So congregation, let's open the Bible and we'll turn back to the book of Mark this morning. We're at chapter 14. Mark chapter 14. And the verses one through 11. We're in the midst of that week leading up to the cross. And so as with the other gospels, things slow down quite a bit in the way the narrative is expressed and the teaching of it comes forth. So we take matters very patiently and slowly here. We will so beginning again this morning by God's mercy. So in Mark chapter 14, beloved, and we begin at verse one, we'll read through verse 11. Now the Passover and the Feast of Unleavened Bread were only two days away, and the chief priests and teachers of the law were looking for some sly way to arrest Jesus and kill him. But not during the feast, they said, or the people may riot. While he was in Bethany, reclining at the table in the home of a man known as Simon the leper, 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, said Jesus. 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 any time you want, but you will not always have me. She did what she could. She poured perfume on my body beforehand to prepare for my burial. I tell you the truth, wherever the gospel is preached throughout the world, what she has done will also be told in memory of her. Then Judas Iscariot, one of the 12, went to the chief priests to betray Jesus to them. They were delighted to hear this and promised to give him money. So he watched for an opportunity to hand him over. As for our beloved God's rich and significant word, well, let's do what we always do and ask his help again this morning in prayer. Let's submit ourselves to him and the spirit will indeed bless and help. So let's pray. Our Father in heaven, we are so very thankful for your mercy and your grace in giving to us your word, which never goes out of season, is always appropriate and contemporary, is always what parents need to hand to their children, and Lord, it is always what the believer needs. Bless us, oh Heavenly Father, we pray by the Spirit's work so that we might rightly understand and live what you tell us in the scriptures We pray asking in Jesus' name, amen. So dear congregation, the Lord Jesus Christ, we come back this morning to our journey through Mark. We pick back up with one of those texts, if I may say it this way, crackling with energy. It's not a methodical text working carefully through a deep doctrinal truth as maybe we would see in the epistles, the letters. No, these verses bristle with energy. They leave us sort of leaning forward to learn what is Jesus doing here? Who is this woman? I think that's one of the questions we ask when we come to a text like this. We might wonder out loud, well, maybe, maybe it's Martha's sister, Mary. And if so, we would link this text to John 12, verses one through eight. Is it Mary? Maybe. We're not sure. What is clear is that Jesus links her action to his death and burial, calls her action the aroma of the gospel. So a woman doing gospel work on Mother's Day sounds about right. And yet, that honor that we show to our mothers, to the mom of our children, our wives, that honor, men, is a reflection of the gospel, isn't it? Oh, beloved, this text smells sweetly of the loveliness of gospel life. You see, the preciousness of Jesus Christ leads a woman to spend her most treasured possession in worship of him. The preciousness of Jesus Christ leads a woman to spend her most treasured possession in worship of him. But we need to see first this morning that her costly service occurs in the context of an all-out war. There are three indications of that in the text. And these three indications of this all-out war should shout to the church about our ongoing war, Because as Jesus Christ himself said, if they persecute me, they will persecute you. John 15, 20. We see these three hints, one at the beginning of our text, one at the end of our text, and one in the middle of our text. And so notice the first indication of an all-out war occurring in verses one and two. The religious elites are huddling together. They're planning Jesus' takedown. This is a most wicked war room. This is how wars are planned throughout history and around the world. Men of power get together, they huddle together, and they decide strategy. They think, what will be the most advantageous way of accomplishing the victory that we want to accomplish? And that's what we see in verses 1 and 2. Even to the extent that their strategy says, verse 2, but not during the feast, because the people are going to respond negatively. And so they are calculating. Make no mistake about it, beloved. We are meant to understand that to be the significant context of the beauty that happens in the middle. But then go to verses 10 and 11, where we learn wicked, reprobate, traitor Judas initiates, goes to those religious elites, with the desire to put Jesus into their hands." Notice the language. Judas Iscariot, one of the twelve, went to the chief priests. He goes. They don't come to him. "...to betray Jesus to them." And what does the text tell us in verse 11? That they say, oh, well, that's nice. Or, hmm, we'll consider it. No. The language here is pretty illustrative, isn't it? They were singing in the rain. They were full of glee. We've found our way. We've got a guy on the inside. Now we will accomplish what we want. And it says they promised to give him cold, hard cash, which it seems Judas loved. And so, beginning and end. But don't miss this, beloved. In the middle. And sometimes we don't think about this, but in the very middle of our text, Jesus Himself indicates, He makes it clear that the war that is occurring will, verse 8, cost Him His life. Doesn't that seem an odd thing that Jesus says there in the middle of that passage where he's talking about the beautiful work that the woman is doing? He says, it seems to come out of left field. She has prepared my body beforehand for burial. He doesn't make any pretensions. He's not guessing. He knows with absolute certainty that the war is going to cost him his life. And so this, beloved, the most caring, loving, patient, biblical action that the Christian engages in, whether that be father, mother, or child, happens in the midst of warfare. We do not sail on calm seas. But I want us to think about that just a little bit more. Because now I'm setting you up for what's coming. The next things in the book of Mark, which things will they be? Will they be soft things and easy things? No. We're coming in the recounting of the history of Jesus Christ to now the apex of that warfare. You see, soon it's going to be demonic possession and soldiers and swords and the slashing off of body parts. It's going to be violent lies and false charges and kangaroo courts. It's going to be punches and slaps and beatings and whipping and flogging and torture and death. That's what's coming. Those things are next. And so do we imagine? O church, dear Christians, do we think that our passage through this world should be sweet and peaceful with no battles and no warfare? What kind of Christianity have we been raised to expect? Please ponder that question. What kind of Christianity have we been raised to expect? Why do Christian mothers quietly, ferociously pray for their infants, and their toddlers, and then their preteens, and then keep praying for their teenage children, and then when those teenage children become adult children, do you think godly mothers stop praying quietly and ferociously for those adult children? No, they don't. They keep praying. Why? Is it because all is quiet on the Western front in terms of the life of the church? No. We pray. We pour over the Scriptures. We come faithfully to church. Because the reality set forth before us, not only in this text, but in the Scriptures as a whole, is of the church militant, the church at war. of a beautiful act occurring in the context, this is not surprising, this is very common, a beautiful act occurring in the context of all-out war. Jesus is the captain of our well-fought fight. It is the day where acts of love are the battle. So then secondly, Jesus associates with those in absolute need of his ministry. So we're told here that our Lord is in Bethany, not in Jerusalem. Pause there and consider what does that mean? Well, among many things it means, it certainly means this, that he's not in Jerusalem. That is to say, he's not hobnobbing with the religious elites. Have you ever considered that in regards to his earthly ministry? He's not sitting in the home of the high priest and getting all the best foods and meeting all the rich and powerful of Jerusalem as the religious center of the center of the Israelite world. He's not invited. He is rather, we're told in the text, in the home of a man whose name still remains, though he's been cured, still remains Simon the leper. That's not going to the homes of the rich and the famous, you see. We suppose at some earlier point Jesus had healed, that is, cleansed this man of the cursed affliction of leprosy, which when he had it would have excluded him from the populace, which would have caused Simon to be an outcast, living probably out in the wild in a leper colony. But now Simon, healed, cleansed, uncursed, is living in town, a vibrant member of society. This is the gospel working itself out. And he has a home to which Jesus comes. But interestingly, it is known to be the home of Simon, whose name still reflects what he has been set free from. Isn't that something of significance? Of weightiness. About the work of the Lord Jesus Christ, Jesus, the leper healer. And if we say again, if because we're not sure if it's Mary who comes the sister to Martha, then what happens next makes perfect sense because she is also the sister of Lazarus. Whom Jesus raised from the dead. So Jesus is not just the leper healer, but Jesus is the dead raiser. What a glorious indication of the power of the kingdom of God come to this world. And this dear church is as real as it gets. We live as needy sinners. Needy and weak compared to the world, the flesh, and the devil. God gives us lots of help, so we might walk in strength, help like godly mothers, help like a godly congregation, help like a godly denomination in the past in which we might have grown up in, help like godly Sunday school teachers, godly Christian school teachers, godly elders, and over the years, godly pastors, all helping us to grow up in the Lord, Jesus has by His powerful Word and Spirit been caring for you, been caring for us continually all our days. What response then will come? What choices are we making? What worship will we offer? Sometimes, and I'm not trying to make young people feel guilty, but sometimes young people, when they graduate from high school and college or whatever technical path they are on toward employment, if that's what they're going to do, ought to stop and consider, what will my mom think about my life in 10 years? Now, it's not just that mom's going to evaluate this, dad's too. But we think of this in regards to the application to the matter. What sense would my godly mom have about how I'm living? And as important as that is, and it is important, it of course pales in significance to the question that is more pressing and more prominent and weightier. What does God think? And here we come to the text. What does she do? What choices does this woman make of our text? What worship does this woman of the text offer? we're going to see in a moment a nearly volcanic eruption of worship and praise to our God. And so I ask, are there tremors in our hearts? Is the ground of our life rumbling with a desire to show forth a volcanic eruption of praise to our God? That might be then costly. Are you all in or not in the worship of God? That I might submit to us, beloved, is the most pressing question of application from the text. Are you all in or not? Well, let's look thirdly. One who needed what he, Jesus, provides spends all she has. on his worship. Now we have to be careful here because we've said it, we're not exactly sure with absolute certainty who the woman is. What we do know for absolute certainty is that Jesus had provided for her such that he is now her entire devotion. Could you come to any other conclusion based on the facts of the text than that? He has done something in her life, worked something in her heart, including eternal life, such that now she is, as we've used the phrase a moment ago, all in. She's sold out for Jesus. She is full and overflowing with love for Jesus. But church, don't miss this. I'm gonna ask us a question about the most obvious part of the text, and I want you to think about the answer to the question as if you didn't know already right now when I'm about to ask it, as if you didn't know what the answer is. So you ready? Here comes the question. How do we know about her love for Jesus? How do we know that Jesus did something in her life to provide exactly what it was that she needed, certainly including eternal life? How can we be sure that she is sold out for Jesus Christ? You look at the text right now and you're thinking, well, come on, Pastor, it's so obvious. Exactly. That's what I want you to think. It is so obvious, isn't it? The proof of her being entirely sold out for Jesus Christ is found in this one fact. She worshiped him. And her worship of him cost her dearly. Nard, verse three. Nard, did you look it up? Have you Googled it? What is it? Well, nard in those days was imported only from India. Nard, or spike nard if you like, was a substance painstakingly extracted from the root of a plant that in those days grew only in India. So in terms of labor, it was very difficult to get. In terms of quantity, it took a long time to get a little bit. And it had to be brought all the way from India. She has an entire alabaster jar full of it. Probably, and again, we're kind of guessing a little bit, but probably this was something handed down to her from a parent or a grandparent as sort of an investment account. Its value in today's money, somewhere around $50,000. She worshiped Jesus. Her act of worship was not half-hearted. She was all in. Church, look at the gospel. Look at gospel worship. Look at a love for Jesus Christ. Look at the honor and the glory set about unto the worship of Jesus Christ. We're in a difficult phase in terms of the church's relationship with the world around us. Things are getting more challenging. The call to the Christian is getting more costly, slight ways in America, much more significant in other lands. But I'm wondering if it's beginning to work in us a little bit of timidity. We're too timid. Are we afraid to look at what God's word clearly says and make the correct application about it, such as a text like this? that the worship of God is costly. And now we're not just talking about money, but that the worship of God is costly. On a Sunday like today, it's Mother's Day, I could say something like this. I could say, well, we see a mother's devotion to her children is costly and all that is involved in raising children, godly children from a godly mother in this day. And that would not be an untrue statement. But you felt that coming. But from this text, we need to say more. We need to go further. Deeper into Jesus' words. Because we need to see what He says about her worship. Do you see it in verse 6? When the complaints were coming, when they were saying, oh, what a waste of money that was, He says, leave her alone. Why are you bothering her? And then this. She has done a beautiful thing to me. Do you know what my personal prayer is from this text? My personal prayer from this text is, O Jesus, please help my worship to be a beautiful thing to You. May my worship, and O congregation, that we would say something like this in Your own words, O Lord, might our worship be in Your sight a beautiful thing. This is what we ought to, as it were, draw out of the text. And here's indeed where godly mothers and godly fathers interact with a text like this one. A beautiful thing is they worship in bringing their children to worship on the Lord's day. Here's where singles and widows and widowers come again to worship him such that Jesus calls their worship a beautiful thing. Here's where young people and children on their own come into the house of the Lord to worship him and Jesus calls their worship a beautiful thing. Engage, beloved, not with a part of who you are, but with all of who you are. And realize that He is worthy of costly worship. That we engage with our whole heart. That we engage with all that we are in a worship that costs us in convenience, and that costs us in time, and that costs us in patience, and that costs us Our whole life. Maybe that's what he will call of us. In the years that are yet coming in American Christianity, we don't know. Maybe. I could relate to you accounts of Christians. In England and in Scotland, for example, just to name a few in the past. Not that long ago, 100 years and more who gave Worship that costs them all. And we haven't even considered the Netherlands and why many of our forefathers came to this land for worship that is costly. Well, Jesus tells us fourthly, we should retell the account of this woman's sacrificial worship. Now you see, beloved, there is from the text, in the structure of a sermon, In that structuring of the sermon, a reason why the pastor would emphasize certain things and lay more weight upon certain things than upon other things, and from this text, that emphasis comes from Jesus himself, who says, and notice it in verse nine, wherever the gospel is preached throughout the world, what she has done will also be told in memory of her. Do you understand what that means? Jesus tells everyone who will listen and now we who read of this historical event of what actually happened. This is another reason, and I know you're maybe getting tired of me saying this, why I don't like the phrase Bible stories. It leads too much to the idea that it's fictitious. Now people run with that idea of things in the Bible being fictitious and of course you know it comes well. Creation in six normal days, ha, myth, fictitious. No, beloved, what we need to say is the opposite, not only about creation, yes, in six normal and regular days, of course, but about all the Bible being history as God reveals these things to us and here it is. She actually did this. She actually poured this perfume, which cost a tremendous amount of money, in the midst of the complaints, causing much fervor. You wasted all that money, they said. She worshipped Him anyway. Today, The worship of Jesus, they say, should be comfortable, convenient, entertaining, relaxing, and if it's not, I don't want it. Do you see any of that in the text? No, rather what you see is, in the midst of criticism, in the context of war with all kinds of people saying, stop it, don't do that. And Jesus calling it a beautiful thing, all consuming, all demanding. all giving, sacrificial worship. And then he says, verse nine, make sure this becomes a testimony. Make sure this retelling is something of significance for the church. Jesus emphatically declares, verse 6, that He wants costly sacrificial worship to continue. And we have to ask that of ourselves if that's what we're willing, if that's what we're ready, if that's what we're committed for. Sacrificial worship to continue, verse 6. And then in verse 9, He declares that he wants this kind of worship which she offered to be honored to hero status in his church. According to Jesus, who should receive the honored positions of accolades, of privilege, that other people look up to in the church? those who worship Him in such a way that it costs them. What should it cost us? Well, if we look at her, could you think of any more treasured possession that she had than this one? Why? Because he is worth it. That new song, is he worthy? Is he worthy? Yes. He's worthy. Why do Christian moms give so much in raising their children? Notice I said Christian moms give so much in raising their children. Do you know the answer? Because Jesus is worthy. Why do churches continue on and push through hard times, difficult seasons? Because Jesus is worthy. What cost today should we put on the worship of Jesus Christ? What limits does this text teach us? to put on our worship of Jesus Christ, of what is he worthy. Amen. Oh, Father in heaven, how we praise you this morning for the beautiful worship that you cause, bring to be by your grace and spirit in the lives of Christians, men and women, fathers, mothers, singles, O Heavenly Father, may it be today that we consider again and count the cost and ask the hard questions and live by grace in the answer. Give us, O Lord, a great desire to hear you say that our worship is a beautiful thing. We pray, asking in Jesus' name, amen. Well, let's sing this morning congregation now at our Blue Psalter hymnal. Jesus, priceless treasure. We'll sing stanzas one, three, and five. Our Blue Psalter hymnal one, three, and five.