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Pastor Mike Abendroth, Luke 7:36-50 Jesus, A Friend Of Sinners
You might imagine today, if you were a man, and someone said to you, Pastor Mike isn't feeling well, would you please get up and preach? What would go through your mind?
What would you think?
I hope when you got up to preach, you'd be excited about what you were going to say. I hope you'd be Christ-centered. I hope you would differentiate between what God has done and what God expects. And I hope there would be some kind of passionate delivery, because these things are about eternal life.
They are important. So today, I want you to know that even though it might not seem like this 64-year-old man is excited to preach, this is such a great passage, you're never going to forget it. It is so exciting.
It's so wonderful. Some people say, you shouldn't even comment on this passage, because it just preaches itself. And it shows us the greatness of who Jesus is and his benefits. Too often, we say, and rightfully so, I'm so thankful for justification and sanctification, glorification,.
The hope of heaven.
I have forgiveness. I'm made right in God's eyes. I'm reconciled. But sometimes we forget, who did that for us? Who's the one who's our Savior? Who's the one who sent Jesus to save us? And so this passage today reminds us.
We keep Christ and his benefits together, his person and his work. And it's one of those passages where you've read before. But today, I want to make sure we just slowly let it kind of marinate over us.
Because as we watch Jesus, he changes us. And as we watch Jesus, we'll want to be changed. Please turn your Bibles to Luke, chapter 7. And we just got done singing, Show Us Christ. And that's exactly what Luke does.
What does Luke do? You want to know what Luke's all about? Here's who Jesus is. Step by step, from his preaching to his resurrection and his exaltation, it's all about who Jesus is. Sometimes in the past, when I'd meet someone, they'd finally ask me, what do you do for a living?
And I would say, I'm a pastor. And then I kind of changed to, I'm a Bible teaching pastor. And now I've changed to, I'm a Bible teaching pastor that wants to talk about Jesus every week. And that's what we're after, a Christ-centered ministry.
Because we want to see who Jesus is. We want to see what he's done and what he continues to do. And so we're in the book of Luke. And Luke is written so that you're certain that Jesus is the Messiah. That beyond a shadow of a doubt that Jesus is truly God and truly man.
So if you're an unbeliever, you consider the claims of Christ and then bow your knee in repentance and faith. And if you're a believer, in spite of the trials that you go through and difficulties, some self-imposed and others coming from the outside, that you're resolute in your belief that sin is real, hell is real, forgiveness is real, Jesus is real, and therefore the resurrection is real.
To kind of reorient our minds and recalibrate our thinking. What Luke does is he makes Jesus central. That's why you hear me say it all the time and I do it on purpose. This is not the gospel of Luke technically, shorthand fine.
This is the gospel or good news of Jesus Christ according to Luke. Because it's all about who Jesus is. And nothing really to do with Luke except he's got that physician's perspective, that detailed perspective, that kind of engineering perspective almost.
And so what Luke does is he makes sure Jesus is central. By the way, to telegraph the pass, you need to continue doing this because most of you do it, to make Jesus central in all your ministries and all your teaching.
VBS, Jesus is central. Home Bible studies, Jesus is central. Sunday school, Jesus is central. Dads and moms teaching their children at the dinner table, Jesus is central. Preaching, Jesus is central. Evangelism, Jesus is central.
Kind of has a theme to it, doesn't it? Jesus is central. We know that we're supposed to be good, that we're supposed to keep the law. And it's good to be reminded to do that. But that's in our hearts, that's in our souls, that's in our conscience as Romans 2 talks about.
But what's not in our hearts and souls is the good news of Jesus Christ, so therefore it has to be proclaimed every single week. David Wells, who used to teach up at Gordon-Conwell and Hamilton Mass, said these haunting, haunting words.
This problem of Christ missing as the focal point in the church today is not like the abduction of a child who's happily at home one minute playing and the next is no longer to be found. No one has abducted Christ in this sense.
The disappearance is closer to what happens in homes where children are ignored and, to all intents and purposes, abandoned. They remain in the home, but they have no place in the family. So it is with Christ in the church.
He remains on the edges of evangelical life, but has been dislodged from its center. And so today in Luke 7, you'll see that for certain that Jesus has not been dislodged in the writer and he doesn't want that to be dislodged in the reader.
Our passage today is Luke 7, verses 36 through 50. And we'll just see what we can get through today. It's so packed, it's so wonderful, so full and bursting of just, if I was gonna just be from Nebraska, I'd say this passage is just bursting with goodness.
Just good for the soul. Everything about it's good because you'll see who Jesus is, you'll see what a sinner looks like, you'll see what a self-righteous person looks like, and how does Jesus deal with each of those people.
Luke is gonna write in such a way that you're gonna go, I feel like I'm there. He's writing so that you can hear, yes, writing so that you can see the scriptures, yes, but writing so that you feel like you're there.
He's writing so it's like it's a firsthand account. I remember my son, Luke, and I could say his name and not give him a dollar because he's far away. I had this deal, if I mentioned the kid's names, I would give him a dollar.
Luke loved to read Louis L 'Amour. And some of you like Louis L 'Amour, and it's good and bad and evil and triumph and everything else, and he's not writing in some kind of uncouth, is that right, uncouth manner?
Yeah, that's right.
If ever I need to know my grammar,.
I look over at Mrs. Landonio and he's like,.
Thank you for that. He describes a scene like you're having coffee in the morning after being out all night with the horses and the cows, and there's the smoke, and there's the flavor, and there's the smell.
When you read Louis L 'Amour, you think you're there. How much more in this passage you're gonna say, I feel like I'm right there. Now, whenever you study the Bible at home or hear from the pulpit that I'm trying to communicate to you, you wanna know the context.
What's the immediate context?
Where are we?
And so to remind everyone, if you went back to the beginning of chapter seven, you would realize that there was a centurion and he had a servant that was near death. Who could help? Physicians can't help, Jews can't help, synagogue leaders can't help, rabbis can't help, but this rabbi, Jesus, he's the one that can help.
And the Gentile centurion knew that, and of course, Jesus heals that centurion's servant. There's something worse than sickness, of course, when it comes to physical maladies, and that's death. And so in chapter seven, verse 11 and following, there's a widow, so strike one, she has no husband.
She has no other children except this son, so strike two, she's going to be left impoverished and sometimes left to raise money in very sordid ways, potentially, and who can help? And Luke wants you to know that Jesus can not only heal people, but he can raise them from the dead, and so only Jesus can help, and what does he do?
Not even being asked to help, he goes and he raises this man from the dead. We move to the next section in verse 18 and following. John the Baptist is in jail. When you criticize people in leadership for sexual sins, sometimes it will cost you and it costs John, and he's in Herod's prison, and he is being persecuted.
And remember, he kind of was conflating the first coming of the Messiah and the second. He knew about Jesus, he knew that he was the lamb who takes away the sin of the world. Lots of things had gone through his mind, but now he's wondering because part of the second coming is justice, vengeance, Isaiah chapter 61, and John the Baptist knew that passage.
And so when the Messiah comes, is there going to be healing and kindness and lepers healed, blind healed? Yes, that's all going to happen, sins forgiven. But the second coming, we would know, is when he comes back with a sword and chariots, as it were.
But John the Baptist couldn't see between the two, so he's wondering in jail, is Jesus the Messiah or not? And then remember what Jesus does, it's so kind. Instead of condemning John the Baptist, he affirms John the Baptist.
Nobody's greater been born of a woman. There's no greater person in all the world than John the Baptist. He vindicates him, he talks about him, and then he says, you know, you think John the Baptist has a demon?
You think he's living out in the wilderness like that guy who was demon-possessed and cutting himself in the crypts and the tombs and naked? You think that's John the Baptist? That's not John the Baptist at all.
And you think because I'm there for weddings, I'm in synagogues, I'm in boats, I'm by the Sea of Galilee, I'm with people, I eat with them, you think I'm a glutton? And you think I'm a tax gatherer? You think I'm a sinner?
And so we come to our passage today, Luke chapter seven, verses 36 and following. Maybe your ESV Bible says at the beginning of that, a sinful woman forgiven. A sinful woman forgiven. Luke wants you to ask this question and see the answer, who is Jesus?
It's not really about the woman, it's not really about Simon, it's about Jesus. Who is Jesus? Who is Jesus? And he's going to tell us. So I think for this week and the next, let me give you eight amazing truths about Jesus so that you can be joyful, you can say this is Jesus for sure, there's no one like him.
Eight truths so that you stay certain that Jesus is Messiah, that you preach Jesus as Messiah and tell your kids week in and week out that Jesus is a God to be worshiped and to be praised and we can be thankful for what he's done for us.
Before we dive into the passage, just a quick note. For some of you Bible students, you might remember that later in Jesus's ministry, there was a woman that anointed him with oil. It's in Matthew, it's in Mark and it's in John, but this is a different scene.
This is a different scenario. This is with different people. Jesus is there, there's some oil there, but this is different. This is a different passage than Matthew, Mark or John. Eight truths about Jesus that answer the question, is Jesus the Messiah?
Truth number one, here's a truth. Jesus is a friend of sinners. Jesus is a friend of sinners. If you look back in chapter seven, it says that I alluded to earlier, verse 34, the son of man has come eating and drinking and you say, look at him, a glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and sinners.
Yet wisdom is justified by all our children. They were wrong about glutton, they were wrong about drunkard, but they were right, he was a friend and is a friend to tax collectors and sinners. So point number one, Jesus is a friend of sinners.
Verse 36 of Luke seven. I just said to myself, Mike, just slow down and enjoy this. Just slow down, this is so good. Just let's just take our time and work through it. If we all live to next week, they'll be next week.
One of the Pharisees asked him to eat with him, that is Jesus, and he went into the Pharisee's house and reclined at table. Is Jesus a great prophet? This Pharisee is saying to himself, I'll make that determination.
This is not kind of a nice gesture, this is going to be a setup. This Pharisee wants to have Jesus over and he like a sly slithering snake wants to have an opportunity to accuse Jesus. In his actions, the actions of his disciples are what Jesus might say.
Simon is a word in the Bible days like Mike or Jim or something like that. There's Simon of Cyrene, there's Simon the leper, there's Simon Bar-Jonah. Here we have Simon the Pharisee. And so when you think about Pharisees, most of the time you probably think about they're separated from people.
They're not around sinful people, they're the holy ones. They're the fighting fundies, really. They're the ones upholding the truth, live moral lives, do the right thing. And this Pharisee invites Jesus over.
In Luke 6, 7, it says the Pharisees were watching Jesus closely to see if he healed on the Sabbath so they might have reason to accuse him. I don't think it's any different here. Let's try to figure out a way to accuse Jesus because after all, we're in charge of religion.
We say what goes. We're the one interpreting the Old Testament in our legalistic, law-centered way, graceless way. And now here comes Jesus. No, something's got to happen. And Jesus is a friend of sinners, including a self-righteous sinner.
And so he goes. Why wouldn't Jesus go to a sinner's house? Even if this man was his enemy. Last time I looked, even in Luke 6, Jesus said, love your enemies. And so he's willing to go to this man's house.
I'm sure he knew this guy's trying to entrap me. I'm sure he was suspicious of his motives. Of course, he's the God-man. And I'm going to just show up. Now, this is not like just a regular meal. This is probably a Sabbath meal.
I know some of you, after church, go to Olive Garden and Chili's. I hope you pray before you eat. Nobody really got that. You know, bless this food. We always were taught when we were kids. And then I went over to third-world countries.
Then you really pray, Lord, bless my food. This is a banquet. And this is not like a small RSVP you invite two people over. The way they would work it back in those days, especially somebody prominent like a Pharisee, he would have a larger house.
He has a lot of money. And then he would have an atrium. He'd have a little banqueting area. He'd have places for private sleeping quarters. But if you, back in those days, were somebody rich and you had this large banqueting area, you would know that other people in the area could just come over and kind of sit in the back.
It's almost kind of like a block party, one man said. And you could just kind of sit in back and visit. And by the way, no TV, no Internet, nothing else. And so there's a great teacher in town. There's a great rabbi in town.
There's a big shot in town. Hey, I'm going to go over to the Pharisee's house and I'm going to be able to enter not into his personal area, but this outside dwelling area. And I can just kind of stand against the wall and listen.
And so that's the kind of setup in terms of the background because you need to know that to understand the passage. Here, Jesus is a friend of sinners. After all, he came to seek and save the lost. Will Jesus associate with self-righteous people?
I think the answer is yes. Now, I want to also help you understand the passage because then it'll just explode with more goodness, as it were. When you invite somebody over to your house for a meal, is there certain decorum?
Are there certain manners that you have? And I think the answer is yes. What we do when people come over to our house for a meal, especially this time of year, I make sure that I go out and put some salt and gravel mixture on all the ice in the sidewalk.
It doesn't always work, but I try to do that. Sidewalk is shoveled. When they knock on the door, you greet them at the door with a smile. There's certain things we do. Now, you give them a hug. And if it's a lady, you give the side hug.
I mean, there's just certain things we do. Take your coat. Can I please take your coat? Don't we do that? Maybe you say, could you take off your shoes? And sometimes I've been to people's homes where I've taken off my shoes and then they have extra slippers that they give me so I can walk around with their slippers.
I don't really like to do that because the last guest walked in those slippers. But for decorum sake, I just do it. Would you like to have a coffee or tea or here's some appetizers, some cheese and crackers?
They're just things that we do that are decorum here in the West. Now, to understand this passage, you would need to understand the decorum that should have been done. But in verse 36, look at it again.
They asked him to eat with him and he went into the Pharisee's house and reclined at table. There's things in there that aren't said. So the decorum back in those days was simple. You're rich. You have this big house.
You have the atrium, this area for everyone to come. Even visitors could come and hang out in the back and listen. And the first thing would happen is that the guest would come over, in this particular case, Jesus, and the servant would greet that guest.
He was always taught to do this and only slaves would do it. And this servant would say, please sit down and let me wash your feet. And so you can imagine desert, you can imagine walking around out there, you can imagine smell, sandals, dust, dirt.
And so let me wash your feet, especially when the way they ate these big meals. Remember, there'd be a low table, a foot or two off the ground and almost like kind of a Japanese style. And you would lay down on your left elbow.
Your legs would be kind of out and you would eat with your right hand. And so you want to have your feet, even though they're stretched out, clean. So you'd go to somebody's house in those days. First thing they do is wash your feet, the servant.
Then you begin to walk into the atrium and there would be somebody there and they would give you some perfume or cologne or some rose water, just depending on what they have. And they would put on your head.
Any reason why? Because there's no deodorant in those days. And if you can have this nice banquet meal, who wants body odor? A servant would do that as well. Never had to be asked. The servants just know somebody comes in.
We wash their feet. We put the thing on the head. And then now the guest walks in to see the host. And what does the host do when when you meet someone at someone's house? What's the first thing you do?
Like I said, you shake their hand. Or you give them a hug or both. And maybe if you're Italian or from the Middle East, you kiss on the left cheek, air kiss, kiss on the right cheek or left, right, left.
I can never remember which one to do. I'm like, OK, left, right. OK, is that that's a Jewish one. But I just did the right, left, left. And that's like Islamic. What am I doing? I don't know. But I do know I hug and shake and smile and and welcome for certain.
Pharisees named Simon said to the servants, when Jesus comes in, you don't wash his feet. They would just normally do it. You don't wash that man's feet. And to the other servant, when he comes in, whatever you do, you do not put perfume and anoint his head.
You don't do it. And Jesus comes in and finally meets the host and the host doesn't kiss him. By the way, to fast forward a little bit. Don't you see in verse? Chapter seven. This lady didn't do anything.
Excuse me, this man didn't do anything.
Verse forty four.
You see this woman, I entered your house, you gave me no water for my feet, but she's wet my feet with her tears and wipe them with her hair. You gave me no kiss. But from the time I came in, she has not ceased to kiss my feet.
You did not anoint my head with oil. Verse forty six. But she anointed my feet with ointment. I don't know what the Pharisee did, said ahead of time. Don't do that. Or with some kind of audible sound or or something else.
Just don't do it. But he didn't do it. So the scene is Jesus gets invited over.
It's a setup.
This man has no respect for Jesus. He doesn't care about Jesus. On purpose, he did this and he's rude. And Jesus reclines at table. One man said it was like Jesus coming into the lion's den. But little did the lion know that his pride would be the meal, so to speak.
Here, Jesus is a friend of sinners. He's not greeted. He's not with the his feet isn't washed. No anointing. And he still goes in. Why? Because Jesus is a friend of sinners. I wonder if Jesus didn't associate with self-righteous people.
How many of us would not be saved? One man said, Aren't you glad Jesus deals with the unrighteous people? Yes, that's true. We'll see. But how about self-righteous people? I'm glad he deals with self-righteous people like me, like you, like Paul, the apostle.
Truth number two. The first one we saw, Jesus is a friend of sinners, both unrighteous and righteous. And secondly, now Jesus accepts worship. Jesus accepts worship. Now, everything here revolves around Jesus because that's Luke's point.
And I want to see the wonderful worship of this lady, but I want to make sure the spotlight's on Jesus because that's where it's supposed to be. So Jesus accepts worship. Verse thirty seven, and behold, that doesn't take much explaining.
Watch, listen, look, something's happening. It's pretty amazing. It could be good. It could be bad, but it's amazing. Behold, a woman of the city. If I said to you somebody was a woman of the night, I wonder what you would think.
A woman of the city. What would you think? Who was a sinner? Remember the word sinner there. It's not like we think ourselves are sinners. That's true in the epistles. But in the gospel, sinners were the lowlifes.
They were the prostitutes. They were the Gentiles that had no moral mosaic law. They were people like tanners that would just deal with dead animals all day. This is the lowest of the low. This is the riffraff.
If you're an Indian, you have a caste system. This is the lowest caste. A woman of the city who was a sinner when she learned that he was reclining at table in the Pharisee's house. Remember, the public can just kind of show up.
They just stand in the back a little bit. She stood behind him. She brought an alabaster flask of flask of ointment. Thirty eight standing behind him at his feet, weeping. She began to wet his feet with her tears and wiped them with the hair of her head and kissed his feet repeatedly as the text and anointed them with the ointment.
Luke says, behold, because it's kind of a shock to the system. A woman shows up. A prostitute most likely shows up. We can't confirm it, but that's probably what he's doing there. And we've got this Pharisee named Simon, and it's almost like forever.
We realize this word Simon, the Pharisee is this self-righteous man who is rude to Jesus and wants to entrap Jesus. And we know his name forever. And it's almost like the Holy Spirit and Luke, they're silent about this woman's name just to kind of guard her.
Shame in her past. Here's this woman. You could almost translate it this way. Look, a woman, a woman showed up to this dinner. Why is she there? Why did she show up? And the answer we're going to soon find out is she has heard Jesus preach.
She has heard the good news that God forgives sinners. She has heard the news that even though you're tainted by sin, there's one that's greater than sin, grace greater than all our sin. And she has been saved.
She believes.
And now she's going to show up with a thank offering. What's her thank offering, by the way? The most precious thing she has is an alabaster jar full of ointment. By the way, sometimes that ointment is used.
That smelling perfume is used for prostitutes because they would use it to place it in the room before the next customer came. But what's for certain is she knows about Jesus. She's been forgiven. So she shows up with a thank offering.
That much we know. And you think, how do you know she's saved? We'll get there. But she has been divinely pardoned. I mean, can you imagine walking into a room? Yes, you're forgiven. But every single person there in this village, maybe we're still in Nain where Jesus raised the widow's son.
And everybody knows you're a prostitute. Everybody knows what prostitutes do. Can you imagine walking into a room where everyone would know your secret sins? What would ever make you go to a room like that, where everybody knows your secret sins?
And the answer is, there's the lover of my soul. There's the one who has saved me, sought me, bought me. I have forgiveness and I need to go thank him. It's almost as if she heard the message that Jesus preached earlier and didn't have access to him.
And she wants to go to him and thank him and give him something. Nothing's going to stop her. Not her own shame, not the blame of others. What's this woman doing here? Who was the worst person in that room?
Was it her?
Was it the Pharisee?
I, the lady says, want to show my thanks, my gratitude, my undying love for a man who would rescue me. All the sins I committed against others, against you, God, I've been forgiven and I'm going to thank you and praise you.
I'd like to do something that you're going to say, what's the pastor doing here? Maybe you say that often. That's OK. There are other passages in the Gospels that are similar we call those synoptic verses.
So I want you to go to Matthew 11. And there's something in Matthew 11 that we don't have in Luke seven that I think is going to encourage you. So sometimes what you could do is you could buy a book called Harmony of the Gospels.
You should have that book. Every person here should have that book, Harmony of the Gospels. There's many different ones. And so it takes Matthew, Mark, Luke and John and puts it together in a chronological format.
It'll say, well, you know, in Matthew, it doesn't talk about this, but Luke does. So let's add it. So what I'm doing here is I'm going to go through the same passage in Matthew. But there's extra stuff in Matthew that help you understand Luke.
So we're going to go to Matthew chapter 11, and part of this is a good way to review last week's passage because we're still talking about the same thing. And then there's an extra little bit of wonder at the end.
I should say a bit of wonderful. Matthew 11, verse 15. He who has ears to hear, let him hear. But to what shall I compare this generation? It's like children sitting in the marketplaces and calling to their playmates.
We played the flute for you. You did not dance. We sang a dirge for you, did not mourn. Remember the games that they played back in those days? We play Leapfrog and Tug of War and Cops and Robbers and London Bridge is falling down.
And we used to play. How many kids here know the game Seven Up? You're not a kid. Only adults raise their hand, head down, thumbs up, seven up. And you got to peek and cheat and everything. That that game is really called Who's Lying?
Mother, may I kick the can, follow the leader? They played Funeral and what? Wedding. OK, good. So that's a good review from last week. Verse 18, for John came neither eating nor drinking. And they say he's got a demon.
The son of man came, verse 19, eating and drinking. And they say, look at him, a glutton, a drunkard, friend of sinners and tax collectors. Yet wisdom is justified by our deeds. Take a look at the fruit of Jesus's ministry, the fruit of John the Baptist ministry that changed lives.
It's a little bit different. What happens to people that turn down the message of Jesus and John the Baptist? Matthew gives us that information. This is stuff that's not in Luke. So I wanted to make sure you could see it here in this synoptic gospel, a similar gospel, something that's viewed the same way.
But we have a little bit extra. What happens to people that say, I don't need to repent that John the Baptist saying I don't need to believe in Jesus? Verse 20 of Matthew. Then he began to denounce the cities where most of his mighty works had been done because they did not repent.
What does unrepentance look like? What's the fruit of that? Woe to you, Chorazin. Woe to you, Bethsaida. For if the mighty works done in you had been done in Tyre and Sidon, they would have repented long ago in sackcloth and ashes.
But I tell you, it'll be more bearable on the day of judgment for Tyre and Sidon than you and you, Capernaum. Remember, Jesus did tons of miracles there. You will be exalted to heaven. You will be brought down to Hades.
For if the mighty works done in you had been done in Sodom, it would have remained until this day. But I tell you, that's the second time he said that it'll be more tolerable on the day of judgment for the land of Sodom than for you.
What happens to people that refuse to repent and believe? Judgment is coming. But what about people that do respond to the message of John the Baptist and to Jesus? What's that all about?
Do they exist? Why do they exist?
What's the difference between people that believe and don't believe? Well, here's the answer. Verse 27, all things have been handed over to me by my father. And no one knows the son except the father.
And no one knows the father except the son and anyone to whom the son chooses to reveal him. It's divine revelation. It's divine saving. It's the effectual call. How do we have any faith? God has to work.
But isn't there a response on our side?
God is sovereign.
Are we responsible to repent? Are we responsible to believe and to trust in everything else? The answer is yes. And here is the sermon, or one just like it, that the prostitute or the woman of the city, the sinner, heard.
Verse 28, this is right after the section about drinking and eating, drunkards, gluttons, wisdom justified by her children. Here it is. And you all know it, don't you? Come to me. Just imagine, I want you to imagine this sermon or something like it, the woman hears, a sinner hears.
Maybe you're hearing it for the first time as an unbeliever. Come to me. Believe in me. That's what it means. All who labor and are heavy laden, and I'll give you rest.
Isn't that amazing?
Take my yoke upon you and learn from me. Only time in all the Bible we hear about Jesus's heart. I'm gentle and lowly in heart, and you'll find rest for your souls. My yoke is easy, and my burden is light.
Whether she heard this message right there, because it's in context, or one like it, can you imagine the call to all sinners? Would you like to have rest for your soul? Do you have a burden? Do you have a burden on your back?
I'll give you rest. He says, come to me. He doesn't say, go to Moses. Go to other people. I know where you can find rest. No, I will give you rest. He doesn't say, come to religion to do all these things.
I will give you rest. Come to me. I don't know for certain, but I've watched enough Fox TV shows called Cops and the follow up Jail, the ultimate burden of a prostitute, the ultimate weariness of a prostitute.
And coming to their senses, the burden of guilt must be horrible. And then there's a man, the God man, who says, whether you're self-righteous or unrighteous, I've come to do this very thing. I've come to take your burden, to bear your burden.
I know you're weary. I know your souls need rest. And I want you to know, not only rest in this life, but spiritual rest and unto heaven, you can have rest. I give it to you freely. All you have to do is come to me.
All you have to do is believe in me. She heard this message or one just like it. Now back to Luke chapter 7. Luke chapter 7. This lady knew about salvation. And she shows up in the lion's den, this public banquet.
She'd normally never show up at such a place. They knew her sins, the shame. But Jesus is there. And she's come to him. And he's given her rest. And she shows up with something to give him. But before she does that, what does the passage say?
Verse 37, a woman of the city who was a sinner, she learned he was reclining. She brought an alabaster flask of ointment.
It's expensive.
And she's standing behind him at his feet. So remember, they're laying down. It's a formal kind of banquet setting, laying down on one elbow, eating with the right hand, legs kind of going out, some people say almost kind of like spokes.
And so she's able to stand in the back. And she finds Jesus. And she, I think, maybe uncontrollably, maybe she didn't even plan on it, she just starts crying. She just starts crying. And she is crying so much, what's the text say?
She began to wet his feet with her tears. I mean, verse 37, she's a sinner. Verse 39, she's a sinner. Verse 49, her sins. And she knows he's the Savior. And Jesus accepting this worship doesn't do anything.
Can you imagine? Wet his feet with her tears. She doesn't have a towel. Wipe them with the hair of her head. And instead of doing the side kiss thing, starts kissing his feet and anointed them with the ointment that's supposed to go on the head.
I read that, and I think, I don't want to say it, but it's kind of embarrassing. It just strikes me as, what's going on? I mean, if somebody started doing that to you, I know some of you have been in different churches and denominations and other things where they have foot washing.
People go up and have your foot washed. They have it as one of the ordinances, baptism, the Lord's Supper, and foot washing. It's kind of weird, isn't it? I mean, I know Peter wasn't right, but even when Jesus wrapped the towel around himself and got down on his knees and started washing Peter's feet.
And what does Peter say? Don't do that. She doesn't say a word. This is like wordless worship.
She says nothing.
But what's more amazing, Jesus doesn't say anything.
He doesn't say stop.
He doesn't say, don't worship me. Worship God alone. He accepts worship. That's one of the reasons why we know Jesus as God. Of course, his attributes. Of course, his actions. Of course, he can forgive sin.
But Jesus accepts worship because he's the God man. He is, in fact, God. You don't let down your hair back in those days if you're a lady, because only prostitutes do. You keep your hair up. You keep your hair up until you get home.
It's offensive. Do you know the rabbis would say outside the Bible, if your wife lets her hair down in public, you can divorce her. I think she doesn't care about Simon. I think she doesn't care about the people.
She has her eyes on the one who has forgiven her and given her rest. And she just starts bawling. I don't think she can control it. Luther called tears like this, don't forget it, heart water. It's heart water.
It's just pouring down. I said to myself the other day, when's the last time I just wept for joy for being forgiven? All the times of disappointment and lack of contentment and everything else, and I just thought, what's the most important thing with everything?
It's the Lord Jesus, who he is. And my response to him, when's the last time.
I ever shed a tear of joy?
She's just weeping.
She can't. She's weeping so much, the dirt on his feet has probably turned to mud. Had a friend over yesterday, and kind of a blue collar kind of guy, tough guy kind of guy. And we started talking about salvation.
I don't think he knew I was going to be preaching this. He did later. And all of a sudden, I see in this man's eye some moisture, let's call it. And I see this man start to cry a little bit, thinking about where he was 10, 20 years ago, thinking about what the Lord has done and is doing.
And here, Mr. Tough Guy has a tear. When's the last time you had any tears of joy, salvation? You get to go to heaven, forgiveness full and free. This is your Savior, the Savior here that loves sinners.
He's the one. He's the one that did it all. And she just has to come and, OK. If Simon won't wash feet, I will. If Simon and his servants won't give perfume, I will. If Simon won't give a kiss, I will.
And by the way, the text with the kissing is kissing over and over and over, so much so you'd want to say stop. Jesus never says stop, because he did save her. And he will receive this thank offering of her kisses, of her tears, and of the ointment.
How much guilt she must have had, and now she's been washed to not have that guilt. Christian, every sin that you've ever committed, paid in full. Did you know that? Every sin, the shame that comes with sin, and the most shame you could ever have with those secret sins that God knows about, and maybe a few others, or no one, paid in full.
And he'll accept that worship of thanksgiving. He didn't stop her. He wasn't put off. Don't touch me, you woman with the hair down, you prostitute, you sinner. Jesus is a friend of sinners and tax collectors.
I'm so washed. I'm so clean. And my Savior's feet are dirty, and I'm just going to clean them.
What a passage.
What a scene. I would have stopped her. Jesus does not. She's overwhelmed with gratitude. She doesn't care about anyone else looking.
She's humble.
She takes the position of a servant, because only a servant washes feet. Extravagant love by Jesus yields extravagant love by his followers. I don't know if this is true or not for this case, but I know this part's true.
From what I've read even this week, and noticed in life, if she was a prostitute, it gives me insight. But prostitutes are hard people, hardened people, don't cry kind of people, reserve people, just that life of sin that they're in and how they're abused and used.
And pretty soon, you're just hardened to the core. You don't show your emotions. You can't get involved, because this is just some kind of job, duty. And what does she do? Want to talk about is worship emotional?
Want to talk about are there emotions involved in worship? And I don't mean out of order things. But in our day and age of creeds and confessions, praise God, hallelujah, we're not invading Christianity.
Christianity is of the mind and of the intellect. That's true. But Jesus, the incarnate one, had emotions, and real humans have emotions. And can you imagine the emotions here? So thankful, so forgiven.
Is there emotionless worship? Yes, but I don't want that. I don't want to give that. I was watching. I think it'd be hard to keep eating. If you were a visitor on the back wall, I think it'd be hard. I can't believe she's doing this, and I can't believe Jesus is accepting it.
And we're going to find out real soon, like real soon in 167 hours, how can you do this? That's what Simon was thinking. Let's look at it. Pharisee, verse 39, who had invited him, saw this, he said to himself, if this man were a prophet, he would have known who and what sort of woman this is who's touching him, for she's a sinner.
Jesus is accepting this worship, and Luke wants you to know that. Jesus accepts worship of sinners saved by sovereign grace. Lavish worship he receives, because he's the God man. I think someone said, this was probably her song.
I'd rather have Jesus than silver or gold. I'd rather be his than riches untold. I'd rather have Jesus than houses or land. I'd rather be led by his nail-pierced hand than to be the king or queen of a vast domain and be held in sin's dread sway.
I'd rather have Jesus than anything this world affords today. Isn't Jesus wonderful? Isn't it exciting? Don't you want me to just keep going? I do, but we will soon enough. Dear Christian, we have the Lord's Supper now.
Why do we celebrate the Lord's Supper? Well, here's one reason. When you sin, and we've sinned this week, after confessing it, repenting of it, running from it, trying to kill it, we then sin again the same sin.
And we try to do the same thing over and over. And we sometimes think, am I still OK in God's eyes? Am I right in God's eyes? I've committed a grievous sin this week and such a shameful thing. Am I OK with God?
How could I sin against this God who loved me so? And you are to be reminded, Christian, and I say Christian on purpose, because if you're trusting in the Lord Jesus, I want you to know you're still welcome in God's sight, because you're still welcome to the table.
You're welcome to the table to recline with Jesus. A reformer said, when the shepherd finds a lost sheep again, he has no intention of pushing it away in anger or throwing it to a wolf. Rather, all his care and concern is directed to alluring it with every possible kindness, treating it with utmost tenderness.
He takes the lamb upon his back, lifting it and carrying it until he brings the animal all the way home. So if you'd like to be motivated to love God and give Him emotional, true, sacrificial worship, the motivator is the love of God.
God still loves you. We confess our sins and we run from them, but God still loves us. I read that in Quebec, Canada, sometimes the natives there, the native Canadians, they would take a club to kill salmon.
And there was a certain name that they would give that club. And often because of teaching about law only and transactional Christianity, God only loves me when I do these things. And if I don't do these things, He doesn't love me and I'm not a Christian.
Those people in Quebec called that club a priest because the priest just clubs. The high priest Jesus, does He club like that? How does He draw you back after we confess our sins? How does He even encourage you to confess sins?
Micah 7, who is a God like you who pardons sin and forgives the transgression? You will not stay angry forever, but delight to show mercy. You will again have compassion on us. You will tread our sins underfoot and hurl all our iniquities in the depths of the sea.
So dear Christian, we celebrate the Lord's Supper today because the same Jesus we just looked about in Luke chapter 7, looked at rather, is your Jesus. And so you come and you confess and you say, Lord, I'd like to even worship you better than I have been.
I've been so concerned about others, I forget about how great you are and things like that. So we're going to have the bread in our hand and a cup in the hand and we can sing songs from the projector and we're going to think, you know what?
Thank you, Lord Jesus, for what you've done. The reason why we celebrate the Lord's Supper are many, but you are forgiven and you're able to come to this world.
Amen?