​Have you ever had a really weird dream and then you woke up and thought, “What was that all about?” When we were in Belize there was one evening after dinner that our guests wanted to take our team out for these coffee flavored milk shakes. They were very tasty. I enjoyed mine as a sat next to others, enjoying the evening and having some great conversation. But little did I know that I was in for a ride once I fell asleep. All I remember is that I had some really weird dreams that left me dazed and confused when I woke up. That morning, when I went to go take my medication, I noticed that I forgot to take them the morning before. So, with the combination of being off my meds and drinking a coffee milkshake before I went to bed was not a good combination for my mind! It was the most restless sleep I had all week. As we look at Acts 10, we see that Peter also had some weird dreams one night. And I doubt it had to be because he forgot to take his medication or drank dairy before he went to bed. But before we get to that, let’s get the back story.

Acts 10 begins this way:

At Caesarea there was a man named Cornelius, a centurion in what was known as the Italian Regiment. ² He and all his family were devout and God-fearing; he gave generously to those in need and prayed to God regularly. ³ 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!”

⁴ 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. ⁵ Now send men to Joppa to bring back a man named Simon who is called Peter. ⁶ He is staying with Simon the tanner, whose house is by the sea.”

⁷ 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. ⁸ He told them everything that had happened and sent them to Joppa.

So, there are a couple of things to note here that are very important for us to get the full gravity of what is going on. The brand-new Christian movement thus far has been a movement within the Jewish community. And at this point, for all they knew, following Jesus was primarily a Jewish thing. Non-Jewish people were seen as gentiles, nonbelievers, people not to be trusted with the Gospel of Jesus. 

But then one day, far away from the Jewish Christian community, a Roman centurion had a vision of an angel. Now understand that Romans were considered the enemy of the Jewish people. They were the occupying force oppressing them. There was no way for a person of Jewish decent to look kindly at the Romans especially a centurion. Yet, an angel visits Cornelius and tells him to call for Peter to come visit him.

Now what is really cool here in this story is the way that God orchestrates a very important and vital “God moment” between two people. A vision is given to Cornelius and then a vision is given to Peter. These visions were given to create an opportunity for these two to come together. Why these visions? Because under any other circumstances these two most likely would never speak to each other because of all the social and political barriers separating them. 

Now a vision was given to Peter to nudge him in the direction of going to see Cornelius. The story continues:

⁹ About noon the following day as they were on their journey and approaching the city, Peter went up on the roof to pray. ¹⁰ He became hungry and wanted something to eat, and while the meal was being prepared, he fell into a trance.¹¹ He saw heaven opened and something like a large sheet being let down to earth by its four corners. ¹² It contained all kinds of four-footed animals, as well as reptiles and birds. ¹³ Then a voice told him, “Get up, Peter. Kill and eat.”

¹⁴ “Surely not, Lord!” Peter replied. “I have never eaten anything impure or unclean.”

¹⁵ The voice spoke to him a second time, “Do not call anything impure that God has made clean.”

¹⁶ This happened three times, and immediately the sheet was taken back to heaven.

¹⁷ 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. ¹⁸ They called out, asking if Simon who was known as Peter was staying there.

¹⁹ While Peter was still thinking about the vision, the Spirit said to him, “Simon, three men are looking for you. ²⁰ So get up and go downstairs. Do not hesitate to go with them, for I have sent them.”

²¹ Peter went down and said to the men, “I’m the one you’re looking for. Why have you come?”

²² The men replied, “We have come from Cornelius the centurion. He is 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.” ²³ Then Peter invited the men into the house to be his guests.

What a strange dream! Peter had a weird dream of all kinds of animals, kosher and non-kosher coming down on a sheet. And then a voice told him to get up and eat. This would have been a wonderful dream for me! Eat all this delicious food! But Peter objects! He is not going to go up against everything he has always believed when it comes to a kosher diet. He objects three times and for three times the voice tells him “Do not call anything impure that God has made clean.”

But you have to understand that for hundreds of years the Jewish people have been following, or at least attempting to follow, the laws given to Moses. In those laws are strict dietary laws that told them what they could and could not eat. Imagine this: on the DO NOT EAT list were thinks like pork and many types of seafood! There were kosher laws keeping them to a specific diet that would distinguish them from their Gentile counterparts. Peter would have found this dream to be offensive to everything he has been brought up to believe. He tries hard to stand on his principles and convictions. The dream then repeats itself three times. Any time anything is repeated three times in the Bible that attests to it importance and seriousness. God is driving home the point. Now Peter is understanding this dream in a literal sense, not yet understanding its figurative meaning. 

To summarize some of the story, the messengers find where Peter’s house is at and invite him back to Cornelius’s place. You can almost see the wheels turning in Peter’s head wondering if this has anything to do with his dream.  

When he gets to Cornelius’s house, Peter and Cornelius compare notes on their dreams and how they were given to each one of them to bring them together. 

What is kind of funny, and slightly offensive, is how Peter responds to Cornelius at first. He states, “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. ²⁹ So when I was sent for, I came without raising any objection. May I ask why you sent for me?”

So, it’s kind of like Your people and my people, yeah well, we don’t really see eye to eye. I’m not really supposed to be associating with you. But God kind of twisted my arm on this matter. So, I came without objection! Thank you? I guess.

Cornelius then shares the details of his dream which encourages Peter to open up and share all he knows about Jesus. Peter begins to share by starting with stating, “I now realize how true it is that God does not show favoritism ³⁵ but accepts from every nation the one who fears him and does what is right.” He then goes on to share everything he witnessed about the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus. He then concludes with, “All the prophets testify about him that everyone who believes in him receives forgiveness of sins through his name.”

Get that: God does not show favoritism but accepts from every nation the one who fears him and does what is right! Everyone who believes in him receives forgiveness of sins through his name. His salvation has busted through the “Jews-only” wall and is now available to all people. Anyone who puts their faith in Jesus finds forgiveness for their sins and a new life through Him! 

This was mind-blowing, earth-shattering, hard-to-believe truth here. Peter’s reluctance, questioning, and fear got steam-rolled over by God’s grace offered to all people, even a Roman centurion.

So, now that they compared dreams and Peter was able to tell his audience all about Jesus, what was the results? The story ends this way:

⁴⁴ While Peter was still speaking these words, the Holy Spirit came on all who heard the message. ⁴⁵ The circumcised believers who had come with Peter were astonished that the gift of the Holy Spirit had been poured out even on Gentiles.⁴⁶ For they heard them speaking in tongues and praising God.

Then Peter said, ⁴⁷ “Surely no one can stand in the way of their being baptized with water. They have received the Holy Spirit just as we have.” ⁴⁸ 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.

Peter and his circumcised Jewish friends all of a sudden beheld the gifts of the Holy Spirit being fleshed out in the uncircumcised, non-kosher, politically incorrect Gentiles who were there, Cornelius and his family and friends all exhibited evidence of the Holy Spirit based on their faith. Now I’d like to park here for a moment and make sure you understand that Peter did not tell them to say a little prayer and then all is good, go on with life as usual. He tells them to put their faith in Jesus and do what is right. When we do this, there ought to be clear evidence of our salvation through the work of the Holy Spirit. So clear, that other people notice there is something different about you. Believe me when I say we are living in very dark times right now where faith, integrity, character, and a Spirit-filled life will stand out in the darkness. People will take notice of this and you may attract people to Jesus or you may face persecution of sorts. Keep in mind that there are Christians all around the world who fear for their lives simply because of their faith and the country they live in that is strongly opposed to Christianity. And also, be careful because in America right now there are many voices trying to speak out for Christianity that are very anti-Christ. Imposing our faith by force of will never work. Christian nationalism will fail because it is not of God. It is time we begin to look at the fruit of our lives to distinguish whether or not we are truly following Jesus and living Holy Spirit filled lives. Not that we become perfect all the time now. But there ought to be evidence of growth, that the fruit of the Spirit is developing in your life. 

With that said, I want us to focus on Peter’s initial reactions to being told three times to go witness to a non-kosher, non-Jewish gentile, who was a Roman centurion. This was an earth shattering, boundary-breaking moment in Christian history. This event did not sit well for a while with Jewish believers. Paul and Barnabus’s ministry to the gentiles started taking off as well. Suddenly, the very first Church Council was called for in Jerusalem where Peter, Paul, and Barnabus were challenged to share what they were experiencing. You can read all about this in Acts 15. 

So, let’s apply this to our current situation. Who are the people you think are beyond God’s grace and redemption? I want to open up and share with you about a group of people I used to struggle to love. That is the LGBTQ community. I was brought up to believe from pastors and teachers that to be gay was a sin. In fact, I taught this in my early years of Youth Ministry, and even during my initial starting years here at Epiphany. It was really easy for me to have a strong opinion because I believed at the time that the Bible was very clear on this subject and quite frankly, I did not know anyone, or at least I didn’t think I knew anyone, who was a part of that community. It is really easy to have a belief about a specific group of people especially when you don’t even know anybody personally from said community. As I grew up, I have had people, friends, pastors, and professors, twist scripture in such a way as to justify their racism, patriarchy, homophobia, and their hate for their political opponents. It was always about who is in and who is out. Who are the real Christians, and who are the heathens. 

A major turning point for me here at Epiphany was when the youth group was doing a mission trip to downtown Cincinnati in 2013. I had a gay couple, who you are all familiar with, ask to join us on the mission trip. Heather and Jen wanted to be a part of the trip and experience it with one of their kids. This was the first time for me that I ever had a gay couple want to be a part of a mission trip. At the time, I wasn’t sure what to think or how to approach this. Of course, they came on the trip and this began a new relationship for me. They were both very open and willing to have conversations with me about their faith and what it means to be gay. During this mission trip I was able to see them be used of God as they took part in ministry with our teenagers. This has only continued as they have both been involved in our contemporary music team for several years now.

Fast forward to approximately 5 years ago, we were in a position to hire a new director of Contemporary Music. This young kid came in and impressed us. His name was Corbin. At that time, he told us he was gay, wondering if that would be a deal-breaker or not. As he began working here, it became very evident that God was using him in a special way to lead our music ministries. A couple of years back, Corbin offered to go on one of our youth mission trips. Since then, he has attended the past 3 youth mission trips to Florida, Minnesota, and Belize. And I have gone with him on the Mexico mission trip as well last November. As I have seen him be used of God, I have come under the conviction that I love doing ministry with him, especially mission trips. It is clearly evident to me that God is also working in and through Corbin just like I have seen in Heather and Jen. In fact, both Jen and Corbin have felt a call to pastoral ministry as a result of their connection to Epiphany.

So, what do I do with the passages that seem to condemn homosexuality? Well, what I typically do when faced with an issue I am struggling with is that I grab a bunch of books on the subject and start reading away. Some books that have been very instrumental to me that have helped me better understand the LGBTQ community were these:

1. God and the Gay Christian by Mathew Vines
2. Torn by Justin Lee
3. Changing Our Minds by David Gushee
4. A Letter to My Congregation by Ken Wilson

These four books, along with others, help me better understand cultural context, translation and interpretation of Biblical texts that seemed to condemn being gay. They also helped me to look at other passages, like what we are looking at today, in which God’s inclusive and inviting nature breaks out into people groups that may or may not surprise us. 

I have seen the Holy Spirit use Jen, Heather, and Corbin to be a blessing to our congregation and also to others. The gifts of the Holy Spirit are evident in their lives. And just like Peter, I too have been astonished and amazed at seeing God’s salvation and grace poured out on a people group I used to condemn and be dismissive of. 

So, my question to you is who are the people in your mind that are beyond God’s redemption? Could it be those who think differently than you on politics, like the democrats or MAGA republicans? Could it be immigrants, or brown people in general that are being demonized and treated horribly by our government? Could it be people of a different race or culture than the one you are used to? Could it be a gay or transgender person? The world is full of people groups that may make you feel uncomfortable, strange, and even willing to condemn them. In fact, I would go so far as to say that the Bible is full of condemnation for certain people groups. 

Let’s consider this:

THE BIBLE IS CLEAR: Moabites are bad. They were not allowed to dwell among God’s people. 

Deuteronomy 23:3 states “No Ammonite or Moabite or any of their descendants may enter the assembly of the Lord, not even in the tenth generation.”

But then comes the story of “Ruth the Moabite,” which challenges the prejudice against the Moabites.

THE BIBLE IS CLEAR: People from Uz are evil as stated in Jeremiah 25. 

But then comes the story of Job, a man from Uz who was the “most blameless man on earth.”

THE BIBLE IS CLEAR: No foreigners or eunuchs allowed.

Deuteronomy 23:1-2 states “No one who has been emasculated by crushing or cutting may enter the assembly of the Lord. No one born of a forbidden marriage nor any of their descendants may enter the assembly of the Lord, not even in the tenth generation.”

But then comes the story of an African eunuch welcomed into the church in Acts 8. This right here is the very first sexual minority whom Peter led to the Lord and baptized.

THE BIBLE IS CLEAR: God’s people hated Samaritans.

But then Jesus tells a story that shows not all Samaritans were bad. 

THE STORY MAY BEGIN with prejudice, discrimination, and animosity, but the Spirit moves God’s people towards openness, welcome, inclusion, acceptance, and affirmation. 

So, let’s think this through: is the Bible clear on sexual minorities, or gay people? After much study, I don’t think so, but you might think differently. Let’s go back and remember the story of the African eunuch. He was most likely black and a sexual minority. We don’t know if he was born that way or surgically altered to be a eunuch. Were these issues for Peter to exclude him? Absolutely not. In fact, none of this was a part of the conversation leading up to his salvation and baptism. Were the African eunuch and Peter different? Yes! In many ways! But did their differences exclude God’s grace and salvation? Not one bit. 

And remember Peter’s reaction to Cornielius. When they first met, he said, “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.”

But then after seeing all that God was doing through Cornielius, Peter concludes, “I now realize how true it is that God does not show favoritismbut accepts from every nation the one who fears him and does what is right.”

Get that: God does not show favoritism. God’s grace, love, and salvation are available to all people. All means all! No matter the color of their skin, or their sexual or gender identity, their economic status, national identity, or their political identity. Doesn’t matter if you are a Baby Boomer, Gen X, Millennial, 

Gen Z, Generation Alpha, iGen, or whatever generation you are a part of. God’s love is available to all people. His Holy Spirit is ready to transform anyone who puts their faith in Jesus. So, the next time you think about Cornelius, remember how different he was from Peter, yet God’s grace and salvation was just as available to him as it was to the Jewish community of believers where it all started.  

So, what about you? In Biblical terminology, we are all Gentiles. All of us have been on the outside at some point. Have you put your faith in Jesus? Have you received the guidance and gifting of the Holy Spirit in your life? If not, why not now? Jesus wants to enter into your life and transform you from the inside out to be more and more like him, doing good and making a difference in this world living together as kingdom people. If you have any questions, there are many people in this room as well as pastors and church leaders who would love to introduce you to the faith. May Epiphany continue to be a church for all people. Sharing God’s grace and love to all people. Just as God has lavished his love on us may we also be a people known for our love of others. May it be so for all of us. 

Benediction:

May we as a congregation of believers not give into the hate and division that our culture encourages against anyone who may be considered different from you. And may we not be people who use the Bible to discriminate, hate, and divide others that may be different than ourselves. May we never hate a group of people simply because our culture or government tells us to. Help us always to stand in God’s grace and his mercy offering a hand of welcome and an embrace of love to all people who want to know more about the Jesus we serve. Amen