When Surprising Doors Open

Well, Flawed Follower is our series on Simon Peter. My name is René, one of the pastors here at church. Welcome. Now, before we get into the message, I want to thank you so much for all of your support following the death of our beloved TLC and Espanyol Spanish language service, Pastor Julian Pizarro. It's hit us all so very hard. And so I want to ask you to pray in four specific ways.

First, please keep praying for Julian's family. And also, please pray for the driver who struck Julian. This is actually a prayer request that originated from Julian's family, that whoever it is would not despair, but really find hope in the Lord. Also, please pray for our staff this week. Julian was a very close friend, and we're feeling this loss deeply as we prepare Julian's memorial service next Saturday at 11 AM.

And incidentally, this means that we need to postpone the truck event that was originally scheduled for Saturday. We're going to reschedule that probably early next year, like as a spring cleaning. And of course, we can't just do it on the same day. So thank you so much for understanding that. And finally, please pray for TLC and Espanyol. You know, Jesus said, I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not prevail against it. So we would encourage you to believe that. And please pray for them that Jesus will continue to build that service and continue to build on Julian's legacy. We as a church are committed to that.

And not only will Jesus build the church, Jesus is building the church. And next weekend, we're going to gather here to celebrate that with baptisms in all services. We started this Flawed Follower series with baptisms. We're going to end it. If you want to publicly commit your life to Christ through baptism—thank you during this series. You started it, not sure if you really want to be a follower of Jesus or can be with all your flaws. But you've come to understand that you're the kind of person Jesus welcomed.

Wow, it would be great to have you in the baptism class that I am teaching right after this service. It's only a few minutes long, maybe half an hour long at most. So if you came with a friend, they'll wait for you. And if your friend is a jerk and doesn't wait for you, Adrian will give you a ride home. And so we'd love to have you in that class. And you know what? I would also love to share your stories as a wrap-up to this. How has this series impacted you as a Flawed Follower? Just send your stories, also photos of your small group or acts of kindness projects to me at René@tlc.org. Man, I'd love to do that.

Now, let's get into this weekend's message. What I am going to share this morning was one of the most important things to Julian. We talked about this many times. This story is about division and how to overcome it and mission and how to stay on it. And this is very timely because whatever happens this next Tuesday after you vote—and I hope you vote—what we're going to talk about today applies specifically to Christians in a huge way.

Aren't you in suspense to see what I'm going to talk about when it relates to the election? Well, let me get into it this way. The other day, somebody here at TLC, an older gentleman, comes up to me and says, "René, I want to loan you something." I'm like, "Oh, loan me? OK." He says, "I think you'll be interested." And he drops off this beautiful cedar box. Can you see it? And I thought to myself, well, I wonder what this is. What do you think this is?

I thought maybe it's like a fancy case for a ukulele. Or maybe it's a super nice casket for my cat, I thought. Hopefully, I thought. Just planning ahead. And then I opened it up and I was so shocked to find this. Anybody have any idea about what this is? This is a genuine Olympic torch. This was carried in the Los Angeles Olympics in 1984. Isn't that amazing?

So I looked this up and it turns out that the 1984 Olympic torch route had several firsts. For example, it was the longest route ever run to date. It covered most of the states in the United States over 9,000 miles. Secondly, it was the first time in Olympic history that the torch could be carried by ordinary people. I mean, kids and senior citizens. Every other Olympics up to this point, you had to be a carefully selected elite athlete. So that was new.

And consequently, it was the most diverse group of torchbearers ever because anybody who could apply could carry the torch for a little bit. And so that meant it truly reflected the diversity of America. In fact, the last leg of the torch was carried by Rayford Johnson, who was a famous black athlete. And that was the first time in Olympic torch history that the torch run had ever been finished by a black man.

And what I loved about this is you had this long route, this diverse group of ordinary people. And they all came together to light a torch at an event that was designed for literally every nation on Earth to be a part of, come together, and celebrate. When you get a torch, you don't get it and go, "That is a beautiful torch. You know what? I'm going to just put that torch in my living room, and we're going to gather around. We're going to look at that torch every single week and just admire this torch that we've been given." No, the purpose of a torch is to pass on the light.

Can you see how this is just an irresistible sermon illustration for a pastor? Well, in the story from the Bible we're going to look at today, Jesus passes the torch to his disciples, specifically to Peter, the lead disciple. And typically, Peter drops the torch until Jesus urges him to pick it back up again. So the story today is in Acts chapter 10. You can turn your Bibles there, but let me just set up the context for you.

Jesus, when he's about to ascend into heaven, he passes the torch, famously this way. He tells his disciples—this includes Peter, remember, the 12 original guys—therefore go and make disciples—I'm passing the torch—of all nations. You might know that the word translated nations there is the Greek word ethnos, from which we get our English word ethnicity, not like nations like countries, nations like peoples, of all peoples. Remember, the disciples at that point are one people. They're all Jewish people, 100%. He says, now what I want you to do is the route's going to go everywhere, like literally to every single nation on Earth.

And here's what I want you to do, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to obey all that I have commanded you. I'm passing the torch, and it's going to be a relay. And then Jesus goes into more detail. He says, here's the route that the torch is going to run. In Acts chapter 1, he says, you will be my witnesses. Here's the route. First in Jerusalem, then in all Judea, and in Samaria, and then to the whole ends of the Earth.

So to recap, this is Jesus' strategy, starts in Jerusalem, and then it's going to go to Judea, the greater land of Israel, and then to Samaria, right next door, and then from there to the world. So how do they do with the torch relay? Well, here's how it starts. Peter grabs the torch. He does a pretty good job lighting the next few torches. He preaches the first sermon in the history of the Christian church after Jesus in Jerusalem. And when he concludes his sermon, 3,000 people come forward to get baptized and find Jesus that very day.

Also in Jerusalem, man, they can't shut Peter up. He's healing people. He is preaching the word and the authorities grab Peter and they say, "We command you not to preach anymore in his name." And Peter says those immortal words, he says, "We must obey God rather than men." And then Peter's imprisoned for this by Herod Agrippa, who's a puppet of the Romans. So everybody's against this guy, but he's miraculously delivered from prison there in Jerusalem. So while this is going on, the church there in Jerusalem is absolutely thriving. It's just kumbaya time. It's a beautiful thing.

But did you notice one thread? Where is all this happening? Jerusalem. He preaches in Jerusalem, gets arrested in Jerusalem. The church is growing in Jerusalem. It's Jerusalem, Jerusalem, Jerusalem, Jerusalem. They never leave Jerusalem. It's like getting the Olympic torch on your leg and running back and forth between 41st Avenue and Capitola Village. It's like, here we are back and forth, back and forth. They don't leave.

In fact, we find out they don't really leave until one of their own, Stephen, one of their own leaders gets killed. And this makes them in fear, get scattered, and they do eventually, finally go on to Judea and to Samaria, but they do not even hit the Gentiles. I mean, remember, Jesus says, here's the strategy. Remember, Jesus says, here's the route. And they don't do it. Not one of them does it. Why not? Well, I mean, the Gentiles were weird. Let's just face it. The Gentile men looked so weird. They had short haircuts and they shaved their beards and there was their diet.

This is from Pompeii. Look at this kind of stuff that they love to eat. There was shrimp and there were stingrays and there were octopus and there were lobsters and there were shark and there were squid and there were mollusks and there were other shellfish. 100% of all the things I mentioned were non-kosher for Jewish people. They couldn't eat them. They were taboo. They were forbidden. And so there was the diet, there were the haircuts and all the stuff that they ate. The Gentile women wore bikinis and worked out. And the Jewish women dressed modestly and wore veils.

And it's not just that they were offensive, they were oppressive. The Gentiles had come in as a violent, colonial superpower. And so what was happening there in the first century, very understandably, I would add, among the Jewish people, is that there's this overwhelming fear of the Gentiles. There's kind of a circle the wagons mentality. The Jewish people became increasingly siloed because the Gentiles that are kind of taken over their land are weird, they're different, they're freaking them out, different language, different politics, different ethnic heritage, different religion, different everything.

And so among the Jewish people, extreme voices begin driving the politics. That's not in the Bible, but you can see it in all the first century writers like Tacitus and Josephus. Even religion had become politicized. Now look at this, I know this is almost impossible to imagine this happening in America today, but that was happening in Judea in the first century. In fact, many of the Jewish rabbis, even though the Jewish scriptures, one of the consistent plot lines of those Jewish scriptures—follow me here— is that Jewish people you've been chosen for what? Well, you've been chosen to be a light to the Gentiles. That's in verse after verse, after verse, after verse.

Yet the Jewish teachers at the time, the most popular, most influential ones anyway, had completely lost that plot. And they had added rules like it is now forbidden for a Jewish person to enter a Gentile or non-Jewish house. You can't even get it going to their homes. And then they went further and they said, it's forbidden to even associate with a Gentile. You can't even talk to them. Now wait a minute. There were supposed to be a light to them. That's pretty impossible when you can't talk to them and grow into their homes or even get to know them.

What had happened was they had demonized and ostracized the very people they were supposed to evangelize. Let me say that again. They demonized and ostracized the very people they were supposed to evangelize. And Christians were a part of this culture. Remember, they're 100% Jewish at the time. And so there's all this cultural pressure to stay away from the Gentiles. And so the Christians were like, "I know Jesus said to go to all ethnicities and all nations, but maybe that was like one of his metaphors. You know how Jesus always liked to talk of parables and riddles? Yeah, I sure hope so because we don't want to go to all ethnicities."

And that brings us to Acts 10. This is seven years after the resurrection. Seven years after Jesus goes, "All right, hand in the torch to you guys. Go on to the ends of the world." They're all still in Judea and Samaria. In fact, Peter himself, the leader, seven years after Jesus told them to do it, hasn't done it. He's in Joppa, which is a beautiful seaside town. It's thoroughly and anciently Jewish. It still is today. I love it. And he's there at the coast hanging out with a buddy and probably surfboards had been invented. They would have been surfing and so on, hanging out, probably fishing.

And it says that Peter gets hungry and it goes up on the roof. And maybe this is the kind of vision he sees there in Joppa when he dozes off and has a dream of vision. And in this vision, there's something like a picnic blanket let down. And there's all kinds of food in it, all kinds of food, including non-kosher food. I picture pigs and crabs and rabbits and eels and shrimp and shellfish, in other words, pork chop and clam chowder and sushi and crab cakes and shrimp cocktails. So that's what he's picturing.

And then there's a voice. And it says, "Peter, get up and eat whatever you want." And Peter responds, probably thinking this is some kind of a test from God. "Never, I've never eaten anything unclean." So that tells us he was very devout, followed all the rules of his culture and his religion. And then the voice says this, "Do not call anything impure that God has made clean." And Peter's puzzled, blanket goes up, comes down again. The voice says, "Get up and eat again." Peter objects again. The voice says this again. That repeats a third time. One, two, three.

Peter wakes up. He's groggy. He's still trying to figure out what this dream is all about. There's a knock on the door. They open it. Last people they want to see, it's Romans, including Roman soldiers. They are armed. And they say to Peter, "We have been sent to escort you north from Joppa along the coast to Caesarea Maritime." This would have been a dreaded destination for a Jewish person. It was not ancient. It was a brand new development built to look and feel and smell like Rome, right there in the middle of Judea. They had beautiful lavish theaters like this one, giant racetracks along the coast. It was the headquarters of Pontius Pilate, the man who had executed Jesus seven years earlier. Last place Peter probably wants to go.

But he's like, "Wow, I mean, I had this dream and stuff. Maybe God is doing something." What he doesn't know yet is that that dream was Jesus tapping him on the shoulder and calling him to ministry yet again. Peter's getting called again because we discover, Acts 10. One in Caesarea, there lived a Roman army officer named Cornelius, who was a captain of the Italian regiment. OK, there's a lot packed in here. Let's just kind of unpack this a little bit.

This guy was not just a Gentile. He was Roman. He was not just Roman. He was Roman army. He was not just Roman army. He was an officer. He was a captain. And he wasn't just a captain. He was a captain of the Italians. You couldn't create a more non-Jewish person in a laboratory that Peter's coming into. And not just that. Hidden in this from our eyes, culturally, is his name, Cornelius. So Cornelius was the gens or the house that had produced more generals and senators than any other house in Roman history over 700 years. They were a patrician house.

In other words, having the name Cornelius was a little bit like having the name Kennedy or Roosevelt in America. In other words, Cornelius was Ivy League. Peter was Duck Dynasty. That's what's happening in this conversation right here. So in Caesarea Maritime, Cornelius has been getting interested in the one true god of the Jewish scriptures. And a lot of Gentiles were. They were getting tired of their strange gods. And they didn't find that satisfying. And so they loved the idea of there being one true god who was loving. He wanted to be involved with our creation.

But a lot of the rules were off-putting, to say the least. Not only the dietary rules, but let me just say, circumcision was not a successful marketing tool. And so they're on the outside looking in. But God hears Cornelius' prayers. And he gives Cornelius a vision to send for Peter. And now the two of them have met up. And Cornelius says, "Peter, come on in to my house. My house is packed with Gentiles, eager to hear what you have to say to us. Come on in. Come on in." With the culture I just described to you, this isn't in the Bible, but Peter had them in going, "OK, right, there's the threshold. Oh, OK, I'm going to go into the Gentile home."

Peter, we're waiting for you. Shrimp's getting cold. "OK, be right there. OK, Peter, I just got to pray for a second. If I take this step, kind of like that scene in 'The Lord of the Rings,' I will have gone further than I've ever gone before in my life. OK, here we go." And Peter walks in. He has taken a step that's going to change history. And he goes in. And it's always kind of cracked me up that this is his opening line. He doesn't say, like, "Hey, everybody, so good to be with you, really super respect Cornelius." He says, "You know how unlawful it is for a Jew to associate with a foreigner or visit him. But God has shown me that I should not call anyone impure or unclean." What?

By saying this, Peter is showing that he's connecting the dots. He's showing that that vision was not just about food. It was about people. God was saying, "Peter, do not call anyone impure or unclean. That is keeping you from passing the torch to them. They're people I love." And Cornelius is like, "Yeah, well, I had this dream." And Peter says, "Well, you know what? I now realize how true it is that God does not show favoritism, but accepts from every nation, every ethnic group, every people, the one who fears him is in awe and reverent worship of him and does what is right."

Peter is realizing that from day one, the Jesus movement was not meant to be a place where we all get together and we all kind of affirm one another's pre-held beliefs and prejudices and cultural identities or whatever. It was meant to be a place where all these different identities get together and kind of like one of those Venn diagrams, they overlap. And maybe the only place they overlap is Jesus Christ and what he did for us on the cross. And in those days, it was the Romans and the Gentiles who were so opposed to one another. It was incredible that they would be in the same room together.

Today, maybe Democrats, Republicans, progressives, conservatives, black, white, Giants fans, Dodger fans had to really grow to accept that last one. But our unity is in Christ. This was all Peter and Cornelius had in common. They literally had nothing else in common. Well, this is where Peter goes. He talks about Jesus. He tells Cornelius, Jesus did good things and he taught the good news and he died for our sins and he rose again. We witnessed it. And then he says, and now everyone who believes in him receives forgiveness of sins through his name, everyone. By the way, this means you. Maybe other places doors have been slammed in your face. But Jesus says, you are welcome.

So the Holy Spirit falls on them all. The Gentiles accept Christ. They get baptized. Peter's so stoked he goes back to Jerusalem. He reports what happened. And is everybody happy, amazed? No, everybody's mad. Remember, they're just people of their culture. And so here's all that they can see. You entered the home of Gentiles. You even ate with them. Big divisions erupt. There's a meeting in Acts chapter 15. What are we going to do about this? Big controversy. One group is there who are like, "No, no, no, no, no, no. These people can't join us as Christians. Not unless they keep all 613 rules in the Torah and all the thousands of rules that we've added onto that. And the men have to get circumcised. They're welcome. Don't get us wrong. They're welcome if they become exactly like us."

And Peter listens. And then he gets up. He is fired up. He says, "Why do you try to test God by putting on the necks of the Gentiles a yoke that neither we nor our ancestors have been able to bear? No. We believe it is through the grace of our Lord Jesus that we are saved just as they are." He's saying it's not that the rules are bad, but the rules aren't how we're saved. Rules aren't how you're made right with God. We have nothing to bring to God but our need. It's just all about His grace to us.

Now, what's grace? In the book I quote Bono, the lead singer of the band U2. I thought he had a good definition. He said, "The thing that keeps me on my knees is the difference between grace and karma. At the center of all religions is the idea of karma. You know what you put out comes back to you. And yet, along comes this idea called grace, to upend all that." He says, "I'd be in big trouble if karma were going to finally be my judge. It doesn't excuse my mistakes, but I'm holding out for grace. I'm holding out that Jesus took my sins on the cross." Amen? That's just what Peter says. It's all grace.

So now there's this division and everybody at the meeting's going, who's going to make the final decision? And they all look to one person who's kind of running the meeting, the chairman of the board. You know who it is? It's James. It's the brother of Jesus. What are you going to say, James? James quotes an Old Testament prophet—well, actually, too, Amos and Isaiah—who he says, "You know, these people did say it is in our scriptures that we're supposed to be light to the Gentiles. And God's going to reach the Gentiles through us." And so he says, "It is my judgment that we should not make it difficult for the Gentiles who are turning to God."

He's saying, "I tell you what, you know what? It's my judgment we should remove every barrier we can, every unnecessary obstacle so they can find Jesus, large and small obstacles." And they did. And you know what happened? The church exploded into the world of the Gentiles. Finally, the torch gets passed. Jesus had to intervene again through visions seven years after his ascension. But with a nudge, Peter is the first, again, to go where Jesus wants us all to go.

Now, that's another great story about Peter. But you might be thinking, "Oh, cool story, but so what? How does it affect me today?" Did you come to church ready to grow? I hope so. Did you come to church ready to be challenged today? Did you come to church ready to be made maybe a little bit uncomfortable? Because this is all about how to be God's agent of grace in a divided society. Specifically, here's a truth about Tuesday. I hope you cast your vote. I really do. This is one of the last things Julian and I talked about, how we were going to address this with our congregations.

And here's what we both agreed would be our theme. You cannot control the outcome, but you can control your response as Christians. You can be Christian. How? Three things. Number one, stay welcoming. Stay welcoming. This is so hard in today's climate. And as you can see, 2,000 years ago, it was hard too. We always have to remember what James said. We should not make it difficult for the Gentiles or any, you know, quote unquote outsiders who are turning to God.

Let me be blunt. This is why Twin Lakes Church does not go political. Why in the world would I ever, ever, ever, ever, ever want to put any unnecessary obstacle in the way of anybody who comes in search of Jesus Christ? As Paul said later in the New Testament, I want to become all things to all people so that by all possible means I might save some. And I'm sad to say that there are so many Christians today who've lost this spirit. And just like the religious teachers then, they have lost the plot line of the Bible. And it breaks my heart.

Remember how we said the religious teachers in the first century demonized and ostracized those they were called to evangelize. We have to be very careful that we don't do the exact same thing, no matter which side of the aisle you're on. This is very challenging right now. A couple of weeks ago, I heard an interview with Caleb Campbell. What a story. Caleb was a white nationalist skinhead that is a violent group that believes blue-eyed blond-haired people are the master race. He also played drums in a punk rock band.

And so he starts looking for other gigs, wants to make some money. He puts an ad in the Phoenix, Arizona music newspaper. And this is where this takes place, Phoenix, Arizona. And the music director at Desert Springs Bible Church in Phoenix sees his ad. Needs a drummer in the worship team. Calls him up, says, "Hey, we need a drummer." And Caleb shows up looking like that. And he says, "Yeah, sure, I'll play drums for the church. But I've got to tell you, I don't believe any of this." And she takes a risk. And I wonder if you would take this risk. I wonder if I would take this risk.

She says, "Caleb, you're in the band." And then strategically, every week, she and her husband have Caleb over for dinner. He starts going to the college group. One year later, he has accepted Christ. And he is baptized in church. But it gets better. He ends up going to Bible college, then to seminary. And in 2015, Caleb, the ex-skinhead, becomes the senior pastor of that same church. Can you believe that?

He puts out the welcome sign of the very groups he used to be against as a skinhead, the black community, Hispanic communities. But Caleb says that part was easy. His heart was changed. You know the hardest part for Caleb? The hardest part for Caleb was he realizes he also needs to be a missionary to the very groups he came out of, the racists, the extremists, especially people who are just kind of starting to lean in that direction. And he says, they don't need a lecture.

He says, like me, they're only going to change through a lot of hospitality, environments like our church coffee shop or my kitchen table, where they feel welcome with me. I don't know about you, but I am very challenged by that. That's passing the torch. Listen, a growing number of Americans, according to stats, say, "I'm only going to befriend people who share my not religious beliefs, political beliefs." It's almost half of Americans now who say they actually would not be friends with people who are different from them politically or culturally. In other words, we won't enter their homes or even associate with them. Sound familiar?

You know what that is? That's dropping the torch. If we are Jesus followers, we can't do that. Following Jesus means forging friendships with people you are unlike. In other words, it means believing in the strategy Jesus outlined. And that leads to number two, stay on message. Don't get distracted. When people try to complicate the message, Peter says, "No, we believe it's through the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ that we're saved just as they are." Grace, grace, grace. That's how we live. It's what we believe.

I've mentioned that while in Israel writing this series, I met Rula Mansour, Deputy DA for Nazareth. She is Palestinian and an Israeli citizen and a Christian. So she sits at the crossroads of all these identities. So she got her PhD at Oxford. She started the Nazareth Center for Peace Studies. And I emailed her the other day with the war and everything going on. I've done this a few times during the last year. I said, "Rula, with everything going on over there, how are you? How's your church doing?" And here's some of her response to me.

And she kind of writes like she has an Oxford PhD, but look at what she's saying here. She says, "The weight of the ongoing conflict presses deeply on our hearts and minds. Every day, we're reminded of the urgency of our work for peace. It's a heavy burden to bear, but we trust in God's calling to be peacemakers." Now watch this. And you know what? Get out your phones, and I'll tell you what to do in a second. The church's role is not to take sides, but to serve as a bridge, drawing both sides closer to each other and to God.

By living out this mission, we embody God's reconciling love in action, reflecting the kingdom of God where enemies are loved and hope endures. She believes that in Israel, with Palestine and Israel and Lebanon and Syria all around her. This is what Christians do. Can you believe that for here? With much less divisiveness, as bad as it is. Man, you know what I'd love you to do? Take a picture of that quote. And when everyone starts losing their mind Tuesday night, read this and remind yourself that this is why we are on this planet. We are here to embody God's reconciling love in action.

Because the kingdom of God is where enemies are loved. It's where hope endures for peacemakers. So stay welcoming. Stay on message. And finally, stay ready. Stay ready. You know, when Peter was up on the roof, he was not thinking, "Oh, Lord, please show me how to reach some Gentiles." He was just starving for lunch. And then opportunity. There's always going to be a knock. Peter says, "If someone asks you about your hope as a believer, always be ready to explain it. But do this in a gentle and respectful way." The Holy Spirit's already at work right now in somebody who's very unlikely in your life. And I know he will one day put the two of you together.

Know your story. Stay focused on grace. You know, once when my son Jonathan was about four years old, I was reading him part of the story. And I said, "See, Jesus passed the good news on to his friends and told them to pass it on to others." And Jonathan, as only a four-year-old can, said, "And then they passed it on to others, and they passed it on to others, and they passed it on to others, and they passed it on to others, and they passed it on to others, and they passed it on to others." And they passed it on to you, and now you're passing on to me. And now it's my turn. He totally got it.

You and I are part of this, the longest torch relay ever. The LA relay had nothing on this. It's by far the most diverse relay ever, more diverse than the LA torch relay. And you know what's the best about it? Common people get to be part of this relay too. In fact, flawed followers get to be part of this relay. So today, Jesus has passed the torch to you. Let's go light our world. Let's pray. Would you bow in prayer with me?

Heavenly Father, thank you that you are a king. You are our only Savior. We're so grateful and such relief to be committed and devoted to your kingdom in a world with so many kingdoms in conflict. And you gave us a commission to carry that torch in your name past every barrier with love and loving service to spread the good news of the grace of Jesus. Help us to do that here as a church and as individuals through our acts of kindness, through the good news, into the Christmas season, God. Anoint us, help us to spread that torch as you wish. In Jesus' name we pray, amen.