Saved For A Purpose
BRD REFLECTIONS:
Acts 11:1-30 and Psalm 17:1-15 (NIV)
(Kenneth Lim from Small Group Ministry)
READ:
Acts 11:1-30 (ESV)
OBSERVE:
In the last chapter, Peter shared the gospel with the Gentile centurion, Cornelius, and the Holy Spirit fell upon all who heard the message. Peter was criticised by the Jewish believers for associating with Gentiles, but Peter explained that God had commanded him to do so and that the Holy Spirit came on the Gentiles as he was speaking to them. This led the Jewish believers to praise God for saving even the Gentiles.
Meanwhile the Gospel had spread to the Greeks in Antioch and the disciples there were the first to be called Christians.
APPLY:
It was surprising to the Jewish believers in Acts that God wanted to save the Gentiles as well. What is more surprising to me, however, is that they were surprised. After all, when God saved Israel out of Egypt, He called them in Exodus 19 to be a “kingdom of priests”, and what kind of priests only lead themselves to God?
Yet just like the Israelites, I too tend to fall into thinking that God’s salvation is only about me and my holiness, or even the holiness of only my community.
Thankfully, this passage reminds me that God’s plan is to reconcile and unite all peoples under Him, and that, as such, I have been saved not just for my own sake, but to participate in the redemptive work which God has done and continues to do for all peoples, until His Kingdom is established fully on earth as it is in heaven.
DO:
I will continue to live out my faith in service to others, motivated by the power of the gospel to bring salvation to everyone who believes, first to the Jew, then to the Gentile.
PRAY:
Dear God, thank You for the life-saving power of the gospel, and for the salvation which Christ has won for me on the cross. Help me to grow more and more into the likeness of Your Son, that I may emulate Christ in His sacrificial desire for the establishment of Your Kingdom in the hearts of all men. Amen.
