Today's Word Radio

Brett Meador: I wonder if some of you had never received vision from God because you have to be scrolling on Instagram. You have to be busy working and doing that and serving the other, and you're busy, busy, busy. You're so busy you have no time, and you've left no room for the Lord to speak to you.

Guest (Male): Pastor Brett Meador says it's hearing the Lord's voice that enables us to answer the call of God.

Brett Meador: And here we are with our Bibles telling us to pray, but I think we fail to do that because we're too busy. Your noisy life is not allowing God to speak to you.

Guest (Male): We see in Acts chapter 10 God giving Peter a vision that challenges long-held traditions, preparing him for a far greater work. As Peter struggled to understand what the Lord was revealing, God was opening the door for the gospel to reach all people. Pastor Brett Meador finds encouragement in today's word of God's desire to use believers to accomplish His greater purposes.

Brett Meador: Grab your Bible, turn with me to Acts chapter 10, and we see kind of a great story. Acts chapter 10 starting in verse 9. It says on the morrow, as they went on their journey and drew nigh to the city, Peter went up upon the housetop about the sixth hour to pray.

And he had become very hungry and would have eaten, but while they made ready, he fell into a trance. Peter is going on the rooftop, which was a normal thing in those days, and he's going up to pray. He falls into a trance. Verse 11: "And he saw heaven opened, 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 all manner of four-footed beasts of the earth, and wild beasts, and creeping things, and fowls 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 any thing that is common or unclean." And the voice spake again to him the second time, "What God hath cleansed, that call not thou common." This was done thrice, and the vessel was received up again into heaven. Now while Peter doubted in himself what this vision he had seen should mean, behold, the men which were sent from Cornelius' house made inquiry for Simon's house and stood before the gate.

And called, and asked whether Simon, which was surnamed Peter, lodged 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." And then verse 21, Peter went down and went with the men.

We're going to see who these men are and what they're doing and what this vision is all about. In fact, the actual meaning of the vision, which is a huge, huge thing, we don't want to miss that. But in this passage, we see four steps God uses in Peter's vision to do a work in his life and really to start the church on the right direction. Four things I'd like to show you about Peter's vision that might be helpful for you when you receive vision.

We're going to answer some questions. What does vision look like? How do we know it's a vision from God and not the pizza we had the night before? How do you know if it's from God? We're going to talk about all that. So the first thing that we see is number one, you can jot this down: preparation for vision.

Peter, I think, is in a good place for vision because he does something really right here and you've got to commend him. It says here in verse 9 of our text, "Peter went up upon the housetop to pray about the sixth hour." You've got to give Peter credit. When did he receive vision? When he went up to pray.

When will you receive vision? You need to be ready to receive vision. I wonder if some of you had never received vision from God because you have to be scrolling on Instagram. You have to be busy talking to people. You have to be busy working and doing that and serving the other, and you're busy, busy, busy. You're so busy you have no time, and you've left no room for the Lord to speak to you.

Your noisy life is not allowing God to speak to you. Is that why Jesus perhaps spent several times where He'd just get away from the crowds and seek the Father? How many times have I said this? If Jesus had to get away and seek the Father and be still before God, how much more do you need time carved away to pray, talk to the God of the universe?

The Bible says you have not because you ask not. And here we are with our Bibles telling us to pray, but I think we fail to do that because we're too busy looking at Instagram or too busy with our chores, shockingly busy. I wonder if that's a problem that we don't still ourselves.

Notice not only that there was a time for prayer, but also he was praying on a housetop. We see here this is where the story takes place, and it might sound confusing because they went to Simon's house and asked for Simon Peter. Well, Simon is not Simon. The Simon house, that's Simon the Tanner, and then there's Simon Peter, and those two guys are in the same house.

So don't let that confuse you, but Simon the Tanner's house, he lived in this town of Joppa. This was a place of retreat, a place to be away from the clamor and the crowd in the city. I have a question for you. Do you have a place where you can get away from the noise, where you don't bring your iPhone, where you're not watching some screen, where you're actually not being bothered?

You actually say, I'm carving out time like Peter did to pray. Because if you don't do that, don't expect to have vision from God. I don't think we can really honestly say, "Lord, I want to have vision," if we're just too busy doing what we're doing. "Well, Brett, I've got things to do. I'm afraid there's too much stuff I have to be involved with."

Well, that's the problem with the Jews. In fact, the Jews are story after story of Jews who, when they didn't seek the Lord, they got into big trouble. Can I give you one of my favorite examples of that in the Old Testament? Being too busy, and it gets you into real trouble. If you're not seeking the Lord, carving out time to seek God, don't be shocked if you end up in real trouble because that's happened throughout all the Bible. It’s happened in my own life experientially, and it's probably happened to you too.

But would you keep your finger here in Acts 10 and turn with me to Isaiah chapter 30? What's going on here in Isaiah 30? Well, the Assyrian army, which is at this time in Isaiah's ministry, they're as powerful as they'd ever been. They were brutal and scary. The Assyrians are the ones who skinned their enemies alive and put them as flags on flagpoles.

This was the Assyrian army. The Jews were freaked out. And so in their freaked-outness, what did they do? Did they carve out some time in quietness and say, "Lord, what do we do?" Nope. They were in a panic mode. And so what they did is they started to take counsel of themselves. What should we do? What should we do? What should we do?

And they said, "Well, let's find somebody to align ourselves with." And so they aligned themselves with the Egyptians. Is that a good idea? If you're a Bible person and you know the Egyptian thing, are you supposed to be tied up with the Egyptians? No. But check out Isaiah 30. The Lord speaks through the prophet Isaiah. It’s powerful.

Verse 1, Isaiah 30, it says, "Woe to the rebellious children, saith the Lord, that take counsel, but not of me; and that cover with a covering, but not of my spirit, that they may add sin to sin: That walk to go down into Egypt, and have not asked at my mouth; to strengthen themselves in the strength of Pharaoh, and to trust in the shadow of Egypt! Therefore shall the strength of Pharaoh be your shame, and the trust in the shadow of Egypt your confusion."

God's saying, you guys took counsel of each other, but you didn't take counsel of Me. You didn't have time to seek Me, and so you aligned yourself, and it's going to be bad for you. Well, what should they have done? God tells them. In fact, fast forward to verse 15. Verse 15, God goes on, "For thus saith the Lord God, the Holy One of Israel; In returning and rest shall ye be saved; in quietness and in confidence shall be your strength: and ye would not."

What's God saying? You would not take time in quietness, confidence, and rest. Because you would not, well, verse 16: "But ye said, 'No; for we will flee upon horses'; therefore shall ye flee: and, 'We will ride upon the swift'; therefore they that pursue you shall be swift. One thousand shall flee at the rebuke of one; at the rebuke of five shall ye flee: till ye be left as a beacon upon the top of a mountain, and as an ensign on an hill."

This is kind of an interesting story because the Jews made their mistake. God says, you guys are going to be toast. But if you kind of know the whole story, the people repent. They break their alliance off with Egypt and they say in quietness, "Lord, okay, what are we going to do?" And that's where in verse 21 it says, "And thine ears shall hear a word behind thee, saying, 'This is the way, walk ye in it,' when ye turn to the right hand, and when ye turn to the left."

The Lord says, "I will be with you if you put your trust in Me." But would you mark verse 15? The Lord said it's in rest, in returning as in returning to the Lord. Returning and rest shall you be saved; in quietness and confidence shall your strength be, but you would not. Are you one that would not go to the Lord in quietness and confidence because you're too busy, shockingly busy?

So you don't have time to really pray. Who's got time to pray? I've got stuff to do. That's what the Bible's warning the people of Israel. That's where Peter, you've got to give him credit. He goes up on the rooftop and starts seeking the Lord. And because of that, the whole trajectory of the church is going to change because they were off course.

They were rejecting the Gentiles, and God was saying, time to bring the Gentiles in and Peter, time to have some bacon. That's the minor thing. I'll show you that in a second. But Isaiah 30, basically we have the people of Israel who have to learn that lesson. And I hope we learn that lesson before we align ourselves with Egypt.

All of this to say, point number one is we have preparation for vision. And the preparation was to take time away and be quiet and pray. And the Lord says, I can use that. So Peter's going to get the message because of preparation for vision. Number two on our list, revelation in vision. That's number two. And where do we see that?

This is where Peter's going to have to learn some new stuff that he was wrong about that we talked about. He thought eating kosher meat was the only way to go, and God's going to reveal to him, "Peter, I'm doing a new thing." Revelation. And it comes by vision. In verse 14 of our text here, it says, "But Peter said, 'Not so, Lord; for I have never eaten any thing that is common or unclean.'"

By the way, he went through this whole exercise three times. Did you note that? It says that in verse 16. This happened thrice, it says here in the King James. Three times. This is a hardheaded Peter. "Not so, Lord," he said three times. "I have never eaten anything that's not kosher or you know clean."

But what I love about Peter is the Lord says, "I'm going to use that guy." Even though he was flawed, even though we are flawed and we say no sometimes to God, which we shouldn't, but like Peter we do. Peter says no three times. But why was he saying it so emphatically? I think that this is revealing a little bit of self-righteousness in Peter.

"I would never do that. I'm not a filthy Gentile who would eat bacon." That's the idea here. No, three times. What's going on here? Could Peter have taken on self-righteous attitude? This is going to be by the way something Peter struggles with the rest of his life. Even though he has this vision from God that's going to be confirmed, and yet he's still going to struggle with this.

Can I show you where he struggles? Flip over to Galatians chapter 2 real quick. In Galatians chapter 2, Paul and Peter hang out together, and then Paul's going to get in Peter's face. This is where serious conflict between Peter and Paul. But here's how this goes down. It's Galatians 2, verse 11: "But when Peter was come to Antioch, I [Paul] withstood him to the face, because he was to be blamed."

He had a problem. "For before that certain came from James, he did eat with the Gentiles: but when they were come, he withdrew and separated himself, fearing them which were of the circumcision." That's just fancy Bible way of saying some Jews came and when Peter saw the Jews, he was like, "Oh, I've got to eat kosher again and not eat with the Gentiles because he feared the Jews."

Verse 13: "And the other Jews dissembled likewise with him; insomuch that Barnabas also was carried away with their dissimulation." That's a fancy King James word for hypocrisy. "But when I saw that they walked not uprightly according to the truth of the gospel, I said unto Peter before them all, 'If thou, being a Jew, livest after the manner of Gentiles, and not as do the Jews, why compellest thou the Gentiles to live as do the Jews?'"

What was going on here? Peter was living a double life. He was starting to eat kosher food at Paul's blessing, but then he was trying to make Gentiles be kosher. He had this weird double standard. So much so that when some of the heavyweight Jews showed up, Peter's like, "Oh, I've got to go sit with the Jewish table and not eat the bacon."

The problem was that Peter had sat at the Gentile table eating food, which he had right to do. Jesus even told him to do it in Acts chapter 10. And now Peter's kind of living this double standard. I wonder if some of us do that. That double standard where we'll talk with some of our friends about which movies we watch, but we won't talk to all of our friends about which movies we watch.

Do we live double standard lives? Well, that's what Peter's doing, and he's kind of afraid of what people are going to think and all that stuff. And so the reason I say that is Peter's going to struggle with this whole eating of meat and all that stuff his whole ministry. We're going to see that even more as we get through the New Testament.

But what I want to show you is how is God first going to correct that problem in Peter's thinking? Through a vision. A sheet coming down with unclean meats and say, rise, Peter, kill and eat. God through a vision says, "Peter, things are changing," and it's going to have to do not with your diet, but it's going to have to do with those Gentiles that eat those foods.

God's going to open the door. So I love it. First there's preparation for vision, second there's revelation in vision. God reveals a truth that Peter just didn't know. That brings us to number three: illumination in vision. Where new things are brought to light. You know, in Leviticus 11, that's where Peter hears all about what food you're supposed to eat or what you're not supposed to eat.

But here in a vision, the Lord says, "Don't call unclean something that I've made clean." That's going to be speaking about the Gentiles. The illumination is Peter's going to understand God loves the Gentiles, and He's going to purify them and clean them. I love Peter because he has a hard time being spiritual.

Some people struggle with that. I think I struggle with that a little bit. I grew up in a church and time where I saw people that kind of acted overly spiritual. Do you guys know what I mean? "Thus saith the Lord." And you're like, oh man, this is weird. I kind of push back on that and sometimes I probably err in the side of not spiritual.

But I get that with Peter. Poor Peter in the Garden of Gethsemane, Jesus said, "Okay, I need you to watch and pray." And what does Peter do? "Okay, got you." And he goes off and then Peter goes into sawing logs. He was sleeping. He wasn't spiritual. He was supposed to be praying at the most important time in history. Jesus is headed for the cross and Jesus is saying, "Watch and pray." And what does he do? He's sleeping.

In the same way here, Peter wanted to pray, but he gets to the rooftop and he's so hungry. In his hunger, he falls into a trance, it says. Because of the hunger. What's going on here? It's almost like the Lord came down on Peter that day and said, "What's wrong with you? You should be praying. You should be eating kale. You're hungry."

But that's not what God does. God says, "Oh, you're hungry? I can work with that. I'm going to use your hunger and your belly to actually use that to be a lesson of something that's illumination. That I'm going to open up the gates for the Gentiles to be saved and watch out, Peter, here comes a big sheet of food, get ready."

This is what God does. God takes Peter where he's at in his hunger. He's not being super spiritual, but he is praying. And then the Lord says, "I'm going to use his weakness to show him something really true." Illumination through his hunger is what actually happened. So don't think that the Bible said visions and dreams are all done with.

God uses visions just like Peter had to speak to you. That's important. Yes, the Lord uses His body, the body of Christ, to speak to us. The Lord uses His word to speak to us. But the Lord might be wanting to speak to you personally through vision and clarity. Now you say, "Brett, that's all fine and dandy, but how do we know it's from the Lord?"

Well, that brings us to our fourth and final point, and that is confirmation of the vision that was given. Confirmation. This is a key. What you need is confirmation of your vision. How does that happen? There's a couple ways that happens. One, confirmation will come from the word. If you had a vision and it lines up with the Bible, you can be sure that's a good thing.

If it's telling you to do something the Bible tells you to do, great. We know it's true because of the Bible. But if it's something that's not of the Bible and you had vision and suddenly you're saying, "I had a new vision. I was given glasses and spectacles and I saw these plates and I was given the words to write a book and make a new gospel," that's not of the Lord.

The Bible goes against that. Remember Galatians says, if an angel from heaven even gives you a new gospel, that angel's accursed. You've got to remember that, especially our friends that are Mormons. We've got to remind you the Bible said that shouldn't have happened. What happened with Joseph Smith biblically was wrong. Read the book of Galatians. It's not hard to see that.

So be careful. Visions can be from God, but they also can be from Satan. So what you need to do is confirm it biblically. Sometimes your vision will be confirmed by other believers. I've noticed if you have a lot of believers saying, "Man, that seems right and true and in line with what God is doing in your life," I think there's safety in a multitude of counselors.

So having multiple Christians saying, "Yeah, I think that's right. The Lord's speaking to you," that's a helpful step in the right direction. Another way a vision can be confirmed is it actually comes to pass, what is included in the vision. In Peter's case, he gets a little bit of that in both ways.

We know his sheet vision was right because later the Gentiles would be saved. They'd be eating unkosher food and not be judged by the meat that they eat. And this would be confirmed by other things. But there's even, I love the confirmation that God gave to Peter that was very mathematical. Did you see that? The confirmation is there in verse 19 of our text here in Acts chapter 10.

It says in verse 19, "While Peter thought on the vision." Now, what was he thinking? Verse 17: "while Peter doubted in himself what this vision he had seen should mean." There's a doubt in his heart. "I don't even know if this vision is legit. I'm just hungry." So he's doubting, but then in verse 19, "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.'"

There's either three guys at the door wanting him to go to Caesarea or there's not. Or was this a real vision, and was this the Holy Spirit saying, "No, there's three dudes"? And Peter says, "Okay, Lord, thank you." Knock, knock, knock. We're going to see this story unfold. Three men sent by Cornelius in the beginning of the chapter that we haven't read yet.

So this is beautiful confirmation. Here's the confirmation: three guys will be at the door. They want you to go to Caesarea Maritima and the Lord will show you what to do when you get there. It was confirmed. The confirmation of vision is something you should look forward to. If you don't have confirmation, you shouldn't really believe it. Look for the confirmation.

Jeremiah the prophet received a prophecy about himself, and Jeremiah was hesitant to believe it. But I love the story. It’s Jeremiah chapter 32, verse 6, where it says this. Jeremiah said, "The word of the Lord came unto me, saying, 'Behold, Hanameel the son of Shallum thine uncle shall come unto thee, saying, Buy thee my field that is in Anathoth: for the right of redemption is thine to buy it.'"

So this is the word that came from the Lord. But Jeremiah was like, is that really from the Lord? Is this really of Him? He didn't really know for sure. And so we keep reading there in verse 8, it goes on: "So Hanameel mine uncle's son came to me in the court of the prison according to the word of the Lord, and said unto me, 'Buy my field, I pray thee, that is in Anathoth, which is in the country of Benjamin: for the right of inheritance is thine, and the redemption is thine; buy it for thyself.'"

Then look what Jeremiah says. "Then I knew that this was the word of the Lord." The Lord said your cousin's going to come and offer the property. And he said, "I don't know, man." And then the cousin came and said exactly what the Lord said. And so Jeremiah says, I love what he says, "Then I knew that this was the word of the Lord."

Boy, there's so many stories I could tell you even of Athey Creek of vision the Lord's given us. We didn't know if that was from the Lord or not, but then the Lord just confirmed it over and over again, and the Lord does that. Well, anyway, here we see the confirmation of faith for Jeremiah. This is what you need when you have vision: you need to have that vision confirmed. Very important.

The Lord says, "I want you in quietness and in confidence to hear My voice and My word," whether it's through His word, through prayer, by the Spirit, or vision or dreams as the Bible says. As we get close to the last days, more dreams, more vision, more prophecy is going to come. And that's what the Lord says He wants to do.

And so the Lord says, behold, there in Revelation chapter 3, verse 20, He says, "Behold, I stand at the door, and knock: if any man hear my voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with me." Don't forget, believers, that this verse is for you, not the unsaved.

If you remember, Revelation 3 is a word to the churches of Asia Minor. And the Lord's saying, Christians, I stand at the door of your heart and I'm knocking. And if anyone will hear My voice and open the door—isn't it funny that Peter's confirmation was guys knocking at the door?

But Jesus is knocking at our door and He wants to come in and sup with you and He with me. What a beautiful scripture. Don't be too busy to hear from the Lord, to receive vision. Pray for vision. Lord, would you give me clarity in my vision of my life? What should I be doing? What are the things I'm missing? What are the Bible things that I know to be true but I haven't really applied that to my worldview today? Let the Lord speak to you through vision. I think there's no stopping what the Lord can do when it comes to people that are really open to hearing from Him.

Guest (Male): Pastor Brett Meador reflecting on several important observations through the vision of the Lord given to Peter, encouraging trust in the Lord's leading wherever His greater purposes call us. And Pastor Brett concludes today's word message drawn from Acts chapter 10 with a word of prayer in just a moment.

But first, Today's Word is the radio ministry of Athey Creek Church in the Portland, Oregon area where Brett Meador is the senior pastor. We invite you to find out more by going to todayswordradio.com. If you've missed any portion of this study, you'll find all of his messages online at todayswordradio.com.

Our vision on Today's Word is to proclaim the hope of salvation and help people know Jesus through careful verse-by-verse study of the Bible. We invite you to find out more by going to todayswordradio.com. Also, I want to mention that in addition to the main Athey Creek campus in West Linn, Oregon, we also have other locations in the Portland area.

For more information, go to todayswordradio.com and click the link "Locations." Again, todayswordradio.com and click the link "Locations." Well, with a brief closing prayer, here again is Pastor Brett Meador.

Brett Meador: Lord, I pray blessing as we close up our Bibles. I pray that we'd open up our hearts and our time, even how we spend time looking to You for vision and direction. I pray that we'd be ready to receive it, Lord, and open. Help us to learn to take time away and pray.

But Lord, even as Peter hears from You, we're thankful we have Your Word here perfectly written for us to hear from You directly. So I pray that corporately, individually, Lord, we'd be right in line with Your will, Your way, Your purpose. Guide us and direct us, we pray, and give ourselves to You afresh in Jesus' name. Amen.

Guest (Male): Amen. Pastor Brett Meador closing our time here on Today's Word. And that's all the time we have. Next time, Pastor Brett will continue another verse-by-verse study in the book of Acts. Today's Word with Pastor Brett Meador is an outreach of Athey Creek Church in West Linn, Oregon.