John 12:8-11 (The Aroma Of Christ)

The Shepherd's Church

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Thank you for subscribing to the Shepherds Church podcast. This is our Lord's Day Sermon. We pray that as we declare the

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Word of God that you would be encouraged, strengthened in your faith, and that you would catch a greater vision of who

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Christ is. May you be blessed in the hearing of God's Word, and may the Lord be with you.

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One of the themes that we'll see today is that what Christ has done for us, we end up now doing back to him.

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We saw earlier that the pleasing aroma of the sacrifice goes up to heaven, and it pleases

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God. Then we saw how Christ became a pleasing aroma for us. Now I want you to see how in 2

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Corinthians 2, 14 through 15, how we become a pleasing aroma back to God.

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What Christ has done for us, we end up doing back to him. It says, But thanks be to God who always leads us in triumph in Christ, and manifests through us the sweet aroma of the knowledge of him in every place.

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For we are a fragrance of Christ to God among those who are being saved, and among those who are perishing.

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Christ the pleasing aroma has made us a pleasing aroma. That means that as Christians we have an odor, we smell.

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That's the people of God. We smell as a sweet smelling aroma to God, we smell as a sweet smelling aroma to those around us, to the church, and we have become a pungent stench in the nostrils of the world.

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Noxious and odious is the smell of the Christian church to the perishing world.

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Now we've seen this play out in our passage here in John. We've seen that Mary uses this expensive bottle of nard perfume and when she opens it, it says the fragrance fills the entire house.

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In the gospel of Matthew, she anoints his head. In the gospel of Mark, she anoints his body. In the gospel of John, she anoints his feet.

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The point of the passage is that she lavishly pours out a fragrant offering to Christ and it fills the entire house.

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She becomes a type for the church, a fragrant offering of our

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Lord. In the same way that her aroma, the aroma of this perfume fills the house, how much more so now 2 ,000 years later does the aroma of Christ fill the earth because of Christians.

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Christians who reflect God to the nations. Christians who have the aroma of Christ put on us by Jesus himself.

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How much more are we filling the world with the glory of God through the aromatic offering of our lives back to him?

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Now we know that her act was not received well by everyone. It was repugnant to Judas, that devilish man.

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No sooner than he, no sooner than she sees him opening this bottle of perfume, he's howling in protestation.

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He's squirming in agitations, almost like he's possessed of a demon. What Jesus saw in her that was beautiful,

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Judas saw was polluted. What Jesus saw was pure, Judas saw as foolish.

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The same is true for us today. What the Lord God and our Father, what Jesus Christ the

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Son, what the Holy Spirit has wrought in you is pleasing to the people of God.

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It's a blessing to the people of God and yet it is foolishness to the world, to those who are perishing, as Paul says in 2

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Corinthians 2. The Christian is offensive to the world.

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That is a fact that we should not run from. By our very nature we are repugnant to the carnal mind.

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That does not mean that we attempt to increase our repugnancy.

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Just by being a Christian we offend the world. There's two errors, right?

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There's the churches that try to be offensive and then there's the churches that run from who they are and hide with their heads in the proverbial soil like ostriches, trying to mask the aroma of Christ.

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Both are wrong. Both are wrong and we're gonna see today in the example of Lazarus how just living our lives as an authentic Christian will bless the church and infuriate the world.

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That's what we're gonna see. We're gonna see that today in two different ways. We're gonna look at the setting of this passage.

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There's a transitional passage in the verse. I wanted to go to the triumphal entry because that's triumphant and yet verses 8 through 11, verses 9 through 11 especially, have to be dealt with.

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And what I noticed this week as I was deciding which way I was gonna go, whether I was gonna tack 9 through 11 on to the triumphal entry,

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I've noticed that most pastors don't even deal with this passage. They either have it as a footnote on 1 through 8 or they have it as a beginning note on a sermon on the triumphal entry.

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But rarely are there any sermons about 9 through 11. And in this passage we see this beautiful example of Lazarus who is this aroma of Christ.

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We see this playing out here in this passage as well. So what I want us to do is I want us to look at the setting of these passages and then

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I want us to spend some time in application of these passages. What do they mean for our lives?

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What do they mean for us, the people of God? How can they encourage you and I in the way that we live and the way that we walk?

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And I think that these things will be very encouraging once we see them. So if you will turn with me to John chapter 12 verses 8 through 11, if you want there's

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Bibles in your pews. There's also the word on the screen, but we were gonna read from 8 through 11 together.

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Jesus responded, For you always have the poor with you, but you do not always have me.

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The large crowd of the Jews then learned that he was there and they came, not for Jesus's 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

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Jews were going away and believing in Jesus. Let us pray.

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Lord Jesus, you have told us that there is a certain aroma that has been placed on our life.

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That aroma will be a blessing to those who have been called according to your purposes and that aroma will be offensive to the world at large.

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Lord, I pray that we would be men and women who live with the courage of Lazarus, with the courage of Mary, with the courage of Martha, with the courage of all those first century saints that turned the

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Roman world upside down by devotion and by worship.

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Not with swords, not with weapons, not with tanks, not with guns, with worship.

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Lord, let us be a worshiping people who offer up sweet worship to you and Lord let us be a people who in our lifetime see a pagan world changed, reformed, bowing the knee to Jesus Christ.

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Lord, it's in your name that we pray. Amen. Now we're gonna begin with the setting and the first aspect of the setting that I want to talk about is that large crowds were coming to see

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Jesus. These are the very large crowds that we've heard about already in the gospel of John.

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John has not painted a very nice picture so far of the of the large crowds. John 5 is the large crowds who missed the significance of his healing and they were confused by him.

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John 6 it's the large crowd who wanted him to do signs and wonders and healings and miracles and become their king and they were angry with him when he said no.

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John 7 this crowd now was angry at him and they started to grumble against him. They started to complain against him.

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The large crowd has not had a very nice story so far in the gospel of John.

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Even John 1 through 10. It's the crowd that's woefully ignorant of Jesus. It's the crowd that egregiously abandons

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Jesus and it's the crowd that's totally against Jesus. So if we're not careful we could fall victim to a mentality that the crowd is always the problem.

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The crowd is always the problem. I've seen this actually especially in churches like Shepherds Church.

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I don't see this in in megachurches where it's all about the crowd. I see this in churches that are small and that are humble where they very easily shift their focus and say it's the crowd that's always the problem.

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We start to glorify this idea of remnant theology where we're the remnant. If we get above 50 people then there must be something wrong.

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We're compromisers. Christianity never advances.

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I've heard people talk like that or that we're not supposed to make any progress whatsoever on the

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Great Commission lest we become unfaithful. Have you ever heard pastors say that biblical

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Christianity is never popular and popular Christianity is never biblical? Is that always true?

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Is it always true that we're supposed to be a marginalized minority in a small remnant on earth?

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Is it always true that there's never an occasion where the gospel advances? Is it always true that revival doesn't happen to a nation?

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Because I can point to several examples in history where entire nations bow the knee to Jesus where they're saved.

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I think that our focus should not be on the size of the crowd.

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Our focus should be on the magnitude of our mighty God. But sometimes

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God breathes life into nations and into cultures and thousands come to Jesus.

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Crowds of people come to Jesus. We shouldn't scoff at that. We should actually hope for that.

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We should pray for that. We should pray that God would expand his kingdom in our generation. We should pray that we run out of chairs in this room and we have to figure out what to do next.

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Jesus' own teaching disagrees with this. This idea of never grow. Zechariah 9 says that the glory of God will fill the earth as the water covers the sea.

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How do we believe that's going to happen? The glory of God fills the earth by the advancing church, by Christians blanketing the nations.

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The aroma of Christ being spread to every square inch of this planet. Zechariah 9 says his glory will fill the earth as the water covers the sea.

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I've made this joke before but it's important. When you go to the sea, there's just water.

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So if his glory covers the earth like water in the sea, then there is nothing left but his glory.

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Daniel 2 says that he will create a kingdom that will never end and that kingdom will begin like a small stone and it'll begin to grow into a mighty mountain that fills the entire earth.

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Jesus said it'll be like a mustard seed and it begins very small. It's one of the smallest seeds. But then it grows to be the largest plant in the garden.

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We see in Psalm 110 that Jesus is going to put all of his enemies under his feet. Psalm 2, the nations are going to bow down before the king.

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It says kiss the son or less he will become angry at you and you'll perish in the way. Philippians 2 says that every knee will bow, every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is

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Lord. 1 Corinthians 15 says that Jesus will present a completed kingdom to the

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Father. We don't believe that it's going to happen quickly. It's been 2 ,000 years so far.

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What we do believe is that in the end Christ will have supremacy.

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Christ will reign and when he's done, when he's finished, when he's ready to return, when he's ready to present this kingdom to God the

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Father, it will be expansive and it will cover all the nations of the earth. That's what we believe.

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It's time that we begin to see the kingdom rightly. That it's not always a marginalized minority, but it's a kingdom that we should expect will expand.

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It's a kingdom we should expect will grow. It's a kingdom that grows on the knees of worn out saints who've been praying for decades.

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It's a kingdom that grows on the lips of saints who share the glorious gospel. It's a kingdom in some seasons of time, like the season that we're in, seems like it's losing.

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But it's a kingdom that will prevail and will continue to prevail and the gates of hell will not stop it.

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It's not attractional evangelicalism. I know some of us, we could be triggered.

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This is not shallow, superficial, mega church, watered down, light on sin, light show, big arena

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Christianity. That's not what this is. This is just kingdom theology that the kingdom will grow.

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And we believe that because the Bible says that. Now, I find it interesting that John actually shows this in a microcosmic way in the gospel of John.

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Chapters 1 through 10 is about how the crowd is the problem. The crowd is the one who's rejected him.

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The crowd is the one who's blasphemed him. The crowd's the one who called him a demon. And yet, something crazy happens in John 11.

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After all this time where the crowd is ignorant and foolish and rejecting him, something happens in John 11.

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Jesus prays at the tomb of Lazarus, and as he's praying, he says, I'm not praying this prayer for me because I know what you're gonna do.

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I'm praying this for them, for the crowd, so that they will believe. And then for the first time in the gospel of John, many come to Jesus.

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The crowd comes to Jesus. Many of them believe, so much so that the Pharisees are frustrated.

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This is the thing that the nail in the coffin. Johanna and scholars universally believe that Jesus healing

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Lazarus was the final nail in the coffin. It was the signature on his death certificate. Why? I think one big reason is because the

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Pharisees finally saw Jesus as a threat. Before this, he was a teacher who offended them.

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He was a teacher who they didn't like, but he had a small following of people. After John 11,

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Jesus' following cannot be ignored. It was so big that they felt like they were losing power.

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It was so big that they felt like they were losing status, and they even say that Rome is gonna take notice of the size of this thing, and they're gonna come in and they're gonna destroy our nation and take away our kingdom and our place.

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That is why the Pharisees turned on Jesus to kill him. Because the idolatry of status, because the idolatry of power, they cared nothing about what

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Jesus had to say, but when their follower count went down, they were ready to kill him.

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Pharisees are afraid. Isn't it interesting? The Pharisees showcased that they actually have the heart of Old Testament Pharaoh when it's

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Old Testament Moses that they say that they love. You thought about that? The beginning of the book of Exodus says the people of God were fruitful, and they multiplied, and it says

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Pharaoh was trembling in this castle. They're gonna take away our nation. They've grown so big we can't do anything with them, so he put them in slavery.

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He killed the Hebrew babies, throwing them into the Nile River. It was that wicked demonic spirit that the

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Jewish people were supposed to be following Moses, leading people to freedom, became like Pharaoh.

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Jesus is growing bigger than us. Jesus' ministry is fruitful. It's multiplying.

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He's doing all of these amazing things, so what do we do? We don't bow down and worship. We kill him.

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Lazarus was the smoking gun. Lazarus was the gun that had fingerprints on it that they had to wipe off so that no one else would leave.

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Think about it. Lazarus being raised from the dead was evidence of who Christ said that he is.

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Why do they want to kill Lazarus? It's not because they deny the resurrection. It's because they don't want to lose their status.

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They allow Lazarus to live, and Lazarus can tell everybody, Jesus rose me from the dead. So they not only have to kill

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Jesus, they feel like they have to kill Lazarus as well. I find that a fascinating thing.

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They didn't deny the resurrection. They did not. They didn't say, you know what, this is just a party trick.

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This is just like the the the wise men of Egypt who turned water into blood by some trick or some sorcery.

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They didn't say that. They acknowledged that Lazarus was dead. They acknowledged that he was dead in the grave for four days, and now he's been raised back to life.

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And they still said we have to kill him. The heart of idolatry poisons the mind to the point that you cannot turn to Jesus.

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You will protect the God that you love more than anything, and the God that they love more than anything was their power, their wealth, and their status.

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Jesus even accused them that they were lovers of money. Instead of repenting, instead of crashing the party and getting down on their faces with Mary and saying, my

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Lord and my God, like Thomas, instead of doing that, they clung to their idols.

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They clung to their murderous plot. And they move forward with their assassination attempt.

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Now if the Pharisees were embarrassed, the Sadducees were doubly embarrassed.

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The chief priest was made up of both Pharisees and Sadducees. The Pharisees actually believed in the resurrection.

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They just hated Jesus. The Sadducees did not believe in the resurrection. Think about why they would want to kill

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Lazarus. They argue publicly that there is no such thing as a resurrection.

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And here's Lazarus, raised from the dead. So you would think they would say, huh, you know, my exegesis on that passage was not quite right.

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Here is a living example of why my theology is wrong. And instead they say, no, our theology is so important, we're gonna kill you.

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It's hard to believe, and yet you and I would be in the same place, believing even worse, more ignorant lies, if it were not for the

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Spirit of God that always awakened us to the reality of Christ. They were using

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God for their power and for their status, almost like Kenneth Copeland or Benny Hinn. I don't know if you've heard of these names.

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If you haven't, don't look them up. Using God to get their wealth, their money, their status.

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That's why Jesus is bringing judgment on this wicked and adulterous generation here in John.

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There's a growing evil that's happening. John has actually been very clear to tell us that this evil is growing.

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It's getting worse, in fact. The darkness is getting darker. We see in Romans chapter 1, it says when

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God gives a people over, they get worse. Well, God has given this generation over to destruction and they're getting worse.

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John 2, they're merely anointed him. John 5, they're hoping that he dies. John 7, they're calling him

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Satan. It's getting worse. John 10, they're picking up stones. John 11, they put together an execution squad.

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John 12, they move from wanting to kill one person to wanting to kill two. You remember

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Caiaphas' prophecy that we talked about a few weeks ago? It's expedient for one man to die for the sins of the nation.

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He was prophesying ignorantly that Jesus was going to die for the sins of the people. Now, this same group wants to kill two people.

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Very soon, after Jesus' resurrection, they're going to kill many people because evil is growing in the nation of Israel.

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Two men are not going to be enough. They're going to want to kill women and children. They're going to want to kill and torture people.

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Did you know that in by the year 325 AD, the church of Jesus Christ went from 70 people in an upper room to 7 million people in 300 years?

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Less than 300 years. Did you know it would have been 9 million, but 2 million of them were murdered?

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I don't know how many that the Jews were responsible for killing, but the Jews were the worst persecutors of the church in the earliest days of the church.

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They hated Christianity. You remember you see Paul, right? Casting his lot for the death of Stephen.

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Paul, the one who chases people downtown, by town, by town, to murder them. Paul is not the only one who was involved in this wide -scale extermination, this genocide of Christianity.

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Again, there's no record of how many Jews had killed Christians, but there were Jews in every major city of the

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Roman Empire. It's not just Israel. When Paul would go to synagogues like in Ephesus or Corinth or in Galatia, he would experience persecution there.

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He would experience people wanting to murder him there. This was for Christians all over the Roman Empire.

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In fact, Roman historians even record that it was Jews in the city of Rome that convinced

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Nero to turn on them. There's record by Roman historians that it was

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Jewish influence over Nero that caused him to set them on fire as lamps in his garden. That caused them to throw them to the lions in the

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Colosseum. That caused them to behead Christians like Paul. Crucify Christians upside down like Peter.

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It was Nero. It was the great persecutor of the early church in Rome. And there's record that it was because of the hatred that the

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Jews had for Christians. According to some records, there was 15 % of the population of the entire

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Roman Empire was Jewish. So Nero, possibly for political expediency, tried to appease a large faction of the

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Empire to kill and murder a very small but growing people called

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Christians. Caiaphas said one man really could die for the sins of the people and yet it wasn't enough to satisfy the bloodlust of the

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Jews. They were going to kill Jesus. They were going to kill his followers. They were going to kill women, children, pastors, deacons, elders, congregants.

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Anyone who pledged allegiance to Jesus Christ. Their depravity was growing.

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Festering like gangrene. The stink of it was rising. Christians are not the only ones who have an aroma.

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The aroma of the world is a repugnant smell to the nostrils of our God. And it was growing more and more odious.

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Now let's get back to the introduction we talked about. Christians have an aroma about them.

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Mary, her act of righteousness offended Judas, right? Lazarus, his act of righteousness, his act of worshiping

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Jesus, his sitting there at the meal, reclining at the table, was offensive to the

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Jews. Lazarus' mere existence became something that was utterly opposed by the crowd.

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Simply allowing him to live could not happen according to the

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Jews. And in the same way, in the same way, if Lazarus' life was that offensive to the

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Jews, how much more is the growing church offensive to a world that hates

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God? We must remember that that this is not about us.

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We must remember that this is not about Lazarus. This is not about Mary. They don't hate us because we err.

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We're worshiping the true one and living God. They hate us because they feel guilt when they see us.

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They hate us because they are living a life in opposition to God. They hate us because in the presence of a

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Christian, they are confronted by their sin. They hate us.

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Not because we're being hateful, even though you'll be accused of that plenty.

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They hate us because where we're going reminds them where they're not. We remind them just by being a

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Christian of their destiny. That's where we get to the fragrance of Christ. I love how

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Kent Hughes says this. It's funny how the Lord works. I just told a friend of mine that I never read

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Kent Hughes. And then this week I read Kent Hughes, and it's a wonderful quote.

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I'm going to share it with you. Lazarus has become Jesus' star witness. And then he goes on to say,

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I find that amazing because as I read the Gospels, I cannot find anything outstanding about the man. It seems that he never said anything worth recording.

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I don't think he's got a recorded word in the Bible. And perhaps he never did anything worth recording.

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Yet he ended up being one of the greatest witnesses for Christ. Why? The answer is not in what

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Lazarus did for Jesus. The answer is in what Jesus did for Lazarus.

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Lazarus is noteworthy. Lazarus is worth talking about because what Jesus did to him.

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How much more so is that true for us who don't have the faintest trace of genius about us?

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Maybe you're really smart in comparison to God. You're not. We don't have even the smallest diminutive morsel of morality.

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We don't have a modicum of faith. We don't have a centella of righteousness. Thesaurus .com is helpful sometimes.

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We didn't have anything to offer Christ. Nothing. Just like Lazarus lying dead in the tomb had nothing to offer

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Jesus, Lazarus couldn't will himself back to life. Lazarus couldn't say, you know what,

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I decided to follow Jesus now. Let me shake off my grave clothes and do a little dance.

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Jesus called forth to the dead man and he came alive. He came out of the tomb.

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That's the same thing that's happened to you and I. Same way that Mary's perfumed filled that house with the aroma of not her righteousness, but the righteousness given to her by Christ.

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It's the same way that Christ has fragranced you and I. So that the good things that we do are not our good works, they're his good works.

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The things that we do for the glory of God, it's not our glory, it's his glory. We are passive in this relationship.

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We smell of the glory of God because he gave us the glory of God.

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It's not us. It's not our righteousness. Christ has set us free.

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Christ has set us free from all kinds of disasters that would have befallen us. You think about religion.

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How many of you did Christ save from religion? That disgusting morbidity where we try to justify ourself with our own good behavior.

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I spent a lot of my childhood thinking that there's no way God could love me because I've done this and I've done this and I've done that.

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And instead of bowing the knee to Jesus and accepting the free gift of grace, my heart was in the place, well,

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I just need to try harder. I just need to work a little bit harder. I just need to clean myself up and then

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Jesus will love me. That's a low view of sin and a low view of God. He freed us from that.

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He freed us from performance. He freed us from religion. And now we are the fragrance of Christ because of what

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Christ did for us, not what we did for him. Hughes goes to end his quote like this.

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We have become unanswerable arguments for Christ. You and I.

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Every believer's life has been so changed that the only way that it can be accounted for is the power of Christ.

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If we have new life and are fellowshipping with Jesus, as was Lazarus, then we are the greatest apologetic on earth for the efficacy of the gospel.

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Isn't that a beautiful statement? We are the greatest apologetic on earth for the efficacy of the gospel.

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We are unanswerable proofs to the reality and the Lordship of Jesus. It's not about us.

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When people come and they look at us and they see you were this and now you're that, the only person who can get glory for that is

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Jesus Christ. We have become an apologetic to the power of God. And now the world, now the crowds slowly over the last 2000 years have come to see it and they will continue to come to see it until Christ has completed his kingdom.

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So in this passage, we see a few things that are happening. Large crowds are coming to Jesus. They're coming to see

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Lazarus. They're coming to see the reports. They're coming to see what is happening in this man so they can see him, touch him, hug him, listen to his stories.

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Just like we've talked about, people will come to you when they see the life change that has happened to you. We see

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Jewish anger over this. We see growing evil over this. We see a volcanic fury where they now want to kill multiple people because of this.

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That's what's happening in this passage. It's a short passage, but we can't stop there.

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We have to also apply this passage because I think there's some beautiful application that we can find from this passage.

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And the first application that I want to share with you is that Jesus risked his life for Lazarus so that Lazarus would begin risking his life for Christ.

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Jesus risked his life for Lazarus so that Lazarus would be the kind of person who would risk his life for Christ.

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Jesus did not play it safe in the gospel. He could have stayed in Galilee. He had a very successful ministry there.

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It was away from the pressures of the Jewish overlords. He could have stayed there. He didn't. He runs to Bethany when he, after two days, when he hears about it, he goes to Bethany, he heals

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Lazarus. He retreats momentarily. He goes back for a dinner. The worst possible decision you could make if you want to keep yourself alive.

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They had plenty of time to post wanted posters on every single telephone pole in Bethany. Jesus is going back into the bee's nest.

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Why? Because of his love for Lazarus. He doesn't go back, but to fellowship with Lazarus.

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He's already been healed. The great miracles already happened. Jesus considered fellowshipping with Lazarus of such great importance that he risked his life to spend time with his disciple.

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Jesus chose courage. Jesus chose to come for the benefit of the ones that he loves.

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He risked his life for Lazarus so that Lazarus would see an example. So for the rest of Lazarus's life, he would not live like a coward.

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This Jesus risked it for me. He came to me when

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I prepared this meal for him. He sat there as the snipers were up on top of the hill, putting their crosshairs on my

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Lord's back, and he did it for me. If Jesus can live with that kind of courage, how could

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I ever be a coward? That's the lesson that Lazarus learned. He knew the risks.

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Lazarus could have ran from Bethany after that meal to Galilee.

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He could have ran to Greece. He could have ran to Persia. He could have ran anywhere that he wanted to hide.

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He did not. He stayed. He stayed and he lived to the glory of God, even though he knew that a target was on his back.

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John records that the Pharisees wanted to kill Lazarus, so it's pretty clear that the community knew that Lazarus was wanting to be killed or that they wanted to kill

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Lazarus. It's not like Lazarus was unaware of this fact. He sat through the meal as people were laughing and he didn't say, they're going to hear us.

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He sat through the meal as people were praising God from the miracle, and he sat there and he worshiped along with them.

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You think about the danger that he's facing in that moment. He knows the Pharisees are going to want to kill him, and yet he worships anyway.

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You think about Psalm 23. You prepare a table for me in the presence of mine enemies. I worship you.

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I praise you. I fellowship with you, even in the threat. He knew a bullseye was on his back and he did not retreat.

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What a beautiful example of the gospel at work, the transformative power of the gospel at work in the lives of Jesus's saints.

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In the same way, he came for us. He didn't run away. It says, for the joy set before him, he endured the cross.

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He allowed himself to be arrested. That was not a mistake. He allowed himself to be beaten.

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He allowed himself to be punished. He allowed himself to be bruised. He allowed himself to carry the cross up the hill called

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Calvary. He allowed his creatures to crucify him with joy in his heart for you.

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In the same way that Lazarus would have looked at Jesus and say, if this man can risk everything for me, I shall never be a coward again.

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How much more so us? This Jesus who risked everything for us, how could we live like cowards?

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How could we hide? How could we be nervous? How could we be afraid?

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God provided you and I with a life transplant. He took our dead, rotten life and he gave us his.

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He didn't die so that he would leave us in our sins, did he? He didn't die so that we would go on sleeping in the grave, did he?

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He died so that you and I would live. He was courageous so that you and I would have courage.

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Now, trust me, I get that you and I still struggle. You're already you're already quoting Romans seven in your head,

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I get it. If you're not, read it, then you'll be quoting it later. We still battle with sin.

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We still are tempted towards cowardice. The question is not, do we still struggle?

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The question is, in which direction are you struggling? I've had people tell me for many years,

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I'm really struggling with that sin. And what they mean by that is that they've decided to give themselves over to it and still complain about it.

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They're not fighting, they're not warring, they're sitting in it. Yeah, we still have a sin nature, but are we fighting against it?

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When we see cowardice in our heart, do we remind ourselves of Jesus who had all the courage? When we see fear pop up in our heart, do we remind ourselves that Jesus had no fear as he walked towards the cross?

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When we see ourselves being ugly and unloving, do we remind ourselves of the gospel that because he first loved us, now we can love others?

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Are we reminding ourselves of the truth of the gospel or are we sitting down in our sin? Lazarus did not tuck his tail and run.

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He invited all of the powers at be to see him openly and to do whatever they wanted because he was going to be worshiping.

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He didn't go underground, he didn't run away, he didn't hide. The same is true for us, right?

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I find it very fascinating. That Lazarus's boldness outpaced the boldness of the

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Pharisees, it's a bold move when you say you're going to kill a man who was dead, now he's alive. That's a bold move.

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He was dead once and Jesus rose him from the dead and now I'm going to be the one that's going to really kill him.

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It's a bold move. Lazarus was bolder than that, he stood there and let them breathe those murderous threats over him while he worshiped.

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My question to each and every single one of us is what place does running have when you know the king? What place does running have?

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What place does hiding have when you know the king? Shouldn't we outpace the boldness of this wicked generation that we live in as well?

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Why do we run? Why do we hide? Why do we try to camouflage ourselves so that we can be quiet so that we can fit in with the world so that no one sees us?

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Why do we do that? Why do we remain silent when the children of Sodom blast their unrighteousness all over this godly nation, godless nation?

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Why do we say nothing when drag queen storytime hour goes on in libraries across the country?

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And I'm not talking about necessarily us, I'm talking about why do we remain silent when the world is so bold in their sin?

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Why aren't we bold in our faith? We should be the boldest people on earth if we've been raised from the dead.

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No one can take that away from you. You are dead, now you're alive. You are a walking miracle.

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Nobody can take that from you. Why are we not bold? Now, I'm not talking about running haphazardly into danger like a lunatic.

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Lazarus didn't do that. He didn't run into the city of Jerusalem with a picket sign and try to form a political action group.

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He just worshipped. He sat where he was and he worshipped and he said, you will not cause me to go quiet.

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You will not silence me. He sat there and he worshipped Christ no matter what happened to him.

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He didn't run away from danger and he didn't run towards it. He stayed where he was and he worshipped.

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What place does hiding have for you and I, friends? And what place does angry marching have for us as well?

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We are sons and daughters of the king, let us worship him. Whatever the world decides to do, that's their decision.

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Our decision is that we will worship the one who saved us. We'll be courageous for the one who had courage for us.

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My prayer is that we would live loud and I don't mean by that one of those cars that come down your street at three o 'clock in the morning with 27 inch subwoofers that are blasting out your windows and you forget that you're a

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Christian for a moment as you open the door. No, I'm just kidding. I haven't actually done that.

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My grandma used to say when we would smell really strong perfume, she would say that's really loud, that perfume is loud.

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I don't know if you've heard that phrase before. That's the kind of loud I'm talking about. It was so obvious that you're a

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Christian, so obvious that you believe in Jesus. You don't have to, you don't have to get your megaphone out and start, you know, doing your dance and you don't have to do any of that stuff.

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It's so obvious that you're a Christian, that the smell of the aroma of Christ is all over you, that the world looks at you with anger, confusion, confounding and the church looks at you as a great blessing.

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Just like that precious bottle of nard that filled the entire room, we're supposed to fill the spaces we inhabit with the glory of Christ.

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So that's my prayer. I'm praying that this church would perfume New England with the gospel of Jesus.

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I'm praying that each and every single one of us would would smell of the glory of Christ in our work and in our families and in our jobs and in our relationships and our friendships wherever we go.

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And we would accept the consequences, whatever they are. My prayer is that we would not tuck tail and run.

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My prayer is that we would just live authentically as Christians and let the Lord handle the rest. For some of you, that's going to mean awkward conversations at work.

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What do you mean you're a Christian? I believe Jesus Christ was dead. Now, Jesus Christ is alive and that he can save you to save a wretch like me.

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It doesn't take significant actions to be a Christian, it just takes being an authentic witness.

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To tell those who ask the hope you have in Christ. And accept the consequences.

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Second thing I want to share with you is not just that Jesus exchanged his life for ours, but he's called us to imitate him in the ways that he has lived.

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Now, of course, we can't imitate Jesus perfectly. Again, Roman seven, the thing I want to do,

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I don't do the thing I don't do, I want to do. We get it. But what is the struggle in your life?

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Is the struggle in your life struggling to find more time to watch Netflix or is the struggle in your life trying to wake up earlier so you can read the scriptures?

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Is the struggle in your life trying to spend more time in intimate moments with Christ in prayer? Is the struggle in your life trying to repent of your sin, not so you can be righteous because Christ is righteous and his righteousness has been so impactful on your life and on your heart that it makes you want to obey, makes you want to live a holy life.

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Do you see what Christ has done for us? We end up imitating back to him. He became the aroma of God, he made us the aroma of God, the things that Jesus does, we are to imitate back to him.

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So, for instance, because Jesus was bold, shouldn't we be bold? Because Jesus had courage, shouldn't you and I have courage?

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Because Jesus traded in his comforts, shouldn't you and I not cling to our comforts in this life as well, to our to our fancy lifestyles and and and all of our bills so that we're living paycheck to paycheck because we've spent so much money on things that comfort us and stuff.

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Everything that you are, everything that you own is going to be in a dump or a junkyard or in the grave.

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Everything, the only thing that lasts is Jesus. Why do we cling to our comforts when Christ is the one who comforts?

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He loved us, so now, therefore, we can love others as Christians. We don't say that Jesus did everything.

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Now we do nothing. Yeah, Jesus is really loving so I can do whatever I want. That's that's not

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Christianity. He loved us so that we can therefore love others. We act out in our lives what

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Jesus did to us. He was sacrificial in his death on the cross. So now, therefore, we sacrifice.

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He had great mercy for us, objects of God's wrath. So now, therefore, we can be merciful. He was pure.

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Therefore, we can prioritize purity. He was patient. Therefore, we can be patient with others.

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That's a tough one, isn't it? I've heard so many people say, don't pray for patience. I hate that phrase.

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And that's like saying, you know, I'm sick, but don't give me any medicine. Pray for patience, pray for grace, pray for mercy, pray for love, pray for pray for all these things.

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The Christ who did them for you and modeled them perfectly for you will help you through his spirit to begin doing these things for others.

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We don't do these things out of duty, we do them as if they're our greatest privilege. I see my children imitate me all the time, and sometimes that's good and sometimes that's bad.

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I walked into Graham's room yesterday and Graham had his computer set up on the table and he and he had his little webcam.

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It's not connected to the Internet. We're reasonable parents, but he was recording a podcast and he was he was wanting to teach people about the

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Bible. Where did he get that? He sees me, he sees me wanting to do those things out of love for me, out of a desire to please me, he wants to act like me.

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How much more so us, we want to act like our heavenly father, we want to do the kinds of things that he's done for us so that we can now do them for others.

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It's our greatest privilege, it's our greatest privilege to obey our savior. And it's a delight for us to obey the one who first loved us.

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The next thing I want to share with you, as we talked about this a little last week, we only have one life, we only have one life.

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Lazarus, well, he got a crack at it twice, but each and every single one of us, we have one life.

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We have one life to love and serve our savior. Are we going to waste it? Are we going to use every moment that we have to serve our king?

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We have one life to honor and to worship him. We have one life to study about him.

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We have one life to learn who he is. We have one life to pray, we have one life to fast, we have one life to give what we can give to see the kingdom advance.

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We have one life to serve in the local church. We have one life to tell the ones that we love about Jesus before it's too late.

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We have one life to raise our children to the glory of God. We have one life to steward generations like we talked about in the

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Psalm 128, where we see generations upon generations. We have one life to give in service to our king.

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Don't waste it. On stuff that moth and rust will destroy.

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Don't be like Judas who clung to the money bag. Don't be like Pilate who decided to live for political expediency instead of bowing the knee to Christ.

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Don't be like Herod who was too drunk and busy with his parties to see the significance of Christ.

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Don't be like the Jews who wanted status and money and wealth and influence more than they wanted

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Jesus. You have one life to live. You have one life to give to the only life that really, truly matters.

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And that's Jesus's. A .W. Pink says it like this. If Mary had failed to seize her chance to render love's adorning testimony to the preciousness of Christ's person, she could have never recalled it in eternity.

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How exquisitely suited to the moment was her witness to the fragrance of Christ's death before God.

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When men deemed him worthy only of a criminal's cross, she came before him to anoint him for his burial.

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But how soon would such an opportunity pass? In like manner, we are privileged today to render testimony to him in this sense of his rejection.

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We too are permitted to have fellowship with him in his sufferings, but soon this opportunity is going to pass away from us forever.

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There is a real sense in which these words of Christ to Mary are true for us.

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You will not always have me. Very soon those words will apply to you and I. Soon we shall enter into the fellowship of his glory.

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And oh, that we may be constrained by his love to deeper devotedness, a more faithful testimony to his infinite worth and a fuller entering into his sufferings in the present hour of his rejection by the world before our time is no more.

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What A .W. Pink is saying is we have one life to live for the glory of Christ and we better not waste it because it is short.

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The psalmist says and Job says that it's but a vapor. It's here for a moment and it's gone.

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You turn around, your kids are grown, you turn around again, their grandkids are being born, you turn around again and you've got a disease.

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And then before you know it, your eyes shut and eternity opens. You have one life and it is short. You have one life to live to the glory of Christ.

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Don't let death overtake you before you. Before you focus on the only thing that matters, don't let the distractions and the cares of this life mow you into complacency while today is still today.

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Live for the glory of Jesus Christ. Live for the glory of your king, adore him, worship him, pray to him, set your affections on him, live today while today is still today.

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Live a kind of life that you'll never have to regret. Live like Lazarus, who reclined at him when a death warrant was was being issued for him.

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Live like Mary, giving a fifty thousand dollar bottle of perfume as if it was nothing because Jesus Christ is everything.

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Live like Martha, who served him with every fiber of her being because he's worthy.

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Live like that. Don't shrink back. When such a glorious hope has been given to you, don't stop.

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Don't take it easy. I remember my mom told me this one time, Mom, if you're listening, I apologize for sharing the story.

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I was a brand new Christian. And she said, you know, all things in moderation. And it infuriated me because I was

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I was I was chasing after Jesus at that point. Brand new Christian. He was that over mastering passion in my life.

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My mom and I talked about it later and she agreed with me later. But we are not supposed to treat our relationship with Jesus in moderation.

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Everything you do in this life can be done gluttonously, but loving Christ, you can drink water and drink it too much and die.

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You can breathe air too quickly, too frequently, and you'll hyperventilate. You cannot love

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Jesus too much. You cannot spend too much time with your savior. You cannot devote yourself too fully to the one who gave you everything.

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Don't shrink back when such a glorious hope has been given to you. You have one life to live for the gospel of Jesus Christ.

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And I'm asking you and I'm challenging you to pray and to repent and to do it because he is worth it.

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There's not a single person who will get to eternity and feel sorry that they gave too much to Christ. But there will be plenty of people who are sorry that they gave too much to their career or gave too much to their relationships or gave too much to their work or gave too much to their houses.

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There'll be plenty of people where he says, depart from me, I never knew you because they didn't prioritize him.

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You cannot overprioritize Christ. One of the last things

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I'll share with you is that a humble devotion causes you to have a mission.

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A humble devotion causes you to have a mission. As Christians, when we talk about mission, we tend to talk about that place that you go to to serve

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Jesus. That's not what happened to Lazarus. Lazarus didn't leave his home to go to Jerusalem to hand out tracts.

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I'm not saying that's bad. Lazarus loved Jesus ferociously where he was and people started coming.

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There's some of us in this room who will go places to take the gospel of Jesus Christ, and that is a good thing.

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There are some of us, though, who need to worship him ferociously where we're at, and then we will see people come and ask us questions.

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People will be drawn to us when they smell the aroma of Christ on us, and that won't always be good.

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There will be people who come to us and ask us for the hope that we have in Jesus, and they bow down and they worship him and they get saved and they become a

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Christian and they become evangelist. And then thousands of people, maybe, look at great men of faith were led to Christ by someone.

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Maybe you'll have that story. Then maybe you'll have a Judas come into your life and who will betray you and sell you out.

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Is it worth it? Yes, it's worth it. You have someone at work who tells your boss that you're a religious fanatic and that you need to be fired.

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And then instead of firing you, they put you in a closet somewhere with a broom and you're staring at a computer that's too bright and burning out your retinas.

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And you ask yourself, was it worth it? Yes, because he is worth it.

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He is worth it. Our comfort, our status, our place, our wealth, our security is not the over mastering passion of our life.

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Christ is he is worth it. And he says in this world, you will have many troubles, but fear not.

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I fear not. I have overcome the world. He says fear not.

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I, because he is the focal point of every Christian. He is the one who's worth it.

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People are going to hate you. Don't despair. Don't become sadistic either and start jumping for joy because people hate you.

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We're not Jehovah's Witnesses. Don't be offended and don't be saddened.

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Worship Christ. Don't pay attention to what people say about you. What a practical lesson that is.

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Social media, people criticize you. Who cares? People call you a religious fanatic.

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Who cares? Take your focus off of the cacophony that's happening around you and put your focus onto the

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Christ. Put your focus on Jesus and the things of this world will grow strangely dim in the light of his glory and grace.

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My prayer is that that would be your reality, that you would be so focused on Jesus that nothing shakes you.

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Nothing quakes you. Nothing breaks you. My prayer is that you would be so focused on Jesus that you would be attractive.

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And I'm not talking about physically. We're not Joelstein here. My prayer is that you would be like a magnet for the glory of God.

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You know, magnets have a drawing power and a repelling power. My prayer is that you and I would be used mightily for God to draw people to Jesus, not to us, and to point them to Jesus because of the life that we've decided to live for the glory of God.

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And I also pray for your sanctification that your life repels some people who are not his because the truth of the gospel either attracts or it repels.

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I pray that both would happen for you. I pray that both would happen for you in the same way that I pray that both would happen for this church.

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I don't want to be a church. That's a pasture fit for both sheep and goats.

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I don't want to be a church. We're both the devils in hell and the angels can rejoice over the message.

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I want to be a church. I want us to be a church. Where saints can come like an oasis in the middle of the desert and find healing for their broken wounds that where they can find a balm for their brokenness.

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And I want to be a place where if wolves come in, they are terrified and they leave a place where people who don't really love

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Jesus as their over mastering passion say, these people are too serious. They're going too far.

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All things in moderation. I pray that we're going to be a

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Christ centered church. I pray that we never become confused on what the world's supposed to look at.

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They're not supposed to look at us. They're not supposed to look at our life. They're supposed to smell

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Christ on us. They're supposed to look to Jesus. I pray that we never forget that as a church.

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And I pray that we would have the kind of impact that the apostles had.

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I pray that the world would get turned upside down in this generation because of people. Did you know that God has breathed revival in this church and multiple times in human history?

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Do you know why? There's three reasons in every revival why it happened. People became convinced of the beauty of God.

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People became convinced of the ugliness of their sin, and they returned to the Bible in prayer. That's it.

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We tend to look for very complicated answers to very simple questions. Love God. Love your neighbor.

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Love the word. Spend time with Jesus. The world will go upside down when things like that happen.

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I pray that for our church. As we close, Lazarus lived a life that people wanted to murder.

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I've asked myself that question this week, do I live a life that people would want to snuff out? Do I live the kind of life?

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Do you live the kind of life that if Christianity were illegal, you would be a criminal? If they outlawed the gospel today, would you actually be in violation?

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Would they see you as a threat? The last thing I want to share is I want to pray for us as people that while we still live in a land that is called free, that we would declare the freedom of Christ as the loudest thing we share and we would do it until we die.

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And if for some reason we come into a land like Lazarus lived, where it becomes illegal to love Jesus, I pray that you would not hide.

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I pray that you would not run. I pray that you would not cower. And I pray that the world would get to see the boldness of your devotion.

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That is what I pray for you. That's what I pray for us. Now, let's pray. Lord Jesus, the example of Lazarus is such a beautiful one because his devotion to you did not cause him to hide, cower, fear or run away.

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Lord, I pray that we would not be an ostentatious church that provokes the ire of the world by foolishness.

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Lord, I also pray that we would not be a church that provokes the ire of the world. By cowering.

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By running. Lord, I pray that the men in this congregation would be men.

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I pray that we would have backbones. I pray that we would go home to our families and teach them the way of Christ.

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Teach them how to love the Savior. Teach them how to be Christians. Lord, I pray for the women in our congregation that they would be beautiful and glorious examples of Mary and of Martha and of the picture of humble submissiveness because Christ is honored in our devotion in that way.

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Lord, I pray that people in this congregation would catch a hunger and a thirst and a fire for the kingdom of God.

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Lord, I pray that the kingdom in this area of this country, the kingdom of Satan, would be shaken to rubble and that your gospel would have triumph here in this area once again.

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Lord, I pray that we would approach these things like Lazarus, not running towards the fire, not running away from the fire, but sitting at the feet of Jesus and worshiping.

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Lord, that is our greatest weapon. Lord, I pray that we would never neglect it. Christ's name, amen.