Today’s Memory Verse
He ordered us to preach everywhere.
Acts 10:42a (NIV)
Tell Everyone, Everywhere, About Jesus
Hey Kids!
Do you know someone that you would never invite to our church or to your Life Group? Maybe because it’s someone you don’t want to be seen with because they act goofy, or because they have the stinkiest fart, or maybe because they don’t look or dress like you or your friends?
Did you know that Jesus accepts everyone that comes to Him? He rejects or turns no one away from Him that wants God in their lives.
Even if the person looks dirty, or scary, or their clothes are all torn and ragged, or they don’t smell so good, or they are the meanest person in the whole wide world. Jesus welcomes them and He says, “I will never turn away or throw away anyone who comes to Me” (John 6:37b).
Peter, our superhero this month, learned that the message of God’s love and salvation is to be told everywhere and to everyone. God sent Peter to the home of Cornelius, a home where the entire family loved and obeyed God and who invited their family and friends to hear about Jesus. And Peter obeyed God even if it was against the law to be friends with Cornelius, his family, and friends because they were different. He learned that God does not show favorites; He does not think some people are better than others, or loves some people more than others. God treats everyone the same.
Yeah, and we know this for sure because when Peter spoke about Jesus and what He had done for them, the presence of God and the Holy Spirit came with power on all the people in that house and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit! God wants everyone to be saved and have forever life and to be near to Him.
What God has done for us, He wants to do it for everyone, even the person that makes the stinkiest fart!
Pledge of Honor
Jesus, I am Your hero because I preach Your Word.
Today’s Bible Reading
Acts 10:23b – 48
The next day Peter started out with them, and some of the believers from Joppa went along. The following day he arrived in Caesarea. Cornelius was expecting them and had called together his relatives and close friends. As Peter entered the house, Cornelius met him and fell at his feet in reverence. But Peter made him get up. “Stand up,” he said, “I am only a man myself.”
While talking with him, Peter went inside and found a large gathering of people. He said to them: “You are well aware that it is against our law for a Jew to associate with or visit a Gentile. But God has shown me that I should not call anyone impure or unclean. So, when I was sent for, I came without raising any objection. May I ask why you sent for me?”
Cornelius answered: “Three days ago I was in my house praying at this hour, at three in the afternoon. Suddenly a man in shining clothes stood before me and said, ‘Cornelius, God has heard your prayer and remembered your gifts to the poor. Send to Joppa for Simon who is called Peter. He is a guest in the home of Simon the tanner, who lives by the sea.’ So I sent for you immediately, and it was good of you to come. Now we are all here in the presence of God to listen to everything the Lord has commanded you to tell us.”
Then Peter began to speak: “I now realize how true it is that God does not show favoritism but accepts from every nation the one who fears him and does what is right. You know the message God sent to the people of Israel, announcing the good news of peace through Jesus Christ, who is Lord of all. You know what has happened throughout the province of Judea, beginning in Galilee after the baptism that John preached— how God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and power, and how he went around doing good and healing all who were under the power of the devil, because God was with him.
“We are witnesses of everything he did in the country of the Jews and in Jerusalem. They killed him by hanging him on a cross, but God raised him from the dead on the third day and caused him to be seen. He was not seen by all the people, but by witnesses whom God had already chosen—by us 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 whom God appointed as judge of the living and the dead. All the prophets testify about him that everyone who believes in him receives forgiveness of sins through his name.”
While Peter was still speaking these words, the Holy Spirit came on all who heard the message. The circumcised believers who had come with Peter were astonished that the gift of the Holy Spirit had been poured out even on Gentiles. For they heard them speaking in tongues[b] and praising God.
Then Peter said, “Surely no one can stand in the way of their being baptized with water. They have received the Holy Spirit just as we have.” So he ordered that they be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ. Then they asked Peter to stay with them for a few days.
