Ways to Worship

Alright John chapter 12 is where we are this morning. If you have your Bibles, I'm gonna read the first eight verses John chapter 12 Starting at verse 1. It says then six days before the Passover Jesus came to Bethany where Lazarus was who had been dead whom he had raised from the dead and There they made him a supper and Martha served but Lazarus was one of those who sat at the table with him and then Mary took a pound of very costly oil of spikenard anointed the feet of Jesus and Wiped his feet with her hair and the house was filled with the fragrance of the oil But one of his disciples Judas Iscariot Simon son Who would betray him said why was this fragrant oil not sold for 300 denarii and given to the poor? This he said not that he cared for the poor But because he was a thief and had the money box and he used to take what was put in it But Jesus said let her alone She has kept this for the day of my burial for the poor you have with you always but me you do not have Always let's pause there and pray Lord, we thank you for your word. We pray God you'd use this story to speak to our hearts We pray that we would have open eyes to see and ears to hear and hearts to receive what you would say to us today And we thank you Lord in Jesus name and everyone said Amen Well, we come again to the same family that headlined our Bible study last week from chapter 11 three adult siblings who lived together in the same home in Bethany Mary Martha and their brother Lazarus this is the same Lazarus whom Jesus raised from the dead. That was the topic of our study last week but now the The scene is different the scene this time instead of a funeral It's a dinner party and there at the dinner party is the dead guy I mean what an amazing dinner party that must be to have somebody was once dead he's sitting there with a t-shirt saying I was dead and I live to tell about it and and Here the three of them are and they are Hosting a dinner party in honor of the one who raised Lazarus from the dead And of course, that's Jesus because verse 2 says they made him. That's Jesus capital H a

Supper they made him a supper So this is obviously a dinner that they are giving in honor of Jesus for his having raised Lazarus from the dead and it also appears that Jesus's disciples have been invited to although only one is mentioned by name Judas and We learned something about his character even before he betrays Jesus We learned about his character one that he's a hypocrite Because he here complains that this expensive oil was in his mind Wasted on Jesus when it could have been sold and given to the poor But John gives us a commentary and he says he didn't say this because he cares about the poor He said this because he helped himself to the money box He wanted the oil to be sold to be put into the treasury that he was in charge of for the ministry of Jesus So that he could help himself to it. And that's why verse 6 says that he was a thief It is the Greek word klepto. We get our English word kleptomaniac from that word. Somebody's got a problem stealing This is Judas you see people would give money in donation to support the ministry of Jesus and His 12 disciples who traveled with him for like three and a half years. They didn't hold down jobs they were traveling ministering healing Jesus was teaching and raising the dead and healing the sick and people would give financially to support him and his disciples and Judas was the guy who had the money box where people's donations were given and The Bible says here that he would from time to time help himself to some of that money that was given in donation to Jesus And the ministry that he was Conducting now, it's always been curious to me why Judas was in charge of the money box among the disciples Why not Matthew he was the tax collector that guy handled money all the time but You know now there are apparently going to be 87,000 new Matthews, by the way in In America, I don't know. I don't know what's happening. But anyway, I'm sure it's just to help you with your taxes But anyhow, this is Judas we get insight into his character he's a hypocrite He's a thief and so this dinner party is a big deal that Mary and Martha and Lazarus are giving in their home There are potentially 13 guests Jesus and perhaps is 12 again. We don't know they're not listed here except for Judas And then you have the three dinner guests, Martha, Mary, and Lazarus themselves, I mean

hosts themselves, so potentially 16 people at this dinner party. It's a big deal, especially for people who live in Bethany. Remember, this family lived in Bethany, Bethania in Hebrew, the house of the poor. They were living at a place that was common for poor people to live, where housing was often provided for them. Again, as I mentioned last week, these are probably three adult siblings no mention of their parents. They are probably just living together, trying to support one another, and so they're throwing this dinner party, which would have been a very generous thing on their part. And here's why they're doing this. They're hosting this dinner party to honor Jesus, because when Jesus does something amazing for you, the natural tendency should be a desire to want to honor and thank Him, to honor and thank Him. Listen, for you note-takers, worship happens out of the overflow of a grateful heart for who God is and what He's done. And when we begin to realize just who He is and all that He's done, we can't help but want to worship Him, to honor Him, to thank Him, and to praise Him. And that's what's going on here. They are likely giving this dinner party as a way of honoring and thanking Jesus for raising Lazarus from the dead. And we see all three of them, Mary, Martha, and Lazarus, worshiping Jesus in different ways. You know, just because Mary gets most of the attention in this chapter because she's throwing this, you know, doTERRA essential oil party, and it's a very expensive thing, you know, but don't think, don't think for a moment that Martha and Lazarus aren't worshiping Jesus. They're just worshiping Him in a different way, and all three of them model for us wonderful ways that we can honor and thank Jesus. And so, I want to share these three ways as an encouragement to all of us. They want to praise Him for who He is and for what He's done. And in this order, the first one that we see in verse 2 is Martha, and it just simply says, Martha served. That's verse 2. That's all that she gets in this whole story. Martha served. But now, you know, let me tell you why this is important. Martha has quite a reputation for having a servant's heart. She is a server. This is not the first time or the only time that we see Martha in the Bible serving. There's another story that happened before John 12 in Luke chapter

10. In Luke chapter 10, it's another dinner party that they are hosting for Jesus. And in Luke chapter 10, Martha is there serving, and she's getting frazzled because her sister Mary is not helping her. Mary, instead, is just sitting at the feet of Jesus, just enjoying the moment. And so, Martha's scurrying around, trying to get the house clean, trying to make food and all the preparation, because Jesus is there. You know, when Jesus is there, it's a big deal. Jesus is coming to dinner at your house, like, right? So, Martha's just all frantic, and she goes to Jesus, and she says, Jesus, tell my sister to help me. I'll read briefly the story to you. It's Luke 10, 40 to 42. It says, but Martha was distracted with much serving. There's the word again to describe her. And she approached Jesus and said, Lord, do you not care that my sister has left me to serve alone? Therefore, tell her to help me. And Jesus answered and said to her, Martha, Martha, you were worried and troubled about many things, but one thing is needed, and Mary has chosen that good part, which will not be taken away from her. Now, notice in that passage in Luke 10, Jesus does not say to her that serving is unnecessary or that serving is unimportant. He is just pointing out to her how frazzled and frantic she is in the process of serving. And the words that are used to describe her are worried and troubled in Luke chapter 10. She is worried about all that has to be done. She is troubled about everything that hasn't been done, and she wants Jesus to help her. Tell Mary to come and assist me in all my serving. Now, you know, Martha, God bless her. I mean, she wants to just serve. She has a servant's heart, okay? But it's out of control. She's serving in a way that is now becoming a burden to everybody else around her. You know, perhaps you can identify with Martha, okay? Some of you have kind of this doer personality, you want to get the job done, you're super organized, you know, you love to organize your pantry, you alphabetize your refrigerator, you know, you keep lists of stuff you have to do, you check off your list, and when that's done,

you start a new list. You Marthas are the ones taking notes right now, as I'm teaching, you're the Marthas. Now, look down your row, there's a Mary there, she's just sitting kind of drawing in the moment, and there's probably a Lazarus who looks dead, wake him up. But that's you, that's who you are, you're just Martha, I just gotta get the job done, I gotta get my list done, I gotta check it off, you're very task-oriented, you're a doer, we need Marthas, we just don't need you to want all of us to be like you, that's the problem. Like, you know, don't wear us out trying to get your label gun for everything, for goodness sakes, put the gun away. Like, relax a little bit. And this is what Jesus says to her in Luke 10, he says, basically, this is probably in the Message Bible, chill, take a chill pill, like, calm down, Martha. And he says to her, listen, Mary has chosen the more necessary thing in the moment, she's with me, and I'm not gonna take that away from her. So he doesn't say to her that serving is wrong, in fact, serving is a wonderful thing, but it just has to be harnessed in a way that benefits others, and doesn't start to make you frantic in the process. Now, it appears that Martha has learned much since Luke 10, because when we come here to John 12, there's no mention of her being frantic.

It just says, Martha served. And it's an indication to us that she's now serving with the right disposition. And see, she wants to serve Jesus just out of an overflow of her heart who loves him. And let me tell you why this is important for us. Because in very practical ways, understand this, you serve Jesus when you serve others. You worship Jesus, you honor Jesus, you thank Jesus by serving one another. Paul would say it this way in Colossians 3, 23 and 24. He says, and whatever you do, do it heartily as to the Lord and not to men. Okay, in other words, he starts off there in Colossians 3, 23 saying, you know, you might be serving people, but you're honestly actually doing it unto the Lord, if you have the right disposition about why you're serving and why you're helping people. And so he says, whatever you do, do it heartily as to the Lord and not to men knowing that from the Lord, you will receive the reward of the inheritance for you serve the Lord Christ. So Paul says it right there in Colossians 3, 23 and 24. He says, when you are serving others, you are actually serving Christ. You're actually honoring Jesus. You actually are worshiping Jesus by the way that we model servanthood. Because remember, Jesus said,

the son of man came not to be served, but to serve and to give us life as a ransom for many. So when we serve in the spirit of Jesus, other people, we are honoring Jesus. So like when you serve, for example, at church and you're changing dirty diapers in the nursery and you're teaching classes and you're, you know, directing traffic in the rain and you're opening doors for people as they're coming to the house of the Lord, in doing that, you are serving Jesus. When you're at work and you're honoring your boss and you're helping your coworkers and you're serving your employees, when you're doing it as unto the Lord, you are actually serving Jesus. When in the home, you are helping your wife or you're helping your husband or you're serving your kids or you wanna serve your neighbors or your friends, when you're doing that in the spirit of Jesus, you are actually honoring and worshiping Jesus. You're serving Him. And so don't downplay. You know, again, Martha only gets those two words, Martha served in this whole story, but her servant's heart is a way that she is honoring and worshiping and thanking Jesus. So every opportunity we have of just serving one another in the spirit of Christ,

we are worshiping Him in the process. And then number two in the story, as we just keep reading the rest of verse two, it says, but Lazarus was one of those who sat at the table with Him, that is with Jesus. So number two, Lazarus. sat. Now, at first glance, this looks like he's just being lazy, and he's just lounging around the table eating hummus with Jesus, okay? And so it almost looks like, you know, wow, you know, this guy's lazy, not doing a thing. But listen, don't, don't, don't think that. First, give the guy some grace. He's been dead, alright? Let me tell you something. If I had been dead, and then that week I'm at a dinner party that my sisters are throwing, I'm gonna be over on the couch recovering, guarantee it. I'm gonna be on the couch saying, could somebody bring me some toast? Maybe some orange juice, I think my potassium's low. I'm gonna be milking that baby for all it's worth. My wife says to me, honey, could you, could you come help me do the dishes tonight? Do the dishes? Do you know what kind of a week I've had? Are you kidding me? Do you have any idea what it means to be dead tired? Well, I do. I mean, I would be using that for all it was worth. So, let's give the guy a little break. But, all kidding aside, it's not what it looks like. He's not just being lazy here. Lazarus is practicing what many of us neglect, and that is he is enjoying the presence of the Lord. While Martha wanted to serve Jesus, Lazarus simply wanted to enjoy his presence. He wanted to fellowship with Jesus. He wanted to talk with Jesus. He wanted to ask Him questions. He wanted to hear what Jesus had to say about things. He wanted to enjoy every minute that he could near our Lord. Friends, there is nothing wrong. In fact, it's desirable that we should want to enjoy being in the presence of the Lord, to be still and to know that He is God, to sit quietly in His presence, to be unhurried, meditating on His Word, listening, inclining our ear to the still, small voice of the Lord, to hear Him, to commune with Him, to pray to Him, and sometimes just being still and silent in His presence. It is what has been called practicing the presence of God. You know, there are times that we just must discipline ourselves to shut out all the clutter and clamor of this world and to just get alone and to draw near to the Lord

and to be in fellowship with Him. To take time for whatever works on your schedule, either early in the morning, late at night, maybe your lunch break sometime in between, but just taking time to be with Him, to settle your hearts in His presence. There's nothing quite like just spending that quiet time with the Lord and asking Him, Lord, you know, show me things in my own heart that I don't even see, because we're so busy going from here to there doing this and that. Sometimes we don't stop long enough to even allow God to speak into our hearts, to reveal things to us that we don't even see ourselves. Jeremiah said, the heart is deceitful and wicked above all things. Who can know it? God, show me the things about my own heart that I'm blind to. And the only times He can show those things to us is if we're still long enough to hear Him. And then, in His precious, wonderful surgical way, He peels things like an onion, like layer at a time, to show us stuff we need to understand about our own heart. And the wonder of just communing with Him and connecting with Him and worshiping Him. Oh, how wonderful it is to replenish our souls, to drink from the well that never runs dry, to eat from the bread of life, to find that sustenance and that joy in His presence. There is no substitute for enjoying the presence of the Lord. This is what Lazarus is doing here. This is Psalm 16, verse 11, in your presence is fullness of joy, at your right hand are pleasures forevermore. This is James 4, 8, draw near to God and He will draw near to you. Simply sitting in His presence and enjoying fellowship with Jesus is a way that we honor and thank Him and worship Him. So we worship when we serve Him. We worship when we sit with Him. And then number three, we come to Mary and we see that we worship. when we sacrifice for him. If you look at verse three again in your Bibles, verse three says, then Mary took a pound of very costly oil of spikenard, anointed the feet of Jesus, and wiped his feet with her hair. Now, when Jesus comments about this in verse seven, he tells us that this was somewhat of a prophetic gesture on Mary's part.

Whether knowingly or unknowingly to Mary, she in effect was anointing Jesus's body for burial. And Jesus tells us so in verse seven, he says, she has kept this for the day of my burial, which by the way, was less than a week away from this story. Verse one of this chapter that we just read, I kind of read over it real quickly, but look back at verse one, it says it was six days before the Passover. It's referring to the final Passover that Jesus shares with his disciples. Jesus will be crucified on Passover. It's just six days away from this dinner. So whether Mary knew it or not, whether God revealed it to her or not, we don't know, but Jesus says in as much what she is doing is something prophetic. She's like anointing my body for burial. He's gonna be dead within the week, he'll rise again by the beginning of the next week. And Mary here is doing this in a very prophetic gesture. We also see it was a tender gesture. She is anointing his feet with this expensive oil and then she's wiping his feet with her hair. Now this is nothing inappropriate. This isn't suggestive in any way. She's just using her long hair as one would a towel. And she's just wiping the excess of the oil that she's poured over his feet.

This is a very tender moment here where she is just honoring him and thanking him and worshiping him. It's a prophetic gesture, it's a tender gesture, but it's also a very costly gesture and that's why I'm using the word sacrificial here. She sacrificed. It's a very costly oil, it tells us in verse three. Mary took a pound of very costly oil of spikenard. Now this spikenard was imported. It was very expensive. The historians Josephus and Pliny tell us that this kind of spikenard was derived from a flowering plant that grew at the base of the Himalaya mountains in northern India. And so somehow Mary gets a hold of this. It was red in color. It was very sweet smelling, perfume-like oil. And again, very costly. How much was it worth? Well, Judas tells us here in the passage when he hypocritically says you could have sold this and given the money to the poor, he says it's worth 300 denarii. How much is that? One denarii in that day was a single day's wage. One. 300 denarii.

This is the equivalent of one's annual salary. I want that to soak in for just a moment. When was the last time any of us gave the equivalent of a full annual salary? Think of what you make or what your loved one makes for your household. When was the last time any of us gave that kind of a worshipful gift in one single gesture to Jesus? And many people are living month to month anyway. How could you do that kind of thing? And here's even a more perplexing question. How could Mary do this? She's living in Betania. She's living in the house of the poor. Where in the world did she come across oil that was worth an annual wage? Some think that perhaps it was given to her. Because again, if in fact these were three, we know they were three adult siblings who were living together, but if in fact their parents had died and that's why they're living in Bethany, kind of they're living literally in the poor house, perhaps someone gave this to them as a means of supporting them. And Mary, however she came by it, takes the whole thing and pours it all over Jesus' feet and then wipes his feet with her hair. This is a very sacrificial gift. Prophetic, tender, and very sacrificial here.

She's worshiping Jesus. She's like, I'm not holding anything back. I'm giving to him generously. I'm giving to him sacrificially. And by the way, it's not the size of the gift. It is the sacrifice of the gift. There could be some widow who drops 20 bucks in the offering and that to God is more than some wealthy hedge fund advisor who drops 20,000 in the offering. Do you understand? Like it's not the size of the gift. It's the sacrifice. That's how we honor God. And this dear lady is honoring Jesus in a wonderful way. And by the way, whenever you try to give sacrificially and generously to the Lord, there will always be a Judas standing around you telling you why that's a dumb investment. There will always be some Judas saying to you, why do you even give to the church? Why do you even give to that ministry? Why do you even give to that missionary? There will be people who will constantly be challenging you like Judas did. That's a stupid way of using your money like that. This is why Judas said that could have been sold and money given to the poor. Again, John tells us he only said this because he wanted some of the money out of the money box that that money would have gone into. And Jesus rebukes Judas. He says in verse 7, let her alone. She has kept this for the day of my burial. Verse 8, for the poor, Jesus says, you will have with you always. But me, you do not have always.

Now look, please understand, Jesus is not dismissing the poor. He's not dismissing the poor. The responsibility of the poor really is the church. The church needs to address where there are poor people who are in need materially. But what he's saying here in the process, Jesus, in his rebuke of Judas, is also this. Don't over-spiritualize everything. Don't over-spiritualize everything. You know, unfortunately, in the church today, some Christians have the tendency to just over-spiritualize everything. I remember when we were in the old building down the road, and we were in that building for like 17, 18 years. And the first 15 years or so, we were in chairs, if any of you remember, in the old sanctuary, we were in chairs that we bought. The sanctuary chairs were chairs we had bought from Costco. Well, after like 15 years, the two inches of foam, everybody's like sitting on cardboard. And I'm like, I'm, you know, and I'm like, well, my preaching isn't that bad to watch everybody grimacing every single Sunday. I gotta change out their, their chairs. And having mercy on them. And so, we ended up buying some chairs that had thicker padding, OK? And by the way, we repurposed those new chairs, and we came over to this building. Those were the chairs in our chapel. But I had, I had a few people come to me like, I can't believe you, you know, what's wrong with these cardboard chairs? You know, you're buying these new chairs here, this money could have been given to missions. That's what people said. This money could have been given to missions. And I thought to myself, you know, I could say the same thing about the car you drive or the coffee you drink. You know what I'm saying to you?

And let's be real. Some of you spend a boatload on foo-foo drinks. I mean, I, I mean, seriously, a boatload on foo-foo drinks. It's like, can I have a caramel latte, please? Extra hot, skinny soy milk, you know, double foam, caramel drizzle. Hold the cup. Like, what? What? Just, so, you know, let's not just always over-spiritualize things. By the way, we didn't, we didn't sacrifice at all with missions to buy those new chairs. We didn't sacrifice at all with missions or benevolence or outreach to get into this building. We only stepped up our giving. We only stepped up our outreach. We only stepped up our benevolence. So, so we gotta avoid this, you know, over-spiritualizing everything, because we could nitpick each other all day long, or we could nitpick the church about things. And Jesus says, listen, the poor you will always have with you, but you will not always have me. The point is, we, we should be generous to God, and don't let the critics tell you it's not a worthy investment. We worship when we serve Him. We worship when we sit with Him. We worship when we sacrifice for Him. And then the very last thing, and then we're gonna share communion together, that I just wanted us to note very briefly, is the last part of verse three, which says, and the house was filled with the fragrance of the oil. Underline that in your Bibles. And the house was filled with the fragrance of the oil. The fragrance of Mary's devotion to Jesus was noticed throughout the whole house.

Everywhere we go, we should spread the fragrance of our love and devotion for Jesus. It should be smelled by everyone we come in contact with. So the question all of us need to face is, what aroma are we spreading? Because you will smell like whatever you hang around. Now you will. You hang around the gym, you're gonna smell that. smell like that. You do yard work, you're going to smell like that. You eat at McDonald's, you're going to smell like that. You ever eaten at McDonald's and somebody comes up to you like, were you at McDonald's today? Yeah, actually I was. Actually I was. The aroma's that thick. Yeah, it is. It's pretty thick. Quarter pounder with fries, right? Yeah. How'd you know? You're going to smell like wherever you hang out. When Aunt Bertha with that funky perfume hugs you, people will know you've been with Aunt Bertha. You work at a zoo, people will know that, okay? You hang out with the world, people will smell you like that. You hang out with Jesus, you will smell like Jesus. And may we, as the Church of Jesus Christ, spread everywhere the aroma, the fragrant aroma of Jesus Christ. Paul said it this way in 2 Corinthians 2.14. He said, but thanks be to God who always leads us in triumphal procession in Christ and through us spreads everywhere the fragrance of the knowledge of him. May we be that sweet smelling aroma of Christ everywhere we go with everyone we come in contact with to spread the fragrance of the one who died on a cross to save us from our sins, who loves us so much that he would sacrifice his life so that we might have life through faith in him. Amen? And to celebrate him, we're going to share communion now. So, ushers, if you'd come, let's pray together. Lord, we thank you for your word. We thank you for the examples of Martha, Mary, and Lazarus and the different ways that they worshiped you. Lord, help us to be people who worship you because we serve you, we sit with you, we sacrifice for you. And thank you, Lord, that you gave us the highest example of sacrifice when you laid your life down on a cross for our sins. And as we draw near to the table of the Lord today, we come with thankful and grateful hearts. Your word tells us while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. He didn't wait for us to become people worthy of dying for because we can't become people worthy of dying for. You died even while we were still sinners. You loved us. You sacrificed your life for us. And

so as we come to your table today to remember your body and your blood, we pray that we would just consider, Lord, all that you did because worship flows out of grateful hearts for who you are and all that you've done. And we worship you today with grateful hearts. In Jesus' name, amen.