Doing What God Commanded

Acts 10:34-43New International Version (NIV)

34 Then Peter began to speak: “I now realize how true it is that God does not show favoritism 35 but accepts from every nation the one who fears him and does what is right. 36 You know the message God sent to the people of Israel, announcing the good news of peace through Jesus Christ, who is Lord of all. 37 You know what has happened throughout the province of Judea, beginning in Galilee after the baptism that John preached— 38 how God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and power, and how he went around doing good and healing all who were under the power of the devil, because God was with him.

39 “We are witnesses of everything he did in the country of the Jews and in Jerusalem. They killed him by hanging him on a cross, 40 but God raised him from the dead on the third day and caused him to be seen. 41 He was not seen by all the people, but by witnesses whom God had already chosen—by us who ate and drank with him after he rose from the dead. 42 He commanded us to preach to the people and to testify that he is the one whom God appointed as judge of the living and the dead. 43 All the prophets testify about him that everyone who believes in him receives forgiveness of sins through his name.”

Our scripture this morning finds Peter speaking at the house of man named Cornelius.  What is the connection between Cornelius and Peter?  Not much, really.  Peter asks the same question, “May I ask why you sent for me?” in verse 26.  Cornelius says a man in shining clothes showed up to his door and told him that “God has heard your prayer and remembered your gifts to the poor.”  The man in the shining clothes continued by saying to Cornelius, “Send to Joppa for Simon who is called Peter. He is a guest in the home of Simon the tanner, who lives by the sea.”  Cornelius did and our scripture is Peter addressing the crowd who had congregated at the home of Cornelius.  

Epiphany Sunday is how the Church celebrates man’s realization of who Jesus was and is.  Peter addresses this when he is explaining to the crowd who Jesus was when he says, “God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and power, and how he went around doing good and healing all who were under the power of the devil, because God was with him.”    The people gathered there had to be somewhat familiar with who Jesus was because Peter did not have to do a lot of explanation and just reminded them of some of the things he did.  But keep in mind that what we have here in Acts isn’t necessarily an exact transcript of the events of that day unless someone could take notes really fast.  Anyway, the scripture hints that the people gathered must have had some background on who Jesus was.  And while Epiphany Sunday has it’s origins with the three kings who came to visit the Christ-child, this Sunday offers each one of us the opportunity to celebrate our own epiphany when it comes to our individual realization of who Christ is and the subsequent acceptance of Christ into our lives.  The reason we extend an invitation to come forward every Sunday to profess one’s faith is to allow them to share with the congregation their own epiphany experience.

Now that we have background on what, who and why Peter was addressing a crowd at the home of Cornelius that day, let’s get into what Peter said.  As usual, typically there is a verse or two that sticks with me each week and this week those verses were 42 and 43, “He commanded us to preach to the people and to testify that he is the one whom God appointed as judge of the living and the dead. All the prophets testify about him that everyone who believes in him receives forgiveness of sins through his name.”  And more specifically it was the word commanded that stuck with me.  Maybe it is where I am in my own life and maybe it is because of the ages of my kids but I feel like I give a lot of commands.  Very few of them are followed.  The older my kids get, the more and more I realize that my parents were more patient than I ever realized.  Sometimes this lack of followed commands gets very frustrating.  It makes me wonder how God feels when we do not do what He commands.  I know, without a doubt, we are forgiven but that is not the point here.  What happens when our actions do not follow the steps of our words?  What happens when we choose not to follow our calling into some sort of ministry?  What happens if we alienate people within our own congregation or outside of it?  What happens when we begin to worry about the building that we worship in rather than the souls inside it?  How does God feel when we do not follow his command to love thy neighbor and to not covet his wife?  How does God feel about our jealousy?  Our recurring sins that we choose not to do anything about?

We are imperfect humans, I get it.  I know we will sin.  But I feel like in today’s society, Christians use forgiveness and grace as a crutch.  Like we choose to do nothing about our sin, our bickering, or our lack of understanding for a fellow human’s life and experiences.  We chalk it up to “Oh well, God forgives me.... I am not perfect....” and then we move on with our lives and start over tomorrow making the same mistakes.  In every facet of our lives, there are rewards for doing good things and punishment for not.  For example, if you show up to work every day, work hard and are easy to get along with chances are you will advance in your career.  If you don’t show up and are lazy when you get there, chances are you won’t go anywhere.  My kids have to do push ups if they run in the house and they only get screen time if they behave and things are cleaned up.  Rewards vs punishments.  But Jesus changed that when it comes to our faith.  We are given limitless grace and mercy.  We are forgiven.  And I honestly think that many of us today choose to exploit this.  For example, I love me some Mt. Dew but if I won a lifetime’s supply, would it be in my best interest to drink as much of it as I could every single day?  Eventually, drinking that much Dew each day would catch up with me.  While we may be forgiven of our sin, we are not excused from the consequences of it.  While I could drink as much Dew as I possibly could, it would eventually lead to my downfall.  We are forgiven yes, but we shouldn’t use it as a crutch.  

Instead of leaning on our forgiveness and grace as an excuse to continue what we’re doing, we should see this grace in all its glory as a reason not to sin.  Our grace ought to be the driving force to love thy neighbor, to do whatever it takes not to allow lust to fill our hearts, to not alienate others, to follow our calling into ministry, to take care of those souls inside the building rather than worrying about the actual building itself, to give God our jealous hearts and desires, and to seek out people to help keep us accountable for our recurring sins.  Doing as God commands is not simply coming to church, putting on a pretty face, and pretending to do God’s work when really most of what we do is for selfish reasons.  I don’t care that we imperfect, we ought to strive for perfection.  We are commanded to make disciples of all nations, to be Christ’s hands and feet, to love thy neighbor and we need to start following that command.  On this Epiphany Sunday we celebrate our own realization of Christ’s divinity but what are we doing about helping others to realize it?  He commanded us to preach to the people that he is the one whom God appointed as judge of the living and the dead.  Are you preaching as God commanded or are you leaning on that grace as an excuse not to?  Peter reminded those listening to him that day about the things they already knew about Christ and yet he taught them something new.  Every day offers us a new chance take what we already know about Christ and grow it.  You will leave this world a better place if you choose to do something with that opportunity more often than not.  Are you doing what God commanded? Amen.