[Propertalk] Fw: Sermon Resources for March 21

[Joe Parrish]

Sermons for Lent 5:

 John 12:1-11 – *“It’s Ok to Be Extravagant”*
 Philippians 3:4b-14 – *“Abysmal Heights”* by Leonard Sweet

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John 12, the sermon titled "It’s Ok to Be Extravagant"

John 12: A few years ago there was a true story about a man in New
York City who was kidnapped. His kidnappers called his wife and asked
for $100,000 ransom. She talked them down to $30,000.

The story had a happy ending: the man returned home unharmed, the
money was recovered, and the kidnappers were caught and sent to jail.
But, don't you wonder what happened when the man got home and found
that his wife got him back for a discount? Calvin Trillin was the
writer of this story. He imagined out loud what the negotiations must
have been like: "$100,000 for that old guy? You have got to be crazy.
Just look at him! Look at that gut! You want $100,000 for that?
You've got to be kidding. Give me a break here. $30,000 is my top
offer."

Mark Trotter concluded his rendition of the story with this
thoughtful comment: "I suppose there are some here this morning who
can identify with the wife in that story, but for some reason I find
myself identifying with the husband. I'd like to think if I were in a
similar situation, there would be people who would spare no expense to
get me back. They wouldn't haggle over the price. They wouldn't say,
'Well, let me think about it.' I like to think that they would say,
'We'll do anything for you.'"

The point of that story is this: sometimes it's O.K. to be
extravagant! Now, that is precisely what this story in the Gospel of
Mark is all about. Remember the story with me. Jesus is on His way to
the cross. It is just a few days before Passover. The chief priests
and scribes are plotting against Him. Judas is about ready to betray
Him. The crucifixion is less than a week away and Jesus knows it.
Jesus and His disciples stop at Bethany. just a few days before,
Jesus had raised Lazarus from the dead there in Bethany. Now, as they
are having dinner, a woman comes to Jesus and does a beautiful but
extravagant thing for our Lord. The Gospel of John tells us that the
woman was Mary, (the sister of Martha and Lazarus). Mary brings an
alabaster jar of very expensive ointment. She breaks open the jar and
pours the costly perfumed oil on Jesus' head. She anoints His head
with oil.

Why did she do that? Some say it was an act of gratitude in which she
was thanking Jesus for raising her brother Lazarus from the dead. Some
say it was an act of consecration in which she was baptizing Jesus to
encourage Him to go into the Holy City and do what had to be done.
Others say it was a foreshadowing, an act of preparation, in which
she was anointing His body for the death which was to come in
Jerusalem a few days later. All say it was an act of love and
kindness.

But Judas said it was a waste. If you lived strictly by the Judas
mind-set, you would have no Spire on the church, no flowers on the
altar, no art on the wall, no robes for the choir, no fine organ, no
beautiful weddings. Your daughter would come to you and say, "I'm in
love and I'm so happy. I want to get married." And you would say,
"Well, why don't you just elope? It's much cheaper. It would be
wasteful to have a wedding." But the Mary mind-set says, "Sometimes
in the name of love and kindness and gratefulness; it's O.K. Indeed,
it's beautiful to be extravagant." Let me show you what I mean.

1. First Of All, It's OK To Be Extravagant In Our Generosity.
2. Second, It's OK To Be Extravagant In Our Gratitude.
3. Third And Finally, It's OK To Be Extravagant In Our Graciousness.

The rest of this sermon following the outline above can be obtained
by joining www.eSermons.com
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Philippians 3, the sermon titled “Abysmal Heights”

Sometime in life we have all had to endure a “know it all.”

Maybe it was that annoying kid in class who read the dictionary for
fun and whose hand was always waving wildly in the air while claiming
“Oh, I know, I know.”

Know-it-alls plague us later in life as well.

The co-worker who always has a “better way” to do things.
The naysayer who “just knows” that your new idea is doomed to
failure.
The clueless who claim they “know” just how you feel.
The powerful who “know” what is best for the powerless.
The relative who is the resident know-it-all of the family.

The claim of “knowing it all,” of having “absolute knowledge”
guarantees the same results as “absolute power” . . . absolute
disaster.

In the first few centuries after Christ, there were lots of different
religious practices based on special, secret knowledge. Among Greek
and Roman religious cults, Judaism, and certain early Christian
communities, being privy to special “gnosis,” or “knowledge,”
created “insiders” and “outsiders.” There were those “in the
know” and those left out in the dark.

We still have lots of secret societies or what one might even call
“gnostic” tendencies today. Did anyone here join a fraternity or
sorority in college? Remember all the crazy initiation rites you had
to go through? Remember how you were sworn to secrecy from that time
forward?

We all are seduced by gnosticism. Author Dan Brown (“The Da Vinci
Code,” “The Lost Symbol”) has made a fortune remaking and
“revealing” secret “gnosis” that allegedly drove factions
within the Catholic Church and the Brotherhood of Freemasons. Or how
about a secret language, Latin for Christians, Hebrew for Jews, that
kept praises, proclamations, and prayers secret, unintelligible to
the untutored or the uninitiated. Or how about this: can any but
those with insider knowledge understand “military-speak” or
“legalese” or “academese?”

In today’s epistle text Paul takes the first century love of secret
“gnosis” and turns it upside down. All the impressive elements
that had made Paul one of the most “in the know” religious
know-it-alls within Judaism . . . a “Hebrew among Hebrews,” a
Pharisee, a zealous, blameless defender of the faith . . . all those
great achievements Paul suddenly declares as “loss,” as absolute
“excrement.” Paul put a big, fat, minus sign in front of all that
had been previously seen as positive in his life.

What replaces all these human achievements? One thing: “the
surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus, my Lord” (v.8).

What is this “knowing” Paul had experienced?...

The rest of Leonard Sweet's sermon can be obtained by joining
www.Sermons.com <http://www.sermons.com/>

Click here: http://www.sermons.com/signup
 or call 1-800-777-7731 to join.

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Intentional Acts of True Devotion

IATDs - that's what this passage is all about. People were becoming
more and more devoted to Jesus and they were expressing it openly in
ever increasing ways. They even started doing IATDs - Intentional
Acts of True Devotion.

Jesus called Lazarus out of the grave and he came out struggling in
the bondage of his grave clothing. But he came out, he had new life!
Jesus had power even over death! The result was IATDs! People started
following Jesus. Not only did they start following him, they become
devoted to him, and their devotion was radical! Those who saw this
resurrection put their faith in Jesus. The sense of the Greek in
verse 45 is that people without reservation, without growing into it,
at this one miracle put all their faith in him.

And it showed in IATDs. At one time the Jews had been devoted to the
Pharisees and the law. Now in wholesale crowds they were turning to
Jesus, becoming devoted to him, radically devoted to him with the
kind of devotion that is dangerous:

"He'll upset the applecart! We can't have that around here! We'll
lose our place and our power!" That was the thinking of the
Pharisees, so they plotted to take Jesus life. We often think it was
Jesus who got himself in trouble with the Pharisees, but the
Pharisees wouldn't have cared a bit if he didn't have these followers
with their IATDs. Their IATDs got him in trouble to.

Intentional Acts of True Devotion - they're powerful, they're
dangerous, and they mark the lives of those who put their faith in
Jesus.

Bill Versteeg, Intentional Acts of True Devotion
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I Love Mankind

The musical Hair has within it a most provocative song called "Easy
to Be Hard." The gist of the song is that it is easy to "care about
the bleeding crowd" while yet totally ignoring "a needy friend." A
little joke you may have heard makes the same point: "I love mankind
... it is people I can't stand!" Jesus does not set himself apart
from the poor. He simply points out that he himself, as one of the
specific poor, has needs - and that Mary has been sensitive to those
needs. By contrast, Judas pretends to be concerned for the poor (in
general) but is actually only concerned about himself.

Carl L. Jech, Channeling Grace, CSS Publishing Company

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Gratitude

Pastor Victor Shepherd tells the story of a missionary surgeon he met
who was rather gruff and to the point. On one occasion the surgeon was
speaking to a small group of university students about his work in the
Gaza Strip. He was telling us that we North American "fat cats" knew
nothing about gratitude. Nothing! On one occasion he had stopped a
peasant hovel to see a woman on whom he had performed surgery. She
and her husband were dirt poor. Their livestock supply consisted of
one Angora rabbit and two chickens. For income the woman combed the
hair out of the rabbit, spun the hair into yarn and sold it. For food
she and her husband ate the eggs from the chickens. The woman insisted
that the missionary surgeon stay for lunch. He accepted the invitation
and said he would be back for lunch after he had gone down the road to
see another postoperative patient. An hour and a half later he was
back. He peeked into the cooking pot to see what he was going to eat.
He saw one rabbit and two chickens. The woman had given up her entire
livestock supply--her income, her food, everything. He concluded his
story by reminding us that we knew nothing of gratitude. He wept
unashamedly. The incident will stay with me forever.

There id another incident concerning gratitude that will never be
forgotten. It's about a woman who poured costly perfume over our Lord
as she wiped his feet with her hair. Make no mistake--the perfume was
expensive, three hundred denarii, a year's income for a laborer in
Palestine. Enough to keep a family alive for twelve months.

Victor Shepherd, Preacher's Annual 1992, Nashville: Abingdon p. 122.
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When I Pause the Longest

In the biography of Leonardo da Vinci, Antonio Vallenten tells of a
time when the great artist was at work in Milan on his famous
painting of the Last Supper. Da Vinci spent many hours meditating in
the chapel of the monastery where he was working. The monks resented
these "idle periods" and accused the artist of wasting time. But da
Vinci defended these periods of reflection by saying, "When I pause
the longest, I make the most telling strokes with my brush."

Robert A. Beringer, Turning Points, CSS Publishing Company
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Critics

A young musician's concert was poorly received by the critics. The
famous Finnish composer Jean Sibelius consoled him by patting him on
the shoulder and saying, 'Remember, son, there is no city in the
world where they have a statue to a critic.'

Haddon Robinson

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The Power of Fragrance

Isn’t it amazing that John could remember this fragrance so many
years after Christ’s ascension? That, when his mind drifted back to
that last week of Christ’s life, it was the fragrance of Mary’s
offering that framed his memory. What once was an oasis for Jesus,
that helped comfort him so he could go forward, was now an oasis in
John’s memory that helped him deal with the rigors of his trials.
Still today, two thousand years later, Mary’s gift brings fragrance
to our lives and while Mary was condemned by the apostle’s that day
for her extravagance, she provided a gift that has been remembered
for thousands of years. Her fragrance still fills our lives with the
presence of Christ.

Jerry Goebel, The House Was Filled With the Fragrance of the Perfume
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How Much to Spend on The Poor?

What happened at Jesus’ anointing in Bethany has plagued the
followers of Jesus from then until now. How much do we spend on
ourselves and how much do we give to missions? Couldn't we do more
good by giving all this money to the poor instead of spending it on,
say, a new building?

In partial response to this question, my mind goes back to an
experience of William Willimon, chaplain at Duke University. Willimon
tells of the time the faculty of Duke was discussing a proposal to
renovate the seminary chapel. They had received a modest proposal
from the architect. But, would the chapel be renovated? No. "With all
the poverty and hunger in the world," said one faculty member, "how
can we as Christians justify spending $50,000 to pretty-up our
chapel?" Of course, this person failed to offer similar objections
when faculty salaries were raised each year, (a figure that
collectively exceeds $50,000) nor does he question the morality of
the luxurious faculty lounge. Obviously the man was posturing, just
as Judas was posturing. Even so, the problem is tough. How much
should we give to others and how much should we reserve for
ourselves?

Richard Meyer, Break a Vase

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A Simple Answer

Could that have been Judas' greatest downfall, the inability to see
himself as a sinner and hence receive God's forgiveness? For without
that sense of forgiveness, life holds little joy and the future is
hopeless. Someone once said that the person who knows himself or
herself to be a sinner and does not know God's forgiveness is like an
overweight person who fears stepping on a scale.

I once read about a very bitter man who was sick in soul, mind, and
body. He was in the hospital in wretched condition, not because his
body had been invaded by a virus or infected with some germ, but
because his anger and contempt had poisoned his soul. One day, when
he was at his lowest, he said to his nurse, "Won't you give me
something to end it all?" Much to the man's surprise, the nurse said,
"All right. I will." She went to the nightstand and pulled out the
Gideon Bible and began to read, "For God so loved the world that he
gave his only begotten Son that whosoever believeth in him should not
perish but have eternal life." When she finished she said…

The conclusion to this illustration and for many additional
illustrations and sermons for the Lent 5 can be accessed at
www.Sermons.com <http://www.sermons.com/>
.