Long Island Abundant Life Church長島豐盛生命教會
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  Long Island Abundant Life Church長島豐盛生命教會

Acts 10:9–33

7/9/2012

 
Click here to read today's passage on Bible Gateway.

It's Not About the Animals
The best way to summarize today's passage is that Peter has a vision about animals that isn't really about animals.  Yes, the dream actually has animals in it, but that's not really the point.

Peter is on the roof of a house, getting hungry, when he receives a vision.  In this vision are all kinds of animals - clean and unclean.  Jews were forbidden in various passages in the Old Testament from eating certain kinds of animals (called "unclean" or, using the meaning of the Greek word in this particular passage, "common") in order to set them apart from the other nations that were not called out by God (see Leviticus 20:24b–26 for this connection).  A voice (presumably God, since Peter responds calling the voice "Lord") tells Peter to kill and eat.  Peter, being the good Jewish boy he is, refuses.  It really pictures how ingrained these traditions were in the Jewish people that Peter would tell God no when ordered - perhaps he felt that God was testing him.  God replies that Peter shouldn't consider things unclean that God has called clean.  Repeat 3 times.  End dream sequence.

Weird.  And definitely about animals, right?  I think it IS significant that God specifically declares these things clean (see also statements by Jesus in Mark 7:19 and surrounding context for further proof that this is true), but as I said before, it doesn't stop there.

So, what happens next?  Verse 17 tells us that Peter is perplexed at what the vision might mean (it seemed pretty straightforward to me), when three men come to the door.  They want Peter to come the Cornelius, a centurion and gentile.  Peter, prompted again by God, agrees and goes with them.  He meets with Cornelius and in verse 28 we learn the true, deeper purpose of Peter's vision:

"You yourselves know how unlawful it is for a Jew to associate with or to visit anyone of another nation, but God has shown me that I should not call any person common or unclean."

It's not really about the animals at all.  The Spirit of God has been moving through the world through His people.  The Gospel has spread from Jerusalem to Judea, Judea to Samaria.  But up to this point those that have received the Good News of Jesus have been Jews.  This is a vision about people.  This is a vision about the Gospel going to EVERYONE, or, as Acts 1:8 says, "to the ends of the earth".  This is more than just about Jews being able to change their diet.  It is about the Truth of God for ALL people. 

Questions? Comments?
Andrei
7/9/2012 04:25:41 pm

Word.... most definitely reminds me of the video we watched in Sunday school about the church in the remote areas of Indonesia and those other places. The guy said: 'most Christians are afraid of dirty, dying people.' But, we are also a dirty, dying people saved by Christ. The kingdom of heaven is just as much theirs as it is ours.

Gina
7/10/2012 12:07:25 am

This is a very good reminder for us to continue sharing the gospel to everyone we have the opportunity to Come across in our life path coz we never know whom God will touch. The gospel is also reflected in how we live out our lives as a good testament of His power and change in us. May God continue to lead us to share this with others.


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