Sermon from August 21, 2011
"The Shock of a Vision"
Acts 10:1-11:18

Carole and I had dinner on vacation with friends of more than four decades. We got past the niceties of children and grandchildren pretty fast and then launched into deep waters. One of the depths we sounded was theological. Leslie wanted to know how I had changed theologically over the years.

The conversation that followed focused on issues like the Emergent Movement, Rob Bell’s latest book, and vigorous discussions about Genesis one that are going on in Evangelical circles. I think she left the table satisfied that I could still be trusted to pastor the people of God in a way that glorified God.

What we never talked about was a dozen other explosive, theological and pastoral issues that I make it my business to stay abreast of. Any one of them might erupt at any time into the life of this congregation, and we pastors need to be ready to give guidance and protection to this congregation.

In my lifetime I have never seen more and more thorny issues that congregations have to deal with than I see today. Spiritual and theological ferment is worldwide and immediately accessible through every medium of communication imaginable to man. The first question we need to ask with every issue is: “Is God in this?” Then, we need patience and discernment as we look for answers to that question.

I find help and hope for this task in Holy Scripture. The Bible is not a book inflated with idealistic hot air. It is real without being raunchy. It keeps lifting up our eyes to the hills “whence cometh our help,” and at the same time it keeps our feet fixed firmly on terra firma. The result is a validation and a vindication of the ancient assurance that everything that was written in the past was written to teach us, so that through endurance and the encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope – Romans 15:4.

The scriptural story of Acts continues today with the experience of an Italian soldier, which critics might dismiss as the outcome of too much wine, prosciutto crudo, and pastrami. You can judge for yourself in Acts 10-11. This text introduces the next crisis and the next surprise in the romance of early Christianity, and it provides just that encouragement of the Scriptures we need in order to endure and hope, as we handle the next crisis and the next surprise in the romance of latter-day Christianity.

A Convergence of Visions
At Caesarea there was a man named Cornelius, a centurion in what was known as the Italian Regiment. He and all his family were devout and God-fearing. The words devout and God-fearing serve in Acts to label a class of people, usually Gentiles, who were very much attracted to Jewish worship and morality and very much repelled by Jewish ritual requirements, especially circumcision. They worshiped in Jewish synagogues and learned generous Jewish ways, as verse two goes on to say: he gave generously to those in need and prayed to God regularly. The devout and God-fearing Gentiles played a crucial role in the spread of Christianity beyond its Jewish origins, as we are about to see.

One day at about three in the afternoon he had a vision. He distinctly saw an angel of God, who came to him and said, “Cornelius!” Was it the pastrami or was it prayer? Cornelius thought it was real.

Cornelius stared at him in fear. “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. Now here’s what I want you to do: 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.” The centurion did it promptly, as befitted a military man, who was used to giving and taking orders.

The sharp contours of his vision commend its credibility. It is full of specifics. The angel called Cornelius by name. He identified Peter by both his names, knew what town he was visiting at the moment, identified the man’s name and occupation Peter was staying with, and virtually gave Cornelius the address when he said whose house is by the sea.

Verse nine: About noon the following day as they (the three emissaries from Cornelius) were on their journey and approaching the city (of Joppa), Peter went up on the roof to pray. He was also hungry. The timing is telling. Verse 10 says that while the meal was being prepared, he fell into a trance.

Will it never end: vision, trance, and what’s next? What’s next was another vision. He saw heaven opened and something like a large sheet being let down to earth by its four corners. 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.”

“Surely not, Lord!” Peter replied, not allowing even a vision to violate his kosher sense about what a Jew was supposed to eat. “I have never eaten anything impure or unclean, and the Law of Moses forbids a Jew to eat anything in that sheet.”

The voice spoke to him a second time, “Do not call anything impure that God has made clean.” This happened three times, and immediately the sheet was taken back to heaven. What was that about? Peter didn’t have a clue.

Verse 17: While Peter was wondering about the meaning of the vision, the men sent by Cornelius found out where Simon’s house was and stopped at the gate. They called out, asking if Simon who was known as Peter was staying there. Did Peter’s vision of unclean animals have something to do with Cornelius and his vision of the angel?

We’re not through yet. Verses 19-20: While Peter was still thinking about the vision, the Spirit said to him – here we go again, and again the timing is telling – the Spirit said to him “Simon, three men are looking for you. So get up and go downstairs. Do not hesitate to go with them, for I have sent them.”

Peter did what he was told. The guys at the gate explained why they were there, and verse 23, which seems ordinary courtesy to us, described an extraordinary courtesy by any Jewish standards of the day: Then Peter invited the men into the house to be his guests. It appears they spent the night there, because they didn’t return to Cornelius’ house until the next day. It was a straw in the wind, my friends, a straw in the wind.

If two of your friends had visions like those, would you think they were crazy? I hope not. But we have a problem here. Neither man yet knew what his vision meant. The value of visions depends on the purpose of the visions.

A Second Pentecost
We had better keep reading. The following day he (Peter) arrived in Caesarea. Cornelius was expecting them and had called together his relatives and close friends. As Peter entered the house, Cornelius did a most unmilitary thing; he met him and fell at his feet in reverence. But Peter made him get up. “Stand up, my man” he said, “I am only a man myself.”

In verse 28 Peter began connecting the dots. He said to them: “You are 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.” It was a big deal for the leading apostle of the Church to say publicly that he could no longer call a Gentile impure or unclean. Of course, Peter could not yet imagine what it would mean to build the Church on that conviction. We can’t fault Peter for that. One step at a time, and first things first!

He still didn’t know why Cornelius sent for him. Neither did Cornelius. Cornelius recounted the vision he had and concluded in verse 33: “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 you to tell us.”

Then Peter began to speak, and he deepened the theological meaning of his strange vision of the unclean animals: “I now realize how true it is that God does not show favoritism but accepts men from every nation who fear him and do what is right.” And from there he launched into the story about Jesus that was dear to him.

He never got to the end of his story. Verses 44-45: While Peter was still speaking these words, the Holy Spirit came on all who heard the message. The circumcised believers who had come with Peter were astonished that the gift of the Holy Spirit had been poured out even on the Gentiles. How did they know it was the Holy Spirit? Verse 46: For they heard them speaking in tongues and praising God. Then Peter said, “Can anyone keep these people from being baptized with water? They have received the Holy Spirit just as we have.”

What happened in Acts 2 now happened in Acts 10; only there it happened only to Jews; here it happened only to Gentiles. And Peter baptized them, initiated them into the community of believers in Jesus, who until that moment had all been Jews. And Cornelius and company did not submit, and the leading apostle of the Church did not ask them to submit to any of the Jewish religious rituals, including circumcision.

Confirmation in the Church
I hope you don’t think that was the end of the story. The unexpected repetition of the Day of Pentecost validated the visions or Cornelius and Peter. But Peter had acted alone. None of the other leaders of the Church yet knew anything that had happened. God didn’t consult them before He acted. They had no prior plan to reach out to Gentiles. Rumor of Peter’s unauthorized action rocked the Jerusalem Church before Peter reached the Jerusalem Church. He returned to a rude welcome.

Luke by the way is an unsurpassed master of understatement, especially of church conflicts. Acts 11:2: So when Peter went up to Jerusalem, the circumcised believers criticized him. They met him with a sustained chorus of criticism. Verse 3 is the crux of their criticism: “You went into the house of uncircumcised men and ate with them.”

If you are Peter, what do you do? Verse four: Peter began and explained everything to them precisely as it had happened, culminating in the Second Pentecost. Verse 17 was his conclusion. “So if God gave them the same gift as he gave us, who believed in the Lord Jesus Christ, who was I to think that I could oppose God?”

Verse 18: When they heard this, they had no further objections and praised God, saying, “So then, God has granted even the Gentiles repentance unto life.” If only we could hear the conversations they had in the parking lot before they went home that night! Luke has given us a concise summary of the consensus of the Church, but if we think everyone went home happy, you would be wide of the mark. If we think Peter plumbed the meaning of Cornelius for the future of the Church, we would miss the mark.

Whatever grasp the Jerusalem Church had of the meaning of what had happened was secondary. What was primary was that God had the young Church in His grasp, and He would make the meaning of what happened as clear and irresistible as an ocean tide. Luke is telling the story of how the Church began as a small, obscure, Jewish sect in hiding and step by step became the spiritual home for humanity. What God conspired to bring about in Cornelius’s house was the first great watershed event in that transition.

Into All Truth
Cornelius went to pray at 3:00 in the afternoon. He often went to pray at 3:00 in the afternoon. Do you think he thought he’d have a visit from an angel that day? Of course not!

But the angel came. Then Peter came. Then the Holy Spirit came upon them all. Did Cornelius expect that? Of course not! Did Cornelius have a clue that what happened to him would hurl the Church out of her Jewish nest to the four corners of the earth? Of course not!

That’s how God gets things done, and that’s why the Church will never disappear from the face of the earth. That why the Church will disperse over the face of the earth – to every last hamlet – because God pays a decisive visit to this obscure man at prayer and that obscure man with his fishing nets and this obscure woman selling her wares in an ancient urban center.

That’s why it is right and fitting that every person every Sunday should worship and praise and glorify God. He acts, and this old world wobbles in a different direction with renewed hope that it has a future worth having.

I was once in a gathering where Pat Robertson spoke, and he said from the platform, “The United States is earth’s last, best hope.” Another man, a complete stranger, caught my eye, and we simultaneously mouthed the words, “No, it isn’t.” Robertson’s declaration was idolatrous.

Jesus Christ and His Church that bears His name, is baptized in His name, and braves the scorn of a corrosive culture – they are earth’s last, best hope; and they will not disappoint.

BVBC is not going to change the world, but by being here, doing what we do, longing and waiting, we bear witness to the One who, behind the volatility of the marketplace, the pandering of politicians, and uncertainty of all things human, changes the world and will go on changing the world until the world is to His liking. To Him be glory and honor and praise and wealth and majesty now and ever more.

Confess Jesus to be the Lord. Believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead. Acknowledge to God your responsibility for your share in the world’s deplorable condition, and ask Him to forgive you. That is the doorway into the world’s last, best hope. Why don’t you walk through it today? Be part of God’s solution, not just part of the world’s problem!