Passage of the Day - December 1, 2010

Acts 10:1-23

 ¹Now there was a man at Caesarea named Cornelius, a centurion of what was called the Italian cohort,

 ²a devout man and one who feared God with all his household, and gave many alms to the Jewish people and prayed to God continually.

 ³About the ninth hour of the day he clearly saw in a vision an angel of God who had just come in and said to him, "Cornelius!"

 ⁴And fixing his gaze on him and being much alarmed, he said, "What is it, Lord?" And he said to him, "Your prayers and alms have ascended as a memorial before God.

 ⁵"Now dispatch some men to Joppa and send for a man named Simon, who is also called Peter;

 ⁶he is staying with a tanner named Simon, whose house is by the sea."

 ⁷When the angel who was speaking to him had left, he summoned two of his servants and a devout soldier of those who were his personal attendants,

 ⁸and after he had explained everything to them, he sent them to Joppa.

 ⁹On 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.

 ¹⁰But he became hungry and was desiring to eat; but while they were making preparations, he fell into a trance;

 ¹¹and he saw the sky opened up, and an object like a great sheet coming down, lowered by four corners to the ground,

 ¹²and there were in it all kinds of four-footed animals and crawling creatures of the earth and birds of the air.

 ¹³A voice came to him, "Get up, Peter, kill and eat!"

 ¹⁴But Peter said, "By no means, Lord, for I have never eaten anything unholy and unclean."

 ¹⁵Again a voice came to him a second time, "What God has cleansed, no longer consider unholy."

 ¹⁶This happened three times, and immediately the object was taken up into the sky.

 ¹⁷Now 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;

 ¹⁸and calling out, they were asking whether Simon, who was also called Peter, was staying there.

 ¹⁹While 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."

 ²¹Peter went down to the men and said, "Behold, I am the one you are looking for; what is the reason for which you have come?"

 ²²They said, "Cornelius, a centurion, a righteous and God-fearing man well spoken of by the entire nation of the Jews, was divinely directed by a holy angel to send for you to come to his house and hear a message from you."

 ²³So he invited them in and gave them lodging. And on the next day he got up and went away with them, and some of the brethren from Joppa accompanied him.

One of the largest stumbling blocks to the mission field of the world would have been the dietary restrictions of the Jews.  If Peter, John, Paul, etc.  were required to continue following the Old Testament dietary restrictions, they would have a difficult time engaging the Gentiles.  This was a very big deal since dietary restrictions are no small matter in Judaism.  Later circumcising new Christians was deemed to be unnecessary as well (I’d find that to be a bigger stumbling block to be honest with you).  What rules and traditions prevent us from fully engaging the world?  Are those rules and traditions more important to Christianity than dietary restrictions and circumcision is to Judaism?  Something to think about.