The Kind of People Jesus Welcomes — Pastor Ricky Alcantar

What's in this sermon

The shape of the argument

26 units across exposition, application, illustration, theological claim, and conclusion. The pastor's argument is built from these moving parts.

Pastoral correction · unit #22

"The pastor applies the text directly to the contemporary controversy around LGBTQ issues and the Equality Act. He identifies two dangers: failing to uphold biblical truth on gender and sexuality, and failing to welcome LGBTQ people to hear the gospel. He reads from the church's statement of faith to affirm both biblical truth on gender and the gospel's universal offer. The application is concrete (naming the specific issue and the church's statement) and calls the church to hold both truths simultaneously."

Doctrinal loci· 10 surfaced

Soteriology · 19 Christology · 9 Ecclesiology · 9 Covenant Theology · 4 Ethics / Moral Theology · 4 Anthropology · 3 Bibliology · 1 Eschatology · 1 Hamartiology · 1 Pneumatology · 1

Bible citations· 14

Illustrations· 3

personal story · unit #4 — The pastor introduces a contemporary story about a transgender woman named Melanie (formerly Howard) who was welcomed into a church community despite the church's clear biblical stance on gender and sexuality. The illustration is positioned to raise the sermon's central question in contemporary terms before the exposition unfolds. It creates tension and stakes for the congregation.
personal story · unit #16 — The pastor returns to the opening illustration and develops it further. Melanie asked to be baptized, and the pastor walked her through the Bible's teaching on gender, leading to her willingness to reconsider her identity. But the key point is the process: the church did not exclude her before she came to faith; they welcomed her, taught her the gospel, and only then addressed repentance. The illustration models the sermon's thesis—the church must not exclude people on external grounds while upholding biblical truth.
personal story · unit #23 — The pastor concludes the Howard/Melanie illustration with its resolution: Howard died shortly after coming to faith, but the church's hope is that he entered heaven through the same door of the cross as all believers. The illustration reinforces the sermon's thesis—no external category excludes anyone from the cross. The emotional weight of the story (death, transformation, eternal hope) serves the sermon's final exhortation.

Theological claims· 4

Jesus has an exclusive message and excludes certain people from coming to him—not everyone who approaches Jesus is welcomed. unit #5
Only a certain kind of person can receive help from Jesus, but that kind of person is not who we think it is. unit #6
Mark's authorial strategy across these two passages is to demolish both false confidence (what we think gets us in doesn't) and false despair (what we think keeps us out doesn't). unit #12
The sole criterion that grants access to Jesus is faith—not identity, ethnicity, or moral achievement, but humble trust in Jesus' generosity. unit #17

Quotations· 4

"the establishment would be scandalized by any rabbi having a conversation with such a person" — Kent Hughes (unit #8)

"She appears to understand the purpose of Israel's Messiah better than Israel does. Her pluck and persistence are a testimony to her trust in the sufficiency and surplus of Jesus. His provision for the disciples in Israel will be abundant enough to provide for one such as herself. The woman is the first person in Mark—to hear and understand a parable of Jesus." — Edwards (unit #14)

"this woman is not saying, give me what I deserve on the basis of my goodness. She is saying, give me what I don't deserve on the basis of your goodness." — Tim Keller (unit #15)

"We do not presume to come to your table, merciful Lord, trusting in our own righteousness. Not in us, but in your manifold and great mercies. We are not worthy so much to gather up the crumbs under your table, but you are the same Lord whose property is to have mercy." — Thomas Cranmer (unit #20)

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Full transcript

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0 · The pastor opens with personal levity about a back injury, then frames the sermon's central question: what kind of person does Jesus welcome? He signals that the text will initially appear troubling but will ultimately reveal better news than expected

faces today. If I hobble around a little bit, it is because I jacked my back up carrying a 30-pound baby, and, um, it's a little bowling ball of a child. I love him, but he's going to put me in the grave sooner than I think. So if you do this, open your Bible, if you would, to Mark chapter 7. Mark chapter 7.

And we're going to be looking at the question today: what kind of person does Jesus welcome And what kind of person does Jesus help? And really, it's not just that, it really also gets at what kind of person do we allow into our lives? What kind of person do we allow through the doors of our church? We're gonna look at this in Matthew chapter 7 because I'll warn you, at first, it seems as though Jesus is being unfairly exclusive, and yet we end up seeing that the news is better than we thought.

1 · Single-word pause inviting the congregation to consider the framing question before the text is read

Think.

2 · The pastor reads the primary text, Mark 7:24-30, contextualizing it as occurring after the section with the Pharisees

So Matthew 7:24, remember this is right after that section with the Pharisees, it says this, this is God's word. "And from there he, Jesus, arose and went away to the region of Tyre and Sidon. And he entered a house and did not want anyone to know, yet he could not be hidden. But immediately a woman whose little daughter had an unclean spirit heard of him and came and fell down at his feet." The woman was a Gentile, a Syrophoenician by birth, and she begged him to cast the demon out of her daughter. And he said to her, 'Let the children be fed first, for it is not right to take the children's bread and throw it to the dogs.' But she answered him, 'Yes, Lord, yet even the dogs under the table eat the children's crumbs.' And he said to her, 'For this statement you may go your 'Go your way, the demon has left your daughter.' And she went home and found the child lying in bed and the demon gone.

This is the word of the Lord today.

3 · Reiterates the sermon's controlling question after the scripture reading, bridging from text to contemporary illustration

What kind of person does Jesus welcome? What kind of person does Jesus help?

4 · The pastor introduces a contemporary story about a transgender woman named Melanie (formerly Howard) who was welcomed into a church community despite the church's clear biblical stance on gender and sexuality

I wanna tell you a story that my friend Ron, who's a pastor in Pasadena, told me. He's a pastor at one of our partner churches, Sovereign Grace Church of Pasadena.

And he told me the story of Chris and Michelle. Chris and Michelle are just average members of the church there. And about 10 years earlier, they met one of their neighbors, one of their neighbors named Melanie. But as they got to know this neighbor, as they got to know many of their neighbors in the neighborhood, they learned that Melanie had not been born Melanie at birth. She'd been born Howard.

Melanie had transitioned from male to female 20 years earlier. This woman was in her late 60s at the time. And then, she had transitioned 20 years earlier after 20 years of confusion and sort of frustration with her gender identity. Now, that friendship between these two members, Chris and Michelle and Melanie, blossomed and eventually Melanie began attending a community group. She eventually even began going to church.

Now, that may have been something of a surprise for members of the church because their church, like our church, in our statement of faith a clear section on what we believe is the biblical truth, the biblical teaching about gender and sexuality. So many people would have been surprised to see a transgender woman, formerly a man, at their community group, perhaps even coming on Sunday morning. And it raises the question, what kind of person can come to Jesus? What kind of person will Jesus Help.

5 · The pastor establishes a doctrinal baseline: Jesus has an exclusive message

Now, when we see Jesus' ministry in the Gospel of Mark, one of the things we've seen is that Jesus has an exclusive message, right? He excludes certain people from the category of people that come to him and are welcome, that come to God through him. We actually saw one group last week that is excluded, the Pharisees, who come to Jesus, they assume assume that they're good with God, they assume they're about to get in. Jesus says, "No, you will not get in." This pattern will continue. People will come to Jesus and some will leave in sadness and anger and others will leave in joy and gratefulness. How does Jesus decide who he helps?

6 · The pastor states the sermon's thesis explicitly: the kind of person Jesus welcomes is not determined by the categories we expect

Well, the main idea today is that only a certain kind of person can receive help from Jesus. But that certain kind of person is not who we think it is.

7 · The pastor introduces the first major section: the woman appears to be a profile of certain rejection

First, a profile of certain rejection. Now, everything we know about this woman should be a profile of certain rejection. This should be a hard pass for Jesus. This kind of woman coming to him, for a Jewish rabbi, should be a hard pass. We're not gonna help this woman, I'm sorry. This is, in a sense, this is inscripturated because The tension is that we would expect Jesus as a Jewish rabbi to respond to this woman in a certain way. And initially, he does seem to reject her, but if you skip to the end of the story, and we'll resolve the middle in a second, but if you skip to the end, he does not ultimately reject her. This is a teaching moment for the disciples, for the people around, and for us today. Jesus allows this situation and conversation to transpire to highlight something that we need to see, which is that these qualities of the woman, although they seem to be qualities that he would reject, are not ultimately— well, they do not ultimately lead to his rejection.

8 · The pastor identifies the first disqualifying characteristic: the woman is female

So first quality is she is a woman. Kent Hughes says the establishment would be scandalized by any rabbi having a conversation with such a person. This wasn't proper. Done. And frankly, in the ancient world, across many cultures, women were often treated poorly and overlooked and exploited and cast aside. They had few, if any, legal rights. If they fell on hard times, they had little recourse, legal or otherwise. And yet this woman is not rejected by Jesus for being a woman.

9 · The pastor identifies the second disqualifying characteristic: uncleanness

Second, she is unclean. It says the woman's daughter had an unclean spirit, and we're meant to think back, remember last week, to the Pharisees and how they were so concerned with ritual cleanliness. They had to wash their hands a certain way. They had to wash their dishes a certain way even. This woman is none of that. In fact, the people would have seen this woman even saying, "Hey, I've got a daughter that's got an unclean spirit." They would immediately, the Jewish people, would think she's unclean. Something's going on in their household. I don't know if her daughter sinned or her sinned or maybe she's just a pagan. Get away. Don't touch. Don't get near her. That person. And yet Jesus does not reject this woman for being unclean.

10 · The pastor identifies the third disqualifying characteristic: Gentile ethnicity

Third, she is a Gentile. She is as Gentile as you can get. Mark states this again and again. In fact, it seems as though Mark's audience may have either been tilted to— he may have been writing with Gentiles in mind either as the majority of his audience or at least as a big part of his audience. Mark goes out of his way, explains Jewish customs. And so Mark wants to emphasize to the Gentiles reading, this person is a Gentile like you, right? She's from a Gentile territory, she is a Gentile, ethnically a Gentile, really far out. And it would be understandable that if you were a Jewish person, you could come to the God of the Jews, as it was seen, and receive help just by virtue of being Jewish. But this person could make no similar claim. They have no claim on God's help. And yet Jesus does not reject her for being a Gentile.

11 · The pastor identifies the fourth and most severe disqualifying characteristic: she is a historic enemy of God's people

Not only is this a woman, unclean, pagan, but she's also, fourth, an enemy of God's people. Edwards, one of the commentators, says that Tyre probably represented the most extreme expression of paganism, both actually and symbolically, if you know the Old Testament, that a Jew could expect to encounter. So it's like, okay, there are some cities that are like, yeah, they're not great, and then there's some cities that are like, yeah, really not great, and then there's Tyre way over here, right? That's where this woman is. And in fact, it says she's Syrophoenician. Matthew, in his gospel, which is sort of tilted toward Jewish readers, he just calls her a Canaanite. Now if you know your Old Testament, Canaanites, not the good guys. Not the help, you know, not the like, yay, the Canaanites. Anytime you read, and the Canaanites came, You're like, nope, that's not good. Not good, right? She is ethnically an enemy, historic enemy of the people of God. And so on any of these 4 reasons, Jesus could say, nope, not gonna do it, not happening, no. In fact, we learn later in Matthew that the disciples in this interaction were telling the woman to go away. They're probably thinking, this isn't right. She's a woman, she's unclean, she's gross. She's a Gentile, she's a Canaanite. I mean, this, like, get back, lady. And yet Jesus, ultimately, none of these things exclude her from receiving help from Jesus.

12 · The pastor synthesizes the exposition into a theological claim about Mark's authorial intent across two sermons

You see what Mark is doing? Last week, what he's doing is he's giving us a list of, hey, these things the Pharisees were are not enough to get you into God's kingdom. They're not enough to get you welcomed by Jesus. It's not enough to be ethnically Jewish, it's not enough It's not enough to be a good, upstanding citizen. It's not enough to be ritually clean. All these things that you think get you in, they're not enough. And this week, what he's saying is, all of these things that should keep you out, they're not enough to keep you out. Right, that is Mark's point.

13 · The pastor addresses the interpretive problem: Jesus' response appears to be a rejection

Now, we gotta deal though with Jesus' response. His response, at first, seems absolutely perplexing. He seems as though, we're gonna explain this in a second, but he seems as though he's rejecting this woman and saying, you know what, I'm really not gonna help you. I'm really sent to the Jews. This isn't really kind of what I'm doing right now. I'm just not at this place in my life right now where I'm helping Gentile people. So I'm gonna be over here, you stay over there, thanks. It seems as though that's what he's doing. That's not at all what he's doing. In fact, remember last week where he's talking to the Pharisees, and the Pharisees were sort of the most insider group of Israel that you could see. And he goes from there way out past the Jewish borders. This is not a quick walk from where Jesus was to Tyre. I mean, this is like walking to Albuquerque or something like that. I mean, this is not a jaunt. This is not a detour. This is a concerted, multi-day effort to get out here. Why is Jesus out here in Gentile territory? Well, it's for a reason. Now, the best way, I think, to read this is that Jesus is, in a sense, hinting at the broader work of his life, death, and resurrection, not just for those inside Israel, but for those outside of Israel as well.

14 · The pastor unpacks Jesus' parable about children and puppies

Now, what he says is that first the children must be fed. Now, that means that there are all these promises bound up to God's people in the Old Testament, God's ethnic people in the Old Testament. And he essentially gives this woman a parable and says, look, if you have a father and a child, The first people in the big household of servants and animals and all that, the first people to eat are the children, and so we gotta feed the children first. But I feel like he tells this parable to the woman with a smile. And I think it's a kind parable with an open door in it because he doesn't use, when he calls her a dog, he doesn't mean like junkyard mangy animal. This isn't like a coyote or something like that. The word he uses is puppy, right? I don't care how cute your puppy is, you know, like, you're like, okay, well, there's a priority here. I'm gonna make sure the infant has, you know, the milk they need, and then we'll deal with the puppies. Jesus is not being unkind. And yet he leaves this door open, and this woman sees the open door in Jesus' statement. She understands that Jesus is ministering primarily to Jews, but she sees Jesus sees in that illustration a picture of a generous God who provides for his people. And Jesus came to this woman's people to minister, and in her, Jesus finds a beautiful example of the kind of person that would ultimately be welcomed into the household of God.

15 · The pastor applies the text to the congregation's implicit exclusionary categories

I'm gonna pause here for an application. Here's my question. Have a certain kind of person criteria for the people we reach out to and welcome into our lives or into our church. Look, I grew up in the church and I didn't realize that growing up I had a certain kind of person in mind that was a Christian based on my experience with Christians, right? I thought, okay, I don't know anybody super crazy poor that's a Christian. I also don't know anybody that's like super crazy rich So probably if you're a Christian, you're kind of here. I don't know— I didn't, especially growing up, did not know a lot of Christians with tattoos. Tattoo, dead giveaway, not a Christian, pagan. Don't talk to them. Stranger danger, right? Right? If you've got a backwards hat growing up, no, probably not a Christian. Praying for that brother, you know? And so I had these categories I didn't even realize. You know, your political views, all on this line? Yeah, that's what it means to be Christian. But when I was 13, I went on a week-long mission trip to Juárez across the border, and it sort of shattered all of my categories in the best way. In this week-long mission trip, I met people far poorer than anybody I know who were literally using scraps to build some kind of a house, and yet they loved and followed Jesus. And I also met people from the church in Juárez that were very wealthy, had many properties, and yet were following Jesus. I met people who were ex-drug dealers, people who were ex-prostitutes who were following Jesus, people with many tattoos, including the little teardrops and it's the neck tattoos. Neck tattoos is a definite not Christian in my mind. And it's like, yep, loves Jesus too. And in their context, they were very different politically, culturally, all kinds of folks. There were former Catholics we talked to, former pagans, former cult members, all of them following Jesus, and it just sort of exploded the categories in my little mind. And yet, so often we can begin to do the same thing yet again. We can go back to, this is what a Christian looks like. Have you ever thought something like, oh, that person would be a great Christian, right? Their kids are well-mannered and behaved and they, you know. No, this is one of the reasons I think this text is in our Bible. We do not want to exclude anyone. That Jesus welcomes. And many of the reasons we exclude people are no barrier to Jesus.

16 · The pastor returns to the opening illustration and develops it further

Now, back to the story of our transgender friend. Just as COVID last year began to hit, they received a surprising notification. Melanie had filled out the form asking to be baptized, which is a surprise to the guys. They know that she had been coming, that she had not had a real religious background, that that, okay, wow, this, God must have done something in her heart. And so they, Lynn, one of the pastors, met with Melanie and it was true that God indeed had done something deep and profound in her heart as she had gotten to know the community group and gotten to know the church and heard the preaching of the gospel and God, it seemed as though God had brought her from death to life spiritually. Now Lynn did some important things in the weeks to come. He walked Melanie through the Bible's teaching and how the path to repentance would include, like all of us, even our sexuality and identity. It would include understanding the Bible's teaching on gender. It was complicated, but Melanie was even willing to consider changing, in a sense, her identity that she lived under for the last 20 years and going back to being Howard. But notice how she got to that point. Notice Notice what Chris and Michelle as neighbors did not do. They did not exclude Melanie from their lives. Notice what that community group did not do. They didn't require something of her before she came to hear about Jesus. No, notice what the church did not do. They didn't put a sign out saying, "Only certain people can come in who have this understanding of sexual identity. Only certain people can come hear the message." of Jesus. Now, they made clear the teaching of the Bible and what repentance would look like in various situations, but they also made clear something even bolder and even brighter, the offer of the gospel for all who would come.

17 · The pastor introduces the second major section: the woman is a profile of certain welcome

This woman in Mark 7 is not rejected. Second section, a profile of certain welcome. Only a certain kind of person can receive help from Jesus, but what we see in this text is that through this woman we see anyone who has faith in Jesus can come and find help and a welcome from Jesus. In Matthew's telling of this incident, Jesus actually precedes the statement here by saying, "Woman, great is your faith." The thing that Jesus sees in her statement, For this statement, he says, "Your daughter will be made well." What is the thing that, in a sense, grants her access to Jesus and help from Jesus? It is not who she is, not where she was born, not what she looks like, but it is her faith in Jesus. It is where she places her faith. Now, most scholars believe that this is a parable. This little phrase Jesus gives her is a parable. It is a word picture. Of a generous God who provides generously for the children of his household before providing for the rest of the household. But she sees the larger point of the parable, and she says, "Yes, I see the generosity of the God of the Jews," and she places her faith in this God. Commentator Edwards says this: "She appears to understand the purpose of Israel's Messiah better than Israel does." Her pluck and persistence are a testimony to her trust in the sufficiency and surplus of Jesus. His provision for the disciples in Israel will be abundant enough to provide for one such as herself. The woman is the first person in Mark— can you believe this?— who— to hear and understand a parable of Jesus. Nobody in the Jewish people, none of the disciples are getting it. This woman gets it. She did not know everything about the God of Israel. She didn't know everything about Jesus, but she knew enough that she placed her faith in him as a generous giver. And that is the kind of person that Jesus welcomes. That's the kind of person that Jesus extends helps to. Tim Keller, commenting on this, says, this woman is not saying, give me what I deserve on the basis of my goodness. Goodness. She is saying, give me what I don't deserve on the basis of your goodness. You see where the faith is? The Pharisees came to God and to Jesus and said, give me what I deserve on the basis of my goodness. And Jesus says, nope, it's not good enough. Doesn't get you in. But this woman comes and says, I don't deserve anything, but I believe you're generous. I'm gonna put my faith there. Jesus says, welcome in. Welcome home.

18 · The pastor exposits Ephesians 2:8 to explain the mechanics of salvation: grace provides the gift (Jesus' substitutionary death), and faith receives it

What this woman models here in miniature is the whole way of salvation. Ephesians 2:8 says this: For by grace you have been saved through faith. Meaning that grace puts the gift of Jesus in front of us, right? That Jesus goes to the cross, he dies for unclean people, far-off people, enemy people, he changes places with them, and he— so that he takes our sin on himself and gives us his righteousness. That is the gift. That's by grace. We didn't earn it. We didn't make it happen. He puts the gift in front of us through Jesus. But how then do you grasp the gift? Through faith. Not by doing a lot, not by cleaning yourself up, by faith in him. And look, that is good news. If you're here today, friend, and you are not a Christian and you're wondering, what does it mean to be a Christian and how do I become a Christian? Maybe you're even here because you're thinking, man, my life is a mess. I got to clean this thing up. I got to get this thing under control. I got to get God's help somehow. I got to make God not do bad things to me and make God do good things to me. Listen, if you come on the basis of your good stuff, even church attendance, even all— it doesn't work. It's not enough. But if you'll come like this woman, nobody who comes like this woman gets rejected. Anyone can come through that way that she has come through.

19 · The pastor identifies three characteristics of saving faith from the woman's example: wholehearted (she abandons other options and places all her trust in Jesus), humble (she accepts her outsider status and asks based on Jesus' goodness, not her merit), and persistent (she keeps asking despite initial rebuff)

And this woman, like, shows us what it means to have faith in Jesus. Here's a couple marks. First, she has a wholehearted faith in Jesus. This is not a sort of like, hey, I'm gonna come to Jesus for help, but I'm also kinda look, you know, doing a, I'm going to a cult healer and I'm trying to see what my options are and put a little bit of faith in each thing. No, this woman, in a sense, is putting all those things behind. She is here in front of Jesus chasing him down, not over there running after some other faith healer, because she really does— she doesn't understand all that Jesus is, but in Matthew 15 she calls him the Son of David, the Lord, the Son of David. She understands something of the hope of the Old Testament, and she sees something different in him, and she puts her faith wholeheartedly in him. This may even be her putting aside the faith she grew up with, wholeheartedly in Jesus. Second, a humble faith in Jesus. Her faith is a humble one. Now, even if Jesus is not calling her a street dog and calling her a puppy, it's still not the most flattering, you know, way to refer to somebody. I mean, if you had a parent that was like, ah, your older brother, they're just, you know, I love having them as a son, and you, you know, in the family, you're kind of like a puppy, and we're all so glad you're here, and you make a mess, but we all laugh at you, and we're like, oh, the little puppy's here. Like, it's not super flattering, right? And essentially, it's like, hey, I'm not part of the natural family. It's an acknowledgment of that. And you'd think that that would make this woman back off and say, oh man, kind of offensive here, Jesus. No, she's like, I'm not part of the family, right? I don't deserve anything from you. And she's willing to essentially humble herself and say, yeah, it's true. I'm far off from God. I'm not part of the family, but I'm asking you based on you being so good that you would help me, right? That's what this woman does. And then a persistent faith in Jesus. The word literally means that she didn't just beg once, she kept on begging. She kept begging so much the disciples came to her and were like, back off. Like, that's a lot of begging. That doesn't happen to you if you're like, hey Jesus, hey, can you help? Okay, it's fine, you're good, we'll talk later. You know, she doesn't do that. She's chasing him. Begging. The disciples are like, "Back off, lady." She will not stop. She cannot stop. Her faith is doggedly in Jesus.

20 · The pastor applies the text using the church building's front doors as an extended metaphor

Now, what does this mean for us? Well, I think it has an application both for us and for the people around us. I think if I could picture it this way, its application is best summed up in our front doors at the church. Now, when you walk through the doors of the church, you probably didn't notice something. Anybody notice that we've got a big cross on the front of the doors of the church? So like, there's two doors, and one door is like one half the cross, and the other door is the other half of the cross. Anybody seen that? Probably didn't even see that. You only see like half a cross when you come in, probably. All right, that was done over 30 years by a man named Carlos, one of our lay elders, a long time ago. And he put this image of the cross in. And as I thought about it, I thought, man, there could be no more appropriate image. Because if we picture the gathering of the people of God, As a place where God's special presence dwells with his people, how do we access the presence of God? How do we come into the presence of God? There's actually two ways to enter the church from the front. The first is to try to jump onto the roof. Now, church has been here for almost 40 years. I've never seen anybody make it by jumping on the roof. Some of us who are athletic, you might think, you know what, if I get a running start and if I jump off a little pylon thing, I could probably get what, 7, 8 feet high? Sure, whatever, knock yourself out, right? Or you could be old people like me, right, that I can jack my back up, I can barely jump an inch. And so some of us can jump this high and some of us can jump this high and maybe somebody like a basketball guy, you're on the way to the NBA, you're just gonna, whoo, and you're gonna get 12 feet in the air. Sorry, you're still not going to make it. There's only one way in the front of the church. You know what that way is? Through the door of the cross. Through the door of the cross. And that is a challenge and a comfort to all of us. The challenge is this: none of us make it into the church on our own effort. Nobody enters the church because they deserve to be here, they deserve to be in the presence of God. Who does not have to enter the presence of God through the door of the cross. That is the only way. In the Book of Common Prayer, we read this. This is what Thomas Cranmer instructs the congregation to say, and they've said it for hundreds of years, as they approach the table of the Lord in communion. He says this: We do not presume to come to your table, merciful Lord, trusting in our own righteousness. Say, "Not in us, but in your manifold and great mercies. We are not worthy so much to gather up the crumbs under your table, but you are the same Lord whose property is to have mercy." Right? Every time we come to the doors of the church, we should be remembering, "I am only coming into the presence of God through the cross. I don't deserve to be here. I didn't work this I'm not puffing this up in myself. I'm humbling myself and saying, apart from this door, there is no way in, but this door exists, and so I rejoice. It's a challenge, but it is also a comfort. By the way of the cross, the door of the church is open to all. No matter who you are, no matter how you've lived, no matter whether your life has been marked by self-righteousness and pride and Phariseeism, No matter if it's been marked by rampant sexual sin or a trail of relational hurt, the way of the cross is open to anyone who will place their faith in Christ. No one is excluded who will do that.

21 · The pastor applies the text to the congregation's tendency to act like the disciples—excluding people they perceive as unworthy while trusting in their own insider status

And I think that we need that challenge because there are always groups of people or categories of people that we, like the disciples, are like, "No, no, no, you get back from Jesus." They're trying to come to you and we're like, no, you stay over there.

Here's the irony. These people are probably, the disciples are probably looking at this woman and thinking, she's not a Jewish person, she doesn't live cleanly, she doesn't, you know, they're listing all the reasons she should be excluded. And by comparison, they're thinking, well, but we're Jewish people and we're, you know, clean and we're with a rabbi. The rabbi picked us and we're traveling with the rabbi. And they are probably at this point in the gospel, thinking that they're in based on who they are and this woman is out based on who she is, they will only learn to see in time that the apostle Peter and this woman enter by the same door. Peter is not good enough to get into the door of the church on his own, into the presence of God. It's only by the cross of Jesus Christ that he enters. It's only by the cross of Jesus Christ that this woman can enter.

22 · The pastor applies the text directly to the contemporary controversy around LGBTQ issues and the Equality Act

And I want to make an application today, especially given what's going on in our country, to the LGBTQ category of people. Now, there is much happening on this front, including the recent Equality Act, that is concerning, I think, to us as Christians, especially as we want to live the Bible's teaching out freely with grace, but freely and faithfully. And I believe we're in danger as churches, not just our church, but the church in America is in danger of failing at two points. First, we will fail if we fail to uphold the biblical truth that the Bible is clear on about sexuality and gender and marriage and sin. We, apart from the Bible's truth, we have nothing to offer. If we water down the truth of this word, we have nothing to help with. That is one clear danger. But second, we will fail that group if we fail to invite them and welcome them to the foot of the cross and to the feet of Jesus. I wanna read from our statement of faith that our church in Pasadena holds and the church, and our church holds as well. This is clear. We have a section on gender that we just drafted last year and approved last year. Gender designated by God through our biological sex is therefore neither incidental to our identity nor fluid in its definition, but is essential to our identity as male and female. Although the fall distorts and damages God's design for gender and its expression, these remain part of the beauty of God's created order. That is clear in Scripture, and we confess it. But we confess something else alongside it. Hear this, church: for those who place their faith in Jesus Christ, God's righteousness requires no further sacrifice for sin. The atoning work of Christ is wholly efficacious. Christ's His saving work is to be proclaimed to all people, all people without exception, as the only means of reconciliation with God. There is no other mediator between God and man than our Savior Jesus Christ. And hear this, and he will receive with redeeming love all who come to him. To him in faith. That's the kind of church we must be to offer hope to the world around us, that we offer both the truths of Scripture in clarity related to these controversial issues, but offer even bolder and brighter the truth in Scripture about the gospel and what it means for the people around us.

23 · The pastor concludes the Howard/Melanie illustration with its resolution: Howard died shortly after coming to faith, but the church's hope is that he entered heaven through the same door of the cross as all believers

Now, let me end by sharing the end of that story with Howard. Now, the story of our friend Howard in Pasadena has a sad but beautiful end. As Howard and the pastors were meeting about all of these things, Howard had an ulcer requiring surgery that sent him into the hospital. And sadly, Howard passed away as a result of surgery complications. He was 70 years old. He had lived a long and complicated life, but in the last year of his life, Through the ordinary welcome of a local church, he came to faith.

And when he died, our great hope and expectation, the hope and expectation of that church is that he woke up welcomed and whole, staring into the face of Jesus. This man who battled feeling inadequate, feeling not himself for his whole life was finally finally made whole and perfect in the light of heaven through the work of Jesus. How did he enter? By the door of the cross, the same door we use. Let us never hold a sinner back from that door.

24 · Closing prayer that recapitulates the sermon's main themes: our unworthiness, God's provision of the cross, the call to be a welcoming church, and the hope of being a beacon to the watching world

Would you stand? Let's pray. Father, we pray today that we would be aware that we do not deserve your mercy and we cannot earn your mercy and we cannot do enough or live clean enough or work up enough righteousness to enter into the door of your presence, into your kingdom. But God, you have made a door for us. The same Jesus that welcomed this woman and welcomed us made that door by his death, life, and resurrection for us. And so we rejoice in humility at your great mercy being the only reason we can be welcomed. And Lord, I pray that we would be the kind of church that is willing to welcome any and all, that we would not exclude any from hearing the good news about Jesus, that we would not be afraid to walk with anyone no matter who they are, no matter where they are in life, as they learn what it means to follow Jesus. God, may you make us in these days a beacon of light and hope and welcome and love for all who desire to put their faith in Christ. We pray that in Jesus' name. Amen.

25 · Transition from prayer to corporate worship, framing the hymn 'Amazing Grace' as the congregation's response to the sermon's message about undeserved mercy

By the grace of God, this next song that we're going to sing is one of the most well-known songs in the world. Amazing Grace.

Where this fits

Recent preaching context

The three sermons immediately preceding this one in the preaching schedule.

Jan 31, 2021

Where We're At 2021

Despite pandemic-induced disconnection and difficulty, we must press into church life with renewed commitment because the church is precious to God, essential to Christian maturity, and the only God-designed vehicle for gospel mission.

John 13:34-35

Feb 14, 2021

The Ghost on the Sea

Our storms reveal that Jesus is both higher than we think—sovereign over all creation as the wave-walking God—and nearer than we think—the incarnate Savior who climbs into the boat with doubters and sinners.

Mark 6:45-52

Feb 21, 2021

Heart of Darkness

The heart of the problem is our heart, but Jesus aims his ministry at the heart of our problem by offering his righteousness in exchange for our defilement and renovating our hearts by the Spirit.

Mark 7:1-23

February 28 · This sermon

The Kind of People Jesus Welcomes

Only a certain kind of person can receive help from Jesus, but that certain kind of person is defined by faith in Christ, not by moral achievement, ethnic identity, or social respectability—and that means the door is open to all who come in humble, wholehearted, persistent trust.

Mark 7:24-30

Take it further

Discuss · apply · pray

Small groups

6 discussion questions

Read Mark 7:24-30 aloud together. What details does Mark include about the woman who approaches Jesus—her identity, her background, her need…

Daily readings

5-day reading plan

This week we follow the spine of who Jesus welcomes: from the foundation that faith alone grants access, to the demolition of false categories, to the radical freedom and humility that comes from knowing we all enter by grace alone.

Family table

Who Does Jesus Welcome?

This prompt invites your family to think about who Jesus welcomes—and to notice that it might not be who they expect. The goal is to help ki…

Couples

Faith That Breaks Down Barriers

What did you hear about the kind of person Jesus welcomes? Where did that challenge or comfort you personally?…

Memorize

Ephesians 2:8

This verse crystallizes the sermon's central claim: the sole criterion for receiving help from Jesus is faith, not identity, ethnicity, or moral achievement. The Syrophoenician woman and Peter both enter God's presence only through grace received by faith—and so do we, which means the door is open to all who trust Christ, and closed to all who trust themselves.

Daily readings · Monday–Friday

5-day reading plan

This week we follow the spine of who Jesus welcomes: from the foundation that faith alone grants access, to the demolition of false categories, to the radical freedom and humility that comes from knowing we all enter by grace alone.

Monday Ephesians 2:8

Paul writes the foundational truth: we are saved by grace through faith, and even that faith is not our own achievement but God's gift. This is the bedrock beneath the Syrophoenician woman's welcome. She brought nothing but trust; she carried no credentials. When we grasp that we, too, enter only through faith in Christ's generosity—not through our moral standing or our insider status—we begin to see as Jesus sees.

Tuesday Matthew 15

Matthew's parallel account of this same encounter shows us the full weight of what Jesus is doing. The disciples wanted to send her away; the woman knew she had no claim on Jesus by birthright or merit. Yet she was the one Jesus commended. Our categories—of who belongs and who doesn't—are being systematically torn down by Christ. The only category that matters is faith.

Wednesday Matthew 7:24

Jesus teaches that the wise builder is the one who hears his words and acts on them—not the one with the right credentials or family name. Likewise, the person Jesus welcomes is not the respectable insider but the one who humbles herself before Christ and trusts his word. The Syrophoenician woman's persistence in faith—her refusal to accept exclusion based on anything but Christ's own rejection—marks her as the truly wise seeker.

Thursday Mark 7:24-26

We cannot soften Jesus' initial refusal or pretend it never happened. He does exclude; he does have boundaries. But notice what the boundary is not: it is not ethnicity, gender, or social status. When we understand what Jesus actually excludes—false faith, hardness of heart, refusal to trust—we are freed from the false categories we use to keep people at arm's length. The real barrier is not being Gentile; it is not believing.

Friday Mark 7:27-29

The woman's humility—her willingness to accept the place of a child under the table, gathering crumbs from the master's table—became her strength. She did not demand entry; she trusted in Christ's character and his generosity. This week, examine your own heart: Where are you tempted to exclude others? Where do you trust in your own standing rather than in grace? Like her, we enter only through the cross, and that same cross is open to all who come in faith.

Couples · three questions over coffee

Faith That Breaks Down Barriers

What did you hear about the kind of person Jesus welcomes? Where did that challenge or comfort you personally?
In our marriage, where do we unconsciously exclude people or build walls based on categories Jesus doesn't recognize? How can we repent of that together?
What is one way we can pray for each other to grow in humble, wholehearted trust in Jesus' generosity—the kind that breaks down the barriers we build?

Small-group discussion

6 questions for your group this week

Read Mark 7:24-30 aloud together. What details does Mark include about the woman who approaches Jesus—her identity, her background, her need? What does the text tell us about how she would have been viewed by Jesus' Jewish disciples?

Mark 7:24-26

→ Why do you think Mark is so specific about these details? What is he trying to establish about who this woman is?
In verse 27, Jesus says, 'Let the children eat first, for it is not right to take the children's bread and throw it to the dogs.' What is Jesus actually saying here about who has access to his help? How would you have felt if you were the woman hearing those words?

Mark 7:27
The woman's response in verse 28 is remarkable—'Yes, Lord, yet even the dogs under the table eat the crumbs from the children's feast.' What does her answer reveal about how she understands both her own need and Jesus' generosity? What kind of faith is she displaying?

Mark 7:27-28

→ Can you think of a time when you've had to trust Jesus' goodness even when circumstances seemed to suggest rejection or delay?
Jesus then tells her, 'For this statement you may go your way; the demon has left your daughter' (verse 29). On what basis does Jesus grant her request—what is the one thing that opens the door to his help?

Mark 7:29

→ The sermon claims that 'only a certain kind of person can receive help from Jesus, but that kind of person is not who we think.' Based on this passage, who is that certain kind of person?
The sermon reminds us that all of us—like Peter in Matthew 16 and like this Syrophoenician woman—enter God's presence only through the cross, by grace, not by merit. Where do you find yourself unconsciously believing that some people 'belong' in God's kingdom more than others, or that you belong because of something you've done rather than because of Christ?

Ephesians 2:8

→ What would change in how you welcome others if you truly believed that the only grounds for entry is faith in Jesus, not ethnicity, moral achievement, or social respectability?
The sermon concludes with a story of a transgender woman who came to faith through a church that upheld biblical truth while offering bold welcome. What does it look like for our church to follow that example—to hold firm to who Jesus is and what he teaches, while also extending genuine, humble welcome to anyone who comes seeking him in faith?

Sunday-evening family table

Who Does Jesus Welcome?

For the parent

This prompt invites your family to think about who Jesus welcomes—and to notice that it might not be who they expect. The goal is to help kids see that Jesus doesn't have a checklist of who's 'in' and who's 'out'; he welcomes anyone who trusts him. Listen for moments where kids reveal what they think 'good Christians' look like, and gently broaden that picture.

In today's sermon, Ricky told the story of a woman who wasn't supposed to be someone Jesus would help—but Jesus helped her anyway because she trusted him. If Jesus were walking around our neighborhood right now, what kind of person do you think he would welcome? Who would he help? And would that person look the way you think they should?

works for ages 7+

Memory verse this week

Ephesians 2:8

For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God.

Why this verse: This verse crystallizes the sermon's central claim: the sole criterion for receiving help from Jesus is faith, not identity, ethnicity, or moral achievement. The Syrophoenician woman and Peter both enter God's presence only through grace received by faith—and so do we, which means the door is open to all who trust Christ, and closed to all who trust themselves.

Where this was preached

About the church

Cross of Grace Church

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# Cross of Grace Church

A church preaching expository sermons through the books of the Bible.

## Sermons
- [Where We're At 2021 (John 13:34-35, 2021-01-31)](/CoGElPaso/sermons/)
- [The Ghost on the Sea (Mark 6:45-52, 2021-02-14)](/CoGElPaso/sermons/the-ghost-on-the-sea-2021-02-14)
- [Heart of Darkness (Mark 7:1-23, 2021-02-21)](/CoGElPaso/sermons/heart-of-darkness-2021-02-21)
- [The Kind of People Jesus Welcomes (Mark 7:24-30, 2021-02-28)](/CoGElPaso/sermons/the-kind-of-people-jesus-welcomes-2021-02-28)

## About
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