May 1, 2016
Hymn 68 - Christ is the Saviour of sinners
Prayer
Luke 7:36 - 50
In our story we have a man named Simon, and a woman whose name we don’t know. In many ways, these are two very different people. Simon was a pharisee, and felt pretty good about himself. Pharisees thought that they always kept the law, and thought that they were better than others even though they were sinful. The woman was a woman of the city, and she knew she was a sinner.
So, Simon found Jesus and asked Him to come have dinner with him. Jesus accepted the invitation. While they were having dinner the woman from the city came with a box of expensive ointment. She seemed very sorry to be a sinner. She knelt weeping at Jesus’ feet. She washed His feet with her tears and dried them with her hair. Then she took the ointment and anointed His feet. That was a wonderful thing to do to Jesus.
Simon, on the other hand, wasn’t pleased that this woman was there. He looked down his nose at her, and he thought, “This Jesus is letting HER touch HIM. She’s a sinner!” Simon didn’t know much about Jesus.
But Jesus looked at Simon and knew exactly what he was thinking. He told Simon a little story. There was a man who had two men who owed him money. One owed him five pence, and the other owed him fifty pence. Neither of them could pay him. He frankly (freely) forgave them both. He forgave the debt they couldn’t pay. We are all debtors to God. But God crosses out the debt when we come to Jesus for forgiveness. When Jesus asked Simon which one would love the man the most, Simon gave the right answer. The one who was forgiven most. The greater sinner may have the greater love for the Lord. Simon and the woman were like those two debtors. The woman loved the most, and she could have been the bigger debtor. But this is where Simon and the woman of the city are equal. Both were sinners, but only the woman knew it.
Simon hadn’t even done the normal things one would do to honor his guest, but the woman had come and done it all. The Lord gave a lesson to Simon here. The woman had showed her love greater than he had. Simon had been negligent.
Jesus tuned to the woman and told her that her sins were forgiven. Everyone else who was at the table immediately thought, “Who is this that can forgive sin?” These people didn’t know who they were eating dinner with.
There was a young woman who lived in Scotland. Her mother died while they lived there. After her mother died she moved to Canada. Here she got engaged to a man, but ended up getting sick in her lungs and had to go to a special hospital. While she was there, Mr. McDowell came to talk to her about Jesus. She had been taught about the Bible while she was young, but now she wanted nothing to do with it. He tried to tell her about Jesus’ sufferings, but she wouldn’t hear of it. Mr. McDowell asked her, “Do you know what will happen to you if you die?”
“Yes,” she said. “I’ll go to hell.”
“Are you ready for that?” He asked.
“Oh yes”, she replied.
On his second visit to her she seemed a little more open. He finally asked her, “Do you want to know your sins are forgiven?” She didn’t want to talk about it.
“I’ve sinned too much,” she told him.
He replied, “I’m happy you know that because there is a verse in the Bible about you.” He turned to verse forty-seven of our chapter, and covered the last half of it. She read “Her sins, which are many” and said that it was true about her.
“If Jesus added two more words to that sentence would you believe them?”, Mr.McDowell asked her.
“I suppose so,” she said. He then had her read the next two word “are forgiven.”
She did get saved, and became a wonderful testimony in the hospital although she didn’t last much longer.
So, we can know the wonder of having our sins forgiven.
Philippians 3:12 – 21
For the word “apprehended” here, Darby uses to “already obtain” or to “take possession of.” Paul wanted to take possession of things that had real credit. The things that he thought had credit before he now counted as loss. He didn’t feel that he had arrived yet; there was still much that had been given in Christ that he had to strive after.
When we get to eternity, those who earn them will be given crowns. Paul wasn’t where he should have or wanted to be spiritually, but he pressed toward that prize with our Lord very much before him. We need to have the Lord as our Object. We should want to be with Him and to be like Him. We’re not at our goal yet!
Paul had a very single purpose, not a bucket list, and he chose not to look back from his goal. He was in a race, and Hebrews tells us that we should shed all weight so that we can run that race better. We need to leave the things behind us, and press toward the things that are before. The Psalmist also had a single purpose, as we can see in Psalm 27:4: “One thing have I desired of the Lord, that will I seek after; that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to behold the beauty of the Lord, and to enquire in his temple.” The Lord was before him, just as He was before Paul. We can’t look back from our goal, or we’ll get messed up. Farmers aim to plow a straight furrow, but if they get distracted, they’ll plow crooked. Like sailors on the sea—who may have had no map or path, but could still steer by looking to the north star—we need to look to our Saviour. The Apostle did so, and pressed on. He pressed toward the mark, because there was a prize to win.
In most races, there is only one winner. However, in our spiritual race, we all can get prizes—like crowns—if we follow the rules. At the judgment seat of Christ—or the awards ceremony—we can all be on the podium if we strive to obtain the prize. Hopefully we won’t be on the “also ran” list!
This is a high calling, for there are no small callings with God. We were called in and through Christ—predestined—and through the work He has done. We need to have an Object like this before us.
Do we have the Lord as our Object? Are we making the things of eternity real and important to us right now? Are we thus minded? Do we desire it? We want to have an eternal portion that glorifies our Lord; to be of some honour for the One who died for us. “But I’m not perfect,” you might say. Not to worry; we have been perfected for ever! God sees us believers in Christ. But what do we have in our minds? Are they pressing toward the mark, or otherwise? If so, God will reveal this to us, and show us what our proper priorities should be. Paul’s concern here was for those younger in the faith. He wanted them to be on the path to spiritual maturity.
The mind is an important topic in Philippians; it is talked about in every chapter. Further down here, we see there were some people that minded earthly things. This was a contrast to Paul, whose mind—as we’ve seen—was on heavenly things. May the Lord help ours to be so!
Hymn 310 – Come to Jesus, come to Jesus
Prayer