The Church of Eleven22 - S01 E75 - Repentance

Episode Date: September 1, 2020

Hey, church family, it's Devo Tom. If you've got your Bible's Luke chapter 7, verse 36 and following. We are spending our time this week on how do you prepare your heart for saturated? How do you prepare your heart for revival? We're begging God that he would revive us. And so the key ingredient is the Holy Spirit. And so yesterday we talked about the Spirit of God and his role in our life to bring about revival. And the coming of the Spirit at Pentecost and the Spirit, every believer in Jesus.

has the gift of the Spirit of God in them and is immersed in the Holy Spirit. The second ingredient, historically, that has always preceded a great move of God, is repentance. Not that Christians would show up and just sing a lot of songs and hear sermons, but the conviction of God would stir the believer to not only grieve their sin, but to turn from their sin and turn to Jesus. repentance is. Repentance is not just a feeling, but also repentance is not just mechanical. And so we'll want to look at it in Luke chapter 7 because true repentance is a posture of the heart. It is almost impossible to be religious and repentant. Here's what I mean.

Luke 736, one of the Pharisees asked Him Jesus to eat with him. And he went into the Pharisees, house and reclined at the table. One of the things that is awesome about Jesus, I've said that this to you often, is that people that were not like him liked him, and that Jesus, he seems to eat with all kind of people. By the way, this is why this thing, 1122, is a movement for all people, for the Pharisees and the sinners, because everybody needs Jesus. And Jesus goes and he sits at the table with this Pharisee who's not like him. Now, let me ask you this. I know we've got a lot of of strife in our country. Let me tell you, it ain't going to change from the White House unless it changes at your house. It ain't going to change at some Senate table. It's going to change at your table.

I hope and pray that when you look around your table, there are people at your table from your neighborhood and from our community that don't look like you and vote like you and think like you, but you would grace them by breaking bread with them. Verse 37, and behold, a woman of the city who was a sinner. That means she was a prostitute. A woman of the city who was a sinner when she learned that Jesus was reclining at table in the Pharisee's house brought an alabaster flask of ointment. An alabaster flask of ointment would definitely be the most expensive thing that she would have. It would probably cost her maybe a year's wages, maybe even more. And standing behind him at his feet, weeping, she began to wet his feet with her tears and wipe them with her hair,

with the hair of her head, and kissed his feet and anointed them with the ointment. Now, there's a lot going on here. First of all, just to be practical, how in the world could she be standing behind him and anointing his feet? First of all, he didn't sit in a chair like I'm sitting at. They didn't eat at a table like I'm sitting at here. The table would only be a couple of feet off the ground.

and then they would just kind of lounge on cushions around the table. And listen, they didn't have any ball games to get to, and they didn't have a Netflix show to watch. So typically dinners would take hours and hours and hours because you were just in no hurry. And your feet were nasty. Have you seen the Jesus movies? Everybody's walking around with sandals and no socks and that kind of thing,

and your feet would get gross because of all the animals and the excrement in the street, et cetera. And then you would come to the dentist. table, so the last thing you wanted to do is put your nasty feet up by the food, so you would lay down by the table and you would stick your feet out as far away from the table as you could. And this lady has the audacity, knowing that she is a sinner, knowing that everybody in this town knows who she is and why she has the reputation that she has. And think about the boldness and simultaneously the humility it takes on her part to just walk into the party,

walk into the dinner party. First of all, women wouldn't have been invited at all. Secondly, especially a woman of ill repute. And yet, she is more concerned about what Jesus thinks than what the religious people think. Do you know what keeps a lot of church people from repenting of sin? It's because you're more concerned about what church people are, people think of you than what Jesus thinks of you. I can tell you there's a lot of times where people at our church feel compelled to come forward and kneel down at the altar in a sign of humility. But the thing that keeps you from doing that is you don't want to have to explain yourself when you get back to your seat. This woman is not so concerned with explaining herself. So she takes

the alabaster jar, which would have been the most expensive thing that she would have had in her possession. And many commentators speculate that this alabaster jar maybe would have been her dowry. Maybe would have been the thing that she would have brought to her husband's dad to a dowry was to like an honor gift so that if if the son was going to marry her, she would present that as an honor gift to the dad. But by the way she has lived her life, that honor gift has now become worthless except when she brings it and anoints the feet of Jesus, it is of great worth. And notice, this is not just a mechanical kind of thing. She doesn't just feel a little guilty for the sinful lifestyle that she has led. The other thing that repentance does is repentance takes ownership for one's own actions.

She's not blaming this on anybody else. She's not blaming this on the men that I'm sure have abused her. She's not blaming this on her dad that left her. She's not blaming this on her synagogue that showed her no grace and kindness and compassion. No, she's not doing any of that because confession and repentance does not pass the blame. Confession and repentance owns up to one's own actions. And she walks in. By the way, they could have stoned her. She walks in.

She makes her way past the snares and the glares. and the dirty looks, and she begins to weep. Let me ask you this. When is the last time you ever weeped? You wept over the gospel in your life. When is the last time that you were so overwhelmed with the goodness of God that though we deserve death, he sent his son, Jesus Christ,

to be the propitiation for our own sin? When is the last time that the grace of God was so overwhelming to you that you shed a tear? You see, this is not just as believers. We're not just making a deal with God because it's logical. The gospel is not only practical that hell is hot and forever is a long time, and if Jesus gets me out of there, then I'll sign up for him. No, no, no, no, man.

The gospel is beautiful that the king would step off his throne and come and pay the price and give his life to rescue those of us who have actually acted treason against the one true king. When she sees Jesus, when she hears that he's that close, he's on the other side of that wall, he's through that door, she can't help herself but to go and worship at her at Jesus's feet. So she learns that he's reclining at the table in the Pharisee's house, and she brings the alabaster flask of ablamboyment,

the most valuable thing that she has in her possession, standing behind him at his feet, she's weeping, she can't hold it together. She began to wet his feet with her tears. This isn't like one little sniffles. She is weeping. I'm sure it's awkward for everybody, but guess who it's not awkward for?

It's not awkward for Jesus. And she wiped them with her hair. By the way, this is a scandalous move. Jewish women in the first century were required to have their hair all up and covered. For them to let their hair down, they were only supposed to do that for their husband. And she lets her hair down,

and she wipes. his dirty feet with her hair and kisses his feet and anoints them with 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 who is touching him. For she is a sinner. You see, the problem with religion. You see, religions when the spirit left the building. and this Pharisee actually thinks he's better than her. And he doesn't realize he's in more need than she is

because she realizes her need. You cannot simultaneously look down your nose at any other person for any reason at all. For ethnicity, for socioeconomics, for morality, you cannot simultaneously look down your nose at any other person and look up at Jesus on the cross. Because what the cross tells us is that all of us are sinners is in need of a Savior. Now notice

that he said this to himself. He didn't say it out loud. He said it to himself, but Jesus, knowing the thought of every man, Jesus answered him and said, Simon, I have something to say to you. And he answered, say it, teacher, and then Jesus is going to give a parable.

A certain money lender had two debtors. One owed him 500 denary and the other 50, and when they could not pay, he canceled the debt of both. Now, which of them will love him more? And and 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. Do you see the picture here?

Jesus turns away from the religious one. He turns to the repentant one. I mean, I wonder when the last time a man looked at this woman in her eyes. I wonder when the last time it is that she was, did not just get treated like a piece of meat or a commodity, but somebody looked into her soul through the window of her eyes and spoke to her. And Jesus, the perfect one, the Lamb of God, the righteous one. He's eyeballed eyeball with her. And while he's looking at her, he's still talking to the Pharisee.

He says, do you see this woman? Because what he's implying is, I see this woman. You see what this woman has done. You see what the world labels this woman as. see the soul of this repentant daughter. He says, do you see this woman? 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. You gave me no kiss. And the reason he didn't do that is because the Pharisee actually thought he was in the place of honor and that Jesus was lucky to be in his house. Do you know how many church people

feel that way? Like, we can legitimately feel like, well, God, aren't you glad you've got me on your team? Because look how moral and holy I am. And he says, 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. Jesus does not lower the bar of salvation. He does not call what she has done okay or a mistake or just her lifestyle or she chooses to identify this way. That's not what he does. He says, that is sin. They are many, but they are forgiven. Why? For she loved much. But he who is forgiven little loves little and he said to her, your sins are forgiven. And then those who were at the table with him began to

to say among themselves, who is this, who even forgives sin? And he said to the woman, your faith has saved you. Go in peace. Go in peace doesn't just mean like you're going to feel better about your sin. Go in peace means go in shalom. Go in the wholeness of what it means to walk in the fullness of the spirit. In other words, quit sinning, change your life because grace is received, not achieved. but once you receive the forgiveness of sin and the grace of God,

then it's amazing what God can achieve through you. So what do you need to do to be ready for saturated? Repent of your sin. Repent of your sin. Martin Luther, when he nailed the 95 theses to the wall at Wittenberg hundreds of years ago, he said that when Jesus said that we are to take up our cross and repent, that the life of the Christian is that of daily.

repentance. May the Spirit of God convict us of our sin. May we weep. May we let down our hair. May we take the most valuable things that we have on this planet and dump them at the feet of Jesus. And may we hear these words. Your sins have been forgiven. Your faith has saved you. Go in peace. Let's pray. God, I thank you that our sin never has to define us. But our faith has to find us. Savior tells us who we are. Lord, I pray, I pray for an overwhelming manifestation of the Spirit of God during our time it saturated. God, I pray that your kindness would lead us to repentance. And God, I thank you that by the example of this woman, we know that when we come to you, when we bow at your feet to repent of our sins, we are not met with judgment. We are not met with

I told you so. We are not met with disappointment, but we are met with the gospel of peace. We prayed in Jesus' day.