PREPARATION (PART 2)

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In Christ, Mark

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The scriptures. May God bless the reading of His holy word.

About noon the following day as they were on their journey and approaching the city, Peter went up on the roof to pray. He became hungry and wanted something to eat, and while the meal was being prepared, he fell into a trance. He saw heaven opened and something like a large sheet being let down to earth by its four corners. It contained all kinds of four-footed animals, as well as reptiles and birds. Then a voice told him, “Get up, Peter. Kill and eat.”

“Surely not, Lord!” Peter replied. “I have never eaten anything impure or unclean.”

The voice spoke to him a second time, “Do not call anything impure that God has made clean.”

This happened three times, and immediately the sheet was taken back to heaven.

While Peter was wondering about the meaning of the vision, the men sent by Cornelius found out where Simon’s house was and stopped at the gate. They called out, asking if Simon who was known as Peter was staying there.

While Peter was still thinking about the vision, the Spirit said to him, “Simon, three men are looking for you. So get up and go downstairs. Do not hesitate to go with them, for I have sent them.”

Peter went down and said to the men, “I’m the one you’re looking for. Why have you come?”

The men replied, “We have come from Cornelius the centurion. He is a righteous and God-fearing man, who is respected by all the Jewish people. A holy angel told him to ask you to come to his house so that he could hear what you have to say.”

Then Peter invited the men into the house to be his guests.

Acts 10:9-23

This ends today’s reading from God's holy word. Thanks be to God.

There is no doubt that our Lord works to prepare us for the work He will have us do. He is the great Orchestrator of all things and we are instruments to be used by the Orchestrator in any way He sees fit to fulfill His purposes.

In the first devotion of this series, drawn from the first eight verses of Acts 10, we found the Lord sending an angel to a Roman centurion named Cornelius. The scriptures told us that although he was a Roman, he and his family were devout, God-fearing people and Cornelius in particular invested greatly in prayer and selflessly giving to those in need. They were just the type of people ripe for hearing the Gospel and placing their trust in Jesus.

And so we find the angel of the Lord telling Cornelius to send some men to Joppa to locate a man named Peter who was staying with a tanner named Simon. Once found, they were to invite Peter to return with them to Caesarea, where Cornelius lived. The Roman centurion was obedient to the Lord’s call and as our passage opens today in this second and final devotion of this series, his men are nearing Joppa.

At the same time, about noon, we read where Peter goes up on the roof to pray and while there, he became hungry. We’re told that a meal was being prepared when Peter fell into a trance which morphed into a dream of sorts.

In it, Peter saw heaven opened up and “something like a large sheet being let down to earth by its four corners”. The sheet “contained all kinds of four-footed animals, as well as reptiles and birds”. As Peter observed this, he heard a voice command him to:

“Get up, Peter. Kill and eat.”

To which Peter responded:

“Surely not, Lord! I have never eaten anything impure or unclean.”

And then the voice replied:

“Do not call anything impure that God has made clean.”

The scriptures tell us that the vision “happened three times” before the sheet was immediately “taken back to heaven”. All of it left Peter perplexed as he was left to wonder what it all had meant but soon he would see that it was God’s way of preparing him for what He wanted him to do next.

On the surface, the vision looked like it was a matter of food. The sheet was filled with all kinds of animals, some that the Jews were allowed to engage with, some that they weren’t. The clean versus the unclean. God intent when it came to differentiating between animals was really grounded in a much deeper purpose beyond mere eating. For many pagan societies used certain animals as symbols of the gods they worshiped. And so God, in His great wisdom, simply conditioned his people to reject certain animals as unclean so they could avoid associating with pagan people who might entice them to worship false gods.

Okay, so why then would the voice in the vision now proclaim that all animals could be considered clean because God had deemed it so?

Because of Jesus and the nature of the Gospel being preached through Him.

Again, it was about something deeper than the animals and eating themselves. It was about people who would qualify for salvation.

Before Jesus, Gentiles were rejected by the Jews, considered unclean.

But once Jesus came on the scene, He preached salvation for all people, the Jew and the Gentile. There was no distinction between clean and unclean anymore. All people were unclean and the only way they could be cleansed was through the shed blood of Jesus, the only One who could bring eternal life, the only One who could bring a person to God, the Father (John 14:6).

Soon Cornelius’ men would reach Simon’s home and ask for Peter. Peter did not know until the angel of the Lord addressed him that this was happening and to make sure Peter didn’t mess up God’s plan, the angel made sure Peter knew he was to go with the men to Caesarea without hesitation.

The Lord had set the stage for the Gospel to be brought to Cornelius and his family through his angel. Cornelius was ready to host Peter and Peter would be the one who would deliver the good news to Cornelius and his family.  

We have read about the preparation. Over the next four messages, we see how the Lord executes His plan.              

Amen.

In Christ,

Mark

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