Lord, this is your word, and I pray that your word would have its way with us today. Holy Spirit, my prayer is that you would come and change us forever at the hearing of your word. Help us to not leave here today as if we've looked at your word, it has nothing to offer us. I pray, God, that every person present would hear your word, and they would find that you are doing a deep work in them, and that would all be accomplished by your presence. Holy Spirit, exalt Christ. I pray at the end of the message he would be lifted up, that our affections for him would be greater today, in just a few moments, than they ever have been. Jesus, in Your name we pray. Amen.
I think sometimes it helps if I form some kind of apology for my emotions, but today, forewarning, I'm not going to apologize. I can't. I can't. I said in the first service I can't shake it. I can't shake it all morning. I can't shake that moment that I knew I was saved. I don't know what your experience in Christ has been like. I grew up in a church whose theology, a greater extent of it, would be a cult-like theology At times the gospel was shared, other times deeply obscured. And I got into my teen years and I was a mess, an absolute mess. And by God's grace, I found myself at a meeting over at Templin Hall. It's a theater right over here at Radford School, a couple blocks away. We haven't moved far. We used to meet over— this church used to meet over there. About 17, 16, 17 years old. Try to obscure my age the best that I can. And my parents had brought us to this church. We had begun to gather at this location, and this particular event was in the evening. I can't remember if it was a Friday or Saturday or during the week or Sunday. It was a Scare You Into the Kingdom movie. The name of the movie was Thief in the Night, and the end of the movie is not pretty. The UN is the mark of the beast and they are cutting off people's heads and it's not pretty. And I was scared to death at the end of the movie. By God's grace, just weeks prior to this, I was sitting in a youth group meeting at the same church and I could not get away from the Gospel. Chuck Mosley shares the Gospel and it didn't matter how I tried to shift in my seat, get out of his view, it seemed like Chuck kept his focus right on me the whole time. I tell the story over and over and over because it's mine. It's all I've got. All I've got is this brief time frame in my life where the Lord was gracious to me. So for the first time in that sense, to hear the good news of Christ and my desperate need for the Savior, if it included running from the UN in the end, he used it in grace to help me see my desperate need for him. And so that night at the end of the movie, they had the, you know, everyone bow your heads and, you know, raise your hand kind of prayer at the moment. I remember at the end of that moment, I don't know if I was saved that night or not. So if you just want to question me on my theology on when and how we're saved, just question me. It's okay. You can hit me up afterwards. Talk to my wife, my mom. They're both here. I remember my dad, I miss him, so put his hand on my shoulder. And he wasn't with us long after this. He put his hand on my shoulder and said, "Son, this is the first time you've ever prayed the sinner's prayer." It's true.
You know, the text that we find ourselves in today, it preaches itself. You have already heard enough, as it were. You've heard God's Word. But we trust that he's called us to preach and declare it, and that his Spirit would be at work in such a way that we would hear it and get its sense, and that it would move us and change us forever. So welcome to the preaching of what you've already heard. My desire is that Christ would be exalted in your minds and your hearts, and that you would be left with the Word of God resounding in the chambers of your soul, so much so that your affections, your love for Jesus, would explode. It truly is my prayer for you.
My outline is simple. Our sins are many, point 1. Point 2, Jesus forgives them all. And point 3, we, we love Jesus much because of that.
So point 1, our sins are many. In the text that we read, we have the sinful woman. Listen to the words in verse 36. 47 describe her. It's almost like an interruption in the telling of the Gospel, the "and behold a woman." It's like saying, "Look, a woman." But it doesn't just leave it at that. It describes her a bit more, which fills it out some. It says, "A woman of the city who was a sinner." Commentator, almost without argument, all commentators, that I've read and we've considered, and all other messages I've heard regarding this will say, all commentators without argument will say, she's a prostitute. We know that by other descriptions. We know that from the time frame and what that language meant back then when it referred to her.
So considering her likely as a prostitute, consider how awkward the scene is. A woman, a sinner woman, standing behind the reclining Jesus. During this time, the scene would have been a home, a relatively large home, with a dinner placed out in an area where everyone could recline at the table. Recline, literally recline, not our recliners. This one's Even better, like on the floor or in a little raised area, your food placed in front of you, leaning on one arm to support you so that you could put your feet behind you. We all know why the feet during the time were behind everyone at dinner. The feet were also known as an unclean part of the body. If you've had toddlers, you get it. 'Put your shoes on, son. We're at the dinner table.' And they reclined that way. And so Jesus reclined at the table, and this woman stands behind Jesus, and she's weeping uncontrollably.
6 · The pastor describes the woman's actions in detail — her uncontrollable weeping (like rainfall), her use of her hair (socially unacceptable), and her kissing of Jesus' feet mixed with street filth and tears — building emotional intensity and highlighting the extravagance of her devotion
I love what one of the commentators says. It's possible that she's come there for a reason. We know that from the text. She knew Jesus was in town. She knew Jesus had come. She wanted to get to him. Something had happened, we're gonna find out later, and she is gonna get to him no matter what. But it's possible even she gets behind the Savior in this room, she's caught off guard by what floods her heart. She's weeping uncontrollably, she's wetting his feet with her tears. In fact, the original description of the tears falling is like rainfall. Her tears just poured out on the Savior's feet like rain. What a beautiful picture. And not having a towel, and it's sudden, she just kneels and undoes her hair, which is not accepted as well. Women don't undo their hair in public. She undoes her hair, begins to wipe His feet, His muddied feet. His feet now intermingled with the filth of the street and this new believer's tears. She just wipes it off with her hair and she kisses his feet.
7 · The pastor examines the Greek verb tense for 'kissed,' establishing that it indicates repeated, continuous action — kiss after kiss after kiss in an embrace-like manner
The tense of the Greek verb is, I believe, the perfect— no, Vince, what is it? The one that's— here you go, you'll tell me in a second. I'll just say it. It means she kissed and kissed and kissed and kissed and kissed and kissed and kissed and kissed his feet. One commentator says she kissed in such a way as a kissing embrace.
8 · The pastor draws a parallel between the repeated verb tense in Mark 15:19 (blow after blow) and Luke 7:38 (kiss after kiss), creating a typological contrast between the blows Jesus received from mockers and the kisses he received from this worshiper
You know, this tense is used elsewhere for a verb in Mark 15. I think it will serve you. It served me. This came to mind. Different scene altogether. I'm reminded of this Greek tense. It's in Mark 15:19. You can make note of it. And as the soldiers gather around Jesus to mock him, they clothe him in a purple cloth, and they twist together a crown of thorns, and they put it on him, and they mock him, and they begin to salute him, 'Hail, King of the Jews!' And they were striking his head with a reed and spitting on him and kneeling down in homage to him. And the word striking meant striking him again and again and again and again, blow after blow after blow after blow. And here she kisses and kisses and kisses Savior's feet.
9 · The pastor explains the cultural practice of carrying perfume in alabaster flasks, then emphasizes how everything this woman did violated social norms — her presence, her touching, her contact with the Holy One — and notes the shocking fact that Jesus did not stop her
Then she burst open her alabaster flask to anoint his feet. It's common for the women at that time to carry perfume in an alabaster flask. Different time, different day. We keep that stuff at home in the cabinet, take care of it in the morning. They carry it with them all day. Different time, different day. And all of this was outside of the social norms and Most of what we hear in the text is completely unacceptable. This kind of woman should not even be allowed to enter the Pharisee's house, much less come near anybody. And she certainly should not have been touching anyone. And we know from what the scriptures would say of the Sovereign One, it's likely she should not have been even touching the Holy One of Israel. And he would die. Not stop her. He let her touch him.
10 · The pastor sets the scene of the silent room with perfume and weeping, then introduces the Pharisee's internal monologue, emphasizing his contemptuous doubt: 'If this man were a prophet
So with perfume in the air, the room had fallen silent except for this woman's weeping. And in verse 9, the Pharisee speaks, but it's to himself silently, in the darkened recesses of his mind and his thoughts and his words. Regarding the Savior One— excuse me— regarding the Sovereign One over all of heaven and earth, listen to this Pharisee's words: "If this man were a prophet." If this man were a prophet, you can hear his charge.
11 · The pastor interprets the Pharisee's spiritual condition using Luke 7:30 — he has rejected the purpose of God for himself, his heart is black, and he cannot be saved apart from Christ
These are the dark thoughts of a soul that is lost and a heart that cannot even know or even discern for a moment who's in his own home. We know this is his case because back in verse 30, but the Pharisees and the lawyers rejected the purposes of— purpose of God for themselves. This is a man who has rejected Jesus, doesn't want to have anything to do with Jesus except to trap him, to trick him, to find a way to destroy him and to get rid of him. His heart is black and he You cannot be saved from anyone or from anything but through Christ.
12 · The pastor narrates Jesus' response to Simon's silent charge: Jesus tells the parable of two debtors, receives Simon's grudging answer, then turns the parable into an indictment by contrasting Simon's failure to show basic hospitality with the woman's extravagant love, declaring her sins forgiven and her faith salvific
Breaking the silence, the real silence that is in the room alone, is the voice of the King of Kings drawing a breath and his voice pushing over his vocal cords, answering Simon's charge. Simon, I have something to say to you. And then Jesus tells him a parable. Let's together read the parable, verse 41. A certain moneylender had two debtors. One owed 500 denarii, the other 50. When they could not pay, he canceled the debt of both. Now which of them will love him more? Simon, I have something to say to you. Which of them will love him more? So after reading, or after telling this parable to Simon, Simon answers in an interesting way. The one I suppose it has a sarcastic, acquiescing, like, "All right, I'll go ahead and answer you." an indignant feel to it. The one, I suppose, for whom he canceled the larger debt. And Jesus said to him, you have judged rightly. But here's where it's going to get weird for you. It's going to be weird for me, but I think it will serve for the sake of the text. Then turning toward the woman, he said to Simon, 'Do you see this woman? I entered your house, and you gave me no water for my feet, but she has wet my feet with her tears and wiped them with her hair. You gave me no kiss, From the time I came in, she has not ceased to kiss my feet. You did not anoint my head with oil, but she has anointed my feet with ointment. Therefore I tell you, her sins, which are many, are forgiven, for she loved much. But he who is forgiven little loves little. And he said to her, 'Your sins are forgiven.' Then those who were at the table with him began to say among themselves, 'Who is this, who even forgives sins?' And he says to the woman, 'Your faith has saved you. Go in peace.'
13 · The pastor transitions from exposition of the woman's sins to application — her sins are our sins; we all have many sins
Her sins, and now we understand if we're listening to His word, her sins, our sins are many.
14 · The pastor reads Romans 1:28-32 to establish the catalog of human sins — from inward corruption (debased mind) to outward manifestations (gossip, slander, hatred of God) — and the fact that sinners approve of sin in others
Listen to what Romans 1 has to say about our sin. Romans 1:28-32, and since they did not see fit to acknowledge God, God gave them up to a debased mind to do what ought not to be done. They were filled with all manner of unrighteousness, evil, covetousness, and malice. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, maliciousness. They are gossips, slanderers, haters of God, insolent, haughty, boastful, inventors of evil, disobedient to parents, foolish, faithless, heartless, ruthless. Though they know God's decree and those who practice such things deserve to die, they not only do them but give approval to those who practice them.
15 · The pastor transitions from the catalog of sins to the gospel claim: though our sins are many, Jesus forgives them all
This is enough for us if we're moved by the power of the Spirit to hit the ground in repentance. Our sins are many. But the amazing thing about the text is Jesus forgives them all. Jesus forgives them all. Though our sins are many, Jesus forgives them all.
16 · The pastor unpacks the completeness of Jesus' forgiveness by asking the congregation to consider the woman's full list of sins and their own, emphasizing that Jesus bore every single sin on the cross and citing Isaiah 53:6 as the theological foundation for substitutionary atonement
And there is a transition Happening in verse 47. Her sins are many. Jesus acknowledges that. All of her sins are forgiven, and the greatness of Jesus' forgiveness meets every last one of this woman's sins. Not a single sin in the list is full, known only by God, escape his forgiveness. Consider her just for a moment. And what her list of sins must have been. Now consider your life for a moment and what your list of sins must be like. And Jesus forgives them all. Recount what it was like before Christ, what you did, where you were, who you were with. What you thought, and he forgives every last one of them. None were left on her. We'll find later that Jesus will bear all of her sins on his body on the cross, every last one of them. All of her sins as a prostitute, all of the sins related to her lifestyle, the brokenness in her family, all of the evil, all summed up Then that day and what would come, he bore every last one of them on his body for her. He forgives every one of them. Isaiah 53:6 says this, all we like sheep have gone astray and we have turned everyone to his own way, and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all. The full volume of our sin and the full number of those that he's forgiving. Jesus carries them all.
17 · The pastor recaps the sermon's three-part structure as he transitions to the final point
I told you my outline was simple. Our sins are many. Jesus forgives them all. And so we love Jesus much.
18 · The pastor examines the Greek perfect tense of 'forgiven' in verses 47-48, establishing that the forgiveness is not momentary but extends from the past through the present into eternity
Verse 47 uses a tense of the verb forgiven. Let's look at that together. "Therefore I tell you, her sins, which are many, are forgiven." This is that perfect tense I was referring to a minute ago. Verse 48, "And He said to her, 'Your sins are forgiven.'" And the beautiful truth about what we're hearing in the text It means that forgiving has begun in the past, the forgiving continues in the present, and the forgiving continues on and points for eternity. Forgiven before, forgiven now, and forevermore forgiven.
19 · The pastor explains the theological sequence in verse 47 — Jesus forgives first, and only then does love result
He forgives first, and only then are we able to love like this, and so something is revealed in verse 12. 47 that actually surprised me. I was looking for the sequence. I was looking for maybe the emphasis in the text as I put this together, and actually over the years as I've read this text. I get the true biblical progress in the text. I get this. I get that our sins are many, that he forgives them all, and that we will love him much. But actually what's occurring in the text is something very good for us to hear and to see. He's saying at the end of verse 47, what reveals the magnitude of our sins and reveals the manifold forgiveness that comes from God is that she loves him. It's not just I've been told that I'm a sinner that I realize that I'm a sinner. It includes that. It's not just being told. That I've been forgiven that is sufficient. Something wells up and makes that declaration actually for me. And this is the joy for you and I. Have your sins been forgiven and has it resulted in you loving much? Maybe a better way to say that is, do you love the Savior in such a way that when people see and know you, They realize, wow, something was really wrong and something amazing has happened. There is a shift that helps point to God's love for us first as well. He forgives first. Only then are we able to respond. 1 John says we love because he first loved us. And now we see this in the text. She's not just come in, learned something about Jesus right then, and is now falling at his feet being forgiven. She's been forgiven. It's recent, and she's looking for him to find him and to tell him she loves him much because he has forgiven it all. This is why she loves him.
20 · The pastor expounds the nature of grace — it seeks us out first, knows all our sins, and forgives us not just so we'll feel loved but so we will love Jesus in return, exalting and honoring him
This should not have been the case. Jesus saw everything about her. He sees everything about you and I. He knows every detail. He knows every dark corner of her life. He knows every home she went into when she shouldn't have. He knows every street that she went down. He can recount them all, and he won't count them all against her. She did not go looking for Jesus. Grace sought her out first. The amazing thing about grace of God is that it calls us out by his love. It forgives and saves us for this purpose so that we will love him. Another amazing truth about the text is that we will love him. So you and I live in a very different time when it comes to loving. We'll discuss that in a little bit. But often we think the end result is so that we will realize how much God loves us and what a great, amazing truth that is. But there is something more precious. When we come to the realization that he has loved us much, we respond and love him. He did not come to save us so that we would love him in the end. So in the end, when we love him, he is loved, he is honored, he is lifted up, he is magnified. He has come to draw all men to himself so that we would love him, so that we would exalt him, so that we would honor him. She may have seen the host dishonor of Jesus. It's possible. And the scene rushes in and and meets her heart that is only filled with gratitude and honor, and this thrusts her forward all the more in a beautiful flood of loving honor for her forgiver. Martin Luther refers to her tears as heart tears. Heart tears. She cannot contain that which flows from her heart for Jesus. It does not matter who will see what she does. There is no fear of men who will stop her from pouring out her love for the Savior. Maybe even in that moment, being surprised by herself, she's compelled to the feet of Jesus. He has forgiven much, and she knows it, and she flings herself to love him.
21 · The pastor issues a theological claim about the proper end of the gospel — not self-love but love for Jesus
This should be the movement of the gospel in your and my heart, not that we are loved in the end. That we would love him. Oh, for God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son is so true. I'm not minimizing the shocking truth that Jesus would love a sinner. It's shocking that he would love you. It's shocking that he would love me, isn't it? It moves us beyond that to love him. Our affections have been everywhere else in comparison, loving this and loving that, and in the end, really only loving ourselves. The center of this world and of our flesh is the need to love ourselves. Haven't you heard that? You need to love yourself. Sin has us so convinced that this is the end-all of our existence.
22 · The pastor addresses the cultural and theological problem of self-love by exposing 2 Timothy 3:1-5 — the catalog of end-times sins includes 'lovers of themselves' as the opening vice
Consider the self-esteem, and I want to be careful as I get into this part. There is a real truth behind you needing to understand God's love for you, but in the end, it's not so that you will finally love yourself. Here's my consideration. I'm asking you to consider it humbly as well. Self-esteem and self-love is printed in our books. It's taught in our schools. It's on the playground. It's at the dinner table. It's in our news feeds. It's on our favorite blog. It's in our music. And sadly, all too often, it's being preached in some of our largest congregations across the face of this planet. But listen to what 2 Timothy 3 says about self-love. It says, but— 2 Timothy 3:1, but understanding this, Paul writes to Timothy, a pastor, that in the last days there will come times of difficulty. For people will be lovers of money, proud and arrogant and abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, heartless, unappeasable, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not loving good, treacherous, reckless, swollen in conceit, and lovers of pleasure, not lovers of God, having the appearance of godliness, denying its power. And it goes on. To reveal the greatness of our sin. But I skipped one, and I set you up. The passage actually says, "For people will be lovers of themselves." How in the world do we take the amazing beauty of the gospel and invert it into self-love? I was about to say is beyond me. But it's not beyond me, it's my propensity. Oh, I really like myself. If you don't believe me, talk to my wife, Lisa. You can reach her at Vince@CrossOfGrace.com, and he will pass on the questions.
23 · The pastor states the sermon's main thesis twice for emphasis: the depth of our love for Jesus is the measuring stick for what we believe about the magnitude of our sin and the magnitude of his forgiveness
I saved this overarching big idea thought for this part. You know, our sins are great. All of them been forgiven, and now we love the Savior. The depth of our love for Jesus reveals what we believe about the greatness of our sins and the greatness of His forgiveness. The depth of our love for Jesus reveals what we believe about the greatness of our sins and the greatness of his forgiveness.
24 · The pastor argues that Simon the Pharisee is not included in the parable of the two debtors — he's not the one forgiven little but the one who has rejected Jesus entirely
Let's look at this Pharisee just for a moment. Simon has no awareness of the depth and magnitude of his sin, and he adds to those the unforgivable sin of rejecting Christ from verse 30, rejecting the very purpose of God that's found in the Savior now come. He is likely even left out of the parable. This was a surprise for me, but when you reread the parable, it is likely that he is being left out of the parable, not counted as either of the two debtors who do love the debt forgiver, even to some degree in their response. Look at the parable again. And when they both could not pay, verse 42, he canceled the debt of both. Now which of them will love him more? Here's why I say it's likely that he is not counted in this parable. You know, you and I would read this, and I had for years read this parable. I read this section of text and I thought, well, he's actually saying, well, look, you're a Pharisee, you're close to the Lord, your sins, they're probably little. You've been forgiven little, so you're not gonna love near as much as this woman. Don't you see that? Look at how horrible she is and how much she's been forgiven. Of course she loves a lot. That's actually not what's occurring in the text. If you skip over to chapter 8, right next to it, he explains to the disciples how the parables function. And he says this. To you it has been given to know the secrets of the kingdom of God. Remember, that's what the Pharisee rejects. But for others, they are in parables, so that seeing they may not see, and hearing they may not understand. The dark place from where this Pharisee comes from reveals his spiritual blindness and deafness. And what an indictment on their rejection of the Messiah. One commentator wrote, and I agree with him, that Simon the Pharisee seemingly would have rather had Jesus kick this woman and tell her to get out of the house. This man is in a dark place, and the grievous part of the text is held out as a warning to us. He's trying to wake you and I up to the beautiful fact that you've been forgiven much, and that will lead you to love him much. But for this man, it's going to serve for now is only to harden him all the more. He's going to continue on and hate the Savior all the more. He's going to look for his chance to trap him. It's the whole point of having Jesus here in the first place. He's already looking for a way to string the Savior up and get rid of him.
25 · The pastor applies the text by asking diagnostic questions: Where are you in this parable? Why do you not feel this deeply? He diagnoses the problem — we minimize our sin and deflect blame — then tells the story of Mark Mullery at pastor's college breaking down over treating his son with a list of failures when Jesus never treats us that way
Where are you in this parable? Stark warning is held out for us. You know, the gospel reaches out and saves this woman, and the result is her transformed life. Has your life been transformed by the forgiveness of Jesus? To what degree are you moved by the forgiveness of Jesus? Have we forgotten that our sins are many and and yet that Christ can forgive and will forgive them all if we will turn to him in faith. So as we consider this, as we consider the text, consider what we've heard, now let's ask ourselves some more pointed questions and hopefully prevent provide some answers. Ricky asked for me to include a section like this, and I hope I'm faithful to what he's requested. Here's some practical things that we can consider. Why do I not feel this deeply? So maybe you've come and you've heard the text, you've heard this before, and just like, this is so awkward for me. Why do I not feel this? Why am I not moved to love like this? Let's consider this together. We're all together in this with you. You're not singled out in this room at all. If I look at you, please, I'm not trying to find you out. I'm not the Holy Spirit. Let him find you out. I'll try to look at my wife a lot. No, that even sounds like she's the sinner in the family. That would be me. Because we do not see how grave our condition is, is possibly why we don't feel this deeply. That's clear in the text. We may not love deeply because we're unaware that actually out of this story we're the ones that have been forgiven a mountain of sin. We seek to minimize our sinfulness, so not only do we not see the gravity of it, the ones that we do see, now we're going to minimize that. We're going to deflect that, blame something else. We're quick to point out the sinfulness of others. Husbands and wives point the finger at each other. Angry parents point their fingers at their kids. Kids point their fingers at moms and dads. And so there we have it. We can't love much because we're unaware of how much has been forgiven. Oh, I wish you could have been there. I remember being at the pastor's college years ago, 1999 and 2000 was the year I was there. And I remember Mark Mullery, he taught hermeneutics, the study Sorry, I didn't want to get out of the box. Remember Mark taught our class about hermeneutics and understanding certain things, and Mark showed up, I think on the third day. He's our professor. He knows all these things, and I could tell something's not right with him. And he came in and through tears he just broke down before the class and said, you know, I just spent an hour before class today telling my son thing after thing after thing after thing he needed to get right in his life. And I remember privately, maybe that morning or maybe just recently, telling my boys the same exact thing, just listing the areas that they need to change. And Mark said this, he said, my Savior has never treated me this way, and he knows it all. He knows everything about me. He knows all my failings as a parent. He knows all my failings as a husband. He knows everything about me, and yet he won't treat me like the way I treat others. And it just broke through the doctrine of grace like I had never experienced it before. I know it sounds simple. You're like, are you kidding me? You didn't get the doctrine of grace until then? No, I didn't. Wait, you were, you like qualified to get to the pastor's college? I did. The guys were dumb. They shouldn't have sent me, or something like that. The first message I ever taught in this church was in that room to the singles about grace. I have no idea what I said, because I had no idea what grace was, but I can tell you that day when I considered what one of my boys had done, the way I had treated him wrongly, and heard Mark's words saying, my Savior, well, he has forgiven much. In so many words, I got it. I got to go home and repent and still blow it after that, and then go back and repent again, holding things over on my wife privately.
26 · The pastor imagines the woman's response to the question 'Why do you love Jesus so much?' — she would answer with her own question: 'Why did Jesus love me in the first place?' This rhetorical move redirects the focus from our love back to Jesus' prior love
Maybe we need to ask this woman. We're asking this question, why do I not feel this deeply? Let's ask this woman, what do you, or why Do you love Jesus so much? What do you think her answer would be? I'm wondering if her answer might be this: Why did Jesus love me in the first place? You're asking me why do I love Jesus? My answer is, why did he love me?
27 · The pastor tells the story of Bill Russell, a former church member now in heaven, whose testimony included his love of killing in Vietnam, his descent into drugs and prison, and his transformed life that resulted in loving Jesus much because he had been forgiven much
Bill Russell, former member of our church— I said in the first service he's now ironclad member In heaven, still a member of our church, by the way. Bill Russell would tell often his story that included— he's a gunner in his helicopter in Vietnam— how much he loved to kill. And if any of you had a conversation with Bill, and you had more than one conversation, he would look you in the eye and he would say, with actually the taste in his mouth probably still, he loved to kill. Talk to him a little bit longer, you find out, oh, he comes back from Vietnam, things did not get any better. He lands in the drug trade, lands in prison later. But hang into the conversation with Bill, and with an inexplicable face of joy, quivering lips, with tears in his eyes, he would declare that he now loves Jesus much because the Savior has forgiven him much.
28 · The pastor applies the logic of the text — we cannot see Jesus as a great Savior if we do not see ourselves as great sinners — then introduces the practice of preaching the gospel to his own soul as the primary means of cultivating love for Jesus
How can Jesus be such a great Savior when we will not see or acknowledge how great a sinner we are? Great sinners who now see how great their sins truly are will now see Jesus as the great forgiver. So here's what I do personally. If you're asking me personally, what do I do to cultivate that responsive heart of love for the Savior? I'll admit from the onset, I'm not good at this all the time. I often forget this. But before I get to a couple of theological categories, this is what serves me. I preach these things to my soul.
29 · The pastor recounts Alistair Begg's illustration of the thief on the cross being questioned by angels in heaven about why he's there
My son-in-law sent me a text this last week, or a couple Sundays ago, and it's Alistair Begg, and it's a clip from a message. Write down his name. You're under assignment. Alistair Begg. He's preaching a message, and in the message you can find actually the shortened clip of this one part. He tells of the thief on the cross has found himself in heaven, in paradise, and the angel greets him at heaven. You know the story. So what question is asked? I'm not going to try to pretend to be him. One, I don't have his accent. It's worth watching, I'm telling you. If you're watching it now, please put on headphones to serve the person next to you. And he asked— the angel asked the thief on the cross, "What are you doing here?" And his answer is, "I don't know. I don't know why I'm here." And the angel's like bewildered. "What do you mean?" He goes, "I don't know." And the angel's bewildered all the more and goes and gets a manager angel and brings the manager angel out. He begins to ask him about certain doctrines. "Well, do you believe this doctrine?" He goes, "I don't even know what that is." He says, "Well then, how are you here in heaven?" And the thief says, "Because the man on the middle cross said I could come." And that's our answer. This is what moves my affections toward the Savior when I realize I did not get to heaven based on my efforts or even my combined efforts or my good attitude. I finally figured out as a dad or a mom, as a husband, I didn't figure these things out. I hope I remember if I'm ever asked while I'm in heaven, because I don't know if that means instant exit if you get it wrong. But if I'm ever asked in heaven, I hope I can say this. The man on the middle cross said I could come.
30 · The pastor applies the biblical narratives to himself — identifying himself as the prostitute, the leper, the blind man, and the paralytic at the pool — to demonstrate how preaching the gospel to himself involves identifying with the needy in Scripture
Considering how great my sins are, and before I can say anything about theological truths, this is where I have to go. In the scriptures, I have to go to this. I am the prostitute. I need a great forgiver because my sins are many. I am the leper who needs to be made clean. I am the blind man who needs to be made able to see. I am laying beside the pool waiting for the water to stir so that I may be healed.
31 · The pastor recalls his ordination Sunday when he tried to preach 1 Corinthians 2:2 ('I resolved to know nothing except Christ and him crucified') but the Lord redirected him to Mark 15 and the substitutionary identification with Barabbas
On my ordination Sunday, I was trying to put together a few words, you know, because at ordination Sunday you say a few words. They want you to say a few things. Like, I don't know why at that point they're already ordaining you. I don't know if you can really ruin it at that point, but I'll bet you can. But I remember putting— so what do I say? What do I say? And I remember 1 Corinthians chapter 2 being like, oh, I resolved to know nothing except Christ and him crucified, and I couldn't even preach that even briefly. The Lord just kept taking me back here and I couldn't shake it, so I just shared it. I don't know how effective it was, but I can tell you how the kind of effect it has on me.
32 · The pastor identifies himself with Barabbas — the guilty man set free while Jesus took his place — and establishes the two foundational theological truths: (1) Jesus is his substitute who bore his sins and received God's wrath, and (2) Jesus is his mediator
Chapter 15 in Mark: So Pilate, wishing to satisfy the crowd, released for them Barabbas. And having scourged Jesus, he delivered him to be crucified. I'm Barabbas. I've been set free, and my Savior bears all my sins and receives the scourging and the wrath of God on the cross. And so now we get to the theological truths. I needed a substitute. Wrath awaits me with Jesus, but Jesus takes my sins upon his body and he takes my place on the tree and receives the satisfying and just wrath of God. I needed a substitute. Here's another one: I need a mediator.
33 · The pastor uses a physical illustration (presumably asking John to stand between him and something else) to demonstrate the role of a mediator — one hand on the believer, one hand on the Father
John, if you could Come forward. You know what that means. I have another 30 minutes. I need a mediator. I need Jesus' right hand on me and his left on the Father, declaring that he is with me. I need a mediator.
34 · The pastor applies the need for regular preaching and remembering one's salvation story
I also need the preached word as often as possible that reminds me— thank you, Vince. For doing this. It reminds me of my great salvation yesterday, encourages me today, prepares me for whatever may come tomorrow, convicts me of my sin, and shows me that Jesus at the same time revealing and loving forbearance of the Father, the majesty of Jesus my Savior, the power of the Holy Spirit at work in this church, my family. I need to remember the joy of my salvation. Chuck is sick of me telling him, I'm sure— those are my words, you can ask him— how grateful I am that he shared Christ with me. I had heard of Christ over and over again, my mom faithfully pleading before the Lord, telling me my sins were gonna find me out, that I needed to be I need to be saved. And finally, a youth leader, singles leader, tells me of my need for the Savior. Joy fills my heart for the Savior when I remember these things. It can do the same for you by the power of the Holy Spirit. It may not be your nature to just be a blubbering idiot me. But the Lord can soften your nature. And you can be broken before the Savior. When you remember how great your sin was and is. And how great His salvation is and will be.
35 · Closing prayer of confession, intercession, and hope
If you would stand with me. And I'm going to close us in prayer. Lord, in Your kindness and covering over my sins, You have allowed me to remember some. It's enough for me to be flooded with gratitude that You would come and save a sinner like me. Is shocking to me. You've allowed me to remember the faces of old girlfriends, sexual promiscuity, included sinfulness towards a young lady who would one day even be my wife. You are amazing that you would forgive me. You were there that day when I came across pornography the first time, and there the addiction started. You were there, and you forgave me. You remember, you remind me of my wrath. Big times exploded against friends, against family, against precious members of this church. And You forgave me anyway. Father, my prayer for everyone present this morning is that there'd be such an effect of change in them today and tomorrow. Great joy that we have is the Word is living and active and sharper than any two-edged sword. We will leave here today and your Word will remain with us. My prayer is that you would change us forever. I pray, God, that that parable as it was recited that this morning would not be a parable to harden any heart present. That in your great kindness, and this is not beyond you, that every person in this room would be, could be saved by you. Be that merciful to us and save. Let them get that their sins are many and that they need a great Savior and you will forgive them. Them if they will turn to you in faith. They will find that all of their sins have already been paid for by Christ as he bore them on the cross. God, grant us all now hope as we remember, we remember that a day is going to come where the recollection of sin is not going to have the shame It'll all be finally wiped away. In heaven, all sins will be gone. It'll be the Savior as the centerpiece of heaven, and we will love Him much. Take us there, as it were, in the Spirit, and let us marvel at the Savior who's present today. Holy Spirit, have Your way to exalt Jesus Christ and Him crucified at the preaching of Your Word. Amen.