“By No Means, Lord”

Acts 10:9-16

We see a significant contrast in this passage. Peter had a custom of praying three times a day and at noon on this day had gone up on the housetop of his host to pray. In those days the houses had flat roofs that were used almost like patios today. Peter went there for privacy.

I’m sure you have been taught about the vision of the great sheet full of animals coming down from the sky. Peter was hungry and God told him to kill one of those animals and eat it. Look at Peter’s response in verse 14 “By no means, Lord, for I have never eaten anything unholy and unclean.” The contrast is that Peter recognized God as his Lord, but then refused to be obedient.

This contrast seems to be a pattern with Peter and I believe is also a relatively common trait of many Christians. This is the third time Peter had rebelled at God’s will. In Matthew 16:21 Jesus told His disciples that He was going to die. Notice in v. 22 “Peter took Him aside and began to rebuke Him, saying, “God forbid it, Lord! This shall never happen to You.” Note that Jesus response was that Peter was not setting his mind on God’s interest, but man’s.

We see Peter doing the same thing in John 13:8 which tells of Jesus washing the disciples feet. When Jesus came to Peter his first response was to question the action “Lord, do you wash my feet?” When Jesus explained that Peter would understand His actions later Peter replied “Never shall You wash my feet!”

In all three of these situations Peter looked at what was transpiring from man’s perspective rather than from God’s point of view. That is natural for all of us but we need to remember that God’s actions do not always follow man’s logic. My exhortation to you is that if you strongly feel God leading you some way in your life, but it doesn’t seem logical, obey Him. We need to be careful not to thwart God’s will in our life because it doesn’t seem logical. It is good to have wise mentors and counselors, but we must also remember they are human and may misread God’s will just as Peter did.