When Worship Fills the Room - John 12:1-8

Introduction

Over the years, we have come to learn much about slavery in this country. We have learned of the conditions in which our ancestors experienced. Their songs that told a story. We recall things like sun up to sun down picking up cotton. We read and have learned of the toil in the fields, we have heard and read of the horrible beatings and punishments our ancestors faced. We’ve learned over the years about the hanging of slaves, the harsh whoppings they endured, we heard about the hot box, we heard of women and young girls raped by their slave masters. We've heard of husbands separated from their wives, mothers and fathers separated from their children. And it doesn’t take much to recollect back to the gruesome sin in this country called slavery and thank God that we are not where we want to be but we thank God we are not where we used to be.

The slave masters used Christianity and the Bible against the slaves to make it as if the Bible, God, was on their side treating African Americans as pigs for the slaughter. Yet these slaves who many of them had no education or very little they were able to discern deceit to know this god whom they speak of who is in favor of slavery is not the God of the Bible.

It was through harsh beatings, rape, hard labor, separation of families, forced marriages, that the only hope of the slave was in the God whom they had to truly know for themselves outside of what the slave masters tried to masquerade for their own advantage as God. Those slaves managed to have a relationship with God for themselves that gave them hope that even in slavery we will trust God because I’ve lived in hell on earth at least I’ll see Him when I die.

These slaves they found hope in their God and particularly in their worship. Not all slaves were able to have church. Some of the slave masters shunned any religious services lest the slaves build up too much hope in God. In light of some of the slaves who were unable to gather together even for worship, they would still away in the middle of the night go down near bodies of water wet quilts they had hand made and put them over their heads as they worshipped so that the water would drown out the noise so that their slave masters wouldn’t hear them.

After families were separated, taken from their homeland… God was all they had and they found out even in slavery that if God was all they had God was all they needed.

And I believe if our ancestors could see us today they’d marvel at how we have so much freedom - much more than they would have ever dreamed of yet how our reliance, trust, and dependency on God has drifted throughout the sands of time.

There was a time in the lives of our ancestors that worshipping God would cost them everything, even their lives. Now we got folk with all the freedom in the world who can’t give God any time. Slaves would sing songs of survival and freedom and we got folk in the church universal with cars, houses, clothes, can do what they want to do, go where they want to go, but won’t give God any time.

It is often said when referring to the Israelites as they wandered in the wilderness after they were released from Egyptian captivity, it is often said that you can take the slave out of Egypt but you can’t take Egypt out of the slave. But I want to suggests to you today while we are a century plus away from slavery as our ancestors knew it - there are somethings when we look back through the pages of history as it relates to our ancestors we ought learn something about worship.

Body

The text tell us of what appears to be a dinner held days before passover in honor of Jesus. In chapter 11, we know Jesus has just raised Lazarus up from his morbid state. Martha has done the cooking. Lazarus now alive and well is sitting at the table ready to eat. But then there is Mary… This is the same Mary who fell down in John 11:32 and worshipped Jesus. Yes they are preparing to eat but Mary has got worship on her mind.

It is oftentimes when God moves in the lives of His people how quickly we forget what God has done… But Mary, she had a good memory. Her worship is still spilling over from chapter 11 into chapter 12. She has a pound of oil the most expensive that she begins to anoint Jesus’ feet with. Two kinds of fragrance there is the Eau de Toilette and the Eau de Parfum… the difference between the two is the water content.

She taught us a lesson here that worship is costly. That if you have not poured the finest, the best, and the most expensive and vulnerable pieces of you before the Lord - you have not given him anything. Why would I give unto the Lord which cost me nothing… After all God had done in bringing her brother back to life, Mary realized I owe this man everything. And somewhere along the lines if we’re honest we get a sense of entitlement - like God owes us something… But if the truth be told God doesn’t owe us anything and we owe him everything!

She poured the most expensive oil on Jesus and then she wiped his feet with her hair. In the context of the Bible it was not right for a woman to let down her hair. If a woman let down her hair in public she was considered a loose woman. So she pours expensive oil on Jesus feet and then she lets down her hair. The letting down of her hair symbolizes the fact that if you are truly to worship God sometimes you’ve got to break the rules, sometimes you’ve got to be the odd one in the bunch.. But worship is costly and some of folk aren’t willing to pay the price. But until we pay the price we have not truly worshipped God. Because worship will cost you something!

She poured expensive oil on Jesus, she broke the rules by taking her hair out to wipe his feet but then the oil she poured it lingered. It filled the house. And some of us if we could just learn to worship freely and totally in our homes the fragrance of our worship would linger and then you start seeing your husband or your wife or your children act right and you begin to wonder whats going on! There’s a fragrance in the house! When a fragrance is too strong at times I get a headache. But sometimes thats what we need in our homes a fragrance so strong that annoys the demons trying to attack our homes and family members.

While Mary is pouring the most expensive oil here comes Judas. Judas whose name ironically means praise. I should stop here and tell you there are two kinds of people who are coming to church. There are worshippers and there are spectators. The worshippers who come to church want to give God their best. They come to church every Sunday with a praise and a worship that spills over from the week. They come to church expectant and ready to worship God and receive all that God has for them. They come to church with a mind on Jesus - they don’t care what Sis. Susie got on, they don’t care what Bro. Johnnie smells like they have learned to tune everything out and focus on what they came here to do!

But then there are the spectators. Those that say it don’t take all of that. Why is she so loud. Why does he pray so long. Why did he have to read a Scripture that long. The spectators just come to church to see. They come to church out of habit. They come to church to sit down and look around at folk as if they were cut with a razor and dipped in lemon juice. Spectators, come to church looking for something to get mad about and talk on the phone with somebody after church. Couldn’t get anything out of the service because they didn’t come for that.

And it is the spectator, Judas mentality that makes the culture and environment of church so heavy when it should be free. So dry when it should be fiery. Because the spectator, Judas mentality although his name means praise his job is to betray praise. And what the Judas mentality doesn’t always realize is that if you’ve got a church full of spectators and no worshippers somebody coming in off the street might miss God because of Judas the spectator.

And I better pause for the cause and tell you - you better be careful of who you sit by in church. You ought to just do a pew check every Sunday and make sure you sit by a worshipper and not a spectator. Because when worship fills the room things begin to happen. That when you come to church on fire and your neighbor comes to church on fire - we become a church on fire. And when the church is on fire the community will be on fire. When the community is on fire the city can be on fire. When the city is on fire then the state can be on fire… And then someone will be on the outside of the state looking in and say whats going on and somebody said well the church finally caught on FIRE! The fire started when worship filled the house!

Judas said that the ointment is so expensive that it could have been sold for 300 hundred denarii. A days labor was worth one denarii so you can estimate this ointment was worth the equivalent to a years labor. In other words she put everything she had on the line because she determined I’ve only got what I got because God gave it to me so I give it back to him.

Judas, he was the treasurer for the disciples. But he was a thief - he used the money that was put into the treasurer for himself. Because the spectator is always only concerned about himself. He wasn’t concerned about the poor. He was gaslighting… You know making it something that it wasn’t to hide what he was really all about. And sometimes people will look for something to be wrong just to try and disrupt, disturb, and dilute your worship. But you’ve got to maintain your focus on giving God your worship. It doesn’t matter what the spectators are doing or what they are saying…

Praise Him anyway. You know what the Lord has done for you. You know what the Lord has brought you through. If you’re going to give God an expensive praise - that is the praise that He’s due it means that you’ve got to have a memory. I remember I was in a dead situation and you brought me out.... no money in my pocket and you provided. Cancer tried to take me out and I was at deaths door but I’m still here. And that’s why I hold nothing back when I praise Him. I’m willing to lay it all on the line because He did it for me! He wouldn’t come down from the cross just to save himself - but He decided to die just to save me!

Jesus responded to Judas, I’m almost through. He said she is showing her devotion to me while I’m still alive. Because Nicodemus and Joseph of Arimathea will come and anoint His body after His crucifixion but she had such love and devotion for Jesus she said I’m going to do it right now.

Jesus said the poor will be with you always but I won’t be with you in body always. Jesus here wasn’t downplaying or dismissing the poor. He was just letting them know you will have more than enough opportunities to serve the poor. But while you’ve got a chance to worship me you ought to take your chance.

You may never get the chance to worship God again. For all you know you may not make it out of this building. But I want to know Mt. Sinai, if this was your last chance to shout hallelujah, your last chance to shout thank you Jesus.... what would it look like?

Close

Because when worship fills the room - God will take care of everything else. When worship fills the room the aroma will linger. And souls will be saved, lives touched, deliverance will take place, breakthroughs will take place, families will be saved, strength will come. This ain’t the social club, this ain’t no place for cliches and spectators… but my house shall be called the house of prayer! I am reminded in Exodus 17:11 as long as Moses hands stayed up they would win the battle. But when his hands went down they would begin to lose. So God had Aaron and Hur to hold his hands up. And that’s what you’ve got to do for your neighbor. You don’t know what they come in here facing or going through… Rather than spectating and looking at folk strange you’ve got to see this as a community of grace where we all are in this thing together and you’ve got to hold their arms up and help them praise God. Let everything.... that hath breath… praise ye the Lord.