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.