The Great Commission
Part 16 – Jesus visits Mary & Martha
Pastor Bruce A. Shields
House of Faith – www.PS127.org | www.TruthDigest.org
ANNOUNCEMENTS
6:00PM Evening Service at the church –
“Seminary Students will be preaching”
April 27th – Deacon Kurt Ulman
May 4th – Grace Steadman
May 11th – Lori Ulman
May 18th – Lynnette Higgins
May 25th – Walker Spriggs
WHERE WE ARE AT
† Jesus is Transfigured on the mountain
† Peter wants to build tabernacles to saints
† God speaks of Jesus, He is the ONLY ONE to listen to!
† Christ will not share the praise, or the prayer, or the worship with even the greatest of saints. He alone is worthy.
† The Disciples fail to heal a boy because they lacked Faith
† Jesus heals boy and rebukes the Disciples for their lack of Faith
† Jesus Pays the Temple Tax
SCRIPTURE READING
Luke 10:38 – 42
38 As Jesus and his disciples were on their way, he came to a village where a woman named Martha opened her home to him. 39 She had a sister called Mary, who sat at the Lord’s feet listening to what he said. 40 But Martha was distracted by all the preparations that had to be made. She came to him and asked, "Lord, don’t you care that my sister has left me to do the work by myself? Tell her to help me!"
41 "Martha, Martha," the Lord answered, "you are worried and upset about many things, 42 but only one thing is needed. Mary has chosen what is better, and it will not be taken away from her."
INTRODUCTION
We see here that Jesus upon entering the little village of Bethany, a suburb of Jerusalem, He was invited to stay at the house of Martha.
Martha’s sister also lived there, and both were excited to receive this great teacher!
When one received Jesus, you also received the Apostles, and sometimes His Disciples as well. It would usually take a few houses in a village to take in all of Jesus’ followers.
Here we see Jesus and a few of His Disciples coming to the house of Martha.
I. A CERTAIN VILLAGE
a. Bethany
i. John 11:1; 12:1-3
b. Martha Invited Jesus
i. It was apparently Martha’s house, so she is the one who had to invite Jesus into her home.
The Bible teaches that the spiritual head of the house is responsible for what goes on in that house.
Only to what you allow, not to what happens.
Here are some of the words or phrases the Bible used to describe the sons of Eli:
• "Worthless men" (1st Samuel 2:12)
• "They would not listen to the voice of their father" (1st Samuel 2:25)
• "The sin of the young men was very great in the sight of the LORD" (1st Samuel 2:17)
• "The men treated the offering of the LORD with contempt" (1st Samuel 2:17)
• "They did not know the Lord" (1st Samuel 2:12)
In 1 Samuel 3:11-14, in a vision to Samuel, the Lord tells Samuel that Eli’s house will be punished:
"Then the LORD said to Samuel, "Behold, I am about to do a thing in Israel at which the two ears of everyone who hears it will tingle. On that day I will fulfill against Eli all that I have spoken concerning his house, from beginning to end. And I declare to him that I am about to punish his house forever, for the iniquity that he knew, because his sons were blaspheming God, and he did not restrain them. Therefore I swear to the house of Eli that the iniquity of Eli’s house shall not be atoned for by sacrifice or offering forever."
To me one of the saddest parts of this passage is that Eli knew his sons were disobeying the Lord, yet he did not stop them from their sin. Parents have a very important responsibility to discipline their children. Children must be taught to obey their parents as well as the Lord. As Ephesians 6:4 states: "Fathers, do not provoke your children to anger, but bring them up in the discipline and instruction of the Lord." It is vital that children are taught to obey the Lord, for if they are not, they could depart from the Lord like Eli’s sons.
ii. Who is the head of your house?
1. The man is the spiritual head…
2. Unless there is no man, then it’s God…
3. “Your Maker is your husband, the Lord of hosts is His name" Is. 54:5
iii. Have you invited Jesus into your home?
1. Exodus and the Passover
a. Through obedience the fathers brought protection
2. Roman Centurion and his household
a. Through faith in Jesus the father brought salvation
3. Spiritual Head
a. Through commitment to Christ, you will bring all the benefits, protection, and the many blessings of the Lord into your household!
c. Martha was full of ‘Works’
She more than likely was preparing for Jesus’ visit ‘before’ she actually invited Him.
And we see she was still working while He was there.
i. Works are sometimes confused with being ‘doers’ of the Word
1. Young rich man listed his works to Jesus…
2. Pharisee listed his works to God after seeing the tax collector pray…
3. In Matthew, there will be those who list their works to Jesus at the Great White throne during judgment, to no avail…
ii. There are “works (as being doers of the Word)”
James 1:21 & 22
21 Therefore, get rid of all moral filth and the evil that is so prevalent and humbly accept the word planted in you, which can save you.
22 Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says.
Ephesians 2:10
For we are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.
The good works we do, the ones that count…are the ones God prepared for us to do in advance…
God prepared in advance opportunities for us in this life to do Good Works in His name.
Whether or not we do them is our free will.
Never the less God created these opportunities for us, and when we do them, THAT is Good Works that counts toward us!
Not what we choose to do as a Good Work, but the fulfilling of opportunities that God set aside for us to do in His Name.
His Will, not ours.
iii. And there are works…as in trying to ‘earn’ favor.
1 Corinthians 5:6
Your boasting is not good. Don’t you know that a little yeast works through the whole batch of dough?
What is yeast in the scriptures? SIN.
What is he saying is sin here? Boasting, bragging, about what you’ve done.
1 Corinthians 3:10 - 15
10 By the grace God has given me, I laid a foundation as an expert builder, and someone else is building on it. But each one should be careful how he builds. 11 For no one can lay any foundation other than the one already laid, which is Jesus Christ. 12 If any man builds on this foundation using gold, silver, costly stones, wood, hay or straw, 13 his work will be shown for what it is, because the Day will bring it to light. It will be revealed with fire, and the fire will test the quality of each man’s work. 14 If what he has built survives, he will receive his reward. 15 If it is burned up, he will suffer loss; he himself will be saved, but only as one escaping through the flames.
Everything we do, our “works” must be built upon the foundation of Christ.
Anything we do in the name of Christ is like building with gold, silver and costly stones.
Anything we do for any other reason, to please others, to look good, to earn favor with God or man, is like building with wood, hay or straw.
On judgment day, our works in life will be tested by fire, this means judgment of Christ.
He knows the “why” in why you did something on earth.
Was it truly for His name or for you?
The truth will be revealed. If it was for Him it will survive the judgment, and you will receive a reward!
If it was not for Him, you will suffer loss…why, because you had an opportunity that God had set aside for you to do a good work in His name, and you did it for another reason, thus building with wood, hay & straw.
What God meant for an opportunity for you to serve Him in His name and receive a reward in heaven, you ruined for selfishness here on earth.
So you suffer loss, because you will not receive your reward for those works.
You, yourself will still be saved and go to heaven, but you will not receive reward for those deeds.
So there are ‘works’ we are supposed to do as in being doers of the Word…
And there are ‘works’ that we sometimes do to try and earn favor with the Lord or other people, and these are the worthless chaff that get burned away on judgment day.
II. MARTHA WAS DISTRACTED WITH HER PREPARATIONS
a. Distracted with her preparations
i. Why was she still preparing? Jesus was THERE!
b. Distracted with her serving
i. Jesus would rather us be in communion with Him than running around trying to make everything perfect in His presence.
c. Distracted with her ‘Works’
i. Because these ‘works’ of Martha’s wasn’t a result from being a ‘doer’ of the word, but rather, trying to make everything perfect in the presence of Jesus, they were causing her to miss the fact that Jesus was in her presence!
ii. Sometimes we’re so busy trying to “BE” Christians, we actually stop following Christ.
III. MARTHA LASHED OUT AT MARY
a. Mary is not doing what ‘I AM’!
i. So she must not be truly serving…
ii. This is how it’s done…everyone else must be wrong…
iii. Why isn’t everyone doing what I think they should be doing?
b. Lord, Don’t you care?
i. Don’t you care that they aren’t following my lead?
ii. Don’t you care they are not doing what I think they should be doing?
c. Lord, Make her do what I am doing!
i. Now it’s your turn to do what I say Lord…
ii. I know what is best for me and everyone around me…
iii. Now make them obey me Lord!
IV. JESUS CORRECTS MARTHA
a. Martha, Martha…
i. Anytime Jesus starts out with saying your name a couple times, you should prepare yourself for the rebuke…
b. You are worried and upset about many things…
i. By many things, Jesus is saying ‘they are just things…”
ii. Things with NO SPIRITUAL CONSEQUENCE
iii. Are you concerned with things of no spiritual consequence?
1.
c. Mary has “CHOSEN” what is better
