Nepaug Bible Church - http://www.nepaugchurch.org - Pastor's Sermon Notes - http://www.nepaugchurch.org/Sermons/zz20060226.htm
JOHN: TRUSTING JESUS AS MESSIAH AND GOD Part XXXIV: Countering Problematic Ignorance By Living The Truth (John 12:1-8)
Introduction: (To show the need . . . )

Since our last Sunday morning service, several members in our Church have reported to me and my wife that they have witnessed an unsettling degree of spiritual ignorance in people around them:

(a) Right after the service, and in line with that service's sermon on errant Arminianism and Calvinism, one of our Church members told me that both an Arminian and a Calvinist church are being started in our town! She said she was glad for the information I shared as she could pass it on to a believer who has been negatively affected by it all. She then expressed how bothered she was at the degree of ignorance she saw that could do so much spiritual harm!

(b) A little later that day, another member told me how he had just visited another church and how bothered he was at the minister's taking a subject I had presented in our Adult Sunday School Class and had handled it just opposite the way I had! The other minister had taught it was sinful to quarantine lepers like people in Bible times did! However, I had just taught how king Uzziah in 2 Chronicles 26 was struck by God with leprosy for sin; after all, under the dispensation of the Law (as also happened in the case of Miriam in Numbers 12), leprosy and its quarantine activity was God's judgment for sin as Deuteronomy 28 reveals!

(c) Another member after that worship service told my wife how he had recently met with Christians he had known when he was first saved, and how one of them had opposed him for NOT adopting the King James Version as the only true Bible! Our member was later able to tap into our web site lessons on the subject to edify himself in the truth, but he also noted how some of these believers had come to follow Rick Warren's "Purpose-Driven Life" teachings that we have shown to be Biblically problematic. This member noted the great ignorance of the truth in these believers!

(d) Another member in our Church told me after her work last Monday that her educated overseers had tried to describe what "born again" meant, and she was amazed at their ignorance of the subject!

So, in VIEW of the GREAT and often potentially harmful IGNORANCE in spiritual things we see in people around us, HOW are we BEST to RESPOND for God's blessing?!

(We turn to the sermon "Need" section . . . )

Need: "I have witnessed a great and often potentially unhealthy IGNORANCE about God's truths in EVEN professing Christians! What may I constructively DO in RESPONSE to this need?!"

1. REGARDLESS of the ignorance of others around her that might have produced a negative response for her DOING so, Mary LIVED OUT the truths SHE had LEARNED from Jesus!
1. Mary's anointing of Jesus arose out of her motive to honor and thank Him for raising her brother, Lazarus, from the dead in accord with His promise and teaching to that end, John 12:1-3.
1. The inferential particle, oun rendered "therefore" appears 3 times to introduce each verse of John 12:1-3, connecting their content to Mary's act of anointing Jesus, U. B. S. Grk. N. T., 1966 ed., p. 375.
2. Accordingly, John 12:1-3 reveals that a meal was held in Bethany to honor Jesus for raising Lazarus, a meal at which Mary planned to anoint Jesus as the honored guest in appreciation for Him and His ministry, Leon Wood, John (NICNT), 1979, p. 575-576.
3. That ministry would have involved Jesus' teaching and showing Himself to be the resurrection in raising Lazarus, 11:25-26, 39-44.
2. Well, in showing the great depth of her gratitude for Jesus' teaching, contrary to custom and thus at risk of retaliation, though Mary initially anointed Jesus' head, in pure worship, she shifted to pour out the costly perfume on His feet and to wipe them with her hair!
1. Mark 14:3 reveals Mary anointed Jesus' head where John 12:3 reveals she uncustomarily anointed His feet, Ibid.!
2. In reality, Alfred Edersheim concludes she did both, cf. Edersheim, The Life and Times of Jesus the Messiah, v. ii, p. 359!
3. John also reports Mary wiped His feet with her hair, so she would have let her hair down in public, an act a modest Hebrew lady like her would normally never do, Ibid., Wood, p. 576-577!
4. The oil used was pure nard imported from India, and the amount was worth nearly a laborer's yearly income, Jn. 12:3; Ibid., Wood, p. 576; Douglas, gen. ed., New Bible Dictionary , 1973, p. 1210.
5. Thus, for raising Lazarus in accord with Jesus' teaching to be the resurrection, Mary invested her life's savings in costly perfume to anoint Him as the honored guest at a meal given in His honor. Yet, as she began to pour the oil out upon His head, she felt the customary act was woefully inadquate in view of what Jesus' truths had come to mean to her; so, regardless what negative response she risked from others in so doing, she poured out the rest of the oil on His feet, unloading her life's savings upon them, and let down her hair to wipe up the perfume, Ibid., Wood, p. 576!
2. Sure enough, a spiritually IGNORANT Judas CRITIQUED Mary's LIVING OUT this truth she had LEARNED from Jesus!
1. In great contrast to Mary, Judas Iscariot had NOT applied Jesus' truths, but ignorantly SUBSTITUTED WORLDLY views for them!
2. Thus, when he saw Mary empty her flask of costly nard on Jesus' feet, he could only criticize, asking why the nard had not been sold and its proceeds given to the poor; such words came from his desire to pilfer the proceeds as he was the corrupt treasurer of the group, John 12:4-6.
3. However, Jesus DEFENDED Mary's act to her HONOR and COUNTERED Judas' IGNORANT critique to his HUMILIATION!
1. On the one hand, Jesus defended Mary from Judas' critique: He noted she was being allowed by Him to anoint His feet as a symbol of the anointing of His body for His burial beforehand, John 12:7. We know from Mark 14:9 that Jesus predicted this deed would honor Mary through history wherever the Gospel of Christ was proclaimed!
2. Conversely, Jesus critiqued Judas' words to his humiliation, Jn. 12:7f.
4. The destinies of Mary and Judas thus parted into EXTREMES of divine blessing for her versus bleak tragedy for him (as follows):
1. For applying Jesus' teaching, Mary is honored as the only believer who anointed Jesus for burial before He died, John 11:7-8; Mk. 14:9!
2. In great contrast, Judas left the scene in great anger to contact the religious leaders so as to betray Jesus, Mark 14:10-11; that led to his subsequent deep regret and infamous suicide, Matthew 27:3-5.

Application: In view of the great, unnerving spiritual ignorance we note in others, (1) may we like Mary take responsibility for our own lives and (a) trust in Christ for salvation, Jn. 3:16. (b) Then, may we APPLY the truth WE KNOW in our LIVES. (2) As the result, (a) GOD can PROTECT and BLESS us in a world that is troublesome in its ignorance of the truth (b) and GOD can make our lives testimonies to others as He did in Mary's case! (c) Yet, we must expect mixed results in others: some onlookers may repent and others like Judas resist the truth to their own eventual demise!

Lesson: Mary LIVED OUT the insight she learned from Jesus though this was met with criticism from the ignorant Judas; as the result, Jesus protected and blessed her while Judas experienced a godless, tragic end!

Conclusion: (To illustrate the sermon lesson . . . )

Last Sunday, another Church member told me about the article, "The purpose-driven pastor," by Paul Nussbaum in the 1/8/06 issue of The Philadelphia Inquirer. It cited key evangelical leader, Rick Warren as claiming: " . . . fundamentalism, of all varieties, will be one of the big enemies of the 21st century . . . Muslim fundamentalism, Christian fundamentalism, Jewish fundamentalism, secular fundamentalism, they're all motivated by fear. Fear of each other.'"

Well, history shows how dreadfully ignorant were his words:

James I. Packer's "Fundamentalism" and the Word of God (reprint, 1974) reports the term, the fundamentals' was used around 1909 to mean "the central redemptive doctrines which Liberalism rejected" in the mainline Protestant denominations. Then, in 1910, two laymen published and widely dispersed little books, The Fundamentals that were written by scholars like James Orr, B. B. Warfield (Princeton), H. C. G. Moule, W. H. Griffith Thomas (Dallas Seminary), R. A. Torrey (Moody Bible Institute) and G. Campbell Morgan; they held to the "the inspiration and infallibility of Scripture, the deity of Christ, His virgin birth and miracles, His penal death for our sins, and His physical resurrection and personal return.'" When part of the Northern Baptist Convention upheld these doctrines, an editorial in the Baptist Watchman-Examiner was the first to call them "Fundamentalists,'" Ibid., p. 28-29!

Well, each of these beliefs appears in Article III, sections 1, 4, 6, 4, 12 respectively of our Bylaws, so we are "Fundamentalists"!

Now, I would HOPE that Rick Warren did NOT mean our holding to these beliefs will cause US to be "one of the big enemies of the 21st century'" as he has claimed of "fundamentalism"! He used the term in IGNORANCE as we discern from his applying the term, "fundamentalism" to Islam, Judaism and secularism; he has mimicked how theological Liberals and secularists have CHANGED the word's meaning to picture any strict ideology, Ibid., p. 9-40!

How would God have us RESPOND to key evangelical leader, Rick Warren's remarks about "Fundamentalists" like us? Like Mary, we should LIVE the BIBLICAL beliefs of ORIGINAL "Fundamentalism" and let God PROTECT and BLESS us, making our testimonies effective toward the discipling of the misinformed!