want to invite you to turn to Luke chapter 8 this morning. We are looking at the very beginning of Luke chapter 8, beginning in verse 1. You'll find this on page 864 if you're using a copy of the church Bible. And we're looking this morning at Luke 8, 1 through 3. Before you get too excited, if you're like, oh boy, good, only three verses. I did a lot of work for this week. No, I'm just playing. I have worked on this for us, so I hope it's a blessing. We're only looking at three verses, Luke 8, one through three. And before we do look at Luke 8, one through three together, let me pray for us and ask the Lord to bless our time together and especially the ministry of his word. Let's pray. Father, again, we collectively lift up our voices to you. We ask that you would please do great things in us. We pray that you would prepare our hearts, that you would till up the soil of our hearts, that we might receive the seed of your word and that we might keep it and bear fruit. We pray that you would give every man and woman and boy and girl in this place eyes to see and ears to hear. We pray that you would change us. We pray that you would help us to see more of the glory of what you have done for us in Jesus Christ. We pray that you would increase our faith, We pray that you would humble us. We pray that you would free us from the love of this world. We pray that you would give us a greater desire to give ourselves and our resources to you. in glad and in humble and in thankful service. And so our God, we pray that you would please speak to us even as you do when your word is read and help us to hear and to keep your word. We pray these things in Jesus' name, amen. Luke 8, beginning in verse one, Luke now says, soon afterward, he, that is Jesus, went on through cities and villages proclaiming and bringing the good news of the kingdom of God, and the 12 were with him. And also some women who had been healed of evil spirits and infirmities. Mary called Magdalene, from whom seven demons had gone out, and Joanna, the wife of Chusa, Herod's household manager, and Susanna and many others who provided for them out of their means. The grass withers, the flower fades, but the word of God Indoors forever. Well, one of the weaknesses perhaps we might say that of the reformed church Is that we have a tendency to focus on the great men of church history and especially the great ministers in church history You often hear me talk about Jonathan Edwards or John Calvin or the 50 other Johns that God so mightily used John Owen and John Wesley, and there really are a lot of Johns God used in church history. And you hear us quote a lot of the great theologians, and it's right that we do that. God did an extraordinary work in those men, and yet there is, perhaps on our part, in more theologically conservative and biblical churches, a failure to honor the great women of the church as we ought. I think that's a fair criticism. You hear me quote quite often the great Charles Spurgeon, who they called the Prince of Preachers, who was so very quotable. And yet what you may not know is that Charles Spurgeon, behind Charles Spurgeon, was a really incredible woman, Susanna Spurgeon. You may not know much about Susanna Spurgeon. Charles Spurgeon had just taken a call to the Metropolitan Tabernacle. He was single. He apparently saw Susanna and had determined this was going to be his future wife, and went up to her and said, are you praying for your future husband? She didn't realize he was speaking about himself. Charles Spurgeon had some game. That was a pretty smooth move, if I may say that on the part of a conservative pastor. And are you praying for your future husband? Susanna Spurgeon would reflect on her spiritual condition at that point in her life and say, you know, I was not living life devoted to the Lord as I should have been and as Charles Spurgeon pursued Susanna she confessed that to him he gave her a copy of Pilgrim's Progress which all of you should read in your life and she began to grow and she really thrived and Charles Spurgeon's ministry exploded, and as it did, he began writing more and more books. One of the most famous books, and you're like, wait, I thought we were talking about Susanna. We'll get back to that. One of the most famous books that Spurgeon wrote was called Lectures to My Students. It's actually a fairly hefty tome, and Susanna Spurgeon read the entirety of those lectures that her husband wrote. And she was so impressed with those that in 1875, summer of 1875, she went to Charles and she said, look, there are all these poor ministers throughout England. At that time, it was sadly common not to pay ministers well. And she had a burden for those men that were pouring their lives out for the cause of gospel ministry. And she went to her husband and she said, I really want to give every underpaid minister copies of your books. And Charles Spurgeon apparently said to her, well, how much is it worth it to you? What are you going to do about it? And Susanna Spurgeon had been saving up money from a side job that she had, and she began to use her money. She started a book fund that lasted about 10 years. She gave away over 3,000 copies of her husband's books to ministers that she knew were faithful and didn't have much. She ended up writing a book about the 10 years of that book fund. It's actually a fascinating work. She would keep a track, a record of everything she did. She would publish a record of all the copies that she was able to give away to these ministers to fuel their ministries in Spurgeon's magazine called Sword and Trowel. And she says in the little book, I thought this was fascinating. She called her husband, there was a nickname he had from one of the books that he had written called John Plowman. That was a nickname he had because it was said he knew how to plow up the hearts of the common people to make them want to joyfully serve the Lord. And she actually says, John Plowman knew exactly what he was doing when he said to me, how much is it worth it to you to do this? You really want to serve the Lord, then do it. Well, we're looking this morning at a passage in which we find several really amazing women. These women supported the ministry of the Savior. These women are recorded in scripture as having given the Savior and his disciples financial provisions in order to fuel his ministry. If you think about it, while Jesus could have done anything, he turned a few loaves of bread and fish into feeding multitudes. He made a fish bring him a coin. He could have certainly fueled his own ministry miraculously, but he didn't. That's one of the great mysteries Jesus had very little, and that's a question we should ask. How was the Savior provided for? How did the messianic ministry come about and how was it supported as he moved through the cities and the towns, as he made his way to the cross, who was providing for the one that said he had nowhere to lay his head. He was homeless, he was weak, he had nothing. He had told his disciples, remember, when he sent them out, don't take anything with you. He wanted to test them to see if they would trust his father to provide for their needs even as they gave themselves to that most important work of gospel ministry. As they are now moving through the towns and villages and you'll notice that there in the first Verse of our passage as he is now moving on in this itinerant ministry and the disciples are with him They need provisions. They need new sandals. They need food. They need water They they may need other things and remember we're told that they have a common purse. They have a common Collection that they collectively used for the messianic ministry as they went through Israel Proclaiming the gospel and as Jesus did that most important work of his ministry leading up to the redemption He would provide at the cross and there in that context here is In front of us, we're going to see that Luke highlights for us in a special way that all of that was supported by this group of women who had committed themselves to the Lord Jesus and to his disciples and to supporting the work of ministry in an extraordinary way. Well, this morning we're going to see three things. First, we're going to consider the ministerial diligence of Jesus and his disciples. Secondly, we're going to consider the ministerial love of Jesus. for these women, and then we're gonna consider the ministerial support of these women for the Lord Jesus. We'll notice that Luke is highlighting in this little section that Jesus is moving on. He was tireless. Jesus, you know, we often get tired. If you ever talk to those engaged in full-time ministry, if Ron and Doris Weeks are here in the near future, I'm sure you'll hear how tiring full-time ministry is. Wicked people don't understand. They don't understand how godly people pour themselves out. in the cause of the advancement of the kingdom. They can't, because all they're driven by is money or success. And they think they work harder than others. And they can't understand someone giving up everything and going out and ministering tirelessly. Well, here we see that Jesus and the disciples are doing that very thing. They are going on. They keep moving. They don't grow weary in well-doing. Jesus picks up from his ministry in Capernaum, and he moves now into a new region. And the disciples are with him, and they are faithfully going out. And they are doing the very thing that is most important. Notice, Luke tells us, afterward, Jesus went through cities and villages proclaiming and bringing the good news of the kingdom of God. That's the most important work that the church has been given. There is nothing more important. Programs are not more important. Dare I say this, community, as much as we want good community, is not more important. The preaching of the good news of the kingdom of God is the thing that is to be the thing in the center of the church. That was the centerpiece of Jesus's ministry as he's made his way to the cross to fulfill the good news and to himself be the good news through the crucifixion. He is showing us and teaching us as we have seen already in this passage that it is in the preaching of the gospel. in the proclamation that the kingdom has come, that heaven has broken into earth, that the Messiah has come into the world, everything that he came to do, that he had come to forgive men and women of their sins. That's been the central message. You know, beware when people tell you that the central message of the church is you doing more justice. God wants you to be actively engaged in the good works for which he has redeemed you. We're gonna see that in this very passage. But the central message is that Christ has come into the world to forgive, to redeem, to rescue, and to save sinners. And that's the message that Jesus proclaimed. Jesus went around proclaiming the good news. He went around telling people that were enslaved in sin that he had come to set them free. He went around proclaiming that the kingdom of God had come. J.C. Ryle, the great 19th century Anglican theologian, said, let the diligence of Christ be an example to all Christians. Let us follow in his steps, however far we may come short of his perfection. Like him, let us labor to do good in our day and generation, let us labor to leave the world a better and holier world than we found it. It is not in vain that the scripture says, he who abides in him ought himself to walk even as he walked. Now we're going to see that not everybody's called to preach. These women were not commissioned to preach. Jesus had chosen a motley crew of 12 men who were not rabbis, who were not super intelligent in and of themselves, who were not wealthy aristocrats. They were fishermen, they were zealots, they were tax collectors, and he had appointed them specially to preach. He didn't appoint everyone else. But these women are going to see that the central thing is the gospel ministry. That is the centerpiece of the great work of God in the world. Now, I want us to very quickly move on. And I want us to focus on the ministerial love that Jesus has. For us to adequately get this, we have to understand and again reflect on the kind of people Jesus was saving. You know, we really need to hear on a very regular basis about the kind of people that Jesus saved. The Apostle Paul will say, not many rich, not many noble, not many mighty, not many wise. There are some, there are some intellectuals that the Lord saves. but not many. He chose the poor of the world, the base, the weak things, the things that are not, Paul says, to bring to nothing the things that are, so that no flesh will glory in his presence. And we see that Jesus has chosen to show his love in special ways, especially to a woman like Mary Magdalene. Now, there's a lot of misconception About Mary, many writers and depictions of Mary have sought to say that she is the sinful woman we saw last week, weeping at the feet of Jesus coming with that. alabaster flask of oil coming and pouring out her tears on the feet of the Savior, washing the feet of the Savior with the hair of her head and weeping just uncontrollably, knowing the grace and the mercy of Jesus Christ. There's no reason to think that Mary is that woman. The only thing we're told about Mary in the Gospels is that she had been possessed by seven demons. She had been severely demon-possessed and Jesus had shown in an extraordinary way, his power in the life of Mary. He had delivered Mary in an extraordinary way. He had transformed her life. He had, by his sovereign grace, gone in there and brought her from spiritual death to spiritual life, just like he does for everyone that he redeems. But he had done it in a heightened sense in Mary's life. Mary would have been known to be a woman of severe demon possession. No doubt that would have meant that she was living a wicked, openly wicked life to whatever degree. We might like to imagine that Mary is a woman of infamy. She is not a woman that people talk about with any sort of favor or appreciation. She would have been known to have been a great outcast. People probably would have pulled back from Mary. They would have been like, oh, that Mary. They would have talked about her negatively, just like the woman Jesus saves in the last passage that we looked at. And yet Jesus is willing to show his power in an extraordinary way in her life, and he's willing to associate himself with her after he redeems her. Now, don't miss this point. One of the things we're gonna see this morning is just how amazing it is that the Savior is willing to so bear the reproach of his people That he is willing to be followed by a woman like Mary Magdalene as one of his intimate disciples. Not only is she a woman and that was a strange thing there were no rabbis in those days. that would have had a woman sit at the feet in the rabbinical school to learn from the rabbis. Jesus is everywhere. Luke is highlighting for us the unique care that Jesus has for women. He's highlighting the unique concern he has. He is willing, in a very real sense, to break down those walls. And the apostle Paul says, in Christ, there is neither male nor female as disciples. He is showing absolute equality. Jesus is doing the unthinkable in his day It is what so many are crying out for today. Jesus has already done that he is willing though to go beyond that level of his reputation being demeaned or or What religious leaders or political leaders might think about him? He is associating with the lowly John Calvin when he comes to meditate on this and I really want to encourage you to to go back and read, if you have a chance, Calvin's few comments on this whole passage. Very rich. John Calvin says, among those who accompanied Christ were certain women who had been cured of evil spirits and diseases, such as Mary Magdalene, who had been tormented by seven devils. To be associated with such persons might be thought dishonorable, for what could be more unworthy of the Son of God? Think about that. This is God. Whatever respectable people you might pull from the back of your mind, if I asked you to think of somebody you really respect, look up to, leader, this is the infinitely greater son of God. He is the infinite God, Jesus. And John Calvin says, what could be more unworthy of the Son of God than to lead about with him women who were marked by infamy? But this enables us more clearly to perceive that the crimes with which we were loaded before we believed, you gotta listen very carefully. Calvin's saying, this is teaching us that the sin that we lived in before we were converted, and mine was enormous, And even if yours was silent rebellion, it was enormous. Calvin says, so far from diminishing the glory of Christ, they tend rather to raise it to a higher pitch. to think about that what he's saying is Jesus in one sense gets magnified is shown to be so glorious because he takes a woman with such a bad reputation such a bad track record such a terribly wrecked life he redeems her and then he brings her with him as his intimate disciple and Calvin says Christ's glory is not diminished by that. It's actually raised to a higher pitch because of her past sins and what he does. That doesn't mean go sin your head off so Jesus gets more glory. But it does mean if you've sinned your head off and you come to Jesus, He's redeemed you and his grace is super about it He does in a very real sense his glory rises to a higher pitch in the sight of men Mary Magdalene is shown to be a superlative Trophy of Jesus's grace. She is a trophy of Jesus's grace. She is everywhere marked out through the rest of the gospel She's standing at the foot of the cross all the other disciples forsook Jesus and fled but there's Mary Magdalene and who he healed of seven demons, and she's there watching him be crucified. She's there at the tomb when the disciples didn't believe. She is sitting by the tomb. She has positioned herself there, waiting for him, longing for him, not knowing where he was. Tell me where you've laid him and I'll take the body. She loved Jesus so much for what he did, even if he was still in a state of death and someone had taken Christ's body, she wanted the dead body of the Savior. That's what it looks like, by the way, to know the redeeming love of Jesus. Somebody said to me last week, you know, I feel ashamed when we went through that passage about the sinful woman who wept, because I've never done that, they said. I've never wept at the feet of the Savior like that. And I said, you know, different people show their love to the Savior in different ways. in the Gospels. We're going to see that in a minute. But there's also a sense where Jesus redeems people from greater wickedness, like Mary Magdalene, and shows his love and grace and power to a greater degree, even though it's always great, no matter who we are, because our sin is so great, so that you see by the response of that individual that they understand who he is and how much he's done for them. Mary is the trophy of God's great grace through Christ. One writer said, in Mary, the boundless goodness of Christ was displayed in an astonishing manner. I love that, the boundless goodness of Christ. That means no matter what you know about yourself, how much sin you've done, how much wickedness, I really appreciated This week, Rachel Denhollander, the gymnastic Olympiad who was the first to come out against Larry Nassar and was the last one to testify, the 156th, girl who had been abused by him. If you have not watched that video, you have to watch the video of her. It is so powerful. She goes to a Reformed Baptist church in Kentucky. It's very evident she knows her theology. And she's a lawyer, which doesn't help. I mean, which doesn't hurt. It does help. It may not help if she's up against you. But she so clearly Confronted Larry Nassar this week about his wickedness and what he had done. She didn't hold back at all She said what she did was wicked Judgment Day was created for a person like you And then she brings the gospel to bear She says but if you believe with that Bible you walk around with because he apparently walked around with the Bible It's what hypocrites do and people that love Jesus Let me just be careful there. Man, I just put myself in a ditch. She said if you believe What that Bible says about Christ, then you'll know why he came into this world and that he came into the world to bear the sins of the worst. And even though he's going to jail, she wanted him to know the extravagant goodness, mercy, repentance, grace, and salvation that Jesus gives to somebody like Mary Magdalene or to somebody like you or me. I want us to consider The love of Jesus here also minister a love toward these other two women, you know, it's very interesting notice verse 3 He starts with Mary Magdalene I think in a special sense He wants her to be set out as this example and then he mentions two other women It seems that there were more the gospel writers tend to talk about other women a band of women that follow the Savior that were ministering to him and the disciples were providing for them or giving to them. But he singles out two, notice this, Joanna, the wife of Chusa, Herod's household manager, and Susanna. and many others. Now, most writers are, I think, rightly convinced that these two women must have had some extreme sickness because we're told here in this passage there were some women who were healed of evil spirits, I think that's Mary Magdalene, and some who had infirmities, diseases. So the understanding is these two women must have had some severe affliction. Christ had healed them. He had shown singular love to them. And I want you to understand how great this is. One of these women's husbands was the household steward of the guy that lopped off John the Baptist's head. So the guy that throws Jesus's forerunner into jail, wicked King Herod, the guy who will have John beheaded in prison, that guy, that Herod, Jesus heals and redeems his household steward's wife. that does show that Jesus does save certain people in positions of power and authority. That would have been a reputable position. They would have been socialized. This is the most powerful man in the land. This is his main confidant. And Jesus heals his wife, and she, because of the love of Christ, is willing to associate with him. Now, I don't want you to miss this. Associating with Jesus at this point in his ministry is unbelievably risky from a social standpoint. People hate Jesus at this point. They've already tried to throw him off the cliff. They've tried to kill him. They hate Jesus. The religious leaders hate Jesus. The political leaders hate Jesus. The common people have rejected Jesus. It is risky to associate with Jesus. And this woman, whose husband is so powerful in Herod's household, is willing to go with Jesus and his disciples to be seen, to be known, to be recognized as one of his disciples. Now, I thought it was interesting. I had never thought about this in preparation for this sermon, and it's very interesting, isn't it, that in the Gospels, there are no women who we are told deny Jesus. Peter denies him. Judas betrays them. It wasn't a woman who betrayed him. The women stayed at the foot of the cross when the disciples forsook them and fled. They were at the tomb. When he rose from the dead, he showed himself to them first. I think that not only shows us the way in which Jesus honors women as image bearers. But I think it shows that in a very real sense, he gave them grace to see the greatness of his love and to respond to that love for them and the deliverance and the redemption and salvation in very unique ways. And I wonder, and I'm going to say this this morning, I want you to listen. I don't want you to take this the wrong way. But the Bible opens with a woman disobeying first. While we fell in Adam, it was Eve who was deceived, Paul will say. And I wonder if, in a sense, Jesus is not removing the sting of that. There are writers who say, you know, the very fact that it was a woman who would have the Redeemer. No, Eve sinned. And in the same context, God says, I'm going to give the seed of the woman. So the one who led her husband in rebellion, he, in a sense, takes away that sting by saying, but now she is going to bear the Redeemer. Remember, he's born of a woman. And here he is honoring these women. But I think he is also showing the work of grace that he's doing in their life and making them examples of what the grace of Christ can do in your life when you realize how much he's loved you and how much he's done for you. There's nothing in them. It's not anything special. It's nothing about their constitution as women. It's not even because women are more empathetic or sympathetic. It's not. It is all Jesus's grace. I want us to consider finally, and I want us to really focus on this, the ministerial service of these women in support. They're following Jesus, they've associated themselves with him, they are honed in on who he is, they are willing to associate themselves with his disciples, they're willing to bear that scorn to show their love, even, and it's quite possible that that Joanna's husband, Chusa, is mentioned here because he wasn't a believer. That's actually quite possible, that she was a believer, but he wasn't. That can oftentimes be the case. God converts one and not the other. And she's willing, even though her husband is a man of reputation, to take up the reproach of Christ to follow. And notice this. Luke hones in on this. He says that these three and other women followed and provided for them out of their means. Now, We don't know. We don't know if we don't know a lot. We don't know if they had separate bank accounts. You know, Proverbs 31 talks about the Proverbs 31 woman. She's not a doormat. She's out there caring for her house, but she's considering a field and buying it. She's doing realty and entrepreneurial work. She's not just barefoot in the kitchen. She is caring for her home preeminently, but she is an industrious woman. That's the model of a godly woman. She is like a Renaissance woman. We should have that term if we don't, Renaissance woman. And maybe these women are like that, like Susanna Spurgeon, who had a side job and Charles Spurgeon wanted to encourage her that out of that, that she would feel this ministry. And she had that book ministry. And here, these women are providing out, Luke says, of their means. Now, why does Luke even give us this passage? most preachers are gonna just skip over it, or they're gonna tie it together with the parables that we're gonna look at in the weeks ahead, Lord willing, and they're just gonna kind of tack it on, like this is just the beginning of the crowds, and they're part of the crowds, and Jesus is gonna give the parables to all of them, and so it's actually quite hard to find a lot of sermons on these three verses. I think Luke is focusing on this for several reasons. Luke was a doctor. He was wealthy. He no doubt provided for the Apostle Paul's ministry when he was with him through half of the Book of Acts, through most of Paul's ministry. He no doubt used his own money in the research that he did in putting together the Gospel of Luke under inspiration of the Holy Spirit. So Luke was a man that was willing to use his own money. Luke was also pretty honed in, in a special way, on the greed in the hearts of the Pharisees and the scribes. Luke will talk more about money and what it says about us than any of the other gospel writers. The majority of teaching on money in the gospel records comes from Luke's gospel. So he has a keen eye to understand the relationship between true faith in Jesus and a willingness to part from worldly goods in order to serve the purposes of God and his kingdom. This is the first of the accounts. where Luke will talk about money and its place in the kingdom. And it's very interesting that the first is not to the poor and the needy. And we sometimes reduce giving to charitable cause because that is so prevalent in scripture. But the first place is in supporting the gospel ministry of Jesus and the disciples. And I think Luke is tying it together to show that it's reciprocal love, because they've realized what Jesus has done for them, that they are now going to show their love for him by readily coming alongside and supporting his ministry. So one writer, Frederick O'Day, put it this way, the grateful love of those whom he filled Think about this, the grateful love of those whom Christ filled with his spiritual riches provided for his temporal necessities as well as for those of his disciples. So Jesus fills them with his redeeming love, he makes them to know the forgiveness of their sins, he heals them spiritually, and he fills them with his love so that they then out of that love, because this is how it works, Guilt will never give you a heart that wants to give to Christ and the work of his kingdom. You may give self-righteously, but only knowing the love of Jesus will do this natural out-breathing. J.C. Ryle, again, true love will count it a pleasure to give anything to the object loved. I want you to think about that. You love your spouse, do anything for your spouse. If you love Jesus, you'll give up money for Jesus. That's what Ryle's saying. True love will count it a pleasure to give anything to the object love. False love will often talk and profess much, but do and give nothing at all. The visible church and Christ may be divided, I'm sorry, the visible church of Christ, Ryle says, may be divided into two great parties. Those who minister unto Christ by supporting gospel ministry, and those who do not. True love gives itself. Now it's very interesting, isn't it? You would expect in a culture that understood men were to be the providers, because that's very clear. The apostle Paul says, if a man doesn't provide for his own household, he's worse than an infidel. So that's God's expectation. That society understood the man was to be the primary provider if he loved his wife. And yet it's not men who are giving to the work of the Savior. It's women whose hearts have been so gripped by the grace of God in the gospel that they freely give. I think men, I'm going to say this, I think it's a rebuke to men. I can't prove that, but as I meditated on this, I think there's a real danger that men especially, and it's funny because wives want and need security. That's God's order. Please don't take offense to that. That's not an offensive statement. That's how God intends it. But oftentimes, you know, a wife can worry about finances and this and that, but I think there's a peculiar temptation for men to really be stingy. And I think that might be highlighted here. Here, the women are giving to gospel ministry out of their means. It's not their husband's. And at the end of the day, they get the glory. These women get set out, and they loved Christ, by the way, to the very end. Now, here's a really cool thing. Somebody said to me last week, and I mentioned this already, I feel like I've never wept at the feet of the Savior the way the sinful woman wept. And I said to that person, you know, again, there are different ways to show our gratitude and our love to Christ. Listen to what Phil Riken says. He actually touches on that very point. He says, the women who followed Jesus served him to the very end. Unlike most of his other disciples, they followed their Savior to the cross. and to the grave. But you know what Rykin says that's so intriguing to me? He says, it is not always, it is not always that we're called to anoint Jesus's feet like the sinful woman in the Pharisee's house. We're not always called to exhibit our love the way she did. But he said there is a place for that kind of love in the church. There is a place for adoring Jesus with the sweet perfume of extravagant worship in mind and heart and soul and strength. But there is also a place for serving Jesus in more practical ways like paying the bills. This too is a loving service for Christ. Whatever God has given us, whether it is the treasure of a loving heart or the gold of earthly gain, we are called to use it for his glory. yesterday at our sister Fawn's funeral, and I was so encouraged by the turnout from our church to come out there and remember the work that the Lord did in her life. Travis told the story that, you know, Fawn had nothing. She really was the poor and the needy. And sometime last year, Fawn had come into a very small amount of money, which was probably more than she had ever come into. And she came to Travis and she said to him, I really want to give back to the work of the church and gospel ministry. And Travis said, no, you don't need to do that. You probably need this more than we do. And she said, no, I do. And she actually gave a quite considerable gift. Here's a woman that had nothing. What would motivate her to give like that, or the widow with the two mites. These are all women. What would motivate them to give so generously? They understood the love of Christ. They understood what Christ was doing for them. Now, as I think about this, and I think about my own need to grow in this area, And I do, and we do, and there's not one of us that could ever walk out of here and say, I don't need to grow in that area. If you're doing that right now, shame on you. Shame on you. I need to grow in this area of generosity because Christ has redeemed me. He shed his blood, he gave everything. He held back nothing. He poured out his soul unto death on the cross to give me eternal life. What is some money? out of gratitude to that. And then he calls us to share. I mean, think about that. These women shared in the gospel ministry that resulted in our redemption. That's pretty amazing. Frederick O'Day, I'm going to leave you with one thought. and then just one or two applications. Frederick O'Day again said, what a messiah for the eyes of the flesh. You've got to listen and you have to think about this. What a messiah for the eyes of the flesh, living on the charity of men. He's saying, the world looks at that. The redeemer of the world had to live on the charity of men. He said, but what a messiah for the spiritual eye. One Messiah for the spiritual eye. The Son of God living on the love of those to whom his own love is giving life. Isn't that awesome? The world sees a poor redeemer who had to be supported by these women and rejects him and despises him more as they already do. And the believer sees Christ living on the love of his disciples because of the love he had for them. And then last line. An interchange of heaven and earth going on around his person. That's awesome. An interchange of heaven and earth going on around his person. I want us to consider first, as we meditate on all this, have we seen, really seen, what Jesus has done for a sinner like us, for sinners like us? You've got to ask yourself, have I really seen what Christ has done for me? That's behind everything in this passage. everything about this. What fueled the twelve to leave everything and go and minister with Jesus and keep that singular focus? They understood how much he had loved them and forgiven them. What fueled these women to associate themselves with Jesus at the cost of losing their social reputation? Their love for Jesus because he had first loved them. What fueled them to give out of their abundance? Their love for the Savior because he had first loved them. There are some of you who maybe have never seen the love of Christ. That's the mystery of Christianity. The love of Christ constrains us, the dying love that he stands in our place, that he takes the wrath that we deserve, that he takes all of our sin and wickedness on himself to forgive us and cleanse us and bring us to glory. Many of us have no doubt seen the love of Christ, and yet we start to lose sight of it. We get weighed down with our desires, our needs, our bills, our houses, whatever. And maybe we don't give like we used to give. We don't serve like we used to serve. This is a word for us. The Lord calls us back and he says, look at what I've done for you. Look how I love you. Let that fuel a reciprocal love for me and let your lives reflect it. Don't just be a talker, but let your life reflect. that you really believe that Christ has loved you and given himself for you. Let him who has ears to hear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the church this morning. Let me pray for us. Father in heaven, we pray that you would take these words, that you take my words, as feeble as they are. that, Lord, you would please bear fruit in our lives through what you have breathed out in the scriptures and the example of these women, the examples of the disciples. And, Lord Jesus, we pray that you would compel us forward in our Christian lives that we might show generosity and that we might be extravagant in showing our love to you because of the love that you've had for us. Lord, we pray that you would do that for us, even as you did it for Mary, Magdalene, and Joanna, and Susanna, and the other women, and as you did it for your disciples, and as you've done it for so many. We pray that you would work in us, that you might bear fruit through us. We pray these things in Jesus' name. Amen.