As you're grabbing seat. We're in a series in the book of Acts. I love that you don't want to stop talking. You could keep talking after this part. I love it. I love, really do. We're in a series in the book of Acts. And one of the things that we love about this is that the series is really just showing this continuation of Jesus ministry from the Gospels right into the book of Acts as the church starts and it does not stop and it has not stopped and it's still happening today. And so one of the things we've been trying to do is highlight the people of Hope and how God is still doing a lot of really cool stuff in the people of Hope. And so we actually have been highlighting videos from different locations. We're part of a church that has three locations around the cities here. And some of those people have been people maybe don't know as well cause they're from another location. But today we have our very own Robertsons from Hope Heights. So I'm really excited for them to share a little of their story about adoption. And so we have a video here. Are you ready? Can you roll it for us, Stephen?
I'm Erin Robertson.
And I'm Erica Robertson.
And we've been going to Hope for just over 15 years. And we've been at Hope Heights now for the last five years.
Erin and I met at Bethel College, now Bethel University, just nearby here. Yeah. In 2001.
2000, fall of 2000.
And we started dating 2004 and have been married almost 19 years now.
We have four kids. Miriam is 16, Aubrey is 14, Christian is 11, and Benji is 7.
We are in a very busy season right now with family. We have lots of running around with lots of sports activities, piano, lots of involvement with different Hope activities. Our kids, our oldest two are downtown doing youth group activities right now. And our youngest two have been doing an AWANA program locally. Erin and I were individually really interested in adoption even before we started dating. So it's something that we started talking about right away.
It's like our second or third date, which is a really deep place to go on a second or third date. But we talked about adoption and we.
Both kind of just had that knit into our plan for our family.
The Lord kind of pulls people's hearts and calls them into a lot of different things, adoption included.
We did have certain points along the way as we were going through the paperwork and the waiting, where various people would say, I don't know if this is. Is this a good decision do you want to move forward with this? And the phrase that I at least heard from a few different people was, well, you don't know what you're gonna get. You choose adoption, you don't know what you're gonna get. Which is laughable to me because you never know what you're gonna get as you're building a family, as you're moving forward. Even in marriage, in any relationship, you don't know what you're going to get.
I'm still learning what I get with her, and vice versa. Like that you don't know what you're going to get is true of all relationships. And God's grace is sufficient and his mercies are new each morning and his love is big enough to carry us through all those ups and downs.
I think too, it makes the story of the gospel even more wild because Christ knew what he was getting. He absolutely knew. He knew the depths of our hearts, of our tremendous sin and shame and guilt, and still chose that. He chose to move forward with that, with dying the cross for all of that mess. He knew exactly what he was getting. So I, again, it's almost laughable to me to think about that because he has been so good to us.
This is one way that God builds families and this is the way he's built his own family, even as he's adopted each of us as his children.
So it is beautiful to have multiple kinds of examples of that in our family. It feels unique and kind of perfect, like it was meant to be.
I love it. Thank you guys for doing that video and sharing some about your family. That's really, really sweet. Robertsons have been a family that we love dearly and personally, just our family loves dearly as it's our story as well in our family as an adoptive family. This is a picture. This is our 10 year picture. So this is 10 years from when we first got to be a family to we bought the same blinds in the second house we've had. That was really. What this was is an ad for blinds from Home Depot. I'm hoping they'll give us like a deal or something next time. I look older and Kelly does not. I love it. I love it. One of the things I love about our family is I try to sum it up, I think, in just faithfulness. We have daughters we love to death and just our faithfulness to one another through like hard things and great things. But we're still there, which is, I think, a big part of family, is that you get these people who are still There. This story is perfect for today. We are in the Book of Acts and we're in chapter 10. And this is a moment in the church history where something really cool happens that God knew was gonna happen, had planned for this to happen, but seemed pretty jarring to the church at the time and really shows us, we hear all over scripture this idea of adoption being a way to describe the gospel in God's church. Maybe one of the best ways that we're like an adoptive family. And this is the moment when that really happens. Like, we really see it happen. And hopefully you hung on those words of Erica and Erin, especially Erica, as she shares that. Like, we had the same experience. People said, are you sure you don't know what you're going to get? And we're like, did you know what you're going to get when you had your kid? And they're like, what if they, like, misbehave? And you're like, because they're kids. Yeah. I think all those things, we felt very similar. I think God's grace just really helped us. So as we move here in the Book of Acts, we're going to be in Acts 10 today. And we're trying to go a little quicker today so we can get to these baptisms. We get Caleb in the pool. So I'm going to quick do a very quick overview of Acts. I just want you to see this pattern that's happening so that we're there. A lot of cool stuff happened. Then there's persecution and it didn't stop Jesus. That's what's happened. I'll go back. We had Pentecost that started at the beginning of the Book of Acts is when the Holy Spirit comes on the church and there's signs and wonders and people say, what is happening? And Peter shares this sermon. And they see thousands and thousands of people come to know Jesus. God, he's the one who's come, the one we've been waiting for, who's rescued us. His death and resurrection has changed us. And then we see that actually kind of acted out. We hear this is almost like they're almost like parables in front of them are happening that describe what's happening in the kingdom of God. And so we see a man right away healed at the temple steps, a man who's been coming for many, many years. And they say, we don't have gold or silver for you, but we have something way better. And. And they pray for this man. And he stands up, he can finally walk. He's alive. It's like this picture, this great picture of the gospel happens. And we see this over and over happening. We see these miraculous things happen where Philip gets told by God to go to this road. And on the road he runs into an Ethiopian who says, hey, I'm reading Scripture. What does it mean? It's like the easiest evangelism moment in the history of the world. He just goes, hey, will you tell me what Isaiah means? And he says, I'll tell you who this suffering servant is. And he does. And the man says, I should get baptized. I should get dunked. I should go under and come back up alive again. And he does. It's this great picture. And then we see. This seems unbelievable, a man who was killing, who was dragging people out of homes, Christians who was persecuting and hurting Christians. A man named Saul actually encounters Jesus on a road as well. And he goes blind. He can't see for a few days. And when his eyes are open, his whole life is changed. He now believes he goes from someone who's killing Christians so opposed to Jesus to encountering Jesus. And now so for in fact then goes on to write lots of New Testament. And we hear all these great stories of him and his friends as they continue going. We hear all this through this lens in Acts 4, that these were ordinary, uneducated people who knew Jesus. People keep going. How can these people do? They're fishermen. They're just regular people. And these incredible things are happening. It must be God. In the midst of all this really cool stuff, the church is growing by thousands daily. People are coming. We're seeing all this cool stuff the Spirit's doing. It's doing just what Jesus said. It's in Jerusalem and Judea and to the ends of the earth. At the same time, this tension is building where people now are being pulled from their homes. They're being arrested, they're being killed. We hear the story of Stephen being the first of martyrs because you're changing everything. You're wrecking not just our religious system, but our economic system in our lives. And you're blaspheming. You're saying, this guy is God, Jesus is God and he's not. And so they have these rules set up so that this is what happens. They. They oppose these Christians in this church, but you can't stop what God's doing. And so they go, we're going to stop you. And then they see thousands more come to Christ. We're going to scatter you across the land so you can't be together in plot and plan. And by scattering you, we actually make more churches in more places. You cannot stop God's work here, as we see in the Book of Acts. Nice try, but it does not happen. And so now we get to this point in that we see. This is the picture we've been looking at that the Pentecost happens in Jerusalem. It's people gathered from all over the place. All the known world come there and God changes lives, and he sees all these people come to know him, and then these people get to head back to their places. And some of these places are places that, as a Jewish person, as part of that group, you would have went like, these aren't places that God necessarily has interest in having people in his family. These aren't necessarily people who grew up, like, weren't born as a Jewish person, they weren't circumcised and go through the right steps. They don't follow all the rules that we follow so that God will be happy with us. And so there's this group of people all outside of here that we call Gentiles in the Bible, just the word for, like, not Jewish people. And this is the moment in scripture where we start seeing Gentiles come into the family of God. And not. It's not like, well, I guess we'll let some of these people in, because, like, it'd be nice to have a few of them in. It is. The gates get opened and they go, these are all of the people God wants. There's not a difference to the Lord in this. And we see the first person in this. His name is Cornelius. And so if you open your bibles to Acts 10, it's. It's a whole chapter. So I'm just going to summarize the moments with these two men, Cornelius and Peter, who. We've met Peter before. And then I want to get to the part here where they come together and what happens. And so we have this history now, right? It's built up that God is doing something. He is moving. But this has been happening within the Jewish community, within Jerusalem and Judea. And there's some people on the edge of that, kind of the fringe of that. But still, it'd be considered in. Because they follow the rules. Maybe they were just born into it. They fit all the criteria. Right? You're doing all the right things. Okay, we can let you in. And we're seeing that the gospel is quite different than that. It's a. There's one gate in his name is Jesus. And then from there, we see people's lives change. And so we're going to see a man named Cornelius who meets the Lord in a very similar way that we've seen other people in miraculous ways that only God could do. So our first person here, Cornelius, he's actually a leader in the army. He leads, they think about he's a centurion, so he leads about 100 units. They believe he's probably Roman Italian descent. They make this clear in the passage so that we know he's a Gentile. He's not of Jewish descent. He doesn't necessarily, like, follow all the right things. He hasn't been circumcised. He is a God fearer, though. We learn that he is devout, he's generous to the poor, and he's prayerful. It actually says he gathers at the right time every day to pray. So he has a lot of sympathy, believes in God, maybe even, like, believes there's just one God. Or maybe this is, like, part of his belief of this is one of the many gods. Not totally sure, but we know he's a faithful guy. And actually he's described as someone who's generous and devout and prayerful, which is the description we hear earlier in Scripture and we hear of in the Book of Acts of people who are devout, who come to Christ. They're people who are generous and devout and prayerful. So we see there's already, like, something happening in his heart, in his life. Cornelius one day is praying, and an angel comes to him and tells him that he's heard his prayers and that he's seen as generous and that he instructs him to send for a guy named Peter. It's kind of similar story we saw with Saul, right? An angel comes, says, I want you to meet this Peter guy. He has really important things to tell you. It's like God knows his heart's kind of ready. And he's like, I want to send my. My servant Peter to come to you so you can hear the gospel. I want to make you part of the family. He has no idea he's about to become this first person who's a Gentile. It's going to just change the way we think about who gets into the family of God. And so he praised him. So he actually organizes some people to go find this Peter. God tells them where Peter is. And so then we have Peter, who's this person we've already seen in the Book of Acts. And he now is in another place on a rooftop of a friend named Simon. And he is exhausted. He's praying he needs something to eat. And he has this moment where he has this vision. God gives him this picture. Now Peter is someone who we've seen over and over. He's preached to groups, thousands of people, and they've seen them come to faith. Peter is one of Jesus closest friends. He's been around for a long time. Peter's like a big deal in the sense that he has been around, he's close to this, he, he, you'd think of all the people he'd get it, he'd understand how this works. And in this moment, God is actually going to have to teach him something. It's so ingrained in Peter that like to get in to be part of this, there's still part of him that's like, you still got to like follow these rules the right way. And then you get to be in the family of God. Like you got to make sure you know what you're getting kind of. And as long as you're a good devout person, then you get to be in. And so God is going to show him in a vision here what that looks like. Maybe you've heard this story. It's his vision where he's on this rooftop and it's like out of the clouds comes this big blanket filled with animals. It's like a pigs in a blanket moment. And this is where it's from, this is where pigs in a blanket, all these animals. And the animals, this is what the animals on there are, are animals that are clean and unclean. So for him as a Jewish man and having grown up, they would have known there's certain animals you can't be around, you can't, you don't even wanna walk by them. You for sure can't eat them. And they shouldn't be by each other. Like you don't want em to mix and like you don't want your giraffe to like run into a pig. And then you know your giraffe is unclean. So God goes, I wanna show you in a picture all of these are good, all of these things are good. He's showing him, hey, you have had these laws that you have gotten out of scripture and you've turned them into laws to figure out who's in or out. Not just laws of, hey, you're a devote person, you follow me, you love me. And so out of that there's a certain way I want you to live. You're saying you don't get to live with the Lord if you don't follow these rules. So he that has eked in so much that it's just built right in there. And so God is going, peter, I need you to know that all of these are okay. That you're still creating this clean and unclean that allows people into the family of God and essentially saying, jewish and not Jewish people, right? Jewish or Gentile people. And so he gives them this incredible vision of these animals that were considered unclean. And now he's saying, do not call what is impure. Do not call anything impure what God has made clean. So God's going, there's these things that you said are unclean. They're impure. They can't be around God's family. And I say they can. The Lord is saying they can. So he gives him this cool picture at the same time. Cornelius, one who'd be considered unclean and outside the family at the same time. You see what God's doing here. This is a really cool moment, I'm sure. Cornelius, we might be thinking, oh, cool, Peter's going to come and tell him, you know, what it's all about. And we don't realize at the same time, God's telling Peter what it's all about. And so what happens is then these people come and they meet Peter right then in that moment, and they say, hey, come and meet my Gentile friend. He wants to talk to you. Which would have been no. A no go. But thankfully, he had just learned this great lesson God had been teaching him and I think, changing Peter's heart. And Peter says, okay. So the spirit leads him to Cornelius's house. He gets to his house. They finally interact, a moment that would not have happened even before. But God prepares Peter's heart in this. He's preparing Cornelius when he gets there, Cornelius, this soldier bows before him because he goes, oh, this holy man has come. And he actually says, no, no, I'm just an ordinary person. Stand up. I love this. It just continues in Acts to remind us of this thing. Stands up. And then Peter shares with him the gospel. And actually, it sort of shares. Like, I, too, actually am still learning what this gospel looks like. Like, I still am seeing how huge and big this is and how God actually wants all the people, as if they were all the stars in the sky, all of his people into his family. And this is where we're going to pick up. We're just going to go through here. The end of Acts 10. This is now Peter and Cornelius together. The following day, he arrived in Caesarea. Cornelius was expecting them and had called to together his relatives and close friends. As Peter entered the house, Cornelius met him and fell at his feet in reverence. Peter made him get up, stand up. He said, I'm only a man myself. Very similar language to earlier in Acts, where it says, these were ordinary men who had been with Jesus. This isn't Peter's magic, his skills. This is Peter going, I'm in your house now. Even this is a big step, I think. I believe that God actually can bring everyone into the family. While talking with him, Peter went inside and found a large gathering of people. And he said to them, you are well aware that it is against our law for a Jew to associate or visit a Gentile saying, I shouldn't be here. You know, it's against our law that we've made, that we've created here. But God has shown me that I should not call anyone impure or unclean. So you got it. I think on his walk to Caesarea, he. He was like, this is not about animals in a blanket. This is about your people. And you said, you're going to go to the ends of the earth. This is it. So when I was sent for you, I came without raising an objection, ask why you sent for me. It's cool, right? We're seeing God move in Peter in this moment, and we're seeing God now. Use Peter to go, okay, why did you bring me here? I'm here. Then we move down. 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. Cornelius says, God told me to bring you here because he wants to teach us something, a cool thing. And then Peter is going to tell them. He's going to essentially share the gospel. But the gospel to a Gentile, from a Jewish man in a room, that normally would not happen. These people would not be together because he'd just say, like, this is just my family, and that's your family. But now he's saying, we're all in this together. Then Peter began to speak. I now realize how true it is that God does not show favoritism. Think of how, as he says that, what that would mean to him. He's not. It's true that God is not saying, oh, just my Jewish circumcised people are the right people, and everyone else, good luck. He's not saying that, but accepts from every nation the one who fears him and does what is right. That's cool. Peter's getting to Share what God's doing in his heart. 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. All the prophets testify about him, that everything who. Everyone who believes in him receives forgiveness of sins through his name. The word every. The word everyone here is actually cool because he's using a word that actually means, like, all people in all places, not like everyone here. It's like a word that's really a broad, broad word. Everyone who believes in him receives forgiveness of sins through his name. It's a big deal. Peter says those words. It's hard for us, I think, to understand it because we don't maybe feel that same thing, at least spiritually, always, right? You probably feel in other areas of life, not everyone gets to be around God because of maybe how they voted or maybe how they eat or maybe where they're from or how they act. And he's saying, I'm realizing this person, the prophets testified, this Jesus, who they talked about, who's come and died and rose and ascended to heaven, wants everyone in the family. He's died so everyone could be in the family as they. As they are in him, in his name. While Peter was still speaking his words, the Holy Spirit came on all who heard the message. So as he's sharing the gospel, the Spirit starts moving in this room. These people, the circumcised believers who had come with Peter, were astonished that the gift of the Holy Spirit had been poured out even on gentiles. It's a moment where it says circumcised. So we know the Jewish believers who went through circumcision, who followed the rules, who couldn't. They go, there's people in this room who are not Jewish, who aren't in our family, aren't like the ones born into our family, aren't part of this. And they're having the Spirit on them. They're coming to know Jesus. It's this first moment the church gets to see they actually happen. The gospel actually go out to all the nations. They're astounded by this, for they heard them speaking in tongues and praising God. Then Peter said, surely no one can stand in the way of that, of their being baptized with water. I love this. So he said, we gotta baptize these people. Baptism. We're talking a little bit more about this, but this opportunity to go, I believe and so be baptized, do this amazing ritual. This moment where you get put underwater and pulled out of water as this moment to show this Spiritual change, this spiritual cleansing, this death to life moment. And Peter says, this is how he sells them. It's true. This is real. The Gentiles are in. I know they weren't the ones maybe born in our house, but they are now family. So he ordered they be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ. Then they asked Peter to stay with them for a few d
My name is Caleb. This is a bit of my story. So I grew up in a Christian home almost or going to church almost every week and eventually to youth group. Where I feel like I grew the most of my faith was at Camp Joy Baba Camp. It's a small camp that I would go to. It was a small summer camp that I would go to once a summer. From talking with my counselors and daily chapels to one on one time with my Bible. It was a place where I've built my foundation for my faith. In my most recent years being at the University of Northwestern, I have grown even more from being in a few Bible studies and being on the baseball team, fellowshipping with all the guys around me. This last summer, as me and my wife Leah got married, we found ourselves loving Hope Heights and wanting to get more involved. So we joined a small group. As we've been making these commitments, I've been wanting to take the next steps of my faith and get baptized. Baptism to me is the next step to deepen my faith and to show others of my commitment.