::WELCOME TO RESTORATION::

Taking Sin Seriously:

I must tell someone that I disagree or disapprove of them before I love them.

If I love someone, I will speak harsh truth to them.

I can't associate with sinners, or they might think I condone their sin.

We must preach against… or make public statements against…

The Gospel of Sin Management

Covenant Love:

Commitment (To)

Presence (With)

Advocacy (For)

Direction (Toward)

Luke 5:27-32

27 After this, Jesus went out and saw a tax collector by the name of Levi sitting at his tax booth. “Follow me,” Jesus said to him, 28 and Levi got up, left everything and followed him.

29 Then Levi held a great banquet for Jesus at his house, and a large crowd of tax collectors and others were eating with them.

30 But the Pharisees and the teachers of the law who belonged to their sect complained to his disciples, “Why do you eat and drink with tax collectors and sinners?”

31 Jesus answered them, “It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. 32 I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.”

Matthew 5:29-30

“If your right eye causes you to stumble, gouge it out and throw it away. It is better for you to lose one part of your body than for your whole body to be thrown into hell.” And if your right hand causes you to stumble, cut it off and throw it away. It's better for you to lose one part of your body than for your whole body to go to hell. Again, Jesus called to the crowd and said, "Listen to me, everyone, and understand this. Nothing outside a person can defile them by going into them. Rather, it's what comes out of a person that defiles them. What comes out of a person is what defiles them. For it is from within the person's heart that evil thoughts come. Sexual morality, theft, murder, adultery, greed, malice, deceit, lewdness, envy, slander, arrogance, and folly. All this evil comes from inside and defiles a person.

Matthew 7:21-23

21 “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. 22 Many will say to me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name and in your name drive out demons and in your name perform many miracles?’ 23 Then I will tell them plainly, ‘I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!’

Matthew 4:17

From that time on Jesus began to preach, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near.”

Pharisees Goal:

Resurrection = God’s Salvation

Resurrection of the Dead

Judgement of the Wicked/Salvation for the Righteous

Pour Out the Holy Spirit

Cleanse/Purify the Land from Idolators

2 Chronicles 7:14 …if my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and I will forgive their sin and will heal their land.

Obstacles in the Minds of the Pharisees:

Pollution of the Land with the Roman Presence

“Sinners” among God’s People

The Method of the Pharisees:

Inspire all of Israel to live lives of holiness and temple purity

Holiness by “separation”

“Fencing the Law”

Focus on Sabbath Keeping and Dietary Purity

“Table Fellowship was a form of Social Control

Table Fellowship:

Shared Social Status

Intimacy and Fellowship

Trust and Acceptance

Disapproval and Rejection

Thus, the sharing or refusing to share a table in antiquity had a social function, expressing approval and disapproval of different modes of behavior.

Luke 7:36-40

36 When one of the Pharisees invited Jesus to have dinner with him, he went to the Pharisee’s house and reclined at the table.

37 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. 

38 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.

39 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.”

40 Jesus answered him, “Simon, I have something to tell you.”

“Tell me, teacher,” he said.

Luke 7:41-50

41 “Two people owed money to a certain moneylender. One owed him five hundred denarii, and the other fifty. 42 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?”

43 Simon replied, “I suppose the one who had the bigger debt forgiven.”

“You have judged correctly,” Jesus said.

44 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. 45 You did not give me a kiss, but this woman, from the time I entered, has not stopped kissing my feet. 46 You did not put oil on my head, but she has poured perfume on my feet.47 Therefore, I tell you, her many sins have been forgiven—as her great love has shown. But whoever has been forgiven little loves little.”

48 Then Jesus said to her, “Your sins are forgiven.”

49 The other guests began to say among themselves, “Who is this who even forgives sins?”

50 Jesus said to the woman, “Your faith has saved you; go in peace.”

Luke 7:33-34

33 For John the Baptist came neither eating bread nor drinking wine, and you say, ‘He has a demon.’ 34 The Son of Man came eating and drinking, and you say, ‘Here is a glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and sinners.’ 35 But wisdom is proved right by all her children.”

Deuteronomy 21:18-21

18 If someone has a stubborn and rebellious son who does not obey his father and mother and will not listen to them when they discipline him, 19 his father and mother shall take hold of him and bring him to the elders at the gate of his town. 20 They shall say to the elders, “This son of ours is stubborn and rebellious. He will not obey us. He is a glutton and a drunkard.” 21 Then all the men of his town are to stone him to death. You must purge the evil from among you. All Israel will hear of it and be afraid.

John 7:37-39

37 On the last and greatest day of the festival, Jesus stood and said in a loud voice, “Let anyone who is thirsty come to me and drink. 38 Whoever believes in me, as Scripture has said, rivers of living water will flow from within them.” 39 By this he meant the Spirit, whom those who believed in him were later to receive. Up to that time the Spirit had not been given, since Jesus had not yet been glorified.

John 8:2-9

2 At dawn he appeared again in the temple courts, where all the people gathered around him, and he sat down to teach them. 3 The teachers of the law and the Pharisees brought in a woman caught in adultery.

They made her stand before the group 

4 and said to Jesus, “Teacher, this woman was caught in the act of adultery. 5 In the Law Moses commanded us to stone such women. Now what do you say?” 6 They were using this question as a trap, in order to have a basis for accusing him. But Jesus bent down and started to write on the ground with his finger. 

Jeremiah 17:10-13

 “I the Lord search the heart
    and examine the mind,
to reward each person according to their conduct,
    according to what their deeds deserve.”

11 Like a partridge that hatches eggs it did not lay
    are those who gain riches by unjust means.
When their lives are half gone, their riches will desert them,
    and in the end they will prove to be fools.

12 A glorious throne, exalted from the beginning,
    is the place of our sanctuary.
13 Lord, you are the hope of Israel;
    all who forsake you will be put to shame.
Those who turn away from you will be written in the dust
    because they have forsaken the Lord,
    the spring of living water.

7 When they kept on questioning him, he straightened up and said to them, “Let any one of you who is without sin be the first to throw a stone at her.” 

8 Again he stooped down and wrote on the ground.

9 At this, those who heard began to go away one at a time, the older ones first, until only Jesus was left, with the woman still standing there. 10 Jesus straightened up and asked her, “Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?” 11 “No one, sir,” she said. “Then neither do I condemn you,” Jesus declared. “Go now and leave your life of sin.”

Jesus’ Method:

Holiness by association

Acceptance and belonging through table Fellowship with ANYONE

Overturning Traditional markers of Status

Table Fellowship Prior to Outward Signs of Repentance

Taking Sin Seriously:

I must tell someone that I disagree or disapprove of them before I love them.

If I love someone, I will speak harsh truth to them.

I can't associate with sinners, or they might think I condone their sin.

We must preach against… or make public statements against…

Restoration KIDS is created for kids aged infant to 5th grade. Check in your kids in the Family Room when you arrive, and then join all together for music worship in the Gathering Room. After worship, KIDS Team staff will lead children to their classes. Any questions? Email admin@restorationcolorado.org about our KIDS program.

Restoration STUDENTS is created for older kids in 6th grade - 12th grade. Students join us for the Gathering on Sunday mornings. Youth Group is every Wednesday from 6-8 p.m. For more info and questions, email our Youth Pastor, jadon@restorationcolorado.org.