While having coffee with a friend last week, I was encouraged from a couple of passages. This dear brother, whom the Lord has given an incredible passion for the nations, first took me to this verse:
The nations will walk by its light, and the kings of the earth will bring their glory into it. In the daytime (for there will be no night there) its gates will never be closed; and they will bring the glory and the honor of the nations into it;--Revelation 21:24-26
The conversation over this passage perfectly dovetailed with Thabiti Anyabwile's recent message. The nations are not geopolitical divisions. Nations does not refer to race. "Nations" refers to ethnicities. The ethnicities are real, and their distinctions are real, yet they do not create immovable chasms. The chasms can be crossed by the gospel message.Nations becomes a non-issue if their distinctions are eliminated. However, if they "bring their glory," this would suggest that their distinctions remain evident (My friends speculated--I believe accurately--that language would have to be included) in heaven.
It appears clear that the united focus on Jesus Christ will be all the more glorious when the nations bring their distinctions before the Lord.
What does this have to do with preaching?
Well, first one more thought from my friend...
3 comments:
Hi Danny . . .
Thanks for sharing on the Nations.
This truth has permeated the thinking of GBIM for many years now, and is one of the exciting things about being Grace Brethren today. We get this - all around the world !! There is even a reference to it in my Childlike Faith book in the chapter on 'reading like a missionary'.
Here is a verse to chew on as you prepare to write about the nations and preaching: Acts 2:5 - at Pentecost, "Now there were Jews living in Jerusalem, devout men FROM EVERY NATION under heaven."
I did listen to Anyabwile's message. I thought it was a very good message, but I think you will agree that it was not a sequential exposition of a portion of Scripture. It was a topical expository message utilizing a broad selection of passages.
i agree keith. this blog may be designed to encourage sequential exposition, but that doesn't mean i can't appreciate a solid theologically rich topical message.
just don't recommend it as a staple.
(i also think conference messages...as opposed to sermons within a church body...are harder to do as strict biblical exposition.)
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