Feast like the Father

All right, if you have your Bible with you, we gonna have a

month all the time. But once you open up to the Book

of Luke chapter 7, I do want to get into the word today because

Luke 7 · chapter mention

today is a big occasion. It's a big moment for not only

in 3cr, but it's a big moment in the city, because we have a lot

of Outsiders coming up with the kids getting ready for a new

year, adversity, and leant over while kid, was busy sharing

saying, you know, that your word Bro spot on because it's exactly

what I feel to share on today. And I think it's brought on by

the fact that we have a lot of visitors here.

We got the guys from were School Vault of Glass and parents and I

think this is going to be normative for this year.

So what I want to do is I want to go back to the very beginning

the way the 20:23 started, the portion of scripture that we

felt God was busy laying almost as the runway into the new year.

I want to take a look at that but I also want to do it in such

a way so that those who are Seeing those who are going to be

interesting your children to this community or maybe as a

family, you're looking to join that.

You get a little bit more of an idea of what we're on about.

But for those of us who are part of the furniture, we get

reminded what God has called us to be and do so that we can

ready ourselves if we have the city at our doors.

So we're in Luke chapter 7. I'm just going to set the scene

Luke 7 · chapter mention

with the first few verses before we jump in.

I'm going to read to you from verse 36.

Just just this verse for analysis, when one of the

Pharisees invited Jesus to have dinner, Dinner with him.

He went to the Pharisees house and reclined at the table.

Now, sounds like an ordinary dinner invite, but there's a lot

going on here. Firstly, if you've been around

Church circles for a while, you know that the Pharisees were the

bad guys, but they weren't always the bad guys.

They actually were birthed out of a desperate desire to get

people rights with their God. So when Israel had been taken

into Exile, these Pharisees came to the scene where they like

we're going to be The Gatekeepers for the piety of our

people are going to Sure, no one steps out of line, so that this

never happens to us again. They weren't an official office.

It was basically people that took it on themselves, to say,

I'm going to watch you. I'm going to check you out.

Make sure you aren't the reason why we get taken into Exile

again. So one of the historians

Josephus says, they were members of a voluntary Association that

fought for influence other people and Powers while

remaining active in various roles in occupations.

So, what's interesting is they were Merchants, they were

Traders, they were could be fisherman, Sportsman.

They were the original Instagram influencers, these Pharisees,

but in the hearts of men began to be twisted and it became law

and harsh and condemning. So we got that on one side and

the other side we got this dinner invitation now was

fascinating about this dinner. Invitation is that firstly I

want to show you a picture of what it looked like to be seated

at a table in the ancient near East.

So you'll see sort of certain a u shaped like that.

They would require the tables obviously, been broken.

But in the middle of you, Over the table that serve you there

and you would sort of be leaning in and have this conversation

around the table with your feet towards the outside because

they, yeah, they often didn't clean their feet.

So it was helpful to keep it away from the food but another

fascinating thing. Thanks, you, as you can take it

down, is that this was a big occasion.

It wasn't just a chat, you know, while waiting for your coffee, a

want to go have lunch at muumuus off to the Sunday service.

This was something that was planned weeks, possibly months

in advance and it was even even announced to the town.

So what they would do on big occasions like this, you know,

imagine you got to Vladimir Putin coming for dinner or

Donald Trump or Bill Gates. You pick your poison but it's

you having one of these fancy to dues coming for lunch for dinner

and you would let the village know.

And by the way, what you doing sir?

I'm having mr. Trump over and they would

actually leave their doors open. And so people would come, you'd

have your VIPs and the Inner Circle.

People would come and they would sit on the floor with their

backs against the wall, just so they could listen in to your

fancy-schmancy dinner that you having.

Unfortunately, it meant that anybody could come, as we find

in the next verse verse 37, a woman in that town, who lived a

sinful life, not as understatement of the Year,

learned, that Jesus was eating at the Pharisees house.

So she came there with an alabaster jar of perfumed.

One thing I just want to say, you know, we kind of assume the

worst, we have no idea the word that Luke uses there.

To describe, I think some of the translations say and immoral

woman is the word hamar tolos. Now I have marked a loss in the

Bible dictionary someone that they say is especially Wicked,

pre-eminently sinful devoted to sin and stained by crime.

So if we think, well, she probably was a prostitute, we

aiming way too high. It's highly likely.

She could have been a witch, a sangoma.

She could have been someone involved in six trafficking part

of the Mafia the Israeli. It was one of those people that

came into the room and the atmosphere changed.

So, this is what happens. And this, I want you to see, I'm

going to look at what it's like to Feast with the Pharisee or

Feast with a father, whose if we having the city at our door, we

need to learn what it means to Feast, like the father.

But here's the big unfolding of the story, verse 38 as she stood

behind him, This is the Hamada loss at Jesus feet weeping.

She began to wet his feet with her tears.

She wiped them with her hair, kissed them.

And poured perfume on 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 Hamato loves Jesus, answered this 40 Simon, I

have something to tell. You, tell me teacher said to

people 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 but he forgave of the deaths of both now which

would love him. More someone report replied.

I suppose the one who had the bigger debt you've judged

correctly, Jesus Satan, these are the verses.

I want to look at this morning, then he turned toward the woman

and said to Simon. Do you see this woman?

I came into your house, you didn't give me any water for my

feet but she has wet my feet with her tears and wiped them

with her hair. You didn't give me a kiss.

But this woman from the time I entered she has not stopped

kissing my feet and you didn't put oil on my head but she is

poured perfume on my feet. Therefore I tell you her, many

sins have been forgiven Forgiving and a great lover

service. But whoever's been forgiven

little loves little in. Jesus said to her, your sins are

forgiven. On a dive into those three or

four verses want to show you a couple things of what it means

for you. And I, if you are bringing your

children to study here, what they are going to encounter

because we are going after as a community to Feast with the

father, but we need to be aware of what it looks like to Feast,

like a Pharisee. And so, I want to draw this

line. Using these few verses in the

little time that we have this morning.

Firstly, this 44, this way, let's tally Civ.

He turns to the woman, says to Simon, do you see this woman?

Do you see this woman? Will we see the city that

gathers at the door? I read a fascinating article, a

guy who had lost his sight in an accident and he was asked the

question, having lived, 20 30 years with certain are being

blind. What's the worst thing about

being blind? And I kind of expected him to

say no. The worst thing about being

blind is when your kids leave Lego on the floor, but he said

this, he said the worst thing about being blind is that people

don't see me. They see my disability.

See when you Feast like a Pharisee, you don't see the

little people. Now, I'm not talking about Dave,

I'm talking about, you know, the guys who had nothing to add to

the conversation, the people that don't have a corner office

or a Montblanc pen Pharisees, don't see the little people but

the father as Jesus sits example, sees the woman not the

disability you know it's fascinating that one of the

greatest Miracles Jesus performs Is healing the blind giving

sight to the blind. It's almost as if he's trying to

give us a clue, the one of the ways the enemy comes in as he

just blinds us to the needs around us.

And I want to tell you parents that when your students comes to

3cr, they will be seen. We will knit them in and build

them into the body. We will stop services so that

they can tell their story and be baptized.

We are not about the big in the Grand and the grandiose and we

have to be so careful of this because we're a big church.

With a big reputation and a big slippery slope.

We got will say, I'm going to take this to someone who will

see those in. Need the first thing we need to

know. So when we Feast like a father,

we see you begin to see you don't just get irritated with

the lady in front of you because she's taking forever to check on

your kids. We see the fact that he has a

single mom, who's just celebrating the fact.

She actually got two of the three kids do church and she's

hoping she can register them so that she can spend Just one hour

in the presence of God or someone else looks after kids,

do you see? He goes on to say, I came into

your house, you didn't give me any water for my feet, but she

has wet my feet with her tears and wiped them with her hair.

I love the statement. You didn't give me any water as

weird. You think if we water for my

feet? It's not something up.

We say every day baby have water for my feet, but at this was a

high value item in the ancient near East because now you're

going to dinner, you've been walking through stuffs.

It's wonderful if your feet to clean.

So traditionally, you would arrive there.

And there would be water to wash your feet.

If you're or rather wealthy, you had a servant that would wish

wash your feet for you, but what does Jesus do?

Jesus gets on his knees and washes his disciples feet.

Now this is a proper power play. This is mega church mentality.

See, because Jesus is up to this point in the Book of Luke Jesus

has healed. The sick is given sort of the

blond. He's healed.

A paralyzed man who has dropped right in front of him through a

roof. He is preached with power, The

Sermon on the Mount. And it's believed that in that

same town, possibly even that same day at the very start of

Luke chapter 7, Jesus raises the Dead.

Luke 7 · chapter mention

And he walks into this house and the Pharisee has the audacity to

not even offer to wash his feet. It's our proper power, struggle.

This pecking order. And what happens is Jesus

doesn't say you didn't give us water to wash our feet.

He says, you didn't give me any water to wash my feet.

So it's highly likely. Everyone else is feets.

Had Johnson's baby oil on it and we're looking rather fun and

dandy. And can you imagine you sitting

at Jesus feet? So you're up against the wall

while they're eating and you like your, yeah, you know,

that's like, who had garlic last night.

You didn't like, Dirty feet. Have you ever felt unwanted?

That's what's happening. You're welcome but your unwanted

welcome come build the numbers, you know, we need a fill-up and

I tell you, if we can put on Instagram, we had like, 400

people in the Overflow, but don't bring your stuff to me,

you know, just keep it here. We were in had the privilege of

being in Belgium, for Christmas last year.

My father-in-law's Belgian. So we went over with the family,

so he lives on his own. He's getting divorced.

And we The family of five move in this of the first thing that

we do is we go shopping for groceries as one would need to.

So takes us to like the crème de la crème grocery stores called

Dell is, it's sort of like the Esten Martin of your corner.

Kathy is like next-level, you know, so we go in there.

Now, we're going to buy groceries and we haggling over,

which loaf of bread is that the 15 Euro loaf of bread or the 12

Euro loaf of bread, how far can we get this with the family of

five? And my beloved darling,

father-in-law decides? No, he's going to the VIP

section of the vrp. Store, you know where you get

like this smoked reindeer, and frog, ha and duck liver.

So he hits off the was like okay quick got a basket full of food

and he arrives and he dumps his lobster tail and everything that

was like leaned over to my wife types and how many kidneys do we

have between us and the kids? And then we get home.

And now we unpacking, the groceries are inheritance that

we're about to eat and my father-in-law leans over and he

grabs the Reindeer and the foie gras and any takes it up to his

room. Never again to be seen.

My wife is a proper melt down. Just like you had, he's like, my

father won't share his food with me.

What kind of a person does that? Yeah, you really feeling

welcomed but unwanted and I had to pull a sudden, see babies

actually here's something you need to understand and this is

what we need to understand. This is a point, I Think Jesus

is going off to hear. If he has refused to surrender

his heart to the King of Kings because he's a very feisty

outspoken atheist. If he hasn't surrendered his

heart. So I heavenly father he's not

going to surrender his future his family.

You going to find the stingiest, most self-centered most

self-consumed person on the planet because his heart betrays

him. That's what it's like to Feast

with a Pharisee. Well, those who sits at our

door, find anything different here.

When they walk in, I love that we have CEOs, handling the

parking and I love this one. Puts 20 grand into account to

pay for everybody's coffee and I love Hilton that.

I, as hard as I tried. I couldn't pay for my coffee

this morning because he, you know, your heart betrays you

when you're sitting there having dinner with someone in the bill

comes, And it's alike. So where is that suddenly

interested in the, what your kids playing on the iPad?

We should be a people. Who disappear like my wife did

we would we send them in my mouth and we went out to lunch

before he drove back and my wife went to go find out the Wi-Fi

password so we could just double check GPS, she goes, hey, is the

bull. But the family said this, this

these are guys in the ministry in a church in the city and they

said they have never had anyone pay for a meal before in their

lives. I think he's what kind of

Community are you a part of This is radical stuff.

This is get at your heart stuff. This is, I want my people to be

looked after by you, so I'm going to be sending them to you.

Can I trust them to you? Or they're going to find

feasting with a Pharisee and we just like well you know, I got

my coffee, I got my stuff so I'm going up to my room, you do.

I'll see you in the auditorium. Jumping to verse 45, he says you

didn't give me a kiss but this woman from the time I entered

has not stopped kissing my feet. I had a lot to say on this and

then I suddenly realized we've got a lot of offer cons people

and VCR. Afrikaans men, kiss Afrikaans

men on the lips. And I know because I've done

market research. Bit tell me.

Do you still kiss your your boys on the lips?

Yes. Eugene is preaching as grunts

chit. Hey bud.

Do you is this true Eugene still kisses?

His brother and his lips, I'm like properly freaked out

because that's yeah, I don't know if it's my culture of my

introverted nature and appear. He just keeps trying to kiss me

every time I see him. So we in Belgium NE and because

they French, that's what they do and it's and you can't go into

Wikipedia tutorial, how to kiss a French person because of,

yeah, you've really don't know what you're going to see ya.

And it's like, you know, do you do you sort of like fist bump

with your cheek? You know.

So like a bump and a bum. Are you getting your lips onto

the cheek? And you know it's awkward a has

opened a stubble and he smells like smoked and garlic in his

glasses are so big. Sort of like knocks your glasses

off. Are you trying to go around and

then there's Omar so like who she'd, like, whoa way too frisky

as back off there. But the worst is when it's

another 40 year old man, random stranger, you've never seen him

before but he knows he's a friend of a friend and he walks

into the house and it is. And do you do like the Acres?

It was, it was a thing. Okay, just really was a thing.

I didn't want to go out in case you meet someone on the streets

of your, huh? But Jesus is, Greet them with a

holy kiss. You know, never Lauren used to

be in a church that he says he lived because the elders would

stand at the door and greet everyone to the holy kiss.

What does this mean? I don't know.

I have looked I've read the best that the way I can describe what

Jesus is going after is imagine you just got married to your

wife. And then like the Americans the

next day you go you'd called off to go fight on the front lines

and Afghanistan Vietnam. Whatever the case might be and

you do your tour of Duty and after six months or a year you

come back for the very first time.

When Jesus says you didn't kiss me, he's saying that moment.

That's the moment where she comes running and he comes

running, and he's dropping his gear and she's leaving the kid

behind them. The that that's what he's

saying. So I didn't feel any of that

when I walked into your house and he calls us to this place of

intimacy and openness and vulnerability, where, you know,

you are loved your kid for you can belong before you believe

that this is home. We so glad to have you here.

And I know there's a species here that doesn't get.

While this is a big deal. You know, Homo Sapien extra

vertices. The game I'm proud that as last,

but to the introvert. So there any introverts here.

Hands up. Okay, please introverts.

Cannot ask you to raise your hand.

My hand is up. And I want to talk to

introverts. I am a stereotypical introvert.

And I had the privilege of meeting another stereotypical

interviewed by the name of Michael eaten.

I don't know if you know him, he's passed away but he is like

one of the foremost theologians of our time and when he came to

3cr it was packed to the rafters we would spend hours.

As he's just unpack the word and you've never seen God that way

and understood script that way, an unprecedented theological

gift, but you take him to dinner and he opens up a book at the

table. he said, like, Do we just carry on eating?

What like what do you do? It's all good.

It's not a holy kiss moment. You don't know what to do with

that but that's the way we behave.

When new people come to 3cr and someone comes if the city is

going to be at our door. There needs to be a lot of holy

kissing going on a welcoming in and so I want to speak to us

introverts and ask you this question.

What do people feel on the other side of you?

can I tell you what people feel on the other side of me because

my introvert nature, If you're standing there and I'm having a

conversation with you, you're probably thinking.

And I've heard people say this to me is so cold, arrogant aloof

distant disinterested But it needs to be sanctified.

This needs to be a place where people are welcomed with arms

open wide and I know for us in Traverse, it's going to take a

lot of work. It's this is not a free-for-all

for the extroverts, to tell us what to do.

This is you and me saying, let us listen to the Holy Spirit.

There's get out of our comfort zones.

In those moments, they just be aware of facial expressions and

I quickly, we just want to go into a little hole.

If the city is going to be at our door, we need to be aware of

these things. Last one.

Verse 46, you didn't put oil on my head but she is poured

perfume on my feet just in short, this is a an incredible

phrase. It's an imagery that sort of

like a metaphor of anointing that is only found in the New

Testament relating to Jesus, except for one moment.

And that's when Jesus tells the parable of the prodigal of the

Good Samaritan. And I never actually saw it

before I was doing a word search and I suddenly came across this

moment. I've never seen it.

The Good Samaritan finds this guy beaten to the brink of

death, he binds him up and then he anoints him.

He pours wine and perfume and oil on the wound.

He wants to bring healing. That's what this says to me.

Is Jesus saying you didn't annoy me.

You didn't take care of a need here.

And we are we look at the whole row of versus Wade issue in

America when it was falling apart.

There was a pasta that got up in there in the heat of this thing.

You know in the abortion laws and anti-abortion people were

fighting against one another. You got two things to the

following said I don't know if you're aware of this but one out

of every three children is aborted in America.

One out of every three pregnancies end in abortion, And

then he said this, he said, one that makes one of the most

dangerous places to be in America is in the womb of a

mother. And I thought you are such a

insert expensive Pharisee. Really.

The city is on our door and she walks in carrying the guilt and

shame of what she had to do as a teenager.

And you get up, there you go. Yeah, that makes you a womb.

One of the most dangerous places to be.

Pharisee. Jesus said you didn't anoint my

head with oil. You didn't buy and me up and

take care of me. And we as a community, we need

to know that if the city is at our door, if you are entrusting

your children to us, if you are bringing your entire family to

join 3cr, you need to know this place.

You will be seen in this place. You'll be served and in this

place, you will be safe. We're not called to point

fingers, we call to pour wine and oil and anointing and bind

up the Brokenhearted. And we are so quick to criticize

and judge and condemn. Forgetting.

That we are. The foremost need is of God's

forgiveness. I had a crazy story and I'll end

with us. British family went on holiday

and the last summer season, they managed to get a lovely Villa in

Spain on the coast. And The Story Goes, where house

is sort of on the rise of the Hill, got the garden flowing

down, at the very bottom of the garden was a bit of a war with

the gate and then there was a sea wall, kind of like, you

know, the tidal pool wall that so just handle some of the

crashing of the wave and then the ocean and they had an

eight-year-old little boy. Who loved the sea was mesmerized

by it. So, they had lived in this

apartment in London, and now he's on the coast of Spain and

he would spend his days sort of playing in the garden with a lot

of the time. Just staring over the wall over

this gate, and one day, they had some Storm come through.

So the waves are bigger than normal.

And so he was down watching the water and decided, he's going to

go and sit on this sea wall. Get a closer look at.

What's going down. Open the gate walked and set and

almost immediately. He got washed away by Rogue Wave

into the sea and his dad was in the kitchen.

What's this whole thing? Unfold came running a screaming.

Somebody help me somebody help me, he got there, jumped into

the water and both true story, both the father and the little

boy drowned And this is part of the story that I heard that

caught my attention. The mother is now sitting with

the paramedics or whoever it is that's busy debriefing at home

and she says I know what happened Said, my husband cannot

swim. But there's no way he would have

stood by the side. While his son was being

swallowed by the storm Waters. And so he jumped in the hope

that he could do something rather than doing nothing.

And we are a community that are called to live as radically as

that to jump into these storms because we serve a god who's

jumped into our storms. We are called to live.

Radical selfless loves We're others in need of seen.

They served, but they safe. There is we are bound up and

healed and restored and redeemed that we can lean into others

lives. You know, the is a therapist,

this is whatever is not transformed is transferred.

Put a Biblical spin on that. Whatever is not redeemed, is

repeated. If the city is going to come to

our doors, let us be those willing to jump into the storms.

They will know that here. It'll be seen to be served.

They'll be safe. Let's pray.

Heavenly father, I want to thank you for what we had the

privilege of witnessing today. See how you reaching into the

city, who reaching into the school's, you reaching into the

students. You're adding to us before the

with it comes as huge responsibility that when people

come through our doors, are pray, Lord God, that's by the

leading of your Holy Spirit, The Gentle Whispers of your voice,

the guarding of your word and and the culture and Community

here, that this will be a place where we Feast with the father.

We weren't Feast like Pharisees. not just on a Sunday but every

day in the workplace, laughs group, when we dealing with

those standing begging at the robots petrol, jockeys and the

lady, busy tearing up our bill at the till May we be a people?

Like Jesus, know, and serve a God who jumped into a storm and

that we jump into this and may the city be better for it in

Jesus name.