Mary and Martha: The Good Portion
Notes
Transcript
Handout
Children’s Bible: I will no longer be sharing the page number, but will encourage our kids to find through table of contents.
As we continue our sermon series looking at different women in the Bible, today we are going to focus on a passage of Scripture that gives us an account of two sisters: Mary and Martha.
And I want to challenge anyone who already knows this story to refrain from believing that the main point of this story is simply to be like one of the sisters and not like the other.
Instead, I invite you to truly consider this account and consider what our Lord Jesus is teaching us in it.
The account that we are about to read focuses us on the theme of priorities.
The theme of priorities is extremely relevant for us as a church family as we are in the season of children going back to school and the Fall ministry season about to kick off for us as a church to consider what Jesus says about our priorities.
You know, in life, one of the most important things you can do is make wise decisions about your priorities and then have the discipline to live in light of those priorities.
It is important for us to understand that having priorities is not about choosing between what is bad and what is good, of course, we all have to do that.
But, having priorities is about choosing between what is good and what is best.
It is even about assigning what is most important even in the category of what is absolutely necessary.
We do this all the time.
It is important that our staff team has a staff meeting every week to stay on the same page with what we are doing,
But if my wife gets hurt and has to go to the emergency room on Tuesday morning, I cancel the staff meeting.
Not because it’s not important, but because my priority between the two is to care for my wife.
Imagine you are really hungry, you haven’t eaten all day, and now you are at your favorite restaurant, and as soon as they place the food in front of you, an explosion occurs in the kitchen, and the whole place goes up in flames.
What do you do at that moment? I guess I’m just going to have to burn because I must eat this meal right now.
No. Because any sane person is going to prioritize not dying over and above having to deal with hunger pangs for a little while longer.
Now, while those examples are really clear and obvious, I realize that each one of us in this room is daily having to make decisions about priorities that don’t always seem black and white and are sometimes difficult to navigate.
And what our Lord Jesus tells us today through this encounter with Mary and Martha is going to speak into those kinds of priorities as well.
So would you please follow along as I read God’s word aloud:
38 Now as they went on their way, Jesus entered a village. And a woman named Martha welcomed him into her house. 39 And she had a sister called Mary, who sat at the Lord’s feet and listened to his teaching. 40 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.” 41 But the Lord answered her, “Martha, Martha, you are anxious and troubled about many things, 42 but one thing is necessary. Mary has chosen the good portion, which will not be taken away from her.”
It is always helpful to consider for a moment the passages right before the passage you are studying and right after the passage you are studying to see if those passages give any clues to what the theme of this passage is about.
And we find that in Luke 10, after Jesus had sent out his disciples to proclaim the kingdom of God, the disciples come back to Jesus rejoicing.
And the reason they are rejoicing is because as they were ministering to people, the demons were subject to them, meaning when they came upon a demon oppressed person, they were able to cast the demon out.
Now I think we would all agree that this is a very good thing.
But, Jesus responds to them:
20 Nevertheless, do not rejoice in this, that the spirits are subject to you, but rejoice that your names are written in heaven.”
Jesus is not saying that the demons being subject to them was bad, certainly not.
But, he was challenging them to prioritize rejoicing in the truth of who they are (saved sinners whose names are written in the book of life, meaning they have eternal life), prioritize rejoicing about who God has made you even over and above the good things God can use you to do.
Prioritize who you are by what God has done over and about what he uses you to do. Prioritize being over doing, though both are good.
The other thing that happens in Luke 10 before our passage is that Jesus affirms that if you love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, strength and mind, and your neighbor as yourself, you will have eternal life.
The man he is talking to seeks to justify himself by asking Jesus, “Well, who is my neighbor?”
And Jesus tells him a story in order to make the point that it is much more important to prioritize the question: Have you been a neighbor to all over and above who is my neighbor?
Once again, you should prioritize who you are supposed to be (a neighbor to all) over and above asking who is my neighbor?
And it was meant to show that none of us perfectly loves God and others by the way.
So, now we come to today’s passage already with the mind for prioritizing what is best over what is good.
And we read that as Jesus was traveling and came into a village, a woman named Martha welcomed him into her house.
This was a good thing.
Traveling religious teachers relied on the hospitality of others for the necessities of food and shelter.
There were no drive ins or hotels for these things.
Opening her home to show Jesus and his disciples hospitality was the right thing for Martha to do.
Then we read that once Jesus was in the home, Martha’s sister Mary sat at the Lord’s feet and listened to his teaching.
Now, it is helpful to understand that in that day, it was unique for Jesus to welcome women to sit at his feet and hear his teaching.
In that culture and time, it would only be men who would sit at the feet of a religious teacher and learn from him, and the women would only learn whatever those men chose to share with them, but not so with Jesus.
Jesus had come for all peoples and to offer all peoples access to God through him.
Yet, as Mary sat and listened to Jesus’ teaching, verse 40, 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.”
Now, how many of you doers in the room can really identify with Martha here? Right.
Well, I can promise you, everyone in that day and that culture would have identified with Martha’s frustration of Mary, and would have felt she was extremely justified in her judgment.
Showing hospitality to visitors by working to feed and clean is what the women do.
Sitting at the feet of a religious teacher is what men do.
Martha is saying, “It’s not right for me to do all the work alone with no help from Mary, don’t you care Jesus, tell her to help me!”
My own children make this appeal to Robin and I every night after dinner when it’s time to clean the kitchen.
I imagine everyone in the room besides Mary and Jesus are in complete agreement with Martha at this moment.
What is Jesus’ response?
Verse 41 - But the Lord answered her, “Martha, Martha, you are anxious and troubled about many things
I am sure Jesus would be saying that exact same thing to many of us this morning: 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.
It is significant that Jesus addresses Martha by saying her name twice.
He only does this very few times in the New Testament, and every time he does, he is lovingly warning them about something that they would not expect.
Before Jesus is arrested, he lovingly warns Simon Peter by saying, “Simon, Simon, Satan desires to have you, but I have prayed for you.”
In Acts, Saul is on the road to go persecute Christians, and Jesus speaks to him in a loving warning, “Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me?”
So, as Jesus begins to answer Martha’s complaint, he lovingly warns her by saying, “Martha, Martha, you are anxious and troubled about many things.”
Now, you may ask me, “Why would Jesus give a loving warning here? What is the danger in what Martha is doing? I mean, she is exemplifying a life and commitment to service, which is the exact kind of life that Jesus calls us to.”
Well, Jesus gives a warning because when the Bible says in verse 40 that she was distracted, the original word used means that she was hindered or cut off from something because of her service.
Of course, we see that was she was cut off from was sitting at Jesus’ feet and listening to his teaching.
You see, it wan’t like Martha had a full Bible on her bedside table.
Jesus is the teacher come from God, and this was her chance to hear his teachings.
But her anxious and troubled spirit leading her to serve serve serve cut her off from the one thing that was necessary.
What was that one thing? That ultimate priority? It was sitting at the feet of Jesus, and listening to his teaching.
Jesus says that is the good portion.
There is a theme throughout the Scriptures regarding this word portion.
And it speaks to the fact that we humans are all limited in time and space and resources and energy and gifting and abilities.
One thing it means to be human is to be limited.
We can only receive and experience a portion of all that life and existence has to offer.
Like it or not, when the dessert is set out on the table, I am only supposed to eat a portion of it.
And for the Christian who has been saved from their sin and into God’s family, the church, your portion is intimately knowing and passionately worshipping the God of the universe.
If you ask, what will being a Christian get you? What will be our portion in this life?
There is no promise of perpetual health, monetary wealth, or worldly treasures of any kind.
Your portion, believer in Christ, is intimately knowing and passionately worshipping the God of the universe.
24 “The Lord is my portion,” says my soul,
“therefore I will hope in him.”
And we abide in this all sufficient portion we have been given by prioritizing over all other things the worship of God through listening, believing, and placing faith in the Word of God.
Mary has chosen the good portion, which will not be taken away from her.
You see, there is coming a day sooner than we usually expect, where you will not be able to serve, where you will not be able to work, where you will not be able to provide care for others, or offer hospitality, all those things will be taken from each one of us through old age and finally death.
But the one thing that will never be taken from a Christian is the the word of God that leads you to intimately know him and passionately worship him.
89 Forever, O Lord, your word
is firmly fixed in the heavens.
35 Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away.
24 for
“All flesh is like grass
and all its glory like the flower of grass.
The grass withers,
and the flower falls,
25 but the word of the Lord remains forever.”
And this word is the good news that was preached to you.
Mary has chosen the good portion which will not be taken away from her.
Let me offer three exhortations that arise from this text:
1. Prioritize Worship Of Jesus Above Service For Jesus
1. Prioritize Worship Of Jesus Above Service For Jesus
Now, that is a difficult statement to declare for a guy who is in the midst of leading a church staff to make sure we have all of our volunteer positions filled for Fall ministries,
But I still declare it with all my heart!
Prioritize Worship of Jesus Above Service for Jesus.
Make no mistake, our Lord Jesus calls us to a life of service.
The idea of taking up your cross is service.
The commission to go and make disciples is service.
The call to love one another, pray for one another, prefer one another, welcome one another is all service.
Consider these:
6 He will render to each one according to his works:
8 He who plants and he who waters are one, and each will receive his wages according to his labor.
10 For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.
That means that you will receive rewards in heaven based on your doing and your service.
You are not going to believe what I am getting ready to say, and you are going to roll your eyes.
But, I’m going to say it anyway, because as crazy as I may be, I believe it.
Even as lazy as I can be at times in my flesh, I still believe what I am about to say.
I wish I could volunteer in every single serving position our church has to offer.
I wish I could hold babies,
I wish I could play with and teach the toddlers,
give me the elementary kids,
the youth,
the adults,
making coffee,
greeting at the door,
lead community group,
head up evangelism and outreach,
I’m even willing to travel for a mission trip every once in a while, and if you know me, that is saying a lot.
But listen, I am not saying I want to do all that service because I am just so spiritual, and sacrificial, and godly, I certainly fall far short.
But, I am saying I want to do all those things because I want to receive the reward for it on the last day!
Real tangible rewards for eternity for the service rendered to Jesus Christ while on this earth.
This is a good thing.
This hope is one of the things God gives us to help us fight against judging others when we feel like we are serving more than they are.
But the warning Jesus would give you and me is: do not allow any kind of service to hinder and cut you off from sitting at the feet of Jesus and worshipping Him through the truth of His word.
Worship of Jesus through the word must come first, and must be the priority.
Because being is more important than doing.
You know, in our day, churches spend less time teaching God’s word and sitting under the teaching and preaching of God’s word than most other times in church history.
The push and the pressure on the church is always toward doing.
What are we doing? Let’s do this and do that. And a good amount of doing is good.
But may we let our Lord Jesus warn us: we must always keep the worship of Jesus by sitting at this feet and listening to his teaching the priority in church life.
For all the time we spend encouraging others to serve, may we encourage others all the more to be with Jesus, to learn from Jesus through His word, the reading of the word, and sitting under the teaching of the word.
I remember in Bible college, a chapel speaker who was very zealous about taking the gospel to the lost, which is a good thing by the way, He told us that we had all spent enough of our lives learning the Bible, and we should go out and spend the rest of our lives sharing the Bible with others.
It was a zealous statement, but it doesn’t align with what God’s word teaches.
God commands us to guard the teaching, to meditate on his word day and night, to continue to practice the public reading of Scripture, to continue to preach the word and sit under the preaching of the word, to teach other men to teach so that they can teach others also.
Men, I absolutely adore your willingness to serve, but how many of you are pursuing a willingness to teach because that is how the teaching of the Lord Jesus continues in our day and into the next generation.
How greatly do you prioritize being present when God’s word is being proclaimed in His church?
How greatly do you prioritize being present when God’s word is being taught on Wednesday nights and in community groups on Sunday nights?
No doubt, there are more excuses than ever to miss gathering under the preaching and teaching of God’s word in the church.
But I love a quote I ran across the other day.
It said, “Church is the best excuse to say no to everything else.”
Robin is probably sick of hearing me say, “It’s not really a priority unless we prioritize it!”
What I mean is: our priorities are not really what we say our priorities are.
Our priorities are what our time, our schedule, and our bank account says our priorities are.
Mason Smith and I were having coffee this week and were talking about the Puritans and believers in the era before TVs and how much time they spent in God’s word.
Given the fact that God reveals himself through His word, a book, media, is it any wonder why Satan would want to flood our society with media in order to keep us distracted from God’s word?
How much time do you spend on media? Sports, news, youtube, social media, on and on it goes?
Go one step further, how much time is then spent feeling anxious and troubled about something from the news or whatever other media.
We think taking time with all the media gives us a chance to rest and rejuvenate, but God’s word tells us it is the joy of the Lord that is our strength.
31 but they who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength;
they shall mount up with wings like eagles;
they shall run and not be weary;
they shall walk and not faint.
Don’t be cut off from your portion! Sit at your Lord’s feet and worship Him through the teaching of his word.
Ask yourself: what does this have to do with the pursuit of loving God with all that I am and loving others more than myself?
Here is the beautiful reality.
When you worship of Jesus through His word even over service for Jesus, you will find that you have more time and spiritual energy to live for God’s glory and serve Him in the ways He desires you to.
Because, don’t get me wrong, we need service.
We need to serve more than we need to be served.
This moment of sitting at the feet of Jesus and learning from His word does not happen without a lot of service from a lot of people.
But the power for service does not come when we prioritize service over worship.
The power for service comes when we prioritize worship of God over everything else.
This is exactly what Jesus meant when he said:
33 But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.
He said that in the midst of a passage where he was teaching not be troubled and anxious by the way.
It is in prioritizing worship of Jesus through the word that will then empower you to say no to the distractions in your schedule, your budget, and more stuff, and compel you to say yes to the good works and service that God has prepared for you to do.
You know, in Jesus’ parable of the soils, one of the plants initially sprouts up, but thorns choke it out, and it dies.
Jesus explains that this is one who looked and acted like a Christian for a while, but in the end, the cares and anxieties of life choked them out, and cut them off from Christ and salvation.
Prioritize worship of Jesus above service for Jesus.
2. Prioritize Faith Above Works
2. Prioritize Faith Above Works
It’s a very practical message today, but the practice is compelled by the teachings of God’s word.
In every encounter and every Scripture, God is teaching us more about the good news of the gospel.
Notice, Martha is working hard and serving and expects Jesus to appreciate all of her hard work and to correct Mary for not working as hard as Martha was working.
Martha expects the commendation of the Lord because of her service.
And that is exactly what every other religion in the world teaches.
If you do these things, and follow this plan, then you will earn God’s favor.
It’s the most natural thing in the world for humanity to think in this way.
But the good news of the gospel of our Lord Jesus is while we cannot do anything to earn the favor of God, God does all the work through the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus to earn our salvation in our place.
8 For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, 9 not a result of works, so that no one may boast.
That’s why when a group of men asked Jesus, “What must we do, to be doing the works of God?”
29 Jesus answered them, “This is the work of God, that you believe in him whom he has sent.”
What must we do?
What is the one thing necessary?
What is the great priority?
Here it is: Believe in him whom he has sent.
Because the gospel is not about how much we can do for God, the gospel is all about how much God has done for us, and the call of the gospel is not go and impress God with your efforts, the call of the gospel is repent of sin, believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and be saved.
You see, the posture we take as we all sit and and listen to one guy monologue for forty minutes, is the same kind of posture Mary took as she sat at Jesus’ feet, practically achieving nothing, but spiritually doing the one thing necessary: hearing and believing the words of Jesus.
Maybe you are here today and you have tried to please God on your own.
You’ve tried to do some good things and wonder if it is enough to be right with God.
The truth is: all the good things you could ever do are like filthy rags apart from Jesus.
For apart from him, we can do nothing that is good in God’s eyes.
Instead, to be made right with God, you simply lay yourself as his feet believing that Jesus has died in your place for your sin, and he will save you, right here, right now.
And He will fill you with His Holy Spirit to begin to worship Him through the truth of His word which will compel you to a life of God glorifying service.
And for the church today, always remember that it is the priority of intimate relationship and passionate devotion to God through His word that then compels us to a life of eternally rewarding service.
Is it any wonder that in the very next verse after this passage with Mary and Martha, Jesus’ disciples ask him: Would you please teach us to pray?
They were responding to the words of Jesus when Jesus said Mary has chosen the better portion, which will not be taken away from her.
Let’s pray.
