Hello and welcome to our broadcast. We are in John chapter 12. Have your Bibles ready. It takes place just six days before Jesus was to be crucified. Over in John chapter 12, I'm reading in verse 1, Then Jesus, six days before the Passover, came to Bethany, where Lazarus was, 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 three hundred 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 has 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 him." What an amazing story. Here we have several people, seven of them actually, that are focused on, first of all, Jesus in verse one. Lazarus in verse 1, Martha in verse 2, Mary in verse 3, Judas Iscariot in verse 4, then much people it says in verse 9, and the chief priests in verse number 10. Now what took place here, it happened of course in Bethany, which was a very small place, and there was there a very small remnant. We get the idea today that success has something to do with numbers. No, Jesus loves to work in small places with small groups of people, and these people were sincerely in love with Jesus Christ. And they expressed their love openly, but also in this portion of Scripture you'll find that hate is also openly expressed by others. In verse number one, we'll read it again, it says, Then Jesus, six days before the Passover, came to Bethany, where Lazarus was, which had been dead. whom he raised from the dead." Now we're only six days away from the crucifixion. And it says here, there they made him a supper, that is, they made Jesus a supper. And Martha served, but Lazarus was one of them that sat at the table with him. So when it says they made him a supper, And then it says that Lazarus was one that sat at the table with him. Obviously, the supper was for the Lord. They made it for him. And it's important to understand here, too, if you compare this story in the other Gospels, that this did not take place in the house of Mary and Martha, or this story takes place in the house of Simon the leper, who obviously now wasn't a leper or he wouldn't have been there. Well, verse 2 says they made him a supper and Martha served. Oh, how much she has learned about serving over the years. Back in Luke chapter 10 and verse 40, she was serving the Lord there too, but Jesus said, Martha, Martha, thou art cumbered about. That word actually means driven mentally. This is totally and completely a different situation here now than what we had in Luke chapter 10 and verse number 40. Well, it says, as we said, Lazarus sat at the table with him. What a tremendous picture we have here of the salvation of a person who is passing from death unto life. That is exactly what happened to Lazarus. Well, there's something wrong with somebody who passes from death unto life spiritually and has no appetite for spiritual things. They're either not saved or they're made sick. There's something wrong here. If you've been saved and you have no appetite, you would do well to ask yourself, am I really saved? We see here a tremendous fellowship. There is Lazarus, there's the leper, there's Martha, there's Mary, and of course, there is Jesus. Well, in verse 1 we have Jesus, we have Lazarus, and then in verse 2 we have Martha. Then in verse 3 the focus turns to Mary. It says, 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. Mary once again at the feet of Jesus. She has a pound of ointment. It is very costly. If you study it carefully, you will find that the value of this was about a year's wages. And so what is she doing? She's expressing her love. Love expressed. It can be expressed in words, it can be expressed in gestures, certainly expressed in conduct. But not only is her love expressed, her love is exposed. Keep in mind that most of the people in this area hate Jesus Christ. Many of them are out trying to kill him, and she expresses her love toward him openly. It's visible. The Bible says in 2 Corinthians 8 and 8 that we are to prove the sincerity of your love. It's one thing to talk about how we love Jesus when we're sitting in a church singing, oh how I love Jesus. It's quite another thing, like Mary, who was in a very hostile area where people wanted to kill him, where she openly expressed and she openly exposed her love for the Lord Jesus Christ. And so we read in verse number three that she anointed the feet of Jesus and wiped his feet with her hair. Hair is a very interesting subject in the Bible. It's mentioned 64 times. It's mentioned twice in the book of John. In John 12 and 11 we find that Mary was wiping the feet of Jesus with her hair, and it refers specifically to that Mary that did that. We saw that in our last broadcast. Then here again in John chapter 12, And verse number three, she is wiping his feet with her hair. Let it be oily. She's not worrying about having a bad hair day. Everything she's doing here, she's doing out of love for the Lord. Also, we read in verse number three that the house was filled with the odor of the ointment. Very interesting. The house was filled with the odor of the ointment. The house was filled. That means the atmosphere there was changed. In other words, what she was doing was having an influence on the whole household. What is the atmosphere of our homes these days? Is it filled with an atmosphere? You know, like Philippians 4.18, Paul said, I am full. He said, I have all, I am abound, I am full, having received of Aphrodite's The things which were sent from you as an odor of a sweet smell, a sacrifice acceptable, well-pleasing unto God." Very interesting verse. The things we do. Every action has a reaction. What is the atmosphere of our homes? Some years ago, somebody wrote a poem entitled, If Jesus Came to Your House. It says, if Jesus came to your house to spend some time with you, If he came unexpected, I wonder what you'd do. Oh, I know you'd give your nicest room to such an honored guest, and all the food you'd serve to him would be the very best. And you would keep assuring him you're glad to have him there, that serving him in your home is joy beyond compare. But when you saw him coming, would you meet him at the door with arms outstretched and welcome to your heavenly visitor? Or would you have to change your clothes before you let him in and hide some magazines and put the Bible where they had been? Would you hide your worldly music and put some hymn books out? Could you let Jesus walk right in or would you rush about? And I wonder if the Savior spent a day or two with you, would you go right on doing the things you always do? Would you go right on saying the things you always say? Or would your life for you continue as it does from day to day? Would you take Jesus with you everywhere you plan to go? Or maybe would you change your plans for just a day or so? Would you be glad to have him meet your very closest friends, or wish that they would stay away until his visit ends? Would you be glad to have him stay forever on and on, or would you sigh with great relief when he at last was gone? It might be interesting to know the things that you would do if Jesus came in person to spend some time with you. Well, we've had the focus here on the Lord, on Lazarus, on Martha, Mary. Now look at verse 4. Then saith one of his disciples, Judas Iscariot, Simon's son, which should betray him, why was not this ointment sold for three hundred pence and given to the poor? These are the first recorded words in the Bible of Judas Iscariot. The Bible says, out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaketh. And we have this man who has been following Jesus Christ all these years, this hypocrite. Now he's upset. Why is he upset? because he kept the bag, and he was a thief, and he was stealing out of the bag all the time. And here this ointment that could have been sold, a year's salary worth of ointment, a lot of money here, and he's upset. Well, you know, you upset a jug of milk, you get milk. You upset a person, you're going to get what's really inside. And the Bible says in the next verse this, he said, not that he cared for the poor, but because he was a thief, and had the bag and bear what was put therein. He didn't care for the poor. So here we have Mary. She's willing to give up a year's worth of salary here in this ointment because she loves the Lord. Here's Judas. He's about to sell Christ for 30 pieces of silver, which is somewhere between $20 and $30 today. Well, Mary's influence, the sweet odor of the Bible says, filled the house. But Judas' influence, if you check this story in Matthew 26, you'll find that the disciples were actually siding with Judas. What we need to do in these situations, and these things are written for our admonition, is we need to face the facts. Judas Iscariot was a self-serving, cold-hearted, self-centered hypocrite who was a thief, and yet seven times he is referred to in the New Testament as being one of the twelve. He was pretty smooth. He was really smooth. He had fooled all of the disciples to the place where they chose him to carry the bag. He was the one who was their treasurer. He was the one who looked after the money and was dipping into it for the whole three and a half years that they traveled together. But he fooled Peter. He fooled James. He fooled John. He fooled all those disciples. He didn't fool Jesus. He said, Have not I chosen you twelve and one? He was a devil. Well, in verse number 7 we read, Then said Jesus, Let her alone. Against the day of my burying has she done this. The Greek here means that he looked at him and strongly said this, Let her alone. And then a careful study of verse 8 will show you that he turns to his disciples and says, for the poor always ye have with you, but me ye have not always. And that word, letter alone, there in the Greek is singular, it's talking to one person. But when he said in verse 8, the poor ye always have with you, but me ye have not always, that word is plural. And what he is trying to do is straighten out these disciples because they have been influenced against Mary by this wicked hypocrite named Judas Iscariot. Well, in verse 9, the focus turns to the crowd. It says, Much people of the Jews therefore knew that he was there, and they came not for Jesus' sake only, but they might see Lazarus also, whom he had raised from the dead. And so, yeah, a lot of curiosity here. Let's go and check out this situation. But, verse 10, the chief priests consulted that they might put Lazarus also to death. The chief priests. Why did they want to put him to death? Well, the chief priests, if you look at Acts 5 and 17, you'll find they were made up of Sadducees, and the Sadducees did not believe in the resurrection. You have Pharisees and you have Sadducees. Someone said you can tell the difference between the Pharisees and the Sadducees because the Sadducees didn't believe in the resurrection and that's why they were sad, you see. Oh well, whatever. They were Sadducees and they did not believe in the resurrection and so they had a real problem on their hands and so they wanted to put Lazarus to death again. Let's just get rid of him. And not only for that reason, but verse 11 says, because that by reason of him, many of the Jews went away and believed on him. Notice, they went away, number one, and they believed on him. Oh, now the temple's empty, the synagogue, where's all the people? Well, they're out following Jesus now. We can't have that. We've got to have our religion. Let's keep on track with our religion here. Never mind the son of God. We'll just crucify him and get him out of the way, and we can carry on with our religion. A lot of people doing that today. Well, we're out of time again. Well, tomorrow we'll look at this next part of the story. It starts in verse 12 when it says here that they took branches and they laid them down on the street and said, blessed is the King of Israel. And they have what we call the triumphal entry. Well, tune in tomorrow. We'll try to make it plain. We'll try to make it simple. you