Sunday May 15th 2022. No video sermon this week or next but here’s the text…By George.

Who are you to God?

Text: Acts 11:1-18

If I were start a sentence with the words, ‘There are two types of people in the world…’ how would you finish that sentence? There are two types of people in the world…” Somebody once said, ‘There are two types of people in the world – those who divide the world into two types of people and those who do not.” What say you?

I think if I were to divide people into two types, I would say, there are rule keepers and rule breakers. Some people just have an internal compulsion to follow the rules, even if those rules are questionable. There are others who seem only to enjoy life when they are breaking the rules.

There’s an old job about a little boy named Johnny whose mother had just returned form the grocery story. Johnny pulled a box of animal crackers out of her grocery bag and spread those animal crackers all over the table.

‘What are you going?’ the mother asked.

‘I’m looking for the seal,” Johnny explained. ‘It says not to eat them if the seal is broken.”

Little Johnny was definitely a rule-keeper. I can respect that. People like him keep society from descending into chaos. But sometimes we keep rules that no longer serve any purpose. Sometimes our rules only serve to put up walls between ourselves and others. For instance, how many Christians – consciously or unconsciously – make up rules to decide who is or is not acceptable to God?

Pastor Joe McKeever shares an experience from his early days in the ministry, sometime in the late 1970s. A visitor to one of his church services had said to one of the deacons, ‘Your pastor is going to hell.’

The deacon replied, ‘My pastor is going to hell? May I ask why?’

The man said, ‘His hair is too long.”

The deacon thought he’d have a little fun with this guy, so he asked, ‘And how long should his hair be?’

The man replied, ‘About like mine.”

Isn’t that a coincidence? Hair that was the length of this man’s hair was acceptable. A hair longer, no pun intended, and he was headed toward hell. Some of you remember those absurd days just a few years ago when people would fight over the length of a man’s hair. This man obviously felt he had the perfect length of hair ordained by God. And any man who dared to let his hair grow longer was destined for Satan’s domain. Can anyone read the teachings of Jesus Christ and really believe such nonsense? Sometimes rules keep us from descending into chaos, but sometimes rules keep us from understanding the awesomeness of God. This insane rule falls into the second camp.

I suspect that all of us are guilty at times of passing judgment on people who are different from us. We even go as far as to create rules about who is and is not acceptable to God. As if we are God’s bouncers. We decided who comes in and who is left out.

Actually, that’s not a new problem. Our scripture lesson today is about the new and growing community of Jesus’ followers that sprang up after Jesus’ death and resurrection. Jesus’ apostles were leaders in this young community of faith. They were doing exactly what they thought Jesus called them to do: spread the good news of Jesus the Saviour beginning with the nation of Israel first. But then somebody broke the rules. It was Simon Peter – the leader of the apostles. Simon Peter did a no-no. He actually went into a non-Jewish home, at a meal with those uncircumcised heathen and shared with them the message of Jesus! What was he thinking? And when Peter got back to Jerusalem, he was in for a heap of criticism from the Jewish believers.

It reminds of a time a famous British pastor, Charles Haddon Spurgeon, once had a woman from his church corner him and just spew out a long list of criticisms at him. Spurgeon just stood there and smiled at her.

When she paused for a breath, he responded, ‘Yes, thank you, I’m quite well. I hope you are the same.’

The confused woman started over with her long list of criticisms, so Spurgeon responded, ‘Yes, it does look lit it’s going to rain. I think I had better be getting on.’

At this point, the woman just gave up. As she turned to walk away, she said, ‘Bless the man! He’s deaf as a post. What’s the use of storming at him?’

I wish I had the confidence to respond like Spurgeon when I’m facing a storm of criticism. Fortunately, Peter didn’t need to pretend that he was deaf when the circumcised believers criticized him. He only needed to tell them what God had done for him. While praying, Peter had a vision of a large sheet that came down from heaven. In that sheet were all kinds of animals, reptiles, and birds, both clean and unclean. In Leviticus 11, we read that God commanded the Hebrew people not to eat certain animals, birds, and reptiles as a sign of their holy relationship with God. Peter and the other circumcised believers would never consider breaking this rule. But in Peter’s vision, a voice from heaven commanded him, “Get up, Peter! Kill and eat.”

Peter protested, “Surely not, Lord! Nothing impure or unclean has ever entered my mouth. The voice spoke from heaven a second time. ‘Do not call anything impure that God has made clean’. This happened three times, and then it was all pulled up to heaven again.” Then, as soon as Peter saw this vision, he was approached by men from Caesarea and asked to come share the message of Jesus with a Gentile family. What was he to do? When Peter began preaching to the Gentile family, they received the Holy Spirit. Gentiles! Received the Holy Spirit! What will God think of next? And suddenly the walls that kept Gentiles out of the early church started tumbling down.

I want us to focus today on Peter’s response because it’s a powerful example of how to pivot our mindset from being God’s bouncer to being God’s ambassador. Peter ends his story by saying, “So if God gave them the same gift He gave us who believed in the Lord Jesus Christ, who was I to think that I could stand in God’s way?” He was referring, of course, to the gift of the Holy Spirit. If God gave Gentiles the gift of the Holy Spirit, Peter is saying, how could they be excluded from the church?

Here’s a powerful question: Are there times when you and I could be standing in God’s way? Are our beliefs, attitudes, prejudices, or actions interfering with the work of God in our community? Are we withholding the love and truth of Jesus Christ from certain people or certain groups because we think they are unacceptable to God? Are we standing in God’s way or standing in God’s will? To answer this question, I want us to ask ourselves three questions.

The first question is ‘How big is your spiritual family?’ That is what Jesus came to do – to enlarge our spiritual family.  What is the central teaching of Jesus’ life, the central teaching of the Bible itself? It’s John 3;16, isn’t it? “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life?” God so loved the world – that’s a pretty big family.

Notice the accusation thrown at Peter at the beginning of our Bible passage: “You went into the house of uncircumcised men and ate with them.” In those days it was taboo for Jewish believers to eat with non-Jews. So, for Peter to go into a Gentile house – and the word ‘Gentile’ simply refers to a non-Jewish person – for Peter to go into a Gentile house and share a meal with the people there implied that Jews and Gentiles were equal in God’s eyes. It implied that Gentiles were fully acceptable to God.

Dr. James Forbes, a pastor in New York City, came from a family of 10 children. He grew up in South Carolina, and he tells the story of how his mother would call the Forbes children to the dinner table each night. Each evening, Mrs. Forbes would stand on the front porch and yell, ‘Are all the children in? Are all the children in?’

The meal couldn’t be blessed or eaten until all ten of the Forbes children had taken their place at the table. Dr. Forbes says, ‘That is how God calls to each and everyone one of us in the church. Are all the children in? Are all the children in?’

That’s the whole reason Jesus came into this world, shared the message of God, and died on the cross – it was to gather all God’s ‘children’ into the kingdom of God. And now that’s our job too. If you claim to be a follower of Jesus, that’s your calling, that’s your mission, that’s your life’s greatest goal and priority now: to bring as many people to the love and truth of Jesus Christ as possible. In order to do that, we have to ask ourselves the question: ‘How big is my spiritual family?’

The second question we need to ask ourselves is, ‘How great is God’s grace?’ Remember in our Bible passage when Peter first had the vision of the sheet filled with animals, reptiles, and birds, and he backed away because some of them were designated as unclean for God’s people then the voice spoke from heaven and said, “Do not call anything impure that God has made clean.” Thank about that for a moment.

We don’t have the power to make anything clean. We can’t even clean ourselves up enough to qualify for God’s approval. Only the sacrificial death of Jesus Christ is enough to make us clean in God’s eyes. So, who are we to stand in judgment of others? Read through the book of Acts and one message is abundantly clear. God’s love is greater than our limitations. God’s plan is greater than our prejudices.

The host of a religious talk show was interviewing a man who had lived a tough and reckless life until he became a follower of Jesus Christ. As he told the story of his spiritual journey, he continually thanked God for changing his life.

This caused the talk show host to make an interesting comment, ‘You know what I’ve noticed?’ she said, “People who have always been in the church, always done the right thing, always been prim and proper, don’t know how to give thanks to God. In fact, I’ve noticed that they are prone to complain because God hasn’t done even MORE for them.” Only if you have experienced God’s grace can you know the joy of God’s peace.

The only reasonable response to grace, the unearned, undeserved love of God, is gratitude. Thank God for giving His one and only Son to take on the penalty of death for us and give us eternal life. And then make sure to tell everyone you know about the awesome greatness of God’s grace, so they can find salvation and eternal life too.

There’s a grand old story that many of you maybe familiar with of a missionary physician working in the interior regions of mainland China. One day, he performed cataract surgery on a blind man. For the first time in years, the man could see clearly, and he was overjoyed.

A few weeks later, the previously blind man returned to the missionary compound. But unlike the first time he arrived, this time he was not alone. He came dragging a long rope and holding on to this long rope were more than 50 men, women, and children – all of them blind. Some had come from as far as 250 miles away, journeying through the wilderness, holding on to the rope for their guidance. The healed man wasn’t just grateful for his own healing, he was determined to lead as many people out of the darkness as he could.

And that’s exactly what Peter and the apostles were called to do when they shared the message of God with the Gentiles. When we really understand the greatness of God’s grace, we realize that we can’t leave anybody out. Do you want to be in God’s way or in God’s will? The best way to ensure that you are in God’s will is to ask yourself the questions, “How big is my spiritual family?’ and ‘How great is God’s grace.”

And the final question we need to ask ourselves is, “How can I get in on the party?” Because when you finally realize the goodness of God, the greatness of God’s grace, and the wonder of God’s plan for humanity, you can’t help but celebrate. Let’s look again at the final verse in our Bible passage for today, Acts 11 verse 18: “When they heard this,” – they referring to the Jewish believers – “they had no further objections and praised God, saying, ‘So then, even to Gentiles God has granted repentance that leads to life.’”  They praised God. From accusations and division to praising God. That’s certainly reason for a party, isn’t it?

In southern California, there is a desert region called Imperial Valley. Sometime in the 1980s, a man named Leonard Knight moved to Imperial Valley. Leonard was a welder and handyman from Vermont. He was also a veteran of the Korean War. Sometime in his life, he became a follower of Jesus. His philosophy in life became, ‘Love Jesus and keep it simple.’ So, Leonard packed a few belongings in his old truck and moved out into the California desert to fulfill a calling he felt came from God.

Leonard didn’t have many resources, but he had a dream to share God’s love with the world. So, he began gathering adobe clay and paint and various other items. And he slowly began building a monument to God’s love. Over a thirty-year period, Leonard added more clay and straw and other items to the monument, until it took the shape of a man-made mountain 50 feet tall and 150 feet wide. Leonard named his monument ‘Salvation Mountain’. On it, he painted bible verses and prayers and birds and flowers and stars. On top of Salvation Mountain is a large white cross, and underneath the cross, in huge red and pink letters, are the words ‘God is love’. In fact, the world ‘love’ is prominently displayed all over the mountain. And just as Leonard hoped, thousands of people have come from all over to view Salvation Mountain.

In 2002, Senator Barbara Boxer entered Salvation Mountain into the Congressional Record as a national treasure.

Leonard Knight understood that God’s family is huge and God’s grace is great, and he wanted to invite everyone to God’s party. So, he created a giant, man-made mountain with the sole purpose of telling people about God’s love. So, what about us? How do we get in on the party? And how do we invite as many people as possible too?

Actually, in God’s eyes, there’s only one type of person: greatly loved and worthy dying for. In the book of Galatians 3;28, the apostle Paul writes, “There is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither salve nor free, nor is there male or female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.”  We are not God’s bouncers, determined who gets and who does not, rather we are God’s ambassadors, invite all to come in. it’s not our job to put limits on God’s love. It’s our job to share the love and the salvation of Jesus Christ with everyone we meet, so that all God’s children can someday be gathered into his kingdom. Amen

An invitation from Knox College. Wednesday May 11th at 4:30 pm Fort St. John time (MST).
You’re invited! Join us for the livestream of Knox College’s Convocation on Wednesday, May 11, 2022, at 7:30pm.

Due to COVID-19, the in-person ceremony will include limited attendance (by invitation only) in the Knox College Chapel. But join us via livestream here (or on Knox’s YouTube channel) to cheer on the Master of Divinity, Master of Pastoral Studies, Master of Theological Studies, Certificate in Theological Studies, and Doctor of Philosophy graduates.

The Rev. Dr. Daniel D. Scott, Moderator of the 146th General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church in Canada, will share the Convocation Address, titled, “A meditation on meditation” (based on Joshua 1:1-9).

Knox College will also confer the degree Doctor of Divinity (honoris causa) upon three recipients: the Rev. Iona MacLean, the Rev. George Malcolm, and the Rev. Dr. Ronald Wallace. Read more about these three recipients here.