Jesus the Renovator

Study Notes

The Biggest Story: The Kingdom Breaks In

Luke 4:16-21; 7:36-50

     Often, near the end of a telephone call to my daughter Heather, she ends by asking, “What are you preaching about this week, Dad?”  And, I usually say, “I’m trying to decide:  Either against sin or about Jesus.  Which one would be better?”  And, she usually says, “Maybe you could try to put them together into one sermon.”

     In spite of that, today, I’m simply going to talk about Jesus.  To explain why I’m doing that, let me bring you up-to-date with where we are in our current series that we’re calling “The Biggest Story”:

Week 1: There Is a Story -- Pastor Jeff Mattesich took us to Jeremiah 9, a passage that declares to us that God has a plan for the world that he loves that includes a role for all people. “I know the plans I have for you,” God declared.  Even when you feel you are in exile and your life has no meaning, know that God has a plan that he is working in this world and you (and churches like LAC) are a part of God’s biggest story.

Week 2: What the Story Is -- Jeff Lewis visited us and gave us a breath-taking overview of the entire plan of God that is provided in the Bible – from creation in Gen 1 to re-creation in Rev 21-22.  Here’s how we put it in our LAC Statement of Faith: Through the power of the gospel of Jesus Christ, God accomplishes His salvation plan: rescuing His people from sin, making each one complete in Christ, and making all things in His creation new. Our most basic theological convictions are aspects of this gospel.

Week 3: The Story Begins with One Family – I took us to Gen 12:1-4 and how God chose one man, Abraham, and called him and his descendants to be those through whom God’s good news of salvation would come to the entire world.  God’s chosen people were to live distinctive lives that reflected God’s ways to an unbelieving world and, eventually, through Abraham’s family line, blessing would come to all.

Week 4: The Story of Family Failures – Last week, Pastor Tim Peck surveyed 1/5^th of the Bible, the entirety of the messages of the prophets God sent to the descendants of Abraham.  God’s people were called to live lives that gave witness to God in this world – but they kept failing in this calling.  Each time they did, God sent prophets to correct them and call them back to him.  Pastor Tim put their failures into four categories:

1) Unfaithfulness (to God’s commands),

2) Arrogance (thinking they were superior to other people),        

3) Oppression (of the vulnerable), and

4) Mistrust (of God’s promises). 

     In other words, Pastor Tim did a whole message about sin – and we saw that, not only were those failures true of the people of Israel but of us all.  I was left last week thinking, “We’re still that way. We still need help.  We need a rescuer who is not trapped to this kind of failure as all of us are.  And that brings us – at last -- to today’s part of the story, i.e., the heart of God’s good news is that God himself came to this world in Jesus.

Week 5:  The Story of Why Jesus came

     With the ongoing failures of all people including God’s own chosen people in our minds, we turn today to a very dramatic day at a worship service in Jesus’s hometown, the town of Nazareth. He went into the local synagogue, and delivered the first sermon the Bible tells us that he preached. Essentially, what we find in this sermon is Jesus giving us personally his own mission statement.  In the synagogues of Jesus’s day, the preacher stood up to read Scripture and then delivered a sermon based on it.  That day, Jesus read mostly from the great prophet Isaiah.  This is what Jesus read.  Let’s stand as we read from God’s Word the reading from God’s Word that Jesus read that day:

Luke 4:16-21

Jesus went to Nazareth, where he had been brought up, and on the Sabbath day he went into the synagogue, as was his custom. He stood up to read, and the scroll of the prophet Isaiah was handed to him. Unrolling it, he found the place where it is written:

“The Spirit of the Lord is on me,
    because he has anointed me
    to proclaim good news to the poor.
He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners
    and recovery of sight for the blind,
to set the oppressed free,
    to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.”

Then he rolled up the scroll, gave it back to the attendant and sat down. The eyes of everyone in the synagogue were fastened on him.  He began by saying to them, “Today this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing.”

     So, the whole sermon was just one sentence!  In the most dramatic way possible, Jesus declared that the promises made to Abraham were to be fulfilled through him!  The need for a savior made clear by all the prophets would be fulfilled in him!  Everything that the Scriptures had written about ultimately all point to him.  That’s what Jesus said.  Jesus was claiming that he was the one sent in flesh to bring the good news of God into this broken and sin-filled world. Just as the prophets Pastor Tim spoke of last week had foretold, when God’s good news breaks into this world in all its fullness, those in bondage of any kind will be released, those who cannot see or hear will be healed, and those who are oppressed by injustice will be set free.  All that is wrong will begin to be made right. As God had said to Abraham in Gen 12, “All peoples in this world will be blessed.”

     But, what does it look like when Jesus breaks into people’s lives and fulfills his mission of setting the oppressed free?  I have found that the best thing to do, when we ask that question, is to read what follows Luke 4 and see some of what happened when Jesus met people who needed to be saved:

• 5:12-16 – A man filled with leprosy is healed and is restored to his family and community.
• 5:17-26 – A lame man is healed physically and saved spiritually.
• 7:2-10 – A Gentile military man is blessed and his beloved servant is healed.
• 8:40-56 – An unclean woman is healed and a synagogue leader’s dead daughter is raised to life.
• 17:12-19 – A hated Samaritan is healed from leprosy and applauded by Jesus for his faith.
• 19:1-10 – A much-hated Jewish tax collector is forgiven and his life turned around.
• 23:39-43 – A confessed criminal on a cross is forgiven and welcomed into God’s eternal home.

     Jesus summarized this well in Lk 19:10: “The Son of Man has come to seek and save the lost.”  People who know and admit they are lost come to Jesus in faith and are saved.  God’s blessing comes to all who come to Jesus in repentance and faith – lepers, Samaritans, unclean women, Gentile soldiers, convicted criminals, etc.

     But not all placed their faith in him and followed him – just as it happens today.  What makes the difference?  That brings us to the story of two people Luke records – two stories in “God’s Biggest Story”:

Luke 7:36-50

     When one of the Pharisees invited Jesus to have dinner with him, he went to the Pharisee’s house and reclined at the table.  A woman in that town who lived a sinful life learned that Jesus was eating at the Pharisee’s house, so she came there with an alabaster jar of perfume.  As she stood behind him at his feet weeping, she began to wet his feet with her tears. Then she wiped them with her hair, kissed them and poured perfume 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 sinner.”  Jesus answered him, “Simon, I have something to tell you.”  “Tell me, teacher,” he said.

     “Two people owed money to a certain moneylender. One owed him five hundred denarii, and the other fifty.  Neither of them had the money to pay him back, so he forgave the debts of both. Now which of them will love him more?”  Simon replied, “I suppose the one who had the bigger debt forgiven.”  “You have judged correctly,” Jesus said.

     Then he turned toward the woman and said to Simon, “Do you see this woman? I came into your house. You did not give me any water for my feet, but she wet my feet with her tears and wiped them with her hair.  You did not give me a kiss, but this woman, from the time I entered, has not stopped kissing my feet.  You did not put oil on my head, but she has poured perfume on my feet. Therefore, I tell you, her many sins have been forgiven -- as her great love has shown. But whoever has been forgiven little loves little.”

     Then Jesus said to her, “Your sins are forgiven.”  The other guests began to say among themselves, “Who is this who even forgives sins?”  Jesus said to the woman, “Your faith has saved you; go in peace.”

     These 15 verses read like a mini-drama: The setting is, quite clearly (as Luke says three times!), at a Pharisee’s house – the Pharisees usually being a fairly well-do-do group deeply respected and sometimes feared by those in the society. Jesus had been invited to this formal dinner party. Note this: Jesus’s earlier meetings with Pharisees had not gone well.  But, I can imagine that his followers hoped that this time would be different. After all, a nice uneventful evening at a Pharisee’s home could go far in helping Jesus to be viewed as “acceptable”.  Maybe –if a pleasant social evening could take place at Simon’s house, then those earlier “misunderstandings” associated with Jesus’s touching lepers, pronouncing sins forgiven, and proclaiming good news for Gentile soldiers might be forgotten.

     But, then!  Oh, no!  A woman everyone knows to be a “sinner” barges into the house.  She’s wearing one of those perfume flasks around her neck that only prostitutes wore! She rushes over to Jesus, weeps, wets his feet with her tears and pours out the perfume oil on his feet.

     This is just the kind of thing that everyone hoped would NOT happen.  Can you imagine being there at this distinguished home and having this happen – with all these sounds of weeping, sights of impropriety and smaller of perfume? And, of course, the Pharisee host, Simon, noticed.

     Simon really didn’t even give Jesus a chance to explain.  I think he’d been expecting this Jesus to slip up like this.  Letting a sinful woman touch him and kiss him. It was everything that seemed to be unseemly.  So, Simon judges Jesus.  “He’s no prophet!” Simon thought.  “No man of God would allow a woman like this to enter into his life and even touch his feet!”

     Let’s not be too harsh with Simon.  Would any of us think differently?  But, let’s be clear that Jesus did think differently.   Simon didn’t speak his thoughts, but Jesus knew what he was thinking – as Jesus always does.  Let me ask you now: When it comes to relating to Jesus, which one are you more like – Simon or the woman?

     So, Jesus tells a story. In it, he tells of two debtors.  The first owed about 20 full months’ wages and the second only two.  Still, the point is that neither had money to pay back their debt.  So, both were in deep trouble.  But, in the turning point of the story, the creditor chose to forgive them both. 

     Jesus then directly asked Simon, “Which of the two would love him more?”

     And Simon, the Pharisee, almost begrudgingly, replied, “I suppose the one who had the bigger debt forgiven.”  “Well said!” Jesus remarked. And then, Jesus delivered the “hammer blow.”

     See v. 44, “Then Jesus turned toward the woman and said to Simon…”  Jesus’s words are direct. “I came into your house, Simon, and you didn’t even welcome me.  You just analyzed and evaluated me.”  In the parable, Jesus lets Simon know that he’s just as much in need of salvation as this woman even though he may consider himself much better than she was.  Simon was so much like the people Pastor Tim talked about last week, people who thought they were better than others and not simply recipients of God’s mercy and grace.

     But the woman was open, transparent and desperate for the help she knew she needed.  The woman longed for the forgiveness of her sins – for acceptance and a place to belong – for a chance to begin again. And, that’s what she got.  Jesus’s words to her, though brief, are clear and powerful: “Your sins are forgiven (v. 48).” “Your faith has saved you (v.50).” “Go in peace (shalom) (v.50).”  Shalom – it’s that beautiful word for life as it was meant to be lived.  Jesus promised her the beginning of a new life.

    Don’t miss this: These two were the two “debtors” in the Jesus’s parable and there were two “debtors” in the real story too. One went home saved.  The other remained in debt and in need of salvation.

The Takeaway

     I preached from this story when I first came to Lake.  Pastor Albert Tate, now Sr. Pastor at Fellowship Church in Monrovia, and I studied this passage together.  When we were done, he asked, “Pastor Greg, what’s going to be the takeaway from this sermon.  This sound like one of those “believe in Jesus, tell others about Jesus and love like Jesus’ kind of sermons.”  I said, “Well yes.  That’s what it is.”

1. Believe in Jesus – Like the woman believed in Jesus. That flask of perfume oil the woman wore was a symbol of the woman’s trade as a prostitute.  When she poured it out at the feet of Jesus, it was a declaration that she was turning over every part of her life to Jesus.  She was saying, “I will no longer live as I have been living.  I give my past to Jesus and receive his forgiveness.  I give my future to him.  Wherever he leads, I will go.”

     Please know today that, whatever is in your past, Jesus already knows about it.  There is no person who has gone beyond Jesus’s capacity to love.  There is no one whose sins are beyond the reach of his grace. He came to enter into your life – to forgive your past and offer you a new future.  Don’t just analyze Jesus.  Don’t just come to church to learn more intellectually about Jesus.  Pour out your life to him in faith.  He will forgive your sins.  He will give you a new life – a life of shalom.

2. Tell Others about Jesus – Jesus entered into the life of those that no one else would enter into. He thereby showed us how to live in this world as witnesses.  Once we have fallen before him in repentance and faith as the woman did, we have a message to tell others about, i.e., Jesus is ready to forgive their debts too if they will come to him.  Those who receive this good news become those who tell others good news – not in pride but in gratitude. People won’t know God’s good news unless we who have experienced Jesus are willing to go and talk about our experience with him.

3. Love Like Jesus Loved – Did you notice that Jesus didn’t begin his conversation with the woman by saying, “Go, clean up your life and then maybe I’ll let you come back and talk with me.” No, he entered into her life right where she was.  Jesus didn’t leave her where she was but he started where she was.  We have to do the same.  For those who have embraced a way of life that we find awful, we need to have the eyes and heart of Jesus to see a person made in God’s image, one for whom Jesus died, and a potential brother or sister in Christ.  When we try to give witness about Jesus to a person we don’t love, we will only condemn them.  But, enter into a person’s life as Jesus did, long for the best for that person and, often, the day will come when you can tell them that “Jesus came to seek and save the lost. I know because… I’m one he found.”

     I’ll now ask Pastor Scott White to come up to introduce and dedicate some of our people who are following the call of Jesus to live in this way…

Chinese Study Notes

最大的故事：天國闖入

路加福音 4:16-21; 7:36-50

            我女兒給我打電話快結束的時候通常都會問，“你這周講道講什麼，爸？”我通常會答，“我正在糾結呢：或者講抵擋罪方面的，或者講耶穌。講哪個好呢？”然後女兒通常會說，“也許你可以試試把兩個揉成一個講道。”

話雖如此說，今天我們還是要專講耶穌。為了解釋我為什麼要這麼做，請讓我給大家回顧一下我們最近正在進行的系列“最大的故事”：

第1周：一個故事—傑夫馬特仕（Jeff Mattesich）牧師帶我們來到耶利米書第9章，那裡宣告了神對他所愛的世界上每個人都有一個計畫。神宣告說，“我知道我向你們所懷的心意”，即使你們覺得被放逐，生活無意義，要知道神的計畫正在這個世界進行，而你是神這最大故事中的一部分。

第2周：故事的內容—傑夫路易士（Jeff Lewis）拜訪我們的時候帶我們流覽了聖經中激動人心的神的計畫—從創世紀第1章創造開始到啟示錄21-22章中神的再造。以下是我們LAC教會的信仰宣言：神通過耶穌基督的福音所成全的救贖計畫：拯救人脫離罪，使各人在基督裡完全，並使他一切的受造物更新。這福音的各方面就是我們最根本的神學信念。

第3周：這個故事從一個家庭開始—我之前帶大家看創世紀12：1-4，看神如何揀選一個名叫亞伯拉罕的人， 呼召他和他的子孫將神救贖的好消息帶給世人。神的選民要活出與眾不同的人生，向不信的世界見證神的心意，最終通過亞伯拉罕的家族使祝福臨到所有人。

第4周：家族失敗的故事—上周提姆派克（Tim Peck）牧師流覽了了五分之一的聖經，也是神差派先知給亞伯拉罕子孫的全部信息。神的子民被呼召要在不信的世界活出見證神的生活—然而他們不斷失敗。每當他們失敗的時候，神就差派先知去指正他們，將他們尋回。Tim牧師將他們的失敗歸為四大類：

1）不忠（對神的命令），

2）狂傲（認為自己比其他民族強）

3）欺壓（軟弱者）

4）不信（神的應許）。

也就是說，Tim牧師完整地歸納了有關罪的所有信息, 讓我們看到，那些失敗不僅屬於以色列民，也屬於我們。現在剩下最後一周的信息，就是我們如今仍舊如此失敗，仍需要幫助。我們需要一位元拯救者，不會象我們一樣陷在失敗中不能自拔。以上一切帶我們來到今天的故事，神福音的核心就是神藉著耶穌道成肉身來到這世界。

第5周：耶穌為何而來的故事

            我們頭腦中帶著所有人，包括神的選民都不斷失敗的畫面，一起來到今天富於戲劇性的故事中，看耶穌老家拿撒勒城一個會堂裡的敬拜。耶穌走進當地的會堂，講了聖經中有關他的第一篇講道。總地來說，我們從這篇講道中瞭解到耶穌的宣教宣言。耶穌時代的會堂，講道者通常會站起來朗讀經文，之後會就這段經文傳講信息。那一天，耶穌讀的經文主要出自以賽亞書。耶穌讀的經文如下，請大家起立朗讀耶穌當年朗讀的經文：

路加福音 4:16-21

16耶穌來到拿撒勒，就是他長大的地方。在安息日那天，他照自己的習慣進了會堂，站起來要誦讀經文。17有人就把先知以賽亞的書遞給他。他展開書卷，找到一處，那裡寫道：18“主的靈在我身上，因為他膏立我去向貧窮的人傳福音，他差派我去宣告：被擄的得釋放，瞎眼的得看見，讓受欺壓的得自由，19宣告主所悅納的禧年。” 20然後耶穌把書卷好，還給會堂助理，坐了下來。會堂裡，眾人的眼睛都注視著他。21耶穌開始對他們說：“今天，在你們耳中的這段經文，已經應驗了。”

            原來整個的講章只是一句話! 也許最戲劇化的宣告就是耶穌所說的，神給亞伯拉罕的應許是藉著他應驗的！所有先知關於人類需要救主的預言都是藉著他應驗的！聖經所記載的一切終極都指向他！這就是耶穌所說的。耶穌宣告自己就是道成肉身的那一位，把神的福音帶進這個破碎、充滿罪的世界。Tim 牧師上周所談到的先知已經預言了，當神豐盛的福音進入這個世界時，那些受各種捆綁的人將得釋放；那些不能看、不能聽的人將得醫治；那些被不公義壓迫的人將得自由；所有的錯誤都要開始糾正。正如神在創世紀12章對亞伯拉罕說的：“世上的萬族都要蒙福”。

            當耶穌進入人們生命，成就他的使命，使被壓迫的人得自由時，將會是什麼樣子呢？我發現最好的辦法就是接著路加福音第4章去讀，看耶穌遇到需要拯救的人時發生了什麼:

• 5:12-16 –一個大麻風患者得醫治並返回家庭和社會。
• 5:17-26 –一個瘸子身體得醫治，靈裡得拯救。
• 7:2-10 –一個外邦的軍人蒙福，他所愛的僕人得醫治。
• 8:40-56 –一個不潔淨的婦人得醫治，一個管會堂的人已死的女兒複生。
• 17:12-19 –一個被人厭棄的撒瑪利亞人從大麻風中得醫治，耶穌讚賞他的信心。
• 19:1-10 –一個被人痛恨的猶太稅吏被赦免，他的生命得以反轉。
• 23:39-43 –一個在十字架上的犯人悔改被赦免，被歡迎進入神永恆的家。

            耶穌在路加福音19：10節總結得好：“人子來是要尋找、拯救失喪的人。”凡認識到並承認自己迷失，願意憑信心來到耶穌面前的必得救。神的恩典臨到一切以悔改之心和信心來到耶穌那裡的人---不管他是大麻風患者、撒瑪利亞人、不潔淨的婦人、外邦軍人還是被定罪的犯人。。。

不過，並非每一個人都信他、跟從他---正如今天一樣。是什麼造成不同結果的？讓我們來看 路加記錄的關於兩個人的故事---神“最大的故事”中的二個故事。

路加福音7:36-50

            36有一個法利賽人請耶穌與他一起吃飯，耶穌就進到那法利賽人的家裡坐席。37當時，城裡有一個女人，是個罪人，她知道耶穌在那法利賽人家裡坐席，就拿著一個盛了香液的玉瓶來。38她站在耶穌後面，在他的腳邊哭泣，開始用淚水沾濕耶穌的腳，再用自己的頭髮擦乾，又親吻他的腳，用香液膏抹。39那邀請耶穌的法利賽人看見了，心裡說：“這個人如果是先知，就會知道摸他的是誰，是個什麼樣的女人，因為她是個罪人。”40耶穌對他說：“西門，我有話要對你說。”西門說：“老師，請說。”41“有一個債主有兩個欠債人。一個欠五百個銀幣，另一個欠五十個銀幣。42他們無力償還，債主就免了他們兩個人的債。那麼，你說他們哪一個會更愛那債主呢？”43西門回答說：“我想是債主免債更多的那一個。”耶穌說：“你判斷得對。”44於是，他轉向那女人，對西門說：“你看見這個女人嗎？我進了你的家，你沒有給我水洗腳，但她卻用淚水沾濕我的腳，又用她的頭髮擦乾。45你沒有向我行親吻禮，而她從我進來的時候起，就不停地親我的腳。46你沒有用油來膏抹我的頭，她卻用香液膏抹我的腳。47故此，我告訴你：她的罪孽被赦免得多，所以她愛得多；而那被赦免少的，就愛得少。”48接著，耶穌對那女人說：“你的罪孽已經被赦免了。”49那些與他一同坐席的人就心裡想：“這個人是誰，竟然赦免罪？”50但耶穌對那女人說：“你的信救了你，平平安安地去吧。”

            這15節讀起來就像一個小戲劇，故事發生在一個法利賽人家裡（路加說了三次）。法利賽人是社會上被人尊敬、甚至受人敬畏的一群高大上。耶穌被邀請參加一個正式晚餐。不過注意，耶穌早先與這些人的會面並不順利；因此他的跟從者盼望這一次可以有所不同，在法利賽人家裡的一場愉快的晚宴可以幫助耶穌成為“被接納”的人。如果在西門家的社交之晚成功的話，那早先的種種“誤會”，比如醫治麻風病人、宣告罪得赦免、向外邦軍人傳福音等等也許都會被遺忘。

            但是，糟了，一個公認的“罪人”祈求進到房裡，她脖子上還戴著一個香水瓶，那可是妓女的裝束啊！她跑到耶穌那裡哭泣，用眼淚弄濕了耶穌的腳，又把香液都倒在他的腳上。

            這顯然是每個人都不願意看見的。你能想像在這高雅的屋子裡允許這事發生嗎---哭泣的聲音、不入流的場景、香液的味道？注意，這可是法利賽人西門請客啊！

            西門甚至沒有給耶穌解釋的機會，我覺得他可能正期待著耶穌遇到這樣的事，讓一個罪人女子觸摸並親吻他，這看起來很不得體。於是西門在心裡論斷耶穌：“他不是先知，神人怎麼會讓一個女子進入他的世界並觸摸他的腳呢？”

            我們不要嚴苛西門，我們不也這樣想嗎？但耶穌想的完全不同！西門沒有說出他的想法，但耶穌已經知道了，正如耶穌一貫的洞察。我要問你：若論到與耶穌的關係，你更像西門還是更像那女人？

            於是耶穌講了一個故事，他講到兩個欠債的。頭一個所欠的大概是20個月的工錢，第二個大概是2個月的。重點是二人都沒有錢還債，而後果很嚴重。但是故事的轉折來了，債主把他們都免了。

            耶穌直接問西門：“你說他們哪一個會更愛那債主呢？”

            法利賽人西門不太情願地回答說：“我想是債主免債更多的那一個。”耶穌說：“你判斷得不錯”，接著就給了西門一記“重擊”:

             44節, “他轉向那女人，對西門說…”  耶穌直截了當地說：“我進到你家裡，你沒有歡迎我，你在分析評估我！”在比喻中，耶穌讓西門知道儘管他自己認為比那婦人好得多，但他比那婦人更需要救恩。Tim 牧師上周說，西門很像那些自以為義卻拒絕神的恩典與憐憫的人。

            但那女人是敞開、透明、渴望幫助的，她渴望罪被赦免，得以被接納、有歸屬，得以重新來過。她得到了！耶穌的話言簡意賅，充滿能力：“你的罪孽已經被赦免了（48節）”；又說，“你的信救了你，平平安安地去吧 （50節）”。平安---對生命而言，這是多麼美麗的詞。耶穌應許她重新開始一個新生命。

            注意，在耶穌的比喻中有兩個欠債者，在現實故事中也有兩個欠債者：一個得救回家，另一個還在欠債需要拯救。

帶著走

            當我第一次來Lake教會時，我的講道就來自這個故事。Albert Tate 牧師，現在是莫羅威亞團契教會的主任牧師，我們曾一起查考這段經文。他問我說：“Greg 牧師，會眾聽了這講章可以帶走什麼呢？感覺是要大家‘相信耶穌，傳講耶穌，熱愛耶穌’的講章啊。”我說：“正是如此！”

1. 相信耶穌 –正如那婦人相信耶穌。那女人所戴的香水瓶代表她曾賣身為妓；但當她把香液傾倒在耶穌腳上時，象徵著她正把所有生命都轉向耶穌。她像是說：“過去的生活不再，我把自己交給耶穌，接受他的救恩；我把未來交給他，他如何引領，我就如此跟隨。”

     今天我們需要瞭解的是，不管我們過去如何，耶穌都知道。沒有人能超越神的愛的能力；沒有誰的罪能超越神的恩典。耶穌來是要進入你的生命---赦免你的過去並開啟你的新的未來。不要只是分析耶穌，不要只是來教會增加對耶穌的理性瞭解；要憑信心把你的生命傾倒給他，他就會赦免你的罪，賜給你新生命---充滿平安的生命。

2. 傳講耶穌 –耶穌進入那些無人願意進入的生命，為我們彰顯了如何在這個世界作見證。一旦我們像那婦人一樣以悔改和信心俯伏在他面前，我們就有親身經歷告訴他人：如果他們願意來到耶穌面前，耶穌願意赦免他們的罪債。那些領受福音的人成為了傳講福音的人---不是以驕傲的心，而是以感恩的心。若我們這些經歷耶穌的人不去傳講耶穌，人們不會知道神的“最大的故事”。

3. 效法主愛去愛 – 注意了嗎？耶穌沒有一開始對那婦人說：“去，先潔淨你的生命，也許我會讓你回來與我談論。”不，他進入了她生命的本相。耶穌沒有回避她的現狀，而是從她的現狀開始。我們也應該這樣。對那些在我們看來正過著糟糕生活的人，我們應該以耶穌的心、耶穌的眼來看待他們：神也以自己的形象造他們，耶穌也為他們而死，他們也可能是我們在主裡的弟兄姊妹；若我們對他們沒有愛，就只會責備他們。但是，我們要效法耶穌進入他們的生命，尋求他人的最大好處；日子將到，你要告訴他們：“耶穌來是要尋找、拯救失喪的人。我知道，因為。。。我就是他尋找到的一個。”

            我現在要請Scott White 牧師來為一些人作介紹並主持他們的奉獻禮，他們順從耶穌的呼召並要為此而活。。。