Women in our American culture face tremendous pressure to make their homes places to display the latest designs and fashions in decorating. They face the pressure to have the latest look and colors, the nicest furniture and the latest craze in accessories. They face the pressure of spotless floors and carpets, pristine kitchens, sparkling sinks and the latest in washing and drying technology.
Women in American Christian culture face these same pressures with the added pressure that the home with all these niceties and cleanliness makes for a more hospitable home to bring your church friends into. Excuse my ethnocentricity, but is it Southern Living we are trying to impress or is it the pleasure of God we seek? I am holding men and church leaders responsible to help the ladies in our churches in the midst of these pressures, but I am also seeking to stir the ladies up to think about what are our homes for. These thoughts came from studying Acts 12:1-25.
Mary, the mother of John Mark, opened her home to some in the church in Jerusalem to pray for Peter who was imprisoned after James the brother of John had been put to death (Acts 12:1-12). After Peter was released he went to her home and it is here that I see four things her home was used for.
First, her home was for hospitality. She opened her home to the church at Jerusalem. All the church was praying for Peter (12:5) and a representative group of that church is meeting at the home of Mary for prayer (v.12). I do not know how many are there or who is there beside Mary, Rhoda, John Mark and Peter, but it had to be more than a few. It could be that Barnabas and Paul are there having come with the relief from Antioch, since John Mark did go back with them (v.25). I do not know what made her home the choice, but I do know she opened her home in love to God’s church. Hospitality is commanded in 1 Peter 4:9, “Show hospitality to one another without grumbling.” It is the fruit of love, “Keep loving one another earnestly…” (1Pe.4:8). And in fact in the etymology of the word, philoxenia, we find it’s root, philos, which means love. In it’s literal form hospitality is loving strangers. Hospitality is what we do when the Holy Spirit is producing in us the fruit of love to God and our neighbors. . But we do not have to wait for a stranger to come to town to open our homes. The church is made up of strangers and aliens, pilgrims traversing in this life needing a place of love that covers and binds up sin and brokenness, fear and despair, a place that shares in gladness and rejoicing, a place that understands sorrow and pain. And to love in this way does not require clean floors, washing machines that don’t use much water, brilliant color schemes, couches that match your chairs, and weedless flower beds.
Second, her home was for prayer. It was in her home that people cried out at the throne of grace in a well timed need of help (Heb.4:16). They were not planning his escape, re-working church planning in the threat of his absence, or discussing how it all happened. They were praying and I think even some of them in unbelief (Acts 12:15-16). Men and women, sons and daughters we need to make our homes places of prayer. Places that cry out, “We are helpless, powerless, impotent, and cannot do anything without God’s power, wisdom and goodness.” Places that cry out in praise, thanksgiving, confession and faith through the Word of God, our prayer book. Men and women, sons and daughters, church members make your homes places where you gather for prayer.
Third, her home was for the display of the great works of God. Peter’s release and freedom was the evidence that God is who he says he is and does what he says he will do. His release and freedom was the evidence of the glory of God made manifest before their lives. God was not absent when James was killed, and nothing separated him from the love of God in Christ. But in the work to set Peter free from prison is the certainty that he will never leave or forsake his people, that they will have tribulation in the world but that he has overcome the world, and that he will be with them to the very end of the age. Our homes are places where the glory of God can be displayed in the lives of those whom God has worked and is working. Open your homes where the stories of God’s wisdom, power and goodness can be told. Tell the stories from the Word of God and history so that the display of the glorious and true God can come near to those who darken your doors. Those who live and come into our homes will not be satisfied by the shadows or in the light and fleeting pleasures. They must hear and see and savor the all glorious God who comes near and abides to display his glory so that he is known and enjoyed.
Fourth, her home was for sending. John Mark was Mary’s son and was among the first missionaries sent from Antioch with Paul and Barnabas (12:25; 13:4). Granted he did have his troubles (13:13) and was a point of contention for Paul and Barnabas (15:36-40), but was in the course of time a help to Paul and the church (Col.4:10; 2Tim.4:11). The gospel went from Jerusalem to Antioch and into the Gentile world through her son. The place of hospitality, prayer, and the display of the great works of God was a home where God called her son to trust him and display his worth in the world by following his call to go into the world with the gospel. A home is a nurturing place for those who will come forth to follow God in the way he leads them. One thing we can be doing in our homes is making them a place that teaches and gives others a vision for following after God where he leads for his own glory. Do not view your home as a display of the glory of the world, but as a place that displays the glory of God by showing others the truth about who God is so that he will be praised, trusted and obeyed by those coming forth from them.
The homes of believers are for hospitality, prayer, the display of the great works of God, and sending. Let us make our homes places where God is glorified in a world that has exchanged the worship of the Creator for that of the creation by bending toward his will and outward toward a broken world.
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