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Pastor Mike will be speaking on How to be Free From Prejudice Part 1. He will be reading out of Acts 10:1-48.
So many people look to their wealth, or they look to the political favoritism of a government, and what they find is that none of those things will answer what the great need in their heart is. The only answer to the heart of sin is Jesus Christ, who saves us from our sin.
Hello, this is Pastor Mike Sanders, and I’m delighted to welcome you to Hope Worth Having radio program this week. Today we’re going to be in Acts chapter 10, and we’re going to be studying how to be free from prejudice.
When we come to Acts chapter 10, Peter is learning that what God has called a clean, we’re not allowed to call unclean, and that God works in very unique way, and he’s making a transition from the old covenant to the new covenant.
So that’s what we’re going to be learning about relating to what the scriptures teach in Acts 10. So let’s get into our Bible and study together. Now when we come to the book of Acts chapter 10, I want you to know that I want to speak on this very controversial, difficult subject.
I’ve entitled the message how to be free from prejudice. How to be free from prejudice. Now I want you to know that I’m not accusing you. I don’t want you to in any way interpret that way, that somehow I am accusing you of some prejudice.
But I want you to know that all of us, whether it’s because of our American heritage, or it is because of our home, the way we were raised, or perhaps even the way that we see the world, it can affect and cause a bias within us in how we see people.
And when we come to our text in chapter 10 of the book of Acts, we see this very much in the life of Peter. He was a Jewish man, and I I want you to remember that the book of Acts is really designed around that one statement that Jesus gave to his disciples in verse eight of chapter one, that they were to be his witnesses, and they were to go to Jerusalem and Samaria and to the uttermost parts of the earth.
And that is really the whole outline of what the book of Acts is about. We are watching that unfold chapter by chapter as the gospel is going further and further out. But the Jewish people, and specifically in chapter 10, Peter had a little bit of a bias, a prejudice about the gospel going beyond the Jewish nation and beyond just the people who were born in the nation of Israel.
And so now God is working in the heart of Israel. Peter. And we want to learn from this because it can help us with the prejudices that we deal with or even the biases that we have as individuals. I’m reminded of Mark Twain’s classic novel, The Adventures of Tom Sawyer.
How many of you have ever read that book? It records the following exchange between Tom Sawyer and his friend Huck Finn. And Tom has just informed Huck that he is not welcome in Tom’s game. And Huck is protesting and this is a direct quote from the book.
Now Tom, and again you know the English is bad, okay? I’m just going by why the quote is not that Pastor Mike has issues. But now Tom, ain’t you always been friendly to me? You wouldn’t shut me out, would you Tom?
Tom replies, Huck, I wouldn’t want to and I don’t want to. But what would people say? Why they’d say, huh, Tom Sawyer’s game, pretty low characters in it, and they’d mean you Huck. You wouldn’t like that and I wouldn’t.
That little segment in this fictional novel reminds us about human nature. That there are prejudices within our hearts and biases within our mindsets that are built within us because of our sinful nature and that we have to be alert to these things and the gospel brings them to our attention so that we might make sure that we’re not doing anything that ranks people or classifies people or shuts people out.
I remind you this morning that there is no second -class citizen in God’s kingdom and that the ground is level at the foot of the cross. The gospel of the Lord Jesus. Christ is an inclusive gospel. It is the gospel of inclusion and it shows no favoritism in inviting people to a relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ.
It is the Apostle Peter in chapter 10 who is coming to terms with his own prejudices, his own biases that existed in him because of the way that he was raised and he was thought he was obeying the old covenant.
He thought that he was doing exactly as he was supposed to in obeying God but the truth is God awakened his heart and showed him that God is no respecter a person and that God is reaching out to all groups of people and God is calling every person into a relationship with him.
You might consider this morning this question are there any people or people groups, perhaps even a nation, a person that I despise, or that I have somehow built a wall towards and I would never want the gospel to come to them.
Well this morning, let’s take a look at this long chapter. We’re not gonna be able to read every verse because we’d be here all night and I know that you can’t do that and it’s almost lunchtime and we gotta get to lunch, amen?
But I want us to just hit some highlights of this chapter and learn how can we be free from prejudices, not just in our own hearts, but collectively as a church family. Number one, believe God’s sovereign preparation, not only in our hearts, but in the hearts of those who do not believe.
Now come with me to chapter 10 and verse one, there was a certain man in Caesarea called Cornelius, a centurion of what was called the Italian regiment, a devout man and one who feared God with all his household, who gave alms generously to the people and prayed to God always.
About the ninth hour of the day, he saw clearly in a vision an angel of God coming in and saying to him, Cornelius. And when he observed him, he was afraid and said, what is it Lord? So he said to him, your prayers and your alms have come up for a memorial before God.
Now send men to Joppa and send for Simon whose surname is Peter. Now I want you to jump down to verse nine of chapter 10. The next day, as they went on their journey and drew near the city, Peter went up on the housetop to pray about the sixth hour.
And when he became very hungry and wanted to eat, but while they made ready, he fell into a trance and a saw. heaven opened up and an object like a great sheep bound at the four corners, descending to him and let down to the earth.
In it were all kinds of four -footed animals of the earth, wild beasts creeping things, the birds of the air. And a voice came to him, rise Peter, kill and eat. But Peter said, no, not so Lord, for I have never eaten anything common or unclaimed.
And a voice spoke to Peter again. The second time, what God has cleansed, you must not call common. This was done three times. And the object was taken up into heaven again. You remember in chapter nine, that Saul who would later become Paul had a vision.
He had a vision, God was working in his heart, knocked him off his horse. and he surrendered his life to the Lord Jesus Christ. At the same time that God was sovereignly working in the heart of Saul to bring him to salvation, God had casted a vision to a man in the temple named Ananias and God brought Saul and Ananias.
Ananias was a believer and he trusted in the Lord and he brought a saint and a sinner together to accomplish the purpose of God. We come to chapter 10 and what we see is Cornelius. He was a religious man.
He was a man, a military man, well -respected. He was a man that people looked up to. He was generous in his giving. He was faithful in his prayers, but he had never believed in the Lord Jesus Christ.
He was an outsider to the Jewish faith, but yet they respected him because he gave so generously and because of his military influence, the Bible says that he was a centurion, which means he probably oversaw a military, a band of military, a platoon of military people, perhaps of 100 or even more different scholars debate about how many might have been in this, but the bottom line is there was at least 100 men serving in this particular band of military people and he was overseeing them.
And the Bible tells us that Cornelius had a vision. God was working in his heart and at the next day, Peter. Peter, a man of God, a soul winner, a man that had trusted in the Lord Jesus Christ who stood before thousands and he preached the gospel on the day of Pentecost and many came to trust the Lord Jesus Christ, but God was working in the heart of Peter to bring a saint and a sinner together.
And I want to assure you today that God is always working together, that he is providentially using people to accomplish his purpose. And you may wonder what is going on in this crazy world that we are living in and the signs of the times that we see manifesting.
I assure you that we have a God who has not given up on us and he has not given up on his great plan of redemption and bringing people into the family of God. And that there is a sovereign plan to bring us in connection with people who do not know the Lord Jesus Christ.
He may not do it as dramatic as he did with Cornelius and Peter and Saul and Ananias, but he is using circumstances and he is using challenges in our life and he is using changes in our life and transitions in our life that we may come across the right people and be able to share the wonderful good news of the Lord Jesus Christ.
Now, some of you are troubled, you’re shaken at your very core. You are set back in your spiritual walk because of all that is happening. And I want to encourage you that no matter what happens in this world, politically, whatever might happen in this world, government, with government, that there is a Savior, Jesus Christ, who is sitting on a throne and he is still calling men and women, boys and girls,
into a relationship with him. And no matter what that future may look for America, you and I can rest assured that the future in the kingdom of God is as bright and hopeful as it has ever been. Can God’s people say amen?
Go ahead, you can say it. That’s true because it is the truth of God. And so what we see is the preparation of Cornelius and the preparation of Peter. God was doing a work of grace because you see, Peter really had never reached out to anybody beyond the Jewish nation.
He had never reached out to anybody beyond his own ethnicity. He had never really taken the gospel farther and now God was working in him. How does God work through us? I want you to write these three things down.
How does God prepare my heart that I might share the gospel with others? How does God prepare the hearts of sinners? First of all, I want you to know that God uses prayer. Remember that Cornelius was praying.
He was faithful in his prayers. Remember the Bible says that in the sixth hour, which is about noon, that Peter in verse 9 of chapter 10, that the Bible says that he was on the house hop to pray. And so he goes up at noontime and he is praying.
And we have these two men that are seeking God. One is seeking God with a relationship. The other is seeking God out of religion. And the Bible tells us that the angel appeared to Cornelius and said, God has heard your prayers.
It is a memorial before God. I want you to know that God hears… the prayer of seeking sinners. Your heart may be troubled, it may be broken, it may be devastated, it may be destroyed by all the things that are happening in your life, but there is a God who is watching and He hears your prayers.
He is near and dear to the broken heart of the Scripture says. We see that Peter was a man of prayer. We see that he was seeking divine guidance. We see that God was using prayer to change Peter. Let me tell you something about prayer is that so many of us, we look at prayer and we’re like, hey God, we want to tell you what’s going on as if God didn’t know.
We want to say, hey God, we just want to make sure that you know what is happening, but I assure you that we have a God who knows all things, but prayer is not so much for you to inform God as much as it is for God to inform you.
Because prayer is that moment when our hearts are humbled and surrendered before an almighty God. And where God is aligning our hearts with his heart. Where God is changing us to be more compassionate and he is changing us to be more committed and devoted to his cause and his purpose in the world.
What was God doing in the moment of prayer and the life of Peter? He was changing Peter. Because Peter was committed to the old covenant. Remember we study the book of Acts and the Bible says at the early beginning of the book of Acts that they were daily going to the temple.
What’s that tell me? That tells me that the early church that many of those Jewish believers were still, they were still stuck in that regiment of the Old Testament of going to the temple daily. They were still stuck in some of those traditions of the old covenant.
It’s not till we get to Acts 15 that the church begins to break away from some of these traditions that were being forced upon them through the Jewish faith. And so Peter is on the house top. He is praying and God is trying to help him to see that God is going to make a change.
And God is gonna change Peter to accomplish that. How does God prepare us through circumstances? He prepares us through circumstances. We see that Cornelius as well as Peter were going through some unique circumstances.
Peter was very particular. He was just hungry. He was just hungry. And what does God do? He uses that hunger and to cast a vision upon Peter so that he would see that all that God has created is claimed.
The Jewish people under the old covenant, they could only eat certain foods and they could only partake of certain animals. And so Peter being that good young Jewish man, he was not about to violate the Old Testament.
or the old covenant, but the Bible tells us in verse 15 that God said to Peter, what God has cleansed, you must not call common. The centurion Cornelius, he was a man who was seeking God and God was using even his affluence and his prestige and his accomplishments.
He was showing him that none of these things never satisfy. These things don’t fulfill the heart. These are the things that may be popular in the world, but they do not change the heart. They do not fulfill you.
There’s always that vacuum in the heart of someone who is looking and searching and they try everything that the world has to offer that they might be fulfilled only to find. They’re at a dead end road.
Cornelius was seeking God, looking for answers. God uses circumstances in all of our life. That’s why I’m telling you, you say, why is God doing this, why is God doing that? It may be that God is preparing your heart, that you might share with someone who doesn’t know Christ and he is preparing their heart so that they’ll look to him.
So many people look to their wealth, they look to the military might of a nation, or they look to the political favoritism of a government, and what they find is that none of those things will answer what the great need in their heart is.
The only answer to the heart of sin is Jesus Christ who saves us from our sins. Yeah, church, now you need to wake up, church. I know you’re struggling. It’s Sunday morning, but God is working. God often allows circumstances into our life, hear me, to address our weaknesses.
God allowed something in Peter’s life to help him see his bias, to change his prejudice that he had to those who were beyond Judaism and of the ethnicity of the Jews. I also wanna tell you that God changes us and prepares us through his word.
We said through prayer, through circumstances, through his word, it took Peter three visions from God and a word from the Spirit of God before he finally got the message, but he finally got it. God speaks to us, God sent a messenger, an angel to Cornelius.
He sent the angel with his word to Cornelius on what to do and how to meet with Peter and to find this true salvation. God used his word. He usually has a messenger who brings his word into your life.
Peter brought the message of the gospel to Cornelius who was in need of salvation, and God will speak into our lives through his word and God will open his truth to us and God will use his messengers to help share his wonderful message with us.
so that God can prepare us to do what he has called us to do. But the question is, how many times does God have to speak to you before you will respond to him? How many times does God have to bring a tragedy in your life before you will finally surrender your heart to God and do what he has called you to do?
Does God have to knock you flat on your back, put you in the hospital where you can only look up before you will finally say, Lord, I am surrendered to you? Or are you walking with the Lord and you hear his sweet gentle voice and you know when he’s speaking into your heart?
Does God have to break you down before you’ll finally obey and you’ll finally follow what his good work of preparation is in your heart? We said to you at the outset that if we’re gonna be free, from prejudice we must believe God’s sovereign preparation in our own hearts and in the hearts of others.
But number two, we must demonstrate a submissive will. I want you to come to verse 21. The Bible says, Peter went down to the men who had been sent to him from Cornelius and said, yes, I am he whom you seek.
For what reason have you come? And they said, Cornelius, the centurion, a just man, one who fears God and has a good reputation among all the nation of the Jews, was divinely instructed by a holy angel to summon you to his house and to hear words from you.
Then he invited them in. This is Peter. He lodged with them. On the next day, Peter went away with them and some brethren from Joppa accompanied him. And the following day, they entered Caesarea. Now, Cornelius was waiting for them and called together his relatives and close friends.
As Peter was coming in, Cornelius met him. He fell down at his feet and he worshiped him. But Peter lifted him up and saying, stand up, I myself also am a man. And as he talked with him, he went in and found many who had come together.
Then he said to them, and I want you to see this, you know how unlawful it is for a Jewish man to keep company with or to go to one of another nation. But God has shown me that I should not call any man common or unclean.
You see, when Peter finally heard the vision and he finally responded, he was submissive to God’s will for his life. The Lord is looking for surrendered hearts. He’s not looking for better methods and stronger people.
He’s looking for hearts that are fully surrendered. God works through people. and God will work through your life when you are surrendered to the will of God. When you say, Lord, okay, I don’t understand it, but this is what you’ve called me to do, okay, God, you want me to step out and do this.
Now, there’s two key things for me to have a consistent surrendered heart to God. I want you to write these two words down. Number one is obedience. You must be willing to obey God. You must be willing to obey God, even when it doesn’t make sense.
You know, sometimes the commands of God, why they seem odd, or maybe they seem different, but let me tell you how the economy of God works. The economy of God is not like the world, and the world says, I believe it when I see it.
But God says, believe it, and you will see it. Do you understand that? And sometimes what God says, like this Molly getting baptized? People say, well, I don’t understand why we gotta do that, pastor.
Let me tell you why. Because if you say you’re a believer and you’re not willing to obey Jesus when he tells us to get baptized, what makes you think he can trust you to obey him down the road when he needs you to do A, B, or C for him?
Obedience is your first step. Obedience and baptism is your first step of spiritual maturity and a surrendered heart to the Lord Jesus Christ. That’s why all through our journey, we are called to obey God.
Remember Abraham? Remember that God said, Abraham, pack up everything and take your family and get out. And I’ll tell you where to go later. Now, again, most of us, we would wanna budget. We wouldn’t wanna know our destination.
We would wanna know details and we’d be texting God and we’d be saying, now, God, I need to know this and I’d need to know that. But you know what God wants is obedience. He wants obedience. The second thing to help me have a surrendered, sustained, surrendered heart is faith.
It is faith. I want you to understand something the scriptures teach us in Hebrews 11 .6, without faith, it’s impossible to please him. For he that cometh to God must believe that he is and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him.
It is by faith that you please God. You say, my heart is submissive and surrendered, Pastor Mike. Well, then I say to you, walk by faith. The Bible does not say the just shall live by explanation. The just shall live by faith.
You trust God? The Bible teaches us in Proverbs 3, verse five and six that we’re to trust the Lord with all of our heart. Not half your heart, not a quarter of your heart, not three quarters of your heart, not even 99%.
But trust the Lord with all your heart. The Bible says, and acknowledge him in all your ways. And the Bible teaches us that he will direct. our past we are called to trust the Lord we are called to follow him by faith now there are three ways in this generation that you and I can display obedience and faith as we’re reaching out to people now listen hang on to this first of all make sure that you show no hesitation of befriending people who are unlike you you remember what Peter did he opened the door come on in and he developed a friendship with these people and he told him up front you know the Old Testament tells me that I’m not supposed to be with you I’m not to hang out with you because you people are unclean but I want to tell you that God in the new covenant through the power of the cross and the resurrection of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ that he has now launched a new covenant that Christ has fulfilled all that was required and necessary in the old covenant and we live in a new covenant and in that new covenant we are called to love God and we are called to love people.
And even people, are you with me? That are unlike us. I know you have your people that you hang with. But have you ever tried to love people that are unlike you? Did you know that there are people out there?
They’re not like me and they’re not like you. But they need Jesus Christ. And unless you build a friendship with them, I’m telling you, they may never hear the gospel. You say, Pastor, this is Franklin County.
People will always even indirectly hear the gospel. How about that testimony we heard from a young lady who lived down in Green Castle before COVID. She testified to our church that she grew up in Green Castle, Franklin County, Pennsylvania and no one ever told her the gospel of Jesus Christ.
No, she went to Penn State University and there were Bible studies on that campus and somebody invited her to the Bible study and she heard the gospel for the first time. She was so overwhelmed she broke down in tears and gave her life to the Lord Jesus Christ.
Don’t assume, don’t assume that people have heard but we’re doing every available means to reach every available person but I rest assure to you that you still have a responsibility to make sure that every person that you come in contact has heard the gospel and even if they’re not like you.
So there are no second class citizens in God’s kingdom. The ground is level. at the foot of the cross. When we think about the gospel, it’s a gospel of inclusion. It’s a gospel that reaches out and invites people from all nationalities and all walks of life to repent and believe in Jesus Christ.
And that’s what the apostle Peter is learning in Acts chapter 10. And it needs to be something imprinted upon our hearts so that we don’t behave in prejudicial ways and that we are continuing to understand that there’s really only one race and that’s the human race and that God is reaching out to people and He wants us to be His instrument to help spread His truth to their hearts.
So I hope it’s been a blessing to you. I do want to mention we are not just a ministry of proclaiming the truth and studying the Bible, which we do, but we also want to pray for you. So if you have a special prayer request, go to hopeworthhaving .com.
That’s hopeworthhaving .com. and just hit that contact button and send us your prayer request. We’ll be glad to pray for you this week and whatever you’re facing, we want to certainly join you and partner with you in taking it to the Lord and seeking his wisdom.
This is Pastor Mike Sanders reminding you that in Christ there is hope worth having.