921. Mary: A Servant Chosen and Equipped

Welcome to The Daily Platform. Our program features sermons from chapel services at Bob Jones University in Greenville, South Carolina. Whether it's the general chapel service for the whole student body or services for those in the ministerial class or seminary, everyone at the school is blessed by the preaching of the word each day from the chapel platform. Today on The Daily Platform, we're beginning a four-part seminary series entitled New Testament Servants, which studies how God chose and equipped particular servants in the Bible to minister His Word. Today's message is Mary, a servant chosen and equipped from Luke 10. Seminary professor Dr. Gary Reimers will bring the message. Mary of Bethany shows up in actually three different passages. We're going to look at two of those this morning.

The first one in Luke chapter 10. But I'd like to start with a question. If chapel was not required, would you be here right now? Careful.

If you come up with anything stronger than a maybe, I'm skeptical. I know what it's like to be in school. I know what second semester is like. We're a week and a half into it, and already Christmas seems like a distant memory.

How long ago was that? You're already fully aware of all that's expected of you this semester, and if somebody said, I've got about 45 minutes extra that you get in your day today, and you can do whatever you want with it, and chapel was one of those options. The other question is, would you be here today? Full disclosure, I'm going to acknowledge that it's not exactly a fair question. A fair question as a judge of whether or not you love the Lord. I think there are some other aspects that we could explore in your personal routine that would maybe give us more insight about that. The disclosure part of that is that this is the first time I've been in chapel this year, and I don't mean 2000.

I mean this school year. I don't need to go to chapel anymore because the university no longer tells me I have to be here. My level of responsibility here is to teach a class, and that is all, and so I have a choice, and ordinarily I choose to be doing other things. Generally that's serving the Lord in some other way, but I just thought I'd better be honest about that. What makes it challenging though for us to give an honest straight answer, oh yes, I'd be here, or absolutely God has first place in my life, and I demonstrate that by, and you can point to areas in your life. The reason we're only going to consider two of the three passages is that the other one doesn't exactly give us much insight about Mary on the topic of a heart for the Lord, and what's odd is that that's the passage where she actually says something.

Wouldn't you think we'd get the greatest insight there? That's John chapter 11. She has a few things to say, and the two passages we're going to look at, she doesn't speak, but she acts, and I think that's the key point in selecting these two passages, is that we learn more about our priorities and where Christ fits in, not by what we say, how often and passionately we tell the Lord we love him, but by what we do.

So let's take a look at Mary. Mary who also had pressures in life, competing vigorously for her attention, as we do, that's what makes it hard to put Christ first. Other things can seem to be also very urgent, but the daily choices that you make in your life will reveal whom you love, the actual choices that you make. That's what really demonstrates where your heart is. So in Luke chapter 10, how you spend your time reveals your heart for the Lord, and there's a tension here that we face in our lives every single day, multiple times a day.

The tension is between what is urgent and what is important. That shows up already beginning in verses 38 and 39. Now it came to pass as they went, this is Jesus and his disciples, that he entered into a certain village, and a certain woman named Martha received him into her house. Luke doesn't even tell us what village this is. Now we know from other stories about this family, but Luke doesn't tell us because it's not important.

This could be any village, this could be any day, this could be anybody. Now on this occasion it's special because Christ is walking in, but for us it's like any day because every single day you live you have the opportunity to put Christ first. That's the opportunity that came to this family, and so we're already introduced to Martha who received him into her house. Well 39 tells us she had a sister called Mary which also sat at Jesus' feet and heard his word.

Mary just made a choice. Now it's not exclusive, many modern translations choose to leave out the word also, but it's in the text Mary also sat at Jesus' feet. It means the sitting at his feet was in addition to something else she was doing, but it doesn't tell us what that is explicitly. I think the context would tell us Martha welcomed him into their house, Mary also welcomed him into the house. And that is she was also doing the things that you would do as a host.

Welcoming him, we're going to find later in the next verse what Martha is doing. And I think the assumption we have here is that Mary was doing those things too, but she's doing something else as well. As she recognized that there was a need to make some preparations for dinner and she was helping it to a certain extent, she also recognized there's something else I could do and that is listen to Jesus. And Mary made a decision. She chose her priority. Besides taking care of the other things that life would demand, she also sat at Jesus' feet. Why would she do that?

Because Jesus always has something to say. You wake up in the morning, you've got a decision to make. What am I going to do first? Have I got some work to do? Have I got some responsibilities I haven't fulfilled that I need to get done before things get rolling today? And I wonder if Jesus has anything to say to me today from His Word.

You can scratch out that second question. The answer is always, of course He does. Spending some time then in His Word is choosing your priority. Putting that as the most important thing you have to do, among other things that are also important, maybe even also necessary, but here's the challenge. Sometimes those things can seem more urgent.

Urgent is not the same as important. You establish your priority by what you actually think is most important. Mary sat at His feet. She's a learner.

Sitting there, that's a position of humility. She was listening. That is, she is focused at that time. My guess, I think this is legitimate, is that Christ was probably speaking loudly enough that Martha, as she carried on her responsibilities, was able to hear. And is she interested in what Christ has to say?

Of course she is. So she's catching a snippet here and she passes into the next part of the house and comes back again and hears that, oh that was good. So she's also hearing. But Mary was listening.

There's a focus of attention there that tells us something about Mary's heart. She has chosen her priority. And you have that same option every single day. You can choose to focus on Christ. But there's also another alternative. You can also focus on other things.

Those are the things that can seem important and can seem more urgent. That's where we find Martha. Verse 40, Martha was cumbered about much serving. Came to Him and said, Lord, dost Thou not care that my sister hath left me to serve alone?

Bid her therefore that she help me. That Martha is cumbered about much serving implies that she's going out of her way. This is not just going to be meat, potatoes, and a vegetable.

This is going to be good. After all, it's for the Lord. And you see how we can excuse our priorities by saying, I'm serving the Lord in these other things that I'm doing. She's cumbered about much serving. She's going into details about things that don't have to be done. This is more than what is needful. This is going beyond what is required. But she wants to do her best. Isn't that commendable?

Of course it is. But what if it's distracting from what's more important? My guess is that Martha got caught up in this much serving without ever stopping to think. Now, if I do that, I won't be able to spend time here.

We could probably do without that on the menu. That gives me some time to focus on Christ. I don't think she ever made that calculation. She just sees the urgency and she gets involved in it.

Oh, and I could also do this and I could do that too. And that ought to take place first. And she just never gets to sit at Christ's feet.

Never gets around to listening to what He has to say. What she does next then is remarkable. She's cumbered about much serving. She sees Mary sitting there. And so she walks up and she's got something to say to Christ. First of all, she's interrupting Him. He's teaching and now she's got something to teach. Lord, dost thou not care that my sister hath left me to serve alone?

What kind of question is that? Of course He does. And she thinks He does. She thinks He's sitting there thinking, oh, Mary, come on, don't you see that there's work to be done?

What are you doing sitting here? I know you care about that, Lord, is her implication. So now she has some instruction for the Lord. So let me tell you what to do, Lord, that will alleviate the situation.

In case you hadn't noticed, there is something you could do. Tell her, therefore, that she helped me. And everything's going to be fine. I think there's probably some pride at work here in Martha's heart.

This is going to be a dinner to remember. Well, wait, I can't do all this myself. And so now she becomes critical of her sister. She's become irritated, and I think also irritated with Christ. Do you ever get irritated with the Lord? Like, Lord, I think I've got too much to do. I know you're in control of all things, but didn't you know that these professors were all going to assign more work than is reasonable?

I could put up with one or two of those, but come on, Lord, can't you work in their hearts? And that she takes it upon herself to instruct him. But the real point here is that where's her focus? It's on me. It's the wrong place.

You choose your priority. Christ wants your attention. Martha's expecting some help from Mary. Instead, what she gets is a rebuke from Jesus. Now, it's gentle, but it's firm, and the message is clear in verse 41. Martha is wrong, and she has to change.

Her priorities are wrong. Yes, life can be stressful, and Jesus acknowledges that. He's a realist. He says, Martha, Martha. The repeated name there is like, slow down, Martha.

Let's assess this situation accurately. Thou art careful and troubled about many things, and I know you really want to do your best, but Martha, you missed the most important thing. One thing is needful in verse 41.

Yes, life can be stressful, but he must be central no matter how much is going on in your life. One thing is needful. We have to have God's help to discern what is nice from what is necessary. Now Christ identifies, what is that one thing? It's the thing that Mary has chosen.

He points to her as an example. That one thing is time with Christ. An hour a day, not physically sitting in front of him, but opening his word and asking him, what do you have for me today? What do I need to know?

What do I need to change in my life? And he always has something to say. Christ's final words then invite Martha to change her priority. The right thing for Martha to do at that moment would have been, Lord, you're right. Would you forgive me? I don't have to be doing these other things right now. This will be good enough. And she should have plopped right down on the floor and looked up and said, what do you have to say to me today?

Change your priority. It's an invitation to Martha. The way he's phrased this, it shall not be taken away from the one who's chosen the right. Don't you want to join Mary?

I think it's an invitation for all of us, Martha's. Lord, you're right. I've gotten off track. I've gotten off balance. Let me relieve some anxiety. A few minutes ago, I've already decided we're not going to get to the second passage.

And I'm disappointed and I'll scold myself all the way home. I should have moved through this faster. But we can't do justice to Mark 14, although there is a similar lesson there with a little different point. The point there is how you use your things reveals your heart. So I'll let you explore that yourself.

And instead I want to come back to how you use your time. I saw something remarkable one year when I was an undergrad student in the dormitory. It was a roommate that was nothing special. And he just decided that that year, every afternoon, and his schedule worked out. Most of his classes in the morning and his study time was in the afternoon.

It was like whatever, this kind of schedule everybody wanted. He actually got it that semester. And so every afternoon he's got all this work to do for all the classes that are coming up again tomorrow morning. And he decided that that year he was going to spend an extra hour in God's word. Now this is on top of already devoting himself to the Lord and spending time in his word first thing in the morning.

He never missed that. He just decided, I think what was motivating him is that he was getting acquainted with the New American standard. And he'd always used the King James. And so he was, he wanted to compare the two. And he was, part of his study as he compared passage by passage, he was writing in and to his King James Bible, those places where he thought the New American standard gave him good insight.

So that was quite a few places. This was kind of tedious. But he was working through and he just decided this year that's what I have to do before I start my homework.

It seemed crazy. Take an hour out of your available study time. What's that going to do to your GPA? As far as I know, he never did this before and never did it again. Of course, he'd only have to do that exercise one time. And I asked him one time, is there ever any day where you thought, I don't think I can do it today. I think I need to just get right in. I got too much to do. So yeah, there are those days.

And I'm really tempted. But he said, I found that by God's grace, I made this commitment, by God's grace, if I put him first, somehow he can help me to get everything else done. The key there is by God's grace. Well, how are you going to survive this semester anyway?

You had all the time in the world that you wanted to prepare for every class. You'd still need God's grace to get it, to understand everything that you need to know from your classes. You get the promise of God's grace if you put him first. Like Martha, I would expect you might have something to confess to the Lord. Now, maybe you did okay this morning. Maybe you spent your time with the Lord and it was the first significant thing you did today. Maybe you've not established that pattern. Maybe you're, boy, sometimes you can get talked out of it. I think I'm too busy today. Christ is telling us in this passage, that's wrong.

Understand, I'm not saying you've got to take an hour in the afternoon as well. That was special. That was him.

That was then. But whatever opportunity you have, then you decide that is the most important thing. That is what I have to do first. Then nothing should ever get in the way of that.

That is a high standard. How are you going to do that? He'll forgive you for the past.

How are you going to make a change that's actually going to last a lifetime? You're going to need his help. So we transition to the prayer time now. I'd like to take just a couple of moments of quiet. And just let you tell the Lord what he needs to hear from you right now. In response to what we have seen in this passage of the grace he gave to Mary. He has that same grace available for you.

Let's bow for prayer. You tell the Lord what he needs to hear from you right now. Father, we are thankful that you are long suffering with us.

It's nothing in this passage that we didn't already know. And yet, Father, we can look at our daily choices and they tell us our priorities are not yet in line. Father, we ask for forgiveness. We ask for grace to trust you that if we put you first you will enable us to get everything else done that needs to be done. Father, help us in assessing and then demonstrating what is most important. Father, may that be you. We pray in Jesus' name.

Amen. You've been listening to a sermon preached by seminary professor Dr. Gary Reimers, which is part of the Seminary Chapel series entitled New Testament Servants Chosen and Equipped. I'm Steve Pettit, President of Bob Jones University.

Thank you for listening to The Daily Platform. The Bob Jones University School for Continuing Online and Professional Education offers convenient and affordable online programs. Whether you're seeking to expand your skills, pursue a passion, or develop a ministry on your own time, qualified and engaged instructors will help you reach your goals. For more information, visit scope.bju.edu or call 888-253-9833. Listen again tomorrow as we continue the seminary series, New Testament Servants Chosen and Equipped, here on The Daily Platform.