Unashamed with the Robertson Family - Ep 864 | Jase Emotionally Invests in a Sidewalk Drama & Why God Doesn’t Show Favoritism

Episode Date: April 4, 2024

Jase witnesses a confrontation while at a stoplight between a transient man and fast-food employees and can’t wait to see how the drama unfolds. Phil is intrigued by Paul’s use of the word “mystery” multiple times in the same letter to Ephesus. The guys discuss the symbolic significance of circumcision and why it’s no longer a requirement for being part of God’s kingdom. Al points out Peter’s association with the number three throughout the New Testament. In this episode: Acts 10, 11; Ephesians 3, verses 1-6, 11-12; Ephesians 5, verse 5; Ephesians 6, verse 19  -- Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

I am unashamed. What about you? So welcome back to Unashame. Shocker, we're waiting on Zach, Jay's. He's apparently... Well, it was an interesting excuse. I'm on a call. But look, I want to be positive. Today's a new day that the Lord has made. So I'm hoping that it's a prayer of some sort. Because really, there's a lot in the book of Acts, which we haven't really gone down that rabbit hole. There was a lot of prayer going on.

Yeah. You notice that? Yeah. Every time you turn around, they're praying or someone's getting God's attention or God said, I heard your prayers, and here we go. And the book of Ephesians kind of highlights it. The Apostle Paul wrote it. and I think he's still in jail on this, but I could be wrong. But you doubt it?

Or this could be wrong. He said, for this reason, Paul, the preacher to the Gentiles, the prisoner of Christ Jesus, he said, he identifies himself and he says, look, I'm going to write this letter to the people at Ephesus. For this reason, I, Paul, the prisoner of Christ Jesus, for the sake of you, Gentiles. So he's saying, don't sell it short because you need to know that you can be part of salvation, even though these Jews are saying you can't. Surely you heard about the administration of God's grace that was given to me for you. That is the mystery made known to me. In other words, it was a mysterious thing for God to come down and through human beings get them to spread the

message that Jesus died for them and they can be part of the kingdom if you'll just move on it but these Jews are saying no no that you're not qualified you we don't want that we want all Jews or nobody yeah well in their defense which is not a defense because that's what we're going to learn in act 10 in their defense though it you have to go back and imagine a time where there were only Jews in the church. I mean, we just read the first eight chapters. It's the shadowing of Jesus coming was begun in Israel's history. I mean, he was pointing to Jesus, but they were all wrapped up in.

You folks could be one, you Jews, God would have been with you for thousands of years, and you're the one, but the Gentiles, they've got this thing worked out, God has, so they're with you. You're going to become one. And that statement, he said it was a mystery one, two, three, four, five times in the book of Ephesians. For this, you can be sure, no immoral, impure, or a greedy person to let everybody know, such a man's an idolater has any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and God. His point is trying to get people to see you're going to be one, Jew, Gentile,

you're going to become one, brothers, sisters. So that's the God's goal to save the world more than just the Jews. That was a hard sale out. Well, I wanted to make one clarification. So you should have doubted you've been wrong because you weren't, Because he was in Ephesians 6 when he wrote, which kind of goes into what I was making a joke about Zach, about praying. He gets to the end in verse 19.

He says, pray also for me that whenever I open my mouth, words may be given so that I will fearlessly make known the mystery of the gospel, for which I am an ambassador in chains. Yeah. So I guess he was writing this with chains. bringing people before God, bringing them together as one, was a tough sale back then. And if you look at modern day, it's still signs of it, Al.

Let's all get together, Jew or Gentile, and let's believe that Jesus died for us, Jew first. But Gentiles have been worked into this thing, too. We need to learn to live with that. It's a great thing. But they were looking at it from the negative. side. And they were killing these people like Paul.

You had him in prison now. But eventually they killed him. Yeah, but it's because I was reading somewhere just in the research of this, because this is a monumental moment. It's the moment. Because you got to realize when everybody was split up into the nations, and I think the Tower of Babel has a play in all this, because you see one of the miraculous manifestations to show that the credibility

that God was behind this was them being able to speak different languages from different nations without having studied it. But every nation pretty much had their own religion as a general rule.

You think about even from Rome, they're the Roman religion. It was a splintered type structure. So I was reading some disturbing things about how Jews viewed Gentiles and these are commentators and scholars that put this together, but I jotted a few down. But one of the prayers

they would pray as a Jewish citizen and a part of what they did was, I mean, listen to this prayer. They would wake up and pray, thank you, God, that I'm not a slave, a Gentile, or a woman. This is what they prayed. Yeah. And that wasn't deemed inappropriate. Right. And you're like, wait, what? And even some of the laws they had, you know, they couldn't if a Gentile was lost directionally and he came up to a Jew, he sees somebody, he's lost, he's trying to figure out and says, give me some directions. Look, he was not allowed to tell him anything.

It's like, I'm sorry, I can't help you. Look, and when you start going further down the rabbit hole on this, if a Gentile woman is giving birth and it happens out in the middle of nowhere and a Jew is passing by, he's not helping nor is he allowed to because you know what the underlying current there was because even if I helped there'll be another Gentile here there was one word to describe them that keeps coming up

in the book of Ephesians that endorses what Peter and Paul he's in jail and they were knocking them off one of the time Stephen they killed him you say it just was a life and death situation on who you're going to follow. Well, yeah, right. So here's what's interesting.

You mentioned, Jay's, the Tower of Bible and the languages, and that's in Genesis 11. So from Genesis 1 to Genesis 11, we see the early history of man, and it wasn't good. I mean, like, there was a lot of bad in there. It came down to one family basically saving the human race because they still believed in God, right? That's right. And the flood and all that. So right after what Jay's mentioned in Genesis 11.

of them. We see Genesis 12, which is the beginning of the redemptive story of God, because it starts with Abraham. So this is pre-Jew. This is pre-Jewish nation. This is just a man who God called and he listened to him. And that started the first promise. And that was the land promise. If you go here, I'm going to build you into a great nation. And so, you know, the reason I bring it up is because all of this Jewish history that we're talking about, and these things that led to what Jay's just read, which we look at that and we're like, what? I mean, that's the crazy saying, how do you get that xenophobic that you can't even tell somebody directions, you know, so that they're not lost anymore? But that's exactly what built over time. And they lost

their connection to Yahweh, to the relationship maker. And that's why they missed all the signs that pointed to Jesus. And it explains what happened in 70 AD. That's right. He said, I'll tell you what, I'm fixing it. I'm going to tear this thing down to the ground. Right. But you're going to come together. And he said, because the mystery is that through the gospel, the Gentiles are heirs

together with Israel. That's Ephesians 3. Ephesians 3, members together of one body and shares together in the promise in Christ Jesus. He's trying to bring them together. But I must say, I mean, it's a tough, tough sale. On my way down here, I just popped into my head. And when I was thinking about these things, which is really a good acknowledgement on when you're reading the Bible and you're thinking about spiritual things, you tend to see the world the way you should from a godly perspective. and I was at the red light about 25 deep in between Chick-fil-A and Taco Bell on Thomas Road.

You know where I'm at, Al? Oh, yeah. I'm headed here because there's a road closed, and that's the quickest way to get down here. And I just noticed that there was a guy holding a sign, which we don't have a lot of that in our community. You go to bigger cities, and you see that everywhere. And it was a long sign because he turned from the red light. He was at the red light and he had kind of made his loop because I thought he was coming toward me.

But he got about 15 deep and he wasn't getting any responses. You know, everybody had to wind us up. Well, there were two workers from Taco Bell, which I guess, oh, it was 10 o'clock in the morning here. And they hadn't opened yet, but I guess they were getting everything ready. And they were African Americans. and I looked and he turned toward him and I thought he's fixed to make a play at this. Now this is a Caucasian white male, probably a little older than me, big guy.

And he had this huge sign. And I couldn't read what it said, but it was a lot. It wasn't short and pithy. It was a paragraph. And I'm pretty positive. He wanted some money. So you got to realize I'm not hearing the conversation, but I'm just watching the body. language and I thought and I'm I'm not moving so I'm like well let's see how this goes and so he made

his presentation he was doing all the talk and they were listening which surprised me I thought they might just turn around and walk walk in and I thought you know the irony of this is he obviously wants money he's he's a different race to them and he thought I'm I'm trying I believe in what I'm doing enough no whether it was sincere or not I have no idea but he's he's a different race to them but made the pitch and they listened. But I could tell by their body language, they weren't buying this. Because they were backing up the male. He was kind of grimaced like a chuckle, but like that's ridiculous.

And the woman was just kind of shaking her head. And he kept pointing and becoming more animate. He kept pointing to the sign, talking. And I thought, well, here's the irony of this. What was his message? Well, he's trying to get some money. But they're at Taco Bell trying to make money. And I got the message in there was,

you're wanting us to give our hard-earned money that we're making at Taco Bell. So about that time when I thought it's almost over, now I'm riveted to see what happens. Well, outwalks the manager. Well, he's a Latino fellow. And he's a big guy, and I could tell he's like seized the situation, and he's protecting his employees. So now he's engaged in the conversation with a guy with a sign, he's like, new target. If I get the manager, and here he goes, you know.

But it made me think, because then the light turned green, and I thought I hate I'm going to miss how this ends. but I feel like this guy's not getting any Taco Bell, or maybe he's just asking for tacos. But I just looked at him and I thought, what if he was just asking for tacos? But I could tell by his build, he ain't missing any meals in this crisis. He was a big guy, and I thought they're looking at him like,

what if it is tacos? They're like, you're doing okay. So I know how it ended, Jay. I know how to end it. The manager pulled his sign out of his pocket and held it up to the guy, and his sign said, help wanted. You know what I'd be funny is I need to go back, and if that guy is holding a sign that says,

eat at Taco Bay. I mean, why not just hire him? Yeah, that's what he should have done. That's what I'm saying. That's what he should have done. It's been the way that... We're solving all the world's problems. We're solving the world's problems.

It hit me in that moment to realize tearing down racial walls, cultural walls, religious walls, especially among people. It's a difficult thing. And it's almost impossible if you're trying to get somebody

just to give you some money. I can tell you that. I saw that happen. They weren't buying it whatsoever. But they were listening. And it just, it kind of, to hit me in that moment to realize we got the greatest message that points to an actual person

on the planet in Jesus. And this is the way to tear that down and bring people together. And we see it happen to that extent. You make a great point, Jay's because we're offering to give something in our story. There's a gift being offered, not to ask for money or something like that in the context of what we're studying here, it's the offer of a gift, not the asking of a burden, which, you know, obviously, but that's not always easily done, as dad has pointed out. So the reason I brought up the idea about the Old Testament, it comes all the way through here that Peter's mindset when we get to this story before we read it, because the first part of the story involves the receiver of the gift, Cornelis, and to your point, Jay, see, was quite the prayer.

And, but before this happened, Peter was under the impression like every other Jew up until this point, even though they had embraced Christ and Christianity and knew who the Messiah was that I think, now the Bible doesn't say this. This is just my opinion, and I could be wrong, that they thought that you still had to come through the Jewish tree of whatever they offered before you could get to the Christian tree. Oh, yeah. I had the same conclusion. I thought to myself, in all my years of Bible study, I never really realized this, but I guess since we're going from Luke's perspective, and you remember in Acts 6 when they had the Hebraic Jews and the Grecian Jews? And I went down a rabbit hole thinking,

now I may show my ignorance here and that's okay, but our viewers may be thinking the same thing. Because I thought, well, what is the difference between a Hebrew and Israelite and a Jew. And if I ask you that question, what would be the top of your head answer? Well, if you're born into it, then you're true blue. I mean, in other words, you're, it's, you were there by birth, but you could come in by means of being, you know, converted into Judaism. So that would be a different. Well, right. Well, the difference in the Hebrew was, was an Israelite, because if you look it up, it basically, because Hebrew is mentioned.

the first time in Genesis 14 where it called Abram a Hebrew. And so it was like there's going to be a branch of Israelites that began with this promise that God made to Abraham. And of course, then they divide into two kingdoms. And somewhere in there,

you get a difference in a Hebrew and an Israelite based on what part of the kingdom they were. were, which all this seems confusing. But then when you fast forward and get to this point, Al's right, what it seems like is happening is since the gospel came through the Jewish nation. And Jesus is a Jew. Correct. And God chose to fulfill all his promises in Jesus, which Jesus and Israelite got it right. He trusted God. He became a hymn, but I'm saying, trusted God, his character was impeccable. He kept the law. He did everything right. And then by his sacrifice, he actually saved the Jewish nation people through the same way that we would

eventually understand that through his grace and the power of the resurrection. What's hard for them to grasp, which for ages, back to the Ephesus 4, through the ages, he has given me to preach to the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ and to make plain to everyone the administration of this mystery which for ages past and it was was kept hidden

in God who created all things. His intent was now through the church that's us the manifold wisdom of God should be made known to the rulers and authority. in the heavenly realms and according to his eternal purpose, which is he accomplished in Christ. Jesus, our Lord, in Him and through Him, we may approach God with freedom, Jew or Gentile,

confidence, Jew or Gentile. I ask you, therefore, not to be discouraged because of my sufferings for heat. Paul said, I'll suffer for it, which is your glory. He said, I'm taking the heat here. No, you're right. You're not being jail. That is a good passage, and it's Ephesians 3, not that's, it's not chapter 4, that's in chapter 3. But you're right, that does help you wrap your head around it.

I think what you're seeing in Acts 10, though, is to Al's point, the problem arose when they're wanting them to come to Jesus, but also keep a lot of the traditions of the history of Israel. and when it came to the law of Moses and circumcision. But just think about how hard a sell that is. You know, it's one thing. Of course, we now know a lot about circumcision. And if you're not sure what that means, go study that on your own time.

I'm not getting into a study about circumcision. But don't look at the images. Just text data only. Make every effort to keep the unity of the. spirit through the bond of peace. But look, keep that. One body, one spirit, one God. No, you're right.

You're right, Phil. But I'm just saying to try to sell this to a human being once you're an adult and say, look, come to Jesus. And, oh, by the way, you've got to be circumcised. Well, you know, this is a tough sell. Because men, especially men, they're going to take that with way more. It's counting the cause. So Zach's doing. Zach, you want to take,

Zach, you want to explain what, what that means? Well, yeah, I always show up at the, that the weirdest times the conversation when I'm late.

If you're late, the Bible is bringing this up, we didn't. I didn't say it was wrong. I just said it was weird. I just come into a conversation about Google and circumcision, but not the images,

text only. It's good advice, though. Well, it took me back. Back to when Ben and I, Ben is Zach's brother-in-law, and when Ben and I went to Dominican, and we taught the book of Galatians, which is all about circumcision because basically, Paul was saying you can't add circumcision in as a requirement of the gospel.

And so we taught the whole thing, and we did a Q&A at the end of it, and someone raised their hand because I didn't realize we were in a culture that didn't practice circumcision. And of course, Ben is translating for me. I'm teaching. And this young person raised their hand and said, what is circumstances? Well, I look over at the teachers, you know, the older men who were there who were leading these congregations. I kind of look for help from them. And they were looking like, and out of their head like, yeah, you take it there, big guy.

And so I said, Ben, I'm going to let you take this one. Just you tell them in Spanish. And do you don't have to translate? Just tell them what it is. in the old so he's going pop up a spas spanish spanish and they're watching and they're looking and jays to your point the young men are getting on the edge of their seat looking petrified and then i could tell when he whatever he said in spanish was the money line of what circumcision is all the girls started laughing because there were young girls in the class as well so yeah you know you just think

about in culturally speaking it's not always practice and so for this to be a requirement which at this time. This is what, what happens after this story in Acts 10 when we get to Acts 11, Peter has to defend to the Jerusalem church, you know, why he did this? Why, you know, why did these people get in and not come through Jewish custom? Well, what I was, yeah, I was going to read that because this is a long section. I mean, there's, we're going to read what happened. Well, then he has to explain what happened. And then you kind of see the continuing results of what happened. But in chapter 11 the reason i brought this up and i mean maybe i shouldn't have jumped ahead there but i was just trying to get you to see that for for their culture to allow these people just to just to get in because of jesus

that was very difficult for them to do yeah i mean and you got criticized i mean peter gets criticized for this and you're going to see god did this and he confirmed it by a miracle by pouring out his spirit for the second time. That's right. And the signs of the sign of them speaking in tongues. And in this case, it seems like that whatever happened when they were, you know, speaking in these unknown languages, it was causing excitement in them. And they were praising.

And it was an undeniable act of God that said, I approve these people just as they are. And so in chapter 11, just to jump ahead before we read, I'm getting the cart. Before you read that, let's take another. I'm getting the cart before the horse, but I didn't want to just seem like a randomly brought up circumcision because that was a big deal. It says the apostles and the brothers throughout Judea heard that the Gentiles also had received the Word of God. So when Peter went up to Jerusalem, the circumcised believers criticized them. And you know why? Because they're like, I mean, not only did I have to surrender my heart and my will, I had to do something physically that caused me a great deal of pain.

Yes, right. To be in your club, I'm paraphrasing there. But then it says in verse two and said, you went into the house of uncircumcised men and ate with them. And so not to mention the difference in the kosher foods, which is going to be a major theme of, of our. X, how they observe the law of Moses, the idea about circumcision. So with all that, I think the way to read the text is to realize if you've, you're having to go back into a time and period where this was the first major happening where the Jewish leaders in Christ had to realize there's people from all different nations.

that could come into this, no matter what color they are, what their culture beliefs have been, and they can respond to Jesus. We can go into their home. We don't have to abide by these cultural, ritualistic traditions of the past. But that would be very difficult. Yep. And I think, Jay, is the reason why you and I both jumped to that same conclusion was the one you just read in Acts 11, but also Luke brings it up earlier in the story in Acts 1045.

When the Holy Spirit does come upon these people, Luke says in verse 45, the circumcised, he brings it up there. Believers who had come with Peter were astonished that the gift of the Holy Spirit had been poured out, even on the Gentiles, for they heard them speaking in tongues languages and praising God. So, you know, he brought it up there for the same reason. In a sense, it's almost like it's kind of strange because in Acts chapter 1 and 2, we know these signs were there for this Jewish audience to understand that this was a movement of God.

Now when we get a few years later and it's time for the Gentiles to come in, the unbelievers in this were not just the Gentiles. Actually, they were believing. it was the circumcised believers in Jesus who came that now had to believe the door was open for everybody. But that's the, and the text here in Acts 10, particularly around this kosher diet, it's, I mean, that really is a picture of what he, it's not really about the food. He's not talking about the food. I mean, it is about the food, but it's not about the food. When he says, don't call something that I've called clean, unclean, what he's talking about. is Gentiles.

So even the, even this, I mean, this is, even you see what you're saying that happens in Acts 11. It's even in the point of when Peter goes up on the roof and he's praying and he has the vision that the point of the vision is not merely to say, okay, guys,

now you can eat whatever you want. The point that the real point of the vision is to say, do not call my people, Gentile people that I'm grafting into this. Don't call them unclean. If I've called them clean, don't call them unclean. They're part of the family. No, I think you're exactly right. In fact, I believe that's why there were Peter basically had to get three revelations,

which I don't know what this thing is, but Peter and the number three, but we'll get into it in the story. But the first revelation was that the food laws, as you said, Zach, and remember it said he was pondering. And then the second revelation was that he was going to now have Gentiles in his home and him go into their home. That's something that could never happen. So he takes that step. And then the third revelation, which convinces him, is when the Holy Spirit is poured out. So. Yeah. And just before you read it, just to go back to the circumcision thing, the circumcision to the Jews was a sign of God's promise and covenant with Abraham. That's where this all started. So now you're getting to a point where Jesus has fulfilled these promises that all nations would be blessed.

So it wasn't like they're just, why are y'all talking about circumcision? That's where it started. And, you know, then you get into all these really cool passages like Philippians 2. Where is that that says, you know, Jesus circumcises our heart. A heart. Yeah. Yeah. And so that's what God's after is the heart of all people.

And remember this, since you brought it up, Jay, the circumcision covenant itself, guess where it started? Abraham, way back over there in the very first believer, pre-Jewish nation, the idea was there was a mark that marked him as someone who believed in him. So that's where the whole thing came from. And again, circumcision, no circumcision. It's not good or bad. It's just it's the way God intended for it to be. But now, of course, he says it's not going to matter. All right.

So let me read Acts 10. at least the first eight verses because this sets the story up. And it starts with the person who is seeking something. So in verse one, it says at Cessaria, there was a man named Cornelius, a centurion, and what was known as the Italian regiment. And J.S, I'm sure you did like me. I did a little bit of searching on that. This guy had a lot of people under his command and power.

And he was a Roman, you know, I mean, so it's like a lot of these were conscripts, you know, that work for the Romans or they brought in all these mercenaries, especially when they're occupying a country. But this was the guy from Italy. And so he's there living in Cessaria, which is, by the way, the city is known as Little Rome. So that's kind of where everybody was hanging out, Gentiles. He and all his family were devout and God-fearing. So there's something different about him right with the bat. I mean, and I don't know if that influence happened because now he was. was in Israel or if he came with it, probably because of his surroundings. He gave generously to those in need. And Jason, here's your praying point and prayed to God regularly. And I did look up that word regularly. And it's more than just like he prayed a lot. The Greek word there means to beg, to plead. So like, he was praying for something very specific. And my guess is it was probably what was going to happen for it. One day at around three, in the afternoon, he had a vision.

So he's probably praying and has this vision. He distinctly saw an angel of God who came to him and said, Cornelius. Cornelius stared at him in fear, or some of the versions say in terror, which, by the way, that seems to be the common word when you run up on an angel. What is it, Lord? He asked. The angel answered, your prayers and gifts to the poor. have come up as a memorial offering before God.

And that phrase memorial offering is the same word that's used for the smell of sacrifices in the Old Testament that went up to God. So it's kind of interesting that Luke uses that phrase. Now send men to Joppa to bring back a man named Simon who is called Peter. He is staying with Simon the Tanner whose house is by the sea, which we established that at the end of chapter 9. When the angel who spoke to him had gone, Cornelius called two of his servants and a devout soldier who was one of his attendants. He told them everything that had happened and sent them to Joppa, which right at the bat, I thought that was interesting because he didn't necessarily have to tell his servants or the soldier that worked for him what was going on. But he felt compelled to. I think you were starting to see a little bit of Cornelis' character and all this.

He wanted them to know why he was sending them, and this is about 32 miles away, to get this guy and to bring him back. So this is the setup for the story, is that there's a person here, a Gentile, who believes in God and who God is receiving the sacrifices of his life and says, I now want you to know exactly what's going to save you. and I'm going to send this Jewish man to do it who's then having a vision at the same time. Does y'all want to comment any on Cornelius before we read the rest of it? Well, I was just going to say, I think when you read this,

because it's kind of hard to wrap your head around it, because it is a long story. But I think the reason it can be difficult is if you don't look at it from Cornelius's perspective and Peter's perspective, there's kind of like two storylines going here. I mean, this guy, he loves Israel's God, the God of Abraham, Jacob, and Isaac. And he's praying to God.

And so he just doesn't understand about Jesus. And it kind of gets a lot of people go here. The only time scholars and people in the church really talk about this is they debate and argue because he didn't know Jesus, but it seems like God is listening to his prayers. You get into this debate on... Does God hear the prayers of... Yeah. Does God hear the prayers of sinners?

You know, us as religious people, tend to try to make a formula at everything. And I don't think that's necessarily a good idea to do because that's why this becomes confusing. Because you're going to see what happens to Cornelius, but in between, Peter also has his issues because he's having a problem. Number one, going into the guy's house. Which is a DED. There's food laying around, you know, there's maybe bacon that was not eating. And it's because I made this whole deal before Zach got here about how the Jews, you know, would say this prayer about, you know, thank God, I'm not a Gentile, a woman or a slave.

even. That was just normal. But meanwhile, the Gentiles are like, well, these Jews are pig worshippers. You know, that's the way they viewed them because they're like, well, they must worship them because they won't eat them. I mean, who wouldn't eat a piece of bacon? So here you go. You got this dynamic going on. And so God intervenes and does so miraculously because you realize, to go back to my story at Taco Bell, it's just very difficult for cultures of people to come together on anything. Look at our world. I mean, you don't need a scripture for that.

Just drive down the road. I mean, it's almost impossible. And so that's kind of the two narratives you see. And I feel like if we go verse by verse, you're going to kind of miss, you know, the point from both persons' perspective, which in the end, God takes those two perspectives and does something awesome.

He shows Peter that God does not show partiality or favoritism, as the NIV says. And there's a statement in there where it says, Peter came to the realization that Jesus is Lord of all. And Cornelius realizes that, oh, there's Jesus who embodied all of those teachings and all the things that I had become familiar with in the Jewish system. It was all pointing to God becoming human. And, of course, then you get into this moment of, like, once the Holy Spirit falls on Cornelius,

and look, he had invited his relatives and his friends. They're all in the house, and all of a sudden you see this miraculous manifestation of God with him speaking in tongues. And Peter, he's like, well, why shouldn't they be baptized? in water. And it's almost like a rhetorical question because he's like, he's just asking it out loud. But he gives a speech about Jesus, which is very powerful.

I mean, I feel like we should almost read it and then go back and fill in the details with how the meeting took place. But what do you think, Al? Yeah, that would be good. Because I don't want to get bogged down in how the meeting occurred into what it's over in kosher foods. and you miss this divine appointment between Cornelius and Peter, which would result in Gentiles being welcomed in just as they are. But, Jason, to your point, I think, and yeah, I want you to read it, to the point you made about him being, believing in Yahweh, God, but not knowing Jesus,

I think that applies all the way through now to the 21st century. There's a lot of people who believe, but don't know. Jesus. And that's the key to everything, which is there. So let's take another break and then read that. To get to your point, Al, I mean, I have a whole section on this about, you know, the word, we're tempted in religion to discuss and argue about the words of God and miss the word of God, which the words of God point to a person. Yeah. And so here you had Cornelia. who was going to the person, but he didn't understand all the words on that they pointed to Jesus. But that just shows you God was listening to him because he was trying to follow God.

And when you do that in your heart, God provides a way. And in this case, he provided a human who had the Holy Spirit of God and made this happen. The crazy thing about this, too, is you've got two things happening here in this, what's on? unfolding, you have a very, very exclusive religion. Jesus says, I am the way, the truth, and the life, and nobody comes to the father except their means. So it's very, very exclusive. But by the same token, it's very inclusive because it is for everybody.

Jews and Gentiles, male and female, slave and free. So I think Tim Keller said it's the most exclusive, inclusive religion in the world. Like, straight. No, that's a good, that's a good line. Well, I want to read Peter's sermon to the Cornelius and those gathered with him. And then by the next podcast, we can go back and fill in the details of how this happened, which is very interesting. But the hub is that Cornelius is praying, and this divine appointment is arranged between him and Peter. And when Peter gets them all together, and the point I want to make is God prepared

Peter for this moment, which was very bumpy. If you go back to where Peter started and you go all the way now, because we know how passionate Peter is, for him to have to have this realization, that even though I'm a Jew, I've got to tear down all these walls, because this is what God intended from the very beginning for all these walls culturally racially religiously the dividing lines of nations all that's going to be torn down in jesus and then he prepared the audience which cornelius representing anybody that wasn't a jew coming as they are and his family and his relatives all together under one roof and peter in verse 34 of chapter 10 began to speak I now realize how true it is that God does not show favor to them.

And we're talking about people here, but accepts men from every nation who fear him and do what is right. 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. There's another, he doubles down on this. you know what has happened throughout 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, the evil one, because God was with him. We are witnesses of everything he did in the country of the Jews and in Jerusalem.

which is there's our word again witnesses this is a fact we saw it they killed him by hanging him on a tree but god raised him from the dead and caused him to be seen he was not seen by all the people but by witnesses whom god had already chosen and then he throws this in which is very important by us who ate and drank with him after he rose from the dead. Because you've got to remember a lot of the details that we're going to read in the next podcast were all about coming in and having a meal with people who find things that the Jews didn't find kosher. They're just eating whatever. And so in their culture, when you go into somebody's house,

when you went into somebody's house and had a meal with them, that was an intimate display of fellowship and acceptance, which is why Jesus ate with them on four different occasions post-resurrection, because he was given us a glimpse of this is possible for humans to have this intimate of fellowship forever, because he was then resurrected. So that's why we made us such a big deal about that 20 or 30 podcasts ago when we were at the end of the Book of Luke.

so he was seen by he wasn't seen by all the people but by witnesses whom god had chosen he 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 so he's given jesus as much superiority as you can possibly give all the prophets testify about him, which is a very key point that Cornelius and his people, who are followers of God, the same God,

they're now realizing, oh, he had a plan to come to earth in the form of human about him that everyone who believes in him receives forgiveness of sins through his name. Well, boy, that's, that's it. I mean, here is the gospel presentation. But here's what's interesting. While Peter was still speaking these words, the Holy Spirit came on all who heard the message. You said, what do you mean? The circumcised believers who had come with Peter were astonished that the gift of the Holy Spirit had been poured out, which is the same phraseology used in Acts 2. when the Holy Spirit was poured out, even on the Gentiles,

for they heard them speaking in tongues and praising God, which is now a sign to them that they can have this spirit. It's been poured out. Why is something poured out? So you can receive it? And so then Peter said, well, can anyone keep these people from being baptized with water, which is an interesting thing to bring up here. They have received the Holy Spirit just as we have, so he ordered that they be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ, which is a weird way to say that.

He ordered them, which I've always thought he had to order the fellow Jews with him to baptize them because they're thinking, they can, but don't they have to, you know, sign the circumcision agreement, the kosher law agreement, the law of Moses? No, so he's like, baptize them. Then they asked Peter to stay with them a few days. So that's the, that's how it started and that's how it ended with the gospel as the center message, the gospel, meaning who Jesus is as the fulfillment. And I think when you look at that and the whole reason why he, that's what Cornelius was praying for. Because in the verse right before that, Jason, where Peter started talking, Cornelius said, now we are all here in the presence of God to listen to everything the Lord has commanded you to tell us.

And what a statement that is. As a person who shares Jesus with people, that's the ultimate, right? I mean, the ultimate thing is for somebody to add to come in and say, will you tell me what you know about Jesus? Well, it's a preacher's dream. It's a preacher's dream or anybody that proclaims and shares. I'm about 11, yesterday, 10 or 12 of them over this same issue. Right. Do you believe that Jesus is who he says he is?

And in this case, what's ironic about it is it's almost like a double, a double. conversion because not only are we converting Cornelis and his family to now who knows, now they know Jesus, but it also converts the circumcised believers to say, you know what, everybody's in, everybody's in who believes. You don't have to go through these Jewish customs that we thought before we came to this house. So it really was, that's why the moment is so big, Jay, we started this podcast by saying this is a huge moment in our history as Christians. and it really is because there was a double revelation that's happening in this moment. And you would think this would be the end of it, but look, you're going to see through the rest of the book of Acts and multiple letters by Paul, this issue continued to come up and be a problem.

And look, in a different way, but a similar way, you see the same problem even in Christianity today. because everybody wants to do it a certain way. And if you bring any kind of traditions or things that are not kosher to, you know, in quotation, there's arguments that happened. And there were arguments between them because they had a hard time dealing with this. Yeah, that's why I said that this first century situation still has huge 21st century implications. And we'll talk more about that on the next podcast. We're out of time.

We'll pick this up and kind of fill in some of those gaps in the story because it is a powerful story on the next Unashamed. So we'll see you there. Thanks for listening to The Unashamed podcast. Help us out by rating us on iTunes. And don't miss an episode by subscribing on YouTube and be sure to click that little bell to get notified about new episodes. And for even more content that you won't get anywhere else,

subscribe to Blaze TV at Blaze TV. dot com slash unashamed.