Jesus and Broken Sinners

Transcript

What's up, fam? As Chet said, my name is Ant. He also mentioned just how generous your church has been in just supporting Midtown 2 Notch, and specifically myself. I believe it was about November of last year, I transitioned from being bivocational as church planner at Midtown 2 Notch to be able to do that full-time and not have to be able to have another Job to support my family. And just truth be told, I'm excited to be here to share with you guys today because I would not have been able to do that without generosity from Mill City. Actually, when I was working as a personal trainer part-time and vocationally as a pastor part-time, and I was telling one of my clients, you know, I was going to be transitioning out, and she was like, well, what happened?

What changed? And I was like, well, our church, where we are at, is not ready to support me financially. And so there's actually another church in our city that loves Jesus, loves our city, and wanted to support me. So they're actually paying a pretty good part of my salary so I'm able to do it. And she was like, well, you know, sometimes you got to go where the money is. And I was like, wait, what?

You didn't understand. She literally, she thought that I was saying, another church offered me a salary, so now I'm going to pastor at the other church? Because she had no concept for a church being generous enough to say, hey, we want to be generous to you. We believe in what God is doing in and through your church, and we want you to stay right there where you're at and continue to serve. And we want to be generous in that way. So I just wanted to say thank you on behalf of Midtown Two Notch, on behalf of myself and my family.

You guys have been instrumental. I don't even know how many of you knew you were doing that, but our church would not be able to serve and love on just inner city communities around Two Notch Road without you guys and without your help. So I just wanted to just express my appreciation for Mill City. Also, I kind of keep in touch on Facebook and talking to Chad and Matt a little bit. Super encouraged by what God is doing through the gospel here. Super encouraged to be able to get into the word today with you also.

So when Chet first hit me up about this series, he said, we're doing a series called Jesus and People. We're just looking at how Jesus responds to different types of people in the Bible. Very, very interesting for me. I loved it the first time I heard about it. That's actually one of my favorite things to look into in the Bible. It's just how does Jesus respond?

Because he never responds the way people in his time expect him to. So he lived in a time where people commonly believe, like, hey, if I can just muster up enough willpower to obey the commandments of God, then God will really love me. Like, if I can just get on my game enough, if I can try hard enough, if I can just kind of muster up the strength to do it, to live the way God has called me to do it, if I can just get over this one thing, this one habit that I have, then maybe God will love me. And Jesus comes in, and the way he interacts with Pharisees and the way he interacts with sinners, the way he interacts with everybody, it just completely knocks everybody out of the box.

And they can't understand what he's doing. And we get to look into that a little bit today as we'll look into a Jesus interaction with a woman who the Bible calls a sinner and with a Pharisee also. So if you want to turn with me to Luke chapter 7, we'll get us started at verse 36. If you're using one of the Bibles on the share, it should be on page 560. But we get to look into this very, very interesting story.

And so at the time when Jesus was there in Israel, I think Chad already told you, maybe it was last week or maybe a couple weeks ago, that the Pharisees, which there's one in this story, the Pharisees were the guys who kind of felt like, I obey God, thus God owes me something. Or God has to love me because I obey. I obey, therefore God favors me. They were kind of the religious elite of that town, of that time, I should say. And Jesus is about to educate this Pharisee on some things. Let's start at verse 36.

Verse 36 reads, One of the Pharisees asked him to eat with him, and he went into the Pharisee's house and took his place at the table. So the way they ate at this time, and the next verse is going to say that they were reclining at the table. Basically what that means is that they didn't set up at the table the way we do now. They kind of had a table that was like kind of on the floor, maybe a little bit raised up from the floor. And for them reclining at the table was they're kind of laying kind of on their stomachs, maybe on their elbows, and they're eating kind of around probably a rectangular table.

So you kind of think the table's in the middle. Everybody's kind of laying down with their feet pointing out. So that's what it would have looked like at that time. So Jesus is at Simon's house. They're having a meal. A lot of times during that time, they would kind of have the doors to their house open during the meal time.

And so, you know, if people are walking by, they want to step, they want to come by and drop in, they can do that. And that's exactly what happens in verse 37. It reads, And behold, a woman of the city who was a sinner, when she learned that he was reclining at the table at the Pharisee's house, brought an alabaster flask of ointment. Right? So this verse is telling us a little bit about this woman.

Let's look into it. It said a woman of the city. That basically means she is someone who her business is she exchanges sexual favors for money. She's a prostitute. And so this prostitute, this lady who was kind of living in open rebellion against God's command. So Israel is considered God's people.

She most likely would have grown up knowing God's commands. Maybe she grew up in a, quote, unquote, religious family where she was taught this is the way you're supposed to live. You're supposed to follow God. Or maybe not. Maybe she kind of moved in there and just kind of learned about the culture. Whatever the situation is, she probably knows what it's like to feel judged in some way.

Right? She probably knows what it's like to be looked down upon by the religious elite of that time. She was a, raise your hand, just so I can know kind of who we have here. Raise your hand if you've ever used the word ratchet in a sentence. Not the tool, but just like, oh, great, great. Well, that's pretty much everybody.

That's great. So if you did not raise your hand, at Two Notches, we use it all the time. We always talk about God comes for the ratchet. Right? So what that means, the way we use it, what it means is you're like, you're sinful and in rebellion and you're just wiling out in some way.

And you're just doing it out in the open where you don't even care who sees you. It's like, not only are you doing wrong, but you're just out there with it. And everybody knows that you're doing wrong. And that's just kind of your stigma, your ratchet like that. So that's how this woman was.

She was known for being a prostitute and being openly rebellious. And that's what I want us to focus on today. We're going to see how Jesus responds specifically to people who kind of have a tendency to live in open rebellion. You know, kind of people who just natural rule breakers. Right? The line's right here.

Like, you just got to just step over. Like, you just got to be on the other side of the line. You don't like rules. If somebody gives you a rule, you feel like it's restricting you. You don't feel like it's helping you. So I want some of us to identify with a little bit of that aspect of the way this woman, this prostitute would have seen things.

And we're going to see specifically how Jesus responds to you when you come to him. Now, for some of you, that's not kind of the way you very naturally are bent. For some of you, you like rules. You like to follow rules. You like to kind of, you know, come in here on a Sunday with your, how are you doing? I'm good.

You kind of got your nice Sunday face going on. You kind of carry that out throughout the week. And so if that's you, and so if you're not naturally rebellious and naturally outwardly rebellious like this woman, I want you to be able to be really kind of zoned in also. I believe this is going to provide some training for those of us who kind of fit more of the role of kind of the type of the Pharisee. Right? Because if you're going to be on mission, whether you're openly rebellious or not, you're going to come across people like this woman.

Right? Like, if we're going out and intentionally trying to make disciples and point people to Christ, you're going to come across people like this woman. We need to be able to look into how does Jesus respond to her to help equip us and train us on how we to respond when we come across or come in contact with someone who's in the same kind of maybe lifestyle or just similar to this lady. All right. Let's move forward.

Verse, actually, before we move forward, let me explain. The end of verse 37 says she brought an alabaster flask of ointment. Right? So for a prostitute, this would have been very, very important. This is like a, it's kind of like a perfume. And she most likely would have used it for one of two or maybe both of the, both of these reasons.

The first one is, so at that time, they didn't have like showers like we do. And people didn't bathe as often as we do. So people would just kind of naturally smell bad. And so for her, having this ointment, this perfume, if you would, was kind of, may have been a way of masking for her the smell of all these men that she's often with. Right? It's kind of a, it could have served a purpose of just helping her, helping make her job more bearable, if you would.

But also, it's believed that prostitutes often at this time will wear this perfume. And it kind of, when you, when you smell that, you kind of knew what she was about. Right? It kind of let her potential clients know what she was interested in, what she wanted to do, what her hustle was, and that kind of thing. So just keep that in mind.

Jump to verse 38. Verse 38 reads, and standing behind him at his feet. So this is the woman of the city, the prostitute, standing at Jesus' feet. So standing behind him at his feet, weeping, she began to wet his feet with her tears and wipe them with the hair of her head and kissed his feet and anointed them with the ointment. So this lady walks in the room.

She sees Jesus. Apparently, she'd been looking for Jesus. She sees him. She finds him. She's like, okay, this is my chance to meet Jesus. And she comes in, she doesn't come and take a seat at the table or she doesn't come and recline at the table.

She goes right to Jesus' feet and she just starts crying. Right? And this is not that, this is not that pretty cry where you're kind of mad, but you're kind of upset and you're kind of sad and you've got like one tear coming down. Like this is not, this is not pretty cute crying. Right? This is bawling.

She is weeping at Jesus' feet to the point where it says her tears are wetting Jesus' feet. This woman is, is, is heartbroken. What we find out a little bit later in the passage is that she, she, this woman is, is aware of her sin. She's, she's so aware of her life of rebellion and her life has not gone the way she, she anticipated it going. I would assume to the point where she didn't fit. She didn't know that her, her life of a rebellion would bring her to this point.

But right now she is standing over Jesus' feet and she is so heartbroken over her sin that tears are flowing to the point where it can wet, wet Jesus' feet. This woman throughout this story, she's going to give us a beautiful picture of what true repentance actually looks like. So what I want to do is I want to point out three things. They don't go in any chronological order or anything like that. I want us to learn three things from, from this woman about what true repentance is actually like. Uh, the first component of repentance that I want to point us to is that in true repentance, you grieve over your sin.

You truly grieve over your sin. You don't have to turn there. I just want to read the scripture to you. Psalms 51, 16 and 17. David writes this after he, um, he sleeps with the woman who is married. And then, um, so that the husband, so they won't find out that, that she gets pregnant.

So they won't find out that it's his child. Um, and they, and he had sex with her before they were married. He has her husband killed so that he can go and marry her. So it's like, yo, the baby is, the baby was mine. We got pregnant after we were married. And so a prophet comes to David, um, just kind of points out, Hey God, I know what you did.

God knows what you did. David repents. And this is how he, this is what he writes kind of in that time of, of repentance. He says, for you will not delight in sacrifice. He's talking to God for you will not delight in sacrifice, or I would give it. You will not be pleased with a burnt offering.

And he says, the sacrifices of God are a broken spirit, a broken contrite heart. Contrite means feeling or expressing remorse, uh, over wrongdoing. He says, geez, what, what God really wants is not a, a, a sacrifice, not for us to, for at, at their time to kill an animal and offer it up to God. What God wants is for us to be broken over our sin, that our hearts would hurt. And mourn and grieve over the fact that we've done wrong. And I believe, man, I believe sin is at its most dangerous point in our lives when it convinces us that it's not a big deal.

When it convinces us that it's not, it's not really that, that big of a problem. Like when we get into believing the lie that, oh, well, God has mercy for me. So that means, you know, I can, I don't have to fight viciously against the sin, uh, in my life. I don't, I don't need to truly be broken over it. Like, you know, when God sees me, he sees, you know, Christ's righteousness over me. So I don't really need to be doing battle, uh, against my sin and waging war against my sin.

Um, one of the things I love about, uh, Mill City Church is I know, uh, I know Matt to some degree. I know, I know Chet better as Chet was saying, I know that the pastors of your church are, are appropriately, properly emphasizing God's grace. Like appropriately pointing you to the fact that, Hey, your relationship with God, you're standing with God. The fact that you have favor with God has nothing to do with how good you perform, has nothing to do with how good you are at, at kind of making yourself up, make yourself look like you're, you're a good person, whatever. But it has everything to do with how Jesus performed and he gives us credit for, for his righteousness and every righteous thing that he's done, uh, on the earth.

I know that, that, that is emphasized here. And I praise God for that. Cause that's the way that it should be. What I also know is that there's often a tendency in, in churches like this for us to sinfully use grace as a license to continue on in our sin. There's also an, a tendency for us to sinfully just feel like, well, you know, I, I shouldn't really feel bad about my sin, right? Cause I'm forgiven.

Like I shouldn't really be heartbroken over it. Right. Since I'm, since I'm forgiven. Um, so, uh, in my marriage, when I, when I sin against my wife, um, my wife is great about offering forgiveness. She forgives faster than I do. I don't know how she does it.

It's just like God's spirit at work in her. And even though I am forgiven, if I do something that offends her, I still feel that like she's not condemning me. So I'm not trying to say we should feel condemned over our sin, but I am saying there should be a level of remorse. So she'll be a level of, of, uh, a contrite heart, even though we know that God forgives us a level of, of remorse that causes us to fight our sin. Uh, another scripture I wanted to, uh, to read for second Corinthians chapter seven, actually Paul writes, uh, godly grief produces a repentance that leads to salvation without regret.

Paul says that, that a godly grief, when we grieve properly over our sin, it actually leads us to repentance. It actually leads us to salvation. That's what this, this, this prostitute is, is modeling for us beautifully. Just, uh, uh, uh, being broken to the point of tears over, over her sin. Let's read on a little bit farther.

Still in verse 38. It says that she wiped them with, wiped his feet with the hair of her head and kissed his feet. So it's likely at this time, she's no longer standing. If she is wiping Jesus' feet with her hair, she's likely kneeling down now. So she's still bawling.

She's still crying and she has let down her hair. She's using her hair to wipe and wash Jesus' feet at this time. There's a couple of things going on here. Um, first one is, uh, women at this time always wore their hair up. It was a cultural thing. Um, and, and it was, uh, kind of the tradition was a woman only let her hair down for her husband.

Right? It was such a, a, a communication of, of, of intimacy, uh, that many people believe that it was grounds for divorce. If a woman let her hair down in front of another man, this is what she would have done for her clients. Right? So as she's, as she is attracting a potential client, she's let her hair down.

She's wearing a perfume. They know what she is into. She's displaying most likely to the, to the greatest degree that she can, a level of, of, of intimacy and maybe even desire for Jesus in this moment in the most scandalous way possible, I would say. And it says, she begins kissing his feet. Now, um, some of you in here, I know, I see we've got a few, a few married couples in here. Some of y'all married couples are like, I wish my spouse would ask me for a foot rug.

Right? I wish, I wish you, I am waiting on you to do that just so I can let you know about yourself. Uh, but this, so some of y'all just like feet are just nasty and dirty. Like I don't mess with you. I don't mess with people's feet. Right?

Uh, Jesus's feet would have been more messed up than your spouse's feet, uh, would have been. I feel weird saying God has smelly feet, but it's, it's, it's a thing. So they, they generally walked either barefoot or in sandals. Uh, and so they, and they also walked on dirt roads and they shared roads with animals. Right? So these roads are, are nasty.

Again, they don't shower a whole lot, kind of musty around there. Uh, they, their feet would have been extremely dirty. Her lips are on Jesus's feet right now. She is kissing his feet. That's important because they're having a meal, right? They're having dinner.

They're reclining at a table. She doesn't come in and just roll up on the table and be like, oh, Jesus, I need to talk to you about something. No, no. She goes straight to his feet, recognizing and acknowledging. We'll talk about more a little in a little bit, acknowledging that Jesus is greater than she is. Acknowledging that she does not deserve a seat at Jesus's table.

She's not deserved to eat with him. So she goes straight to his feet. Component of repentance is number two that I'm going to point us to that this, uh, this lady, this woman models for us is you realize you aren't worthy of Jesus. You realize you aren't worthy of Jesus. You realize that we, that we, none of us truly deserve because of our sinfulness and because of how perfect and holy and sinless God is that none of us deserve to be at his table. None of us deserve to truly be able to fellowship with him.

None of us deserve to, to, to, to truly know him and be known by him because of our sin. This, this, this woman who has grieved over her sin, who to some degree is grasping the weight and the gravity of her sin. She's come to realize, I don't, I don't deserve to be at Jesus's table. I don't deserve to know him, uh, in that way. And here's the, I think probably for a lot of us in here, if you've been here for a while, uh, you've probably heard that before that we all need grace. And the only way we get to God and have a relationship with him is because of what Jesus did on the cross in our place.

But I think sometimes we can believe that we, uh, that we understand that and we can believe that kind of intellectually understand that we are not worthy of him, but sometimes it functionally hasn't hit our hearts. Uh, so, so for example, I, a lot of times I've met people who, who would say, yes, I'm only saved by grace. I'm, I'm, I'm based on my works. I'm not worthy of, of truly knowing God, but there's still zero level of gratitude and zero level of rejoicing because we are able to fellowship with, with God because of what Christ has done. Does that make sense? It's like, I want us to be, uh, paying very careful attention to our hearts a little bit.

It's like, Hey, if you, if you are not in some way grateful, if that doesn't do something for, for your soul and grant you some level of joy that you can fellowship with God because of what Christ has done, you think you're worthy of Jesus. You think you're worthy to sit at his table and eat with him. And it probably goes back to the first point of, you don't, you don't understand the gravity of your sin. You don't understand the, the depths of how, of how sinful each of us are. Let's move on and read the last part of the verse.

It says, and anointed them with the ointment. So she takes this alabaster flask that she has, this ointment that she has and says she anoints Jesus' feet. Well, the, uh, the way that they kind of made those flasks back then is you, they made it so you can only get a little bit out at a time. It's probably really expensive. You don't want to waste any so you can only get a little bit out. So for, for her to anoint Jesus' feet, the way that she is, she would have had to break her flask.

Like you can't just, cause all you, all you got out was a little dab. Like you, you're not going to get a full drop out at one time. And so she would have had to break her flask. Now remember the importance of the flash to her, for her occupation, for her hustle, right? She, she needs this for her job, for her occupation, for this, this flash is a sense of security for her, right? This is how she makes money.

This is how she survives. This is how she lives. She comes in, she sees Jesus. She recognizes the depths of her sin and she breaks it and she pours it out on Jesus' feet. This is her saying very loud and clear. I'm completely turning away from my lifestyle of sin.

I'm completely turning away this lifestyle of, of prostitution that I've been in. I've grieved my sin. I know that I'm not worthy of him. The third point of the third component of repentance. I want us to, I want to point us to, excuse me today is you realize that Jesus is better than your sin. You realize that Jesus is better than whatever fill in the blank is for you that for those of us in the room who are kind of naturally rebellious, kind of naturally like to turn away from God.

Whatever, whatever that is that you run to, that, that, that you turn to third point of repentance is you realize Jesus is just better. He's just better. What he has for us is just, it's better. Ultimately, it brings more lasting joy. I can only imagine. She, she thought living this life previously, she thought it was the best way for her to live.

She thought this is what she, what she should do. This is how I'm going to make it in this life. She means Jesus and she's like, no, I was, I was completely wrong. So in Genesis chapter three, if I can, if I can paraphrase it, uh, kind of put into my own words, what, what saint Satan does is he's talking to Eve, uh, to, to get her to, to sin against God by eating the fruit that God called her not to eat. He basically comes to her and says, uh, Hey, God's actually withholding something good from you. God's actually preventing you from having something of good, something of value.

God's withholding the good stuff and he's keeping it all to himself and he's restricting you from having what is actually good. If you actually eat from this, this tree, you'll be a little bit happier. You'll have, you'll have more joy. There'll be more benefits in your life. If you try to live independently of the way God has called you to live, it's literally the oldest trick in the Bible. It's the oldest lie in the Bible.

It's the oldest trick in the book. And for those of us in here who are naturally rebellious, like this woman, Satan feeds that to you all the time. I think it's his most effective life. You will find more joy, more peace, more happiness, more life, more vitality outside of the way God calls for you to live. Again, if you, if you have a natural bend towards rebellion in here, Satan is, he's giving you that over and over and over. This woman ultimately gets to the end of a rope and finds out that that's a lie.

Realizing that Jesus is better than your sin. All right. So in verse 39, Simon takes note of everything that's going on. And Jesus is about to teach him a little something, something. Verse 39. 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 was touching him, for she is a sinner.

So Simon looks, Simon looks at this woman and is like, hey, she's not, this woman should not be fellowshipping with us. Like she should not be touching Jesus. If Jesus is actually a holy man. No. Did she, he, uh, one thing that, that this chapter also does. And, um, I said a little bit earlier, I want to spend some time talking to specifically to people who maybe are not as naturally rebellious, but as you're, as we're going our own mission, making disciples, we want to come across people who are, and we need to know how to interact with them, how to, how to show them the love of Christ.

Well, Simon is, it just gave us the perfect example of what not to do. Simon basically says, Hey, if you want to, if, um, you're not able to roll with us cause you're, you're, you're too, too sinful for us. You're not welcome to sit at my table cause you're, you're, you're too sinful. You need, you need to be separated. You need, you need to be somewhere. This is exactly the opposite of what we are to do.

Basically he's communicating, Hey, people who are as simple as you are not, are not welcome around here, right? People who, who to some degree smell of the sins that they commit, not welcome here. Don't sit beside me. Don't get anywhere near my kids. Do not. You're an I'm, I'm rejecting fellowship with you because of your sin.

Exactly the opposite of what Jesus does and exactly how we should not live. Um, as believers, verse 40. And Jesus answering said to him, Simon, I have something to say to you. And he answered, say a teacher. So Jesus is about to give him a, give him a parable to teach him a little something.

Verse 41. A certain money lender had two debtors. One owed 500 denarii and the other 50. So, uh, basically what he's saying is there's a guy who gives out loans to people. Uh, one of them, oh, one of them, uh, he, he lended out 50 denarii. A denarii, uh, for an average worker was about a day's wages.

So we're talking a little bit over a month, a little bit under two months, a month and a half ish, uh, wages. And he said the other owed 500 denarii. So we're talking about over a year, maybe a year and a third, something like that. So this is a lot, a lot of money, a year, over a year's worth of wages. One of them owed verse 42. When they could not pay, he canceled the debt of both.

Now, which of them will love him more? Verse 43. Simon answered the one, I suppose, for whom he canceled the larger debt. Simon says the one, I suppose, whom he can, he's like, well, technically, I guess, depends on how you look at it, maybe sort of the one who owed the larger debt will end up loving more. And Jesus says, you have judged rightly. Jesus says, bingo, Simon, you got it.

Uh, so Jesus is basically making the point that those who, who, who understand, um, that Jesus has, has forgiven them of a lot, will love him more, will, will, will desire him more, will have more affection for him than those who feel like they've only been forgiven for a little bit. Right? So those of us who, who are naturally rebellious, kind of open with our sin, not really trying to hide it. I believe to some degree you, you have, uh, I guess, I guess I would say even an advantage in, um, in understanding God's grace. Cause your sin is, your sin is out there. I think a lot of times for, for people who are naturally rebellious, there can be a tendency, um, to, to, to see it, but not, but not feel the gravity of it.

Um, but Jesus says those who, who understand they're forgiven more will, will definitely love more. Verse 44. Jesus talking to Simon. Do you see this woman? 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. Jesus is giving them a comparison.

Uh, he's comparing how Simon has treated him since he came to the house and how the prostitute has treated him since she came into the house. He says, I'll read that again. Uh, enter 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 ointment.

All right. There are some cultural norms that are going on in this passage, uh, that I want to clue us in on. So, uh, the first one, the first thing Jesus says, the first comparison that he makes, I should say is, um, he says, you gave me no water for my feet, but she has wet my feet with her tears and wiped them with her hair. So the custom at that time was when you come to someone's house for a meal, if they're, if they are wealthy, if they have a servant, they'll have their servant come out with a basin of water and the servant will wash your feet. Again, people's feet were dirty at this time.

You've been walking, probably walking a long distance, dirt roads around animals, all that kind of stuff. So that's the custom. Jesus saying, Simon, you didn't even bring, not only did you not have your servant come out, you didn't even bring me water so I can wash my own feet. And she is washing my feet with her tears and her hair. Next point Jesus makes, you gave me no kiss, but from the time I came in, she has not ceased to kiss my feet. So at that time, when someone comes to your house, if you are, if you consider yourself an equal with them, you'll probably kiss them on the cheek when they come in, just a kind of a greeting.

Uh, if you feel like they are greater than you, you probably kissed them on the hand, right? You take their hand, you kiss their hand, acknowledging they're a little bit greater than you are. This woman comes in and she is kissing Jesus' feet. Acknowledging Jesus is, is, is far greater going above and beyond what is, what is the normal, I guess, uh, expected thing of her. Last thing Jesus says, you did not anoint my head with oil, but she has anointed my feet with ointment. One of the things they did to mask the smell around dinner times, they would put oil a little bit on their, maybe on their head, maybe on their shoulders and neck to kind of mask the smell a little bit.

Uh, Jesus says, you didn't even give me any oil. And she has completely poured out all this ointment and her perfume, um, on me. This true heart of repentance. I will say once we, when we really come to understand that Jesus is better than our sin, we don't try to find the minimum of what it takes to do to still be counted a Christian. This woman is going far beyond the custom, far beyond what is expected to be. True, true repentance does not lead us to a point of saying, okay, I still, I, what, Jesus, what's the minimum, like what's, what's the minimum that I have to do in order for, for, for, for me to be, be, be, be okay.

Right. So when I was, uh, uh, in like elementary school, uh, took swimming lessons at a, at a pool back where I grew up in Chester, uh, South Carolina. And, um, we, we did our lessons at first, like in the three feet. And they, they kind of told you at the beginning on the last day, we're going to the 12 foot. Right. And so I was always just like super, super excited about that last day when I'd be able to jump in, jump, jump in the, in the deep water, if you would.

So that's, that's a little bit about what, what, what Christianity is to be like. It's like this, this one, this woman is saying, I'm not trying to stay in the kiddie pool. I want to, as much as I can give to worship God, as much as I can grow in worshiping God with my whole life. That's what I want to do. Once she realizes that, that her, her life of sin does not compare to the life Christ offers, she is full in going all out, not trying to find the minimum that she can do. This is what true repentance looks like.

Let's jump to verse 47. Jesus gets to his main point. Therefore, I tell you her sins, which are many are forgiven for she loved much, but he who is forgiven little loves little. So there's two sinful people in the room. One of them acknowledges her sin and one of them does not. And he's saying this woman loves much because she really understands how much she's been, how much she's been forgiven for.

And this kind of takes us back to, to verse one. But when we, when we actually, when we minimize our sin, act like it's not a big deal. Act like, you know, we, we, we, we deserve fellowship, fellowship with God. We're actually robbing ourselves of true joy and true love for the Lord. So here's what I mean.

So we got the, the level that we understand God's grace and God's grace is basically, it's what fills the gap between how, how sinful we are and how, how righteous God is. Right. And how much he has, he has forgiven us for. So if we, if we feel like we only have this much sin, then that means God's grace is only about that big. But if we, if we are, if we are broken, heartbroken, if we are amazed at, at how much we have sinned against God and the fact that he's still forgiven us, then God's grace all of a sudden becomes amazing.

Like if we see our sin as something that's just outstanding, something that is, that is incredibly wrong and offensive against God, then we'll look at God's grace and be completely amazed and actually be able to enjoy his grace as it truly is, instead of living under and believing the lie that our sin really isn't a big deal. Jesus says, being able to see the depths of our sin is actually a part of the path to really understanding his grace, really loving him and really being able to appreciate his mercy. If we see our sin as enormous, then we will see his grace and his forgiveness as enormous also. So how do, how do we get there?

Right? How do we get to the point where maybe some of us have walked in here today where it's like, yeah, I, I, I relate. I minimize my, I minimize my sin and I don't really know what to do about that. How, what, what, what is our step? What kind of helps grow our understanding for the depths of our sin, for the fact that we are worthy of God and, and what, what grows our understanding of the fact that Christ is really better? It's the cross.

It's the cross of Jesus where God, the father looks down at his, his beloved son, whom he has loved for all eternity. When he looks down at him and condemns him for every sin that I've ever committed. When, when he, and all of his, and all of his righteous judgment on the cross punishes his son whom he loves, who was never sinned, who has never done anything wrong. We see, Hey, God thinks sin is a big deal. God thinks sin is a big deal. If the way for us to be reconciled with God and have, and have a relationship with him and be able to fellowship with him and be able to sit at his table.

If, if, if the way that that happens is that God has to kill his own son on the cross, God doesn't minimize sin. God takes sin way more seriously than I do because it costs the blood of his, of his son. Also for, for, for on, on that cross where God, where Jesus takes upon himself, our sins, all of our wrongdoing, God condemns him. We receive credit for all of his, all of his righteousness, all of his goodness, all of, all of his purity that, that, that shows me, Hey, I, I'm not worthy of, of him. I'm not worthy of God. If my sin is so bad that it leads to that.

And he is spotless and clean and righteous. I'm not worthy to sit at his table. I'm not worthy to fellowship with him. I'm not worthy to truly be in relationship with him. My favorite thing is that the cross also shows us, man, Jesus is better than my sin. This kind of love, righteousness, this kind of mercy, this, this, this, this kind of grace, this, this kind of sovereignty, this kind of, of power that he has, that he would do this to, to, to, to redeem this world after what sin has done in my life, in your life, in our hearts, this, this incredible grace that he's showing.

Man, man, that's better than anything I've ever chased after before. That is better than anything. The cross is the solution to our, our lack of desire to repent. These, these, these points of repentance, they're, they're specifically in this context is kind of showing what, what it looks like for someone who is rebellious. But let's, let's, let's be honest.

It's for everybody. Whether you're naturally rebellious or whether you're not, these, these points of repentance, these, these things about repentance that we see in God's word applies, applies to us all. And some of my times in my, in my walk with the Lord, where I, where I felt just most dry in, in, in, in my relationship with God, in my walk with the Lord, when I felt the least amount of joy, when I look back over them, I, I believe those are times where I minimized my sin the most. I believe those are times where I just wasn't broken over my sin. That's, I wasn't amazed by his grace. I wasn't amazed by his righteousness.

And, and so I, I just want to encourage some of us today. If you, if you ever feel like in your walk with the Lord, you're just kind of going through the motions. You're just kind of, there's no real life and, and vitality and there's no real rejoicing in there, but I'm just kind of, you know, I'm doing my, my, my, my Christian thing. I come on a Sunday. I, I try to pray. I try to read the Bible sometimes.

You know, I come to a community groups at times. If you ever feel like you're just kind of going through the motions, I want to ask you, man. Have you, when's the last time you grieved over your sin? When's the last time your sin broke your heart? And from there you went and looked into the cross of Jesus. You ran to Jesus's feet like this woman and, and found a level of acceptance and mercy and grace that just blows you away.

When's the last time you've, you've been there? Let's jump to verse 48. We want to read 48 through 50. And that'll, that'll conclude our time for us. So Jesus sees everything this woman has done in her repentance and her turning to him.

Verse 48. And he said to her, your sins are forgiven. Then those who were at the table with him began to say among themselves, who is this who, who even forgives sins? And he said to the woman, your faith has saved you. Go in peace. He's saying to this woman, you, you, you've grieved over your sin.

You've been heartbroken over your sin. You, you, you've shown that you don't, that you don't feel worthy. You've realized that, that, that I am better than your sin. You can go in the peace of knowing that the, the burden, the weight, the guilt, the shame of your sin has now been lifted off of your shoulders. You've been forgiven. There's a level of peace that just, that just comes after a biblical mourning of our sin.

There's a level of, of peace that we can rest in knowing that the, the biggest burden that mankind has ever borne, which is the weight of our sins. Christ on the cross, lift it off of your shoulders. There's a, there's a, there's an ability to breathe a little bit easier. Now there's a level of, of peace in our souls of knowing we are the forgiven people of God. Jesus tells this woman to go in peace. Going, go in peace, knowing that Jesus responds to you with unlimited mercy and grace and forgiveness.

Knowing that Jesus responds to you is welcome. Welcome. Yes, you, you, you can't eat with me. Knowing that Jesus, that Jesus, Jesus is, excuse me, eternal response to you is if, if any of you are familiar with the book of Revelation, there's a, there's a table. There's a feast in the book of Revelation where God's people are finally, ultimately fully united with him on the last day in heaven. And we are sitting around the table at the marriage feast of the lamb.

Where everybody who is unworthy to sit at Jesus's table is at his table as we celebrate our union with him. Jesus responds to you. If you are rebellious and broken over your sin is complete acceptance. And because you came to my feet, you can sit at my table. You can eat with me. You can fellowship with me.

There's a level of peace in that, that is beyond anything that this world can offer. So what I want to do, I'm going to actually invite the band to come on up. And we're going to have a little bit of time of communion. And even as I've talked about Christ's crucifixion and what he's done for us on the cross is, is how we, is what leads us to true repentance. It's what leads us to understanding the seriousness of our sin, understanding that Christ is better than anything that we've ever run to or any sin that we've ever had. Understanding that we're not worthy of Jesus.

Christ says when we take communion, do it in remembrance of him. So when he breaks the bread and gives it to his disciples, he says, this is my body, which was broken for you. And when he passes around the cup, he says, this is my blood that was shed. Do this in remembrance of me. So what I want to ask us to do today is take a little bit of time, remember what Christ has done for us on the cross as we partake.

I want to pray for us, and the band's going to kind of sing over us as we take communion today. Lord, thank you for your goodness, Lord. Thank you for your mercy. Thank you, Lord, that you forgive sinners and you give grace to those who have felt the weight of our sin. Lord, I pray today will be a time of just peace and just joy in knowing that you have lifted the weight of our sins off of our shoulders when you bore them on the cross. I pray you will grant us all true repentance and faith.

It's in Christ's name that I pray. Amen.