Make Me A Bethany

Say before intro-ing sermon-his morning, we are going to be pausing our Book of Daniel series to focus on the events of Holy Week.

"Make Me a Bethany"

Palm Sunday, April 13, 2025

CCCAG

Scripture: John 12:1-8 (CSB)________________________________________

Introduction

When you go to bible school to be a pastor, one of the required classes is on church growth. In that class, one of the required readings was Rick Warren’s book “The Purpose Driven Church” —which exhorts the reader to develop and energize people within the congregation to grow the church.

At that point in my studies, I had just started attending Prayer House in Kenosha. Ron Auch was the pastor, and he was not a fan of The Purpose Driven Church, and he had a very different idea about how to build and grow a church.

He wrote a book called “The Jesus Sensitive Church” which asked a simple question: “Would Jesus choose to worship at this church”?

That’s stuck with me. It really changed my focus on how to follow Jesus and even how to pastor. Pastor Ron believed that if you bring a person into an intimate relationship with Jesus, everything else, including church growth, will work itself out.

On this Palm Sunday, We are going to use this as our mindset as we read the account of Jesus visiting Bethany.

Bethany was a very special place for Jesus.

Bethany was where Jesus’ best friend Lazarus and his two sisters Mary and Martha lived. Bethany was a place where Jesus could relax, be Himself, and step away from the crowds for a short time.

As we explore what happened this evening, it’s my prayer that we can individually become a Bethany of sorts to Jesus- a place where HE feels comfortable, surrounded by those that love HIM and stand ready to serve, and that extravagantly worships HIM.

Let’s read the scripture this morning-

Scripture

Joh 12:1-3 (CSB) Six days before the Passover, Jesus came to Bethany where Lazarus was, the one Jesus had raised from the dead. (2) So they gave a dinner for him there; Martha was serving them, and Lazarus was one of those reclining at the table with him. (3) Then Mary took a pound of perfume, pure and expensive nard, anointed Jesus’s feet, and wiped his feet with her hair. So the house was filled with the fragrance of the perfume.

Prayer

Today is Palm Sunday- the Sunday where we remember when Jesus enters Jerusalem, fulfilling the prophecy of Zechariah 9:9:

Zec 9:9 Rejoice greatly, Daughter Zion! Shout in triumph, Daughter Jerusalem! Look, your King is coming to you; he is righteous and victorious, humble and riding on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a donkey.

The events we read about at Bethany occur the night before Jesus begins his final journey toward the cross on Palm Sunday.

The first thing we see- Jesus chose to spend the evening with his closest friends—Lazarus, Martha, and Mary.

There is a subtle difference between our close friends and everyday friends, isn’t there?

For most people who might be coming over to your house for a meal or celebration, we put on the pretense of having a perfect house and fancy meal.

Imagine how much more so we would do that with Jesus!

But that is not what we are seeing in Bethany. Jesus was at home there, and HE was always welcome.

It didn’t matter if there was unfolded laundry, dishes in the sink, or empty fridge. Jesus was always welcome.

Do you have friends like that? Ones who can walk in, grab a soda, kick back, and just… stay for awhile?"

That’s the kind of scene we’re looking at in John 12:1-8. This is a time of fellowship between people who deeply care for each other.

Today, my sermon is titled "Make Me a Bethany."

My purpose and prayer for this message is: “Lord, make my life a place where You’re at home, where You’re worshipped with abandon, where You can find rest.”

The end goal is to help us become so passionate for Jesus that He’s drawn to hang out with us, like He was in Bethany.

Let’s unpack this text and see what it means to be a Bethany for our Savior.

We start with us becoming a being a place of presence- represented in the biblical account by Lazarus. ________________________________________

1. A Place of Presence-Lazerus (John 12:1-2)

What does it mean to be present?

When I first started in ministry, I signed up to be a volunteer chaplain at the local hospitals.

I was assigned an experienced chaplain to shadow as they ministered to people in the hospital, and occasionally the jail. I quickly found out that I had the wrong idea of what being a chaplain was about.

I learned you couldn’t use the paramedic approach- Go into the room, evaluate the situation and the problem, and then fix it.