2 Timothy 4:17-18
But the Lord stood with me and strengthened me, so that through me the preaching might be fulfilled, and that all the Gentiles might hear. And I was rescued out of the lion’s mouth. 18 The Lord will rescue me from every evil deed, and will save me unto His heavenly kingdom; to Him be the glory forever and ever. Amen.
We now come along to our final two pieces in the armor, even though I do believe that prayer is the completion of our armor and we must have that as well. But we do know that this is the final two pieces that are associated with the armor that a soldier would have in battle. As we come to these final two pieces we will notice that they too are along with the shield of faith in the fact that you take with you these pieces in battle. Your faith may have not been tested up to this point but now it is being tested. We have days where we may be tempted with sin but other days and situations that really test our faith and it is then that we take that shield up. Now this will bring us to look at the fact that we take with us both our helmet and our sword.
Both of these pieces must be used in the heat of the battle as we will see. We will also see another element to these two final pieces that shows us that we are to receive these pieces and not think that we will just passively win the battle because we are stamped with the seal of God. These two pieces will help us to see how it is that we win the battle with temptation and as we face trials and suffering. Let’s read this passage again to get the full picture of the armor. Ephesians 6:10-17 says Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the might of His strength. 11 Put on the full armor of God, so that you will be able to stand firm against the schemes of the devil. 12 For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the world forces of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places. 13 Therefore, take up the full armor of God, so that you will be able to resist in the evil day, and having done everything, to stand firm. 14 Stand firm therefore, having girded your loins with truth, and having put on the breastplate of righteousness, 15 and having shod your feet with the preparation of the gospel of peace. 16 In addition to all, having taken up the shield of faith with which you will be able to extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one, 17 also receive the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.
Let’s look now at our first point for this study which is our 5th piece in the armor.
1.The helmet of salvation.
Look with me at Ephesians 6:17a also receive the helmet of salvation. We must be clear here that when we see this word salvation this is not speaking of our redemption that we have through Christ. In fact there is not one person that is a non-Christian that is engaged in spiritual battle. Before coming to Christ we may have fought against certain struggles, we may have even felt bad for how we acted toward someone or even realized that we should change ourselves in some form of morality. But the unbeliever is not in the same battle as a believer. The unbeliever that has not accepted Christ is only following the normal flow of life that we all once lived in just as Ephesians 2:1-3 says And you were dead in your transgressions and sins, 2 in which you formerly walked according to the course of this world, according to the ruler of the power of the air, the spirit that is now working in the sons of disobedience, 3 among whom we all also formerly conducted ourselves in the lusts of our flesh, doing the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, even as the rest.
So understand, this battle is not for our redemption but rather a salvation for the temptation or trial that we are up against. This really points us back to what Ephesians 6:10-13 speaks about which is that if we want to stand and have done everything to stand then we need the full armor of God. The point is that if we want to have victory then we must remain focused on the goal. The goal here is to notice that if we want this victory then know you are in a battle that attacks the head or the mind. 2 Corinthians 10:3-5 says For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war according to the flesh, 4 for the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh, but divinely powerful for the tearing down of strongholds, 5 as we tear down speculations and every lofty thing raised up against the knowledge of God, and take every thought captive to the obedience of Christ.
We must understand that Satan will bring against you battles that attack you physically but the battle can not be won unless the battle is won in the mind. In times of failings with sin we may be tempted to be discouraged thinking that we will never overcome that sin. We may be going through difficult times in our life and we get discouraged because of the stress of that situation. There may also be times of doubt that comes along with that. This doubt is a hinderance for us to continue to fight off that temptation or to push through the difficult circumstance. If we think we can not win because of our weakness or if we thing that there is no point of trying because nothing ever seems to go right then we lose the battle. Again we may have proper theology, we may understand the truth about God in our minds, we may understand the love and mercy of our God that brings peace to us and between us, we may have our shield up and ready but if we allow our minds to think that we are to weak or we do not have the ability to win then we set ourselves up for failure. We must remember that we are to go in God’s strength not ours.
Sometimes we look at ourselves and are either overconfident, thinking because we are so spiritually strong that we could never fail or we are to underconfident thinking that God could never use little ole me. This reminds me of the story of Gideon and his battle with the Midianites in Judges 7. Most people are familiar with this story but I want to walk through it briefly to make the point here. This was at a time when Israel had been previously brought under the power of Midian’s government. They were impoverished by the Midianites and cried out to God who sent to them Gideon.
In the story what needs to be understood is that Israel thought it best to stack up a huge army. Like most people they thought, the more people the better but that was not God’s plan at all. We read in Judges 7:2-3 And Yahweh said to Gideon, “The people who are with you are too many for Me to give Midian into their hands, lest Israel honor themselves, saying, ‘My own hand has saved me.’ 3 So now, come, call out in the hearing of the people, saying, ‘Whoever is afraid and trembling, let him return and depart from Mount Gilead.’” So 22,000 people returned, but 10,000 remained.
As the story continues we will see that God actually gets that number down to just 300 men. Of course just as God had promised they went in to battle and won, not because of the number of people they had but rather because of following God’s way.
When we focus on the temptation against our ability we often realize our lack of ability or some even look to their ability, then fail. We must know that our mind is to remain focused on God and it is then that we will really be wearing this helmet of salvation.
This is spoken of in so many different Scriptures as we see in Colossians 3:2 Set your mind on the things above, not on the things that are on earth.
Romans 12:2 And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may approve what the will of God is, that which is good and pleasing and perfect.
Isaiah 26:3 says The steadfast of mind You will keep in perfect peace, Because he trusts in You.
I encourage you to keep your mind focused on the truths you already know and do not allow this to be the reason for your defeat with sin. Let’s move on now to our sixth piece of the armor.
2.The sword of the Spirit.
Look with me at Ephesians 6:17 with our emphasis on the last part: also receive the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God. I think we all understand that if we go into this battle with all the other pieces and fail at this point then it is that we either do not have our sword or we do not know how to use it. It is of no use to just carry around a sword into battle if you do not know how to use it. I mean you may get lucky and find yourself blocking blows from your enemy but once your enemy is able to back you up against the wall, there is nothing but defeat in your future.
When we look at this from the standpoint of the spiritual battle we are engaged in what we find often is people that do not know how to use their sword. This sword is said to be the word of God. Let’s not get confused here because this is not saying that we go to God looking for some word from Him in some audible way or through some vision or dream. The word of God in the time of this writing would be associated with the written Old Testament, the early stages of the written words from the writers of the New Testament and even direct revelation given to these inspired writers. In no way do we even see that some inspired words would be a continual pattern throughout time. Instead what we have is the inspired Word of God brought together in the 66 books of the Bible. There are many other writings that may give to us historical background like writings of the Apocrypha but the Word of God we have is from these 66 inspired books that God has allowed to be what we have for spiritual living.
So we have the Bible but the question is, do you know how to use it? The Bible is not a physical object that has some mystical power as we carry it around. The use of the Bible is that we will know the Bible and be able to remember the truths of God’s provision through difficult times, God’s love, mercy, wrath against sin and His great salvation for us. The Bible tells the story of salvation through Christ and it is this that we must live our lives for and by.
How do we use the sword? Look with me at Matthew 7:24-27 “Therefore everyone who hears these words of Mine and does them, may be compared to a wise man who built his house on the rock. 25 And the rain descended, and the rivers came, and the winds blew and fell against that house; and yet it did not fall, for it had been founded on the rock. 26 And everyone hearing these words of Mine and not doing them, may be compared to a foolish man who built his house on the sand. 27 And the rain descended, and the rivers came, and the winds blew and slammed against that house; and it fell—and great was its fall.”
The ability to use the sword is not just in hearing the word, it is not in just quoting the word but it is in obeying the word. It is not that we may quote verses but that we understand that we are to live out that word as well. It is not enough to just know the stories of the Bible or to quote Scripture if we do not know the application of how we are to live out the principle of the story we learn. Hebrews 4:12 says For the word of God is living and active and sharper than any two-edged sword, and piercing as far as the division of soul and spirit, of both joints and marrow, and able to judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart.
In other words the Word of God will destroy the remaining sin in your life which ultimately is the victory of the battle. It is with this last piece that we have the ability to not just defend our stance against sin but kill it and be victorious. When we understand in context what the Bible means then that directs us to live out that in our lives. This leads us away from sin and towards God. This leads us to victory in Jesus because we have followed God’s way by wearing His armor. This brings us to a last thought concerning spiritual battle that we will pick up on in our next study concerning our communication with our commander who is our Lord and God.
Philippians 1:6
For I am confident of this very thing, that He who began a good work in you will perfect it until the day of Christ Jesus.
1 Peter 1:3-5
Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to His great mercy has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, 4 to obtain an inheritance incorruptible and undefiled and unfading, having been kept in heaven for you, 5 who are protected by the power of God through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.
John 10:27-29
My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me; 28 and I give eternal life to them, and they will never perish—ever; and no one will snatch them out of My hand. 29 My Father, who has given them to Me, is greater than all; and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father’s hand.
We come now really to the last section of chapter 7 in the book of Luke but with how I want to exposit the text we will look at this in 2 studies. In this study we are going to look at the act of the woman that we see as a sinner and in the next study we will look in detail of the parable that Jesus tells toward this Pharisee that has invited Jesus to his house. In the flow of our text we know that Jesus had been speaking on the greatness of John the Baptist and then we looked at the reaction from the people. Most of the people had a positive response to what Jesus was speaking about concerning John because they too accepted John’s message and even was baptized by John. But the Pharisees as usual was not happy about any of that because they had rejected John and his message of repentance.
Jesus showed how these unsatisfied people that was mostly the religious leaders were really never going to be satisfied because the message of repentance was not in their theology or soteriology. They were more interested in looking good instead of actually being holy. In fact they thought themselves to be holy and righteous. We have seen their attitude often as we have studied in Luke. Luke 5:29-32 gives us a good look at this, read with me there: it says And Levi gave a big reception for Him in his house; and there was a great crowd of tax collectors and other people who were reclining at the table with them. 30 And the Pharisees and their scribes began grumbling at His disciples, saying, “Why do you eat and drink with the tax collectors and sinners?” 31 And Jesus answered and said to them, “It is not those who are well who need a physician, but those who are sick. 32 I have not come to call the righteous but sinners to repentance.”
The Pharisees were in this for the show and were never interested in reaching the lost. They only looked for people to become like them that fit their social and economical status. As we will see in this study and several other times throughout our study of Luke, even though the Pharisees did not agree with Jesus or like Him in so many ways, they still looked to have status with Jesus simply because He was the popular teacher that everyone seemed to love. Let’s get a better view of this as we look now at our first point.
1.A Pharisee invites Jesus to dinner.
Look with me at Luke 7:36 Now one of the Pharisees was asking Him to eat with him, and He entered the Pharisee’s house and reclined at the table. When we first look at this verse it seems to be a good thing that we see a Pharisee inviting Jesus to eat with him. But we must keep in mind that the Pharisee’s agenda at this point in Jesus’ ministry was never to connect with Jesus or His teachings. Some people try to argue of what about Nicodemus, who was a Pharisee, because he said in John 3:2b “Rabbi, we know that You have come from God as a teacher; for no one can do these signs that You do unless God is with him.”
This looks like that the Pharisees actually believe Jesus is from God at least as a teacher and miracle worker. The fact is no one ever could deny that Jesus’ miracles and teaching was beyond normal, He no doubt was someone that possessed supernatural power like no one had ever seen. Also we have to remember that this conversation with Nicodemus happened early in Jesus’ ministry. So the events of Luke 7 are easily anywhere from 10 months to a year and a couple of months from that time with Nicodemus. At the beginning of Jesus’ ministry it may be true that even the Pharisees were in somewhat of an agreement that Jesus had to be from God because of what He had been doing in those early months that is recorded in John chapters 1 through 4.
By this point in Jesus’ ministry a lot has happened so the agenda to accuse and find fault in Jesus was clear from the Pharisees so often seen in Scripture. We looked at this even in our last chapter. Luke 6:7 says And the scribes and the Pharisees were watching Him closely to see if He heals on the Sabbath, so that they might find reason to accuse Him.
Matthew 12:14 says But going out, the Pharisees took counsel together against Him, as to how they might destroy Him.
In similar words Mark 3:6 says And the Pharisees went out and immediately began taking counsel together with the Herodians against Him, as to how they might destroy Him.
Mark 8:11 records And the Pharisees came out and began to argue with Him, seeking from Him a sign from heaven, testing Him.
There is so many more proofs that show that the longer we get into Jesus’ ministry the deeper the hatred and accusations come from the Pharisees. The only known Pharisee in Jesus’ time that actually appears as if he eventually decided to follow Jesus was Nicodemus but that was not until later on and even after Jesus’ death and resurrection. In fact history tells us that he lost his position as Pharisee, kicked out of the Sanhedrin and lived in poverty after his confession of following Jesus. This is the cost of following Christ.
To get back to our point though, it is clear that this Pharisee was not inviting Jesus over for the right reason and that will be more evident as we look at how he reacts to the woman we will see in our next point. So Jesus goes with this Pharisee even though He knew that his motives were not good. Why did Jesus do this? To teach a lesson once again and this time to a group of Pharisees that had purposely invited him to this dinner. We remember that when people have dinner feasts they invited several people and this would give Jesus the opportunity to teach a lesson once again that we will look deeper into in our next study but for now let’s look at our next point.
2.A sinful woman recognizes her sinfulness.
Look with me at Luke 7:37-38 And behold, there was a woman in the city who was a sinner. And when she learned that He was reclining at the table in the Pharisee’s house, she brought an alabaster jar of perfume. 38 And standing behind Him at His feet, crying, she began to wet His feet with her tears. And she kept wiping them with the hair of her head, and kissing His feet and anointing them with the perfume. It is clear by what we see here that this woman knew who she was and who’s presence she was in. We begin at a look at who this woman is. Many people get confused that this is Mary Magdalene because of her being mentioned in the group of women that is following Jesus listed in Luke 8:2. But if you look at next verse as well you see other women listed also. Look with me at Luke 8:2-3 and also some women who had been healed of evil spirits and sicknesses: Mary who was called Magdalene, from whom seven demons had gone out, 3 and Joanna the wife of Chuza, Herod’s manager, and Susanna, and many others who were ministering to them from their possessions.
So no doubt she is following Jesus around just like many other people not listed here. She could have been in a close communication with the 12 but in no way can we say that she is the woman of Luke 7:37-38. Some people try to say that this is Mary of Bethany or otherwise known as the sister of Lazarus because of what John 11:1-2 says, read along with me: Now a certain man was sick, Lazarus from Bethany, the village of Mary and her sister Martha. 2 And it was the Mary who anointed the Lord with perfume, and wiped His feet with her hair, whose brother Lazarus was sick.
Again you can not place this in the chronological or geographic context of Luke 7:37-38. In fact we read the account of Mary of Bethany doing this in John 12. When John wrote this he was simply stating that she was the one that did this as he shows in the next chapter. In fact this took place in the last week of Jesus’ life before His crucifixion and at the house of Simon the leper not a Pharisee’s house as we see in Luke 7 so this is not either of these Mary’s. So who is this woman? Let’s look at the text again and see what it says. Luke 7:37a says And behold, there was a woman in the city who was a sinner.
That is all the information we have which is that this is a sinful woman in the city who was a sinner. Sometimes we try to overcomplicate the simplest things and build theories that goes into movies and shows. We tend to look at that instead of the meaning and purpose of what is happening here. This woman was a sinner just like we all are. But this indication of her being a sinner here is normal terminology that points to her being a prostitute. The word sinner can be applied to all of us and any person other than our Lord from the pages of Scripture but this indicates that she was a sinner of most likely a specific type. Now I do not want to imply something that is not here so we must move along to see this woman’s actions.
Luke 7:38 says And standing behind Him at His feet, crying, she began to wet His feet with her tears. And she kept wiping them with the hair of her head, and kissing His feet and anointing them with the perfume.
To us this seems rather odd but in that time it was not uncommon for a person to come into a house and greeted with someone that would wash their feet. Obviously they had dirty roads and usually open ended shoes of some sort so their feet were nasty. The common courtesy was to wash someone’s feet. We know that Jesus did this as an example to the disciples of a how to have a servant-leader attitude. It was usually a servants duty to wash the guests feet but this time as we will see in our next study that this did not happen with Jesus. His feet were dirty and in an act of compassion and adoration we see this woman come into a house where she would not have been welcomed, at least not openly, and then starts to wash Jesus’ feet.
This woman had no access to water so therefore she used her own tears. This act of sobbing as she approaches Jesus shows her recognition of her sinfulness as she knows that she is in the presence of the Son of God. Because of the spontaneous act she doesn’t have a towel so she let’s down her hair to wipe off Jesus’ feet. This again was something that women did not do. To let down the hair was a symbol of shame in a sense but this woman knew that she was to be forgiven as she recognizes her sinfulness as she begins to wash and wipe Jesus’ feet. Then she goes a step further and was kissing His feet and anointing them with the perfume.
Now it was common for woman to wear perfume of some sort but not to carry it around. This is another reason many associate her sinner status to prostituting. The prostitute would have that readily available as an act of luring her clients. Here though she pours out her perfume on His feet in an honorable act of reverence to the Lord.
This recognition of her sinfulness will be seen even more as we look at our next study. But to close I want to look at our last verse that really ties us to what will be why Jesus goes into the parable he speaks in the next section. Look with me at Luke 7:39 Now when the Pharisee, who had invited Him, saw this, he said to himself, saying, “If this man were a prophet He would know who and what sort of person this woman is who is touching Him, that she is a sinner.”
This is a derogatory statement from the standpoint of once again accusing Jesus of not knowing who this woman was and therefore He is in no way a prophet of God. This Pharisee thought he had the proof that he was hoping for to accuse Jesus but as we will see, it is he that is condemned not only for his hypocrisy but also for his slander towards a woman that had shown a repentance from her sinfulness. This will be what we dive into next time to finish up chapter 7 of Luke.
Jude verses 24-25
Now to Him who is able to keep you from stumbling, and to make you stand in the presence of His glory blameless with great joy, 25 to the only God our Savior, through Jesus Christ our Lord, be glory, majesty, might, and authority, before all time and now and forever. Amen.
1 Thessalonians 5:23-24
Now may the God of peace Himself sanctify you entirely, and may your spirit and soul and body be preserved complete, without blame at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. 24 Faithful is He who calls you, who also will do it.
1 Corinthians 15:10
But by the grace of God I am what I am, and His grace toward me did not prove vain; but I labored even more than all of them, yet not I, but the grace of God with me.
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