Good morning! Shalom everyone and welcome to the ancient city of Joppa! It's a name that only in English sounds weird: Joppa. In Hebrew, by the way, it's not called Joppa, it’s called “Yafo.” It comes from the Hebrew word - “beautiful”—“Yafa” is “beautiful,” “Yafe” is “beautiful.” And there's no doubt that the name reflects the nature of this place. It is definitely beautiful. We’re talking about a city located right on the shores of the Mediterranean, and we’re about 30 miles south of Caesarea by the Sea along the Mediterranean. And this is one of the most ancient harbors at the time of the Old and the New Testament. When we deal with Caesarea by the Sea we’ll talk about it obviously with a New Testament angle. This is, no doubt, an ancient Old Testament city that is first mentioned in the writings of Thutmose III, one of the pharaohs that had a conquest journey all the way here in the land of Israel in the 15th-century before Christ. We’re talking about more than 3,500 years ago that the name of this place is already mentioned in the ancient Egyptian writings. So the fact that it's mentioned 1,500 years before Christ doesn't mean that it's only 3,500 years old. It's much even older than that, but you can see that it is so important and it is so old that it is already mentioned in the writings of 3,500 years ago. Definitely an amazing place! Today about 60,000 people live here in this city, predominantly Jewish of a Middle Eastern and North African descent. But it is also, there is a sizable Arab community that lives here as well. It's one of those mixed cities. We’ve got 4 mixed cities in Israel today that are having both Jewish and Arab populations living side-by-side peacefully. We’ve got Jerusalem. We’ve got Joppa. We've got Haifa. And we’ve got Beersheba. And Joppa, of course, is a symbol of coexistence here in the land of Israel. Joppa, by the way, is one city together with Tel Aviv. There’s just one mayor over Tel Aviv and Joppa. In fact, the name of Tel Aviv is Tel Aviv Joppa. That's the name of the city if you go to check on the official website. Now, when we talk about this particular city, we need to remember that this particular location is basically one of the oldest functioning harbors in the world. And we're talking about, it's a harbor today for fishing boats, but in the ancient times, even Solomon used this particular harbor to bring the cedars from Lebanon, floating all the way from Lebanon along the coast and then brought from this place all the way up to Jerusalem. In fact, this was the nearest harbor to Jerusalem and that's why Jerusalem and Joppa enjoy a very interesting connection, to the point that one of the most important streets in Jerusalem is Joppa Street, with the Joppa Gate in the old city, and one of the most important streets in Joppa is Jerusalem Boulevard. You see the connection between the cities. Now, we're talking about a place where we have Old Testament and New Testament events. The lesson we want to study today here in this city is related to the tribal allotment, basically of this particular place as well as for two particular people who were originally from Galilee, but ended up right here for various reasons. So we’re talking about a tribe and we’re talking about two people. Old Testament and New Testament figures. Both from Galilee, both ended up right here in this place. The tribe we’re talking about is the tribe of Dan, and the people we’re talking about are Jonah the prophet and Peter, Simon Peter, the fisherman from Galilee. So, first of all, I want us all to remember that disobedience is something that goes all the way back to Genesis 3. We can clearly see that the biggest downfall of the human race is actually the lack of simple obedience, simple obedience and to what? ... to the commandments of the Lord. And what happened is the serpent could see that and he attacked right there, and basically what we see here is that God asked a simple request and that was enough to see that the attitude is not “thy will” but “my will be done” basically. And when we look at Jesus saying, “Not my will but thy will be done,” you see why God loved his Son so much. You see, “this is my beloved Son.” In fact, the one component that from the very beginning separated us not only from the presence of God but from the love of God was the lack of obedience, which means the one thing that can bring us back to the presence of God and to the love of God is simple obedience. Just like Jesus said, “Not my will, but thy will be done.” So, it’s very interesting to see how we go all the way back to the tribe of Dan. Dan was the oldest son of Jacob from his maid, from his - I would call it - his slave, Bilhah and that tribe that later on came out of the person of Dan was one of Israel's largest tribes. Now, how do I know that? Because we know that in Numbers 1:39, we’re talking about 62,700 fighting men that came out of the tribe of Dan, second only to the tribe of Judah that in verse 27 had 74,600 fighting men. So, the second-largest tribe in Israel, the firstborn of Jacob, you would expect much from him. You would expect much from people who carry that type of heritage. And then we can clearly see that Dan was fighting. In fact, he led one of the four major divisions that could protect the people. In Numbers 2:31, we can see that. And Dan was a tribe that produced at least one of the most important judges of Israel, and that was Samson. Now we all know the story of Samson, and we’re going to talk about Samson when we go to the Valley of Zorah, where Samson was born and where he grew up. All he needed to do was cross the Sorek Valley and enter the city of the Philistines called Timnah and find there Delilah. But we don’t want to talk about Samson, we just want to talk about the importance of the tribe of Dan. But the tribe of Dan had a problem. And the problem goes back to disobedience. God gave them a tribal allotment. And I have a question for you. When God gives you something, whether it's ministry, whether it's a spouse, whether it's children —you know God gives you children, you don't choose them; trust me. When God gives you parents, in-laws when God gives you church members, friends, when God gives you wealth, when God gives you so many things in your life, then most likely, if it's from God, these are the things that you need to have and they will play a significant role in various chapters in your life. And trust me, I come from a family background where I am asking God almost every day, “Why did to give me this mother and this father and why do I have certain things in my life?" But I learned in my short life that there are certain things that sometimes only in hindsight, only when we look back, we understand then why God gave us those people and that thing and being in this situation. Of course, it's a big difference between us disobeying God and walking and finding ourselves in situations we’re not supposed to. And that's obviously not God-given. And then we have to suffer the consequences. But the tribe of Dan was given a territory. I'm always saying if they only knew... that the territory that they were given is today the hottest piece of real estate in the entire Middle East. If they only knew that, but of course they didn't... what did they know? They were looking at things through the eyes of circumstances. And may I say the circumstances are probably the most dangerous thing to lean on and to build your entire understanding of God's will for your life because circumstances are just circumstances. Now we are going to see that in a few minutes, circumstances even the apostles found themselves in. And thank God they didn't think that God wanted them dead. But think about it: the tribe of Dan was situated between the Mediterranean on the west, the Philistines in the south, the tribe of Judah on the east, the tribe of Benjamin in the north. They felt trapped. And why is it that they felt trapped? Because for them there was pride and there was fear, and both played a big role. The pride is that we do not want to have Judah and Benjamin standing right above us, towering above us on the mountains and the hills and the fear from the Philistines. Now, if God gives you territory, if God led you out of the land of bondage through the desert into the promised land, would God bring you all the way to a tribal allotment that is going to basically bring about your destruction? Obviously not. It's interesting, but the one thing that brought about destruction over the tribe of Dan was their disobedience by changing the territory that they lived in. Exchanging that which was given by God with that which was chosen by man. So Dan disobeyed God, and Dan had abandoned their territory, God-given territory and moved up north to the northernmost border of Israel, thinking that they find a place safe, secure, lush and green, not understanding that when the coming destruction over the kingdom of Israel is coming that will be the first place that will be destroyed. That which looked at the time safe, secure, lush and green, nice and peaceful happened or was discovered to be the course and the cause of their destruction. So that's as far as the tribe of Dan disobeying God and moving to the wrong territory. And, yes, I agree having the Philistines, on one hand, the tribe of Judah on the other hand and, you know, this is where we need to trust God for protection. This is where we need to trust God in situations. Following God's calling upon your life requires not only obedience but a lot of trust and a lot of prayer. And I can only quote you two verses from the New Testament, showing the circumstances at the time for the disciples were not that great. And if it wasn't for trust, and if it wasn't for prayer and if it wasn't for great faith, obviously circumstances would've brought them down. In 2nd Corinthians 1:8 and 9, “For we do not want you to be ignorant, brethren, of our trouble, which came to us in Asia that we were burdened beyond measure, above strength, so that we despaired even of life. Yes, we had the sentence of death in ourselves that we should not trust in ourselves, but in God, who raises the dead.” It’s amazing! The disciples found themselves in danger of death. It's not just - “I'm not having a peaceful life, I’m not having a rich life... I’m not having friendly people around me.” “I am about to die!” And they learned not to trust themselves, but to trust God, the same God who raised even the dead. And in James 1:2-8, “My brethren, count it all joy when you fall into various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces patience. But let patience have its perfect work, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking nothing. If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all liberally and without reproach, and it will be given to him, but let him ask in faith, with no doubting, for he who doubts is like a wave of the sea, driven and tossed by the wind. For let not that man suppose that he will receive anything from the Lord; he is a double-minded man, unstable in his ways.” God wants pure faith, and it's not the type of faith of “name it and claim it.” of “I want a blue Volvo and a black Mercedes, and I'm claiming it.” No, that's not the faith that God is talking about here. We’re talking about faith in the calling of God upon your life. Faith in the purpose of life that God gives you, not faith in the possessions that you want to have because of your eyes and your heart. So these are important things that we must understand. Now, the judgment over the disobedience of Dan for abandoning their inheritance and adopting pagan idolatry introduced to them by Jeroboam in their temple at the city of Dan was basically a double one. You understand, moving from their original inheritance all the way up to the northern part of the land, and later on... building a temple, a false temple, and having... believe it or not, a golden calf introduced to them as Jehovah who brought them out of Egypt. That was an amazing thing. The first thing is that the tribe was defeated by the Assyrians’ attack between 722 and 723 B.C. In the Book of Revelation, chapter 7, we see the list of the tribes of Israel from which 144,000 sealed servants of God should come and Dan is not even mentioned there. So it was a double judgment here. And you can see that your disobedience today can affect generations later on. For them, at the moment, they were destroyed physically, but for their future generations, they were deprived such a privilege, even in the future time when God is going to use Jewish people from the tribes of Israel to minister to the world during the tribulation. When we are all gone, there will be only the work of evangelism done by these people. I count it as an amazing privilege that my own people, who reject God and Jesus today will be the main tool God is going to use to evangelize the gospel of Jesus Christ during the tribulation. Can you imagine the same people of Israel that do not accept Jesus today, will be the chief evangelists during the tribulation. Now, I think that I would be so proud to be part of that. Although I thank God I'm not going be part of that, being a Christian today means I’m going to be raptured and that’s the same with all of you. However, you never know today when you reach out to a Jewish person, when you talk to a person of either Israel or the Jewish diaspora around the world, when you talk to them about Jesus, I’m going to tell you something: you're sowing a seed that you may not even understand what it’s going to bring forth. There’s a good chance that your conversation with that Jew today might produce an evangelist during the tribulation. You understand what we’re talking about? Talking to the Jews about Jesus not only is permissible, it is a must! a) because we want them to be saved, b) because we are actually sowing the seed of faith, that once we’re gone, they will see, “Oh, that which that man told me, it is true.” And faith will be birthed in their heart and they will become an amazing servant of God. The Bible says in the Book of Romans that - Now the Jewish people worship with zeal but without knowledge, thinking that their own righteousness will come from their own deeds and their own keeping of the Law and other things. However, I want you to know the Bible says in the Book of Romans, in chapter 11, “If their fall is riches to the world, how much more their acceptance is going to be, if not life from the dead.” Which means that that same Jew, who now is completely blind to the understanding of the gospel and the salvation through Jesus Christ, the minute it clicks, the minute he understands that zeal will now be connected to the knowledge, and it will be like life from the dead. And you just produced without even knowing, one of the main evangelists in the time of the great tribulation. And how sad it is that the tribe of Dan is not even mentioned! That privilege of being part of the most amazing thing, one of the most amazing chapters in history is deprived from them. Why?... because of their disobedience. So I want to encourage you when we talk about obedience not only to think about yourself but think about generations to come. Think about that which God can produce from your obedience and that which you can deprive from future generations because of your disobedience. It’s interesting because... leaving the tribe of Dan and moving to the two characters we wanted to talk about when we talk about a lesson in obedience. We first talk about Jonah. Jonah comes from the area of Nazareth of today. And the Bible calls his town, Gath-hepher, which is right at the outskirts of Nazareth of today. So Jonah is a Galilean Jew. We first have Jonah mentioned in 2nd Kings 14:25. And it's interesting because God sends Jonah, in the Book of Jonah, to a mission. It's very interesting... because often times God is telling us to do things that we’re not comfortable doing. Think about it: Jonah was called to the city of? ...Nineveh. One of the largest cities in the ancient world, in Iraq of today. Thousands upon thousands of people. Huge city even in today's proportions. Jonah is sent to a city full of sin, a city full of death, a city full of idolatries, paganism. It's almost like Jonah will be sent to New York City of today. But think about it: it’s Iraq. Now, Jonah says to himself, “I don’t want to go to Iraq.” I've a question: would you want to go to Iraq right now? Well, Jonah had the same feeling. I really don't want to go there. First of all, pagans, sinners, idol worshipers —it's not my culture. It’s everything that is not me and who I am. I don’t want to go there. If I need to go, I’d rather go to Spain rather than Iraq. I don't blame him, by the way. If you ask me, “Spain? Iraq? Spain?” Spain! But Jonah thinks, “Okay I'm going to just disappear, God will just have to find me. So he comes all the way down to this port of Joppa, which is the ancient harbor of that time and he gets on a boat, and we all know that the boat heads towards Tarshish. Tarshish is the area of Spain today. We know that in the Book of Ezekiel, chapter 38, he speaks of the merchants of Tarshish and the young lions of Tarshish. We know that Western Europe basically is identified as the merchants of Tarshish, and that which came out of Western Europe, which I believe is America, the young lions of Tarshish, is also mentioned there. And so, we can clearly see the human preference of the West over the East, of that culture over that culture. And Jonah, we all know, is going the wrong direction. Now, God did not stop him from walking down to the harbor, not even from getting on that boat. But at some point, Jonah had to understand that he is doing a major, major mistake. Normally when we don't follow the Lord and run away from Him, we also try to run away from the people of God and from the places of God. Every time we kind of run away from God and we rebel against God, the presence of the people of God actually is a problem for us. And the presence or us being in the place of God, the house of God, is a problem for us. Often time when someone lives in sin, he won’t go to church and he won’t even communicate with friends that are believers. So, Jonah is running away from the calling. What happens when you don't walk in the ways of God... then comes shame and guilt. That's what happened to Adam and Eve. They knew they did something wrong and so when God came and walked in the garden where were they? Hiding. Now can you hide from God?... Of course not! But that was a token of shame and guilt. I'm telling you, when you're hiding something, not that 90%, 100% it's a wrong thing.. if you're hiding it. And so we speak of Jonah trying to flee to Tarshish from the presence of the Lord in Jonah 1:3. From the presence of the Lord. The Bible says in Psalm 139:7-8, David writes from his own experience: “Where could I go to escape from your Spirit or from your sight? If I were to climb up to the highest heavens, you would be there. If I were to dig down to the world of the dead, you would also be there.” You cannot escape from the presence of God. You can try...you can try to run away... This is exactly the story of Peter. Jonah ended up being in the belly of the fish and the fish ... [gesture vomiting]... almost, in the Hebrew it's almost like vomited right at the coast of Joppa. Can you imagine he left Joppa dressed nicely, and he came back to Joppa smelling not good. That's how you’re going to smell if you go to the world. You’re going to be back and God will receive you, but you're going to smell terribly... you’re going to a very bad place. And God graciously corrected him and brought him back. And Jonah is now ready to obey. We can summarize the Book of Jonah in 8 words: Jonah go! - No! Woe,
Jonah, go! Yes! - Grace. Jonah got it and he went there. And the product of one person's ministry caused a great and amazing revival in a sinful city. That was just one city, in one country and the efforts of one person who was, by the way, living in those days of the Old Testament, when the presence of the Holy Spirit was pretty limited because no one was really sealed with the Holy Ghost. People had the Spirit of God falling upon them. The Greek term is “epi,” “upon.” But the Holy Spirit would also leave you. That's exactly why David, in Psalm 51, begs that God will not take the Holy Spirit from him, because it was a possibility and David understood - “I can't function, I can't do. I can't run, I can't breathe without the Holy Spirit of God. So, what we’re talking about Jonah, with a limited capacity of the Holy Spirit, went all the way to one country, one city and God made unbelievable things. Now we move to another person, in the New Testament, who was sealed with the Holy Spirit. And that person was above and beyond the limitation of one city, one country, and one area. It is Peter, Simon Peter, “Shimon Kephai” in Hebrew. And the first time we hear about Peter coming to Joppa is in Acts, chapter 9, when Dorcas we know that got sick and died and Peter was called to come from Lydda, from the city of Lod, which is not far from here and they begged him not to delay his coming, to actually hasten his coming all the way to this place. And we know that Peter was there and - “Peter arose and he went with them” in verse 39 and then “when he had come they brought into the upper room.” Interesting how an upper room serves once again a role in Peter's life, and “Peter put them all outside and knelt down and prayed and turning to the body, he said, ‘Tabitha, arise!’” in Hebrew “Tabita kumi!” “And she opened her eyes, and when she saw Peter she sat up. And then he gave her his hand and lifted her up and when he called the saints and widows he presented her alive. And it became known throughout all Joppa, and many believe on the Lord. So it was that, that he stayed many days in Joppa with Simon, who is a tanner.” And right here we found a place... only place, that makes sense for a tanner to live. And that explains why tradition attached to that place as the place of Simon the tanner's house. Because, if you're a tanner, you must work on animal skins, you must have fresh water. And being right by the Mediterranean, it's kind of hard to find it. But right there, we found a well. And the well leads to a reservoir of fresh water under the ground. Ground water, fresh water and from the very beginning, people pointed at that particular house as Simon the tanner's house as we can see. Today there is an Armenian family that lives there, the Zakarian family. The place is locked up for visitors because of some petition of the Muslim community that this should be a mosque. It’s interesting, every holy site for Jews or Christians, later on Muslims build a mosque there. Sometimes just by the presence of a mosque, you know what is holy for the Jews and Christians. And one of them is, of course— Joppa is not mentioned in the Koran. Of course, that house is not mentioned in the Koran. Of course, it's not part of their faith. But, of course, it will become when it's holy to the Jews and to the Christians. And so, this is the place of Simon the tanner’s house. And Peter stayed there, and he was on the rooftop, and it was noon. And I promise you, in Israel with a Mediterranean diet, you will be hungry at noon. You eat good vegetables and good cheeses and great bread for breakfast. But it keeps you all the way to lunch and then you're hungry again. And Peter was hungry, and he was on the rooftop. And he was praying, and the Bible says that he got into what we call a trance. “He fell into a trance.” in verse 10 of Acts 10, “And he saw heaven opened and an object like a great sheet bound on the four corners descending to him and let down to the earth. In it were all kinds of four-footed animals of the earth, wild beasts, creeping things and birds of the air. And a voice came to him, ‘Rise Peter - kill and eat!’ But Peter said, ‘Not so, Lord! For I have never eaten anything common or unclean.’ And a voice spoke to him again the second time, ‘What God has cleansed, you must not call common.’ This was done three times and the object then was taken up into heaven again.” I love Peter because he's so much like many of us. First, we don't believe and we act in disbelief. Then we believe but we become holier than God. We know what God wants and when God is wrong, we correct him. You see, Peter knew exactly who was talking to him. He may have not known what it's all about, but he stuck to his religious belief and tradition that I will not eat any unclean food. Foolish Peter... at the moment, he was still thinking that it's all about the food... when it wasn't at all about food. You know, we can be Christians, we can be believers, we can have the Holy Spirit, and we can still keep a certain capacity of religiosity in our lives. And we can say “No” to things that God wants us to say “Yes” to. And we can abstain from things that God actually wants us to experience. And I'm not talking about weird stuff. I'm talking about the basic things. And I know that there's a lot of churches that will have a hard time when somebody full of tattoos or long hair or maybe, I don’t know, short pants walks into a church, maybe for the first time in his life. Instead of the giving of the gospel and the love of God they will kick him out. Now I'm the last person to encourage tattoos and all of that, but I'm saying the person already has them and he’s seeking God and goes to the house of God, maybe for the first time in his life. Who are we to kick him out? Often time I’m thinking, what would Jesus do? When Jesus came, one of the first things that the Pharisees accused Him for is... what? Hanging out with?... the sinners. So Peter is now receiving that amazing revelation. And Peter—it took three times. It’s very interesting how Peter is, what we say, gave the first oxymoron in the New Testament. “Not so, Lord!” How can God be your Lord and you say “No” to him? It's an oxymoron... but with Peter it was a genuine oxymoron. He truly believed that God is talking, but God is wrong. And he needed to... maybe it’s a test... maybe it’s a test. Hey, I’m a very very good Jew, I will not touch it. You know, it's interesting because I investigated the kosher dietary laws of the Jewish people. I truly investigated it because I wondered, why would God, the creator of the earth and the heavens, the creator of all things, would care if I eat pork? I mean, to go that, to the smallest detail of my life. Why would he care if I eat shrimp or squid or crab meat or all of those things? And then I realized that we are missing out the whole thing. It's not about anything but the love of God and the care of God for his people. And he wants them to be what... Healthy. If you really think about it, the two most contaminated groups of food in the world today are the pigs on earth and the seafood in the bottom of the ocean. Pigs can eat anything. All the shellfish and all that —they actually are known as the vacuum cleaners of the ocean. Now we are free from the law, but we have to remember what was originally the reason for which God gave us those things. And Peter did not think about the love of God. He did not think about the care of God. He did not think about the protection that God wants him to have from these germs. What was he thinking about? As a Jew, I’m not allowed to touch it, because I'm a Jew. That pride was still there, even though he was already saved, even though he had the Holy Spirit. We can be full of pride, and arrogant sometimes without knowing. I sat on the plane next to a woman from Brazil and I told her I'm a believer, I'm a Jew but I believe in Jesus, and she started asking me in Portuguese, I don't speak Portuguese, so we had to communicate through certain words. And I asked her what is she. She said, “Wait a minute, so are you Evangelical or Protestant?” I said, “Well I'm a Jew but you can count me on that side.” But she said, “Oh, I’m Catholic.” I said, “Okay.” She said, “Evangelicals came after. It’s the Catholic church that came first.” And I was thinking and I said to her, “The first church, they were all Jews.” "Yeah, but after they became Catholic.” I said, “You see, you said ‘after,’ so I can say ‘after’ also." It's not about after or before. It's not about who was there first. It’s about what is the right way. And isn’t that interesting that in one place, God says to the Jewish people, “Don’t touch it!” -speaking of the food by the way - and when he's bringing that sheet, he’s telling Peter, “Kill and eat!” It’s the same God. But we have a revelation in the New Testament... that that which came from heaven was not a picture of food at all. It was not a picture of “touch it” or “don't touch it” because it's healthy or not healthy. If it came from God, guess what?... It’s good. The Bible didn't say it came from a Greek restaurant all the way. The Bible said that white sheet came from heaven. God sent it, and, by the way, Peter knew it. What God calls clean, we cannot call unclean. Unbelievable! And I want you to know that to the best of my knowledge, most of you who sit right in front of me, belong to that group of those whom Peter will count as unclean. You are the jumping shrimps. You are the wild, slimy, creepy. No, I’m just trying to show you what the Jews had in their minds then, even when they were thinking about you guys. A Jew would not set his foot into a gentile’s house. And by the way, for a good reason many times. Because they always, always worshiped pagan gods, were eating stuff that was offered to pagan gods. It was indeed unclean to a certain degree. This is why when Peter eventually got it and went along with those soldiers that were sent by Cornelius to take him all the way to Caesarea a day and a half, 2 days walking distance. The first thing that happened when he walked into the house, they all bowed down and started worshiping him. And he said to himself: “Oh, Mamma! I knew it. That's exactly what I didn't want to happen.” He said, “Get up! I’m not God! Don’t worship me!” Because, in the pagan world, they are not used to the invisible, omnipresent, omniscient, omnipotent God. They’re used to seeing sculptures, people.. they need to have the visuals. And Peter walks in, probably a messenger of God, look what they do to the Pope today. That same mindset, pagan mindset of worshiping a human being is up until today. In the world that calls itself Christian. And I want to wrap it up right now just with one message. The obedience of Peter led the first non-Jewish family to the Lord in Caesarea, the family of Italians because Cornelius was of the Italian Regiment, the Bible says. A pasta eater... If you don't like pasta, it’s your problem. And I want you to know that Cornelius was a Gentile that loved the Lord, but he had no idea how he can get saved. And God heard him, and God saw him. Yes, he was a non-Jew, yet God cared for him. And God saw him, and God looked at him and God, in the dream, says “Cornelius, I’ve heard you. I've heard your prayers, I’ve seen the alms your giving, I know your heart. Therefore, send guys to Joppa and get Simon, whose surname is Peter, and he’s there in Simon the tanner’s house. And bring him over... he'll share with you the good news.” And Peter... I'm thinking, I'm guessing, did this. Alright, I’m going to have to do it... I'll do it. And he walked all the way, and he stepped into a gentile's house and he shared the good news, and they all got saved, they’re all filled with the Holy Spirit. And what happened is, Peter is dumbfounded. He had never seen anything like that. Now, bear in mind, he’s seen people resurrected from the dead, he’s seen people who are blind seeing now, he’s seen amazing things. But he had never ever seen gentiles accepting the Lord. In those days, to see a gentile becoming a believer in Yeshua, in Jesus, was a great thing, unseen thing, unbelievable thing! How sad it is that today it’s the opposite. Today when a Jew becomes a believer in Yeshua, it’s “Oh! Wow!” But in those days they were all Jews who believed in the Messiah. And they shared... Watch this! They shared the spiritual things with the Gentiles. I want to tell you something. It is a riddle to many people, but in the book of Romans, in chapter 15 — not only that Paul in chapter 11 speaks of the importance of the Jewish people in the plan of God, and in the eyes of God— but in chapter 15 verse 27, Paul is sharing something interesting. Paul says in verse 25, “But now I'm going to Jerusalem to minister to the saints.” He’s going to Jerusalem to minister to the believers among the Jews, the saints, the Jewish believers and look what he says: “It pleased those from Macedonia and Achaia to make a certain contribution to the poor among the saints who are in Jerusalem.” Now look in verse 27, I'm giving you an enigma. I'm giving you a secret right now. I'm giving you actually a mystery. It pleased them, indeed, and they are their debtors.” Why?... “For if the Gentiles have been partakers of their spiritual things, their duty is also to minister to the Jews in material things.” By the way, in other translations, it says, “For if the Gentiles were shared by the Jews, then they should share with them the material things.” Peter shared. Peter said, “Silver and gold I have not, but I can give you Jesus Christ.” He wasn't a rich man. You don’t have to be a rich man to save souls. God saves souls. You just have to share. And Peter, all he did was obedient to the calling of God, which was very inconvenient, unorthodox, very very strange in his eyes. And Peter took the message of salvation to the most odd, inconvenient, his non-territorial and he shared it with the people, he thought, that are the least. Bear in mind, from there the gospel took off, from Caesarea, the harbor of Caesarea was the hub of the gospel to Asia minor and later on to Western Europe, and then the whole world. The obedience of one man, on a rooftop in this very city right here in ancient Joppa, produced faith held by millions of people around the world still today. Not limited to one city or to one country or not even to one continent. So, if we’re looking at the tribe of Dan, the disobedience can not only hurt you but also generations to come. But if we're looking at Jonah, and certainly if were looking at the story in the life of Peter, to obey is better than sacrifice. And I want to make it very clear, God is not looking for religious people. God is not looking for people who can say, “I did not do that. I did not do that. God, look at me I kept this, I did that.” All that God wants is people that will obey Him. It's very simple if you really think about it. You really don't have to do much. You just have to obey. But isn’t that interesting that the hardest thing for a human to do is to obey? From Genesis 3 and on, sin entered the world because of disobedience. And now through Jesus Christ and the shed blood on the cross... we can have that obedience... we can get rid of that disobedience. We can have, because we are now a new creation. We are now people with a new heart, new mind, new understanding. Now we are people of God. We can call him “Abba, Father.” We have direct access to the Holy of holies. We now understand the Word of God. We understand the heart of God. We understand the love of God. And we understand the grace of God. And when you understand the love of God and the grace of God, and the heart of God, you know that there's nothing in you that caused God to love you. It's all about a free gift. And when you understand that, even if you'll be the most religious person in the world, it's still not going to cause God to love you more than He already loved you when He sent his only begotten Son to die on the cross for you. Then you understand: wait a minute, it’s not about me - it's about Him. And all I need to do in the little time that is left for me on this earth before the rapture comes, and the rapture is around the corner, guys, is to obey. God doesn't need sacrifice. God doesn't need fasting if it's not.... What is a true fast? Isaiah writes, “To set the captives free.” How can someone be free? He who has the Son, the Bible says, is free indeed. That's the only freedom that we can have in this world. And so, you give them Jesus, you set them free and then you're walking in full obedience to the calling of God. I don't believe there is one person on planet earth that doesn't have the calling of God upon his life once he becomes a believer to share the gospel. “Oh, I don't think I'm capable. Oh, I don’t think I'm talented. Oh, I don’t think I have the time. I don’t have the money. I don't have the attitude.” Guys, God is going to ask all of us one day: “What did you do with the money, the time, and the resources and the talents that I gave you?” Every one of us has a talent, resources, and time. Now trust me, if you have time to be on Facebook, you have time to evangelize. If you have time to watch TV, you have time, probably, to evangelize. If you have a tongue, if you have lips, if you have ears, you probably can talk. If you can’t talk, by the way, someone once said we should always preach the gospel, and if necessary we should use words. To preach the gospel is not only by talking. In fact, live as Christ lived, reflect His love and His grace through your life, then people will ask... they will be drawn to you. So I want to encourage all of us today here in the heart of the city of Joppa, a city that is at least 4,000 years old, from the heart of Joppa, we just learn a lesson on obedience. And may God bless and direct each and every one of us in the way we think and respond to His calling upon our lives. Remember, you may be found religious, but you can correct your ways. Because He’s going to call you a second time and third time. And once you get it, act upon it. And sometimes things will sound weird to you. “God, should I talk to that? Are you sure?”... “Oh, yeah. Talk to her. Talk to him.” You won't believe it, how open people can be, if we only talk to them. How lonely people are. I get hundreds of messages every day on Facebook, on emails, on different platforms of social media. People are lonely. People are desperate. People want to know the love of God, people want to know the plan of God for them, but all they need to do is be in the Word, trust the Lord, and listen to Him. Unless you surrender your life, unless you are born from above, born again, you know, the first birth means nothing. Everybody’s born the first time. The second birth means everything. And it's the second birth that not everyone gets to experience. The first death, everyone, most people will have. It’s the second death we want to escape. So we need a second birth, so we can escape the second death. And in order to do that, we need to respond, to obey, to believe and to follow God. If you really think about it, it's not that hard. All it takes is humility, and all it takes is to soften our heart so we can hear Him. Let's pray. Father, we thank you so much for a lesson on obedience that we can have both from the stories of the tribe of Dan, a lesson of disobedience, and the consequences of it, and, of course, from the lives of Jonah and Peter. Maybe Jonah, being such an inspiration, was the reason why Peter was called Peter bar Jonah, Peter son of Jonah. We thank you, Father, for the lives of these two great men. We thank you for the difference that they made. We thank you Father that all you care about is not sacrifice. It's not religion, it's not tradition, it's not how we are but for us to focus on who You are. To obey is better than sacrifice. We thank you, Father, and we bless you this morning from the heart of the city of Joppa. And whoever listens to this message, whether it's here now or back home watching this DVD or online, Father, reveal yourself to all people who seek sincerely your ways. May they all understand that it is only through Christ and Christ alone and through having been born again from the Spirit that they can have a new life, new heart, new mind, so they can hear the Word of God. And that your Word will not be any more on books but actually, as Jeremiah the prophet said, in chapter 31:31, it will be written on the plates of their heart. We thank you, Father, for the Holy Spirit. We thank you for the Comforter. We thank you for your great promises that we have if we indeed obey you. We ask all of this in the name of the one who obeyed you all the way to the cross. The one who said, “Not my will, but thy will be done.” And that's what we want to say today from the heart of Joppa. Not our will but thy will be done. In the name of Yeshua, Jesus,
we pray and all of God’s people say, “Amen.”
