IDENTITY:
Nuncio to the Nations
Glenn Garvin • May 19, 2024
Where we’ve been!
• We are created on purpose for purpose.
• Our free choice shattered the image of God in us and in others.
• Life is a miracle.
• We’re crafted to connect.
This week: We are Nuncios (ambassadors) to the nations.
On the day of Pentecost all the believers were meeting together in one place. Suddenly, there was a sound from heaven like the roaring of a mighty windstorm, and it filled the house where they were sitting. Then, what looked like flames or tongues of fire appeared and settled on each of them. And everyone present was filled with the Holy Spirit and began speaking in other languages, as the Holy Spirit gave them this ability. —–Acts 2:1-4 NLT
This Sunday is Pentecost Sunday!
What is Pentecost Sunday?
It is the ancient Jewish holiday called, Shavuot. It’s the single most important event in Israel’s history: the giving of the Torah (the first five books in the Hebrew Bible) to Moses at Mount Sinai. However, its also a modern holiday that today commemorates the Feast of Weeks. In the New Testament that meant all Jews were
Why is that important in our current series of IDENTITY? Because the Day of Pentecost as seen in Acts 2, is the object lesson
At that time there were devout Jews from every nation living in Jerusalem. When they heard the loud noise, everyone came running, and they were bewildered to hear their own languages being spoken by the believers. They were completely amazed. “How can this be?” they exclaimed. “These people are all from Galilee, and **yet we hear them speaking in our own native languages! Here we are—Parthians, Medes, Elamites, people from Mesopotamia, Judea, Cappadocia, Pontus, the province of Asia, Phrygia, Pamphylia, Egypt, and the areas of Libya around Cyrene, visitors from Rome (both Jews and converts to Judaism), Cretans, and Arabs. And we all hear these people speaking in our own languages about the wonderful things God has done!”They stood there amazed and perplexed. “What can this mean? They asked each other. –Acts 2:5-12 NLT
The Holy Spirit’s presence does not bring
Why is that important in our current series of IDENTITY?
The people of Acts 2 were
There were 15 Nations mentioned in Acts 2:9-11.
In the notes you’ll find a link to The Diaspora (dispersion) of the Jewish people.
The long promise of the Holy Spirit!
God said this kind of day would be coming way back in the Old Testament.
Jeremiah 31 is filled with future promises.
- In that day
- For I will bring them from the north and from the distant corners of the earth.
- The Lord, who scattered his people, will gather them and watch over them as a shepherd does his flock.
- They will come home and sing songs of joy on the heights of Jerusalem.
- Your children will come back to you from the distant land of the enemy. There is hope for your future,” says the Lord. “Your children will come again to their own land.
Pentecost is the mental tapestry of what the image of God looks like and sounds like and it is vastly more
The fulfillment of God’s
IDENTITY as seen as unity within our diversity
Ethnicity is the eternal expression of God!
• Why is it so hard to have race conversations?
• Why is it so difficult to treat others right?
• Those who look different or sound different from ourselves?
Through the painful history in our country. We feel unprepared, unequipped Biblically or theologically. Because of it we feel “off” emotionally, and even relationally. —– Steve Bang Lee
All
“From one man he created all the nations throughout the whole earth.” —–Acts 17:26
Jesus tells us that marriage motif will end –
“For in the resurrection they neither marry nor are given in marriage but are like angels in heaven.” —–Matthew 22:30.
But in the discussion of new heaven and new earth, ethnicity is identified!
“After this I saw a vast crowd, too great to count, from every nation and tribe and people and language, standing in front of the throne and before the Lamb. They were clothed in white robes and held palm branches in their hands.” —–Revelation 7:9
Three things about ethnicity:
1. Ethnicity is to be enjoyed, not eliminated or exalted.
a. It
b. Think about your parents, your family upbringing, the foods, the celebrations, and stories.
c. Now, think about another person’s family – their upbringing, foods, celebrations, and stories.
d. Jesus transcends our ethnicity, but he doesn’t eradicate our ethnic identity.
e. Jew, Greek, Male or Female. Paul doesn’t eliminate the fact that there are ethnic or physical differences he highlights the neutrality of all of us being made right with God.
f. Jesus entered our world with an ethnicity!
2. Unity in diversity is God’s plan.
a. God’s plan is to unite different ethnicities together as a family.
b. Adam is all of humanity.
c. Abraham “all peoples on earth,” promise blessing – Genesis 12:1-3.
d. The story started with one
e. Jesus own ministry led him to Tyre, Sidon and Samaria.
f. Ephesians vertical reconciliation with God and horizontal reconciliation with other ethnicities – Jews and Gentiles. Ephesians 2:13-19.
g. Fulfilled in the end. “All nations, tribes, people and languages” is repeated 7 times in Revelation.
h. This was plan A all along.
i. GenZ (born after 1996) is the most Racially Diverse generation in the history of the U.S.
3. Unity in diversity requires the resources of God.
a. First unity requires choice.
b. You have more in common with a believer from another country than you may have with your own neighbor who looks like you, votes like you – but does not yet believe in Jesus!
c. Preserving that unity that requires a strategy!
- Church fellowship is more helpful than cultural framework and thinking.
- Biblical language is more helpful than cultural language.
- Gospel-centeredness is more helpful than cultural outrage.
The Apostle Paul, in his gifting and calling as an Apostle did a fantastic job teaching the Church how we should view ethnicity through the lens of God’s image showing through our own identity as a follower of Christ.
For Christ himself has brought peace to us. He united Jews and Gentiles into one people when, in his own body on the cross, he broke down the wall of hostility that separated us. He did this by ending the system of law with its commandments and regulations. He made peace between Jews and Gentiles by creating in himself one new people from the two groups. Together as one body, Christ reconciled both groups to God by means of his death on the cross, and our hostility toward each other was put to death. He brought this Good News of peace to you Gentiles who were far away from him, and peace to the Jews who were near. Now all of us can come to the Father through the same Holy Spirit because of what Christ has done for us. —–Ephesians 2:14-18
There is Unity in Diversity in God’s Plan, therefore we are Nuncios (ambassadors) to the nations. Because God created all ethnicities, followers of Jesus believe that ethnicity is to be embraced - not erased nor exalted.