Communion with Christ - Luke 10:38-42 (12.28.2025)

Today's scripture, we're reading from Luke 10, 38-42.

After I finish reading, I will say, this is the word of the Lord.

Please respond by saying, thanks be to God.

Now as they went on their way, Jesus entered a village, and a woman named Martha

welcomed him into her house.

And she had a sister called Mary who sat on the Lord's feet and listened to his teaching.

But Martha was distracted with much serving and she went up to him and said,

Lord, do you not care that my sister has left me to serve alone?

Tell her then to help me. But the Lord answered her, Martha,

Martha, you're anxious and troubled about many things, But one thing is necessary.

Mary has chosen the good portion, which will not be taken away from her.

This is the word of the Lord.

Good job. Good job. Well, good morning, Christ Church. That was my lovely wife and daughter.

And really just a picture of redemption. Picture of redemption.

She was sick with the flu last week. She missed our Christmas Sunday where she

was supposed to read scripture. And so she got a shot at redemption to do it today.

So thank you, Soph, for reading.

Well, good morning. Welcome to Christ Church.

You know, statistically, they say that the Sunday in between Christmas and New

Year's is the least attended Sunday church service.

But look at you guys, you're here. Some of you are obligated to be here.

For the most part, welcome. Welcome. Glad you're here. Friends from home,

thank you for coming. What an encouragement. What an encouragement.

If you're new to Christ Church, or maybe you're wondering why we moved down

to Alpharetta Johns Creek to plant this church, but since the beginning,

we've been focused on being a church that glorifies God and benefits our neighbors

as we seek to make, mature, and mobilize disciples.

And we framed the practice of this mission around five priorities or five pillars

supporting that, which are communion with Christ, rooted theology.

Generational faithfulness, missed one, biblical community, generational faithfulness,

and great commission fulfillment.

And so this sermon is a one-off sermon as we finish the year of 2025,

we finished Advent, we finished Christmas, and as we get ready to start at 2026.

So I want us to draw into our first priority, communion with Christ,

and hopefully set this up as our New Year's resolution together.

You heard the scripture read from Luke 10. If you haven't flipped there yet,

it's also in the note card that you have. Luke 10, verses 38 to 42.

Luke 10:38–42

This text brings up really important tension that we're all facing in the planting

of this church and in life in general.

What I hope to accomplish this morning is help us set up a value system,

a way to compare, to see what we're really valuing and putting our attention and affection in,

as we evaluate the means of grace in the ministry of serving like Martha did,

but also prioritizing the means of grace in the ministry of the word as Mary did.

So how do we hold those two together? Because look, we're all participating

in the planning of this church.

And we're having to do a lot and work a lot, and it does glorify the Lord,

but we can't do it apart from sitting at His feet and fellowshipping with Him

and being filled with His presence and strength to carry us through this.

So the goal for this morning is to do that, to sit at His feet,

hear His word, fall more in love with Him, and let that move us into fruitful ministry.

And I think that's what Luke is writing here under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit.

He's writing this passage. It's interesting that it's not in the other gospel

accounts. So only Luke writes this.

And I think he's writing it so that we can see the point is to simply be with

Christ, sit at his feet to know him and enjoy him forever.

And then from that communion with him will flow God, God glorifying ministry.

So as we go into the new year, let's together make this our new year's resolution

of communion with Christ, making that a priority so we can be a people who aspire

to be a people who treasure Christ above all else.

So the text, Luke 10, who is Martha?

Who is Mary? The Bible doesn't tell us a whole lot about these characters, who they are.

We know that they are friends with Jesus. We get to learn this from John's gospel

writing, where Jesus is friends with Lazarus, who is the friend or the brother of Mary and Martha.

And we see them, we see them going through life together.

And so much so that Jesus wept when he heard the news that Lazarus died.

And so he went to the tomb where Lazarus was laying there dead for four days

and raised him back to life. So Jesus is friends with Mary, Martha, and Lazarus.

So there's a connection there.

But Luke, why does Luke include this here?

Luke, his purpose in writing his gospel account is to,

as the opening of Luke chapter one says, he's writing to a man named Theophilus

so that he may present an orderly account of the certainty of what has been taught about Jesus.

This is Luke chapter one, verses one through four. So knowing Luke's purpose

of writing to give a chronological evidence from the eyewitnesses experienced

Jesus' life, death, and resurrection.

He's writing this to prove Jesus' life.

And so Luke's writing this not just for Theophilus, but also for us today,

so that we may believe in the Christ.

So even Luke's writing gives us a draw in to why we should value the careful

observation of Jesus's life, Jesus's words, as Mary did.

That is who Mary, Martha, and Jesus are in this passage. So verse 38, verse 38.

Now, as they went on their way, Jesus entered a village and a woman named Martha

welcomed him into her house.

So based on the text, we can make a safe assumption looking at the family dynamic

of Lazarus, Martha, and Mary, that Martha is most likely the oldest sibling

since it says she welcomed Jesus into her house.

So Martha welcomed Jesus into her house. And it's not a huge detail to the point of the story, but.

Since she's the one seemingly doing all the work and Mary is sitting at the

feet of Jesus, appearing to not be doing much work, just for fun, I'm a younger brother.

I'm a younger brother. And based on our family dynamic, I would probably let

my big brother do all the work himself too.

My mom's nodding. She said it's true. Proof.

Candice is the older of her family unit and she's so much more caring and nurturing

than I am. And Soph, our oldest daughter, she's a rule follower.

And she doesn't like it when other people don't follow the rules.

And especially little brother when he does not pick up his toys after we tell him to.

And it's part of being four years old, I guess. But Soph takes up the responsibility

and picks up his toys for him.

So the older sibling generally in the family unit takes on more responsibilities for the family.

And so I think that might possibly be at play here, but with or without the

sibling traits, there is a major controversy in the social construct of hospitality in Jesus's day.

So the Lord was a guest in their house and Martha and Mary were expected to,

and even obligated to go above and beyond to serve them well,

the people entering their house.

They're washing the feet of the Lord and his disciples. They would be offering

an anointing with oil, which we see Mary doing later in that John passage.

They would be preparing the place for them to recline and sit.

They'd be preparing a meal for them to eat and break bread together.

So this type of hospitality was

commonplace and where the women would be carrying most of the work there.

And for them, it would almost produce a merit, an earned righteous in their value system.

Say, okay, this is what I'm expected to do. And this might give me more value

or self-worth and meaning.

So it makes sense that Martha was eager to host and to host to perfection.

Jesus entered the house. He sat down and began teaching.

And Mary immediately sat in front of him to listen to every word he said.

And again, this would be counterculture to the day and really could be even

insulting and a lack of respect and dishonor for Mary to be sitting with the men,

engaging in conversation with

the rabbi, Jesus the rabbi, and allowing her sister to host by herself.

So Martha, for the surrounding cultural environment and expectations placed upon her,

acts as a proper hostess, and she's irritated, maybe even embarrassed at the

way her sister is acting or doing.

So she complains to Jesus and asks him to step in and fix the situation.

She even challenges him.

In verse 40, Lord, do you not care that my sister has left me alone to serve? Tell her then to help me.

But Martha, in verse 40, Martha was distracted by much serving.

So that word distracted, we're going to key in for the first point of the sermon today.

Distracted in Greek, it's periospao. It only occurs one time in the Bible.

This word occurs one time in the Bible and it's designated to Martha.

She carries a unique distinction.

She's the only person described as being distracted.

In all 66 books of the Bible, you know, stories of people throughout the history

from Adam all the way to John at the end of reading, writing Revelation.

There are people, characters that come up and come down, but she's the only

one described as being distracted.

I'm sure she was honored by that when she read Luke's writing.

But she was distracted with much serving, which on one hand doesn't sound wrong, right?

As Christians, we are called to obey the Bible's teachings, to obey scripture.

And so the ministry of serving, self-sacrifice, giving of oneself is proper,

is proper response to the life-changing gospel.

Because that's ultimately a reflection of what Christ did for us, right?

He came not to be served, but to serve and give his life as a ransom for many.

In fact, Jesus was actually the most hospitable person in the history of the

world, and he didn't even have a home, right? It's fascinating, this Jesus.

But Martha was distracted with much serving. And I think, like Martha,

many of us, this is where we get off track. We're distracted with much something.

The nature of the sentence implies that something better and more important was available to her.

She was distracted away from something, even though she was doing a good thing by serving.

It sounds relatable, doesn't it?

Sounds kind of relatable. So many things today fighting for our attention,

our affection, and even in Martha's case, being distracted by a seemingly good and right thing to do.

She's juggling the family calendar, making sure who's coming and who's going.

And she's making sure there's always food in the house.

She's keeping the house in decent order, ready for surprise guests as Jesus

is making his way into the certain village.

Kind of sounds like some moms and wives in the room. I don't know how y'all

do it. Moms and wives, y'all are incredible.

For us men, like we just make the morning coffee, make sure you're fueled up

to take care of the thousand things that are on your brain and to-do list.

We see you, we have the easy job.

We just make sure the lawn's cut, the grass is looking good,

and that's it, right? Man, you do a lot more. I'm just kidding.

But we get to see this just as an example of how Martha, like us,

can be distracted away so easily by even seemingly the right thing to do.

If we're distracted like martha by much

serving making those things a priority rather than

sitting at the feet of jesus then we're

we're missing out on what the lord wants from us we're missing out on the source

of the means of grace in the ministry of service and so it's okay to be doing

things but if you're doing it apart from the source of jesus christ then it's

it's a flat work It's a dead work.

So I like the illustration of a surge protector, an extension cord,

like we plug things into, you know, Christmas trees and your mantel lights,

you're starting to plug all these things into.

You can plug a lot of things in and do a lot of things with it.

And that vessel is good only if it's plugged into the power source, right?

So I know for me, I'm a better husband and a better dad when I pause and I look to Christ.

When I sit at his feet and I'm filled with his grace, I'm far less patient.

I'm far more agitated, less gentle when I am disconnected from him and trying to do things on my own.

I lose sight of the more important thing, which is Christ and his eternity with him.

In our family, we have this motto of breathe grace, breathe grace.

So we breathe in the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ by his word,

by praying, and then we breathe that out because we can only breathe out if

we breathe in. Have you ever tried breathing out when you're out of air?

You can't do it. You got to breathe in to breathe out.

So we breathe in the grace so that we can breathe out grace.

That's our family motto. So Martha teaches us that it's possible to do the right

thing, but do them in the wrong way.

Or to put it another way, she was doing a form of ministry. Ministry means serving.

And she was technically serving Jesus, right?

But she wasn't serving Jesus in the way that mattered most, the more necessary

portion, which we'll get to.

She was distracted away from that. Even though she was doing good things by

showing hospitality, she was doing it disconnected from relationship with God.

And this results in a dead work.

It does not please the Lord for us to do the seemingly good things disconnected

from relationship with Him.

He wants us to be with Him and abundantly overflow into the works that He's called us to.

Martha's home became a living example of faithful hospitality,

but mistakenly became the priority and most important thing.

Mary's devotion, however, revealed the heart that should be behind such hospitality,

sitting at the word, the means of grace and the ministry of the word.

So when we do ministry disconnected from relationship with Jesus,

we end up trying to use Jesus for our purposes rather than letting him use us for his.

Martha was anxious and troubled, verse 41 says. She was busy worrying about

what she had to do and perhaps who she was expected to be, right based on the

culture as she missed out on just being with jesus.

Nothing is more important than being with Jesus. Nothing is more important than

that. Not even serving him.

Not even serving him. Charles Spurgeon, got to get a Spurgeon quote in.

He addressed this tension between serving and communing with Christ when he

said, what I can do for Christ is little.

What he did for me is so amazing, so matchless, so unspeakable,

so glorious that I ought to give that the major part of my attention.

I may sometimes run with Martha to do what Christ needs of me,

but I think I should more frequently sit with Mary to receive from Christ what I need from him.

There are going to be things in life and in ministry that we just have to do.

Like Martha, legitimate responsibilities

coming up can sometimes crowd out vital spiritual nurture.

Without paying attention and examining our own value system,

we can so easily get distracted, even with much serving, like Martha.

But God in his kindness, he created the world with rest as a key marker.

On the seventh day, he rested and calls us to do the same.

He made us with limits in his kindness. And I think it's easy for us to forget that.

It's easy for us to run with Martha and it's hard for us to sit with Mary to

receive from Christ what I need from him.

So we have to come back to the source. Come back to the source.

We're reminded from 1 John 3, see what love the father has lavished on us that

we should be called children of God. There's a loving relationship there.

He loves us perfectly and wants to be friend with us.

Jesus was friends with Mary, Martha, Lazarus, and we see throughout Scripture

God interacting with his people as friends, walking and talking with Adam in the garden.

Abraham was called a friend of God. He spoke with Moses face to face as a friend

would, and he created us to be in relationship with him.

Sin disrupted that relationship, but Christ's work on the cross to bring us

back into relationship with God has been accomplished through his once and for all sacrifice.

And so now we can remove these distractions and come to him as a friend,

spend time with him, enjoy him, love him.

The song we just sang, everything I need, everything I need, my father has it.

Seek first his kingdom, His righteousness is Matthew 6, 33.

And that passage, Jesus is saying, there's nothing in this world that can trouble

you and make you more anxious that I'm not sufficient enough to provide.

That passage in Matthew 6 is talking about anxiety of today's struggles, the world's struggles.

But Jesus says, there's nothing that can make you troubled or make you more

anxious that I am not sufficient enough to provide you with.

He says here in the Luke passage that he is the better portion or that Mary

has chosen the better portion in verse 42.

This portion is the Christ himself giving of himself.

This word portion or part, your translation might say part or share.

Think of it as something like a shared ownership of something or something that

is common between two people.

This portion carries connection to Colossians 1, 12, which says the Father has

qualified you to share portion in the inheritance of the saints.

He's given us himself and wants us to draw near to him and rely on him.

This portion, this word portion also echoes some Old Testament passages where

we see that the Lord is our portion.

He is our portion forever.

Several of the Psalms mentioned this And I challenge you to go and see,

spend time with him to see where he is your portion, that he is enough because

he welcomes us with everything we need.

He has it and he welcomes us to sit at his feet and receive from him what we need.

Another thing that we can learn from Martha and Mary in our own fight against distraction.

Sometimes we need to help our brothers and sisters around us to slow down,

to stop and sit at the feet of Jesus.

What if Mary stopped Martha from all of her much serving and encouraged her

to come and sit and just be with Jesus?

I would have changed Martha's frustration, certainly wouldn't have been there, right?

So we have communion with Christ as a priority and a category in our membership covenant, right?

That we're agreeing to help one another pursue communion with Christ as we ourselves

pursue communion with Christ.

So we have to help each other pursue slowness, contemplation,

so that we can behold the beauties of our triune God and be made more like Him

through the working of the Spirit by His Word.

When you know God and enjoy Him, when you commune with Him, your love for Him grows.

Your love for Him grows. When you're serving Him, it becomes a natural outcome

of your time with Him, your enjoyment and your love for Him.

Serving is a natural outcome and serving with a heart full of love even.

Trust will be built up. Your mind will be clearer so that when busyness,

when rush, when distraction comes, you'll be able to notice and can come sit

at the feet, the source of grace,

the portion himself, Christ.

So pastors, this is what we need

to do, right? We need to thoughtfully and prayerfully spend time with him,

plunge the depths of the scriptures and theology and know him better so that

we can learn from him how to best care for and lead his sheep.

Believers, this is what you need to do, to sit and reflect on the saving work of Christ.

And the more you sit and reflect, you listen and you pray, I'm certain you will

grow in thankfulness and humility and love and joy and peace and patience and

kindness. The list goes on.

And it will even produce in you an eagerness to share your faith in Christ.

The more you sit with them, the more you love them, the more you want to tell

people about them. and then it goes all the way to the ends of the world,

to all nations, so that everyone may hear the gospel of Christ.

So those who maybe have not quite yet put their whole faith and trust in Jesus, this is for you too.

This is what you're invited to do, to listen and learn who this Jesus is,

the one who is full of grace and truth.

Not looking at what all you can do for him or how good you serve or how good you are.

He simply wants you to come and sit and know him relationally, enjoy his fellowship.

Jesus, in this passage, he tenderly, he patiently, with all kindness and love,

he says in verse 41, Martha, you can almost see his eyes just full of love.

Martha, Martha, you are anxious and troubled about many things.

And here's where Jesus turns things upside down like he so often does.

He tells Martha that she's worried and upset, bothered and disturbed about many

things, and he challenges her to examine her value system so she can compare

things appropriately and choose the more important thing.

Jesus says to her, a few things are important, Martha.

Serving is good, but apart from me, you can do nothing.

He says, Mary has chosen what is better and it will not be taken from her. And what is Mary doing?

We're calling it contemplation. I needed a second point that rhymes with distraction,

contemplation. So contemplation.

Jesus commends Mary in verse 42 for choosing the necessary and better thing

as she sits and listens to his teaching.

She contemplates on the person and work of Christ.

And contemplation is the action of looking thoughtfully and intently at something for a long time.

Mary teaches us that if only one thing, one thing is necessary,

then everything else that we are commanded to do must be the result of that one thing.

One thing, the something of more importance that was available to Martha that she missed out on.

Verse 39, it gives us a beautiful picture of what it looks like to commune with

Christ as Mary was sitting at the feet of Jesus, listening to his word, his every word.

And we can easily apply this to our life, too. So it teaches us,

one, that she was sitting at Jesus' feet, modeling a posture of submission and humility.

Two, listening to his teaching. This is discipleship.

And three, she was enjoying his presence, his relationship.

So everything else, everything else like loving our neighbor as ourselves and

being a good steward of the natural and spiritual gifts that he has given us,

obeying all that he has commanded, being ministers of reconciliation,

sharing the faith with others,

even radical hospitality.

It must come out of the overflow of sitting at Jesus' feet in submission,

listening to and being transformed by his word and enjoying his company.

This is what we've been purchased into, that we can know him.

We can know him intimately. And he wants to give us everything we need.

Our father has it. He wants to give us everything so that we can sit and be

ministered by the means of grace and the ministry of the word.

This is the one thing necessary that Jesus is speaking of. It's the care and

nourishment of the soul.

Martha was caring for the body, the physical, temporary sustenance,

while Mary was caring for the soul, spiritual, eternal sustenance.

The verse again from the song is, seek first his kingdom and his righteousness,

and everything will be added.

Seek what matters, what's most important. George Whitefield described the care

of the soul by saying the care of the soul implies a readiness to hear the words

of Christ, to receive them,

to seat ourselves with Mary at his feet and receive the gospel from his mouth.

So we should ask ourselves, what are we giving our attention to?

Are we caring for the body, what we will eat or drink or wear or do?

Or are we caring for the soul, eating the spiritual feast, which is the word

of the Lord, the scriptures.

As Peter proclaimed to Jesus, he said, you are the Christ, the Messiah.

Where else will we go, Lord? For you have the words of life.

Jesus said himself, man should not live on bread alone, but on the very word of God.

So Jesus is the one thing necessary. He is the better portion and he will not be taken away from Mary.

Mary was serving Jesus.

Mary might have been sitting still, but she wasn't doing nothing.

She was ministering to the Lord. So let's not be fooled, church.

Let's not be fooled into the rush and the busyness and the distraction.

It is ministry to Jesus to simply be with him, to hear from him in his word.

It reminds us of the call of his first disciples, even. In Mark 3,

he appointed 12, whom he also called disciples, so that they might be with him.

That's the first call Jesus gives to disciples, so that they might be with him,

and then he might send them out to preach later.

The first calling of disciples to be with Jesus. It's from being with Jesus

that they are able to fruitfully and joyfully carry out ministry that Jesus has tasked them with.

Same with us. Same with us. Jesus is inviting us to be with Him,

to know Him, to enjoy Him.

And from that communion with Christ will flow God-glorifying ministry.

The story, Martha expresses the traditional and expected duties of serving and doing.

Mary, on the other hand, expresses the heart of worship and discipleship.

And then Jesus affirms that true hospitality flows from love,

not pressure or proving one's value.

It flows from love that he gives us.

So as we, as we close one, one last encouragement from Martha,

because like Martha, and we, we might sometimes get off track and drift,

drift away into busyness and distraction,

because we're all continually growing in grace. We're not perfect yet.

We're not perfect yet, but we are growing in Christ's likeness.

So we might get off track every now and again, But Martha's story didn't end

right here after Jesus rebuked her, right?

The Bible doesn't tell us what her reaction was to his words,

but I imagine it changed her life because what happened later,

Martha was given an opportunity to express her faith in Christ at the tomb of

her brother Lazarus in the gospel of John's writing.

And this is how she replied. She replied, yes, Lord, I believe that you are

the Christ, the son of God who has come into the world.

So we see God at work in sanctifying Martha through the distraction,

calling her back to himself.

There's one thing more important, the better portion.

Mary has chosen it and it will not be taken away from her. So come,

come and sit, come and be.

And that's our invitation. That's our invitation. So I invite you,

what might you need to give up so you can know this Jesus, the Christ, the Messiah.

What might you need to give up to be with Jesus to hear his every word?

The challenge of Jesus stands to us today, and we need to constantly be examining

our own value system to make sure that we're choosing the better portion.

The one, he, who is far better and more important and more life-giving than

anything this world can offer.

And we want to help you do this this year, to sit at the feet, to commune with Christ.

So we've got on the back table some year-long Bible reading plans,

because what communion with Christ is, we want to grow in Bible reading,

we want to grow in prayer, and we want to grow in the pursuit of holiness.

This is what we want to do together. So you're invited. Let's do this together

as a community of believers growing in Christlikeness, sitting at the feet,

encouraging each other to do the same.

So pick one up as you leave and join us in fellowship as we read the scriptures together.

So let's respond now to Christ's call to know Him and enjoy Him. Amen. Let's pray.

Gracious Father, thank you for your written word, Lord, that we might know you

and come to the living word, Christ Jesus Himself.

Lord, help us to love your scripture so that we might love you better,

love you rightly, worship you correctly as you deserve.

Lord, help us to fall more in love with you each time we open this book.

Help us to remove and identify distraction and help us to cling to you.

Lord, you're kind and gracious to us and we thank you for the gift of Christ

Jesus through his name that we pray. Amen. Amen.