From Good to Grace - Landon Lacy

Well, my last year of college, I, like many of you, wasn't quite sure what I was gonna do with my life after graduation. Well, actually, probably not like many of you, this is DC, you probably knew what you were gonna do when you were like 14. I did not quite know what I was gonna do in my last year of college, and I studied business, was gonna graduate in May in the business school, but didn't really think that that was for me and those opportunities and ministry started kind of becoming this thing, but I didn't know what it meant, should I go work for a church, should I not, what does it even mean to work for a church? Like, I was like, I don't know, I've like, I've never really wanted to do that up until this point, but now I was like feeling like maybe I should explore that, so I just, asking God, praying a lot, and in that time, I served at a campus ministry that would host these Bible studies at night, and one night, we're outside after the campus ministry, and this other student, this other guy, who's not a part of the ministry, was just walking by, he comes up and he gets in a conversation with me about who we are and what we're doing and why, and I'm like, we're Christians, and we put on these worship nights for Jesus and all these things, and it turns out, he had moved recently from the Middle East and was a Muslim and was studying at the same school as me,

and he had a lot of questions about what we were doing, and there were a lot of those questions you would kind of expect from someone who grew up Muslim, things about the Trinity versus the unity of God, things about the virgin birth of Jesus, like these very technical questions, and it's like 11.30 p.m., like the time in college when you just start studying, right, you know, it's just like, this is not a good time to talk about this, and it was kind of like going back and forth. We weren't really getting anywhere, and I was just like, hey, man, it's getting late. Like, what if we exchange numbers and let's go get lunch this week, and let's just like give it some space and come together and like talk about, over a longer period of time, these questions you have, and he agreed, and we went our separate ways, and the next week, I took him to this spot on campus that served like triple-decker burgers with like bacon and all this stuff because it was like the Aggie burger. It was like the thing to eat, and at my school, it was like, let's do it. You know, we gotta introduce you to this crazy burger covered in syrup. You know, he probably appreciated that. So we sat down, and I was just like, all right, like, you know, what are your questions?

You know, like, I'm ready. Like, I'd kind of done some prep. I'd done some reading of just like, how do I answer these technical questions? Where do I go? How do I defend my faith? And he sat down, and he just shocked me because he just said, will you tell me about Jesus? And I was like, you sure you don't want to talk about the Trinity? Like, the incarnate word of God? You know, and he's, no, will you just tell me about Jesus, which was like so weird. Like, if you've ever interacted with Muslims talking about faith, you know that that's like not really where they want to go. So it was like, okay. I was like, what do you want to know? What do you say? Just anything, just help me understand them. So I was like, well, what if we pull out my Bible and would you want to read some things about Jesus in the Bible? Because I'm just like, he seems pretty open to this. So he's like, okay, let's do it. So open the Bible, we're reading John three, take them to Romans, take them to Ephesians two. And we're reading these things about the gospel of Jesus Christ. And as we're reading Ephesians two,

talking about the separation we have from God because of our sin, he just starts to cry. And he's like, man, that's me. And then we get to, but God, being rich in mercy, by his grace, we are saved through Jesus Christ. And he's like, I want that. I want this life that Ephesians two is talking about. And I'm like, oh my God, this is crazy. Like, this is the biggest layup in the history of evangelism. Like, this is awesome. And I'm like, just don't, you know, miss it. So I'm like, all right, like, cool. Like, hey, like, let's pray together or whatever. And I just remember asking him like, man, what changed? Like the other night, he was very kind of antagonistic to the gospel and to Jesus, had a lot of questions. And then he just came in so open to receive. And I'm like, dude, what happened? And he goes, man, that night I went home and I just prayed to God, will you show me the truth? And he said, I fell asleep and I had a dream about Jesus. And I'm like a pretty skeptical person, like a Westerner or whatever. And it was just like, a dream? All right, it was like tested against the scripture. I'm like, all right, like, what was in the dream? Like, tell me about your dream, you know? And he's like, man, like, I have this dream and it was Jesus.

And so, you know, like, I just knew it was Jesus. And he said to me, Raymond, come follow me. And I was like, that's a thing Jesus says to people in the Bible. And he said, and I told him like, I want to, but if I do, I'll never get to go back home and see my family again. Like, I won't be put. And he said, Raymond, follow me and I'll protect you. And I was like, man, I think that was Jesus. Like, that's kind of what Jesus says, you know? And we went and looked at some stories and calling disciples, things like that. And it was this awesome moment where I got to just be a part of what God was doing in this guy's life. And then for the weeks that followed, the rest of the semester, we would meet every week, we'd study the Bible together. And he just wanted to learn things. We just walked through passages of the Bible. And I never told him I was interested in ministry. Like, I was just like, I'm a business guy. I'm going to graduate and go into business. But he would just call me. Call me pastor. And I was like, I'm not a pastor, I'm not a pastor. He's like, you're gonna be a pastor. And I was like, I'm not a pastor. Like, that's not, no, like I'm in business school, I'm gonna go to business.

And he was like, no, no, no, you're good at this. You're supposed to do this. You're gonna be a pastor. And it was so crazy because in my silent prayers with God, in my journals that no one else saw, I was praying and processing God, like what am I supposed to do? And I'm getting these opportunities in ministry and I don't know if I'm supposed to take them. And then God sends this Middle Eastern Muslim to come into my life to show me the answer to those prayers. And I share that story with you because it was this amazing moment where God took two people, me, this West Texas, raised a Christian kid, and Raymond, this Middle Eastern, raised a Muslim guy, and he divinely orchestrated our stories to come together in this moment to do two things. One, to bring salvation to Raymond's life. And that was incredible just to be invited into that. But then two, he also used Raymond to speak things into my life that I needed to hear. And it was all the orchestration from God. It was one of my favorite stories of my life. And I share that with you because today in Acts chapter 10, we're watching that play out, that God is gonna take these two very different men from two very different places in two very different spiritual states. And he's gonna pull some strings and move some needles

and divine orchestration is gonna bring these two very different men together. And he's gonna use them to both save and sanctify these men. So with Peter, he's gonna bring Peter into Cornelius' story so that Peter can be a part of helping Cornelius enter into salvation in Jesus Christ. But God's gonna use Cornelius on the back end in order to reveal some sin in Peter's heart that has gotten lodged in there that needs to be dealt with. So in Acts 10, we're gonna watch God's mission to both save and sanctify those both near to him and those far from him. So we're gonna start by looking at Cornelius in verse one. So you can look at chapter 10, verse one with me. It says, at Caesarea, there was a man named Cornelius, and he was a centurion of what was known as the Italian cohort, a devout man who feared God with all his household, gave alms generously to the people and prayed continually to God. About the ninth hour of the day, he saw clearly in a vision an angel of God come in and say to him, Cornelius. And he stared at him in terror and said, what is it, Lord? And he said to him, your prayers and your alms have ascended as a memorial before God. And now send men to Joppa and bring one Simon who is called Peter.

He is lodging with one Simon, a Tanner, whose house is by the sea. When the angel who spoke to him had departed, he called two of his servants and a devout soldier from among those who attended him. Having related everything to them, he sent them to Joppa. So in here, we learn two very important things about Cornelius, our first character we're introduced to. The first thing is that he's a Gentile. He's a non-Jew. He's a Roman soldier. And the second thing is that Cornelius is a pretty good guy. Like he's a good guy who seeks God. Verse one says he's a devout man who feared God. He gave generously to the Jewish causes and he prayed continually. And then in verse 22, it describes him as an upright and God-fearing man who is well-spoken of by the whole Jewish nation. Like Cornelius is a good dude. He's got a high character, he's got a good reputation, and it's genuine, it's real. As a centurion, he would have been in charge of 80 to 100 soldiers. So he's in leadership over a large group of men. And those soldiers weren't just there in Caesarea to like guard things and fight. They were there, they would use those units to also help build things in the cities and like fix up the roads and do different work like that.

So he is a leader in the city that is mostly Gentile and has a small population of Jews, but he's leveraging his leadership to serve the minority Jewish people in the city. So this is like a good guy. Like he's kind of a philanthropist. Like if this dude was in DC, you'd have this like military guy of high quality, high character, who's a good guy, and he uses his position to serve those who are suffering. We would all be like, this is like a outright good, genuine person. Cornelius is a good person doing good things, but he's missing something. His goodness is only getting him so far with God. Something is missing that's keeping him from being in a relationship with God, from being saved. So in this story, Cornelius represents for us the good person, genuinely good person, who doesn't know Jesus. And we ask the question, what does God do with someone like that? Like, is it enough to just be a good person and you'll go to heaven? Like, that's good, that's enough. Or do people really need to believe in Jesus Christ to be saved? Like, will good people who don't believe in Jesus go to heaven? The story of Acts 10 addresses this question

by looking at Cornelius, and it reveals to us that our goodness is not enough to get us to God. That good deeds cannot overcome the penalty for sin. Is your goodness enough to forgive your sins? That's the question. When I talk to our students about this, I use this illustration. Driving in D.C., you don't have to live here long to know that driving in D.C. is chaotic. I consider myself a very good driver in comparison to the rest of D.C., and that's a very low bar. I do an illegal U-turn, for sure, but it's like, that's the least of their worries, you know? You're like, they're not coming after me for that. So I talk about, I've earned, like, deserved them a number of tickets in D.C., mostly parking, but a few speeding, which, the cameras, I mean, we don't have to talk about it, but that's just not fair, like, not fair. You just like, get it in the mail, and you're like, I don't even remember where I was on that day, like, you know. But I tell the students, I say, okay, like, let's imagine D.C. doesn't have speed cameras, let's imagine they have real police that pull you over, and imagine I get pulled over for speeding, and that officer comes up to my window, and what does he say?

You know how fast you were going? And what do I say? No. He says, you were going 12 over, and I have to write you a speeding ticket. And I said, what if I looked at him, and I said, but officer, what about all the good driving I've done up until this moment? Can't that just pay for this ticket? What would he say? If it was like, I've driven 99% of the time, I drive really, really good, I drive the speed limit, I follow the signs, what would the officer say? I got you going 12 over. I don't care about the other times. In this instance, you fell short, so you have to pay the penalty. My good driving isn't a currency that pays that penalty. Cornelius is a good driver. Like when it comes to life, he's a man of high character. He gives generously, he prays constantly, he has a good reputation in his community, he has a solid record, and yet he has a gap between him and God. He has fallen short of God's glory, and his goodness cannot pay the penalty. But God is gonna make moves in this story to reveal to Cornelius how to be forgiven, how to close the gap. And just like Cornelius, our desire to be a good person

is sufficient to reveal to us that there is such a thing as God. But it is insufficient to bring us into God's presence. There is a gap that exists between us and God, and no amount of goodness can close it. Because when it comes to knowing God and being in his presence, the issue is not how good of a person you can be, the issue is what you do with the sin that separates you from God. And so many of us are trying to overcome our shortcomings with good deeds. But that's like me trying to pay a parking ticket with Delta Sky Miles. Delta Sky Miles are good, not the proper currency to close the gap and pay the penalty. Good deeds may be acceptable to God, but they do not give us access to God's presence. It is not goodness, but holiness that gives us access to God. There's a difference between goodness and holiness. God is a holy God. And if you're going to be with them, then you must also become holy. But no amount of good deeds can make you holy. That's not how you get to holiness. It's not how it works. Holiness is something that only God can give. And to give it, he has to first cleanse us of our sin. So Cornelius is a good man, but he's missing something.

And God is going to use Peter to bring that saving something into his life. So let's move to our second character in verse nine, Peter. So we're gonna read a bigger chunk of scripture here, starting in verse nine. So follow with me. This is Peter. It says, the next day, as Cornelius' men were on their journey and approaching the city, Peter went up on the housetop about the sixth hour to pray and he became hungry and he wanted something to eat. But while they were preparing it, he fell into a trance and saw the heavens opened and something like a great sheet descending, being let down by its four corners upon the earth. In it were all kinds of animals and reptiles and birds of the air. And there came a voice to him saying, rise. Peter, kill and eat. But Peter said, by no means, Lord, for I have never eaten anything that is common or unclean. And the voice came to him again a second time, what God has made clean, do not call common. And this happened three times, and the thing was taken up at once to heaven. Now while Peter was inwardly perplexed as to what the vision that he had seen might mean, behold, the men who were sent by Cornelius, having made an inquiry for Simon's house, stood at the gate, and calling out

to ask whether Simon, who was called Peter, was lodging there. And while Peter was pondering the vision, the spirit said to him, behold, three men are looking for you. Rise and go down and accompany them without hesitation, for I have sent them. And Peter went down to the men and said, I'm the one you were looking for. What is the reason for your coming? And they said, Cornelius, a centurion, an upright and God-fearing man, who is well-spoken of by the whole Jewish nation, was directed by a holy angel to send for you to come to his house and to hear what you have to say. So he invited them in to be his guests, and the next day he rose and went away with them. Some of the brothers from Joppa accompanied him, and on the following day, they entered Caesarea, and Cornelius was expecting them. And I love this. He was expecting them and had called together his relatives and close friends. And when Peter entered, Cornelius met him and fell down at his feet and worshiped him. But Peter lifted him up, saying, stand up, I too am a man. And as he talked with him, he went in and found many persons gathered. And he said to them, you yourselves know

how unlawful it is for a Jew to associate with or to visit anyone of another nation. But God has shown me that I should not call any person common or unclean. So when I was sent for, I came without objection. I ask then, why you sent for me? Peter is trying to pray, but he's really hungry, and he does the most male thing ever. He starts dreaming about bacon. And as he's having this barbecue dream, it quickly becomes a nightmare, because he realizes that he's a Jew. And according to Old Testament law, pork is unclean, off limits. Like, there's all these animals being descended in this sheet, and these are unclean, I can't eat them. But God tells him, rise, kill, and eat. And then Peter delivers this classic line. No, Lord. That's like your mom telling you to take out the trash, and you say, no, mom. Parents, you know that the words no and mom do not go together. I think grammatically, they don't work in the English language. Like, that's not gonna end well for the kids. So Peter tells the Lord no, because that's a thing you can do, I guess. And God is patient with him, patient with him,

and says, hey, what God has made clean, do not call common. And then he does the whole vision two more times, just to really lock it in, because it's something with Peter, it's like it takes three times to really get him to understand what's going on. And this whole vision, it confuses Peter. It says he's inwardly perplexed, which is the phrase he's at a loss, that he's seeing this happening. He's like, this is from a kid. I was raised not to eat unclean animals, or participate in meals like that. So he's at a loss, he's perplexed, he's confused. We, I would assume, most of us in the room are also very confused by the unclean, clean animal thing. You're like, what is the Bible doing? Bible's weird, why is it being weird? So to explain it, you have to understand the food laws in the Old Testament of Leviticus. And I don't wanna try to teach all of Leviticus to you guys, but I do think if we can just kinda like, put our thinking caps on together, and just kinda like get nerdy. It's like, I think for a minute here, we can try to understand these unclean laws. Y'all down, give it a shot. So I've got three volunteers that are gonna come up. Three door holders.

Guys, y'all can come up. They are gonna represent, yeah, give them a hand. Thanks, fellas. They are gonna represent, y'all can come a little closer to me. They're gonna represent our three divisions in the Old Testament law. Holy, clean, and unclean. Maybe you've kinda heard those three terms, holy, clean, and unclean. So they're each gonna be one. So does anyone wanna be holy? Does anybody wanna be holy? Rachel? You wanna be holy? All right, here you go. Go ahead and put that on. So you'll be holy. You're unclean, Brian, I'm sorry. And Sam, you can be clean. So if y'all can actually flip spots. Maybe just come, maybe put like a foot between each of y'all. Put your name tags on. So we've got holiness, we've got clean, and we've got unclean. So we're gonna try to understand these three divisions in the Old Testament law. So first, you have to understand that God is holy. So to be holy is to be in the presence of God.

So holy. Holiness is where God's presence is. If you move this way, so these are divisions, they're stark divisions between holiness and clean and between clean and unclean, but you can move between the divisions. So if you go this way, typically things like sin move you out of holiness and into the unclean zone. But things like sacrifices move you out of the unclean into the holy. You see it, kind of how the Old Testament laws working the sacrificial system. So sin moves you away from holiness and God's presence. Sacrifice, the blood of a sacrifice moves you towards God in his presence. So the way to go, if you are unclean, the way to go from unclean to clean is through a sacrifice. Sacrifice of blood washes you clean. The way to go from clean, once you're clean, you now have the opportunity to become holy. The way to become holy is through something the Old Testament would call consecration. Maybe you've heard that word, to be consecrated to God. Consecration, it just means to be set apart for God's purpose, to be God's possession, to be consecrated. You can't go from unclean to being consecrated to holy. You have to first be cleansed to then be consecrated by God's presence. So in the Old Testament, they would do something

called anointing. Maybe you've heard like they would consecrate somebody to God and they would anoint his head with oil. And what that was was that they would take this physical thing, oil, and they would pour it over somebody's head as a sign of God's spirit, his Holy Spirit anointing that person for his purpose. So a visible sign that this person is being consecrated to God for his purposes. So that is unclean, clean, holy. It's important to note, holy and unclean are contagious. Sorry, guys. So if you touch them, you get it. If you touch unclean, you become unclean. If holiness grabs you, you become holy. Clean is not contagious. Congratulations, you passed your exam. You're not contagious, clean is good. But what happened in the garden, you remember the story in the beginning, Adam and Eve were dwelling in God's presence. Adam and Eve were dwelling in the garden in God's presence in holiness, but they sinned against God and that caused a separation between them and God. They became unclean. Unclean and holy can't interact. They can't touch each other. Because it's not that if unclean touches holy, then oh my gosh, now holy is gonna like get polluted. No, no, no.

If unclean touches holy, unclean gets destroyed. So in the garden, it is God's punishment to separate Adam and Eve from his holy presence when they sin, it is. But it's also his protection. That he's actually protecting them by removing them from the garden because if they stay, they're gonna die. They're gonna be destroyed. So he has to let them go. So through the first Adam comes sin that leads to uncleanliness. And God says, I have to reverse the curse. So through the second Adam, Christ will come sacrifice that will bring you back into God's holiness. Do you see it? Do you see how the laws kind of work? Does that make a little bit of sense? So here's where Israel comes into play. All the nations separated from God because of sin are unclean. Nothing special about Israel. God chooses Israel out of the nations for his own purpose, takes them out as unclean, cleanses them by the blood of the Passover lamb in their exodus from Egypt, washes them through the waters that they passed through in the Red Sea and brings them into a covenant at Mount Sinai. So God takes Israel out of the nations

and makes them clean through the blood of the Passover lamb. And now Israel is meant to be this mediator between a holy God and the unclean nations. And then Israel, if you're an Israelite, you can become unclean, but you can also become holy. But your normal state is clean unless you like touch a dead animal is one of the laws in Leviticus. It's like you touch a dead animal, you're unclean, and now you gotta like go through some process. Like your cow died, you had to move it off your land, bummer, now you gotta go through some sacrifices to get clean again. Also moral sin, you could commit an immorality that would make you unclean, now you have to go through some sacrifices to become clean again. But also things like the food laws, certain animals that you can't or can eat. And if you eat one of those animals or touch one of the, if it's dead, you touch one of those animals, you become unclean and you would have to be washed, perform sacrifices to become clean again. If you're one of the. Nations, you're unclean. That's your state, far from God. So what you have to do is you first have to become clean by entering into Israel's covenant with God, by becoming circumcised,

by participating in the sacrifices, participating in the festivals. You have to enter into the covenant agreement and basically become an Israelite to become clean if you want to know God. So that's the system at play with Israel. So the sacrificial system in the Old Testament becomes this Broadway stage for the whole world to see the drama of salvation unfolding in front of them. There's a holy God. We are an unclean people. There is a path to be clean and to become holy. So when they perform their rituals, they're meant to stand out as a nation separate from all the other nations so that they can perform this drama in front of the other nations so that they can see God is holy. You are not, but there's a way to know him. That's what they're doing. That's what's happening. So in our story, very important. Cornelius is a Gentile, so he is unclean. Peter is a Jew, so he is clean. God is holy. God wants to get Cornelius and make him holy. He wants to use Peter to do it. Peter doesn't want to touch unclean things. Peter doesn't want to associate with unclean. He's been raised since a kid.

You don't do that. So he sends this vision of the animals. Kill and eat. I can't. No, no, no, that's over. Don't call anything unclean that I have made clean. Do y'all see it? Y'all can go sit down. Thanks, guys. So God's goal is to get his people into his presence. And his presence is holiness. So how he does it is through this system. And God has a plan to get Cornelius into his presence, and he wants to use Peter to accomplish it. Unclean, clean food laws, the barbecue vision of Peter. There's a guy named Michael Morales who wrote a really good book called Who Shall Ascend the Mountain of the Lord about the book of Leviticus. And I'm gonna read a quote for us. It's a little long, but it's really helpful in understanding how the unclean, clean food laws created separations between Jews and Gentiles. So it says this. He says, just as God had separated Israel from among the peoples, so Israel was to distinguish between clean and unclean animals in relation to eating. Every meal served as a reminder of God's election of Israel out of the nations, but also of Israel's call to keep themselves separate

from the uncleanliness of those nations, for them to be a holy people. So the food laws became a sign of Israel's identity and calling, a wall of separation between Israel and the nations. Israel had been chosen of God and cleansed and so possessed with his dwelling in their midst, fullness of life. The Gentiles were still exiled from the divine presence, unclean, and in the realm of death. So Peter, because of these Old Testament laws and how he was raised, he has this personal prejudice against the Gentiles. He's just grown up looking down at them, people far from God who participate in wicked things. He grew up refusing to share meals with them. He wouldn't eat with them, just being cold towards these people. But God doesn't share this prejudice. God doesn't favor one ethnic group over another, one nation over another. God doesn't favor one gender over another, one tax bracket over another. In Galatians 3, 28, it says that in Christ, there is neither Jew nor Greek, neither slave nor free. There's neither male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. That Peter, through this vision that God sent him, realizes that God shows no favoritism.

That word favoritism, the partiality is the word he uses. It's a combination of two words, receive and face. So he's saying, God doesn't receive someone's face or turn away from someone's face based off their ethnic origin, based off their nationality, based off their gender, based off the color of their skin. God shows no favoritism to one group over the other based off these externals. God looks at the heart. So Cornelius the Gentile, Peter the Jew, formally separated, now in Christ can be one. So he's saying, God has a plan to bring about peace to all the nations. And he chose the people of Israel to reveal this plan. And out of them, he brought Jesus Christ, the Messiah, all sacrifice that washes away the sins of the world. to be the once and for all. So Jesus becomes the sacrificial lamb whose blood cleanses all the nations, not just the Jews, the Gentiles, everybody. And then he chooses Jesus's disciples to be his witness to the nations. So God's going to get Cornelius across the finish line. He's gonna close the gap, he's gonna pay the penalty that Cornelius owes. And as he's doing it, he's gonna break Peter's prejudice that he has towards people not like him. Two things happening in the same story, the salvation of Cornelius and the sanctification,

the conviction of Peter. So I'm gonna read this last passage of scripture where we're gonna see how God cleanses the nations. This is Peter's sermon I read earlier at the top, starts in verse 34. So Peter opened his mouth and said, truly I understand that God shows no partiality. But in every nation, anyone who fears him and does what is right is acceptable to him. As for the word that he sent to Israel, preaching good news of peace through Jesus Christ, he is Lord of all. You yourselves know what happened throughout all Judea, beginning from Galilee, after the baptism that John proclaimed. How God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and with power. And he went about doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil. And God was with him, and we are witnesses of all that he did, both in the country of the Jews and in Jerusalem. They put him to death by hanging him on a tree. But God raised him on the third day and made him to appear. Not to all the people, but to us who had been chosen by God as witnesses, who ate and drank with him after he rose from the dead. And he commanded us to preach to the people and to testify that he is the one appointed by God to be judge of the living and the dead.

The prophets bear witness that everyone who believes in him, not just the Jews, not just the Gentiles, not just the men, not just the women, not just the Americans, not just the Africans, not just the Europeans, not just the Asians, everyone, all people who believe in Jesus receive forgiveness of sins through his name. And while Peter was still saying these things, the Holy Spirit fell on all who heard the word and believers from among the circumcised who would come with Peter were amazed because the gift of the Holy Spirit was poured out even on the Gentiles. This was a good week for space travel, if you're into that. Lots of fun, my wife and I watched the like descent and it was so scary. I should trust them more, but I was just like, I don't wanna watch this, like please pull parachutes and they didn't, they made it and it was awesome and it was so cool. But I got some pictures, I was having a lot of fun looking through photos that they were taking up there in space and there's some photos of the moon that we have up here. I was shocked by how similar my styrofoam moon looked to the real moon that I made as a kid, the solar styrofoam solar system. I was like, it's actually uncanny. This was my favorite one that I found. If you go to NASA's website,

there's one of their astronauts, yeah. They're wearing the glasses that you like wear when we look at solar eclipses. I'm like, I believe we went to the moon in 1972. I've got some questions, but I believe we did it. But it's things like this that NASA does that I'm like, it's just not good PR. Like get Oakley to make you some frames, like make it look like you're in space, like make it look like it's hard to do, make it look like you didn't just take this picture like on earth, you know? So that one made me laugh. But then there's this beautiful photos of earth and as I was studying this passage and just looking at these pictures coming in of the earth from space, it was like, man, Jesus is Lord of all, that the gospel has been proclaimed to bring peace to all nations, all people from all places in all times. And when you see that photo from space, looking down at earth and you realize he is the way, he is the truth, he is the life, and no one comes to the father except for through him. And you go, God, I want the world to know him. Like God so loved the world, like my wife shared, that he sent his one and only son, that whoever from wherever, stuck in whatever, puts their faith in him will not perish,

but will have eternal life. Lord of all, the judge of the living and the dead, Jesus Christ, everyone who believes in his name will receive forgiveness of their sins. How does God cleanse the world? God's purpose is to make his people, to bring his people into his presence. How's he do it? First, he has to cleanse the unclean. He has to cleanse the unclean. And Peter shares about this in his message. So lastly, I'm just gonna share three points about how God cleanses the world and brings us into his presence. How does Cornelius go from unclean to holy? Because he's a good guy, but he's not in God's presence. How does he get there? Peter preaches not instructions on how he can pray differently, not instructions on where he should start giving his money, not instructions on some hidden lost art of good things that he's forgotten to do. Peter preaches a person, Jesus Christ. Cleansing comes through him. That's the first point. How do you be cleansed? Cleansing comes through Jesus Christ, the Lord of all, the one who really lived, the one who really was put to death on the cross, and the one who really rose from the dead

and appeared to so many and ate and drank with them, the real person, Jesus Christ. He is the sacrificial lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world. Cleansing comes through Jesus Christ. That's how you go from unclean to clean. My sins are forgiven. Cleansing comes at a cost. That's the second thing that we learn, that it is his sacrifice that takes away our sins. Someone has to pay the penalty to close the gap. Our goodness is not the proper currency to do it, but Jesus's righteous sacrifice is what closes the gap between our sin and God. So his cleansing comes at a cost. Cleansing comes through Jesus Christ. And then lastly, cleansing leads to consecration. Now, when you're in seminary, you take preaching classes. And one of the things I learned is that the best sermons don't need a conclusion. That's what they tell you. They say the sermons that are the best don't need a conclusion. Why? Because as the sermon builds and as the room feels it and buys in, people are just on the edge of their seats, just ready to go, ready to obey, ready to worship, ready to pray, ready to go to the nations and share the gospel,

ready to thank God for the salvation they have. As a good sermon builds, you don't need to conclude it because people are just saying, man, stop talking, we get it, we're ready, let's go. And in Peter's sermon, I love it, he doesn't even finish his sermon before the Holy Spirit falls. That it says that while Peter was still speaking, the Holy Spirit fell in the room. Like he gets interrupted from his message that he was speaking. Where does he get interrupted? At this point in his sermon. To him, all the prophets bear witness that everyone who believes in him receives forgiveness of sins through his name. Everyone, no matter who you are, where you've been, what family you come from, everyone receives forgiveness the same way. Everyone enters through the same door. Everyone's payment is paid by the same sacrifice. Jesus Christ, the Lamb of God, slain on the cross for you and for me, risen from the dead, that all who look on him and believe in him will be saved. And when that moment happens, when the unclean becomes clean through the cleansing of the blood of Jesus, God doesn't even wait for the sermon to end. He consecrates right there.

Drops the Holy Spirit, fills them with his presence. You're clean now, you're mine, and you get me. You get my presence to fill you and empower you all the days of your life. Being good just isn't good enough. We need forgiveness and we need to be cleansed. We need someone who can forgive our sins, close that gap between us and God and allow his presence to fill our lives through the Holy Spirit, to consecrate our hearts to him fully. We need Jesus. The goal of God is his people and his presence filled with his Holy Spirit. Let's pray.