CHRISTIAN HOSPITALITY
ROMANS 12:9-21
Introduction: The most valuable earthly possession a person can have is a warm, supportive friendship. People without relationships are miserable people. Recently, I spoke on the fact that everyone needs a friend. True friendships are developed within the church community through hospitality. If we are to be a growing, healthy church we must demonstrate true Christian hospitality. Today, I want you to consider what is Christian Hospitality, what is the basis of Christian Hospitality, and how is Christian Hospitality demonstrated?
I. What is Christian Hospitality?
A. Romans 12:13 distributing to the needs of the saints, given to hospitality. (Share with the saints in their needs; pursue hospitality – HCSB)
B. 1 Peter 4:9 Be hospitable to one another without grumbling.
C. Hebrews 13:2 Do not forget to entertain strangers, for by so doing some have unwittingly entertained angels. (Don’t neglect to show hospitality… – HCSB)
D. Hospitality - philoxenia, old word from philoxenos, fond of strangers
E. Hospitality - The act or practice of being hospitable, that is, the reception and entertainment of guests, visitors, or strangers, with liberality and goodwill.
F. Hospitality is making others feel at home. Some folks make you feel at home. Others make you wish you were. – Arnold H. Glasow.
G. In 1977, singer John Charles Thomas, at age sixty-six wrote to syndicated columnist Abigail Van Buren: "I am presently completing the second year of a three-year survey on the hospitality or lack of it in churches. To date, of the 195 churches I have visited, I was spoken to in only one by someone other than an official greeter and that was to ask me to move my feet."
H. "People go to the church that is dearest to them and not the church that is nearest to them."
II. What is the Basis of Christian Hospitality?
A. Remember Hospitality is philo – love + xenos – strangers
B. The context of Christian Hospitality is love. Love, first for what Christ has given you with the recognition that everything you have is a gift from Him and belongs to Him. Second it is a love for others.
C. Matthew 22:34 - 40 But when the Pharisees heard that He had silenced the Sadducees, they gathered together. Then one of them, a lawyer, asked Him a question, testing Him, and saying, "Teacher, which is the great commandment in the law?" Jesus said to him, "’you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like it: ’You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ On these two commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets."
D. 1 Peter 4:8 - 9 And above all things have fervent love for one another, for "love will cover a multitude of sins." Be hospitable to one another without grumbling.
E. The basis is fervent love – Fervent – intense stretching, a constant and continual exertion
III. What is the Demonstration of Christian Hospitality?
A. Open Hearts
1. If the basis of Christian Hospitality is love, then we must begin to open our hearts to others.
2. It is extending yourself far beyond that which is normally expected. It is going the extra mile. It is reaching out to others and welcoming them into your heart.
3. Hospitality is allowing God to break through the narrowness of our own fears and opening our hearts. It is learning to genuinely care about people.
4. 1 John 3:17 - 18 But whoever has this world’s goods, and sees his brother in need, and shuts up his heart from him, how does the love of God abide in him? My little children, let us not love in word or in tongue, but in deed and in truth.
B. Open Hands
1. Open Hands that reach out with a hand of acceptance and friendship.
• Think of the difference between being confronted with a clenched fist and being offered an open hand. The clenched fist signifies threat, rejection, arrogance, exclusion, refusal, anger and violence. The open hand means friendship, help, peace, sharing, communication and connection. - Vivian Boland O.P.
• In Medieval time the extension of an open right hand signified to someone else then that there was no sword or dagger in it. It said, “I will not attempt to hurt you, I accept you.
• We need to accept people as they are because we have been accepted as we are.
• Ephesians 4:32 And be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God in Christ forgave you.
2. We need Open Hands that are willing to give to meet the needs of others.
• Deuteronomy 15:11 For the poor will never cease from the land; therefore I command you, saying, ’You shall open your hand wide to your brother, to your poor and your needy, in your land.’
• Hospitality also requires generosity. I don’t mean the kind of generosity that leads us to share a little bit of what we have with others. Rather, true hospitality requires that we begin to loosen the grip of those distinctions between what is mine and what is yours. In Genesis. Abraham sees three men, three strangers approaching his tent. He doesn’t even wait for them to arrive. Instead, he runs out to meet them and says, "My lords, if I have found favor in your sight, do not pass by your servant. Let a little water be brought, and a morsel of bread—just a morsel—that you may refresh yourselves, for I am your servant." And then, once Abraham is on the other side of the tent door, he says to Sarah, "Quick, get three big sacks of flour and make cakes." He takes a calf—the one he was saving for a grand occasion—and gives it to his servant to be prepared. Then Abraham takes milk and makes cheese. All of that without a pantry chef. When he is done, he lays the meal before his guests. (Mind you, this is before he knows who these guests are.) And Abraham stands by while the guests ate their fill of that "little morsel" he had promised them. - copied
• There are at least four things you can do with your hands.
You can wring them in despair;
You can fold them in idleness;
You can clench them in anger;
Or you can use them to help someone.
C. Open Homes
1. While it comes more naturally for some, we all are called to open our homes.
2. Hebrews 13:2 Do not forget to entertain strangers, for by so doing some have unwittingly entertained angels. (i.e. Abraham, Lot)
3. God’s will is that all of us open our homes to others with a glad and cheerful spirit.
4. The following differentiation between "hospitality" and "entertaining" was made by Karen Mains in {Open Heart, Open Home} (Elgin, IL: Cook, 1976): Entertaining says, "I want to impress you with my home, my clever decorating, my cooking." Hospitality, seeking to minister, says, "This home is a gift from my Master. I use it as He desires." Hospitality aims to serve. Entertaining puts things before people. "As soon as I get the house finished, the living room decorated, my house- cleaning done - then I will start inviting people. Hospitality puts people first. "No furniture - we’ll eat on the floor!" "The decorating may never get done - you come anyway." "The house is a mess - but you are friends - come home with us." Entertaining subtly declares, "This home is mine, an expression of my personality. Look, please, and admire." Hospitality whispers, "What is mine is yours."
5. Hospitality is more than inviting someone to the dinner. It involves opening up, welcoming, accepting, giving, sharing, loving, advocating, even sacrifice. - Kim
