Text: Acts 10:34-38
34 Then Peter began to speak: “Now I really am beginning to understand that God does not show favoritism, 35 but in every nation, anyone who fears him and does what is right is acceptable to him. 36 He sent his word to the people of Israel, proclaiming the good news of peace through Jesus Christ, who is Lord of all.
37“You know what happened throughout Judea, beginning in Galilee after the baptism that John preached. 38 God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and with power. He went around doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the Devil, because God was with him.
Sermon
I will appoint you to be a covenant for the people, to be a light for the nations, to open the eyes of the blind, to bring the prisoners out from the dungeon, and to bring those who sit in darkness out of prison (Isaiah 42:6,7). Amen.
Lee did not enjoy high school. There were a lot of cliques. The students all seemed to divide into their own factions and have their own favorites.
Lee was popular. The sportos, motorheads, geeks, and dweebs – they all adored him. They thought he was a righteous dude.
Though people liked him, others still looked down on him. They avoided him and others like him in the hallways. Students sat apart from them in the classrooms. This was most evident in the lunchroom. There isn’t a much more segregated place than a high school lunchroom.
Though he was a righteous dude, Lee was not good enough to sit at the cool kids’ table.
Pete, however, was one of the cool kids. He was a born leader. He was very outspoken. He was an especially good fisherman. Everyone knew about the huge catch of fish he once had to win a fishing tournament.
Pete liked Lee. Actually, Pete liked all the geeks, dweebs, and nerds. But he couldn’t be seen hanging around with any of them, going to their houses, and certainly not eating with them.
When you eat lunch now in high school or when you were in high school, do you or did you have a seat at the cool kids’ table? Even if it wasn’t called that, you know what I’m talking about. Only the most athletic, best looking, or wittiest, were welcome at the cool kids’ table. Everyone else sat everywhere else.
The cool kids’ table doesn’t cease to exist after high school. In all kinds of areas of life, we can find ourselves facing the reality that we are not the favorites, the popular, the appreciated, or applauded.
Have you ever felt like Lee … I mean Cornelius? We meet Cornelius in the beginning verses of Acts 10. Cornelius was a devout, God-fearing, family man (Acts 10:2). He was also a centurion who was a leader of 100 soldiers in the Italian Regiment of the Roman army (Acts 10:1). But he was also a Gentile. Jews viewed Gentiles as unclean. Jews couldn’t really avoid Gentiles in the marketplace, but they certainly avoided the homes, tables, and food of the Gentiles.
Cornelius was a convert to Judaism. He believed in God and the promised Messiah. He did not yet know the Messiah had come in the person of Jesus Christ. Cornelius remained on the fringe of the Jewish faith. The Jews were grateful that Cornelius had been converted, yet they did not accept him as an equal.
One day, Cornelius saw a vision of an angel telling him to send men to Simon Peter and bring him to Cornelius’ house. Peter’s role was to preach that the Messiah had come. He did that: “You know what happened throughout Judea, beginning in Galilee after the baptism that John preached. God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and with power. He went around doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the Devil, because God was with him.”
You may not have been the cool kids in high school. You may not be the cool adults now. My daughters routinely remind me that I’ll never be cool again. They also doubt I ever was cool. (They’re not wrong.)
More than being uncool and left out of activities and groups, we used to be spiritually uncool as unbelievers. By birth, we were not part of the Christian Church. By nature, we did not belong to God’s Christian family.
But baptism changed that! Just as baptism will change all that for Cornelius in the concluding verses of Acts 10, we are baptized into the name of the Triune God. We are made children of God and heirs of eternal salvation. We are no longer alone and afraid, but we are now kept safe inside the fortress of the Christian Church.
Baptism demonstrates that God does not play favorites. It doesn’t matter whether we are rich or poor, what our skin color is, how powerful or popular we are, if our families are broken or whole, if we are nerdy and cheugy or we are righteous dudes and drip. Every single one of us needs to have our sins forgiven.
And that’s exactly what God does in baptism. He washes sins away. He changes us from being an outsider into an insider; from a slave of Satan to a child of our heavenly Father; from an uncool unbeliever to a cool Christian sitting at the banquet feast of God. Because that’s where all the cool kids now get to sit. And these cool kids want everyone to sit with them. The only ones who don’t come to sit at the Christian cool kids’ table are those who refuse the gracious invitation.
Let’s look at this biblical story from another angle. Have you ever acted like Pete … I mean Peter? Peter was blessed to be one of the cool Christians. He witnessed Jesus battling with Pharisees over what was “clean” and “unclean” before God (Mark 7). He saw Jesus talking to a Samaritan woman at Jacob’s well (John 4). He knew Jesus healed the demon-possessed daughter of the Syrophoenician woman (Mark 7). He witnessed Jesus cleansing the temple courtyard because that’s where the Gentile converts (like Cornelius) would worship, literally calling it “a house of prayer for all nations” (Mark 11). Peter must have heard about the confession of the Roman centurion upon Jesus’ death saying, “Truly this man was the Son of God” (Mark 5:39)!
Still, it was difficult for Peter to step out of his comfort zone and share the gospel with Gentiles – people who were so different from him.
So, God gave Peter a vision of a large sheet coming down from heaven. In it were all kinds of animals, reptiles, and birds. A voice told Peter: “Kill and eat!”
Peter replied (I’m guessing with revulsion), “Certainly not, Lord, for I have never eaten anything impure or unclean.”
The voice came a second time: ‘What God has made clean, you must not continue to call unclean” (Acts 10:12-15).
Peter received the same vision three times. I imagine God was reminding Peter how he had denied Jesus three times, how Jesus had reinstated Peter three times telling him to feed his sheep and lambs, and now three times about the importance of eating everything. You can now eat whatever you want at the Christian’s cool kids’ table. Because of the Messiah, there are no longer any unclean foods.
More importantly, there are no longer any unclean people.
To demonstrate this reality to Peter, the Holy Spirit told Peter to go with the Gentile men to the home of Cornelius – something no Jew (beside Jesus) would do.
Before we chastise Peter for his reluctance and prejudice, we need to look at ourselves. How often do we act like those high schoolers at the cool kids’ table? It doesn’t matter our age, we don’t like to step out of our comfort zone. We prefer to hang around with people who look like us, talk, think, and behave like us. This world is one big sinful, good old boys’ and good old girls’ club.
Partiality and prejudice are rampant in the human heart. It’s the sin of showing kindness only to one’s kind and loving those whom we find lovely. It is a sin that affects the world. It’s a sin that also affects us within the church.
Like Peter, we have seen that the coolness of the Christian faith is meant for people of all nations, tribes, peoples, and languages. We know the good news of the Messiah is meant for everyone and no one is left out. But do our actions match our words? Do the behaviors of our church back up what we believe? Do we put into practice what we preach?
Even as Christians, whether its in middle school, high school, college, the workplace, or wherever, we are all capable of treating people poorly, being thoughtless toward others, and creating barriers to keep people out of our lives. We can passively overlook people so we don’t interact with them. Even worse, we can actively discriminate against other people.
It took divine intervention to get through to Peter’s mind, mouth, and heart. We pray for that divine intervention for us, too.
Here is where we learn the lesson Peter learned and preached. “Now I really am beginning to understand that God does not show favoritism, but in every nation, anyone who fears him and does what is right is acceptable to him. He sent his word to the people of Israel, proclaiming the good news of peace through Jesus Christ, who is Lord of all.”
When Peter says, “Now I really am beginning to understand that God does not show favoritism,” he literally says, “Now I grasp that God is not a face-grasper.” Think of the face-hugger in Aliens. God is not like that! God does not look at our face or any other outward appearance. God told the prophet Samuel, “For the Lord does not look at things the way man does. For man looks at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart” (1 Samuel 16:7).
The Word of God’s acceptance comes for all. Peter said that day, “God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and with power. He went around doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the Devil, because God was with him.” Not some who were oppressed by the Devil, but all who were oppressed.
Jesus says it, too: “It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. I have not come to call the righteous, but the sinners” (Mark 2:17). And even better, he invites all of us when he says, “Come to me, all who weary and burdened, and I will give you rest" (Matthew 11:28-29). All, not some.
Jesus didn’t just say it, he demonstrated that attitude. People were shocked that he reached out to public sinners, tax collectors, prostitutes, Gentiles, demon-possessed, and crucified thieves. But Jesus reminded them all, “The Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost” (Luke 19:10). This salvation is for all. Peter himself preached at Pentecost, “The promise is for you and for your children and for all who are far off, for all whom the Lord our God will call” (Acts 2:38-39).
If you’re feeling excluded today, hear God’s Word. You are not left out. You are the one he sent Jesus to save and befriend. You are included in new life, a new beginning, and eternal hope. You are the one he invited to his baptismal waters. God does not show favoritism.
If you’ve ever excluded others – either passively or actively, either intentionally or accidentally – know that God does not exclude you. Instead of grasping your face, he makes his face shine on you. Though you may have been judgmental of others, God took his judgment of your judgments out on the Messiah.
Jesus says, “For God so loved the world that he gave his only-begotten Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish, but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him” (John 3:16-17).
To the overlooked, to the outcast, to the broken-hearted, hear this! To the geeks, dweebs, nerds, hear this! To those who have excluded and ignored others, hear this! Jesus has come for you! He invites everyone of you to come feast at his table. It’s a table filled with Word and Sacraments. And he invites you to invite others to join you at this table. It is his Christian cool kids’ table. Everyone is invited. No one is left out. Amen.
A bent reed he will not break, and a dimly burning wick he will not snuff out (Isaiah 42:3). Amen.