SCRIPTURE: Acts 10
OBSERVATION/APPLICATION:
I say to you that many will come from the east and the west, and will take their places at the feast with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven. [Matthew 8:11]
Our reading in Acts is a fulfillment of what Jesus said, after He had encountered the amazing faith of a Roman centurion [Matthew 8:5-13].
Cornelius displays amazing faith in God, even though he’s an uncircumcised Gentile.
God does not show favouritism but accepts men from every nation who fear him and do what is right [Acts 10:34-35].
Notice how Cornelius, though not a Jew, still finds his way to God.
God has been at work in his life, and he responds with devotion, the fear, generosity and prayer.
God is pleased with his character and conduct: ‘Your prayers and gifts to the poor have come up as a memorial offering before God’ [Acts 10:4].
Is this true of other people, who do not know Jesus?
Why shouldn’t it be?
This story encourages me to know that God is at work outside of christian circles, reaching people for Himself.
A humble heart is essential for God.
Cornelius has a broken and contrite heart, the kind of heart God accepts [Psalm 51:17].
I believe that all over the world, from the east and west, there are people like this.
They do not earn God’s grace, they simply acknowledge their need for grace.
Such ‘faith’, apart from an awareness of Jesus, is a gift of God, a result of the Spirit working within.
And their acceptance by God is not because of their goodness, but through Jesus.
Jesus’ death and resurrection remain the only way that we can be restored to God.
But this story in Acts shows us that God is reaching people through Jesus in ways that we do not even know.
Like Peter and the others, we tend to dismiss people that do not fit our categories.
But I hear in God’s warning not to call unclean what God has called clean, a warning not to dismiss people simply because they do not fit our categories.
God, through Jesus, is gathering the humble-hearted all over the world, and filling them with His Spirit.
He is declaring clean those that are unclean.
He is building His kingdom beyond our little cliques.
Many more will be saved than we think, and many others that we assumed were saved will not be.
This is the point Jesus makes in Matthew 8:12.
PRAYER:
Lord, thank You for loving EVERYONE and giving everyone an opportunity to respond to You. Help me to eagerly welcome all people, whatever their background!