Description: Prejudice can build walls that seem impossible to tear down. In this devotional, we join the Apostle Peter on a rooftop in Joppa as God uses a strange and powerful vision to shatter his deeply held biases and prepare him to take the Gospel to an unexpected place. It’s a lesson in letting God define what is clean and who is worthy.

Scripture: Acts 10:9-16

Explanation: In this pivotal moment, God directly confronts Peter’s lifelong beliefs. As a devout Jew, Peter adhered strictly to the kosher laws outlined in the Old Testament, which forbade eating certain animals deemed 'unclean.' These laws were not merely dietary; they were a core part of Jewish identity, creating a distinct separation from the Gentile nations. So when the voice from heaven commands him to eat from a sheet filled with unclean animals, his response is instantaneous: 'Not so, Lord.' It was unthinkable. But God's reply is revolutionary: 'What God hath cleansed, make not thou common.' This vision was repeated three times for emphasis. The Lord was not simply changing the menu; He was changing the mission. This was a divine object lesson to prepare Peter for the visitors who were about to arrive. God was teaching him that the barriers between Jew and Gentile were being demolished in Christ. The Gospel was to go to all people, and Peter could no longer consider any person 'common or unclean.'

Parable: Let me tell you about Pastor John Miller. He pastored a small, traditional Baptist church in rural Georgia, a church his grandfather had founded. They were good, loving people, but their congregation was as white as the building's clapboard siding. A new chicken processing plant had opened nearby, bringing in many Hispanic families. John prayed for them, of course, but he held an unexamined belief that they were 'just too different' to ever fit in at his church. Their music was different, their food was different, their culture was different. One Saturday, while wrestling with a sermon on the Great Commission, he felt a wave of exhaustion and dozed off in his study. He dreamed he was at the annual church potluck, but the tables were laden with strange, unfamiliar dishes he couldn't even name. A warm, authoritative voice spoke in his dream, 'John, I have blessed this food. Eat.' He recoiled in his dream, thinking, 'But Lord, this isn’t our food. This isn’t what we eat here.' The voice replied, 'What I have blessed, do not call foreign.' He woke with a start, the words echoing in his mind. Just then, there was a timid knock at his study door. It was a man named Carlos, a foreman from the plant whose children had attended their vacation Bible school. With his hat in his hands, Carlos asked, 'Pastor, my family… we want to know the Jesus your children sing about. Can you teach us?' In that moment, the dream became clear. The potluck wasn't about food; it was about people.

Moral: The lesson here is a powerful one for every believer. We all carry biases and prejudices, walls we have built between 'us' and 'them.' But the Gospel is a wrecking ball to those walls. God’s vision for His church is far more diverse and glorious than our limited, comfortable view. We must be willing to let the Holy Spirit search our hearts and expose any attitude that would label a person or people group as 'common or unclean,' for Christ died to make them holy. 

'And a voice came unto him again the second time, What God hath cleansed, make not thou common.' Acts 10:15 (ASV) 

'And he said unto them, Ye yourselves know how that it is an unlawful thing for a man that is a Jew to join himself or come unto one of another nation; and yet unto me hath God showed that I should not call any man common or unclean.' Acts 10:28 (ASV)