Acts10 – Judy in the Sky

Read Acts 15 – Disagreement does not negate the faith.

Disagreement over circumcision breaks out between some men from Antioch and Paul and Barnabas. The church decided to send them all to Jerusalem, so they could go before the apostles. This is important and both sides have passionate arguments for their view. Notice that both were willing to pursue the matter to resolve.

Together, they did come to resolve, deciding the most basic tenets for the new believers are to abstain from eating food offered to idols, from consuming blood or the meat of strangled animals, and from sexual immorality.

Beloved, be willing to work things out, take them to church leadership if you must, but work towards resolve. There was great joy for the Gentile believers as they read this encouraging message. (15:1-31)

Paul, Barnabas, Judas and Silas stayed on encouraging and strengthening the Antioch believers for some time. Down the road Paul and Barnabas decided to return to the cities where they had preached to see how the believers were doing, but they came to a personal disagreement as to bringing John Mark along. Scripture does not indicate favor for either side, but records they decided to split. Barnabas took John Mark to Cypress, and Paul took Silas to strengthen the churches throughout Syria and Cilicia.

Beloved, this division did not lead to resolve between the men, but it did lead to God’s glory in that they reached more places than they would have together. Is God calling you to something different? What’s holding you back?

Read Acts 10 – God is always at work. We have two parallel events taking place that will come together and accomplish what the Lord intended.

Meet Cornelius, a centurion, a devout man who feared God, gave alms generously to the people, and prayed constantly. The Roman officers were hated by the Jews and it would have been totally inappropriate for a Jew to associate with one. Yet Cornelius is boldly different. An angel visits Cornelius in a vision and tells him to send for Peter.

Notice, my friend, there are some tasks the Lord reserves for humans… the angel visited Cornelius, but he does not give him the gospel message. He (the angel) instructs him (Cornelius) to send for Peter.

Meanwhile, Peter goes up to the rooftop to pray at the tanners house in Joppa. (The rooftop was a patio for many homes). He gets hungry – I love that the bible makes note of this. Beloved, when you set out to pray, you can expect any number of distractions, like hunger.

Peter falls into a trance and has a vision of a sheet being lowered with creatures, clean and unclean under Jewish law to eat, and he hears a voice say, “Rise, Peter, kill and eat.” (:11-16). Peter understandably says no way, but the Lord repeated the vision three times. There was no mistake. What the Lord calls clean is clean. Then the voice tells Peter about Cornelius’s men downstairs and that he is to go with them.

Peter’s life is brand new. He is talking to people he never would have associated with before Jesus. Beloved, is your life the same or boldly different with Jesus? Keep reading and marvel at what God did next in our chapter.