Think for yourself with doctrine from the privacy of your priesthood.

John 12:1 Jesus, therefore, six days before the Passover, came to Bethany where Lazarus was, whom Jesus had raised from the dead.

 

John 12:2 So they made Him a supper there, and Martha was serving; but Lazarus was one of those reclining at the table with Him.

 

John 12:3 Mary therefore took a pound of very costly perfume of pure nard, and anointed the feet of Jesus, and wiped His feet with her hair; and the house was filled with the fragrance of the perfume.

 

Now enter the party pooper. Judas Iscariot thinks he is making sense but he has no clue what is going on. He’s not concerned about the poor, or anyone for that matter, he is concerned about himself alone.

 

John 12:4 But Judas Iscariot, one of His disciples, who was intending to betray Him, said,

 

John 12:5 “Why was this perfume not sold for three hundred denarii, and given to poor people?"

 

Notice what attacks the spiritual life: Getting involved—liberalism, socialism, panaceas. Judas is under the social gospel: “Help the poor.”

 

The effect of this criticism is not recorded in John, but in Matthew 26:8 and Mark 14:4 we see that the disciples became critical of Mary, following the lead of Judas.

 

Matt 26:6-9

Now when Jesus was in Bethany, at the home of Simon the leper, 7 a woman came to Him with an alabaster vial of very costly perfume, and she poured it upon His head as He reclined at the table. 8 But the disciples were indignant when they saw this, and said, "Why this waste? 9 "For this perfume might have been sold for a high price and the money given to the poor."

 

Mark 14:3-5

And while He was in Bethany at the home of Simon the leper, and reclining at the table, there came a woman with an alabaster vial of very costly perfume of pure nard; and she broke the vial and poured it over His head. 4 But some were indignantly remarking to one another, "Why has this perfume been wasted? 5 "For this perfume might have been sold for over three hundred denarii, and the money given to the poor." And they were scolding her.

 

The disciples all became indignant and even scolded her saying that she wasted it.

 

Amazing. If you were in this crowd would you have agreed with them? Would you have chimed in along with them? These are the 11 - the disciples of Christ, the writers of scripture and those who are depicted in paintings with halos and pious looks on their faces.

 

They are so wrong it’s comical.

 

Beware of the herd-bound instinct! The disciples did not have any facts; they were influenced by the emotional revolt of Judas. As Judas spoke they reveal their own jealousy and vented it.  

 

Judas doesn’t care for the poor at all. The disciples were the victims of the herd instinct. Basically, they didn’t have enough doctrine to resist this thing.

 

Be careful who does your thinking for you!

 

John 12:6 Now he said this, not because he was concerned about the poor, but because he was a thief, and as he had the money box, he used to pilfer what was put into it.

 

John 12:7 Jesus therefore said, "Let her alone, in order that she may keep it for the day of My burial.

 

This is another place where you see the seamlessness of the word of God.

 

“Let her alone” is the aorist active imperative of aphiemi which means to let go, to leave alone or forsake. Here the Lord is commanding them to not bully Mary, which is what they are doing.

 

The Lord used the same command for Lazarus immediately after he was resuscitated.

 

John 11:44 He who had died came forth, bound hand and foot with wrappings; and his face was wrapped around with a cloth. Jesus said to them, "Unbind him, and let him go."

 

The Sanhedrin used the same word concerning our Lord.

   

John 11:48 "If we let Him go on like this, all men will believe in Him, and the Romans will come and take away both our place and our nation."

 

People without doctrine are going to continually attempt to take away your freedom to serve God. But you are a believer priest just like the Lord, and just like the Lord could not be stopped by the Sanhedrin, neither will you be if you just continue to operate in the freedom of your priesthood.

 

Mary has done this as unto the Lord. She has done a right thing. When you do something right you have a right to your privacy.

 

A part of serving the Lord is privacy and in any time in history when believers start to make public and brag and beat the drums for what they are doing for God, that is apostasy.

 

The order of the day in living your life as unto the Lord is privacy.

 

What Mary has done also shows that a person who has a capacity for love tends to be extravagant in any expression of that love.

 

Mary’s privacy was challenged and the Lord Jesus Christ picked it up. He defends her from the bullying of legalism and from judging.

 

Judas was critical, he was bullying because he wanted to steal the money. The disciples were critical because they were stupid and followed the wrong person. In their ignorance they had the wrong emphasis.

 

In their ignorance they emphasised the social gospel—social action. But Mary in her knowledge of doctrine emphasised the Bible gospel and the person of Christ.

           

Principle: Doctrine gives the correct emphasis on life.

The poor, by the way, need eternal life more than they need money.

 

Under the plan of God, God provides for the poor, which is better than man’s provision for the poor, but more than that, this is a command to stop judging.

 

Judging is a sin, a sin of bullying, a sin which is always prefaced by mental attitude sin.

 

John 12:7 Jesus therefore said, "Let her alone, in order that [for the purpose of] she may keep it [guard it] for the day of My burial.

 

Then Jesus explains why they should let her alone: “for the purpose of the day of my burying.” Believer’s with doctrine have a purpose in life. She commemorates His death in this way.

 

The word burying is a noun is e)ntafikaismoj[entaphikaismos] and it means preparation for burial rather than burial.

 

John 12:8 "For the poor you always have with you, but you do not always have Me."

 

However, when they do have Him again, during the Millennium there will be no poverty due to Christ’s perfect environment, but even then mankind is not satisfied and will rebel against Christ.

 

Bible doctrine is the only solution to life and not socialism.

 

Being poor is never the issue while having Christ is always the issue.

 

Mary recognizes that they will not always have Him. If she holds on to this vial of costly nard until after His death then to whom would it be of such a use as it is here?

 

Mary, in instinctive love knows exactly what to do and knows the perfect timing for it. This is the Lord’s going away party and she gives something of perfect quality.

 

John 12:9 The great multitude therefore of the Jews learned that He was there; and they came, not for Jesus' sake only, but that they might also see Lazarus, whom He raised from the dead.

 

Lazarus is given a great opportunity here and you can bet he took full advantage of it and gave the gospel accurately.

 

Lazarus understood more than most that his physical death was and never will be the issue, but rather spiritual death is the issue.

 

You can say for sure that many who came to Bethany these few days before the Passover came simply out of human curiosity.

 

They wanted to get a good look at Lazarus but could care less about anything he had to say.

 

People don’t need resuscitation to believe, nor do they need to witness it. People become regenerated by the word of God and not by miracles.

 

Luke 16:27-31

"And he said, 'Then I beg you, Father, that you send him to my father's house - 28 for I have five brothers - that he may warn them, lest they also come to this place of torment.'29 "But Abraham said, 'They have Moses and the Prophets; let them hear them,'30 "But he said, 'No, Father Abraham, but if someone goes to them from the dead, they will repent!"31 "But he said to him, 'If they do not listen to Moses and the Prophets, neither will they be persuaded if someone rises from the dead.'"

 

This is not a parable, this is an actual account of a very real event. The miracles of Christ, even this one done to Lazarus, only gives credit to the words of Christ. Miracles don’t save anyone, only faith in the gospel can do that.

 

But we do see that Lazarus definitely had an impact with his own words and so the Sanhedrin call another meeting.

 

John 12:10 But the chief priests took counsel that they might put Lazarus to death also;

 

It seems their meetings are ending up in the same way each time. Kill Jesus, the miracle worker, kill Lazarus, the miracle itself, let’s just kill all evidence of grace in this world so that we can stay fat, powerful, and wealthy.

 

Their time is short.

 

John 12:11 because on account of him many of the Jews were going away, and were believing in Jesus.

 

The construction of this verse is interesting. It says that because of Lazarus many of the Jews were going away, and were believing in Jesus.

 

Going away doesn’t mean just walking away, rather it means that they were going away from the religiosity of the Sanhedrin.

 

We have the imperfect active indicative from the verb u(pagw.[hupago] The imperfect tense is inchoative, which means a change of state and since the change is to faith in Christ, they began to withdraw from religion.

 

Religion is no good in fact it is evil.

 

They began to separate from the legalism and the teaching of salvation by works. The active voice indicates that as the believed in Christ they began to withdraw from religion. The indicative mood is the reality of separation from religion based on faith in the grace gospel. Therefore, Bible doctrine delivers the believer from religion.

           

“and believed on Jesus” - the imperfect tense this time indicates a succession of people believing in Jesus Christ. They have made the decision on their own which is the importance of human privacy in making the decision.

The reality is that only Christ Jesus is the working object for salvation.