Pastor Sean Palmer introduces us to a new series we are calling "Who is Ecclesia?" Sean invites us to consider that our church has historical roots in a larger story beyond ourselves and our local community.
Live Teaching Podcast
Scripture & Quotations
“We live at a time when we believe we should have no story, except the story we chose when we had no story. We call this freedom.”
— Stanley Hauerwas
Acts 2:14-24
Peter: Men of Judea and all who are staying here in Jerusalem, listen. I want you to understand: 15 these people aren’t drunk as you may think. Look, it’s only nine o’clock in the morning! 16 No, this isn’t drunkenness; this is the fulfillment of the prophecy of Joel. 17 Hear what God says!
In the last days,
I will offer My Spirit to humanity as a libation.
Your children will boldly speak the word of the Lord.
Young warriors will see visions,
and your elders will dream dreams.
Yes, in those days I shall offer My Spirit to all servants,
both male and female, and they will boldly speak My word.
And in the heaven above and on the earth below,
I shall give signs of impending judgment: blood, fire, and clouds of smoke.
The sun will become a void of darkness,
and the moon will become blood.
Then the great and dreadful day of the Lord will arrive,
And everyone who calls on the name of the Lord
will be liberated into God’s freedom and peace.
22 All of you Israelites, listen to my message: it’s about Jesus of Nazareth, a man whom God authenticated for you by performing in your presence powerful deeds, wonders, and signs through Him, just as you yourselves know. 23 This man, Jesus, who came into your hands by God’s sure plan and advanced knowledge, you nailed to a cross and killed in collaboration with lawless outsiders. 24 But God raised Jesus and unleashed Him from the agonizing birth pangs of death, for death could not possibly keep Jesus in its power.
Acts 2:40-47
40 Peter was pleading and offering many logical reasons to believe. 41 Whoever made a place for his message in their hearts received the baptism; in fact, that day alone, about 3,000 people joined the disciples. 42 The community continually committed themselves to learning what the apostles taught them, gathering for fellowship, breaking bread, and praying. 43 Everyone felt a sense of awe because the apostles were doing many signs and wonders among them.44 There was an intense sense of togetherness among all who believed; they shared all their material possessions in trust. 45 They sold any possessions and goods that did not benefit the community and used the money to help everyone in need. 46 They were unified as they worshiped at the temple day after day. In homes, they broke bread and shared meals with glad and generous hearts. 47 The new disciples praised God, and they enjoyed the goodwill of all the people of the city. Day after day the Lord added to their number everyone who was experiencing liberation.
Radical Inclusivity
“When I read accounts of the New Testament church, no characteristic stands out more sharply than diversity, the primary testing ground of grace. Beginning with Pentecost — a gathering of people from many countries — the Christian church dismantled the barriers of gender, race, and social class that had marked Jewish congregations.”
—Philip Yancey
“To get some concrete ideas in our heads right away, we need to see that these early Christians did not meet in churches and sit apart from one another in pews and then when the music ended get in their cars and go home. Those early churches were small and were much closer to our home Bible studies than most of our worship services.
Recently a very careful study by a British scholar concluded that if the apostle Paul’s house churches were composed of about 30 people, a maximal estimate, this would have been their approximate make-up: A craftworker in whose home they meet, along with his wife, children, a couple of male slaves, a female domestic slave, and a dependent relative.
Some tenants, with families and slaves and dependents, also living in the same home in rented rooms. Some family members of a householder who himself does not participate in the house church. A couple of slaves whose owners do not attend. Some freed slaves who do not participate in the church. A couple homeless people. A few migrants workers renting small rooms in the home. Add to this mix some Jewish folks and a perhaps an enslaved prostitute and we see how many ‘different tastes’ were in a typical house church in Rome: men and women, citizens and freed slaves and slaves (who had no legal rights), Jews and Gentiles, people from all moral walks of life, and perhaps most notably, people from elite classes all the way down the social scale to homeless people. Do you think these folks agreed on everything?...Was it hard? Yes. That’s the whole point of what it means to be a church.”
— Scot McKnight
“Christians are indistinguishable from other men either by nationality, language or customs. They do not inhabit separate cities of their own, or speak a strange dialect, or follow some outlandish way of life. Their teaching is not based upon reveries inspired by the curiosity of men. Unlike some other people, they champion no purely human doctrine. With regard to dress, food and manner of life in general, they follow the customs of whatever city they happen to be living in, whether it is Greek or foreign.
And yet there is something extraordinary about their lives. They live in their own countries as though they were only passing through. They play their full role as citizens, but labor under all the disabilities of aliens. Any country can be their homeland, but for them their homeland, wherever it may be, is a foreign country. Like others, they marry and have children, but they do not expose them. They share their meals, but not their wives. They live in the flesh, but they are not governed by the desires of the flesh. They pass their days upon earth, but they are citizens of heaven. Obedient to the laws, they yet live on a level that transcends the law.
Christians love all men, but all men persecute them. Condemned because they are not understood, they are put to death, but raised to life again. They live in poverty, but enrich many; they are totally destitute, but possess an abundance of everything. They suffer dishonor, but that is their glory. They are defamed, but vindicated. A blessing is their answer to abuse, deference their response to insult. For the good they do they receive the punishment of malefactors, but even then they rejoice, as though receiving the gift of life. They are attacked by the Jews as aliens, they are persecuted by the Greeks, yet no one can explain the reason for this hatred.
— Letter to Diognetus