Week 2 - Chapter 1
Notes
Transcript
Sermon Questions:
Why do we need to keep our eyes focused on the cross?
How can we keep our eyes focused on the cross?
How is the antidote for worry?
What are ways you’ve seen a church lose sight of the centrality of the cross?
In the New Testament, the Greek word translated “hospitality” literally means “love of strangers.”
Hospitality is a virtue that is both commanded and commended throughout Scripture.
For example:
While we often think the Old Testament was more harsh than the New,
The book of Leviticus says this about hospitality:
33 “When a stranger sojourns with you in your land, you shall not do him wrong. 34 You shall treat the stranger who sojourns with you as the native among you, and you shall love him as yourself, for you were strangers in the land of Egypt: I am the Lord your God.
Also, during His public ministry, Jesus and His disciples depended entirely on the hospitality of others as they ministered from town to town (Matthew 10:9-10).
Similarly, the early Christians also depended on and received hospitality from others (Acts 2:44-45; 28:7).
In fact, travelers in ancient times depended heavily on the hospitality of strangers as traveling could be dangerous and there were very few inns, and poor Christians could not afford to stay at them, anyway.
This generous provision to strangers also included opening one’s home for church services. Hospitality was indeed a highly regarded virtue in ancient times, especially for Christian leaders (Titus 1:8; 1 Timothy 3:2).
8 but hospitable, a lover of good, self-controlled, upright, holy, and disciplined.
2 Therefore an overseer must be above reproach, the husband of one wife, sober-minded, self-controlled, respectable, hospitable, able to teach,
Why are pastor’s called to be hospitable?
Another interesting note:
Would someone please look up Hebrews 13:2
2 Do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers, for thereby some have entertained angels unawares.
And this is exactly what we find in the book of Genesis where we read of Abraham’s humble and generous display of hospitality to three strangers.
Wealthy and aged, Abraham could have called on one of his many servants to tend to the three unannounced visitors.
Yet the hospitable and righteous Abraham generously gave them the best he had.
And, as it turned out, he had entertained the Lord and two angels (Genesis 18:1-8).
Would someone look up Ephesians 2:10
10 For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.
As Paul points out: Christians are “God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works”
As followers of Christ, we emulate His love and compassion when we show hospitality,
not only to fellow Christians,
but even more so to strangers and the less fortunate.
Can someone look up:
31 Whoever oppresses a poor man insults his Maker, but he who is generous to the needy honors him.
17 Whoever is generous to the poor lends to the Lord, and he will repay him for his deed.
What are these verses saying?
It’s saying that we honor God when we are kind to the needy (Proverbs 14:31; 19:17).
13 But when you give a feast, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind, 14 and you will be blessed, because they cannot repay you. For you will be repaid at the resurrection of the just.”
36 “Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?” 37 And he said to him, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. 38 This is the great and first commandment. 39 And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself.
But wait
Who is my neighbor?
25 And behold, a lawyer stood up to put him to the test, saying, “Teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?” 26 He said to him, “What is written in the Law? How do you read it?” 27 And he answered, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind, and your neighbor as yourself.” 28 And he said to him, “You have answered correctly; do this, and you will live.” 29 But he, desiring to justify himself, said to Jesus, “And who is my neighbor?” 30 Jesus replied, “A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and he fell among robbers, who stripped him and beat him and departed, leaving him half dead. 31 Now by chance a priest was going down that road, and when he saw him he passed by on the other side. 32 So likewise a Levite, when he came to the place and saw him, passed by on the other side. 33 But a Samaritan, as he journeyed, came to where he was, and when he saw him, he had compassion. 34 He went to him and bound up his wounds, pouring on oil and wine. Then he set him on his own animal and brought him to an inn and took care of him. 35 And the next day he took out two denarii and gave them to the innkeeper, saying, ‘Take care of him, and whatever more you spend, I will repay you when I come back.’ 36 Which of these three, do you think, proved to be a neighbor to the man who fell among the robbers?” 37 He said, “The one who showed him mercy.” And Jesus said to him, “You go, and do likewise.”
The Parable of the Good Samaritan teaches us that “neighbor” has nothing to do with geography, citizenship, or race.
Wherever and whenever people need us, there we can be neighbors and, like Christ, show mercy.
This is the essence of hospitality.
In the Gospel of Matthew, Jesus discusses the hospitable behavior of those who will inherit the kingdom:
34 Then the King will say to those on his right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. 35 For I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, 36 I was naked and you clothed me, I was sick and you visited me, I was in prison and you came to me.’
In these days we often don’t think much about entertaining strangers,
but hospitality is still an important part of Christian ministry
13 Contribute to the needs of the saints and seek to show hospitality.
9 Show hospitality to one another without grumbling.
How does grumbling destroy hospitality?
What is the antidote to a grumbling heart?
What prevents us from being thankful?
By serving others we serve Christ (Matthew 25:40) and we promote the spread of God’s truth (3 John 5-8).
5 Beloved, it is a faithful thing you do in all your efforts for these brothers, strangers as they are, 6 who testified to your love before the church. You will do well to send them on their journey in a manner worthy of God. 7 For they have gone out for the sake of the name, accepting nothing from the Gentiles. 8 Therefore we ought to support people like these, that we may be fellow workers for the truth.
How can we prepare ourselves to live on mission and look for opportunities for gospel-centered hospitality?
I started my devotions that morning as I have been doing for the past seventeen years and as Ken and Floy Smith modeled for me: praying that the Lord would open my eyes to see wondrous things in his Word.
In the morning, I pray in concentric circles. I start by praying for myself, that the Lord would increase my love for him, grow me in holiness, give me courage to proclaim Christ in word and deed as a living epistle, lead me to repent, and give me the humble mind and heart of Christ and the kind comfort of the Holy Spirit to make me a more faithful and loving wife and mother and friend. I then pray for my family, the church, my neighbors, my nation, foreign missionaries, and missions. I thank the Lord that he is risen, that he prays for me, and that he has sent people into my life, starting with the Smiths, to bring me to himself and to hold me safely close. I thank God for the covenant, of which I am a part. I keep my prayer notebook open, and I flip through the pages as I pray through the names.
Hank in the book
Methlab
“We could barrack ourselves in the house, remind ourselves and our children that “evil company perverts” (see 1 Cor. 15:33), and, like the good Pharisees that we are always poised to become, thank God that we are not like evil meth addicts.”
We could surround our home in our own version of yellow crime-scene tape, giving the message that we are better than this, that we make good choices, that we would never fall into this mess.
We could surround ourselves with fear: What if the meth lab explodes and takes out my daughter’s bedroom (the room closest to the lab) with it? We could berate ourselves with criticism: How could we have allowed this meth addict into our hearts and our home?
But that, of course, is not what Jesus calls us to do.
“As neighbors filed into our front yard, which had become front-row seats for an unfolding drama of epic magnitude, I scrambled eggs, put on a big pot of coffee, set out Bibles, and invited them in. Who else but Bible-believing Christians can make redemptive sense of tragedy? Who can see hope in the promises of God when the real, lived circumstances look dire? Who else knows that the sin that will undo me is my own, not my neighbor’s, no matter how big my neighbor’s sin may appear?”
“And where else but a Christian home should neighbors go in times of unprecedented crisis? Where else is it safe to be vulnerable, scared, lost, hopeless?”
“If we were to close the shades and numb ourselves through media intake or go into remote monologues about how we always knew he was bad, or how we always make good choices, what legacy would that leave to our children? Here is the thing about soothing yourself with self-delusion: no one buys it but you. I had other things on my list of things to do that day but none more important than what I was doing. Gathering in distraught neighbors. Praying for my friend Hank. Quickly and organically, our house became an all-day crisis station. Neighbors—from children to the aged—who did not have to report to school or work stayed the day with us.”
How do Christians often let fear drive us into being inhospitable?
How can we avoid this?