John Chapter 12:3-11

If it was just about you getting saved, then something peculiar would have happened when that happened.

The moment you asked the Lord to forgive you of your sins, zap, you'd have been out there. What happened? Well, he got saved. He's gone. I don't know what happened.

Boy, that would kind of cut down on the people that come forward. But that's not what happens, is it? You get saved and God leaves you right where you are. Your job doesn't change right away.

Your friends don't change right away. Why is that? Because God has a plan. It's a really cool plan. God desires to use you to reach others. Bob, as we continue in the busy life, we must remember that God's plan is to have us reach a hurting, dying, and lost world. Today, Pastor David equips us to do just that, as he continues teaching in the Gospel of John chapter 12.

Sounds good, brother. Now, here's David McGee with part two of the teaching, A Giving God. So John chapter 12, verse 3. Then Mary took a pound of very costly oil of spikenard, anointed the feet of Jesus, and wiped his feet with her hair, and the house was filled with the fragrance of the oil. Now, spikenard, as it's pointed out here, is very expensive.

It was actually usually produced in India and then shipped to Israel in small containers. Sometimes that would be their investment. They would invest into these ointments and salves and stuff. And two other reasons why she may have had this are kind of intriguing. One of them is, it may have been her dowry for her husband. And in a moment of sacrifice, she poured it out on the Lord Jesus Christ. The other possibility is as intriguing, it may have been for her burial. And she decided, instead of using it for her burial, she would pour it out on the Lord Jesus Christ.

Anyway, you came up with it. It's an incredible sacrifice. It's an incredible statement that Mary made in her worship of Jesus.

It's an awesome thing. And you know what's interesting here? Is you see a picture.

And here's a family. Man, these people have gotten a hold of Jesus, haven't they? Because look at Mary, Martha, and Lazarus and what's going on in the picture here. Well, first of all, you got Lazarus who, I mean, I've said it before, but I'll say it again. He was dead.

I mean, as testimonies go, that's a really good one. I was dead. I was in the tomb.

They had to call me out. And so he was given what? He was given new life.

He was given new life. That's where the Christian life starts. That's where it really begins. See, your relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ doesn't begin when you walk into a church.

I'm sorry, but that's not it. There's many people this morning that are all over churches that don't know Jesus, that don't have new life. It begins when you say to Jesus, Jesus, I'm a sinner. So I have sinned.

Please forgive me. And he does it. And you're given new life. And it doesn't matter if you've been to church one time or you've been to church 200 times. This is where we start with a new life. And so you have Lazarus there that has the new life. And then you have Mary there who's worshiping. So you got new life, and then you have worshiping. And Mary is worshiping. She's at the feet of Jesus.

She's sacrificially pouring this ointment out on him. That's worship. That is worship. Worship is an important part of the believer's life. That's why on Sunday morning we spend time in worship. We want to linger in worship.

We want to take some time, 20 minutes, 25 minutes, sometimes 30 minutes, to linger in worship. You know why? Because that is important.

That is important. And when somebody, and when somebody, when an unbeliever or maybe somebody that strayed from the Lord comes into a group of people that are really worshiping, oh man, there ain't nothing like that in the whole world. People come in and like, wow, these people are serious. They're not somber. They're not singing funeral dirges. They're actually happy about worshiping.

God, this is awesome. And so there we have Mary worshiping, and then we have Martha. We've got new life, we've got worshiping, and what's Martha doing? Martha's serving.

Martha is serving. That's such a beautiful little picture of what we're supposed to be doing as believers. We're given new life so that we worship, and so now we can serve. Now some people get these inverted. Some people get them twisted. Some people begin to serve before they're given new life.

I'm sorry. That's not really a good thing because here's what can happen. You can start to get confused. You can think, oh, God is interested in what I might do for Him.

Oh, no, no, no, no, no, no. God is much more interested in what He has already done for you. And as we understand what God has done for us, the natural reaction is to worship Him and to begin to serve. And I think when you begin to understand what God has done for your life, that's just a natural thing. This morning maybe you want to think, okay, where am I on this scale? Am I sure that I have new life? I mean, do I know that I know that I know that I've been saved, that I've been born again? There were many people that even shared on the video testimony that would have said, yes, they were when they first came in. But then the more they heard, the more they listened, they said, you know what? I don't have what He's talking about.

I wonder how I get it. That's why at the end of every service, and we'll do it again today, we give people the opportunity to respond to the good news. And the good news is that Jesus Christ died for you so that you can be forgiven. And when you accept that forgiveness, you are cleansed from all unrighteousness.

You're forgiven. And because of that, we worship. Now, worship isn't necessarily music.

That may shock some of you. What do you mean it's not music? We use music as a vehicle of worship. It certainly helps to worship. Worship, this is the first life lesson, worship is an expression of thanks. So you got new life, worshiping, and serving. One other thing that you see is that they were doing this in the house.

They were doing this in the house. See, here's what's happened to the average American. They've kind of separated what happens on Sunday morning and the rest of their life. I go to church on Sunday, I act like this, I look like this, I dress like this, and the rest of the week I do whatever I want to. That's not real Christianity.

That's not following Jesus. See, and in this place, it was in the home. You see, that's yet another reason why we're encouraging people to get involved with fellowship groups. We want to encourage people to go in one another's home, to get to know one another, and have these things start to occur in your daily life. One of the things I've always encouraged people to do is have communion at home. Because let's remember, the first communion took place in a home. So when we have it in a church, that's a little different.

When you have it in a home, that's where it's supposed to happen. So let me encourage you. You know, you get the matzah, you get the grape juice, and go have communion. It's an awesome time. I've had beautiful times of communion with my family.

I want to encourage you in that. Verse four. But one of his disciples, Judas Iscariot, Simon's son, who would betray him, said, Why was this fragrant oil not sold for 300 denarii and given to the poor? That sounds good, doesn't it? That sounds noble.

That sounds right. 300 denarii. The average wage at that time for a laborer is you got one denarii for a whole day's work. So 300 denarii is basically a year's salary for a laborer.

It was a lot. And doesn't this sound good and noble and religious? And look at Judas. Judas is actually getting something right here.

He's standing up. He's wanting to take care of the poor, is he? Well, John makes a note that's not made in the other gospels, or at least it's not brought out in this way. He says in verse six, this he said not that he cared for the poor, but because he was a thief and had the money box. And he used to take what was put in it.

Well, that kind of puts a different spin on the whole thing, doesn't it? See, sometimes you can hear somebody say something and go, oh, that sounds good. Well, that sounds religious.

That sounds noble. But what's the motivation? What are they doing? What's behind the scenes, if you will?

Here you're looking behind the scenes and, man, you find something that's not good. That's interesting to me. When you kind of look at these two people who are interacting with Jesus, you look at Judas and you look at Mary.

And what do you see? Mary's a giver. Mary's a giver. Mary doesn't care how much that bottle costs. She's going to pour it on Jesus.

Why? To love on Jesus. Judas is a taker.

Judas is going, wow, you know, I could have ripped some of that money off had we sold that. The life lesson here is God is a giver. When we give, we are more like him. Now, if you think I'm just talking about finances, I'm not letting you off that easy. I'm talking about giving your life away. I'm talking about serving and loving others, giving yourself away in ministry. Certainly includes finances.

Why? Because finances can be a test of how you feel about God. Because if we're grateful, we should become more like God in that we give.

And again, I'm not talking just the realm of finances. I'm talking about in general, because John 3 16 says what? God so loved that he gave. God's a giver. So when we give, we're acting like God. When we just worry about taking, well, friend, we're acting like Judas. And let me ask you a question.

Who would you rather look like? Jesus or Judas? Jesus was a giver.

Judas was a taker. When we give, that's, you know, Jesus says it's more blessed to give than receive. And that's why, you know what, when you give, what do you feel like? It feels good, doesn't it?

It feels, now there's some times when it might be the sacrifice, and I understand that, and you're like, you know, but overall, it feels good. Why? Because you're walking as Jesus walked. And again, who do you want to be more like? Jesus or Judas? Mary or Judas? You know, there's probably some Marys in here this morning.

Their name is Mary. I wonder how many people are named Judas in here. This is a place where Judas is failing the test. And I believe it led him to other serious errors and judgment.

But this is part of the place where it started to go wrong. Verse seven, but Jesus said, let her alone. She has kept us for the day of my burial, for the poor you have with you always.

But me, you do not have always. Now, Jesus was defending her. And if we look at the other examples in Mark and Luke, I believe, no, Matthew and Mark. Matthew and Mark of this experience, what we have, Judas actually talked to the other disciples into getting excited about this. And they started to rebuke Jesus about her gifts. And that's partly why Jesus says very strongly, leave her alone.

Don't mess with her, would be in our phrasing. He's not being hard-hearted about the poor. He's saying, you know what? This is for my burial.

This is for my burial. The whole thing, the whole recognition is that she was so unselfish in what she did. You know what's interesting in verse five when Judas says that? Do you realize that's the first thing that the Gospels record Judas ever saying? This is his first statement. Criticizing somebody giving. Criticizing somebody worshiping.

It's kind of interesting, isn't it? Because you don't see Judas saying a lot of good things and he didn't start off on a good foot. You're listening to Pastor David McGee on Cross the Bridge.

He'll be right back with more in just a moment. But I want to remind you of the free resources available to you on crossthebridge.com. There's a team of hundreds of people that will pray for somebody to be saved. You have a loved one that needs to know Jesus as Savior. You need people to pray for them. You need someone to present God's Word to them. Every day we're presenting God's Word to them here on Cross the Bridge with Pastor David McGee. We can pray for them as well just by simply going to crossthebridge.com and click on the Pray for the Lost button. All you need to do is put in the first names of the people you love that need to know Jesus as Savior, click on submit, and immediately hundreds of people will begin praying for your lost loved ones.

And what an awesome way to bring your loved ones to Jesus. Here's a word from Associate Pastor DA Brown. Hey Bob, we're excited about all the people who are tuning in today, and we want to take a minute to pray for the listening audiences in these cities.

Hamburg, Indiana, Cherokee, Iowa, Creston, Des Moines, Marshalltown, also in Kansas, Emporia, and Hutchinson. God, we thank you for everyone tuning in today. Lord, we pray that they would be ready for you to speak to them. Lord, if some are sick, we pray that you would please heal them. And God, we pray for the pastors and churches in this area, that the churches will be reignited in their faith. Lord, that they would turn to you with all their heart, soul, and strength to love their community. And Lord, that these pastors would be reminded you have called them, you are going to bless the work that you've called them to do, and that they would not grow weary in doing good. In Jesus' name, amen. Amen.

Thank you, brother. And now, let's get back to David McGee as he continues teaching verse by verse. Verse 9. Now a great many of the Jews knew that he was there and they came not for Jesus' sake only, but that they might also see Lazarus, whom he had raised from the dead. Here again, we're reminded, we keep saying, John keeps telling us that, you know why? Because Lazarus was dead. I mean, you know, I know we read the story and go, well, yeah, Lazarus was dead and he came alive.

But no, I mean, are you really getting this in your heart and in your mind? He was dead. And the reason that's also important to us is guess what we were. Before we had new life, we were dead.

We were dead in our sins is what the word of God says. And maybe our faces registered death and hopelessness and pain and suffering. You ever sat out in a public place and watched people's faces? I have.

You know, when I go to a mall, to be honest, sometimes it just tears me up watching people's faces because I see them go by and the hopelessness in their face. They don't know. They don't know. Lazarus knew. And Lazarus was doing the fourth thing in that three-part thing is new life, worship and serving, witnessing, witnessing.

That's what's going on. That's an important part. And witnessing takes many forms. Witnessing is a sharing of your faith, verbally sharing the plan of salvation. It's also living out your faith in front of other people. It's also inviting them to experience what you've experienced. By inviting people to church, knowing that we are partnering to reach people with the good news of Jesus Christ, you're witnessing to them. And that's something that, again, that we want to do.

And I want to communicate that. Now, if you're here this morning and you've been invited by somebody, don't feel weird right now. Oh, he just invited me because the pastor told him to. That's why he kept on me.

No, he kept on you, friend, because he cares or she cares. You have somebody in your life that really cares about you, that cared enough to step out, risk the rejection, risk the ridicule, and invite you to this place. They care that much about you. They want to see you walking with Jesus.

They want to see you with this new life. And verse 10, but the chief priest plotted to put Lazarus to death also. Hee-hee, all right, those are the spiritual leaders of the day. Mental note there. Because on account of him, many of the Jews went away and believed in Jesus.

Now, notice something. Many of the Jews went away and believed in Jesus. Many of us have been sold the false bill of goods that the Jewish people rejected the ministry of Jesus. That's simply untrue.

Here we have it in other places and later in this chapter. We see many of the Jews believed on Jesus and followed him, and we see that here. But what had happened is they had started walking down this trail of rejecting Jesus and finding out how to quiet him, and their sin snowballed.

Do you know why? Because that's what sin does. That's what sin does. Sin snowballs.

Life lesson. Sin will keep you longer than you wanted to stay and pay you more than you ever wanted to be paid. That's what sin does, will keep you longer than you wanted to stay and pay you more than you ever wanted to be paid. I think about my personal history. You know, as a youngster experimenting with marijuana, it didn't stop there.

Got on the harder drugs and harder drugs and harder drugs. You know why? Sin snowballs. That's what sin does. That's what sin does.

So be careful. And obviously, because Lazarus, who had what? He'd been dead. Yeah, I mean, I know we keep coming back to that.

But again, you got to think about that. He was dead, and now he's alive. And everybody's like, what's the deal? Well, this guy was dead. What do you mean he was dead? I mean, he was dead. He was in the tomb. And Jesus called him, and he came out.

Do you understand? We share that in common with Lazarus. If you've received new life, you were dead.

You can share that with people. I was dead. No good. What do you mean you were dead? You were like in the tomb covered with a rock.

No, not like that. I was dead in my sins. I was dead in my sins. And now I found new life.

Now I found new life. And you can share that with people. And you know what? The fact is, you're supposed to. We're supposed to tell people. We're supposed to invite people to come to Jesus. That's what we're supposed to do.

That is the natural thing that's supposed to occur. If it was just about you getting saved, then something peculiar would have happened when that happened. The moment you asked the Lord to forgive you of your sins, zap, you'd have been out of there. What happened? Well, he got saved. He's gone. I don't know what happened.

Boy, that would kind of cut down on the people that come forward. But that's not what happens, is it? That's not what happens. You get saved, and God leaves you right where you are.

Right where you are. Your job doesn't change right away. Your friends don't change right away. The place you live don't change right away. Why is that? Because God has a plan.

It's a really cool plan. God desires to use you to reach others. Now maybe you're sitting there going, can God use me? You betcha God can use you. God desires to use you. You stand with a man in front of you that was born a deaf mute, that had to spend four years in speech therapy, that was addicted to drugs after that, and God is now using him to reach other people. Friend, if God can use me, let me guarantee you, God can use you. Amen?

And He desires to use you. The life lesson, this is the last one, the life lesson here is God's plan is to have us reach a hurting, dying, and lost world. There's people out there that don't know what you know this morning. If you're sitting in here and you've been born again and you have new life, there's people out there that don't know, that don't know what, that don't know that Jesus died for their sins. Oh now mentally they may know that.

In America you'd have a hard time finding anybody that mentally doesn't know about historically what Jesus did and who He was. Friend, that's not enough. It's not enough just to know.

You got to know. Romans 10 9 and 10 said that if you believe and confess, and 10 13 says whosoever calls on the name of the Lord. So for you just to have a mental understanding that Jesus indeed came and Jesus did indeed die and it was for the forgiveness of our sins, that's a start, but that's all it is. It's a start.

Do you know this morning? I mean do you know that you know that you've received new life because you asked the Lord to forgive you of your sins and something changed. Friend have you prayed and nothing changed? Now sometimes changes go fast, sometimes they go slow, but if nothing changed when you prayed, friend you need to seek the Lord in earnest because those who pray, who earnestly believe, follow Jesus. Again that's just a natural thing.

It's a supernatural thing, but it's a natural thing that after the Lord forgives you of your sins, you start to follow Him. Are you sure? Are you positive? Do you know that you know that you know this morning that that's happened in your life? If you're not sure, then there's good news.

I'm going to give you an opportunity to be sure. For some of you, you may be coming back to the Lord. For some of you, you may be praying a prayer that you prayed before, but somehow you didn't begin to follow Jesus. Or maybe you're praying this prayer for the first time. Maybe you walked in here this morning and thought, well I thought it was about going to church. I thought it was about doing the best you could. I thought that you know you hope that your good outweighed your bad. No that's not the gospel. The gospel is your bad will always outweigh your good until you come to Him who is good.

And then He wipes the scale clean. Friend, loved one, who wouldn't want to do that? And there's no big, long, pretentious ceremony. It's a short, simple prayer that I want to lead you in. And maybe you're sitting here this morning and you're thinking, you know, this is good.

This is interesting and I need to do this and I need to do this one day. You need to do it today. Because friend, when you feel that tug on your heart, you need to respond to that tug. Because let me share something. If you reject that, let me share something with you. Next time you feel that tug on your heart, it's going to be a little bit easier not to respond. And then the next time, it'll be even easier not to respond.

Until you can sit there and feel nothing at all, don't go there. But as the Lord is speaking to your hearts and tugging on your heart, respond to His invitation. Friend, do you know for sure that your sins have been forgiven?

You can know right now. I want to lead you in a short, simple prayer, simply telling God you're sorry and asking Him to help you to live for Him. Please pray this prayer with me out loud right now. Dear Jesus, dear Jesus, I believe you died for me, that I could be forgiven. And I believe you were raised from the dead, that I could have a new life. And I've done wrong things. I have sinned.

And I'm sorry. Please forgive me of all those things. Please give me the power to live for you all of my days. In Jesus' name.

Amen. Friend, if you prayed that prayer, according to the Bible, you've been forgiven. You've been born again. Jesus said He would not turn anybody away who comes to Him.

And He came for those people who knew they needed forgiveness, those who were sick, not the righteous. So congratulations, friend. You just made the greatest decision that you will ever make. God bless you. If you prayed that prayer with David for the first time, we'd love to hear from you. You can visit crossthebridge.com to receive our First Steps package with helpful resources to help you begin your walk with Christ.

Or you can write to Cross the Bridge at P.O. Box 12515, Winston-Salem, North Carolina, 27117, and share how God is working in your life. You know, the Bible tells us that the free gift of God is eternal life in Jesus Christ our Lord. But it does cost for us to come and bring that message to you and to others in your neighborhood through radio, through the internet, and through the mobile technologies that God has gifted us to be able to use. So if you'd like to support this ministry, please go to crossthebridge.com, click on the donate button, and ask God how much He would have you give, either on a one-time basis or a continuing basis each month to help ensure that the teaching of God's Word continues to go out through Cross the Bridge.

Thank you so much. Well, DA, before we go, what are some ways that we can bless our listeners? Each day you can wake up with encouragement from Pastor David through the Word of God with his email devotional, life lessons to consider, a daily reading plan, and a thought to meditate on throughout your day from the heart of David McGee. Thanks again for listening and join us next time as David McGee continues teaching verse by verse in the Gospel of John.