Text: Acts 10:34-38
Have you ever believed something, or pictured something one way, only to find out that it was completely different? Many years back I was invited for the first time by St. Andrew’s Church to conduct a service and preach; and I had never been to Brunei
I think when people start to learn more about God, they have certain picture of him. But after they have spent some time reading the Bible, or hearing proper teaching about him; they find out that God is different from what they have imagined him to be. Is it possible, that you have always believed something about God, even though it’s not really true?
In our 2nd lesson for today, we hear about a couple people, – one, a member of the Roman army, and another, the Apostle Peter. Both of them had different pictures of God, and they later found out that he was very different from how they had imagined him in their minds. Today I have used the theme: “Being faithful to our calling” to remind us about what the calling is all about. I am sure that when some of you first became Christians, you had very little idea about God. It is possible that you have developed certain picture of God in you mind, and you continue to hold onto that image until today. So whenever people talk about God, it brings certain picture into your mind. However, there are people who decided to become Christians after some deep thoughts, or because they have discovered the truth. But as time passes, they begin to lose their focus; they lose their first love for Jesus; and in the end they are no different from those who don’t know Jesus.
As we think about the baptism of Jesus this morning, and the story about Peter and Cornelius, you may be surprised to find out some things about God that you had never known before, things that contradict the way you had always thought. Or, you may be proven right.
We first take a look at Cornelius. Cornelius was a centurion in the Italian Regiment of the Roman army in Caesarea . A centurion was in-charged of 100 soldiers. The Bible describes Cornelius and his family as God-fearing and devout. He was always donating money to the poor, and he followed the religion of the Jews and prayed to God regularly. Cornelius was a good man, and in spite of being busy with doing good things: he donated money to the poor, and tried to live a good, clean life – but he was not saved. Why?
Let us go beginning of the story. One day while Cornelius was praying he had a vision. God’s angel appeared before him, and told him to send men to Joppa and find Simon Peter. And he did as he was told – Peter came to his house, and shared with Cornelius the true way of salvation. It was on that day that Cornelius realized what was missing in his life, and it was even more important than all the good works he could ever done. He had tried very hard to do good things, but no matter how hard he tried, those good works were not going to get him to heaven.
What Cornelius was missing was faith in Jesus Christ. He had heard of Jesus before, and he knew how Jesus died. He knew that people were saying good things about him. But he didn’t understand that Jesus was his Saviour. So Peter had to explain it to him. He said in verse 36, “You know the message God sent to the people of Israel Nazareth
Peter later goes on to describe how Jesus took away the sins of the world by dying on the cross and then rising from the dead. You can imagine what was going in Cornelius’ mind as he heard this. He had always thought that being a good person, helping the poor, praying regularly, believing those were enough to get him to heaven. But now, Cornelius found out something different: that no matter how good you are, you can never be good enough. That day he realized prayers and good works would never lead him to heaven: the only way to heaven was through the Saviour named Jesus Christ, who had taken away all of his sins. That day he also realized that God loved him and had forgiven him because of what Jesus had done on the cross.
The statements that I have made have offended many people who believe that their prayers and good works can help them make peace with God and bring them to heaven. I don’t know where you faith level is, but if you ever think that you can go to heaven by just being a good person, by praying once in awhile, by helping out the needy, or by trying to live a good, clean life, I want to tell you this morning, “you are mistaken”. Sure, you have heard of Jesus Christ, and what a good man he was. Just to be a good person like Jesus is not enough. Why? It is because that no matter how good you are, you’ll never be good enough, you’ll never do enough to earn God’s favour. Because God is not just looking at what you are doing: he is watching the motives of your hearts. You can do all the good things with wrongs motives. If we allow God’s word to pierce our hearts, we shall find out that even the nicest person in the world still has his faults, still has his shortcomings; and because of those short comings, we can never be nice enough to earn our way to heaven.
When you have found out who Jesus Christ really is, you would know that he is more than just an example of how to be a good person. You would realize that he has done something for you, something that you really need: he has taken all your faults, all your shortcomings, all your sins, and has washed them away, by dying on a cross. You would find out that Jesus has risen from the dead, to prove to you his power to forgive you for all the mistakes you have made in life and also his love for you. You can stop trusting in your good works, and now you can start trusting in Jesus Christ as your Saviour.
This good news turned that Roman soldier’s life upside down, for the better. And I hope those of you who have been carrying this wrong understanding of the Christian faith, can also find transformation in your thinking! We have to abandon the belief that being a good person is good enough to get us to heaven. Jesus Christ is the way, the truth and the life – and he is our only way to heaven. Now what about good works? Do they have a purpose in our Christian life? I shall answer that question at the end of my sermon.
Now we look at Simon Peter. This whole situation also turned his life upside down. In verse 34, Peter says, “I now realize how true it is that God does not show favouritism but accepts men from every nation who fear him and do what is right.” Peter could not believe what he was seeing. Here he was in the house of a Gentile, and God was converting Gentiles and blessing Gentiles just like God had done for the Jews. This goes against everything Peter had been brought up to believe. He had always thought that God was for the Jews only, and that Gentiles were the outsiders, who didn’t deserve God’s attention.
If you read the whole of Acts 10, you will realize that after Cornelius had a vision of the angel, Peter also had a vision. Acts 10: 11-16 says, “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 and birds. 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.
That vision transformed Peter. Suddenly, Peter realized that God loves all people, regardless of what nationality and race they are; and that he wants all people to believe and be saved. God is a God for every person on the face of the earth, and not just for a select few. This changed the way Peter had thought.
Sometimes we forget this because we have been comfortable with our situation in church. I want to remind us again today that no matter what a person’s nationality, no matter what a person’s social or economic situation, God wants every person on the face of this earth to believe in Jesus Christ and be saved. Sometimes it is hard to fully accept this. Remember that God loves you as much as he loves a poor, homeless person who begs on the street. God loves you who always come to church, and he also loves those people who have made many mistakes in life. Our God is a God who loves all people, and wants all people no matter who they are, to believe in Jesus and be saved. He does not show favouritism.
How do we translate this new understanding to our Christian life? Last Sunday I tried to explain to you all the reason why we are here. God sets his church for a purpose, and the purpose is to get people in touch with this wonderful message, so that God can change people for the better. There are so many people out there just like Cornelius, nice people who don’t know the way of salvation. There are so many people out there like Peter, people who don’t know just how loving our God really is. As a church, we are here to share with people these wonderful truths from God’s Word, so that God can change people for the better.
Whenever I visit your homes, I can see that you have many relatives who don’t know the Lord Jesus. They just sit there with blank faces as we say our prayers and sing our hymns. Have you ever tried to share the Good News with them? Some of you have aging or sick parents or grand-parents: have you tried telling them about Jesus Christ? If you really believe that Jesus is the only way to our Father in heaven, then you have to realise that these people are not going to be with you when you get to heaven. Don’t you want them to join you in the Father’s house?
Now I come to the conclusion and I want to answer that question: Does good work have a purpose in our Christian life? If good work does not get us to heaven, why do we do it? Our first reason is the one I have just mentioned: we want other people to believe in Jesus and accept him as their Lord and saviour. If you want people to believe in Jesus you need to show them what Jesus has done in your personal life. That is why you exercise charity, love, care, forgiveness, patience in your everyday dealing with people around you. We want people to see what Jesus has done in our lives and what Jesus can do for them also.
Second, prayers and good works are our responses to the love of God. We cannot repay all the good things that God has done in our lives: so we return the favour to our friends and neighbours. If you feel that you have been blessed by God, you will, in turn want to bless others. For some years now, our parish has been giving out some money to help other churches in the Diocese. This year, I shall be travelling around and spend a bit of time outside this parish to minister to the people outside our parish. I know that you need me here, but I hope you also understand the need to share our resources and blessings with other people in the other parishes, churches or chapels. And at the same time, I hope that we can get other preachers to minister to you here because you just cannot listen to Andrew, Humphrey and me talking to you every Sunday. If we want to be a healthy and growing church, there need to be a process of give and take – we need to be blessed, and at same time do all the good works required of us by the Lord.
Finally, I want to welcome this morning our new brother-in-Christ and receive him into our Church. I want to invite Mr. Tan, who has spent most of his life having heard about Jesus Christ, but has not committed himself to Jesus. And as he has made a decision to believe in Jesus and accept him as Lord and Saviour, I want to welcome him and accept him as a Catechumen in front of you all this morning. During the Iban Service earlier on, we also accepted a few people as catechumens. There are many more people like them outside there, waiting to be invited and encouraged to open their hearts to Jesus, and it is your responsibility to bring them in.
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