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Acts 10 - Devotion · The Five Minute Bible Podcast

• 0:00
  Welcome to Five Minute Bible in our journey through the New
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  Testament. In each episode, we take just a
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  few minutes to focus on one chapter of the New Testament,
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  exploring the truths God is teaching us through His Word and
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  expanding our view of who He is. Before you listen, make sure
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  you've gone straight to the source, either by reading
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  today's chapter of the Bible yourself or listening to today's
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  read along episode in this podcast feed.
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  If you haven't done that yet, feel free to pause and do that
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  now. And when you're ready, let's
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  dive into God's Word together. In Acts chapter 10, we again see
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  the gospel advancing further and further out.
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  This chapter starts with two visions.
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  First, a centurion named Cornelius, a Gentile who feared
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  God and was generous to the Jewish people, had a vision from
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  the Lord in which he's told to send for the apostle Peter and
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  is told exactly where he will be.
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  So Cornelius sends out three men to track down Peter and see what
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  it is that God has for Cornelius through Peter.
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  The very next day, while Cornelius men are on the road,
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  Peter himself has a vision. While on the housetop praying,
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  Peter gets hungry, but before any food is ready, the Lord
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  shows him a vision. Listen to what the text says
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  that he saw. And he saw the sky opened up,
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  and an object like a great sheet coming down, lowered by four
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  corners to the ground, and there were in it all kinds of four
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  footed animals and crawling creatures of the earth, and
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  birds of the air. A voice came to him.
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  Get up, Peter, kill and eat. But Peter said, by no means
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  Lord, for I have never eaten anything unholy and unclean.
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  Again a voice came to him a second time.
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  What God has cleansed no longer consider unholy.
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  This happened three times. And immediately the object was
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  taken up into the sky. Now Peter is unsure of what to
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  make of this vision, but about that time the three men sent
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  from Cornelius arrive at the house where Peter's staying.
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  The Holy Spirit then reveals to Peter that he need not fear or
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  have misgivings about their arrival.
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  They have been sent by God. So Peter greets them and goes
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  with them to Cornelius. Now listen to the exchange that
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  happens once Peter arrives at Cornelius house.
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  What we see here is that God is at work in something much more
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  important than just what foods are clean or unclean.
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  Listen along. When Peter entered, Cornelius
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  met him and fell at his feet and worshipped him.
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  But Peter raised him up, saying, Stand up, I too am just a man.
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  As he talked with him, he entered and found many people
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  assembled, and he said to them, You yourselves know how unlawful
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  it is for a man who is a Jew to associate with a foreigner or to
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  visit him. And yet God has shown me that I
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  should not call any man unholy or unclean.
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  That is why I came without even raising any objection when I was
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  sent for. So I ask, for what reason you
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  have sent for me? Did you catch that?
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  This vision of the sheet and the unclean animals had a deeper
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  meaning than just declaring all foods clean, though it certainly
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  did that as well. God was talking about people.
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  God was opening a door to the Gentiles that the Jews believed
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  was closed. Listen to what Peter says to the
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  gathered crowd just a few verses later.
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  I most certainly understand now that God is not one to show
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  partiality, but in every nation the man who fears him and does
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  what is right is welcome to him. God was showing Peter that this
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  message of Jesus, this gospel of the Kingdom, was not limited to
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  the Jews only. No, this good news is for all
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  the nations. And then the text describes the
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  Holy Spirit falling on those gathered Gentiles.
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  God had granted faith to these outsiders.
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  He'd welcomed in those who had been seen as excluded.
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  The gospel of Jesus was not and is not a local or tribal gospel.
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  No, this is good news for all the world.
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  This invitation to believe in Jesus and his finished work is
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  open to all, and God demonstrates both his power and
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  His love as He extends His Kingdom far beyond what Peter
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  and the disciples imagined it could be.
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  This Kingdom has extended all the way to you and to me,
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  outsiders brought near by the blood of Jesus.
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  Praise the Lord for His grace and for His mercy, and declare
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  that grace and mercy far and wide, that all who would turn to
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  Jesus are welcome in Him.