Acts 11:1-18

“Now the apostles and brethren who were in Judea heard that the Gentiles had also received the word of God. And when Peter came up to Jerusalem, those of the circumcision contended with him, saying, ‘You went in to uncircumcised men and ate with them!’ But Peter explained it to them in order from the beginning, saying: “I was in the city of Joppa praying; and in a trance I saw a vision, an object descending like a great sheet, let down from heaven by four corners; and it came to me. When I observed it intently and considered, I saw four-footed animals of the earth, wild beasts, creeping things, and birds of the air. And I heard a voice saying to me, ‘Rise, Peter; kill and eat.’ But I said, “Not so, Lord! For nothing common or unclean has at any time entered my mouth.

“But the voice answered me again from heaven, ‘What God has cleansed you must not call common.’ Now this was done three times, and all were drawn up again into heaven. At that very moment, three men stood before the house where I was, having been sent to me from Caesarea. Then the Spirit told me to go with them, doubting nothing. Moreover, these six brethren accompanied me, and we entered the man’s house. And he told us how he had seen an angel standing in his house, who said to him, ‘Send men to Joppa, and call for Simon whose surname is Peter, who will tell you words by which you and all your household will be saved.’

“And as I began to speak, the Holy Spirit fell upon them, as upon us at the beginning. Then I remembered the word of the Lord, how He said, ‘John indeed baptized with water, but you shall be baptized with the Holy Spirit.’  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?” When they heard these things they became silent; and they glorified God, saying, ‘Then God has also granted to the Gentiles repentance to life.’”

As we spiral toward the end of the Gentile age, God is doing a work to get as many saved as possible. I watched a devotional this morning by one of the men who helps me along in the ministry. He was answering the question, ‘Why would God let Charlie Kirk die?’

Often when these catastrophic things happen, we are hurt, confused, and we can come to question the person and even the character of God. Why would God let this happen to His child, to a man with two kids and a loving wife, a man who was doing good and sharing the gospel? Brother Ray pointed out that Jesus told us His life purpose in Luke 19:10, “For the Son of man is come to seek and to save that which was lost.” That was Jesus’ purpose, and it is still the purpose today. This is the main directive that drives all that God does with regard to mankind.

What we have seen in the last week or so is an explosion of the Gospel. It has reached areas that Charlie did not go, and it has reached people that he never spoke to. People who were once silent have begun to speak up. I have seen men and women who never opened a Bible, never attended a church, suddenly begin to read and attend. Charlie was simply a servant of the Lord, just like you and me, and God has the right to allow whatever is necessary to promote and push forward the goal of saving the lost.

This morning, my devotion took me through Acts 10 and 11, where Peter goes to Cornelius’ home. Peter, a Jew, enters the home of a Gentile, and he does so because God told him to do it, and when he is there preaching, God sends the Holy Spirit on Cornelius and his household to show Peter that they, too, are going to be saved. Yes, the Gentiles are going to receive the Holy Spirit and be saved.

When Peter is back in Jerusalem, the elders question him about entering the house of a Gentile, and Peter recounts to them what God did. Then at the end, the elders come to the conclusion, “Then God has also granted to the Gentiles repentance to life.” Yes, God has granted salvation to all who would believe, even the Gentiles.

Today we can see that the Gospel is being heard by gays, lesbians, people of all colors and creeds, and even people over in Europe, many of whom had never heard of Charlie Kirk until he was killed. But through the massive explosion of news media and the explosion of conservative uncensored news agencies, the message of Jesus, His love, and His salvation is beaming all across the globe.

You and I are no different; we are just servants, tools in the hands of God to push the mandate forward. That mandate is to see as many people saved as possible before Jesus returns and the chaos of the Tribulation begins. What the enemy meant for evil, God has turned into good. God has never been outplayed or outwitted by the forces of evil. They see the short term; God sees around the corner. They thought they were shutting up Charlie’s voice, but they awakened an entire army of persons who are refusing to shut up.

The message is not about Charlie Kirk; it is about Jesus and what He did to save the lost people of the world. The message and the mandate have not changed in almost 2,000 years; we are still seeking the lost to be saved. We are still preaching salvation by grace only, and we need to realize that God will save everyone who will call on the name of the Lord. The Jews in Peter’s Day did not think that Gentiles could be saved; they were and are still being saved millennia later.

It would be easy for us to think that this person is too far left, too far into the lesbian world, the gay world, and maybe a drag queen, BUT GOD. God will save everyone who will turn even for second to think. He will save and transform all who will call on Jesus’ name. Don’t rule people out; God doesn’t. Heaven will be filled with people we never thought would be there, and people will look at you and me and wonder how we got there. We will all get there the same way, by faith in Jesus and Jesus alone.

I leave you with 2 Peter 3:9 as a reminder to all of us Christians. God is still actively looking to save lots and lots of people.

“The Lord is not slack concerning His promise, as some count slackness, but is longsuffering toward us, not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance.”

Jesus is coming soon. Are you and I actively working in His agenda, or do we have our own?

God bless you,

Dr. Sean Gooding
Pastor of Bethany Baptist Church
70 Victoria Street, Elora, Ontario

1 Kings 19:18-21

“Yet I have left me seven thousand in Israel, all the knees which have not bowed unto Baal, and every mouth which hath not kissed him. So he departed thence, and found Elisha the son of Shaphat, who was plowing with twelve yoke of oxen before him, and he with the twelfth: and Elijah passed by him, and cast his mantle upon him. And he left the oxen, and ran after Elijah, and said, let me, I pray thee, kiss my father and my mother, and then I will follow thee. And he said unto him, go back again: for what have I done to thee? And he returned back from him, and took a yoke of oxen, and slew them, and boiled their flesh with the instruments of the oxen, and gave unto the people, and they did eat. Then he arose, and went after Elijah, and ministered unto him.”

The murder of Charlie Kirk this week was a slap to the face for those of us who want to speak the truth. It is one thing to hear that Christians were killed in Nigeria or beheaded in the Middle East somewhere; it is another thing to see someone killed for their speech. It is another thing to feel the pain, see the hurt, and then to truly experience the hatred that really is there. Imagine being hated for just speaking the truth.

Well, this is what I am reading in the Gospel of Luke this morning: the Pharisees and Sadducees hated Jesus because He spoke the truth. He would tell these lovely parables and draw these very clear parallels that left no doubts about who He was speaking. Under their breath, they would plot to kill Him, to arrest Him, and to stop the truth. Little did they know that the very act of killing Jesus would exponentially export the Gospel to the ends of the earth.

Over the past few days, I have come to the conclusion that killing Charlie Kirk has done much the same. I read an excerpt from a mom who told of her son coming home from work: just 23 years old, he sat, ate dinner, did a bit of a workout, and together they listened to some worship music. And he, as he was headed to bed, said, “Mom, I need to be more like Charlie Kirk; God help me.” She did not push him nor prompt him, just let him speak from his heart. I just saw a prominent NFL quarterback laying out the Gospel of Jesus Christ in simple and clear statements. Over and over, I hear of many others testifying and stepping up, and I hope that the wave of growth does not stop.

The verses above are familiar to those of us who love the scriptures. We love the significance that they offer us. We love the eye-opening sight that they offer, and we like the hope that they give us.

There will be many op-eds about Charlie Kirk over the next few weeks, and there will be a lot of rhetoric. We need to be careful not to fall into the trap that is being set. We cannot become violent; Jesus never was. We cannot become bitter; Jesus never was. We cannot become closed off and live in fear; Jesus never did. We cannot be silent; Jesus never shut up. Rather, we need to realize, like many of us are, that God has people everywhere. He has people in government, in schools, in the police, young people, people in other countries, poor people, rich people, and on we can go. Not only that, but we see that we have the power to shut down those who hate us.

Never should we shut down free speech, and especially the speech that is different than ours; we need to hear a dissenting opinion. We need to be able to hear and defend the truth against all opposition. We need to love those who are different and those who are very different.

Elijah had been in a great victory in 1 Kings 18; he had defeated the prophets of Baal. Not long after that defeat, he finds himself running from Jezebel and ends up in the middle of the woods. And there God finds him and sustains him through a few days, and then begins to challenge him to get back in the fight. One of the things that God points out is that he, Elijah, is not alone. God has more than 7,000 other men who have not bowed to Baal.

In like manner, God has lots of men like Charlie Kirk. Men who have not bowed to the ‘trans’ movement pressure, men who have not compromised the word of God, men who have not given into the ‘progressive agenda’ that has encompassed so many churches, men who led their families to serve the Lord and Him only.

Elijah was not alone, and neither are we. Stand up, stand out, stand strong, and serve the Lord faithfully and fearlessly; all they can do is kill the body, not destroy the soul. Jesus died so that we could actually live.

The next thing that God told Elijah to do was to find the next generation of prophets.

We don’t know when Jesus will return. We don’t know when we will die and pass to the next life; so, we are to find the next generation, teach them, and prepare them to stand up and speak the truth. Make sure they know the truth, that they are secure in the truth, that they know how to defend the truth and to speak it with love, grace, and without fighting.

Elijah went and found Elisha; God is not running out of people; we just need to be there ready to find them, teach them, disciple them, and show them the truth. Notice that Elisha was a servant to Elijah long before he was the lead prophet in Israel. When we find these young men, when God leads us to them, we will be doing good work if we teach them first of all to serve. We do this by being good servants ourselves.

So, don’t lose hope, don’t quit, don’t mourn too, too long, Charlie Kirk is more alive than he has ever been, and we are here to finish the work. Don’t be afraid for your life; it is an honor to lose it for the cause. Sadly, too many of us are more afraid of living for the Lord than we are of dying. Don’t give up, give in, run for the hills, or simply hide while waiting for the Lord.

I leave you with the words of the Apostle Paul from Galatians 6:9,

”And let us not be weary in well doing: for in due season we shall reap, if we faint not.”