|
The
Beginning Of The Ministry Of Paul; The Ministry
Of Peter Among The Jewish People: Cornelius, The
Beginning Of The Long-Awaited Salvation Of The
Gentiles
It is
obvious that this is not a perfect world. And
it is obvious that none of us are perfect people.
What is the source of this imperfection around
us and within us? The source of this imperfection
isn’t politics or economic injustice or war or
terrorism or the environment. The source of our
imperfection is our alienation from our Creator.
Until we understand this Creator-creature alienation,
we won’t take the appropriate action to end our
shattered relationship - which is the source of
all our problems.
The Word
of God reveals the source of the Creator-creature
alienation. Very early in human history, our first
parents rebelled against our Creator, and became
alienated from Him. Sin, confusion, chaos ensued
and took control of humanity. Adam and Eve (who
were very real people) were alienated from the
Creator. Instead of getting closer to God, Adam
and Eve ran away from Him. Not just their relationship
to God was corrupted, but every aspect of who
they were was affected. Their bodies, their souls,
their wills, their minds, their spirits - all
became corrupted. They were not allowed to eat
from the Tree of Life and were exiled from the
delightful Garden of Eden. They were not headed
toward life but death - the First Death - physical
death, followed by the Second Death - Gehenna,
Hell, the Lake of Fire (which is also a real place).
The consequences
of the alienation of our first parents from the
Creator were transmitted to all of their descendants.
That ruining of body, soul, will, mind, spirit,
relationship to God, that loss of eternal life
- all of it was passed on like a horrible disease,
infecting all of their descendants - you and me.
Because
our alienation from God has so corrupted our nature,
there is not enough we can do on our own to end
this alienation or its many tragic consequences.
We can never be good enough or religious enough
to fully atone or end our alienation from the
Creator or overcome the real and deadly forces
of Satan, sin and death. All human efforts are
inadequate.
But what
we are utterly incapable of doing on our own,
God is completely capable of accomplishing! The
good and merciful Creator had a plan to rescue
ruined humanity from our horrible and hopeless
condition. God the Father sent His eternal Son
whom He loves on a great mission to save many
human beings. The Son of God left Heaven and through
the incarnation, came into this world and became
a human being. The Son of God was born into the
Chosen People. The young carpenter from Nazareth
became Israel’s Messiah - our ultimate Prophet,
Priest and King and Savior.
Rabbi
Yeshua lived a unique, perfect, one of a kind,
sinless, Torah-observing, God-honoring life. Rabbi
Yeshua taught us great truths, corrected the errors
in the Judaism of His day, and was used by His
Father to do tremendous miracles, showing He was
close to God, and would be the miraculous Healer
and Helper and Savior of humanity and the Restorer
Of The Rest Of Creation!
Then,
He accomplished His greatest work of all. The
Son of God willingly allowed Himself to be whipped,
beaten, spit on, humiliated, stripped naked and
crucified! By dying in this way, the righteous
and holy Messiah became the ultimate sacrifice
to fully and completely atone for all of humanity’s
sins, and end our alienation from our Creator.
Because
He was sinless and perfect and innocent, and always
well-pleasing to His Father, death could not hold
Yeshua, and the Son of God was resurrected, thereby
overcoming our great enemies - Satan, sin and
death! This is our true hope!
After
the Resurrected Rabbi revealed Himself to His
disciples, and gave them further teaching, the
Son of God returned to Heaven, to the place of
greatest honor and authority - the right hand
of God the Father. From there the Father and the
Son poured out the Spirit They share on Yeshua’s
disciples. With the empowering presence of the
Spirit they would continue the Son of God’s great
mission to save many of alienated humanity. They
would be co-laborers with the Father, the Son
and the Spirit.
Those
first Messianic Jews became a unified and loving
and worshiping and witnessing fellowship that
would continue the Messiah’s great mission to
bring the Good News of salvation to the world
- starting with the Jewish people first, and then
extending to the Gentiles.
Messiah’s
Holy Community had been growing. Starting in Jerusalem
with 120, on Shavuot they had grown to 3,000.
With the miracle that took place at the Yaffa
(Beautiful) gate, the community had grown to 5,000.
The Yeshua-rejecting
leaders of the Chosen Nation didn’t like what
was happening, and Peter and John were arrested
and tried before Israel’s Senate, the Sanhedrin.
After hearing from Peter and John, the political
and religious leaders of the Chosen People made
their decision: Yeshua would not be acknowledged
as the Messiah. Yeshua’s resurrection would not
be acknowledged. Yeshua’s followers would be rejected
by the leaders and the majority of the people
who trusted the leaders. Yeshua’s followers would
be threatened with punishments and ostracism to
try and intimidate them into silence or compliance.
After
this all 12 emissaries were arrested, put on trial,
and after being whipped, were released. Then Stephen,
one of the Seven Servants, was arrested, tried
and executed. That day, a great persecution broke
out against the Messianic Jews in Jerusalem. Men
and women were arrested, imprisoned, and some
were executed.
The Jerusalem
congregation scattered. As they scattered, they
brought the message of reconciliation with God
everywhere they went - including to the people
of Samaria. The Samaritans were a people of mixed
Jewish and Gentiles heritage, and many of them
accepted Israel’s Messiah. So, not only was the
message spreading geographically, but it was also
spreading beyond Israel’s ethnic boundaries- which
was exactly what God had intended from the beginning!
The people who were chosen were fulfilling our
calling to be a light to the other nations of
the world - and that was a tremendous thing!
One of
the leaders of the anti-Yeshua persecution was
Rabbi Paul. Although he didn’t start that way,
he would become one of the greatest men who ever
lived. He was very special Jewish man whom the
Lord had chosen to bring the Message of Salvation
to the nations of this fallen world. He would
have a great impact on both Jews and Gentiles.
The Three-In-one God would used this great Greek
and Hebrew speaking Rabbi to expand the truth
throughout a large part of the Roman world, and
plant communities of Messianic Jews and Gentile
Christians. His great understanding would come
to us in the form of much of the Divine Revelation
in the New Testament.
God is
greater than man, and righteousness is greater
and than evil, and so on the way to Damascus,
to stamp out Messiah’s followers there, the Son
of God appeared to this Rabbi who had been opposing
Him. Paul was supernaturally blinded, and after
three days of fasting, one of Yeshua’s disciples
laid his hands on Paul, and the great rabbi from
Tarsus was enabled to see again. His spiritual
eyes were now fully open, and immediately Paul
began to boldly proclaim to the Jewish community
of Damascus that Yeshua was the Son of God, proving
from the Scriptures and maybe from his own experience
that Yeshua is the Messiah. Well, this dramatic
turn-around of this deadly anti-Messianic adversary
caused a huge impact on the Jewish community of
Damascus. And, in a fallen and satanically-controlled
world, effective and bold proclamation about Yeshua
will inevitably provoke a response - as it did
there.
When
many days had elapsed, the non-believing Jews
plotted together to do away with him, but their
plot became known to Saul. They were also watching
the gates day and night so that they might put
him to death; but his disciples (Paul was
a very gifted Rabbi, and already he had disciples
- students who looked to him as their teacher)
took him by night and let him down through
an opening in the wall, lowering him in a large
basket.
And, when
a door is shut in one place, it often will open
in another. When he came to Jerusalem, he was
trying to associate with the disciples; but they
were all afraid of him, not believing that he
was a disciple. But Barnabas took hold of him
and brought him to the apostles (the Messiah’s
representatives and emissaries) and described
to them how he had seen the Lord on the road,
and that He had talked to him, and how at Damascus
he had spoken out boldly in the name of Yeshua.
So, wise and encouraging Barnabas vouched
for Paul, that he was not a spy who was trying
to infiltrate and destroy the community, and that
Paul’s faith was genuine, and so Paul was graciously
accepted into the Jerusalem community that he
once persecuted. By the way, for the past several
years, spies have been infiltrating the Messianic
Jewish communities in Israel, trying find out
who the believers are. The spies have been reporting
their findings to anti-Messianic organizations
which then report to the Ministry of the Interior
- which has been causing problems for some of
the believers in Israel.
This great
Jewish rabbi from Tarsus was uniquely gifted to
speak to almost everyone - Hebrew-speaking Jewish
people, and Greek-speaking Jewish people. And
he was with them, moving about freely in Jerusalem,
speaking out boldly in the name of the Lord. And
he was talking and arguing with the Hellenistic
Jews. And, because he was so gifted to declare
the truth to so many, in a world system that opposes
the truth, there was a response to his bold proclamation:
But they were attempting to put him to death.
And, when a door to serve the Lord in one
place is shut, it often will open in another.
But when the brothers learned of it, they brought
him down to Caesarea and sent him away to Tarsus.
Now, Luke
gives us another progress report. So the church
(the community of those who are called out by
the eternal God to experience salvation and everlasting
life) throughout all Judea and Galilee and
Samaria enjoyed peace, being built up; and going
on in the fear of the Lord and in the comfort
of the Holy Spirit, it continued to increase.
The Community continued growing. It expanded
throughout the nation and beyond - to all Judea
and Galilee and Samaria. The persecutions ended
for a time and the community enjoyed a time of
peace. It continued to be faithful to the Lord,
respecting Him and His Word. In spite of the persecutions
they had endured, they were comforted by the presence
of the Holy Spirit, who was very close to them,
and who lived in them, who was pleased with them;
the Indwelling Spirit whose presence and approval
comforted by them guaranteeing them eternal life.
As you examine your life, can you say that you
are going on in the fear of the Lord and the comfort
of the Holy Spirit?
Like Paul,
Peter was another one of the greatest men who
ever lived. He was one of the leaders among the
apostles. He was given great spiritual authority.
He was empowered to do many and great miracles.
He was a writer of parts of the New Testament.
Although his primary sphere of ministry was to
the lost sheep of the house of Israel, like Paul,
he too was uniquely used by God to reach both
Jews and Gentiles. This man, to whom the “keys
of the Kingdom” were given, used those keys to
open the first doors of salvation to the Jewish
people, and then to the Samaritans, and then to
the Gentiles. Peter was the one who gave the great
message on Shavuot when the Good News about the
Messiah was accepted by 3,000 Jewish people, and
the Holy Spirit was given. Peter was chosen to
make sure the Holy Spirit was given to those in
Samaria. Now Peter was being prepared for something
monumental, something unprecedented - opening
the doors of salvation to the nations of the world
who so desperately need Messianic salvation!
But, before
that Peter would continue his great ministry to
the Jewish people. Now as Peter was traveling
through all those regions, he came down also to
the saints who lived at Lydda. There he found
a man named Aeneas, who had been bedridden eight
years, for he was paralyzed. Peter said to him,
"Aeneas, Messiah Yeshua heals you; get up
and make your bed". Immediately he got up.
And all who lived at Lydda and Sharon saw him,
and they turned to the Lord. What was the
meaning of this miracle? Because of our sin and
rebellion against God, humanity is like Aeneas
- crippled, paralyzed and unable to function the
way we were intended to. Yeshua is the Messiah
and Savior and Healer of humanity. Even though
He died, the Messiah is alive, and is real, and
is still doing miracles - but now that healing
of humanity takes place through Yeshua’s earthly
representatives. He and they will bring ultimate
healing and restoration and blessing to those
in the world who believe in Yeshua. That is what
this great miracle meant.
But, in
a sense, humanity is much worse off than merely
being paralyzed. We are dead - spiritually dead
because of our trespasses and sins. If we are
to rise from the dead and experience a new kind
of life, all of us, even the best of us, need
the Jewish Messiah working through His Community
of the Redeemed to restore us to that life - as
this next incident illustrates. Now in Yafo
(on the Mediterranean, just south of current
day Tel Aviv) there was a disciple named Tabitha
(which translated in Greek is called Dorcas [and
Gazelle in English]); this woman was abounding
with deeds of kindness and charity which she continually
did. And it happened at that time that she fell
sick and died. And when they had washed
her body, they laid it in an upper room. Since
Lydda was near Yafo, the disciples, having heard
that Peter was there, sent two men to him, imploring
him, "Do not delay in coming to us".
Faith and good deeds, like those of Tabitha,
can catch the attention of Heaven and good men
on Earth. Do you have genuine faith, trust and
confidence in God and His Word? How about your
good deeds. Do you have some? Many?
So
Peter arose and went with them. When he arrived,
they brought him into the upper room; and all
the widows stood beside him, weeping and showing
all the tunics and garments that Dorcas used to
make while she was with them. But Peter
sent them all out and knelt down and prayed, and
turning to the body, he said, "Tabitha, arise".
And she opened her eyes, and when she saw Peter,
she sat up. And he gave her his hand and raised
her up; and calling the saints and widows, he
presented her alive. Praise the Lord! The
powerful force of death had been overcome for
faithful and good Tabitha! And, death can and
will be defeated for all those, who like Tabitha,
have faith in the Son of God and experience the
ministry of the Son of God that is at work through
the faithful remnant who serve Him! Do you have
faith in the Son of God? Do you know Him? Trust
Him?
This great
miracle made an impact beyond the believing community
who were present that great day. It became
known all over Yafo, and many believed in the
Lord. And Peter stayed many days in Yafo with
a tanner named Simon. Wow! More and more Jewish
people were coming to a saving knowledge of the
Messiah! But, now it was time for something even
greater, something long anticipated by the prophets,
to occur. Israel, the Chosen People, would continue
to fulfill our part in the plans of God, being
a light to the nations, bringing the truth about
the God Who Alone Can Save to the nations of the
world who were in a state of darkness, confusion
and death. Now it was time for the Lord’s salvation
to extend beyond the holy nation and be given
to the other nations of the world.
This breakout
of messianic salvation to the Gentiles would come
through two special men who were being prepared
for this historic moment in the history of salvation
- Jewish Peter and Gentile Cornelius. Now there
was a man at Caesarea named Cornelius,
a centurion (an officer over 100 soldiers)
of what was called the Italian cohort, a devout
man and one who feared God with all his household.
That attitude toward the Jewish people was unusual.
Most Romans didn’t respect us. But this Roman
officer did not look down on the conquered Jewish
people and our invisible God, but respected the
God of Israel and was kind to us. And, he encouraged
his family to show the same kind of faith and
respect. And, he did even more. And he gave
many alms to the Jewish people and prayed to God
continually. What a very special non-Jewish
man, and worthy to be imitated! Do you have faith
in the Creator like Cornelius? Do you pray to
him regularly? In spite of the lack of faith of
the majority of the Jewish people, do you have
respect for us, and God’s continued plans and
purposes for us? Are you a generous, charitable
person?
Like with
Tabitha, Cornelius’s spirituality and good deeds
caught the attention of Heaven. This is part of
the reason why this man was chosen to receive
the singular honor to be the first Gentile to
experience messianic salvation! Again, this should
motivate us to do be people who respect God, are
generous and pray. About the ninth hour of
the day (3:00 in the afternoon) he clearly
saw in a vision an angel of God who had just come
in and said to him, Cornelius"! And fixing
his gaze on him and being much alarmed, he said,
"What is it, Lord"? And he said to him,
"Your prayers and alms have ascended as a
memorial before God. Cornelius’s spirituality
and good deeds caught the attention of Heaven.
Now dispatch some men to Yafo and send for a man
named Simon, who is also called Peter; he is staying
with a tanner named Simon, whose house is by the
sea”.
The Father
or the Son of God don’t normally bring the Good
News to human beings directly. Angels don’t normally
bring the Good News to human beings directly.
That great responsibility and honor has been given
to us - the sons and daughters of God. A man like
Peter was needed to bring the Message about Messianic
Salvation to Cornelius. And, even though Peter
was wise and bold and filled with the Holy Spirit,
and dedicated to proclaiming the Good News to
Jewish people, because what was about to happen
was so radical, Peter would need a dramatic revelation
to prepare him to bring the Good News about the
Jewish Messiah to those of humanity who had not
received it - the Gentiles.
|
