[0:00] Oh, well, me anyway. Just waiting for Jesus to walk through the door. How do you sing a song like that?
[0:13] I mean, how do you really mean it is well? Though Satan should buff it. I mean, verse 2 and verse 3 of that song, spell it out.
[0:25] My sin not in part but the whole. So, we're going to get a glimpse into that, a little different perspective on that very theme in Luke chapter 7.
[0:37] Take out your Bibles with me and turn to Luke 7. We look at the last section of this chapter. In chapter 6, remember we saw the Sermon on the Plain, Jesus preaching, Jesus teaching.
[0:52] We've got a full gamut of what He taught. And then in chapter 7, Luke records for us beginning with two miracles. The miracle of Jesus healing the centurion servant just with a word, without going there.
[1:10] And then Jesus interrupts a funeral of a poor widow who had just lost her only son. And Jesus raises him from the dead and gives him back to his mother.
[1:23] What a gift. And then we saw in the middle of this chapter the big question, who's Jesus? John the Baptist raises the question. Of all people, John the Baptist raises the question.
[1:35] Are you the one? You don't seem to be the one. You're not doing what's expected. And so we have that whole dialogue between Jesus and John and then Jesus raising more questions.
[1:50] really Jesus forcing us to think about His answers, to think through the questions that He proposes. He doesn't give us a direct answer.
[2:02] He forces us to think and dig. And look at the evidence. Is He who He said He was? So now we come, after all of that, now we come to one of the kind of passages I love because it's just a picture.
[2:19] It's just Jesus. And a woman.
[2:34] So we get one of the most moving pictures, I think, in the Gospel. So we want to read, if you're able to please stand, we're going to read Luke 7, the last section there, verse 36 to 50.
[2:49] Luke 7, verse 36. One of the Pharisees asked Him, Jesus, to eat with Him.
[3:02] And He went into the Pharisee's house and reclined at table. And behold, which means, look, a woman of the city who was a sinner when she learned that He was reclining at table at the Pharisee's house, she brought an alabaster flask of ointment.
[3:26] And 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 and anointed them with the ointment.
[3:52] Now when the Pharisee 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 is touching Him.
[4:13] She's a sinner. And Jesus answering, interesting, He's saying this to Himself, but Jesus is answering. Jesus answering, said to Him, Simon, I have something to say to you.
[4:30] He answered, say it, teacher. A certain moneylender had two debtors. One owed 500 denarii and the other 50. And when they could not pay, he canceled the debt of both.
[4:47] Now, which of them will love Him more? Simon answered, the one, I suppose, for whom he canceled the larger debt.
[5:02] And He said to him, you have judged rightly. Then turning toward the woman, He said to Simon, do you see this woman?
[5:14] I entered your house and 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 from the time I came in, she has not ceased to kiss my feet.
[5:34] You did not anoint my head with oil, but she has anointed my feet with ointment, perfume. Therefore, I tell you, her sins, which are many, have been forgiven.
[5:53] that she loved much. But he who is forgiven little loves little. And He said to her, your sins have been forgiven.
[6:10] Then those who were at the table with Him began to say among themselves, who is this who even forgives sins? And He said to the woman, your faith has saved you.
[6:27] Go in peace. So it reads, let us pray. Father, show us, as always, show us Jesus and help us to see this woman who loves much and whose faith saved her.
[6:54] Show us. Father, we pray in Christ's name. Amen. Please be seated. Let me start with a question.
[7:22] How do you view forgiveness of sin for yourself? How do you view forgiveness? In other words, do you need a little or do you need a lot?
[7:38] How do you view it for yourself? You just need a little bit? Or do you need a lot of it? Right?
[7:49] Or maybe you're in a different category altogether. Or do you think your sin's too great, too much, too depraved, too wicked, to be forgiven?
[8:07] Maybe you think God's given up on you. Luke shows us how extremely Jesus forgives the biggest of sinners.
[8:25] And he shows us that the more extreme the forgiveness, the more extreme the love in response.
[8:36] sin. It is a moving scene. We have a picture of lunch at the Pharisee's house that gets rudely interrupted by a woman known in the city as a sinful woman.
[9:00] Now, interesting, Luke never tells us what the sin is. when he talked about Jesus forgiving the paralyzed man, he didn't say what the sin was that he was forgiven. When Peter confessed that he's the sinful man, he doesn't identify what that sin is.
[9:14] And here's this woman. What kind of sinner was she? Was she a prostitute? Was she a drunkard? What was it? She was known to be a sinner.
[9:25] We don't know what. So when Luke doesn't name it, it tells us that that really wasn't important. What it was. But she was sinful. Peter was sinful.
[9:42] But here comes this woman. Did you see her? She's bold. She's fearless. Humble.
[10:00] Yet a sinful woman. Who absolutely adores Jesus. So Luke presents to us here through this story.
[10:16] We see a lot of themes. We see faith. Jesus says your faith has saved you. So it's faith that Jesus recognized. We also see love because it's love in response to forgiveness.
[10:29] So the more extreme the forgiveness, the more extreme the love in response. And then we see forgiveness. This picture of forgiveness.
[10:40] This canceling of a debt. And as a side view, kind of as an extra credit, extra bonus, we get to see two views of sin.
[10:50] We have the view of the Pharisee who views sin and assumes God agrees with him that this is a sinful woman and a prophet would never allow her to touch him. And you have Jesus' view who has no problem at all with her touching him.
[11:07] Interesting. So I want you to notice, kind of, as I introduced, there is a structure that Luke is putting this into. Remember, he's writing all this down, so he's deciding where to put things.
[11:22] He's following, he's telling us the consecutive story, of course, but he still gets to put it the way he wants to put it. And so after the sermon in chapter 6, he presents these two miracles at the beginning of chapter 7, the healing of the centurion's servant and then the raising of the widow's son.
[11:40] So we see a picture of setting captives free. And that Jesus told us way back in Luke chapter 4 is his mission.
[11:52] Remember that he stood up in the synagogue at Nazareth. He took out Isaiah chapter 61, or it wasn't chapter, it's a scroll, he found what we call Isaiah 61, and read these words, the spirit of the Lord God is upon me, because the Lord has anointed me to bring good news to the poor.
[12:13] He has sent me to bind up the broken hearted, to proclaim liberty to the captive, and the opening of the prison to those who are bound.
[12:25] Remember, and he said today, this is fulfilled, this is me. That's what I've come to do as Messiah, to set captives free. He does that by physical miracles, and he does it by forgiving sin.
[12:43] So Luke structures chapter 7 here, it's a sandwich, what my friend Dan likes to call it a Bible sandwich. You've got the bread on the outside, the meat in the middle, so on the outside you have the setting captives free, in the beginning of chapter 7, and here with the sinful woman setting another captive free, captive to sin, setting her free by forgiving her.
[13:04] And then in the middle is the meat, the middle is kind of the big point, where he brings up this question of John the Baptist, are you the one? Because that's really the big question, it's not just all that Jesus does and says, but are you the one?
[13:19] Are you just one of the others? Are you just a prophet? Or are you the one? And of course, Jesus answers that by saying, well, what have you seen and heard?
[13:36] The blind, the lame, the lepers, right? On and on. They're set free. And the poor have the gospel preached to them.
[13:51] So, here we have this picture then of this is the mission of Jesus. He doesn't just heal people. Those are pictures of a greater deliverance.
[14:03] Now we see what that deliverance is all about, is setting people free from sin, from the debt of sin that they cannot pay. And of course, the questions come, right?
[14:14] At the end of the first section, verse 16, when he raises the widow's son, the crowd is saying, who is this? They're convinced he's a great prophet.
[14:26] He's a great prophet. Great like an island. This is like Elijah. And then in the middle you have John asking the question, are you the one? And then here, notice at the end, right?
[14:38] Verse 49, those at the table, after he forgives this woman's sins, they're all saying, who is this? Again, the question, who is this? They're not thinking he's the prophet, because how no prophet would himself forgive sins.
[14:57] A prophet could say, God says your sins are forgiven, but Jesus is saying, I forgive your sins. You don't do that. Okay, so they're asking the question.
[15:11] So let's look, all that is context, let's look at Jesus here, forgiving the biggest sinners. What strikes me is when I first read the story and began to reread it, reread it, and dig into it a little bit, is what's driving this woman?
[15:31] What in the world would ever cause her to go into a Pharisee's house of all places to anoint Jesus' feet?
[15:46] What drives her? And when she gets there, she falls apart. She's weeping, tears, I mean, Luke says she's not just wetting his feet, it's just like pouring rain.
[15:57] He uses the word for rain. I mean, her tears are just raining, storming on Jesus' feet. She can't stop. She's a mess. What would bring her to do all that, right?
[16:13] And she comes to bring an alabaster, alabaster, or cur, stir, a jar of ointment, which is expensive perfume, so obviously she wants to worship him and honor him on his feet.
[16:31] But when she gets there, you know, things take a course. Why would she do this? Why would she come to worship with such passionate love? What moves her?
[16:42] So I find two things here, two motivations. Jesus identifies both of them. In verses 36 to 38, our early description of just her coming in and doing what she does, that's faith.
[17:00] At the very end, in verse 50, Jesus is your faith that saved you. He sees it as faith. So her faith, we see her faith in Christ. That's moving her. And then in verses 40 to 50, Jesus then kind of does this parable and turns the corner and gives a greater explanation of what's driving her.
[17:21] And he says it's love. Well, no, it's forgiveness driven by love. No, no, it's love driven by forgiveness. I've got to get this right.
[17:31] faith. So, so faith and forgiveness are the picture. So let's look at the first picture, faith. What's her faith?
[17:43] He says, your faith has saved you. What's her faith? What does she believe? What is it that she believes that brings her into this enemy territory to do this?
[17:55] well, it's at the very basic. It's she has faith that Jesus is the kind, approachable friend of sinners.
[18:07] She must believe that about you, that he's kind, he's approachable, and he's a friend of sinners. Now, the Pharisees have criticized him as the friend of sinners, but to a sinner, that's good news.
[18:21] I want a friend of sinners. So, I see three marks of her faith here. In verse 37, her faith just to come to the Pharisees house is courageous.
[18:38] It's courageous faith. We see in verse 38 when she's weeping and she can't stop the tears. It's a contrite faith. And then we see at the end of verse 38 where she comes to anoint and that was her original purpose, to come to worship him and to anoint him.
[18:54] It's costly. faith because it's not just olive oil that you could get anywhere in the holy land. It is ointment. It is an extracted kind of perfume, expensive perfume ointment that comes from plants and you don't just buy that anywhere.
[19:15] So, it's costly. So, let's look at the courage. What courage it must have taken to come to that house? God is a woman who is a woman of the city who is a sinner.
[19:34] What's a sinner? What's that mean? Well, I just took the word, you know, the noun that describes her, a sinner, a sinful, and kind of traced it through the New Testament.
[19:47] It means somebody who's rebellious toward God. It means someone who's lawless, doesn't take God's law seriously. They're ungodly. Remember what ungodly means? It's not so much about what you do, but it's about how you view things.
[20:02] So, a godly person is God oriented, right? They orient their life with God in mind. An ungodly person doesn't regard God in terms of how they live their life and decide things.
[20:15] She has no fear of God. A sinner has no fear of God and they're just generally opposed to the will of God. They do their own will. So, she comes.
[20:27] So, this sinful woman comes, but something changes in verse 37 because she comes now to a Pharisee's house, which tells me that she's not intimidated.
[20:38] She's fearless. And if she had fears, then what we know is that her faith overcomes those fears or her love for Jesus overcomes those fears.
[20:50] But the fact that it's at a Pharisee's house does not stop her. Because her faith.
[21:02] She believed something about Jesus. She knew something about the Pharisee like everybody would have known. I mean, she would have known. Here's the guy that avoids her. Here's the guy that looks down on her. Here's the guy that disparages her.
[21:14] This guy and his cronies. But that doesn't matter. She came for Jesus. It doesn't matter what he thought. She believed Jesus would accept her.
[21:25] That Jesus would be kind to her.! And then we see her contriteness in verse 38. The end of verse 37 says she comes she's bringing an alabaster flask of ointment.
[21:38] So her intention that's her plan. But we see in verse 38 when she gets there she stands behind him at his feet weeping. Now I got to describe the situation here a little bit.
[21:49] She gets it. It talks about he's reclining. He's not sitting at a table he's reclining. Now for special occasions this is what the Jews would do.
[22:00] So at a Passover meal in the upper room for instance they would be reclining. So they're laying down on one side on their left elbow and they would eat with their right.
[22:13] And so remember John the disciple said he was reclining on Jesus' breast! When he found he was sitting so Jesus is laying here John is laying here so John would just lay back and go Jesus who is he was close to him so that's reclining and so they would be all reclining toward the food tray in the middle they'd all be circled around this and then their feet would be on the outside and so this is where the woman comes on the outside she's not sitting at the table it's not at the table and it says it's the Pharisee's house but it's likely and on these occasions by the way it was not uncommon for others to come who were invited others could come to these meals and just sit around the outside and listen they didn't participate but they were allowed to listen to the discussions these are special this wasn't a home this was a special occasion people were invited it's like a banquet so that was common and it was probably in the courtyard of his house not in the house proper so she would have just come into the courtyard and been on the outside and there were others probably the disciples are sitting around watching that come here she is she comes so that's the situation but when she gets there she comes to anoint but when she gets there she is standing at his feet and
[23:44] Luke tells us she is weeping why she is overcome here he is she is overwhelmed in his presence and so she is moved and wetting his feet or as Luke says raining on his feet didn't plan to do that just came and undoubtedly there's a full consciousness what makes her weep well this is this is the one who forgives this is the one who sets free this is the one and so probably in her brokenness and her consciousness of the debt of her own sin her unworthiness her contriteness her repentant she just yields to the full vent of her tears and because she didn't plant she didn't bring a towel she didn't plant a cry all over his feet she is going to anoint his feet but she's crying now she's got them all wet she's got to dry him before she puts that expensive perfume on so what does she got well
[25:09] I'm going to let my hair down so that would have been considered improper she don't care she's got to wipe his feet with something she's got long hair obviously long enough to wipe his feet then of course she cries more and more snot comes out this is just a big mess you got to wipe it some more everyone's watching everyone's watching and then we see the costliness the sacrifice of her faith and that was her original intention to bring this perfume and to anoint his feet she came to worship to bow at someone's feet that's the very definition of worship the new testament word for worship is to kiss the feet that's the picture that's exactly what she does she going to annoy but she's got to kiss him she's going to kiss his feet and as
[26:25] Jesus described it she couldn't stop he said she hasn't ceased kiss at my feet what moves that worship unashamed affection in the presence of others judging her she's not afraid to show her affection to express her emotion isn't that interesting what will others think you know we come in worship and there's songs that move us there's verses that move us there's things that move us do we hold back and some of this is personality stuff I'm not saying we all got to be nuts and crazy because you know it's only crazy people that raise their hands in here no
[27:27] I'm teasing I admire that there's times I wish I could do that but I don't I don't know what is it I don't know anyway here's somebody that's she can give a rip what anybody thinks she's gonna do it she's gonna do it because it's Jesus so she anoints his feet with perfume this is this perfume this anointment is juice from an aromatic plant it's usually an ointment it's usually an ointment used for burials and it's very aromatic it would have filled the room not like olive oil which is you know usually they anoint with olive oil and that's it's got a little bit of smell to but not not overwhelming by any means so it's clearly an offering this is sacrificial she's bringing this as an offering she's come to worship so faith she believes she has faith that she believes that Jesus is the kind approachable friend of sinners and so that makes her bold and contrite so
[28:48] I when I thought about this woman here I thought of a parallel text where Jesus calls us to come because here's a woman that feels okay coming to Jesus she knows he's approachable she knows he'll accept her and so I thought of Matthew 11 come to me all who are weary and heavy laden so let's read that text Matthew 11 in the context of what Jesus is called to all who are heavy laden it's right after he's been rejected okay so in Matthew 11 25 at that time Jesus declared he prays I thank you father lord of heaven and earth that you have hidden these things from the wise and understanding and revealed them to little children father for such was your gracious will all things have been handed over to me by my father and no one knows the son except the father and anyone to whom the son chooses to reveal them okay there's some authority talking there and then he says come to me so he's just said nobody can come unless
[30:12] I reveal unless I choose you no one can come unless I pick you no one can come unless I reveal to you so then he says so come isn't that Jesus you can't but come because the power of his word is what makes us come the power of his word is what the spirit pierces our hearts with so that we actually can hear and come so he says come so come to me all who labor and are heavy laden and I will give you rest and we love that come to me all who labor and are heavy laden and I will give you rest and if we stop there we get the impression that that's all I need I need to come and ask but then notice that Jesus adds this take my yoke upon you and for I am gentle and lowly in heart and you will find rest for your souls for my yoke is easy and my burden is light okay so if you just take the first sentence by itself come to me all who are weary!
[31:29] and heavy laden I'll give you rest you missed the important part because he doesn't say I give you rest for your! souls until he talks about take my yoke and learn from me so in other words it's not just coming and asking Jesus for rest Jesus wants a full commitment he wants you all in take my yoke now it's not heavy yoke it's not like the Pharisees yoke it's not all these rules and regulations it's light it's kind but it is a yoke there is an obligation Jesus expects and demands it's not should it's must so why can sinners come to Jesus because he invites them he's gentle and humble he's not harsh he doesn't have the pharisaical view of you know yeah stay away he has this no come he's not offended when messy sinners come to him when people who have rebelled against him all their lives when people have rejected him all their lives then come he's not offended he hasn't given up he in fact he wants that he invites that he will not shame you and then so take my yoke walk my way it's a narrow road it's costly it's hard but in that road as you take my yoke and learn from me in that road you will find rest for your souls as you're on that narrow road you will find discover the rest see the way
[33:39] I want the rest is I want to withdraw and get you know and go sit in a corner and just say okay please Jesus you know but that's not Jesus doesn't do it that way no you're out here on the road I get it you need to go crawl in a corner sometimes I get it not a problem but come and join me on the road that's where you will find rest for your soul not escaping somewhere else it's kind of big isn't it so Jesus invites you he calls you he urges you to bring your burden to him and you will find rest as you walk his road so that's the first picture of faith about Jesus there's a second picture that is about forgiveness as Jesus turns the corner puts a little twist on the story in verse well
[34:41] I say 40 beginning verse 39 I'm going to start with the Pharisee through the end and the second picture is a picture of forgiveness it's a forgiveness that's so big so extreme that it drives the one forgiven to a fearless fervent love for Jesus it is a forgiveness so powerful that it creates in them this fearless fervent love for Jesus what causes us to say it is well when sorrows like sea billows roll when it's just overwhelming what causes us to be able to say it is well when it's not externally well how do we say that because we're driven by something else there's something else that's been created in us that drives us to love with fervency and fearlessness in spite of the
[35:54] Pharisees around or the storm that is coming the sorrows that are overwhelming so look what Jesus does in verse 39 we see Luke tells us that the Pharisee says to himself if this man were a prophet he would have known who this woman was and what sort of woman what class of person she is she's that sort she's a sinner she's this rebel she doesn't care about the things of God so for the Pharisee that's highly offensive what he cares about deeply she could not care about I use another phrase but I'm trying to care and then he says if he were a prophet he would have known who and what sort of woman this is who is touching him touching him right wiping his feet and kissing him
[37:07] I mean the Pharisee wouldn't put it with that so in other words the Pharisee assumed something here if he were a prophet he would know what kind of person this is and therefore would not allow this to happen he's assuming that a prophet from God would be disgusted as he is about this person he's assuming that God himself shares his opinion that this woman is an untouchable this woman is repulsive that's what he assumes God thinks and here's the son of God right there who's allowing it to go on in fact he honors her and confirms her and assures her not only does
[38:12] God not share his view he's the opposite of that so and so Jesus tells this parable verse 40 he says Simon want to say something to you verse 41 talks about these two debtors a certain moneylender had two debtors one owed 500 and the other 50 so one owed 10 times more than the other one a denarii was a denaris was generally one day's wage so one owed 500 days wages one owed 50 so a couple of months versus a year and three quarter or something like that so one had a much bigger debt but they both he says they both couldn't pay neither of them could pay and so he canceled the debt of both right so notice that they're both in debt they both have their debt canceled so they're both undeserving just because one owed less doesn't mean he's more deserving he's still undeserving he's still a debtor and he still can't pay so
[39:35] Jesus then you know the surprise twist is the creditor forgiving the debt canceling the debt that just that didn't happen back then even on the year of jubilee when it was supposed to it didn't happen that's why they went to babylon because they they kind of skipped the 50th year when you forgave all the debts you know and you let the land rest and all that kind of stuff yeah we don't do that God said okay we're going to arrest you for 70 years I'm going to send you over to Babylon right and when you come back you don't really get the land back because it's going to be owned by somebody else they still don't really own the land you know little pieces yeah get into that so Jesus asked questions so so one if they're both forgiven they're both can't which would love him more interesting question who would love him more right the Pharisee grudgingly he says verse 43 the one I suppose a little caveat
[40:36] I suppose I think he knows he's trapped so he's kind of like trying to get well I guess that you know the one that owed him more that would be the obvious you know if he's forgiven more then he'll love more and Jesus says yeah you got that one right I give you I give you that one Simon you got that one right who would love him more in other words what does he mean by more what's love him more obviously he's going to refer to the woman who loves him more than Simon right he's going to make that comparison so how does she love Jesus more than Simon does Simon by the way I don't even know that he loves him at all but since there's no water anyway what does it mean that she loves more well by the actions of this woman it means she loves with greater intensity with a greater measurement of affection she loves more abundantly lavishly extremely loving
[41:53] I mean she's loving like nobody else is loving him here so first thing so we see three truths about forgiveness here one is unmerited because it was undeserved secondly we see in verse 42 and 43 that this forgiveness creates a passionate love it drives a passionate love who will love more why does one love more than the other in the parable so two debtors right they're both forgiven which one will love him more the one that's forgiven more so in other words the love is not to get the forgiveness the love is the response to forgiveness so when we first read about this woman in the opening part of the story she's doing all this she's contrived we get maybe the impression that she's there out of guilt right she's there she's there to get forgiveness we think maybe she's coming to ask for it maybe you know she's just weep she's just we think maybe that's all about repentance except that we forget that her original intent was to bring this perfume she's come to worship but but even if that's what we thought at first that was our impression that she comes to get forgiveness
[43:15] Jesus corrects us and tells us no out of this parable she's the one who loves more because she's been forgiven more she's already been forgiven so now she loves her love is in response and so she's come out of gratitude gratitude of a larger debt that's forgiven and this large debt that she remember she's she's she's got many sins Jesus says in verse 47 right therefore I tell you her sins which are many my text says are forgiven it literally what Jesus said was has been forgiven previously has already been forgiven it's perfect passive it means it's already been done it's not because she came she was already forgiven and because of that that's what drove her to love like she has loved so her extreme love so then
[44:20] Jesus points it out so turning to the woman verse 44 he said to Simon do you see the woman and of course he's seen because everybody sees her she's made a scene but he wants to he's just told the parable and now he's going to apply the parable see the woman I entered your house you gave me no water for my feet which would have been a common courtesy to do if you have an honored guest who you call a teacher who you have invited to your home you wash their feet that's just what you do and if you don't personally do it you have a servant who does it and so Jesus says I came into your house you gave me no water from my feet in other words you dissed me from the start you showed me your view of me from the get go but she she has wet my feet rained on my feet with her tears and wiped them with her hair you gave me no kiss another common greeting just to give a holy kiss remember in the new testament talks about greet one another with a holy kiss that was common just kiss one another not you know weird just you know that's the custom that's what you do you greet a friend you let them know you're welcome you let them know you honor them no no kiss for
[45:49] Jesus but this woman she hasn't stopped she can't stop herself right she's not ceased to kiss my feet from the time I came in I can't even get up no and then verse 46 and then you know you didn't annoy my head with oil again another common courtesy you wash their feet you greet them with a kiss and you put a little oil on their head you smear a little oil in there because that makes them feel clean and good that's just what they did in that culture for me I don't want greasy but Delona was talking about a little girl in one of her preschool classes that came every day with oil in her hair because that's what they did it was an honoring thing Jesus talked about when you fast put oil in your hair don't let anybody know you're fasting do the normal thing put some oil in your hair you know a must get it to stand up right so this woman has the larger love she has the much love she has the extreme love the lavish love the passionate love and then lastly we see forgiveness is received by faith because
[47:15] Jesus mentions at the end your faith has saved you your love brought you and drove you but it's your faith that's there as well it's your faith that's intimately involved in bringing you and driving you to the actions that you do and we notice in verse 48 so after he explains to Simon he turns to the woman verse 48 he says to her your sins are forgiven literally your sins have already been forgiven your sins have been he gives her assurance now what Jesus' explanation assumes that she knew she was already forgiven when she came she came out of gratefulness she came out of gratitude she came the love is poured out because she's already been forgiven what we don't know is how did she know that had she already met with Jesus had she already been at his feet and he had already forgiven her that's what sounds like what happened somehow she already knew and so now she's just come to be grateful give the love that just pours out because of the exceeding the abundance of the forgiveness try to match that a little bit right so and then again verse 50 we see he affirms her again your faith has saved you your faith has saved you it doesn't mean your faith has earned this that if you have enough faith you'll get forgiveness it doesn't mean that but it does mean that your faith is instrumental your faith is vital to your salvation your faith is included so we say
[49:02] I'm saved by what grace alone through faith alone I receive it by faith faith is involved faith is not the cause grace is the cause faith is my part it's my involvement it's my active involvement my grabbing of it my receiving of it right and then of course it's all in Christ alone to the glory of God alone based on the scripture alone where do we go glory so so I thought of another passage actually it's kind of tracing this word do you love me more or this phrase do you love me more or her love was more her love was greater there's a parallel passage that talks about where Jesus asked Peter do you love me more I mean it's that same phrase do you love me more and it's at the end of the gospel of John and remember
[50:08] Peter's great fall right remember Peter for all of his I will love you I love you I'll do everything I'll fight for you give me a sword I'll take them all on that's Peter he loves Jesus there's no doubt about it but then right Jesus gets arrested and Peter goes to the fire little girl says hey aren't you one of them no no no you know his denials right he denies so remember he denied Jesus three times in John 21 when he sees Jesus again Jesus asks him three times do you love me that interesting to counter Peter's three denials Jesus asks him three times do you love me so here's the account when they finished John 21 15 when they finished breakfast Jesus said to Simon Peter Simon son of John getting formal here do you love me more than these it's interesting that he said do you love me do you love me more than these because remember
[51:18] Peter was always they might quit on you but I won't quit right you know so rest he's restoring Peter here he's restoring Peter do you love me more than these and of course Jesus used his word for love agape right which at the time didn't mean anything in Greek after Jesus was done with it it meant what we think of it you know sacrificial action so do you love me and so Peter says yes Lord you know that I love you phileo I love you not agape because Peter didn't think agape was the greatest word for love he thought phileo was the greatest word for love phileo is the yeah I'm all in I'm loyal so yes I phileo love you so Jesus said to him feed my lambs and he said to him Simon son of John do you love me he said to him yes Lord you know I love you he said to him tend my sheep or shepherd my sheep he said to him a third time
[52:23] Simon son of John do you love me by this time Peter's grieved because he said to him a third time do you love me I said I love you it's like husband's wife I told you if I change my mind!
[52:43] he doesn't know if I really love him and he said to him Lord you know everything you know I love you and essentially the word he uses for knows because you know everything you know everything but you also know me personally you know me you've experienced my love before you know me so Jesus said to him feed my sheep interesting each time do you love me yes Lord I love you take care of my lambs Peter do you love me yes I love you pastor my sheep Peter do you love me feed my sheep in other words he's reminding him that he's forgiven and that forgiveness drives a fervent love for
[53:52] Jesus that's expressed for Peter in taking care of the lambs and the sheep and feeding them that's how you show your love for me loving one another great forgiveness drives fervent love for Christ do you love Jesus yeah I know you do you love him a lot love much you want to love more your view of you know again what's your view of forgiveness because your view of forgiveness is a direct impact on your love for Jesus so the more you see your debt and need for forgiveness the more you will love him period you will love him more if you see your greatness the great debt of forgiveness that's been given to you it will show in your love it will show your love will be bold fearless unashamed sacrificial all those kind of things it'll look not the same as this woman but it'll look a little bit like it it depends you know
[55:07] I mean Peter loved Jesus different than this woman did Andrew did it you know Paul it's all different Mary Martha Mary Martha are totally different aren't they right the more the more extreme you believe your debt has been forgiven the more you will be driven to love him extremely let's pray father we thank you for this picture we thank you that you inspired Luke to record it only Luke gives us this picture of Jesus and this woman we thank you for it we thank you that he told us about where this happened and how it happened not only the faith and fearlessness and courage of this woman who was driven to love
[56:14] Jesus but we see this tenderness of Jesus who allows her to do that in fact honors her for doing it show us Lord each of us who love you show us how to love you even more we pray in Christ's name amen