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Luke 7

LCM ~ A couple questions answered - followup to last night's class (re ch. 3)

Submitted by Leah Page on

Good morning, ladies!
 
Last night, I double checked on a couple of the questions that were asked, and thought I'd share with you what I found (I'll post on the blog, too):
 
 
Q:  Was the woman in Luke 7 Mary Magdalene?
 
A:  The text doesn't say so, and I have heard from several sources that it is widely believed to be Mary Magdalene.  But we don't know for sure.  There are other Gospel accounts of a similar event, (such as Mark 14), but the details are different, and we know that the woman there mentioned was Mary, the sister of Martha and Lazarus.  Luke 7 seems to be a different event altogether - though possibly the fact that the other accounts mention a "Mary" and there is even another "Simon" present (Simon the Leper), perhaps these similarities help inform the speculation about the women in the text with which we have concerned ourselves, here? 
 
(We DO know this was a woman who washed Jesus' feet out of love for him and a "weeping joy" for his grace!  Would that we were all such women!)
 
 
Q:  Was "Simon" in the Luke 7 account the name of the Pharisee hosting the gathering?  Or referring to Simon/Peter, Jesus' disciple, who may also have been present at this event?
 
A:  In v. 44, Jesus addresses Simon directly and accuses him of not having welcomed him even half as well as this so-called "sinner" woman.  So Simon is contextually understood, here, to be the name of the Pharisee hosting the gathering.
 
 
Q:  In Ezekiel 9:8, we speculated that perhaps this phrase (as worded in the NASB), "I alone was left," meant that Ezekiel was in fact the only one to survive the divine execution of the idol-worshippers in Jerusalem, the only one who was "marked" to be saved?
 
A:  However, the opening phrase of the verse helps to clarify - and looking further at the context, ch. 10 is where "God's glory departs from the temple" and ch. 11 is where Ezekiel is called upon to give greater rebuke to the people (I don't know if such "order of writing" is meant to be explicitely chronological, but that seems to be the "plain meaning" of the text). 
 
The ESV helpfully translates this verse this way:  "And while they were striking, and I was left alone, I fell upon my face, and cried, 'Ah, Lord GOD! Will you destroy all the remnant of Israel in the outpouring of your wrath on Jerusalem?'"  <-- a great case of finding help in other reliable translations of the text, and interpreting on the basis of context!  ;)  It seems Ezekiel is saying simply that while this horror (!) was being carried out, he remained in the presence of the Lord and - like Moses and others before him had done - was pleading with God on behalf of this rebelious people.
 
This is an event that is intended to "mirror" the Passover events in Exodus - though it is interesting, as we noted, that where in the Exodus account the faithful put the blood over their own doorposts, in this event, the Lord chose angelic messengers to somehow "mark" the foreheads of those who had "sighed and moaned" over the abominations committed in God's city.  (Reminded me of how Peter in the NT [2 Peter ch. 2] describes Lot, Abraham's nephew who willingly lived in Sodom and Gomorrah and even rose to some prominence in the city!, and nevertheless was "vexed in his righteous soul" over their collective wickedness....)
 
 
Q: And finally, regarding good ol' Uriah Heep?  
 
I had brought up one of the incidents that D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones mentions in his book "Studies in the Sermon on the Mount" and it was a point of interest because he actually names the person with whom he interacted, and it was one "Uriah Heep" and Betty had pointed out that this was the name of a character in a Charles Dickens' novel, so I thought perhaps I had misread the story! 
 
A:  I double checked and in fact, the man's name was Uriah Heep, so perhaps he was named after the Dickens character?  Or perhaps it was just strange coincidence?  Either way, it appears to be a "true story" and not just an illustration to make a point.  Here is the quote if you're interested:
 
 
"...To be 'poor in spirit,' therefore, does not mean you are born like that.  Let us get rid of that idea once and for ever.
     Neither does it mean that we are to become what I can best describe as imitators of Uriah Heep.  Many, again, have mistaken 'poor in spirit' for that.  I remember once having to go to preach at a certain town.  When I arrived on the Saturday evening, a man met me at the station and immediately asked for my bag, indeed he almost took it from my hand by force.  Then he talked to me like this:  'I am a deacon in the church where you are preaching tomorrow,' he said, and then added, 'You know, I am a mere nobody, a very unimportant man, really.  I do not count; I am not a great man in the Church; I am just one of those men who carry the bag for the minister.'  He was anxious that I should know what a humble man he was, how 'poor in spirit.'  Yet by his anxiety to make it known, he was denying the very thing he was trying to establish.  Uriah Heep -- the man who thus, as it were, glories in his poverty of spirit and thereby proves he is not humble.  It is an affectation of something which he obviously does not feel...."  (DLJ, SITSOTM, p. 38)
 
Blessings!
Leah
 
 
 
--
~Growing in grace, and the knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ~
http://grace2grow.blogspot.com

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LCM - CH3: "Do You Weep Over Sin?"

Submitted by Leah Page on

“Lord, only You can change me!” - Ch. 3 “Do You Weep Over Sin?”
~Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted.~ 
 
I. TAKING OUR UNDERSTANDING OF “HYPOCRISY” A STEP FURTHER
 
Q: Is the remedy for “hypocrisy” – which we have said is this kind of putting on a front, showing ourselves to be something we’re not – Is the remedy for this merely a matter of “being real” or “being honest” or, if you prefer, “taking off the mask”?
 
Does that solve the real problem? Cuz there are some who would suggest that the MAIN issue with the traditional church is its legalistic and hypocritical past, and the way to overcome this is to strive for authenticity.
 
Removing the mask is certainly a STARTING point – but it is not an end in itself. We talked about a variety of reasons for this – but in main, this is due to the fact that our hearts are deceitful and we even our best efforts to “be real” might not be so, and the fact of merely SEEING that we are dead / unclean / filthy inside does not in fact cleanse us or make us alive!
 

  • “beatitudes” are NOT “natural” to us
  • apart from the LORD doing a work in us, these characteristics are not at all “desirable” to us
  • God changes our “want to” so that we LONG to love what he loves, and hate what he hates

 
 
II. GOD IS IN THE BUSINESS OF 1) DISCLOSING HIMSELF AND 2) CULTIVATING “COMMUNION” WITH HIS BELOVED
 
John Stottt (and no doubt others have too) said that “God reserves his secrets for his lovers,” meaning the community of the redeemed! He chooses to reveal himself – and he does so uniquely to those on whom he has set his affection and preserved in Christ (our “ark” of safety!).
 
God is in the business of removing our blindness so we can see HIM more clearly, because he is OUR Beloved, and so we can see ourselves more clearly – that we are very far indeed from what He has made us to be as Image.
 
(Not that we love Christ just because he makes US look good! No – we want to be LIKE him because HE is so good!)
 
 
III. GODLY SORROW PRODUCES REPENTANCE (AND JOY!)
 
We saw in our lesson through a few small glimpses (Genesis 6, Ezekiel 6, Luke 19 and Matthew 23) how sin breaks the heart of God – it “hurts” Him! (And of course it would, for sin is anything that is contrary to the will and nature and heart of God, it is at its heart our making ourselves to be god and king and ruler of our own hearts – which steals our affection from the One who is God and King and Ruler of all!)
 
Whether we have lived a history where we have seen the story of forgiveness the Lord wrote in our lives, or whether we are NOW living our lives where the Lord is graciously peeling back layer by layer the brokenness of our hearts, He is showing us how – in Christ – we are ALL forgiven MUCH! ...and why? Not for our condemnation! (Romans 8:1) But because he wants us to LOVE him much! 

  • Our sin is SO vile, and the Lord’s grace is SO brilliant and beautiful – the Lord must bring our eyes into greater focus so that as the “law” of God brings conviction and repentance! (2 Corinthians 7:10), it is like the black velvet on which the diamond of the “grace” of God is displayed.

 
 
IV. WHAT BREAKS GOD’S HEART SHOULD BREAK OURS, TOO!!
 
We also looked briefly at 1 Corinthians 5 and Ezekiel 9 – sin in the Church, in the hearts and corporate, “together” lives of God’s people.
 
Are we alert to and grieved by sin in the BODY?
How do we lovingly confront sin in the BODY? Or do we? Are we more interested in demonstrating our “tolerance and diversity”?
 
Part of the “application” of this included talking through the necessity of what Jesus describes in Matthew 7 as getting the log (or beam) out of our own eye so that we may see clearly to help our brother with the splinter (or speck) in his own eye. We are called to “judge” those within the fellowship of believers (and leave to God to judge those “outside”), but we are to do so with humility, an eye (if you’ll forgive the pun!) to our own confession and repentance!, a dependence on God’s grace and forgiveness, and the priority of God’s heart in the matter – which is for the other person to repent and receive forgiveness and restoration!
 
 
Looking forward to next week – we are going to look through a lot of different Scriptural passages, this week, to help us ... get our spiritual eyes more into focus, to see God as he really is! As he has “disclosed” himself to be! (It is, after all, the light of God’s presence, as we saw in Isaiah 6, that exposes the desperation of OUR need FOR him, but it also is the means by which we see how much we’ve been forgiven so that we may LOVE MUCH!)
 
Let us be women who LOVE MUCH our great God!
 
Blessings!
~Leah
 
PS - prev. post answered some additional questions that were raised during our discussion.

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