Essentials Of The Faith / Sunday Morning Sermon Series / Acts: Enlarging Our Vision

By being prepared (Pt2) 01/11/09

Sermon Series: Acts: Enlarging our Vision

                Title: ‘By being prepared’    Text: Acts 10

Introduction: Annie Dilllard, in her book Teaching a Stone to Talk, describes the 19th-century explorers of the Franklin Expedition who tried to reach the North Pole. She lists the provisions they took for that long and hazardous journey:

Each sailing vessel carried an auxiliary steam engine and a 12-day supply of coal for the entire projected 2 to 3-year voyage. Instead of additional coal…each ship made room for:

·       a 1,200-volume library,

·       a hand-organ playing 50 tunes,

·       china place settings for officers and men,

·       cut-glass wine goblets,

·       and sterling silver flatware.

·       The expedition carried no special clothing for the Arctic, only the uniforms of Her Majesty’s Navy.

Imagine heading into the frigid North Pole with supplies like that! They weren’t prepared for what they would be facing…were they?

(Our Daily Bread, February 6, 1998)

ILL: Hall of fame college basketball coach John Wooden is credited with saying “Failing to prepare is preparing to fail.”  

The Franklin Expedition was doomed to failure from the beginning.

Background: Two weeks ago I interviewed a few men from our congregation who served our country in the armed forces. They all said that the training they had received from the government enabled them to be effective at their jobs…including going into battle.

I related that to how God is preparing Christians, all Christians for spiritual battle, to help build His kingdom. What I may not have

made clear was our responsibility in that preparation process. 

·       God prepares and we learn.

·       God prepares and we obey. 

That means we Go, Stand and Tell the whole message of this new life in Christ in order to help build His Kingdom.

Transition: Two weeks ago we saw that God prepared Cornelius and Peter for their parts in Kingdom building…and they obeyed God.

Open your Bibles to Acts 10:23 (pg. 839 in the Bibles under the chair in front of you) For it’s there we’ll continue to find we enlarge our vision of God by being prepared.

III. Acts 10:23b-33 God prepares those whom He calls

Read: Acts 10:23b-33

‘Cornelius was expecting them and had called together his relatives and close friends.’ (Repeat)

·       God had prepared Cornelius’ heart and he learned from God.

·       Cornelius obeyed God.

·       Cornelius prepared others to do the same.

Folks…it’s really that simple. That’s the Great Commission in Matthew 28 and In Acts 1. That’s what it means to ‘Go, Stand and Tell the whole message of this new life in Christ.’

It doesn’t mean having all the answers. In fact, it may not even mean having to always speak the Gospel yourself….but inviting people to hear someone else ‘…tell the whole message of this new life in Christ.’ That’s what Cornelius did.

‘Cornelius was expecting them and had called together his relatives and close friends.’

Look, I know we think our lives are different than those in our text …but it’s not. It wasn’t easy for Cornelius to invite his family and friends to a home bible study….people were getting killed for being Christians and the Gentiles didn’t like the Jews on top of that. Cornelius was jeopardizing his friendships with his invitation. But he still obeyed God.

When God called me here, it was with the idea that God wanted to use me to help this church become a tool that God could use to bring people to Christ and help them grow in their faith. I have shared that vision with you a number of times.

It has not dimmed; in fact it is getting stronger all the time. And I’m convinced, that God wants to prepare this congregation, this fellowship of believers, to Go, Stand and Tell the whole message of this new life in Christ’

·       to the people we have direct contact and relationship with

·       to our surrounding communities

·       and around the world.

You have been prepared…not only by God but by the teaching opportunities in this church over the past few years.

·       The morning worship services

·       Sunday School classes

·       Small groups

·       Mid-Week Praise & Prayer

The question is…like Cornelius and Peter, have you learned and even more importantly are you willing to be obedient to God?

Four weeks before Easter, we’ll be handing out a small booklet by Charles Swindoll titled ‘The Rising Hope’. It’s an easy to read book, describing our need to have hope if we’re to survive this dangerous and often disappointing life. The book tenderly relates to where people are and gently leads them to the source of true and lasting hope…the Risen Lord, Jesus Christ.

Every adult in our fellowship will be given a booklet and the idea is for you to begin to pray about who God wants you to give it to. Then when you know who God wants to have it, begin to pray that God would prepare his/her heart for the Good News of Hope found in Jesus Christ.  Commit to praying for that person every day.

But that’s not all. Pray that God would prepare you to invite that person to church on Easter Sunday. And that God would lead that person to attend….and that God would make you attend.

So that we can pray along with you, a sheet is posted on the bulletin board in Burtt Hall for you to put your name and the name of the person you are going to give the book to and invite to our Easter Worship Celebration. I will take the names and add them to our Mid Week Praise & Prayer Sheet. You won’t be praying alone!

For some of you this will be easy because you are already doing things like this. But for others, it will be harder. Trust God and His Word. Let Him do the preparation…just be obedient. And God will be glorified!

Will you follow Cornelius’ example and invited someone to hear God’s Word?

Transition: So, Cornelius gathers his family and friends to hear about this new life in Jesus.

IV. Acts 10:34-43     Those prepared hear God’s Word

Read: Acts 10:34-43

Here we have one of the most concise summations of the Good News in the Bible.

It’s almost as if Luke was giving us the outline of his gospel, the story of Jesus.

·       The Gospel began with the ministry of preaching by John the Baptist. God was preparing the way for His Son. (vs 34-37)

·       Jesus is Lord of all, anyone from any nation, tribe or tongue can find peace with God (vs 36)

·       Jesus was baptized and empowered by God with the Holy Spirit. (vs 38)

·       Jesus did good, he healed the sick and delivered those who were held captive by the Devil. (vs 38)

·       There were witnesses to all of this. (vs 39)

·       Jesus was executed by those who rejected him by being nailed to a wooden cross. (vs 39)

·       BUT GOD raised Jesus from the dead. (vs 40)

·       And Jesus was seen by many. (vs 40-41)

·       Jesus commanded his followers to Go, Stand and tell the whole message of this new life in Christ. (vs 42)

·       Jesus has been given the authority to eternally judge those alive and dead. (vs 42)

·       The whole Bible tells of Jesus and his mission (vs 43)

·       Everyone who believes in Jesus will receive forgiveness of sin. (vs 43)

That’s it! Salvation’s plan presented in bullet form, with the best news at the end… ‘Everyone who believes in Him receives forgiveness of sins through His name.’

Forgiveness of sins = peace with God = God’s presence and power in your life now = eternity in Heaven later!

Everyone….

·       The person in the deepest and darkest part of the rainforests of S. America.

·       The serial killer on death row.

·       The disobedient and rebellious child

·       The distant spouse

·       Even the person you’ll give the Easter booklet too…

‘Everyone who believes in Him receives forgiveness of sins through His name.’

When you are obedient and they believe.

Transition: Wait, it gets better.

V. Acts 10:44-48        The blessings of being prepared.

Read: Acts 10:44-48

We need to fully comprehend the wonderful word picture Luke gives us here.

Cornelius and his family and friends have been prepared by God and they hear the whole message of this new life in Christ…then Peter makes it personal…just as God always does.

‘everyone who believes in him receives forgiveness of sins through his name.’  That was the defining moment for them. It was the moment

·       they believed,

·       they took that step from sinner to saint,

·       from doubt to faith,

·       from death to life,

·       from being God’s enemy to becoming his beloved children,

·       from an eternity spent in hell to an eternity lived in heaven…

right at that very moment. They didn’t have to walk to the front of the room, they didn’t have to raise their hands with their eyes closed and heads bowed. They believed in their heart.

Do you see the immediacy here? It’s punctuated by the instantaneous work of the Holy Spirit who filled them and made them a forever part of the family of God.

And what was their response? They worshipped God, they celebrated God, they praised God and they gave thanks to God.

Folks, can I be honest? We don’t do that enough. And even when we do we are so reserved, so afraid of what others may think about us. God moved in their lives and the people were excited about it.

And in their excitement, out of the depth of gratitude for their salvation and adoption into the family of God, they immediately wanted to identify with the other Christians and with Jesus Christ by being baptized.

After they were baptized, they asked Peter to stay awhile to help them learn more about Jesus. That’s the next step on our Christian journey…discipleship.

Conclusion

ILL: Dr. J.B. Gambrel tells an amusing story from General Stonewall Jackson’s famous valley campaign. Jackson’s army found itself on one side of a river when it needed to be on the other side. After telling his engineers to plan and build a bridge so the army could cross, he called his wagon master in to tell him that it was urgent the wagon train cross the river as soon as possible. The wagon master started gathering all the logs, rocks and fence rails he could find and built a bridge. Long before day light General Jackson was told by his wagon master all the wagons and artillery had crossed the river. General Jackson asked where are the engineers and what are they doing? The wagon master’s only reply was that they were in their tent drawing up plans for a bridge. (Paul Fritz)

No doubt the engineers could have made a much stronger, more beautiful bridge.

But the point of the story is, we can spend so much time thinking about and discussing just how, when and where we should ‘Go, Stand and Tell the whole message of this new life in Christ’ that we never actually do it.

·       You all have been prepared for spiritual battle.

·       You all have been prepared to help build God’s kingdom.

·       You all will be given opportunities to be obedient to God.

One such opportunity is our Easter Outreach. What will you do with the Easter Booklets you will be given in a couple of weeks?

·       Throw it in a drawer?

·       Bury it in your Bible?

·       Read it yourself and hold on to it?

·       Leave it on the seat when you leave the worship center?

Or

·       will you allow God to prepare you to be used by Him?

·       Will you allow God to prepare the person you’ll give the booklet to?

·       Will you be obedient and invite that person to our Easter Celebration?

·       Will you make it a priority to be here on Easter?

We enlarge our vision of God by being prepared.