The Word Made Plain

Announcer: Welcome to The Word Made Plain with senior pastor Tony Clark of Calvary Chapel Newport News in Virginia. Currently, Pastor Tony is teaching a study in the book of Acts. Please open your Bible to Acts chapter 10, verses 6 through 16.

Tony Clark: All right, let's dive into the Word of God together. Turn with me in your Bibles to Acts chapter 10. We're going to be looking at verses 6 through 16. Father, thank you so much for this tremendous opportunity to speak Your Word to the hearts of Your precious people. God, I just pray that Your Spirit will come upon me. Lord, teach us the truth of Your Word. Unclog our ears so we can hear what You have to say to us today, Lord, in Jesus' name. Amen.

Acts chapter 10, looking at verses 6 through 16. The title of this message is "Religious But Lost," and this is part two of this message. In part one of this study, we were introduced to a Roman soldier named Cornelius. He was very religious, but we saw that he was very lost. In other words, he did a lot of religious activities: he feared God, gave to charity, and he prayed to God always, according to verse two.

However, an angel came to him and said in verse four, "Your prayers and your charitable giving have come up for a memorial before God." Then he was instructed in verse five to send men to the city of Joppa and send for Simon, whose surname is Peter. Now we pick up the conversation between the angel and Cornelius in verses six through eight.

Look at what it says there. It says, "He is lodging with Simon, a tanner, whose house is by the sea, and he will tell you what you must do." And when the angel had spoken to him and had departed, Cornelius called two of his household servants and a devout soldier from among those who waited on him continually. So when he had explained all these things to them, he sent them to Joppa.

In these verses, we see the angel is continuing to give Cornelius instructions. He told him to go to the city of Joppa and send for Peter in verse five. Now he is giving further details. He is now saying that Peter was lodging with Simon, who was a tanner whose house is by the sea. He will tell you what you must do.

There are three observations I want to bring to your attention from these verses. Number one: notice how the angel tells Cornelius to send men to Simon, a tanner whose house is by the sea. I bring this up to encourage you to say that God knows where you live as well. Did you know that? He knows where you live.

And did you know that God is behind where you're living right now? You say, "No, this apartment complex had a special and I just moved." God is behind where you're living right now. Do you know why? He wants to reach those neighbors for Jesus Christ. It says in Acts 17:26-27 that God has pre-appointed your times and your dwellings. God wanted you to live where you're living right now, not to be a horrible neighbor and a stuck-up neighbor like some of you are.

You see your neighbor coming and you turn your head and go in the other direction. No, it says so they can grope and find Him, so they can find God through you living next to them or near them. God also knows who you are and knows you by name. He called Cornelius by his name in verse three. He knew Simon by his name and even his occupation, that he was a tanner.

God knows you by your name as well, and He has put you on that job that you whine and complain about, that you gripe about. God has placed you on that job so you can reach those people for Jesus Christ. This is why you're on that job. So, He knows you by name, which means He hasn't forgotten you. Out of the seven billion plus people on this earth, He knows you by name. He called Abraham, Abraham; Saul, Saul; Samuel, Samuel; Mary, Mary; Simon, Simon. He knows you by name. Sometimes you feel like, "Has God forgotten me?" He knows you by your name and knows where you live and knows where you work. God is not stalking you, but He knows you.

The second thing I want to bring to your attention is how the angel told Cornelius that Peter will come and tell you what you must do. This angel was more than capable of telling Cornelius about the Gospel of Jesus Christ, but God uses people to carry out this awesome duty. I have to ask you: when was the last time you talked to people about the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ?

Forgiveness is through the cross of Jesus. I didn't say when was the last time you invited someone to church. That's good; it has its place. But the Gospel is the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. That's the Gospel. So, don't argue with somebody about something religious and all of a sudden you say, "Yeah, I preached the Gospel today." If it didn't have the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ and forgiveness through the cross, then it wasn't the Gospel. You had a religious conversation or maybe even a spiritual one, but it wasn't the Gospel.

When was the last time you talked to someone about the Gospel of Jesus Christ? This is why, when we repented of our sins, we were left here upon the earth: to tell others about how God saved us. It's been rightfully put that we're just one beggar telling another beggar where we found bread. This is why God left us here when we repented of our sin and accepted Christ into our hearts as our Lord and Savior. The reason why He just didn't rapture us up into heaven is because there's a reason for that: so we can tell others about how God saved us.

You may be thinking, "No, Pastor Tony, we're here to worship God." Well, we can worship God in heaven. "No, Pastor Tony, we're here to learn about God." How much more are we going to learn about God in heaven? "No, no, I got you, Pastor Tony. We're here to pray to God." We can pray to God in heaven. But the one thing we can't do in heaven is win lost people to Christ. We only have our time here on the earth to do this. So, this is why the angel told Cornelius to go and get Peter and he will tell you what you must do.

Salvation and eternal life through Jesus Christ is not an option; it's something we must do if we want to have eternal life and spend eternity in heaven. We learn this from Acts 4:12, which says, "Nor is there salvation in any other, for there is no other name under heaven given among men whereby we must be saved." The word "must" there means of absolute necessity. It's not an option. It's not like, "Well, I accept Christ, maybe, maybe not." It's not an option. I think if I go to one more funeral and I hear every last person is thrown up into heaven, I think I'm going to scream. Everybody's not going!

And there's a way to do it. Be graceful. That person may have bust hell wide open, but you don't go and tell that at the funeral. "Hey, you know your relative, they bust hell wide open as soon as they closed their eyes. Hell had a boom that took place." No, you don't do that. But I just did one not that long ago, and I knew the person didn't know the Lord. I didn't talk about that. I said, "You know what? Funerals are for the living, not for the dead." You can come up and do whatever you do and pay your last respects, but the thing is, that person is gone. But the people alive—that's who the funeral is for. And so, it is something we must do if we want eternal life with Jesus Christ.

The third thing I want to bring to your attention is this: can God count on you to take the Gospel like He counted on Peter? He said, "Go get Peter, and he's going to come and tell you what you must do." Can the Lord say about you, "Go get," and put your name there, "he's going to tell you what you must do"? Some of you are saying, "No, not me, because I don't know what to say. What am I going to say? Come to church and Pastor Tony will tell you?" No.

The Lord knew that He could count on Peter. This is why He said, "Go get Peter. He's all the way in Joppa, but he's going to tell you what you must do." And I just wonder, can God count on you? Can God tap you on the shoulder and say, "Go across the hall and tell this person about Me"? Or guess what? Somebody is about to come during lunchtime and ask you some things about God. Can God count on you like He could count on Peter?

The question is: did Cornelius obey the words of the angel? Verse seven says, "When the angel who spoke to him had departed, Cornelius called two of his household servants and a devout soldier from among those who waited on him continually." Notice how the soldier Cornelius sent with the two men was just like him: he was devout, which means showing or having deep religious feelings or commitment.

Now, why did I bring this up? Watch this. This shows us that like begets like. We can only reproduce after our kind. In Genesis chapter one, it said that the living creatures brought forth after its kind, the birds brought forth after its kind, the beasts of the earth brought forth after its kind. Like begets like. If we are religious but lost, those around us will be the same way: religious but lost. Men, single parents—if we are a certain way, then our families will follow in our footsteps.

I know I've got a friend that's an atheist, and guess what? His oldest daughter is an atheist. Like begets like. Look at where you are with your walk with God, then your families will go no further than where you have gone. Like begets like. Cornelius in verse two is said to be devout, so the soldier he sent was also devout. In other words, we can only take people as far as we've gone. And this goes for everyone closest to us. So Cornelius explained everything the angel told him to the three men in verse eight.

Look at verses nine through sixteen so we can get the context. It says, "The next day, as they went on their journey and drew near the city, Peter went up on the housetop to pray about the sixth hour. Then he became very hungry and wanted to eat; but while they made ready, he fell into a trance and saw heaven opened and an object like a great sheet bound at four corners descended to him and let down to the earth. In it were all kinds of four-footed animals of the earth, wild beasts, creeping things, and birds of the air. And a voice came to Peter, 'Rise, Peter; kill and eat.' But Peter said, 'Not so, Lord! For I have never eaten anything common or unclean.' And the voice spoke to him again the second time, 'What God has cleansed you must not call common.' This was done three times. And the object was taken up into heaven again."

Incredible verses here. In these verses, we see God preparing Peter for this historic moment of going into the house of a Roman soldier, something a good Jew would never do. And so, on the next day, the three men traveled the thirty miles from Caesarea to the city of Joppa, and they knew exactly where to go from the specific instructions given by the angel. According to verse nine, as these men drew near to the city, Peter went up on the housetop to pray at about the sixth hour, which is around noon.

Seeing that the housetops in biblical times were flat, they were like a patio. They were also used as a quiet place to get away from the crowds and get away from the noise in the house, and they would go up there to meditate and go up there to pray and get away and get alone. This is where vision is always given by God to us: away from the crowds, away from the noise, in a quiet place with a quiet heart.

Many people say, "Well, I just don't know what God wants me to do." And I've said it many, many, many times: we have too much noise going on in our lives. All we've got to do is just look at this generation today. Every time you see them in the mall, walking down the street, they've got some buds in their ears, some kind of headphones. They've just got to have something going on. They know nothing about the quiet, nothing about how God speaks in a still, small voice because you've got too much noise going on that you can't hear it.

God is speaking; He's always speaking. We're not always listening because we've got so much noise going on in our lives. Many of you want to hear from God and have Him speak to you, but there's just too much noise: headphones and music and TV and radio and just chatter and background noise. "I'm not looking at it, I'm not watching it, but it's just in the background." And many of you, I'll tell you now, you love the noise. You know why? Because you have such a guilty conscience that if you were to get quiet for a moment, the guilt of your sin would overwhelm you.

And this is why you've always got to have something going on: some noise, some music, some thing. The most frightening thing for some of you is going to sleep at night. And many of you have now either gone to sleep with the TV on or gone to sleep with some music on because you don't want to get quiet with your conscience because it's eating you up about something you're doing or not doing. And this is why people drink their sorrows away or smoke their sorrows away or drug their sorrows away because there's sorrow and guilt and people are trying to get away from it. Vision begins in a quiet place, away from the noise, as Peter did here.

And so as Peter goes up on top of the roof to pray, verse 10 says that he became hungry. I've found this to be true as well: whenever I purpose in my heart that I'm going to pray, Satan uses my body appetites to distract me, by either bombarding me with evil thoughts or sleepiness or, like we see here with Peter, hunger. However, God used Peter's hunger to speak to him. So as the meal was delayed for some unknown reason to Peter, he fell into a trance.

Now, you think of a trance like some seance, but no. The word "trance" is defined as that stage between sleep and awake. The Jewish philosopher Philo defined a trance as a divine intoxication where one is so full of God that he or she loses touch with their surroundings. This is the state that Peter was in: a divine intoxication. I love that definition by Philo.

Now, how different are we today than Peter? As dinner was being prepared, Peter used this time to pray. We so often go watch TV, or we're definitely on our phones scrolling through social media or Pinterest as we're waiting on dinner to get done. Peter used this time to pray because prayer was a priority in Peter's life, something he learned by watching Jesus pray. If you ever want to know about the prayer life of Jesus, go through the Gospel of Luke. Luke seemed to emphasize the prayer life of Jesus, and if you would look, Jesus was always praying.

I am aware that as a guest in the house of Simon the tanner, Peter wouldn't be cooking. So he was at the mercy of those cooking. He was probably wondering, "What's taking y'all so long? Dinner's normally made by now and you're fooling around in the kitchen." He didn't know why they were fooling around in the kitchen, but he took advantage of that time to go and pray.

Now, as he was praying, verse 11 says, "And he saw heaven opened and an object like a great sheet bound at four corners descended to him and let down to the earth." In this sheet that descended upon Peter were filled with all kinds of four-footed animals of the earth and wild beasts and creeping things and the birds of the air, which happens to be how the animal kingdom is divided up in Genesis 6:20. And Jesus spoke to Peter in verse 13 and says, "Rise, Peter; kill and eat."

What I'm about to say is monumental because in Leviticus 11 and Leviticus 20:22-27, the Jews were given very specific instructions concerning what foods they could or could not eat. In Peter's vision, he sees clean and unclean animals, kosher and non-kosher foods all together upon a single sheet. I find this amazing because here is Peter, who was hungry, and God used food to speak to him. I love this about the Lord, that He didn't come down on Peter for being hungry, saying, "I led you to pray, why is your stomach growling? What's wrong with you, Peter?" No, He didn't come down on him. And because he was hungry, the Lord said, "Okay, I'm going to use food to speak to him."

It's amazing how Peter probably paid even more attention, seeing that he was hungry, that this vision had to do with food. He said, "Are you hungry, Peter? I will use food to speak to you." Did you know that God uses common everyday things to speak to us? So often you're looking for some supernatural sky to open up or some shooting star or some meteorite to hit your house. I don't know what you're looking for. God uses common everyday things to speak to us.

So what happened when Jesus said at the end of verse 13, "Rise, Peter; kill and eat"? Peter responded in verse 14 and said, "Not so, Lord! For I have never eaten anything common or unclean." Peter seemed to have a problem with saying "no" to the Lord. In Matthew 16:22, when the Lord said He had to go to the cross, Peter said, "Not so, Lord! Far be it from You to go to that cross." In John 13:8, when Jesus came around to wash the disciples' feet, He came to Peter and said, "I've got to wash your feet." He said, "No, no, no, Lord, You ain't going to wash these dogs. You ain't seen feet like these before." And so he seemed to have a problem with saying "no" to the Lord.

I have to ask you: do you have a problem with saying "no" to God? Are you arguing with God over something He's clearly told you to do? And you're giving Him every reason why you can't do it, and He's told you to do it. I don't know whether that's giving, whether that's tithing, I don't know what it is that God has told you to do and you're giving every known reason why you can't and saying, "No, Lord." You're no different than Peter. There's been many times the Lord said, "Well, why don't you go over there and talk to them about Me?" and I've said, "No, Lord, I'm ready to go home. That conversation might take a long time and I'm ready to get to the house." We do that. We're no different than Peter. Peter is using a contradictory term in his answer to Jesus. He said, "Not so," and "Lord."

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