Changing perception -Radical homes
[Matthew is reflecting on last night’s small group] … We are blessed with such a growing wealth of young talent from media, to music, to admin, to drama, etc… yet the more we look together at Jesus’ invitation into His story, it leaves us radically challenged because He was so radical.
One of the things I do when I meet people is to ask them: “What is Christianity?” Undoubtedly half respond: “A relationship with Jesus.”
Yet that is not presenting the entire picture. The Gospel cannot be merely a private transaction – God didn’t break through human history, through time and space, to come as a babe, be incarnated, and suffer on the cross just so you can come to Him and say: “Oh, I accept Jesus and now I can live happily ever after.” That’s not why He came … Jesus came as a radical to turn the whole world upside down. When we believe it is just about Jesus and ourselves, we miss the whole point.
Chuck Colson from Prison Fellowship Ministries said: “I even dislike using the words ‘accept Christ’ anymore – because it is so much more than that. Christianity is a way of life and a reality through God’s eyes. That is what Christianity is – a world view, a system, and a way of life. I believe that when you see the Gospel in its fullness, it’s so much more. It’s the most exciting, radical, revolutionary story ever told.
In Luke 14 we see this radical invitation.
Luke1412-14 Then Jesus said to his host, "When you give a luncheon or dinner, do not invite your friends, your brothers or relatives, or your rich neighbours; if you do, they may invite you back and so you will be repaid. But when you give a banquet, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind, and you will be blessed. Although they cannot repay you, you will be repaid at the resurrection of the righteous."
23-24 "Then the master told his servant, 'Go out to the roads and country lanes and make them come in, compel them to come in, so that my house will be full. I tell you, not one of those men who were invited will get a taste of my banquet.' "
The kingdom can be made so complicated at times. Yet the church in Acts 2 grew out of ordinary family homes being opened to make the invisible kingdom visible.
When was the last time you opened your home?
What would 30 homes, 100 homes, or even 1,000 homes, look like this Christmas, that simply opened their doors in hospitality – to neighbours, family, strangers, the marginalised.
Our church was started by a group of people who simply saw the Kingdom of Jesus radically put their lives back together, bring wholeness, joy, peace and restoration and who then in turn just opened their homes to strangers.
That makes God look beautiful.
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