John 12:1-26
Then Jesus six days before the passover came to Bethany, where Lazarus
was which had been dead, whom he raised from the dead. There they made him a supper; and Martha
served: but Lazarus was one of them that sat at the table
with him. Then took Mary a pound of ointment of
spikenard, very costly, and anointed the feet of Jesus,
and wiped his feet with her hair: and the house was filled
with the odour of the ointment. Then saith one of the disciples, Judas
Iscariot, Simon’s son,
which should betray him, Why was not this ointment sold
for three hundred pence, and given to the poor? This
he said, not that he cared for the poor; but because he
was a thief, and had the bag, and bare what was put therein. Then
said Jesus, Let her alone: against the day of my burying
hath she kept this. For the poor always ye have with you;
but me ye have not always. Much
people of the Jews therefore knew that he was there: and
they came not for Jesus’ sake only, but that they
might see Lazarus also, whom he had raised from the dead. But the chief priests consulted that they
might put Lazarus also to death: because that by reason
of him many of the Jews went away, and believed on Jesus. On
the next day much people that were come to the feast, when
they heard that Jesus was coming to Jerusalem, took branches
of palm trees, and went forth to meet him, and cried, Hosanna:
Blessed is the
King of Israel that cometh in the name of the Lord. And Jesus, when he had found a young ass,
sat thereon; as it is written, Fear not, daughter of Sion:
behold, thy King cometh, sitting on an ass’s colt. These
things understood not his disciples at first: but when
Jesus was glorified, then remembered they that these things
were written of him, and that they had done these things unto him. The people therefore that was with him
when he called Lazarus out of the grave, and raised him
from the dead, bare record. For
this cause the people also met him, for that they heard
that he had done this miracle. The Pharisees therefore said among themselves,
Perceive ye how ye prevail nothing? behold, the world is
gone after him. And
there were certain Greeks among them that came up to worship
at the feast: the same came therefore to Philip, which
was of Bethsaida of Galilee, and desired him, saying, Sir,
we would see Jesus. Philip
cometh and telleth Andrew: and again Andrew and Philip
tell Jesus. And
Jesus answered them, saying, The hour is come, that the
Son of man should be glorified. Verily,
verily, I say unto you, Except a corn of wheat fall into
the ground and die, it abideth alone: but if it die, it
bringeth forth much fruit. He that loveth his life shall lose it;
and he that hateth his life in this world shall keep it
unto life eternal. If any man serve me, let him follow me;
and where I am, there shall also my servant be: if any
man serve me, him will my Father honour.”
“Good
morning. I guess some of the ladies are fired up
this morning, having been at the women’s retreat, for
those who have made it back or have come back anyway, I guess
it’s still going on. I know my wife was encouraged. And I know I have a greater appreciation
for my wife, [laughter]
having the three little bambino’s for a day and a few
extra hours, it was quite a treat for me. And
so I’m glad she’s back. Praise the Lord [laughter]. And there’s a men’s retreat
in just a couple weeks from now, keep it in prayer. Opportunity
for you too, to set aside some of your time and be encouraged
in the Word and through fellowship. You
won’t regret it if you’re able to be part of
it. Let’s say a word of prayer, and
we are going to pick up our study in John chapter 12. ‘Lord,
we thank you for this opportunity to study your Word this
morning. I thank
you Lord, there’s so much, we could take a verse at
a time, and spend a lot of time on each verse, your Word
is full of so many truths, so many things that we can feed
upon. And even as we go through this chapter,
we’d ask that you’d open our eyes to what is
here, and our hearts to what’s here, and you’d
nourish our souls Lord. And
I also do pray for anybody that might be present without
Christ in their heart, maybe some are here and they’re
not born-again, and I pray that before they’d leave
they would know what it means to be born-again and have Christ
in their heart as Lord and Savior. We
thank you for this time, and we ask Holy Spirit that you’d
be upon all of us, and even upon myself now as we go through
your Word, in Jesus name, Amen.’
So
we are in John chapter 12, that’s where we pick up
from last week. You know, just recently, a little over
a week ago, we were outside doing our family fest, just really
neat what the Lord brought together, a great time as we sought
to be a light to the community on that night. Even
had up our sign, I don’t know if we still do, I didn’t
look this morning. But you know, the “Jesus Loves [this town]” banner there on the second
floor windows. And
then to discover, some of us did, that we’re reading
in the paper, that just a short distance from our building,
the same time, the same night, a place called Nightline,
a business, is having a séance. So
I was just thinking about that contrast, you know, we’re
here shining the Light, seeking to shine the Light, and there’s
this business just a few, well, seven-hundred yards away
that’s trying to make contact with darkness, and we’re
trying to shine the Light, just a contrast between the two
entities, and yet so close together. We
were trying to encourage communication with the Savior, and
evidently they were trying to seek to communicate with a
dead escapist, Houdini, his brother, or something like that. But
just the contrast between the two. And
that is the reality, indeed, of the world we live in, lots
of contrast that we can see. And as we even look at this chapter 12
here in the Gospel of John, we’ll see that there is
indeed a lot of contrast even in this chapter, of different
extremes and things, many pictures and sketches that help
depict that difference between Light and Darkness. So in order to organize this passage as
we go through it this morning, I’ve laid out a simple
outline, highlighting some of the contrasts that we’re
going to look at. The
first contrast is “Love verses lust”. The second is “Generosity verses
greed.” And then thirdly, “Presentation
verses persecution.” And
then, “Exaltation verses envy”, and “Mortification
verses multiplication”, and then sixthly, the last
one, “Humiliation verses honor.” And
that’s basically our outline here for the first 26
verses.
Let’s
look at verses 1-3, “Then
six days before the passover Jesus came to Bethany, where
Lazarus was, who had been dead, whom he had raised from the
dead. There they
made him a supper, and Martha served, but Lazarus was one
of those who sat at the table with him. Then
Mary took a pound of very costly oil of spikenard, anointed
the feet of Jesus, and wiped his feet with her hair. And the house was filled with the fragrance
of the oil.” Just
a beautiful picture, isn’t it, there in this house
in Bethany. We’re now within a week, it says
six days, within a week of when Jesus is crucified. It’s
nearing the time of Passover, and multitudes upon multitudes,
millions of people in totality, are making their way to Jerusalem
to partake in this sacred feast of the Passover. Now
if you remember from our study in chapter 11, in the last
few weeks Jesus actually withdrew himself, went to this area
of Ephraim, but he withdrew himself because of just the clear
persecution, and just to stay away from the religious leaders. He
understood that they indeed wanted to take his life. So
he withdrew for just a season to Ephraim, knowing too that
his time to go to the cross wasn’t far away also. But
now understanding that the time is near for the Passover,
he comes to Jerusalem, stops on the way to Jerusalem, at
this place of Bethany where Mary, Martha and Lazarus have
their home. So,
if you remember too, from our last study, was a month or
so ago, that Lazarus had been sick, had gotten pretty sick,
in fact, he even died, as we studied that in chapter 11. And
then he was placed in the tomb. But
incredibly, in just an amazing way, as a witness before many
people, Jesus came to Bethany, and miraculously raised Lazarus
from the dead. And
in verses 43 and 44 of the last chapter, Lazarus walked out
of the tomb there, all wrapped in his tomb clothes. He
had been in the tomb, dead, for four days. Well, as John has been demonstrating for
us, as we go through this Gospel, he’s been making
it very clear to us, proving that Jesus is indeed the Messiah,
the Son of God. As the Prophets had predicted centuries
before,
“By the hand of the Messiah, the blind would receive
their sight, the lame would walk again, the lepers would
be cleansed, the deaf would hear, the dead would be raised,
and the poor would have the Gospel preached to them”,
all of which Jesus has done, and we even saw that last chapter,
where he’s raised the dead [and the chapter before
that, where he healed a man born blind from birth]. Now
it appears while he’s in Bethany, the NIV notes this,
that these friends of Jesus have this dinner in honor of
Jesus. It doesn’t
necessarily say that explicitly, but it does appear that
way. And this scene in this home at Bethany,
as you paint this picture, man, it’s in startling contrast
with the scenes that are soon going to follow, in the following
chapters. This is such a beautiful serene picture,
but what follows from here is so ugly indeed. This
home is filled with the fragrance of joy, with love, and
worship, and fellowship and communion. I
think of a thriving home-fellowship, and that’s what
this home is like, as opposed to the darkness that’s
going to come in just a few chapters, in just a couple days
[six to be exact], days that are filled with anger and wrath
and pain and separation, and the stench of death. But
anyway here, this beautiful picture, we have the followers
of Jesus expressing their sincere love for him. Gathered
around the table is Lazarus, as it’s told there, of
course he has this tremendous testimony of what Jesus can
do in a person’s life. And I would just think, because they’re
gathered around the table, we don’t have any of his
words in the Gospels, but I would just imagine there’s
a lot of expressions of praise and thanksgiving as he’s
with Jesus and the others are there. I
mean, this man was dead just a little while ago, and he’s
alive, he was physically dead before. So
you could only imagine some of the things that he’s
saying to Jesus. I can certainly picture it in my mind. And then we have this other friend of
Jesus, Martha, she’s a doer, so she’s doing,
right, serving the Lord. But it’s different, in Luke you
remember, she was complaining as she was doing, and Mary
was sitting at the feet of Jesus. But
this time there’s no complaining, there’s no
murmuring, and I would imagine there’s some singing
and humming as she works, she’s enjoying what she’s
doing, and what she’s doing is really a beautiful service
to the Lord also. And
then we have Mary. Mary
is again at the feet of Jesus, and it’s just a beautiful
picture, where she worships and adores her Lord, that’s
for sure. We’re
told that she takes some of this costly oil, this spikenard
perfume, there’s a pound of it, and at that time that
would be 12 ounces, so there’s a pound of it. That’s
a lot of this oil of spikenard, this perfume. Essentially,
it’s so costly that it costs about a years wage to
purchase what she has. So you take the average wage today, what
is it, $30,000, I don’t know, that’s what she’s
got for perfume here in this bottle, just to bring you into
the year 2002 and understand what’s going on here. She’s
got some real expensive perfume in her hand. And
what does she do with it? She
begins to douse Jesus with it. His
feet, but we know also from the Gospels, the other Gospels,
also his head, just begins to anoint him with it, and just
worship him with it. But
then, in a way, it’s actually very beautiful, although
there’s some misunderstanding with what she does. In
her time it would be considered an immodest act to do this,
but she drops her hair, and begins to wipe his feet with
her hair. But really it’s an act of worship. I mean, she’s taking her glory,
remember Paul’s letter, 1st Corinthians,
he talks about the glory of a woman being her hair covering
her head. And
she takes that glory and lays it at the feet of Jesus, and
she douses him with the perfume, and then begins to take
her very hair and wipe his feet with her hair, just a beautiful
picture. And
we’re told, I like that point that John puts in there, “The house was filled with the fragrance.” I mean, the perfume, there’s
a beautiful spiritual aroma coming out of what’s going
on here too, and it’s filling the throne-room of heaven
I’m sure, but there’s also this physical perfume
filling the house. I
mean, what a picture of joy, worship,
sweetness, and love. Again, what a contrast with what comes
later, just a few days from now. But
she’s just worshipping her Lord. So
we have people loving Jesus, we have people serving Jesus,
we have people worshipping Jesus. But
even in this same home, as we just read on a few more verses,
there’s yet a contrast between light and darkness,
a contrast between what some have as a religious outward
expression and appearance, and what we see here with these
friends of Jesus, this true religion of heart, this true
relationship of intimacy with God.
1. Love verses lust
Lets read from verses 4-8, “But one of his disciples, Judas Iscariot, Simon’s son, who
would betray him, said, ‘Why was this fragrant oil
not sold for 300 dinari and given to the poor?’ This
he said, not that he cared for the poor, but because he
was a thief, and had the moneybox, and he used to take
what was put in it. But
Jesus said, ‘Let her alone, she has kept this for
the day of my burial. For the poor you have with you always,
but me you do not have always.’” Well,
again this contrast, the contrast is provided by Judas. His heart stands in dark contrast, stark
contrast with that of Lazarus, and Mary and Martha. If you compare Mary and Judas, the first
contrast I’ll note in my outline is (1) “Love
verses lust”, looking at Mary and looking at Judas
here. Now Mary,
just a few weeks ago had her brother raised from the dead. Prior to that she was a woman who loved
God indeed, we see her worshipping the Lord at other times. And she had this great love for Jesus. But I can only imagine, at this time she
has even a greater passion, appreciation for him. She
was at such a traumatic time just a few weeks ago. Her brother had died, probably the darkest
hour in her life to this point, a very difficult time. And then Jesus came, and completely changed
the scene from one of trauma to one of incredible joy and
excitement. He actually raised her brother from the
dead. And I know when God works in my life,
there’s a response, I mean, that’s the truth. God
works in our lives, and we just respond. The
response must have been all the more just love. I think partly what she’s doing
here, is showing such a love for Christ. She’s
had a love, but even more now. Look
what he’s done in her life. Look at the way he loves
her and has blessed her. No doubt, her heart has been moved with
a lot of adoration for her Savior. So
we see in her, in a most wonderful glorious and extravagant
manner, her expressing her incredible love for Jesus. I
would think, no doubt, somebody could say she’s a
bit of a fanatic. I mean, it’s fanatical what she’s
doing. I mean, $30,000 worth of perfume, putting
it on Jesus’ feet, $30,000 worth of perfume, putting
it on his head. I mean, this lady’s fanatical, that’s
for sure. She’s
a fanatic. But I have to agree with one author’s
words, and that is the word “restraint” and
the word “moderation” should not describe our
heart and our worship of our Lord. Those
words shouldn’t go with worship, “restraint
and moderation,” those words shouldn’t go with
our love for God, that’s for sure. I’d rather be a fanatic than be
somebody that moderately loves God. I’d
rather be a fanatic than be somebody that has restraint
in my heart-worship towards God. This
lady’s a fanatic. I think we have a beautiful picture of
what God likes to see in us too. Now
I’m not speaking of being a fanatic in an idiotic
manner, but a fanatic in a sense of being extravagantly
in love with our Lord, and realizing that nothing is too
good for him, man. Be
extravagant in our giving of our time, giving of our finances,
giving of our resources, giving of our lives, because he’s
worth it, man. We
just give it all to him. That
type of extravagant giving, that type of a fanaticism,
that’s a good thing, that’s a beautiful thing,
and that’s what we see here. But contrasted against her heartfelt love
is the consuming lust of Judas, man. This
guy’s consumed with a completely different attitude. Seeing her pour out such an expensive
oil, he begins to speak up and complain. Of
course we shouldn’t be surprised, that’s frequently
what happens when there’s somebody who really has
a beautiful worship of God, even what might be seen as
a fanatical worship of God. There’s
often a judgment and a criticism that follows when somebody
gives their best to God. They’re
often criticized for it. You
can remember David, remember in 2nd Samuel chapter
6, he was out there giving his best to the Lord as he worshipped
God. He was
so in love with him, man, he stripped off his robe and
he just paraded there in front of the Ark, just praising
God [and dancing up a storm]. But then there was his wife, Michal, right,
waiting for him. And
what did she say? “How glorious was the king of Israel
today, uncovering himself today in the eyes of maids of
his servants, one of the base fellows shamelessly uncovering
himself.” He
was worshipping God, and there were some criticisms soon
waiting when he got home, from his own wife, criticizing
him for his fanaticism. Well like Michal, Judas doesn’t
understand this wonderful expression of worship. Rather
he sees it as foolish act of waste. And with a seemingly religious pious attitude
he begins to express his concern that this oil was not
instead sold and the money given to the poor. Certainly
a seemingly spiritual man, no doubt. Right? ‘Oh,
man, what a waste. We
should have just sold this. Look
at all the people we could have fed.’ But
I thank God that Jesus sees through the hypocrisy. God
sees the heart. Jesus
knows and understands what really is bothering Judas, and
it’s not concern for the poor, man, it’s concern
for his own wallet. He’s
really the poor beggar that’s desperate for money. He’s
the guy that’s really the poor one in this picture. He, we’re told, was in charge of
the money, and we’re told at certain times he’d
skim off, given the right opportunity he’d skim off
some of the profits for himself. He’d
use it for whatever, we don’t know. But
he’s been taking money from the moneybox. He’d make a real good executive
for an Enron or one of these companies, you know. But
he knew how to take money and at least try to hide it. Nobody knows what’s going on, but
he’s been taking some of the money for his own self. And
it’s true, though, he comes across as very religious. And it’s true, there are people
that are often driven by selfish ambition and other carnal
motives. But in front of other men, they come off
as very spiritual, very pious. And
at times they even fool other people, and that’s
what happens here with Judas. He doesn’t fool Jesus, but he does
fool the other disciples, because in the other Gospels
that note the same story, Matthew chapter 26, verse 8,
we’re told that more than Judas spoke up. And I’ll quote to you the verse. “When his disciples saw it, they
were indignant, saying, ‘Why this waste?’” So
Judas and a few other disciples, he influenced some others,
and he came off as pious and religious, and he influenced
them, and they just responded ‘Why the waste? Why the waste? We need to feed the poor here.’ But Jesus sees through this religious
hypocritical pious attitude, this outward form of religion,
this form of religion that lacks the heart of relationship
and intimacy, the true heart that God is looking for. And
he responds. He says “Let
her alone. She’s
kept this for the day of my burial. You’ve
got the poor with you all the time, but I’m only
here for a few more days.” (verses 7-8) So
what she does is actually beautiful. Now Jesus isn’t saying of course
that we’re not to minister to the poor, he’s
just referring to the shortness of time, and right now
he’s the priority. And
he always is the priority, everything starts with worshipping
and giving to him. But
of course he’s not saying that we shouldn’t
minister to the poor. James
made it clear, right, a little later in the New Testament. “Pure and undefiled religion before
God and the Father is to visit the orphans and the widows
[and to keep oneself unspotted from the world]” [James
1:26-27.] So,
to minister to the poor is a beautiful thing when it’s
done with a right heart. But what Jesus is addressing is the wrong
heart, and that of again religion, the religion of man,
appearing one way outwardly, when there isn’t the
real heart of love and relationship with God, having this
form of religion, but lacking the true love. You remember Paul made it very clear to
the church in Corinth, 1st Corinthians chapter
13, verse 3, he says “And though I bestow all my
goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be
burned, but have not love, it profits me nothing.” I can be as religious as it appears, man,
I could give up my house, my job, and give everything,
and go to the mission field, and try to feed every hungry
soul, but if there isn’t genuine love, agape love,
especially love for God, it means absolutely nothing. And that’s the point that Jesus
is making too. ‘I
mean, it’s about me, Jesus, first and foremost, and
from that comes the expression of love to our fellow man
and to those who are in need. I
can appear the most religious man in this town, but the
truth is, according to the Scriptures I could yet be destined
for the fires of hell. I mean, appearance is one thing, the reality
is a whole ‘nuther, of the heart. I
could have the right smile, and I could say the right words,
and yet I could be fooling many, many people, including
myself. But
I’m not going to fool God. God
knows the heart. He
looks down into the heart. So
the question to us this morning, Judas fools the disciples,
comes across as religious, but now with the Holy Spirit
and with Jesus’ response, we see it’s very
different. And then the question to us this morning
is, what is true of our hearts? Is
there a true love for God in our hearts? Do
we truly worship Jesus, do we have a close intimate relationship
and fellowship with God? Do
we love to cry out to the Lord in prayer, there in our
prayer-closet? Is
it our heart to desire the presence of God, no matter what
the personal cost may be? Or
are we potentially Sunday [or Saturday] Christians?---those
that appear religious and pious on Sundays [or Saturdays],
in the public or whatever, but in private are very different? And
that’s what we see here with Judas. But
may we understand as we look at these verses together,
that God’s concern again is the heart. And
what he desires is that we love him, what he desires is
that we walk with him. You remember Micah 6:8, “He has
shown you O man what is good. What
does the Lord require of you but to do justly, to love
mercy and to walk humbly with your God.” It’s
to walk with God. This morning, if your heart maybe isn’t
right with God, maybe you’re a religious person,
maybe you’ve been religious for a long time, maybe
you were born into a religion of one kind or another, yet
there’s a lack in intimacy and a true genuine relationship
with God. But understand today, you can know God
personally. You
can be raised in religion and still not yet know God, not
walk with God, not have an intimate communion with God. Understand
if that’s you today, that you can know God personally,
you can be what the Bible says is “born-again”,
given a new life, given a new heart. And it’s important to be reminded
of that, because earlier, as we remember in John chapter
3 Jesus says ‘In order for you to enter the kingdom
of God you must be born-again, you must be born-again.’ I
must be changed from the inside, I must have a new heart. Well,
if that’s you today, and you want to be born-again,
you want to have that closeness with God, you want to know
that if you die your going to be with God in the kingdom
of heaven, if that’s you today, stay tuned. At the end of every service we give an
opportunity for folks to make a decision for Christ. Well, anyway, in these verses we have
a contrast between a woman expressing heartfelt love for
Jesus, and a man consumed with lust. So,
love verses lust. He’s consumed with the lust of money.
Generosity verses greed
But with that
also, we can make the contrast of generosity verses greed,
I mean, they’re just so opposite, you see that in the
same picture. The
question, how did Mary get such expensive perfume---$30,000
worth of perfume? How’d she get such expensive perfume? Now, from the whole passage, studying
their lives from other Gospels, it does appear that they
were people most likely of financial means, so maybe we could
say they had enough financial means, that she was a wealthy
woman and would have this type of perfume around her house. But
even then, I mean, it’s so expensive, you’ve
got to wonder. There
are some, though, who believe, and I kind of lean towards
this, that this was really set aside for a whole ‘nuther
purpose. Some
commentators believe that this perfume was set aside for
her own funeral, this was something that was purchased for
her someday. As we do in our own society, we’ll
get our own coffin. And
funerals aren’t cheap, they’re expensive. I
guess even then it was pretty expensive. So
maybe this is something that’s been set aside for her
funeral. Some people believe maybe it was part
of her dowry. But it doesn’t matter the cost, doesn’t
matter, man, she just lays it there. And
this heart of love for God is so great that there’s
a generosity there. ‘I
just give, I want to just give, man, just give it to you,
Lord. I love you, so I want to give.’ And that’s what the Bible says,
that giving, true giving, is giving that’s motivated
by love for God. In fact, Paul says again in the New Testament,
he says that God loves a hilarious giver, somebody that just
loves and loves to give, because they love God. You
see the generosity, she just loves to give, and loves to
worship, because she just loves God. So
she gives in a way, maybe it’s her own perfume for
her own funeral, and says, “It doesn’t matter,
I’ve been saved, I’ve got life, doesn’t
matter anyway, I’ve got life in Christ”, and
lays it down, extravagant giving. In
response to this generous giving, this self-sacrifice in
giving, this generosity, Jesus then exclaims, we don’t
have it here, but we have it in the other Gospels, there’s
another comment he makes. He says this, “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.” No doubt, Jesus loved what she did. He responds in a way, and he makes it
real clear, he says even what she’s done will always
exist, throughout the generations, as a memorial to her love
for me. So Jesus
loved what she did. God
loves a hilarious giver. God
loves those that just love him and want to just be generous,
in whatever it means. But the contrast is so startling, you
have her generosity, then you have his greed, his greed. Her sacrificing extravagantly, and his
hording extremely, contrast, generous giving, his greed, ‘Man,
I want it for myself.’ He
doesn’t say that, but that’s what he’s
thinking. ‘$30,000,
I could sneak off a few thousand and no one would know it.’ What greed, that’s what he’s
motivated by at this time, is himself, his own needs, his
own life, his own income, his own good, as contrasted to
Mary, whose just giving, because she loves God.
Presentation verses persecution
Verses 9-11, “Now a great many of the Jews knew that he was there,
and they came, not for Jesus’ sake only, but that
they might also see Lazarus, whom he had raised from the
dead.” These
verses amaze me. “But the chief priests wanted to put Lazarus to death also.” Amazing. That
is amazing, isn’t it? I
mean, Jesus resurrected him from the dead. Now
there’s people that want to kill him because he was
resurrected from the dead. There’s something bizarre
about that. Isn’t
there? It’s
amazing, their reasoning. ‘Ah,
he’s been raised from the dead, let’s go kill
him.’ I
mean, Jesus could do it again if he needed to, I mean,
it could just keep going on and on. “But the chief priests plotted to put Lazarus to death also because
on account of him, many of the Jews went away, and believed
in Jesus.” Lazarus was raised from the dead just
a few weeks ago, and now he’s got these hit men that
are after him, seeking to kill him as a result. But
why? Why is there the contrast here that we
see? Well,
in the eyes of the religious leaders, there’s this
danger, this mass movement of Jesus. Already there’s a lot of people
that are amazed because of what has happened in Lazarus’s
life, they are so amazed, they’re very curious about Jesus, there’s an added excitement around
Jesus. And
the religious leaders can see that. So
they’re threatened by that. So
they want to kill Lazarus as a result. He
is being an effective witness, he’s being a tremendous
witness. And
when there is a great witness, there’s always the
persecution that stands against it. So, as a great witness they want to then
kill him. And
the amazing thing is, the witness is so powerful, the way
he’s presenting the gospel so tremendous, but maybe
he’s never even spoken a word. It’s
just his life, his life alone has blown people away. ‘This man was dead. And now he’s alive. That is amazing. I got to check out Jesus. If he can do that, he’s the guy
I need to know.’ I
mean, he [Lazarus] didn’t do anything, I mean, he
wasn’t saying anything necessarily. But certainly his life alone was so radical. Man,
that can be true of us too. Certainly
it’s important to be a verbal witness, but man, more
than anything I need to present a witness of my life. People
need to see, ‘Look what God can do in that man’s
life. Look
what he can do in that home, look what he can do in that
marriage. Look what he can do in those kid’s
lives. Look what he can do in the school system. Look
what he can do in this town.’ Now
that’s what people need to see especially, is the
change, the transforming power that God has. Well,
we have this contrast, this contrast, that I would say
is presentation verses persecution. I
could say “witness”, but in order to get the
same “p”, the letter “p” there,
presentation. Witness verse persecution, the contrast
there. It is true, the more effectively we present the Gospel message, the more
will be the result in persecution that we experience. But don’t be discouraged, you should
never be discouraged. Because
though there might be persecution, we need to remember
that in the end we are victorious. And that’s where this is all going. As Jesus does even die later, and he rises
from the dead. And
in that I know there’s now victory for me. There
might be hard times as I try to promote the Gospel, but
that’s OK. In the end I know I’m victorious. But consider their mentality for a moment. They
want to put to death Jesus, they want to put to death Lazarus,
because if they put to death Jesus, there’s still
Lazarus, of course, as witness. I
mean, it’s still going to make a mess, so they want
to put to death Lazarus as well. But
the truth is, they’re going to have to keep on going,
because there’s still the rest of the disciples. And they’re pretty radical witnesses. In fact, they do eventually put them to
death, later. [But
then, the early Church of God in Jerusalem eventually swelled
in membership to an estimated 50,000 in members between
Jerusalem and Galilee. The early Judeo-Christian Church kept
growing, but eventually Rome wiped out Judea and most of
it’s population in two Roman-Jewish wars, while the
Church escaped northward into Asia Minor. See http://www.unityinchrist.com/history2/index3.htm.] But they have to keep on going. Eventually they have to hit the entire
early Church. But
what happens? And we’re told in Church history,
those first few centuries, that six million Christians
were killed [mostly by Roman persecution within the Roman
empire after the Jewish-Roman wars]. It goes on and on and on, Lazarus, Jesus. Of
course the enemy, he’s been working that way for
a long time, trying to stop and trying to even at times
put to death, you know there’s been martyrdoms throughout
history. In fact, according to Christianity Today,
March 1990, between the year 1900 and 1990, according to
the magazine anyway, an average of 300,000 believers in
Jesus Christ were martyred every year. And of course, we in America are like, “No
way, no way.” But
you go to places like Sudan, Indonesia, especially China
over the last decades, and places like that, and others,
man, evidently hundreds of thousands Christians. So, Lazarus, Jesus, they have to keep
going [to try to shut us up]. Of
course, Satan continues to try to stop the witness. But
what happens is the witness only becomes greater as a result,
really. But
there’s the presentation, the contrast of the Gospel,
and the persecution that results.
Exaltation verses envy
Verses 12-19, “The next day a great multitude that had come to
the feast, when they heard that Jesus was coming to Jerusalem,
took branches of palm trees and went out to meet him, and
cried out ‘Hosanna, blessed is he who comers in the
name of the Lord, the King of Israel!’ Then Jesus, when he had found a young
donkey, sat on it, as it is written, ‘Fear not daughter
of Zion, behold your King is coming, sitting on a donkey’s
colt.’ His
disciples did not understand these things at first, but
when Jesus was glorified, then they remembered that these
things were written of him, and that they had done these
things to him. The
people that therefore were with him when he called Lazarus
out of his grave, and raised him from the dead, bore record. For
this cause the people also met him, for
that they heard that he had done this miracle. The Pharisees therefore said among themselves,
‘Don’t you perceive how you prevail nothing?---behold,
the world is going after him.’” …[tape
changeover, some text lost] Ah,
we believe the date was April 6th, 32 AD. But
it’s four days before the Passover. [Another
denomination, which actually observes the Passover each year,
feel the Passover where Jesus was crucified was on 31AD. To
read an awesome sermon detailing the last six days of Jesus
life before this Passover, log onto: http://www.unityinchrist.com/lamb/lastsix.htm.] And according to the book of Exodus, it
was the day when each family who was celebrating the Passover
would go and choose their lamb for sacrifice. And
then you’d have from the 10th to the 14th day
of Nisan where you would examine, this lamb would be examined. And
at the end of the time the lamb needed to be seen as fitting,
without blemish, without any type of illness or any flaw,
so that it could then be used in the Passover feast. So
you’ve got all these people coming to the city of Jerusalem,
and you have them bringing their lambs. What
a picture. Right? All these people, hundreds of thousands
of lambs coming to the city, tens of thousands of lambs,
anyway. And in the midst, you have Jesus, coming
into the city, the Lamb of God. Where
too, in just a short time, he’s going to be inspected,
he’s going to sit before the religious leaders, and
they would inspect the lambs, and they don’t realize
it, they’re inspecting the Lamb of God, they hit him
with all kinds of questions, they take him to their own court,
they assail him with this and that. But then, in the end, the verdict is lifted
up, and said in the verdict by Pilate, as you remember in
Luke chapter 23, verse 4, is “I find no fault in this
man.” So
as the Lamb of God he comes in, just as the lamb is to be
inspected, he was inspected and Pilate said, ‘there’s
nothing wrong with him, he’s perfect, no fault, no
flaw, without blemish.’ This
is also an interesting time on the calendar because this
day was prophecied four hundred and eighty three years before,
in Daniel chapter 9, verses 25 and 26, and I’ve done
studies on this before…you can look at those verses,
but there Daniel prophecies that after the issuing the decree
by the king for the walls of Jerusalem to be rebuilt in the
time of Nehemiah, that after the issuing of that decree there
would be sixty nine sevens, meaning if you just take the
words literally, the way things are symbolized in the Old
Testament, sevens means seven years---you get 483 years. And we know, archeologists have discovered
that we know exactly the day that decree went out for Nehemiah
to be able to go and rebuild the walls of Jerusalem. We
know the day, there’s been inscriptions that have been
found. You take that day, you add 483 years,
you adjust for the different calendars, the Babylonian calendar,
and you make your way into our current calendar and adjust
the days a little bit, and you come up with April 6th,
32AD, which is this day right here on the calendar. And
the interesting thing is, Daniel prophecied, is at that time,
the anointed one, the Messiah, would appear. And
then it says after that, right after that, he’d cut
off. And that’s
exactly what happens, and we know historically, that is what
happens. But
he said that 483 years before. Anybody
that knew their Bible could have gone back. Daniel
chapter 9, he makes it very clear when the Messiah is going
to come and present himself. And
right after that he is cut off. He
says 69 sevens, 483 years. Do your mathematics, and do a little bit
of study, it’ll blow your mind. We
have a date when Xerxes issued that decree. [That
would be 483 BC, making this the time when Jesus would be
born, not die. Xerxes
tried to conquer Greece in 480BC. Darius
was alive in 490BC, and lost at Marathon to the Greeks, so
Xerxes wasn’t even king yet until 485BC. I
know my Greek and Persian history.] Nehemiah
could go and build the walls. We
have that date. April 6th, 32AD, here comes
the Messiah. This
was the only time when Jesus would let them worship him as
the Christ, the Messiah, this is the only time in his entire
ministry. He
always avoided it, but for this hour, he came in, and the
multitudes came, and verse 13, they actually quote a Messianic
song, Psalm 118, which is a cry to the Messiah, worship of
the King of kings who was to come, the Deliverer. So they worship him in that way. So tremendous an hour it is. They come with palm branches, we’re
told there, branches of palm trees. There’s
a reason for that, it’s a tradition that started a
couple hundred years before. Prior
to that time, a couple hundred years, that piece of real
estate, Judea, man if you study historically, it’s
been under one nation after another, it’s been a battlefield
for so long. In
200 years before the time of Christ it was also a big battlefield. And
in that time it was under the control of the Syrian [Antiochus
Ephiphanes, who was descended from one of the four generals
of Alexander the Great.] Just
prior to that Egypt and Syria would really battle it out
for that area of Judea. And at times Egypt had control over it,
and at times the Syrians did. But
200 years before, the Syrian leader Antiochus Ephiphanes,
just this ruthless leader, really dealt a blow to the Egyptians
and he got control of the area of Judea. And
as he came back from his victory, which was part of his strategy,
he also wanted to humiliate the enemies, so what he did,
he went into the Jewish temple, he’s got control of
Judea now, he went into their temple, and he took a pig and
he sacrificed it on the altar, desecrating the temple. But
also that would, in a sense, humiliate the people of Israel
(the Jews). And that’s an interesting thing
to consider too, the prophecies about the anti-Christ. Well,
there was this guy, though, there’s this Antiochus
Ephiphanes, the Syrians ruling over Judea, over the people
of Israel, but there was this guy, Judas Maccabee, his last
name means “hammer” in Hebrew. He was a radical guy, and he decided he
wasn’t going to let it go on too long, so he started
to form his little group of soldiers and sort of launched
guerilla warfare, and it took about nine years, but he overthrew
the Syrians. But
when he did, the day he did, they were delivered, the people
of Israel were delivered from the Syrian rule, so in a spontaneous
way the people took palm trees and cut off the branches and
began to wave them, as a symbol of deliverance and victory. So
this goes back to that time. [For
a complete study of Judas Maccabee and this victory, log
onto http://www.unityinchrist.com/messianicmovement/festiavloflights.htm.] And it’s interesting then to consider
that here. On
the back of Jewish coins, as a result, there is this palm
branch which symbolizes deliverance. This would be understood in the minds
and the hearts of the people there. So,
there’s no doubt that some of the people in the crowd,
they’re waving their palm branches, but they’re
doing it for a reason. They’re
saying, essentially, “Be a Judas Maccabee for us.” That’s what they’re saying. “We’re under the Romans now. Two hundred years ago we were under the
Syrians, and this radical guy delivered us.” Jesus,
pretty radical here, “Deliver us from the Romans.” Of course, the Jew of that time was looking
for the Messiah in the sense of the Deliverer, that would
come and deliver them from their physical/political oppression. So,
no doubt, they’re crying out Psalm 118, they’re
waving their palm branches, and a lot of them, I’m
sure, thinking ‘Here’s our political deliverer.’ Well,
a little later they realize ‘This guy didn’t
come for politics at all, he came for another reason, a spiritual
reason. So it’s
true, maybe some in the crowd went from “Hosanna!” to “Crucify
him!”, because it changes quickly in Jerusalem. There’s
this great exultation, and a little later, just a few days,
there’s
“Crucify him! crucify him!, crucify him!” Well,
we have this contrast, anyway, we have this exultation, we
don’t know all the hearts, certainly some I’m
sure see him as the Messiah indeed, you know, those that
have seen Lazarus raised from the dead, and we’re told
that they’re there also. There
are some who are truly glorifying him in heart, and there
are some that have political motives and reasons, and are
misunderstanding the
“suffering Messiah”, that Jesus would come the
first time to suffer, and then he would come later to reign
as Kingdom Ruler. [To
read what all the prophecies have to say about this coming
Kingdom of God, log onto http://www.unityinchrist.com/kingdomofgod/mkg1.htm . Also
the book of Isaiah is loaded with Millennial Kingdom of God
prophecies. To
read this website’s online commentary on Isaiah, log
onto http://www.unityinchrist.com/kingdomofgod/kog.htm and
click on whichever version you want, html or pdf.] But
we have this contrast, exaltation, but then in this same
passage there, towards the end, we have incredible envy. The
exaltation, hands lifted up, palm branches. But then there’s some guys looking
out that are totally envious, totally envious, hearts burning,
you know that envy, with hearts just burning within, consumed
with envy. And
that’s how it works, isn’t it? When
there’s this praise for God, there’s this envy
in some of the hearts of this people, especially religious
envy. These guys, man, their hearts were so
prideful, they wanted so much to be in control, that seeing
Jesus being exalted like that, their hearts are burning,
man. Later Pilate
would even understand the envy in their hearts, and he would
even note, it’s told in the Gospels that he understood ‘They
hand over Jesus because of envy, because of envy.’ And
that tells me a little bit too, it is amazing to consider
this, in my mind I was thinking about it this week, but for
the suffering Messiah, Jesus, this is the moment, of his
first coming time, of his greatest exaltation. But it’s just moments away from
his greatest humiliation. I
mean, it goes from way up here to way down there so quickly. From
one moment he’s being worshipped, to another moment
there’s this blood-thirsty crowd that wants him dead. From
his greatest public exaltation to his greatest public humiliation
in just a few days. And
that says to me that Jesus indeed understood the hearts of
men. So, before
that, he would not let people make him king, he always withdrew,
because he understood there were guys that were so controlling
and so prideful and hard, and as soon as that even began
to appear, man, they would go for it [trying to make him
king]. But now
he lets it happen, really, he’s forcing the cards,
because it’s Passover time, he knows it is the time
for him to go to the cross. So he’s letting it happen. And of course, now we see the hearts of
the religious leaders, and they are burning, they’re
burning with such envy. And we know this sort of envy, man. Hatred goes hand in hand with, murder
goes hand in hand with that, indeed.
Mortification equals multiplication
Verses 20-26, “Now there were certain Greeks among those who came
up to worship at the feast” (these are the last
verses we’ll look at) “Then they came to Phillip, who was
from Bethsaida of Galilee, and asked him, saying, ‘Sir,
we wish to see Jesus.’ Phillip came and told Andrew, and in turn
Andrew and Phillip told Jesus. But
Jesus answered them saying, ‘The hour is come that
the Son of man should be glorified. Most
assuredly I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into
the ground and dies, there it remains alone. But
if it dies, it produces much grain. He
who loves his life will lose it, and he who hates his life
in this world will keep it for eternal life. If anyone serves me, let him follow me,
and where I am there my servant will be also. If anyone
serves me, him my Father will honor.’” Another
passage of tremendous contrast. We’re
told there were certain Greeks that come, and they come
to worship at the feast, and these are proselytes now,
maybe they’ve even converted to Judaism. But they’re not Greek just in the
sense of their language, they’re truly Greeks. And
we’re told that they come to Phillip, in verse 21,
and they ask him, we’re told he’s from Bethsaida
of Galilee. In
fact, Phillip has a Greek name, and that might be why,
there’s a way of identification there, that’s
why they pick him to come to. But they come to him, and we’re
told that they ask him, “Sir, we wish to see Jesus.” Now
the word “ask him” in
the Greek is in the tense that they kept asking, they were
persistent, they want to see Jesus, “We want an interview
with Jesus. Phillip,
help us out. We
want to talk to him, arrange something so that we can talk
to Jesus.” Well Phillip then came and told Andrew. Andrew also is an apostle with a Greek
name, and maybe that’s why Phillip talks to Andrew. But
they both then come to Jesus. And
Jesus’ response is interesting, isn’t it. He says “The hour is come that the
Son of man should be glorified.” There’s
no mention of this interview. There’s
no mention, ‘Yeah, bring them over, I want to sit
down and talk to them.’ But what does seem to happen, just the
fact that these Greeks, these Gentiles want to see him,
and maybe there’s an indication of their hearts,
it stirs his heart, it stirs his heart, and he realizes
that, it’s clear from the verses, what he needs to
do, and what he’s about to do. There’s
this response to that. He
says
“The hour is come that I should be glorified”,
meaning that he’s going to go to the cross. That’s his moment of glorification,
is to die, and then to be raised up. And
then he gives a picture, that maybe somebody whose Greek
can identify with it. This message goes back to the Greeks,
he shares something that in science a Greek might more readily
identify with. But he says “I tell you, take a
grain of wheat, it’s useless unless it’s planted. If
you don’t plant a grain of wheat it’s useless.” In fact, there are grains that have been
found in Egyptian tombs that are grains of wheat that are
even four thousand years old, grains of wheat, found in Egyptian
tombs, and they are still little grains of wheat that are
dead, useless, they haven’t done anything. I’ve heard this illustration told
different ways, so I’m going to use the one I think
is the most accurate. But I didn’t calculate it, because
I don’t know how many grains there are on a stalk of
wheat, and people come up with different answers. But
if you take a grain from a piece of wheat and you plant it
in your garden, and you let it grow, it’s going to
come up, there’s going to be a stalk with other grains
on it. If you
now take all those grains and you plant them, and you let
them grow, and you repeat that every year. I’ve heard this different ways,
but I’ll use this one, within 15 years you’d
have enough wheat to cover the entire United States, if you
take that one grain. I’ve
heard it said, fourteen years you could cover the whole earth,
I don’t know which one is true, one stalk had more
than the other, or whatever. So I’m going to give you that one. I’m not a farmer, so I can’t
tell you. I couldn’t tell you how many grains
are on a stalk of wheat. But
the point is, we’ve got four-thousand-year-old little
grains that are useless, they didn’t produce anything. But
if you just take one and plant it, and take what comes from
it and keep planting it, you’d have the ability in
a short time, we could make a big wheat field out of the
United States of America, if we planted it all, and it all
grew. So there’s this contrast here, that
death [of one wheat grain] that’s needed for life. Or
mortification verses multiplication. Jesus
uses this illustration of this seed to give us a spiritual
picture, a spiritual truth. And
the truth is this, there can be no glory without suffering. There’s no fruitful life without
death, there’s no victory without complete surrender. There
has to be the laying down and dying in order for there to
be life, Jesus referring to himself. But
also he’s clearly in a passage giving an illustration
for all of us to consider. As
a child of God we have God’s life in us, we are small
and maybe insignificant, there’s this life in us, and
that life doesn’t really do much unless we yield and
surrender to God. It’s
fully fulfilled as I do that, allowing him to plant me, in
a sense. Surrendering
to him will then yield that multiplication and yield that
life. So, I’ve
been thinking about this. I
shared on Wednesday night too, sharing about different truths
that God has been ministering to me, and I have been telling
the Lord in my prayer-time, ‘Lord, I don’t care
what the cost, but I really want to know that experience
of laying it down. Because I believe that if you lay it down,
all your life, and I’ve been telling the Lord, ‘I
don’t care what you take, my life is your life, I’ll
do whatever you want me to do.’ But I realize too, that with true death
itself, there is multiplication, there is spiritual power,
there is spiritual life. Without
surrender you don’t got it, man. Without
the willingness to yield. And
God is a gentleman, if you want to hold onto those reigns,
he’ll let you hold onto those reigns, you’ll
be miserable, you know. You
can be a little grain, all by yourself, you can die that
way. You know,
there’s this contrast in these verses of loneliness
and fruitfulness. What
do you want to be?---losing your life or saving your life?---serving
yourself or serving Christ?
Humiliation equals honor
Well, the last
contrast is, as he says there, he says “If anyone serves
me, if anybody lays it down, he says, my Father will honor
him.” And
as Christians, man, we want the honor of God, we want God
to bless us and to honor us. But
the key is to serve him. So we have this contrast, humiliation,
Jesus said “Humble yourself, pick up your cross, follow
me, humble yourself, humiliation---but it’s through
that, that I then find honor. In fact, in some instances great honor
from the Lord. So,
beautiful truths that Jesus shares with us here. There’s
also in this last verse there that we’ll look at, verse
26, there’s also a statement of intimacy. He
says
“If anyone serves me, let follow me, and where I am
there will my servant be also.” A picture of intimacy, that God, with
his servants, Jesus with his servants, together. Well
there are some truths to consider as we’ve gone through
chapter 12, a chapter of contrasts. We
have love verses lust, generosity verses greed, presentation
or witness verses persecution, exaltation verses envy, mortification
verses multiplication, humiliation verses honor. [the
last two are really “mortification equals multiplication” and
humiliation equals honor]. As we go on next week we’ll see
similar contrasts, light and dark, being selfish verses selfless,
same types of things. Let’s
close in prayer…[a transcript of a sermon on John
12:1-26, given somewhere in New England.]
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