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| Rev. Brian Wilkie |
Pastor of St. Andrew's Christian Community
Rockland, Ontario
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PODCAST LINK to CFRA
broadcast - Sunday, May 8th, 2016:
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Broadcast Notes:
Welcome to Good News
In the Morning a program of words and music bringing a Christian message of
hope and encouragement to those who are looking for intelligent meaningful and
spirited approach to faith and to life.
This program is
sponsored by Good News Christian Ministries Post Office Box 184 Rideau Ferry
Ontario K0G 1W0. I'm your host today, Brian Wilkie, of St. Andrew's Christian
Church in Rockland. As always I want to start by thanking you our listeners.
It's your encouragement and support that helps us in so many ways. Today we
want to acknowledge Alice and Clifford
Miller who’ve sponsored today's program; their donation has made this
broadcast possible today.
Please remember that
you can always visit our website for material to encourage and support you in
your Christian walk and if you miss an episode of the show you can go to our
website and download the MP3 of our broadcast. You’ll find more details at www.GNCM.CA.
The Conversion of Cornelius
Today I'm going to
share with you a story of conversion from the scriptures. It’s perhaps one of
the most important conversion stories in scripture because for most of us who
read it and listen to it today, it's a story that affects our lives directly.
it's the story of the first conversion of somebody, who is not a Jewish person,
to come to faith in Jesus Christ.
You of course
remember that Jesus Christ was born among the Jews and he focused his mission
on the Jewish people. He was there to to tell his own people, the people of
God, about the Messiah. To have them come to Faith in him first and then for
them to carry the message to the world. That's precisely what happened but in
the first few chapters of Acts, after Jesus has risen from the dead and then is
taken up into heaven, and after the Holy Spirit has descended upon the people
of Israel they are the people of God who are following Jesus the message goes
out and thousands are converted. Day after day the number of people following
Jesus and believing in him as Lord is increasing but all of them are Jewish
people all of them are people born descended of Abraham, who were raised in the
worship of God at the temple in Jerusalem. They learned from the scriptures of
the Old Testament, were circumcised, if they were men, when they were babies
and they had always been Jews.
In fact they
considered their faith in Jesus Christ to be a continuation of faithfulness to
their Jewish heritage. Then the plan of Jesus to take the message beyond
Jerusalem and Judea to the ends of the Earth began to take form. This is a
rather long scripture, so I'm saving it until after we've listened to our first
music today, so I'd like you to hear this song of faith, a hymn of praise, sung
by the acapella group Glad, Lead on, O King Eternal. After this
we’ll hear the scripture.
(Glad, Lead on O King
Eternal)
The story I'm about
to read from scriptures is from the book of Acts reading from the tenth chapter verses 1 to 48. God leads
Cornelius and God leads Peter in this story, leads them onto a glorious
encounter and the beginning of an incredible Mission. So let me begin the
reading:
Now At Caesarea there was a man
named Cornelius, a centurion in what was known as the Italian Regiment. 2 He
and all his family were devout and God-fearing; he gave generously to those in
need and prayed to God regularly. 3 One day at about three in the afternoon he
had a vision. He distinctly saw an angel of God, who came to him and said,
“Cornelius!”
4 Cornelius stared at him in fear.
“What is it, Lord?” he asked.
The angel answered, “Your prayers
and gifts to the poor have come up as a memorial offering before God. 5 Now
send men to Joppa to bring back a man named Simon who is called Peter. 6 He is
staying with Simon the tanner, whose house is by the sea.”
7 When the angel who spoke to him
had gone, Cornelius called two of his servants and a devout soldier who was one
of his attendants. 8 He told them everything that had happened and sent them to
Joppa.
Peter’s Vision
9 About noon the following day as
they were on their journey and approaching the city, Peter went up on the roof
to pray. 10 He became hungry and wanted something to eat, and while the meal
was being prepared, he fell into a trance. 11 He saw heaven opened and
something like a large sheet being let down to earth by its four corners. 12 It
contained all kinds of four-footed animals, as well as reptiles of the earth
and birds of the air. 13 Then a voice told him, “Get up, Peter. Kill and eat.”
14 “Surely not, Lord!” Peter
replied. “I have never eaten anything impure or unclean.”
15 The voice spoke to him a second
time, “Do not call anything impure that God has made clean.”
16 This happened three times, and
immediately the sheet was taken back to heaven.
17 While Peter was wondering about
the meaning of the vision, the men sent by Cornelius found out where Simon’s
house was and stopped at the gate. 18 They called out, asking if Simon who was
known as Peter was staying there.
19 While Peter was still thinking
about the vision, the Spirit said to him, “Simon, three men are looking for
you. 20 So get up and go downstairs. Do not hesitate to go with them, for I
have sent them.”
21 Peter went down and said to the
men, “I’m the one you’re looking for. Why have you come?”
22 The men replied, “We have come
from Cornelius the centurion. He is a righteous and God-fearing man, who is
respected by all the Jewish people. A holy angel told him to have you come to
his house so that he could hear what you have to say.” 23 Then Peter invited
the men into the house to be his guests.
Peter at
Cornelius’ House
The next day Peter started out with
them, and some of the brothers from Joppa went along. 24 The following day he
arrived in Caesarea. Cornelius was expecting them and had called together his
relatives and close friends. 25 As Peter entered the house, Cornelius met him
and fell at his feet in reverence. 26 But Peter made him get up. “Stand up,” he
said, “I am only a man myself.”
27 Talking with him, Peter went
inside and found a large gathering of people. 28 He said to them: “You are well
aware that it is against our law for a Jew to associate with a Gentile or visit
him. But God has shown me that I should not call any man impure or unclean. 29
So when I was sent for, I came without raising any objection. May I ask why you
sent for me?”
30 Cornelius answered: “Four days
ago I was in my house praying at this hour, at three in the afternoon. Suddenly
a man in shining clothes stood before me 31 and said, ‘Cornelius, God has heard
your prayer and remembered your gifts to the poor. 32 Send to Joppa for Simon
who is called Peter. He is a guest in the home of Simon the tanner, who lives
by the sea.’ 33 So I sent for you immediately, and it was good of you to come.
Now we are all here in the presence of God to listen to everything the Lord has
commanded you to tell us.”
34 Then Peter began to speak: “I now
realize how true it is that God does not show favoritism 35 but accepts men
from every nation who fear him and do what is right. 36 You know the message
God sent to the people of Israel, telling the good news of peace through Jesus
Christ, who is Lord of all. 37 You know what has happened throughout Judea,
beginning in Galilee after the baptism that John preached— 38 how God anointed
Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and power, and how he went around doing
good and healing all who were under the power of the devil, because God was
with him.
39 “We are witnesses of everything
he did in the country of the Jews and in Jerusalem. They killed him by hanging
him on a tree, 40 but God raised him from the dead on the third day and caused
him to be seen. 41 He was not seen by all the people, but by witnesses whom God
had already chosen—by us who ate and drank with him after he rose from the dead.
42 He commanded us to preach to the people and to testify that he is the one
whom God appointed as judge of the living and the dead. 43 All the prophets
testify about him that everyone who believes in him receives forgiveness of
sins through his name.”
44 While Peter was still speaking
these words, the Holy Spirit came on all who heard the message. 45 The
circumcised believers who had come with Peter were astonished that the gift of
the Holy Spirit had been poured out even on the Gentiles. 46 For they heard
them speaking in tongues and praising God.
Then Peter said, 47 “Can anyone keep
these people from being baptized with water? They have received the Holy Spirit
just as we have.” 48 So he ordered that they be baptized in the name of Jesus
Christ. Then they asked Peter to stay with them for a few days.
This is a beautiful
portion of scripture and it represents the first non-Jew who is brought into
the kingdom of God and into the family of Christ. He becomes part of the
church, the body of Christ, and, from this beginning, the evangelism of the
entire world is set out.
It’s set out with
great care by God to make sure that the message was clear to both the Gentile
and to the Jew. In fact it's an amazing thing that this encounter happened at
all. There were so many barriers to it.
Cornelius was a godly
man but he was not a Jew, he was Roman. Sometimes a conqueror might come in and
be despiteful toward the people he's conquered, but this Cornelius was a man
who had seen something in the worship that the Jews had, in the life they
lived. . . and it's amazing that he saw that! We see many examples in scripture
of how difficult it could be for Gentiles and Jewish people to have a friendly
relationship. Some of the people that Jesus encountered among his own people
were very stern, strict and disdainful of anybody who wasn't Jewish. Cornelius
may have encountered those people, but perhaps the faithfulness of his
servants, perhaps the openness of the people of the community showed him that
they were people to be respected and even to be imitated. He had given to their
causes he had helped them in many ways and he had shown reverence for their
God.
Still he knew that
despite his reverence for God he wasn't part of God's people. He probably
didn't even question that although he may have wanted it to be otherwise. He
knew that God is God and He can choose Whom he chooses, and if He had chosen to
minister to the people of Israel and accepted them into his family, and he had
no reason to to reject God even if he couldn't be part of that family. He had
that kind of righteousness that you don't often see. You saw it in Job in the
Old Testament. Now there was a righteous man who knew that God was God and God
was right in his judgments. Even if he didn't understand why things were the
way they were he would still worship God. Job suffered all kinds of difficulty
and harm, not only to himself but to his whole family. Yet he said, “yet though
he slay me, still I will praise him.” He said, “naked I came into the world and
naked I will leave. How should I be ungrateful to God if any of this should
happen?” Job had that kind of faith that said. “even if it doesn't benefit me,
God is still good.” Cornelius seem to have that kind of faith and yet God is
more merciful than Cornelius expected. He was preparing to bring Cornelius and
his household right into the family of God. He did so by going to the leader of
the Christian Movement at the time. Peter was reckoned as the chief of the
disciples. If anybody else had told the rest of the Christians that Gentiles
could become Christians, they might have thought the person was
over-enthusiastic. Even Peter needed to be convinced. He was shown a vision of
all the unclean foods that Jews were forbidden to eat by the laws of the Old
Testament, which we understand as the kosher laws. We know that those kosher
laws are still observed by many Jewish people today.
Peter was observant
of those laws right to that time, but God showed him this food and when Peter
rejected it God said, “I've made it clean, don't declare it unclean. Before
long Peter had made the connection between this vision and the visitors that
are showing up at this time. He went into Cornelius his house and told the good
news. There God showed that it wasn't just Peter's idea to bring the gospel to
Cornelius because the Holy Spirit showed up just as it had on the day of
Pentecost. It fell upon these Gentile believers and they spoke in tongues and
praised God and prophesied. Peter said what was obvious to all the Christians
in the room, “Can we withhold baptism from these people when God has shown his
favor upon them?” and so they were baptized and they became part of the
Christian church.
This is such good
news! When Jesus comes into somebody's life something changes and I want to
share with you a song by Sara Groves that speaks about her testimony, Something
Changed, from her album, Add to the Beauty.
I'm so inspired by
how God taught Cornelius that his grace included him and how God taught Peter
that His Grace included the Gentiles. I am delighted that we can share that
good news with you today. We can say that we realize how true it is that God
does not show favoritism but accepts people from every nation who fear Him and
do what's right. You too can turn to this God,you too can discover that his
grace includes you. By calling upon the name of Jesus and thanking him for the
gift of forgiveness and new life we can turn from sin and live the holy life
that God gives to us.
Let's pray together
and ask God to continue this work in us.
Almighty God we give you thanks and
praise that you saw fit to give Grace to Cornelius and his whole household, and
that you have given Grace to Millions upon Millions even billions of people in
the generations since, as the gospel goes out to every tongue and every tribe,
every nation. We thank you that the gospel reaches us! We can hear the
message and we can ask you and receive the grace that you offer. So thank you
for all of this in Jesus’ name, Amen.
Again, I want to
thank you, our listeners, for your encouragement and support. I want to thank
once again Alice and Clifford Miller for your sponsorship of today's program.
We want to encourage all of you to support our ministry with prayer. Pray for the people who are listening today and pray for us as we prepare messages for the weeks ahead.
You can also support our ministry financially, helping us pay the cost of broadcasting enables us to reach you and over 7 thousand listeners in the Ottawa River Valley. If you write a check you can make it payable to ‘Good News Christian Ministries’ and send it to Post Office Box 184 Rideau Ferry Ontario K0G 1W0 and we'll be happy to send you a receipt at income tax time. You can also visit our website and make a donation by clicking on the donation buttons there. I also want to encourage you to tell others about this program so they, too, can hear the good news that is proclaimed week-by-week by our four hosts.
Please, if you
received this message, be sure to worship at church where the gospel is soundly
proclaimed and lived out with compassion, integrity and resolve.
So now to conclude
our program I'd like to have you listen to a song to worship God as the one who
is Mighty to Save performed by Hillsong United.
I do pray the Lord
will hold your heart and that you would know Jesus personally and profoundly.
May the Holy Spirit resides deep within your heart and may the Heavenly Father
surround you with his constant, abiding and accompanying love.
Good News In The Morning is produced in the Studios of News
Talk Radio 580 CFRA.
Rev. Brian Wilkie
St.
Andrew's Christian Community,
Rockland, Ontario
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To listen to the
above broadcast, click on the following link:
http://proxy.autopod.ca/podcasts/chum/6/42884/good_news_208_may08.mp3
