BOW DOWN

One of the realities that come before and with BEING ALIVE AND FREE in CHRIST… is HUMILITY.

TO willing to follow Jesus...

To be willing to make Jesus your Lord...

You must be willing to humble yourself.

If you do not have the willingness to humble yourself… you will not come to know JESUS as LORD OF YOUR LIFE.

HUMILITY.

The passage in which we’re going to get a good look at humility with tonight is Luke 7:36-50.

Let’s read that...

READ PASSAGE

So we see here that...

Jesus not only accepted hospitality from the sinners but also from the Pharisees. They needed the Word of God too, whether they realized it or not.

We trust that Simon’s invitation was a sincere one and that he did not have some ulterior motive for having Jesus in his home. If he did, his plan backfired, because he ended up learning more about himself than he cared to know!

The first point we want to bring up about humility is where it comes from?

1. HUMILITY RESULTS FROM THE HEART (v. 36-38)

This woman appeared at the feet of Jesus understanding her state of sinfulness and recognizing His state of holiness.

Jesus was God in flesh, but He did not fill His heart with pride. Instead, He chose to humble Himself as a servant despite His right to be on the throne.

Luke (Comments)

And reclined at the table. That they reclined at the meal indicates that it was a banquet or Sabbath meal.

Concerning the latter, it was quite common to invite a visiting rabbi or teacher to the Sabbath meal after he had taught in the synagogue (cf. Mark 1:29–31). If it was a banquet meal, Jesus may have been invited because of his reputation as a prophet.

Jewish rabbis did not speak to women in public, nor did they eat with them in public.

A woman of this type would not be welcomed in the house of Simon the Pharisee.

This woman would have been a sinner because of her occupation. Tax collectors, tanners, camel drivers, custom collectors, among others were considered ceremonially unclean because of their occupations and could be labeled “sinners.” In this instance, however, this woman’s sinfulness involved moral not ceremonial matters.

we get the impression she was a woman of the streets with a bad reputation.(Probably being a prostitute)

If you check a harmony of the Gospels, you will discover that just before this event, Jesus had given the gracious invitation, “Come unto Me … and I will give you rest” (Matt. 11:28–30).

Perhaps that was when the woman turned from her sin and trusted the Saviour.

Her tears,

her humble attitude,

and her expensive gift all spoke of a changed heart.

This is seen in her being willing to go to places in which she will for sure be uncomfortable.

Seeking Him out at the table and in her weeping at His feet. This revealed not just a humbled position, but a humbled heart. Both matter.

HUMILITY RESULTS FROM THE HEART

2. HUMILITY COMES WITH A COST. (V. 36-39)

This woman paid a cost on multiple levels by washing the feet of Jesus.

She paid a financial cost when using her most expensive possession, an alabaster jar of perfume, to wipe Jesus’ feet.

Luke (Comments)

In Mark 14:5 and John 12:5 the cost of the jar of perfume is given—three hundred denarii. (A denarius was the equivalent of a day’s wages.)

Alabaster is soft stone that frequently was used to make perfume containers , and thousands of such containers have been found.

This act also came at a social cost

which was not only a shameful act in society and was technically grounds for divorce for married women at that time.

This will explain also her kissing of the feet. There are examples of the kissing of the feet of a specially honoured rabbi (e.g. Sanhedrin 27b), but it was far from usual.

To use it on the feet is probably a mark of humility.

To attend to the feet was a menial task, one assigned to a slave.

V. 39:

Luke (Comments)

Whether Simon was repeating a popular view among the people or his own previous view is uncertain.

The Pharisee assumed that Jesus was not a prophet because of two false presuppositions:

(2) Jesus did not know that this was a sinful woman and thus was not a prophet.

SHE PAID WHAT SEEMED TO HER TO BE THE ULTIMATE COST. BOTH MATERIALLY AS WELL AS SOCIALLY.

JESUS WAS AWARE OF HER COST.

JESUS WAS AWARE OF WHAT IT TOOK TO PAY THIS COST.

Jesus’ paid the ultimate cost through His humility: death on a cross.

Philippians 2:7 CSB

7 Instead he emptied himself by assuming the form of a servant, taking on the likeness of humanity. And when he had come as a man,

2 Corinthians 8:9 CSB

9 For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ: Though he was rich, for your sake he became poor, so that by his poverty you might become rich.

Matthew 20:28 CSB

28 just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.”

Philippians 2:8 CSB

8 he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death— even to death on a cross.

HUMILITY COMES WITH A FINANCIAL COST.

HUMILITY COMES WITH A SOCIAL COST.

3. HUMILITY LEADS TO EXALTATION (V. 40-50)

Washing the feet of Jesus was not considered to be glamorous or even acceptable. But, this dirty act of humility resulted in the woman being forgiven. It was not the washing of feet that saved her. It was her faith in the man whose feet she washed.

V. 40-48

41–43. Jesus told a little story about two debtors who were excused their debts, the one five hundred denarii, the other fifty (a denarius was a day’s pay for a labourer, Matt. 20:2).

It did not need a great deal of insight to recognize which would love the benefactor the more. Yet Simon’s reply is somewhat grudging, with his “I suppose the one he forgave more”.

Jesus did not comment on this, but agreed that Simon had given the right answer.

Everything that Simon neglected to do, the woman did—and she did it better!

SIMON, gave Jesus no water for His feet.

There are two errors we must avoid as we interpret our Lord’s words.

First, we must not conclude that this woman was saved by her tears and her gift. Jesus made it clear that it was her faith alone that saved her (Luke 7:50), for no amount of good works can pay for salvation (Titus 3:4–7).Nor should we think that lost sinners are saved by love, either God’s love for them or their love for God. God loves the whole world (John 3:16), yet the whole world is not saved. “For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast” (Eph. 2:8–9, NKJV).

Jesus made it clear that it was her faith alone that saved her (Luke 7:50), for no amount of good works can pay for salvation (Titus 3:4–7).

Nor should we think that lost sinners are saved by love, either God’s love for them or their love for God. God loves the whole world (John 3:16), yet the whole world is not saved.

Grace is love that pays a price, and that price was the death of the Son of God on the cross.

Jesus did not reject either the woman’s tears or her gift of ointment, because her works were the evidence of her faith.

“Faith without works is dead” (see James 2:14–26).

We are not saved by faith plus works; we are saved by a faith that leads to works.

This anonymous woman illustrates the truth of Galatians 5:6, “The only thing that counts is faith expressing itself through love” (NIV).

Galatians 5:6 CSB

6 For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision accomplishes anything; what matters is faith working through love.

How did the woman know that her sins were forgiven? Jesus told her.

How do we know today that we have been forgiven?

God tells us so in His Word.

Luke: An Introduction and Commentary M. The Anointing of Jesus by a Sinful Woman (7:36–50)

47. Jesus goes on to tell Simon that the woman’s sins are forgiven. He does not gloss over those sins: they are many. But it is consistent New Testament teaching that, no matter how many and how great the sins, God’s grace can forgive them.

V. 48-49

The Bible Exposition Commentary Chapter Six: Compassion in Action (Luke 7)

Of course, the legalistic critics at the dinner were shocked when Jesus said, “Her sins, which are many, are forgiven.” By saying this, Jesus was claiming to be God! (see Luke 5:21) But He is God, and He died for the sins that she committed. His words of forgiveness were not cheap words; they cost Him dearly on the cross.

How was this woman saved? She repented of her sins and put her faith in Jesus Christ. How did she know she was truly forgiven? She had the assurance of His word. What was the proof of her salvation? Her love for Christ expressed in sacrificial devotion to Him. For the first time in her life, she had peace with God (Luke 7:50). Literally it reads, “Go into peace,” for she had moved out of the sphere of enmity toward God and was now enjoying peace with God (Rom. 5:1; 8:7–8).

When Jesus healed the centurion’s servant, it was a great miracle. An even greater miracle was His raising the widow’s son from the dead. But in this chapter, the greatest miracle of all was His saving this woman from her sins and making her a new person. The miracle of salvation has to be the greatest miracle of all, for it meets the greatest need, brings the greatest results (and they last forever), and cost the greatest price.

Simon was blind to the woman and blind to himself. He saw her past, but Jesus saw her future. I wonder how many rejected sinners have found salvation through the testimony of this woman in Luke’s Gospel. She encourages us to believe that Jesus can take any sinner and make him or her into a child of God.

Of course, the legalistic critics at the dinner were shocked when Jesus said, “Her sins, which are many, are forgiven.”

By saying this, Jesus was claiming to be God! (see Luke 5:21)

But He is God, and He died for the sins that she committed. His words of forgiveness were not cheap words; they cost Him dearly on the cross.

How was this woman saved? She repented of her sins and put her faith in Jesus Christ.

How did she know she was truly forgiven? She had the assurance of His word.

What was the proof of her salvation? Her love for Christ expressed in sacrificial devotion to Him.

For the first time in her life, she had peace with God (Luke 7:50). Literally it reads, “Go into peace,” for she had moved out of the sphere of enmity toward God and was now enjoying peace with God (Rom. 5:1; 8:7–8).

The miracle of salvation has to be the greatest miracle of all, for it meets the greatest need, brings the greatest results (and they last forever), and cost the greatest price.

Simon was blind to the woman and blind to himself. He saw her past, but Jesus saw her future.

I wonder how many rejected sinners have found salvation through the testimony of this woman in Luke’s Gospel. She encourages us to believe that Jesus can take any sinner and make him or her into a child of God.

Jesus’ humility led to Him being exalted as the name above every name, so that every tongue would confess Him as Lord to the glory of God.

Matthew 20:16 CSB

16 “So the last will be first, and the first last.”

Mark 9:35 CSB

35 Sitting down, he called the Twelve and said to them, “If anyone wants to be first, he must be last and servant of all.”

Mark 10:44 CSB

44 and whoever wants to be first among you will be a slave to all.

HUMILITY LEADS TO EXULTATION!

CLOSING

LIVING AS ALIVE AND FREE...

IS NOT AUTOMATIC…

PRIDE CAN OFTEN GET IN THE WAY OF THIS...

ALLOWING JESUS TO BE LORD… IS NOT AUTOMATIC...

PRIDE CAN OFTEN GET IN THE WAY OF THIS...

WE CAN CAN REJECT GOD’S WILL IN OUR LIVES.

In 1830, a man named George Wilson was arrested for mail theft, the penalty for which was hanging. After a time, President Andrew Jackson gave Wilson a pardon but he refused to accept it! The authorities were puzzled: should Wilson be freed or hanged?They consulted Chief Justice John Marshall, who handed down this decision: “A pardon is a slip of paper, the value of which is determined by the acceptance of the person to be pardoned. If it is refused, it is no pardon. George Wilson must be hanged.”If you have never accepted God’s pardon, now is the time to believe and be saved.

GOD HAS OFFERED US A PARDON IN THE FORM OF MERCY AND GRACE.

WILL WE CHOOSE TO ACCEPT IT.

WILL WE CHOOSE TO LIVE BY HUMILITY. OR WILL WE CHOOSE TO LIVE BY PRIDE.

HUMILITY is the beginning of Living for Jesus.

It is also a continuous fruit of those who are currently alive and free in Christ.

DO YOU NEED TO REPEND TONIGHT CHRISTIAN?

UNBELIEVER… IS IT TIME YOU HUMBLE YOURSELF AND MAKE JESUS YOUR LORD?