I invite you this morning to turn to John's Gospel, chapter 12. Last Sunday we completed our summer series in the Old Testament and the book of Zechariah. If you missed that, I encourage you to go and listen to those sermons online. And so, because we finished that series, now we're going to return to our series in the Gospel of John that we were in before the summer. And we're here in chapter 12. We're nearing the end of Jesus' public ministry as the writer of this gospel has recorded it. And due to threats on his life, Jesus and his disciples have been ministering in the town of Ephraim in the Judean wilderness. And now is the time for them to make their journey to Jerusalem, that final journey And so that's where we pick up the narrative this morning in John chapter 12, and I'll read verses 1 through 11. Then Jesus, six days before the Passover, came to Bethany, where Lazarus, which had been dead, whom he raised from the dead. There they made him a supper, and Martha served. but Lazarus was one of them that sat at the table with him. Then took Mary a pound of ointment of spikenard, very costly, and anointed the feet of Jesus, and wiped his feet with her hair, and the house was filled with the odor of the ointment. Then saith one of his disciples, Judas Iscariot, Simon's son, which should betray him, why was not this ointment sold for 300 pence and given to the poor? This he said, not that he cared for the poor, but because he was a thief and had the bag and bare what was put therein. Then said Jesus, Let her alone. Against the day of my burying hath she kept this. For the poor always ye have with you, but me ye have not always. Much people of the Jews therefore knew that he was there. And they came not for Jesus' sake only, but that they might see Lazarus also, whom he had raised from the dead. But the chief priests consulted that they might put Lazarus also to death because that by reason of him, many of the Jews went away and believed on Jesus. Let's pray together. Our Father, we thank you for this passage and for the tender scene that it paints. We are moved to consider the ministry of the Lord Jesus in the final days of his time on this earth and how he had this time together with these people on this occasion. And we reflect upon the fact that this is just a matter of days before he would go to the cross and give his life. We pray, Lord, that you would speak to us in this hour, that these things would affect us and touch our hearts. We pray in Jesus' name, amen. Well, what a moving scene this is. Try to picture yourself in the room. You look across the room, And you see Lazarus, a man who had died and was raised to life. You look around the room and you see many joyful faces of those who are there celebrating this occasion, this time together with the Lord Jesus, the one who raised Lazarus, and Lazarus. You see Martha, dutifully and yet joyfully serving. And then you see Mary moving across the room, kneeling at the feet of Jesus, performing this act of sacrificial devotion. And then your attention is drawn to the Lord Jesus. and you realize he's surrounded by his 12 apostles. And so you see this room full of all these people and it moves you. It touches your heart. For nearly three years, Jesus had ministered to the masses. He had fed the hungry. He had healed the sick. He had given sight to the blind. He had caused the lame to walk again. And he had cast out many demons. He gave hope to the hopeless, light to those in darkness, compassion to the needy, and love to the unloved. He had also poured himself into the lives of those 12 men, his apostles. leading them, instructing them, correcting them, training them, and all the time preparing them to become the pillars of the New Testament Church and to carry on His kingdom-advancing work after His departure. The Lord's remaining time with them was growing short. In a matter of days, Jesus will be betrayed, tried, and crucified. And Jesus knew this. And it seems that somehow Mary knew this or knew something like this was coming. And so in this precious time together, she performs a touching act to express her genuine devotion to her Lord. I think this passage teaches us this. The Lord Jesus is worthy of our greatest devotion. The Lord Jesus is worthy. of our greatest devotion. This morning I'd like us to view the scene that's described in these verses in three ways. I think in this one passage we see first a celebration of life. And we also see preparation for death. And finally we see anticipation of betrayal. So let's first look at this passage in terms of the way there is a celebration of life here. We see Jesus' resurrection power on display in this passage. This was a joyous occasion. A celebration was taking place, really an interesting celebration. A man who had been dead was now alive, and the one who raised him was also there. The celebration took place at the house of a man named Simon. Now, this is one of those rare occasions, as we're going through our study in the Gospel of John, where the other Gospel writers also have something to say about this. And so we have parallel accounts in Matthew 26 and Mark 14, and those accounts clarify that this was the home of Simon the leper. that particular Simon, not to be confused with at least eight other Simons that are mentioned in the Bible, including Simon the father of Judas Iscariot. So that's a different Simon. Stop and think about it. In order for Simon the leper to serve as host for this gathering, he must have been cleansed from his leprosy. He was very likely healed either by the Lord Jesus Himself or by the Lord's disciples. And so that was another testimony in the room of Jesus' great healing power. This was a big celebration. I mean, there were a lot of people there. Imagine you having to host a gathering this large, right? You have Jesus and his 12 apostles. You have Lazarus, Mary, Martha. You have all of these guests that have shown up from Jerusalem. I mean, at least you don't have to set up a bunch of chairs because everybody's reclining on the floor for this meal. It was a big celebration. They gathered at the banquet table. They ate their fill of food and rejoiced with great rejoicing. And we can just kind of imagine as we picture ourselves in this room, this is a room full of people, probably wall to wall full of people. And there was a lot of loud talking and raucous laughter. It was a celebration. They were celebrating. an amazing miracle. A dead man had been raised to life. That doesn't happen every day. When's the last time you saw that happen? We've only read about it in the Scriptures. Lazarus, as you recall, had been very sick, nigh unto death. And no doubt Mary and Martha, his sisters, had done all that they could to care for this man, but despite their care, He passed away. He died. He succumbed to this illness that was actually of the Lord, for the Lord's glory. And so it is, after he died, they wrapped his lifeless body in grave clothes and placed it in a tomb and put a stone over the opening of the tomb, and Lazarus's dead body remained in that cold tomb for four days. And then came Jesus. Jesus came to Bethany. He saw the sorrow on everyone's faces. He asked, where have you laid him? And the mourners replied, come and see. And we're told in John's account of this in the previous chapter that as Jesus is going to the tomb, perhaps just as he arrived there, Jesus wept. He was moved. Then with a loud commanding voice, Jesus said, Lazarus, come forth. And everyone watched in amazement as a man who had been dead for four days came walking out of that tomb. Jesus had told Martha that he, Jesus, was the resurrection and the life. And he proved it. He restored life to that man. Restored him to full health. And so from that day forward, Lazarus became a walking miracle, a testimony of the healing power of the Lord Jesus Christ, a living testimony to the miracle worker. And of course, news of what had happened spread throughout the whole region. And so that's why on this occasion, you have all of these Jews coming from Jerusalem to join in this celebration. The fact that Lazarus reclined at the banquet table with Jesus is noteworthy. I want to read something written by J.C. Ryle about that. Quoting now, no one could pretend to say that his, Lazarus's, resurrection was a mere optical delusion. and that the eyes of the bystanders must have been deceived by a ghost or vision. Here was the very same Lazarus, after several weeks, sitting among his fellow men with a real material body, and eating and drinking real material food. It is hard to understand what stronger evidence of a fact could be supplied. He that is not convinced by such evidence as this may as well say that he is determined to believe nothing at all." And so let me ask, do you believe that Jesus actually raised this man from the dead? Jesus is the resurrection and the life, just as he said. And of course, Jesus himself was raised from the dead. The Lord Jesus is worthy of our greatest devotion. We see here in this passage a celebration of life. We see that Jesus is worthy of all glory because he is the resurrection and the life. But we also see in this passage Preparation for death, speaking of course of Jesus' death, His atoning sacrifice on the cross. And so let's turn our attention now to Mary's tender act of devotion. This is Mary, the sister of Lazarus. She's sometimes called Mary of Bethany, and it's necessary to identify which Mary she is because there are so many Marys mentioned in the New Testament. This Mary is mentioned at least three times in the Gospel record, and each time we see her at Jesus' feet. Isn't that interesting? In Luke 10, she sat at Jesus' feet and wrapped attention to His teaching. In John 11, she fell at Jesus' feet and expressed her faith in Jesus' healing powers. And here, she's again at Jesus' feet, anointing those feet and expressing her heartfelt devotion to Him as her Messiah. To quote one commentator, Leon Morris, he writes, she is taking the lowest possible place. And he goes on, to attend the feet was the task of the most lowly slave so that Mary's action involved the great humility as well as great devotion, end quote. And so her place at Jesus' feet indicates humility. And using her hair to wipe his feet showed further humility. You may know that in the New Testament era, a woman's long hair was her glory. We know this from 1 Corinthians 11, 15. Richard Linsky writes this, Mary's act is one in which she lays her own woman's honor at the feet of Jesus. She takes that honor and makes it a towel for his holy feet." To further magnify her devotion, Mary uses an extravagant amount of exquisite ointment, extremely pure, very expensive, oil extract, from the spike of the nard plant. That's why it's called spike nard in our text. And Judas later in the passage assesses its value at 300 denarii. A denarii was one day's wage for a laborer. So 300 days wages, and if you factor in Sabbath days when the work is being done, you basically have the equivalent of a full year's salary, a full year's income poured out upon Jesus. I found out very early in my marriage that perfume can be very expensive. Now I think part of the cost is in that fancy bottle that it comes in, maybe in the packaging. Certainly there's some cost associated with the label that goes on that packaging, right? And maybe the celebrity endorsements as well. Now I'm gonna give you some examples, but I can assure you I haven't purchased any of these. 100 milliliters, that's a little more like three and a third ounces of Symphony sold by Louis Vuitton goes for, are you sitting down, $560. 2.5 ounces of Creed by Jardin de Amalfi is yours for only $610. A vial of roja hot lux from Saks Fifth Avenue will set you back $3,500. That's a lot of money for something that just smells good. I want you to realize that even from that last example, what Mary sacrificed here was like 20 times that. This was very costly stuff. She had likely been saving it up for years to be used on a very special occasion. This was that occasion. To again quote from J.C. Ryle, quote, she thought nothing too great and good to bestow on such a savior. Sitting at his feet in days gone by and hearing his words, she had found peace for her conscience and pardon for her sins. At this very moment, she saw Lazarus alive and well, sitting by her master's side, her own brother Lazarus, whom he had brought back to her from the grave. Greatly loved, she thought she could not show too much love in return. Having freely received, she freely gave. Verse three ends with this comment that the house was filled with the delightful fragrance of this perfume. Everyone in that room could see what was taking place. Everyone in the room recognized that this woman was worshiping at the feet of her Messiah. It was truly a sacrificial act of devotion. But there's more to be said here, because there's symbolism in Mary's tender act. To borrow The words of one commentator, Mary's tender act is, quote, a gesture rich with prophetic symbolism. And Jesus helps us to see this in verse seven, where he says, against the day of my burying has she kept this. A.T. Robertson draws a parallel to customs in our day. He says she is giving him the flowers before the funeral. Again, picture yourself in this room, all of this laughter, all this loud talking, all this celebration, and then Jesus utters these words, day of my burying. I mean, that must have just quieted everything down suddenly. Cast a somber mood over the festivities. The guests were there to celebrate Lazarus' life, and now Jesus was talking about his own death. The Greek noun rendered burying more specifically speaks of the performance of what is customary for burial, that is to say preparation for burial. You may know some of the customs of the first century Jews. When somebody had died, they would take the body and prepare it for burial by anointing the body with oil and then washing it with water. And then the body would be wrapped with strips of linen cloth covered with spices. So that was the custom. And so there is real symbolism here. Mary's act of anointing Jesus points forward to what is about to happen, what will soon take place in the week ahead of them. Jesus is going to die. He's going to give his life a ransom for many. He's going to be nailed to a Roman cross and he's going to hang there until his life is gone. And at the very end, he's going to say, it is finished. He's going to bow his head and give up his soul to God. Then his lifeless body will be taken down from the cross. And yes, it will be prepared for burial. It's recorded and we're going to just jump ahead and look at John 19 and see how John records this event. John 19. We'll look at verses 38 through 40. And after this, Joseph of Arimathea, being a disciple of Jesus, but secretly for fear of the Jews, besought Pilate that he might take away the body of Jesus. And Pilate gave him leave. He came, therefore, and took the body of Jesus. And there came also Nicodemus, which at the first came to Jesus by night, and brought a mixture of myrrh and aloes, about 100 pound weight. Then took they the body of Jesus and wound it in linen clothes with the spices as the manner of the Jews is to bury. So Mary's tender act was foretelling, speaking of symbolically, Jesus' death. And her act was to be long remembered. Indeed, here we are today, this many centuries later, talking about this act by this woman, her sacrificial act of devotion. And that fulfills what Jesus himself said in Matthew 26, 13. He said, verily I say unto you, wheresoever this gospel shall be preached in the whole world, there shall also this that the woman hath done be told for a memorial of her. The Lord Jesus is worthy of our greatest devotion. We see in this passage a celebration of life, that Jesus is worthy of glory as the resurrection and the life. We see in this passage preparation for death, Mary's act foreshadowing Jesus' atoning sacrifice. But we also see in this passage anticipation of betrayal. In that room is a betrayer. Judas Iscariot comes into view in verse four. John is careful to identify him as the disciple who was about to betray Jesus. He's often introduced in that way. He is Judas, the betrayer. This man was a real scoundrel. He was a fake, a phony, a fraud, a hypocrite of the lowest sort. In verse 5, he pretends to have concern for the poor. In the very next verse, John makes it clear that this was not the case. He had no concern for the poor. He only had concern for himself. Moreover, this man was completely untrustworthy. He betrayed the trust of those closest to him. He had been entrusted with the care of the money bag for the group. He betrayed that trust. No doubt he was given charge of it because of his love for money, but on account of his avarice, he had a habit of sticking his fingers in the cookie jar, taking what did not belong to him, stealing. In John 6, Jesus referred to Judas as a devil. The word devil, diabolos, from which we get our English word diabolical. Judas was a diabolical traitor, a devilish betrayer of the worst sort. Jesus here rebukes Judas's critical spirit. He says to Judas, leave her alone. Why did Jesus say this? Well, because Mary was anointing Jesus as a sign of his upcoming death and burial. And then Jesus says this in verse 8, for the poor always ye have with you, but me ye have not always. Now, let's be clear here. Jesus is not saying the poor don't matter or that we ought not to give to the poor. In fact, Jesus may very well be citing from the passage in Deuteronomy 15, 11 that says, for the poor shall never cease out of the land. And the rest of the verse goes on to say, therefore, I command thee saying thou shalt open thine hand wide unto thy brother, to thy poor and to thy needy in thy land. And so, you know, according to the commandment of God from Deuteronomy, we are to be generous and give to the poor. What Jesus is saying is that they would have many future opportunities to give to the poor, but they only have a limited amount of time to honor Jesus while he's there before his death. And so we see in this passage anticipation of betrayal in the person of Judas the betrayer, But there's also mention of the other side of this. There's mention of the chief priests. I mean, Judas was the adversary inside Jesus' inner circle. The chief priests that are mentioned in verse 10 were the adversaries outside of that circle. They were the ones to whom Judas would betray the Lord Jesus. And so look again at verse 10, it says, but the chief priest consulted that they might put Lazarus also to death, notice the word also, because that by reason of him, many of the Jews went away and believed on Jesus. Oh yeah, you know, let's destroy the evidence that Jesus is the resurrection and the life, okay? And by the way, they've been after Jesus for a long time. They're looking to knock him off too. These religious leaders were moved by their envy of Jesus and a fear that they were going to lose their influence. They hated Jesus so much that they wanted him dead. And the foreshadowing here in this passage is just so clear, isn't it? I mean, there's Judas and there's mention of the high priest. We know what's going to happen. Jesus is going to be betrayed to them. They will accomplish their evil plans to kill Jesus, and Judas will be the one who provides them with that opportunity. So what we see in this passage is the Lord Jesus is worthy of our greatest devotion. We see a celebration of life that Jesus is worthy of all glory because he is the resurrection and the life. We see preparation for death, that Mary's act of devotion foreshadows Jesus' atoning sacrifice. And we see anticipation of betrayal, that Jesus will be betrayed into the hands of sinful men. John MacArthur says in this passage, which relates to the story of Mary's anointing of Jesus, quote, the themes of belief and unbelief are particularly clear. The worshipful act of Mary epitomizes faith and love. The cold, calculated, cynical response of Judas epitomizes unbelief and hatred." The sad reality is that there are many Judases in the Christian church today. There are many who pretend to be disciples of Christ when in fact they are not. Instead of supporting the gospel ministry, they steal from it. They are fiends and frauds which given the right opportunity will in fact betray the Lord Jesus Christ himself. many Judases, who with the right opportunity will abandon the church, abandon the Lord, and sell out to the devil. But thankfully, there are many Marys in the Christian church today. Those whose lives have been changed because they have met the Messiah. They have trusted in Him as their Savior and Lord. He has washed away their sins. And they are devoted to Christ. They worship at His feet. They freely give whatever they have to bring greater honor to the Lord Jesus Christ. Praise God that there are many Marys in the Christian church today. The question is, are you a Judas or are you a Mary? Genuine faith in Christ and devotion to Christ is what really makes the difference between the two. Let's pray. Our Father, we thank you for this lesson this morning and this passage. And it truly is a moving passage when we reflect upon what takes place here, especially when we realize that this is so close to Jesus' great sacrifice on the cross, the giving of Himself to atone for the sins of the world, that whoever believes in Him would not perish, but would have everlasting life. Oh God, I pray for that one who that one who really needs to get right with you. Maybe they've been living a lie, a pretender, within the church even, a Judas. And Lord, I thank you that it's possible for them to be saved. to come to that point of saving faith, to surrender their life to Christ, to become a true disciple, to become a Mary in the church. I pray that they will make that commitment to Christ today. In Jesus' name, amen.