JESUS CARES ABOUT YOUR GIFTS PART 12
Text - John 12:1-11
Introduction
Today is the first Sunday of the month and as we’ve been doing throughout the entire year of 1990, on the first Sunday of every month, we’ve been emphasizing our goals and our theme for the year.
This year our theme has been “The Church That Cares.” We have seen a great response to this theme and we have met many of our goals.
This year I’ve been preaching from the Gospel of John. Primarily, the first twelve chapters in order to emphasize the goal of caring. And in each one of these chapters we have seen how that Jesus cares. How that He cares about people who are in need. How He cares about individuals who are less fortunate than we are here at Grace. We’ve seen how that Jesus has healed people, we’ve seen how that Jesus has made blind people see, how He has fed those that are hungry. We’ve seen all kinds of things that Jesus has done for other people. How that He has cared about them. We’ve seen how he cares about us. How that he gave his life on the cross of Calvary for us. We’ve seen how Jesus cares. And the whole point of these messages is that when we see the caring example of Jesus, then that will cause us to want to care more about others.
You see if we know and we realize how much Jesus cares for us, and how much love that He has for us, then we should also exhibit that same caring attitude and that same love towards others. And we have seen that happen here. We’ve seen people who have been in need and this church has responded to that need. We’ve seen members in our church who were in financial need and our church has rallied together and shown them that we care, we’ve taken up special offerings for them. We’ve seen church members who were in need of food and our church has rallied together and shown them that we cared and we have gone to them with food so that they might eat. We’ve seen people who have had emotional problems who have gone through times of grief and times of sorry, and our church has rallied together. We have prayed for those people, and some have gone to their homes, and some have put their arms around them and cried with them and held their hands. Brethren, that’s what it’s all about.
And that’s what Jesus would do. If He was here at this very moment and saw a need in any one of our lives, if it was a financial need, emotional need, if it was a physical need of any kind, He would try to minister to us and meet that need. That’s what we, here at Grace Church, have been emphasizing this year. The need to minister to others, to meet their needs, to show them that we care so that they may see the love of Christ in our hearts and expressed through our lives.
I’m glad that we’ve had this theme this year. It has caused us to look at ourselves. It has caused us to examine our lives. It has caused us to be challenged, to say – is love just a word or is it an action. It has caused us to think about that. And I, for one, am glad that we have had this theme this year - “The Church That Cares.”
It has improved our church. It has improved our church spiritually. I can see how that people have started to think more about how they need to care about others. From a pastoral perspective, I can say that I am proud of you because that has been accomplished. That was the number one thing that I wanted to achieve this year. As a goal, we were trying to instill in people’s hearts, the need to care about others – and we’ve accomplished that. We’ve seen people respond to that. And because of that, we have seen growth numerically, we have seen people saved. You know, when people see that we really care about them, then they’re going to start caring about what we say to them. And that’s happened. As long as we show people mean something to us and are important to us and that we love them and care for them, then they’re going to listen to the word of God as we proclaim it. And they are gong to respond to it.
I pray that if you have learned anything at all from this series of sermons from the gospel of John, you’ll learn this one lesson: That because Jesus cares, we should care. And I hope and pray that whenever you hear a sermon, whenever you hear a lesson, whenever you hear somebody talk to you from the gospel of John, your mind will come back to 1990 and you’ll remember how that Jesus cares, and therefore, we should care.
During this time of year, our hearts and our minds are turning to thoughts of Christmas. I know that’s especially true with the young people and the children. As an adult, I too love Christmas. During this time of year we’re thinking about how we need to give gifts to people. I cannot think of a greater gift that has ever been given than the gift that Jesus Christ gave to us. The gift of salvation.
Jesus Christ cared so much about us that He was willing to give His life for us and die upon the cross of Calvary for each and every one of us.
About this time last year, in 1989, I was given a cartoon strip - the name of the strip is “Marvin.” Has anybody every read this? It’s a little cartoon strip about a little baby. In this cartoon strip, Marvin is sitting in the living room in a chair - a great big easy chair – and his mother is sitting next to him and she’s reading a book titled, “The Story of Christmas.” And as she’s reading this book, Marvin interrupts his mother and says, let me see if I’ve got this straight. Christmas is baby Jesus’ birthday, but I get the presents? And in the next frame, with a smile on his face, Marvin says, “Is this a great religion, or what?”
Most Christians look at Christianity the same way that Marvin looked at Christmas. They look at Jesus as someone to get something from. What can I get from Jesus? What can He give me? We’re living in such an affluent society today, and such a selfish society today, and that same attitude has also crept into God’s churches today, that people are asking – what can I get out of it? What I can I get out of the church? What can I get from Christ? What can He give me? When in actuality, we should be asking, what can I give Him? What can I give Jesus as a gift? What can I give of myself to the Lord? What do I have that I can bestow upon Him and let Him have as my gift?
I want you to think about it this year as we come into this season. I want you to think about the gift that Jesus Christ has given to you. There is no greater gift that anybody could give than one’s life, and Jesus Christ gave Himself for us. And while you’re thinking about that great gift that He has given, I want you to think about the gift you’re going to give Him. What will you give Him? What gift will you present to Him?
In our text, we find three people that I’d like us to concentrate on. In John 12:1-11, there are three individuals that are spoken of. We’ve already seen each and everyone of these three people mentioned in various place within the gospel of John already. The first one is found in verses 1 and 2. Her name is Martha. Martha was the sister of Mary who is then mentioned in verses 3 through 8. Mary and Martha were the sisters of a man called Lazarus. And you’ll recall from John 11 – last month I preached on how Lazarus was raised from the dead by Jesus.
Martha, Mary and Lazarus - those are the three individuals I would like us to look at. I’d like us to see the gifts that they gave to Jesus Christ.