Gospel Hospitality
Download MP3Good morning, church. My name is Molly Grace Cortez, and I serve on staff as the youth ministry coordinator. Today's scripture comes from Psalm 23, Luke 14, and Romans 15. Please listen carefully for this is God's word. Psalm twenty three five through six says, you prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies.
Molly Grace Cortez:You anoint my head with oil, my cup overflows. Surely, goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life and I shall dwell in the house of the Lord forever. From Luke 14. When one of those who reclined at the table with him heard these things, he said to him, blessed is everyone who will eat bread in the kingdom of God. But he said to him, a man once gave a great banquet and invited many.
Molly Grace Cortez:And at the same and at the time for the banquet, he sent his servant to say to those who had been invited, come, for everything is now ready. But they all alike began to make excuses. The first said to him, I have bought a field and I must go out and see it. Please have me excused. And another said, I have bought five yoke of oxen and I go to examine them.
Molly Grace Cortez:Please have me excused. And another said, I have married a wife and therefore I cannot come. So the servant came and reported these things to his master. Then the master of the house became angry and said to his servant, go out quickly to the streets and lanes of the city and bring in the poor and crippled and blind and lame. And the servant said, sir, what you commanded has been done and still there is room.
Molly Grace Cortez:And the master said to the servant, go out to the highways and hedges and compel people to come in that my house may be filled. For I tell you none of those men who were invited shall taste my banquet. And from Romans 15, therefore welcome one another as Christ has welcomed you for the glory of God. This is the word of the Lord.
Matt Francisco:Pray with me. It is our great hope this morning, Lord, that our sins, though they were many, your mercy is more. And we pray for your mercy to be poured out upon us right now. God, that if there are those here who are seeking or do not know you, pray that your mercy would open their eyes to see the light of the glory of the gospel of Christ. And I pray, for my brothers and sisters here in this room that the best thing that I could possibly offer them are the words of a mere man.
Matt Francisco:I can offer them advice. And so we come before you like Simon Peter did to Jesus saying, where else would we go, Lord? Because you have the words of eternal life. So we pray that you would speak to us because the flower fades and the grass withers, but your word, it abides forever. So we pray that by the power of your holy spirit, you would speak to us according to your word.
Matt Francisco:You would glorify yourself in the name of the father, son, and holy spirit. Amen. You guys remember the first time you saw the movie, The Sixth Sense, and you realized that Bruce Willis had been dead the whole time. And if you hadn't seen it, that's like the whole movie. I'm sorry.
Matt Francisco:I just saved you like two hours. But he's dead the whole time, and he doesn't know it. And towards the end of the movie, you see all of these little glimpses of the reasons why you should have realized all along that he was dead. Right? He wears the same blue collared shirt in every single scene.
Matt Francisco:He can't open doors. His wife gives him the silent treatment for over a year. The threads were there the whole time. We just didn't have eyes yet to see it. But once you see it, you can't unsee it.
Matt Francisco:And Gospel Hospitality is exactly like that for me. Gospel Hospitality, it's on the first pages of the book of Genesis and it extends to the very last pages of the book of Revelation. Once you see it, you can't unsee it. In gospel hospitality, it's been a core conviction of our church from the very first days. Our church started in the Brooks' home where literally thousands of you have had dinner over the years.
Matt Francisco:And the core of our community still takes place in your homes, week in and week out through our home groups, where many of you who were once strangers have welcomed one another as family as Christ has welcomed you for the glory of God. And because we believe that gospel hospitality is core to us fulfilling the mission of Jesus to go out into the world and to make disciples, And because it is a conviction whose limits are being tested week in and week out as we try to squeeze in on Sundays, we wanted to take a week and take a break from our sermon series in Isaiah to talk about the theme of gospel hospitality from Genesis to Revelation. Because it is our prayer that as you're scrambling for parking or squeezing into these pews, as you plan your days and your budgets, you will remember and rejoice in these three things. First, our God is a gracious host. The second, that our gracious host longs for the whole world to feast at His table.
Matt Francisco:And third, that our gracious host intends for His church to extend His invitation. So first, our God is a gracious host. From all of eternity, the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, they have existed together in perfect loving community. Which means that the very foundation of the universe is love in community, which sort of begs the question, if God existed in perfect loving community from all of eternity, if he didn't need anything, why did he create anything? And the answer is this, to share it.
Matt Francisco:To share his goodness with you and me. You can think of creation as the grandest of invitations. God's welcome mat laid out for you and for me. Creation as a lavish act of divine hospitality that we might participate in and enjoy loving community with God and with one another. That we might feast on the super abundance of God's creation, and that we might bring the goodness of relationship with God and one another to the ends of the earth, to the glory of God.
Matt Francisco:In the beginning, God, our gracious host, He set out the world as a table and He invited Adam and Eve to enjoy a garden that was full of things pleasant to the sight and good for food. And while Adam and Eve, just like every one of us, have wandered far from God's table and have eaten food that does not satisfy and from tables that do not honor our gracious host. In a very real sense, the rest of the story of the Bible is about the outrageous links to which our God will go to bring His people to His table, where we will eat and drink and be satisfied forever. God's people, we are those who eat and drink together. Life in the nation of Israel, it was marked by feasts year in and year out.
Matt Francisco:Time when God's people would gather back together around broken bread and shared wine to remember and rejoice in what God had done. To be knit together in the joyful, loving community, that family which God created and redeemed them to be, and to look ahead to that table which was to come. As you heard Molly Grace read from David in Psalm 23, David writes, You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies. You anoint my head with oil, my cup overflows. Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all of the days of my life and I shall dwell in the house of the Lord forever.
Matt Francisco:If you'll notice, there are three verbs in verse five. Prepare, anoint, and overflows. All of these verbs are active. And in each and every one, the Lord Himself is the actor. David is just sitting at the table, enjoying the feast that is laid before him by God His gracious host.
Matt Francisco:God is the one who is making sure that the table is set just so. God is the one in the kitchen cooking everything to perfection. God is the one who is pictured as bringing everything out to the table that before David even realizes he could need or want it. But that's not all. God is depicted as so lavish in his hospitality that David can't help but say, my cup overflows.
Matt Francisco:David's very cup is overflowing with the goodness of God. Because throughout scripture, God our gracious host is not merely pictured as the one who meets our needs. He pours out grace so lavishly that it almost seems wasteful. I mean, think about this for a minute. Jesus doesn't just save a couple from embarrassment in John chapter two.
Matt Francisco:He turns water into roughly 150 gallons of the greatest wine that anyone had ever tasted. Jesus doesn't just give a snack to 5,000 hungry people in John six. He sends them home with leftovers. And on the night that Jesus was betrayed, the apostle Paul tells us that He took bread. And when He had given thanks, He broke it.
Matt Francisco:And He said, this is my body, which is for you. Do this in remembrance of me.' In the same way, he also took the cup after supper saying, this cup is the new covenant in my blood. Do this as often as you drink it in remembrance of me. Paul will tell us that as often as we eat this bread and drink this cup that we proclaim the Lord's death until he comes. The redemption of God pictured in broken bread and shared wine.
Matt Francisco:A family feast given to us by God, our gracious host, that we might remember and rejoice in what our God has done. Jesus giving everything so that we might have everything in him. That we might be knit together as a joyful, loving community, that family of God. And that we might look ahead until that day when Jesus comes again. Until that glorious day when our community is made perfect, when we feast at God's own table in the kingdom, where Amos tells us that the very mountains will drip with sweet wine.
Matt Francisco:Because creation itself will be overflowing with a lavish hospitality of God, our gracious host. God is a gracious host. Second, our gracious host longs for the whole world to feast at his table. You know, this story in Luke 14 that Molly Grace read, it is very bizarre. And one of the reasons that I found it so strange is that God is pictured as almost manic in this story, right?
Matt Francisco:He is desperately longing for the world to come feast at his table. But why does Jesus portray God this way? Because God is this way. Your God is the one who would move heaven and earth to bring you to himself. God wants the entire world, people from every tribe, tongue, language, and nation, the poor, the crippled, the blind, the lame, and sinner alike to feast at his table and enjoy his perfect loving community.
Matt Francisco:Far too often, we as the church, instead of mirroring God's own heart to the world and God's heart to us, we respond to the world out of anger or acceptance or avoidance. When we respond to the world primarily from a place of anger, we treat the stranger not as someone to be welcomed in, but as if they were the enemy. And we engage the world not to work for its redemption, but in order to dominate it. And while anger may drive us to defend our rights, the gospel leads us instead to remember that Jesus laid down his for us. When we remember that and remember that God our gracious host longs for the whole world to feast at his table, we no longer seek to wage war against the world.
Matt Francisco:We live out Jeremiah 29. We seek its welfare. We seek for our words to be seasoned with salt, for our reasonableness to be known to all. And we pray to the Lord on behalf of our neighbors believing that in their welfare, we will find our welfare. When we engage the world primarily from a posture instead of acceptance, we treat the stranger not as someone who is in need of salvation, but as someone who has already been brought to the table.
Matt Francisco:And our over acceptance and over enjoyment in things of the world leads to our assimilation in the world. It leads us to be indistinguishable to the world where they no longer recognize the difference that the gospel has made in our life. The gospel reminds us that Christianity is called to be weird. You're supposed to be weird. Christianity is meant to be peculiar, not ordinary.
Matt Francisco:Countercultural, not consumerist. Particularly in the ways that we view money and sex and power and the unborn. We are to live as those who have no abiding city here. And we are to share the good news of the gospel in word and indeed longing for our friends and neighbors, remembering that they are still eating food that will never satisfy them and longing for them to instead taste and see the very goodness of God. Finally, when we engage the world primarily from a posture of avoidance or fear, We treat the stranger not as someone deserving of our compassion and love, but as someone we need to be protected from.
Matt Francisco:And our avoidance leads to isolation. To treat the stranger with indifference at best or loathing at worst. While Hebrews thirteen two commands us to move toward them in love saying, do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers. And this phrase in Hebrews 13, show hospitality to strangers, it's actually just one word in the Greek. It's this word philoxenia.
Matt Francisco:And you may recognize the end part of that word, xenos, from which we get our word xenophobia, which means fear of the stranger or fear of the other. Well, word philoxenia is the exact opposite of that. It means love of the other, love of the stranger. And this word goes far beyond mere toleration of people that are not like us. It means actively seeking out and welcoming strangers and bringing them into our homes.
Matt Francisco:And this is the role that that third character plays in Luke 15. The character or Luke 14, the character that stands between the host and the guest. This servant is sent out by his gracious master and host who longs for the whole world to feast at his table. And the servant is the church. Because third, our gracious host intends for the church to extend his invitation to the world.
Matt Francisco:That we might win over our friends and neighbors with genuine love and hospitality. Remembering as we go the words of first John four eighteen and nineteen, which tells us that there is no fear in love because perfect love casts out all fear, and we have been loved perfectly. We love because he has first loved us. This is something that, as Greg Thompson has pointed out to me, that the early church understood so well. If you lived sometime between the second century and the sixteenth century, and you lived as far South as North Africa, as far North as modern day Scotland, as far West as modern day Spain, and Far East, maybe even as far as India, and you had to take a long dangerous journey, chances are you scan the horizon all day looking for one thing.
Matt Francisco:You know what it was? It was a church or a monastery. Because whatever you knew about Christianity, you knew one thing for sure. Christians were those who welcomed in the stranger. Christians were those who would take you in and take care of you.
Matt Francisco:The church understood that hospitality was core to their calling in the world. Take for example, this section from the rule of Saint Benedict, was written around May. All guests who present themselves are to be welcomed as Christ. For he himself will say, I was a stranger and you welcomed me. Proper honor must be shown to all, especially to those who share our faith.
Matt Francisco:With the head bowed or the whole body cast on the ground, let Christ who is also received be adored in them. The early church believed that every single stranger that walked through their doors should be welcomed as if Jesus himself had just walked in. That is why they became known for their hospitality. That was how they loved the stranger. And particularly how they loved the poor and the suffering.
Matt Francisco:While most people in the ancient world understood that they were to take care of their own poor and suffering, Christians became known for taking care of everybody's poor. And when two great plagues swept through the Roman empire, at one point thirty five thousand people were dying every day in Rome, Christians didn't flee the city. They stayed and they took care of not only their own sick, but everyone else's, often at the cost of their own lives. And fifty percent of those who had who were cared for, of who received simply bread and water in their sickness recovered. And what do you think they began to think about their Christian neighbors?
Matt Francisco:How interested do you think they became at the good news of the gospel that so transformed these people's lives? What would it look like for you and I to practice hospitality like that? To love our neighbors, to love the stranger like that. Because today, our neighbors are still wandering, but they're no longer looking for us. They are still spiritually sick and in need of healing from the great physician.
Matt Francisco:I was recently reading this book, The Five Types of Wealth by Sahil Brown. And in it, he shares his familiar heartbreaking story. He wrote this. By the time I had turned 30, had achieved every marker of what I believe success looked like. I had the high paying job, the title, the house, the car, it was all there.
Matt Francisco:But beneath the surface, I was miserable. I began to think that something was wrong with me. I had spent years with my head down, the long hours, believing that the idyllic land of success was well within reach. At every step along the way, I told myself that I was just one bonus, one promotion, or one fancy bottle of wine away from arriving in that land. Then one day I realized I had achieved all of it.
Matt Francisco:And all I could think was, is this it? I had arrived. But the feelings of happiness and fulfillment I expected were nowhere to be found. Instead, I just felt that familiar dread of needing to do more, of never having enough. And it may be success or a relationship, security or a family, but our friends and neighbors are eating from tables food that will never satisfy the hunger of their hearts.
Matt Francisco:And they are laying their heads down in dangerous places that will give them no rest. Technology once promised a brighter, more connected future, but instead social media algorithms prey upon our attention spans and our worst instincts. And the average person describes themselves as more alienated, hopeless, and disconnected than ever before. But while our neighbors today may be spiritually homeless, they are not hopeless. Because God, our gracious host who longs for the whole world to feast at his table has sent his servant out on a mission.
Matt Francisco:Our neighbors are wandering and they are not looking for us. So we must go looking for them. We must seek to win them over with our genuine love and hospitality. In Luke 10, we read these words that you can see in your worship guide. Now as they went on their way, Jesus entered a village and a woman named Martha welcomed Him into her house.
Matt Francisco:She had a sister called Mary who sat at the Lord's feet and listened to His teaching. But Martha was distracted with much serving. And she went up to Him and said, Lord, did you not care that my sister has left me to serve alone? Tell her then to help me. But the Lord answered her, Martha, Martha, you are anxious and troubled about many things, but one thing is necessary.
Matt Francisco:Mary has chosen the good portion, which will not be taken away from her. I had taught on this passage for years before I realized a very, very critical piece of information. I believe then and I believe now that the main point of this passage, the main thing that we're supposed to take away is that the one thing necessary, our good portion, is to sit at the feet of Jesus. And so for years, I gave Martha a hard time. After all, she is trying to pull her sister away from the feet of Jesus, her primary calling, to come help her in the kitchen, a secondary calling.
Matt Francisco:Do you know what I didn't realize? At the beginning of chapter 10, Jesus sends out 72 and they have just come back. And the implication is, is that 72 unexpected guests are about to show up at Mary and Martha's home. And what is Martha trying to do? She's trying to be hospitable.
Matt Francisco:She's trying to be a good host. She's trying to cook dinner for Jesus and all of his friends. And so she wants Mary to come and help her in the kitchen. But she missed something crucial. See Martha missed the entire point of gospel hospitality.
Matt Francisco:And what is the point of gospel hospitality? It's to get people to the feet of Jesus. The point of gospel hospitality is that we would open up our homes. We would open up our lives. We would welcome people to our tables and into our families so that they may be brought to the feet of Jesus.
Matt Francisco:And that one day they may feast with us at God's own table as members of the family of God. I get an amen? That feels like an amen moment. When Aaron and I first started our home group a number of years ago, there was this single younger man who habitually showed up at our house fifteen to thirty minutes early. We had three young kids at the time.
Matt Francisco:So most of the time when he got to our front door, we were still eating dinner. We still had to clean up and we still had three kids that we had to get ready for bed. And after this had gone on long enough, I kinda just got fed up. He walked in the door, I picked up a kid, and I handed it to him. And I said, this one's yours.
Matt Francisco:It's your job tonight to make sure that he gets his PJs on. You're gonna have to brush his teeth, read him a bedtime story, make sure he turns his light off, the sound machine on, all of that. And that became his job for quite some time. And after a little while, my son, who was like around four at the time, he said, Papa, I think I know who my three favorite people in the world are. I'm like, okay.
Matt Francisco:He says, mama, like, good start. Mr. BA, okay, that wasn't expected. And Mr. Henry, let that sink in for a second.
Matt Francisco:My own son looked me in the eye and told me that I was not one of his top three favorite people in the world. Still stings all these years later. But it was something incredibly beautiful. Right? My son had named two members of our home group as two of his favorite people in the entire world.
Matt Francisco:Because this is the difference between hospitality and entertaining. Entertaining is about impressing people with the Instagram version of your life where you get everything just so. That you are trying to impress people with you. But gospel hospitality is living out the words of Romans fifteen seven, which says, welcome one another as Christ has welcomed you for the glory of God. And how has Christ welcomed you?
Matt Francisco:He has not only forgiven you, he has welcomed you in as family, which means that gospel hospitality is treating the stranger like family. Because either they are family in the most real fundamental sense, or you hope and pray that one day they will be. And because gospel hospitality is not entertaining, you can practice it whether you live in a mansion, an apartment, or a dorm. Because it's simply about opening up your heart and your home just as you are. It's about saying to someone else, I've prepared a place for you.
Matt Francisco:I want you here. What I have is yours. And intentionally bringing them in over and over. As the apostle Paul says in Romans twelve thirteen, contribute to the needs of the saints and seek to show hospitality. Paul doesn't simply say be hospitable.
Matt Francisco:He says, seek to show hospitality. This word seek, it means to pursue. We are to be actively, intentionally looking for ways to be hospitable. And on Sundays, it could be as simple as your willingness to potentially park at Avondale Park so that we can have more parking spaces. It could be potentially attending a less overly packed service.
Matt Francisco:It is certainly looking around looking around for someone who might have walked in on their own or might have been here for the very first time, introducing yourself in the name of Jesus. Maybe inviting them to coffee or lunch afterwards. Throughout your week, it's inviting your brothers sisters into your home because gospel hospitality begins with the family of God. But it extends out into the world. And it could be as simple as inviting your coworkers or neighbors over for dinner, seeking to break down barriers, whatever and wherever they might be in order to extend God's gracious invitation to them.
Matt Francisco:That in the words of Rosaria Butterfield, radically ordinary hospitality, it shows the skeptical post Christian world what authentic Christianity looks like. When Aaron and I first moved into our first house in Crestwood years ago, we had these grand ambitions of really getting to know and investing in our neighbors. That is until we got to know our neighbors. Our next door neighbor was this cantankerous chain smoking woman whose first and only question to us was when we were gonna cut this tree down that stood between our two houses. And we had just spent just about every dime that we had on a down payment on this house, so we were not interested in spending more money.
Matt Francisco:And so I tried to politely listen to her and said, I'd think about it. But the next time I saw her, she asked again. And the next time I saw her, she asked again and again and again until I realized I was peeking out my window to see if she was walking her dog on the street so that I could avoid her. Or I would pull up in my car and I would pretend to be on my phone or I would check my email again, just so I didn't have to talk to her. I would wait for her to go back into her house.
Matt Francisco:And then one day while I was sitting in my car, it's like I heard God speaking through a megaphone straight into my soul saying, why do you think you moved here? See, my neighbor wasn't my neighbor by accident. The sovereign God of the universe doesn't make mistakes. Your neighbors are not there by accident either. Your coworkers are not there by accident.
Matt Francisco:God placed them in your path in order that you might show gospel hospitality to them, in order that He might extend His invitation to them through you. That tree was not a hindrance to us, but it was a hindrance to our neighbor hearing the gospel from us. So eventually that tree had to come down so that we could welcome her in, hear her story, and share with her the love that Christ had shown us. My friends, the key to gospel hospitality is simply this, just begin it. Wherever you are, just start.
Matt Francisco:I'm not going to give you a new law this morning. What I am going to ask you to do is to earnestly pray and ask the Lord, what would you have me do? Who would you have me show hospitality to? Gospel hospitality will take prayer and careful planning. You're gonna have to build it into your budget and into your schedules.
Matt Francisco:But it won't take you anything you don't already have in Christ. Hospitality is not a nice add on to the Christian life that we're supposed to practice when we have time as if we ever will. It is not convenient, but it is essential. Hospitality is the only character virtue that is required both for elders of the church and for widows to receive from the contributions given to the church. And hospitality is also the bridge that God is going to use to reach our wandering neighbors and bring them to His table, into His home and into His family.
Matt Francisco:When we remember and rejoice that we were strangers and that God himself brought us to his own table as members of his own family. When we rest in that, we're free from anger or acceptance or avoidance of the world. We're free from the need to impress others. We can move forward out into the world with humility and genuine love, not seeing other people as means to an end, but seeing them as brothers and sisters who have yet to be found. We go out in the name of God, our gracious host who longs for the whole world to feast at his table, to extend his gracious invitation by seeking to show hospitality, welcoming others into our homes and lives as Christ has welcomed us.
Matt Francisco:And not only has Christ has welcomed us, but as Christ has gone before us. Because my friends, Jesus Himself is the true host. Right? In the gospels, we see Jesus eating and drinking all of the time. He is the one who is always telling stories that finish in a glorious feast.
Matt Francisco:He is constantly inviting the crowds. If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink. Jesus comes back from the grave and he cooks Peter breakfast. And he says to you and to me, I have come that you may have life and have it abundantly. And Jesus is not only the host, He is the guest.
Matt Francisco:He came to this earth and He had to borrow a stable to be born in. He says, Foxes have holes where the Son of Man has no place to lay His head. He had to borrow a boat to ride in. He had to borrow a donkey to ride on. He borrowed a room for the Passover and he borrowed a tomb to be buried in.
Matt Francisco:Jesus came as a guest and Jesus was and is the servant. Jesus came from heaven to earth to gather sinners to his heavenly feast, calling them to repent and believe in him. But as we heard last week, Jesus is not only the gathering servant, he is the servant who suffered for your sake and for mine. While we were not only strangers, but sinners, enemies of God because of our evil behavior, Jesus was cast out so that God himself could bring us in. Jesus poured out everything so that you and I might have everything that belongs to him in him.
Matt Francisco:This is the good news of the gospel. Jesus' divine hospitality. He poured out everything so that you may feast in the house of Zion. So that you and people from every tribe, tongue, language, and nation, the poor, the blind, the lame, the cripple, and sinner alike might say, surely I will dwell in the house of my God forever and my cup overflows. Goodness and mercy shall follow me all of the days of my life.
Matt Francisco:And I will dwell with him and he will dwell with me in perfect peace, in perfect loving community, with God and with one another for all of eternity. This is God's hospitality towards you, my friends. It could not be any more lavish or any more gracious. He has welcomed sinners in and called us not only friends, but family. Let's go to him now in prayer.
Matt Francisco:Our father, we have just tasted a drop, and you have poured out hospitality that is an ocean. And I pray that if there's anyone here who doesn't know you, that they would see you Jesus as beautiful, the alpha, the omega, the worthy one, and they would fall and worship you right now and say, nothing I desire besides you. And for my brothers and my sisters here, I pray that they would rejoice and hope that we will one day feast in the house of Zion, that we will be fully restored, that you are gracious heavenly host will lay out a banquet for us, a feast full of aged wine and wine well refined and death itself shall be no more. And out of confidence of that day coming, teach us to go out into the world with humility and genuine love, seeking to show hospitality in your great name. We pray these things in the name of the father, son, and holy spirit.
Matt Francisco:Amen.
