August 4, 2025 • 22 mins
Intern Nathan King shares thoughts on how the welcome of Christ invites the whole person to be received and given in community.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hello, is this thing on?
Can we hear me?
Yeah, okay, hi everyone.
My name is Nathan Nathan King.
I am one of the interns here atEkklesia this summer.
I am a student over atPrinceton Seminary and I am
(00:20):
super excited to talk with youguys a little bit.
I'm super excited to talk withyou guys a little bit.
So, before we get into it, ifyou have a Bible or open up your
app or read up on the screen,we're going to be continuing our
series in Romans with Romans 15, verses 7 through 21.
And I will be reading from theNRSV updated edition Super cool,
(00:45):
but feel free to read whateverversion.
Welcome one another, therefore,just as Christ has welcomed you
for the glory of God, for I tellyou that Christ has become a
servant of the circumcised onbehalf of the truth of God, in
order that he might confirm thepromises given to the ancestors
(01:09):
and that the Gentiles mightglorify God for his mercy.
As it's written, therefore, Iwill confess you among the
Gentiles and sing praises toyour name.
And again he says rejoice, oGentiles, with his people.
And again, praise the Lord, allyou Gentiles, and let all the
peoples praise him.
(01:29):
And again Isaiah says the rootof Jesse shall come, the one who
rises to rule the Gentiles, andhim the Gentiles shall hope.
May the God of hope fill youwith all joy and peace in
believing, so that you mayabound in hope by the power of
the Holy Spirit.
I myself feel confident aboutyou, my brothers and sisters,
(01:50):
that you yourselves are full ofgoodness, filled with all
knowledge and able to instructone another.
Nevertheless, on some pointsI've written to you rather
boldly, by way of reminder,because of the grace given me by
God to be a minister of Christto the Gentiles, in the priestly
service of the gospel of God,so that the offering of the
(02:11):
Gentiles may be acceptable,sanctified by the Holy Spirit In
Christ Jesus, then I havereason to boast of my work for
God, for I will not be so boldas to speak of anything except
what Christ has accomplishedthrough me to win obedience from
the Gentiles by word and deed,by the power of signs and
(02:31):
wonders, by the power of theSpirit, so that, from Jerusalem
and as far as Illyricum, I havefully proclaimed the gospel of
Christ.
Thus I make it my ambition toproclaim the gospel not where
Christ has already been named,so that I do not build on
someone else's foundation, butas it my ambition to proclaim
the gospel, not where Christ hasalready been named, so that I
(02:51):
do not build on someone else'sfoundation, but as it's written
those who have never been toldof him shall see, and those who
have never heard of him shallunderstand.
It's the word of the Lord.
Thanks be to God.
Please bow your heads with mein prayer.
Lord, thank you so much fortoday and for letting us gather
here to talk about you and to bein community with one another
(03:12):
and to love one another.
God, please bless the wordsthat are going to come out of my
mouth, and please bless thistime that we have together.
Lord, we love you so much andwe thank you for this time.
Your name, amen.
Now, if you don't know me, hiagain.
I'm Nathan.
You've probably seen me around.
I've been playing the drums inthe worship team here.
(03:35):
I sometimes will play guitar,but most of the time I'm back
behind the kit, and I've beenplaying the drums for a while
now For about 12-ish years, andso I started when I was about 12
.
Yeah, I think that's right.
Before I started playing drums,though, I had a really big
(03:59):
dream of playing football, andso whenever I got to middle
school, I decided that I wantedto join the football team
because it was the cool thing todo and I needed something to
fit in because I was a new kid.
But it didn't take long tofigure out that I was terrible.
I was so bad at football, likeso bad.
(04:22):
I was so bad at football, likeso bad.
I remember getting knocked onmy butt just like flying five
feet away.
I didn't want to hit anybody, Ididn't want to go out and run.
It was awful.
I can't stress it enough, Imean, I'll paint you a picture.
There are four quarters in theregular game.
(04:44):
I didn't play during any ofthose.
There was, though, a specialfifth quarter that those of us
who were so bad got to play inat the end of the game, and even
then and even then I playedmaybe three times the whole
season.
No, don't, don't awe at me.
(05:07):
No, no, I didn't want to go in.
I was like on the line.
I would like stand behindpeople so I wouldn't be called
on to go in.
It was awful.
I hated it, but at the sametime, at the same time I was
also in concert band, so I juststarted playing percussion in
the concert band.
I loved playing the drums.
(05:28):
I loved playing the marimba,the crash cymbals just making a
lot of noise.
I loved it.
It was just healing for me andslowly, over time, I realized
that I was feeling freer.
I was feeling more accepted andlike I was in my own skin while
I was playing music and Irealized that this was where my
(05:53):
gifts seemed to make more sensein my life.
And I've been able to use thisgift in a few ways and I've been
able to play drums for churchfor a long time.
But along with that, when Iworked in youth ministry, for an
example, there was a kid in theyouth ministry from a family
(06:19):
and he didn't run really withthe popular kids, he didn't go
to the same school as a lot ofthe kids in the youth group and
he didn't really have a lot offriends and so he would just
kind of be by himself.
But I learned that he was inthe marching band and so there
was one day I went up to him andI talked with him and we just
started chatting it up about allthe fun marching band things
(06:42):
like band camp and the 100degree, 10 hour, 10-hour days
outside.
It was awful and we connectedinstantly about it and over time
, his demeanor started to loosena little bit and he became more
comfortable with coming to meand honestly reaching out to
other people for support or justencouragement or just to be
(07:04):
friends with.
And I was only really able todo this because I was gifted
with a love for music and I wasgifted with a love for playing
instruments and all that.
Now, why do I say that?
So, to be frank, I believe thisis what Paul is talking about,
(07:28):
and one of the things Paul istalking about in Romans 15.
I don't think he's talkingabout middle school football,
but I do think or band for thatmatter.
But I do think that there'ssomething to be said about
paying attention to our gifts asa doorway for Christ's love to
reach others.
Now, from this passage, I havetwo points I'd like to focus on
(07:52):
today, the first of which beingthat we have all been created by
God as unique and belovedindividuals.
I'll say that again we havebeen created by God as unique
and beloved individuals, amen.
(08:14):
Now Paul, following a longtreatise on the importance of
unity within the family ofbelievers, in chapter 14, he
shifts his focus towards action.
He begins in verse 7, saying heillustrates how Christ has
(08:37):
modeled the same, that throughhis servanthood, that through
Christ serving others, hewelcomed all Jews and Gentiles
into the loving embrace of God'smercy.
And intrinsic to this statementwelcome each other, as Christ
has welcomed you is theacknowledgement that who God had
(08:58):
created them to be was welcomedby Christ.
Paul urges the Christians inRome to, despite issues of
dietary restrictions orcleanliness versus uncleanliness
that we see in chapter 14, heurges them to bring one another
into the fold of God's lovebecause, ultimately, the
(09:20):
differences that they thoughtdivided them were welcomed by
Christ.
And I believe the same can besaid about us Our personalities,
our experiences, our pasts, ourfutures, our sins, our good
works, our deepest longings, ourstrange passions, everything,
(09:47):
literally everything.
Everything that makes you youhas already been welcomed by
Christ.
Everything that makes you youhas already been welcomed by
Christ.
Everything that makes you youhas already been welcomed by
Christ, and it will continue tobe so.
Christ will continue to welcomeyou.
(10:11):
It is imperative, therefore,that we see each other not by
the small things that mightdivide us, but as fully beloved
and already welcomed individuals, unified under Christ.
If we can begin to look atourselves and others, not
through the lens of what our21st century American culture
(10:34):
would tell us about each other,but rather by the vantage point
of our belovedness in Christ, wemight be able to recognize that
these differences are actuallygifts to the kingdom of God.
These elements, these places,these experiences, these
attributes that are a part ofour lives, that are a part of
(10:57):
our lives, they're gifts fromGod.
They're a completely uniqueexpression of God's love.
These are our personalities,our experiences, our sins, our
futures, our longings,everything.
And if we're to take inventoryof these parts of our lives, we
can begin to bring our fullselves to the service of loving
(11:19):
others with a greaterauthenticity.
It's here that those we bringthe love of Christ to may also
understand that there is a placefor them in the family of faith
, that we have been welcomedwith all of our idiosyncrasies,
our failures, our gifts, andthey will be too, and I want to
(11:42):
be careful here to not makelight of the really bad stuff.
I don't want to make light ofabuse or of pain or trauma and
write those off as though Godjust caused those to happen,
just to use them.
I don't believe that's the case, but I do want to say that God
(12:05):
sees you and God loves you andeven with all of that, you're
welcomed by God and you are soincredibly loved by God and you
are so incredibly loved by God.
Now, the second point I want toemphasize is that, whether or
not we're aware of it, god isusing our unique gifts to draw
(12:32):
others into Christ's love.
Paul had been declaring amessage of invitation and of
acceptance for those outside thefamily of God, and he desires
his audience in Rome to have theexact same care.
Essentially, he wants tobroaden the scope of those
reached by the gospel and heexplains in verse 20 that it's
quote his ambition to proclaimthe gospel, not where Christ has
(12:54):
already been named, so that hedoesn't build on somebody else's
foundation, not where Christhas already been named, so that
he doesn't build on somebodyelse's foundation.
And I find it interesting thatPaul has these ambitions,
because it's important toremember that Paul was Jewish.
He outlines his credentialsactually in Philippians 3.
He says if anyone has reason tobe confident in the flesh, that
is his being Jewish.
(13:15):
I have more Circumcised on theeighth day a member of the
people of Israel, a tribe ofBenjamin, a Hebrew born of
Hebrews and, as to the law, aPharisee as to zeal, a
persecutor of the church.
As to righteousness, under thelaw, blameless.
Yet he's still commissioned byChrist himself to a life of
(13:36):
ministry to a primarilynon-Jewish population.
Is it not strange that Christdesired to use someone so gifted
in the traditions, in thehistory and in the laws of
Judaism to present the gospel tothe Gentiles?
Perhaps Christ wanted to usePaul and his gifts to present a
story, the entire story ofredemption that began with the
(14:00):
Israelites, that began withPaul's ancestry and his heritage
and now continues to includethe rest of the world Further.
I find it deeply fascinatingthat God desired to use Paul's
background of not just being aJew, but being a Jew from Tarsus
, which, at that time Tarsus,was the capital of the Roman
province of Cilicia.
(14:21):
This means that Paul would havebeen incredibly familiar with
Roman culture and thus he wouldhave been further equipped to
minister to Gentiles.
So it seems as though God, inorder to use Paul for these
greater purposes, used what wasfamiliar to him and, through
(14:44):
Paul's yieldedness to themovement of the Holy Spirit,
these gifts were used in uniqueways that would not have been
available without Paul'shumility and openness toward God
.
And openness toward God.
Another example of gifts beingused for God's greater purposes.
We need not look further thanthe Gentiles themselves.
(15:07):
The Gentiles, as they becameincluded in the calling and in
the responsibility of theirJewish neighbors, were purposed
for something greater simply bythe gift of their Jewish
neighbors, were purposed forsomething greater simply by the
gift of their presence.
If we look a little bit furtherdown this passage we didn't get
to this verse today but if welook at verse 31, paul asks the
(15:31):
Christians in Rome to be prayingfor him, to be praying for his
journey to Jerusalem, and thatquote his ministry, or in some
ancient authorities, it says hisbringing of a gift is
acceptable to those in Jerusalem.
I find it interesting that inhis commentary on Romans, paul
(15:55):
Actimire explains the following.
On Romans, paul Actimeyerexplains the following the
offering this is the offeringthat Paul is bringing to
Jerusalem of the Gentiles to thechurch in Jerusalem, is the
gift the Gentiles are giving tothe Jews right.
The gift is therefore a gestureof unity and equality.
Accepting the gift is thereforetacit admission by the Jewish
(16:18):
Christians that Jews andGentiles now stand on equal
footing with respect to eachother.
So it's important to recognizethat because Gentiles were
welcomed into the body of Christ.
Their gift, even if it wassimply their presence, served a
greater purpose for thelivelihood of the church.
(16:41):
In the previous chapters, and aswell as in the beginning of
chapter 15, paul has emphasizedthe importance of unity, and I
believe that both examples ofPaul's background and that of
the Gentiles can show us whyunity is so crucial.
Why is that?
(17:02):
Our family of faith is supposedto be a reflection of God's
creation itself full ofbeautiful and diverse gifts that
draw others to Christ's loveand grace.
So how do we do this Like, in afew minutes, when I stop
(17:26):
talking, you guys will go andhow do we do this?
How do we draw others toChrist's love?
Just because of who we are andbecause of what we've been
through, because of ourbackgrounds, because of our
gifts?
Well, I believe that it beginswith a recognition that God has
(17:49):
created us to be in communitywith one another, with all of
our differences.
When you were created I'mtalking to each and every one of
you when you were all created,god thought that you were a good
idea, and God thought that youwere a good idea to be in
(18:12):
community with one another rightnow, thought that you were a
good idea to be in communitywith one another right now, and
God knows the experiences thatyou've had and God knows the
places you will end up.
And there is such beauty andpromise to that.
(18:32):
Because we're in community withone another, we can hold each
other up, we can lift eachother's burdens.
There is so much beauty andpromise, too, in knowing that
(18:52):
the Holy Spirit will work withour gifts.
The Holy Spirit will work withour gifts to draw others to
Christ, and I believe that thatwas the case with my friend in
the youth group that I didn't doanything.
Right, I got interested inmusic.
I didn't even want to be inmusic.
(19:13):
Right, I wanted to playfootball, but God used that
right.
The Holy Spirit used that andbrought us together so that my
friend in the youth group couldknow God's love.
Right, those are our gifts,those are the things that we
need to pay attention to.
(19:37):
I also believe that God placedus where we are with intention.
If we can be open to how Godmight be using us and all of our
gifts in our communities, andif we can bring our full selves
to the service of Christ, weposition ourselves outwardly
(19:57):
towards others, just as Christdid when, through his ministry
and all the way to the cross, heserved others and he gave his
life as a gift for everyone.
Recognizing and fully leaninginto our gifts, into the
wonderful belovedness that Godhas made us to be, we can more
(20:22):
authentically and empatheticallylove and serve those whom God
has placed in front of us, andbecause of Christ's death and
resurrection, and because ofChrist's death and resurrection,
we are free to bring othersinto the family of faith that we
ourselves have been welcomedinto.
I'm going to invite the worshipteam back up, and why don't we
(20:47):
have a little time of prayer asthey're coming up?
Bow your heads with me, lord,thank you again for today and
thank you for for giving us therecognition that we are loved by
you, that there is nothing wecan do and that there is nothing
(21:10):
about us that you will turnaway, that you have welcomed us
in all of our mess.
But with that, god, you call us.
You call us to serve others, touse our gifts, to use our
experiences to draw others intothis love, to welcome others
(21:34):
into the family that you'vewelcomed us in, god.
We thank you and we pray thatas we go into the week, as we go
into our jobs, into our schools, into our communities, that you
remind us that we are all oneunder God.
(21:57):
We are all made one underChrist and through Christ's
sacrifice we can all be a familyof faith together and we can
treat each other as such.
Lord, we love you and we thankyou, amen.
Hello, is this thing on?
Can we hear me?
Yeah, okay, hi everyone.
My name is Nathan Nathan King.
I am one of the interns here atEkklesia this summer.
I am a student over atPrinceton Seminary and I am
(00:20):
super excited to talk with youguys a little bit.
I'm super excited to talk withyou guys a little bit.
So, before we get into it, ifyou have a Bible or open up your
app or read up on the screen,we're going to be continuing our
series in Romans with Romans 15, verses 7 through 21.
And I will be reading from theNRSV updated edition Super cool,
(00:45):
but feel free to read whateverversion.
Welcome one another, therefore,just as Christ has welcomed you
for the glory of God, for I tellyou that Christ has become a
servant of the circumcised onbehalf of the truth of God, in
order that he might confirm thepromises given to the ancestors
(01:09):
and that the Gentiles mightglorify God for his mercy.
As it's written, therefore, Iwill confess you among the
Gentiles and sing praises toyour name.
And again he says rejoice, oGentiles, with his people.
And again, praise the Lord, allyou Gentiles, and let all the
peoples praise him.
(01:29):
And again Isaiah says the rootof Jesse shall come, the one who
rises to rule the Gentiles, andhim the Gentiles shall hope.
May the God of hope fill youwith all joy and peace in
believing, so that you mayabound in hope by the power of
the Holy Spirit.
I myself feel confident aboutyou, my brothers and sisters,
(01:50):
that you yourselves are full ofgoodness, filled with all
knowledge and able to instructone another.
Nevertheless, on some pointsI've written to you rather
boldly, by way of reminder,because of the grace given me by
God to be a minister of Christto the Gentiles, in the priestly
service of the gospel of God,so that the offering of the
(02:11):
Gentiles may be acceptable,sanctified by the Holy Spirit In
Christ Jesus, then I havereason to boast of my work for
God, for I will not be so boldas to speak of anything except
what Christ has accomplishedthrough me to win obedience from
the Gentiles by word and deed,by the power of signs and
(02:31):
wonders, by the power of theSpirit, so that, from Jerusalem
and as far as Illyricum, I havefully proclaimed the gospel of
Christ.
Thus I make it my ambition toproclaim the gospel not where
Christ has already been named,so that I do not build on
someone else's foundation, butas it my ambition to proclaim
the gospel, not where Christ hasalready been named, so that I
(02:51):
do not build on someone else'sfoundation, but as it's written
those who have never been toldof him shall see, and those who
have never heard of him shallunderstand.
It's the word of the Lord.
Thanks be to God.
Please bow your heads with mein prayer.
Lord, thank you so much fortoday and for letting us gather
here to talk about you and to bein community with one another
(03:12):
and to love one another.
God, please bless the wordsthat are going to come out of my
mouth, and please bless thistime that we have together.
Lord, we love you so much andwe thank you for this time.
Your name, amen.
Now, if you don't know me, hiagain.
I'm Nathan.
You've probably seen me around.
I've been playing the drums inthe worship team here.
(03:35):
I sometimes will play guitar,but most of the time I'm back
behind the kit, and I've beenplaying the drums for a while
now For about 12-ish years, andso I started when I was about 12
.
Yeah, I think that's right.
Before I started playing drums,though, I had a really big
(03:59):
dream of playing football, andso whenever I got to middle
school, I decided that I wantedto join the football team
because it was the cool thing todo and I needed something to
fit in because I was a new kid.
But it didn't take long tofigure out that I was terrible.
I was so bad at football, likeso bad.
(04:22):
I was so bad at football, likeso bad.
I remember getting knocked onmy butt just like flying five
feet away.
I didn't want to hit anybody, Ididn't want to go out and run.
It was awful.
I can't stress it enough, Imean, I'll paint you a picture.
There are four quarters in theregular game.
(04:44):
I didn't play during any ofthose.
There was, though, a specialfifth quarter that those of us
who were so bad got to play inat the end of the game, and even
then and even then I playedmaybe three times the whole
season.
No, don't, don't awe at me.
(05:07):
No, no, I didn't want to go in.
I was like on the line.
I would like stand behindpeople so I wouldn't be called
on to go in.
It was awful.
I hated it, but at the sametime, at the same time I was
also in concert band, so I juststarted playing percussion in
the concert band.
I loved playing the drums.
(05:28):
I loved playing the marimba,the crash cymbals just making a
lot of noise.
I loved it.
It was just healing for me andslowly, over time, I realized
that I was feeling freer.
I was feeling more accepted andlike I was in my own skin while
I was playing music and Irealized that this was where my
(05:53):
gifts seemed to make more sensein my life.
And I've been able to use thisgift in a few ways and I've been
able to play drums for churchfor a long time.
But along with that, when Iworked in youth ministry, for an
example, there was a kid in theyouth ministry from a family
(06:19):
and he didn't run really withthe popular kids, he didn't go
to the same school as a lot ofthe kids in the youth group and
he didn't really have a lot offriends and so he would just
kind of be by himself.
But I learned that he was inthe marching band and so there
was one day I went up to him andI talked with him and we just
started chatting it up about allthe fun marching band things
(06:42):
like band camp and the 100degree, 10 hour, 10-hour days
outside.
It was awful and we connectedinstantly about it and over time
, his demeanor started to loosena little bit and he became more
comfortable with coming to meand honestly reaching out to
other people for support or justencouragement or just to be
(07:04):
friends with.
And I was only really able todo this because I was gifted
with a love for music and I wasgifted with a love for playing
instruments and all that.
Now, why do I say that?
So, to be frank, I believe thisis what Paul is talking about,
(07:28):
and one of the things Paul istalking about in Romans 15.
I don't think he's talkingabout middle school football,
but I do think or band for thatmatter.
But I do think that there'ssomething to be said about
paying attention to our gifts asa doorway for Christ's love to
reach others.
Now, from this passage, I havetwo points I'd like to focus on
(07:52):
today, the first of which beingthat we have all been created by
God as unique and belovedindividuals.
I'll say that again we havebeen created by God as unique
and beloved individuals, amen.
(08:14):
Now Paul, following a longtreatise on the importance of
unity within the family ofbelievers, in chapter 14, he
shifts his focus towards action.
He begins in verse 7, saying heillustrates how Christ has
(08:37):
modeled the same, that throughhis servanthood, that through
Christ serving others, hewelcomed all Jews and Gentiles
into the loving embrace of God'smercy.
And intrinsic to this statementwelcome each other, as Christ
has welcomed you is theacknowledgement that who God had
(08:58):
created them to be was welcomedby Christ.
Paul urges the Christians inRome to, despite issues of
dietary restrictions orcleanliness versus uncleanliness
that we see in chapter 14, heurges them to bring one another
into the fold of God's lovebecause, ultimately, the
(09:20):
differences that they thoughtdivided them were welcomed by
Christ.
And I believe the same can besaid about us Our personalities,
our experiences, our pasts, ourfutures, our sins, our good
works, our deepest longings, ourstrange passions, everything,
(09:47):
literally everything.
Everything that makes you youhas already been welcomed by
Christ.
Everything that makes you youhas already been welcomed by
Christ.
Everything that makes you youhas already been welcomed by
Christ, and it will continue tobe so.
Christ will continue to welcomeyou.
(10:11):
It is imperative, therefore,that we see each other not by
the small things that mightdivide us, but as fully beloved
and already welcomed individuals, unified under Christ.
If we can begin to look atourselves and others, not
through the lens of what our21st century American culture
(10:34):
would tell us about each other,but rather by the vantage point
of our belovedness in Christ, wemight be able to recognize that
these differences are actuallygifts to the kingdom of God.
These elements, these places,these experiences, these
attributes that are a part ofour lives, that are a part of
(10:57):
our lives, they're gifts fromGod.
They're a completely uniqueexpression of God's love.
These are our personalities,our experiences, our sins, our
futures, our longings,everything.
And if we're to take inventoryof these parts of our lives, we
can begin to bring our fullselves to the service of loving
(11:19):
others with a greaterauthenticity.
It's here that those we bringthe love of Christ to may also
understand that there is a placefor them in the family of faith
, that we have been welcomedwith all of our idiosyncrasies,
our failures, our gifts, andthey will be too, and I want to
(11:42):
be careful here to not makelight of the really bad stuff.
I don't want to make light ofabuse or of pain or trauma and
write those off as though Godjust caused those to happen,
just to use them.
I don't believe that's the case, but I do want to say that God
(12:05):
sees you and God loves you andeven with all of that, you're
welcomed by God and you are soincredibly loved by God and you
are so incredibly loved by God.
Now, the second point I want toemphasize is that, whether or
not we're aware of it, god isusing our unique gifts to draw
(12:32):
others into Christ's love.
Paul had been declaring amessage of invitation and of
acceptance for those outside thefamily of God, and he desires
his audience in Rome to have theexact same care.
Essentially, he wants tobroaden the scope of those
reached by the gospel and heexplains in verse 20 that it's
quote his ambition to proclaimthe gospel, not where Christ has
(12:54):
already been named, so that hedoesn't build on somebody else's
foundation, not where Christhas already been named, so that
he doesn't build on somebodyelse's foundation.
And I find it interesting thatPaul has these ambitions,
because it's important toremember that Paul was Jewish.
He outlines his credentialsactually in Philippians 3.
He says if anyone has reason tobe confident in the flesh, that
is his being Jewish.
(13:15):
I have more Circumcised on theeighth day a member of the
people of Israel, a tribe ofBenjamin, a Hebrew born of
Hebrews and, as to the law, aPharisee as to zeal, a
persecutor of the church.
As to righteousness, under thelaw, blameless.
Yet he's still commissioned byChrist himself to a life of
(13:36):
ministry to a primarilynon-Jewish population.
Is it not strange that Christdesired to use someone so gifted
in the traditions, in thehistory and in the laws of
Judaism to present the gospel tothe Gentiles?
Perhaps Christ wanted to usePaul and his gifts to present a
story, the entire story ofredemption that began with the
(14:00):
Israelites, that began withPaul's ancestry and his heritage
and now continues to includethe rest of the world Further.
I find it deeply fascinatingthat God desired to use Paul's
background of not just being aJew, but being a Jew from Tarsus
, which, at that time Tarsus,was the capital of the Roman
province of Cilicia.
(14:21):
This means that Paul would havebeen incredibly familiar with
Roman culture and thus he wouldhave been further equipped to
minister to Gentiles.
So it seems as though God, inorder to use Paul for these
greater purposes, used what wasfamiliar to him and, through
(14:44):
Paul's yieldedness to themovement of the Holy Spirit,
these gifts were used in uniqueways that would not have been
available without Paul'shumility and openness toward God
.
And openness toward God.
Another example of gifts beingused for God's greater purposes.
We need not look further thanthe Gentiles themselves.
(15:07):
The Gentiles, as they becameincluded in the calling and in
the responsibility of theirJewish neighbors, were purposed
for something greater simply bythe gift of their Jewish
neighbors, were purposed forsomething greater simply by the
gift of their presence.
If we look a little bit furtherdown this passage we didn't get
to this verse today but if welook at verse 31, paul asks the
(15:31):
Christians in Rome to be prayingfor him, to be praying for his
journey to Jerusalem, and thatquote his ministry, or in some
ancient authorities, it says hisbringing of a gift is
acceptable to those in Jerusalem.
I find it interesting that inhis commentary on Romans, paul
(15:55):
Actimire explains the following.
On Romans, paul Actimeyerexplains the following the
offering this is the offeringthat Paul is bringing to
Jerusalem of the Gentiles to thechurch in Jerusalem, is the
gift the Gentiles are giving tothe Jews right.
The gift is therefore a gestureof unity and equality.
Accepting the gift is thereforetacit admission by the Jewish
(16:18):
Christians that Jews andGentiles now stand on equal
footing with respect to eachother.
So it's important to recognizethat because Gentiles were
welcomed into the body of Christ.
Their gift, even if it wassimply their presence, served a
greater purpose for thelivelihood of the church.
(16:41):
In the previous chapters, and aswell as in the beginning of
chapter 15, paul has emphasizedthe importance of unity, and I
believe that both examples ofPaul's background and that of
the Gentiles can show us whyunity is so crucial.
Why is that?
(17:02):
Our family of faith is supposedto be a reflection of God's
creation itself full ofbeautiful and diverse gifts that
draw others to Christ's loveand grace.
So how do we do this Like, in afew minutes, when I stop
(17:26):
talking, you guys will go andhow do we do this?
How do we draw others toChrist's love?
Just because of who we are andbecause of what we've been
through, because of ourbackgrounds, because of our
gifts?
Well, I believe that it beginswith a recognition that God has
(17:49):
created us to be in communitywith one another, with all of
our differences.
When you were created I'mtalking to each and every one of
you when you were all created,god thought that you were a good
idea, and God thought that youwere a good idea to be in
(18:12):
community with one another rightnow, thought that you were a
good idea to be in communitywith one another right now, and
God knows the experiences thatyou've had and God knows the
places you will end up.
And there is such beauty andpromise to that.
(18:32):
Because we're in community withone another, we can hold each
other up, we can lift eachother's burdens.
There is so much beauty andpromise, too, in knowing that
(18:52):
the Holy Spirit will work withour gifts.
The Holy Spirit will work withour gifts to draw others to
Christ, and I believe that thatwas the case with my friend in
the youth group that I didn't doanything.
Right, I got interested inmusic.
I didn't even want to be inmusic.
(19:13):
Right, I wanted to playfootball, but God used that
right.
The Holy Spirit used that andbrought us together so that my
friend in the youth group couldknow God's love.
Right, those are our gifts,those are the things that we
need to pay attention to.
(19:37):
I also believe that God placedus where we are with intention.
If we can be open to how Godmight be using us and all of our
gifts in our communities, andif we can bring our full selves
to the service of Christ, weposition ourselves outwardly
(19:57):
towards others, just as Christdid when, through his ministry
and all the way to the cross, heserved others and he gave his
life as a gift for everyone.
Recognizing and fully leaninginto our gifts, into the
wonderful belovedness that Godhas made us to be, we can more
(20:22):
authentically and empatheticallylove and serve those whom God
has placed in front of us, andbecause of Christ's death and
resurrection, and because ofChrist's death and resurrection,
we are free to bring othersinto the family of faith that we
ourselves have been welcomedinto.
I'm going to invite the worshipteam back up, and why don't we
(20:47):
have a little time of prayer asthey're coming up?
Bow your heads with me, lord,thank you again for today and
thank you for for giving us therecognition that we are loved by
you, that there is nothing wecan do and that there is nothing
(21:10):
about us that you will turnaway, that you have welcomed us
in all of our mess.
But with that, god, you call us.
You call us to serve others, touse our gifts, to use our
experiences to draw others intothis love, to welcome others
(21:34):
into the family that you'vewelcomed us in, god.
We thank you and we pray thatas we go into the week, as we go
into our jobs, into our schools, into our communities, that you
remind us that we are all oneunder God.
(21:57):
We are all made one underChrist and through Christ's
sacrifice we can all be a familyof faith together and we can
treat each other as such.
Lord, we love you and we thankyou, amen.
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