Lord Of All

Acts 10:34-43

Have you ever had the experience of being excluded from a group? Maybe it was a club at school, an organization at work, or social gatherings in the neighborhood.  You would have loved to be a part of the group, but for some reason you were excluded. You were the wrong race, wrong nationality, or too poor.  Exclusion for various reasons happens all too frequently. Even in grade school children exclude others - the other child is too fat, has too many freckles, or isn’t good enough in sports.  No matter the age, exclusion is painful. Unfortunately someone can even start to think that God won’t accept them, as sadly to say, some churches have even excluded others because of race or economic level.

Our Scripture passage for today assures us that we need never fear that God won’t accept us because of our race, nationality, size of our bank account, or any other reason.  As our passage begins, the Apostle Peter has come to the house of a Roman centurion named Cornelius. Peter had recently experienced a vision from God letting him know that he was not to call any group of people unclean (Acts 10:9-16).  He had grown up with the tradition of excluding anyone who was not of his race or religion, but now he knew that was wrong (Acts 10:28).

Right before Jesus ascended up into heaven, He gave the disciples the command to take the Gospel message to everyone, to the ends of the earth (Matthew 28:19-20; Acts 1:8).  Instead of going forth and taking the Gospel to everyone, the disciples were witnessing just to their own people in and around Judea.  God sent the vision to Peter in order to give the disciples that necessary shove to bring the Gospel to the Gentiles, and to let them know that in His eyes, no one was unclean or to be excluded from the message of His love and mercy. The Good News of Jesus is for everyone, regardless of race or nationality.  There should be no barriers to us sharing the Gospel with everyone.

Though we humans tend to be selective with whom we associate with or talk to, God does not show partiality.  We read this in Romans 3:29-30, where He says that He is the God of both Jews and Gentiles. Peter finally understood this, and in our passage we read that he comes to the house of the Roman Gentile, Cornelius, and brings the message of salvation to him and his family.

Everywhere there are hearts restless for God.  Someone has to bring them the message. It’s not enough for them to just seek after Him, it is necessary for them to find God.  Those who truly and sincerely seek God will find Him, (Jeremiah 29:13), but as Paul stated in Romans 10:14-15, there needs to be obedient believers who are spreading the Gospel message.  Peter was obedient, and gave the message of salvation to that group gathered in Cornelius’ house that day. They believed and were saved, becoming one of the very first Gentile believers in Jesus.

How have we been in carrying out the Great Commission of taking the Gospel message of salvation to others?  It is true that many of us cannot travel to foreign lands to bring the message of Jesus. However, are we telling those we come into contact with, or do we exclude some because of built in prejudice? Does our church, or ourselves personally, put up invisible barriers to groups of people, or are all welcome despite their race, nationality, or economic level?

No one should ever feel excluded from God.  He is not the God of one group only, or one race or nationality only.  Nor is He only the God of the rich and well-to-do, living in fancy suburban houses.  As Peter stated in the opening verse of our passage, God shows no partiality.