Paul’s arrival at Rome
- “Once were were not but now we are””
- Paul eventually gets to Rome and for once something really nice happens to him.
- There are Jews who follow Jesus living there.
- Somehow they heard he was arriving and they showed up to greet and befriend him.
- Now Paul would not have known these people as he had never gone to Rome and the church there [according to external historical evidence] had started somewhere around 40AD.
- I love this! And can totally relate to it.
- I travel a lot and it never ceases to amaze me that I can meet complete strangers from a different background, race, ethnicity, colour, sex, class etc and yet almost immediately connect with them… why?
- Jesus.
- We share the same feelings and experiences. We can chat about things and know exactly what each other means because God has somehow mysteriously bonded us around Himself. As we known Him we know each other.
- “Once you were not a people, but now you are the people of God” 1 Peter 2:10
- God calls mixtures!
- Like us!
- It is a tough job because people naturally elevate to those like themselves.
- The choice of Greek words here is interesting; Laos is used not Demos
- Demos means public - a group of people bound together socially
- Laos - a people - a group of people bound together by nothing but the spirit of God
- The unique thing about the body of God is that we are bound together by someone and something bigger than ourselves. Without that we will natural often separate from each other to find those more like us.
- This is why marriages succeed best when they are built around someone bigger than themselves. Sadly sometimes that is children and they shoulder incredible pressures.
- Thanking God today that I was once not but know I am part of His people.
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