The Color of the Kingdom Part II (Acts 1:8; 10:1-35)
• Acts 1:8 These are Jesus’ last words and instructions to His disciples.
• Jesus is of course promising the coming of the Holy Spirit.
o Jesus is telling us that we will not go in our own strength but empowered by the Holy Spirit.
o Not empowered for our own benefit, but for the Gospel going to the nations.
• It’s the Spirit’s desire and mission to go to the nations and to gather the nations to fulfill what Rev 5 looks like.
• Then Jesus says we will be His witnesses not just in Jewish Jerusalem and Judea, but also Samaria.
o This command to go was different than Jewish tradition.
o Jewish tradition was that they were a centripetal people and nation.
• What is even more shocking here is that the message was to go to Samaria.
o Remember the parable of the good Samaritan? The Jews and Samaritans didn’t exactly get along.
• Then Jesus also adds that the Gospel must also go to the ends of the earth.
o Many of those “ends of the earth nations” are or were former enemies of Israel.
Acts 10:1
Verses 11-16 Peter has a vision in which God shows him that now all things are made clean.
• The Lord is preparing Peter to take the Gospel outside of his comfort zone.
Verse 17 What the Lord showed him was so outside his cultural norm, he is having a hard time with it.
• This ran counter to everything he understood about his faith and nationalism.
Verse 24-27 There is a real act of obedience here for Peter to go.
• He could have thought about it for the night and given in to his fears, preferences, traditions and stayed home.
Verse 28 Peter now makes his cultural un-comfort very clear.
• Entering Cornelius’s house, a gentile house with unclean food, had to be extremely uncomfortable for Peter.
• Peter ends this verse by saying he is willing to overcome all of his cultural traditions and preferences because God has commanded him to do so. This is his next big step in obedience.
Verse 29 I think for Peter and all of us, we have to also move past obedience and into God’s heart.
Verse 30-33 Cornelius explains the story behind why they have called Peter.
• If you ask me, stories like this should be more every day. Are we willing and available?
Verse 34-35 Peter now sees that the mission of God is to every nation.
• There is no favoritism for one nation or one people.
o This is where we have to be careful not to confuse our theology with our patriotism.
• Verse 35 and following Peter begins to explain the Gospel to the crowd. The Kingdom advances.
Conclusion: We all probably understand by now that Jesus came for all nations and people.
• This passage and others make it clear that we His disciples are called to be His witness to all nations and people. (Which implies action on our part.)
o But those people, are now our neighbors. The Kingdom of God is right next door.
