Mark Your Calendar
- Teen meeting – Sunday at 5 pm
- Ladies brunch in the gym – Saturday, June 15th (signup for food)
- Sunday, June 16th, Taiwan missions update from the Bollon family
Taking Notes
Did you know that Sermon Note Activity Pages are available in the lobby? These printouts are an excellent tool for helping young people learn to take notes and get more out of the sermon. In fact, they might help all of us, so I won’t tell if you try one out this Sunday 😊
From the Desk of Pastor Tom
Pride seeps out of people in numerous ways. One incredibly ugly symptom is unequal respect. Other descriptions you may be more familiar with might be: favoritism, nationalism, racism, prejudice, intolerance, discrimination, or bigotry. God does not treat anyone unfairly, He “is no respecter of persons.” Consider these verses:
Deuteronomy 1:16-17 – And I charged your judges at that time, ‘Hear the cases between your brothers, and judge righteously between a man and his brother or the alien who is with him. You shall not be partial in judgment. You shall hear the small and the great alike. You shall not be intimidated by anyone, for the judgment is God’s.
Deuteronomy 10:17-19 – For the LORD your God is God of gods and Lord of lords, the great, the mighty, and the awesome God, who is not partial and takes no bribe. He executes justice for the fatherless and the widow, and loves the sojourner, giving him food and clothing. Love the sojourner, therefore, for you were sojourners in the land of Egypt.
James 2:1-9 – My brothers, show no partiality as you hold the faith in our Lord Jesus Christ, the Lord of glory. For if a man wearing a gold ring and fine clothing comes into your assembly, and a poor man in shabby clothing also comes in, and if you pay attention to the one who wears the fine clothing and say, “You sit here in a good place,” while you say to the poor man, “You stand over there,” or, “Sit down at my feet,” have you not then made distinctions among yourselves and become judges with evil thoughts? Listen, my beloved brothers, has not God chosen those who are poor in the world to be rich in faith and heirs of the kingdom, which he has promised to those who love him? But you have dishonored the poor man. Are not the rich the ones who oppress you, and the ones who drag you into court? Are they not the ones who blaspheme the honorable name by which you were called? If you really fulfill the royal law according to the Scripture, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself,” you are doing well. But if you show partiality, you are committing sin and are convicted by the law as transgressors.
Every nationality and every person is freely offered the Good News of Salvation. There is no people group which is more favored than another. In fact, the fear of God and righteous works seen in Acts 10:34-35 do not speak of favoritism through a “works-based” view of life. It is simply a restatement of the previous truth about impartiality.
Peter is going to connect a part of the unspoken tension in the room with the Good News found in Christ. The message of Christ which God sent is a message of peace. It is a message of peace to the enemies of God and it has the power to bring peace to human enemies. A.T. Robertson says that Peter is, “Gospelizing peace through Jesus Christ. There is no other way to have real peace between individuals and God, between races and nations, than by Jesus Christ.”[i] Robertson goes on to mention the close connection in wording with Ephesians 2:11-22 (specifically Eph. 2:17) where Paul eagerly describes the new unity and peace radically diverse individuals find within Christ.
Peter is standing before these Roman citizens as a member of the conquered nation of Israel. The Romans stereotypically looked down on the Jews as inferior militarily and culturally. The Israelites hated the Romans as oppressors and religious inferiors. Yet Peter makes it clear the Gospel is a message of transformative peace. He then reflects in Acts 10:37 on the wildfire spread of the Gospel across the countryside. The Good News of Jesus is not some insignificant rumor about a deluded carpenter from Galilee.
Peter preaches the same Gospel he has consistently given in every sermon in the book of Acts. However, this presentation is slightly different. It has been specifically arranged and prefaced for his non-Jewish audience. Peter clearly communicates Jesus is God but does so using miracles and good works as proof instead of Old Testament prophecy. These Romans would not have been as familiar with the Jewish Scriptures, so Peter uses the incredible miracles they had undoubtedly heard about. Jesus is God and He died on the cross. This was the Roman death sentence for the vilest and lowest criminals, but Peter does not shy away from this core part of the Good News. Then Jesus, the Son of God, rose from the dead on the third day with numerous verifiable witnesses to validate he truly was alive. Jesus is God, He died on the cross, rose again on the third day, and He is the true judge of all people. This centurion and those gathered with him would have immediately understood the importance of this truth. The Roman culture was established on a governmental system of rights and laws which they worked hard to uphold. Peter had already introduced that Jesus was “Lord of all” and sets the standard of righteousness which all miss.
Therefore, Peter’s final point is that the only chance of forgiveness and peace with God comes through belief in Jesus Christ. It is impossible to pay your fine or escape the judgment. A human judge can only kill you; God even judges the dead. But he has come to bring peace.
Only through belief in the Lord Jesus Christ, as the son of God who died on the cross, can forgiveness be found.
Only through belief in the Lord Jesus Christ, as the son of God who died on the cross, can peace with God be found.
Only through belief in the Lord Jesus Christ, as the son of God who died on the cross, can personal peace be found.
