Chosen As Witnesses

Acts 10: 34-43

            As wild and crazy as Peter’s world was those three years he left the fishing business to follow Jesus, it got a whole lot crazier after Pentecost. Peter found himself thrust into the vortex of a sea change first called the Way, later called Christianity. Peter was on the horns of the biggest spiritual movement in history. His involvement was guided by his love and belief in Jesus as his savior and by the indwelling of the promised Holy Spirit, the Comforter.

          In the tenth chapter of Acts, Peter is at the home of Cornelius the Centurion. That is, very early in the birth stages of the Church, one of its greatest leaders finds himself hanging out at a Gentile’s house. Talk about getting off the script! But Peter, never one to think too long before he spoke, had his marching orders in the form of a vision. So for at least the third time starting at Pentecost, Peter gives a sermon that is partially preserved for us in Acts. This time the sermon is given in the home of that Gentile to a Gentile audience. It would be sort of like President Obama giving the keynote speech to the Republican Convention. Peter could not have been in a more awkward position and yet, both Peter and probably Cornelius too were not so surprised at this turn of events. They were among the first to begin to see the extent of the message with which Jesus had charged his disciples.

          Luke, our doctor/evangelist/reporter, says this: “So Peter opened his mouth and said: Truly I understand…” Well, I’m already in envy of Peter. He starts his sermon with the words “Truly I understand.” That must be nice. There are many times when I read the scriptures that I would give anything to say those words. But you know what? Peter did. He got it. He had been given a vision and he understood that the titles were superfluous, that the words Jew and Gentile were just ID cards and not season passes, that the boundaries were to be torn down. Peter, the simple fisherman from Galilee, had been chosen by God to not only get the message but to pass it forward.

          So Peter opened his mouth. This is a phrase used by both Matthew and Luke to indicate that a weighty utterance is about to follow. But it’s also good advice. Peter had something to say, something important. God had laid it on his heart. So Peter opened his mouth. If God has laid something on your heart, then don’t keep it a secret. Open your mouth. God will give the words you need.

          What is it that Peter truly understood? What Luke gives us is surely just a capsule of what Peter said that day. But what a capsule! Look at the pearls that Peter was dropping: “God shows no partiality…God anointed Jesus with the Holy Spirit and with power…He went about doing good and healing all who were oppressed… God raised him on the third day…He appeared to us chosen as witnesses…” The risen Jesus “commanded us to preach to the people and to testify that he is the one appointed by God to be judge of the living and the dead.”  We can’t know for sure but when Peter says people here, he is probably referring to the Jews.

          Peter ended his sermon by saying that the prophets of old testify to the risen Lord. Then, his speech took a major turn. He said that everyone who believes in him (Jesus) receives forgiveness of sins. He also said that the Old Testament prophets bear witness to this. Now, Peter is not talking about the Jews. Now, Peter has brought this giant eraser to the blackboard. He erases all the lines, all the fences, every distinction from race to class to color. He draws one line. On one side are those who believe in Christ and his message. On the other side are those who don’t believe. Those assembled in that room in the house of the Gentile Centurion that day must have been blown away. This was revolutionary news! Peter was announcing that the doors to God’s kingdom were open to all and that the keys to that kingdom lay not in the hands of some arbitrary gatekeepers but in our own hearts. Wow!

          Do you think that sermon had much effect on all those Romans gathered there that day? Luke says that the gift of the Holy Spirit was poured out even on the Gentiles. Believers in the room were amazed. Peter baptized all who asked. Only one question was asked. Do you believe?

          It’s hard today, especially for Christians who hear the Bible read week in, week out with no real passion, to get the spirit of what was going on at Cornelius’s house. But it was huge and it was revolutionary. Peter is just beginning to get it, The Holy Spirit has been working in him and he has eaten and drunk with the risen Jesus. He has seen Jesus bodily ascend into the clouds. He has waited with the others for the visiting of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost. And now, he is out there, trying to do what that exploding desire in his heart is guiding him to do. He has courage like never before. He has words coming into his mouth that don’t seem to belong to him. And now, he has had a vision, a dream. Nothing will ever be the same. Remember, this is years before Paul appears on the scene articulating his great message to the Gentiles. Peter is out there by himself. Later, when he goes back up to Jerusalem to face all the skeptics and the Jewish Christians, he can only say to them in defense of his actions that if God gave the gift of the Holy Spirit to the Gentiles the same as he did to the Jews, then who was he to stand in God’s way?

          Peter should have taken just a little credit. Not only did he not stand in God’s way, he also stood for God’s way! When Peter felt the Holy Spirit moving within him, Peter moved with it. Peter opened his mouth and said “Truly I understand…”

          Peter says that God made Jesus to appear, not to all the people but to us chosen by God as his witnesses, who ate and drank with him after he rose from the dead. Is Peter talking about the apostles? Of course. But there were more disciples of Jesus than just the Twelve. There were eight post resurrection appearances of Jesus mentioned in Scripture. One of those appearances was to more than five hundred people. They also were chosen by God as witnesses. They too ate and drank with him, if not in person then in spirit. Acts 2 tells us that the new church attended the temple together, breaking bread in their homes, praising God and having favor with all the people, and that God added to their number daily. The people of God are everywhere. And everywhere they are, they are chosen as God’s witnesses.

          Today, in this assembly, we ordain a new elder. He will further his witness in this new way. But his witness started long ago. Today, that witness expands. Is that not what God intends for each of us?

          Writing in the middle of the fifth century, some one thousand years before the Reformation and its doctrine of the priesthood of all believers, Pope Leo I (usually known as Leo the Great) says this about ministry within the church:

                    The sign of the Cross makes all those who are born

again in Christ kings, and the anointing of the Holy

Spirit consecrates them all as priests.

Leo the Great went on to say that though each of us may be called to some particular service of ministry, all Christians belong to and share in the priestly office of Christ. He refers in large part to our man Peter, who says in 1 Peter 2:9 that believers are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s own people. The challenge that follows Peter’s declaration is equally important: “that you may declare the wonderful deeds of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.”

          We are Christians. We are a royal priesthood, a chosen race. And in that choice lies our calling. We are, all of us, called to witness! For us, Jesus is not just a figure in a book or a great historical teacher. He is our Savior! He is a living presence and we eat and drink with him every time we come into this assembly for Holy Communion or sit down to the supper table and invoke his blessing upon our meal. Jesus is not a memory. He is a living presence and we are called to witness to that saving presence in not only our lives, but in the lives of all who would draw near to hear and accept the good news.

          And you thought you were just a homemaker. Or a nurse. Or a contractor. That’s’ your vehicle! Use it. Use it to witness, for you have been chosen!

Let us pray

1/12/14