May 6, 2024 

Today's Reading: Acts 10:34-48 

Daily Lectionary: Numbers 8:5-26; Luke 15:11-32

While Peter was still saying these things, the Holy Spirit fell on all who heard the word. And the believers from among the circumcised who had come with Peter were amazed, because the gift of the Holy Spirit was poured out even on the Gentiles. (Acts 10:44-45)

In the Name + of Jesus. Amen. The first believers in Christ’s salvation were Jews. They grew up in the Jewish religion. The men were circumcised as infants. The people ate the clean foods Leviticus taught. They sacrificed at the temple when they came to Jerusalem for the annual feasts. Then, the savior promised in Scripture finally came. Jesus, the crucified and risen, was actually the Christ! Some Jews believed it and were brought into Christ’s salvation.

With this in mind, you can understand why the “Jewish” Christians were astonished in Acts 10. It shocked them when they heard Peter speak of a vision from God that led to a Gentile converting. It continued to shock their world when the Gift of the Holy Spirit poured out on Gentiles, too. We might think the Jewish believers were snobs. We might be tempted to think the Jewish believers were acting like popular kids who didn’t want the chess club joining their lunch table. But that’s not the case at all.

It’s more that the Jewish believers could not understand how the Gentiles did not follow God’s Word before they became believers! God’s Word commanded certain sacrifices, circumcision, kosher foods, rituals, Jewish feasts, etc. But the Gentiles came to faith apart from these parts commanded by God’s Word! A Gentile was primarily a pagan idolater. A Gentile didn’t mean a different ethnicity, but one who followed any of the non-Christian religions out there. And the Holy Spirit came upon them! It would be as if God had decided to zap an unbeliever at your school who heard the Gospel only once, and that day, he started going to your church and catechism class.

The reason the Gentiles came to faith was that they heard the Gospel. What about the ceremonial laws? Jesus fulfilled them, including the sign of circumcision, the clean foods, the rituals, the sacrifices, and the feasts. All of it is fulfilled in Jesus, especially by His innocent suffering and death and His resurrection from the dead. Since Jesus has fulfilled all of the Law, the Old Testament ceremonial laws are now put aside. They were the shadow; Christ is the substance. The moral Law remains in place, but Jesus has kept this Law for you perfectly and done everything needed for your salvation. Hear God’s Word and trust in Jesus, and you likewise have this salvation, too. Through faith, by the power of the Holy Spirit, you make a beginning at keeping the moral law too. In the Name + of Jesus. Amen.

The Gospel shows the Father’s grace, Who sent His Son to save our race, Proclaims how Jesus lived and died That we might thus be justified. (LSB 580:1)

- Pastor. Robert Mayes is the pastor at Immanuel Lutheran Church and Zion St. John Lutheran Church in Beemer and Wisner, NE.

Audio Reflections Speaker: Pastor Jonathan Lackey is the pastor at Grace Lutheran Church, Vine Grove, Ky.

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