Who Was I to Stand in God's Way?

In one paragraph

Acts 11:1-18 was the text for this message, picking up directly from the previous week's account of Peter and Cornelius. Pastor Ray walked through Peter's defense before the Jerusalem believers, tracing how God used converging visions and the witness of six traveling companions to confirm that the gospel was crossing a boundary no one had expected. The heart of it was a simple question Peter posed...

Read together

1. Acts 11:1-18 the main passage read and expounded through the sermon
2. Acts 10 referenced repeatedly as the prior chapter containing the full Cornelius and Peter story
3. Acts 1:8 Peter recalls Jesus saying witnesses would go to Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and the uttermost parts
4. Acts 9 Saul struck on the road, told to go to a street called Straight, and Ananias given a corresponding vision
5. Acts 11:19-21 preview of next week's passage, believers scattered after Stephen's death preaching as far as Phoenicia, Cyprus, and Antioch
6. Romans 10:9-10 used as the benediction, declaring Jesus as Lord and believing God raised him from the dead
7. Matthew 28:19-20 referenced in closing prayer, go and make disciples, baptizing and teaching them to obey all Jesus commanded

Talk about it

1. Peter went back to Jerusalem and told the Jewish believers exactly what had happened, step by step. When has laying out the plain facts of what God did helped you work through a disagreement with another believer?
2. The Jewish believers started out criticizing Peter and ended up praising God. What do you think shifted for them as they listened to his account?
3. Pastor Ray talked about repentance as a privilege, not just a duty. How does thinking of it that way change how you approach it?
4. Cornelius was told in his vision to send for Peter, who would tell him how to be saved. The message came person to person. Who passed that same kind of face-to-face message along to you, and who might be waiting for you to bring it to them?
5. Pastor Ray described feeling pulled out of the mix to stand up and preach, and now he and Tanya are being pulled out again for a season in Africa. Have you ever felt God redirect you from something comfortable into something that felt more like a foul shot than a fast break? What happened?