Mark 14:1-11, What Is Jesus For?

Mark chapter 14 starting verses 1 to 11 here the word of the Lord It was now two days before the

Passover and the Feast of Unleavened Bread and The chief priests and the scribes were seeking how to arrest him by stealth and kill him for they said not during the feast lest there be an uproar among the people and While he was in Bethany in the house of Simon the leper as he was reclining at a table a woman came with an alabaster

Alabaster flask of ointment of pure nard very costly and she broke the flask and poured it over his head

There were some who said to themselves indignantly Why was the ointment wasted like this?

for this ointment could have been sold for more than 300 denarii and given to the poor and They scolded her, but Jesus said

Leave her alone Why do you trouble her? She has done a beautiful thing to me for you always have the poor with you and whenever you want you can do good for Them, but you will not always have me she has done what she could she has anointed my body beforehand for burial and Truly I say to you wherever the gospel is proclaimed in the whole world what she has done will be told in memory of her

Then Judas Iscariot who was one of the twelve Went to the chief priest in order to betray him to them and when they heard of it heard it

They were glad and promised to give him money and he sought an opportunity to betray him

May the Lord had his blessings to the reading of his Holy Word Now what is this for What we're doing right now

Joyce is out of place. She's supposed to be there She's there This throws me off Joy sitting back there

Anyway, what is this for is this for comforting you it's for challenging you

As it says basically to confirm you and what you already believe It's for changing you

What's it for? I mean you're here for a reason you've done a cost -benefit analysis as the economists would say and concluded in your analysis that coming here is

Better for you than anything else. You could be doing now for some of you. It may have been a close call.

Maybe Sleeping late maybe but it's close, but you finally decided this was the thing now.

Why is that? What is this for People might know the right answer to say but it would comes to actual practice.

They might expect something else Why do we have resource officers in schools?

Call them resource officers from what I can tell Schools started having police officers on campus after the

Columbine shooting in the late 90s to prevent that from ever happening again But since of course the chance of a shooting happening at any given school is so extremely low

The resource officers are given other responsibilities to fill their time like helping take care of discipline problems

Maybe just relating to the kids so they aren't afraid of the police, you know, and so on Deputy Scott Peterson of the

Broward County Sheriff's Department was named resource officer of the year in 2014 kind of like being named teacher of the year in your school district the award handed to him praised him for having quote

Proven to be reliable and handling issues with tact and judgment He was the officer on duty at Majorie Douglas Stoneman High School in February 14th

When a deranged ex -student started shooting people He came to the entrance of the building where the shooting was going on and according to the sheriff's department took a quote defensive position

Outside with his gun in his hand, but he never entered while students and faculty were being killed

Inside the sheriff after reviewing videotape of him doing essentially nothing

Said that he was devastated Sick to my stomach and he placed the resource officer on leave without pay

Essentially firing him he he forgot the officer what he was for What are you for If you're a rational person a calculator of everything by cost -benefit analysis, then you must have reason that coming here going through this service

Enduring believe it or not enduring this sermon somehow gets you something that's better for the you than anything else

You could be do could be doing if you have a goal, you know what you want out of life Then you ask yourself, you know, what is this for?

How does this help me and what I want top athletes? Center their whole lives from everything they eat to their sleep to their motivational talks or they listen to or the music they listen to to their workouts, of course

Around every exercise they choose to do is around. How does this help me? Not just kind of generally how can

I get in better shape? But how does this particularly help me be a better? Basketball player or a football or baseball player depending what kind of player they are what position they play

They shapes what kind of exercises they do a good business person is ruthless about asking whether this whatever it is

Really helps the business Will spend a good money to put an another sign out by the road

Advertising that there is a Chinese restaurant here. Will that bring in more customers then?

Who will make more profits for us Then the sign is worth then I have to pay to get a new sign if they think it is

They'll spring for the sign if they think it isn't They won't it's as simple as that now if they think

I Want a nice impressive sign for the look to be respectable all the reputable good restaurants

Have signs out of the road. I want it for my image. I want it for my ego Then they're probably not good business people

By the way, we got our sign out of the road for free In case you're wondering absolutely free from God's pit crew only paid a little bit ordered online for the lettering

We put up on it and we installed it ourselves. I Originally wanted to sign on the building. It says the

D gem on it I originally my original idea was to have it say the Providence building, which is 21 letters

But then I learned it cost $30 per letter So I soon saw the rationality of the much shorter

The gym, so that's how the gym came about You know only what do the math six letters $30 letter.

Yeah, it's not very much. Don't we went with that? So we asked how does this help me get what

I want? Well that depends on what you want You want to be happy? I guess we all want to be happy now.

How does Whatever you're doing. How does this make me happy? That's what you're for at any given time so you ask yourself, how does this house coming to church going to work?

You got the bills to pay and that makes you happy The check does if not the work doesn't watching the Olympics.

How does that make you happy running swimming? snapping stopping a Dairy Queen Going to a movie having a job a career getting married having a family

How does any of that get me what I want? What good is it? and then we asked

What is Jesus for? What good is he? Is Jesus for our happiness?

Yes But how does he help you get it? We think we hope

He will help us get what we're for happiness and it's true But what is

Jesus for? We see that here in this passage in six parts. There's first the plot

Second there's the pouring out third. There's the protest fourth, there's the purpose fifth.

There's the proclamation and finally six. There's the plot part two

First there's the plot Jesus is in Jerusalem teaching daily in the temple. The Passover is only two days away

And so this is probably about Tuesday of this week The the chief priests and the scribes were plotting to arrest him

What Jesus is for does not further what they are for Now for us that's no surprise

We don't we don't feel betrayed by that. We just read that kind of casually the priest and the scribes were conspiring against Jesus We think yeah, of course

And we've heard the story so many times we know That they are the bad guys Okay, it's just you know, we've been to that.

We've read the end of the story. There's not a They call it Give away the it's not a spoiler for us

We know they're the bad guys, but for the disciples the people around Jesus at this time, even the early church later This was shocking

This would just be utterly shocking This would be like being told the people high in our government are are in our conspiring against the country

Even though you have had people for the past year screaming collusion, but I'm getting that but it would be it would be like being

Told our our president our leaders are are conspiring with the enemies of the

United States now We might disagree. We might have just we might be disagree with the past president Maybe we disagree with this president about strategies

Disagree about the strategies about how I did how to deal with our enemies We might think such and such a president has chosen strategies that are counterproductive that aren't don't work

But I think we'd be shocked if we found out that the president even the president we disagreed with Was actually plotting intentionally against the country

That would be shocking wouldn't it? So here the people they may have criticized the scribes and the priest they may have scoffed at them

They may have even made fun of them behind their backs and but they wouldn't have thought that they would can be conspiring against the

Messiah That they would turn out opposed to God's kingdom That's just shocking to them

Now we need to understand today that many religious leaders Sometimes I leave the whole denominations or large churches or some small churches or teaching the teach the

Bible in universities or even Our seminaries or even small Sunday school classes.

They're not always for What Jesus is for? Often they're for their pensions their job security their organizations their tenure their reputation

Now that's not always the case There are good ones, but we mustn't be naive and think just because someone's in the religion business that they're for Jesus Here, they're plotting against Jesus.

They're seeking in verse 1 to arrest him by stealth Secretly when the crowds aren't around because he was popular.

Jesus is popular with most of the people there. He had a protective popularity They want to they want so they want to arrest him and they want to arrest him

By the way, as Mark says here not just to interrogate him or not just to warn him

You know, you better stop this go back to Galilee and leave us alone. It's not to scare him away Like don't try a few months later with Peter and John, but they want to arrest him

Specifically to kill him Mark says now why Mark here doesn't give their reasons but obviously

People seek what they are for They thought killing Jesus was the only way to get what they were for Preserving their lifestyle their perks their place in society

Jesus was a threat to that and so we had to go they thought that's

The human motivations on one level, but what was

God and Jesus for We know from Acts chapter 4 verse 28 that the two main decision -makers here the two men who would decide that This plot would be successful that Jesus would die

Herod and Pontius Pilate. They sentenced him to die. They fulfilled the plot here Now they had it they did it for their own human reasons

But ultimately says in Acts 4 28 They did it because they did what

God's hand and God's plan had predestined to take place that plot this plot here was presided over by God to do

What he's for Then there's the pouring out Jesus is staying in Bethany what we probably called today a suburb of Jerusalem It's just a small town just outside the city outside the big city now

He's invited to dinner at the house of Simon the leper It says and we really don't know anything about him, but it doesn't say here

But we can guess that Simon was healed by Jesus and and the dinner is probably to celebrate

That gracious healing so they would spot is a good time These are all friends of Jesus they're celebrating healing was a party.

There's lots of laughter. There's good food It's relaxed. It's happy small talk going on retelling stories of how leprosy was healed how

Simon went to the priest and you should have seen the look on their faces when I told Them Jesus healed me everyone laughs.

Let's have another drink. Cheers to Simon the X leper

And Jesus sitting back as they ate then kind of leaning on a cushion enjoying the celebration a

Woman comes in everybody knows her probably barely notice at first. She has an alabaster flask very ornate

Very expensive looking like something someone would have on a shelf on display, you know put proudly in your living room.

Look what I have and It's like fine China It's too expensive to actually ever use you just display it in your case

The only way it doesn't have a cap or cork. And so the only way to Use its contents to pour it out is by breaking it and it's so precious

You don't you know, you may never want to do that or if you do on very special occasion You must break it to get the ointment out

So you would either keep it as an ornament Never to use it just to kind of look at it admire it.

It's precious thing You have admiring not only the value of the flask itself, but the precious ointment inside maybe if you're a rational business person

Calculate cost benefit ratio you wait until the price of the flask goes up the ointment gets more expensive out there on the ointment market

It's an investment then you would then you would sell it make your profit. It's investment for your future wealth or Or maybe

You'd wait for the most important moment of your life some some Very special once -in -a -lifetime occasion and use it for that maybe it was given to her by our mother or grandmother a

Precious gift handed down a family heirloom on her wet maybe to be used on her wedding day

That's what it's for something special To once -in -a -lifetime pouring out and now she has this precious thing and Whatever she thought it was for before this

Now she knows What is for? She breaks it

Some of the small talk comes to a hush something astounding

Rare has just happened She broke that expensive flask and then pours it all out over Jesus's head you can see it trickling down His hair and cross his face into his beard down into his body all the way down to his feet

It was a very costly Pure nard probably imported from India in verse 5 the other people in the room say it's worth 300 denarii

That's about a year's wage for an average worker. So let's say in our terms about $30 ,000 so you're seeing $30 ,000 worth of ointment streaming down Jesus's head and body all poured out

What's it for is that a good use of that much value

Calculate You you're doing the analysis of what's good for you according to what's valuable to you according to your cost -benefit analysis, is that a rational use of that capital

You could buy a good new car with that You could put a down payment on a home with that if you think

Jesus is all about maybe thing. Okay, that's selfish I'm not gonna do that. You think Jesus is all about being for others Think how many poor people you could help with $30 ,000

You know in foreign countries poor countries You could build whole churches or our feed thousands or dig wells in Ethiopia for $30 ,000 think according to what's valuable to you

Is it worth it? Is it worth pouring out? $30 ,000 a whole year's worth of work of ointment on Jesus just to soothe him and make him smell good

There's so many other needs in the world aren't there That's what the protesters were thinking

And so they're next there's the protest in verses four and five Some there in this friendly gathering protested now.

Remember this is not like when he's invited some Pharisees home It's a mixed group with a bunch of skeptics and enemies kind of looking, you know with the lizard

I was trying to catch him as some opportunity. He says something wrong These are all friends here as far as we can tell their disciples.

The disciples are all there. This is a friendly gathering The woman was Mary the sister of Lazarus and he was there to telling his story

But they were indignant his friends They thought it was a righteous protest.

These are these are good people with good values They thought they knew what religion what

Jesus was all about what he was for He was about helping others, especially about those who can't help themselves the poor so in their righteous indignation at the end of verse 4

Why was this ointment notice that word? Wasted there's the word wasted like this

Notice according to their values the values of Jesus's friends and other disciples Pouring it out all on Jesus.

That's a waste Where's the practical value in that this kind of extravagance?

That's not what we're for For this ointment could have been sold for more than 300 in there. I am given to the poor

The poor that's what we're for We're not selfish people squander valuable things in our own luxuries

No, we're for the needy for the helpless we're for social welfare we're for building a just verdant and peaceful world

We're for bridging the income gap and this could have helped us do that and now look at it.

It's Wasted covering Jesus's head and body $30 ,000 down the drain like that Then how dare you you inconsiderate uncaring person?

They scolded her Because it was wasted according to them and these are

Jesus's friends It's wasted Just just on Jesus they think

What's Jesus for Yes, Jesus is for the poor But what is

Jesus for? first Is he just a? Some theologians call him a man for others teaching us all by Example to lay down our lives for others to give up seeking our own happiness for the sake of others

Or is he something more than that? Here Jesus shows us something that even many of his friends and Disciples and even many

Christians today don't understand first foremost Jesus is for himself

For God and he is God That's why he can be for himself without being selfish without being an idolater if Jesus was first for the poor

Or for you or for me He would be an idolater Idolatry is putting anything before God if Jesus puts you before God He's an idolater, but he's not

That's why the expensive flask Containing the very costly costly ointment is not wasted poured out all over Jesus There's nothing more worthwhile than anyone could have ever done with it

Then break it and pour it all out over Jesus There's nothing more valuable that you can ever do with all of your life then pour it all out for Jesus and He's asking that you do that He's telling you here that you need to change your values your cost -benefit

Analysis to the point where you finally see that pouring out yourself all of you

For Jesus is the most worthwhile thing that you can do with your life and to do it

You'll have to be broken People today even many

Christians like Jesus's friends here Tell us they will say it out loud they won't say it in these many concise words

Jesus is not Worth that He's really about others

Mainly us he's about us. Maybe he's about helping the poor Sure, especially if I can get a job in the charity that hands out money to the poor

I mean, I got to take care of myself first. I got bills to pay, you know Before I can help others and Jesus knows that so he's gonna give me a job so I can help the poor

After I help myself, we don't need to be broken Jesus is for The family whatever is good for my family my marriage is what

Jesus is for right Surely Jesus would never tell us that if we want to be his disciples, we must first pay

Parents or children, especially not especially not wife or husband. He'd never say that would he? Jesus is for Conservative values

So he's for just very conveniently for the politics that just so happens to keep my taxes low

Keep my lifestyle like it is isn't that very convenient the way Jesus is for what's good for me

Jesus is for Making Israel great again. They even had a red baseball caps that said that on it in Hebrew, of course

Not that Gentile Greek and Latin That's what they assume the Messiah would be for Overthrowing the

Romans giving them freedom from Gentile dominance. He was for us

And if he's for us We'll be for him up till he stops being for us

But here Jesus says his purpose. There's the fourth point he's for his purpose and his purpose is his purpose not ours

His purpose is to make disciples who seek first his kingdom So he does challenge us, but she challenged us.

He challenged it does not not Whoever loves whiskey more than me

How does he challenge us? Not whoever loves whiskey more than me whoever loves adultery more than me or whoever loves

Splurging on himself more than me is not worthy of me. No Whoever loves what even the world at its best?

What many in the church today said we should be focusing on family marriage

He says whoever loves that more than me Is not worthy of me cannot be my disciple

We have to pour out all our lives even our marriages and families. His purpose is making disciples

Who do that? If we love our marriages more than obeying Jesus we can't be as a cycle

If we choose to sin because the sin makes our marriage better our spouse likes us more Makes it because we followed him or her into sin

We've not poured out our lives and are not his disciples I've told a wife who is following her husband to do a sin that supporting her husband in his sin

Just passively going along with it that that too is sin all the scriptures in the

Bible They're telling wives to be submissive to their husbands never mean that they follow their husbands into sin that would be putting the husband ahead of Jesus a

Christian wife can still have a Gentle and quiet spirit respectful which in God's sight is very precious

Submitting to your husband is Peter writes about in first Peter chapter 3 while saying

No, I'm not going to follow you into sin Now if that brings disruption that brings problems that he may be even hostility or persecution into the marriage itself

Then that is the cross that Jesus said you must take up for the husband.

All of that is equally true But for him to follow his wife into sin like Adam followed

Eve That's a double failure If you're following your wife into sin

Not only is everything wrong with that that's wrong with the wife choosing the husband over Jesus But you're not only following her into sin that you're following her at all is sin

I think one of the finest examples of the gentle and quiet spirit respectful submissive, but firmly attached to Christ First is this precious gift we have right here and scrubs

Back a little over ten years ago when we were both in another church She was the church secretary and we were separated by only a very thin door

With through which I could hear I could hear everything going on in her office in every typewriter stroke

I got here once the phone rang and I could tell it was one of these troubled Non -attending quote members who were calling

Complaining about the fact that their names were about to be taken off the church membership role now you would think well that maybe

I could Start attending church again No, that doesn't occur to them But they were complaining their names gonna be taken off the church role because they hadn't attended in years

They were thinking I guess what's the church for a lot of people around us think it's about giving them assurance

No matter how they live. It's not for discipling them So this non -attending quote member was calling up indignant to complain

Now I thought hearing this I should handle this. I Assumed this quiet softly laughing gentle lady wouldn't want to have anything to do with an angry

Complainer and she would just relay the call to me But she didn't she took the call herself and I heard her gently politely, but firmly

Explained that you can't be a member of a church you you don't attend. I thought wow

Good job Said it just right in just the right tone and I thought man

This softly laughing smiling lady It's as tough as nails Who would have thought?

You see when you're for Jesus your commitment is set on him. You can be submissive and strong Because ultimately your submission is to Jesus not just a tactic

To have a happy marriage what's in it for you or you can be the leader of the family But not overbearing and selfish tyrant because your leadership is for Jesus Not just a tactic to get what you want

This woman was for Jesus Because of that she suffered the disapproval of the protesters

Who are Jesus's friends who thought that they thought that they could have done a lot of good with that expensive flask of ointment they criticize her and We might we might get

You know that the religious leaders Even religious leaders there maybe even today like the priests and scribes here who aren't really for Jesus we might get that There's people out there.

There aren't for Jesus, even though they're religious, but what will really surprise us sometimes hurt us

Is when Jesus's friends? Both as a parent profess friends and some real friends

Or just swept away in their ignorance because they don't yet understand what all this is for That is not for us not for our reputation

It's not for having $30 ,000 that we can then use to dole out to the community and make you know, people happy.

It's for Jesus It surprises us When we pour out our lives for Jesus when we drive buses or vans for years to bring kids to hear the gospel sacrifice our time our money our labor to be used by God to further the kingdom of God and Then those who say they are friends of Jesus and some of them are

But they scold us for it they tell us we've wasted our lives We've wasted our treasure our

Saturdays or our Sundays. It's hard to face the disapproval of those who claim to be friends of Jesus But sometimes you must

Whose whose disapproval is it? That tempts you to pull back from pouring out all to Jesus Well, John Bunyan the

Baptist Puritan He faced the disapproval of the government in England He spent years in jail because the disapproval of the established church in England during which he wrote while he's in jail the pilgrims progress

He also wrote a hymn To be a pilgrim. I just found that this this week

Who would Valiant be? against all disaster Let him in constancy

Follow the master There's no discouragement shall make him once relent his first avowed intent to be a pilgrim

Who so beset him round with dismal stories like this woman in this story criticizing her?

But do themselves confound his strength the Morris No foes shall stay his might though.

He with Giants fight. He will make good his right to be a pilgrim

Since Lord thou dost defend us with thy spirit. We know we at the end shall life inherit then fancies flee away

I Fear not what men say I'll labor night and day to be a pilgrim

What men here said was that's a waste but Jesus said in verse 6

She has done a beautiful thing for me sometimes

Amid the criticism that you're wasting your life on Jesus. The only comfort you have

Will be the praise of Jesus You've done a beautiful thing for me

What are you for some of these friends of Jesus were for him because they thought he was for them

We have a lot of people like that today people who think Jesus is all about making them successful Them rich and healthy and give them good marriages and obedient kids

Sure, Jesus is for the poor But what did the poor need the most? They need money we think financial assistance

We can solve the scourge of poverty if we only give everyone a living wage We're told but Jesus tells us here that will always have the poor with us.

That doesn't mean we don't care We can't tell people that God loves them and we love them and what we don't do anything practical to help them you know be warm be filled and then not share but relief from poverty a war on poverty

Programs to solve poverty are not what the poor need the most What do we all need the most

We need our poverty of righteousness our bankruptcy before God Relieved we need our sins paid for by Jesus's death

So Jesus came to die to be the sacrifice for our sins the propitiation

The appeasing sacrifice when the perfect son was broken and his life poured out

So that God's just anger at our sins could be paid for Propitiation was the purpose of his death and this woman anointed his body for burial preparing him for his purpose

What is Jesus for? He is for the proclamation

He says in verse 9 Emphasizing that this is true. This is certain be assured that this is the case

Wherever the gospel is proclaimed in the whole world What she has done will be told in memory of her

And so here we are fulfilling that prophecy Right now

Telling it in memory of her all four of the Gospels have this story in it So we'll be reminded with every retelling of what

Jesus did that he is worth being broken Ourselves and pouring out everything for notice here that wherever the gospel is proclaimed in the whole world

That once again Jesus sees that there will be a time Between his death and resurrection on the one hand and his return on the other a long interval in interim

When the gospel is proclaimed and he says that time when he is not with us physically That wasn't an accident.

The gospel must be proclaimed in the whole world first. That's what Jesus is for now

He's for getting the gospel out to every person in this world. So if we're for Jesus Ask yourself

How am I helping him get that done? That's why we have

Jim jr And Jim so that you can be involved in what Jesus is for if we have enough people in those ministries

We could start new programs We can give to missionaries like testify to help to get the gospel out to Ethiopians.

Maybe to the Chinese in our area That's what we're for Because that's what

Jesus is for Then Judas Iscariot in verse 10 continues the plot started in verses 1 & 2

He's one of those who were grumbling at the waste It's a waste pouring out all that oil expensive ointment on Jesus.

He's one of those. He said he cared for the poor He wanted to use $30 ,000 for the needy

Of course, he'd have to take a cut himself. I mean a commission. It's only right. He's got bills to pay too

But he's for the poor sort of I mean after himself What he's not for is

Jesus if Jesus were for the poor now if he were really for the poor if he were for this for society even for the general welfare especially if he you know the

Judas would be for him, especially if he If Jesus could give him a job and Whatever way he is for the poor if Jesus could get him something, you know

Give him a position maybe make him treasure of the new government that he's gonna set up Yeah, I'll be for Jesus if he'll do that for me

If he'll make me the CFO of the the big charity that he sets up for the poor

I'll handle the finances there or maybe you feel he'll make me a bishop and his new denomination

I'll be for him then. Yeah, sure But no, he's not gonna do that it's all about him

Jesus was only for Himself That's that's one thing.

But if he's for me, he thinks I'd be for Jesus, but he but he's not and so it finally dawns In Judas that Jesus is first for himself and that he demands that we pour out our lives for him, too

And so he goes to the chief priest to betray Jesus to them After all if he can't get anything out for himself out of Jesus He can get he can get it out of the priest

They were glad to see him they promised him money Money is the one thing we never doubt that is always for us

That's why we love money. It's always for us You know the wife the husband the kids everybody else might be in it for themselves

Just using you for what they can get out of you The money is for us we tell the wife the husband the kids to do this or that and they don't they don't listen to us

They don't obey but we but they're not for us, but we tell money Tell money to buy dinner.

It does it the money to get us new clothes or an iPhone 10 My money does exactly what we say

It's for us That's why we love it so much. That's why Judas wanted the money when he saw that Jesus was ultimately for him

That Jesus wasn't ultimately for him But he was for himself That it in his kingdom that it's a beautiful thing to be broken and pour out ourselves for him

Not for me Then okay, I'll take the money and Countless people do the same today choosing the money

Or the wife or husband or reputation? over Jesus But if you want your life

To be a beautiful thing Pour it all out for Jesus like John Bunyan who people criticized wasted so many years in prison because he wouldn't conform or William Carey who lost a wife and son in India labored years learning a

Language translating the Bible and only after seven years saw the first converts like many others that we don't know

Who took buses instead of cars so they could give to evangelism wives who had to go to church alone over their husband's protest

Husbands who suffered the disapproval of unsubmissive wives who think marriage at first and foremost be for them not for Christ Jesus says about them all still today

You've done a beautiful thing for me being broken Pouring out our lives for him

After all Jesus was broken He's beaten broken on a cross

Poured out his life So that we who were poor bankrupt in our sin

Could have the riches of his righteousness He was for us