God Does Not Show Favoritism - Pastor Tom Loghry
In Acts 9:32-11:18, God reveals his intent to redeem not only Jews but also the Gentiles in Jesus Christ.
Transcript:
At Caesarea, there was a man named Cornelius, a centurion in what was known as the Italian regiment. He and all his family were devout and God-fearing; he gave generously to those in need and prayed to God regularly. One day, at about three in the afternoon, he had a vision. He distinctly saw an angel of God who came to him and said, Cornelius.
Cornelius stared at him in fear. What is it, Lord? He asked. The angel answered. Your prayers and gifts to the poor have come up as a memorial offering before God. Now send men to Joppa to bring back a man named Simon, who is called Peter. He is staying with Simon the Tanner, whose house is by the sea.
Our world is full of variety among human beings. You'll encounter people with different languages, different hair, eyes, skin. In different cultures, our world is full of beautiful differences. Our world is also full of sin. When God made Israel his chosen people, he set them apart from other peoples because of the sin that occupies every human heart and even comes to dominate entire societies and cultures.
Israel was set apart not because they were different, not because the Hebrew people were any master race, but because they were called to be different. They were called to be righteous. Ezra notes this even as he confesses Israel's failure to live apart from the world in Ezra nine, verses 10 through 12, he says, but now our God, what can we say after this?
For we have forsaken the commands you gave through your servants, the prophets when you said The land you are entering to possess is a land polluted by the corruptions of its peoples, by their detestable practices. They have filled it with their impurity from one end to the other. Therefore, do not give your daughters in marriage to their sons or take their daughters for your sons.
Do not seek a treaty of friendship with them at any time, that you may be strong and eat the good things of the land and leave it to your children as an everlasting inheritance. So God very clearly called Israel to set themselves apart from surrounding peoples, and yet the same God who called Israel to set herself apart tells us through the prophet Isaiah of a day to come in which all people would be drawn to himself.
In Isaiah 11, 9 through 10 he says, they'll neither harm nor destroy on all my holy mountain for the Earth will be filled with the knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover the sea. And that day, the root of Jesse will stand as a banner for the peoples. The nations will rally to him and his resting place will be glorious. A command to stand apart.
A promise of reunion, rallied around the root of Jesse, which of course is the Messiah, which is Jesus Christ. A command to stand apart, a promise of reunion, and yet also the abiding presence of human sinfulness for every right reason that God called Israel to stand apart. We are familiar with all the wrong and sinful reasons for human division.
We idolize our tribes. Insisting that every human good is carried on by our kind and every human ill carried on by those others. What the Old Testament makes clear in Israel's story is that none of us, not a single one of us, are essentially good. All of us are subject to corruption. There is no superior race.
All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God as apostle, as the apostle Paul tells us in Romans 3: 23. But now I want you to imagine that you are a first century Jewish disciple of Jesus. You know your Old Testament that the Jews were called to stand apart, but you also know the Old Testament of prophecies and you know Jesus commanded you to take the gospel to the world. In practice, what will that look like? Are you to preach the gospel to the Gentiles but then have nothing to do with them? How is this going to work? What is God's idea here? In Acts 9, 10, and 11 God discloses to Peter exactly what he has in mind, but not all at once. So we begin in Acts 9 verses 32 through 35. Luke records.
He says, as Peter traveled about the country, he went to visit the Lord's people who lived in Lydda. There he found a man named Aeneas who was paralyzed and had been bedridden for eight years. Aneaus, Peter said to him, Jesus Christ heals you. Get up and roll up your mat. Immediately Aeneas got up. All those who lived in Lydda and Sharon saw him and turned to the Lord.
We have a very brief account here, but it's a profound miracle. It takes place in a, in a place called Lydda, which you can see located on the map behind me, Peter finds a man named Aeneas. And there's something interesting in, in that this man's name is, is given because his name is a very Roman name. It's a name which comes from the legendary patriarch of Rome and Aeneas was said to be the father of Romulus and Remus, who stand behind the founding of that, famous city of Rome.
This man Aeneas, in some way seems to represent that Gentile population given his name, and Peter comes to him and performs a magnificent miracle. This man, Aeneas, had been paralyzed and bedridden for eight years, and everyone knew this. This was no temporary thing that had just come on that he might have gotten over by chance.
Certainly wasn't any act. No one would lay in bed for eight years. Maybe some of you after a work week feel like you wanna lay in bed for eight years, but clearly, Aeneas is truly crippled by whatever's afflicting him. 📍 And yet, by a mere word, he's healed. Peter says to him, Jesus Christ heals you. Get up and roll up your mat. There's something interesting in here that we know, and what Peter says to him, he's very explicit. He doesn't say I healed you. He doesn't just say, get up and roll, you know, roll up your mat and walk. Says Jesus Christ heals you. I don't think it's any accident that this, this miracle sounds very familiar to the miracle that Jesus himself performed in Matthew nine, six. And so what we are seeing here is that Jesus is continuing to extend his presence through the apostles, through the church, so that while he has physically ascended, his spiritual presence remains active and living.
The result of this miracle, which is really the point of any miracle and sign that God gives, is that people turn to the Lord. And it says that all those who lived in Lydda and Sharon who saw this man healed, they turned to the Lord. Everyone knew his story, saw that he was walking, they repented, put their faith in Christ.
Then we move on to another miracle. Verse 36. It says, in Joppa, there was a disciple named Tabitha, in Greek her name is Dorcas. She was always doing good and helping the poor. About that time, she became sick and died, and her body was washed and placed in an upstairs room. Lydda was near Joppa. So when the disciples heard that Peter was in Lydda, they sent two men to him and urged him, please come at once. Peter went with them and when he arrived, he was taken upstairs to the room. All the widows stood around him crying and showing him the robes and other clothing that Dorcas had made while he was still with them. Peter sent them all out of the room. Then he got down on his knees and prayed, turning toward the dead woman.
He said, Tabitha, get up. She opened her eyes and seeing Peter she sat up. He took her by the hand and helped her to her feet. Then she called, then he called for the believers, especially the widows, and presented her to them alive. This became known all over Joppa and many people believed in the Lord.
Peter stayed in Joppa for some time with a tanner named Simon. So Peter goes on and he moves on to this area of, of Joppa, which I might not have had the right picture up before, but that is Joppa and it's not that far away from, from Lydda, and it's right along the coast. Now this woman, Tabitha, in Greek, her name mean is Dorcas and which in English it all means Gazelle, which is interesting.
One commentator suggests maybe there's sort of a significant meaning behind this and the fact there are names included referring to the spread of the gospel, perhaps not. In any case, that's her name. And Tabitha is a really incredible woman and, and we see here just how important women were in the early church and how Christ really dignifies the role of women.
And we see how it's reported that she was doing good in helping the poor, and she was a clothes maker, and presumably she probably gave clothes to people. And honestly, I mean, she's the kind of woman that reminds me of many of the women here in our church. And we just see this very emotional scene where Tabitha has died and, her friends are showing Peter, look, these are all the things that she made and now she's gone.
And yet there seems like perhaps there's some sense of expectation that they're calling upon Peter in this moment, she's upstairs and Peter goes up to that upper room and praying, he turns to the dead woman and says, Tabitha, get up. And she opened her eyes and seeing Peter, she, she sat up. So again, we have another miracle here, and it's again, reminiscent of a miracle that Jesus performed in Mark 5 41 when he raised a little girl from the dead.
He says he took her by the hand and said to her Talitha koum, which means little girl, I say to you, get up. And as in the case in Lydda, when he raised, when he healed Aeneaus, so here, this miracle caused many people to believe in the Lord. And Peter stays on in Joppa for some time and he stays with a man, with a tanner named Simon.
Now, the thing that's kind of interesting about Joppa is if you know your Bible well, you'll know that Joppa is the place that Jonah, when he is gonna get in a boat to run away from God's call, that he would go to Nineveh. Now here we have Peter staying in Joppa for some time, and he's staying in the house of a man named Simon the the Tanner.
And it's in his home that he's gonna receive a sort of similar call, a call to go to foreign people. Yet we're going to see a different reaction. So we see how poetic it is, how God has ordained these steps here to put Peter in Joppa to receive this call. So we look at Acts 10, one through six.
Noah read those verses for us. Talks about how there was a, a centurion named Cornelius in Caesarea, and he's visited by an angel and he receives instructions to send men to Joppa to call upon Peter.
Now in verse seven it says, when the angel who spoke to him had gone, Cornelius called two of his servants and a devout soldier who was one of his attendants. He told them everything that had happened and sent them to Joppa. About noon the following day as they were on their journey approaching the city, Peter went up on the roof to pray.
He became hungry and wanted something to eat, and while the meal was being prepared, he fell into a trance. So Cornelius receives this vision of an angel that comes and speaks to him. And if I can get the picture up here, I think maybe I put it there. Yeah. Cornelius is in Caesarea. It's about 38 miles away from Joppa, so a good distance away.
No way that he would've known that Peter was in Joppa, really. It's about as far away as Worcester is from here. He has this vision of an angel coming to him with a message from the Lord. Now, the thing interesting about Cornelius is his background. He's a centurion. That means he was a, a, a captain of about a hundred men in the Roman army.
He says he was a centurion of the Italian regiment, which means this is likely a regiment actually from Italy. Sometimes they had companies that were from other parts of the Mediterranean, but these are Italians here. So if, if you're Italian here, this is where you show up in the story. And the thing that's interesting about Cornelius is that he's noted to be a devout, God-fearing man.
He gave to the poor, he prayed to God regularly. And in this vision that he has of an angel visiting him from God, God notes this and says that his offerings to the poor have come up before him as a memorial offering. And here we see how God honors those who seek him. And then if a person seeks God, God's gonna come to him.
God's not gonna remain closed off to anyone who seeks him.
And the instructions that the angel gives to Cornelius is this, is that he should send men to Joppa to find Simon Peter, who's living in the home of Simon the Tanner. And again, no way that he would otherwise know this. it's not like they had news reporting that Peter's staying in Joppa with this guy Simon.
And so the next day around noon, Peter says, it's interesting to see this noted. Peter gets hungry and he, he kind of falls into this trance and he has a dream about eating. Maybe some of you have had dreams like that before when you're hungry. This is the vision that Peter has as he's waiting for his meal to be prepared.
Continuing on in verse 11, it says, he saw heaven opened and something like a large sheet being let down to earth by its four corners. It contained all kinds of four footed animals, as well as reptiles and birds. Then a voice told him, get up, Peter. Kill and eat. Surely not, Lord. Peter replied. I have never eaten anything impure or unclean.
The voice spoke to him a second time. Do not call anything impure that God has made clean. This happened three times and immediately the sheet was taken back to heaven. Now to understand the significance of what's going on here, you, you have to appreciate the, the laws under which the Jewish people had been living under the Old Covenant. In Leviticus 11 and Deuteronomy 14 there are various laws stipulated regarding how they would, how they would maintain ritual purity by avoiding eating certain foods and only eating particular sorts of foods. Basically eating kosher. Now the thing that's interesting here is that Peter was already kind of being a little bit edgy staying with Simon the Tanner because the tanning business has to do with dead animals. You have to kill the animal to tan the skins. And part of the ritual law is that you're supposed to avoid coming into contact with death, otherwise you become ritually impure. So again, Simon's already being a, Peter's already being a little bit edgy here, but this vision that he has just takes things another step further because this was a very crucial marker that set Jewish people apart from Gentile people. It's like his whole world is being turned upside down in this vision that Peter's having. He, the sheet is coming down says, with four corners. And we can reasonably conclude that what's significant about the four corners is we think about the four corners of the earth.
So if you had kind of a flat conception of the earth, we're all familiar with, from every over the four corners of the earth is a, it's indicating universally all sorts of animals. And it doubles down on that. And that there is all sorts of animals presented, including unclean animals, animals that would've been ritually impure for Peter to eat.
And yet, in verse 13, God commands Peter, it says, he says, get up, Peter, kill and eat. Now, despite the fact that God is telling him to do this, Peter resists this command from the Lord. And in doing so, he's, he's kind of echoing the stands that Ezekiel and Daniel took when it came to maintaining their commitment to purity.
We see in Ezekiel 4:14, when God had asked Ezekiel to cook some food over human excrement,, a yucky business, in order to signify the impurity of, of Israel. Ezekiel says, that's kind of a bridge too far. He says, not so sovereign Lord, I have never defiled myself from my youth until now. I have never eaten anything found dead or torn by wild animals.
No impure meat has ever entered my mouth. So Ezekiel, no. And God grants him that. He says, okay, you don't have to, you don't have to do that. And, and Daniel one eight. Daniel, it says that Daniel resolved not to defile himself with the royal food and wine, and he asked the chief official for permission not to defile himself this way.
So we can imagine Peter saying, I know, I know this. I know how Ezekiel stood firm with his convictions. I know how Daniel stood firm, and so I'm gonna do this the same here. Maybe he's thinking it's a sort of test or something, but we see that in verse, in verse 14 that we see that God insists, he says, do not call anything impure, that God has made clean.
And so his vision's repeated three times and afterwards Peter's really not sure what to think. Continuing on in verse 17, it says, while Peter was wondering about the meaning of the vision, the men sent by Cornelius found out where Simon's house was and stopped at the gate. They called out asking if Simon, who was known as Peter, was staying there while Peter was still thinking about the vision.
The spirit said to him, Simon, three men are looking for you, so get up and go downstairs. Do not hesitate to go with them for I have sent them. Peter went down and said to the men, I'm the one you're looking for. Why have you come? The men replied, we have come from Cornelius the Centurion. He's a righteous and God-fearing man who is respected by all the Jewish people.
A holy angel told him to ask you to come to his house so that he could hear what you have to say. Then Peter invited the men into the house to be his guests. The next day, Peter started out with them and some of the believers from Joppa went along. So we can imagine to hear that between Peter's vision that he had the spirit commanding him to go with these men, and the fact that these men are reporting to him that an angel has come to Cornelius telling him, telling them to, telling him to send men to go find Peter. We can imagine between all these things that Peter's beginning to connect the dots because he's being asked to go into a Gentile home and we'll see how Peter reckons that to be a significant thing. Continuing on in verse 24, it says, the following day he arrived in Caesarea. Cornelius was expecting them and had called together his relatives and close friends.
As Peter entered the house, Cornelius met him and fell at his feet in reverence. But Peter made him get up. Stand up, he said, I'm only a man myself. While talking with him, Peter went inside and found a large gathering of people. He said to them, you are well aware that it is against our law for a Jew to associate with or visit a Gentile.
But God has shown me that I should not call anyone impure or unclean. So when I was sent for, I came without raising any objection. May I ask why you sent for me?
Now, something that we might easily pass over but again, I think it's significant here in terms of just thinking about how the disciples saw themselves compared to Christ. Is when Peter shows up, they, Cornelius came to him and fell at his feet in reverence. He's bowing down to him and Peter says, oh, don't do that.
I'm only a man. Now, you can imagine if, just to play devil's advocate here, if the apostles were just starting their own cult, their own religion, you you'd imagine they might be saying, oh yeah, bring it on. Yes, bow before me. You know, you know, kiss me, show me all this honor. Peter's not like that though.
He's like, no, no, no, I'm, I'm just a man. And then we take that into comparison to how Jesus responded when people paid him that sort of honor. We see, while he wasn't conscious enough to be able to refuse this, but we see it presented positively of how when the wise men came to him as a child, they bowed before him.
The disciples in Matthew 14:33 when they're in the boat with him, and he's calmed the storm, they bow and they, they begin worshiping. They begin worshiping him. And in John 19: 38, when Thomas touches the hand, touches the hole in his hands and in his side, he says, my Lord and my God. So we have a stark comparison between Jesus and the apostles.
Jesus, you can worship. Jesus you can reverence. Not the apostles. Now, as I alluded to, Peter points out how it's significant that he is entering into the home of a gentile. While there is no Old Testament law forbidding a Jew to go into the, to the home of a Gentile, there were traditions, Jewish traditions built upon the law that prohibited Jews from doing so because fraternizing with gentiles, risked, making oneself impure.
So basically stay away from that as, as, as much as you can. But here Peter's saying, I'm not afraid of that anymore. And the reason is this is, it's from the vision and everything that's transpired. He says, but God has shown me that I should not call anyone impure or clean. And it's interesting. The primary implication here is people.
It's the Gentiles themselves, the non-Jewish people themselves, that Peter says, God has shown me that I shouldn't consider you, consider you impure or unclean. Now there's secondary implications here for, as well when it comes to food that we, we gain from this vision. This is why Christians are no longer held to maintaining the dietary law of the old covenant that has passed away under the new covenant.
Those stipulations are no longer enforced. So Peter asks them, why have you asked me to come to you? He asked for more detail and this sets the stage for the absolute confirmation of God's revelation that he is already been begun disclosing to Peter. Continuing on verse 30, Cornelius answered him three days ago I was in my house praying at this hour, at three in the afternoon. Suddenly a man in shining clothes stood before me and said, Cornelius, God has heard your prayer and remembered your gifts to the poor. Send to Joppa for Simon, who's called Peter. He's a guest in the home of Simon the Tanner who lives by the sea.
So I sent for you immediately and it was good of you to come. Now we are all here in the presence of God to listen to everything the Lord has commanded you to tell us. Then Peter began to speak. I now realize how true it is that God does not show favoritism, but accepts from every nation, the one who fears him and does what is right.
You know the message God sent to the people of Israel announcing the good news of peace through Jesus Christ, who is Lord of all. You know what has happened throughout the province of Judea, beginning in in Galilee after the baptism that John preached, how God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit in power and how he went around doing good and healing all who were under the power of the devil because God was with him.
We are witnesses of everything he did in the country of the Jews and in Jerusalem. They killed him by hanging him on a cross. But God raised him from the dead on the third day and caused him to be seen. He was not seen by all the people, but by witnesses whom God had already chosen, by us who ate and drank with him after he rose from the dead.
He commanded us to preach to the people and to testify that he is the one whom God appointed as the judge of the living and the dead. All the prophets testified about him, that everyone who believes in him receives forgiveness of sins through his name.
So speaking to Cornelius, to his entire household, which here effectively represents the gentile population, Peter tells them, I now realize how true it is that God does not show favoritism, but accepts from every nation the one who fears him and does what is right. There's no longer any barriers for those who are non-Jewish to be accepted by God.
And we see in the case of, of Cornelius, that he is one who has feared God, who has sought God, and he is ready to accept this provision of the gospel message that God would give to him and to anyone who would fear him and do what is right. And then Peter kind of gives a summary of things that apparently they, Cornelius and some, at least some members of his household must be familiar with of Jesus' ministry, everything that transpired. And he talks about how himself and the other disciples were witnesses of these things.
And then kind of the strong point here, lands on verse 43, he says, all the prophets testify about him, that everyone who believes in him receives forgiveness of sins through his name. So it wasn't the case that Cornelius was being accepted by God because he was a really great guy, though he was. He had, he was doing many good things.
But the reality is, is that Cornelius, the Gentiles, and all the Jewish people need, needed, and we all need Christ to be our savior because all of us are sinners and we needed the forgiveness of sins that can only be found in him, and we can receive that forgiveness by believing in him. That's the heart of the gospel message that Peter's presenting here.
Believe in Christ and your sins will be forgiven. Now moving on. We see how as Peter's saying these things, his testimony is actually confirmed in real time. In verse 44, it says, while Peter was still speaking these words, the Holy Spirit came on to all who heard the message. The circumcised believers who had come with Peter were astonished that the gift of the Holy Spirit had been poured out even on Gentiles, for they heard them speaking in tongues and praising God.
Then Peter said, surely no one can stand in the way of their being baptized with water. They have received the Holy Spirit just as we have. So he ordered that they be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ. Then they asked Peter to stay with them for a few days. Now, what is striking here is how the usual order of things has been reversed.
Typically what occurs when a person puts their faith in Christ is they believe, they're baptized in water, and at that time they also enjoy the baptism of the Holy Spirit. The person of the Holy Spirit comes to indwell the believer. But here in this case, God has jumped ahead in order to make a point. As Peter is saying these things, the Holy Spirit is poured out upon the Gentiles such that they begin speaking in tongues and praising God.
And this sign is astonishing. It's astonishing to those that were with Peter, who had come along with him, and later on we find out that six other Jewish believers, or at least those that had been circumcised, presumably Jewish believers. Six brothers who had come along were astonished to see this occur. It confirmed that God had in fact accepted them.
Now, this doesn't eliminate the command for water baptism. It just signals to Peter, of course, we're gonna baptize these folks because God has already gone ahead and baptized them in the Holy Spirit. And so they, that's what they do. They, they are, they are all baptized. Now, news of this spreads and, and it starts some controversy.
We go to Acts 11, and I'm not gonna read verses four through 13 because it's really Peter just summarizing everything that we've just read. But I'm gonna pick out a, a few verses here that are really kind of significant for our consideration of this passage. So it says, regarding this controversy, it says, the apostles and the believers throughout Judea heard that the Gentiles also had received the word of God.
So when Peter went up to Jerusalem, the circumcised believers criticized him and said, you went into the house of uncircumcised men and ate with them. And then jumping down to verse 15 says, Peter says, as I began to speak, the Holy Spirit came on them as he had come on us at the beginning. Then I remembered what the Lord had said, John baptized with water, but you'll be baptized with the Holy Spirit.
So if God gave them the same gift he gave us, who believed in the Lord Jesus Christ, who was I to think that I could stand in God's way? When they heard this, they had no further objections and praised God saying so then even to Gentiles, God has granted repentance that leads to life. There's a bit of a controversy that Peter runs into after these events take place.
And the controversy is this, you Peter, went into the house of uncircumcised men and ate with them. Now there's a bit of, it seems, it seems as though there is some surprise about these gentiles ultimately being included in the household of faith. Although we know that Samaritans have already been preached the gospel, we know that the Ethiopian eunuch had already been preached the gospel and so we, and so it's difficult to discern exactly here where the surprise and astonishment lies.
It may rest really on this element of fellowship because that seems to be their primary concern. They say so then even to gen, oh, sorry. It says, you went into the house of uncircumcised men. Ate with them. That's their issues. You went into their house and you sat down and ate with these guys and essentially risked impurity or made your yourself impure by eating with them because presumably you're eating food that wasn't ritually pure.
Now Peter gives his account, he makes his defense of what happened and by the time we get to verse 15, he says the Holy Spirit came on them as he had come on us at the beginning. Peter's recalling of the day of Pentecost and the Holy Spirit was poured out upon all the believers, and so he's saying, guys, listen up.
This was, this was like a Gentile Pentecost, and he recalls Jesus' words to them in Acts one, five, where Jesus said, for John baptized with water, but in a few days you'll be baptized with the Holy Spirit. He's saying this is what happened to them just as it happened to us. And of course, those six other brothers who were with him confirmed, confirmed what Peter saying, yeah, he's not making this up.
That's exactly what happened. And so based on that testimony, they conclude so then even to the Gentiles, God has granted repentance that leads to life. So if there was any question about the Gentiles being excluded altogether or maybe just that they had some sort of secondary citizen, second class status in, in God's household, that's completely eliminated here by the sign that God gives, by bringing together events to bring Peter and Cornelius together and pouring out the Holy Spirit upon this gentile household. Paul does say in Romans 3: 23, that all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, but he also says in Romans 3: 24 and all are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus. Jesus is not just good news for the Jews. He's good news for the entire world.
Turning to him does not require compliance with the stipulations under the old covenant, circumcision and kosher eating. Jesus has established a new covenant, established by the sacrifice of himself, a covenant of grace that we enter into through faith in Jesus Christ simply by believing in him, trusting ourselves to him and entering into his covenant under which we are forgiven of our sins, and given a new life, does of course demand that we abandon our old allegiances.
And I think this is what the Jerusalem believers had in mind when they say a repentance that leads to life. We can't save ourselves by our good works, but we also can't stick with our sinful ways if we are entering the way of Jesus. Setting aside the purity laws, the gentile world at that time still had plenty of sin to repent of. And the same is true for us.
The gospel invitation is open to every tribe, nation. The gospel will not leave us unchanged. There's much to change. There are various sins that flourish in American culture and European culture, and Asian culture and African culture and South American culture. In every other subculture you can imagine, Jesus welcomes all people to himself, but he pulls no punches when it comes to rooting out sin.
He's ready to preserve all that is good in our cultures, elevating our beautiful differences. But washing away, scrubbing away, all that is evil and corrupting, we have here in Peter's testimony, the confirmation of Christ's words to Nicodemus that indicate God's favor towards all. When he says in John three 16 through 17, for God so loved the world that he gave his one and only son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish by having eternal life.
For God did not send his son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. Let that be our belief. Let that be our conviction towards all people, and let this be the message ever on our lips. Let's pray.
Father, we thank you that, thank you, that you don't play favorites, that you don't choose one race over another, one culture over another, one people over another, father, but that your intent all along was that the whole world would be brought to yourself through Jesus Christ. Father, we thank you that in Him we're truly purified, that we are made clean.
That this is made available to all of us who would simply come to him, putting our faith in him. Father, we know that if we put our faith in him, we will be forgiven of our sins and accepted by you rejoicing and joining Fellowship with you and Fellowship with each other.
Father, make this gospel message paramount in our minds as that message that the world truly needs. Nothing else can unite us in the way that the gospel can unite us, Father, to you or to each other. And so father make us faithful preachers of it and live out the values of the gospel in our interactions with others.
We ask this in the name of Jesus Christ, our Lord. Amen.
Intro/Outro Song
Title: River Meditation
Artist: Jason Shaw
Source:http://freemusicarchive.org/music/Jason_Shaw/Audionautix_Acoustic/RIVER_MEDITATION___________2-58
License:(CC BY 3.0 US)