Luke 7:13 I. It were vain to inquire why human nature requires sympathy; we can only appeal to experience, and we find it to be so. And let the compassionate see in the conduct of their Lord, and in the perfect example of compassion which He sets before us, how they ought always to act in their com... [ Continue Reading ]
Luke 7:15 I. Note the mournful occasion which called forth this miracle: a widowed mother following the corpse of her only son. II. Observe the sympathy which was shown for the widow's affliction. "Much people of the city was with her." III. Our Saviour addressed the broken-hearted mother in word... [ Continue Reading ]
Luke 7:22 The description of His own work which Jesus returned for the instruction and encouragement of the Baptist presents these three features: (1) it is a ministry of abundant charity to the temporal needs of needy men; (2) it is a ministry of Divine promise and help "the poor receive glad tidi... [ Continue Reading ]
Luke 7:28 What can these words mean? Well, let us consider what constituted the highest, that is, the spiritual greatness of the prophets, and try to discover whether in relation to all these things it is not true that the very least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than the greatest of the prop... [ Continue Reading ]
Luke 7:35 Wisdom is justified, _i.e._approved, of all her children. I. None but the children of Wisdom can justify her. What a really unread page is the whole page of nature; what a riddle is providence; what an inscrutable mystery is the method of Divine grace in saving a sinner; what an unreality... [ Continue Reading ]
Luke 7:36 I. The narrative encourages sinners of every name and degree to go at once to Christ. He will in nowise cast them out. There are no more touching stories in the Gospels than those which tell how Jesus dealt with the most degraded class of sinners. Recall His conversation with the woman of... [ Continue Reading ]
Luke 7:39 Christ in Simon's House; the Pharisee's Mistake. I. As it regarded Christ. (1) He could not read Christ's nature, and undervalued it; (2) he mistook also Christ's way of rescuing from sin. II. As it regarded the woman. (1) The Pharisee thought that as a sinner she was to be despised; (2... [ Continue Reading ]
Luke 7:40 A State of Sin a State of Debt. I. We are all debtors to God. Having failed to discharge the debt of obligation, we now owe a debt of punishment. II. We are debtors in different degrees. III. We are unable to pay our debts. Not only debtors, but bankrupts. IV. God is willing, for Chri... [ Continue Reading ]
Luke 7:42 Our State of Debtorship before God. I. What does the Saviour mean by representing sin as a debt? We can well understand in the abstract what a debt is. In looking at our state of debtorship towards God, we should take the simplest and the most meaning view of the subject first. We look s... [ Continue Reading ]
Luke 7:44 The Forgiveness of Sin the Remission of a Debt. I. There are a peculiar tenderness and quiet pathos about this narrative which have commended it to many, even of those who have no taste for dogmatic religion. It is one of those incidents which, like the sickness and death of Lazarus, can... [ Continue Reading ]
Luke 7:47 We learn from this story that such love as the Magdalene showed to our blessed Lord is the point of forgiveness, of forbearance, and of service. "Her sins, which are many, are forgiven; for she loved much." I. Now it is this which differences the Gospel from all other systems of religion,... [ Continue Reading ]