Two Acquaintances Of The Savior

Introduction

I don’t know how many more songs RJ Stevens is going to be able to arrange here on this earth, but I’m glad he did that one. I love that song. We talk about people that we can pray for. Certainly RJ is one of those people as he continues to recover from recent heart surgery. Appreciate the good song leading Ben has done. Hey, Ben, is there any way y’all can commute to Orangefield and stay here? I don’t think that’s possible, but we’re going to miss Ben and Aaron and family as they head over that way in the near future. But it’s been good to have them here with us for a while. It’s good to see all of you tonight.

Tonight’s lesson is a story of two very extreme characters. Both were privileged to be in the presence of Jesus. I often wonder what that would have been like to have witnessed the life of God in the flesh. Emmanuel, as we have sung today. To have seen his life, to have heard his teaching, to have witnessed his miracles, just to spend time with him while God lived among men. And so I want to talk to you tonight about two individuals who did that, and yet they are two very extreme individuals. The story is located in actually three passages. It is found in Matthew 26. It is found also in Mark 14. But I want to read tonight from John’s account in John chapter 12. In fact, as time goes on, I am more impressed all the time with John chapters 11 and 12.

And John 11, if you’ll remember, is the story of the resurrection of Lazarus from the dead, and it’s the only of the gospel accounts that records that resurrection, and yet that resurrection is one of the things that precipitated the anger of the Jews that would ultimately lead to Jesus’ death, and we’re going to see that in a moment. But I want to read with you, John 12, 1 through 8. Jesus, therefore, six days before the Passover, came to Bethany, where Lazarus was, whom Jesus had raised from the dead. So they made him a supper there. And Martha was serving, which we noted a couple of weeks ago that she was known for that. But Lazarus was one of those reclining at the table with him. Mary, therefore, 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.

But Judas Iscariot, one of his disciples, who was intending to betray him, said, Why was this perfume not sold for 300 denarii and given to poor people? Now he said this, not because he was concerned about the poor. God knows our hearts. But because he was a thief, and as he had the money box, he used to pilfer or steal what was put into it. Jesus therefore said, Let her alone, in order that she may keep it for the day of my burial. For the poor you always have with you, but you do not always have me. Obviously, we’re just a few days before Jesus’ betrayal by Judas and his crucifixion, and it’s that event rapidly approaches. The event which has rallied the religious leaders, the resurrection of Lazarus and all of the fur that takes place and the excitement of all the people about that particular event has now incited them to work toward his demise.

The news was spreading like wildfire. Look in verse 9. The great multitude, therefore, of the Jews learned that he was there, and they came not for Jesus’ sake only, but that they might also see Lazarus, whom he raised from the dead. The attraction at this point was not only Jesus and all of the hype that was associated with his ministry and activity, but the resurrection of resurrection of Lazarus by Jesus is drawing a crowd as well. To an extent that the Pharisees, if you’ll notice in the chief priests, verse 10, took counsel that they might put Lazarus to death also. I’ve always thought this is one of the most incredible passages. Okay, he died. Jesus raised him from the dead, and now they’re wanting to kill him and get rid of him.

Really? Don’t they see how nonsensical that is? Because on account of him, many of the Jews were going away and were believing in Jesus, their worst nightmare. The story, of course, as I mentioned, of his resurrection and the dramatic nature of it, is recorded in the previous chapter, John chapter 11. But I want to talk about the principles of this story in John chapter 12 and the extreme nature of their responses in this text. That is Mary, the sister of Martha and Lazarus and Judas. And I’ve entitled, as I announced this sermon, to acquaintances of the Savior. When I thought about how to talk about these two individuals in this incident, I thought the word acquaintances is a good term because that term, a synonym of colleague, associate, it speaks of familiarity and relationship, knowledge, and even friendship, but it can be experienced on different levels.

When somebody’s an acquaintance, you can be just a very casual acquaintance, or you can be a more intimate one, and obviously, in some ways, both of these individuals had an intimate relationship with Jesus. But still, what an amazing contrast between the two. And the reason why I want to talk to you about these two is so is it is with Jesus today, and people’s familiarity with him. I mean, a lot of people claim to know Jesus and love him, and yet their response to the word of God may be a far cry from yours. Some only serve him in a very limited sort of way, while some offer great sacrifice for him. And yet everyone claims to know him or be associated with him in some way.

And Jesus warned about that in that text we looked at this morning in Matthew chapter 7. Not everyone who says, I was an associate of Jesus, I was an acquaintance of the Savior, not everyone that says unto me, Lord. But you, but you drank in our presence, you walked in our streets, we know you. And Jesus is going to say, Depart, I never know you. So just because you are an acquaintance of Jesus, is that sufficient enough of a response? It wasn’t for Judas. Judas’ response was not sufficient. We all know the end of the story, and we’ll get to that in a moment, but it says, He went to his own place. We don’t want to follow in his footsteps. And yet he was an intimate associate of the Lord.

Jesus will say to them in that day, Matthew 7 and verse 23, I never knew you. Depart from me, you who practice lawlessness. And so, what is the depth of our association and our familiarity with him? In John 17 and verse 3, Jesus said, And this is eternal life, that they might know thee or know you, the only true and living God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou has sent. And yet that’s not just obviously. Well, I know Jesus. I know some things about Jesus. It is speaking of a depth of knowledge that leads one to respond appropriately to him as King of kings and Lord of Lords, as we talked about this morning. Others know him only on a limited level. The Pharisees knew Jesus. But what did he say about them?

You search the scriptures because in them you think you have eternal life. But it is they that testify me. I love that statement in John chapter 5, if you’ll flip over a few chapters earlier in your Bible, because when he said that, his point is you love the word of God. You seem to love it, you act like you love it, you search the scriptures, but you’ve missed the whole point of it. And one reason is because your motives are bad. He says in verse 42, but I know you that you do not have the love of God in yourselves. So we’re familiar with the scripture, the word of God. We even acknowledge it as coming from him. Yeah, this is God’s book. This is his answers to life and immortality.

Praise be this book. Nobody revered this book any more than the Pharisees did. This book was their life. And yet, he says, you’ve missed the point of the book. And that’s the love of God, and you’re failing. You do not have the love of God in yourselves. And he says in verse 44, another motive problem that they had is instead of bringing glory to God, they sought glory for themselves. It wasn’t about elevating God and serving him. It was about self-elevation and raising themselves up to receive the glory of men. And so, what about our acquaintance with the Savior? That’s what we want to explore a little bit tonight. Let’s look at these two characters and what we learn about them in John chapter 12. What is Mary’s attitude toward Jesus?

1. Mary: Jesus Is Worthy of the Best I Can Give

Jesus is worthy of the best that I can get. Mary’s acquaintance with Jesus was on the deepest level. Remember that story that I referenced so not carefully when I mentioned that my wife was Mary.

And yet Jesus said, Mary has chosen this good part which shall not be taken away from her. About that text, I heard Ralph Walker say a few years ago. Some of you know him. And I like this way of saying it. The main thing is to keep the main thing. The main thing. And I think that’s a pretty good statement. And Mary did that. She chose the good part. She kept the main thing, the main thing. And that’s the main thing. And we need to make sure that we do that. You know why I like little phrases like that? They’re easy to remember. If you don’t remember anything else I said tonight, take that little phrase. The main thing is to keep the main thing. The main thing.

Jesus is worthy of the best that I can give. She kept the main thing, the main thing. And this has been demonstrated by all of the great servants of God. And we could go from one end of Scripture to the other, but we can look mostly at someone like David, who needed to recover from an act of sin, and he needed to offer sacrifice, and he came to the threshing floor of Aurana, and he says, What? I will not offer unto my God that which cost me nothing. 2 Samuel 24 and verse 24. Hendrickson in his commentary on this passage correctly observes. I like this, that Mary may have been the best listener that Jesus ever had.

I mean, look at what she does in this text. This lavish gift. She must have understood something that others did not. If you look back in Luke 9 and verse 44, maybe this is what she understood. Luke 9 and verse 44, when Jesus said, Let these words sink into your ears. You know, every preacher probably ought to repeat those words when they’re speaking the word of God. Let these words sink into your ears. Don’t just hear them, but really get it. For the Son of Man is going to be delivered into the hands of men. But they did not understand this statement, and it was concealed from them so that they might not perceive it, and they were afraid to ask him about the statement.

And it seems they were even hindered from getting it. But perhaps Mary saw it. Mary’s act embraced the opportunity because she knew the opportunity soon to be past. And we need to embrace the opportunity as Paul did at Ephesus when he walked through the open door presented to him there, 1 Corinthians chapter 16 and verse 9. All kinds of passages talk about seizing the opportunity. The way we walk toward outsiders, the way we use our speech, making the most of the opportunity, Paul says in Colossians chapter 4, verses 5 and 6. And don’t give the devil an opportunity. Ephesians 4 and verse 27. Mary possessed something that many disciples of Jesus do not possess today, and that is she was impressed with him. She was impressed with him.

She listened carefully to him. She gave lavishly to him. Why was she so impressed with him? She saw his miracles. She saw her brother after several days raised from the dead. I’ll tell you, thoughts of that are still lingering in Mary’s mind. If you had been here, my brother would not have died. You could have prevented this, they were telling Jesus as he finally shows up. And now he’s been dead for three days. And Lazarus come forth, and there’s her brother again. You think she didn’t think about that a lot? No wonder she came with this lavish gift just a little while later in John chapter 12. And so I would observe about her offering to the Lord on this occasion as she wiped his feet with her hair and showered him with this perfume.

Jesus is worthy of the best that I can give. And that attitude needs to be ours. He’s worthy of the best of our time. We can get really stingy with that. Obviously, he’s worthy of our financial contribution. This was an expensive perfume, almost a year’s wages. The 300 denarii that Judas speaks of could have been almost a year’s wages for some. A very expensive and costly perfume. You tried to buy any perfume lately. You notice how outrageously expensive it is? Well, this is even more when you perfume, 70 to 100, maybe. That’s cheap compared to this. So sometimes we might be willing to be more sacrificial with our money. We have an ample supply of that compared to a lot of other people. And we might be pretty generous with that.

2. Judas: I Am Worthy of All That I Can Get

I’ll tell you, in these times, folks tend to be more stingy with their time. We need to be lavish, however, with our time, with our abilities, and with our sincere concern for the Lord’s work and his people, and with our whole hearts, we need to invest in our service to him because, as we’ve been singing tonight, Jesus is worthy of our best. Well, then there’s Judas, on the other hand, who stands in contrast to the portrait of Mary in John chapter 12. And I would suggest about him that he is thinking that I am worthy of all that I can get. His association or acquaintance with Jesus is on a much more shallow level. You know, I think we want to distance ourselves from a character like Judas and think we have nothing in common with him.

I’m not sure that’s immediately a safe decision to make. Hold that thought.

Judas looks at Mary’s act and says, What? What is she doing? We need more money for this ministry. We could really help some poor people here if we would take this costly perfume and sell it, and we could give it to the poor. And that sounds reasonable and logical, does it not? And yet the scriptures and Jesus, it seems, as well, knows what’s really going on in Judas’ heart. If we put the money in the bag, because you see, Judas was the treasurer for the disciples, and he would often pilter, pilfer from it. Like the person we talked about last Sunday who embezzled from that accurate dealership without no one’s knowing for several years. Judas is taking a little bit here and there out of the bag.

Who will know? They’re not keeping a ledger of everything that’s been contributed. And so you think, man, if we had this perfume, I could make a little bit of money. He’s in it for himself. Linsky observes in his commentary, as Mary’s perfume fills the house with its odor, so the poison of Judas’ words contaminated at least some hearts. In the basis of moves, a man can find supporters and abettors. Especially if he is able to hide his motive and his intentions under some plausible argument, speaking the words of charity without a heart of charity. That marks the hypocrite. I think those words are interesting indeed. Make it sound plausible and reasonable. Oh, the problem over here is, oh, yeah, this money could have been given to the poor.

Let’s deflect the real issues here. That’s what happens sometimes when people gossip and slander others. They think they have a cause, but really it’s about self-elevation and self-promotion and somebody else’s tearing down and destruction. And we can make that sound so reasonable. Oh, yeah, you got a point there. That’s true. And we can’t see the veneer stripped away from what that’s really all about. You ever experienced something like that? You ever seen something like that? I have. And so as we look at Judas’ attitude in contrast to Mary’s attitude, I’d like, I said, we’d like to distance ourselves from that. Who’s the most despicable person that’s ever lived? If I could throw that out to you young people, who’s the most despicable person in history that you can think of right off the bat?

Who comes to mind? Who is it? I think Sherry just said mine. I’m thinking Hitler. Anybody else think Hitler? There’s been some bad characters through the years. But what was wrong with that man? That he would just want to obliterate all the Jews and hang on in his foolishness to the destruction of many German lives as well. You study history. I mean, I’m shaking my head. What was that guy thinking? Who was worse? Hitler or Judas. Well, I don’t know if I have an answer to that. Just throwing that out there for you to think about. They were equally bad in their own way. Jesus said about Judas, it would have been better for that man not to have been born. Matthew 26 and verse 24.

And when you think about it, you’re going to betray the Lord with a kiss. The subject of prophecy in the book of Zachariah, one of my favorite prophecies in the Old Testament, the 30 pieces of silver predicted several hundred years before he goes to the chief priest and they say, How about 30 pieces of silver? And he says, Yes, not realizing that he is fulfilling this, and it would also be part and parcel with his death. When the 30 pieces of silver would actually be used to purchase the potter’s field where Judas would hang himself. When he tries to return the money and has a little bit of remorse. And let me just say, I don’t know about the Hitler-Judas comparison that I’ve drawn, but at least Judas had a little remorse for what he had done.

Obviously, it did not, it was not a godly sorrow that produced repentance because he went out and hung himself, and the text says about him that he went to his own place. But at least he experienced a little bit of remorse. But before I want to ride Judas on the rail, without learning the lesson, here’s what I think about Judas. When Jesus was picking his closest disciples and he prayed all night and he looked out among those who were following him, and he chose twelve, he chose twelve men that had something to recommend them. There was something about Judas that would cause him to be selected to be among Jesus’ closest followers. And I find that interesting. Here’s what I think about Judas. He was simply in the wrong place in the wrong time with the wrong attitude.

3. Be Careful of a Heart Inclined Towards Self

And that his act could have been done by many others in the same position. Sort of like Pharaoh. You think Pharaoh’s the only arrogant leader of a nation who shakes his fist at God and says, Who is the Lord that I should obey his voice? And then gets enrolled, as I like to say, in God’s ten lesson correspondence course. There have been others equal or worse than Pharaoh in their arrogance. There have been other men like Judas. But he was in the wrong place in the wrong time with such an attitude that led him to be the one that would betray the Lord. Others would put him to death. What we learn from Judas is to be careful of a heart that is inclined towards self.

And whether we would be the one to betray Jesus with a kiss because we were the one with the selfish heart among the band of twelve who would make such a bargain with the chief priest. The problem is that a heart inclined towards self is dangerous no matter when we live. And it is such a heart that I would suggest to you as a major threat to all of us on a pretty frequent basis. It is the cause of all kinds of error and division. As we talked this morning, why do people believe things that aren’t true about baptism? Ultimately, when you start reasoning, well, it’s what I’m comfortable with, it’s what my tradition is, it’s what my family believes, as we said this morning. Really, what’s that all about?

That’s about this. It’s a heart inclined toward ourselves and not pleasing God no matter what, and serving him no matter the cost. Now that’s where Mary was, but that’s not where Judas was because his heart was first and foremost directed towards self. It is the cause of all kinds of error and division. It’s why brethren fall away.

Too many folks. As we said this morning, baptism is not a magic potion or cure all. Trial and temptation is not going to go away. And I’ll tell you, some people get so disillusioned, their circumstances become so difficult and impossible in their minds, but they say, I just can’t do this anymore. I’m walking away. I don’t even want to know the number of how many living on this planet right now who were baptized into Christ, who no longer serve Him. You don’t want to know that number. It is legion.

And everybody falls away, perhaps for their own personal reasons. But at the heart of it, every time is the heart inclined towards self. Without exception. It is the cause of indifference and complacency. An individual who was once zealous and sacrificial in their service to the Lord over time becomes indifferent and complacent. Why is that? Because the heart changes. He doesn’t say stagnant or static, we might say. If we’re not continually watching over our hearts with all diligence, Proverbs chapter 4 and verse 23, we may find ourselves in just a short time, our heart has changed and moved from putting God first as we talk about priorities to now becoming a heart inclined towards self. I wonder if Judas in eternity shakes his head and says, How could I have ended up like this?

How could I have done this? I saw the miracles. I heard him teach every day. I did not see one moment of failure. And yet I betrayed him. Can you imagine being haunted with that for all eternity? How does that happen? Because the heart is not maintenance. And we need to constantly be about assessing our heart. It is why churches stagnate and die. It is a cause of strife among brethren. Oh, I know there’s always an issue. I hear about churches and problems and churches that divide, and I hear about what the issue was, but so often I hear this. It wasn’t just about the issue, it was the attitudes of the combatants. And there may have been a side that was right about the issue whose hearts were very wrong.

Conclusion

So really, at the end, it doesn’t matter that you’re right, does it? The Pharisees were right about a lot of things. I bet Judas was right about a lot of things. But see, this heart inclined towards self will ruin you. Well, I’ve drawn this contrast tonight so that we might learn to choose the best. Jesus is worthy of the best that I can give, the attitude of Mary versus the attitude of Judas, I am worthy of all that I can get. It’s all about me. But here’s what’s interesting in this. As Mary was so willing to give, and Judas was so focused on receiving and getting, how does it all play out in the end? Mary gets more, and Judas gets less. Now that’s an interesting twist, isn’t it?

I want you to look in Luke 19 as we conclude tonight in verse 26, when Jesus said, listen to this carefully, I tell you, Luke 19, 26, that to everyone who has, put Mary in there, to everyone who has what? The right heart spiritually, to everyone who has, shall more be given. But from the one who does not have Judas, even what he does have shall be taken away. So what are we focused on? And in speaking of the more that Mary gets versus the less that Judas receives, is that not also played out in their eternal destiny? The more we give to our worthy Savior, the more we receive in return. We will not have lost anything in what we have rendered to him. And so would you be his servant?

And we sing to encourage you to enlist if you haven’t already. Let’s stand and sing together.