Alright brethren, let's go to
John chapter 12. Then Jesus, six days before the Passover, came to Bethany, where Lazarus
was, which had been dead, whom he raised from the dead. There
they made him a supper, and Martha served. But Lazarus was one of
them that sat at the table with him, then took Mary a pound of
ointment of spikenard, very costly, and anointed the feet of Jesus,
and wiped his feet with her hair, And the house was filled with
the odor of the ointment. Now this was in the house there at Bethany,
in the house of Simon the leper. There was another occasion similar
to this in the house of Simon the Pharisee. Simon was a common
name. But this is in the house of Simon
the leper and Lazarus, who had been dead, who the Lord raised,
he's there. And Mary and Martha and Lazarus
and all the other brethren that are there, they're just overjoyed
at what Christ had done for them in saving them by grace. And
so they wanted to show their gratitude for Christ. And they
made Him a supper. They made Him a supper. It wasn't
for Lazarus. This was for Christ. They made
Him a supper. That house was full of joy. You
can just picture, we've had our gatherings and everybody's talking
and fellowshipping with one another and you can just picture that
house full of brethren and they're having a time of rejoicing and
they're seated around the table and Christ is speaking and they're
just listening to Him and they're rejoicing in Him. A time of great
rejoicing. First of all, I want you to think
about this. It's the great blessing of Christ
to come to our town. That's a great blessing. It says
there that Lord Jesus came to Bethany. This is a great blessing
when Christ comes to your town. There were a lot of towns, a
lot of cities that our Lord did not go to. He passed by them
when He walked this earth. But our Lord came to Bethany. They were blessed. The Lord came
to their town. And not only that, there were
a lot of houses in Bethany that our Lord didn't go to. But He
went to this house. Came to this particular house
and that was the house that was blessed because He came there.
And there were some people in that house that He didn't come
to. The ones that were blessed were
the ones He came to in saving grace and revealed Himself in. They were blessed. He came to
this town, He came to this house, He came to His particular people
in this house because He everlastingly loves His own. You know, the
Lord forbid Paul to preach in certain places. Sent him to other
places and forbid him to preach in certain places. It says over
in Acts 16.6, when they had gone through Phrygia and the region
of Galatia, they were forbidden of the Holy Ghost to preach the
Word in Asia. God forbid them. And after they
had come to Mycenae, they thought they would go into Bithynia,
but the Spirit suffered them not. saw a vision, appeared to Paul,
and a man of Macedonia prayed him, saying, Come over into Macedonia
and help us. And then he gathered assuredly
the Lord had sent them to preach the gospel in Macedonia. So he
went there. They went there. The Lord directed
Paul to Philippi. Then he directed him to a place
by the river. And then there, among those people
at the river, the Lord called out his particular child, Lydia,
revealed himself in her and gave her faith in Christ. Then after
that, the Lord had Paul arrested for preaching the gospel in Philippi,
put him in prison. And now that would have appeared
that the Lord's purpose was frustrated and Paul's mission was compromised
because he got thrown in prison. No, the Lord put him there. because
he had an elect child who was the jailer. And Paul preached
the gospel to him and to all in his house. And God called
out that jailer and many in his house. And that was the Lord
establishing the church at Philippi, the Philippian church. That's
how he did it. So brethren, consider it a great,
great lesson when the Lord comes to your town, to your house,
to you in particular. He passes by many. He passes
by many. He only comes to those He chose
in eternity, those He everlastingly loved. It's a great, great blessing. Never take it for granted. There
is an eternity of blessings in this one statement. Then the
Lord Jesus came to Bethany. There's an eternity of blessing
in that. Then secondly, behold the Lord's love for His people
by considering the time of this, the time of this supper. It says,
then Jesus, six days before the Passover, came to Bethany. Now the Lord is all-knowing God.
He knows everything. And He knew everything that was
transpiring around Him. He ordained it. He's God. He
knew everything that was happening. And this was a dangerous, dangerous,
dangerous, tumultuous time. This was a dangerous time. Christ
raising Lazarus was the last straw for the Pharisees. We saw
last time, at the time this was going on during this week, they
were counseling together, either right before this or right after,
it's kind of hard to tell, but I think it probably was right
after this that they actually counseled together. But they
were prepared to kill the Lord Jesus at this time, and anybody
associated with They won't kill Lazarus because the Lord raised
him from the dead and people were believing on it. But our
Lord came to this supper at this time. He came there at this time. And this town of Bethany is fairly
close to Jerusalem, where the Pharisees were. And He came there. And then think about this. The
Lord knew Judas was in that house. Judas was the one who was going
to betray Him. In fact, it's at this house,
when he rebuked Judas, that it says, one of the Gospels says,
then Judas went out, right after this supper right here, and went
and asked the Pharisee, what will you pay me to betray him
to you? And the Lord knew he was there. Now the Lord didn't
come to Judas in saving grace, because he was not his own. But
Judas didn't stop the Lord from coming there to his elect at
that supper. Think about that. Think about
this. The Lord knew in a few days,
just a few days, he would be arrested. Six days from the Passover. And I don't know in that weeks
when he came to this supper. It doesn't mean it was the sixth
day he came there, but somewhere right around in there, in that
week, he came to this house for this supper. And he knows at
the end of that week, he's going to be arrested, he's going to
be beaten, stripped, beaten, nailed to a cross. And he knows
this. He knows he's going to bear the
sin of his people. He's going to bear the wrath
of God and be forsaken of God on the cross. And think about
this. Think about this. He knows that
some of those sinners in that house are the ones for whose
crimes He will suffer all of that. If you knew people out of supper
were the people in just a few days you're going to be arrested
for their crimes and thrown in prison and executed for their
crimes, could you go to that feast rejoicing? You see the
love of Christ in that? He loved them. He was going to
the cross for them. In fact, He went to this house
for them. He went there to encourage them.
He went there to comfort them. He didn't go there sullen. He
didn't go there thinking about what He was facing. He went there
rejoicing with them that rejoice. He went there to comfort them.
He went there to encourage them. They made this supper for Him,
and He went there for them. That gives a greater meaning
to Romans 8. Look back over there with me,
and I want you to read this, and I don't think I've ever read
it this way. He thought of it this way. But knowing Christ
went to that supper, as you see the great love of our Lord, knowing
He's going to bear their sin and laid out His life for them.
He goes there rejoicing, comforting them, sitting at that table,
feasting with them. Now read this verse right here,
and read it from Christ's point of view. considering Christ knowing
what He was about to suffer for His people. Verse 35, Who shall
separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or
distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril,
or sword? He knew He was about to face
all of that. Did that stop Him from going to that supper? Not
at all. Look at verse 38, I am persuaded
neither death, nor life, nor angels, No principalities, no
powers. There were a lot of principalities
and powers. There was Pharisees and the devil
working, all of them trying to get Him to forsake His people.
That didn't make Him stop loving them. Nor things present, nor
things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature
should be able to separate us from the love of God which is
in Christ Jesus our Lord. See His love for His people?
I always read that thinking about things we go through, because
we are as lambs for the slaughter. But think about it from Christ's
point of view. None of that that He faced made
Him turn from loving His own. He went to that feast. And He still does it to this
day, brethren. The love of Christ for His people,
those that He everlastingly loved, He never ceases loving. He loves His own. He loves them
to the end. And He chose us by grace and
therefore His love knows no shadow of turning. Not any. Later we are going to see this.
John 13.1 says that night He was betrayed. The very night
He was betrayed. This was six days before the
Passover or somewhere thereabouts. But the very night He was betrayed.
When Jesus knew that His hour was come, that He should depart
out of this world unto the Father, having loved His own which were
in the world, He loved them unto the end. Make us to know, like Paul said,
to comprehend with all saints what is the breadth and length
and depth and height, and to know the love of Christ which
passeth knowledge that you might be filled with all the fullness
of God. See His love. See His great love. He came to that supper. Six days
or less from suffering the cross, He came there. Then notice this. We see how the love of Christ
toward His people constrained His people to love Him. It says
here, they made Him a supper. Now, just like it was dangerous
for Him, this was a dangerous, dangerous time for them too.
We've been watching the news. You've seen these bombs going
off in Ukraine and Russia entering into Ukraine and the bombs falling. This would be like a group of
believers in Ukraine assembling together to worship the Lord,
to have a supper together with bombs falling all around them.
That's what the time was like. Actually, it was more dangerous
than that. More dangerous than that. And they made this supper for
the Lord. Why did they do that? What made them do that? Well,
the Lord provided everything for them like He does all His
people. And they knew this. They knew
it. Christ raises His people from
the dead spiritually in regeneration just like He raised Lazarus from
the dead. And when He does, He gives you
a new heart of faith and love. And there sat Lazarus at the
table communing with the Lord Jesus Christ. You've had these
dinners where you sit around the table and you just After
you eat, you sit there and you talk about Christ and what He
has accomplished and what He has done. He was sitting there
with Christ at the table. I can hear the Lord speaking
about what He was doing for His people and what He had done for
Lazarus and I can hear Lazarus saying, Amen, Amen. Tell them
about how you spoke and just by your voice brought me out
of the grave. Tell them about that. Giving Him all the glory,
all the glory. We have to be born from above.
The new birth is all of the Lord. It's all of His grace. And we
have to be born of Him and given repentance toward God and faith
in our Lord Jesus Christ so that we have communion, fellowship
with Christ. That's when the love of Christ
constrains us. And they made this supper because Christ makes
his people know that he's healed us personally, like he does all
his elect. He healed us personally. He makes
us know this. Our Lord Jesus Christ had told
him repeatedly, he's going to that cross. And he's going to
be betrayed, and he's going to suffer, and he's going to die.
And he's going there to bear the sin of his people, to put
away our sin. And that's what he did. He justified
us from all our sin. He made us the righteousness
of God in Him. I know without a doubt that we
just don't get what that means. Not just righteous, He made us
the righteousness of God in Him. That's what it takes to be accepted
of God. And He came and He made you know
it. He made you know He did it and He gave you faith to believe
Him and to trust Him. And what does that make you do?
It makes you love Him. It makes you love His people.
Mary there is a picture of somebody worshiping the Lord. She saw
His precious blood. She knew something of His precious
blood. She knew something of the unsearchable
riches of Christ. How did she know that? Because
she was always at His feet. Three times we read, another
time when they were at Martha's house, she was seated at His
feet listening to Him. When she came to him at Lazarus'
tomb, you know what she did? She ran and fell down at his
feet. You know where she comes to in this house? She comes to
his feet. She heard, she knew something
of what he had done. She took this alabaster box of
ointment and she broke it like he had broken her heart, like
he had given her a heart of flesh. And she poured out that costly
ointment. That ointment cost a year's wages. Think about that. Think of taking
a year of your salary and spending it in the cause of Christ. And
when a believer does this, it doesn't seem like a sacrifice
to the believer. It's not enough because you can't
put a price on Christ's precious blood. You can't put a price
on his blood. Can you put a price on eternal
life? Can you put a price on having
no sin before God? You can't put a price on that. What is there that we can sacrifice
to show our gratitude to him? She came and broke open, and
she didn't just take, normally it was a custom to take a little
ointment, a little of this ointment and put it on the head and put
it on the feet and to refresh the guest. She didn't do that. She poured it out on him. He's the guest of honor. He's
the one that they're honoring with his self. She goes and pours
it out on him. I know we don't see that and
understand that custom in our land. And we probably wouldn't
think that was necessarily a complimentary thing if somebody poured out
this ointment on us while we're sitting at a table, at the dinner
table. But it was, and he knew it was,
and he saw it that way. And I don't know whether she
knew she was anointing him for burial. I think she probably
knew something of it because she sat at his feet all the time.
But our Lord said to her in front of them all, she did this to
anoint my body for the burial. Is that not like the works that
we do for Christ? You do works for Christ often. that you don't realize you're
doing or even have an understanding of exactly why you did it or
what good it's going to do, only for him later, just like after
she did this, he spoke and said she did this for my body for
burial. It couldn't be done after he
died because he was resurrected. He wasn't going to stay in the
grave. It wasn't important to anoint him after that. She did
this beforehand showing he is the Messiah. He is the anointed
of the Lord. But how often is it that after
the fact, after you've done something, then the Lord makes you know
more clearly why you did it, how He was glorified in it, makes
you know things about it you didn't even see in it. But He
knew. He knew. And that's what she
saw how He poured out grace and abundance on her, and she poured
this out on Him. She poured it out on Him. That's
what love for Christ will make you do. She bowed to his feet,
she took her hair, the glory of a woman, she took her hair,
let it down in public, which was not a custom for a Jewish
woman to let her hair down in public, let it down in public,
bowed down to his feet, and dried his feet with her hair. That's
the glory of a woman, Scripps said. What's she doing? What's
that a picture of? That's a picture of a believer coming and bowing
at Christ's feet and renouncing any glory of to ourselves and
giving all the glory to Christ. He did it all. He did it all. That's what she did. And then
they made this supper for him in gratitude for him for continuing
to teach his people. For raising us from the dead
and giving us communion with Him. For laying down His life
and pouring out His precious blood. She came there and poured
that ointment out. Lazarus sat at the table, communion
with Him. She came and poured out that ointment. And then we
also want to make a supper for Him to show our gratitude to
Him. For continuing to teach us. For gently, mercifully reproving
us and admonishing us. and keeping us looking to Him.
They all made this supper, but it says, and Martha served. And
Martha served. Some speak harshly about Martha
because on another occasion the Lord reproved her. But He didn't
reprove her for serving. He didn't reprove her for serving.
The Lord didn't reprove her for that. He reproved her for distracting
Mary from Christ by her serving, and for her being distracted
from Christ by her serving. He reproved her for wanting to
force Mary to serve. He reproved her for wanting to
turn Mary from Christ. That's why he reproved her. But
he didn't reprove her here. He didn't reprove her at this
feast. He didn't reprove her at this... Why not? Because her heart is set on Christ,
that's why. Her heart is set on Christ. She
had just experienced again His mercy to her when she saw all
her unbelief at Lazarus' tomb and how merciful and gracious
and kind and gentle He was to her at that time. She just experienced
it all over again, just like she did back there at her house
when she was cumbered about serving and He gently reproved her there.
And she experienced it again. His mercy, His mercy, His mercy,
His mercy. That's what she experienced.
And her heart set on Christ. She just saw Him raise her brother.
She just saw Him raise her brother. And she's gladly serving with
her heart set on the Lord. You know what she's doing? Don't get up, don't get up. I
want you to keep your heart set on Christ, communing with Him.
I'll get you whatever you need. Mary, you stay at His feet this
time. Don't come and help me. I'll
get you whatever you need so you can keep communing, looking
to Christ. That's what God commands. That's what Christ commands.
This thing of saying, why don't you reprove her and tell her
to help serve like I'm serving. That's the pharisaical means
and methods and motives that Christ saves us from. But here,
this is what he saves us too. Helping brethren look to Christ
only. And that's what she was doing
here. Serving. heartily to the Lord and helping
everybody there keep their eye on Christ. You see that? You see Lazarus sitting there
communing with the Lord? That's why they wanted to make
him a supper. He raised him from the dead. You see, Mary poured
this ointment out on him, worshipping him, worshipping him. That's
why they made this supper for him. They wanted to worship him
for redeeming him and pouring out his precious blood and pouring
out the balm of Gilead and making us whole. That's why they wanted
to And they want to make this supper for Him and serve Him
for being merciful to us when our service is so pitiful and
so pharisaical and so full of unbelief and trying to make others
do what we think they ought to do. He comes and turns you back
to Him. and remind you of His mercy. His mercy in serving you and
laying down His life for you and continuing to serve you by
turning you to Him. And it makes you serve Him with
your heart set on Him. Well, thank God for the Lord's
Martha's. Each time we have a meal in this
place, you ladies serve. And that doesn't go unnoticed.
That doesn't go unnoticed. We see it. The Lord knows it.
We thank you. Thank you is a good thing to
do. Always thank you, brethren. And Christ provides everything
we have so we can make Him a supper. That's another reason. He provided everything they had
to make this supper. He provided the house. He gave
them the provisions they needed for the food and everything.
It's His world. He created it. He grew everything
that they eat in there. provided it all and gave them
the heart to give it and make this supper for Him. And they
knew Christ and these great blessings we have from Him. They had experienced
His power and His grace and they knew Him, they knew His blessings
more at this time than they had known it since they first met
Him. Don't you know Him more today
than you've known Him since you first met Him? And they were constrained by
His love for them and they took the things He provided in the
midst of this tumultuous time and this dangerous time. They
made this supper for Him to honor Him. Why? Because His power and
grace making you see Him and what He's done for you will settle
your heart on Him to believe Him and assemble with His people
and continue loving one another when the bombs are going off
all around you. And where Christ has produced
that heart, Christ promises to come and suck with us just like
He did with them that day. He's promised that. Listen to
this from Revelation 3.20. This is Christ speaking. Revelation
3.20, He says, Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If any
man hear my voice and open the door, I will come in to him and
will suck with him and he with me. It's sad what we'll worshipers
have done to that verse. They stand up and they beg sinners. Christ has done everything he
can. Exercise your will and open the door and let him in. He's
standing on the outside knocking. He just wants to come in so badly.
Now you picture that day at that house. Christ walks up to the
door. Do you reckon there was one sinner
in that house who had experienced His grace and His power who was
unwilling to open that door? Do you reckon there was one of
them in there? I picture them trying to crawl
over themselves to be the one to get to the door and open it
up and let him in. And I'll tell you something else, when they
opened the door and let him in, whoever opened the door didn't
turn around and say, y'all look at me, I opened the door. No,
every eye and every heart was on their Redeemer. Every one
of them. But Christ promises, He promises
to honor those who honor Him just like He did that day in
Bethany. Look down at verse 9. Much people of the Jews therefore
knew that He was there. That's one way He honored them.
He came to the feast. But here's another way He honored
them. And they came not for Jesus' sake only, but that they might
see Lazarus also. whom he had raised from the dead.
But the chief priests consulted that they might put Lazarus also
to death, because that by reason of him many of the Jews went
away and believed on Jesus." Now unbelief, self-righteousness,
will-worshippers, they wanted to kill not only Christ, they
wanted to kill Lazarus too. Why? because other folks were
believing on Christ because of what Christ had worked in Lazarus. But here's the comfort, here's
the assurance, here's the honor Christ gave to this little group
of believers in this house that day. Christ drew His elect Jews
to that house to hear Him speak of what He had done for Lazarus
and to behold what He had done for Lazarus. And the graciousness. I did this here. I met Lazarus
and Mary and Martha were so kind to whoever it was that came into
that house. And they all were speaking about Christ and telling
them, listen to Him. Listen to what He's saying. And
our Lord drew them there and gave them faith to believe Him.
And they went away believing on the Lord Jesus Christ. That's
how He honors His people. That's how He honors His people.
Brethren, Christ has come to our town. He's come to our house. He's come to each of us that
He's called personally, individually. And He's used this little group
of believers right here to call out some of His lost sheep. Let us make sure that every time
we gather together, we're making Him a supper. We're here to sing
His praises. We're here to pray to Him to
help us and to meet with us and to be the strength and power
we need for everything. We want to preach Him and His
glory, His person, His works and what He's doing and shall
do. And everything about it, we want
it to be honoring to Him. honoring to Him. And pray it
will continue to be for His honor, His honor alone. All right, brethren. Our Father, we thank You for
this Word. Thank You for this beautiful example of Your grace
and mercy. And Lord, in the middle of this
tumultuous time and this Bear and Wilderness, we pray,
Lord, you keep us assembling together, gathering in your honor. And Lord, we pray you bring all
the honor to yourself. In each heart, help us to have
communion with you. Give us hearts to worship you,
bow down to your feet. Make nothing too costly for us
to sacrifice for Your cause. Keep us, Lord, serving Your brethren,
our brethren, knowing that serving them, we're serving You. Lord,
we pray You'd keep working this, calling out Your lost sheep,
Thank You for this privilege, Lord, to give us a heart to want
to gather in Your honor. We pray You would indeed be the
guest of honor. What a privilege. Lord, don't
let us take it for granted. Thank You for Your mercy. Thank
You for Your grace and Your righteousness. In Christ we pray. Amen.