There was a man in Boissevain who was paralyzed in a farm accident and was bedridden for the last 8 years. This guy just came to town late last week out of nowhere and healed him. The formerly paralyzed man obviously started walking around town and being a small town just about everyone saw him because he was going everywhere he could now that he could walk again. Apparently every person in Boissevain has turned to the Lord and the churches are scrambling to find spaces to hold their church services this weekend. They have rented warehouses, the arena, everything.
Their have been a lot of funerals in the area lately and the word is that this man is going to come to Killarney this week and one of the residents here has asked if he would come and raise his recently deceased relative from the dead. Would you go see this?
Alright, that didn’t really happen, but I bet it got your attention didn’t it?
There is a bible conference coming to Boissevain next weekend, but my guess is that there will probably not be a many signs and wonders, unfortunately. We can pray otherwise.
Anyway I want to start today by reading the eighth verse of Acts chapter 1. The disciples were listening to Jesus just before he was about to ascend into heaven. No doubt eager Peter was up at the front when Jesus gives his great commission.
Now we have about 4 different accounts of Jesus final words before he was taken up. They all say similar things, but each person who heard may have specifically emphasized what they heard form Jesus, and maybe this was done to give a more complete picture.
Matthew the Jewish tax collector focuses on making disciples, Luke both here and in his gospel focuses on being witnesses, of course he is the Gentile doctor, and Mark which is thought to be Peter’s account written by Mark, focuses on preaching and miraculous signs.
So back to Acts 1:8 “But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.”
Now why I’m taking us back to these accounts of the great commission is because I want us to see how perfectly Peter is obeying. He was the one who explained what was going on when the power of the Holy Spirit did come upon them at Pentecost. He was performing many signs and wonders, especially through healing and casting out demons. Of course he started preaching or witnessing in Jerusalem and became the leader of the church there.
Now in Acts chapter 9 we see Peter taking this witnessing power through Judea to Samaria. And we know that when he was crucified in Rome like his Lord, he was working on going to the ends of the earth, which in that day probably referred to the known Roman Empire.
So he leaves Jerusalem and heads out along the coast through Lydda and Joppa which are both in Judea.
The first thing he does is heal the crippled man Aeneas. And listen what happened in verse 35 of chapter 9 – “Then the whole population of Lydda and Sharon saw the man walking around, and they turned to the Lord”. The whole population!
Then up the road in Joppa there was a saint of a woman who was always doing good things for others, helping the poor, but this poor Tabitha or Dorcas got sick and died. That’s not fair. But the believers hear that Peter was nearby and knew he had been healing people so they call for him. But this would be a step up from just healing.
He comes into the room and like his resurrecting predecessors Elijah, Elisha and Jesus, he gets the people to leave the room, and imagine what must have been going through his mind. This woman was dead, she had already been prepared for burial. I can’t help but wonder if Peter really thought he could pull this off.
He had lots of experience with healing, but this one would really test whether or not Jesus really was with Him and working through him, if he could raise someone from the dead.
I would have sent the people away too, just in case I failed and then I could sneak out the back window.
He knelt and prayed. Yeah, I wouldn’t have tried this one without some pretty serious prayer either. And I’m sure the Spirit took him over, he looked at the body and simply said, “Get up Tabitha” and she did.
The word about this one spread and again many people put their trust in the Lord. Now the last sentence in chapter 9 may seem like just a little add on to finish the story, but there are a couple significant things in there. First of all it says Peter stayed a long time in Joppa.
Whatever a long time is here, the point is that he didn’t just witness and perform some miracles and then leave.
The better part of three towns had just become believers, so he stayed a long time to work at making them disciples and equipping the new church. We can’t underestimate the commitment needed to not only make converts, but to make actual disciples. Because without that, many would just fall away or get thrown off by some false teaching.
Secondly it says he stayed with Simon the Tanner. Nothing significant about that is there? Well, only the fact that hide tanners were amoung the most unclean people to the Jews because they handled dead animals and blood. So even though we are going to see Peter get a little training in this area when he has his vision in the next chapter, we see that already he is not too closely bound anymore to these Jewish traditions, though Simon was still a Jew.
Now as we move into chapter 10 we see Peter about to venture into Samaria, the next leg of the Great Commission, where he will begin to really receive his call to the Gentiles. Let’s read from verses 1-33…
Talk about confirmation that the Holy Spirit is working. Cornelius was not a Christian yet, but he was a God fearing devoutly religious man, knowing about this God that the Jews worshipped. He did not worship other pagan gods. However he would not have felt very welcome in the synagogues, because he was a Gentile, and even worse he was a Roman soldier.
Cornelius and his family were Gentiles but these people believed in the God of the Jews and prayed and so on, however they did not live by all the rules of Judaism like circumcision. They were not what we would call proselytes, so they would be very open to this new way through Jesus Christ. To be fully included in the church. By the way Caesarea becomes the first city to have an organized group of Gentile Christians and a non-Jewish church thanks to Peter, Phillip, and Paul.
So the angel came to Cornelius at 3:00 so Cornelius would have been praying as we read in verse 30.
Most Jews would be at the synagogue, but he is at his home. We see again that most visions come to people in Acts, usually when they are praying.
Notice that in these last two chapters. God was giving clear detailed visions to different people to accomplish his purposes. Saul had the vision of Jesus and Ananias was given the vision to receive Saul and heal him. Here both Cornelius and Peter receive visions that connect them. What happened in both circumstances? People who wouldn’t be expected to be part of the church got saved and baptised.
To me this is so exciting because I’ve heard many stories in our day where these kinds of things have happened. It makes me wonder what might happen if we were to pray for God show us people who are wanting to be saved and God knows it, and if He might just give us visions and leading to meet these people and have God do His work.
How often do we pray that God would put someone in our path, that they might be led to be in a certain place at a certain time, and they would know or sense that we have a message for them. I think that would be cool, and obviously God is into that as well.
Now Peter is on this trip because God wants to teach him something as well as use him. He is already breaking with Jewish tradition by staying with Simon the tanner, and though he stayed with Simon he probably did not eat with him as we see when it says Peter was hungry at lunchtime, but he was up on the roof while likely a separate “clean” meal was being prepared for him.
Look at what Cornelius does when he knows Peter is coming and has a word from God. He called his family and close friends together. I see a model for evangelism here. Cornelius didn’t know everything, but he knew that he had invited someone that could explain everything to them.
So he invites all these people to hear about Jesus as we see, even though he himself didn’t know Jesus fully if at all. What if we all did something like that? Maybe we don’t know how to present the Gospel very effectively, but what if we gathered some people telling them that they will hear something that could change their lives, something that is very important to you, and you want them to have what you have, and then invited someone to come and present the gospel and testimonies to them? I’m glad you asked, because that is exactly what this upcoming “My Hope” event is about this week.
All you have to do get people either to your home or to the church. You can get them here, or if they will not darken the door of a church, gather them at your house for some snacks and a TV program that will do all the work for you. All you have to do is share a little bit about what God has done in your life after the TV show, and then lead them to accept the message just like you did, if they seem receptive.
I will be doing this here on Friday but if you can’t get them here you can get them to your home with the program airing Thursday, Friday, and Saturday at various times, so there are options if people are busy on one of those nights. I believe if everyone could see this program we would have a huge mass of new people entering the kingdom this week. The key is to get people you already have a relationship with in front of that program.
But for it to be effective you need to pray and ask God to show you who in your life might be willing to hear this life changing message, and pray to soften these people’s hearts as you invite them. You can also get all the follow up material, for you and them, through the website, including a prayer you can use with them after the show.
Please don’t let this opportunity pass you by. I am praying that this will not just be another Christian gathering of already believers. And if you are not participating directly, please pray for us here at the church and those who are in their homes, that God would bring not yet believers and work mightily.
Back to our text. Notice also here that Cornelius is not embarrassed to tell Peter what he experienced. This helped confirm for Peter that God was in this and had prepared these people to receive the message. And next time we get to hear what happens at this meeting at Cornelius’ house.
Wouldn’t it have been cool to be a Christian back then? That’s why I told you that fake story at the beginning, because I believe it can be like that again, if we want it to be. Why would God taunt us with all this excitement and power that the early church had? Just to make us feel bad that it isn’t happening anymore? That our Christian life has to be mundane and powerless? I don’t think He’d do that.
There is no reason to believe that the Holy Spirit in the book of Acts is different from the Holy Spirit we have today. I think this book of Acts is in here to show us the model of how church can be. It just needs to be adapted to our current day.
If the Holy Spirit hasn’t changed and He still lives in us, why isn’t this kind of stuff happening today in our culture? It’s happening elsewhere.
There are only a few reasons that make any sense. One, is that we don’t want it to. We don’t want it to be like it was back then. Or it could be that all the gifts of the Holy Spirit have ceased. I don’t believe that for one minute, just because we don’t see them very often. And the other reason is that we don’t believe it can happen anymore, at least with us. And each of these reasons cause us to not obey the Word of God and the leading of the Spirit in our lives. That’s why we don’t experience it. Check out your action plan and the quote in your bulletin this week regarding this.
The only difference I can see between the early church and us besides the culture obviously, is that the Christians obeyed what Jesus said, and they did not try to conform to the culture as we have. We have let our culture dictate how the church should be, and that is another reason based on our love of the world more than our love of God and obedience to His word, that we don’t see what they saw.
One person is not going to change back the course we have taken in the church of Christ, but as a body we can, if we are willing.
I am going to ask us to respond today. In my prayer there are going to be opportunities for you to respond to several things. Please do not continue to pray with me if you are not serious about the commitments mentioned.
Otherwise I am going to ask you to pray silently from the heart, the words that I pray. I want to tell you also that I am kind of afraid to pray this prayer, but I need to be an example. So here it goes, pray it with me if you will…
My sovereign heavenly Father, I confess today that I have lived for myself more than I have lived for you. I want to die to self and truly be reborn in you, whatever that means. I want to be obedient to all that you have commanded even when it isn’t popular. I want to be completely submitted to the Holy Spirit. I believe you God when you say that your very Spirit lives in me, and because you now live in me I have the capacity to do all the things that Jesus and the early disciples did by your desire and grace. Lord help me desire your will above my own, and to do away with all things I do and think that interfere with you using me fully through the Spirit. I now commit myself to follow you and the Spirit within me more than I ever have before, and I pray that you will use me to grow your kingdom here on earth. I put my life in trust with you now though the powerful name of Jesus Christ your son. Amen.
