Today on Fellowship in the Word, Pastor Bill Gebhardt challenges you to become a fully functioning follower of Jesus Christ. Greet men, greet women. It's an interesting thing that he says, you greet all of them, he says. I don't care if they're an aristocrat or slave, greet them. How do you think people felt, especially the slaves when they heard Paul read their name? And their names are forever here, it's in the Word of God.
So it's always there. Here's four slaves that get greeted particularly by the great apostle. How do you think that made them feel? Because being greeted makes a person feel really good. We need to greet. Thank you for joining us today on this edition of Fellowship in the Word with Pastor Bill Gebhardt. Fellowship in the Word is the radio ministry of Fellowship Bible Church located in Metairie, Louisiana. Let's join Pastor Bill Gebhardt now as once again he shows us how God's Word meets our world. Romans 16 and verse 3.
Now I want you to remember something. This is Scripture. It's just not like an add-on. It's not a P.S. This isn't a person. This is Scripture. This is just as much God's Word as the Ten Commandments are. And it's interesting when you think about it from that point of view.
Watch what happens. Verse 3. My kinsmen and my fellow prisoners, he said, who are outstanding among the apostles who also were in Christ Jesus before me. Greet, he says, Ampelitis, he said, my beloved in the Lord. Greet Urbanus, our fellow worker in Christ, then Stacchius, my beloved. And greet Apollos, the approved of Christ. Greet those, he said, who are of the household of Aristopolis.
Greet Herodian, my kinsmen. Greet those of the household of narcissists who are in the Lord. Greet, he says, Tryphaneia and Tryphosa, workers in the Lord. Greet Perseus, the beloved, who has worked hard in the Lord. And greet Rufus, a choice man of the Lord and his mother and mine. And greet, he says, Asinocritus, he said, and Philegian and Hermes and Peritropus and Hermes and the brethren with them. And greet Philogius and Joia and Nerus and his sister and Olympus and all the saints who are with them. And greet one another with a holy kiss. All the churches of Christ greet you.
Did you notice any redundant word in there? Greet. Greet. Greet one another. That's why he said greet one another with a holy kiss. Greeting one another.
Wow. Greeting being, he said, in a sense kind to one another. We're not exactly a greeting culture, are we? If you had to say a word that sort of typifies America now, it's rage. That's America. Hey, you don't have to be very old to realize when you were young you never heard of road rage.
You never even heard of it. You hear it all the time now. We have road rage, we have airline passenger rage. That's always interesting on the news, a bunch of people laying on top of some guy trying to stop him on an airline because he's full of rage.
We have checkout line rage. People get really upset like that. I mean, it's amazing how angry we are. And maybe the worst, social media rage. That's kind of what social media is about, rage. I'm just so angry, I'm so mad.
Wow. Paul says twice to the Corinthians, you need to greet one another. And he uses the term holy kiss. You need to greet one another with a holy kiss. By the way, a lot of people have asked me this, what's a holy kiss? Well, a holy kiss is a cultural kiss that you do it because of your love for the Lord. In other words, how did this culture often greet itself? Culturally, with a kiss. That was the culture. He says, yeah, but for you as a child of God, you do a holy kiss.
Why? Because this is what God expects of you. He wants you to do this. Greet one another with a holy kiss. For instance, if you're in Europe, a lot of times when you greet people, they kiss each other.
On the cheeks, they kiss each other. That's just the way it works. You go to the Asia and often when you greet someone, you bow. That's your greeting. In America, well, America has no standard thing. I used to think that a handshake was standard. Then I moved to New Orleans.
And there's a lot more kissing in New Orleans than there is in other places. But the point of it is simple. You need to greet people.
Why? It's good to be greeted. You see, it makes you feel good that you're greeted. Now, this is the one place where you do probably more greeting than you do any other place. And that's a little bit sad.
But there's a problem with it. You look forward to greeting people who are your friends. You see, you come to church and you find your friends and you're greeting them and you're real friendly. But what if you're new to church? You see, and you say, well, they were real friendly to each other. You know, they didn't say a word to me.
Churches have tried to fix this. And I've been in churches where they'll say, okay, anybody here for the first time today? And then they have you, please stand. And then you stand up. And then they go, greet this person. And it's like, oh, my, how are you doing?
Great, it's wonderful. Good to see you here. And then next week, you're nothing. The next week, no one's greeting you. It's just like it's our duty to greet. Now we've got a new person standing up and that's the person we'll greet. No, it means greet people because it makes people feel really, really good about themselves. That's the way this works.
That's the way a greeting is. It's interesting. Penn State University did a study. And these universities when they do studies always amaze me.
It probably cost $5 million. And they did this study and here's our conclusion. Huggers are happier. I don't know, I'd have guessed that, wouldn't you? They said huggers are happier than people who don't hug. It's an interesting thought from that point of view.
But notice how people feel when they do this. Paul said, Epinatus was the first convert in Asia. He's sitting in there while the letter's being read.
That's me, his first convert. Then he says, Amplius and Urbanus and Hermes and Phologus and Julia. Greet them. Do you know what those names are? They're slaves.
They're all slaves. The apostle Paul, the great apostle said, be sure to greet them for me. Next line, Aristopolis. Aristopolis is the brother of Agrippa I. He's the grandson of Herod the Great.
He's in church. He's the grandson of Herod the Great. He said, you know, greet him. And Narcissus, he said. And Narcissus is the secretary to the emperor of Rome, Claudius.
This is amazing. He said, yeah, greet all them. Greet Jews. Greet Greeks. Greet Romans. Greet Asians. Greet men. Greet women.
It's an interesting thing that he says. You greet all of them, he says. I don't care if they're an aristocrat or a slave. Greet them. How do you think people felt, especially the slaves when they heard Paul read their name? And their names are forever here. It's in the word of God.
So it's always there. Here's four slaves that get greeted particularly by the great apostle. How do you think that made them feel? I got a hunch that they told their children and their children told their gathered children.
Don generations. My great, great, great grandfather was personally greeted by Paul, the great apostle. Because being greeted makes a person feel really good. We need to greet. Galatians chapter 5 verse 13 next. Galatians 5 verse 13. Again, the apostle Paul. He said, for you were called to freedom, brethren. Only do not turn your freedom into an opportunity for the flesh. But through love, serve one another.
All of these are imperative moods. They're all commandments. Serve one another. Serve people. Real servants of God are not limelight people. It's amazing how many people are tremendous servants of God and no one would know it. They just serve the Lord.
That's who they are. Now, think of Andrew. How often when you think of great apostles do you think of Andrew? Not a lot, huh? How about his brother, Peter?
You ever heard of him? Right? And two friends ahead, James and John. Now, it's interesting, by the way. Peter, James and John are part of Jesus' inner circle of three. What about Andrew?
In fact, it's really strange. Who led Peter to Christ? Andrew. So, he didn't get any publicity and I think Andrew's just fine with that. Andrew's a servant of God. He doesn't need to be in the limelight. He's a servant. Maybe think of him at this time of the year for something a little bit different, I think.
How about this? I want you to think of a very simple, very plain, very quiet teenage girl. Her name's Mary. What's amazing to me is that she comes from a dusty nondescript nowhere town. Now, she's living in a nowhere place of the world, Judah.
Nobody in the world had ever heard of that. But she's living in one of the worst places possible, Nazareth. Remember the remark, could anything good come out of Nazareth? You see, it's the same thing. I always use the analogy. Nazareth would be like Manchac.
And if you're from Manchac, I'm sorry. But the point would be, she's from a nowhere place. There she is.
I find that kind of interesting. One writer describes her as extraordinarily ordinary. That's Mary. Now, I'm not talking about what has been made of her by the church. I'm talking about what she really is in the word of God.
It's interesting to me, when she was given the news that she would be the chosen vessel for the incarnation of the Son of God, here's what she said. I'm a servant of the Lord. Let it happen to me, as you say. I'm just a servant, of course. See, that idea of servant is such an important thing. Think of the words of Jesus. If you want to be first, you have to be what?
See, you have to be. That's not the way our world works. If you want to be first, you climb over everybody that's in your way till you get there. Jesus said, no, you don't. He said, if you want to be a leader, you have to be a servant. See, it's a whole different way of looking at life.
That's what he's saying. It's a very different way. It's all based on this idea of service. See, for so many of us, we think that the world exists to take care of me. And the truth is, Jesus says, you exist to take care of them. You should serve.
It's an amazing thing. Hold your place just for a minute and go with me to Isaiah 58. Isaiah 58. And I'm going to start at verse 10. Listen to what Isaiah writes, again, 700 years before Jesus. He said, if you give yourself to the hungry and satisfy the desire of the afflicted, then your light will rise in darkness and your gloom will become like midday.
What's he mean? You'll be happy. Your gloom will become like midday. You mean if I give myself to the hungry and I desire to help the afflicted?
Yes. You serve people. He said, and the Lord will continually guide you and satisfy your desire and scorch places and give strength to your bones. And you will be like a water garden and like a spring of water.
What's he saying? That is circumstances proof. If you're a servant of God, no matter how it looks, the world will strengthen you and keep you vibrant.
You'll be happy. You see, that's what he's saying. You need to serve one another. We need to encourage one another, tolerate one another, regard one another as more important. We need to greet one another and we need to serve one another.
Now go with me again to Romans 15 and verse 7. He says, Therefore, accept one another. You have to accept one another.
And one another covers all of us. I have to accept you. You have to accept me. This is hard for us. It's sort of like love. Isn't it easy to love people you like? See, if I like you, then it's not too hard for me to love you. But Jesus said love your enemies. Love people you don't like. Well, I don't like that. You see, but if you don't, you won't be happy.
You see, this is the way this works. Jesus said it this way in that sense. He said, Therefore, accept one another. Okay, I accept you.
Wait. Just as Christ also accepted us to the glory of God. How did Jesus accept you? Completely, totally. What conditions did he place on you?
None. He just accepted me. God accepted me. He loved me so much, he sent his son.
You see, it's amazing. It's just an open acceptance. And he said that's exactly what I want from you. Accept one another, he says, as Christ has accepted us. You see, when we accept people, it doesn't mean in this sense that we overlook everything about them.
It means we accept them. Think of the woman caught in adultery. Jesus said to her, I do not condemn you. That's grace.
And then what did he say to her? Go and sin no more. That's truth. You see, he accepted her on the basis of grace, but he told her the truth.
So it doesn't mean it's just blind. I accept you just the way you are. And I find this in our culture is becoming more and more difficult for Christians to accept people the way they are. I'm amazed at how many people I run into as believers in Jesus Christ who are mad because unsaved, sinful people in our country are sinning in that way. And we're angry at them. What do you expect of them? They don't know Christ.
They're a product of the culture. Why are you angry because a sinful, unsaved person is sinning? What makes you angry about that?
You see, I don't want them to reform. I want them to repent and come to Christ. As I said, from God's point of view, only two people in the world, saved and lost.
Those people are our mission field. But I find Christians angry because unsaved people are sinning in a way they don't like. Now, by the way, you're also sinning in a way you shouldn't like. But what angers us is we get very angry when people sin in a way we wouldn't. So when somebody has sin that I would never do, that makes me so angry. Now the sins that I do all the time, not so much. But remember what the Word of God said, if you're guilty of one part of the law, one part, and Jesus said one thought, you're guilty of the whole law. So how much more are they a sinner than I am? No different.
See, they're no different. So he said, what I want you to be able to do here is accept one another. One last one to go with me to 1 John chapter 4, verse 11.
And this sort of takes it all into play. He says, Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. Love people. If God so loved us, this is the one of the one another's most repeated in the Bible. Eleven times in the New Testament, he keeps telling us to love one another.
It should be something everyone in the world should see as our badge. It should be what marks us in the world, because Jesus said this to his disciples. If you love one another, the whole world will know what? You're my disciples. You'll be my disciples if you love one another. See, it's the perfect tool of evangelism.
But think of our reputation in this country. Even people who are unbelievers don't want anything to do with us or anything like that. Wouldn't it be nice if they said, look, I don't quite buy what they're saying, but I have never seen people who love each other like these people do. They have enormous love for each other. I've never heard one unbeliever ever describe the church that way.
And they should. You see, we should love one another. And every time it's said in the New Testament, it's agape. Agape is the way God loves us.
It's not a feeling. It's a choice of will. I choose to love you. You see, I choose to love you and I choose to love all of you. I choose to love the people I like and the people I don't.
I choose to love everybody because that's how God loves us. It's agape love of God. All these other things are sort of incorporated in this great idea of love that we have for one another.
It's interesting. We often feel we don't have the capacity to do that, but we do. Think of just two verses. One, are you a new creature in Christ? I think it says you are.
How much has passed away? All things. Okay, and Paul said, I can do all things through him who strengthens me. So if you're saying you're a child of God and you struggle loving people, it's not because you can't. It's because you won't.
You see, it's not because you can't. You can do all things through him and you're a new creature in Christ. All the old things have passed away. So, you want to have a Merry Christmas?
A happy holiday? Remember what Jesus said. It's more blessed, more happy to give than to receive. Even modern studies confirm that people are much happier who give themselves to other people. Everyone knows this to be true.
And one of the things that Christians often overlook is this. I'm so happy that now that I put my trust in Christ, I'm going to heaven. Who isn't happy with that?
I am. I have the surety of heaven. That's wonderful. And that's for someday. And I find great peace and hope in that.
But what about today and tomorrow? Jesus said, well, I've got that covered. I've come to give you life and give it to you abundantly. Now, I'm going to tell you how you can get that abundant life right now.
See, that's what he's going to say. I'm going to tell you right now how you get that particular kind of life. You need to encourage one another. You need to be tolerant of others. You need to regard others as more important than you.
You need to greet one another and be friendly to one another. You need to serve people. You need to accept people.
And most of all, you need to love people. And I guarantee you, if you did that, you're happy. And we always are looking for happy in all the wrong places. You see, and we find ourselves, two out of every three of us, unhappy. And Jesus said, look, I know how to make you happy.
Maybe we should take his word seriously. I'm as a child of God. If I do these things, I think then I'll find myself singing joy to the world. The Lord has come not just on Christmas. Every day. Because I'm so happy. Let's pray. Father, it's a sad thing, as one of your children, that for so many of us, happiness eludes us.
We simply don't understand what we're capable of doing. That the happiness that Jesus speaks of is a happiness like everything else that he gives us. And he says, and you can have this in your lives.
And I'll call it the abundant life. But you need to do these things. You need to give yourself away to others because it'll make you more happy. But for those of us that are struggling every day with unhappiness and depression in our lives, may we take his words to the heart. May we examine our own hearts and say, what am I withholding?
What am I doing? Because happiness is right there knocking on our door. Father, I pray that we are able to apply these words. It will give you glory, it will serve others, and it will make us happy. I pray this in Jesus' name.
Amen. At that website, you will find not only today's broadcast, but also many of our previous audio programs as well. At Fellowship in the Word, we are thankful for those who financially support our ministry and make this broadcast possible. We ask all of our listeners to prayerfully consider how you might help this radio ministry continue its broadcast on this radio station by supporting us monthly or with just a one-time gift. Support for our ministry can be sent to Fellowship in the Word, 4600 Clearview Parkway, Metairie, Louisiana 7006. If you would be interested in hearing today's message in its original format, that is as a sermon that Pastor Bill delivered during a Sunday morning service at Fellowship Bible Church, then you should visit our website, fbcnola.org.
That's fbcnola.org. At our website, you will find hundreds of Pastor Bill's sermons. You can browse through our sermon archives to find the sermon series you are looking for, or you can search by title. Once you find the message you are looking for, you can listen online, or if you prefer, you can download the sermon and listen at your own convenience. And remember, you can do all of this absolutely free of charge. Once again, our website is fbcnola.org. For Pastor Bill Gebhardt, I'm Jason Gebhardt, thanking you for listening to Fellowship in the Word.
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