Transcript:
Hello, this is Pastor Don of Christ Redeemer Church. Welcome to The Kingdom Perspective.
Biblically speaking, hospitality is the love and welcome of strangers. “Love of strangers” is the literal meaning of the New Testament word, and it is the posture God expected Israel to have towards sojourners in their land. This is not surprising when we think of the hospitality God exercises toward us in both creation and redemption.
In the work of creation, God welcomes us into the world He has made. In that world, He places us at the most honored seat, at the very pinnacle of created order, welcoming us to share in His glorious image and likeness, offering us the beauty and bounty of all He has made, and inviting us into His work of ruling over all things. Sadly, the Bible tells us we rejected this privileged status, choosing rather to be strangers to God, and so, were exiled from His presence.
But God, in His work of redemption, took extraordinary means, becoming radically “hospitable” to our needy state. In Christ Jesus, He entered our exile—taking on the full experience of our humanity East of Eden. And He did so that He might become a faithful High Priest, sympathizing with all our weaknesses, giving His very life as a sacrifice for our rebellion, thus restoring us to friendship with God. Now, by His Word and Spirit, He welcomes us back into the experience of His abounding hospitality for all eternity.
And that’s something to think about from The Kingdom Perspective.
Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.”
So God created man in his own image,
in the image of God he created him;
male and female he created them.
And God blessed them. And God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it, and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth.” And God said, “Behold, I have given you every plant yielding seed that is on the face of all the earth, and every tree with seed in its fruit. You shall have them for food. And to every beast of the earth and to every bird of the heavens and to everything that creeps on the earth, everything that has the breath of life, I have given every green plant for food.” And it was so. And God saw everything that he had made, and behold, it was very good. And there was evening and there was morning, the sixth day.
~Genesis 1:26-31 (ESV)
Then the angel showed me the river of the water of life, bright as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb through the middle of the street of the city; also, on either side of the river, the tree of life with its twelve kinds of fruit, yielding its fruit each month. The leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations. No longer will there be anything accursed, but the throne of God and of the Lamb will be in it, and his servants will worship him. They will see his face, and his name will be on their foreheads. And night will be no more. They will need no light of lamp or sun, for the Lord God will be their light, and they will reign forever and ever.”
~Revelation 22:1-5 (ESV)