Empty the Jar
Notes
Transcript
Intro
Intro
Good morning! If you have a Bible go ahead and grab it and turn with me to Luke 7:36-50. My name is Cam and I’m the student pastor here. I’m glad to get to welcome you as we continue in our sermon series called, “Different”.
A new year is like a fresh start. The new calendar is a natural time in our lives to think about changes we want to make. It’s a time where we reflect on how life is going and things we’d like to do differently. We want to think about personal changes, changes in family, and it’s good to think about how we want to be different as a church as well.
I want us to take a moment this morning to collectively fix our eyes and hearts on the beauty of the gift of salvation and all that entails. Can we think about who we were before Christ? I want you to think about that personally, but I also want us to consider it biblically. Some of us have radical testimonies about how we were saved. You were living in a clearly visible rebellion against God and his ways. Your salvation experience was radical because your rebellion was radical. Others of you are like me. You were blessed to grow up in a Christian home with Christian parents who took you to church and you were saved at a young age. Maybe you don’t remember being very rebellious. Maybe you’d even say, “I was a pretty good kid!”
This is where the biblical account of who we were before Christ is so important. We want to be floored that God would save us! We want to be in awe that we’d experience that grace and mercy and so we must understand who we were before Christ.
What then? Are we any better off? Not at all! For we have already charged that both Jews and Greeks are all under sin, as it is written:
There is no one righteous, not even one.
There is no one who understands;
there is no one who seeks God.
All have turned away;
all alike have become worthless.
There is no one who does what is good,
not even one.
And you were dead in your trespasses and sins in which you previously walked according to the ways of this world, according to the ruler of the power of the air, the spirit now working in the disobedient. We too all previously lived among them in our fleshly desires, carrying out the inclinations of our flesh and thoughts, and we were by nature children under wrath as the others were also.
These verses tell us that even as small children we weren’t seeking God. We weren’t doing good. In fact, we were dead in our sins. We were by nature children of wrath. There was nothing about us that made us worthy of Christ. Even if we didn’t have that radical conversion experience, our conversion was still radical! The Bible even tells us we were God’s enemies.
For if, while we were enemies, we were reconciled to God through the death of his Son, then how much more, having been reconciled, will we be saved by his life.
The way we are referred to before salvation is what makes salvation precisely so astounding! God gave his only Son to save his enemies! God placed his wrath on his own Son and made us alive in Christ! We didn’t do good so Jesus did good in our place! We didn’t seek after God so God sought after us! How astounding! How jarring! How flooring!
We have to be people who continually rehearse this in our hearts and minds because we’re forgetful. We’re complacent. We can get stagnant. We have to keep the fire in our hearts burning and remember that in while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.
With our eyes fixed on the beauty and grandeur of salvation, we turn to our text today to read together Luke 7:36-50
Then one of the Pharisees invited him to eat with him. He entered the Pharisee’s house and reclined at the table. And a woman in the town who was a sinner found out that Jesus was reclining at the table in the Pharisee’s house. She brought an alabaster jar of perfume and stood behind him at his feet, weeping, and began to wash his feet with her tears. She wiped his feet with her hair, kissing them and anointing them with the perfume.
When the Pharisee who had invited him saw this, he said to himself, “This man, if he were a prophet, would know who and what kind of woman this is who is touching him—she’s a sinner!”
Jesus replied to him, “Simon, I have something to say to you.”
He said, “Say it, teacher.”
“A creditor had two debtors. One owed five hundred denarii, and the other fifty. Since they could not pay it back, he graciously forgave them both. So, which of them will love him more?”
Simon answered, “I suppose the one he forgave more.”
“You have judged correctly,” he told him. Turning to the woman, he said to Simon, “Do you see this woman? I entered your house; you gave me no water for my feet, but she, with her tears, has washed my feet and wiped them with her hair. You gave me no kiss, but she hasn’t stopped kissing my feet since I came in. You didn’t anoint my head with olive oil, but she has anointed my feet with perfume. Therefore I tell you, her many sins have been forgiven; that’s why she loved much. But the one who is forgiven little, loves little.” Then he said to her, “Your sins are forgiven.”
Those who were at the table with him began to say among themselves, “Who is this man who even forgives sins?”
And he said to the woman, “Your faith has saved you. Go in peace.”
This is the word of the Lord. Let’s pray.
We have three people we meet in our passage today.
Simon, who is a Pharisee, the woman, and Jesus.
Simon has invited Jesus to his house for a meal. We don’t exactly know his motives for doing this, but we can infer from the passage that maybe he wanted to check Jesus out. He wasn’t necessarily friendly toward Jesus given his less than hospitable actions that we will see later. But maybe he was curious. Maybe, as we hear in a later statement, Simon has heard that Jesus is a prophet and he wants to get a closer or better look. Whatever his motivations, we can see that Simon was not a follower of Jesus, but like the other Pharisees, he was curious and maybe even hesitant.
But then a woman enters whose reputation obviously precedes her. Luke here even describes her as a sinner. We’re told in verses 37 and 38 that she brings an alabaster jar of perfume and she’s weeping and washing his feet with her tears, wiping his feet with her hair, kissing them, and anointing them with the perfume. This had to be quite the scene!
I think we could say it is obvious that this woman loved Jesus. Her actions would probably make many of us uncomfortable had we been there on the scene. It seems over the top. It seems extreme. It seems intense! I mean, some of us get uncomfortable if someone raises their hands during worship, how much more if someone was to do this?
Maybe… just maybe… we relate to Simon in verse 39…
This woman is a sinner! Most commentators seem to agree that her sin was moral. She may have been known for being a promiscuous woman. Simon is both judging Jesus for letting this woman do this and judging the woman at the same time.
But Jesus, in the way only Jesus can, proves to Simon not only that he is a prophet, but also asserts that he is God. He starts off by telling a parable—or a story—to make his point.
He tells about two people who are forgiven. One is forgiven for a small amount and the other is forgiven for an incredible amount. Essentially one person owes two months wages and another person owes two and a half years wages. The lender forgives them both and Jesus says who is going to be more grateful?
The answer seems obvious… and it is right? The person who has been forgiven more!
Jesus then applies the parable to Simon and this woman. Simon has been indifferent to Jesus. He’s not been hospitable. He may have been keeping his distance, but this woman has gone the distance! She’s went to extremes to display her love for Jesus.
Why? Because she’s been forgiven and she realizes just how much she’s been forgiven. We don’t know when this woman believed in Jesus, but we can be confident that Jesus isn’t saying she’s been forgiven because of what she’s done. Instead he’s saying she’s doing this because she’s been forgiven. His parable points to that, his statement in verse 50 points to it as well and so does the biblical testimony that salvation is by grace through faith and not of works.
So we’ve got to unpack and apply this today church. What makes a Christian different from the world? We of course would say it’s that we’ve been forgiven of our sins. We have believed on the Lord Jesus Christ!
But the next question I think is harder. Why do we so often look like the world? Why do we so often look like Simon instead of the woman!?
There’s so many answers we could give here isn’t there?
We don’t want to be different.
We don’t want to be uncomfortable.
We don’t want to be singled out.
We are prideful.
We want the luxuries of the world, but we really just don’t want to go to hell.
And I imagine we could come up with others.
Oh but I think Jesus hits the nail on the head in his parable. We don’t realize just how much we’ve been forgiven. We think we really weren’t that bad. This is why we started this message beholding the glory of salvation. If we don’t remind ourselves that we were God’s enemies, if we don’t remind ourselves that we were DEAD in sin, and if we don’t remind ourselves that we were hopeless to do good and please God then we’ll start to be much more like a Pharisee than a person who knew they were a sinner with no hope but the blood of Jesus Christ washing over them! Our hearts are very deceitful indeed.
Are you here this morning and you’ve deceived yourself? Maybe you’ve told yourself that you’re not that bad. Maybe you think that your good works are going to get you into heaven. Maybe you just think you don’t need God? Friend, can you see the character of Jesus in this story? He’s a friend of sinners. He’s a friend to those of us who don’t have it all together. Isn’t that good news. Would you search your heart this morning and be honest with yourself? Doesn’t someone like that sound attractive? Isn’t that maybe what you’ve been searching for deep down? Jesus is ready to forgive you! In a few moments we’ll have a time of invitation and I’d invite you to turn from your sins and believe on the Lord Jesus. He’s ready to say to you today, “Your faith has saved you. Go in peace.”
Many of us I’d imagine are here this morning and we realize we look far too much like the world. Our actions aren’t declaring the glory of Christ. Instead maybe we’re giving him a head nod through an occasional post on Facebook. We really don’t look that “different” from the world.
The call for us this morning is to be people who empty the jar.
This woman isn’t giving everything to Jesus because she needs to be forgiven. She’s giving everything to Jesus because she has been forgiven. She’s experienced his great grace. Her response comes from a place of overwhelming gratitude because she knows who she was and she knows just what she’s been given.
Do we have that same awareness? Do we realize that Jesus’ forgiveness of our sins was colossal? We’re no better than this woman so our response should be like hers.
Application
Application
What does it look like to empty the jar in our lives?
At a fundamental level, shouldn’t it start with falling at the feet of Jesus to know him, learn from him, and worship him? This means we are in our Bibles daily hearing God speak to us. We are treasuring his words to us. In response, we are talking to him in prayer . We’re hiding his word in our hearts by meditating on it. We’re taking times throughout the year to intentionally fast to better focus our hearts on Christ. These are basic spiritual disciplines of the Christian life and they should be in the regular routine rhythms of our lives.
What about evangelism and discipleship? Jesus gave us all the call to share the gospel and make disciples. Who are you sharing the gospel with? Last week, we received cards to pray for someone the Lord would save and we’d see baptized. Those cards are still available if you didn’t get one. But even more, who are you actively sharing the gospel with? It could be a co-worker, a family member, a barista or restaurant server, but we are called to share. Many of us have neighbors we’ve never even talked to, much less went to tell them the greatest news about Jesus! Maybe emptying the jar for you means walking across the road to say to your neighbor, “Hey I’m Cam. I wanted to meet you and wanted to ask if you know about Jesus?” Maybe that simple act will lead to that person trusting Christ and being one of the people we are praying for on these cards!
Obviously, we should be sharing and discipling our own families. That’s a command from the Lord that we’ll be held accountable for. Maybe this is the year you need to start family worship. It sounds like an elegant thing, but let me tell you that in my house… it’s chaos. Some nights it’s so chaotic that I want to quit. Sometimes kids are falling on furniture or annoying each other to death. Sometimes it feels like nothing is actually happening and I’m just frustrated. But every now and then, there’s a night where it feels like they listen, ask good questions, and we really grow together. So we keep going because those times are so worth it.
How about discipling non family members? You know, I get the privilege of working with our young people and they’re amazing! We’ve been going through Romans chapter by chapter together and it’s been awesome. A lot of them are asking great questions and are really thinking through these Scriptures. What if you talked to one of them and you started getting lunch or dinner every other week and you talked about their lives and what it looks like to follow Christ? That would be incredible! That’s something you could do this year that would change your life and theirs! Maybe it’s not a student, but someone else in the church who is younger and you could start a discipling relationship and follow Jesus’ command to make disciples. It’s not just for pastors and teachers. That’s a command for Christians!
What about emptying the jar with our giving? Maybe you need to start giving an offering this year to the Lord. Maybe you need to increase the offering you give. Whatever that looks like, giving financially is certainly a way that we can give what we have to Christ.
Maybe it’s giving more of your time. Maybe you need to volunteer in First Kids or Roots and impact the next generation by giving up your time to serve. Maybe it’s serving at Bible Release Time, serving at Crossings Day Camp, or coming with me to Crossings Student Camp this summer. Maybe you should commit to teach a Sunday School class! I know our time is precious, but how can we serve Christ with the time he’s given us?
Maybe some of that time is that you need to commit to coming to worship more regularly each month? Maybe right now you’re making it once a month and you need to say, I’m going to make it two Sundays a month. Maybe you’re coming two Sundays a month and you need to increase that to three. We gather here weekly to worship the God who has saved us! He’s worthy of that. He’s worthy of us giving this time to praise him each Lord’s Day!
Maybe it’s helping build unity into the church by bringing people together? Maybe it’s inviting families out to dinner or into your home for a meal? Maybe it’s getting to know newer folks and bringing them into the things your group is doing? Maybe it’s serving together somewhere in some way through your own initiative. Fellowship brings us together and loving others is a way we serve Christ.
God calls us each to different things. For some us, emptying the jar might look like adopting a child. For some it may look like giving an organ to someone who needs it. For some it may look doing door to door evangelism. For others it may look like something I haven’t even thought of. What I do know is that Christ laid down his life for us and we are called to give our lives to him. We’ll never pay him back, but my hope is that we are so in love, we are so grateful, we are so awe struck that we can’t help but try.