Mary at His Feet

But first, allow me to pray if you'll bow your heads. Lord God, in my quiet time along with you this morning before dawn, as I was reading David Brainerd, my eyes fell upon the sentence that Brainerd had written and my eyes were glued to it. And Brainerd had written, my soul was grievous for the congregation that they had come to hear a dead dog like me preach.

And that's how I feel right now, Lord. I'm completely helpless. Without you, Father, I've heard that you can do it through me.

And I pray right now, Lord God, that you clothe me with your Holy Spirit and anoint me for your purpose. I pray, Lord, that your word will be a hammer that breaks the rock in pieces. And I pray, Lord, that your Holy Spirit will attend the reading of your word for the glory of your people, for the good of your people, and the glory of your name, Jesus.

Amen. Well, these two sisters have a message for us today. We're going to see four things in the text, some interesting facets to this familiar story of Martha and Mary.

I'd like to bring out the fact that we'll see Martha in his face compared to Mary at his feet, and Martha concerned about many things, and Mary concerned about one thing. The title of my message is One Thing Needful. That's why I wanted to sing that hymn, Turn Your Eyes Upon Jesus, because he truly is one thing needful.

Our text from verses 38 through 42, I'll read in the King James Version. I'll read that now. Now it came to pass as they went, that's Jesus and the twelve, that he entered into a certain village, and a certain woman named Martha received him into her house.

And she had a sister called Mary, which also sat at Jesus' feet and heard his word. But Martha was cumbered about much serving, and came to him and said, Lord, dost thou not care that my sister hath lent me to serve alone? Bid her therefore that she help me. And Jesus answered and said unto her, Martha, Martha, thou art careful and troubled about many things, but one thing is needful, and Mary hath chosen that good part, for she'll not be taken away from her.

This is the word of the Lord. I recall listening to a tape message of Vance Havner commenting on this text, and Vance Havner said that in America, when he grew up, he grew up in the farmlands and the rural communities, and as we became a more industrialized nation, people moved out of the rural areas into the cities. We became busier and busier and busier with the hustle and bustle of modern day life.

And he said that if Jesus went to the home of Martha and Mary today, they wouldn't be home, right? They'd probably be at the mall, or maybe they'd be at a Starbucks, sipping a latte, but if they were home, more than likely they'd have the TV on so loud they wouldn't turn it down long enough to hear them. Isn't that true? Well, let's look at the first thing on our agenda. That's in verse 40, and the text reads, But Martha was troubled about much serving, and came to him and said, Lord, dost thou not care that my sister hath left me to serve alone? Bid her therefore that she help me.

So the first thing I want us to see is Martha in his face. Martha questions him. She says, dost thou not care? In essence, she questions God.

Don't you care? Now, granted, the subject matter of her request was trite and not a matter of grave importance in the scheme of things. It was about Mary not being in the kitchen to continue to help her, but she still questions him. Let me ask you, have you ever questioned God? Have you ever said, Lord, you see me in this trial here, don't you care? Don't you hear my prayers, Lord? Why have you allowed this thing to happen to me, Lord? Have you ever questioned him? Well, in the book of Isaiah, we find, Shall the clay say to him that fashioneth it, what makest thou? That's in chapter 45, verse 9. But still, Martha questions him.

Next, Martha bosses him. Bid her therefore that she help me. Well, I recall the disciples did this a time or two.

Peter rebuked Jesus for wanting to go to Jerusalem, and Jesus replied, Get behind me, Satan. Jesus told his disciples, I and the Father are one. So in essence, you can imagine the nerve of Martha bossing the creator of the universe around, bossing divinity around.

Well, if that wasn't bad enough, she was disrespectful to Jesus because Martha interrupted him. I was reading some word studies in the Greek text by Kenneth Weiss. Let me read it to you because it has much force in the Greek language.

And he wrote, And she had a sister called Mary, who also having seated herself beside the Lord's feet, was listening to his word. But Martha was going around in circles, over-occupied with preparing the meal and bursting in upon Jesus. She assumed a stance over him and said, Lord, is it not a concern to you that my sister has let me down to preparing the meal alone? Speak therefore to her at once, that she take hold and do her part with me.

You can just picture Martha bursting into that little room with her apron on her, her hands on her hips, her face all red with anger. Not a real pretty sight, I'm sure. So Martha is behaving in a rude and obnoxious manner here, interrupting Jesus while he's speaking.

And I'm sure it was on a topic in light of eternity that had much emphasis to it. And then she questions him as if he's ignorant and then orders him around. In short, she's in his face.

Now, if you've known difficult people before, perhaps they've gotten you upset. Maybe they're hard to get along with. And look at Jesus here.

He's allowing mere mortals to question him, to tell him what to do. In fact, mortals even laughed him to scorn. And Luke, at the end of chapter 8, when he finally found Jairus's daughter dead, he said, weep not, she's not dead, she sleepeth.

And the text says they laughed him to scorn. They literally held their sides and fell over laughing, mocking him, laughing him to scorn. The long-suffering and forbearance of God is remarkable, isn't it? Well, she chews him out.

But you know what? Let me tell you something. In the Gospel of John, over in chapter 11, verse 5, there's a tender scene at Bethany. You know what that scene is? The text reads, now Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus.

He loved her. Despite all her faults, he loved her. You know what? Despite all my faults, he loves me.

Despite all your faults, he loves you. Amazing love, amazing love. We should love like that.

So we see Martha in his face, interrupting him, questioning him, bossing him. Well, now let's compare and contrast the sister Mary. We've seen Martha in his face.

Let's look at Mary at his feet. That's in verse 39. Mary, which also sat at Jesus' feet and heard his word.

You see, Mary sits beside him. Mary wanted to be near Jesus. This is the same Mary that in a little while is going to anoint his, anoint him with oil and wipe his feet with her hair in worship.

She wanted to be taught by her master. She sat at his feet. Our chief aim in life should be to sit at the feet of Jesus.

Jesus declared to the world what he had learned from the Father. We should do the same. As Christians, that's our duty.

Let me say this. If more Christians sat at his feet, less Christians would fall on their face. We should sit every day at his feet.

In the quiet time, it's something we should do every day. Let me give you an example. I came off a week of spiritual highs every day.

I felt like I was on top of Mount Sinai in the presence of God. I felt like I was in that cliff to the rock with God walking by me and allowing me to see his backside. You know, those experiences, those spiritual highs, but what comes after the spiritual high, right? You can't stay on top of the mountain forever, right? Well, at the end of the week, I was very fatigued.

16, 17 hour days, very fatigued. I normally get up at 4.45 in the morning to have my quiet time. That Friday morning, I was rushed.

I rushed my quiet time. I rushed to my office at work, and I was in the flesh all day. I fell in my walk.

I fell in my walk. I'll say that. Well, as I was driving home, I was praying, and I said, Lord, why did that happen? Why did I fail so miserably today after being in your presence so strongly throughout the week? How did that happen, Lord? It was as if he spoke to me.

You know how he speaks to you in a quiet place in your heart, and no one else speaks to you in a quiet place there? He spoke to me, and he said so clearly. He said, you cannot face today, let alone this hour, on yesterday's experience of me. You must seek and meet me every day.

Then a text came to me in the Old Testament so vividly. I thought about the Israelites and the manna and how God ordered them not to store up the manna, because what happened when they stored up the manna? Got worms in it, didn't it? And that voice came to me again, and that voice told me, unless you seek me afresh every day, your Christian walk will have worms in it, worms in it. And that's a problem with a lot of preaching today.

It's got worms in it. Well, we must sit at his feet, stay in his word each day. We cannot rely on past experiences of God.

We must feed ourselves every day in God's word. I'm reminded of a story a friend told me for a time. He was a park ranger in Yellowstone National Forest, and there was a mystery that occurred during that year.

They found many bears dead, and they knew not why these bears had died. There were no puncture wounds in them. No one had killed them.

It was a mystery, until finally someone figured out that the bears had starved to death. They had literally died of starvation. You know what happened? Those bears had become so reliant on the tourists feeding them, they forgot how to feed themselves.

You get my application? We must feed on his word daily. Well, notice also this about Mary and how opposite she is to her sister Martha. Mary listened to him, the text says, and heard his word, the word of God spoken by the God of the word.

How marvelous. Can you imagine the thrill that you would have had sitting there looking at him, listening to him, touching him? Well, let's look at the two women in contrast. We see Martha busy, bossy, and hungry.

She wants the meal to be served and served quickly. The meal is the main thing with her. Mary, on the other hand, is reserved, attentive, sensitive, hungry for the word of God.

Jesus is the main thing with her. She listened to him. What a difference.

Notice that Martha is worried about many things. Verse 41 says, Martha, Martha, thou art careful and troubled about many things. You know, it's easy to sympathize with Martha here.

She had to cook a meal for 15 people. The text says that they went, that means Jesus and the 12 and Martha and Mary. Lazarus is not mentioned in the text, so we must assume he wasn't there that day.

So she had a large meal to prepare. So there is some sympathy there that she might be concerned about doing a good job preparing that meal. But I've studied this through different commentators.

And really, what, what really seems to be the case, she had plenty of time to prepare that meal because Jesus had a habit before he would enter a village, he would send messengers ahead of him announcing his arrival. And it's very possible that Martha had invited Jesus to come to the little home in Bethany well in advance of that day. So she had plenty of time for she and Mary and possibly even Lazarus, if they could get him in the kitchen to do some work to prepare this meal.

So she was over-occupied with the wrong things. So notice, we, she's burdened with care. Is that how it is with us sometimes? Do we get trouble that burdens us down, presses us down like a great weight that we can't see what is in front of us? Do we get so troubled and worried that we forget that God's in our midst, that he's here, that he wants to speak to us, that he desires to meet with us? Do we get so busy in the morning going off to our office or to our study that we don't spend enough time with him and we break his heart because he's there waiting for us to spend time with us and we're too busy for him doing his business? Well, notice also that Martha is focused on many things.

The text says about many things. The sad thing is what poor Martha was troubled about was no big deal. It's small potatoes literally.

She was so focused on these many unimportant things that she missed the main thing, Jesus. She was so tied up in knots and activity that she neglected to be still and know that I am God. You see, we do this in our prayer time or with our ministries.

We stay too busy. Let me give an example. My dear brother Quentin is here in the back row giving me support today in prayer.

Quentin and I have a mutual friend who's attending Mid-America Seminary and Quentin shared with me a few weeks ago. He talked to this dear brother. This dear brother is busy in class and out of class, holding down a job, trying to make ends meet.

And my brother Quentin said, well, how's work come along? He said, oh, fine, fine. He said, how's class come along? Oh, fine, fine. And then my dear brother asked him, how's your devotional time? How's your time with the Lord? Silence.

Speechless. He said, finally, not too good there. You see what I mean? He's going to seminary to learn how to be a pastor and he doesn't even have time to pray.

When he graduates, his schedule's not going to change. He'll be more busier then than he is now. You all know that.

If he doesn't make time now to be with the Lord, he's going to fall on his face. If he doesn't make that a priority. He's like Martha, focused on too many things.

He's forgetting the main thing, Jesus. We must take time to pray. I am reminded about an oil painting that hangs in a Spanish gallery.

In that little scene is a farmer. He's just removed his straw hat. He's laid down his farm implements, and he's assumed the position of prayer.

In the distance of that painting, if you look closely, there's a little village in the background with a church steeple and a bell tower. And evidently the bell has rung, calling the little community to a time of prayer. Everyone's laid down their farm implements, set down their work, and they're praying.

And he's doing that. But if you look more closely at that painting, over to the right is a form of an angel. And that angel has picked up his plow and has gotten a team of mule going.

And it seems like that angel's getting ready to make a new furrow in the ground. And the caption of that oil paint is three words. Three words.

You know what they are? No time lost. Do you get it? When we pray, all of heaven is enlisted on our behalf. We get more done in prayer than we do out of prayer.