Be Hospitable!
Notes
Transcript
Love God, Love People, and Make Disciples…
Matthew 22:34–40 “34 But when the Pharisees heard that he had silenced the Sadducees, they gathered together. 35 And one of them, a lawyer, asked him a question to test him. 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. 40 On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets.””
John 13:34 “34 A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another.”
Matthew 28:16–20 “16 Now the eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain to which Jesus had directed them. 17 And when they saw him they worshiped him, but some doubted. 18 And Jesus came and said to them, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. 19 Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”
Acts 1:8 “8 But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalemg and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.””
I believe the Lord has laid on my heart that Hebron Baptist Church would be a church who has their thumbprint stamped in each area of Acts 1:8
If we are going to obey the second greatest commandment then we must be a people who are known for our hospitality.
If we are going to obey the second greatest commandment then we must be a people who are known for our hospitality.
What is hospitality???
Hospitality is generally regarded as the practice of receiving someone into your home as a guest, providing food, shelter, and protection.
Hospitality can be defined as “the quality or disposition of receiving and treating guests and strangers in a warm, friendly, generous way.”
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
God’s called people have always been commanded and commended when showing hospitality!
Leviticus 19:33–34 “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.”
Genesis 18 tells the story of Abraham and Sarah offering generous hospitality to three strangers…
It was custom and even an expectation for villages and patriarchs to offer hospitality to strangers… especially in the area where Abraham and Sarah were…
Hebrews 13:2 “2 Do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers, for thereby some have entertained angels unawares.”
In His public ministry Jesus and the Disciples depended entirely on the hospitality of others… Matthew 10:9–10 “9 Acquire no gold or silver or copper for your belts, 10 no bag for your journey, or two tunics or sandals or a staff, for the laborer deserves his food.
Rahab… Boaz…
The opposite was condemned… Na-bl (nabal) His wife’s name was Abigail
Early Christians showed and depended on hospitality!
Hospitality was a highly regarded virtue in ancient times… especially among Christian leaders… Titus 1:8 “8 but hospitable, a lover of good, self-controlled, upright, holy, and disciplined.” 1 Timothy 3:2 “2 Therefore an overseer must be above reproach, the husband of one wife, sober-minded, self-controlled, respectable, hospitable, able to teach,”
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,This generous provision to strangers also included opening one’s home for church services.
Christian hospitality had a major impact on the world around them…
in the year 165, during the reign of Marcus Aurelius, an epidemic swept across the Roman Empire… Some medical historians believe this epidemic was smallpox…
15 years in…. 1/4 to 1/3 probably died from this disease
At the height of the epidemic, mortality was so great in many cities that the emperor Marcus Aurelius (who subsequently died of the disease) wrote of caravans of carts and wagons hauling out the dead.
victims often were thrown into the streets, where the dead and dying lay in piles. In a pastoral letter written during the second epidemic (ca. 251), Bishop Dionysius described events in Alexandria: “At the first onset of the disease, they [pagans] pushed the sufferers away and fled from their dearest, throwing them into the roads before they were dead and treated unburied corpses as dirt, hoping thereby to avert the spread and contagion of the fatal disease; but do what they might, they found it difficult to escape”….
The Christians went into the streets where the pagans were left to die by their loved ones… They provided clean water and good hygiene and many were nursed back to help… Christian miracle working was talked about during this time…
the impact of Christian mercy was so evident that in the fourth century when the emperor Julian attempted to restore paganism, he exhorted the pagan priesthood to compete with the Christian charities. In a letter to the high priest of Galatia, Julian urged the distribution of grain and wine to the poor, noting that “the impious Galileans [Christians], in addition to their own, support ours, [and] it is shameful that our poor should be wanting our aid.”
They showed incredibly mercy and hospitality to not only their own… but to all.
As God’s people we must seek to show hospitality!
Will you commit to showing hospitality?
Hebronites… - I see knew faces every Sunday… I don’t know half the people here…
What measure are you taking to know those new faces???
Some of you new faces…
2025 Challenge for Hebron Baptist Church… Invite 1 family or person that you don’t know as well as you would like to into your home for a meal 1x a month… If you desire to do more… then great… if you’re not comfortable bringing people into your home then invite them to eat at a restaurant, if that wont work… invite them to coffee, if you don’t drink coffee, invite them to a walk in the park, to watch a game …
Revelation 3:20 “20 Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and eat with him, and he with me.”
Our Great God and Savior Jesus Christ shows us incredibly mercy and hospitality… lets commit to showing that to others… especially those in our own church…
