Christian Living on Gentiles

series

Ephesians 3:1-21 | God’s Grace, Power, and Love are for All Peoples

Author

Keywords

Scripture

Ephesians 3:1-21

Context The body of the letter continues in chapter 3. If it were not for chapters 4-6, we could even believe that Paul was about to close this letter after we read what appears to be a benediction i...

liturgy

Isaiah 56:8 says, “The Sovereign Lord

Author

Cody Sandahl

Keywords

Scripture

Isaiah 56:8

Isaiah 56:8 says, “The Sovereign Lord declares – he who gathers the exiles of Israel: ‘I will gather yet others to him besides those already gathered.’” Sisters and brothers, the Lord grants us forgiv...

liturgy

Nunc Dimittis

Keywords

Scripture

Luke 2:29-32, Luke 1:78-79, Isaiah 9:2, John 8:12, Matthew 4:16, Acts 13:47, Psalm 98:2-3, Luke 2:10-11, John 1:9, Revelation 21:23

Lord, now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace, according to thy word; For mine eyes have seen thy salvation, which thou hast prepared before the face of all people, To be a light to lig...

liturgy

Adapted from Matthew 12:18-21

Author

Dustin Ray

Keywords

Scripture

Matthew 12:18-21

Pastor: “Behold, my servant whom I have chosen, my beloved with whom my soul is well pleased. All: I will put my Spirit upon him, and he will proclaim justice to the Gentiles. Pastor: He will not ...

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The Diversity of the Early Church

Author

Scot McKnight

Keywords

Scripture

Matthew 28:18-20, Acts 10:34-35, Galatians 3:28, Revelation 7:9, 1 Corinthians 12:12-14, Psalm 86:9

So if we want to get the church right, we have to learn to see it as a salad in a bowl, made the Right Way of course. For a good salad is a fellowship of different tastes, all mixed together with the ...

blog

Waiting is Not Wasting Time: Advent 2024

Author

Stuart R. Strachan, Jr.

Keywords

Scripture

Luke 2:29-32

God’s dealings with us are always on the order of what he did with Abram and Sarai. He makes his promises, and he will keep his promises; but just how and when he will keep them is something for which...

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Never Forget Who You Are

Author

Vaughan Roberts

Keywords

Scripture

Leviticus 11:44

In describing the role of the Israelites to the Gentiles, author Vaughan Roberts draws an analogy from a former prince: When the future George VI was a young boy, his mother, Queen Mary, often use...

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A Seed of Wanting to Be the Boss

Author

Walter Brueggemann

Keywords

Scripture

Mark 10:42-45

People in the world naturally want to boss others. Imagine a boy beginning work with a firm. He has a lowly place and is ordered around by everyone. Do this! Do that! Every dirty job is his. He is the...

Quote

Author

Robert Guelich

Keywords

The poor in Judaism referred to those in desperate need (socio-economic element) whose helplessness drove them to a dependent relationship with God (religious element) for the supplying of their needs...

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“Christians:” Worshiping God in Equality

Author

John M. Perkins

Keywords

Scripture

Acts 13:1, 2 Corinthians 5:17, Galatians 3:28

Christ followers were first called Christians at Antioch—about fifteen years after the birth of the church at Pentecost. There must have been something remarkable about this particular group of believ...

Quote

Author

N. T. Wright

Keywords

Many first-century Jews thought of themselves as living in a continuing narrative stretching from earliest times, through ancient prophecies, and on toward a climactic moment of deliverance which migh...

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These Impious Galileans

Author

Stuart R. Strachan, Jr.

Keywords

Scripture

Matthew 22:37-39, Matthew 25:35-40, Luke 3:11, Ephesians 5:2, Acts 2:42-47, James 2:14-17, Galatians 2:10, Psalm 72:12-14

A passage often referred to in order to describe the sacrificial, countercultural quality of the early church comes to us interestingly enough, from one of its strongest critics, known later to histor...

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The Threat of the Christians

Author

Michael Frost

Keywords

Scripture

James 1:27, Hebrews 13:2-3, 1 Peter 2:12, Galatians 6:10, Romans 12:13, Acts 2:44-45

The fourth-century emperor Julian (AD 331-336) feared [Christians] might take over the empire. Referring to Christians as “Galileans” and Christianity as “atheism” (because of their denial of the exis...

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Eating With Sinners

Author

David Schuringa

Keywords

Scripture

Luke 7:36-50, Romans 5:8, John 4:7-26, Matthew 11:19, Luke 19:5-10, Mark 2:15-17

Why did it disturb the religious leaders that Jesus ate with “sinners”? To eat with someone is an important symbol of fellowship. And in those days, the Jews had a rule: one is not to have such fellow...

liturgy

Hear the Good News. God sent his Son,

Author

Lisa Ann Moss Degrenia

Keywords

Scripture

Galatians 4:4, 2 Corinthians 5:17, Romans 6:23, 1 John 1:9, Romans 8:1, Colossians 1:19-20

Hear the Good News. God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under the law, to redeem us, free us, and make us children of God. In the Name of Jesus Christ, you are forgiven. Glory to God! Amen.

Quote

Author

N. T. Wright

Keywords

Scripture

Luke 12:33-34, Luke 18:28-30, Acts 2:44-45, Matthew 19:21, Mark 10:29-30, Luke 14:26

Family and property, then, were not for the ancient Jew simply what they are to the modern western world. Both carried religious and cultural significance far beyond personal, let alone “individual,” ...

liturgy

Adapted from Ephesians 2:19-22

Keywords

Scripture

Ephesians 2:19-22

So then you are no longer strangers and foreigners, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and of the household of God, Being built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus ...

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A Day in the Market

Author

Stuart R. Strachan, Jr.

Keywords

I’d like us to begin with a little scene setting. So, I’m going to invite everyone who is comfortable to close their eyes. And I am transporting you to Rome, it’s approximately 60 AD. You are a commo...

liturgy

Adapted from Isaiah 56

Keywords

Scripture

Isaiah 56:null

Leader: Thus says the Lord: "Maintain justice, and do what is right, for soon My salvation will come, and My deliverance will be revealed. People: "To those who keep My sabbath, who choose...

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To Remember & Observe: Sabbath in a Jewish Home

Author

A. J. Swoboda

Keywords

We must begin by remembering. If you journey into a contemporary Jewish home prepared for Sabbath, you will likely encounter two candles lit by (more often than not) the woman of the home. On Friday e...

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A People is Made by Making

Author

The Pastor's Workshop

Scripture

Exodus 25:, Exodus 26:, Exodus 27:, Exodus 19:5-6, Exodus 35:21-29, Ezra 3:8-13, Ezra 6:13-22, Nehemiah 2:17-18, Nehemiah 4:6, 1 Corinthians 3:9, Exodus 35:

The Rabbi Jonathan Sacks, in his book The Home We Build Together , points out to the reader that in scripture the description of the creation of the universe in Genesis is given a mere thirty-fou...

liturgy

Galatians 4:4-7

Keywords

Scripture

Galatians 4:4-7

“But when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son, born of woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons. And because you a...

liturgy

Adapted from Deuteronomy 7:6-11

Author

Dustin Ray

Keywords

Scripture

Deuteronomy 7:6-11

Pastor: For you are a people holy to the LORD your God. The LORD your God has chosen you to be a people for his treasured possession, out of all the peoples who are on the face of the earth. It was no...

Quote

Author

Alan Roxburgh and M. Scott Boren

Keywords

The mysterious choosing of the people of Israel forms the imaginative backdrop to the New Testament concept of election . The mystery of the election of the church is not, as in Augustine’s framing, ...

liturgy

Adapted from 1 Peter 2:9-10, 25

Author

Jacob Traeger

Keywords

Scripture

1 Peter 2:9-10, 25

Go, as God’s own people and proclaim the mighty acts of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light: Once you were not a people, but now you are God’s people; once you had...

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The Unique Quality of Christians

Author

James Bryan Smith

Keywords

Scripture

Galatians 6:10, Hebrews 11:13-16, 2 Corinthians 6:9-10, Matthew 5:44, 1 Peter 2:11-12, John 17:15-16

In an early Christian document known as the Epistle to Diognetus (c. A.D. 120-200), the author wrote a response to some propaganda circulating in the Roman Empire. People had spread false rumors about...

Quote

Author

F. F. Bruce

Keywords

God bestows His blessings without discrimination. The followers of Jesus are children of God, and they should manifest the family likeness by doing good to all, even to those who deserve the opposite.

Quote

Author

Dietrich Bonhoeffer

Keywords

The exclusion of the weak and insignificant, the seemingly useless people, from a Christian community may actually mean the exclusion of Christ; in the poor brother Christ is knocking at the door.

Quote

Author

N. T. Wright

Keywords

God's Will

God had a single plan all along through which he intended to rescue the world and the human race, and that this single plan was centered upon the call of Israel, a call which Paul saw coming to fruiti...

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A Roman’s View of the Jewish Faith and Its Interaction with Egypt

Author

Tacitus

Keywords

In this excerpt by the Roman historian Tacitus, we get insight into the Jewish faith from an ancient, extra-Biblical account. We also see how the Israelites took the first commandment seriously: The...

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