WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:02.940 All right, let's read scripture together. 00:00:02.940 --> 00:00:07.500 We're going to read a passage from the Old Testament and then one from the New Testament. 00:00:07.500 --> 00:00:14.140 These are texts that will be the base for Alistair's sermon, not sermon, sermon tonight. 00:00:14.140 --> 00:00:16.820 Yeah, not more than one, just one. 00:00:16.820 --> 00:00:20.179 Isaiah 55 verses 1 to 13. 00:00:20.179 --> 00:00:24.859 And then after we read that, we will read from John chapter 2. 00:00:24.859 --> 00:00:27.980 We have Bibles down here on the tables. 00:00:27.980 --> 00:00:32.420 Very free at any time to get up and grab one if you'd like one, a hard copy. 00:00:32.420 --> 00:00:37.140 And the first reading is on page 615. 00:00:37.140 --> 00:00:39.179 This is the Word of the Lord. 00:00:39.179 --> 00:00:48.140 Come, everyone who thirsts, come to the waters, and he who has no money, come by and eat. 00:00:48.140 --> 00:00:51.900 Come by wine and milk without money and without price. 00:00:51.900 --> 00:00:55.900 Why do you spend your money for that which is not bread and your labor for that which 00:00:55.900 --> 00:00:57.900 does not satisfy? 00:00:57.899 --> 00:01:03.780 Bring diligently to me and eat what is good and delight yourselves in rich food. 00:01:03.780 --> 00:01:06.019 Incline your ear and come to me. 00:01:06.019 --> 00:01:11.019 Hear that your soul may live and I will make with you an everlasting covenant, my steadfast 00:01:11.019 --> 00:01:12.299 love for David. 00:01:12.299 --> 00:01:17.939 Behold, I made him a witness to the peoples, a leader and commander for the peoples. 00:01:17.939 --> 00:01:22.460 Behold, you shall call a nation that you do not know and a nation that did not know you 00:01:22.460 --> 00:01:24.299 shall run to you. 00:01:24.299 --> 00:01:29.299 Because of the Lord your God and of the Holy One of Israel, for he has glorified you. 00:01:29.299 --> 00:01:32.700 Seek the Lord while he may be found. 00:01:32.700 --> 00:01:35.140 Call upon him while he is near. 00:01:35.140 --> 00:01:39.739 Let the wicked forsake his way and the unrighteous man his thoughts. 00:01:39.739 --> 00:01:44.379 Let him return to the Lord that he may have compassion on him and to our God for he will 00:01:44.379 --> 00:01:46.219 abundantly pardon. 00:01:46.219 --> 00:01:48.739 For my thoughts are not your thoughts. 00:01:48.739 --> 00:01:51.299 Neither are your ways my ways, declares the Lord. 00:01:51.299 --> 00:01:55.780 For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways. 00:01:55.780 --> 00:02:01.179 And my thoughts, then your thoughts, for as the rain and the snow come down from heaven 00:02:01.179 --> 00:02:06.420 and do not return there but water the earth, making it bring forth and sprout, giving seed 00:02:06.420 --> 00:02:13.539 to the sower and bread to the eater, so shall my word be that goes out from my mouth. 00:02:13.539 --> 00:02:19.180 It shall not return to me empty, but it shall accomplish that which I purpose and shall succeed 00:02:19.180 --> 00:02:21.500 in the thing for which I sent it. 00:02:21.500 --> 00:02:25.060 For you shall go out in joy and be led forth in peace. 00:02:25.060 --> 00:02:29.379 The mountains and the hills before you shall break forth into singing and all the trees 00:02:29.379 --> 00:02:31.939 of the fields shall clap their hands. 00:02:31.939 --> 00:02:34.300 Instead of the thorn shall come up the cypress. 00:02:34.300 --> 00:02:39.340 Instead of the briar shall come up the myrtle and it shall make a name for the Lord, an 00:02:39.340 --> 00:02:43.819 everlasting sign that shall not be cut off. 00:02:43.819 --> 00:02:50.819 And let's read together also from John's Gospel in the New Testament, chapter 2, verses 00:02:50.819 --> 00:02:55.259 1 to 11. 00:02:55.259 --> 00:03:01.939 On the third day, there was a wedding at Canaan Galilee and the mother of Jesus was there. 00:03:01.939 --> 00:03:05.099 Jesus also was invited to the wedding with his disciples. 00:03:05.099 --> 00:03:09.340 When the wine ran out, the mother of Jesus said to him, they have no wine. 00:03:09.340 --> 00:03:12.659 And Jesus said to her, woman, what does this have to do with me? 00:03:12.659 --> 00:03:14.819 Not hour has not yet come. 00:03:14.819 --> 00:03:18.979 His mother said to the servants, do whatever he tells you. 00:03:18.979 --> 00:03:24.219 Now there was six stone water jars there for the Jewish rites of purification, each holding 00:03:24.219 --> 00:03:26.259 20 or 30 gallons. 00:03:26.259 --> 00:03:30.180 And Jesus said to the servants, fill the jars with water and they filled them up to the 00:03:30.180 --> 00:03:31.180 brim. 00:03:31.180 --> 00:03:35.740 And he said to them, now draw some out and take it to the master of the feast. 00:03:35.740 --> 00:03:36.740 So they took it. 00:03:36.740 --> 00:03:41.259 And when the master of the feast tasted the water, now become wine and did not know where 00:03:41.259 --> 00:03:44.620 it came from, though the servants who had drawn the water knew. 00:03:44.620 --> 00:03:49.459 The master of the feast called the bridegroom and said to him, everyone serves the good 00:03:49.459 --> 00:03:50.899 wine first. 00:03:50.899 --> 00:03:53.620 And when the people have drunk freely, then the poor wine. 00:03:53.620 --> 00:03:56.019 But you have kept the good wine until now. 00:03:56.019 --> 00:04:01.859 This is the first of his signs Jesus did at Canaan Galilee and manifested his glory and 00:04:01.859 --> 00:04:04.259 his disciples believed in him. 00:04:04.259 --> 00:04:06.259 This is God's holy word. 00:04:06.259 --> 00:04:12.579 Well, my thanks to Cody for leading the first part of the service. 00:04:12.579 --> 00:04:15.899 It's hard for me now to stand for a whole hour. 00:04:15.899 --> 00:04:27.539 So this is the last time I will ever travel to preach outside our congregation-esque valley. 00:04:27.539 --> 00:04:32.459 And I'm here because I go way back. 00:04:32.459 --> 00:04:38.699 My first connection with St. Columbus was us as a family sitting in the gallery there 00:04:38.699 --> 00:04:44.419 in the 1970s when I was a student at the Free Church College as it was. 00:04:44.419 --> 00:04:48.859 And the minister here was Donald Lamont, Derrick's father. 00:04:48.859 --> 00:04:54.699 More recent years we were members here under Derrick. 00:04:54.699 --> 00:04:59.779 We actually lived in the same street as the Lamonts. 00:04:59.779 --> 00:05:02.539 The man's was in Forbes Road then. 00:05:02.539 --> 00:05:08.019 And I was going to tell stories about Donald Lamont and the young Derrick Lamont. 00:05:08.019 --> 00:05:13.419 But I've been told I have till half past to preach. 00:05:13.419 --> 00:05:19.779 And if I start telling stories as some of you know, then there won't be any of God's 00:05:19.779 --> 00:05:20.779 word. 00:05:20.779 --> 00:05:24.579 And my job tonight is to preach St. Columbus vacant. 00:05:24.579 --> 00:05:29.739 It sounds like you've got the kind of preaching at an empty church. 00:05:29.740 --> 00:05:31.620 Doesn't it? 00:05:31.620 --> 00:05:34.300 Preach St. Columbus vacant. 00:05:34.300 --> 00:05:39.460 And remember to switch off the lights when everybody's gone. 00:05:39.460 --> 00:05:45.139 Well here you are on the cusp of a new era. 00:05:45.139 --> 00:05:50.300 And it's hard to know what to preach tonight to you, St. Columbus. 00:05:50.300 --> 00:05:54.420 Except that the person who asked me to preach tonight was Derrick Lamont. 00:05:54.420 --> 00:05:59.860 And he, as so often before with himself Katrina, had just shown me hospitality. 00:05:59.860 --> 00:06:08.259 And I thought immediately of the hospitality word, but to think perhaps of the deeper hospitality 00:06:08.259 --> 00:06:18.420 behind Derrick and Katrina and others ourselves, the hospitality of God in the gospel. 00:06:18.420 --> 00:06:26.379 And I'm saying to you all tonight, that's a hospitality that you're called to enjoy. 00:06:26.379 --> 00:06:31.580 And it's a hospitality you're called to share. 00:06:31.580 --> 00:06:39.500 Now I think the hospitality of God is a huge theme in the Bible in all kinds of ways. 00:06:39.500 --> 00:06:44.900 And we're going to walk through the gospel of John tonight, which is why I didn't announce 00:06:44.900 --> 00:06:45.900 a text. 00:06:45.899 --> 00:06:50.179 But if you want, we're going to begin in John chapter 2. 00:06:50.179 --> 00:06:54.219 But I want to try and look at a few stories very quickly. 00:06:54.219 --> 00:07:05.139 And as we dip into these stories, you'll see Jesus using very simple images for hospitality. 00:07:05.139 --> 00:07:08.659 He doesn't use foodie language to put it that way. 00:07:08.659 --> 00:07:15.099 He doesn't illustrate it from what people have heard about Herodian banquets, of their 00:07:15.100 --> 00:07:17.939 25 courses. 00:07:17.939 --> 00:07:26.140 Jesus uses simple images to speak about hospitality because obviously he's speaking to the poor, 00:07:26.140 --> 00:07:33.939 to ordinary people, but also crucially this, because he's speaking of himself as a necessity, 00:07:33.939 --> 00:07:36.340 not a luxury. 00:07:36.340 --> 00:07:40.820 So he says things like, I am the bread of life. 00:07:40.820 --> 00:07:43.700 He doesn't say I am the whatever. 00:07:43.699 --> 00:07:50.579 The 1,000-pound white truffle shaved on top of course number 10 of the banquet. 00:07:50.579 --> 00:07:55.180 He's a necessity, not a luxury. 00:07:55.180 --> 00:08:01.579 And this hospitality that we'll run quickly through a few stories tonight, this hospitality, 00:08:01.579 --> 00:08:07.339 I want to say at the very beginning, is offered to you. 00:08:07.339 --> 00:08:14.139 You are invited to pull up a chair and sit at Jesus' table. 00:08:14.139 --> 00:08:18.819 I'll say some of the, I've been told off for saying in the past, but if this is the last 00:08:18.819 --> 00:08:23.379 time I travel to preach anywhere, who cares? 00:08:23.379 --> 00:08:32.419 I believe that you can say when the gospel is preached that Jesus behind the gospel is 00:08:32.419 --> 00:08:37.299 saying to people, my name is Jesus. 00:08:37.299 --> 00:08:41.459 And I am your waiter for the evening. 00:08:41.459 --> 00:08:50.459 The hospitality of God in the gospel available only through Jesus and available to anyone. 00:08:50.459 --> 00:08:58.500 Now, I'm going to try and hit six stories in 25, 24 minutes. 00:08:58.500 --> 00:09:00.859 So we'll see. 00:09:00.860 --> 00:09:08.500 First of all, the wedding at Cana that we just had read, John chapter 2, verses 1 to 00:09:08.500 --> 00:09:09.500 11. 00:09:09.500 --> 00:09:15.899 I'm going to call this one the generous hospitality of God. 00:09:15.899 --> 00:09:17.620 This one's about wine. 00:09:17.620 --> 00:09:22.220 Now, weddings are always occasions for hospitality. 00:09:22.220 --> 00:09:26.460 And they were then, the hospitality was very humble. 00:09:26.460 --> 00:09:28.700 It was ordinary food. 00:09:28.700 --> 00:09:30.180 But there was lots of it. 00:09:30.179 --> 00:09:34.059 There was plenty to eat and to drink. 00:09:34.059 --> 00:09:40.259 And in that culture, the groom was responsible for the food and the wine. 00:09:40.259 --> 00:09:44.979 The wine runs out early, a social disaster. 00:09:44.979 --> 00:09:50.819 They would, his family, the groom's family would never live it down. 00:09:50.819 --> 00:09:52.659 Jesus is a guest. 00:09:52.659 --> 00:09:55.339 His mother speaks to him about the problem. 00:09:55.340 --> 00:10:01.580 And Jesus, as you know, miraculously turns the water into wine. 00:10:01.580 --> 00:10:05.180 Now, what's happening there? 00:10:05.180 --> 00:10:14.820 Jesus steps in and fulfills the role of the host in hospitality. 00:10:14.820 --> 00:10:18.940 The bridegroom host no less. 00:10:18.940 --> 00:10:24.340 And he provides wine for the guests. 00:10:24.340 --> 00:10:30.060 If you have your Bible in verses 9 and 10, you'll see that the master of the feast complements 00:10:30.060 --> 00:10:35.259 the groom on his provision of such amazing wine. 00:10:35.259 --> 00:10:38.860 But of course, the groom had nothing to do with it. 00:10:38.860 --> 00:10:43.519 It was Jesus who provided it all. 00:10:43.519 --> 00:10:49.379 And so from that, I want to highlight the generosity of Jesus from the text. 00:10:49.379 --> 00:10:58.259 In verse 6, they say that each jar, the Bible says two to three measures. 00:10:58.259 --> 00:11:02.419 And these measures, people say 35, 40 liters. 00:11:02.419 --> 00:11:06.539 So the NIV offers the more generous one. 00:11:06.539 --> 00:11:12.620 And it says that each jar held from 80 to 120 liters. 00:11:12.620 --> 00:11:18.820 And I think the reference to the amount and the six jars is saying that all the water 00:11:18.820 --> 00:11:21.180 was turned into wine. 00:11:21.180 --> 00:11:31.220 So let's just say 80 to 120, take 100, six times 100, even I can do that, 600 liters. 00:11:31.220 --> 00:11:34.900 I mean, it's ridiculous. 00:11:34.900 --> 00:11:43.820 Jesus provided far more than was needed for the emergency, just to get over the crisis. 00:11:43.820 --> 00:11:53.260 And Jesus is saying through this provision that he has come to be extravagant. 00:11:53.260 --> 00:11:58.220 Notice verse 6 also says that the jars were the kind used for Jewish washings. 00:11:58.220 --> 00:12:08.060 So that's a symbol of the old way, the over and over and over again rituals of cleansing. 00:12:08.059 --> 00:12:17.179 This has come to do a new thing, and Jesus has come to do a once and for all thing. 00:12:17.179 --> 00:12:23.939 So this is the generosity of God through Jesus in the gospel portrayed, dramatized for those 00:12:23.939 --> 00:12:29.179 who have eyes to see and the faith to understand. 00:12:29.179 --> 00:12:36.899 And I leave it to Corey to illustrate for you what the generosity of God means. 00:12:36.899 --> 00:12:44.939 The generosity of God in Jesus for us and to us, because I don't have time to do it. 00:12:44.939 --> 00:12:52.620 But you think of anything that God does, His generosity in giving Jesus, His generosity 00:12:52.620 --> 00:13:00.980 in giving Jesus to the cross, His generosity in forgiving us every one of our sins, His 00:13:00.980 --> 00:13:07.940 generosity in giving us the Holy Spirit, His generosity in bringing us into His family, 00:13:07.940 --> 00:13:13.220 His generosity in giving us the new heavens and the new earth forever and forever and 00:13:13.220 --> 00:13:14.539 forever. 00:13:14.539 --> 00:13:22.620 The generous hospitality of God is one of the great themes of the whole Bible. 00:13:22.620 --> 00:13:30.420 Secondly, chapter 4, I'm just making the same point six times. 00:13:30.419 --> 00:13:38.219 Chapter 4, the story from verses 4 to 42, famous, Woman at the Well, the Samaritan woman. 00:13:38.219 --> 00:13:45.819 I want to call this one the life-giving hospitality of God, life-giving. 00:13:45.819 --> 00:13:52.299 This one is about water, and water can be delicious. 00:13:52.299 --> 00:14:01.740 Do you remember, it was a year past summer, I think in July, we had the hottest day ever 00:14:01.740 --> 00:14:05.219 in many parts of this country, and records were broken. 00:14:05.219 --> 00:14:10.659 I think the Scottish all-time record was broken somewhere in the borders, somebody will tell 00:14:10.659 --> 00:14:12.699 me afterwards where. 00:14:12.699 --> 00:14:16.219 I had to go into town that day on the bus. 00:14:16.219 --> 00:14:18.299 It was boiling. 00:14:18.299 --> 00:14:23.579 I wanted to think that I had to do in town, and one thing I did was go for a haircut. 00:14:23.579 --> 00:14:26.539 I mean, it was boiling in there. 00:14:26.539 --> 00:14:29.139 They said, do you want anything to drink? 00:14:29.139 --> 00:14:31.859 I said, just water. 00:14:31.859 --> 00:14:40.779 They came with the coldest water I had ever drunk, really chilled, and the glass had been 00:14:40.779 --> 00:14:41.939 chilled. 00:14:41.939 --> 00:14:44.019 I drank the whole thing and won. 00:14:44.019 --> 00:14:51.340 Honestly, it was one of the most delicious things I've ever had, because it was so hot, 00:14:51.340 --> 00:14:56.340 I was so thirsty, and this was just perfect for my needs. 00:14:56.340 --> 00:15:02.340 Now, here are Jesus and his disciples going through Samaria, I guess many of you know 00:15:02.340 --> 00:15:06.019 the story, place the Jews usually bypassed. 00:15:06.019 --> 00:15:10.299 And at noon, Jesus is on his own by a well, and he's thirsty. 00:15:10.299 --> 00:15:17.299 The disciples have gone into town to do shopping, and a woman comes to draw water, he asks her 00:15:17.299 --> 00:15:18.939 for a drink. 00:15:18.939 --> 00:15:23.659 She's surprised, and they talk. 00:15:23.659 --> 00:15:32.899 And Jesus, I want you to notice now, again plays the host in a sense, as he offers her 00:15:32.899 --> 00:15:43.139 water, verse 10, and he says, the water that he gives is given by God, and it's given by 00:15:43.139 --> 00:15:44.699 Jesus. 00:15:44.699 --> 00:15:49.059 It's the gift of God, but it comes through Jesus given by him. 00:15:49.059 --> 00:15:53.819 Now, of course, the woman is puzzled at what he's saying, because he can't, he doesn't 00:15:53.819 --> 00:15:57.379 have anything to take water up from the well. 00:15:57.379 --> 00:16:03.899 But of course, Jesus is offering to deal with a deeper thirst in the hospitality of the 00:16:03.899 --> 00:16:05.899 offer of water. 00:16:05.899 --> 00:16:10.939 And the woman believes, and she witnesses, and the Samaritans later on the story, we 00:16:10.939 --> 00:16:17.500 find them from verse 39, actually giving hospitality to Jesus. 00:16:17.500 --> 00:16:24.539 And that's another whole theme in the Gospel and in the Bible, how we are called to give 00:16:24.539 --> 00:16:31.379 out hospitality to Jesus, the different kinds of hospitality that Jesus experiences in the 00:16:31.379 --> 00:16:32.379 Gospels. 00:16:32.379 --> 00:16:40.620 But anyway, I think Jesus here through the water is offering life, offering life. 00:16:40.620 --> 00:16:48.819 His claim is that he is as essential for spiritual life as water is for physical life. 00:16:48.820 --> 00:16:58.740 In verse 14, he offers it as a bubbling inner spring, welling up to eternal life. 00:16:58.740 --> 00:17:05.420 Great verse in the Old Testament that I often heard growing up, Jeremiah 2.13, they have 00:17:05.420 --> 00:17:12.220 forsaken me, the fountain of living waters, and hewed out cisterns for themselves, broken 00:17:12.220 --> 00:17:17.380 cisterns that can hold no water. 00:17:17.380 --> 00:17:20.500 And we all do it. 00:17:20.500 --> 00:17:29.420 We all trust in things that can't hold what we want to get out of them, that will never, 00:17:29.420 --> 00:17:35.740 never, ever ultimately satisfy us. 00:17:35.740 --> 00:17:39.740 People all around us are dying of thirst. 00:17:39.740 --> 00:17:45.900 And in a sense, what they do is they drink salt water. 00:17:45.900 --> 00:17:51.259 It looks like water, but it just makes them more thirsty. 00:17:51.259 --> 00:17:55.620 And they try to drink more of whatever it is to satisfy their thirst. 00:17:55.620 --> 00:18:02.060 And all that does is dehydrate, and eventually drinking salt water, it yields to complete 00:18:02.060 --> 00:18:04.900 dehydration and death. 00:18:04.900 --> 00:18:12.019 That's what's happening spiritually in our city as people try to slake their thirst with 00:18:12.019 --> 00:18:16.660 water that will never satisfy. 00:18:16.660 --> 00:18:20.460 Silver chair, the lion to Jill. 00:18:20.460 --> 00:18:25.980 Jill's afraid because of the lion by the stream. 00:18:25.980 --> 00:18:29.900 And she says, I'll have to go and find another stream. 00:18:29.900 --> 00:18:37.220 And the lion says, there is no other stream. 00:18:37.220 --> 00:18:39.980 We know that water is precious. 00:18:39.980 --> 00:18:46.500 Read on the news all the time, people desperate, difficult situations, desperate above all 00:18:46.500 --> 00:18:48.620 for water. 00:18:48.620 --> 00:18:56.460 And if water is precious, then the water that Jesus offers is priceless. 00:18:56.460 --> 00:19:04.019 And he of course had to go to the ultimate cost for us to drink this water on the cross. 00:19:04.019 --> 00:19:09.460 Later on in John's Gospel, Jesus says on the cross, I thirst. 00:19:09.460 --> 00:19:17.660 He had to suffer that spiritual hellish thirst for us so that we might not go to a place 00:19:17.660 --> 00:19:25.779 of eternal thirst, but so that we might receive water from Him through the hospitality of 00:19:25.779 --> 00:19:27.259 the cross. 00:19:27.259 --> 00:19:32.779 The Jesus who hear in this story was lonely at noon and thirsty. 00:19:32.779 --> 00:19:39.819 And the cross in the ultimate sense was lonely in the darkness at noon and thirsted for your 00:19:39.819 --> 00:19:41.220 salvation. 00:19:41.220 --> 00:19:47.059 Water, the life-giving hospitality of God. 00:19:47.059 --> 00:19:58.460 Thirdly in chapter 6, verses 1 to 59, I'll call this the satisfying hospitality of God. 00:19:58.460 --> 00:20:06.900 This is about bread, and every culture knows a staple kind of bread. 00:20:06.900 --> 00:20:14.620 Jesus feeds 5,000 plus in his hospitality with the boys, five little rolls and two small 00:20:14.620 --> 00:20:16.700 fish. 00:20:16.700 --> 00:20:20.180 That night he walks on water in a storm. 00:20:20.180 --> 00:20:24.700 Next day the crowd come looking for him on the other side of the lake and his talk to 00:20:24.700 --> 00:20:31.100 them focuses on bread, and he says, my bread is better than any other, better even than 00:20:31.100 --> 00:20:33.980 the manna in the wilderness. 00:20:33.980 --> 00:20:38.019 That's another illustration of divine hospitality, the manna in the wilderness. 00:20:38.019 --> 00:20:41.340 And Jesus says, mine is better. 00:20:41.340 --> 00:20:42.340 Why is it better? 00:20:42.340 --> 00:20:49.500 Because his bread is bread for the soul, bread for the heart, the kind of bread that can 00:20:49.500 --> 00:20:58.579 satisfy your deepest spiritual needs and your deepest heartache forever. 00:20:58.579 --> 00:21:00.819 Jesus doesn't simply give this bread. 00:21:00.819 --> 00:21:08.619 He says twice in this chapter, 35 and 48, I am the bread of life. 00:21:08.619 --> 00:21:14.779 And at its simplest level here, all the eating language that we hear, come and eat this bread. 00:21:14.779 --> 00:21:17.819 Jesus says, I'm the bread, come and eat. 00:21:17.819 --> 00:21:24.259 This eating language at the simplest level is dramatic language for really engaging with 00:21:24.259 --> 00:21:26.579 Jesus. 00:21:26.579 --> 00:21:29.579 We use that language all the time. 00:21:29.579 --> 00:21:34.179 You go and visit a family and there's a girl there, eight or nine years old sitting in 00:21:34.179 --> 00:21:38.460 the corner reading a book, and they say she reads all the time. 00:21:38.460 --> 00:21:41.299 She just eats books. 00:21:41.299 --> 00:21:43.619 She doesn't eat books. 00:21:43.619 --> 00:21:46.379 But she does eat books in that sense. 00:21:46.380 --> 00:21:52.580 Or you may say if somebody, art galleries are her meat and drink. 00:21:52.580 --> 00:21:58.980 She just loves to soak in that atmosphere. 00:21:58.980 --> 00:22:08.500 So Jesus is inviting us to come to him personally and eat this bread, the bread that is Jesus, 00:22:08.500 --> 00:22:11.140 to satisfy our spiritual hunger. 00:22:11.140 --> 00:22:17.380 He's saying to us, let me satisfy your spiritual hunger. 00:22:17.380 --> 00:22:24.620 We read in Isaiah 55, why do you spend your money on what is not bread and your labor 00:22:24.620 --> 00:22:26.460 on what does not satisfy? 00:22:26.460 --> 00:22:30.540 It's a question you can ask the whole of this city. 00:22:30.540 --> 00:22:38.340 Why are you wasting your time and money on things that will never ultimately feed your 00:22:38.339 --> 00:22:42.059 soul and satisfy you? 00:22:42.059 --> 00:22:48.139 And Jesus is saying, if you taste this bread, you'll never look for another. 00:22:48.139 --> 00:22:56.659 If you trust in me, you will never look for any other savior because you will be satisfied 00:22:56.659 --> 00:23:00.980 with the satisfying hospitality of Jesus. 00:23:00.980 --> 00:23:07.619 Great Scottish theologian of a long time ago, William Guthrie once said, less cannot satisfy 00:23:07.619 --> 00:23:10.979 and more is not desired. 00:23:10.979 --> 00:23:21.819 Jesus is just perfect to satisfy any heart, any soul that lets him deal with their spiritual 00:23:21.819 --> 00:23:22.819 hunger. 00:23:22.819 --> 00:23:29.539 And if there was time, we could talk about feeding on Christ in the scriptures, feeding 00:23:29.539 --> 00:23:36.179 on Christ in the Lord's Supper, but there sure isn't time. 00:23:36.180 --> 00:23:44.060 Number four, the foot washing in chapter 13, which may sound like a strange one to you. 00:23:44.060 --> 00:23:46.019 Jesus washes the disciples feet. 00:23:46.019 --> 00:23:51.740 I'll call this the humble hospitality of God. 00:23:51.740 --> 00:23:56.140 He washes their feet there in chapter five. 00:23:56.140 --> 00:24:00.980 And that in that culture was an act of hospitality. 00:24:00.980 --> 00:24:11.299 It was a kind hosts provision for guests, dusty roads, hot climate. 00:24:11.299 --> 00:24:13.779 That's what you did. 00:24:13.779 --> 00:24:18.539 Something has just flashed into my mind. 00:24:18.539 --> 00:24:21.099 Please forgive me, Cody, if this isn't true. 00:24:21.099 --> 00:24:28.740 But I remember being involved in meetings discussing preaching here, Derrick and you and one or 00:24:28.740 --> 00:24:33.259 two others discussing preaching programs for St. Columbus a few years ago. 00:24:33.259 --> 00:24:38.539 And we're arranging the next meeting and I remember getting an email, can you make a 00:24:38.539 --> 00:24:40.539 particular date? 00:24:40.539 --> 00:24:43.940 And we were all replying to this email. 00:24:43.940 --> 00:24:50.299 And Cody's reply was, it conflicts with my pedicure. 00:24:50.299 --> 00:24:52.180 You didn't say that. 00:24:52.180 --> 00:24:56.180 I'm sure he said that. 00:24:56.180 --> 00:24:59.299 We knew it wasn't true, but he was being funny. 00:24:59.299 --> 00:25:02.900 He's funnier than he thinks. 00:25:02.900 --> 00:25:07.980 Anyway, Jesus washes the disciples feet. 00:25:07.980 --> 00:25:12.660 I had a whole pile of these stories to introduce and my wife and daughter there censored them 00:25:12.660 --> 00:25:13.660 all. 00:25:13.660 --> 00:25:16.380 I hadn't thought of that one. 00:25:16.380 --> 00:25:20.060 No disciple thought of washing feet. 00:25:20.059 --> 00:25:27.940 Unlike Mary in the previous chapter puts perfume on Jesus feet. 00:25:27.940 --> 00:25:36.980 So here's Jesus, the host acting as a lowly servant and offering this gesture of hospitality 00:25:36.980 --> 00:25:38.139 to his disciples. 00:25:38.139 --> 00:25:42.179 And it's a brief dramatization of his mission. 00:25:42.179 --> 00:25:46.779 Verse three, knowing he had come from God and was going back to God, he dramatizes the 00:25:46.779 --> 00:25:47.779 whole story. 00:25:47.779 --> 00:25:53.700 If you read this story with Philippians 2, 5-11, which talks about Jesus coming from 00:25:53.700 --> 00:25:57.779 glory to earth to the cross and back to glory. 00:25:57.779 --> 00:26:00.099 Well, that's what Jesus is doing here. 00:26:00.099 --> 00:26:02.420 He's telling the story in drama. 00:26:02.420 --> 00:26:07.180 He gets up from a central place at the table, takes off his outer garment, so dressed like 00:26:07.180 --> 00:26:14.019 a slave, wraps a towel around his waist, another sign of a servant, pours water into a basin 00:26:14.019 --> 00:26:15.700 and washes feet. 00:26:15.700 --> 00:26:18.500 That's what he will do, cleansing through the cross. 00:26:18.500 --> 00:26:23.539 Then he puts his garment back on and resumes his place. 00:26:23.539 --> 00:26:32.220 It's a picture of his self-humbling, the self-humbling of the whole story and this particular self-humbling 00:26:32.220 --> 00:26:35.539 in this act of hospitality. 00:26:35.539 --> 00:26:41.180 And he also gives as a model here, verses 14 to 15, that having seen the humble hospitality 00:26:41.180 --> 00:26:46.740 of Jesus, we might humbly offer hospitality to others. 00:26:46.740 --> 00:26:51.180 I saw this illustrated in something I was reading happening. 00:26:51.180 --> 00:26:53.019 It happened literally. 00:26:53.019 --> 00:27:00.860 A woman in Vancouver, Toshiko, a Japanese background, washing feet at a drop-in center 00:27:00.860 --> 00:27:05.980 for prostitutes in the poorest part of that city. 00:27:05.980 --> 00:27:14.700 These women's feet were often very dirty, covered in sores, needle marks, and this woman, 00:27:14.700 --> 00:27:20.339 Toshiko, she sang a Japanese lullaby to them. 00:27:20.339 --> 00:27:25.140 She had a little English and listened to their stories and had enough English to speak to 00:27:25.140 --> 00:27:28.539 them of God's love. 00:27:28.539 --> 00:27:35.539 And when asked why she did this day after day when she didn't have to, she spoke of 00:27:35.539 --> 00:27:38.420 the humility of Jesus. 00:27:38.420 --> 00:27:42.059 And she said, I want to be like Jesus. 00:27:42.059 --> 00:27:52.139 And then she added, and also because men treat them like garbage, like garbage. 00:27:52.139 --> 00:28:00.019 And she wanted to treat these poor women as Jesus would have done, the humble hospitality 00:28:00.019 --> 00:28:02.420 of God. 00:28:02.420 --> 00:28:09.940 Chapter five, go to the last chapter, but this is the penultimate one. 00:28:09.940 --> 00:28:15.620 The Breakfast on the Shore, chapter 21, verses 1 to 19. 00:28:15.620 --> 00:28:22.380 I'll call this the restoring, restorative hospitality of God. 00:28:22.380 --> 00:28:30.300 There in Galilee, barbecue on the beach, if you look at verses 9 to 13, Jesus is the host 00:28:30.299 --> 00:28:33.539 and he's the cook. 00:28:33.539 --> 00:28:39.460 He does the barbecue and he's got food ready for the disciples. 00:28:39.460 --> 00:28:43.180 So he's the host, very clearly. 00:28:43.180 --> 00:28:49.339 Peter suggests that the night's fishing, they catch nothing, daybreak, Jesus is on the shore, 00:28:49.339 --> 00:28:54.779 he's not recognized, he tells them what to do, they obey, huge haul of fish. 00:28:54.779 --> 00:29:01.980 And told that it's Jesus on the shore, Peter swims ashore, and Jesus has fish cooking and 00:29:01.980 --> 00:29:04.379 bread there ready. 00:29:04.379 --> 00:29:08.619 And he says to them, bring some of the fish, come and have breakfast. 00:29:08.619 --> 00:29:15.619 And after Jesus provides breakfast, Jesus and Peter talk, and the way I see the picture, 00:29:15.619 --> 00:29:23.619 they're talking first of all the fire, and then walking along the shore in verse 20a. 00:29:23.619 --> 00:29:27.579 Peter turned and saw the disciple and Jesus loved following them. 00:29:27.579 --> 00:29:31.579 So they start talking at the fire and then move along the shore. 00:29:31.579 --> 00:29:40.819 Now the charcoal fire, it said to be in verse 9, the word is used elsewhere only in 18 and 00:29:40.819 --> 00:29:46.779 18 in John, where the fire where Peter denied the Lord. 00:29:46.779 --> 00:29:53.219 A charcoal fire had a very distinctive scent, fragrance. 00:29:53.220 --> 00:30:00.860 So Peter at this charcoal fire would have remembered denying Jesus at another charcoal 00:30:00.860 --> 00:30:01.860 fire. 00:30:01.860 --> 00:30:04.180 And the memories would have come flooding back. 00:30:04.180 --> 00:30:07.980 He denied Jesus at the first fire three times. 00:30:07.980 --> 00:30:15.220 And at this fire, Jesus asks the question three times, do you love me? 00:30:15.220 --> 00:30:16.220 Do you love me? 00:30:16.220 --> 00:30:17.220 Do you love me? 00:30:17.220 --> 00:30:18.220 That's the key thing. 00:30:18.220 --> 00:30:25.380 Each time, he also gives Peter a commission to go with the gospel to the world. 00:30:25.380 --> 00:30:34.220 And I think of this as the hospitality of grace, the restoring hospitality of Jesus. 00:30:34.220 --> 00:30:37.779 And notice, I think the symbolism is interesting. 00:30:37.779 --> 00:30:42.980 This grace walks Peter away from the fire. 00:30:42.980 --> 00:30:49.420 I think they start talking at the fire, they bring it all flooding back, and Jesus walks 00:30:49.420 --> 00:31:00.740 Peter away from the fire and asks him his questions and is assuring him of his forgiveness 00:31:00.740 --> 00:31:04.620 and his restoration to usefulness. 00:31:04.619 --> 00:31:13.219 The restoring hospitality of God that when you as a Christian fail Jesus, you receive 00:31:13.219 --> 00:31:21.979 the hospitality of grace, perhaps much to your surprise, and you're forgiven yet again, 00:31:21.979 --> 00:31:26.500 and you're commissioned yet again. 00:31:26.500 --> 00:31:30.019 The sixth one is the Father's house. 00:31:30.019 --> 00:31:31.659 I don't have time to do this one. 00:31:31.660 --> 00:31:39.660 Chapter 14, verses one to six, I'll call this the homecoming hospitality of God. 00:31:39.660 --> 00:31:44.940 It's where Jesus says, in my Father's house are many rooms. 00:31:44.940 --> 00:31:48.019 I go to prepare a place for you. 00:31:48.019 --> 00:31:50.019 Jesus gets the house ready. 00:31:50.019 --> 00:31:56.340 He prepares the way, of course, through his death and resurrection, ascension and so on. 00:31:56.339 --> 00:32:01.339 But going back to the Father's house is so amazing for Jesus, and he's saying, I want 00:32:01.339 --> 00:32:06.980 you there too to see me in that beatific vision. 00:32:06.980 --> 00:32:11.299 And I'll take you to myself, he says in verse three. 00:32:11.299 --> 00:32:18.139 He's central, and when we leave this world we go to a place where we'll be at home to 00:32:18.139 --> 00:32:20.099 be with Jesus. 00:32:20.099 --> 00:32:22.859 We'd expected and everything is ready. 00:32:22.859 --> 00:32:30.619 In fact, Jesus is saying to, in his hospitality about the Father's house to every Christian, 00:32:30.619 --> 00:32:37.500 as they think about one day leaving this world, Jesus is saying to you, don't worry about 00:32:37.500 --> 00:32:39.000 a thing. 00:32:39.000 --> 00:32:44.659 I'll take care of everything. 00:32:44.659 --> 00:32:49.699 In conclusion, it's a great line in one of the Psalms. 00:32:49.700 --> 00:32:55.860 Psalm 34 in verse eight, come, taste and see. 00:32:55.860 --> 00:33:03.620 And that's our prayer for St. Columbus, that many will come, taste and see the hospitality 00:33:03.620 --> 00:33:14.900 of God as the Holy Spirit opens their taste buds to the gospel, and only he can do that. 00:33:14.900 --> 00:33:22.100 Also pray that week by week, under the ministry here of Corian dollars, that every Christian 00:33:22.100 --> 00:33:27.420 might find the gospel incredibly moreish. 00:33:27.420 --> 00:33:33.259 You know what it is when certain foods are moreish to you. 00:33:33.259 --> 00:33:41.100 Pray that the ministry of the word here might make the gospel and Jesus himself more and 00:33:41.099 --> 00:33:47.899 more moreish to you as the months and the years go by. 00:33:47.899 --> 00:33:52.779 And I need to finish, one day there will be a new earth. 00:33:52.779 --> 00:34:01.139 Back to Isaiah in 25, the Lord of hosts will make for all peoples a feast of rich food, 00:34:01.139 --> 00:34:04.500 a feast of well-aged wine. 00:34:04.500 --> 00:34:07.619 He will swallow up death forever. 00:34:07.619 --> 00:34:12.299 He will wipe away tears from all faces. 00:34:12.299 --> 00:34:23.339 Until then, you and I have the gospel table of divine hospitality laid by Jesus. 00:34:23.339 --> 00:34:32.619 And I say with all the authority of Jesus Christ, whoever you are, everything you need 00:34:32.619 --> 00:34:34.619 is on the table. 00:34:34.619 --> 00:34:39.619 Amen.