Source/Author: Dr Michael Dalseno

These famous words of Peter in Acts Ch.11 still resonate today as the Lord challenges us to put aside our prejudices and misconceptions and move ahead on evangelism and missions.

“Who was I to stand in God’s way?” (Acts 11.17)

By Dr  D

Our Missions’ effectiveness is often determined by how well we can adjust to the thinking of other cultures, to other paradigms of ministry, and to the very different contexts within which they operate.

Although we must never compromise God’s Biblical mandates, their application may vary from one people group, or from one sub-culture, to another. Sub-cultures, with their inherent values, beliefs, codes, mores, expectations, acceptable behaviour, etc, exist all around us – in workplaces, schools, businesses, hospitals, media outlets, shopping centres, malls, townships, and even the local golf club. But it can take some major shifting on our part to free ourselves from the preconceptions, predispositions and prejudices that frequently plague us from getting a toehold into a people group that is even marginally different from our own.

There is perhaps no better illustration of all this than the episode of Peter and Cornelius in Acts Ch’s 10 to 11. For a Book that primarily dwells on Paul’s three missionary journeys (Ch’s 13 to 28), it is certainly no accident that the details associated with these journeys be preceded by this episode and the relatively weighty two chapters devoted to it.

Sometimes we don’t quite know what is in our heart until some situation draws it out. No doubt Peter thought he was right on track and doing a pretty good job, but little did he realize some of the hang-ups he had and the hindrance he actually was to the expansion of the early church. Though only thinking about his next meal (Acts 10.10), the Lord was thinking about what to do with this guy. He chose to put Peter into a trance, and what Peter subsequently experienced changed his life.

Of course, there was no way at first that this “pure-and-cultured” Jew was going to “kill and eat” all that “unclean food” coming down before him (10.14). Until, at least, the Lord showed him that this was exactly his attitude when it came to mixing with those “unclean” gentiles. Only then did Peter accompany Cornelius, the Roman centurion sent to him by God, to his house, give the gospel message, and experience the entire house of Cornelius getting saved, filled with the spirit, and baptized.

The Lord got through to Peter, but now he had a lot of explaining to do – the subject of Chapter 11. Others “took issue with him” (11.2), but they soon got the point after Peter explained, ad-infinitum, concluding, “who was I to stand in God’s way?”

All this is a timely reminder, given our missions awareness, that we too sometimes need to take stock, examine ourselves, and allow the Lord to free us of some of our own biases and prejudices when it comes to reaching out to strange and “unclean” people groups and sub-cultures.