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[00:00:00] David: So John, we're continuing this last little section of chapter nine. I wonder if some of our listeners think that chapter nine's, like when your car gets stuck in the mud and you just feel like you're always about to get out and you're just not quite out just yet, and,

[00:01:05] John: Yes, yes. Or although I, I would prefer to use another analogy of maybe a fantastic buffet restaurant, David, and you think you've finished? Is that a better illustration? I, I like the idea. Oh, do you know, I thought it was finished, but I'm just gonna go up and get a little bit more, or, last time I was up at the buffet, I spotted beautiful sort of, crispy prawns or something and Alright, I'll have a bit more of that.

[00:01:27] There are a few things better for me than having great food, but having the time to eat. And slowing down, great food with great friends and the time to enjoy both. I, I, I, there are very few human pleasures better, and I, and I think that's what me and you are doing on our podcast.

[00:01:43] We're just, we're just two, two mates. distracted by the buffet. David. That's what it isn't it.

[00:01:49] David: John, I'm feeling it. I'm feeling it. I I, I, we're just, as this podcast goes out, we're just at the end of lent and I went vegetarian for Lent John. And and so that, that image of Crispy PR is is landing heavily right now. I've just decided what I'm gonna do at the end of Lance.

[00:02:10] John: Come on, come on,

[00:02:11] David: gonna go find some crispy prs.

[00:02:13] John: Absolutely. Well done. You bless your heart. Bless your heart.

[00:02:17] David: So, so the, the two stories at the end of chapter nine are, are healing stories. So we have a nass Sort of healing. And, and we read the text in the last episode, so we, we'll allow you to, to jump back there and listen to the text. So this is Acts 9 32 to 43. So we have Nays Healing and then Dorcus, he's Resurrection.

[00:02:38] There, there's a few interesting little parallels and comparisons that, that sort of, you're reading this text and it is as is the way with two text reminding us of another text, isn't it?

[00:02:51] John: Oh, completely. Completely. And, and I think if if our listeners, if you, if you were with us in the last podcast, then you may have even heard, oh, I think I've heard something like that before. Either in the gospels or I've heard something like that before. Even in the book of Acts and and, and you're getting lovely little.

[00:03:09] Patterns, which seems to point is I, I love the connectedness here. Here's Peter, who probably was with Jesus and a lot of the core individual miracles that we see in the gospels. He was, he, when, when, when groups were sent away, him and maybe, James and John were there. And also he, he got a front row seat on a number of very unusual moments in the world of Jesus.

[00:03:36] And, and you, you can't help but feel is, is some of the stuff we're seeing here in this gorgeous little mini passage, is this like, Is this Peter's training coming out? Is is Peter almost doing Jesus like behavior now? I, I know it's Jesus, like in the sense of the miracles, but even the way he's doing certain things, this without, without overcooking Peter, it feels a bit Jesus like to me in terms of pattern.

[00:04:04] Is that, is that fair, David? You think?

[00:04:05] David: Oh, goodness. Yes. I, I, I, I absolutely feel that John the. So, so get up and make your bed. Just, it's just like any teenager any teenager reading this Miracle Story knows. Yeah. If that happens. That definitely was a miracle. Or perhaps any parent, that but, but that to me draws me into the, get up and pick up your mat.

[00:04:26] This sort of, this sort of, I feel that going on the I I. I find in the second story the, the resonance for so many, well, here's what I found, and I'm just gonna lay them out there and pick through what you want. I found myself being drawn back even into The Elijah Elijah narratives, I, I felt echoes in evidence of, of that sort of, moment there.

[00:04:52] But, but really the story it drew me to is the, is JIRA's daughter. I don't know if, and, and I'm slightly suspicious that one of the reasons I'm drawn to the JIRA's daughter, and this is not, I don't think this is good biblical studies here to be clear. The fact that Jesus's words to JIRA's daughter are Taha Kum, and this lady's name is Tabitha.

[00:05:12] I, I. Do you feel that as well?

[00:05:15] John: I did, I did, I did. I, obviously Takum is a, is a, like Arama, which Peter would've been very familiar with and this, this name. So at a, at a phonic level, there's a real resonance there, isn't it? Oh, these. This is really, and, and I did actually just check. I thought, okay, I wonder was, I wonder, does, does Tabitha connect to anything around her?

[00:05:36] But I couldn't find anything in the language connection. But, but just phonically, you're going, Ooh, that's a really beautiful little connection there. Which again, we, we wouldn't build our house on. But it it's a cool little coincidence, isn't it?

[00:05:50] David: It's at very least interesting that Tabitha is her Hebrew name, right? Because, because we're told here's she has this Greek name is Dorcas, right? So Luke wants you to hear her name differently, which is what makes me suspicious that, Taha Kum, which means little girl get up and Peter says to her, Tabitha, get up.

[00:06:10] I mean,

[00:06:10] John: Yes. Come on.

[00:06:12] David: he's at least worth pointing out,

[00:06:13] John: It's totally, it totally is. It absolutely is. And, and I just, I, I mean, I, I love, I just really love that. But, but, but some of the, some of the similarities, especially between the dorky Tabitha Healing and Jar's daughter are. Breathtaking, aren't they? I mean, they really are. You could almost layer both stories, if not on top of each other.

[00:06:36] Certainly significant overlap on, on, on some of that, which is, which is quite amazing. I, I mean like the, the, the little one that I spotted in terms of the narrative, the opening one. I mean, I think I, I think I've listed, hold on, let me have a look. One. 3, 4, 5. I think I listed six parallel connections. David, cuz like you, I was totally drawn to the mark story, the, to the jar's story.

[00:07:01] I've, I've picked up the mark version.

[00:07:03] David: Yes.

[00:07:04] John: So, so like the first little one I saw was in our story in Ex, they sent two men to him and urged him, please come at once. So he's in Lida, they're in Joppa, modern Jaffa. And then of course, mark, we have this, this cry. Please come and put your hands on her. That's from Jaris himself.

[00:07:23] David: yes,

[00:07:24] John: So two men make the approach. Now Jarris makes the approach and their language is very similar. Please come at once. Please come and put your hands on her. So that's a, that's a gorgeous little overlap. Then the second one I found from the Mark version was verse 39. Peter went with, Literally Mark 4 24 says, so Jesus went with them.

[00:07:48] It's just, it's like, very deliberate language. Verse 39 in our story, all the widows stood around him crying. So when Peter goes in, they're all cran for Dorcus. And of course Mark 38, that's quite famous for the commotion.

[00:08:02] David: Mm mm.

[00:08:03] John: Jesus. Literally, it says Jesus saw a commotion with people crying and wheeling loudly.

[00:08:10] David: Mm

[00:08:11] John: Then verse 40 of our story, and it's coincidental, it's verse 40 of Mark chapter four. That's a pure, pure fluke, right? But verse 40 of our story, Peter sent them out, verse 40 of Mark chapter. After he put them all out. And then you've got, you've got the gorgeous, the gorgeous thing that you've already listed there.

[00:08:33] Verse 40 turning toward the dead woman. Peter said, Tabitha, get up. And then verse 41 of Mark Talitha Kum little girl I say to you, get up and in. And then the sort of the reaction, verse 40 in R story, she opened her eyes and seen Peter. Verse 42 of mark four, immediately the girl stood up and walked around. I just, I just, that's cool, isn't it? I mean, I mean that could be just like pure coincidence, but you're thinking that is seriously consistent coincidence, right. In terms of the two stories.

[00:09:07] David: Yes. , a ab absolutely. There's clearly there's some sort of residencies going on there and some of the residencies are drawn a little closer in the original text, and actually some of them are pushed a little further away. And this would be, important for us to sort of chat about.

[00:09:22] Y that we, we are often looking for illusions. But you know, one of the things about looking for illusions is sometimes you do have to stop and say, nah, I don't

[00:09:31] John: Yeah.

[00:09:32] David: there. And, and so we, and, and you and me both would want our listeners to know that that's totally okay.

[00:09:36] You, you sometimes think, oh, wouldn't it be exciting if, and you go Look, so I was looking at. The Luken version of the Gyrus story. And in English you've got, he took her by the hand and called up Child, get up. And then I was like, oh, that's pretty cool because in, in Peter's version then in act he says, Tabitha, get up.

[00:09:54] I said, I wonder if the get up word's the same. And I look and it's not so in In, in Luke, you have Jesus says says to her that uses the word gyro to be raised up. Whereas actually, interestingly the word in act is animini, right? Resurrection. Right. It's a, so they both mean the same broad thing, but they are, if you're reading these two texts in Greek, you, the parallel is pushed further away.

[00:10:19] I, I don't think that, I don't think that Negates anything that we are saying here. But I think it's a good point to make for our listeners that, sometimes the illusion you can get, excited and it comes to nothing

[00:10:31] John: Yeah. Yeah, for sure. For sure.

[00:10:34] David: But this what you're saying here, I, I fully agree with it, this, this story, and, and we know that Luke does this.

[00:10:40] We know that Luke draws illusions to other stories from the Bible, so it's not surprising then to see him now start to draw illusions in the life of Peter to The life of Jesus. It's interesting for me that the certain features that are the same, and this again, I think would be a good marker in terms of being careful of parallel Romania.

[00:11:03] I think that's what one Jewish scholar called it. Where we just love seeing parallels. But there are fascinating things that, there's a man named DNEs who's been bedridden for eight years. That point of detail that we see often in the miracle stories of Jesus. But not 12 years.

[00:11:19] So it doesn't match us with it doesn't match us with anything in this particular up and coming story, but, but I feel like it's a narrative form that draws your mind back to stories that you've heard before. Get up. Take your mat, Tabitha. Get up. Bear in mind, this is all happening under the power of the Holy Spirit, which is the spirit of Jesus who is with these disciples.

[00:11:43] So I would be saying to, to us, cuz I love these parallels that you've pointed out, John, and if a listener's listening and saying, wow, you know what? I think you're poss, you guys are, you love a parallel, you're maybe pushing it too hard. At very least I think what we'd want someone to hear is.

[00:12:01] Is, oh, let me ask, let me ask you as a question. Is Luke showing us that the spirit that empowered Jesus when it empowers the early church starts to do things that look very Jesus

[00:12:12] John: like Jesus. Absolutely. Yeah. I, I, I would say I, well, I'd say there's probably two layers to that. Without, again, the last thing we wanna do is get overly excited and overcook what's there. But, but I, I, I think there's definitely, you're seeing Okay. We're, we're looking at how the Holy Spirit is leading this new community in the Book of Acts, and that looks incredibly like the Jesus stuff that Jesus did.

[00:12:41] David: Mm-hmm.

[00:12:42] John: think it's un, I think it's unmissable and I think you have to work harder to deny that connection. Then you just, just spot it. And I think there is some of that. And then I think at a, just a purely human level, dear, but I think. Someone like Peter clearly has been apprenticed directly by Jesus in some ways.

[00:13:01] And you could argue that these parallels that we've picked up from say the story of Jar's daughter in into the healing of Tabitha, though, Though, they're, they're not, it's not a copy of one or the other, but there's a sense in which Luke allows it to be told that way in the book of Acts because he is showing that this is a reflection of how Jesus did some stuff.

[00:13:28] And, if you, if you and I hung around Jesus, then we would, we would probably start to think like him. We would probably start. Moments where it's better not to have the crowd in the room than have this as a public event. Moments where actually this, this takes something a little bit slower and, and, and more intimate and deliberate.

[00:13:50] And of course, what I love about the healing of an As is that Peter explicitly connects this to Jesus.

[00:13:58] David: Yes.

[00:13:58] John: He, he doesn't just speak to Anes in, in the way that Jesus would've done, but he speaks to Anes in the name of Jesus. It's there, there's clearly a connection here to this sort of imagery and identification.

[00:14:13] He Peter He Jesus Christ heals you rise up.

[00:14:18] David: Hmm

[00:14:19] John: So, so, p p Peter said to him, it's Jesus Christ that heals you. Right? So, so I love that. I love the fact that although Peter is reflecting very similar behavior, literally to the way Jesus did things, and Luke undoubtedly saying, the seam spirit that led Jesus is leading.

[00:14:38] Church of the way, this community of the way, I, I love the fact that Peter explicitly, especially in the first miracle, links this directly to Jesus so that it's not seen to be somehow just him as a representation. Is that, does that make sense?

[00:14:53] David: Yes. Very much so. Very much so. A, a, as you're talking there, there's two words come to mind. And these are actually, I think, quite significant words for us in the church, but we hate them. If you've come from, if you're listening to this, two texts and you're coming from a kind of free church tradition, evangelical tradition, Pentecostal tradition, something like that, then the two words that I'm about to use, you'll probably have a reaction to in the words are ritual and.

[00:15:20] John: Hmm.

[00:15:20] David: And in, in the high church, these two, these two words are very specific specific usage. So you often hear people, they'll go to maybe a higher church tradition, they'll go, ah, it's all just ritual in ceremony, right? So ritual is properly defined, is the words you use within a liturgy and ceremony is the things that you do well.

[00:15:40] Basically while saying those words within the liturgy what I think's fascinating is most of us, like I'm, I'm, I've said this multiple times before, I'm raised within Pentecostal tradition, so we always looked slightly negatively on the words ritual and ceremony, despite having lots of ritual and ceremony in our lives.

[00:15:57] Right. Pentecostals let me use an example. You've seen this multiple times, John. We're having a service in a Pentecostal tradition where, Pray for people to receive the Holy Spirit, and it's almost guaranteed that we will pray words which say something along the lines of, receive the Holy Spirit.

[00:16:15] And it's, that's ritual and it's almost guaranteed. And tell, correct me if I'm wrong, please, please do. Somebody will lay their hands on somebody. Right, which is ceremony. We, we must, and if you said, well, let's not lay our hands on somebody, people would say, well that seems a bit strange, right? Because that's our ceremony.

[00:16:31] So our liturgy of praying for people, for the Holy Spirit is to pray words saying, receive the Holy Spirit and lay hands. So our ritual in our ceremony is such I, I often say to people, go to a wedding and imagine a wedding where nobody says you may now kiss the bride. Right. Those, those ritualistic words, we would be deeply uncomfortable if they weren't present.

[00:16:50] Right. We would be uncomfortable if the, the, the. The pastor leading the wedding ceremony said, you know what? For this wedding, we're not going to exchange rings. We just don't need that part of se. We just don't need ceremony. And we would say no. So what I always say to people is just spot and notice in your life when anything serious is happening.

[00:17:08] You go to ritual in ceremony, you want specific words, and you weren't specific actions. There's another way to look at it though, that says that that what you see within rabbinic tradition, Students learn ritual in ceremony from their rabbi. And the nature of why you learn ritual in ceremony from your rabbi is when you find yourself in places where you don't know what to do.

[00:17:31] You just think, what would my rabbi say? What would my rabbi do? Right? I mean, it's. It's the least controversial thing ever to see. And at some level, ritual in ceremonies, another way of saying what would Jesus do? Right? And think about, think about the Lord's Prayer. If I always say to people recently I've been saying this to people quite regularly, look at Matthew's recitation of the Lord's Prayer.

[00:17:52] Jesus says, when you. Go into your room. Do not be like this. Do not go in the street corners, go into your room close your door and be alone with your father in heaven. That ceremony, it's what to do. And then Jesus says, when you pray, Pray like this and he gives us words that we should say.

[00:18:08] I, when I read this, this is what I think is going on here, right? That that Peter is going, I should do what I saw Jesus do and I should say what I saw Jesus say. And I don't mean in a manufactured way, I actually mean that. I think that's what the Holy Spirit does in. Is that, is that it calls him to imitate what he saw.

[00:18:29] Jesus, get up and make your bed, puts everybody outside, kneels down and says, Tabitha, get up. I, I mean, maybe I'm stretching that too far, John, but, but that's, I I think it's a, it's an interesting point for us in church life. That actually sometimes modeling things that have gone before us has deep depth and I think it's what we maybe see the Holy Spirit doing in Peter just here.

[00:18:51] John: Oh, abso, I, I would agree with that 100%. That's just magnificent summary of that. And, and I think this, this idea, earlier on in the book of Acts, We, we heard the Sanhedrin say these men were ordinary, they were unschooled uneducated as far as our standard of the Torah is concerned. And yet they perceived they had been with Jesus.

[00:19:15] Now, you could sermonize the life out of that. Couldn't you just rock that for months? As a sermon? But a but, but something in their behavioral pattern. And I don't, just me, I, I, I think it's even more than just righteousness and morality because they lived in a, in a, a fairly, a fairly robustly moral and righteous world as far as, as far as religion was concerned.

[00:19:38] So it, it wasn't just their morality, I think it was, it was their, Behavior in terms of engagement with the community, the miraculous, the various things, in that story, in, in acts, they're, they're, they're in, in front of the San Heatron because someone's been healed.

[00:19:53] David: Hmm,

[00:19:54] John: So there's this sort of, wow, okay.

[00:19:56] What we're seeing in Peter and John, we've seen that before. W we've, we've seen this pattern of behavior before, and I think that's absolutely there and, and I think this magnificent sort of Peter has by intention or can I? Carefully by osmosis, he has absorbed how Jesus did, did things. And you just get a very Jesus like pattern here.

[00:20:25] If, if, if this was in the Gospels widow, which that's Jesus, isn't it? But it sits in the Book of Acts. It's absolutely, absolutely gorgeous within that

[00:20:34] David: First Corinthians 11, one, imitate me as I imitate Christ. It's a, it's a, it's a New Testament principle, isn't it?

[00:20:41] John: Mm. It absolutely is, absolutely is. David, I dunno if you noticed, just changing gears slightly. I, I, I noticed that when it came to Dorcas Tabitha, there was an emphasis on the fact that she was a disciple. Right. But when we have Anes, it just says he found a man. Do you think, again, thinking about the Jesus pattern and the gospels who, where, where Jesus.

[00:21:09] Engage. Can I use this sandwich both inside and outside the synagogue? He would heal those who maybe were clearly following something of the ways of the Lord as they understood them, but also would heal completely people completely outside of that world. Is this another little. Connection there. I, I, I can't find evidence in the text unless there's something I am missing that Anes was a believer, just that he found a man.

[00:21:45] Now, of course that man could have been within the community of believers that Peter has gone to visit, but I, I found it, I found it an interesting contrast. And I'm wondering, is that deliberate by Dr. Luke? Is he nudging something or am I just overcooking it again, I is the fact that IES is just listed as a man, whereas Tabitha is listed as a disciple and you get again this love.

[00:22:09] Supernatural activity to those of faith and supernatural activity to potentially at least someone sitting outside the community faith. And again, this sense that there's no discrimination. That, that this miraculous work of the spirit is not simply for those who believe, but in the pattern of Jesus is also for people who didn't believe and who didn't necessarily even believe after they were.

[00:22:32] David: Yeah, yeah, yeah. I, I had thought actually about this contrast, but, but I went a slightly different way than than you on it, so I do think that's, That is an interesting observation, however, that, that I got distracted by some, by something else, looking at the same thing. And so, yeah.

[00:22:50] So you, you've caught me thinking about that. Cuz you've got there's a, he, he found a man named an Aus, as you said, Jesus Christ heals.

[00:23:01] John: Mm,

[00:23:02] David: mean, there is, I mean, this is all our argument from silence listeners. So you know, John and I are just sort of, again, just wondering about things. Do you know?

[00:23:10] But does does Peter say an ass Jesus Christ heals you because an ass does not know Jesus Christ? I think that's a good question to ask and then, All the residents of, of Leida and and Sharon saw him and turned to the Lord. Yeah, it's, it's very, that's really interesting, John. Sorry. And didn't realize

[00:23:27] John: yeah, yeah. No, no, no. It's Abs absolutely doesn't, doesn't change the story. It just, I just thought it was an interesting potential contrast.

[00:23:35] David: I was struck by the contrast of a man and a woman, and the woman is the disciple. And so I was looking into that a little bit. I found this from, one of my favorite go-tos when it comes to just, Stirring me up when it comes to acts. This is from Willie James Jennings. Let me read this.

[00:23:53] Tabitha, the disciple of Jesus. Luke opens her story inside of Peter's journey, and in so doing makes a point more powerful for us in our time than probably for him in his time. Tabitha, a woman. Is a disciple of Jesus. Whether this vignette is evidence of Luke's positive view of women or not, he has certainly given us a plateau from which to view a new future in which men and women in Christ have different ways of seeing themselves.

[00:24:22] As disciples. And and I really like that because notice the way she's introduced, I mean, this is a woman, right? Like, I mean like, like really is quite a woman, she's devoted to good works to acts of charity. When when she dies, there's all these widows showing her what appeared to be the clothes that she's made them.

[00:24:42] So she's clothing people and she's, and I mean, it's not an absolute A to B connection there, but.

[00:24:48] John: I know where you're

[00:24:49] David: I think that that's what's being said is that these widows are like, look at who this woman was, right? Like, look at what she was doing for us. And and it is not lost on me that he turned to the body and said, Tabitha, an stmi be resurrected.

[00:25:05] I

[00:25:06] John: yes.

[00:25:07] David: the first. Resurrection Post. Jesus is a woman. And and and of course previously it was women who first believed in resurrection. So I can't I, I can't help but think that there's something going on in all of that, John.

[00:25:24] John: Fabulous. That's fabulous. And, and of course that, that if, if our listeners have hung around with us when we've done stuff in the Gospel of Luke, that's a big Luke in pattern.

[00:25:35] And he often has couplets, doesn't he? He will, he will have A sort of a compare and contrast type. We, we, we've seen, we've seen Luke hold up a woman and, and a man side by side, often in his stories or in stories that go side by side with each other.

[00:25:52] So this, this again, is a luken pattern where you have a man and then a woman, potentially a man who's not a believer, and that might be some traction there. That, that emphasis on Jesus Christ, the fact that it seems lots of unbelievers believed because of his miracle. So that, that could be a strong hint there.

[00:26:10] And then you get this gorgeous disciple woman who is a loved and adored and an outstanding woman. And David, I I, I don't want to jump into chapter 10 yet, but I couldn't help because, because I was reflecting on chapter 10 in some of, in some, Prep thinking before we even got there. But of course what's really interesting is that when we get to Cornelius, he's also described as someone.

[00:26:36] Gives arms to the poor and prayer. There's a, and, and you sort of, I, I can't help but feel without jumping too far ahead, that, that when we get to CROs, you're going, oh, hold on. I've heard that before. Where have I heard that before? And that's with a disciple called Dorcus. So, so you get this lovely threaded connection.

[00:26:55] It started, that runs through, not only a woman here, but but now a threaded connection through to a gentile eventually with a same sort of,

[00:27:05] David: Absolutely. John, what has to be going on here? I, I'm gonna, I'm gonna put my house on this one, right? So, you, you and I would often say, well, maybe don't build your house on this, but just think about it. I think that what Luke is doing to us here, Is making the point. If the Holy Spirit has removed the boundaries of race and gender, then a woman who loves God and does good works must be able to encounter.

[00:27:35] The Holy Spirit as much as a man who loves God and does good works, right? So again, listener don't hear what I'm saying about, oh, well, good works, or What help you encounter, God. The point is, the only reason that you think and you know that you, the reader of act, this is what Luke is thinking, in my opinion, the only reason you think there's a difference between Cornelius and Dorcas is you haven't got rid of your racism.

[00:28:00] Right. You, you're still thinking Jew versus Gentile. Like I, I think, go back into the first century, I absolutely convinced this is what Luke is doing to us. That, that we, if we see a difference between Cornelius and Dorcas, then we have not let the Holy Spirit. Eradicate the divisions yet, and, and not in such a way that, that, annihilates cornelius's identity, but just in a way to realize that the Holy Spirit is not interested where Cornelius was born, right?

[00:28:30] He is somebody who is looking for God as was the Ethiopian, as was, as were the disciples, so, I mean, that's, so, I think that's definitely what's going on here.

[00:28:40] John: Yeah. Fantastic. Fantastic. And, and, and I love that little, that little threaded connection. It is definitely there. I, I remember many, many years ago, I, I did my master's dissertation on the outpouring of the Holy Spirit on the Roman Catholic Church. So there was a, a huge. Charismatic explosion.

[00:28:57] And I found myself many, many times as a, someone from a Protestant background who would've had and been trained in a worldview about Roman Catholicism, reading accounts of people being filled with the spirit, and here was the things, David, I, this, this is my conclusion now. My conclusion was if I didn't know the person telling this story, Roman Catholic.

[00:29:18] I would just assume this is, this is, this is, looks like the P of X. This is the, the problem I was having was not the account

[00:29:26] David: Mm-hmm.

[00:29:27] John: right, but who it was happening to.

[00:29:29] David: Yes. Yes,

[00:29:30] John: you with me? So actually, Yeah, I'm reading her story and going, that sounds like the Holy Spirit. That looks like the Holy Spirit. That looks like the P of X.

[00:29:38] That looks like my experience. That looks like every Pentecostal experience I've ever come across. But my brain was saying, but I can't be the Holy Spirit because my, my background training and worldview said the Holy Spirit can't work in that. Okay. Now, I hope that doesn't offend our, th th this is a moment in time and hope it doesn't offend any listeners, but, but I think this is exactly what we're starting to get to, and now chapter 10 is going to be the explosive, climactic moment around that, I think is, is that fair, David?

[00:30:11] David: John, if that's what takes two texts down, then I'm going with you because I, I, I a hundred percent. Believe that, that, I mean, our listeners know this simply by listening to us, but you're talking about, you're listening to, an Irish Protestant and a Scottish Protestant.

[00:30:28] Right? So, like that was our, that was what we were raised in, wasn't it? And. And we were definitely raised in a context wherein, we had a view, well, I mean, let's be really upfront about it. Many Protestants have been raised to see Paul's opponents in Galatians as Roman Catholics. Right.

[00:30:49] Like that's how we read that text and. The, the, the problem that Peter is going to encounter in chapter 10 about the call to go and minister to these gentiles is not dissimilar to the call. That, I think, comes upon many of us to see beyond the exclusions that you were raised with. And I definitely think that there is within a huge sway of the church, a, a, a view against Roman Catholics that is based not in theology, not in the Holy Spirit, but based in just the way that we were.

[00:31:23] Raised Right. And and, and and that may be true also of Roman Catholics towards some Protestants. I, I, I haven't met any personally, so I don't, and it's not been an area of research to me all that I know is that all the Roman Catholics that I encounter on a regular basis in my life are, are beautifully open to the work of the Holy Spirit in their lives and my life.

[00:31:45] And so, so, I've been on this journey of saying, let me, let me work on my own heart and allow the Holy Spirit to do in me what I think the Holy Spirit is very evidently doing in Peter in, in this sort of story. Does, does that, does that follow?

[00:32:00] John: beautiful. And, and it reminds us again, we've been reflecting on the disruptive influence, presence of the Holy Spirit, that we're reminded again as we approach chapter 10, that the Holy Spirit is not boundaried. He, he can get over. Around and under boundaries. He can get to a gentile, he can get to a, an unbeliever.

[00:32:23] He can get to a believer, he can work through a break believer. He could work through a Hellenized believer. He can work in Lida. He can work in Joppa, he can work in Jerusalem. And as we're going to see, he's gonna blow the lid off Caesarea. So, so he, you get this just gorgeous sense that provided humans can cope with him and humans can partner with him, the Holy Spirit is gonna go wherever the Holy Spirit is gonna go.

[00:32:52] And even if our brains. The Holy Spirit can't go there. He goes, well, let me just show you what I can do then. And, and as, as we reflected on in our last po, I think we started with this in our last podcast together. Peter dead in JPA for some time with a tanner named Simon. And you just think there's, I think Luke Humorously.

[00:33:16] Beautifully, intentionally, even ironically, seeds in. Okay, folks in this verse, verse 43, this is the cue for you to fasten your seatbelt for what is about to happen in, in X chapter 10. And Peter himself, who is at the forefront of these two beautiful miracles in chapter nine, is about to have his own mind melted, ban, encounter with God and ban encounter with.

[00:33:44] Centurion Gentile, who received the Holy Spirit just like we did.

[00:33:51] David: Yeah, I mean, just Two trailers for where we're gonna go over the next few episodes. Acts 10, verse 34. I, I truly understand that God shows no partiality, right? In fact, I'll link, I'll, I'll drop a link in the show notes actually for this. I wrote a small piece for a Christian ministry in New York last, last summer about this because the word partiality is essentially God is face.

[00:34:16] And I, I, I, I love that. I love that sort of notion, but then, but then just, just track this, just, I mean, we're probably weeks off getting this listener, so you'll forgotten that I gave away the, the punchline. So, early chapter 11 of Acts verse seven, as Peter's reporting back on what happens, he says he.

[00:34:37] If then God gave them the same gift that he gave us when we believed in the Lord Jesus Christ, who was I? The I could hinder God and, and I. Like, I wish John without trying to be too emotional about this, but, but it's easy for us to say, come on Peter, you should have got there quicker. You've listened to Jesus long enough.

[00:35:01] What Jesus was saying about Jewish people, he was obviously opening up to Gentile people, but then I look and think, we must. Also ask the same question about white people's connection to black people. We must ask the same question about Protestants in their attitude towards Roman Catholics, about conservatives in their attitudes towards liberals to, just, we have so many divisions in our lives where we genuinely, and I, I relate to you the story you told earlier, that genuinely and regularly we find ourselves in a place where the category.

[00:35:38] Person that we're talking about. I didn't even mention men and women there, but the category of person that we're talking about, we are saying, oh, God can't be doing this because of who that is. And I think what acts is gonna take us on this rollercoaster ride off is that is not the way of the Holy Spirit.