HELLO
INTRODUCTION
DR. JIM DIXON
1 THESSALONIANS 1:1
SEPTEMBER 14, 2008
We do start this new series called “Hello” and we’re going to focus on what it means to wish people well and what’s in our hearts and whether we really understand the concept the early church had when it greeted the world and brought them into the church. We’re going to take a look at what it means to wish people grace and peace.
This past March, the government of Norway made an announcement. They announced that they had built the Doomsday Vault. They had built a Doomsday Vault on a small island in the Arctic Ocean not too far from the North Pole. They have built this Doomsday Vault more than 425 feet beneath the surface of a frozen mountain and within that vault there is space for 4,500,000 seeds. This Doomsday Vault is officially called the Svalbard Global Seed Vault and the government of Norway believes that just possibly Armageddon is coming. Doomsday is just around the corner. This world is going to see a cataclysm such as it has never seen before. They hope that the remnant of survivors will be able to access this Doomsday Vault and plant the flora and the fauna and replenish the earth with plants.
Obviously, we live in a dangerous world. We live in a world where indeed Armageddon is on the horizon. Just this past Thursday we remembered 9/11 and how, seven years ago, the forces of Al-Qaeda and terrorism attacked this nation, bringing death and destruction and the collapse of the Twin Towers. I think it was almost the dawn of a new day here in America. For many Americans the thought occurred to them for the very first time that maybe not everybody wishes us well. Maybe there are people out there who hate us. And indeed, we live in a world like that. We live in a world where there’s a lot of hate. There’s a lot of hate internationally, a lot of hate politically. There’s a lot of hate that exists within families and homes and at places of work and employment. Not everybody wishes you well and perhaps you don’t wish everybody well.
So, we have this series called “Hello” and we want to look at our hearts and we want to ask the question, “What do we wish for people?” Of course, we’re going to take a look over the next four weeks at the hendiadys. You might be thinking, “Well, what is the hendiadys?” hendiadys is a compound Greek word that is used by scholars and theologians to describe the greeting of the early Christian church. Seventeen books in the New Testament begin with the hendiadys. The word hendiadys comes from “hen,” which means, “one.” Hendiadys means, “one through two.” The early church had a greeting which was one greeting through two greetings, the hendiadys. That greeting was, “Grace to you and peace.” That was a traditional early church greeting, “Grace to you and peace.” It was one greeting but comprised of two greetings. The early church took the traditional Jewish greeting, “Shalom” which means, “peace” and they combined it with the traditional Greek greeting, which was which was “charis,” which means “grace,” so they combined peace and grace into the hendiadys, “one through two,” and it was, “grace to you and peace.” We’re going to take a look these next four weeks at what it means to wish somebody grace and peace and if there is any sense in which we can wish our enemies grace and peace.
Today is our introductory Sunday. Today I just want to ask the question, “What do you wish people?” As we begin this series, I want to ask the question, “What do you desire for people?” This morning I want us to take a look at the early church and how they loved each other and how they approach the world and how they greeted people. I want to do this by taking a look at two Greek words that were often used in the early church and are very frequently used in the Bible.
The first word is “aspazomai.” The word aspazomai is a word that is used almost countless times in the New Testament. It’s used at the beginning of the New Testament books. You find it at the end of New Testament Books. Aspazomai means, “greeting.” Its various forms mean “to greet,” and of course oftentimes as the Apostle Paul concludes a letter or Peter concludes a letter or even Jude concludes a letter, they end by saying, “Greet this person” or “Greet that person.” The word is aspazomai but it’s filled with warmth. It’s filled with emotion. This word can mean, “to embrace.” So, when Paul says to greet somebody, Paul is saying, “embrace them.” And of course oftentimes in the New Testament it says, “Greet each other with a holy kiss.” The word for kiss is “philema,” which comes from “phileo,” which means, “to love.” In the early church they loved each other and it was a philema, a kiss, that was “philema hagios,” a holy kiss, a kiss to a brother, a kiss to a sister. It was the welcome of the early church, a kiss and a hug. A greeting. The early church was a warm place. When you gathered at the early church there was a lot of love in the room.
I want you to see a clip from a movie, “My Big Fat Greek Wedding,” but I want to introduce the clip with a little explanation. In this movie the main character is Toula, and Toula is a Greek gal. Her father owns a Greek restaurant in the city of Chicago. Her family is very, very, very Greek. Toula thinks she’s not going to find true love, but she does and she meets this guy Ian and they fall very much in love. The problem is Ian is not Greek. Ian is an English teacher and Ian is a Christian, but he’s not a Greek Orthodox Christian. Toula’s parents wanted her to marry a guy who is Greek and into the Greek culture and embraces the Greek Orthodox religion, and so Ian, because he loves Toula so much and because he’s a Christian anyway, joins the Greek Orthodox Church, receives Christian baptism in the Greek Orthodox Church, and engages the Greek culture. The day comes when Ian’s parents are to meet Toula’s family, all of Toula’s family.
When you see the scene of the families meeting and Ian’s parents experience the extravagant Greek welcome form Toula’s family, there’s that look in the eyes of Ian’s parents that is almost like “deer in the headlights.” They just are almost overwhelmed by this demonstration of welcome. I think certain subcultures in the world are almost known for their demonstrative friendliness and the depth of welcome and celebration that characterize the culture, but you understand there should be no subculture more welcoming and more loving than the church of Jesus Christ. There should be no place that anyone goes where they feel more loved than they feel loved here at the church of Jesus Christ. I think tragically the 21st century church has lost much of what the early 1st century church had. It’s difficult to force it back on the church.
I remember some years ago Barb and I traveled to the international headquarters of YWAM, which is a missionary organization—Youth With A Mission. We were really excited about going there because their international headquarters are in Hawaii so that was kind of nice. Loren Cunningham founded YWAM and Loren Cunningham is just an awesome guy. Jack Hayford was one of the speakers at this conference we went to, and Jack Hayford is a marvelous speaker and a great man of God. There were thousands of us there and we had worship services together. One night the liturgist said to all of us, “Turn to the person next to you and give them a big hug. It can’t be somebody you know so it might be somebody behind you or it might be somebody in front of you. Give them a big hug and say, ‘God loves you and so, do I.’” We did that. I don’t know about you, but I don’t feel really comfortable… that feels a little manipulative to me. The next night it was like, “Turn to the person next to you and say, ‘You are created in the image of God.’” And so, you turn and say, “You are created in the image of God.” I know what that’s all about. It’s an effort to try to make churches loving and friends and welcoming.
Some people will go to churches where they do that and think, “This is wonderful.” Other people will say, “I don’t want to ever go there again.” I understand. It has to happen in the heart, doesn’t it? It has to happen in the heart and you’ve really got to love people like Jesus loves people. Jesus loves people so much He died for us. He didn’t just die for us. The Bible says He died for every single person in the world. That’s how much love Christ has. As the church, we need to find that love in our hearts for people.
I think in Bible-believing churches there are two different kinds of Christians. There are fundamentalist and there are evangelicals. I know this is kind of stereotypical, but I think within Bible-believing Christian communities, you have your fundamentalists and your evangelicals. The strange thing is theologically they’re not very far apart. Most fundamentalists and most evangelicals affirm the same doctrine. Both fundamentalists and evangelicals are orthodox theologically and both fundamentalists and evangelicals believe in the authority and the inspiration of scripture and they believe that Jesus is the Savior and the means of salvation. So there is great similarity between fundamentalists and evangelicals, and yet in many ways they are a world apart.
I know I’m speaking kind of stereotypically, but a lot of fundamentalists… I know because I was raised to some extent in a fundamentalistic culture. My wife Barb was raised in a fundamentalistic culture. What we heard was, “Just give ’em hell!” As you got out into the world, it was, “Just give ’em hell!” There was a little bit of self-righteousness. You kind of looked down on other people, people who were maybe a little more messed up than you or people who weren’t theologically squared away like you. You kind of had this self-righteousness attitude and there was this kind of self-joy in just thinking that people were going to be judged. It was kind of like this subtle happiness that so many people are going to go to hell. It’s in certain subcultures of fundamentalism and it’s tragic because it doesn’t represent the heart of Jesus Christ. The Bible says, “God is not wishing or willing that any should perish, that but all should reach repentance.” So that should be our heart. We’re not willing or wishing. Of course, we know there is heaven or hell, there are two destinies, and we know here is a final judgment, but we wish people heaven. I think that’s more the evangelical side of things to wish people heaven.
One of my best friends is Mark Brewer. Mark and Carolyn and Barb and I have been good friends for many, many years. We get together sometimes on vacations together. Mark is the Pastor at Bel Air Presbyterian Church in Bel Air, California. It’s a great church. We’ve had Mark come and preach here a couple of times and he’ll be coming again in November. I think you’ll be blessed by Mark. One of the things I love when I hear Mark speak is, oftentimes, at the conclusion of his sermon or at the conclusion of his service, he sends people out saying, “Give ’em heaven. Give ’em heaven!” And I really think that’s what we’re supposed to do. I think when people meet us, they’re supposed to experience a little bit of heaven, a little bit of love—the love that is from God—and a little bit of the peace that is from God and a little bit of the joy that fills the heart of God when they meet with us. And it should be in our heart that people we meet would one day through grace and mercy find salvation.
God looks at the heart and how we feel about people—whether or not we really care about people. We all say “Hello” many times a day, right? You pick up the phone and you say, “Hello,” or you say, “Hi.” Obviously, we live in a world where people say hello and they do it automatically. Sometimes you’re just going through the motions. You’re just participating in a nicety, but it doesn’t necessarily reflect your heart. It doesn’t necessarily reflect compassion. It doesn’t necessarily reflect love of another human being.
Understand that in the early church people loved each other. People were drawn to the early church saying, “See how they love one another.” People wanted to get into that community. They wanted to be part of that love. It was a welcoming community, “aspazomai.” This is a word used again and again. Hug and kisses. This was the early church.
I heard a story this past week. The story kind of presented itself as true but I doubt that it’s true because it just seems impossible to me. There’s this pastor and this pastor comes home after work and he drives his car into the driveway. He notices a tree to the side of the driveway and there’s a little kitten up in one of the branches. The pastor gets out and looks at the cat. The cat wasn’t his and he’d never seen the kitten before. He’s a little concerned so he tries to call the little kitten to come down out of the tree. This little cat just stays in the tree. The pastor goes in the house and gets some milk and he tries to use the milk to lure and entice the kitten out of the tree. Nothing works and he can’t climb the tree because the tree is too small, the trunk is too narrow, and the branches are too thin.
So he gets this idea that he’s going to get this cord, which is between a string and a rope. He wraps it around the tree, ties it to his car, and then plans to back up and pull the tree down so that the kitten will get closer and closer to the ground and he can just take the kitten. The problem is of course that the cord broke. As he’s backing up the car, the cord breaks and the kitten is just launched from there. Somebody at the last service came up and said, “That was the beginning of the catapult!” That’s pretty good.
Anyway, this kitten just flies over the neighborhood. The pastor drives around and he can’t find the kitten anywhere and he just feels horrible that night as he goes to bed. The next day he’s at the grocery store and he’s in line to pay for his groceries. The woman right in front of him is a member of his church and he notices that in her shopping cart she has cat food. This surprises him because he knows that this woman doesn’t like dogs or cats. So, as he’s talking to her, he says, “Why do you have cat food in your shopping cart? I thought you didn’t like cats.” She said, “The strangest thing happened. My daughter has always wanted a kitten and she’s always asked me for a kitten. I’ve always said no because I don’t like cats. Yesterday she came up and she said, ‘I’m praying that God will give me a kitten and that you will let me have a kitten.’” She said, “I told her, I’m sorry, honey, but you know you can’t have a cat.” Her daughter said, “I’m praying that God will just give me a cat.” The mother says, “That’s not going to happen. Why don’t you just go outside, get on your knees, and pray that God will give you a cat and see if one comes falling down?” So, she goes out there, gets on her knees, says her prayer, and down comes this cat right next to her.
It’s hard to believe, but I do believe this: I do believe that God drops people into our lives. Do you believe that? Do you believe that God drops people into our lives? It’s not all just happenstance. God is sovereign. Many times, He’s bringing someone into our life and across our path for a purpose and He wants us to love them and He wants us to welcome them and be like the early church and the power of God will be released.
There’s a second Greek word that was used to describe the early church, the word “philoxenia.” There’s this word “aspazomai” but then there’s this other word “philoxenia.” “Philoxenia” literally means “love of strangers,” but it’s generally rendered by the English word “hospitality.” In your Bibles when you see the word hospitality or hospitable, the word in the Greek is “philoxenia.”
The early church was characterized by hospitality. It was known for hospitality. The word hospitality comes from the Latin “hospice,” and “hospice” means “guest.” Did you know that by 400 AD, by the beginning of the 5th century, virtually every church in the Christian world had a hospice? This is what historians tell us. Ecclesiastical historians tell us that by the year 400 AD almost every church in the Christian world throughout the Roman world had a hospice. It was a place that they had built for guests. The congregation had given their money to build the buildings. At virtually every church there was a hospice and people could come and be guests. People could come and they would find welcome. People could come and they would receive free food and they would receive free lodging for some period of time, and they would receive love. A hospice. This characterized churches in the early centuries.
Then by the time of the Crusades hospices were governed by religious orders but they still offered free food and they still offered free lodging. Of course, in the region of the Holy Land, it was the Hospitallers, the Knights of St. John, that governed these hospices where people could come and find welcome and love and food and lodging. After the Crusades, they began to offer medical care at the hospices. This was because of all the injuries that took place during the Crusades. After the Crusades, hospices began to offer food for free, lodging for free, and free medical care.
The years passed, and hospices began to be called what? Hospitals. They began to be called hospitals. And then over a period of time hospitals became secular. It’s kind of a sad thing because the church of Jesus Christ today is kind of disconnected with the hospice concept. I think that’s just sad because it doesn’t give us a chance to show the love and the welcome of the early church.
I do thank God for Manna Ministries here at our church. It was 25 years ago when Maxine Jones came into my office at the church. We were just starting out and at that time our church was located on Orchard Road over on Broadway and we were small. We had our offices in a little farmhouse that we converted into offices. We had taken a chicken coop and kind of converted that into a youth building and there we were. Maxine Jones came into my office. Because we were on Broadway, we were getting a lot of needy people who were coming in. They were looking for a lot of things, but a certain part of what they were looking for (knowingly or unknowingly) was God and they were looking for love.
Maxine, when she came into my office, I could tell that the Spirit of God was on her and she had this passion for the poor. We became friends and I asked Maxine if she would head up our ministry to the poor. It was really my wife Barb who came up with the name “Manna,” that we would offer manna from heaven to these people. And today that ministry thrives. Hundreds and hundreds of people are blessed through our Manna Ministry. That’s a little bit like a hospice as we give free food and whatnot and lots of love. And I thank God for that, but I feel like it’s hard because we’re the 21st century church. We’re busy people. It’s a rat race. We’re high energy. We’re goal oriented. We’re on task and it just sometimes feels like people are in our way. It just feels like we need to rethink this and figure out what it means to be a church of Jesus Christ.
In Romans, chapter 12, we see a listing of the gifts of the Holy Spirit. It’s an awesome list of the gifts of the Holy Spirit, from prophecy to tongues. Of course, God distributes the gifts in accordance with His will. His gifts vary. I may have gifts of the Holy Spirit you may not have. You might have gifts of the Holy Spirit that I do not have. The gifts vary, but in Romans 12, right after it lists all of the gifts of the Spirit, we have this admonition to everybody that we would show hospitality. You see, it’s not just SOME people who are supposed to love strangers. It’s all of us, all of us who belong to Christ.
You see the same thing in 1 Peter, chapter 4. You see a listing, a short listing, of the gifts of the Holy Spirit, but right before the listing of the Gifts of the Holy Spirit you see the admonition to all to practice hospitality. There are no exceptions. We’re all called to love strangers.
I don’t know how you feel about your home. Some people love to entertain guests at their homes. Barb and I kind of love having people over for dinner. Some people love to have people spend a long time—weeks—at their house. I’m not really big on that. I think people have different views of how to use their house. I think for some people it’s kind of like a respite, a place to get away from a crazy world. I’m a little bit like that at times. Sometimes when I head home, I’m looking forward to kind of a sanctuary. But of course we’re all, regardless of how we use our houses, called to love people. We’re all called to reach out to people, to care, and to give people a welcome.
In the early church, leaders of the church had to be hospitable. If you read 1 Timothy 3 or if you read Titus, chapter 1, we’re told that you can’t be a leader in the church of Jesus Christ unless you love people. You can’t pastor a flock unless you love people. I’m growing. I know I’m not there yet. I’m learning to love more. I think that call is on all of us. I think we’re all called to love more and more and to learn what it means to love and to love the world and to reach out to them and to love strangers.
Just this last week I was watching the news and I was amazed that they told the story of this elderly couple Sunday night. Down in Dallas this elderly couple was driving home and their car broke down. They had a flat tire and they pulled over to the side of the road. By their testimony, according to the newscasters, this elderly couple saw more than 150 cars go by without stopping, but then came this car. This car pulled over and a young man was driving the car. This young man had a baseball hat on and he had a Band-Aid on his chin with some gauze and he looked kind of gross, like something bad had happened. But this young guy stopped with a smile and said, “Can I help you?” He looked kind of familiar to this older couple, but they weren’t sure. But as this young man began to change their tire the old man had an “ah ha” moment and he said to the young man, “Aren’t you Tony Romo?” The young man hesitated a moment and then nodded his head yes. It was Tony Romo of Dallas Cowboy fame, Tony Romo of Jessica Simpson fame. He just pulled over to help somebody. He played a football game that afternoon, had taken a shot in the chin and had 13 stitches. When he was driving home and saw this couple by the roadside. That’s “philoxenia,” “love of strangers.”
I’m reminded of the more famous story of Donald Trump. Donald Trump was riding in his limousine one day. I assume that oftentimes he rides in a limo. The limo broke down and the limo driver pulled over to the side of the road. They had a flat tire and it was just a moment or two later when a pickup truck came and parked right next to them. A guy got out of the pickup truck and said, “Can I help you?” to the driver of the limo. He had no clue who was in the limousine. The driver of the limo said, “Sure.” This guy from the pickup truck got down, got all the stuff, and changed the tire on the limousine.
He was about to head off and Donald Trump rolled down his window and said, “Hey. Thanks for helping us. Can I do something for you?” The driver of the pickup truck looked and said, “You’re Donald Trump, aren’t you?” Trump said, “Yeah.” The driver of the pickup truck said, “Wow! My wife just thinks you’re awesome.” Apparently, the driver of the pickup truck didn’t think so, but his wife did. Donald Trump said, “Well, can I do anything for you?” He said, “My wife would just love it if you would send her like a half-dozen roses. That would be like the coolest thing.” Donald Trump said, “Well, sure. Just give me your wife’s name and your address.” And so, the driver of the pickup truck did that and he drove off. The next day a delivery truck pulls up in front of this driver’s house and there are two dozen beautiful roses for this man’s wife and a note of appreciation. At the bottom of the note it says, “P.S. I paid off your mortgage.” Kind of cool.
We live in a world where there’s a lot of good out there. Even in the heart of Donald Trump there’s good. But understand that those who take the name of Christ are called Christians and we’re called to love at a deeper level. We’re called to love in a deeper way. And so Jesus said, “If you love those who love you and you love those who help you, what credit is that to you?” Jesus said, “Bless those who curse you. Pray for those that abuse you. Love those who hate you. Love your enemies,” Jesus said. So, we’re to love the family of God. We’re to love strangers in the world. We’re to love even our enemies.
In these next few weeks, we’re going to take a look at “hendiadys” and what it means to say, “Grace to you and peace” and what you’re really wishing somebody and if there’s any sense in which you can wish grace and peace even for your enemies. We’re going to look at what it means to wish heaven for somebody and what it means to wish hell for somebody—what it means to wish harmony relationally for somebody, what it means to wish wholeness for somebody. All of this is wrapped up with the hendiadys. It’s all wrapped up with “grace to you and peace” and it’s the call of Christ. Of course, the reason Jesus told the story of the Good Samaritan was so that we would understand that our neighbor might be our enemy.
The Jewish people knew that they were supposed to love their neighbor. They just thought that only a fellow Jew was their neighbor. They didn’t think that Samaritans were their neighbor. Jesus tells this story to help them understand that our love doesn’t have the world’s boundaries and we’re supposed to love regardless of race or ethnicity or socioeconomic categories. We’re just supposed to love people with the love of Jesus. That should characterize the church of Jesus Christ.
As we close, I know that many of you have heard of Emma Lazarus. Emma Lazarus died in 1887. She was only 38 years old. She died at the age of 38. She didn’t live a very long life, but back in the 19th century a lot of lives were short. Emma Lazarus was Jewish. She had loved ones and family members who lived in Jewish Russia. Just four years before her death in 1883, a great wave of persecution had swept over Russia and Jews were being slaughtered. The dream that Emma Lazarus had was that there would be a nation that would welcome people regardless of their race or their ethnicity, their income level. She wanted it to be this nation, and so she wrote The New Colossus in 1883. The words of The New Colossus are of course on the base of the Statue of Liberty. Those words are, “Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to be free, the wretched refuse of your teeming shores. Send these the homeless tempest tossed to me. I lift my lamp beside the golden door.” Those are the words on the Statue of Liberty. And of course it’s a beautiful dream that our nation would be such a nation, our people such a people.
There of course is no nation on the earth that could long survive with open borders and it is true that all nations have to govern and police borders. But it’s a great dream that we would be a melting pot, a great dream that we would love people that other nations have maybe rejected—that we would love the outcasts, that we would love the poor, and that we would love people regardless of their race. It’s a great dream but if it’s a dream for America, how much more should this be our dream for the church of Jesus Christ? Isn’t this what Christ has called His church to?
These next few weeks as we look at the hendiadys, as we look at “grace to you and peace” and what it is to wish people well, let’s pray that God will use it to make us truly the Body of Jesus Christ. Next week we’re going to take a look at “Hello, Heaven,” and then we’ll take a look at “Hello, Hell.” Then we’ll take a look at “Hello, Harmony,” and we’ll look at “Hello, Wholeness.” We go through this journey together. Let’s close with a word of prayer.