All right, well, hey guys, why don't you go ahead and turn to
John chapter 12. Going to give you a little bit
of a background here on Jesus is we try to time these things
perfectly. Last week we talked about the
resurrection, but that kind of just flows into this week.
But so, so far, Lazarus, he died and then four days later Jesus
rose him from the dead. The religious people are
beginning to not like that. They're losing a level of
control to Rome. They're going to lose their
position. Rome's going to kick him out and
they don't they're not happy about that.
So they're ready to try to trap Jesus.
And there there's a conspiracy to kill him.
And we find that in Chapter 11, verse 47.
And then Caiaphas he, he under the inspiration of the Holy
Spirit, he's a not a nice man. He's an evil man, religious guy
that does not know God, but he just he loves control.
And what he said it says here we'll pick it up in in Chapter
11, Caiaphas who is the high priest of that year said and
they would have a prophecy each year.
And he said this, you know nothing at all.
They were all arguing and how to what to do with Jesus.
And he says, nor do you take an account that is expedient for
you, that one man died for the people and that the whole nation
not perish. That's a pretty sweet now from
our angle, right? From from our point of view,
we're like, wow, that's pretty amazing.
That's actually what happened, right?
Jesus died in our place so that we wouldn't not have to go to
hell and die, right, but that we would experience life because of
one man. It's called a substitutionary
atonement. Maybe some, if you've heard of
that, it's a big word, right, for Easter Sunday.
But basically somebody died in your place, All right?
His name's Jesus. And so that's not what Caiaphas
was talking about. He was talking about, hey, look,
if we could get rid of this man, then it would be good for us.
The whole nation would not perish.
That meaning a political nation would not perish and we would
regain our control back. That's what he was talking
about, but it's crazy, as a theologian once said that even
though you don't know God, right, people that don't know
God, God could still use them and use them powerfully.
There was a prophetic word there that did end up coming true,
just not in the way they thought.
All right, so I want to give you guys, there's five, and in this
chapter, chapter 12, there's five reactions towards Jesus.
And I believe it really doesn't capture all 5 reactions that we
see today. There's five reactions if you
look at the person of Jesus as we've been beholding Jesus
living undivided, undistracted for his glory.
We started that series back in the fall.
And one of the things that we wanted to do is in the series is
lift up Jesus. And because if when we lift up
Jesus, we become what we behold, right?
We, when we, if we look at him, it says in 2nd Corinthians 3, it
says that when we look at Jesus, we go from glory to glory.
And so we're in it for one thing, right?
The the 1355, I'm not going to go through all those, but that's
our vision, right? The one thing like, if you can
narrow it down to like one thing that we're after, it's
transformation. I think they were saying it
multiple times. I mean, we were praying it in
the back. Ricky had mentioned that.
Obviously we're seeing songs about that.
And then Cole talks about transformation as well.
And you see Phil and Jade, the same thing.
This church is all about transformation.
But there are 5 reactions from chapter 12 that we want to look
at. And I think you can find
yourself in one of those categories and we'll narrow in
on one of them. So why don't we pick up with
chapter 12, verse one says this. Jesus, therefore 6 days before
the Passover came to Bethany where Lazarus was, who Jesus had
raised from the dead. So they made him a supper there
and Martha was serving, but Lazarus was one of those
reclining at the table with him. So just pause there for a
second. Lazarus, this is that this is
that what we call a thank you party.
So Jesus is heading towards Bethany, was heading towards
Jerusalem actually, and by way via Jerusalem, he went through
Bethany for a little bit for a little stopover for a thank you
meal. So Simon the leper, he got
healed. And then Lazarus also, he didn't
just get healed to get rise from the dead.
But as you imagine, they're like just hanging out at the table,
right? There's a there's about 17
people there at this party. Martha's still serving, which is
great. And they're all basically
talking about their stories. If you can imagine, Lazarus is
probably saying, all right, I'm sorry, Simon the leper is
probably saying, hey, you're never going to believe this.
But you know, I used to have to cry out leaves that depart from
me, depart from me because, you know, if you get close to a
leper, you know what happens? I mean, you're going to get
leprosy. And so he's like, you're never
going to believe this. I don't have to shout that
anymore. Jesus healed me.
My like, I have my eyebrows, I have my hair, I have my skin.
It looks normal. And then Lazarus turns and says,
you're never going to believe this.
I got to top that one, right? I mean, sometimes you forget
that these things they, they're, you know, the Bible is, is set
in real times. I mean, like they actually had a
party, a thank you party and that's why they had this.
And so they're just thinking Jesus for like, for, for
literally transforming their life, like raising the guy from
the dead. You know, he's super thankful.
And there's the family there. I mean, just even Martha and
Mary, just they're probably so excited just seeing, I mean,
their brother's going to die again at some point.
But the fact of the matter that the family's all there.
They're all together. The disciples are there as well.
There's about 17 of them. And they're all basically saying
thank you to Jesus. And I, I love this Martha, if
you, if you look back at Luke 1038 to 42, I'm going to read
that. I, I know I referred to it last
week, but I love the power of transformation.
I love that Jesus transforms all of us.
If we want it, if we actually seek him, we can experience that
as well. And it says this, that in a
woman named Martha welcomed Jesus into her home and she had
a sister called Mary who was seated at the Lord's feet
listening to his word. But Martha was distracted with
all her preparations. This is who she was.
You know many I don't know how many months ago maybe it could
have been a year and a half ago or so because Jesus ministers
about 3 1/2 years and so she at one point this is the first
interaction that we have with her.
She was distraction with distracted and then yelling
basically at her sister and telling the Lord to to do
something about it. Say, do you not care that my
sister has left me in doing the serving all alone.
Then tell her to help me. She's frantic.
She's dealing with a ton of anxiety.
She's dealing with identity issues.
You do all sorts of stuff. We don't have time to
necessarily go through it. But basically what's happening
is that she's she's feeling all alone in the serving and Jesus,
she's asking Jesus, help me tell her to get in the kitchen with
me. But the Lord answer Martha,
Martha, you are worried and bothered by so many things, but
only one thing is necessary for Mary has chosen the good part,
which is not not going to be taken away from her.
And so you see, this Mary is, is at the feet of Jesus, right
where we all should be. And Jesus is not rebuking Martha
because she's in the kitchen serving.
That's who who she is. What Jesus did was transform her
heart so that she's not frantically serving.
She's not finding identity in that anymore.
She's not saying, look at me, look at me.
She's gladly serving this thank you party.
And it's pretty awesome to see that, yes, she's still serving,
but she's got a different heart. She's been totally restored, and
she's not just doing it for one guest, which was Jesus at the
time, right? But seventeen of them.
She's a transformed person. But as they were all sitting
there just enjoying dinner, hanging out, sharing crazy
stories, you got this woman named Mary, who then took a
pound of very costly perfume, a pure nard, and anointed the feet
of Jesus and wiped his feet with her hair.
And the house is filled with fragrance of perfume.
But Judas Iscariot, one of the disciples intending to betray
him, said why this perfume not sold for 300 denarii and given
to the people. Now he said this not because he
was concerned about the poor, but because he was a thief.
And as he had at the Money Box, he used to pilfer what was in
it. So this is how she thinks the
Lord. Not everybody has means Martha
just decided this is what I have.
I have I I want to serve. I want to I want to be there to
serve and do the practical. It says in first Peter, right,
that some have speaking gifts, some have serving gifts.
This is her gift to serve Mary. She decides to give it all
right, and I want I want to I want to share with you guys.
There's, if you're taking notes, there's about two or three
things I want to, I want to note about what true worship is.
And I'm praying that, you know, we're doing a ton in our church.
There's so many amazing things. I mean, I, I was listening to a
few voice memos yesterday and there's a family outreach that
was happening in town just around the corner here.
And then there's young adult outreaches.
There is college outreach. I mean, I think they were there
to like at the bar outreaches to like 3 in the morning or
something. It was just crazy just seeing
what God's doing in our church. I mean, this whole entire week
is just full of people reaching out.
It's amazing. So by no means am I like I, it's
weird because like as I'm preaching this message, I'm
thinking we're doing it. I mean, we're actually like
living this stuff out. Like this is amazing.
Not everybody. I know that there's five
reactions. Some of you guys are serving
great doing that. You're, you're, you know, you,
you find yourself totally transformed.
You're not frantic. You're, you're not anxious
anymore. God's God has healed you and
strengthened you. And then there's this when
you're reading this, it's kind of like this is awkward.
So you're like, OK, do I have to find something that's really
valuable in my home? And then there's like, crush it
at the feet of Jesus and, and do the same thing.
No, no, no, you guys are you guys are doing that.
I mean, in, in so many different ways, you guys are giving your
lives to the Lord. But I want to show you what true
worship is. If you, you know, sometimes we
can get in a rut or we can, you know, 5 or 6 months from now, we
can find ourselves not necessarily doing that.
We're, we're, we're starting to live again for ourselves
selfishly, but true worship does these three or four things that
I want to, I want to give you guys.
True worship gives our best. True worship gives our best.
It gives what is most precious to us to, to, to, to the Lord.
I mean, he knows, he knows our hearts, but he, he, I love this
that she walks. I mean, if you guys can just
picture this, you know, there's a long table.
They don't sit in chairs back in the 1st century.
They're on the floor. They're kind of like sideways
with her elbow on the floor and they're just eating and they're
enjoying a meal. And Mary's, no, she's not in the
room. Martha's in the kitchen.
She's bringing stuff out. The slaves, you know, there was
1st century slaves. They would, and I'll get to that
why that's important in a second.
But they were there, they were serving, they were taking,
taking care of everything, and Jesus and his disciples were
just having a meal. And Mary comes in and she brings
this alabaster jar, this vial, if you will, which is worth some
money to as well. This oil would have been worth
about $60,000 US, right? It's about a year's wage
average. So she brings us in and it's
this awkward moment. I mean, I would imagine maybe I
don't know if it was Lazarus turn to share a testimony or
what, but they're just talking everything and she comes in and
she does something really awkward that we can pick up the
some of the story and and Mark, if you want, you could just put
your finger there. Mark chapter 14 verses one
through 6. But so he's in Simon the leper's
house. He's not in Lazarus house.
So they're in Simon the leopards and he's the host.
And so Jesus is is the guest, I guess, if you will, and she
comes in and they're all reclining at the table and, and
she's coming in and you can smell it in the air when she's
like, what is she doing? What is she about to do?
This is crazy. This is nuts.
And if you know, like those like a if you have like essential
oils or whatever, they have like this very small top.
And so when you pour it out, just one little drop comes out
and she's, you know, Mary's like, that's not enough.
I'm not going to do that. It's just she crushes it and she
brings it at the she starts with the head, it says in one of the
chapters. And then in the other chapter it
says she made her way down from the head to the feet.
And a lot of you like girls hair looks really well this morning.
It looks really nice, right? Some of the guys have long hair
too. But but really, it says in the
Bible that the, the, that the, the girl's hair is the glory of
a woman, right? And so you can imagine this is
it. It's not just she takes a paper
towel and starts to wipe off The Dirty feet of Jesus with this
very expensive perfume that she just now wasted all at the feet
of Jesus. She could have that was probably
most likely her inheritance. People think that or scholars
would say that, you know, because her she didn't have a
husband. This would this would be a way
that she could, you know, sell and and and make money in in
case, you know, she you know, she wasn't going to get married.
So this is this is her means. This is everything.
This is literally her whole life is in this in the palm of her
hands. And so the, the glory of a
woman, she takes that her hair and she starts to wipe The Dirty
feet. And you can imagine, like in the
scene, you can imagine the slaves, right?
The slaves are, are looking. They're like, why?
You know, what is she doing? It's it, this is even beneath a
slave to take, to take hair to take her hair, right, and to
wash the, The Dirty feet of Jesus.
Why is she doing this? If you if you look back at John
Chapter 11 and even before that, he, he Jesus shared in her
sorrow. Jesus shared in, you know, when
at the lowest point of her life most likely is when her brother
had just died, was there for four days in the grave.
She was off mourning. If you remember the last
chapter, she's off and the house mourning.
The mourners are there. They're comforting her.
And so when Jesus raises him from the dead, you can imagine
if you ever, if you ever just have like a, you know,
something, you know, you're praying, maybe you're sick,
maybe you're, you know, waiting for results or whatever, You're
just, you're on edge. There's, there's a lot of
anxiety and you're wondering, is God going to answer this prayer?
And all of a sudden he comes through in this miraculous way.
It's like, wow, I, I didn't even know he can do that.
It's like you at that point, you just like, man, I want to give
everything to Jesus. He's amazing, right?
I mean, like he, he showed up in my life.
It's, it's, it's crazy. So you can you can imagine how
she's feeling at this dinner and she's she's taking this
alabaster jar and she's like, man, he shared in my sorrow and
now I want to share in his what is that sorrow?
She knows something that the rest of the people at that table
do not know. And so if you, if you're picking
up in this verse, you know, there's the in Genesis 4, I, I
was, I, I'm not going to do the whole thing, but I was, I was
tracing, I was thinking about this.
It made this, this passage made me think more than than in a
maybe in a while. I, I would go out for walks this
week with the Lord and say, OK, Lord, what is it you want me to
give you? And I'll get to that in a
second. But Genesis four starts the is
the first if you're, if you're tracing the scriptures, if
you're going from Genesis to Revelation and you're looking at
moments of worship and you, you the first time I, I would hope
you see this right as you're going through Genesis 1
creation, Genesis 2 creation, you know, relationship with Adam
and Eve and then the, the fall of Genesis 3 and then Genesis 4.
There's these brothers, right? Cain and Abel.
And I don't know if that that's ever confused you as you looked
at that passage. Maybe you thought it was unfair
and you're looking at that you're thinking, what's the deal
with Cain and Abel? I don't really understand what's
going on. I mean, God accepts Abel's gift
and he doesn't accept Cain's and Cain gets angry at that and and
kills his brother. And this is horrible.
It's the first mortar that you see in the Bible.
But what is actually happening there?
It's some say OK has had to do with animal sacrifice and Abel
gave an animal sacrifice. It was blood that needed to be,
you know, atone our sins. And some say, you know, maybe it
was just a, you know, the heart was behind it.
Not sure really what's going on. I don't, I don't want to get
into a debate about it, but all I know was God accepted Abel's
gift of worship. Why?
It's his heart. Abel gave everything while Cain
just gave leftovers. It was a matter of giving
everything versus leftovers. If you remember in second Samuel
2424, like Mary is just like David here and he's saying this,
that, you know, there, there was a, a moment and it, the, the
temple is still there. But he had, there was no temple
there. It was just a big field.
And he goes up to this man David, right, King David.
And he says, Hey, I'd like to get this field.
Can you, can I want to buy it? And, and then the man said to
him, Hey, look, I'll give it to you for free.
I know who you are, David. I mean, you're, you're, I know
you're going to do good things with this.
Again, I want to build the temple there.
That's his intention. And so the guy said, Hey, just
you can have it for free. And David said, I'm, if I'm not
going to worship God, that which does not cost me.
So he gave everything and some of us, and I was thinking about
that this again, this, this, these, these passages, you know,
as I'm stunning, they make you think they're thinking, man,
what would you do in that situation?
What would you do right there? Would you would you be if you
were David? What would you do if you if you
were, if you're Kane Abel, what would you do if it would you
just get like whatever it is, like just the scraps I would
give God, you know, it counts, counts for something
religiously. I'm just going to go through the
motions. But David was like, man, I want
to I I'm not going to give to God something.
If this is my worship, I'm not going to give him something that
doesn't cost me something. And it's you have to see that
God doesn't really care about your gift.
He, he doesn't even really care what you give up per SE.
What he wants is your heart. And as I was thinking about
this, I was thinking like, as I was walking through my
neighborhood, I'm just like, man, Laura, what is it?
You know, like, because you think you're like, oh, is there
a, is there a numerical number on that?
Or is it something he wants us to give it?
Does he literally want me to sell my house and live in a
cardboard box somewhere in a forest?
You know, is that what God wants?
You know, because sometimes we can struggle with these
passages, right? We could say like, all right,
what is God really asking? Are we all supposed to literally
leave here, go sell our homes and just go live in the forest
somewhere, right? In a tent and even a tent, maybe
that's still something you're holding on to, right?
What is he asking for? What does he really want?
What does he really want from you?
Does he want? Does he?
Does he want your evangelism? Does he want you to go on
mission? Does he want you guys?
Is it really what is it about? What is it when it comes down to
it? What is this thing all about?
It's about your heart. That's it for Mary.
She's just like, man. This man shared in my sorrow.
I literally know who he is. He is worth everything.
It's in that moment we're like, man, he is truly worth
everything. You know, you heard Phil up
there. He's like, but he's worth it.
You know, sometimes, like, and I believe that he means that, you
know, but I'm just saying sometimes in those moments, you
can you can just kind of say that like you're going through a
hard time or whatever. You're like, yeah, you know, he
but he's worth it. And all I know is that when Mary
said it, she meant it. She actually meant it.
She's like, he really is. Worth it is it is all your when
you think about like I'll just rattle off some your income.
Is it all his your banking account?
Is it your your time, your career, marriage, you know, some
of the college students like I don't have anything I don't
have. I mean, literally I don't I
don't have anything in my name. You know, I get it.
But is your is it, you know, your career, your school, your
marriage, family, possessions, self-image, the whole thing.
I mean, I could just keep going on and on and on.
I came across the story I thought was really good.
RG later. No, my kids go to their school
or they they did, they did some dual enrollment classes through
them. So I was just curious, like, who
is this guy? And I've never heard of this
Christian School. And I just, you know, as I was
doing a little bit of digging and research, he's the guy that
invented the earth movers. Do you know what those are like?
You can look that up online. But it's like these huge
machines that just move the earth basically moved.
And so he came, he has this huge construction company.
He was a believer. The company grew so large that
he, he, he told his wife, he's like, I don't want to lose my
love for God. I know where this is going.
And so he did what was called many.
I don't know. I don't think there's anybody in
the church that does this, but maybe there will be.
But he did what is called the reverse tithe.
He said, look, I'll live on. Instead of saying I'll live on
90%, I'll give 10. I'm going to live on 10%.
I'm going to give 90. And his wife's like, you're
going to do what they're having, like this casual conversation,
you know, over dinner, Like what's happening?
Like she's probably thinking we do not have to worry about
anything for life. You know, we're going to be
rich. And so for 50 years he did this
and he funded Bible colleges. He he funded like all these
seminaries and radio stations. In fact, if you listen to like
John MacArthur online or I'm sorry, on the radio or any, any
like Moody Radio, he funded all those.
I was shocked. I was like, I benefited from
some of these things. I was like, this is amazing.
I've never heard anything like that.
A reverse tide. I mean, have you heard of that?
I've, I've never really heard of that.
Some, some people may do that. I don't know.
But the people I walk with mostly in this church, I know
they don't do that. And I'm going to say you should.
I mean, that's great if you do. But people started asking him.
There was a friend that asked him this.
How come you keep giving all your money away and you keep
having more to give? Like I've been scratching my
head wondering what in the world like, how do you do this?
Like I've watched your life, how does this happen?
We said, I don't know. I'm not a really smart man.
All I know is this is that I have a shovel and God has a
shovel. I shovel what I can to the Lord
and the Lord shovels it back and all I know is that God's got the
bigger shovel and you can't out give God.
And they're like, OK, you know, I'm like, what in the world?
That's amazing. Some of you guys, even as I say
that, you're like, I know it's financial.
I know God's called me to give more.
Great, do that. No one's telling you like no
one's telling you what to give or how to give.
Like no one's telling you how to do that.
It just was in Mary's heart. Nobody from that dinner table
said, Mary, go get that expensive perfume.
It's time. No, they're like minding their
own business. They're eating Martha's amazing
food. It's just they're all hanging
out. They're just all hanging out
having having a great meal. Thank you.
Like, thank you, Jesus meal. And Mary's like, this is how I'm
going to show my gratitude. There's something different
about her. There's a man, a rich Roman man,
soldier, governor. Her name's named Cyprian.
He was so joyful that he that he found Jesus.
He literally liquidated all his assets and he laid it at the
feet of Jesus, not literally because he was.
A few 100 years later, after the resurrection, he said he's worth
everything. And he he's, people asked him,
why in the world are you doing that?
I mean, you have a great life under the Roman rule.
Why would you do something like that and become a pastor?
He liquidated everything and became a pastor.
He said. It delights me to not be
distracted by the things of this world because I know where I'm
going and I know where my treasures at.
There's just something different about these people.
What is different about these people?
Their lives have been truly transformed.
There's nothing that they can hold back.
There's what? What do you, what do you
honestly value most? What are you willing to give God
as an act of worship? It's not just financial.
It might be literally your time. It might be something you're
like, it, it doesn't it, it, it doesn't like, OK, this is going
to cost me something. I don't think, Mary, I don't
think Mary was trembling coming to the feet of Jesus being like,
is that at least that's not what I see in this passage at all.
I don't think she's like, I don't know, I could do this with
it. I, I think I could maybe do
something with this, you know, whatever.
I could be a great, I could be a giver.
I could keep some to myself, you know, like Ananias and Sapphira,
you know, keep some for yourself.
Give some you know, it didn't really work out for them by the
way, but but they but there's Jesus is not giving us a script
here. He's not saying this is what you
need to do this, this and that. He's not giving us an amount.
He's not giving us an amount of time amount of money.
He's not giving us anything here.
Jesus doesn't what he wants is our is our hearts.
He wants our hearts and I just love RG laterno, I just I don't.
There's just something about that story that just makes me
smile because there is nothing. Jesus didn't show up to this man
in a dream and say you need to do this.
Jesus wasn't asking for his 90%. Something in his heart said I
want to make sure that I'm always giving to God.
I'm always he's got my heart and this is what made sense to him
and he was never I don't think the man obviously lacked
anything. Number two, true worship is self
forgetful. It actually humbles us.
We only care what God thinks, not what others think and he I
love this that you know when she was washing the feet of Jesus.
It was then that was it was then that her worship was then
criticized right. You see this Judas was saying to
his disciples who's intending to betray him, right.
Wasn't this perfume could be sold for 300?
Which is crazy to think about that the dude in the next
chapter is she gonna betrayed Jesus for 30 pieces of silver
and had nothing to do nothing to do with caring for the poor,
None of that. He didn't really care about any
of that stuff. But true worship is self
forgetful. She just totally forgot herself.
She doesn't really really care about what others people other
people thinks. You know what I was thinking
about that, like I was thinking about our worship just as far as
like in our expression, you know, of worship.
So many people, you know, I love that when they're standing up in
the front here, they're worshipping the Lord and
hopefully they're not doing it to gain attention or anything
like that. I don't think that's the case,
but God knows our hearts and I love that they, they, you know,
some people, you know, lay prostate, some people kneel,
some people are jumping up and down or whatever.
It's just giving our worship, not caring what anybody else
thinks. It's a cultural moment, right?
This is who we are as a people. This is why you, when you come
in, you're like watching people and maybe you're new or
whatever. You're like, man, why are they
doing that? That's crazy.
Because there's something in their hearts that's like, man, I
want to express my love to Jesus and I don't care what other
people really think about that because God knows my heart.
Maybe some of you guys are like, man, I don't really know.
I don't, I'm not sure if that's biblical.
I don't really know. I think I just want to lock in
on the words and just sing the words.
That's great. However you worship, I'm, you
know, God's fine with that. As long as you're worshiping him
with your whole heart. That's really matters more than
anything else. But there's something about when
whether I see my wife or my kids or whatever, when, when they're
going for it, There's just something about that.
And it's a, you know, is a, is a dad who's, you know, wanting,
you know, one day my kids to be married.
I'm looking out for, for people who, who give themselves to
extravagant worship. You know, I, I want our, I want
our family, our people to, to, to belong to people that are
like extravagant in worship. They just don't care.
They don't give a RIP because of all that God's done in their
life. And I'll show you this, that
and, and let's, let's look at this together in Luke Chapter 7.
It's not the same story. Maybe some of you guys are
figuring out that the first time, but it's not.
It's so Simon the leper that Simon the leper's house, but
Luke Chapter 7 there at Simon the Pharisees house.
And you guys know this story, It's a pretty famous story,
right? It starts in verse 36.
It says now one of the Pharisees was requesting Jesus to dine
with him and he entered the Pharisees house and reclined at
the table. And there was a woman in the
city who is a Sinner. And when she learned that he was
reclining at the table in the Pharisees house, she brought an
alabaster vial a perfume. So same deal, same like this
woman also had an alabaster vial, a perfume as well.
It's not Mary when standing behind him at his feet and this
is early on in Jesus ministry. That's this one in John chapter
12 we're studying today is later on towards the last week of his
life. So standing behind him at his
feet weeping, she began to wet his feet with tears and kept
wiping them with her hair of her head, kissing his feet and
anointing them with perfume. Now when the Pharisee who had
invited him saw this, he said to himself, if this man were a
prophet, he would know who and what sort of person this woman
is who is touching him, that she was a Sinner.
So scholars believe that Sinner is, is a prostitute.
Most likely she was. And Jesus answered him, Simon, I
have something to say to you. And he replied, say a teacher, a
money lender who had two debtors, 1 owed 500 denarii.
That's over. Obviously we know 300 is about
60 grand. Maybe this is about 100 or so
and the other 50. And when they're unable to
repay, he graciously forgave them both.
So. So which of them will love him
more? Simon answered and said, I
suppose the one whom he forgave more.
And he said to him, you have judged correctly.
Turning toward the woman, he said to Simon, do you see this
woman? I entered your house and you
gave me no water for my feet. But she said she has she, But
she has wet my feet with her tears and wiped them with her
hair. You gave me no kiss, but she,
since the time I came in, has not since ceased to kiss my
feet. And you did not anoint my head
with oil, but she anointed my feet with perfume.
For this reason I say to you, her sins, which are many, have
been forgiven. For she loved much, but he was
forgiven little, loves little. And then he said to her, Your
sins have been forgiven. Those who were crying up
reclining at the table with him began to say to themselves, Who
is this man who even forgives sins?
And he said to the woman, your faith is saved.
You go in peace. The reason why people
extravagantly worship God, give go whatever it is you know, is
because they realize, wow, this man has changed my life.
He is worth everything. He's he's totally transformed my
life. And as you think about your
life, if there's if you don't notice any transformation,
you're just like, Hey, I believe in this Jesus who forgives sins.
It's much different than those who really believe in the
gospel, right? In what the stories of the
resurrection believe that Jesus died on the cross, but they
actually tasted for themselves transformation.
Big difference. Have you ever met somebody who's
just like when you go up to them, you say, oh, are you a
Christian? Yes.
And then you realize later, maybe they're a Co worker or
maybe they're a neighbor or something.
You're like, wait, are they a Christian?
Why is that? Do you know?
There's a difference between intentions and desires.
You can have an intention like good intentions, like I want to
go to church, you know, I want to read the Bible, I want to
follow God. There's good intentions, but if
your desires are not changed, you won't do it.
You only do what your desires want.
You only have like, that's why he says like if you desire to
come after me, if you desire to follow me, if you desire to
follow me, then what do you have to do?
Deny yourself, pick up the cross and follow him.
He didn't say those who intend to follow me, those who kind of
want to follow him, right? Who will do that?
No, no, no. It's like whoever desires,
whoever has that internal desire that God has transformed, they
will do it because God has transformed their hearts.
So there's a big difference between intentions and desires.
But our worship will always be criticized and analyzed by
different people. You know, passionate people get
rebuked by religious people all the time, right?
Is that true? Have you ever been that person?
Like maybe you just had a really bad week and you're just like,
what is that dude over there so excited about?
You ever do that, right? You're just like, you could tell
your heart is getting a little bit more calloused and hard
because of life and circumstances and God knows that
and you might be a genuine believer in Christ and like I, I
don't doubt that at all, but you just have those moments, right?
You just kind of start getting a little religious and you know,
you're controlling heart. You're just kind of, and you're
looking at that dude. There's like prostate on the
floor and they're all like giddy and excited and let's go, you
know, and you're like, what is up with that guy?
Like, doesn't he know how hard life is?
Doesn't he know how, like, I mean, or a trial is going to
come that dude's way at some point and he's going to be like
me standing over there with his eyebrow up.
You know, David danced and it's just always so awkward to read,
right? In Second Samuel 6, David danced
before the Lord basically in his underwear.
I mean, or maybe I don't know, less than that, I'm not sure.
And his wife mocked him. And he's like, man, I if I was
even, I would be even more undignified than this because
the Lord has transformed my heart.
And not only that, but then you got you got Daniel right.
He's he's like praying three times a day.
The cops are after him, so to speak, like don't pray three
times a day. And the dudes like it doesn't
matter. I'm doing it so much so that he
gets thrown in the lion's den. David continues right second
Samuel 623. There's finds out that his wife
because of her hardness of heart and is unable to have kids.
And that doesn't always happen. That's not what always happens.
But in this case, in this particular case, God is showing
us that when you find fault with people who genuinely worship
God, when your heart is full of religion, there's a sense of
barrenness in your life. And that's there's a, there's a
sense of like man, like, and God's saying like man, whether
it's physical or not physical, it doesn't matter.
But just there's a, there is a barrenness in our life when we
don't recognize how much God has transformed us.
And Judas with his hard heart is just like man.
We could use this, you know, to benefit the poor.
And he has no desire to really do that.
Not only that, but so true worship gives our best.
True worship is self forgetful. And also true worship unlock
unlocks insights and revelation and discernment in our life.
She knew that Jesus was going to die.
Do you know she was the only one at that party that knew what's
going to happen in the next week?
That's pretty remarkable considering that Jesus had 12
disciples, including Judas, including Peter the rock star,
right? They, they were all together
with him for 3 1/2 years. And this is the last week that
they're with Jesus and they're like and if you notice in a
look, look with me to Mark or I'm sorry, Matthew 26.
I just want you to see this for yourself.
Matthew 26. It's the same story here when
Jesus was in Bethany, the home home of the Simon the leper in
verse 8, it says, but the disciples were indignant.
John doesn't capture that. Maybe for, I don't know, his own
purpose. I, I don't know.
He doesn't say anything about the disciples, including
himself, the writer, but he's, he's looking, he's like, I'm,
I'm, I'm looking at this. I'm like, man, you would think
the disciples would be cheering Mary on, but they don't.
Why is that? Why does Mary not use this
precious perfume on her brother Lazarus's funeral?
Why doesn't she use it even she doesn't even use it.
It says preparing, it says let her alone.
She's like, so she may keep it for the day of my burial.
Jesus shows us that he that yes, maybe she understood about the
burial, but she didn't even use it because Mary Magdalene was at
that site. She didn't even go at the foot
of the cross. What is so remarkable about this
woman is that she knew something everybody else didn't know.
Why is that? Why do you think that is?
Why do you think that Mary, out of all the people in that room,
of all the people that Jesus interacted with, she was the
only person that knew that Jesus was going to the cross to die
for her sins. How many times have you guys,
when you read through the Gospels, how many pauses,
there's this amazing story of Jesus healing somebody and then
school in the Pharisees and all these, I mean, he's just like
going for it. But there's like every like
almost every 3 pages, Jesus inserts something.
What is he inserting? One day I'm going to die and
three days later I'm going to rise.
He says it explicitly and all these guys don't have a clue
what's going on. Why is that?
Because Mary was at the feet of Jesus.
If you could, if you could see, like if you could see just the
like in a movie, you know, sometimes you see these clips,
you're like, you don't know, you don't know really what's
happening until the very end. And they're just showing you
these clips. Oh my goodness, that was the bad
guy. That was the guy.
They're showing you all these clips.
How like they, they manipulated the people on scenes and stuff.
If you can almost see the same thing with Mary, like as you
kind of go back on her life and you see this moment of like
Jesus is affirming it, let her alone.
Like that's just the same as saying stop bothering her, leave
her alone. She's doing something remarkable
that even that my disciples don't even understand.
She understands something incredible.
Why is that? As you're looking at these
scenes, all you see their whole life, Mary's at the feet of
Jesus. Luke and Luke 10, right?
She's at the feet of Jesus. Martha's in the kitchen.
And then you see it in John chapter 12.
She's at the feet of Jesus constantly.
She's at the feet of Jesus where her brother when her brother was
dying. Remember last last last week,
John Chapter 11, Mary is there at the feet of Jesus, literally
throws herself at the feet of Jesus.
Guys, there's incredible revelation, incredible insight,
incredible discernment that I wish I could just tell you story
after story of story in my life where God gives me something and
we're like, how in the world, you know that I don't know.
But just when you sit at the feet of Jesus long enough, he
reveals things. There's a friendship with God
that he's inviting all of us into.
You know, John, what's what's crazy about this is that he's in
Psalm. I think someone just prayed this
over me earlier in Psalm, the first part, Psalm 24 or 25, it
says the friendship with God or the secrets of heaven is
revealed to those who fear him. 2514 John chapter 15.
He says, hey, slaves don't know what what their owner is doing
with the with the master is doing.
But I tell you, you're my friends and I'm revealing more
to you than I would to anyone else.
And that's why it's so important word worship and prayer.
I was listening to something earlier this week that, that
there's a pastor that said he was in some meeting just
recently and he, he shared, he just was curious, you know, did
some stats curious how many pastors this is pastors, not not
regular congregants, just pastors in a room who are
leading organizations, churches around the world.
And he asked, Hey, how many of you get up in the morning and
spend time with Jesus every morning?
Like just word worship and prayer, 10% of the room.
I know that's not a an issue here.
So many of you just that is so a part of your routine.
The last 25 years, my life just spending time with Jesus.
No matter the roller coaster of life, you just are with the Lord
and he reveals things to you. There's a friendship, there's a
relationship that you get to experience with God.
He is inviting you into that. It's amazing.
And then he asked the same, this pastor asked the same with the
students because he was at a college event.
He said, look, I'm just curious how many students in this
college ministry spend time tomorrow morning?
How many you're going to get up in the morning and spend time
with God. Just a few hands.
He didn't say 10%, but just a few hands kind of darted around
the room. I'm thinking to myself, I'm
like, how does that even work? I don't even understand how that
works, but Jesus is inviting us into how do you I love this and
and Mark was it chapter 14 verse 9 says whatever the gospel is
preached in the world. What she has done, what she has
done will be told in memory of her.
How do you want to be remembered and then amazing like every time
the gospel is preached. Even today on Easter Sunday is
the gospel is going forth from this little place called Oviedo
right. We're talking about this woman
like talk like, let that be. I mean, if you don't believe
that the word of God is true as it's, I mean, you have to
wrestle with that. I personally believe without a
doubt in my mind that God's word is true.
And what I'm proclaiming here is that Jesus said that one day,
2000 years later, they're going to be pastors that are going to
be preaching the gospel and they're going to be mentioning
this woman who gave it all. That's pretty amazing.
That's pretty remarkable. He didn't say that about Martha,
although Martha, it's great. He didn't say that about his
disciples, Peter. He didn't say that about anyone
else in Scripture except her, this woman who got her life
rocked by Jesus. And it wasn't just because her
brother was raised from the dead, but because she spent time
with him every day and understood anytime that they
were together, she was learning, humbly learning from him.
There's something so precious about that.
And but then there's. I just want to land on this.
There's a few things here, but they're just the five reactions.
We've only mentioned 2. That was Martha, that was Mary
and Judas. Judas wants to appear pious,
generous, but actually doesn't really care about the poor.
He was ruled by what ambition, selfishness and greed.
Anybody dealing with those three, we all have.
We've all dealt with those things, some more than others,
but this is what Judas was all about.
Romans 7 says we struggle with all these things all the time,
but I think Jesus, he allows the Holy Spirit, right?
He puts this in this text because it's not just about
Mary. It is that's the focal point.
But he wants to show what a heart corrupted by sin would
look like if it continues to to rain.
What is interesting here is that that the Judas, you have to
understand Judas was about one thing.
He was about Jesus politically ruling in the day.
He wanted to overthrow Rome and he was indignant.
He was furious, mad at Mary. Why?
Because he's like, man, do you know what we could do with this
money had nothing to do with the poor.
He's thinking this money could be used for a political
campaign. We could actually do this.
We could actually overthrow Rome.
We could actually have a nice utopia right here in the United
States. We could right here.
We could have, we could have we politically, this is what we're
living for, right? We just like the conservatives,
whatever, you know, service liberals, all that people who
are just all in for politics and kind of use Jesus for their own
means. When she, when he saw Mary come
in and throw everything at her feet, at his feet, what that
showed was that this thing ain't happening.
We're not, we're actually not going to rule and reign because
what she showed is this man's going to actually die for our
sin. She believed it out of everyone
else in the room. There was something so deep in
her heart and in his heart, so shallow, right?
It's sad how you can be right next to Jesus and still not get
it. It's sad how you can literally
be next to the Lord for 3 1/2 years and not understand how
many church people, churchgoers in America right now are like a
Judas. They would never call themselves
Judas's. Never.
They would never in their right mind dream of calling themselves
a Judas. But yet they are because they
actually don't know God. Do you know there's a lot of
Judas's out there? A lot of them.
Do you know why they're Judas's? Because they actually really
don't know God. Why you don't spend time with
God every day is because you don't know Him.
Why you actually don't get up in the morning, open your Bible.
It's because you've never been transformed.
That's the only reason why. It's not because of time.
It's not because you're busy. It's what you're going to tell
Jesus, like when you died. Like, I was just really busy
like you. You can't do, I mean, Mary,
Mary's like, I don't even know what time it is.
Like what time is it? It doesn't even matter.
He just all she saw was this man who shared in her sorrow and
with someone who really cared and loved her deeply and was
going to the cross to die for her sin.
If you try to gain your life, you'll lose it.
You try to keep it, hold on to it.
You're going to lose it. It's elusive.
But if you lose your life like she did, you'll find it.
And I love that Jesus defends her.
Judas. Just leave her alone.
Stop bothering her. Stop.
Your heart's corrupt. You just want to live for
yourself. It's not even about money.
You're like, I don't even deal with greed.
I don't deal with money. Maybe you deal with selfishness.
Maybe if you're honest, your whole life is wrapped up in you
and Jesus is saying please. That is why you get upset when
you see somebody radically following Jesus and giving
everything. It doesn't make sense to you is
it didn't make sense to Judas. It did not make sense to Judas
because he never experienced transformation.
And then fourthly, it says here, the large crowd of Jews then
learned that he was there and they came not for Jesus sake
only. Isn't that interesting?
That's why I love the Bible. There's so many little Nuggets
in there, right? Not for Jesus sake only, but
that they might also see Lazarus whom they raised from the dead.
You know what they were in it for?
Do you know how many people come?
The reaction, the 4th reaction, You don't have people come to
church because they want to see a miracle.
They want to see a cessation. They want to see people.
Wow, look at that guy. Wow, he's amazing.
He's, he's awesome. Wow, look at him, look at him.
Look at him. Look at him, look at him.
It's so man. Worship, worship, worship man,
worship man, worship man. It's amazing.
Do you ever feel like that? Do you know some churches, most
churches in America, it's all about a it's all about a man.
It's all about what man can do. Wow, he's so amazing.
He's so gifted. He's so amazing.
Wow. Like I don't care about any of
that stuff. Does everybody just want to come
and see the glory of God? Does anybody here have a pulse
and want to see the glory of God?
Like that is what it's about. Do you understand?
Like all they were like, hey, the large crowd, it's always the
large. It's always 17 people, 1 was
corrupt, 17 people, 16 of them of which are OK, One of them was
corrupt. Small.
It's always the small. It's always the few who get it.
Do you understand that? Please be the few who get it.
It's not the large, it's not the amount of people.
It's not all these people coming up.
Woo revival. I, I, I'm all about revival, but
I want real transformation, real revival.
Because you don't have to constantly keep prodding people
along. It's like nobody had to tell
Mary, go upstairs. Now is the time.
She just knew it was the time. This is what she wanted to do.
Nobody was forcing her to go on mission.
Nobody was forcing her to give money.
No one's forcing her to do anything.
No one's forcing her to give her time fully to the King and his
Kingdom. Shallow people came not for
Jesus sake, but for the miracles.
Isn't that interesting? They weren't the hostile crowd,
but they weren't also committed like Mary.
They weren't committed. They were.
They were what we call what lukewarm.
They were neither hot nor cold. And Jesus says this, I'm going
to spit you out of my mouth. Why is he going to spit you out
of your mouth? Not because when you when you
consume something that's healthy, that's good, it digests
right. When you when something's out of
the ordinary, when something doesn't fit right, you spit it
out right. If it's too, it's too hot or
right, it's you spit it out of your mouth.
It's not right. Something's not right and
something's not right with people who are lukewarm.
Something's not right. And Jesus is giving us a chance
to repent of that. Of course.
You see, there's a bunch of people today who when
everything's going really well, they shout Hosanna, blessed be
the King, and then days later they say what?
Crucify him? There's a lot of fickle people,
and Jesus knows that. But what Jesus is looking for
and what he will remember 2000 years even later right now is on
his heart is Mary. And then lastly, but the chief
priest plan to put Lazarus to death verse 10.
Also because on the account of him many of the Jews were going
away and we're believing in Jesus.
They wanted to kill him. But there's no one neutral guys,
everybody in this room, no one neutral, no one neutral, no one
could ultimately be neutral with Jesus says in Luke 11 verse 23,
he was not with me as against me.
Matthew 6 says you can't serve God and Mammon or money or
whatever that might be. It's not both one or the other.
And I think Jesus is where I want to.
I mean, there's so many different ways, so many
different landing points. But I was thinking about my kids
like what, you know, like I, I have this whole drawer like this
big, like, like this huge drawer full of all the stuff that they
gave me that, you know, have all these spelling errors on it.
And you know, whatever. Just when they were like 5 or 6
or younger, maybe a little older.
And I don't know, I don't know why I keep them all because
they're, they're precious, right?
I mean, they're, they just mean a lot.
They maybe if there's a fire that happens in my house, I
mean, there's only a few things, you know, you have maybe about
30 seconds to before the whole thing burns down.
You only have about 30 seconds to take what is most precious to
you. And so I was thinking I was
like, man, what would I take that is most precious to me.
What is most precious to me? And it's my kids hearts, right?
And how they display that heart is by just writing awkward notes
with stick figures on it that says thank you for the date
night, daddy, or, you know, just something simple or happy
birthday or it's their hearts. And I believe Jesus is the same
way with us, right? It's like, men, what I want is
your heart. I want your heart.
I don't care about your gift. I mean, if you're going to come
and get some big gift, be like, man, that was great.
You're just like Ananias and Sapphira.
He doesn't care about that. He doesn't care about your
selfish ambition and what you're going to do for the Lord.
He just cares about your heart. He just wants you.
That's what he wants. He wants you.
It's crazy to think about that, but that's what he wants more
than anything else. And that's what I want, right?
I mean, as a parent, I get it. I mean, I want my kids heart.
I don't want them to just impress me and do something or
spend all this money on something they don't really have
or, you know, just, but just the simplicity of I love you.
I want to be with you. That's, that's what, that's what
Jesus wants. And you know what, you can't
force that. I can't force that upon you, but
it kind of has to come from within.
And so maybe if you know, if you're not, if you're feeling
like, man, I don't really understand any of this stuff
because what I know is in a room like this, especially on an
Easter Sunday, what I do know, I know this, but there are people
are like, man, I'm convicted. I want, I don't know if I'm
giving my all like I, I, I, I'm convicted, I'm cut to the heart
like the Lord is disciplining us.
He disciplines those he loves. But then there are others who
are like me. I have no idea what that guy
just talked about. I have no clue what he's saying.
And if you're like, I have no clue what you just said, you're
not transformed. You don't have the Spirit of God
living in you testifying to the scriptures that he's real.
But what I want more than anything else is for you to be
transformed. I want that for you.
I want that more than anything. That'd be the greatest, greatest
Easter present ever is to for your heart to be transformed for
your heart to say for the first time.
And I, I want God, I don't know him.
I don't know him like that. I, I mean, I'm so far, I think
I'm more of a Judas than a Mary for sure.
I think I'm more of a Martha. I've busy myself up with so many
different things and I don't slow down enough to spend time
with this Jesus who's transformed my life.
I want to hear from him. I want to be with him.
That's what he I think that's what the Lord is extending his
hand. He's like, man, you could know
me like that. You could literally know me like
Mary does. There's no difference between
her and anyone else in the room. You he can you can know him that
way. He plays no favorites.
In the Bible it says God plays no favourites.
He just wants our hearts. You can't.
I for so long we were like we look at Mary like wow, that's a
superhero like that could never I would never sell my house and
give everything away. There are people that have done
that in the world that may not be what he's asking.
He might be just asking something so simple.
It's like just meet with me tomorrow as it's worth it.
He might just be asking you do I don't know what it is.
I don't want to put ideas in your head.
I just know that would between you and the Holy Spirit.
He's asking you for your heart and there are places in your
heart that you're resisting. And what he's saying is if you
just give it to me, the the greatest joy of your life will
be embracing, not resisting. And as you embrace the Lord and
he embraces you, man, that will be to your joy.
It'll be to your joy. There are things right now that
are holding you back from an all out encounter with God.
And I know some of you guys want an encounter with God, a genuine
encounter with God. He wants to give you that to
you. So I'm just going to pray for
you in the room. Lord, we just thank you for what
you're doing. God in this house, we thank you
for all the, the work, the busy work.
We're doing so much. There's so many great things and
we're so thankful for that. I really am.
I'm and I know that you're proud of this church for it's this
season. It's been a year, one calendar
year. It's been so many great things
that you've done in this church. We know there's more.
We know there's places in our heart even right now that we're
resisting. We're holding back because of
fear, because of unbelief, because we still are selfish and
we still want, we still think life's still kind of about us.
And there's just this selfishness that's still raining
in our hearts. And Lord, would you uproot that
so we can live selflessly in love with you and know you in a
deep way. We thank you for what you're
doing in our lives. We thank you for the word that
trans is transforming. We want to embrace it all.
We we, we don't want any part of us to resist what we want to
embrace. Lord, we, we just repent.
We repent for being selfish, for living for ourselves, for not
doing things your way, for being having selfish ambition, for
being cold, for whatever it is. God we just we're we repent of
those things and maybe even just for we're just coming to see a
show coming to see something just something for entertainment
purposes. We're sorry for that.
We want to be like Mary. We want to see what she saw.
Help us to see what she saw. She saw something so different
than no one else saw. No one else saw that but her
because of the simplicity of opening up the word spending
time with you in Word worship prayer daily.
It's worth it and I pray Lord that we would commit to a life
like that. Lord that it says that we if
we've been forgiven much. We would love much and Lord, I
pray that we would recognize how much truly we have been forgiven
for that that would cause us to worship you, cause us to to give
our lives fully to you in Jesus name.
I just want to invite you up to the front if you, if you feel
just wanting to repent of whatever it is, you know, I
mean, look, the empty tomb, it's amazing.
The only way that we're forgiven of our sin is because of the
empty tomb that it actually worked.
Like Jesus said everything that he said is actually true because
you proved it by resurrecting from the dead.
So we could trust him on this word.
But right now what I need you to do is not do some theological,
you know, ascent or I need you to do business with God, do
business with God. Like don't pride yourself that
you're this fantastic person, but just go to him and just say
God, you are the perfect one. I want to know you.
I want you to convict me of my sin.
Discipline me as a father, disciplines his son or daughter
for the purpose of having a heart clean, clean and cleansed
by God so that I would have joy again and give my life fully to
him and experience a little taste, just a little bit of what
Mary got to experience in that that afternoon.
Amen. All right.