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February 23, 2021 2:00 am
In this study, we find a woman—the city prostitute—who acutely felt the need to have the hole in her heart filled. As Skip begins the message "Jesus Loves Prostitutes," we discover that Jesus loved this woman with a wholesome love.
This teaching is from the series Jesus Loves People .
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Jesus said that prostitutes were among those who listened to the words of John the Baptist and repented and did you know that Jesus shot the crowd when he said to the religious leaders, prostitutes and tax collectors are going to get into the kingdom of heaven before you. There are many people in the world would been overlooked or even rejected criminals, addicts, homeless homosexuals and prostitutes today on connect with Skip HiTec scriptures, a beautiful reminder with you about how God's love abounds for all people.
At the end of today's program Skip and his wife Linda share how you can keep God's love flowing through your sword reaches out God's forgiveness to us is what enables God's forgiveness by us, we can extend God's forgiveness. We can be a conduit of love and forgiveness to others and when we forget. It cleanses us and cleans the lens through which we view people and which we view life.
Thank you.
Skip if you want to hear more. Please stay tuned after the teacher. Now we want to tell you about a great resource that will help you know God's love more intimately.
People everywhere have a deep God-given need to be loved, but sadly sometimes the people who need love the most the most rejected here. Skip, I think we all crave love. We will do sometimes almost anything to get it to know that we are loved by somebody else unconditionally. No wonder that better than Jesus love the worst of sinners. You love the best of saints Jesus. So the love of God in human flesh we want to give you a glimpse of God's relentless love for all people including you by sending you the Jesus loves people for booklet collection by skip. I think all four Jesus loves people titles including Jesus loves the broken RR thanks for your gift of $25 or more today to help connect more people to God's love through his word connectwithskip.com/offer to give online securely or call 892 1888 okay chapter 7 Skip HiTec starts today seven Will Rogers said everyone is ignorant only on different subjects and so I plead ignorance there's been so many topics in this Jesus loves people series that I have frankly been ignorant of before I taught them in the Scripture and did research on different lifestyles and and this would be one of those Jesus loves prostitutes I have never met one that I know I may have witnessed to run on a street or I may have met someone who claimed it to be wanted one time but I've had to do research by interviews by TV documentaries, etc. I know the Bible talks about prostitution and did you know that 76 times it speaks about a harlot or harlotry speaks about prostitution. It is condemned in the Scripture, it is immoral book of Leviticus chapter 19 the book of Proverbs in several places in the writings of Paul. First Corinthians chapter 6, all condemn prostitution or getting involved with the prostitute.
But did you also know that Jesus said that prostitutes were among those who listened to the words of John the Baptist and repented and did you know that Jesus shot the crowd when he said to the religious leaders, prostitutes and tax collectors are going to get into the kingdom of heaven before you is ever a sermon opener and did you know that two prostitutes are actually in the genealogy of Christ tame are in the Old Testament who seduced her father-in-law, acting as a prostitute and Rahab that infamous harlot from the city of Jericho who hid the two spies in fact she is named as an example of faith in Hebrews chapter 11.
Imagine that a prostitute but beyond some historical and biblical examples. I have to plead ignorant because of that I've done some research a little bit of it. I dug around and what I found honestly broke my heart to explain what I mean first of all, prostitution the sex trade is a huge moneymaking enterprise.
I won't bore you with all the statistics nationwide, but just give you one city city of Miami, knows that even the highest in that city alone. It is a $235 million per year industry. Atlanta ranks higher and there are several other cities they rank up there that's just one town.
Studies show that 10% of American men by sex is one out of every 10 and that accords with the international statistics that one in 10 men in the world have purchased a prostitute. But here's what broke my heart. You know the average age is for a girl to get involved between age 12 and age 14.
The mean age is 13 teen years old.
How you say how how does that happen while there entice their there lured into you know that there isn't an incredibly organized and powerful network of people out there that use social media to attract is what they know. They know that one out of every 10 kids age 10 to 18 is going to run away from home. They will know that they know that most of them are girls and they know that runaway girls are very vulnerable. They need things to eat any food they need places to stay within 48 hours of that child running away from home. They will be approached by someone to lure them into this lifestyle.
It's also one of the deadliest professions in the world when explain there is a mortality rate for occupations. I think you know this in the way they judge it is, they take 100,000 people may find out how many people died because of the of doing that job. So the average American worker mortality rate is 3.5 people in 100,000 people. That's the average. But there are certain professions that are riskier for example for police officers.
It goes from 3.52 18.02 riskier profession for aircraft pilots to choose all the way up to 77 0.64 deep-sea fishermen. Interestingly enough, it's 75.0 for prostitutes. It's 204. Why 95% of them are threatened with a gun in their face. They are beaten over half of them will be assaulted or raped, so all of that to say before you and I harshly judge the lifestyle that is immoral.
Granted that we need understand how they were introduced to when they got into it and what is threatening them in the current state that there while in our story in Luke chapter 7 it's very interesting actually. It's Jesus Christ and a prostitute in the home of the Pharisee. Talk about tension. I talk about a tense meal and it is a meal time setting the Pharisee name Simon will discover and the prostitute are drawn together by a mutual attraction not to one another, but to the compelling person of Jesus Christ. Both of them are interested in Jesus. I just gotta say that it's stories like this just make me love Jesus all the more the way he handles her in the way he handles this Pharisee so we work our way through the passage and then were going to make some application as we close out. Interestingly, the story beginning in verse 36.
By the way down to verse 50. It's 15 verses and it naturally falls into three episodes.
There are three encounters with three people in the first episode is the Pharisee. Let's call him the patriarch because he is known as a Sage.
He is a male leader in the Jewish community.
So we have the patriarch and the prostitute.
Let's read it verse 36 then one of the Pharisees asked him Jesus to meet with him and he went to the Pharisee's house and sat down to eat, and behold, a woman in the city who was a sinner when she knew that Jesus sat at the table in the Pharisee's house brought an alabaster flask of fragrant oil and stood at his feet behind him weeping and she began to wash his feet with her tears and wiped them with the hair of her head and she kissed his feet and anointed them with fragrant oil now. Frankly, we don't know why Jesus was invited to Simon the Pharisee's house.
We could guess some believe it was out of sheer curiosity. He's just so amazed at what Jesus said he just wants to hear more. I don't believe that even though that is a possibility you'll see why in a moment the other idea is that perhaps Simon, like a lot of people would love to have sort of a feather in his cap. It's always nice to invite important people up-and-coming popular people to your place so you gotta conversation the next day. Guess who I had for dinner last night a possibility, but I doubt that I think I know the reason why.
Let me explain to you why Simon invited Jesus not because he loved Jesus, but he wanted to watch him. He didn't like Jesus. He wanted to trap him. He wanted to investigate them further. No why would I say that because if we look at the broader context of the story just one chapter before just several verses before this, we are told these words, the scribes and the Pharisees were watching Jesus closely so they might find an accusation against him. That's why he's there. This Pharisee invites Jesus to observe him to interrogate him to entrap him. You'll see further evidence of that as we go on. So Jesus comes in. He literally reclines. Remember the trick Lenny and they would recline for a leisurely meal and as the meal begins. Suddenly the center of gravity at this scene shifts dramatically, as a woman woman of the night comes in and interrupts and stands behind Jesus at his feet. Because he's reclining and just breaks down she has an emotional breakdown. Tears of shame. Tears of remorse. Tears of regret what Martin Luther called heart water sprung out and dripped all over Jesus feet question why did she come short invited.
Why is she here while facility back up and say it was not unusual to have other people uninvited people at dinners like this. In those days there were people who were invited to dinner the dignitaries they would eat inside in the invited room but there was a courtyard and houses like this. And anybody could, sort of like ancient entertainment to hear what the rabbi says of the speaker says what the latest gossip is so people would come from the community. It was not unusual to have a lot of people, even in the perimeter of the room but it was unusual to have this woman here is the text says she is a sinner and when you give a female in that ancient culture, the title of the center. It only means one thing to be a notorious sinner is a woman. She was a prostitute and that is why the new living translation actually translates it a certain immoral woman came.
Now you you couldn't get to more different people in one room than Simon the Pharisee and this unnamed processor. The Sage the streetwalker the Pharisee the floozy they patriarch the Paramore, the prostitute, the man of high reputation and the woman of ill repute, something else. According to the Talmud for women to let her hair down in front of another man was grounds for divorce by her husband probably wasn't an issue for her. We could presume that she didn't have a husband but nonetheless, it was regarded as highly immoral and on top of that for Jesus to be touched by this woman like this. The Pharisee would've seen that as a sexual advance, so why did she come well. She came because Jesus was there.
She must have heard about who he was.
She must've even heard sermons by him must've heard him preach. They may have even met and spoke before this is interesting. If you are to harmonize the Gospels, you know that means means if you give a chronological account of all the events in all four gospel records, you discover that just before this dinner Jesus gave a message in which he preached these words come unto me all you who labor and are heavy laden, I will give you rest. You will find rest for your souls. I'm sure that woman was on the perimeter of the crowd when those words were spoken and she must've instantly thought if I am ever going to find love and forgiveness and hope to be from that man and so she found that Jesus was in town and she found the Jesus was at this house, and she barged in in the middle of supper and had this emotional breakdown.
She wanted real love. One prostitute admitted this. I don't know what real love is I don't know what it looks like I don't know. It feels like I don't know what it acts like the only kind of love I ever had is the one-way kind, the kind that's paid foreign goods and services, and evaporates like they do in the morning or explodes in the violence in the middle of the night.
I don't know what it's like to love and be loved. So we really don't know the depth of pain and remorse. This woman in our story was experiencing. We don't know when she got involved in prostitution. We don't know why she got involved in prostitution. Did she come into it when she was very young, did her husband died a lever giraffe penniless.
Maybe having to raise kids, some of the research I've done for women who enter the work of a prostitute. Later on, they will frankly say, even though it's still wrong and immoral. I did to feed my family to make ends meet. We don't know why were not told one anonymous prostitute said prostitutes have very improperly been styled women of pleasure. She says they're not woman. A pleasure where women obtain sorrow and grief and a bitter and continual repentance, so she rushes and she barges and there's an air of desperation in her approach doesn't care about the Koran doesn't care about protocol rushes in, as this breakdown, tears of remorse. Tears of pain, tears of hope all the same time. Now the camera moves from the first scene to the second scene from the patriarch and the prostitute to the patriarch and the preacher, the invited preacher Jesus because look at verse 39 now when the Pharisee who invited Jesus saw this, he spoke to himself even said a lot of just thinking these thoughts in his head saying this man if he were a prophet wouldn't know who and what manner of woman. This is who is touching him for she is a sinner. Those are his thoughts. Nobody knows those thoughts he thought Jesus answered and said to him to get back Jesus answered what Jesus answered his thoughts is ironic really because he's thinking this guy can't be a prophet because prophets know stuff we don't know and he didn't even know who she is and Jesus knew he thought that so he answers his thoughts and said Simon I have something to say to you as a teacher say it.
There was a creditor a certain creditor who had two debtors one owed 500, and married the other 50. When they had nothing with which to repay, he freely forgave them both. Tell me therefore which of them will love him more. Simon answered and said, I suppose the one whom he forgave more and he said to him you have rightly judged, they turned to the woman and said to Simon, do you see this woman, I entered your house, you gave me no water for my feet. She washed my feet with her tears and wiped them with the hair of your head. You gave me no kiss. This woman is not ceased to kiss my feet since the time I came in, you did not anoint my head with oil, but this woman has anointed my feet with fragrant oil therefore I say to you, her sins which are many, are forgiven, for she loved much but little is forgiven.
The same loves little crawl into Simon's head for a moment. I know who this woman is obviously Jesus does not. I know her reputation. Evidently Jesus does not now. Here's what I want you to see Simon the Pharisee mistook an active devotion and active worship and an act of repentance for sexual advance, the word use 40 she's touching him is a strong word of sensual sexual touch to lose somebody into an affair.
She mistook a woman's active devotion for sexual advance. You know you have to be very coldhearted to think that way. Be safe and easy mistake know it's not because she's crying.
She's weeping. She's pouring out tears that she that's not can attract anybody but I want you to see you got to understand that Simon the Pharisee had a wrong estimation of everyone in that room. He had a wrong estimation of Jesus. He said he's no prophet, he's of the prophet. He had a wrong estimation of the woman she doesn't belong here with him to exactly where she belongs and he had a wrong estimation of himself. I think he was thinking. Thoughts like all I wish others could be as discerning as I am what you need to see is this. When you view life through the lens of legalism. Everyone you see is distorted everyone and everything is distorted through that lens so after Simon plays pin the tail on the center in his mind.
Jesus speaks up Simon I want to say something. Simon thinking finally good. You know you have to defend yourself for letting this happen. You need to rebuke or that's what he's thinking. Interestingly enough, the word Simon the name Simon Shimon in Hebrew means one who hears he's about to get an ear full from Jesus.
Jesus tells him the story that we read and this is what is amazing, because we don't get the full story of what happened until Jesus talks.
And when Jesus talks now we get the full picture that the message from the series Jesus loves now much head into the studio with Skip as they share how you can keep God's love flowing through you, reaches others as you mentioned in today's teaching legalism can distort people to the point where we no longer see them through the lens of laugh, skip, what steps can we take if we realize that we become hardhearted and were not showing love and compassion to those around us. I think is the reason Jesus did teach us in the Lord's prayer we call it when he said, forgive us our debts as we forgive those who are our debtors or trespass against us. So God's forgiveness to us is what enables God's forgiveness by us, we can extend God's forgiveness. We can be a conduit of love and forgiveness to others and when we forgive. It cleanses us and cleans the lens through which we view people in the which we view life. I think of it this way, what if Jesus were legalistic toward you, what would that look like what we'd all be in hell. First of all, and there be no hope for the world. So, aren't you glad that God cut you some slack and Jesus extends his grace to get in line and our heart is to connect listeners like you, with God's truth. See you can stand on the unshakable foundation of his heart is vital to you on the air and online. If you think encouraged to future life and password. Please consider giving a gift today to help even more people experience back from the last thing just talking hundred 19 to 1819 to 18.com/donate.com/donate. Thank you again tomorrow.
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