May 9, 2004
Acts 11:1-18; Revelation 21:1-6; John 13:31-35
The story in Acts is truly one of an "aha" experience for the early church. Jesus was a Jew who hoped to bring about a renewal of spirit and contemporary relevance to Judaism. Although his relationship and message was universal most of his early followers were Jews. An increasing number of Gentiles became interested as the church grew in number and age. The story of Peter interpreting his vision to mean that the Gospel should be carried to Gentiles as well as Jews was truly a major step in the development of the church as more than a sect of Judaism. Without this step forward Christianity could never have become the major religion in the world that it became.
A perfect ending! That is the essence of this portion of Revelation. A vision of perfection with everything undesirable wiped away and everything desirable made part of the human experience. Hope has been rewarded with God making everything as he had intended it to be in the beginning. All things are new! A wonderful expression of a faith that believed Jesus had accomplished everything God desired. The writer believed that participation in this wonderful experience of the future should be the ultimate goal for everyone but attainable only by those who place their faith in the Lamb of God whose blood was shed to take away the sins of the world.
Although the John passage shows much evidence of Greek influence which envisioned Jesus as a "God-Man", from time to time an eternal truth comes through this kind of primitive thinking. The greatest human value of all is love and the discipleship of any person can be known by whether or not they show love to one another. A lesson that is given verbal assent often, but which the world is slow to turn into a verb thus making love an expression of "action" rather than just an emotion.