Latest / Topeka Bible Church Audio Archive / November 13, 2016 | Mark Bailey - Luke 7 "Confrontation With Grace"

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November 13, 2016 | Mark Bailey - Luke 7 "Confrontation With Grace" · Topeka Bible Church Audio Archive

0:00
SPEAKER_01: How are you?
0:02
SPEAKER_01: Greetings to you in the Mulvaine building and in the College Avenue building.
0:07
SPEAKER_01: It's uh uh watching, listening uh online.
0:13
SPEAKER_01: So um I was down in Haiti this last week, and you have TBC, you need to be so thrilled about the involvement that we have down there.
0:26
SPEAKER_01: We go down this uh this is the sixth or seventh trip we've sent down this year, and we're there staying at the orphanage.
0:34
SPEAKER_01: I like to think of it as our orphanage, it's not ours, but it's so cool.
0:38
SPEAKER_01: And um we have a medical clinic and we held a pastor's conference.
0:44
SPEAKER_01: One of the things that I uh um uh really think is special about what happened there last week, and is that I go to third world countries, as you know, Mark goes there a lot too.
0:58
SPEAKER_01: Very rarely do pastors' wives get anything, rarely get paid attention to.
1:05
SPEAKER_01: But Patty Delaberto and Connie Hall, who kept us in laughs all week, you know, uh went down and they led a pastors' wives conference.
1:14
SPEAKER_01: So while the four of us, other guys are leading 25 pastors apiece in in our sessions, they had 100, 150 pastors' wives and children over in a corner just making a ruckus.
1:26
SPEAKER_01: It totally disturbed everything, but they're having a wonderful time laughing.
1:31
SPEAKER_01: And and I just was so happy that we were doing something that rarely gets done overseas, which is to have a conference for the wives of pastors.
1:42
SPEAKER_01: Well, listen, um I'm excited about this morning because Dr.
1:46
SPEAKER_01: Bailey of Dallas Theological Seminary is here.
1:49
SPEAKER_01: I consider him a friend.
1:51
SPEAKER_01: I really look up to him.
1:52
SPEAKER_01: And this came about because early this year I was at a conference for Jewish missionaries.
1:58
SPEAKER_01: There, come on up, Mark.
1:59
SPEAKER_01: There were a couple hundred Jewish missionaries there, and uh, so it was a three-day conference, and and Mark had invited Dr.
2:06
SPEAKER_01: Bailey to be their Bible teacher.
2:08
SPEAKER_01: So he'd come in each day and he'd he'd talk, he'd deliver something.
2:12
SPEAKER_01: And one of these uh lessons he gave, just I said to myself, I really want my people to hear that.
2:19
SPEAKER_01: So afterwards I went up, and there's always, you know, it was a crowd around Mark and waited until it left.
2:24
SPEAKER_01: I went up and I said, Is there any way you'd look at, would you look at your calendar or schedule and see if there's any way you could clear it to come up to Topeka Bible Church and and give that talk about the life of Christ to my people?
2:37
SPEAKER_01: And fortunately, he was able to come up uh with this date.
2:41
SPEAKER_01: So uh Mark, would you uh would you come on up and share with us this wonderful story about Jesus?
2:48
SPEAKER_01: Give him a moment.
2:56
SPEAKER_00: Well, good morning.
2:58
SPEAKER_00: It was only a few weeks ago, I know, that we had a representative up here to uh honor your pastor for being the alumnus of the year at Dallas Theological Seminary.
3:08
SPEAKER_00: And that was a terrific thing.
3:10
SPEAKER_00: I uh Jim and I serve on the board of Jews for Jesus together, and uh so I couldn't have been more thrilled, but I had nothing to do with it other than when it came to my desk for final approval, I could put my stamp on it and say, absolutely, nobody deserves it better.
3:24
SPEAKER_00: Forty years of faithful ministry in the same place, uh, that's terrific.
3:29
SPEAKER_00: So uh uh Pastor, again, congratulations from Dallas Seminary.
3:34
SPEAKER_00: Uh, we're thrilled.
3:35
SPEAKER_00: Thank you.
3:41
SPEAKER_00: It's a privilege to be here back at uh Topeka Hill Church.
3:45
SPEAKER_00: It's been a couple of years, and you can feel in there.
3:53
SPEAKER_00: There we are.
3:54
SPEAKER_00: Great.
3:55
SPEAKER_00: Uh that's that's the title, by the way, of what we're gonna talk about, as you see on your sheet as well.
4:00
SPEAKER_00: But it's a it's a thrill to be back up here and to uh see what God is doing.
4:05
SPEAKER_00: Uh in one of the epistles of John, he says this uh I have no greater joy than to see my children walk in the truth.
4:12
SPEAKER_00: That's certainly true as a father with my two sons and their uh wives and our grandkids, but it's also true as a faculty member and now the president of Dallas Seminary to see our grads flourish in ministry.
4:25
SPEAKER_00: And so it's just a thrill to be out and about and see what God is doing with our grads and kicking a dent for Christ in this crazy, crazy world.
4:34
SPEAKER_00: If you have your Bibles, turn with me to Luke chapter 7.
4:38
SPEAKER_00: Luke chapter 7.
4:40
SPEAKER_00: And I want to uh use two titles.
4:43
SPEAKER_00: One is a systematic theology from a street woman.
4:46
SPEAKER_00: We're gonna learn a lot from a lady this morning, but she's not gonna say a word.
4:51
SPEAKER_00: I'll do the talking, and the Bible will do the talking.
4:54
SPEAKER_00: She says nothing, but she teaches us something very significant.
4:59
SPEAKER_00: Uh, a subtitle is A Confrontation with Grace.
5:03
SPEAKER_00: A confrontation with grace.
5:06
SPEAKER_00: Uh in the passage, and uh the the longer you need to know, I teach full-time, I mean, I I'm a president full-time, I teach in the classroom every semester and online as well.
5:16
SPEAKER_00: And uh, after 40-some years of teaching, you you need to know that I'm more convinced of the inspiration and hence the resultant inerrancy of the scriptures than I ever have been before.
5:28
SPEAKER_00: Uh, to study the scriptures and to have the privilege of studying them over and over again to see how uh intricately detailed the text is and how it holds together.
5:40
SPEAKER_00: And and I want to show you that this morning with a passage.
5:43
SPEAKER_00: Uh I I want to begin with the the bookends for our passage are in chapter seven, beginning in verse 29.
5:50
SPEAKER_00: Uh Luke chapter 7, beginning in verse 29.
5:56
SPEAKER_00: He says, This when all the people and the tax collectors heard this, they acknowledged God's justice, having been baptized with the baptism of John.
6:07
SPEAKER_00: But the Pharisees and the lawyers rejected God's purpose for themselves, not having been baptized by John.
6:16
SPEAKER_00: God's purpose, as he says, as Peter says later, God is not willing that any should perish, but all should come to repentance, all should come to salvation, and uh and yet some people won't.
6:28
SPEAKER_00: They reject God's desired purpose for their lives.
6:31
SPEAKER_00: And this is a strong passage of Pharisaical rejection of God's desire for them to have responded in faith and demonstrated that in the baptism of John.
6:43
SPEAKER_00: Now, on the other end, on the other end of the book ends is chapter 8, verses 1 to 3.
6:51
SPEAKER_00: Turn with me there.
6:52
SPEAKER_00: I want you to see this.
6:53
SPEAKER_00: On the front end, we have Pharisees who reject God's purpose for themselves.
6:58
SPEAKER_00: But it says in 8 1, soon afterwards he began going from one city and village to another, proclaiming and preaching the kingdom of God.
7:05
SPEAKER_00: The twelve were with him, and also some women, some women of very questionable backgrounds, or backgrounds we just don't know about.
7:14
SPEAKER_00: Some women who had been healed of evil spirits and sicknesses.
7:19
SPEAKER_00: Example, Mary, who's called Magdalene, Mary Magdalene, from whom seven demons had gone out.
7:26
SPEAKER_00: Somewhere she'd either been dabbling in the occult or she had been oppressed by Satan, had been demon-possessed, and either on seven occasions or maybe on less multiples, seven demons had been cast out of this follower of Jesus.
7:39
SPEAKER_00: Very questionable background before she starts her ministry.
7:44
SPEAKER_00: And then you get Joanna, she's one of my favorites.
7:47
SPEAKER_00: Joanna is the wife of Chusa.
7:49
SPEAKER_00: Chusa is the steward, the finance minister for Herod, who's appointed by Rome to govern that region during the life of Christ.
7:56
SPEAKER_00: Now, I think it's fun because these are supporting women who are supporting the ministry of Jesus and his disciples.
8:04
SPEAKER_00: So there's a part of me, maybe it's my carnal side, but there's a part of me that loves the thought of Rome paying Herod, Herring paying Chusah, Chuser bringing home the money to Joanna, and Joanna giving it to Jesus.
8:16
SPEAKER_00: I love ministry sponsored by pagan governments.
8:18
SPEAKER_00: It's just sort of fun.
8:20
SPEAKER_00: And then we get Susanna.
8:22
SPEAKER_00: We don't know anything about Susanna, I just call her old Susanna.
8:26
SPEAKER_00: With three women of very questionable or unknown backgrounds, and notice what it says, and many others who are contributing to their support out of their private means.
8:37
SPEAKER_00: These are ladies who are coming alongside of Jesus and the disciples and furnishing, you know, you know, invaluable support to the ministry of Jesus.
8:48
SPEAKER_00: So on the one end, you have a background of Pharisees who reject, on the other end, you have the background of uh women of questionable backgrounds ministering to Jesus.
8:59
SPEAKER_00: That sets the tone for a dinner between Simon, one Pharisee, a woman of questionable background, Jesus, and a couple others who are gathered as guests.
9:13
SPEAKER_00: Look at the text with me back in chapter 7, because when he finishes that introduction, he says this, uh, verse 31 To what shall I compare the men of this generation?
9:24
SPEAKER_00: And what are they like?
9:26
SPEAKER_00: They're like children who sit in the marketplace and call to one another, and they say, We played the flute for you and you didn't dance.
9:32
SPEAKER_00: We sang a dirge and you didn't weep.
9:35
SPEAKER_00: For John the Baptist has come eating no bread and drinking no wine, and you say he has a demon, the Son of Man has come eating and drinking, and you say, Behold, a gluttonous man and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and sinners, yet wisdom is vindicated by all her children.
9:50
SPEAKER_00: Now, just for fun, how many of you came to Christ from a background of uh somebody uh, you know, thumped the Bible, pounded on the pulpit, scared you out of hell and into heaven by warning you of final judgment?
10:04
SPEAKER_00: Let me see your hands.
10:05
SPEAKER_00: Some of us came to Christ that way.
10:07
SPEAKER_00: How many of you got wooed into the family of God through grace and love?
10:11
SPEAKER_00: Let me see your hands.
10:12
SPEAKER_00: Some of you didn't raise your hands, so God loves you and has a wonderful plan for your life, okay?
10:17
SPEAKER_00: Just in case you haven't come yet, all right?
10:20
SPEAKER_00: Now, what what what Jesus is doing as recorded by Luke, uh John the Baptist came as the pulpit pounder.
10:29
SPEAKER_00: He came bringing a thunderous message that he said, Who warned you to flee from the wrath to come?
10:34
SPEAKER_00: Bring forth fruit in keeping with repentance.
10:37
SPEAKER_00: The axe is already laid at the root of the tree.
10:39
SPEAKER_00: Every tree that doesn't bear fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.
10:42
SPEAKER_00: He brought turn or burn message.
10:45
SPEAKER_00: Fly or fry, shake or bake.
10:50
SPEAKER_00: That was his message.
10:52
SPEAKER_00: He sang the funeral dirge.
10:54
SPEAKER_00: Jesus, however, came along and said, What are you doing for lunch?
10:57
SPEAKER_00: Let's go to lunch.
10:58
SPEAKER_00: Now, there neither one is better than the other, obviously.
11:02
SPEAKER_00: John the Baptist had the message that God wanted him to have.
11:06
SPEAKER_00: Jesus brought the message: there is warning of judgment, there is grace in Christ.
11:11
SPEAKER_00: Those two are not contradictory, they're complementary.
11:14
SPEAKER_00: There would be no need for salvation if there wasn't judgment.
11:18
SPEAKER_00: So John said, uh you better get ready.
11:22
SPEAKER_00: Judgment's coming.
11:24
SPEAKER_00: Jesus said, let's go to lunch and find out what life's all about.
11:30
SPEAKER_00: Wisdom shows up in a right response of her children.
11:34
SPEAKER_00: It's that setting that sets us up for one Pharisee and one woman of questionable background with Jesus.
11:43
SPEAKER_00: Look in verse 36.
11:45
SPEAKER_00: Now, one of the Pharisees was requesting him to dine with him.
11:49
SPEAKER_00: And he entered the Pharisee's house and reclined at the table.
11:52
SPEAKER_00: Now they had what they called tricleniums.
11:55
SPEAKER_00: They were three-sided tables and uh sort of like a banquet style, and they were down low to the ground, and you usually uh put an elbow on a cushion and kicked your feet out behind because your feet are pretty smelly from you know running in the dust and everything like that.
12:08
SPEAKER_00: And so that's the way they would be fishboned around the table.
12:12
SPEAKER_00: People could come that were invited and sit at the table, but guests of the community could come and not be a part of the meal, but sit on cushions or benches on the outside of the court.
12:22
SPEAKER_00: That was a typical first-century eating uh habit.
12:26
SPEAKER_00: And there was a woman in the city, verse 37, who was a sinner, and that's how she could get in.
12:32
SPEAKER_00: She learned that he was reclining at the table in the Pharisee's house, and because it's usually an outdoor court, she came in and she stationed herself at his feet.
12:43
SPEAKER_00: She brought an alabaster vial of perfume, and standing behind him at his feet, weeping, she began to wet his feet with her tears, and kept wiping them with the hair of her head, and kissing his feet and anointing them with perfume.
12:58
SPEAKER_00: Now, you need to know she's doing things that are absolutely countercultural.
13:03
SPEAKER_00: Uh, number one, it's a woman touching a man.
13:05
SPEAKER_00: That was in Hebrew lotov, no good.
13:08
SPEAKER_00: Uh not only that, but she was crying in public.
13:11
SPEAKER_00: They didn't do that.
13:12
SPEAKER_00: They even hired professional mourners to cry in public because you weren't supposed to be seen doing that.
13:17
SPEAKER_00: She let down her hair, which has become proverbial over the centuries.
13:22
SPEAKER_00: Uh you didn't do that in public.
13:25
SPEAKER_00: She's anointing his feet with costly perfume.
13:28
SPEAKER_00: That was sort of stupid.
13:31
SPEAKER_00: But that's what she's doing in the tenses of the verb, is she keeps doing that.
13:35
SPEAKER_00: She's boo-hooing, she's kiss-kissing, she's pour-pouring, and she's wipe-wiping his feet.
13:41
SPEAKER_00: That's the setup with the dinner.
13:45
SPEAKER_00: And uh when the Pharisee, verse 39, who had invited him, no, this is not her, had invited him, saw this, he says to himself, if this man were a prophet, he would know who and what sort of person this woman is who's touching him, that she's the sinner.
14:03
SPEAKER_00: You know, this isn't right.
14:06
SPEAKER_00: Let's put Simon right here, so to speak, at the table, and here's Jesus, here's this woman who's kiss-kiss and boo-hoo and kiss-kiss and wipe, wipe, and pour-pouring.
14:13
SPEAKER_00: And and Simon has some logic going on in his heart.
14:17
SPEAKER_00: Here's his doubt.
14:18
SPEAKER_00: Prophets know what God wants them to know.
14:22
SPEAKER_00: That's why they're prophets.
14:24
SPEAKER_00: They were called seers, S-E-E-R-S, translated into English.
14:28
SPEAKER_00: They're people who could see what God wanted them to see.
14:31
SPEAKER_00: They're prophets and they know.
14:34
SPEAKER_00: Because God wants them to.
14:36
SPEAKER_00: If Jesus were a prophet, Simon's logic is, he would know.
14:41
SPEAKER_00: The problem is, he's letting her touch him, therefore, he must not know.
14:47
SPEAKER_00: A la, ipso facto, therefore, he must not be a prophet.
14:52
SPEAKER_00: That's his logic.
14:54
SPEAKER_00: If he was who he, everybody thought he was, and what he seemed to be claiming for himself, being a spokesman for God, he would know who this woman is.
15:03
SPEAKER_00: He wouldn't let this woman do what she's doing.
15:06
SPEAKER_00: Now, he says this to himself.
15:09
SPEAKER_00: Here's the humor of the text.
15:11
SPEAKER_00: Look at the next verse, verse 40, and Jesus answered him.
15:17
SPEAKER_00: Don't let that one go by too quickly.
15:20
SPEAKER_00: He's thinking this, so Jesus answers his thought.
15:25
SPEAKER_00: Therefore, Jesus does know.
15:28
SPEAKER_00: And he's at least a prophet, if not more.
15:32
SPEAKER_00: And Jesus says to him, Simon, I have something to say to you.
15:37
SPEAKER_00: Now he's gonna want Simon to hear some things, and he's gonna want Simon to see some things in this account.
15:44
SPEAKER_00: And he said, Say it, teacher.
15:46
SPEAKER_00: And here's his uh little parable, the parable of two debtors.
15:51
SPEAKER_00: A moneylender had two debtors.
15:53
SPEAKER_00: One owed 500 denarii and one owed 50.
15:57
SPEAKER_00: A denarii is a denarius was a day's wage for a foot soldier or a day laborer back in the first century.
16:03
SPEAKER_00: So one owed him over a month's salary, one owed him over a year's salary.
16:09
SPEAKER_00: What they have in common is that both were unable to repay, and he graciously forgave them both.
16:18
SPEAKER_00: Then Jesus asked the question of his little story: so which one will love him more?
16:25
SPEAKER_00: It's not a hard story.
16:28
SPEAKER_00: Simon says, the one I'm who forgave him more.
16:31
SPEAKER_00: And he says, You're right.
16:33
SPEAKER_00: The one who's been forgiven little loves little, the one who's been forgiven much loves much, he'll go on to say.
16:38
SPEAKER_00: But he says, Simon, you're you've judged correctly.
16:40
SPEAKER_00: That's the first judgment Simon's made correctly all day.
16:43
SPEAKER_00: Now, watch the language or watch the language of the text.
16:47
SPEAKER_00: See the sights and smell the smells.
16:49
SPEAKER_00: She's poor in perfume, and that waft must have come across the table more than the food.
16:54
SPEAKER_00: And turning toward the woman, he says to Simon, the under question of the day, Simon, do you see this woman?
17:02
SPEAKER_00: Now put yourself in Simon's spot.
17:04
SPEAKER_00: You've invited Jesus as a special guest, maybe after a synagogue service to your house.
17:08
SPEAKER_00: You've got some choice guests at the table, you've got some other guests around the outskirts, and this boohooin, poor, poor, and wipe-wipe and woman comes into your dining facility.
17:24
SPEAKER_00: What are you gonna do?
17:26
SPEAKER_00: I bet Simon's been bobbing and weaving the whole morning, looking at this lady.
17:31
SPEAKER_00: And Jesus says, Simon, do you see this woman?
17:35
SPEAKER_00: And then Jesus begins with a series of what I've called denunciations.
17:42
SPEAKER_00: He said, I entered your house and you gave me no water for my feet, but she has wet my feet with her tears and wiped them with her hair.
17:52
SPEAKER_00: Simon, you gave me no water.
17:55
SPEAKER_00: She hasn't quit washing my feet and wiping my feet with her hair.
18:00
SPEAKER_00: Pouring her tears all over my feet.
18:03
SPEAKER_00: Now watch the positioning.
18:04
SPEAKER_00: He starts at the feet.
18:06
SPEAKER_00: Simon, when I came in, you didn't kiss my cheek.
18:10
SPEAKER_00: You gave me no kiss.
18:11
SPEAKER_00: It wasn't a lip lock, it was a cheek-to-cheek conventional greeting.
18:15
SPEAKER_00: Simon, when I came in, you gave me no kiss.
18:17
SPEAKER_00: She hasn't stopped kissing, and the tense of the verb is kissing and kissing and kissing my feet.
18:24
SPEAKER_00: Notice he started at the feet, he now moves to the cheeks.
18:27
SPEAKER_00: Simon, when I came in, you gave me no oil for my head.
18:31
SPEAKER_00: That's not three-in-one oil or emotor oil, it's olive oil.
18:36
SPEAKER_00: That was good for cooking, for medicine, for you know, uh tonic, for shampoo.
18:40
SPEAKER_00: It was everything.
18:42
SPEAKER_00: 101, you know, oil.
18:45
SPEAKER_00: Simon, you gave me no oil for my head.
18:48
SPEAKER_00: She has uh broken open a vial of alabaster perfume.
18:53
SPEAKER_00: Very expensive.
18:57
SPEAKER_00: With those three denunciations, he says this, verse 47.
19:03
SPEAKER_00: For this reason I say to you, her sins which are many have been forgiven, for she loved much.
19:12
SPEAKER_00: Now, I need to take you to a background of this, circle or underline the word for.
19:18
SPEAKER_00: Underline the word for.
19:21
SPEAKER_00: Because the the background of this is in the 12th century, and beginning in the 12th century, there erupted a theological debate between the Archbishop of Canterbury named Anselm and a theologian of the day named Peter Abelard.
19:39
SPEAKER_00: Now, in this text, the question is what's the basis of forgiveness?
19:46
SPEAKER_00: Her sins, which are many, have been forgiven, for she loved much.
19:53
SPEAKER_00: One of the ways you can translate for is as a causal particle.
20:00
SPEAKER_00: Because she loved, she was forgiven.
20:04
SPEAKER_00: And the cause of her forgiveness would be her love.
20:07
SPEAKER_00: That's what Peter Abelard held.
20:10
SPEAKER_00: Anselm countered Archbishop of Canterbury and said, no, uh, the for there is not a causal particle, but a consequential particle or an inferential particle, which means as a result she loved much.
20:25
SPEAKER_00: So the argument was that Anselm held that the death of Jesus Christ was the objective satisfaction for sin.
20:34
SPEAKER_00: But Peter Abelard taught that the value of the death of Christ was subjective and it was a moral influence view of the atonement, that because Jesus loved us, we should love him.
20:44
SPEAKER_00: Now there's truth to that, but is that the reason we're accepted by God is because of our love?
20:48
SPEAKER_00: Becomes the question.
20:50
SPEAKER_00: The ground on which God forgives our sins, according to Anselm, was the propitiatory death of Christ, the satisfaction of the death of Christ to God.
21:00
SPEAKER_00: For Abelard, it was our own love, our persistence, our obedience, which is aroused in us as we contemplate the great love of Christ.
21:10
SPEAKER_00: The text that got debated in that argument is here, and the particle four was the centerpiece of their argumentation.
21:22
SPEAKER_00: So the question is, is it causal or consequential?
21:26
SPEAKER_00: Is the basis of forgiveness love, or is love the evidence of forgiveness?
21:33
SPEAKER_00: And how do we interpret the text?
21:35
SPEAKER_00: The Roman Catholic Bible would take the causal, we're forgiven because of our love.
21:42
SPEAKER_00: But is that true?
21:43
SPEAKER_00: Look at the text of Scripture.
21:46
SPEAKER_00: Number one, the logic of the parable, if we go back, what they had in common was they both owed.
21:53
SPEAKER_00: What they had in common was they both were unable to repay.
21:57
SPEAKER_00: What they had in common according to Jesus is.
22:00
SPEAKER_00: They were both graciously forgiven.
22:04
SPEAKER_00: And the question was, which one will love more?
22:08
SPEAKER_00: And the answer, which is correct, is the one who will love more is the one who has been forgiven more.
22:18
SPEAKER_00: So forgiveness comes before love in the parable.
22:22
SPEAKER_00: In the text of Scripture, as we're going to see here, the order of forgiveness and love.
22:29
SPEAKER_00: And in verses 48 and 50, it's going to come back and make it clear as well.
22:34
SPEAKER_00: Because he says, the one who has been forgiven much loves much.
22:40
SPEAKER_00: See, so which of them will love him the more?
22:42
SPEAKER_00: And he says, the one whom he has forgiven more.
22:44
SPEAKER_00: He says, You judge correctly.
22:46
SPEAKER_00: Now turning toward the woman, he said to Simon, and he gives him the denunciation, verse 47, for this reason I say her sins, which are many, have been forgiven.
22:56
SPEAKER_00: How do we know that?
22:58
SPEAKER_00: She loved much.
22:59
SPEAKER_00: And then here's Jesus' correction, to be sure we don't get it.
23:03
SPEAKER_00: But he who has been forgiven little loves little.
23:06
SPEAKER_00: Notice the order of forgiveness before love.
23:10
SPEAKER_00: And then he says to the woman, Your sins have been forgiven.
23:16
SPEAKER_00: And those who were reclining with him at the table began to say to themselves, Who is this man who forgives sins?
23:21
SPEAKER_00: Because their view and their theology is right.
23:23
SPEAKER_00: Only God can forgive sins.
23:25
SPEAKER_00: Jesus knows that.
23:27
SPEAKER_00: That's why he said, Your sins are forgiven.
23:30
SPEAKER_00: See, Jesus is more than a prophet, he's also the Son of God who can forgive sins.
23:35
SPEAKER_00: And he says to the woman, verse 50, Your faith has saved you.
23:41
SPEAKER_00: Go in peace.
23:44
SPEAKER_00: Now let me give you the delineations.
23:47
SPEAKER_00: What I learned from this passage is that Jesus is more than a prophet, he's the Son of God.
23:53
SPEAKER_00: And he has the authority to forgive sins.
23:56
SPEAKER_00: Simon wondered whether he could be a prophet.
23:58
SPEAKER_00: Jesus proves that he's a prophet, but he claims to be able to forgive sins.
24:01
SPEAKER_00: That's huge.
24:03
SPEAKER_00: Number two, salvation is by grace through faith.
24:06
SPEAKER_00: Your faith has saved you.
24:08
SPEAKER_00: It's not of works.
24:11
SPEAKER_00: Salvation is by grace through faith, not of works.
24:15
SPEAKER_00: The results of salvation are forgiveness and peace.
24:18
SPEAKER_00: He says, your sins are forgiven, verse 48, verse 50, your faith has saved you.
24:23
SPEAKER_00: Go in peace.
24:25
SPEAKER_00: I love that.
24:26
SPEAKER_00: Here's a woman who's grobling at the feet of Jesus, overwhelmed with her guilt, overwhelmed with his grace.
24:32
SPEAKER_00: And she is ministering to him at the foot level.
24:35
SPEAKER_00: She never leaves the feet.
24:37
SPEAKER_00: Though he starts at the feet, goes to the cheek and goes to the head, she hasn't left his feet.
24:41
SPEAKER_00: She's a model.
24:44
SPEAKER_00: But he says, you can leave here in peace.
24:47
SPEAKER_00: I love that.
24:48
SPEAKER_00: No matter what you've done, no matter where you've been, she's a notorious sinner from the community.
24:53
SPEAKER_00: Everybody knows her sinfulness.
24:57
SPEAKER_00: And she can leave with peace and forgiveness.
25:03
SPEAKER_00: Don't ever get over the wonder of grace.
25:06
SPEAKER_00: Never get over the wonder of grace.
25:10
SPEAKER_00: Number four, love is the evidence, not the basis, but the evidence of forgiveness.
25:16
SPEAKER_00: Love is the evidence of forgiveness.
25:19
SPEAKER_00: He doesn't love me because I loved him.
25:22
SPEAKER_00: He loved me first.
25:23
SPEAKER_00: We love him because he first loved us.
25:26
SPEAKER_00: We're not accepted because of our love.
25:29
SPEAKER_00: We're accepted because of faith.
25:30
SPEAKER_00: Being justified, declared righteous in his sight, by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, Paul said to the Romans.
25:38
SPEAKER_00: And the result is humble service, which flows out of a heart of gratitude.
25:44
SPEAKER_00: Now, I've given you a diagram because I want you to imagine stretched across this auditorium are big links of a chain.
25:51
SPEAKER_00: And I want to start in the middle and put forgiveness slash peace, right here in the middle.
25:55
SPEAKER_00: Put forgiveness slash peace.
25:58
SPEAKER_00: Let's work our way backwards because he says your faith has saved you.
26:05
SPEAKER_00: Faith saves.
26:08
SPEAKER_00: Okay?
26:08
SPEAKER_00: He does not say your salvation faith you.
26:28
SPEAKER_00: Out of forgiveness comes love.
26:31
SPEAKER_00: Out of a heart of gratitude for having been forgiven.
26:33
SPEAKER_00: And knowing that I'm at peace with God, I could love him because he first loved me.
26:39
SPEAKER_00: And how do we know she loved because of her humble service?
26:44
SPEAKER_00: Put in the fifth link, humble service.
26:47
SPEAKER_00: Humble service.
26:49
SPEAKER_00: Now, I want you to think about this for a moment.
26:52
SPEAKER_00: If you could slide into that story, if you could slide into that story and you could uh you know sort of uh get get get beside you know Simon.
27:03
SPEAKER_00: Say, Simon, you you you heard Jesus' story.
27:06
SPEAKER_00: Yep, yep.
27:07
SPEAKER_00: 500 or 50, which one are you?
27:10
SPEAKER_00: What do you think Simon would say?
27:15
SPEAKER_00: She's 500.
27:17
SPEAKER_00: I'm 50.
27:21
SPEAKER_00: If you could uh get down next in the midst of the boo-hoo and the sob-sob and the kiss-kiss and the poor-poor and the wipe-wipe and say, excuse me, sister, uh, uh you heard Jesus' story?
27:32
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
27:34
SPEAKER_00: Are you the 500?
27:36
SPEAKER_00: Are you the 50?
27:37
SPEAKER_00: She'd probably say, I don't know who the 50 is.
27:39
SPEAKER_00: I just I know I'm the 500.
27:41
SPEAKER_00: I'm the 500.
27:46
SPEAKER_00: If you could lean next to Jesus and recline on his chest, say, Jesus, I heard your story.
27:54
SPEAKER_00: Uh who's the 50 and who's the 500?
28:01
SPEAKER_00: You'd say, Bailey, have you been listening?
28:04
SPEAKER_00: Her sins, which are many, have been forgiven.
28:08
SPEAKER_00: Therefore she loves much.
28:10
SPEAKER_00: She's the 500.
28:12
SPEAKER_00: Oh, so Simon's the 50.
28:14
SPEAKER_00: Bailey, no, you didn't listen.
28:17
SPEAKER_00: The one who's been forgiven little loves little.
28:22
SPEAKER_00: The one who's been forgiven much, loves much.
28:27
SPEAKER_00: No water.
28:30
SPEAKER_00: No kiss.
28:32
SPEAKER_00: No oil.
28:40
SPEAKER_00: No love.
28:43
SPEAKER_00: Hence no service.
28:47
SPEAKER_00: Chances are pretty big.
28:48
SPEAKER_00: No salvation.
28:50
SPEAKER_00: Because of no faith.
28:54
SPEAKER_00: You don't even believe Jesus is a prophet, let alone the Son of God.
29:02
SPEAKER_00: Simon's not the fifty.
29:07
SPEAKER_00: But the question is, are you?
29:10
SPEAKER_00: Am I fifty or five hundred?
29:14
SPEAKER_00: Does it matter?
29:17
SPEAKER_00: I want you to imagine with me two plate glass windows up here.
29:22
SPEAKER_00: I love these stained glass, by the way.
29:24
SPEAKER_00: This is gorgeous auditorium.
29:27
SPEAKER_00: But imagine there's two plate glass windows up here.
29:31
SPEAKER_00: And some of some of us uh grew up, Christian home, near near religion.
29:36
SPEAKER_00: We had pretty good parents, good teachers, and we we shot BBs through plate glass windows.
29:42
SPEAKER_00: Bing, ching, chole a piece of gum, ching, sassed my parents, ping, started a fire in the backyard, bing.
29:53
SPEAKER_00: Sassed, ping, lied, bing.
29:57
SPEAKER_00: Nothing huge.
29:58
SPEAKER_00: Bing, bing, bing.
30:02
SPEAKER_00: Some of you in this room come out of a background where you shot a bazooka through a plate glass window.
30:09
SPEAKER_00: Kaboom! Kaboom! Do you remember I said they were plate glass windows?
30:18
SPEAKER_00: Do you know what a BB does to a plate glass window?
30:22
SPEAKER_00: Shatters it.
30:24
SPEAKER_00: Not tempered glass, but plate glass.
30:28
SPEAKER_00: You know what a bazooka shell does to a plate glass window?
30:30
SPEAKER_00: Shatters it.
30:34
SPEAKER_00: How much do the windows cost?
30:39
SPEAKER_00: The same.
30:41
SPEAKER_00: A window shot with a BB costs the same to replace as a window shot with a bazooka.
30:48
SPEAKER_00: Not as many people might have heard it.
30:51
SPEAKER_00: The price is the same.
30:53
SPEAKER_00: The cost is the same.
30:55
SPEAKER_00: And the only solution is to replace the window.
31:01
SPEAKER_00: The older I get in Christ, the more I understand how damaging a BB is.
31:11
SPEAKER_00: James says, if you've broken the law in one part, you've shattered the glass.
31:16
SPEAKER_00: You broke the whole law.
31:18
SPEAKER_00: To play glass.
31:20
SPEAKER_00: To play glass.
31:23
SPEAKER_00: Regardless of your background, whether you were an insider or an outsider, whether you were a down and outer or an up and outer, it took the death of Christ to pay for your window.
31:36
SPEAKER_00: The cost is the same.
31:39
SPEAKER_00: And if you think your babies didn't matter, you need to keep reading.
31:43
SPEAKER_00: And if you think your sin was so serious that God couldn't take care of it, you need to keep reading.
31:52
SPEAKER_00: Would you bow your heads with me in prayer?
31:59
SPEAKER_00: Father in heaven.
32:03
SPEAKER_00: Forgive us for thinking a baby isn't serious and a bazooka shell is.
32:12
SPEAKER_00: When only one choice to disobey in the garden, set the tone for the whole human race in sin.
32:24
SPEAKER_00: Thank you that your son paid the penalty for our sin.
32:31
SPEAKER_00: Thank you, it's not our service nor our love that merits forgiveness, but it's your forgiveness that merits our service out of a heart of love.
32:41
SPEAKER_00: If there be one listening to this message who is not yet trusted in the gracious work of your son who died on the cross to pay the penalty of our sins, may today they trust you by trusting Him, coming to know you, to whom to know is life everlasting, simply by faith in what you did through Him on the cross for them.
33:04
SPEAKER_00: May they simply say, Yes, I welcome you into my life by faith.
33:09
SPEAKER_00: Become my Savior, Lord Jesus.
33:13
SPEAKER_00: And Father, forgive us who have been around the faith for thinking sin isn't as serious as it is.
33:21
SPEAKER_00: And motivate us to share the great message of grace, how great it is, to others who didn't have the same privileges that we had.
33:32
SPEAKER_00: Forgive us for our comparative righteousness and comparative sinfulness kinds of measures.
33:39
SPEAKER_00: Overwhelm us with your grace that will motivate us to serve you for a lifetime out of peace and forgiveness that comes from your salvation.
33:52
SPEAKER_00: As in a demonstration, we really do love you.
33:56
SPEAKER_00: We ask it in Jesus' name.
33:58
SPEAKER_00: Amen.