Martha, Maratha...

We’ve all been a Martha situation.

​We get so caught up in the "doing"—the errands, the chores, the deadlines—that we forget how to just "be." In Luke 10:38–42, Martha was busy serving. A good thing to do. Jesus reminded her that her sister Mary had chosen the "one thing" that truly mattered: simply sitting at His feet and listening.

​Life is loud, but this Sunday is your chance to turn down the volume. Join us as we pause the "much serving" and find rest in the Word. You don’t have to be perfect or "busy" here—you just have to be present.

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:20

And howdy, welcome back to the Preacher Man's Podcast, Sermons and Lessons, a review of last Sunday's sermon. Last Sunday, we are in a way wrapping up our sermon, our series of lessons about staying focused on Jesus. Sunday before last, uh we looked at Jesus walking on water and Peter walking on water the Sunday before that. It was the episode where at the resurrection Peter and John run to the tomb. I wanted a third lesson for this series, something that would help us understand just what it means to stay focused on Jesus in the fearful times or in the uncertainty. In times of uncertainty, that's the the tomb scenario. In times of overwhelming fear and um overwhelming situations, and I would submit that being able to walk on water in a storm with waves and lightning and all that stuff would definitely cause you to be distracted. But there is another other there are other scenarios that can take place in our lives where we can be distracted and the distractions keep us from that one thing. That's what Jesus refers to when he's talking to Martha about this. And I tried to highlight that in the lesson. Martha was doing what her personality type would do. And I'm s I'm I was very, very I mean, it in my intro, it has a little bit of humor to it. When you listen to the intro, it has some humor to it, but it's a but it was very, very true. Um my wife Michelle helped me with this sermon simply because she says, I've always felt like Martha got a bad rap. Michelle would say, I am a Martha type person, where my desire or my acts of service is my it is is a way I show gratitude and thankfulness. And I don't necessarily think that's a r that's a bad thing. And I fully agree with her. There are plenty of people, and I'm saying when I say people, I mean both men and women who have the same kind of drive, who have the same kind of responsibility, the feeling of responsibility, have the same kind of take charge attitude that Martha had. And I believe, and I do believe that some of that stems from the fact that while it's not necessarily we are not necessarily given a lineage or a a age group for uh Mary, Martha, and Lazarus, I when I read the experiences that take place between Jesus and Mary and Martha and Lazarus, I can see how Martha is probably the oldest. She's the older sister. Mary might be the youngest or might be the middle. We don't and and we could say the same thing about Lazarus. But when you look at the two instances where there is where there is conversation and something is taking place with Mary and Martha and Jesus, and we only got two. I see a lot of that type of personality that is a take charge, um, organize, do, and I don't think she was trying to distract herself. I don't think she was trying to be um be bossy. No. I I I think Martha was just doing what she felt like was best and she was frustrated with by Mary. And like and so when we look at this lesson, I hope that we can kind of look at it from a different point of view. And I wanted to highlight that different point of view simply because of the fact of one of the interesting the w probably in in my in my time as being a preacher and finding these little uh impactful things that take place in the Bible is takes place with Martha. And I don't want to give it away because of the spoilers, but it when we get to when you get to the section, pay attention to the the importance of Jesus saying Martha's name twice. So let's go ahead and start. We uh this sermon was preached on April 19th, that was last Sunday. The sermon title is Martha Martha, and it comes from Luke ten thirty-eight through forty-two, and it also we reference John chapter eleven, verses eighteen through twenty seven, and we'll be back after this and this sermon for some closing thoughts. Open your Bibles to uh Luke ten. Luke chapter ten is where we'll be getting our start this morning. One of the things that I'm very thankful for about being a part of this uh church family is the support that I get from um not only the congregation, but I also get from our leadership. Now, being a West Texas country boy, I know what a smart, what a smart electric compliment is. Okay, it's when to say they say something that's kind of smart elect, but they're giving actually giving you a compliment. Um, and there's been a few times where Charles Sims, after church, being a country boy himself, will come up to me and tell me, Bland, that was an excellent lesson you brought this morning. And then he'll turn to my wife and say, How long did it take you to write that sermon for him? I can say with all honesty this morning that Michelle did help me with this lesson. Um, Michelle is not here, so the next time you see her, make sure you tell her thank you for helping me with this lesson because it's because of a conversation that she and I had as I was preparing or deciding where I wanted to go next in this little series that we've been doing, and that she uh gave me some insight, some deeper insight into Martha, because Michelle has always felt like, and I'm sure some of you ladies also can attest to this, that you probably feel like a Martha instead of a Mary. As we go through this lesson this morning, I want you to think about think about a question that and not just the ladies, but the men too. Have you been so busy doing for Jesus that you may have neglected to listen to him, to stop whatever it is you're doing, and just sit at his feet, open up his word, and listen. I believe that the main point of this lesson this morning, as we are making sure that we are staying focused on Christ, is that there are many anxieties and there are many agitations that we could definitely say are a thief of focus. They'll pull us away from the only thing that matters, really. Peter sank because he took his eyes off Jesus in a storm. Martha, not doing necessarily doing something wrong or being sinful for even that matter, was doing something good. And yet, because of distractions, because of fear, because of other things, pulled her away from what Jesus referred to as the only thing that matters, the one thing that matters. In this short little story that you're gonna look at in John 10, you're gonna see two different actually, you're gonna see three different personalities. One's not mentioned a whole lot, but the other two stick out. Jesus is not trying to change personality, he just wants us to every so often adjust for the focus. I would say this, I would say we should be really thankful. We could say, we could really be say, thank goodness, because we do have people in our churches and in our families and our congregations who are both Mary's and Martha's. One might say that this account is in from the life of Jesus shows us, like I said, three types of people. Those who say they follow Christ, those are who are are people, those are people who are like Mary. Those who know how to serve but also sit at the feet of Jesus. Then you have people who are like Martha, those who are diligent, with best intentions, wanting to serve God, but without or with maybe not taking in consideration that one thing, that continued focus on Jesus, which can, when you're not doing it, result in a frustration. Now, the one that's not mentioned is the person who isn't doing any of those things. Not serving, not focusing, they don't even want to take it ahead, they don't they don't they have no interest in Jesus whatsoever. They're not even they're not even in the house. They're too busy doing their own thing, doing their own pursuits. It says in Luke 10, starting in verse 38, now as they were traveling along, he entered a village, and a woman named Martha welcomes him into her home. And now she had her sister called Mary, who was also who was also seated at the Lord's feet and was listening to his words. But Martha was distracted with all of her preparations, and she came up to him and said, Lord, do you not care that my sister has left me to do the serving by myself? Then tell her to help me. There was Martha, who I'm going to agree with many scholars and say that Martha was the oldest of the siblings. So there was Martha, and then there was Mary and there was Lazarus. Don't know what in what order that was, but we know that it was a trio. We can read about this in John's account, which we will here in a little bit. I think we can ascertain, though, that a lot of times when this story is taught, there's always this idea of a good sister who's doing the right thing and a not so good sister who is distracted, running around, thinking that it's more important to get the work done and get the things prepared because that's what you're supposed to do versus the one thing that Jesus wants you to do. But I think if we look at this, we can see that there's more to it than meets the eye. Jesus has a specific lesson for Mary, but Jesus also has a specific lesson for Martha. A lesson that not only has meaning for her, but I think you're going to see can be definitely applied to your life as well. The reason why I say this is because when I came across this next part, when I came across this next section, it could have literally knocked me out of my chair. And what I want to talk about next is something that may sound like it's totally obvious or totally not important to the overall message of Martha's uh life, of Martha's choice. But did you know? Did you know that there are only seven instances in the Bible, Old and New Testament, where someone's name is called twice. Only seven. More in the Old Testament, but there's a few in the New Testament. And I'm gonna I'm gonna be going out of order as we get closer into the New Testament for a reason. The first one, there are only seven times when God or Jesus uses a name twice. The first one is found, the first one is Abraham. Many of you know this story. Some of you have taught this Bible lesson before in Genesis 22, where God tests Abraham and Ham has him bring his son up to the mountain and says, I want you to sacrifice your son. And we it gets to the point where the altar is built. Abraham's son is on the altar, on the stone altar, and Abraham has his knife up ready to go. And that's when an angel of the Lord calls him and he says, This Abraham and Abraham reached out with his hand and took the knife to slaughter his son. And the angel of the Lord called from heaven and said, Abraham, Abraham, yes, here I am. He said, Do not reach out your hand against the boy, and do not do anything for him, for I know now that you fear God, since you have not withheld your son for your only son from me. The next time we see a name called twice is found in also in Genesis 46, 2. This is a very, very small little incident, but I think you're gonna see some impact on this. Uh, Joseph has just revealed himself to his brothers. This is toward the end of the story of Joseph. He revealed himself to his brothers. He first thing he says, Is my father still alive? Yes, he's still alive. So they go back and they tell, they tell Israel, hey, Joseph is alive. In fact, he's second in command in Egypt. We're gonna go see him. And so it says that it says in the it says that that that they that he goes and he said, I will go and see my son. And then in verse 2 of chapter 46, and they he goes to Berseda to worship, to worship before he goes. And there you have this God spoke to Israel in a vision of the night and said, Jacob, Jacob, why is God calling Israel by his old name? I do not know. That could be a discussion for another time. But he is, and he once again, here I am. Then he said to him, I am the God, the God of your fathers, and do not be afraid to go down to Egypt. For I will make your I will make you into a great nation there, and I will go down with you to Egypt, and I will also assuredly bring you up again, and Joseph will close your eyes. Israel has, there has been, so, and and really what I think the significance about this is, is that throughout Abraham's story, starting with Abraham, there's always been this connection with bad stuff and Egypt. You can look at every every time Abraham's the thought, you know what, maybe I shouldn't listen to God. Maybe I should go and go to Egypt, something bad always happens. And it seems like during Abraham's life that the message was don't go to Egypt. Stay in the land, don't go to Egypt. And I think that message finally came through generationally down to the point where God has to tell Jacob, hey, it's okay to go to Egypt this time. I'm gonna make your name great. And of course, we all know what happens after this. The six, seven hundred years of slavery that where they call, they, they, that the Lord hears their cries, and what happens next. We have the the the Jesus-like figure of Moses come on the scene in Exodus chapter 3. In Exodus chapter 3, verse 4, you have this Moses who is now an outlaw of Egypt because he killed an Egyptian and he runs away. He he spent all of his time living in the in the in the in Pharaoh's palace, thinking he was he was he had the he was living at two different worlds. He was a Hebrew, but he was also raised as an Egyptian. And he was he he thought he had the makings of being some kind of leader or savior. And what happens is he winds up becoming a shepherd. Something happens while he's shepherding. He sees a bush that will not burn up. And so what does he do? He goes, I gotta go explore this. Look at verse 3 of Exodus 3. So Moses says, I must turn aside and turn and see this marvelous sight. Why this bush is not burning up. And then the Lord saw him and turned again. Here we go, called him from the most uh from the midst of the bush and said, Moses, Moses. And he said, Here I am. He said, Come here. Do not come near here. Remove your sandals from your feet, for the places in which you are standing is holy ground. And so what you have next, so what you have is you have the start of a mission. You have you have a Jesus-like symbol coming in and being the leader that God's called them to be, and they have that mass exodus, and they get to the promised land because of Moses and many leaders like him. Something special takes place with all of these characters, especially when their name is called twice. The next one is probably one of my favorite stories, and that's little boy Samuel. Samuel was dropped off by his mother, becomes a servant, a helper in the tabernacle, and while he's there and it's his turn to take on some responsibility to do, he hears his name being called Samuel. He thinks it's the priest, Eli, and he goes up to the priest and says, You called me. Eli says, I didn't call you, go back to bed. He does it again. Samuel comes running. Hey, you called me. No, Samuel, I didn't call you. Go back to bed. Happens again. This time, Eli the priest realizes what's going on. Look at verse 8. So the Lord called Samuel again the third time. And he got up and went to Eli and said, Here I am, for you called me. And then Eli realized the Lord was calling the boy. And Eli said to Samuel, Go and lie down, and it shall be if he calls you, that you shall say, Speak, Lord, for your servant is listening. So Samuel went and laid down in his place. And then the Lord came and stood and called as the other times Samuel Samuel. And Samuel said, Speak, Lord, for your servant is listening. Now the Lord said to Samuel, Behold, I am going to do things in Israel. Both ears and everyone who hears about it will ring. We all know what happens next. He tells little boy Samuel about what's going to happen to not only Eli's sons, who are also priests, but also to Eli. The Ark of the Covenant is going to be lost. There's going to be a whole thing where the people of Israel are separated from the ark. But Samuel is going to grow up to be more than just a person working in the temple, working in the tabernacle. He's going to become a prophet. And the life of Samuel leads us to the anointing of the first and second king of Israel. Now we get to the New Testament. Like I said, I'm going out of turn here, but the next time someone's name is called twice is good old Peter. Good old Peter, the apostle with the foot-shaped mouth. This is during the Passover where Jesus is instituting a new tradition, the Lord's Supper, a new covenant. And he says in Luke 22, 31, Simon, Simon, there's that twice thing. Behold, Satan has demanded to sift you men like wheat. He says, But I have prayed for you that. Get this. This is what Jesus says. Notice this that your faith will not fail, and you, when you have turned back, strengthen your brothers. Jesus knew. Jesus knew what was going to happen. But, like here, here's Peter. You said to him, Lord, I am ready to go with you to the both the prison and to death. And he said, I tell you the truth, Peter, before the rooster crows today, you will deny me three times that you know me. And then we know what happens next. Peter does deny him three times. But Peter does come back. He does strengthen his brothers. And they have that great experience in Acts where he's given the lesson at Pentecost. Finally, and like I said, I jumped out of context. I jumped out of order on purpose. Finally, you have Saul in Acts chapter 9. Saul is on the road to Damascus looking to arrest and throw into prison more Christians. He is on a roll, he is on a rampage. He thinks he is doing what God wants him to do. And then, just like that good song from the 80s, he got blinded by the light. Acts chapter 9, verse 3. Now he was traveling, and it happened that he was approaching Damascus, and suddenly a light from heaven flashed around him, and he fell to the ground, and he heard the voice saying, Saul, Saul. Why do you persecute me? Who are you, Lord? He says, I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting. Get up, enter the city, and it will be told to you what you must do. Now, we just read before Martha's account. I don't think we are it has been read properly in context of what we've just now seen. Because normally when we read this story, you get something like this. And Jesus said, Martha, Martha, bless your heart. You're so busy. Mary's doing the right thing. But what are you doing? No. I honestly believe that it was, hey, Martha, Martha, getting your attention. Because Martha, I'm about to teach you something. I'm about to, you're about to experience something. And you're about to be added to a list of people who've only had their name mentioned twice in the Bible. What was Martha's experience? Well, now we can go to John. We go to John and the verses that were read this morning. We know what has already happened. Lazarus has gotten sick, he's deathly ill. Word gets to Jesus. Jesus waits. Lazarus passes away. Now Jesus chooses to come. In John is where we read just how much not only did Jesus love Lazarus, but he also loved Martha and Mary. Now, we've just had this experience, this little short, little brief little story in Luke where you have this, you know, it seems like someone's making a poor decision and someone's making a better decision. But this is right here the reason why Jesus uses Martha's name twice, and she becomes the seventh person in the entire Bible to have her name mentioned twice, and she is a woman with a whole list of men being on this list. It's Martha who goes out to meet Jesus first. Mary is too upset, too frustrated. It's Martha who shows the strength and character of that big sister attitude. That we have things to do, we have a schedule to keep. Luke 11, 23. Martha said, get this. I know that he will rise in the resurrection on the last days. Jesus said, Martha, I am the resurrection. And the life, and whoever believes in me will live even if he dies. And then everyone who lives and believes in me will never die. Do you believe this? It's Martha who says, probably the most second powerful thing in this little experience. Yes, Lord, I have come to believe that you are the Christ, the Son of God, and that He has come into the world. Hmm. Where do you think Martha learned that? In what situation do you think Martha experienced that lesson? Maybe she did turn the stove down to simmer. Put the bread up on the shelf and sat down with Mary to learn this, but not only this, but to learn what she said to Jesus before all this conversation. Lord, I know, I know, if you had been here, my brother would not have been there. But I know God will give you whatever you ask for. There's some knowledge in Martha. It's Martha who makes that powerful statement that rings throughout the ages. It's a passage of scripture that gets used in funerals of Christians who have been faithful. Peter is not the only one who recognizes that Jesus is the Christ. Martha, Martha. Martha, Martha. Once again, let's go back and look at that verse one more time. Luke 10, 41. What's the one thing? Martha, Martha, you are you're worried and distracted by many things. But the only thing, but only one thing is necessary. For Mary has chosen the good part, which shall not be taken from her. What is that one good thing? What is that one part? It's focus on what is there in front of you. Now we know that Jesus is well and he is alive today, and he makes his home where? In our hearts. If Christ is living in your hearts, then he's there with you all the time. But I'm not making that, I'm not giving you a cop-out. I'm just saying, just like Peter got distracted by the scary winds and waves and lightning and wet and the storm that he walked on, we can easily get distracted by being busy for Jesus. We can easily get distracted by being busy trying to be that good servant that we just sung about before the lesson began. Because we want to serve Jesus. We're called to be servants of Jesus. But while we have, when we have the opportunity and the time, it's also important for us to learn what it means to sit at the feet of Jesus. Mary figured it out, but I think Mary had a little bit of more of a time to do that because she wasn't a big sister. She had a different kind of personality. Now Mary had some experiences as well. Lazarus had some experiences as well. But only Martha heard the message of the resurrection. Only Martha made the claim of belief. And only Martha is the one who has her name called twice. This story, y'all, this story is not about two sisters, one being good and one being bad. What it is about is Jesus empowering and Christ calling all kinds of people: male, female, red, yellow, black, white, doesn't matter which side of the track you come from, don't matter. He is calling and encouraging the following of all of us, and pointing out that just like wind and waves and out of ordinary experiences, simple anxieties and agitations can cause you, even in a good situation, to take your focus off Jesus. And when you do, immediately fear and frustration and blame and ridicule is going to come in and overpower you on that. Overpower you on that. Don't let anything force you, cause you take your eyes off Christ. When we can simply go to Him daily through the Word, through prayer, and through each other, we have the ability to keep our focus where it needs to be a lot of fun. I know that there are multiple Marys. Okay. And obviously the the one that would comes the the one that comes to mind, you know, Mary the mother of Jesus, and then you have Mary Magdalene. When we come across key figures in the Bible and key things and events that happen that correlate with what Jesus did, we are blessed in many ways to see that that relationship take place between Jesus and whoever he is having his moment with. And I'm sure you also could think of other examples of uh Bible characters who have a who have a meaningful impact uh moment with Christ, and it is a lesson that we man we build on all the time. So when you read about experiences with a a Mary or a Mary Magdalene or or even Jesus' mother Mary, you can you can you can apply those things and everything else. And then sometimes though, we because it's not as um written about as much, maybe, or sometimes when it's not um when we can't see those impactful relationships, we kind of push them over to the side and maybe put those in a in a subcategory, if you will. And for the most part, I would submit to you that Martha has probably been in the subcategory for a while. Now there's other categories that we could probably put other people in. I'm I'm sure we put the the lesser uh mentioned disciples in a subcategory. I mean, Peter's the one, Peter, James, John, they're the ones, Thomas, they're the ones who are always speaking up, saying something. Uh Philip comes Philip doesn't really ring out uh jump out to us until the the the book of Acts. But I wonder if maybe we ought to rethink how we categorize the different moments that Jesus has with certain people who were following him and being his disciple, and I think we should elevate Martha up to a higher category than where we've had her in the past. Go back and look. I mean I mean I I know we talked about it in the you just you just heard it, but you know, you you have your Bibles. Go back and reread that whole entire section at the tomb of Lazarus between Martha and Jesus. It's big. It's yeah, it's it's a it's a it's a big moment. And then also you have the little the little experience here that we that we started out in Luke, but when you combined these three concepts Martha doing what she felt like was her act of service, Jesus saying her name twice, which as I've I'm sure by now you can understand, it only happens seven times in the Bible, pretty pretty important, and then you have the conversation that Jesus had with Martha you can see that the lesson that we can get from this is that once you've learned your lesson about being distracted and fearful, you can use it again. And when you do, it grows you. It makes you a more mature follower of Christ. Now I'm distracted all the time. I have that dreaded attention deficit disorder. And so it's very important for me to remind myself how focused I need to stay. And I'm not even talking about staying focused on Christ, I'm talking about in my daily in my in my daily life.

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SPEAKER_00 44:00

Gotta be focused. I got to, I can't be distracted. I gotta I gotta stay on task so I can complete things, so I can do other things to keep going. And being driven to distraction does, I can testify to you, does have a effect on how you stay focused on Christ. So we have technically wrapped up a section about fixing something in 2026. And what we need to fix is we need to fix our focus on Jesus. Next Sunday, we will be um having a singing sermon. And for many of you who worship at Northcrest or have followed me when I preached in other places or um know how much I enjoy singing sermons and and doing singing sermons, um that's what we'll be doing next Sunday. And the song that we'll be singing along with the sermon is going to be in Christ alone. When I looked at the lyrics of this song, it dawned on me just how important these statements that are written in these verses focus on and help us proclaim how important it is for us to stay locked in and stay focused on Jesus no matter what the situation is. And then starting up in May, we will start a new series, still fixing in 2026, but this time we're going to focus on fixing our faith. And I look forward to presenting those and putting them on the podcast when the dose time comes. In the meantime, I'm going to turn it back over to you. Hope you have a blessed day. Feel free to contact me for any questions or comments about the show. You can reach me at preacherman1178 at gmail.com. That's preacherman1178 at gmail.com. Thanks for listening and always remember who you are and whose you are.