Clergy/Leaders’ Mail-list No. 0-002

Acts 10:34-38

1) In matters of race 2) In matters of Nationality 3) All are offered the same salvation

by Wayne Dobratz

Sometimes you find the news in places you least expect to find it. A very talented lefthanded relief pitcher put himself in the firestorm of controversy by some unfortunate things he said about minorities and immigrants. You couldn’t help but wonder if the red on his uniform somehow got on his neck. Now the Commissioner has ordered that he undergo a battery of psychological tests. The pitcher told reporters afterward that he is not a racist.

Peter learned in today’s text that GOD SHOWS NO FAVORITISM and there’s some meat for us to chew on as well here. The insults flew in Peter’s time, just as they do in ours. Gentiles were called “dogs”, not household pets, but street dogs, hardly a compliment.

Jesus came to shed the light of God’s love upon loveless human hearts. [Today is the Festival of the Epiphany. “Epiphany” means that the light is shining in Jesus. We also mark today the Baptism of our Lord.] Jesus came to be the representative for all mankind before the throne of God’s justice. He is the man we all need, regardless of our race or national origin. He took the sins of the world to the cross with Him and died for them there.

The Father says at Jesus’ Baptism: This is my Son, whom I love; with Him I am well pleased. We can’t please him on our own; that’s for sure. Not with our inbred lack of love for God and for our fellow man.

Peter is in Caesarea. The Lord is about to take his education one step further as one of Christ’s Ambassadors. Cornelius lived in Caesarea. He was a Roman Centurion. The Jews hated the Roman Occupying army. But there’s something different about Cornelius. He and his entire family worship the true God. Cornelius gave generously to those in need. One day while Cornelius was praying, he had a vision from God. He saw an angel from God who told him: Your prayers and gifts to the poor have come up as a memorial offering before God. Now send men to Joppa to bring back a man named Simon who is called Peter.

Peter also had a vision about this. It is one of the strangest visions we read about in the whole Bible. About noon the following day, as the men of Cornelius were approaching Joppa, Peter went up on his rooftop to pray. He became hungry and wanted to eat. While the meal was being prepared, he fell into a trance. He saw heaven opened and something that looked like a large sheet was being let down to earth by its 4 corners. It contained all kinds of 4- 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 2nd time, Don’t call anything impure that God has made clean. This happened 3 times, and then the sheet was taken back to heaven.

While Peter was wondering about the meaning of this vision, the men sent by Cornelius found Simon’s house and stopped at the gate. While Peter was still thinking about the vision, the Spirit said to him: Simon, 3 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 aid 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 have you come to his house so that he can hear what you have to say. Then Peter invited the men into the house to be his guest.

If God had not given Peter that vision he would never have invited them in, much less gone into a Gentile’s house. The old Jewish discrimination against Gentiles would have kicked in. When the Centurion came into Peter’s presence, he bowed and fell at his feet in reverence. But Peter asked him to get up. Stand up, he said, I am only a man myself.

After talking with Cornelius, 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 a Gentile or visit him. But God has shown me that I should not call any man impure or unclean.

It was then that Peter spoke the words of Today’s text. Look at it with me on the text sheet, the left column at the bottom: 34 Then Peter began to speak: “I now realize how true it is that God does not show favoritism 35 but accepts men from every nation who fear him and do what is right. 36 You know the message God sent to the people of Israel, telling the good news of peace through Jesus Christ, who is Lord of all.

God showed Peter that A NEW ERA WAS DAWNING, an era in which the old lines dividing people were being erased. Jesus’ love is for all people. The coming of the Gentile Wise Men proved that.

This has a great deal to do with you and me today. It has to do with our biases, with our racial views, with the way we treat our neighbors who might be just a little different. The old laws that kept Jews separate from Gentiles were to keep the Jewish people intact so that Jesus could be born as the Son of Abraham and the Son of David. That was important so that God’s ancient promises could be kept. But, just as you no longer see a movie preview once the picture has been shown, so these laws had fulfilled their purpose.

Paul wrote in Galatians about this New era of God’s Good News in Christ breaking down the old barriers. We read in Gal. 3:28 There is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. 29 If you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise.

GOD SHOWS NO FAVORITISM–That’s the message of God’s grace and it’s for you and me too. We read in another part of Acts that Paul told the Gentile Greeks: Acts 17:26 From one man he made every nation of men, that they should inhabit the whole earth; and he determined the times set for them and the exact places where they should live. 27 God did this so that men would seek him and perhaps reach out for him and find him, though he is not far from each one of us. …30 In the past God overlooked such ignorance, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent. 31 For he has set a day when he will judge the world with justice by the man he has appointed. He has given proof of this to all men by raising him from the dead.”

There is only one way they can be saved and that’s through Jesus. Jesus is the Savior of all; he shed his blood for all. Whoever believes in him is not condemned, regardless of race or national origin. Whoever does not believe in Him is condemned, without regard for their race or where they came from. Peter reminded them: 37 You know what has happened throughout Judea, beginning in Galilee after the baptism that John preached÷38 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.

GOD SHOWS NO FAVORITISM. THE WAY OF SALVATION IS THE SAME FOR ALL.

That’s what Peter told the people again and again. Here’s what he said in the next verses after today’s text: 10:39 “We are witnesses of everything he did in the country of the Jews and in Jerusalem. They killed him by hanging him on a tree, 40 but God raised him from the dead on the third day…. 42 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. 43 All the prophets testify about him that everyone who believes in him receives forgiveness of sins through his name.” Everyone who believes receives forgiveness of sins in His name

We just cannot exclude from our Christian love anyone whom God accepts. God calls people by grace. He didn’t call you out of the darkness of sin because of anything special about you and he doesn’t exclude anyone because they are different from you. Its all by grace, without any thing on our part.

We are to love our neighbors as ourselves. If your faith is genuine, then real works of love will follow, regardless of whom you are being asked to love. Peter said: (34) “I now realize how true it is that God does not show favoritism 35 but accepts men from every nation who fear him and do what is right.”

If your heart is right with God, good deeds will follow. A good tree bears good fruit, Jesus said. Through faith we are right with God, now let us show our faith by what we do, how we treat our fellow man, how we try to look at him the way God does–by grace.

God told Peter: “Do not call anything impure that God has made clean.” Hatred is the blindest and most short-sighted of all human emotions. It is designed to hurt another, but it creates its own private Hell for those who practice it.

Booker T. Washington said it well: I am determined to permit no man to narrow or degrade my soul by making me hate him. Jesus said: “The last shall be first and the first last. “

Martin Luther explains what the Lord means by this:

So then, the gist of the Gospel is this:

No one is so high or may rise so high that they need not fear becoming the lowliest. On the other hand, no one has fallen, or may fall so deeply as to preclude all hope of becoming the highest. By saying “The first shall be last” Christ takes all presumption away from you and forbids you to exalt yourself above any prostitute, even though you were Abraham, David, Peter or Paul.

But by saying, “The last shall be first,” He guards you against all despair and forbids you to cast yourself under the feet of any saint, even though you were Pilate, Herod or Sodom & Gomorrah.

Let us follow Him who loved us, all of us, and gave himself for us. In His precious name, Amen.

– Wayne Dobratz <>