HospitalityMinistry
(Message delivered by Pastor at the True Life Life Church 10.30 am Service, July 3, 05)
Text: I Tim. 3:2; Titus 1:7-8; I Pet. 4:9
Many years ago a fellow from Cyprus, an island in the Mediterranean opposite Lebanon, suddenly appeared before my house. To keep him from entering my house I stood in the doorway to block him. When he said he was looking for the pastor and wanted to confess his sins to him, I remembered Paul’s teaching to Timothy and to Titus that they be given to hospitality and be lovers of hospitality. I also remembered Peter speaking in I Peter 4:9, “Use hospitality one to another without grudging.” I let the Cyprus fellow into my house. He was full of sighs and tears and after hearing his confession, I comforted him and let him go. Let us be hospitable one to another. Do you serve your guest with a cup of coffee?
(1) Today, let me tell you how two sisters are mindful of a hospitality ministry for our church. One of the sisters spotted two new visitors to our church. She contacted them and learnt that they had come all the way from Pasir Ris. She got one of the Elders to welcome them. This must be a warm welcome and they would come again.
(2) This sister made a further suggestion that we should have a Guest Book to write down the names and addresses of the newcomers that we might follow up with them.
(3) Then it was suggested to me that we should have a team of ushers to look out for them and contact them. On second thoughts it seemed to me the best way to get them was through the two concerned sisters.
How wonderful through these two sisters we can get a dozen newcomers in no time!
(4) As Pastor, shaking hands with worshippers leaving church after service, I see many new faces each week. I am simply overwhelmed by the faces, and I have not the time to discover those that I don’t know.
(5) The two sisters quoted how in our own evangelism at Bukit Panjang we were blessed with 19 going out and how one of the people they talked to was very enthusiastic. She asked questions on the Charismatic church, tongues, etc. Should she come to True Life and no one welcome her, all of our efforts may be gone.
(6) With 300 each week worshipping at True Life we have the trouble of not knowing one another. But when we are in a small church of 30 or 40 we are bound to know one another. To start with I am suggesting our two concerned sisters to look up newcomers immediately after service.
(7) A most important reason why we must look them up, is Christ’s accelerated evangelism programme before He returns. Jesus is coming back very soon. Have you forgotten the great Tsunami, undersea Earthquake, on Dec 26, 04 and seven Earthquakes that followed until May 15. Jesus’ accelerated evangelism programme is, “And this gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world for a witness unto all nations and then shall the end come.” (Matt. 24:14)
(8) At RELC, an English Centre for teaching English to all nations we see many nationalities come to worship. It is our duty to extend our hospitality to find out our visitors if they are believers. By welcoming them they will come again. We observe Indonesians, Australians, Americans, Indians, mainland Chinese in our midst.
(9) We have also the Far Eastern Bible College with 19 nationalities. By preaching the gospel through our students we are witnessing unto the day of His coming. Our faculty with an upgrading programme for BCEA in Kenya touching many races is hastening Jesus’ Return.
(10) Do you come to relax in church and taste a good sermon without some work to do for our Saviour? How about our Elders? Paul has mentioned how bishops, i.e. Elders should be given to hospitality. Let this be our hospitality ministry.
THE GOSPEL OF LIFE: Chapter XII
Ecclesiastes 3
John 12:37-50
The Father’s Final Condemnation
When God has spoken, and spoken again, and again, and man rejects him, he is condemned for ever. With multi-audio visuals, the Voices from heaven and the miracles performed by the Son on earth, alas, the results coming from the audience were scanty. Thus comments John the Evangelist, “But though he had done so many miracles before them, yet they believed not on him” (v. 37).
When God’s mercies and grace are repeatedly rejected, then His judicial hardening of men’s hearts begin. Isaiah’s famous words are quoted to prove the point: “He hath blinded their eyes, and hardened their heart; that they should not see with their eyes, nor understand with their heart and be converted, and I should heal them” (v. 40). The best example of such rejection we can think of is Pharaoh. Despite the Lord’s relief given him after every plague, Pharaoh broke promise after promise to let Israel go. God’s grace to a hardened heart, like water oozing over cement, makes it even harder! The Jews who were privileged to see and hear so much from God’s only begotten Son became the most hardened lot against the grace of God. This is true also today. The most Christianised nations today, like those in the west, might be called Christian. The fact is they are the least Christian in proportion to the less developed countries who are just beginning to open up to the Gospel. Is that the state of your heart too, you of the third and fourth generation? “The first shall be the last.”
But there is always a remnant of believers even among the most hardened. It is satisfying to note that among them, apart from Nicodemus (Jn. 7:50) were many of the chief rulers who also secretly believed on Him (Jn. 12:42). Are you a secret believer my Jewish reader?
A final warning before Christ concluded this phase of his public ministry, “He that rejecteth me, and receiveth not my words, hath one that judges him: the word that I have spoken, the same shall judge him in the last day” (v. 48). This reflects His previous warning, “For if ye believe not that I am He, ye shall die in your sins” (Jn. 8:24).
There’s a line that is drawn by rejecting our Lord,
Where the call of His Spirit is lost, . . .
And you hurry along with the pleasure-mad throng
Have you counted, have you counted the cost?
Chapter XIII
To the Disciples already Cleansed Jesus Christ remains their Ablution of Life
It is important to note that the events of Holy Week, the last days of our Lord’s life on earth, occupy a sizeable portion of each of the Four Gospels. John devotes practically half of his book to those acts and words of Jesus not found in the other Gospels.
John Ch. 13 is a case in point. Whereas the Synoptic Gospels tell us more or less the same about the institution of the Lord’s Supper, it is John who supplements with this vivid and detailed account of Jesus washing the disciples’ feet.
If at all washing the feet is a courtesy to be observed on such an occasion as the keeping of the Passover in Mark’s other’s Upper Room, it is the disciples who should wash the Master’s feet. Instead, they were like a bunch of naughty children, vying with one another who should be No. 1 (Matt. 22:24-27). To make it worse, it was at the Lord’s Table that the dark intentions of the Traitor Judas Iscariot were conceived. Hence the hint “and ye are clean, but not all.” For He knew who should betray Him. Therefore He said, “Ye are not all clean.” Washing their feet Jesus would teach them the much needed lesson of humility and loyalty. “Proud man,” says St. Augustine, “would perish unless a lowly God found him.” So let us learn this lesson too, and wash one another’s feet in mutual esteem and forgiveness, in loyal service of the Master.
Some Christian sects practise feet-washing literally like the Seventh Day Adventists. The Pope would go around washing the feet of twelve layman during Holy Week. A holy ceremony they observe because they take Jesus’ words literally. We do not practise feet-washing because we take the object lesson rather to heart. Nor dare we tread the way of the cross, in holy service of the Master, without first having our feet washed. Let us not be as “fools rushing in where angels fear to tread.” Holiness of life and loyalty of service are both so lacking in the Church today. How do you stand up to the divine measurement set by our Lord as He stoops to wash your feet?
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