August 6, 2017

John 12:1-8: Worship: The Missing Jewel

Preacher: Josh Tancordo Series: The Gospel of John: That You May Believe Scripture: John 12:1–8

John 12:1-8: Worship: The Missing Jewel

 Please turn in your Bibles to John 12. If you’re using the Story Bibles we provide, that’s on page 744. We’ve been working our way passage by passage through the Gospel of John. We like to do it that way in order to let Jesus set the agenda for what we talk about as much as possible. And this morning, we come to John 12:1-8: 1 Six days before the Passover, Jesus therefore came to Bethany, where Lazarus was, whom Jesus had raised from the dead. 2 So they gave a dinner for him there. Martha served, and Lazarus was one of those reclining with him at table. 3 Mary therefore took a pound of expensive ointment made from pure nard, and anointed the feet of Jesus and wiped his feet with her hair. The house was filled with the fragrance of the perfume. 4 But Judas Iscariot, one of his disciples (he who was about to betray him), said, 5Why was this ointment not sold for three hundred denarii and given to the poor?” 6 He said this, not because he cared about the poor, but because he was a thief, and having charge of the moneybag he used to help himself to what was put into it. 7 Jesus said, “Leave her alone, so that she may keep it for the day of my burial. 8 For the poor you always have with you, but you do not always have me.” 

Several years ago, I was on a mission. I wanted to find the perfect engagement ring for the woman who would be my wife. So I went to one jeweler after another in search that pink diamond I knew Becky would love. Pink diamonds aren’t as common as regular diamonds, so I had to go to five or six jewelers before I could find something that looked like it would work. And then, once I located the right diamond, the rest was relatively easy. The jeweler suggested a ring he thought would work well with the diamond, and his suggestion looked good to me, so I made the purchase. And to this day, Becky still has that ring on her finger. I’d be very sad if she didn’t. But imagine that one day, we looked down at Becky’s finger and discovered that the ring no longer had that nice pink diamond in it. Somehow, that diamond had fallen out. That would be very bad. To us in the moment, it would feel like a catastrophe. We would immediately start searching every square inch of our house to see if somehow we could find that diamond, even though the chances of us actually finding it would be fairly slim. But we would be desperate, because the ring without the diamond just isn’t the same. 

Now, I’m going to say something that may surprise you. I believe many churches are like the ring without the diamond. And actually, I didn’t come up with that, A. W. Tozer did. And the reason Tozer said many churches are like the ring without the diamond is because they tend to be alarmingly deficient in their worship of God. Tozer called worship the “missing jewel of American evangelicalism.” Now, by worship, we’re not just talking about singing songs on Sunday morning. That’s just one part of our worship. Worship is something we should be engaging in throughout the week. But A. W. Tozer said that worship is the “missing jewel” in many churches because most people in the churches aren’t going through their lives in a worshipful state of mind. In fact, worshipping God in a deep and meaningful way is something many churchgoers just don’t seem to think about very often. And so, most churches have wonderful systems and carefully designed structures and great mission statements and well-written bylaws and all this other machinery. But where in the midst of it all is meaningful worship of the One True God? That’s what Tozer wondered, and I’m inclined to ask that same question. 

And you know, all of this is quite ironic since worship should be the most natural thing in the world. Think about it. Worship is what we were created to do. God created us, above all else, so that we could worship him. Tozer calls it our “whole reason for existence.” He says it’s “why we are born and…why we are born again.” So since that’s the case, worship should be just as natural for us as breathing. But it’s not. And the reason it’s not is because of humanity’s Fall into sin way back in Genesis 3. However, God is in the process of redeeming us from that Fall and restoring us to the way we’re supposed to be. And the central part of that restoration is God reorienting our hearts back to him so that we once again become natural worshippers of him. 

So our main point this morning is simple: We were created for worship. We were created for worship. And in our text here in John 12, we see a wonderful picture of the kind of worship God desires. We see this woman named Mary offering to the Lord what I’ll call “fragrant worship.” Of course, her worship was literally fragrant since she used perfume to anoint Jesus’ feet. But it was also fragrant in a spiritual sense. So we’re going to look at why Mary’s worship was so fragrant. There are three qualities of fragrant worship we see in this text: Fragrant worship offers God everything, fragrant worship comes from a heart of humility, and fragrant worship declares the worth of Jesus.

Fragrant Worship Offers God Everything

So first, let’s look at how fragrant worship offers God everything. In verse 3, the text records, “Mary therefore took a pound of expensive ointment made from pure nard, and anointed the feet of Jesus.” And in case you’re wondering exactly how expensive this ointment or perfume was, we see down in verse 5 that it was worth three hundred denarii, which was about a year’s wages for a common laborer. So to put that in today’s figures, if the median household income in our city is about $50,000, we might say that this was a $50,000 dollar jar of perfume. That’s pretty expensive. This isn’t just Macy’s expensive or even South Hills Galleria expensive. This is like crazy expensive. I don’t even know where you’d go to get something like that. And there’s a lot of speculation how Mary would come to possess such an expensive perfume. Some think that this may have been her dowry, while others think maybe it was a family heirloom, while still others think Mary was just incredibly wealthy. But regardless of how she came to possess this perfume, I think we can all agree that Mary went all out. She had such a high view of Jesus that she wanted to offer Jesus her best. She wanted to offer extravagant worship to one so worthy. The cost was irrelevant to her. 

And if our hearts are characterized by a true spirit of worship, that’s the kind of mindset we’ll have—the kind of mindset where we’re not holding onto anything but we’re making everything in our lives available to the Lord. Nothing’s off limits. No cost is too high. It’s like we’re writing God a blank check. “Whatever you want, God, it’s yours.” Because think about what God has given to us. A few chapters back, John 3:16 famously declares that “God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.” God gave his only Son. He sent his only Son into this world to die on the cross, taking on his shoulders the punishment we deserved, so that we could be rescued from our sin. God saw our need, and he gave extravagantly. And when we really grasp how extravagantly God has given to us, it makes us so profoundly grateful that we just want to give him everything. And that’s what a life of worship involves. It involves making everything in our lives available to God. 

And listen to me: From time to time, God will take you up on your offer of availability. He’ll lead you to not just let go of something in theory but to let go of it in practice. Maybe it’ll be a prized possession, like with Mary in our main text. I’m sure Mary really valued that jar of perfume, but she felt led to give it up. Or maybe he’ll call you to give up a sin in our life, or simply a measure of comfort or social standing or prestige. Or maybe he’ll actually call you to lay down your very life. Going where Jesus leads you could cause you to lose any or all of those things. But if your heart is a heart of worship, you won’t be giving them up out of a sense of obligation. You’ll be giving them up out of joy. I pretty sure Mary didn’t give up this expensive perfume because she felt obligated. No, she used it to anoint Jesus’ feet because of the overflowing joy in her heart, a joy that manifested itself in an extravagant expression of worship. And if our heart is a heart of true worship, it will be our joy to give up anything and everything as we go where Jesus leads.

Let me go back to my engagement ring story for a minute. And let me first say, for those of you who know me better, you know that I’m a pretty frugal guy. I don’t like spending money needlessly. When my kids ask for a napkin at the dinner table, you know what I do? I actually tear the napkin in half, and I give them each half a napkin. So usually, I really don’t like spending money when I don’t have to. And when I purchased that engagement ring several years ago, the ring wasn’t exactly cheap. And also, I didn’t exactly have a high paying job. At the time, I think I was working for ten dollars an hour at Sears. But I was so glad to be with Becky, and I was so excited at the thought of spending the rest of my life with her that I wanted to express what I felt with a very meaningful gift. So I made the purchase. And I made the purchase with joy in my heart. 

And likewise, when you’re giving to God with a heart of worship, you give out of joy. You let go of something out of joy. You joyfully release your grasp on everything you’re holding onto so that you can go where Jesus leads. So let me ask you this. Have you come to the point where you have so grasped the glories and love of God that you just feel compelled to offer him everything? Whatever he wants to take, your hands are open? That’s worship. 

Fragrant Worship Comes from a Heart of Humility

So fragrant worship offers God everything. Also, number two, fragrant worship comes from a heart of humility. Fragrant worship comes from a heart of humility. Notice in our text what Mary does after she anoints Jesus with the ointment. Verse 3 again: “Mary therefore took a pound of expensive ointment made from pure nard, and anointed the feet of Jesus and wiped his feet with her hair.” She wiped Jesus’ feet with her hair. You see, back in that day, people needed their feet washed a lot. Village streets were just comprised of dirt, and on top of that, villagers would guide their animal herds through the streets, leaving behind animal excrement. So when you walked somewhere, your feet got kind of nasty, especially since people wore sandals. And normally, it was the job of the lowest servant in the house to wash the feet of people who entered. Only the lowest servant was expected to do that. Now here in John 12, we don’t know for sure if Mary actually washed the filth off of Jesus’ feet or if a servant did that first. But we do know that Mary at least did something that would call to mind that kind of foot-washing. She used her insanely expensive perfume to anoint Jesus’ feet and then wiped his feet with her hair. That’s humility.

And the Bible is full of reminders of how much God values humility. James 4:6 says that “God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.” In Isaiah 66:2, God says, “These are the ones I look on with favor: those who are humble and contrite in spirit, and who tremble at my word.” Now why do you think God values humility so much? Well, remember what we were created for: worshipping God. And it’s when we’re humble that we’re finally able to worship God properly. Fragrant worship comes from a heart of humility. We can’t simultaneously say “God, you’re important” when we still continue to believe in our hearts that we’re important. We can’t simultaneously have a high view of God and a high view of ourselves. Instead, we have to come to the point where we say, “God, I’m nothing, and you’re everything.” Then and only then can we worship.

And I believe that’s usually one of the central reasons why God allows us to face trials in our lives. Trials have a way of humbling us. Not too long ago, I had a sleepless night. I literally didn’t fall asleep at all. That’s never happened to me before, and I’m not exactly sure why it did happen. But for some reason, I laid down and just kept thinking about different things and couldn’t fall asleep. I tried spending some time in prayer, I tried doing work on my computer, and tried everything else I could think of to try, but none of it brought me to a point where I could fall asleep. So of course, the next day, I was dragging. I couldn’t think clearly, I couldn’t accomplish the things I had hoped to accomplish, and I was just miserable. It was a very humbling experience. And in the past, illness has had the same effect on me. It’s served to humble me. And I think that’s one of the key reasons why God lets us experience those kinds of things. He knows that we need to be humbled. He knows that we often have such an inflated view of ourselves that we need that humbling from time to time. So he helps us with that.

Above all, however, the thing that brings the most profound humility in our lives is the gospel itself. It’s the gospel that brings us to humility. The gospel is a story of God reaching down to people who were utterly powerless to save themselves. That’s us. We had absolutely no means of rescuing ourselves or doing anything to improve our spiritual condition. Ephesians 2:1 describes us as “dead in trespasses and sins.” But God graciously reached down to save us. Because Jesus bore our sins on the cross and then rose from the dead, God’s able to offer salvation to us as a free gift for those who simply put their trust in him. As Romans 6:23 states, “For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.” God gives us all the blessings of salvation not as a wage for work we’ve done but as a free gift for not doing anything. It’s free! And it’s humbling. Many of you men know that when you go out to eat with another man or another family, and the other man wins the argument for picking up the check, it’s humbling. But it’s good for you. And the gospel humbles us in an infinitely more profound way. It’s like what Paul says in 1 Corinthians 4:7, “What do you have that you did not receive? And if you did receive it, why do you boast as though you did not?” The gospel has a way of humbling you, and that humility is an indispensible element of fragrant worship.

Fragrant Worship Declares the Worth of Jesus 

But not only does fragrant worship offer God everything, and not only does it come from a heart of humility, but—number three—it also declares the worth of Jesus. Fragrant worship declares the worth of Jesus. Think again about what Mary does for Jesus here in John 12. By using the expensive perfume and by wiping Jesus’ feet with her hair, Mary was in effect declaring how worthy Jesus is. That’s what made this a worshipful act. And it’s the same for us. Having a heart of worship is about seeking to declare the worth of Jesus to the world. In fact, that’s where the word “worship” came from. It came from the Old English word “woerth-ship.” So worship is all about declaring and attributing “worth” to God. 

And the reason we do that is because of our delight in God and our joy in God. Our joy in who God is and what’s he’s done is so great that it overflows in worship. Have you ever been so excited about something that you just had to tell someone? I remember when Becky and I started dating. This was several months before we go engaged. And I remember picking her up from the airport from her trip to visit her family and taking her to a beautiful public garden that wasn’t too far away. And as we were sitting on a bench in that garden, I asked her if she’d like to start dating. And when she said yes, we decided to celebrate by going to Logan’s Roadhouse, if you’ve ever heard of that restaurant. But then, our date wasn’t over. After we ate at Logan’s, we went to the public library to update our Facebook relationship status together. We were so excited about starting to date that we just had to make it public. And since neither one of us owned a smartphone at the time, the library was the closest place where we could make that happen. So when you’re excited about something, you have a natural—sometimes irresistible—urge to tell people about it. It’s like you can’t keep quiet. And in the same way, when our joy in Christ reaches a boiling point, we can’t contain it, and it naturally overflows in worship to God. We naturally want to declare God’s worth back to him. 

And by the way, contrary to what many Christians seem to assume, none of this arises from a theological vacuum. A lot of people think of theology as something that’s inherently lifeless and cold and academic. But that couldn’t be farther from the truth. Theology done right is the fuel of worship. Because if you’re going to worship God and attribute worth to God, you have to know something about who he is and what he’s done that makes him so worthy. So worship is responsive in nature. We’re responding to the great worth of God. But if you have an empty head and haven’t taken the time to learn anything about God, you’re not going to be able to worship him very well. And by the way, this is why on Sunday mornings we actually work our way through books of the Bible and talk about weighty biblical truths instead of me just standing up here and telling jokes and stories the whole time and giving you how-to methods for getting the most out of life. You need to know about God, and I do too. As our good friend A. W. Tozer observes, “Worship…rises or falls with our concept of God.” In another place, he states, “Worship is pure or base as the worshipper entertains high or low thoughts of God.” So if you want amazing worship, you need to roll up your sleeves and put in the effort to learn more about our amazing God. And when you do that, your worship will become fragrant worship.

Conclusion

And as we begin to come to a close, let me say something else. I think a lot of times we get so busy doing things for God that we neglect to simply enjoy God in worship. I know I’m guilty of that many times. It reminds me of this lady I encountered one time who owned her own scrapbooking studio. The name of the studio was quite original: “Scrapbook, Scrapbook” it was called. And one day, I needed someone to put together a display board for me that actually looked good and that was beyond what I was capable of doing myself. So I went to this studio hoping she’d be able to help me, and sure enough, she did. But I remember her telling me as we conversed about different things that she sometimes wished she’d never opened up her studio because it put a lot of pressure on her and she wasn’t able enjoy scrapbooking very much anymore. She was working so hard that she was no longer able to enjoy this hobby she once enjoyed. Owning her studio robbed her of that enjoyment. 

And in a similar way, I think many Christians are so busy working hard for God that they seldom find time to just enjoy God and rejoice in God and worship God. Of course, God has called us to work for him, and our work is actually one element of our worship. But nonetheless, be very careful that your work for God doesn’t keep you from your worship of God. That’s never what God desires. He redeemed you first and foremost to make a worshipper out of you. He wants you to be a worshipper before you even think about being a worker. And really, all things considered, it’s only when you’re a worshipper first that your work for the Lord will have real value and make a real impact. It’s only when you’re where you need to be spiritually that you’ll be able to guide others to where they need to be spiritually. You can’t give to others what you yourself lack. So let yourself be a worshipper first and a worker second. 

other sermons in this series