Leading a Rebellion: Peter

Leading a Rebellion: Peter

Acts 10:9-16

Rebel:

-A rebel is a person who resists any authority, control, or tradition.

The Background:

-Remember in our discussion about the first Pentecost after Jesus death, burial, and resurrection, where the Holy Spirit descended upon the disciples, like flaming tongues and they began speaking in different languages?

-One of the last things Jesus said to the disciples is known as the Great Commission, “Go, therefore, and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit….” It has now been 8-10 years after that day of Pentecost and for the most part the disciples of Christ still have not attempted to reach out to anyone other than other Jews. They have not attempted to make disciples of all nations as they were told.

-One of the reasons is because of the huge cultural difference between Jews and the rest of the world. In the Bible there are three main types of people: 1) The Jews; 2) Gentiles, which were anyone who is not a Jew; 3) and the Samaritans, which were a cross between the Jews and the Gentiles. For the most part Gentiles didn’t like Jews, Jews didn’t like Gentiles, and both Jew and Gentile didn’t like the Samaritans.

-From the very beginning when God established a covenant relationship with Abraham, He separated him from his family and set him apart. Abraham and his descendants were told time and time again not to be like other nations, and not to worship the way they worship. He even told them to wipe out every man, woman, and child from all of the nations that were occupying the Promise Land before Israel got there so they would not be a snare to them. He forbade them from intermarrying with other nations so as to keep Israel separate and holy for God’s work through them.

-But one of the main distinctions between Jews and Gentiles is the dietary restrictions the Jews adhered to. Daniel, Shadrack, Meshack, and Abed-Nego refused to eat the king’s food because of Jewish dietary restrictions. Even Jews to this day will adhere to certain foods. A professor of mine in seminary had a friend who was Jewish. My professor invited his friend and their family over for dinner. The Jewish family gladly agreed and showed up with a large cooler with their meal in it, paper plates, plastic cups, and plastic cutlery in Ziploc bags. If you did not know their culture you would have been deeply offended. They ate different foods, cooked in the proper Jewish fashion, and brought their own dishes because the gentile dishes were unclean.

-The book of Leviticus introduces the Jewish dietary restrictions that every Jew was to follow. Almost everything in life from food and drinks, to dishes and people were separated into two categories: clean, and unclean. If a person was clean they could fellowship with others, and participate in the worship of God. If you consumed clean food and drinks from clean containers with clean people you would stay clean yourself. If any of those items were unclean, you would be unclean. For instance, eating with a Gentile, would have made you unclean. Unclean people were separated from the group for a period of time, unless they had an ongoing illness or sickness, and were not allowed to participate in worshiping with God.

-List of unclean animals: bat, camel, chameleon, cormorant, eagle, ferret, owl, rabbit, hawk, heron, lizard, mole, mouse, pelicans, pig, ravens, snail, stork, tortoise, vulture, and weasel.

-Lots of things could make a person ceremonially unclean besides what they eat: Being in a gentile’s home, touching a dead body, having a skin disorder, having a discharge of any sort, and a woman’s monthly menstruation cycle.

The Story So Far:

-Peter had just raised a dead woman back to life and everybody was amazed at what he did, and wanted to hear his message, so he stuck around for a few days in the town of Joppa. While he was in Joppa he stayed at a man named Simon’s house whose occupation was a tanner. This is someone who took dead animals, skinned them, and made them into leather to sell. Remember what we just said about what touching a dead animal would do to a Jewish person—it would make them unclean. Being a tanner would not have been a very popular profession in the Jewish world, and the smell of his workshop would have been atrocious. There was no electric fans to push the smell around.

The Rebellion:

Scripture: Acts 10:9-16

The next day, as they were on their journey and approaching the city, Peter went up on the housetop about the sixth hour^[a] to pray. ¹⁰ And he became hungry and wanted something to eat, but while they were preparing it, he fell into a trance ¹¹ and saw the heavens opened and something like a great sheet descending, being let down by its four corners upon the earth. ¹² In it were all kinds of animals and reptiles and birds of the air. ¹³ And there came a voice to him: “Rise, Peter; kill and eat.” ¹⁴ But Peter said, “By no means, Lord; for I have never eaten anything that is common or unclean.” ¹⁵ And the voice came to him again a second time, “What God has made clean, do not call common.” ¹⁶ This happened three times, and the thing was taken up at once to heaven.

-BTW Vs 14 says, “By no means, Lord” You can’t say “no” and call Him “Lord.” You either do what He tells you to do, or you can’t call Him Lord. Some of you all have trusted Jesus as your savior but not as your Lord. 

-Now Peter was free to eat whatever he wanted with no care as to whether it was clean or unclean.  He could eat pork, something that was previously unclean. He could reach into his bag and pull out a jar of Pig’s Feet, or Pickled Pig’s Lips and start munching on them if he wanted to.

-It was not an easy break for Peter. There were times when he would eat with the Gentiles, eat their food, and not care about clean or unclean, but there were other times when the Jews were in town, that he would only eat with the Jews. This confused the Gentiles, and Paul had to correct him on this behavior. Galatian 2:11-13

But when Cephas came to Antioch, I opposed him to his face, because he stood condemned. ¹² For before certain men came from James, he was eating with the Gentiles; but when they came he drew back and separated himself, fearing the circumcision party.^{[a] 13} And the rest of the Jews acted hypocritically along with him, so that even Barnabas was led astray by their hypocrisy. But for the most part, from that point on Jewish Christians, or Messianic Jews, tore down the cultural wall that separated the Jews from the Gentiles. 

-Now that there was no wall separating the Jewish culture from the rest of the world, they had no excuse not to follow the Great Commission and making disciples of all the nations.

-As if there were not enough problems between the Jews and the early Christians, but now all of the Jews that are now professing Christ could be seen eating foods that were ceremonially unclean to them for thousands of years. These were people who prized their laws and traditions over their relationship with God. By breaking with the dietary restrictions, they were rebelling against all of the laws and traditions of their culture.   

Application:

-Is there anything separating you from a different culture that may hinder your from relating with them and ultimately sharing the gospel with them?

-We all exist in these micro-cultures inside the bigger culture of America. You might exist in the jock culture, music culture, artsy culture, academic culture, or whatever else there may be. My challenge for you this week is to step out of your comfort zone and attempt to have a real honest-to-goodness conversation with someone in a different micro-culture.