Acts 10:9-15
9 The next day, as they were traveling and nearing the city, Peter went up to pray on the roof about noon.[a] 10 He became hungry and wanted to eat, but while they were preparing something, he fell into a trance. 11 He saw heaven opened and an object that resembled a large sheet coming down, being lowered by its four corners to the earth. 12 In it were all the four-footed animals and reptiles of the earth, and the birds of the sky. 13 A voice said to him, “Get up, Peter; kill and eat.”
14 “No, Lord!” Peter said. “For I have never eaten anything impure and ritually unclean.”
15 Again, a second time, the voice said to him, “What God has made clean, do not call impure.” 16 This happened three times, and suddenly the object was taken up into heaven.
Peter grew up a devote Jew, carefully following every law that was instructed. When Jesus called Peter to follow him, his world was turned upside down. Suddenly, all the people who he once looked up to and viewed as righteous, were testing and trying to kill his Teacher. Along with all this excitement, Jesus was teaching his disciples a way to live and a new covenant, a covenant that, to quote Hebrews 8:13 "made the old covenant obsolete". Jesus publicly did some pretty unfathomable things in his life. One example being, he not only tolerated Zaccheus, a despised and sinful tax collector, but proclaimed publicly that of all the people there in Jericho who wanted to see him, he wanted to eat with Zaccheus in his house. Despite this, and many other examples Jesus acted on in his life, Peter missed the point Jesus was trying to make. But it was a very important point God didn't want to be forgotten, so He came down to Peter and let him know. But like any good teacher, God didn't just tell Peter the answer, but with a little Heavenly instruction, had him figure it out with the help of the Holy Spirit. I love this verse, "What God has made clean, do not call impure."
"What God has made clean, do not call impure."
That is an important message that especially Christians need to hear. Too many times church members, just like Peter and the other Jews, think themselves too righteous to eat with sinners. We often forget that we are sinners too. A sermon my pastor preached recently was such a bold and wonderful act of humility. She said, "My name is **** and I am a sinner. And God says, 'Your name is **** and you are redeemed" That was so powerful and humble and beautiful to see someone of such relligous and spiritual greatness speak publicly to the world that, just like us she is a sinner. Remember the story of the pharisee and the tax collector. Check this parable out here. We must remember to humble ourselves before the Lord because, compared to Jesus, well, I really don't want to compare myself to Jesus. If I did I would come out of that train of thought feeling like a load of crap. Thank goodness that since Jesus died for me, and you and all of us impure people, God won't compare us to Jesus either.
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