The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz) - Day 331: Peter Preaches to the Gentiles (2023)

Episode Date: November 27, 2023

In today’s reading from Acts, the Holy Spirit guides Peter to initiate ministry to the Gentiles, beginning with the family of Cornelius, a Roman centurion. Upon hearing Peter preach, Cornelius’ entire household receive the Holy Spirit and are baptized. Commenting on today's second reading from 1 Corinthians, Fr. Mike reminds us to pursue Christian unity and avoid the dissension and infighting we see in the Church of Corinth. Today's readings are Acts 10, 1 Corinthians 1-2, Proverbs 27:21-22. For the complete reading plan, visit ascensionpress.com/bibleinayear. Please note: The Bible contains adult themes that may not be suitable for children - parental discretion is advised.

Hi, my name is Father Mike Schmitz, and you're listening to the Bible in a Year podcast, where we encounter God's voice and live life through the lens of Scripture. The Bible in a Year podcast is brought to you by Ascension. Using the Great Adventure Bible timeline, we'll read all the way from Genesis to Revelation, discovering how the story of salvation unfolds and how we fit into that story today. It's day 331. We're reading from the Acts of the Apostles chapter 10, as well as 1 Corinthians chapter 1 and 2. We're also reading Proverbs chapter 27 verses 21 and 22. As always, the Bible

translation that I'm reading from is the Revised Standard Version, Second Catholic Edition. I'm using the Great Adventure Bible from Ascension. If you want to download your own Bible in a Year reading plan, you can visit ascensionpress.com slash Bible in a Year. You can also subscribe to this podcast and receive daily episodes and daily updates. It is day 331. We're reading Acts of the Apostles, chapter 10, 1 Corinthians chapters 1 and 2, Proverbs chapter 27, verses 21 and 22. The Acts of the Apostles, chapter 10, Peter and Cornelius.

At Caesarea, there was a man named Cornelius, a centurion of what was known as the Italian cohort, a devout man who feared God with all his household, gave alms liberally to the people, and prayed constantly to God. 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 he stared at him in terror and said, What is it, Lord? And he said to him, Your prayers and your alms have ascended as a memorial before God. And now send men to Joppa and bring one Simon, who is called Peter. He is lodging with Simon, a tanner, whose house is by the seaside. When the angel who spoke to him had departed, he called two of his servants and a devout soldier

from among those that waited on him, and having related everything to them, he sent them to Joppa. The next day, as they were on their journey and coming near the city, Peter went up on the housetop to pray about the sixth hour. And he became hungry and desired something to eat. But while they were preparing it, he fell into a trance and saw the heaven opened and something descending like a great sheet

let down by four corners upon the earth. In it were all kinds of animals and reptiles and birds of the air. And there came a voice to him, Rise, Peter, kill and eat. But Peter said, No, Lord, for I have never eaten anything that is common or unclean. And the voice came to him again a second time, What God has cleansed you must not call common. This happened three times, and the thing was taken up at once to heaven. Now, while Peter was inwardly perplexed as to

what the vision which he had seen might mean, behold, the men that were sent by Cornelius, having made inquiry for Simon's house, stood before the gate and called out to ask whether Simon who was called Peter was lodging there. And while Peter was pondering the vision, the spirit said to him, Behold, three men are looking for you. Rise and go down and accompany them without hesitation, for I have sent them. And Peter went down to the men and said,

I am the one you are looking for. What is the reason for your coming? And they said, Cornelius, a centurion, an upright and God-fearing man who is well spoken of by the whole Jewish nation, was directed by a holy angel to send for you to come to his house and to hear what you have to say. So he called them in to be his guests. The next day he rose off and went off with them, and some of the brethren from Joppa accompanied him. And on the following day they entered Caesarea.

Cornelius was expecting them and had called together his kinsmen and close friends. When Peter entered, Cornelius met him and fell down at his feet and worshipped him, but Peter lifted him up, saying, Stand up, I too am a man. And as he talked with him, he went in and found many persons gathered, and he said to them, You yourselves know how unlawful it is for a Jew to associate with or to visit anyone of another nation. But God has shown me that I should not call any man common or unclean. So when I was sent for, I came without objection. I asked then, why you sent for me? And Cornelius said, Four days ago, about this hour, I was keeping the ninth hour of prayer in my house, and behold,

a man stood before me in bright apparel, saying, Cornelius, your prayer has been heard, and your alms have been remembered before God. Send therefore to Joppa, and ask for Simon, who is called Peter. He is lodging in the house of Simon a tanner by the seaside. So I sent to you at once, and you have been kind enough to come. Now therefore, we are all here present in the sight of God, to hear all that you have been commanded by the Lord. Gentiles hear the good news. And Peter opened his mouth and said, Truly, I perceive that God shows no partiality, but in every nation anyone who fears him and does what is right is acceptable to him.

You know the word which he sent to the sons of Israel, preaching good news of peace by Jesus Christ. He is Lord of all. The word which was sent to the sons of Israel, preaching good news of peace by Jesus Christ. He is Lord of all. The word which was proclaimed throughout all Judea, beginning from Galilee after the baptism which John preached, how God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and with power, how he went about doing good and healing all that were oppressed by the devil, for God was with him. And we are witnesses to all that he did both in the country of the Jews and in Jerusalem.

They put him to death by hanging him on a tree. But God raised him on the third day and made him manifest not to all the people, but to us who were chosen by God as witnesses, who ate and drank with him after he rose from the dead. And he commanded us to preach to the people and to testify that he is the one ordained by God to be judge of the living and the dead. To him all the prophets bear witness that everyone who believes in him receives forgiveness of sins through his name. The Gentiles received the Holy Spirit.

While Peter was still saying this, the Holy Spirit fell on all who heard the word, and the believers from among the circumcised who came with Peter were amazed because the gift of the Holy Spirit had been poured out even on the Gentiles, for they heard them speaking in tongues and extolling God. Then Peter declared, Can anyone forbid water for baptizing these people who have received the Holy Spirit just as we have?

And he commanded them to be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ. Then they asked him to remain for some days. The First Letter of Paul to the Corinthians Chapter 1 Salutation Paul, called by the will of God to be an apostle of Christ Jesus and our brother Sosthenes, to the church of God which is at Corinth, to those sanctified in Christ Jesus, called to be saints together with all those

who in every place call on the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, both their Lord and ours, grace to you, and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. I give thanks to God always for you, because of the grace of God,

which was given you in Christ Jesus, that in every way you were enriched in him with all speech and all knowledge, even as the testimony to Christ was confirmed among you, so that you are not lacking in any spiritual gift as you wait for the revealing of our Lord Jesus Christ, who will sustain you to the end, guiltless in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ. God is faithful,

by whom you are called into the fellowship of his Son, Jesus Christ our Lord. Dissension in the Church I appeal to you, brethren, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that all of you agree, and that there be no dissensions among you, but that you be united in the same mind and the same judgment. For it has been reported to me by Chloe's people that there is quarreling among you, my brethren. What I mean is that each one of you says, I belong to Paul, or I belong to Apollos, or I belong to Kepha, or I belong to Christ. Is Christ divided? Was Paul crucified for you? Or were you baptized in the name of Paul? I am thankful that I baptized none of you except Crispus and Gaius,

lest anyone should say that you were baptized in my name. I did baptize also the household of Stephanas. Beyond that, I do not know whether I baptized anyone else. For Christ did not send me to baptize, but to preach the gospel, and not with eloquent wisdom, lest the cross of Christ be emptied of its power. Christ the power and wisdom of God. Where is the wise man? Where is the scribe? Where is the debater of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world? For since in the wisdom of God the world did not know God through wisdom, it pleased God through the folly of what we preach to save those who

believe. For Jews demand signs, and Greeks seek wisdom. But we preach Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews, and folly to Gentiles. But to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God, and the wisdom of God. For the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men. For consider your call, brethren. Not many of you were wise according to the flesh, not many were flesh, not many

were powerful, not many were of noble birth. But God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise. God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong. God chose what is low and despised in the world, even things that are not, to bring to nothing things that are, so that no flesh might boast in the presence of God. He is the source of your life in Christ Jesus, whom God made our wisdom, our righteousness, and sanctification and redemption. Therefore, as it is written, let him who boasts, boast of the Lord. Chapter 2. Proclaiming Christ Crucified plausible words of wisdom, but in demonstration of the spirit and of power, that your faith might not rest in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God. The true wisdom of God. Yet among the mature,

we do impart wisdom, although it is not a wisdom of this age or of the rulers of this age who are doomed to pass away, but we impart a secret and hidden wisdom of God, which God decreed before the ages for our glorification. None of the rulers of this age understood it, for if they had, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory. But as it is written, What no eye has seen, nor ear heard, nor the heart of man conceived, what God has prepared for those who love him, God has revealed to us through the Spirit.

For the Spirit searches everything, even the depths of God. For what person knows a man's thoughts except the spirit of the man which is in him? So also no one comprehends the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God. Now we have received not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit which is from God, that we might understand the gifts bestowed on us by God. And we impart this in words not taught by human wisdom, but taught by the Spirit, interpreting spiritual truths to those who possess the Spirit. The unspiritual man does not receive the gifts of the Spirit of God, for they are folly to him, and he is not able to understand them because they are spiritually

discerned. The spiritual man judges all things, but is himself to be judged by no one. For who has known the mind of the Lord so as to instruct him? But we have the mind of Christ. The book of Proverbs chapter 27 verses 21 and 22. The crucible is for silver, and the furnace furnace is for gold and a man is judged by his praise. Crush a fool in a mortar with a pestle along with crushed grain, yet his folly will not depart from him. Father in heaven, we give you praise. Thank you so much. We thank you for this day and for the ability to have another book of scripture, another start with first St. Paul's letter to the Corinthians. God, we thank you because each page, each word of yours is truth and life. You, God, are truth

and life. We thank you. Help us to receive your word well. Help us to receive the breath of your Holy Spirit well. Help us to walk in the power of the Holy Spirit, to speak in the power of the Holy Spirit, to love in the power of the Holy Spirit, because without your Spirit, Lord God, we are nothing. Take your Spirit away from us and we perish. We cease to exist. So please, Lord God, send out your Spirit

to renew the face of the earth, to give us strength, to give us the ability to be the men and women that you've called us to be. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen. Okay, so really significant moment in the Acts of the Apostles. I think probably every chapter so far has been a significant moment, but this is radical. This is Peter's first exposure, essentially Peter's first exposure to, okay, Jesus Christ has fulfilled the law and now we're expanding to the Gentiles and not just expanding to the Gentiles, but there is a mission

to the Gentiles. And not only that, but they are welcomed and we can't prevent the Holy Spirit. I mean, we're not going to stop the Holy Spirit. And why prevent them from being baptized since they've been given the Holy Spirit, just like we've been given the Holy Spirit. It's a big deal. Peter, if you ever wonder, why do we not observe the kosher laws of the Old Testament? Y'all, we went through all those laws. Why do we not do those? Why do we not observe those? It starts right here in chapter 10 of the Acts of the Apostles,

where Peter has this vision that in the voice of the Lord speaks to him and says, rise, Peter, kill and eat. And what God has cleansed, you must not call common. And this is the end, the fulfillment of the kosher laws in the Old Testament, in the Old Covenant are now replaced by this expansion of God's embrace to the Gentile peoples and to all the foods of the earth. And that is a symbol for what happens next,

which is the fact that Peter was essentially called to go to Cornelius, a centurion, right? Roman centurion's house. And I love this. As Peter responds and goes to Caesarea Maritima, it's on the Mediterranean ocean, that Cornelius has kind of prepared himself. He has gathered all of his kinsmen and close friends and he says, yeah, we're ready to go. What do we need to know? A vision appeared to me that you're going to teach us something about how to live this new life. So I'm going to get my family here and my close friends here. And you just, Peter, what is it? Tell us. And he does. He tells them and he preaches the gospel of Jesus Christ to them.

As he's still speaking, the Holy Spirit comes upon them and they begin speaking in tongues and extolling God. And so they get baptized and it's incredible. Just bananas. What is happening in the Acts of the Apostles? What God is doing to these ordinary human beings and he keeps showing his boundless love is just bananas. B-A-N-A-N-A-S. It is bananas. And what a gift. Now, fast forward to 1 Corinthians. So little background. We're going to hear about St. Paul's mission to Corinth, I think in Acts of the Apostles chapter 18. So that's coming up in a couple of days. But the context for that is Paul had been preaching in Athens and he went to the Areopagus or it's called Mars Hill. And he basically had a really great sermon. And when he started talking about the resurrection of Jesus from the dead, folks were like, hmm, interesting, we'll come back later.

And maybe a couple people became Christians, but not really. And so Paul resolves, he leaves Athens at one point and he goes to Corinth. And the kind of the understanding here is that Paul leaving Athens, he made all these incredible arguments, these really great arguments using Greek wisdom

and using Roman logic and whatnot. It was great, but no conversions. So he says, when I came to you in Corinth, I resolved to know nothing except Jesus Christ and him crucified. And so I didn't come when wisdom, but I came in the power of God. So one of the assumptions there is that St. Paul didn't rely upon his own, you know, oration skills. He didn't rely upon his being able to convince people by his words or by his wisdom, but simply by allowing God's power to work through him, which I would understand that,

and I could be wrong, but I would understand that to be mighty works, right? Miracles that St. Paul would have allowed, or God would have used St. Paul to bring about mighty works that would convince people that Paul was correct when he talked about Jesus being the son of God, Jesus being crucified and risen from the dead, that he was telling the truth. My guess is that when he came among them, he did come among them without human wisdom, but he came among them with the power of God, not just boldly speaking, but actually walking in that power of God and having mighty works being done through him. I can't remember if there are evidences to that interpretation, but it seems to make sense to me. Now, the Corinthian church gets established, and now Paul has left, and everything has kind of

fallen apart. Not everything's fallen apart, but a lot of things have fallen apart. And the first thing that Paul has, I mean, he gets what, nine verses in and he begins in verse 10 of chapter one. He's saying, okay, we got to, I got to start cracking some skulls guys, because you are not, what are you doing? And there's dissension in the church. And he says, some people are saying I belong to Paul. I belong to Apollos.

I belong to Kepha. Now it's C-E-P-H-A-S. So some people say Cephas. I looked up a pronunciation thing one time years ago because I don't like Cephas. Cephas sounds stupid. I'm sorry. I just don't like it. But Kepha sounds actually more close to what it would be called in Hebrew or Aramaic in those Mediterranean languages. And actually, there's an argument, the pronunciation is Kepha. So there we go. So that, oh, sorry, by the way, Kepha means Peter. So that's how you'd say rock in that language. Back to our story. So there's dissension in the church. I belong to Paul or I belong to Apollos. I belong to Kepha. There we go. Or I belong to

Christ. And almost immediately here in chapter one, verse 10, St. Paul, he's talking about dissensions in the church and he sounds like he's ready to crack some skulls. He is saying that, okay, at one point you were all united. You were all united in Jesus Christ. And then what happens is all of a sudden, now you're saying, oh, you're in teams now. So some are team Paul or some are team Apollos. Apollos was a well-known orator. He was a Christian who preached really

incredibly well, apparently. So Paul, he says he doesn't preach really well in person. He writes really well, but he doesn't preach really well in person. Apollos though, man, that guy, he knew how to turn a phrase or I belong to Kephas. I know it's C-E-P-H-A-S, which is Cephas, right? But Kephas, I think is the one acceptable pronunciation of the name of Peter or I belong to Christ. So you have these four factions, maybe three factions and one group of people saying, no, no, we belong to Jesus. But you could see how the appeal would be. I belong to Paul. Yeah, he was the one who founded our community or I belong to Apollos. He's the one who has the incredible words, you know, he's the great speaker or I belong to Kepha, right? Because

he is the prince of the apostles, of course. But in all those things, Paul is saying those divisions, those teams, those factions, they're working against the unity of the church. And not only that, but they are violating the very reason why you came to know Jesus in the first place. Because you came to know Jesus not through wisdom. Remember when Paul went to Athens, he preached wisdom and he was really wise.

He read really, really smart. But when he came to Athens, he preached wisdom and he was really wise. He read really, really smart. But when he came to the people in Corinth, he resolved to know nothing but Jesus Christ and him crucified. They were not convinced by Paul's words. They were convinced by the power of the cross. And he's just reminding them, have you forgotten this? Have you forgotten that the reason why you came in the first place to profess faith in Jesus Christ was because you encountered Jesus in his cross? This is the temptation for every single one of us. We sometimes, we forget the cross, we forget Jesus. Or sometimes we forget the fact that Jesus and his cross go hand in hand. And we forget, we think that, you know,

what's this preacher or that preacher? It's this teaching or that teaching. It's this way of, you know, singing a song or praising God or that way. And we realize that, no, if I forget, if I forget Jesus Christ and him crucified, I'm going to miss the point. And so in chapter two, he says so clearly,

when I came to you, brethren, I did not come proclaiming to you the testimony of God in lofty words or wisdom, for I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and him crucified. And so he goes on. My speech and my message were not in plausible words of wisdom, but in demonstration of the spirit and of power, so that your faith might not rest on the wisdom of men, but on the power of God. That's what the reason I believe that when Paul went to Corinth, as opposed to Athens, he just, he knew I can't make any miracles on my own. I need the power of God working through me. So humbly, Paul allowed the Lord God to work mighty works through him. And the people saw those and came to know the truth of Jesus Christ crucified and the power of God. Does that make sense? Tomorrow, we're going to

talk about a little bit more in that dissension, like that kind of division, those factions, those teams in the Corinthian church. But also there are a lot of people who are not living. Corinth was a pretty bad place. We'll talk about that a little bit more tomorrow. Corinth was a, you might say the Las Vegas of that era, but Las Vegas has its good parts, right?

I think, I don't know, I've never been there. But Corinth was a pretty nasty spot, pretty dangerous place to live if you want to be a holy person. And those people in Corinth, that's where they chose to live before they became Christian. And so they have a lot of bad habits, a lot of bad influences in their lives. And some of them are sliding back to those bad habits. And so as Paul keeps writing to the Corinthians, he's gonna have to keep calling them back

to the heart of the gospel, calling them back to the heart of Jesus, and calling them back to the church. And so that's what we're gonna get for the next couple of days. But here we are today on day 331, which has been a gift and a half. I'm praying for you.

Please pray for me. My name's Father Mike. I cannot wait to see you tomorrow. God bless.