PT-2 "The Preparation of Peter" (Acts 10:9-20)

 

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 1/18/2018 10:09 AM

My Worship Time                                                            Focus:  PT-2 “The Preparation of Peter”

Bible Reading & Meditation                                                 Reference:  Acts 10:9-20

            Message of the verses:  “9 On the next day, as they were on their way and approaching the city, Peter went up on the housetop about the sixth hour to pray. 10 But he became hungry and was desiring to eat; but while they were making preparations, he fell into a trance; 11 and he saw the sky opened up, and an object like a great sheet coming down, lowered by four corners to the ground, 12  and there were in it all kinds of four-footed animals and crawling creatures of the earth and birds of the air. 13 A voice came to him, "Get up, Peter, kill and eat!" 14 But Peter said, "By no means, Lord, for I have never eaten anything unholy and unclean." 15 Again a voice came to him a second time, "What God has cleansed, no longer consider unholy." 16 This happened three times, and immediately the object was taken up into the sky. 17  Now while Peter was greatly perplexed in mind as to what the vision which he had seen might be, behold, the men who had been sent by Cornelius, having asked directions for Simon’s house, appeared at the gate; 18  and calling out, they were asking whether Simon, who was also called Peter, was staying there. 19 While Peter was reflecting on the vision, the Spirit said to him, "Behold, three men are looking for you. 20 “But get up, go downstairs and accompany them without misgivings, for I have sent them Myself."”

            One of the reasons for the dietary laws that were given by the Lord to the children of Israel was to keep them different from the Gentiles who lived around them.  Eating such foods did not keep them holy, but by not eating certain foods the children of Israel we seen as being different, which was the plan that God had for them.  When the curtain between the holy place and the Holy of holies was torn into from the top to the bottom when Christ died on the cross it signaled the end of the age of the Law and so when the church age began some 40 days later the age of grace was ushered in.  At first it seemed that only the Jews were going to be involved, and yet we remember that the last thing that Jesus said before returning to heaven is found in Acts 1:8 “but you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be My witnesses both in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and even to the remotest part of the earth."”   Now as we come to chapter ten we will see that God was preparing the first Gentile to become a part of the church, something that had been planned from eternity past.

            Peter was resisting what he was told to do as he thought by doing so meant he was a faithful Jew, but in the past Peter had resisted things that the Lord wanted him to do, but once he learned that he was wrong he went and did the right things.  Even after resisting the vision Peter was greatly perplexed in his mind as to exactly what this vision meant.

            John MacArthur writes “That meaning was twofold.  On the negative side, it signified the abolishing of the Old Testament dietary restrictions (cf. Mark 7:14-23; Rom. 14:1-3; Col. 2:16-17; 1 Tim. 4:1-5).  Such separating features were now counterproductive, since God was bringing Jews and Gentiles together in the church, not keeping them apart.  On the positive side, the vision pictured the inclusion of both the Gentiles, symbolized by the unclean animals, and the Jews, symbolized by the clean ones, into one body.”

            Peter did not have much time to think about the vision as soon as it was over Peter was told by the Spirit of God that some men from the house of Cornelius had come to speak to him and that he should go with them because the Spirit of God had sent them to him.  MacArthur concludes “God not only sovereignly prepared Cornelius and Peter but also sovereignly determined and arranged the timing of bringing them together.”

            Spiritual meaning for my life today:  I can remember how the Lord did a very similar thing to me and the anniversary of that blessed event is coming up in eight days.

My Steps of Faith for Today:  Pray that the Lord will continue to use things that are written in these Spiritual Diaries to bring others to a saving knowledge of Jesus Christ.

Answer to yesterday’s Bible question:  “A Pharisee” (Acts 23:6).

Today’s Bible question:  “What took place just before the sermon on the mount?”

Answer in our next SD.

1/18/2018 10:42 AM