SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 1/18/2018
10:09 AM
My Worship Time Focus: PT-2 “The Preparation of Peter”
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: Acts 10:9-20
Message of the
verses: “9 On the next day, as they
were on their way and approaching the city, Peter went up on the housetop about
the sixth hour to pray. 10 But
he became hungry and was desiring to eat; but while they were making
preparations, he fell into a trance; 11 and he saw the sky opened up, and an
object like a great sheet coming down, lowered by four corners to the ground,
12 and there were in it all kinds of
four-footed animals and crawling creatures of the earth and birds of the air. 13
A voice came to him, "Get up, Peter, kill and eat!" 14 But Peter
said, "By no means, Lord, for I have never eaten anything unholy and
unclean." 15 Again a voice came to him a second time, "What God has
cleansed, no longer consider unholy." 16 This happened three times, and immediately
the object was taken up into the sky. 17
Now while Peter was greatly perplexed in mind as to what the vision
which he had seen might be, behold, the men who had been sent by Cornelius,
having asked directions for Simon’s house, appeared at the gate; 18 and calling out, they were asking whether
Simon, who was also called Peter, was staying there. 19 While Peter was
reflecting on the vision, the Spirit said to him, "Behold, three men are
looking for you. 20 “But get up, go downstairs and accompany them without
misgivings, for I have sent them Myself."”
One of the reasons for the dietary laws that were given
by the Lord to the children of Israel was to keep them different from the
Gentiles who lived around them. Eating
such foods did not keep them holy, but by not eating certain foods the children
of Israel we seen as being different, which was the plan that God had for
them. When the curtain between the holy
place and the Holy of holies was torn into from the top to the bottom when
Christ died on the cross it signaled the end of the age of the Law and so when
the church age began some 40 days later the age of grace was ushered in. At first it seemed that only the Jews were
going to be involved, and yet we remember that the last thing that Jesus said
before returning to heaven is found in Acts 1:8 “but you will receive power when the Holy Spirit
has come upon you; and you shall be My witnesses both in Jerusalem, and in all
Judea and Samaria, and even to the remotest part of the earth."” Now as we come to chapter ten we will see
that God was preparing the first Gentile to become a part of the church,
something that had been planned from eternity past.
Peter was resisting what he was told to do as he thought
by doing so meant he was a faithful Jew, but in the past Peter had resisted
things that the Lord wanted him to do, but once he learned that he was wrong he
went and did the right things. Even
after resisting the vision Peter was greatly perplexed in his mind as to
exactly what this vision meant.
John MacArthur writes “That meaning was twofold. On the negative side, it signified the
abolishing of the Old Testament dietary restrictions (cf. Mark 7:14-23; Rom.
14:1-3; Col. 2:16-17; 1 Tim. 4:1-5).
Such separating features were now counterproductive, since God was
bringing Jews and Gentiles together in the church, not keeping them apart. On the positive side, the vision pictured the
inclusion of both the Gentiles, symbolized by the unclean animals, and the
Jews, symbolized by the clean ones, into one body.”
Peter did not have much time to think about the vision as
soon as it was over Peter was told by the Spirit of God that some men from the
house of Cornelius had come to speak to him and that he should go with them
because the Spirit of God had sent them to him.
MacArthur concludes “God not only sovereignly prepared Cornelius and
Peter but also sovereignly determined and arranged the timing of bringing them
together.”
Spiritual meaning
for my life today: I can remember
how the Lord did a very similar thing to me and the anniversary of that blessed
event is coming up in eight days.
My Steps of Faith for Today: Pray that the Lord will continue to use
things that are written in these Spiritual Diaries to bring others to a saving
knowledge of Jesus Christ.
Answer to yesterday’s Bible
question: “A Pharisee” (Acts 23:6).
Today’s Bible question: “What took place just before the sermon on
the mount?”
Answer in our next SD.
1/18/2018 10:42 AM
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