Finding Purpose with Peter Rochelle Part #2

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This is part two of a special two-part episode. Do you feel like you're on a religious treadmill? Do you feel like Christianity is just a system of rules and regulations?

I can do this, but I can't do that. Do you feel like your efforts to reach God, find God, and please God are futile? Do you feel like your faith is dead or alive? Today, Pastor Russ Andrews will walk us through Scripture to answer these questions. Join us on Finding Purpose, glorifying God by helping men find their purpose for living. For more information and to connect with Russ Andrews and Finding Purpose, you can visit us online at findingpurpose.net or connect with us on Facebook. Now let's listen to Russ Andrews as he teaches us how to be a Christian without being religious.

Today's message features Pastor Peter Rochelle. When you go to Mark 14 as well as John 12, there's another story of a lady named Mary who was Lazarus and Martha's sister. She also comes in those stories, different story though, and she brings this expensive bottle of perfume that was in an alabaster jar. And notice what the text says about this woman here again.

There's several things. First of all, don't miss the fact that it says that she lived a sinful life. Most commentators would say she lived a promiscuous life. Most commentators would suggest this phrase here means she lived an immoral life, that she was a woman of the streets. She was a prostitute.

And this prostitute walks in to where Jesus is reclining at the table. Notice the second thing about her. She lived not only a sinful life, but she did it in that town. In other words, everyone knew her. Her sin was no secret. Everyone knew how she was living. It was common knowledge. Her sin was on public display. I like the way Pastor John MacArthur says it.

He states it like this. He said, in all likelihood, she was a prostitute, a professional adulteress, immoral, impure, and living a flagrantly sinful life at a public level. She was immoral and impure and unholy, and everybody knew it. I know we got only men in the audience here, but imagine this. If your sin, and not just your sin, your sexual sin was on display for everybody to know. Imagine the shame in that.

Imagine the weight of that. Everyone knew who she was and what she was involved in. But look at the next thing. The third thing about her, she comes with a repentant heart. She crashes the party. She's an uninvited guest, but she brings this alabaster jar of perfume.

And I think this was intentional here. I believe she came with the motive and the desire to pour it on Christ, to use it for Christ. And it really speaks of her heart. Yes, she's lived a sinful life. Yes, she's living a moral life.

Yes, everybody knows all about her in that town. But she comes, I believe, with a changed heart. She brings this alabaster jar of perfume, and then she's standing behind Jesus, you all. And she's at his feet, and she's weeping. And she begins to wet his feet with her hair. And then she wipes his feet with her hair, and she kisses them. And then she anoints them with this perfume. It's very interesting here in the original Greek language. Listen to this. This will let you know how moving and how emotional this scene was.

I don't know if we can quite capture it just in our English translation of the Bible. This is really a moving scene, you all. This is really emotional.

This is incredible what happens. The word wet here, just picture her. Picture Jesus reclining at the table.

Picture his legs extended back this way. Picture this lady just standing there and she begins to weep. She begins to weep. I believe she maybe had had some contact with Jesus prior to. Maybe she heard him preach.

Maybe he spoke to her and said something specifically to her. But she had some kind of encounter with Jesus maybe prior to this, and she comes and she just moved. And she knows he is the one that can forgive her of all her sins. And so she's sitting there, standing there rather, and she's weeping. And as she's weeping, the tears are landing on Jesus' feet as his legs are extended. The word wet, that she wet his feet with her tears, is the Greek word brecho.

And it literally means to rain. This woman is weeping so terribly that the tears are rolling off her cheeks, dropping on Jesus' feet like rain. Is that not incredible?

That is just incredible to me. She is bawling. One day my daughter was walking our dog. We had to get rid of the dog. The dog is with Jesus now.

It just didn't work out. But anyway, one day she was walking our dog. And our dog would just poop in places where he shouldn't poop. I mean, you could walk him for an hour, he would not poop, and then he would get to where he shouldn't and he would go. We have a neighbor that just loves his yard and he's a little bit of a grouch.

And Harley, our dog, I named him after my motorcycle, the Harley-Davidson motorcycle. He pooped in Mr. Kevin's yard. And Mr. Kevin just comes out and he's upset. And my little Kristen, who's my heart, she's just sitting there and she's got Harley and he's going in at her and he's just fussing at her. And she comes home, you all, and like she is just weeping. I mean, tears are just everywhere. Her shirt is soaked. She can't even talk.

There's this picture of my little Kristen and she is just, she is just undone with emotions and she is just weeping to the point where she can't even speak. I wonder if that's the scene here. That word wet, his feet wet, would literally imply she's crying and it's like rain is falling.

And we see the emotion of this. And then she kisses his feet. The word kiss here in the Greek is kataphileo. And it's a demonstration of great affection and implies love as well. Kataphileo is the Greek word for brotherly love. And so this woman, as she cries and she's weeping, as tears are flowing out of her eyes onto Jesus' feet, she begins to wipe his feet with her hair and she begins to kiss his feet as a demonstration of affection and love for the Savior.

What a moving picture. This kissing here, this Greek word is the same Greek word that the prodigal son's father is described as doing. You remember he sees his father.

You'll get to Luke 15 later on as you keep going through Luke. But he sees his son. His son is still a way off. But he sees him from the distance. And what does his father do? He just takes off running.

This picture of emotion, this picture of excitement, this picture of affection and love for his son. And he takes off running towards his son. And what does he do when he sees his son? His son has his speech in hand like, I'm going to tell him, you know, I'm a sinner and I'm no longer worthy to be called his son and just make me a servant.

He's got this speech ready. And what does his dad do? His dad just jumps on him, hugs him, kisses him, kataphileo. This affection, this love. My son who was lost, he's now found.

He's home and there's great rejoicing. It's the same word that is used to describe the Ephesian elders in Acts chapter 20. Paul is on his way to Jerusalem. They're never going to see Paul again. The Holy Spirit's already told Paul he will never see them again. And they are moved with emotion, you all, and great love and affection for Paul. And they embrace Paul and they kiss him, kataphileo. That's what this woman does, you all, to Jesus' feet.

Let me ask you a question. Can you identify with this woman? Can you identify when maybe you first became aware of your sin and how awful it was? Can you identify when you had that point in your life where your sin was just heavy and weighty and you felt the guilt and maybe the shame? And can you remember when you encountered Jesus? And did your heart have a posture like what we see in this lady in the text where because of your sin and the conviction of your sin and you realize that you were a great sinner that your heart mourned and grieved?

That really is a proper response when we understand our sin and when we understand that Jesus is the Savior who can forgive our sins. When I came to Christ, I was about 12 years old. I grew up here in Raleigh and most of the kids that I hung around back then were a little bit younger. The neighborhood that I grew up in and I hung out in, most of my friends were a few years younger than me. And so I was the older one. I was more athletic than my younger friends because I was older and stronger and bigger and that kind of thing. I was a little bit of a bully.

I was. And I would get into fights. We would do various things. We, we, we stole things from convenience stores. We looked at pornography. I remember they had the magazine. It wasn't internet then, but magazines and you can go into 7-Eleven and they had the comic books, the sports illustrators, and then right next to them, you had the adult and it was out in the open. I remember with my friends, we would go and we would look and we would steal even magazines. Yeah.

And put them in our shirt and walk out the convenience store. I remember getting in fights and all sorts of things. And I remember you all, I got in a fight with a girl who was three years younger than me. I did win the fight though.

I did. And I was trying to impress my friends and particularly a girl that I was interested in. And I, and I think I'm being tough.

I look at me now and I'm the man. And my friends looked at me like, what kind of guy fights a girl who's three years younger than him and thinks he did something. And I remember God just used that and I was wrecked. I mean, I was just like wrecked. I went home and literally what I described my Kristen doing when our neighbor yelled at her for our dog pooping in his yard.

That's what I was doing to my mom. And she, what's the matter, Pete? What's going on? Did something happen?

What somebody do something? She's trying to figure out and I'm just wrecked. I'm just ruined because I felt this heavy conviction for my sin. And we had been going to church. My mom had been sharing the gospel with us, me and my brothers. And so there was some seeds already planted and I felt this weight of guilt and shame on me. And I was weeping and I knew I needed a savior and I needed to be forgiven. And I remember my mother sharing the gospel with me.

And I remember her telling me this, she said when we go to church on Sunday, our preacher Dr. Merritt, he was an 86 year old interim pastor, 86 years old, still preaching. And Dr. Merritt was a shouter. So when he preached, he shouted his sermon. He was a sweater. And so he sweated profusely when he preached. And then he was also a spitter. And so if you sat on like the first or second row, you better watch out because you might get wet.

I mean, you'd be like dodge ball, you know, because stuff is flying. But he loved Jesus, you all. He loved Jesus.

And he preached the gospel. And I remember feeling my guilt and my shame and the weight of my sin. And I remember him saying, if you want to know Jesus, he didn't say close your eyes, you know, bow your head, raise your hand while nobody's looking. He's like, if you want to know Jesus, get up right now and meet me down front. And I remember just just I need to know Jesus and I need to be forgiven of my sin. And I remember getting up out of my seat and it was just I was weeping and I was crying.

My thought was grief. And I went up to him and he shared the gospel with me and I came to Christ as my Savior. That's the response that I think we have when we, like this woman, realize our sin. And she comes, I believe, with a repentant heart, with a repentant heart. Notice second or third, we see the self-righteous Pharisee. We see Jesus is indiscriminate, man.

He hangs out with whoever because he understands all people are sinners, whether it's a Pharisee or a tax collector or a sinner, whether the person is pious or promiscuous, Jesus hangs out. We see this, this woman who's sinful, but she's repentant. But then we see the self-righteous Pharisee.

Let me hurry along here. Listen to what the text says beginning in verse 39. When the Pharisee who had invited him saw this, what did he see? This woman that we just described.

He sees this and then he says something to himself. This man were a prophet. I mean, the word on the street is Jesus is a prophet, right? Chapter 7 verse 16, they said he was a prophet, right? And the word on the street is he's a prophet. So if he really was a prophet, he would know who's touching him and what kind of woman she is and that she is a sinner. Now Simon is not wrong in his assessment of the woman that she's a sinner. He's right about that.

The text is clear. It says over and over that she's a sinner. Jesus will forgive her for her sins. So his assessment that she's a sinner is not wrong. But here's what's wrong with Simon.

His posture is in the attitude of his heart. You see, he's self-righteous and he's judgmental and he does not realize that he too is a sinner and stands in need of forgiveness. Simon's problem is this, his eyes are wide open to her sin, but blind to his own.

And you know what? If there's a danger that you and I face tonight, I think is this. We might identify and be more like Simon the Pharisee than we are like the sinful woman. And you know, it's easy to like point out and judge the sin in others lives while failing to see the sin in our own life.

I'm the worst. Sometimes I can quickly see the sin in my wife. Sometimes I can quickly see the sin in my children. Sometimes I quickly see the sin in my church members, my neighbors. But then I fail to see my own brokenness and my own sin.

It's also so easy to compare ourselves to others. And this may have been what Simon was doing, particularly others that we deemed to be like really, really sinful, like the sinful woman. And we can be pious and we can be like Simon the Pharisee and think because we've kept the rules, we've gone to church, we attend Bible study on Tuesday nights, we give money to the needy and we do good things that we're not that bad compared to the really, really bad people. And the danger is if we're not careful, we would relate and be more like Simon than we would be like the sinful woman. And I like the way someone said it, said we must be careful that we are not like the Pharisee. He goes on to say to be a great sinner like the woman is not the worst thing to realize that you are a sinner and neither forgiveness is. Let me read that one more time. I didn't do a very good job reading that we need to be careful that we do not, that we are not like the Pharisee.

To be a great sinner like the woman is not the worst thing to not realize that you are a sinner and neither forgiveness is. And Jesus knows what Simon is thinking you all. And so what does he say to him?

Simon, I have something to tell you. Okay, tell me teacher, Simon says, verse 41, and Jesus tells him a parable about two people who were in debt and two men owed money to a certain money lender. One owed him 500 denarii, the other 50, neither of them had money to pay him back. So he canceled the debts of both.

Now which of them will love him more? And Simon answered grudgingly, I think, but rightly. And he says, I suppose the one who had the bigger debt.

And here's the message that Jesus really is getting at. That Simon and the woman were the two debtors. That the woman had the great debt, the 500 denarii, and Simon had the smaller debt, the 50 denarii, but both of them had debt. And both of them couldn't pay their debt.

And Simon for all of his self-righteousness was just as hopelessly in sin's debt as the sinful woman. I always like to think about it like this. If we were, if we were on a boat fishing in the middle of the ocean and we went out fishing, deep sea fishing, and there was just something terrible that happened in the boat sank. There were no life jackets, no life rafts, and there was no way to call the coast guard. And then if we were all in the boat and maybe there were some that couldn't swim, well, those folks unfortunately would probably die right away. They would just die right away. They would drown. Maybe there's some in the, that was on the trip that they were mediocre swimmers.

They were mediocre swimmers. They may swim a long way. They may be able to trip water for a long time, but they'll die. They'll do a little bit better than the ones that can't swim, but, but they'll die too. But then there may be a third category on the boat where you have expert swimmers, the swim team in college, you know lifeguard certified scuba divers. I mean, you got, you got expert swimmers. They're the sharks, so to speak. Well, they may tread water and swim a long way, but in the middle of the ocean they'll eventually drown as well. They're really no better off, right? Than the person that can't swim. And again, sometimes I think we look at, well, you know, I'm better than that person. I haven't done what he's done or she's done, but you know what?

If we're in the middle of the ocean and there's no life jackets or lifeboats or any means to be saved, we're really no better off than the one that might drown right away. I think this is the point Jesus is making here. He's kind of hooked Simon with this, this parable. And now he begins to apply.

Let me hurry because our time is, is running. He, he, he, he commends the woman now and then he criticizes Simon. He honors the woman and then he, in a sense shames Simon the Pharisee.

He turns to the woman in verse 44. He says to Simon, do you see this woman? I came into your house. You did not give me water for my feet, but she wet my feet with her tears, wiped them with her hair. You did not give me a kiss, but this woman from the time I entered has not stopped kissing my feet.

You did not put oil on my head, but she has poured perfume on my feet. Simon, in other words, didn't do the most basic and normal acts of courtesy and hospitality when Jesus entered his home. This would have been expected that he would have done what this woman did. He didn't even show the, just the common courtesies of the day. But on the other hand, the sinful woman did washing his feet, kissing him and not just anointing him with just oil.

That would have been a lot less expensive. She takes this expensive perfume and anoints Jesus's feet. And notice what Jesus does. Fourth, he forgives sinners. He declares in verse 47 that this woman's sins have been forgiven. This literally means that her sins have already been forgiven.

They've already been forgiven. Jesus is assuring her that her sins have been taken care of and that she is perfectly and completely forgiven. And here's the great thing about Jesus. When he forgives us of our sins, the cross is so powerful.

You know, when Jesus was on the cross, he hung on the cross and what did he say? He said, Tostelestai, it is done. It is finished.

And it literally is. It is finished. Everything that that was needed to bring forgiveness for our sins was done in Christ on the cross. And he forgives her completely. And this is good news.

This is good news. And look at what happens next and we'll close. They ask in verse 49, wait a minute, time out. Who is this who even forgives sins? The Pharisees were right in understanding this theological truth. Only God can forgive sins.

They were spot on right. Only God can forgive sins. But here's where they fail. They fail to realize Jesus is God. Jesus is God.

And notice what he says to this woman. Your faith has saved you. Go in peace. She put her faith and trust in Christ as God, as the Messiah, as the one who forgives sins.

And she's commanded to go in peace. This reminds us that that we are saved by grace through faith. Paul said it like this in Ephesians two, for it is by grace you have been saved through faith. It's not of yourselves. It's not of work.

So no one can boast. It's through faith. God's grace to us in Christ. And we put our faith and trust in Christ.

He says this in Romans five one. Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. And this woman is saved of all of her sins. And she now has the peace of God in her life. Can you imagine what she must have felt? Luke is a detailed guy, but I wish he would have maybe given us some details, but it wasn't meant to be.

The Holy Spirit would have put it in there if we needed to know. But I just wonder what her life must have been like when she left. That she certainly left with the peace of God in her heart.

Let me ask you a question. Who do you most identify with? A sinful woman on the Pharisee. Have you ever acknowledged your sin and your need for Savior? Have you fled to Jesus and Jesus alone for forgiveness that you need? And I pray today if you haven't, that you would. Let's pray together. Father, we thank you. Father, we thank you that even though we're great sinners, you are great Savior. And we thank you that it's in Christ that our sins have been forgiven. And so God help us to never think like the Pharisee that we don't sin, that we don't have sin, that we don't need forgiveness, that we don't need salvation. But help us to be like the woman that we recognize our sin and we recognize you Jesus to be our Savior from our sins. And help us to share this message with others who have brokenness and sin and shame in their life, even those who don't even think they do. Help us to share this message with them that they might come to know Christ and their sins be forgiven. We pray in Christ's name.

Amen. Being a Christian is not about being religious, but about having a dynamic, alive relationship with Jesus Christ. You've been listening to Finding Purpose with Pastor Russ Andrews, glorifying God by helping men find their purpose for living. You can discover more about finding your purpose in life by checking out the resources at findingpurpose.net or connect to Finding Purpose on Facebook. Pastor Russ would also like to extend a special invitation for you to join him and over 300 other local men to study God's Word together every Tuesday night at 7 p.m. in downtown Raleigh. Find out more at findingpurpose.net. This is the Truth Network.