Given to
Hospitality
A Table of Hope for the Banquet of Heaven
"Share with the Lord's people who are in need. Pursue hospitality."
Romans 12:13 · Anchor TextA Table Where Hope Is Revealed
From the wedding at Cana to the road to Emmaus, the gospels are full of tables — places where the Kingdom of God is revealed, where Jesus is both host and guest, and where the character of God's people is formed.
The Shape of the Series
Four movements, each building on the last — from the generosity of God's table to our calling as its stewards.
Fourteen Sermons, Four Movements
Each sermon opens a different facet of Kingdom hospitality — every one anchored in the living words of Jesus.
Saving the Best for Last
At a wedding in Cana, Jesus transforms six stone jars of water into abundant, superior wine — a quiet act of hospitality that reveals his glory before his appointed hour has come.
"Everyone brings out the choice wine first… but you have saved the best till now."
— John 2:10Washing Before the Meal
Jesus scandalises his host by skipping ceremonial handwashing, then pronounces woes on those who fixate on external cleanliness while neglecting justice and the love of God.
"But now as for what is inside you — be generous to the poor, and everything will be clean for you."
— Luke 11:41A Feast for the Lost
A wayward son returns home expecting judgment and instead receives a celebration. Hospitality here is the family's instinctive response to restoration — a feast thrown not because the son deserves it, but because he is found.
"Bring the fattened calf… For this son of mine was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found."
— Luke 15:23–24The Bread of Life
Jesus feeds five thousand with five loaves and two fish, and when the crowd chases him for more bread the next day, he redirects their hunger toward himself. Physical hospitality becomes a doorway into deeper, lasting sustenance.
"I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never go hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty."
— John 6:35Levi's Banquet
Jesus calls a despised tax collector, and Levi immediately throws a banquet filled with tax collectors and "sinners." Hospitality becomes the doorway to transformation, not a reward reserved for the respectable.
"It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance."
— Luke 5:31–32The Uninvited Guest
A sinful woman crashes a respectable Pharisee's dinner and anoints Jesus' feet with tears and perfume. Extravagant welcome flows from — and produces — extravagant love and forgiveness.
"Her many sins have been forgiven — as her great love has shown. But whoever has been forgiven little loves little."
— Luke 7:47Crumbs From The Table
A Gentile woman begs Jesus to heal her demon-possessed daughter. Her witty, humble persistence in the face of an apparent rebuff expands the boundaries of whose table Jesus welcomes people to.
"Lord, even the dogs under the table eat the children's crumbs."
— Mark 7:28Jesus Invites Himself In
Zacchaeus climbs a tree just to catch a glimpse of Jesus — and Jesus invites himself to stay at his house. Unearned welcome produces transformed, generous living.
"Zacchaeus, come down immediately. I must stay at your house today."
— Luke 19:5Guests of Grace
At a Pharisee's Sabbath dinner, Jesus heals a suffering man, teaches humility in seating, instructs his host to invite those who cannot repay, and tells of a great banquet whose invited guests make excuses — while the poor, crippled, blind, and lame are compelled to come in.
"Go out to the roads and country lanes and compel them to come in, so that my house will be full."
— Luke 14:23Hospitality Withheld
A rich man feasts sumptuously every day while a beggar named Lazarus starves at his gate. A sober warning about the eternal consequences of hospitality that never opens its door.
"Son, remember that in your lifetime you received your good things, while Lazarus received bad things, but now he is comforted here and you are in agony."
— Luke 16:25Come to the Heavenly Banquet
A king's wedding invitation is refused by the respectable and extended instead to "anyone you find" in the streets. The kingdom's hospitality is wide open — but never without cost or expectation.
"Go to the street corners and invite to the banquet anyone you find."
— Matthew 22:9Whatever You Did for the Least of These
Jesus separates the sheep from the goats based on how they treated the hungry, the stranger, and the imprisoned. Hospitality to the vulnerable is revealed to be hospitality to Christ himself.
"Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me."
— Matthew 25:40Where the Host Serves
At the Last Supper, Jesus redefines greatness for his disciples: the greatest at the table is the one who serves. The ultimate host kneels to wash feet and serve his own guests.
"I am among you as one who serves."
— Luke 22:27Seeing Jesus in the Bread Broken
Two travellers on the road to Emmaus press a stranger to stay for a meal — and recognise the risen Christ in the hospitality itself. A fitting close: hospitality as the place where Christ is met.
"He took bread, gave thanks, broke it and began to give it to them. Then their eyes were opened and they recognized him."
— Luke 24:30–31