John, pt. 71 | John 12:1-11

If you will, at this time, take your copy of the Scriptures and turn with me to the

Gospel of John 12. The Gospel of John 12. We will consider verses 1 -8.

The Gospel of John 12. Verses 1 -8.

Our glorious God in heaven, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Lord, we ask that You, through Your Word, oh

God, and through this broken vessel of a man, that You will speak to Your people.

Lord, that You will help me to listen to You, not only as I studied

Your Word, but as I stand in Your pulpit now, Lord. I desperately rely upon Your Spirit.

Lord, if You do not speak through me, Your people will walk away today still hungry for Your Word.

So, God, I ask in the name of Jesus Christ, the name that is above every name, the name by which every knee will bow in heaven and on earth, that You will use me today mildly through Your Spirit.

I pray this in Jesus' name, amen. There's no greater place to be than to be reliant upon the

Spirit of God. Let's begin with the text.

John 12, verses 1 -8. Six days before the

Passover, Jesus therefore came to Bethany where Lazarus was, whom

Jesus had raised from the dead. So they gave a dinner there.

So they gave a dinner for Him there. Martha served, and Lazarus was one of those reclining with Him at the table.

Mary therefore took a pound of expensive ointment made of pure nard and anointed the feet of Jesus and wiped

His feet with her hair. The house was filled with the fragrance of perfume.

But Judas Iscariot, one of his disciples who was about to betray him, said,

Why was this ointment not sold for three hundred denarii and given to the poor?

He said this not because he cared about the poor, but because he was a thief.

And having charge of the money bag, he used it to help himself to whatever was put into it.

Jesus said, Leave her alone so that she may keep it for the day of My burial.

For the poor you will always have with you, but you will not always have

Me. Our theme for this Lord's Day is the preparation of Jesus' death or the preparation of His burial.

Today as we're looking at these different interactions with Jesus, out of all these interactions we're going to see in this text, none of them are as significant as Mary's interaction with Jesus.

It seems as if the Holy Spirit through John is trying to show us something significant in the text.

This is kind of how John has written his Gospel in such a way.

So often we as Christians seem to downplay our own interactions with Jesus.

We even try to trivialize our time with the Savior as if our interactions are not as important as we see in the text.

The reason as to why Mary's interaction seems more significant in the text is because Mary seems to understand the moment that she is in.

As you will see, she quite clearly understands in comparison to the others in our text.

My dear friends, if we could just take one page out of the story of Mary, just one page, it would be this one.

We would do good to understand the moment that we're in and take every opportunity to sit at the feet of Jesus Christ.

Amen? In our outline, we're going to see this narrative play out.

And we're going to see the different interactions with Jesus. We're going to see the interaction of Martha, the interaction with Lazarus, the interaction with Mary, and the interaction of Judas.

Our first point, we're going to look at Martha, our second, Lazarus, our third, Mary, and our fourth with Lazarus.

But as we transition, let's remember that Jesus had just raised Lazarus, who was dead for four days.

He was four days in the grave. That Lazarus's resurrection was a picture of our future resurrection.

And that because Jesus raised Lazarus from the dead, the religious leaders were now seeking his death.

They were plotting his death. Right. You remember,

Lazarus was four days dead in the scriptures. He was 21 days dead, according to our exposition.

That's how long it took us to get him out of the grave, out of that tomb. Right. He was decomposing.

He was rottening away. He hears the voice of Jesus.

And he came forth from the grave. And I pointed out how this was a picture, this was a shadow.

And our resurrection, including Jesus, him being the first fruit, was the antitype.

It was the substance of what we what will happen whenever we, whenever Christ comes again and we are brought out of that tomb or out of our grave, or if it's the last day and you have not died, the

Bible says you will be changed within a twinkling of an eye. The Bible talks about that.

This is when we will be as he is. That that this story was pointing us to something greater and that because Jesus had done this, that this was the straw that broke the camel's back, meaning that it was time to plot his death.

They were sick and tired of Jesus doing good. They were sick and tired of him feeding the hungry, sick and tired of of him raising the dead, sick and tired of him healing blind people, sick and tired of him taking a lame man who could not walk and giving him the gift of walking.

These people were sick and tired of the good deeds. So as we read these first two verses.

The first thing we're going to notice is that it's six days away from the

Passover. At the very beginning of this gospel, John sees Jesus. He says, behold, the

Lamb of God. He said that he's the one who takes away the sin of the world.

And in our text, we're going to see that this is six days away, six days away until that lamb is slaughtered.

And he takes away the sin of the world. And that also means that it's seven days actually to that moment.

So it's six days away from the Passover, seven days away from the slaughter. One week.

The rest of this book is going to be about one week, seven days according to the text, maybe a year according to the exposition.

I'm not exactly sure. Again, it took 21 days to get him out of the grave, about four days being dead.

We're halfway through the gospel. We have one week left just to put your mind at ease.

The text tells us also as we read this first two verses, that Jesus is back in Bethany, the town of Lazarus, Martha and Mary.

So let's begin this first point, the interaction with Martha. Verse one, six days before the

Passover. Jesus, therefore, came to Bethany. Remember, he left

Bethany because of the persecution where Lazarus was, whom

Jesus had raised from the dead. Verse two, so they gave a dinner for him there.

Martha served. Let's stop right there. Right off the bat, we see

Martha doing what Martha does. And I would argue that we see this because this is what

Martha loves to do. Martha loves to serve. Now, the scriptures doesn't tell us if Martha was married.

However, it most definitely shows her in light of a homemaker, someone who wanted to serve, to serve with her gifts.

We see this servant interaction between Martha and Jesus when she is first introduced to us in the

Gospel of Luke. If you would turn with me to the Gospel of Luke, chapter 10. Luke, chapter 10.

We will read verses 38 through 48. 38 through 48 says this.

Now, as they went on their way, Jesus entered a village and a woman named

Martha welcomed him into her house. And she had a sister called

Mary who sat at the Lord's feet and listened to his teaching.

But Martha was distracted with much serving. Stop right there. Here we see

Mary was at the feet of Jesus, learning from him. Meanwhile, Martha was busy serving.

Now, Luke doesn't tell us what Martha was serving. However, I imagine it's the same thing that's taken place in chapter 12 of our text.

Verse two. So they gave a dinner for him. The hymn here is

Jesus. There Martha served. Martha was making a meal for Jesus, as well as everyone else in that house.

Martha's service was one of a homemaker. And as a

Baptist, I'm thinking, hey, that's the Lord's work right there, right? Food, serving food.

And we can say that comically, right, like jokingly, but in truth, that is a part of the

Lord's work. Right? If we're honest, Jesus, although he is truly

God, he is also truly man. And as a man, Jesus got hungry and needed to be fed.

He needed someone to serve in that manner. I would say, well,

I would, I would hope every one of us has that piece of Martha in us, where if we have someone in our home that we serve them, or someone, according to James 2, was to come in here, was poorly clothed and needed food, that we would serve them.

We will provide this need for them, that we would make them food or give them provisions in order for them to get food.

And we would clothe them. We would serve them. That's the kind of heart that we see with Mary. And I believe that's the kind of heart that every one of us as Christians should have.

Although there is a greater service. As much needed as that service is,

Jesus was also a man. He was God and man and needed to be fed. So someone needs to feed

Jesus. Someone needs to feed us. Someone needs to clothe us. Someone needs to clothe the poor and feed the poor.

However, there is a greater service. Point number two, the interaction with Lazarus.

We see this also in verse two. Let's read that all together.

It says, So they gave a dinner for him. Speaking of Jesus there, Martha served and Lazarus was one of those reclining with him at the table.

Here we see Lazarus hanging out with Jesus right after Jesus raised him from the dead.

Oh, to be a fly on the wall for that conversation, right? I would imagine

Jesus was teaching something here. Maybe he was teaching on the last day and how

Lazarus's resurrection pointed to that time to our future glorification.

Maybe they were having a discussion about heaven. I mean, Lazarus was just there instantaneously and then gone.

Or maybe Jesus was talking about his approaching death. Bible doesn't tell us.

I happen to believe it's probably something to do with the resurrection of Lazarus. But I can't prove it from the text.

I would imagine Lazarus is doing what Mary was doing in Luke chapter 10. Outside of being at his feet.

He was listening to Jesus. Let's go back to Luke chapter 10. Let's read that portion all together.

So Luke chapter 10 verses 38 through 42. Verse 38.

Now, as they went on their way, Jesus entered a village and a woman named Martha welcomed him into her house.

And she had a sister called Mary who sat at the Lord's feet and listened to his teachings.

But Martha was distracted with much serving. Listen to this. And she went up to him and said,

Lord, do you not care that my sister has left me to serve alone?

Tell her then to help me. But the

Lord answered her. Martha, Martha, you are anxious about hold on troubling.

You're anxious and trouble about many things. But one thing is necessary.

Mary, listen, has chosen the greater portion which will not be taken away from her.

One of the greatest services that we can do is to listen to the teaching of Jesus.

Don't despise your interaction with Jesus. Our being here today, listening to the teachings of Jesus, we're in that interaction that we can sometimes take for granted.

Amen. And Luke 10, Mary chose to sit under the teachings of Jesus rather than serve in the kitchen.

And there's nothing wrong with serving in the kitchen. We need people to serve in the kitchen. I don't don't think that's what he's not saying.

Please cook food and feed. Hallelujah. You know, we need these things.

But there's a greater there's a greater service. And he says Mary has chosen that rather than to be in the kitchen.

And Martha was mad. Just like I would imagine most of you women here would be mad if you know you you're in the kitchen, you're doing all the work, you're preparing the meal, you're getting everything together for us.

And then and then another able, willing, able, but unwilling body is not doing the work because of being fed by the teacher.

Can you can you put yourself in her place and think how you would feel or how

Mary must have felt? And plus, to know that Mary could have chose to sit there and listen to the teaching.

But at the same time, that other service needed to be done to. Jesus does not condemn

Martha for serving. However, he points out that there is a greater service than serving food.

And it is listening to Jesus. And here in our text,

John, Chapter 12, verse two. That's what Lazarus is now doing. Lazarus is at the table reclining.

So so at this time, when they would talk about reclining at table, so it would be a table probably near this size.

For most part, they didn't have chairs like we would today. And the reclining would be your left elbow.

On there. And you would eat with your right hand. That's kind of the tradition for the most.

I won't get into the nasty discussing part, but the left hand, there was stuff done with the left hand that you didn't want touching your food.

OK, let's just get into it, right? They would wipe their butts with their left hands.

And so that's where you get that right hand of fellowship, right? You always shake hands with the right hand because the left hand, it wasn't as great, right?

They've done some things that the right hand didn't do. And so for the most part, when they would recline at table, they would pop their left hand up and eat with their right hand.

So that's what this is talking about. They're enjoying their time together. But they're feasting. They're reclined at table.

And Lazarus has chosen the greater portion. This time, Lazarus is listening and most likely holding on.

I know I would be holding on to every word that's coming from the master,

Jesus Christ. Now, there are also two other accounts of the same story that we're reading in Luke.

I mean, in John. And they give different details.

However, one thing I want to mention and and I think this is important information is that it doesn't mention their names.

It doesn't mention Lazarus. It doesn't mention Martha. And it doesn't mention

Mary. That's going to be important here in a little bit. I would imagine

Lazarus, like I said, is doing what. Mary was doing, he is listening, he's reclining, he is enjoying his time with the

Savior. But these two other accounts inform us who else is in the house. And one of those persons is

Simon, the leopard. So Simon, the leopard was also reclining at the table.

Listening to the teachings of Jesus. Now, notice I call him Simon, the leopard. By this time,

Simon would not be a leopard. He would have to be clean. A leopard was not allowed to be in the company of others.

If a leopard was coming into the city and there were other people around, the leopard had to scream out, unclean, unclean, warning people of his leprosy, warning people not to get near him.

That he himself is unclean. But now we have Simon, the leopard reclining at table.

So far, we know it's with Jesus. It's with Lazarus and probably some of the disciples reclining at the table, listening to the teachings of Jesus, doing the very same thing.

Notice also. The text tells us that Lazarus was not by himself.

Verse two says, Lazarus was one of those reclining at the table with Jesus.

So in. Chapter 12 of John, it tells us that there was others there.

Whenever you go to the other accounts of the Gospels and you read this, it doesn't mention Lazarus. It doesn't mention anyone else.

All it mentions is Simon. That indicates it's telling us who else was in the room.

So point number three, the interaction with Mary. Verse three.

Mary, therefore, took a pound of expensive ointment made of pure nard and anointed the feet of Jesus and wiped his feet with her hair.

The house was filled with a fragrance of perfume. Now, here.

Is controversy. I was not looking forward to preaching this text because of this controversy, and as I stand here before you right now,

I'm a little nervous, to be honest, because there's controversy here. And as with controversies, you have to pick a side.

And I've picked a side, and it's not the popular side. This is not the side that most reformed people pick, but I've picked my side and I'm going to stand by it.

And even though I'm nervous a little bit, right, I'm a little nervous about it. I'm going to present it to you.

The controversy really begins in John, chapter 11, verses one and two. Let's look at that real quick.

John, chapter 11, verses one and two. Verse one.

Now, a certain man was ill. Lazarus of Bethany. The village of Mary and her sister

Martha. Right here, verse two, it was Mary who anointed the

Lord with ointment and wiped his feet with her hair, whose brother

Lazarus was ill. The controversy is this, is verse two of chapter 11 speaking about chapter 12, verse three, or is it speaking about something past tense?

The Greek doesn't really give you any help here. I spent a night and a half in the

Greek. It doesn't really say pick this side over this side.

However, just from the plain language, it doesn't seem that it's telling something that's coming, but it's speaking as if something that has happened from chapter 11.

And that's the side that I have chosen to take. Remember, Jesus in this gospel as I'm in this gospel, the gospel of John.

John is also pulling from Old Testament pictures like he's using stuff that's earthly to explain something heavenly.

Behold, the lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. Right. We we see this taking place.

We see that that that Jesus speaks about the the new birth as a way to explain salvation.

And we would hope to that too. Jamie, not long ago, came up here and talked about regeneration. I just had a a debate focusing on regeneration and how the word regeneration is the

Greek word Pauline, going to see a Pauline, meaning again, going to see a meaning birth, birth again.

And Jesus is using the new birth, birth again as a way to explain salvation.

So he he takes something that we know of birth and he brings it to more.

He gives it more light. And some of this is what it means to be to be a Christian. You must be born again.

He took the wind there in John chapter three. And he says he used the wind to explain to us the

Holy Spirit. He took something earthly like wind to explain to us the spirit. As we go through John chapter six, he was talking about eating his flesh and drinking his blood.

And whenever you read that, it doesn't necessarily say that eating his flesh and drinking his blood means believing.

But when you follow the context of the the whole book, eating his flesh and drinking his blood is believing in him like it doesn't necessarily just say it like we would like for it to say you have to you have to do the hard work and you have to break everything down.

You have to use all the scripture and to explain it and to understand it. He took physical blindness and explained spiritual blindness and physical sight to explain spiritual sight.

He takes the earthly to explain the heavenly. He took the resurrection of Lazarus as a way to explain to us our future resurrection.

And I believe that's what we see here taking place as well. And Luke chapter 7, 30, 60, 39 lays out for us a similar story that would have taken place before this event in our text.

And the woman who is in the story is not named, but it's called a woman of the city.

And it is debated on what the woman of the city means. So in the same way where someone would say

Martha, Martha, or truly, truly it mentions the woman of the city with a sinner.

So it's kind of like double playing that this woman, whoever she is or whatever this means, is not a good person.

She's, according to the the pharisaical times, the law of Moses, she would have been filth to them.

When you study this woman of the city, the debate is, is that this is a nice way of saying a prostitute.

By calling her a woman of a city, we can take from that, for the most part, from what I've learned through studying this, that she is a prostitute.

That she is someone who sold her body for money. So let's read this account, not fully, but just so you can see the picture that's being painted here.

Luke chapter seven, beginning in verse 36. Luke chapter seven, verse 36.

It says, one of the Pharisees asked him, speaking of Jesus, to eat with him. And he went into the

Pharisee's house and reclined at table. And behold, a woman of the city, who was a sinner, when she learned that he was reclining at table in the

Pharisee's house, brought an alabaster flask of ointment. And standing behind him at his feet, weeping, she began to wet his feet with her hair, with her tears, and wiped them with her hair of her head, and kissed his feet, and anointed them with the ointment.

So either Luke chapter seven, 36 through 39, is speaking about the same woman, which is

Mary, in John chapter 12, verse three, or we have multiple women at the feet of Jesus, anointing him with ointment.

Again, it doesn't name Mary. It only names

Mary in the Gospel of John. Only in the Gospel of John is

Mary named as pouring ointment, pouring expensive ointment on the feet of Jesus.

Mary and her sister Martha is mentioned, excuse me, and Mary, the sister of Martha, is mentioned many times throughout the

Bible, these Gospels, as being at the feet of Jesus. We saw one, we preached the one, the one that we've read today is

Luke chapter 10, verse 39. It says that Mary is at the feet of Jesus.

She's listening to his teaching. She has chosen the greater portion. And in John chapter 11, verse 32, as Jesus is coming to her, her brother has died, she has gone to him, it shows that she falls at the feet of Jesus.

And what I wanna do right now is I want us to to look at these other accounts.

I want us to see this story through the lens of Matthew and Mark. So turn with me to Matthew chapter 26.

I wanna take you through the journey of putting these stories together. Matthew chapter 26, verses 6 through 13, says this, now when

Jesus was at Bethany, notice, same town, Bethany, in the house of Simon the leopard.

So that tells you where they were, from John chapter 12. They're at Simon's house,

Simon the leopard. A woman came up with an, and a woman came up, so it doesn't give her name, it just says a woman, this is

Mary, came up to him with an alabaster flask of ointment, a spence of ointment.

She poured it on his head. John tells us she poured it on his feet.

This same event, she pours it on his head as he was reclining at the table, and when the disciples saw it, disciples now, it's not just Judas, it's disciples.

When the disciples saw it, they were indignant, meaning they were angry, saying, why this waste?

For this could have been sold for a large sum and given to the poor. But Jesus, aware of this, said to them, why do you trouble the woman?

For she has done a beautiful thing. For you always have the poor with you, but you will not always have me.

In pouring this ointment on my body, she has done it to prepare me for burial.

Truly, I say to you, wherever this gospel is proclaimed, in the whole world, what she has done will also be told in memory of her.

Now go with me to the Gospel of Mark, chapter 14. The Gospel of Mark, chapter 14, verses three through nine.

And while he was at Bethany in the house of Simon the leopard, again, it named Simon, as he was reclined at table, a woman with an alabaster flask of ointment, a pure nard, very costly, and she broke it, she broke the flask.

Well, the other gospels didn't tell us that. She breaks the flask, this expensive flask, she breaks it and pours it over his head.

And there were some who said to themselves, indignantly, why was this 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, whenever this gospel was proclaimed in the whole world, what she has done will be towed in memory of her.

Now, for some of y 'all who might be new to the faith, you might be thinking, why does the story have different perspectives like it does?

Well, that right there tells you that this story is true. If it was word for word correct between all three or four gospels, then you would know it was collaborated, right?

If we all from different angles see something happen and we wrote what we saw happen down, it would be the same but different, right?

I imagine Matthew and Mark wasn't good with names, right, like me. I can't remember, what was their name?

Right, and so he didn't write it down, right? But that's just how it is, right? It's just different. It's the same story told from different views.

If you're at an intersection and there's a wreck and you have eight people telling the cops what happened, if they all said the same thing, that cop knows that this is a lie.

It was collaborated. But if it's all different, similar but different, they know it's the truth.

Now, each account happened in Bethany and in each account, a woman anoints

Jesus with expensive ointments. And everyone believes, knows from Matthew, Mark to John, it's the same woman,

Mary, even though Matthew and Mark doesn't name her. It's telling the same event. However, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John all, for the most part, have a lot of the same things in it, right?

Like every one of them talks about ointment. I would challenge you to go through here in your spare time and to write, just look at ointment, the alabaster flask, pure nard, anointing the head, anointing the body, and anointing the feet, and wiping his feet with her hair.

Like these stories, they overlap. Three of them we know because it's the same incident.

It's the same story being told from three different perspectives. But the one that I believe that's from past tense, we still have the alabaster flask, we have the ointment.

And it's very expensive, 300 denarii. You see,

I believe that the woman of the city, that Mary is the woman of the city in Luke chapter seven.

And then in verse 48, because she was a prostitute, could have been,

Jesus tells her that her sins are forgiven. She's weeping, her tears like water.

She's using her tears to wash his feet. She's taking her hair down, a woman taking her hair down.

She's taking that prostitute veil off of her head. She takes her hair and she's drying his feet.

And then she anoints it with this ointment. And in this event from John chapter 12,

I believe she does so for a different purpose than the text tells us. Because in Luke chapter seven,

I believe it's for the forgiveness of her sins. She's coming repentant. She's broken. She knows she's a sinner.

She's falling at the feet of the Savior. But this time in John and in Matthew and Mark, she's doing so in preparation of the burial of Jesus Christ.

In Matthew chapter 26, 12, in Mark chapter 14, eight, it tells us that she's, it tells us why.

You don't have to guess. It is for the preparation of his burial. It's for his death. It is as if Mary is able to pick up what

Jesus is dropping. All throughout the gospel, Jesus is talking about, there's gonna come a day where he's going to die.

He's going to be buried and he's going to be raised again from the dead. But his disciples did not understand this.

They were not picking up what he was dropping. But it seems as if Mary is.

This ointment, this perfume, this pure nard was for his burial.

In Luke nine, I mean, in Luke seven, it's for her sins. It's her dying to her sins.

And this perfume, this pure nard, this ointment, it says it was for 300 denarii.

Let's put that in perspective. A denarii was a day's wage. So you go out and you work a whole day, you receive one denarii.

This ointment is 300 denarii. This is probably about a year's wage if you count some days off.

Mary would have probably purchased this for her own burial because this stuff was used for burial.

And then the same way today how people would go and prepay their funeral expenses, this is what we see this ointment was for.

This is what Mary did. What you didn't notice when Lazarus was buried, four days later, they didn't want to open that tomb because he stinketh, right?

This is telling us that Lazarus did not have the 300 denarii to buy such perfume for his body.

This was not something that everyone was able to have because of the poverty that took place at this time. And today

I am unable to prepay my funeral expenses, right?

If I go right now, you're gonna see a GoFundMe on Facebook, right? Because I don't have that kind of money to pay for my funeral expenses.

Most people didn't. Somehow Mary does. She was able to buy this 300 days of wages, this pure gnar.

She takes this 300 days of wages, which was most likely purchased from her sin, and she covers the body of Jesus with it in preparation of his burial.

I hope you're able to see the spiritual connection. Right here,

I believe we're seeing Mary give to Jesus not only her life's savings, but also her sins.

Being at the feet of Jesus in scripture or being at anyone's feet in scripture is a sign of servitude.

Like John the Baptist speaking about Jesus, he says, I baptize you with water into repentance, but he who comes after me is mightier than I, whose sandals

I am unworthy to carry. And at this time you would have servants that would put your sandals on your feet and take your sandals off your feet.

John is saying, I am not even worthy to be his servant. I am unworthy to be the servant of Jesus.

And every time we see Mary, she somehow finds herself at the feet of Jesus, listening as a servant.

We also see this in the book of Ruth. Naomi tells Ruth, because Boaz is a redeemer, she's told to go to Boaz as he is sleeping and remove the sheet from his feet and to lay there at his feet as a servant.

And when Boaz awakes, she's to ask him to redeem her.

I think that this is a beautiful picture when we see this woman, this supposed woman of the city falling at the feet of Jesus, crying and washing his feet with her tears, drying them with her hair and anointing them with her feet.

She is asking to be redeemed. This is exactly what's taking place.

Washing and anointing. And Jesus tells this woman of the city, you continue to read that portion of the text, that her sins are forgiven.

Jesus redeems the woman of the city. And in our text, the house was filled with perfume, which at that time was the fragrance of funerals.

Just like today, when someone says, this place smells like a funeral, they're most likely thinking of the intense scent of lilies.

Right, you're walking into a place and smell that intense scent of lilies, and think, man, this smells like a funeral home.

Right, am I the only one? This is what they were experiencing.

This perfume was the fragrance of funeral invoking thoughts of death.

If you look back with that on your mind and read verse three, because the disciples weren't in the moment.

They wasn't not in the moment. They didn't understand the moment that they were in. It says,

Mary, therefore took a pound of expensive ointment, 300 days of wages, of pure gnar and anointed the feet of Jesus and wiped his feet with her hair.

The whole house was filled with the fragrance of perfume.

Interaction number four, the interaction of Judas. This is from verses four through eight.

But Judas Iscariot, as we see, this stirs up all the disciples from the other text.

Judas Iscariot, one of the disciples, he who was about to betray him said, why was this ointment not sowed for 300 denarii and given to the poor?

He said this not because he cared about the poor, but because he was a thief and have in charge of the money bag he used to help himself to what was put into it.

Jesus said, leave her alone so that she may keep it for the day of my burial.

For the poor you will always have with you, but you will not always have me.

We need to understand the moment that we're in, even while we're in church.

There's many good works that we could be doing right now, feeding the poor, clothing the naked.

And those are good works. The greater portion is being here today underneath the word of God, listening to the teaching of Jesus.

Jesus never says don't take care of the poor, but it does say to not forsake the assembling of ourselves together.

My dear friends, this is part of that greater portion, what we're doing here today.

And as we've already read from the other gospels concerning this story, the reaction of Judas caused the other disciples to react in the same way.

His disciples were not living in the moment that they were in. Remember, we're six days from the

Passover. We're seven days away from Jesus dying for sins.

They were not picking up what Jesus had been dropping. The text doesn't say

Mary did, but the simple fact that she anoints him with burial oil perfume would say different.

Although their focus was on something good, remember, feeding the poor, that's good stuff, minus Judas, Judas was a thief.

He might've been saying those words, but that was not his focus. They were not understanding the time.

Concerning Judas, John MacArthur said this, quote, he knew the price of everything, but the value of nothing, end quote.

That speaks. He could tell you what something cost, but he held nothing dearly but money, the money bag.

He was in charge of to take care of their needs and to feed the poor. He knew the price of everything, but the value of nothing.

Now, the text doesn't tell us, again, that Mary knew something that the disciples didn't, but we see here in the text that her interaction was to prepare

Jesus for burial. While the interactions of the disciples, because of the ruckus of one disciple,

Judas, the disciples were belittling

Mary for an act of worship. Last week, our message had to do with giving.

It's probably another one of the hardest messages that I had to preach. The preparation for it was great.

I did not want to stand up here and misrepresent the word of God. Then, nor do

I want to today. Sometimes we come to difficult texts where great men of God disagree, and that's okay.

Jesus and Matthew spoke about storing up treasures in heaven and not on earth.

And then he said, you cannot serve both God and money. And I think it's fitting to say that Judas tried to serve both

God and money. And ended up serving money as his God.

Mary, with her life savings, sowed treasures in heaven while Judas sowed on earth.

She took her life savings, 300 denarii, the preparation for her death. She sowed it to the kingdom of God.

And Judas wanted that money. The 10th commandment he broke, covetousness.

Not really for the poor, but for his own wealth. All these interactions that we looked at today have been good and honorable interactions, except for the interactions of his disciples, which seems fitting when you read the

Gospels. They never seem to understand the moment that they were in.

It took Jesus having to fill them with the Holy Spirit for them to actually get it.

Sounds like us. It sounds like us. So don't sit there in your high pew or me at this pulpit.

We can't sit here and think that we wouldn't have belittled Mary that day. I don't like the scent of perfume that much.

I mean, you know, like someone puts a whole lot on, I'm like, oh, good Lord. The whole house was filled with that perfume.

It would have gave me a headache probably, right? I'm prone to them. So we don't need to think that we would do anything different.

Martha served up to 16 people that day. Lazarus and Simon the Leopard were listening to the teachings of Jesus, most likely on what

Lazarus just had experienced. And Mary gave all that she had, plus a clear word pictures of our sins covering

Jesus. As the oil covered the body, so too our sins.

Outside of Jesus, Lazarus would have stayed dead. Simon would have stayed a leopard, having no interactions with anyone till his death, except when he came to a village and had to scream out, unclean,

I'm unclean. That was his only interactions outside of Jesus. And Mary would have stayed a woman of the city using her money that she earned in sin for the fragrance of her day of death.

But no, or you could say, but God. Because of what God has done,

Lazarus was raised from the dead, Simon the Leopard was healed, and Mary was no longer a prostitute.

And to that, I say, my dear brothers and sisters, let us not neglect our interactions with Jesus.

Now, I mentioned church earlier, right? We come here, this is a means of grace. This is something that God is using.

Even though it's me up here, God is using this to grow us in holiness.

When we partake in this meal, God is using this stuff to grow us in holiness. This is what's called the ordinary means of grace.

And if you're not here, you're not being grown in holiness.

You're not. This is what he uses. And the fellowship that we have with one another,

God is using it to grow you in holiness. Now, in one sense, the theological term is absolutely true.

I've never said it isn't. When you, right now, we are positionally justified, made right with God as we stand, right?

And if someone puts their faith in Jesus Christ, and two minutes later they die, they have been fully sanctified as well in the eyes of God.

However, this is what God uses to sanctify us. Being under the preached word, partaking in the supper, and our fellowshipping together.

That's why we're told not to forsake this. Because let me tell you what's gonna happen if you do.

You're going to fall into sin, and eventually that sin is going to scratch that itch.

You're gonna begin to love the things that God hates, and hate the things that God loves.

But if you continue to join yourself with the command given to us by God to not forsake the gathering of the assembly,

I quote to you Paul Washer, you will begin to love the things that God hates.

I mean, love the things that God loves, and hate the things that God hates. That's not gonna happen outside of our gathering together.

It's not gonna happen. You're not gonna be growing in spiritual maturity, or in holiness.

But also, you and I have interactions with Christ outside of this church.

When we read our Bibles, right? When you read your Bibles, you need to be thinking of yourself sitting at the feet of Jesus, listening to him, being that you have chosen the greater portion.

Listen, wives, I know that supper's important, right? We're Baptists. But let me tell you something.

If your husband catches you reading the Bible when you're supposed to be cooking supper, and he gets angry, and he goes, is this church?

Please come tell me. There should be nothing greater.

You do not wanna interrupt that for you choosing the greater portion. If you miss supper because you're reading the

Bible, McDonald's is right down the road, right? You can go out to eat. Choose the greater portion.

This is more important than the food that we consume that exits us. When we consume this, it stays within us.

And we need not to neglect prayer, praying to God, talking to him, speaking with him.

It's been said, if you wanna hear God speak, read his word, you wanna hear him speak audibly, read out loud.

But also, in a conversation, when you speak to someone, it's not you doing all the speaking, it's not them doing all the speaking, but you speak back and forth to one another.

So as we read this word, we listen, and as we pray, he listens.

Don't despise or don't deprive God from hearing you speak to him.

I think we take this stuff for granted. He has given us a gift for us gathering together and to be with each other, and he grows us in holiness, and then we have this in so much abundance of light in these days.

Like, I probably have 200 Bibles at home, plus customers, and there's days that I forsake to read the

Bible. I forsake this interaction that I could have, or there's days where I read the

Bible fine, but I don't pray as good. I'm neglecting, I'm doing something else.

I'm not recognizing the moment that I'm in. And I say this, if you are a

Christian outside of Jesus, just like Lazarus would still be dead, Simon would be a leper, and Mary would have died in her holotree.

Outside of Christ, you would still be dead in your trespasses and sins. You would still be slaves of the devil, living for the day of your death, having no assurance of your death.

And if you're not a Christian, you are, this day, living for your death.

If you're poor like me, you're unable to provide that perfume. You're living for your death, and as a minister,

I say, why would you die, come to Christ and live? Right?

That's what we're supposed to do. That's what a minister is. A minister is someone who brings reconciliation. You're at war with God.

The only terms of peace is, the only terms of, the terms of agreement is faith in Jesus Christ, meaning that's the only way that we can have peace with God.

Live a life with assurance of your death because, listen, Christ has prepaid our victory in heaven.

The gospel is very clear, right? He lived a life that we could not live, took upon himself the punishment that we deserve, and in this gospel,

I believe we have been given a word picture, right? Second Corinthians chapter five, verse 20 or 21, says that he who knew no sin became sin so that we might be the righteousness of Christ as the oil covered his body.

That's what this picture is telling us. So too are sins.

He was nailed on that tree, and on that tree, the record of death that stood against us was nailed to that cross.

And if your faith is in Jesus Christ, as Christ came down from that cross, your record of debt did not.

We're available to anyone who wants to talk. Let's pray. Our God and Father Lord, we love you.

And I know there's some in here today who have neglect the interaction that we have with you,

Lord. And God, I just confess my sins to you, and I repent.

And God, I pray that you will not allow me to neglect or to not understand the moment that I'm in, the moment that we're in.

Our world seems to be falling apart. People are saying that the

Christian faith has lost its teeth, but we know that the teeth of the

Christian faith is the gospel. And that although most pulpits are filled with lint -wristed preachers who wouldn't know the gospel if they read it from the

Bible, we ask you, Lord, that you will raise up men, that will raise up men and women to proclaim your word and truth, the gospel of Jesus Christ.

And we will take a bite out of our world. But we cannot do that unless we're hooked to the source by which we grow in holiness.

So please do not let us to neglect our interaction with you or to forsake knowing the moments that we're in.

Lord, I pray for this supper. God, I ask that you use this to grow us in holiness.

Lord, I pray if there's anyone here today who is a Christian, but is unwilling to confess their sins to you and to forsake their sin,

Lord, that you will prevent them from this table. As always, every one of us are sinners.

And confessing sins is one of those things that we need not neglect. So God, I pray for those who are about to partake, who have confessed their sins to you, who are understanding the moment that we are about to enter into,

Lord, that you use this to grow us into the image of your dear son, Jesus Christ.