What does First B Jackson teach about hospitality?
Drawn from the messages where it was actually addressed: the words said from the front, the passages taught, and where to hear the whole thing.
At First B Jackson, the teaching on hospitality is rooted in what the New Testament actually says the word means. Pastor Ray worked through the Greek behind the call in 1 Peter 4 and pointed out that the word joins the ideas of love and stranger together. It is not a program or an event. It is a posture toward people who are not yet known to you, and Peter's instruction is to hold that posture without complaint, which in the Greek sounds like the grumbling it describes.
The teaching in 1 Peter 4 and in 3 John both press the same point: hospitality is one of the things love looks like in practice, and it belongs to ordinary church life, not just to a gifted few. Pastor Mark's walk through 3 John let Gaius show what this looks like on the ground. Gaius cared for traveling teachers who were strangers to him, and John praised him for it. Pastor Mark connected that directly to the congregation, noting that Jackson is a regular stopping point for missionaries heading to hard places, and that the church has a real opportunity to keep that welcome going.
Both teachers returned to the same honest question: are you actually approachable when someone walks in? Pastor Mark asked the room to sit with that. The call to hospitality in these passages is not abstract. It starts with whether a person lets their guard down or keeps it up, and whether the people around them make that easier or harder.
Taught from 1 Peter 4:9 · 1 Peter 4:7-11
The passage taught · 1 Peter 1:3-9
3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to his great mercy caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead,
4 to an incorruptible and undefiled inheritance that doesn’t fade away, reserved in Heaven for you,
5 who by the power of God are guarded through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.
6 Wherein you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while, if need be, you have been put to grief in various trials,
World English Bible
The messages that teach on it
- October 14, 2018 Use the Green Bananas A missionary's 70 pounds of rotting bananas becomes a vivid picture of what happens when we ignore the spiritual gifts God has given us to serve one another.
- September 28, 2015 Monday Nights @ First B (17) A short letter with a lasting message: how greetings, hospitality, and faithfulness shape a church that reflects Christ to the world.
Mentioned along the way
- December 28, 2025 Jesus Is Better Than All of These Things Hebrews 13 calls Christians to hold fast to grace, resist strange teachings, and offer God the sacrifice of praise, generosity, and care for one another.
- October 14, 2018 Green Bananas and the Gifts God Gives A Wyoming pastor connects rotting green bananas to 1 Peter 4 in a sermon on spiritual gifts, urging believers to use what God has given before it goes to waste.