now can we turn together in our bibles to john chapter 11 at verse 55 and we're going to read
through chapter 12 to verse 11 thinking about jesus the anointed king so again let's hear
the word of god when it was almost time for the jewish passover many went up from the
country to jerusalem for their ceremonial cleansing before the passover they kept looking for jesus and
as they stood in the temple courts they asked one another what do you think isn't he coming to the
festival at all but the chief priests and the pharisees had given orders that anyone who found
out where jesus was should report it so that they might arrest him six days before the passover
jesus came to bethany where lazarus lived whom jesus had raised from the dead here a dinner was given
in jesus honor martha served while lazarus was among those reclining at the table with him
then mary took about half a liter of pure nard and expensive perfume she poured it on jesus feet and
wiped his feet with her hair and the house was filled with the fragrance of the perfume but one
of his disciples judas iscariot who was later to betray him objected why wasn't this perfume sold
and the money given to the poor was worth a year's wages he did not say this because he cared about the
poor but because he was a thief as keeper of the money bag he used to help himself to what was put into
it leave her alone jesus replied it was intended that she should save this perfume for the day of my
burial you will always have the poor among you but you will not always have me meanwhile a large crowd
of jews found out that jesus was there and came not only because of him but also to see lazarus whom he
had raised from the dead so the chief priest made plans to kill lazarus as well for on account of him
many of the jews were going over to jesus and believing in him amen so we're going to use john chapter 12
to prepare ourselves for christmas and to reflect together on jesus as god's king we are i am sure
familiar with nativity stories and and with the words of the bible that wise men came to visit
the infant jesus bringing those gifts fit for a king led by god to honor him gifts to honor
someone we understand that some cultures more than other we were watching a program paul hollywood
traveling around japan over the last couple of weeks and he discovered that the culture they have
there of of gift giving and especially giving fruit and if you are particularly wealthy giving really
expensive fruit to honor perhaps someone who's inviting you for dinner so he went to a a guy who
grew strawberries had grown them for decades and one single strawberry would set you back 350 pounds
a couple of melons that sold at auction for 35 000 pounds some cultures understand that that gift giving is a way
to honor to honor someone and what do we have here in the anointing of mary she gives extravagantly
to honor king jesus helps us to ask ourselves the question what do our lives what does our worship
reveal about our love and honor for jesus and we'll think about that again we go back to
those familiar nativity stories and very much central to that are the groups who are for jesus
there's always mary and joseph there are always the shepherds those first
worshipers who receive the good news there are the wise men who come
the bible includes but the nativity doesn't
figures like king herod you remember king herod in in matthew 2 he he doesn't like the news that a new
king has been born and he fears the loss of privilege and status and so what does he do he arranges for
the murder of the infants in bethlehem to try and destroy god's king and that theme is here too in john
12 we see it all through john's gospel a division dividing lines drawn some will worship jesus some
will believe in jesus but others will plot to arrest and destroy and to kill it seems like there is no
middle ground jesus claims are so big his power it is so evident some worship and some will kill and
when we take it back to ourselves don't we see that we live in a world that's very much divided over
what to make of jesus we make it more personal
how does your heart how does my heart respond
to jesus as god's king
today we're going to
look at the anointing of jesus
that anointing
that helps us to think about
jesus as god's king anointing symbolic of kingship we're going to see what do we learn about
jesus as god's king in the bible and think about the different responses that we have to jesus the
king here in john 12 to help us to think about our own response
so let's think together about the anointing of king jesus we're told some important details we're given
the setting here for observations
in verse one this happened six days before the passover the great worship festival for
the people of god when they remembered
the god who rescued by sacrifice
and from the very beginning of john's gospel john chapter 1 verse 29 we have john the baptist declared
of jesus
look this is the lamb of god who takes away the sin of the world
and in god's perfect timing it was always his plan that jesus would die
at passover
to remind us that god always rescues by sacrifice ultimately
by the sacrifice of his own son
so passover is in the background also in the background part of our setting
is the raising of lazarus
and so notice that jesus came to bethany where lazarus lived
whom jesus had raised from the dead the last of the seven great signs recorded in john's gospel
that we've just finished looking at and especially that last one where jesus explicitly says this is
going to reveal the glory of god where jesus declares i am the resurrection and the life and what do we have
here at this dinner party we have walking talking eating proof of that because here is lazarus
one of the guests at this meal
and it's interesting to think that a little while later
when jesus himself
is raised from the dead we had the same lines of evidence given
jesus meeting with individuals jesus being seen
by crowds jesus eating with his disciples to prove he is real
what else do we have in terms of background we discovered in verse two
that in bethany a dinner was given in jesus honor martha serving and lazarus was among
those reclining
it's a village meal most likely was quite common at the time for people to gather together if
if an honored guest was coming into town people would gather together pull the resources
and have a meal together and so at some level this is an ordinary event
but then as mary takes that perfume and anoints jesus it becomes extraordinary
and again we can't really miss in terms of the setting for the anointing the division
that we read about the division that's clear in john's gospel
now notice in the words of the friends and the enemies of jesus nobody is denying the fact that
jesus has raised lazarus from the dead he's right there with them he's in the room
so nobody is denying that they're all agreed on that but but some choose to
to want to know more about jesus and to believe and to worship others say well
now we need to get rid of lazarus as well as getting rid of jesus their opposition is so great
they feel that threat to their position and to their security and so they want to destroy
both jesus and lazarus who becomes a really powerful witness despite the virtue of his life
so that's the the setting so we understand what's going on and this is just a week before
jesus goes to the cross now for the anointing itself verse three let's read again verse three
mary took about half a liter of pure nard an expensive perfume she poured it on jesus feet
and wiped his feet with her hair and the house was filled with the fragrance of the perfume
let's just focus for now on the extravagance of this gift judah says this perfume was worth a year's
wages put that in our terms we're talking 15 20 25 000 pound bottle of perfume cracked open and gone
seconds perhaps this family heirloom that's been passed down through the generations
is opened and poured as so as to anoint jesus and as the smell fills the house we can imagine can't we
the surprise for some the shock of what's just happened spreads through the house also
and notice with me that jesus approves of this jesus doesn't say well that's a big gift i'm not worthy
of that jesus approves of it verse seven he says leave her alone it was intended she should save this
perfume for the day of my burial then in verse eight you'll always have the poor among you but you'll not
always have me jesus says i am worthy of this worship jesus isn't saying that he's against the
poor or against ministry to the poor and we see that all through his life he spends so much time with
the poor and the marginalized and the weak and the dispossessed but he's saying very clearly to
mary and everyone who's ready to listen that this is an appropriate act this is the right time for mary
to honor and to love her king her king who is shortly going to die and one of the themes that we've seen
as we've been looking through john's gospel is that that jesus is unafraid of saying i am equal with my
father i deserve the same honor and glory as god my father and so here as he receives this act of
extravagant worship he is saying another time i am worthy of this because i am the son of god
but he also at the same time doesn't he reveal something about his kingship
he says that this has been done to prepare for my burial jesus as god's king knows that he has come to
die and the cross and and his burial are very much on the horizon for him
reminds us that all jesus did and all that jesus suffered he did as a substitute as he came under the
law becoming one of us in order to completely obey the law that we break he came as a substitute going
under the curse facing the penalty for that law that we have broken though he was sinlessly perfect
that he was willing to take the punishment that we deserve he did that to save his people and he does it
as god's obedient humble servant king all that he is doing all that he will do on the cross he does to
to show to show the glory of god to show obedience to his father to satisfy god's justice to demonstrate god's love
he is the king that god promised and here he is anointed as king but he's a king who will suffer
a king who was born to die to die for his people and this theme of kingship
i just wanted to spend some time thinking about it because it's everywhere in god's word and it's so
important for us to to understand it we think about the the christmas story and perhaps we need to keep
asking ourselves the question why would the eternal son of god leave the glory of heaven to become the baby
born in the manger and when we go to the christmas story and we'll go there this evening we discover that
he does that to save his people from their sin he leaves the glory of heaven in order to be god with us
he leaves the glory of heaven and comes to live a life of suffering here on earth because he is god's
anointed chosen king the one promised in the old testament the one the true and better king david the one who
would lead us in worship the one who would rule over us in righteousness and justice forever
now we see it in the old testament it's why we we sang sam two together to remind ourselves that for
the old testament believer their hope was in a messiah king who god would send and one thing that sam
two says it says that this king will be rebelled against and think about what's happening in the
background of john 12 think about what will happen when jesus is crucified don't we see that rebellion
reach a climax but but nevertheless sam two can declare the only option the only way of safety salvation for
people is to submit to this son who is the king talks about to kiss the son to submit to him
to use new testament language to repent of our sin to believe in him to trust him as our lord
we can also usefully i think connect like what we learn in the old testament with what we see in john's
gospel and so we read together isaiah 11 and amos 9 and there we saw imagery it's saying to us that with
the coming of god's true king is the beginning of new creation
isaiah pictures um new creation being like a a feast on the lord's mountain
there's pictures of the end to sadness the end to threat and fear and to distress the end of death
itself and a beginning of life of peace and prosperity and blessing for the people of god
and then think about john's gospel and think about the miracles that john chooses to record for us
where does he begin if you remember the first of those seven signs back in john chapter two it's the
wedding cana and galley jesus turns water into wine there's the wedding feast jesus produces joy
and people saw his glory jesus is bringing in the new creation think about all of those healing
miracles that he performs what's he doing he's bringing an end into sadness and suffering he's
saying this is what my kingdom is like this is what world is going to be like for the people who trust in me
and think about the last great sign that we just read uh the context for chapter 12 he raised
lazarus and he said i'm the resurrection and the life jesus is god's king bringing in god's kingdom
that kingdom that was promised and foretold in the old testament is now anticipated in the life of jesus
and it's the world we all want a world of perfect love and peace and joy without sadness and sickness
and death and destruction and decay and jesus is the king who's bringing in that kingdom and all
through john's gospel we see this as well the beginning of john's gospel we we see jesus meet a
man called nathanael who becomes one of his disciples and in verse 29 um nathanael announces that jesus is
the teacher he is the son of god and he is the king of israel so chapter one jesus is announced as the
king of israel then way back chapter 20 we've gone there so many times verse 31 as john explains towards
the end of his gospel why he wrote it these things are written that you may believe that jesus is the
the messiah god's anointed king the son of god and that by believing you may have life in his name so it's there
at the beginning jesus is king it's there at the end jesus is king it becomes a frame to see all of john's
gospel to see through this window that john gives us that jesus is god's promised king what do we see we see so
often he's rejected misunderstood and resisted even while some will worship and believe from john
chapter 12 through to john chapter 19 we find 14 times references to jesus as messiah jesus as king
and we discover that he is the humble and suffering king and the king of glory who will wash his disciples
feet anticipating and that he will die to wash his people from sin we will see jesus as the rejected
king as we hear the crowds cry we have no king but caesar and then as jesus is nailed to the cross
there is a sign nailed above his head this is the king of the jew the bible wants us to know it and john
wants us to know it that jesus is god's promised king he is the one we are to worship he's the one
we are to submit to and this king what does he do he comes to lay down his life for his people
he comes to bring peace between us and god by shedding his blood dealing with in his own body the sin that
separates us from a holy god he dies so that we might live and now jesus is risen and reigning
now jesus is building his kingdom in the hearts and lives of his people and jesus the king will
one day return to take us home to be with him forever jesus is worthy and what's crucial
crucial for your life and mine is the crucial truth that mary saw is that we need to understand that we need
to respond to jesus as god's promised king so that we would respond with faith
and with worship
we spent a lot of time thinking about who is jesus here's jesus the king jesus the king in the bible
because it makes sense of our passage the only thing in a sense that makes sense of our passage
we will never understand mary's worship we will never understand why she would give everything for jesus
unless we have a clear sense of who jesus is unless we understand that he is that promised king
unless we understand that he came on a rescue mission to save people like us
if we don't understand that then the idea of spending a year's wages on perfume that's gone in a few
seconds will seem perhaps shocking confusing
just as we might be shocked and confused by the idea that people could spend thousands of pounds
on a piece of fruit to give to a friend and likewise we won't appreciate the tragedy
of judas because judas is very much in this story unless we understand who is it that judas chooses to
reject and betray unless we understand what it is that judas lost when he chose to turn his back on jesus
so let's look to learn some lessons from the worship of mary let's think about three qualities of mary's faith
and worship for us to value ourselves
the first thing that we can recognize about mary's worship is that it is humble
she pours this perfume on jesus feet and wiped his feet with her hair
here wonderful portraits of mary in the gospels three times we discover jesus and mary at jesus feet
in luke chapter 10 while martha's busy serving getting things ready for dinner we find mary sitting at the
feet of jesus her master taking the posture of a disciple listening and learning
in john chapter 11 we find mary in grief and despair falling at the feet of jesus her lord and savior
and only hope for her brother who had died and then here in john chapter 12 again we find mary at the
feet of jesus taking the posture of the lowest servant john chooses to focus on on the fact that she's
washing his feet to show that humility of mary
understanding that compared to the great king she is but a servant and she wants to honor her king
so there's humility in her worship there's also a great sense of gratitude that sense that she worships
gratefully mary is acting out of a sense of deep love for jesus a deep sense of gratitude because
remember what's jesus recently done for her she has her brother back alive and well raised from the tomb
and more than that mary understands who jesus is mary understands that jesus is the messiah
that jesus has come as the resurrection and the life and there's a source of grateful joyful worship
to understand here is god's promised king and he's come to give eternal life he's come to give access to his kingdom
and we also see from mary's worship that it's wholehearted
we see that in the cost don't we she's not holding back
but rather she's giving everything she can to honor her king she doesn't care what others think about the
expense if it seems extravagant or over the top and nor does she care about what is proper
so there's that little detail there in verse three where where mary's pictured wiping his feet with her
hair and in that culture no jewish woman would ever let their hair down in public but but she cares to
honor jesus more than she cares for her own reputation or for what's proper she knows
this is the right time to honor jesus to show how much she values him as lord and king
i wonder as we come to this time of year sometimes december can be a hard time can't it's dark
it's coming towards the end of term we get tired i wonder if we find ourselves today or maybe
in this season tired from worship and service jesus
times the guest like that doesn't it can be hard work to to give of ourselves for others consistently
perhaps it can be a time when we get frustrated perhaps a lack of gratitude shown for
things that we try and do for people or perhaps frustration that that we feel like we're serving
by ourselves and we'd love for others to be able to help perhaps we come here today and if we're honest
we're kind of going through the motions of worship because we're really tired and we're done and we feel
flat we can give duty but we don't have a great sense of joy i wonder if we feel that today
not much room for god in our lives not much room for god's words in our lives not much room for the
people of god in our lives i wonder when we think about mary's worship mary's extravagant honestly does
it does it make our worship seem seem small
if that's where we are today what what should we do what's the response that we need in order to to
return to our first love to have joy and worship
we need to look to jesus in the gospel again
we need to remember our king again to see in jesus as loving king who came to serve you
to give his life for you the one who loves the church consistently sacrificially holding nothing back from us
to understand he is worthy of all our service he is worthy of all of our lives
we need to recognize that nothing we give of ourselves even if we were to give everything
nothing we do even if we spend all our lives serving compares with how jesus loves us
and how jesus serves us we need to go back to the gospel for our sense of of energy in our worship
to return to jesus our king as our first love for our motivation for worship and service
and to recognize too that when our love fails
and it does we're honest our love for jesus fails at times we need to understand that as christians his
love for us never fails while our service so often can feel cold and feel limited
that's never the way jesus serves us we need to understand jesus never stops praying for us
jesus never stops sending his spirit to help and to comfort and to encourage us
jesus never stops holding on to his people in his hands and in his heart
so what we need to do is we need to see his mary soul to pray for a heart like mary's
that will be humbled and humbled again by god's amazing love and ascending of jesus
to be thankful for jesus to be overwhelmed by the sacrifice that he came to make for us
so that our hearts it would and would again overflow with worship
but you know it's not just mary that we're invited to learn from
john john the gospel writer who loves contrasts puts mary and judas side by side here
let's read again in verse 4 and 5 one of his disciples judas iscariot who is later to betray him
objected why wasn't this perfume sold in the money given to the poor it was worth a year's wages
he didn't say this because he cared about the poor but because he was a thief there are some warnings
for us from judas here i think the first warning is that of apathy
what's the the sense we get of judas as we read his reaction
jesus is not worth that big sacrificial worship
maybe you should avoid the extremes of religious devotion
we need to be wary of that apathy that makes god god seem small that makes jesus seem common
there's also a warning too about hypocrisy because judas sounds really good and he sounds really pious
doesn't he oh you should you should have taken that money to should have taken that perfume to the bank and
and cashed in and then you should have spent the rest of the year caring for the needs of the poor and
serving them sounded good perhaps he found people agreeing with him within the crowd but his true motive he was a thief
he's what to steal from their money a dark heart clothed in fine-sounding religious language
and i think when we look at judas we have that warning against idolatry
and once again
there is a real tragedy in judas life and you think of all that he saw
he was there with the disciples for three years
he saw every one of the miracles that jesus performed he saw time and again the love and mercy of jesus the son of god god's
promise king think about all that he heard jesus so many times uh bringing words with
authority and power speaking of himself as god and the only way to god he heard all of that and he saw all
of that and yet in the end of the day what did he choose
he chose to put money over jesus he chose to sell out his friend for some
coinage money not jesus had his heart
judas didn't think jesus was worthy of a blessing and glory and honor
judas and the religious leaders they had the same access to jesus
they saw and heard many of the same things
but they chose to reject they chose to despise they chose to ignore
we need to ask ourselves the question where where are we today when it comes to king jesus
how are things with our hearts when it comes to jesus
because the question we all need to answer as we think about this passage is
is that one that we sang earlier is he worthy i love that reflection revelation 5 let me encourage
you to read revelation 5 some point this week it's a it's a glorious vision of jesus
god's chosen king who's able to bring about all god's purposes and history receiving all the worship of
heaven
and the angels are singing he is worthy of all that blessing and honor and glory
is that a song we can honestly sing from our hearts
do we think he's worthy of the first place in our lives and does it show
are we submitting today to his good and loving rule are we ready to be loyal to him to follow his
commands because how you and i answer well it matters for today but it matters for all eternity
we have a really stark warning in the bible from the life of judas a warning about about as it were
keeping jesus at arm's length arm's length not becoming too attached to him but rather being
attached to money about being happy with a religious show with an unchanged heart
about placing other people or things or money over king jesus
if that's where we find ourselves today pray that god would rescue you from that cold heart
towards jesus your king so that rather you would see him and you would want to submit to him
but we learn too from mary don't we that wonderful beautiful picture of worship
this holding nothing back sacrificial loving gift fit for god's king
may god give to each of us eyes like mary that recognize jesus for who he truly is
hearts like mary that would truly worship
is he worthy
to answer that question look to jesus this christmas
i consider again the wonderful story of jesus coming leaving the glory of heaven to become
one of us think of the message of easter that jesus dies as a a loving sacrifice a loving sacrifice
for our unbelief for our lack of love for our sin he takes it and he pays for it
think about easter sunday jesus risen so we might live
think about jesus the king who came not to be served but to serve and to give his life
as a ransom for many may the song of all our hearts be he is
worthy let's pray briefly
lord god we thank you for your words and we thank you for the wonderful devotion and worship of mary
thank you for her humility for her gratitude for her wholehearted loving sacrifice because she knew
jesus was her king and her savior and her lord lord may you give us hearts like mary that are ready
to love and to serve and to give in response to all that you have done for us in jesus
lord please save us from being like judas from being cold-hearted from being half-hearted and apathetic
for putting other things or other people ahead of jesus as lord and king
lord may we all be able to say from the bottom of our hearts he is worthy of all
honor and glory and praise please help us by your spirit to see him more and more clearly
so that we might love him more and more deeply i we ask in jesus name amen