Welcome One Another as Christ Has Welcomed You

Grace, mercy and peace to you from God our Father, who has welcomed us into His family, and our Lord, Jesus Christ, who welcomes us into His Kingdom.

Our message is based on the words of the Apostle Paul in today’s Epistle,  7 Therefore welcome one another as Christ has welcomed you, for the glory of God.

What a blessing it is to feel welcomed. It’s a feeling of peace and joy; it makes us feel like we’re where we belong. 

After a long time away, what a joy it is to be welcomed home. Soldiers who’ve been deployed, and return home to their loved ones, are so dearly embraced.

There are many you tube videos of soldiers who have been away from their children for a while, many months or longer, and their children don’t know they’re returning home, and the returned parent surprises them, and the children see and recognize them, and they run to their mother or father, who takes them in their arms and holds them.

I remember seeing a video of about a 12 year old girl, whose father returned from being deployed overseas, and he walked into her classroom at school and surprised her, and she ran to him, and jumped into his arms and wrapped her arms and legs around him, and she just sobbed, her whole body was convulsing and shaking.

With even greater passion will we embrace our God with everything we are and have when we see Him in Heaven at last, and He welcomes us home.

I remember hearing the story of a soldier in World War 2 who had been taken prisoner, and his dog tags were later found in a mass grave…

so he was reported killed, and his family had been notified of his death, but he was still alive and freed from the prison camp when the allied soldiers took over; and he made his way back to the U.S., and called his family, and when his mother heard the voice of her son, who she thought had been killed, she fainted, she was so surprised, so overwhelmed with gratitude. 

With an even greater love and amazement, we’ll see and be welcomed by our dear, faithful departed loved one’s at the blessed reunion to come.

I’ve also seen videos of soldiers returning and their dogs sees them again, and just goes berserk, running and jumping with joy and with all their energy. 

With even greater joy and excitement will we be welcomed to, and enter our heavenly home.

Our joyful welcome into Heaven will be a wonderful thing, but that’s not when our welcoming begins; it begins at our first Baptismal birthday, the day we’re baptized and believe, and are adopted in the family of God.

And the angels of Heaven, Jesus tells us in Luke 15:10, rejoice and celebrate our new and better life and salvation.

And the celebration continues and grows as more children of God are brought into His family, and added to His kingdom.

As we sing in the baptismal hymn, Father welcomes all His children to His family through His Son. Father giving His salvation, life forever has been won.

With God, and His Son, and His Spirit, and His angels, and His saints, all rejoicing over us and welcoming us from above in His family in Heaven, so let us rejoice over and welcome one another here in His family on earth.

Paul says in our Epistle, 5 May the God of endurance and encouragement grant you to live in such harmony with one another, in accord with Christ Jesus, 6 that together you may with one voice glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. 7 Therefore welcome one another as Christ has welcomed you, for the glory of God.

Live in such harmony with one another, in accord with Christ Jesus, 6 that together you may with one voice glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. 

Ephesians 4 tells us that 4 There is one body and one Spirit—just as you were called to the one hope that belongs to your call—

Paul says in our Epistle, 4 For whatever was written in former days was written for our instruction, that through endurance and through the encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope. 

As members of the same eternal family, we share and are united by the same hope, which comes from our common calling to life and faith in Christ.

Ephesians 4 continues, 5 one Lord, one faith, one baptism, 6 one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all.   

All in all, in Christ we share and have together what matters most, and lasts longest, forever.

Our differences and disagreements in life are minor details compared to what we share in the Gospel. 

A common love in Christ empowers and compels us to welcome and receive each other with open arms, as we will be welcomed into Heaven.

All the things that divide the body of Christ and family of God around the globe on earth will be nonexistent in the Kingdom of heaven’s glory. 

Differences in nationality, personality, ethnicity, and any of the earthly things that might divide or disrupt the body of Christ on earth, will all pass away on that Final Day, and give way to perfect love and harmony that new and better, heavenly world.

So even when we might sometimes disagree or have trouble getting along with others in earthly ways, let us remember that this Gospel God’s people share is where greater love, and eternal unity are found… and where hearts and voices become as one, reminding us that the family of Christ is where we truly belong.

And we belong with a song, as our text says, 6 that together you may with one voice glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.

When Christ was born, the angels welcomed Him with a song, appearing to the shepherds and singing, Glory be to God in the Highest, and on earth, peace, goodwill toward man.

All these years later we still this song in our liturgy and in some of our Advent-Christmas hymns, which we so love to sing.

As we unite our voices in song, the Word, the Gospel we sing is at work, uniting our hearts with God and each other. 

We have the wonderful tradition of welcoming each other to worship with an opening hymn or a song. 

And we welcome God into our presence and our hearts, by calling on His name: in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.

His promise is that where even 2 or 3 are gathered in His name, there He will be in the midst of them.

As through His Word and His name, God comes among us and within us, and welcomes us into His fellowship, so in His name, we welcome others.

As our text says, 7 Therefore welcome one another as Christ has welcomed you, for the glory of God.

It’s to the parent’s glory, it’s their joy to see their children, gathered and united in love and harmony, at peace, having good will toward each other.

I can tell how my wife Jacquie likes it when our daughters are there and they’re talking back and forth and laughing and having fun. 

So it is with our Heavenly Father, it’s to His glory that His children gather in love and truth, and unite our voices and hearts in worship and praise.

In our Gospel we heard John the Baptist, a voice in the wilderness, Isaiah prophesied, calling people to repentance that they might be baptized into God’s forgiveness: Repent, for the kingdom of Heaven is at hand, He cried.

Christ calls the world to repentance, that through the Holy Spirit’s gift of faith, He might welcome us in His Kingdom of grace and renewal.

Like John, we’re His voice calling to others, urging them to welcome and receive Christ into their lives, that they might be welcomed into God’s beloved family and eternal Kingdom.

And that we may welcome and receive them with the love of Christ that we’ve been welcomed and received with.

Until we’re welcomed into Heaven’s family with the greatest joy, let us rejoice to be welcomed and live in the family of Christ on earth; and let us rejoice to welcome and love and help and serve each other, with open arms and open hearts.

And as we’re welcomed, and as we welcome one another, the peace of God, which passes understanding, will guard our hearts and minds, in Christ Jesus, who welcomes us into His dear family and His glorious Kingdom. Amen.