Three Tears for Jesus

Three Tears for Jesus

Text: Luke 7:36-50

Introduction:

How easy it is for us to pass by love, or how easy it is once to have loved, to take that love for granted.  So it is with our relationship with Jesus.  We can pass by the most amazing love in the world as we convince ourselves that we don’t need it, or once having loved Him, we can let our love for Him grow cold and distant.  I wonder how many hands grasp the communion cup and give no thought of His love for us, the cruel cross, or the agony of Gesthemene.  His great heart of love for us is met with cold indifference, or worse, is taken for granted.  And our love is spent on the things of this world and what may have once been hot devotion becomes duty, and what was once passion becomes only practiced religion.

Blank stares and cold formality fill our pews while minds are far away and filled with things other than Christ or the cross, and Jesus weeps as his love for man returns to Him void. 

In today’s scripture reading, the adoration of the woman is contrasted with the indifference of the Pharisee.  If we as the church are to be the loving bride of Christ, it is the weeping woman that we must become, and not the cross pharisee.  Before we can adore Christ again, we must find that place of tears. 

First of all, we must cry:

1.                  Sorrowful Tears for our Sin. 

a.                   The awfulness of sin

i.                     Disgusting, not delightful

ii.                   Degrading the worth of the person

iii.                  Harmful not helpful

iv.                Hideous to a holy God

*Leonardo Davinci’s The Expulsion from Paradise Adam and eve knew the awfulness of sin.

b.                  Owning our sin

i.                     No room for self righteousness

*An Indian and a white man, at worship together, were both brought under conviction by the same sermon. The Indian was shortly after led to rejoice in pardoning mercy. The white man, for a long time, was under distress of mind, and at times ready to despair; but he was at last brought also to a comfortable experience of forgiving love. Some time after, meeting his red brother, he thus addressed him, "How is it that I should be so long under conviction, when you found comfort so soon ?"

   "O brother!" replied the Indian, "me tell you. There come along a rich prince. He propose to give you a new coat. You look at your coat, and say, 'I don't know: my coat pretty good. I think it will do a little longer.' He then offer me new coat. I look on my old blanket. I say, 'This good for nothing.' I fling it right away, and accept the beautiful garment. Just so, brother you try to keep our own righteousness for some time; you loath to give it up; but I, poor Indian, had none: therefore I glad at once to receive the righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ."

ii.                   Recognizing sin in ourselves

(1)               The Pharisee didn’t - The Woman saw it clearly

iii.                  Not placing the blame - “I did it”

*Abbott and Costello - “This is another -fine mess you’ve gotten me into Stanley”

iv.                 Not a victim mentality - (I am a product of my environment)

Secondly, we must cry:

2.                  Pitiful Tears for our Plight

a.                   Powerless to pay the Price

i.                     We can’t make up for sin (Can’t plea bargain - cut a deal)

ii.                  Not powerless to pay the penalty

iii.                The wages of sin is death (Already dead - dead in sin)

b.                  Powerless to escape condemnation

i.                     Man has found no Cure for death

(1)               Those that are His never die, Those that aren’t, die forever

ii.                   Hell awaits

(1)               Judgement is sure

*Warren Wiersbe’s tale the boy saved from the horse which bolted.

“Then I was your saviour, now I am your judge.”

(2)               Eagerly the devil watches you

Thirdly, we must cry:

3.                  Grateful Tears for our Gift

a.                   Grace through faith

i.                     You won’t crawl to the oasis unless you’re convinced it is not a mirage

(1)               It is real

ii.                   You won’t make the deal unless you know who you’re dealing with

(1)               The Pharisee didn’t know who he was dealing with (blinded by unbelief)

(2)               The woman knew, and had faith.  (Faith opened her eyes)

The claims Jesus made leave only two options in our evaluation of Him.  *Either He is who He said He is, or he is both insane and a liar.

b.                  Gratitude for grace

i.                    An undeserved Gift

(1)               When we receive a gift we think ourselves worthy of, we feel no gratitude, but when we receive a gift we feel the giver has placed more value on us than we deserve, our heart fills with the thought that the giver thinks so highly of us.

(a)               Token gifts are cheap and they make us feel cheap.  Those gifts that betray the giver as one who loves us, and one who cherishes us, make our hearts the most full of gratitude.

ii.                  Forgiveness opens our eyes to all of grace.  The one who gives life, freely gives us all things. 

(1)               For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.    (Rom 6:23 NASB) Eternal life begins the moment you are saved.  All of life is a gift.

c.                   Love for love

i.                     An undeserved love - He loves the unlovable, the unlovable become lovely as they love Him in return

ii.                   He loved us first.  He took the initiative.  (He reached down, we couldn’t reach Him)

(1)               But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.    (Rom 5:8 NASB)

(2)               But God, being rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in our transgressions, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved),    (Eph 2:4-5 NASB)

(3)               We love, because He first loved us.    (1 John 4:19 NASB)

Conclusion:

Charles Spurgeon tells of a Mr. Welch, a Suffolk minister, who was noticed to sit and weep; and one said to him, "My dear Mr. Welch, why are you weeping?"

   "Well," he replied, "I can't tell you." But when they pressed him very hard, he answered, "I am weeping because I cannot love Christ more."

All of our tears for our sin, our pitiful condition, and then the marvelous gift of God’s salvation should flow down and mingle together into a pool of adoration.

Jesus told Simon, “Simon, I have something to say to you.”  Look inside your heart.  Does Jesus have something to say to you?  Has your Love for God grown cold.  Have you been making excuses for the sin in your life?  Perhaps you need to weep before God today, that you may find His forgiveness.  He wants to turn your tears of sorrow into tears of joy.  Maybe you just want to tell Him that you love Him.

Don’t be afraid of the pharisees that might say, “Look, there goes a sinner.”  The ones who would say that are blind to their own sin.  Remember, Jesus was not as impressed with the self-righteous Simon, as he was with the weeping woman.

Don’t be afraid to weep before God.  He loves you more than you deserve.  Let your love for Him run deep.