Christian Hospitality: How Jesus Accomplishes the Great Commission through the Missions-Minded Sojourner and the Gospel-hearted Host (Matthew 10:40-11:1)

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What is biblical hospitality?

If I were to conduct a survey among our church and ask, “What is biblical hospitality?” I believe many of you would respond by describing it as hosting a lavish meal, spending time with fellow believers, and perhaps referencing ministries primarily organized by women. Those answers hold some truth; both Peter and Paul commended the church for its hospitality towards one another (1 Peter 4:9; Romans 12:13). The early church shared meals. Although women likely played significant roles in various aspects of ministry, a closer examination of Biblical hospitality examples reveals that men predominantly lead them. (For instance, Abraham organizes the meal and accommodation for the three visitors announcing Isaac's birth, while Lot ensures the safety of his guests in Sodom.) This indicates that the Bible differentiates between the fellowship of believers and biblical hospitality, even where they intersect.
Additionally, it seems that the church often derives its understanding of hospitality more from contemporary culture than from Scripture.  Unnecessary burdens are put on the host to ensure the experience is on par with what you would experience at a vacation resort. The poor are not visible because they are not invited. The gospel is not fully preached because it ruins the vibe. The bible teaches Biblical hospitality embodies both the spirit of God’s righteous nature and the Great Commission.
Moses taught that hospitality should reflect the character of God by loving the sojourner and providing food and shelter for them (Deut 10:18-19). Concerning widows in the church Paul says that hospitality is about showing kindness to someone who has not means to show it back (1 Timothy 5:10). The writer of Hebrews implies the same thing when he says, “Do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers, for thereby some have entertained angels unawares.” (Hebrews 13:2) The strangers he is referring to are angels who look like they are the poor and marginal of society. Jesus came into this world to sacrifice his life to pay the sin-debt of strangers who had no ability to pay Him back, so they could be welcomed into his eternal home.
Mark Tatlock wrote a chapter on hospitality in a book called “Biblical missions: Principles, Priorities, and Practices.” He captures the idea of biblical hospitality well when he says,
Biblical Missions: Principles, Priorities, and Practices 62. Imitating God’s Gracious Invitation: Biblical Hospitality and the Gospel

One of the most impactful and loving things an individual can do is extend a welcoming invitation. Biblical hospitality is the demonstration of the spiritual reality that God

This morning, I want to have a better understanding of biblical hospitality and what it means for FBCL. I want you to know that,

Biblical hospitality reflects the nature of God and joyfully advances His kingdom through the the missions-minded stranger and the Gospel-hearted host.

Jesus sends his disciples out to joyfully advance the kingdom of God. Consider the context of Matthew 10, where Jesus summons his twelve disciples and gives them the authority to heal and expel unclean spirits. He instructs them to concentrate on the lost sheep of Israel, share the message of the kingdom of heaven, heal the sick, and perform miracles without seeking any compensation or material gains. Jesus forewarns them about forthcoming persecution, advising them to be both shrewd and innocent while assuring them that the Spirit will guide their words when they are persecuted. He highlights the sacrifices involved in discipleship, indicating that loyalty to Him might cause conflict within families, and that genuine followers must place Him above everything else. Jesus encourages them not to fear those who can only harm the body but to revere God, who has authority over both body and soul. With this message, He commissions them to joyfully advance the kingdom of God by making much of Jesus in the church, community, and home.
As they are going out into the world to evangelize the lost, Jesus will use biblical hospitality to reflect His nature and advance His kingdom (Matthew 10:11–14). To begin with, it might be helpful to understand hospitality in the cultural practice in ancient Israel.

Hospitality in the Old Testament

Hospitality in the Old Testament is more than having someone over for a meal. It is about welcoming the stranger and the alien into your community and fellowship with the intention of caring for their needs. Rodney Duke explains the context of why hospitality was so important in antiquity.

The plight of aliens was desperate. They lacked membership in the community, be it tribe, city-state, or nation. As an alienated person, the traveler often needed immediate food and lodging. Widows, orphans, the poor, or sojourners from other lands lacked the familial or community status that provided a landed inheritance, the means of making a living, and protection. In the ancient world the practice of hospitality meant graciously receiving an alienated person into one’s land, home, or community and providing directly for that person’s needs.

God’s Word reveals that biblical hospitality is primarily about aiding strangers and is exemplified by those who are also travelers (sojourners) in this world (Mark Tatlock). Hospitality emphasized the relationship between God and the Israelites, portraying God as a righteous host and them as dependent on His grace.
In the Old Testament, God embodies hospitality by hosting and caring for Israel, the stranger journeying through the world. This is vividly illustrated in the Exodus narrative, where God liberates them from slavery. While wandering in the wilderness, He meets all their needs and shields them from enemies. Eventually, as they enter the promised land, God continues to act as their host, caring for his people who have no home of their own, and bestowing His abundant blessings of food, protection, prosperity, and hopeful posterity upon them.
Hospitality is connected to God’s covenant love and loyalty. It is connected to God’s blessing as seen in Genesis 18. Abraham entertains three divine quests providing them a meal and a place to rest. It involves protection. In Genesis 19, Lot invites the angels into his home providing them care and protection from the wicked of Sodom and Gomorrah. It conveys loyalty. Rehab offers hospitality to the Israelite spies showing her loyalty to Yahweh. Abigail provides hospitality to David and his men in 1 Samuel 25, sacrificing the goods of her home to care for the needs of a future king being chased down by a fallen king. It often entails sacrifice. The widow of Zerephath provides hospitality for Elijah when facing starvation herself in 1 Kings 17. God established cities of refuge and stressed the importance of caring for sojourners.
As God himself has been a good hospitable host to Israel, he expects Israel to do the same for the strangers and aliens who come to their land. For Israel, hospitality was an act of God’s righteousness that afforded them the opportunity to invite the strangers and aliens of the world to experience the grace and mercy of Yahweh; to hear his truth, live in covenant with Him, and to experience his blessings.
To be sure, Israel was not perfect in being hospitable. It’s hard to be hospitable to a group of people you view as lower than stray dogs, but hospitality was common practice in Israel. Jesus understood God’s design for hospitality, and he used it as a means of grace for his ministry.

Hospitality in the New Testament

In the New Testament, hospitality was at the heart of Jesus’ ministry to the stranger and sojourner, and to the marginal of society. Consider Jesus’ practice of welcoming the lost and dining with people who ordinarily would have been excluded from fellowship. Jesus’ hospitality was distinct in that he invited the poor and marginal not the rich and prominent. For example, in the gospel of Luke Jesus says.
“...‘When you give a dinner or a banquet, do not invite your friends or your brothers or your relatives or rich neighbors, lest they also invite you in return and you be repaid. But when you give a feast, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind, and you will be blessed, because they cannot repay you. You will be repaid at the resurrection of the just.’ ” Luke 14:12–14
The point is, like the Old Testament practice, Jesus used hospitality to draw people who normally would not be invited to dinner into a hospitable place to experience the grace of God and to hear the gospel. Even the message of salvation is laced with hospitality. Think about a very common scripture used in relation to the gospel message; Revelation 3:20.
“20 Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and eat with him, and he with me.” Revelation 3:20
The one who hears the gospel must become a host to Christ, and Christ must enter in as a guest. Then, in a turn of events, once you welcome Jesus into your house, Jesus becomes the host who invites you into his house for the marriage supper of the Lamb! (Revelation 19:7–9) At this point in my study for this sermon, I realized, hospitality is at the heart of evangelism. Furthermore, Jesus expected the church to continue to practice His hospitality as a means of grace to share the gospel and a living display of the righteous nature of God.
Jonathan Leeman sums this idea up well. He says,

“

In other words, hospitality should be a picture of the gospel. It should be a natural component of the missionary and church leader’s regular ministry toward those outside of his home (Mark Tatlock).
With all of the in mind, let’s look at our text through the lens of biblical hospitality. What does Jesus have to say to us in Matthew 10:40-11:1, regarding the Great Commission and hospitality? First of all, keeping in line with the Old Testament, Jesus emphasizes biblical hospitality is about receiving.

Biblical Hospitality Receives

Jesus uses the word “receive” eight times in two verses. The word means to “accept” or to “welcome.” It also carries the idea to accept the presence of a person with friendliness. As I’ve already stated, the people you accept are strangers and sojourners, poor and marginal, unbelievers, and even your enemies. Paul makes note of this is his epistle to the Roman church. He commands them to express worship to God as a living sacrifice (Romans 12:1). The he explains what a living sacrifice looks like in Romans 12:12-21. Right after Paul says to
“13 Contribute to the needs of the saints and seek to show hospitality.” Romans 12:13
he says
“14 Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse them.” Romans 12:14
The Roman church was being persecuted by their pagan neighbors. Instead of returning evil for evil, Paul says bless your persecutors, live peaceably with them. When you live in peace, God gives wonderful opportunities for the kingdom to advance. One of the ways you bless them and offer peace is to be hospitable to them is to accept an invitation into their home and by welcoming them into your home. What happens when they feel safe enough to invite you into their home to pray with them, hear God’s word, and see his character in you? What happens to our political environment, our community, when we open our doors and invite the progressive liberal to LGBTQ person to eat a meal at our table? What happens when we intentionally care for them the way God intentionally cares for us?
Jesus’ hospitality requires you to receive the poor, marginal, pagan stranger into your home and your heart with the same attitude of acceptance and welcoming as the Lord receives you.
Biblical hospitality has the power to break down political and ideological walls. It has the ability to shatter the power of sin and misconceptions, bringing healing and unity. As a a disciple of Christ you get to enjoy two sides of the hospitable coin. On the one hand, you are a missions-minded sojourner who gets invited to homes. On the other hand , you are a gospel-minded host who gets to entertain your neighbor.

Missions-minded Sojourner

Jesus is speaking to his disciples whom he is sending out to preach the gospel; whoever receives “you.” His disciples are the missions-minded sojourner. In verse 40, Jesus says,
“40 “Whoever receives you receives me, and whoever receives me receives him who sent me.” Matthew 10:40
As a guest in the home of the one showing hospitality, what does a missions-minded sojourner bring with them?

The missions-minded sojourner brings the Father and the Son.

The person who opens their home to the Lord’s disciple receives the Triune God. Jesus has given his authority to his disciple’s to do his work. Jesus is identified with his disciples. Therefore, when a host welcomes a disciple of Jesus into their house, they welcome Christ. But Jesus takes it further. He says if you receive him, you also receive the Father. The hist is not just receiving a person from the church or a Christian friend. God himself enters the house with the disciple as the Father and the Son. And of course, since Jesus has given his Spirit to his disciples, the Holy Spirit is there as well. It has been said in the church,
Who practices hospitality entertains God Himself.
Anonymous
In the 19th century, a group of early Christian missionaries traveled to remote regions of India, often staying in small villages with humble homes. One such missionary, recalled, that whenever he entered a home that welcomed him, he felt the presence of God with him. Those who received him were not just welcoming a person; they were inviting the very essence of the Holy Trinity into their lives. To welcome a disciple of Jesus is to welcome the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit into the home. To be a disciple of Jesus is to bring the triune God to those who need his mercy and resurrection life.

The missions-minded sojourner brings the word of God.

Jesus says,
“41 The one who receives a prophet because he is a prophet will receive a prophet’s reward…” Matthew 10:41a
By the time Matthew wrote his gospel, the were men who were called Christian prophets. These were men who acted as messengers of the gospel. In Jesus’ day, however, the term likely held more of its Old Testament meaning. In our context Jesus refers to his disciple as a prophet in the sense that he is a messenger of God’s word. He comes in the authority of Jesus bringing the word of God to the home. The host who welcomes the prophet receives the word of God. They are open to hearing the prophet explain the truths of the Lord. This is good for the host because as Warren Wiersbe says,
The more we receive the Word of God, the more we will want to fellowship with the God of the Word.
Warren W. Wiersbe

The missions minded sojourner brings the character of God.

“41...and the one who receives a righteous person because he is a righteous person will receive a righteous person’s reward.” Matthew 10:41
If the prophet brings the word of God the righteous man brings the character of God. The righteous man’s life reflects God’s true and honorable nature. The righteous man expresses God’s righteousness in the consistency of their words and deeds, showing by the way, their words and deeds flow from a heart that us ruled by Christ. I like the way John MacArthur puts it,
John MacArthur Sermon Archive The Hallmarks of Discipleship, Part 3

A prophet is what he says, and a righteous man is what he is … and they really speak of the same individual. For a true disciple lives what he says. He speaks and he is. He speaks the word forth and he is righteous.

When I think about the righteousness of a sojourner, Joseph comes to mind. He was a sojourner for most of his adult life. Despite being sold into slavery and wrongfully imprisoned, he maintained his integrity and faithfulness to God. He reflected God’s righteousness to Potiphar’s wife when he refused to sleep with her. His integrity was so outstanding that while in prison, the head guard left Joseph in charge of everything withour any accountability. When he rose to power in Egypt, he demonstrated God's righteous character by saving many lives during a famine and sparing his wicked brothers. Jospeh reminds us that a righteous man accepts God’s sovereignty and walks in God’s ways, practices true religion, and obeys God’s will by following Jesus.

The missions-minded sojourner brings the humility of God (Matthew 10:42)

Jesus describes his disciples as “little ones” in verse 42. The term “little ones” indicates their humility and perhaps their lack of experience. They are vulnerable and of little significance, at least in the eyes of the world. It speaks of being an unknown ‘nobody’, of being unimportant, insignificant, and powerless. It refers here to ordinary believers who are unobtrusive and even marginalized. It describes those who are least in the kingdom but who are subject to the opposition of the world.
Jesus came into the world as a humble servant who came to serve and give his life as a ransom for others, so he sends out his disciples, as missions-minded sojourners, who come into ones home with the humility of Christ. In the eyes of the world, missions-minded sojourners are nothing, but in the eyes of God the world is not worhty of such people.
Let’s look at the other-side of the coin.

The gospel-hearted host

Jesus says the disciple will be received by a host. If the host receives the disciple of Jesus, they are open to the gospel. Let us call them the “gospel-hearted.” Anyone who loves Jesus or is open to receiving his good news is “gospel-hearted.” The gospel-hearted who receive the prophet, the righteous man, and the little one, are rewarded for their hospitality. What is their reward?

The gospel-hearted host is rewarded with God’s favor (Matthew 10:41)

Jesus promises there is a reward for those who would receive the prophet. You will receive the prophets reward, that is what the prophet can give you. In the Old Testament, when a prophet was honored to stay in someones home, he brought God’s favor on the house. For example, when Elijah stayed with the widow woman, she was out of food. She was in no position to be hospitable to the prophet, yet, she believed Elijah and welcomed him into her home. And because she showed hospitality to God’s prophet, her food never ran out for as long as she housed Elijah (1 Kings 17:14-16).
The same woman had a young son who became ill and died. She immediately went to Elijah and he raised him from the dead. Once agin, because the Elijah was welcomed into her hime, she received the prophets reward for her hospitality.
In another example, Elijah’s protege, Elisha is welcomed into the home of a wealthy Shunamite woman. She was barren and desired son. Because of her hospitality, Elisha promised her a son. When that son was grown a bit, he also became sick and died. She called for Elisha, and Elisha raised him from the dead. She also received the prophets reward.
You might be thinking, “Surely there is more to this reward than just physical blessing. Are you trying to preach a prosperity gospel, Pastor Plumer?” Of course not. I abhor the prosperity gospel. But I am saying when you welcome the Lord into your heart and into your home, you receive His word. Faith comes by hearing His word. If you receive his word by faith, you receive his life-his eternal life, and His abundant life.

The gospel-hearted host is rewarded with true life (Matthew 10:41)

As I said before, the prophet and the righteous man describe the same person, the missions-minded disciple. The missions-minded disciple represents God in the home, and brings the way to find true life. The word they speaks explains who God is, the sin that separates them from God, and how to be reconciled with God through Christ. In short, the host hears the gospel and by faith will be rewarded with the righteousness of Jesus and receive the gift of his eternal life. Furthermore, the host will be rewarded with how to live our their abundant life in Christ now. The missions-minded sojourner teaches the gospel-minded host how to be a missions-minded disciple, and they are introduced to others who are like-minded.

The gospel-hearted host is rewarded with paradise (Matthew 10:42)

“42 And whoever gives one of these little ones even a cup of cold water because he is a disciple, truly, I say to you, he will by no means lose his reward.”” Matthew 10:42
Jesus says the host who receives God’s word and righteousness by welcoming His “little one,” will by no means loose their reward. What is their reward? It is an eschatological reward: eternal life in heaven. It includes present benefits as well as eschatological rewards, specifically peace of mind now and eternal rewards later. This reward is similar to what those in the Old Testament received when they welcomed prophets such as Elijah and Elisha. God’s favor will be on the home and the host will be sealed forever in God’s kingdom.

Jesus empowers you to be both the Missions-minded sojourner and the Gospel-hearted host so you can continue his ministry (Matthew 11:1)

“1 When Jesus had finished instructing his twelve disciples, he went on from there to teach and preach in their cities.” Matthew 11:1
Jesus continued to preach and teach the gospel, and the expectation is we will do the same. Hospitality is a means of grace Jesus will use to fulfill Great Commission in our lives. Right now, you are a missions-minded sojourner. Our citizenship is in heaven. We are strangers in this world waiting for Jesus to return or call us home. Until then, as missions-minded sojourners, engage the world with the gospel of Jesus Christ. When your unbelieving friends, neighbors, or family members, invite you into their home, go in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, bring God’s word and the character of his righteousness.
At the same time, like the Father, you are a gospel-minded host. Jesus empowers you and exhorts you to welcome strangers, even the difficult ones, into your home to demonstrate to love of Christ. Like the Father did for Israel, you are to care for them by feeding them, protecting them, lavishing your earthly needs, and speaking to their spiritual needs. You are to receive them with the same intention and heart that God has received you. God will reward the home, and I would add the church, that expresses His hospitality with His favor.

To fulfill the Great Commission, FBCL must be a Missions-minded and Gospel-Hearted Hospitable Church

As Missions-minded sojourners and Gospel-hearted hosts, we must receive the poor, the addicted, the broken, the disabled, and the unchurched into our home the way the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit has received all of us. We must know our Bibles, so we can speak God’s word truthfully. We must live consistent holy lives so we can reflect the righteous character of God appropriately. We must value humility and be ok with being insignificant, so we can all the more make much of Jesus. let us set our minds on fulfilling the Great Commission with God-honoring, Chrsit-exalting, Spirit-empowered hospitality that welcomes the stranger an sojourner home.
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