Good morning. So, this morning we are reading from Matthew chapter 26 and verse 1 to 29.
So, starting verse 1, we read.
When Jesus had finished all these sayings, he said to his disciples,
You know that after two days the Passover is coming, and the Son of Man will be delivered up to be crucified.
Then the chief priests and the elders of the people gathered in the place of the high priest, whose name was Caiaphas,
and plotted together in order to arrest Jesus by stealth and kill him.
But they said, Not during the feast, lest there be an uproar among the people.
Now, when Jesus was at Bethany in the house of Simon the leopard,
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.
And when the disciples saw it, they were indignant, saying,
Why this waste? For this could have been sold for a large sum and given to the poor.
But Jesus, aware of this, said to them,
Why do you trouble the woman?
For she has done a beautiful thing to me.
For you always have the poor with you, but you will not always have me.
In pouring this ointment on my body, she has done it to prepare me for burial.
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.
Then one of the twelve, whose name was Judas Iscariot,
went to the chief priests and said,
What will you give me if I deliver him over to you?
And they paid him thirty pieces of silver.
And from that moment, he sought the opportunity to betray him.
Now, on the first day of unleavened bread,
the disciples came to Jesus, saying,
Where will you have us prepare for you to eat the Passover?
He said,
Go into the city to a certain man and say to him,
The teacher says,
My time is at hand.
I will keep the Passover at your house with my disciples.
And the disciples did,
as Jesus had directed them,
and they prepared the Passover.
When it was evening,
he reclined at the table with the twelve.
And as they were eating, he said,
Truly, I say to you,
one of you will betray me.
And they were sorrowful,
and began to say to him,
one after another,
Is it I, Lord?
He answered,
He who has dipped his hand in the dish with me will betray me.
The Son of Man goes as it is written of him.
But woe to that man by whom the Son of Man is betrayed.
It will have been better for that man if he had not been born.
Judas, who would betray him, answered,
Is it I, Rabbi?
He said to him,
You have said so.
Now as they were eating,
Jesus took bread,
and after blessing it,
broke it and gave it to the disciples,
and said,
Take, eat.
This is my body.
And he took a cup,
and he had given thanks.
He gave it to them,
saying,
Drink of it, all of you.
For this is my blood of the covenant,
which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins.
I tell you,
I will not drink again of these fruits of the vine
until that day when I drink it with you
in my Father's kingdom.
This is the word of God.
Thank you, Soda and Florence.
Let's pray together as we come before God's word.
Father God, thank you for your word that gives life.
We think of Psalm 19,
speaks about how your word enlightens our eyes,
gives life to the soul.
It's sweeter than honey and great riches.
God, as we come to your word this morning,
we pray that you will speak to us.
We pray that you will feed our souls,
that you will encourage us.
God, we pray that through your word,
you will draw us to yourself.
And Lord, help us to be men and women.
Help us to be a church in the great city of Hong Kong
that is like Mary,
that worships you wholeheartedly
with everything that we have.
We pray this in your great and your gracious name.
Amen.
On August the 30th, 1993,
long before half of you were born,
an American musician and singer-songwriter
by the name of Michael Lee Adde,
he had a stage name called Meat Loaf.
I don't know if any of you remember him,
which is a terrible stage name, by the way.
But he released this song,
his one and only hit single.
Anyone know what it was?
Bernard knows what it is.
I would do anything for love,
but I would not do that.
Anybody know that song?
I would do anything for love,
but I would not do that.
And Michael Adde says,
over the last 30 years,
he actually passed away last year,
over the last 30 years,
the number one question he's been asked
in almost every interview he's ever given,
what is the that?
What is the thing that you would not be willing to do?
Friends, let me ask you,
what would you be willing to do for love?
What would you not be willing to do?
What is your limit,
the one thing that you would not do,
even for the one that you love?
Well, this morning,
we are looking at this passage of Scripture,
and it's all about love.
And it's about two people,
and their extraordinary thing
that they will do
for the one that they love.
This passage is broken up into two sections.
The first one, 1 to 16,
and the second one, 17 to 29.
And so let's look at it together.
And so the first one
is the extraordinary love
of an unknown worshiper.
The extraordinary love
of an unknown worshiper.
Now, this section is full of contrasts,
and Matthew wants us to see
the various contrasts
that are happening here.
We have the high priest,
and the leaders,
and the religious leaders
on the one hand,
and we have an unnamed woman
on the other hand.
We have all the social elites,
the who's who of Jerusalem,
and this social outcast
who meets in the house
of another social outcast,
the leper.
We have the palace of Caiaphas
and the house of Simon the leper.
We have plotting and scheming
done in secret,
and we have the open worship
and devotion of this lady.
And Matthew's trying to show us something
by contrasting the actions
and the thinking
and the behavior
of this woman,
who he doesn't name,
and all the people
that are around her.
And on either side of the story
of this lady who brings
this expensive perfume,
pours it out in Jesus,
on either side of her
are these religious people,
Caiaphas, the elders,
the leaders,
and Judas Iscariot,
one of the disciples,
people who should have known
who Jesus was,
people who should have been
full of worship
and devotion
and adoration,
and yet somehow
they blinded to who Jesus is.
They cannot see him.
And so they don't worship him.
And yet in the middle of that,
we see this lady,
unnamed, unknown in many ways,
and yet she brings
this extravagant worship
to Jesus.
And so let's look at,
let's look at what she does.
Let's look at verse 6 onwards
with me.
Matthew doesn't name her,
but we actually know
from John's Gospel
she is Mary,
who is the sister
of Martha and Lazarus,
that family that Jesus
loved so well.
And she comes to Jesus,
this is a few days
before his death
and his crucifixion,
she comes to Jesus
with an alabaster flask
full of very,
very expensive perfume.
perfume.
We know it is about
a year's wages
for a kind of
entry-level job.
Think 200,000 Hong Kong,
right?
Perfume, 200,000.
And she comes to Jesus
and one of the other Gospels
tells us that she
breaks the jar open,
she doesn't just uncork it
and gently put the flask back.
The flask itself
was extremely precious,
not the kind of thing
that you'd find
in an ordinary person's home.
Some commentators said
it's the kind of thing
that would be passed down
as a family heirloom.
So it's an extremely
precious flask.
She breaks it open
and she pours
the whole lot
on top of Jesus
in this act of worship
and devotion.
Now for us,
that may seem like
a very strange thing to do,
right?
Someone comes as a guest
at a dinner party
and you bring
your most expensive perfume
and pour it on top of them.
But in the first century,
this was a common way
of showing hospitality,
showing care to your guests.
When any guests
came to your house,
you would wash their feet
with water,
you would pour oil
on their head
as a way of showing care
and hospitality to them.
And so in some ways,
this is a usual act,
but what's unusual
is the extent of it,
how lavish
and extraordinary she is.
She holds nothing back.
Taking this family heirloom
kind of vase,
this extremely expensive perfume,
and in one instant
pours it all out
on Jesus.
The point here
is that here we have
this unnamed woman
in Matthew's gospel list,
someone of low social standing.
She's not in the temple,
she's not in the palace,
she's in the house of a leper,
another social outcast,
and yet she so loves
and so devotes herself to Jesus,
she holds nothing back from him.
Nothing is too valuable,
too precious,
two off limits
in her worship
and her devotion to Jesus.
And yet contrast that
just to the person
who comes after us.
Look at verse 14, right?
Then one of the twelve,
in other words,
one of the disciples,
those who have been with Jesus
for three years following him,
whose name was Judas Iscariot,
went to the chief priest
and said,
what will you give me
if I deliver him over to you?
And they paid him
thirty silver coins.
Judas has just seen
this woman
pouring out
a year's wages
of extravagant love
and worship.
And what does he do?
He makes plans
to go to the leaders
and he sells Jesus
for four months' wages,
just a fraction of the price.
The price of a common slave.
Judas comes in
and sells Jesus
to them.
While Mary is lavishly
loving Jesus,
the son of glory,
Judas is making plans
to enrich his own pockets
and line his own pockets.
And Matthew's point is this.
Who is Jesus
and what is he worth?
Matthew's point is
he wants us to see
who is Jesus to us.
How do we view Jesus?
Because here are
a whole lot of people,
some very religious people,
some very people
that have followed Jesus
and they've followed
all the rules
and yet they don't see him
for who he's worth.
In fact, actually,
when they see Jesus,
they see something else.
They see,
how can I enrich myself?
And here is a simple lady.
She doesn't have
all the bells and whistles,
maybe not very educated,
certainly not social elite,
certainly not in the inner circle,
and yet she sees Jesus
for who he is.
She sees him
for all that he's worth.
And the answer
that Matthew wants us to see
is Jesus Christ
is worth
the most extravagant worship
and the most costly love.
And that it's not a waste
to pour out your life,
even the things
that are most precious
and valuable to us,
it's not a waste
to pour that out
in the service of Christ,
our King.
At the church office,
we've been trying
to rebuild our website recently
because we closed down the app
and so we're trying
to make our website
mobile friendly.
And so Jeremy and I
have been looking
at the website
a bit recently
and this week
I looked at our website
and do you know
what the front page
of our website says?
Anybody know?
The opening line
says something like this,
loving God deeply,
delighting in the gospel lavishly.
And then look
at the first line there,
we as a church family
believe that God
is magnificent,
deserving of
wholehearted devotion.
Well,
one of the things
that I've learned
is never believe
what any organization
writes on their website,
right?
I mean,
any organization,
whether it's
Catholic Pacific
or a church
or HSBC,
they're going to tell you
what they want you
to think,
right?
Or they're going to tell you
what they aspire
to be like,
but what they aspire
to be like
and what's in reality
may be two very
different things.
I wasn't sure
whether to laugh
or smile or cry
when I saw this
this week
and I was preparing
for this sermon,
right?
Loving God deeply,
loving God extravagantly,
loving God lavishly.
Is that true of us?
Is that true of me?
Here we see
what that means.
What does it mean
to love God deeply?
Well,
Mary shows us.
Matthew wants us
to see that Jesus Christ
is worthy
of the most lavish
and deep devotion
because all around Jesus
are these religious people,
right?
People who should have seen
what Jesus was worth
and yet they miss it
completely.
Look at the first one.
Look at verse 3 and 4
with me.
It says,
verse 3,
Then the chief priests
and the elders
of the people
gathered in the palace
of the high priest,
Caiaphas,
plotting together
in order to arrest Jesus
by stealth
and kill him.
Now,
if you're familiar
with the Gospels,
it's easy to read
over that quickly,
but just slow down
and think about it.
Who was the high priest?
The high priest
is the most important person
in the nation of Israel.
He's the person
that oversees
all worship,
all the temple,
all the sacrifices.
He's the one person
that oversees
all other priests.
Everything that happens
in the temple compound
is his responsibility.
And so,
all the priests
who day in and day out
are offering worship
and praise
and incense
and praise to God,
he oversees all of it.
He's the one person
who represents
the nation of Israel
as he goes
into the most holy place,
the inner part
of the sanctuary,
once a year
as Israel's representative
to encounter
the presence of God.
He's the one person
that oversees
all the sacrifices.
And what weekend
is coming up?
Passover,
when almost a million people
are going to flood
into Jerusalem
and offer sacrifices
of lambs
in remembrance
of Passover.
And Caiaphas
is the one person
who should oversee
all of it.
And yet,
what's on his mind
this weekend?
Not worship,
not sacrifice,
but murder.
They're plotting
and they're scheming
how to secretly
arrest Jesus
and kill him
because of the threat
to their own
political ambitions.
You know,
Caiaphas was quite
a shrewd guy.
At the time
of the first century,
the Romans had said
that the high priest
could only be in office
for one year at a time,
one year term,
and then he had to hand over.
Caiaphas made a deal
with the Romans
and ended up in office
for 18 years
as he lined his own pockets
and enriched himself.
And then,
in John's gospel,
he issues these amazing words.
He says to a couple of people,
don't you understand
it's better for us
that one man,
Jesus,
should die for all the people
rather than the whole nation
should perish.
Now,
Caiaphas is not talking
about Jesus' sacrificial death
on the cross
for the sins of the world.
What he's talking about
is Jesus is causing
an uproar
and the Romans
are going to get tired of us
and they are going to come
and stamp out our authority
and take control.
Better for us
to kill Jesus
than we lose
our favored status
with the Romans.
So who's Caiaphas
thinking about here?
He's thinking about himself,
right?
Here before him
is the King of Glory,
Jesus Christ,
the eternal God
and all he's thinking about
is his pockets.
Or think about Judas,
right?
What's going on with him?
He has somebody
who knows how to say
the right things,
do the right things,
act the part
and yet
there's a whole other side
to his life
where nobody's watching
that's going on
and he thinks
that nobody knows
what's going on.
He's double-sided
except Jesus,
of course,
knows what's going on.
Jesus says to him,
one of you will betray me
and Judas says,
not I, Lord, right?
And Jesus just
quietly nods
and says,
yes,
it's as you've said.
And so even though
he's already gone
and negotiated
the price for Jesus' head,
here he is
at the Passover meal
taking the bread
and the cup
and celebrating
the grace of God
to God's people
and yet all the while
there's a whole other
double life
that's going on
behind the scenes,
right?
And what about
the disciples?
They possibly have
the best intentions,
they see Mary's
extravagant worship
and immediately
they think of
all the good things
that could have been done
and so they're annoyed,
they're indignant,
they say,
what a waste,
all this,
we could have done
all sorts of good ministry,
we could have had
our name in light,
we could have served
the poor,
we could have expanded
our ministry
and yet even their
good intentions
doesn't stop them
from Jesus' rebuke.
Verse 10,
why do you trouble
the woman?
She has not wasted
the money,
she's done something
beautiful.
Verse 11,
you will always have
the poor with you
but you will not
always have me.
Jesus is saying here
that to love Jesus
above all
with all of our
affections,
all of our worth,
all of our wealth,
with everything we have
is never a waste.
The extraordinary love
of an unnamed woman.
Friends,
who is Jesus Christ
and what is he worth
to us this morning?
Maybe put it another way,
the question Matthew
is asking us is,
what's more important
to us than Jesus Christ
this morning?
What holds us back
from giving our entirety
to him?
Now for some of us,
maybe it's not finances
and wealth
in her situation
that was it
but maybe for some of us
it's our reputation,
right?
We think,
okay money,
I can dispose of that
but what people think
of me,
what my family thinks
of me,
what my colleagues
will think of me.
Friends,
this woman must have
known and seen
and heard the grumblings
of people going on
around her
and yet she comes
and issues her all.
For some of us,
our reputation
is what holds us back.
Maybe for some of us
it's a relationship,
right?
It's someone you
we're dating,
we think I'll give
anything for Jesus
as long as he doesn't
touch that relationship.
That is something
I cannot give up.
Friends,
maybe for some of us
it's a career,
it's a job,
you've dedicated
years to studying,
your parents have
paid for your education,
you feel like I could
never walk away
from this career
that I've dedicated
myself to.
But maybe Jesus
is asking you
to take a bold step
of faith
and to contemplate
doing something
extravagant for him.
Maybe for some of us
it's the cost
to bear
of forgiving
somebody that's hurt us.
You know,
Jesus says,
as I've forgiven you,
so you should forgive
one another.
It may be
you feel like
that's the one thing
that I hold on to
and it's too much
to let go
of the right
that I feel
aggrieved by
someone else's hurt.
Friends,
what would we be
willing to give up
for Jesus?
Matthew shows us here
that Jesus Christ
is worthy
of extraordinary love,
extraordinary devotion,
such lavish
pouring out
of our lives
in worship
for Jesus.
Jesus.
Now,
the question,
that's the first part.
Now,
the question is this,
how do we love
Jesus like this?
I mean,
how do we become
the kind of people,
let me put it this way,
I long for myself
and I long for us
as a church
to love Jesus like this.
We've said it
many times before,
we don't need
to be a famous church,
we don't need
to be a big church,
we don't need
to be the talk
of the town,
but I long for us
to be a church
that worships
and loves Jesus
like this.
But the question is,
how do we become
like that?
And we were talking
before the service,
you know,
us as leaders,
we can really try
our best to manipulate you.
We can beat you
over the back,
proverbially,
say,
you must be better,
you must be more devoted,
don't you know
how amazing Jesus is?
You don't worship
Him like that,
you terrible Christians,
okay,
we can shout at you.
We can manipulate you
and say,
well,
you'll get all these
rewards in heaven
if you really love
Him like that.
You know,
we can do
all sorts of things.
But actually,
that doesn't work,
right?
The human heart
doesn't respond
to manipulation,
doesn't respond
to pressure,
doesn't respond
to being scolded.
So how do we
as a church
become the kind
of church
that loves Jesus
like this
from the heart,
not just out of
pressure or manipulation?
What did Mary know,
what did Mary see
that caused her
to give not just
this expensive perfume,
but actually her whole self?
I think part of the clue
is found in verse 12
and 13.
Look at it with me.
Look at verse 12.
Jesus says,
in pouring out this perfume
on my body,
she has done it
to prepare me
for burial.
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.
somehow Mary saw
or connected
or understood
who Jesus was
and what he had
come to do.
I don't think Mary
understood the full gospel.
I don't think
she understood it all,
but somehow
the eyes of her heart
had been opened
to see
that Jesus Christ
was not just a good man,
not just a great teacher.
Somehow she had come
to see that he had
to die
and that he would
rise again
and that the good news
of the gospel
that the prophets
had spoken about
for hundreds of years
was somehow
connected with him.
Remember Mary
and Martha
and Lazarus
were some of
Jesus' closest friends.
In John 11
when Jesus raises
Lazarus from the dead,
just before that
he has a conversation
with Martha,
Mary's sister,
and he says to her,
I am the resurrection
and the life.
Whoever believes in me,
though he die,
yet shall he live.
He says,
do you believe these things?
And she says,
yes Lord,
I believe that you
are the Christ
the Son of God
who is coming
into the world.
So Mary's sister Martha
says,
you are the Christ,
the anointed one,
the long-awaited Messiah King
who has come
into the world
to save us.
And I think Mary
had heard
of the many times
that Jesus says,
the Son of Man
is going to Jerusalem,
will be killed
and will rise
on the third day.
And somewhere along the line
she's connected the dots
and understood
this is the Messiah King.
And so she knew
about the extraordinary love
of an unlikely Savior.
And that's our second point today.
The extraordinary love
of an unnamed woman
is fueled
and motivated
by the extraordinary love
of an unlikely Savior
and deliverer.
Because look at what happens
in verse 17
and onwards.
This section
is all about
the Passover.
Look at how many times
Matthew
writes the word Passover
in the first three verses.
He says,
the disciples came to Jesus
saying,
where will you have us
prepare the Passover?
Jesus says,
go into the city
and tell the man,
I want to prepare
the Passover
at your house.
So the disciples
did as Jesus
had directed them
and they prepared
the Passover.
This entire section
is all about
the Passover.
But what was
the Passover?
Well,
the Passover
was this feast,
this celebration
in Israel.
It's the most important
celebration
in the history
of Israel.
It's like
Chinese New Year
and Christmas
and Easter
all rolled into one.
Where literally
almost every family
in the whole of Israel
will descend
on Jerusalem,
a couple of million people,
and they will celebrate
God's deliverance
from Egypt,
how God saved
and delivered
His people
by the blood
of the Lamb.
And why is it called
the Passover?
Because when God's people
were slaves
in Egypt,
one-off thousand years
before Jesus came,
how did God
deliver them?
Well,
God brings His judgment
on the nation of Israel
and on Pharaoh
because of His wickedness.
And so,
all of Egypt,
the firstborn son
of every family
is going to die.
God had warned them
and spoken to them
and called them
to repent
and to turn
and to listen to Him.
They won't have it
and so God says,
fine,
have things your way,
but there's a price.
And the consequences
for your wickedness
and rebellion
is that the firstborn son
of every family
is going to die
except for those
who will trust in God.
And what does it look like
to trust them?
They are to take a lamb
and to sacrifice it
and to take the blood
and to put the blood
in a bowl
and they're to stand
at the doorway
of their house
and they're to paint
the door frames
of their house
in the shape
of a cross
with the blood
of the lamb.
And that night
as judgment comes
over Israel,
every house
that has the blood
of the lamb
painted the shape
of the cross
in the door frames
of their house
will be passed over
and they will be saved.
And so those families
are delivered and saved.
And so the next day,
Pharaoh says,
okay, fine,
get out of Egypt.
And a couple of hundred
of thousand,
maybe million people
leave Egypt,
are saved and delivered,
set free
from an enemy
that they could not
save themselves from.
They are saved
by the blood of the lamb
as judgment passes over them
because they trusted in God.
And so every year
on the second month
of the year,
all of Israel
comes to Jerusalem,
they come to the temple,
they sacrifice lambs
and they celebrate
the Passover,
the time when God
saved them
by grace alone
from an enemy
that they could not
save themselves from.
And if you celebrated
the Cedar meal
with us over the last
few years at Easter,
you'll remember
some of the elements,
right?
All these amazing elements
at the Passover meal.
They eat the bitter herbs
to remember
the bitterness
of their time in Egypt.
They drink salt water
to remember the tears
that they cried
as they cried out to God
for deliverance.
They eat this mixture
of nuts and herbs
and fruit,
kind of like a mixture
of the clay
that they had to make
these clay bricks.
And they drink
this cup of wine
and every cup of wine
they proclaim the blessing
from Exodus chapter 6,
right?
Except this year,
in Matthew 26,
something's going to be different.
The Passover's
going to be different.
Jesus turns
this 2,000 year old tradition
on its head
because this year
Jesus rewrites the script.
And so as Jesus
is with his disciples
in Jerusalem
about to celebrate
the Passover,
the time when God
saved his people
from judgment,
Jesus rewrites the script.
And rather than picking up
the unleavened bread
and breaking in various pieces
and saying,
Blessed art thou,
Lord God of heaven,
creator of all things,
for from you
come the bread of the earth,
Jesus takes the unleavened bread
and he breaks it
and he says,
Take.
Eat this.
This is my body
that is broken for you
for your deliverance.
And rather than taking
a cup of wine
and saying,
Blessed are you,
Lord God of heaven,
creator of the earth,
from you come the fruit of the vine,
Jesus takes the wine,
the third cup,
and he says,
Take and drink this.
This is my blood
that is going to be poured out
for you
for your deliverance.
Friends,
you see what Jesus is saying here?
The Passover and the Exodus
is what constituted
the people of God.
It's what made them
the people of God.
The people of God
and the nation of Israel
were saved by God's grace.
That's what made them
who they were.
And Jesus now comes
and he says,
I am the true lamb of God
that is going to be sacrificed.
I am going to be sacrificed
to save God's people
that all those who trust in me
will be saved from judgment to come.
Not just from Pharaoh,
not just from Egypt,
but from hell,
from judgment,
for all eternity.
Jesus is instituting
a new covenant
the covenant
that Moses and Jeremiah
and Ezekiel spoke about.
A covenant
where all those
who come to him
and trust in him
will be saved
from their sins,
past, present,
and future,
forever.
Forgiveness for all people.
Where those
who were once rebels
will be transformed
into his family,
to sons and daughters.
Jesus comes
and he says
that I will save
God's people
by my extraordinary love.
The extraordinary love
of an unlikely savior.
And throughout this passage,
Jesus is entirely
in control of everything.
Look at verse 2.
I don't know if you remember.
Verse 2 says,
Jesus says,
after two days,
the Passover is coming,
the Son of Man
will be delivered up
and crucified.
The whole of Matthew's gospel
has been moving
in this climax.
And now,
over this passage
lies the shadow of Calvary.
And yet,
Jesus is unflinching.
He's not one bit concerned.
Jesus knows
what Judas is going to do.
He knows
what the high priest
is talking about.
He knows
every single bit of detail.
He's unflinching.
Because Jesus
is orchestrating
everything towards the cross.
Because this is why he came.
To die on the cross
for us.
Look at verse 5.
It says,
I love this.
It says,
Caiaphas says,
let's kill Jesus,
but not during the Passover,
unless there be an uproar
amongst the people.
So,
Caiaphas says,
listen,
let's wait for the Passover
to be over
and then you'll kill Jesus.
Except it didn't work out
how Caiaphas wanted,
right?
When did Jesus die?
Well,
John's Gospel tells us
that it seems
that at the very moment
that thousands of lambs
are being sacrificed
in the temple,
up on the hill
behind the temple
is the true Lamb of God
breathing his very last
at that very moment.
See,
Caiaphas didn't want Jesus
to die of Passover,
but Jesus is orchestrating
the whole thing
because he's the true
Lamb of God.
Friends,
we started off saying
that this passage
is about the extraordinary
love of two people.
It's about Mary's
extraordinary love
for the Messiah
that she's come to love,
Jesus Christ.
But even more than that,
it's about Jesus'
extraordinary love
for people like you and I.
That he would go to the cross
and take on our sin
and our shame
and our brokenness
and our rebellion
and our guilt.
Jesus would go to the cross
for sinners like you and I.
that we can know him
and love him
and be included
in his family.
That now we really
can worship him
and adore him
as he deserves.
In John chapter 11,
we spoke about it earlier,
when Jesus
hears that Lazarus
is ill,
John tells us,
he says,
now Jesus loved Martha
and her sister Mary
and Lazarus.
Jesus loved this family.
We saw earlier
Mary's love for Jesus
radical and extravagant,
deep and personal.
But friends,
that's nothing compared
to Jesus' radical love
for the world
for sinners like us.
Radical and extravagant,
deep and deeply personal.
That Jesus,
the Son of God,
would suffer for you and I.
And friends,
you know how we,
like Mary,
can give up everything
and worship him?
It's only by knowing
his love for us.
It's the extravagant love
of Jesus
that fuels our love
for him.
And the point here
is only as we see
Christ's love for us
can we actually
in any way
love him in return.
In 2017,
there was a British
parliamentarian,
politician
called Tim Farron.
He was the leader
of the Liberal Democratic Party,
which is the third
biggest party.
They're not the Labour
or the Conservatives.
But in 2017,
they were kind of
like the kingpins.
It was quite a powerful position
as the Labour and Conservatives
were fighting for power.
And Tim Farron
was the leader
of the party.
And one day,
his party
makes some decisions
that go against
his convictions
as a follower of Jesus.
And so he resigns
as the party leader.
And it was a remarkable
decision
because he's in his 40s,
because he's at the high
point of his career.
He's kind of the top
of his career.
He couldn't progress
any further.
And out of nowhere,
he resigns
as the leader
of the party.
And he almost demotes
himself to some,
you know,
backbencher,
ordinary parliamentarian.
And someone comes to him
and says,
why would you do that?
I mean,
you've got,
you're at the top
of your career.
Why would you walk
away from it now?
And Tim Farron quoted
the words from the old hymn
when I surveyed
the wondrous cross.
He says,
were the whole realm
of nature mine.
They were an offering
far too small.
Love so amazing,
so divine,
demands my life,
my soul,
my all.
See, friends,
at Watermark,
we talk about Jesus
and the gospel
and his grace a lot.
And the grace of God
is not meant to make us lazy.
We're not meant to say,
oh, Jesus died on the cross,
I can do whatever I want.
I can sin however I want
because Jesus covered it all,
right?
Who cares?
No, no, friends,
the love of Christ
is so amazing,
so divine,
so extravagant.
It's meant to cause
a fireball of explosion
in our hearts
that says,
Jesus,
have my life,
my soul,
my life,
my all.
Friends,
it's entirely impossible
to be very religious
and yet end up
like Judas Iscariot.
It's entirely possible
to be very religious
and end up
like Caiaphas.
How are we going
to be those
that are so in love,
so enamored
with Jesus Christ
that we pour out
our all with him?
Ironically,
it's not by looking
at Mary and saying,
I want to be more like her.
It's not by looking
at Mary and saying,
what are the three lessons
we can learn
from her life?
It's actually forgetting
about Mary altogether.
It's forgetting
about ourselves altogether.
It's by looking at Jesus
and seeing what he did
on the cross for us.
And as we see
the extraordinary love
of Christ
for sinners like us,
it will melt our hearts
to love him in return.
This is how we love
like Mary.
Not by looking at her,
but by looking at Jesus.
Friends,
is there anything
that you won't do for love?
Anything that's too far,
too hard to let go of?
Come to Jesus
and let his extraordinary love
melt your heart
that you too
can worship him
as he deserves.
Let's pray together.
Lord Jesus,
we must confess
that as we look
at this passage,
we don't love you
anything like
what you deserve.
Father,
I must confess
that my heart
is probably more closer
to that of Caiaphas,
thinking about my own kingdom,
my own will,
my own life,
probably closer
to Judas Iscariot,
thinking about
how I can enrich myself
in really loving you
wholeheartedly.
Jesus,
this morning we confess
we need your grace,
not only to save us
from our sins,
but to change our hearts.
Jesus,
we need your extravagant love
to come and melt our hearts
to love you in return.
And so Christ,
I pray,
won't you come
and do that amongst us.
Lord Jesus,
as we come to the communion table now
and we take the elements,
I pray,
God,
open the eyes of our hearts
to see our depravity
and our sin,
to see our hopeless condition,
to see how utterly lost
we were without you,
and to see your great mercy
and your great love for us.
God,
may we see in these elements
this morning,
more than just a wafer
and some juice,
but Jesus,
the Son of glory
and His amazing love for us.
And God,
come and change us.