Sermons

Introduction

Well, it is my joy to be here this morning and to open up the word of God with you. I am so excited to be in the gospel of Luke. You can go ahead and open to chapter 10, and we're going to look at the very last paragraph in that book. And as you do so, I am certain you've heard of the name George Müller; he's one of the most famous Christians in church history. He was born in the year 1805 and passed away at 92 years of age; and he's known as a man of prayer, but also as a man who cared for orphans.

In his life, he opened up five orphanages and cared for over 10,000 orphans. Back in England at that point there was no such thing as caring for orphans; he started that ministry. He did this, all the while, preaching three times a week for 68 years. He preached for Spurgeon at times. He inspired the missionary efforts of Hudson Taylor. He was the famous minister. At 70, he fulfilled his lifelong dream to become a missionary, and for the next 17 years, he traveled to 42 countries and preached at least once a day, and people estimate three million people heard him preach in those years. He read his Bible about 200 times in his life. What you see in his life is that his life was busy with ministry.

He was married; his wife passed away after 39 years. He had four children; three of them died before their first birthday. He was remarried, and she also passed away before he did. His life was also filled with trials, and he was able to find a way to balance ministry and family life and commitment to Christ. As he reflected on his life and ministry he wrote the following:

"Above all things, see it that your souls are happy in the Lord. Other things may press upon you. The Lord's work may even have urgent claims upon your attention. But I deliberately repeat: it is of supreme and paramount importance that you should seek above all things to have your souls truly happy in God Himself. Happiness is to be obtained through the study of the Holy Scriptures. God has revealed Himself in them through the face of Christ. My dear Christian reader, will you not try this way? Will you not for yourself try the preciousness and the happiness of this way of casting all your cares and burdens and necessities upon God? This way is open to you as it is to me."

George Müller was able to understand what is of utmost importance even in the middle of a busy ministry life and a busy family life. He understood that the priority is our time with Christ, our relationship with Christ. And yet so many times, while we understand the same, we are tempted away from that, and the struggle is real. You have so many things to do every single day, and you try to prioritize Christ, and sometimes you say, "I'll get to it, I'll get to it, I'll get to it. I'll get to my prayer time. I'll get to my Bible study time." And then the day is over and you wonder, "How did this happen?"

George Müller reminds us of the priority of spending time with Christ. And that struggle is so serious that even Paul expresses his concern to the Corinthians about their own devotion to Christ. In 2 Corinthians chapter 11, we find Paul confessing his fear, and this is what he says: "I'm afraid that as the serpent deceived Eve by his craftiness, your minds will be corrupted from simple and pure devotion to Christ."

Of all the things that brought fear into Paul's heart, it was their possibility of being moved away from simple and sincere or pure devotion to Christ. And the image that he sets up as an analogy in verse 2, right before that, is of a marriage relationship. He says, "I'm jealous for you with godly jealousy. I betrothed you to one husband, as I might present you as a pure virgin to Christ." The image, it's as if a wife is being seduced away by another man whenever we are being tempted away from our pure and sincere devotion to Christ. That's a horrible thought to see that happen between a husband and a wife. And that's Paul's analogy, that we are to be fully devoted to Christ.

Well, that was Martha's predicament. She was being tempted away from Christ to serve Christ; and those priorities sometimes need to be reevaluated. That's what we're going to do this morning in the last paragraph of Luke chapter 10. You can follow along as I read, beginning in verse 38.

"Now as they were traveling along, He entered a village; and a woman named Martha welcomed Him into her home. And she had a sister called Mary, who was seated at the Lord's feet, listening to His word. But Martha was distracted with all her preparations; and she came up to Him and said, 'Lord, do You not care that my sister has left me to do all the preparations alone? Then tell her to help me.' But the Lord answered and said to her, 'Martha, Martha, you are worried and bothered about so many things; but only one thing is necessary, for Mary has chosen the good part, which shall not be taken away from her.'"

In chapter 9, in verse 51, Luke tells us that Jesus set His face like a flint to Jerusalem. The journey to Jerusalem, to the cross, begins at the end of chapter 9, and He finally arrives in chapter 19. But in those chapters in between, Jesus is moving, and He decides to pause and visit the village of Bethany. Bethany isn't named in this passage, but we learn from John chapter 11 and chapter 12 that this is where Martha, Mary, and Lazarus were from, so we know this is the village of Bethany.

Bethany was situated just two miles east of Jerusalem on the eastern slope of the Mount of Olives. And in the final week of His life, the Passion Week, Jesus used Bethany as the headquarters for His ministry, and this is the beginning of that point. Jesus would tell His disciples to go find a donkey in Bethany that He would then ride into Jerusalem. during the triumphal entry. Jesus would be anointed by Mary in John chapter 12, and then she would wipe His feet with her hair. That also is a preparation for His burial, He tells people, in that moment. But also it was right next to Bethany that Jesus would ascend after the resurrection. So Bethany plays a significant role in the life and in the ministry of Jesus toward the end.

Luke sets up the story for us in this paragraph in Bethany, but he does this in a way where he gives us three stories. I assume it was last week that you looked at the previous passage about the Good Samaritan, and that story is all about the fact that we need to have unique, divine love empowering us to love our neighbor. That's the second great commandment according to Jesus from Matthew 22. The passage that follows this paragraph is all about prayer, focusing on our relationship with God the Father. That's the first great commandment. And in between these two stories, Luke gives us the story about Christ. It's as if to say that if you're going to love your neighbor and you're going to love God and fulfill those two great commandments, you need to focus on Christ. He becomes central to the fulfillment of both of those commandments.

This story only is recorded in the gospel of Luke, but it has a critical lesson for us about prioritizing Christ above all the daily concerns of life. And the way Luke sets up the story is through three characters that provide for us three perspectives. And that's what I'd like to do, just walk through the story through the eyes of three characters: Mary, Martha, and Jesus. And what we'll see is Mary's choice, Martha's concern, and Jesus' commendation. Mary's choice, Martha's concern, and Jesus's commendation.

Mary's Choice

And in verse 39, we see Mary being introduced as the one who's sitting by the feet of Jesus. Mary doesn't say a word in this story, and yet she's presented as the model disciple. Martha her sister, back in verse 38, is mentioned first, most likely because she's older. In fact, her name in Aramaic means "mistress." It, perhaps, means she was a widow. She was the older sister, she was a widow, this was her house, so she's kind of in charge in this situation.

And Mary, her younger sister, is sitting by the feet of Jesus. The way it says in the original is she took the initiative to sit by Jesus. She placed herself by His feet. It's a posture of humility and a posture of homage. But it's also a sign of a disciple. Back in Luke chapter 8, we see the demoniac who was healed by Jesus sitting by His feet and listening to Him. In Acts chapter 22, also written by Luke, he talks about Paul being instructed at the feet of Gamaliel; and we know from Philippians and from Galatians that Paul was Gamaliel's finest student. So the idea of sitting by someone's feet in the ancient times was implying that you were a student, you were a disciple, you were a follower; you were humbling yourself under that person in order to listen to him.

And it says in verse 39 that she's listening to His word. That's Luke's way of describing the gospel. It begins in chapter 1, verse 2, where the servants of the word were proclaiming the word, and Luke interviewed them and then wrote his gospel. But the way Luke phrases Mary's commitment is with a verb that has continuous implications. She's listening without any distraction. She's focused on Jesus; He has her full attention.

Now, Jesus was a great preacher, we know that. Just listen to some of the statements made about Him elsewhere in the Gospels. In Matthew 7, it says, "The multitudes were amazed at His teaching." In John 7, it says, "Never did a man speak the way this man speaks." In Mark 11, it says that "the whole crowd was spellbound by His teaching." In Mark 12, it says that "the large crowd enjoyed listening to Him." And in Luke 19, "All the people were hanging upon His every word." That's a good preacher, if people are hanging upon His every word.

Mary is undistracted as she listens to Jesus. But understand this: what she's doing is contrary to social norm. She wasn't supposed to be listening to any teacher, especially to Jesus. Jesus, by this point, was famous. We're entering the last seven months of His life; and so, He's renowned. And so now she places herself by His feet as if to say, "I deserve to be here." One commentator says that the picture of a woman in the disciples' position at the feet of Jesus would be startling in a culture where women did not receive formal teaching from a rabbi.

This is what a rabbi says from the first century, the time of Jesus: "Rather, should the word of the Torah be burned than entrusted to a woman." That's horrific, right? But that's the culture. So to find Mary sitting in a position of a disciple is contrarian to what the society allowed.

But when you look at the history of the first Christians, the Christians changed that climate. The Christians allowed women to be a part of the ministry. In the New Testament, we see them called deaconesses. That means they have specific roles that they fulfilled in the church. Christianity changed the perspective of divorce and concubines, advocating for healthier marriages. All that was not the norm in the first century.

Early Christian women studied theology. Paul calls them patrons, fellow workers, chosen, tested, proven, servants of the Lord, dear friends and partners in the gospel ministry. You can see that in Romans 16 or 1 Corinthians 16 or Philippians or Colossians where Paul lists specific women by name, affirming them in the gospel ministry. And they were so important to the ministry that we see in Acts 8:12, for example, at the preaching of Philip it says that "many were being baptized, both men and women alike." So again, that's a distinctive mark that women are entering this new movement.

In Acts chapter 8, the importance of their involvement in ministry is indicated by the persecution that they also experienced along with the men. Saul, before he became Paul, before his conversion, began ravaging the church, entering house after house and dragging off men and women, putting them in prison. In chapter 22 of the book of Acts, he confesses, "I persecuted this way to the death, binding and putting both men and women into prisons." You don't persecute a person who's not a threat, a person who's not influential. Is that fair?

Three weeks ago it was my mom's 70th birthday, and on her birthday that weekend we received a special gift from a friend in Europe. For the last few years this friend of ours has been reading and studying the documents of the KGB files that have been declassified. He was focusing on the persecution of the Christians in the Soviet Union in the '70s and '80s, and he sent us an email with ten different documents with our family name all over the place. So the KGB had a long extensive file on our family, and he found my mom's name, my dad's name, my aunt's name, my uncle's name, our address, house address was listed. He describes how many people would come and go to our house, what countries they came from.

Back in 1989, before we moved to America, we went to Finland – myself, my sister, my mom, and my dad – to meet with our international partners. We were sending stories of persecuted Christians to Finland, to Germany, to other parts of the western world in order for them to pray. And so we met them, and the names of those individuals in Finland were listed in these files. And there were dates and records when they came to our house – the services that took place at house churches, how many kids were there under the age of 18 because it was illegal to go to church under 18. And so my mom is crying and weeping. This was on her birthday – what a present – because she knew that KGB was paying attention, and they had then arrested both my parents back in the day. But she didn't know to what degree how specific everything was listed in these files. That is to say, you don't persecute somebody who's not a threat.

Women are listed in the New Testament as threats because of Christians instead Roman Empire. We have to understand that women played a significant role because Jesus prioritized and loved women. He's the creator of everyone. He created every single person in the image of God, and so He paid attention to them when the rest of the society did not.

Think about the Samaritan woman divorced five times; Jesus speaks with her. Think about the woman who was crippled for 18 years, and He heals her. Think about the woman in Luke chapter 7 who lost her only child, the young boy; and Jesus heals him. Think about the woman whose young daughter was demon-possessed, and Jesus stops. She was Syrophoenician. She wasn't even Jewish, and Jesus stops and pays attention to her.

Martha's Concern

There's tenderness and care in Jesus. And so He doesn't push Mary away, even though that's not socially appropriate for her to sit and listen to Him. Instead she is presented as a disciple. So Mary's choice in verses 38 and 39 is that she's listening without any distraction. And in just a few verses Jesus will affirm her choice as the right choice. But before He does, we have a little conflict between two sisters, and so we move to the second perspective and the second character in Luke's story, and that is Martha. And Martha has a concern that she expresses, and we read that in verses 40 and 41.

"Martha was distracted with all her preparations." The idea there is that she was being pulled away from something. That is to say, she also wanted to sit and listen to Jesus. This is not describing Martha who has a hard heart, a Martha who's not saved, a Martha who doesn't love Jesus. Rather, she's conflicted. That's the idea behind that word "being distracted." She is overburdened by the responsibility to be hospitable, to welcome Jesus into her home, and so she's busy and distracted by this responsibility. In the same way that Luke presents Mary as being fully focused on Jesus and listening to Him, he uses the same tense in the Greek language to describe Martha's focus on her preparation as she gets busy in the kitchen.

Now, before we come down too hard on Martha, let's not forget John chapter 11. John chapter 11 gives us the story of the resuscitation of Lazarus. As Jesus comes to their home and before He goes to the tomb, Martha meets Him. And we read the story in verses 20 through 27 of John chapter 11. "And Mary's in the house. Martha goes out," in verse 21, "to see Jesus, and she says, 'Lord, if You had been here, my brother would not have died. But even now, I know that whatever You ask from God, God will give You.' And so Jesus says to her," in verse 23, 'Your brother will rise again.' And Martha responds, 'I know he will rise again in the resurrection on the last day.'" So she believes in the final resurrection.

"Jesus says to her," in verse 25, 'Hold on, I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in Me will live even if he dies. And everyone who lives and believes in Me will never die, ever. Do you believe this?' And she replies," in verse 27, 'Yes, Lord; I have believed that You are the Messiah, or the Christ, the Son of God, the One who comes into the world.'" That confession in verse 27 is the first grand confession in the entire gospel of John of the Messiah status of Jesus, the messianic status of Jesus. Martha gets it. She confesses Jesus to be the Messiah, the Son of God, the One who was sent by God into this world. So Martha knows the identity of Jesus.

So, in Luke chapter 10, Martha is not opposed to Jesus. She's not trying to distance herself from Jesus. Rather, she is preoccupied with the concerns of life. I'd say she loved Jesus as much as Mary loved Jesus. But her response is a response of distraction, because as one commentator says, "There are times when listening to the word of Jesus should take second place to the pressing needs of the moment." That's Martha's perspective right now. She flips as a priority. We should always prefer Christ; and yet in this moment, she doesn't.

I think there are times in our lives when we feel exactly the same way. We know that we need to read our Bibles; and more than just read our Bibles, we need to study them. We should look at those MacArthur Study Bible notes below the inspired text. We know that we should be praying extensively, deepening our prayer life. We know that we need to be faithful to a personal piety; and yet, we wake up and we think, "There's so much going on today. There's a conference taking place. There's a women's event, a men's event. There's a VBS taking place, and somebody has to do it, and somebody has to prepare." Or, "We have a church picnic; somebody has to do the work." Statistically only 20 percent do the work, 80 percent enjoy it. So somebody has to do it and so we prioritize service for Christ above personal time with Christ. That's this story. That's this moment. And we tell ourselves, "I'll do it later," and later never comes.

And so Martha, in verse 40, is distracted with all her preparations. That's the word for ministry in the Greek. That's the word for deacon. Every single time Luke uses that word in the gospel, it's always positive. He's not criticizing Martha's preparations. Maybe the climactic use of the same word is in chapter 12.

In chapter 12 and in verse 35, 36, 37, we see Jesus telling His disciples to be ready for His return. And so He says in 12:35, "Gird up your loins; keep your lamps lit. And be like men who are waiting for their master when he returns from the wedding feast, so they may immediately open the door to him when he comes and knocks. Blessed are those slaves whom the master will find awake when he comes; truly I say to you, that he will gird himself to serve, and have them recline at the table, and will come up and wait on them." It's a prophecy about Jesus serving us at the marriage supper of the Lamb.

We typically think about the marriage supper of the Lamb as this massive wedding celebration; and it's right, it is. We don't think about the groom putting on a towel, the dress of a servant, getting down next to somebody and serving them. How many times have you seen the groom serve at a wedding? Zero. I just went to a wedding on Friday night; that wasn't happening. There was lots of dancing happening, but no service. And we didn't criticize that because that's not the place of the groom.

But Luke 12 tells us Jesus, at the marriage supper of the Lamb, will actually serve His disciples. The same vocabulary is used. That's a prophecy of the future. Jesus had done that once before in John chapter 13. Shortly before the cross, He actually washed the feet of His disciples. So we know He will humble Himself because He's done it before.

Luke's use of the language for "service" or "deaconship" or "preparations" here is a positive use of the term. He's not criticizing her, but he is reflecting on her wrong priorities. And so we see that in this scene, Martha has to reevaluate what she is focused on.

And so she says in verse 40, "Lord, don't You care that my sister has left me to do all the preparations alone?" Now, as she says this, Luke said she came up to them, and standing there – so you can imagine her standing there, perhaps with a knife on her hand waving it, perhaps with pita and hummus in the other – and she's like, "Lord," – Is there some respect in that? – "don't You care that my younger sister isn't helping me?"

Now, I'm an older sibling; I have three younger siblings. They're not helpful; you know that. If you have younger siblings, you know how that is. So we sympathize with her, right? And so she focuses on Jesus, and she's so frustrated she won't even talk to Mary. Jesus is in trouble in this story with Martha. And so she says, "Don't You care at all?"

Now, her hospitality is right. Elders are supposed to be hospitable. Widows are supposed to be hospitable. She's a widow. First Peter 4:9 says, "All Christians are supposed to be hospitable." Hebrews 13:2 says, "Hey, be ready to be hospitable to strangers," – right? – "because you might be entertaining an angel." So if we're supposed to be hospitable to strangers, how much more to Jesus? We have to think through that from the New Testament perspective.

And so she says, "Look, I'm doing this alone," in the middle of verse 40. "She's not helping me." But actually in the original, "alone" comes at the very beginning. She emphasizes to Jesus, "Alone, I'm working for You," and that's a way to stress her frustration and her agitation. She wouldn't even call her sister by her name, "My sister." That's also frustration where she kind of distances herself relationally. And she's wanting Jesus' attention as well. She wants His care.

Luke uses the same word for "care" as we find in verse 34 and verse 35 as a man who is being cared for by the Samaritan. She's asking for affection, for attention, for Jesus to actually notice her, and she wants something that caring as the man in the previous story. She's indicting Jesus and Mary.

What's taking place is her wrong priority has skewed her perspective on the character of Jesus. Commentator says she's anxious, she's troubled by so many things. In her focus on these things, she's forgetting the most important person, and the circumstances are overwhelming her. The result was that she risked running over others with her poor attitude. Jesus intends to correct her misperception.

There are times when we're so overwhelmed with ministry, is that we are also tempted to run over people. "We've got to get the job done," and so our attitude changes. Our vocabulary may change. We might have a harsh tone with people because we just got to get this done. And as she impugns Jesus and gets Him in trouble, she bosses Him around, "Tell my sister," right? She feels like she's truly in charge telling everybody what to do. She begins to doubt the character of Jesus that He actually cares for her.

And in those moments of being overwhelmed, we begin to doubt the character of God. "God, do You actually care that my burdens are so heavy, that my ministry is so difficult, that there's so much to do? Why are You allowing me to go through this?" We're not even talking about the difficult trials of life here, we're talking about ministry responsibilities: "Why am I so overwhelmed with what's taken place in my life in the context of ministry?"

Was it appropriate for her to expect her younger sister to worry as much about helping Jesus and hosting Jesus as she was? Probably so. Mary should have cleaned the house, set the table, made sure the food was warm, and on and on and on. So there's a sense of propriety in her concern, but not to the neglect of what's most important according to Jesus.

In those times, we might ask the same question, "Does God even care about me? Does He even see me slaving away for Him?" And so Peter helps us. In 1 Peter 5:7 he says He does care: "Cast all your anxiety upon Him, cast all your concerns upon Him," – the same vocabulary – "because He cares." Peter picks up those same two words, "concern" and "care," and places them next to each other in 1 Peter 5:7 as if to say, "Your heavenly Father sees your concern. Cast it on Him because He cares for you." It's a quote from Psalm 55, and he says, "Do that with all of your concerns. There are no exceptions with what burdens we can bring to God. God has every single one of our hairs numbered."

Philippians 4 gives us something very similar. Instead of being anxious, make sure that we offer our anxious thoughts back to God. In Philippians 4:6-7, this is what we read: "Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and petition with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all comprehension, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus."

God does care. And that's where the New Testament repeatedly tells us to make sure that we bring our concerns to God. Whatever concerns you might have from the past or the present or about the future, Peter and others, Paul, Jesus in Matthew 6, says the same: "Bring them to God because He cares." You see, living in the context of anxiety exposes our misunderstanding of God's character, that He can't do anything about it: "He's not powerful enough to help me in this moment." And so the lesson is, "Bring those concerns to God."

And Jesus, as kind as He is to Mary, to allow her to sit by His feet and learn from Him, Jesus is kind to Martha. In verse 41 we read, "The Lord answered and said to her, 'Martha, Martha.'" Now, whenever that happens today, when you call somebody by their name twice, "Steven, Steven," that's usually he's in trouble, right? That's what happens when a mom does that.

In the New Testament, the opposite is the case. The double use of a name is a reflection of tenderness and care and love: "Martha, Martha." Luke 22:31-32, "Simon, Simon, Satan has demanded to sift you as wheat; but I have prayed for you, that your faith would not fail; and once you have turned, strengthen your brothers." Jesus is helping Peter in that moment realize that "you're about to go through a severe trial, and Satan is after you; he wants to destroy your faith. But I'm praying for you in that moment."

Isn't that wild that Jesus is about to be crucified, and His personal anxiety is so severe that He was – He's about to be in Gethsemane on the ground face-down, begging the Father to let the cup pass from Him. That's His personal angst in John 12. That emotional response to the forthcoming cross is described as an earthquake in Jesus' soul. That's the language that John uses. And while Jesus is going through this personal preparation for the cross, He is praying for Peter's own temptation. That's the tenderness and the commitment of Jesus Christ to each of us.

So, Jesus looks at Martha and says, "Martha, Martha," – He's trying to help her understand He cares – "you're worried and bothered about so many things; but only one thing is necessary, for Mary has chosen the good part; that will not be taken away from her." He's describing her with a divided heart: she's anxious or worried, she's bothered. The first word, "worried," reflects somebody whose attention is divided. The second word, "bothered," actually is a reference to a riot, chaos in the streets, uproar. So what happens is anxiety in our hearts creates a riot in our souls and in our minds, and we can't keep it under control. And so Jesus says, "This is what's happening to you because you're bothered about so many things; but you have no control over those things."

Jesus’ Commendation

That's not to say that we shouldn't plan and prepare and work hard, but that is to say that Jesus says, "Remember what is of utmost importance. And that takes us to the third perspective, and that's Jesus' commendation. Jesus commends – not commands – commends Mary. "She chose" – verse 42 – "the good part."

"There's so many things on your mind, but there's only one thing that's necessary," and you can see that in the transition from verse 41 to verse 42, "Many things are right next to one thing." The juxtaposition of those two phrases is intentional. It's the contrast that we should notice immediately as we read this text. "There's many things that bother us, there should be one thing that concerns us." That's what Jesus is saying. That is the conscious He's trying to present to her: "There is a need to focus on what is best."

Jesus says in John 6, "I am the bread of life; and if you eat of Me, you will be satisfied." And the proof that we have chosen Jesus Christ as the better meal is if you abide in Him. In John 6:56, Jesus says, "If you eat Me and you drink Me – or eat My flesh and drink My blood – you will abide in Me." It's a statement about a relationship that we ought to have with Jesus Christ. And so Jesus commends Mary and says she chose the better part.

How do we choose the better part? It starts with a simple belief in the gospel of Jesus Christ. Remember John 5:39, Jesus tells the Jewish leaders, "You are searching the Scriptures because you think that in them you will have eternal life. It is these that bear witness about Me; and yet, you are unwilling to come to Me so you may have life."

That's where it starts. We need to come to Christ through the Scriptures, and actually believe the gospel that He offers, that we have sinned against the Holy God, and that the only way to restore a relationship with God, and to be freed from judgment and eternal condemnation and the lake of fire is to believe in the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. We repent of our sins, we turn from them, and we follow Jesus Christ, and He gives us eternal life; and we will live forever. But we also have a relationship with God the Father and God the Son by the power of the Holy Spirit.

That's the eternal life that the Jewish leaders were unwilling to receive from Christ, even though they were in the Bible, and they were studying the Torah; but yet they refused to come to Jesus. Even when we read our Scriptures, remember why you're doing that: it is to see Christ. It's not simply to get through the Bible, to get through the 66 books, to do it in a year, to do three chapters a day. It's to be able to see Christ in a fresh way as John 12 says, "Sir, we wish to see Jesus."

And I hope that's a desire of your heart every single time you open the word of God. And the proof of that is if we seek the face of God. I love Psalm 119, the longest chapter in the Bible, because in verse 57, this is what it says in the same vocabulary that we see in Luke 10 about the good part, the good portion that she has chosen is in the Greek translation of Psalm 119. This is what the author says in verse 57: "The Lord is my portion – that's Your word – I've promised to keep Your words. I have sought Your favor with my whole heart."

If the Lord is your portion, if you've chosen the good part like Mary, then you will seek the face of God. And that's why Peter was able to say at the end of the transfiguration, "It's good for us to be here. Let's just build three tabernacles and stay here forever," because when you're in the presence of Christ, it's good to be there. And that's why the true believer will echo Psalm 27:4, "One thing I have asked from Yahweh, that I will seek; that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to behold the beauty of the Lord and to inquire in His temple."

And you will echo the words of Paul from Philippians chapter 3, "One thing I do." How do you focus your entire life to one thing, somebody as successful and effective and driven as the apostle Paul? "But really the only thing that concerns me is one thing." And if you read Philippians 3, you know that the one thing is to know Christ, to be united with Him in death and resurrection. For him, it was all about the one thing, and that is Christ. And we sang the song, Philippians 1:21, "To live is Christ, to die is gain." That morbid thought isn't so morbid because it finally gives us the presence of Christ.

Conclusion

An example of that pursuit was Robert Murray M'Cheyne. He died at the age of 29 just shy of his 30th birthday. Seven thousand people came to his funeral service, which speaks to his character and his influence in that brief life. He was from Edinburgh in Scotland. He grew up in a very godly home, but he rebelled. At 18 years of age, his brother – older brother, whom he admired – unexpectedly died. By this point, Robert Murray was in the University of Edinburgh for four years. He was a bright student; entered the university at 14; and he rebelled and he pursued the party life. But when his brother passed away, he was in turmoil and he was shaken up. And so he began to read Jonathan Edwards' resolutions.

He read, "Resolved to do everything in earnest, above all, to keep much in the presence of God." And that changed him; he became a Christian at 18. At 22, he became a pastor. He began to care for the poor in Edinburgh, and began to preach in Dundee – he was a pastor for about six-and-a-half years. And a month before he died, he traveled all over that part of Scotland preaching 27 times in 24 different places. This was in February of 1843. He became very ill and he would then die.

And he's remembered not as a Greek scholar, although he was; not as a Hebrew scholar, although he was; not as a great musician, although he was; not even as a pastor. He's remembered in church history as the Saintly M'Cheyne. Those who write about him reflect on him as a life like an epistle of Christ. And he wrote a letter to his closest friend, George Shaw. And in it, he says, "Learn much of the Lord Jesus. For every look at yourself, take ten looks at Christ. He's altogether lovely, such infinite majesty, and yet such meekness and grace, and all for sinners, even the chief. Live much in the smiles of God. Bask in His beams. Feel His all-seeing eye that is settled on you in love, and repose in His almighty arms. Let your soul be filled with a heart-ravishing sense of the sweetness and excellency of Christ and all that's in Him. Let the Holy Spirit fill every chamber of your heart and so there will be no room for folly or the world or Satan or the flesh."

He continues in another writing: "The loving and much-loved wife is satisfied with the love of her husband. His smile is her joy. She cares little for any other. So if you have come to Christ your maker and your husband, His free love to you is all you need and all you can care for. There is no cloud between you and God. There is no veil between you and the Father. You have access to Him; He is the fountain of happiness." And he writes, "Oh, to be like Jesus and to be with Him for all eternity."

That is the cry of every Christian, we just have to prioritize it like Mary did. And Jesus commands and that choice because it is us entering the presence of our Savior with whom we'll spend eternity. And as we prepare for Communion, that's exactly what we're doing. We are remembering Jesus Christ, the One who died for us and the One who lives for us, who is our intercessor every single moment of every day. And as we look to Him and to His death and resurrection, I encourage you to reflect that you are coming to this moment of Communion and reflection and remembrance with a repentant heart, that you're not protecting and nurturing any sin even now.

I'd like to give you just a moment to close your eyes and to pause and reflect, and then I'll read for us 1 Corinthians chapter 11 as we are reminded of what we do every single time we take Communion.

Paul writes in 1 Corinthians 11, "For I received from the Lord that which I also delivered to you, that the Lord Jesus in the night in which He was being betrayed took bread; and when He had given thanks, He broke it and said, 'This is My body, which is for you; do this in remembrance of Me.'" If you're a true believer, do this in remembrance of Him.

[Prayer] Lord Jesus, we thank You that You willingly went to the cross, that You gave Your life and no one took it away from You. You gave it up, and You took it back in the resurrection. And we thank You that You did this for our salvation in that we can be secure and confident that we will never be judged for our sins because You took that judgment and You satisfied the wrath of God for us. We love You and we thank You for that precious gift of forgiveness. Amen. [End]

Now Paul continues in the same chapter of 1 Corinthians 11, and he says, "In the same way He took the cup also after the supper and said, 'This cup is the new covenant in My blood; do this, as often as you drink, and do this in remembrance of Me. For as often as you eat this bread and drink My cup, you proclaim the death of the Lord until He comes."

This isn't just a moment of reflection, this is a moment of proclamation. We believe that He's alive, that He's coming back, and so we're just remembering. Nothing mystical is taking place right now. This is not the body of Christ, it's a remembrance of his death and resurrection for us, so let's do it together.

[Prayer] Lord Jesus, once again, we thank You for granting us access to the throne of God. Because You died, we live. Because the veil was torn, as Your body was torn, we have access to the Holy of Holies. And You are our sympathetic and High Priest, and You understand us, and You forgive us, and You intercede for us, and You are waiting for us. You're preparing a place for us to be with You for eternity, and we thank You for that. And we thank You for the blood that was shed for us. And we do this with hearts that love You and hearts that are committed to You. Amen.