Meanwhile, the next day in Joppa Peter is on the roof praying when he gets hungry and sees yet another vision. He sees a sheet being sort of lowered down from the sky with all kinds of animals and reptiles and birds running around on it. God tells him to go ahead and kill one and eat it. Peter tells the Almighty. I don't eat unclean foods. I keep kosher all the way. The voice tells him again, I just told you it was fine. "What God has made clean, you must not call profane." Peter hears this three times and the whole vision disappears. Just then, Cornelius's men come into town looking for Peter. God tells Peter that there are some guys searching for him, and he should go ahead and meet them. Peter meets the guys, they talk, and Peter agrees to head with them to Caesarea the next day. When Peter gets there he explains, that it's actually against Jewish law for Jews to associate with Gentiles. But Peter decided to come because God showed him in that vision that he shouldn't go around labeling things as unclean. Cornelius tells Peter about his vision and asks Peter to tell him whatever it is that God needs him to hear. Peter tells him that God doesn't play favorites. Jew? Gentile? God is good with whatever your background is because he's "Lord of all." Amen.
Peter gives a quick backstory about Jesus (lived, died, rose again) and the Holy Spirit falls on everyone who hears him. Since the Gentiles in the group want to be baptized, Peter doesn't see any reason why they shouldn't be. Gentiles Are In! Back in Judea, word reaches the apostles and Jewish followers of Jesus that Peter has been baptizing Gentiles. They don’t get it, that is for Jews only! Later, Peter tells them all about the vision and that God said unclean things are now a-okay. He explains that it was God who let the Holy Spirit fall on the Gentiles while he was speaking. The other apostles are speechless, but then they realize this is actually a great thing. God wants to save everyone.
Lots of disciples are still traveling around. Some only preach the good news to fellow Jews, but others started telling Gentiles, too. And it's working! The church in Jerusalem sends Barnabas to Antioch to check out the new Gentile converts. Things look good, so Barnabas heads to Tarsus to pick up Paul and bring him to Antioch. The two men stay there for a year and help the church get up and running. This is the first place that the disciples were called "Christians." Around the same time, a prophet named Agabus comes to Antioch and says that there's gonna be a really terrible famine soon. The disciples decide it's up to them to make sure that fellow believers are cared for if this happens, so they send supplies with Barnabas and Paul.
Around this time, King Herod decides to stir up a little trouble for the Christians. Typical. He has one of the disciples, James, beheaded. James was executed by the sword. He is the only apostle whose martyrdom is recorded in the New Testament. He is, thus, traditionally believed to be the first of the twelve apostles martyred for his faith. This was James son of Zebedee and brother of John. Then he arrests Peter. All the followers of Jesus are praying for Peter in prison Their prayers are answered in the form of an angel of the Lord who appears and releases Peter from his chains. At first, Peter thinks he's having another vision , but when the angel leads him outside the gates of the city, he knows it's for real.
He rushes over to Mary's house (she's John's mother) and knocks on the door. The maid, Rhoda, answers and recognizes Peter right away. But she's so excited that she forgets to let him in and just runs to tell everyone he's back. They all think she's nuts or worse, that Peter's dead and she's just seen his angel. Eventually, everyone opens the door and sees Peter and starts celebrating. Peter's out of prison! The next morning, the soldiers and Herod are pretty confused about what happened to their prisoner. They had chained him up so nicely! Since Herod's a jerk, he questions the prison guards and then has them put to death. Later, Herod is sitting in front of his subjects and they start chanting about how he is a god, not just a mere man. Now it's God's turn to be angry. An angel of God strikes him down and Herod is eaten by worms and dies. Even though King Herod's dead, the church lives on and gains even more new members. Meanwhile, Barnabas and Paul head back to Jerusalem with their new pal, John Mark.
No comments:
Post a Comment