It would be good to have your bibles open on John chapter 12 starting at verse 1

Transcription

1 Reactions to the King (John 12:1-19) 7 th August G Day everyone. It would be good to have your bibles open on John chapter 12 starting at verse 1 and we re going through to verse 19. There s an outline in your bulletin to take notes if that helps you to concentrate Let me pray first, before we begin. Let s pray Intro Let me tell you about my wife Heather, She always supports me in ministry She understands my illness I have Lupus which makes me very tired at times and so sometimes she misses out on doing fun things because I m too tired She understands me working long hours and not seeing me as often as she d like and having to share me with a lot of other people She cares about my health more than I do and makes sure I see the doctors and specialists when I should When I get hurt feelings (as I sometimes do in this job) she cares about my feelings more than I do She believes in me and encourages me to keep going when life gets a bit tough? Why does she do all that? Because of her love and devotion to me? (pause) Page 1 of 11

2 I m blessed to have someone who loves me that much 2 It got me thinking, this week, as I looked at this section of John s Gospel, Do we show that same love and devotion to Jesus? (pause) We ve just read that Jesus is the Promised Messiah (God s chosen One sent to save people) and He s a King and He s God s Son Do we show that same love and devotion to Jesus? (pause) In our passage this morning there are different reactions to Jesus the King So we re going to briefly explore those reactions and then come up with some applications for our lives as we leave here this morning Context Let s look at the context first - though Jesus has just raised his friend Lazarus from the dead in chapter 11 And he comes to Bethany, where Lazarus, Mary and Martha live (a couple of miles from Jerusalem) and it s 6 days before the Jewish festival of Passover And there s a dinner in Jesus honour Martha is serving as usual that s her character And Mary anoints Jesus feet with some expensive perfume we ll come back to Mary later But I want to look at the reactions of some of the other people in the story first: Page 2 of 11

3 REACTIONS: 3 Judas (vv7-8) Judas as we know betrayed Jesus later In doing so he betrayed Jesus trust in him [Powerpoint 1a Judas] We see here in v7 and v8 his concern for using this expensive perfume which could have been sold for the poor. Judas is not really concerned for the poor he s more interested in pocketing the money and he clearly thinks Jesus the King of Kings is not worth this lavish expensive perfume! [Powerpoint 1b Us] (App) What has Jesus trusted us with? Are we betraying his trust in us? Do we think he s worth our time, our worship our devotion or is all that just all too inconvenient for us? Like Judas do we see ourselves as more important than Jesus? The Large Crowd (v9) Then we have the inquisitive crowd in verse 9 why have they come? [Powerpoint 2a Large Crowd] To see Jesus the miracle worker and to see Lazarus the one Jesus raised from the dead to check out if he s really alive like people say he is? Is their interest genuine? Who knows? But at least they are curious in Jesus? Is being curious in Jesus enough? Page 3 of 11

4 It s a start not enough but when people are curious in Jesus in gives us an 4 opportunity to share the Gospel with them? [Powerpoint 2b Us] (App) does our interest in Jesus go beyond curiosity? The Chief Priests (v10-11) Then there s the chief priests in v10 they made plans to kill Lazarus Why? [Powerpoint 3a Chief Priests] Well because Jesus has raised Lazarus from the dead many people are now believing in Jesus and we can t have that can we? Also, the chief priests are mainly from the Sadducees party who don t believe in the resurrection so having a man like Lazarus raised from the dead is not good for their argument against resurrection is it? So they plan to kill Lazarus and get rid of the evidence Throughout the last 2000 years, people have tried to get rid of Christians and get rid of the Bible but we still have both don t we? God s will will be done! Throughout the last 2000 years people have tried to deny the truth about Jesus but as Jesus said back in chapter 10 verse 35 Scripture cannot be broken! [Powerpoint 3b Us] (App) - How seriously are we taking the truths about Jesus, in Scripture? Page 4 of 11

5 Jerusalem Crowd (vv12-15) 5 As Jesus rides in to Jerusalem a great crowd heard he was coming v12 [Powerpoint 4a Jerusalem Crowd] They take down palm branches and OT way to greet a king (like a red carpet) They shout Hosanna = originally meaning - help us or save us now! Later used as a shout of adoration, praise or joy Hooray we d say today They see Jesus as the Promised Messiah and King promised in the OT they quote from Psalm 118:25-26 and they fulfil the OT prophecy of Zechariah 9:9 that the Messiah would come riding on a donkey The crowd see him as the promised King but more than that they see him as a warrior king who will come and save them from the tyranny of the Romans and kick them out of Israel But they ve got the wrong idea he s not come to sort out all their problems He s come to sort out one problem the broken relationship between God and humans because of humankind s sin and rebellion against and He s come to bring peace in that relationship not to start a war with the Romans and save the people of Israel from Roman rule [Powerpoint 4b Us] (App) I wonder if we sometimes have the wrong idea of Jesus He didn t come to make our lives a bed of roses so we don t have any problems He sorted out our sin and gave us a relationship with God that is fixed he removed our sin replaced it with forgiveness and a hope of a better life in the future living with God forever. Yes he gives us understanding and comfort and strength to get Page 5 of 11

6 through problems (with His word and through prayer) but don t get the wrong 6 idea that Jesus is some sort of Mr. Fix It so you don t have any trials in your life The Disciples (v16) [Powerpoint 5a Disciples] Then there s the disciples they didn t understand all of this. Of course not they re right in the middle of things it s only on reflection after Jesus is glorified by dying on the Cross, by His Resurrection, by His Ascension into Heaven and by Him sending the Holy Spirit to help and teach them that they fully understand why Jesus came and died and rose again. [Powerpoint 5b Us] (App) It s the same for us we are at the other end of the story after Jesus has died, risen and ascended to Heaven and we can only fully understand about Jesus by the work of the Holy Spirit inside us as we read and meditate on His word The Crowd (with him) (v17) (and who go out to him) (v18) [Powerpoint 6a Crowd] Then there s the crowd in v17 who came with him and who actually witnessed Lazarus come out of the tomb they re still spreading the word about Jesus miracle. And there s the crowd who ve heard about the miracle and go out to meet him in v18. But what are they believing in Jesus or the miracle? The miracles Page 6 of 11

7 Jesus did were always meant to help people believe in him not believe in His 7 miracles. [Powerpoint 6b Us] (App) We must believe in more than Jesus miracles we must believe He died for our sins for forgiveness we must believe he rose again for us to have the hope of life with God forever The Pharisees (v19) Then finally there s the Pharisees [Powerpoint 7a Pharisees] All their plans to make Jesus unpopular have failed the people have gone wild the Pharisees are getting nowhere Jesus is just becoming more and more popular in fact see v19 - the whole world has gone after them whole world to them it was like the whole world with all the foreigners visiting Jerusalem for the Passover. We sometime use that sort of hyperbole don t we we say things like everyone or everything is against us nobody loves me everybody hates me I think I ll go and eat worms Ironically Jesus did come because God loves the world and Jesus is the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world [Powerpoint 7b Us] (App) The fact is that God s Plan is unstoppable Jesus did die for the sin of the world He is available to the whole world. We need to be active in telling the whole world! Page 7 of 11

8 8 JESUS THE KING There s the reactions to the King And we ll come to Mary last but first [Powerpoint 8 Jesus the King] Let s look at what sort of King Jesus is He stands up intercedes for those who love him When Judas baulks at the waste of such expensive perfume Jesus says Leave her alone Mary s extravagant praise is worth it Jesus is worth it He s the King of Kings! As he rides in on a donkey Yes He is a King Yes He is the Messiah God s promised chosen and anointed one But he s humble he came on a donkey not a stallion not a chariot He came on a donkey in peace not for war against the Romans He s a different kind of king Yes he fulfills OT Scripture in fact the whole OT points to him and is all about Him But He came in bravery knowing He would be riding in to Jerusalem and to His death in less than a week s time He is an obedient King doing the will of the Father who sent Him He is a servant King knowing that he must serve people by dying Page 8 of 11

9 He is a loving King knowing there is no greater love than this to lay down his 9 life for His us MARY (v3) Which brings us to Mary she shows how we should react to a King like that! [Powerpoint 9 Mary] She gives her best her all she gives her best perfume worth a year s wages about $40K in today s money But this is Jesus King of Kings no expense spared no holding back She humbles herself and throws herself at Jesus feet in public (3 rd time 1 st time when he taught her 2 nd time when Lazarus died and now this time) she humbles herself in front of all the guests She anoints Jesus feet it was customary for the servants of the house to do this but she doesn t care this is her Lord She wipes Jesus feet with her hair to do this means she has to let down her hair in public which in their culture women didn t do She gave her all to Jesus the King of Kings Conclusion Our Reaction? [Powerpoint 10 Our Reaction] (App) What about us? Are we prepared to give our all to Jesus? Do we show the same love and devotion to Jesus as Mary did? Page 9 of 11

10 Do we serve the Lord in every way we can? 10 Has God given us a gift or talent but we don t use it for the Lord just for ourselves or not at all? Do we give time to the Lord or just squeeze Him into your busy schedule in between the TV, Sport and Shopping? Is He really king of our life or are we king of our life? Remember the definition of a King is - a person who is more important than all others Sometimes when I hear Heather on the phone talking to one of the family or a friend I often hear her say Paul said this Paul said that Paul said the same thing Because she mentions my name so much I know she loves me and cares about my opinion and what I say and my advice I wonder do we talk about Jesus like that so that people know He s the Lord of our lives and they can see how much we love Jesus? How much do we talk about Jesus - more than other people/things in our lives or less or about the same? Page 10 of 11

11 11 Do all our friends know we follow Jesus? All our friends/some of them/none of them? What are we holding back from the Lord? Our time, our talents, our expertise, our prayers, our worship, our praise? Our money (it s his money not ours) [Powerpoint 11 Our Reaction] If we all showed the same love and devotion to Jesus as Mary did how would that be? It would mean not caring if we are a servant not caring what people think of us only what God thinks it would mean not caring about being ridiculed for loving Jesus - not concerned about how much time we spend in enthusiasm or worship or praise or song or prayer or Bible reading or how long we devote to the Lord and the Lord s Work because we know that every single moment is worth it! And why should we show such love and devotion to Jesus? Because He is the King of King and Lord of Lord s Because He died for us whilst we were still sinners so we could have forgiveness Because He gave his all literally - for us so we could live Shouldn t our reaction be like Mary s and shouldn t we fall to our feet and kneel and say Thank You Lord! Every single day! Let s pray Page 11 of 11