공동체와 양육

The Heart of Worship (John 12:1-8)

2013.03.03Steve Green

Worship flows from discerning the death of Christ and receiving his unconditional love, which leads us to humble, sincere, costly, and total self-giving to God.

Worship begins with humility that abandons pride (v. 3)

Mary washed Jesus' feet with expensive perfume and wiped them with her own hair, an act so lowly that it was beneath even a Hebrew slave, and letting her hair down in public was completely inappropriate for a respectable woman. She did it because she knew who Jesus was and had seen him raise her brother Lazarus. Worship requires abandoning pride, the inner voice that says I deserve better than this. Humility says, God, you owe me nothing; I owe you everything. Without that humility, there is no way to worship.

Worship must be driven by the right motivation (vv. 7-8)

Motivation is everything for a believer, because people can do good things out of habit, comfort, family tradition, or as a bargaining chip with God, and none of these makes someone a Christian. Jesus told them to leave Mary alone so that she might keep the perfume for the day of his burial. The preacher says Mary, by faith, saw what the disciples did not: Jesus was going to die and was doing something absolutely necessary for her. Being a Christian means discerning his death and receiving an undeserved gift from the inside out.

Worship costs everything, and Christ is worth it (v. 5)

Judas said the perfume could have been sold for 300 denarii, a year's wages, and it was a gift that disappeared the moment it was poured out. Judas's objection sounds sensible, yet Jesus did not rebuke her, because in light of his sacrifice there is no such thing as over-extravagance in devotion. The preacher illustrates with the parable in Matthew 13 of a man who sells everything with joy to buy a hidden treasure. The Christian gives up many things, but what we receive in Christ is infinitely more than what we give.

Our security must rest in Christ, not in our resources

The preacher describes how his ministry lost years of saved funds to a fraudulent manager in one day, revealing that he had been leaning on that cushion for security. He asks whether we trust God when the world tells us to safeguard ourselves. God never promised to set us for life; the promise is daily bread, and we depend on him daily. Like the priests in Malachi who offered blind and sick animals, we offer God what means nothing to us when we lose sight of his worth. Only by finding the one true treasure can we let go.

Worship means giving God ourselves, not just things

Jesus said that unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone, and whoever loves his life loses it. The preacher tells of a rafter caught in a whirlpool below a dam, whose apparent death was the way to life, showing that losing our life is where finding it begins. God's love is unconditional, unlike the if-then promises we grew up with, and justification by decency is not the gospel. Because of the cross, this is ours, so we come empty-handed and cling to Christ.

Apply to Life

  • Let us examine whether pride, the voice that says I deserve better, still shapes our worship.
  • Let us check whether our service to God comes from love and grace rather than habit or bargaining.
  • Let us give to God with joy, trusting that Christ is worth more than anything we give up.
  • Let us look honestly at where we place our security and trust God for our daily bread.
  • Let us offer God not only our resources but our whole lives, letting go of what we hold on to.

This summary was made automatically from the sermon's captions and may differ from the sermon.

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