What is Biblical Hospitality?

Discuss an overview of this 3-week teaching series we’re starting with Hospitality 1) What is it? 2) How it relates to the Gospel 3) Practical application

Discuss the questions: What, Why, How, Where, When

What is Hospitality?

Introduction

hospitality - the friendly and generous reception and entertainment of guests, visitors, or strangers

guest/visitor - a person who is invited to visit the home or take part in a function organized by another

stranger - a person whom one does not know or with whom one is not familiar

Hospitality in the ancient world focused on alien or strangers in need

Desperate

Lacked membership in the community

It mean graciously receiving an alienated person into one’s land

This was polymorphic

Talk about the

Sometimes it looked like the reception of travelers into one’s home for food, lodging, and protection

Talk about the hospitality during the Kholhepp case of Selma Baptist Church. They were cooking burgers for the reporters

Example of this with Abraham in

Example of an elder in ,

Permitting the alienated person to harvest the corners of one’s field

Talk about Ruth study and reference here. Use as reference here

Clothing the naked in

Tithing food for the needy ()

However, the hospitable act of the communal meal possesses great symbolic significance. In the ancient world, to share food with someone was to share life

This holds even greater significance today with today’s distractions and “siloed” culture

Talk about social media dependence among Americans (use pew research sheet). Talk about being an early adopter and how this can be dangerous. Refer to ‘12 Ways Your Phone Is Changing You’ by Tony Reinke

Talk about Buster’s reference to the unseized and the urgent

Such intimacy created a bond of fellowship

Jesus’ meal with tax collectors and sinners in

His meal with Zacchaeus

Lord’s Supper in

Common meal of the early Christians in

There is a biblical pattern of intimacy, fellowship, support, and love surrounding the concept of sharing a meal with one another

Ever shared a meal with someone and became even closer?

There is a biblical pattern of intimacy, fellowship, support, and love surrounding the concept of sharing a meal with one another

Anytime I talk about a topic, I see what Scripture says first THEN I contextualize it. The contextualization does not negate the Biblical pattern.

Examples of ‘host’ and ‘guest’ throughout Scripture

Old Testament ->Israel as Guest. God as Host

and

God graciously received alienated Israelites and met their needs, redeeming them from Egypt and feeding and clothing them in the wilderness

We are exiles . This is not our final home.

Technology has pushed back the effects of The Fall and has caused us to forget this sometimes

Old Testament -> Israel as Host.

and

This is the story of Lot. When angels journeyed to Sodom and Gomorrah in search of a righteous man, only Lot and his family were set apart to be saved. Lot was deemed righteous by the fact that he alone imitated Abraham’s behavior of hospitality

This was also commanded of Israel

New Testament -> Jesus as Guest

and

The itinerant ministry placed him in dependance on the hospitality of others

New Testament -> Jesus as Host

, , and

Feeding the 5000 reveals the identity of Jesus as taking the role to host the multitude

He not only serves as host and directing a meal but becomes the meal itself

New Testament Church -> Christians as Guests

, , , and

We are alienated from God

We are invited to respond to Jesus in celebration of the Lord’s supper

Those who confess Jesus as Christ become aliens and strangers in this world

The audience of 1 Peter suffered social condemnation because of their Christian confession

New Testament Church -> Christians as Hosts

and

Righteous behavior as outlined in the Old Testament still applies and it includes the act of hospitality

Hospitality -> Christian Love

Seeking God’s Will? Start here

Exposition (Overview) of John’s Epistles

Author is the Apostle John

Describes himself as “the elder” to show his authority and eyewitness status (age)

Most personal letter of his 3 epistles is 3 John

1 John -> congregations scattered throughout Asia Minor

2 John -> sent to a lady and her family

3 John -> clearly identifies recipient as “the beloved Gaius”

2 John & 3 John deal with hospitality

2 John -> warns about showing hospitality to false teachers

There is a biblical pattern of intimacy, fellowship, support, and love surrounding the concept of sharing a meal with one another

3 John -> condemns the lack of hospitality shown to faithful ministers of the Word

They were refused hospitality by Diotrephes

Diotrephes also slandered the Apostle John

He excluded anyone from the church who dared to challenge him

Some think that he even favored the false teachers that were condemned in 2 John

3 John

I. Commendation Regarding Christian Hospitality ()

Truth is used 4 times in the greeting

The “truth” here includes the truth about Jesus coming in the flesh

Shows that true Christlike love is rooted in the Scriptures

Briefly discuss how we try to seek the Will of God without opening our Bibles

Opposing hospitality to those who walk under the Lordship of Christ is not “walking in truth”

II. Condemnation Regarding Violating Christian Hospitality ()

This is the opposite of Christlike love being played out

Demetrius, the bearer of the letter

v. 11 -> Key verse

2 John

I. The Basis of Christian Hospitality ()

Direct correlation between “truth”, that Jesus Christ became human, and “love”

II. The Behavior of Christian Hospitality ()

truth -> love

v. 6 What is love?

III. The Bounds of Christian Hospitality ()

False teachers had been attacking the central truth of the Gospel that Jesus became flesh to accomplish salvation

They were Docetists -> Docetism -> Christ’s body was not human but was either a phantasm of celestial substance therefore, his sufferings were only apparent

v. 10, 11 -> showing hospitality to these teachers showed endorsement of their teaching

Warned about the continued “intimate” fellowship results in one being influenced by their teaching

- “a little leaven leavens the whole lump of dough”

IV. The Blessings of Christian Hospitality ()

v. 12 -> A letter is no substitute for personal fellowship

Refer back to personal touch vs. a technology world. Facebook message versus a real conversation

Thesis

Biblical hospitality is welcoming and fellowshipping with believers and non-believers out of truth and love for Jesus Christ so that they may see Christ more clearly and/or so they will join us as exiles themselves

Talk through this thesis and make sure they understand each part

We, as exiles, in this fallen world play host to the world so that they may join us as exiles (leads into Week 2 on how this relates to the Gospel)

Final Points

What brings the most glory to God?

God is most glorified when we are most satisfied in him. - John Piper

Q. 1. What is the chief end of man? A. Man’s chief end is to glorify God and to enjoy him forever. - Question 1, WSC

Seeing hospitality as a chore or a burden is legalistic and not glorifying to God ()

Some of you in here are very gifted at hospitality and you love it

Some of you struggle with it and need to work at it. Hospitality is not something we can choose to ignore. It’s commanded in Scripture

Some of us need to work on accepting invitations to those who ask us

What brings you the most benefit?

Parallel to a short-term mission trip

Talk about your experience with Michelle in Thailand. See your neighborhood as a mission field

Your mission field is where your feet are

How can you transfer this knowledge to your neighbors?

Reiterate the concept and purpose of equipU

Let them see your truth and love in practice

Cat hair in the macaroni is safer than going home with depression - Rosaria Butterfield

Make them ask “why?”

Talk about What, Why, How, When, Where again

Homework

Read 2 out of the 5 workdays this coming week and pray over it

Father, reveal to me what is hindering your love

Father, bring about a hospitable heart in me

Holy Spirit, guide me in your Scriptures so that I may grow in truth

Open Discussion

Has your definition of hospitality changed from today? If so, how? If not, who or what has opened your eyes to this type of hospitality?

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