Message: In Acts 11 word had gotten back to the Jews that Peter was eating unlawful food and eating with Gentiles. Peter was back in Jerusalem explaining the vision God had given him about the unclean animals being made clean. Then he told him about the men that came for him and how he went into the home of Gentile man and preached the gospel to a house full of gentiles. Then he told them that they were spontaneously baptized in the Holy Spirit just like they all had been. This changed everything and the Jews believed what Peter had told them. As I read through this I thought about what the Jews must have processed through this. They had been the only chosen people and they had followed the law all of these years. Suddenly everything they knew was being turned upside down. They went from judging Peter to believing him because they couldn’t deny the work of the Holy Spirit. The Jews saw the Gentiles as unreachable but they couldn’t deny the work of the Holy Spirit. I had to admit that there have been people I had seen as unqualified or unreachable suddenly have an encounter with Jesus that was so life-changing it couldn’t be ignored or denied. This made me wonder how many people I still see in this category. Who have I been holding back from sharing the gospel with because I have them somehow marked in the unreachable category. I can think of a few right now. My challenge today is to pray about an encounter in their lives and ask God to direct me in how to approach them.
