The sermon titled 'Extravagance in Worship,' delivered by Scott Brown, examines Matthew 26:1-16, focusing on the themes of worship, betrayal, and the fulfillment of God's purpose. The sermon is structured into four divisions: the fulfillment of Christ's coming, the plot to kill Jesus, the woman's act of anointing Jesus, and Judas Iscariot's betrayal. Brown highlights the contrasts between light and darkness, exemplified by Caiaphas and his plotters versus the woman's worshipful act. The woman's anointing of Jesus with costly oil is seen as an extravagant act of personal worship and a preparation for Jesus' burial, contrasting with Judas' betrayal for thirty pieces of silver. The sermon emphasizes the omniscience and sovereignty of God, illustrating that despite human intentions, God's divine plan unfolds. Scott Brown also reflects on the nature of worship and how everyone worships something, with the object of worship significantly affecting one's life. The sermon concludes with a call to introspection, asking listeners to examine their own acts of worship and their responses to Jesus.

Today's text is from Matthew 26 verses 1 through 16. Now it came to pass When Jesus had finished all these sayings, that he said to his disciples, You know that after two days is the Passover, and the Son of Man will be delivered up to be crucified. Then the chief priests, the scribes, and the elders of the people, assembled at the palace of the high priest who was called Caiaphas and Plotted to take Jesus by trickery and kill him but they said not during the feast lest there be an uproar among the people And when Jesus was in Bethany at the house of Simon the leper, a woman came to him having an alabaster flask of very costly fragrant oil, and she poured it on his head as he sat at the table. But when his disciples saw it, they were indignant, saying, why this waste? For this fragrant oil might have been sold for much and given to the poor.

But when Jesus was aware of it, he said to them, Why do you trouble the woman? For she has done a good work for me. For you have the poor with you always, But me you do not have always. For in pouring this fragrant oil on my body, she did it for my burial. Assuredly I say to you, wherever this gospel is preached in the whole world, what this woman has done will also be told as a memorial to her.

Then one of the twelve, called Judas Iscariot, went to the chief priests and said, What are you willing to give me if I deliver him to you? And they counted out to him thirty pieces of silver. So from that time he sought opportunity to betray him Father God your words are wonderful Lord your words sustain us they encourage us they convict us Father God, I pray that you would anoint Scott now as he has prepared and labored over these words to preach them Father God, I pray that you would anoint Scott now as he has prepared and labored over these words to preach them Father God, I pray that you would give us ears to hear a Heart that is willing to learn Father I pray that You would give Scott power to preach it and that You would change us, Lord. That You would change us. That You would renew our minds, Lord.

Lord, I pray that You would glorify yourself this morning through the preaching of Your Word. Amen. Well, if you have your outlines in front of you, I'm going to divide our work in this passage into four divisions. First, in verses 1 and 2, the purpose of Christ's coming is being fulfilled. And then there's this plot to kill the Lord Jesus that is escalating.

And then, number three, the third division here is this woman who is worshipping. In the first section you really see the beauty of the foreknowledge of God. In the second section you see the length that people go to plot to remove Jesus Christ from the equation. With the woman worshipping, it's this fragrant aroma of personal worship. You know, there's personal worship, there's corporate worship, and there's also family worship.

But here's an example of a woman very personally worshipping the Lord Jesus. And then finally, Judas is betraying in verses 14 through 16, and here we see the poor reward for the love of money. But what's happening here is that you have these illustrations of the fulfillments of God's will for the world, that in due time, God would send his Son to become a sacrifice for sinners. He would shed his blood on the cross, and he would become the atoning sacrifice for sinners. It's such a precious and wonderful and powerful section of Scripture.

I've called this section the extravagance of worship because there's worship in every line of this passage of Scripture. There's always extravagance in our worship, both for the woman in this passage, and also there's worship in the hearts of those who are trying to destroy the Lord Jesus Christ. Everyone worships something. And there's always an effect on your life for whatever you worship. And so this passage has so many different things going on in it.

You know, you see these different responses and reactions in this passage. And you know, somebody once said that the same Sun that melts the ice hardens the clay. And Jesus is like that. He makes some hearts so hard, and at the same time, He makes other hearts so happy. And The truth is that nobody can stay the same when they encounter Jesus.

You change when you see Him. And that's what we see here. We see these various characters that are in this passage of Scripture. There are at least four characters here. First of all, there's Caiaphas and his plotters.

And then there's a woman and her worship. And Then there are the disciples and their lack of understanding. And then there's Judas in his enterprising, money-loving, betraying heart. You also see in this passage really enormous contrasts between light and darkness. You know, before, just a few minutes ago, we were reading in Zechariah chapter 11, and Zechariah is talking about there are two things.

There's beauty and there's bonds. That's it. There's just two things. There's light and there's darkness. And here in this passage, you see the contrasts of light and darkness so vividly explained.

The ugliness of the darkness and the beauty of the light are really explained here. You know, the text really begins with blazing light where you see that God is fulfilling his promises, really in the coming of the crucifixion of Jesus Christ, that what was foretold is happening. And then, you know, from blazing light of the glory of God to, you know, bring salvation to man, then it seems like darkness moves in and you're into the murderous intentions of Caiaphas and his henchmen. And then it turns light again. And the house is full of light and beautiful aroma as the woman, you know, expresses her love to the Lord Jesus Christ.

And then it turns dark again with the betrayal of Judas. And so with these revelations of light and darkness all throughout this this passage of Scripture, we really see what Jesus has been doing all along. Jesus has been continually dividing humanity into two groups. There's light and darkness. There's sheep and goats.

There's good fish and bad fish. There's good soil, and there's bad soil. And these groups are opposing one another. They're going in different directions. They think differently.

They feel differently. They act differently. They're going to a different destination. And they will finally be divided on the last day as a shepherd divides his sheep from the goats. And There in this passage are the contrasts again in here of light and darkness.

You have this divisive person, the Lord Jesus Christ, who divides his sheep from the goats. And that's what he's doing here. And here in this passage, the whole idea continues. You have two houses. You have the house of Caiaphas, and you have the house of Sinan the leper.

You have two people. You have Judas, who by the way is going to play a prominent role all throughout Chapter 26. You'll really get to know Judas in Chapter 26. He is all over the place in this chapter. You have Judas and then you have the woman with the alabaster vial.

You have two uses of resources, one for worship and one for betrayal. You have two dispositions. You have conspiracy on the one hand, and you have celebration on the other hand. And you have two responses, indignation on the one hand, and praise on the other hand. So it's a passage where you're constantly moving in and out of light and darkness.

And the way that God has ordered the world, it's another reminder of the way it is in the world. God explains the world as it really is. There really are only two kinds of people in the world. And he's explaining that here. And we have to recognize here that we're entering into the climax of our Lord Jesus Christ's ministry.

And in the climax of his ministry, he's presenting himself now differently than he has in the past in the Gospel of Matthew. In the past, He's so demonstrated himself as prophet who brings mighty words to the people in the Sermon on the Mount and everywhere else. He's also the king. He's the ruler over everything. He heals the sick.

He raises the dead. He controls the spiritual powers and principalities that are in the world. He stops the wind and the waves. He's the King, He's the King of Kings. Now here as we go into chapter 26, he presents himself as a completely different person.

And that is, he presents himself as a priest, but not just a high priest, a suffering servant of a priest. And so here in his office as a prophet and king and priest, Now he's presenting himself as a priest, but also one who is being betrayed into the hands of men. His humanity, his deity, His priestly work, His sacrificial function in the world is now being displayed. Here all the sacrifices are being fulfilled. The seed of the woman is now bruising the serpent's head.

And what was said in John chapter 1, 29, is being fulfilled when John said, when he saw Jesus coming toward him, Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. So this is the climax of all of history, which is why the Apostle Paul would say, God forbid that I should boast in anything but the cross of the Lord Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ is two days from the cross here now. And so we're standing in the back shadow of the cross. So it's an incredibly significant moment in the Gospel.

All of what has been written so far is culminating in this moment now. And So that's by way of introduction, this is what we're dealing with here. Contrasts of light and darkness, various characters performing different functions, the prominence of Judas arising, and the dramatic contrast between these houses and people and what they, how they feel about Jesus and what they do with him. So let's move into the text now, verses one and two. The purpose of Christ's coming is being fulfilled.

Now it came to pass when Jesus had finished all these things. Now this is a marker in time. The Lord Jesus has been speaking to the disciples on the Mount of Olives. He's still there. He was in the temple.

He cleared the temple. He came out of the temple, was looking down on it, prophesying about it in all of that discourse. That's now over. And now there's another thing going on, but it's going on in the same place, really in the same day, just two days away from his crucifixion. So he finished all these things in the Olivet Discourse that he said to his disciples, you know that after two days is the Passover and the Son of Man will be delivered up to be crucified.

Now here is the beauty of the foreknowledge of God is being displayed here. Our Lord knows where He's going. He has been sent by His Father as an obedient son to do his father's will. And he knows what he is here to do. And he's headed toward that great duty of the cross.

And so he is declaring his sovereignty, his foreknowledge, his self-conscious submissive mission to be sacrificed on the cross. It's really kind of an illustration of Acts chapter 2, verse 23, that he was delivered by the determined purpose and foreknowledge of God. And then it continues, you have taken by lawless hands, have crucified and put to death, whom God raised up, having loosed the pain. There are These two things happening at the same time. Men are plotting to take him.

And they're going to claim the victory for taking him. On the other hand, the truth is, it's all happening under the predetermined plan of God. On the surface it looks like men are ruling and reigning, but they're not at all. Jesus is proclaiming that right here, that He is going to fulfill what God has said. And this will happen in two days, as we can see.

And he will be delivered up. Now, this is not the first time that the Lord has announced that he would be delivered up. In 1621, in Matthew 17, 22, and in chapter 20, verse 19, the same kind of thing is being predicted. So this is not the first time that Jesus has declared what is going to happen to him. He predicts his own death.

He's in control of his own death. And he is going to be crucified. He is going to be pierced for our transgressions. He is going to be humiliated. He's going to take on the sins of the world.

And all this means that God is in control of history. History is going somewhere. Nothing is spinning out of control. No matter what the plots of men might be, God has a plan for this world, and He will execute it perfectly according to His own timeline. And that was true for Jesus, and it's true for you.

It's true for every nanosecond of your life. That God is working to glorify himself through everything. He will perform his will. He will bring about the things that He began in your life according to His own divine plan. You can rest assured that God is in control here this morning.

And Jesus here is proclaiming that fact. So it begins, as I said at the beginning of this message, it begins with a burst of light of the mighty sovereign hand of God, His foreknowledge and control of all things, and His Son fitting perfectly into His plan and submitting to his father and carrying it out. That's the first section. Then we move into the second section where you see this plot to kill Jesus is escalating in verses three through five. Then the chief priest, now this is a marker on time.

Then, Then the chief priests, the scribes and the elders of the people assembled at the palace of the high priest who was called Caiaphas and plotted to take Jesus by trickery and kill him. But they said, not during the feast, lest there be an uproar among the people." This is a plot to remove the Lord Jesus Christ. And these leaders were summoned to meet. They were gathered together in Caiaphas' house. It was his residence.

It was a private meeting with heads of various kinds of functions. And Caiaphas was sort of the president of the group. He was a longstanding head as the high priest. He performed this function from AD 18 to AD 36. For 18 years, he served there.

He had some kind of longevity. We could do a character study on Caiaphas maybe later. He was ruthless. He was willing to lead the innocent to death. You know, he brings up the whole matter of the shedding of innocent blood.

Now, I would like to speak about this matter of shedding of innocent blood. Again, we'll take this on another day. But Caiaphas stands as a pinpoint in history, as a personality who is an example of one who legitimizes the shedding of innocent blood for a pragmatic purpose. We live in an era where there's much shedding of innocent blood for pragmatic purposes. But Caiaphas is one who is content to shed innocent blood for a greater purpose.

And so there in the inner court probably of his house is this gathering. In many ways you could call this a tale of two houses. A tale of the household of Caiaphas, a tale of the household of Simon the leper. Who was Simon the leper? We don't know really.

He was a leper. He had all these people in his house. He must have been healed by the Lord Jesus. Or else, a kind of gathering would have been possible. But, a tale of two houses here.

What happens within these houses has enormous significance. And it is true of all of our houses as well. What happens in a house has tremendous significance. God uses homes to communicate so many things. And here we have these two contrasting houses that are there.

And the chief priests and the scribes, the elders are all there. The chief priests And the scribes and the elders, they're desiring to keep their authority. Their positions are very precious to them. They were very religious. They were very orderly.

They were the spiritual people of the day. They were the religious people of the day. And they stand in front of us always to mark the danger of religion. The danger of getting involved in an elaborate religion. What can happen to you?

It can become all about that religion. It can come to the place where it doesn't touch your heart, where you're just involved in doing these things. But we see a contrast, don't we, in a different house, in the house of Simon the Leper. Something completely different is going on there. And here they are very clearly plotting, which has to do with malice and forethought.

They are intending trickery, as it says in the text, and they have tried to trick him before, it has not worked. And then they want to kill. And then it's strategic. There's fear of the people. They do not want to rile up the people.

They don't want to attract undue attention. They're taking these calculated risks because they are afraid of quote, an uproar among the people. They're afraid of violent and disorderly behavior that might come from killing Jesus Christ because the Lord Jesus is healing the sick and He's raising the dead and thousands of people are coming to see Him. Well, some hate Him, many love Him, and they're afraid of the people And so they have a strategic plan to try somehow to do their deed under the cover of night. And their desire is unfulfilled, actually.

It doesn't happen according to the timeline that they present here. Because they actually are not in control. Something is going to happen that will change all of their plans. We'll get to that later on in this text. Later on in this text.

But they have been plotting and plotting. In John chapter 5 verse 18 we read that the Jews sought all the Lord to kill him Because he not only broke the Sabbath, but also that God, he said that God was his Father, making himself equal to God. In John chapter 7 verse 1 we read, After these things Jesus walked in Galilee, for he did not want to walk in Judea because the Jews sought to kill him. In John chapter 7 verse 19, the Lord Jesus says, why do you seek to kill me? In John chapter 7 verse 25, we read, Now some of them from Jerusalem said, Is this not he whom they seek to kill?

And then in John chapter 8 verses 37 through 40 we read, I know that you are Abraham's descendants, but you seek to kill me because my word has no place in you. So they seek, they've been seeking to kill him all along. Now the plot is really rising and it's ready to be fulfilled. Now they decided to go forward with this plot. They've been plotting for quite some time, and now there's a seasoning of that plot, and they now desire to move on it.

Here what we find, I think, is an example of those who desire to remove Jesus Christ from the equation, to kill Him. We've seen this happen in our government school system where Jesus Christ has already been killed. He was killed a long time ago. He's not allowed. He was killed by federal mandate.

He was wiped out of the system, he was extracted from it. We've seen it in the workplace, it's happening increasingly as time goes on, where the name of Jesus Christ is no longer welcome to the ears of the human resources departments and the great corporations of our world. You can be a homosexual, but you can't use the name Jesus Christ. There always is in the world this force to remove Jesus Christ from the equation, to push Him out, to make it illegal to talk about Him. In a postmodern world, there's a desire to remove Jesus Christ from everything.

But it's not just so in a postmodern world. It's happening all over the world. Most of you got a note yesterday from me where one of our friends, Fikret Bocek, had been summoned to the police to be interrogated. And it was very strange. I just sent him a little note and he replied and he said, Hey, is there anything you want me to bring back to you when I come from Turkey?

And I said, No, you know, the only thing the American church really needs from Turkey is more persecution. He says, it's funny you should say that. I'm sitting here in the police station. I've been here for hours. I'm waiting to be brought into the interrogation room.

And he says, I'm supposed to be working on my sermon, but here I am, sitting in this place. And I got another note from him early this morning. And they finally released him at midnight last night. So he spent the rest of the night writing a sermon. He sent me the manuscript of a sermon.

And he's preaching on Revelation 22, verse 8. And in that sermon, he quotes Psalm 2, which says, why do the nations rage and the people plot a vain thing? The kings of the earth set themselves and the rulers take counsel together against the Lord and against his anointed saying, let us break their bonds in place in pieces and cast away their cords from us. This is exactly what's happening here with Caiaphas. They're wanting to remove Jesus Christ from the equation.

The nations are raging to remove Jesus Christ. And then Ficret continues in his sermon, he says, what was true then remains true today. The nations rage, the people plot a vain thing, the kings of the earth set themselves and the rulers take counsel together against the Lord and against His anointed. And then he writes this in his sermon, How then are we to live in the midst of such an ever increasingly hostile world? How are we to live in the midst of a world that is no friend to grace?

How are we to live in the midst of a world that is no friend to grace? How are we to live in the midst of a world that will not help us on our way to God? How are we to live in the midst of the world that sets itself against God? Those are very helpful, those are powerful questions. How are we to do that?

And he answers the question in his sermon text in Revelation chapter 22, verse 11, and I'll read it. Here's how. He who is unjust, let him be unjust still. He who is filthy, let him be filthy still. He who is righteous, let him be righteous still.

He who is holy, let him be holy still. And behold, I am coming quickly, and my reward is with me. To give to everyone according to his work, I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end, the first and the last. Blessed are those who do His commandments, that they may have the right to the tree of life, and may enter through the gates into the city. But outside are dogs and sorcerers and sexually immoral and murderers and idolaters and whoever loves and practices a lie." So how do you live in a world like that?

Well, Revelation 22 says that. Holiness. Continuing to seek the Lord. That's really what we need. And so when you consider here how these men in the household of Caiaphas are plotting against the Lord Jesus, we have to consider what a right response of the church might be.

And what should the people of God be doing? And I think part of the answer is right here in the text. And it's the contrast that we see with this woman who's worshiping. What do you do when the nations are raging? What do you do when you are being slandered by your friends because of the gospel?

Well, there's this example of a woman. It's a display of the fragrant aroma of true worship. That's what we should do. And look in verse six, you see the word and. And when Jesus was in Bethany.

Now, I believe that Jesus is now bringing us into a flashback that takes us back to the scene that's described in John chapter 12. And he's giving This contrast, you know, from Caiaphas and his household, to the household of Simon the leper, and what's happening there. He says, and. Now, just take a step back here, and I'll tell you one of the reasons why I think this is true. If you look at verse 3, there are these markers in time then.

Then is typically a marker in time and it indicates a sequential event. When you get to verse 6 it says and. But when you get to verse 14, then again. I believe he picks up the historical narrative in verse 14. And then you see it again in verse 25, then.

So there are these events that are happening, but I think that Matthew, and he does this a number of times in his gospel, where He takes something out of historical context and brings it in to illustrate what's on the table in that discussion. I think that's what he's doing here. It doesn't really matter much in terms of the interpretation But this is the way it seems to me that it's happening. So this is taking place Mary is you know Mary and Martha there in John chapter 12 and they're there in the house of Lazarus and And I mean there there Lazarus is probably there Lazarus is there if you go back to John chapter 12. But I think you can harmonize Matthew 26 and John chapter 12.

John chapter 12, we see that this came six days before the Passover. Now we're at two days before the Passover. So you can study that and consider what you think about it. But Jesus is in a home, and it was in Bethany, at the house of Simon the leper. Wouldn't you love to know that story?

And why all those people were gathered in that house? I want to give you a number of observations about this woman and her sacrifice. First of all, it was a very expensive action. She was carrying a very costly liquid. It was a kind of alabaster glass with perfume that was being preserved, probably a pint of it, it was probably from India, and its value was a year's income, 300 denarii.

Interestingly enough, you have 300 denarii sacrificed for the Lord Jesus Christ, and 30 pieces of silver taken for the betrayal price of Jesus Christ. One is costly, one is cheap. But here is this incredibly costly perfume. Now I don't know how you men deal with this kind of thing, but I don't think I know of a man who has bought perfume for his wife equal to a year's wages, to go so lavishly for his wife. But here, this woman is going so lavishly toward her savior.

So it was costly, It was very expensive. Secondly, this was a deliberate action. What we see here are very deliberate movements in the text. Caiaphas and his henchmen, very deliberate, highly calculated and strategic. Judas the exact same way.

It's a deliberate action. He saw an opportunity, we'll see this later, how deliberate and clear he was about what he was doing. And here this woman also was deliberate. And this is true. This is true of all prayer and all worship.

It really is something that's designed to be deliberate. It's something that you get up and go do. You take things around you and you collect them up. Whether it's time or resources here, and worship is deliberate. You know, we're here sitting here today.

You got up, you got in your cars, you came here. It was a very deliberate action that you took to come here. Worship requires a deliberate movement. And that's what was happening here. When you go to the secret place, you go and You shut your door, as the Lord Jesus says in the Sermon on the Mount.

It's a deliberate action. It's something that you do. We have to recognize that. Perhaps our prayer should be, Oh Lord, give me greater deliberation for this. Give me more than I've ever had to come and worship you, to take more of my resources, more of my time, more of my deliberate strategic planning of my life to draw myself unto you.

This was a deliberate action. It was full of abandonment. Thirdly, it was a generous action. It covered his whole body. John says that she covered his feet.

Matthew says she covered his head. So it most likely covered most of his body, from his head to his toes. It was a very lavish and generous action, not stintingly, not tight-fistedly, but openly and happily letting it go, like giving hilariously, like the apostle Paul speaks of. You let it go because you know where it goes and what it means. And then thirdly, or fourthly, I'm sorry, it was a symbolic action.

It was symbolic of Old Testament worship. In the Old Testament, you find these very sane images, oil and frankincense being burned in the fire in Leviticus chapter 22. Ezekiel identifies a repentant sinner as aroma to the Lord. Ezekiel 20 verse 41, I will accept you as a sweet aroma when I bring you out from the people and gather you out from the countries where you have been scattered, and I will be hallowed in you before the Gentiles." This is a picture of a humble, repentant people coming back after chastising judgment. And they come back, and their hearts are changed.

They've been in the house of rebellion. And they're coming back to the house of holiness again. To love the Lord their God. They've strayed and now they're returning. And here Ezekiel says that they're like a Roma before the Lord.

You think about where you strayed from and how now you repented. You turned around and now you're walking on the highway to heaven. You're walking in that direction. You haven't arrived yet, but you're walking there. It's an aroma to the Lord to find a repentant sinner who's coming back from where he was.

What a blessing this is. We learn in the book of Ephesians that Christ also was an aroma himself. For the Ephesian church, Paul commands them to walk in love. And then he reminds them that Christ, who was an aroma, It says, he's given himself for us as an offering and a sacrifice to God for sweet smelling aroma. It just makes you think back, think to this woman who is creating this significant aroma in the household.

You can't miss it when you walk in the house. There's so much of it. In 2 Corinthians chapter 2, believers are also identified as aroma. Where the Apostle Paul says in 2 Corinthians 2, 14, Now thanks be to God who always leads us in his triumph in Christ and through us diffuses the fragrance of his knowledge in every place. This is a picture of the crushing of the substance that diffuses aroma And here is the fragrance of his knowledge.

In every place, for we are to God, the fragrance of Christ among those who are being saved and among those who are perishing. To the one we are the aroma of death leading to death, and to the other the aroma of life leading to life. Here again, the contrasting responses to the aroma. To those who love the Lord Jesus Christ, the aroma of the knowledge of God is beautiful. But to those who don't, it's like it's a stench of death.

We also read that the gifts of the Philippians Church were a sweet aroma. In Philippians 4, 18, Indeed, I have all and abound. I am full, having received from Epaphroditus the things sent from you, a sweet smelling aroma, an acceptable sacrifice, well pleasing to God." So this was a symbolic action, and it calls together the Old Testament sacrificial aromas that were lifted up before the nostrils of God. The people of God repenting, the gifts of God's people, Christ himself as a fragrant aroma to God. Here this woman is demonstrating the beauty of the aroma of Jesus Christ in a house, in a particular place.

So it's a symbolic action. And then there is a reaction to this sacrifice in verse 8. And this is really a surprising thing to me in verse 8. But when the disciples thought, now this is the disciples, not just Judas, you'd think only Judas would think this way. But it wasn't just Judas.

All the disciples thought this way. They were indignant, it says, saying, why this waste? For this fragrant oil might have been sold for much and given to the poor." And so the disciples are calling it waste, and Jesus is calling it worth. That's the difference. And it's interesting that the disciples were indignant.

Now, we know distinctly why Judas would say this. In John chapter 12, it's because he loved money and he was always taking from the purse. I've always found it fascinating that Jesus gave the purse into the hands of the one who loved money. Most elders and deacons wouldn't do that, but that's what Jesus did in this case. He did it, of course, for his own glory, for his own redemptive plan to be communicated, every part of it, including the betrayal at the love of money.

It's often the love of money that's at the heart of betrayal. The love of money, the love of reputation, as with Caiaphas and the high priests and the scribes and the Pharisees. But here, why were the disciples indignant? We don't know why. I'm not ready to say it's because of their love of money.

We only know that of Judas. And we're not exactly told, but we were only told that they were indignant. But the disciples were doing this same kind of grumbling. While she's worshiping, they are scorning her. They were offended by a true worshiper.

And Perhaps, and this is just speculation, pure speculation, they were just affected by their friend Judas. And We always have to be aware of how we affect one another. We say this from time to time in our elders' meetings. Let's be very careful here, how we might affect one another. You should be very careful how you affect one another.

And here, it seems that one disciple might be affecting many. But whatever it was, they were all affected in the same way. And I often think of the power that my own wife yields in my life, how much she can affect me by her attitude, by the words that she might say, how influential that is, and how influential I am to her, and how all of us are to one another. And how careful we ought to be with one another to influence one another in a wrong way. Out of our own passions, speaking out of our own resources, having our own motives, just flippantly saying what comes off the top of our head and how it affects those that are around us.

We should be careful with one another. We have a responsibility. Here, all the disciples were indignant. J.C. Ryle called the disciples cold-hearted fault-finders.

But then the Lord deals with this very personally and directly. First of all, he rebukes His disciples in verse 10. Do you see that? But when Jesus was aware of it, He said to them, why do you trouble this woman? So He's rebuking them for troubling her.

They're going after her. Imagine that for a minute. What if somebody did that to your wife or your daughter? The disciples are troubling this dear woman. They're hassling her.

And Jesus is saying, quit hassling her. And then secondly, He proclaims the goodness of her work. He says, for she has done a good work. So it was a public work. This was not the same thing that we read about in the Sermon on the Mount, where men are doing their things before men for the praise of men.

She wasn't doing that at all. She was doing a good work before men, but she wasn't doing it for men. She was just demonstrating her faith by her works and demonstrating publicly her love for Jesus Christ. And then there's a third aspect of Jesus' response. In verse 11, he declares a reality that was on their minds.

Verse 11, for you have the poor with you always, but me you do not have always. So Jesus here is talking about the poor. Now remember just a few minutes ago, in our time last week, Jesus was talking about the poor. And he says, you know, if you've done it to the least of these, my brethren, you did it unto me. He's talking about the poor again.

So he's not denigrating love for the poor at all. He's exalted love for the poor just moments ago in his conversation. He's quoting Deuteronomy 15 in verses 1 through 11. And he's not saying, you know, the problem of the poor is hopeless. You'll never be able to fix the problem of the poor.

That's not what he's saying. In fact, in Deuteronomy 15, he's saying that there will always be poor in the land, so be open-handed and not tight-fisted. That's the whole point of Deuteronomy 15. And, and in that text he says it's actually, there will be times when there's no poverty among you. Because of obedience.

Because you're taking care of the poor, You're doing what's right. And everybody's working. And there are the conditions that create the absence of the poor. But the issue in Deuteronomy 15 is don't be hard-hearted against the poor. And don't just give handouts.

And there is a whole system for that. And then next there's this other aspect of Jesus' response. He proclaims the meaning of her action. He actually tells, he interprets it, because it has an enduring meaning, amazingly. Verse 12.

For in pouring this fragrant oil on my body, she did it for my burial. So that's why it happened. It was to proclaim the message of his burial, of his death and of his resurrection. And the preparation of his body for his resurrection. And then the fifth aspect of Jesus' response is that he assures her reward in verse 13.

Assuredly, I say to you, whenever this gospel is preached in the whole world, what this woman has done will also be told as a memorial to her. So she is going to be rewarded and the story will be repeated, just like it is today, 2, 000 years later. How many times has this story been repeated? Thousands and thousands and thousands and thousands of times. It's being repeated again.

So the woman did what was appropriate to the Lord Jesus Christ. And How is it that this woman's pouring of the oil would be part of the preaching of the gospel? How? How in the world? Well, I mean, one way is that the story is just repeated when people read the gospel.

That's one way. But it might be deeper than that, actually. You know, when the Gospel is preached, its essence really is the fragrance of life for those who are being saved, and the aroma of death for those who are perishing. And so, you know, when the gospel is preached, it always serves two purposes. For the joy of those who love the sound of Jesus' voice, and for the condemnation of those who despise his voice.

And it's a Roma either way. It's the sacrificial lamb of God who was slain and being prepared for his burial. That's why it says, she did it for my burial. But I think the story is here also to help us, again, to see a couple of things. First, the contrasts.

The contrasts of the two different houses, the two different kind of people that are in the world. But also it shows us worship, personal worship before God. Its genuineness, its selflessness, its sacrifice, its generosity, its celebration of the worthiness of Christ, its sense of directing of resources in order to worship a worthy way of directing resources in the manner of worship. The fitting at His feet, the humility, the fearlessness of shame, all of these things I think are there. What does it mean to be before Jesus?

It means to be at His feet like this, with the aroma of the worship and everything that's related to the death and the resurrection of the Son of God. There's this really interesting phraseology in Song of Solomon, chapter 1, verse 3, because of the fragrance of your good ointments. Your name is ointment poured forth, therefore the virgins love you." So when we ask ourselves, How do we process this for our own lives? As you can see, there are lots of things to process about your own heart's disposition, inclination toward Jesus and your private worship toward Him. It's appropriate that This is happening right at the beginning of prayer week, because part of prayer is worshiping God.

And I hope there will be many times where we'll go to the secret place to worship. And this kind of fragrance, this kind of genuineness and generosity and selflessness would be part of our prayers that come. But here is a question that is a very serious one to ask. Is there anything in my life that testifies to the extravagant giving for Christ. What is it in our lives that's really there that testifies to an extravagant love toward him.

That's a good question to ask. This was an extravagant love. My possessions, my time, my plans, everything I am, everything I want to be. How does it relate to what this woman demonstrates? So from this picture of tenderness, from this picture of sacrifice and aroma, this beautiful picture, the darkness comes in again, in verse 14.

Judas is betraying in verse 14. Then one of the 12 called Judas Iscariot went to the chief priests and said, what are you willing to give me if I deliver him to you? And they counted out to him thirty pieces of silver. So from that time he sought opportunity to betray him. Now again, the word then in verse 14, I believe, brings us back into the historical narrative.

And here Judas is making a deal to deliver Jesus. Now here, we encounter Judas. And as I said before, Judas plays a prominent role in Matthew chapter 26. And now, there are about six people called Judas in the New Testament. And in one of the places it says, you know, Judas, not Iscariot.

Okay? Not Iscariot. You know, he's, most people don't name their children Judas for that reason. But while the chief priests are plotting, something happens that interrupts everything. It changes their whole strategy.

An insider comes and makes an offer of a deal. And they just jump at it. You see the language there? He asked for a deal, and they just counted it out. Now they thought they were going to wait till after the Passover, right?

That was their plan. But now they thought they could get him from the inside. They'd been trying to get him from the outside. So far, they didn't know that Judas was penetrable. But now he's shown his colors.

And now all their plans are suspended instantaneously Because of the plan of God. Here God is belittling the plans of the scribes and the Pharisees and this smart guy, Caiaphas, the high priest. And God is belittling them by bringing to them a deal. A deal that costs them hardly anything. It gives you a window into the mentality of Judas.

How much do you think he could have gotten? I mean, the scribes and the Pharisees, Caiaphas, they were reaping enormous rewards. Look at the temple that was built, much of it by Roman money, but they were getting rich off of this. And here, Judas is very stupid in some ways. He's asking too little.

He does not understand the value of money or the value of the situation. He just doesn't get it. And he gets 30 pieces of silver. He gets nothing. This is the reward that the wicked get for their work.

They think it's so much, but it's nothing. They think it's beauty, but it's bonds. They think it's light, but it's darkness. And that's what Judas gets. He gets what the devil will give him.

He gets what the devil will give him. Psalm 41 verse 9 is fulfilled, even my own familiar friend whom I trusted, who ate my bread, he lifted his heel against me. But you, O Lord, be merciful to me and raise me up, that I may repay them." Now Jesus was not surprised at all about this. Back in John chapter 6 verse 70, Jesus prophesied, he said, Did I not choose you the twelve and one of you as a devil? He spoke of Judas Iscariot, the son of Simon, for it was he who would betray him, being one of the twelve.

So Jesus knew his Bible, he knew the prophecies concerning himself. The betrayal would not surprise him at all. And Judas did not betray in a moment either, not in a spur of a moment. And betrayal doesn't happen in a spur of a moment. It happens after many other invisible betrayals.

And We often say, oh, I was just impulsive of that moment. No, that's not really true. I just said that in a... No, you've been cultivating things that got you to that place. Nothing happens in a vacuum.

It always comes out of the meditations of the heart. And it is true with Judas as well. And he made this deal for the price of a slave killed by an ox. You can read about it in Exodus 21, verse 28 through 32. And you can read about it in Zechariah 11.

Now what you see here with Judas is you see a man, He saw great things, he heard great things. He saw the sick healed and the dead raised. He saw the storm stilled. He saw the water being turned into wine. But The same sun that melts the ice also hardens the clay." And that's what you have here with Judas.

Christ chose him to be an apostle. Christ sent him out to evangelize. Christ showed him his power and he spoke his wisdom in his hearing and his heart remained hard. So from that time on, he sought opportunity to betray him. We could walk through the various woes of this betrayal.

Woe to that man by whom the Son of Man is betrayed. Woe to that man in Mark 14, 21, in Luke 22. Woe to that man by whom he is betrayed. Woe to that man. Woe to that man because he gets bonds, not beauty.

Woe to that man because he's a goat and not a sheep. Woe to that man because he's darkness and not light. Woe to that man because it's weeping and gnashing of teeth, and not enter into the joy of your master, woe to that man by whom the Son of God is betrayed. What shall a prophet, a man, if he gains the whole world and loses his own soul. So here we have three houses.

The house of Caiaphas power and authority in the preservation of it. We have the house of Judas that wants to get rich and doesn't even understand what riches is. We have Simon the leper and the woman in that house. And here you have that son that beautifies one and destroys another. So you have to ask, who Am I in this story?

Am I the one who wants to get Jesus out of the way? Like Caiaphas. Just get him out of the way. Innocent blood is not a big price to pay to get him out. Before a person turns to Jesus Christ, they're really like that.

They just want to get Jesus out of the way. They want to get the sermons done, they want to get out of here, they want to move on. They want to get on to the next thing. They would like it to be shorter and faster and funnier and better and more helpful. That's what they want.

They just want to get Jesus out of the way. There's no hunger there. There's no longing for Him. There's no patience with the people of God. They just want to get Jesus out of the way.

Or there's the woman who loves the aroma of sacrifice, the genuineness of heartfelt love. Or am I the scolder of the woman? Am I the scolder of the woman? You know, perhaps the believer who's hard-hearted and needs to address that, who's always hard on everyone, even worshippers, hard on other worshippers. Have you ever known a Christian that's hard on other worshippers?

That's the role the disciples were playing. Chastising them, hassling them, either in their hearts or verbally, outwardly. Or am I the person who betrays Jesus for money? Or am I the person who betrays Jesus for something that is so little? 30 lousy pieces of silver.

For a little bit of praise for that person, for not to offend that person over there. Betrayed Jesus for such a little thing. Betrayed Jesus because of something that really doesn't even matter. So who am I in the story? That's an important question to ask, who am I?

And the truth of the matter is that this Son, this Son of God, He either melts you and remakes you and fills your heart with joy in his presence. He makes you like that woman who doesn't care about the price of worship. Or... Or he hardens you. Where his aroma is like death, it's like the stench of a dead body to you.

And so here the Lord Jesus does it again as he has so many times. He presents before us these two worlds, the world of light and darkness, the world of love on the one hand, and the world of betrayal on the other hand. And here the Lord is, of course, bringing this story into the equation for us, so that our hearts would be attracted, so that the sun would melt us to be like that woman. Would you pray with me? Oh Lord, I thank you that you've brought these things before us through your word.

Your word is beautiful. It's so good. Oh Lord, come and nurse us upon it today. Feed us upon it today. Oh Lord, use it to clear our eyes and cleanse our hearts and fill our minds with bread from heaven.

Oh Lord, give us this day our daily bread. Amen.