"Careful & Troubled."
Notes
Transcript
I. Introduction.
I. Introduction.
I have often thought: “I’d like to be a fly on the wall in the oval office.”
Just to hear all the important things that are talked about and know about big stuff before the news distorts it. Oops, I mean reports on it. LOL
See a fly would be able to get close and hear all of the jucy details without anyone knowing!
Alas, this is something that will never happen to me, interesting as it may be.
However, I’ll do you one better!
I will take you this morning to another setting, a very important conversation with none other than Almighty God!
We will sit in on his audience found in Luke 10:38-42 and nobody will be the wiser!
You will be able to hear every word He says for yourself!
And if anybody in your future ever tries to false report you on Luk 10, you’ll know what really happened when it happened and who it happened to!
And if I do my job right, you might even be inspired to let that same thing happen to you!
Okay, here we go:
Okay, here we go:
Now it happened as they went that He entered a certain village; and a certain woman named Martha welcomed Him into her house. And she had a sister called Mary, who also sat at Jesus’ feet and heard His word. But Martha was distracted with much serving, and she approached Him and said, “Lord, do You not care that my sister has left me to serve alone? Therefore tell her to help me.”
And Jesus answered and said to her, “Martha, Martha, you are worried and troubled about many things. But one thing is needed, and Mary has chosen that good part, which will not be taken away from her.”
II. Scripture Setting.
II. Scripture Setting.
Okay, what exactly is going on here?
This is an acutal conversation and situation that happened involving Jesus and Mary and Martha, the sisters of Lazarus.
Earlier in this chapter, in verse 27, Jesus walked into an ambush.
An ambush, laid by a smarmy lawyer who didn’t even do as well as others who had tried to ambush the Lord.
“What shall I do to inherit eternal life” He had asked.
Jesus knew it wasn’t a sincere answer so he answered the question with one of his own.
(You’ll notice how he did that with insincere people.)
“What does it say in the book? You tell me.”
To which the lawyer responds with what we recognize as Deut 6:5
“Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all the heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy strength, and with all thy mind, and thy neighbor as thyself.
Again, that is verse 27. It is just words.
Certainly in the mouth of this joker, words only.
But the awesome thing about vs 38-42, is that these are the actions of vs 27, or rather, it is vs 27 illustrated!
Now isn’t that just like Jesus to explain and teach with living illustrations?
Yes! That is just like Him!
That first verse in our text, Vs 38, sets the scene in a certain village, Bethany.
This was on the eastern slope of Mt. Carmel, about two miles from Jerusalem, so basically the suburbs.
In verse 39, the key is Mary’s posture, which is that of a disciple. She’s sitting at his feet, soaking up every word.
Sitting around of an evening, most people would sit on chairs or couches.
If you walked into a room and saw someone sitting at the feet of another, you understood it was teacher and student.
Students learned at the feet of their master and the expectation was that later, they would in turn teach others.
This applied to men, not women.
Men sat at the feet of other men.
Their society would not tolerate a woman with “delusions of grandeur.”
But Jesus had no problem with it!
In Verse 40, the key terms are “much preperation.”
This most likely meant that Martha was making food for Jesus and his entourage.
You better believe those disciples could eat!
Martha is busy and she’s busy doing good work!
Notice that she is never rebuked for what she was doing, it was good.
Only Mary’s time was spent better. And that’s exactly the word Jesus used: Better.
Martha is trying to please Jesus and serve Him in her own way and that’s OK, only she is missing out on precious moments!
She is engaged with the “tyranny of the urgent.”
Stuff that has to get done!
It is not bad to be a thoughtful host! She is not twiddling her thumbs! She is not scrolling through her feed with feet up on the couch!
It’s good work that she is doing.
Now Mary, she’s not working at all.
We see her sitting at the feet of Jesus.
Martha is not good with that!
Some resentment here, the fly in the ointment.
So Martha gets a little huffy and tells Jesus, “How bout telling her to help me with all of this work?”
To which Jesus responds by adressing her very kindly but very directly: “Martha, Martha.”
Inherent is the gentle rebuke.
What is the Master going to say?
“Your are careful and troubled about many things.”
The NKJV renders it: “You are worried and troubled about many things.”
“Many things.”
And notice, he doesn’t say that the things that she was thinking about were unimportant.
He says they are many, not commenting on exactly how important they may be.
Jesus quickly moves on to talk about the one thing that is important.
What is that?
It’s relationship.
It’s face time with Jesus Himself.
One on one time.
This, Jesus says is needed.
“And Mary has chosen that good part.”
Mary chose to position herself as a disciple first, with all social roles and niceties to be considered later.
Mary wants facetime with Jesus.
“Mary has chosen the good part, which will not be taken away from her.”
“No Martha, I am not going to send Mary to the kitchen.”
Jesus is so gracious, but his meaning is still crystal clear:
“Mary’s relationship with me, the time she spends at my feet, is not something that can ever be taken from her.”
See, social status comes and goes.
Public perception of Mary or anyone else, can change just as quick as the local gossip can tell a lie.
Mary could lose her Brother, her home, her standing and everything else!
But even death cannot remove her relationship with Jesus!
When Jesus has been crucified, after his ascenscion and life has moved on, Mary will be able to cherish her memories of time spent with Jesus.
Perhaps Martha will consider opportunities lost, and just how fleeting is our short passage on this earth.
“Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy strength, and with all thy mind, and thy neighbor as thyself.”
When the smarmy lawyer said, it they were only dead words.
Mary gave them life, and showed us how it’s done!
And Jesus said: “Nobody will ever be able to take that away from her.”
III. Scripture Support & Application
III. Scripture Support & Application
Perhaps your inner Martha would say:
“Hey, Mary never had to deal with the pressures of a modern society like I do!
She didn’t have to deal with the workplace politics I do!
She didn’t have family spread all over the world, to worry about!
The constant squeeze of worry was not her problem like it is mine!
She wasn’ t living in the end times!
Crazy weather events, pandemics and the like!
Let me tell you what my wife told me one summer day when I got a little carried away:
“Hey! take a chill pill! Relax!”
Maybe you are worried and troubled about many things today
I have some really good bible just for you.
Mat 6:25-34
You might even read this passage every day this week just to make sure it sticks!
This is just what you need to hear right now:
“Therefore I say to you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink; nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food and the body more than clothing? Look at the birds of the air, for they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? Which of you by worrying can add one cubit to his stature?
“So why do you worry about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin; and yet I say to you that even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. Now if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is, and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will He not much more clothe you, O you of little faith?
“Therefore do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ For after all these things the Gentiles seek. For your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things. But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you. Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about its own things. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble.
There is a reason why we are not supposed to worry about tomorrow’s problems today:
Check this out:
I read this comment in the Apostolic Study Bible last night and it blew me away!
Here’s what it says:
“Looking to the concerns of tomorrow causes anxiety. This is because God has not yet given us the grace to overcome tomorrow’s problems!
He has only given us the grace for todays situations!
Tomorrows concerns will only overwhelm you when you view them them outside of this provision!
That’s why we should pray the Lord’s prayer daily and think about it!
“Give us this day, our daily bread.”
Now tomorrow, I’ll pray it again, and tomorrow will take care of itself!
Tomorrow, He will give me the bread that I need for that day.
But today, I’m gonna live my life and enjoy my life!
Thea showed me a quote from Corrie Ten Boom that puts it so well:
Worry does not empty tomorrow of sorrow; it only empties today of strength.
Friend, you have a God who cares for you!
IV Conclusion
IV Conclusion
Now it came to pass, as He was praying in a certain place, when He ceased, that one of His disciples said to Him, “Lord, teach us to pray, as John also taught his disciples.”
So He said to them, “When you pray, say:
Our Father in heaven,
Hallowed be Your name.
Your kingdom come.
Your will be done
On earth as it is in heaven.
Give us day by day our daily bread.
And forgive us our sins,
For we also forgive everyone who is indebted to us.
And do not lead us into temptation,
But deliver us from the evil one.”