Can Good People Love God?
Rev. Dave Weidlich ~ Cooper Mountain Presbyterian Fellowship ~ Oct. 6, 2002
Read Zechariah 4:6
So he said to me, “This is the word of the LORD to Zerubbabel: ‘Not by might nor by power, but by my Spirit,’ says the LORD Almighty.
In our Luke passage, we find two people who met Jesus, but only one came away forgiven. Let’s see what made the difference.
Read Luke 7:36-50
Therefore, I tell you, her many sins have been forgiven—for she loved much. But he who has been forgiven little loves little.” (v. 47)
Introduction
A good leader is supposed to recruit people who are more competent than himself. I agree with that, but there’s one notable exception. How do you do that if you’re the Son of God? Where do you find more competent people? Still, Jesus could have recruited the most accomplished people of his day.
Jesus said you will do greater things than I did. Yet, it appeared he was recruiting people who were far less competent than he was, less competent than the average person.
You might expect Jesus to recruit highly accomplished Scribes, Pharisees, and Sadducees. They were already religious, they knew religious language, they were already educated. The religious leaders had the distribution mechanism already in place. Wouldn’t it make sense to recruit highly respected men?
Instead Jesus recruited some untrained fishermen, a disrespected tax collector, even women were part of his circle of followers; some of them were very disreputable women. There wasn’t a one of them who had friends in high places. In addition to Jesus’ recruits, look at the people Jesus spent much of his time with. Jesus spent great amounts of time with sick people. Some were lepers or demon-possessed – people who were cast out of their families and towns.
Message
In Luke’s story for today, we have a juxtaposition that is truly delicious. We have two people that you just would not expect to see together, at least in public.
The scene is the home of a Pharisee – the purest of the morally pure. Pharisees were religious and often judgmental. They were strong on justice but when it came to mercy, there wasn’t any. Simon, the Pharisee in our story, seems to fit this description.
Then there is a woman who visits the home who is called “a woman who had lived a sinful life in that town”. She’s a bad woman – a sinner, she’s called later in the story. When you read that you know sparks are going to fly. This party isn’t going to be smooth.
This is like sitting George Bush down with Saddam Hussein.
Tanya Harding meets Miss Manners.
Like Rasheed Wallace and an NBA referee walking into the same restaurant.
This is one of those kind of match-ups. You know things are going to get – and you won’t have to wait long to see the sparks fly.
But things are tense in Simon’s house even before the woman arrives. It starts when Jesus arrives.
Three things were always done when a guest entered the home of a Jewish man:
1) The host placed his hand on the guest’s shoulder and gave him the kiss of peace – a mark of respect.
2) Next cool water would be poured over the guest’s feet since the roads were dusty and shoes were only soles of leather strapped to the feet.
3) A pinch of sweet-smelling incense would have been burned (William Barclay)
But Simon did none of these things for Jesus. He doesn’t offer the courtesy you’d offer a stranger, much less the respect that would be due a rabbi of Jesus’ reputation.
As if things aren’t tense enough, people started dropping in. That was customary when a rabbi would visit a home- all kinds of people were free to come in.
So we read that a woman came – a . She is called a “sinner” by Simon, the host of this dinner party. She comes in and makes her way to Jesus – and what a commotion she stirs up.
She takes her alabaster – a phial of concentrated perfume, very expensive – which would have been hanging around her neck. She poured it on Jesus’ feet, and with the tears of a woman who fully acknowledges her unworthiness, she washes Jesus feet. Then she loses all sense of propriety as she lets her hair down and dries Jesus’ feet with her hair.
You say, “That’s weird.” It is – and it was then too. It’s very personal – it must have felt awkward for everyone there, uncomfortably so. Yet Jesus seems entirely comfortable with all this attention.
Seeing Jesus’ body language, Simon, the host, can’t help but comment to himself, “If this man were a prophet, he would know who is touching him and what kind of woman she is—that she is a sinner.” (v. 39). Jesus knew what Simon was thinking and confirmed with his words what his body language was already communicating. Jesus told Simon a parable. Two men owe money and have their debts forgiven. Who’s more thankful? Who’s going to have more love for the one they owed money to? He makes Simon answer his question.
Simon replies – the one who has been forgiven of the greatest debt.
So Jesus makes the application and explains that what this sinful woman did was appropriate. In fact she was the only one in the house who was appropriate. Look at verse 44.
Luke 7:44-48
Then he turned toward the woman and said to Simon, “Do you see this woman? I came into your house. You did not give me any water for my feet, but she wet my feet with her tears and wiped them with her hair. 45 You did not give me a kiss, but this woman, from the time I entered, has not stopped kissing my feet. 46 You did not put oil on my head, but she has poured perfume on my feet. 47 Therefore, I tell you, her many sins have been forgiven—for she loved much. But he who has been forgiven little loves little.”
48 Then Jesus said to her, “Your sins are forgiven.”
Did you hear what happened. We came to this story expecting a contrast – and we got one – but not what we thought. Jesus turned it around on its head, as he often did. Instead of seeing the awkward contrast between a righteous religious man and a filthy , we’re stunned with a different kind of contrast – between a man who is too proud to admit his need and be forgiven and a woman who is humble, she fully understands her need and she receives forgiveness. She is the one who is declared worthy to be in the presence of God.
Look at verse 50 if you need to:
“Jesus said to the woman, ‘Your faith has saved you; go in peace.’”
And Simon? We don’t hear about him again.
That’s the good news of Jesus – sinners can be saved. But what about good people like Simon?
It’s a well-known fact that Jesus came to seek and to save those who are lost –
Do you remember when Jesus returned to his home town and was invited to speak in the synagogue? He opened the Isaiah scroll and read these words, recorded in Luke 4:18-19 (NLBT)
18“The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, for he has appointed me to preach Good News to the poor.
He has sent me to proclaim that captives will be released, that the blind will see, that the downtrodden will be freed from their oppressors, and that the time of the Lord’s favor has come.”
That’s great news...for those who are poor people, but what about the rich or the middle class?
It’s great news for prisoners but what about us, law-abiding citizens?
Jesus brings great news to the downtrodden, the disabled, the sick, the friendless...the down and out.
But what about the up-and-in?
We are, and we live with, people who are not drug addicts, s and ex-cons. The folks we live with are highly educated, sophisticated, well-behaved...Do these people really need Jesus?
So my question today is not “Can a morally bankrupt person ever come into the kingdom of Christ?” We know they can, because of the love of Jesus Christ, the grace of God. The worst of the worst can receive forgiveness. And they will really love God, they will worship without regard for what anybody thinks of their tears, or their singing voice
because they’ve really been forgiven. But...can a good person love Jesus?
Can a well-fed suburbanite hunger and thirst for righteousness?
Can a successful man ever become poor in spirit?
Can the well-adjusted person weep for God and receive the joy that comes only from the Lord?
Can a fit and trim woman receive healing from Jesus?
Can a spiritual person declare moral bankruptcy so that they may receive the righteousness of Christ?
These are the kind of people we live with and work with. Do these kinds of people really need Jesus? Do you?
Did you see the article in the newspaper, September 18, 2002? On the front page of the Oregonian, it read, “Oregonians are the least-churched people in nation.”
The Associated Press, 9/18/02
PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) -- A study viewed as the most comprehensive look at religious affiliation in the nation has ranked Oregon as the most unchurched state. Oregon’s rate dropped to 31 percent.
Less than one-third of Oregonians -- compared to about half of all Americans -- belong to religious denominations and groups surveyed by the Glenmary Research Center, the study surveyed 149 religious groups.
Nationally, the percentage of churchgoers also is dropping, from 55 percent in 1990 to about 50 percent in 2000.
Of those who belong to such groups, the study reports that evangelical and charismatic churches are growing in Oregon as well as nationally, while moderate Protestant denominations continue to lose members.
A graph read: Church attendance in our Washington County: 26% vs. 46% in Multnomah County, 50% nationwide.
We have work to do.
For whatever reason, our neighbors here in Oregon and especially Washington County, seem to believe they don’t need Jesus or the fellowship of Jesus’ church – or any other religious organization.
In 2010, the Glenmary Research Center will conduct their study again. What results do you want to see?
When we read the story of Simon and the unnamed woman – who did you most identify with?
Until we come to where we can identify with the woman – and see the truth of how we have fallen, how you and I have strayed from the path of righteousness. It may not be the sin of prostitution; it may be the sin of taking pride in our home-made righteousness, our self-righteous pride. But, we’ve all sinned. It may not be a crime that sends us to prison, but if it’s a violation of God’s will, it’s every bit as serious. We’ve all sinned.
We need to see things as Jesus does.
We need a change of perspective – in three ways:
1) We must know how far we have strayed from God’s path – only then will we love and worship God as God deserves.
We compare ourselves to each other – in morality, we may stand ten feet higher than others around us. But if God’s standard is as far from ground level as the moon is from the earth, how much closer are we to God’s standard? We all fall short – and none of us come close on our own.
2) We must see our neighbors as lost – without Christ – only then will we pray for them and share with them, never stopping until they embrace Jesus Christ as their savior and Lord.
3) We must see our goodness, our strengths, our talents as liabilities apart from the God’s power.
God needs you and me to accomplish his purpose in our world. But our strengths – our goodness, our knowledge, our experience – may be liabilities if we rely on them apart from God. When that happens, God will nullify our strengths. What we thought would be of great use in God’s kingdom work becomes useless, fruitless.
I’ve learned that I can have knowledge and experience in many aspects of ministry and it doesn’t do any good – only harm.
Why? Because God wants to receive the praise and glory for the success of His church – not me.
Zechariah 4:1-6, 12-14
Then the angel who talked with me returned and wakened me, as a man is wakened from his sleep...
6 So he said to me, “This is the word of the LORD to Zerubbabel: ‘Not by might nor by power, but by my Spirit,’ says the LORD Almighty.
Jim Cymbala writes in the book, Fresh Power:
Jesus went forth in power to face incredibly busy days of ministry to needy people. Likewise, we must balance all our activities for him with time spend with him, waiting in expectant prayer and worship. We must avoid the idea that well-intentioned Christian service and doing things for God will ever amount to much without fresh infillings of the Spirit’s power.
Jim Cymbala in Fresh Power, Zondervan, 50-51.
Pastor and author, Warren Wiersbe says: “if you can fully explain a church then something’s wrong.”
Let those who experience your love and those who observe our worship, our fellowship and our ministry, shrug their shoulders and say, “It must be a God-thing. I can’t explain it any other way.” (1 Corinthians 14:24-25)
Conclusion
In a nutshell the message is this:
1. Not by might or power – it is by the Spirit of the Lord, and only by the Spirit of the Lord, that we are saved from eternal destruction to eternal life with God.
2. Not by might or power – it is by the Spirit of the Lord, and only by the Spirit of the Lord, that we are effective in our ministry – sharing our faith and discipling believers.
If you truly believe that, pray with me.
Prayer
Lord you have humbled your church – if that is what it takes for us to fall on our faces before you and beg for the anointing power of your Holy Spirit on our work, then don’t stop until you have finished your work in us. Crush the sins of self-sufficiency and pride, chase out the sin of self-righteousness, humble us until we kneel before you and you only, so that all may see and know that it is by your Spirit that we are children of God, and it is by your Spirit that we touch the heart of Washington County with the love of Jesus.
