The theme of this week’s sermon on Acts 10 was the Spirit’s desire to reach beyond ‘people like us’ to include outsiders—such as Samaritans, Ethiopian Eunuchs, Romans and Gentiles of all types—as full members of God’s family. As I was sifting through possible ways to highlight that theme, I came across the following illustration. I found it inspiring and important, it just didn’t quite fit the direction the sermon was taking. I thought you might enjoy thinking it over anyway. 

We are a resurrected people who put our whole trust in the power of our God to do for us what we couldn’t possibly do for ourselves. Easter is the celebration that God stands ready, willing, and able to bring us from death to life—right now.

     It’s easy to forget that Jesus was fully human.  He loved his disciples but he needed good friends that weren’t front and center in his ministry.

My first thought in preparing today’s message was to emphasize all the different groups—religious and political—of Jesus’ day and explain how each would have been relatively unhappy about the vision Jesus had for the Kingdom of God. I was going to rely on this extended quotation from author, Brian McClaren’s book, The Secret Message of Jesus. I decided to go in another direction, but you students of the Bible might find the following helpful both in setting up the backdrop of Jesus’ ministry as well beginning to understand why there was so much resistance to Jesus by so many people.