Date: March 3/9-10/13
Series: Fearless Generosity
Message: Philoxenia
Passage: John 4:1-30, 39-42
INTRODUCTION – 5 MINUTES
When did you visit someone and were made to feel “at home”?
Leader note: Think of visiting a friend, maybe staying with someone while you were remodeling your house, welcomed in on a mission trip, while you were in college, etc. How did they make you feel welcome? What was the experience like? It doesn’t have to be for an extended visit – maybe just someone who welcomed you in and prepared for you, or took care of you, in a way that made you feel welcome.
OBSERVATION – 20 MINUTES
Read John 4:1-30, 39-42. What do you learn about fearless hospitality from the story?
Leader note: You may want to start with defining hospitality. What does it encompass? You may want to look at some of these other passages as you form your definition: Matt 22:36-40, Matthew 5:43-47, Hebrews 13:2)
- Jesus was first to speak – to a Samaritan woman (would have been despised by Jews)
- Jesus knew her story, she had been married many times, was an adulteress, he told her “everything” she ever did
- The disciples saw Jesus talking to her and didn’t question it – were they used to the fact that Jesus talked to those on the “outside”?
- Jesus offered the woman a way to not thirst again
- The Samaritans who came to see Jesus they offered for Him to stay with them – even though He wasn’t one of them.
- The disciples would have stayed as well.
- They welcomed Jesus and the 12, provided for them until they were ready to leave.
- Hospitality is extended to strangers, those on the outside, and reciprocal – Jesus began the conversation – was a stranger to them, they ended up welcoming Him in.
Who are the Samaritans of our day?
Leader note: Make a list of those considered outsiders from church goers, those people normally avoided or kept at a distance.
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Immigration
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Muslims
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homosexuals
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abortion doctors
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abortion recipients
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rapists, addicts
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homeless
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mentally disabled
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criminals
UNDERSTANDING – 20 MINUTES
What does it look like extend fearless hospitality to those on considered to be “on the outside”?
Leader tip: Consider people who would be like the woman at the well (and the rest of the Samaritans), and Jesus and the disciples in a strange land?
- Help the most offensive
- Stopping to help people broken down on the side of the road
- Helping at the medical clinic – dirty mouths, contagious,
- People caring for HIV patients, especially before it was really clear on how you got infected
- Foster families/safe families/adoption of special need kids, troubled kids
- Tutoring undocumented immigrants
What are the obstacles to practicing fearless hospitality to those who are different from us?
- Time
- Fear
- Money
- It’s uncomfortable
- Not sure what could help
What does it look like to receive fearless hospitality from those on the outside?
Leader note: One major point of hospitality as highlighted in the verses above is that it is reciprocal. What would it look like to be offered something that serves a need from someone on the list you made?
Commentary: One woman in a life group is helping her friend walk the journey of cancer and cancer treatments. The friend is Hispanic, understands very little English, yet welcomes the group member into her home. The group members helps round up furniture, rides to chemo, fill out insurance forms, prays in English for the friend, and the friend’s mom cooks for all the helpers. It’s a beautiful story of fearless hospitality.
APPLICATION – 20 MINUTES
What would it look like for you to practice fearless hospitality?
Leader note: Look at hospitality from all the descriptions you’ve identified, including the reciprocity of it. Have your group consider what they could move at this and who they might already have in mind.
What obstacles get in your way?
Leader note: At this point, have your group help work around the obstacles they face. Can you help each other? Do it as a group?
LIVE IT OUT
What would be different in our community if we all lived with fearless hospitality?
PRAY: As you end your time together, pray for the people who have shown you hospitality in the past. Pray to be given opportunities this week to extend and receive fearless hospitality, and to be open to all that means for you, your family, and your home. Pray if there are attitudes and biases that get in the ways of extending hospitality, that God will reveal them, and speak the truth to you, abolishing and tearing down obstacles from living out all He has asked you to do.