The Son of Man // Who Is Jesus? [Luke 7:36-8:3] (Andy Jamieson)

Gracious God, thank you so much that we can come to your word,

we can hear it preached and that your word is living and act of

God. And we thank you for Andy in the

way he has been serving you. And I pray that as he shares

about his ministry and as he shears from your word that it

would be glorifying to you and would be edifying to us and

would we have ears that are ready and eager to listen and be

changed. We pray for these things and we

we thank you for these things in Jesus name, Amen.

Hey, good morning everybody. As I was sitting in the seat

this morning, I was thinking, ohh, crumbs, this is a lot of

people. And I was thinking maybe 30.

So there's a couple more than 30, but that's OK.

So hopefully you've got some grace and we'll walk through it

together. But I was thinking, what's the

time I've been in front of a crowd this big?

And I was like, whoa, whoa. I did.

I decided to do physical education and Otago.

And part of that course was you had to, well, I say head 2, some

people say it was good, but we had to do a dance, contemporary

dance paper. And I'm a very conservative S

island boy and I did not want to dance, I don't know, to do the

class. And we had to perform in front

of usually old P/E students and they would want to, you know,

laugh at you and whatever. And it was on the biggest

lecture theatre they had in Otago, which is about 500

people. So it's a little bit smaller

than that here this morning. So I don't feel quite as bad and

I'm probably not going to dance. So all quite safe.

So this morning I'm going to speak on carry on speaking on

Luke. I believe you've already started

in there. I've been working through Luke

736. So if you open your Bibles up to

Luke 7, we're going to be talking about who is Jesus,

We're talking about his words versus obedience.

So I actions versus what we say and we're looking it's a simple

question. So who he is and more

specifically, how do we respond to him throughout this passage?

I'll draw another passages as well, but that's what we gonna

be looking at today. So if you turn to Luke 7 verse

Luke 7:36

36, then one of the Pharisees asked him to eat with him, and

he went to the Pharisees house and sat down to eat.

And behold, a woman in this city who was a Sinner, when she knew

that Jesus sat at the table in the Pharisees house, brought an

alabaster flask of fragrant oil, and stood at his feet behind

him, weeping. And she began to wash his feet

with her tears, and wiped them with the hair of her head.

And she kissed his fate and anointed them with the fragrant

oil that when the Pharisee who invited him saw this, he spoke

to himself saying This man, if he were a prophet, would know

and what manner of woman this is who's touching him, for she is a

Sinner. So we'll just stop there for

now. We're going to go right through

to chapter 8 verse, verse three that we'll just look at the 1st

4 verses. So 36 to 39.

God is not impressed by our religious activity or obedience.

So he's not interested or without obedience, He's not

interested in what we do. He doesn't, he's, he's not

thinking, ohh, they're wonderful people.

They've gone to India or Africa or whatever.

He wants our obedience. So this is what we're looking at

this morning. So it's not an external

performance without surrender. So it's a it's our mindset

towards God and how we respond to Him.

O this is what Jesus is exposing in this passage, because we have

that Pharisee who who's a Bangalore and supposedly doing

all the right things, but as hard isn't in the right place.

Ow we see Simon, he invites Jesus to his house, but he keeps

him at a distance. There's no kiss, there's no

water, no oil. He's outwardly right, but he's

inwardly cold. So in that culture, hospitality

was everything. So it's very common to have a

servant wash their feet when they came and justice to really

look after them really well. And you notice this and where we

are in in Kerala in India, often you'll get dusty feet walking to

through rear both which is the place near us or that we work

it. And then you always take your

shoes off when you go inside. And so it makes you think about

this and the Bible, they talk about washing their feet because

it sort of brings a little bit more reality to it because the

New Zealand, you tend to just go in with your shoes on.

But because your feet get so grabby and your houses you're

trying to keep nice and clean, we tend to take them off idea.

So it really this Pharisee wasn't even offering, you know

that the servant to wash the feet.

O we compare that with the woman who's breaking the social

boundaries. She's publicly humbling herself

a little bit like that message with David where he's dancing

before God and he's he's just dancing in a loin cloth.

But he's worried about what his praise to God, not what other

people were thinking. So it's, it's that kind of

display and it's, it's the costly devotion that she's

given. So they're in the same room, but

there's 2 completely different responses off you.

Now turn to the next few verses. Luke 40.

Ohh, sorry. Luke 740 to 43 And Jesus

answered and said to him, Simon, I have something to say to you.

So he said, Teacher say it, there is a certain creditor who

had two debtors, 1 owed him 100 denari and the other 50, and

when they had nothing with which to repay, he freely forgave them

both. Tell me, therefore, which of

them will love him more? Simon answered and said I

suppose the one who forgave more And he said to him, you have

rightly judged O this is a key principle.

Jesus gives this lens to help us understand 01 of the people was

forgiven a little. So he loves a little bit.

So it wasn't that big a deal. He gets forgiven a bit and so he

obviously likes the the man they owed the money to, but the one

that was forgiven much he tends to love more.

So this is that situation with the woman and Simon.

So it's not theoretical, but it's shown in the response.

Jesus is pushing this a little bit further with the emotional

side. So do we just agree with him or

are we actually responding to him?

So I'd like to take another passage, Matthew 2128 to 32,

which you'll probably all know of the two sums, but what do you

think? A man had two sons and he came

to the 1st and said, Sun go work today in my vineyard.

He answered and said, I will not.

But afterward he regretted it and went.

Then he came to the second son and said likewise.

And he answered and said, I go, Sir.

But he did not go. Which of the two did the will of

his father? They said to him, the 1st Jesus

said to them, assuredly I say to you, that text collectors and

harlots enter the Kingdom of God before you.

For John came to you in the way of righteousness, and you did

not believe Him, but tax collectors and harlots believed

Him. And when you saw it, you did not

afterward relent and believe him.

So this first son, he's saying I will go, I will not go, sorry.

But later he changes his mind, initially saying the wrong

words, but has actions later on revealed his true heart, whereas

the other son is a bit of a yes man.

And he says, I will go, Sir, but he does not go.

So correct words, but no obedience.

So the one who did the will of the Father is the one that

obeyed. So words alone are not the

measure. Action reveals the reality.

O we put this back inside the the passage that we're looking

at today. I've Luke 70.

Simon is like that second son. He's got the words, but he has

no obedience. He sees nothing wrong.

He's religiously respectable. He's a Pharisee, you know,

everyone looked at him as the people that are doing the right

thing, that he didn't wash the feet, his feet.

He didn't offer him a kiss when he arrived or a kiss of honour.

And there's no oil to welcome him or anything like that.

No anointing, no. No normal hospitality, he says.

Yes, and principle, but his life does not show what he's really,

You know what, what he should be doing.

He is son #2 He's yes Lord, but no action, no cost, no love is

expressed. Whereas the woman is like the

first son. She has a broken start.

She just had a what looks like a bad life or something that you

know, she's come from a sinful life and her response is

obedience. So she's moved from that broken

start to obedience. Oi heard life initially said no

to God but then she turns. So who responses tears or a pint

to repentance here is like humility wiping his feet with

her here and the perfume is costly side of her worship.

She does not just feel sorry but she acts in alignment with

repentance. OC is the first one, initially

wrong direction but ends U in obedience.

So this parable reveals the importance of repentance and

challenges us. Do our actions align with God's

will? So the two sons, two types of

people, those who initially reject God but repent, and those

who appear obedient that fail to act.

So the Father's request, interesting in this passage, the

Father's request of working in the vineyard.

When I was looking into this, it was like working in God's

Kingdom. So it was quite a nice picture

of the Father or God asking the two sons to work in His Kingdom

or the vineyard being His Kingdom.

So the obedience requires action.

Repentance is also needed. Self righteousness is not

needed. So how does my faith show in my

actions and obedience? If we turn now to one Samuel

15220, this is one of the classic passages of a talking

about obedience versus sacrifice.

There's quite a few in the Psalms as well, but this is one

that I always remember. I'll start it first 13 and go to

2023 because that sort of gives a better summary. 01 Samuel 15

starting at verse 13. Then Samuel went to Saul, and

Saul said to him, Blessed are you of the Lord, I have

performed the commandment of the Lord.

But Samuel said, What then is this blighting of the sheep in

my ears, and the lowering of the oxen which I hear?

And so said they have brought them from the Malachites, for

the people spared the best of the sheep and the oxen to

sacrifice to the Lord your God, and the rest we have utterly

destroyed. Then say you'll see the soul, be

quiet, and I will tell you what the Lord said to me last night,

and you speak to him. Speak on, O Samuel said.

When you were little in your own eyes, were you not head of the

tribes of Israel? And did not the Lord anoint you

king over Israel? Now the Lord sent you on a

mission, and said, Go and utterly destroy the sinners and

the Amalekites, and fight against them until they are

consumed. Why then did you not obey the

voice of the Lord? Why did you swoop down on the

spoil and do evil in the sight of the Lord?

And so say to Samuel, But I have evade the voice of the Lord, and

gone on a mission on which the Lord sent me and brought back

Agag, king of the king of Amalek.

I have utterly destroyed the Malachites, but the people took

of the plunder, sheep and oxen, the best of the things which

should have been utterly destroyed.

To sacrifice to the Lord your God, to Gilgal, so Samuel said,

Has the Lord has great delight and burnt offerings and

sacrifices, as in obeying the voice of the Lord.

Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, and to heed than the

Fed of Rams. 4 billion is as the sin of witchcraft and

stubbornness, as as iniquity and idolatry.

Because you've rejected the word of the Lord, He also has

rejected you from being king. So the simple thing he was just

asked to destroy the Malachites and he thought, oh, oh, she are

pretty good. And those those oxen are pretty

good. We'll just save them and I'll

offer a great sacrifice to God. But God wasn't interested in

that. He just wanted him to follow

what he's told him to do. So this is the one of the

classic verses showing man trying to please God when he's

been just asked to obey. So we see here obedience is

greater than sacrifice. To obey is better than

sacrifice. So solve problem.

He thought his idea was better than what God told him to do, he

said. Some other animals God told him

to destroy, and he saved them to offer to God.

He disobeyed God thinking His offering would be better than

obedience. So God rejects religious

substitutes for obedience. So we put this all back

together. What God actually looks for

God's not impressed by sacrifice.

You could call that what we can offer him, our works, our

religious activity, external performance, correct language

about him, and spiritual appearance.

God is looking for a response of hearts or like they talk about

David having a heart after his own heart after the Lord's

heart. Something that I often wonder

what is that? I want to know more about what

having a heart after God's heart is.

It sounds pretty cool. And he wants us to be humble and

to immediately be obedient. Faith that moves into action,

Love that becomes visible. Sacrifice.

This is contrasted in Luke 7:00. So we had Simon.

That religious man says nothing offensive but does nothing

loving. The woman is a broken Sinner.

She has nothing religious to offer, but she gives everything

in response. Jesus says she has the right

heart that Simon does not. So Jesus forgives her.

Which is is also interesting because something only God can

do. So he's revealing something in

front of those Pharisees. Just one in them up a little bit

more oo the last few verses are the start of Luke chapter 8

Luke 8 · chapter mention

versus one to three. I'll read those now.

It came to pass afterward that he went through every city and

village preaching and bringing the glad tidings of the Kingdom

of God. And the 12 are with them.

And certain women who had been healed of evil spirits and

infirmities, Mary called Magdalene, out of whom had come

seven demons, and Joanna, the wife of Chuza here at Stewart

and Susanna and many others who provided for him from their

substance. Jesus is going around

proclaiming the good news of the Kingdom and these women are

helping by supporting. So even Mary Magdalene, who

sounds very similar to this lady in this story, she was healed

and now she follows him and supports him.

So they true faith and belief produces repentance and

obedience. So they're following serving,

giving and obeying, not just belief.

There's a response there. So the final contrast is that

these two sons had two responses once it's the right thing but

stays still. One starts wrong but ends UA

bang. So God isn't interested in what

we can offer that sacrifice. So sacrifice to us.

You know, like the Old Old Testament talks about

sacrifices, but our sacrifice is something that we can, that we

think we can offer God, but he's more interested in obedience.

Things we do for him as a part of that process, but the

obedience is the thing. So God is interested in how we

respond to Him. Trust, love and obedience.

Yeah. Just in closing, I want you to

remember those two things. The Simon had religion without

response, so it was just his, his pharmaceutical or his his.

He thinks he's doing the right thing by being religious and

offering God something. Whereas it's that true heart at

heart of obedience that God is really looking for.