Extravagant Worship

Covenant Baptist Church

Subscribe

Download

Share

00

00:00

Now the Passover and unleavened bread were two days away and the chief priests and the scribes were seeking how to seize him by stealth

00:06

And kill him For they were saying not during the festival. Otherwise, there might be a riot of the people

00:13

While he was in Bethany at the home of Simon the leper and reclining at the table There came a woman with an alabaster vial of very costly perfume of pure nard and she broke the vial and poured it over his head

00:24

But some were indignantly remarking to one another. Why has this perfume been wasted? For this perfume might have been sold for over 300

00:32

Nari and the money given to the poor and they were scolding her But Jesus said let her alone.

00:38

Why do you bother her? She's done a good deed to me For you always have the poor with you and whenever you wish you can do good to them, but you do not always have it

00:47

Have me She has done what she could she's anointed my body beforehand for the burial

00:53

Truly I say to you wherever the gospel is preached in the whole world What this woman has done will also be spoken of in memory of her

01:01

Then Judas Iscariot who was one of the twelve went off to the chief priests in order to betray him to them They were glad when they heard this and promised to give him money and he began

01:10

Begun seeking how to betray him at an opportune time. Well, good morning. It's It's a fun week to come off of all of that discourse and to to turn back

01:21

I think into the main road and what we saw last week was that judgment is sure for those who would

01:28

Who would betray the Lord who would kill God's Son those who would be covenant breakers and an adulterous generation?

01:36

And we saw last week the smoke of judgment that was surely coming and this week at the beginning of this chapter

01:42

It doesn't get much better and we start to see a pattern and if you haven't seen it Hopefully I can make it clear and you'll never miss it again in Mark Mark likes to write in sandwiches, right?

01:52

So so what he's got here is in this passage He's got two really awful moldy disgusting pieces of bread with the most beautiful polished greatest

02:05

Meat in the middle of it that you can imagine So this sandwich you wouldn't want to eat it but the middle of it is going to be everlasting and talked about forever and I think what can be missed in the in the simple reading of the text this morning is the intimacy that drives the

02:21

Application and drives the pointedness of this section and that is this We have basically three groups of people.

02:29

We have the scheming leaders Who should know they have studied the scriptures

02:35

It is their job and their profession to study the scriptures and so they will not have missed the prophecies

02:40

They will not have missed who the coming Messiah was going to be as he checks off prophecy after prophecy

02:46

These these scribes and chief priests would have known and they don't care They don't care at all because they are judicially blinded by God but also they are rebellious in their heart and they are the subject of what the

02:59

Lord talked about in the Olivet Discourse and Then we have this family Particularly the woman who pours the jar out which would have been a family heirloom

03:10

But as John illuminates that this is a family that was very close to Jesus It was a family that knew him well

03:16

And so the sacrifice takes on a different dimension to us when we think about what is it?

03:21

Like when you give the greatest thing you own to someone, you know Very well your best friend and then we have the betrayer

03:29

Who is nestled amongst the disciples who is the leaven in the loaf? And he tries to leaven pretty hard in the in the passage that we read this morning and that gives us some application about the church and the constant struggle of Those who have come in amongst us who are not of us and the constant problem

03:46

That we face on this side of heaven in the church. So let's get started and we're gonna deal first with the scheming leaders.

03:53

I Don't want to talk a lot about them We know them well, but they show their hands here.

03:59

Finally. The plan is ripening and the plan is not to try to Destroy Jesus character the plan is they've tried that right?

04:08

That's what we've seen with the questions that they have no nothing else to ask Jesus because he's made them look stupid at every turn they they think they've got him caught and then he turns the guns on them and makes them look ignorant and They're they're done with that so now what they want to do is they want to sneak around in the cover of night and they want to kill

04:26

Jesus and They involve the most powerful religious figure of the day in their plan.

04:31

That would be the high priest Caiaphas So they're meeting in secret like creepy weirdos and they want to destroy they want to kill the

04:40

Son of God and Here's the bad part they know they know who he is and They don't care

04:49

Because their power in their position and their religion and their temple is more important than the

04:56

Son of God to them These are covenant breakers. These are an adulterous generation

05:01

These are the culmination of the parable of the vineyard and these are the men who are going to kill

05:06

The vineyard owner's son who has come to them There's not much good to say about them

05:12

But in order to set this up there is some interesting time stuff and what we have to understand is that there is a passage

05:18

Here that we're dealing with about this woman about this plot and it is detailed in three different places in Scripture One of them is very easy to see that it's a parallel passage

05:27

Matthew 26 Reads very similarly to the verses that we heard this morning but John 12 is also the same story, but John 12 has some difficulty to it and I think that that's going to give us a

05:39

Lot of insight when we get to the worshiping woman, but there's a lot of timeline stuff So what we have to understand let's put ourselves in Jerusalem here

05:46

Jerusalem was a city that would have been about 50 to 60 thousand people living there

05:52

But during the Passover week, there would be half a million people in Jerusalem So just think about that think about the logistics of a town the roads the storefronts the lodging

06:03

That's used to having 50 ,000 people in and now there's ten times that number in the city

06:08

It would have been a crazy place. It would have been bustling. It would have been difficult You would have had been waiting for everything.

06:15

And so he puts us here at two days before the Passover Look, I may not be good with numbers anymore this week.

06:23

I was kind of warping my brain trying to understand this Here's what here's the simple part This night when this is happening is likely the

06:30

Wednesday night of the week and then next next week We will go on Thursday night, which is going to be the

06:36

Passover meal Okay, and so in timeline the difficulty with John is that John says this is all happening six days before and then he fast

06:46

Forwards to this event in Simon the leper's house, and then he backtracks to the triumphal entry

06:52

Okay, and there's a lot of stuff in the Gospels where that's happening because they are not primarily telling a chronological history

06:59

What they're doing is they are telling a story and they are putting the facts in as it fits their narrative and what they want

07:05

To emphasize that's important and I thought I should say it gave me fits because What I thought is if I read

07:11

John 12 and I think is this the same event because it doesn't seem like the times Right. It is the same event. It is the same event

07:16

So these priests and scribes they are going to do something that is classically happening that we should watch for it

07:22

We've seen it in our lifetime We've seen it within the last decade the enemies of Christ their best weapon to use against the people of God is the government and The reason they want to do that is because the government is the highest expression of human power

07:36

The government wields the sword and so if you want to shut someone up the only entity that can kill

07:43

Without having it come back on them with criminal penalty is the government All right So what the scribes and the chief priests want to do is they want to get the government involved in this?

07:53

Because of several reasons number one, there's not going to be backlash of vigilante ISM against Rome That's really important so right now they don't just take

08:02

Jesus and put him under show trial right now because there's 500 ,000 people in the city and it could easily cause a riot and then have

08:09

Rome come in and crush them Because Rome does not want to put up with riots in Jerusalem So what they want to do is they want to use

08:16

Rome? To do their dirty work so that there can't be any any backpedaling for them

08:22

There can't be a backlash from what's going on The other thing is that if the government is to kill Jesus it causes confusion in the minds of his followers

08:30

We saw this so distinctly five years ago Did we not that when the government starts to issue commands even if those commands are contra scripture?

08:39

What happens is in the body and in the church? It causes tremendous confusion and it causes even more confusion when people who are supposedly preaching

08:48

God's Word Start to go along with the government mandates and then Christians do things that they never would have thought they would do because there is confusion and darkness and So this is really a smart plan to use the government.

09:01

They have been careful and tidy This is going to be first -degree murder not a crime of passion

09:07

They are planning their steps tightly and it and also with this confusion with this lack of a backlash.

09:13

It also Destroys they hope the legitimacy of Jesus's reputation. See this guy is a criminal

09:20

He got killed by the Romans because he's a criminal and they think that it will disperse his influence Yet God is using the whole thing and we know it's it's an amazing text in John Along these lines because Caiaphas says he prophesies that one man should die for the many

09:40

Right, but why it's interesting He says that the death of Christ for his nation will be so that all of God's people would be gathered

09:48

Now that's very interesting and it doesn't work the way Caiaphas thought it was gonna work It works exactly the opposite way because the problem that Caiaphas has is he still thinks that the people of God are

10:01

Ethno -nationalist Israel from the physical lineage of Abraham and the problem is that's not true

10:07

And I hope I demonstrate last week. It was never true It was always the spiritual people of God of faith.

10:12

It was by faith that Abraham was accounted righteousness And so when Caiaphas prophesies this it is very true that the death of Christ is going to bring all

10:22

God's people together, right? It's gonna bring us together in unity where we will worship Jesus Christ forever and there will be no more confusion

10:30

About the old world and the old covenant because a new covenant comes in and that covenant is better See these murderers they are afraid but don't give them a pass even though they're afraid they're afraid of the crowds

10:42

They're afraid of the mob There's something much more than fear in their minds and that is that they are envious and they are angry

10:48

They are very angry and they want to kill the Lord now in contrast to that We have this plot and we saw the sentencing for the crime that's about to happen last week

10:59

And now we see the plot of the crime and as Mark 14 plays out We're going to see the build -up and then the actual crime the high crime of killing

11:07

God Now we turn the page and we see the worship of this woman verse 3 says and while he was in Bethany at the home of Simon the leper and reclining at the table there came a woman with an alabaster jar of perfume a

11:22

Very costly pure nard and she broke the jar and poured it over his head. We know from John 12

11:29

Remarkably that this woman is Mary Magdalene That breaks the alabaster jar and pours it over Jesus's head.

11:37

Now that is interesting for many reasons And I hope to go through them here

11:43

There's a lot going on in this passage one is you would expect that they would be staying with Lazarus Which is where they are largely staying in Bethany But he is in the home of this

11:52

Simon the leper and we see that Jesus has gone to be with friends He's with his closest friends, but he's also in the house of the

11:58

Simon the leper. We don't know who he is There's a lot of speculation about it. He's probably somebody that Jesus has healed

12:04

That's along the ministry and his friends with Christ But in this instance in this instance

12:10

Jesus is in the home of those who are familiar with him and that makes it different because in Mark over and over again

12:17

We've seen these acts of worship with the blind men with the men who were Exercised of their demons with people who are healed of sicknesses and over and over again

12:25

These people had faith while the people that were closest to Jesus had partial blindness right the disciples over and over again

12:32

They don't really see it clearly, but the people around Jesus who is healing they see him as God and they have total faith in him

12:40

So now we start to see a pivot Because we are getting to the fulcrum of history in Mark the most important event that has ever happened and So now we see

12:50

Jesus's closest friends See him for who he is Now Mary has a backstory and Mary's backstory is that Jesus has risen her brother from the grave

13:01

He has walked with them. She knows him. Well, so why is she not named to Mark? Well, the speculation is this is that Mark is written in an earlier date and that giving away her identity would be very dangerous for Her in the circulation and so as John writes later that danger has passed

13:17

Because likely she has passed or she is in old age and beyond the danger

13:22

And so she's named in John and I think that it's very important because you think of it this way

13:27

We lose something in translation this alabaster jar of perfume this perfume that came from India Was on the shelf and this jar itself would have been expensive and this would have been a fairly family heirloom

13:39

This would have been the most expensive valuable thing that this family owned So would you imagine the setup

13:44

I have friends that hang out with me every other Thursday night They're my close friends

13:50

They're they're they're dear friends of mine And I try to imagine what the situation would be where I would take out the most valuable thing

13:57

I own in my home and just pour it out on the ground for them. We don't have stuff like that Right.

14:03

See my heirlooms are for my son, right and my daughters My friends are different. But in this case what happens is

14:10

Mary even though she knows Jesus has walked with him She sees him for who he is and that's what's crucial about this passage

14:18

She sees him as her king and she does something that is absolutely unbelievable

14:23

She takes the most valuable thing her family possesses and she cracks open the jar ruining it forever and pours 12 ounces

14:32

Of the most expensive perfume that she can imagine. It's worth a year's wages a Year of work.

14:39

This is what your treasure is as your family to pass down and she overcome with love for her

14:45

Savior Pours it over his head Quickly, what would you do that?

14:51

If you had this perfume Would you just dump it all out or would you be like putting a little bit of a dose on there?

14:57

Right spray, you know have the women do put it a little bit on your wrist And I don't this is apparently the zone of smell and that sort of thing.

15:04

No, that's not what she does she pours the whole thing over his head to the extent that it runs all the way down his body onto his feet and then

15:12

John tells us that what she does is she gets down with her hair and she rubs the ointment the oil off of his feet

15:19

With her hair in many ways. She she humbles herself.

15:24

She has not only poured out an Unbelievably expensive family heirloom and used it forever

15:31

But she's also knelt down before her Lord and she's washed his feet Unbelievable it's an unbelievable thing that she does and See Jesus sees it and says that this will be spoken of everywhere that his gospel is spoken of forever

15:48

Do you understand what this means? We will be talking about this story in glory and we are talking about it this morning 2 ,000 years after it happened

15:56

It is written in Holy Scripture and she did things that she didn't even know. So what does

16:02

Mary know? She knows that he is God She knows that he is her salvation

16:09

She knows that he is more valuable than anything that she has in the house She knows that if she gives him her entire allegiance in her entire love that he is her king.

16:21

She bows the knee Both figuratively and literally she bows the knee to your king, but she also doesn't know some things

16:29

She prepares him for his burial She couldn't have known that unless she was listening closer, but I don't think so We don't get much indication of that She prepares him for his burial because God is doing things in this section that the people involved don't know with Caiaphas God is speaking through Caiaphas in his anger and bitterness of heart

16:51

God speaks through Caiaphas the judgment on God's own son that's going to be carried through to usher in this new covenant

16:58

Amazing that God is riding on the hearts of his enemies his very prophecy. That's going to bring about this change in all history

17:07

But meanwhile, he is also giving symbolism that she prepares him for burial with this very expensive ointment

17:13

That would be delaying the smell and preparing his body But also she pours the oil on his head which should recall first Samuel 15.

17:21

It's a kingly anointing It's a kingly anointing and as this is told remember that the gospel is the good news of the coming

17:28

King It's the good news of the king that he comes to make peace through war Except that the war that Jesus fought was the war against sin and death and Satan and he won that war with his own blood not the blood of his enemies and So when

17:42

Jesus came to make war? He was the king who brought peace he is the Prince of Peace who brings peace for all eternity and in the in the mix of this with the

17:52

Preparation for burial with the anointing of the oil over the head with the sacrifice and the pure worship

17:58

It also shows that worship of Jesus is central to the gospel The gospel is a word that has been watered down in our day

18:07

We know I I think I'd mentioned them last week So I hate to do it again the gospel coalition for a time made everything a gospel issue

18:15

Everything this movie is a gospel issue race is the gospel issue The president's a gospel issue and when everything is a gospel issue to quote the

18:24

Incredibles. Nothing is a gospel issue. That's an issue I won't say that again

18:32

The gospel is very simple, right? The gospel is the coming of the king It was his good news that he brought peace that he made war and defeated his enemies but then the heart of the gospel is that because he is the king and Because he has secured our salvation with atonement and with his blood that we worship him.

18:50

There is no gospel without worship It's really simple. It's really simple

18:56

And so what she does is she heralds the gospel because she worships and today

19:02

We have to understand that there is no change in life without worship we become what we worship

19:08

This is the means by which we are sanctified We know because John writes in his letter in 1st

19:13

John that we will be perfected in glory Why because we will behold the face of Jesus. Is it just going to be seeing

19:20

Jesus face? That's all. No, no sin anymore No It's because we're going to love Jesus and we're gonna see him in all of his beauty and all of his glory and the first thing the furthest thing that would

19:30

Ever come to our mind is to sin against our king and our God Because we're going to love him.

19:35

We're gonna behold him as he is and we will sin no more It's because the object of affection in our heart is going to be

19:42

Christ and we are going to be made like him From one degree to another we are being transformed into the likeness of Christ.

19:50

That is not ethereal spiritualized language What that means is that as we love Christ more as we worship him more sincerely in spirit and truth we become more like him and Friends that should point the guns in the church that we see today and we need to remember that in this place

20:07

That is we grow more and more like him because we love him Then we will act more and more like him and we will love the brothers

20:15

We must and we're gonna see the attack on this at the end of the sandwich today

20:21

There's an attack on love for one another See Jesus responds to this act of love with love himself and He gives

20:31

Mary honor Worship is not temporal Worship is the thing that we do here that lasts.

20:40

It's the most important thing that we involve ourselves in we know it It's the it's the first one, right?

20:45

What is the reason for our existence? Why would we create it? This is not a difficult existential question though the philosophers would like to make it one the chief end of man and why we are created is to glorify

20:57

God because he is Due that honor we are his workmanship He has made us and he has given us his image and what that image is to do is to reflect his goodness and his grace through all creation

21:11

Worship is heavenly. It's not temporal We make spiritual friends in heaven

21:17

We grow in our Christ likeness through our worship but there's a bad part to this for us and in America, it's been difficult for us because worship requires sacrifice and it always has

21:31

If you sacrifice nothing you worship nothing we sacrifice all the time

21:36

For the objects of our affection in our love we sacrifice in marriage. We sacrifice for our children

21:42

We sacrifice it at work we sacrifice for our friends and yet somehow we think that we figured out the

21:49

Rubik's Cube of Holiness outside of sacrifice to our God So I asked you this morning.

21:56

What does your worship cost you Hebrews 13 15 says through him then let us

22:03

Continually offer up a sacrifice of praise to God. That is The fruit of lips that confess his name

22:12

There's a part of the story that I haven't told you yet And that is that Jesus is sitting at a banquet in this house

22:19

And in this banquet the job of the women during the banquet was to serve the table and be quiet And that's exactly what

22:27

Martha is doing. She's serving at the table, but Mary overcome with her affection overcome

22:34

Don't miss this overcome By the Spirit To lay out the sacrifice goes and anoints

22:43

Christ. Is it anti -patriarchy? No No No, what she did is she came forth of the culturally inappropriate time to offer worship

22:53

Mary in many ways Made a sacrifice. She could have sacrificed her good name to do this at this point

23:02

And for us when we look and we see we're not paying a cost for being here this morning But I will

23:08

I will submit to you. You will pay a cost if you confess his name and That's not

23:14

Jesus Lord. Look our masters don't care about that. You can say Jesus is Lord all day long

23:19

They don't care about that. They may even agree with you It's when we start to live like him and when we start to call sin sin

23:27

And when we start to be honest with those who are around us and we call out the things that we see but we also love in situations where it is difficult to believe love when we accept sinners into our midst and Agree and believe their repentance and invite them into our home.

23:45

That is scandalous to a world around us who is simultaneously forgiving of everything they love and unforgiving to the max of Repentance and turning to Christ the world doesn't understand repentance the world understands

23:59

Toleration of their own gods and that's what they do So what is sacrifice for us at a minimum at a very minimum?

24:08

We have to recognize and praise Jesus for everything Let me go on a slight tangent

24:16

It's an important teaching for us today We live in a time if you read if you read blogs if you read

24:23

Christian social media if you read this stuff There is a lot of confusion about the idea of idolatry and it comes into play here because what we'll do is we'll think well

24:32

You got to get rid of the idols to worship Christ. And what are the idols you have? Well, once again, our spiritual betters will tell you that our biggest idols are our wife and our family

24:44

Maybe our job Here's the issue We can love things without them being idols

24:49

The idol is when we feel that tug in our heart of allegiance to the thing when we are called to worship

24:55

Christ We were called to give this thing up in order to do this. Now. We know that we have an idol

25:02

Right. It's not liking something. It's not loving something Idolatry comes into place whenever we are holding it in Opposition to what

25:11

Christ has clearly commanded us to do and that's how you identify If you'd rather spend time with your wife on Sunday morning then assemble with the

25:21

Saints then I will give you permission to say that maybe your marriage is an idol Okay, if that's not happening though, not likely.

25:29

It's not likely we are called to love those things We are called to have them in proper positions

25:35

So we recognize and praise Jesus for everything not in a pietistic Nut doesn't matter sort of way, but in the way that we are thankful gracious encouraging people we are optimistic

25:46

Why would we not be optimistic is our God not in control? Do we fear anything besides God and if we fear

25:52

God and if God is for us who can be against us? That is the way the Christian walks Christians are not losers

26:00

Contrary to popular belief. Guess what? We don't lose down here. We don't We are going to win and the reason we're gonna win is because Christ is

26:08

King Because he is in charge of everything and he is ordering history to his purposes and to his will

26:15

So we recognize and praise Jesus for everything and it matters. We also meet together. We sing songs.

26:21

We hear the word and we take communion Those are important things. It's not just stuff you take and eat and drink

26:27

It is a means of grace by where we are drawn together in the spirit Unity in the body and we remember what

26:34

Christ has done because when we remember it changes our future it changes our outward activity

26:42

Difficult thing we have to do at a minimum. So we have to love one another and we have to bear one another's burdens

26:49

We do did you know sometimes your brother is going to sin against you and sometimes you have to just bear it

26:57

You do you talk to him? It's difficult. It's hard the injustice screams out

27:02

But at a minimum we have to love one another if we are going to love Christ That's what he's called us to it is impossible for us to truly worship the

27:11

Living God and hate our brother Impossible cannot happen We hold no treasure in our hearts that vies for our affection with the

27:20

Lord and then finally this We love God. We don't just say it We love

27:26

God all the way to the tips of our toes It's not an emotional outburst

27:32

But it is a deep -rooted repentance that has changed everything our heart desires All of you if you claim the name of Christ this morning if you have faith in Jesus Christ That means you have repented of your sin and repentance is very simple

27:46

But it is elusive for those with a hard heart and it is impossible for those who have not been given a regenerate heart

27:53

Repentance is we look at what God hates and it's the way that we're walking and we turn Completely around and we walk the other direction and the reason we walk the other direction is because the pull of that direction is greater

28:06

Than the pull of the sin that so enticed us and ensnared us see sin gives us pleasure for a season

28:11

Sin gives us good feelings for a season, but it results in death But on the other side is the

28:17

Living God who forgives sin who has made a way for us and the call and the pull Of God is greater than the pull of sin and so the

28:24

Christian life is one of confessing sin turning away from it and walking towards God and that is

28:29

Impossible for the natural man and it is elusive in hard -hearted Christians It's elusive.

28:37

I preached in 1st Samuel that repentance is a gift from God every Rational part of Saul's walk in 1st

28:44

Samuel would have said stop it Saul Stop it. You are killing yourself and you're killing your kingdom

28:50

All you have to do is believe what God has said, but Saul can't do it We're Calvinist here.

28:56

We understand that we don't come to a saving faith of God through our intellectual majesty We come through a saving faith of God because he changes our hearts regenerates us and gives us the

29:06

Holy Spirit So when we say that we love God We follow his commands because we love him when we love our neighbor as ourself

29:16

It's because we love God and that is the greatest command and all the rest of them follow after it repentance

29:22

Christian repentance Pray for it Beg for it beg that God would give you repentance that he would take this stain and the bitterness and the anger out of your heart and the love of sin out of your heart and that he would let you turn in the opposite direction and it is sweet when repentance happens

29:43

Is this woman not showing? She's showing that nothing matters to her except her

29:48

Lord That's the object lesson that's what's in play here Let's look at the need for it.

29:56

Let's go back to the ugly. We looked at the good we looked at the bad Now we're gonna look at the ugly and it's quite ugly so the response of This woman giving everything the most valuable thing she owns to her

30:10

Lord and Savior is this but some were indignantly Remarking to one another. Why is this perfume been wasted?

30:16

For this perfume might have been sold for over 300 denarii and given to the poor and they were scolding her

30:26

Moving on in verse 10 Judas Iscariot Who was one of the twelve went away to the chief priests in order to betray him to them?

30:33

And when they heard this they were glad and promised to give him money and he began seeking how to betray him in an opportune time

30:40

Do you know what the opportune time is gonna be? Right after the Lord's Supper Right after the intimate table -setting which is where we go next week and we look at how the

30:52

Lord even loves his enemies and he waits and he gives them every opportunity and They deny and they rebel

31:01

But first let's look at everyone else They were indignant and angry. Why why are disciples so indignant?

31:07

Well, John gives us insight It's because Judas is stirring them up Judas is the one who wanted to give all of this money sell the perfume give the money to the poor

31:17

But what he really meant was I'm in charge of the box and I want to steal some of it

31:23

That's what he wanted to do. But Judas is angry and don't miss this Christian. He makes everyone else angry

31:30

Our hearts are prone to wonder and when we run into someone who is spewing their bitterness and their vile words and their anger and their anger and their malice

31:40

Our natural man hearts that are still burdened in the flesh They make us angry too and we start to have a venting fest together.

31:48

We rage together It's not come let us reason together. It's come. Let us rage together. It's come.

31:54

Let us character assassinate together This is what's going on and Jesus is in her circle and we have to ask what is the patience of God like?

32:04

Isn't it incredible? Look at what Jesus has done the most greedy

32:10

Worst of the disciples the one who is totally blind not partially blind. He has been not only made a disciple

32:17

Not only the betrayer not only given the food at the table at the Lord's Supper But he was also given charge of the money.

32:24

Did Jesus not know what he was going to do He for sure knew

32:29

He knew and he put him there and this creates the tension inside the church today that God for his purposes

32:37

And because of the mysteries of his will brings devouring ravenous wolves into the church body

32:43

He brings those who profess the name of Christ, but who do not love Jesus into the church body and they are among us

32:50

They are among us and it's very difficult because we would say didn't Jesus know of course he knew so why is

32:57

Judas even hanging? Around aren't we warned that a little bit of leaven leavens the entire lump.

33:02

Yes But in the church guess what we don't tolerate Judas here because I'm not

33:07

Jesus Jesus is doing something here and in his complete power. He understands everything that he is trying to accomplish

33:14

But look at this there is an unrighteous blindness in Judas that is cloaked in religious language

33:21

Is it not he doesn't say? We should have just sold that that was worth a lot of money.

33:26

No, no, no. No. No, he's much more clever than that We should sell it and give it to the poor it is it is a sickness that the worst people

33:42

They will say the most damaging malicious terrible things and then at the end they'll say

33:49

Bless you brother in Christ's name It's taking the

33:55

Lord's name in vain But even worse than that, it's how subversives infiltrate and it's how they devour and destroy

34:03

Even the elect if they can we saw that last week so what in the world here and What he does is he gets these partially blind disciples and he says all this money could have been given to the poor and they go

34:16

Yeah Yeah, it could have been but guess what else they're doing. They don't like the worship of Mary because it makes them look bad

34:23

Does it not? What did you give Peter? Well, Peter says

34:28

I'll die. I Won't deny you Lord But Mary's the one who pours the most important possession out at his feet

34:37

See what Judas does is he builds a coalition based on his religious language based on his seeming love for neighbor

34:45

But then he builds this coalition based on anger and outrage. How dare she isn't that what they're doing?

34:51

How dare she do that and thought they do is they call good evil. What was a righteous act?

34:57

What is going to be proclaimed with the gospel? They make an evil act because Judas is a twisted man.

35:04

He is given over The poor are not in view in this chapter, do you understand that?

35:12

The poor are not in view that's not what this is about they're having a family dinner together and this woman recognizes

35:20

God's Son and she anoints him and Judas wants to bleed on about the poor and Jesus says the poor are always here

35:27

I'm not always here. Do you not yet understand who I am disciples? You have seen me transfigured.

35:35

You have heard me prophesy the end of the old world You have heard me tell you three times that I'm going to die for the sins of many and you still don't get it see

35:48

Christians be on guard because it is very easy for even the elect to despise true worship when we are blinded by our

35:55

Self -righteousness and self -interest. It's very easy. That doesn't mean you're not a Christian. It means that you need to repent

36:03

It's very easy to look at someone else who is pouring it all out for the kingdom of God and try to needle them and attack them

36:10

Have you ventured into reformed social media lately? That's what it is

36:16

This guy has a bigger platform He's obviously terrible.

36:21

I heard a story from a third hand about how he did this It's just ad nauseum.

36:27

That's what happens is we see someone who's a little bit bigger and better than us Maybe right and the first instinct that we have in our flesh is to try to destroy them and to get angry at them

36:37

And that is when we look like Satan we are devouring and we shouldn't do that.

36:43

I'm a simple man I've said this before here's my simple operating procedure Christians should love Christians.

36:48

We really should we should love Christians We should try to avoid attacking Christians We should be happy when they are doing good and we should be for their mission and their vision to succeed

36:58

We really should we don't all have to do the same thing We are given lots of different gifts lots of different offices

37:06

Lots of different positions in the world and in the church and we should be for each other first Corinthians 13

37:13

Says that love does not envy and yet we see over and over and over again in the church that purported love does in fact envy and The reason why it does is because we are blinded

37:25

And it goes back to the main thing. We're not worshiping God when we're blind that way We have to worship

37:31

God and then we're gonna see are you not are you not an adopted child of the king?

37:37

Who do you have to be jealous about? You have been given the greatest status of anyone on earth

37:43

Enjoy it Christianity is supposed to be fun. Is it not we suffer but we live

37:49

We die, but we live even harder We give away and we get a hundred times as much

37:57

We sacrifice and the kingdom grows like a mustard seed Incredible.

38:03

It's incredible. So what does Jesus do? He elevates Mary here Mary Magdalene But he also is going to institute the most important supper ever given on earth with these very men

38:15

Who are pot -shotting the worship of God? In that an incredible thing.

38:20

What a story. What an amazing thing and after all of this Judas is going to get paid to betray his

38:28

Lord. How is he going to betray him? Well, he's going to lure Jesus away. He's going to give his whereabouts in a position of stealth

38:34

Remember the the main guys they're all about stealth he's going to find Jesus away from the crowd so they can do their dirty business and He is going to relay this messianic stuff because that is going to be the chief charge

38:49

Of the high priests against Jesus is going to be that he's a blasphemer that he claims to be the king

38:55

Remember this sign it's on the cross Why does he do this? Well, Judas is greedy

39:02

And guys, this is ugly this almost blew me away this week 30 pieces of silver everybody knows what

39:07

Judas got paid I don't think many people know why he got paid that Exodus 21 32 if the ox gores a male or female slave

39:17

The owner shall give his or her master 30 shekels of silver and the ox shall be stoned so the price of a killed slave

39:27

By an animal is the price of Judas's betrayal It's an incredible thing we see the value of Jesus to Judas It's basically the value of a slave and it's an amazing thing that we see over and over that New Testament authors

39:46

Time and time again will introduce himself Paul a slave of Jesus Christ See Judas had it backwards

39:53

Did he not Judas is the slave? Jesus is the Lord Even Jesus own brother

40:01

Jude when he wrote his letter said Jude a slave of Jesus Christ always struck me

40:06

Jude Jesus is natural brother His biological brother a slave of Jesus Christ because he when he saw the resurrection just like Mary Magdalene He recognized who his brother is

40:19

It's an amazing thing it's an ugly thing and it identifies four types of people for us in the church today

40:25

So let's look at them We have first kind of like the

40:31

Scribes and the Pharisees in the chief high priest We have the inside the religion outside the church haters

40:37

These guys are actually fairly easy to deal with they are thrilled when people inside the church betray the church see

40:44

The leaders they were really happy it said it right when Judas went to betray Jesus. They were thrilled.

40:50

They were happy These are the people who may call themselves Christians, but they don't go to church anywhere

40:55

And what they do is they live to amplify any story of betrayal when people fall the discernment ministry is gleeful about showing this fallen man to say see see what they're like in there and the reason why is because they want to hide their own sin and when we fall and when

41:12

People who are in the church fall and we betray our Lord and we bring defamation to the gospel those who are outside Use that as it as an ointment and a balm over their guilty consciences and see see

41:24

I'm just like them That's what they do. They are self -proclaimed Christians who despise the church and they live in license

41:32

If you want to have discernment about someone who puts himself up as a leader in the

41:37

Christian world Look at how they speak about the church and whether they love the brothers because if they don't love the brothers

41:43

They are most likely a wolf Really that simple. That's one type. We have the inside the church betrayer

41:50

This is the Judas these people have entered into our love feast by stealth They drink curses on themselves weekly here

41:59

They will be revealed and it will hurt it happens time and time again and it hurts every single time

42:09

Somebody's not who you thought they were They betray the Lord But if you want discernment, they are self -righteous.

42:16

They are proud. They are divisive and they are constantly building factions It's what they want to do

42:21

They want to rally people to their cry and their cry is not one Lord one baptism

42:27

They may cloak their language that way But what they're really doing is they are rallying people to their own preferences and to their own charisma

42:35

These men are usually elders Let me say it again

42:41

These men are usually elders the inside the church betrayer is almost always an officer of the church

42:47

And they're not content with shepherding the sheep, but what they want to do is they want to devour as many sheep as possible and they have a unique position of authority to do that and They operate in confusion because we're to obey our elders.

43:02

Are we not? Yeah except when they tell us to do horrible things and Then usually people won't listen to you until the whole plot gets given away and it becomes obvious and it will become obvious Number three, we have the partially blind disciples.

43:19

There is self -righteousness and mean these men that is correctable They can be envious even while this has no part of true love

43:27

This is the messiness of the church as there are people that that they are self -righteous or they are envious of others

43:33

But they are true Christians and what will happen is what will show in them is that they will be brought back

43:39

They will repent see messes in church Hopefully come from these kind of people because they can be restored the wolves have to get kicked out

43:48

But those who are walking in sin We hope that they would be restored and brought back and then number four and we want to have a church that's full of these

43:55

We have the true worshipers. These people are offensive Because they only care about the true worship of God and They live out their lives in obedience to his commands.

44:07

They are envied by others in the church, and we should not listen to that When you hear negative things about someone in the body

44:15

The next question you should ask is what is the sin that you are alleging they have committed? If there is no answer to that you got nothing

44:25

You got opinions and we know who has opinions Right everybody true worshipers have genuine sacrificial beautiful worship

44:38

It is an amazing thing to see and then don't get puffed up true worshiper Do you know why this is happening?

44:45

It's a gift of the Holy Spirit The only way you can know the Lord this should be so clear in mark

44:51

It's if repetitions the key to learning does mark not repeat it over and over and over and over again the only way you're going to know who

44:59

Jesus is is when he reveals it and gives you spiritual sight to see and Then when he does we pour out our sacrifice and praise

45:07

Because we know who gave us that heart in the first place and we as Christians should be thankful for it

45:12

Because we are doomed without it So when God calls you answer and then you thank him for calling and that is the posture of the church be discerning

45:23

But also pour it all out in worship, and that's what we're here for. Let's pray Lord Jesus we thank you for the story that that echoes through history that Mary Mary showed us in a beautiful way

45:40

How worship works and Lord, I pray that I pray that we would hold nothing to ourselves in opposition to what you demand of us

45:50

Lord we are your slaves But we are also your sons and daughters We were bought with a price.

45:57

We were redeemed from the market But it didn't stop there. You gave us an inheritance and we are also your inheritance

46:06

And Lord you have given us a heart to worship to your people and so we pray that we would do that We pray that sanctification would occur as we worship you and we learn more of your goodness and your mercy

46:19

And your justice and your long -suffering and your patience And Lord as we think about the table.

46:27

I Pray that we would understand the gravity of what you have called us into Or that we are in the presence of the

46:34

Almighty God and That to fear God is the beginning and really sum total of all wisdom

46:43

So help us Lord Help us to know where these gifts come from and help us to walk with discernment

46:49

But also to walk with honesty with those who you have called and assembled together. It's in your name.