Holy Scriptures and Israel

Guest (Female): Shalom. Holy Scriptures and Israel is a ministry designed to share with the Jewish people the good news of the Lord Jesus, Yeshua the Messiah, and to instruct Christians on the Jewish roots of their faith. And now, teaching God's word from a Hebrew Messianic perspective, here is Gideon Levytam.

Gideon Levytam: Shalom, everyone. I'd like you to take your Bibles, please, and turn with me today to the book of Acts. And we are going to speak today from the 10th chapter, Acts chapter 10. And the passage that I'm going to read begins in verse 9 through verse 33. Let me read those verses.

Guest (Male): On the morrow, as they went on their journey and drew nigh unto the city, Peter went up upon the house top to pray about the sixth hour. And he became very hungry and would have eaten, but while they made ready, he fell into a trance and saw heaven open and a certain vessel descending unto him as it had been a great sheet knit at the four corners and let down to the earth, wherein were all manner of four-footed beasts of the earth, and wild beasts and creeping things and fowl of the air.

And there came a voice to him, "Rise, Peter, kill and eat." But Peter said, "Not so, Lord, for I have never eaten anything that is common or unclean." And the voice spake unto him again the second time, "What God has cleansed, that call not common." This was done three times, and the vessel was received up again into heaven.

Now, while Peter doubted in himself what this vision which he had seen should mean, behold, the men which were sent from Cornelius had made inquiry for Simon's house and stood before the gate. And they called and they asked whether Simon, which was surnamed Peter, were lodging there. While Peter thought on the vision, the Spirit said unto him, "Behold, three men seek thee. Arise, therefore, and get thee down and go with them, doubting nothing, for I have sent them."

Then Peter went down to the men which were sent unto him from Cornelius and said, "Behold, I am he whom ye seek. What is the cause wherefore ye are come?" And they said, "Cornelius the centurion, a just man and one that feareth God, and of good report among all the nation of the Jews, was warned from God by an holy angel to send for thee into his house and to hear words of thee."

Then called he them in and lodged them. And on the morrow, Peter went away with them, and certain brethren from Joppa accompanied him. And the morrow after, they entered into Caesarea, and Cornelius waited for them and had called together his kinsmen and near friends. And as Peter was coming in, Cornelius met him and fell down at his feet and worshipped him. But Peter took him up, saying, "Stand up, I myself also am a man."

And as he talked with him, he went in and found many that were come together. And he said unto them, "Ye know how that it is an unlawful thing for a man that is a Jew to keep company or come unto one of another nation. But God has showed me that I should not call any man common or unclean. Therefore came I unto you without gainsaying as soon as I was sent for. I ask, therefore, for what intent ye have sent for me?"

And Cornelius said, "Four days ago I was fasting until this hour. And at the ninth hour I prayed in my house, and behold, a man stood before me in bright clothing and said, 'Cornelius, thy prayer is heard and thine alms are in remembrance in the sight of God. Send therefore to Joppa and call hither Simon, whose surname is Peter. He is lodged in the house of one Simon a tanner by the seaside, who, when he cometh, shall speak unto thee.'"

"Immediately therefore I sent to thee, and thou hast well done that thou art come. Now therefore are we all here present before God to hear all things that are commanded thee of God."

Gideon Levytam: I think I'm going to stop right here because I almost want to reach into the next part of the story because this is really the continuation of the passage, but the amount of material that we have here, I don't want to overbear. Remember, dear brothers and sisters, that what we see here in Acts chapter 9 and 10, those two chapters including chapter 11, we really see how Peter had been witnessing.

In a sense, the Lord is now going to use Peter in using the key that he had given him not only to present the message of the gospel to his own brethren, the Jewish people in Acts chapter 2, not only to present the gospel message to the Samaritans in Acts chapter 8, but in chapter 9 on into chapter 10, he's going now to use the key that Yeshua the Messiah had given him to open the door into the body of Messiah also to the Gentile world.

And you can see Peter's ministry from Lod to Joppa and from Joppa to Caesarea. He had been in Lod, and we have spoken about it in our last meeting together and what happened in the city of Lod. He moved to Joppa, and you remember in Joppa he had been used by the Lord to raise this person, this woman that died. And now he's reaching to the place that is called Caesarea, and there we're going to see Peter is leading a soul to Yeshua the Messiah.

And if there is a comparison to be done, healing of a person physically is great. Raising a person from among the dead in the power of the Messiah is even greater. But leading a soul to the knowledge of sins forgiven is superseding them all. A man might be healed physically. A man might be raised for a season. But eternal salvation comes only through faith in Yeshua the Messiah.

And here we see how the Lord is now using Peter in coming to another person's home, a Gentile's home, a man by the name of Cornelius, to seek to share with him the message of the gospel. And by doing so, he's going to use the key to open the door for the Gentile world to enter into the body of the Messiah. And so, if you remember, in the first eight verses of chapter 10, we saw the vision that Cornelius experienced.

An angel came to Cornelius and told Cornelius in chapter 10 and verse 4, "Your prayers and your alms came up as a memorial before God." Cornelius was a commander. He was a leader. He was a powerful man as a commander of a hundred, and he had been a God-fearer. He believed in the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. He found that all what the Romans have taught concerning other gods were not sufficient to meet the heart need.

And so he became a believer in the God of Israel. And yet he was not sure of his salvation. He was a God-fearer, yet he actually needed to go the next step forward. So the Lord had revealed to him through a vision the necessity to call for the man by the name of Peter in the city of Joppa. So we read in our verses here, in verse 5 and 6 of chapter 10, "Send men to Joppa, call a man by the name of Shimon Petrus, and he will tell you what you need to do."

So in obedience to the word of the angel, in verses 7 and 8, Cornelius sent these men to find Shimon Petrus. Now, in the portion that we began the reading today, we see now the other side of the story. And you know why it is so important to see this, brothers and sisters? Because sometimes we do not understand how God is working. The same God that worked in the heart of Cornelius in the city of Caesarea is the same God who is going now to work in the heart of Peter in a total different city, about 30 miles different location.

The same Lord is going now to work in the heart of Peter to prepare him to go and share the message with Cornelius. So what we have here in verses 9 to 16, we have the vision that Peter experienced in the city of Joppa. So let's just go through it verse by verse. First of all, we read in verse 9: "On the morrow, as they went on their journey and drew nigh unto the city, Peter went up upon the house top about noon time to pray."

Now, you notice that among our people Israel, according to Psalm 55, morning and evening and noon is a time where our people as the Jewish nation would be individually spending time with the Lord in prayer. It also has to do with the temple. When the temple sacrifices were offered, there was a morning sacrifice. There was an evening sacrifice. The hour, the time of prayer, was also at noon time, and Peter as a custom as a Jewish man went to the house top.

In the Middle East, the house tops do not have a slanted roof—at least in the past. Today they build many homes with a slanted roof, but most of the houses, the tops of the houses are flat. And you use this upper area for prayer time, for a time of meditation, for a time of reflection, and for many reasons. And so Peter, according to verse 9, he went up to the house top to pray, and it was about noon.

The sixth hour here is about noon time in the middle of the day. Peter is going up to pray. What a beautiful lesson we learn from the desire of Peter to spend time with the Lord in prayer. But now the Lord has a message for him. While it says here in verse 10, "He became very hungry and he would have eaten, but while they made ready the food for him downstairs in the house, Peter fell into a trance."

The Greek word here, ekstasia, simply means he fell into a mode where the mind—it's like a vision. He fell into a trance whereby he was now in a suitable condition to hear something from the Lord. And so in the next verses, in verses 11 and 12, Peter now sees heaven open and a sheet. Look at this verse 11: "And he saw heaven open and a certain vessel descending unto him as it had been a great sheet knit at the four corners, let down to the earth."

Inside that sheet, there was all manner of beasts. It says in verse 12, it's four-footed beasts of the earth, wild beasts, creeping things, and the fowl of the air. Those are the four types of beasts, of animals and creeping things that were in that sheet. Remember, dear brothers and sisters, the Lord is going to prepare Peter to share the message of the messiahship of Yeshua to the Gentile world.

The Lord is beginning now to show Peter what he had already told him in Acts chapter 1: "Ye shall be my witnesses in Jerusalem, in Judea, in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth." And so now he has to teach him something. Remember, Peter was a Jewish man. Yes, he grew up in Galilee, was not in Jerusalem, but he was a man that was in his life—he was embedded with the Jewish traditions and with the Jewish customs.

With what God had given in his word plus the rabbinical and the Pharisaistic influence in the lives of the nation of Israel, he was embedded in this. And the Lord is now beginning to prepare him for a message that he is to declare to the nations of the world, to the Gentile world. And so he's bringing down this sheet with all sorts of animals. Now, you notice, it says here in verse 11 that it was not only four-footed beasts, but there was wild beasts.

There were also creeping things and the fowl of the air. There were all sort of animals there in that sheet and it's coming down from heaven in a supernatural way because Peter was in a trance; he saw a vision. And so it says here in the next verses, in verse 13, a voice come to Peter. In Hebrew, some call it bat kol, a daughter of a voice. We don't know who spoke. We only read that there was a voice.

It could be the voice of the Lord or the voice of an angel. But we call it bat kol, just a voice. God was speaking to Peter on the top of the roof as he was praying and meditating, preparing him to go out and share the messiahship of Yeshua with the Gentile world. And so the voice said to him, "Rise, Peter, kill and eat." The voice was telling Peter—and remember Peter was very hungry. They were preparing for him food inside the house of Simon the Tanner while he was on the rooftop hungry.

And a vision that came to him telling him, "Peter, you get up, kill and eat." Now Peter, looking at this sheet filled with all sort of animals there inside that sheet—and Peter, of course, you notice the next verses. Look what he's saying in verse 14. Peter said, "Not so, Lord, for I have never eaten anything that is common or unclean." Now some have suggested that when you call the Lord, you never say to him, "Not so."

He is either Lord and you submit to him and you say, "Yes, Lord." You cannot use that word "not so" to your own Lord. But nevertheless, the Lord knew Peter. The Lord knew the need of Peter, he knew the condition of Peter, but he needed to prepare him to go out and share with a Gentile world the messiahship of Yeshua. You know, as I grew up in Jerusalem in Israel, in our home, we never ate anything—even today, by the way—we have never eaten anything that was not what we would call kosher.

We lived in a land that the rabbinical authority designating a restaurant and call it kosher, or a food store or a market. A market is not considered to be kosher unless the rabbi have their stamp of approval. Now we are talking about now in 2011. Can you imagine about 2,000 years ago among the nation of Israel? The Messiah just have come, the age of grace has just begun. In a sense, Israel as a nation were under the law.

The temple is still standing and the Jewish people, including Peter, say, "Look, I have never eaten anything that is common or unclean." I have never done so. Now I know many times people blame Peter and they say, "Well, Peter, how could Peter say this? Doesn't he understand that the Lord Yeshua the Messiah said to him that he is to go to preach to the nations of the world?" But what would you do in a stage like that when something totally new have begun?

When something that the rest of the religious leaders of the nation have refused to accept, what would you do? The Bible clearly taught the nation of Israel what is to be eaten and what is not to be eaten. So Peter, when he said what he said, he had a reason to say what he said. Let me for a moment turn with me, please, to the book of Leviticus just to get this before us. Leviticus chapter 11, so you can see what the law had said to Israel as a nation concerning food to eat or not to eat.

And you will notice the certain meat that Israel were to eat and certain meat and food that Israel were not to eat—clean and unclean. But I just want to read the last verses, from verse 41 to 47. It says: "And every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth shall be an abomination; it shall not be eaten. Whatsoever goeth upon the belly, and whatsoever goeth upon all four, or whatsoever hath more feet among all creeping things that creep upon the earth, them ye shall not eat; for they are an abomination."

"Ye shall not make yourselves abominable with any creeping thing that creepeth, neither shall ye make yourselves unclean with them, that ye should be defiled thereby. For I am the Lord your God: ye shall therefore sanctify yourselves, and ye shall be holy; for I am holy: neither shall ye defile yourselves with any manner of creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth. For I am the Lord that bringing you out of the land of Egypt, to be your God: ye shall therefore be holy, for I am holy."

"This is the law of the beasts, and of the fowl, and of every living creature that moveth in the waters, and of every creature that creepeth upon the earth: to make a difference between the unclean and the clean, and between the beast that may be eaten and the beast that may not be eaten." This is a clear passage, dear brothers and sisters, that were given to our nation Israel long before the Messiah have come, under the law.