Being With Jesus - At His Feet

Story of getting old. Hard to Swallow pills.

Introduction

Good morning, this morning I want to open with a quote from A.W. Tozer…

We’re here to be worshipers first and workers only second. We take a convert and immediately make a worker out of him. God never meant it to be so. God meant that a convert should learn to be a worshiper, and after that he can learn to be a worker.

A. W. Tozer

Here’s what I believe, that God has called us into relationship. Everything that God does is grounded in relationship. Tozer here words it a little different than I do. He says God first teaches us to be a worshipper and then we learn to be a worker for him. I would say something like, God calls us first to learn to be sons or daughters or friends, then we can learn to serve Him.

Most churches have this backwards. We teach people to be workers, then if there’s time we teach them about relationship and worship. I do not want that to be said of our church. Here at Cornerstone, my goal is to get you in relationship with Jesus and then get you serving Him. And not a superficial relationship, but a deep one, one that consists of time with Him in silence and solitude, in prayer.

Today we are continuing our series called Like Jesus and we are currently looking at the idea that in order to be Like Jesus, we have to BE WITH JESUS. Being with Jesus is the foundation of being LIKE HIM.

If you have your bibles, please turn to Luke 10. I have notes loaded into the app if you’d like to follow along.

Luke 10:38–42 ESV

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. 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 and troubled about many things, but one thing is necessary. Mary has chosen the good portion, which will not be taken away from her.”

We’ve spent the past month talking mainly about a slowed down spirituality - one Like Jesus modeled. He went out into the wilderness for time alone with God. He modeled that for us. We are to be like Him.

Today, I want to focus on another aspect of being with Jesus. We are to be a people whose doing for Jesus flows out of our being with Jesus. Our doing for him, must flow from our being with Him, not the other way around. Too often, for many of us, our doing for Jesus becomes a priority, while our being with Jesus is put on the back burner.

Here in our text today, we see that illustrated in the lives of two different sisters.

These sisters are friends of Jesus, along with their brother Lazarus. Jesus chose his disciples, but he also chose his friends. He dearly loved these women and their brother. We see this clearly at the death of Lazarus later on in Scripture.

Martha is a doer. She is a person who gets things done. For many of us, we love Martha because that’s us. We love to do. We are happiest when we are busy. It makes us feel complete. It makes us feel like we have purpose. It gives us our sense of accomplishment.

Mary on the other hand is content to just be. She’s the type of person who is content with who she is and wants to just be with Jesus. Now I think some people are more naturally geared toward this, but for the most part, I think in today’s world we all struggle with trying to be like Mary and fall into the struggles of Martha.

How Are We Like Martha?

First, notice that Martha is not a bad person. She welcomes Jesus into her home. Jesus went into that village, perhaps to see these sisters in particular, but either way, it doesn’t say anyone else welcomed Jesus into their home that day. So Martha is doing some of the right things.

One thing to keep in mind is that the things that Martha was doing, the serving, needed to be done. We should serve Jesus, but it’s gotta come from the right heart. We don’t serve him from an empty cup. This is the heart of the problem in this text. Jesus doesn’t rebuke Martha. He is instructing her on what is important.

Martha isn’t a bad person, she’s not rejecting Jesus or cursing Him. She’s actually good example of hospitality. So what’s her problem? The text tells us three things that she is struggling with.

Martha Was Distracted

Jesus has come to her house. He has come to visit her and she is distracted. Many of us can relate to this. Some of you are distracted right now. You opened your phone for you Bible and are now checking emails and text messages.

Martha though was distracted with trying to serve Jesus. Did you know that serving Jesus can be a distraction? How can that be? What are we being distracted from? Typically I think it’s from dealing with the deeper issues of the heart. We serve so we can hide. We don’t want to be seen by Jesus. If we can just hide in the background and serve, then we will feel good about ourselves. The problem is this, we look good on the outside, but on the inside we are rotting away.

I told you earlier in this series that God wants us to be with Him and then out of that being, we serve Him. So serving Him isn’t wrong. Martha isn’t a bad person, she’s just serving from the wrong heart. She’s distracted with serving.

When it comes to our devotional life, many of us get distracted very easily. Some of us live such a distracted life that we do not even attempt a quiet time. We claim to have no time, but we also seem not to accomplish anything of real important either.

When people get saved, we talk about the need for a relationship with Jesus. But then we never tell people what that looks like - silence, solitude, prayer, stillness. This is the how-to when it comes to relationship with God. These things should result in serving, but serving should never be done in place of being.

Martha was a doer and her serving came from duty, not relationship. The next thing we see is…

Martha Was Anxious

Everyone in here who has battled with anxiety can probably easily understand why - she has the Lord of all creation in her living room. Most of us struggle with anxiety just inviting a church member to our house. Oh it’s not clean enough. I need a couple of weeks to prepare. Gotta do a deep clean before I invite anyone over. That describe any of you?

We are told though she’s anxious about many things in verse 41. She probably had a lot on her mind. Things that she was worried about. When we worry, we close the door on faith. When we are anxious we are showing that we are struggling to trust Jesus.

Now, I’ve told you many times about my own struggles with anxiety, so I’m not talking about this out of a lack of experience. I have gone through seasons of anxiety. It can be debilitating. Martha, in facing her anxiety, is working hard. Some of us, that’s how we respond. When we get anxious, we get busier. When we don’t want to deal with something the Lord is asking of us, we put our head down and work.

Some of you may use your work as a way to deal with your anxiety. And this can be a problem because you may never actually root out the reason for your anxiety and deal with it.

Martha Was Troubled

Finally, we see Martha was troubled as well. So she is distracted, anxious and troubled. Now the greek word for troubled here means to be uneasy. It means disturbed. Martha was not at ease with Jesus in her home.

Like I said, most of us could relate. She is uneasy. She isn’t settled. She’s riled up. And that explains her snapping at Jesus in one sense. She has welcomed Jesus into her home and now she is looking at her sister, who is sitting at his feet and she’s disturbed. She feels like she needs help. She sees the person she thinks should be helping her and she’s just sitting there, doing nothing.

I have gotten like this many times in ministry. I get busy. I look around and see friends and people in the church just sitting there doing nothing, and it disturbs me. It makes me uneasy. And like Martha, I start judging people for doing that. Maybe you have fallen into that as well. You serve here at the church and you notice some people who you have deemed as lazy.

It’s easy to fall into the same trap as Martha. Lord, don’t you see that my sister or brother has left me to serve alone? Tell them to help me! Anyone ever felt that way?

So what’s the answer here, because we know that people should serve Jesus? There are things that need to be done. First notice this, Mary is not being lazy in this passage. The Bible has a lot to say, especially in the proverbs against laziness or slothfulness. It’s sinful. Mary is not being sinful. Jesus doesn’t chastise her.

So if you see someone not working, it doesn’t necessarily mean they are lazy. It doesn’t mean they are not lazy either. They could be. But that’s for God to decide. God sees their heart. And if that’s you here today and you are lazy, you know it…repent. You know whether God has asked you to do something and you have just made excuses. And perhaps you’ve dressed it up as being spiritual. “I can’t serve in that ministry because that would disrupt my daily quiet time.” Many of us will try to spiritualize our laziness. But that is not what Mary was doing.

So what was she doing?

Mary’s One Thing Is Presence

Mary had one thing she was focused on. And I believe we all live our lives like this. We have one thing that drives us. We have one thing that dictates our life. Last week when talking about syncretism, I quoted Jesus, you cannot worship two masters. In other words, there is only one thing or one God you will serve. You cannot serve more than one.

So what is Mary’s one thing? What is driving her to see her sister, whom she loves, struggling to serve all alone, and ignore her? Her one thing might be summed up like this - presence.

She longs to be in the presence of Jesus. She wants to be with Him! Not very coincidentally, that’s God’s longing for us. Everything goes back to relationship. God wants to be with us. His name, Emmanuel, means God with us. His desire is to be with us and Mary’s desire was to be with Him.

That’s what I believe is her one thing. She wants to be with Jesus. That’s her top priority. That is why she is quick to relinquish her duties as hostess and sit at his feet. She wants to be in His presence.

As a church, I want that to be our heart cry. To be a people of the presence. Those who want to be in the presence of God. When it comes to what changes you, this is it. God changes you by you being in His presence. It’s a fact that we do not change out of sheer will and determination. We change by being in the presence of God.

2 Corinthians 3:18 (ESV)

And we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another. For this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit.

We are changed by beholding him. When we behold him, as He is, it changes us. I believe Mary understood this. I believe that she chose the better portion because she recognized that the more time she spent with Him, the more she became like Him. That’s the point of this series. It’s called Like Jesus. Our heart’s desire is to be like Him!

In order for that to happen, we need to take some pointers from Mary. Let’s look at what she did.

Mary Sat At His Feet, Listening

One of the keys to this text isn’t immediately seen. This involves the historical context. In this time period, teachers didn’t have blackboards or dry erase boards or tablets of whatever they are using in classrooms today.

In fact, their classrooms, did not resemble ours. During this time period, a teacher would sit in a chair his students would gather around him seated on the floor at his feet. This was what a common classroom setting would look like.

And this is my main point for today. If you want to be like Jesus, you have to make Him your teacher.

Jesus Is The Teacher

Jesus is the teacher. Mary is sitting at his feet and she is listening to his teaching. Now, this would have been radical during this time period. Women were not allowed to be a student. They weren’t permitted to learn, but Christianity turned this entire idea upside down.

In Christianity, men, women, children, all ethnicities and backgrounds are allowed to be a student of Jesus. That’s the precedent we see in this passage. Jesus permits Mary to take on the role of student and he praises her for it.

Women take note, God not only wants men to follow Him. He welcomes women to sit at his feet as well. Mary chose the good portion and it will not be taken away from her, verse 42. Have you chosen the good portion or are you settling for living vicariously through your husband?

Yes, I believe in male headship, that the husband should lovingly lead his wife by laying his life down for her. That does not change. But I also believe that women are not second rate citizens in the kingdom of heaven. They are not relegated for only keeping the nursery or cooking. That’s not Christianity. Jesus is the teacher, Mary is the student and Christ welcomes her into that role with open arms.

So to apply this to us, if Jesus is the teacher, that means that we are to learn from Him.

We Learn From Jesus

We are to be lifelong learners from Jesus even today. You may say, well he’s not here how can I learn from Him? So let me explain this out a little. Jesus told his disciples that the Holy Spirit was coming in his place with a specific task. Listen to this…

John 14:26 ESV

But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you.

The Holy Spirit will teach you all things, he says. That means we are all apprentices to Jesus through the power of the Holy Spirit, who resides inside of us. The Holy Spirit is your teacher. You may be listening to me teach right now, but it’s the Holy Spirit inside of you that will bring this teaching to life. Anyone can get head knowledge about Jesus, but we are to be people who are in relationship with Him. So our goal is not head knowledge, but relational knowledge. The Holy Spirit teaches us these things.

The Apostle John puts it this way in his letter.

1 John 2:27 ESV

But the anointing that you received from him abides in you, and you have no need that anyone should teach you. But as his anointing teaches you about everything, and is true, and is no lie—just as it has taught you, abide in him.

The Anointing is the the power of the Holy Spirit residing in you. It’s you being set apart for relationship with the King.

Now some people will twist this to mean, you don’t need church or that you don’t need other Christians. You’ve got the Holy Spirit to teach you, why even listen to a pastor or teacher or others in the body of Christ? Great question. The problem here is you are missing God’s ordained means of teaching through his Spirit. Yes, it is His Spirit that does the teaching, but how does he do it? Through people like pastors and teachers and prophets…God moves on the earth and the primary way he moves is through HIS PEOPLE!

We are not lone wolfs. We are meant for body ministry. In fact, what you learn from Jesus, you are meant to share with others so they may learn through the Spirit as well.

Conclusion

To conclude today, I want to encourage you into a relationship with Jesus. You need to be filled with His Spirit and Following His Teaching. He wants you to sit and listen. Be with Him. Take time out of your busy schedule to sit at the Master’s feet and just be with Him, listening.

Put aside your busyness. Sit. Listen. What is the Master saying? Where is he trying to lead you?

Prayer & Journaling Points

Lord, in what ways am I like Martha?

Jesus, in what ways am I like Mary?

Father, what are you trying to teach me today?