Matthew pt. 96 - Devotion & Betrayel

All right, turning your Bibles to Matthew chapter 20.

Matthew 20 · chapter mention

This is part 90 something things like part 9493.

I don't know which part of it. Chris 93.

Yeah, I think so. Yeah.

So we've been in a couple years now and yeah, we got 3 chapters

left. We've had we've heard Jesus

teaching, we've seen his ministry and now this next three

chapters, chapter 26, chapter 27, chapter 28, as we even in

chapter 24 and 25, we're still in his last week.

And now the same thing is going to happen.

Things just really slow down and we get into all the detail

because now it's all about him fulfilling his mission.

Now everything becomes about the cross, the central moment that

all of history is built around, that our calendar is affected

by, and that everything has to relate to the cross of Jesus

Christ, our salvation and our hope.

In chapter 26, we're going to go verses one.

We'll start in verse one. When Jesus had finished all

these sayings, he said to his disciples, You know that after

two days the Passover is coming and the Son of Man will be

delivered up to be crucified. Then the chief priests and the

elders of the people gathered in the palace of the high priest,

whose name was Caiaphas, and plotted together in order to

arrest Jesus by stealth and kill him.

But they said not during the feast, lest there be an uproar

among the people. Now when Jesus was at Bethany,

in the House of Simon the Leper, a woman came to him with an

alabaster flask of very expensive ointment, and she

poured it on his head as he reclined a table.

And when the disciples saw it, they were indignant, saying, Why

this waste? For this could have been sold

for a large sum and given to the poor.

But Jesus, aware of this, said to them, Why do you trouble the

woman? For she has done a beautiful

thing to me. For you always have the poor

with you, but you will not always have me.

And pouring this ointment on my body, she has done.

She has done it to prepare me for burial.

Truly, I say to you, wherever this gospel is proclaimed in the

whole world, what she has done will be told in memory of her.

Then one of the 12, whose name was Judas Iscariot, went to the

chief priests and said, what will you give me if I deliver

him over to you? And they paid him 30 pieces of

silver. And from that moment, he sought

an opportunity to betray him. Let's pray.

Heavenly Father, thank you so much for your powerful word once

again that is going to feed us now, that is going to equip us.

It's going to train us and give us power, real power to actually

obey, real power to actually be transformed.

So we surrender to it now. We commit to obedience.

We commit to humility. We commit to surrender.

And we thank you for growth. We thank you for blessing.

We thank you for breakthrough. Lord, we offer ourselves right

now again as a living sacrifice. We put ourselves on your table

as you, the good, the good physician, the best surgeon, can

come and do whatever is needed in US.

That you would wash our robes again if there's anything, if

there's any stain in US. And that you would remind us

once again who we are, how we should live, and that we would

honor Jesus more deeply in our hearts that we would have the

right response. There are many who respond to

Jesus in this passage. Help us to be one with devotion,

one with worship, one with loyalty, and one with love.

Thank you for your anointing. It's on your word.

It's powerful and effective to accomplish all that you wanted

it to do in Jesus name, Amen. Lots of teaching, lots of

teaching, lots of teaching. And now finally Jesus, when he

finished all these sayings, he says to his disciples, you know

that after two days the Passover is coming and the Son of Man

will be delivered up to be crucified.

This is Jesus telling them plainly for the fourth time in

Matthew, I am going to be crucified.

Other times he told him I'm going to be crucified and I'm

going to be raised up. He's told them I'm going to be

crucified and I'm going to be raised up.

And once again he's telling them I am about to be crucified.

Remember, this is a horrific thing for them to hear because

crucifixion is a horrific thing. Crucifixion is brutal.

Crucifixion is a a torture mechanism that leads to death.

The whole point is to cause you to suffer as much as possible.

And the Romans perfected it. They perfected it.

They figured out what creates the most agony.

A lot of times people would be crucified and then they would

just stay up there for days. They wouldn't be pre beaten,

they would just be crucified. So when a person is crucified,

the main issue they're dealing with is their own breathing.

And in order to breathe, to order to take their next breath,

they have to raise themselves up again so that their rib cage can

expand. Because your lungs operate in a

vacuum. The reason air comes into your

lungs is because you expand your rib cage and it forces the lungs

to open. It's not that the lungs are

their own muscle that function by themselves, it's that his

body cavity gets bigger and air has to come in through this

vessel, and that's what's happening.

So on the cross, when that's happening, you still have to

breathe, but every single breath you're having to press yourself

up on this nail that's driven through your feet or your

ankles, or these nails that are driven through most likely your

wrists and the 2 bones and your arms because there's a nerve

there that it rubs constantly. So every single breath that

you're fighting to survive is also agonizing and excruciating

at the same time. Crucifixions could last for

days. People would be hung naked on a

cross, They would use the bathroom on themselves during

this process and it was just pure agony.

Jesus's agony is even deeper than that because he's already

been beaten beyond recognition. His back is open.

He's been bleeding everywhere. He also has the crown of thorns

that's been inserted. So for Jesus is breathing as

he's nailed on the cross, He also has his rugged back rubbing

against the rugged cross as he breathes up and down.

Pastor John Michael, this is really graphic, I know, and it's

really viable and it's important to understand.

Why does this, why does the death of God have to be so

brutal? You know, if he had been

beheaded, it's he died for our sins, right?

Like he died, but he didn't just die for our sins.

He suffered for our sins. Why does he have to suffer?

Because that is what sin deserves.

That's why. That's what sin deserves.

Why does hell has to have to last forever?

Because it's what sin deserves. After a million years, the

punishment and the penalty won't be fulfilled.

Why? Because I sinned against an

infinitely holy God. So whenever we punish criminals,

whenever we go to jail, whenever we get suffering for from the

legal system for any reason, they say right, six months in

prison like that will sat then justice will be satisfied.

And then we say, OK, fair enough.

Like here's the punishment needs to fit the crime.

That's a that's an element of justice.

We get that from God in his word as he gives Israel the law in

the Old Testament. We see that the punishment needs

to fit the crime. You don't get killed for

everything. You know, depending on what

happened. Oh, you did this.

OK, well, you know, you have to repay that.

Oh, this happened now that happened.

But the the justice always has to be fulfilled.

So if the punishment has to fit the crime for sin, and I reject

my only opportunity for salvation, how can I ever repay

it? Oh, a million years in hell and

then you get out. How could justice be satisfied

against the Holy God? The only way would be if I were

to suffer forever and ever and ever and ever.

And even then it's not satisfied.

It's just the only way that it's not unjust.

Jesus had to suffer a great torment.

Why was Jesus suffering enough though?

Why could Jesus suffer and then his suffering end?

How could it be satisfied? Because Jesus is pure, because

Jesus is holy, and because Jesus is perfect.

So the innocent one suffering under the wrath of God.

God said now my wrath is satisfied.

Now justice is actually complete.

So for the time of Jesus is suffering in the garden when he

was sweating great drops of blood to when he said on the

cross it is finished. That's when it was finished.

He was abandoned by the Father, which is why he cries out, My

God, my God, why have you forsaken me?

Why did Jesus have to be abandoned by the Father?

So that we wouldn't have to be God's justice and God's penalty

against sin had to be satisfied. Jesus was treated like a Sinner.

Although he never committed any sin, he became sin.

The Scripture says, who knew no sin, so that we might become the

righteousness of God in Christ. That's the crazy substitution of

the gospel. That's Jesus saying I'll stand

in their place positionally, Father, I'll take everything on

me and then my righteousness can be put on them.

But his righteousness, it doesn't vanish from him.

He's still righteous and he's still holy, and the Father is

pleased with him. And Jesus said, I have the power

to lay down my life and I have the power to take it back up

again. I've been given this power by my

Father. So Jesus is raised up and now he

reigns forever in glory. And now whoever would put their

faith in Jesus is saved by Jesus because the Father looks at you

and me and he doesn't see our filth, our disgust.

This just, you know, this, this bowl of disgusting selfishness

and idolatry. This is over here.

He's got Jesus. He's got this orb of light and,

and glory and holiness. He says, I'm going to take this

and I'm going to put it on them and I'm going to take this this

filth and I'm going to put it on him.

And then he says, and now I have to punish it.

And this is the one person who can actually bear the punishment

and justice be satisfied. So we see the love of God, we

see the grace of God. We see the mercy of God and

Jesus on the cross. This is why Jesus was crucified.

He suffered the worst thing that that the cursed people could

come up with. This is the most torturous, the

most wicked thing we could come up with.

And the Father said, all right, that's what we'll do.

And Jesus said, yes, I surrender myself to it.

That's what I'll do. So when he tells his disciples

I'm going to be crucified, they knew what it meant.

They'd seen it. The Romans crucified thousands

and thousands and thousands of people.

Whenever there would be rebellions, they would crucify

them along the roadways of towns and villages.

And your villagers and your neighbors and your friends and

family would be crucified on the roadway in and out of your town,

and they'd hang there for days. And you would try and sneak

around and hope that the Romans wouldn't see.

And you would try and give them something to drink because

they'd be crying out in thirst, suffering.

And although giving something to drink seemed like an act of

mercy, at the same time it was enabling them to live longer and

suffer more for a faith that was inescapable.

It was a torturous, wicked thing.

And Jesus said, I'm choosing it. That's what we see throughout

this passage and that's what we've seen through the previous

passages. That's what we're going to see

through the rest of the the chapter as well.

Jesus is in charge and Jesus is orchestrating his own

appointment. No one is orchestrating it for

him. It's not the Jews who did it and

Jesus was a hostage. It's not the Romans who did it.

And Jesus is a victim. Jesus is King, and Jesus chooses

everything that he's doing. He's not surprised.

He's not reacting, He's not scrambling.

He is calmly announcing the schedule and setting his own

timing for his own death. Nobody takes his life from him,

he said. Nobody takes my life from me.

I lay it down of my own accord. This is God's sovereign plan,

and this is God's sovereign timing.

He tells him the Passover, you know, the Passover is coming.

So you've heard me say before what the Passover is the

Passover. Remember in Egypt, Luke and Lucy

probably know this. Remember in Egypt the people

were stuck in Egypt. And then God said, let my people

go. You remember that story.

Have you learned that story yet? You'll learn it.

And Pharaoh says, I won't let your people go.

And God sends a plague. I won't let your people go,

another plague. I won't let your people go.

Or he says they can go and then they can't go over and over.

And finally God says, all right, I'm going to kill the first born

son. This is going to be the worst

plague that they've seen yet. Unless you take the blood of a

lamb and you put it on the doorpost of your household, and

then the death Angel will Passover and he won't come into

your home and he won't kill your child.

So this is the Passover that the Jews have been celebrating and

commemorating for many, many years now.

And they're saying we celebrate the Passover when the death

Angel Passover and we took the blood of the lamb.

Of course, Jesus is the final blood.

He is the final lamb in his bland his.

His blood satisfies forever. That's why we don't sacrifice

bulls and goats anymore. They were temporary and they

were not fully satisfying to the Lord.

The blood of Jesus fully satisfies justice.

The blood of Jesus is fully pure.

It's an animal. God's like, well, it's innocent,

but it's still an animal. It's not a human.

A human got you into this mess. A human's got to get you out.

Bad news for you. There's no innocent humans.

Good news for you. I'll become the innocent human

who will be tempted and tried and tested in every way and be

without sin. The Passover is coming, so the

Lord does this on purpose at Passover, because the real

Passover lamb, the final Passover lamb, has finally come

so that the death Angel can Passover people.

If the blood of God, if the blood of the lamb is applied to

a person's heart, then that person can escape from God's

wrath. If the blood was on the door,

the death Angel passes over. If the blood wasn't there, then

judgment came in. The same is true for everybody

today. The blood of the lamb has to be

put on your heart. The blood of Jesus has to

actually cover you. And in in so doing, not only

does the death Angel Passover. That's kind of like a neutral

state. You just dodged a bullet.

But that's not all that there is to the Scripture, as we already

quoted. Who do you think you are?

The righteousness of God in Christ.

So the so the Israelites had it good in that they didn't lose

their child. We have a new and better

covenant. Not only does the death Angel

not come and consume us, but the righteousness of God is applied

to us. We don't just avoid the curse,

we receive the blessing. This is the inheritance of a

Christian. This is why we have to tell the

whole truth about who we are. Oh, my flesh is weak.

Oh man, I'm so tempted all the time towards sin.

Man, I make so many foolish mistakes.

Yes, so far you're doing good. It's all true, but don't stop

there. And also God loves me and also I

am seated with Christ in heavenly places, and also I am

the righteousness of God. You cannot follow your emotions.

You cannot trust your emotions. Sometimes emotions are accurate,

good things happen, your emotions feel good, that's a

blessing. But other times when you sin,

don't your emotions tell you that you should be ashamed that

you can't go to the Lord, that you need to be in hiding, and

that what you feel we can't obey those feelings, those feelings

are in opposition and disobedience to what God says

about you and who you are. There's two different camps in

the body of Christ. A lot of times, depending on the

denomination, you got the camp that says I'm a worm in the

dirt. I'm a worm in the dirt.

It's not all wrong, actually. And then you have a camp over

here that says I'm just, I'm just seated in heavenly places.

And that's all there is to say about the that's also got truth

in it. But where is the truth of

Scripture? It's actually in the middle of

the road, not in the two ditches.

It's without Him. I am nothing but in Christ I can

do all things. But depending on personality

types, depending on theological backgrounds, we can typically

tend toward one ditch. I just want to focus on this.

Well, you might want to focus on whatever you want to, but the

Word of God is what keeps you safe.

I'm just going to be humble and stay over here.

Just talk about, but that's not humble.

Jesus went to wash Peter's feet and Peter said, Oh no, you don't

Lord, you're too holy and I'm too low.

And he thought, wow, I really did good this time.

I always blew it, but I bet this time I nailed it.

And Jesus said, if I don't wash you, then you won't ever be

clean. Oh, wash my whole body.

And he's like, no, I don't have to wash your whole body.

I just have to wash your feet. Messed up once again, but it

looks like humility. Oh, God no, Lord no.

And Lord's like no. What?

I'm going to wash your feet. Peter.

It's when I said you're right to obey the Lord.

You're humble when you obey the Lord.

That's what's wise. That's what's humble.

So to actually embrace what the Lord says about you, that's

what's wise and that's what's humble, and that's what's

appropriate. Scripture says a lot of things

about us, and we should embrace what's true beyond our feelings.

Back to the Passover. The Lord chose this timing

deliberately. He did this on purpose because

Jesus is the true and final Passover lamb.

What happened in Egypt? It's a true story.

It really did happen with Moses and the Israelites and the

Egyptians. It happened, but it's also

foreshadowing for the greater truth.

It's a type and a shadow all through your Old Testament.

It really happened. Yes, actually, just like that.

And also it points to the greater lamb.

It points to the greater Moses, it points to the greater

Abraham, it points to the greater priest.

Always the perfect man comes, the true lamb comes, and the

blood of the lamb must be applied to your heart.

If you don't, then you'll get what you deserve, just like the

Egyptians got, just like we all deserve.

This is a warning and it's an invitation.

Wrath is real, but there is shelter under the blood of

Jesus. Do not delay if you have not yet

covered your heart with the blood of Jesus.

How do I do that? You come to God in humility and

loving repentance and say I'm yours and I need you.

I am lost and I do need salvation.

I am hopeless without you, and I need that righteousness applied

to me, because apart from you I can't do it and I can't earn it.

Verse 3. Then the chief priests and the

elders of the people gathered in the palace of the high priest,

whose name was Caiaphas, and plotted together in order to

arrest Jesus by stealth and kill him.

But they said not during the feast, lest there be an uproar

among the people. So these guys would usually

gather out in public. There was a, a set of steps

there in the temple complex that they would gather at and that's

where they would meet. You could kind of see and hear

their meetings going on. Not so though.

Why? Because they're sneaky

manipulators. They're hiding in private and

they go privately into Caiaphas Palace.

And remember, you got a big, you got a mixed bag of guys here.

They don't even all agree with each other.

They don't even all like each other.

But they're all threatened still by this one who is usurping

their power and their false authority.

We know they're manipulative. We know they're snakes.

Why? Because men of principles stand

on the truth no matter what. These people are trying to read

the crowd. That's what that's what

politicians typically do. They they say, which way is the

wind blowing? OK.

I mean, that's exactly what Abigail Spanberger did in her in

her running for for election. She presented herself as a

moderate and she was like, hey, this world's gotten crazy.

Let's just take like a, a common sense approach to things and

very clever, very, very Serpentine.

Unfortunately, the this, this, that serpent has plenty of

venom, as we're finding out now as well.

So, so that's very, a very, very common political thing to do is

to say what, which way the wind is blowing.

What is it that could just motivate the people to give me

the power and then I can actually, you know, bring in

the, the agenda that I have planned.

These men are the same. They're not men of actual

principle who stand on the truth no matter what.

These are manipulators who are reading the crowd.

They're testing the win. How do I keep favor?

How do I keep power? How do I stay comfortable?

This is what it looks like for you and I as well.

So as we're balling up our fists and our, our, our wicked

rulership, or as we're balling up our fists at the Pharisees,

and now let's ball up our fists on ourselves.

What does it look like for you to retain power?

What does it look like for you to retain comfort or retain

favor and read people instead of being a man or woman of

principle, instead of being a truth teller who walks in

gentleness still, but says the right thing consistently because

it's the true thing who's the same person all the time, not

because they're reading the room and going.

I have learned to be a chameleon.

I know how to say what I need to say here.

I know what I have to say, what I need to say there, and I know

how to fit in where I need to fit in.

Instead of Lord, bring this falseness out of me.

That's a way to pray. Lord help me.

Don't, don't let me be false. Don't let me be inconsistent.

Make me the same person all the time.

Matthew, by the direction of the Holy Spirit, I mean, look at

what he's done here. Because everything Matthew puts

here is not chronological, as we're about to see with Mary

anointing him. That actually happened 6 days

before the Passover. So Matthew isn't giving us a

strict chronological moment right now, but he's giving us

themes and he's showing us different things.

He's showing us Jesus is in charge because they said we're

not going to crucify him during the Passover.

We're going to wait till after the after the feast.

When did he get crucified during the Passover at the exact

timing. They didn't even keep their own

plan. Why?

Because it wasn't their plan. They had their motive.

And Jesus said, yeah, I'm, I'm running this.

You're, you're the cogs in my wheel.

And things are going to go the way that I have planned or the

way that I have preordained because I'm the Lamb who was

slain before the foundation of the world.

I saw this night coming. I saw this morning coming.

And I know exactly how it's going to unfold because I

designed it to be such. So This is why I read Psalm 2

this morning, not just for our current moment in our, in our

scenario in our state or our nation or whatever.

We're not the only people who have had wicked leadership and

people have had it far worse and people have had it far better.

And, and we may see things swing again in our time.

Either way. He who sits in the heavens

laughs. He looks at the rulers of the

world and they're going here. We're going to shake off his

chains from us. We're going to shake off his

bondages from us. And he sits in the heavens and

he laughs and he holds them in derision.

He mocks them. Oh look, my enemies have a plan.

My enemies have a plan. But when we come back to the

word of God, when we go to Psalm 2, instead of Instagram or X or

Facebook or Fox News or whatever platform, you know, you pump

time wasting and soul crushing news into your heart from, when

we go back to Psalm 2, we go, He who sits in the heavens laughs.

If God's laughing, I can laugh. If God's not worried, I don't

need to be worried. If my father's at peace, then I

can be at peace. Not during the feast.

They think they can control the schedule, but they can't.

Jesus said he would be crucified at Passover, not after the

feast. And God overrules them

completely. Even when Satan seems organized,

even when Satan seems strategic, God is calmly keeping his

schedule. Heaven is never nervous.

God is calmly accomplishing redemption while evil men and

women think that they are in control.

He will roll up history exactly how he determined.

He will continue to laugh at his enemies, and he will continue to

mock them. He has all authority.

But those who don't have a God, they do believe that the

government is God. They think government is the

highest authority in on the earth.

Some Christians think this. I have worked hard to disciple

you out of that thinking. Government is not the largest

authority on earth. It is one authority.

There are three households of authority, 3 spheres of

authority established in the earth.

The household is 1. It has its own authorities that

nobody's allowed to touch. The government is 1.

It has its own authorities that no one is allowed to touch, and

the church is 1. It has its own authorities that

no one is allowed to touch. And there is one king who sits

over all three branches of three, all three forms of these

governments, and Jesus is king over them all, which is why

everyone should obey, as Psalm 2 told us.

Well, they're not, they're not believers, Pastor JM.

You can't expect them to. I expect them to be believers

because that's their job is to obey and fulfill Jesus's will on

earth as it is in heaven. Well, he said my kingdom's not

of this world, right? But he's establishing his

Kingdom in this world through his church.

That's the point, which is why he taught us to pray your

Kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.

So yeah, we read the whole Bible, not just verses.

And we certainly do not take direction and discipleship from

our enemies. Our enemies work hard to

disciple Christians and say you need to get out of politics.

And Christians for decades have foolishly thought, I guess that

kind of makes sense because kingdoms not of this world.

And I don't need to focus on those things.

I need to just focus on making disciples.

We do need to focus on making disciples above all things.

But that means you would teach all nations to obey.

So that means you should expect for all of your rulers to follow

Christ and everybody to obey Jesus.

Well, we have a constitution. Oh, my goodness.

Oh, I didn't know. Well, I guess the Constitution

should submit to the Bible then. Is that, is that what I'm

supposed to understand? Well, the enemies of Christ

would say, of course it's the Constitution.

It's the Constitution. The the founding fathers wrote

it. I'm so glad you brought up the

founding fathers. Do you know where they got their

perspectives on justice, on checks and balances on a legal

system? You're going to love this

answer. They got it from the Bible.

They were seeking to establish a nation that would actually honor

God with its laws. Why?

Because to do things God's way is better.

Now, it's not the government's role or responsibility to force

people to be Christians, but it's the government's job to

establish laws that punish the wicked and reward the righteous.

That's the government's jurisdiction.

Let's go back to our text. Remember these men who are doing

this, these are the religious leaders.

These are not pagans. These are Bible men, temple men,

religious leaders. These are the guys that everyone

respected. This means that you can be

around God's house and still oppose God.

Paul, Paul, live this, Paul said.

I thought I was doing God's work by persecuting Christians.

He believed it brought that. That's how far deceived a person

can be. You can hold office and still

fight God. You can think you're serving Him

and actually be resisting him. That should be sobering.

So what kind of person are you devoted?

And principled. Or just reading the wind trying.

To stay comfortable. Oh.

This seems advantageous. It's not though.

You're trying to keep your life, and in doing so, you're going to

lose your soul. Compared to Jesus who went. 1st

and said I'll show you how to lose your life.

But then you gain everything. Because of it.

Throughout this passage we see the.

Different themes Devotion, betrayal, hatred.

Verse 6. Now when Jesus was at Bethany,

in the House of Simon the Leper, a woman came up to him with an

alabaster flask, a very expensive ointment, so.

Matthew records here like I. Said what John records in

chapter 12 we see these. Different themes play out.

Though here in Matthew, right next to the His plans to murder

him is worship and devotion to him.

Same Jesus, different response. But six days earlier is when

this was happening, and this was Mary anointing his head and his

feet. What's really happening here?

John gives us the extra context that Matthew doesn't, and we see

that Judas was in charge of keeping the money and he had

been stealing. He's the CFO, chief financial

officer, and he's been stealing from God, from them.

So they would get offerings. They would people say, I want to

support you, Rabbi, I want to support you and your disciples.

And Judas was in charge of it. Jesus knows this.

Jesus allows this. This continues.

Why Jesus is patient. Jesus is kind, Jesus merciful,

but also it was prophesied that Jesus was going to betray.

There was going to be one who is going to betray the Lord.

It's not that the Lord forced Judas.

To do so, but it's the Lord that has foreknowledge.

So then the Lord says here is what is coming and here is what

is going to happen. There are some things that the

Lord says, I will force this, I'm going to do it this way, it

will happen my way. I will be crucified on the

Passover. And then there are other things

where he says. I can see what these people are

choosing. I can see what these people are

doing. But Judas is angry.

When Mary pours out the ointment, because the the

amount, John tells us this oil, this ointment, whatever it was,

was worth a man's wages for a year.

So whatever, whatever the wages for a year, we'll say it was

60,070 thousand, 80 thousand, 100,000, whatever a man's wages

for the year, this is what she has.

This is probably a family heirloom.

The fact that she broke it says it might have even been a

completely sealed vessel that they just said we have this

special ointment. Look, it's on the shelf.

They don't have a lot of money, They don't have a ton of wealth.

So they have this special thing that they just go, you know,

this is a treasure. What is it?

Oh, it's a special ointment and it's passed down for

generations. Wow.

Have you ever opened it? Oh, no one ever open it.

I'm passing on to my kids. Nobody's using it, but it's a

treasure. It's a special thing.

It's an honorable thing. It's a beautiful thing.

Mary recognized there will never be a better moment.

There could never be a better use for this ointment than right

here, right now. It's not going to be better used

on a date night. It's not going to be better used

on a wedding day. It's not going to be better used

for my funeral. I have the King of Glory here

with me now. What an honor, what a blessing,

what a privilege. Let me break this and pour out

this $80,000 offering on the Lord right here, right now, and

it's gone. You can't get it back.

Once it's used, it's used. She anoints his head and his

feet and she washes and wipes his feet.

Dirty, dusty roads, camel poop, donkey pee, all this stuff mixed

in the dirt on their dirty, filthy feet.

Which is why foot washing was a big deal.

Very low place to put yourself. Not like you're in my feet.

Some of y'all might have some nasty feet, I don't know, but

they weren't that nasty. Can't be as nasty as what they

were. Then she wipes his feet with her

hair, because a woman's hair is her glory.

So she says, let me take my most glorious thing I have and put it

on his feet to humble myself even more.

This is extravagant worship. I'm sure you've given offerings

to the Lord, and I'm sure you've given sacrificial offerings to

the Lord. But I've never given a year's.

Wages. As as one offering, I've never.

Said, hey, here's everything for a year and she says I'm giving

this valuable, valuable thing. Look at that done for their

life. She could have just sold it and

had that money for them. What a massive level up that

would have created in their lives.

Come on, isn't that just wisdom? I mean, it's kind of wasteful.

I hear you, Judas. It was poured out on Jesus.

Though, so it couldn't really be waste.

Go to Judas. But a backslider will always.

Talk that way. The lukewarm will always talk

that way. They'll always tell you that

your devotion is extreme. They'll always say no, no, no,

no. I'm with you, I'm with you, I'm

with you. It's just that.

Why? Because their heart is cold and

your warmth exposes theirs. They feel it, they see it, they

smelled it. This ointment would have

probably been very powerful. Any essential oils ladies in

here? Any essential oils guys?

Don't raise your hands and a Gordon's like I'm essential oils

guy. So it's a powerful smell.

It's very, very strong and it lasts a long time.

It's very. Valuable, it meant.

Something to her. Judas calls it waste.

Oh, we could have. We could have sold that and we

could have given the money to the poor, John said.

He did not say that because he loved the poor.

He said it because he's a thief and he was helping himself to

the money. You mean to tell me that?

People could sometimes pretend to care for the poor and then

take money for themselves. Shocking, right?

For those of you who've been watching too.

Much news. You've seen a lot of that in the

past year. Our politicians were like, we

need money for the poor. And then Elon and his team went.

In and found out the poor didn't get the money.

Others got the money or we went to Minneapolis and we saw the

daycares the poor did not get the money.

Who got the money? Don't know.

Will a recipe made? Probably not.

But the King who sits in the heavens?

He laughs. So you shouldn't lose sleep over

it. And you should not have your

stress level or your blood pressure come up 1° because of

it. And if you do, you've wasted

part of your day. That was energy, that was

effort, that was mental strain that you should have put towards

something devotional. That was mental effort and

deliberate action, calories and work that you could have put

towards. Discipleship that.

You could have put towards stewardship.

You have a life, you need to get busy living it.

You need to focus on your faithfulness.

Remember, that's the season, that's the theme that we're in.

Surrender leads to breakthrough and now it's time for growth and

growth needs to look basic and plain.

What's in front of you? We all have different things in

front of us. Tomorrow morning.

Everybody's got different responsibilities and different

roles. Thankfully, we won't be judged

according to one another's, we will be judged according to our

own. When the master returns, he'll

say, what are you doing? I was just catching up on the

news. 'Cause I 'cause I I 'cause I.

I 'cause I didn't see an update I saw this morning, but I hadn't

seen yet for this afternoon how he responded to that.

Oh, oh, got it, got it, got it. Well, tell me how it goes.

What? Are you going to do?

Tomorrow. Well then, tomorrow.

I'll see how they responded to how he responded of course

sounds. Important.

Oh, it's very. Important.

If I'm not watching it, who will?

I got to stay on top of this stuff.

Devotion is to look like something.

But the world will call your devotion foolish.

God calls it beautiful. The world calls it wasteful.

What a waste. What a waste.

A few years ago I took a picture of Natalie sitting in the floor.

She was teaching Hudson to read and or teaching him.

I don't remember. She was teaching him.

And. They were, they were sitting

there and, and she had done a lesson with him and then she was

singing a song with him. And the song was we fall down,

we lay our crowns at the feet of Jesus.

And I was just enjoying it, just taking it in.

And I just thought to myself, she could have, Natalie could

have been an actress. She could have been on Broadway.

She grew up doing shows and stuff.

She could sing, she could dance. She was a voice major in

college. She could really done something

with her life, you know, But instead she wasted it on Hudson

and Brock and Elijah Feyton and she's teaching little kids to

read. And if like, she could have been

somebody, you know, she could have been in New York City

singing and people could have clapped for her.

She could have been in movies. Maybe if she had really gone for

it and she just wasted her life with like 3 little boys teaching

them the Bible and teaching them to be, you know, just be good

Christians and love the Lord. The Lord calls it beautiful

though. And she?

Never has considered it a. Sacrifice.

And she's never. Ever, ever said.

Any of the things I just told you, just so you know, she's

never like, you know, sometimes I just wonder, I say.

Stuff like that. Jokingly to her, I'm like, you

know, you could have done something with your life.

And she laughs. Like, yeah, right, what's the

joke? She has done something with her

life. She's done the thing that God

has called her to over their life.

She's loved her husband, she's loved her children.

She's been an incredible homemaker.

She's been a keeper of of the home and she's been faithful to

the Lord. And thankfully, she has opted

out of demonic feminism that has said you should really do

something with your life. You could have been an

astronaut, Natalie. You could have been a

firefighter, a firewoman. Firefighter.

What are you supposed to call it?

You could have been a fireman. That's the worst one, right?

I'll make sure I say that for no one.

Anyone who's followed Christ? For any length of time, you have

your own version. Maybe no one's ever told a story

like that about you, but you have devotions, and you don't

even consider them crazy. Mary did not think this was

remarkable. She didn't think, Hey everybody,

I'm doing it. She thought, of course, just

like Natalie thinks of course, and they're just like you and

any of your devotions to the Lord when others go, what are

you doing? You're like my reasonable

worship. Duh, it's Jesus.

I think you gave too much. It's not possible.

Good news for me. He's keeping the books and I'll

never go too far if it's. Poured out on him.

It's never too much, it's always been good, and the Lord will

always honor it. The Lord honors.

Faithfulness. The Lord honors love.

So Mary pours out all her. Oil on the Lord in worship,

faithfulness that blesses him. Backsliders are going to run

their mouths. They're going to criticize

devotion. It exposes their coldness.

Your love for God and hunger will make them uncomfortable.

As you get more serious about holiness and obedience, lukewarm

people will say you are extreme. Jesus said leave her alone, she

has done a beautiful thing. Nothing you pour out for the

Lord has ever wasted. Every sacrifice and quiet act of

obedience matters to the Lord. The Lord is watching, even if.

Your husband isn't. Like I was that day.

Even if your wife isn't. Even if your kids aren't.

Even if nobody notices and nobody says.

Your applause is coming. But you're storing up your

rewards and your treasures for later, yes?

Hopefully I didn't remove any reward for you by acknowledging

you publicly. Reward is coming.

That's. What it looks like to be a

person of faith who actually lives for the future instead of

I'm just getting discouraged because I'm not getting noticed.

Come on, live for the live for the longer picture. 200 years

from now, you're going to be thankful. 10,000 years from now,

you're going to be thankful. His whole passage is.

Built around Jesus, he's the cornerstone.

You either love him, you worship him, you submit to him, or you

resist him. You ignore him and you betray

Him. And of course, tragically,

that's what Judas does. He went to the chief priest and.

Said What will you give me if I deliver him over to you?

And they paid him 30 pieces of silver.

Wow, we see the extravagant. Expense.

And then we see what would you sell Jesus for?

What would you sell them for? People sell them all the time.

Maybe. Not for coin in the.

Same way, but people always make compromises go I'd give up Jesus

for that. I'd give up Jesus for this.

I can be bought is what most people have that perspective.

I'm like, if I think I'm getting more reward here.

Judas, it was plain for him. It was simple math.

Maybe they negotiated. Maybe they.

Said twenty. He's like, come on, man.

It's, it's like the best rabbi we've ever seen.

Like 25. He's like, Nah, this guy's done

miracles, 30, He's like, now we're talking 30.

That's a good #30 pieces of silver.

I can really do something with that.

Psalm 2 says kiss the. Son, lest he be angry with you

and you perished in the way Judas did kiss the son.

But it was even more wicked the way Judas.

Did it because again, another manipulator, another liar.

And Judas is in hell. How do you?

Know Pastor JM because you want him to be.

I don't want him to be. I don't want anybody to be.

But I know that he is because Jesus said that the one who

betrays him, it would be better that he was never born.

So it would have been better. For Judas to have never been

born than to betray the Lord. We're closing something else we

see in this passage. Is the dull hearts of the

disciples. We just noticed that Jesus keeps

telling them plainly what's about to happen.

They still don't get it. He's not speaking in riddles

anymore. He's being direct.

And they still just seem to not understand the depth.

How do we know that they don't understand the depth?

Well, because when we get to the Garden of Gethsemane, they can't

even stay awake. Like if they really knew, if

they really believed that. Like he kept saying he's going

to be crucified. I just.

Wonder if they just didn't. Believe in it.

They just didn't believe. They were just slow to believe

he's. Not speaking in riddles.

They're they're not confused. I think it's just hard hearts.

They don't want to receive it. This is true all the time with

us about different things in Scripture.

They're they're things that Scripture is plain and painfully

clear about, and you guys can prepare the elements for us.

One of the things I I. See this happen with often,

especially with Christians. Male and female design very

plain in scripture. Husbands and wives submission

and headship, very plain in scripture.

People aren't confused when they read the passages.

They don't go. I wonder what that means.

But instead they just have hard hearts.

The issue is not clarity. The issue is surrender.

Most disobedience is not intellectual, it is moral.

It is of the heart. We just don't want to bow down.

That's why even in the garden, I still think that they still

don't understand that he's actually about to be crucified.

Because they haven't believed. Because they won't believe.

Stay awake and pray with me. Says the Son of God to his

disciples and his friends. Stay awake and pray with me,

guys. My soul was crushed and I'm

overwhelmed, he seems. To he seems really.

Overwhelmed. Is he sweating blood?

I don't know. I'm tired.

I'm going to go to sleep. They got the front row seat to

the. Most important night in history

and a direct invitation from the Son of Man.

And they sleep. It's not hatred.

They don't hate him. They love him, they care for

him, but they are spiritually dull in their hearts.

What a danger. Familiarity.

Comfort. I still think tomorrow's going

to be like today. I still just think in spite of

everything he said, I still expect tomorrow is going to be

an awful lot like today. But it wasn't.

How blind do you have to be to miss that moment?

They missed the last quiet hour that they could have had with

their Lord just to themselves. You think they regretted that

later as they as they spread the gospel around the world and

around creation? You think they ever thought the

last hour I could have prayed with Him?

What do they feel? Guilt.

Again, maybe shame. Then what do they need to do?

Encourage themselves in the Lord and the grace and mercy of God.

It's new every day. But you can walk with Jesus.

You can hear sermons every week, you can be in church all the

time and still be spiritually sluggish in your heart.

I love the Lord, I know you do. But does that look like

something familiar? Familiarity can dull you.

You get used to holy things, and you can stop treasuring them.

You can miss sacred moments because you're tired or you're

distracted or you're scrolling or you're checked out.

Do. Not sleep through sacred.

Moments stay awake, stay near and pray we're.

Going to receive. Take communion together now,

Chris and Caleb, You would serve us.