HOLY HOSPITALITY
TITUS 1:8
PART 1
There is a story of a pastor who made it a habit of being hospitable and visiting his church members on Saturday morning. He came upon one house were it was obvious that someone was home. Lights we on, the car sat in the drive way. The pastor knocked several times but no one came to the door. Finally the pastor took out his card and wrote Rev. 3:20 on the back and stuck it in the door. Now Rev. 3:20 reads; "Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and dine with him, and he with Me."
The next day, Sunday, the card turned up in the collection plate. It was then passed along to the pastor. Right below what the pastor wrote was another scripture reference, Gen. 3:10; which reads; "I heard Your voice in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked; and I hid myself."
Please turn with me to this morning verse. That would be Titus chapter 1 verse 8. That is page 1032 in your pew Bibles. We are finally out of verse 7, which took a while to get through but we made it. In verse 8 Paul continues with the qualifications for elders, or bishops. In verse 7 Paul states don’t be this and this "but (be) hospitable, a lover of what is good, sober-minded, just, holy, self-controlled,"
Notice that Paul begins to discuss the positive qualifications that elder should have. In verse 7 Paul uses a lot of nots. Things that a elder should not be, now Paul gets into what a elder should be. Today we are going to be focusing on the first phrase of that passage, were Paul states that a elder is to be hospitable.
That word "hospitable" comes from the Greek word, "PHILO-ZENIA". Which is a combination of twos "PHILOS", which means what? Loving. And "XENOS". Does any one know what that means. It means "stranger" or "strange". So what Paul is stating is that elders are to be "lovers of strangers" or I suppose you can say lovers of the strange.
Kind of like me, strange but not a stranger.
Now as with the negative things that we saw in verse 7, the positive things beginning in verse 8 are also traits that all Christians are to have. If you look at 1 Peter 4:9 we are told; "Be hospitable to one another without grumbling." It is the same Greek word, "PHILO-ZENIA" that is in Titus as 1 Peter 4:9. So we are all called to be lovers of strangers, hospitable to all.
One thing that every Christian should learn is that Scripture interprets Scripture. By far the best means in understanding what scripture is saying to us to look other portions of scripture that deal with the same issue or subject.
As we study what exactly it Paul means in verse 8 when he commands that elder be hospitable, we are going to look at a passage that will help us understand it. It is a very familiar passage it is found in Luke chapter 10 verses 25-37, the story of the good Samaritan. If you would like to turn with me to that passage it is page 899 in the pew Bibles.
Listen as I read this passage; "And behold, a certain lawyer stood up and tested Him, saying, "Teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?"
He said to him, "What is written in the law? What is your reading of it? So he answered and said, " ’You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your strength, and with all your mind,’ and ’your neighbor as yourself.’ And He said to him, "You have answered rightly; do this and you will live." But he, wanting to justify himself, said to Jesus, "And who is my neighbor?"
Then Jesus answered and said: "A certain man went down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and fell among thieves, who stripped him of his clothing, wounded him, and departed, leaving him half dead. Now by chance a certain priest came down that road. And when he saw him, he passed by on the other side. Likewise a Levite, when he arrived at the place, came and looked, and passed by on the other side. But a certain Samaritan, as he journeyed, came where he was. And when he saw him, he had compassion. "So he went to him and bandaged his wounds, pouring on oil and wine; and he set him on his own animal, brought him to an inn, and took care of him. "On the next day, when he departed, he took out two denarii, gave them to the innkeeper, and said to him, ’Take care of him; and whatever more you spend, when I come again, I will repay you.’ "So which of these three do you think was neighbor to him who fell among the thieves?" And he said, "He who showed mercy on him." Then Jesus said to him, "Go and do likewise."
I believe as we take a closer look this parable, we can learn just what Paul has in mind, and Peter as well, when they tell us that we need to hospitable, lovers of strangers. We are going to be looking at this passage in two ways, first from a personal level, what it means to you and I personally. And next week we will look at it from a church level, what this passage means to us as a body of Christ.
As we look at this passage the first group of people I want to look at are the thieves. What they say was a victim to be exploited. In verse 30 we read that this man fell among thieves. Now the road that went from Jerusalem to Jericho was a distance of about 20 miles. It was know as a dangerous road because of the surrounding wilderness, which gave robbers plenty of places to hide. In fact the road was known as "the way of the Blood" because of the robbers that lay in wait.
So these robbers are just looking for victim, looking for someone to take advantage of. You see they did not see this man as a creation of God, they did not care about him at all personally, they wanted to what that man had, namely his money and anything else of value he may have had on his person. They simply say someone to exploit for their own gain.
You know there are a lot of robber out in the world today. I am not referring to those who lie in wait and would beat you up for your wallet or purse. But those who seek to exploit others.
This reminds me of a story that was told several years ago by youth evangelist Ken Owens. He tells of how he was scheduled to speak to a large group of young people. He was running late when he pulled into a full-service gas station for gas. A little guy came out from inside. He had an old dirty hat on, his hair was all greasy, his face was covered with acne. His pants were so large that he had to keep pulling them up. The man spoke poorly and slowly. It seemed to take for ever for him to pump the gas. When Ken gave him his credit card, it took several minutes before the man came back and said they did not accept that card. Ken gave him another and after several more minutes he came back and stated that that one did not work either. Finally in desperation Ken ask, "Do you still take cash!". The man took several more minutes to make change and return it. Ken was so mad that when he left he spun his tires on the hose that makes that ding ding noise.
A few blocks away the Holy Spirit began to convict Ken about his impatience and his rudeness to the attendant. He drove back to the gas station and the little man was to scared to come back out. Finally Ken told him, "I’m really sorry for the way I treated you." The man lifted up his hat as said, "That’s okay mister, everybody treats me that way."
There are a lot of people like that in this world. People who are taken advantage of, exploited, people who it seems because they are strangers or maybe strange are treated badly. Many time we think nothing of it because everybody treats them that way.
But as Christian we should be different. We should be lovers of those who are strangers, of those who are strange. We should not be like the robbers who saw victim to exploit. We should see others as a creation of God.
We must remember that God gave us things to use, but he gave us people to love. When we start loving things more then people we begin to use people.
That is the philosophy of the world. Looking out for #1, get what we want regardless of who we hurt.
The next two fellows I want to take a look at are the priest and the Levite. What they saw was a nuisance to avoid. When they came across this man who had been beaten and robber they both crossed to the other side. This man who lay on the ground was a fellow Jew no less.
The road to Jericho was often traveled by religious men of the day. The Levites and the priest would take turns serving at the temple in Jerusalem. Many of these guy lived in Jericho and would commute to work. They would have to serve at the temple for so many days then return home.
At any rate these two guys could not have been bothered by their fellow men in distress. I am sure they had their excuses. Perhaps some of them when along these lines;
"I have been serving in the Temple. I have done my part, I have done my religious duty".
There are a lot of Christians who feel the same way. They belief that because they go to church their duty is done. While church attendance is very important to our spiritual growth, it doesn’t help our neighbor learn about the saving grace of God.
Our religious duty does not stop when we walk out the door of the church, in fact it as just begun. Let us realize that we can never do enough to serve to God. No matte how old we are, no matter how much we have done in the past, no matter what we do we should be hospitable to other, always willing to serve God more.
Maybe another excuse these two thought of was "It’s not my fault". Sure we may not be to blame with something bad happens to someone. We may not be to blame when someone has to suffer the consequence of sin.
But we are to blame if we allow them to remain in that condition when we are able to help.
To let someone continue on in their sin and not let them know of the wonderful grace of God, seen through the cross of Jesus Christ is in itself sin on our part. To see someone go down the road that leads to hell, when we know what it takes to have eternal life, and remain silent is simple wrong. Sure it may not be our fault, but that does not excuse us of our responsibility.
Perhaps the Levite and the priest thought, "Let someone else do it". Let someone else get their hands dirty taking care of this man on the road side.
That sounds like a lot of Christians today. "Let someone else do it". Let someone else help that single mom with all the kids. Let someone else share the gospel with the drunk that sit on the bench everyday. Let someone else do that job. I do not have the time, I don’t have the resources, and so on.
There are far to many Christians who for one reason or another use this excuse for being hospital to their neighbors. Let someone else do it.
Listen to 1 John 3:17; "But whoever has this world’s goods, and sees his brother in need, and shuts up his heart from him, how does the love of God abide in him?"
Think about that question.
Now we come to the hero of our story the Samaritan. While the thieve saw a victim to exploit, the priest and Levite saw a nuisance to avoid, the Samaritan say an opportunity to minister.
What we see in the Samaritan is a Christ-like example. In his response to someone in need the Samaritan displays the character of Christ. He demonstrates how we should respond to the needs of others. He shows what Paul is talking about when he tells us that we are to be hospitable.
The Samaritan responds the same way Christ responded to us. Because we can that man, beaten by those thieves and left for dead, as the way we were before Christ saved us.
But we were not simple beaten down spiritually, scripture states that we were dead.
In the book of Eph. Chapter 2 we are told both in verses 2 and 5; "And you He made alive, who were dead in trespasses and sins,"
"even when we were dead in trespasses, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved),"
Before Christ makes us alive spiritually, we are dead. Not just spiritually wounded, but dead. And things come by in our lives but they pass over on the other side of the road because they cannot bring life. Good works, religion, church, and so on. But none of these things can make us alive. Is Christ Jesus who makes us alive in God. He is the only one.
And I praise Him everyday that He as made me alive, one who was dead in his sin. But now I am alive together with my Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. And He can do the same for you.
Let us turn back to our verse now and make note of the Samaritan’s behavior. First he made no excuses. He had no ulterior motives, He simple wanted to meet the need that he saw needed to be meant. He saw what needed to be done and he did it.
From experience I will say that that is very unlike a lot of Christians. And in many instances I stand guilty of it as well. To many time we wait to be asked before we are willing to do anything. We see needs but we wait to be asked before we do anything, and sometimes we just wait to be asked before we say no.
But that was not so with the Samaritan, and it was not what Paul had in mind when he tells us to be hospitable. The Samaritan was willing to get involved on a personal level.
Notice the following. He had compassion. What is compassion? Compassion is placing ourselves in the individuals position. Seeing things from there perspective. And treating them as you would want to be treated were the circumstances reversed.
Compassion is certainly something that our Lord showed. It was one of his characteristics that really stood out when you read the gospel stories.
Matthew 9:6; "But when He saw the multitudes, He was moved with compassion for them, because they were weary and scattered, like sheep having no shepherd."
When we show compassion towards other we treat then was God treated us. Where would be if God had not make us alive with Christ Jesus. Where would we be if God had not sent us His son to die on the cross, and rise again to conquer death.
Let us show just a little of the compassion that has been shown to us by our heavenly Father.
The Samaritan also made contact. He went to the man, he went to where the need was. He did not wait for the need to come to him.
He could have made some excuse as to why he should avoid contact with the wounded man, but he did not. Being hospitable means we over look obstacles. It means we do not see things that stand in our way, but that we see opportunities.
I believe that many of us fail to see needs, we fail to see opportunities because we fail to make contact. We fail to open our eyes to what is going on around us.
The Samaritan also showed Care. Compassion and making contact are not enough, we must care for other, we must minister to them.
If Christ had compassion towards us, and still came down from heaven and make contact with us, yet never ministered to us by dying on the cross, compassion and contact would have done us no good.
The Samaritan cleansed the wounds of the hurt man. He ministered to him in a very tangible way.
We are called to do the same. To have compassion is not enough. To make contact is not enough, we must minister in a real meaningful way.
Finally we see that there was cost involved in the action of the Samaritan.
A ministry that cost nothing will accomplish nothing.
It cost the Samaritan two days pay, it cost him his time, and effort. And if he had been seen helping a Jew, it would have cost him his reputation.
Our ministry must cost us something. It must cost us our time, our finances, our effort. If it cost us nothing then that is what it was, nothing. In being hospitable we need count the cost, realizing that it will cost me something. We must be willing to pay that cost.
This to is characteristic of Christ. While the salvation of God cost us nothing, it cost Christ so very much. Because God is Holy and we are not, in order to have fellowship with us a price must be paid for sin.
It was a price that we could not pay. We could not pay it with our good works, we good not pay it by going to church, we could not pay it by being part of some denomination. Nothing we could ever do could pay the price of sin.
But there was one who could, the Son of God. So Jesus left the glories of heaven, became a man, being born of a virgin. Lived a perfect life, died nailed to cross, and rose again. That is how much it cost Christ. Salvation is free but it is not cheap!
Will accept the provision God as make for you. Will you accept the price paid to God that you could never pay. Trust in Jesus today. Believe in Him as your Lord and Saviour. Trust in Him to cleanse you of your sin. Trust in Him for eternal life.
And when you know Him as Lord and Saviour, then you can begin to live like Him. Being hospitable, loving strangers and the strange.
LET US PRAY
