Latest / HBCWestminster / 6.28.20 Luke 7:36-50 Pastor Danny Gardner

Transcript

6.28.20 Luke 7:36-50 Pastor Danny Gardner · HBCWestminster

• 0:00
  Well, church, we are back to the Gospel of Luke. And so if you'd like to turn in your Bibles to Luke chapter 7, beginning in verse 36, I'll read our text and then we'll pray and begin. And I would ask if you're able, even in your living rooms, to stand in honor of God's Word, that you do that now. Allow me to read our text, verses 36 through 50, and then we'll start. It says, One of the Pharisees asked him to eat with him. And he went into the Pharisee's house and reclined at the table. And behold, a woman of the city,
• 0:31
  who was a sinner. When she learned that he was reclining at table in the Pharisee's house, brought an alabaster flask of ointment, and standing behind him at his feet weeping, she began to wet his feet with her tears, and wiped them with the hair of her head, and kissed his feet, and anointed them with the ointment. Now when the Pharisee who had invited him saw this, he said to himself, If this man were a prophet, he would have known who and what sort of woman this is who is touching him, for she is a sinner.
• 1:00
  And Jesus answering said to him, Simon, I have something to say to you. And he answered, say it teacher. A certain money lender had two debtors. One owed 500 denarii, the other 50. When they could not pay, he canceled the debt of both. Now, which of them will love him more? Simon answered, the one I suppose for whom he canceled the larger debt. And he said to him, you have judged rightly. Then turning toward the woman, he said to Simon, do you see this woman? I entered your house.
• 1:27
  You gave me no water for my feet, but she has wet my feet with her tears and wiped them with her hair. You gave me no kiss, but from the time I came in she has not ceased to kiss my feet. You did not anoint my head with oil, but she has anointed my feet with ointment. Therefore I tell you, her sins, which are many, are forgiven, for she loved much, but he who is forgiven little loves little. And he said to her, Your sins are forgiven.
• 1:52
  Then those who were at table with him began to say among themselves, who is this who even forgives sins? And he said to the woman, your faith has saved you. Go in peace. And Lord, we would ask again for a blessing over your word as it is opened, as we read, as it is preached. God, may we understand it. God, by your Holy Spirit, teach us its truths. May we not only be hearers of your word, but doers also. God, may we be a people.
• 2:21
  who sees every opportunity to proclaim the good news to sinners, recognizing that we first and foremost need to be forgiven of our sin. Lord, may we not be spiritual pretenders. May we repent of sin the way that this woman has done. May we humbly come into your presence and be restored. And it's in Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Amen. Well, we have said...
• 2:49
  from the beginning of our study that Luke's gospel is one of three synoptic gospels. Synoptic is just a compound Greek word, syn or soon, meaning the same, where we get the word synonym. And then optic, where we get the word optic, right? Like the optometrist, an eye doctor. So this is the same vision or the same perspective. And although many of the stories of Matthew, Mark, and Luke are similar, we said that Luke's intended audience was quite unique.
• 3:18
  From the beginning of his book, and as exemplified in many of its unique passages, Luke's audience was universal. And even more than that, Luke intended his gospel for the lowliest of the human race. For those who would have assumed that there was no hope for them. For those who felt like they had sinned beyond God's ability to forgive, or who had come from families wrecked.
• 3:43
  with shame and dishonor. And the Lord said that he came to seek and to save those who were lost. And certainly the gospel in Luke's book is reiterated by this truth repeatedly. This will be the sermon I would have preached last Sunday on Father's Day if the Lord had not so impressed upon me the urgency to deal with the racism and prejudice which are both in our world and I believe even in
• 4:12
  And so I want to ask us to pretend like it's Father's Day again. Pretend like we just go back to last Sunday. Pretend like it's June 21st again. Pretend like it's Father's Day. And I'm going to ask our Highland dads to consider the power of a father's smile. I was reminiscing this week about some cherished memories I've had with my sons.
• 4:33
  And certainly my most cherished memories are my dad memories, right? The times in my life where I've experienced the greatest joy and laughter are when I've been with my boys. Unfortunately, they probably also have some hard and even embarrassing dad memories as well. But most of the time I laugh the hardest is when I'm with my boys and when things go wrong. In fact, often I laugh harder when things go wrong than even when things go right.
• 5:01
  Like when I took my two young sons at the time, Pearson and Zach, before Chase was even born,
• 5:07
  up to the top of Mount Whitney, 12,000, 13,000, 14,000 feet in elevation. And we were backpacking and got up there and it became so windy that our tent was even being blown by the wind flat against us as we laid in it. None of us were going to sleep that night. In fact, I even flipped onto my stomach and just pushed the top, the roof of the tent up. I pushed my elbows down onto the ground and just kind of made a little tripod. And for the evening, just kind of pushed the tent up so it wouldn't be flat against their little...
• 5:37
  faces.
• 5:38
  And just said, all right, boys, we're going to have a dance competition. I put music on on my phone. I said, who's the best dancer? You hear Pearson's little voice? I am. Zach's little tiny voice. He's four or five years old. I am. I'm the best dancer. OK, let's see. And for the remainder of the evening, we sat like this on our tummies with our elbows on the ground and we call it elbow dancing. And from that point forward, they know exactly what it is. We invented elbow dancing. You can dance however you want as long as your elbows are on the ground. And I can so vividly remember Zach, five years old.
• 6:07
  right? Walking along like this, like the shopping cart with his elbows on the ground and grabbing stuff and putting it in the shopping cart. It was so much fun. I can remember sinking in the quicksand in the middle of a river while fly fishing, shoving Zach across the river and going in up to my waist. I remember burying my truck in the mud, burying my truck in snow, trying to figure out how to get it out. I can remember driving rain while we were camping once.
• 6:34
  I had just let the junior high group at our church borrow our family tent, and I didn't realize when they gave it back to me that they had actually accidentally, by pulling the stakes out wrong, popped all of the seams in the tent. And so I set it up, and I've got my boys in the tent. We're on cots right up above the ground, but I didn't know that the tent was no longer waterproof, and there was just a torrential downpour.
• 6:59
  Water flooding through all of the seams in the tent. I can remember water literally dripping onto Pearson's forehead. He said, Dad, I don't think this is going to work. It rained so hard there was actually standing water in the bottom of our tent. And that whole night, we took the top of a Tupperware that we found floated on the water.
• 7:18
  And we played cards. One person would play his card, we'd shove it, and it would float across to the next person who'd play their card, and we'd float it across to the next person. It seemed miserable at the time, but now looking back at that, those are some of my fondest memories. Do you ever wonder if it might be the same with our Heavenly Father's dad memories? Could it be that our Heavenly Father rejoices more when things go wrong than He even does when things go right?
• 7:49
  The Lord is unendingly pursuing opportunities to display his grace, his kindness, his mercy, his patience. And yet all of these attributes, many of which are our favorite attributes, are only displayed when his children, we, when we, his children mess up. His love and grace and kindness, his mercy. I may have discovered an error in the way I think of heaven's throne room.
• 8:16
  My mental image of heaven has always been one of unending joy, right? I mean, that's what we think of when we think of heaven. An ever-pleasant paradise filled with laughter and singing and celebration. But then when I think about the throne room of God, the very center of heaven itself, when I think about the presence of God, which is what makes heaven heaven, I imagine a setting far more stoic, even intimidating, even scary.
• 8:47
  How can that be that heaven is good, but what makes heaven heaven is scary? Is that what it's going to be like for all of eternity? This fear and quaking? Or church, does the Lord smile? Doesn't the Lord rejoice? We've just gotten done singing, Jesus, I, my cross have taken. And thank you to Carla for leading us in worship again. Listen again to some of those lyrics.
• 9:17
  Oh, while thou dost smile upon me, God of wisdom, love, and might, foes may hate and friends disown me, but show thy face and all is bright. Think what spirit dwells within thee. Think what father's smiles are thine. Think that Jesus died to win thee.
• 9:38
  Child of heaven, canst thou repine? What we've just sung, this hymn that we have been singing in the church for generations, is that our Father in heaven actually rejoices and smiles over his children. This morning's passage is about the woman saved out of promiscuity. The woman so overcome with gratitude at the grace and kindness of God that she followed Jesus to a dinner to which she was not invited, proceeded to wash Jesus' feet with her hair.
• 10:09
  and tears. And the point of this morning's message is this. There is greater rejoicing in heaven when one sinner repents than when 1,000 self-righteous people pretend like they don't have to. I'll say it again. The point of this morning's passage is this. There is greater rejoicing in heaven when one sinner repents than when 1,000 self-righteous people pretend like they don't have to repent.
• 10:39
  Our Lord rejoices when things go wrong because he faithfully seizes the opportunity to show that he is right. And our passage this morning breaks into three easy sections. You notice first, the gratitude and sacrifice of a sinful woman. Look at verse 36. It says, one of the Pharisees asked him to eat with him and he went into the Pharisee's house and reclined at the table. And behold, a woman of the city.
• 11:08
  who was a sinner, shows up. Now this obviously means that she was a prostitute. And apparently she was a relatively well-known one since everybody at the dinner, including the Pharisee, which I find interesting, knew exactly who she was. She was by no means a stranger to the people of the town. It actually causes me to wonder how many of the men at that same dinner judged her.
• 11:38
  While pretending not to know her. Right? And Jesus sees this woman. She comes in. And notice it continues in verse 37. She learned that Jesus was reclining at the table in the Pharisee's house. And notice several things. You're going to see ointment. You're going to see her tears. You're going to see her hair. And then you're going to see her kisses. He continues in verse 37. She brought an alabaster flask of ointment.
• 12:04
  And standing behind Jesus at his feet weeping, she began to wet his feet with her tears and wiped them with the hair of her head and kissed his feet and anointed them with the ointment. Now it was customary for people to recline at the table with their feet extended backward away from the table to have taken off their sandals at the entrance. Since their sandals and their feet, especially 2,000 years ago, would have been extremely dirty.
• 12:32
  This ointment that she used, actually being carried in this alabaster flask, which she just lays down at his feet, would have cost a fortune, no doubt. This was this woman's entire life savings. Consider for a moment the lifestyle she had lived, her profession. What she was now pouring out liberally at Jesus' feet, just spilling out onto his feet, had only moments before been painstakingly preserved.
• 13:04
  This would have been the entirety of her life's work. Everything that she had saved, everything that she had gained by her years of licentious behavior, she literally drops at his feet. She was not only turning away from the life she had built.
• 13:23
  Catch this, church. She was actually entrusting herself to him for her daily provision for the remainder of her earthly life. She wasn't just saying, I'm not going to do that anymore. She was saying, everything I've gained by doing that in the past, I am forsaking. I am laying it at the feet of Jesus. Now we use that phrase metaphorically. She was doing it literally. Everything that I've gained from that lifestyle, I will lay at the feet of Jesus.
• 13:52
  And from this moment forward, I have nothing, Lord. And so you will have to sustain me. And church, we can do the same. I've noticed that there are many who fear giving their lives to Christ because they're not sure, beyond sure, that he will catch them when they do. But he will, church. Christ is our provision and our shield. Listen to King David's words in Psalm 37 and verse 25.
• 14:22
  He says, I have been young and now am old, yet I have not seen the righteous forsaken or his children begging for bread. David said, you know, I've lived a long life and you know what I've never seen? I have never seen God not take care of his people.
• 14:38
  I mean, I've been around the block. I've been around. This is not my first rodeo. You know what I've never seen? I have never seen God not follow through. I have never seen God unfaithful. I have never seen the people of God begging for bread, right? I mean, he's going to sustain you. Jesus will not drop you. Jesus will never leave you nor forsake you. We can, honestly, genuinely, church, we can put our feeble lives into his strong hands. That is the kind of Lord.
• 15:08
  that we serve. Notice it continues in verse 38 with her tears, her hair, and her kisses. Verse 38, standing behind him at his feet weeping, she began to wet his feet with her tears. She wiped them with the hair of her head and then kissed his feet and anointed them with that ointment. The woman's tears that were washing the Lord's feet were no doubt both tears of sorrow and tears of joy. She was broken over her sin.
• 15:37
  And yet at the same time, she was realizing that she would never have to return to her old way of life. Broken, genuinely sorrowful over what she had done, yet also rejoicing that she would never have to do it again. She was a new creation. With every tear shed, this old woman was being washed away. And behold, she was becoming the new.
• 16:02
  And this hair that had previously been used to entice so many was now being used to dry Jesus' feet. The kisses that had been used for sinful ends were now being used to show affection to the Savior. I can't help when I'm reading Luke 7 and this kind of unusual foot washing. I can't help but also reflect upon John 13. Another unusual foot washing. The night before Jesus was crucified,
• 16:32
  The Bible says that he got up from dinner and went around to the back of each of his own apostles and began to wash their feet, taking the form of a servant, a lowly servant. And do you think in that moment that they were reminded of the last time they witnessed an unusual foot washing? Maybe they were reflecting back on this time. And you can imagine Peter now mildly rebuking Christ, right? You're not going to do that to me.
• 17:00
  You're taking the form of a prostitute? No, right? Can you imagine Peter saying, no, no, no, no, no. This is not how this works. And yet read the gospels church. Who did Jesus choose to hang out with? Who did he choose to associate with? Was it horrible people who had repented of their sin? Or was it horrible people who pretended like they had no sin? Because those church are the only two groups of people. I mean, that's it.
• 17:30
  We're all horrible. We are all of us wretched. Every single one of us. Amazing grace. How sweet the sound that saved a wretch like me. Right? We are all wretches apart from the gospel. Some of us recognize that wretchedness.
• 17:48
  and repent and are saved, some of us refuse to recognize that wretchedness and pretend like we don't need to be saved. And when you look into the Gospels, when you look at the life of Christ, Jesus continually chooses to associate with those who just honestly reflect upon, recognize their own wretchedness and turn from it and repent and are forgiven. Years ago, I preached a sermon from 1 Thessalonians 2 where I said that the Gospel is for people like us.
• 18:15
  Real people with real problems who need a real Savior. And I said that the gospel just cuts through the act. The gospel is for people who are tired of church pretending, right? Showing up on Sunday morning and pretending like their lives and their jobs and their marriages and their kids are perfect. But the gospel is for believers who need a Saturday evening Savior, not a Sunday morning fake Savior.
• 18:44
  For people who pretend like they never sin. I love that song. Jesus, what a friend of sinners. Jesus, lover of my soul. And friends may fail me and foes assail me. He, my Savior, makes me whole. Hallelujah, what a Savior. Hallelujah, what a friend. Saving, helping, keeping, loving. He is with me to the end. And that is this story. It's this story. That song could have been written for her. This debauched and despised woman.
• 19:15
  This woman represents all of us. If we're honest, that's who we are. This woman had real problems. And so she needed a real savior. And I'm telling you, church, when this moment happened, heaven rejoiced. The father smiled. I mean, if you close your eyes, you can almost hear the heavenly choir singing, celebrating. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. What a savior. Hallelujah. What a friend. That's first.
• 19:44
  this sacrifice of the woman. But notice second, the parable that Jesus tells and the rebuke of the self-righteous Pharisee. Look at verses 39 to 43. We'll look at this kind of parable first. Verse 39, Now when the Pharisee who had invited him saw this, he said to himself, so he's just thinking in his own mind, if this man were really a prophet, he would have known who and what sort of woman this is, who is touching him. She's a sinner. And Jesus answered him.
• 20:12
  So he didn't even speak it out loud. Jesus just answers his thoughts and says, Simon, I have something to say to you. And he answered, say it. A certain money lender had two debtors. One owed 500 denarii, the other 50. When they couldn't pay, he canceled the debt of both. Now, which of them will love him more? Simon, the Pharisee, we find, invited Jesus to his home for dinner, not out of love for him, nor out of respect for him, but out of maybe curiosity at best.
• 20:41
  but perhaps in order to spy on Jesus at worst. And you may ask, well, then why would Jesus accept such an invitation knowing that this guy Simon was really a fraud? This was not a genuine invitation to dinner. He was just seeking to spy on Jesus. Why would Jesus accept such an invitation? And the answer is because Jesus loved Simon the Pharisee too. He wanted an opportunity to call Simon to repentance just as he had called
• 21:11
  This woman, now this has been convicting for me, church. Do we view our interactions with the world in the same way? Do we, like Jesus, seize such opportunities to gently and lovingly call sinners to repentance? I am ashamed to think about how many opportunities for the gospel I have lost, I have let slip through my fingers.
• 21:38
  Because I don't, I'm not sensitive enough, the way that Jesus was, I'm not sensitive enough to recognize opportunities to call people gently and lovingly to repentance. I'm going to recommend another book, and I know that I recommend books frequently, but I'm going to recommend a book by Rosaria Butterfield called The Gospel Comes with a House Key. The Gospel Comes with a House Key by Rosaria Butterfield. In chapter 3, she describes her own Christian conversion.
• 22:09
  Before Christ, she says she was living a sinful lifestyle. She was a firm supporter of the LGBTQ movement and a firm supporter of abortion rights. She was a self-proclaimed hater of Christians and, here is a quote, their totalitarian view that all must come under obedience to the Bible and its description of sin. She's highly educated. She was an English professor at Syracuse University in New York.
• 22:37
  She was an open mocker of Christ and Christians. She thought Christians to be obsessive over a dead book, right? And she thought them therefore to be neurotic until she got invited to a pastor's home for dinner. She says in chapter three of her book that she only went because she was doing research for a class she was teaching. And then she says this, and I'll quote, I sat in their driveway for a long time, this pastor and his wife.
• 23:04
  I breathed hard. I hoisted myself out of my truck. I waded through the unusually thick July humidity to their front door, and I knocked. The threshold to their life, she says, was like none other. The threshold to their life brought me to the foot.
• 23:23
  of the cross. Nothing about that night unfolded according to my confident script. She thought she knew how the night would go. She said it did not go that way. Nothing happened the way that I expected. Not that night, not any night thereafter, on the hundreds of nights, the hundreds of meals, nor the long nights of psalm singing and prayer as other believers from the church and university walked through their front door as if no front door was there.
• 23:49
  Nothing prepared me for this kind of openness and truth. Nothing prepared me for the unstoppable gospel and for the love of Jesus made manifest by the daily practices of hospitality undertaken in this one simple Christian home. This home, she says, became my two-year refuge and way station. Long before I walked through the doors of a church, the Smith home.
• 24:16
  was the place where I wrestled with the Bible and with the reality that Jesus is who he says he is. And Lord, forgive us for the missed opportunities in our lives. Lord, forgive me for thinking that my house belongs to me. Lord, give us the courage to stop pretending like we have no need of repentance. Lord, give us, the people of Highland Baptist Church, the courage to stop blushing every time we find out that sinners sin.
• 24:49
  And Lord, may the gospel shine through our lives rather than merely through our words. May those people who need to see the Savior, see him in the way that we live and love others. Amen, church? Amen. That is the prayer that we should pray. And yet, that is not the prayer that we find Simon echoing. What we see instead is that if Simon really were a spy, he found the proof he needed in Jesus' response to the sinful woman.
• 25:21
  He says, this man can be no prophet, for if he were a prophet, verse 39, he would have known who and what sort of woman this is who is touching him. She's a sinner. And so Jesus proceeded to tell a story. And he describes this money lender in verse 41 who had two debtors.
• 25:42
  So you can imagine this guy who's been loaning money, and he's got two people who owe him money. One, it says, a debt of 500 denarii, the other of 50. Now, a denarii was one day's wage, okay? And so 500 of these, you can imagine, was about two years' salary, okay? Modern equivalent, you're talking about...
• 26:03
  $100,000, $200,000, maybe more, something along the lines of a mortgage for a house, okay? And like a mortgage for a house, 500 denarii would have taken most of a lifetime to repay. On the contrary, 50 denarii would have been something like $10,000 to $20,000, a manageable sum, like a car payment.
• 26:31
  It was some sacrifice and some diligence could have been redeemed. Now, let me ask you, church, which would you be more thankful to receive? If somebody came up to you on the street and said, hey, listen, I've heard you're in debt. I'm going to pay off your car. You'd be like, well, that's pretty awesome, right? Wow, thank you. I mean, that's amazing. Thank you. That's great. But if somebody walked up to you on the street and said, listen, I've heard you're in debt. I'm going to pay off your house. That's a different thing altogether. To have your house.
• 27:02
  paid off, to have your largest monthly debt suddenly erased. I mean, that's the kind of thing now you can begin to build on, right? Financially speaking, that kind of money could become generational type of blessing. Not only am I blessed, you've blessed my kids, you've blessed my grandkids. I now have an inheritance to pass down to them because I'm completely debt free. Obviously, the person.
• 27:32
  who has their house paid off will be more thankful than the person who has their car paid off and now look what he says in verse 44 all right verse 43 simon answered well which one is going to love him more the one simon answers i suppose for whom he canceled the larger debt and jesus says well yeah you've judged right yeah of course then turning toward the woman he said to simon you see this girl i entered your house you gave me no water for my feet
• 28:00
  But she has wet my feet with her tears and wiped them with her hair. You gave me no kiss. But from the time I came in, she has not ceased to kiss my feet. He didn't anoint my head with oil. She has anointed my feet with ointment. Do you see what he's doing here? He's saying, she honors my feet more than you honor my head. She has anointed my feet with ointment. Therefore, I tell you, her sins, which are many, are forgiven.
• 28:30
  For she loved much, but he who is forgiven little loves little. Jesus says simply, look how you acted, Simon. And look how she acted. This woman acted this way because she has been forgiven so much. And yet you act the way you do because you pretend like you don't need to be forgiven at all. J.C. Ryle words it this way. In all that this Pharisee did, there was one great defect.
• 28:59
  There was outward civility. I mean, he acted like he was being respectful and kind to Jesus, but there was no heart love. It is possible to have a decent form of religion and yet to know nothing of the gospel of Christ. In other words, J.C. Ryle says, church, it is possible to pretend. And can I just give an invitation here to anybody watching this now who is pretending?
• 29:28
  If your faith, if you know that the genuineness of your faith is in question, maybe everybody looks at you and says, well, they've got it all together and they're fine and they love the Lord and they raise their hands when they sing and therefore they must love Jesus. But you know in your heart, you've never actually surrendered your life to Christ. Can I invite you to stop pretending? Just confess that. Repent of it.
• 29:53
  Repent of it. Allow Jesus to come into your heart and into your mind to transform your life from the inside out. You know, church, every one of us needs a savior. Everyone does. Every one of us, the reality is needs to be forgiven much, much, not little. Let me just invite you out of the bondage of pretending to know the savior. You'll notice finally with this.
• 30:22
  We end the forgiveness freely offered by the Savior. Look at verse 48. He said to her, your sins are forgiven. Now that is a, you guys, what better statement is there than that? And yet in verse 49, he's even judged for that. There were those.
• 30:41
  at the table with him, began to say among themselves, who is this who forgives sins? He doesn't have the authority to this. He began to call into question his character, his identity. Who is this guy? He doesn't have the authority to forgive sins. And yet this simple declaration, your sins are forgiven, actually doomed Christ to the cross. Imagine what he meant when he said, your sins are forgiven. He understood full well that he would become the payment,
• 31:12
  For the penalty of her sin. When he said your sins are forgiven, he knew what that meant was there was no other way. The cup would not pass from him. He doomed himself, condemned himself to the cross.
• 31:26
  that day, your sins are forgiven. In other words, I will follow through with what I've been called to do so that you can be forgiven of this sin. And then he says in verse 50, your faith has saved you and go in peace. And worldly peace is so fleeting. Worldly peace is even, I'm going to say even overrated. Now, I know that that's easy to say when you're not at war, but heavenly peace far surpasses
• 31:56
  any fleeting earthly treaties which are so easily broken. Peace with God provides the believer with eternal hope. I cannot think of a better conclusion from Christ, a better benediction and blessing from Jesus than for him to just say, you know, go in peace. Listen to Romans chapter 5 and verse 1. Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord.
• 32:23
  Jesus Christ. And as we all know, there is no such thing as spiritual neutrality. If you're not at peace with God through the Lord Jesus Christ, then you are by definition at war with God. And what Jesus offers this woman, he also offers to you a full offer of free pardon. The Lord is not afraid of your sin. The Lord has offered to forgive your sin if you will come to him with humility.
• 32:52
  In the center of modern-day Jerusalem, there is a church, and the church is about 1,700 years old. In fact, I think, if my math is right, it's coming up on its 1,700th anniversary of being built. The church sits right in the center of Old Town Jerusalem. It is called the Church of the Holy Sepulcher, and it is thought to be placed, built, right on the spot where Jesus was crucified and buried.
• 33:20
  And inside the church of the Holy Sepulcher, it is just pandemonium. It is crazy. And there are so many people fighting, so many different faiths fighting over that little holy ground, just less than an acre of space and them all claiming it as theirs. But in the center of that church, there is a tiny little cathedral, even inside of the larger cathedral, where they believe they have.
• 33:45
  the slab, the granite slab that was used to place Jesus' body inside the tomb. And worshipers can come and kind of pay homage to that piece of rock where Jesus may be laid down for three days. What's interesting about that tiny little chapel inside of the larger cathedral is that the entrance to it is only a few feet tall.
• 34:10
  There's one entrance, there's one way in and one way out, and even that entrance is heavily barred where it cannot be opened any more than it is. And I always thought that that was curious.
• 34:21
  Why is the entrance to that so small? And so I asked somebody, I asked one of the employees, if you will, that works there. I just said, why is the hole, why is the entrance so small? Because you can see people struggling to get in and out. The line was long. Why wouldn't you make the door large? It doesn't make any sense. I mean, in America, we'd put big double doors with big crash handles, right? So there's an easy way in and out. And this employee just said, oh, it's to force people to bow.
• 34:52
  That ensures that people come with penitence. You can be a mocker on the outside, he said, that if you're going to go inside and pay homage, you are going to bow first. You know, church, pretending like we don't sin, standing stubbornly.
• 35:13
  proudly, arrogantly in the presence of Christ, the way that Simon the Pharisee did, judging this woman for who she was, judging her for her lifestyle, judging her for her sin, and then standing proudly in front of Christ while judging this other person, that kind of pretending never ends in our own forgiveness. We must come to Christ the same way in which this woman did. Broken,
• 35:40
  laying everything down at his feet, everything, everything that we'd worked for, everything that we have, everything that we had accumulated, just laying that liberally down at his feet and entrusting him with the remainder of our lives. And church, every time that happens, every time, our heavenly father rejoices. There is rejoicing in heaven more when one sinner repents than over a thousand self-righteous.
• 36:10
  who pretend like they never had to to begin with. And God, I pray that we would just be real and honest with our own sin. God, for those who maybe have even been pretending, some for weeks or months, some maybe even for years in the church, Lord, may we just confess that, repent of it, lay it down at your feet. Genuinely, genuinely pick up forgiveness. God, thank you for your grace toward us and your mercy and your kindness.
• 36:41
  in your patience and love. Lord, all of which we even know about, we only know about because of the times that we mess up. And Heavenly Father, we rejoice that you rejoice over us. And thank you, Lord, for being so good to us, a people who need you so desperately. And it's in Jesus' name we pray. Amen.