Acts 10:1-48
This week our children are learning about the love of God for all people and Peter’s vision before being called to preach to the gentiles. Throughout the Old Testament and through much of the New Testament, God spoke to and through the descendants of Abraham, Issac, and Jacob. Going all the way back to Genesis, God promised that he would bless this particular family and make them into a great nation. He also promised to bless the entire world by this one family. Through the rest of the story of Israel, we see God’s plan to redeem the world from sin and death through the people of Israel. This plan was finally fulfilled by Jesus. The trouble was that Abraham’s descendants had forgotten the second part of God’s promise about the whole world. They, like all people, liked to think of being the special people of God who were specially chosen and loved unlike anyone else in the world. But they forgot that they were chosen to bring that love to the rest of the world. Peter struggled with this belief even after following Jesus. He believed that he was still supposed to be separate from the rest of the world. He thought that was what made him special. But God was going to teach him a new way to see the world; to see it the way God saw it. Here are some questions and themes to help you with your Bible discussions this week.
- Cornelius is an interesting person. He is a powerful military leader, he is Roman, but he is devoted to the one true God. From an outside perspective he would seem to be an enemy of God’s people, but in his heart he loves the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. What does God tell Cornelius in his vision to do? Who is God going to send to help Cornelius?
- Peter has no idea what is about to happen. He is a devout Jew and knows the things God has commanded his people not to eat. He has been taught his entire life what animals are clean and what animals are unclean. So when he sees a great sheet full of animals he has been taught are unclean and asked to eat them, he knows the right answer; at least he thinks he knows the right answer. But what is God’s response to Peter’s answer? Does God agree with what Peter has said about clean and unclean things?
- While the vision is about animals to eat, God is really making a point that is really about people. Just moments after this vision, Peter will be asked to go to the house of gentiles and share the good news of Jesus with them. Peter may have second thoughts about going to the house of a gentile, especially a Roman, but God is teaching him that he loves all people no matter where they are from.
Compassion: I feel bad when my friends feel bad and want them to feel better.
Memory Verse: We love because he first loved us.
1 John 4:19
