1 Kings 15:25-17:24, Acts 10:24-48, Psalm 134:1-3, Proverbs 17:9-11
Today is the 16th day of June welcome to the Daily Audio Bible I am Brian and it’s great to be here with you today as we do what we do every day, take the next step forward together and so let’s do that. We are working through the Book of 1 Kings now and we have kind of moved beyond Solomon and his son Rehoboam and Jeroboam and the dividing of the kingdoms. And so, we are definitely in a period now where there was once the kingdom of Israel there are now two kingdoms: Israel and Judah. So, we’re working through the different kings of both of those individual nations. 1 Kings chapter 15 through verse 25 through chapter 17 through verse 24.
Commentary:
Okay, so in the Book of Acts today Peter has gone to Cornelius’s house and if we remember this…this whole meeting began in our reading yesterday with Cornelius receiving this vision to send for Peter. Even as Peter is having a vision of his own where a sheet is coming down from…well he’s on the roof of the house and he’s essentially told that…well this sheet is full of unclean animals that are forbidden to eat and he’s told that he can and that he should. And so, he’s confused about this but it’s symbolic and it’s revealing something very, very, very, very profound. And so, Peter is told to go with these people who’ve gone to go get him and he goes and he enters the home of a gentile. Something they’re not supposed to do. Something that is loaded with all kind of complexities. The Jews felt marginalized by the Romans, the Jews felt they needed to be separated from the gentiles. In so many ways they felt like that those in the land, the Romans in the land that we occupying the land that they were the enemy. This is one of the reasons that they’re looking for a Messiah to defeat this enemy. And so, here’s Peter being told by the Holy Spirit to go and enter the home of a gentile. So, Peter’s gotten this vision that is rewiring things in his mind and then he’s instructed to go into the home of a gentile which is rewiring things in his mind and but he knows that God has sent him they have this discussion and Cornelius has his entire household waiting to hear what Peter’s got to say and Peter doesn’t even know why he’s there but he shares the good news about Jesus. And a profound thing occurs, they hear about this and the Holy Spirit descends upon them and they receive the Holy Spirit and they haven’t been baptized. In this moment, baptism is part of the conversion process. And so, the Holy Spirit has come onto these people who don’t really understand and Peter’s like…I mean the Holy Spirit has come upon these people is there any reason they shouldn’t be baptized. Because this is definitely tweaking with what they thought that they knew. It’s definitely tweaking their theology all together. This isn’t how it was supposed to go like, this isn’t how they had forecasted. And yet these gentiles come into the kingdom and what we witness in today’s reading is the first recorded gentiles coming into the kingdom. And this is a very, very big deal. It actually ultimately causes a split, a very, very large disagreement in the church that requires ultimately the very first church counsel where people get together and talk this out. What are the implications because previous to this those that who believed in Jesus were Jewish people who were not leaving Judaism and were not converting to something, they were following the Messiah and following his ways and they path that he set out before them and this was a Jewish thing. And so, the Jewish people had always been separatists they were set apart. The whole world wasn’t allowed in then all of a sudden, we see God acting. Like God making the…because the Holy Spirit is the only Spirit of God. So, the Holy Spirit came upon these gentile people who were hearing the good news. The Lord made the decision and that made everybody have to step back and go, this isn’t what we were expecting, this doesn’t jive with our expectations, this doesn’t jive with our theology, this doesn’t jive with our understanding of anything and yet we can’t deny what God is doing. Otherwise they put themselves in the position that the Pharisee’s were in according to…against Jesus. Remember, like Jesus flew in the face of what they thought that they knew and yet He absolute signs and wonders following Him to verify that what he was doing was of God and they still rejected Him. Now the church is about…well in the position to do the same thing. God has made a move: He has sent his Holy Spirit among these gentiles, He has spoken. They could reject that or they could embrace that God is doing a new thing in the world that they didn’t have a grid for. We’ll continue with this story going forward because ultimately Peter’s got to go back to the Jewish people that he’s in fellowship with, that he’s in leadership with and he’s got to tell this story. This isn’t gonna stay a secret. And so, it’s going to be told to people who are also not expecting to hear it and it’s gonna tweak their theology and their understanding. And so, it’s gonna cause a lot of discussion. And we’ll talk about that as we go forward. But it’s important for us to see because this is a profound shift in things, that God is doing a new thing in the world and everybody is invited to the story, to the party. A very big deal indeed. A very, like a big enough deal that I am going to guess that 99%, 98% of those listening right now including myself, were gentiles. This is the story that opened the door that would one day allow us to be graphed into the family of God and to be joined heirs with Jesus to the Kingdom of Heaven, pretty profound indeed.
Prayer:
So, thank You Father, thank You Father for Your word and for the way that it counsels us and instructs us, teaches us, opens our eyes. And we are grateful in particular for what we read of today in the Book of Acts where You clearly sent Your Holy Spirit upon people that, that that clearly wasn’t supposed to happen to. At least in the way that people understood it. And You changed things opening the door for we who are here today to be apart. And so, we’re humbled by that, we’re grateful, deeply grateful that You made a way where there was no way and You continue to make a way into the hearts of those that You love. So, as we meditate upon this today may we continue with an attitude of gratefulness and humility. We thank You for welcoming us into Your family. And we pray this in the name of Jesus. Amen.
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And that’s it for today, I’m Brian, I love you and I’ll be waiting for you here tomorrow.