EXECUTION (PART 3)

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In Christ, Mark

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

Then Peter began to speak:

“I now realize how true it is that God does not show favoritism but accepts from every nation the one who fears him and does what is right. You know the message God sent to the people of Israel, announcing the good news of peace through Jesus Christ, who is Lord of all. You know what has happened throughout the province of Judea, beginning in Galilee after the baptism that John preached—how God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and power, and how He went around doing good and healing all who were under the power of the devil, because God was with Him.”

“We are witnesses of everything He did in the country of the Jews and in Jerusalem. They killed Him by hanging him on a cross, but God raised Him from the dead on the third day and caused Him to be seen. He was not seen by all the people, but by witnesses whom God had already chosen—by us who ate and drank with Him after He rose from the dead. He commanded us to preach to the people and to testify that He is the One whom God appointed as Judge of the living and the dead. All the prophets testify about Him that everyone who believes in Him receives forgiveness of sins through His name.”

Acts 10:34-43

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

When one places a priority on preparation, then executing a plan typically find success.

We’ve seen this over the past four devotions from Acts 10 where we see preparation and execution executed to perfection by people who were obedient to God’s preparation and then His will and way.

Cornelius prayed and received orders from the angel of the Lord to send men to Joppa to get Peter.

He complied.

Peter prayed and the Lord prepared his heart for what He wanted him to do by driving home the point that only He, God, could deem something or somebody as unclean. Peter was commanded to eat any and all animals that were in the sheet contained within the vision because there was no discrimination as to which was clean and which wasn’t. The point was that Jesus had come for all people, the Jew and the Gentile, and salvation was available for anyone who simply believed that Jesus was their Savior. Typically, Peter would not have allowed himself to remain long in the company of Gentiles but the Lord was preparing him for his coming encounter with Cornelius and his gathering of family and friends. All were God worshiping and God fearing people who would soon hear the Gospel and Peter would be the messenger God would use.

And so an angel of the Lord told Peter to go with the men sent to Joppa by Cornelius.

He complied.

So the stage was set and as we left off yesterday, Peter had asked Cornelius why he had summoned him and the Roman centurion let Peter know that all gathered were eager to hear everything the Lord had commanded Him to say.

The Lord had prepared them for such a time as this. They were ripe and ready to receive the message Peter would share. All Peter needed to do was execute what he had been trained to do.

For you see, Peter’s preparation went well before his vision on Simon’s roof in Joppa. It ranged back to that very first say that a man named Jesus came to him as he was working near the Sea of Galilee because he was a fisherman by trade. You’ll remember Jesus telling Peter that He would show him how to fish for people if he chose to follow him which Peter did. More than three years later, after hearing Jesus preach the good news of the Gospel over and over and over again, Peter stood before Cornelius and the others in company with him ready to do same because Jesus had prepared him to do so.

And so as we see in our passage for today, Peter draws from all the preparation he had received and executes a perfect delivery of the good news found in Jesus. His message contained the following key points:

1. Jesus is an equal opportunity Savior.

It took a vision of animals in a sheet and a command to eat any and all of them for Peter to understand that there was no delineation anymore between Jew and Gentile. He realized that God did not show favoritism but rather would accept anyone, no matter their nationality, as long as they feared Him and sought to be righteous in the way they lived.

2. Jesus was God’s chosen Messiah, empowered to save from on high,

Note here how God is once again at the forefront. He doesn’t show favoritism and He so loved all the world that He sent His one and only Son to serve as a living sacrifice and atonement for the sins of everyone. It was God’s will and His plan to save, and He chose to do so through His Son Jesus, the Lord of all and Prince of peace who brought tranquility and serenity to those who placed their hope in Him.  

3. Jesus was anointed with the Holy Spirit and power by His Father and He put it to good use.

Jesus started his adult ministry by being baptized by John the Baptist in the river Jordan. As He came up out of the water, we read this from Matthew’s Gospel:

As soon as Jesus was baptized, He went up out of the water. At that moment heaven was opened, and He saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and alighting on Him. And a voice from heaven said, “This is My Son, whom I love; with Him I am well pleased.” Matthew 3:16-17

Indeed, God had anointed Jesus “with the Holy Spirit and power”, preparing Him for the work He would be called to do. Then Jesus used what God had granted to execute the will of His Father, “doing good and healing all who were under the power of the devil”. All along the way God was with Him.

4. Jesus was crucified.

Peter and the rest of his brother disciples spent three years with Jesus and knew His life story in a very intimate way. They had been eyewitnesses to everything He had done “in the country of the Jews and in Jerusalem”, and they fully knew what was going to happen to their Master, even if they didn’t want to believe it.

Jesus had told His chosen followers how it was necessary for Him to die and then to be raised up on the third day but I don’t think they truly grasped what He was telling them. That is, until it really happened as He was arrested by the Jewish religious leaders, falsely accused and unjustly tried, beaten and abused, and then executed as a criminal, nailed to a cross where He would hang until death.

5. Jesus did not remain dead but was raised from the dead on the third day.

The Jewish religious authorities believed they had eliminated their arch nemesis Jesus but they were so very wrong. For on the third day, as women went to His tomb to anoint His body, they discovered He was gone. Angels told them that He was very much risen and alive. Jesus Himself even sealed the deal by appearing to them.

Indeed, there were many witnesses who God had chosen for Jesus to reveal His resurrected body to including all His disciples, minus Judas of course, who “ate and drank” with Jesus “after He rose from the dead”.

6. Jesus gave a Great Commission to His disciples and all who would come after them to serve the living Savior.

Jesus ordered His disciples “to preach to the people and to testify that He (Jesus) is the One whom God appointed as Judge of the living and the dead”. They were to commit themselves to go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing all new Christians in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit while teaching them to obey all Christ had commanded.

In today’s passage and in so many other places in Acts, we find the apostles doing just that.

7. Jesus and His life were foretold thousands and thousands of years before He was born.

Peter wanted Cornelius and his gathered guests to know that Jesus’ coming should have been of little surprise to anyone. This is because “all the prophets” had testified about Him so that “everyone who believes in Him receives forgiveness of sins through His name.”

God spoke through His appointed messengers and we know that He speaks only truth. If the prophets said something would happen, then it would without question. Jesus’ story confirmed this as it unfolded.

Seven key Gospel spreading points used by Peter as he executed the plan that first Jesus and then God had prepared him for.

Today, we find this section of God’s word preparing us to execute a delivery of the Gospel when He brings the time to us. All we need to do is execute it at His appointed time, just as Peter did.  

Amen.

In Christ,

Mark

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EXECUTION (PART 2)

Can I pray for you in any way?

Send any prayer requests to Gods4all@aol.com

In Christ, Mark

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

** Follow The Christian Walk on Twitter @ThChristianWalk

** Like posts and send friend requests to the author of The Christian Walk, Mark Cummings on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/mark.cummings.733?ref=tn_tnmn

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

Cornelius answered: “Three days ago I was in my house praying at this hour, at three in the afternoon. Suddenly a man in shining clothes stood before me and said, ‘Cornelius, God has heard your prayer and remembered your gifts to the poor. Send to Joppa for Simon who is called Peter. He is a guest in the home of Simon the tanner, who lives by the sea.’ So I sent for you immediately, and it was good of you to come. Now we are all here in the presence of God to listen to everything the Lord has commanded you to tell us.”

Acts 10:30-33

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

Proper investment in preparation yields the fruit of proper execution.

That has been the message at the heart of this series of devotions from the tenth chapter of the Book of Acts as we have looked at separate interventions by God through His angel with a Roman centurion named Cornelius in Caesarea and the Apostle Peter in Joppa. In both of these individual cases, the Lord was preparing each man for what was to come so they could execute His plan to perfection. All they had to do was be obedient to taking the proper preparation He provided and then execute that preparation properly to achieve His intended purposes.

Yesterday, we saw where Peter started the execution process by first proceeding to Caesarea with the men Cornelius had sent to Joppa. He then used the education gained from the vision regarding what God considered clean and unclean to speak to the Gentile audience gathered at Cornelius’ home without any bias or judgment. Through His Son Jesus Christ, God had opened the opportunity for salvation to all people, both Jew and Gentile.

As we closed yesterday’s devotion, we found Peter asking Cornelius why he sent for him and this is where we pick up today for we see Cornelius answering Peter’s question saying:

“Three days ago I was in my house praying at this hour, at three in the afternoon. Suddenly a man in shining clothes stood before me and said, ‘Cornelius, God has heard your prayer and remembered your gifts to the poor. Send to Joppa for Simon who is called Peter. He is a guest in the home of Simon the tanner, who lives by the sea.’ So I sent for you immediately, and it was good of you to come. Now we are all here in the presence of God to listen to everything the Lord has commanded you to tell us.”

Peter had went on the roof of Simon’s home to pray and after receiving his vision, the Holy Spirit directed him to go with the three men who had come looking for him and to do so without hesitation because the men had been sent by the Spirit. Note Peter didn’t know much about Cornelius until he went to the men and they said this:

“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.”

I find it interesting that Peter didn’t start with what he knew already as he addressed Cornelius as well as his family and friends. He had Cornelius start from scratch and by doing so he learned more than what he did prior.

For example, Peter discovered that Cornelius had been engaged in prayer when the angel of the Lord came to him. Imagine how this had to have impacted Peter and reinforced what he gained from the vision. Peter was a Jew who became an important apostle of Jesus. He would have expected to receive special communication from God, either directly or through an angel.

But Cornelius was a Roman. Yes, he was a God believer and had shown the kind of selflessness that God commanded and expected but the average person on the outside looking in would not have placed him in even status with Peter when it came to their position in reference to the Lord. This is why it doesn’t matter what people think. It’s all about what God desires that matters most and God had deemed the time had come to remove His separation from people. As Jesus drew His final breath and surrendered His Spirit, the veil in the temple which separated everyone but the high priest from the Holy of Holies tore in half. Access to God was now available for all people, Jew and Gentile alike. The only requirement for eternal life was for one to place their belief in Jesus, His Son.

And so Peter knew that God had prepared both he and Cornelius for this moment of fellowship and ministry while each man drew near to Him in prayer.

It was in this prayer that Cornelius lets Peter know that God had commanded him via the angel to do what he did, send men to bring the apostle from Joppa to Caesarea. What Cornelius didn’t know was that the Lord had also come to Peter during a time of prayer and had prepared the way for the apostle to go with the men sent for him.

Again, Cornelius had been obedient to God’s preparation by sending the men as told. Peter was obedient to God’s preparation by going with the men to Caesarea. Together, both men made the way for God’s plan to be executed through being compliant with what God asked them to do.

But what was that plan exactly?

Well, we’ll find out more tomorrow as Cornelius and the family and friends gathered with him in the presence of God hear what the Lord would have Peter to tell them.  

Amen.

In Christ,

Mark

PS: Feel free to leave a comment and please share this with anyone you feel might be blessed by it.
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EXECUTION (PART 1)

Can I pray for you in any way?

Send any prayer requests to Gods4all@aol.com

In Christ, Mark

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

** Follow The Christian Walk on Twitter @ThChristianWalk

** Like posts and send friend requests to the author of The Christian Walk, Mark Cummings on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/mark.cummings.733?ref=tn_tnmn

** Become a Follower of The Christian Walk at http://the-christian-walk.blogspot.com

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

The next day Peter started out with them, and some of the believers from Joppa went along.

The following day he arrived in Caesarea. Cornelius was expecting them and had called together his relatives and close friends.

As Peter entered the house, Cornelius met him and fell at his feet in reverence. But Peter made him get up. “Stand up,” he said, “I am only a man myself.”

While talking with him, Peter went inside and found a large gathering of people. He said to them: “You are well aware that it is against our law for a Jew to associate with or visit a Gentile. But God has shown me that I should not call anyone impure or unclean. So when I was sent for, I came without raising any objection. May I ask why you sent for me?”

Acts 10:23-29

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

In the first devotion from Acts 10, I talked about a principle I learned after many years of military leadership. The principle was that in carrying out any event, the work was 99 percent preparation and 1 percent execution. The initial work in getting ready for what needed done was critical to success. That was the whole point of the principle.

Well, over the past two devotions, we have looked at how God worked in advance of the main event, the event where a God-fearing, Roman centurion named Cornelius and his family could receive the Gospel and the Holy Spirit, and then be baptized, even though they were Gentiles and believed to be unclean and disqualified. Preparation happened on two fronts: first with Cornelius and then with Peter who was staying in the home of Simon the Tanner in Joppa.

As yesterday’s devotion ended, we find Peter depart for Caesarea with some men dispatched by Cornelius after he had been told by an angel of the Lord to do so. In the latter part of verse 23, we read where he was joined by some other believers from Joppa.

The preparation was over. Now was the time for execution, the theme of the next four devotions as we look at the events that take place at Cornelius’ home in Caesarea.  

We start in today’s message with Peter’s arrival in Caesarea with his entourage from Joppa. The scriptures tell us that “Cornelius was expecting them” and had “called together his relatives and close friends”. There was quite a gathering as Peter entered the house.

Well, Peter’s reputation had to have proceeded him because we read where Cornelius falls at Peter’s feet in reverence. Perhaps he thought that if an angel of the Lord has commanded that he call for Peter that the man from Joppa must have been sent by God and thus should be honored as if God had come Himself.

The whole scene unsettled Peter and we can sense the frustration and probably a little humiliation as he demands that Cornelius, “Stand up,” before explaining that he was a mere man just like the Roman centurion. Peter wanted Cornelius to know that they were on the same level spiritually.

We get a sense that Cornelius leads Peter into his home where his relatives and friends were. The scriptures tell us that Peter wasted little time addressing the large gathering saying:

“You are well aware that it is against our law for a Jew to associate with or visit a Gentile. But God has shown me that I should not call anyone impure or unclean. So when I was sent for, I came without raising any objection. May I ask why you sent for me?”

Here we see God’s preparation leading to flawless execution on Peter’s part.

Before the vision of the sheet with the clean and unclean animals on it and the voice telling Peter that it was God who controlled what was clean and unclean, Peter understood the moral of the vision. Through Jesus, there was now no delineation between Jews and Gentiles. All people had sinned and fallen short of the glory of God and all people had the opportunity to gain salvation through Christ. That was the message at the heart of the good news and the overarching theme of what we know today as the New Testament, a word which also can be translated “covenant”. God’s new covenant with people included everyone. The Jews no longer were superior to those who weren’t Jewish.

That was Peter’s message to those gathered. He was a Jew but he was not there to pass judgment on Gentiles. That was a thing of a past and God had made it clear that it was so.

You know, God never stops preparing us for His purposes through His holy word. But are we embracing that preparation in a way that will allow us to execute His plan when He asks us to do so?

In Peter, we see how it should work and thanks be to God for providing us his story as a guide.

Tomorrow, we’ll continue to watch God’s plan be executed as Peter learns why Cornelius called for him to visit.

Amen.

In Christ,

Mark

PS: Feel free to leave a comment and please share this with anyone you feel might be blessed by it.
Send any prayer requests to Gods4all@aol.com

 

PREPARATION (PART 2)

Can I pray for you in any way?

Send any prayer requests to Gods4all@aol.com

In Christ, Mark

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

** Follow The Christian Walk on Twitter @ThChristianWalk

** Like posts and send friend requests to the author of The Christian Walk, Mark Cummings on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/mark.cummings.733?ref=tn_tnmn

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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

PS: Feel free to leave a comment and please share this with anyone you feel might be blessed by it.
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