Acts 10: 34-48
***originally preached at Colonial Place Christian Church, May 17, 2009
We hear so often that people need to get back to the basics of life, and we often hear churches say it is time we get back to the basics of “church life”? A dozen years ago or so a famous Christian music group became famous for a song by that very name.
I ask you a question...what would the church look like if we all were back to the basics? What are the basics? Food and water—no. Reading, writing and arithmetic—no. But the basics, the basics of the gospel of Jesus Christ. Not the things that divide us, but the things that unite us. JOHN 3:16. Probably the most basic verse we have in the New Testament. It draws us together as Christians, as followers of Christ.
We can argue about how we interpret this or that, we can argue or disagree about how to do communion, from the table or by coming up front to dip real bread in the cup; we can disagree about how we baptize whether by immersion in water, or sprinkling, or as infants/adults. These things tend to divide us.
One thing that does bring us together, and I wish did a little bit more is a verse like JOHN 3: 16, so foundational to our faith. It draws us together around the central premise of the gospel.
So what does this have to do with the book of ACTS and this passage...Jesus has departed from his disciples, things must have been great as the gospel began to spread, right? But not really, there were issues in the 1st century church. People today have the notion that they are the only ones with problems in the church, but the disciples were human too. And some problems happened right after Jesus left. That is what happens when you get human beings involved in something, they have to learn to overcome petty differences. Peter was one who had to learn himself, for the 1st century church was growing at a very rapid pace. This can only be attributed to the determination and faith of those apostles. Peter, the main apostle, the rock of the church was different than PAUL. There was Peter's way of doing church and conversion, and Paul's way. Peter worked through the still very influential traditional religious system, and many of his followers and converts were Jews who now believed that Jesus was the Messiah. Peter seems to have supported keeping many of the Jewish laws and festivals and practices, emphasizing the mindset he knew and the order that would help build the new religion. Paul, well that was another story. He threw the old stuff out with the bathwater, he said it was all about the gospel. So their approaches were different, not to say that one was better than the other, but just different. We may say they were the first denominations. And with their differences, there was tension.
So this passage in ACTS...both those ways of doing things were beginning to conflict around the idea of who is the gospel really for. Peter: Jesus is the Messiah of Yahweh God of the Hebrew people. Paul: the preacher to the Gentiles. Without Peter, there may have never been the firm ordered foundation of the early church, perhaps it would have not survived. Without Paul, there may have never been one to so fervently spread the good news.
So...
What would the church look like now if we were back to the basics of the gospel?
- We would preach. Not me preach the gospel as your pastor, but we in our everyday lives without apology or abandon. And not in the church setting, but outside these walls. The book of ACTS shows many instances of apostles preaching to others who would have never heard the gospel without somebody stepping up to preach. Peter says “I can see now that God shows no partiality.” From Peter's beginning as the foundation of the church, he preached from the start. And this does not mean just living a good life—although there is a lot to be said for living a life of integrity and living out the fruits of the spirit—but at some point we have to use our mouths and tell. We have to speak the name of Christ & at some point we are going to have to share the gospel.
- We would be stretched. What does this mean to you? Well Peter has a story of the ETHIOPIAN EUNOCH, that was a stretch for this Jewish teacher. The message of Jesus stretched Peter, he says that the gospel is meant for the gentiles too—“Can anyone object to their being baptized, now that they have received the Holy Spirit just as we did?” That is obvious, but there may have been some prejudice along the way. Peter had to be stretched. I heard an interesting story last week about how they make airplanes. If you have ever flown and sat beside the window next to the wing, it is not always the best image you want to have of flying. The wings shake and they wobble and look like they will fall off, especially in turbulence, and you spend your time praying you will not fall from the sky. But what I learned this week is that when planes are being made, the wings are put in place and tested. They are tested by bending and stretching the wings so they are almost vertical, as far as they can go. They are stretched far beyond the little wobble we see. And what happens...nothing. They don't break, and the chances of your wings falling off are almost zero.
For Peter and the early Christians, perhaps what was going through their minds was 'what will happen if we preach the gospel to the gentiles, what if we get too many Christians that we really don't know what to do with them, what if they convert and change the way things work around here?' All concerns we hear even today in churches all over the world. We need to be stretched. We love our church, and we love our christian friends, but when we allow God to stretch us and use us to share his message of hope and love, we begin to realize that the chances of us breaking are pretty slim. Think of times you have been stretched by God...you were probably a little scared about the outcome or how you would get there, you were scared you would fall, but what happened. Nothing?
Peter allowed God to stretch him and he realized, 'you know, this Gentile thing really isn't so bad'. - We would have peace. “everyone will have sins forgiven”. Those of us who have experienced the saving love of Christ, what is it that distinguishes us from others, we have peace. We certainly go through dark times, what one medieval writer called the dark night of the soul—coming from illness, death, economic turmoil, etc—but we have a peace which pulls us through. There is much to say about a person who knows that their sins are forgiven, they have a new lease on.
- We would hear the word of God. “as Peter was saying these things, the spirit moved amongst the people”. The illustration there is that if we allow ourselves to get back to the basics, we will start to hear the Holy Spirit speaking to us just a little more clearly. Peter, had done a 180 degree turn from one who said let's take this gospel message and control it. Peter said can anyone object to their being baptized...no. Let's get this gospel moving. The Holy Spirit has a way of changing how we feel, what we fear, or what we have done in the past.
So what would the church look like if we were back to the basics. We would preach. We would allow ourselves to be stretched. We would share the peace in our own lives. We would hear God speak.
And when the word of God speaks, we will listen and speak it ourselves to all we meet. That is the basics of John 3:16.
