Jesus is... — 3.24.19 Sermon

This message opens with Simon the Pharisee and an unnamed woman in Luke 7. One is deep in self-righteousness and unaware he needs forgiveness; the other is desperate for it and shows it scandalously. The contrast exposes how the church can think and act like Simon. The core idea dismantles the unspoken rating system for sin. Scripture levels everyone, for all have sinned , and Jesus needed to die for small sins as much as supersized ones. The woman's great love is named not as the cause of her forgiveness but the evidence of it. The title and landing: Jesus is a friend of sinners. The moment we treat grace as for us but not for them, the message warns, we lose our footing. Illustrations of the outsider in church clothes and a 3:30 a.m. birthday party drive the point that grace was always meant to go to the far-off.