Unashamed with the Robertson Family - Ep 865 | Phil Charges a Crawfish Tax & Why Bacon Is Back on the Menu

Episode Date: April 5, 2024

Phil accepts payment in the form of local crustaceans for loaning out equipment, and Jase categorizes God’s lifting of dietary restrictions from his followers as a genius marketing strategy. The guys cover the watershed moments when Peter and Paul realize God's plan for including Gentiles in his kingdom, as well as the meaning of the dietary restrictions the Jews observed and the meaning of their abolishment. In this episode: Acts 10, Ephesians 2, verse 14; Colossians 1, verses 12-27; Colossians 2, verses 8-12; Romans 9 -- Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

I am unashamed. What about you? Welcome back to Unashame. This podcast, we have Zach squarely in place. I got here early. I didn't want to come in into a circumcision pictorial conversation like I did on the last podcast. Yeah, because you never know where you're going to come into the conversation, Zach. It's just, you know, then you've got to explain circumcision. So you just, you know, it's like, missing a meeting, you know, then they pile all the hard and bad work on you if you're not there. That's right. Be here on time.

Be on time. Sorry, Jason. I was late. It's okay, but you're here. I didn't mind. You're like the workers in the vineyards, Zach, whether you came in the first hour or the last hour. We all get the same pay. Amen.

That's good. It'll appreciate it. We value your perspective, Zach. I love this part of the book of Acts. I'll tell you. It is, uh, it's, I always say it. like this. Once you see it, it's hard to unsee it. You know what I mean? Yeah, that's a good point. Well, yeah. I mean, it's our history. And when you go back and kind of realize how it all

happen, you're just glad to be here, be involved in. I mean, this actually worked 2,000 years later. When you think what's the world's answer to tearing down all the things that divide us, I mean, Jesus has the best option. Yep. Yeah. We tend to focus on the things that unite us, which are negative. I mean, we all make mistakes. We all have different personalities and different traditions and different sorts of baggage.

But when that gospel, you end up with God becoming flesh. Jesus died on a cross being buried and raised from the dead. It all comes back to that every time. Yeah. Well, because grace, the grace. the grace of God is the greatest thing to bring people together. That's right. And it makes you realize in this process that we all need the grace of God.

Yeah, I don't remember if Dad read this before when he was reading out of Ephesians out of the last podcast. But really, Paul sums it up so beautifully in Ephesians 211, when he says, remember that formerly you who are Gentiles by birth and called uncircumcised, there's that phrase again, by those who call themselves the circumcision, that done in the body by the hands of men. Which, by the way, we didn't talk about this when talking about circumcision, but, you know, when you're eight days old, which was the Jewish custom, it's not really something you chose. It was something that was done to you. That's right. It was your parents that had the commitment to circumcision.

It wasn't like you were making a choice in that moment, right? Well, you know why? because once you get old enough to understand the English language, if my parents would have said, hey, we're going to circumcise you. And I'd say, no,

explain that to me. And when you explained it to me about knives, because I've always, you know, kind of gone by a rule that I don't like any kind of knife or weapon, anywhere near that area of your body. Below the belly button, let's just say.

Yeah, I would just say no. And, but, you know, you get up when you get to be an adult and realize that you were circumcised, you kind of, you're a little bit more open to it then because you don't even remember. And I think that's Paul's point, because when he says that that done in the body by the hands of men, he's showing you this isn't, this is more of the custom that was there. But then he says this, remember that at that time, you were separate from Christ, excluded from citizenship in Israel and foreigners to the covenants of the province. promise, without hope and without God in the world. But now in Christ Jesus, and this is the whole point we're making about Cornelius, but now in Christ Jesus, you who once were far away have been brought near, but not through Judaism, or circumcision, through the blood of Christ. For he,

Jesus, Christ, himself is our peace, who has made the two, one, and destroyed the barrier of the dividing wall of hostility. It sets it up. I mean, I think if you don't get what's going on here, I think it really makes it difficult to understand the Apostle Paul in other parts of the Bible, particularly the Book of Romans. You know, you look at the Book of Romans. I've mentioned this on this podcast quite a bit, but I think it's worthy of note that

the Book of Romans is bracketed with this phrase. By bracketed, I mean, it's in the very first paragraph of the Book of Roman. and it's in the very last paragraph that Paul says, I came to bring the Gentiles through the obedience of faith. And so what does that even mean? And what is he talking about there? And you go through the book of Romans. And I think, I would argue if you interpret the book of Romans as purely like a doctrinal

book that's that's about the doctrine of salvation, for example. I think we've missed it. You get to Romans 9 and you hear a lot of a lot of conversation about Romans 9 being about election and predestination in the sense of that God has chosen, arbitrarily chose people before the creation time, who he was going to save and who he wasn't. I just don't think, I think we're misinterpreting Romans 9 when we do that, and particularly because when you look at it, I think he's talking about the inclusion of the Gentiles here, more than anything else, because he says here at the beginning of Romans, I'm speaking the truth in Christ, St. Paul, by the way, that wrote that passage in Ephesians. I'm not lying, my conscience spirit, and I have great sorrow and unceasing anguish in my heart. For I wish that I myself were accursed and cut off from Christ for the sake of my brothers,

my kinsman according to the flesh. And this is, he's saying Israel that has the DNA of Israel. They are the Israelites. And to them belong the adoption, the glory, the covenants, the giving of the law, the worship, and the promises. to them belong to patriarchs, and from their race, according to the flesh, according to their DNA, is the Christ. In other words, that the Christ would come, and his DNA would be that of Israel, who is God overall, blessed forever, amen. And then he says, but it's not as though God's word had failed, for not all who are descended from Israel belong to Israel.

That's a big statement. Not all who are descended from Israel belong to Israel, and not all are children of Abraham because they are his offspring. But through Isaac, shall your offspring be named? This means that it is not the children of the flesh. It's not the DNA who are the children of God, but is the children of the promise who are counted up's offspring. So he's talking about the inclusion of the Gentiles in Romans 9. That's how when you get down to verse 26, and he quotes Josea, that's what he says, those who are not my people, I will call my people.

And her who was not beloved, I will call beloved. And in the very place that it was said to them, you are not my people, there they will be called sons of the living God. This is good news for us. If you're a Gentile and you read that, you think this is good news for you because what he's saying is, even though we don't share the DNA of Israel, that God says, I'm going to still call you my people. If you come to me by faith, I'm going to call you my people who are not my people. That's good news for us. No, I agree 100%. I think in the last podcast I misspoke when we were talking about circumcision, and I said Philippians too,

but I was actually should have said Colossians too. In Colossians, it says the same point you just made, Zach. And I felt like I was going to read Colossians too, but then when you go back to Phil's point about the church making this mystery known that this was God's plan that all men can be saved, culturally, religiously, behaviorally, whatever word you want to bring in there, God is in pursuit of every human. You know, when he said in Colossians 1, that the Father, we give thanks to the Father in one verse 12, who has qualified you to share in the inheritance of the saints in the

kingdom of God, for he rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of the Son he loves. then he gives this picture of the supremacy of Christ. He's the image of God. Verse 15, the first born over all creation. By him, all things were created. Whether things on heaven or earth, visible, invisible, he's before all things, verse 17,

and he is the head of the body, the church. Well, then he comes down to verse 25, and Paul says, I have become its servant by the commission God gave me to present to you the Word of God in its fullness. And there's a dash there. And it says the mystery that has been hidden for all ages and generations, but is now to close to the saints. To them, God has chosen to make known among the Gentiles, this glorious riches of the mystery,

which is Christ and you the hope of glory. So when he gets to chapter 2 in verse 8, he says, We'll see to it that no one takes you captive through hollow and deceptive philosophy, which depends on human tradition and basic principles of the world rather than on Christ. Then he makes another powerful statement. Christ is the fullness of the deity in bodily form. You've been given fullness in Christ who is the head over every power and authority, and then this is the point about circumcision, and then we can get off that.

In him, you are also circumcised in the putting off of the sinful nature, not with the circumcision done by the hands of men that would have gotten you into the Jewish nation, but with the circumcision done by Christ having been buried with him in baptism and raised with him through your faith and the power of God who raised him from the dead, which goes back to that story with Cornelius, when he saw that that Holy Spirit had been poured out, he was like, was anything stopping these guys from being baptized in water? I mean, if you read that and then read Colossians 2, 11, and 12, you see why he did that. Yeah, which goes in line with Romans 9. At the end of Romans 9, he clarifies the inclusion of the Gentiles.

Paul does. He makes a clear distinction of Gentiles who attained righteousness, and then Jews who did not attain righteousness. And listen to the distinction of why one, group got it and one group didn't and it basically hits exactly what you just read in Colossius too it says what shall we say then the Gentiles who did not pursue righteousness have attained it that is a righteousness that is by faith but the Israel who pursued a law that would lead to righteousness did not succeed in reaching the law I mean why the question is why

why did he says why why did the the Israelites not get it when they pursued it by law and then the Gentiles who did not pursue it got it he said This is why, verse 32, because they did not pursue it by faith, but as if it were based on works. They've stumbled over the stumbling stone as it has written. Behold, the same language in Ephesians, by the way. I'm laying in Zion a stone, a stumbling, a rock of offense, whoever believes in him will not be put to shame. It's that faith when you accept the invitation to the kingdom of God. if you accept that in faith and you pursue righteousness by faith, that is the circumcision of the heart.

That's what that means. It's the circumcision of the heart. It's how I'm pursuing God. It's not a negation of pursuit. It's just a redefinition of what is the kind of pursuit that God is going to reward. And it's those who Romans says seek him and who earnestly seek him. It's a yearning to be with him and a trust that you're going to put your faith in him. And that's not dependent on your DNA or your social status or your economic status or anything.

It's dependent on literally you just submitting. Yeah, that's why Ixtan is such a – we made a big deal about it being this is a pivotal moment in our history and in Christianity and the world itself. because in this moment, this was the first movement, and I'll call it a religious movement, that had a disregard for racial, national, and cultural ideals. It disregarded that. I mean, you realize it wasn't that they didn't need Jesus because we read Peter's message, but it was the first time where you could just come as you are from where you were. wherever you came from, from whatever you look like and hear the message of Jesus and be welcome

to God. Well, and think about this, how it's different than other movements that we've seen in history. This is a movement that the inclusion of an external people group, think about this, it didn't originate in the external people group demanding it. It actually originated inside of the church. show the so-called chosen group. And then that from there, Paul went out to spread the news. It wasn't like, it wasn't like the Gentiles were protesting for this.

Like, this was brought to them, which again, just goes to show the extravagant grace of God. I don't even know if they were looking for it. I don't think the Gentiles were like, man, we want to be included in Israel. I don't think they had even caught. I mean, they were probably, they were. Yeah. But when the, but when the message went out through the church and the manifold wisdom of God was, of God was made known, what it really did is put us in our proper understanding of who we are in relation to relationship to reality.

And that is that I stand fallen before a holy God, Jew or Greek, Israel or Gentile, Romans 1, God wrote the law on our heart even. So I don't even need to have read the Torah to know that guess what? Man, I got to, I fall short of what there. There's something good out there. I don't know his name. I don't know what it is. but I just know there's something in me that's not right.

There's a, man, I got a moral law that's written on my heart. And you know what? My conscience kind of affirms from time to time that I fall short of that. Sometimes it defends me, but sometimes it accuses me. And I don't know what to do with that. I don't have an answer for that. And Christ shows up and says, I got an answer for that right there. That thing in you.

As a Gentile, as a Jew, doesn't matter. I got an answer for that right there. And it all meets at the cross of Calvary. Zach, when you were making that eloquent speech there, which I think you're dead on, it hit me how much, you know, we talk about Peter so much and we read some of the texts we didn't read last time. You know, it was a pivotal moment for his understanding. We probably don't give Cornelius enough credit for what he did for all of us by being open and, and, and, seeking because like you said, it wasn't like as a people. Every non-Jew was saying, hey, you got to let us in on what this thing you know about. And instead, it was this one guy who was a good, good man. That's obvious because he was, you know, taking care of other people.

He cared about people less fortunate than him. And he prayed to God, but he didn't know Jesus. It was that seeking earnestly and opened a doorway for him to then hear the good news, which then opened the the doorway for all of us. It's really interesting that we all came at it from three different texts to show you how important this event was. I read Evisions 2, Jace, read Colossians 2, and Zach, you read Romans 9 because every one of Paul's writings, everyone in some way hits this theme about what a moment this was for the world.

And it's obvious why, because he had been tapped as the church builder and revealer of the good news of Jesus across the Gentile world. But you remember every time he would go into a town, you remember where he'd start, the Jewish synagogue. He would go there first, and he would try to convince some of them, and then he would go out, and he would, whoever was willing to listen. And if people say, well, why are we talking about all this? And this seems confusing with the different cultures and Jews and Gentiles.

But if God's not looking at the color, the nationality, the culture, or your past behavior, why do we in people? I mean, just that one principle, we have the message of Jesus, we have the Holy Spirit. So you've got to look at the heart. I mean, that's what God, his character is coming out in this process. No, I agree 100%. And that's why I said in the last podcast that from my reading of Acts 10, I think God revealed it to Peter in three different moments. The first one we're about to read was in verse 15, and that is that God can make things unclean, clean.

And that was his first revelation. Second one was in verse 34 when he said, I realize, and he tells you the revelation, he says, I realize God does not show favoritism to the point you just made Jays, because he made every race. He made all of us. And the third one was he says, looks around to the people with him and says, who can keep these people from being baptized? I mean, his third revelation was the money one because it was like, they're in. Do we know, I was trying to look this up, do we know the timeline of this interaction in Acts 10 versus Galatians, was Galatians 211?

Was that when Peter, I think it's 2.11 or around when he got into the confrontation with Paul over, I'm Well, we know it had to be. So just to give you what kind of we know is that from when the church started, when Acts 1 and 2, it was anywhere from 6 to 10 years before this event we see with Cornelius. But we know there were 14 years that go by from when Paul came in to when he's writing that in Galatian. So it had to have been at least that long. It had to been at least 14 plus years before you had this interaction, whereas this

would have taken place with Cornelis, at least if it was only 14 or 15 years, at least five years to six or seven years or four, before Galations 2. Right. Which is interesting because I was, you know, it's, it's, he realized it in this moment, but it does kind of show you the progressive nature of sanctification that. Yeah. I mean, he, he's now I realize that God doesn't show favoritism. Then, yeah.

Then why did you? Yeah. And I think it shows you to Jesus' point. earlier how strong prejudice is in people. Yeah. Well, yeah. I mean, even today, fast forward, you got Cornelius, I could see a religious group saying, well, he doesn't even believe in Jesus. He didn't even know about Jesus. Yeah, he was an unbeliever. I'm not going to meet with that guy. And what you said, well, what happened for them to change that? Well, God showed his approval of them being qualified to enter his kingdom by pouring his spirit out.

And so it's just you've got to be careful as ambassadors of Christ to make these snap judgments on where people's hearts are when we don't have this kind of special gift to realize that all I had to do is share of Jesus and love them and go into their house and they would have come around. I mean, and that's an underlying principle here because we tend to put people in boxes and compartments, especially based on religious persuasions, and just say, well, I'm going to have nothing to do with them, you know. So there's a difference in kind of playing the game of religion

and being a spokesman for God. He wants everybody. If they're a human being, and you may not figure out all the details of what their life is, but Jesus, a presentation of Jesus tends to reveal itself today. And, Jay, I would say out of our little quartet here, that OPR, the wizened of the four of us, showed us this throughout his whole life by sharing Jesus with anybody that walked through the door because he didn't know who if the Almighty was sending them. Because, look, you could have a lot of people that believe in God and believe in something bigger themselves, but don't know Jesus. Jesus yet. And so, Dad, everybody I ever brought out there, I would always tell him, and they may be believers in Christ and know him well, but I was saying, now, look, Dad's going to find out

if you know Jesus. So don't be offended when we go in. Usually they work themselves around, and before it's all over of their appearing, I've had them 30, 40 years later. said, I appreciate what you did to me. You helped me. You preach the gospel. And they go back 40 years like it was yesterday. And I'm like, well, good luck. I don't remember them.

You see what I'm saying? Yeah. It's a conscious stream of them. Who's the, how do you think of one that you brought down there that was an obvious Christian, but they still got the gospel? Because I brought a few like pastors down there. I'll tell them, don't be offended. but he's going to say him you don't know Jesus.

Well, I got a good example of one. So we were working on a book project and our old friend Bob DeMoss, who had been doing a lot of work on behalf of the Almighty with folks on the family and a lot of other different groups. He came there to work on a Bible project, of all things, the whole Bible. And after he sat with us and we talked about Jesus and we talked about our sermons and we talked about all this for him to write. He called Dad up.

Dad, do you remember this at the end of the project? And he said, you know what? In all these years I've been doing this, I don't think I really knew who Jesus was. And this is a guy who had worked in a lot of major religious. Yeah, he left and brought his wife and his kids. Came back and the whole family got back to. Every four months, he'd show up for some more.

Well, the story Phil tells all the time is the guy he met on the plane who was coming home from seminary, you know, Phil's like, well, I need to share something with you here. And he shared Jesus. He said in my cemetery, I heard everything, but what you just told me. It took him a few years to come around, but still, you know, it was a good move, Phil. And this guy is one of our leaders. You never know. Well, I've taken a lot of flack for going to groups, you know, that have not highlighted Jesus

or have some kind of controversial thing. And I go speak there. And a brother confronted me one time. like, why are you, why are you going to these, what are you going to these places? And I remember one time one of my answers was Cornelius. Yeah. That's right. I'm like, it's just not the way to be an ambassador to close yourself all from the world. Whenever you're, the end of your religious faces, let's go build some walls, stay here, and maybe nobody will bother us or ask us about anything. and alienate yourself from the world.

That's not what the book of Acts is about. Now, you're a presenter of Jesus, and you introduce him to people. Let's take another break. Well, and you love people. I mean, you love people and you get over the differences. I'm sure it was very uncomfortable for him to walk in in this house. But I think you are to pick up and let's fill in the details of the story. Yeah, so let me read the, because we read Cornelis,

then we read the message that went to him, and that was an answer to his prayer. But obviously, there was a journey for Peter to get there. And so let's go back to Acts 10, verse 9. And this is a story we've read many, many times because Dad has a great, I guess you'd call it a bit that he does from this text. Taking a bit out of context, because it was talking about humans. But the example was this idea of kosher foods, which is very uncomfortable. because I'm going to tell you right now, when you go look up the list of kosher foods, because you have to.

Did you go read it, Jase? Oh, I did. Leviticus 11. I am telling you, if we were, if the Jewish representatives, Peter himself, would have come to the state of Louisiana, if we could have made that happen and we settled here, you know, thousands of year before, when he went, if he had gone down the list of kosher foods, because things that are not kosher, and let me just give them to you here. lobster, that's out, shrimp, out, crawfish, out, catfish, out.

I ain't even gotten to bacon yet, I'm just saying, you know what the food. Frog legs? You know, the food that would have manifested itself perhaps miraculously, I'm being silly for impact there. It would have been the cricket, because that's what they would have heard, that, you come to Jesus, but you got to weed out everything on that menu because the Cajun world would have ran for the hills. If that would have been incorporated to this, and I didn't even bring up bacon. Most people are shocked when I show them this and they read that about what Peter said, looked up and said, good, no, most people are shocked that that's even been in the Bible.

Well, and, you know, and we're joking about it. But look, Leviticus and 11, God was serious when he told him, this is what, this is unclean for you. I don't want you to eat this. Now, a lot of people have tried to guess at why he did that, to seal them off from the world around them and all this. But the bottom line was, he said for them clearly in that text, this is unclean. But the key to the text, which we've already read, is the, is the,

voice from heaven said, do not call anything impure that God has made clean. Yeah. So I can, I can testify to this. I can't speak for all the items, but I can speak for the crawfish because one summer, we discussed, we were out there in a rice field where one of my buddies had a duck lease on, and we saw, and I tell you, millions of crawfish across the levees. And so I don't, Phil, I don't know if you remember. remember there or not, but we came out of those house.

I remember when you just talked about it. Yeah, so I borrowed Phil. You had about 40 or 50 crawfish traps, and I said, can we borrow your traps? You said, as long as you bring me a unlimited supply for my own personal consumption, that was the deal you made. You got to get that calf. You got to get that cropfish time. We had to pay the fill tax, but we went out there with these traps, and we put them in,

um, you told us to put Buffalo, go catch a bunch of Buffalo, put the buffalo heads in there, which we did, like a carpfish. But that got to be too much work. So then it turned in. I mean, it just turned into any meat, rotten. It didn't matter. It just whatever you could find, you put in the trap. And you put it out there in this rice field and you wait about 45 minutes and you go back in their slam full.

And we did that for two weeks straight. And we would sell them to Cormier's local place down there. And we would get Phil his tax. But I did know. notice that the crawfish are pretty, they are unclean creatures. They will eat anything. Yeah, crabs, they're scavengers. Yeah.

And you notice when he mentions in Leviticus, he talks about the birds. They're all birds that eat decayed things and all that. So there are reasons why I believe that food laws were instituted in the beginning. It was for the good of the people. But the key thing there is that, and Zach, you mentioned this in the last podcast, he's obviously talking about more than animals. Yes. Well, you know he is because Acts 11.

Yeah, because we're going to pose the point off. Well, but that's what's so hypocritical about our culture today because people say, well, we're not under those laws anymore. And then you'll say, well, the circumcision, you're like, well, we're not under those laws anymore. And then you say the Ten Commandments and they say, well, we're under those laws. And people get mad even with me saying that because the principles were true. But still, you've got to remember that Jesus fulfilled all of those laws and the prophets. That's what he did. Now, those things are, you know, when you get to the Ten Commandments,

those things are going to be summed up and love God with all your hearts, whole mind and strength and love your neighbor as yourself. I'm not dissuading that. But it's still our religious approach to it. We'd like to pick and choose. and if you're a vegetarian, you're going to say, oh, I don't know why you're eating those foods.

I mean, the Leviticus was written for a reason, you know. And we just try to take those and aplomb for our interests. Well, yeah, and even the good things. I mean, you think about things that were commanded in the Old Testament, like the Sabbath. And there's not a New Testament verse that says to honor the Sabbath, but that's not to say that resting isn't a good thing

and that we probably should. participate in some form of Sabbath, but it's not binding on us. And you think about what Jesus said in Mark, Mark two or three, says that the Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath. And what the Pharisees were doing, they were taking the thing of God and making it the endpoint. And the same thing with fasting. You know, why don't you guys fast like, why don't your disciples fast like the Pharisees fast? And Jesus is like, you can't pour new wine into old wine skins.

You can't sew an unshrunk piece of cloth on a new, on an old cloth because it'll shrink and pull away from it. And he's given this picture that you can't bind these things. You know, it's not that these things are bad, but the problem is, is when you, like, you think that you somehow are going to get there. When Jesus came to fulfill it, what that means is, is that all that the law was meant to do was accomplished in Jesus. So then when you get to a passage like Galaisons chapter 5 and you hear about the fruit of the spirit, by the way, it's not our fruit, it's his fruit, love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, gentleness, self-control, goodness, all that. What does it say at the end of it? Against such things, there is no law. There's no law against that.

And I love that because that's what we're, we're freed from this system where we have to be under lock and key to do the right thing. Jesus is like, no, I want to set you free to be able to do what you want to do, which is love me and be. be with me. That's what the spirit brings. But it is true freedom. It's not another form of bondage or slavery. The Bible calls it freedom over and over and over. I had a guy. I was at a little church gathering and I meet me some baby back ribs a few years ago. And they were delicious. And this guy walks up and he was, he was not joking. He said, so I guess you don't adhere to Leviticus 11, and he gave me the verse about the split-hoofed animals that it would include pigs. And I said, no, I believe in Leviticus 11, but I also believe in Acts chapter 10 that God

can make all things clean. And he's cleaned this pig up just fine for me. So I'm just going to keep eating and you go sit over there. But I mean, this guy was still going to hold on to food laws because he had a problem with the pig. Yeah. But he missed the point, which is, what is the point. So let me read this text, Acts 10.9. And just to set it up for you read it. So basically at this stage, Cornelius has prayed, an angel of the Lord has appeared to Cornelius. And he said, go get Peter. And so Cornelius is sending a soldier and two servants to go find Peter. And probably, Jason, this is just one we're guessing. This, what we're about to read had to have happen probably for Peter to even go talk to these people and go to Sessria.

Well, I think that's why I said from both perspectives, they both had to happen. That's right. So God arranged this encounter. And the reason he did it miraculously is because that's what it would take to get these two people in a room. Yeah. And look, we love Peter, but let's face it, it takes three times to get through to this man.

I mean, we've seen that already from the gospel study. About noon, verse 9, the following day, this is after the Cornelius prayer. And he's already sent the emissaries. They're on their way to Joppa. As they were on their journey and approaching the city, Peter went up on the roof to pray. Here we go with the praying again, Jays. So now Peter's in prayer, which tells me that the more time he's been in prayer, the more things are revealed to us is what it looks like. And the more divine encounters you're probably going to have, even today.

It may not be in the miraculous world, but God continues to work, and we have the Holy Spirit. And we have these stories as the words of God pointing to the word. I mean, and we know this happened. Yeah, that's exactly right. He became hungry and wanted something to eat. And while the meal was being prepared, he fell into a trance. So this is the prayer, but now something more than just a prayer. He saw heaven open and something like a large sheet being let down to earth by its four corners.

Dad describes it as a giant movie screen. Well, it was God's advertisement. I mean, I've been in those hunger trances. And then all of a sudden, you see a fast food commercial come up because, look, they make it look like it's. the greatest thing ever. So then you get in your vehicle and you drive down there in a trance. They hand you the bag and you pull it out and you say, this is not what it looked like on TV. I just got to, I don't, Jason, I don't know if you've been in this.

I don't think this is the same kind of trance. Well, I'm just saying, this was God's marketing. I mean, I love it that he took one of the basic needs in this moment. Jason's like, we've all been in a hunger trance, guys. This is common stuff. But he's so right. I don't want to call out. I could think of a lot of businesses I could call out.

I'm not going to do it. Zach, are your kids, teenagers yet? They are. Well, you need to count how many times that they say in a day, what are we going to eat? What are we going to do tonight for eat? They don't want to talk about anything else. Until you figure out what I'm going to eat today. That's all they think about.

I know that's true. I know that's true because we're under renovation on the kitchen, and my grocery bill has decreased by hundreds of dollars. Oh, it's a lot. I mean, I realize how much we feed people in our house when we don't have a kitchen now. It's, we're saving. Maybe I need to redo my kitchen. All right, here we go.

Verse 12. So this sheet comes down. It contained all kinds of four-footed animals, as well as reptiles, of the earth and birds of the air. Then a voice told him, get up, Peter, kill, and eat. So this is that hunger trance. And he says in verse 14, surely not, Lord, Peter replied, I have never eaten anything impure or unclean, which is interesting, you know, Peter's response.

Well, because it shows he's devout. It's like, it's like God is tempting him. And that was his emotional response. Right. Like checking him to see if he's legitimately following him. I mean, it's like in that moment, he's like, no, not me. You can count on me. I'm not going to eat a pig.

And it's funny. You're right, Jay. He didn't say, no, I won't do it. He just said, surely not, Lord. It was like, you're not asking me to eat this, right? The voice spoke to him a second time. Do not call anything impure that God has made clean. And I think this was the first revelation from Peter.

This happened three times, to three times it dropped down. And I'm assuming three times Peter never ate. It never says he ate anything from it. Three times he the same Peter denied him. And three times Jesus said, go feed my sheep. I mean, you can make a sermon out of that. I mean, it is a sermon. This happened three times.

Immediately the sheet was taken back into heaven. Now, I love this. While Peter was wondering about the meaning of the vision, So he's, this is, he's searching. He's like, what, what is, what was that about? The men sent by Cornelius found out where Simon's house was and stopped at the gate. They called out asking him, Simon, who was known as Peter was staying there. While Peter was still thinking about the vision, he's still pondering, the spirit said to him,

so now we get a direct communication from the Holy Spirit. Simon, guess how many people? three men are looking for you. So I think now he's starting to put the puzzle together. So get up, go downstairs. Do not hesitate to go with them, for I have sent them. So now he's getting the idea what the vision was about. Peter went down and said to the man, I'm the one you're looking for.

Why have you come? So I love that. So why are you here? 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. So that's just a nice way of saying he's a Gentile, but a good one. A holy angel told him to have you come to his house so that he could hear what you have to say.

And now this is a big step for Peter, because you can't have Gentiles in your home, or I guess even in your friend's home, then Peter invited the men into the house to be his guest, which was a he broke a huge norm in this moment to even invite them into the house so we're starting to see this thing start to break down for peter in that he's got something he's to say to the gentiles let's uh let's take our last break so that sets up what i think is the is the as jace put it the peter perspective of the story which was this was now going to be uh an opportunity to do something and different. And I don't think in this moment, Peter still got it. I think it took the whole package, him going, preaching that message, and then seeing the Holy Spirit come down before he

fully realized that, oh, so people, they don't have to go through the Jewish prism now. It's a direct line to Christ, which is everything we read in Ephesians, Colossians, and Romans. Yeah, which then you have the conversation happen in 23, when people, Peter invited the men to his house to be guests. The next day, Peter started out with them, and some of the brothers from Joppa went along. The following day arrived in Cessaria. Cornelius was expecting them and had called together his relatives and close friends. So there was a lot of people that had gathered.

Yeah. 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, which I do think this is an important part to this story. Yep. Because you're going to see this same thing happened to Paul and Barnabas a couple chapters later. Remember when they thought they were gods? Yep.

And they said the same thing. I noted where that was. That's in Acts 1412, I think, where I was I was going to make a point about this. Yeah, Barnabas, they called Zeus and Paul they called Hermes because he was the chief speaker. And the priest of Zeus, whose temple was just outside the city brought bulls and reeks to the city. In verse 14 of 14, it says, but when the apostles, Barnabas and Paul heard of this, they tore their clothes and rushed out into the crowd shouting, men, why are you doing this? We too are only men, human like you. We are bringing you good news telling you to turn from these worthless things to the living God

who made heaven and earth and the sea and everything in them. And I was just going to make a point that, you know, God is working in a way through the apostles to confirm this message. And one of the basic instincts of human beings is to love the praise of men. And you don't realize how difficult. it would be for them to say, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, wait a minute. Because they basically are God's celebrities. I mean, he's given them these powers that are unfathomable, and they're doing this. And so I just really respect their humility in this because that's such a problem in our world today.

Everybody wants to be a star. Everybody wants to praise and you think social media and all this thing. even if you were doing it for righteous things, it's so tempting to say, oh, look how many followers I have or walk into a room and you're like, I'm here. And I think you're going to see that kind of a principle in this story. And the question, I read this somewhere that you have to realize in reading this chapter is that God is not the actor in your play. You know, we're the actors. in his script. And that should call some humility in the way we go about this.

You know, because I'm sure Peter's trying to figure out and connect all the dots, even with this vision and all. And he's like, surely not. But God has something that he wanted Peter to do that was going to be very uncomfortable. And at some point, you just have to trust God and say, you know what? he wants me to do something here. And I think that helped him in his humility in this moment. No, that's a good point because you think about the adoration of the crowd from the story

you read in Acts 14J's, you know, in one verse, they're throwing the wreaths at their feet and wanting to sacrifice to them. And we only go about six or eight verses down and some Jews came in and stirred him up. And then they stoned him and thought he was dead. So the fickle nature of a crowd is in about five minutes, they can go from you're the best thing ever to you're the worst thing we've ever seen. Yeah, be careful. Be careful that. But you think about the uncomfortable.

He's asking him, even in this Acts 10 passage, it's uncomfortable what he's asking to do, arise, kill and eat. But there was a moment when he, I promise you, when he took the first bite of a piece of bacon, he was like, oh. Now we're talking. Yeah, comfort went to like revelation of understanding. Okay. But it's kind of a funny thing that that's how it works with God. You step out in faith and you think, man, like, I don't know about this. Well, you don't know what bacon tastes like.

If God says, go eat this, like, you do it. And then, but I mean, I'm joking, but on some of it's true, like what God has prepared for us, we don't have an imagination for that until we step out in faith and start to take. The Bible says, taste the Lord and see that he's good. But I can't see these good. I got to taste him. And so that's what we step out to taste him. Then we see that he's good.

And then our faith increases as we give glory to him according to Romans chapter four. That's how our faith grows. So that comfort, I think, eventually turned to joy and flourishing. The discomfort eventually turns to joy and human flourishing. I agree. Well, let me read the last of this. And we can finish. talking about the next podcast.

So in 27 of Acts 10, talking when then Peter went inside and found a large gathering of people, and he said to them, You're 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. That's that first revelation. He figured out what the vision was about. So when I was sent for, I came without raising any objection. May I ask why you sent for me?

Well, Cornelius then came from his perspective. He answered four days ago, I was at my house praying at three in the afternoon. Suddenly a man in shining close stood before me and said, Cornelius, God has heard your prayer and remembered your gifts to the poor. Send a 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 to tell us. And so in the last podcast, we read, he shared the message of Jesus. He read God's story of Israel that would produce Jesus. And then they have the Holy Spirit fall on them and they see the miraculous approval of God himself. And then he's like, why shouldn't these people be baptized in water? And that's what happened. And this was the first time. that Gentiles came to the Lord without having to go through the channels of any kind of Israel tradition.

And conversion to that. Which is amazing. Yeah, it was huge. And so when we come back on the next podcast, we'll pick it up in chapter 11. Because just like church leaderships do to this very day, there's a movement of God. And immediately church leaders start saying, oh, no, we're going to have problems with some of our people. if we go with this and that's exactly what happens so you know when when you're going through that in the 21st century remember it first happened in the first century oh it's a wait a minute

moment it's running through the woods chasing a squirrel on a vine says wait a minute I'm not sure you which by the way squirrels out there's another one there's another one that you need to taste small but he's a four footer yeah but he was out you couldn't he was squirrel and they're delicious all right we're out of time we'll see you next time on unashamed 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 blazed tv at blazestr.com slash unashamed