We will remain standing for the reading of God's Word this morning. We will be transitioning into chapter 11 of the book of Acts as we continue with Luke's orderly account. I will begin the reading at verse 44 of chapter 10. Hear now the word of the Lord. While Peter was still speaking these words, the Holy Spirit fell upon all those who heard the word, and those of the circumcision who believed were astonished. As many as came with Peter, because the gift of the Holy Spirit had been poured out on the Gentiles also. And they heard them speak with tongues and magnify God. And then Peter answered, Can anyone forbid water that these should not be baptized, who have received the Holy Spirit just as we have? And he commanded them to be baptized in the name of the Lord. And then they asked him to stay a few days. Now the apostles and the 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 to the uncircumcised men and ate with them. And 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. And 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. And I said, Not so, Lord, for nothing common or unclean has at any time 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 was drawn up again into heaven. And 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 the words by which you and your household will be saved. And as I began to speak, the Holy Spirit fell upon them as upon us at the beginning. And 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. This is the Word of the Lord. Let's pray. Our gracious Heavenly Father, we do give You thanks this morning for Your Word. We give You thanks for the outpouring of Your Spirit that we might rightly divide Your Word and learn those lessons that You would teach us. May He be with us richly this morning. We ask and pray this in Jesus' name. And all of God's people said, You may be seated. Before we take the time this morning to consider the defense that Peter makes before the saints when he returns to Jerusalem and the lessons that we need to learn from this today, I want to take just a moment to talk about where we're going to be going in the coming weeks. As I pointed out last week, Luke in his orderly account is about to begin his consideration of the final step in God's great plan of salvation. Jesus has come to save His people from their sins. The Holy Spirit has been poured out upon the church. And now He will glorify the Son by using these saints to take the Kingdom of Jesus to all the world. The Spirit has been poured out on the Jews in Jerusalem, on the Samaritans, and now the Gentiles. And Peter will confirm that this is what has happened this morning. Luke will then remind us how the saints were scattered after the death of Stephen. and how this has opened the doors for the preaching of the Gospel to the Gentile world with a beautiful picture of the church in Antioch where the saints were first called Christians. Luke will then give us a final picture of the continued persecution in the city of Jerusalem and a taste of the coming judgment of Jerusalem in A.D. 70 when we see the pride and the death of King Herod. Then beginning with chapter 13, and the remainder of the book, Luke, will focus on the great missionary journeys of Paul and Barnabas as the gospel goes to the ends of the earth. So my plan, Lord willing, is to finish chapters 11 and 12 in the coming weeks and to begin chapter 13 after the Advent season, near the beginning of next year. Now, this is going to leave us a few weeks before Advent where I plan to finish our ordinary time this year in the church calendar by reviewing and discussing the importance of the Lord's Day worship and reviewing the elements of our covenant renewal worship. This is good for all of us to review on a regular basis. And again, we must be diligent to instruct our younger members so that they can fully understand how we rightly worship God and why we do the things that we do in the worship service. We're also going to be making in the coming weeks a few changes in our service as we learn new music, a beautiful song that Amber has written for us again that is a paraphrase of Psalm 134 that will help us to understand what Roger explains each week about our ascension to the very throne of God to be instructed in a communitist table. And these are things that we learn and we grow and mature in. And if you don't come to the music practice in the morning, I would encourage you to try to do that for the next few weeks as we learn the new music so that we can do it well in the worship service. And of course, then we will be able to enjoy, once again, both the end and the beginning of our church year, the season of Advent. Looking forward to the day that Jesus returns and celebrating His coming in real history as the baby Jesus, the Son of God who came to save His people from their sins. At that time, it will be our blessing again to have Theron and Mike share the pulpit in this beautiful season as we share and enjoy these joyous times together. So, with all of that in mind, let's this morning consider what we have before us from Luke's orderly account. Peter has gone to the house of Cornelius in Caesarea. And the Spirit has truly shaken things up in the Jewish world. Well, this passage might be one that we think, oh, we can pass it over kind of quickly. We've already steadied the visions and we know what happened in Caesarea. Let's move on to the exciting journeys of Paul. We don't want to go too quickly because there are some important lessons for us to learn. Lessons about submission to authority. Lessons about defending the faith. And lessons about submitting to God. Now, a few weeks ago we talked about all of those peace bumper stickers that our generation brought on the world. Well, along with them, our generation also proclaimed with another bumper sticker the devastating words, question authority. Now while it may have rightly begun as a discussion of what we must accept in someone that has authority over us and how to question it if that's possible, it soon degenerated into an attitude that is with us today where everyone says, who needs all of these authorities telling us what to do? Or more personally, why do I need all of these authorities telling me what to do? Now there is a proper way to question authority. We'll see the best example that I think we have a little later in the book of Acts when the saints at Berea take even what the Apostle Paul said to them back to the Scriptures to see if what Paul said was true. And this should certainly be the case with all of the sermons and lessons that you receive here at Church of the King. We ask you and expect you to continually take these things back to the Scriptures, to see that what we're sharing is true. In the Christmas story that we'll go through again at Advent, we're going to read how Mary questions the messenger, authority that was sent from God, the angel that had to tell her, fear not. She actually asked him, how can this be? And because it was an honest question that was respectfully asked, the angel explained what was going to happen to Mary. Now, Zacharias, on the other hand, I suspect that he had one of the question authority bumper stickers on his camel, because when he asked virtually the same question, it was with a different attitude. And Zacharias ended up with many months of silence to be able to ponder how he should have treated that authority. So when Peter returns to Jerusalem, we need to understand that he is not insulted, that the apostles and the other Christians want him to come before them. And he is not even troubled by their misreading of what had happened at Caesarea. These gathered saints were certainly missing the forest for the trees. as we would put it today. They did not ask Peter about what happened to the Gentiles or how this might change their world view and the impact it could have on all the world. No. They wanted to fight over the food laws and the misreadings that they had about some of the Old Testament laws. Now we studied at some length a few weeks ago how the food laws were to demonstrate God's holiness and we reminded ourselves that there is absolutely no prohibition anywhere in the Old Testament against eating with Gentiles. In fact, These proud, full Jewish people had missed the whole theme of the Old Testament in some ways where the promise made to Abraham was to be a blessing to all the nations. So they contended with Peter saying, you went to the uncircumcised men and ate with them. That will send you to hell, sure enough. But Peter humbly comes back and gives His defense to them because we are commanded to be in submission one to another." He didn't just storm away and say, you guys, you're so old school. I'm going to go preach to the new people. Peter is not afraid to make a defense at this point. And that is our second lesson. But I think it is important to point out that Peter is going to defend God's actions and not be defensive about himself. Peter recognizes that he was once in their shoes not very long ago. After all, God had to give him that vision three times to help him understand what the Spirit was about to do with the Gentiles. And even after that, he and the other saints who traveled to Caesarea were astonished by what God did. Yes, we are to be ready to give an answer for the faith. But it is not ever about winning debates, and it should never be about trying to put down the other party, even when they're clearly wrong. At this point, Peter would have been very excited about what God was going to do. He now understood what Jesus said in the Great Commission, and he would begin to see how the Kingdom of Jesus was going to fill the earth. Peter could easily have taken offense at what these saints had said, and he could have gone to them and said, don't you see what God is doing? How come you still want to be all hung up about these dietary laws? You see, body language and the tone of our voice is important. You don't win very many arguments when you approach it that way. Instead, Peter gives us a good example of how we should defend the faith, both to those who do not know Jesus, as well as to fellow saints where we disagree on a particular doctrine. Peter tells them what happened from the beginning. Now it is very interesting, very interesting indeed, that Peter is going to give them almost all of the details about what God did. He's going to give them the complete picture of the vision. He's going to talk about the commands that the Spirit gave to him and to Cornelius. And he's going to talk about how the Spirit was poured out on the Gentiles. But he gives them not a single word or part of his message that he delivered in the home of Cornelius. So does that mean that this vision about the sheets and the animals and that sort of thing is more important than the Gospel presentation that Peter made there in the home of Cornelius? Well, obviously it's not in the grand scheme of things. I don't think many of us have opened up our witnessing with the vision of the sheets. Maybe if we had Jewish friends, we might want to start there sometime. But we need to remember that it was very important at this time. And Luke, writing under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, now gives us the vision in all of its details again. Remember, Luke was a Gentile. This was not his Jewish history coming out, saying over and over again. He realizes that it is important here because it explains what God is doing at this critical point in history. And it answers the confusion that is now reigning with the saints in Jerusalem. There are not two plans for salvation. They were confused and that confusion comes down to our day. There is not one for the Jews and another for the Gentiles. God saves all under the same covenant of grace. God has sent His Son to save His people from their sins and He has made them clean, both Jew and Gentile, when they repent and are baptized into Christ. The vision is repeated in part to help us see just how hard this was for the Jewish Christians to understand. And we need to remember that the church at this point has grown tremendously. Even Peter struggled as God gave him the visions. And later we know from Paul's writings that Peter still fell into sin in this area by not eating with the Gentiles. We should also note that as Peter gives his defense, he gives an additional couple of details that Luke did not include in chapter 10. Peter here recounts how the angel told Cornelius that he was to call Peter, who will tell you the words by which you and your household will be saved. Just as Peter has grown in his knowledge of what God is doing, so the Spirit expands the account as it is told again. This happens often in our lives and in the Scriptures. It's why we have the great truths that we find and wonder over in Romans 9-11 where we deal with God's sovereignty and man's free will. We find those in chapters 9-11 and not in chapters 1-3. This is true with how God reveals things to us in many places in the Bible and it is true in how we grow in our understanding in this life. And we must be so careful with the hearts of other saints and our covenant children who may not yet see all that we do. We certainly want to encourage them to grow in the faith, but it is much better to say something like, have you considered this? Or have you compared this Scripture with that Scripture? than to jump down their throats with the statements that we usually want to make. Everyone knows that. Or, I can't believe that you don't understand how all of this fits together. What's your problem? You see, if we're honest, we know that God has been very patient with us in our journey. And so we should be patient with others as well. The second thing that Peter tells these gathered saints, which Luke did not include in chapter 10, was how something that Jesus had said comes to Peter's mind as he watches the Gentiles receive the Holy Spirit. Peter remembered how Jesus told the disciples that John indeed baptized with water, but you shall be baptized with the Holy Spirit. Now we have stressed the importance of how the Holy Spirit was poured out on the Jews and then the Samaritans and now the Gentiles in the same way so that we would know that all of them were part of the one church. This is what Jesus was referring to and it is wrong to try to make the baptism of the Spirit an individual experience with something like speaking in tongues. But there is also a lesson for all of us here about how God teaches us along the way. The words of Jesus were brought to Peter's remembrance as he was watching this occurrence at Cornelius' house. And they helped him to understand and accept what was happening there at Caesarea. Just as Peter had the benefit of walking with Jesus, for some three years in hearing many of His actual words as He taught and spoke here on earth. We have the benefit of all of God's Word. And yes, God will bring it to our remembrance if we have been diligent to learn it. Having it at home on the bookshelf doesn't bring it to our remembrance. But having read something last week that comes to mind as we're talking with someone over a cup of coffee is what Peter experienced here. As Paul told young Timothy, but you must continue in these things which you have learned and have been assured of, knowing from whom you have learned them, and that from childhood you have known the Holy Scriptures, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith which is in Jesus Christ. All Scripture is given by inspiration of God and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work." If we want to be complete, and thoroughly equipped for God's work, then we need to know our Bibles well and be obedient. And that brings us to the final and I think most difficult lesson. Submitting to God. As part of his defense, Peter explained how he submitted. First, by going with these Gentiles And later, by baptizing the Gentiles after the Holy Spirit had been poured out on them. We need to remember, neither of these steps would have been easy for Peter in the flesh. But as he told the gathered saints, who was I that I could withstand God? Peter has been moved by God's visions, the direct instructions from the Spirit, and witnessing the Spirit's power as it came upon the Gentiles. And Peter asked the right question. Who can withhold baptism and goes on in obedience to God to baptize these Gentiles without requiring circumcision or any other Jewish ritual? that the weeks that we have studied this have helped us to come to understand how difficult this was for Peter. And now for the others who are gathered there in Jerusalem who have heard the stories. Peter has come to them in submission. He's come with six witnesses. And He has made the case for what God has done before a skeptical group of believers in Jerusalem. And it is time now for them to decide if they will submit to God or continue in their Jewish pride. Verse 18 shows us the struggle and the victory. When they heard these things, they became silent. And they glorified God, saying, then God has also granted to the Gentiles repentance to life. They became silent, both because Peter had made a convincing argument and because they were stunned by the conclusion. It was overwhelming to them. They then accepted God's will. and glorified God, who had extended His grace even to the Gentiles." Again, this was not easy. They were greatly persecuted because of this, as we'll see later in the lives of both Peter and Paul. They will be like Peter, some of them who slip back into the old ways, struggling to understand what God is doing. There will be those who wonder if, well, okay, the Gentiles are in now, but shouldn't they at least be circumcised? And this will be something that we see debated and resolved in the first church council in Jerusalem. And we know from Paul's epistles that there will be those who hold fast to the old ways and become the Christian legalists of their day. Today, almost 2,000 years later, we serve in God's kingdom as Gentiles who have been made the children of Abraham. We have been made children of Abraham by the same faith and baptism that we saw there at Caesarea. May we strive to learn the simple but challenging lessons that we reviewed from the text this morning. May we be willing to submit to the authorities that God has placed over us. And that is very practical. Children, you have to strive to honor your parents. Parents, we must learn to love and submit to one another in our relationships. All of us must learn to be in submission to the earthly authorities that God has placed over us, both the rulers in the church as well as the rulers in the civil realm. And as Christians, Paul challenges us all to submit one to another out of reverence for Christ. We must be ready and willing to give an answer for the faith, respectfully and fully, just as Peter did for these gathered saints who had it all wrong. Yes, this means knowing the faith so that we can make a defense. And finally, I hope and pray that we learn the toughest lesson of all, a willingness to submit to God. And of course, as we think about practical examples of that, it can include all of the same ones that I've just mentioned. It is God who commanded us to submit to all of those authorities and to be ready to give a defense for the faint. So if we fail to do so, we are obviously not submitting to God. But there are others that could be added. But I want us to remember that how we do these things is also important. It would be easy to find husbands and wives who become proud of how they love and submit to one another. Or someone who is proud of how they submit to their pastor or their governor. Dr. Francis Schaefer often shared a contrast to help people see the proper perspective of submitting, if we are doing the Lord's work in the Lord's way, as he would put it. And to do that, he remembered a particular statue of Napoleon Bonaparte that he had seen in France. One that has probably been sketched and photographed many times, but there he is standing with his face to the wind and his hand confidently tucked into his jacket, where you just can't help but see him proclaiming to all the world, look at what I have done. And then Dr. Schaefer would talk of Jesus praying in the Garden of Gethsemane. overwhelmed by the duties that lay before Him, and humbly praying to the Father that it might be removed, if possible, and then saying, nevertheless, Your will be done, not mine. One man proud and self-centered, the other humble and serving others. This is how God expects us to serve, and it will bring an advancement of the kingdom. Today, Jesus sits enthroned in heaven at the Father's right hand, while Napoleon's proud body has long ago rotted in the grave and his soul is likely burning in hell. We are not to be proud of our submission and our service, but rather humble, looking out for the interest of others before our own. losing our lives so that we might have life abundant. If Peter had allowed his Jewish pride to keep him in Joppa, then he would not have been God's instrument for bringing the Gospel to the Gentiles. If the other apostles and saints in Jerusalem had not accepted what God had done, giving Him the glory, we would be reading about all of them as the ones who bewitched the early Christians at Galatia. We all know what our duties are and we must always be learning how to humbly obey. And even there, folks, we have to be so careful. Our flesh is deceitful indeed because we can even allow ourselves to be proud of our humility. are more focused on how or why we are doing things than on what we are doing, it could be a problem. Obedience should just come naturally. And perhaps most important today is to remember that there will be those times where God shows us that we were pretty wrong. We will be wrong in some areas. And He will show us, just as He did here with Peter and the others, who thought the Gentiles had to be Jews, had to become Jews, to be saved. For those of us who came from Baptist and evangelical backgrounds, I'm sure that baptizing children came as such an experience. We came to understand that the promise does apply to us and to our children. It seems so simple now. For those of us coming out of a Reformed background, having these covenant children join us at the table may have been such an experience. But now we know that Jesus really does want us to suffer the little ones to come unto Him. It seems so clear on this side of the decision. But many of us can remember how difficult it was. We needed some of those visions and directions from God. I'll leave you with two thoughts in this area. First, as I've been saying, we must remember that many others do not see what we think is so clear now. And we must treat them with respect and trust that God will bring them along. At the same time, we should pray that God does so in mighty ways. Because how we view and treat our covenant children has enormous implications for the Kingdom. Another area where we have grown and been greatly blessed is with worship, music, weekly communion, singing the songs. This is why it is good for us to review again why we gather on Sunday and how we rightly worship God. If we get things right there, it will be so much more in life that will go well with it. continually learning to be more obedient, always open for God's correction. And just as the advance of the kingdom did after these early saints accepted the Gentiles. That was a big step. And God's not finished as His Spirit takes the kingdom to all the world. And we'll look forward next week to begin to see how that happens. Let's pray.