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Well, turn with me now in your
Bibles to Ezekiel 18. I'm going to read briefly from
Ezekiel 18 this morning. Ezekiel 18. Just the second half
of this chapter to begin with, to provide a little context for
our sermon passage. We're going to preach later from
Acts 11, but to provide context, we're going to look at Ezekiel
18. Here, the people of God, the Israelites, have gone away
into exile. And as they are experiencing
this judgment of God and this season of suffering, they begin
to wonder about God's love and goodness toward them. And Ezekiel
has to set the record straight. And so here he speaks on God's
behalf. Ezekiel 18. We're going to begin
reading in verse 21 and read through the end of the chapter.
Ezekiel 18. Hear now the word of the Lord. But if a wicked man turns from
all his sins which he has committed, keeps all my statutes, and does
what is lawful and right, he shall surely live. He shall not
die. None of the transgressions which
he has committed shall be remembered against him. Because of the righteousness
which he has done, he shall live. Do I have any pleasure at all
that the wicked should die, says the Lord God, and not that he
should turn from his ways and live? When a righteous man turns
away from his righteousness and commits iniquity, and does according
to all the abominations that the wicked man does, shall he
live? All the righteousness which he has done shall not be remembered
because of the unfaithfulness of which he is guilty, the sin
which he has committed. Because of them he shall die.
Yet you say the way of the Lord is not fair. Hear now, O house
of Israel, is it not my way which is fair and your ways which are
not fair? When a righteous man turns away
from his righteousness and commits iniquity and dies in it, it is
because of the iniquity which he has done that he dies. Again,
when a wicked man turns away from the wickedness which he
has committed, and does what is lawful and right, he preserves
himself alive. Because he considers and turns
away from all the transgressions which he committed, he shall
surely live, he shall not die. Yet the house of Israel says,
the way of the Lord is not fair. O house of Israel, is it not
my ways which are fair and your ways which are not fair? Therefore,
I will judge you, O house of Israel, everyone according to
his ways, says the Lord God. Repent and turn from all your
transgressions, that your iniquities will not be your ruin. Cast away
from you all the transgressions which you have committed, and
get yourselves a new heart and a new spirit. For why should
you die, O house of Israel? For I have no pleasure in the
death of one who dies, says the Lord God. Therefore, turn and
live." Amen. The prophet Ezekiel reveals to
us God's will for our salvation. He speaks to us of God's love
for sinners. That God is just and God is holy. and will surely judge and punish
the guilty. He does what is right and what
is just. But He is also merciful and gracious. And it pleases Him to forgive
sin. It delights Him to save sinners. And He declares here in Ezekiel,
He has no pleasure in the death of the wicked. This is the same
lesson that Peter must teach to the circumcised party, to
the Pharisees in the church in Acts 11. It's the same lesson
that our little legalistic hearts need to remember this morning.
That Jesus loves to save sinners. So turn with me to Acts 11. I'm
going to read from Acts 11 verses 1-18. The first half of this
chapter. Acts chapter 11 verses 1 through
18. Here again, the word of the Lord. Now the apostles and brethren
who were in Judea heard that the Gentiles had also received
the word of God. And when Peter came up to Jerusalem,
those of the circumcision contended with him, saying, You went in
to uncircumcised men and ate with them. But Peter explained
it to them in order from the beginning, saying, I was in the
city of Joppa praying, and in a trance I saw a vision, an object
descending like a great sheet, let down from heaven by four
corners, and it came to me. When I observed it intently and
considered, I saw four-footed animals of the earth, wild beasts,
creeping things, and birds of the air. And I heard a voice
saying to me, Rise, Peter, kill and eat. But I said, Not so,
Lord, for nothing common or unclean at any time has entered my mouth.
But the voice answered me again from heaven, What God has cleansed
you must not call common. Now this was done three times.
And all were drawn up again into heaven. At that very moment,
three men stood before the house where I was, having been sent
to me from Caesarea. Then the Spirit told me to go
with them, doubting nothing. Moreover, these six brethren
accompanied me, and we entered the man's house. And he told
us how he had seen an angel standing in his house, who said to him,
Send men to Joppa and call for Simon, whose surname is Peter,
who will tell you words by which you and all your household will
be saved. And as I began to speak, The
Holy Spirit fell upon them as upon us at the beginning. Then
I remembered the word of the Lord, how He said, John indeed
baptized with water, but you shall be baptized with the Holy
Spirit. If therefore God gave them the
same gift as He gave us when we believed on the Lord Jesus
Christ, who was I that I could withstand God? When they heard
these things, they became silent. And they glorified God, saying,
Then God has also granted to the Gentiles repentance to life. Amen and Amen. There's a little ritual, a parental
ritual that happened in my family that's probably fairly common
in yours. I would be playing in my room,
And my mother would call me, and there would be no answer.
And my mother would call me again, and there would be no answer.
And she would call me a third time, and there would be no answer.
And she would come to my room and said, why have you not answered? I have called you. And I would
look up with all innocence and say, you did? Oh, I didn't hear
you. Sometimes we become so invested
in our little world that we cannot even hear the voice of the One
who is speaking, our Mother, or in this case, our Heavenly
Father. And there is something very striking
about the story before us. It is the fact that it is familiar
to you. It is the fact that if you have
sat in these pews over the last several weeks, you have heard
this story before. Twice, in fact. Luke has recorded
in the book of Acts, in three consecutive stories, word for
word, the exact same event. At the beginning of chapter 10,
he told us the actual story of Peter going to Joppa, having
the vision, going to Caesarea, meeting Cornelius. In the second
half of chapter 11, when Peter and Cornelius actually meet,
they each take the time to tell each other their stories. And
now we have Peter returning to Jerusalem. And he is again, for
the third time, telling us exactly what he told us. It follows that
faithful preaching adage. Tell them what you're going to
tell them. Tell them. And tell them what you told them.
There is this three-part repetition that seems to define the life
of Peter. And here again, we have this
point that is evidently something we desperately need to hear because
the Holy Spirit bothered to write it three times. Evidently, this
story is really important to us and to our faith. And so I
say again for the third time, this Gospel truth, which you
desperately need to know and believe, Jesus' love is enough. Jesus' love is enough. Isn't it striking that something
so sweet and so simple is something we so easily forget? And so Luke
reminds us three times. That Jesus' love is enough. So let's worship Him. Let's think
about this a little bit by going piece by piece through our story. This story opens with Peter's
return to Jerusalem, which actually follows the return of the report
of his events. You see in verse 1 that the rumor
or the word of what has happened at Cornelius' house reaches Jerusalem
before Peter does. The apostles and the brethren
hear that the Gentiles had received the word of God. A report of
the extraordinary experience in Cornelius' house has arrived,
which means, according to verse 2, that the circumcision party,
those Jews who taught, Jesus is great, but you need Moses
also, were equipped and ready for Peter's arrival. So that
when Peter comes through the door in Jerusalem, riding high
and full of enthusiasm based on the wonderful working of Jesus
in the house of Cornelius, he's greeted with contention. The circumcision party rises
up and says before the council, the gathering of elders, the
presbytery, Peter, you went into those uncircumcised men and you
ate with them. Peter, it's wonderful that they
received the Word of God from you. It's wonderful that they
believed in Jesus. But Peter, you didn't give them
Moses. But Peter, you didn't honor Moses. And they accuse him of falling
short of the full revelation of God by withholding the Law
of Moses from the house of Cornelius. My friends, it's an easy thing
to say, wow, what legalists. It's an easy thing to say, wow,
what wretched people that they should say Jesus plus. And yet, my friends, we must
all deal with the little legalist in the mirror. For we all have
these self-righteous hearts. who are so prone to say to one
another, I will forgive you if you pay the price. Now I will
be reconciled with you, but only if you live up to my standard.
And we will have peace, but only when you are sufficiently broken
and ruined, forgetting that it was Christ who was broken and
ruined. forgetting that it was Christ
who paid the price, adding to the death of Jesus Christ the
punishments of one another. My friends, we are prone to this
legalism by which we say, I will be friends with you when you
live up to my standards. And yet we must beware, Jesus
is enough. Jesus' love is enough. We need
not add these laws to our peace and our fellowship, our friendship
and our forgiveness. It is Jesus who is enough. His
love is enough. And this is Peter's answer to
them as they wag their finger at him and say, you dishonored
Moses. You didn't keep the law. And
Peter shrugs and says, God told me to. In fact, he says it four
times. Peter's defense consists of four
repeated phrases. God told me to. God told me to. God told me to. And God told
me to. We'll see that as we go through
the next series of verses. Verses 4 through 17. In the first part, Peter answers
that God told me that the love of Jesus is remaking humanity. You see this beginning in verse
4. Peter explains to them in order from the beginning exactly
what had happened to him. He recounts the story, the narrative,
and how he was moved by the Spirit of God from one place to the
next. He says it began in Joppa on the roof of Simon the Tanner
on the shores of the Mediterranean Sea. It was noon. I was hungry. I was up on the rooftop praying,
and I fell into a trance. Not a low blood sugar trance,
but a spiritual trance. in which the heavens were opened,
and this great sheep, this picnic blanket came down, and inside
of it were all these animals, four-legged animals, creeping
things, reptiles, crawling things, all of these creatures from all
of creation. And I heard a heavenly voice
say, Peter, rise, kill, and eat. And Peter went, I know what's
happening. You can't fool me, Lord. No,
no, no. I have never eaten anything common
or unclean. My mouth is pure, my stomach
undefiled. Thank you, Father, but no. I'm
not going to fall for this one. I know the boundaries between
what is holy and what is unholy. Between what is sanctified for
me to eat and what is not. And then the voice from heaven
responds. Peter. Don't call unclean what I call
clean. Peter, my love is remaking the
world. The heavens are opened, and Peter
gets to see in a sheet from the heavens, the new heavens and
the new earth, in which love reigns supreme, in which righteousness
dwells, in which Jesus Christ, in His life and in His death,
has removed the boundaries and the barriers that Moses had installed. Jesus has now brought together
one great humanity in which there should be reconciliation and
peace. God has cleansed. There is now
no such thing as common and uncommon, clean and unclean. Peter learned
this. The love of God is remaking the
world. This is the vision for Peter,
and it is the vision for us. That we, not on a rooftop in
Joppa, but here in these pews, should hear of this vision and
should in our mind's eye see this new world. A world not torn
apart by the divisions and the discord that we see in our society,
but a world in which there is one humanity that truly loves
and serves one another. A world that is fashioned on
heaven's ethic and not our own. A world that is modeled after
the life of Christ and not the life of Adam that we so often
express. My friends, He's made a new humanity
in the love of Christ. It is enough to reconcile us. It is enough to bring peace between
us. It is enough to remake this whole
world. Indeed, the love of God in Christ
is remaking the heavens and the earth. He is once more, he says
in the prophet in Hebrews, shaking the heavens and the earth. That
it might be new. That it might be new in Christ. But it's not enough that we should
see in a dream this love of Christ. Which is making the world new. Which is making us, you and me,
new. Indeed the love of Christ would
then compel us to go. We see this in Peter's experience
in verses 11 and 12. Peter says in verse 11 that at
that very moment, in the providence of God, according to the plan
of God, just as Peter saw for the first time a new heaven and
a new earth, a new humanity in which there is no longer clean
and unclean, just as Peter first glimpsed the glorious era yet
to come, At that very moment, three Gentiles arrive at his
door. And they stand in the street and they knock. Because they
know the rules. Because they know the wall is
there. The Gentiles cannot go in. They stand before the gate.
They know there's a wall between them. A wall that Peter has just
been called to tear down. A boundary that Peter has just
been summoned to remove. And as the three men stand there,
They say they are sent from Cornelius and Caesarea to fetch Simon Peter. In verse 12, Peter records our
second example of God told me to. The Spirit told me to go
with them, doubting nothing. Moreover, these six brethren
accompanied me, eyewitnesses to testify to Peter's conduct
and teaching. We entered the man's house. There is this extraordinary effect
of the love of Jesus. That not only does the love of
Jesus remake the world and remake the humanity that is in it, the
love of Jesus sends Peter into the streets of this world. He
is willing to go down to the unclean, because they are unclean
no more in Christ. He is willing to step into the
street and to go with those to whom he had been once forbidden.
He is willing to embrace their fellowship and enter into their
house. And what is even more remarkable,
according to verse 12, he leads six of his Jewish believing brethren
with him. Peter is not content to be an
archetype, an example, a model. He wants to be a trendsetter
and a mentor. He brings the six with them.
He says, let us go to the streets of this world where the love
of Christ can remake it into the new heavens and the new earth.
Let us go to our neighbor's houses and share there the love of Christ,
that they might be remade into a new humanity. Let us believe
that the love of Jesus is enough for this lost, hurting, and dying
world, and so be moved. The love of Jesus is enough to
remake this world. The love of Jesus is also enough
to move us. This is often a great challenge
in the church. How does one preach evangelism
without incurring guilt on people? Without inspiring them with shame? My friends, this is the answer. To hold out the awesome love
of Christ. And to say, is not Jesus glorious
and gracious? Is He not so beautiful that we
want to go and speak of Him? For indeed, speak is the purpose
for which Peter goes. This is his third argument. Having
argued that the love of Christ is remaking humanity, thus he
ate with Cornelius. Having argued that the love of
Christ sent him into the streets of this world and into the houses
of people, that he might speak, Peter then argues that the love
of Christ would have him speak. Verses 13 and 14 he reports how
upon arriving at Cornelius' house, Cornelius told him of the angel
who had stood in his house and had sent him sent men to Joppa
to summon him, Simon, who is called Peter. The purpose is
in verse 14, that they would tell you the words by which you
and your household will be saved. The purpose of Peter's vision
on the rooftops in Joppa was that he would tell others what
he had seen. The purpose of us understanding
the love of Christ is that we would share the love of Christ
with others. The love that then moved Him
down the stairs, out the front door, into the streets, and down
to Caesarea, to the house of Cornelius. was that this mission
was given to us to talk about Jesus, to hand them the Word
of God, the Gospel of Grace, to speak to them about what it
is that saves, or rather who, who will speak to you and your
household the words that save. Jesus, the salvation who became
flesh, and the Word of salvation which is Christ, My friends,
the love of Jesus is enough. It's enough to make us from sinners
into saints. It's enough to sanctify us, the
saints, into citizens of heaven. It's enough to send us into the
streets of this lost and dying world, and to not fear the poor
and the needy we find there. And to not dread the heartache
and hurt that is there. but to embrace this vision of
being the sent ones, the ones who have a love worthy of this
world and of which this world is not worthy. We are the ones
who have this love and something to say. Have you ever been in
that dramatic moment when you walk in and you suddenly realize
you're supposed to be the one doing the talking? It happens
to me all the time. You see, on Sunday morning, I
expect it. I see it coming. I know that when I come into
this room at 11 o'clock, you expect me to do talking. But
as a pastor, it also happens at unexpected moments. Where
I'll walk into the room and everyone will start talking about this
really complicated, difficult issue, and then they'll all fall
silent and look at me and go, solve our problem, pastor. What
do I know? And then all of a sudden I realize
I know exactly what we need to know. Jesus's love is enough. Jesus is enough. Is he not sufficient
for our needs? Is he not sufficient for our
sorrows? Is he not sufficient for our sins? What do I say to
these people? I hope this is no great surprise
to you, but pretty much every single counseling encounter I've
ever had begins with me desperately screaming inside, Jesus help
me, Jesus help me, I have no idea what to say. I haven't gotten over that phase.
I don't know if that comes later, like you just become so mature
and wise that you don't feel that sense of desperation. But
this is the way of it, that we should be humbled to the point
of believing that the love of Jesus is enough. And that we
always have something to say. We have Jesus. We can say something
about Jesus. Peter answers the accusation. You went in and ate with them. And he says, yes. The love of
Jesus made me do it. Because I saw that the love of
Jesus remade us into a new humanity. Yes, I went and ate with them
because the love of Jesus told me, go, embrace others. The love of Jesus didn't wait.
The love of Jesus isn't idle and inactive. The love of Jesus
sends us to those we have hurt, that we might seek their forgiveness.
The love of Jesus sends us to those that hurt us, that we might
forgive them. The love of Jesus sends us. It
compels us and constrains us to speak with grace and kindness. Peter says, I had to go. The
love of Jesus sent me. And I had to speak. The love
of Jesus welled up within me the words of salvation. I had
to tell them about Jesus. And so Peter concludes, fourthly,
that as I spoke, verse 15, the Holy Spirit fell upon them."
Notice the union, the Word and the Spirit. Just as Peter spoke
the words of Jesus, and just as Peter told them about this
love, this love that is remaking the world, remaking humanity,
bringing peace and reconciliation, this love that is transforming
everything, as Peter began to talk about Jesus, The Spirit
of Jesus fell upon them. As the words of Jesus hit their
ears, the Spirit of Jesus hit their hearts. And Peter says,
just as it happened to us at the beginning. Just as when we
believed, Peter recognizes that we only receive Jesus by the
work of the Spirit. We only embrace Christ because
the Spirit of Christ is at work within us. And Peter shrugs. I remembered what Jesus taught
us. John baptized with water. Jesus
baptizes with the Holy Spirit. They got baptized with the Holy
Spirit. What was I supposed to do? I had to eat with them. I had to hug Him and say to Cornelius,
my brother. We have the same Spirit. I mean,
what makes us brothers and sisters? A piece of paper at the courthouse?
A bit of genetics and blood? Common ancestry? Peter comes
along and he says, he had the same spirit I have. He has Jesus'
spirit. He's my brother. Whatever his
birth is, Whatever his birth family is, we're one family. The love of Jesus has completely
remade the world. We don't recognize nationality,
ethnicity. We don't recognize citizenship. In the church of Jesus Christ,
there is one standard. The spirit and love of Jesus
Christ. This is our brother. Can't you see the family resemblance?
The Spirit of Christ and the love of Christ? That's why He
made His vows. That's why we made our vows to
Him. That's why you'll do it again next week and the week
after that and the week after that. God is good. He's building His family. He's
adding to us brothers and sisters. who say, I love Jesus, and we
say, me too. We love Jesus, and we love Him
together. And Peter shrugs and says, if
He's going to give them His Spirit, then I have to give them baptism. Then I have to baptize them.
If they're baptized in the Spirit, I have to baptize them with water.
Who am I to withstand God? I love that question. That is such a liberating question
for a pastor. Peter goes, Jesus was determined
to love this person, and I couldn't stop Him. Jesus was determined
to save this sinner, and I couldn't stop Him. Who am I to stand in
His way? Who am I to hold back the love
of Christ? Who am I to bridle the grace
of God? How can I resist forgiving those
God has forgiven? How can I resist embracing those
God has embraced? How can I keep from loving and
welcoming those whom Jesus has loved and welcomed? How can I
resist and withstand God? He's going to love. He's going
to save. He's going to forgive. Are you? That is the burning question.
What then will we do? What will we do with this answer?
Remember at the beginning? Peter walks into the room. And
everybody has already heard the words, the news. They've already
heard that He has eaten with Gentiles. And He has baptized
Gentiles. And they all jump up before the
Presbytery and they wag their finger and they say, Peter, how
dare you? And Peter says, Oh, if you had
seen the love of God in Christ. Oh, if you had seen the way Jesus
loved them. If you had seen how the love
of Jesus was remaking the world. How the love of Jesus was sending
me into their lives and into their homes. How the love of
Jesus was making me speak the good news and the gospel. How
the love of Jesus was compelling me. Oh, I couldn't withstand
Him. Peter has, at the end of the
day, the ultimate argument that we wish we could use. His argument
boils down to, God made me do it. And how glorious. How glorious
the Gospel. That we could look at sinners
and say, God made me do it. We say, I'm sorry for my sins.
Why? The love of God in Christ. God
made me do it. We turn away from our sins. We
repent and we believe. Why? God made me do it. The love of God in Christ was
enough. It compelled me to grieve my
sin. To sorrow for my sin. To repent
and to return to Christ. And this is the truth that his
audience grasps through this story. For when they hear these
things, verse 18, they become silent. The hush falls in the
room. No crying babies, no squeaking
pews. I don't know if either one of those were there. But
in that room, silence. A stunned awe. The overwhelming
weight of the love of God in Christ. Wait, he did what? He loved who? He forgave them? And there was complete silence. As everyone begins to do the
mental calculation, as everyone starts to do the emotional calibration,
wait, that's my brother? That's my sister? We are one family in the love
of Christ? We are united by the love of
Christ? They become silent and stunned,
and then they begin to speak. They begin to glorify God, saying,
God has granted to the Gentiles repentance to life. There are
two glorious shifts in this statement. In verse 2, they wagged their
finger at Peter and said, how dare you? And in verse 18, they
extended their hands to heaven and said to God, oh, how glorious
are you? In the beginning, they confronted
Peter, and in the end, they worshiped God. They do not praise Peter. They do not say, oh Peter, you
know what, you're right, I'm sorry. No, they turn heavenward
and they say, this was too wonderful for us to imagine. This was too
great that we could ever have dreamed of it. God has granted
to the Gentiles repentance unto life. God has forgiven their
sins. God by His love has brought them
into our family. They have learned. what the older
brother in Luke 15 had to learn. They had learned what the sons
of Israel in exile in Ezekiel 18 had to learn. They learned
what we need to learn. The love of God is bigger than
you ever dreamed. The love of God is stronger than
you ever imagined. The love of God in Jesus Christ
is enough. It's enough to forgive your sins.
It's enough to forgive the sins around you. It is enough to remake
you into a new human, a loving, gracious, self-sacrificing human. It's enough to do that to all
the other humans too, that we together should become a new
humanity modeled after Jesus and not Adam. that we should
become part of a new heavens and a new earth, in which love
reigns, in which love controls. This is not a utopian political
vision. This is the reality of the Gospel. That the love of Jesus Christ
really is enough. Throughout my pastoral ministry,
there's been opportunities to reach crises. in which I myself
have to struggle through the question, is Jesus enough? And there's nothing like sitting
with a woman who is literally breathing her last breath. She died within an hour of our
visit. Nothing sobers you like watching
a human die. And nothing is as sweet as reading
the Scriptures, and praying in the presence of death, and finding
once again, Jesus is enough. Jesus' love is enough for every
sorrow in this life, for every sin in your heart, and for death
itself. Jesus' love is enough and nothing
else is. So worship Him. Love Him. Speak of Him. Worship Him. My friends, Jesus is enough.
Worship Him. Let's pray together. Our Father in heaven, we give
You thanks. for this beautiful story told to us for the third
time. For we are slow to listen, slow
to learn, slow to believe. We thank you, our Father, that
for every day's trial, we have a Jesus. And for every wicked
sin, we have a Jesus. For all our fears and all our
worries and all our cares, we have a Jesus. Yes, even for death
itself, we have Jesus. We thank You that You have sent
Him into the world, that Your love did not stay hidden in heaven,
but You revealed Your love to us in Christ. We thank You that
He spoke to us, and that He is Your Word in the flesh, that
we might know Your love. We thank You that He is redeeming
us and remaking us, that we too might love as we have been loved. We thank You that our Jesus is
doing this great work of salvation, That indeed one day we might
see Him face to face and learn finally, completely, once and
for all, He is enough. We thank You that our dear sister
has seen this. And that she today knows this.
And we pray that what she sees in the flesh we might believe
by faith. That Jesus is enough. Let us
live in the hope and the strength and the peace of this truth this
week. For we pray in Jesus' name, amen. Well, let's present now our tithes
and offerings. Sean, as you bring forward the
plate, we will then give thanks for the goodness of God in our
lives and the grace that we have to share with others. Let's give thanks together. Our
Father in heaven, we give you thanks for this beautiful day.
We give you thanks for this sweet hour of worship. We give you
thanks for your scriptures, which have taught us the glory of Jesus.
We give you thanks for the psalms we can sing, the prayers we can
offer, and these gifts which we present. We give you thanks
that you have given to us more abundantly than we asked or imagined. We give you thanks that you have
given to us so generously that we can give generously to others.
We give you thanks that we cannot out give you. And we give you
thanks that through these gifts, you are meeting the needs of
our brothers and sisters, that there would be no needs in this
family. And we give you thanks that through this gift, we might
give to the world around us, that those who are far off might
come near and taste and see that you are good. We give you thanks,
our Father, for these wonderful blessings that we have in Christ
Jesus. In His name we pray, amen.
Peter Returns to Jerusalem
Series Book of Acts
| Sermon ID | 1011201636181005 |
| Duration | 41:52 |
| Date | |
| Category | Sunday Service |
| Bible Text | Acts 11:1-18; Ezekiel 18:21-32 |
| Language | English |
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