Good evening to you all, all those who
have escaped the partial rapture and are here
with us again tonight.
We're just delighted to have you.
I'm somewhat frustrated, I don't know if that's
permissible or not, but I was going over
my material this afternoon, thinking about we just
have tonight and then two meetings tomorrow, and
I was beginning to question the wisdom that
I had or didn't have in dividing our
subject the way I did, particularly in relation
to the absolutes, for there are just so
many left that we could put in another
week quite readily.
You've got a good colleague of mine from
North Carolina coming to visit you next week,
and I know you'll have a very pleasant
time.
Brother Phil and I shared a week at
Greenwood Hills, and he was the last speaker
of the conference, and he said he was
thanking everybody for their participation in the conference
and what they had contributed, etc., etc.
And then he wound up by saying, oh
yes, and I have to thank my brother
Dave because he laughed at all my jokes.
And then he added, it's a credit to
his intelligence that he did that.
You never know what Brother Phil's going to
say.
So afterwards, outside, he and June and I,
the three of us, were talking, and I
said to him, well, Phil, I'm certainly leaving
the conference here at Greenwood Hills feeling quite
well, quite good about this whole thing.
And he said, why?
I said, because I'm going with your accreditation
of my intelligence.
And he looked at me and kind of
frowned a bit, and he didn't remember what
he'd said at all.
So he said, why did you say that?
So his wife, God bless them, spoke up
and said, Phil, you said off the platform
that it was a credit to Dave's intelligence
that he laughed at your jokes, on the
platform and off.
And he put on that blank, innocent look
that only Phil can, and he said, did
I really say that?
So you're in for a good week, I'm
sure.
Yes, because I didn't know when I got
looking at it all over, we could have
spent all this week, morning and evening, on
the absolutes.
And then I thought, yes, but there are
so many trilogies left, so we're going to
come up on the short end of both
of the subjects regardless, so I just have
to go home frustrated.
Tonight I want to look at one of
the trilogies that we have been looking at
in connection with our Lord.
And again, it's in relation to a town
or a city.
And by the way, those of you who
have been looking for that solution to the
biological dilemma in connecting with Bethlehem, I haven't
forgotten it.
I suggest you look, if you want to
look now, it will keep you busy thinking
about that and you won't hear me at
all the rest of the meeting.
Luke 1 and 35 is the answer.
I'll be watching to see if you're still
puzzling over that one or not, but the
solution, I think, according to my understanding of
it, lies there.
And then we shall see how you get
along with that problem.
So I want to speak with you tonight
about three incidents in connection with Bethany in
relation to our Lord.
Let's go to Luke 10, because there's a
lot of material to cover this evening.
Somebody is saying, so what else is new?
And I'm going to have to speak rather
quickly, so what else is new?
I want to cover some of the material,
if I may.
Three incidents that took place, a trilogy of
incidents that took place in relation to Bethany,
and so we're in Luke 10 for the
first one.
Verse 38, reading the last paragraph of Luke
10.
It came to pass as they went that
he entered into a certain village, and a
certain woman named Martha received him into her
house.
She had a sister called Mary, which also
sat at Jesus' feet and heard his words.
But Martha was cumbered about much serving, and
came to him and said, Lord, dost thou
not care that my sister hath left me
to serve alone?
Bid her, therefore, that she help me.
Jesus answered and said unto her, Martha, Martha,
thou art careful and troubled about many things.
Here's distraction for you.
But one thing is needful, and Mary hath
chosen the good part which shall not be
taken away from her.
This is the first of three incidents that
I want to consider with you this evening
regarding our Lord at Bethany.
I did suggest to you, I believe already,
that this is not the only three, because
there is one very significant incident in the
last week of his life.
As you recall, he went out to Bethany
or to the Mount of Olives and did
not apparently stay in Jerusalem, not even for
a night, nor did he stay in the
area of the temple more than necessary.
But he did go out to Bethany.
And this is the introduction of the family,
this is the introduction of the home, this
is the introduction of what took place at
Bethany.
So our Lord comes into a certain village,
it's not named here, but we know what
it is, and it says that a certain
woman named Martha received him into her house.
And you stop right there and you say,
now, what is the picture?
The picture is that there is a specific
house mentioned, and there is a specific woman
mentioned in relation to the house.
It was her house.
She apparently was not only the hostess and
the cook, as you will see, but she
was also the owner of the house.
If you go to Matthew 26, in the
last of the three incidents that I want
to mention this evening, we discover this was
the house of Simon the leper.
And we don't really know who Simon the
leper was.
You may do a little sanctifying imagining, if
you please, but we don't know who Simon
the leper was.
Was he the father of the family, and
is he dead?
Yes, evidently.
Or was he Martha's husband and left her
the house?
That's a very clear possibility, because you see,
it was her house.
And that's the house that our Lord entered
into, even though it's called the house of
Simon the leper.
Now, we'll see that that is very significant
in what happened in that house in the
last of our trilogy this evening.
But it was the house of Simon the
leper.
Not at all a welcome or desired stigma
that should be attached to anyone's home.
The house of Simon the leper.
And you know, as we'll see and mention
perhaps when we get to the third incident,
that this carried with it, down through a
considerable period of time, a stigma that was
not at all enviable.
And the Lord's come into this house.
As I say, we don't know any more
than the three members of the family that
are recorded for us in Scripture.
I may suppose, and you may conjecture too,
that it belonged to Martha's husband and that
he's gone, he's dead, and he's left her
the house, because it definitely says it was
her house.
And you can see that not only was
he in her house, but she was the
hostess in the house.
Definitely assumed the responsibility of providing the meal
for the master when he came.
And then another thing that is said here,
it says she had a sister called Mary.
If you read that the way it sounds,
I think you'll understand that she was a
junior member of the house, Mary.
She was a younger woman in the house.
And she was sort of an appendage, if
you will, tacked on to Martha.
This house belongs to Martha, though it's still
called the house of Simon the leper.
And she is the hostess, as I've said.
And she had little sisters, a little sister
called Mary.
Sounds like an almost an abdicate, doesn't it?
Did you ever find yourself in that position?
Were you the younger member of your family?
And were you always kind of left on
the edge of the family?
I had three siblings that were older than
I was, so I still accuse my older
sister, who's in Chile, I still accuse her
of having brought me up very rigorously.
And of course, she loves me to do
it in front of company, you understand.
And I tell them that I was bossed
around from the time I was a little
guy, so it didn't do a great deal
of harm for me later on when I
got a bossy mother-in-law.
Now, as a result of that...
But here's something else that happens, too.
And this business of Martha had a sister.
Martha had a sister, and her name was
Mary.
There she is.
Not of much importance.
This younger sister, Mary.
You know, we like to be known and
loved and appreciated because of who we are,
don't we?
But because of who we are in ourselves,
not because we're related to somebody who is
more important than we are.
So I have a very close relative of
mine at home, and she just loves it
when we go somewhere, and she's never been
there before.
Or she goes somewhere on her own, and
somebody who knows her is speaking with her,
and along comes someone else, and she introduces
this lady to her, and she says, you
know, meet Mrs. Adams.
And the lady says, pleased to meet you,
and that's it.
And then they carry on the conversation, and
then the friend says, you know, this is
Dave Adams' wife.
Oh, Mrs. Adams, I'm so pleased to meet
you.
My wife says, why can't they like me
for who I am, not for whom I'm
married to?
There's Mary.
Tags on to the elder sister.
Martha had a sister, and she was married.
Now, Martha's very busy with the task, and
I want you to notice, if we have
time to look into this in detail, I
want you to notice the influence on the
characteristics and the personalities of the members of
this house, consequent upon the frequency with which
the Lord visited them.
This is the first case.
This is the first time it appears, and
you can see the order of events in
this home.
Martha assumes the responsibility.
She assumes the leadership, and she goes in
to make the supper for the master, and
Mary's off to the side.
Martha was comfortable about serving, it says, and
she came to him and said, Lord, dost
thou not care that my sister has left
me to serve alone?
Now, it evidently was Martha's position to be
the hostess.
And she's attending to her responsibility.
She's fulfilling her vocation.
But she's frustrated.
She's exasperated.
She's very busy about this.
This is an important occasion.
After all, the master himself is here, it
appears, for the first time.
So she's perpetual motion.
We had a missionary sister in Cuba who
was like that, and her husband used to
say that Jeanie never let the dust settle.
When she got things all cleared up in
the front room, she went into another room.
By the time she finished in that room
and came back, the dust was just nicely
settling in the front room, and she started
all disturbed all over again.
Well, this is the way Martha was, it
seems.
She was just constantly on the move.
Perpetual motion.
But she's frustrated because Mary is sitting in
that China doll-like position.
Very pacific, very passive, very quiet, very demure.
That's how he always used to think of
her.
When I listened in my younger days to
preachers expatiate on this subject, I saw Mary
there, and there wasn't a sign of a
crow's feet around her eyes at all.
I used to call her the China doll
sister.
I used to see her sitting there, and
she was always spoken so highly of, and
Martha's there in a whirl of smoke from
the charcoal stove where she's cooking, and Mary's
sitting there so demure, so quiet, so nice.
But, you'll discover, that wasn't the way it
always was to be.
We'll see that later.
And Martha comes to the Lord, and she
says, She's left me to serve alone.
Speak to her.
Tell her that she's helped me.
After all...
After all what?
Well, after all, this really was Martha's vocation.
And you will see, when we come to
the end of the story, of the visitations
that the Lord made to this house, that
Martha never had her vocation changed.
I'm going to sit with you.
So, she complains about her sister, her little
sister, because she seems to have no interest
whatsoever in the cooking, in the preparation of
the meal, and she's just sitting there, very
nice, quietly, demure little soul.
And the Lord said, Martha, Martha, He says,
you're torn three or four different ways about
this much serving.
Now, Mary has chosen this, and we will
not take it away from her.
And thus, you see, the incident ends.
Now, turn over to the Gospel by John,
because I want to notice two other major
incidents that form the trilogy of the experiences
of the home at Bethany.
Let's go to chapter 11 first, please, if
you will.
Chapter 11, verse 1.
A certain man was sick, named Lazarus, of
Bethany, the town of Mary.
Who switched the order?
Who put Mary first now, when Martha was
first in the previous passage?
Well, that's exactly what the Spirit of God
does in this chapter.
He puts Mary first, and her sister, Martha.
Now, I don't know exactly what time may
have elapsed between Luke chapter 10 and John
chapter 11, but certainly some time has elapsed.
And in that time, there is a reversal
of the naming of the sisters in the
order.
And you see, all we have to do
is just go on living.
And events will take place by which God
brings everything into perspective.
He knows how to elevate and to lower.
He knows how to give prominence to one
and when to do it, and not give
the prominence to another.
All you have to do is just go
on living.
Leave it with God to bring everything into
perspective according to his divine mind as to
position.
Now, we're all involved in position.
One way or another, in one place or
another, in one factor or another.
We're all involved with position.
And you've watched the little guys in the
house, and the one that's a little bit
older generally takes the supremacy and exercises the
authority over the younger one.
But the young one comes along sometimes, and
because of partiality on the part of the
parents, which is a deadly thing to do,
but they do it, the little guy gets
more preference, and finally the older one has
to submit to the little one, and the
little one grows up with an ego that's
far too big for what he's builty and
able to handle, and the younger one gets
to be submissive.
Just let them go on living.
You'll see that God will level everything out
in the end.
And let's not be grasping for place or
power.
Let's just leave everything with God, and according
to His dictates and according to His divine
disposition as to where we are and what
we are supposed to be doing, He levels
everything out in the end.
Let's not be over-anxious about recognition, about
appreciation, about elevation.
Because now you see, Bertrand's name is the
town of Mary.
And then he tells us why he said
that it was Mary first and her sister
Martha, because it was that Mary which anointed
the Lord with ointment and wiped His feet
with her hair, whose brother Lazarus was sick.
Now that's a parenthetical portion, as you can
see, but I think it throws light back
onto the fact that the order has been
reversed here at this point between the two
sisters.
Therefore his sister sent unto him, saying, Lord,
behold, he whom thou lovest is sick.
And I believe I did mention to you
before in these studies that this is a
very significant way that the sisters approached the
Lord regarding the need of Lazarus.
I'm sure most of us would not have
done it this way.
We would have sent a message to the
Master and we would have said, Oh, our
brother who is so devoted to you, who
is dedicated to your service, and who loves
you so ardently, he is sick, Lord.
And we would have thought that because of
the qualities that our brother had manifested in
relation to the Lord, that would bring the
Master to his help, to his aid.
But that's not what they said.
They said it in the reverse order.
They said, Lord, he whom thou lovest.
Very clearly it was a move of discretion,
of courtesy, and of wisdom.
Lord, he whom thou lovest is sick.
And so we're expecting the Lord to respond
in this hour of need because of his
love for their brother, not their brother's love
for him.
Verse 4, when Jesus heard that, he said,
This sickness is not unto death, but he
died.
There are three specific reasons why things happened
in this case of Lazarus, his death and
his resurrection.
There are three specific reasons that our Lord
gives us in the chapter, why things turned
out the way they did, and why he
orchestrated them the way he did, why he
manipulated and maneuvered them the way he did.
The first thing is we have in this
verse, we're looking at verse 4, This sickness
is not unto death.
That's not going to be the end of
it.
That's not the final outcome of it all,
but for the glory of God, that the
Son of God might be glorified thereby.
You'll recall that we noticed in our study
of I Am the Light of the World,
in John chapter 9, that there was a
reason why this man was born blind, and
it wasn't what the disciples thought it might
be, but it was that the works of
God might be manifest in him.
I know not how many years before, when
that child came into the family and was
born, and they saw they had a blind
child, I don't know how long it was
or how many years passed by and they're
carrying this burden and carrying this sorrow before
they knew the very specific reason why he
was born blind.
And it wasn't because of his parents' sin,
and it wasn't because of the mystery of
prenatal influence that he might have had, consequently
he was born blind, as they suggested, but
it was because that the works of God
might be manifest in him.
The parents didn't know that.
The parents would have grieved, and I think
they got bitter, too, when I hear them
talk later on.
I think they got bitter that their son
was born blind.
They could not see 30, 40, 50 years
ahead how many it was before it was
revealed why he was born blind.
And do we?
Do we always know the reasons why tragedy
or sickness, disaster of one kind or another
strikes our experience?
We don't know.
But he knows.
The I Am knows.
And what does he say here?
He says, This is for the glory of
God, that the Son of God might be
glorified thereby.
Now that's the first specific reason that the
Lord gives for Lazarus being sick.
It's not unto death.
It's unto something beyond death.
And he himself will provide that something that
will justify the sickness and the death as
well.
This is the first reason.
Now, we'll come to the other two as
we go.
Now, Jesus loved Martha and her sister in
Lazarus.
No question.
There can be no question about that.
And behind this sickness and behind this death
and behind the tears and the lamentation, always
there was this.
Jesus loved them, all three of them.
When he heard, therefore, that he was sick,
based upon this love that he had for
them, he abode two days still in the
same place where he was, which was a
surprising development of this whole thing.
Our Lord has said, It's not unto death,
but that the Son of God might glorify
thereby.
And then it is said he loved him
and his two sisters as well.
And based on that love, he stayed two
days longer where he was.
Seems incongruous, doesn't it?
It seems totally contrary to what you would
have expected.
If Lazarus is sick and sick not unto
death as he said, but he died, then
you would have thought that the Lord, because
he loved him, would have hastened to him.
But he didn't.
He didn't.
Do we know the divine wisdom with which
our Lord moves in the affairs of our
experience?
And so often it's not when we thought
he would or should have moved, but the
love is there before the movement takes place,
you see.
And everything the Lord does is going to
be based upon that love for this man
as well as his sisters.
So he stayed two days still in the
same place where he was.
Then after that, he said to his disciples,
Let's go into Judea again.
But his disciples protest.
Why, the last part of the previous chapter
tells us that the reason why he left
Judea was because they were going to stone
him for what he had just been saying.
And his disciples say unto him, verse 8,
Master, the Jews of late sought to stone
thee, and coerced thou thither again.
Now watch this.
Jesus answers, Are there not twelve hours in
the day?
If any man walk in the day, he
stumbleth not, because he seeth the light of
this world.
But if a man walk in the night,
he stumbleth, because there is no light in
him.
Now doesn't that seem out of joint?
Doesn't that seem out of place?
What has that got to do with the
case in question?
Are there not twelve hours in the day?
And if you walk in the day, you
don't walk into traps?
You don't stumble into a pit?
Because you're walking in the light.
But it must have something to do with
what they've just said.
They said, Master, the Jews sought to stone
you just recently there.
Are you going to go back there again?
But you see what the Lord is saying?
He said, I'm walking in the light of
my Father's will, and there's no fear of
stumbling into any trap they've laid for my
feet.
I'm walking in the day.
If I were walking in the night, if
I did not know what the will of
my Father is, if I did not know
the pathway, if I did not know what
lies before me, yes, I could go back
to Judea and be stoned.
But I cannot stumble when I'm walking in
the light of his will.
That's comforting, isn't it?
When we walk in the light of his
will, there's no fear of falling into a
trap.
These things said he, verse 11, And after
that he said unto them, Our friend Lazarus
sleepeth, but I go that I may wake
him out of sleep.
Reminds you of Jairus' daughter, doesn't it?
Then said his disciples, Lord, if he sleepeth
he shall do well, or he shall be
saved.
Howbeit Jesus spake of his death, but they
thought that he had spoken of taking a
rest in sleep.
Then said Jesus unto them plainly, Lazarus is
dead.
And if I have come to the proper
conclusion about this matter, I believe that Lazarus
was dead when the Lord got the message.
And he brings it up now, early in
this whole unfolding of his purposes.
Lazarus is dead.
Now, here's reason number two.
I am glad for your sakes that I
was not there.
Why?
To the intent that ye may believe.
First of all, he says this is all
happening so the Son of God might be
glorified.
Secondly, he says it's all happening so that
the disciples might be confirmed and strengthened in
their faith.
That's why he has delayed two days longer,
so that when he gets there it's going
to be four days that Lazarus has been
dead.
I'm glad he said, for your sakes, that
I wasn't there, that ye may believe.
Verse 16.
Then said Thomas, which is called Didymus, by
the way, where was the twin?
Do you know?
Thomas is one of the twin.
Where is the twin?
Unto his fellow disciples, let us also go
that we may die with him.
I've heard Thomas criticized back and forth and
up and down because of his doubting at
the time when the Lord appeared in the
upper room at Luke 24.
I think it's time we quit criticizing Thomas
and calling him Doubting Thomas.
Call him Didymus Thomas if you want, for
he was a twin, you see.
But listen to what he's saying.
He says, let us go with him, that
we'll die with him.
The masters say we're going to toot to
Lazarus, and he says Lazarus is dead.
So if he's going to Lazarus, let us
go with him, with the master that is,
and let us all die together with him.
Thomas isn't as worthy of your criticism that
you've been giving to him.
Then when Jesus came, he found that he
lay in the grave four days already.
Now Bethany was nigh unto Jerusalem about fifteen
furlongs off, and many of the Jews came
to Martha and Mary to comfort them concerning
their brother.
Then Martha, as soon as she heard that
Jesus was coming, went and met him.
But Mary sat still in the house.
Then said Martha unto Jesus, Lord, if thou
hadst been here, my brother had not died.
I think that's what she said.
I see a little exasperation in this.
I see a little complaint in this.
And the reason why I say that is
because look what she did.
Lord, if thou hadst been here, my brother
had not died.
But I know, see the switch?
But I know that even now, whatsoever thou
wouldst ask of God, God will give it
thee.
She's complaining.
She's a very forthright sort of individual, and
she jumps right into a conclusion immediately.
And in the voice of complaint, which I
take it to be, if thou hadst been
here, my brother had not died.
But I know, I know, I know that
even now, see how she switches that?
See how she turns it on?
Watch her do it again in a minute.
If thou hadst been here, he said, I
know.
Jesus saith unto her, thy brother shall rise
again.
Moses said, I know that thou shalt rise
again in the resurrection at the last day.
How did she know that?
Jesus saith unto her, and here's our absolute
again, I am the resurrection.
Here's one of our absolutes that we're considering
in the moment.
And let me suggest something to you.
Why did he put it this way?
I am the resurrection because Lazarus is dead.
But why did he say, and the life?
We wouldn't have put it that way, would
we?
Why?
Resurrection brings you out of death into life.
Yes, but after resurrection, what is there?
Oh, there's life to be lived.
And if we want to speak about our
resurrection, for the glory yet to come, how
about those endless ages of worlds yet unborn
where we are going to be?
What about this?
After resurrection, what?
After resurrection, there's going to be life.
But what's going to sustain that life?
And what's going to make that life livable?
And who's going to hold us in that
life that we don't fall or stumble?
See what the Lord says?
He says, I am the resurrection and the
life.
The life that is to come post-resurrection.
How will it be sustained?
How will it be enjoyed?
How will we be kept that we don't
stumble and fall as we've done so many
times already?
Because he's not only the resurrection, you see,
he is the life post-resurrection.
That's security, isn't it?
Oh, you don't agree with me.
I never saw anybody say yes or nod
their head vertically.
We're all looking forward to the resurrection, as
we're looking forward to the time when all
that are in the grave shall come forth.
But the dead in Christ, as far as
we're concerned, shall rise first.
We shall be caught up together with them
in the clouds to meet the Lord in
the air.
And then what?
Then he who is the resurrection for all
those coming ages is also the life.
He's the source and sustainer of the life
that we shall have post-resurrection.
Then he went on to say, He that
believeth in me, though he were dead, yet
shall he live.
Well, that's Lazarus at this moment.
But how about this?
Whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never
die.
And he said to Martha, Believest thou this?
How would you have answered that?
How would I have answered that?
He that believeth in me, though he were
dead, yet shall he live.
We all believe that.
But how about this?
He that lives and believes in me shall
never die.
How do you understand that?
What's the Lord meaning?
What's he saying?
But then he turned to Martha and said,
Do you believe that?
Watch what she did.
She said to him, Yea, Lord, I believe
that thou art the Christ, the Son of
God, that shalt come into the world.
And she so said she went away.
Now, if that wasn't a supplety for feminine
dexterity to get out of a jam, I
don't know what it was.
He that liveth and believeth in me shall
never die.
Do you believe this, Martha?
Yea, Lord, I believe that thou art the
Christ, that shalt come into the world.
What's that got to do with the question?
And then she turned and went away.
Very nicely walked out of that problem, didn't
she, though?
How would you do with it?
All right.
When she so said she went away and
called Mary her sister secretly, saying, The Master's
come and call her to thee.
And so Mary gets up, and the Lord
was just coming into the town, not quite
there yet, and the Jews that was with
Mary rose up and went with her, and
so on.
But then when Mary was come where Jesus
was and saw him, she fell down at
his feet, saying, Unto him, Lord, had God
been here, my brother had not died.
I didn't read that the same way, did
I?
There's so much in the inflection of the
Lord in what we say.
Sometimes we hear something and we repeat it,
and when we repeat it, it doesn't have
the same meaning at all to the way
we first heard it, and it's all because
of the way it was said the second
time.
I think these two sisters said the same
thing to the Lord in a totally different
tone of voice and with a different reason.
All right.
When Jesus therefore saw her weeping, and the
Jews also weeping, which came whether he groaned
in the spirit and was troubled, and said,
Where have you laid him?
They said, Unto him, Lord, come and see.
And Jesus wept.
Then said the Jews, Behold how he loved
them.
And some of them said, Could not this
man which opened the eyes of the blind
have caused that even this man should not
have died?
Jesus therefore again, groaning in himself, cometh to
the grave.
There was a cave and a stone lay
upon it.
Why does the Master at this time groan
in his spirit?
It's a very strong word, this.
It's something almost like a paroxysm of grief
that took hold of him.
He's groaning in his spirit.
He knows he's going to raise him from
the dead.
He knows he's going to call him out
of the sepulchre.
He knows he's going to turn him back
to the sisters in his home life again.
Why is he groaning in his spirit?
Why is he so troubled about all this?
I know.
They've asked more questions than he gives answers
for.
Well, I have to keep my honest away
somehow.
Now, Jesus said, Take ye away the stone.
Martha, the sister of him that was dead,
saith unto the Lord, By this time he's
been dead four days.
Jesus saith unto her, Said I not unto
thee, that if thou wouldst believe, thou shouldst
see the glory of God?
Then they took away the stone from the
place where the dead was laid.
Jesus looked her up his eyes and said,
Father, I thank thee that thou hast heard
me, and I knew that thou hearest me
always, but because of the multitude which stand
by, I said it.
Reason number three why this whole scene has
taken place.
One, that the Son of God be glorified.
Two, that the disciples may be strengthened in
their faith.
And three, that the multitude which stand by
might believe, he said, that thou hast sent
me.
When he had thus spoken, he cried to
the loud voice, Lazarus, come forth.
I think if I were artistic or an
artist, I would love to paint this picture.
Here's the sepulcher, here's the grave, the stones
rolled away, the dark tomb lies there, and
the decaying, decomposing body of the saint lies
inside.
And together, face to face, are the two
mightiest forces in the universe, the force of
light in the author of light, and the
force of death in the ruler of death,
and he who had the dominion of death,
the right and the might of death, as
Hebrews tells us.
And these two forces come together in opposition
each to the other.
And what is the outcome of this clash,
this battle of the gods, going to be?
He stands and he looks into the sepulcher,
and he says, in all the dignity of
his own sovereignty, Lazarus, come forth.
He that was dead came forth, bound and
put to the grave, clothed in a napkin
round about his head.
I'd like to speak with you a little
bit about that napkin in connection with our
Lord himself, but let's move quickly over to
chapter 12.
I want to get this third one in,
if I may.
Then Jesus, six days before the Passover, came
to Bethany where Lazarus was, which had been
dead.
Oh no, that's not Bethany.
It was the home of Martha and her
sister Mary, and then it was the home
of Mary and her sister Martha.
And now what is it?
It's the place where Lazarus was, which had
been dead, whom he raised from the dead.
Watch this.
Then there they made him a supper.
Something's gone on, hasn't it, in the development
of the character of these three, of this
family?
Now it's not just Martha, it's in the
plural.
They made him a supper.
And what does it say here?
Mary and Martha served.
So Martha's vocation, her job, her calling, has
not changed.
It is just what it was when the
Master went there the first time.
But the difference is she's not doing it
alone.
Mary is very evidently assisting, and I know
not what Lazarus did, except it says here
that he was one of them that sat
at the table with her.
But I want to get on beyond that,
too.
Then took Mary a pound of ointment of
spikenard, very costly, and anointed the feet of
Jesus.
Now I noticed with interest, as I read
the other accounts of this incident, Matthew 26
and Mark 14, that there are four action
verbs that are used and applied to Mary
in what she did.
Now here's Mary sitting in Luke 10 at
the feet of the Lord, not moving an
eyelid.
She's listening.
But you see, this love that was building
in her heart, in her soul, and by
the frequency with which the Master visited the
house of Simon the leper, love is not
and cannot be static.
You cannot hold it in silence.
You cannot keep it bound up in inactivity.
Life must express itself.
Love must express itself.
Mary has come to know and to love
the Lord in such a way that she's
got to move.
She's not sitting here now quietly listening.
Four action verbs are spoken about Mary in
this incident.
She went, she took, she broke, and she
poured it on the Lord.
See what love does, my friends?
It motivates us to serve us.
We may say we love him.
We may sing about how we love him.
And yet, is there any proof of it?
Husbands tell their wives all the time that
they love him, don't they?
You mean they don't?
Some of you ladies look as though you
haven't heard it in the last 15 years.
Well, if it's true, and not only verbal,
there's got to be proof of it.
There's got to be action that follows expression
of it.
Mary went, Mary took, Mary broke, Mary poured.
Why?
Because she's listened to the Master.
She's been in his company.
And after the period that existed between Luke
10 and John chapter 12, Mary has come
to love him so much that she can't
sit still.
She's got to express it.
So she goes and gets the box of
alabaster ointment, and she breaks it and pours
it on his feet as he reclines there
at supper.
And let me notice another little thing here
very curiously, if you will.
It says at the close of verse 3,
the house was filled with the odor of
the ointment.
What house?
The house of Simon the leper.
A house that was carrying the stigma of
leprosy, defilement, uncleanness.
Through the action of this one woman, the
house of Simon the leper is filled with
the odor of the ointment.
And then a strange thing happens.
John chapter 12 says that Judas Iscariot comes
in.
If you go to Matthew 26 and Mark
14, you'll discover something happens here.
Judas has been watching this whole thing.
Judas the commercial expert, Judas the banker, Judas
the man who carried the bag and the
verb is, he continually took out of it.
John says that in retrospect, 60 years later.
Judas was the financier, he was the treasurer
of the band.
But Judas carried the bag, but that's not
all.
He constantly took out of it.
The verb is past continuous.
He kept taking out of it.
And so he's looking at all this, and
he knows how much the ointment is worth,
and he says, well, that thing could have
been sold.
Instead of being wasted, it could have been
sold for 300 pence.
But when you go to Matthew and Mark,
you discover that others went along with him.
Matthew says, the disciples were indignant.
And Mark says, some of them were there
also had indignation, and they said, why was
this waste?
Waste?
Waste, what was expended on the Lord himself?
Waste, did you say?
But here's the thing, brethren.
When Judas brought this thing up, do you
know what he's doing?
He's manifesting in the house of Simon the
leper the leprosy that was in his heart.
It was the leprosy of covetousness in the
soul of Judas who finally sold his Lord
for 30 pieces of silver, that said, why
was this waste?
This could have been sold, sold, sold.
He sold his master for 30 pieces of
silver.
He said this should have been sold and
given to the poor.
Why?
Because he had the bag and he was
constantly taken out of the bag.
That's why.
But the leprosy from the heart of the
greedy Iscariot spread and contaminated that beautiful scene
when the house was filled with the odor
of the ointment.
One man's covetousness marred the service that Mary
had bestowed upon her Lord.
And the leprosy came into the house again
and spoiled this act of worship that Mary
had bestowed upon her Lord.
Another thing I noticed is this.
Not only is leprosy contagious, the leprosy of
covetousness is contagious.
Let us watch our spirits and especially in
sacred things that concern the Master.
It also says, and I noticed this was
interesting, I'll just throw it out to you
for consideration.
It says here in John 12 that Mary
anointed the feet of the Lord.
It says in Matthew and Mark that she
poured the ointment on his head.
And what are we going to conclude from
this?
There are no mistakes, are there?
There's nothing extraneous, there's nothing unnecessary.
Everything has a reason, everything has a meaning,
doesn't it?
We found that out in our study this
week.
So if John says Mary poured it on
his feet, this is 60 years after it
happened, if you go back to Matthew and
Mark, they say that she poured the ointment
on his head.
Did she pour it on his feet or
on his head?
Well, if you just listen to what the
Master said, you'll find out.
Because you see, when they started criticizing her,
when they were indignant about this way, the
Lord says in defense of Mary, the Lord
said, listen, in that she has poured this
on my body, she did it for my
burial.
Why trouble ye the woman?
He didn't say on my feet, he didn't
say on his head.
He said she poured it on my body.
You remember in his resurrection, where were the
angels sitting?
One at the head, one at the feet,
where the body of Jesus had laid.
That's it.
That head, with that napkin, that he took
off himself, and folded it up, and put
it onto one side, and the grave clothes
were left lying as they were.
Why did it happen like that, brethren?
Why in the resurrection was there this distinction
made between the napkin and the grave clothes,
or the windings that they used?
What's the difference between pouring the ointment on
his feet and pouring the ointment on his
head?
Or, as the Lord says, she's poured it
on my body, so he takes in the
act in its completion.
But in the resurrection, you see, when the
napkin that was about his head in the
sepulcher was folded up and put in a
crate by itself, and the grave clothes were
left lying over here, there's a very, very
important lesson in that, surely.
And if you listen to what the Lord
said to Mary Magdalene that morning, on the
first day of the week, remember what he
said?
He said, Go and tell my brethren that
I ascend to my Father and your Father.
Didn't he?
He didn't say, I am going to our
Father which art in heaven.
No.
He said, Go and tell them that I
ascend unto my God and your God.
What's he doing?
What's he saying?
He's teaching us the lesson of the napkin
and the grave clothes separated in resurrection.
Why?
Because in resurrection, you see, the Lord became
the head of the church, which is his
body.
And while it is true that you and
I have come into the benefit of the
resurrection of our Lord, part of the grave
clothes which belong to the body, there's something
we must always remember.
In resurrection, he must be chief.
He must be supreme.
And we cannot say, and I revolt inside
every time I hear it, and sometimes I
sing it in some of the hymns, we
cannot say that our Lord is our elder
brother.
Not in resurrection.
He's the head of the body which is
the church, but he must be supreme.
His place must be distinct.
It must be by itself.
Yes, we are members of his body, of
his flesh and of his bones, but he
is the head, and the napkin is left
in a place by itself.
In resurrection.
And we, as well, are caught up together
with him, for we stand in the light
of his resurrection for us, too, don't we?
And so, I don't know about you, but
that's the end of the clock.
I don't know whether I've worn you out
yet or not.
But these things surely are of great interest
to us, these trilogies, and that which concerns
Bethany.
The first instance, the second instance, and the
last instance, and the supper, we've only just
kind of touched the edge of it.
But let us rejoice, at any rate, in
him who hallows every occasion and every experience
and every time that he visits his people,
he comes into us with blessing, with favour,
and he makes the house to be filled
with the odour of his person.
Shall we pray?
Our Father, we thank you for who he
is.
We thank you for the glories of this
one of whom we have read and of
whom we sing, and so often fills our
hearts in days of darkness, in days of
light, in days of trial, in days of
sorrow, and even death.
And yet we thank thee that he is
supreme.
He is the resurrection and the life.
He is the one who shall yet be
seen in the full consummation of his own
resurrection when he calls the members of his
body to himself.
And then we shall glory, we shall triumph
in that which was his personal experience in
which he has brought us into relationship with
himself.
May thy blessing rest with thy people, Lord,
this evening as we give thanks and commend
it to thee in his name.
Amen.