Jesus: Worth it all... or is He a waste?

What is Jesus really worth to you?

In this episode of On the Road with Pastor Anthony, we continue our Journey to the Empty Tomb by looking at a powerful moment in John 12:1–11. In one room, we see four different responses to Jesus—each one revealing a heart condition that still exists today.

• Mary shows us what it looks like to give Jesus everything
• Judas Iscariot reminds us how easy it is to follow Jesus for the wrong reasons
• The religious leaders reject Him despite overwhelming evidence
• The crowd comes searching, curious to know more

The truth is we all fall into one of these categories.

So, the question becomes:
 Is Jesus worth it all… or is He a waste?

As we close, we also begin to look ahead to Matthew 21:1–11 and the celebration of Palm Sunday—when the crowds welcomed Jesus as King… but didn’t fully understand who He was.

 Where do you stand?
  What is Jesus worth in your life?

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• Join us next week as we continue the journey to the empty tomb

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Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:12

Hey, welcome back to On the Road with Pastor Anthony. And well, I'm your host, Pastor Anthony, and I am super glad that you are here. Before we get started, I would like to ask you uh to consider uh to subscribe to the podcast on your favorite platforms. We you know we can be found on uh YouTube, Rumble, and I post to buzzsprout.com, which just posts all over the place. So more than likely, wherever you can you can uh want to search for us, you can probably find us there. And if you would consider subscribing to, and so that way that you never miss another episode. And if you enjoy what you're here, uh please give it a thumbs up or you know, a review, download, you know, and share the podcast with your friends. And by joining us each week, you will discover practical ways to live out your faith and to connect with others as we share Jesus in life one mile at a time. You know, a few weeks ago we started um a kind of a series that I didn't really call series. Uh it's been actually this is the fourth week since we've gotten going on this, and I didn't really put a name on it because I really wasn't sure where God was taking us. But I was thinking about this last week, about this journey that we're on. And at this point, I believe the journey that we're taking during this season is well, it's a journey to the empty tomb. And that's what I decided to call this series. And here, just days before the cross, in today's episode, we get a powerful picture of two hearts and one savior. You know, throughout the Bible, we see a clear pattern where people who are completely devoted to Jesus and those who aren't. And then there are some who are like Judas, uh Iscariot, who are around Jesus, but not really interested in what he is saying. And maybe it's the prestige, maybe it's personal gain, but whatever the reason, his heart wasn't fully in it. And that brings us to a question that we all have to answer. Is Jesus worth it all, or is it a waste? That's the title of today's episode. Today we're going to be stepping into a home in Bethany, the house of Mary, Martha, and Lazarus. And if we look previously in uh John chapter 11, you know, everything looked pretty hopeless. Lazarus, well, he'd been dead, laying in a tomb for four days, and everyone thought it was over. But Jesus showed up, you know, right on time, as always. He wasn't in a hurry, but he showed up on purpose. And he stood outside the tomb and called Lazarus by name, you know, and the dead man, well, he walked out alive. And it was a moment that proved that Jesus wasn't just a teacher, he has authority even over death itself. And then now in John chapter 12, that same Lazarus is sitting at the table with him, a living testimony to of what Jesus can do. And you would think that alone would have been enough to uh prove, you know, just flat out settle the question of who Jesus is. But in a room full of evidence, not everyone believes that way. Let's go ahead and dive into a prayer, and then we will dive into our text today. I'm going to go ahead and read it, and then we will dive in as we go through. Uh, we're going to be in John chapter 12, looking at verses 1 through 11. Uh, so let's go ahead and pray, and then we will dive into our text and get and read it fully and then dive into today's episode. So, Father God, Lord, we just thank you again so much for allowing us this opportunity and this platform to honor you and to learn and to challenge ourselves and and to learn what's in your word and Father to be able to apply it to our lives each and every day. Um, and maybe this this message here, we're gonna be looking at some different aspects of different things and really gonna challenge ourselves to answer the question of where do we fit in to one of these um, I guess you call it categories we're gonna be looking at. But anyway, Lord, we ask that you bless the reading of your word, bless our time together, and may hearts be changed and lives just encouraged. In Jesus' name, amen. All right, so John chapter 12, beginning in verses 1, and we're gonna read through verse 11. Six days before the Passover, Jesus came to Bethany, where Lazarus was, the one Jesus had raised from the dead. So they gave a dinner for him there. Martha was serving them, and Lazarus was one of those reclining at the table with him. And then Mary took a pound of perfume, pure lard, or pure expensive nard, anointed Jesus' feet, and wiped his feet with her hair. So the house was filled with the fragrance of the uh perfume, and then one of his disciples, Judas, Iscariot, who was about to portray him, said, Why wasn't this perfume sold for three hundred denarii and given to the poor? And he didn't say this because he cared about the poor, but because he cared, or because he was a thief. He was in charge of the money bag, and he would steal part of what was in it. And Jesus answered, Leave her alone. She has kept it for the day of my burial, for you always have the poor with you, but you do not always have me. And meanwhile, a large crowd of Jews found out that Jesus was there and came not only because of him, but also to see Lazarus, whom he had raised from the dead. So the chief of priests made plans to kill Lazarus as well, for on account of him, many of the Jews were going over to see Jesus and believing in him. In John chapter 12, we see four categories of people that still apply to us today. Every one of us will fit into one of these, and we have to be honest enough to ask where do we fit in? So let us start with Mary, the worshiper, the one who says Jesus is worth it all. Gives me chills. In verse three, we see that Mary takes a pound of expensive perfume and nard worth about a year's wages, and she pours it out on Jesus' feet and then wipes his feet with her hair, and the house is filled with the fragrance. And this wasn't some small gesture, this was costly, personal, and completely surrendered. Um, I want you to think about during this time, Mary would have had to have her hair up and covered. You know, they were not allowed to just, you know, the women was not allowed just to have their hair down and just, you know, free-flowing, what you know, whatever. They weren't supposed to do that. And we see here that Mary's not concerned about what others think, she's not holding back anything, but she's giving Jesus her very best. And why is that? Well, because she understands who he is and what he's done. I mean, she's seen the power of Jesus in her own life, especially when he raised her brother Lazarus from the dead. I mean, she's seen him do great things. I mean, something that's just spectacular, a huge miracle that she knew exactly who he was. And her response to Jesus is worship. This is what real worship looks like, and it lines up to a one of actually one of another one of my favorite verses. Um something that we are called to do in Romans 12, verses 1 and 2. It says, Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in the view of God's mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God. This is your true and proper worship. Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, and then you will be able to tell to test and approve what God's will is, his good and pleasing and perfect will. And may God add the blessing of the reading of his word again. So Mary here shows us that when you truly grasp the grace and the power of Jesus, nothing feels too valuable uh to give back to him. And something that I think that is very important that we need to understand, and I think a lot of people miss this, or you know, I've seen, you know, maybe I think there's a lot of people who miss this. That worship isn't just something that we do on Sunday morning when we sing a few praise and worship songs or hymns or whatever it is that you do at church, but it's a daily commitment of our lives to God. And it's not about convenience, it's all about surrender. I want, I mean, think about it. I mean, it will cost you something. It may be your time, maybe your pride, it could be your resources, but when you know who Jesus is, it's totally worth it. And that's exactly what Romans 12, 1 and 2 calls us to do is to present our bodies as a living sacrifice and to be transformed by the renewing of our mind. And we do that by uh living out our walk in, you know, uh with Christ, you know, during prayer and reading of his word. I mean, that I mean it's a constant daily transformation, the renewing of our mind that we have to do, and it's very important. So here's the question that we have to ask ourselves Am I living that kind of surrendered life, or am I only giving Jesus what is easy and comfortable? Yeah, that'll that'll make you think, won't it? You know, because sometimes we can fall into that and really sometimes it can be even we don't realize it, we did it just happens, you know, and and it's something that we have to reflect on. But then there's also another side of the coin here that we're gonna look at, the one of the kind of like the second category we're gonna look at as the user, you know, asking, What can Jesus do for me? You know, and this was Judas's mindset. You know, when we think about it, everyone that was in that room, not everyone in the room saw the things the way that Mary seen them. I mean, we look at Judas Iscariot the way he does, or what he spoke, he says, you know, it says he spoke up not out of worship, but out of selfishness. He says, Why isn't this sold and given to the poor? You know, and we can, you know, go, yeah, go, Judas. That's an awesome idea. I mean, I mean, how many people could we help with 300 denarii? I mean, you know, that was some bucks. And then, I mean, it says it's a year's wages. And so when we hear that, I mean, we can be like, yeah, that sounds spiritual. You go, boy. And I mean, and the and it even sounds like it could be biblical. But it was clear his heart was somewhere else. It wasn't that wasn't the true, I guess you uh his the meaning behind what he was saying. Because he's like, Y'all give me that 300 denarii, and I'm going to eat steak and lobster tonight, is what I'm trying to tell you. You know, it was that kind of mindset, you know, is what what we're seeing here. He didn't care about the poor, he cared about the money, and it makes you stop and think, why did Jesus put up with that? Why did he choose Judas? I mean, he knew that Judas was stealing. I mean, he, I mean, he's God in human form, so he knew he was going to deny him. I mean, it's just like, help me understand, you know, why did why did you do that to your to yourself for Jesus? I mean, come on. But he knew his heart, he knew what he was going to do, and yet he gave him the opportunity to walk with him, to see the miracles, to hear the truth, and to be changed. Even though Judas, you know, chose the right, you know, rather to do his own thing. I mean, Judas saw it all. He saw the healings, he heard the teaching. He was even there when Lazarus was raised from the dead, and still he never surrendered. He chose to uh to deny that relationship with Christ. He didn't want it. He chose to store up treasure here on earth and made his life about himself, missing the big picture of who Jesus truly is. You know, and there's another uh verse in the scripture that teaches us about this, and Jesus was talking um in Matthew 6, 19 through 21, says, do says, Don't store up for yourselves treasures on earth where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal, but store up for yourselves treasures in heaven where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves don't break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. So we see Judas wasn't following Jesus to give his life, he was following Jesus for what he could get. And that's where it hits close to home because that same mindset still exists today. There are people who want the benefits of Jesus without surrendering to him, they want the blessings, they want the help and security, but not the commitment. This is like saying they want to walk an aisle, sign a card, and say a prayer, and yep, I'm good, I'm going to heaven. No more hell for me. But following Jesus was never meant to be about what we can get. Because we don't deserve anything. It's about giving him our lives. So here's the question we have to ask ourselves Am I truly following Jesus or am I using him? Where's my heart? Am I building my life around temporary things or am I living for what has eternal value? And for some, it doesn't stop there because some people go even farther than that. They don't just use Jesus, they just right out reject him. They want complete control over their lives, and surrendering to Jesus means giving that up. So instead of bowing to him as the Lord, you know, they push him away. To them, following Jesus isn't worth it at all. In fact, the way that they see it, it's just a waste. I mean, it's not even it's not even on the radar. They have no desire to follow Jesus at all. But look back at John uh chapter 12, verses 9 through 11. Again, if you're you know follow along with scripture, that's great, but don't do it if you're driving, okay, if you're just listening. But anyhow, John chapter 12, verses 9 through 11 says, Meanwhile, a large crowd of Jews found out that Jesus was there and came not only because of him, but also to see Lazarus, whom he had raised from the dead. So the chief of the chief priest made plans to kill Lazarus as well, for on account of him, many of the Jews were going over to Jesus and believing in him. And we see this clearly in the religious leaders. The evidence is overwhelmingly, is overwhelming. Hey, Lazarus, he's alive. A man who was dead is now walking around, and people are coming to see this for themselves. Again, you would think that that would lead to belief, but instead it leads to resistance. The chief priest actually makes plans to kill Lazarus because people were turning to Jesus because of him. I mean, think about that. The proof is right in front of them, and instead of surrendering, they try to silence it. You know, that's the danger of a hardened heart. When someone wants control, when someone doesn't want to submit to God, no amount of evidence will ever be enough. You know, Psalm 14.1 says, the fool says in his heart, there is no God. They are corrupt, they do vile deeds, there is no one who does good. This is the person who sees the truth and still walks away. I mean, I knew a man who um would ask, Who is Jesus? He would sit down, he would listen to the gospel message, and I'm talking not just once, but I'm talking several times, and yet still said no. And I'm gonna tell you, that is a dangerous place to be. Because the more you reject the truth, the easier it becomes to keep rejecting it. To them, following Jesus isn't worth it. In fact, they see it as a waste, and that brings us to another question. Have you been rejecting what you know is true? Have you been pushing away what God has been trying to show because you don't want to surrender? The warning is real because there comes a point when a heart can become so hard that it no longer responds. I mean you say no to Jesus long enough and enough times, and finally he's gonna be like, fine, that's the way you want it. You got it, and that's why today matters. That's why responding to Jesus now, it matters. You know, the Bible promises or says we're not promised tomorrow. We're just a vapor in the wind, you know, here today and gone tomorrow. I think it has a casting crown song. Uh but anyway. But when we think about that, I mean you look in the news and see how a car accident took a life of someone who had plans tomorrow, stuff on their calendar. You know, people who get diagnoses. I mean, it could be anything. But I mean it could it just happen. And next thing you know, this opportunity to accept Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior is no more, and that's why it's so important to focus on where are you at now? You know. Are you seeking him? Are you asking questions? Because that's the brings us to another group of people in this passage. Because not everyone in the crowd rejected him. In John 12, 9, we see that there's a large crowd coming, not just because of Jesus, but because they heard about Lazarus and they were, and there was something happening that sparked their curiosity. And often, and that's often how it begins. When people hear that Jesus is working, something stirs in them, and they want to know more. And that's what we call a seeker. And that's why the question is, is are you seeking? They're not all in yet. They don't have it figured out, but they're tiptoeing in the water, you know, to see really who this Jesus guy is. Yeah, scripture tells us in Jeremiah 29, 13, it says, You will seek me and find me when you search for me with all your heart. And this is exactly why Jesus came. You know, he came to die for our sins, but his first part of his mission was, you know, we find in Luke 19, 10, it says, For the Son of Man has come to seek and to save the lost. I mean, those of us who are eternally separated from Christ, you know, he came in, he set the plan, he built the plan, worked, showed us the way to the Father, died for our sins, you know, because he told us, he said, In my father's house are many rooms, and if where not so I would have told you, but I go to prepare a place for you so that you can be where I am. And so that was the plan. He came to get us, he came to offer us a way back into relationship with God the Father. That means someone if someone is searching, it's not by accident, it is Jesus already pursuing them. You know, I seen this uh play out in real life. I I wasn't the youth pastor yet. I was I was more of a volunteer. Um, you know, I was I had been there for a little while and I was already starting my schooling, and but we had a student coming. She was brought by a friend, and and whenever she came in, her I remember seeing her, she was really quiet, she was real reserved, she kind of just stayed away from people, you know. She's you know, she because her friends would be out playing games with the youth, eating snacks and involving lessons, and she would just kind of be in the corner somewhere. I remember her makeup was kind of heavy around the bottom of her eyes, like her eyeliner, you know, whatever. Um, and she was just really quiet. She wasn't engaging in games, she wasn't engaging in the discussions, but for some reason she kept showing up week after week. And I began to watch this transformation to take place to where the makeup got lighter. Her she started to smile a little more, she was starting to engage, she started to hanging out, you know, doing some games. And you know, we didn't force her to do this stuff, we just loved on her, you know. We just we just taught her Jesus and you know, invited her in. And but we started noticing these walls started coming down as she began to participate. And we had a weekend retreat coming up, and uh and she agreed that she was gonna go, you know, which was big time, and that weekend she gave her life to Christ. This is one of the highlights of youth ministry. But she gave her life to Christ that weekend, and by the time that she graduated out of youth, I mean, the transformation was just amazing to watch God get a hold of this young lady because she was leading uh games, she was helping other students that was coming in, she was helping planning events, she was, you know, bringing stuff for the youth group, you know, whenever we were doing like dinners or whatever, but I mean she was just like all in. She started out this reserved, quiet, shy, and you know, and when she left high school and stuff, I mean she started doing plays. It's just I mean, when God got a hold of her, I mean, she just she fell in love with him and it changed her life. But she started out as a seeker, and that's what happens when a seeker keeps showing up with the gospel, and when the gospel is faithfully shared. You know, I've seen it in other ways as well. You know, sometimes it starts with a simple, you know, well, like an invitation or something like a free car wash. You know, our uh Genesis fellow one time, they did a sermon series, and maybe I've talked about this before, but it was called outflow. And I remember this particularly, don't remember all the messages, I just remember the the theory behind or the you know the point of the message was it was like a huge fountain, and it was God at the top, and it was spilling over and to each one of the tears, and each one of those tears were us as we were sharing the gospel, as we were outflowing, you know, what God had done in our lives. And the very last week of this sermon series, we closed the church. We had an older couple stay there in case visitors showed up. We were meeting in uh a middle school at the time, and the rest of us went out to uh convenience stores, you know, pumping people's gas and cleaning their windshields and you know, that type of stuff, restaurants emptying trays, and then we did a free car wash, and I was at the car wash doing this, and and I remember this guy coming through and uh and and he was talking to us and he thought that we were crazy because we wouldn't take any money. He's like, I've never seen a church come out on a Sunday to wash cars, and he said it really impressed him by the way that we treated him and talked to him. We laughed and stuff. And well, he showed up on church that next that next Sunday, and he wasn't saved. And it wasn't, I mean, it was a process, and uh, you know, he was pretty engaged. I mean, he was pretty outspoken, he was a you know military guy and stuff, but ended up being, I mean, on fire for Jesus. You know, he got saved, he was plugged in, he's teaching Bible studies, you know. I mean, just it's amazing to watch the transformation when we see seekers that are interested in the truth and they go to look for it, just like we see in uh Jeremiah 29, 13. When you seek me, you will find me. When you seek me with all your heart, that's what we see. But we got to first be engaged and sharing the gospel message and doing those things. And so when that conversation opens up and someone starts asking about Jesus, you know, we need to be engaged and answer those questions. You know, the seeker, he may be there, they may start far off, but with time and prayer and the truth and a relationship, you know, with us begins to grow the relationship with Jesus because they see him living through us. And as that, you know, as the relationship begins to grow with Jesus, and then that leads, is I mean, just you know, that's how we expand the God the the kingdom of God, is sharing the gospel message is to live out what Christ has called us to do and talk to people, you know, and and watch them be transformed by the you know, the renewing of their minds, because they're now they're no longer confronting conforming to the patterns of the world, they're conforming to the their savior. And so we need to ask those that question as well. If you're listening to this and maybe you've never accepted Jesus, you know, am I you know, ask yourselves, am I truly seeking Jesus or am I observing from a distance? You know, let's take a moment and to bring all this together and honestly refresh reflect on where we are in our walk with Jesus. When you step back and look at this moment in John 12, you see four different responses to the same Jesus. Mary looks at him and says, He's worth it all. Judas Iscariot looks at him and asks, What can I get? The religious leaders see him and choose to reject him altogether, while the crowd is curious and seeking and trying to understand just who he is. And the difference between all of them isn't the evidence because they all saw the exact same thing, the exact same evidence, the same Jesus. It's the condition of their hearts. And here's the reality: we all fall into one of these categories. So we have to ask ourselves honestly, am I surrendered like Mary, willing to give Jesus my all? Am I using him like Judas? Or are we more interested in what I can get than what I can give? Or am I resisting him like the religious leaders, pushing him away from what I know is true? Or am I seeking him like the crowd, moving closer, wanting to know more? Because the truth is no one stays neutral forever. And at some point you will have to decide what Jesus is worth to you. So as we close out this episode, let us set the stage not just for what we've seen here, but what's coming next. The same people we've been talking about in John chapter 12, you know, the curious, the seekers, the ones showing up because they've heard about Jesus. And they are very same kind of people we will see in the next moment of this journey in Matthew 21, 11 1 through 11 that we will be looking at next week as Genesis Jesus enters Jerusalem and the crowds gather, you know, they spread their cloaks on the ground, they wave palm branches, they shout Hosanna to the Son of God, and they welcome him as king. To you know, it looks like a celebration, it looks like belief, it looks like they understand, but the question is, do they really know who he is? Do they understand what kind of king he came to be? And that's why this matters for us, because we get to the celebration of Palm Sunday. We have to answer the question personally, is Jesus worth it all, or is he a waste? Let's pray. Father God, again, we come to you and just thank you for this awesome uh platform and the time to uh share your message with others. And Lord, I hope this has been an encouragement to some, a challenging to others, and and and just really charge you know, people to really reflect and look at themselves. So, Father, we again we just thank you for all that you do in in our lives. And Lord, we ask you to continue to bless us and move us forward. In Jesus' name, amen. All right, so if this message has encouraged you, don't forget to like it, share it with a friend, and subscribe so you don't miss what is next. And if you'd like to help uh others to find this message, leaving a five-star review on your you know favorite podcast platform really helps us reach more people with the gospel. And if you'd like to stay connected and be a part of what God's doing through this ministry, you will find all the links below. And if you feel led to help, you know, help support the ministry, whether through prayer or sharing an episode or giving, I really want to just thank you. And it really just, I mean, I'm pumped. Thank you so much. Your prayers mean more than you know, and your generosity helps us stay on the road, sharing the gospel and reaching more lives with hope. Again, all the links are in the description below. And again, thank you for being a part of this journey. And remember, continue to share Jesus in life one mile at a time, and well, we will see you on the next one.