GOD REIGNS AUTHORITY Knowing WHAT GOD WANTS Understanding

“GOD REIGNS” - AUTHORITY • Knowing WHAT GOD WANTS! • Understanding HOW GOD COMMUNICATES HIS WILL! • 1 Cor 2: 13 ~ These things we also speak, not in words which man's wisdom teaches but which the Holy Spirit teaches, comparing spiritual things with spiritual. • COMMUNICATION

WHAT GOD WANTS! (knowing God’s will) • • • Telling – Showing – Implying God or man? When we talk about understanding God’s authority we are simply reminding people of the fundamental logic that underlies all communication, including God’s.

ACTS 10: 1 -33 Peter & Cornelius • Acts 10: 28 ~ “You know how unlawful it is for a Jewish man to keep company with or go to one of another nation. …” • Acts 11: 2 -3 ~ And when Peter came up to Jerusalem, those of the circumcision contended with him, 3 saying, "You went in to uncircumcised men and ate with them!" • Ezra 9: 8 -12

ACTS 10: 1 -33 Peter & Cornelius • SHOWING • Vision – object like a great sheet – animals, wild beasts, creeping things, birds • “Rise, Peter; kill and eat. ” v. 13 • “Not so, Lord! For I have never eaten anything common or unclean. ” v. 14 • “What God has cleansed you must not call common. ” v. 15 • Three times

ACTS 10: 1 -33 Peter & Cornelius • SHOWING • Acts 10: 28 ~ “You know how unlawful it is for a Jewish man to keep company with or go to one of another nation. But God has shown me that I should not call any man common or unclean. ” NKJV

ACTS 10: 1 -33 Peter & Cornelius • DIRECTLY TOLD • Acts 10: 19 -20 ~ While Peter thought about the vision, the Spirit said to him, "Behold, three men are seeking you. Arise therefore, go down and go with them, doubting nothing; for I have sent them. "

ACTS 10: 1 -33 Peter & Cornelius • PETER INFERRED • Acts 10: 28 -29 ~ “… But God has shown me that I should not call any man common or unclean. Therefore I came without objection as soon as I was sent for. …”

ACTS 10: 1 -33 Peter & Cornelius • PETER INFERRED • Peter drew a required conclusion based on what he had been shown and told. • Yet there is nowhere in the text where God says, “The Gentiles are now clean and you may preach to them. ” • Nowhere in the vision is there anything about men.

ACTS 10: 1 -33 Peter & Cornelius • Peter put all the pieces together. • The vision showed him something about clean and unclean. • The Spirit told him to go with them and that this was all from God. • He trusted the Spirit and the context. • When he arrived, he realized the implications of what he was told and shown. He was not to call any man common or unclean.

ACTS 10: 1 -33 Peter & Cornelius • God values the communication process! • He could have told Peter explicitly not to call any man unclean, without giving him a vision. • He could have spelled it out completely for Peter. • Instead, God chose to show him something, tell him something, and imply something that he expected Peter to understand by putting all the information together.

ACTS 10: 1 -33 Peter & Cornelius • God values the process that includes implication and inference. • He values the ability He has given us to reason things out and draw warranted conclusions. • He wants His people to think through the implications of what is told and shown in the expression of His will.

ACTS 10: 1 -33 Y T I R This is “tell, show, and imply” in action! O H T If God valued that process, so should we! U A This is not some special method of ” S N interpretation, but rather a process by G I E which we. Ras the receivers, recognize the D O information given to us by God. G “ Communication will always entail some Peter & Cornelius • • form of telling, showing, and implying!