From chapter one through chapter nine we have seen Christianity spread from Jerusalem, to Samaria, to Lydda, and to Joppa. Up to this point there has been a great deal of Jews come to the gospel, but chapter ten is going to move the church in a new direction. Chapter ten is going to challenge the Apostles and their doctrine. It is going to cross racial lines and even emotional lines. As things aren’t already new enough, the Lord is going to do something radical, something that the Jews are going to struggle with.

Mark 2:12 KJV

And immediately he arose, took up the bed, and went forth before them all; insomuch that they were all amazed and glorified God, saying, “We never saw it on this fashion.”

[We never saw it on this fashion]

That is Jesus! Jesus was always doing something different and it agitated the religious leaders of His day. Let’s just be honest...Jesus still does new things today and it agitates us too. With every generation comes new ways to deliver the message of the Gospel. With every generation comes new ways to focus on being missional. So we change, and it isn’t easy. However, when has following God ever been easy?

Here is my take. I think God creates so much change in an effort to keep our hands from attaching to things that are temporal. Generations die, worship songs fade away, books get dusty…Still God births a new generation, new worship is birthed, and new revelation is revealed. It’s the cycle of life from which the Church isn’t exempt. Our responsibility is to be open to what God is doing. Now that doesn’t mean every new thing the Church is doing today is of God. The Bible tells us to test the Spirit, using wisdom and discernment. Still we must face the fact that God is always about doing new things.

Isaiah 43:19 NIV

See, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up; do you not perceive it? I am making a way in the desert and streams in the wasteland.

God says to us “see” as if to ask and yet declare to you that He is doing something that you should visibly be able to see. The scripture says it’s springing up or rising up…and then there is the question. Do you not perceive it? It’s as if it’s asked facetiously…as if to say you should be able to grasp it, understand it, or have some form of knowledge about it. The truth, however, is that we miss it a great deal of the time God is doing something new because we never let go of what was. For the Apostle Peter, the days of the ministry of to the Jews only was about to change. Not because he wanted them to but because God wanted them to. That is the most important theme in chapter 10.