Sermon Notes: The hospitality of God and Our Response
Text: 1 John 4.7-19
Introduction
How are we to understand God in light of the cross?
At various points in history Christians have conceptualized God in light of the cross with a variety of metaphors. Since the Protestant Reformation, one dominate metaphor for understanding what God has done through Jesus Christ is that of a court room (forensic). God is a judge who pardons guilty people, executing His justice on Jesus instead. Accounting metaphors have also been used to conceptualize God--God is the Great Accountant who has balanced the books through Jesus. Reconciliation has also been a way of speaking of God's actions through Jesus.
This morning I want to suggest that hospitality is a fruitful, and biblical wrap our minds and our hearts around who God is.
What is hospitality? Examples: Chile/Argentina border; God welcoming me into his family on Jan 1, 1991.
Analysis
1. The Source of hospitality: God
A. 4.7/4/19: We love (extend hospitality) because God first loved us!
B. Romans 15.7: proslambano (welcome)--the natural response to God's welcoming us.
C. Ephesians 4.32: we love, forgive, forebear, open our lives--because God has done that to us.
D. Colossians 3.12-14
Main point: Hospitality is a reflection and an extension of God's own hospitality towards us.
2. The Shape of Hospitality: Cruciform
A. God did not welcome those who were worthy of hospitality (John 4.19; Rom 5.8; Luke)
B. God initiates--we are called to initiate too. (1 John 4.19; John 1.1-18)
C. Hospitality is costly. (1 John 4.10)
D. It is relational: atonement=at-one-ment
Exhortation
1. How have you experienced God's hospitality?
2. Who does God want you to be hospitable towards? What is your next step?
3. How can we become a community that reflects and extends God's hospitality towards us?
Introduction
How are we to understand God in light of the cross?
At various points in history Christians have conceptualized God in light of the cross with a variety of metaphors. Since the Protestant Reformation, one dominate metaphor for understanding what God has done through Jesus Christ is that of a court room (forensic). God is a judge who pardons guilty people, executing His justice on Jesus instead. Accounting metaphors have also been used to conceptualize God--God is the Great Accountant who has balanced the books through Jesus. Reconciliation has also been a way of speaking of God's actions through Jesus.
This morning I want to suggest that hospitality is a fruitful, and biblical wrap our minds and our hearts around who God is.
What is hospitality? Examples: Chile/Argentina border; God welcoming me into his family on Jan 1, 1991.
Analysis
1. The Source of hospitality: God
A. 4.7/4/19: We love (extend hospitality) because God first loved us!
B. Romans 15.7: proslambano (welcome)--the natural response to God's welcoming us.
C. Ephesians 4.32: we love, forgive, forebear, open our lives--because God has done that to us.
D. Colossians 3.12-14
Main point: Hospitality is a reflection and an extension of God's own hospitality towards us.
2. The Shape of Hospitality: Cruciform
A. God did not welcome those who were worthy of hospitality (John 4.19; Rom 5.8; Luke)
B. God initiates--we are called to initiate too. (1 John 4.19; John 1.1-18)
C. Hospitality is costly. (1 John 4.10)
D. It is relational: atonement=at-one-ment
Exhortation
1. How have you experienced God's hospitality?
2. Who does God want you to be hospitable towards? What is your next step?
3. How can we become a community that reflects and extends God's hospitality towards us?
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