Jesus Came To Be Our King Series

He Came To Be Our King

What Jesus Came To Do – part three

TODAY – is our 3rd week in our series, What Jesus Came To Do. SO – far we have seen that Jesus came to seek and save the lost (why? Because lost people (regardless of age, color, education, looks or social standing) matter to God; because lost people are valuable God and because The Father desires that all lost people come home…

AND – last wee we saw that Jesus also came to replace rules with relationships… LISTEN – Jesus Christ brought in the new and better way of relating to God – not through rules that are a burden and that we could never live up to – BUT – through relationships… We know that Jesus came to usher in the era of relationship because of they way in came – (he became one of us; because of what he did – (he nailed the rule book to the cross & he hung out with people…people like me & you…) AND because of what he said – (that God is our Dad & that we are his friends…)

THIS MORNING – Palm Sunday, we will see that Jesus came to be our king!!!

Prayer…

It’s six days before the Passover, in less then a week Jesus would be hanging on a cross. But right now Jesus is in Bethany a small village about 2 miles east of Jerusalem. He is at the home of Simon the leper having a meal. At the dinner are: the 12 disciples, Mary, Martha and Lazarus (who Jesus had just raised from the dead a few days earlier) they were giving a dinner in honor of Jesus.

TRY – to picture the scene…. They are reclining at the table eating and talking… QUESTION – what kind of conversations to you think were going on? NOW - I am pretty confident that some there had to have a few questions for Lazarus….

Lazarus what was it like to be dead?

Lazarus do you remember anything?

Did you see anything?

Did you hear Jesus shout from outside the tomb?

Others were probably talking to Jesus asking him questions and recounting recent events....

“SO – Jesus the greatest really is the one who serves?

AND – those 2 commands really are the greatest and sum up everything (Love God/Love people)?”

“Jesus – do you remember the look that Zacheus had on his face when you looked at him up in that tree and told him that you were going to go over to house… AND – I don’t think ever saw anyone so joyful as he was after he heard the good news… he was so pumped up – I’d almost thought he’d burst…”

And still others were saying things such as, "pass the gravy -- and hey Pete how come you always take the biggest lamb chop.. Just a bunch of friends who had shared so much having a meal together, enjoying each others company --laughing telling jokes and having a good time.

AND SUDDENLY – their conversations were interrupted by the sound of breaking glass… And they thought that Ol’ Martha must have dropped something – (and maybe they even applauded in jest like we do sometimes...) BUT - then they noticed a strong aroma filling the entire room - it was the aroma of expensive perfume....

And they looked over at Jesus, and saw Mary kneeling at the master’s feet, pouring perfume on them and drying his feet with her hair... NOW - Mary did this, because she loved Jesus -- and she wanted to do something for Jesus -- and something inside her told her to do it now... "Mary don’t wait, you need to do it now, you might not have another chance, so do it while you still can." So she did...

Now the practical disciples and Judas the thief, rebuked Mary for what they thought was a waste, saying that they could have sold the perfume and used the money to help the poor…

QUESTION – was it a waste to pour perfume worth a years wages on someone’s feet? Was it worth it to pour $35,000 worth of perfume on the feet of Jesus? Was Jesus worth that much?

WELL – it all depends on whether or not Jesus was who he said he was…. UNDERSTAND – if Jesus was not who said he was – THEN to even wash his feet with dirty dish water would have been a waste… BUT LISTEN – if Jesus really was God in the flesh, if Jesus really was the Messiah, If He really was the Savior of the world, THEN – if Mary was somehow on that night, able to put all the wealth of the entire world into that small bottle and pour on the feet of Jesus it would not be waste – it would be worth it..!