THE PRIORITY of HIS PRESENCE

Luke 10:38–42 (KJV 1900)

38 Now it came to pass, as they went, that he entered into a certain village: and a certain woman named Martha received him into her house. 39 And she had a sister called Mary, which also sat at Jesus’ feet, and heard his word. 40 But Martha was cumbered about much serving, and came to him, and said, Lord, dost thou not care that my sister hath left me to serve alone? bid her therefore that she help me. 41 And Jesus answered and said unto her, Martha, Martha, thou art careful and troubled about many things: 42 But one thing is needful: and Mary hath chosen that good part, which shall not be taken away from her.

THE PRIORITY of HIS PRESENCE

The goal of this message on The

Priority of His Presence is to

understand that worship is

fundamentally the privilege of being

in God’s presence, and so we must

begin by prioritizing His presence.

INTRODUCTION: Worship is one of

the most important ways of building

our relationship with God. The

purpose of worship is to draw closer

to Him. But sometimes, we can easily

lose sight of that purpose. If we enter

into worship as just another religious

duty, we have missed a key element

of what worship is all about. Sure,

when we worship, we sing and pray

and confess with our words about

God’s greatness and glory. But there is

something even more important that

should happen in our worship. The

foundation of worship is the

recognition that we are coming into

God’s presence. When we worship

God, we are placing ourselves in

proximity to His presence. We don’t

do this to get something from Him, or

impress Him with how spiritual we are,

or get ourselves “revved up”

spiritually, but so that we can be with

Him, listen to His words, humbly

receive His instruction and correction,

and to be changed. Making the most

of His presence should always be our

priority. What we do with our

opportunity to draw near to God is

what this text from Luke’s Gospel is

all about. Jesus was invited to the

home of two sisters, and He accepted

their invitation readily. Jesus is always

ready to be welcomed into our homes

and our hearts. This was true for them,

and it is true for us today. He wants to

be present with us. But the important

question is this: what do we do when

He arrives? How do we respond

to His presence? Sometimes in our

walk with God we can get so busy with

all the right spiritual activities—

church, reading the Bible, witnessing,

serving the needy, etc.—that we forget

the importance of simply being with Jesus.

In our text today, we see two different

approaches to the spiritual life. Martha

is a spiritual “busy bee,” always up

and moving and doing things for God.

Her sister, Mary, is more concerned

with simply being with Jesus, sitting

at His feet and listening to what He has

to say. While Martha is totally

occupied with trying to serve Jesus

(and perhaps impress Him by doing

so!), Mary is building a relationship

with Him—not by doing anything, but

simply by sitting at His feet. I want to

make three observations about this

text. First, I want to highlight the

critical contrast between the two

sisters and how they respond to the

presence of Jesus. Second, I want to to

consider Martha’s crisis complaint.

And third, I want us to listen to the

divine correction that Jesus offers. As

we do, we should ask ourselves: In

what way am I like Martha? And in

what way am I like Mary?

SERMON POINTS:

1. A CRITICAL CONTRAST (VS. 38-39)

In verses 38 and 39 we are introduced

to Mary and Martha • Martha takes the

lead in welcoming Jesus and the

disciples into her home. • Martha is

energetic, vivacious, full of life, and

has a strong personality. • Mary is

much more reserved, quieter and

generally has less to say.

The contrast in their personalities can

be seen in their approach to faith. •

Martha is a spiritual workaholic. It

seams that she believes that if you

want to be close to God, you should be

as busy as you can be in doing God’s

work.

• Mary has a different approach. It

seams that she believes that if you

want to be close to God, you should

simply sit at His feet.

• Every time Mary is mentioned in the

New Testament, she is sitting at Jesus’ feet.

* She is at His feet after her brother,

Lazarus, has died (John 11:32). * She

is at His feet in worship in John 12:3. *

She is at His feet in this text. By

sitting at Jesus’ feet, Mary recognizes

that Jesus is superior to her and that

she needs to be in a place of listening.

• Mary recognizes that Jesus can tell

her things that she cannot learn

elsewhere. • Mary recognizes that

Jesus welcomes her to be near Him. •

Mary recognizes that it is not just

information that she needs from Him,

but relationship. • Like Mary, you and I

need more than a formal Bible study

with Jesus. We need to hear from the

Living Word Himself. • If we only hear

the Word without hearing from the

Author Himself, we have turned our

Bible study into an academic exercise.

• When we speak of “devotions” we

mean that we are devoting ourselves

to Him. • Mary didn’t invite Jesus to

have a Bible study with Him, but to

come to know Him better. • Do you

desire to be in God’s presence to gain

information or to deepen your

relationship with Him? Remember that

the whole purpose of bible study is to

be more Christ like.

A CRITICAL CONTRAST

2. A CRISIS COMPLAINT (VS. 40)

Martha is distracted from Jesus by her

work for Jesus • Martha starts off well

by welcoming Jesus to her house

(verse 38). • But then she gets angry at

Mary because she isn’t helping with

preparing for the meal. • She

impatiently asks Jesus to tell Mary to

help her out (verse 40). • She starts off

with Jesus on her mind, but she gets

distracted from Him by the gigantic

meal she is creating. • She is

distracted by the good thing that she is

doing for her guest and so isn’t in a

close vicinity to her guest. • All her

preparations become about a

performance, and she misses the

whole point about being with Jesus.

Martha questions Jesus’ care. •

Martha’s annoyance leads to a

theological questioning of whether He

really cares. • She is more concerned

with serving Jesus than being with

Jesus. • Her theology is being

controlled by her perception of her

circumstances. • She sees it as Jesus’

fault that she isn’t getting enough help

because Jesus is occupied with

“entertaining” Mary. She has seriously

missed the whole point of Jesus’ visit.

• Notice that Mary doesn’t say a word

about all of this. She is an innocent

bystander. • If you are doing

something for God and you develop a

bad attitude from doing it, you aren’t

doing it for Him anymore. • So Martha

told Jesus what to do. That is never

the sign of a right relationship with

Him. • She doesn’t request. She pretty

much demands. The problem is

Martha’s underlying attitude. •

“If you really loved me, then…” • Now,

of course, we can find a little sympathy

for Martha’s predicament. No one

wants to be left to do all the work by

themselves.

• Perhaps Martha is concerned about

what she is missing out on or worried

that she’d be too tired to take it in

when she finally got the chance to

listen to Jesus. • But her attitude has

become such that she wouldn’t even

properly be able to appreciate the

time with Jesus.

A CRISIS COMPLAINT

3. A DIVINE CORRECTION (VS. 41-42)

Jesus responded by questioning

Martha’s priorities (verse 41.) • Jesus

repeats her name twice. Whenever

Jesus says something twice it means

He is very serious! • Jesus says that

Martha has too much on her mind. She

needs to settle down and get a proper

perspective. • She needs to let go of

the frustration, irritation and blame,

and look at her herself honestly. • If

serving God makes you difficult, then

something is wrong with your service.

Jesus affirms Mary’s choice. • The

principle that Mary grasped was “Man

shall not live on bread alone, but on

every word that proceeds out of the

mouth of God” (Matthew 4:4). • Martha

is busy, but Mary is busy being

blessed! • Listening to Jesus should

always be our first priority. Paying

attention to His Word is the starting

place for our spiritual lives. Through

prayer and the Word, we should sit as

His feet, just as Mary does. • Jesus

says that only a few things are really

necessary. We sometimes make our

faith too complicated. • Jesus isn’t

hungry for a seven-course meal. He is

hungry for you! • Mary made the best

choice. She understood why they’d all

gotten together in the first place.

Being in God’s presence should always

be the first priority. • David was not

called a man after God’s own heart

because he lived a perfect life, but

because he was always pursuing the

presence of God. *(Psalm

27:4) One thing have I desired of the LORD, that will I seek after; that I may dwell in the house of the LORD all the days of my life, to behold the beauty of the LORD, and to enquire in his temple

* (Psalm 122:1)“I was glad when they said to me, ‘Let us go to the house of the Lord.’”

* (Psalm 42:1)“As the deer pants for the water brooks, so my soul pants for You, O God.”

Like David, we should long to be in

God’s presence and seek every

opportunity to spend time with Him. •

Instead of sending Mary into the

kitchen, Jesus invites Martha to come

join and sit at His feet. • Mary doesn’t

have to say a thing to defend herself.

She is quiet during the whole

exchange. Jesus intervenes on her

behalf. When we are in God’s presence,

we should let Him do all the talking! •

When your service is keeping you from

His presence, you need to readjust

your priorities. • What kind of passion

do you have for making a priority of

God’s presence?

A DIVINE CORRECTION

In Greco-Roman culture, when a

student wanted to show the utmost

respect to their teacher they would sit

at the teacher’s feet. It was the

humble posture of a learner. By

situating themselves at such an

intimate position in relationship to the

one who was instructing them, it

showed how much they valued the

education they were receiving and

their close connection to the

instructor.

It is a signal of the student’s

recognition of the superiority of the

teacher to them.

This sermon has shown two different

ways of relating to Jesus and

emphasizes the importance of

prioritizing spending intimate time

with Him.

“Whenever you hear the Word of God

the Bible9i without hearing the Living

Word (Jesus), something will be

lacking in your Bible study.”

“Devotions is only an appropriate

word when we are having the

devotions with the Person we are

devoted to.” “The purpose of the

written Word is always to lead us to

the Living Word.” “Whenever what you

are doing for Jesus gets you upset with

Jesus, then you have missed Jesus.”

“Could it be that our complaint about

others is really reflecting a flaw in us?”

A CRITICAL CONTRAST (VS. 38-39)

A CRISIS COMPLAINT (VS. 40)

A DIVINE CORRECTION (VS. 41-42)