Atos 11

Atos 11

Clarke points out that the Jews taking issue with Peter is "A manifest proof this that the primitive Church at Jerusalem had no conception of Peter’s supremacy, or of his being prince of the apostles. He is now called to account for his conduct, which they judged to be reprehensible; and which they would not have attempted to do had they believed him to be Christ’s vicar upon earth, and the infallible nead of the Church. But this absurd dream is every where refuted in the New Testament. Jack Arnold - The overcoming of prejudice is one of the main themes in Acts 10 and 11 - Are you a Christian who has prejudices? If you answer “no” then you are deeply deceived and know nothing of your own human nature. If your answer is “yes” then you are an honest Christian and you are probably battling through your prejudices, attempting to bring them under the Lordship of Jesus Christ. As Christians, we bring many of our cultural, religious and personal prejudices of our unsaved life over into our saved life and a good portion of our progressive sanctification is changing these prejudices so as to have a Christ-centered viewpoint of life. Most of us are under the power of prejudice more than we realize. Prejudice is nothing more than a form of legalism in which we think ourselves better than someone else. Prejudice is a superior attitude in which one feels himself a step higher than another person. It is all very subtle but prejudice comes out in a feeling of superiority of one race over another, or the superiority of one man over another because of education or class. It can also be religious prejudice where one feels himself superior spiritually to another man. Prejudice is with us all and it must be faced honestly before Christ and put to death when it raises its ugly head. The overcoming of prejudice is one of the main themes in Acts 10 and 11. You remember how God desired that the gospel should be preached to the Gentiles. In order to open the door so the gospel could go to Gentiles, God gave two men a vision. Cornelius, a Gentile centurian, a devout man, a religious man, a praying man and a seeking man was given a vision and told to seek out a man named Simon Peter, who would give him a message by which Cornelius and his household would come to believe in Jesus Christ and be saved. As Cornelius sent three men to Joppa to find Simon Peter, Christ gave Peter a vision. He saw a huge sheet filled with unclean and clean animals and was told to kill and eat these animals. This whole vision was horrifying to Peter because a good Jew never ate unclean animals, but Peter, after some deep struggle, obeyed and went to Cornelius in Caesarea and preached to him, his family and friends the message of Jesus Christ and they were saved. The vision Peter saw not only told him that under the new dispensation it was right to eat unclean animals, but the deeper spiritual meaning was that the gospel of Christ was to go to unclean Gentiles and they could be made spiritually clean in Christ. Peter was learning to set aside his prejudices for the furtherance of Christ and His kingdom. Acts 11:3 saying, "You went to uncircumcised men and ate with them." KJV Acts 11:3 Saying, Thou wentest in to men uncircumcised, and didst eat with them. Acts 10:23,28,48; Luke 15:2; 1 Corinthians 5:11; 2 John 1:10 THE OUTRAGE OF CIRCUMCISED EATING WITH UNCIRCUMCISED Peter had broken the taboo! In their legalistic eyes he had become ceremonially defiled and was deserving of excommunication. While we see no criticism from the other 11 apostles, there is also no record of them coming to his defense! John