I would like to ask the Lord this morning what He wants me to do to be an effective part of His plan.
Personally, I can say I do not want things to become routine for us. I hope we all have come here for the same reasons. We are hungry for God.
It is important that we study God’s Word closely.
We believe in God’s Word for direction and instruction.
The Apostle Paul said it so well in his letter to Timothy,
“…I know Whom I have believed…”
This short statement should define for us our relationship with Christ. It has a twofold meaning. Believing God, and knowing God are different from one another.
Many of us may believe earnestly in the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. But do we know Him?
I want to encourage each of us to simply do this:
Know Whom you have believed.
Believing is critical to living for God.
Believing will establish your faith and salvation.
But to personally know Jesus will change your life.
I want to take us to a story that I believe will help us to better know Jesus. This story will illustrate for us just how we can reach out to our Father and minister to Him.
Text: Luke 7:36 thru 50
Let each of us desire to see Jesus this morning, but consider this - we are living in a world of spiritual darkness. We cannot always see things as they are.
There is a spiritual blindness we struggle with.
If I were to walk into a dark room, I would instinctively reach out to find the wall switch to turn on the light.
Likewise, we live in a dark world, and we need to see Jesus. But we may need to first reach out to Him, and to touch His shining face.
For some, touching Jesus may only mean that person is looking for a touch from God. You may need a “touch from God” today. You may be hoping the Lord will reach out to minister to your soul. You may say,
“Jesus, do something for my problem.”
I would propose to you that knowing the Lord is much more than having Him fix your problem. For the woman in our text, it was all about her ANOINTING THE LORD.
We must also learn to minister to the Lord.
The Lord desires you to touch him, to anoint Him and bless Him. Your relationship with the Lord involves Jesus being anointed and touched by you. Personally.
This is one of the most common oversights in churches of our day.
Many times we are told to linger in the presence of the Holy Spirit and wait on the touch of the Lord.
We patiently wait for the hand of the Almighty to touch us and for the Holy Spirit to come upon us. I have preached that all of my Christian life.
Folks, you must know that I live for His touch. I love it when He bathes me and cleanses me with His touch.
But perhaps it is time for us to reconsider what the Lord is wanting from you and I.
We need to stretch our hearts and thinking to a deeper understanding of what the Lord wants from us.
Our Lord and Savior wants from you and I what He was given by the woman in our story.
Let us consider this story as a comparison.
TWO THINGS WE SHOULD NOTICE:
1) Expect the unexpected (with the Lord).
How shocked the disciples must have been when Jesus accepted the invitation of the Pharisee, Simon, to come to his home for a meal. It is apparent that Simon was very religious and judgmental. Nevertheless,
Simon was actually a recovering leper that Jesus had healed.
Even with Simon’s miraculous recovery, Simon –
1) Was still caught up in the do’ and don’ts of religion.
2) Had the audacity to judge and condemn sinners.
3) Didn’t understand the forgiveness & mercy of God.
How shocked Simon was when the adulterous woman showed up at his home to see Jesus.
Simon knew who she was. Religious people, like Simon, learned to stay away from people like her.
The fact of the matter is the disciples must have felt a little uneasy with her being there also.
Surprisingly, none of this mattered to the woman. She wasn’t too concerned what people thought or said about her. There was only one thing on her mind when she came to the home of Simon.
What do you suppose that was?
This woman wanted to see Jesus!
You and I have a lot in common with this adulterous woman. She wanted exactly what you and I want.
This woman came to see Jesus in spite of her sins.
Nothing else matters when you want to see Jesus.
This woman wanted to worship the Son of God.
She humbled herself before the religious folks.
She knew that everyone knew she was a sinner.
Did you know that when a sinner comes to church for the first time, they know everyone knows who they are.
Sometimes the religious Christians feel a little awkward.
They don’t know what they should say or do.
But anyone who truly wants to see Jesus will begin to weep and anoint Jesus the Savior of the world.
It doesn’t matter who you are, or where you come from. When you see Jesus, when “you know whom you have believed”, it will be only natural for you to fall down in His presence and worship him.
Perhaps this has never happened for you.
Let me try to explain how this happens.
This woman began to weep, and for two reasons:
1. Her sinful past. She was haunted with all of the memories of her sinful past.
2. The lack of honor displayed by Simon and the disciples for Jesus. Perhaps even the disciples hadn’t see Jesus the way this woman saw Jesus.
When this scene took place, it was customary for a servant to come and wash the feet of a guest.
This was because the people had to trudge through the unsanitary streets of that time.
This woman was willing to give anything and everything to honor the Savior of the world.
It was her hair that brought her beauty and it was very important to who she was.
1 Corinthians 11:15
But if a woman has long hair, it is a glory to her;
It was the alabaster box of ointment that was so precious to her that would anoint the feet of Jesus.
According to this story recorded in Mark, this woman broke her own alabaster box ointment.
Jesus didn’t have to break the box. The woman willingly broke it herself and poured the ointment on the feet of Jesus.
You see, the alabaster box wasn’t all that was broken.
I see here a woman who was broken before the Lord, just as we should be when we come to see Him.
Perhaps you have some things that you have held onto for a long time that you need to be broken of. Anything that you own that is from your past sins needs to be broken in your life.
The Bible tells us Isaiah 64:6
…we are all like an unclean thing, and all our righteousnesses are like filthy rags…
Filthy rags stink, don’t they? But once we find ourselves broken before the Lord, we will then smell the sweet aroma of forgiveness that has come to our lives.
God will cleanse you and cause the stench of sin to go away. God will make you smell clean again.
Question:
What will you have to break in your life before the Lord will receive His sacrifice of ointment from you?
Will it be something very important to you?
Will it cost you everything?
God wants to do the unexpected in your life.
2) Expect to be the only one to honor Christ.
Simon had invited Jesus to come to his home, but had no interest in honoring him. It is apparent to me that Simon’s invitation for dinner was only for self-gain. Simon wanted folks to be impressed with his connection with the well-known man named, Jesus.
Simon insulted the Savior with his invitation. But Jesus came anyway. Jesus knew there would be sinner who would need Him. That’s why Jesus came here today.
The sinner woman was the only one who came to honor Jesus.
Likewise, some people will take time to attend a worship service. They feel it is the right thing to do. They will do what they feel is necessary to take care of religious matters, but they do not understand the importance of giving to Jesus all that is due Him.
The sinner woman was the only one who came to honor Jesus, but that did not stop her.
The disciples had been busy all day and had grown tired. Perhaps they were too tired to worship Him.
There are those who show up for service, but are too tired to bow down, honor and worship Jesus.
Being in the presence of the Lord should stir our hearts so much so that we would want to anoint Him with all that we have.
Closing:
Jesus was so moved by this woman’s heart for worship. But He also was stern with Simon the Pharisee.
This situation for Simon was difficult for Jesus.
Jesus knew Simon’s was once a leper and that Simon knew first hand what rejection was all about.
And yet, with Jesus sitting there in his home, Simon chose to reject the humility of this broken woman.
Folks when it comes to sin, we all were once lepers.
Simon mocked Jesus for not knowing this woman:
“If this man were a prophet, He would know that she was a sinner.”
Simon was insensitive to what Jesus wanted to do.
The overall problem here is that Simon did not know Who Jesus was. Jesus was not just the one who healed Simon from leprosy. Jesus was and still is the Savior.
The Son of the Living God. The Great I AM.
As Paul said it for us, “I know Whom I have believed.”
The problem that many people have is the same as Simon’s problem. They may believe the stories of Jesus, but they don’t know Jesus.
I can assure you the sinner woman who came to Simon’s home knew Jesus could save her from her sins.
This woman probably did not know all of the Jewish Laws, or Jewish rituals.
What mattered is that this woman knew Jesus.
