July 1, 2010

Joshua 3
“By this you shall know that the living God is among you, and that He will without fail drive out from before you the Canaanites and. . . “ Imagine that—the living God among us. Is that not what we long for? Is that not what Utopian dreams are all about? That the God who spoke the Universe into Existence should desire to commune with us is incredible. That He should want to dwell among us is beyond the wildest dreams of any science fiction, fantasy or romance novel. But it is not fiction. It is reality. But there is a problem in Utopia. We are sinners in front of a God who detests sin.
In the New Testament the crossing of the Jordan is considered to be a type of rest, spiritual rest. The Lord promised to be with them to defeat the enemy. In the NT the enemy is the sin that towers above us toying with us as a evil slave master. The Lord promises to drive out that slave master who is over us. By this we know that the living God is among us; He without fail breaks and cancels the power of Satan, sin and death which holds sway over us. Yes we still have to deal with the flesh and the world. but we do it in His victory. We exchange our meager abilities for His life, His victory. Indeed we serve a glorious King. Speak His glory to someone today!
--Pastor john

Acts 10:24-48
It is unfortunate that I can't hear Peter speaking to Cornelius. Upon the first reading, I hear the intonations of Peter implying, "I really don't want to be here, but God made me come. What do ya want?"
Actually, I am too harsh with Peter. That probably wasn't his intonation. Most likely Peter was just expressing his surprise that God wanted him to actually enter the house of a Gentile and that God wanted Gentiles to know Him. To the Jewish mindset, they had always been God's special people. God just didn't consort with Gentiles--according to their mindset. I don't think we even begin to imagine the cultural contempt of the Jews toward Gentiles; therefore, we miss the contempt which Peter and the whole church had for Gentiles. Yet it is the glory of our King to unite the two groups into one and to use the ones who held the greatest contempt to reach the group that held the least contempt. Peter gives a very simple explanation of the Good News of Jesus with which he ends, "To Him all the prophets witness that, through His name, whoever believes in Him will receive remission of sins."
While Peter was still speaking those words, the Holy Spirit fell upon the Gentiles evidenced by tongues--just like Pentecost. The Lord Jesus made sure that there was no question about His desire to reach the Gentiles. Peter did not teach them to speak in tongues. He didn't even get to lead them in the sinners prayer! He just spoke the words and they were born again. Why? Two reasons:
1. Anyone, anywhere, who really wants to know Him, God will move heaven and earth to reveal His glory to them. But He always sends people to explain the Gospel. We have to go. These people wanted to believe in Jesus they only lacked knowledge and when the knowledge came, it was received with out a verbalized prayer. Yes we can believe in Jesus without a verbalized prayer. It is a commitment of the mind, will and emotions. We ask people to pray because it helps focus on the commitment.
2. God wanted for all time to make clear that He receives Gentiles and that the church was for both Jews and Gentiles. Pouring out the Holy Spirit, even before Peter had a chance to even say anything about the Holy Spirit, was proof that this was from God and not a trumped up event.

Peter is backed against the wall. The glory of the Lord Jesus is shining clearly in the Gentiles! A new era has begun! Praise the name of Jesus, that glory still shines today to all who yield in faith to the indwelling presence of the Lord Jesus Christ. He still wants to take His glory to all peoples of the earth. Indeed we serve a glorious king! Speak His glory to someone today!
--Pastor John