Thank you, men, for sharing that challenging
song with us about being found faithful. I want
to call your attention to the fact that this
evening we'll be concluding our study in the
book of Jude, and as a part of our service here
in the Worship Center, the New Life Academy will
have a singing group that will take 25 minutes
for a concert. So we encourage you to be here
not only for the teaching of the Word, but for
that opportunity from the New Life Academy as
well. Undoubtedly, you've heard the expression,
the lull before the storm. That expression describes
that brief period of relative calm that precedes
the fury of a squall line. You can see it approaching,
the menacing clouds boiling and racing toward
you, but where you stand, at least for the moment,
there is tranquility. And then, Then the quietness
is suddenly overtaken by a tempest as the storm
strikes. John writes of Jesus arriving in Jerusalem
for his final week in the twelfth chapter of
his gospel. The conflict and the cross loom before
him like a hurricane. But first, there is a lull
before the storm. I invite you to look with me
in that twelfth chapter of John. where I'm going
to begin reading in verse 1. Jesus therefore
six days before the Passover came to Bethany
where Lazarus was whom Jesus had raised from
the dead. So they made him a supper there and
Martha was serving, but Lazarus was one of those
reclining at the table with him. Mary therefore
took a pound of very costly perfume of pure nard
and anointed the feet of Jesus and wiped his
feet with her hair. And the house was filled
with the fragrance of the perfume. But Judas
Iscariot, one of his disciples who was intending
to betray him, said, Why was this perfume not
sold for three hundred denarii and given to the
poor people? Now he said this, not because he
was concerned about the poor, but because he
was a thief. And as he had the money box, he
used to pilfer what was put into it. Jesus therefore
said, let her alone, in order that she may keep
it for the day of my burial. For the poor you
always have with you, but you do not always have
me. The great multitude, therefore, of the Jews
learned that he was there, and they came not
for Jesus' sake only, but that they might also
see Lazarus, whom he raised from the dead. But
the chief priests took counsel that they might
put Lazarus to death also, because on account
of him, many of the Jews were going away and
were believing in Jesus. On the next day, the
great multitude who had come to the feast When
they heard that Jesus was coming to Jerusalem,
took the branches of the palm trees and went
out to meet him, and began to cry out, Hosanna,
blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord,
even the king of Israel. Jesus, finding a young
donkey, sat on it. As it is written, fear not,
daughter of Zion, behold your king is coming
seated on a donkey's colt. These things his disciples
did not understand at the first. But when Jesus
was glorified, then they remembered that these
things were written of him and that he had done
these things. They had done these things to him.
And so the multitude who were there with him
when he called Lazarus out of the tomb and raised
him from the dead were bearing him witness. For
this cause also the multitude went and met him,
because they heard that he had performed this
sign. The Pharisees therefore said to one another,
you see that you are not doing any good. Look,
the world has gone after him." We have in this
text a contrast between a private reception and
a public presentation. of the Lord Jesus Christ.
And in that contrast, we observe two divergent
ways to relate to Jesus. In verses 1 through
8, we find a record of a private reception of
Jesus in Bethany. It was the lull before the
storm, an evening of quiet retreat with his close
friends. In verses 9 -11 we have recounted how
a large crowd was attracted by him and by Lazarus.
There was a great sense of anticipation on the
part of the gathering thousands at the temple
in Jerusalem who were there to celebrate the
Passover and the feast of unleavened bread. And
then we come in verse 12 and following to the
description of the entry of Jesus into the city
of Jerusalem as he publicly presented himself
as the King Messiah of Israel. And then the storm
hits. In the text, as I say, there are two divergent
ways presented to us as to how we may relate
to Jesus Christ. First, there is that way of
genuine worship, in which we give Him what He
deserves. And then there is that way of relating
to Him that is false enthusiasm, in which we
seek to realize from Him our own expectations.
The first reflects the peace that comes from
a personal relationship with the Savior. The
second, the tumult of a popular kind of religion.
Think with me first about the private reception
in verses 1 through 8. Jesus comes here to a
favorite retreat of His, to Bethany. where he
is among close friends. A dinner is prepared
at the home of Simon the leper, according to
the synoptic gospels, a man who had apparently
been healed by Jesus as well. It was served in
its customary manner with the guests reclining
on cushions or on couches on their left sides
with their heads toward the center table. from
which they would take food to eat, their legs
and feet being stretched out behind them. Here
we see a setting of friends, friends who believed
on Jesus. Martha is doing her thing. She's helping
get the food ready. We see Martha as a busy and
wonderful person. But again we see Mary doing
something different than Martha. In the church
there are Martha's and there are Mary's. And
Mary here again is doing something in personal
ministry to Jesus. What she does is out of place
according to the etiquette of that time, according
to the culture of those days. But Mary understands
something that the rest do not. In what she does
for Jesus, she provides to us an example of the
nature of true worship. In the first place, true
worship requires our costliest treasures. Mary
brought out her best gift. It was an alabaster
container in which was a pound of pure, not dilated
or adulterated, but pure nard. A nard was a fragrance
from an aromatic herb grown in the Himalayas
in northern India. It was transported the thousands
of miles from the Himalayas across what is today
India and Afghanistan and Arabia into Palestine.
It was carried by caravans. We are told that
the cost of this container and its contents amounted
to 300 denarii, which was about one years of
wages for a common laborer in Palestine. A full
year of wage for a common laborer. Mary gladly
brought out this costliest treasure that she
owned in order that she might minister to Jesus
and in doing so worship Him. Ladies and gentlemen,
worship that is genuine, calls for our costliest
treasures, our very best. It means giving to
Jesus what we hold most dear, what we cherish.
It means that we love the Lord our God with all
of our heart, with all of our soul. with all
of our might, with all that we are. It means
that if we're going to worship Him with true
worship, that we must allow nothing to come before
Him. We must be willing to give Him our time.
We must be willing to give Him our family. We
must be willing to give Him our friends. We must
be willing to give Him our money. We must be
willing to give Him our possessions. We must
be willing to give Him our plans. We must be
willing to give Him our desires. Whatever it
is that we hold precious to ourselves, must belong
to Jesus if we are genuinely going to worship
Him. There is a second observation that I make
here regarding true worship and what Mary did.
True worship releases a conspicuous fragrance.
John tells us that it filled the whole house.
The fragrance of her worship, her perfume that
she put on Jesus, rested on all of the guests
who were there. And because she anointed his
head, his hair, his neck, his feet, that fragrance
stayed with Jesus for days. It had to, as he
went here and there in this final week of his
life. This reminds me of what Paul says to us
in 2 Corinthians. And it is that when we worship
Him, that act of our lives becomes like a sweet
perfume, a savor that comes up to God. and which
also marks others around us. It cannot help but
have a difference in their lives. Because true
worship cannot be contained in a bottle. It cannot
be contained in an auditorium of a church. True
worship releases a conspicuous fragrance so that
others... bumping into us can tell that we have
been with Jesus. A third observation of true
worship is that it reveals camouflaged sin. What
Judas said sounded very reasonable. In fact,
it would fit in very well into the arguments
being heard these days in Washington DC. It sounds
very spiritual what he said. Why are you wasting
this? It could be sold and the money given to
the poor. Can you imagine such a socially conscious
person as this? We applaud him. He was utilitarian.
It was the practical thing to do. Not to waste
it. But Mary's act of true worship revealed the
camouflaged sin in Judas' life. Though he used
those words, they did not represent his heart.
For there was a cloak in his heart that concealed
lesser motives of greed and covetousness. That
sin that he was able to hide successfully was
provoked by Mary's lavish generosity to Jesus.
And true worship reveals camouflaged sin. The
worship of God often brings disclosure of sin.
In the worshipper, as in the case of Isaiah,
who being in the presence of God cried out, woe
is me, I am undone. He saw his sin. And he was
the best man in the whole nation. Or consider
Peter, who being in the presence of holiness,
of deity itself, said, depart from me, O Lord,
for I am a sinful man. When we worship God and
there is no conviction of sin in our lives, there
is no humiliation for the failures that we all
have. When there is no prick of guilt, when there
is no consciousness that we have failed God,
our worship is not genuine. When we are not broken
before God, our worship is not authentic. because
real worship reveals camouflaged sin. Articles
are being written about revival breaking out
on campuses across America. And this last week
in two of the local colleges there was an expression
of this as chapel went on from the scheduled
time to encompass the whole day and into the
night. as students stood up before their peers
with tears acknowledged their sin in their lives.
Sin was exposed because somehow God had touched
that chapel, had touched that student body. My
friend, whenever God touches us, there will always
be the result of brokenness in our hearts and
confession of sin before God. And finally I noticed
that true worship receives Christ's approval.
Jesus actually commended Mary for this lavish
sacrifice. He says, let her alone. It was in
order that she may keep it in anticipation of
the day of my burial is what he's saying. She
didn't sell it. She was keeping it in anticipation
of this act and of what's coming in just a few
days. Jesus commends Mary. He says, for the poor
you always have with you. Jesus is not there
being calloused toward the poor. He is not saying
we have no responsibility for the poor. He is
simply pointing out the fact that soon He would
be gone and there was a priority of worshipping
Him at this point. You see, Mary understood exactly
what she was doing. Mary understood something
that the others had missed, although Jesus had
told them time and again that He was going up
to Jerusalem that He would suffer, that He would
die. And Mary understood somehow that the time
had come and Jesus was about to die. And so she
offered to Him this worship. What we give the
Lord in worship is never, ever wasted when we
offer it sincerely. Therefore, never hesitate
to express your worship to God in lavish, surprising,
extravagant ways. The head as well as the feet,
as Mary did, pouring out all of it before the
Lord. Ken Geyer in his book Intimate Moments
writes in his unique way of this moment, He says,
for the disciples the ministry was fast becoming
a business to be budgeted rather than a savior
to be served. What a stab in the heart this must
have been to their honored guest bickering about
the poor when one sits in their midst famished
for a crust of human understanding. They are
the most intimate confidants, yet none has a
clue to the gnawing hunger inside of him. Peter
doesn't, James doesn't, John doesn't. But Mary,
she does. She sees the melting tallow of emotions
in Christ's eyes. So beautiful the flame, so
tender the wick, so mercenary the hand that seeks
to extinguish it. For this brief candle she weeps.
And as she does, she anoints him with perfume
to prepare for his burial. Mingled with tears,
the perfume becomes, by some mysterious chemistry
of heaven, not diluted but more concentrated.
Potent enough to behind the ears of each century
for the scent to linger to this day, a fragrant
reminder of her extravagant love. On the cross,
stripped of his clothing, Jesus would wear only
the perfume that Mary had lavished upon his hair.
It was that perfume which filled his nostrils
and covered the stench of mockers rambled around
the cross. And maybe, maybe when he took a deep
breath, it was that perfume which gave him the
strength to say, Father, forgive them, for they
do not know what they are doing. Soon the body
of Jesus would be broken. Blood would spill from
the whip, from the thorns, from the nails, and
finally from the spear thrust in his side. A
perfume more precious than nard, so pure, so
lovely, so truly extravagant. The Savior had
come to earth to break an alabaster jar for humanity,
and Mary had come that night to break one for
Him. It was a jar He never regretted breaking.
Nor did she. True worship. True worship changes
us forever. But in contrast to this true worship,
there is the account of what happened on the
first Palm Sunday. Word was getting out. There
was great expectation in the city of Jerusalem.
The storm that was in the distance during the
lull began to blow with the triumphal entry of
Jesus. Tension was growing as the throng anticipated
Jesus coming to this feast. The atmosphere of
the whole city is electric with conflict, intrigue,
and messianic fever. Normally 25 ,000 people
lived in the city of Jerusalem, but during the
feast, 100 ,000 were there. Because all of them
wanted to stay in the city of Jerusalem, the
rabbis declared the border of Jerusalem enlarged
during the feast days. All the way out to Bethphage,
the border would be extended so that everyone
could be in the city of Jerusalem. And many of
those who came were from Galilee. The Galileans
were in particular eager to have Jesus lead a
revolt against Rome. For Galilee was the place
of insurrection. It was noted for a man by the
name of Judas who in the year 6 AD began a movement
of revolt in Rome. That was about 24 years before
this. Judas was from Galilee. This Judas. He
is mentioned, by the way, in Acts chapter 5 verse
37. The Roman government had demanded a census
of the people. Quirinius was governor in Syria
again and was enforcing this census. Judas and
his followers said never. And so he, along with
the Pharisee, began a revolt against Rome, which
in itself was short -lived, but it began a movement
that was called the Zealots. One of the major
streams of influence in Israel in that day, along
with the Pharisees and the Sadducees and the
Essenes, were the Zealots. The Zealots hated
Rome. The zealots carried daggers in their robes
so that they might assassinate Roman officials
that they might happen by. Their saying was,
no tax but the temple tax. No God but God, no
friend but zealots. They mixed their faith with
a strong nationalism. And in that crowd, on that
Sunday, As Jesus was about to enter Jerusalem,
there were zealots whipping up the fervor of
the people because here was another Galilean
who could lead revolt against Rome. I wish we
had time to go into each of the stages as Jesus
came over the Mount of Olives, saw the city of
Jerusalem and broke out into tears. Loud sighs
and sobbing and cries. Not a quiet whimper, but
a loud crying out to God, oh Jerusalem, he said,
if only you had known the day of your visitation.
And in those prophetic words he sees Jerusalem
40 years later through his eyes being destroyed
by Rome because of its unbelief and rejection
of Him. On that day, that Palm Sunday, Jesus
intentionally acted to force the issue of his
claims upon the nation of Israel. He knew that
what he was doing was going to be misunderstood
by some, that it would enrage his enemies. By
the way, his enemies had planned to kill Jesus,
but they said after the feast, when the Galileans
have gone home and the crowd is down to normal
in Jerusalem. Jesus forced them to change their
timetable by what He did on Palm Sunday. Palm
Sunday was His plan. By the way that He entered
the city, He intentionally stimulated Messianic
expectations. He knew that among the Jews in
that day, there was the idea that Messiah was
going to come with the clouds to Israel if the
people were ready. But if they were not ready,
He was going to come riding on a donkey from
the east. That was the general expectation of
the people of Israel in that day. And Jesus acted
upon that very rumor, that very idea. And presented
Himself in the manner that they were expecting
and yet in a manner that was unexpected. Because
He came not as a Messiah to lead a revolt against
Rome. but as a messiah who came to bring peace
with God. And what happened that day, no one
understood fully until after the events of the
resurrection. John tells us then they understood.
And we understand through their eyes what happened.
He presented himself as a king to his people,
but he knew already they would reject him for
who he was. And though they cried out, Hosanna,
blessed be the one who comes in the name of the
Lord, the King of Israel. Within days they would
turn against him. What we see on Palm Sunday
is popular religion. The kind of religion that
is so common in America. The kind of religion
that wants Jesus for its own agenda. It will
shout His name enthusiastically as long as He
conforms to religion's goals and desires. This
is the religion of those Christians who acknowledge
Jesus with their lips, but who are looking for
Jesus to meet their needs. and what they want.
That's the Palm Sunday crowd. It's not the crowd
that will enter Jesus' Kingdom. Those who enter
the Kingdom are those who worship Him in truth
and in spirit. Those who recognize their sin
and confess it. Those who give Him their very
best. That's the kind of a worshiper I hope that
you are, that I am. That as we stand on the threshold
of the time when the King is going to come again,
and I believe we're in those days, those days
spoken of in the Bible as the last days, that
we are standing literally on the threshold of
the King coming again. Let us not be caught up
in the popular religion of our day, but let us
be caught up with him in a personal relationship,
where we are trusting him as our Lord and Savior
and worshiping and serving him with all that
we have, so that when he comes to establish his
kingdom, he may say to us, enter into the joys.
of what I've prepared. Let's bow together in
prayer. Thank God there is a Redeemer. He has
come not to make us happy. He's come to save
us from our sin. He has not come to meet our
needs as we think of them. He's come to meet
our essential need, that of forgiving our sin
and giving us life with God. How do you examine
your own heart? Are you caught up in popular
religion? Are you looking for Jesus to meet your
agenda to do what you want Him to do? Or are
you today like Mary in quietness? pouring out
your best, giving yourself to Him in gratitude
for what He's done for you. Father, break our
hearts for the kind of worship that we so glibly
bring to church. And today, humble us to be like
Mary and to offer to you our very best, what
cost us the most, thus proving that our faith
is genuine, that we truly believe. And as we
enter into this week of remembrance, may there
be within our hearts true, genuine worship. Amen.