Good Friday
Scripture: Acts 11:17-18
NRS 17 If then God gave them the same gift that he gave us when we believed in the Lord Jesus Christ, who was I that I could hinder God?" 18 When they heard this, they were silenced. And they praised God, saying, "Then God has given even to the Gentiles the repentance that leads to life."
Devotional: Two thousand years after the church started, Saint Paul’s title of, “Apostle to the Gentiles,” has endured. This was the task to which God called him and he fulfilled it to great success, but Paul was not the first. The one who originally brought the Good News of Jesus Christ to the Gentiles was none other than The Rock. God used Peter to open the Church to Gentiles. The story begins was a vision of a blanket descending from heaven. It was full of slimy, squirming, slithering things. A voice told Peter to eat a critter from the blanket. Once we silence our resounding, “Eeeew, I could never eat a live snake,” we must remember the source of Peter’s, “Eeeew.” The blanket was full of critters that God declared unclean in the Book of Leviticus. This was Torah, the law which Peter had obeyed his entire life. Peter had never eaten unclean food and didn’t want to start. His “Eeeew” reflected a deeper level of disgust than ours, but it was cut off by the voice of his Divine Server, “What God has made clean, you must not call profane.” Peter was being told to eat and violate the Levitical laws. Three times he was commanded to eat. Three times he resisted. Three times he was told not to call God’s creation unclean. If we haven’t noticed by now, Peter had a certain relationship with the number three. Three denials. Three rooster crows. Three love questions on the beach. One would think he would have recognized the voice of God in his encounters with three, but he was still perplexed after his rooftop vision. It was not until a few days later, when Peter met Cornelius, that he understood God was telling him that no person was profane or unclean. With that new understanding, he preached the Good News and informed them that God showed no partiality. Anyone, from any nation, who fears and obeys the Lord is acceptable in His sight. When Peter baptized Cornelius and his household, the Church received its first Gentiles. The controversy that followed would require the bold humility of Peter. When the church in Jerusalem heard of the Gentile admissions, they protested. It was Peter that convinced them Jesus died for Jews and Gentiles. With this act, The Rock was firmly established as the foundation of the Church. Peter’s obedience and openness to God doing new things, paved the way for the entire world to become part of the Body of Christ. While Paul was still being built up in the Spirit, Peter was opening the doors of the Church to the world. Peter recognized God’s love for the world in his triplet lessons and initiated transformation for the entire world.
Prayer: Lord today we pray for recognition of the distinct ways we hear Your voice. Silence the background noise and the shout of worldly voices. Help us to know Your voice and hear it clearly. May we be obedient when we recognize Your sign of three in each of our lives. In Jesus’ name we pray, Amen.
Song of praise: Through All of It by Colton Dixon
Spiritual discipline challenge: Today our challenge is to meditate on our past experiences with God’s voice. I have a hunch that He has already communicated to us in a “Three” that is unique to us. We just need to recognize it. Let us go back to the places we know we have heard from God and see if we can identify our “Three.”
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