Please turn with me to Hebrews, chapter 12
Over the past few weeks, we have been studying four passages that shape the core of our ministry at Stonebrook. In Matthew 28:18-20, Jesus commands his church to make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey all that He commanded. How do we work that out at Stonebrook?
Week 1, we looked at2 Timothy 3:15-4:4, and saw that Christ-centered, Expository (or “Word-shaped”) Worship and The Spiritual Disciplines deepen our faith, as God’s Word does its life-creating and sustaining work. This is why the hub of our ministry is to gather each week to hear God’s voice through His Word in the Scripture.
Week 2, we looked at Acts 2, and how Biblical Community and Discipleship sustain our spiritual health. Sunday morning worship is the hub and starting point of our week of walking with the Lord. If you have to pick only one, we’d urge you to be here on Sunday morning as a priority, but it will be incomplete on its own. We are meant to grow in Christ together as we share our lives and bear one another’s burdens and speak the Truth of God’s Word in love to one another. That kind of closeness requires smaller groups.
Last week, we looked at Romans 12 and saw how Generosity and Service Expand Our Reach. Being rooted in God’s Word: changed by His gospel message, overflows into generosity and service. As we understand God’s mercy toward us, we offer ourselves completely back to him. And as we offer ourselves to Him, He points us outward toward others, to serve them, just like He does.
This week, we’re going to look at our final passage, Hebrews 12:22-13:2, and see how the cycle completes. With our faith deepened by God’s word, sustained by Biblical community, overflowing into generosity and service, more and more people here the Good News of Salvation through Jesus Christ, and come to follow Him by gathering with His people. So we must make room for them! Just as Christ welcomed us when we were strangers to Him, so we are to welcome the stranger into our midst. We are to show hospitality to the newcomer.
We see this, among many other places in the New Testament, in the book of Hebrews.
A brief overview of Hebrews
Just last year, we preached through the book of Hebrews. You can go and find that series on our website if you’d like to give it a listen. The book is written to Christians in the first century who had converted from Judaism, the Law of Moses in the Old Covenant. These new believers were under pressure from their community, friends, family, and neighbors who do not believe that Jesus is the Messiah spoken of in the Old Covenant. They were being pressured to come back to the Old Covenant sacrificial system. To give up on their following of the teachings of Jesus.
The whole book is a sermon, and in it the preacher has been urging them not to turn back from following Jesus, because there is nothing to go back to! The only way that their sins can be taken away is through Jesus! The old covenant sacrifice, the law of Moses, never took away sin; its purpose was only ever to point to the coming Messiah, Jesus, and now that it had done that, the Old Covenant is now completed, fulfilled, finished! God’s people now have a New Covenant, through Jesus.
As citizens of heaven, be thankful
And where we pick up in chapter 12, verse 22 is really the climax of the Preacher’s sermon.We see that this New Covenant forms a New Community. The author encourages these Hebrew Christians who have been kicked out of their communities, that they are now part of a new family! A new people!
If you scan up a few verses, you’ll see him talking about “coming to… blazing fire, darkness, gloom, and storm, blast of a trumpet, and the sound of words…” - That’s a description of Mt. Sinai in the book of Exodus where God gave Moses the Old Covenant. We’re not under the Old Covenant any longer, but now, Christian…
Hebrews 12:22–24 (CSB)
22 Instead, you have come to Mount Zion, to the city of the living God (the heavenly Jerusalem), to myriads of angels, a festive gathering, 23 to the assembly of the firstborn whose names have been written in heaven, to a Judge, who is God of all, to the spirits of righteous people made perfect, 24 and to Jesus, the mediator of a new covenant, and to the sprinkled blood, which says better things than the blood of Abel.
When you come to Christ, you are now part of Mount Zion, God’s city! The Heavenly Jerusalem! The fulfillment of all of God’s promises! And there are five we encounter as citizens of God’s city:
- “Myriad of angels…” - The angels in heaven are throwing a party!
- “The assembly of the firstborn…” - All of God’s people on earth today, every other follower of Jesus, living on the planet today, is a citizen with you of this heavenly country.
- “a Judge who is God of all…” - We have a righteous judge, a terrifying thing for those who do not follow Christ, but a comfort to those who do.
- “the spirits of righteous people made perfect” - These are all who had faith in Jesus, who have already died, cheering us on as we run our race.
- And most importantly of all: “Jesus, the mediator of the new covenant, and the sprinkled blood.” - Evidence that all of our sin has been paid for, and we can now come to God on judgment day without fear, and with great gratitude!
The author goes on if you are in Christ, you are now part of the heavenly Jerusalem, God’s city, and you’ll never be kicked out. That’s what he means when he says:
Hebrews 12:28 (CSB)
Therefore, since we are receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken,
So what should our response be to all that??
…let us be thankful…
And then we come to chapter 13, where he gives ten (depending on how you count them) - “application points” of his sermon. Ten ways to show your thankfulness for Christ’s shed blood, offered as the sacrifice that fulfilled the Old Covenant law, and made a way for us to be right with God.
Love your siblings and strangers.
We’re going to look at the first two. Twin commands that are very poetic in the original language.
Hebrews 13:1–2 (CSB)
Let brotherly love continue. Don’t neglect to show hospitality, for by doing this some have welcomed angels as guests without knowing it.
The city “Philadelphia” is called “The City of Brotherly Love” - because that is literally what “Philadelphia” means - brotherly love. It’s the word here. “Let philadelphia continue” - and then the next command is a twin word: “Philaxenias” - or … strangerly love. Love for strangers. In light of Christ’s sinless life, his teaching, his miracles, his death and resurrection, and that he is now reigning as King over the whole universe - and we are in His Kingdom, continue loving your brothers and sisters, and don’t forget to love strangers.
“Let brotherly love continue.” This is an exhortation to keep doing what I believe our church family is so good at: loving our brothers and sisters in Christ. Helping them in their time of need. Mourning with them in their grief. Celebrating with them in their joy. Supporting them in their time of struggle.
But it is the preacher's twin exhortation that we are focusing on this morning. “Do not neglect to show hospitality.” Or more literally, “do not forget to love strangers.”
This is a reminder to the church, and so to us, to be on the alert that we don’t simply become a “holy huddle” or a “Christian clique.” A place where “…we have our friends and our relationships that we value very highly, so please don’t ask us to add anyone to our lives.” That’s an attitude that Hebrews warns us to be on the lookout for. I’m grateful that God has given us grace in this area as well. Welcoming newcomers, loving strangers, hospitality, is very important to us!
Christ welcomed us to Mt. Zion, the Heavenly Jerusalem, His Kingdom! And He asks us to make sure we are welcoming new people that He brings into our lives. And that’s why an important way that we carry out Christ’s Great Commission to make disciples is by showing hospitality.And it starts with our hearts.
Hospitality makes room
Make room in your heart.
The kind of love that Christ teaches us is going to stretch us. Love for newcomers, love for strangers, is going to ask us to get outside our comfort zones. It’s going to ask us to look past assumptions, prejudices, biases, and external differences. It’s going to ask us to exert energy where we’d rather not.Remember that Romans 5:8 teaches that “Christ loved us while we were still his enemies!” The kind of love that Christ showed us cost him, and he asks us to show love that costs us.
Making room in your heart works itself out practically first in your home.
Make room in your home.
The idea of hospitality has been damaged greatly by marketing in the United States. First, Better Homes and Gardens Magazine published all the recipes homemakers weren’t skilled enough to make, all the decorations they couldn’t afford, and the standard of tidiness that was impossible to accomplish without hired help. Martha Stewart took that mantle on and showed how to make those recipes and decorations, further antagonizing us with how seemingly simple (and yet still impossible) it all was. Now, Pinterest and social media have us doomscrolling, and with each new image, we're further convinced that we’ll never realistically be good enough to host people in our home.
Hospitality isn’t about throwing fancy parties to impress everyone with our superb hosting skills. Hospitality is about helping people feel welcome in your circle. Do you have room in your relationships, in your friendships, in your family, to adopt those who do not have anything to offer you?
I just heard that fifteen families signed up to host our college student bible studies for Sunday lunches this fall!Praise God for your generosity and hospitality! It will have a massive impact on their lives. And college students, if you are new, and looking for a way to get to know families in the church, or at least looking for a good meal? Join a bible study!(Don’t worry, they might even let you tag along with them if you don’t…)
This is a simple reflection of our relationship with Christ. He welcomes us to His feast, and there is nothing that we have to offer that He needs. He simply wants to pour His blessing out to us, and for us to carry that blessing out to others so that they will come to know His love for them!
Making room in your heart and in your home also works itself out as we work together to welcome newcomers into the church!
Make room in God’s household.
When Hebrews 12:23 talks about “the assembly of the firstborn whose names have been written in heaven…” - it is talking about the church. The gathering of God’s people. Every week, the whole family of our little local branch of God’s big universal church gathers to “Find Gospel Hope in God’s Word.” And we are excited to share that with everyone who comes through our doors.
We want every newcomer who is here seeking hope in Jesus to know that there is a place for them here.Everything we do on Sunday is designed to obey Hebrews 13:1-2: love our brothers and sisters, and show that same love to strangers.
We teach the Bible clearly, and invite everyone to respond in faith to Christ’s call to follow him. We sing praises to our great Creator God for his incredible mercy. Because of that mercy, we greet each other warmly - whether it's your thousandth time here, or especially if it's your first. Hopefully, none of you newcomers make it out of here without at least connecting in a conversation. And if you are ready to jump in, just ask someone for info about our small groups and other ministries, or check in at the connect desk after the service.
This works all the way down to the details of our kids' check-in process, and safety policies so that parents can know that their children are in good hands, to our parking ministry helping manage the wonderful chaos in the parking lot between services with gentleness and a smile, to the cafe serving donut holes and good coffee.
We want you to know that there is room for you here. By God’s grace, we’ll never water down the message to make you feel more comfortable, but with everything else, we’re working to make everything clear and accessible to all who want it.
A word to the newcomer
If you are new here this morning, we are so happy you came, and the other pastors, I, and the leaders look forward to meeting you personally eventually. Next week, after the second service, we’re hosting a time where we can get to know each other and hear one another’s stories — that’s the “explore” event in your bulletin — we’d love to have you sign up for that. We’ll also be up here after the service today to say hello.
We hope that you’ll know you’re welcome, whoever you are. More than that, we hope you understand that Jesus welcomes you, whoever you are. A fair warning, though, that in my 25 years of walking with Jesus, it's a wild ride. An old saying goes that Jesus welcomes you, whoever you are, just as you are. But he also loves you too much to stay just as you are. He’s got a plan to grow you and me and all of us into something much better than that. I hope you join us for that ride.
Jesus has offered all of us a hospitable welcome into His kingdom, through faith in His work and repentance from ours. For those of you who follow Jesus, our passage today reminds us that because Christ welcomed us, we respond with gratitude that overflows in love and hospitality for others.
Let’s pray.
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