You know, there's an interesting passage in the book of Hebrews,
chapter 12, which is not our text, but I just want to remind
you of this verse where we're told to offer up to the Lord
acceptable worship for we have received a Kingdom that cannot
be shaken. You're part of that Kingdom.
If you're in Christ, you're, you're experiencing a taste of
that in this very room that while everything around us is
shaking, you've been adopted and you have inherited a Kingdom
that cannot be moved. You're part of a program, a
cause, a hope that can never be taken from you.
I just love to know that I have a future that is secure.
And so do you. If Christ Jesus is your master,
and if He's not your master today, my hope is that after you
hear about Him, you would not wait a moment before you bend
the knee and give yourself to Him and believer if you do know
Him, but maybe your heart has grown cold over the past few
days or weeks. My prayers that this passage
that we will study will warm it again and you will find yourself
at His feet. So turn with me to Mark chapter
14 and our main focus is going to be the first 9 verses, but I
want to read the 1st 11 verses just to have a wider
understanding of what is taking place here.
Mark 14 beginning in verse one. And here's what the Word of God
says. It was now two days before the
Passover and the Feast of Unleavened Bread, and the chief
priests and the scribes were seeking how to arrest him by
stealth and kill him, for they said not during the feast, lest
there be an uproar from the people.
And while he was at Bethany, in the House of Simon the Leper, as
he was reclining a table, a woman came with an alabaster
flask of ointment of pure nard, very costly, and she broke the
flask and poured it over his head.
There were some who said to themselves indignantly, Why was
this ointment wasted like that? For this ointment could have
been sold for more than 300 denarii and given to the poor.
And they scolded her. But Jesus said, leave her alone.
Why do you trouble her? She has done a beautiful thing
to me. For you always have the poor
with you, and whenever you want you can do good for them, but
you will not always have me. She has done what she could.
She has anointed my body beforehand for burial.
And truly I say to you, wherever the gospel is proclaimed in the
whole world, what she has done will be told in memory of her.
Then Judas Iscariot, who is one of the 12, went to the chief
priests in order to betray him to them.
And when they had heard it, they were glad and promised to give
him money, and he sought an opportunity to betray him.
Lord, I'm fully convinced that unless you help take these
truths and these insights and wrap them in your power, the
effect of what this message is intended to produce in our lives
will not be accomplished. So I ask you, with complete
dependency and the presence of your people, with your people,
we ask you, touch our hearts. You've designed this truth.
You have preserved this testimony to do that, and so we
pray that You would assist the delivery of this word with the
grace that would minister to the innermost parts of who we are.
This is our heart. Cry together.
And so, Lord, whatever weakness is on this platform, may you
cover it with your power and may we experience that power
together. In Jesus name we pray.
Amen. In the plain reading of this
passage, we see here that Mary's beautiful act of devotion, and
you're not told it's Mary here, but you're going to find out it
is Mary. That this displaying this
demonstration of love being lavished upon Christ is
surrounded by two other texts that are meant to describe the
plot to destroy the Lord Jesus Christ.
Did you catch that? Look again at verse one and two.
I won't read it, but just your eyes can catch it.
We read here about how the chief and the scribes, the chief
priests and the scribes were seeking how to arrest them.
And then we go into Mary giving her heart over to the Lord.
And then at the end of that scene, you look at verse 10 and
what do you read? Then Judas Iscariot, who's one
of the 12, visited the chief priest to plan to betray him.
This is not accidental. This is intentional.
And what you have here is Mark trying to highlight this woman's
exemplary type of devotion by surrounding it with this tragic
disloyalty and deception on the part of the chief leaders and
Judas. And this is one example among
many, which is a useful reminder for us that not all biblical
authors were strictly bound to adhering to this chronological
timeline of describing events. Mark here and and other other
authors from time to time will actually organize their accounts
thematically. And when they try to convey a
theme or want to try to teach a lesson with a theme, they will
even go to the point of putting the order of things in different
places. And why that's important is this
is an ancient practice and this is something that you and I have
to understand because people will kind of look at the Gospels
and say, well, this contradicts that.
And, and it's not, it's not a contradiction.
It's because back then there was this kind of habit of writing in
a way in which they weren't strictly adhering to this kind
of timeline of events. And more importantly, this is
the Holy Spirit inspiring this for us.
And So what you have here just in the overview of the text is
you have the structure of the Scripture here highlighting and
contrasting true devotion with terrible disloyalty.
And if the structure of the Scripture can speak to us in
itself, how much more the substance of it?
And so you and I have to pull our chairs in a little deeper
because we're going to prepare to feast on what it is that the
Holy Spirit wants to say between these verses.
And so let's look at verse one and two again.
We read here that in these two verses in the introductory part
of this chapter, that the chief priests and the scribes were
seeking how to arrest them by stealth and kill him.
They've reached the boiling point.
Enough is enough. He's embarrassed us enough.
He's winning too many people already.
We have to come up with a plan to destroy this Jesus of
Nazareth. And this came after the Lord
concluded his teachings about the end of the world and his
triumphant return to the earth. He's wrapping up and he already
has already. And we find him now dining at
the house being hosted by some of his followers.
And the person who owned this house was Simon the Leper.
He's an interesting character that we can't spend too much
time on. Obviously, he's not a leper at
this point. He must have been healed because
a leper can't host people at his house.
But here he is with Christ, the one who changed his life surely,
And others who are going to find out are in the presence of Jesus
as well. And when you read these verses,
you almost get the impression. It's a false impression that
while Christ is being treated and loved and adored and
honored, he is unknowingly being plotted against by his enemies.
And that is not the case at all. Christ is not absent minded of
what's taking place behind the scenes and the only way that you
can capture that truth is when you go to Matthews parallel
account of the same teaching. So go to Matthew 26 and I want
you to look at the first few verses for you to see the full
picture here of what's taking place with Christ.
So let me remind you as you're turning there that in the 1st 2
verses of Mark, we're told by the narrator that there's a plot
against Christ, and then the scene shifts to the Lord who is
reclining at table with those who were not his enemies but His
allies. But look what Matthew says in
the first verses of Matthew 26 when Jesus had finished all
these sayings. Pause.
What sayings? The sayings that you and I have
been studying for Mark 13, all the discourse about the last
days. It's the same here in Matthew
26, when Jesus had finished all these sayings, He said to his
disciples, you know that after two days the Passover is coming
and the Son of Man will be delivered up to be crucified.
Then the chief priests and the elders of the people gathered in
the palace of the high priest, whose name was Caiaphas, and
plotted together in order to arrest Jesus by stealth and kill
him. Do you see it?
What does Matthew add? He adds the fact that Jesus was
completely aware of what the chief priests and the elders and
the scribes were planning against him.
He was fully acquainted with their plans.
And this is what we're supposed to get from this.
Because even before the chief priests gathered, look at that
word in verse three of Matthew 26, Then the chief priests.
So they didn't even have, they didn't even come together yet to
talk about it. They didn't even have the chance
to scheme it. And yet, in verse one and two,
Christ already reveals to his own disciples, I know what's
coming, and I'm telling you what's coming to your great
comfort and mine. Nothing takes our God by
surprise. Nothing.
Even before a plan is conceptualized, Jesus Christ
knows every step in it, every ingredient of it.
Christ is fully aware and that should instill a rock solid
confidence in your soul that should cause you to be able to
go to bed sweetly and soundly every single night because there
is no accident. There is no doctor report, there
is no sudden persecution. Absolutely nothing catches Him
by surprise. And if you hold the hand of Him
who knows every single one of your tomorrow's, the more you
mature in that truth, the more you're aware of that, the more
you allow your heart to believe it, the less you'll be caught
off guard as you travel through this life.
But there's more to rest in, even in this truth because
notice what the chief priests and the elders and the scribes
decided to do in terms of the timing of arresting Jesus and
killing him. It's in Mark, but if you're
there in Matthew, it's also there.
Look at Matthew 26 verse 5. But they said, what did they
say? Not during the feast, lest there
be an uproar among the people. So this was so important to them
as they're planning out to finally pull the trigger and and
get a hold of this Jesus of Nazareth.
They decided that we can't do this during the Passover.
There's no way there will be public outrage if we apprehend
them and put them on trial. And so let's wait till everybody
goes home, the city gets quiet once more, and we can do this
with greater stealth. And what's interesting here is
that when you read the Gospels and if you study the Gospel,
then you understand what That Jesus Christ was crucified
during the feast and that it was made a public affair.
Thousands of eyes were there to behold this tragedy.
Telling us what? That God overturned the plans of
His enemies. They wanted to do it after the
feast, but God ensured providentially that would happen
during the feast. Do you know why?
Because no matter what the enemies of Christ hoped for, it
was already planned and prepared that the Son of God would
fulfill what the Old Testament pronounced and pointed to, that
the Lamb of God would take away the sins of the world.
And the Lamb of God was to be slain when all those other lambs
were slain. To show these things are futile.
The one who is suspended between heaven and earth, He is the Lamb
of God, and He's the only one who can take away the sin of the
world. So what do I make of this then?
Here's what you make of it. Now only does God know what will
take place, but He also ensures that His plan will take place.
You can't lose, Christian, if this God is your God.
And we see Christ here even in these verses given to us in form
of narration, giving you and I the hope to trust that he's in
control. He is in control.
But this whole thing is not primarily about Jesus proving
his ability to deal with his rivals.
We're not talking about one single plan here.
There is another plan in this story, not from an enemy, but
from a lover of Christ, not from a foe, but a friend.
And it's this woman that we read about briefly.
She appears on the scene in our original text in Mark chapter
14. I want you to look at verse
three again once more. And while he was at Bethany in
the House of Simon the Leper, as he was reclining at table, a
woman, a woman came with an alabaster flask of ointment of
pure nod, very costly, and she broke the flask and poured it
over his head. John tells us in John chapter 12
verse three that this woman was no other than Mary of Bethany.
And this is not the first time that the Lord Jesus interacted
with Mary of Bethany or her siblings.
There is a total of three accounts in the Gospels where
Jesus with Mary providing us profound truths in the
relationship with one another. And it is no different here.
We read here of a familiar scene, if you grew up in the
church, that this woman, she comes and she provides something
for Christ, this perfume. And though there is difference
here between the Gospel accounts, there's one thing that
Matthew, Mark and John agree on, and that is how expensive this
ointment was. Look again at verse 5, and you
get an idea of what kind of value we're dealing with here.
For this ointment could have been sold for more than 300
denarii and given to the poor. So you're talking about the
wages of a commoner, salary bottled up in that one flask.
And something compels Mary of Bethany, who knew Jesus.
This is the last time she's going to interact with Jesus.
But something moved her soul in this public sphere, though, in a
home. Many people packed in that place
to break open this flask and to anoint Jesus with it.
The question is why? What moved her to do this?
And Jesus gives you the answer. It's in verse 8.
And if you understand what Christ is saying here, you will
realize how remarkable this woman was.
It says she or she has done what she could.
She has anointed my body beforehand for burial.
Do you see this? Christ, knowing her heart, tells
those who criticize her. You don't understand what's
taking place here. This woman is anointing me with
the revelation that I'm going to die.
This woman, and knowing that I'm going to be buried, wants to pay
tribute to me before I die. This is what Mary is operating
with, this, this knowledge that something's going to happen to
my master, and though I won't be able to see him again, I will do
what I can to lavish my loyalty and my praise and my adoration
even before others. So you know what that tells me
about Mary? Mary heard what Jesus said,
things that he told his disciples over and over again,
but she got it and they didn't. How many times did Jesus had to
explain to his disciples, I'm going to be betrayed, I'm going
to be arrested, I'm going to be tortured, I'm going to be put to
death, I'm going to resurrect. And they're staring at him like,
hey, who's the greatest among us?
Actually, that's what we're really concerned about.
And yet you have this woman who who wasn't part of the
three-year seminary like these disciples were, and she had more
insight than them. Oh, you think somebody, just
because somebody has letters beside their name in theology,
they have more spiritual insight?
Not necessarily. So I see a Mary who had more
knowledge and understanding of the purpose of Christ and those
who spend every day with him. So she really listened and she
really registered he, he's going to die.
And so at the right time, she prepares a sacrifice.
She pours out on him in preparation for his burial,
something from her own heart. But you know what makes this
even more astounding to me? Go to John chapter 12 and you'll
see it. It's worth it if you turn there,
because when you go to John chapter 12, you'll see something
similar. But there's something about the
surrounding context that adds a depth to this woman's devotion.
John 12, verse 3. Mary therefore took a pound of
expensive ointment made from pure nard and anointed the feet
of Jesus. So here we're told that she was
at his feet. Earlier.
We heard that she anointed his head and wiped his feet with her
hair. The house was filled with the
fragrance of the perfume, saying, what's insightful about
that? Oh, you can have a whole sermon
just on verse three. What comes before John chapter
12, John Chapter 11, What happens in John Chapter 11?
Lazarus dies. Lazarus is Mary's brother and
Mary and Martha reach out to Christ and ask him.
They beckon him. Please make way here because
this illness that we see our brother suffering with, it's not
going to end well unless you arrive here.
Jesus loving them, we're told in John 11 verse five, waited an
extra 2 days. You think Jesus doesn't love you
because He's keeping you waiting.
And yet we read there that Jesus loved them so he had them
waiting. He arrives on the scene and he
uses this moment for the glory of God to raise him from the
dead, to demonstrate the truth that He is the resurrection and
the life. And then you go into John
chapter 12 where Mary performs this act of devotion.
Here's my question to you. Why didn't Mary of Bethany use
her ointment to anoint her brother for burial?
Have you ever thought about that?
Why? Why was that ointment preserved
in John chapter 12 when in John Chapter 11 her brother died?
Clearly a brother that she loved deeply enough to have Christ
come enough to believe for a healing, enough to intercede for
him. Why was that ointment still
intact? You would think that she would
lavish that on her brother. Instead, we're told that she
kept it for Christ. That's the language there of
John 12, verse seven, depending on your translation.
Jesus and defending Mary says this was kept for my burial.
Can I tell you why? Because as much as Mary loved
Lazarus, she loved Jesus more. That's what we're seeing here.
As much as she adored her brother, the memories with her
sibling, her heart was committed to Christ more.
And this is the quality of worship that the Lord deserves.
This is the kind of thing that he demands.
Listen, your supreme affection that it would be poured out on
Christ above anyone or anything else.
Do you think that's true of you, my friend?
Is that true of you? Can you say that sitting at the
the pinnacle of your passion is the person of Jesus Christ?
She broke the flask. She didn't put a drop here and a
drop there. She broke the neck of it.
Communicating what? I have no intention of taking
anything back. I'm not reserving an ounce of
it. I'm going to give it all to him.
I'm not sharing this with anybody else.
And she pours it out all in Christ.
And what's amazing here is John can't help you think that he's
writing this in his humanity. No, the spirit insight incited
him to do it, caused him to write about it, that when Mary
performed this act, when she let go of that perfume, the
fragrance filled the whole room. I wonder, as John wrote this in
his gospel account, that he can remember the scent.
But there's a lesson there that this kind of extravagant worship
rarely goes unnoticed when somebody has determined in their
heart that Christ will be above everyone, everyone and
everything. In a sense, there's a fragrance
that is carried with that kind of devotion.
Some will love that fragrance. Others, like those disciples in
the room, will hate it. And that's true in your life and
mine. That kind of consecration to
Christ will woo people, will move people, will convict people
and others. It will cause them to give
another reason to despise you. But the extent of Mary's adoring
allegiance to Christ doesn't even end there.
If you thought it ends there, it doesn't.
Because we're told here from John's perspective that when she
anointed the feet of Jesus, she took her hair and dried his feet
with it. Ladies, you can imagine what
that would do to your hair. She couldn't care less.
She could have used any other instrument, she could have used
anything to dry his feet, but at the feet of Jesus, she takes her
hair and dampens his feet. And that doesn't make much sense
to you and I until you read Paul's commentary about a
woman's hair in First Corinthians 11/15.
And we're told there that one of the unique adorning works of God
for the for the woman. We believe that there is male
and female here, by the way, and only male and female.
That one of the unique adorning works of God to make a woman
distinct in her features is that he has crowned her with the
glory of her hair. Connect that with what Mary is
doing. What do you have?
You have a woman who lays her glory at the feet of Jesus.
What is she communicating there, Lord, not only in the
preservation of this bottle, even in light of recent events,
do I want to tell you that You mean more to me than anyone
else? But I'm here now with my hair to
tell you that You mean more to me than me.
You mean more to me than me. If if I have to surrender my
glory at your feet, then so be it.
Let it stay at your feet. You know, there are some people,
they, they, they won't serve God unless they get some glory out
of it. They won't confess it, but down
deep inside, that's how they feel.
Here's a woman who died to her glory and surrendered it at the
feet of Christ. Take it.
Take the ointment that I could have used on anybody else and
take the very thing that I could boast in and take it for
yourself as well. You're starting to get what's
happening here, right? Because here's let me tell you
where we're ending. Jesus said wherever the gospel
is preached, what she has done will also be told in memory of
her. That is fascinating as a
commemoration. Can you think about this?
Wherever the gospel is heralded, this woman's act of worship will
be tagged with it. So here's where we're heading.
Mary is quickly developing into a model of worship.
So this woman here, she's at his feet.
But it doesn't end there. You come back to Mark 14.
Please look at verse 4. Your heart is moved by this.
I hope my heart's been moved by this.
But not everybody feels the same way.
Look at verse four. There were some who said to
themselves indignantly, why was this ointment wasted like that?
For this ointment could have been sold for more than 300
denarii and given to the poor. How in the world could anyone
scold the scene? How can anyone feel the liberty?
Even if you internalized it? How could you even be visited by
such emotions and thoughts at this splendid display of
surrender? It's not surprising until you
look at John's account of it. I know you're flipping back and
forth, but this is what the Bible makes you do.
I'm sorry, when when you go to John, only John tells us who's
the instigator of this complaining.
Can you guess who it is among the 12?
John 12, verse five. But Judy, Judas Iscariot.
Judas Iscariot, one of his disciples, he was about to
betray him, said why was this ointment not sold for 300
denarii and given to the poor? So we're told by John, it's
Judas who spoke out. And then when you come back to
Mark and you see it in Matthew, it says some other disciples.
So how do we connect this? It's very easy.
Judas started it and then the others followed.
Complaining is contagious. Yeah.
And it takes a very spiritual man, a very discerning
individual in the presence of a murmur to not be contaminated by
it. So Judas speaks out.
And unfortunately, many of the disciples at this time did not
have that level of spiritual strength.
And so they joined in. And the chiding, You know,
that's why I'm very careful listening to people who
criticize those who serve God, especially without evidence.
I'm very, very slow to take what they have to say into
consideration. Because Judas here seems to be
righteous in his criticism, right?
This could have been sold for the poor.
The guy embezzled the money. The guy was a thief.
You know what's so tricky about Judas?
You and I studied about the Bible enough to know, and that's
become even a public term to describe somebody who's a
betrayer or traitor, right? He's a Judas.
She's a Judas. The disciples didn't feel that
way about Judas until after the fact.
In fact, when Jesus says one of you is going to betray me, what
did the disciples say? Is it I, Lord?
Is it I? Judas wasn't suspicious.
You know, if you think, Oh, yeah, if I was there and I heard
Jesus say that, I would lean over to Andrew, say it was
Judas. It's been Judas all along.
I knew it. No, they had no idea.
Isn't that scary? You can have a Judas in the
midst and not even know it. Really.
Wow. So here's Judas criticizing this
wonderful worshipper. He convinces others about the
criticism. Hey, listen, be careful what
other people say, especially about people who serve God.
And what I find here so amazing is that Jesus comes into her
defense. Look at verse six.
But Jesus said, but Jesus said, leave her alone.
Why do you trouble her? She has done a beautiful thing
to me. So you could just imagine the
scene, right? You have Christ reclining, you
have Mary anointing his head and at some point anointing his feet
and she's there with her hair drying his feet.
Judas is standing with the disciples behind him saying,
look at this, we could have done something for the poor.
What a waste. And some of the disciples says,
yeah, Lord, come on, this is just, this is a little too
extreme. And Jesus said, leave her alone.
Why do you trouble her? She has done a beautiful thing
to me. Don't expect carnal people to
understand worship. Don't expect people who have
never experienced Christ, like Mary who had a revelation of
Christ, to understand why you come to church once a week, more
than once a week, especially a church that has service at 1:00
PM. How inconvenient.
Don't expect everybody to understand it.
Don't, don't expect people to appreciate it.
There's some people who don't, who see what Judas saw in this
moment. A waste.
This is a waste. This is a waste of life.
This is a waste of your weekend. This is a waste of your money.
And Christ speaks up for her. But this is not about the world
criticizing a worshipper. This is supposedly disciples
criticizing a worshipper, which grants us further instruction.
There might be some who might not even understand the value of
what you do for the Lord. But who cares?
Who cares if people are not impressed with the ministry that
you're a part of? Who cares if people praise you
for the ministry that you're working in?
Do you notice what Jesus said here?
She has done a beautiful thing to me.
It wasn't beautiful to Judas and the crowd, but it was beautiful
to Christ. Isn't that enough for you to
stay motivated to serve Him? He thinks it's beautiful.
He's the one who loves it. He's the one who's moved by it.
That should be enough for you to get up another day and give Him
your heart once more to serve Him the capacity that you're in.
She has done a beautiful thing to me.
And listen, let's just make this about others maybe criticizing
or judging us. Be careful, believer, of looking
at other people and how they serve the Lord and judging them
or failing to appreciate them or encourage them.
You know, there's a verse that came to mind when I looked at
this part. It's in Romans 14.
Romans 14 deals with believers in the same church that may not
agree on certain things that may not worship in the same way.
You have some who have tasted of the grace of God, and So what?
They can go to the meat market and buy meat that has been
sacrificed to idols. And you would think that those
would be the less spiritual ones.
No, Paul calls them the strong ones because your strength is
determined by your understanding of God's grace more than
anything else. And so you had some who were
like, he's king, he's Lord. What are what are these things?
We pray over it, we give thanks for it and it's done.
It's dealt with. Let let's go, let's go grab a
steak or two. And then you had weak believers,
weak believers who maybe had that background of worshipping
in these temples. And so they they stayed away
from those kind of meats. And more than that, you had some
believers who didn't consider one day more holy than the
others, and yet others who had more strict adherence to certain
feasts and days. And so Paul here is is coaching
this church and what he's concerned about primarily for
the strong not to take advantage of their liberties to make the
weak stumble, but also for those who are weak not to judge those
who are strong and vice versa. Listen to this verse in Romans
14, verse four. Who are you to pass judgement on
the servant of another? It is before his own master that
he stands or falls and he will be upheld for the Lord is able
to make him stand. And later on, he kind of echoes
it, but he says, listen, if you're going to judge another,
realize we're all going to stand before the judgement seat of
God, meaning don't get so preoccupied about judging and
nitpicking and and trying to evaluate somebody's motives.
You have enough to worry about yourself.
You have to stand before God and give an account for your life.
But notice what he says here in verse four.
He says, why are you passing a judgment on another servant?
You're not his master. You can't confidently determine
that person's motive. You can't confidently say
whether they are this or that. Yes, there's fruit that we have
to be aware of, but this is deeper than that.
This is nitpicking and this is this is projecting.
What you think is right should be right for everybody, and what
you think is wrong should be wrong for everybody.
There's a whole stream in in the evangelical world that are
operating that kind of logic. Nothing black and white in the
Bible, but if you have that in your home, and if you do this
with your family, then you're less spiritual than this person
who doesn't have that in their home and doesn't do that.
Who are you to judge another's servant?
And then notice what he says later.
He says it is before his own master that he stands or falls
and he will be upheld, for the Lord is able to make him stand.
That means many things. Here's my favorite thing that it
means your criticism won't make him fall.
His master is going to uphold him if he is true.
That brings me comfort. I don't know about you.
That brings me great joy. That what men inside or outside
might say, that will not determine me standing on my feet
to serve my master. He's the one that determines,
he's the one that hires me, and he's the one who fires me saying
why? Why is that important?
And how's that connected? Notice that when you go back to
Mark chapter 14 and this woman who's being scolded, she doesn't
say one word. Jesus defends her the whole
time. Listen, you serve God long
enough. Satan won't let you do it
without discouraging you, putting fear in you.
Listen very closely to this. You have to understand that the
one who makes you stand or fall is your master, not any man.
And there are times in which, like Paul, where he defended his
apostleship for the sake of the gospel.
And there are other times where you have to be like Mary.
And what? Stay quiet and let Christ defend
you. I've had people tell me over the
years, you know, so and so said this, I heard this.
Maybe you should ask me, should you clarify?
I can't just run around and clarify to everybody everything
that they hear or say. I can't do that.
Christ doesn't ask that of me. And that's no way to live in my
service to Christ. Christ, this is a preview.
One day will be the one who makes a plea for me.
He's the one who will speak up for me.
He can speak up for me in this life.
Surely one day He will speak up for me in the life to come.
So let me stay busy serving the Lord, worshipping Him, and
Christ will deal with the rest. Be free today in your worship.
We come back to our main text in verse 7.
For you always have the poor with you, and whenever you want
you can do good for them, but you will not always have me.
What's Jesus saying here? Jesus is not saying that we
shouldn't take care of the poor, but this is a good word for
those who are so overly caught up in social attempts to
vindicate or to deal with people and help them.
That's important. But Jesus here prioritizes
worship, and from that worship, everything else flows.
But in context, what he's saying here is you guys are obviously
not seeing or seizing the opportunity at hand.
I'm going to die in a couple of moments here.
You're not doing what she's doing.
You're supposedly concerned for the poor.
The poor will always be there. I will not always be here.
Do you guys, are you guys seeing what's happening here?
She clearly does, and so this is an indirect way of challenging
their lack of ability to understand the moment, the
prophetic significance of what's about to transpire.
Verse 8 has rescued me early in my Christian walk about my
service to the Lord, and I hope that if if it's not registered
yet in your life, that this would be the defining moment.
Look what Jesus says in verse eight.
She has done what she could. She has anointed my body
beforehand for burial. That little phrase.
She has done what she could, has healed me 10,000 times over, has
comforted me beyond what you can imagine.
See, Christ doesn't measure the strength of our devotion the way
you and I might. He looks at your means and He
takes into consideration your motives.
So it's not about amount, it's not about the breath, it's not
about the public opinion. It's about your means as an
individual and your motives behind what you do.
Isn't that freeing? You know what's so encouraging
about this phrase? She has done what she could
remember. This is found in Matthew, and
this is found in John. Matthew and John do not include
that phrase, only Mark. What is the main theme of the
Gospel of Mark? You can say it out loud if you
know it. Jesus being what?
The perfect servant of God. Is it any coincidence that this
phrase is found here in a book that is focused on Jesus serving
God perfectly? Yes, as our fulfillment for
righteousness, but also as our example in service that this
phrase she has done what she could is here.
I'm talking to the heart that eagerly wants to serve the Lord
and make an impact for the Kingdom and wants to see as many
people touch for His glory. And you may feel limited, you
may feel like you don't have the resources or the platform or the
gifting. Remember what Jesus said about
Mary. She has done what she could.
And it is beautiful to me. It's beautiful to me, may not be
impressive to others. It might be even criticized by
this. Who cares when Christ is the one
who says she's done what she could?
And it's wonderful in my eyes. She's done what she could.
And then he says this astounding thing in verse 9.
And truly I say to you, wherever the gospel is proclaimed in the
whole world, what she has done will be told in memory of of
her. Many wonderful things were done
in the presence of Christ towards Christ, in response to
Christ. But this is a unique tribute
that Jesus gives to this woman. It's being fulfilled now in one
way that we are Speaking of her. We are reflecting the memory of
her. But for Christ to verbalize this
commemoration, to say as the gospel is spread across the
globe, so also what she has done will be told in memory of her.
In other words, Jesus wants the world to know this woman.
Jesus wants her memory to be considered, to be discussed, to
be studied. And in wrestling with this
thinking, what is it about what this woman has done for Christ
to to esteem her in such a way to make her a monument in some
sense, not to be worshipped, but to be considered.
And I believe that the fact that the Gospels included with this
testimony is meant to demonstrate the following, that
as you hear the Gospel, you would also have a strong example
of the appropriate response to the Gospel.
Mary is a model of worship. Makes sense, does it not?
That oil that she could have put on her brother or anybody else
is for you. My glory is yours.
That was her response to what? Knowing that Jesus was going to
die? What's your response?
What's your heart towards Him? That's the point.
Because what Christ said about her, He expects of you and I.
The beautiful thing that she has done is something that He
expects from His people as a bouquet of devotion to Him, man
and woman. This isn't just a sentimental
thing that women are prone to. This is what He expects of all
His disciples in the way that you can show it.
Here's where I end. You know what's so amazing about
Mary Bethany? She's mentioned three times in
the Gospel accounts. One time in Luke chapter 10,
another time in John Chapter 11, and lastly in John chapter 12 or
in Mark chapter 14, Matthew 26. If you study carefully, you know
what you'll discover about Mary of Bethany, that at some point
and every time she is mentioned, she's found at the feet of
Jesus. So in Luke 10 when Martha is
hosting Jesus, typical Middle Eastern woman running around
trying to feed everybody. Mary, we're told, was found at
the feet of Jesus listening to His Word.
John 11 Jesus arrives to Bethany News gets to Mary.
Mary runs to Jesus, and the Holy Spirit tells us that she fell at
His feet. So what did she do the first
time? She was listening to His word.
What did she do with the second time?
She was praying at his feet. And what do you find in the last
time? Worship, Listening, praying,
worshiping where? At the lowest possible point,
years ago, I wrote a poem about Mary.
Because this insight just moved me to my core.
I haven't shared it in years. I haven't even read it myself in
years. But I thought this would be an
appropriate time to end this message.
This poem is called at his feet. Find me at His feet, receiving
His words divine. Though troubles may surround me,
my peace is in the vine. Find me at His feet.
Those service demands my day. I gaze upon His beauty, lest my
heart drifts astray. Find me at His feet, as sorrows
blanket my soul. To Him I give my pain, To Him
who's in control, Find me at His feet As tears mask my face.
Confusion has paid a visit, yet my anchor is His grace.
Find me at His feet with the revelation of His death, my
ointment poured out in full, and with it my every breath.
Find me at His feet, longing for the one above.
Though voices may attack me, they are muted by His love.
Find me at His feet, my glory. Relinquish there, for in the
posture of surrender, His scent becomes my share.
Find me at His feet, drawn by the fragrance of grace.
For every other pleasure in life.
Fall short of His embrace. Find me at His feet through joy
or in dismay. In every season of my life, at
His feet is where I stay. Pray with me if the praise team
can come up, please. Thank you, believer.
Are you at His feet today or did you pick yourself up and go
somewhere else? I encourage you to find yourself
back at His feet, knowing fellowship with Him, knowing
intimacy with Him. Maybe you need to rediscover the
joy of that place, and this is your time to communicate with
the Lord and ask Him to revive. You're longing for Him.
In good times and in bad. Mary was found at the feet of
the Lord. Some people find themselves at
the feet of the Lord only in bad times.
Other people find them at good times, and they don't know how
to bring their troubles or their concerns to Him.
Mary teaches us to stay there no matter what.
If you're not a Christian in this place, Jesus invites you to
know a love that is incomparable, a love that will
have you so content in your relationship with Him that
whatever Christ asks of you, you can give it up without
hesitation. Before I even pray, I'm not
going to even pray right now. I'm going to allow you to pray.
Spend time with the Lord. In a minute or so, the team will
lead us in song, but I asked you to pull out that bottle of
perfume and pour it out on him, for he is worthy.