THE ESSENCE OF WORSHIP
Mark 14:3-9
Back in my hometown of Chicago I have a friend by the name of Pastor Flozell Porter the pastor of the Burnside Missionary Baptist Church now we would sit and talk about different topics the music ministry,outreach ministry etc.but Pastor Porter had a great concern why had the membership fell off and he wanted to find out first hand, he first went door to door with a survey, asking people who had left the church why they no longer attended. Know what the top two answers were? First, the worship services were boring; second, the sermons were irrelevant. Now, I do recognize that it’s quite possible for a pastor to make the greatest story ever told - the most gripping and significant message ever proclaimed - seem dull and routine, but hey: if you can find the Gospel of Jesus Christ irrelevant, and the worship of almighty God boring, I have to ask, what could possibly be more engaging than your Creator? What could possibly be more enthralling and exciting than the salvation of your eternal soul? . . . And what were you expecting when you walked through that door? What were you looking for instead of God?
Minister Flemings lead us in bible study with Scripture from Revelation chapter 7. Turn there please if you have not torn it out. . . . Have you ever thought, Why would I want to spend an eternity in heaven worshiping God? Singing, and praising God? "Serving Him", verse 15, "day and night in His temple?" How will that be heaven? Won’t that get boring after awhile? . . . If this is how we feel about the prospect of worshiping eternally in heaven, then it’s quite possible that we’ve never experienced true worship, that we have never truly understood the worship of God here on earth. And if that’s the case, then we need to ask ourselves the question, What were we expecting when we walked through that door? What were we looking for when we came to worship? What attitude do we need to bring with us instead? And what is the essence - the irreducible, indispensable heart - of true worship?
Revelation 7 is a picture of the saints - the redeemed and glorified church - worshiping God in heaven. Because of verse 14, “these are the ones who come out of the great tribulation”, some would say that Revelation 7 represents only the saints who someday will go through a great tribulation at the end of the age; while others would say that it represents all Christians who have endured - and who will endure - through the great tribulations of this present age. I think it’s instructive to remember that Revelation 7 was written to 1st century Christians, and was meant to be a comfort to them, many of whom were already suffering greatly, whose tribulation in some cases could not have been any greater.
Look at verse 9, Revelation 7:9: "After these things I looked, and behold, a great multitude which no one could number, of all nations, tribes, peoples, and tongues, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed with white robes, with palm branches in their hands, 10 and crying out with a loud voice, saying, ’Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb!’ " . . . That’s the saints of God, worshiping Him, standing before Him, crying out how?, half-heartedly? mechanically? indifferently? Was their worship lukewarm or perfunctory or unemotional? No, says John, they cried out with a loud voice, saying, Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb!
I don’t think the saints in heaven are bored! I don’t think they find the Gospel, their salvation that was bought, verse 14, with the blood of the Lamb, irrelevant. They cry out with a loud voice, without reservation, without regret, and without self-consciousness. They cry out for all they’re worth! It’s like in Psalm 32:11, which I read earlier: "Be glad in the LORD and rejoice, you righteous; And shout for joy, all you upright in heart!" . . . And as they cry out their praise to the living God, they aren’t looking over their shoulders, longing wistfully for what they’ve left behind; they aren’t standing around wishing they could be somewhere else, doing something else. No, their attention is riveted on their God who sits upon the throne, and on the Lamb. Why?
Skip down to verse 16 - remember these saints have been through a great tribulation, verse 16: "They shall neither hunger anymore nor thirst anymore; the sun shall not strike them, nor any heat; 17 for the Lamb who is in the midst of the throne will shepherd them and lead them to living fountains of waters. And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes." . . . Instead of deprivation, they have satisfaction. Instead of suffering, they have sustenance. Instead of adversity and affliction and turmoil and tears, they have comfort and hope and peace and joy. And God Himself has wiped away all of their tears. . . . Why do they worship and serve Him day and night? Why is their focus entirely on Him? Why are they not bored in the least? . . . Because what they have found, to their delight, is that Jesus Christ is the fountain of living waters, the source of all of their gladness, and the fulfillment of all of their needs. And because of that, they are utterly and thoroughly satisfied with Him.
And so we ask, do we have to wait until heaven to be able to worship God like this, to be this satisfied with Him? Please turn now to our text for this morning, Mark 14. All four Gospels tell the story of a woman who came to anoint Jesus with a precious fragrant oil. Matthew and Mark are definitely telling about the same woman, the same incident, and most likely John is as well. But Luke’s version, in chapter 7, is so different that we almost have to conclude that this happened to Jesus more than once, and possibly more than twice. There aren’t many incidents in Jesus’ life that are mentioned in all four Gospels, not even His birth. That gives us a clue as to just how significant this story is. Mark 14, starting at verse 3:
3 "And being in Bethany at the house of Simon the leper" . . . Bethany was a suburb of Jerusalem, about a 30 minute walk away. This event takes place during the week of Passover, shortly before the crucifixion, and it’s likely that Jesus was coming into Bethany from Jerusalem each night He was there. . . . Now, there’s no way that Jesus and His disciples would have entered the home of a man with active leprosy, certainly not so close to the Passover feast. So “the leper” may be just a nickname that this man Simon had been tagged with, or it could be that he actually was a leper whom Jesus had healed.
Continue on, verse 3: "as He sat at the table - or He reclined, as some versions have it, for the purpose of eating a meal - as He sat at the table, a woman came having an alabaster flask of very costly oil of spikenard." . . . In John’s version of this event, John 12, Lazarus - who has just been raised from the dead in John 11 - is present at the table, his sister Martha is said to serve the meal, and his sister Mary is identified as the woman who brings the flask of oil. So it may very well be that this Simon is their father. . . . The alabaster flask is crystallized gypsum, which is a hard brittle material, but not unbreakable. The oil is an aromatic, possibly in a pistachio oil base, and was extracted from the root of the spikenard plant - of the valerian family - that was found in the Indian Himalayan mountains.
And as we’re about to find out, this rare aromatic oil was very expensive. John tells us that it weighed a pound, which in those days was more like 12 ounces, rather than 16. But it was worth 300 denarii, which when you consider that a denarius was the standard pay for a day’s labor, makes the cost of this thing equivalent to a year’s wages. . . . Think about that: what do you make in a year? Suffice it to say, this is not an item that you could go down and purchase at Macy’s. This is either a very extravagant possession - a family heirloom, along the lines of a diamond necklace - or it’s a very precious personal possession that a woman would keep, perhaps as her dowry, or perhaps to be anointed at her own death. . . . Beloved, this flask of oil was either the key to Mary’s present social status, or it was the key to her ability to marry, or to have a proper burial. So in a very real sense, what Mary now held in her hands represented a highly significant part of her hopes, her dreams, and her future.
Now continue on, verse 3: "Then she broke the flask and poured it on His head." . . . In order to preserve the oil, it had to be tightly sealed in alabaster. But in order to use the oil, which could not be saved once opened, the long neck of the flask had to be irreversibly and decisively broken. And I wonder what went through her mind just before she broke it. What compelled her to give up this part of her life? . . . Was she thinking back to the many times she had sat at Jesus’ feet, soaking up His life-changing teaching? Was she thinking of the joy that she had felt when her beloved brother Lazarus was restored to her family? Or was she thinking about what Martha had told her that Jesus had said just before that great miracle - “I am the resurrection and the life” - and how she was just beginning to understand what that meant, to understand Who this extraordinary Man really is?
And as she pondered these things, did she start to realize, If this Man can raise my brother from the dead, if this Man can give me joy and peace and new life, if this Man is Who He says He is, then He is all that I need. Did she say, I don’t need my social status, I don’t need a proper burial, I don’t even need to have a husband, or to have children. Did she say, I don’t need any of those other things, I don’t need any of my prized possessions - my cherished longings and desires - my hope chest full of hoarded treasures. Because now I have Him! Now I’ve found Him! He is now the key to my future, He is all of my hopes and dreams, and He is all that I desire. And did she think of Psalm 73:25: "Whom have I in heaven but You? And there is none upon earth that I desire besides You. 26 My flesh and my heart may fail; But God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever."
Because we do know that she said to herself, I don’t need this costly aromatic oil anymore. Because, verse 3, she took it and she broke it and she poured it out, where?, she poured it out on Jesus’ head.
Well, what else would you do with costly aromatic oil? What should we do with anything that we possess, with any talent that we have, with any gift? . . . What’s the logical thing to do with it? Save it, hoard it, stockpile it. But what’s the most worshipful thing to do with it? Use it up on Jesus Christ. Did Jesus need Mary to go out and sell that oil, to get the best possible price for it? Does Jesus need our money? He owns the cattle on a thousand hills, and the gold on a million worlds. So why do we give, why do we tithe? So Jesus will have money? Or do we give so we will learn to trust Him, and to seek Him, and to be satisfied with Him, rather than with money? Mary did the very best thing she could have done with that oil, she released it from her grip, she used it up on Jesus, and she gave it out of the fullness of her heart to the One Whom she now loved; a sweet, sweet aroma of obedience and of joy and of worship.
Verse 4 "But there were some who were indignant among themselves, and said, ’Why was this fragrant oil wasted? 5 For it might have been sold for more than three hundred denarii and given to the poor.’ And they criticized her sharply." . . . They criticized her sharply. Some of us know all about that. Some of us have felt the sharp stinging criticism of our unbelieving family and friends, the painful rebukes and disapproval that can come to those who commit themselves fully to Christ, who’ve broken all their flasks of worldly opportunity and security for the sake of their Savior. . . . What? You’ve given your life to Christ? What a waste! You could have amounted to something, you could have been someone! And now you’ve spilled out your life for nothing, you’ve spilled it out all over the floor.
But if you look at Matthew’s account, Matthew 26, he tells us that those who criticized Mary weren’t her family, and except for Judas, weren’t unbelievers at all. Matthew 26, verse 8, “But when His disciples saw it, they were indignant.” . . . Have you ever been criticized by a fellow believer because your sacrifice, your act of worship, your pursuit of God, didn’t measure up to their standard? . . . What you should have done was sell that and give it to the poor. Hey, you’ve got this extra money, you should be giving it to the church. Or hey, instead of just giving of your time, you should be giving your possessions: how about that house of yours, or that car - do you really need such a nice car?, or that retirement account. Don’t you trust God? But then from someone else you might hear, hey, instead of just giving your possessions, if you were really spiritual, you would be giving of your time.
Beloved, my commitment to Christ, my devotion to Him, my worship, isn’t going to look exactly like yours. How could it? We’re not all the same, and we don’t all have the same gifts. What I have to give to Him - that sacrifice which is most meaningful to me and therefore most glorifying to God - may be totally invisible and unknown to everyone else. Remember in Mark 12 where the rich all came and put large sums of money into the Temple treasury? But the poor widow put in two mites, which was all she had to live on? And remember who was really worshiping God? Remember who was truly serving Him and trusting Him?
And so we see in our text, verse 6, Jesus defending Mary’s act of worship: "But Jesus said, ’Let her alone. Why do you trouble her? She has done a good work for Me. 7 For you have the poor with you always, and whenever you wish you may do them good; but Me you do not have always. 8 She has done what she could. She has come beforehand to anoint My body for burial.’ " . . . Did Mary understand what she was doing? That she was preparing Jesus for His crucifixion, for His burial? It’s possible, but I doubt it. None of His disciples understood what was about to happen; none of them could accept it. So either Mary was the most spiritually astute and sensitive follower that Jesus had - which again is possible - or else she was simply worshiping Jesus the best way, verse 8, that she could, surrendering to Him that which was most dear to her, and God in His grace and in His sovereignty gave her sacrifice eternal significance. Verse 9 "Assuredly, I say to you, wherever this gospel is preached in the whole world, what this woman has done will also be told as a memorial to her."
Beloved, this story of Mary has etched itself on my soul this week; it has challenged me at the very core of my being. This was a hard sermon to work on! Because this text lays out for me so unambiguously what is the essence of worship. Are you ready? Here it comes: The essence of worship - the irreducible, indispensable heart of worship - is being satisfied with God. Being satisfied with God to the point where I don’t have to look to anything else in my life, to anything or anyone else in the world, to bring me happiness or contentment. Being satisfied with God, and finding Him to be truly the fountain of living waters.
Remember that worship fundamentally means “worth-ship”, so that the worship of God means assigning worth to Him, declaring Him to be worthy of our praise? But how better to declare God’s worth, his value, to us - Ephesians 3, before the principalities and powers - than by trusting Him to meet our needs, rather than trusting and hoping in the many fragile, brittle flasks of oil that we sometimes grip so tightly? How better to worship Him than by simply being satisfied with Who He is and with what He has done for us?
But here’s why this text is such a challenge to me. I have to be honest with you. I don’t know if I’m capable of the kind of pure act of worship that Mary performed that day. Have I sat long enough at His feet hearing His teaching, have I seen enough miracles of new life, have I become so convinced that He is the only source of my joy and my contentment, that I am now willing to break that last flask of oil in my life, to lay that most cherished dream of mine down on the altar, and then to pour it out before Him in genuine worship? Once Mary broke that thing open, there was no turning back. Am I that committed? Am I that satisfied with God, does He truly satisfy the deepest longings of my heart? (close)
Because Mary was under no misapprehensions about why she was there that day: she came to worship. She walked through those doors, she strode up to the altar, she got down on her knees, and she poured out her life to Jesus. She didn’t give Him what was convenient but hold back her best, she didn’t look wistfully over her shoulder at what she was leaving behind in order to follow Him, and she most certainly wasn’t bored. Because she knew that Jesus was going to meet all of her needs, and she knew that she would be forever satisfied with Him.
But this story of Mary also challenges me to realize that we shouldn’t think of genuine worship as something we’ll do someday in heaven. Nor should we think of it as something we do only on Sunday mornings. Think about it: Sunday morning worship is just an intensified microcosm of what should be going on in our lives all week: the frequent reading and in-depth studying of God’s Word, the singing of praises to Him, praying often to our Father in heaven, and devoting ourselves to His service.
Beloved, genuine worship should be the pattern of our everyday lives. And it should permeate our hearts, it should get all the way down to the level of our possessions and our inmost thoughts and desires, and even our very bodies. 1 Corinthians 10:31 "Therefore, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God." . . . Colossians 3:17 "And whatever you do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through Him." . . . And Romans 12:1: "Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God, which is your spiritual - or reasonable - act of worship."
So what goes on in my heart on Sunday mornings is probably a pretty good barometer of what’s going on in my heart during the week. Do I get bored with God on Sunday mornings, or does He satisfy my heart? Am I waiting for the service to be over, so I can enjoy fellowship with my friends, or is my mind focused on Him? When I hear the Gospel presented, in the declaration of pardon, or in the Lord’s Table, do I find my mind wandering, or am I gripped by the truth that Jesus shed His blood for me? When I sing the hymns, when I recite the creed, when I read the Scriptures, am I crying out with a loud voice, or do I just go through the motions? And the answers to all of these questions will probably tell me whether or not I’m desiring God with all my mind and with all my strength and with all my soul; or whether on the other hand, I am still placing my hopes in that alabaster flask of aromatic oil I have hidden away in my heart.
I know that the worship of God’s people will not reach perfection until we are in heaven. But I am getting very tired of the superficiality of my own worship. I am not interested any more in merely playing at worship, in giving half-hearted lip service to God. Beloved, if Jesus is indeed the real deal, the fountain of living waters, the Bread of Life, then what are we waiting for? Why are we bothering with all of this other junk that so occupies our minds? In what are we placing our hopes of being satisfied? What’s in that alabaster flask of mine, and of yours, that we need to pour out before the Lord? Is it a new house, a new relationship, our health, a husband or a wife, children of my own?
When will we decide instead to cry out to the Lord with a loud voice, to worship Him only, to be satisfied only with Him, only with the Lamb Who gave His life for me?
Isaiah 55:1 "Ho! Everyone who thirsts, Come to the waters; And you who have no money, Come, buy and eat. Yes, come, buy wine and milk Without money and without price. 2 Why do you spend money for what is not bread, And your wages for what does not satisfy? Listen carefully to Me, and eat what is good, And let your soul delight itself in abundance.”
