06-24-2018 – Mary Foreshadows Christ’s Death
This is the bulletin insert. The full notes are also available here.
06-24-2018
Mary Foreshadows Christ’s Death
John 12:1-11
Read John 12:1-3... Jesus comes back to Bethany (on Saturday), six days before Passover (on Thursday).
Martha serves supper, Lazarus reclines, Mary pours perfume on Jesus’ feet and wipes it with her hair.
Jesus and the 12 are at Simon the leper’s house (see Matthew 26:6-7; Mark 14:3). Simon is healed, for the OT gives instructions concerning lepers (Leviticus 13:45-46), “Anyone with such a defiling disease must wear torn clothes, let their hair be unkempt, cover the lower part of their face and cry out, ‘Unclean! Unclean!’ As long as they have the disease they remain unclean. They must live alone; they must live outside the camp.”
Read John 12:4... Judas is going to betray the Lord. See John 6:70-71... Judas witnessed the same miracles
as the other 11, yet, he was “a devil!”
Matthew 26:24 “woe to that man by whom the Son of Man is betrayed! It would have been good for that man if he had not been born."
Judas never embraced Christ as Lord, he was a skilled imposter who fooled everyone except Jesus.
Whenever God’s work is being done, there will be imposters and hypocrites, like Judas, mixed in with the flock of God, for Satan's servants (2Corinthians 11:15), “masquerade as servants of righteousness.”
Read John 12:5-8... Judas is a thief.
Jesus (verse 7) speaks up for Mary, defending her.
In (John 11:50) Caiaphas declares that either Jesus dies or the whole nation falls. John tells us (John 11:51) that Caiaphas did not say this on his own, but God used him to prophecy Christ’s sacrificial death.
Mary’s act of worship previewed the coming death and burial of Jesus.
Read John 12:9... A large crowd learns Jesus is in Bethany, they go to find Him and Lazarus.
John 11:53-54,"So from that day on they planned together to kill Him. Jesus no longer continued to walk publicly among the Jews, but went to the country near the wilderness." 57, "Now the chief priests and the Pharisees had given orders that if anyone knew where He was, he was to report it, so that they might seize Him.”
Read John 12:10-11... Everyone responds in some way to Jesus: either believe in and serve Him; remain indifferent; or oppose Him.
A person’s response to Jesus will determine their eternal destiny (Acts 4:12), “for there is no other name under heaven that has been given among men by which we must be saved."
Romans 10:9-10, “If you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved; for with the heart a person believes, resulting in righteousness, and with the mouth he confesses, resulting in salvation." 13, for "WHOEVER WILL CALL ON THE NAME OF THE LORD WILL BE SAVED."
1John 5:11-13, “And the testimony is this, that God has given us eternal life, and this life is in His Son. He who has the Son has the life; he who does not have the Son of God does not have the life. These things I have written to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, so that you may know that you have eternal life.”