liff and Saltillo UM Churches
August 28, 2005
Dr. Marilyn S. Murphree
“Widening Your Circle of Unlikely Friends”
Acts 10:9-35
Introduction: Peter had come a long way in his walk with the Lord but he had restricted his preaching of the gospel to a limited audience focusing only on the Jews. He was not by training or by inclination an overly scrupulous Jew, yet he held certain prejudices. If someone had asked Peter if he were prejudiced, he would probably have emphatically denied it. How many of you think that you are prejudiced? How many don’t think you are? What does the word “prejudice mean?” It comes from two Latin words prae and judicium meaning before judgement and means a PRECONCEIVED IDEA. This idea could be favorable or unfavorable but generally it is understood by most people to be a NEGATIVE action rather than a positive one.
Today’s scripture pointed out to Peter that he had some pre-determined beliefs that were limiting his ability to reach out to people who were “different” from him. You might wonder why God chose Peter to be the one to go to the Gentiles that day. Would any of the other disciples have been as successful? Probably one of the reasons why Peter was appointed to this task was that he was usually willing to step out and try new things. Most of us resist change, and if we are reasonably comfortable we don’t want to change whether or not the change would improve things for us.
Story: A fireman every day opened his lunch bucket and took out his sandwiches. Every day he complained, “Balogna sandwiches! I’m so tired of bologna sandwiches! I hate balogna! I’d give anything for a different sandwich some day!”
His friend asked, “Well, why don’t you ask your wife to make you different sandwiches?”
The man answered, “my WIFE doesn’t make those sandwiches. I DO!”
Leaving our old beliefs behind for better ones is hard to do. It was for Peter as well as for us today. Let’s see what we can get out of today’s scripture.
1. God Knows How to Get Through to Us: How God spoke to Peter was unusual, but God frequently reveals himself in ways related to our human situation. Had God directly said, “Peter go and talk to Cornelius,” Peter probably wouldn’t have wanted to. God met Peter on a rooftop at Simon the tanner’s house praying. It was around lunch time and he was getting hungry. God knew he could get his attention through food, but it wasn’t a “Big Mac” or a “Whopper” that he brought to his mind.
He showed him a huge sheet coming down from heaven. It contained all kinds of animals and reptiles and birds.” A voice said, “Get up Peter. Kill and eat.”
Peter says, “Yuck! No way!” “Surely not Lord. I have never eaten anything impure or unclean.” “You’ve got to be kidding. You expect ME to eat this?”
Story: One time we had dinner guests. We didn’t have any Coke or Pepsi but we had Big K Cola.
One of our guests said, “Do you expect me to drink Big K? I don’t drink that.” And she didn’t.
Peter says, “I don’t eat what is common or unclean or anything that doesn’t measure up to the Jewish dietary requirements. Peter had always observed the dietary restrictions of Leviticus 11 which distinguished clean and unclean animals. He was repelled by this vision.
God didn’t say, “OK, I’ll get you something else.” He said, “Don’t call anything impure that God has made clean.” God didn’t tell him this just once. Peter didn’t get it on the first try. He was disturbed by this vision, but he didn’t know what it meant. God repeated it two more times. Sometimes God has to run things by us numerous times for us to get the message. Finally we exclaim, “Oh, I GET IT. I UNDERSTAND.”
Sometimes we can seem to see the prejudices that we have. We can see them readily in others around us. God has to confront us with what is really going on in our thinking. He has to point out the blind spots we have. Sometimes that is not easy and takes quite a long time.
Story:A cowboy at a bar in Gallup, NM. orders three mugs of Bud and sits in the back room, drinking a sip out of each one in turn. When he finishes them, he
comes back to the bar and orders three more. The bartender tells him, "You know, a mug goes flat after I draw it. It would taste better if you bought one at a time." The cowboy replies, "I have two brothers. One is in Flagstaff, the other in Farmington. I’m in Gallup. When we left home, we promised that we’d drink
this way to remember the days we drank together. I drink one for each of my
brothers and one for myself."
The bartender tells him it is a nice custom.
The cowboy becomes a regular and always orders three mugs and drinks them in
turn.
One day he comes in and orders two mugs. All the regulars take notice and
fall silent. When he comes back to the bar for the second round, the
bartender says, "I don’t want to intrude on your grief, but I wanted to
offer my condolences on your loss."
The cowboy looks puzzled for a moment, then a light dawns, and he laughs.
"Oh, no, everybody’s just fine," he explains. "It’s just that my wife and I joined the Baptist Church and I had to quit drinking. Hasn’t affected my brothers, though."
2. How Should Peter React to This Vision?: Peter wondered about what the vision meant and what he should do about it when three people came looking for Peter from the town of Joppa about 30 miles away. They explained that Cornelius, a Gentile centurion, wanted Peter to come down and talk to him. This put Peter in a dilemma.
1. Jewish law prohibited a Jew from ASSOCIATING with a Gentile.
2. Jewish law prohibited a Jew from ENTERING Gentile buildings or TOUCHING Gentile possessions.
3. They were forbidden to accept the HOSPITALITY of Gentiles.
God was trying to tell Peter to let go of his pre-conceived beliefs that were limiting him from expanding the gospel to people who were interested in hearing it. What would you have done? Would you have mumbled some excuse about why you couldn’t go? “I’ve got to work...got to babysit the grandchildren...gotta....” Would you have said, “I’m not PERMITTED to go? My CHURCH wouldn’t ALLOW it.” Would you have said I can’t go, I’m a CHRISTIAN.” Would you have refused to discuss it and built a stronger wall between you? I think today we would be good at making an excuse. We get enough practice at that.
What kind of walls have you permitted between yourself and others simply because of pre-conceived ideas that you have picked up over the years?
racial
religious
economic
political
moral
denominational
3. Peter’s Decision: Up until that time Peter didn’t know he had any other mission than to preach to the Jews. You might not realize that you have any other mission either. What does this story say to you about following Christ? Peter took the message as a message from God. He might have had a lot of flaws and rough edges but he had a TEACHABLE SPIRIT. He had the green light to go. God was saying, “Go ahead and go down to Joppa to meet with Cornelius. He is a God-fearing Gentile who is helpful to his neighbors.”
Peter took six of the other Jewish Christians with him. In the process their beliefs were changed as they saw how open Cornelius and those who had gathered were to Peter’s message. The six who had gone with Peter were “astonished at what they saw and heard.” The prejudices they had were starting to break down as well.
What new relationships have God given you recently? Did you accept them as having been sent from God or did you reject them because they were different from you or different from what you expected? Sometimes we miss God because we write people off too quickly. Think about principles or beliefs that you have which limits your ability to reach certain people. Where did these come from and how are they limiting you? What could you do about it to widen your circle of unlikely friends? How could you get to know these people?
Story: One day when I was sitting in a group of teenagers at Juvenile Detention, one boy said, “I was in McConnelsville and wanted to help an old lady across the street. When I went up to her she clutched her purse to her and wouldn’t let me help her. She was afraid that I was going to mug her.
He said “I don’t think they like black teenagers in McConnelsville.”
Well that was probably the truth. She didn’t know him and he didn’t know her.
Peter was on unfamiliar territory when he stood before Cornelius and those gathered at his house, but he preached a Holy Spirit guided message to these waiting people.
“Of a truth I perceive that God is no respecter of persons but in every nation he that fear him and worketh righteousness is acceptable to Him” (Acts 10:34, 35). The gospel was preached to people that Peter had initially written off.
Think of the limits you have placed on people. How would others feel if you moved beyond these limits? The Jews regarded even people like Cornelius as pagans unless they fully submitted to Jewish practices. Would you be criticized if you made friends with certain people? Would that matter? Considering the make up of your community, church, or small group would some people ASSUME your church or group is not for them? If so, how can you change that? How would you feel about changing things that would help barriers to come down? Maybe you say smugly, “Well, I’m not going to be the one to change.” “THEY will have to do the changing.” And the walls continue to exist.
CONCLUSION: If we are open to the Lord’s leading, I believe he will use ordinary daily circumstances to confront our prejudices and to help us to tear down the walls that cause us to reject certain people who are different from us. He will show us those who are wanting the good news that we have to offer them. If we will move beyond our limits, we can see them come into a new life in Christ. What do you think the Lord wants you to do this week to deal with your prejudices and to widen your circle of unlikely friends?
LET US PRAY:
