Christ Church

Loving the Stranger

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Hebrews 13:1-6

Let brotherly love continue. 2 Do not forget to entertain strangers, for by so doing some have unwittingly entertained angels. 3 Remember the prisoners as if chained with them—those who are mistreated—since you yourselves are in the body also.4 Marriage is honorable among all, and the bed undefiled; but fornicators and adulterers God will judge.5 Let your conduct be without covetousness; be content with such things as you have. For He Himself has said, “I will never leave you nor forsake you.” 6 So we may boldly say: “The Lord is my helper; I will not fear, What can man do to me?”

Introduction

Hospitality is one of the basic Christian duties. It is a central duty because it embodies the gospel of Jesus. At the same time, because it ought to embody the gospel, it is worth thinking through carefully so that we are not thoughtlessly embodying a false or distorted gospel.

The Texts

Paul says that Christians are to pursue or even “persecute” with hospitality – literally the “love of strangers” (Rom. 12:13). Peter says that we are to love one another in the church, and be “hospitable” to one another without grumbling (1 Pet. 4:8). In Hebrews, it says not to neglect hospitality (Heb. 13:2). In the parable of the sheep and the goats, Jesus commends the sheep who took in the stranger, for doing it unto the least of these my brethren was doing it unto Him (Mt. 25:35). Elders and pastors are to set the example for Christians by being hospitable (1 Tim. 3:2, Tit. 1:8). These commands are rooted in the Old Testament law: “You shall neither mistreat a stranger nor oppress him, for you were strangers in the land of Egypt” (Ex. 22:21). “And if a stranger dwells with you in your land, you shall not mistreat him. The stranger who dwells among you shall be to you as one born among you, and you shall love him as yourself, for you were strangers in the land of Egypt” (Lev. 19:33-34). “He administers justice for the fatherless and the widow, and loves the stranger, giving him food and clothing. Therefore love the stranger, for you were strangers in the land of Egypt” (Dt. 10:18-19).

Boaz & the Moabites

Perhaps one of the greatest biblical stories of hospitality is found in the story of Ruth, where Boaz married Ruth, the Moabitess, at great sacrifice to himself for the good and blessing and protection of a “stranger” in the land, a foreign widow. One of the lesser known genealogical facts of the Bible, that really should get more airtime, is the fact that Rahab the Harlot was the mother of Boaz (Mt. 1:5, Ruth 4:20-21). Boaz knew how to love a stranger sacrificially because his own mother had been the recipient of such sacrificial love. But there is actually quite a bit more to the story. Moab was one of the sons of the incestuous unions of the daughters of Lot (Gen. 19:35-38). The sexual sin continued in the family: Even though Balaam failed to curse Israel when he was hired by the king of Moab to do so, the women of Moab successfully seduced many of the men of Israel (Num. 25:1), bringing God’s curse in the form of a severe plague that was only averted by the well-aimed javelin of Phinehas (Num. 25:7-8). Likewise, it was during the days of the judges that Eglon king of Moab oppressed Israel and was assassinated by Ehud (Judg. 3). So, hold all of this together: it was within living memory that many Israelite men had gone to the Moabite red light district, and it was within living memory that Israel had been oppressed by the Moabites. And it was in those days, during the judging of the judges, that a destitute Moabitewoman shows up in Bethlehem. There would have been plenty of talking going on in town – and a certain bit of it was wise and godly talking.

Strangers & Strange Women

One of the famous warnings of Solomon in the book of Proverbs regards the “strange woman.” “To deliver thee from the strange woman, even from the stranger which flattereth with her words, which forsaketh the guide of her youth, and forgetteth the covenant of her God” (Prov. 2:16-17). “For the lips of a strange woman drop as an honeycomb, and her mouth is smoother than oil: but her end is bitter as wormwood, sharp as a two-edged sword” (Prov. 5:3-4). Solomon knew well from personal experience the dangers he warned of: “But king Solomon loved many strange women, together with the daughter of Pharaoh, women of the Moabites, Ammonites, Edomites, Zidonians, and Hittites, of the nations concerning which the Lord said unto the children of Israel, ye shall not go in to them, neither shall they come in unto you: for surely they will turn away your heart after their gods: Solomon clave unto these in love… And his wives turned away his heart” (1 Kgs. 11:1-3, cf. Dt. 7:1-4). This same principle is repeated in the New Testament: “Be ye not unequally yoked together with unbelievers: for what fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness? And what communion hath light with darkness?… And what agreement hath the temple of God with idols? For ye are the temple of the living God; as God hath said, I will dwell in them, and walk in them; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. Wherefore come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord” (2 Cor. 6:14-18). Likewise, “ye adulterers and adulteresses, know ye not that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Whosoever therefore will be a friend of the world is the enemy of God” (Js. 4:4). So on the one hand, God urges His people to love strangers, to welcome them into the covenant of God, to feed and clothe them. But on the other hand, God repeatedly warns about being assimilated to their ways. Jesus was/is a friend of sinners and prostitutes, precisely because He refuses to be drawn into their sin and insists on them leaving their sin behind. This is Christian hospitality; this is the gospel embodied in love for strangers.

Conclusions

These principles have a number of applications in a number of different directions: entertainment, friendship, learning from pagans, and evangelism. In the early church one of the images the church fathers used to describe how Christians should interact with pagan culture was the “war bride” law (Dt. 21:10-13). God prohibited men acting on impulse in the middle war (as is common in pagan warfare) and required that if a man wanted to marry a captive woman, she was to shave her head, trim her nails, put off the clothing of her captivity and be allowed to mourn for a full month before he could marry her. The church fathers said this was a good analogy for sorting through pagan cultures. The “strange woman” needs to be naturalized or assimilated into Israel, and this cannot be done impulsively or thoughtlessly, and she must leave behind her pagan gods and cleave to the God of Israel, like Rahab did, like Ruth did.

A caution and an encouragement: Remember that it is a fundamental Christian responsibility to provide for those of your own household first (1 Tim. 5:8). Many Christians in the name of mercy ministry/hospitality sacrifice marriages and children on the altar to this strange god. But the first rule of Christian hospitality is to create no new orphans or widows or strangers. In other words, the first strangers you are called to feed and clothe and love are the ones living in your own house. The encouragement is that as you do this well, and your family is spiritually thriving, you will be practiced in hospitality and ready to give to those in need.

The ground of all of this is the gospel: “That He might reconcile us to God in one body through the cross, thereby putting to death the enmity…Now, therefore, you are no longer strangers and foreigners, but fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God” (Eph. 2:19).

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Spiritual Child Rearing 4: God as our Father

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The Text

“. . . who, in the days of His flesh, when He had offered up prayers and supplications, with vehement cries and tears to Him who was able to save Him from death, and was heard because of His godly fear, though He was a Son, yet He learned obedience by the things which He suffered.  And having been perfected, He became the author of eternal salvation to all who obey Him, called by God as High Priest ‘according to the order of Melchizedek’ . . .” Hebrews 5:7-14

Remember that the theme in this series has been to “look” at our relationship to God as our Father through the lens of our relationship to our family. In Matthew 7:11, Jesus tells us that we can use parental examples (here) to multiply (how much more) to get to a better picture of how God relates to us. He uses relationships we can understand to leverage our ability to understand His relationship with us.

Marks of a Teenager

We are talking about a stage in life where suddenly our children have the capacity and will to either put into practice everything wrong that is beaconing them from our culture like the foolish woman of Proverbs 9:15-18. Or, they exercise their new found capacity in obedience. This is the issue.

How did Jesus Learn Obedience?

In our sermon text, Jesus prayed with such intensity that sweat formed as great drops of blood on his forehead. And we are told that He was heard because of His godly fear. Jesus prayed with complete trust in both the power and goodness of the Father — that childlikeness that I talked about in the previous message. The problem was not relationship — Jesus was the SON. The problem was not sin — Jesus was sinless. The answer was not due to an improper request or heart attitude — Jesus prayed with godly fear. The answer from the Father was given that Jesus would learn obedience through His suffering.

The Outcome of Jesus’ Obedience

The outcome of Jesus’ suffering had a number of effects: His perfection; the salvation of the world; AND the anticipated perfection of all those who follow Him! How is this? What do I mean by the anticipated perfection or obedience of those who are followers of Jesus, who are found “in Him”? Having the same mind as Christ — submitting to the Father — and suffering in the flesh result in the ceasing of sin or to say this positively — holiness (1 Peter 4:1).

Authority and Submission

The Centurion in Luke 7:6-8 was a powerful man and righteous in the sight of the Jewish elders. He was a compassionate man, seeking the welfare of his servant. Still, he humbles himself personally before Jesus and further demonstrates by his faith and words that he believed that Jesus was not only the higher authority but THE authority over the earth. And, here we have Jesus acknowledge that this is the faith of the Centurion was just the kind of faith that impresses Jesus.

Laying the Groundwork

Then He went down with them and came to Nazareth, and was subject to them, but His mother kept all these things in her heart. And Jesus increased in wisdom and stature, and in favor with God and men. Luke 2:51-52

What Jesus “learned” in Hebrews 5 (submission to death), began with submission to parents. This is just the simple principle that if you want to be faithful in big things, you need to start being faithful in little things. Jesus was subject to his parents. This means he was under the rule of his parents in the same sense that rulers have subjects who obey them.

Conclusion

  1. Submission is not easy, because real submission is tested when we have to do something we don’t want to do. Jesus demonstrated real submission when His request that his cup be removed was denied. Paul experienced real submission when his thorn was not removed.
  2. Submission is not an option. In Romans 6, we learn that we are either slaves to sin or slave to righteousness. In any case, we are submitting to someone. It is just that one leads to death and one to life.
  3. Submission is freeing. When we submit, we are handing over the responsibility for the outcome to the other party. A wife to her husband. A young person to their parents. Jesus to the Father. Men to leaders in the church or their organization. When we take the decision into our own hands, then we carry the full responsibility.

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The Apostles Creed 3: Almighty

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What we now know as the Apostles Creed descended from an earlier form of the creed, known as the Old Roman Symbol. The beginning of the creed dates from as early as the second century. We do not have any direct evidence that it was penned by any of the apostles, but it is an admirable summary of the apostolic teaching.

Introduction:
We have confessed our faith in God the Father, and looking ahead we saw that He is the Father of Jesus Christ. We are not confessing faith in some kind of an abstract definition. And yet, like all particular persons, God the Father has attributes and characteristics, which means that we do have to get into some definitions. The first one mentioned here is that He is the Almighty.

The Text:
I believe in God the Father Almighty, Maker of heaven and earth, and in Jesus Christ, his only begotten Son, our Lord. He was conceived by the Holy Ghost, and born of the virgin, Mary. He suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, died, and was buried. He descended into Hades. On the third day He rose again from the dead, ascended into Heaven, and sits at the right hand of God the Father Almighty; from thence He will come to judge the living and the dead. I believe in the Holy Ghost, the holy catholic Church, the communion of saints, the forgiveness of sins, the resurrection of the body, and the life everlasting. Amen.

Summary of the Text:
The Creed was originally written in Greek, and the word here rendered as Almighty is pantokrator, meaning omnipotent or almighty. This is an attribute of God that is an overarching description, and that same word is used in various places in the New Testament (2 Cor. 6:18; Rev. 1:8; 4:8). But as we arrive at this description of Him, we have to be careful not to detach it from what Scripture reveals to us everywhere else.

The Divine Attributes:
When talking about God, we do have to talk about His attributes. There is no other way for finite beings to discuss an infinite being. And in addition, we know that this is lawful for us to do (and not impudence) because the Bible does it all the time. And so we must recognize that these are attributes that can distinguished from one another, but never separated. For an illustration we can easily distinguish height and breadth. A child can do that. But separating themselves would be another matter. So we can distinguish God’s power, and kindness, and holiness, and love, and so on. But we cannot separate them; they are all one in the divine simplicity.

That said, we need to distinguish certain aspects of God’s being that He delights to share with us and others that He does not share. In fact, He cannot share them with us in the very nature of the case. He communicates His holiness and His love to us, for example, but not His omnipresence.

When God communicates His love to us (Rom. 5:5), for example, He is making countless finite creatures more like Himself, and this is a process that will continue on forever and ever. We will always have head room, always have room to grow. But there are certain characteristics that God could not share without creating a second God alongside Himself—which is absurd, as nonsensical as a four-side triangle.

 

Admonishing the Sophomoric:
So this leads to a predictable question. If God is Almighty, well, then, can He make a rock so heavy that He can’t lift it? This assumes a false understanding of what the infinite power of God actually means. Of course He cannot make a rock like that—there are many things the Omnipotence cannot do. God cannot be tempted (Jas. 1:13). He cannot lie (Num. 23:19). He cannot undo His own omnipotence. God cannot do anything in violation of His own nature or character. Putting it the other way around, God can do absolutely anything that is consistent with His nature and character.

As C.S. Lewis said somewhere—quite trenchantly—nonsense doesn’t stop being nonsense just because we are speaking it about God.

The Place of Logic:
And here is another place where some rarified theology is of immense practical importance. Some people object to reasoning like this because, they say, “logic doesn’t apply to God.” But if that is the case, then we should all eat, drink, and be merry, for tomorrow we die. If logic does not apply to God, then “I will never leave you nor forsake you” could easily mean “for now,” or “unless I change my mind.”

The foundation stone of logical reasoning is what is called the “law of identity”—A is A. Other laws accompany it—A does not equal not A, the law of non-contradiction. But before your eyes glaze over, let me ground this in the express word of God. “Jesus Christ the same yesterday, and to day, and for ever” (Heb. 13:8).

But we still have to be careful how we talk about this. If logic is subordinate to God, and subject to arbitrary change, then we are all in this terrible spot. But if logic is senior to God, and He somehow submits to it, then this is the will and voice of another God, the true Most High God. And that is absurd. So what this means is that “right reason” or “logic” is an attribute of God. When we are talking about consistency, we are reflecting what God is like, and that means what God is everlastingly like.

Our Refuge and Strength:
Now let us go back for a moment to the Fatherhood of God for a moment. It striking that one of the few places in the New Testament where the same word for Almighty is used has a close relationship to the Fatherhood of God, just like in the Creed. “And will be a Father unto you, and ye shall be my sons and daughters, saith the Lord Almighty” (2 Cor. 6:18).

When the Bible talks about the power and strength of God, it overwhelmingly does so by describing His might on behalf of His people. The strength of God is not abstract doctrine given to us for the entertainment of abstruse theologians.

Boil this down. What this means that you in the will of God outnumber absolutely everybody. “For they got not the land in possession by their own sword, Neither did their own arm save them: But thy right hand, and thine arm, and the light of thy countenance, Because thou hadst a favour unto them” (Ps. 44:3). And if you would see the right arm of God, then you must look to Jesus Christ.

 

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Savior of the World #5

Joe Harby on

INTRODUCTION:

In this series of messages we have been presenting what is, for many, a very different way of looking at the Scriptures. We have been talking about historical optimism, as opposed to the rampant historical pessimism of the modem evangelical world. But we must be careful in using phrases like “way of looking at the Scriptures.” This refers to what is called our hermeneutic, which refers to the art of interpretation, and so we must take some time to consider this. The word comes from Hermes (otherwise known as Mercury), the god of messages. But he was also the god of thieves, which is why we need to be careful.

Now if we presuppose the biblical hermeneutic in order to come to the Bible, then have we really derived it from Scripture? And if we come to the Bible without a hermeneutic in order to learn what our hermeneutic should be, then how can we learn anything? This applies to more things than eschatology, but it certainly applies there.

UNDERSTANDING SCRIPTURE:

We must understand the nature of words, the nature of communication: Words are never spoken into a void. All communication presupposes at least a speaker, a message, and a recipient. Communication needs these three elements as a bare minimum. If you assume communication, you are assuming these three things. And without a hermeneutic a man is as deaf as a post.

The Word of God is not spoken into the Void. The Bible is the Word of the self-revealing triune God, who thereby reveals Himself to man. The Bible is not the Word of God suspended in the sky. It is the Word of God to man. Thus we have the three dements necessary to communication—the speaker is God, the message is the Word, the recipient is man. And man, in order to “hear,” must have a built-in hermeneutic, given to him by God. As Jesus said, “He who has ears to hear, let him hear” (Matt. 11:15). Logocentric discourse is therefore inescapable—God, in giving us language, has seen to it.

HERMENEUTICAL DISCIPLES:

So our pattern should be that of allowing the New Testament to provide commentary on what passages in the Old Testament mean. We have the basic hermeneutic already, which is then refined and sanctified as we calibrate it according to Scripture.

For the apostles not only teach us about Jesus. For example, the apostles also teach us about particular passages, as in Deuteronomy, say.

Because our subject is historical optimism, we will be looking at places which deal with this subject, but the process should govern all our studies. Allow the New Testament to

teach you the Old Testament. The Bible teaches Bible—and so let us consider here Psalms, Deuteronomy, and Isaiah.

Psalm 2—The second psalm is quoted in multiple places in the New Testament (Acts4:25-26; Heb. 1:5; 5:5; Acts 13*33; Rev. 227; 19:15). The psalm has twelve verses. The first two are quoted in Acts 4 and applied to the crucifixion. God’s response is one of laughter. He then declares Himself concerning His Son. Verse 7 is quoted three times in the New Testament, and in each instance, the reference is to Christ’s becoming something after His completed work. Acts13:33 makes this explicit in the resurrection. In verse8, right after the resurrection, Christ is given the nations. The next verse (9) is quoted at least twice in Revelation; the first time Christ shares His authority with those believers who overcome, and the second time it is applied to Christ alone. The psalm concludes with an appeal to the kings of the earth to make their peace with the Christ.

Isaiah—the great vision of glory and peace is given in Isaiah, and we know it well. The lion will lie down with the lamb. But when will this happen? Let the New Testament tell us. “They shall not hurt nor destroy in all My holy mountain, for the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover the sea. And in that day there shall be a Root of Jesse, Who shall stand as a banner to the people; for the Gentiles shall seek Him, and His resting place shall be glorious” (Is. 11:9-10). Notice how Paul quotes this passage in Romans 15:12. “Now I say that Jesus Christ has become a servant to the circumcision for the truth of God, to confirm the promises made to the fathers, and that the Gentiles might glorify God for His mercy, as it is written . . . And again, Isaiah says: ‘There shall be a root of Jesse; and He who shall rise to reign over the Gentiles, in Him the Gentiles shall hope’” (Rom. 15:8-9, 12). Simply put, Paul tells us that Isaiah’s vision began to come to fruition in his day, in his mission to the Gentiles.

Deuteronomy—Through Moses God promises the people of Israel a prophet like Moses. This is quoted by Stephen in Acts 7:37 and applied to Christ. Acts 322-23 makes the same identification, but with more information. “Jesus Christ . . . whom heaven must receive until the times of restoration of all things, which God has spoken by the mouth of all His holy prophets since the world began. For Moses truly said to the fathers, The Lord your God will raise up for you a Prophet like me from your brethren. Him you shall hear in all things, whatever He says to you. And it shall be that every soul who will not hear that Prophet shall be utterly destroyed from among the people. Yes, and all the prophets, from Samuel and those who follow, as many as have spoken, have also foretold these days. You are sons of the prophets, and of the covenant which God made with our fathers, saying to Abraham, ‘And in your seed all the families of the earth shall be blessed.’ To you first, God, having raised up His Servant Jesus, sent Him to bless you, in turning away every one of you from your iniquities” (Acts 3:19-26)

The psalmist again—Psalm 110 is also quoted many times in the New Testament (Matt: 22:44; Mk 1236; Lk 20:42-43; Acts 2:34-35; Heb. 1:13; 5:6; 7:17, 21). The psalm ends with Christ crushing the rulers of the whole earth. But how is this to be done? In the gospels Christ quotes the psalm to show that David’s Lord is also David’s son. But in Acts2:33-35, the passage is applied to the present reign of Christ at the right hand of the

Father. The rest of the quotations refer to Him as both prince and priest in terms of a present reality. This means that He will remain at God’s right hand until His gospel work is accomplished.

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