Your attention to the gospel
according to Luke chapter 7. The gospel according to Luke
chapter 7. My text will be found, in fact
it is a passage, verses 36 through 50. And this message is titled,
Jesus Christ, Pharisee Simon. and a sinful woman. Now if you
know anything at all about these three characters, you're going
to know immediately that these are just about as three different
people as you would find anywhere. Jesus Christ, Pharisee Simon,
and a sinful woman. three different characters, as
different as they can be. We're going to consider them
today in this passage that is before us. Consider all three
of them separately and emphasizing the differences between them. Again, reading in verse number
36, and one of the Pharisees desired
him, Jesus, that he would eat with him. And he, Jesus, went
into the Pharisee's house and sat down to meet. Now I should
explain something about what it was to sit down to eat. It was not at a table like you
and I would imagine, three feet high off the floor. It was probably
a board or a pallet that was set on the floor, and the food
was set on the table, which was the board or the pallet. They
did not sit in chairs, rather they reclined around the board
or around the pallet, probably at about 45 degree angles. Jesus would be probably reclining
on his left side and able to reach food on the table with
his right hand. You may remember that on one
occasion when he ate a meal, John the Beloved leaned his head
back onto the breast of Jesus as they ate. Well, that's the
way they ate. It was not at a table with chairs
like you and I would imagine, but it was in the manor of the
east and around the pallet with the food and reclining and eating.
So imagine, if you will, the situation. There's the pallet
of food on the floor. And here is Jesus and a Pharisee
and some others evidently were there as well, and they are reclining
around the food there on the pallet. And behold, beginning
back at number 37, and behold, a woman in the city, which was
a sinner, when she knew that Jesus sat that meat in the Pharisee's
house, brought an alabaster box of ointment and stood at Jesus's
feet behind him. Every word here is important,
folks. Behind him, weeping, and began to wash his feet with tears
and did wipe them with the hairs of her head and kissed his feet
and anointed them with the ointment. Now when the Pharisee which had
bidden Jesus saw it, he spake within himself, not out loud,
but within himself, saying to himself, this man, if he were
a prophet, as people say he is, would have known who and what
manner of woman this is that toucheth him, for she is a sinner." Now, always bear this in mind.
When you are in Jesus' presence, He's reading your mind. He's
reading your mind. You do not have to speak to Him.
Your prayer can be silent. He heard it. And your thoughts
about him do not need to be spoken. He read them. He read them. Verse 40, And Jesus answering,
answering whom? The Pharisee. The Pharisee had
not said anything. Yes, he did. To himself he did. And Jesus is answering the Pharisee's
thoughts to himself. Simon, I have somewhat to say
unto thee. And Simon saith, Master, say
thou. Jesus said. There was a certain
creditor which had two debtors, two men who owed him money. The
one owed him 500 pence and the other 50. And when they had nothing to
pay, The creditor frankly forgave both of the debtors. Tell me
therefore, which of them will love him most? Simon answered
and said, I suppose that he to whom he forgave most. And Jesus
said unto him, thou hast rightly judged. And he turned to the
woman and said unto Simon, now watch this carefully. He's looking
at the woman, but he's talking to Simon. He turned to the woman
and then said to Simon, seest thou this woman? I entered into
thine house. Thou gavest me no water for my
feet, but she hath washed my feet with tears and wiped them
with the hairs of her head. Thou gavest me no kiss. But this
woman, since the time I came in, hath not ceased to kiss my
feet. My head, with oil, thou didst
not anoint, but this woman hath anointed my feet with ointment.
Wherefore I say unto thee, her sins, which are many, are forgiven,
for she loved much. But to whom little is forgiven,
the same loveth little. And Jesus said unto the woman,
Thy sins are forgiven. And they that sat at meat, so
bear in mind, Jesus and Simon are not the only ones who are
at the table. And they that sat at meat with
him began to say within themselves, Who is this that forgiveth sins
also? Well, Jesus. He heard what they thought, and
he's just going to compound the issue for them. Because then
he said to the woman, thy faith hath saved thee. Go in peace. This is a beautiful passage. So instructive. You want to find
out about three different sorts of people? Well, there's Jesus
and there is a Pharisee Simon and there is a sinful woman and
you and I are probably represented by one of the latter two. In
the presence of Jesus, We are represented by either this Pharisee
Simon or this sinful woman. Which will it be for you? Let's
consider these three characters, if you will. First, Pharisee
Simon. That word Pharisee means separated. That's what they called themselves.
We are the separated ones. We are separatists. We do not do this, and we do
not do that, and we do not run with those who do. We are holier
than thou. You should get away from us.
We are separated people. We're separated from all the
rest of you. His name Simon means hearing. That was the name of one of the
sons of Jacob. The Lord heard her prayer, and
she said, Hearing! That's his name! The Lord heard
my prayer. Unhappily, this Simon had a hearing
problem, and consequently he remained separated from Jesus. You may be Simon, but you may
have a hearing problem. And it may be good to be separated
from some things, but from Jesus it is not. And Simon had a hearing
problem and remained separated from Jesus. Point number one,
he was insincere in his hospitality to Jesus. Now true, he had invited
Jesus to a meal. That may not mean a whole lot. He's just trying to make himself
look good. But he did not perform to Jesus
the common courtesies of a host in that culture. There were at
least three things he should have done when Jesus came into
his house. He should have provided water
for Jesus to wash his feet. He should have greeted Jesus
with a kiss. And he should have anointed Jesus'
face with oil. Remember that it was a very dry
culture. The sun and the heat would dry
one's face. And you would apply oil to make
the countenance shine. And if you really wanted to do
the job of a good host, you'd put oil on the head. And it was
just a common courtesy. And this man did neither. He
invited Jesus to his house, but did none of these three things.
It's almost like he met him at the door and says, yeah, come
on in. Have a place. And that's about it, you know,
so Jesus does not have any of these common courtesies given
to him by this man. Why would he treat Jesus that
way? Well, he's probably suspicious. This is his way of finding out
what kind of a man Jesus is. probably wants to engage with
him in conversation. Remember, there are other Pharisees
there in the room who are going to try to catch Jesus in some
mistake, ask him some question that would cause Jesus to say
something he should not say. And this was this man, Simon.
Beware of the hospitality of an enemy. Watch out for it. Beware of the kiss of a betrayer. Jesus was betrayed with a kiss
and here is a meal put before him and a trap is being set. Jesus went, accepted the hospitality
such as it was even though this man was insincere in his hospitality. Second, Simon did not consider
Jesus to be a prophet from God. The people were beginning to
see that Jesus was a prophet from God. Earlier in this chapter,
Jesus is walking through a city and there is a funeral procession
going by. A young man on the bier and he's
being taken to the place of burial and Jesus sees his mother Her
only son is now dead, and his heart is mowed with compassion.
And he said to the young man, I say unto you, arise. And the
dead man arose from the beer, and Jesus presented him to his
mother, and the people said, the prophet is here. The prophet
is here. Now, they were looking back to
the prophecy given unto Moses. where God said, I will raise
up unto you a prophet. And they kept waiting for the
prophet. When Jesus would go to some place and do some miracle,
they would say, are you the prophet? Are you the prophet? And here
are people saying, the prophet is here. He just raised a man
from the dead. He's a man sent from God. He's
the prophet. But, well, this man did not consider
Jesus to be a prophet because he's watching He sees this woman
weeping at the feet of Jesus. He sees her touching him, touching
him. This Pharisee would never let
such a woman touch him. No, no, no. But he says, if this
man were a prophet, he would know what kind of a woman this
is because she is a sinner. This man is no prophet. And then, He denied Jesus' deity. Number 3, verse 49, Jesus pronounced
the woman's sins forgiven, and here are all of those at the
table and they're saying, Ha! Who is this who forgives sins? No one can forgive sins but God. Well, that's true. That's true. No one can forgive sins but God,
but Jesus just did it. He just did it. But these men
are denying the deity of Jesus Christ. You know, I think I've
come across some of these Pharisee Simons. I think I've come across
at least a few of them. But now let's look at the second
character, the sinful woman. The sinful woman. She's not identified by name. However, she did not have a hearing problem.
This woman heard and came to Jesus. And she did not remain
separated from Him. She touched Him, made hold of
Him. This nameless woman who heard
the truth came to Jesus And Jesus warmly received her. First thing about her is, she
was a profligate with many sins. She is here said to be a sinner. Her specific sin is not mentioned. But usually when a Pharisee would
call a woman a sinner, it was harlotry, fornication, adultery,
sexual immorality. This is evidently what that woman
was. She had many sins. Well, women of
that sort practice many different vices, and they do it with many
different partners. So, are you getting some idea
as to the type of woman this is? A sinner with many sins. Then consider, she came to Jesus. She came to Jesus. The house was evidently somewhat
open. There may have been a portico
or a porch there. But anyway, whatever the case,
She could walk by and she could see who was in people's houses
and she saw Jesus in there. She recognized Jesus. And this
woman who was accustomed to drawing men to her was drawn to Jesus. This woman came to Jesus. She drew men to her. for carnal knowledge. She came
to Jesus for saving knowledge. She did not let the forbidding
presence of the Pharisees deter her from coming. She looked in
there. She saw Jesus in Simon's house. She knew whom and what Jesus
is. And she knew, yeah, she knew
a whole lot about those other people in that room. And though
their presence was forbidding to her, she will not be deterred. In she comes. Despite those who
were there to mock her and to make fun of her, despite all
that, here she comes. And does not go to them, she
goes to Jesus. And she brought with her an alabaster
box full of fragrant oil. Now where'd she get that? Woman of her trade makes pretty
good living. And she has taken the proceeds
of her trade, of her craft, and of her boss. She has bought an
alabaster box. No cheap container. She has filled
it with fragrant oil. As she learns that Jesus is in
the house and off she goes, she gets it. My alabaster box. This expensive container with
this precious ointment. I'm going to take it to the Pharisee's
house where Jesus is. She had obtained these with her
sinful trade. and in service to men, but now
she will devote what she has in service to Jesus, an alabaster
box of fragrant oil. And she stood behind Jesus. Now remember, He's reclining
at the table, probably at about a 45 degree angle, all right? He is on his left side, probably,
so that he can reach and grab food with his right hand. Since
he is reclining on his side, she comes behind him, not in
front of him. She comes behind him. Which leads us to realize that
perhaps she really did not want to be in full sight and view
of him. She stood behind him. She's like that tax collector,
publican, who in the temple was afraid to look into heaven, but
he wanted to pray. He's afraid to look into heaven
because he's afraid God might be looking down at him and he'd
have to make eye contact with God. He just closed his eyes
and smoked his breast and said, God, be merciful to me, the sinner. And this woman, she's not going
to look Jesus in the face. She went behind him. She went
behind him. She stood at Jesus' feet to do
an act for mercy. And fifth, she wept at Jesus'
feet. wept at Jesus' feet. Folks, this
is not a woman known for weeping. She laughs with her paramours. She is joyful in their presence. She's making them happy. Tears
and weeping are somewhat foreign to this woman. But here she is,
she's weeping at her feet. And here is that godly sorrow
that produces repentance not to be regretted. This woman is
weeping spiritual tears, real tears, the tears of repentance. God is pleased with those kinds
of tears and she is weeping them copiously. We know she is weeping
copiously because her tears were so many that not only did they
run down her cheek, they saturated his feet. His feet are on the floor and
she's there behind him and weeping copiously and now his feet are
saturated with her tears. Her tears are so many She washed his feet with them.
I tell you folks, it takes a lot of tears to wash feet. This woman
did it. She took the tears from her eyes
and washed the feet of Jesus. Simon would not do such a thing,
but this woman was because she is doing the duty of a servant. Jesus said, you did not provide
me water. Well most certainly Simon's not
going to do the duty of a servant and wash the feet as Jesus did
to his own disciples. This woman is showing now that
she is a servant of Jesus Christ. She is washing his feet. And
then she dried his feet with her hair. Her hair. What is her hair? Paul tells us in the epistle
to the Corinthians that a woman's hair is given to her for her
glory. Her hair is her glory. She is
now taking that which God gave to her for her glory and using
it to dry the feet of Jesus. Never was hair used more gloriously
than it was on this occasion when the hair that God gave to
her for her glory is now used to the glory of Jesus Christ.
And then she kissed His feet. She kissed His feet. Why, just
a few hours ago, she was kissing the lips of her paramours and
her lovers. Not long ago, She was kissing
their lips, kissing their faces, and now she kisses Jesus' feet. This woman has changed. She is showing obedience to that
gospel command, recorded in the second psalm, to kiss the son
lest he be angry, and ye perish from the way when his wrath is
kindled but a little." She kisses his feet and God is pleased. God is no
longer or will never be angry with this woman. She has seen
the love of Jesus Christ. And then we read in verse 47
that she loved Jesus very much. She loved Him very much. Here
is proof that Jesus loved her. For our love to Him is preceded
by His love to us. We love Him because He first
loved us. If she loved Jesus, she knew
that Jesus loved her. She loved Him very much. Well,
He loved her very much. Then furthermore, she savingly
believed in Jesus. She savingly believed in Jesus. Now watch this carefully. Faith
and works. Faith and works. Pharisees had
works, but no faith. Satan and his demons have faith
in God, but no works. This woman has perfect faith. According to James, faith without
works is dead. Well, this woman's got faith
and she's got the works to go along with it. She's saving and
believed in Jesus. And she's proved that her faith
is real by the deeds she has done to Jesus. In washing his feet with her
tears drying his feet with the hair of her head, and weeping
over her sins, and seeking forgiveness from the Lord. Will she get it? Okay! We saw Pharisees, Simon. We saw the nameless, sinful woman. We now come to the third character,
and this is Jesus Christ. First thing I want you to note
about Him is, He ate with the Pharisee. Ate with the Pharisee. Jesus
was not aloof. Do not ask Jesus to come to your
house to eat unless you expect him to come to your house and
eat. Jesus is asked. He went. He went. He's asked to go to
a place. He knows he's not going to be
welcomed there. He knows it's going to be inhospitable
there. He knows that it's going to be
an unpleasant circumstance when he arrives, but he went. He went. Well, he who is accused of being a glutton and
a wine-bibber, a friend of tax collectors and sinners, he'll
go eat with the Pharisees also. Jesus preached that forgiveness
produces love. Forgiveness produces love. This woman loves much. How do
you know? Why does she love much? Because
she was forgiven much. Which debtor loved the creditor
most, the one who was forgiven the most. This woman loved Jesus
very much. Why? In order to be forgiven? No, because she was forgiven
and she knew it. This woman had heard Jesus preaching
that forgiveness produces love. Your love to Jesus will not produce
His forgiveness to you. His forgiveness to you produces
your love to Him. And then Jesus contrasted the
inhospitality of Pharisees to the love of this woman, this
repentant sinner. Notice that again Jesus, He looks
at the woman but He's talking to Simon. He looks at her and
He says, You see this woman? She did for
me what you would not do. And here is Jesus contrasting this woman. Love is evidenced more in actions
than it is in words. Anybody can say, I love you.
Well, some people can say I love you without uttering the words,
merely by doing the token, doing the work. Love is evidenced more
in actions than in words. And your words may say you love
someone, but your actions may prove otherwise. Jesus spoke
of this woman, and he contrasted her to the Pharisee. The Pharisee
did not love Jesus. He had no works to prove it.
But this woman, this woman, she had proven her love to Jesus. Furthermore, Jesus told Simon
that this sinful woman was forgiven. Simon showed no love to Jesus
because Jesus had not forgiven him. Simon was not disappointed at
not being forgiven because he didn't think he needed it anyway.
This woman knew she needed forgiveness. Simon does not need forgiveness.
Ask him! Therefore he received none. This
woman, she has come knowing her sinfulness and Jesus Christ has
forgiven her and then she loves the forgiver. Then furthermore, in verse number
48, Jesus personally assured this sinner that she was forgiven. Woman, Your sins are forgiven. Do you remember when Jesus said
that to you? Woman, sir, your sins forgiven. Oh, how sweet and how happy was
the moment when forgiveness was found. She is now in the company
of those unrighteous fornicators and adulterers who are assured
that you are washed, you are sanctified, you are justified
in the name of the Lord Jesus and by the Spirit of our God.
This woman is forgiven. She is sanctified, justified,
reconciled to God, and has all the evidence of salvation in
her. And then Jesus told this loving
sinner that her faith had saved her. Notice, your faith has saved
you. Now, we need to clarify something
here. Your faith has saved you. It was not her act of faith that
saved you. Simply having faith will not
save you. Then how can it be that faith
can save you? It is the object of faith. You
can have truckloads full of faith,
but if your faith is in the wrong thing, there's no salvation in
it. But you can have faith the size
of a mustard seed, and if the object of it is Jesus Christ,
your faith has saved you. It is the object of faith that
saves, and this woman's faith had saved her. And then Jesus
said, go in peace. She came in trepidation. She came in grief. She came in sorrow. She came wondering what's going
to happen next. She came with uncertainty, but
she came in faith, and she came in works of love and adoration
to Jesus. And when it's done, Jesus said,
go in peace. You're going to leave this house
far differently than you were when you came in. Go in peace. Three sentences I want you to
see in our text, in our passage. And I hope that every one of
us today, before we walk out that door, I hope that every
one of us has heard Jesus say these three sentences to us. Your sins are forgiven. That's
the first. Your sins are forgiven. Your
faith has saved you. Go in peace. It matters not how big a sinner you are. It
matters not how many are your sins. It matters not with how
many people you have committed those sins. It matters not whether
the world knows about it or no one knows but you. It matters
not. But if you'll come to Jesus like
this sinful woman and show your love and adoration to Him, you'll
hear Him say to you, your sins are forgiven. Your faith has
saved you. Go in peace. O God, our Father, Let there be some sinners here
today, sinners who will weep at your feet, calming with true sorrow and repentance. And
may we hear you speak to us. Your sins are forgiven. Your
faith has saved you. Go in peace. Bless, we pray this
word to your glory. In Jesus' name we pray, amen.