Peter has a vision where God tells him to eat animals considered unclean. Peter refuses at first, saying he has never eaten unclean foods. God tells Peter not to call unclean what God has made clean. Peter then understands he should take the gospel to the Gentiles, even though Jews saw Gentiles as unclean. Peter later explains to critics that God shows no partiality, and what God has cleansed should not be called common or unclean.

1. Eat Common Food
Lesson Text: Acts 10:9-14
Maud church of Christ
by Jim Bradshaw
Sunday Morning, March 24, 2013

2. Good
or
bad
Act 1:6-8 NKJV Therefore, when they had come together, they asked
Him, saying, "Lord, will You at this time restore the kingdom to Israel?"
(7) And He said to them, "It is not for you to know times or seasons
which the Father has put in His own authority. (8) But you shall receive
power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be
witnesses to Me in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the
end of the earth."

3. Well, I have Never!
What are some things that you would
never do?

4. Well, I have Never!
What about Peter?
“I will never fall away…” 1 Corinthians 10:12
Mat 26:33 NKJV Peter answered and said to Him,
"Even if all are made to stumble because of You, I
will never be made to stumble."
Luk 22:60-62 NKJV But Peter said, "Man, I do not know what
you are saying!" Immediately, while he was still speaking, the
rooster crowed. (61) And the Lord turned and looked at Peter.
Then Peter remembered the word of the Lord, how He had said to
him, "Before the rooster crows, you will deny Me three times."
(62) So Peter went out and wept bitterly.

5. Well, I have Never!
What about Peter?
“You shall never wash my feet.”
Joh 13:8-10 NKJV Peter said to Him, "You shall never
wash my feet!" Jesus answered him, "If I do not wash you,
you have no part with Me." (9) Simon Peter said to Him, "Lord,
not my feet only, but also my hands and my head!" (10) Jesus said
to him, "He who is bathed needs only to wash his feet, but is
completely clean; and you are clean, but not all of you."

6. Well, I have Never!
What about Peter?
“I have never eaten…”
Act 10:14-15 NKJV But Peter said, "Not so, Lord! For I have
never eaten anything common or unclean." (15) And a voice
spoke to him again the second time, "What God has cleansed you
must not call common."
What about you…
What have you never done?
• Feed the hungry, cloth the naked, visit the sick (Matt. 25).
• Teach the Gospel (Matt. 28:19-20)

7. Common and unclean
• According to the Law of Moses
1. Normally we think about food but also deal with
ceremonial unclean.
Act 10:25-29 NKJV As Peter was coming in, Cornelius met him and fell
down at his feet and worshiped him. (26) But Peter lifted him
up, saying, "Stand up; I myself am also a man." (27) And as he talked
with him, he went in and found many who had come together. (28)
Then he said to them, "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. (29) Therefore I
came without objection as soon as I was sent for. I ask, then, for what
reason have you sent for me?"

8. Common and unclean
• Salvation first given to the Jews.
1. Romans 1:16
2. The Gospel was why Cornelius sent for Peter.
3. Act 10:33 NKJV So I sent to you immediately, and you
have done well to come. Now therefore, we are all present
before God, to hear all the things commanded you by God."
4. Act 11:14 NKJV who will tell you words by which you
and all your household will be saved.'
5. Peter was criticized.
6. Act 11:2-3 NKJV 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!"

9. Sometimes you have to get
your hands dirty
God makes no distinction of persons.
1. Read Acts 10:42-43, 11:17-18.
2. Gal. 3:26-29

10. What god has cleansed
• It is the Lord who does the cleansing
1. Acts 2:47
2. Eph 2:11-13 NKJV Therefore remember that you, once
Gentiles in the flesh—who are called Uncircumcision by
what is called the Circumcision made in the flesh by hands—
(12) that at that time you were without Christ, being aliens
from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers from the
covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the
world. (13) But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far
off have been brought near by the blood of Christ.

11. What god has cleansed
• It is the interrogation of a good conscience
1. Acts 10:47-48
2. Acts 22:16
3. 1Pe 3:20-21 NKJV who formerly were disobedient, when
once the Divine longsuffering waited in the days of Noah,
while the ark was being prepared, in which a few, that is,
eight souls, were saved through water. (21) There is also an
antitype which now saves us—baptism (not the removal of
the filth of the flesh, but the answer of a good conscience
toward God), through the resurrection of Jesus Christ,

12. What god has cleansed
• No Longer Common!
1. No Second Class Christians
2. 1Co 6:9-11 NKJV Do you not know that the unrighteous will
not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived. Neither
fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor homosexuals,
nor sodomites, (10) nor thieves, nor covetous, nor
drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners will inherit the
kingdom of God. (11) And such were some of you. But you
were washed, but you were sanctified, but you were justified
in the name of the Lord Jesus and by the Spirit of our God.

13. What god has cleansed
• To Refuse to take the Gospel to the world is to stand in God’s way.
1. Act 11:17 NKJV If therefore God gave them the same gift as
He gave us when we believed on the Lord Jesus Christ, who
was I that I could withstand God?"
2. Luke 10:33