Streaming Audio:
PowerPoint
Presentation:
Click
here after starting sermon audio to bring up slides and visual aides which go along with the sermon. [A new
window will open and remain blank until fully loaded. It may take 1-5
minutes to open.] Once the first slide appears you can follow along
with the message and use the arrow keys to advance the slides.
Help
Please help
keep this ministry free by honoring our system:
Click here to recommend this sermon
ministry to others.
[A new window will open. Scroll to the bottom to enter your vote or
comments, then close.]
Help spread the Word by casting your
vote...it's a proven system that keeps this ministry free!
Grace Notes Sermon Ministry:
Subscribe for free
Learn More
Other
Christmas Series Sermons
Christmas PowerPoints
Have A Mary Christmas
Luke 10:38-42
In a world where most people don’t have enough, our problem in America is we
have too much. Too much shopping to do, too many people to buy gifts for,
and too many groups of people to share holiday get-togethers with. Jesus
gets ‘x-ed out’ of His own birthday party...just like that first
Christmas—there is no room for Him, even today!
The shepherds ran to worship Jesus that
night. But we run so hard and long there’s little time left to worship
Him. From duties to deadlines, desserts to make and dishes to clean, all
could easily eclipse the lovely Light that is our Savior.
I want to wish you a ‘Mary’ Christmas! Let’s
talk about another Mary, not the mother of Jesus, but Mary of Bethany,
sister of Lazarus and Martha.
1.) Mary’s Approach to Jesus
Each time we see Mary, we see her at the feet of Jesus.
A.) She Shares Her WOES
John 11:32
Then when Mary was come where Jesus was, and
saw him, she fell down at his feet, saying unto him, Lord, if thou hadst
been here, my brother had not died.
When was the last time you went to your knees to pray? Mary was filled with
great grief, and turned to the only source really able to remove that grief.
Who or what do you turn to in your grief? You are to be “Casting all your
care upon him; for he careth for you.” (1 Peter 5:7).
While many may have great excitement this time of year, this is also the
time of year that most suicides, DUIs, Spousal Abuse occur. These things
happen because the world is empty, lonely, and does not know the Lord. They
have no support for their sorrows. Holidays have become their ‘hollow’ days.
B.) She Shows Her WORSHIP
John 12:3
Then took Mary a pound of ointment of
spikenard, very costly, and anointed the feet of Jesus, and wiped his feet
with her hair:
When was the last time worship was costly to you? Do you ever give up
another priority in order to put God first, or does He always get the
‘leftovers’?
David put it this way, “neither will I offer
burnt offerings unto the LORD my God of that which doth cost me nothing.” (2
Samuel 24:24).
For most of us, church has become habitual,
and not really costly to us. We have adapted a routine for our worship that
has us resting in a comfort zone. Even in our giving, measuring out an exact
ten percent has become ho-hum and hum-drum. That is the least we could do,
and should do. Obedience demands that we keep this current, and make ups
are mandatory when we miss, true...but what about a gift for Jesus this
Christmas? A gift above the tithe? The tithe is something we pay, not
something we give. So where’s the ‘gift’ in that? I challenge you to give
God the best, most expensive gift this year.
C.) She Soaks Up His WORDS
Luke 10:39
...Mary, which also sat at Jesus’ feet, and
heard his word.
Here we see Mary just listening. How important it is to just listen. The
Lord speaks to us in a “still small voice” (1 Kings 19:12), which is His
Spirit, and through the Bible. We all need to be preached to, myself
included. I am constantly listening to sermons on tape, and online. But
you’ll notice today that many have a low tolerance for preaching. They get
up a lot during the message and stroll around, or worse, don’t come for it
at all. Some are ok with their social time in Sunday School, but leave
afterward, or look for another area to serve somewhere else in the building,
not because they want to as much as they don’t care to sit still and just
listen. Some feel their working takes the place of worshiping, and don’t
take time later to take advantage of the sermons they missed, even delivered
right to their own home. What does this say about us today? Just as bad is
the one who is always sitting in church, but still not listening. My hope
would be that these words would help each of these to make a change, but
it’s only by God’s grace that what we’ve said will make any difference
because they are ‘not here’ or ‘not listening.’ We need to have a ‘Mary’
Christmas, by becoming good listeners.
This holiday season the noise of the world’s
commercial Christmas can be deafening. It takes work to tune it out and to
hear the Lord this time of year. The best way to know if you are listening
to Him is to consider whether you are moving toward Him or not. Just like
when you are trying to listen to others-you try to get closer to them to
hear better, don’t you?
James 4:8
Draw nigh to God, and He will draw nigh to
you.
2.) Martha’s Approach to Jesus
Each time we see Martha, we see her working. If you wanted something done,
you went to Martha. At the death of Martha’s brother, Mary was paralyzed
with grief over losing their brother; Martha went and sought out Jesus
herself. Being a worker is vitally important in our service to God, yet it
is to be balanced with worship.
A.) She Sends Out A WELCOME (V38)
“…and a certain woman named Martha received him into her house.”
The intentions of Martha started out very honorably. She had all intention
to honor Jesus in her house. Martha was probably one like her sister who was
at the feet of Jesus times before (v39). Like many of us this Christmas with
nativity scenes, angels on the tree, and carols that we sing...our
intentions are very honorable. This place was a breath of fresh air to Jesus
who had no place to lay his head. It had to be refreshing to enter a house
full of loved ones who already held Him as Lord of their lives.
B.) She Stresses About Her WORK (V40a)
“But Martha was cumbered about much serving”
Can’t you see Martha stomping around her house banging the dishes and
pounding her fist in the dough, and frowning every time she walked by Mary
just sitting there at the feet of Jesus? The “service trap” happens to all
of us. How do I know? Try this experiment--ask people about themselves, and
they immediately tell you this: What they do. I think we all
do that. Why do we do this? It’s because we attach our worth to our work.
This is not how God sees us. Our worth is attached to Jesus.
Martha started working as a way to show Jesus that she was sincere about her
love for Him. That is not how it ended up. You may have started serving the
Lord with great intentions, but if you have fallen into the service trap
like many others, I’m happy to report that there’s a way out--it’s coming
back to the feet of Jesus!
C.) She Scolds Them in Her WRATH (v40b)
“Lord, dost thou not care that my sister hath left me to serve alone? bid
her therefore that she help me.”
Being Too Busy can lead to being Too Bossy.
The One she was to be honoring in adoration
was the One she was now ordering in anger. This was a double edged sword she
wielded in anger that day. One side accuses Jesus for a lack of concern; the
other edge cuts Mary, accusing her of laziness. She was so angry that she
doesn’t even address Mary by name. Now that’s being ticked off.
This is the same thing that happened with two other siblings: They were the
first two brothers of the Bible. I’m sure that it took a lot of work for
Cain to raise those crops he offered to the Lord. Yet, he looked in anger at
his brother and saw that his brother was closer to the Lord without raising
any crops at all. You can see how someone who wasn’t right with the Lord
would get angry and fall into the service trap. The Lord doesn’t honor all
that we do, only what honors Him, and the things He commands us to do.
3.) The Master’s Approach to Martha
A.) He Speaks to Her with WARMTH (v41a)
“Martha, Martha” [not 3 times...that would be Brady Bunch!]
The Lord would have had every right here to be angry with Martha for lashing
out at Him, and yet we see His nature of compassion. This divine quality
endears our hearts to our Lord Jesus. Every time you see the Lord mentioning
someone’s name twice like this, you see His love for them and His great
ability to overlook their setbacks to accept them. He did this with
Jerusalem (Luke 13:34), Peter (Luke 22:31), and even later with the
pre-Apostle Paul (Acts 9:4). In order to recapture the special nature of
this holy time of year we must realize the Lord is calling out our names in
an endearing tone.
B.) He States Where She Is WRONG (v41b)
“thou art careful and troubled about many things”
It’s interesting that Jesus uses this word ‘careful.’ The Greek word is “Marimnao”.
This is where we get the word Marionette from. This is a picture of the
puppet being pulled by many strings. Do you know what it is like to be
pulled by many strings? We’re talking about spreading yourself too thin. And
it seems to be as much of a tradition at this time of year as is Egg Nog.
Our priorities have a lot to do with us being attached to too many things
that don’t matter. The Bible says, “let us lay aside every weight, and the
sin which doth so easily beset us,” (Hebrews 12:1). Do you have some
Christmas fluff to cut out of your Christmas flurry?
Martha should have not thought so highly of
the food, but of the fellowship. She was so worried about what Jesus would
think of her that it backfired...Jesus really wanted to know what SHE
thought of HIM!
C.) He Speaks True WISDOM (v42)
But one thing is needful: and Mary hath chosen that good part, which
shall not be taken away from her.
Speaking of priorities, we must separate the wants from the needs...the
needs from the greeds! The Lord said that only one thing was needful. That
is what is so refreshing about the Lord. He narrows things down to the
nitty-gritty. Keep it simple stupid!
This holiday season what are the memories
that will last forever? Will it be all the work you did cooking, cleaning,
shopping, buying, and wrapping, or the love that is shared in the fellowship
of friends and loved ones?
One day, Martha will not have the strength to create such commotion in the
kitchen. But Mary will always get to worship Jesus. Another way to help set
your priorities is to separate things into the categories of ‘temporal’ and
‘eternal.’ Temporary are the here and now things with deadlines attached.
Eternal are the things which start now and endure even after death. I have
never read about kitchens being in heaven, and I can assure you there will
be no dishwasher! But being at the feet of Jesus fills every thought of our
eternity in heaven.
The final truth of this story of Mary and Martha is not that Mary is right
and Martha is wrong. In fact, Mary would be wrong to not get up and start to
work for the Lord. True worship will lead us to work for God. And I pray
God leads some here to help fix our overworked, overstressed people who ‘do
it all’ around here by volunteering to help!
I believe that we many times have wrongly
contrasted Martha and Mary, as though each Christian should make a choice to
either be a worker like Martha or a worshipper like Mary. But in so doing I
think we miss the point, the Lord wants each of us to imitate Mary in our
worship and Martha in our work, and to achieve balance in both. This is how
we can have a more “Mary” Christmas.
[great outline from Aaron Bryan]
Help keep this service free by
recommending it using the voting links above the
sermon |
