Turning to Acts chapter 10, we're going to be reading verses 1 through 16. At this point, we're reviewing, we're going back a little bit, and we're going to go forward and look at Peter today, as we've been looking primarily at Cornelius. And we'll be mentioning him and speaking about him some here. And we see how the Gentiles are welcomed into the Christian church, and how important that is for us this morning, as I believe pretty much all of us here are Gentiles. Very important that we know and we have basically a good understanding of this event here in Acts chapter 10. So in Acts chapter 10, let's pick up, and I love the Thompson Chain Bible because there's always a good lead-in for the chapters, and it says here, And that's a really good overview of the whole chapter. I like having a good overview of a chapter before I go into it because it gives you things to look for, and I think that's important. So Acts 10, verse 1, we pick up with verse 1 here. There was a certain man in Caesarea called Cornelius, a centurion of the band called the Italian Band, a devout man and one that feared God with all his house, which gave much alms to the people and prayed to God always. He saw in a vision evidently about the ninth hour of the day an angel of God coming unto him, and saying unto him, Cornelius. And when he looked on him, he was afraid, and said, What is it, Lord? And he said unto him, Thy prayers and thine alms are come up for a memorial before God. And now send men to Joppa, and call for one Simon, whose surname is Peter. He lodgeth with one Simon, a tanner, whose house is by the seaside. He shall tell thee what thou oughtest to do. And when the angel which spake unto Cornelius was departed, he called two of his household servants and a devout soldier of them that waited on him continually. And when he had declared all these things unto them, he sent them to Joppa. On the morrow, as they went on their journey, and drew nigh unto the city, Peter went up upon the housetop to pray about the sixth hour. And he became very hungry, and would have eaten, but while they made ready, he fell into a trance, and saw heaven open, and a certain vessel descending unto him, as it had been a great sheet knit at the four corners, and let down to the earth. wherein were all manner of four-footed beasts of the earth, and wild beasts, and creeping things, and fowls of the air." Notice there were no fish here. I think that's interesting. And there came a voice to him, Rise, Peter, kill and eat. But Peter said, Not so, Lord, for I have never eaten anything that is common or unclean. And the voice spake unto him again the second time, What God hath cleansed that call not thou common? This was done thrice, and the vessel was received upon again unto heaven. Isn't it amazing how there were a lot of things in Peter's life that had to be done thrice? This was another three-timer for him. You know, I think if Peter needed it done three times, I probably needed it done about nine times. And so that's just a little bit of a window there. But looking at the reaction of Cornelius to this vision, we go, I wanted to read this all together because you need to bring Cornelius and Peter together in this narrative. It's fascinating. Here you have a Gentile here on one hand, and you have Peter the Jew, who's an apostle, who loves the Lord, and he's growing in his faith. And here Cornelius is on a whole other level here, and he is going to be approaching Peter. Peter's going to come to Cornelius. And here we are. Here we are in the Christian church today because Gentiles are brought into the ministry. Why is it important for that? And what can we learn as ministers, what can we learn as teachers, what can we learn as followers of Jesus Christ, why it's so important that the Lord would think this way? The Lord would have this eternal decree for Gentiles to come into the household of faith. I love Cornelius' reaction to the angel. He was afraid. He was afraid. He knew what this angel was. He knew that this angel was of the Lord. I don't know that he knew 100% what really was going on, because he was afraid, and there's no way of really knowing that, but he knew that it was a message from the Lord. It was a vision. Remember when Isaiah, high and lifted, as we went over last week, I want to read this again. You can imagine the sense of awe and fear in Cornelius and in Peter, because Peter was hungry. He was very hungry. He may have been fasting, and when he was ready to eat, all of a sudden, he isn't hungered. This vision comes, he forgot about food. Isn't that interesting how he was hungry, he forgot about food, and all of a sudden he gets a vision about food? I think that's interesting, too. We'll go over that, too. You can imagine the sense of awe and fear in Isaiah's heart. He said, Then said I, Isaiah 6, 5, Woe is me, for I am undone, because I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips, for mine eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts. That is a very healthy reaction to a calling of Jesus Christ. Woe is me. I don't know what this stuff is today, that Jesus is some little buddy on a park bench, and you pet his hair, and then you mention his name three times, and all of a sudden you have a Mercedes. I don't know what that's all about. But this is the respect we give to the Lord when we walk through those doors, and we come in here and hear our worship service. Like Isaiah, woe is me for I am undone. What does that mean? Isaiah says, I'm not worthy. I am a bag of dust. I'm a bag of worms. I am not worthy to even stand before God. And he feels and he thinks very wonderfully about that. Lisey. Right. Psalm 116, 11. That's it. Right. Right. was there a place where you think, well, since I'm God's chosen prophet, you're above things, or God already, you know, not that you're above things, but that you're not, that you do everything right. Obviously, the Lord, and then he had to see, I'm undone, I am too. It was a shock for him to see that. We all need to go through that. Absolutely. You know, there's a real connection between Isaiah and Peter. What was Isaiah's problem? What was the thing that the angel had to do to him, remember? What was his problem? Remember, he had a problem, and he mentioned it. Lisa. He was a cursor. He had unclean lips. And remember, it says that the angel had to place a hot coal upon his lips for cleansing. Peter had unclean lips. Peter had a real problem with his mouth. That's why I kind of like him. I know what that's like. Peter was impetuous. Peter denied openly the Lord. Peter loved the Lord. Peter's response today fascinates me, personally. I love the study, and I love the read about this, because you see Peter lets it all hang out on the table. How would you like words written about you in the New Testament so detailed? Peter's life is just laid right out there in just absolute incredible detail. Isaiah had a problem with his mouth, and so did Peter, but Peter is the one that has sent the Cornelius to bring in the Gentiles. I think that's incredible. Luke chapter 2, 9, the shepherds. And lo, the angel of the Lord came upon them, and the glory of the Lord shone round about them, and they were sore afraid. When they saw the presence of God, they were sore afraid. They were knocked off of their feet. This isn't like these movies and television shows where God appears and people are just smiling and happy and everything. The stress was probably so high they were nigh on to death in their hearts. You're in the middle of sleeping at night and a vision comes to you out of nowhere through your window. What would you think about that? I think about Lisa. Right. Right. Yeah, they were not of any real renown. That's a great point. I mean, that's the lower pick. He picked the dirty dozen, in a sense. And I think that's a real good lesson. But you see here, Lise, did you have your hand up? I'm sorry to miss you. We see here how Peter is the one that comes into play here, and we should be so utterly thankful for Acts 10 that it exists. As Gentiles, this is for our understanding to know that Christ is there for us and is elated for Gentiles to come unto Him. See, here the Lord is taking up for us. Here he is, knowing that really the sentiment of the day back then, the Jews thought the Gentiles were just utterly not worthwhile. Remember the publican and the Pharisee in that parable? Remember how the Pharisee said, I'm glad I'm not him. I'm glad I'm not the publican. And the publican said, I don't even have any, I have no right to even face the Lord. And he was very wonderfully humble. If you are a Gentile and you work for Christ, It's not a burden. You have jobs that the Lord gives you. It's not a burden. I'm trying to make the connection here so it burns into all of our hearts. To be a Gentile and to be called into the ministry of the gospel of Jesus Christ is an incredible gift. When Peter writes about gifts, I wanted to put this, I changed this all around this morning because it just kept burning in my head about what Peter said in the chapter that was written after his own name and when he talks about gifts. And I think it's fascinating. When he talks about these gifts, he doesn't say that they're completely only assigned for Jews only and that nobody has any right at all to have anything to do with these gifts outside of the Jewish council and the Jewish faith. This goes back to Romans chapter 12 where Paul says we're all members of the body, all members of the body of Christ. All of us. There's no segregation here. Talk about the big prevailing problem today is all this racism and black lives matter, all these things. The Lord extended salvation is open to every race and religion. And to bring this all together, what were the last words? When Christ went and ascended into heaven, what were his last words? What was his commission? That should bring a bell. What's the commission? Amen. You spread the gospel into all the world. That's what's happening here. That is so important. If you're a Gentile, it's a gift that the Lord gives you gifts to work for Him. Isaiah 42, verse 6, I, the Lord, have called thee in righteousness, and I will hold thine hand and will keep thee, and give thee for a covenant of the people for a light of the Gentiles. Malachi 111. For from the rising of the sun, even unto the going down of the same, my name shall be great among the Gentiles, and in every place incense shall be offered unto my name, and a pure offering. For my name shall be great among the heathen, saith the Lord of hosts. His name shall be great among the Gentiles, who basically are regarded as the heathen. And so today, you see Christianity in churches today are mainly pastors that are Gentiles, especially here in America for the most part, from my understanding. But this is a wonderful gift to be a Gentile and Christ to be calling us to be part of His ministry. It's a gift to be ministers of Christ, and our Lord equips us with wonderful gifts to serve Him. And we're going to be talking about Peter a little more this morning. He was given a great gift to have walked with Christ, been a disciple of Christ. And now, here in this passage, we see that he's an apostle of Christ. He's been given the gift of healing. He's been given the gift of preaching and teaching. And he's also been given the gift of suffering. He's already been beaten on the steps. He's already been placed into jail, and it's going to happen again. And that's also a gift. That's a great gift. 1 Peter 4, verses 10 and 11. As every man hath received the gift, even so minister the same one to another, as good stewards of the manifold grace of God. If any man speak, let him speak as the oracles of God. If any man minister, let him do it as of the ability which God giveth. That God in all things may be glorified through Jesus Christ, to whom be praise and dominion forever and ever. Amen. That sounds to me like Peter considered his vocation a gift, not a burden. Oh, I got to get up on Sunday morning and I got to go to church. Forget about Wednesday night, I'm too busy for that. I can't ever do that. What about the outreaches? Oh, we have VBS. Oh, let me see how I can get out of that. Peter considered this a gift. Every chance he had in order to preach the gospel of Jesus Christ, he was there and he loved it. And I love that because he and Paul worked together and Paul was the same way. Paul said, I'm the Elise of the Apostles and he loved every opportunity to give the gospel of Jesus Christ. Lisa. I'm not a god, so I don't have to be. But, you know, when you look down on the earth and you see people, like kings, princes, governors, and of course we see that today, what they're like, you know, there's, I don't want to, I guess I shouldn't use anybody's name. lazy, per se, but we kind of get accustomed to a certain lifestyle. And, you know, if you look at Hollywood, they get accustomed to a certain lifestyle. A lot of times, you know, they hire, they have servants, and they're used to being pampered. They're used to, you know, people kind of being at their feet, you know. But the harder people, you know, the individuals in the middle class and the lower middle class, Right. Right. our skill level, necessarily, or our intellect. It's that guy who's putting us where he wants us, and stretching us. Because a lot of times that's what he does. He stretches us to where it's completely, we're not comfortable. He puts us there, and you're going to know whether you like it or not. That's right. I think that's a good point because I think we need to realize that because it is a lot of work. And it's a lot of thankless work. It can be. And you know how thankless it is? The United States of America has declared churches to be absolutely non-life essential. They don't matter. They're volunteer work. You shouldn't really, if we don't want you to worship, we're going to tell you not to, but the liquor stores are. The CBD stores are, the gambling casinos are, they're all important. The churches, nobody cares about that anymore and it really is the way it is. It didn't take five minutes for most churches to close and some of them are still closed. I understand there's problems and there's restrictions and things we need to be careful about, but to just eradicate Sunday morning because the governor says and he don't even care about Sunday morning, that's a problem. I think that's a real problem. And I think we here, we look at Cornelius, we look at Peter, we look at Gozo, they loved every opportunity to be out there in the trenches, no matter what. We see that Cornelius sends for Peter. Peter will come back to Cornelius and he will exhort him. What does that mean? To encourage him, to urge him, to press him to stay strong in the Lord and the gospel of Jesus Christ. This exhortation refers to a gift that enables a follower of Jesus Christ to effectively and efficiently call others to obey and follow God's truth. And perhaps to warn against the perils of Satan's attacks that bring one sadly to stumbling through sin. That's what exhortations are. And that's what Peter's job is going to be. He's going to be to go back to Cornelius. He's going to be exhorting him. He's going to be encouraging him. 2 Peter 4, verse 2, we read, "...preach the word, be instant in season, out of season, reprove, rebuke, exhort, with all longsuffering and doctrine." I think that's very important. We love the term longsuffering. As Christians, we need to have longsuffering. We need to be patient. And that's hard sometimes. We need to be patient. I love the verse in James, I think it was James 4, 2, I believe it is. Let patience perform her, her, it's in the feminine, her perfect work. I think that's wonderful. For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine. That sounds familiar today. But after their own lusts, shall they heap to themselves teachers having itching ears, and they shall turn away their ears from the truth and shall be turned into fables. So even Peter, Paul writes to Timothy. Peter is exhorting Cornelius. And we see how Pastor Coleman has been teaching us about Paul exhorting Timothy in 2 Timothy. And you see the fellowship there and the encouragement. I like what Dr. James Boyce said. He made a really good statement. I'll never forget this. Years ago, it just burned. If you have one good Christian friend that loves you, that stays after you, you've got more than most people in the world have. You have one good Christian friend that prays for you, stays after you and loves you, you have more than most people have. Timothy had a Paul. Cornelius had a Peter. You know, if you have somebody like that in your life, pray for them. Encourage them. They need encouragement. Go find Peter. Go to Joppa. Cornelius sends men, and our Lord allows Cornelius to tend to his home. He is a Christian. He's born again, and he has his whole family worshiping. Cornelius was approached by an angel. Angels do not preach on earth, but it is their job to call Christians to go out and preach. Cornelius is not to hide his light under a bushel, but to take fellowship in his house and to wait on Peter and hear Peter's being called. The angel approaches Cornelius immediately. Cornelius responds. The angel approaches Peter. Immediately, Peter responds. He doesn't even have dinner. He was hungry. How many times do we do that? When we're hungry, we say, oh, no, I've got to get a prayer. I've got to go into my Bible. Forget it. I haven't eaten all day. I just haven't gotten in my Bible yet. I'm going to read and I'm going to pray before I go to the dinner table. How many times do we do that? Peter not only goes out of the dinner table, he goes somewhere else. And I think this is interesting also. When the angel approaches Cornelius, he responds. Remember how Moses responded at the burning bush, Exodus 3, 4. And when the Lord saw that he turned aside to see, God called unto him out of the midst of the bush and said, Moses, Moses. And he said, I'm a little busy right now, Lord. Can you call me back later? No, here am I. So Jacob's words were, here am I. Isaiah's words were, here am I. And he said, Moreover, he said, The God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob and Moses hid his face for he was afraid to look upon God. There's another example of having correspondence with God Almighty and one being totally afraid. Moses' response was immediate. Moses recognized the Lord. Cornelius recognized the Lord. Peter recognized the Lord. And this is perfect proof of the supernatural existence of an eternal God that never leaves us or forsakes us. You know, this is the same God that Moses worshipped, Joshua worshipped, Esther, David, Solomon, Ezekiel, Amos, Malachi, John the Baptist, and now here's Peter going into the Gentiles. This is a window of the same response that even more Gentiles will give when Paul and Barnabas approach them. Acts chapter 13, verse 48. And when the Gentiles heard this, they were glad. They were glad and glorified the word of the Lord. And as many as were ordained to eternal life believed. And the word of the Lord was published throughout all the region. Here, Cornelius immediately recognized God through the angel and he acted. Now, right now while this is happening, let's turn the tables a little bit, and we're going to talk about Joppa. We talked about it some last week, but this is where Peter is right now. Remember, where was Peter back in Acts chapter 9 when he was with Anais, and then when he healed Dorcas, or Tabitha, from the dead? Remember that? Where was he staying, and we're getting ready to look at this vision, and they're in Joppa. That's right. And you see here that Joppa, it's an ancient seaport on the Great Mediterranean Sea, about 35 miles northwest of Jerusalem, at least a day's journey. It was a walled city and one with great trade and marketing as it was the primary seaport of Jerusalem. And there's something interesting, really interesting about this. If you go back to Joshua 19, verse 46, You read the words, with the border before Jaffa. That was Jaffa. That was a border. And what's interesting about that area, when it pertains, this is a little off the subject, but just for your information here, I find it fascinating that it's referred to in Jaffa. There's a port there, and it's a natural harbor. That harbor is the harbor that actually supplied Solomon. When all of the wonderful carvings and the big woodworkings and all came down from Phoenicia and the Tyre and Sidon area, it came down the water into this natural harbor. The Lord had created this natural harbor for the preservation and for the work that was happening in Jerusalem. It was natural. And it's very important what a natural harbor is. Because a natural harbor doesn't have a lot of waves. It's not really affected as much by the weather as other areas. And it's natural for boats to be able to come in and bring the supplies. And this is where Simon the Tanner lived. This is where Peter's Airbnb was right now. He was staying with Simon the Tanner. And here Peter is getting ready to see this vision. I wanted to talk real quick about a tanner. I found out some interesting information about what a tanner does going back to colonial period in America. There were tanners back then. I think it's very interesting. And let me read this to you. And so, to kind of put all this together, here Cornelius is waiting back at his house. Peter now is with Simon the Tanner, where Peter had, right there, not far from, in the same town where Tabitha, he heals Tabitha from the dead. He's staying with Simon the Tanner, and this is the job of a tanner. In colonial times, this was the work of a tanner. Tanners were very important. Many colonists depended on the tanner. One was the shoemaker. The shoemaker needed leather from the tanner so he could make shoes for colonists. Another one was the farmer. He needed leather to make his saddle and bridle. Here were Tanner's tools. The Tanner's process was long. Colonial Tanners used at least eight different tools to do their job. The tools were made of wood and metal. That hook has a long wood handle and a metal hook at the end. It was made to move leather. It was also used for dipping leather in and out of the pits. The mace is a four-sided piece of wood with rough sides on a long pole. It was used for making the leather nice and smooth. The sleekers were used for making leather smoother. Buffers made the leather shiny. A fleshing knife was used for removing the animal flesh from the animal. The fleshing knife is a curved piece of metal with two pieces of wood at the end of the blade. The tanners processed. The tanners had a hard and stinky job. For instance, they had to smell. Now you can see how it was very unclean, Peter thought, that these animals were. And he's staying with Simon the Tanner. You have decaying animal hides and skins. Colonists could not wait for shipments of leather, so they asked the tanner in the town to make their leather. The tanner received the animal hides and put the owner's mark at the end. The tanner cleaned and softened the hides. To soften the hide, the tanner would hit it with mace. The tanner had a method called liming. Liming pulled off some unwanted hair. He would leave the hide in the liming solutions for days or until the hair came loose. The tanner flipped over the hide and scraped off any flesh with a fleshing knife. Then it was time for a solution called ooze. Ooze was made of a ground up bark and water. Ooze stopped hides from rotting. The tanner would soak the animal hide in ooze. Then the tanner washed and stretched the leather. The tanner made sure it was brown and smooth for the shoemaker and other colonial people. The tanner's process could take up to a year or even two years. He had to be very patient. Think about long-suffering. That's a lot of work. This is where Peter was staying with the Tanner. Now, I'm sure in the colonial periods, they had tools that were much more advanced than back then when Peter was staying with Simon the Tanner. And so Simon had to be wondering, what in the world's going on here? Why am I staying with a man who has all these unclean animals around? Well, Cornelius has directly sent men, and they are going to come to Peter. But in the meantime, Peter was hungered. He would not be given to excessive eating. He waited until he was hungry to eat. And remember how Christ fasted in Matthew chapter 4. Peter would fast and he would pray. And the Lord was building him up for this incredible vision. Can you imagine having to go through this? I think this is very exciting. There was no doubt about this, that Peter was about to enter into the true and living supernatural spiritual world of the divine glory. Remember when Adam fell into a deep trance. Remember what the reasoning was there. Adam fell into a deep trance when God created Eve. Peter was in a deep trance to the point where he forgot about worldly food and he feasted upon heaven. We do not even know if he was having an out-of-body experience, but we do know he was involved in this. And remember in Ezekiel 37, with the Valley of the Dry Bones, how Ezekiel was taken into these Valley of the Dry Bones with the Lord, and he was a vision. And there was a vision that the Lord was giving. He was teaching him. One thing we know for sure, it's just like we are Coram Deo when we pray obediently. Peter was Coram Deo. but could see heaven." And this is awesome. Paul will speak of a similar heavenly encounter. In 2 Corinthians 12, verse 1, it is not expedient for me doubtless to glory. I will come to visions and the revelations of the Lord. I knew a man in Christ about 14 years ago, whether in body I cannot tell or whether out of body I cannot tell. God knoweth such an one caught up in the third heaven. And then Paul finishes the book of Romans by describing the purpose of these visions. Peter is now on the rooftop. He goes to the rooftop. He has forsaken his dinner. He's going up there to pray. He's on the rooftop. What is the purpose of these visions? Putting all this together, does anybody have any idea what the purpose of these visions were? Yeah, basically. There's a lot of answers, right? Right. If you take the progression... Anybody else? If you take the progression... I mean, feel free to raise your hand whenever you have a minute, if you'd like to. But if you look through Scripture, every time the Lord was giving a vision, it was to unravel and reveal a mystery. It was always a mystery. and he was trying to portray. You see, the opening of heaven manifests the opening of a ministry. God laid down Adam in a trance. It was the mystery of companionship was open to Adam. God had said it is not good for man to be alone. Moses at the burning bush, the mystery of deliverance. The Lord was going to deliver the Israelites out of Egypt, and this was a revelation. Remember the meeting of Christ and Joshua outside the wall. This was a revelation of the mystery of strength and victory. You go back to creation where the heavens and the earth were formed, The mystery of eternal life was revealed to the world through creation. That was the reason for creation. Lise? That's right. Right. That's right. And what's so sad about that is here Christ was the ultimate vision here on the earth. Here is God incarnate to answer any one of your questions, to walk with Him, to talk with Him. And remember what happened on the road to Emmaus? They had no idea who He was. Remember, He was with Nicodemus in Genesis 3. And He told him all the things. Don't you remember in Genesis? No, no, no. In John 3, verse 11, He says, don't you remember back in the day, you are a ruler of the Jews and you don't know what Isaiah 53 said? He said, you do not know what happened? What I'm talking about? Can you imagine what people thought that Saul, Jesus, witnessed his resurrection, witnessed his crucifixion, I'm sorry, witnessed that and then wound up coming to Christ after he was gone? I could have had three years with him, you know? Can you imagine that? Well, he's on the roof. This is where the vision came down. Peter's now on the housetop as it was customary to use the upper room to enter the roof for many different private matters. The rooftop, it was about noon. It would've been pretty hot, most likely very bright in the hot sun, Peter didn't care. Hungry and thirsty, and perhaps even weak and vulnerable as Peter. He goes right to prayer about high noon. One would invite a family or friend to eat and pray on the roof. Deuteronomy 22.8 says, So the roofs were made for a specific purpose. There was room to walk around. And that's people customarily would go up on the rooftop. That's where they would have their time of decompression. You know, kind of sit there and kind of like... Meditate. That's a place where there's privacy. There would have been walking space to pace back and forth to have privacy. Peter would ascend up to the rooftop for prayer. And the houses were very tight. Some were spread out. There would be no privacy on the front step on the porch area. There'd be no privacy in the streets as they were heavily populated in Canaan and Galilee. Peter was married. There's also a reason to go on the rooftop. Proverbs 21.9 and 25.24 says, "...it is better to dwell in the corner of a housetop than with a brawling woman in a white house." So the rooftop had a lot of purposes. And we see that's where he goes for refuge. He liked to be on the rooftop. We see the reasoning of Dr. Luke here, we see it in these verses, and we see them summed up as how Peter was relieving, he says that he uses the term in verse 10, excess of mind. What this translates to is simply that we have such excessive thoughts pertaining to our worldly responses that it's necessary to be set apart in our prayer closets. This brings a very important application. Peter on the rooftop, getting by himself and praying, and he has this prayer, and what happens? This amazing vision comes down. Peter sees this vision, but that brings up a very important application in our own lives. Do we have time? Do we go to our prayer closets? to get off the excesses in our mind of the world and to just stop thinking about all of our problems and all the worldly problems, which it never ends. If it's not fixing the house, it's fixing the car. If it's not fixing the car, it's cleaning up after the dog. If it's not that, it's tending to the kids. Not necessarily all in that order. And not paying the bills and all these things. Do we have time where we just purge our brains and just go to the Lord? Matthew 6, verse 6 says, But thou, when thou prayest, enter into thy closet, and when thou hast shut thy door, pray to thy Father which is in secret, and thy Father which seeth in secret shall reward thee openly. I would consider that Peter's prayer time wound up rewarding him openly. To have an angel come down and appear in a vision during your prayer time, I think that's pretty incredible. Peter has this vision. What is this vision? It's a huge cloth as almost like a sail of a large boat with a large bundle of things coming down to the earth. Four-footed beasts, birds of the sky, creeping things, and God says, kill and eat them. Here were not only beasts of the earth, but fowls of the air, which might have flown away, laid at his feet, and not only tamed the beasts, but wild, but there were no fishes of the sea, because there were none of them in particular unclean. But whatever had fins and scale was allowed to be eaten. Our Lord says, what is God's, what is good, what is bad, what is clean, what is unclean. Peter here questioned the Lord. It's God's prerogative to tell us what's good and what's bad, what's obedient and what's disobedient, what's common and what's uncommon. There were no barriers here. Our Lord says, what is God's? Our Lord says, what is clean and what is unclean? And he was telling Peter that there are others. to bring in to my church, that there were no barriers here, that one could believe on Jesus Christ and not perish and have everlasting life that was not a Jew. And we see this in the Old Testament, and we need to pay close attention to that. Because Christ brought up two people in the Old Testament, if you remember. Remember when he went into his city? What happened to him? Does anybody remember? He brought up two Gentiles when he was speaking. This is a very important event. Remember that? He goes back into Nazareth, he goes in and he teaches, he stands up, and then he reads, and then he sits down. But then he gets up and he says, he goes back and he starts talking of the woman of Zarephath, or the woman of Zarephath, and he speaks about Naaman. Remember that? And the people got furious. And they took him, and it says in the scriptures, it says they were going to push him face down over a cliff. And he walked through them. What a horrible thing to grab him and they started pulling him out to throw him and he walks right through them. They were Gentiles and the Jews were furious that he brought up Gentiles and uplifted them over any Jews. They were furious. Colossians chapter 3 verses 10 to 12 says, and have put on the new man, which is renewed in knowledge after the image of him that created him, where there is neither Greek nor Jew, circumcision nor uncircumcision, barbarian, Scythian, bond nor free, but Christ is all and in all. Put on therefore as the elect of God, holy and beloved, boughs of mercy, kindness, humbleness of mind, meekness, longsuffering. Those are tenets of what a Christian should be and how we are to treat others. Gentiles' lives matter, and they matter big time. And it was very important that the Lord was showing this to Peter. And what a beautiful blessing to be able to be a Gentile and guard the kingdom of God. Christ did not have to stand up for the Gentiles, but He did. So Peter sees this vision. What are all these animals? These are the unclean animals that the Jews were never supposed to eat. Could you blame him for thinking this way? Could you blame him for being a little concerned about this? His whole life would have to change. I think of his response. Go back to the responses, maybe some other responses that you might remember in Scripture, where Saul was heading on the road to Damascus. And Saul says, the Lord says, Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me? Why kickest thou against the pricks? And he says, what would thou have me to do? And Cornelius comes back and says, when the Lord approaches Cornelius, what is it, Lord? So the Lord comes and he says, let's go over this again. He says, verse 11, let's back up a little bit. And saw heaven open, and a certain vessel ascending unto him, as it had been a great sheet knit at the four corners, and let down on the earth, wherein were all manner of four-footed beasts of the earth, and wild beasts, and creeping things, and fowls of the air, And there came a voice to him, rise Peter, kill and eat. But Peter said, what did he say? He goes, no. Now who else would you pick in the whole Bible that would go to the Lord and say no? But Peter, once again we see his impetuous nature. He says, no, no, not so Lord. You're not right about this. Peter says, no Lord, how crazy is this? And Peter still has not relinquished his impetuous disposition. Remember the watershed moment when Jesus would ask the disciples in Matthew 16, 13, who do men say that I, the Son of Man, am? Peter then would say, thou art the Christ of the living God. Jesus then blessed Simon by calling him Peter, or the rock, and says, upon this rock will I build my church, and the gates of hell will not prevail against it. And we see here in these verses of Acts, that there's a change coming to the Christian followers of Jesus Christ. And we go back into Matthew 16, Jesus then talks of His imminent death, and He says in verse 21, back there in the passage that we just read back in Matthew 16, and He says, "...that He must go unto Jerusalem and suffer many things of the elders and of the chief priests and scribes, and be killed and be raised again unto the third day." What was Peter's response? Lisa? Go ahead. Right. and you know, other things that people just say, you know, I'm not going to do that. They find out that they, there are people that I've heard say, you know, I'll do that later because I'm having so much fun now, something like that. So, I mean, not to say that Steven Madden was necessarily, I'm not trying to say, he wasn't trying to be resilient, he thought he was trying to be obedient, but he was confused. And once again, can you blame Him? Can you blame Him? It's probably an impulse. They say, well, I don't understand this. I have no comprehension of this. And it's the Lord tells us that if we have the faith, the grain of a mustard seed, it can move mountains. The Lord's having Peter have faith in what He's saying. Lisey. Right. I love that about him, and it just takes me back to the parable that Lisa spoke about with the two, the brothers that were told to go out and work in the field, and one gave up service. He said, oh sure, I'll do it. He never did it. The other one said no, but then he repented. And I just sort of see that in a sort of an indirect way here with Peter. He said no, but he hadn't heard what the Lord said. And he said there he didn't understand it, but he received it. No one didn't condemn him or punish him because he treated him with what might have been many people of disrespect. Right. I hate to say this, but it almost seems like somewhat of a righteous pessimism in a sense. Peter was trying. Peter loved the Lord, but once again, remember his response. My point was back in Matthew chapter 16. He comes back when the Lord says, I must suffer these things. It must be that I must suffer and I must be crucified and resurrected. And he says, not so, Lord. That's not going to happen. Peter just basically sums up the whole eternal decrees of God, and he says, that's not going to happen. And does anybody remember what Jesus' response was when Peter said that? That's right. Get thee behind me, Satan. And that's very, very hard. And I think here that Peter, he says no, but what always happens when Peter says no, Peter would always come back. Right. Exactly. Right. That's a great point because there's a lot of cultural implications here. We can see his reaction to many events and so do the other disciples. Look at the reaction at the crucifixion. I mean, that was a very difficult time to live in. And so I'm not trying to down Peter, I'm just saying his reaction was no. And the Lord says, what I call common, I mean, if I call it common, it's common. If I call it uncommon, it's uncommon. No matter what I say, that's what it is. I think that's very important. Peter basically says, thank you very much, but no, I am not going to do that for all intents and purposes. Here's why. I have never eaten anything common or unclean. I've kept kosher. No pork like the Romans, never ate a piece of bacon, and have obeyed every Jewish dietary law, and I'm not about to start now. It's like somebody coming to us today and saying, hey, you guys have got to stop eating all this good food for lunch downstairs. I don't think it's meat. You've got to go back to the old law, and you've got to start eating fish. You'd be like, what? What, do I have to do that? And here, Peter, he's now being taught to keep, once again, his ears open and his mouth shut. Seems very interesting, a contrast where Peter and the previously converted Saul of Tarsus, how they regard the welcoming in of the Gentiles of the Christian church. Peter doesn't realize that he is at Simon and Tanner's house to be shown this vision, and to be the one to experience this vision physically, to learn from God exactly what his delegation to Cornelius' soldiers in the house of Cornelius would be in response to the vision, and to make sure they are fully assured. Here, Peter, the dots are being connected here. Can you see that? You see how interesting that is? The Lord is connecting the dots and he's using Peter to go to Cornelius. Cornelius is having church basically on a regular basis at his house. And now Peter is being shown that there are churches around where Gentiles are worshiping the Lord. And he wants the apostles to go encourage them. And you see how important it is for churches and for us to encourage each other? Paul says in Ephesians 33, verse 1, For this cause I, Paul, the prisoner of Jesus Christ, for you Gentiles, you Gentiles, if ye have heard of the dispensation of the grace of God which is given me to you, how that by revelation he made unto me the mystery, as I wrote afore in few words, whereby when ye read ye may understand my knowledge in the mystery of Christ. which in other ages was not made known unto the sons of men, as it is now revealed unto his holy apostles and prophets by the Spirit, that the Gentiles should be fellow heirs of the same body and partakers of his promise in Christ by the gospel." Paul calls this a mystery. He says it was a mystery. But isn't it amazing what the Lord can do with the mystery? He can take things that are incredibly, to us seemingly, not even remotely possible, and bring it all together. He does that with relationships in our lives. He does that with our children. He does that with our food. He does that with the way we make a living. You wake up, you get a pain slip, you have no work, and all of a sudden you're praying for a couple weeks, and all of a sudden you get the better job than you ever had before in the first place. It's amazing what the Lord can do. And so that's what we're learning here this morning and next week. We're going to be going back and seeing a little more about this vision, and we're going to move forward and seeing how Cornelius comes back into the scene, and this all comes together. I think it's fascinating. So I think this morning, I'm going to ask Jacob, can you close us with prayer? Thank you.