Sermon Tone Analysis

Exegetical Point:

Homiletic Point:

Intro

Getting back into John.

Picking up where we left off.

Reminder: Why Did John write the Gospel of John?

We’re in the turning point of John - ministry and signs.

Resurrection of Lazarus is the climax of the signs.

Now Jesus heads up to Jerusalem for the culmination of his work on earth under the Father.

The rest of the book will primarily be covering the final week of Jesus ministry before the cross.

There’s lots of teaching here.

So even though the narrative story slows down, the intriguing teaching builds up.

Giving us heaps of truth to unpack and chew on.

But what are we looking at now?

Here we have 7 different approaches to Jesus.

7 approaches to Jesus - and of these 7, 3 are couplets of people accepting Jesus and rejecting Jesus.

So, I know a bunch of you like the order and simplicity of a numbering system, so I’ve numbered each couplet with an A or a B. So you can see, as we make our way through, two opposing voices compared against the other.

So much of our world is binary.

Digital.

Even though we appreciate there are grades and shades, when we get down to the building blocks things are bianary;

Light or Dark, Male or Female, Dead or Alive, Holy or Unholy, Slave or Free...

When it comes to Jesus, it is binary too, there are those who accept him or reject him.

John’s Gospel consistently highlights this distinction.

From the opening chapter we’re told that the world at large rejected Jesus, but for those few who accept him they become Children of God, inheritors of eternal life.

You may be uncomfortable with the frankness of binary thinking.

But it is for your benefit.

Almost all attempts at carving out shades of grey in religion are cover-ups for sin:

People who want some of Jesus but not all of him.

People who want to feel better about themselves without ever making any sacrifices.

People who want to pay lip service to Jesus but then adopt whatever the loopy bandwagon is most popular in the world this week.

How about we turn to our passage and look at the binary playing out.

How do people approach Jesus?

1.a.

Honouring Jesus’ at his Feet

This is how Mary of Bethany approaches Jesus.

Not to be confused with Mary mother of Jesus, or Mary Magdalene.

This is Mary the brother of Lazarus who was recently raised from the dead.

After the miracle, Jesus had gone underground a bit, because the powers that be want to assassinate Jesus.

But the Passover festival was coming up, and people were wondering if Jesus would make an appearance.

Let’s read the story:

So Jesus is up near the Mount of Olives, a hill looking over at the Holy city of Jerusalem, about 3km away.

They throw a party for Jesus!

I would want to throw a party for the bloke who brought me back from the dead!

Lazarus and his sisters are there.

Wow using expensive ointment to make Jesus smell really good.

But this was a really humbling this for Mary to do.

Even though we don’t have the same middle eastern customs around feet and washing, we even now would need to be utterly humble before doing such a thing.

“Mary’s action indicates an expression of intense personal devotion to Christ” (Crossway Bibles, The ESV Study Bible (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles, 2008), 2047).

We don’t need to read any sexual themes into this interaction, it was a physical expression of her love for Jesus.

Mary is always found at Jesus feet - Sitting there to be taught, or mourning at his feet yet still trusting Him when Lazarus died.

Now here she is showing her love and devotion by giving this extravagant gift, humbly administered.

This was not for show.

This is an example of the one who approaches Jesus through love and devotion.

One who trusts him and would give anything to him, including huge gifts.

Not all are willing to give everything to Jesus.

Next we have the opposite side of this coin.

1.b.

Money Grubbing with a Holy Facade

Judas has the air of being Jesus’ disciple, but His heart is in rebellion.

He is the poster boy for deception, that why his name has become a colloquial term for a betrayer.

He doesn’t see an act of devotion and love - he sees a waste of money.

He’s not interested in honoring Jesus, he’s interested in his back pocket - but he uses the right words to make it sound like a zelous holiness.

He’s their treasurer, looking after money for the group.

There are plenty of folk like this in churches

People there to take take take, either from the flock (leaders), or there to force God to bless you.

People who come to church to make a good impression and grow business connections.

Plenty of stories of treasurers who nick off with the church savings account.

People who decry spending that is a little bit too fancy, all the while misspending themselves.

You who would steal from your own family, supporting your personal outlandish spending habits while the rest of your family goes without - berating your spouse for spending too much on essential groceries while you drop wads of cash on selfish projects.

It starts out small, like Judas pinching a few coins “I’m going to pay it back” he tells himself, but not long after he is regularly pilfering, then he’s betraying his Master to the authorities for 30 silver coins.

This is the deceitfulness of sin.

It metastasizes.

Jesus rebuke’s Judas approach, and commends the “reckless” expenditure:

Giving to Jesus doesn’t come at the expense of serving the poor, but it is appropriate that Jesus is honored this way.

It’s as if she has anointed Jesus body for burial, if not in that moment, the left overs could be kept for the coming Friday...

Mary happily gives a years wages to show her love to Jesus, while Judas wishes he could have some of that sweet wealth for himself.

He cannot abide others experiencing wealth and joy - he is covetous, unwilling to give thanks God for what other have been blessed with.

But then covering it over with a pretend holy concern of the poor.

This approach to Jesus has a air of spirituality, but it’s just betrayal, theft and selfishness undercover.

REPENT!

2.a.

Responding to the Good News

Lets have a look at another way to approach Jesus.

While the dinner has been going on, people have been hearing that Jesus is back in town:

So the news has been spreading and people are coming to see Jesus and Lazarus.

You would expect news about the miracle working guy being back in town to spread.

This is an approach to Jesus on the basis of coming see if the rumors are true.

They had heard about what had happened, and they came to see for themselves.

This is a good way to approach Jesus, to see for yourself what is true.

There are plenty of opinions out there about who Jesus is, from just a decent guy who had some nice things to say, across to guy who has power over death.

Any true church will be a mouth peace for this good news, that Jesus does indeed have the power over death, and if you come to him, he will save you from eternal death, by resurrecting you like he did Lazarus.

Yet, just coming to see is not enough.

Throughout the pages of John we see those who would come, but they came for selfish reasons.

They followed Jesus when it was easy, and when it was hard they split.

So yes, come investigate Jesus, see if the claims about divinity are true.

See if this man has defeated death.

But come in humility, ready to accept Jesus if this is really true.

2.b.

Plot to Overthrow Jesus & His People

Yet the opposite of hearing about Jesus and approaching him with humility, is to reject it all out of hand and work to undermine Jesus.