We are shifting from 'WHAT' is the Gospel to 'HOW' we share the Gospel.
-What does reaching our communities look like in our city and our time?
-What does the preaching of the Gospel actually look like in our city and our time?

Let's talk about what Jesus was inviting them to
1.) THE TABLE
-The table was not just about the food, it was about friendship, intimacy and unity.
-It was a place you were invited into not just invited to.
-When you are at the table with people, you’re breaking bread with them, you’re extending blessing, you’re sharing everything God has given you from food to love to forgiveness.

“In the east, even today, to invite a person to a meal was an offer of peace, trust, brotherhood, and forgiveness. Sharing a table meant sharing life. In Judaism in particular, table fellowship means fellowship before God, for the eating of a piece of broken bread by everyone who shares in a meal brings out the fact that they all have a share in the blessing which the master of the house had spoken over the unbroken bread...the inclusion of sinners in this table fellowship, is the most meaningful expression of the message of the redeeming love of God.” -Joachim Jermias

2.) WHO IS INVITED TO THE TABLE?
-The people that Jesus has dinner with are not the exception... they are the rule.
-These people are the intentional choice of the savior

3.) WHAT'S THE SIGNIFICANCE OF A TABLE?
-There are over 50 references to food in Luke's Gospel.
-Jesus is either going to a meal, having a meal or leaving a meal.

WHEN JESUS CALLED PEOPLE AROUND THE TABLE, HE WAS SETTING PRECEDENCE FOR WHAT HUMANITY LOOKED LIKE.
-And this is where we should get together, to grow those who are both far away and those who are close.
-Like friends, coworkers and especially family.
-Teach your people to commune WITH and LIKE Jesus.

Luke’s Gospel records “The Son of man came...” statement twice.
And if you’re reading closely, you will see
-One is about mission.
-One is about method.

The Son of man came to seek and to save the lost.
THAT IS WHAT JESUS DID.

The Son of man came eating and drinking.
THAT WAS HOW JESUS DID IT.

4.) WE CALL IT HOSPITALITY

The word “HOSPITALITY” in Greek is PHILOXENIAN (Filozenian)
It actually comes from two words:
Philo: Meaning love and Xenian: Meaning stranger or foreigner.

Hospitality is the opposite of Xenophobia which is the fear of strangers.

It means we create space where the stranger or even an enemy,
enter and become friend.

Radically ordinary hospitality--Those who live it to see strangers as neighbors and neighbors as family of God, they recoil at reducing a person to a category or a label. They see God’s image reflected in the eyes of every human being on earth. Those who live our radically ordinary hospitality see their homes not as theirs at all but as God’s gift to use for the furtherance of His Kingdom. They open doors; They seek out the underprivileged. They know that the Gospel comes with a house key.
--Rosaria Butterfield.