And last I heard, our King is still on the throne. Okay, so the road to Calvary just enrouted Jerusalem. He presses on towards Jerusalem. He knows he's going to be put to death, but this is why he came. Okay? And like Jesus, you know, God's given us a cross to bear. God has given us a mission. And we've got to press on. Despite the cost, we've got to press on and be all that God calls us to be. I mean, if the Apostle Paul said, you know what, I'm going to get into another line of work, because they beat me up when I preached the Word, most of us wouldn't even have gotten saved. You know, he was the apostle to the Gentiles. And most of us have Gentile backgrounds. But He pressed on, even though He knew He was going to get a whooping in this town, He was going to get stoned and left for dead in another town, and get scourged a few times, and eventually beheaded, He pressed on. And so, too, our Savior set the example for us by pressing on. Now, in verses 46 to 52, Jesus heals a blind man named Bartimaeus in Jericho. And this account is also given in Luke and it's given in Matthew. Matthew tells us a big detail that's left out in Mark and Luke and that was that there was two blind men who got healed. I think Mark tells us why. this one blind man is the only one mentioned because he gives us his name and he tells us the name of his father so apparently this was somebody that became rather famous in the early church after being healed by Jesus and uh... and so the emphasis was talking about that you know somebody could have said uh... well Mark wasn't there another guy there oh yeah there was another guy there but this Bartimaeus is the one I want to talk about here and uh... And so, let's take a look at verses...we'll take a look first at verse 46, "...now they came to Jericho. As he went out of Jericho with his disciples, and a great multitude, blind Bartimaeus, the son of Timaeus, sat by the road begging, okay? And by the way, that's what Bartimaeus means, the son of Timaeus, but whatever the case, here you have Jesus, he's on the way to Jerusalem, and so now he and the apostles go through Jericho, and we find out there's a great multitude following Jesus. I believe that people saw We looked at a passage last week that people were amazed at Jesus' passion and his conviction to the mission and the fact that they knew that there was a death warrant out for him in Jerusalem. So everywhere he goes, every village he goes to, maybe 50, 100, 200 people join in and are following, because they think he's going to conquer. Even though he told the apostles, look, I'm going to suffer and die. They're still like, wow, now that you're coming into your kingdom and your glory, can we sit on your right and left hand? And Jesus is like, you don't guys know what you're asking for because the guy on my right and my left aren't going to be on thrones, they're going to be on crosses. And so, a bigger and bigger multitude. So, when Jesus enters Jerusalem on a donkey, fulfilling Zechariah 9, 9, a prophecy that Messiah would enter Jerusalem on a donkey and receive a king's welcome, as the gates are opening for Jesus to come through on a donkey, there's probably thousands of people following Him, cheering already. so there might have been for all I know there might have been ten people entering Jerusalem on a donkey that day but only one of them had a reputation of raising the dead only one had a reputation of giving sight to the blind and enabling the deaf to hear. And then he's followed by thousands of people. But they thought he was going to Jerusalem to conquer. And so now he's on the way to Jerusalem and they pass through Jericho. Remember Jericho is famous for the first city the Jews conquered. So Jericho had a history, by the way, of being conquered. So many times they're not even sure if they really found the right Jericho because the walls have come down so many times to that city. That's your military defense, the walls. And so they probably are automatically in the mindset of conquest just because of that city. And so they think he's going to reign, but no, Jesus is about to suffer and die, yet Our Savior, the Lord Jesus, has time to heal a blind man, probably an outcast. And how many times are we too busy for somebody? I'll make a confession. We get people who sometimes come here to talk to me and call me up and say they want to talk to me, and one thing leads to another, and I never do get around to talking to them after church. And to put it bluntly, I let them down. And because with me it's probably more disorganization than anything. That sometimes I don't have time for people. Let me tell you something, Jesus always has time for you. Given enough time, Pastor Phil will let you down. Pastor John will let you down. Your spouse will let you down, one degree or another. Um, your parents will let you down, your children will let you down, but the Lord Jesus will never let you down. And the Lord Jesus always has time for you. So Jesus is en route to die. I mean, he could tell this blind man, will you just shut up? I'm going to die. Just leave me alone. But he doesn't. He has time for him. Now you got this great multitude following him. Verse 47, and when he that's blind Bartimaeus and when he heard that it was Jesus of Nazareth he began to cry out and say Jesus son of David have mercy on me okay uh... and so the blind man he knew that jesus was the messiah that's why he called jesus the son of david he knew jesus was a descendant of david who is going to sit on the throne over israel so he referred to him instead of calling him jesus of nazareth he called him son of david he asked jesus to have mercy on him this is a humble man who's poor in spirit by the way you know if we get time i think we're going to we received a merry anoints jesus for burial A little bit later, Mary's really quiet. She's not loud like Martha. And she's got a real devotional side to her. She just likes sitting at Jesus' feet. And blind Bartimaeus is loud, obnoxious, but he's not arrogant. He's humble, he's poor in spirit, he's asking for mercy. He knows he's a sinner. He knows he doesn't deserve God's love. None of us do. But that's what God is looking for in people is a broken heart. What God is looking for in people is humility. Okay? But you know, as I've been preaching through this, Jesus' encounters with other people, sometimes I think, boy, everything should be about Jesus, but it seems to me like this passage is more about the person that Jesus is dealing with. And then this other passage is more about that person that he's dealing with. But the problem is, it is all about Jesus, but Jesus remains the same. Okay? Scriptures even say Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever. What's interesting to see is how this same Jesus deals with different people and different circumstances. And I really encourage you, find yourself in these people. I'll tell you right now, I'm a loud, obnoxious guy. Wherever I go, it doesn't matter how big the restaurant is, everybody in that restaurant is gonna hear what I'm talking about, okay? They'll hear me louder than probably the person they're talking next to. I'm a loud guy from a loud state. I come from a loud people, you know? And my wife is very quiet, very soft-spoken. And you know something? There's a place in God's kingdom for both of us. And Jesus loves quiet people. I love quiet people. Loud people get on my nerves, because I'm being loud. If other people are being loud, nobody's listening to me, you know? But quiet people, that's good. There's somebody around to listen. But Jesus loves the quiet people. You know what else? He loves the loud, obnoxious people, too. All he wants is that they be humble, though, and acknowledge their need for God's mercy. I grew up in the Roman Catholic Church and never really knew the Lord Jesus, but when I was presented with the Gospel message at age 21 and I prayed to trust in Jesus for salvation, I knew no other prayer, so I kept saying what I used to say at Catholic Mass, Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world, have mercy on me. and I just I knew I was a sinner and I just pleaded with the Lord Jesus to have mercy on me and that's all blind Bartimaeus was doing here and so he called Jesus the son of David he acknowledged he was the Messiah and he asked Jesus to have mercy on him he's a loud obnoxious guy but he's humble and he's poor in spirit and he was looking to Jesus for healing and deliverance now verse 48 Then many warned him to be quiet, but he cried out all the more, Son of David, have mercy on me." So they're telling this guy to shut up. Jesus is just passing through, okay? By the way, it doesn't take a long time to pass through Jericho. These cities are very small, so you'll see that one of the gospels says that as Jesus entered Jerusalem there was a blind man crying out the other passages said that as he was about to leave I mean entering Jericho as he's about to leave Jericho he's crying out that's not a contradiction as long as blind Bartimaeus is crying out when Jesus is entering and he's still crying out when Jesus is about to leave and then Jesus heals him it all fits together and if you know how small Jericho is it doesn't take that long to walk through it And, but whatever the case, this guy, people are asking him, basically many told the blind man to shut up. They thought he was too insignificant to bother Jesus. You know, this is, this happened with children. The mothers would bring their children for Jesus to bless, and the disciples would say, look, ladies, you don't understand. This is the Messiah. He doesn't have time for your little kid. Okay? He doesn't have time for your little kid. And what did Jesus tell them? Jesus told them, bring the kids to me. And if you want to enter my kingdom, you need to be like them. You need to have that childlike faith. I'm telling you, our Jesus is not impressed by credentials. And he's not impressed by how much money you have. Okay? He's not impressed by how big or how strong you are or how popular you are. Okay? Jesus is just looking for humble people. who acknowledge that they're sinners and they need his salvation. That's all he's looking for. Jesus is just looking for broken people. Okay? The blind Bartimaeus, he was loud. He was obnoxious. He couldn't shut the guy up. But he was humble. He was broken. He was poor in spirit. And Jesus is always gonna have time for people who come to him broken. Jesus is in the business of taking broken lives and fixing them. But you got to come to Him in humility. That's why God's Word says in James 4.10, humble yourselves in the presence of the Lord and He will exalt you. You humble yourself, you make yourself low before the Lord and He'll lift you up. Now you exalt yourself before the Lord, He's going to humble you, okay? And So whatever the case, many people told him to shut up. I can remember right here on the Crosspoint Academy campus when we used to be King's West, down in the weight room, I had this one guy, I used to think of him as kind of one of the cruelest guys on the planet. He was a little guy, but he was a tough guy. And he was not saved and he'd be the first. In fact, at that point, he didn't even believe that God existed. He started reading some of my books. Then he acknowledged God's existence. Then little by little, he ended up he and his father both converted from skepticism to Christianity and started leading Bible studies. But at this point, when he's lifting weights, he was a cruel guy and they were down down there lifting weights. He was supposed to be cool. And all these other guys were supposed to be cool. And But by the way, if it's your goal to be cool, I heard a pretty good sermon on Christian television, I think on Saturday. And just a reminder that if Jesus is our shepherd and he calls us his sheep, if there's one thing that sheep are not, they're not cool. Okay? Sheep are not cool. They just, they're just, they're naive, they're dumb. they go astray but if they get things together they follow the shepherd okay so the only cool thing about Phil Fernandez or John McCarthy is uh the shepherd that we follow okay so if you want if you're trying to be cool um you know don't don't try to please man but whatever the case this guy thought he was really cool and stuff and down in the weight room these guys were lifting and there was this tall kid who was a great kid But he wasn't popular. And anyway, one kid said a joke, everybody laughed. Another kid said a joke down the weight room, everybody laughed. Another kid said a joke, everybody laughed. And then the unpopular guy said a joke. And there was silence. And this one kid who was really cruel, years before he got saved, he looked at me and said, dude, why do you talk? And I could just see the heart of the other kid crushed. And I'm a pretty lenient, gracious guy when it comes to my students. But I told him, I said, get out of the weight room. And he said, what? I said, get out of the weight room. And he got out of the weight room. I went out there and talked with him. I said, look, this is a Christian school. And while you're on this campus, You're either going to be Christian or you're going to pretend to be Christian. But if I hear something like that from you again, I'm going to grab you by the collar and drag you into the principal's office and recommend that the principal just kick you out. There's no place for that whatsoever. And I made him apologize and all this other stuff. Years later, he came and visited after he left the school and had a big smile on his face because he had the joy of the Lord and all that. I was convinced he was in a cult because, I mean, it was just like, no, this guy can't be that happy. This is rotten. This is like, I don't know if you remember the Jerry Lewis movie with Ralph Rotten. He made Ralph Rotten look good. And I was convinced, OK, he's probably in a cult. And then I found out, no, he's in a Calvary Chapel, good, solid church. And he and his dad are now teaching Bible studies. His dad was a genius but was a skeptic. Now he writes apologetics books and he quotes from some of my books and stuff. And just a remarkable conversion. But that arrogant 11th grader who thinks he's a tough guy and can look at another 11th grader and say, why do you talk? That's not Jesus. That's a voice from the other side, okay? And so when people are telling you to shut up, that you're too insignificant, Jesus is a big celebrity, he's coming through, just keep your mouth shut and all, that's time for you like blind Bartimaeus. to cry out even louder. Okay? Don't ever, don't ever let anybody shut you up when you're crying out to your king. Okay? Now I'm not saying, obviously, you know, if you're gonna work for somebody, they're gonna pay you, you're gonna have to do what they want you to do on the job site. And if there's no place for praise and worship on the job site, you're gonna have to be silent about that. But except for cases like that, don't let anybody put out that light. Don't let anybody pour water on your passion for the Lord. And Jesus always has time for us. Even if we're supposed to be an outcast. Okay? By the way, I'll be totally honest with you. If you're an outcast, there's a really good chance it's because you're serving Jesus. I get worried about the people who are popular. Okay, sometimes I get a little bit too popular, I think. I get too many pats on the back and I wonder, Lord Jesus, what am I doing wrong? Shouldn't there be more opposition in a world that hates you? But whatever the case, now look at Luke 19. Now this is going ahead a little bit. This is the triumphal entry, which Jesus, his road to Calvary, he's eventually going to get on a donkey. And there's going to be the triumphal entry. But look at Luke 19. 36 to 40. So this is just a little bit later. then this encounter with blind Bartimaeus and uh... verse thirty six and he went many spread their clothes on the road he's on the donkey they're spreading their clothes on the road then as he was now drawing near the descent of the Mount of Olives the whole multitude of the disciples began to rejoice and praise God with a loud voice for all the mighty works they had seen saying blessed is the king who comes in the name of the Lord peace in heaven and glory in the highest Some of the Pharisees called to him from the crowd, Teacher, rebuke your disciples. So the Pharisees were saying, look, look, Teacher, they're giving you praise. They're treating you like your God. Tell them to shut up. And Jesus said in verse 40, but he answered and said to them, I tell you that if these should keep silent, the stones would immediately cry out. I remember I spoke at a conference, one of my buddies, Carl Payne, in Bellevue, this apologetics conference. I was at the hotel that night. The next morning I got up for breakfast and this dude, this dude was buffed. A black gentleman, he was about 6'2", weighed about 260 pounds, and he had like six-pack abs. And you could tell he had six-pack abs even though he was still wearing a t-shirt. But his t-shirt says something about praising God. So I knew he was a Christian, and we got to fellowship and all, and I said, so you love praising Jesus, huh? And he said, he said, got to, what did he say? Oh, he said, I got to, I don't want no rock to take my place. It turned out this guy, by the way, is a professional boxer and had owned a piece of the heavyweight world championship at one time and then lost it to one of the Russian fighters. But just a guy who had the joy of the Lord, but he told me he had to praise God because he didn't want a rock to take his place. And I knew immediately he was talking about this passage. That Jesus is saying, look, and Jesus is using hyperbole, conscious exaggeration. He's speaking metaphorically here. But he's saying, look, creation is being visited by her creator. If the people don't cry out, then the rocks will. Okay? Now we go back a few days to Jericho, and there's blind Bartimaeus, and people are trying to shut him up. No. No. Don't ever let people shut you up when you're crying out to the Lord. So still he continued to cry out to Jesus. You see, Francis Schaeffer wrote a book he titled it, No Little People. And there are no little people in the eyes of God. Okay? I'm telling you, don't fall for the celebrity cult, the cult of the celebrity. Don't think that just because Pastor Phil preaches, he's going to get, he's the pastor, he's going to get more rewards than everybody else sitting down in this congregation. Look, I have to be the best Phil Fernandez that God has called me to be and empowered me to be. So you're not going to be judged by, well you didn't preach all the thousands upon thousands of sermons that Fernandez preached. Maybe God didn't call you to preach them. Maybe God called you to work on people's cars. Maybe God called you to disciple people when nobody else is looking. Okay? So you just got to be all that God called you to be, but in God's kingdom there are no little people. Okay? There's no such thing as an insignificant person here. Believe me, as a weightlifter, as a guy who's been lifting weights for like, what, 33 years now, okay? I have incredibly powerful shoulders, but what I have found out, the muscles in my shoulders are very, very powerful, but what I found out is I have injured a lot of the smaller muscles in there. And sometimes they're not even muscles, they're just things that connect the muscles that I've weakened. So when my doctors will test certain movements that I have, they'll say, you're about as strong as an eight-year-old girl. when it comes to this particular movement and it comes to that particular movement. If I help you, you know, if you have to move someday and I help you move furniture, don't expect a whole lot of quality help from me, okay? I'll probably create more work for you. And see, what I've learned is you've got these big massive muscles and they're very important for strength, but so are the little things that surround them. And there's some of you right now that are thinking that you're not important in God's kingdom because you're not even big enough to be an elbow. Okay? You might just be some ligament that or some tendon or something. I'm not an expert in anatomy but something that connects the elbow to something else. Let me tell you, elbows can't be elbows without the things that are attached to them working properly. Okay? Every person in God's kingdom is important. But these guys are saying, look, this is Jesus of Nazareth. He's the Jewish Messiah. He's going to Jerusalem to conquer right now. Obviously, He doesn't have time for you. Okay? That is not the God that we serve. the God that we serve always has time for us and uh... and so blind Bartimaeus still he continued to cry out to Jesus you know blind Bartimaeus knew if there was one thing he knew it was that I don't know if I'm going to see Jesus of Nazareth again he's got to pass through Jericho it doesn't take long to pass through Jericho I need to scream at the top of my lungs and call on him to have mercy on me." So he continued to cry out to Jesus. We have to passionately pursue God's face. Never give up on that. Don't let what others say get you down. I'm sure that right now, I'm sure there are thousands of guys that God has called to pastoral ministry that are in some other vocation, because every time they talked about God calling them to pastoral ministry, people laughed at them. You know, if blind Bartimaeus listened to other people, he would have shut up, and when Jesus left Jericho, there would still be a beggar named Bartimaeus who was blind. By the way, if I listened to people when I was convinced God called me to preach, I would have quit. But I knew the Lord had called me, and I knew my wife believed in me, and that was good enough. That's all I needed. Boy, the question I used to get all the time, how do you know you're called? How do you know God's called you? And this and that from guys who weren't convinced that God called them. Let me tell you something, a lot of those guys who are questioning me, they're not walking with the Lord anymore. And Phil Fernandes, yeah, there's a lot of things you can say about Phil Fernandes, but let me tell you one thing, I'm still preaching the Word. 26 years later, I'm still preaching the Word. And by the grace of God, if I cling to the Lord, I'll be preaching the Word till the day I die. If I live to be 100, I'll be preaching the Word till the day I die. Don't listen to other people. When you're crying out to Jesus for mercy, that's why God created you. You're finally finding your purpose in life, your mission in life, and you're crying out to the Lord Jesus, why in the world would you stop just because the world tells you to shut up? Okay? If blind Bartimaeus listened to the crowd, he'd still be blind when Jesus left. Don't let what others say get you down. And then, verses 49 to 52, So Jesus stood still and commanded him to be called. Then they called the blind man, saying to him, be of good cheer, rise, he is calling you. So they say, hey, you lucked out, dude. The big celebrity, the big wig here, he wants to see you. And throwing aside his garment, he rose and came to Jesus. So Jesus answered and said to him, what do you want me to do for you? I don't know why Jesus asked these questions, because Jesus knows the answer. I think he just wants to hear it from these guys. The blind man said to him, Rabboni? That means master or teacher. It's like rabbi on steroids. Okay? It's like my favorite rabbi, okay? Rabboni, that I may receive my sight. Then Jesus said to him, go your way, your faith has made you well. And immediately he received his sight and followed Jesus on the road. So several things here. Jesus commanded them to bring the blind man to him. You see, and this is really important, we serve a God who cares. We serve a God who cares. I don't know if you've ever looked into the, if you've read the Quran, and you looked into Islam, the false god Allah, he don't care about you. He could care less about you. And any imam worth his weight in salt will be the first to admit that Allah doesn't care about even him. Okay? You could live a totally righteous life according to Islam, And then have a bad thought and die and burn in hell forever. Allah could care less about anybody. But the God of the Bible is a God who cares. And the God of the Bible is a God who comforts. And so when you're down, you feel like giving up, you feel like throwing in the towel, know that Jesus cares. know that you have a God who genuinely loves you, who passionately loves you, who cares about you. If that was you crying out, In a crowd, Jesus would have stopped for you. By the way, Blind Bartimaeus was not the only guy in Jericho. We're probably not even going to have time to go over that, but as he's leaving Jericho, there's some little short guy, I can relate to that, a little short guy up in a tree to get a view of Jesus. And all he was content, he was just like, you know what, I'll be content just to see Jesus in Nazareth. Obviously he wouldn't want to talk to me. I'm a tax collector. I rip off the Jewish people on behalf of the Romans. And Jesus ended up confronting Zacchaeus. There's no little people in God's kingdom. We serve a God who cares. Jesus asked the blind man what he wanted, and then Jesus healed him, and the healed man followed Jesus on the road. Now, what was the road? The road was the road to Calvary. The blind man probably didn't know all the ins and outs. He probably thought what the other Jews thought, that Jesus was going to conquer. But whatever the case, whether he knew it or not, it was the road to Calvary, not the road to glory. Now let's look at a few verses here before we move on to Mary anointing Jesus for burial. Romans 10 13 Romans 10 13 Paul quotes a passage from the book of Joel Romans 10 verse 13 In fact, verse 11 and verse 13, "'For the Scripture says, whoever believes on him will not be put to shame.'" And then verse 13, "'Whoever calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved.'" Now, he's quoting from the Old Testament, and in the Old Testament, the word Lord, in the Greek in the New Testament, it's koreos. In the Old Testament, it's Yahweh. So, right here, he's talking about Jesus, calling on Jesus' name, so he's saying that Jesus is Yahweh, but, "'Whoever calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved.'" It doesn't say, whoever calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved so long as you're important enough to be respected by others. It doesn't say that. Okay? It's whoever calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved. We kind of suffer from that Jonah syndrome. It's what I call selective evangelism. He didn't want to evangelize and preach and prophesy in Nineveh because he didn't like the Gentiles. And he even said, I thought, you know, you might decide to spare them. I didn't want to be any part of that. you know we often do that we often witness to people who say hey that's a cool guy let me go witness to him well why not witness to the quote-unquote uncool guy and uh... and granted you know you might have something in common with some people you might have more effectiveness witnessing to them but we should at least desire to see all people saved and uh... but it's whoever calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved look at John 6 37 John chapter 6 and verse 37. Jesus says this, all that the Father gives me will come to me and the one who comes to me I will by no means cast out. See, if you're genuinely coming to Jesus from the heart, He's not going to say, oh, yeah, you don't, you're not popular enough, go away. It's like, you know, Jesus doesn't care if you're a short tax collector up in a tree. He doesn't care if you're a beggar named Blind Bartimaeus, okay? If you come to him, he's not gonna turn you away. And by the way, I don't know that guarantee with anybody else. I mean, there are times when you might turn to the person you trust most in the world and they might just turn you away. Say, you know, I don't have time for you. but not our Jesus. Our Jesus will never turn you away. And then Matthew 11, 28. Matthew 11, 28, Jesus says, come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Jesus said, look, you know, if you're burnt out, if you're tired, if this world is beating you up, if you're trying to save yourself by your works, and you realize you can't do it, and you're weary, If you just come to me, I'm going to give you rest. He doesn't say, if you come to me and you earn, you know, $40,000 a year or more, or if you have a nice car, or if you're popular. The Lord Jesus says, look, if you're hurting and you come to me, I'm not going to turn you away and I'll give you rest. Blind Bartimaeus, he was just crying out for mercy. So cry out to Jesus when others, even when others try to silence you. Jesus cares for you even when no one else does. And by the way, here in America, you know, rarely is there a time when nobody else out there really loves you, okay? But even if there is, even if we assume you're going to reach a situation in your life where nobody loves you, you're guaranteed that the only one who does love you is the only one who matters in the end. That's why Paul can say, if God be for us, who can be against us? Okay? You gotta love Jesus so much that even if the whole world hates you and the whole world wants to crush you and the whole world is trying to shut you up, you're gonna preach Jesus just the same. because all you need is Jesus. Jesus cares for you, even when no one else does. And even when Jesus' life was near its end, he still had time to serve the outcast. You know, it's like Jesus was telling him, look, I will restore your sight, blind Bartimaeus, but then I gotta get back on the road to Calvary. Because healing your physical sight is one thing, but I gotta heal your spiritual sight too. I'm on a mission. I gotta do something even more important than healing your physical sight. I gotta go to Calvary and die for your sins, blind Bartimaeus. It's like the woman caught in adultery. Jesus said, let he who is without sin cast the first stone. And so they all left, and then there Jesus was without sin, so he had the right to cast the first stone. And he said, is nobody here to condemn you? And she said, no. He said, neither do I condemn you. Go and sin no more. And it's like, wait a minute, you just can't, you just can't forgive her like that, can you? Well, he didn't just forgive her like that. Jesus knew a few months from now, excuse me, ma'am, but a few months from now, I'm gonna die a horrible death on the cross for your sins. I'm gonna pay the price for your sins." And so Jesus had to get back on that road. Now he goes from Jericho, just a few miles outside Jerusalem, and he stops at Bethany, even closer to Jerusalem. Look at John chapter 12. John chapter 12. Look at verse 1 there. Then six days before the Passover, Jesus went to Bethany, where Lazarus was, who had been dead, whom he had raised from the dead. So six days before the Passover, I believe Jesus was crucified on Friday, as do most scholars, so this is probably the Saturday before, so this is the day before the triumphal entry. So now Jesus is in Bethany. He heals blind Bartimaeus. He also has dinner at Zacchaeus' house and saves Zacchaeus. And now a little bit further on the road to Calvary, he goes back to Bethany and he's hanging out with Lazarus and his sisters. It's actually in the house, when you compare the parallel passages, it's in the house of Simon the leper. So apparently Jesus probably healed this Simon the leper guy. And Lazarus is there, and Mary and Martha, Lazarus' sisters, are there as well. And it's the Saturday, six days before the Passover. Bethany's only a few miles from Jerusalem. In verses 2 and 3, "...then they made him a supper, and Martha served." That's the way Martha was. She was a woman of action. You know? She kind of had a really good theological mind, but she was a woman of action. She was always out there serving. But Lazarus was one of those who sat at the table with them. Here's Lazarus who was like, he's like, man, I know what it's like to be dead. And this guy over here rose me from the dead. I'm not going to be helping my sister in the kitchen. I'm just going to sit down by Jesus' side. I want to spend as much time with him as possible. By the way, none of the other Gospels mentions Lazarus by name. And I think the reason for it, I probably mentioned it last week, you know, because that's an argument against the Gospels, is that this is such an astounding miracle to raise a guy from the dead who's been dead for four days, that why wouldn't all four Gospels mention it? My response is because the other three Gospels were written while Lazarus was still alive, after Jesus raised him from the dead. We're going to see that the Jewish religious leaders wanted to kill him. So the other ones don't even mention his name. They don't want to bring any extra attention to him. I think by the time John is writing, Lazarus is already dead. Okay? A second time. And he stayed dead that time. And so Lazarus was one of those who sat with him at the table. Verse 3, then Mary took a pound of very costly oil of spikenard, anointed the feet of Jesus, and wiped his feet with her hair, and the house was filled with the fragrance of the oil. So Martha served while Lazarus sat at the table with Jesus. By the way, you know what? If Jesus is over there for supper, somebody's got to cook. Somebody's got to serve. So don't slam Martha. Every once in a while Martha doesn't choose the greatest. The greatest thing is to just sit at Jesus' feet and listen. The greatest thing is to do what John the Apostle did. Rest your head on Jesus' shoulder. throughout his ministry. But the fact of the matter is somebody's got to do the cooking, somebody's got to do the serving, otherwise you're going to send... God's going to visit your house and you're going to send them away hungry? So don't be too hard on Martha. I think Martha, Mary, and Lazarus, their faith far exceeds the faith that we have in the Lord Jesus. But Martha served while Lazarus sat at the table with Jesus, and Mary anointed Jesus' feet with expensive perfume and her hair. And... Let me tell you, you're probably never going to catch me washing somebody's feet. The closest thing that I've done to it was when I went to New Jersey to visit my dad. My sister Marie said that my dad wasn't cutting his toenails. He's got a whole bunch of ingrown toenails and stuff like that. And so my dad was in his 80s. And I probably spent two hours trimming his toenails. And if you knew my pop, that was more of an honor to do that. been a humbling thing to do. But I'm going to tell you, if I do get down and wash somebody's feet, even if I had long hair, I ain't going to dry their feet with my hair. Okay? But this lady understood who it was that she was ministering to. You know, that's the amazing thing is that, yeah, blind Bartimaeus wanted Jesus to minister to him. But every once in a while, there's the Martha and Mary's who realize that God wants us to minister to Him as well. We need to serve God like Martha, and we need to worship God like Mary. And so here she is. putting this oil on his feet, preparing him for burial and then wiping his feet with their hair. And so then Judas Iscariot decides to share his perspective. And it says, but one of his disciples, Judas Iscariot, Simon's son, who would betray him, the betrayer, said, why was this fragrant oil not sold for 300 denarii and given to the poor? This he said, not that he cared for the poor, but because he was a thief and had the money box and he used to take what was put in it. Okay? So he said, Judas Iscariot is saying, look, she should have sold this perfume, it's worth 300 days wages, about a year's worth of work, and she should give the money to the poor. Now, let me say, this seems reasonable. You know why I think this seems reasonable? Because this is what we always say to our Roman Catholic friends and our Eastern Orthodox friends. is you got these big gold buildings to worship God and this and that, and you should sell those things and give the money to the poor. We use the same Judas Iscariot argument. Now, I'm not saying that we're wrong to say that. When some church claims to be the true church of the Lord Jesus, And they've got literally billions of dollars worth of gold. Something's wrong with this picture. And there's hungry people out there. Okay? At the same time, just be careful when you say that. I'm going to be speaking in late August. We're going to have a joint service with Poulsbo Community Church. They built a church building, and I love the building that they built. because it's just a hundred percent usable. You could tell by the way they built it, they built it to enhance their service for the Lord. Some churches, they build, you know, multi-million dollar buildings almost like it's like a rebuilding of the Tower of Babel or something to give themselves a great name, okay? But just be very careful that If we do quote Judas Iscariot, we better make sure that at that time that we quote him, it really does apply. And that we don't miss the boat there. you know but whatever the case he seemed reasonable this money should have been just why waste this perfume on Jesus' feet when it would be more reasonable to sell that and use the money for the poor now keep in mind Judas only really said this not because he cared for the poor but he was the treasurer and a thief by the way this gives me a little bit of confidence here because You know, every once in a while you appoint somebody to a position of leadership and it doesn't work out and you feel like, man, I'm the biggest loser, I'm worthless, this and that. But let me tell you, Jesus chose a lousy guy to be the treasurer. Okay? So, and now granted, Jesus knew what was going on. but just the fact that you can have God on earth with his ministry and one of the guys that's actually collecting the money is actually a crook. But whatever the case, now Jesus rebukes Judas in verses 7 and 8 But Jesus said, let her alone. She has kept this for the day of my burial. For the poor you have with you always, but me you do not have always. Okay? And so what Jesus is saying there is, look, Mary kept this perfume for my burial. She's like the only one who's listening to me when I'm telling everybody that I'm gonna die. We will always have the poor with us, there's always opportunities to feed the poor, but this planet only had Jesus for 33 years, and that time was running out. Okay? And by the way, Jesus deserves our best. And what I'm talking about there is our worship. We need to worship Him from the depths of our being. And so it's better to be focused on Jesus' death for our sins, than it is to be focused on feeding the poor. Now still, feeding the poor is a priority of the church. James 1.27, James tells us that true and undefiled religion is not only being unblemished by the sinfulness of the world, but also is visiting widows and orphans in their time of need. So you show me a church that in no way, shape, or form helps people when they're hurting? Okay? I'll show you a church that is not being what God's called it to be. We need to get out there and try to feed the hungry. Now, having said that, that is not our number one priority. Okay? Our number one priority is not feeding the poor, our number one priority must be the gospel message, the good news of salvation through Jesus. So even when we feed the poor, we feed the poor in Jesus' name, to bring Him glory, not ourselves glory. But the number one thing we want to do is to spiritually feed people not physically feed people. Okay? One of the reasons why we feed the hungry, why should they listen to us if we don't care? If they're hungry and they're starving to death, even the communists know that. You gotta put food in hungry people's belly before they'll join your revolution. Okay? We Christians need to sometimes feed the hungry to show them that we genuinely do love them, and that God genuinely does love them, and that Jesus died on the cross for their sins. But the priority has to be the gospel. This is what was called the social gospel. The social gospel was when we redefined Christianity in America and Europe as feeding the hungry. It didn't matter. Doctrine didn't matter anymore. You didn't have to preach Jesus and salvation through him. It didn't matter. All you had to do was follow Jesus' example and care for poor people and things of that sort. So the priority has to be there. Right now what Jesus is saying is, look, what's more important than feeding hungry people right now is I've got to complete my travel, my journey on the road to Calvary, and I've got to die on the cross for mankind's sins. She's acknowledging this. She's preparing me for my burial. The priority must always be the gospel. Now, verses 9 to 11, and we'll close with this, Now a great many of the Jews knew that He was there, that Jesus was there, and they came, not for Jesus' sake only, but that they might also see Lazarus. whom he had raised from the dead. They were like, man, we heard this guy was raised from the dead. We want to meet this guy. But the chief priest plotted to put Lazarus to death also. You imagine that? You're the Jewish religious leaders. Not only do you want to kill the Messiah, you want to kill a guy he rose from the dead. Why? Verse 11, because on account of him, on account of Lazarus, many of the Jews went away and believed in Jesus. It's like Lazarus was walking evidence that Jesus was the Jewish Messiah and had the power to raise the dead. And so they said, we not only want Jesus dead, we want Lazarus dead as well. So the chief priests wanted to kill Lazarus Just as they wanted to kill Jesus because many were believing in Jesus because He had raised Lazarus from the dead. Conclusion? Several things I want to point out. First is that there are no irrelevant people in God's kingdom. No little people. God cares for all of us. If you've got that in your head that one guy's more important than another guy, and you like to rub shoulders with the famous guys and the famous gals, get that out of your head. God cares for all of us. There's no little people in God's kingdom. Cry out to Jesus for deliverance even when others try to silence you. The world is always going to try to silence the man or the woman who cries out to God for mercy. Our devotion to Christ should be greater than our service to our fellow man. Remember Mark 12, 30 and 31, we're to love God with everything that we've got and then love our neighbor as ourself. You're not really going to be able to serve other people. You're not going to be able to serve your fellow man to the highest degree unless you build that upon a foundation of love and worship and trust in the true God of the Bible. That's got to be the foundation. I once tried to lead another Marine to Christ and he said, I'll never come to Christ because I love my wife. And the Bible says, Jesus says that I have to hate my wife. And what Jesus is using there is conscious exaggeration. He's saying, Your love for your wife compared to your love for me should look like hate. In other words, we need to love God even more. We need to love the Lord even more than we love our own spouse. But let me tell you, if you do love the Lord with all your heart, that will free you. That will enable you to love your wife or your spouse on a much higher degree than you would have ever been able to before. You really want to help the poor? and focus on the cross of Christ. fall in love with Jesus and allow the Holy Spirit to empower you to help the poor. The blind man was willing to follow Jesus on the road to Calvary. Are you willing to travel that road? It's a road of suffering, sacrificial living, and even possible death. So several things we could take from this. Jesus cares even for the outcast. He always has time for us. If you got some legal matter and you call your lawyer, your attorney after hours, they never return your calls. If you're sick and you call your doctor for advice and it's after hours, they never return your calls. Let me tell you, there's no after hours for our gut. You're hurting and you're battering, you're beating, it could be three anymore, it doesn't matter. You're never gonna get a busy signal with our God. Our God is a God who hears our cries all the time. All the time. And Jesus will never let you down. I'll let you down at times. Others will let you down. Your own spouse might let you down, but Jesus will never let you down. And yes, it's important to feed the hungry. Yes, it's important to help others. But the number one priority, we got to proclaim Jesus and Him crucified. The most important thing, and I'll close with this, the most important thing that you can do in this life, whether through word or through deed, the most important thing that you can do is to proclaim the crucified, risen Lamb of God. Proclaim the Lord Jesus. Devote yourself to Jesus. Be devoted to Jesus like Mary was. And believe me, God will empower you to reach out and touch the lives of others with the love of Jesus and the power of the Holy Spirit. Our king is still on the throne.