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Philippians 3:17-20 – Ephesians 2:11-13

The great English preacher Charles Spurgeon told of a man who had been sentenced to death by a Spanish court.  This man happened to be BOTH an American citizen AND also Englishman and the consuls of both countries decided to intervene. 

https://quod.lib.umich.edu/m/moa/ajf6281.0001.001?rgn=main;view=fulltext – Page 206

https://christianchronicle.org/bradleys-afghanistan/ – John & Jan Bradley of College Hills CofC, 13 years,, schools, hospitals, now helping people flee.  And people are risking awful costs, unsafe costs to leave it all behind to get here. 

“… REMEMBER that at that time you were separate from Christ, excluded from citizenship in Israel and foreigners to the covenants of the promise, without hope and without God in the world.” Ephesians 2:12

“Therefore, remember that formerly you who are Gentiles by birth and called ‘uncircumcised’ by those who call themselves ‘the circumcision’ (that done in the body by the hands of men)” Eph. 2:11

Acts 10:44 says “the Holy Spirit came on all who heard the message.” 

“As I began to speak, the Holy Spirit came on them as he had come on us AT the beginning.” Acts 11:15

Acts 10:47 he asks the “circumcised believers” who’d come with him “Can anyone keep these people from being baptized with water?…”

Therefore, remember that FORMERLY you who are Gentiles by birth and called “uncircumcised” by those who call themselves “the circumcision” (that done in the body by the hands of men) – remember that at that time you were separate from Christ, excluded from citizenship in Israel and foreigners to the covenants of the promise, without hope and without God in the world. But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far away have been brought near through the blood of Christ.” Ephesians 2:11-13

****MAIL CALL TO DIOGNETUS: Refreshing, exciting, and enjoyable are some of the words I’d use to describe my experience as I read through some of the ancient letters that have been preserved from the Christian world from the 1stCentury after Christ.  This week I read a letter from someone that is labeled as “Mathetes” (which means disciple in Greek) as he describes the nature of Christians to a questioner named Diognetus.  This letter has been dated to around 117AD. Some scholars connect this letter to a student of the disciple of John, because of the regular uses of “Son” and “Word” instead of the frequently used “Christ.” Whoever the writer was, he/sheoffers us a wonderful glimpse into the world of Christians after Jesus’ ascension. Here is chapter 5 and chapter 6 of the letter to Diognetus from “Mathetes.”

CH5 –“For the distinction between Christians and other men, is neither in country nor language nor customs. For they do not dwell in cities in some place of their own, nor do they use any strange variety of dialect, nor practise an extraordinary kind of life. This teaching of theirs has not been discovered by the intellect or thought of busy men, nor are they the advocates of any human doctrine as some men are. Yet while living in Greek and barbarian cities, according as each obtained his lot, and following the local customs, both in clothing and food and in the rest of life, they show forth the wonderful and confessedly strange character of the constitution of their own citizenship. They dwell in their own fatherlands, but as if sojourners in them; they share all things as citizens, and suffer all things as strangers. Every foreign country is their fatherland, and every fatherland is a foreign country. They marry as all men, they bear children, but they do not expose their offspring. They offer free hospitality, but guard their purity. Their lot is cast “in the flesh,” but they do not live “after the flesh.” They pass their time upon the earth, but they have their citizenship in heaven.

https://www.ccel.org/ccel/schaff/anf01.iii.i.html

THIS WORLD IS NOT MY HOME: