“How can you argue with that?”
By Rev. Michael Stonhouse
Meditation – Saturday, August 31, 2024
Acts 11: 1-18 (Forward, p. 33) CEV p. 1147
Here Peter is reporting back to the church in Jerusalem the details of what has to be one of the most dramatic and important turning points in all of Christian history, namely God’s sovereign choosing of Gentiles to inherit eternal life. And to be honest, the way that this turning point unfolded left little room for debate or argument:
-Peter was praying when he fell asleep and had his three-fold vision
of a sheet filled with unclean animals, plus a voice from heaven. The
number three was considered especially important as it was by three
witnesses that any matter could be confirmed.
-no sooner than Peter had heard the third message about unclean
and unclean that the three messengers from Cornelius showed up at
his gate.
-at that point, the Holy Spirit told Peter to go with them and not to
Worry.
-Cornelius himself had been visited by an angel who told him to send
to Joppa for someone called Simon Peter, who would tell him how he
and his entire household could be saved.
-and then, right amid Peter’s sermon, God intervened by
sending Cornelius and his household the Holy Spirit just as the
disciples had at the beginning on the Day of Pentecost, complete
with the outward manifestation of the gift of tongues.
-then Peter remembered that Jesus had predicted this very thing,
namely a baptism with the Holy Spirit.
And so, Peter’s audience there in Jerusalem. There were no grounds for dispute or argument. After all, there had been multiple attestation: a three-fold vision and voice from heaven, the remarkable circumstance of the visitors showing up at the very moment, the angelic visitation to Cornelius, the bestowal of the Holy Spirit with signs following, and of course, the very words of Jesus.
To me, this little incident affirms that change, even wholesale change, is possible, and may even be God’s will at times. After all, no longer requiring Gentile believers to be circumcised and observe all the tenets of the Jewish law was a very big step. It basically affirmed the supposition that salvation was by faith alone, something totally unearned or unmerited, a gift from a gracious and loving God.
At that same time, this incident tells me that one needs to go slow, and that change needs to be strongly attested to by God’s signs and working. In other words, it needs to be motivated not just by a desire to ‘keep in step with the times’, or to accommodate this group or that, or to attract them and win them for Christ. There needs to be very obvious signs that this is what God wants. So, let us not be wary or unresponsive to change, but at the same time to be very careful to seek God’s guidance in it. Thanks be to God.
Forward notes: “And they praised God saying, ‘Then God has given even to the Gentiles the repentance that leads to life’” (verse 18).
“What exactly does it mean to love God with my whole heart and love my neighbour as myself? How far does the boundary extend in my neighbourhood? Do I have to include immigrants or states that lean differently than mine? Do I have to forgive people I disagree with and show them mercy? Do I have to stand up for people who are persecuted?
“We make a confession of sin every Sunday in which we claim to humbly repent. I find it helpful to fill in the blanks when I pray silently and specify my acts and omissions. None of us knows what eternal life looks like. But this verse speaks to the repentance that leads to ‘life,’ a life in which we delight in God’s will and walk in God’s ways.”
Moving Forward: “How do you fill in the blanks on your confession of sin?”