Fresh Encounter
Jerry Watts
John 12:1-11
* Have you ever had an experience which you would call an ‘encounter?’ Encounters are those events in your life which you ‘remember!’ I’ll never forget the time I almost stepped on a cotton mouth moccasin. I’ll never forget when, at age 10, I ran into a barbed wire fence severely cutting my left shoulder & the left side of my face.
* However, all encounters are not & have not been bad. While a Senior in High School, one Saturday evening I was at home watching TV and saw an advertisement about the Oak Ridge Boys being in concert at William Carey College the next afternoon. Mom & dad said, ‘yes’ so I went to the concert. The pre-group for the Oaks was a local male quartet called, “The Trailsmen.” They did a number of songs and I was impressed with these guys for all kinds of reasons. However, they soon became a vague memory. Fast forward 7 months. I went to a friend’s church for revival and guess who was leading the services? It was the Trailsmen. About 2 weeks later I joined the Trailsmen and still today have contact with them & connections around the country. It happened not because of the first encounter but the second one or the ‘fresh one.’
* Next weekend we have set aside 3 days for a time together which I am calling, “Fresh Encounter.” It is one thing to have encountered Christ for Salvation, but it could well be another thing to have a ‘fresh encounter’ with Christ. What if you are only ONE FRESH ENCOUNTER AWAY from doing something extraordinary for our Lord & His Kingdom? Some people ask about giving an ‘altar call’ at every service & state they are afraid people will come too often. Personally, I am more afraid of one coming too seldom & rather than too often.
* A fresh encounter with the Lord might be exactly what you need to raise your faith, raise your service, and yes, raise your life to the next level. Our story today is a familiar one. Sadly, sometimes familiar stories lose their impact in our lives. So let’s take a fresh look story.
* It begins “Six days before the Passover.” Now do you know which Passover this is? Jesus has lived through many Passovers, but this is the one he’ll die at.
* Then it says, “Jesus came to Bethany.” Do you know where Bethany is? It is just a few clicks from Jerusalem. It is almost as if Jesus came to Bethany to see (or say good-bye to friends) as His face is now set toward Jerusalem. In previous years, it seemed that everytime He got close to Jerusalem the opposition was too hot for Him to hang out there. Now He was headed there, where He would die for the sin of the world, for you and for me.
* On His way there, it seems He stops at Bethany to see this family. His friends were a family of three, Mary, Martha, and Lazarus. This was not the first time Jesus and His disciples had stopped by. Scriptures record at least one other occasion (Luke) 10 they had come, dinner was served, and basically had the same configuration of guests. From looking at these two events, we can learn much about our need for & the impact of a “Fresh Encounter” with Jesus. I bring your attention to 4 people in this room & see how their fresh encounter changed them.
1. We begin with Martha, She teaches us about “Service to Jesus”. What is Martha doing? She is doing what we always find her doing, she is serving. Yet her serving is different on this day- largely because of her “Luke 10” experience. Think about it. In that recorded first encounter, the gang came in, Mary took her seat at the feet of Jesus, & Martha (with the gift of service), began to serve. Those with the gift of service are the workers & she was working.
* In fact, Dr. Luke writes that she was distracted by her much serving. How exactly does this happen? The danger for the gift of service is that they tend to judge others by what they’re NOT doing.
* If you think about what happened in that first encounter, you’ll see Martha welcoming everyone into her house & immediately beginning to serve. Why? Because that what she does, it’s almost like ‘Who she is.’ On the other hand, Mary, taken by being in the presence of the Lord, takes a seat at His feet. Here’s the picture; a house full of company & only one of the two ladies of the house doing anything. Martha walks in sits down some food, gives Mary a look that says, “I could use some help”, Mary is oblivious to anything but Jesus, and so Martha returns to the kitchen ‘mumbling’ about how she should really use some help. (Probably the guests could now hear the pots and pans at war in the kitchen!) When she returns there is a hush in the room because everyone knows something is wrong with Martha. Now she puts it to Jesus, “Lord, don’t you care that “MY SISTER” has left me to serve alone?” Some of you are saying, “Well yeah, that’s right!” Yet, Martha (like so many of us) has done what she does not want to do. She has stolen the attention of the crowd. Now, no one is looking or focusing on Jesus – they have their attention on Martha.
* It is now that Martha has her fresh encounter. Jesus (calmly) in essence says, “Martha, you have many things which trouble & this is not the main issue. As for Mary, she has chosen right, the good, the eternal, and the needed.” Jesus was trying to turn Martha’s attention from the cares of this world to the cares of eternity. He was trying to focus her on Him because Jesus knew with her focus right, her service would rise to a new level. She would serve the God of all creation because of His love for her. Then, these things wouldn’t matter.
2. Now see Mary, She teaches us about “Submission to Jesus.” John 12:3 does not expressly say that Mary was, once again, at the feet of Jesus but for her to do what she did indicates that she was there. Luke 10 simply says Mary was sitting at the feet of Jesus. What a picture of honor, respect, & worship! Last time it had seemed so natural & when Martha had objected Mary had her ‘fresh encounter’ with Jesus as He affirmed her heart & what she was doing. This time, from her, we learn about the meaning of submitting to Jesus, trusting Him with all, & putting total faith in Jesus. Logically (& speculatively) Mary was probably a single woman. I offer this because she was residing with her brother and sister. In those days the real worth of a woman was measured by the money she had. Many women had little or nothing, but Mary possessed this expensive oil. Some versions say ‘pound,’ others ‘pint,’ still others say “a jar”, and one even says ‘a 12 ounce jar’, but the all agree it was expensive. She held in her hand her worth, her possibility, & even her future. Whatever the container or whatever the quantity, we know that this was worth almost a year’s wages! How much more attractive is she bringing that kind of money into a marriage. Yet, she poured it out on Jesus’ feet! Don’t miss this; she used ALL OF IT! She was all in! She didn’t just use a little or some; for her, it was all or nothing. She trusted her future, her hopes, & her life, with Jesus. She was at his feet giving Him all she had. Why? Because of her fresh encounter. (But she wasn’t through) She was at His feet! The most despicable part of the human body to the Jews. Feet, in those days, were always dirty, stinky, and in bad shape. She took care anointing his feet and then in a rare move, she unpinned her hair and used her glory (Paul says, “The glory of a woman is long hair”) to wipe his feet. Respectable women never let their hair down in public. She was saying that her submission to Him was above allegiance to anyone else. Total submission.
3. Now see Lazarus, He teaches us about “Showing Others Jesus.” – People need to be shown Jesus. To fulfill our divine call is to be about ‘show & tell’ – we must show others Jesus by how we live & act. Then we can tell them what we’ve shown them. However, too many are like Lazarus. He is not even mentioned in the Luke 10 account (think about that). Quite likely, he was a good ole boy. He attended worship at least once a week, he helped his neighbors who were in need, & he was genuinely a nice man. Actually, Lazarus was not even spoken of until he gets sick & dies. Did you hear that? Not until he is dead does he even rate being spoken of in scripture (or in hell & heaven). Know what this tells us? The world is full of good ole boys & good ole boys don’t make a difference, don’t necessarily follow Jesus & don’t necessarily go to heaven. The Pharisees, scribes, & other religious leaders, may have known his name but never felt any threat from Lazarus until he died & had his ‘fresh encounter’ with Jesus.
* It would be my personal thought that being raised from the dead would indeed raise one’s status with both friends & enemies. Would you agree? What happened to Lazarus should be a caricature of the life of a Christ follower because we must die to sin, self, & Satan, allowing Jesus to say, “Come forth”! We call this salvation. Unless a seed falls to the ground and die, it can never produce fruit, unless a life dies to self it can never be raised up in Jesus.
* Verse 9 is stunning reminder for the person who needs the ‘Fresh Encounter’ – people came to see the one who had been raised. Can you make the personal application? Not only that, but Verse 11 & know that because of Lazarus many were being saved.
* In this room sit people by the dozens who need a fresh encounter because you are a good ole person, and Jesus wants to make you into a godly person. Jesus’ call to you is to be like Lazarus & show the Lord to other so that others can have eternal life. (One more person)
4. Finally see Judas, We learn about “Stealing from Jesus.” – We don’t know a great deal about Judas but we do know enough. We know that Jesus ‘called’ Judas just like he did the others. We know that Jesus or the disciples trusted Judas (even if they took volunteers) because they assigned him as treasurer for the group. We know that Judas, unlike Mary, never went ‘all in.’ Personally, I believe that Judas couldn’t take Jesus’ style of ‘give-away’ ministry. He always saw through a human perspective & never saw things through the eyes of Jesus. It seems to me that this incident was the straw that broke the camel’s back. If they had taken the tax-deductable donation of Mary’s treasure, the money would have gone to help needy kids, “HIS OWN!!” When I hear his words I am reminded of how many times people have said, “Why do we need to do this, we can give it to missions.” Most of the time they are saying, like Judas, “I really don’t support this & think we should do something else with it. Dr. Paul Powell was the long-term pastor of Green Acres Baptist Church in Tyler, Texas. In the late 70’s, they were planning to spend a million dollars on a family life center. One man took Bro. Paul to lunch & said he was not in favor of this extravagant spending & thought they should give a million to missions. Wisely, Dr. Powell said, “No one will give that much in a effort like this for missions, but this facility will minister to our families, help us reach other families, & we will grow to the point of giving more than a million to missions.” Those words proved prophetic!
* Think of all Judas stole from Jesus: he stole money, tried to steal authority, attempted to steal attention, & ultimately stole his own heart from Jesus. Why? He never had a first or fresh encounter with the Lord of Life. He walked with Jesus for 3 years. Think of all the miracles, healing, exorcisms, & teachings he experiences. Could it be like that in the church today? We hear, share in, witness to, and NEVER Experience a first or a fresh encounter?
