Living in the Last Days II

Opening Illustration: My yard is a safe zone. Face masks not required, unless you want one. I always have cold drinks and water. My yard is non-judgmental & non-racist. Any family or friend who needs to chat are always welcome. We can talk, share a hug, a laugh, a cry, or just listen. If you're hungry, I'll feed you. I will always do my best to be available... you are always welcome!! This is an old school value that has been lost to technology.

1) Use Your Blessings to Bless (v. 9)

a. Hospitality in the first century Christian church was not simply a luxury or an option, it was necessary. Remember the context, persecution, job loss, home loss, refugee status, lack of basic needs such and food and clothing. Therefore, an extreme need was present for those with these blessings—a home, food, and most importantly Christian fellowship, encouragement, and soul food. There were abuses to be sure, in fact in later years there were limitations put in place as guidance for believers and churches. In this passage, there is no mention of overnight guest, so it could include it. This probably means that hospitality understand within the community. So, this could mean opening up your homes to worship and fellowship, which would mean opening up to potential persecution to various classes and ethnicities, and also require financial investment and preparation.

b. Illustration: “In a world dominated by paganism in employment and culture, living the Christian faith would often entail temporary loss. Mutual support was therefore vital.” -Commentator Norman Hillyer, “True Christian hospitality is making others feel at home when you wish they were home.” -Donald Coggon, former Archbishop of Canterbury, our family movie night was Crocodile Dundee (that’s when I am reminded how old I am and how technology has increased). Mick Dundee had never been to a city. When he was told about the population of NYC, he said that it must be the friendliest place on earth because all those people wanting to live together in the same place. David Brainerd spoke often of his travels in the 1740s being enriched by his stays with this believer or this minister (which by the way are required to be hospitable by 1 Tim 3:2)

c. Now, we live in one of the richest countries in the world. Hospitable is not a quality that I think of when I look at the behavior of American Christians and churches. Remember, friendliness, nor fellowship equals hospitality. Opening our homes to other believers in rare, and it seems that we are always impressed when someone does that, when in the Christian church it should be more common than rare. It’s probably not going to open us up to fear of reprisal, but it may inconvenience us some. If you are blessed with the most meager of resources, God intends you to bless others with them. What a witness to our community if we are willing to go to these lengths to love and serve one another. So, is there a college student that you could have to your house once a week to feed them and let them use the washer and dryer? Would you be willing to host a small group in your home for study or not, to simply connect? With COVID-19 things are different, but that doesn’t negate God’s word. We can adapt, but Jesus didn’t say, if you love me, keep my words unless… Hospitality may look a little different now, but we are not released from it because you might get sick. There were leper colonies then, although it had not reached pandemic status like it did in the 11th century. In the first century, however, The Antoine Plague spread from Asia through the Huns in 165 A.D. into Germany, then into the Roman Empire, claiming millions, even the emperor Marcus Aurelius and his adoptive brother and co-regent, Lucius Verus (This so destroys the storyline of Gladiator for me as it did the Roman Army in reality for them). They believe in might have been an appearance of smallpox based on descriptions of its symptoms. We must figure out ways to continue Christian hospitality through pandemics or depressions or wars or persecution. It is not an optional part of the Christian life, just like the previous two commands. And we are supposed to do it from love and without complaint.

2) Use Your Gifts to Give (1 Peter 4:10-11)

a. Notice the word “each.” Biblical teaching says that each believer is given at least one spiritual gift by which to minister to each other and to the body of Christ. It is more than natural ability or predisposition or preference. It is a Spirit-empowered function that you fulfill in the local gathering of believers. Peter lumps the two groups: services gifts and speaking gifts, both given and strengthened by grace, energized by the Spirit, intended to be stewarded building up the body, that in everything God my be glorified.

b. Argumentation

c. Illustration: Stanley’s four things about believers who don’t exercise their spiritual gift 1) robbing the body of Christ, 2) forcing other members to carry their load, 3) they are dead weight on the body—dysfunctional limbs, 4) they are out of touch with the spirit

d. There are about four lists of spiritual gifts, none of which are comprehensive. Some of the speaking gifts are preaching, exhortation, teaching, encouragement, or tongues. Service gifts can be faith, mercy, service, discernment, leadership, generosity, and others. We are to be good stewards with what God has given you. If you are not serving in this church, you are sinning. I love you, but we are commanded here to serve and speak to build up the body and serve Christ. Disobedience to this command brings about consequences to you and to the church. Worse than that, it hides the glory of Christ in the body and thus outside the body too. There are spiritual gift inventories out there to help you discovery your gifts and how to use them. We will put you into a place of service.

A. Closing illustration:

In One Church from the Fence, Wes Seelinger writes: "I have spent long hours in the intensive care waiting room ... watching with anguished people ... listening to urgent questions: Will my husband make it? Will my child walk again? How do you live without your companion of thirty years?

"The intensive care waiting room is different from any other place in the world. And the people who wait are different. They can't do enough for each other. No one is rude. The distinctions of race and class melt away. A person is a father first, a black man second. The garbage man loves his wife as much as the university professor loves his, and everyone understands this. Each person pulls for everyone else.

"In the intensive care waiting room, the world changes. Vanity and pretense vanish. The universe is focused on the doctor's next report. If only it will show improvement. Everyone knows that loving someone else is what life is all about." Long before we're in the intensive care waiting room maybe we can learn to live like that.