[The Persuasion of the Holy Spirit]
Acts 10:9-16
Pastor Yangjae Kim
This is 16th online service. There is an old-fashioned music genre that gives the people a big joy these days on television even in the crisis of COVID-19. When the story of the singers is known to the people, the songs touch peoples heart and even persuade them. Let us think how to persuade people with the Holy Spirit.
First, we have to pray first. In the passage, it says that Peter became hungry, and that seems like Peter fasted. Fasting for salvation is beneficial for both the flesh and the soul. At that time, the Jews had prayer times in the evenings and at noon following their customs. Peter went up to pray following his habit. And God showed a vision to Cornelius and Peter who prayed sincerely. But we have to be aware of how they spared time to pray, not of their visions. Peter was able to give sermons that made thousands of people come back to the Lord, but before that, he was a man of prayer. The key to persuade others is prayer. The prayer makes us to fit for Gods heart. God works for us, and we just have to follow the Word to experience the blessing of obedience. Our church have been doing online prayer meeting for sixteen weeks. And it is not easy to pray for two hours looking at the screen it is like laboring. However, those who are among the suffering come in for the prayer meeting every day, but those who seem to have no problem think that is very tiring. Just the fact that our church has people who pray makes us to receive the prize of salvation, in my opinion. Like Peter, we go up on the roof to pray and to follow the truth which states that the purpose of life is to be holy, not to be happy. God takes pleasure in our interests and prayers for them. Then who would go on the roof? The elementary student who wants a mature faith, the one who saves pills for suicide impulse, the one who tries to kill herself because of her husbands affair, and more people who writes their prayer requests go up on the roof. Suffering is inevitable to make a spiritual habit. And people with desperate prayer lists can persuade others well.
Second, we have to throw away our prejudice. The Jews mostly had their meals between ten oclock in the morning and six oclock in the afternoon. The passage says that Peter was hungry at noon, and I think that he fasted. I, too, had fasted for my husbands salvation, and did again for days every year when I was deciding about going to seminary. I learned patience, a crucial element in relationships, and when I was patient enough, God allowed me to do church ministry.
The vision Peter saw was unnatural, but he was not abnormal. He was sensitive to notice the spiritual phenomena. What he saw in the vision was a weird scene of unclean animals coming down in a large sheet. As a Jew, he would not eat them regardless of his hunger. In this passage, the phrase Kill and eat even carries the meaning that they are clean and suitable for sacrifice. In other words, God showed a new vision that surpassed the law in food, the law that divided the Jews and the Gentiles. God meant that the Jews should reach out to the Gentiles to make them Gods people. But Peter ignored the true meaning and acted wrong, justifying himself to be holy. One of the biggest hindrances in evangelization is the prejudice of the evangelist himself. Peter stayed at a tanners house that reeked and evangelized the Samaritans without prejudice. But he had limits. He could not get out of the Jews ethnocentrism even if he was trained by Jesus. He could reach out to them because they carried the blood of the Jews. We need to know that after everything we have gone through, there are still things that we cannot accept.
Third, we have to endure. As Jesus forgave Peter who cursed Him three times and ran away, the Gospel says thatthe Gentiles would be cleansed in the same way. Peter saw the food coming down from heaven, and he kept rejecting to eat them. And God repeated it three times to persuade Peter. This was Gods endurance. It is harder to persuade Peter than to persuade Cornelius. Cornelius seems to be great, but he just was doing he role. Peter was trained since he was a fisher, and God persuaded him with patience. He went through the trouble of persuading Peter to show that He does not force people to do something. He gave us freewill. He does not call us to achieve His goal. He is interested in us, and He tries to get us. Gods goal was not to get Peter listen to Him. Peter was Gods goal. He showed how the Gospel reached the Gentiles through persuasion, not through dictatorship. We have to throw away our prejudice. And we have to endure as He has endured for us.
This is a testimony. A sub group leader was forgiven for a big amount of debt when his business went down. But he tried to file a law suit for five million won he did not get. When he heard the sermon of the wicked servant who was forgiven for ten thousand talents, he immediately cancelled the case. And later, he was promoted. Someone who can apply the Word with obedience can persuade people through the Holy Spirit. As God endured us and persuade us, I pray that we would endure and persuade others.
We must persuade others for salvation. If we persuade others through the Holy Spirit for salvation, God will remember it. So let us believe it, pray for it, and put down our prejudice to be patience.
