Hebrews 13:1-3
Amen. You may be seated. Please
turn in your copy to the New Testament book of Hebrews to
the 13th chapter. We hit a milestone today as we’ve
been making our way through Hebrews. We come to the very last chapter
in the book. The first 12 chapters of the
book have taught us a lot about doctrine, who God is, who Jesus
is, how Jesus is superior to Moses, to angels, to the Levitical
priesthood. And now in these last verses
of the last chapter, The writer of Hebrews, whoever he is and
whoever he was, is going to turn from doctrine to exhortation. He’s going to give us some ethical
implications. If you believe certain things
about God and Jesus, it will manifest itself in how you love
the brethren in the church. And so today’s passage in chapter
13 verses 1 through 3 helps us see, based on what we believe,
how we ought to live and act in the household of faith. And
he’s going to say to this in the next weeks, you can’t love
God and not love others. If you love God, you must love
others in the church of Jesus Christ. Think of it this way,
in the Ten Commandments, The first four commandments deal
with how we’re to love God. The second table, the latter
half, the next six commandments teach us how to love our neighbor.
And so loving God and loving neighbor is a huge theme in the
entirety of God’s Word. So chapter 13 of Hebrews will
help us understand that. Let’s hear God’s Word together
beginning at verse 1 of Hebrews 13. Let brotherly love continue. Do not neglect to show hospitality
to strangers, for thereby some have entertained angels unawares.
Remember those who are in prison as those as though in prison
with them and those who are mistreated, since you also are in the body. Amen. This is God’s holy word.
Let’s pray now and ask for his grace. Lord, your word is to encourage
us. It’s to correct us. It’s to lift up our hearts towards
heaven. It’s to show us our sin. It’s to lead us to Jesus. And
may it do all these things for us. Taylor, make your word for
each of us that its message may. May serve us well by your spirit,
we do pray in Jesus name. Amen. The television commercials have
already begun. It’s Christmas time. We haven’t
even hit Halloween or Thanksgiving, but it’s Christmas time. And
you see these commercials on television and they say something
like this. Don’t just tell your spouse or
your loved one of your love. Show your love. And then you
proceed to watch a commercial about diamonds and jewelry stores
or fancy cars or whatever gift or wear will Show your love in
a tangible way to the person whose affection you want to show. We are told that our words are
best backed up by actions. Oh, it’s one thing to say, honey,
I love you. It’s another to give her sparkling
diamonds. Well, it’s the same way for the Christian. It’s the
same way in the church of Jesus Christ. We can say all day long,
I love God. I love the church. I love the
reformed faith. I love the gospel. I love being
part of the history of the church that is in the stream of the
Protestant Reformation. I love, I love, I love. It’s
one thing to say it, but it’s another to show it. And we express
our love to God in how we live in obedience. You remember in
the Old Testament, part of the cultic practice of the Old Testament
in the tabernacle and the temple was that there were always fires
burning. And you go back and read through
Leviticus and other places in the Old Testament that the purpose
of the fire was that the incense or the offering, the smell of
it, the smoke of it would rise up to heaven. And as it entered
the nostrils of God, it would be pleasing. It would be an aroma
pleasing to him. It would remind him that his
people are following exactly what he has prescribed, that
they may have entrance into his presence. Well, as we’ve read
in the book of Hebrews, that those ways are no longer necessary
because Jesus has died. He has offered the final and
full offering that’s been accepted by God, and the curtain has been
torn in two. He’s entered the Holy of Holies.
He’s seated in the heavenly places. He ever lives above to intercede
for us. to stand on our behalf when we need help in time of
trouble. And we need not offer smoke and fire. But the way that
we please God is by offering to Him our obedience. And our
obedience rises into the heavens, into the nostrils of God. It’s
why the Apostle Paul in other places says that we are to be
living sacrifices, holy and pleasing before God. Our obedience is
an act of worship. Oh yes, we come here week after
week and we worship on the Lord’s Day in the Lord’s house with
the Lord’s people. But we worship God in all of
life as we obey Him and serve Him and others. It’s an aroma
that is pleasing and rises into His nostrils in heaven. and brings
great pleasure to Him, our Father. And so these things that we’re
gonna hear of in chapter 13, and it’ll go on into the weeks
to come about marriage and other aspects of Christian living,
these are acts of obedience that God requires of us. And as we
live holy lives doing these things, the aroma rises to heaven and
is a pleasing aroma in His sight. And so Christians love God in
that way. But we love others in tangible
ways too. It’s the same. And we can say
all day long, I love God, I love God, I love God, but not worship
Him. And we can say on the other hand, I love Christians, I love
Christians, I love Christians. We can say that all day long,
but never do anything real or tangible to show that love to
our fellow man. And so these verses will help
us. These verses will help us love God by loving others. If you look at the first verse
of chapter 13, it says this, let brotherly love continue.
Just a few simple words. It’s a passage that is echoed
elsewhere in the Bible. John, in his three letters to
the churches about this same period of time, says that if
you want to know for sure that you’re a Christian, one of the
evidences that you are a Christian is by your love to the brethren. So if you want to know, am I
a Christian? Are you wondering, do you have assurance of salvation?
Well, do you love the church? Do you love the brethren? Do
you love them in real intangible ways? John, the apostle John
says, one evidence that you’re a Christian is that you show
that love to other Christians. Jesus says the world will know
that you’re my children. The world will know that you
are Christians by your love for your fellow saints. in Jesus’
high priestly prayer that he gave the night before he died.
Just after his betrayal by Peter, or denial by Peter, and his betrayal
by Judas, Jesus is in the garden praying. Remember he asked his
disciples, pray with me, watch with me. They fall asleep. But
Jesus is praying. And Jesus is praying that his
church would be one. That his church would be united.
That we would love one another. That brotherly love would flourish. Psalm 133 goes back to the Old
Covenant. Behold, how beautiful, behold
how wonderful it is when brethren delight to dwell in unity. He
gives two illustrations in that psalm of what unity is like.
They’re strange ones. But one way it’s like is it’s
it’s like the dew from Mount Hermon falling on that desert
land. Many of you woke this morning
and as you came out to your car for church, it was not in a garage
or cupboard. It had dew on it. It was covered in moisture. Well,
that dew from Mount Hermon in the high elevations of Israel
would come and descend upon Jerusalem, God’s holy city. And that dew
would bring peace and relief. The other picture of that blessing
he gives in Psalm 133 is it’s like the oil, the oil that was
poured out on Aaron and his sons when they were anointed as priests.
And that oil poured down their heads, it went down their beards
and down their garments. And so we say with the psalmist,
behold, how good and refreshing it is, how good and clean we
feel because we’ve taken a bath. The dew, the oil has refreshed
us when brothers delight to dwell together in unity. And so in
Hebrews chapter 13, 1, when it says, let brotherly love continue,
it reminds us of a little word we learned in our American history
class. Remember when you were young and you were learning about
American history and you learned about Philadelphia? Remember
Philadelphia? You learn about the Liberty Bell,
you learn about the Continental Congress, all those things. But
Philadelphia literally means the city of brotherly love. Philos is brotherly love in the
Greek language. Delphia would be a town or a
city. And so you have in Philadelphia the city of brotherly love. It’s
one of the many words in the New Testament and in the Greek
language that express love. We say love in multiple ways
in the American language. And we overuse or misuse that
word. We say, I love ice cream. But then on the other hand we
say, I love my wife or my husband or my child. And we don’t mean
it the same, hopefully. We better love our wives as Christ
loved the church and love ice cream because it tastes good.
But we say we love hamburgers, we love cheeseburgers, we love
the 4th of July. You see how we use love very differently?
Well, in the New Testament, in the Greek language, there are
multiple words for love, but the word love that’s used here
today is not the agape love that we normally hear of, where we
love 100% sacrificially for nothing in return. No, it’s brotherly
love. What is he saying? He’s saying we are God’s people,
the chosen of the Lord, gathered in Christ, and we’re to love
one another. We’re to love one another with a brotherly and
sisterly affection. It’s a family love, a familial
love. We’re a family. We sing, I’m
so glad I’m a part of the family of God. We’ll sing in a few moments,
blessed be the tie that binds. So this is the love that is to
be on our minds in these next weeks as we look at Hebrews chapter
13, brotherly love. But you see it’s under threat.
It’s waning in the congregation that the writer of Hebrews speaks
to. There’s a fraying of their brotherly and sisterly love.
They’ve gotten busy. They’re afraid. There’s persecution.
And they’re leaving one another high and dry. And so he says
to them, let brotherly love continue. You’re obligated, you are obliged
to your family, to your siblings in Christ Jesus. And some of
them are tempted to lapse into Judaism. This is why the whole
message of Hebrews has been Jesus is better than Moses. Jesus is
better than angels. Jesus is better than the priesthood
of Levi. Jesus is superior. He’s the full
and final Word of God. Because they are tempted to go
back into Judaism because Judaism under Roman authorities is a
respected religion. And it would be culturally and
socially easier to be Jewish than it would be to be a Christian.
Christians at this time are persecuted. Their friends in the church are
being hauled off to jail. They’re being ostracized. They
are going through difficulty. And he’s saying, let brotherly
love continue. Don’t let the hardships stop. Stop you from
loving one another. You must love the brethren. It’s
costly. It’ll be hard. There’ll be trouble.
There’ll be difficulty. But you must do it. You must
be counted on by your fellow Christian. So two things for
us to consider today. Loving God means loving others.
And he says, do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers.
That’s the first thing for us to consider. Do not neglect to
show hospitality to strangers. Some of you have your favorite
hotels to stay in. I’m a Hampton Inn guy. Got the
little rewards card. A couple times a year we’ll stay
somewhere on the road in the Hampton Inn. It’s mainly because
they have that waffle maker, you know, go down to breakfast
and make waffles, it entertains the kids. But we’re Hampton Inn
people. It’s what we like. But they didn’t have Hampton
Inns back in the day Hebrews was written. They didn’t have
Holiday Inns, or Howard Johnson’s, or Marriott’s, or whatever. No hotels. But there were Inns,
there were taverns, much like we might think of in medieval
Europe. And these were not good places
to stay. You know, we have our hotels
where we don’t stay, those seedy ones out by the interstate. You
know, you just don’t go there. That’s where drugs and other
bad things happen. Well, think about that when you
think about why hospitality was important in the life of the
Hebrews. Often these inns, these taverns, were full of fleas.
They were dens of iniquity and immorality. It was unsafe and
unfit for the people of God to stay in these places. And so
traveling Christians, whether they were traveling preachers
or Christians who were displaced because of their faith, or because
they were being ostracized because of their love for Jesus, they
needed hospitality. And so in chapter 13, verse 2,
he says, He’s saying you need to be hospitable. You need to
offer a bed and a bath and breakfast, a meal. And he’s implying this to us,
you bring in other Christians, you’re bringing Jesus in. You’re
bringing honor to God’s name as you honor and house and show
hospitality to other Christians. In the New Testament, hospitality
is very important. The apostle Peter says, we’re
to be hospitable without grumbling. The Apostle Paul says we’re to
be hospitable, especially with God’s people. The Apostle Paul,
when he writes to Timothy and Titus, two men who were called
and set apart to put their respective churches in order, he says to
them, when speaking of the qualification for elder, he says, elders must
be hospitable. And in those same letters, when
Paul is speaking about qualifications for a widow to be established
as a true widow in true need of the church’s good help, the
widows must be hospitable. So you see, hospitality is an
important quality of a Christian. But we live in a day where we’ve
given up hospitality. No longer is a house designed
with a dining room. We have a breakfast bar where
we hastily eat and dash off to the next thing. We no longer
have China. We no longer have goods where
we can sit down and have a meal. And for a lengthy period of time,
we can eat together and fellowship together and look into one another’s
faces, enjoying all the good things God has given us. No,
nowadays we pull into our garages and before the tail end of our
cars in the garage, the door is down. And when we step out
into our back porches, the the eight foot six foot cedar fences
rise so high that our neighbors would have to stand on their
tippy toes to even see into our lives. I was speaking with someone
this last week in the church. And they lived in the house for
two a year now attached with two neighbors. And it wasn’t
until they had their fence pressure washed that their neighbors came
over to meet them. That’s the way we live now. We’re
not hospitable people. We’re not people who invite others
into our homes. We’re not doing what God, throughout
the Scriptures, has encouraged His people to do. There’s a benefit. There’s a blessing to being hospitable.
See, he gives an allusion to some Old Testament stories where
Abraham and Sarah were Lot, Abraham’s nephew, where Gideon, one of
the judges, and Manoah, the father of Samson, all entertained angels
unaware. We just read from Genesis chapter
18 where Yahweh himself, along with two other angels, appear
to Abraham and Sarah. And so the writer of Hebrews
says, in our hospitality we may be blessed with the presence
of God in a way that we might not ordinarily experience. And
so there’s this added motivation. Now, let me put it to you this
way. If you have people over to your house, God is not saying
to you that somebody might be an angel. You know, go home and
look at your guestbook, who all’s been in your house, and I bet
if you go through the list, you’ll say, nope, nope, nope, no angels
there. But there’s a benefit, there’s a blessing, there’s a
wonder, a joy. I would even go so far to say,
is there something even sacramental? God blesses us when we are hospitable. He blesses us and blesses others. It’s in a sense a means of grace.
God shows us in our hospitality what heaven will be like. But you see, the Hebrews, like
we in our culture, has stopped being hospitable. They’ve stopped
blessing others and in turn they have stopped being a blessing
to themselves. What is he saying here in Hebrews
chapter 13 verse 2? He’s saying literally you can’t
be unmindful to stop showing hospitality. You can’t let hospitality
drop off your priority list. When I was a young kid, our house
was full of people. Always full of people. Somebody
always sleeping on the floor of our bedroom. Somebody always
at our dinner table. Somebody always in our house
on the couch. It didn’t matter what day of the week it was.
Our house was full. I remember asking my parents,
why was this? And they experienced in the 1970s,
LaBrie Christian Fellowship in Switzerland with Francis and
Edith Schaefer. And they were shown examples of hospitality.
Their house was always full. They were always entertaining
for the sake of the gospel. And like Edith and Francis Schaeffer,
my parents wanted to be a safe place. They wanted to be a place
where people could come and there would be a bed and a bath and
a meal, but there would be godly conversation. There would be
family life. And so I can remember from my earliest days, our house
was always full of Elon students. I can think back now and remember
a man living in our porch because his wife had thrown him out of
the house. And my parents, being merciful to him, said, come sleep
on the couch in our porch until we work things out. We always
had guest preachers and missionaries. We always had Sunday lunches.
The table always set for other people. You wonder how we became
Duke fans in our family. Well, it was because a lot of
Duke students lived with us over the years, pastoral interns.
And you know what? You’re thinking in your mind,
that was probably y’all had a big house. musta had a maid and a
cook and all that. No, we were just a normal family.
We lived in a 1,200 square foot house and it was always full
of family and people. And why was that? It was because
my parents were open, because God had opened their hearts in
that way. We made room for others, but it was because our home was
attractive. People wanted to be there because
it was a safe place with safe space. Now my wife and I have
lived in four different homes, more or less, as we’ve moved
around. And every time we have sought to establish a home that
had a table and it had an extra bed. and it had the ability for
us to be hospitable to others because that is a godly characteristic.
And so if you’re in the market for a home, think about hospitality. You know, we live in a day not
with just kitchen bars where we eat quickly, but we have TV
rooms and home theaters. We don’t live in a time where
we’re thinking about hospitality. We’re only thinking about my
time, private time, man cave and movie rooms. And so we should
establish our homes in such a way that we can be a blessing to
the people of God. Do you know that when you have and show hospitality
in your home, time stands still? Oh, yes, it’s work. Oh, it’s
hard work. It’s difficult work. But time
stands still and God brings blessing and grace. People can see you
and your personality. They can learn about your history.
They can see pictures on the wall. Maybe they see your grandfather’s
war medals or the things and hobbies that you’re interested
in. And let me tell you this, sometimes when you show hospitality
in your home, that may be the only normal home life experience
someone ever has in their lifetime. And it’s so important for us
to be hospitable in our godliness as a sacrifice, as an aroma pleasing
to God that rises up to Him in heaven. So get out your tablewares. Get out your dishes. Pull out
your table. It doesn’t have to be fancy.
Your house does not have to be clean. I have a friend down in
the Charlotte area, and when our family would go eat at their
house, guess what we ate on? Paper plates. Styrofoam cups
on a plastic church table in metal folding chairs. They own
no dining room suit. They didn’t have fancy dishes
passed down from the family. No silver, no nothing special. But you know, when you’re sitting
at a table like that, you’re not looking at the plastic forks in the plastic
table. You’re seeing faces, faces of
other Christians bought with the precious blood of Jesus.
And we enjoy that fellowship and that rich life together.
So open up your home, get out your table, make up an extra
bed. He’s saying to us, you cannot be unmindful of hospitality to
strangers. There’s a second thing he tells
us. If loving God means loving others, yes, we show hospitality.
But he says, remember those. Who are in prison, that’s the
second thing, hospitality, but show that you remember those
who are in prison. There are places around the world
today where Christians are utterly persecuted, even unto death,
but imprisonment especially. That’s not happening here in
America, really, but we think of the persecuted church all
around the world. And our calling is to be sensitive,
to literally put ourselves in prison with those who are imprisoned
for the sake of the gospel, for the faith. Oh, we say we’re persecuted
here. It’s intellectual persecution.
It’s taking away our rights and freedoms, but they have not even
begun, if that’s to be the case. But think about people who lose
their life. They show up to worship, and all kinds of bad things happen.
This is about those who are really imprisoned, who are really mistreated
for the sake of the gospel. And chapter 13, verse 3 says
this, we’re to follow our fellow Christians who are in the covenant
community in prison, we need to love and serve them as if
we are in there. Now, this is not a verse for
prison ministry. Prison ministry, wonderful. We
can find other places in the Bible that give us justification
for prison ministry. This is simply this, when other
Christians are suffering for the sake of the gospel, Because
they name in the name of Christ, they preach the gospel of Christ,
and they find themselves suffering and mistreated and in prison.
We need not forget them. No, he says in verse 3, remember
those who are in prison as though in prison with them. With those
who are mistreated, since you are also in the body. He’s saying
we are connected in Jesus. We are part of the body of Christ.
When one suffers or one is in prison, we go with them and we
serve with them. We can’t shun them. We can’t
ignore them. We can’t shy away from them. You see, the temptation
was this. If I go see them in prison, I’ll be guilty by association,
and I might just end up in jail myself. And the writer of Hebrews
sang, it’s worth the risk. because we’re in the body of
Christ together. When one hurts, when one suffers,
when one is imprisoned, it’s as if we are there. He’s mentioned
this already before and earlier in chapter 10. And he said to
them, he’s even commended them, he said, when others of you suffer,
you suffer with them, you do a great thing. But now he’s reminding
them of that. Imagine at some point in time,
if in Burlington, Alamance County, if in the state of North Carolina,
in the US, religious persecution like around the world comes here.
What will we do? Will we stick together? Or will
we scatter into the night like Peter when he denied Jesus, when
Jesus needed him the most? You see, that’s what’s at stake
here. Will we identify with Jesus being arrested and led to his
crucifixion? Or like Peter, will we deny him
three times and say, I never knew the man, or of one another,
I don’t know that Christian. You see what he’s saying here?
Remember those who are in prison for the sake of the gospel. Oh,
it’s tempting to dissociate. It’s tempting to run. But he
says that should not be so for those of us who are in the household
of faith. What does Jesus have to say about
this? When I was hungry, you fed me. When I was thirsty, you
gave me drink. When I was a stranger, you welcomed
me. I was naked and you gave me clothing. I was sick and you
visited. And when I was in prison, you came. And he says, whatever
you do to the least of the saints, you’ve done to me. You see, Jesus
has taken what he was just said to us in Hebrews. When someone’s
in prison, we serve as if we’re in prison with them. And Jesus
is saying it’s as if you’re serving me. It’s as if you’re serving
Jesus himself. were to provide relief and aid
and prayers. Remember how Peter got in prison
for inciting riot? How did he get out of prison?
Was it because the Christians scattered and hid and went off
on their own merry way and shut their garage doors and enjoyed
their backyard with their high fences? No, it’s because they
came together and they prayed. And their prayers and God’s sovereignty
opened the prison doors. And guess who would knock on
the gate later that night? Peter. Because they gathered
to pray and to take care of him. When all is shaking, when all
the world is giving way, we have two firm things as Christians,
we have God. God is our refuge and our strength,
our ever present help in time of trouble. We sang it in Psalm
46. The choir sang it with a mighty fortress. We have God. But we
should also have one another. We should have one another when
all is shaking and quaking. We have God and we have one another. Friends, loving God means loving
others. There’s no other way to put it. If we say we love
God, it must manifest itself in our love for the saints. It’s
the result of the change heart. But understand this. It’s also
the result of you being willing, volitionally willing, desiring
to do what God commands. And we say words like I can’t.
Or I won’t. And then we don’t. And we list
our reasons. I can’t be hospitable. I can’t
risk seeing that person in prison for the gospel. I can’t do it.
We have our list. We have our reasons. We have our excuses. And we can spend a lifetime with
no hospitality. Our dishes, just as shiny as
they were the day we received them as wedding gifts. Our dining
tables, pristine and shiny, oiled and dusted every week. and not
with a single scratch because we never entertained at that
table. We can do that. And we can come up with reasons
why we can’t and why we won’t, and then we don’t. But we will
never entertain angels. We will never encourage the saints.
We will never give Jesus that cup of water or that bread to
eat when hungry. Let me encourage you in this
way. Start now. Start small. Maybe do something monthly. And
be hospitable in the way that you can be. You don’t have to
be flashy. You don’t have to be Martha Stewart. You don’t
have to be the next Food Network chef. If it’s a hot dog on a
paper plate, that is hospitality in Jesus’ eyes. But start, keep
it simple. If you’re already doing it, widen
your table, put out an extra seat and say, who could we invite
to be at our table today? Who could come into our home
and experience this blessing, this fellowship, this foretaste
of glory divine? A couple of weeks ago I wrote
an article in the newsletter to you saying, let’s make Sunday
special again. Let’s make the Lord’s Day the
Lord’s Day. Let’s be in the Lord’s house together with the Lord’s
people, but let’s eat together, let’s fellowship together. Last
Sunday night was a rich blessing when we sort of spontaneously
had a baked potato bar. People hung around, they ate,
we talked, we fellowshiped. You see the blessing and the
benefit of this. But the Lord’s Day is for rest.
It’s for worship. It’s for mercy. It’s a glimpse
of glory. And hospitality can be just that.
And guess what, friends, we will spend an eternity together eating
in God’s house, at God’s table. You see, God is hospitable. God
has brought you in in Christ. And so you bring others in in
Christ. I think of this famous lady just
over in Durham, Rosaria Butterfield. You know how she was one to the
faith. It’s through years of hospitality. In a pastor’s home,
she was loved, she was fed and she was conversed with. And you
never know how God will open up a way of salvation, it may
be through your dinner table, it may be through your spare
bedroom. Friends, we cannot show shun brotherly love, we cannot
shun the call from God to serve each other. You know how Jesus. Has opened the way for us, he
opened his arms, they were nailed to the cross and he says to us
in my house, there are many mansions, there are rooms, there’s hospitality
and there’s a table where you will come and through my blood
you’ll have access to my table, to my heaven, to the presence
with my father. It was through his open arms
on the cross. And so don’t say you can’t. Don’t say you won’t. But may God give us the grace
to show brotherly love. Let us pray together. Our God,
in our own ways and our own abilities, help us to open our tables, open
our homes and open our hearts wide for others. Help us to remember
those who are in prison, to pray for the persecuted church, to
remember those who are suffering hardship for the sake of Jesus.
And may it be so through Jesus and through the Spirit, we pray
in his name, amen. Let’s respond to God’s good word
as we sing together, blessed be the tie that binds, it’s number
286 in your hymnal. Brothers and sisters of the Lord
Jesus, our God always gives us grace to follow his commands. And he sends you now in the world
to be salt and light. He sends you in the world to
love and serve him, but he does so with his blessing, his benediction.
Look up and receive it now. The Lord bless you and keep you. The Lord make his face shine
upon you and be gracious to you. And the Lord lift up his countenance
upon you and give you peace now and forever. And all God’s people
said together, amen.