Responses to Lazarus’ Resurrection

WELCOME:

Great Bible Study Sunday. The meal for this week is tbd. We will begin Rom 9 dealing with election. It will be a great time to jump in if you haven’t been coming.

Next week we will take communion. So please make plans to attend.

SCRIPTURE READING:

Isaiah 25:1 “O Lord, You are my God; I will exalt You, I will give thanks to Your name; For You have worked wonders, Plans formed long ago, with perfect faithfulness.”

LET US STAND AND WORSHIP!

“The Goodness of God”

Words and Music by Hillsong’

PRAYER OF PRAISE FOR WHO GOD IS

Lord, thank you for your constancy. For never turning Your back on us, for never getting frustrated with us, for forgiving our sins, for allowing us to be part of Your plan. We ask that You would look down upon this gathering of people and fill our hearts with great joy today as we focus on You. Amen!

“What a beautiful Name”

Words and Music by Hillsong

“What a beautiful Name”

Words and Music by Hillsong

PRAYER OF ILLUMINATION TO OPEN OUR HEARTS

Lord, give us ears to hear Your voice and eyes to see Your glory. Would you this morning illuminate Your Word and make it known to us? Help us no to make application to others peoples’ lives, but to apply every Word to our own lives. Amen

SERMON

INTRODUCTION:

We are beginning chapter 12 today and this records the anointing of Jesus.

People in the Bible were anointed in recognition of the Lord’s divine calling upon their lives; and often there was oil used for that anointing or here with perfume. The anointing was a physical recognition of their particular role (or office), they were to be used for in God’s plan…such as a king, or prophet, or priest

That same truth is is also to be seen here in John 12 even though it is not spelled out.

Jesus is anointed by Mary with costly perfume and Jesus says she did this, “as a preparation for His burial.”

How was His burial a divine calling?

Because Jesus is the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world.

And He would do this by dying on the a cross as a propitiation for our sins.

So this anointing is not only symbolic, it is prophetic in that just one week Jesus would die on the cross, be buried, and then raise from the dead defeating sin and death.

So we will cover the first 11 verses today and in these verses I want us to look at the different responses to the resurrection of Lazarus. I’m going to point of our 5 of these in these verses and make some application to our lives.

~PRAYER~

1) Martha’s serving

John 12:1–3 NASB95

Jesus, therefore, six days before the Passover, came to Bethany where Lazarus was, whom Jesus had raised from the dead. So they made Him a supper there, and Martha was serving; but Lazarus was one of those reclining at the table with Him. Mary then took a pound of very costly perfume of pure nard, and anointed the feet of Jesus and wiped His feet with her hair; and the house was filled with the fragrance of the perfume.

Explanation

Six days before Passover

If you remember from last week, I told you that the pace of John’s gospel account was going to slow way down. The first 11 chapters covered a period of around 3 years. But from chapter 12 on we will cover a period of 7 days.

John slows way down in his writing to cover every detail of what happened the week before the resurrection.

We are six days from the Passover.

What is the Passover? It is the culmination of God’s plan to save us from our sins. It is the great annual feast where the Lamb of God would be slain for the sins of the world. And the entire OT history has been pointing forward to this moment, now just 6 days away.

Jesus…came to Bethany where Lazarus was…so they made Him supper there, and Martha was serving”

Now this was not a post funeral meal as we would have in our culture, but a post resurrection meal for Jesus who raised their brother from the dead.

It was a meal of gratitude for what Jesus had done for this family.

Now there was the Bethany family (Lazarus’ sisters) and the 12 disciples who followed Jesus present there.

The only mentioned is Judas but in the synoptic gospels we read that the disciples were there (likely all 12).

And what I want you to see here is that serving Jesus is an appropriate response in Chriistianity

This verse says that, “they made Him supper there”

So it likely that it was not just Martha doing all the work, but other members of the household pitching in as well..but Martha is highlighted for her service

And that is, because that is just who Martha was.

We read about her also In Luke chapter 10…and guess what Martha is doing there? She is in the kitchen serving while Mary is sitting at the feet of Jesus listening…

Martha has a servants heart. And her response to what Jesus did for this family by raising her brother from the dead was to serve Jesus.

And if we too have been raised from the dead, it is only appropriate that we too are servants of Jesus. We have not been called to simply some and recline at the table but to be diligently serving our King.

The Kingdom of God is not a life of ease! It is a calling to get on board with what God is going and us the gifts God gave you to serve Him and serve others.

Your contribution may be serving in the kitchen just like Martha, then serve there.

It may be contributing to the upkeep of the church, maintenance, or grounds.

It may be teaching or evangelism.

But all in the Kingdom must serve

Matthew 20:26 “but whoever wishes to become great among you shall be your servant,”

This life is opposite of this world. The world says the greatest people are those who are served by others.

And sometime people come into the church with that attitude. They come in and sit down and wait for their servants to come and talk to them and encourage them and serve them up a spiritual meal, and serve them up the best seat in the house and serve them up a hot meal on Wednesday night, and serve them in some kind of way

But if you want to be great, you be a servant. Because greatness if God’s kingdom is serving just like Jesus came to serve

2) Mary’s sacrificial giving

(v 3) “Mary then took a pound of very costly perfume of pure nard, and anointed the feet of Jesus and wiped His feet with her hair; and the house was filled with the fragrance of the perfume.”

Mary is really the highlight of this story because what she does is not only shocking to those in that house at that time, but it is also prophetic for what is going to happen to Jesus in just 6 days

She takes a pound of PURE NARD and anoints the feet of Jesus

The outrage is not that she anoints Jesus feet, at least that is not what is verbalized, but that the cost of this Pure Nard was tremendous and that is what John really focuses on here.

Judas says down in verse 5 that this bottle of Nard could have been sold for 300 denarii

In those days, one would work for a day and receive a wage of 1 denarii.

If you work all year long, take out the Sabbath, take out the holidays and feast that you would not work, you would come out with about 300 days of work or 300 denarii. So, 1 year’s worth of wages.

How much do you make a year? It certainly costs more to live today than it did 20 years ago, but whether it was today or 20 years ago or 2,000 years ago, this was a tremendously sacrifice on Mary’s part. And that is what John wants us to see.

I think if Mary would have taken a bottle of old spice classic scent and poured it out upon the feet of Jesus John would not have even mentioned Mary’s name in this account.

Why? Same action, same amount of perfume, same great smell filling the house…but no sacrifice.

You can get a bottle of Old Spice for about $10, but this Pure Nard would easily be $75,000 today.

APPLICATION

Now let me ask us all: what does our sacrificial worship of Jesus look like?

Are you pouring out bottles of old spice on the feet of Jesus. Or are you worshiping Him sacrificially.

I mean if we were presented the opportunity, to make a great sacrifice for Jesus of this magnitude, or something along these lines…would we even consider it?

I think based upon just the weekly giving of most people in the church that many in the church today that most are EVEN unwilling to give up their everyday luxuries to live sacrificially for Jesus

How many of us spend more on ourselves each week on things like luxury coffee, sit down restaurants, designer clothing, things we do not need, but then come into the house of worship and throw a 20 in the plate of what we have left over from lavishing luxuries upon ourselves?

Every act of giving that is mentioned in the Bible IS SACRIFICIAL GIVING!

The poor widow who put in two mites which was really nothing while others put in much more from their overflow and Jesus commends her because she put in all she had!

The early church who sold their houses and land and put all the money at the feet of the apostles to use for advancing the kingdom of God made great sacrifices so it was recorded in scripture.

The Macedonian church who gave our of their poverty and beyond their means to support another church who was struggling.

David who would not purchase the ground to offer a sacrifice to God at no cost to Him! David said, “I will not offer burnt offerings to the Lord my God which cost me nothing.”

David knew what real worship was! David understood that offering without sacrifice was not worship at all!

Sacrificial worship is saying to God that I think more of you than I do this ridiculously expensive coffee that I drink every day and I think more of you than all these possessions that I have, and I think more of than I do my time, and I am going to demonstrate that in my life by living sacrificially

What would God write about your sacrificial worship?

And you may say well I’ve never had that chance. You’ve got a chance to give sacrificially every single Sunday when the offering plate is passed around.

Would your name be included as an example of someone who truly sacrificed for the Lord?

Or would you be willing to give up one year’s salary at your current job at the spur of a moment if the opportunity presented itself?

Would you be willing to give up a 401k account, a home, a future retirement for a life of ease if Jesus presented you the opportunity to worship Jesus like that?

Never miss an opportunity to worship Jesus sacrificially

God presents each us unique chances to serve and worship Him

These often come in ordinary times just like for Mary

We should learn to recognize these, and take advantage of them

We will never get them back

Illustration

Story of guy with lumber and grizzly jointer

3) Judas’ self absorbed thinking

John 12:4–8 NASB95

But Judas Iscariot, one of His disciples, who was intending to betray Him, said, “Why was this perfume not sold for three hundred denarii and given to poor people?” Now he said this, not because he was concerned about the poor, but because he was a thief, and as he had the money box, he used to pilfer what was put into it. Therefore Jesus said, “Let her alone, so that she may keep it for the day of My burial. “For you always have the poor with you, but you do not always have Me.”

(v 4) “But Judas Iscariot, one of His disciples”

What John is pit Judas actions against Mary. And he does with that conjunction, “but”.

Here is Mary deeply devoted, humble and willing to give up anything that she has, no limit to her sacrifice so long as she honors Jesus with her best.

And then here is Judas, self absorbed, only thinking about himself, only thinking about this world and its goods, only thinking about what he can gain from all this

And John doesn’t let Judas get by without an appropriate title: “who was intending to betray Him”.

This is thrown in there so that we see the kind of heart Judas had and his underlying intentions

Let me say this about Judas:

Judas was “one His disciples”. That is he was with Jesus from the beginning. He saw everything that Mary saw, He saw everything that John saw, they even trusted him to keep the money box which he stole from, yet he had no real devotion to Jesus.

Judas saw Jesus as a way to waste something valuable. To Judas, it would have been much better to sell that valuable Nard (so that he could profit) than waste it on an act of worship like that.

In Judas mind, to lavish all of this on Jesus was to just waste it all. To give to Jesus is to waste.

And there are people in the church all the time with that same sort of attitude.

To put money in the offering plate is to throw it in the furnace and watch it burn.

To send money overseas to missionaries that we will never see the fruit of is to waste it

To spend money on this building that represents truth and salvation in a lost and dying world is unnecessary

To pay the pastor, or any church staff is a waste. They should go and work like everyone else and then do this job as well…

Notice a couple of things about Judas:

1) He is critical of the way others worship Jesus

Judas objects to Mary’s act of love by claiming she has her priorities wrong.

She should be practical with that gift, not worshipful. To lavish it upon Jesus is all wrong, the better thing to do is to use it sparingly for the poor

But Judas isn’t really concerned with the poor. What Judas is really concerned about is himself!

And Jesus tells Judas, “leave her alone”!

And I think this is something we too should be cautious about. Critiquing others in how they worship the Lord.

What if someone raises their hands in worship?

Or the kind of music they like to worship to? As long as it glorifies Jesus

Or how they pray

Or whether or not what they give is a sacrifice..

Be careful of rebuking how others worship.

Some people do things that we do not understand, and we can be quick to criticize them

But one’s kind worship and means of sacrifice may be different from ours

Do not make judgements based upon your thoughts and attitudes

2) Judas has his priorities backwards

Look what Jesus says to him, “For you always have the poor with you, but you do not always have Me.”

Judas is saying it is better to show love to people rather than show love to God.

And Jesus taught us just the opposite: He said “the greatest command is to love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength….and the second greatest command is to love your neighbor as your self.

Our task is to keep these two commands in their proper order

Let’s set aside the fact that Judas was really just selfish and wanting steal. Let’s say that eh really did care about the poor.

What would you say is the better thing to do there?

Would it be better to lavish out some great gift that may only last a few moments, or to take that money and give it to the poor which could feed them for a year?

Here is what you do: You do what would bring God more glory. You ask yourself, “which one of these two choices will bring God more glory”?

And if you will let that be your guide, you will know what God wants you to do

4) The Jews who want to see the evidence for themselves

John 12:9–11 NASB95

The large crowd of the Jews then learned that He was there; and they came, not for Jesus’ sake only, but that they might also see Lazarus, whom He raised from the dead. But the chief priests planned to put Lazarus to death also; because on account of him many of the Jews were going away and were believing in Jesus.

Explanation:

I don’t know about you, but I sure would have loved to been at that house with those people at that meal and listened to everything that was being said.

Here was Lazarus, who was just days past being sealed shut in a tomb dead and even decaying to the point he was beginning to stink.

And there is Jesus who was the One who delayed coming so show the world that He has the power to raise the dead.

And there was the disciples who had been with Him for three and half years and had seen it all.

And they are all at Mary and Marthas sitting around eating a meal together.

Who wouldn’t want to go and see this with their own eyes? You hear if a dead man come to life near you and tell me you wouldn’t want to make a drive to go see this for yourself? Or maybe you were there and you wanted to see what Lazarus has to say. I mean what a testimony!

So they do exactly what most of us would do, they head the place where all these characters are, because they have to see it for themselves.

And because they saw with heir own eyes a dead man come back to life, they leave believing

Application:

And the same is true for us. When this world sees dead men, who were dead in trespasses and sin, who live for the prince of the air, for the powers of darkness, come to life and begin to live for Jesus, they have to see the evidence for themselves and often it moves people to believe

I remember when I first began to follow Jesus and there was a drastic transformation in my life, and all my friends who Id ran around with for years, were shocked at the death of Jake Davidson and the resurrection of a new man

And I remember serval of them coming over to my house not just for a friendly visit, but rather to see it for themselves whether or not it was true

They saw a dead man who had been raised to new life and I know that left a lasting mark upon their lives

People need to see men die, and then see them live for Jesus Christ

That is tangible proof of the power of the gospel

5) The hard hearted who were unfazed by it all

John 12:10–11 NASB95

But the chief priests planned to put Lazarus to death also; because on account of him many of the Jews were going away and were believing in Jesus.

Its amazing to me that these chief priests and Pharisees who had seen all this evidence, the resurrection of Jesus, more and more people believing in Jesus, Lives being changed, and instead of humbling themselves they decide to kill Lazarus too.

What a sad ending for those most likely to succeed in the Kingdom of God

I think that these men had their chance, their final call to faith at the end of chapter 10, and they rejected Him one final time and God locked that hardness of heart in place and now nothing that they could ever do could change that…

Sometimes responses like these, though may seem like no big deal become our final response and that response then becomes our destiny.

What is your response to this message?

Is there an area that convicted you?

How will you respond? Make changes or keep things the way they have always been?

Be wise, respond in faith

~PRAYER~