Knowing WHAT GOD WANTS ! Understanding HOW GOD COMMUNICATES HIS WILL!

2. “GOD REIGNS” - AUTHORITY • Knowing WHAT GOD WANTS! • Understanding HOW GOD COMMUNICATES HIS WILL! • 1 Cor 2:13 ~ These things we also speak, not in words which man's wisdom teaches but which the Holy Spirit teaches, comparing spiritual things with spiritual. • COMMUNICATION

3. WHAT GOD WANTS! (knowing God’s will) • Telling – Showing – Implying • God or man? • When we talk about understanding God’s authority we are simply reminding people of the fundamental logic that underlies all communication, including God’s.

4. ACTS 10:1-33 Peter & Cornelius • Acts 10:28 ~ “You know how unlawful it is for a Jewish man to keep company with or go to one of another nation. …” • Acts 11:2-3 ~ 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!" • Ezra 9:8-12

5. ACTS 10:1-33 Peter & Cornelius • SHOWING • Vision – object like a great sheet – animals, wild beasts, creeping things, birds • “Rise, Peter; kill and eat.” v. 13 • “Not so, Lord! For I have never eaten anything common or unclean.” v. 14 • “What God has cleansed you must not call common.” v. 15 • Three times

6. ACTS 10:1-33 Peter & Cornelius • SHOWING • Acts 10:28 ~ “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.” NKJV

7. ACTS 10:1-33 Peter & Cornelius • DIRECTLY TOLD • Acts 10:19-20 ~ While Peter thought about the vision, the Spirit said to him, "Behold, three men are seeking you. Arise therefore, go down and go with them, doubting nothing; for I have sent them."

8. ACTS 10:1-33 Peter & Cornelius • PETER INFERRED • Acts 10:28-29 ~ “… But God has shown me that I should not call any man common or unclean. Therefore I came without objection as soon as I was sent for. …”

9. ACTS 10:1-33 Peter & Cornelius • PETER INFERRED • Peter drew a required conclusion based on what he had been shown and told. • Yet there is nowhere in the text where God says, “The Gentiles are now clean and you may preach to them.” • Nowhere in the vision is there anything about men.

10. ACTS 10:1-33 Peter & Cornelius • Peter put all the pieces together. • The vision showed him something about clean and unclean. • The Spirit told him to go with them and that this was all from God. • He trusted the Spirit and the context. • When he arrived, he realized the implications of what he was told and shown. He was not to call any man common or unclean.

11. ACTS 10:1-33 Peter & Cornelius • God values the communication process! • He could have told Peter explicitly not to call any man unclean, without giving him a vision. • He could have spelled it out completely for Peter. • Instead, God chose to show him something, tell him something, and imply something that he expected Peter to understand by putting all the information together.

12. ACTS 10:1-33 Peter & Cornelius • God values the process that includes implication and inference. • He values the ability He has given us to reason things out and draw warranted conclusions. • He wants His people to think through the implications of what is told and shown in the expression of His will.

13. ACTS 10:1-33 Peter & Cornelius • This is “tell, show, and imply” in action! • If God valued that process, so should we! • This is not some special method of interpretation, but rather a process by which we as the receivers, recognize the information given to us by God. • Communication will always entail some form of telling, showing, and implying! “GOD REIGNS” - AUTHORITY