There are some people you just don\u2019t say \u201cNo\u201d to.  People of power and influence; people whose very voice carries the weight of authority imbued with a tone that bespeaks consequences and retribution; people who have the power to bend you to their will; people who are an immutable force of nature, and who can bring you to your knees with just a withering look, reducing you to a whimpering fool.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But enough about your mother-in-law.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Great leaders usually have people around them who have the courage to say \u201cNo,\u201d because the great ones know that it\u2019s not a good policy to be surrounded by sycophants. But what if you were working for the late Steve Jobs? He thought that being tough was the only way to keep Apple from suffering what he called a \u201cbozo explosion,\u201d meaning that if he tolerated mediocre people, \u201cthey would hire others like themselves, and soon there would be a company filled with employees who weren\u2019t very good.\u201d If Jobs asked you for a favor, could you say \u201cNo\u201d?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

How about other people of influence and power? Go back a couple of decades to when Ted Turner and Rupert Murdoch were churning up the waters of telecommunications and other forms of media. You might not remember Turner, but from 1970-2000, he was big stuff.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sometimes called \u201cthe Mouth of the South,\u201d Turner was frequently controversial. But he was also an entrepreneur, television producer, media proprietor and philanthropist. He founded the Cable News Network (CNN) and donated a $1 billion gift to support the United Nations. He once owned more land in the United States than any other private individual. He founded the Goodwill Games. He maintains the world\u2019s largest bison herd on his Montana ranch. When Murdoch\u2019s sailing vessel once rammed Turner\u2019s in a yacht race, Turner (also known as Captain Outrageous) challenged him to a fist fight. (It never happened.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Turner\u2019s mantra was the same one I was taught back in my Army ROTC days: \u201cLead, follow, or get out the hell of the way.\u201d Say what you want, but he was, and probably still is, a hard person to say \u201cNo\u201d to.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

These examples explain why it\u2019s astonishing to read in today\u2019s Lesson from Acts that the apostle Peter had the temerity, the chutzpah, the courage to say \u201cNo\u201d to God.  And he did it not once, but three times!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To be fair, Peter didn\u2019t resist God in a conscious<\/em> state; he was deep in REM sleep, and it was in a dream that he said \u201cNo\u201d to God three times. In the vision, it goes down this way:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While in Joppa, Peter was praying and slipped into a \u201ctrance [and] saw a vision.\u201d A ginormous tablecloth came floating and twirling down from heaven, and before him were some entrees prepared for his consumption, things like \u201cfour-footed animals, beasts of prey, reptiles, and birds of the air\u201d (v. 6). He then heard a \u201cvoice,\u201d and we have no reason to assume it was not a divine voice. He was told to \u201cget up \u2026 kill and eat.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But Peter offered his first objection: \u201cBy no means, Lord; for nothing profane or unclean has ever entered my mouth.\u201d This happened three times.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We can assume that he was mystified by what he\u2019d seen in his vision. After all, what he saw and was told to do went against his upbringing and education in Sabbath school, against everything he was as an observant Jew, and against the teaching of the rabbis and counsel of family members. Were he to act on what he\u2019d seen in this vision, his ancestors would be rolling in their tombs. It was unthinkable<\/em> that Peter would eat this stuff and defile himself in this way. He was a Jew. So no lobster tail, crabcakes, shrimp cocktail, or pork chops for Peter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It wasn\u2019t until later, when he was in a conscious state, that the meaning of this vision came into focus. The process began when three Gentiles, men from the north, arrived and invited him to go to a house in Caesarea.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

You can imagine the scene. Some well-dressed men arrive at 31 Falafel Street, jump out of a very fine chariot and \u201cinvite\u201d Peter to get in. Their boss wants a word.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWho\u2019s your boss?\u201d Peter asks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cCornelius.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWho\u2019s Cornelius?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAn officer in the army of Imperial Rome. Enough with the questions!\u201d (See Acts 10.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Peter is worried, of course, but then decides, \u201cOkay, who am I to resist these guys?\u201d He gets into the chariot.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

They arrive in Caesarea. Peter meets his host there. And he gets the surprise of his life. Cornelius explains that an angel told him that Peter would give him \u201ca message by which [he] and [his] entire household will be saved\u201d (v. 14).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This is when it began to dawn on Peter (whose ministry had been and would always be primarily to the Jewish community) that God was doing something incredibly new. He began to understand that God had blown away the old categories, paradigms that no longer applied and stale structures that no longer served the purposes of God.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So, naturally, he said, \u201cWho was I that I could hinder God?\u201d (v. 17).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Have we ever said \u201cNo\u201d to God? Are we still saying \u201cNo\u201d to God?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Perhaps we have a problem with saying \u201cYes\u201d to God because we\u2019re used to adding a qualifier. \u201cYes\u201d is a simple, monosyllabic word, but our complex human nature wants to respond with two words<\/em>: \u201cYes, but \u2026\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We get cases of \u201cYes, but \u2026\u201d all the time in normal life:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

• \u201cYes, but just give me a second.\u201d<\/li>
• \u201cYes, but we\u2019ve never done it this way before.\u201d<\/li>
• \u201cYes, but I\u2019m going to need more money.\u201d<\/li>
• \u201cYes, but I\u2019m going to need more time.\u201d<\/li>
• \u201cYes, but I\u2019m going to need more help.\u201d<\/li>
• \u201cYes, but this is not my thing.\u201d<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n

  Fortunately, Peter did not come down with a case of \u201cYes, but \u2026.\u201d He understood that it was best not to hinder God. He was sharing the gospel with Cornelius, the Roman soldier, and as events began to unfold, he realized that God was with them. The \u201cHoly Spirit fell upon them just as it had\u201d fallen on the original apostles in the upper room on the day of Pentecost (v. 15). Peter recalled what Jesus had said to them about this. And then he reasoned that if Cornelius and his family received the same \u201cgift\u201d of the Spirit as he and the other apostles had received, \u201cWho was I that I could hinder God?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

  About what should we not hinder God?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

  It could be that God wants us to remember that God is a God of new things. Gracie Allen of the old comedy duo, Burns and Allen, put it this way: \u201cDon\u2019t put a period where God has placed a comma.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

  There\u2019s a lot of chatter these days about who is clean and who is unclean, about who is right and who is wrong, about right choices and wrong choices. This story about Peter changing his mind can teach us a lot, especially that it is okay to change one\u2019s mind, opinion or point of view.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

  Today\u2019s lesson has a curious observation near the end. Peter finishes explaining to the leaders of the nascent Christian community in Jerusalem how and why the good news has been delivered to the Gentiles. Immediately after that he utters the words, \u201cWho was I that I could hinder God?\u201d The text goes on to say that \u201cWhen they heard these things, they fell silent\u201d (v. 18, ESV).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

  This is precisely the opposite of what is going on today. We\u2019re many things, but one of them is that we\u2019re not silent. We are too busy shouting, condemning, and being unloving and unkind than thoughtfully wondering if there might be more going on here than we realize.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

  We will antagonize, stigmatize, and ostracize, but we will not apologize, harmonize or even socialize with those who may be leading us into new territory.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

  These old saints, however, were silent. Imagine that! Some translations say that they stopped arguing \u2026 but then began to clap!<\/em> They broke into applause, saying, \u201cOkay then, God has given the good news to the Gentiles \u2026\u201d Remember this: Until your knees finally hit the floor, you\u2019re just playing at life, and on some level you\u2019re scared because you know you\u2019re just playing. The moment of surrender is not when life is over<\/em>. It\u2019s when life begins<\/em>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

  There are some people you just don\u2019t say \u201cNo\u201d to.  People of power and influence; people whose very voice carries the weight of authority imbued with a tone that bespeaks consequences and retribution; people who have the power to bend you to their will; people who are an immutable force of nature, and who can […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"pgc_sgb_lightbox_settings":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7164","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sermons"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n