This sermon is from the Rev. Charles G. Dennison sermon archive, part of the “Misc. Luke sermons” series, and was preached at Grace Orthodox Presbyterian Church in Sewickley, PA, during a worship service on Sunday, September 27, 1992.

Every once in a while we take a detour from what we had expected to preach on, and this is one of those days. We are this morning looking at Luke chapter 7, and we are reading from verse 36. This is Luke chapter 7, verse 36. And one of the Pharisees desired him that he would eat with him, and he went into the Pharisee’s house and sat down to meet. And behold, a woman in that city, which was a sinner, when she knew that Jesus sat at meet in the Pharisee’s house, brought an alabaster box of ointment and stood at his feet behind him weeping, and began to wash his feet with tears, and did wipe them with the hairs of her head, and kissed his feet, and anointed them with the ointment. Now when the Pharisee which had bidden him saw, he spake within himself, saying, This man, if he were a prophet, would have known who and what manner of woman this is that toucheth him, for she is a sinner.” And Jesus, answering, said unto him, Simon, I have some what to say unto thee.

And he saith, Master, say on. There was a certain creditor which had two debtors, one owed five hundred pence and the other fifty. And when they had nothing to pay, he frankly forgave them both. Tell me, therefore, which of them will love him most? Simon answered and said, I suppose that he to whom he forgave most. And Jesus said unto him, Thou hast rightly judged. And he turned to the woman and said unto Simon, Seest thou this woman?

I entered into thine house, thou gavest me no water for my feet, but she hath washed my feet with tears and wiped them with the hairs of her head. thou gavest me no kiss, but this woman since the time I came in hath not ceased to kiss my feet. My head with oil thou didst not anoint, but this woman hath anointed my feet with ointment.

Therefore I say unto thee, her sins, which are many, are forgiven. For she loved much, but to whom little is forgiven, the same loveth little. And he saith unto her, Thy sins are forgiven. And they that sat at meat with him began to say within themselves, Who is this that forgiveth sins also? And he said to the woman, By faith hath saved thee, go in peace. Our Father, you do confront us with our inadequacies.

We know this to be the universal truth, that throughout the world men then are accused and they are without excuse. Father, we would pray for intelligence born of your Spirit with respect to the circumstances that are found here and throughout the world. that we would not be so naive as to turn our head towards those that would pretend as if we have no sin at all. Our God, even in the political process, may we be wise. May we have that understanding that comes from you and by your word. Truly there would be those who would deceive we ask that we may not be deceived, and pray all the more for your grace, yes, in our case, but also in the case of the nations of this planet.

We ask it through Christ. Amen. This is a message that has been building in me for some time. In fact, the necessity for this message has been accented by the events in my ministry over the past year. I bring it to you, praying that I might do so with all humility and grace.

I am struck, first of all, with a certain feature of Luke’s writings. It may well be said that Luke is the New Testament theologian of repentance. The evidence for this abounds. We have a story in Luke chapter 5, a Lucan version of the calling of the initial disciples.

It’s a very moving account with respect to the person of Peter. Simon, they are called, who has been fishing all night, caught nothing. Jesus has come to the shore, he has been teaching. They set out from the shore a little bit in the boat, and Jesus commands Peter to let down the net for a catch, and at Jesus’ bidding, Peter obeys. The catch is phenomenal.

Luke goes on to tell us about Peter’s response in that fifth chapter. He says that Peter then threw himself at Jesus’ feet and said, Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord. A testimony to Luke’s interest, specific interest, in the theme of repentance. in which we see this premier apostle prostrating himself before God incarnate and making confession of his own worthlessness. We progress to the seventh chapter, and we’ve read a portion of it this morning. Here, once more, we are confronted with Luke theology of repentance.

The sinful woman, she stands behind Jesus. If Peter throws himself at Jesus’ feet, she stands behind Jesus, not even venturing to look into his So sensitive is she, so much aware is she of her own unworthiness before him. And then she adorns his feet with her tears and draws those tears with the hairs of her head. And in the end, she receives statements from Jesus that evidence her vindication, her justification her sins are forgiven, she is told.

And so it is through Luke’s gospel, but even into the Acts of the Apostle, also written by him, you catch the power and the force of the second chapter of Acts, as Peter That man who had prostrated himself previously, before Christ, now calls upon those assembled in Jerusalem on the day of Pentecost to prostrate themselves in acknowledgment of the sin of which they are guilty, namely the execution of the Lord’s Messiah, the Son of God. And they, stricken in conscience Even though many of them weren’t even in Jerusalem at the time Jesus was executed, they stricken in conscience because of their consciousness of the covenant and its significance.

Yes, we are corporately involved. They take them the sin to themselves and they cry out to Peter, what then shall we do? The desperation of that statement. One has to be made of brick, not for it to register as you read through that second chapter of Acts. This message, with respect to such repentance, is found also played out amongst the Gentiles. The sixteenth chapter of Acts, the Philippian jailer the midnight earthquake, the doors of the jail open, the chains dropped off. He’s fearing for his life. He comes and throws himself at the feet of Paul and Silas and cries out, What must I do to be saved? the premier theologian of the New Testament with respect to the message of repentance.

But how might we define repentance? What is it? We who have been trained in, we who have memorized the shorter Catechism, know question and answer Repentance unto life is a saving grace whereby a sinner, out of a true sense of his sin and apprehension of the mercy of God in Christ, doth, with grief and hatred of his sin, turn from it unto God with full purpose of and endeavor after new obedience. a magnificently full, comprehensive definition.

One would have to admit, as much as we love the Catechism, as much as we are trained in it, as much as we revere its definitions, that its definitions can in fact come across a bit technical. We do well to inform our understanding of repentance and even our grasp of what the Catechism is driving at with the biblical illustrations that are multiplied for us throughout the entirety of the scriptural testimony. And those, even most particularly, that come to us from Luke’s writings. For it is in Luke’s writings, as elsewhere in scripture, that there is set well before us the pathos, the pain of repentance.

Men and women throwing themselves completely upon the mercy of God. The emphasis in Scripture being upon a self-humiliation, that which these individuals are willing to endure because of what they have seen with regard to themselves and with regard to God.

There is no price they will not pay. There is no limit for them in the expression of their humiliation and their subsequent humility in this repentance. It is confession, then, that is without qualification and without excuse. Repentance then comes without reservation, as it is presented to us in Scripture, as the individual with abandonment casts himself upon the mercy and grace of God, specifically as they are found in Jesus Christ.

The Church of God is in trouble. This means that the people of God are in trouble. They have been in trouble for at least a hundred years, if not more, specifically because of this issue, this matter of repentance. Is it not evident to you that in our own time that the kind of repentance that is evidenced in the Lutheran stories has become the exception, not the rule? In fact, it’s almost as if it has completely disappeared from the experience of the Church. Let me give you one illustration as to how this is obvious in our present time. As a minister, I am called upon time and again to deal with married people. I am called upon to counsel, to listen to the difficulties, the problems. But you know what the process of confession and repentance has become In the marriage affair of our time, it has become an exercise in plea bargaining.

Brooke, dear spouse, if you will own up to these faults, then I will own up to these faults. If you will merely confess on this side, then yes, I may be moved to confess on the other side. Do you see how far of the mark this kind of repentance is from that which we find in the Lucan material? In the biblical accounts of repentance, there is no plea bargaining going on as the sinner comes before God, nor is there to be plea bargaining going on when someone who is guilty of offense comes before the person they have offended. Regardless of what you have done, this is what I have done, and I was wrong. Will you forgive me?”

So then we see how far we have departed from the biblical definition of repentance in our present time. because of this plea bargaining idea with regard to repentance. But this is only one place where people are having problems with the definition and the reality of repentance in our time. area of concern is how far we have departed from the reformational grasp of the nature of repentance. I have in mind here specifically how the Reformers recaptured that sense of repentance and spoke of it as if with new force and power to the people of God.

Calvin was not going to allow repentance to be reduced to a single point in time. Something that you did once, having done it, you can now forget about it and move on from it. For Calvin, repentance was a way of life. The humiliation experienced initially in repentance as one came to Christ was carried on in a life of humility as you walked with Christ.

So there was no justification for your haughtiness. There was no justification for you making excuses for yourself as you moved on through your Christian experience. Repentance was an ongoing affair. Otherwise, why would it be necessary for you to continually pray, forgive us our debts? Such a prayer becomes utterly meaningless. This repentance and contrition and frustration before the Lord are not to characterize the Christian life as a whole. The things are even more serious yet with regard to this matter of repentance.

In Protestant circles, it seems from the seventeenth and eighteenth century, repentance can now become strangely and oddly, ironically in fact, repentance can become an opportunity to boast. Repentance can be an exercise in pride, or at least telling people about your repentance can be an exercise in pride.

The students are here. I dare say that things haven’t changed much from my student days, and that you students have probably been treated in the religious affairs of your college to a number of folks who have passed through, who are delighted in telling you just how great a sinner they were. In fact, they even give you the impression that you’ve missed out on something, because you haven’t quite been that great a sinner. There’s something backward about all of that isn’t there? If not perverse But there is one final blow with regard to the biblical teaching and truth with respect to repentance that is now taking its toll amongst the people of God in our time.

And that is this. Repentance itself is dismissible. Repentance itself is dismissible. It is no longer a factor. Now it’s opportune that we preach this message at the political season. Politicians have mastered the technique of never calling the constituency into account. It’s always the opponent, the sinner. It’s always the other party that’s the sinner. But it’s never the voters. The voters are innocent. They never sin. They’re responsible for nothing. Do you see how this is now coming to the church? So that the church has itself become politicized, and by that I mean its messengers have become politicians. Congregations don’t sin, people in them don’t sin. That’s a negative concept.

How are you going to get ahead in the ministry if you talk like that? But not only has the ministry become politicized, it has become commercialized. What commercial that you can name beats up on the people you’re trying to get money out of? What corporation in its advertising is calling those who are prospective customers into account with regard to their wants and desires?

Repentance done has been discounted and dismissed. And a whole generation has now been brought into the church that have come into the church or into the faith by some other route than that of repentance. And we, the Church of Jesus Christ, are going to pay dearly for that. How is it that they have been brought into the church, if not by repentance then? They have been brought into the church or into the faith because they have sensed within themselves a certain incompleteness. There is a certain deficiency and they are looking for something then that will make them whole.

This is a far cry from Peter prostrated Jesus feet in a boat on the Sea of Galilee, far cry from that woman who can’t stop crying because of her sins, a far cry from that assembly on the day of Pentecost that cries out with abandon, what then shall we do? Or the Philippian jailer that throws himself completely upon the mercies of God, as those mercies are found communicated in and through God’s messengers. I was lonely.

I’m not, you see, disparaging those who in their loneliness turn to Christ. I’m not disparaging those who sense an emptiness within them and then begin to look towards God and to cultivate a relationship with Him. But to stay at that level means that you have accepted something far less than the biblical definition of the gospel. For the biblical definition of the gospel has at its heart a message with regard to repentance. And even more tragic, those who have begun without repentance continue without repentance. And that is sad doubly, because now they cannot imagine, they cannot imagine that God would ever be angry with them for anything.

Have you met these people? Have you run into them? It doesn’t matter how they live. It doesn’t matter what they do. She may be publicly, as far as the church is concerned, a paragon of virtue. Living her life before the church as one who is upright, she might even have all kinds of ribbons tied to her automobile’s aerial antenna. declaring herself before the world.

But every night of the week, her boyfriend’s car is parked in front of her house. And it doesn’t leave until 7.30 the next morning. The sad truth is that even in her sin, this young lady cannot even conceive that God might be angry with her. I’m sorry to say that increasingly she is not the exception. But in the Church, broadly conceived and defined, she is becoming the rule.

No repentance at the beginning, and no concept of repentance in the process of Christian living and experience. On the other side, hopefully never born of self-righteousness, but always informed by the truth with respect to the glory and holiness of God, with respect to our own depravity and sinfulness.

We have prostrated ourselves before God with abandonment and without excuse, and called upon him for his mercy, in the certain knowledge now that his son has been given over for sin in our case, and has not been abandoned, but has been raised again to life. And we, mercifully, graciously, united to this one by our faith, also know the depths of our sin and the glories of God’s grace found nowhere else but in Him. You should not be a stranger to repentance. And if you are, read Luke, the Gospel and Acts, and pray that the God of all mercy will prove merciful to you. O Father in Heaven, may we see ourselves in those figures that are described for us in your word, and may we learn wonderfully the lessons concerning repentance, the truthfulness that is required in it, yes, Lord, the abandon that is prescribed, that we with wholehearted humility might find ourselves within your embrace. Lord, then your reception of us and your kind words to us revive our souls. not so that we might live haughtily, but so that we might live humbly, continuing to express those sentiments, those words of repentance, those requests for forgiveness even to our dying day. O Lord, encourage us through Christ the One who has taken our offenses upon Himself, who now is alive, so that we might live in Him. Amen.

The sermon text provided above is derived from the sermon audio recording making use of generative tools. It has not been manually edited. While transcription tools have a high degree of accuracy, the output may include generative textual, punctuation, and/or formatting errors.