What do you see?

Music O Lamb of God, who takes away our sin We've heard that Thine influence over us Is set us free, and takes us not In holiness, but we worship You And we will always sing to Thee of Your love O Lamb of God, who takes away our sin We've heard that Thine influence over us Is set us free, and takes us not In holiness, but we worship You And we will always sing to Thee of Your love Music Jesus, Jesus, Jesus, Jesus He was the freedom that Christ had set us free Who forgave to be subject to sin O Jesus, His Spirit in us Releases us from fear Who waits to give His own hand In all that we do Jesus, we celebrate Your victory Jesus, we revel in Your love Jesus, He was the freedom that Christ had set us free Who forgave to be subject to sin O Jesus, we rejoice You set us free Jesus, Your death has brought us life Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music This is Luke 7 verse 36 I'll start again Now one of the Pharisees invited Jesus to have dinner with him So he went to the Pharisee's house and reclined at the table When a woman who had lived a sinful life in that town learned that Jesus was eating at the Pharisee's house She brought an alabaster jar of perfume And as she stood behind him at his feet weeping She began to wet his feet with her tears Then she wiped them with her hair Kissed them and poured perfume over them When the Pharisee who had invited him saw this He said 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 Jesus answered him Simon I have something to tell you Tell me teacher he said Two men owed money to a certain money lender One owed him 500 denarii And the other 50 Neither of them had the money to pay him back So he cancelled the debts of both Now which of them will love him more Simon replied I suppose the one who had the bigger debt cancelled You have judged correctly Jesus said Then he turned towards 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 Wiped them with her hair You did not give me a kiss but this woman From the time I entered has not stopped kissing my feet You did not put oil on my head But she has poured perfume on my feet Therefore I tell you Her many sins have been forgiven For she loved much But he who has been forgiven little Loves little Then Jesus said to her Your sins are forgiven The other guests began to say among themselves Who is this who even forgives sin Jesus said to the woman Your faith has saved you Go in peace Would you keep your Bibles open at that passage Let's pray Father we thank you for your word That you speak through it to our hearts In such a way that Provided we are prepared to give attention We can comprehend what it is that You're wanting to affirm And apply So we ask that during these next Moments Our concentrations may be gripped That we might be able to Crack open What this passage contains In terms of its relevance to us For the Saviour's sake Amen Verse 44 of Luke 7 then He turned towards the woman and said to Simon Do you see This woman Verse 39 When Simon who had invited him Saw this woman He said 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 Let me tell you a story If you're sitting comfortably then I'll begin So once upon a time Once upon a time I went to school Many years ago They had strange things in schools In the classrooms there were little sticks They were white And teacher would take these sticks At the back of teacher's desk was A blackboard It was generally colored green I didn't really understand why it was called a blackboard But that was the case And with these White sticks called chalk He, she Would illustrate The lesson Those were strange days You did your tables Now a table wasn't something that you had your meal on Nor did you pull your chair up to it Tables were something that you learned like 1 x 2 is 2 2 x 2 are 4 When you got really clever You went to your 12 times 8 x 12 is 96 9 x 12 is 108 And so It continued Today You've got calculators So you don't need your tables You know that 12 x 12 is Well you're not quite sure so you punch it in And up pops 144 And you don't need a stick of chalk at least if you're a teacher Because well all the kids are What's the terminology? Let me get it right Computer literate We had to go down that track sooner or later at the tab I mean computers And we're just in process at the moment At least I am Of shifting what is called software I mean for some time I've been on WordPerfect But there are reasons why I'm switching to Word for Windows It's all got to do with something called WYSIWYG Which if you work it out it stands for this What you see, whiz or wise Is, I, what you get WYSIWYG Now the problem with WordPerfect is this That when some stuff is on your screen And then you press the print command What comes out on the printer Is a little different from what's on the screen Now being a very simple guy Actually I can see the advantage of what's on the screen Being exactly what's on the printout So I'm shifting from WordPerfect Where all the instructions about print Are really in the bowels of the machine To Word for Windows Where it comes on the machine Just how it's going to produce on the printer Now here is a man by the name of Simon And what he sees Is all that he believes that there is In other words he's a Word for Windows man Our Lord Jesus is present on this occasion And certain things happen That he knows really can only be understood When you go beneath the surface And in more sense than one He's the WordPerfect man Now at this point I have lost half of my congregation But the youngsters should just about be hanging in Simon is a Pharisee The very word Pharisee means set apart He's a man who claims That his life is to be So given over to the Lord That he is a religious leader And on one occasion Simon has interest in this untrained unofficial rabbi Who comes from Nazareth And he invites Jesus into his home Now that is unusual because Well Jesus' credentials were suspect And for a man like Simon to have something to do with Jesus was strange I would like to say to you that If Simon invited Jesus to his home Because well he was desperately concerned to hear what Jesus had to say But I think it was just pure curiosity And nothing else than that There was no sense in Simon's conviction That caused him to invite Jesus Because he thought that Jesus could minister to him It was either the stimulus of curiosity Or maybe it was more sinister than that Maybe it was espionage Maybe he wanted to amass certain information about Jesus Which he could report to his colleagues in Jerusalem And have Jesus stifled once and for all Anyway Jesus went to his home Because our Lord is concerned to have fellowship with all sorts of people Even those whose interest in him Is perhaps not as sincere as one might like Now it's an interesting scenario that confronts you When you think of Jesus in the home of Simon Palestine like Worthing at the moment is often very hot And the house will open into a courtyard So that a little vesper of breeze might be picked up The chairs would be fairly near the floor And the general way of preparing for a meal Was to lean across the couch So that your body was near the table And you could get your hands on the food But your feet were somewhat distant from the table It was also the custom when you were giving a feast When you were inviting someone to come into your home To dole out the usual courtesies That were part of the cultural pattern in those days So Jesus comes into Simon's home And then Something even more extraordinary Than Jesus accepting an invitation Or an invitation being given to the likes of him From a Pharisee A woman comes in Now this is an all-men affair I mean the mix of the sexes on this sort of occasion Would have been very, very rare indeed The party is already in sway As this woman Who learns that Jesus was eating at Simon's house Comes in as an uninvited guest Sometimes women would have necklaces In those days But dangling round their necks Would be a little file A little glass container And within the container Would be some precious ointment This woman is so endowed And as she moves towards the Lord Jesus Not only does she make to break that little flask of ointment She also unclasps her hair So that her long locks might free fall And she starts to anoint the feet of Jesus The preparatory work is done by her tears And as she continues this remarkable act You can imagine the expression on the face of Simon And all the other religious dignitaries You see this sort of event perhaps Has some Old Testament justification But only within the context of the Song of Solomon Here is intimacy at its most absolute Thank God that nobody from Hollywood was present Because they would have completely misunderstood the whole idea It was not something stimulated by sexual attraction As far as this woman was concerned All the other men were blotted out in her mind As she tried to express to Jesus The indebtedness that she felt Because of what Jesus had done for her One of the problems that the Pharisee had Shared by many people today is this He did not appreciate why Jesus came to this world You see, our Lord comes for those who are desperately in need He doesn't come for the successful He comes for the broken He comes for those whose lives are in a thousand fragments This woman was a harlot To upgrade the word she was a prostitute To update the word And every encounter that she had was a further break of The deteriorating self-respect Which she was losing But when Jesus came into her life He looked on her in a way that no man had ever looked on her He restored to her something far more precious Than a gallon of rare perfume He returned her self-respect And this woman shows The measure of her indebtedness to the Lord Jesus Because he has dealt with her At the point of her greatest need Now, the scene is completely misinterpreted It's really, Simon At a word for windows level What you see is what you get He sees this woman operating in such an uncouth, undignified fashion He does not know much of the context In terms of the reasons why Jesus has come into this world And you find this man mentally going through what has happened And making his own conclusions If this man, who has received this intimate act Knew what sort of woman she was He wouldn't have allowed her to touch him If he were a prophet, he would not do that sort of thing But what he saw Was not the full picture And our Lord Jesus, the word perfect man Goes, if you please, into the bowels of the situation And he realizes That not only has he an awareness of the condition of this woman He also is aware of the lack of grasp Of Simon as to what Jesus' ministry is And so he tells him a story It's once upon a time Occasion again There were two men, Simon One owed a man 500 days One was owed 500 days of One was indebted to 500 days of work And the other was indebted to 50 days of work And the man who owed the largest amount was forgiven And the man who owed the smallest amount was forgiven One owed the money lender 500 denarii And the other 50 denarii Neither had the money to pay him back So he cancelled the debt of both Simon Which of them will love him more? And Simon smiles It's an easy one But the very logic behind the Nathan style story which Jesus tells Exposes Simon For Simon indifferently says I suppose the one Who had the biggest debt cancelled And Jesus said You've got it in one Simon You're right Simon Let's drop Below the line Let's go into Word perfect Let's see what is behind What you see on the screen Simon When I came to your house you were suspicious of me The very courtesies that are normally extended on an occasion like this you bypassed Because I'm an embarrassment to you Simon I wear sandals And my feet are dirty as a result of the sand coming into the toes and around the ankles You never got any water to wash my feet Simon it's normal on an occasion like this when a rabbi is brought into someone's house To have an embrace You never kissed me Simon it's usual in these circumstances for you to take a little flask of oil It's cheap enough on the open market and anoint my head out of respect None of these three things have you done Simon this woman here Who's causing the little cogs at the back of your mind to race so rapidly And compelling you to make conclusions which are utterly inappropriate She's dealt with me so differently She can teach you a lot Simon the distinguishing factor between you and this woman is this You have no consciousness of your need of me And she has The tears that have flooded down her eyes From her eyes to her cheeks and onto my feet They are symbolic of the indebtedness and the love that she feels The unclasping of her hair The anointing of my feet with her perfume They are indicative of the sense of relief and release That she has felt through my ministry Simon the greatest mistake in life Is to be unaware of your own sinfulness This mistake this woman has not made This mistake you have made She recognizes the enormous debt that she owes me You recognize no debt at all Why has she acted in a fashion that seems so uncharacteristic to a female mindset? Because love has propelled her to show publicly The gratitude that she has for all that has taken place inwardly Simon, let's update the language of our Lord Your problem is You're a word for windows man I'm a word perfect man There's more to situations Than meet you at surface level I go behind the screen I press the reveal codes And I start to operate at that level I come to a conclusion You see in one sense this is one of the most remarkable incidents that occurred in the ministry of our Saviour It seems as though it was in the northern territory of Galilee I mean you've got epitomized, you've got illustrated here A woman who's sunk into A morass of sin And yet Jesus is not put off by this woman at all And the reason why this story is brought into scripture Is because the Lord Jesus wants you to know That He has come to save To the uttermost Those who call on Him There is no crime so heinous That He cannot deal with There is no person Who hates himself or herself so much That Jesus is incapable of embracing And forgiving He speaks to this woman And He affirms what she must have already known Your sins have been forgiven you And Simon's colleagues who are of the same profession doubtless as he was They too are thinkers They too are men who make their own conclusions And rightly they come to this consideration That a man who forgives sins Is basically claiming to be more than a man And this is precisely what Jesus is More than just a man He is the word perfect He is God Himself come down in human garb He is God made manifest in the flesh In order to deal with the sort of woman Who is in this story And to offer salvation To all who are prepared To press the reveal code bar And look into their own life And see something of the ugliness and the pollution there And to bring it to the Lord Christ And ask for forgiveness On the cross He took the consequences Of your sin And my sin If ever a woman needed Jesus Christ It was this woman If ever a man needed Jesus Christ It was that man Simon And our Lord offers Himself to you right now Prepare to come to your home Prepare to be involved in your life Prepare to make the corrections and the adjustments To absolve you from your sins All you need to do Is to have a look Not at the surface But in the bowels Of your pilgrimage Through life And to confess those things that you know are wrong And to ask God's forgiveness And then to retain the language of the computer age The delete button is pressed The screen is cleared And if any man being Christ He is a new creation All things passed away All things as new If we confess our sins He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins And to cleanse us from all unrighteousness Jesus Christ The Word Perfect Man It's 119 in the supplement We'll stand and sing I, Jesus, I love Thee I, God, love Thee I, Jesus, I love Thee All the measures of sin I design My gracious Redeemer My Savior of Thine In heaven I love Thee My Jesus, please come From Thee behold Thou hast first loved me And purchased my Father When nailed to the tree I love Thee for wearing The thorns on Thy brow In heaven I love Thee My Jesus, please come From Thee in life or in death And praise Thee as long as Thine endeavors depend And say, Shepherds, let me My God on Thy brow In heaven I love Thee My Jesus, please come Dimensions of glory And endless delight God ever adore Thee In heaven so bright and bitter I love Thee My Jesus, please come Only by grace can we enter Only by grace can we enter Your presence, You call us Come into Your presence, You call us Come, by Your grace, we come Come, by Your grace, we come Sing only by grace again Only by grace can we enter Only by grace can we enter Come, by Your glory, we come Into Your presence, You call us Come into Your presence, You call us Come, by Your grace, we come Come, by Your grace, we come Come, by Your glory, we come Only by grace can we enter Only by grace can we stand No by our human endeavors But by the blood of the Lamb Into Your presence, You call us You call us, You come Come into Your presence, You call us Come, by Your grace, we come Now by Your grace we come