Forgiveness Produces Fruit Luke 7:36-8:3

Well, good morning everyone, and welcome to Faith Bible Church, and a blessed

Father's Day to those that God has blessed that way, and we thank you, men, for what

God has placed in your life and the responsibility that comes with that, and we are all products of a father, but thank the

Lord we have Him as our supreme example of what is a father, and so we're just grateful that we can have the

Lord as our guide, and as our example of how we ought to be, and we all,

Micah, we fall short, we know, but God is patient, and He endures with us, so, wanted to, just a few announcements here,

Micah's trying to help me out, which is just fine, on your bulletins, summer

Bible study continues Friday, June 23rd, it was a good turnout last Friday, and I haven't heard all the report of that, but that's

June 23rd, Friday at 5 .30, going through the book of Hebrews. The counseling is next, of course, is

June 24th at 11 o 'clock in the morning, and everyone's welcome, you can drop in and insert yourself at any time in the middle of that study, and trust me, you will walk away with knowing and understanding better God's Word, and also things that surround the whole subject of counseling.

Missionary of the Month, Jim and Joan Hanson, and continue to pray for them as they wind down their ministry, and some of their folks get scattered across the countryside to different places to live.

Picnic at the Huffon's on July 16th, so just mark your calendars for that, and come as you are, and just everything will be taken care of, so it's after the morning service.

And lastly, the planned baptismal is on July 23rd, and right now, it looks like we have a number of people that are interested in being baptized, so praise the

Lord for that, and if God lays it upon your heart, if you haven't been baptized and would like to be, pray about it, and then talk to Pastor Victor Uriah, and we'd love to have that conversation.

I think we're gonna, here in the next couple weeks, Pastor's gonna talk just a little bit more in depth about what is that, and just give you some background to that, okay?

And I think that's it for announcements. Before we go to the

Lord in prayer, I just wanted to share a verse, it's Psalm 34, 1, and it's,

I will bless the Lord at all times. His praise shall continually be in my mouth.

And bless, oftentimes, in newer translations, is translated praise, so praise the

Lord, bless the Lord. Some, oh, we normally expect the Lord to bless us, we say, Lord bless us, you know, but we need to bless the

Lord, we need to praise the Lord. The Hebrew literally means to kneel in worship, pretty strong picture of how we should come before God the

Creator, the mighty God of the universe. So bless the Lord means to praise

Him, exalt Him, worship Him, so what's our responsibility? We are to give

God glory, that's our purpose in life, is to glorify God, and if we're not bringing glory to God, then we need to look in the mirror and say, why am

I not bringing glory to God? Because if He created me to do this very thing, and I'm failing in that, or I'm not rising to that level, we need to look in the mirror, and we need to pray to our

Heavenly Father to help guide us in our worship. So this morning, just have that in mind as we come before Him, and let us pray together.

Lord God, we thank you, Lord, that you have brought each person here together today, that we can worship you, we can praise you,

Father, that we would bless you with the offerings of our praise. God, we thank you,

Father, for pastor and the teaching ministry here at Faith Bible Church. Lord, you have allowed him and others to just stay true to your word,

Father, that people would see your word above all, that they would see the love of your people, Lord, in this congregation.

And, Father, we just wait on you, we rest in you, Father, for all that you have in store for us.

So, God, bless this morning's service. We pray for those that aren't here this morning that are infirmed or are ill.

Some are traveling, Father, Lord, bless their time, that they would take a moment to think of you, to reflect upon your goodness.

God, we thank you that we can acknowledge and celebrate fatherhood and all that it means and all that's behind it.

Thank you for being our example of what we ought to be, Father, as in all things. So, God, bless our time this morning.

May our voices sing and resonate with the glorious love of Jesus. So, God, bless it and go before us, we pray in Jesus' name, amen.

David? Good morning and happy Father's Day. Jesus Christ is

Lord, Jesus Christ is God, and I shall call upon the Lord who is worthy to be praised, so shall

I be saved by my enemies. And let's stand and sing to our Heavenly Father. So, if you could take your

Bibles now for this morning's scripture reading, we're going to be reading from Psalm 103. Psalm 103, bless the

Lord, O my soul, and all that is within me, bless his holy name. Bless the

Lord, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits, who forgives all your iniquities, who heals all your diseases, who redeems your life from destruction, who crowns you with loving kindness and tender mercies, who satisfies your mouth with good things, so that your youth is renewed like the eagles.

The Lord executes righteousness and justice for all who are oppressed. He made known his ways to Moses, his acts to the children of Israel.

The Lord is merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in mercy. He will not always strive with us, nor will he keep his anger forever.

He has not dealt with us according to our sins, nor punished us according to our iniquities.

For as the heavens are high above the earth, so great is his mercy toward those who fear him.

As far as the east is from the west, so far has he removed our transgressions from us.

As a father pities his children, so the Lord pities those who fear him. For he knows our frame, he remembers that we are dust.

As for man, his days are like grass, as a flower of the field, so he flourishes.

For the wind passes over it, and it is gone, and its place remembers it no more.

But the mercy of the Lord is from everlasting to everlasting on those who fear him, and his righteousness to children, to such as keep his covenant, and to those who remember his commandments, to do them.

The Lord has established his throne in heaven, and his kingdom rules over all. Bless the

Lord, you his angels, who excel in strength, who do his word, heeding the voices of his word.

Bless the Lord, all you his hosts, you ministers of his, who do his pleasure.

Bless the Lord, all his works, in all places of his dominion. Bless the

Lord, O my soul. May God bless the hearing of his word. Praise the

Lord and sing of his loving

Son, the strong and the strengthened

Lord. Happy Father's Day.

And as Debbie read to us, Father's Day is hard for many of us because of the fathers we've lost, or the fathers we've never had.

Fathers who were physically there, but mentally not there, relationally not there.

And that's just really the reality of living in a fallen, sinful world.

But I do want us to be encouraged to know that even if you never had a proper earthly father, or an outright monstrous earthly father, we have our heavenly father, and we can know what kind of father he is to all of us.

So I'll be reading from an excerpt from a book called Gentle and Lowly by Dane Ortlin.

It's a great book. And he goes over in one chapter,

God the Father. It's called Father of Mercies. Who is

God the Father? Just that, our father. Some of us had great dads growing up.

Others of us were horribly mistreated or abandoned by them. Whatever the case, the good in our earthly father dads is a faint pointer to the true goodness of our heavenly father.

And the bad in our earthly dads is the photo negative of who our heavenly father is.

He is the father of whom every human father is a shadow. In John 14,

Philip asks Jesus to show the disciples the father. Jesus responds, have

I been with you so long and you still do not know me, Philip? Whoever has seen me has seen the father.

How can you say show us the father? Do you not believe that I am in the father and the father is in me?

Whoever has seen me has seen the father. Elsewhere in the New Testament calls

Christ the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature, Hebrews 1 .3.

Jesus is the embodiment of who God is. He is the tangible epitomization of God.

Jesus Christ is the visible manifestation of the invisible God. In him we see heaven's eternal heart walking around on two legs in time and space.

When we see the heart of Christ, then throughout the four gospels we are seeing the very compassion and tenderness of who

God himself most deeply is. As you consider the father's heart for you, remember that he is the father of mercies.

He is not cautious in his tenderness toward you. He multiplies mercies matched to your very need.

And there is nothing he would rather do. Remember, said the Puritan John Flavel, that this

God in whose hand are all creatures is your father and is much more tender of you than you are or can be of yourself.

Your gentlest treatment of yourself is less gentle than the way your heavenly father handles you.

His tenderness toward you outstrips what you are even capable of toward yourself.

Now with that, we will be reading from Luke 7, verse 36 to 8, chapter 8, verse 3.

And we have the privilege of seeing what kind of tender mercy

Jesus shows toward sinners. And that same tender mercy is that of the father in heaven.

Luke chapter 7, verse 36 to Luke chapter 8, verse 3.

Then one of the Pharisees asked him to eat with him, and he went to the Pharisee's house and sat down to eat.

And behold, a woman in the city who was a sinner, and when she knew that Jesus sat at the table in the

Pharisee's house, brought an alabaster flask of fragrant oil and stood at his feet behind him weeping.

And she began to wash his feet with her tears and wiped them with her hair of her head.

And she kissed his feet and anointed them with the fragrant oil. Now when the Pharisee who had invited him saw this, he spoke to himself saying, this man, if he were a prophet, would know who and what manner of woman this is and who is touching him, for she is a sinner.

And Jesus answered and said to him, Simon, I have something to say to you. So he said, teacher, say it.

There was a certain creditor who had two debtors. One owed 500 denarii and the other 50.

And when they had nothing with which to repay, he freely forgave them both. Tell me therefore, which of them will love him more?

Simon answered and said, I suppose the one whom he forgave more. And he said to him, you have rightly judged.

Then he turned to the woman and said to Simon, do you see this woman? I entered your house.

You gave me no water for my feet, but she has washed my feet with tears and wiped them with her hair of her head.

You gave me no kiss. But this woman had not ceased to kiss my feet since the time I came in.

You did not anoint my head with oil, but this woman has anointed my feet with fragrant oil.

Therefore I say to you, her sins, which are many, are forgiven, for she loved much.

But to whom little is forgiven, the same loves little. Then he said to her, your sins are forgiven.

And those who sat at the table with him began to say to themselves, who is this who even forgives sins?

Then he said to the woman, your faith has saved you. Go in peace. Now it came to pass afterward that he went through every city and village preaching and bringing the glad tidings of the kingdom of God.

And the twelve were with him. And certain women who had been healed of evil spirits and infirmities,

Mary called Magdalene, out of whom had come seven demons. And Joanna, the wife of Chusa, Herod's steward, and Susanna, and many others who provided for him from their substance.

Let us pray. Father, we are thankful that we get to experience your love and we get to see the tenderness of your compassion by looking at how

Jesus handles the sinners. Thank you that we can approach him and he will not take us away, kick us out.

He will not abandon us, but he will faithfully and tenderly care for us.

And Father, we pray that you would renew our minds. Whatever horrible experience or even good experience we have of our earthly fathers, we pray that we would experience the deepest and richest and purest love from our

Father in heaven through Jesus Christ. In his name we pray, amen. Now here we turn from John the

Baptist to Jesus. And there is a new conflict that is brewing.

And it is that there's a notorious sinner, a well -known sinner, publicly known sinner who stands before Jesus.

And all the eyes in the house are watching. Now this text shows us an important concept here.

It shows us the importance of forgiveness from God. And this is very relevant to us even today because sin has no boundary.

Whether male or female, rich or poor, powerful or weak, young or old, we have one common enemy, and that's sin.

And this is very important because the holy God cannot associate with sinners.

Sinners cannot stand before the holy God with their sin because that's how pure and righteous

God is. However, the good news today is we get to see a glimpse of how this holy

God interacts with a sinner, a well -known sinner, an unnamed sinner, a sinner who is so joyfully grateful for being forgiven by Jesus.

Whether male or female, rich or poor, powerful or weak, young or old, the good news is that we have one common

Savior, and that's Jesus. And the second important lesson here is that every forgiven person bears fruit.

You might have met people who call themselves Christians but they bear no fruit that even resembles

Christ. And you start to question. Maybe you've been discouraged.

And some of you might have been just scarred by those people. But what this passage shows us is that those who are forgiven bear the fruit of salvation.

This by no means means that the type of love you show toward God saves you, but it's the opposite.

If you're forgiven, if you're saved, you naturally bear fruit.

And we see that in this sinful woman who's unnamed, but we also see that in a greater list of women in chapter 8.

When they're forgiven, they bear fruit. They produce fruit.

So the main point of this text is how does Jesus deal with sinners?

How does Jesus deal with sinners? First, when

Jesus mercifully forgives sinners, they faithfully respond in love.

When Jesus mercifully forgives sinners, they faithfully respond in love.

Now this passage picks up where Luke left off. How does

Jesus, the Son of Man, interact with sinners? Remember in Luke 7, 34, what the

Pharisees said about Jesus. The Son of Man came eating and drinking, and the Pharisees charged him as a friend of sinners and tax collectors.

Right before our eyes, we get to see how Jesus is the friend of sinners.

First, verse 36 sets the background context of this encounter.

Then, one of the Pharisees asked him to eat with him, and he went to the

Pharisees' house and sat down to eat. Here, we cannot assume right now that the

Pharisees are openly against Jesus to trap him, right? That will come, but not here.

Here they're still trying to figure out who Jesus is. So they invite him over for a meal.

Some translations say that Jesus reclined to eat. He lay down.

This is because in ancient Israel, lying down to eat was a normal occurrence for a feast.

Not a normal meal. They sat down to eat, but for a feast, a special gathering, oftentimes, they would eat lying down.

They would angle their bodies and feet away from the table on which there was food, and they would eat lying down.

And this type of meal was actually open to the outsiders. The door was open. And this explains why the next verse happened so naturally.

Now, the dramatic change in verse 37 is this.

And behold a woman in the city who was a sinner. When it says behold, this is a way of Luke highlighting and bolding the text here.

Behold, look. Look right here. Pay attention. There's a sinner. A woman in the city who was a sinner.

This woman came from the same city. She was well known. But what she was known for was that she was a sinner.

Now, many try to say this woman is Mary Magdalene, but I don't think so because Mary Magdalene does show up in the next passage, chapter eight, but Luke doesn't make the effort to make the connection, right?

Now, second, many also want to speculate what kind of sin she is guilty of.

Maybe prostitution. Maybe adultery. Maybe she was in a lot of debt.

It's fun to speculate, but as Ramiah told us on Friday during Bible study, if God wanted us to know, he would have told us.

So we'll leave it at that. She's a sinner. We don't know what sin. We don't know. But God would have told us if that was important.

All we know is that this woman, who is known as a sinner, came into the

Pharisee's house unannounced, and what followed became the main focus of the feast.

And Luke, in fact, describes every single detail like a slow motion movie scene.

When she knew that Jesus sat at the table in the Pharisee's house, brought an alabaster flask of fragrant oil.

An alabaster flask of fragrant oil would have been either a stone or a glass jar to preserve the precious oil and the scent, aromatics, right?

And it was even more expensive than olive oil. And stood at his feet behind him, weeping.

And she began to wash his feet with her tears and wiped them with the hair of her head.

And she kissed his feet and anointed them with the fragrant oil. Now the word for weeping literally means to rain.

Anywhere else in the Bible, this word means to rain. It does not have to be water rain.

It can be rain of judgment for Sodom and Gomorrah when that's mentioned. But the point is,

Luke is illustrating an emotionally deep experience of this woman.

She did not just shed a few tears here and there, right? Just rolling down her cheeks.

Her tears showered upon Jesus' feet, right?

She, um, and they poured out like the rain shower out of the gratitude she felt toward him.

After hearing about what he came to do and what he is doing, she couldn't contain herself.

And because her tears were uncontrollably falling on Jesus' feet, she undoes her hair to wipe his feet, right?

Not only that, out of her deep reverence and joy, she starts kissing Jesus' feet as she anoints them, pours out the precious oil that she's collected for however long on Jesus' feet.

The focus of this meal is not on the food provided, but on this woman's response to Jesus.

Now, what's the initial response? Verse 39, now when the Pharisee who had invited him saw this, he spoke to himself saying, this man, if he were a prophet, would know who and what manner of woman this is who is touching him, for she is a sinner.

Here, Luke shows us a glimpse of the inner thought of the host.

He is disturbed by the scene. In fact, she is this, he is disturbed by her, by her sheer presence.

Remember in the Old Testament, uh, there, there were laws of purity and depending on what kind of woman this was, you could be defiled by her if she touches you.

So therefore, the Pharisee's thought here is that if Jesus were really a prophet from God, if he were really that holy, he would avoid her like the plague.

He's risking himself of being defiled. Oh, it's too late, right? In his mind, a true prophet from God would be able to discern this sort of things.

You gotta know from the unclean, from the, uh, from the unclean and unclean, you gotta be able to discern that, aren't you a prophet?

However, Jesus responds with a parable as he addresses the host,

Simon. Now, Simon is a rather a common name, so we cannot assume this is

Simon the leper. There's a similar host named Simon the leper that's coming.

Now verse 41, there was a certain creditor who had two debtors. One owed 500 denarii and the other 50.

Now a denarius was a day's wage for a laborer or a common soldier in the

Roman army. And instead of trying to calculate the current equivalence with our inflationary currency, let's think of it this way.

We have two different debtors. One owes significantly more than the other. And if we consider a denarius as just a day's wage for common people, right, it would have been comparing a nearly two years of wage and debt versus maybe two months of wage and debt, right?

So, in another word, it's something like while the other owes two months of his wage in a car loan, right, and then the other person owes about two years of wage in his housing mortgage, right?

There's a huge difference between the two. Now, the difference being exorbitant makes this plot twist that's coming even more shocking.

And when they had nothing with which to repay, he freely forgave them both. No questions asked.

He doesn't just calculate, okay, you could pay this off, so you're going to be okay here. But the one who owes more, we have a program for you, right?

That didn't happen. Freely forgave them both because they both couldn't repay.

No matter how low that car loan was, he couldn't repay. So the creditor says, you don't have to pay.

It's forgiven. Now, in this parable, it's important to tie the parable to what it's representing in reality.

The two debtors represent two sinners of different categories. One is extremely more severe than the other one, right?

But they're both helpless to pay the debt. They both can't help themselves.

They both need the grace of the creditor. And the creditor, of course, is

God. In the parable, God is prepared and willing to forgive no matter how much debt is owed.

No matter how much it will cost him. After all, that was all his money that he's loaned out.

In fact, this is Jesus' answer to the Pharisees' internal thought. Remember what the

Pharisees said? This man, if he were a prophet, would know who and what manner of woman this is who is touching him.

For she is a sinner. Now Jesus, in response to the

Pharisees' inner thought, puts the ball in the Pharisees' court.

Tell me, therefore, which of them will love him more? You tell me why

I'm not stopping this woman. You tell me why this woman is responding this way.

The irony of Jesus' answer is multi -layered. First, Jesus, because he is more than a prophet, knew precisely what kind of woman this was despite Simon's misperception of Jesus.

Second, because Jesus is more than a prophet, he was not disgusted by her.

Nor did he stop her from responding in her flooding gratitude.

Third, Jesus, because he is more than a prophet, even discerned

Simon's thought, which was not even verbalized. Simon thought that Jesus was not a prophet because he couldn't discern what's publicly well -known about this woman.

Ah, she's a sinner. She looks it. Sure, sure, he might be foreign to this unnamed city, but we all can tell.

But precisely why Jesus didn't push her away was because Jesus is more than a prophet.

Now, to Jesus' question, Simon answers, I suppose the one whom he forgave more.

And Jesus answered, you have rightly judged. Finally, Simon has discerned correctly.

And from verses 44 to 47,

Jesus goes over every detail of the woman's action to show the proper application of receiving

God's gracious forgiveness. Another idea here.

The Pharisee, a theologically educated, pure in public's eyes, and supposedly

God -loving man, the host, has to learn a lesson about responding to God in love from a well -known sinner of the town who came uninvited.

What Jesus is telling Simon is, look at her. Let me tell you how to properly respond to God's gracious forgiveness.

The very person whom Simon looked down upon, the very person

Simon used as a standard to judge Jesus, Jesus will use that same person to show how much

Simon is lacking in love toward God. Point by point,

Jesus shows how Simon lacked the proper response to Jesus, yet the woman fulfilled it.

Then he turned to the woman and said to Simon, do you see this woman?

I entered your house. You gave me no water for my feet. But she has washed my feet with her tears and wiped them with the hair of her head.

Although washing feet has become very popular in the Christian circle, it was not a required action for the host.

So I probably didn't wash your feet when you came over to my house. It wasn't really a requirement for me.

Now, in fact, foot washing, when it was performed, it was usually performed by the servant or the slave in the house.

It was the lowly job. It wasn't for the host.

Now, it's not that Simon was an improper host. The point is

Simon could have done much more at the entrance of Christ. Verse 45, you gave me no kiss, but this woman has not ceased to kiss my feet since the time

I came in. You did not anoint my head with oil, but this woman has anointed my feet with fragrant oil.

Again, anointing one's head, pouring oil on someone's head was not a required action for the host.

But this sinner went above and beyond to pour out the most precious type of oil, not on the head, but on his feet.

She went above and beyond. Verse 47, therefore

I say to you, her sins, which are many, are forgiven, for she loved much.

But to whom little is forgiven, the same loves little. The sinful woman's lavishing response to Jesus was the confirmation of the forgiveness of her sin.

It's abundantly clear that Jesus knew exactly what kind of woman this was.

It was many. Her sins were many. Yet, that was the precisely overflowing love for God, which was the natural fruit of God's forgiveness.

That was the proof that she is no longer a sinner.

That's why Jesus let her do this. And this is important for us to remember.

Our love for God does not add to God's forgiveness of us.

But when God graciously and freely forgives us, the most natural response is the overflow with the joyous gratitude and love toward Christ.

There's no other way to receive Jesus' forgiveness, which was purchased on the cross for you.

There is no upcoarseness about it. Oh yeah, of course Jesus died for my sin.

It floods one's heart to consider what Jesus had to go through to purchase your pardon.

That's how we know that this woman was forgiven. Now, the most important connection here is how is this woman's response to Jesus equivalent to showing her love for God?

Yes, it makes sense. God forgives. God forgives your sin. But what does it have to do with pouring precious oil onto Jesus' feet?

The next verse bridges the two parts. Verse 48, Then he said to her,

Your sins are forgiven. All of a sudden, it is Jesus who forgives her.

In the psalm that we read this morning during Sunday school, but also the psalm that Harold read this morning, forgiveness of sin is purely

God's jurisdiction. That's his authority.

That's his prerogative. Only he can do that. Yet verse 48 clearly says,

Your sins are forgiven, and that comes out of Jesus' mouth. Notice he doesn't say, Well, God told me your sins are forgiven.

Go in peace. No, Jesus says it directly from his own mouth.

And of course, this causes a stir among the witnesses. And those who sat at the table with him begin to say to themselves,

Who is this who even forgives sin? They know this is not a normal response from a human teacher.

Who are you? How can you do that? And remember, the right to forgive rests with God.

After all, after all, whenever we do sin, the most offended party is

God. The guests at the feast are actually asking the right question.

Who is this who even forgives sins? How can a mere man offer forgiveness on God's behalf?

A. He is either divinely authorized to do so because he is

God, or he's committing blasphemy.

If you speak on behalf of God wrongly, that's blasphemy.

Any mischaracterization of God is blasphemy.

So if indeed God did not forgive this sinful woman, but Jesus says your sins are forgiven, that's blasphemy.

But if this woman is forgiven because Jesus forgives her sins, that's something different.

There's really no middle ground here. It's either Jesus is a blasphemous lunatic, or he has the divine authority to forgive sin as the

Son of God. He's God himself. Whenever God the Father forgives, so does the

Son. This is important because mere humans cannot forgive, nor even offer forgiveness on behalf of God.

Mother Mary cannot offer forgiveness on behalf of the Son. Dead saints do not bestow forgiveness on behalf of God.

Popes and priests cannot offer forgiveness on behalf of God. Pastors cannot justify your wrongdoing, no matter how many tears are shed.

Your spouse cannot justify your past sins. We want to hear, it's all right.

It's okay. From someone else. But if we go to anyone but Jesus Christ, we're going to the wrong person.

That it's all right has no power to forgive your sin, if it comes out of anyone else's mouth but Jesus.

The only possible candidate for this role of offering forgiveness is

God himself. And that's why you must go to Christ alone. He is the one who justifies through his death on the cross.

He's the one who bought your forgiveness. So he can give it out freely.

Now, unhindered by the guest's commotion, Jesus reassures the woman,

Your faith has saved you. Go in peace. The required response to God's forgiveness is faith.

In the end, her faith was made visible through her loving action that caused such a stir in the house of Simon.

Because her relationship with God has been transformed through Christ's forgiveness, Jesus reassures her to go in peace.

There are no truer words than that to a forgiven person. You have true peace with God.

You and God are reconciled. God has nothing against you.

Go in peace. Now, this passage asks the question, how do we respond to our own sin?

Is it something you wouldn't touch with a 10 -foot pole? Or something you would conceal it within yourself?

Or do you go to Jesus? Maybe sometimes weeping at the gratitude of the forgiveness that's been bought.

Her reason for the tears were out of joy and gratitude, not because she was unsure that she's forgiven or not.

The tears shed because of sin when we go to Christ is not that, oh, it's up in the air,

I don't know if Jesus will forgive me this time. The tears shed are actually the reality of your forgiven state.

That also, too, had been paid for. That's why he's just and faithful to forgive us.

Any sin that you go to Jesus, that you confess to him honestly, without blame shifting, without making any excuses.

Oh, I was really having a bad day. Or it's his fault. Oh, man, he was so annoying.

But when we go to him honestly to confess to Christ, he is righteous and faithful to forgive us of all our sins and cleanse us from all our unrighteousness.

1 John 1 .9 Jesus' nature and character are at stake here in how he responds to your sin.

For Jesus to hold back any forgiveness to a repentant sinner would make him unrighteous and unfaithful.

That's what we learn from this woman's response. She is overwhelmed by this sense of joy at this reality of forgiveness, even to her.

I don't know what her sin was. It must have been big for everyone else to know it.

But even that, even her sin was canceled by Christ.

This beautiful passage also shows us Christ's disposition towards sinners.

You and I may be disgusted by others' sins. You hear on the news, and it's grotesque.

It's wicked. You and I might be even disgusted by our own sin.

We can't even look at ourselves. We stay up all night thinking of what we've done wrong.

How I wish I didn't say that. We try to drown out the reality of our sin through substance, distractions, or even entertainment.

If I don't have to face it, maybe it will go away. We try to run away as far as possible.

Christ, however, does the opposite. When the holy God became man, where he can interact with people physically, instead of running away from the sinners, he warmly welcomed them.

He remains utterly approachable to sinners.

He's available for you. You and I cannot stand our old selves.

It's embarrassing to even think about. Why did I say that?

Why did I do that again? Christ, however, offers forgiveness graciously and generously to whomever and whenever and for whatever sin it was.

This is why we can boldly approach the throne of God after each time.

Christ does not get tired of forgiving. If your

Jesus gets annoyed at you for you coming to him for the same sin over and over again, you've just portrayed a picture of Jesus in your image.

That's not the Christ of the Bible. Contrary to what the

Pharisees thought, our access to God does not come from our own accomplishments.

Our access to God comes from his mercy and grace. We can boldly approach the throne room of God, and he tenderly receives sinners each and every time because that is who he is.

And how does he offer forgiveness? God himself died so that he could righteously forgive you.

A forgiveness that costs nothing is unreliable. And we've all experienced people who've said, yeah, you're forgiven, but they bring it up a month later.

That's not forgiveness. That's just forgiveness by fiat. You just believe it.

Not this forgiveness. This forgiveness was purchased at a cost, at the highest cost.

God became man so that he could die to purchase your pardon for your sin.

There was no other way. Bulls and goats just weren't cutting it. And Jesus' heart for restoring sinners is so deep that he willingly gave his life on the cross for that so that he could take your sin and you be pardoned on his behalf.

That's the true forgiveness. Jesus died so he could forgive you. Do you think that he would stop forgiving you just because it happened one more time than you expected?

The standard you put up for yourself? When you consider that how can we not fall at Jesus' feet with tears of joy showering down?

The alabaster flask of precious perfume is, in fact, an inadequate way of showing our gratitude toward Christ.

Nothing in all of this creation is enough to actually represent the gratitude we ought to feel for the forgiveness that he has purchased on the cross.

Now, how far does Jesus' ministry of mercy toward sinners reach?

Jesus' merciful ministry extends through all parts of society. Now, after Jesus' encounter with one sinful woman, we see the growth of his ministry of mercy toward multiple.

Now, it came to pass afterward that he went through every city and village preaching and bringing the glad tidings of the kingdom of God.

And the twelve were with him. As the last passage made abundantly clear,

Jesus' approachability has no boundaries. He takes the gospel of the kingdom of God everywhere he goes.

He is indiscriminately gracious. There's no geographical boundaries to where the gospel will go.

He'll take it anywhere. And the glad tidings or the gospel of the kingdom of God is the very announcement that God's past promises are being fulfilled in Jesus.

That's the gospel. The promises of the past are fulfilled in Jesus.

Jesus is the very agent of fulfillment. And he's the one proclaiming the news.

And, of course, the biggest fulfillment of God's promise is that he deals with sin once and for all.

Sin, which has been plaguing the world since Genesis 3. God deals with it through Jesus.

Not only that, not only the twelve disciples in the various cities, verses 2 and 3 show us that Jesus is indiscriminate when it comes to picking his followers.

And certain women who had been healed of evil spirits and infirmities, Mary called

Magdalene, out of whom had seven demons, and Joanna, the wife of Herod's steward, and Susanna, and many others who provided for him from their substance.

Luke is one of the gospel authors who actually shows the importance of women in Jesus' ministry.

And that's been the case since Luke 1. Elizabeth, John the

Baptist's mom, Mary, Jesus' mom, Anna, a prophetess, and so on.

And, in fact, more women will show up in the gospel according to Luke. Now, in ancient

Israel, it was normal for women to support a rabbi, a teacher.

They gave food or money. However, what was unheard of was that women journeyed with the rabbi.

Until now. It tells us that along with the twelve apostles, these women went with Jesus.

And who made up the crew? The noble women? The famous women?

The well -known women who are virtuous? No. From a formerly demon -possessed woman to the wife of the manager of King Herod's palace.

Jesus accepted them all. Both Mary Magdalene and Joanna will indeed follow

Jesus until the very end to witness the empty tomb. They're faithful women.

Neither gender nor socioeconomic background nor one's history prevented them from following Christ.

And, in fact, as they followed Christ, they faithfully contributed to His ministry.

They supported His ministry. They had the privilege of helping out the ministry of the gospel during Christ's time.

And this morning, if you are hesitant about following Christ, the text tells us the letter of disqualification does not come from Christ Himself.

Christ accepts anyone to follow Him. And, in fact, everyone has something to contribute to His ministry.

You may say to yourself, I don't know enough of the Bible. I have a wicked past that no one knows about.

I'm not too intelligent. I'm not too pure. I'm not gifted.

Those disqualifying words don't come from Christ's mouth, frankly, but yours.

But, as you have seen before, Jesus' compassion overflows to those, anyone who comes to Him in faith.

He does not turn away any who come to Him with humility and in need of forgiveness.

And only after that God's people are called to serve, as the women did.

They were excited to serve. In fact, the early church in the book of Acts, they were excited to give whatever they could, whether teaching, gifts, or land, whatever.

They were just excited to be part of this, to be part of Christ's ministry, to be part of this history in which

Jesus restored His world. It's also important to note that they, these women, did not give to be saved.

This was not an entrance ticket to heaven. They gave because they were saved.

And when we do serve, after receiving forgiveness from Christ, service and gifts are our most natural response.

How could we hold anything back to someone who gave it all for you, for you to be forgiven?

I'm not saying to give everything to the church. That's not what I'm saying at all.

It's that those who are saved, they naturally give. They don't want to hold it back.

The first and fourth verses of When I Survey the Wondrous Cross depict this weather really well.

These old hymns are very deep. When I survey the wondrous cross

On which the Prince of Glory died My richest gain

I count but loss And pour contempt on all my pride

Were the whole realm of nature mine That were a present far too small

Love so amazing, so divine Demands my soul, my life, my all.

That's the natural response of someone who's received forgiveness from Christ, which cost his life.

Let us pray. Father, we're thankful that your forgiveness through Christ is unending and overflowing.

Thank you that we can come to Christ and know that he desires to forgive us, delights in forgiving us.

He's excited about restoring us back to you. God, I pray that you would remove every obstacle that's preventing us from correctly viewing

Christ as Scripture shows us and help us to respond in love as this woman did, joyfully, gratefully.