COUNTRY BIBLE CHURCH

MARCH 15 , 2009
TH

MORNING SERMON

Title The Priority of the Essential.

Text Luke 10:38-42

Now as they went on their way, Jesus1 entered a village. And a woman named Martha welcomed
him into her house. 39 And she had a sister called Mary, who sat at the Lord's feet and listened to
his teaching. 40 But Martha was distracted with much serving. And she went up to him and said,
"Lord, do you not care that my sister has left me to serve alone? Tell her then to help me." 41 But
the Lord answered her, "Martha, Martha, you are anxious and troubled about many things, 42 but
one thing is necessary.1 Mary has chosen the good portion, which will not be taken away from
her."

The Importance of Service

Jesus and His band of disciples arrived in Bethany – a little town about 2 miles from Jerusalem.
A local woman, Martha, invited Jesus to her home… and with Jesus came a crowd of people.
We know that because of what we read in verse 38…
~ we read that Jesus and his disciples were traveling… “now as they (referring to Jesus and His
disciples) went on their way
~ and then we read that “he” referring to Jesus, came to a village
~ now, this doesn’t mean that somehow “he” lost the “they” on their way… like little Bo Peep losing her
sheep, or as if Jesus was trying to ditch the disciples and have some private time
~ we know that the focal point of the Gospels is Jesus Christ – and so as we take a wide angled view of
the crowd of people, we see the “they” – Jesus and his disciples
>> but then, we quickly zoom in and remain on the “he” Jesus himself
>> and although Jesus is followed by His band of disciples, the focus is on Jesus
>> the “they” becomes “he”
** Jesus is the focal point – and so must it be, not just for Country Bible Church as a
whole, but for all of us that make up Country Bible Church – we must zoom in on
Him, past all of the other distractions of life, and remain focused on Him and His way
and His teaching and His leading – I believe this is the main point of this passage as
we will see

And so, now we have Martha, hosting Jesus and this group of disciples…
~ her busy day full of responsibility was just increased substantially
And Martha begins to do what any host of our Savior would do…
~ she allowed him to minister or teach or rest while she prepared for his stay
~ and so, she began to busy herself with cooking and preparing and planning and shopping and all that
was involved in hosting this group for the evening… or perhaps even longer
>> remember, this was in the day before refrigeration or microwaves or even ovens
>> preparing a meal would take time and effort
~ and here we find Martha, busy serving Jesus and His disciples

Service is a mark of discipleship…

Being a Christian… being a follower of Jesus… means being a servant – it means a life of service and ministry.

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A brief survey of Biblical texts reveals that service is a mark (distinguishing characteristic) of the Christian:
In Romans 12:11 we are admonished to:
“not be slothful in zeal, [but] be fervent in spirit, serv[ing] the Lord.
1 Thessalonians 1:9 is the story of how the people in Thessalonica,
“turned to God from idols to serve the living and true God”
And Hebrews 9:14 shows us that the work of Jesus Christ on the cross – HIS BLOOD – serves to:
“purify our conscience from dead works to serve the living God.”

The great apostle of Jesus Christ, Paul, reveals to us what he knew himself to be… a “servant of Christ Jesus”
~ and that means that he knew that he was not the master of his own life – Jesus was
~ he was not self-serving, but had a singular mind to serve His Savior and Lord

Now, I speak to all of us Christians in this room… and I put my self in that category…
~ we bear the name Christ in how we refer to ourselves – as “Christians”
~ and so, if your service to the Lord is minimal or non-existent, perhaps then, you are more the Lord of
your life than Jesus is
~ perhaps you are self-serving and are holding tightly to the benefits of having God as your Father, but
using them for self rather than for community – and in doing so, we dishonor the blessings of God on
the alter of selfishness

God did not save us from all of the other masters and dictators of our life so that we can be the our own king…
Better than that – far better than that… Jesus saved us even from ourselves to bring us into His glorious
Kingdom so that we are free to live under His glorious provision and majesty and dominion.
We know that (Col 1:13-14)
“God has delivered us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of his
beloved Son, 14 in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.”

And now, the closer we get in our relationship with the King, with our Lord and Savior… the more we know
and value and adore God as our perfect Master, the greater we cherish opportunities to serve Him.
God wasn’t fooling us when He told us to “serve Him with gladness1” (Psalm 100:2)
His intention is to free us from serving the far inferior gods of self and lust and greed and pride to the greatest of
all – service to the Almighty Creator, the King of Kings, the Everlasting Father.

And Martha had the privilege on the day Jesus visited Bethany.
She enjoyed the privilege of service.

How are you doing in the service of our King??

Are you actively serving the Lord and His body – the church?

The Greater Importance of Solitude

As Martha was busy in her service to Jesus – her sister, Mary was not.
We read of Mary – verse 39 – that she was sitting at the Lord’s feet and listening to His teaching.
And now, this story gains more interest – now we have a conflict – Martha is serving, Mary is sitting – and add
to the mix – they are sisters… they know each other well and they have the freedom to speak their mind to each
other… and Martha, as she is scuttling around serving, does pause long enough to speak her mind:
Martha approaches Jesus, with her sister sitting at His feet, and says to Him,
"Lord, do you not care that my sister has left me to serve alone?”

1
When our service to God lacks gladness, then we display (and perhaps believe) that the Master is dull and hard and pitiful…
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The question Martha asked Jesus, she expected him to affirm – she fully expected Jesus to agree with her…
that’s why she ends by saying to Jesus,
“Tell her then to help me."

So Martha expects Jesus to tell Mary to stop sitting and start serving.
And as Jesus responds to this, he responds… not to Mary, but to Martha…
And it appears that He does so with grace and kindness…
He begins by speaking her name twice… “Martha, Martha” a way of softening Martha in her emotion, and
drawing her complete attention.

And He says to her:

“…you are anxious and troubled about many things, 42 but one thing is necessary. Mary has
chosen the good portion, which will not be taken away from her."

The point Jesus is making is that service is good, but better than that is solitude.
Service is a mark of being Jesus disciple, but a greater mark is communion with Him.
Service is basic… but fellowship is essential.

And here we have God’s voice speaking to our souls.

What most Christians would admit they neglect most is what is most needed.

In their book, First Things First [Simon & Schuster, p. 32], Stephen Covey and Roger and Rebecca Merrill ask
this penetrating question:
“What is the one activity that you know if you did superbly well and consistently would have significant
positive results in your personal life?”
They repeat the question with regard to your professional or work life..
And then ask, “If you know these things would make such a significant difference, why are you not
doing them now?”
They go on to discuss how we often wrongly let the urgent take priority over that which is truly important.2

Is that not the case for many of us… the truly important and essential need to be in the fellowship of our God is
set aside for the seemingly urgent demands in life.

Jesus gives us an example from His own life:

~ if ever there was somebody with a busy schedule and heavy demands and responsibilities in life, it
was He
~ and He would break away from doing ministry –and he would escape to go and pray
We see this in Luke – in chapter 4 verse 42 where Jesus snuck away to a desolate place – and Mark 1:35 adds
that he went their to pray
Also, in chapter 6 verse 12:
It was at this time that He went off to the mountain to pray, and He spent the whole night in prayer to God.

Jesus displayed perfectly what is most essential – He would “rise very early in the morning” at times and other
times he would stay up all night in fellowship with the Father.

And, here in Luke, Mary is sitting at His feet and listening to His voice, as the world is swirling around her and
her sister is doing double duty in service… and Jesus says, “Mary has chosen the good portion, which will not
be taken from her.”

2
From Steven Cole – Flagstaff Christian Fellowship, “The One Thing Necessary”– a sermon from Luke 10:38-42.
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Are you choosing the good portion?
Or, is your life set up in such a way that God is being crowded out?

Too often, our time communing or fellowshipping with God is overlooked and even eliminated.
The most important is deemed least important by our actions.
We catch a glimpse of this in the sacred Word – in verse 40 – we find that Martha, who invited Jesus to her
home, was distracted… she was caught up in the busyness of service.
And her “serving the Lord with gladness” turned into “serving the Lord in anxiousness and being bothered”
(verse 41).

We too, can begin to serve the Lord from a dry heart… and the voice of God is calling out to us this morning:
Come to me… find my presence to be your portion… enjoy my presence and linger before my face…

The Psalmists capture the joy of communing with God:

You make known to me the path of life; in your presence there is fullness of joy; at your
right hand are pleasures
forevermore. – Psalm 16:11

One thing have I asked of the LORD, that will I seek after: that I may dwell in the house of
the LORD all the days
of my life, to gaze upon the beauty of the LORD and to inquire in his temple. – Psalm 27:4

My soul longs, yes, faints for the courts of the LORD; my heart and flesh sing for joy to the
living God. – Psalm
84:2

Concluding thoughts:
I believe there is one main thought to pull away from this passage – this encounter with Jesus: we talked about
service… but that is not what this text is about… what God shows us in this passage is that…
There is the priority of the essential – clinging to God in daily fellowship with Him in prayer and in His Word.
Socrates said, "Beware of the bareness of a busy life."
Our lives can get so busy and so out of whack that the Supreme being gets our leftovers rather than our lives.
And to our shame and to our demise, we let other things overtake the most important.
And I urge us all to listen intently to God’s leading this morning – listen to His voice as He speaks to us in
speaking to Martha – let Mary be the object of our envy and the motive of our change.

Having said that, it must be reiterated that this fellowship with God, this communing with God in prayer and in
His Word and moment by moment in our thoughts and prayers throughout the day is the place of security and
peace and joy.

The more we grow in our knowledge and understanding of our Everlasting Father… the more our joy in Him
increases. The more we study His features in His Word, the more beautiful He gets and the more we want to
know more of Him.
From Moses to the Apostle Paul, their heart beat to know Him more.

George Mueller, When he was 71 years old, Mueller spoke to younger believers:
Now in brotherly love and affection I would give a few hints to my younger fellow-believers as to the way in
which to keep up spiritual enjoyment. It is absolutely needful in order that happiness in the Lord may continue,
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that the Scriptures be regularly read. These are God's appointed means for the nourishment of the inner man. . .
.Consider it, and ponder over it. . . . Especially we should read regularly through the Scriptures, consecutively,
and not pick out here and there a chapter. If we do, we remain spiritual dwarfs. I tell you so affectionately. For
the first four years after my conversion I made no progress, because I neglected the Bible. But when I regularly
read on through the whole with reference to my own heart and soul, I directly made progress. Then my peace
and joy continued more and more. Now I have been doing this for 47 years. I have read through the whole Bible
about 100 times and I always find it fresh when I begin again. Thus my peace and joy have increased more and
more.3

May that reality capture our hearts this morning.

As we gaze at Mary and Martha, I trust that God will move us to believe that the natural place for us is to be is
to be continually at the feet of Jesus listening to His voice.

Let’s pray:

3
Mueller, Narrative, 2:834.
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