Hi, my name is Father Mike Schmitz, and you're listening to the Bible in a Year podcast, where we encounter God's voice and live life through the lens of scripture. The Bible in a Year podcast is brought to you by Ascension. Using the Great Adventure Bible timeline, we'll read all the way from Genesis to Revelation, discovering how the story of salvation unfolds and how we fit into that story today. It's Day 331 we're reading from the Acts of the Apostles, Chapter 10, as well as 1 Corinthians 1:2. We're also reading Proverbs Chapter 27:21-22. As always the Bible translation that I'm reading from is the revised, standard version, second Catholic edition. I'm using The Great Adventure Bible from Ascension. If you want to download your own Bible in a year reading plan, you can visit ascensionpress. Com/bibleinayyear. You can also subscribe to this podcast and receive daily episodes and daily updates. It is Day 331, we're reading Acts the Apostles, Chapter 10, 1 Corinthians 1:2, Proverbs 27:21-22. The Acts the Apostles, Chapter 10: Peter and Cornelius. At Cesarea, there was a man named Cornelius, a centurion of what was known as the Italian cohort. A devout man who feared God with all his household, gave alms liberally to the people and prayed constantly to God.

About the ninth hour of the day, he saw clearly in a vision an angel of God coming in and saying to him, Cornelius. He staring at him in terror and said, What is it, Lord? He said to him, Your prayers and your alms have ascended as a memorial before God, and now send men to Joppa and bring one Simon who is called Peter. He is lodging with Simon, a tanner whose house is by the seaside. When the angel who spoke to him had departed, he called two of his servants and a devout soldier from among those that waited on him, and having related everything to them, he sent them to Joppa. The next day, as they were on their journey and coming near the city, Peter went up on the housetop to pray about the sixth hour, and he became hungry and desired something to eat. But while they were preparing it, he fell into a trance and saw the heaven opened and something descending, like a great sheet, let down by four corners upon the earth. In it were all kinds of animals and reptiles and birds of the air. There came a voice to him, Rise, Peter, kill, and eat.

But Peter said, No, Lord, for I have never eaten anything that is common or unclean. The voice came to him again a second time, What God has cleansed, you must not call common. This happened three times, and the thing was taken up at once to heaven. Now, while Peter was inwardly perplexed as to what the vision which he had seen might mean, behold, the men that were sent by Cornelius, having made inquiry for Simon's house, stood before the gate and called out to ask whether Simon, who was called Peter, was lodging there. And while Peter was pondering the vision, the Spirit said to him, 'Behold, three men are looking for you. Rise and go down and accompany them without hesitation, for I have sent them. ' Peter went down to the men and said, I am the one you are looking for. What is the reason for your coming? They said, Cornelius, a centurion, an upright and God-fearing man who is well-spoken of by the whole Jewish nation, was directed by a holy angel to send for you to come to his house and to hear what you have to say. So he called them in to be his guests.

The next day, he rose off and went off with them, and some of the brethren from Joppa accompanied him. On the following day, they entered Cesarea. Cornelius was expecting them and had called together his kinsmen and close friends. When Peter entered, Cornelius met him and fell down at his feet and worshiped him. But Peter lifted him up saying, Stand up, I too, am a man. As he talked with him, he went in and found many persons gathered, and he said to them, You yourselves know how unlawful it is for a Jew to associate with or to visit anyone of another nation. But God has shown me that I should not call any man common or unclean. So when I was sent for, I came without objection. I asked then, Why you sent for me? Cornelius said, Four days ago, about this hour, I was keeping the ninth hour of prayer in my house, and behold, a man stood before me in bright apparel saying, Cornelius, your prayer has been heard and your alms have been remembered before God. Send therefore to Joppa and ask for Simon, who is called Peter. He is lodging in the house of Simon, a tanner by the seaside.

So I sent to you at once and you have been kind enough to come. Now, therefore, we are all here present in the sight of God to hear all that you have been commanded by the Lord. Gentiles hear the good news. Peter opened his mouth and said, Truly, I perceive that God shows no partiality, but in every nation, anyone who fears Him and does what is right is acceptable to Him. You know the word which he sent to the sons of Israel, preaching good news of peace by Jesus Christ, he is Lord of all. The word which was proclaimed throughout all Judea, beginning from Galilee after the baptism, which John preached, how God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and with power, how he went about doing good and healing all that were oppressed by the devil, for God was with him. We are witnesses to all that he did both in the country of the Jews and in Jerusalem. They put him to death by hanging him on a tree. But God raised him on the third day and made him manifest, not to all the people, but to us who were chosen by God as witnesses, who ate and drank with him after he rose from the dead.

He commanded us to preach to the people and to testify that he is the one ordained by God to be judge of the living and the dead. To him, all the prophets bear witness that everyone who believes in him receives forgiveness of sins through his name. The Gentiles received the Holy Spirit. While Peter was still saying this, the Holy Spirit fell on all who heard the word, and the believers from among the circumsised who came with Peter were amazed because the gift of the Holy Spirit had been poured out even on the Gentiles, for they heard them speaking in tongues and extolling God. Then Peter declared, Can anyone forbid water for baptizing these people who have received the Holy Spirit just as we have? And he commanded them to be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ. Then they asked him to remain for some days. The first letter of Paul to the Corinthians, chapter 1, salutation. Paul, called by the will of God to be an apostle of Christ Jesus and our brother Sasthones. To the Church of God, which is at Corinth, to those sanctified in Christ Jesus, called to be saints together with all those who in every place call on the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, both their Lord and ours, grace to you and peace from God, our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

I give thanks to God always for you. Because of the grace of God, which was given you in Christ Jesus, that in every way you were enriched in Him with all speech and all knowledge, even as the testimony to Christ was confirmed among you, so that you are not lacking in any spiritual gift as you wait for the revealing of our Lord Jesus Christ, who will sustain you to the end, guiltless, in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ. God is faithful, by whom you are called into the fellowship of his son, Jesus Christ, our Lord. Dissension in the Church. I appeal to you, brethren, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that all of you agree and that there be no dissensions among you, but that you be united in the same mind and the same judgment. For it has been reported to me by Chloe's people that there is quarreling among you, my brethren. What I mean is that each one of you says, I belong to Paul, or I belong to Apollos, or I belong to Kefah, or I belong to Christ. Is Christ divided? Was Paul crucified for you? Or were you baptized in the name of Paul?

I am thankful that I baptized none of you except Chrispas and Gaius, lest anyone should say that you were baptized in my name. I did baptize also the household of Stephanus. Beyond that, I do not know whether I baptized anyone else. For Christ did not send me to baptize, but to preach the gospel, and not with eloquent wisdom, lest the cross of Christ be emptied of its power. Christ, the power and wisdom of God. For the word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved, it is the power of God. For it is written, I will destroy the wisdom of the wise and the cleverness of the clever I will thwart. Where is the wise man? Where is the scribe? Where is the debater of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world? For since in the wisdom of God, the world did not know God through wisdom, it pleased God through the folly of what we preach to save those who believe. For Jews demand signs and Greeks seek wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified a stumbling block to Jews and folly to Gentiles.

But to those who are called both Jews and Greeks, Christ, the power of God and the wisdom of God. For the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men. For consider your call, brethren. Not many of you were wise according to the flesh. Not many were powerful. Not many were of noble birth. But God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise. God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong. God chose what is low and despised in the world, even things that are not, to bring to nothing things that are, so that no flesh might boast in the presence of God. He is the source of your life in Christ Jesus, whom God made our wisdom, our righteousness and sanctification and redemption. Therefore, as it is written, let him who boasts, boast of the Lord. Chapter two, proclaiming Christ crucified. When I came to you, brethren, I did not come proclaiming to you the testimony of God in lofty words or wisdom, for I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and Him crucified. I was with you in weakness and in much fear and trembling, and my speech and my message were not in plausible words of wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power, that your faith might not rest in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God.

The true wisdom of God. Yet among the mature, we do impart wisdom, although it is not a wisdom of this age or of the rulers of this age who are doomed to pass away, but we impart a secret and hidden wisdom of God, which God decreed before the ages for our glorification. None of the rulers of this age understood it, for if they had, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory. But as it is written, what no eye has seen, nor ear heard, nor the heart of man conceived, what God has prepared for those who love Him, God has revealed to us through the Spirit. For the Spirit searches everything, even the depths of God. For what person knows a man's thoughts except the Spirit of the man which is in him? Also, no one comprehends the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God. Now, we have received not the Spirit of the world, but the Spirit which is from God, that we might understand the gifts bestowed on us by God. We impart this in words not taught by human wisdom, but taught by the Spirit, interpreting spiritual truths to those who possess the Spirit.

The unspiritual man does not receive the gifts of the Spirit of God, for they are folly to him, and he is not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned. The spiritual man judges all things, but is himself to be judged by no one. For who has known the mind of the Lord so as to instruct him? But we have the mind of Christ. The Book of Proverbs, Chapter 27:21-22. The crucible is for silver and the furnace is for gold, and a man is judged by his praise. Crunch a fool in a mortar with a pestle along with crushed grain, yet his folly will not depart from him. Father in heaven. We give you praise. Thank you so much. We thank you for this day and for the ability to have another book of scripture, another start with first St. Paul's letter to the Corinthians. God, we thank you. Because each page, each word of yours is truth and life. You, God, are truth and life. We thank you. Help us to receive your word well. Help us to receive the breath of Your Holy Spirit well. Help us to walk in the power of the Holy Spirit, to speak in the power of the Holy Spirit, to love in the power of the Holy Spirit.

Because without Your Spirit, because without your spirit, Lord God, we are nothing. Take Your Spirit away from us and we perish. We cease to exist. So please, Lord God, send out Your Spirit to renew the face of the Earth, to give us strength, to give us the ability to be the men and women that you've called us to be in Jesus' name, we pray. Amen. In the name of the Father and of the Son and the Holy Spirit, Amen. Okay, so really significant moment in the Acts of the Apostles. I think probably every chapter so far has been a significant moment. But this is radical. This is Peter's first exposure, essentially Peter's first exposure to, okay, Jesus Christ has fulfilled the law, and now we're expanding to the Gentiles, and not just expanding to the Gentiles, but there is a mission to the Gentiles. Not only that, but they are welcomed and we can't prevent the Holy Spirit. I mean, we're not going to stop the Holy Spirit. Why prevent them from being baptized since they've been given the Holy Spirit? Just like we've been given the Holy Spirit, it's a big deal. Peter, if you ever wonder, why do we not observe the culture laws of the Old Testament?

We went through all those laws. Why do we not do those? Why do we not observe those? It starts right here in Chapter 10 of the Acts of the Apostles, where Peter has this vision that, in the voice of the Lord, speaks to him and says, Rise, Peter, kill, and eat. What God has cleansed, you must not call common. This is the end. The fulfillment of the culture laws in the Old Testament, in the Old Covenant are now replaced by this expansion of God's embrace to the Gentile peoples and to all the foods of the Earth. That is a symbol for what happens next, which is the fact that Peter was essentially called to go to Cornelius, a Centurion, Roman Centurion's house. I love this. As Peter responds and goes to Cesarea, Meritima, it's on the Mediterranean Ocean, that Cornelius has prepared himself. He has gathered all of his kinsmen and close friends. He says, Yeah, we're ready to go. What do we need to know? A vision appeared to me that you're going to teach us something about how to live this new life. I'm going to get my family here and my close friends here, and just Peter, what is it?

Tell us. He does. He tells them. He preaches the gospel of Jesus Christ to them. As he's still speaking, the Holy Spirit comes upon them and they begin speaking in tongues and extolling God. They get baptized and it's incredible. Just bananas. What is happening in the Acts the Apostles? What God is doing to these ordinary human beings, and he keeps showing his boundless love, is just bananas. B-a-n-a-n-a-s. It is bananas. What a gift. Now, fast forward to 1 Corinthians. Little background. We're going to hear about St. Paul's mission to Corinthians, I think, in Acts the Apostles, Chapter 18. That's coming up in a couple of days. But the context for that is Paul had been preaching in Athens, and he went to the Areopagus, or it's called Mars Hill, and he basically had a really great sermon. When he started talking about the resurrection of Jesus from the dead, folks were like, Oh, interesting. We'll come back later. Maybe a couple of people became Christians, but not really. Paul resolves. He leaves Athens at one point and he goes to Corinthians. The understanding here is that Paul leaving Athens, he made all these incredible arguments, these really great arguments using Greek wisdom and using Roman logic and whatnot.

It was great, but no conversions. He says, When I came to you in Corinthians, I resolved to know nothing except Jesus Christ and Him crucified. I didn't come with wisdom, but I came in the power of God. One of the assumptions there is that St. Paul didn't rely upon his own oration skills. He didn't rely upon his being able to convince people by his words or by his wisdom, but simply by allowing God's power to work through him, which I would understand that, and I could be wrong, but I would understand that to be mighty works, miracles that St. Paul would have allowed or God would have used St. Paul to bring about mighty works that would convince people that Paul was correct when he talked about Jesus being the son of God, Jesus being crucified and risen from the dead, that he was telling the truth. My guess is that when he came among them, he did come among them without human wisdom, but he came among them with the power of God, not just boldly speaking, but actually walking in that power of God and having mighty works being done through him. I can't remember if there are evidences to that interpretation, but it seems to make sense to me.

Now, the Corinthians Church gets established and now Paul is left and everything has fallen apart. Not everything's fallen apart, but a lot of things have fallen apart. The first thing that Paul has... I mean, he gets what, nine verses in and he begins in verse 10 of chapter one, he's saying, Okay, I got to start cracking some skulls, guys, because you are not. What are you doing? There's dissension in the church. He says, Some people are saying, I belong to Paul. I belong to Apollos. I belong to Cepha. Now, it's C-E-P-H-A-S. Some people say Cephas. I looked up a pronunciation thing one time years ago, because I don't like Ceefas. Ceefas sounds stupid. I'm sorry, I just don't like it. But Kefa sounds actually more close to what it would be called in Hebrew or Aramaic, in those Mediterranean languages. Actually, there's an argument the pronunciation is Kefah. There we go. Oh, sorry, by the way, Kefa means Peter. That's how you'd say rock in that language. Back to our story. There's dissension in the church. I belong to Paul or I belong to Apollos. I belong to Kefa. There we go. Or I belong to Christ.

Almost immediately here in chapter one, verse 10, St. Paul, he's talking about the Tensions in the church, and he sounds like he's ready to crack some skulls. I mean, he is saying that, okay, at one point you were all united. You were all united in Jesus Christ. Then what happens is all of a sudden, now you're saying, Well, you're in teams now. Some are team Paul or some are team Apollo. Apollo was a well-known orator. He was a Christian who preached really incredibly well, apparently. Paul, he says he doesn't preach really well in person. He writes really well, but doesn't preach really well in person. Apollo, though, man, that guy, he knew how to turn a phrase, or I belong to Kefah. I know it's C-E-P-H-A-S, which is Ceefis, right? But Kefah, I think, is the one acceptable pronunciation of the name of Peter, or I belong to Christ. You have these four factions, maybe three factions, and one group of people saying, No, we belong to Jesus. But you could see how the appeal would be, I belong to Paul. Yeah, he was the one who founded our community. Or I belong to Apollo.

He's the one who has the incredible words. He's the great speaker. Or I belong to Caphae, right? Because he is the Prince of the Apostles, of course. But in all those things, Paul is saying those divisions, those teams, those factions, they're working against the unity of the church. Not only that, but they are violating the very reason why you came to know Jesus in the first place. Because you came to know Jesus not through wisdom. Remember, when Paul went to Athens, he preached wisdom, and he was really wise. He read really, really smart. But when he came to the people in Corinthians, he resolved to nothing but Jesus Christ and Him crucified. They were not convinced by Paul's words. They were convinced by the power of the cross. He's just reminding them, Have you forgotten this? Have you forgotten that the reason why you came in the first place to profess faith in Jesus Christ was because you encountered Jesus in his cross? This is the temptation for every single one of us. We sometimes we forget the cross, we forget Jesus. Or sometimes we forget the fact that Jesus and his cross go hand in hand.

We forget. We think that what's this preacher or that preacher? It's this teaching or that teaching. It's this way of singing a song or praising God or that way. We realize that no, if I forget Jesus Christ and Him crucified, I'm going to miss the point. In chapter two, he says so clearly, When I came to you, brethren, I did not come proclaiming to you the testimony of God in lofty words or wisdom, for I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and Him crucified. And so it goes on, My speech and my message were not in plausible words of wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power, so that your faith might not rest on the wisdom of men, but on the power of God. That's what the reason I believe that when Paul went to Corinthians, as opposed to Athens, he knew, I can't make any miracles on my own. I need the power of God working through me. Humbly, Paul allowed the Lord God to work mighty works through him. The people saw those and came to know the truth of Jesus Christ, crucified, and the power of God.

Does that make sense? Tomorrow, we're going to talk about a little bit more in that dissension, that division, those factions, those teams in the Corinthians Church. But also, there are a lot of people who are not living... Corinthians was a pretty bad place. We'll talk about that a little bit more tomorrow. Corinthians was a, you might say, the Las Vegas of that era, but Las Vegas has its good parts. I don't know, I've never been there. But Corinth was a pretty nasty spot. It's a pretty dangerous place to live if you want to be a holy person. Those people in Corinth, that's where they chose to live before they became Christian. They have a lot of bad habits, a lot of bad influences in their lives, and some of them are sliding back to those bad habits. As Paul keeps writing to the Corinthians, he's going to have to keep calling them back to the heart of the Gospel, calling them back to the heart of Jesus, and calling them back to the church. That's what we're going to get in the next couple of days. But here we are today on day 331, which has been a gift and a half.

I'm praying for you. Please pray for me. My name is Father Mike. I cannot wait to see you tomorrow. God bless.