The Scent of a Saint | Sermon 09/24/2023

Apologia Utah

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If you would, please turn with me in your Bibles to the Gospel according to John chapter 12.

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We're on chapter 12. We're going to be in verses 1 through 11 today, church.

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This is kind of an odd title. It'll make sense soon. The title of the sermon today is,

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The Scent of a Saint. The Scent of a Saint. John chapter 12, verses 1 through 11.

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Hear now the inerrant and infallible words of the living and true God. Jesus, therefore, six days before the

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Passover, came to Bethany where Lazarus was, whom Jesus had raised from the dead.

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So they made him a supper there, and Martha was serving, but Lazarus was one of those reclining at the table with him.

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Mary then took a pound of very costly perfume of pure nard, and anointed the feet of Jesus, and wiped his feet with her hair.

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And the house was filled with the fragrance of the perfume. But Judas Iscariot, one of his disciples, who was intending to betray him, said,

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Why was this perfume not sold for three hundred denarii and given to poor people? Now he said this, not because he was concerned about the poor, but because he was a thief.

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And as he had the money box, he used to pilfer what was put into it. Therefore Jesus said,

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Let her alone, so that she may keep it for the day of my burial. For you always have the poor with you, but you do not always have me.

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A large crowd of the Jews then learned that he was there, and they came, not for Jesus' sake only, but that they might also see

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Lazarus, whom he raised from the dead. But the chief priests planned to put

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Lazarus to death also, because on account of him, many of the Jews were going away and were believing in Jesus.

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Thus ends the magnificent word of God. Let's pray as a church.

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God, I pray that you would allow us to see the beauty and glory, even in the verses that don't seem so highly theological.

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The stories that maybe at a quick glance can seem like,

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What can we take away from it, Lord? But I know, and you know,

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O Lord, that there's so much we can glean from this today. And I pray, dear

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God, as you've impressed these things upon me and my heart, that you would do the very same for your people.

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God, let not the enemy distract us this day. Let our focus be on you, dear

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God, and your glorious Word. God, I pray as always that we won't simply be informed, but that we would be transformed by your

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Holy Spirit. Please, God, I ask you to be with us now. In Jesus' name

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I pray. Amen. Well, church, I was very grateful for my time on sabbatical.

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But as I said, I truly am so glad to be back among you. And this week, some of you have asked how that was.

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And I was relaying some of our trips, seeing God's creation, mountaintop lakes and jagged peaks, amazing animals.

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I took a picture of a moose that was 15 feet away. And I learned later that that was very dangerous sort of thing.

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Right? And just forests. And, you know, one of the things that struck me being out there, and even sometimes hiking out here, is the fresh smell.

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Especially because, really, it had rained quite a bit before we went out on some of those hikes.

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And there's just this fresh smell in the air. And some of the forests we hiked around in wasn't simply just pine, but accompanied with that pine aroma was this, like, sweet citrusy smell along with it.

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Maybe you've experienced that before. Some spots near some oaks and willows we'd come by, and then

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I'd smell kind of a cinnamon -type smell as well. So we would just kind of stop, breathe it in, enjoy it for a moment, praise

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God. And that's all you can do. You simply praise God. You can't bottle it. You can't take it with you.

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You enjoy it in that moment, and you give God the glory. But beyond this conversation, some of us have even talked about smells of nostalgia.

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Some of you swear the smell of the air changes in autumn. I like that.

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I think I agree a little bit. Things are a bit crisper. Some of you ladies are busting out candles you don't normally do throughout the rest of the year right now, right?

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What about when you walk into the grocery store, and your olfactory system is assailed by those cinnamon pine cone things, or the brush things that they have, right?

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You look and see that they're $20, and you're like, yeah, every time I want to smell it, I'll come to the grocery store.

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But you have that all going on. I know you guys like it, right? We all like it. Believe it or not, the

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Bible speaks quite a bit to God's delight in soothing aromas.

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After God destroyed the earth by flood, Noah and his family came out of the ark, and all the animals departed to their habitations on dry ground, except for a few.

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Can you imagine being in the ark, and you're an animal, and you're like, we're almost there, and then you get used as the big offering right away by Noah to God?

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Sorry, I just can't help but think of those sort of weird thoughts. So these animals get taken, and every clean bird and animal were taken for a burnt offering.

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And it says in Genesis 8 that the Lord God smelled this soothing aroma, and He declared in that moment, at the moment of smelling the soothing aroma of the burnt offering,

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He declared, He will never destroy the earth again on account of man. God's promise to not destroy every living thing is marked with aroma.

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It's locked in His memory. It will not cease to be firmly kept as a promise. Now all throughout

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Exodus, Leviticus, and Numbers, the Word of God details even more, if you do a concordance search for aroma, how pleased

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He is with the right aromas, the pleasing smells in His house, in His temple.

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Today we will not only see a physical fragrance that is anointed to Jesus Christ, but also a spiritual aroma that is from the

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Lord. And what I'm going to exposit today is something that should be present in every single believer.

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As I said in my sermon title, we will observe the scent of a saint in John chapter 12.

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Let's go to the text now. You have your printout there, you grab your Bibles. Just real quick, we ended our last sermon three weeks ago in the

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Gospel according to John, looking at the prophecy made by the high priest Caiaphas unwittingly.

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It is profitable what that one man die on behalf of the people, and not that the whole nation should perish.

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That's what Caiaphas said. We talked about what's called penal substitutionary atonement.

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And then John finished that section with the mention of Passover. This is the final

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Passover of Jesus' earthly ministry. This is

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His last week. It's often called Holy Week.

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Then we saw Jesus went into the wild. He went into the uncultivated hill country of Ephraim.

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He wouldn't let God's timing be affected by the whims of man. In fact, we saw that.

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God's timing can never be affected by the devices and schemes of man.

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But here now, at the turn of the tide, Jesus will walk

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His final steps into His master's plan, His Father's master plan,

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I should say, for the salvation of a multitude near innumerable.

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Verse 1 says, Jesus came back to Bethany where Lazarus was, whom

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Jesus had raised from the dead. John is saying they were back near danger.

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Do you remember that? The apostles were afraid to go to Bethany. They were out beyond the

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Jordan. And Jesus said, we need to go to where Lazarus is, if you remember.

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And the apostles are like, that's where they're trying to kill you. Not more than two miles from there is where the conspiring

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Pharisees were. And they determined to kill Jesus. But now they're back.

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They're back in Bethany. Okay. Verse 2 says, So they made him a supper there and Martha was serving.

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But Lazarus was one of those reclining at the table with him. Excuse me.

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Maybe this was a normal supper. Maybe this was something they did with every guest in their home.

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I don't know. Maybe Jesus had to depart quickly after raising

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Lazarus from the dead, learning of the Sanhedrin's declaration over his life, and the family never got to thank him.

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This is possibly a celebratory dinner for Jesus Christ, a feast of thanksgiving towards Jesus, right before his death and resurrection.

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You know, it made me think, we have this thanksgiving in November, that is prior to the celebration of the incarnation of Christ, Christmas.

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We should probably start having a thanksgiving on Palm Sunday, like they're doing here.

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They're having a celebratory dinner a week before Jesus dies and rises again.

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Maybe we'll do that next year. That'd be cool. So, we see here

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Martha was serving Jesus. Lazarus was reclining at the table with Jesus.

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These, brothers and sisters, are the two proper responses of a believer towards Jesus.

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Serving Christ and reclining with Christ. Serving Christ and reclining with Christ.

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You see, a true disciple labors for Jesus, but also rests with Jesus.

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There is a sense in which, as those already saved by Jesus, we're giving a spiritual offering to God, and he likewise continues to pour into us.

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We rest in him. In other words, in this scene, Martha was exactly where she needed to be.

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And Lazarus was exactly where he needed to be. Serving and resting.

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Serving and resting. Both are necessary in the Christian life. And what makes them powerfully capable of fulfilling the believer is the object of them.

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You and I serving Christ. You and I resting in Christ.

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It's all about Christ. Otherwise, serving and resting means nothing if it's not about Christ.

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Because serving ourselves may seem like it will create rest. Serving yourself seems like it will create rest, but it will only make things more difficult.

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And that's what the world system is based on. Not sacrifice, not service, not giving.

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The world system is self -serving, self -priority. It's others sacrificing for you.

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It's take and not give. I made a post on social media about this a little bit.

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I said, if we more thoroughly considered God's expectations for us to serve and love others in our churches, over our expectations for others to serve and love us, we wouldn't be battling contentment and bitterness as much as we do.

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That's true. Andrew mentioned in his sermon last week, Philippians chapter 2, right before the

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Carmen Christi, the hymn of Christ of his humiliation, Paul says in verses 3 through 5,

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Do nothing from selfishness or empty conceit, but with humility of mind regard one another as more important than yourselves.

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Do not merely look out for your own personal interests. Personal interests are good. Look out for them.

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But don't only look out for your own personal interests, but also the interests of others.

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Have this attitude in yourselves, which was also in Christ Jesus. Consider the interests of others.

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This is the attitude of Christ, who came to serve rather than be served, and gave his life a ransom for many.

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Romans 12 .10, this one is really good. Romans 12 .10, be devoted to one another in brotherly love.

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Give preference to one another in honor. Preference here means to esteem someone higher than yourself.

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It's a conjugation of words in the original language. It literally means to stand back and let someone go in front of you and go forward.

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At its most basic definition here in the Greek, it's like being in a line for some very good thing.

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We're all in line, we're waiting for this very good thing, and you let someone who's far in the back take your place.

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You go to the back. That's what this word can mean. And he says to do it in honor.

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Because some of us can hear that sort of Scripture and go, oh yeah,

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I give a lot of preference to people. I'm pretty good at that. I give preference.

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But lest we divorce the heart from this, he says give preference to one another in what?

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In honor. In honor. That from the heart, in your inner being, you consider the person as more valuable.

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How easy is it to have this sort of false piety where you're like, yeah, you can go, and you're like,

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I'm the best. But how different is it to be like, you can go because you're better than me.

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Who am I? I was saved by grace. No one. You can have it.

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That's different. Martha is serving Jesus. You say, well,

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Martha doesn't get to recline with Jesus. Will she not ever? You're telling me

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Martha will never get to enjoy Jesus? In chapter 11, she got to talk with Him and enjoy a lot of His words.

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Will she not ever? If she wasn't where she was supposed to be, wouldn't

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Jesus correct her like He did in Luke chapter 10 when she was running around and the passage says that she was worried and bothered by many things.

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And Jesus said, Martha, stop. You're worried and bothered by many things, but look what

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Mary's doing. She's enjoying what's right. But He didn't do that here. She was where she was supposed to be.

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Church, sometimes the season that you're in is service.

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Service. Service. And we can often think that Jesus is less pleased with that than the reclining and resting with Him.

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Where do we assume that? Where do we get that? If the service is pure and devoted to God with a right heart,

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He delights in that. Psalm 100 says, Serve the Lord with gladness. Gladness.

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In Joshua 22 .5 it says, God's people are to serve the Lord with all their hearts, with all their souls.

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You see, there is serving Christ and others. There's serving

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Christ and others, and you're just going and you're going. And then there's serving Christ and others with gladness, with all your heart.

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As the Scripture says, there's a difference. You know? It's easy to get caught up in that.

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You're like, okay, let's serve, let's do this. Let's prepare the communion. Let's get out the trash cans.

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Let's put it all away. Serving Jesus. Are you?

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Are you? When that's done, when it's done with the right heart, your service will not feel like toil.

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That's true. Your service will not feel like toil. If your service to God feels like intense labor lately, if it feels incredibly arduous, you may be forgetting who you're ultimately serving.

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Maybe it's simply outward and not inward. We've got to keep checking that. Keep that in check all the time.

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Keep that in check. Ultimately, when you serve your children, you're serving

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God. When you serve your spouse, you're serving God. When you're serving the neighborhood, you're serving God. When you're serving your church, you're serving

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God. We get the order mixed up. Rearrange it.

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But look, there are then going to be times when you and I simply need to recline at the table with Jesus like Lazarus here.

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Some of us feel like we best connect with Jesus when we're serving, when we're walking in the good works, right?

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That word rest can make some of us feel uncomfortable. Whoa, rest?

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I'm type A. I'm go, go, go. You don't know me. I connect with Jesus by keep going and going and going like the

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Energizer bunny, right? But that word rest shouldn't make you feel uncomfortable.

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It's a biblical word. You know, have you ever had clear moments in your life when you were forced to just stop laboring and then you saw

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Christ pour into you and just serve you? Just these wonderful moments.

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You ever just had a moment of quiet? You enjoyed the majesty of Jesus Christ.

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I imagine Jesus was speaking here at the table. I don't think it was just a silent dinner. I'm sure

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Jesus is the best dinner party speaker there is. And Lazarus was breathing in the life word of the

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Son of God. He was resting in the presence and the words of Jesus. You know, it could be something practical.

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It almost sounds too simple. Grab your Bible. Have a little bit of solitude for 30 minutes.

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Be with Jesus. Go outside. Take a walk.

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Enjoy Jesus. You see, there are so many things trying to distract us today. So many things are vying for your attention.

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Things that are not bad, but then sometimes things that are bad that seek to usurp the position of Christ in our hearts.

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Sometimes we've got to turn aside the busyness. Slow down. Enjoy the

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Lord. Maybe you're like, look, Pastor Wade, it's easy.

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You get paid to study the Word of God. You get paid to do these things. You get supported by the church for this.

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You don't know my week. You don't know all my kids, the newborn. You don't know my job.

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I have to leave at 6 a .m. to just get through Salt Lake City I -15 traffic. You don't know what

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I go through. Sounds easy to read and slow down and enjoy God and be with God.

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You and I both know that's not true. I lived that life that I just described. I've done that for many years before God called me to this.

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We say these things. There is 30 minutes in our day to be with God.

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There is. There is time. Sometimes I really just enjoyed in my commute home putting on a sermon, praying, whatever it may be, times where you're forced to slow down.

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Maybe that's waiting for the airplane to pick you up. Maybe that's a time where your husband comes home.

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You finally fed the dinner to all the wild heathens. No, I'm just kidding. I'm just kidding.

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Presbyterians would be so upset. No, I'm just kidding. Look, be intentional.

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Hey, honey, can I have 30 minutes? I'm going to sit on the patio. Can you watch all them? I'm just going to read a little bit. I didn't get to do this morning.

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They all woke up so early. I'm going to go for a quick walk. I'm going to put on this sermon. Okay, honey, bring your gun.

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Don't be alone. I'm just kidding. Too much kidding. But look, there's time.

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There is time for these things. Enjoy your first love. God wants your service, but He doesn't need your service.

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God wants your service, but He doesn't need your service. Maybe you're someone who's always working, always ministering to others, but you're running on spiritual empty.

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And maybe it's become too important to you. You can't let it go. Number one,

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God might just take whatever that is away from you so that you will rest in Him.

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Number two, important thing to remember is the runner who prepares for the marathon doesn't skip eating a meal and drinking plenty of water to get hydrated for the marathon.

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He gets good rest. He or she gets good rest the night before a marathon. Gets fueled up.

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But we're running our marathons on nothing. Nothing. It's very important to rest.

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The Bible uses this word rest in several ways in both the Hebrew and the Greek. First, we see the word rest used in a way to describe the stillness of things outside of you.

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The stillness of things outside of you. Sometimes it says the land is at rest.

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People are at peace around you. God calms the waves of life around you and therefore you stop rocking around.

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God can still things outside of you. Those times give us a chance to consider the

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Lord as peacemaker. Storm maker also calms the storms.

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Second, we see the word rest used in a way to describe the stillness of things not outside of you.

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That was number one. But this word rest can be used in a way to describe the stillness of things inside of you.

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He gives that too. He gives rest on the outside and rest on the inside.

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Another word for this in the New Testament, Paul uses the word relief. Relief. He also uses this in a way to say when people have rest in their spirit, when someone has no rest in their spirit, or they have rest in their spirit.

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So that things outside of you can be raging. There's no stillness on the outside, but God can make it so there's stillness on the inside by His Spirit.

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He can do that. He gives that. On multiple occasions in Scripture, this rest, internal rest, is the kind that God gives after heavy affliction or conflict.

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You need that. You need to heal. Lazarus had been suffering from a terrible sickness.

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He was in great pain. His family was crying all around him. He was facing death right down.

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And he slipped into it. Lazarus died. He actually died.

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He had no rest in his spirit in that moment, but now he does. Now he has relief.

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Now he has rest. Sitting with Jesus makes

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His inner man sing for joy. If you're having no rest in your spirit today, if you're having no rest in your mind lately, ask the

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One who can give it. I'm not saying that's an easy thing to exhort you to do.

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Ask God for rest in your mind. Ask God for rest in your spirit. I'm not saying that like a platitude to you.

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Oh, just ask Him. That's real. You have access to the God of the universe who can and does give those things.

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That is true. That is real. We must ask. We must keep asking.

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We must keep seeking. He can give it. Don't stop seeking the presence of Jesus.

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You know what? He can do better than any sedative or prescription.

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He can. Don't stop asking.

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Don't stop seeking His Word. And finally, there's one other form of rest in the

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Bible. The other two forms of rest we just talked about had external and internal implications.

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External, internal. The last form of rest that we see described in the Bible is rest in the eternal type of rest.

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External, internal, eternal. Three rests. A Sabbath that won't simply be one day a week, but a state of being.

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In fact, the only way you can participate in the other forms of rest in a right way is because of this one.

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The Bible says there is no rest. There is no rest. The people of the world who keep sinning, they keep sinning, they're finding things to pacify their mind.

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They're finding things to sedate the fact that they know in their hearts there is a one true

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God, as Romans 1 says, and they will face Him. They're looking for these things outside of the

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One who gives true rest. True rest, eternal rest.

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And so the Hebrew and Greek meanings for this rest are united together. It means for something to cease.

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Something to stop. And it's almost always possessive, this type of rest.

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It's God's rest. It's not something humans can stumble upon. It's not something one of us can earn.

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It's God's own rest that only He can give. That He brings us into.

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Because Christ has rested from His great work, we can also enter into that rest.

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The book of Hebrews goes over that. Entering into the rest that God has given us.

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You don't need to strive or labor anymore to earn the rest of God, because no one could do it.

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No one could. Christ had to labor on our behalf. And because He rests now at the right hand of the

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Father, we can enter into that rest. We now rest.

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Because He ceased that work on the cross, because He declared it is finished, we cease from the belief and enslavement that any of our works could accomplish that type of rest.

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You know, it's like looking at one of these

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Wasatch mountain peaks. Just grab this one that's in front of us here. And when you're a young person, someone throws you a shovel and says, okay, you see that mountain?

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By the time you die, I want it moved over here. Just go stand in front of one of those things.

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One person could never do that sort of thing. Moving that mountain with a shovel.

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One person moving that. That's the way we should look at the rest we've been trying to attain in our own works.

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That's what people are trying to do all around us. They're standing before a mountain that only Christ can move.

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Only Christ can resolve. It could never be done.

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Just looking at something like that could fill you with dread. So Jesus speaks to this sort of thing.

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He says in Matthew 11, v. 28 -30, Come to Me, all who are weary and heavy laden, and I will give you rest.

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I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.

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For My yoke is easy and My burden is light. Honestly, it makes me think of what do the

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Mormons use? Come unto Christ or come unto Me. And what they are offering is something antithetical to what

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Jesus is offering here. Come unto this Christ and you'll find no rest for your souls.

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You'll find more yokes, more burdens, heavier than you can bear.

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But you and I have this rest right now. Lazarus just died, but now he reclines and rests in the presence of Jesus because he knows death is a puny enemy compared to the might of the

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Messiah. Our rest is secured. You have it now and you will always have it.

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It will be fully realized when you depart to be with your Lord. You say,

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Pastor Wade, isn't serving then the opposite of the rest you just described?

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Isn't serving then the opposite of the rest you just described, Pastor Wade? No, absolutely not.

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Not now. Not now. Not after we have entered

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God's rest already. If you're in God's rest, then the serving becomes a delight.

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That's why James called the law that once brought a curse, he calls it now the law of liberty, in Christ serving is freedom.

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And so these things are two of the biggest components of the Christian life.

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Serving Christ. Resting in Christ. You have both of these things at the same time.

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They are not at odds with each other. True disciples get to walk in these things.

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We will see shortly with Judas the major components of a false disciple, but let's continue on.

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So we saw Martha serving. Lazarus reclining. So where's Mary? Where's Mary?

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Verse 3, Mary then took a pound of very costly perfume of pure nard and anointed the feet of Jesus and wiped his feet with her hair, and the house was filled with the fragrance of the perfume.

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This account, I believe, is synonymous with Matthew 26 and Mark 14. There's not a whole lot of accounts in John that go over to the synoptic

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Gospels, Matthew, Mark, and Luke, but this is one story that does. Some people try to say that this account is the same with Luke 7.

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It is not. I don't believe that it is. Luke 7 is a situation where Jesus is at a

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Pharisee's house for dinner and a prostitute comes in and she weeps at his feet and the tears go on his feet and she wipes his feet with the tears with her hair.

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This is a different situation. It is the same, I think, with Matthew 26 and Matthew 14.

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Different from Luke 7. But what's happening here? What's happening here, right?

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First, let's consider nard. Pure nard or spike nard is an extremely expensive perfume.

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It has a strong and distinctive aroma. It is an amber -colored type oil that is derived from the nardostachys jatamansi.

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It is a flowering plant that is in the honeysuckle family that at this time only grew in the

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Himalayan mountains of Nepal, China, and India. So this is very hard to come by.

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This is very hard to acquire. It was sometimes called spike nard because the flowering plant would have these spikes coming out of it as well.

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This is a rare and exquisite export from the East. We're talking very high value.

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This is one of the highest symbols of wealth in the ancient world. Kind of like when someone possessed a family heirloom of a rare gem, a rare diamond, something like that.

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Nard perfume indicated to everyone who got the opportunity to smell its aroma that the very best is being offered right now.

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The very best. Sarah, can you put this on the table outside the front doors?

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As you leave, I want you to smell what real pure nard smells like. It is a strong aroma, so kind of open that puppy and go like this, but put that back on the table.

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I wanted you to smell what nard perfume or nard oil smells like. On your way out, take a whiff and you'll be taken back 2 ,000 years.

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Check that out. Nard right there. In Song of Solomon, nard is mentioned, believe it or not.

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In Song of Solomon 1, verse 12, it says, while the king was at his table, my perfume gave forth its fragrance.

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Perfume in the Hebrew here is literally nard. Nard. Now, I happen to be someone who believes that Song of Solomon or Song of Songs is not only about a man and woman.

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And I'm also someone as a pastor who believes that Song of Solomon is not only about Jesus and the church.

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There are some who hold that Song of Solomon is only about Jesus and the church. Song of Solomon is only about a man and a woman.

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I think it's both. I think it's mainly about a man and a woman, but I think there's great allusions to Christ and His church in Song of Solomon.

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Deeply intimate ones. The Apostle Paul recognizes this sort of thing in Ephesians 5.

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And so, what's interesting, why I'm bringing that up about Song of Solomon is that some have wondered, right here in John 12, if Song of Solomon 1 .12

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is being fulfilled. Because it says, the king is at a table. Where is Jesus? Reclining at a table.

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And the nard perfume fills the house. Song of Solomon says the same thing.

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The fragrance filled the air. Jesus is being anointed as king in a sense.

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He is royalty. Could be. Could be. You see,

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Mary is doing something very significant here. You could read this and think, oh, she's putting a bit of perfume on Jesus for His burial.

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That's what it says. Very simple. I think that would be a little too simplistic. When Mary broke this alabaster jar of pure nard and bathed the feet of Jesus with the oil, she was also demonstrating her love for Him.

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It's possible this jar may have been her only inheritance. In other words, this jar of spiked nard ointment may have been all that she had of value and she poured it out on Him.

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She poured it out. Her offering to Jesus is what

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He wants of all of us. All that we are, all that makes up our value is for Christ.

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Jesus is worthy of only the best. So this is no doubt an act of worship.

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Now, many wonder, of course, why did Mary use her hair to do this? Why did she use her hair?

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We can only speculate. It's possible with the Bible speaking of women's hair as being prized possessions, as being their glory, to use hair as an anointing tool was to use the very best thing that she had to offer.

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Her hair was better than a rag to touch the Lord's feet. Maybe that's what's in her mind. A rag wouldn't do.

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Also, it's a very humbling thing that in front of all these people she shows

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Jesus is Lord by making herself low. She comes to His feet, feet which were considered one of the dirtiest parts of the body in the ancient world.

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She then uses her cleanest part of the body to anoint

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His dirtiest. So in some way, this unites them together.

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This sort of perfume is very strong. If it's not washed off, it could last for days on a person.

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It's possible even to consider this is less than a week or so before His crucifixion and that as Jesus was being lacerated with the cat of nine tails, as He was getting whipped and beaten and nailed to a cross through His own flesh,

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Jesus could still smell the now subtle scent of the spikenard. Maybe it still clung to Him.

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Especially when you consider the fact that Mark states in this account that she also put it on His head, and the

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Lord Himself then says it was on His body. It must have went down.

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She poured it on His feet. She poured it on His head. It must have come down His hair onto His beard.

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The perfume went all over Him. And so while hanging on the cross, you could only imagine that when a breeze would change and the wind would hit

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His body, not only would it incite pain because the cold air hit a flesh wound, but then all of a sudden that breeze change would bring up the aroma of the pure nard.

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I like to think that He was maybe comforted in His humanity, remembering what she had done for Him.

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She offered her most valuable gift as He was about to present His most valuable gift.

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In fact, the most valuable thing the world has ever seen. However, Mary's act did not come without protest.

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Look at verses 4 through 6. But Judas Iscariot, one of His disciples, who was intending to betray

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Him, said, Why was this perfume not sold for 300 denarii and given to poor people?

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Now, he said this not because he was concerned about the poor, but because he was a thief. And as he had the money box, he used to pilfer what was put into it.

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This is only the second time that Judas Iscariot has been mentioned in the Gospel according to John. The first time was at the end of chapter 6, the

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Bread of Life passages, when you remember that all the disciples who were following Jesus at that time left

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Him, and only the twelve remained. But at that moment, Jesus said, Did I not choose you twelve, and yet one of you is a devil?

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Speaking of the one who would betray Him. That is the first time we saw Judas. This is now the second time.

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Although currently one of Jesus' disciples, John again marks him as a betrayer.

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He will go down in infamy as the betrayer of Jesus. But Judas is more deceptive here than you could ever think.

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This is very deceptive. Very manipulative here.

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The question is so wicked because it gives off the pretense of concern.

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This question almost appears pious. It appears as if almost righteous.

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Why was this perfume not sold for 300 denarii and given to the poor?

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He has his mind on the figures. Why? Because a denarius, a single denarius coin, was the wage of a skilled laborer for the day.

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If you were a skilled laborer, you were given one denarius. And so when you consider all the

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Sabbaths and festivals in a year, 300 days is about a full year's salary.

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He's like, this could have been sold for a full year's salary. So think about if you make,

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I don't know, $40 ,000, $50 ,000, $60 ,000, $75 ,000. Maybe you make $100 ,000 in a year.

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Imagine all in one go that is spent on the feet of someone. That's your whole year's salary on someone's feet.

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So that's what he's thinking. This is an enormous sum of money. You can tell he's thinking about the dollar amounts.

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He uses the poor as a disguise to cover his greed. To care for the poor was and is one of the most important things to the

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Lord. Seriously, if you do a study, especially through the Old Testament, and you look at all the times, especially during the major and minor prophets who were rebuking

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Israel, they often rebuked for what? Typically, idolatry, unfaithfulness, these horrific idol practices.

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But honestly, one of the most said things by God in His judgment against His people during the

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Assyrian exile and Babylonian captivity was that they did not care for the poor, the orphan, and the widow.

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It's said over and over and over again. So this is something that is important to God.

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So what does that mean? It means that Judas looks really pious right here. He looks really pious.

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Really holy. However, John reveals to us the truth behind this protest.

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Now he said this not because he was concerned about the poor, but because he was a thief. And as he had the money box, he used to pilfer what was put into it.

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He was not concerned for the poor. He didn't care one bit about the poor. He was a thief.

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He's like the hired hand mentioned in John 10. Judas cares nothing for the sheep of God.

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And he was the one that was in charge of carrying the money bags for Jesus' ministry.

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You see, people would donate. People would donate gifts to Jesus' ministry with the apostles to care for their ministry needs.

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You see an example of someone giving to Jesus for his ministry needs in Luke 8.

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It's possible that the apostles would even labor and take some of that money and put it in the money bags for this earthly ministry of Jesus.

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You can imagine that even out of this money bag, Jesus would say, I open it and give some to this person and that person.

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You can imagine the money wasn't only for their use, but the use of the poor. Those in need.

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Right? Caring not only for the spiritual needs, but physical needs of people.

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However, this man, Judas, the son of Simon Iscariot, would pilfer from it.

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Pilfer means what? Pilfer means that in this money bag, you take a little bit at a time.

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You do it with the perfect amount of frequency. You don't do it too infrequently because you're greedy and you want to steal, but you don't do it too frequently where you could see that there's been a diminished amount of coins.

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So, at the right time, little by little, Judas would take coins from these money bags.

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Take it for his own needs. Stealing. Stealing from God. This is the eighth commandment.

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Thou shalt not steal. And he would transgress that often. And think about it. A 300 denarii donation would mean a fuller money bag, and when there's an abundance of something, it's easier to take more without people noticing.

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That's what's in his mind. And so, while the two characteristics of a true disciple earlier were to serve

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Christ and rest in Christ, now, two characteristics of a false disciple are to deceive and steal.

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Deceive and steal. Giving the appearance of concern for others when you are actually only concerned for yourself is what a false disciple does.

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And Jesus often charged the Pharisees with this sort of hypocrisy. That word in the

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Greek, hypocrisy, comes from the word play -acting. When people did plays.

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Putting on a mask. Being pretenders. That should be a concern to us.

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When we act like we care, but really don't, we are not aligned with Jesus Christ, but we're more aligned with His betrayer.

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You see, true piety is performing righteous acts out of a genuine heart.

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Spirit wrought acts. Not doing them merely to look holy.

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That's false piety. False piety does it just to look holy. True piety does it because they love

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God and they've been changed. But this is part and parcel to false

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Christians. And look, you might be thinking, there's a certain broadcasting network on television that has several channels that I could think of who has charlatans who do this sort of thing.

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And you would be right. But I'm going to mention the fact that this happens everywhere.

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This happens in conservative, evangelical churches. This happens even in solid reform churches.

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I'm not saying the whole church. I'm saying there are individuals in good churches that are stealing and deceiving people.

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It happens. It's happening everywhere. Peering as righteous and stealing money.

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You know where this is currently prolific? Goodness. Social media.

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Why do I say that? In the last few years, if you have social media accounts, men in Africa or Pakistan or India are making profiles to look like Christian organizers over orphanages.

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You're like, look, I don't have social media. I don't know what you're talking about. I'm telling you, it's insane.

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There's hundreds of friends requests and messages to our church and to Christians in the

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West all the time. Men who are making fake profiles and then sharing images of children who are starving or hurt and going to Western Christians and going, come on, if you're really a believer, won't you give to this?

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It's despicable. It's despicable. They're not Christian organizers. They're not over orphanages.

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They're stealing. They're stealing. And it's horrible.

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It really is horrible. And a lot of well -meaning Christians feel this sense of guilt. Oh boy, I better give something.

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And it continues to go and go and go. Now look, there's a way to take

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Judas' false piety and put it way over there. Far from you.

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That's Judas. But we can do this too sometimes.

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Even as regenerate people, what about the person who says they've been very concerned for someone else?

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I've been so concerned for you. I've been praying for you every single day. You've been on my thoughts and my prayers every single day.

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I care about you so much. But they've never hit their knees.

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They've never talked to God. They've never been hurt. They've never wept for the person. It's because they're face to face with them right now.

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Oh, I've cared for you so much. I've prayed for you so much. And they know they haven't.

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Or maybe they've been doing this sort of thing so long, they actually believe the lies that they give people.

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The Apostle John touches on hypocrisy in his first letter. He says in 1

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John 4, 20, if someone says, I love God and hates His brother, he is a liar.

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For the one who does not love his brother whom he has seen cannot love God whom he has not seen.

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What about the pastor who wants the Christmas Eve service? That's not bad.

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That's not bad. I certainly don't think that that's bad if the

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Word of God is handled rightly, if the Gospel is premier in that sort of service.

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But this pastor in particular wants to create a Christmas Eve service for the public, for unbelievers.

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Something that is more palatable. Something that tastes better. Maybe put some lights in there.

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Some candles. We've got to have the best music set of the year on this

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Christmas Eve service. This is where we're going to gain more people. This is where we're going to get more money in our baskets.

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Look, on Christmas Eve, do your best music. Do it.

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Bring out some candles. I don't care. That's not what it's about. If you're going to bring out the best music and the candles, do it for Jesus Christ.

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Don't do it for the public. Do it for Jesus. Share the truth.

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Good deeds are never divorced from spirit -wrought motives. Good deeds that qualify are good, which is in Christ now.

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Good deeds are never divorced from good spirit -wrought motives. Never. What about the man or woman who wants to run a ministry in the church?

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Pastor, I feel led to run this ministry. Can I run this ministry? That's not bad, right?

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It's not. It's a good desire. It's not bad. That's not inherently bad.

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But what about the man or woman who wants to run a ministry to gain a platform? What about the man or woman who wants to run a ministry to gain a sense of power or authority to exercise status over others?

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I'm not even lying. I'm not kidding. I'm not making this up. The female leader of women's ministries is severely tempted by that.

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I've seen it over and over again. For some reason, that is like a cursed position. A woman leading women's ministry.

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I've seen churches split because of this sort of thing. True humility will be the mark of people in roles like that.

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True humility. People who go, you know, Pastor, I don't know if I'm called to do this.

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I feel led, but I don't want the spotlight. I don't want this. You know, things like that.

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And people who don't say it like that simply to deceive, right? These types of people often don't realize that they do it too.

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Not to mention their leaders can be too intimidated to confront them in it. They think they're such an important instrument of God.

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This thing won't run without me, they say. Ha! Watch God take you out of that and it continues running.

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Watch that. Paul says in Galatians 6, verse 3,

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For if anyone thinks he is something when he is nothing, he deceives himself. How about that to energize you?

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The whole world says, Hey, you! You're something. And Paul's like,

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Hey, remember? You're nothing. And Christ is everything. Christ is everything.

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Now, some may think, Hey, I don't steal.

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I don't deceive. But stealing doesn't have to be only about money.

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What we can do here is even steal the glory of God. Rob the Lord of His glory.

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Make more of us rather than make more of Him. So with that said, the warning is clear.

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Be careful, brothers and sisters, to not act one way and inside be another.

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James the brother of our Lord called it being double -minded and double -tongued. That's Judas to a

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T. Absolutely. Jesus, though in our text, saw right through the protest.

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No problem. He didn't stop Mary at all because she was doing a good deed.

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In Mark's Gospel of this account, he says she will forever be remembered for what she did here in giving this costly perfume and anointing

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Jesus. That's true. It is 2023. This happened a little less than 2 ,000 years ago.

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And even right now, we're still talking about Mary anointing Jesus with the nard perfume.

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He said it. This woman will be remembered forever. He declared it.

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And so Jesus says in verses 7 and 8, let her alone so that she may keep it for the day of My burial.

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For you always have the poor with you, but you do not always have Me. I'll admit the translation is a little bit rough here.

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Verse 7 might be best understood. Let her alone. She has kept this until now for the day of My burial.

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So He defends her. Leave her alone. This is an observation of My burial.

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Honestly, at this point, when He said this is for My burial, I don't think

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Mary or anyone in the room had a clue as to what He meant at this time. Only after do they remember this and what

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He said and understood. This is for His burial. Look, Mary did it under the power of the

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Holy Spirit. That's who led her to do that. That's what it was. We talked about it.

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Nard is the smell of wealth, the anointing of a king, but here, nard is also the perfume of preparation for death in this moment.

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Nard being for a king and for death can only make sense in light of Jesus Christ and His resurrection.

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He will die a living sacrifice, but He will rise a king. Now, Jesus brings up the reality of the curse of the fall.

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Poverty. While sin remains in the world, those in need, those who are without will always be here.

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And what's crazy is what Mary was preparing Jesus' body for was going to be the only thing that would ultimately combat the problem of poverty and starvation.

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The Gospel and Jesus Christ is ultimately going to be what solves this problem of the poor.

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There won't be rich and poor people in heaven. All will have abundance from the

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Messiah. All will be cared for. And Jesus isn't saying, as some have wrongly accused

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Him of here, Jesus isn't saying that they're not to care for the poor. You can't juke

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Jesus on this one. He's not saying that. It's that the service of God Incarnate is of chief importance.

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This isn't an either -or thing. It's that the care of the poor and the worship of the

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Son of God are not at odds despite Judas trying to make it thus.

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Also, I love how Matthew and Mark has a little extra statement here.

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In Mark it says, for you always have the poor with you. And here's the missing one in John.

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And whenever you wish, you can do good to them. Whenever you want, you can do good to them, but you do not always have

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Me. A mere mortal could not claim such priority and preeminence.

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That's powerful. This only makes sense in light of that prologue at the beginning. In the beginning was the

01:03:09

Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He can only say this because of who

01:03:15

He is. Otherwise, it would be arrogant. He will talk more about such things in chapter 14 and 16.

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Though He will rise again, He intends to leave physically for now, but He will be with us.

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He is with us by the giving of the Spirit of Truth. We're going to get to that eventually in 14 and 16.

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But after this, John doesn't have it, but Mark and Matthew do. At the end of this moment where Mary puts this perfume on Jesus' body, it says in Mark 14 10 -11,

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Then Judas Iscariot, who was one of the twelve, went off to the chief priests in order to betray

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Him to them. They were glad when they heard this and promised to give

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Him money, and He began seeking how to betray Him at an opportune time.

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So think about that. Jesus isn't going to let them sell the spikenard, and He's not going to get the money from that.

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So He goes to a different master. He goes to these conspiring, murderous

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Pharisees and chief priests and says, I'll give Jesus up to you for money.

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He's out for money. Seeking an opportune time. When will that come?

01:04:39

We're actually going to see this happens, this offends Judas.

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And He goes immediately to the chief priests. This offends Him. Jesus called Him out for His protest.

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Judas is offended. He's going to figure out an opportune time to betray Jesus. And when does that happen?

01:04:59

We'll see it in the Last Supper. At the Last Supper, what does He say? Go do now what you must do.

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And Judas leaves. That's a week later. Now Jesus can't go anywhere without people learning of it.

01:05:14

Our final verses, verses 9 -11, demonstrate that. It says, The large crowd of the Jews then learned that He was there, and they came, not for Jesus' sake only, but that they might also see

01:05:27

Lazarus, whom He raised from the dead. But the chief priests planned to put Lazarus to death also, because on account of Him, many of the

01:05:36

Jews were going away and were believing in Jesus. And so you have these pilgrims and locals, they're getting ready for the

01:05:43

Passover celebration, and they spread quickly. They heard of the raising of Lazarus.

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And these men, Lazarus and Jesus, are at a public dinner, and the people wanted to see both of them.

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You could say the people came out to not only see the miracle, but the miracle worker. So what's a good way to get people to reject the miracle worker?

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You kill the miracle. You hide the evidence. You get rid of it. You kill

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Lazarus. That way people will stop believing.

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Lazarus is a walking testimony. But it's laughable to believe that they think killing

01:06:30

Lazarus will do anything considering that Lazarus already died once. Right?

01:06:36

Verse 11 is where I'll make my final comments on the passage. We saw true disciples serve

01:06:43

Christ and rest in Christ. False disciples deceive people and steal. They enjoy the disguise of a true disciple.

01:06:51

Lastly, what happens when people leave falsehood and enter the truth? What happens when a soul is converted?

01:06:58

I think we're seeing that a bit here. On account of what Jesus did with Lazarus, many of the

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Jews were number one going away, and number two, were believing in Jesus.

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Now what does it mean going away? I think it means going away from their system.

01:07:17

Going away from the Jewish leader's influence and demonic clutches. Going away from falsehood and coming to Jesus.

01:07:29

Believing in Him. Because you can't have both. You can't have both.

01:07:35

They left the one to come to the Holy One. There's no stopping this now, church. The Jewish leaders are powerless to stop the mighty

01:07:44

Son of God. We'll continue to see that through John. But let's wrap this up. This section of Scripture didn't detail a sign.

01:07:54

It didn't detail some big miracle. It didn't even detail some large discourse of Jesus.

01:08:02

But it was one way for John to show how the saints are to honor

01:08:07

Jesus. I spoke in my introduction about the soothing aromas that God is pleased with.

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The scent of the saints is one that God takes pleasure in. Why? Because that scent comes from Him.

01:08:26

It's founded in His work. In fact, 2 Corinthians 2 .14

01:08:34

speaks to this. It says, but thanks be to God who always leads us in triumph in Christ, and here it is, and manifests through us the sweet aroma of the knowledge of Him in every place.

01:08:50

God manifests through us, through you, through me, the sweet aroma of Him in every place.

01:09:01

And so we saw that the spiritual scent of Martha was service to Christ.

01:09:07

It wasn't simply the smell of supper. That was the physical aspect of it, of course.

01:09:14

We saw the spiritual scent of Lazarus was resting with Jesus. If you remember when he was dead, his sisters warned

01:09:24

Jesus and said, by now his body is rotting and there is a stench. But now because of Christ, the smell of death has gone away from Lazarus and the smell and aroma of life and rest in Christ was on him.

01:09:42

The spiritual scent of Mary was humble devotion to her Lord, and it was costly.

01:09:48

It was costly. Our devotion to Christ can cost us much, but it's always worth it.

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It's always worth it. Every drop of that spike nard onto Jesus' body was worth it.

01:10:04

And you better believe, she didn't have a single regret. Mary, that was your inheritance. Mary, that was your dowry.

01:10:10

What are you doing? That was for Christ. Before the foundations of the earth, that was for Christ.

01:10:18

It was worth every drop. She had no regret. Serving, resting, and devotion to Christ are the scents of a saint.

01:10:32

But the foul odor of Judas had started to fill the air. His deceptive disguise of concern and his stealing are repulsive in the nostrils of our

01:10:43

God. His stench will reach its height at the betrayal of Jesus.

01:10:48

You see, everyone gives off an aroma to God. Everyone. We're all giving off an aroma to God.

01:10:56

The question is, is yours sweet and soothing to God, or is it revolting and offensive?

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Only Christ can wash the stench of death and sin off of us.

01:11:09

And if you don't know Him, today is the day to ask for cleansing. And if you know Christ today, today is the day to thank

01:11:17

Him for that cleansing. And may our aromas be ever -pleasing to our

01:11:23

God. Let's pray. Lord, we thank

01:11:31

You for this text. We thank You for what it means. We thank

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You, Lord Jesus, that You are the object of these things. You are the object of our devotion.

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You are the object of our service. You are the object of our rest.

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And Lord, we repent as a church from trying to find rest in people and things.

01:12:02

We repent from trying to find ways to serve the world and people in the ultimate sense.

01:12:11

We repent from being devoted to the world and people.

01:12:18

But God, we know, we now know, when we are devoted to You and serve

01:12:25

You and rest in You, that everything falls into place. Help us, as John showed us here, to keep

01:12:33

You as the preeminent one, the highest priority in our lives.

01:12:41

We thank You, Lord, for changing our aromas. Continue, Lord God, to work in us by Your Spirit that it would be more and more pleasing to You until we come to be with You for all eternity.