July 18, 2004

John W. Fowler

Scripture: Acts10: 9-23

God has given us the grand privilege to be used by Him to influence others for Jesus Christ. Oftentimes when we are praying for God’s will — and God does have a plan for our lives, and He wants to guide us in that life, and that’s part of the excitement of serving Christ — oftentimes He will surprise us as we are seeking that next step in His will. If He wants to use us to influence someone for Christ, it could well be someone that we had not even dreamed of. In Act 10 there is a very pivotal point in the life of the early Church. Up until this time, for almost a decade, Christianity has primarily been birthed in the Jewish faith and so long as you are a Jewish Christian, it’s fine. But God gets Peter’s attention, in the vision and prayer, that He wants him to branch out — that it is time to take the Good News of Christ to the Gentiles and to the ends of the Earth. In Chapter 10 of the Book of Acts:

Years ago we lived in the country in Mocksville, North Carolina, a nice community and a bit of culture shock for Liz and myself because we had never lived in a small town; we had never lived in the country, and so it was different. We had cows in front, cows in the back, cows to the side, but being a city-boy, that was fine. We enjoyed seeing the cows. Our child Phil’s first word was “moo.” That’s true. I’m not making that up.

I would look forward to going to the Ministers’ meeting in that community because I enjoyed the fellowship. We had some real colorful people, preachers in that county. One though that kept coming each week was Ivan Imes. Ivan was a fixture in that community, a Black minister who had served his Church for years and was very involved in the prison ministry. Each month we would meet he would make the plea for volunteers to come out to the prison. So, being the good preacher that I was, I made the opportunity available to my people. You know, Preachers will do that. They are glad for you to do it but they really don’t want to do it sometimes and so, that’s what I would do. Well, I started to get convicted after about the third or fourth time he made the appeal, that maybe God was speaking to me to go out there. I primarily was just wanting to get to know my people, the shut-ins, and just doing the things you do in getting acquainted in a community, but apparently God was interested in those people in our community who were incarcerated, in prison.

I remember the first night I went, I was very nervous. But I was just going out of obedience. That’s really the only reason — to kind of get God off my back — and that’s why I was going. I remember the gate there and there was this man there with a gun, well, it was a rifle, and I am sure it was loaded; he looked like he meant business. He put the bucket down; you put your keys in and your wallet and you go in, and there is always this clanging in prisons. It gives you a feeling like this is a point of no return. We went out to this trailer, the guard took us out there, and then he did something that really upset me: He left. He left us in this room with all these convicts. But it was a good night. In fact, I kept going back each week, and in every community I’ve tried to visit the prisons. God was changing my vision, making it broader. He helped me to see that there were some other people that He wanted me to reach for Christ. I didn’t think that I was a very likely candidate, but still He said I want to help you to help influence these people for Christ.

His name was Cornelius. He had a vision. In Act, chapter 10, it begins by saying that

. . . . there was a man called Cornelius, a centurion in what was known as the Italian Regiment. 2He and all his family were devout and God-fearing; he gave generously to those in need and prayed to God regularly.

He is a centurion. Incidentally, in the Bible when they mention centurions, they are friendly to the faith. You remember the centurion who said, “Lord, you just say the word and my servant will be healed,” and Jesus was amazed at this man’s faith.

Or when Jesus died and the people are getting out of the tomb, and the rocks are splitting and the earthquake, and he said, “Truly, this must have been the Son of God.”

But this centurion is a seeker. He is hungry for God. The Centurion was like a Sergeant-Major. He is over about a hundred men and he is well-respected, but most of all, he is a seeker after the Lord. He has a vision. An angel appears to him and says,

Being the good soldier that he is, he dispatches two men to go to Joppa to get Simon Peter and waits with great anticipation.

It is my conviction that there are more Cornelii out there than we like to think, that even though they are secular, and you may think that they are not interested in spiritual things, I believe there is more spiritual hunger today than we even realize.

Percepts does demographics, especially for religious demographics, and you may know Caldwell county far better than I do, but just listen to some of these when you are looking at a profile just of people within five miles. What are the families like? We are predominately rural. You probably guess that — country. What is the fastest racial-ethnic growth group? Hispanics and Latino, significantly. What is the level of education? It’s very low. The average person in Caldwell County does not have a great deal of education. When you go to community issues, what are the primary concerns? Spiritual and personal. They are very concerned about spirituality, very concerned about their families. What about stress? It is somewhat high. That is probably not a surprise. When you go to faith preferences, faith receptivity from very low to very high, it’s close to very high. Does that surprise you? And then, Church style. What Church style, from very contemporary to very traditional? Well, it’s somewhat traditional. Somewhere in between. And then, Methodist preference? It’s very high. When people are asked about the Methodist Church, it’s a favorable impression.

Cornelius had a vision. He was hungry for God and God answered his prayer. There are people today who are praying to experience the Lord, the real Lord, not just some religion. What they want to know, is Jesus real? Is Christianity for me? And God wants to use his people to build that bridge so they can walk over and know the love of Jesus Christ.

Acts, Chapter 10 also has the vision of Peter. Peter is hungry. God speaks to him while he is hungry. Lunch is getting ready, probably hadn’t expected some spiritual experience, but he’s praying and he sees this vision. And the sheets, four sheets come down, filled with all these unclean animals, and Peter, being the good Jew that he is, and he hears these words, “Rise, Peter. Kill and eat.”

“But Lord, I’ve never eaten anything like this. I’ve never eaten anything unclean.”

And he says, “Peter, you shouldn’t call unclean what I call clean.” He does it three times. He has had this great encounter with God. He doesn’t know if it is what he had to eat or if he is dreaming — in the body, out of the body. He just thinks, Well what in the world was that? Have you ever had that? You know, you are praying and you may have had a dream, and you may wonder: Is God trying to tell me something?

Well, the Lord doesn’t waste any time. He doesn’t want Peter to contemplate it too much. The three men who have been dispatched to come to Peter are already at the door. Now Peter’s attitude has been changing because that’s what God is after. He’s wanting his sights to broaden. He has gone to Lydda and there was this man who has been paralyzed for years. He prayed for him, “Rise and walk.” This man gets up and walked, just like Jesus used to do. He went into Joppa and there was a disciple named Dorcas, also known as Tabitha. She was known for her good works — what a great reputation to have — and she had died. They were ready for the funeral but he did what Jesus would do — you know Jesus interrupted a few funerals. He went up there, got people out, knelt down, prayed for her. This woman came back to life. And it touched off a revival in Joppa, which is understandable. When people who were dead come back to life, it gets peoples’ attention. And Peter stayed with Simon the tanner. I mean, Simon the tanner — this is a man who works with dead animals — and most Jews would have absolutely nothing to do with a tanner, but Simon was probably a Christian. So Peter is already beginning to catch on that maybe God is bigger than Judaism. Maybe there is more to this Gospel than we realized. Maybe we put boundaries that just really weren’t necessary.

They come to him. He says, “Why have you come?”

He says, “Cornelius has sent for you. An angel told him to send for you and we want you to come and to share.”

And Peter invited the men into the house to be his guests. The barriers are starting to come down. George Hunter teaches Evangelism at Asbury. I try to read anything that he writes. He is about as cutting edge about reaching people for Christ as anyone I have ever read about. And he points out that, really, what is happening here — this is a crucial point for the Church — early Christianity was in danger of just being another Jewish sect. It was very difficult for them to believe that God actually could work in the life of a Gentile. In fact, in Acts 15 there is the Jerusalem council. That is the big issue: Do these people who are coming to Christ, these Gentiles that Peter and Paul are preaching to, is it alright for them not to be circumcised? Is it alright for them not to practice Jewish customs? After a lot of debate, after a lot of prayer they decided: No we shouldn’t put that on them. They don’t have to be Jewish Christians. They can just be Christians.

That has been a difficult barrier over the years. I mean, we think of people like Wycliffe and Martin Luther, who really wanted to get the scriptures into the language of everyday people, not Latin, the language of that time. And they were persecuted. Why? Because they didn’t want to change. They had a barrier there. I think of John Wesley. He and his brother, when they came over to Georgia to be missionaries to the Native Americans, they were miserable failures; they weren’t effective at all. It’s like you’ve got to do it like we did it back in England. You know, the Anglican — he wore his robe — and they didn’t give him the time of day. After his heart was warned, though, they began to realize, you know, God may call us to branch out. And one of the ways Wesley branched out was field preaching. He got it from George Whitfield. He decided: I’m not waiting for people to come here; I’m going to get out in the fields and I’m going to preach to the people as they go to work. And it was effective. And they did it with music, as well. Sometimes it’s hard for me to grasp the fact that Charles Wesley, the great hymn writer that he was, used for Oh For a Thousand Tongues to Sing — which I consider the national anthem of the United Methodist Church — the tune to one of the most popular saloon songs of that day. That’s what Charles did. He was a great musician, but he was a great Christian.

Are there barriers that we have erected that are keeping us from sharing the Good News of Christ? There is the vision of Cornelius and the vision of Peter. The vision of Cornelius is one that is seeking after the Gospel. The vision of Peter is a faith share, but the vision of the Church is that Christ died for all people. For Jesus said before He ascended,

But you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and shall be My witnesses both in Jerusalem, and in all Judea (a little bit further) and Samaria (a little bit further), and all the ends of the earth.

It took them a little while to catch on to ‘all the ends’ of the earth. Peter comes to the house and Cornelius is excited. I mean, he doesn’t just want the Gospel for himself; he invites all his close friends and family. All of them gather around. They want to hear what this man has to say. And then here is this Roman soldier bowing down at this Jewish fisherman’s feet.

And he tells his to get up: “I’m just a man.” And he asks, “May I ask why you sent for me for you know it is very unlawful for a Jew to be in the house of a Gentile? But I perceive that God has shown me that I should not call any man impure or unclean. May I ask why you sent for me?”

Cornelius shares, “ Well, I was praying and this angel appeared to me. He said to send for you, so we are anxiously awaiting what you have to say.”

Peter begins to share the Good News. He says,

(tape change)…. . . . .That still always is what is at the heart of effective faith-sharing, is that he is sharing how Christ has changed him. Well, this is great preaching but they were very ready too, because before he can really get through, the Holy Spirit comes upon them. They are ready and they receive Christ and their lives are changed.

Everyone needs Christ but one of the things we learn from this passage too is that the Lord is the Great Fisherman and He knows who is receptive and He knows when He can use you to influence others. He knows their heart; He knows their receptivity. Cornelius and his people, they were ready, but it took someone as prominent as Simon Peter to come because there would be great criticism of taking the Gospel to a Gentile, but Peter can handle it and he would defend it very effectively in the eleventh chapter of the Book of Acts.

Oftentimes when we pray for God’s will, He will open our eyes up to show us those people He wants us to have an influence for Christ. And often when He does that, I believe what He does, He opens our hearts just a little bit more to really care that people know this wonderful Savior.

Rick Warren, also in The Purpose Driven Life, shares about his dad. His dad was dying of cancer in 1999 and toward the end he was in and out. He said his dad served mostly little country churches for fifty years and one of the things his dad enjoyed was taking mission trips; he just loved going all over the world, building schools and churches for the Lord. A lot of times when he was talking at night, he could be talking about those trips and he could tell they meant a lot to him.

But one day he was very anxious and his dad tried to get out of bed, although they knew he couldn’t get out of bed because he didn’t have the strength to walk, but they kept saying, “Dad, where are you going?”

And he said, “Gotta save one more for Jesus.” Then he said he said that about a hundred times, “I’ve gotta save one more for Jesus.” He just kept saying, “I’ve gotta save one more for Jesus.”

And then he put his hand on Rick’s head and said, “Rick, save one more for Jesus.” And they all started crying, as you can imagine, but he said, “What a parting scene from his dad.” He had come to the end of his life and what he wanted more and more was one more person to come to Christ.

Have you been around someone like that lately? Someone, it is obvious to them, and they want people to know this wonderful Savior who has changed their life and loves them. That happens when we are praying for God’s will and it shows us the next step that: This is how I want to use you; it is why I created you; this is the Mission that I have given you.

We were up at Carolina this week, getting oriented, and proud my daughter is going to go to Chapel Hill. I didn’t think I needed orienting to Chapel Hill, but it’s bigger, and I do. I got lost a couple of times. I thought I knew my way around. One night we went out with our son to go down to Carrboro which —I can’t believe how Carrboro has developed — and went into this little community and it’s one of these communities that has become very popular around America. You know, people want small town America, even in the big city, so they just build them a neighborhood that looks like a small town. And these are very nice homes out there and I enjoyed looking at those, and as you get on further in the neighborhood you see the tennis courts and the swimming pool, but that’s not unique if you’ve seen them, but then you get to the Mayberry part where there are the sidewalks and there’s the place where you can get coffee and all the little stores. But what I was just thrilled about was, here was the Methodist Church. I mean, here’s this big, beautiful Methodist Church — Christ’s Methodist Church — and I thought, I am so proud. I am so glad that more than one person had the vision that when they build these subdivisions, we want to make sure that we do as Wesley said: We offer them Christ. We offer Christ in the way that He’s really going to speak to them. Same Jesus, but we’re going to make sure that He speaks to them in a way and in the language that they are going to understand.

When Peter went up there to pray, he’s probably just praying that they would just hurry up and get lunch fixed. God surprised him. He showed his what He would have him to do.

Let us pray.

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