanging him on a tree,
but God raised him from the dead on the third day and caused him to be seen. He
was not seen by all the people, but by witnesses whom God had already
chosen--by us who ate and drank with him after he rose from the dead. He
commanded us to preach to the people and to testify that he is the one whom God
appointed as judge of the living and the dead.
All the prophets testify about him that everyone who believes in him
receives forgiveness of sins through his name.’ ” (Acts 10:36-44).
This is the message of salvation that you and I know
better than the back of our hands. This
is the message of salvation that we heard the children proclaim to us only a
few weeks ago as we celebrated our Savior’s birth yet again. This is the message of salvation which we
will relive as in just a few short weeks we once again journey with Jesus
through his suffering, death and resurrection.
So now it is our mission to go out spread this message. Spread it by simply inviting the people in your
neighborhood, your friends at work, or even your friends from school to come to
church with you, so that they might hear God’s Word for themselves. Spread that message by reading from your
Bibles on a regular basis. For when you
do, you are not only building up your own faith, but you are preparing
yourselves to confess your faith in Jesus Christ to anyone who might ask
you. Spread that message by openly
talking about the Lord and how he has blessed you. Spread that message by assuring others that
you will and do keep them in your prayers.
This is the application to our lesson today! For now that we have learned that the Gospel
is indeed for all people, the application is simply that it is our mission to
take that message to the world. Let us
do that very thing. Let us begin right
here in Le Sure and take that message to those who do not yet know. For just as
Thomas Jefferson believed that all people are created equally and are endowed
with certain unalienable rights, so also the Bible declares that the Gospel is
for all people.
Amen.
Pastor
David M. Shilling
Grace Evangelical Lutheran Church--Le Sueur, MN
