Our Old Testament lesson this morning comes from the Book of Ezekiel and the Book of Psalms. As a shepherd seeks out his flock when he is among his sheep that have been scattered. So will I seek out my sheep, and I will rescue them from all places where they have been scattered on a day of clouds and thick darkness, and I will bring them out from the peoples and gather them from the countries, and will bring them into their own land, and I will feed them on the mountains of Israel by the ravines and in all the inhabited places of the country. I will feed them with good pasture, and on the mountain heights of Israel shall be their grazing land. There they shall lie down in good grazing land, and on rich pasture they shall feed on the mountains of Israel. I myself will be the shepherd of my sheep, and I myself will make them lie down, declares Lord God, I will seek the lost, I will bring back the stray, and I will bind up the injured, and I will strengthen the weak, and the fat and the strong I will destroy, I will feed them in justice, and from Psalms 23, the Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want. He makes me lie down in green pastures, he leads me beside the still waters, he restores my soul, he leads me in paths of righteousness, for his names say, the word of the Lord. Thanks be to God, and Jesus answered him and said, Simon, I have something to say to you, and he replied, say, teacher, a certain money lender had two debtors, one owed five hundred dinarii and the other fifty, when they were unable to repay, he graciously forgave them both. Which of them therefore will love him more? Simon answered and said, I suppose the one whom he forgave more, and he said to him, you have judged correctly, and turning toward the woman, he said, the Simon, do you see this woman? I entered your house, 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, but she since the time I came in has not ceased to kiss my feet. You did not anoint my head with oil, but she anointed my feet with perfume, for this reason I say to you, her sins which are many have been forgiven, for she loved much, but he who is forgiven little loves little, and he said to her, your sins have been forgiven. The word of the Lord. I have your Bibles, I encourage you to open them to Luke chapter 7, a passage all speaking from. We read a good part of the story and the New Testament lesson, but there is a few verses on either side that we left unread that will make their way into the message. Last week I was away at a missions conference that our denomination puts on once every three years. I think this was their fifth one, and there were more this year than ever before, there were just under 24 hundred people there. The singing was incredible, just the RUF team, Kevin Twitt being kind of a leader and taking a lot of the ancient ends and making them accessible to university students, let us, and more worship and the singing was great, the missions aspect was wonderful too. I went to the pre-conference which was about Mercy ministry and Philip Langford from International Justice Mission was the keynote speaker for that, and he told three ripping stories. One was of a young woman who was kidnapped and sold into the sex slave trade in India. One was of a widowed mother in Africa, Rwanda, whose land was taken by force, and another of, I can't remember the number, I think it was 16 people who were enslaved on a rice farm in India, and he told about how SJC, something about how they found out, not SJC, International Justice, IJM, International Justice Mission, found out about it, and how they worked for the freedom of all these people, and in this story that was compelling and gripping, you heard about the oppression, you heard about the hard situation, you heard about the struggle that this ministry had in trying to work with the local governments and police departments and such, and bring about justice for these people, and how afterwards there needed to be restoration. You don't get sold kidnapped and sold into sex slave trade and used and abused for months on end without it causing severe wounding in so many different ways, and they have a, after she was rescued in the violent perpetrator put in prison, they talked about how they had a recovery program, and they worked to restore, to bring healing to this woman, all the stories were incredible. Think about that as we look at the topic this morning of the good shepherd restores the sheep. It's almost hard to talk about this ministry of the good shepherd restoring the sheep without putting it in its context where we've been looking at various aspects of deputting, and certain things like a shepherd seeks the lost, a shepherd defends and leads the flock, these sorts of things. This idea of restoring fits in that, I don't know if you picked it up from the Old Testament lesson in the book of Ezekiel, how God said, I will seek out my sheep, I will rescue them from all the places where they have been scattered, and he talks about bringing them and feeding them and healing them, and this is all kind of connected to this work of restoration, the seeking, the bringing back, the restoring to the fold, to providing that peace, the ultimate goal and shepherding, and I want us to look at this aspect of restoration this morning. Restoration, I looked it up on an online dictionary, actually, a couple of them, and it has, just to restore, has the idea of to return to the original condition, you think of a home or a car that someone buys that's old and it's in ill repair and they restore it, they renovate it, they bring it back to that original condition, or sometimes even better than the original condition, right? You take an old house, and before dishwashers and dispose all, and different conveniences that we know and love with electricity and wireless this and that, and you may restore it and make it better, and doesn't Jesus do that, isn't since the fall hasn't God been restoring us, and that isn't his promise, that not only will we, again, without blemish, reflect the image of God, but that we will be in a better state that when we, in glory, behold the face of God, we will be like him, I think, better than the condition of Adam and Eve before the fall. Restoration has to do with reinstating another aspect of the definition, to re-instate, you know, if someone is fired from a job or if they're demoted or something, they may be reinstated to that position that they held, maybe an impeached mayor or governor or something like that, and in a sense that takes place too when God restores us, right, we are restored to the adoption as sons and daughters and belong to him. There's also with this idea of reinstating the idea of giving back something, for example, parents may withhold an allowance from a child for a certain amount of time, maybe as a punishment, and then re-instate or restore that allowance, and doesn't God do that to us? That we are told in the Westminster shorter catechism about the misery of the fall of our condition after the fall that all mankind by their fall lost communion with God and are under his wrath and curse, and so made viable to all the miseries of this life to death itself and to the pains of hell forever. And yet, when God reinstates us when he brings us back and restores to us that place of sonship in his kingdom, then we receive the benefits, not only of justification and adoption and sanctification, but also assurance of God's love and peace of conscience and joy in the Holy Spirit and increase of grace and perseverance therein to the end. He does this for us. So I want us to look at this idea of restoration as it relates to the church and kind of move. You know, Jesus told a parable in Luke 15 about the shepherd who had a hundred sheep and one is lost and he leaves the 99 and you know what he does, right? He goes, finds the lost sheep and he what's he do? Grabbed it, right? Whatever condition and he puts it on his shoulders and he heads home. Now, that's a great metaphor, but if one of your elders finds you, I don't know, in some place you should not be and grabs you and puts you on his shoulders and brings you here, we don't do that, right? We don't seek that way, we don't restore that way. So what I want us to do is look how Jesus, the good shepherd, restores the sheep out. He sought the loss and restores from the New Testament lesson that was read from this story about sign and the Pharisee and the sinful woman. And before I do that, I want to give you all the fill in the blanks that are on your outline. And then if you're a note taker and you want to kind of, we'll go over them one by one looking at the woman, looking at Simon. So here's the fill in the blanks. This is all what restoration is, right? They've given you kind of a definition of what it is. Here it is in biblical terms or what we would see practice in terms of the life of the church and of the good shepherd leading his people. Law sheep need to acknowledge the reality of their sin. In the process of restoration, lost sheep need to acknowledge the reality of their sin. The good shepherd doesn't cross over sin. It must be exposed so that sheep can turn from their sin to the good shepherd. And that brings us to the next fill in the blank. Law sheep must exercise faith and repentant. This is how law sheep are found, right? The good news of the gospel starts with the bad news that all this end and fall short of the glory of God. And as the light of the gospel comes upon us, we see that God is holy and we are not. We confess our sins before God. And we're found, right? Because number three, the good shepherd, the third check if you will, the good shepherd grants forgiveness to repentant sheep. The good shepherd, having found the sheep, the one who exercises faith and repentance, grants forgiveness. And this is really where restoration begins. It begins with the good shepherd granting forgiveness. It's not enough to go to church or to Bible study or Sunday school or to teach one of these things and to think that you're a found sheep. You may be in the facility and not a found sheep. If you haven't experienced the light of the gospel that shows you the glory of God and your sinfulness. If you have not exercised faith and repentance and have not received the forgiveness of the good shepherd, you're not restored yet. The fourth one is restoration. When it begins with this forgiveness, restoration includes the pursuit of healing, fellowship, and meaningful kingdom service. I think healing starts with forgiveness. And it grows. It gets deeper. It gets all the days of our lives until glory. And there's fellowship. There's the restoration into the body and meaningful kingdom service. And I think we'll see this as we look through the story that Luke tells us of an event where Jesus is invited to eat dinner in the home of a certain Pharisee named Simon. And at that dinner, there are other guests at the table. And if I understand the custom right, they're sitting or leaning on pillows around a table that's down low to the ground, think of Japanese restaurant without the dugout place to put your feet. So your feet are kind of extended out away from the table and you're resting and leaning on a side and eating. And they actually would have people who were able to come and listen in on the conversation servants were coming and going depending on the wealth of the situation and such. And in this context, this woman comes in and there she is at Jesus's feet and she's come prepared. She has brought an alabash or full of perfume. The appointment by which she begins to annoy Jesus's feet. But somehow, whether it's before or after during a isn't necessarily clear to me, I get the sense maybe the tears from this woman begin to flow before the ointment begins to flow and her tears fall on Jesus's feet. And she wipes them off with her hair. And she kisses his feet. And she anoints them with this fragrant point. And all this is going on during the dinner and Simon the Pharisee, it tells us looks at it and says the this man were a prophet. He would know what sort of woman that this is that she is a sinner. And then it goes into the story that where we picked up Simon, I have something to tell you say a teacher. You guys owe to certain money lender money. One a lot, one a little, forgive them both. Which one will love him more? I know it's forgiven more. And Jesus says you're right. And then lays out a sin. So let's apply that little story to this. Restorationing a law sheep need to acknowledge the reality of their sin. Think about the woman. Does she do that? You know, in this story, there are no words from her in the whole story. Much less words of O Lord, I am so sorry. Please forgive me. I've done this that and the other thing. In fact, the context of the story leads me to believe to speculate that there had been a previous conversation. She came with the alabaster vile, full of ointment to anoint his feet. The sinners don't do that. There's no words, but we're told very clearly that she is a sinner, right? It's just verse 37, Luke tells us and behold, a woman of the city who was a sinner, Simon the Pharisee identifies her as a sinner, verse 39, thinking to himself if this man were a prophet he would have known who and what sort of woman this is who is touching him. And even Jesus identifies her as a sinner, verse 41, a certain it's implied a certain money lender had two debtors, one owed 500 to near eye. And that's he's implying to be the sinful woman and the other 50. And then verse 47, he tells us beyond any shadow of doubt, of doubt very clearly. Therefore I tell you her sins, though they are many. She goes on. She is a sinner and sinner is exposed. The fact that she is not saying anything about them at this point doesn't mean that they're not exposed. She's one who everyone knows she's a sinner and she certainly knows it. It was common knowledge. And our Lord, the good shepherd has no trouble at all. She's the sinner. Now you don't notice any mustard on it, right? You don't notice any sneering or disgust or repulsion or rejection by the Lord Jesus. It's not. And the reason you don't notice it is it's simply not there. You notice it was Simon, don't you? What about Simon and his acknowledgement of the reality of sin? There doesn't seem to be any acknowledgement on his part, but every verse that was read to you as the New Testament lesson was designed to show him he was a sinner. Maybe not as bad as her, only a tenth as many sins. He's a little sinner. A good Pharisee, a little sinner. Jesus is a story. Jesus goes to him and tells him that, but then it's amazing. Jesus doesn't point out any of the woman's sins just that they're many. But he gets kind of a wide itemization of Simon the Pharisees sins, doesn't he? You see this woman? I came into your house. You did not give me any water to wash my feet, a common courtesy in this time. Of course, if you didn't have a servant that would do this for your guests, you at least provided the water for them to wash their own feet. Really a rudeness. I don't know if you've ever seen this in some of the Arab cultures or even in some of the East African cultures that I'm aware of when they go to greet, there's the kiss, right? And it's not just one. You kiss on this side and then you kiss on this side and it can go on for a little while. I suppose I don't know this because I'm not in those cultures, but when I've seen them expressed in my presence, it seems like, if it's been a long time since you've seen someone, it just goes on for a while. And he says, I came to your home. You didn't give me a kiss. Something that's common. It would be like saying, you didn't even put out, extend your hand for a handshake or welcome this woman. She hasn't stopped kissing my feet. By another sin he mentions, you know oil for anointing, no refreshment, you know some hospitality in the Middle East to this day is a big deal. You go visit an art saber rattling and all that sort of thing. If you go visit and you were shown hospitality. Their culture demands such an outlet and such a care for your well-being and your comfort and such, it just happens. Nothing. And Jesus points that out, doesn't it? Again, do you hear any mustard in the voice of Jesus? Do you hear any of that kind of bitterness or that kind of in your face you little? No. Why not? It's not the way Jesus is. There's a word for shepherding in there too, that in the exposing of sin, it's not to be filled with bitterness and anger and ranker. It's just to be done in law. It's a good shepherd who is seeking his sheep and is concerned for their soul. Let's look at the next point. The lost sheep needs to acknowledge the lost sheep must exercise faith and repentance. Again, no words from the woman, no word. But the fruit, what do you think? There, isn't it? She demonstrates fruit and keeping with repentance. She comes with a gift, with the alabaster vile. She kisses his feet, she wipes them with her hairs. Do you get the sense that she already knows that she's accepted for given in law? She gives herself. If what John the Baptist said is true, bring forth fruit and keeping with repentance, she's doing that, isn't she? And as to the exercise of faith, there's no guesswork on that whatsoever because we are told in verse 50, he told this woman, your faith has saved you. Go and teach. No words of repentance on his part. How about the fruit of repentance? I don't see any. It doesn't seem to be fruit in keeping with repentance. If there's faith, it's a little faith, it's a small faith. It's perhaps mostly doubt in verse 39, it says, when the Pharisee who had invited him saw, he said to himself, if this man were a prophet. Now, there's three ways in the Greek to express a conditional if statement. There's one that assumes that it's true. If your name is Andrew, so on and so forth, and it's assumed true. I'm talking to Andrew, and I'm looking right at him, and it's assumed true, even though I put it in a conditional. There's one that it's assumed that we don't know. If there's anyone here in this room that's a hundred years old, I don't know, maybe yes, maybe no, but I don't know. But then there's one where it's assumed negative. That is the Greek structure here. It's presumed that he's not a prophet in the mind of Simon the Pharisee. How about forgiveness, the good shepherd grants forgiveness to the repentant sheep. Well, the story Jesus talks about implies that she's been forgiven, but again, we don't need to, we don't need to speculate it all versus 48 and 47 and 48. Therefore, I tell you her sins, which are many are forgiven. She loved much, but he who is forgiven little loves little. Verse 48, and he said to her, your sin are forgiven. What about Simon? No such word. It's left ambiguous, isn't it? Flight hint maybe that he had 50 cents, 50 to an area worth of sins forgiven, but that was a story to get across a point. He's shown no love. Maybe he invited him to dinner, and that could be a sign of love, but again, in a house, in a culture that gives itself the hospitality, it seems more like an investigation on the part of Simon than an act of law. Restoration includes the pursuit of healing fellowship and meaningful kingdom service, the sinful women. What do you think? Is there some sort of healing that's gone on in her life? I think so. I think those tears express gratitude, love, a change of heart, a devotion, because of just life experience, I'm sure there's a lot of healing that needs to occur. But it seems like it's begun. How about fellowship? Restoration? Well, she certainly restored to the Lord Jesus, isn't she? There's no doubt about that. And think about, I'm going to make this point in a minute, so let me just let me just let that go. Meaningful kingdom service? Well, it remains to be seen how she'll live her life, but she's starting off really well in her love for Jesus, isn't she? What about Simon? Let me ask you about the healing. Do you think he's blind or does he see? Do you think he's deaf? Spiritually speaking, or does he hear? What do you think? Where is he with Jesus in terms of fellowship? Has there been restoration? Are they together? Is he following? Obviously, a very religious man, but is he providing meaningful service to the king? I'll leave that one with you. Let me just close with two comments. Jesus, I think, clearly restores this sinful woman. There's something very personal about their communication with each other. Very intimate. And yet this personal intimate relationship is public. And here we are reading the account of it. And there was Simon, the Pharisee, seeing it, and all the other guests. And I want to point out that in the work of shepherding, the shepherd has a job in his seeking and defending and restoring to defend the sheep in this particular situation. She is under attack, isn't she? She, after all, she is a sinner and everyone knows it. But Jesus doesn't leave her that way. He speaks publicly to her, privately to her, but publicly for everyone to hear, your sins are forgiven, your faith has saved you. And that has meant for the covenant community to say, receive her. And all those who love our Lord Jesus must receive that repentance center. Shepherds, other parents, or elder, have that job. And also shepherds, parents, or elder, see that Jesus is seeking Simon so that he too may be restored. If I understand the story, it's ambiguous, it's left open, it's left for us to guess. We're not told the rest of the story. There's no Paul Harvey report. But we do know that the good shepherd wasn't about to pass over his sins, though they were few. Because of his love and mercy in grace, he's seeking to lead him to faith and repentant. And he shows himself a pretty, a pretty good prophet in the process doesn't he? Where are you? Who do you identify with? Have you been to Jesus? Has he shown you your sin? Have you confessed them before him? Have you received his promise forgiveness? Remember, he, the good shepherd laid down his life for the sheep. He died to take away your sin. Have you received it? If you've confessed it, he promises the granting of that forgiveness. That's where the healing begins. That's where restoration really takes place. Where are you? Let's pray. We thank you, O Lord, for this beautiful story and for our beautiful Savior, the good shepherd of the sheep. Thank you in Jesus' name. Amen.