Luke 7
We find four outsiders here. In the bulletin it says Jesus’
encounters, but it’s encounters with four outsiders. There’s an ethnic outsider, an
economic outsider, a religious outsider, and a moral outsider. And join with me, if you would,
beginning with verse 1. Here what follows, for what it
is, the Word of God. After he had finished all of
his sayings and the hearing of the people, he entered Capernaum.
Now a centurion had a servant who was sick, and at the point
of death, who was highly valued by him. When the centurion heard
about Jesus, he sent to him elders of the Jews, asking him to come
When they came to Jesus, they pleaded with him earnestly, saying,
He is worthy to have you do this for him, for he loves our nation,
and he is the one who built us, our synagogue. And Jesus went
with them. When he was not far from the
house, the centurion sent friends, saying to him, Lord, do not trouble
yourself, for I am not worthy to have you come under my roof.
Therefore I did not presume to come to you, but say the word
and let my servant be healed. For I, too, am a man set under
authority, with soldiers under me, and I say to one, go, and
he goes, and to another, come, and he comes, and to my servant,
do this, and he does it. When Jesus heard these things,
he marveled at him, and turning to the crowd that followed him,
said, I tell you, not even in Israel have I found such faith.
And when those who had been sent returned to the house, they found
the servant well. Soon afterward, he went to a
town called Nain, and his disciples and a great crowd went with him.
As he drew near to the gate of the town, behold, a man who had
died was being carried out, the only son of his mother, and she
was a widow. And a considerable crowd from
the town was with her. And when the Lord saw her, he
had compassion on her and said to her, Do not weep. Then he
came up and touched the bier, and the bearers stood still.
And he said, Young man, I say to you, arise. And the dead man
sat up and began to speak. And Jesus gave him to his mother.
Fear seized them all, and they glorified God, saying, A great
prophet has arisen among us, and God has visited his people.
And this report about him spread through the whole of Judea and
all the surrounding country. The disciples of John reported
all these things to him. And John, calling two of his
disciples to him, sent them to the Lord, saying, Are you the
one who is to come, or shall we look for another? And when
the men had come to him, they said, John the Baptist has sent
us to you, saying, Are you the one who is to come, or shall
we look for another? In that hour he healed many people
of diseases and plagues and evil spirits, and on many who were
blind he bestowed sight. And he answered them, Go and
tell John what you have seen and heard. The blind receive their sight,
the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, and the deaf hear.
The dead are raised up, the poor have good news preached to them.
and blessed is the one who is not offended by me.” When John’s
messengers had gone, Jesus began to speak to the crowds concerning
John. What did you go out to the wilderness
to see? A reed shaken by the wind? What then did you go out
to see? A man dressed in soft clothing?
Behold, those who are dressed in splendid clothing and live
in luxury are in king’s courts. What then did you go out to see?
A prophet? Yes, I tell you, and more than
a prophet. This is he of whom it is written, Behold, I send
my messenger before your face, who will prepare your way before
you. I tell you, among those born of women, none is greater
than John, yet the one who is least in the kingdom of God is
greater than he. When all the people heard this,
and the tax collectors too, they declared God just, having been
baptized with the baptism of John. But the Pharisees and the
lawyers rejected the purpose of God for themselves, not having
been baptized by him. To what then shall I compare
the people of this generation? And what are they like? They
are like children sitting in the marketplace and calling to
one another. We played the flute for you and you did not dance.
We sang a dirge and you did not weep. For John the Baptist has
come eating no bread and drinking no wine, and you say he has a
demon. The son of man has come eating
and drinking, and you say, look at him, a glutton and a drunkard,
a friend of tax collectors and sinners. Yet wisdom is justified
by all her children. 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. 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
ointment. And 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 ointment. And 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. Jesus answering,
said to him, Simon, I have something to say to you. And he answered,
say it, teacher. A certain moneylender had two
debtors. Moneylender 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 were above
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 to 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 ointment. Therefore, I tell you her sins,
which are many, are forgiven. For she loved much, but he who
is forgiven little loves little. And he said to her, your sins
are forgiven. Then those who were at table
with him began to say among themselves, who is this who even forgives
sins? And he said to the woman, your
faith has saved you. Go in peace. Two points this
evening, one, an examination of these four outsiders and Jesus’
encounter with them, and then two, some points of application
for us. Though it admits of qualification
to be sure, this saying is still true. The church is the only
institution that exists for the sake of her non-members. The
church is the only institution that exists for the sake of her
non-members. And it’s illustrated and exemplified
for us here by Jesus with these non-members, or outsiders, if
you will. Jesus is not content with the
status quo in Israel. He comes to challenge and to
change prevailing practices and opinions. And that’s what we
see here. And there’s, I need to be upfront with you, there’s
shock value here as well. because Jesus ministers to those
outside and brings them in, while at the same time says that those
who are inside are really out. So, let’s look at these four
outsiders. The racial outsider, the economic
outsider, the religious outsider, and the moral outsider. First
of all, the racial outsider, the centurion. The centurion, of course, is
a Gentile, all right, and the Jewish attitude towards Gentiles
was not one that was kindly disposed towards them at all. Racism is
nothing new, it’s been around for centuries, and it’s something
that is exemplified in the relationship between Jews and Gentiles. Racism
is either racial hatred of those of another race or racial superiority
for those of another race. And it’s the latter that we see
here. Jews considered themselves racially superior to Gentiles. They were God’s chosen people.
And if God chose them, then he didn’t choose you. And therefore,
we are favored and you are not. Racial superiority. In addition to being a Gentile,
the centurion, of course, is also a Roman soldier. And as
a Roman soldier, he’s a representative of the Roman Empire. And you’re
familiar, of course, at the time that the Roman Empire is in authority
over the nation of Israel. So not only is he a racial outsider
as a Gentile, he’s a member of the oppressive party of Rome. oppressing Israel politically
and militarily as well. Look at the text, though. In
verse 3, he uses intermediaries to reach out to Jesus. He sends to them. In verse 4,
we’re told that the Jewish people think he deserves Jesus or the
centurion deserves Jesus’ attention. In verse 6, we have the attitude
of the centurion I am not worthy, an attitude of humility. And
then in verse seven, we see his great faith. Do not presume to
come, you just say the word and let my servant be healed. He recognizes and acknowledges
Jesus’ authority. In verse nine, Jesus highlights
his faith. We’re in verse nine. I tell you,
not even in Israel have I found such faith and significantly
it’s prefaced by this phrase he marveled at him in verse nine
when he heard these things he marveled at him now i know you’re
all good bible students but you’d have to be a very good bible
student to know the one other place in the gospels where we’re
told that jesus marveled at anything is anybody a really good bible
student no all right i’ll tell you it’s in mark All right, it’s
in the gospel according to Mark chapter six. Jesus there marveled
at the unbelief of the Jewish people. He marveled at the unbelief
of the Jewish people. Here, he marvels at the faith
of this racial outsider, a Gentile centurion. What do we see in
the contrast? The centurion is in. The Jews are out. Secondly, we see the economic
outsider in the widow who’s 11 and far away. Now, you may or may not be aware
of the particular economics of the Bible, but you should know
that a widow in Jesus’ time, biblical times, was not someone
who had life insurance when her husband died, There was no social
welfare system so that she could get survivor benefits from the
government. She was without a provider. And
as such, she was an economic outsider. She was destitute. She would have been dependent
now no longer on her husband to provide for her and to protect
her. She would have been dependent
upon her son. And yet in the scene that we come upon here,
it’s the son that’s dead. So she is down and out, if you
will. She is without provision. She
is without support. She has no means of support economically,
and economically, she is an outsider. Look at what Jesus does in verse
14. He came up and he touched the
beer on which the dead body was reposing. Now, in the book of
Numbers, all right, in Numbers, that would have made Jesus ceremonially
unclean. But by doing that, he identifies
with death. And in identifying with death,
it teaches us something about his own death, which is to come,
right? And here, unlike with the centurion,
there’s no intermediary in this case, and in verse 13, We’re
told that Jesus had compassion on her. And again, she, though
she’s an economic outsider, is in. All right? Then that brings
us to the religious outsider in verse 18 and following. These
are the disciples of John the Baptizer. All right? Now you
might say, well, why are they outsiders? They’re Jews. Well,
you would have to know something about the religious and the let’s
say, less learned in Israel at the time to understand this,
all right? The disciples of John the Baptist
are outsiders because they’re not a member of the religious
elite. They are not the ones who sat at the feet of rabbis. They had not been in the school
of a rabbi. They had not had the learnings of the rabbis.
They were not in the Pharisees. They were not amongst the Sadducees.
They were not amongst the scribes. They were not among those who
were the high and mighty in Israel at the time. They were, if you
will, the Am-Ha-Aretz. And as our brother Andre could
tell you, Am is people, Ha is a definite article, the, and
Aretz is the land. They were people of the land.
They were subsistence people. They had to live, not based on
their education, not based on their learning, not their position
amongst the religious elite, but they had to live by their
own hands. They had to live by their own
means. They were the little people in Israel, if you will. Very
interesting story about Abraham Kuyper. I mentioned him this
morning. Abraham Kuyper had great concern in the Dutch church for
what he referred to as, not Amorites in Hebrew, but the Klein-Aleiden.
I don’t know if anybody knows Dutch. You can fact check me
on that. The Klein-Aleiden were the little people. And the reason
for that is because Abraham Kuyper had gone to school And he was
ordained as a minister, but he was not converted. And it was
when he went to the home of an older woman in the congregation,
a godly saint, who told him the gospel, and he was converted.
And as a result of that, Abraham Kuyper had great concern for
the Kleineleiden, the little people. in the church. Not for
those who were de-educated, not for the high and mighty, not
for those who held the reins of power, but for the little
people who probably knew the Bible better than those who were
in the halls of power. So, look at verse 29. When all the people heard this,
and the tax collectors too, they declared God just. If you look
at the footnote reference, they justified God. They were righteous. But look at verse 30, the Pharisees
and the lawyers rejected the purpose of God for themselves.
Once again, we say the disciples are in and the Pharisees and
the lawyers are out. See what Luke is doing here,
all right? Then we come to the moral outsider. Luke wants us not to be in any
doubt concerning the moral character Three times, he tells us that
she is a sinner. Look at the text, verse 37, a
woman of the city who was a sinner. But in verse 39, she is a sinner at the end of
the verse there. And then again, in verse 47,
Jesus says, I tell you, her sins, which are many, are forgiven. Now she comes with a vial, all
right, a vial of alabaster perfume, and if you know anything, that
would have cost a year’s wages. So where is this immoral woman
obtaining a year’s wages to buy a vial of ointment? and made her money from her sexual
immorality, all right? So Luke wants you to know what
kind of woman this is that we’re dealing with here. She’s a sinner,
she is a moral outsider, but she heard that Jesus forgives
sins, all right? And she exhibits great love for
him. Now, again, Jesus would have
been considered defiled by coming into contact with such a woman,
all right? Because she was immoral. Look
at verse 39. Jesus reads the Pharisee’s thoughts,
right? The Pharisee who invited him
saw this. He said to himself, he’s thinking to himself, right?
Jesus reads his mind and responds in verse 40. Simon, I have something
to say to you. And he answered, say it, teacher.
And he teaches him a parable using this illustration of himself,
right? And in verse 47, Verse 47, her
sins, which are many, Jesus forgives, for she loved much, but he who’s
forgiven little, loves little. All right? She’s a new creation.
What Jesus does is forgive sins. She’s no longer defined by her
sexual immorality, the way that her reputation would have been
in town. No, if anyone is in Christ, there’s new creation.
The old is gone, the new has come. Amen. She’s in. Simon, the Pharisee,
is out. So having examined these four
outsiders, what is there we can learn from them? Well, a number
of lessons. First of all, you and I are to
be like Jesus Christ. You and I are to be like Jesus
Christ. Our attitude and our actions towards those who are
outside whatever category of outsider they may fall into,
should be the same as that of Jesus. For racial outsiders,
for economic outsiders, for religious outsiders, for moral outsiders,
you and I should be like Jesus. Our attitude and our actions
toward them ought to be like Jesus. And that indicates a response talk about evangelism, all right,
is we have to see people with God’s eyes. We have to have a
heart for people that is God’s heart. God loves the lost. God desires that they be saved,
and we should have that same disposition towards them. We
should be those who bring such people, racial, economic, religious,
or moral outsiders, bring them to Jesus. We need to bring them
to Jesus that they might know, love, and serve Him with all
our heart, soul, mind, and strength. We should bring people to Jesus
to be healed, to be restored, to be reconciled, to be forgiven. Now I would have you ask, look,
if you would please, at 1 Corinthians 6. I think it’s particularly
instructive to consider and entertain this passage. and verse nine, it’s one of the
warning passages that I mentioned this morning in response to Pastor
Brian’s query about nominal Christians or cultural Christians, right? I said you use warning passages
with them. Well, this is one of those passages.
And frankly, just to tell you about a little bit of an insider
secret here, maybe not so much of a secret, Pastors and teachers
like to use the warning passages, all right, to warn people against
being near nominal Christians or being near cultural Christians,
right? Calling into question whether
or not someone is actually truly converted, actually a child of
God, actually on the road to heaven, or to wake them up from
being self-deceived that they are not that person, all right? And let’s read this, all right?
It makes perfect sense. Paul says, do not know that the
unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God. Do not be
deceived. Possibility of self-deception.
Warning, don’t be deceived, right? Neither the sexually immoral,
nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor men who practice homosexuality,
nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor revilers,
nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God. There’s the warning. That’s where most preachers stop. But notice that’s not where Paul
stops, all right? That’s not where Paul stops. Paul goes on to say, and notice
the particular tense of the verb here, and such were some of you. That may have been what you were,
but that’s not what you are anymore. And the point of me asking you
to look at this passage is obviously Paul is addressing composition
of the Church of Corinth. And he’s saying, these are the
people that filled the pews in Corinth. This is what their lives
were like. They were moral outsiders. They
were a composition of people that were outside, strangers
to grace, foreigners to God’s covenant, without God and without
hope in the world, living like hell. But no more. Such weren’t some
of you. No longer are you adulterers,
sexually immoral, idolaters, homosexuals, thieves, greedy,
drunkards, revilers, swingers. No, no more. Why? Because you
were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name
of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God. Whom
Jesus Christ makes new is a new creation. They’re no longer defined
by their sin, no matter how great that sin may have been. That
is not what they are anymore. The old is gone, the new has
come, new creation in Jesus Christ, right? But the point I’m making
is simply that the church of Corinth was composed of former
outsiders. And so should the church today
be composed of former outsiders. These are people that we should
have compassion on. These are people that we should
have sympathy for. These are people that without
God and without hope, these are people that need to be brought
to Jesus, who alone can cleanse them, renew them, and make them
new creations in Jesus Christ. Secondly, turning back to Luke
chapter seven, Notice, as we review Jesus’ encounter
with these outsiders, that people come to Christ in a number of
ways. It’s not a cookie cutter. It’s
not a boilerplate, right? People come to Christ in a variety
of ways. Significantly, in our text, only one of them came from
an ordained person. The centurion came by elders,
right? The rest of them didn’t. I make
the point that I made this morning. Please don’t rely on the clergy
to be the one that’s doing evangelism and outreach and contacting outsiders. That’s everybody’s responsibility,
right? Please don’t rely on the clergy. So, they come to Christ in a
variety of ways. Thirdly, one thing is common
to all the persons in this chapter. It’s humility. Humility. How important humility is. You realize, of course, it’s
the only virtue you can’t be proud of, right? Humility. It is what should characterize
all Christians. Why? Because it’s what characterized
Jesus Christ. He did not consider equality
with God something to be grasped onto, but humbled himself. was unworthy. He said, I am not
worthy to have you come under my roof, right? The widow had
nothing to offer Jesus but her need. The messengers of John,
right, were the lonely and despised. They were the Amorites. They
were the outcasts socially and religiously. And the woman, only
her tears and her sin. Fourthly, Jesus exhibits compassion
and power on behalf of his people. Thank God for that. Thank God
for that. You need to believe that sinners,
even great sinners, can be saved and added to the church. I mentioned
to you this morning that though I stand before you dressed in
my bright mind, if you had known me before I was converted, probably
would have crossed the street to avoid crossing my path. Don’t
ever think, the way that I fear many Christians may have thought
of me is, well, that person will never be a Christian. That’s
what I thought. If you had said to me at the
age of 29, you’ll be a Christian and you’ll be a preacher, I would
have said, hey, get out of my face, you’re nuts. and you and I need to believe
that. I’ve actually run into people who look at certain other
people than the Christians and say, well, they’re reprobates.
They’ll never be a Christian. That’s not the attitude of Jesus
Christ. Even great sinners can be saved.
J.C. Wilde, whom I’m sure you’re familiar
with, commentator of a bygone century, said this regarding
Jesus. His sympathy with sufferers is
still as strong. Let us bear this in mind and
take comfort in it. There is no friend or comforter
who can be compared to Christ. In all our days of darkness,
which must needs be many, let us first turn for consolation
to Jesus, the Son of God. He will never fail us, never
disappoint us, never refuse to take interest in our sorrows.
He lives who made the widow’s heart sing for joy in the gate
of name. He lives to receive all laboring
and heavy laden ones if they will only come to Him by faith.
He lives to heal the brokenhearted and be a friend that sticks closer
than a brother. And He lives to do greater things
than these one day. He lives to come again to His
people that they may weep no more at all and that all tears
may be wiped from their eyes. Amen. Fifthly, Those we see in verse nine, right? Jesus marvels at the centurion’s
faith, in contrast to marveling against the unbelief of Israel. Those closest, by virtue of covenant,
are shown to be outside, and those farthest away are shown
to be inside. But lastly, I tell you her sins, which are
many, are forgiving, for she loved much.” Love Jesus the way that this
woman loved Jesus. I said to you this morning, I
repeat this evening, that evangelism I mentioned a moment ago that
the vial of perfume which she pours upon Jesus would have taken
a year’s wages to purchase. They were literally the wages
of sin, her sin. One author refers to this as
the vile, V-I-L-E, vile, V-I-A-L. And look at what we see here. She takes her sin, and pours
it on Jesus, and Jesus responds by forgiving her. Isn’t that
a beautiful picture of what Paul teaches in 2 Corinthians 5? God
made him who knew no sin to be sin, to take her sin, my sin,
your sin, upon yourself, in order that in him we might be in the
righteousness of God, forgiven, renewed, made new. Beautiful
picture of the gospel. ponder and pray about the greatness
of God’s grace in saving you. No small thing. And I often encourage members
of my congregation in New York to practice little devotional
exercise, to get along with God, and to consider the horrors of
hell. One of the reasons why hell should
be so sparse in social vocabulary is because it becomes too common
and we think too little of hell. The Bible teaches us horrific
things about hell. And I don’t need to repeat them,
I’m sure, to this audience this evening. But the devotional exercise
I’m suggesting to you is simply this. Get alone with God and
contemplate the horrors of hell. And ask yourself this question.
God, why me? Why me? Why did you save me? It wasn’t because you’re better
than the person there. and hear God say, I love you,
because I love you, that’s fine. Let that stir your heart, that
you might be like this woman, to love Jesus. Francis Ridley
Habergow put it in the words of a song, a hymn, with which
I conclude. Nothing to pay. Yes, nothing
to pay. Jesus has cleared all the debt
away, blotted it out with his bleeding hand. Free and forgiven
and loved you stand. Hear the voice of Jesus say,
verily thou has nothing to pay. Paid is the debt and the debtor
free. Now I ask thee. The church is the only institution
that exists for the Savior for non-members. And Jesus shows
us the way here. Let’s pray. Lord God and Heavenly
Father, we thank you for Jesus. Thank you for the greatness of
his compassion. Thank you for his love for outsiders. Thank you for his love for us. We pray, Father, that you would
help us to have his heart, that you would help us to see others
with his eyes, and that you would help us to be used as instruments
in your hands to bring many, many women, boys, and girls to
know the love of Jesus Christ, whom to know is eternal life.
And we ask it in his name.