A Sacrifice of Love

(John 12:1-11)

I. Introduction.
A. Orientation.
As our Lords ministry continues to move forward
Were seeing more and more opposition
Proving that what He said is true:
There are two distinct kingdoms in this world
That are continually warring with one another:
The kingdom of darkness and the kingdom of light.
What might surprise us
Or likely not at this point in our understanding
Is that both of these kingdoms exist in the church.
Certainly that was true in Jesus day.
Remember, Israel was the Lords Church in the Old Covenant.
He had set them apart from the world to be His peculiar people;
He had entrusted His Word to them;
They were to be His light to the world;
As Jesus told the Samaritan woman at the well,
Salvation is from the Jews (John 4:22).
But that didnt mean that all of them were saved
We know from what weve seen in Johns Gospel
As well as from Israels history

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That very few of them actually were.
Paul writes, Isaiah cries out concerning Israel, THOUGH THE NUMBER OF
THE SONS OF ISRAEL BE LIKE THE SAND OF THE SEA, IT IS THE
REMNANT THAT WILL BE SAVED (Rom. 9:27).

Thats why Jesus ministry had such a dividing influence.

Some of the Jews were saved;
Some were being saved
Such as those who believed
When Jesus raised Lazarus from the dead:
The Kingdom of God was growing
But there were many more who werent saved.
Last time, we saw those who didnt
Go to the Jewish leaders to tell them
What Jesus had done for Lazarus.
Instead of believing,
They immediately denounced Jesus
And began to plot His death.
There were two kingdoms
At work in the church in Jesus day.
Sadly, the same is true today
Which is why we are encouraged in Scripture
To make our calling and election sure.
Well see some things this morning
That will help us do this.

But we also saw why the Father allows this division

Why He allows evil in His world at all
Its that He might bring good out of it.
It was because of this division
That our Lord would be put to death;
But through His death,
He would gather together the children of God
From every nation under heaven.

B. Preview.
John shifts the focus again
Away from Jesus enemies to His friends.
Its now six days before the Passover
When Jesus would be betrayed
And handed over to the Romans for crucifixion.
Hes heading towards Jerusalem
As many of the Jews also were
In preparation for the Feast.
But before He arrives
Which well see in two weeks in His Triumphal Entry
He stops in Bethany
The town He was in earlier,
Where Martha, Mary and Lazarus lived,

Where Jesus had raised Lazarus from the dead.

He stops there not only to express His love for them,
But to give them the opportunity to express their love for Him,
As well as the opportunity for one of His own disciples
To show which kingdom he was really in.
II. Sermon.
A. First, we see here Jesus love for His own.
We read in verse 1, Jesus, therefore, six days before the Passover, came to
Bethany where Lazarus was, whom Jesus had raised from the dead.
With the Passover drawing near,
Jesus comes again to Bethany
Which was about 2 miles outside of Jerusalem
To spend some time with Lazarus, Mary and Martha.
We would all agree that Jesus time was very precious
Especially now that He is in His last week on earth.
But look how He chooses to spend it:
Not by Himself, with His own:
Because He loves those who are His.

When it comes to the Last Supper,

He will spend it with His closest circle of friends.
At His arrest, He will protect them
If you seek Me, let these go their way (John 18:8).
On the cross, He will die for them.

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And after He rose, He will come to them
To assure them that all is well.
And once in heaven, He will minister to them,
Because Jesus loves His own.

This is the kind of love He has for us

If we have come to Him,
If we have trusted Him,
If we are following Him because we love Him.
The fact that we are following Him out of love
Shows that He really does love us,
As John tells us, We love, because He first loved us (1 John 4:19).

If we love Him and have come to Him,

He has also come to us, and continues to come:
Not physically as He did here, but spiritually
He has come and taken up residence in our hearts by His Spirit.
Paul writes, It is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me (Gal. 2:20).
And He continues to come:
When we go through difficult times,
He draws even nearer
Often, because the situation were in
Causes us to draw nearer to Him.

Just how close will Jesus get?

How much of His presence can we experience?

That depends on two things:
How close He will allow Himself to draw near
That has to do with revival
And how close were willing to draw near to Him.
We dont have control of the first,
But we do of the second.
If were keeping our distance from Him
Because theres something we want to hold onto
That we believe He will call us to let go of
We need to let go of that thing and draw nearer.
Jesus wants us to come to Him,
That He may come closer to us.
James writes, Submit therefore to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you.
Draw near to God and He will draw near to you (James 4:7-8).

Maybe we werent aware of this connection,

We didnt know there was anything we could do,
Or how to do it,
But we can have a much closer relationship with Jesus,
If we really want it.
Knowing this is true,
Lets see how close we can get.

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But lets also not forget,
That Jesus will only come to those who are His.
He didnt visit the Jewish leaders,
He went to Mary, Martha and Lazarus.
Has He come to you?
Is He living in your heart by faith?
If not, He invites you to draw near to Him.
Jesus says, If anyone is thirsty, let him come to Me and drink. He who believes in
Me, as the Scripture said, From his innermost being will flow rivers of living
water (John 7:37-38).
He says through Isaiah, Ho! Every one who thirsts, come to the waters; and you
who have no money come, buy and eat. Come, buy wine and milk without
money and without cost. Why do you spend money for what is not bread, and
your wages for what does not satisfy? Listen carefully to Me, and eat what is
good, and delight yourself in abundance. Incline your ear and come to Me.
Listen, that you may live; and I will make an everlasting covenant with you,
according to the faithful mercies shown to David (Isaiah 55:1-3).
If you want the Lord to draw near to you,
You must want Him,
You must draw near to Him.
If you do, you wont be disappointed:
You will find that He has already been drawing near to you.

B. Second, we see the love Jesus own had for Him.

1. First, we see the hospitality they showed Jesus.
In verse 2, we read, So they made Him a supper there, and Martha was serving;
but Lazarus was one of those reclining at the table with Him.
They prepared a meal for Him.

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Martha served Him.
And Lazarus reclined at the table with Him,
Along with others among others, His disciples.

Being six days before the Passover,

Its quite likely they were entertaining Him on Sunday:
The very day of the week He would enter into His rest
Giving us a picture of what the church was to do on that day:
To rest from the things we do
On the other days of the week
That have to do with this world,
That we might sit down with Christ at His table,
And draw from Him the strength we need by His Spirit
To complete His work on earth.

If we love Jesus,
Well want to spend time with Him,
That we might better serve Him in this world
As we prepare for the next.

By the way,
Martha always gets bad press
Because she always seems to be serving
As we see here
And never sitting with Jesus.

Were not to understand by this

That we should always be sitting,
But that there is a time to sit and a time to serve.
We should be more like Mary on the Lords Day,
But more like Martha on the other six days of the week.

2. But here, we also see an extraordinary act of love and devotion.

John writes in verse 3 that during the supper,
Mary then took a pound of very costly perfume of pure nard, and anointed the
feet of Jesus and wiped His feet with her hair; and the house was filled with
the fragrance of the perfume.
This is extraordinary because of the cost:
Judas sets its value at 300 denarii
The amount of money you could expect to make
For working the better part of a year.
Mary had been saving this ointment
To use to bless her Lord,
Not realizing that by so doing,
She was anointing Him for burial.
John writes in verse 7, Therefore Jesus said, Let her alone, so that she may
keep it for the day of My burial.
Jesus doesnt mean here
That she used some now
But would keep the rest for later
Theres no record that she saved any or used it on Him after His death.

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Rather, Hes saying she had held onto it

And hadnt sold it and given the money to charity
That she might do for Him now
What she would not be able to do later.

The question we need to ask here is this:

Why was she willing
To give something so precious to bless her Lord?
Its because she loved Him.
When you love someone as much as Mary loved Jesus,
You will be willing to give whatever you have
To make Him happy.
Do we love Jesus that much?
Are we willing to give what is most precious to us
To minister to Him?

How could we do this for Him, if we wanted to?

Jesus is in heaven:
We cant go to Him,
We cant give Him anything directly.
Hes perfectly blessed:
We cant make Him any happier or more comfortable.

Its true we cant minister to Him directly,

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But we can do so indirectly.
The saints will say to Jesus on the Day of Judgment,
Lord, when did we see You hungry, and feed You, or thirsty, and give You
something to drink? And when did we see You a stranger, and invite You in,
or naked, and clothe You? When did we see You sick, or in prison, and come
to You? (Matt. 25:37-39).
And He will say to them, Truly I say to you, to the extent that you did it to one
of these brothers of Mine, even the least of them, you did it to Me (v. 40).
Whatever we do to any who belong to Jesus,
We are doing to Him.
We can feed Him,
Give Him a drink,
Invite Him into our homes,
Clothe Him,
Comfort Him in sickness,
Visit Him in prison;
We can pray for Him;
Be His hands and His feet;
We can be His messengers to reach out
To His lost sheep with the Gospel
That they might be saved.
He is in heaven,
But theres still a great deal we can do for Him
While we are on earth,
By ministering to His people;

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And thats what we will do,
If we love Him.

C. Finally, we see that while all this love was being shared between Jesus and His
own in the kingdom of heaven that was already in their hearts by His Spirit
there was someone present who was not of that kingdom who thought what Mary
did was a waste of money.
John writes, But Judas Iscariot, one of His disciples, who was intending to betray
Him, said, Why was this perfume not sold for three hundred denarii and given to
poor people? Now he said this, not because he was concerned about the poor, but
because he was a thief, and as he had the money box, he used to pilfer what was put
into it (vv. 4-6).
Those who are Satans
Are only concerned for themselves
If they serve Jesus at all,
Its only for what they can get out of it
Of course its alright to serve Him
For the things He promises,
But not for earthly or worldly things.
Judas followed Jesus for the thrills,
For the miracles,
For the fun,
And even for the money
He was a thief
But he never followed Jesus for the things He offers.
He was not a godly man.
He only pretended to be

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Jesus even reproved him for his seeming concern for the poor,
Pointing out that the poor will always be here,
And whenever you want, you can do good to them.
But He would not always be with them.

How can we tell which kingdom were in?

Whether we belong to Jesus or to Satan?
We can tell by whats in our hearts,
And the direction of our lives.
Do you love Jesus?
Have you given your life to Him?
Are you serving Him?
Then you are in His kingdom.
Or do you not love Him?
Have you not given your life to Him?
Are you not serving Him?
Then you are in the kingdom of darkness.
If this describes you,
I encourage you this morning:
Trust in the Lord Jesus,
Draw near to Him.
Love Him, serve Him, follow Him.
Then you will know you are safely in His kingdom. Amen.
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