Believing Something New

In the tenth chapter of Acts Luke tells of an experience Peter had that went against most of what he had been taught his entire life

Cornelius  saw in a vision an angel of God who told Cornelius to send men to Joppa and bring Peter to Caesarea.              

Luke recorded that Peter saw the heavens open and a sheet descend from the sky. The sheet contained certain animals Scriptures forbid Peter, a faithful Jew, to eat. The voice of God said "Rise, Peter, kill and eat."

Peter responded, "No, Lord; I have never eaten anything that is common or unclean." Peter knew what he believed and he was faithful to those beliefs even if it meant saying no to God. Our response usually is a "no" especially when God wants us to think or act in a new way.

As we are, Peter was resistant to change. God had to repeat the vision three times. During each vision Peter was cautioned not to reject what God had accepted.

While Peter considered what the vision meant God had sent three men to knock on his door. The men asked Peter to go with them to Cornelius, a Gentile. To visit a Gentile's home was to violate the rigid rules separating Jew from Gentile. Torn between what he'd always been taught and his experience with God, Peter relied on his experience. He went with the men and saw God pour out his Spirit on the house of Cornelius and all the Gentiles gathered there.

Peter rejected what he had learned from his father. He rejected what his rabbi had taught. He rejected what his friends believed. He trusted his experience with God, though it challenged a belief of his religion and contradicted certain Scriptures. Despite all this pressure to conform, Peter believed something new.

Peter's vision represented a major shift in the popular understanding of God's grace. Such shifts would unsettle anyone.

Consider how difficult those days must have been for Peter. It is not easy to believe and act in opposition to your religious tradition. It gets you few friends and many enemies. In the eleventh chapter of Acts, Peter faced severe criticism from other disciples of Jesus for asserting God's grace was even for a Gentile.

The first believers were Jewish and some of them believed God's grace was for the Jew alone. They had formulas that limited God's grace to those who were circumcised, kept dietary laws, and essentially became Jewish. Peter voiced another view. Peter trusted his experience with God and believed in a more extravagant grace.

Peter knew he could no longer believe God's grace was limit to the Jew.

If God interjects himself in the world today how can we not consider Peter's experiences as possibly applicable to us today.