Seek to Show Hospitality, Romans 12:9-16 (May 29, 2016)

Transcription

1 Seek to Show Hospitality, Romans 12:9-16 (May 29, 2016) 9 Let love be genuine. Abhor what is evil; hold fast to what is good. 10 Love one another with brotherly affection. Outdo one another in showing honor. 11 Do not be slothful in zeal, be fervent in spirit, serve the Lord. 12 Rejoice in hope, be patient in tribulation, be constant in prayer. 13 Contribute to the needs of the saints and seek to show hospitality. 14 Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse them. 15 Rejoice with those who rejoice, weep with those who weep. 16 Live in harmony with one another. Do not be haughty, but associate with the lowly. Never be wise in your own sight. PRAY We are working our way through Romans 12, looking at what the apostle Paul says about what it looks like to live the Christian life. And in the verses for this morning he gets just about as concrete and practical as you could possibly want to show you how to do it. In our passage for today Paul talks about hospitality. Perhaps the most important practical thing we can do at Grace Bible Church to live the Christian life is to seek to show hospitality. That s what we ll look at, under three headings: first, the practice of hospitality (what is it?). Second, promise of hospitality (why do we do it?). Third, the power for hospitality (how can we do it?). First, the practice of hospitality. What exactly are we talking about when we talk about hospitality? In verse 13, we read this: Contribute to the needs of the saints and seek to show hospitality. And the Greek word translated as hospitality is a wonderful Greek word philoxenia. It s a combination of two Greek words: phileo (which means love ) and xenos (which means foreigner or stranger ; we get our word xenophobia from it fear of strangers ), but philoxenia literally means the love of strangers. Two things we must understand about hospitality if we will rightly practice it: first, hospitality means adopting a posture of love toward everyone. In all cultures all over the world, it s virtually always been the case that you are to love the people in your own family, in your own tribe, in your own village. You can t have civilization unless to some degree you are willing to take care of the people you re related to. But Christians were the first people who radically expanded the group of people deserving of our love. Those who follow Jesus are not just called to love their families, but everyone with whom they come into contact, even complete strangers from other races and nationalities. The most famous illustration of this principle in the Bible is the Parable of the Good Samaritan from Luke 10. An expert in the Jewish law asked Jesus, What shall I do to inherit eternal life? And Jesus turns it around on him and asked, Well, what does the law require? And the lawyer quotes a well-known summary of the law Deuteronomy 6:5 and Leviticus 19:18b : You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might and [Y]ou shall love your 2016 J.D. Shaw 1

2 neighbor as yourself Jesus replies, You have answered correctly. Do this and you will live. But the lawyer immediately senses a problem: the devil is in the details of this commandment. I can stand a reasonable chance of keeping love your neighbor as yourself if I can define neighbor down to a very select group of people. But if too many people are in fact my neighbor, I m going to have a serious problem. So he asks Jesus, Who is my neighbor? And Jesus tells a story that makes it clear your neighbor is not just those in your immediate or extended family. Your neighbor is not just someone from your same socio-economic class or race. Your neighbor is not just someone from your same town, or state, or country. Your neighbor, the neighbor you must love as yourself can be anyone from your community or even anyone from anywhere in the world, even among the group of people that by your upbringing and nationality you are supposed to despise, just as the Jews and Samaritans despised one another. Anyone can be your neighbor, so you must adopt a posture of love and service and generosity toward everyone, even complete strangers who look nothing like you, if you re going to practice biblical hospitality. And the way we show this love doesn t mean just mean wishing good things for people whom we don t know it involves meeting physical needs. A lot of commentators read verse 13 and talk about it mainly in terms of the role hospitality played in helping spread the Christian message around the Roman Empire. They didn t have hotels back then, so travel was much more difficult than it is today. The only way, in fact, you could possibly make it from point a to point b was if people went out of their way to practice the love of strangers. So it was necessary for the early church to open up their homes so that these preachers and apostles and evangelists (who were strangers to the homeowners) could be welcomed and cared for on their journey, and that way the gospel could be preached around the world. But there s no reason to think that s all Paul would have meant by verse 13. The whole verse reads like this: Contribute to the needs of the saints and seek to show hospitality. Romans 12:13. It seems clear that Paul doesn t have in mind the needs only of traveling preachers, but also the poor to make sure their basic needs are met. One of the big concerns in several of Paul s letters is the relief of the poor in Jerusalem we read about it in Romans 15, and in 1 and 2 Corinthians, and in Galatians. Because of famine and persecution, the Christians in Judea were suffering greatly. This went on for years. And Paul wants to make sure that the church in Rome, even though the people there had never met the Christians in Jerusalem, were doing their part to alleviate the long-term suffering of these strangers. So if we re going to practice biblical hospitality, it s going to mean showing love to others and part of that will meet doing what we can to meet their physical needs. It s no good just to say we love stangers in some general way yet do not try to help them in their suffering. What good is it, my brothers, if someone says he has faith but does not have works? Can that faith save him? 15 If a brother or sister is poorly clothed and lacking in 2016 J.D. Shaw 2

3 daily food, 16 and one of you says to them, Go in peace, be warmed and filled, without giving them the things needed for the body, what good is that? 17 So also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead. James 2: This does take wisdom it s not as simple as giving money to everyone who asks. Sometimes that will not actually meet a need but only drag them deeper into the abyss of an addiction. It was a problem even in the early church people heard how generous Christians were and so they would hit the Christians up for money, and it got bad enough that Paul had to tell the church at Thessalonica that if anyone is not willing to work, he should not eat. But, still, the opportunities are practically limitless for Christians to practice hospitality by meeting physical needs either in Oxford or around the world and there s no chance you d be giving a drunk a drink. Our church partners with organizations the minister in Oxford and organizations that minister hospitality around the world and work very hard and very smartly to make sure resources get to the people that really need it in a way that will help and not hurt them. Now, when you define hospitality like that, it can sound very high-minded and noble loving everyone you come into contact with, giving resources to the poor. But hospitality can also and should also be much more down to earth than that. Second, hospitality means simply inviting people into your life. Loving strangers can t only mean giving money away (though that s huge); it also means opening up your life to them. You may think, OK, J.D., what strangers? There is a room full of people here, many of whom you don t know. They are strangers to you. And here s what so many of us do we walk right past them. We come into church, we grab our coffee, we say hello to a couple of people we do know, and then we go to our seat. And as soon as we can after the service, we take off for Newk s. Wherever we go to work, we find lots of strangers. If you are student at Ole Miss, you re around strangers in every class. Now matter where you live (whether in a neighborhood, or an apartment complex, or a residence hall), you have at least some people around you who are strangers. Wherever we go, we will find strangers around us. How can we show them hospitality? Five ways: first, invite strangers to your physical home. This is the form of hospitality we are most familiar with. Say, Would you like to eat supper at my house (apartment, dorm room)? Many will wonder, OK, what is he trying to sell me? They ll be suspicious, but many will come. Many will be intrigued at the idea of seeing where you live, and interested at the prospect of a free meal, and, often, honored that you would have them in your home. We all know intuitively what a big deal hospitality is. And by the way, it doesn t have to be fancy. This is so important. For a lot of people, to really show hospitality in your home means it needs to look like a Southern Living photo shoot. Place settings with the good china, bringing out the silver, cloth, not paper 2016 J.D. Shaw 3

4 napkins, dressing up, and everything s just so. Impressing the people. But that s not necessarily hospitality we might better refer to that as entertaining. Now if you can invite people over and make it fancy and you like doing making it fancy, great. But it s not necessary to biblical hospitality your house doesn t have to be nice and it can just be paper plates, hot dogs, and hamburgers, especially if you know how to work a grill. But to put this in Oxford terms: John Currance and City Grocery is entertaining. Ron Shapiro and the Hoka is hospitality. Second, invite them here (church, your spiritual home). If these people to whom you re showing hospitality aren t a part of a Bible-believing church, ask them to come with you here one Sunday. Offer to go and actually pick them up and drive them here, because it can be very intimidating for a lot of people to show up here on a Sunday morning cold and have to find you in the crowd. And then, afterwards, take them to lunch, and maybe have a conversation about the sermon. Third, Christians should be getting together and eating informally all the time. Hospitality is not just getting complete strangers into your home (perhaps it s not even primarily that), but it s also keeping your friends from turning into strangers. If you want to maintain a friendship, you must spend time around them. You re not a bad Christian if you are not always with strangers but you spend a good amount of time with your Christian friends. Philoxenia is a wonderful word in this passage, but there s another wonderful word, too. In verse 10, we read: Love one another with brotherly affection. Brotherly affection translates a single Greek word philadelphia the love of brothers. In biblical hospitality, we don t only love strangers; we love other Christians, too. Philoxenia and philadelphia. Fourth, you could host a community group in your home. Our church is always in need of people who are willing to welcome other Christians regularly into their homes, so you could talk to Jim and say, You know, I d be willing to have a small group meet in my home. You don t have to actually lead the group, but you can watch lives change among strangers and friends from inside your own living room. Fifth, you can serve here on Sunday mornings. When we open up this building each Sunday for worship, we are saying to anyone who wants to come, Please let us show you hospitality. And it takes a lot of volunteer effort to make sure it s done well. We need ushers, we need nursery workers, we need people to assist our children s Sunday school teachers, we need help with serving the Lord s Supper once per month. Anyone of those is a great way to practice hospitality through our church. So, that s the practice of hospitality. Second, the promise of hospitality (why do we do it?). Three promises: first, the promise of Christian hospitality is God s people will have their physical needs met J.D. Shaw 4

5 Jesus says this in the Sermon on the Mount: Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing? 26 Look at the birds of the air: they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? Matthew 6: Now, that is a wonderful promise. But how is it that God will meet the needs of his people? In the Old Testament, while the people of Israel were wandering through the wilderness, he did it in a miraculous way he sent manna from heaven. Every morning, with the dew, God sent manna, this bread-like substance, down to the earth, and the people went out and gathered it up and ate and no one in Israel starved while the entire nation spent forty years in a place where they could not grow their own food. If we have a need now, is that how God will meet it? He could, but instead God has chosen a seemingly mundane way to meet needs. He has given his people the fellowship of the saints, the church, and we are to all come together to make sure that no one goes without something they truly need. The command in Romans 12:13 is Contribute to the needs of the saints So then, as we have opportunity, let us do good to everyone, and especially to those who are of the household of faith. Galatians 6:10. Just reflect on that promise of hospitality for a moment it means that no matter what happens to you, no matter what slings and arrows this life throws at you, no matter where you find yourself or what trials you go through or what shore you wash up on, biblical hospitality means that you will still have everything you need. Notice: Jesus doesn t say that we will have everything we think we need right now. Absolutely not we will go through long seasons in life where we are certain we need something and we don t get it. Our definition of need is way off in 21 st century Oxford, Mississippi. But it is the promise that you ll have everything you need to be completely satisfied in God. I have known believers who did not have everything I thought I needed in order to be happy, yet they were more satisfied and at peace than I d ever been. Christian hospitality, contributing to the needs of the saints, is one way God accomplishes that for his people. Second, the promise of Christian hospitality is that through it God will work. Hospitality is a big deal not just among Christians but in virtually all cultures that have ever lived. Hospitality is not only a Christian virtue. All people have recognized its importance and power. But why is it powerful? It s not because your house is so nice and clean and tastefully furnished. It s not because of the quality of the food. It s even because you are a really good at carrying on a conversation. Those things are great, but that s not the power in hospitality. One author put it like this: What people are craving isn t perfection. People aren t longing to be impressed. They re longing to feel like they re home. If you create a space full of love and character they ll take off their shoes and curl up with gratitude and 2016 J.D. Shaw 5

6 rest. No matter how small, no matter how undone, no matter how odd. Some of us aren t experiencing the power of hospitality because we don t think our homes or our food is nice enough, and that s a shame because those things (while great) are not the source of hospitalities power. William Lane wrote at one point: For Christians, the expectation is that God will play a significant role in the ordinary exchange between guest and hosts. This expectation lends to hospitality a sacramental quality. There is a sacramental quality to hospitality. What does that mean? Well, think about it what is a sacrament? Baptism, the Lord s Supper. But what elements make up those sacraments? Common things water, bread, wine. Nothing special, but when set apart for the Lord they have tremendous power. Taking the Lord s Supper we all know there s nothing supernatural or miraculous about bread and grape juice. But in that context it s powerful. And hospitality is the same way nothing special. The food you serve and the conversation you have may not, in and of itself, be spectacular. But when set aside for God s purposes, it has power. When you take enough interest in someone to invite them to your house, feed them food, talk to them and really listen to them, really desire to learn about them, what is that? It s not counseling. You re certainly not lecturing or teaching. It s just common food and conversation. But God can and does work powerfully in it. I love Galatians 6:2, because this verse might sum up what I think happens through true hospitality better than any other single verse in the Bible: Bear one another s burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ. I can t tell you how many times over the years Mimi and I were going through some kind of stress in our marriage or family or maybe at work and we found ourselves invited to someone s house to be recipients of their hospitality. And we walked in kind of stressed, maybe even not really wanting to be there, but after receiving hospitality for an hour-and-a-half or two hours, we walked out, and the stress was gone. What happened? They didn t counsel us, they didn t give advice, the issue may not have even come up. Yet by showing us hospitality, they bore our burdens. I can t explain it, I just know I ve experienced it so often. It s the sacramental quality to hospitality. And again Christians don t have a monopoly on hospitality. I wasn t kidding when I mentioned the Hoka earlier. I remember hearing Sparky Reardon talk about the Hoka one time (Sparky was the longtime Dean of Students at Ole Miss). He said, I never felt bad at the Hoka. And if I felt bad, I went to the Hoka and I felt better. Now, nothing distinctly Christians was going on at the Hoka! But, still, because of common grace, God works powerfully through hospitality. Third, the promise of hospitality is that through it we might even get to meet angels. One of the other go-to texts in the New Testament on hospitality is Hebrews 13:2: Do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers, for thereby some have entertained angels 2016 J.D. Shaw 6

7 unawares. All the commentators say that s a reference to Genesis 18, when Abraham and Sarah entertained the angel of the Lord. Now, this is not to say that if you practice hospitality you might wind up eating a sandwich with an immortal spiritual creature with a flaming sword and the ability to read minds and move at the speed of thought. But it is to say this: lives are changed because of hospitality. Tim Keller says this in one of his sermons. Years ago maybe you had someone over at your house, you fed them and listened to them, and in so doing you encouraged them, you bore their burdens, and it helped them get through a rough time. It helped them grow in their faith, and since then they ve done all kinds of wonderful service for the Lord. Your hospitality has been multiplied through them in the lives of many other people. Do you know what that means? You were entertaining angels unawares. Angels are, after all, ministering spirits sent to serve God s people. You didn t know it, and you never know it at them time, but that s how hospitality works. Third, the power of hospitality (how can we do it?). Let s be clear: it s hard to practice hospitality. Real hospitality is expensive it s extra food you re buying, it s expensive in that it takes time, it takes energy. If you ve been working all week perhaps the last thing you want to do is invite someone over you don t know all that well, prepare a meal for them, and spend a couple of hours talking with them. That s work. Plus, it s expensive in another way. Romans 12:15-16: Rejoice with those who rejoice, weep with those who weep. 16 Live in harmony with one another. Do not be haughty, but associate with the lowly. Never be wise in your own sight. The temptation in trying to practice hospitality will be that you only do it with people whom you like (that s the rejoicing with those who rejoice part), and never with people who are difficult for you (that s the weeping with those who weep part). Paul wouldn t have to say, Live in harmony with one another if he didn t assume that sooner or later you d have to deal with people who are naturally disharmonious from you. And when Paul says, Do not be haughty, but associate with the lowly, he s saying go out of your way to practice hospitality with those who can t help you get ahead in your career. Deliberately choose people who are younger than you, who aren t as wealthy and influential or who are newer to town than you and so don t have your connections. You can say you re practicing hospitality but in reality you re just trying to climb up the ladder by impressing and building relationships with the people who can help you. But that s not really practicing hospitality that s not love of strangers. That s networking, that s loving yourself. So, if hospitality is so hard, so expensive, so difficult, then why do we do it? He executes justice for the fatherless and the widow, and loves the sojourner, giving him food and clothing. 19 Love the sojourner, therefore, for you were sojourners in the land of Egypt. Deuteronomy 10: The people of Israel were sojourners, they were 2016 J.D. Shaw 7

8 strangers in the land of Egypt, but God loved them, showed them hospitality, made them His treasured possession, and settled them into the promised land. That s Israel. Do you know what God has done to us, Christians? [R]emember that you were at that time separated from Christ, alienated from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world. 13 But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ. Ephesians 2: You were strangers to God, but Jesus practiced hospitality with you he came to earth and made you a friend of God. And did it cost him? You better believe it cost him it cost him his blood, it cost him his life, it cost him everything. But he did it, and so you now if you will look at Jesus and believe that by his death on the cross he reconciled you to God if you believe that you who were once far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ then you will also want to practice hospitality. When we see how God has been hospitable to us, then we will begin to seriously, intentionally, and frequently practice hospitality, and thereby really love each other. And when that happens this church will be like a light on a hill to this community. John MacArthur tells the story of a woman who came to his church in Los Angeles years ago. She was Jewish and was having marriage problems, and she went to her synagogue to get some help but they wouldn't counsel her in her because she hadn't paid her dues. And so she was upset, and she made up her mind to walk down the street to the nearest religious building to get some help which just happened to be MacArthur s church. It was a Sunday, and she wandered into Grace Community Church, and MacArthur wasn t sure if she was just caught up in the crowd going into the church or if she really wanted to be there, but over the course of that morning she became a Christian. And later on she told MacArthur her testimony. She said, I was so upset that they wouldn't counsel me, so I just came in here, and I'm telling you, it changed my life. MacArthur thought she was talking about his preaching (as preachers tend to do), and so he said, Did you enjoy that service that day? She replied, I don't even know what you said. I was overwhelmed by the love of these people for each other. It was so foreign to anything I'd ever experienced. And it was that that drew me to my Messiah. Friends, let s practice hospitality, and let s just see if God won t turn strangers into friends, and friends into angels. And if we ll all commit to doing this at Grace, let s just see if God will begin to bring the nations to him in Oxford through our hospitality. Amen. Let s pray together J.D. Shaw 8