FINDING GOD IN THE GOOD NEWS

FINDING GOD IN THE GOOD NEWS

Acts 10:23 – 11:18

Dr. Wm. J. Maxwell

First Presbyterian Church, Newport, RI

February 19, 2006

“I have some good news to tell you!” Who doesn’t like to hear such an opening line as this? Such a line brings with it a sense of expectation of good things to come and a sense of earnest anticipation. It gets even better when we can note that God can be found in the Good News. And this is precisely what may be seen in our passage for this morning.

In the opening verses of chapter ten, we can be amazed at the means of “divine supervision” used toward the goal of the proclamation of the Gospel to the household of Cornelius. It reveals to us how earnest and determined God is in His desire that people - both Jews and Gentiles – come to a saving faith in Jesus Christ.

In the latter verses of the chapter, we continue to see God’s activity as the Gospel of Jesus Christ comes to Cornelius, a Roman centurion, and his family. God is very involved as the Gospel is shared and declared. In fact, God is always involved in the proclamation of the Gospel. As we seek to be faithful today in telling others what God has done for us in Jesus Christ, we can be fully assured that God is at work as well.

FOR EXAMPLE, GOD CAN BE FOUND

IN DIRECTING US TO THOSE WHO NEED TO HEAR THE GOOD NEWS.

We’ve already looked at the many ways in which God used “divine supervision” in bringing Peter to the house of a Gentile. So clear was this leading that Peter went against the strict Jewish cultural norms of his day, visiting Cornelius, entering into his house, conversing with him and having fellowship with him.

God had shown Peter that he was not to see Gentiles as being beyond the reach of God’s grace. God does not show favoritism, the Gospel being in fact for both Jews and Gentiles. And so, seeing God’s hand in all this, Peter faithfully obeyed, and went right to the house of Cornelius!

In the realm of God’s amazing grace, divine supervision leads us often to those in need. In this realm, we are so often directed to people who need to hear the Good News. That is the way God works: He uses people to reach people who need to hear the Good News.

Consider the fact that the Lord led specific individuals to enter into our lives and help us embark upon our own journey of faith: parents, other relatives, friends, neighbors, teachers, pastors, perhaps even acquaintances whom we only met once! Such people were directed to us and were involved in our lives at just the right time and in just the right way. Again, God uses people to reach people who need to hear the Good News of God’s love, grace and mercy in Christ.

Now, we may at times feel as if we are incapable of making much of a difference in this world. Our world is so large and the need is so great that the Great Commission can appear rather overwhelming. But when we remember that we can make a difference in just one person’s life, and that God can direct us to do so, the Great Commission becomes less daunting and the opportunities appear to be more clearly seen.

When Mother Teresa sought to be God’s messenger to the millions of Calcutta, she, too, was overwhelmed. Nevertheless, her ministry positively affected thousands of people over the course of time. The means by which she did this was by detaching herself from the masses and focusing instead with a person-by-person perspective. In a critical sense, she never stopped looking at the city one person at a time.

I never look at the masses as my responsibility. I look only at the individual. I can love only one person at a time. I can feed only one person at a time. Just one, one, one. So you begin … I begin. I picked up one person – maybe if I didn’t pick up that one person, I wouldn’t have picked up the others. The whole work is only a drop in the ocean. But if we don’t put the drop in, the ocean would be one drop less. Same thing for you. Same thing in your family. Same thing in the church where you go. Just begin … one, one, one … [i]

If we have this kind of singular focus, we will be far more attentive to God’s direction in leading us to that very person who so very much needs to hear the Good News we have to share. And what great joy there is to be directed and used by God in such a way as to make an eternal difference in another person’s life!

III

GOD IS ALSO IN THE GOOD NEWS

WHEN HE CONVERTS AND CHANGES PEOPLE BY THE HOLY SPIRIT.

When Cornelius first welcomed Peter, he said: “Now we are all here in the presence of God to listen to everything the Lord has commanded you to tell us.” Cornelius had a sense of God’s active presence in all of this, and of course, that was true!

We are also told that, as Peter proclaimed the Good News of Christ, even as he was “still speaking these words, the Holy Spirit came on all who heard the message. The circumcised believers who had come with Peter were astonished that the gift of the Holy Spirit had been poured out even on the Gentiles. For they heard them speaking in tongues and praising God.”

This is yet another lesson for Peter and a new one for the Jewish believers who were with him. The Gospel was as much for Gentiles as it was for Jews. And to emphatically prove this point, the Lord had the Holy Spirit come down upon this Gentile gathering in much the same way as on the Day of Pentecost, that glorious day when the Holy Spirit came upon the Jewish believers in Jerusalem.

This point was made vividly clear at that moment, so much so that when Peter had to make a defense of his actions to the Church in Jerusalem, the only conclusion that could be made by all was this: “So then, God has granted even the Gentiles repentance unto life.”

The other lesson in all this is just as important, however. It is the Holy Spirit who empowers us to share this message with others to whom the Lord sends us, and it is the Holy Spirit who convicts and changes the sinful heart, bringing a person to respond to the Good News. In other words, the Holy Spirit energize us and uses what we have to say to another, and it will again be the Holy Spirit who also changes minds & hearts.

When I was in seminary several years ago in Louisville, Kentucky, I had a close friend who graduated six months before me. Ron, his wife Barbara, Pat and I spent many good times of fellowship together.

When Ron graduated, Pat found him a wonderful graduation present, a framed, very attractive print of Isaiah 55:10,11:

As the rain and the snow come down from heaven, and do not return to it without it watering the earth and making it bud and flourish, so that it yields seed for the sower and bread for the eater, so is My word that goes out from My mouth: It will not return to Me empty, but will accomplish what I desire and achieve the purpose for which I sent it.

It was a wonderful gift for a preacher who faces a congregation each and every Sunday.

Well, I guess Pat knew that I was so impressed with this that six months later, she gave me the same one for my graduation! For years, I had this print over my desk as a constant reminder that I was only to be faithful to God in bringing forth His Word to the congregation, and then I was to trust Him to do the work of changing people. Every time I prepared a sermon or a lesson, every time I was preparing to speak to others of God’s Good News, I could look up at that promise and find renewed encouragement. And I did!

Now, we are not all pastors and teachers, to be sure (and that’s good, because we’d all be up front and there would be no congregation if we were!). Nevertheless, we are all called to be witnesses to others of God’s Good News in Jesus Christ. And when God directs us to that person who needs to hear what the Holy Spirit has laid on our hearts to share, we can sow that seed with the confidence that, by God’s grace and Holy Spirit, there will come forth fruit in many lives. We need only look up at that promise, be faithful in what we say, place the rest in God’s hands, and watch Him work!

Clearly, we can find God in the Good News of the Gospel. Assuredly, we find Him in the very message itself, in what He has accomplished for us in the Person and Work of Jesus Christ.

But we can also find God in His divine supervision, leading us to those in need, one by one, and in His bringing forth the fruit of changed lives, and all living then for the praise of His glory!