Life of Paul Part 8 - The Gentiles join the Church

Jewish people, Gentile people.

The relationship between the two has been bumpy for thousands of years. And we're going to talk about that today because it lies at the heart of what we're going to look at next in our study of the life of the great man, the apostle Paul. That is, we're going to look at the relationship of Jewish people and Gentile people, not in society at large, but in this new forming entity in the first century in the days of Paul called the church. And so I want you to take a Bible today if you brought one and let's open it together to Acts chapter 10. Acts chapter 10.

And as you're turning, let me give you just a little bit of background because we're going to talk about what happened 2,000 years ago and then we're going to talk a little bit about how that applies to our life here in the 21st century. Remember in our last message we saw that in Acts chapter 11 there grew up in the city of Antioch an entirely new kind of church. A church in which Jewish believers and Gentile believers mixed together as brothers and sisters in the Lord. Now this was unheard of. This had never happened before. This was scandalous in these days. Jewish believers shared the message of Jesus the Messiah with Jewish people only.

That's the way it was. But God steps in and begins to restructure all of this and we're going to see that happen today. In order to understand this restructuring, we need to ask and answer three very important questions.

Here's the first one. Number one, how did in the days of the early church, how did Jewish people feel about Gentile people? Well, we get an insight into that from Matthew chapter 15 where Jesus is having a conversation with a lady who is clearly a Gentile who's come to him and asked for help.

Here's what goes on. He says to her, it is not right to take the children's bread and toss it to the dogs, referring to her of course. And she said, yes Lord, but even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their master's table. Now Jesus went on of course to help her, but the point is in his reference he tips us off as to how things were between Jewish people and Gentile people in that day. The truth is the Jewish people of that time referred to Gentiles as dogs. Now generally when you call somebody a dog, it's not a compliment.

I think we all understand that. And so this was not a complimentary term nor a very complimentary relationship. How did Jewish people feel about Gentiles at the time of the early church? Well, not real good, which is why the early followers of Christ who were all Jewish, it's why they didn't share the good news of Jesus with any Gentiles.

You see, wait a minute. If I understand you correctly, what you're saying here is that these early Christians were racists. What you're saying is they were bigots. They deliberately discriminated against us Gentiles.

Well, that's basically correct. I mean, their attitude was God didn't make Gentiles to go to heaven or have eternal life. God made Gentiles because somebody has to pay retail.

You understand? And that's what you all are doing here. Now if you're here and you've never trusted Christ as your real and personal savior, it might come as a huge shock for you to hear us admit that the early Christians were bigots, that they were racists. And of course, God does not endorse racism, never has of any kind. But admitting this about the early Christians, friends, doesn't mess our theology up and I'll tell you why. Because in inviting people to become part of what we call Christianity, we're not inviting people to join a community of perfect people. We weren't perfect people before we came to Christ, which is why we needed a savior, and we don't become perfect people after we come to Christ.

I've heard so many people say the reason I'm not interested in learning more about Jesus is I knew a Christian once and they did this, or I knew a person going to church once and they did that. And you know what? I'm sure they're absolutely right.

That person probably did everything they said they did. But that's not the issue. We're inviting people to come into relationship with a perfect savior who can change your life. And so be careful, please.

Don't have your eye on the wrong thing. We admit we're not perfect. We admit that as hard as we try, we let down the standard that the Lord would like us to live up to. But that doesn't affect the fact that Jesus is a perfect savior and can transform your life.

Something to think about. Well, we've already said this kind of bigotry is obviously wrong. Obviously, we're not where God's heart is. So God had to set out and re-educate these early Jewish Christians, which is our second question.

How did he do it? How did he re-educate the early church on this topic? Well, here in Acts chapter 10 where I ask you to turn, we see the answer. The chapter begins by telling us about a fellow named Cornelius. Cornelius was a Roman military officer, a centurion.

He was a member of the Gentile occupation forces of Israel, and therefore not very popular. But he was a God-fearing man. And an angel appeared to him and said, I want you to go find Peter, send some people to find Peter and bring him back here.

He's got a very important message with good news to share with you. Well, let's pick up the story. Chapter 10, verse 9. And about noon the following day, as they were on their journey and approaching the city of Joppa, Peter went up on the roof to pray and he became hungry and wanted something to eat. So while the meal was being prepared, he fell into a trance and he saw heaven open and something like a large sheet, a large tablecloth being let down to earth by its four corners. And on the tablecloth were all kinds of four-footed animals as well as reptiles of the earth and birds of the air.

Now, what was the problem with all of the stuff on this tablecloth? Well, the problem is it was all not kosher. It was all unclean to eat. And a voice came from heaven and said, Peter, get up, kill and eat. And Peter said, are you kidding? I have never eaten anything unclean or impure.

I'm not doing it. And the voice from heaven said, do not call anything impure that God has pronounced clean. Three times this happened and the tablecloth went back to heaven. And while Peter, verse 19, was still trying to figure out what this all meant, the three men who Cornelius had sent showed up at the door and the Spirit of God said, I want you to go down there, go with these three men. I've sent them, so don't hesitate to go with them. They're going to invite you to meet with a bunch of Gentiles. Go ahead and go. Well, Peter goes, ends up in this room with Cornelius, Roman military officer, and a whole bunch of Gentiles. And here's what he says, verse 28. He said, you know that it is against our law for a Jew to associate with Gentiles, like I'm doing right now.

It's even against our law for us to visit somebody like you, Cornelius. But God has shown me that I should not call any man impure or unclean. Where did God show him that? Where did Peter learn that? Well, he learned it from the tablecloth, right?

That's where he learned it. And so Peter said, when you sent for me, even though I knew I was coming to a bunch of Gentiles, I came anyway. What do you want? Well, I'll summarize. Cornelius said, hey, we don't know. We were sent to get you and told you had good news for us. Peter started telling him about Jesus. Cornelius gives his life to Christ. His family gives their life to Christ. A whole bunch of the Gentiles there give their life to Christ. Cornelius was the very first Gentile to ever give his life to Jesus. He said, well, that's wonderful. That's great.

Yeah, it's not over yet, though. Chapter 11, verse 1. Then the apostles and the other Jewish brothers in Jerusalem, in Judea, heard that the Gentiles had received the word of God. So when Peter went back to Jerusalem, the Jewish believers criticized him and said, you went into the house of a bunch of Gentiles and you ate with them. Have you lost your mind?

What is wrong with you? And so Peter began and explained to them, everything that had happened went through the whole thing. Cornelius had come to Christ and the tablecloth and everything. And he ends by saying, verse 17, So if God gave them the same gift as he gave us who believed in the Lord Jesus Christ, who was I to think that I could oppose God? And when they heard this, they had no further objections and they praised God and said, well, then God has granted even the Gentiles repentance to life. Well, wasn't that big of them that they admitted even you guys get a chance at heaven like the rest of these Jewish people did? That's how God re-educated the early church. What was the result of all this, our third and final question?

What was the outcome of all of this? Well, the outcome was that God then chose the apostle Paul, whose life we're studying, to be the promoter of this new brand of Christianity where Jewish people and Gentile people, both of whom believe in Jesus, mixed together in one and the same church family. He became, what does he often call himself, the apostle to the Gentiles, taking this message, even though he was Jewish, to Gentiles and saying, you guys now can come in and be equal members in this as we Jewish people. Romans chapter 10, verse 12, For there is no difference between Jew and Gentile.

The same Lord is Lord of all, Paul writes, and richly blesses all who call on Him. This was radical. This was unprecedented.

Nobody had ever believed this before in the Jewish world. This was a radical new truth. In fact, the apostle Paul wrote an entire letter around this truth. We call it today the letter to the church of Ephesus, the book of Ephesians. It's all about this.

Listen to what he says. Ephesians 2, verse 11, he says, Therefore you Gentiles remember that you were formerly, you who are Gentiles by birth, you were excluded from citizenship in Israel, you were foreigners to the covenants of promise, and you were without hope and without God in the world. Verse 13, But now in Christ Jesus, you who were once far away have been brought near through the blood of Christ. For He, Jesus, is our peace, and He has made the two groups, Jews and Gentiles, one, and has destroyed the dividing wall between us. Verse 19, Consequently, Paul writes, you Gentiles are no longer foreigners and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with God's people and fellow members of God's household.

This is what Paul went around promoting. And the result of this is Gentiles came to Christ now by the boat load, by the ship load. Gentiles started coming to Christ, so much so that in 30 years they took over the church. I mean, in Acts chapter 10, think about it, when the tablecloth came down from heaven, there wasn't one single Gentile in the whole church. Thirty years later, you'd have to search high and low to find one single Jewish believer in the whole church. In 30 years, not only did you guys join the church, you guys took over the church.

And it's been that way for the last 1900 years. Now that's as far as we want to go in our passage for today, because we've got a question that I know you're dying to ask. So here we go. You ready? Everybody ready?

One, two, three. So what? That's right.

Ceylon, so what? Hey, thank you for the history lesson. It was wonderful. I always wanted to know how we took over the church, but thank you for telling us.

This is great to know. But what difference does it make to my life? Well, let's see if we can help you understand that. You know, I've told you many times that I was born and raised Jewish, and that when I came to Christ in 1971 as a senior at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, I really believed I was the only Jewish person in the whole world that believed in Jesus. As a matter of fact, when I read the Bible, I really believed it was like Peter, James, John, Paul, burnt.

Nineteen hundred years, burnt, me. I really believed that. Well, I didn't know. I mean, I'd never heard of a single person ever believing in Jesus. I'd never met anybody who said they were Jewish and believed in Jesus. And the truth is, in 1971, I wasn't the only person in the world that was Jewish and believed in Jesus, but there weren't very many. And I'll tell you why.

There's a reason why. Romans chapter 11, verse 25. Paul writes and says, I do not want you to be uninformed, you Gentile brothers, so that you become conceited. Here's what I want you to know, that Israel, the Jewish people, have experienced a partial hardening. Now, we're going to finish the verse, but let's stop there for just a second. What is Paul saying here? What is this hardening? Well, the Greek word that is translated hardening here is the same word from which we get our English word, callous, that there's been a callous put on the Jewish people, a spiritual callous.

What's he mean? Well, in the Bible, Ephesians chapter 4, verse 18, tells us that every single human being that's born into our world with a sinful nature, like we all are, we all come into the world spiritually blind. And the Spirit of God has to break through this spiritual blindness in order for us to make a decision for Jesus Christ. But what this verse is telling us, Romans 11, is that in addition to this spiritual blindness that every one of us has, the Jewish people have a second layer of callousing spiritually, like a double whammy, if you will, between them and making a decision for Christ. And the reason this is on the Jewish people is as a judgment from God for them rejecting their Messiah. This is why it's so hard and why so few Jewish people have come to Christ.

They just don't have to overcome the normal blindness that every human being has. They have this second double whammy on them. Now, let's finish the verse. A partial hardening has happened to Israel, Paul says, until. Now, there's your key word because the word until tells us that this spiritual callous that has been put on the Jewish people is only temporary.

One day it's coming off. Now, the Bible does say it's a partial callous. If it were 100% callous, no Jewish person would have come to Christ in the last 1900 years.

There have been a few Jewish people. So it's been only a partial callous, but it's been partial enough there haven't been very many. One day that callous is coming off.

When is that going to be? Finish the verse. A partial hardening has happened to Israel until, look at this, the fullness of the Gentiles has been completed. And this phrase, the fullness of the Gentiles, or the times of the Gentiles, is a phrase that the Bible uses to describe the end of our age and the return of Jesus. So let's summarize.

What is this first teaching? This teaching that as the end of this age approaches, as the return of Jesus draws near, God is going to lift this callous that has kept the number of Jewish people coming to Christ down to a very small number. He's going to lift that and we should expect to see, as the return of Christ draws near, we should expect therefore to see a surge in the number of Jewish people coming to Christ, the likes of which has never been seen in the last 1900 years of the Church's history. We should expect to see cosmic events. We should expect to see revival break out among the Jewish people. We should expect to see Jewish people giving their lives to Christ at an unprecedented rate.

Okay? It's a sign of the return of Christ. Now, what's going on today? 2001. And I got all these figures from Jews for Jesus and they ought to know, huh?

All right. Today in our world, the best estimate we have is that there are somewhere between 75 and 100,000 Jewish people who believe Jesus is the Messiah. In fact, there's between 4,000 and 5,000 native-born Israelis, Sabras, living in Israel who believe Jesus is the Messiah. Over 35 congregations that meet there weekly in Israel where Jesus is worshipped as the Messiah. Friends, what this means is that there are more Jewish believers alive and well today on planet earth, there are more Jewish believers today living in the land of Israel than there has ever been at any time since the days where Peter and James and John and Paul walked on the face of the earth.

And this is what I want you to understand, the staggering, staggering thing that's happening today. I mean, in 1971, I thought I was the only Jewish believer on the face of the earth. Today, everywhere I go, I meet Jewish people who believe in Jesus.

In fact, this week I was down at a framing shop in Alexandria and I had a baby picture I was getting a frame for and the guy who owns the shop is a follower of Christ and the phone rang while I was standing there. He went out and answered the phone and came back and he said, Hey, Lon, this guy on the phone is a friend of mine. He's a Jewish believer. He lives in Kansas City. He's heard about you on the radio and he wants to say hi to you.

I told him you were here. Now, friends, I got to tell you, I didn't even know there were any Jews in Kansas. What if you're Jewish? What do you want to live in Kansas for?

No, there's no money in Kansas. Anyway, here's this guy in the heartland of America. He's a Jewish believer wanting to talk to me on the telephone. As a matter of fact, in our church today right here, McLean Bible Church, we have somewhere between 50 and 75 Jewish believers that attend regularly this church. Do you know when I came to Washington in 1971, there weren't 75 Jewish believers in the entire city of Washington. And we've got that many in one church 30 years later.

This is staggering what's happening. And to help you get a handle on this, I want to quote from a paper that I had the privilege to hear Dr. Daniel Fuchs read. Dr. Daniel Fuchs, about eight years ago, was then the past president of the American Board of Missions to the Jews. And I was at a Lucerne consultation for Jewish evangelism meeting.

We were all sitting around this little lecture table, about 20 of us in the room. And I was sitting about six feet from this wonderful man of God, and I heard him read this paper. And I think this will give you a sense of proportion as you hear him talk about this very issue.

Listen, I'm quoting. He said, when I began with the American Board of Missions to the Jews in 1937, I believed, Dr. Fuchs speaking, that I knew every Jewish Christian in the United States and Canada. Now that is a staggering statement. I mean, how many Jewish believers could there be if this man knew every single one in America and Canada? He said there were so few of us.

The Jewish leaders mostly ignored us and scorned us. And then he went on to tell how he and his family did without, how they sacrificed to serve the cause of Jewish evangelism, how literally they ate hot dogs and beans, how they had one change of clothes. They wore a set, they washed a set.

They wore that set, they washed the other set. How they lived in New York City and went out on the streets and got spit on and beat up and abused and cursed out. And how they prayed and prayed and prayed to see revival break out among the Jewish people. And he said the 30s went by, the 40s went by, the 50s went by, the 60s went by.

Nothing. And then, quoting from him again, Then in the late 60s and early 70s, he said, there came a marvelous movement of the Holy Spirit among the Jewish people. In 1972, one Jewish missionary was quoted in Time magazine as saying he had seen more Jewish people come to Christ in the last nine months than he had seen in the previous 23 years.

What a difference it is today, Dr. Fuchs said. Everywhere I go, they're Jewish Christians. The rabbis no longer ignore us. They've organized a committee of cults and missionaries to fight us. They attend our meetings.

They read everything we publish. They hold seminars on how to answer the missionaries. More Jewish people are being won to the Lord Jesus Christ today, he said, than at any time since the days of the apostles. And I wish I could say this is because of Jewish missions. It isn't. I wish I could say it's because of the church.

It isn't. What we are seeing today, he said, is an act of God's Spirit. And we have only started to see what God plans to do with the Jewish people. And then he stopped. I'm sitting six feet from this aged warrior of God. And he lifted up his head and under his glasses he had tears running down his face. It was unbelievably moving. And he looked around and he said, he said, I am 76 years old.

I have been in Jewish missionary work for over 50 years. But I wondered if I would ever see these things. But now I can lay down and close my eyes with joy. Dr. Daniel Fuchs died two weeks to the day from giving this seminar. He had an unexpected heart attack.

And two weeks to the day after he gave it, he went to be with the Lord. I tell you, it was one of the greatest experiences of my life, sitting here and listening to this man tell about what had happened. And I had tears rolling down my face. And I felt like God was saying to me, Lon, many prophets and righteous men have desired to see the things that you see, son.

And they didn't get to see them. But blessed are your eyes because you're getting to see things that the church has only dreamed about, the church has only prayed about, the church is only fantasized about, revival among the Jewish people. And you're getting to see it happen. And friends, you're getting to see it happen.

Things that the church has only been able to talk about. It's never been a reality. You're seeing it happen today. This is a cosmic event. This is not an accident. This is not a coincidence. This is a cosmic event. And friends, God doesn't waste cosmic events. This is meant to tell us something, that the return of Jesus Christ really is very close. Now, I can't give you a day or a time or an hour, but I can tell you when you see something like this happen, man, you better buckle your seat belt.

Because it's not far away. And I'm reminded of the words of Jesus, Luke 21 verse 28, When you see these things begin to take place, lift up your heads, Jesus said, because your redemption is drawing near. Jesus said, when you see these things happening, man, get some new hope in your life. Get some new resiliency in your step. Get some new stamina to face your everyday problems because my return is right around the corner.

And as a follower of Jesus Christ, if you're here today living in the 21st century and you've got problems, hey, guess what? Join the rest of us. But friends, we're leaving here soon.

God wants us to put our eyes on the soon return of Christ. You've got pain, it's okay, you're leaving here soon. You've got heartache, it's okay, you're leaving here soon. You've got sickness and trouble, you're leaving here soon. You walk into work tomorrow and your boss walks up and starts yelling at you, just look at him and go, I'm leaving here soon.

That's right. Now, you might want to say it under your breath, but it'll make you feel good just to say it. And I was out to brunch with a guy this week who was talking to me about how unfair the world had been to him and how unfairly he'd been treated. And I said, hey, hey, hey, whoa, whoa, whoa, stop, stop, stop. He said, you've got your eyes on all the wrong thing, man.

No wonder you're having a problem. If God settled up every account on this front end side of the return of Jesus, you're right, this would be a very unfair world. But that's not what the Bible says. The Bible says that God's going to settle all those accounts when Jesus comes back.

He's going to settle them. So you need to get your eyes off of how unfair you've been treated and you need to get your eyes on the return of Jesus. Because I'll tell you something I've learned in 30 years of being a Christian. When my eyes are on my problems and how unfair things are, I'm depressed. When my eyes are on the return of Christ and how He's going to make things right and justly and righteously and equitably make sure everything gets settled, I'm fine. I can deal with anything.

I can take anything. I love what Paul wrote in 2 Thessalonians chapter 1. He said, God is just and He will repay trouble to those who trouble you and He will give relief to those who have been unfairly treated. God will render to every person according to their deeds and there is no partiality or favoritism with God. When's this all going to happen?

This will happen when the Lord Jesus is revealed from heaven with His powerful angels. And so friends, you know what, if I've got my eyes on the return of Christ and He's going to make things right, you know, I just kick the can down the road a little bit. I just say, that's all right. Do whatever you want. I just kick the can right down the road because when Jesus comes back, all those cans are coming home to roost. So I'm okay with that.

Just do whatever you want. I'm just kicking the can until Jesus comes. And then we're going to straighten all this out. And you know, there's tremendous strength and resiliency in believing that because it's true. And then getting your eyes off your problems and off the way people treat you and on to the soon return of Christ when everything is going to be settled up. So I leave you today with the words of the Apostle James.

Here's what he said in closing. James 5 verse 7. He said, be patient until the Lord's coming.

You've heard of Job's perseverance and what the Lord finally brought about for him, how the Lord vindicated him and settled everything up for him. Okay, so you too, James says, you be patient and stand firm. Don't you waver for the coming of the Lord is near. And I'm hoping that you'll walk out of here today, my friend, having been inspired to new resiliency, been inspired to new stamina, to new strength in your walk with God, because your eyes are off of your problems and on to Jesus's return when all this stuff will be made right. May God change our lives because we've learned from his word today. Let's pray.

Lord Jesus, you know there's not a one of us here who doesn't have problems. Lord, I thank you for talking to us today about your strategy for how we can face our problems each and every day, how we can face our struggles and our heartaches each and every day and not lose hearts and not get depressed and not lose hope. Lord, it's all about focus. It's all about being focused on the return of Christ and his promise to make all things right. And as we've seen today, that return is much closer, I think, than many of us would even dare think. And we see the Jewish people, the time clock of God almost ticking up to midnight. So, Lord, encourage us today. Help us to lift up our heads, as you told us. Infuse new stamina, new strength, new resilience into our life as we focus not on our problems and not on how people treat us, but as we focus on the soon return of Jesus. Help us, like James said, to be patient and stand firm until you come back to make things right. And we pray these things in Jesus' name. God's people said, Amen.