Practical Worship
Gospel of John: The Glory of Christ • Sermon • Submitted
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6 Now when Jesus was at Bethany in the house of Simon the leper, 7 a woman came up to him with an alabaster flask of very expensive ointment, and she poured it on his head as he reclined at table. 8 And when the disciples saw it, they were indignant, saying, “Why this waste? 9 For this could have been sold for a large sum and given to the poor.” 10 But Jesus, aware of this, said to them, “Why do you trouble the woman? For she has done a beautiful thing to me. 11 For you always have the poor with you, but you will not always have me. 12 In pouring this ointment on my body, she has done it to prepare me for burial. 13 Truly, I say to you, wherever this gospel is proclaimed in the whole world, what she has done will also be told in memory of her.”
3 And while he was at Bethany in the house of Simon the leper, as he was reclining at table, a woman came with an alabaster flask of ointment of pure nard, very costly, and she broke the flask and poured it over his head. 4 There were some who said to themselves indignantly, “Why was the ointment wasted like that? 5 For this ointment could have been sold for more than three hundred denarii and given to the poor.” And they scolded her. 6 But Jesus said, “Leave her alone. Why do you trouble her? She has done a beautiful thing to me. 7 For you always have the poor with you, and whenever you want, you can do good for them. But you will not always have me. 8 She has done what she could; she has anointed my body beforehand for burial. 9 And truly, I say to you, wherever the gospel is proclaimed in the whole world, what she has done will be told in memory of her.”
36 One of the Pharisees asked him to eat with him, and he went into the Pharisee’s house and reclined at table. 37 And behold, a woman of the city, who was a sinner, when she learned that he was reclining at table in the Pharisee’s house, brought an alabaster flask of ointment, 38 and standing behind him at his feet, weeping, she began to wet his feet with her tears and wiped them with the hair of her head and kissed his feet and anointed them with the ointment.
Turn to John 12
Today we are going to look at a story that is actually a continuation of the story of Jesus raising Lazarus from the dead
My sermon title is “Practical Worship”
When the early church was formed, immediately forming alongside the central tenants of our faith were heresies, false beliefs, that took true teachings and twisted them to distort the faith.
One of these heresies was Gnosticism.
Gnosticism was actually a pretty complicated set of beliefs, but very quickly, here is basically what it was.
The root word of gnosticism is gnosis meaning “to know”.
The gnostics believed basically that real life only takes place in the mind
They believed that belief and knowledge should be pursued. In fact, they claimed to have secret knowledge that only they could access and impart to others.
Furthermore, they believed that all matter is evil. They believed that the material world that we see was created by a lesser god and is evil and should be shunned as much as possible.
What did this do to the early church? Well, think about it.
Their belief that knowledge is sacred and that they had secret knowledge made them the “keepers of knowledge” that they could only impart to others.
And their belief that matter was evil was a huge problem because
1. They thought that any sins done in the body weren’t any big deal. Because matter was evil anyway and so sinning in the body wasn’t really changing anything.
2. They denied that Jesus Christ, being completely perfect and holy, could have come in the flesh. Because flesh is matter and matter is bad.
Many times, scholars will talk about gnosticism being a heresy of the early church, but I would suggest that it is still part of our church today and creeps into our beliefs and practices in subtile ways.
Because even today, we have these two categories, which we consider (maybe not knowledge and matter), but we might call them sacred and secular.
We have certain things in our lives that we consider holy (sacred), and other things that we consider “every day” (common, secular)
Secular
Going to work/working
driving to town
cleaning the house
harvesting
getting dressed
you name it
Holy
Praying
Having my devotions
Going to church
Being a missionary
We have these two categories and in some ways we believe that they shouldn’t meet
And then we carry this into church. And again, we have our sacred and secular categories
Sacred (also known as worship)
Singing
PRaying
Listening to the sermon
Sharing and praying for each other
Secular(things that aren’t worship)
Taking up the offering
making and listening to announcements
Game nights
Hay rides
Hearing a missionary talk about his/her experiences
Many times we have these categories in our minds, and we don’t think the two things should meet.
And if you doubt what I’m saying, let’s think for a little bit.
What would you think if, when you arrived to church on Sunday morning, all dressed up nice and with your best attitude, I would get up and announce, “There’s popcorn and apple cider and games in the back. Let’s pull some tables and chairs around and play games”.
Or, “This morning instead of our normal service, we are going to take up the offering, and we are going to hear people give announcements, we will find someone to talk to and encourage, and then you all are dismissed”.
What would you think?
Would we have worshiped? Are those sacred things? Or are these secular things?
I would be the first to admit that I would struggle a little bit doing church this way.
But is it really possible to worship while I am giving my tithes and offerings?
Is it really possible to worship while hearing or making announcements?
Is it possible to worship while we are having a game night or fun night at church?
Basically I’m trying to get us to think about these questions. Is worship only something that happens while doing “churchy” things, or can it also happen on a practical level,
doing every day sorts of things. Doing things with our hands. Giving, serving, living?
Today we are going to talk about practical worship.
Pray.
John 12:1–11 (ESV)
Mary Anoints Jesus at Bethany
12 Six days before the Passover, Jesus therefore came to Bethany, where Lazarus was, whom Jesus had raised from the dead. 2 So they gave a dinner for him there. Martha served, and Lazarus was one of those reclining with him at table. 3 Mary therefore took a pound of expensive ointment made from pure nard, and anointed the feet of Jesus and wiped his feet with her hair. The house was filled with the fragrance of the perfume. 4 But Judas Iscariot, one of his disciples (he who was about to betray him), said, 5 “Why was this ointment not sold for three hundred denarii and given to the poor?” 6 He said this, not because he cared about the poor, but because he was a thief, and having charge of the moneybag he used to help himself to what was put into it. 7 Jesus said, “Leave her alone, so that she may keep it for the day of my burial. 8 For the poor you always have with you, but you do not always have me.”
The Plot to Kill Lazarus
9 When the large crowd of the Jews learned that Jesus was there, they came, not only on account of him but also to see Lazarus, whom he had raised from the dead. 10 So the chief priests made plans to put Lazarus to death as well, 11 because on account of him many of the Jews were going away and believing in Jesus.
If you think back, or read back, you will see at the end of chapter 11 that Jesus, having just raised Lazarus from the dead, was in danger of being killed, and withdrew to a small village on the edge of the wilderness, called Ephraim.
But now, the Feast of the Passover was upon them. This is THE Passover. The LAST Passover under the Old Covenant. This will be the Passover at which the true meaning of the Passover will be revealed.
In which Jesus, the Perfect and All-Sufficient Passover Lamb, would die to atone for the sins of the nation and of the whole world.
And so Jesus leaves Ephraim for Jerusalem.
And on the way, he again stops in the town of Bethany where His friends, Mary, and Martha, and Lazarus live
And while there, they throw a dinner for Him.
Now this is interesting.
The other 3 Gospels also have this story, or at least a story very similar to this one.
In these gospels, the dinner is not given in the house of Mary and Martha, but in the house of a guy named Simon.
Matthew and Mark call this guy Simon the Leper
Luke calls him Simon the Pharisee.
What’s interesting about this is that you don’t eat at the home of a leper. you would have to be crazy
The only way that you would do that is if he had been healed of his leprosy and declared clean by the priest.
And the only way that the incurable disease of leprosy could be cured, is if Jesus would do it.
I believe that Simon has already had his own mind-blowing encounter with Jesus.
To make matters more interesting, he is a Pharisee. Part of the very group that Jesus is constantly tangling with.
And to make matters even more interesting, also reclining at the same table is a guy who was raised from the dead! Lazarus.
So here you have an ex-leper, who is a Pharisee and an ex-dead guy both at the same table. Imagine the conversation!
But more to the point of what I want to share with you this morning, I see some worshipers here in this passage.
And I see them doing practical, every day sorts of things
Our attention is mostly on Mary and her incredible act; but I would like us to also look at Mary’s siblings, Martha and Lazarus
Because I also see them as being worshipers.
Martha: worshiping through serving
You remember the story in Luke 10 when Jesus visits their home and Martha was working hard in the kitchen while Mary sat at Jesus’ feet
I believe that Martha really was serving Jesus out of a heart of love for Him.
But we see her humanness in that, while she really did love Jesus, she felt taken advantage of because her sister had different priorities
In our passage today, it simply says that Martha served.
Again, it doesn’t look like Mary is helping her but it doesn’t seem to matter any more to Martha.
She is just serving, and, I think, serving gladly and not resenting her sister’s absence.
She is worshiping by dedicating her talents to Jesus on a very practical level.
Is she standing with arms wide open? Is she sitting silently and still with every eye closed and every knee bowed? No! She is practically worshiping!
Lazarus: worshiping through witnessing
You might be say, “What? What do you mean witnessing? He doesn’t say a word here! In fact, we never read anything that Lazarus said! How can he be witnessing?”
Here’s how. Simply by the fact that he was once dead and now is alive!
Lazarus is worshiping Jesus simply by being alive and hanging out with Him!
The very fact that he is alive and reclining at the table with Jesus makes people come from all around to see him. And in seeing him, they see Jesus!
His life is witnessing to the resurrection power of the Lord.
His life is witnessing to the fact that Jesus is indeed who He claims to be!
He is worshiping Jesus by allowing his life to point to the power and glory of Jesus
When people looked at him, they knew immediately that this man had a life changing, life-giving encounter with Jesus.
What about you? What about me? When folks encounter us, do they know that we are worshiping and does that point them to the resurrection power of Jesus
Now this does not give us a pass on verbal witnessing. People will not know how to be saved unless someone tells them.
I grew up hearing, “Oh, we need to live in such a way that people know that we are Christians.” Very true. But little was said about boldly sharing your faith.
verbal witnessing is also crucial. Because when we verbally witness, it not only reminds the people we are speaking to about who Jesus is, it also reminds US!
But I believe in the resurrection power of Jesus, that transforms our inner being from being dead to being alive in Christ and that is something that a watching world should be able to see.
When they see it, we are worshiping Jesus by bringing glory to Him
Mary: worshiping through giving sacrificially
Her reputation was on the line
Without getting to graphic about it, what Mary does here is, shall we say, scandalous?
For a Jewish woman to appear in public without her head covered would have marked her as a prostitute.
And for her to let down her hair and be so bold as to touch a man like this, was something that just wasn’t done!
The accounts in the other Gospels
Cost her financially