SPEAKER_01: Hey, I'm Pastor Steve Hole.
SPEAKER_01: I want to empower you today to walk in your true identity as a worshiper and warrior.
SPEAKER_01: Embrace the power of God's Word and the Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_01: Today, be encouraged with a word from my guest speaker.
SPEAKER_01: Welcome to the Born for War podcast.
SPEAKER_02: Hey, good morning.
SPEAKER_02: If you don't know me, my name is Josh Floyd, and uh I'm one of the newly minted pastors here on staff at the road.
SPEAKER_02: So uh a little bit about me.
SPEAKER_02: I'm I'm over the prayer ministry here at The Road, so I run our noonday prayer meetings.
SPEAKER_02: I love prayer meetings.
SPEAKER_02: It's probably my favorite thing to do is gather with my friends and say yes to God.
SPEAKER_02: You know, it's it's a blast.
SPEAKER_02: I do prayer meetings here, I do prayer meetings wherever I can, wherever they'll let me in, I go to prayer meetings and sing or play or pray or show up or jump around and yell, whatever it takes.
SPEAKER_02: I used to be a school teacher.
SPEAKER_02: I was a school teacher for five years down in Pueblo.
SPEAKER_02: I taught two years at a middle school, three at a high school, I taught piano skills, I taught choir classes, I did high school musicals, played in the pit, directed them.
SPEAKER_02: I was telling the sound guys this morning as they were putting this microphone on my face, I've put so many of these on kids, it makes me feel like I'm supposed to come up here and do like a tap dance number and sing for you guys, but I won't do that, don't worry.
SPEAKER_02: A lot of you just got really tense when I said, I'm not gonna dance and sing for you today, don't worry.
SPEAKER_02: But um I because I am a teacher, I trimmed my notes down to five pages today.
SPEAKER_02: And uh I might speak a little fast, I might give you a scripture reference and jump right into it.
SPEAKER_02: But if you need to look at my notes, all of them are on the app.
SPEAKER_02: If you get the Rode app out on your phone, you can read exactly what I'm reading and preaching from this morning.
SPEAKER_02: So if you have your Bibles this morning, could you turn with me to Mark chapter 14?
SPEAKER_02: Mark chapter 14.
SPEAKER_02: If you don't have a Bible, there should be Bibles in the seat pockets in front of you.
SPEAKER_02: If you don't have a Bible, take that one home with you.
SPEAKER_02: It's yours.
SPEAKER_02: And uh what I want you to do is either use a bookmark or a piece of paper or your left index finger, and you're gonna put it right there on Mark 14, and then we're gonna turn over to Luke chapter 10.
SPEAKER_02: So we're gonna look at two passages of scripture today.
SPEAKER_02: Um, not long ago, Mark 14, Luke 10.
SPEAKER_02: We were in a leadership class not long ago, and the question was asked: Who's the people in the Bible that you want to be like?
SPEAKER_02: Like who's your hero in the Bible?
SPEAKER_02: And people were saying, Oh, David's my hero for this, and I want to be like Moses because of his type of leadership, and I want to be like this person.
SPEAKER_02: And I wasn't a person that answered the question in that class, but I immediately knew that the answer, other than Jesus, right?
SPEAKER_02: Everybody, we want to be like Jesus.
SPEAKER_02: That's our goal as Christians, is to be just like him.
SPEAKER_02: But the other person that came to my mind was Mary of Bethany.
SPEAKER_02: And she's one of my heroes.
SPEAKER_02: She's one of the people that I want to be like in my life.
SPEAKER_02: And there's not much written about her in Scripture.
SPEAKER_02: There's only three scenes that are painted in the Bible.
SPEAKER_02: And what I love about these three scenes is her posture is the same in all three of them.
SPEAKER_02: In all three stories about Mary of Bethany, she's at the feet of Jesus.
SPEAKER_02: In all three stories about Mary of Bethany, she doesn't have the need to defend herself.
SPEAKER_02: Jesus is the person acting on her behalf.
SPEAKER_02: So I want to be like that, you know?
SPEAKER_02: I want to be a person that's known for being at his feet and letting him fight my battles.
SPEAKER_02: Right?
SPEAKER_02: This is how I fight my battles, right?
SPEAKER_02: So this first scene that portrays her life is where she's sitting at his feet and hearing his word.
SPEAKER_02: You know, and we've all read this passage many times.
SPEAKER_02: It's where we're going to start in Luke 10.
SPEAKER_02: The second scene is very famous.
SPEAKER_02: Her brother was Lazarus, who was raised from the dead.
SPEAKER_02: And right before that happens, she's fallen down at the feet of Jesus, saying, If you had been here, my brother would not have died.
SPEAKER_02: And he weeps in response to her heart.
SPEAKER_02: It's the easiest memory verse in the Bible.
SPEAKER_02: Jesus wept.
SPEAKER_02: There you, you all have a memory verse now.
SPEAKER_02: Jesus wept.
SPEAKER_02: Now you just have to learn the reference.
SPEAKER_02: And he wept because of her heart for her brother and her response of humble surrender before him at his feet.
SPEAKER_02: And in the third scene, which we're going to look at in Mark 14, is where she breaks into this dinner meeting and she breaks her expensive alabaster jar of perfume and anoints Jesus a week before his crucifixion.
SPEAKER_02: And again, she's found at his feet, wiping the oil, the spike nerd oil, into his feet with her hair.
SPEAKER_02: And I think that her life eternally portrays one who loved Jesus with all her heart and offered her entirety to him without reservation.
SPEAKER_02: Let's look at this first passage in Luke 10.
SPEAKER_02: I'm going to start reading from verse 38, Luke 10, 38.
SPEAKER_02: Now it happened as they went that he, Jesus, entered a certain village, and that certain village we know from other places is Bethany, which is near Jerusalem.
SPEAKER_02: And a certain woman named Martha welcomed him into her house.
SPEAKER_02: And Martha had a sister called Mary, who also sat at Jesus' feet and heard his word.
SPEAKER_02: But Martha was distracted with much serving.
SPEAKER_02: And she approached him and said, Lord, do you not care that my sister has left me to serve alone?
SPEAKER_02: Therefore, tell her to help me.
SPEAKER_02: And Jesus answered and said, Martha, Martha, you are worried and troubled about many things, but one thing is needed.
SPEAKER_02: Everybody say one thing.
SPEAKER_02: And Mary has chosen that good part which will not be taken away from her.
SPEAKER_02: The title of my message this morning is One Needful Thing.
SPEAKER_02: And my purpose today is to convince you that that one needful thing is to see and hear Jesus.
SPEAKER_02: We see this modeled with Mary, where Martha is troubled and worried about many things, and he says, one thing is needed, and Mary has chosen that good part.
SPEAKER_02: What was Mary doing?
SPEAKER_02: She was sitting at his feet, and it says she was hearing his word.
SPEAKER_02: She was hearing him.
SPEAKER_02: And that is the one needful thing.
SPEAKER_02: I believe this message this morning is a call to all of us that's been resounding for 2,000 years and will continue to resound, and it's a call to hearing.
SPEAKER_02: It's a call to hearing Jesus' word.
SPEAKER_02: And today I want to make that my message.
SPEAKER_02: We want to hear Jesus.
SPEAKER_02: See, the setting of this story in Luke 10, this is about six months before Jesus goes to the cross, and it's during a festival called the Feast of Tabernacles.
SPEAKER_02: The Feast of Tabernacles is a commemoration of the 40 years that Israel spent in the desert.
SPEAKER_02: And they lived in these little tabernacles.
SPEAKER_02: They lived in these little booths.
SPEAKER_02: Some of the Jews call it such, and I don't think I'm pronouncing that correctly, but what that word means is booth or tent.
SPEAKER_02: So what they would do is they would get the branches from four different trees, and you can read about this in the Torah.
SPEAKER_02: There's requirements for how to celebrate the Feast of Tabernacles, and they would make these makeshift tents out of the branches of four different trees.
SPEAKER_02: And they would dwell in these tents because the Feast of Tabernacles is a pilgrimage feast.
SPEAKER_02: It's one of three pilgrimage feasts, along with the Festival of Weeks and with Passover.
SPEAKER_02: So this is about September, October time frame, and Jesus in John 7 says that he's not going to the feast with everyone else.
SPEAKER_02: And what he means is that this is a pilgrimage feast, which means that all Jewish men were expected to travel to Jerusalem during this week, the Feast of Tabernacles.
SPEAKER_02: And they would set up their tents wherever they were staying, and they would stay in these makeshift tree branch dwellings, and they would stay there for a week and they would bring their tithes and offerings and sacrifices to the temple.
SPEAKER_02: And in John 7, Jesus is talking to his brothers, his biological brothers, and they're trying to convince him to go to Jerusalem for the feast and show everyone what he's got.
SPEAKER_02: Because it says in John 7 that they actually didn't even believe that he was the Messiah at the time.
SPEAKER_02: His own brothers didn't believe him.
SPEAKER_02: And they were trying to kind of mockingly get him to go perform miracles in Jerusalem and show himself at the Messiah.
SPEAKER_02: And he says to them, No, my time has not yet come.
SPEAKER_02: And what he meant is that he knew if he went at this time, six months before he actually would go during the Passover, that he would provoke the rage of the Sanhedrin and they would try to crucify him then.
SPEAKER_02: So he delays in coming to the feast.
SPEAKER_02: And he's instead he spends some extra time with his friends Mary and Martha.
SPEAKER_02: So that's why in this scene we only see three people.
SPEAKER_02: Which is very unusual, by the way.
SPEAKER_02: During this time, a teacher of the law being with women is very not okay.
SPEAKER_02: Like women weren't even supposed to learn the Torah at this time, according to Judaic law, which is not in the Bible, by the way.
SPEAKER_02: There's over a hundred laws added to biblical Mosaic law during that time frame in Judaic law, and there's more than that, but there's over a hundred that just restrict women alone.
SPEAKER_02: So this is very controversial that Jesus is even speaking to Mary and staying in their house, and none of the rest of the guys are there.
SPEAKER_02: The rest of the guys are at the temple.
SPEAKER_02: They went on ahead of him, and eventually he will go to the festival later on, but right now it's just him, Mary, and Martha, and she's getting ready.
SPEAKER_02: This is what she's getting ready for.
SPEAKER_02: All of her friends are in town, and she is gonna provide the food.
SPEAKER_02: She's like, hey, I'll take care of the food.
SPEAKER_02: Don't you guys worry about it.
SPEAKER_02: You know, you can set up your little booths around our house, and uh I'm gonna put out my best china, and her and Mary are out there buffing the china, and she's got her napkins folded a certain way, and it's gotta be just perfect.
SPEAKER_02: Because the Messiah is gonna be there, and all of his disciples, and all of their friends, and we want to make sure that we make a good impression.
SPEAKER_02: So she's really distracted with all of this serving, and she's so distracted that she doesn't hear Jesus like Mary did.
SPEAKER_02: She's getting ready to host everyone, she wants the service to be perfect, and it distracted her from hearing him.
SPEAKER_02: See, this is this is the call to hear, even there's three times during the life of Jesus that the audible voice of the Father is heard over him.
SPEAKER_02: Three times.
SPEAKER_02: And only one of those times does he give an instruction to those around that are hearing.
SPEAKER_02: The first time is Jesus' baptism, right?
SPEAKER_02: And this voice, the dove descends from heaven, the Holy Spirit, and remains on him, and this voice says, This is my beloved Son, with whom I'm well pleased.
SPEAKER_02: And the third time that the voice speaks, it's when Jesus is saying, Glorify your name, and the Father says, I have glorified my name and I will glorify it.
SPEAKER_02: He says that audible, and it says that his voice thundered.
SPEAKER_02: The people that heard him heard a voice thundering.
SPEAKER_02: But the second time is on the Mount of Transfiguration in Luke chapter 9, verse 29, if you're taking notes.
SPEAKER_02: Luke chapter 9, verse 29, as Jesus prayed, the appearance of his face was altered.
SPEAKER_02: This is on the Mount of Transfiguration.
SPEAKER_02: So he's with Peter, James, and John, and his robe became white and glistening.
SPEAKER_02: Then all of a sudden, you know, Moses and Eliza show up and he's talking to them, and Peter's like, Whoa! And he starts running his mouth like he normally does.
SPEAKER_02: He's like, hey, let me build these three structures for you.
SPEAKER_02: And then the voice of the Father interrupts him.
SPEAKER_02: It says, A cloud came and overshadowed them, and they were fearful as they entered the cloud, and a voice came out of the cloud saying, This is my beloved son.
SPEAKER_02: Hear him.
SPEAKER_02: See, one time in the Gospels, in the life of Christ, we hear the audible voice of the Father give an instruction to those around him, and it's two words, hear him.
SPEAKER_02: There's a call to hear this morning.
SPEAKER_02: He could have said any two-word instruction, two-word command.
SPEAKER_02: He could have said, This is my beloved son, love him.
SPEAKER_02: He could have said, This is my beloved son, follow him.
SPEAKER_02: He could have said, This is my beloved son, serve him.
SPEAKER_02: But he says, This is my beloved son, hear him.
SPEAKER_02: He wanted them to hear him.
SPEAKER_02: There's one audible command given by the Father in the Gospels.
SPEAKER_02: It is hear him.
SPEAKER_02: Jesus said to Martha, there's one thing needed.
SPEAKER_02: It is to hear his word.
SPEAKER_02: It's what Mary chose that was the good part.
SPEAKER_02: Jesus only talks about this one thing, one time.
SPEAKER_02: So there can only be one thing that is the one thing, and that one thing is hearing his word.
SPEAKER_02: This is what was so special to Jesus about Mary's heart posture.
SPEAKER_02: She was sitting before him to hear him.
SPEAKER_02: That's what her goal was to hear him.
SPEAKER_02: Her goal wasn't to convince him of anything.
SPEAKER_02: Her goal wasn't to do anything for him.
SPEAKER_02: Her goal wasn't to be onward Christian soldiers for him.
SPEAKER_02: Her goal was to hear him.
SPEAKER_02: And there's another one thing in the scripture.
SPEAKER_02: It's Psalm 27, verse 4.
SPEAKER_02: And this is where David says his one thing, and I want to argue that it's the same one thing that was Mary's one thing.
SPEAKER_02: Psalm 27, verse 4.
SPEAKER_02: One thing, everyone say one thing.
SPEAKER_02: You guys are such good sports.
SPEAKER_02: I have desired of the Lord, that will I seek, that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life to behold the beauty of the Lord and to inquire in his temple.
SPEAKER_02: See, David's one desired thing was the same as Mary's one needful thing that Jesus declared was the only thing needed, except here, instead of it saying hearing, it says beholding.
SPEAKER_02: So you're like, well, what gives, Josh?
SPEAKER_02: I thought you said the one thing could only be one thing, and now you're saying it's two things.
SPEAKER_02: It's one heart posture.
SPEAKER_02: The one needful thing is a heart posture where the eyes of our hearts are directed toward Jesus, and the ears of our hearts are hearing his word.
SPEAKER_02: See, Jesus is the word of God.
SPEAKER_02: Amen?
SPEAKER_02: Right?
SPEAKER_02: John 1 says, in the beginning was the Word, the Word was with God, the Word was God.
SPEAKER_02: The same was in the beginning with God.
SPEAKER_02: All things were made by Him.
SPEAKER_02: Nothing that has been made was made apart from Him.
SPEAKER_02: And then in verse 14 of John chapter 1, it says, The Word became flesh and dwelt among us.
SPEAKER_02: Who was the Word?
SPEAKER_02: Jesus.
SPEAKER_02: Right?
SPEAKER_02: And it says, We beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth.
SPEAKER_02: See, he's referred to as the Word of God.
SPEAKER_02: In multiple places, John 1's the most famous.
SPEAKER_02: He's referred to as the wisdom of God.
SPEAKER_02: He's referred to as the light of God.
SPEAKER_02: He's referred to as the image of God.
SPEAKER_02: And these are all the same thing because what he is, what Jesus is, who he is, is God spoken.
SPEAKER_02: He's the word of God.
SPEAKER_02: Which means that even if he's not speaking, you're hearing the word of God when you look at him.
SPEAKER_02: Right?
SPEAKER_02: How do we rightly posture our hearts to a word or to wisdom?
SPEAKER_02: We listen to it, right?
SPEAKER_02: We hear words, we hear wisdom.
SPEAKER_02: How do we rightly posture our hearts to light or to an image?
SPEAKER_02: We see, we behold an image.
SPEAKER_02: We gaze on an image.
unknown: Right?
SPEAKER_02: Like all those paintings in the Louvre in Paris, France.
SPEAKER_02: You sit there and you look at the painting, and a picture is worth a thousand words, right?
SPEAKER_02: So as we look at Jesus, it doesn't matter if he's speaking or not, we are hearing God's word.
SPEAKER_02: See, beholding is hearing.
SPEAKER_02: And listening is gazing.
SPEAKER_02: And the one needful thing is to see and hear him, the word of God.
SPEAKER_02: So we have to respond to this call somehow.
SPEAKER_02: We want to look, but we want to look to see.
SPEAKER_02: And we want to listen, but we want to listen to hear.
SPEAKER_02: See, ten separate times in Scripture, Jesus asks the question, have you not read?
SPEAKER_02: And he's referring to some passage in the Torah, and he's saying, Have you not read about David who ate on the Sabbath and these different stories?
SPEAKER_02: And he's talking to people that have definitely read it.
SPEAKER_02: He's talking to Pharisees, he's talking to Jews who they read the whole Torah in a year.
SPEAKER_02: It's part of what they do.
SPEAKER_02: You know, they really do read Scripture a lot.
SPEAKER_02: And yet he still asks them ten separate times in the Gospels, have you not read?
SPEAKER_02: So what causes us to look but not see, to listen but not hear?
SPEAKER_02: Even in John 5, 39, he said to the Pharisees, You search the scriptures, for in them you think you have eternal life.
SPEAKER_02: And these are they which testify of me, but you are not willing to come to me so that you may have life.
SPEAKER_02: You're not coming to me and you're reading.
SPEAKER_02: See, this is definitely the word of God.
SPEAKER_02: Right?
SPEAKER_02: We read the scripture because he wrote the scripture, but it's more than a book to read.
SPEAKER_02: It's supposed to be a window that we look through to see the beauty and the glory of Jesus.
SPEAKER_02: See, this written word is supposed to give us a glimpse to the living word who is the person of Jesus.
SPEAKER_02: He is God spoken.
SPEAKER_02: The word of God.
SPEAKER_02: So what causes us to look but not see?
SPEAKER_02: What causes us to listen but not hear?
SPEAKER_02: What causes us to read scriptures but completely miss his word?
SPEAKER_02: Well, for Martha, what got in her way was her ministry.
SPEAKER_02: See, it says that she was busy with much serving.
SPEAKER_02: Right?
SPEAKER_02: In Luke 10, 40, Martha was distracted with much serving.
SPEAKER_02: That word serving is the Greek word diaconia, which is where we get the word deacon from, and it's the same Greek word for the word ministry.
SPEAKER_02: Like if you're doing the work of ministry, it's the same word used here that she was doing.
SPEAKER_02: So she was doing ministry.
SPEAKER_02: She wasn't doing bad things, she was doing good things.
SPEAKER_02: And that was the distraction from her being able to hear Jesus like her sister did.
SPEAKER_02: What's even more interesting is in verse 38 it says that a certain woman named Martha welcomed him into her house.
SPEAKER_02: She was the one that invited Jesus in.
SPEAKER_02: I mean, it seems like she's doing all the right stuff, right?
SPEAKER_02: She invited Jesus in.
SPEAKER_02: How often do we have our Bible studies or our church services or our prayer meetings, and we invite Jesus in, but then he sits in the corner and we forget to hear him.
SPEAKER_02: We forget to listen.
SPEAKER_02: We forget to behold him, like David.
SPEAKER_02: So what causes us to look but not to see, to listen but not to hear?
SPEAKER_02: For John the Baptist, what got in his way was a jail cell.
SPEAKER_02: It was a spirit of offense.
SPEAKER_02: See, this is the guy who leapt in his mother's womb as a fetus because he knew Jesus was the Messiah.
SPEAKER_02: There was no doubt in his mind, but if we look here in Matthew 11, starting in verse 2, it says, When John had heard in prison, so he's in prison, about the works of Christ, he sent two of his disciples and said to Jesus, Are you the coming one, or do we look for another?
SPEAKER_02: Dude, you knew he was the coming one in the womb.
SPEAKER_02: And now he's shaken in his faith.
SPEAKER_02: He's not sure.
SPEAKER_02: Because this jail cell has is a jail cell of offense around him.
SPEAKER_02: And the reason I know that is Jesus' response.
SPEAKER_02: He gives him the key to unlock the prison of offense in his heart.
SPEAKER_02: And he says in verse 4 Jesus answered and said to them, Go and tell John the things which you hear and see.
SPEAKER_02: Things that you hear and see, blind men see, crippled stand to their feet, the deaf men hear, the dead are raised, the poor receive good news, and blessed are those who are not offended in me, he says to John the Baptist's disciples.
SPEAKER_02: See, he gives them the key to unlocking the prison of offense that John the Baptist was living in.
SPEAKER_02: His preferred outcome was not happening.
SPEAKER_02: He's thinking, well, this is the word of God, the Lamb of God who comes to take the sins of the world away.
SPEAKER_02: He's got his winnowing fork in his hand, he's gonna cast the chaff into fire.
SPEAKER_02: He's expecting this conquering king to come, and now he's in prison, and he's like, Well, what gives?
SPEAKER_02: And Jesus redirects his attention from the jail cell to what he can see Jesus doing and hear Jesus saying, which was miraculous.
SPEAKER_02: See, when we look at Jesus, it can set us free whether we're in a jail cell or not.
SPEAKER_02: So what caused us to look and not see and listen to not hear?
SPEAKER_02: Well, for the disciples, it was very similar.
SPEAKER_02: It was their preferred future.
SPEAKER_02: It was a spirit of unbelief.
SPEAKER_02: See, how many times did Jesus try to tell them that he was going to die and they could not hear him because it wasn't their preferred future?
SPEAKER_02: Right?
SPEAKER_02: He tells Peter, I'm gonna die, and Peter says, May it never be, Lord.
SPEAKER_02: And what does Jesus say to Peter?
SPEAKER_02: He says, Get behind me, Satan.
SPEAKER_02: And he still didn't hear him.
SPEAKER_02: They still could not hear that Jesus was trying to tell them, I'm gonna go suffer and die.
SPEAKER_02: He told them on many occasions.
SPEAKER_02: Here's one in Luke chapter 9, verse 43.
SPEAKER_02: They were all amazed at the majesty of God.
SPEAKER_02: He's doing all these miracles.
SPEAKER_02: While everyone marveled at all the things which Jesus did, he pulls his disciples aside and he says, Let these words sink down into your ears.
SPEAKER_02: Okay, so whatever he's gonna say next is really important.
SPEAKER_02: Like if God said to you, Let these words sink down into your ears.
SPEAKER_02: You'd listen.
SPEAKER_02: And then he says, For the Son of Man is about to be betrayed into the hands of men.
SPEAKER_02: Verse 45 But they did not understand this saying, and it was hidden from them so that they did not perceive it, and they were afraid to ask him about this saying.
SPEAKER_02: This was just one of many times he tried to tell them.
SPEAKER_02: But their preferred outcome was a spirit of unbelief that shielded their ears from actually hearing him.
SPEAKER_02: His best friends, his closest allies, the guys that he ran with, the guys that were with him day in and day out.
SPEAKER_02: I mean, three of them were on the Mount of Transfiguration and they heard the father say, Hear him.
SPEAKER_02: And they still didn't hear him.
SPEAKER_02: But it's because they wanted a conquering king.
SPEAKER_02: They didn't want a dying lamb, they wanted the lion.
SPEAKER_02: They wanted him to overthrow the Roman Empire and set up his throne in Jerusalem.
SPEAKER_02: Because they're thinking, well, that's what the Isaiah passage says.
SPEAKER_02: You know, the increase of peace in his government, there will be no end.
SPEAKER_02: He's gonna smash the nations like with a rod of iron, like pottery shards.
SPEAKER_02: But he's trying to tell them, not yet, I'm gonna die.
SPEAKER_02: They're gonna torture me and then they're gonna kill me.
SPEAKER_02: And they could not hear it.
SPEAKER_02: Only one of his friends heard him.
SPEAKER_02: Of everyone that he walked with, only one person heard him.
SPEAKER_02: So now take that spot where you were bookmarking with your index finger, and we're gonna go over to Mark 14, starting in verse 3.
SPEAKER_02: And being in Bethany at the house of Simon the leper, so we're back at Mary and Martha's hometown.
SPEAKER_02: Simon the leper, he's not a leper anymore.
SPEAKER_02: He probably got healed, but he's still called Simon the Leper.
SPEAKER_02: And Jesus sat at the table, and a woman came.
SPEAKER_02: We know from other passages, parallel passages, that this is Mary of Bethany, that is this woman.
SPEAKER_02: A woman came having an alabaster flask of very costly oil of Spike Nard.
SPEAKER_02: Then she broke the flask and poured it on his head.
SPEAKER_02: Verse 4.
SPEAKER_02: But there were some who were indignant among themselves.
SPEAKER_02: Indignant means that they were so mad that their nostrils were flaring and their face was wet.
SPEAKER_02: Wed?
SPEAKER_02: Their face was red.
SPEAKER_02: And they were really breathing heavy, and they're like, so mad at her.
SPEAKER_02: They were indignant, and they said, Why was this fragrant oil wasted?
SPEAKER_02: Verse 5.
SPEAKER_02: For it might have been sold for more than 300 denarii, which is the equivalent of like forty to sixty thousand dollars today.
SPEAKER_02: One denari was a day's wages, so three hundred denarii was like a year's salary.
SPEAKER_02: It could have been sold for more than a year's salary and given to the poor, and they criticized her sharply.
SPEAKER_02: That criticized sharply means like they were yelling at her.
SPEAKER_02: This 15, 16-year-old girl, Mary of Bethany.
SPEAKER_02: But Jesus said, Let her alone.
SPEAKER_02: Why do you trouble her?
SPEAKER_02: She has done a good work for me, for you will have the poor with you always, and wherever you wish, you may do good to them, but me you do not always have.
SPEAKER_02: She has done what she could.
SPEAKER_02: She has come beforehand to anoint my body for burial.
SPEAKER_02: Assuredly, I say to you, wherever this gospel is preached in the whole world, what this woman has done will also be told as a memorial to her.
SPEAKER_02: Let's talk about this alabaster vial.
SPEAKER_02: It's full of spike nard.
SPEAKER_02: It's probably 16, 18 ounces.
SPEAKER_02: This is about twelve ounces.
SPEAKER_02: So think more oil than this, more perfume than this.
SPEAKER_02: And it's in an alabaster jar, which is like a type of soft marble.
SPEAKER_02: And it doesn't say that she opened it and poured a little bit on his head.
SPEAKER_02: It says that she broke it and poured it on his head.
SPEAKER_02: So we're talking like 16, 18 ounces of oil, spike nard, perfume, strong stuff, worth$40,000 to$60,000 that she wastes on Jesus.
SPEAKER_02: And one passage says that she anoints his head, another passage says that she anoints his feet and wipes his feet with her hair.
SPEAKER_02: That's because it's so much oil, it goes from his head all the way down.
SPEAKER_02: It's everywhere, folks.
SPEAKER_02: She ruined the carpet.
SPEAKER_02: It's a big mess.
SPEAKER_02: She wasted it on him.
SPEAKER_02: And this probably was her dowry.
SPEAKER_02: You know, this was probably what she was inheriting and supposed to be giving to her husband when she would be married.
SPEAKER_02: Or maybe her dowry was the money amount, and she bought this alabaster jar with that money for the purpose of wasting it on Jesus.
SPEAKER_02: And what she's doing, she takes this$50,000 marble flask, breaks it, anoints it.
SPEAKER_02: She's got her hair, she's falling at his feet, and she's rubbing it on his feet and all over his body.
SPEAKER_02: And what she's saying is, my future is not in this man that I might someday marry.
SPEAKER_02: You are my future, Jesus.
SPEAKER_02: She gave up her preferred future.
SPEAKER_02: She gave up any hope of securing a wealthy husband with a good dowry, and she wastes her dowry.
SPEAKER_02: She wastes her future on the head and feet of Jesus because she's aligning herself with his future.
SPEAKER_02: Right?
SPEAKER_02: Catch me up in your story all my life for your glory.
SPEAKER_02: She's giving up her story and grabbing onto his story.
SPEAKER_02: She wasted at his feet.
SPEAKER_02: See, we don't know for sure that what Jesus said to Mary six months ago during the Feast of Tabernacles, where Martha was distracted with her ministry and Mary was sitting at his feet and hearing him.
SPEAKER_02: We're not positive what Jesus said to her, but I would like to suggest to you that what he said is, I'm going to suffer and die.
SPEAKER_02: And the reason I say that is because he says in this passage that she's anointed him beforehand for burial, which infers that she knew he was going to die, and she was the only one who did.
SPEAKER_02: And in a parallel passage it says, She has kept this for my burial, which means it was premeditated, folks.
SPEAKER_02: She didn't do this a spur-of-the-moment thing.
SPEAKER_02: She didn't just, out of nowhere, the Holy Spirit tells her, Go get that alabaster jar and break it over him.
SPEAKER_02: No, she was thinking about this for months.
SPEAKER_02: This was premeditated extravagance.
SPEAKER_02: For months, she's thinking about what Jesus said to her as she's sitting in this makeshift booth during the Feast of Tabernacles, where it's just her and Jesus, and she's sitting at his feet and listening to his word, and he's saying, I'm gonna suffer and die.
SPEAKER_02: And she was the only one who believed him.
SPEAKER_02: She was the only one who truly heard him and was part of his future instead of her own future, his story instead of her preferred outcome.
SPEAKER_02: And she thinks about this for months, treasuring it in her heart.
SPEAKER_02: Several weeks before she breaks open the alabaster jar, he raises her brother from the dead, and she's secure, she's set.
SPEAKER_02: This is the last straw.
SPEAKER_02: I'm gonna give it all to him.
SPEAKER_02: She planned it out.
SPEAKER_02: She thought, this might be my last chance.
SPEAKER_02: She doesn't know when he's gonna die for sure, but she doesn't know how much time she has.
SPEAKER_02: And he's in this dinner party at Simon the Leper's house, and she busts in the door.
SPEAKER_02: Women aren't supposed to be in there.
SPEAKER_02: Martha was serving, and Mary breaks in, pushes through the crowd of people, gets it to Jesus, breaks, anoints, wastes, weeps, wipes his feet with her hair.
SPEAKER_02: See, I want to tell you that Mary's extravagant offering was the fruit of extravagant hearing.
SPEAKER_02: She heard him extravagantly, and to Jesus, this was no surprise.
SPEAKER_02: See, Jesus, the pre-incarnate word of God, is used to this type of extravagance.
SPEAKER_02: Every time he walks in the room, four living creatures cry out, holy, holy, holy, with all their might, and they cover their eyes because of his majesty.
SPEAKER_02: He's used to extravagance.
SPEAKER_02: In heaven, extravagance is normal and logical.
SPEAKER_02: There's no one that's rebuking the four living creatures for crying out, holy, holy, holy.
SPEAKER_02: No one's yelling at the 24 elders for taking their billion-dollar crowns off their head and smashing them on the floor every time Jesus walks in the room.
SPEAKER_02: It's normal and logical to give everything when you see and behold Him as the Word of God.
SPEAKER_02: It's good and right to waste your future at the feet of Him who's worth it all.
SPEAKER_02: Breaking this flask over Jesus, this house fills with fragrance.
SPEAKER_02: Mary's alabaster fragrance, the fragrance of her love for him.
SPEAKER_02: And both Jesus and Mary are then covered in the testimony of how precious he was to her.
SPEAKER_02: See, a bunch of people were in the house, but only two of them left smelling like worship.
SPEAKER_02: Jesus and Mary.
SPEAKER_02: They both smelled like her love for him.
SPEAKER_02: They both smelled like Spike Nard.
SPEAKER_02: And what we know about Spike nard is this is such a strong perfume.
SPEAKER_02: And the sheer mass, 18 ounces, 16 ounces of oil poured over Jesus, means that this scent would have lingered through the rest of Passion Week.
SPEAKER_02: And while he's praying in the Garden of Gethsemane, he's smelling her love for him.
SPEAKER_02: And while he's going to the cross and while he's being crucified, the fragrance of her love is ascending into his nostrils.
SPEAKER_02: If you're moved by what I've spoken, or you want to, I want to encourage you to ask the Lord.
SPEAKER_02: Ask Jesus.
SPEAKER_02: Is there something that you want me to waste on you today?
SPEAKER_02: Is there something that you want me to ruin for you today?
SPEAKER_02: Is there something about my future that you want me to surrender and give up and say, You are my future, and grab hold of his story.
SPEAKER_02: Ask him, is there an alabaster jar that I have that I can break at your feet today?
SPEAKER_00: Thank you for listening to the Forn for War podcast.
SPEAKER_00: We hope today's message has empowered you to make a difference in your world.
SPEAKER_00: To connect with Pastor Steve's sermons, books, and blog, visit Steve Holtonline.org.
SPEAKER_00: God bless.