A Picture of Worship

Picture of Worship

I am grateful to be here with you this week. I’m praying for you this week.

The term “worship” is a very important term we use in the local gatherings of our day. But if we’re honest, it’s also a word we often associate with one aspect of our life of following Jesus - singing/music.

The major divide in many church gatherings today is the style or genre of “worship”.

Worship is the believer’s response to all they are – mind, emotions, will, body – to what God is and says and does. (Warren Wiersbe)

Mark 14:1–8 CSB

It was two days before the Passover and the Festival of Unleavened Bread. The chief priests and the scribes were looking for a cunning way to arrest Jesus and kill him. “Not during the festival,” they said, “so that there won’t be a riot among the people.” While he was in Bethany at the house of Simon the leper, as he was reclining at the table, a woman came with an alabaster jar of very expensive perfume of pure nard. She broke the jar and poured it on his head. But some were expressing indignation to one another: “Why has this perfume been wasted? For this perfume might have been sold for more than three hundred denarii and given to the poor.” And they began to scold her. Jesus replied, “Leave her alone. Why are you bothering her? She has done a noble thing for me. You always have the poor with you, and you can do what is good for them whenever you want, but you do not always have me. She has done what she could; she has anointed my body in advance for burial.

The Bible Exposition Commentary Chapter Eleven: The Servant Suffers (Mark 14:1–15:20)

Neither Mark nor Matthew names the woman, but John tells us that it was Mary of Bethany, the sister of Martha and Lazarus (John 11:1–2).

1. The Cost.

The bottle was expensive perfume. The best she could offer. A year’s wages.

Her act of worship connected the whole room - they all smelled the fragrant aroma.

She was worshiping Jesus for who he was and what he was going to do on the cross.

2. The Criticism.

“what a waste” is what Judas and the others were thinking. Think of all the ministry they could do with what that bottle was worth.

Application:

This is what the world says of you and I as we run after Jesus. We are misunderstood, rebuked, and marginalized for our life of worship to King Jesus.

But what they don’t know is that all we are is worth all our praise and surrender. To pour out our life to King Jesus is the greatest investment we could ever have.

3. The Commendation.

Instead of the woman being rebuked by the disciples, Jesus rebukes them.

She is commended. She is recognized by Jesus as being faithful and doing what is most important concerning who he is and what was going to happen.

She knew who Jesus was and what he was going to do. She we preparing his body for burial.

She had more faith in Him than the others did.

4. The Continuation

Wiersbe’s Expository Outlines on the New Testament Chapter 14

Her good work glorified God and was a blessing to the whole world (vv. 6, 9; Matt. 5:14–16).

Just as the sweet smell would have filled the room and impacted those in attendance, so it was with this moment upon all of history.

Your life of worship will make an impact on those around you.

It first and foremost is done for the glory of God. It is because Jesus is worthy of our praise and our life of obedient response to Him.

We are reading about her legacy of faith right now. Thousands of years after this took place.

What is known about her is that she sacrificed her possessions and popularity to anoint a King. She pointed a spotlight on Jesus.

What about you?

Will you be known for you? Or will you be known for who you lived for?

Will your life point to Jesus?

It depends on what you worship.