“Church on the Move:  Too Dirty for the Gospel?”

Pastor Corey Fields

May 6, 2007

Acts 11:1-18

            Have you ever heard someone tell you not to pray for patience?  The reason it’s said that you should pray for patience is because the way God gives you patience is to put you in situations that require it.  There are just some things like that that I would categorize as “dangerous prayers.”  There’s another kind of dangerous prayer.  It’s the prayer for God’s Spirit to lead you.  Have you ever prayed that?  “God, just lead me where you want me to go.”  Or, “God teach me what you want to teach me.”  That’s dangerous.  You know why?  Because he will.

            All over the Bible, people who just wanted to follow God and do what he was telling them ended up having their world flipped upside down.  Isaiah probably thought he wanted to hear from God, but when he did, he was terrified and couldn’t say anything except "Woe to me! I am ruined! For I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips, and my eyes have seen the King, the LORD Almighty."  What about Jonah?  Jonah was called to go right smack into the middle of the country that had just taken over and destroyed the kingdom of Israel.  (Ninevah was the capital of Assyria, and Assyria attacked Israel and took them into exile).  To compare it to modern day:  Israel’s “September 11” had come, and Jonah was called to take the good news to al-Qaida.  You remember the whole dialogue Jonah had with God?  He didn’t want to go, and he was REALLY angry with God when they repented and God decided not to destroy them.  And this nation…this unclean, foreign, enemy nation…was what God was referring to at the end of Jonah’s book when he said, “And should I not have concern for the great city Nineveh, in which there are more than a hundred and twenty thousand people who cannot tell their right hand from their left—and also many animals?"

            And then there’s Peter.  In the Acts 11 passage we read, Peter was retelling the events that had just happened in Acts chapter 10.  He had been asked a pressing question:  “Why did you go into the house of the uncircumcised and eat with them?"  Peter had just been to the house of Cornelius, who was not only a Gentile but also a Roman centurion, giving Peter at least 2 good reasons to not associate with him.  He explained his story.  He had been minding his own business (a time God likes to show up), and he saw this vision of animals on a sheet, animals that God had told Moses were “unclean” and should not be touched or eaten.  And Peter heard a voice saying, “Kill and eat.”  We non-Jewish readers don’t really understand the impact of this.  The voice told Peter to do something that was against scripture.  It says it in Leviticus 20:25 – “You must therefore make a distinction between clean and unclean animals and between unclean and clean birds. Do not defile yourselves by any animal or bird or anything that moves along the ground—those which I have set apart as unclean for you.”  And the voice says, “Do not call unclean what has been declared clean.”  As it turns out, God was trying to teach Peter about something much more important than food.  The servants of Cornelius – the servants of this Gentile who, in Jewish eyes, eats unclean food, does unclean things, and worships false gods (although the story tells us that Cornelius was a “God-fearer”) – have been sent for Him because God had also given Cornelius a vision of Peter coming to his house.  So Peter goes, stays in his house and eats in his house, which would have been very uncomfortable and he could have gotten a lot of grief for it.  (How often have you not done something because of what your friends at church might think?)  Peter goes, and brings the gospel…after going on his turf, going to his family, being in his house, sharing his life.  Right before this story, even, Peter had been staying at the house of Simon the tanner.  Tanners worked with dead animal carcasses, which was also something very unclean for Jews to do.

Who is too dirty for the gospel?  You see, the book of Acts is of course about the early church.  But there’s much more.  The book of Acts is about breaking boundaries.  The book of Acts is about God taking people to places that they previously thought no religious person should go; to do things that no religious person should do; to talk to people that no religious person should talk to.

But we can start before Acts.  Have you ever wondered why the religious leaders of Jesus’ day had such a problem with him?  Jesus was supposedly one of them…a Jew.  He was born as a Jew, circumcised as a Jew, went to the temple growing up, studied the scripture, came to the festivals, etc. etc.  Jesus did things that the religious people of his day deemed inappropriate for someone who is a “man of God.”  Think about the labels Jesus was given by the religious community…the “church” of his day.  1) Sinner  2) Drunkard  3) Glutton  4) Blasphemer  5) “Friend of sinners” - to name a few.  And how did Jesus respond?  There’s one particularly famous quote from Jesus that we all know pretty well but may not recognize the significance of.  He said, “It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick.  I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.”  Now, if we’re supposed to model Jesus, and Jesus was right that it’s not the healthy who need a doctor but the sick, does it ever make you wonder why Christians spend so much time with other Christians?  Now I’m obviously not diminishing the value of Christian fellowship and community…back in November we did an entire series on “Living in Community.”  But I’m not convinced that we don’t spend too much time sitting around in our Bible studies talking about how people need to be saved instead of finding ways to be out among the very people who need to hear the gospel.

But is there something that gets in our way?  Are there people who are just too “unclean” to go around?  Are there people who would ruin our reputation?  Are there people with whom we disagree, and so we opt to avoid their company?  How often are we tempted to look at certain people and whisper “sinner,” instead of developing the type of relationship with them that will allow them to see the presence of God in our lives?  Who is too dirty for the gospel?  What places are too “unclean” to be graced by the holy and righteous presence of us Christians?  I think I can honestly say that the number 1 reason that churches are ineffective at reaching the lost for Christ is because we think we’re better than everyone else.  Just listen.  Listen in on the way Christians talk about other human beings sometimes.  It’s disgusting.  There are certain things we do OK with, but there are also certain people, lifestyles, decisions that just make us put up our hands and yell “SINNAH!”  We’ve put up our barriers.  We effectively pin labels on our disagreeable opponents to disenfranchise them:  Liberal, conservative, homosexual, Jewish, criminal, prostitute, black, divorced…  One of the best definitions of evangelism I have ever heard is, Evangelism = One beggar telling another beggar where you found food.  That is who we are.  And beggars don’t discriminate.  If we feel that there are some people that we can’t be around because of our faith, then we are missing the boat.

If we’re really going to follow Jesus, we have to be willing to not only be around people that we might be uncomfortable with, but like Jesus, we have to be willing to get into the thick of their lives.  Listen to them.  Learn about them.  Love them – the same way we love each other here in church.  There is a certain girl named Angela.  Angela was an exotic dancer who worked in a gentleman’s club for 7 years.  She was a stripper – she was a person that Christians consider “unclean” and avoid; and she worked among people that Christians steer clear of.  But she was seeking.  This is part of her story.

Both Angela and Rachel were eventually faced with a dilemma.  If we’re Christians, is it acceptable for us to work in such a sinful place?  Both Angela and Rachel decided to keep their respective jobs at the strip clubs (not as dancers but as staff backstage who work with dancers), because that’s where they can be in contact with people who need Jesus.  And they have taken a lot of criticism from Christians for doing it.  But let me ask you this.  Who else is taking the gospel to these girls?  Not me.  Not Matt.  You guys would fire us if you found us in strip clubs.  And so would our wives.  Rachel and Angela took the apostle Paul seriously when he asked, “How can they believe in the one of whom they have not heard?” Romans 10:14.   And you know the most important part of their story is not that they were there, but what they did there.  Did you hear what Rachel said?  She gets into the thick of these girls’ lives.  She laughs with them, she cries with them, she goes to their baby showers.  Rachel had to come to a place where she saw these people as people and nothing more.  No labels, no condemnation.  Just one beggar telling another beggar where to find food.

And I have a confession to make.  Those girls taught me something.  They are better than me.  They are closer to the heart of Christ than I often am.  Because I still struggle to put the labels down.  I still struggle with seeing people just for who they are, not what they do.

2000 years ago, Jesus – and his disciples after him in Acts – gave us an example of how to do ministry…how to reach the world for Christ.  Somehow, we still miss it many times.  We have to put down the labels.  We have to stop curling our lip at certain people who we find despicable and see them as God’s children.  We have to realize that we are not cleaner or better…we have to stop seeing other sins as worse than our own… we have to put down the megaphone and open our ears…we have to open our hearts and lives to those who are just as valuable to God as we are.

The Church on the Move.  The last thing Christians are supposed to do is stay safe inside the church building.  God has called us out, to GO TO those who need the message of hope that Christ offers.  Why?  Because they’re not coming to us.  Church, we have to GO.  You never know.  We may find that other people are closer to the heart of Christ than we thought.  We may find that other people are closer to the heart of Christ period.