Hospitality: How?

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This time a year ago, I was starting up a new sermon series in preparation for Easter. However, we wound up worshiping online that week because there was a new virus that had made its way into the United States. I never got to preach those sermons!

So, here we are a year later, and I finally get to talk about the Hospitality of Jesus.

The verse that is providing the springboard into this two week miniseries is in Matthew 11. In this verse, Jesus brings up two accusations that have been made against him. These insults are supposed to be condemning, showing something Jesus is doing wrong. However, they seem to actually be showing something Jesus was doing right!

I’m gonna read this one verse, and then I will pray and then we will dive right in!

Matthew 11:18–19 CSB

For John came neither eating nor drinking, and they say, ‘He has a demon!’ The Son of Man came eating and drinking, and they say, ‘Look, a glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and sinners!’ Yet wisdom is vindicated by her deeds.”

PRAY

In that passage I just read, Jesus is coming down hard on the religious leaders who fussed about John the Baptizer because he was so up tight and weird and now Jesus comes in very different from that and they are still not happy! The reason I read that is to point out that Jesus knew the accusations that were being hurled at him. He knew what the Jewish leaders of the day had against him. The first thing they said was that Jesus was a drunk and a glutton.

This is where I want to settle in today. We will look next week at the namecalling that follows this as we see the company Jesus kept in his hospitality.

But for today, let’s look at the actions of his hospitality!

Point number one...

1. Share Meals

Jesus is accused of being a glutton and a drunk. But we know neither of those things are true, right?

Hebrews 4:15 CSB

For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who has been tempted in every way as we are, yet without sin.

So, Jesus wasn’t a glutton or a drunk, so why did they say this?

The religious leaders were looking for every chance to discredit Jesus and his ministry but there must have been something about Jesus’ lifestyle that led to this accusation.

Jesus was clearly known as a guy who loved to party (sinlessly, OK!?) He loved to have a good time sharing meals and drink with all kinds of people! The namecalling is born out of the idea that (to the religious elite) Jesus seems to be eating with people all the time! Sharing meals.

And, can I just say, this is my kind of ministry right there! Right? I want to be known as a pastor who just sits around with people in our church eating food and drinking Sundrop. And if y’all begin to think, All that pastor does is eat! You should know now that I’m just trying to be like Jesus, y’all!

This week, I discovered there is even a book called “Eating your way through Luke’s Gospel.” The author makes the argument that the entire Gospel account is centered around the meals Jesus has with people. The author says that on every page, Jesus is coming from a meal, eating a meal, or on his way to a meal. God help us be like Jesus! Amen?

But in all seriousness, there is something to this! Sharing a meal with someone was and continues to be incredibly formative in terms of relationship and trust with one another.

One of the best ways that you can get to know people is by sharing a meal with them in your home or at a restaurant. There is something to sitting down to eat with someone else that will drive a relationship deeper and deeper.

If you don’t eat with other people much, I encourage you to try! It was an important part of Jesus’ ministry and it should be a part of yours too!

If eating with people is not a big thing for you, you need to find some outlet that gets you around other people: other Christians and those who aren’t following Jesus. If not meals, what other thing do you intentionally to spend time with other people? We all need this!

And before you start running the laundry list here...

Point number two is this...

2. Stop Excuses

Heath, you don’t understand! My house is tiny! I only have one bathroom! It’s always a mess because my kids are gross, or husband’s gross, or I’m gross. I am a terrible cook. Nobody will come to my house for microwave fish sticks! I am an introvert. The thought of conversations and small talk makes me sick thinking about it! I just don’t like people!

Hey, me and Kelly have tried to use most of these ourselves at some point or another, or have at least heard them all. But here’s what I find interesting in the text...

Jesus is so obviously at the center of so many of these meals. Many seem to be his idea, he’s the one organizing the what to bring list. He’s calling and making reservations at the restaurant!

But Jesus Himself had no home.

Matthew 8:20 CSB

Jesus told him, “Foxes have dens, and birds of the sky have nests, but the Son of Man has no place to lay his head.”

Let that sink in. This guy who was known as the teacher who loved to party and share meals with people never hosted one in his own home, yet he still lived a life characterized by hospitality.

If you stress out over how your home looks and say, “I can’t do anything because my house isn’t clean, or isn’t big enough, or whatever, just remember, Jesus had no home at all! Open your home, let folks in!

Or if your excuses are more about the cost of eating out… I’ve had just as good a time in a cheap restaurant as I have expensive ones! In fact, usually much better because they aren’t so fancy that I’m worried about spilling something on the table cloth. And you can still have a great conversation even if you and your spouse split a meal and get water!

It’s about the quality time that is had when you break bread together. It is much less about the quality of the bread or the quantity of the bread. Alright?

Here’s what I’m not saying… You should eat out with someone or invite someone over every week. Listen, you have to find a balance for you and your household! We just entered into ball season. That’s practices three nights a week (one of those is Friday!!!) and groups on Wednesday. Our life is a little more booked up time-wise right now. But guess what? I get to spend around 5 hours per week with other parents from our team. I can go and sit or I can leverage that time to be hospitable, right?

I’m also not saying you have to invite the whole church over to your house! Our house is about 1400 square feet. You get about 6 adults in there with 5-6 kids and it gets a little claustrophobic

It doesn’t have to be every week and it doesn’t have to be meals, but it needs to be something!

And this is a challenge to me too! I have been out to eat and had far too few of you in my home in the last 14 months! God’s Word can stomp on a pastor’s toes too people! We are in this together! Amen?

How often does a pastor preach a message and the next steps are spend time with people! But if you and I are to follow hard after Jesus, we must do what he did! Let’s stop making excuses and spend time with others intentionally.

But there is more to Jesus’ life of hospitality than hanging out with people. It’s the way in which he did that struck people.

You see, to truly be hospitable, you have to...

3. Serve Others

John 13:1–5 CSB

Before the Passover Festival, Jesus knew that his hour had come to depart from this world to the Father. Having loved his own who were in the world, he loved them to the end. Now when it was time for supper, the devil had already put it into the heart of Judas, Simon Iscariot’s son, to betray him. Jesus knew that the Father had given everything into his hands, that he had come from God, and that he was going back to God. So he got up from supper, laid aside his outer clothing, took a towel, and tied it around himself. Next, he poured water into a basin and began to wash his disciples’ feet and to dry them with the towel tied around him.

This is one of the craziest moments in Jesus’ ministry! And many people have transformed this into some sort of leadership principle. The man on top has to view those who work under him as important just like Jesus did....

Yes, that’s true, but this move is all about hospitality!

You may have heard this, but it would have been the responsibility of the lowest servant in the house to do the foot washing. If you can imagine old dry, crusty, dusty feet that have stepped in no telling what out on the paths following in behind animals, right?

This was a great way of making your guests feel welcome though, having a servant wash each of your guests feet! Quite the spa treatment huh?

But they are in a borrowed room to celebrate passover. A servant wasn’t provided for this purpose. And instead of deciding who should be the one to wash everyone’s feet, Luke actually tells us they argued about who was the greatest among them here.

Can you imagine that convo going on? Jesus, settled a dispute for us… Which of us is your most prized disciple? Who’s the greatest?

And instead of answering, Jesus gets up from the table, ties a towel around his waist and begins to wash his students’ feet. Church, that’s some hush up juice like no other right there!

Every disciple knew that they were competing for second anyway, right? And the one they know to be the best in the room just took his place among the lowest.

If you want to know what true hospitality looks like, It’s not entertaining. You can go out to eat and you can invite people into your home and you can entertain them. You can tell some great stories and make all of them laugh. You can have the house decorated like Kelly’s pinterest page and cook food like Kenny’s tik tok follows. But if your guests talking about how great you are, you missed it.

To be hospitable is not to entertain, but to serve. Jesus modeled that to perfection!

Mark 10:45 CSB

For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.”

Let me ask you a question: are you serving others well? Are you leveraging your time, your home, your finances to be hospitable to others? If you are not, let me challenge you to begin to do so? If you are just a little, let me challenge you to step in to a little more consistency or look to serve a little more intentionally.

This is not about a legalistic expectation on all of us, this is about living your daily life as a hospitable person. Making others feel at home around you.

We have Easter coming up… Help us be hospitable by being here early for your service and welcoming people. Talk to people after they sit down. Encourage them to fill out the connect card so they can get a free t shirt. Take time to learn their names and ask what brought them to East!

As a church, we are going to do three things to be practice hospitality leading up to Easter...

Provide you with cards so you can invite your neighbors, friends, families to come to Easter and celebrate with us. They will be here next Sunday. Be thinking now about who you want to invite. I promise to clearly and plainly present the Gospel that morning and give people a simple way to respond.

Our groups are prepping goodie bags for 250 teachers and faculty from three schools right here in our footprint. Many of them may already attend somewhere, but if they are looking for a church to go to on Easter, where do you think they might try? If you want to get involved in this, talk to one of our Wednesday night group leaders. If you don’t know one, stop by next steps and sign up for info!

We are starting a new ministry called Welcome Home. There are so many new homes coming into our area every month and we are finding that some of these new residents are looking for a church home or at least looking to meet some neighbors. So, we have found a website that will send us an alert every time a house sells in a really tight window around our church. We will wait a week or two and drop off a basket with some food and info about our church. We are a little behind, so we are going to play catch up between now and Easter. If you are willing to drop off a basket on a front porch and have a simple 2 minute conversation with one of our neighbors, you can let us know by signing up at Next Steps.

For both of these efforts, we will have the iPad there at Next Steps for you to do sign up, or you can scan this QR Code now and fill out the online form and check the box you want to help with!

Together, and through tons of prayer, we can see Easter become one of the most significant days in the life of our church! But we have to think and live hospitality!

So, how shall we respond today?

Some of you may need to spend this last song sending some text messages out to invite people over this week. If that’s done in the name of the Lord, then don’t feel bad about having your phone out! Be obedient!

Some may want to commit to signing up at Next Steps.

Still others may want to join one of our teams for Sunday mornings like Greeters, Info Desk, Hospitality, counselors, security… You can sign up to help out anytime! Just let us know how you feel led to help.

The opportunity to join this church family or to be baptized are always on the table for conversation as well.

But today, if you have never trusted in the one whose hospitality I have called you to mimic, you can today. As humans, we are hopelessly lost without God. Because we are all sinners, we find ourselves trying to fix our lives and find true joy in all the wrong things. But today, I want you to know that you can experience freedom from sin and shame today. You can leave here today feeling fulfilled, not because of what you have accomplished but because of the relationship with God you begin through Jesus today.

However you need respond, we are going to sing one more song as a time to respond. You can come forward to talk with me about whatever is on your heart. We will also have decision counselors by the back doors that you came in. If you want to talk with them instead of me that’s fine. You can also just come and kneel here before God and pray for situations in your own life or on behalf of someone else.

You respond however God leads you today!

PRAY