No Exclusions Shall Apply
By Rev. Heidi L. Barham | May 18, 2025
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Read Acts 11:1 – 18 (NIV)
There is a certain retail establishment that I occasionally patronize... that shall remain nameless... that frequently sends out coupons promising 20%, 30% or even 40% off my next purchase.
And when I scratch off the silver circle to reveal my discount... it almost always indicates that I will get 40% off my purchase. So, that is when I look to see how much Kohl’s cash I have... I mean how many specialty rewards points I have... that I can combine with that 40% off coupon...
And then I start to shop... mentally calculating the final purchase price which should be close to nothing between the rewards and the coupon... that is until I look more closely at the details on the back of the coupon... and discover that certain exclusions shall apply... and just like that... my hopes for that close-to-nothing deal have been dashed.
That term... “certain exclusions shall apply” has the ability to take the wind right out of our sails... especially when we think we are about to get a really great bargain. You know, like those “all-inclusive” vacation packages that at the end of the day turn out to be not as “all-inclusive” as the advertising leads us to believe... because right there in the fine print are those pesky little words... “certain exclusions shall apply.”
But as we take a closer look at the New Testament lesson this morning, what we will find is a guarantee we can trust... that NO EXCLUSIONS SHALL APPLY.
At the beginning of our text, we read about the leaders in Jerusalem’s reaction when they heard that the Holy Spirit had been poured out, even on the Gentiles.
When Peter returned to Jerusalem, he was called on the carpet, so to speak, for rubbing shoulders with the wrong crowd, eating foods that were prohibited and in essence ruining the good name of the Jewish believers.
Undeterred; however, Peter explained it all to his colleagues... telling them everything that had occurred... up to and including a vision he had been given.
Peter described this vision of animals being lowered down on a huge blanket and hearing the command to kill and eat animals that would have been deemed unclean under normal circumstances.
Peter went on to tell them how, in this vision, he told the Lord, “Oh no, Master. I’ve never so much as tasted food that wasn’t kosher” but that the Lord replied, “If God says it’s okay, it’s okay” (MSG).
Quick side note... just as Peter had denied Jesus three times, the scriptures say this debate between Peter and the Lord about eating unclean animals happened three times before the blanket was pulled back up into the sky.
And, in reality this vision was actually setting Peter up so he would be ready for what was yet to come.
Because when the vision ended, the Scriptures tell us that three men came from Caesarea to get Peter... and that operating under the direction of the Holy Spirit... Peter and six of his friends went without hesitation... no questions asked.
Peter and his friends were taken to the home of a man who told them about seeing an angel who told him to send for Simon, called Peter. The angel had explained that Peter would tell the man something that would save not only his life... but the lives of everyone in his household as well.
After hearing about all of this from the man of the house, Peter began speaking to everyone who was gathered... and in practically no time at all, the text indicates “the Holy Spirit fell on them just as on us at the beginning.”
And that is the point when Peter remembered what the Lord had said to the disciples, “John baptized with water, but you shall be baptized with the Holy Spirit” (Acts 1:5, 11:16).
Which in turn led to Peter posing a question to those who had spoken against him fraternizing with the Gentiles, “If God gave the same exact gift to them as to us when we believed in the Master Jesus Christ, how could I object to God?” In other words, “If God said it was okay, then it’s okay.”
Clearly, Peter understood that God’s gift of the Holy Spirit was an all-inclusive gift... a gift for which NO EXCLUSIONS SHALL APPLY.
Now, Peter’s argument must have been pretty persuasive because the text then informs us that, “Hearing it all laid out like that, they quieted down. And then, as it sank in, they started praising God. ‘It’s really happened! God has broken through to the other nations, opened them up to Life!’” (MSG).
The fact of the matter is that NO EXCLUSIONS SHALL APPLY to God’s free gift of salvation. It has always been designed to be an all-inclusive gift that God desires to be taken to all nations...
The Gospel is not reserved for any select group based on race, class, ethnic identity, gender expression, political affiliation... or any other characteristic that folks might use to categorize and marginalize another person or group of persons.
In fact, Galatians 3:28 states, “There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus.”
Now, as unbelievable as it may seem, according to some scholars, Jewish males back in biblical times would actually start each day with the prayer, “Lord, I thank you that I am not a Gentile, a slave or a woman.”
Thankfully, having true faith in Christ gives us the power to move us beyond these arbitrary differences... because our faith and trust in Christ truly makes us one.
In Ephesians 4:5 – 6, Paul declares, “There is one body and one Spirit, just as you were called to one hope when you were called; one Lord, one faith, one baptism; one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all.”
But to be clear, being one body and being one in the Spirit does not mean that we are all supposed to be exactly alike. Taking away lines of demarcation and division does not make us a monolith without distinction. God did not create us to be indistinguishable from one another. On the contrary... God created each of us with unique gifts, skills, and talents that we are called to pull together to form the body of believers.
As the Apostle Paul explained to the Corinthian church:
There are different kinds of gifts, but the same Spirit distributes them. There are different kinds of service, but the same Lord. There are different kinds of working, but in all of them and in everyone it is the same God at work (1 Corinthians 12:4 – 6).Paul goes on to say:
Just as a body, though one, has many parts, but all its many parts form one body, so it is with Christ. For we were all baptized by one Spirit so as to form one body—whether Jews or Gentiles, slave or free—and we were all given the one Spirit to drink. Even so the body is not made up of one part but of many (1 Corinthians 12:12 – 14).We have all been fearfully and wonderfully made by our Creator God... and just as no two snowflakes are exactly alike... no two people are exactly alike either... and that is just the way God designed it to be.
Each of us has been created by God with a purpose... for a purpose... on purpose.
And that purpose is for us to come together as one... as the body of believers in Jesus Christ.
In his 1965 commencement address at Oberlin College, the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. stated:
All I'm saying is simply this: that all mankind is tied together; all life is interrelated, and we are all caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly. For some strange reason I can never be what I ought to be until you are what you ought to be. And you can never be what you ought to be until I am what I ought to be - this is the interrelated structure of reality. ("Remaining Awake Through a Great Revolution")In other words, we are all in this together.
So, if we believe what the Scriptures tell us about God and His gift of salvation being all-Inclusive... and we accept that we have all been designed to be part of the one body of Christ...why do some people have such a difficult time when it comes to the concept that NO EXCLUSIONS SHALL APPLY?
Let me suggest that it could be because we are still human... and it is our human nature that causes us to be uncomfortable with people who are not like us.
Have you ever noticed when you go into a room full of people, how we tend to gravitate toward people we know we have things in common with or who may look like us... while never acknowledging the strangers around us.
But that is neither what Christ teaches us to do... nor is it how He expects us to live.
Keep in mind, it was Christ who spoke to the Samaritan woman at a well when it went against all convention for Jews to talk to either Samaritans or women.
And it was Christ who was called out for eating with sinners and tax collectors as well as lepers... the ones that were seen as undesirables ...and had been deemed unclean in the sight of the religious leaders and teachers.
And it was this same Christ who responded to the question of a religious scholar about how to inherit eternal life... by telling him the Parable of the Good Samaritan who went out of his way to help a man who had fallen upon hard times... after a priest and a Levite (you know, the good church folk) had gone out of their way to avoid the man.
Then after telling this parable to the religious scholar, Jesus followed it up with the command for him to “Go and do likewise.”
And make no mistake, we have all been commanded to “Go and do likewise” ... to go and show mercy to our neighbors... regardless of their religious affiliation (or lack thereof) ... in spite of their cultural ethnic background... and without consideration of their gender, gender identity, sexual preference or political beliefs.
Jesus simply said then, and continues to say now, “Go and do likewise.”
NO EXCLUSIONS SHALL APPLY
Go and show mercy to the hungry, the homeless and the hurting... remembering that whenever we help those who others may consider to be “the least, the last and the lost” ...Jesus reminds us that, “As you did it to one of the least of these my brothers and sisters, you did it to me.”
God always has been and always will be the all-inclusive God who loved us so much... that He gave us His only Son... that whosoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. And let me assure you that whosoever means that NO EXCLUSIONS SHALL APPLY.
It is this all-inclusive God who has given each of us the gift of His all-inclusive Holy Spirit in the same way that it was given to both Jews and Gentiles alike in our text for the morning...
In other words, under the mandate that NO EXCLUSIONS SHALL APPLY.
And because God is all-inclusive, we have been given an all-inclusive Savior in Jesus Christ... the One who calls us to show mercy and kindness to one another and to love one another... so that anyone and everyone will know that we belong to an all-inclusive God... who continues to make it very clear that NO EXCLUSIONS SHALL APPLY when it comes to His command for us to love just as we have been loved.
In John 13:35, Jesus says, “Let me give you a new command: Love one another. In the same way I loved you, you love one another. This is how everyone will recognize that you are my disciples—when they see the love you have for each other.”
So, we have it on the highest authority that the world will know who we are and more importantly whose we are by our love. Yes, dear friends, rest assured that when people see us living and loving like Jesus... they really will know that we are Christians by our love... and we will be able to confidently say to friends as well as strangers that NO EXCLUSIONS SHALL APPLY.
And if you have a desire that others would know you by the unconditional and all-inclusive love that God has for us, I want to invite you to stand and join now in singing our Hymn of Discipleship: They’ll Know We Are Christians #494.
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