We're coming to a message which is about a large gathering of sinners. One of them is a Pharisee by the name of Simon. He probably had a bunch of his cohorts there. Other Pharisees, perhaps Herodians, maybe chief priests, scribes, maybe even some of the Sadducees. We don't know. But all of them, as you know, are sinners. And into this dining hall where Jesus was invited, there's an open door in those days, and in walks a woman who is also a sinner, known in town, known as a sinner. And I've entitled this message, In Love with an Idea or In Love with Jesus. I want to read it one more time to you. The reason I do is because I want you to grasp today this passage. Pastor Larry read it. I'm going to read it again and I'll be reading through as we preach probably a third time. One of the Pharisees asked Jesus to eat with him. And Jesus went into the Pharisee's house and reclined at the table. And behold, a woman of the city who was a sinner, when she learned that Jesus was reclining at the table in the Pharisee's house, she heard that he is a friend of sinners, she went there. She brought an alabaster flask of ointment. And standing behind him at his feet, Jesus is leaning on his left And his feet are back. He's on the floor. There's a table there, probably eight inches to a foot high. And they're all leaning around the table in the same way. And what happens? 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. 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, for she is a sinner. And Jesus, answering, said to him, he's answering without the words being spoken. Simon, I have something to say to you. And he answered, say it, teacher or rabbi or master. A certain money lender had two debtors, one owed 500 denarii and the other 50. And that day, Money was worth a lot, and today it isn't, so we'll just look at it this way. One owed 500,000 and the other 50,000. When they couldn't pay, this is what you always wanted to happen from a credit union, they canceled the debt of both. Now, which of them will love him more? Simon answered, the one, I suppose, for whom he cancelled the larger debt. And Jesus said to him, you have judged rightly. Then turning toward the woman, he said to Simon, do you see this woman? I entered your house. You gave me no water. That was the customary thing to have water there prepared. And either a servant or a slave or often the host himself. Or if no one else did, at least you could soak your feet there yourself and wipe off your feet. But there was 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. The customary kiss. But from the time I came in, she's not ceased to kiss my feet. You did not anoint my head with oil, the customary thing for an honored guest. But she has anointed my feet with ointment. Therefore, I tell you her sins, which are many, are forgiven, for she loved much. But he who is forgiven little loves little. And he said to her, your sins are forgiven. Then those who were at table with him began to say among themselves, who is this? Who even forgives sins? And Jesus said to the woman, your faith has saved you. Go in peace. Father, now would you anoint the preaching of your word and let it into our lives. Help us let it into our very souls and spirits. into our hearts, into our minds. Don't let us go away without hearing the message you have for us. We give you praise, honor, and glory. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Today, in a capsule to begin with, what's God showing us in Luke's gospel? Three things he's showing us through a Pharisee's invitation. Number one, the spiritual bankruptcy of Simon the Pharisee, a man thought to be very religious and near to God, who wasn't. Secondly, he shows us the wordless worship of an uninvited, unnamed, sinful and immoral woman. And thirdly, we see the response of Jesus to a scorned and judged action by those thought to be religious and his own acceptance of the open act of repentance bathed in lavish love and faith upon Jesus' feet. Now, we can overanalyze it and lose the message. And I don't want to do that. We can, as the Pharisees did, strain out the gnats and swallow a camel, but I want us today, rather, to open our hearts and souls and minds and spirits to what the Lord would have us learn in this mighty account of his being invited to Simon the Pharisee's home. Our message today is a head-on challenge to performance-based Christianity. is so present in our culture today. God's word takes on any efforts of any of us to think for a moment or say or prove that we can be saved by our own good works. We can't. Jesus came incarnate into the world to expose my sins and yours. All of us are hell bound sinners that need his forgiveness. When we come in faith to Jesus and we repent of our sins, many of us have the audacity to see ourselves as growing Christians, as those who are above obeying Jesus' Word or His Spirit or His will or His way, for one pitiful reason. It sounds pitiful to even say it, but how many Christians I've run into, and perhaps I myself have done it as well. We think in our own particular situation, we may know better than our master. Isn't that pitiful? Peter, we can learn from him. We can see his foolishness, but can we see in his foolishness our own? You remember in John 13, 5-10, that Jesus came into a room, for the last supper and no one had washed anyone's feet. When you're walking barefoot or in a slab sandal, everybody's feet are dirty and dusty. Nobody had done that. So Jesus got up and as a servant, he donned a towel around him and he got down in front of Peter. and prepared with a basin of water to wash his feet. And you remember the challenge that Simon Peter brought to him. He looked at him and he says, never shall you wash my feet. And Jesus replied, if I do not wash you, you have no share or no part with me. And seeing Peter had gone too far to the left, he went too far to the right. He says, well then, Lord, not my feet only, but also my hands and my head. How many of us go this way and then we go that way? And Jesus told him, no, the one who is bathed does not need to wash except for his feet. That's what's been in the dirt. But he is completely clean. Can you identify with Peter? Peter was in love with the living God. He was in love with Jesus. He loved him so much. He was his Messiah. He had confessed, you are the Christ, the son of the living God. And yet in practical life, Peter was far more culturally tied to his Jewish norms, his comfort zone, to his own ideas. And as we seek to grow more and more in love with our Lord Jesus, ask yourself today, am I more in love with my idea of what a good Christian ought to be or what a good Christian ought to do, or am I more in love with the living Lord Jesus Christ? Some of us here are married. If you're in a performance-based marriage, God bless you, you're exhausted. You're exhausted. Because in a performance-based marriage, you're accusing one another of not meeting each other's expectations. Are we more in love with our idea of what marriage should be rather than being in love with our own spouse? When we are demanding performance of our spouse, we need to watch out because being in love with our idea of how marriage should work means we are selfishly in love with ourselves. Simon the Pharisee. as his fellow Pharisees, they were all in love with their idea of what being religious was. They had an idea of what faith in God was and should be. So the Lord had already at a time prior to this exposed the Pharisees. Remember, he called them, before he was crucified, a brood of vipers. But he had early on appealed to them. And you know, he had some secret disciples among them, Nicodemus and Joseph of Arimathea. But it's interesting how Jesus exposed them. If you want to turn there, you can, or just listen. In John 5, 36 to 47, Jesus explained to the Pharisees that their idea of following God was totally blinding them to God the Father. and blinding them to God his son. Listen to what Jesus said to the Pharisees. He says, but the testimony that I have is greater than that of John. That's John the Baptist. For the works that the Father has given me to accomplish, the very works that I'm doing, bear witness about me that the Father has sent me. And the Father who sent me has himself borne witness about me. His voice you have never heard. His form you have never seen, and you do not have his word abiding in you, for you do not believe the one whom he has sent. You search the scriptures, you search the Bible that you have, because you think that in them you have eternal life. That's your idea. But it is those scriptures that bear witness about me, yet you refuse to come to me that you may have life. I do not receive glory from people, but I know that you do not have the love of God within you. I have come in my father's name and you do not receive me. If another comes in his own name, you'll receive him. How can you believe when you receive glory one from another and do not seek the glory that comes from the only God? Do not think that I will accuse you before the father. The one who accuses you is Moses. on whom you have set your hope. For if you believed Moses, you would believe me, for Moses wrote of me. But if you do not believe his writings, how will you believe my words?" That's what Jesus thought of the Pharisees. They had their idea of godliness, but they didn't love God. Now, that's the picture. Picture all of these people gathered together. Simon is hosting with Jesus as honored guest. Somehow, for those of us who are born-again believers, we can easily do what the Galatian Christians did. We can begin wonderfully by the spirit and then continue by the flesh to trust in our own performance-based Christianity. Many of us grew up with a performance-based idea of Christianity and somewhere along the way we got the idea and I hear it from literally thousands over the years in ministry. We hear it said that Christianity stops at justification. And if it doesn't, the only thing that it goes on to do is to keep others in line. We want to at least keep others in line. Sanctification is us growing once we've been saved. It's us growing. Jesus said in John 14, 15, if you love me, you will keep my commandments. You say, well, that's performance. No, it is not. Obedience is born and birthed out of love for Jesus once we repent, believe, and receive him. We learn to walk with Jesus in a love and obedience relationship in which our obedience grows out of our love for him. Now this morning, I want to ask God, the Holy Spirit, to teach all of us three strong lessons, three misconceptions that I believe all of us may have, or to some measure have. First of all, there's a misconception we have about others. Number two, there's a misconception we have about ourselves. And thirdly, Pastor Larry said this was the one that spoke to him. There's a misconception we have about Jesus. Now let's follow our text. First of all, our view of others is often performance-based. You'll notice verses 36 to 39. Now look at it one more time carefully. One of the Pharisees asked Jesus to eat with him. And Jesus went into the Pharisees' house Perhaps it's a large home. And he reclined at the table. And behold, a woman of the city who was a sinner, she's known with some notoriety, when she learned that he was reclining at table in the Pharisee's house, she had heard he's a friend of sinners, which he was and is. Still is today. She brought an alabaster flask of ointment 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. Now here's the critical thing. What do we think of others? Is it performance-based? Notice this Pharisee. Now when the Pharisee who had invited him saw this, he said to himself, I invited him in, I wanted to find out who he was. Now I know one thing for sure, he's not a prophet. Because if he were a prophet, he would have known who and what sort of woman this is who is touching him. For she is a sinner. She is a sinner. The way we see others is that too often, we look down on them from our pedestal above them. And we fail to see our own sin. We look down on others as vile sinners. This invitation of Jesus to dinner was a great thing. Simon the Pharisee did. I want you to know if you're good at hospitality, that's something the Lord loves. What are Simon's motives? We don't know. Let's not be censorious about him and think that he just threw a party for his own credit. I don't know why he did it. but he threw a party. But he never could have known that the one that came to dinner was going to excite something in a notorious woman in town who would come to weep at his feet. Who could have ever known that except the Lord himself? Whether our motives are good or not or our ideas are good or not, they will be challenged by what life brings. What does life bring? challenges to our ideas, challenges to our motives. Here came this unexpected, uninvited guest. She came to where Jesus is leaning there, and his feet are back. And Jesus, facing Simon, watches the people as this lady at his feet begins to wash his feet. with her tears. Her profuse tears were enough water to get the grime and dirt off Jesus' feet from walking. And then she did what was not customary in that day except for a man to do in the presence of his own wife, and that was to let down her hair. She let down her hair and she began drying Jesus' feet with her long hair. She broke the ointment. Think of it. The only one that knew this was coming is Jesus. This invitation of Jesus to dinner, it's a lovely thing. But what is this thing going on? Simon, he's mortified by this immoral woman venturing into his home uninvited and washing and drying Jesus' feet. And he appears, by what he's thinking, to want this silly nonsense stopped immediately. and yet what an act of love it was. To think of coming to Jesus' feet in repentance of our sin and washing his feet, kissing his feet, anointing them with perfume, wiping his feet with her hair. What a scene! It was one mighty act of repentance and love. Have you ever seen people dancing and somebody comes up and taps the man on the shoulder and cuts in? Wouldn't you like to just tap the woman on the shoulder and cut in and say, I'll take it from here. I'll take it from here. Don't we love our Jesus? Don't we love our Lord who died for us? If you had the chance to wash Jesus' feet today and anoint them with perfume, would you or wouldn't you? And yet, in a performance-based religious spirit of pride, Simon would have none of it. Simon never spoke to his fellow Pharisees, but he thought to himself, I know what this is. He doesn't know beans about who she is. He doesn't know beans about what she's doing. But what had happened, what had happened this day is a sinner woman walked into a sinner man's house filled at the table and around it with sinner men. Only one of the two sinners, between the host and the uninvited guest, only one, showed love to Jesus. Only one of the two sinners did that. One sinner judged the other sinner as unforgivable. Worse, one judged Jesus as not a true prophet. I wonder if we have found our ideas. of others to be like Simon's view, performance-based, maximizing other's sin, minimizing our own sin, God forbid. God forgive us. Are we in love with our ideas about what a good and godly Christian should be? Thinking we are good and that others are sinners and therefore we can't be in love with Jesus. the one who loves us, because you see your preacher, your pastor, is a hell-bound sinner without Jesus, just like all of you. First of all, our view of others is often performance-based. Secondly, our view of ourselves is often not that we are debtors, debtors to Jesus. Now, no one heard what Simon was thinking. How can you hear what someone's thinking? Spouses do that, I know what you're thinking. No, most of the time you don't even have a clue, you just think you know. But the prophet, the priest, and the king, Jesus knew Simon's unspoken thoughts, and so he answered his thoughts. Verse 40 says, Jesus answering said to him, Simon, I have something to say to you, and he answered, say it teacher. Jesus knew what Simon was thinking. And you know what Jesus knows? He knows what each one of you are thinking in this self-examining message. Is that frightening to you? That right this moment, he knows what you're thinking. If you're willing to listen to what Jesus had to say to Simon, he has the same response for you that he had for Simon. He has this little story that he told him. A certain money lender had two debtors. One owed 500 denarii, let's call that 500,000, big loan, half a million dollars. The other 50 denarii or $50,000. When they couldn't pay, I don't know if a lot of us could pay that. He did something that we always wished would happen with our debts. He just said, paid in full. Jesus then asked the question, now, which of them will love him more? Simon, you can bet by now is on a hot seat and he doesn't like it. He doesn't like being questioned in front of his other guests. But kind of gingerly, he says, well, the one, I suppose. for whom he canceled the larger debt. Jesus said to him, you have judged rightly. Now Jesus turning from facing Simon began to speak to the woman. His words I need, his words you need. He said these words to Simon, do you see this woman? I entered your house, you gave me no water for my feet. You should have done that, I was your guest. But she's wet my feet with her tears and wiped them with her hair. You gave me no kiss. You always kiss the honored guest and kiss those that come to dinner in those days. I've been in that culture and kissed many times. Didn't happen. You didn't anoint my head with oil as the honored guest should have had his head anointed with oil. As Psalm 23 says, you anoint our heads with oil, our cup runs over. You didn't do that. But she's anointed my feet with ointment. Therefore, I tell you, her sins, which are many, are forgiven, for she loved much. But he who is forgiven little loves little. And he said to her, your sins are forgiven. See the problem with Simon. He had a problem with viewing others, but he had a bigger problem viewing himself. He didn't see himself as a sinner. He saw himself as righteous. Since he was righteous, he didn't feel he was in any way in debt to God. In our consumer culture, our faith can quickly degenerate into a transaction-based faith, even among evangelical believers. We trust not in the Lord, but sadly, we trust in something good that can't save us. Did you know most of us came to faith in Christ through a verbal prayer? of repentance and faith. But there are millions today that don't trust in Jesus and love him, but they trust that back there 40 years ago or 50 years ago, I prayed a prayer. And there's no prayer that can save you. There is no prayer that can save you in and of itself. I got saved years ago and that's enough. Jesus would say to millions in our country, are you so in love with an idea of what salvation is that it's something you do? It's performance-based. It's not based on being a debtor to Christ, His cross. Growing in love with the one who saves, keeps, and satisfies our soul. Now, don't misunderstand me. I call for people to repent and verbally ask Jesus into their life all the time. We've seen hundreds and thousands come to know Jesus that way. There's nothing wrong with a prayer. It's a wonderful thing, but you can't trust in the prayer in itself. You must trust in the one to whom you pray to, and that's the Lord Jesus Christ. Matthew 7, 21-23, Jesus spoke to those that have a wrong idea of salvation. And he said, not everyone who says to me, Lord, Lord, will enter the kingdom of heaven. But the one who does the will of my father who is in heaven, on that day, many will say to me, Lord, Lord, we've done all these things. Didn't we prophesy in your name? Didn't we cast out demons in your name? Didn't we do many mighty miracles in your name? Jesus says, and then I'll declare to them, I never knew you. Depart from me, you workers. of lawlessness. The bad news for us, if we are performance-based and proud of it, is that Jesus doesn't associate with anyone but sinners. He came to associate with sinners. Like our hymnal says, Jesus is a friend of sinners. He died on the cross only for sinners. I know He died for me. The good news for the woman, the reason she came to the house of the Pharisees, that she knew she was in debt to Jesus. If there could be any forgiveness, there was only one person that could do it, and she was trusting in that one to do it. She was in debt because she knew she was a sinner. Simon was more interested in passing judgment on this woman and passing judgment on Jesus than he was conscious of Jesus' judgment of him. Simon felt his home was too righteous to have this sinner woman in it. And he felt more righteous for not wanting sinners like her in his home. Churches can learn to feel this way. Did you know that? It happens in churches. We don't want that person. He just walked in. I don't want him here. Simon saw immorality as an awful sin in God's eyes. Unforgivable, but his own pride was acceptable. And pride is the worst of the sins. When we want to keep sinners out, we need to rethink it. As true debtors, sinners saved by grace, we need to know that Jesus welcomes only sinners to come to Him. Debtors to Jesus know worship is for sinners. You check it out in the Old Testament and the New, the ones that worship Jesus are sinners who have come to Him. for his grace, for his salvation. Debtors to Jesus know worship takes place at the feet of Jesus where we're preoccupied with loving him. Debtors to Jesus want to love him and others as he loved us. Debtors to Jesus know our love involves our emotions. One of the saddest thing I have seen in counseling is how many people want to keep love for Jesus intellectual. And if you keep it intellectual, you need to get saved. You need to get saved. Because the Lord's command is you must love the Lord with all your heart. That's emotions. That's your soul. You see, the soul is how you feel. The spirit's who you are. You must love the Lord with all your heart and all your soul. That's emotion. And all your mind, that's your intellect. And all your strength, that's both. and your neighbor as yourself. True debtors to Jesus aren't easily hindered from worship. If you come to this church and you, as a gentleman did in the first service, he started clapping during the service. Thank God he never quit. Because you can come and say, I don't see anyone else clapping. I don't think I will. No, you do what God leads you to do. Do what God leads you to do. This woman was not easily hindered. There were scornful eyes in that dining hall. Hypocrites were there, but she kept right on lavishing her love on Jesus. When we acknowledge how much we have been forgiven, we'll love much both God and others. I have a question for you. I have a few questions. For you, one of them is, when was the last time you were so moved over your sins that you wept and wept and wept over your sins? You know, the Lord will use any means. He can use millions of means to do it. But he wants me and he wants you to weep over our sins. It was our sins that nailed Jesus to the cross. He wants us to see our sins as exceedingly sinful. Does the word of the Lord stir your soul to tears? When you heard Pastor Larry read this story, were you moved? Or was it mundane? When I've read it now, I've read it a third time. Are you moved? Are you expressive of your love for Jesus and for others? How do you know if you're a Pharisee? You're not moved by a story that should move you. Pharisees aren't moved by love for God because they don't see themselves as sinners. They either deny being a sinner or they minimize their sin and call themselves, well, a little thing, you know, a little thing. When we as debtors are forgiven for much, we love much. I want you to know this sinner loves much because I've been forgiven for much. Our view of others is often performance-based. Our view of ourselves is often that we're not debtors. And last of all, number three, our view of Jesus is often questioning Him not worshiping Him. You'll notice Simon and the fellow guests in verse 49, now there's talking in the room. It's not just thinking to yourself. They're talking. And those that were at table with Jesus began to say among themselves, who is this? forgives sins, who even forgives sins. And Jesus furthered their understanding of who he was by saying directly to this woman, your faith has saved you, go in peace. And in verse 48, he said, your sins are forgiven. When he saw in this woman's wordless actions a repentant, believing, and receiving heart, he says, your faith has saved you. Not your love has saved you. Your faith has saved you. I want you to think about this very much. The same one who could read Simon's mind could read this woman's mind and heart and respond to her plea for mercy as she poured out her tears in love. You say, well, what a grand ending. It's not the ending. Now we have the full picture of a dining hall filled with people that not only don't think he's a prophet, Hey, no, he isn't the son of God. That would be blasphemy, and that's why they crucified him. But they deny he's able to forgive sins. Who is this one? By now, I don't know if you feel like I do, but if I were seated around that table, I want to get up. Have you ever wanted to just get up and leave? But I don't want to get up and leave. I want to come join the woman. I want to come and be here at Jesus' feet. But yet some of us are probably ready to judge Jesus. Why? Because of one of our ideas. As wonderful as a prayer, a verbal prayer of faith is. Why didn't that guilty tax collector, didn't he have a verbal prayer? God, be merciful to me, a sinner. What about the thief on the cross right there? Didn't he have a verbal prayer? Yes, he did. Lord, remember me when you come into your kingdom. But the Lord is messing up my paradigm here. He's messing it up. Here's somebody that has no words and still is repenting, believing, and receiving, and loving Jesus. Are we so fixed on an idea that is a good idea? that we say, Lord, how could you save and forgive this person? Why didn't you? Why did you forgive this woman without asking her in front of the Pharisees how good it would have been if you would have asked her right there, do you right now repent and believe and receive me? But he didn't do it. Do we question how Jesus does things? How he did it? Do we question how he leads us? How he leads others? And what he wants? others to do and what he wants us to do? Do we question our master rather than rejoice in his ways, which are past finding out? Jesus never addressed. He never addressed Simon's other guests. But he punctuated his earlier words of forgiveness. He punctuated it by even deeper words of forgiveness saying, not only are your sins forgiven, but your faith, not your love, your faith has saved you. Go in peace. Now I have a few questions for us. Have we, not just the first service as I preached it, but we in the second service, have we, like Ephesus, have we left our first love? Either collectively or individually? Do we actually question the people that Jesus reaches out to? known sinners, tax collectors, publicans, immoral sinners like this woman. Would we think the same thing that Simon thought had we been there watching what this immoral woman did? As we watch, as Martin Luther said it this way, he said that she wet Jesus' feet with her heart water. I've never heard tears before called heart water. I think it's a good thing to call it heart water. Are we like Simon who never showed Jesus any customary courtesies, washing feet, the customary kiss, the anointing with oil? Are we those who maybe aren't really loving Jesus? Now let me ask you a question. If you were asked today to take out a sheet of paper, maybe a yellow pad and just pull one sheet off, and write down your sins, could you get a paragraph full? Would you get one side of the page or two sides? Would you ask for more paper? Or would you write two or three things down and say, that's about all I can think of? Without knowing our debt to Jesus, how can we love Him much? We don't see ourselves. being saved from many sins. Luke omitted this woman's name and I'm so glad he did. I'm glad it wasn't Priscilla or Jane or Matilda or whatever it could have been. I'm so glad because I can get there at Jesus' feet with her and be the one known to be a sinner. What a blessed response to grace this woman had. Jesus never stopped her love. He won't stop your love or my love. We all have so much to be forgiven. If we want to be forgiven, only Jesus can do it. We can't get over it by our works. Accepting Jesus' forgiveness is in fact an act of faith. Understanding his forgiveness increases our capacity and our ability to love him and to love others. Now I have my last question for you as we close. Are you a little sinner or a big sinner? Which are you? If you're a little sinner, you can only love Jesus a little. If you're a big sinner, you can love him a lot. Jesus paid it all was our final song. All to him I owe. He paid the full price, and if it was only you or only me, he would have had to die the same death for my sins and for yours. How can we help but love him with our whole being? Our view of others is so often performance-based. Our view of ourselves is so often not that we're debtors. Our view of Jesus is so often questioning him, but not worshiping him at his feet. Would you bow your heads?