ACTS: The Church In Action
willingness to change
Chapters Ten & Eleven

INTRODUCTION: In Acts chapters ten and eleven we see God challenging His Church to change.  To accept that the gospel is powerful enough to radically transform not only the Jewish people but all people.  Peter is God's key man to model this change to the Church. He is confronted with his traditional thinking concerning God and God's plan for mankind.  In these verses we will encounter resistance to change that is based upon pride, and we also will encounter resistance to change thist is based upon faith.  Peter cries out, 'No, Lord!' yet he learns that you can say 'No' and you can say 'Lord' but you cannot say 'No, Lord!'  This session of Acts imparts to us the key to personal and congregational growth, which is a willingness to change.

a great miracle - healing the body
  1. Supernatural power is given by God to set people free (9:34; 10:38).
  2. Supernatural power should be a normal part of our lives (Mk. 16:17).
  3. Supernatural power brings the unsaved to a new awareness of the Savior.

A Greater miracle - raising the dead (9:36-43)
  1. Peter was available (9:36-39)
  2. Peter was prayerful (9:40-41)
  3. Peter was fruitful (9:42)

The greatest miracle - winning the lost (10 & 11)
  1. Preparation (9:42-10:22)
  2. Motivation (10:7 & 17)
  3. Explanation (10:23-33)
  4. Proclamation (10:34-43)
  5. Impartation (10:44-48)
  6. Transformation (11:1-18)

three mindsets towards change
  1. Innovators
  2. Conservatives
  3. Inhibitors

change is god's answer for stagnation
  1. Changes are inevitable