The Simplest Way to Change the World – Biblical Hospitality 2

All right, well, we're going to go ahead and get rolling here. Thanks again for coming. I see most familiar faces from last week. Thanks for coming back. Glad I didn't scare you off. And if anything, Walt lured you back in with his announcement that there would be more food and beverage.

And so it's a little bit lighter. I'm sorry we didn't have the Deckers for you this week. But I think it's actually very strategic, right? Camille is very strategic to have just the donut because we're going to be doing a lot of flipping in the Bible today.

And we just didn't want to impair your flipping abilities. So you're welcome. So let me pray. Ask the Lord for help. And then we'll jump in here. Oh, Lord, we do just want to pause and recognize that you are God and we are not.

And that is a really good arrangement. And so we cast ourselves afresh on you this morning. Ask for help. Ask for guidance. Lord, would your spirit be with us to illuminate your word so we could rightly see your character and we could rightly live in light of what we read.

So, Lord, help us now in this topic of hospitality, not just to hear ideas about it, but to apply it to our lives. In Jesus name we pray. Amen. Well, by way of review, looking back last week, we started to dive into this topic of biblical hospitality.

And what I was trying to do last week was to make an argument that the Bible talks about hospitality in a very different way than what we typically think of because it's aimed at a different mission.

It's the same thing. Extending compassion, care, context for relationships, food, meals, healing, things that we'd see in the hospitality industry, things that we would see in the hospital context.

What I was arguing is that the Bible actually re-merges those two concepts that have been divided in our age, hospital and hospitality. Those things are meant to be paired together and aimed at a very particular mission, which is ultimately relational and moral.

All right. So I was arguing that the primary problem in the world is moral and relational. We have been cut off relationally from the God who made us because of our sin.

That's a moral and a relational problem. And because of that, all other relationships with ourselves, with the people around us, with the world around us have been disordered.

Nothing makes sense the way it was designed to make sense when that first and primary relationship with God himself has been severed. And so my argument was that Jesus came, not primarily to fix all the lateral issues.

It wasn't the publishing house and the hospital. Those were byproducts. There were good things that flowed out of it. But his primary mission was actually to make that relational reconciliation happen between God and man.

Because he knew upstream from all the other problems we've experienced and faced, that is the primary source of the issues.

Flows down. So he came to make relational reconciliation possible through his sacrificial death on the cross. And what does that have to do with hospitality?

Well, I was just pointing out that all along the way to the cross, Jesus embodied that mission of reconciling sinners to God by gathering around meals.

One after the other. This ragtag bunch of disciples. And embodying in a very tangible way what it looks like to be brought near and made right relationally with God and with others.

We looked at Mark 2. It's on your paper just for reference and review. And as he reclined at table in his house, many tax collectors and sinners were reclining with Jesus and his disciples, for there were many who followed him.

And the scribes and the Pharisees, when they saw that he was eating with sinners and tax collectors, said to his disciples, why does he eat with tax collectors and sinners?

The unrighteous people. According to their standard. And when Jesus heard it, he said to them, those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick.

I came not to call the righteous, but sinners. So if you have a right understanding of what righteousness is, you know that this invitation is not just for tax collectors and sinners.

It's for all the unrighteous who fall short of the glory of God. So he has this hospital language, but it's paired with this coming near around a meal, being extended to sinners to bring them back into right relationship.

So if you think about it, and I have this as your final bullet point in the review section here, biblical hospitality puts hospital back into hospitality. And these simple, ordinary moments of biblical hospitality around a table created the context for reconciliation to be extended, for celebration to be enjoyed rightly and relationships to flourish.

Okay. So this, this is just like a snapshot introduction to the concept of biblical hospitality. That was session one. All of that is by way of review. But what we want to do today is we're going to take more of a chronology journey, chronological journey through scripture at this unfolding vision for biblical hospitality.

And I was saying in last week that it's threaded from Genesis all the way to Revelation. These pit stops along the way at meals that are massively important for our understanding of who God is, who we are, what the problem is, and how we can participate in the same mission.

So that's what we're after today. So hospitality is threaded throughout the story of God's reconciling plan. And I would, I would even say it this strongly that it forms the arc of the story of the world.

As I said last week in Genesis three, we were estranged from God as his enemies over a meal of rebellion. But by the end of time in Revelation 19, we're united with God as his family over a meal of celebration.

Meals. So what I like to do is if you flip your paper over on the back, there are just a few snapshots, different episodes that we're going to look at throughout the scripture.

I hope you have a Bible with you or get close to someone that does or pull out your scroll. You can do it this way if you want. Find a Bible or someone has got one. And we're going to dive in and we're going to ask just one basic question at the top of your paper.

What do we learn about God, people and the role of biblical hospitality and relationships? So that's going to be your part. All right. So we're going to be interactive today.

I'd like to hear your thoughts as we read and digest this together. I'm not going to read exhaustively all of these passages. So for now, we can go to Genesis three, but I'm not going to read the whole thing, but let's flip there just for reference.

Now, the beginning of the story, Genesis chapter three. Thank you.

It's also red. And my mom always told me that a red Bible is better than an unread Bible. Dad jokes. All right, great. I don't know if that's a product of the fall or if that's a picture of redemption.

Dad jokes, but you decide. So in Genesis chapter three, what we've seen up to this point is God made the world very good, made people in his image, gave them one command, enjoy all of the garden, except for this one tree.

Don't go there. gives them a marker and gives them freedom to enjoy. And then in comes the slithering serpent.

Chapter three. In the very first verse, he said to the woman, did God actually say?

introduces doubt into the goodness of God, into the authority of God.

For the first time, she's not so sure. God really has her best in mind and Adam's best in mind. If you look at verse six, it says, so when the woman saw that the tree was good for food and that it was a delight to the eyes and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate.

You see what's happening here? She's acting on her own idea. This is a constant conversation in our household. You can't just do your own idea. You've got to obey what we've told you to do as parents.

And here you see a similar thing going on. The child, the children of God are doing their own idea. In a sense, they observe the tree and they see, hey, this thing looks pretty good to my eyes.

It looks appetizing. It looks right. Can't be that wrong. Is God really withholding something good from me? From us? So she took of its fruit and ate.

And she also gave some to her husband who was with her. And he ate. Now what was he doing? What should he have been doing?

What do you think? Stop. Huh? Stop. Stop. No, we can't do that. What are you doing? This is God. This is our maker. And instead, we have a disordering already of relationships from the very beginning.

Man is not taking the initiative to lead in a situation that he knows is wrong. It's a disordering from the very beginning. A disordering with the trust and authority of God.

A disordering of a horizontal relationship of man and woman. And next thing you know, fast forward to verse 10. And I heard the sound of you in the garden and I was afraid.

God approaches them because I was in, I was naked and I hid myself. He said, who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten of the tree of which I commanded you not to eat?

And the man said, the woman who you gave me, she gave me the fruit of the tree and I ate. I was like the double blame shift. She gave it to me and you gave her to me.

Everybody's wrong except for me. Essentially. Do you see? It's this disordering of all of the relationships, the fundamental foundational relationships, vertically and horizontally at the very beginning around a meal.

It's a meal of rebellion. And because of this has implications for all the world and all of us in here. It's a disorder.

So let's flip to Isaiah 24. If you would, Isaiah 24. So that's just a foundation of the text we're going to look at.

And as you flip there, just remember that what I'm going to argue for is biblical hospitality, but we can sit around a meal and it not be redemptive.

We can have food and have people over and it actually be very destructive, just like we saw in Genesis 3. So don't get the wrong impression that just by sitting around a table and opening your home and having food, that that is necessarily biblical hospitality aimed at the mission that I'm talking about.

just like all things that God has made, the table can be used for destruction or it can be used for mission and reconciliation.

What we just saw in Genesis 3 is a meal of destruction. Can you think of some meals of destruction you've been around the table for? Harsh words, relational fallout, snide remarks, ungratefulness.

So it's not the table that redeems, it's the Savior at the table that redeems. That's what we've got to remember and that's what this is aimed at. But we do have a problem. Houston, we have a problem.

Look at Isaiah 24. So now we're fast forwarding in the history of humanity. We've honed in on a specific people, the people of Israel, who are now languishing in exile.

They're trying to figure out what they're supposed to do next. Their place in the presence of God is jeopardized. Their relationship to the God who instituted them as a nation is jeopardized.

And God is speaking to them through a prophet, through Isaiah. This is 600 years-ish before Jesus Christ is born. Some of you Brenner folks who remember talked about Isaiah 53.

We're talking several hundred years before Jesus even enters the scene. So here we are. At this point in redemptive history, the people of God are in exile.

And if you would look, chapter 24, starting in verse 4, this is what it says. The earth mourns and languishes.

It withers. The world languishes and withers. The highest people of the earth languish. The earth lies defiled under its inhabitants for they have transgressed the laws, violated the statutes, broken the everlasting covenant.

Therefore, a curse does what? Devours the earth. A curse devours the earth and its inhabitants suffer for their guilt.

Therefore, the inhabitants of the earth are scorched and few men are left. The wine mourns. The vine languishes.

All the merry-hearted sigh. The mirth of the tambourines is still. The noise of the jubilant has ceased. The mirth of the lyre is still.

No more do they drink wine with singing. Strong drink is bitter to those who drink it. The wasted city is broken down. Every house is shut up so that no one can enter.

There is an outcry in the streets for lack of wine. All joy has grown dark. The gladness of the earth is banished.

Let's pause and just think about what we just read. What do we learn about God, people, and the role of hospitality, food, beverage here?

What are some things that stand out to you? First, where's God?

doesn't seem to be in the picture at all. Now, what about the people?

What do we see about the people in this text? They're cursed. Yeah. Yeah.

cursed, suffering, jubilation, the joy, has grown dark. That's some severe language.

The highest people of the earth languish. Right. And what's that a reference to? Who are the highest people on the earth? Even the top tier dogs, you know, even the wealthy, even the ones that are well off, even the ones that have access to resources, not just poor people that are experiencing this unraveling of the earth.

Now, why is it that they're experiencing a curse? What's happening? The covenant has been broken. The covenant has been broken.

Look at verse 5 very carefully. The earth lies defiled under its inhabitants for, that's because, they have transgressed the laws violated the statutes, broken the everlasting covenant.

Whose covenant? Whose laws? Yeah, the God of all the earth. They've rebelled against the God of all the earth. This is why they're experiencing devastation.

This is why they're experiencing joy growing dark. Now, look at the language of food in here. Food and beverage. What is it intended to communicate to us?

Starting in verse 7, if you look at verse 7 down, what do you see? It's about wine and strong drink. Wine and strong drink. Now, are they having their intended effect?

What's that? It's bitter. Yeah, it's bitter. Yeah, and the wine, it's interesting, wine is personified in verse 7. The wine mourns.

It's not just the people mourning. What is wine typically supposed to communicate? Celebration. Yeah, celebration. Remember Jesus' first miracle.

Keep the wine flowing and save the best wine for last. It's an incredible picture of celebration and joy. A wedding feast, right? And here, the wine is muted.

it's in mourning. It's the opposite of what it's intended to do. It's broken. What else do you see? The merry, hard, and sigh.

They're not happy. They're not happy. Yeah. It's drained of its intended effect because in part, the law giver's not there.

And if he was there, it wouldn't be for good. The source of happiness is not there. That's right. Okay, so you have this image in your mind. This is communicating language of the fall of Genesis 3, but now it's global, right?

Now it's pervasive. It's affected all the earth. It's affected all people. Judgment comes as the world defies God and his revealed order in the world.

All right? They've constructed their own social order, an alternative social order. But let's flip the page, at least on my Bible. We flip the page. Let's go to Isaiah 25. Isaiah 25.

We'll start in verse 6. We'll read through verse 9. It says this, on this mountain, the Lord of hosts will make for all peoples a feast of rich food, a feast of well-aged wine, of rich food full of marrow, of aged wine, well-refined.

and he will swallow up on this mountain the covering that is cast over all peoples, the veil that is spread over all nations.

He will swallow up death forever, and the Lord God will wipe away tears from all faces, and the reproach of his people he will take away from all the earth.

For the Lord has spoken, it will be said on that day, behold, this is our God. We have waited for him that he might save us.

This is the Lord. We have waited for him. Let us be glad and rejoice in his salvation. One page.

Okay, let's pause. Let's think. What do we learn about God in this situation? Where is he? he is in verse six on this mountain.

The Lord of hosts laying a banquet out for the people. He's with them. It's present. His presence is right there in their midst.

And is he coming with judgment? These are the pages before. These are the law breakers, aren't they? The ones under a curse? What's the image? Is he coming to enforce judgment?

What's he doing? He's calling family God to his ways. Yeah. Yeah. He's laying out a joyful, jubilant feast of celebration.

All right. Talk to me about the people. What do you see about the people here? It's all peoples. Oh, yeah. Verse six. He will make for all peoples.

And that language, peoples, so often is not just talking about the people of God. It's actually Gentiles included.

People from all nations, tribes, and tongues. things. It's a fascinating thing. We're in the Old Testament here, right? All peoples, a feast of rich food.

Talk to me about the food. What's happening? Well-aged wine. Yeah. What's that supposed to indicate to us? Does it get better?

We always hear these references. It gets better with time. That's what I've been told. The older it is, the better it gets. And this is well-aged wine.

Finest wine. So in this case, what is the wine intended to communicate? Celebration. Celebration. Rich food.

Not just any kind of food. This isn't just like pull through McDonald's and punch your own order in on that dumb sign that nobody can figure out. And then get some haphazard thing. It comes out with some pickles that are sliding off.

It's not that. This is rich food full of marrow. The fattiness, the richness, the nutrients. Aged wine, well refined.

Now, this is amazing because not only does he come in his own glorious presence with the people, who's hosting this thing? Is it the people serving him?

Yeah. Yeah. Isn't it fascinating? On this mountain, the Lord of hosts is the host. The superior came to serve the lawbreakers, the inferiors.

Amazing. He's the host. He's making the banquet. He's laying out the food, right? And it's not just a banquet for the people. There's actually two feasts going on here.

Two feasts. Do you see? There's a banquet for the people that God's laying out. But then look, there's another feast starting in verse seven.

What's the other feast? He's feasting on death. The Lord himself is consuming, vanishing.

He's feasting to the Lord of hosts, the God who lays out the banquet for the people, all the peoples, in verse seven and in verse eight.

He will swallow up. He will swallow up death forever. All the things that we did, all the lawbreaking that we did, the reason the veil is over the people, the reason the joy grew dark in the previous chapter, now he is taking that and swallowing it up himself.

He's consuming it, digesting it, taking it on himself, internalizing it so that it's not on any of us.

Isn't that an incredible image? Two feasts going on. One he lays out for the people and the other one he swallows up for himself, not in selfishness, but in selfless act of love.

Amazing. So we have this picture, but how will that happen? How will it happen? And when will that happen? This is a prophecy. This is looking forward to something.

Let's look first at Luke. We're going to the New Testament now. Luke. Luke. chapter 19.

Now we're not going to have time to read this whole one, but you're probably pretty familiar with this story. Zacchaeus was a wee little man and a wee little man was he? What did that wee little man do?

Clined up in the sycamore tree. Who was he trying to see? Exactly. And then he's up here in the street and it's a happy little kid song, but the reality is this guy is seen as just a traitor.

He's hated. He's despised. All of his communities see him as a traitor. I've heard it said that this guy would have been seen as the equivalent of a crack dealer to a community that's already languishing.

Right? It's like this guy's only coming to exploit us and get rich off of our hardship. And it's even worse. Right?

So this is the crack dealer up in the tree. The hated despised guy. The traitor who's gotten rich off of everybody else. And as Jesus is walking by, what does he say to him?

Yeah, why? Because I want to beat you up and get my guys to show you what's up?

Traitor! I'm coming to your house today. Come down quickly. I'm coming to your house. I want you to host me.

He's just hoping to get a sighting of Jesus. And here Jesus is in the midst of all the people that he could be hanging out with. He pauses and says, come down from the tree.

I'm going to your house. I'm going to your house today. Oh, man, that's a statement. What is this communicating to us about God, people, and the role of that hospitality?

Table fellowship. You're eager. I'm just thinking that more of the hospital part of it. Yeah. This guy was I've never thought of it as a craft dealer before.

Certainly more hospital than just hospitality. Yeah. Yeah. He's on a mission. Jesus is on a mission. He's looking for a particular kind of people. What's he communicating about?

About people? What's that? He's not afraid to draw near. He's not afraid to draw near. He's not. He's not.

In fact, look at 19 verse 10. This is the culminating principle that Jesus wants us to take away from this story of table fellowship with the craft dealer.

What does he say in verse 10? 19 10. Someone read it for us. For the son of man came to seek and to save the lost. Yeah.

For the son of man came. He came on a mission to do what? To seek and to save the lost.

Those who were too far out, too far gone. Their joy grown into darkness. Broken off from God, broken off from others.

Wouldn't Zacchaeus fit that mold? Broken off from God, broken off from others, skewed understanding of who he is as a person and what his mission is.

He was all about getting rich. And Jesus is chasing him down. Literally, come down. Come to your house. Amazing.

Amazing. Luke 15. Let's flip there. there. starting in verse 11.

And he said, Jesus said, there was a man who had two sons, and the younger of them said to his father, father, give me the share of property that is coming to me. And he divided his property between them.

Just pause there. This is the equivalent of a son who's an heir to money coming to his father saying, dad, I wish you were dead so I could have my share.

I'm ready for it now. Why don't you just go ahead and give it to me? Just let that process what's being communicated in those few sentences there. I wish you were dead.

it'd be better off for me if I just had your stuff and you got out of my way. Not many days later, the younger son gathered all he had and took a journey into a far country, away from the father, away from relationships, away from the table.

And there he squandered his property in reckless living. And when he had spent everything, a severe famine arose in the country, and he began to be in need. So he went and hired himself out to one of the citizens of that country who sent him into his fields to feed the pigs.

This is the lowest of the low for a Jewish boy. Feeding the pigs is beyond forbidden. It's the worst possible you can imagine.

And as he's doing this, he was longing to be fed with the pods that the pigs ate. And no one gave him anything.

But when he came to himself, he said, how many of my father's hired servants have more than enough bread, but I perish here with hunger. I will arise and go to my father.

I will say to him, father, I've sinned against you, against heaven and before you. I'm no longer worthy to be called your son. Treat me as one of your hired servants. Just let me be a slave.

Just let me eat, please. I've messed up here. And he arose and came to his father. But while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and felt compassion.

And he ran and embraced his son and kissed him. And the son said to him, father, I've sinned against heaven and before you.

I am no longer worthy to be called your son. But the father said to his servants, bring quickly the best robe, put it on him and put a ring on his hand and shoes on his feet and bring the fattened calf and kill it and let us eat and celebrate for this my son was dead and is alive again.

He was lost and is found and they began to celebrate. Just pause there. What a incredible story, right?

It's intended to communicate to us something about the nature of the father of heaven pursuing those who are far gone.

like the Zacchaeus's that are out there. What do we learn about God, people, and the role of fellowship, table fellowship here?

What are things that stand out to you? The father must have been looking with anticipation to see him as far on.

Absolutely. Anticipating, looking, desiring them to come near, pursuing. Ready to look on.

Absolutely. Absolutely. I think even if someone hurts you, you bring the best. You invite them and you give them your best. Yeah. Even if someone betrays you and wishes you were dead, or in the case of Jesus Christ, actually kills you.

there was a tradition, I learned about this this year, I missed this this whole time, a shaming ritual for when somebody left the community.

And he went out to meet him to save him from getting shamed by his community. Yeah, so there's certainly a sense of shame. Obviously he's got servants, got brothers in the house, there's other people involved that are all alert.

what is the father going to do here? They're watching him. They know what they would do. In fact, the older brother tries to dissuade the father.

If you look at the very next part, now verse 25, now his older son was in the field and as he came and drew near to the house, he heard music and dancing. What? You're expected to hear yelling, shaming, but he's hearing music and dancing.

He called one of the servants and asked what these things meant. And he said to him, your brothers come, your father's killed a fattened calf because he's received him back safe and sound, but he was angry and refused to go in.

What? Father's being like that to him? His father came out and entreated him.

So the father didn't just go and run to the prodigal. He runs and goes to the older brother too and tries to entreat him, persuade him. But he answered his father, look, these many years I've served you.

I've been a good little church boy. And this is the thanks that I'm getting. I never disobeyed your command and yet you never gave me a young goat that I could celebrate with my friends.

But when his son, this son of yours, not his brother, this son of yours, came who has devoured your property with prostitutes, you killed the fattened calf for him.

And the father says to him, son, you are always with me and all that is mine is yours. It is fitting to celebrate and be glad for this your brother was dead and is alive.

He was lost and is found. let's just communicate about the food, the beverage. It's a sign of restoration.

Yeah, it's a sign of restoration. Father doesn't withhold the good. He doesn't even withhold the best. You'd think maybe he'd throw him a couple of scraps.

Just stay on the outside. Don't let anybody see you and I'll put a little thing of bread for you out there each morning. That's not what he does. The table in this case is a context to bring him near for reconciliation the father with those in his community to lavish him with grace.

Okay. Luke 22, you know this text well. We do this often. We're not going to flip there, but it's the last supper.

Right? What is what is God doing in this image of the bread and the wine? What is God communicating?

And what is the food communicating? Sacrificing himself. Sacrificing himself. For others.

Yeah. Sacrificing himself for others. This bread is my body. This cup. It's the blood. And it says, pour it out for you.

This is the new covenant. He uses that language, the new covenant. It's a new and better way that's opened by partaking of this meal, by uniting around this table.

Right? That's what he's saying. This is a new covenant poured out in my blood. What kind of people is it uniting? Who's eligible for the new covenant?

These are glimmers of Isaiah 25, right? The feast is coming to fruition in part at Jesus' coming.

At its death, burial, and resurrection. The way is being opened up. For all peoples to have the veil of darkness pulled back from their sins so that they can receive the lavish grace of the Father through Jesus Christ.

Isn't that amazing? That's what's happening around that table, that meal. It's a meal of reconciliation. Man with their God. And then also man with others too.

Because what we have next, after Jesus comes, is the birthday of the church in Acts 2, and mission goes into overdrive.

It's not over. It's begun now, in earnest, to be a global invitation to the feast. We're far away, my friends, from Jerusalem, where all this started, where all this went down.

Just think about time and distance. Here we are in Athens, Tennessee, talking about these things in English. Thousands of years later, we're in a new era, and we're in this story.

Flip with me to Romans 12, verse 13. Romans 12.

Verse 13, it says, this is just a frenzy of marks of a Christian life. All sorts of things come before this, but in verse 13, it's fascinating because this is Paul writing to a very diverse, mostly Gentile church, believers in Jesus Christ, contribute to the needs of the saints.

Who are the saints? All believers, right? All kinds of believers. Those who've been set apart. That's what it literally means, be set apart, consecrated for the Lord.

Contribute to the needs of the saints and seek to show what? Hospitality. Here's a picture of hospitality. Here, in this case, it's not just evangelistic, it's not just outreach oriented.

Here, it's actually at the tip of the spear of mission to mobilize God's people to proclaim the gospel, to keep going, keep going, keep sharing, keep inviting, help those people do that.

Hospitality, in the Greek, it literally means love of stranger. Love of stranger. And in this case, what it's actually pointing at, it's not just random people off the street, it's angled at traveling Christians who are on mission to proclaim the gospel, to see more churches planted, more people come to Christ and gather together in a new place like in Athens, Tennessee.

How can we help extend hospitality to those people? Because these are the people that have left their whole social networks, they've left everything behind, they're not living in their old world and old relationships, those aren't their primary relationships anymore.

Who do they depend on now? It's their eternal family in Jesus Christ, even though they're very different from one another. How do we help those people forward the mission with practical hospitality?

Stay at my house, eat around my table, let me show you around this town. That's what's happening. Let's look again at 3 John, not 1 John, not 2 John, not 3 John, not the Gospel John.

Go to Revelation and then go left just a little bit. You'll see it in full swing here. 3 John, big book.

3 John has no chapter, it is a chapter, so you just use the verses. If you look at verses 5 through 8, check this out. John, the apostle writing to a church, beloved, it is a faithful thing you do in all your efforts for these brothers, right?

brothers communicating believers, believers, Christians. Very next line, strangers as they are. Strangers, phyloxemia, love for strangers, hospitality, biblical hospitality, in this case, is actually aimed at helping mobilize other believers who might be foreign, they might be from other places, but they're coming through and we're saying we are with you.

Mi casa su casa. Let's go. You're welcome with us. Stay with us. Let's help them. He says they testify verse 6 to your love before the church.

You will do well to send them on their journey in a manner worthy of God for they have gone out for the sake of the name, accepting nothing from the Gentiles, not their old people, therefore we believers ought to support people like these that we may be fellow workers for the truth.

So it's talking about extending practical hospitality to believers for the sake of the mission, to forward the mission, to make evangelistic efforts, to make church plant efforts possible.

This is our new family and we're going to work with them. We're united around the same mission. So it's mobilizing the church's mission. So we've seen outreach oriented evangelistic reconciliation and we've also seen building the church, building Christians up, building the saints up, using our energies, our tables for that end as well.

Isn't that amazing? And it's all headed towards Revelation 19, the marriage supper of the lamb, which we referenced in our first class. Now, that's our survey.

To wrap things up, I want to just do a preview of what we're going to do next week. Because we're in this story too. Romans 15, verse 7 says on your paper, therefore, welcome one another as Christ has welcomed you for the glory of God.

How did Christ welcome us? Based on what we just saw from the survey of hospitality unfolding throughout history, how did Jesus welcome us?

Go ahead. This is a free-for-all. With open arms. He was the Father running toward us. What else? Unconditionally. Unconditionally.

He received us, not because of how good we've been. Generously. Why do you use that word? Not reservedly, not just a little bit.

Yeah, not reservedly, not just a little bit. Lavish grace. He should have poured out his wrath on us. And instead he poured out his grace on us.

He killed the fattened calf for us. He killed the sacrificial lamb for us to bring us near. So welcome one another as Christ has welcomed you.

He's calling us to something. This should shape what we just read should shape our vision for hospitality to be extended to unbelievers and believers both.

love. So that's what we're going to look at next week. Let me pray. Lord, thank you for your word.

Thank you that we can read it, understand it, and I pray Lord you help us to live in light of it. We entrust these things to you now and help us. In Jesus name we pray.

Amen. All right. Thank you guys. Thanks for coming. Hope to see you next week.