Sunday Morning Podcast | The Moody Church The Moody Church

When three people from totally different worlds collide together in one space, you never know what’s going to happen!

 

Well, something like that is happening at the end of Luke 7. A Pharisee, Jesus, and a Sinner all end up at the same dinner. Who knows what’s going to happen? Whatever it is, it’s going to be crazy.

 

Throughout this passage, let's look at each of the main characters in turn...

The Sinner
The Pharisee
The Forgiver

And together we’ll discover The Grace Awakening.

 

 

1.The Sinner

When Simon the Pharisee invited Jesus over to his home, a sinful woman walked in, fell at Jesus’ feet, and washed them in perfume ointment and her tears.

 

God eagerly welcomes every repentant sinner. No one is beyond the forgiveness of God!

 

 

2. The Pharisee

For Simon, it was a risk to his religious moralism to invite Jesus over for dinner because of his reputation of eating with sinners and tax collectors.

 

God is never impressed by our religious moralism. There is no one righteous, no not one.

 

 

3. The Forgiver

The most shocking part of the story is when Jesus forgives the sinful women when they all know only God can forgive sins!

 

God saves sinners by grace through faith in Jesus. Jesus is the only hope for sinners like us.

 

 

Takeaway: We are far more sinful than we ever dared realize, and yet in Christ, we are far more loved than we ever dared hope.

 

 

In these early days of His ministry, Jesus has been disclosing more and more of His authority and power. He’s cast out demons, forgiven sins, and most recently he’s raised the dead.

 

Everyone is asking the question: Who is this Jesus?

 

Some consider Him a healer; others think He’s a great prophet. Still, others wonder if He’s the Messiah who would restore the Kingdom and make all things new. And just when it seems like there can be no doubt of who this Jesus is, doubt arises from the most unlikely source, John the Baptist.

 

John the Baptist began to wonder out loud if Jesus really was the Messiah. What gives rise to this doubt is stemming from John the Baptist’s Disappointment with God. John had all these expectations and Jesus wasn’t delivering on them.

 

Disappointment with God is something many of us can relate to. In this passage we find three scenarios in which disappointment with God so often arises.

When Hope is Deferred
When Prayers go Unanswered
When Desires are Frustrated

 

When Hope is Deferred

Why doesn’t God fix everything right now?
Would you dare to believe I have purpose in this pause?
Why God doesn’t just fix everything right now: because He doesn’t want any to perish and He longs for all to reach repentance.

 

When Prayers go Unanswered

Why isn’t God intervening in my situation?
Would you dare to trust my goodness in this grief?
When God says “no” to His children, He always does so from love.

 

When Desires are Frustrated
The topic shifts from John’s disappointment with God to the Pharisee’s disappointment with God.

Why can’t God just play by our rules?
We want a customized God, made in our own image.
Would you dare to hold onto My character in this confusion?

 

Takeaway: Would you dare to let God be God?

 

1,991 years ago, a Galilean carpenter turned Rabbi, who’d been crucified and buried for three days, arose and walked out of his tomb alive! In a moment that changed history forever, Jesus revealed His death-defying life for all the world to see!

 

Let’s go back 3 years before that Resurrection morning to the early days of Jesus’ ministry.
Jesus has performed miraculous signs. Everyone marveled at His authority and power; they’d never seen anything like it!

 

And now, Jesus is about to reveal His astonishing authority over death and His power of resurrection life! And for some, this was the day they got their lives back!

 

In this passage we discover Jesus as...

The Rescuer
The Restorer
The Resurrection

 

The Rescuer:

Jesus banished death to rescue life.

He simply speaks and death flees!
Jesus is the Word made flesh. His word is life.
The Centurion and his servant got their lives back.

 

The Restorer:

Jesus plundered death to restore life.

He reached down into death and reclaimed this young man’s life!
This was the day the young man and his mother got their life back!

 

The Resurrection:

Jesus surrendered to death to resurrect life.

Jesus is the eternal life incarnate.
When we finally come to the end of ourselves, that’s when Jesus shows up.

 

Takeaway: This could be the day you get your life back!

What is a good person? It’s quite an important question. Have you ever felt like you knew someone who seemed like such a good person and then one day, it all came crashing down? 

 

Have you ever wondered if you are a good person? 

 

Consider these 4 parables that Jesus preaches in the Sermon of the Plain: 

The Blind Leading the Blind 
The Speck and the Log 
The Fruit and the Tree 
The House Built on a Rock 

 

In each of these 4 parables, Jesus offers a critique and a calling, as he teaches us what it means to be a good person. 

 

The Blind Leading the Blind 

Critique: You’re helplessly lost in the dark.

You can’t see to save yourself. 

Calling: I’m here to lead you into the light. 

If you want to become a good person, you need to step into the light. 
Jesus is here to lead you into the light. 

 

The Speck and the Log 

Critique: You’re obsessed with the problems of others. 

A symptom of our spiritual blindness is easily identifying the sins of others while remaining oblivious to our own sins. 

Calling: I’ll teach you to be responsible for yourself. 

Take the log out of your own eye, and then you’ll see clearly enough to help others. 
Because the biggest problem in your life isn’t somebody else, it’s you. 

 

The Fruit and the Tree 

Critique: You’re attempting behavior modification. 

Behavior flows from being. 
No amount of behavior modification will change the badness that’s in your heart. 

Calling: I’m offering you heart transformation. 

I’m calling you to come to me because I can give you a new heart. 
If you want to become a good person, you’ll need a good heart. 

 

The House Built on a Rock 

Critique: You’re in for a catastrophic wipeout 

A storm will come along that’ll expose your lack of foundation, and that “good person” image will collapse. 

Calling: I’m giving you the blueprint for an enduring life 

 

Takeaway: Come to me. Hear my words. Do them. And live! 

When comparing Jesus’ Sermon on the Plain in Luke with Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount in Matthew, we get the same core message. But in Luke, Jesus is much more efficient and to the point.

 

This means in Luke, we’re getting the core of Jesus’ central message. There are 3 major elements:

The Blessings and Woes

What is the good life?


The Ethics of Love

What is the good way?


The Closing Parables

What is a good person?



Today, our focus is on that middle section - Jesus’ Ethics of Love: What is the good way?

 

We will be following three key phrases that build into one complete sentence: Love your enemies as your Father does, with overflowing mercy.

Love Your Enemies

By loving your enemies you are:

Embracing the Kingdom of Heaven.
Breaking the cycle of violence.
Reclaiming your agency.
Opening up a window of grace.


The good way overcomes evil with good.


As Your Father Does

The good way to love your enemies is to love even when it’s not reciprocal.
We were once God’s enemies, but Jesus laid down his life for us.
The good way follows in our Father’s footsteps.


With Overflowing Mercy

In God’s mercy, he moved toward us, His enemies, with forgiveness and generosity.
Mercy is:

Eager to forgive.
Triumphant over judgment.
Full of lavish grace.


The good way unites in the hope of redemption.



Takeaway: As an apprentice of the good way of Jesus, who will you extend love to this week? Love Your Enemies as your father does, with Overflowing Mercy. This is the good way of Jesus.

Jesus has been causing quite a stir up in Galilee. Many are drawing near in astonishment and faith. While others are recoiling back in skepticism and disbelief. Jesus’ own followers are starting to feel the heat. They’ve left everything and followed Him. Now the Pharisees are starting to question where their loyalties lie.

 

Of course, we know the answer. Because in Luke 6:12-16, we read that Jesus called his disciples to Himself and chose twelve of them to join His inner circle as Apostles. They’ve decided to go “all in” with Jesus.

 

And with these words, Jesus begins what scholars call “The Sermon on the Plain.” It bears many similarities to the Sermon on the Mount recorded in Matthew. In both sermons, Jesus begins the same, “Makarios!” Which means blessed, happy, well-off, and favored. It’s the Good Life!

 

In these opening verses, Jesus is answering three crucial questions:

Who has the Good Life?
What is the Good Life?
Where is the Good Life?

 

1. Who has the Good Life?

The good life belongs to the most unlikely people.
Despite poverty, hunger, or exclusion, the Good Life belongs to those who seek Christ.

 

2. What is the Good Life?

The good life is citizenship in the kingdom of God.
Jesus shows us what the Good Life is by pairing these couplets of “Blessings” and “Woes” in this passage.
You can be a loser in the kingdoms of men, but if you belong to the kingdom of God, you’re a winner.

 

3. Where is the Good Life?

The good life is found in the presence of Jesus.
Rejections shall fade in His embrace.
Give me Jesus. Give me Jesus! You can have all this world, give me Jesus!

 

Takeaway: Which Good Life are you living for?

Are we living for the Good Life here and now? Or are we living for the real Good Life that begins now and comes in fullness in the age to come?

 

Matthew 6:18–33 says, “Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal, 20 but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal. 21 For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. 24 No one can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and money. 31 Do not be anxious, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ 32 For the Gentiles seek after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them all. 33 But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.”

 

“Aim at Heaven and you will get Earth 'thrown in': aim at Earth and you will get neither.” - C.S. Lewis