Kerwin Baptist Church Daily Broadcast

Welcome to the Kerwin Baptist Church broadcast today. Our desire is for the Word of God to be spread throughout the world so that all may know Christ.

Join us now for a portion of one of our services here at Kerwin Baptist Church located in Kernersville, North Carolina. In the last week, a man who had sought how they might take him, meaning Jesus, by craft, had put him to death. But they said, not on the feast day, lest there be an uproar of the people. And being in Bethany in the house of Simon the leper, as he, meaning Jesus, sat at me, there came a woman having an alabaster box of ointment of spikenard, very precious, and she braked the box and poured it on his head. And there were some that had indignation within themselves, and by the way, there will always be some, and said, why was this waste of the ointment made? For it might have been sold for more than 300 pence and have been given to the poor, and they murmured against her. And Jesus said, let her alone, why trouble ye her? She hath wrought a good work on me. For ye have the poor with you always, and whensoever ye will, ye may do to them good, but me ye have not always. She hath done what she could. She has come beforehand to anoint my body to the burying. Verily I say unto you, wheresoever this gospel shall be preached throughout the whole world, this also that she hath done shall be spoken of for a memorial of her. And that is exactly what we're doing today, exactly what Jesus said. These last two verses, verse 10 and 11, and Judas Iscariot, one of the 12, went unto the chief priest to betray him unto them. And when they heard it, they were glad and promised to give him money, and he sought how he might conveniently betray him. Very familiar passage of scripture, and today I'd like to kind of talk to us just about the story.

I kind of tell you what's going on, who was there, what happened, and what we need to learn from it. And we'll go on and serve God this week. Let's pray. Lord, I love you. Thank you for all that you've done. Thank you for our people being faithful. And Lord, I just thank you for every person who's come to this place to worship today. Lord, we are here to worship you. And Lord, if that's not the root of our motive for being here, it should be. And Lord, I pray that we would worship you in spirit and in truth, and that we would honor your word, that I would rightfully divide it, and that the hearer would rightfully receive it.

In Jesus' name we pray, amen. If I can, as we know this precious story of what went on, just literally, days before the crucifixion of Jesus Christ. First, let me talk to you a little bit about the context here. And the context really takes place in verses one through two, and then in verse 10. And what we see here is that betrayal was in the air. The chief priest and the scribes were on the outside trying to betray, but Judas was on the inside planning to betray. You'll find that in church, as we can kind of relate this and illustrate this, that there'll always be some outside influences that are fighting against what God wants us to do in his house and through his house. But even more detrimental is the betrayal that often happens inside of it. You know, you and I expect the world to come after us, but what hurts is when, out of our own selves, the Bible says, men arise speaking perverse things.

So this is what is going on here. This is just days from the crucifixion, and this is just hours before the betrayal of Judas. Now, you and I must remember that to understand this story. And for us to ever kind of get the point of what's going on, we need to remember this in context, that that evening, as they were all gathered in Simon's house, a place that Jesus felt very comfortable with, that there was betrayal happening, that Judas' heart had already been turned. And literally, the religious leadership of that day had already sought a way to get at Jesus.

And literally, the Bible says here and gives us honesty to put him to death. There was no disagreement. They hated him. There was no, well, we're agitated. No, they wanted to kill him. And that was their plan. So that's the context.

Secondly, I want you to see the setting. Where did this take place? Well, this took place in Bethany. And the Bible makes reference to this place a couple of times. And Bethany was, basically, this was the house of a man named Simon that Jesus had healed. The Bible makes it clear that this house in Bethany was basically a shelter for Jesus. It was kind of a meeting place of intimate friends to Jesus. It was a place where Jesus knew that he would always be wanted. It was a place where Jesus knew that there would always be room for him.

It was a place where Jesus knew that the people here would always desire to fellowship with him. Are you starting to get it a little bit this morning? So let's look at the characters. You say, well, who are these people? Now, there's very few names given in this passage. But to save time, through parallel passages in the Bible, we know who was here this day. First, we know that there was Simon. He was a leper that Jesus had healed. And because Jesus had shown such great kindness and generosity and power to Simon, the Bible says that Simon opened his home to Jesus and it had become a refuge for him. Also, Lazarus was here at this moment. Lazarus was a dead man that had been healed. So you have a leper who had been healed. You have a dead man that had been raised from the dead by Jesus. I don't know about you, but this is a neat little group that Jesus had. And by the way, the Bible says a man that have friends must show himself friendly.

You know, when you begin to make your life about others, it's amazing how people want to be around you. Simon and Lazarus couldn't wait to be around Jesus because of what Jesus had done for them. We also know here that Martha was here. And Martha was obviously, as you remember, the woman who was serving and preparing and doing a lot of the working, but there also was here at this moment, Mary. Mary, who obviously was the one who sat at his feet.

Mary was the one who was always worshiping. And then we have the disciples. This inner circle of men that had forsaken all to follow Jesus. So in this home, we have Simon, and we have Lazarus, and we have Martha, and we have Mary, and then we have the inner circle of the disciples, and then we have Jesus, obviously. So they're all here in one house, and Jesus knows what's getting ready to happen, and Jesus knows that his time has come, and as these disciples are scurrying around and Martha is busy cooking, the Bible says that, obviously, that Judas was here at this time, and Jesus had smelled a rat. Now, he knew what Judas was going to do. Can you imagine sitting in a house and watching somebody like Judas come up and love you to your face when Jesus knew all the time what Judas was going to do? How many of you would want to put up with that?

How many of you would want to say, listen here, you little rat, you little peppy lapew. Let me tell you what's going on. Something stinks, and it's you.

That would be a nice way to put it, wouldn't it? What's funny, only Jesus smelled that. Only he knew. So the Bible says that Mary got to the feet of Jesus, and she had brought something very, very precious. So now I would like to share with you the story. So as they all gather there, the Bible says that Jesus had seated, and the Bible says that Mary had brought this precious, expensive perfume. It was an alabaster jar, and as we can tell, that spikenard grows at the foothills of the Himalayas, and somehow that this perfume would have only gotten to this location or this area if it had come through Persia. So it had traveled far, it was very expensive, very pricey, and always when this particular perfume was sold, it was always sealed because every drop of it was precious. In fact, the Bible says and gives us the amount what this perfume was worth, and it was in those days the average full year's salary it would have taken to buy just this little jar of perfume. So Mary takes this jar, and the Bible says that she breaks this jar and pours out this perfume on Jesus. Now I do find it interesting that she could have probably unsealed that perfume and poured a little or poured a few drops, but she literally broke the jar, which means that she had no use to ever use any of it for anything else but to honor Jesus.

There was no turning back. There was no saving some for herself. It was all for Jesus. So she breaks open the, and from what we can tell the connotation of this that she literally broke the base of that perfume jar. She didn't even try to open up what would have been the lid or the opening. She just broke the base of that jar, and she poured it all on Jesus, and we know from parallel passages that that perfume was mixed with her very tears as she poured it on Jesus.

What a precious thing. Now, unfortunately, the disciples had just kind of lost their heads for a little bit, and they kind of lost the connotation and the context and the timing and all that was going on, and the Bible says that they began to criticize her. They murmured first within themselves, and then they had indignation at her. You see, what they didn't realize is she was literally anointing the body of Jesus for his burial, but somehow in the middle of all this, although Jesus had constantly told them what was going to happen and he had made it as clear as possible, they totally had forgotten, totally had neglected the fact that this was getting ready to happen soon. I mean, Jesus had told them, and I could take you in the past three chapters, how often Jesus had made allusion to the fact that he was going to die, that he was going to suffer, that he was going to be sacrificed for our sins.

How could he have made it clearer? And yet, of all the people in that room that night, Mary was the only one that remembered. Mary was the only one in tune with that. She was the only one that was brokenhearted, knowing that what Jesus said was going to happen was going to happen.

So she with tears anoints his body for this suffering and burial that he would go through. How much clearer could Jesus have made it? What were these disciples thinking? Did they ignore his words? Did they just forget his words? Did they just suppress his words? And you find here that literally, I want you to get this, they criticized the extravagance of her gift because they thought it could have been used to do greater things. Did you hear me this morning? Even at eight, is it eight or nine?

Nine twenty-five. They thought that it could be used to do greater things. Dear friend, could I ask you something? Could there be any greater use for anything than to honor Christ?

But you and I think our money like that sometimes. Well, I could get this. Well, I could have this.

Well, wait a minute. Isn't the greatest use for anything is to honor Christ? So they began to criticize her. And of course, Jesus, as you know, look at verse six. And Jesus said, let her alone. Why trouble ye her? She hath wrought a good work on me, which says you didn't. For ye have the poor with you always, and whensoever you will, you may do good.

But me, ye have not always. She hath done what she could. She has come beforehand to anoint my body for burying. And all of a sudden, the disciples are, oh, oh, yeah. Of course, we know in verse 10 and 11 that Judas quickly leaves and figures out how to betray him.

You know what I've always wondered? As this woman does this to Jesus, and the Bible says that the disciples began to murmur and began to say, hey, listen, that could have been sold and they could have helped the poor. I've always wondered if maybe Judas was the one that started the criticism. Wouldn't that be a good Baptist? The guy who's getting ready to sell out his savior for a few pieces of silver is complaining that, hey, this money could have been used to help the poor.

I've always wondered if he started it. Be careful of being around people that start the criticism. You would do well to stay away from them. So as we kind of know the story of what happens, it goes on, Jesus is betrayed, Jesus is crucified. What are some lessons we need to learn? I want to give them to you quickly this morning. And although, honestly, I could take two hours explaining each of these, I'm not, because Baptists get real nervous when that happens. What are some lessons this morning? Number one, I want you to see some lessons we need to learn from the disciples. From the disciples.

Number one, I want you to see this. The ministry was becoming a business to be budgeted rather than a savior to be served. May that never happen at Kerwin Baptist Church. Now listen, we're doing hard to keep things balanced, but what irks me as a preacher sometimes is when God leads and tells us to do something, and I know he's impressed on me to do something, and everybody wants to worry about a budget instead of worrying about the savior.

What I want is sometimes people that all they want to do is ask about the budget. Why don't you get out, knock on a door, and lead somebody to Christ? What's more important? Number two, their minds had become so, by the way, our Christmas offering, we're beginning to collect today, and our Christmas offering is next week.

Just want to make you aware of that. Number two, that wasn't probably the best place to insert that, was it? Number two, their minds had become so occupied with the work of the kingdom that they had lost sight of the king. That can happen in church, you know. We can become so preoccupied with the work of the kingdom that we lose sight of the king. They were worried about the poor that weren't in that room, and they had overlooked the savior that was.

Number three, they focused on the value of the gift instead of focusing on the value of the recipient. Well, that money could be used to help the poor. What would that be in relation to something that would honor Jesus Christ? See, you and I think that if we go out and we help people, that's enough.

No, no, no, no, no, listen to me. We need to go out and help people, but our first and foremost responsibility as a child of God is to honor and glorify Him. I know a lot of people that are serving, but they're not worshiping.

And if you're not worshiping, your serving will end soon. Number four, they did not realize that the value of something is only determined by how much it honors Christ. It's only valuable if it honors Christ. Everything in your life, your house, your resources, your paycheck, your money, whatever it is, look at me. I want you to get this. It is only value.

Its value is only determined by how that honors Christ, not by what it provides for you. I don't know about you, these are pretty good lessons, aren't they? Now, that would just be one message, but you're lucky. Second, I want you to notice that we need to learn a lesson from Bethany, the location. And you say, well, how could we learn a lesson from a house? How could we learn a lesson from a place? Well, this house of Simon the leper had become a little bit of a refuge for Jesus, and I think that you and I, as we compare this to our heart, should learn some lessons.

Number one is this. May our hearts be a place where Jesus always feels honored, like he was at this house. May our hearts be a place where Jesus always feels wanted, like he was at this house. May our lives always show Jesus that there is always room for him, like at this house. And may Jesus always feel that we always want fellowship with him, like they did at this house.

Only two more. We have some lessons to learn from Mary, and all through the Bible we have a lot of lessons to learn from her. But as we think about what she did that day, and her attitude, and her heart, and her worship, these are some lessons I think you and I need to learn this morning before we go on and enjoy what God's given us.

Number one. May we respond to Jesus with the extravagance of Mary, not with the prudence of the disciples. When you and I respond to Jesus, it shouldn't be with prudence. It should be with extravagance. Prudence is how we ought to respond to ourselves. But extravagance is how we should respond to Jesus. And unfortunately, a lot of church people get that totally confused. We give Jesus a little, and we give ourselves a lot.

Number two. May we realize that there is a time to sell perfume for the poor, but there is also a time to shower that perfume on Jesus. I wonder sometimes if maybe we become so busy doing a good thing, and that's doing things for others. And yet it's really been a while since we've really done something for Jesus.

Number three. May we fill or fill any room full of betrayal with the sweet smell of something given or done for Christ without fear of what others think or say. You know, in the middle of that room where betrayal was in the air, although Jesus is the only one that knew it, as Jesus smelled a rat, guess what he quickly began to smell? Was the smell of that expensive, extravagant, wonderful, anointing perfume. You know, in every church there's betrayal. In every church there's hypocrisy. In every room there's always some. But may we be the ones that allow Jesus to smell something different.

Number four. May we, like Mary, do what we can for Jesus. Even when we're in a room where no one else is. There was a lot of people in that room that day, but she was the only one that did what she could.

They all could have, but she was the only one that did. And may you and I be that kind of people that may we be the ones that do what we can for the Lord even when no one else is. Number five. May we, like Mary, realize that there is no better time than this to break the jar. What are we saving it for? No better time than now to unleash it all for Jesus. What did Jesus say? Hey, the poor you're always going to have, but you're not going to have me long. What are we waiting for? What do we keep telling ourselves? Eventually I will this. Eventually I'm going to do this. Why not break the jar now?

Number six. May we realize, like Mary, that nothing is too extravagant for our Savior. Nothing is too much for the one that gave us more than we could ever imagine. I have heard of families that come and tell me that their real-life families criticize them because they just do too much at church and too much.

Oh, really? Is it ever possible to do too much for the Lord? Last, and I know our time is a little bit long, but I've not been preaching very long. Last is the jar. The jar. You say, preacher, how can we learn something from a jar? Well, when Mary broke that jar and poured that ointment out on Jesus, what it was a sign of, it was a sign of her heart breaking and pouring out love for Him.

That was the only way she could try to physically show Him on the outside what she was feeling on the inside. It was literally a sign of this precious jar that was so precious and far beyond, it seemed, the value of what it was even being used for, that she poured it out on Jesus as a sign of her heart. But you and I have to understand that this jar in this story is literally a picture of Christ.

You say, preacher, what do you mean? I mean this, that soon the alabaster body of Jesus would be broken for us. That blood would spill from the whip, from the thorns, from the nails, that precious perfume that was more precious than you and I could ever understand. It was more precious than we could ever realize, more precious than we could ever attribute earthly value to.

It would literally cover that day, not just the sound of those that were mocking Him and literally cover the acts of those that were beating Him, but it would cover the sins that you and I committed this week. He broke His alabaster body so His blood could be shed for us. Oh yeah, that perfume was valuable, but not in relation to Jesus. Get this, the Savior had come to earth to break an alabaster jar for humanity.

Mary had come that night just to break one for Him. It was a jar that she never regretted breaking. And it's a jar that He has never regretted either. So what is our lessons to learn from a jar? If we ever try to cling to our own alabaster jar, may we remember the precious jar Jesus broke for us. You see, when it gets to the point you and I just begin to hold on to some things, because we think they're a little too precious to break right now, may we remember what He broke for us. Second thing is this, may you and I willingly fall at the feet of Jesus and pour on Him not only our tears, but what we treasure most.

Time to break the jar. John Payne, I love you. Isn't it good to see John Payne at church? What this man has been through. And yet you watch what sometimes our friends on earth go through that you can't help but think nobody will ever know has been through what Jesus has been through. He saved nothing for Himself.

He broke everything for us. Let's bow our heads and pray. Lord, I love you. Lord, I think sometimes we can become so self-important that we think we've sacrificed so much. And we've lost sight of how much you've sacrificed for us. We pour a few drops for you while you broke the whole jar for us.

Thank God for one woman that determined to do the same. Our heads are bowed and our eyes are closed. I want to ask you to stand all over the building. The altar is open. Maybe as we approach quickly this Christmas season, you'd find a place at an altar. And thank God for what He's done for you. Maybe today there is the process of getting to an altar, saying, Lord, it's time that I break the jar. I've kind of been holding back for myself a little bit on this one, Lord. I just want to pour it all out to you because you poured it all out for me. Thank you for listening to the Kerwin Broadcast today. God bless you. God bless you.