...Music playing... Sporting events are a popular form of entertainment. Fans often spare no cost as they prepare to cheer on their favorite team.
And the energy and excitement levels are palpable on game day. As we prepare and participate in Sunday worship, shouldn't we have at least that much enthusiasm and care? Today on Truth for Life, Alistair Begg walks us through an inspiring illustration of faith in action. For those of you who were present this morning, you know that we began to begin to look at the issue of worship as it has unfolded for us in 1 Thessalonians 5. And I noted in my own notes that what we were doing this morning, I had written down, Learning to Worship 1, an introduction. I want to return to the issue of worship again tonight, and in my notes it reads, Learning to Worship 2, an illustration. And I invite you to turn with me again to Mark chapter 14 and to the portion of Scripture which we read this morning, which I said was an illustration of a one lady's worship.
And it is a familiar territory for us again, and yet I believe it is necessary territory for us. It is important that if we're going to understand what it means to worship God in spirit and in truth, that we look to the Scriptures as our only guide and our only source of direction. And so, in Mark's Gospel, chapter 14 and beginning in verse 1, we have the record of what is also recorded in Matthew's Gospel, chapter 26, and also in the Gospel of John in chapter 12. You find that this particular incident is chronicled by these other two disciples. Now, we're told in setting the context here in the opening verse that this was immediately prior to the Passover.
Indeed, they were only two days away from this amazing celebration. Indeed, it was Jesus' last night outside Jerusalem prior to his crucifixion. If we had been able to be present in Jerusalem at that particular period of time, we would have been struck by the fact that it was absolutely inundated with crowds and crowds of people.
It is estimated that there were somewhere in the region of two million people who descended upon Jerusalem for the celebration of the Passover. And if we had been able to move amongst the crowd and talk with them, listen to them, we would have discovered that the people were talking along the lines of political intrigue, that they were talking about the fact of social injustice and how long it would be while they as Jews would be forced to put up with all of this dreadful aggravation and oppression that was showered upon them by the Roman authorities. We would also have caught from them this great national pride and fervency—hopes rising within their hearts, national feelings running high, the question of liberation, the coming of the kingdom, the possibility of a Messiah, the overthrow of Roman imperialism. Maybe this would be the time.
Perhaps this would be the day. And sprinkled throughout all of that, the awareness on the part of each member of the crowd of the dreadful ravages of racial prejudice. All of that and more is represented in the summary statement that is given to us here by Mark in his Gospel.
And while, as would normally be the case if we were going, as it were, as journalists for a good story to try and scoop the events, we might be tempted to believe that it would be found somewhere in this great and vast crowd. Mark takes us away from the crowd and into the relative obscurity of the home of a man by the name of Simon the leper. It would appear that Simon was known as Simon the leper because he had been simply that—a leper.
And presumably he had been healed by the Lord Jesus. But since the name Simon was very familiar, there had to be a further designation whereby you would know to whose house you were supposed to go. And so they would say, We'll be going over to the house of Simon—that is, Simon the leper. And so there was a dinner party that had gathered there.
Presumably there were others celebrating the fact of the resurrection of Lazarus. And the crowd had come, and into the midst of that event there in Bethany, and while Jesus was reclining at a table, as verse 3 says, in the home of this man, Simon the leper, a woman came. A woman came. A fairly inconsequential little introductory phrase, not giving to us an inkling of all that is about to follow. The kind of phrase we might overlook, the kind of event that we may be tempted simply to scan and move on, especially with this vast crowd outside, and all these talks of liberation and of political intrigue. And yet, in the great economy of God and in the unfolding of his purposes, what was about to take place in this obscure context was far more significant than what was taking place out and upstairs, as it were, on street level. For here, in the actions of this lady, we were to discover what genuine worship is all about.
I want you just to notice with me a number of straightforward things that are there in the text. First of all, she came prepared. She came prepared. A woman came with an alabaster jar of very expensive perfume. That's how we know she came prepared. It wasn't that she came with a wee squish of something in her purse that she had in her compact or whatever it is that ladies have, various bits and pieces, and finding herself in the context, she said, Oh, maybe I could make use of this. No, she came carrying an alabaster jar.
A Roman pound was twelve ounces, and it was somewhere in the region of that—approximately those kind of figures. Therefore, it was substantial, it was not the kind of thing you could conceal about your person very readily, and it would have been impossible for anyone to notice the lady without at the same time noticing the jar which she carried. And she carried it with her, because the action which was about to follow was a premeditated action. Now, this is simply an illustration of what we mentioned this morning—that if worship is to be entered into in all of its fullness and usefulness, it is going to have to be premeditated. It is going to have to be prepared for. And so we need to be encouraging and exhorting one another in relationship to these things. Even in the commencement of our worship, it really is not good enough to have a hundred of us simply wandering and chatting in the hallways when we know that preparations have been made for worship to commence at 6.30. Our voice is important. Our presence is necessary.
We are a significant member of the worshiping team. And therefore, we will not shortchange our brothers and sisters, because we have already predetermined that we will participate in this way. In other words, she was doing what the psalmist was doing, as he prepared always to worship God. In Psalm 89, the psalmist opens up with these words, I will sing of the LORD's great love forever. With my mouth I will make known your faithfulness through all generations. I will declare that your love stands firm forever, that you established your faithfulness in heaven itself. All of these things are volitional. All of the verbs have to do with an act of the will—not with a feeling, but with a commitment. And the psalmist says, I will sing of the mercies of the LORD forever.
With my mouth will I make known your faithfulness, your faithfulness. And this lady, arriving in this context, is a lady who came prepared. Secondly, she is a lady who bore the cost of the worship she displayed. This alabaster jar was not of some kind of Kmart produce. It was a jar of very expensive perfume—and I mean no despite to the wonderful Kmart store.
But it was made from rare, dried Himalayan plants. Half a liter would have cost approximately nine thousand dollars. And she had in her possession somewhere in the region of twelve ounces. And therefore, her premeditated action was one which bore great cost. But the monetary value was not as significant as the value of this possession to her as a woman. Because this kind of possession was often a family heirloom. This kind of possession may have been purchased for her by her father. She may have secured it as a result of prosperity in her younger life.
But if she had one of these, in keeping with the women of her day, she had such a jar of perfume for one of two reasons—either to be used as a dowry in her wedding or to be used in the face of her own burial, so that in the embalming process they may be able to take this expensive product and use it to prepare her for her passage out of time and into eternity. Now, when you think of that for a moment or two, you realize that the worship of the woman displayed a cost that was far greater than finance. Because by this one particular action, the lady surrendered her personal plans. The lady surrendered her personal ambitions and aspirations for the future.
And the lady surrendered, as we will see, her social acceptability in the present. Now, insofar as that is an expression of worship, loved ones, think about it. If worship is to be genuine, we must, like the woman, prepare. If worship is to be genuine, we must, like the lady, bear the cost. There has to be some cost in genuine worship. Anybody can mouth songs. Anybody can sing along.
Anybody can engage in liturgy. But what is being described here is something far more intrinsic than that, something far deeper than that. And the woman reveals it in her actions. Thirdly, she endured the criticism that emerged as a result of what she did.
Verse 4 tells us that they resented what she did. Some present were saying indignantly or with resentment to one another, Why this waste of perfume? It could have been sold for more than a year's wages. There is a reminder of the financial cost. How many of you have spent a year's wages buying a bottle of perfume? None, I hope.
And if you ever have, make sure you move around with a security car, armored car, bringing the jar with you. And so these people get on their high horse and begin to talk the poor. Judas Iscariot, we're told by one of the other Gospel writers, was leading the charge. We're also told by the other writer that Judas didn't give a rip for the poor.
He just saw it through his greedy eyes as a chance to make a buck. And he resented the fact—and others did too—that this lady would so express her devotion and love for the Lord Jesus that she would take something worth a year's wages, that she would take something prepared as a dowry, prepared for her burial, and that she would do this with it. And so not only did she endure the criticism which was revealed in resentment, but she endured a criticism which was revealed in their rebukes.
And there, in the final sentence of verse 5, we're told, And they rebuked her harshly. "'You stupid woman,' they must have said. "'Who do you think you are? Trying to make the rest of us look bad, are you? Trying to show off, are we? Coming around here like this, with this big jar of perfume, making a fuss and a bother like this? Why would you just fit in with the rest of us?
Why would you be so extravagant? Why would you act in this way? You make us feel so uncomfortable doing this.' And they rebuked her harshly. She could feel their eyes burning into the back of her head as she stood behind Jesus.
She could hear their whispered animosity as with their furtive glances they mentioned to one another. What a weirdo! What a strange person!
We're not used to that kind of thing around here, you know.' She endured their criticism, but fourthly, she was commended by the Lord Jesus Christ. "'Leave her alone,' said Jesus."
What a wonderful word! It's not often you find Jesus speaking in this way, jumping to somebody's defense. "'Leave her alone,' said Jesus. And then he asked the question, Why are you bothering her?' They must have looked at him and said, What do you mean, why are we bothering her? I mean, can't you see what she's doing? She takes this thing worth nine thousand dollars, and she breaks it and starts to pour it all over the place?
A great chunk of it's going on the floor. "'Listen,' says Jesus, she has done a beautiful thing to me. The poor you will always have with you.
You can help them any time you want. Don't let's see in this somehow or another Jesus denigrating the cause of the poor. There was no one with a greater interest in the cause of the poor. He himself was the essence of poverty in his life and in his ministry.'" What he is doing here is he is calling out the hypocrisy of these people.
He's saying, Listen, don't cloud the issue. The poor will always be here, and you can help them every day. Don't use that as a disguise. She has done a beautiful thing.
You will not always have me. But she did what she could. She poured out perfume on my body beforehand to prepare for my burial. She did a beautiful thing, because she recognized who Jesus was, and she recognized what Jesus was about to do. When you and I come to understand who Jesus is and the wonderful thing that Jesus has done, then it will change our whole approach to worship. And some of us have become so inured to the truth of who Jesus is and what he has done that we need to ask the Spirit of God to descend upon our hearts in a new and fresh way, to open the eyes of our understanding to the immensity of what Jesus has done for us upon the cross.
Lest we too become part of the group known for our first of stairs, our harsh rebukes, and our deep resentment. The last thing I want you to note is that she made a lasting impression. We don't know about anyone else that was in the room. There are many things that happened in the life and ministry of Jesus which are a closed book to us. But this incident and this lady has been reported for the last two thousand years.
Why? Because the Spirit of God recognized, as I said at the beginning, that the events that were up and public were not as significant as the events that were down and private. And that, of course, is so often the case. Did you follow what I have noted for you? She came prepared, she bore the cost, she endured the criticism, she was commended by Jesus, and she made a lasting memory. Now, what was the issue? Well, the issue was partly in the fact of this brokenness.
She broke the jar and poured the perfume on his head. If she had simply carried it around, poured a wee drop out, put the lid on, squeezed it down tight, and put it away again for another occasion, it's questionable whether this would ever have been recorded in the Gospels. That might have been quite acceptable.
That certainly wouldn't have been very dramatic. But it was the radical way in which she went about these things, taking all that represented security to her, and all that represented a future for her, and all that had been part and parcel of her life for many a day. And she broke it in order that she might display her devotion to the Lord Jesus Christ. This, loved ones, is where I am in my heart in these days in relation to the question of worship. You want to know what's going on inside of me?
Let me tell you what's going on inside of me. A great, earnest yearning to discover what it means for my life, my pride, my heart, and my agenda to be broken in the worship of the Lord Jesus Christ. I am relatively tired of church services.
I am exceptionally tired of routine. I am, as I travel the country, increasingly disenchanted with superficiality in relationship to the things of the Lord Jesus Christ, and I am most concerned about it in my own heart. And I am asking the Lord Jesus in these days to show me from the example, for example, of this lady, Lord Jesus, what does this actually mean for me? What will it mean for my pride to be broken? What will it mean for the splintering of my natural reserve? What will it mean for the crushing of my selfish will? What will it take for me to be touched by this kind of fragrance so that the world will know that my life is a living sacrifice to the Lord Jesus Christ? And that's what I'm asking about corporate worship at Parkside Church.
It has very little to do with mode. It has everything to do with manner. It has everything to do with asking God to meet us where we are and to save us from being those who are crying out in criticism, and to be prepared to be those who are not conformers but transformers, who are catalytic in the discovery of what it means for our lives to be unashamedly expressions of sacrificial praise. You're listening to Truth for Life with Alistair Begg. And we'll hear more about biblical worship tomorrow. Here at Truth for Life, we care deeply about local churches and the men who are called to lead them. And along these lines, if you're a pastor or you teach a Sunday school class or lead a Bible study, let me encourage you to check out the For Pastors and Churches feature on our website at truthforlife.org slash churches. When you visit that feature today as a pastor, you'll find a free eight lecture study from Alistair called The Basics of Pastoral Ministry. In these lectures, Alistair draws from four decades of leading a local congregation to share insights on how to establish a vision, how to tackle opposition to change, and the marks of a God-given ministry. I know for pastors this will be a very helpful study.
Each lecture comes with a free downloadable study guide. Again, you'll find it at truthforlife.org slash churches. And be sure to subscribe so you'll be notified when new teaching for pastors and churches is released.
While you're online, check out the current book we're recommending. It's a book called Gather, Loving Your Church As You Celebrate Christ Together. The book is yours today when you donate to Truth for Life. Go to truthforlife.org slash donate or call us at 888-588-7884. And if you'd rather mail your donation along with your request for the book, write to Truth for Life at P.O.
Box 398000, Cleveland, Ohio 44139. We're glad you've studied along with us today. Tomorrow we'll conclude today's message and learn why genuine corporate worship blesses the individual, the church, and the community. The Bible teaching of Alistair Begg is furnished by Truth for Life where the Learning is for Living.
