Face2Face l Something Beautiful l Pastor Jamie Kemp

Welcome to IS Jakarta.

I'm Pastor Jamie and I'm excited that you're joining us for this week's message.

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Thanks for listening.

Well, good morning.

It's great to see you all here at uh at IS Jakarta.

I'm Pastor Jamie, and uh we want to welcome you.

Um, thank you for all the birthday wishes, notes, prayers, condolences.

Um, you know, I've I'm in the 50s club now.

Uh I've never felt so welcomed by uh so many people uh who are over 50.

You know, I don't know how to receive that.

Yeah, one one friend of mine said to me, he said, uh, he said, uh, it's all downhill from here, but you don't care.

That's the good thing.

So uh all right, so I'm excited about that.

Uh um thank you.

And uh um and in the seat in front of you, um, unless it was taken during the last service, you should have kind of our missions brochure magazine.

Um, it's got all the information of what's happening uh here next month.

Um, we'll have this available all throughout the month of October.

Um, if you want to take a look at it, actually, I should have announced this at the end of the service because now during my sermon, you're gonna be like reading uh this.

All right, uh, but that's okay.

Uh the sermon's not that good.

So uh the magazine's better.

So uh hey, um uh last week I uh I was at the dentist, and my wife and I, you know, we're fam, our family is new to Jakarta.

So Tasha was getting recommendations from different people about a dentist that we could have here in Jakarta.

And so uh we found one uh near our home in Kamang, and uh she made the appointment, so I had to leave a little early from the office, and uh not really that excited to go to the dentist, right?

I mean, nobody's really excited to go to the dentist.

Um uh sorry, no offense to the dentists out here.

There, we we love you, we need you.

Um so, but but I so I get in, I get there, I get in the chair, I rinse my mouth, the dentist comes in, and that and to my surprise, uh she's speaking English to me.

I'm like, this is great, right?

And so so she starts to clean my teeth, you know.

I've got that thing in my mouth, and she's scraping my teeth.

But here's what I don't get.

Like, she's trying to have a conversation with me.

And does it happen to you?

You know, you're you got this thing in your mouth, they're scraping, they're like asking you questions, you know, like what's the what's the proper produ uh uh I don't know.

So okay, so I do the whole thing, and uh at the end, you know, I rinse my mouth, and you know, I'm in the chair, like she's sitting me back up, and and I I I sit back up and I and I I thank her and then uh and then I comment to her that her English was so good.

Uh, where did she learn it?

And uh and she said, well, um, she pauses and she says, Well, I I grew up going to an English-speaking church.

And I was like, really?

Uh uh uh really uh uh uh oh yeah, where here in Jakarta?

And she answered, yeah, um, it's called IES.

International English Service, right?

Interesting, right?

So I had to investigate, right?

And so so I ask another question, I'm like, well, well, uh, who's who's the pastor there?

So she kind of hesitates because she's like, well, I I grew up going to IES kids and IS teens, but when I went off to university uh in Bandung, uh I got married, and now we're going, my husband and I go to a Bahasa speaking church.

But but when we were there, um it was Pastor Dave and Gigi.

Uh but then she said, But I but I think they've they've retired.

And so so I had to ask the the obvious question, and I said, uh, have you heard anything about the new pastor?

Pink Tarbanga, right?

So uh so I waited patiently for a response.

I even tried to help her out, and I was, I was like, he talks too fast, doesn't he?

That's that's what I've heard, right?

And so uh uh but then so she finally uh she finally stops and and she kind of pauses and looks at me.

She's like, Well, do you go to IS?

How do I answer that question?

I don't want to be like Sombong and be like, I'm the pastor, and I'm not quite sure how.

And so I kind of hesitate.

I said, Yeah, I do.

And then she realized what was going on.

Like she connected the dots and she was like, Are you the pastor?

And I was like, you know, I was like, yeah, and so she like falls and I'm sorry, nice to meet you.

Just an incredible moment.

She was just, you know, we had a good laugh together.

She was like overcome, shocked and surprised by the whole thing.

And and I remember how how surprised and how shocked she was and and how she reacted.

And so ever since that moment, I've been thinking all week long, like, man, when was the last time uh that that we were surprised by Jesus?

You know, that we came into church and and we were we were in awe of uh of his presence.

You know, when was the last time we've been overwhelmed by the presence of God?

When was the last time that we were so moved that there that we had to react to the presence of God?

This is exactly what happens in our scripture story today.

We see someone so overcome by the presence of Jesus that that she she does something extravagant.

And here's what we notice Jesus calls it beautiful.

Mark chapter 14 says this.

Mark 14 · chapter mention

Now the Passover of the festival of unleavened bread were only two days away, and the chief priests and teachers of the law were scheming to arrest Jesus secretly and to kill him, but not during the festival, they said, or people or the people may riot.

While Jesus was in Bethany reclining at the table of the home of Simon the leper, bummer of a nickname, um, a woman came with an alabaster jar of very expensive perfume made of pure nard.

She broke the jar and poured the perfume on his head.

Some of those present were saying indignantly to one another, why this waste of perfume?

It could have been sold for more than a year's wages and the money given to the poor.

And they rebuked her harshly.

Leave her alone, Jesus said.

Why are you bothering her?

She has done a beautiful thing to me.

The poor you will always have with you, and you can help them anytime you want, but you will not always have me.

She did what she could.

She poured the perfume on my body beforehand to prepare me for burial.

Truly I tell you, wherever the gospel is preached throughout the whole throughout the world, what she has done will also be told in memory of her.

Then Judas Iscariot, one of the twelve, went to the chief priests and betrayed Jesus to them.

They were delighted to hear this and promised to give him money.

So they watched for an opportunity to hand him over.

Our text today, our story today, is kind of sandwiched in between these two acts of betrayal, right?

You've got the religious leaders plotting to kill Jesus, and then you've got Judas looking for an opportunity to sell him out.

Now, this isn't accidental.

Mark uses this literary device throughout his gospel to kind of contrast the different approaches or the different reactions to Jesus.

Here we see an unnamed woman worshiping, sandwiched between opposition and betrayal.

But what gets me is verse number nine.

This is one of the most striking statements that we see in all of the scripture and in all of the gospel.

Jesus says something so interesting that it should make us sit up and take notice of what he says.

He says this I tell you the truth.

Wow.

That's a pretty big statement for Jesus to make.

I mean, I mean I mean, Jesus says this about very few people.

Now get this.

He doesn't give us her name or where she came from.

We don't know her position or ministry or even what she did after this event.

All we know is that she did something beautiful for Jesus and she'll be remembered for generations to come.

So when we read this, it should almost make us uh slow down and ask, what did Jesus see in this moment that everyone else in the room missed?

You know, what did Jesus see in this moment that everyone else missed?

Or better yet, maybe we should ask, what does Jesus see in this moment that I'm missing?

You know, that Jesus would make such a bold statement that this is such a big deal.

Her story is gonna be told for for generations to come.

What am I missing in this story?

Number one, she sees Jesus differently.

She sees Jesus differently.

Imagine the room.

Jesus is eating and people are sitting around him, and then she walks in, and we don't know her name or what she's doing there, but but she walks in carrying something in her hands, and it's an alabaster jar filled with perfume, and not any cheap perfume.

It's not something you'd stop by on the way at like Indomatted or something like that.

You know, um, I can remember when I was in junior high, my friends and I, we discovered cologne, all right?

And it was like Dracar and Cool Waters.

Those were the two cool, cool colognes that we used to wear.

But we as junior hires, we didn't know how to use cologne, so we just like you know, like sprayed it all over.

It was the kind of thing where you could smell us before we arrived, and you could still smell us after we left, all right.

So, so but but this perfume, this perfume, the Bible says it was extravagant.

The alabaster jar carried a fragrant aromatic oil made from Spiknard, a rare essential oil extracted from a plant native to the high Himalayans of India.

That explains the enormous cost.

A year's wage.

I mean, think about that.

A year.

I mean, how how how many hours did that represent?

How many meals, how many months of rent, how many things you could buy with that?

You know, I always think, how many motorbikes could you have bought with that, right?

Uh I was even thinking about the emotional value, a year of savings, right?

A family's wealth, a treasured possession, perhaps something they they were saving for a special event or a significant occasion.

Do you have anything like that in your life where where you save something for a special event?

For a for a specific occasion?

I certainly do.

Dr.

Pepper.

This is my special event.

This is my special thing.

You know, I I love Dr.

Pepper.

I realize that that most of my Indonesian friends, they don't like the taste.

They tell me it tastes like cough medicine.

Uh, but but I man, I love me at Dr.

Pepper.

And it's rare, it's hard to find here in Jakarta.

There's a few places, but it's also like five times more expensive than it would be when I'm in the States.

So uh so when Tasha sees it at the store, she'll buy a couple of cans and then we'll save them for a special occasion, like last night, my birthday.

That's why this can't empty.

So you know, so I drank, I had the Dr.

Pepper last night.

We had the Chicago style pizza, it was a great night, but you know, I so it's so we save the Dr.

Pepper for that special occasion, right?

It's something precious to us.

Well, a few years ago, we were hosting some guests from America, and and of course, we you know say, hey man, our home is your home.

Make yourself comfortable, me casa, su casa.

You know, we want to invite them in.

And and so one of the afternoons, I'm already at the at the church office, and uh, as Tasha walks down the steps, our friend is sitting at the kitchen table drinking one of the Dr.

Peppers.

And Tasha said she almost like like couldn't catch her breath.

She's like, like, do you do you realize like what you're drinking there?

You know, and she even debated, should I even tell Jamie?

You know, like what's he gonna do?

You know, and so uh, so uh, and to make matters worse, um, she didn't even finish the can.

You know, she left it half drunk.

Yeah, it almost ruined our friendship, right?

So uh when you read the story in scripture, this story in scripture, she walks and this lady walks into the room carrying an expensive, rare, special alabaster jar, breaks it, and pours it out on Jesus.

You might expect an atmosphere of holy awe, but instead, it's the exact opposite.

How did they react?

Some were saying indignantly to one another, why this waste of perfume?

It could have been sold for more than 300 denarii and the money given to the poor, and they rebuked her harshly.

You can almost hear them shouting in the room, you know, what are you doing?

Stop! Are you serious?

Don't you realize what you've done?

What a waste! That's the word that stings.

What a waste.

I mean, look at look closely at what's written here.

She broke the jar.

She didn't delicately unscrew the top uh uh and measure out a few drops for Jesus and then save the rest for later.

She shattered it.

There's no return policy, there's no backup plan.

She gave it all to Jesus.

The woman possessed a profound prophetic intuitive intuitive clarity that I wish I had.

While everyone else was pushing for positions of power and arguing about who would be the greatest or plotting a political uprising.

This woman looks at Jesus and sees something everyone else missed.

What is Jesus worth?

Not theologically, not doctrinally, not just on Sunday mornings.

What's he worth?

Because we all have an answer, even though we might not say it out loud, but our lives answer that question.

Our calendars answer it, our money answers it.

Our attention, our relationships, our sacrifices, our priorities answer it.

Our lives tell us the truth about what we think is valuable.

This woman, she walks into the room and she values Jesus differently.

Number two, she values Jesus differently.

And maybe that's what bothers everyone about her.

She's not efficient, she's not strategic, she's not practical, she doesn't have a five-year plan.

She doesn't say, Jesus, I I've thought about this carefully and I've decided that I'm gonna give you a tithe, just 10%.

Nope.

She breaks it and pours it all out.

And everyone says, What a waste.

But Jesus says something completely unexpected.

He says, Leave her alone.

And I love that because Jesus doesn't try to defend the economics of it.

He doesn't say, no, no, no, actually, if you calculate the return on investment, no, he doesn't give them a financial argument.

Instead, he's trying to help them see what he sees.

He's trying to help them understand what he understands.

They see a waste, but Jesus sees it as worship.

There will be times when people see your worship as waste.

There will be times when people see your worship as waste.

Man, I took a quick trip to Makassar on Wednesday morning.

I flew out Wednesday morning and was back in the office on Thursday morning.

And uh, you know, I went there, I wanted to meet in person with this pastor that we've been mentoring and working with for all these years, and and I preached a kaka'air there.

That's like a that's like a revival service uh that night.

And so when I when I when I told people how quickly I went there and back, some people thought, man, was that a waste of time?

Couldn't you have couldn't you have done that just over Zoom?

And I began to think like, man, there was there was something significant about sitting down face to face with that pastor, to sit with him and to pray with him.

We even went to the, we we bought some some property for for him to build his church on, and so we were able to go to that property, and I was able to pray over the land and over the pastor right there.

I I mean, would Zoom have been more efficient?

Absolutely, but there was something significant about going there and sitting with them and praying with them.

Sometimes people might say that's a waste, but I think there are times where the Lord says, No, that's your worship.

And here's the thing that gets me.

Watch what Jesus says.

He says, She has done a beautiful thing.

Beautiful, not efficient, not important, not practical, not financially responsible, but beautiful.

And I think we need to stop here for a minute because apparently Jesus sees beauty different than we do.

The room saw waste, Jesus saw worship.

The room saw expensive perfume uh being poured out, Jesus saw love.

The room saw something that could have been used differently, Jesus saw devotion.

What if there are things in life that are valuable precisely because they're not efficient?

What if there are things in life that are valuable precisely because they're not efficient?

Love, friendship, generosity, worship.

It seems like the most important things in life can't be measured by what they produce.

A mom sitting patiently with a child, a dad coming home early to make sure he has dinner with the family, uh, a single person meeting with their with their uh their life group outside of the scheduled life group time.

Don't miss those quiet, beautiful acts of worship happening all around you.

Number three, she responds differently.

She responds differently.

Mark gives us this almost bizarre detail.

Jesus says, She's anointed my body beforehand for burial.

What?

What what wait, what burial?

I mean, she's not at a funeral.

Jesus is alive, having dinner, people are eating, there's conversation, and Jesus says, She's anointed my body for burial.

Jesus knows something everyone else in the room doesn't fully understand.

He's on his way to the cross to suffer and die for the sins of the world.

And now this perfume means something else.

She's not simply giving Jesus a gift, she's preparing him for what's to come.

I mean, think about the timing.

It was traditional for a for a body to be to be anointed with oil and fragrance after someone passes away.

But later, after Jesus dies, some of the women will go to the tomb with the spices to anoint Jesus' body.

But when they get there, spoiler alert, um, he's gone.

All right, he's he's resurrected.

They're too late.

Maybe that's why this is so beautiful.

She doesn't wait.

She doesn't say, Some someday I'll do something for Jesus.

She does it now.

Even though she doesn't understand everything.

What is something you've been putting off that the Lord's called you to do?

Ooh, that's a good preacher.

Thanks, James.

What is something you've been putting off that the Lord's called you to do?

A phone call to an old friend?

A family spending more time with your family, forgiving or reconciling a broken relationship.

I'll make it even easier for you.

Becoming a greeter or usher at church, uh joining a life group or starting a soap group at your office, uh, uh being a part of one of our mission's outreaches.

Man, there's the jar.

And Mark says she breaks the jar.

And once it's broken, the perfume can't be put back in.

It's not like here, I'm gonna give a little perfume for Jesus, and then I'll save the rest for later.

The container is broken and it's all out.

And isn't this what Jesus has been saying all throughout the gospel of Mark?

Come and follow me.

Leave your nets, lose your life, take up your cross, and here finally someone does it.

She doesn't explain it, she doesn't preach it, she lives it.

She pours herself out.

Number four, she is remembered differently.

She's remembered.

Maybe that, maybe this is why Jesus says this about her.

Because she's not preaching it, she's not just telling other people, but she decides to live it out.

And then Jesus says, I tell you what, I tell you the truth.

Wherever the good news is preached throughout this world, this girl's story, this lady's deeds will be remembered and discussed.

I mean, think about how strange this is.

Jesus says, wherever the gospel is preached, tell her story.

Why?

Why this woman?

Why this moment?

Why this act?

Why should this be remembered?

Because Jesus knows when people hear the gospel, they're gonna ask, well, well, what does the gospel really look like?

And Jesus says, It looks like this.

It looks like what she did, it looks like what she has done.

It looks like someone seeing Jesus and deciding he's worth it.

He th he's worth it all.

I mean, this think about this, guys.

That this tells us a little something about uh about our God that a nameless woman with with no position, no platform, no microphone, no followers, just a woman with a jar can do something beautiful.

More often than not, I don't feel like I have much to give the Lord, but when I bring it to Jesus, He calls it.

Beautiful.

And here's what I've been thinking about all week long.

Jesus' words have the echoes of Genesis.

We find the same word beautiful in the foundational rhythms of creation.

Think back to the beginning of our Bible in Genesis chapter 1.

Genesis 1 · chapter mention

When God speaks, when when he creates, he shapes the cosmos and then says he steps back and he calls it what?

He says, it's good.

God creates and calls it good.

Now the word good and the Septuagint, which is the Greek translation of the Old Testament, it's the word kalos.

Everybody say kalos.

All right, a couple of you are still with me.

That's good.

Kalos not only means good, it can mean something that is intrinsically stunning, noble, complete, or another translation would be beautiful.

Intrinsically stunning, noble, complete, or beautiful.

So when we read the creation's uh account in Genesis, it's not just that God created the the universe and said, Wow, this is good, it's he created all this and he said it's beautiful.

He creates all this and says, His creation is beautiful.

So when Jesus looks at the broken jar and the spilled perfume and the woman's almost reckless devotion, the Greek word, what do you think the Greek word that Jesus is uses to describe her actions?

Kalos, that same word.

She has done something good and beautiful.

And here's what I need you to see and understand today.

You have the ability to create the good and the beautiful.

Because we're made in the image of the Creator God, we're not just consumers of the world, we're creators.

Creativity is taking what God has put in your hands and bringing something good into the world that wasn't there before.

That's creativity.

That's the creative nature of God working in us and through us.

That's what it means to create good.

You sit down with someone who's hurting, and when they leave, they have hope.

You create good.

That's beautiful.

You walk into a difficult relationship, and instead of continuing the cycle of anger, you choose to forgive.

And that's beautiful.

You start a business and you provide not just for your family, but but for all those you employ.

That's beautiful.

You're at home and you make it a place where your kids feel safe and accepted.

That's beautiful.

You're a teacher and you help that young person believe that their life matters.

Man, you've created something beautiful.

You're a student and you're learning how to make the world around you better.

Man, that's beautiful.

You're seeing poverty, loneliness, brokenness, injustice, and you start doing something about it.

That's beautiful.

So whether you're an artist or an entrepreneur, you're called to create the good.

We are called to create the good.

There's no other organization or other group of people that has the call of God on their life than the church, and as Christians, that we are called, we are empowered, we are, we are sent out into a broken and hurting and dark world and says, Hey, we're there to bring the good and to bring the beautiful.

She didn't do what somebody else could do, she didn't do what somebody didn't do have somebody else's resources, she didn't have somebody else's platform or influence.

She looked at what she had and she did what she could do.

Jesus looks at me and at you today and says, Hey, what have I put in your hand?

I've put this there so you can make something beautiful, so you can create the good in a broken and hurting and in some ways an ugly world outside.

What do you have that you want to bring to Jesus and Him to say, Wow, that's beautiful, would you pray with me?

Father in heaven, sometimes we don't feel like we have much, but what we do have, we bring it to you and we say, Lord, would you create something beautiful, something good in our world from us?

Let the creative nature of God flow in us and flow through us.

In Jesus' name, would you worship with me today?

I hope you enjoyed today's sermon.

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And until next time, may God bless you and keep you.