Acts 9:43-10:23
My father had a number of prejudices, although I think he liked to hang on to them simply to provoke discussion. When I was in seminary one of my roommates came with me to visit my family and when my father discovered that my friend, David, had grown up in France, he said, “I’m boycotting France. The damn French, we bailed them out of two world wars and they’re still not grateful!”
Another friend visited who sold steam power turbines for General Electric. My dad greeted Harry with, “I’m boycotting GE. I bought a GE dryer once and it was a piece of junk!”
These were rather superficial prejudices, but we can grow up with much more profound prejudices against nations or races or religions or sexes.
I have a brother-in-law from Somalia who grew up hearing stories of the horrible things Jews in Israel do to Palestinian and Arab babies. Israeli children also hear terrible stories about what Arabs and Palestinians do.
If you grew up in the racism of the US or under the apartheid of South Africa, chances are you grew up with your own racial prejudices. Catholics, Jews, Muslims and Protestants can grow up with strong prejudices against each other’s religion.
This morning I want us to look at the deep-seated racial prejudice Peter and the other disciples had against Samaritans and Gentiles and how in Acts 10 that prejudice was dissolved.
To see how deep this prejudice was it is helpful to understand a bit about the Samaritans.
By the time of Jesus, the prejudice of the Jews towards the Samaritans had lasted a thousand years.
The history of the Samaritans began with the breakup of King Solomon’s kingdom into the northern kingdom of Israel and the southern kingdom of Judah (which included Jerusalem). For two hundred years the two kingdoms made alliances and broke them, made peace and then fought against each other.
Finally in 722 BC, Samaria was captured by the Assyrians. Thousands of Jews from the northern kingdom of Israel were deported and the country was repopulated with foreigners. The foreigners intermarried with the Jews who remained, which from the view of the Jews of Judah, made the Jews in the northern kingdom ritually unclean. They were put into the class of lepers and other outcasts.
There were centuries of history that separated the Jews and the Samaritans. In John 4:9 when John recorded the conversation between Jesus and the Samaritan woman at the well and the woman asked Jesus:
You are a Jew and I am a Samaritan woman. How can you ask me for a drink?
John felt it necessary to insert an explanation for his readers
For Jews do not associate with Samaritans.
When Jesus sent out the twelve disciples to minister in his name, he told them: (Matthew 10:5)
Do not go among the Gentiles or enter any town of the Samaritans.
In Luke 10, when Jesus told the parable of the Good Samaritan, he needed an example of someone who was among the most despised by the religious establishment to be the one who helped the person in need. So Jesus chose a Samaritan for his parable to say that even a Samaritan is the true neighbor when he helps someone in need.
In Luke 17 when Jesus healed ten lepers and only one came back to thank Jesus, what is astounding is that this healed man was a Samaritan. Imagine that?
At the heart of Israel’s disdain for the Samaritans was the fact that they had contact with Gentiles and intermarried with them. That is why they were defiled.
So as bad as the Samaritans were, the Gentiles were even worse. The Gentiles are what made the Samaritans bad.
Remember that Matthew, the writer of the gospel, was a tax collector and considered unclean because of his frequent contact with Gentiles. He was a religious outcast because of his association with non-Jews.
As religious Jews, Peter and his fellow disciples were forbidden to have any contact with Gentiles.
If a Gentile entered a home, it was considered defiled until the evening. If milk was drawn from a cow by a Gentile or bread or olive oil was made by a Gentile, it was forbidden to eat or drink it.
The prejudice against Samaritans and Gentiles was deeply ingrained in Peter and yet in this chapter of Acts he went into the home of a Gentile, ate with him and stayed with him. How did Peter move all the way from his deep-seated prejudice against Samaritans and Gentiles to having fellowship and baptizing a Gentile into the family of God? How did Peter move so far away from what he had understood to be true?
It all started with Jesus. Jesus came to Peter as he was fishing and said,
Come, follow me and I will make you fishers of men.
Peter left his nets and followed Jesus and then proceeded to get an education. Jesus passed by Matthew, a tax collector, and told him to “follow me” and Matthew came to be one of Jesus’ disciples. There must have been discussion among the disciples at this invitation. Matthew was unclean because of his contact with Gentiles. Didn’t Jesus care about this?
Then Jesus went up to lepers who were unclean because of their disease and touched them, making him, by Jewish law, ritually unclean. A woman who was bleeding came to Jesus and touched him and he did not seem concerned that a ritually unclean woman had touched him, only that he wanted to know who had been healed.
One day Peter and the other disciples went to get some food and came back to find Jesus sitting and talking with a Samaritan woman by a well.
What kind of a Jew was he? Didn’t he understand the rules?
Over the three years Peter was with Jesus his view of the law changed. He learned from Jesus that (Matthew 5:11)
What goes into a man’s mouth does not make him ‘unclean,’ but what comes out of his mouth, that is what makes him ‘unclean.’
When Jesus healed people on the Sabbath, violating the Pharisaic laws of what work was permitted on the Sabbath, Peter learned that (Mark 2:27)
The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath.
When Jesus told the parable of the Good Samaritan, Peter learned that it is not our religious affiliation that defines who we are but how we care for those in need.
His education continued after Jesus died, was raised to life and ascended. When the believers fled into Samaria because of the persecution in Jerusalem, they took the good news of Jesus with them and Samaritans began to turn to become followers of Jesus.
“Could this be?” the disciples asked in Jerusalem when they received this word. “Is it possible that the good news of Jesus is meant for even the Samaritans?” So Peter and John went to Samaria to investigate the situation and prayed that these new believers would receive the Holy Spirit and then set off on a preaching tour of the areas they had formerly despised.
To show how far Peter had moved from the Pharisaic obedience to the law, Luke puts in this detail at the end of Acts 9 that Peter is staying at the home of Simon the tanner.
Someone who worked with hides of animals was considered unclean because they worked with dead animals. And yet here was Peter living with him, not just associating with him but living with him. This indicates that Peter had learned from Jesus and had moved beyond the laws of the Pharisees and was no longer bound by them.
Peter had come a long way from where he was when he first set out to follow Jesus but now Peter was to be stretched even further in a set of God-orchestrated events that led to Peter’s acceptance of the first Gentile believer among the followers of Jesus.
Because of the example of Jesus, Peter had moved away from the law of the Pharisees and was willing to associate with Jews who were considered to be unclean. But that is only a speed bump compared to the enormous wall Peter had to climb over to associate with and accept Gentiles into the kingdom of God.
An indication of how huge a step this was is the reaction of those in Jerusalem when they heard what had happened.
When he got back to Jerusalem there was a meeting of those critical of what Peter had done. (Acts 11:1-3)
The apostles and the brothers throughout Judea heard that the Gentiles also had received the word of God. 2 So when Peter went up to Jerusalem, the circumcised believers criticized him 3 and said, “You went into the house of uncircumcised men and ate with them.”
This was a huge deal in the early church and Peter led the way. How did Peter get to the point that he was willing to let go of his lifetime prejudice against Gentiles and baptize Cornelius and his household into the family of God?
Let me walk you through what Peter experienced and then we’ll look at the steps Peter took to break with this bedrock understanding of the earliest Jewish believers?
Peter’s part of this story began when he went up to the roof of Simon the tanner to pray in the afternoon.
Pious Jews prayed three times a day and Peter was in the habit of following this practice. Remember that it was on the way to the afternoon prayer time that Peter and John healed the man born lame who was begging at the gate called Beautiful. And it was at this time of prayer that Peter went up to the roof of the home of Simon the tanner to pray.
He was hungry and as he prayed he received a vision.
He saw heaven opened and something like a large sheet being let down to earth by its four corners. 12 It contained all kinds of four-footed animals, as well as reptiles of the earth and birds of the air. 13 Then a voice told him, “Get up, Peter. Kill and eat.”
14 “Surely not, Lord!” Peter replied. “I have never eaten anything impure or unclean.”
15 The voice spoke to him a second time, “Do not call anything impure that God has made clean.”
There is a detailed list in the Law of Moses of what Jews were permitted to eat.
In Leviticus 11
The Lord said to Moses and Aaron, 2 “Say to the Israelites:
and then the Lord proceeded to set out regulations that allowed Israel to know what they could and could not eat.
Camels, rabbits, and pigs were forbidden. Lobsters, clams, oysters and all other sea creatures without fins and scales were to be viewed as detestable. Eagles, vultures, ravens, owls, hawks, ospreys, storks, herons and bats were off limits. It was ok to eat locusts, katydids, crickets and grasshoppers, but all other crawling insects were forbidden. Weasels, rats, lizards and snakes were not permitted.
All his life Peter had kept away from these forbidden sources of food and now they appeared in a vision on a sheet with God telling him to go ahead and eat them.
Think of a Hindu being told to eat beef after a lifetime of viewing cows as sacred animals. Think of a Muslim being told to eat pork when even the thought of eating pork is revolting.
Three times Peter had this vision and he sat there wondering what it meant when there was a knock on the door of Simon’s house.
Three men were at the door. Three Gentiles were at the door. What should Peter do? He had moved a long way from where he had begun. He had accepted interacting with Jews who were considered unclean by Jewish law. He had even accepted Jews who had intermarried with Gentiles. But how far was he willing to go?
In the play and movie, Fiddler on the Roof, the protagonist is a dairy farmer named Tevye. He is a Russian Jew who has three daughters of the age where they could be married. He arranges a marriage for his oldest daughter with the local butcher, a wealthy man, but old. His daughter resists and tells him she wants to marry a tailor, a young man with whom she is in love, but a poor man.
Motel the tailor finally gets up his courage and tells Tevye that it is true he is a poor tailor, but even a poor tailor is entitled to some happiness! And Tevye talks it over with himself.
He’s beginning to talk like a man.
On the other hand, what kind of a match would that be with a poor tailor?
On the other hand, he is an honest, hard worker.
But on the other hand, he has absolutely nothing.
On the other hand, things could never get worse for him, only better.
They gave each other a pledge.
Unheard of! Absurd!
They gave each other a pledge
Unthinkable
But look at my daughter’s face
She loves him
She wants him
And look at my daughter’s eyes
So hopeful
and Tevye bends and consents to the wedding.
Tevye’s second daughter comes to him and announces that she and a radical student from Kiev are in love and are going to be married. Tevye resists and then retreats to talk it over.
He loves her.
Love…
It’s a new style.
On the other hand, our old ways were once new, weren’t they?
On the other hand, they decided without parents.
Without a matchmaker!
On the other hand, did Adam and Eve have a matchmaker?
Oh, yes, they did. And it seems these two have the same matchmaker.
They’re going over my head.
Unheard of! Absurd!
For this, they want to be blessed?
Unthinkable
I’ll lock her up in her room
I couldn’t
I should
But look at my daughter’s eyes
She loves him
And once again Tevye bends and gives his blessing.
Then his third daughter comes to him to say she is in love with a young Russian gentile, not a Jew. She comes to Tevye and says
Papa. I beg you to accept us.
Once again Tevye begins to talk it over with himself.
Accept them?
How can I accept them?
Can I deny everything I believe in?
On the other hand,
can I deny my own daughter?
On the other hand,
how can I turn my back on my faith,
my people?
If I try and bend that far,
I’ll break.
On the other hand…
No.
There is no other hand.
And Tevye cuts her off from the family as if she had died.
Tevye bent and bent until he could bend no further.
Peter had bent a lot. He had accepted Jews who were unclean. He was living with a tanner. How far would he bend? Could he now bend to accept also Gentiles into God’s family?
When Peter began following Jesus he stepped onto a slippery slope. He kept sliding away from what he had understood as right and proper. How far was he going to slide?
Peter sat on the roof, thinking about what the vision meant. He did not have to wait long. The answer came to him as the door was being knocked. The Spirit said to him
“Simon, three men are looking for you. 20 So get up and go downstairs. Do not hesitate to go with them, for I have sent them.”
21 Peter went down and said to the men, “I’m the one you’re looking for. Why have you come?”
22 The men replied, “We have come from Cornelius the centurion. He is a righteous and God-fearing man, who is respected by all the Jewish people. A holy angel told him to have you come to his house so that he could hear what you have to say.” 23 Then Peter invited the men into the house to be his guests.
The sheet appeared three times with all the foods Peter had understood to be unclean and now Peter stood before three men he had understood to be unclean. Peter had heard from the Spirit that he was to go with these three men. Peter knew that this was another step further and that inviting these Gentiles into the house was a step he was meant to take.
Peter went with these three messengers to the house of Cornelius where he observed that Cornelius was speaking in tongues – which indicated that he had been filled with the Holy Spirit. So Peter baptized Cornelius and his household and then went back to Jerusalem to explain what it was he had done and why he had done it.
What are our deep-seated prejudices and how far are we willing to bend to overcome those prejudices?
It might be our theology. One of the more destructive theological conflicts of the last century has been the Pentecostal / Evangelical divide. Pentecostals have taught that Christians need a second baptism of the Holy Spirit manifested by speaking in tongues. Dispensationalists have insisted that the “sensational gifts” such as speaking in tongues ceased with the early apostles and modern expressions of tongues do not come from God.
There are Christians who baptize infants and there are Christians who think such a baptism is invalid.
There are Christians who think women cannot be in authority over men as preachers or teachers and others who think God gives both men and women spiritual gifts such as preaching and teaching and wants those gifts used.
It might be racial prejudice. It might be political prejudice against liberals or conservatives. It might be prejudice against the poor or the rich.
It might be cultural elitism when we compare the worst of this culture with the best of our home culture.
The problem with prejudice is that you don’t think you have a prejudice, you think you are right and if you begin to question what it is you believe to be true, where will it stop?
Tevye resisted change because it threatened the stability of life as he understood it. We resist change for the same reason.
We fear stepping out onto slippery slopes because once we do that, we don’t know where we will end up.
If I allow the “sensational gifts” like tongues to be active in the church maybe I will start to speak in tongues myself and then maybe I will start to prophecy?
If I open myself to women preaching in church than what will come next? Will I move on to accepting practicing homosexuals serving as pastors of churches?
The church has drifted with the culture away from a Biblical view of divorce and today a pastor can get divorced one Sunday and keep on preaching the next as if nothing had happened. The church is drifting with the culture in our view of sexual morality. There is a difference in being led into truth by the Holy Spirit and drifting with the culture away from Biblical truth and it is critical that we discern the difference.
How do I stand on a slippery slope and be led into truth by the Holy Spirit and not be pulled by the culture into minimizing Biblical truth? That is the challenge.
Let me run through very quickly some guidelines for taking a stand on a slippery slope.
First, we look to hear from God in his word. When Peter saw the sheet with all the unclean animals and a voice told him,
“Get up, Peter. Kill and eat.”
Peter went to the word. He knew what the law said in Leviticus and he responded,
“Surely not, Lord! I have never eaten anything impure or unclean.”
The word of God grounds us and protects us from drifting away from truth. But sometimes, as with Peter, we have a mistaken understanding of the word and God wants to take us to a new level of understanding. We need to check with the Scriptures to make sure we are not moving into false teaching and understanding but we also need to be open to new understandings of what the Scriptures teach us. Holding on to what we have always understood to be the meaning of Scripture can prevent us from moving forward as we are led into truth by the Holy Spirit.
This is not an easy or simple task and we need to work so we can discern the difference between drifting and being led.
Secondly, we need to be in the practice and discipline of regular prayer. Peter prayed as he was used to praying. This was not a one time event on the roof of Simon’s house. This was Peter’s regular practice.
Part of praying is taking time to listen and reflect on what God brings to your mind. You might have a vision. You might have a thought that comes to your mind as you pray. You might have a picture that comes to your mind. You need to take time to reflect on what it is God brings to you as you pray. You need to ask, “What does this mean?” just as Peter did.
Don’t be afraid to ask questions as you think and reflect with God. Be quick to question but slow to conclude.
Thirdly, you need to pay attention to your life experiences. When you meet someone who challenges your preconceived notions about who is a Christian and who is not or how the gifts of the Spirit are manifested, you need to think about the experience and see what God wants to teach you through it. Ask what this means when your understanding of Christian theology is challenged by the experience of someone you meet.
Fourthly, you need to grow in confidence and trust in God that as you open yourself to him, he will lead you safely to truth.
One thing is for certain: at least some of what you believe to be true is wrong. It takes enormous arrogance to believe that you are the first person in history to be right about everything. There are parts of what you believe that history will show to have been wrong beliefs.
Trust God and move out in search of truth. Don’t be afraid to take a stand on a slippery slope. Part of the work of the Holy Spirit is to lead us into all truth. Trust him and cooperate with him in your move toward truth.
We will be coming back to this story in the next few sermons. There is so much to learn here.
I want to leave you this morning with a choice between being Jonah or Peter.
I discovered from reading the commentaries that Jonah, who a few centuries before Peter received a word from God that he was to go and preach salvation to the Ninevites, boarded a ship at Joppa to get as far away as he could from where God told him to go.
And it was in Joppa that Peter heard God speak to him. But rather than resist and run away, he put his trust in God and headed to the house of Cornelius.
Be a Peter and trust God to lead you safely into truth. Be willing to consider that you might be wrong in part of what you believe. Let your prejudices fall by the wayside as you are led into truth.
Don’t hold onto tradition as a protection against change. Don’t drift along with the culture. Work with the Holy Spirit to be led into all truth.
