The Person Who Devotes Their Life to the Covenant (John 12:1-11)
The devotion that we can do for the gospel and to save all people is devoting towards worship, because worship itself is devotion. It means you live for the Lord as a servant, holding onto the Covenant.
Let us bless one another, Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the living God. May the great grace and blessing of God be upon everyone worshipping in the church and in their homes. Last week, God gave the message that Jesus is the Resurrection and the life. I believe that you have all experienced that, of course we will resurrect on the last day, but today, through all of your incidences, problems, and the times you feel you are facing death, you will experience the life and resurrection of Jesus Christ. The incident where Jesus Christ resurrected Lazarus who was dead for four days was a great incident and problem for the Jewish people.
For people who face a big problem, whenever they see Jesus Christ working, they stand on the opposite side of Jesus. Our life will only work out if we are standing on the side of saving lives. However, if you’re standing on the opposite side of the work of life, then you will fail in life. Many Jewish people were afraid because they thought that the work of Jesus Christ would break all the structures and rules and authority that they had built up for themselves. They were afraid because many people started following Jesus. The more you receive the Word and grace of God, Satan will panic all the more.In the midst of this circumstance, Jesus Christ goes to a celebration festival at someone’s home. This celebration that Jesus is attending is mentioned in John 12 as well as Mark 14, where it says He went to the house of Simon the Leper. A leper is always excluded from society and cannot interact with regular citizens, so the fact that Simon the Leper was able to have a celebration festival in his own home means that he’s so delighted that Jesus healed him and invited Him.
The region of Bethany was the same region where Lazarus was raised from the dead. The reason why the celebration feast could not happen in Lazarus’ home was because they were a poor family and their house was too small. That’s the reason they decided to have this celebration festival for Jesus Christ in the house of Simon the Leper because his house was a little larger and could house more people.
1. Three Types of People
They call it a “celebration dinner,” however, honestly wherever Jesus Christ goes, it’s worship. The first day after Jesus Christ resurrected, the disciples gathered to Jesus and that was the first Sunday worship. Within the celebration dinner, there were three different types of people who gathered.
1) Martha
Martha was one of the sisters of Lazarus, and in John 12:2, it says she was working and serving. It’s very important for us to work and to serve for the dinner of Jesus Christ, and in present day language, it’s saying that it’s important to serve and labor for the worship of Jesus Christ. However, if you look at John 11, you can see that Martha is a very hasty person, and whenever she tries to do something, she’s very active about it. She has a very active personality so when she heard that Jesus Christ was visiting, she ran all the way to the end of town to meet Him.
Because she’s heard the Word of God so much, she thinks she knows everything, so that’s why in last week’s message on John 11, she kept saying, “I know, I know.” The characteristic of these people is, instead of worshiping, they think, “I already know this,” so they focus more on their diligence and hard work than worship. When other people see them, they look very good, and our church needs people like that as well.
2) Mary
However, the other person at this festival was Martha’s younger sister Mary. Mary was someone who stayed in her room even though she heard that Jesus Christ had come. However, in John 11:29, when Mary heard that Jesus Christ called her, she ran out and quickly went to Him, which means that Mary was centered on following the Word of God. At first, it may seem that she’s not active or she’s lazy, but she follows when Jesus speaks.
When Mary heard that Jesus Christ called her, she ran out and quickly went to Him, which means that Mary was centered on following the Word of God.
In John 11:32, she goes to Jesus when He calls her and falls down at His feet, what does that mean? It means she is a woman of worship. If you fall down in front of someone else’s feet, it is the posture of, “Please, give me your word.” Even though Mary and Martha are siblings, they’re very different.
In John 12:3, when Jesus Christ came to the dinner festival, Mary took an expensive pint of perfume and poured it on His feet and wiped His feet with her hair. It seems like a simple sentence, but it’s not. The hair of a woman is equated to their glory, and that’s in 1 Corinthians 11:15. Even now, when you go to a hair dresser, it’s more expensive to get a woman’s hair done than a man’s hair. The glory of a woman is in her hair, and that’s the reason why the Early Church members put a towel over women’s hair. For men, even if they cut their hair short, there’s no meaning or significance, but the hair that is equated with the glory and pride of a woman, she uses it to wash the feet of Jesus.
What does this mean? What do you think it means? It is talking about her devotion to completely deny herself and only follow the Lord. The woman’s pride is her hair, and she’s using that to wash the feet of Jesus. That is worship.
3) Judas Iscariot
In response to Mary’s actions, Judas Iscariot responds in John 12:5, “Why wasn’t this perfume sold and the money given to the poor? It is worth 300 denarii, a year’s worth of wages.” He’s very fast at calculating, and he has a lot of worldly sense, and because he’s so rational, logical, and calculative, he was the one who took care of Jesus’ finances. If you’re not good at making calculations, you cannot take care of finances correctly, so Jesus gave that role to Judas.
However, if you look in Matthew and Mark, they say the same thing about Judas. It says that all the disciples were angry at Mary for what she did. In the book of John, it only talks about Judas Iscariot getting upset, but in Matthew and Mark, it says all the disciples criticize her for using the perfume. People saw that Mary’s actions were too extreme.
But John 12 shows that Judas Iscariot is a thief, and he used to steal money from Jesus’ moneybag to help himself, so that means he prioritized money and physical things over Jesus. Later on, he would receive money and sell Jesus. It means he had never felt the real meaning of the gospel. There are people like that in the church as well, people who prioritize money over the gospel will come to church. They have a faith where they are trying to use the gospel to make more money for themselves. The Bible tells us that that is the spirit of the demon that possessed Judas Iscariot.
Judas did not receive salvation. Inside the church, there are three types of people. There are people like Judas Iscariot who had not even received salvation, but there are also people like Mary and Martha. When Mary poured the expensive perfume over Jesus, in Mark 14:6, Jesus responds, “Leave her alone, why are you bothering her? She has done a beautiful thing to me.”
If someone gives a devotion to the church that is out of the ordinary, people will look at them very strangely because those people’s standards are based on the world. They say, “Why do you give such an inordinate amount of offering instead of using it for a good purpose?”
2. The Faith Jesus Desires
In the world, there are some people who give their entire life savings to schools. Some people, when they die, will give their entire inheritance to a religious organization. There are many kinds of people like that; however, the Lord looks at Mary’s devotion and says, “She has done a beautiful thing to me.” If Jesus says what you do is good, then don’t you think that’s really good? He doesn’t say a single bad thing about what Mary did.
The reason He said that is in John 12:7, “This perfume was saved to prepare me for my burial.” In Mark 14:9, Jesus goes as far as to say, “Wherever the gospel is preached throughout the world, what Mary has done will also be remembered.” If the Lord is telling us to remember Mary and the work she did for all eternity, imagine how good Jesus thought that work was.
1) Mary’s Devotion
The perfume that Mary poured upon Jesus was actually her life’s savings, because it’s actually something women collect their entire lives, and then they sell it in order to pay for their wedding. It was worth 300 denarii, and one denarius is a day laborer’s daily wage. If this perfume cost 300 denarii, it’s about a year’s worth of wages, if someone works every day except for Sunday. But she poured it on Jesus.
From a woman’s perspective in that age, they have to get married and the marriage isn’t free. On the contrary, they have to hold multiple marriage ceremonies. Mary doesn’t have parents, and Lazarus was dead and came back to life, so he doesn’t have money, either. By giving this life savings that she had to Jesus, she might not have ever been able to get married.
Do you think that Jesus only told us to remember Mary for eternity because she gave a lot of money? There are a lot of people in the Bible who gave more money than she did. There were some members of the Early Church who died while giving offering. The couple, Ananias and Sapphira, they wanted to give this much offering, but later on, they thought twice and tried to take a little for themselves, but they died because of it.
In the Old Testament, there’s more than a couple of people who gave their entire life’s savings for the Lord. Even in the world, there are a lot of people who give their entire life savings for the government, for schools, or for other purposes. If you go to the Washington Memorial, you can see the people who have staked their lives for the country. The American government is saying we will remember these souls for eternity because they’re the ones who gave their lives for America.
Today, the Lord says, “In the Kingdom of God, we will remember Mary forever.” So, what does it mean that she was saving this perfume to use for the day of Jesus’ burial? It means that Mary poured all her life savings and perfume upon the death of Jesus Christ who would be the One to save all the world and creation from sin, curses, hell, and Satan.
This woman was someone who listened to the words of Jesus Christ all the time and worshiped so well, and Jesus Christ was continuously giving the message that He would die and resurrect in three days. Even the disciples didn’t listen to His words well. As evidence of this, when Jesus says, “I’m going to die,” Simon Peter says, “No, I will stop anyone from killing you,” but Jesus says, “Get behind me, Satan!” Peter ended up being the one who rejected Jesus Christ three times to save his own life.
So, even though the disciples heard the message of Jesus Christ often, they were only following Jesus because of their own motives. They followed Jesus Christ because they thought, “If Jesus Christ becomes the king of Israel, I might become His right hand man,” and that’s why they weren’t able to listen to the message that Jesus was trying to tell them every day.Why did Jesus Christ say that this woman’s actions and her faith should be recorded and remembered forever? Because the Word of God properly went into Mary. The correct devotion is the devotion containing the correct word of God. If you go all into the gospel, it is a devotion to save all the world and the entire creation.
When someone built Stanford University, they were devoted to spread the knowledge of Stanford into the world. However, when Mary was devoted to Jesus Christ, she was devoting to save all the world and all creation. She listened to the words that Jesus Christ told her every day, and that’s why she knew the reasons for Jesus’ death.
2) Mary Who Knew the Meaning of the Death on the Cross
When Jesus Christ died and resurrected, Mary Magdalene was the only one who waited and saw the resurrection. In John 20:18, it talks about Mary Magdalene who saw Jesus Christ’s resurrection. It’s the same Mary we’re reading about today, and it’s the same Mary we’ll sing about after today’s worship. The disciples themselves did not believe in Jesus’ resurrection and they all ran away when Jesus was crucified. Only Mary Magdalene believed and knew of Jesus’ death and resurrection, so she waited for Him at the tomb.
This woman gave her entire life’s savings to Jesus Christ, but she’s not the only one who did that. There are some people who even gave their lives for Jesus. There are many people who throw their lives away in the world, through worldly things or suicide. The reason why Jesus Christ said her work was good is because Jesus’ goal in life is to save lives. This woman’s devotion is saying, “I gave my entire life for the work of saving the entire world.
3) Those Who Staked Their Lives on the Gospel (Jn 20:18)
There are many people in the Old Testament like Mary, and what’s the characteristic of those people? The Bible is full of people who devoted their lives for the coming of Jesus Christ. Abraham gave his own son to the Lord. If God told Abraham to sacrifice his wife or even himself, Abraham could have done so without any conflict. However, He asked him to sacrifice his only son, and that’s the hardest thing for a parent to do. But he knew about the resurrection power of God, and that even if he died, God would bring him back to life.
Joseph who held onto the covenant of Genesis 3:15, the offspring of the woman would save, was dragged into Egypt as a slave. Even if he dies, he dies for the Lord; even if he lives, he lives for the Lord. That’s how he did Egypt evangelization. All these people staked their lives and devoted themselves to Christ.
Moses was chased out of Egypt for being a murderer, and later when God told him to go back into Egypt, Moses had to risk his life. He didn’t stake his life for no reason, but God told him to devote his entire life to save God’s people. That is Moses, who devoted his life.
After the Exodus, the Israelites go into the land of Canaan and send in the 12 spies. Rahab was the one who hid the spies. If the Israelite people go into the land of Canaan, Rahab knew that everyone in her nation would die. However, she saw and heard about what everything the Lord was doing, so she devoted her life to save the spies.
Hannah, who was Samuel’s mother, devoted her child to the church as soon as he was weaned. She gave him completely to the nation that he may be used as the next priest. Samuel was someone who grew up, ever since he was very young, sleeping next to the Ark of the Covenant, that is, Jesus Christ. Then, as long as Samuel was alive, there wasn’t a single war. He was the one who saved Israel.If you devote your life to saving lives, then the life movement will take place. Just as if you devote all your money to the school, then other people who don’t have money can get educated at that school. If you devote yourself to saving lives, then people’s lives will be saved.
If you devote your life to saving lives, then the life movement will take place.
David who received that covenant from Samuel while he was young, learned that he would be the future king. The king needs to protect and save the nation of Israel. That’s why when everyone was afraid of Goliath and could not go out before him, David staked his life and went before them. Why? It’s because he knew about the covenant of Jesus Christ who is to come. David was the one who protected Israel in its countless wars after becoming king.
David was the one who brought the Ark of the Covenant back into Israel and created the preparations of all the finances of Israel to support the Temple for the Ark of the Covenant for Israel’s spiritual state. Even though David was a king, he devoted his entire power and throne as king towards temple construction.
If someone becomes a king, they may create a lot of buildings to create jobs. The Pharaohs of Egypt used the giant pyramids to immortalize themselves; however, the greatest king of Israel, King David, used his position as king to build the temple, in other words, to spiritually save his nation.
Elijah was also someone who fought against 850 false prophets in the name of the Lord, and the king and queen tried to kill him. He was fighting for the Lord, and yet he was facing death, and Elijah was devoted to the point where he was asking to die. Elisha, Elijah’s disciple, was someone who raised hundreds of thousands of disciples in the Dothan Movement for the Lord. As long as Elisha was alive, none of the opposing armies could do anything.
The devotion of people like this is the devotion that will save all of Israel, why is that? They had to save Israel because they knew the meaning of the Messiah who was to come. We have to save Israel in order for Jesus Christ to be born there. Daniel who was taken as a captive into Babylon, was always staking his life on worship, praying towards Jerusalem, towards the covenant. The politicians of Babylon made a law in order to kill Daniel saying, “If anyone worships someone other than the king of Babylon, they will be executed.”
Daniel knew he was facing death, and yet he still worshiped God. That’s why he was assigned to help four different kings and saved all the nations, and he’s the one who relayed the name of the Jehovah God to those four kings. There was also a Jewish woman named Esther who was sent as a queen to the King of Persia.
She was actually his second queen; he already had a first queen. When the King of Persia wanted to go into Africa to wage war, the queen stopped him, and then the king’s henchmen said, “We need to get rid of this queen and give you another queen because she’s blocking you,” so that’s why Esther was chosen as “Miss Persia,” the Queen of Persia.
Esther belonged to the family of Israelites who stayed in the area of Babylon and Persia even after King Cyrus told them to go back to Israel. So it’s a lot like you guys. You are immigrants to America who say, “I want to live in America instead of going back to my old country,” then it’s like one of your children becoming Miss USA and then becoming the President’s First Wife.
One day, one of the king’s henchmen made a law to kill all the Israelites. The King of Persia didn’t know that Esther was a Jew, and in that time, in order for you to stand before the king, you had to make an appointment. Anyone who goes before the king without making a prior appointment would be seen as an assassin, so they would be killed on the spot.
However, Israel was facing death, and she had to tell the king, and if you want to tell the king something, he has to call you. That’s when Esther made the resolution, “If I perish, I perish,” and she goes in front of the king without an appointment. Ultimately, she saves all of Israel.
3. Devotion that Saves through the Gospel
What does it mean to save all of Israel? It is someone who devoted themselves to the gospel, to make a way for Jesus Christ to come to earth. In the age of the Early Church, the Jewish power church considered the Christians as a heresy, and said, “If you proclaim the gospel more than twice, you would be executed immediately,” so the fact that these people gathered in Mark’s Upper Room means that they risked their lives to do so. If these people proclaimed the gospel, it’s a life-staking devotion.
On October 3, there was a protest in Korea and many people tried to stop them. We need to invest our lives into something that has meaning, and if life must be revived, the gospel must be proclaimed. Mary’s devotion today is good, but it’s not special because other people devoted their lives, too. What makes Mary’s devotion remembered for all eternity is because she proclaimed the gospel and saved all people.
1) Devotion in Worship
The devotion that we can do for the gospel and to save all people is devoting towards worship, because worship itself is devotion. It means you devote or sacrifice yourself. It means you are serving the Lord as a servant. Just as Mary poured perfume onto Jesus and wiped His feet with her hair, Mary served the Lord. Today’s worship means you must devote your time. Once we run out of time, we’re dead; our time is our entire life, and it means that you are giving your life to the Lord. That’s why we want to hear God’s Word.
If you’re filled with your own thoughts, you cannot receive God’s Word. You have to let go of everything from yourself; you have to deny yourself.
“Lord, give me Your Word,” why? Because He’s the One who holds my life, He’s the One who controls my entire life, and the one who decides when I live or die is God. The One who holds onto your life whether you succeed or fail is God. You devote in worship to that God, and that’s how your life becomes revived.
Your life comes to life because the Lord comes upon you. Because the Word of the Lord comes upon me, my spirit is revived, then all the physical diseases I suffer from will be healed. I used to think my life was so dark, however, when the light of Jesus Christ comes into me, I can see again. Just as Lazarus was dead and resurrected, I thought my life was over. But when I received the Word of the Lord, I am coming back to life.
Praying to save lives is worship, and we also give our material possessions to the Lord’s servants as well. It’s not just about material possessions. We use our money, for example, we’ll buy groceries at the grocery store in order to maintain our physical health and life. The reason why we pay expensive tuition to come to school is that I pay that to get more knowledge about myself.
When we give offering to our church, it symbolizes that the owner of my money is God, and wherever this offering is used, it will bring life. That is my devotion. That’s why you devote so that the servants of the Lord can continue to perform this gospel to save.
2) Devotion in Evangelism, Missions
You devote that so that missions and evangelism can always continue. You devote your offering for the temple construction. Also, the work you do in the world is not just working for the world. Even nonbelievers who don’t believe in God will work so that they can eat and live. But the work and studies God gives us is not for that. “My job, my studies, and everything I do must be used to save lives,” that’s the reason why I have to work and study, and it must be aligned with God’s reason. The work you are doing must become a platform to save many lives.
There are many people creating a lot of things in the world and studying in the schools, but all their specialization is irrelevant to God. Your specializations must be used to save the church. If people misunderstand the church, it means they are misunderstanding God. The church is the body of the Lord. If anyone thinks that church is just a place to sing praises and enjoy the grace of meeting, that’s not church. That’s the reason why the Israelite people failed.
3) Devotion in the Temple to Save Lives
The church is needed because we have been called as the priests to save the world. Nonbelievers look at the church and think that church is a place where people gather, and they focus on their doctrines, their rules, and their praise. That’s why people think that churches might as well not exist. They look at the churches so strangely. If anyone asks the church to do something, they don’t want to. They try to avoid taxes to the government, but the church exists to save the world.
The church is the place that devotes to save the spirits who are dying in the world. If you don’t know this, then even if you come to church every week, you’re going to use your specialization in the world and not in the church. Using something in the church means that you use it in the world to save the world. That’s when your specialization will be revived.
A lot of students are still confused about what their talents are. Why do you think God gave you talents? He gave it to you for the church, and He gave us the church to save souls and the world, so all you have to do is devote to the church. That’s the reason why God gave this to you, and that’s the reason God gave you the church.
That devotion is what saves the church, but you’re confused because you have your own thoughts, thinking that you have to do something in the world. There are people in the world who don’t know if they’re living or dying, and they stake their lives on silly things, and when they come to church, they try to receive service; they don’t want to do anything. That’s okay as long as the Word is their focus, but they’re under a misconception. You give everything of yourself to the church, and “for the church,” doesn’t mean the pastor, but it means it’s for the Lord. It is a devotion like Mary’s. That is how your specialization will become strength to save the world.
Conclusion
- Devotion in Worship
If you have any conflicts about your job, about whether things are going to work out or not, stop worrying about those things and make the resolution that your specialization will be used to save the church, and the church will save the world. That is why the church is the place where you devote your offering to do world missions, so we can send missionaries all across the world. - Devotion in Evangelism, Missions
Come train the next generation with all the specializations you have. There are people who love teaching and mentoring out in the world, but they have no interest of doing that in the church. Who cares if you teach all the people outside the world? They’re not going to use it for the Lord. Of course, that has meaning, too, however, everything you teach to the children of the church is devotion for Christ. - Devotion in Church Construction
It is also the devotion for Temple Construction that saves lives and saves the world. Even idol worshipers have idolatrous temples, but what is that building being used for? That building is a devotion that sends the world into hell. It means that the idolatrous temple is not a devotion to save lives nor to bring people toward heaven.
Some people give all their inheritance and enterprises to build temples. Some people build temples or monasteries with all their life savings, but to the Lord, that has no meaning. When we say the temple, we’re talking about the church building where we’re able to worship God and receive life and give life to save the world.
It’s not just any location; it’s the temple church, the location where the people who have physical, mental, and spiritual diseases can come and receive healing. It must be a temple construction, or a temple, where the next generation of children can come in, who do not know the reason why they have to study, why they have to work, and why they have to get married, and they receive the correct direction and meaning of life from the Word of God. In other words, it is the devotion that is able to save lives.
Mary’s devotion of her life’s savings of perfume was in participation with the resurrection of Jesus Christ, which would be the death and resurrection that would save all the world. Your devotion for that begins with worship. This worship itself is devotion. I hope that your life will be used for the devotion, for missions, evangelism, and for saving the world with the gospel.
Prayer
Let us pray together holding onto the Word God gave us today. God, allow my life to be devoted to proclaim Jesus Christ to save lives with the gospel. May my prayers be the prayers to save other people’s souls. May my business and material possessions be the devotion to save many people. Let us pray together.