Luke 21—Romans with Shawn & Nathan

Nathan (: 00:00

Hey, it's Nathan and Sean again. We want to welcome you back to the 13 week Bible season two. We are at episode 13 ahead of week 12's reading as we're nearing the end of this exciting rapid journey through the Bible in just 13 weeks. Sean, we can start reflecting on what it's been as we're just around the corner from the final stretch. Can you believe it?

Shawn (: 00:26

Amazing, Nathan. We are definitely nearing the finish line.

Nathan (: 00:31

Yeah, we are. Every journey through the text for me has been rich and I'm guessing the same for you. Sometimes I get more out of it than I do other times and I think we'll talk about that in a minute. Today we're previewing the rest of Luke beginning with chapter 21 and then moving through John, Acts, Romans, and 1st Corinthians. This will take us all the way through the rest of the Jesus story and well into the early church sections.

In this episode, we'll skip the recap portion of our podcast and jump right into the books after a bit of a preamble. All right, Sean, that's the introduction piece. And we are like right on the edge of the end of the entire Bible next week. Hard to believe.

Shawn (: 01:18

Great, crazy. As you said, it's sobering to think that like 10 13th of the Bible is the Old Testament.

Nathan (: 01:27

I know it is amazing. I think we talked about that in an earlier podcast. And the gospels take up about a week and a half of that time. So yeah, there's a lot packed in. So we're gonna jump right in. We're skipping this week's, skipping the kind of the usual overview recap that I do. And we're gonna jump right in, finishing up Luke and then going through

Shawn (: 01:43

Mm-hmm.

Nathan (: 01:57

four, I guess three books, Acts and no four, Acts, Romans and 1 Corinthians. So three additional books. Get my numbers there. Anything you'd want to add to the book of Luke, comments on the book of Luke. And I realize I'm discombobulated because I skipped John, but we will not skip John in our discussion.

Shawn (: 02:13

Well, I...

Don't want to skip John, we will not. That's right. Well, it's hard to compete with my enthusiasm for Luke 15 that I left our listeners with last week. So, I don't want to say it's all downhill after Luke 15, but no, just lots of great stuff in the rest of the book of Luke that recounts a lot of the same stuff that Matthew and Mark record. Of course, the death, well, the final weeks of Jesus.

Nathan (: 02:30

True.

Shawn (: 02:46

his death, his resurrection. I wouldn't want to miss over this beautiful story of the so-called road to Emmaus. It's beautiful. Yeah. Yeah, yeah. Go for it, Nathan. I won't steal your thunder.

Nathan (: 02:53

Yes, I was going to say it if you hadn't.

Oh no, just that is a unique part of Luke in that story is not recorded in any of the other tellings of the story of Jesus. This post-resurrection conversation with an unknown stranger who happens to be Jesus, encouraging the hearts of these just devastated believers. So great piece of the story that is unique to the book of Luke.

So again, I love Luke because, and John does this as well, but Luke tells the narrative in a little different order. There's the story of Zacchaeus, which is not in this week's reading, but also unique to the Book of Luke. So Luke is a cool book, different kind of different flavor and some different story pieces in it.

Shawn (: 03:29

Mm-hmm.

Well, I did want to point out just one part from that story of the road to Emmaus. You know, in the last verse of the little story, Luke 24, 27, and beginning at Moses and all the prophets, he expounded to them and all the scriptures, the things concerning himself. So kind of what we've been talking about, you know, leading up to this, this part of the Bible is that all of it that came before was

Nathan (: 04:11

Hmm

Shawn (: 04:22

pointing forward to Christ. And it's a Christ-centered reading of the Old Testament, which is what Jesus did with them.

Nathan (: 04:33

Yes, yes. So now we're into the Gospel of John. This is an incredible book. John has probably the most unique flavor, you might say, of the whole Jesus story. John begins his, or the Gospel accounts of the Jesus story. John begins his book with just out of the gate, arguing how

is the eternal Son of God.

Shawn (: 05:09

Yeah, he takes the page out of Genesis 1 right from the beginning. In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. So he's playing off that theme.

Nathan (: 05:13

He does.

Right? And that, the centering of John around theology seems to be pretty strong. I've noticed going through the Gospel of John just how much argument there is, theological argument. John 6, there's disciples that abandon him because of his teaching about his.

Shawn (: 05:31

Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm.

Nathan (: 05:51

His blood and body being essential to life. He's talking metaphorically, but there were things people stumbled over. The religious leaders, there's multiple occasions in the Gospel of John where Jesus has intense conversations with religious leaders, defending his identity, defending his relationship with God, defending his divinity, which seems to be an important,

Shawn (: 06:16

Mm.

Nathan (: 06:20

piece of John's purpose in his book. I wonder what you think about highlights.

Shawn (: 06:27

Yeah, I think absolutely. I think there's some noticeable themes in John, you know, that I noticed. He talks a lot about light. He talks about darkness. He talks about truth. He talks about love. He talks a lot about, you know, really, there's a high, to use a theological term, there's a very high Christology in John, where he is

Nathan (: 06:38

Yes.

Mm-hmm.

Yes, yes.

Shawn (: 06:55

is pointing to the divinity of Jesus, where there's these I am statements that come out a lot. And of course, one of the main points of John as well is that Jesus is making it clear that he is revealing the Father, he's revealing God. So, you know, he says stuff like, if you've seen me, you've seen the Father. And, you know, this famous, this famous

Nathan (: 07:13

Hmm.

Shawn (: 07:24

exchange between Philip and Jesus where Philip is like, well show us the Father. And he's like, wait a minute Philip, have I been with you for so long and you don't know who the Father is? I and the Father are one. And those themes, like you say, are very theological themes come out in the

Nathan (: 07:34

Mm-hmm.

Hmm.

Shawn (: 07:53

to a point of divinity and it's clear that, at least from my reading, that Jesus is pointing to the reality of his relationship with the Father, his purpose in trying to reveal the Father, and I think that's really important. And in some ways, John has a cosmic context where there's these cosmic themes and he points to the,

Nathan (: 08:15

Hmm.

Shawn (: 08:21

religious leaders and says like you guys are like your father the devil who you know who is a liar from the beginning and a murderer from the beginning so it pulls back the curtain a little bit on the cosmic context of Jesus ministry

Nathan (: 08:25

Mm-hmm.

Yeah, for sure. There's a few other things that we find in John. A first note is that the final week of Jesus' life, again we call that Passion Week in kind of the Christian circles, begins in John 12. So there's quite a bit of the Gospel of John that's devoted to this Passion Week. John is a 21 chapter book.

Shawn (: 08:56

Mm.

Nathan (: 09:06

So that's a significant portion of the book that really focuses in on this final week of Jesus' life. So in Matthew we had some big sections of Jesus' teaching, the Sermon on the Mount and the Olivet Discourse, Sermon on the Mount, three chapters earlier in Matthew, the Olivet Discourse, two chapters later in the Gospel of Matthew. John gives us several

Maybe not, yes, several longer pieces, or at least two longer pieces. One is a long nighttime conversation from which the most famous text in scripture comes, and that's this conversation between Nicodemus, who is a religious leader and a secret follower of Jesus, where Jesus really lays things out. A second long conversation is with a...

a non-Jewish, non-Israelite woman at a well. Fascinating conversations to compare. Because of the length of the conversations, we don't often have this much dialogue from sort of a single setting in the story of Jesus. So these are fairly long conversations. And again, Jesus speaking.

individually to two different seekers and it's fascinating to know the difference. The religious leader doesn't have the simplest declaration made regarding the divinity of Christ that this woman at the wrong time of the day at an old well outcast from her village in many ways, she has the

clearest, most direct declaration of the divinity of Jesus that we have on record, as far as I know, in the entire Jesus story in a conversation form.

Shawn (: 11:12

I love that Nathan and I just want to bring out a maybe a practical point here that we see throughout all the Gospels but of note here and John as you pointed out the degree to which Jesus prioritized individual ministry personal

Nathan (: 11:35

Hmm.

Shawn (: 11:39

conversation with a single religious leader, Nicodemus. The very next chapter, he has a conversation with just one woman, the Samaritan woman. The next chapter, John 5, he is at the pool of Bethesda with a paralytic. And one writer that you and I appreciate, put it this way, that Jesus had a faithful regard for the one sole audience. And I just-

Nathan (: 11:43

Mm-hmm.

Hmm.

Hmm

Shawn (: 12:08

I just love that. If I was trying to change the world like Jesus was, I think I would prioritize mass ministry. Certainly, he had times where he was preaching to 5,000, but the Gospels give us more examples where he is with one person, with five people, with 12 people.

Nathan (: 12:21

Yep.

Hmm.

Shawn (: 12:37

He made his ministry very small and intimate, realizing of course that would ripple out, but also just communicating the dignity and worth and value of a single person. So I just love that, I just love that idea.

Nathan (: 12:51

Mmm.

That's a beautiful just reminder Jesus loves people, loves to be with people, all kinds of people. He was accused of hanging out with the worst of people in society. He didn't change what he did either. And there's a pretty good case for that behavior being at least part of the motivation for his execution.

Shawn (: 13:01

Mm-hmm.

Mm.

Yeah, great point.

Nathan (: 13:22

They couldn't handle somebody who loved radically and who loved outside the lines they had created. They had drawn in the sand.

Shawn (: 13:34

Of course, we see that in the story in John 8 where the woman caught in adultery. There's been some discussion about the authenticity of this story. We won't get into that. It definitely, some of the scholars that I really admire, they say this is something that aligns with the character of Jesus, so it seems to be authentic, but this beautiful story, beautiful, brilliant story.

of this woman thrown at his feet who has been caught in the act of adultery. Of course, where's the man? The story doesn't say that. The leaders don't seem to be too worried about the man, but she's thrown there at his feet and they try to put him to the test and say, you know, this woman was found in the act of adultery. What do you say? Moses says she should be stoned. And Jesus in that brilliant moment begins to write in the sand and basically says, now whoever's without sin, let him cast the first stone.

Nathan (: 14:06

Hmm.

Hmm.

Shawn (: 14:31

Of course, Jesus was the only one without sin there, and yet he chose not to cast any stone and announces to her that he doesn't condemn her and go and send a more just powerful, powerful picture into the character of Jesus and the character of God.

Nathan (: 14:43

Mmm.

As you're reciting that, I was just thinking.

The, I think that there is a more personal touch in John's telling of the story of Jesus in the sense that he does, like we don't have as many of these conversations. There's the man at the well that you mentioned. There's the Lazarus story. And it's a pretty detailed story as far as the telling of a story. There are other resurrection stories.

Shawn (: 15:18

Mmm.

Nathan (: 15:26

There's the widow's son who's resurrected. There's the centurion servant. There is another girl who's resurrected. Those stories are pretty brief, but the Lazarus story is an extended story that involves discussions of loss and a struggle with faith. And...

John does seem to slow down for a few of these stories more so than some of the other authors.

Shawn (: 15:57

Mm-hmm. Yeah.

Nathan (: 15:59

So one of the sections, if we're looking at the final week of Jesus, when you come, when you're in the Gospel of Matthew, the final week of Jesus focuses on, and I forgot there's a third kind of sermon piece in Matthew, and that is, so there's the Olivet Discourse, that's in the final week of Jesus. And then there is the, this

scathing rebuke, well actually before, just before that, the scathing rebuke of religious leaders in chapter 23. So interesting, that's the focus that Matthew takes of these extended passages in the final week. In John, the extended passages are relational passages. So we have John talking about the Holy Spirit. We have John recording Jesus' words about humility.

extended commentary and record of Jesus washing the disciples' feet and the discussion surrounding that. Chapter 14, famous words, in my father's house are many mansions, Jesus

encouraging the disciples' faith as his death is approaching, lifting their minds and hearts from what is this devastating, imminent loss they're about to experience with his death, giving them hope, seeds of hope in chapter 14. Chapter 15 begins with this incredible

instruction on living in relationship with Jesus where he points to a vine, which if we remember back to Isaiah is not an off-the-wall comment because Isaiah compares God and Isaiah and elsewhere in Scripture compares his people to a vine. And so for Jesus to draw on that vine metaphor again and use it as an example of relationship to him is

connected to their history, but also very powerful as Jesus holds up to them. Again, the relational objective of this divine revelation, the incarnation, the whole goal is divine human connection. And that's a big piece that shows up in these extended discourse passages of the final week as we find them in John. I don't know, Sean, but that's a piece that kind of stands out to me in.

Kind of uniqueness with John.

Shawn (: 18:41

Yeah, well, John 17, we get an extended accounting of Jesus' prayer, his last prayer, you know, which is really detailed and beautiful as well.

Nathan (: 18:48

Yes.

In fact, it is the longest recorded prayer of Jesus in scripture. There's the Lord's Prayer, which is more of a kind of a rubric prayer, you might say, like a prayer formula in air quotes. And then a few very short prayers kind of here and there, but this is the long one. I love looking at that and thinking, just trying to think what motivates these words, sort of like a learning for me.

Shawn (: 19:16

Mm-hmm.

Nathan (: 19:23

This is Jesus praying. What motivates these words? What brings him to relate to his father that way? Maybe there's some pieces I can pick up in my own prayer time with God. So we are, we've gotta move fast today, and we have two, one pretty famous book coming up. The first, before that though, the book of Acts, which takes us smack dab into the story of the early church.

Shawn (: 19:38

Hehehehehehe

See you.

Yeah, I thought you were going to say, you know, you said a famous book coming up and then you said, and then we have the Book of Acts. I know where you're going, Nathan. Yeah, the Book of Acts. I used to hate the Book of Acts, to be honest with you. I'll be honest, Nathan. I hate it. I hate is a strong word. I used to not fully appreciate the Book of Acts. And then my own ministry.

Nathan (: 20:00

Uh, no. Well, next is the book of Acts. I was...

That's good to be honest, Sean.

Shawn (: 20:23

shifted in life and I won't go into all of that, but then I was like, man, the Book of Acts is powerful. It has, it's such a beautiful picture of the early believers, the early church living out in practical ways the reality of the gospel and it just, it was just inspiring. It is inspiring and I just, yeah, to see how the Holy Spirit led the early apostles.

Nathan (: 20:36

Hmm.

Mm-hmm.

Shawn (: 20:53

into different territories and regions as they committed themselves and were inspired by the Jesus story to go all in on living a life of mission and service and gospel proclamation.

Nathan (: 20:56

Hmm.

Mm-hmm.

Right, so the first couple of chapters basically introduce us to the birth, in a sense, the birth of the church after the death, resurrection, and ascension of Jesus. Obviously, the church began under the ministry of Jesus, at least the church in the Jesus era, if you want to think of it in the post-Jesus or post-resurrection time frame.

Shawn (: 21:32

Mm-hmm.

Nathan (: 21:41

And then we move through some important stuff. One is this, the call of Saul, who's renamed Paul, whose famous book I was referring to, the Gospel of, or the, not the Gospel, but the Book of Romans, the Epistle to the Romans, which we're gonna get to next. So that's an important story. The rest of the book is, I think,

Shawn (: 21:54

Hehehehe

Hehehehe

Nathan (: 22:08

mostly devoted to telling the missionary adventures of Paul. There are other pieces there, other stories, but the missionary adventures of Paul, which moves the church into Gentile territory, which is non-Jew territory, major shift for these early followers, which takes us to a couple of important stories. One is a story of Peter, who was a devout Jew, God correcting Peter's

his Jew bias, his bias toward the Hebrew people, and his racism. And there's probably other names for it. So God corrects Peter with a dramatic vision and mission encounter. And then the early church also has a major conference about how to spread the gospel among the non-Jew.

peoples and how to, what expectations to put on them. The Hebrew people have a certain way they have come to view the world through the teachings of scripture, through their upbringing, through their culture, in their community, and as they're moving beyond kind of the walls of their faith, what is religion supposed to look like? What is the Christian faith supposed to look like as it?

comes to life in a sense in the hearts and minds of people who are not of Jewish ancestry. That's a big piece of the book along with some amazing stories of people encountering Jesus. There's miracle stories, shipwreck story, etc. Anything, Sean, that you'd want to put in there from this book.

Shawn (: 23:54

No, I mean you basically highlighted the parts that I would most want to highlight. Yeah, just the reality of this dramatic shift to the Gentiles. Some have pointed out that in that story with Peter and Cornelius, it's not simply the conversion of Cornelius. It's also the conversion of Peter in many ways.

Nathan (: 24:16

Hmm.

Shawn (: 24:19

He learned through a Gentile actually that God is doing something new. And I'm fascinated by how it wasn't just a new understanding of Scripture that drove Peter and his shifting attitude towards the Gentiles. In fact, it wasn't like Peter was like, okay, I've read the Bible and I see that we're supposed to act differently. It was like, it was something he observed in a human being.

Nathan (: 24:25

Mm-hmm.

Shawn (: 24:48

And it was like the scales fell from his eyes and he was like, oh, okay. So in many ways, and this could go a lot of down a lot of different side streets, but in many ways it was an experience that shifted Peter's understanding, not his study of the Bible. Now he went back to the scriptures and was like, oh, okay. I was missing this all along. But sometimes as someone has said, we don't.

Nathan (: 24:48

Hmm.

Hmm

Shawn (: 25:17

necessarily think our way into a new way of living. We live our way into a new way of thinking. So anyway, that's just an interesting point. And then yeah, Acts 15, the Jerusalem Council, and again, we could spend a lot of time on this, but I'm fascinated how the apostles, they said, we want to make it easy for these non-Jews to come to Christ. We want to make it easy. And sometimes...

Nathan (: 25:24

Hmm.

Hmm... Mm-hmm.

Shawn (: 25:46

Again, we're not doing much on application, but why do we try to make it hard on people in their journey with Christ? Let's make it easy for them to accept Him. But yeah, like you're saying, lots of these stories, lots of great practical nuggets, lots of inspiring narratives of how they lived out and pursued the mission of Jesus.

Nathan (: 25:55

Hmm.

Yes, and I think one of the key pieces to the story learning, the experiential learning that took place, is the disciples' experience of the Holy Spirit. And then witnessing that Holy Spirit active in another person's life was an important piece of what sort of rattled their worldview and said, hey, things aren't the way you think they are. This is a learning moment for you because God is bigger than the box you've put him in.

And that was evidenced by seeing God working outside their box. And so that's a great point, Sean, about learning. What a, what a, I think the experiential piece has been a learning piece throughout the story of God's people with even the blessings and curses, I think follows a similar line in the sense that, um, God gives them instruction, but then the people end up learning the hard way. At least.

with the intent of learning the hard way that God God's purpose is for them to learn the easy way. And then if they don't get it, then sometimes it's learning and experience. Anyway, that's a rabbit trail we could go down. Let's move into the next book, which is Romans. Sean, I'm going to let you take the first leap on this one because you love this book.

Shawn (: 27:22

Hehehe

Oh wow, Nathan. Wow, Nathan, what a privilege it is. I mean, you know, some of the themes we will talk about in Romans, and we might shortchange the book because of our limited time, you know, there are themes that are going to come up throughout Paul's books, of course. So we'll get another chance to circle back around to them. But yeah, Romans...

Nathan (: 27:48

Hmm.

Shawn (: 27:55

of course, is the longest book that we know Paul wrote. And what I love about it is that, and I didn't use to appreciate this, but you know, all of Paul's epistles are actually very practical books in the sense that these are letters to congregations that he has either raised up and started himself.

Nathan (: 28:12

Hmm

Shawn (: 28:23

or ones that he has ministered to or is familiar with. So he's aware of particular issues that these Christians, these Jesus followers, are dealing with. And so he's not just sitting down, although some scholars have pointed out that this is, Romans is as close to a kind of systematic theology as Paul has written because he's not been to Rome at this point. So he...

He's not intimately familiar with it. But nevertheless, these are practical letters that he's writing because he's addressing actual issues that have come up among the Jesus communities. And of course, in Romans, Paul is basically interpreting the Jesus story. He's interpreting how it plays out in the

Nathan (: 29:07

Hmm.

Mm-hmm.

Shawn (: 29:22

the practical daily life of people. And he's, you know, throughout these books, he's really addressing, for the most part, what he's really getting at is conflict between different factions of people. And he's explaining to them, okay, this is the Jesus story, and this is how the Jesus story gets practically lived out when there is, there's conflict.

Nathan (: 29:39

Hmm.

Mm-hmm.

Shawn (: 29:52

between different factions of people. A lot of times, of course, that conflict centers around ethnic differences, Jews and Gentiles. Certainly, we see that in Romans where Paul is trying to talk about how God's plan all along has been to bring all the families of the earth together, how he's trying to bring, God is trying to reconcile these different warring factions. And this is how it plays out. He basically says, you know, Jews,

We're no better than Gentiles. We have our own issues. We have our own problems. We haven't lived according to the ways of God as we understand them in the Hebrew scriptures. And he says, Gentiles, we're all alike. All have sinned. All have fallen short of God's glory. And so it's only as we come by faith into

Nathan (: 30:42

Hmm.

Shawn (: 30:51

God's family that we can live together as the heirs of God's promises. So that's kind of the big overview I would give. I don't want to go to the end of the book already, Nathan, but as I've shared with you, I'm going through Romans 16, a very slow, deliberate, thoughtful reflection on it, and I just love Romans 16. By the way, it's interesting. Just one note before I let you have your way with Romans.

Nathan (: 30:57

Hmm.

Shawn (: 31:22

It seems as though a woman, Phoebe, was perhaps the one who delivered this letter to the Romans. Paul, as to the Romans, the churches in Rome, receive Phoebe, for she has been much help to me. So it seems as though she's the one who delivered the letter to the Romans, and as was customary a lot of times, she perhaps—

Nathan (: 31:34

Hmm.

Shawn (: 31:51

was the first one to have read the letter out loud. Because a lot of times the person who delivered the letter, they would read it out loud to the audience. And it's just fascinating that a woman, a woman was perhaps the one who first was the first expositor of this powerful book. Anyway, go ahead, Nathan, I turn it back over to you.

Nathan (: 31:54

Hmm.

Mmm.

Yeah, no, that's good stuff, Sean. And Ephesians comes to mind, and I'd forget if you mentioned that specifically with this reconciliation theme. Galatians, it does. That thread seems to be present all through. Ephesians and Galatians, it is definitely more prominent, kind of easier to recognize than maybe the others. Romans, of course, almost out of the gate.

Shawn (: 32:25

Mm-hmm.

Nathan (: 32:44

includes a scathing evaluation of the human condition. And I think you're alluding to some of that in your comments. The rest of scripture is devoted to these letters. Most of them written by Paul, not all of them, we'll find as we move through toward the end of scripture that there are some letters not written by Paul, but Paul writes the majority of them. In fact, for the rest of scripture,

the majority of the content is authored by Paul as the stated author of the work.

Boy, Romans has so much good stuff.

There is kind of a shift after chapter eight. There's a big theological push where Paul is teaching about the gospel, introducing his own ministry in chapter one, but then dives right into the gospel. And really, I think the most detailed exposition on the gospel in one place

in scripture, it's deliberate. Jesus was obviously teaching the gospel and his work with the people, et cetera, but in one place, most of scripture is stories with theological ideas woven through the story that we pick up, much of theology we pick up as we listen and draw conclusions and stories, and then there are these sections, Romans, one of them where there's deliberate theological teaching and where

Paul is actually teaching and breaking things down at a pretty high level. Scripture, you know, you read much of Scripture and it's kind of in the common vernacular and the common, more approachable you might say. Whereas Romans is definitely written more technically in the sense of the thinking and the flow of the thoughts. Paul is making an important point and he's doing it with some significant

at a significantly higher intellectual or language level, thought level, than much of the rest of scripture. I don't know if you see that as true, but that seems to be what I'm talking about.

Shawn (: 35:12

Yeah, I think so. Nathan, let me ask you a question, and I don't want to throw you a curveball. I know we have 1 Corinthians to get to in the last five or ten minutes here, but it applies to 1 Corinthians as well, and of course all the rest of Paul's book. I think some might be tempted to.

say that there is somewhat of a distinction between say the gospels and then Paul's letters in the sense that the gospels, Jesus seems to be promoting more of an ethical program, if you will, where he's talking about very practical love your neighbor, you know, if someone hits you on one cheek, turn the other.

So it's more of an ethical exposition, if you will, whereas Paul's letters seem to be more theological and focused on quote unquote salvation. And so people have said, well, you know, some are attracted to the gospels because they're more ethical, practical.

Some are attracted more to Paul's letters because they're more theological, focused on salvation. Others say that they're, some would say that they're at odds with each other even, that they don't belong under the same tent, if you will. I don't know, do you see there being this distinction between the two books, or are they coming at the same thing from different angles?

I mean, that's a big question, I know, and I've kind of dropped it on you the last few minutes here, but how would you respond to that?

Nathan (: 37:04

It's actually not, it's an easy question because here's why. Um, and this is a great chance to plug our next, the next podcast season, because in the next podcast season, we're going to look at the ethical theme of scripture using the language you're using because in fact, how I would see it is, is Jesus is laying out in his living out and teaching about the end goal.

Shawn (: 37:07

Hahaha

Mmm.

Nathan (: 37:33

kind of the realization of the gospel in the human life is loving others radically, loving God and others radically. Paul is starting at the theological level, arguing the pieces that a person can experience to live in a way that is love to God and love to neighbor. So.

There's like the theology of how you get there. That's where Paul's at. But Paul believes the same thing because he says very specifically, love is the fulfilling of the law. And so for Paul, living out love toward neighbor is the whole point. His theology is arguing kind of the mechanics as he understands them of how through faith in Christ, human beings go from self-interest.

Shawn (: 38:12

Hmm

Nathan (: 38:31

to loving radically. Galatians, we'll have to get there in our next episode. But Galatians very clearly is centered around the receiving of the gospel that transforms a person into someone who loves like God loves. That theme comes up. So, but that's Galatians. Let's jump on 1 Corinthians. There is so much in Romans, we could spend a whole season on Romans.

We could just have a podcast called Sean and Nathan Talk Romans. We could literally spend the rest of our lives processing these themes from Romans. One thing I wanted to mention before we jump is that Paul does engage the pre-Jesus Hebrew prophets over and over and over again as he's articulating the gospel.

Shawn (: 39:07

Hehe

Nathan (: 39:29

and the theology of the gospel. So familiarity with the pre-Jesus Hebrew prophets is very helpful and confirmed by Paul as the springboard.

for the gospel. It's not, again, this is not a new story. This is the development, the progressive development, yes, but built solidly, built and growing out of what God has already been doing for generations. So First Corinthians. And this will be brief, First Corinthians. What would you call out as the two? I'll give you two.

Shawn (: 40:08

Great point.

Nathan (: 40:17

two slots here, you're the two, maybe most outstanding chapters in 1 Corinthians.

Shawn (: 40:26

Well, I mean, Nathan, obviously the best is Chapter 13. And even people who aren't Jesus people have heard and encountered that, the so-called great love chapter. Just a powerful, powerful exposition on what love looks like practically. The patience, the kindness, the relentless belief in others.

Nathan (: 40:28

Hehehe

Mm-hmm.

Shawn (: 40:55

And then I would say chapter 15. Paul, perhaps, is the most explicit as he ever is with what the gospel is. And he lays it out for you, you know, for, I delivered to you first of all that which I also received that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures and that he was buried and that he rose again the third day according to the scriptures. And then he was seen by Cephas, then by the twelve, et cetera. So he

Nathan (: 41:06

Hmm

Hmm.

Shawn (: 41:23

He's saying this is what the gospel is, the death and burial and resurrection of Jesus for our sins, and as you pointed out, this is according to the scriptures. Some historians and scholars have identified this as perhaps the earliest exposition on the resurrection of Jesus, which may have been within just a few decades after the events

Nathan (: 41:31

Mm-hmm.

Hmm

Shawn (: 41:52

were purported to have taken place. So, and then Paul says, listen, the resurrection is what our faith is predicated upon. If there's no resurrection, then there's no point to any of us. Our faith is futile. So he really does a beautiful job of expositing the resurrection. So those are my two big ones, Nathan.

Nathan (: 42:06

Hmm

Thanks for watching!

Yep, I was guessing those would be the two big ones. Those are outstanding in my mind. The other piece that I would highlight is 12, which is just before 13, about the church, the people of God functioning as a body. So powerful stuff there. And just a note that as in working through these letters to the churches, you're going to find Paul dealing with localized,

Shawn (: 42:20

and I'll see you next time.

Mm.

Nathan (: 42:46

and cultural challenges, one of them is head coverings that comes up here in 1 Corinthians. We won't process that, yeah. Yes, and certainly another one of those that we could do. But we're gonna wrap it up with that, so you'll have to find out what else is in 1 Corinthians. And so until next time, keep discovering the beauty of God in the story of Scripture as we

Shawn (: 42:51

Hmm. Let's spend a whole episode on that one, Nathan.

Nathan (: 43:16

very near to a read to the entire Bible in just 13 weeks. God bless you.

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