The first of our addicts had money. She was surely a beautiful young woman and well known around town. She wasn’t a thief, or a gossip, or a liar, not that we know of anyway. But she had an addiction, one that led her to the self abuse of prostitution. One day she heard Jesus speaking to the crowd in her town and her life was changed forever by what He said.
The second of our addicts was also well known in town. He had prestige, respect, and authority. People moved out of his way when he passed through the markets. When he spoke, people listened. He had the best seat in the synagogues and public gatherings, but he had an addiction, one that is very common: pride. He had heard Jesus speak too, but he didn’t believe what Jesus said and was instead offended by Him. READ Luke 7:36-50.
Who was involved here?
First and foremost we have Jesus Christ, the Son of God. We also have the woman, “a sinner” (most likely meaning a prostitute). Then there is the man, a Pharisee, a respected religious leader who saw Jesus as a threat.
What was each one doing?
Jesus was passing through town, teaching, healing, and rescuing those who where willing to follow Him. The woman was repenting, humbling herself, and turning to her only Hope; she was being rescued. The Pharisee, named Simon, invited Jesus to his house to eat but with bad intentions.
Remember last week? We talked about another woman with an addiction problem, we met her in John 8 . Jesus told her, “I do not condemn you, go and sin no more.” But we don’t know if she turned or not. Did she in fact repent, go and sin no more, or did she really try hard for awhile on her own only to soon find herself back in her addiction? We just don’t know.
We do know more about the prostitute and Pharisee in Luke 7 . We know that her life was changed the day she heard Jesus teaching the Truth. She was moved to a place of sorrow over the things she had done and the life she was living. She decided to TURN away from they things that led to her hurts and habits and TURN toward her only Hope and Help: Jesus Christ. The Pharisee, by contrast, had too much pride to listen to what Jesus said. He did not believe that Jesus was the Christ, not did he believe the evidence of Jesus’ authoritative teaching and miracles. The Pharisee turned away from his only Hope and Help and remained in his addictions.
Jesus addressed the Pharisee first in Luke 7:40-43 . His point is that this sinful woman would be forgiven because she believed in Him, turned from her sin to Jesus, and her actions revealed her love for her Saviour. Simon, the Pharisee, would not be forgiven and would remain in his sin and addictions because he did not believe, did not turn, and did not love the One and only Saviour who is Jesus Christ the Lord.
Jesus then addressed the woman in Luke 7:44-47 . His point here is that your actions show where your heart is. We see this very plainly in 1 John as well, and throughout the entire Bible for that matter. Jesus, God the Son, loved them both. The Pharisee loved only himself and thought he was a pretty good guy who didn’t need Jesus, but the woman realized she was trapped in addiction, that Jesus was the only One who could save her and she turned to Him. As a result, she showed her gratitude and love by what she did. As a result of her humility and repentance, Jesus said to her, “your sins are forgiven,” and “your faith has saved you, go in peace.”
This is exactly the reality we find in Ephesians 2:8-9 “for by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves it is the gift of God, not of works lest anyone should boast.” That’s exactly what we see in Celebrate Recovery’s first two steps: that we are powerless over our addictions and that only God has the power to restore us. But before He will do that, we must believe on His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, and we must repent – TURN from our sin and TURN to Jesus.
So here is our acrostic for Step 3: TURN
The woman in Luke 7:36-50 no doubt had heard Jesus speaking to the crowds and she Trusted what He said. Some of you may say you can’t trust anymore, you’ve been hurt too many times by people and empty religions that tell you you have to earn salvation. You say, “I’ve been hurt before and if anyone knew the truth about me they would use that information against me.” With people that is often the sad truth, we are often hurt by people in this way. Yet we trust the waitress not to steal the info off our credit card when she takes it. We trust total strangers who are coming to the red light to stop as we pass through the green. We trust people we don’t know very well at school to properly care for and teach our kids. But we wonder if we can trust God? God made you, He loves you; you can trust Him. The simple truth is that if you don’t decide to trust God, you’ll keep trying to win your own victory over your addictive, compulsive and dysfunctional behaviors, words and thoughts, which is utter failure. Like the Pharisee, doing life on your own is what got you into most of the hurts and habits in the first place.
The woman quickly came to Understand who she was and who Jesus is. That she was powerless over her hurts and habits, and that Jesus is God. She understood that she mattered to Him, and He had the power to help her recover. She understood that she could cannot do what He did. She got herself into her habits, and kept herself locked in harmful reactions to hurts. We need to understand the same thing if we ever what to experience the victory that comes from God.
Her understanding of herself and of Jesus led her to Repent. She turned from her old self, and turned to Jesus Christ. She was sorrowful for her actions, but sorrow alone isn’t enough. She had to turn from her sin and self-reliance. The desire to turn from our hurts & habits is necessary, but desire isn’t enough. We, like the woman, must humble ourselves and turn to Jesus. We may be sorrowful, we may want to turn from our addictions, but without turning to Jesus Christ, nothing will change. Oh, we may switch over to something else, but what we find is that the new thing is only a temporary distraction and will also become an addiction. Pretty soon we are in even worse condition because now we have even more addictions to defeat us. Look, I’ve told God many times, “I’m sorry for what I did, I don’t want to do it anymore,” and I meant it! But I either switched over and made a new bad habit, or soon went back to the first one, or both! True repentance is not just turning FROM some hurt or habit…it’s also turning TO our only Hope and Help, Jesus Christ. That’s what step 3 is all about.
Conclusion
Step 1 is understanding that you are powerless over your hurts & habits. Step 2 is acknowledging that Jesus is your only Hope and Help. Step 3 is turning from our old self to a new self in Jesus Christ.
STEP 3: We made a decision to turn our lives and our wills over to the care of God
Principle 3: Consciously choose to commit all my life and will to Christ’s care and control
Tonight’s discussion questions:
1. How has relying on your own understanding caused problems in your life?
2. Has your response to Jesus been more like the woman’s or the Pharisee’s in Luke 7?
3. Have you repented in the past and found yourself moving to a different hurt or habit and/or returning to the old one? How do expect that cycle to end?
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