This message was given at Grace Community Church in Minden, Nevada. At the end, we will give information about how to contact us to receive a copy of this or other messages. Luke chapter 7, picking up in verse 36, this is the reading of God's Word. One of the Pharisees asked him to eat with him. And he 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 he was reclining at table in the Pharisee's house, brought an alabaster flask of perfume. 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 a perfume. 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, Simon, I have something to say to you. And he answered, say it teacher. A certain money lender had two debtors. One owed 500 denarii and the other 50. When they could not pay, he canceled the debt of both. Now, which of them will love him more? Simon answered, the one, I suppose, for whom he canceled the larger debt. And he 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 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. You did not anoint my head with oil, but she is anointed my feet with perfume. Therefore I tell you, her sins, which are many, have been forgiven. For she loved much, but he who is forgiven little, loves little. And he said to her, your sins have been forgiven. Then those who were at 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. Go in peace. This is a reading of God's word. Please have a seat. Let's begin in prayer. Our Lord, what a good day. What a good day it is to celebrate once more your resurrection. What a good day it is to see brothers and sisters proclaiming their faith and joining the number of your church. What a good day it is. We pray that now you would drive your word into our hearts. We pray that we would be those who know they have been forgiven much And we pray that we would be those who love much. Help us, our Father. We pray this in Jesus's name. Amen. This is just a beautiful passage of scripture. It's just so powerful. It's lovely. I really could have preached far more than one sermon on this. And to prepare you, I'll preach a shorter sermon. Maybe it's part of the beauty of a text that you could preach it either short or you could preach it for sermon after sermon. You can say it quickly or you can say it extensively. There is a lot here to be said. It's an interesting scene we enter into. Our scene begins with Jesus attending a dinner. He attends a dinner held by a Pharisee, which if you're paying attention, if you've ever read the gospels before, you know that's somewhat odd that he is getting together and socializing with Pharisees. Well, the period in his ministry where we find Jesus, it doesn't appear that the Pharisees have united against him or the strong contingent hasn't come out so strongly yet. And so you have a Pharisee here who, he's still interested in studying Jesus a little bit. So this Pharisee named Simon, Simon was just a common name of the time. Simon has Jesus over for dinner and he throws what looks like it's a special kind of banquet. This sort of dinner would be the sort that you might hold in someone's honor, and it would be public in a sense. You invite the people who are there to eat, but other people would be actually able to come in and observe what happens at that dinner. And so there you have Jesus reclining at table as was sort of the custom for a nicer dinner. And this is something that we don't actually do anymore. So we always have to translate what this means. There weren't much of lazy boys at the table, but they were actually generally leaning on their left arm, leaning into the table, their feet behind them. And this is all some fairly relevant details because this explains how it is that this woman, known to be a sinner in the community, is able to, one, come into someone's house, and then, two, have access to Jesus' feet. Right? Because if you picture this as like your family dinner table, it's really kind of awkward and humorous to imagine how the lady comes in the front door. She's, you know, moving people's feet out of the way so she can get access to his feet and do this. That's not how it was at all. His feet are behind him. And that is how this sinful woman comes up to him. And so we come and we're, let's go through this just a couple of verses at a time. We come and let's start in say verse 37 here and read these first couple of verses. Verse 37. And behold, a woman of the city who was a sinner, when she learned that he was reclining at table in the Pharisee's house, 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 a perfume. Now this is just, the scene is just getting more and more interesting. Jesus with a Pharisee. Now Jesus and a Pharisee and this woman known to be a sinner. The exact sort of sin isn't specified, but many commentators over time have thought that what Luke is alluding to is that she was a prostitute. So Jesus, a Pharisee, and a prostitute. And she approaches Jesus' feet and she begins to weep. weeping. She's weeping over his feet and she begins to, her tears coming down her cheeks fall on his feet. And you can imagine, she's like, his feet are wet because of me. What do I have? She has her hair. And she takes her hair and she starts wiping his feet dry from the tears that she's continuing to weep upon them. She adds to that that she's brought perfume and she anoints his feet with perfume. What a scene here. And this woman is so engrossed in this experience. There's no sense that she feels like this is an awkward social experience at all. If you were there that dinner, you would think this was an awkward social experience. She's not thinking about that. Jesus is there. I have to go see him. I have to go see him. And so there she is weeping over his feet, drying his feet with her hair, anointing his feet with perfume. She is so overcome with emotion toward Jesus. Now, this draws out some reactions. You look at verse 39 and the host isn't really favorable to this. 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. So Simon the prophet, he's just interpreting all this lightning fast. And he says, sees this notorious sinner weeping over Jesus' feet and Jesus is allowing this to go on and he comes to his conclusion. If he were a prophet, and what's the implication? Well, the implication is clearly he's not a prophet. This shows that Jesus is not a prophet. If he were a prophet, he would know who this woman was. And if he knew who this woman was, he would reject her. He would spurn her. Simon believes that a prophet would never allow such a sinful woman to come near. Jesus, as usually is the case, he sort of understands what Simon's thinking. It's said like Simon was talking to himself. However Jesus knows, Jesus knows and he's willing to take up the challenge. Verses 40 through 43. Simon, I have something to say to you. And Simon answers, say it teacher. A certain money lender had two debtors. One owed 500 denarii and the other 50. When they could not pay, he canceled the debt of both. Now, which of them will love him more? And Simon answered, the one, I suppose, for whom he canceled the larger debt. And Jesus said to him, you have judged rightly. That's the thing, when you've got Jesus walking you through one of his teachings, there's no way to evade it. He sort of leads you down the path you have to go. Okay, so here we have a guy who owes 500 denarii. The easy way to remember how much that was worth is it's about a day's labor. A labor that you would need 500 days to pay off. 500 days straight where you weren't feeding yourself or your family, just working to pay off the debt. And then you have the one who owes 50. Still a good-sized debt, right? 50 days to pay off that debt, but one debt significantly greater than the other. The master, the one to whom the money's owed, he sees that neither of them can afford to pay. and he does an incredibly gracious, merciful thing, he forgives the debts. He forgives the debts because they could not pay. So Jesus asked the question, which of them is going to love that debtor more? Which will love him more? There's no answer to give except the one Jesus is leading in, right? The one, I suppose, the Pharisee can say, the one, I suppose, who owed the greater debt. The one who owed the greater debt. And you hear it in Simon's voice. You hear it in his words, I suppose. The one for whom he canceled the larger debt. This seems like it's all very intellectual to Simon. It's all very theoretical, but Jesus will not let it remain theoretical. He will not let it remain merely intellectual. He says, you have judged correctly. And then Jesus turns to make his main point. Verses 44 through 47, Jesus compares this sinful woman's love to Simon's. Reading the text. Then turning toward the woman, he said to Simon, do you see this woman? I entered your house, 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. You did not anoint my head with oil, but she has anointed my feet with perfume. Therefore, I tell you, her sins, which are many, have been forgiven. For she loved much, but he who has forgiven little loves little. The first thing Jesus points out is Simon's total lack of hospitality. He throws the dinner, but he's not very hospitable in how he does it. Common custom would be to provide water for the feet of the guests so that they could clean off their feet coming in from however far they've journeyed to get there. But he didn't do that. Simon didn't offer any water. He offered no welcoming kiss. So glad you could come. Welcome to my house, right? Nothing like that. No oil for his head in another custom that we don't really do, but anointing the oil with head, sort of a refreshing thing to do after your travels. He didn't offer oil for Jesus's head. And then, then there is in contrast, this woman's extravagant embrace. She wets Jesus's feet with her tears. She won't stop kissing his feet. Olive oil, just an interesting thing to know, olive oil would have been cheap. To have a little oil around so that he could have anointed his head would have been quite affordable, and Simon didn't do that. But this woman, again, in striking contrast, she anoints Jesus' feet with perfume, which would have been quite expensive. Their actions, the Pharisee versus the prostitute, they reflect their heart toward God. Her abounding love for Jesus flowed out of the great forgiveness she had received. Simon's coldness toward Jesus flowed out of the little forgiveness he had received. You see, this woman knew she was a sinner. We don't know this woman's backstory. It's not given to us in the scriptures, but what seems clear What seems clear is that she had at least heard Jesus preach. Not preaching, she must have found conviction of her sin. She must have found forgiveness for her sin. And this is how you explain why she just walks straight into a dinner and starts weeping over Jesus. She must have already heard, she must have already believed the good news. And this woman was convinced of her deep sinfulness. So when this woman finds forgiveness, she is overcome with love for Jesus. Again, in contrast, did Simon know he was a sinner? It really doesn't look like it. It really does not look like it. The only thing that he's convinced of was that someone else was a sinner. Simon doesn't understand his sinfulness. Nor does he understand what Jesus offers. In contrast to this sinful woman who loves Jesus extravagantly, Simon loves little, if at all. Simon's thinking it's just so natural to us, unfortunately. It's so natural to think like Simon. We're concerned about other people's sins because they're the ones doing the really bad stuff. We're not so concerned about our sin, because after all, our sins are small and acceptable. When we think like that, we just deceive ourselves. We're just deceiving ourselves. That kind of thinking shows that like Simon, we don't understand what sin is because you see sin, every sin demanded that the son of God be nailed to a cross. Every sin demanded that the father pour out his wrath upon his son. Every sin was the cause for the Son of God to cry out, my God, my God, why have you forsaken me? Every sin will be judged on that last day and every sin is a ticket to hell. If you see your sin clearly, you stop separating between the so-called acceptable sins and the unacceptable sins. You stop seeing your sin as the normal kind of sin and someone else's sin as the filthy kind. When you see your sin clearly, you stop deceiving yourself into thinking that your pornography or your bitterness or your anger are somehow less sinful than this woman's prostitution. If you see sin clearly, you will see that all sinners are on a level playing field. Among sinners, there is no such thing as us versus them. On judgment day, you will not get to hold your head high because you were a socially acceptable sinner. On that last day, Pharisees and prostitutes will stand on level ground when they are judged. The prostitute understood her sin. The Pharisee did not. So when she found forgiveness, not merely for her prostitution, but for simply being a sinner, because she understood her sin, her love overflowed. Only those who know the depths of their sin will know the joys of forgiveness. In verses 48 through 50, the woman's forgiveness is declared. And Jesus said to her, your sins have been forgiven. Then those who were at 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. Go in peace. He tells the woman, your sins have been forgiven. Again, the implication being she was forgiven earlier, but now Christ before these people, and partly before this judgmental group, Christ declares her forgiveness before her peers. He's done this once before, it was in chapter five. People in this scene, just like in the last one, they marveled that this man claims to forgive sins because only God can do that. But Jesus isn't concerned with the crowd's reaction here. He's not concerned with what people think. He is concerned with this woman. He says, your faith has saved you. Your faith has saved you. In faith, she trusted the one who forgives and she is saved. Her love did not save her. Rather, by faith, she took hold of a forgiveness that could only be found in Jesus. Because of her faith, she is forgiven. Because of her faith, she is washed clean. Because of her faith, she is pardoned. Because of her faith, she is made new. And because she received what she needed most, Jesus can say, Go in peace. Go in the peace that you never had while you were in your sin. Go in the peace that you never had while your conscience was eating away at you for the life you were living far from God. Go in the peace that only comes from knowing that you have been made right with your creator. Two points for you. Two points as we close. First point is this. Jesus did not die on a cross so that we could love little. Simon the Pharisee was the one that loved little. Why did he love little? Well, perhaps he was a forgiven man, yet he knew little of that forgiveness, so he loved God little. And in defense of that, no Christian in all of history has fully understood the depths of their forgiveness in Jesus Christ. So, to say that someone might not understand their forgiveness in Christ, and yet be truly forgiven, that's nothing unusual. On the other hand, Simon might simply not have been the true follower of God. The forgiveness that overwhelmed this woman, it was just this intellectual thing to him. He hadn't experienced it. And it's scary that the most knowledgeable religious people around can miss the most basic truths of the faith. But history shows that generation after generation continues to repeat this mistake. See, if you, if you find your heart cold toward the Lord, if you find your heart cold toward the gospel, then you fall into one of these two categories. And the problem is very similar. You are either distant from a salvation that you have experienced or you are distant from a salvation that you have not experienced. In either case, God wants you to draw near. If you have been the straying believer, come back. Come back to the truths that you have already been given. Come back, draw near, and stay close, and see if his gospel doesn't warm your soul again. The gospel has lost none of its beauty, none of its power, and God will prove it to you if you will come back. Now, if you have never been close to the Lord, then today is your day. Today is your day. Consider your sin. Consider how deep it is. Consider how dark it is. Consider how pervasive it is. And then consider Christ. Consider that he died and conquered death so that you might live. When Jesus said, come to me all you who are weary and heavy laden, and I will give you rest. He was talking to you. He was talking to you. Draw near and find the life that you've never known before. Jesus didn't die on a cross so that we could love little. Our second concluding point. If you have forgiveness in Christ, then you too can go in peace. This sinful woman found peace in Jesus Christ. It is a peace that believes that Christ is actually able to forgive your sins. Though your sins were great, the grace of Jesus Christ is greater. Though your guilt was profound, his forgiveness is more than up for the challenge. In Christ, the guilty are pardoned. In Christ, the filthy are washed clean. In Christ, the broken are made new. Child of God, your sin has been removed from you as far as the East is from the West. He has canceled the debt that you could not pay. You are a slave to sin no more. because the Son has set you free. I want you to hear these words. Hear these words that the Savior speaks to the redeemed across every generation. Your faith has saved you. Go in peace. Let's pray. Father, we We have been forgiven so much. From the way that we think, to the way we talk, to the way that we act, today and yesterday and all the time before. Our God, we have so much to be forgiven. We thank you for the Lord Jesus Christ. We thank you for the one who paid the debt that we could not. Lord, I pray that you would kindle in us a fire, a burning fire of love, because we are those who have been forgiven much. We pray for those who have been far from salvation. We pray that you would draw them near. We pray that today would be their day. We ask this in the name of Jesus Christ, our Savior. Amen. We hope you've enjoyed this message from Grace Community Church in Minden, Nevada. To receive a copy of this or other messages, call us at area code 775-782-6516 or visit our website gracenevada.com.