Hospitality, A Timeless Virtue

I have a silly... well, it's not a silly question. It's actually a very good question. But it may seem silly. Do you enjoy hospitality?

Well, you don't seem very enthusiastic. Do you enjoy hospitality? Oh yeah, okay. I thought you did. Even if it's not southern, I think we all like hospitality. We're going to talk about hospitality a bit today.

Hospitality can be defined in different ways. Um, dictionary.com seemed to have a good one that seems to be pretty common. Hospitality is defined as the quality or disposition, so that would suggest it's something of the heart of the attitude, the quality or disposition of receiving and treating guests and strangers in a warm, friendly, generous way.

And that seemed to fit pretty well with what we're going to learn later today about hospitality in the New Testament. Word for hospitality, the Greek word, is actually phylexena. Philoxenia, I should say. Philio, a love, a type of love. And zenia meaning stranger. And the word actually means, and love to strangers.

But most people today, for most people today, they would probably consider hospitality to be something even more narrow than that. For most people today, hospitality simply means entertaining one's friends and family. It's a much more narrow group of people, just entertaining your friends and family. Now, you may know this as well. Did you know that hospitality is also becoming business? It's also a business. And this is that source that we'd never, I'd never allow my students to use when I taught. But wikipedia.com, and it seemed pretty safe for what my purpose today. Wikipedia.com explains that the hospitality industry is a broad category of fields within the service industry, which includes lodging, food and beverage services, event planning, theme parks, travel agency, tourism, hotels, restaurants, nightclubs, and bars. All that has to do with hospitality, and I guess that makes sense. And you can even go to college and get a really good job in hospitality management. And it sounds like it could be a good career choice. What's interesting, though, is that originally, hospitality was nothing about earning money. It was nothing about earning money. In fact, hospitality was, and in some quarters still is, hospitality was and is one of the most highly regarded virtues of the ancient world, and still for a good number of people, even today. Did we know that? Did we know that? But I wonder, at the same time, has something perhaps been lost along the way from those ancient times to the times you're in today with regards to our understanding and practices regarding hospitality?

And so I say today we're going to spend a little time considering hospitality.

Hospitality is a virtue and an aspect of God's way of life that followers of Jesus Christ need to understand and appreciate and do. They need to be doing. We need to be practicing hospitality God's way, for it is vital to becoming more like Jesus Christ. It's really a key part of it. And so the title of the sermon is, Hospitality, a Timeless Virtue. Hospitality, a Timeless Virtue.

And so, being an ancient virtue, there are times when we may still catch wisps of its original practice. It originally started in ancient times when people were needing to travel from city to city, and cities, we're talking 4,000 years and more ago, cities could be rather challenging places to get to. Traveling has historically been a very difficult thing to do. In fact, one of the things I always found interesting in my studies is that the word travel and travail are very closely related. They both have to do with trouble.

Travail and travel. But in ancient times, traveling from place to place was certainly fraught with troubles. There were troubles from wild animals. There are troubles from very poor roads. There were troubles from bad weather and bandits. And also there's the fact that there really were no ends.

For our younger people, this was way before Motel 6 came around. And that was a bad joke. Anyway, you get the idea. It was not easy. There is no hospitality management, per se, in the ancient days, like there is today. But still, there is need for help and safety then, as always.

And the interesting thing is, hospitality seemed to originate with this idea of helping one another, we might say. Just because about everyone would be a traveler one day, and a stranger in a strange land or a strange town or village, there became this concept of helping the traveler, helping the stranger. Because one day, you too might be a traveler and a stranger needing help. And so there actually came to be a sense of certain expectations, certain rights upon the traveler, the stranger in the strange land, and also certain expectations where we'd say a duty upon the one who would be acting as the host. And this custom was prominent in many cultures, and certainly it was so in the Middle East, in the Mediterranean world, even farther on eastward into the area of India. The traveler or stranger had the right to receive hospitality from a host. So if in his travels he came, it was coming night, and he was between towns, and there is a tent or a little house. If he approached that tent or house and asked for a place to stay for hospitality in essence, it was required, it was expected that they receive it. It was a right, that's what we mean, it was a right to expect to receive hospitality. And the thing that may surprise us about that today, as if that isn't enough of a surprise, the way things are now, what was also a surprise is that there is never an expectation of payment.

In fact, if the traveler or stranger tried to pay the host, give him money for his troubles, it would be considered a great insult to their hospitality. In fact, some quarters of the world today, it is still considered an insult. Some of our families are that way, right? We have guests, company, don't try to give my parents anything when I was growing up. They wouldn't have accepted it either. Like I said, there are wisps of this original idea of hospitality that still exists.

Now, the host also had a duty. The host, in turn, had the duty to provide water and food, refreshment if they asked for food, if they wanted food. And he had the duty to provide them space in his house. Sometimes the host would give him his own bed. They'd sleep on the floor, and the stranger would receive the bed. It was that kind of mentality, that sort of approach to hospitality, generosity. And of course, being under the roof, whether it was a tent or house, the host also afforded him the protection of his home. He could not allow anything terrible to happen to his host while he was in his home. In essence, whatever the traveler, that stranger, needed, the host was, to the best of his ability, to help him receive it, to have it. And the host, we might also understand, was usually very generous. He was usually very generous because he himself, as I mentioned earlier, he himself would be a traveler and a stranger one day. He too would be needful of hospitality. And whether individuals worship the true God or a false idol, there is a concept among all the peoples that the gods would bless those who were generous in their hospitality. And they would curse those who refused to help the traveler, the stranger, who happens to come along. Now, the Old Testament offers a number of examples of hospitality, for example, from the times of Abraham. If you would like, turn with me to Genesis chapter 18. I'm just going to briefly touch upon one of the early examples of hospitality in Scripture. We may recall from Genesis 18, verse 1 through 8, that Abraham was very good at extending hospitality. We can see. When he was under the tarrabenth trees of Mamre, Genesis 18, verse 1, as he was sitting in the tent door in the heat of the day, he lifted up his eyes, and there, behold, three men were standing by him. Seems they snuck up on him.

And when he saw them, look at his hospitality, when he saw them, he ran from the tent door to meet them and bowed himself to the ground. And this was typically what happened. There are other accounts that are not biblical, and this was a tradition in those ancient times. And he said, My Lord, if I have now found favor in your sight, do not pass on by your servant. And please let a little water be brought. Notice he's asking, please allow me to do this. Please let a little water be brought and wash your feet and rest yourselves under the trees. And I will bring a morsel of bread. Remember that. He's going to bring them a morsel of bread that you may refresh your hearts.

And then afterwards you may pass by as much as you've come to your servant. And they said, Do what you have said. And so you notice verse 6 tells us how Abraham quickly told his wife Sarah, said, Get three measures of bread, make some cakes. And then Abraham ran to the herd and took a tender and good calf. And this is a proverbial, fatted calf who's not very happy about the visitors.

That's the joke. But he took a tender and good calf, gave it to the young man in hasten to prepare it. And he took butter and milk and the calf, which he had prepared, and set it before them. And he stood by them under the tree as they ate. He stood by them. He stood by them because he would await tradition, and Abraham did it. He would serve them. He would wait on them, himself, the host.

And what's interesting, it says in verse 5 that he had prepared morsel of bread. And of course it was under statements, a very humble statement. In fact, what he actually brought them was really a feast, wasn't it? A huge meal, a huge feast. That is an example of how, that is an example of Abraham exemplified, we would say, some of the finest qualities of hospitality.

And if we would continue over in Genesis 19, 1 through 3, there, we can also see that Lot extended hospitality. Of course, these three strangers, we come to understand, are actually the Lord and two angels. Later, the two angels would appear, would go to Sodom, and Lot would meet them. And Lot, like his uncle Abraham, would insist that they spend the night in his home, instead of the open square. And he also made them a feast.

You see that in Genesis 19, verse 3. They turned into him and entered his house, then he made them a feast, and baked unleavened bread, and they ate. He practiced hospitality as well. The hospitality, expecting those ancient times, understanding that background helps us to understand why Abraham behaved the way he did, and Lot as well, upon seeing these strangers.

And of course, we know, as I said, these were not your typical travelers. And that ancient virtue also lends insight to Lot's kindness to the strangers, who we found out later were actually angels, and they would rescue him, and tried to rescue his entire family from the destruction that would fall upon Sodom and Gomorrah by God.

And so the hospitality of Abraham and Lot also lends proof to Hebrews 13, verse 2. In Hebrews 13, verse 2, you don't necessarily need to turn there, but I'll read it to you. If I myself get there, get there. Hebrews 13, verse 2, verse 1 says, let brotherly love continue. And then verse 2 says, do not forget to entertain strangers. That's the Greek word I mentioned earlier, phylenexia, which means love to strangers. Do not forget to entertain strangers, to practice hospitality, for by so doing, some have unwittingly entertained angels.

Abraham and Lot were two of those people that did that. Now, of course, not every person in the Middle East, in the Mediterranean area, were reared according to the Old Testament. But those peoples, though would later be called Gentiles or Greeks, they also practiced hospitality, even for them. Yes, hospitality was one of the finest qualities, finest of virtues. The ancient Greeks, esteem for hospitality, can be found in many of their works.

You probably have heard of Homer. Homer's The Odyssey, a story about Odysseus traveling, and there's lots of mythology and pagan gods and goddesses, and really interesting, almost cartoonish things in our minds now. But the important part of that, that book was composed, we believe, around 700 BC. And it captured a long centuries tradition that goes far before 700 BC, that the Greeks knew, believed, that the gods would curse those who refused hospitality to strangers, to travelers. So this is a well-practiced custom.

It was a virtue highly regarded. And you, we would understand that when those Greeks and Gentiles in time would be converted to Christianity, they could readily grasp the importance of practicing hospitality before the true and only God. They had already been well steeped in that practice. Now, did the members of the early church, let's bring it up a few thousand years, did the members of the early church understand and practice hospitality?

And did they have a sense of the importance of hospitality? And the answer is, yes, it seems that they did. Let's look at Acts chapter 2, verse 41 through 47, for example. Here we find this wonderful description of the hospitality practice among those very first members of God's church. And this would have happened pretty much immediately following that Pentecost when God first poured out his Spirit on those who believed and were baptized. Acts 2, verse 41 through 47. And then those who gladly received his word were baptized, his word being Peter's sermon about the gospel and the need to be baptized and repent and receive the Spirit.

Then those who gladly received his word were baptized, and that day about 3,000 souls were added to them. And they continued steadfastly in the apostles' doctrine and fellowship, in the breaking of bread and in prayers. And then, of course, because of their unity and the occurrences that happened, the fear came upon every soul. Word got out. In addition, many wonders and signs were done through the apostles. Continuing in verse 44. Now all who believed were together had all things in common, and they sold their possessions and goods, and they divided them among all, as anyone had need.

Now I'm going to pause there because I remember being told by a, back in State College, by a professor who said, well that's proof that communism is an ancient tradition. That Christianity is actually communism. You see, they sold everything and then they divided it up. That is not what they're doing. Christianity is nothing like communism. Notice what they did. Those who had more than they needed, it seems that they sold their possessions. They cashed it. And then they divided them among all, as anyone had need. That too is part of hospitality. They took what they had, saw someone in need, and they gave.

And we can imagine they gave and shared generously. In verse 46, and so continuing daily with one accord in the temple and breaking bread from house to house, they ate their food with gladness and simplicity of heart, praising God and having favor with all people. And the Lord added to the church daily those who were being saved.

And so again, this is a very wonderful description of how hospitality is practiced by those earliest members of the church of God, the body of Christ. In God's church, since its beginning, we can see had a good grasp of hospitality and they practiced it. And again, hospitality was a very ancient tradition, both among the Jews and the Gentiles. It was that timeless virtue that people understood needed to be practiced. It was an ancient virtue, even by the time of the first century AD. And there's something more that would be good for us to understand about hospitality and how it was used in practice in the church. We might be surprised to know just how instrumental hospitality proved to be in spreading Christ's gospel of the kingdom and of the hope of salvation to towns, nations, and peoples far beyond the environs of Jerusalem. How so? How was hospitality used in that way? Well, Jesus Christ seems to have set the model. He set the model for using hospitality as a means of spreading his gospel, and in time it even helped to bring about the establishments of churches in those far-flung areas. Let's be turning to Luke 10, and as we turn to Luke 10, I'll somewhat summarize what Jesus Christ was doing, what he had done. In the three books Matthew, Mark, and Luke, we will find variations of the same information about how Jesus sent out 12 disciples, 12 apostles. Of course, Judas would later on have reasons not to be an apostle, but the 12 disciples early on, Jesus trained them, and he helped them to prepare for their future responsibilities of preaching his gospel, and he sent them out to do that and to do miracles. But he restricted them to the towns and cities of the Jews in the house of Israel. Scriptural reference you can jot down would be Matthew 10, verse 5 through 6. Not going to turn there, but that's one place you can see how Jesus took the 12 disciples and then sent them out. This is all, again, part of the early training. Now, sometime later, and this is why we're going to be in Luke 10, sometime later Jesus then sent out 70 other disciples, and they had similar instructions. The instructions in Luke 10 are a little more detailed than what we saw at the 12. That's why I'm having us go here. There is a reason to why I do sometimes do these things. And so let's read what the directions were, what Christ said to them. Luke 10, and let's begin reading verse 1. After these things, the Lord appointed 70 others also, also because he'd already sent out 12 previously. And he sent them two by two before his face into every city and place where he himself was about to go. And then he said to them, The harvest truly is great, but the laborers are few. Therefore, pray the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest. Go your way, and he says, Go your way, behold, I send you out as lambs among wolves. That's kind of a, that's a little good, not so, I don't know what I'm saying.

Kind of a scary thing to say. Well, what did Jesus mean? Jesus sent these teams out, apparently about 35 of them, teams of two, and they were to preach the gospel. And as they went, he gave them a warning that they were to be as lambs among wolves. They were to be as lambs. They're not to be like wolves. The wolves are who those who live around them, but they're to be like lambs. Well, you can imagine that those disciples, those teams would then need to live by faith, wouldn't they? They would have needed to be trusting God to protect and provide for them, because there's something else that we're going to see here. They're really going to need some extra help from God and a lot of faith because they were to take nothing with them. Now, how many of you would like to travel and never have to pack a bag? I'm first one up. There you go. But they didn't have to do that because of what would be, what would happen because of the practice of hospitality. They were to trust God for their needs through the hospitality of strangers, God working through strangers, or rather, we might put it through friends and perhaps future brethren they had not yet met or come to know. Because there's something that happens when people practice hospitality. There's a connection that develops, and it's a start. It could be a start of something even greater and more important. So let's go on now, verses 4 through 11, and pay attention. I'm going to draw our attention to some of these instructions. And so he says, verse 4, Jesus said to them, carrying either money bag, knapsack, nor sandals, and greet no one along the road. Well, he's not telling them to be rude, but it's the idea that they were to be focused on their mission. This is not a vacation. This was not a social event. They had a purpose and a task to do to go to these different cities. And verse 5, but whatever house you enter, first say, peace to this house. It was sort of a way of announcing that here some traveler strangers were looking for hospitality. Can we find hospitality in this house? Verse 6, Jesus said, and if a son of peace is there, your peace will rest on it. If not, it will return to you.

And so a son of peace seems to describe a host who has a good and right attitude toward God. He seems to be someone who would be welcoming and supportive of the disciples' work. And of course, it was not unusual. I should add this. It was not unusual for rabbis in that time, teachers to send their students out and to do their part. But it's interesting, Jesus said, if there's a son of peace there, it suggests that there may be someone there that God was already working with. God the Father, perhaps, we would say today, calling and working with. Verse 7, and remain in the same house, he said, eating and drinking such things as they give. For the laborer is worthy of his wages. Do not go from house to house. And whatever city you enter, and they receive you, eat such things as are set before you.

Now, if we pause there and think about verses 7 through 8, what he's talking about, especially about drinking and eating. If you had a parent or grandparent like I did, you know what you're being told? These are essential rules of hospitality. When you go to someone's house, you invite yourself in, you should humbly and gratefully receive whatever food and drink is given.

I was taught you don't sit there and say, eww, is there anything else? Or, I don't like this. No, that would be called rude. That would be rude. Hospitality, as Jesus says, here you don't complain. Do not offend the host. Do not turn your nose up at their gift of food. And you can imagine, what sort of homes do you suppose they may have been staying in? Did Christ call the rich and famous of the world or the poor? You can imagine some of these places they may have stayed at were rather ramshackle, perhaps. And maybe the food was maybe a piece of bread baked on some rough coals, maybe a little grit in the bread. They were to eat it. They were to accept it, as it was a blessing from God through those who are giving them hospitality. Verse 9, in part of what they were to do, Jesus said, and heal the sick there and say to them, the kingdom of God has come near to you. To preach the message. But whatever city you enter and they do not receive you, in other words, you go in the city and no one offers you hospitality, then go out into its streets and say, the very dust of your city which clings to us we wipe off against you. You know, it's like they're back, get this dirt back on you. We don't want the dust of your city on us. In other words, they were breaking one of that city was not practicing that timeless virtue of hospitality. They were doing a great offense to these travelers. And then Jesus adds, verse 12, but I say to you that it will be more tolerable in that day for Sodom than for that city. And we know what happened to Sodom. With that, Jesus is letting the disciples know and he's letting us know it's recorded for us that all will be held accountable for accepting or rejecting his gospel.

And it's still true today. And so Christ's instruction in many ways reveals how hospitality would be used to support the disciples' work in spreading his gospel message from town to down. It's very interesting. And relying on their generosity as strangers who had a right attitude toward God, that meant that the disciples then could give their more full attention and focus to the work that Jesus Christ had sent them out to do, of healing, doing miracles, preaching the gospel.

And imagine at the same time, imagine the faith in God, this all required of the disciples. And imagine the degree of humility they had to do to know that they're going to a strange place, never been here before, but there's going to be somebody here, we're pretty sure, maybe not, but we hope, it's going to help us. We're going to meet someone we never met before. And maybe they thought maybe this is a friend that is someone who's going to become a friend, or maybe possible someone who will become a convert to the faith, accepting the gospel. Now, come years later, the Apostle Paul and others would follow a similar approach in preaching the gospel and establishing churches outward from Jerusalem. Through God's Holy Spirit, we can see that Christ would essentially direct Paul and Silas and others from city to city, where Jewish communities and synagogues had already been established, or in some situations, maybe it's just a small group, as we're going to read here in a little bit, that met along the riverbank.

And as they went out, Paul and others would speak at the synagogue on the Sabbath, explain God's Word, from God's Word, how Jesus was the Christ, he was the Messiah. And then again, we're going to see that someone whom the Father had called, perhaps another son of peace who had a right heart and attitude toward God, would be hospitable and welcome God's traveling ministries, traveling ministers, into their homes and families. That Paul relied on the hospitality strangers as well attested to in the book of Acts. Let's look at a few places in Acts. Acts 16, for example. Acts 16. Now imagine if we were in their sandals, traveling, going to being strangers in a very strange land, perhaps, to our thoughts. What faith, what courage, what trust in God that would have required. In Acts 16 verse 12, we see that here Paul and Silas are arriving in the city of Philippi. And I'm going to go ahead and just begin here in verse 12. And from there to Philippi, which is the foremost city of that part of Macedonia, the colony. And we are staying in the city for some days. And on verse 13, and on the Sabbath day, we, Paul, Silas, and others, and on the Sabbath day we went out of the city to the riverside where prayer was customarily made. And we sat down and spoke to the women who met there. Now a certain woman named Lydia heard us. She was a seller of purple from the city of Thyatira who worshipped God. The Lord opened her heart. Isn't that interesting? Opened her heart to heed the things spoken by Paul. And when she and her household were baptized, obviously repentance and belief and baptism, she begged us, saying, if you have judged me to be faithful to the Lord, come to my house and stay. And so she persuaded us. She invited them to her home as an act of hospitality. Let's also look at Acts 17, verse 1 through 7. In this instance, they've traveled on down the road a different time, and now they're in Thessalonica. And Thessalonica, there at the end of verse 1, Acts 17, verse 1, to Thessalonica, where there was a synagogue of Jews. And so we'd start with the Jews first. He was Jewish. They were Jewish converts, but Jews in history and culture, and they knew they could find hospitality there. They started there. Verse 1, and so they came to Thessalonica, where there was a synagogue of the Jews. And then Paul, as his custom was, went into them, and for three Sabbaths, reasoned with them from the Scriptures. And he explained and demonstrated that the Christ had to suffer and rise again from the dead, and saying, This Jesus whom I preach to you is the Christ. And some of them were persuaded, and a multitude of devout Greeks, and not a few of the leading women, joined Paul and Silas. But the Jews who were not persuaded—these would be the ones that would—the disciples would have knocked the dust back on, you know. They were not hospitable. But the Jews who were not persuaded became envious. And they took some of the evil men from the marketplace—rabbel-rouzers—and gathering a mob, they set all the city in an uproar and attacked the house of Jason. Why would they attack Jason's house?

Continuing, and they sought to bring them out to the people. But when they did not find them at Jason's house, they dragged Jason and some brethren to the rulers of the city, crying out, These who have turned the world upside down have come here too. Jason has harbored them, and these are all acting contrary to the degrees of Caesar, saying there is another king, Jesus.

Well, interestingly, the Greek word translated is harbored them—Hupaktakomai. I know I'm mispronouncing it, but I had to try. Harbored them actually means—the Greek word actually means to admit under one's roof. Well, that is the ancient aspect of hospitality. It means to entertain hospitably. Being hospitable—and of course, we also see here, being hospitable to Christ's servants, his ministers, was not without its dangers at times. There is some risk. In Acts 18, verses 1-4, Paul and Silas are in Corinth now. Acts 18, verses 1-4. And it's here that Paul and Silas first met and received—they received—the hospitality of Priscilla and Aquila. And after these things, verse 1, Paul departed from Athens and went to Corinth, and he found a certain Jew named Aquila, born in Pontus, who had recently come from Italy and with his wife Priscilla, because Claudius had commanded all the Jews to depart from Rome. During the time of Emperor Claudius, there was a persecution. There would be a worse one under Nero later, and that's how Aquila and Priscilla arrived in Corinth. And so then it adds there, end of verse 2, and he came to them, meaning Paul came to them. And so because he was of the same trade, he stayed with them. There's the hospitality, and worked. For by occupation they were tent makers. And he reasoned in the synagogue every Sabbath, and persuaded both Jews and Greeks. And so, of course, one thing happens, the second thing happens, maybe a coincidence. One, two, three, we see a pattern. We could draw some lines. We can make a pattern. We see a pattern in Christ's hand at work. Hospitality became a means by which God provided the shelter, the food, a drink, and other physical things that Paul and others would need to be able to focus on preaching the gospel, doing the work, doing the work of the church, doing the work of God. And in that way, he also established churches in areas where otherwise they would have been alone. They were simply among strangers, but hospitality allowed them to make friends, and from friends, potentially brethren. And so, through hospitality, strangers helped strangers. They make bonds of friendship, and God provided for Paul that hospitality he needed. And because God's hand was involved, those who were once strangers, it seems many of them were other sons of peace, they also seemed to have been called of God. And they believed Christ's gospel, and they became new members of the church, the body of Christ. And they would continue to be hospitable among one another as new members of a congregation, we might call it a local church. And hospitality would help them to grow in bonds as a congregation, to grow in the grace and knowledge of God, each doing their part under the influence and inspiration of a Holy Spirit in them and with them. And they would even use their natural talents, and of course, with God's Spirit, they had the extra help of the gifts and power and the very life essence of God's Spirit in them to establish these new church congregations. And so, it struck me as an important thing to understand for us. This is part of our heritage as we too are to be practicing hospitality. And I'm emphasizing some of these details because it helps us to understand, expand our understanding of what hospitality is about and where it came from, and why is it? Why does it exist? And so, I hope this at this point, before we go on, I just hope we can better understand that original meaning of hospitality. Love to strangers. Love to strangers. Now, what about you and me today? What about you and me today and our approach to practicing hospitality in our lives? This is part of our heritage as members of the body of Christ, that spiritual body. What can we gain? What can we glean from God's Word that will help us to be better? Because I know we're doing it, but what can we be doing, learning, so we can be better at practicing hospitality?

At this point, let's turn to 1 Peter chapter 4 verse 9. 1 Peter 4 verse 9.

And we're going to be starting with this verse, and then we're going to expand outward from there, looking at the context to understand why this verse is here and how does it fit with the larger message that Peter is conveying originally to brethren who were being persecuted and to people like us today here, calmly meeting on the Sabbath, but recognizing what Scripture says about the end times. So in 1 Peter 4 verse 9, we find this exhortation from Peter, and in it he speaks directly to Christ's followers. He speaks directly to Christ's followers, which even to this day may seem somewhat curious to us. It makes us want to know something. 1 Peter 4 verse 9, he writes and says, to the brethren, he says, be hospitable to one another without grumbling.

Without grumbling. That seems rather curious, perhaps. It is a rather simple, imperative statement. That means it's an order. It's a command of sorts. And we then are meant to obey it, and especially with giving attention to these cautioning words without grumbling.

Now sometimes, I've heard, you know, we read that, we'll practice hospitality without grumbling. And sometimes we want to chuckle a little bit. We might want to chuckle about that. And why might we want to chuckle? Because, well, because if you've ever been anyone who's ever practiced hospitality towards others, and of course we're talking about brethren, we understand that helping others can be a challenging and sometimes a difficult thing to do. And it might even be possible that one might grumble. Am I shocking anybody? Has anyone just never knew this? Okay, I see a lot of nice, polite smiles. So either you're patting me on my little head or you do get it. Okay, I think we get it. It's very interesting. The Greek word for grumble is... it almost sounds like something like a grumble. The Greek word for grumble is gongosmos. I'm probably mispronouncing that, too. And it does mean grumbling, murmuring, muttering. But not always, in fact, you get the sense it's not always done openly. You may be grumbling, mumbling, and muttering, but people don't know it. Why? Because much of this gongosmos, Thayer's Greek lexicon, says it's often a secret displeasure. A secret displeasure, meaning it's in our heart, and we don't always let others know. I mean, isn't that interesting? I found that interesting. So there can be someone practicing hospitality and really not happy. It may be grumbling a little bit, but for those of us watching, we don't know it. We just see someone, oh, how nice. They're practicing hospitality. I think there's something there we might want to think about, too. And so, again, the grumbling can be secretively in our hearts. Now, why would Peter say such a thing?

Why would he say such a thing? How would he know that? Well, was Peter not human? Was Peter not a man? Was he not without—was he a sinner, too, having him struggle? You suppose he ever got tired? Or, oh, here we go, another healing. I don't know if he ever said that. Another opportunity to serve. That's how I would look at it, and he probably did, too. But there are times. Would Peter say such a thing? How did he know? It's because he's being very honest with us. He knew. He was aware of how very difficult it can be to practice hospitality. It is not easy. If we do it well, it may look easy, but we have all learned that practicing hospitality is not easy, and yet we must do it. It's vital to our physical and spiritual well-being.

Now let's talk a little bit about the context, the larger context, of Peter's statement.

This epistle—Peter wrote this epistle, and tried to get one date that everybody agrees upon among scholars. It's really challenging. But there seems to be most agreement that this epistle is written around 62-64 AD. This would either then—he could have written it right as a persecution by the Roman Empire, or Emperor Nero began, or right before then, probably when the heat and tension against Christians was growing. It's in July 19, 64 AD, that Emperor Nero—I used to take pictures of a kid playing the fiddle while Rome burned. I don't know if he actually played the fiddle. I need to look that up. But he did set about Rome burning down. I think he had some remodeling plans he wanted to do. But to take the heat—no pun intended—off of himself, he accused the Christians. The Christians, that weird group of people that only had, you know, just worshiped this god and no statues, and they did these weird things. And so it could be Paul wrote this about that time, and from what scholarship tells us, not many months, perhaps a year or so before he himself, Peter himself, would be martyred. And so brethren in the church would help us understand that when he's writing this, he's writing to brethren in the church who are suffering, some of them terribly, from persecution. And they are scared, and they are worried. And he wrote this epistle to give courage. He wrote this to give courage to them in this terrible time. And so Peter admits that the suffering of that present time is difficult, but he reminded them, and he reminds us today, of the suffering Jesus Christ endured for us. In chapter 4, Peter encourages the brethren then not to turn back to their old sinful ways. Let's look at 1 Peter 4 verse 1. Let's read a bit. This precedes what we were reading in verse 9. 1 Peter 4 verse 1, Therefore he tells them, Since Christ suffered for us, for us in the flesh, arm yourselves also with the same mind. For he who has suffered in the flesh has ceased from sin, that he should no longer live for the rest of his time in the flesh for the lust of men, but for the will of God. When times get tough, people can do strange things. When times get tough, some people can rally. They can become very courageous and, let's go team, let's get them, let's do this. Others can become very fearful. And some of us kind of go both ways, have done both things at times. When things get bad, sometimes our natural inclination is to draw within ourselves. It's to pull back from, what, being with our brethren, being with people, pull back from going to services, whatever it might be. Paul is trying to remind them that is not what we can do. One, you don't want to pull back from each other because we all need each other right now, in this time of suffering. And secondly, you don't want to pull back and then pull out of the body and end up going back to what you had left behind in that grave of water, going back to following the ways of the flesh. And so he continues verse 3, for we have spent enough of our past lifetime in doing the will of the Gentiles. When we walked in lewdness, lust, drunkenness, revelries, those drinking parties, and abominable idolatries. Now, in regard to these, these that persecute them, that cause them grief, that abuse them, that mock them, in regard to these, they think it's strange that you do not run with them, that you're not running and doing what they did, that you do not run with them in the same flood, that same tsunami of wickedness, dissipation, speaking evil of you.

And some of us, you might recall, think back for in your lives, when you repented, there may have been some old buddies, an old crowd, an old drinking group you used to hang around, maybe the group of college, maybe the frat, sorority, whoever it might be. When you came out of that, you may have received their mockings. What? Are you a goody-two-shoe now? Are you too good to hang out with us? You think you're so self-righteous? Did anybody go through that? Yeah, I did.

But you hold to the truth, because when we come to understand what Christ has done for us, we know we have to hold true to God. We cannot go back. We have to move forward, and we can move forward so much better when we're practicing hospitality and love to one another. In verse 6, Peter also acknowledges that there are some of the brethren, it seems to be suggesting some of the brethren they knew, had already been martyred. They had already been martyred by crowds, by haters out there, I guess is the word today, by haters. They'd already died a martyr's death at the condemnation of men who did not know God, who had rejected God. And he tells them they willingly did so. Let me just read this. For this reason the gospel was preached also to those who are dead. He's speaking about, brethren, they're dead. They're asleep in Christ, awaiting the resurrection.

To those who are dead, that they might be judged according to men in the flesh, so they understood that men are going to condemn them, and they're going to suffer under the hands of men, but they are focused, you might say, but they live according to God in the spirit. They had chosen the path to righteousness, life with God, and the hope of salvation.

And so they held fast to God in the gospel and the hope of the kingdom. And Paul, Peter, excuse me, Peter's telling them so must they, and the message is the same for us. We must hold to this message. In verses 4 through 11, Peter then exhorts the brethren to action. Essentially, he's telling them to trust God, use God's Spirit, and help one another. And he says in verse 7, But the end of all things is at hand. Therefore, be serious and watchful in your prayers.

The end of all things is at hand, he said, 2,000 years ago, roughly 2,000 years ago.

And here we are. Is he wrong? Was he wrong? No.

You see, the end of all things is at hand for us. It's closer in that ultimate sense.

But we know, don't we? We may not have tomorrow, so the end of all things, for us personally, could be tonight, could be tomorrow, could be next week. And so even in that sense, Peter is telling us to be serious, to be watchful in your prayers. What he means by serious seems to be this idea of don't become frantic. Don't become scared. Don't let your emotions run away with you that you, what's the word, freak out. Be careful watching and listening to the news. I try to avoid it as much as possible, frankly. There's nothing out there in some days but just some propaganda to scare us one direction or the other. We need to stay focused and serious on God. Practice faith. He's telling them, he's telling us, we really need to be practicing self-control, controller emotions. Use the wisdom, use the sound mind that God's Spirit can help us to have and be earnest in prayer. Verse 8, he says, above all things, and I said, above all things, have fervent love for one another, for love will cover a multitude of sins.

And so when he says, above all, above everything else we do, he says, he's reminding us that God's love, agape, is our standard for how we're to live and love one another. So when the world is going crazy around us and it might be the end, it doesn't change what we need to be doing.

And so this fervent or eager, earnest love, that sort of agape love is less of an emotion, but more a choice we make, a choice to continue in the way of God, to practice God's law, to practice love to neighbor, to practice love to our brethren. And that includes, he adds, our need to forgive one another. You see, we cover sin through love when we as brethren forgive one another's faults and sins, because we also remember what Christ has done for each of us.

Covering love will cover a multitude of sins. It's not one way. He's speaking to brethren. He says, love one another. And then in verse 9 we go down where we were before, be hospitable to one another. He's talking about brethren to brethren. This is what we do. This is what we're to be about. And so in verse 9, again, he's encouraging us to be hospitable. And so this encouragement, hospitality, occurs amidst this longer exhortation about how to live as the end of all things draws near. You don't give up. Hospitality, you keep it up. And you get better at it, make it even more meaningful.

And Peter knew that we could be grumbling about hospitality because it requires giving up the flesh. It requires giving up the self. It means we have to give and serve in selfless ways. And so in one sense, and this is maybe a twist, I don't think it's twisted, but it's another way of looking at it. If we do grumble in our hearts when we serve and we recognize it, is that not a good thing? It's a good thing because we recognize with the help of God's Spirit and the truth he has given us that that is a wrong attitude. I have to get rid of that. And so it reminds us there's something in me that I need to keep pushed down. Don't let that zombie come back out. Keep it under that watery grave. And so even grumbling reminds us I can't do that. I have to push through my content-christ-ness about whatever it is about loving my neighbor. I have to do that again? Yes, and always. And so we have to push through, Peter says. In essence, he's saying, without grumbling, get over it and do the right and godly thing. Verse 10 through 11, Peter encourages us as he wraps up this little section, he tells us, he's telling us, be careful that we don't rely on our own human strength and will. We need to apply the gifts God has given us. And so he says in verse 10, And as each one has received a gift, minister it to one another. Now, of course, this one another doesn't mean we don't love all people. We have to love all people. But he's speaking more specifically to the church, to brethren. Don't forget to love your brother and your sister. And as each one has received a gift, minister it to one another as good stewards of the manifold grace of God. And so as times become difficult, we must not be drawing back from one another, but rather we must use God's Spirit in us in ways that we can in order to help and serve one another. We have to be good stewards. We have to be using God's gifts. We can't be hiding them away, burying them in the ground as some of the parables of Christ warned us not to do. We cannot become unprofitable servants. We have to use these gifts God gives us, His Spirit. continuing verse 11, if anyone speaks, let him speak as the oracles. It can mean utterances. Speak with the utterances and words of God. And if anyone ministers, let him do it as with the ability which God supplies. Now, I'm going to pause here because these two sentences of anyone speaks, let him speak as the oracles. If anyone ministers, scholars recognize that Peter seems to have condensed Paul's list that appear in different places. Paul's list of the gifts of God's Spirit into two broad categories. The one speaking, whoever speaks, and the one serving, whoever ministers. And if you hold your place here, let's just remind ourselves. Let's go back to Romans 12. Romans 12, verse 6 through 9, and see what some of these gifts were to be remembering to use, whether it's more of that speaking category or serving category. The point is, we're not to be bottling it up. We're supposed to be using these things that God has so graciously given us.

Romans 12, verse 6, here Paul writes, "...having then gifts differing according to the grace that is given to us," God gives us, he's going to give, "...having then gifts differing according to the grace that is given to us, let us use them." He could stop there, but he goes on. If prophecy, sometimes that can mean inspired teaching, if prophecy let us prophesy in proportion to our faith. Or ministry, there it is regarding serving, and it could be combined with this idea of speaking. Or ministry, let us use it in our ministering. He who teaches in teaching, he who exhorts in exhortation, he who gives with liberality, and here we're getting more into the the works, the serving aspects, excuse me, the serving aspects, he who gives with liberality, he who leads with diligence, he who shows mercy with cheerfulness.

These are wonderful things. And then he continues verse 9, let love, or we could just say, love without hypocrisy. And then, if we go down just a few more verses to verse 13, Paul adds this, it's a common theme. It all goes back, we have to keep practicing hospitality.

Now, of course, we all have our natural talents and abilities. We were born with some skill sets we developed through education and practice, whatever it might be. But God also gives us a spiritual gift, we learn, which we receive, when we receive, excuse me, when we receive his Holy Spirit after baptism. Scholars often point out that Paul, for example, had some natural gifts. He was rather intelligent. His brain worked in a very reasonable way, and he seemed to have skill with language and writing. But it was with the addition, and of course we knew what Paul did with that before he received God's Holy Spirit. After Paul receives God's Holy Spirit, Paul was better able to minister to God's people in preaching Christ's gospel, and just consider all the epistles we have in the Bible in forming us of God's way of life and his expectation of us.

Now, sometimes for discussions people will get into, well, what's my gift? What's my gift? What's my spiritual gift? I don't know what mine is, and frankly, my approach, my advice is quit worrying about what your gift is. If you see a need, do something to fill it. Just do it. Just serve God, serve brethren. Don't worry about your gift, and then maybe one day you'll be blessed to understand what your gift is. So don't worry about what it is. Just be doing it. Do something. Serve.

Sorry for preaching. No, I'm not. Back to verse 11. So again, if anyone speaks, let him speak as the oracles of God. If anyone ministers, let him do it as with the ability which God supplies. And why, we might say, is he telling us this? That in all things, Peter says, God may be glorified through Jesus Christ, to whom belong the glory and the dominion forever and ever. Amen. And so Peter exhorts us to be using and sharing God's gifts with one another as brethren. We're not limited to brethren alone, but that's his focus here. And we do that especially as the context shows. He's talking about these times of persecution, of suffering, as the end of all things is at hand. In no doubt, whatever gift we have, whatever we're doing, whatever we're applying, we'll glorify God if we're doing it with the right heart and mind and spirit. And it's likely expressed in how we practice hospitality to one another. And so in the midst of this section where Peter is encouraging brethren to have fervent love for one another and to put God's spirit into action, being faithful to yield to God, we find then that exhortation to be hospitable to one another without grumbling. And so hospitality must become an aspect of our lives in Christ and as part of his body, the church.

Our lives are not our own. An entertaining brethren in our homes and elsewhere is a very hospitable and important thing we can and should do as we are able. Some of us no longer able to do that. We should not feel ashamed or guilty about that. We had our day, you might say, and times have changed and others can do it, but there are other things we can still do. And so we should do what we can as we are able. And yet I hope we can come to understand that hospitality shared one to another as brethren. The hospitality shared one to another as brethren is so much more, and hear me, it is so much more than entertaining our friends and family. We need to open ourselves, and this is my encouragement and something I'm working on myself. We need to open ourselves to getting out of our comfort zones. We need to open ourselves to find ways of practicing hospitality. And we probably know what some of those ways are, and maybe we've been hesitant to do it so far. Other ways of practicing hospitality such as visiting shut-ins, whether in person or by phone. One of the shut-ins might simply like getting a little text message from you. I get text messages from people all the time, and I love it. Little message and little flowers and thumbs ups or whatever, that's good. And I return it, and we make each other's day. It could be something that simple. It's encouragement. It's a saying, hey, I know you're out there. I'm praying for you. And that can be a very wonderful, hospitable thing to do. It can include things such as being aware of others' needs. You're talking with visitors to a congregation. We do have visitors here today. Don't be scared. You can, they're friendly. You can talk to them. I'll try to get to you and talk to you, too. And of course, it also means being willing to help out in our local communities. Those are opportunities for us to let our light shine before our neighbors, but also between our brethren who see us serving and being lights in God's community. God's in the communities of the world to the people in the world. Now, are these things God expects us to do? Practicing hospitality and some of these ways. Does God really expect us to do these things? Let's turn to Matthew 25, please, as I begin to wrap up. Let's turn to Matthew 25, verses 34 through 40.

Matthew 25, verse 34 through 40. These are the words of Jesus Christ with reference to the judgment. Matthew 25, verse 34. Jesus said, And then the king will say to those on his right hand, Come, you blessed of my father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. For I was hungry, and you gave me food. I was thirsty, and you gave me drink. I was a stranger, and you took me in. I was naked, and you clothed me. I was sick, and you visited me. I was in prison, and you came to me.

Well, then the righteous will answer him, saying, Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you drink? When did we see you a stranger and take you in, or naked and clothed you? And when did we see you sick or in prison and come to you? And the king will answer and say to them, Assuredly I say to you, inasmuch as you did it to one of the least of these, my brethren, you did it to me. You did it to me. Jesus Christ is the epitome of hospitality. Every day of his life, he lived hospitality. He gave all that he had. Jesus Christ set the example of hospitality, true hospitality, a timeless virtue. And so, brethren, I encourage us, let us set our hearts on practicing the virtue of hospitality.