Mary of Bethany: A Beautiful Waste

So if you're taking notes, the title of our mission today will be "Mary of Bethany, a Beautiful Waste." So who is Mary of Bethany? And this is something we talked about with the youth. There is a lengthy list of Marys in the New Testament. There's a lot of them, and they can kind of get tangled up when you're reading through Scripture. We had a list that we looked at of actual all the Marys we know of in Scripture, and it was a long list. I read in one commentary there were something like one in six women in this area, in this day, were named Marys.

So there are a lot of Marys, but this is Mary of Bethany, and we know her can pick her out because of her family. She was sister to Martha and Lazarus. And usually when you see Mary of Bethany, it's in connection with Martha and with Lazarus. So our question today is going to be, "What can we learn from her example as a worshipper?" And there are three parts of Scripture we're going to look at where Mary of Bethany is present, and she is interacting with the Lord Jesus. She's worshipping, and we're going to examine these pieces of Scripture and see what we can learn from her example. So our first text is Luke 10.

If you want to go ahead and flip there. It's in Luke 10 starting in verse 38, Luke chapter 10 starting in verse 38 through 42. "Now as they went on their way, Jesus entered a village, and a woman named Martha welcomed Him into her house. And she had a sister called Mary who sat at the Lord's feet and listened to His teaching. 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.' But the Lord answered her, 'Martha, Martha, you are anxious and troubled about many things, but one thing is necessary.

Mary has chosen the good portion which will not be taken away from her.'" So Martha and Mary make quite a contrast here. If these two women are put side by side in the story, they make quite a contrast. So let's look at the choices that each one of them make. So Mary in the Scripture chooses to sit at the feet of Jesus and listen, and Martha chooses to forge ahead with serving in the ways she thought was most important. And you see in the Scripture that Martha's anxiousness over the work that she had before her kind of quickly turned into anger towards her sister.

She went from whatever she was doing to looking over and seeing her sister sitting there listening to the teaching of Jesus, and it caused anger to well up in her and caused her to kind of lash out. And she goes to the highest authority she's got in the room, which is the Lord Jesus Christ herself to complain about her sister. So it turns into anger towards her sister, but it doesn't stop there. Her anxiousness turns into her questioning the priorities of Jesus himself who's into her house. Listen to what she says in verse 40, "Lord, do you not care?" She's calling Jesus on the carpet over this as well. She's questioning his priorities.

She thinks that Jesus should be straightening out Mary. And I don't know if you've been listening to the Life in the Body series that we've been going through, but Chris has been outlining some quote unquote spiritual gifts for us. And I'm using my air quotes here. Some people call them scare quotes around spiritual gifts. But this is Martha exercising the spiritual gift of flamethrower on Mary. She's ready to roast. Okay, and she's trying to bring Jesus in on it as well to straighten Mary out. Jesus, look at what she's doing. Fix her. Fix her. And she's exercising some non-spiritual gifts here.

So she's using the spiritual gift of flamethrower. And while we're contrasting Martha and Mary here, we don't want to be careful not to vilify Martha here. She's doing what she thinks is best and she's serving in a way that she thinks is best. So we have to be careful there. So what is it that Martha is accusing Mary of? What is it that Martha is saying? In verse 40 again, she says, "Lord, do you not care that my sister has left me to serve alone. Tell her then to help me." So Martha is accusing Mary of sitting around while there's important work to be done, right? That's what she's upset about. So she's accusing Mary of wasting time.

Mary's sitting there when she thinks, Martha thinks that she'd be up helping her. So she's accusing her of wasting time. And I want you to hold on to that because it's going to be relevant to some things we're going to unpack later about Mary. Martha is accusing Mary of wasting her time. Let's look at what Jesus says about Mary's actions. Jesus speaking to Martha when he says this about Mary. "Martha, Martha, you are anxious and troubled about many things, but one thing is necessary.

Mary has chosen the good portion which will not be taken away from her." So Martha says Mary's being wasteful, but Jesus says that Mary has chosen the good portion, the one thing that is necessary. You see, Mary's chosen to listen. And I think that may seem like a simple thing here, but you have to think about this unique opportunity that Mary has right in front of her. Jesus was in her home. She was there teaching. This wasn't something that happened every day. Mary knew that this was special. This was a unique opportunity for her and she was trying to make the most of it. Jesus was in her home and teaching.

She chose to listen and to learn and to know Christ. And there's a couple of things I want us to unpack from this today. It's impossible to serve a master that you don't know. And that may sound overly simplistic, but just think about that for a minute. If you took a job for somebody to work for an individual and you had never met this person and never spoken of this person, how well would you be able to work for them? You would have no idea what their expectations were, what role they wanted you to play, what their vision was, what things they wanted to accomplish. You would have no idea. It's impossible to serve a master you don't know.

And it's impossible to know a master that you're not listening to. So again, we're not trying to vilify Martha, but you see the contrast here. Martha has forged ahead with serving in a way that she thinks is best. And Mary has chosen to sit at the feet of Christ and listen and get to know Christ. So there's an old Shane Bernard song that has stuck in my head for decades. Actually, Brandon, who's our guest worship leader today, is the one that introduced me to this artist in this song years and years ago. It's a song called "Received." He says, "You whispered to your child today, but I haven't got a minute to listen.

Your child is busy with the work of God and taken him for granted. Got a lot to do today. Kingdom works the game I play. Lord, my serving You replace me knowing You." That song and that particular lyric from that song has stuck with me for a long, long time. "Lord, my serving You replace me knowing You." So the question I would pose for us today is this. What if we woke up every day and put this before us that one thing is necessary? First thing in the morning before we touch coffee, before we touch a phone, or whatever it is that we put this before us that one thing today is necessary. And that thing is knowing Christ.

Knowing Christ, one thing is necessary. And knowing Him will always lead to serving Him. It will be a natural outpouring of our life to serve Christ as we get to know Him. Because as we get to know Him, we'll know the things that please Him. We'll know what His Kingdom is. We'll know how to serve Him. As we study Scripture, as we pray, as we have a relationship with Christ, we'll know how to serve Him. We'll serve in a way that builds His Kingdom, not playing in the sandbox and building our own kingdoms. And again, we're kind of being a little harsh on Martha, but she's kind of building a little side kingdom here.

She thinks she knows what is best. She knows that it's important that she keeps this house and keeps these things in order. And they're good things. These are good things. But in the context of this situation, they're not the best things. They're not the best things. An investment in Christ and His Kingdom is always an investment that moth and rust cannot destroy and thieves can't break in and steal. So let's move on to our next portion of Scripture. It's in John 11. Go ahead and flip to John 11. We're going to be our next two portions of Scripture are going to be John 11 and John 12. So you just kind of hang out here in John.

John 11 starting in verse 31. So we're jumping right in the middle of the story and I'm going to kind of summarize the context of what's going on here just for the sake of time. We know the context around the story. Jesus has received word that Lazarus was sick. News has come to Him where He is. Lazarus is in Bethany and somebody has brought Him word that Lazarus is sick. But He chooses to delay His coming. He chooses to wait. And His disciples are kind of confused.

They're a little confused about why He would choose to delay when this person that they're friends with, that they've partnered with in ministry, that they've spent time in their home, they've eaten at their table and Jesus chooses to delay. He chooses to delay. And in that delay, Lazarus passes away. And we know from Scripture that when Jesus does come, it's been four days since Lazarus passed away. So Jesus intentionally chooses to delay His coming. And when Martha gets word that Jesus has come, they are in the middle of a funeral, in the middle of mourning for Lazarus.

So they've got all these people in their home and there's a lot of Jewish tradition here and history that's baked into this story. But there are people mourning with them in their home. There are all these people from the community, all these people who know their family, have come into their home. Sometimes these people would hire professional mourners to be a part of this funeral service as part of their tradition. So there's a lot of people there, Mary and Martha in their home and they're mourning over the loss of Lazarus. And they get word that Jesus has come and He's kind of on the edge of town.

Martha goes out, speaks with Him and then Jesus calls for Mary. And Mary goes to Christ and that's where we pick up our story in verse 31. "When the Jews who were with her at the house consoling her, saw Mary rise quickly and go out, they followed her, supposing that she was going to the tomb to weep there. Now when Mary came to where Jesus was and saw Him, she fell at His feet saying to the Lord, 'Lord, if You had been here, my brother would not have died.' Lord, I'm going to repeat that. 'Lord, if You'd have been here, my brother would not have died.'" Mary has faith in Christ, but her faith in Him was limited. It was limited.

She had a limited view of Christ. She had a limited perspective of what Christ's power was. So in this moment, she's showing great faith in Christ and saying, "Lord, if You would have been here, you could have healed Him." And I believe that. But her view of Christ is limited. And because Christ loves her and loves this family, He's not going to allow her to remain with a limited view of who He is. So He's using this trial, the death of her own family, the death of her brother, to expand her view of Himself. He's using great trial to expand her view of Himself. It's hard, gut-wrenching, grievous trial.

And God is sovereignly using it in order to change these people's perspective of who Jesus was. Okay? The disciples need to know that Jesus has power over the grave. Now think about our timeline here. If you know your New Testament timeline here, we're not far from Christ going to Jerusalem and being crucified. So it's not long until Christ Himself is going to be in a tomb. And it's important for these people to know that Christ has power over the grave. Look at what Jesus says to Martha in some of the preceding passages. Look in verse 25. "Jesus said to her," Martha, "I am the resurrection and the life.

Whoever believes in Me, though he die, yet shall he live. And everyone who lives and believes in Me shall never die." Do you believe this? Do you see that question? It's so timely. It's right at Martha. Martha, do you believe this? And she says, yes, she does, but she doesn't understand about what's about to happen. He's about to change her perspective of who he is. So if we're going to unpack some things just briefly from this, I would say this, that one, that God is sovereign over all of your circumstances. God is sovereign over all of our circumstances, good and bad. And God will use trial.

Number two, God will use trial to sanctify us, to grow us, and to expand our view of who God is. That God is so good to us that He's not going to allow us to remain with a limited view of who He is. Isn't that good? That God will use great trial in order to change our perspective of who He is. Think about the book of Job. It's a long book. There's a lot there. But the footnotes or the short version of the book of Job is a very righteous man who loved the Lord, but had a limited view of who God was. So God uses great trial in Job's life. And when you read the book of Job, and I say great trial, you know what I mean? It's great trial.

It's suffering like most of us could not comprehend. Loss of life, loss of health, loss of property, all stacked together to the point where his wife looks at him and says, "You should curse God and die." That's a better option than what you're going through right now. And Job perseveres. He has faith in God, but he also has a limited view of God that God uses this trial to change Him. The purpose of all this was not that Job had sinned. It was that Job's view of God was too limited, far too limited. And by the end of the book of Job, when Job comes out of this trial on the other side, he has seen God in a whole new light.

And his view of God has been infinitely expanded from what it was before. And he is a different worshipper on the other side than he was before. God uses great trial to expand our view of himself. And number three, our trial makes us more useful to the body of Christ. Our trial makes us more useful to the body of Christ. It makes us more tender-hearted towards those who are going through trial. It gives wisdom to share with people who are going through the same kinds of trial. It equips us to serve the local body, the local church in an even greater way.

It's hard to think about trial that way, on the other side of a great trial, that God's going to equip you to be able to serve somebody better in the local church. It's hard when you're right in the middle of those things to think about that. But it does. It equips the saints to be able to serve the church. It equips. So our third and our text that we're going to spend the most time in probably this morning is John 12. So flip over to John 12. John 12 starting in verse 1.

"Six days before the Passover, Jesus therefore came to Bethany where Lazarus was, whom Jesus had raised from the dead." I guess when you raise somebody from the dead, at least you get a good meal out of it, right? So they have a dinner for Christ who's raised Lazarus from the dead. "So they gave a dinner for him there. Martha served." Of course, there's Martha. She's still serving. "Martha served, and Lazarus was one of those reclining with him at table. Mary therefore took a pound of expensive ointment made from pure nard and anointed the feet of Jesus and wiped his feet with her hair. The house was filled with the fragrance of the perfume.

But Judas Iscariot, one of the disciples, he who was about to betray him said, 'Why was this ointment not sold for 300 denarii and given to the poor?' He said this not because he cared about the poor, but because he was the thief in having charge of the money bag, he used to help himself to what was put into it. Jesus said, 'Leave her alone so that she may keep it for the day of my burial. For the poor you will always have with you, but you do not always have me.'" So before we unpack this particular text, I want us to see a commonality between all three of these scriptures that deal with Mary and the burial of Bethany.

So Luke 10.39 says, "And she had a sister called Mary who sat at the Lord's feet and listened to his teaching. In John 11.32, now when Mary came to where Jesus was and saw him, she fell at his feet. In John 12.3, Mary therefore took a pound of expensive ointment made from pure nard and anointed the feet of Jesus." So the commonality here is that wherever you find Mary in Scripture, she is at the feet of Christ. Wherever you find Mary in Scripture, she is at the feet of Christ. And what she's doing at the feet of Christ is listening. She's praying. She's pleading. She's grieving. And she's serving. And sometimes she's grieving.

And she's struggling to reconcile what she believes about Christ with what her life circumstances have brought to her. She's struggling to bring these things together, to reconcile these things. I believe Christ is Lord, but these bad things happen in my life. And it seems like they're opposed to each other and I'm wrestling with these things. She comes to Christ with these things. Lord, if you'd have been here, my brother would not have died. But always, always, she is at his feet. So back to our John 12 text.

Verse 3, "Mary therefore took a pound of expensive ointment made from pure nard and anointed the feet of Jesus and wiped his feet with her hair." It's important to know the context of what's going on here and what Mary is doing here. So nard is an oil extracted from a flowering plant. It's in the honeysuckle family and it grows in the eastern Himalayas. So if you can kind of imagine your geography, I want you to kind of imagine the distance between these places. Bethany where they are and the mountains of the Himalayas where this flowering plant has been harvested.

The oils have been extracted and I read in one place that it takes a whole lot of these flowers in order to produce this very small amount of this oil. So it was harvested at great cost, transported over land at great cost. There was no Amazon Prime. There was no next day delivery. This was brought on foot or on the back of a camel or in a wagon or however they brought it at great cost and great expense and maybe even great danger that this bottle of this nard, this ointment that comes from this flowering plant came to Mary.

And listen, Jesus says that it could be sold for 300 denarii and that's an important point that we want to miss because 300 denarii, a common worker in their day could make about one denarii for a day's work. So taking into account weekends and holy days, 300 denarii might be close to about a year's worth of salary for a common worker, a year's income for a common worker. And Mary's a woman. She's not a man. And can you imagine how long it took her to save money to buy this? Can you imagine how long it took her to get this item, to be able to purchase it? It might have been a family heirloom that was passed on to her.

This might be the most expensive and most valuable thing that she has ever had in her life, in a year's wages. If I came home and told my wife I was planning on spending a year's wages on something like this, I think we'd have to have a little family talk about our budget for a while and I don't think it would fly. But you can imagine how big a deal this is. In entire years' income, this is a costly gift. This is an extravagant gift. Mary gave the very best that she had to Christ because she thought he was worth it. Because she knew that he was worth this. This is an extravagant gift.

We kind of have to put ourselves in the room for this moment. Chris talks about using his Holy Spirit imagination, which always makes me chuckle a little bit. Let's do that. Let's think about this moment. They're sitting down, they're eating, they're having a meal, there's conversation happening. Maybe it's a little loud in the room. Maybe they've got some loud people in their group, like Simon Peter, who like to talk above everybody else, and maybe the volume is raised a little bit. They've just eaten, they're reclining, they're relaxing at table, they're having a conversation with Jesus and Lazarus there.

Maybe they're making fun of Lazarus. No, there's no dead boy over there. He's come back from the grave. I don't know. I've got friends who pick on me like that. I imagine Lazarus has friends like that as well. But they're having a good time, and then all of a sudden this fragrance just hits the air. Have you ever walked into a room or had somebody open up some fragrance, perfume, and suddenly the whole room is just filled with it? It just spreads.

Now imagine everybody got real quiet at the table and started looking around and wondering where this came from, and they noticed that Mary has kind of quietly slipped into the room, and she's at the feet of Christ, and she's opened up this bottle, and this fragrance has stolen throughout the whole room, and she's there pouring it out on Christ's feet and wiping it with her hair. It's a costly gift. It's an extravagant gift.

I think everybody in the room would have known, just like that, how much of a costly gift this was, because Judas is the first one to jump up and say he's exercising his spiritual gift of sniper rifle, and he's saying, "She's being wasteful. She's wasteful. Look at how much money we could have sold this for. We could have given this to the poor." Everybody would have known what a costly, extravagant gift this was. She might as well have walked in with a briefcase full of money and just thrown it in the fire. Everybody knows what a costly gift this is. It makes me think about something David says in 2 Samuel 24.

There's a story in this piece of Scripture in 2 Samuel where David's trying to make an offering, and somebody there, knowing that he's the king, tries to do a good thing. They say, "David, I will give you what you need to make this offering. I will give you the animals you need. I'll give you the wood you need, and you can just have it. It's all free. Just take it." And David says, "No, I can't. I will pay you for it. I'll pay you for it." And he says this, "I will not offer burnt offerings to the Lord, my God, that cost me nothing." That cost me nothing.

Because David knew that that offering would have been pretty meaningless if he just took something somebody gave him to free, for free, and then offered it to the Lord. He wanted his offering to cost him something, or else it would have been without meaning. Mary gave a costly gift. So this is also an act of great humility. It's an act of great humility. Now, we don't understand this in our day and time, but in order for Mary to wipe the feet of Christ with her hair, she has to take her hair down. And in this day and time, and in this culture, Jewish women did not take their hair down in public.

So this was an act of great humility for her to do this. There might have been a gasp in the room when she did this. It might have been like, "Oh my word, what's she doing?" It might have been awkward for the people that were there. They might not have understood what was going on. All they know is that this woman is here, and she's giving this extravagant gift. She's doing this very extravagant act. It's an act of great humility, an act of great humility that she would, on her feet, take her own hair down, put this expensive nard on Christ's feet. And look, again, we want to put ourselves in the room.

These guys, as far as I know from historical context, these guys wore sandals, and these guys strolled around on some very dusty streets. Their feet were not a pretty sight. Their feet were not exactly the cleanest thing about them. Matter of fact, they were probably the dirtiest thing about them. Mary's there anointing the feet of Christ, and she's wiping away the excess and cleaning Jesus' feet with her hair. It's an act of great humility. It's an act of great humility. I've already alluded to this, but what does Judas accuse Mary of in this passage of Scripture in John 12? Look at what he says.

"Why was this ointment not sold for 300 denarii and given to the poor?" What is he accusing her of? He's accusing her of wasting this valuable, valuable gift, wasting money. Does that sound familiar? What did Martha accuse Mary of? Being wasteful, wasting her time. Judas says she's wasting this money. So on the surface, this looks like he's making a pretty pragmatic point. Okay? You know, it bears the reason this is a pretty pragmatic point that he's making here. This is a costly, expensive thing.

And you can maybe imagine at the table, other people at the table suddenly kind of hear what Judas says, and they think, "Yeah, he's probably right. This is kind of crazy. This is an expensive gift. You can't do something like this. That's a lot of money. We all don't have jobs. All these people are traveling with Christ. They don't have an income. And here comes this lady, and she breaks open a year's worth of income and pours it out on essentially what is on the floor. He's making a pragmatic point. But under the surface, we know that Judas is a thief.

That his motivations beneath the surface are that he likes to have the money where he likes to have the money, and that's in his money bag, right? He's a thief. It says he used to help himself to the money bag on occasion. So he's thinking, "Man, I wish that money was in my money bag where I could have access to it." He's being a thief. He is a thief. Again, he said this, "Not because he cared about the poor, but because he was a thief having charge of the money bag. He used to help himself to what was put into it." For whatever reason, Judas thought he had a right to what was in that bag.

Sometimes people serve and do, and when they serve and do long enough, they think they have a right to dip their hand in the money bag. And they're right. So Judas is a thief. So what does Jesus say about what Mary has done? And look at these stories in parallel. Our first story and our third story here. Mary does something, and then here comes somebody to criticize Mary. In both times, Jesus affirms what she's doing and rebukes somebody else in the process. The first time it was Mary, the second time it was Judas. So what does Jesus say about what Mary has done?

And you don't have to flip there, but we're going to look at something out of Matthew 26, because this is from another Gospel in what we think is the same story. It expounds a little bit more about what Christ said. This Gospel writer's recorded a little bit more about what he said. Matthew 26 starting in verse 10, "But Jesus, aware of this, said to them, 'Why do you trouble the woman? For she has done a beautiful thing to me. For you will always have the poor with you, but you will not always have me. In pouring this ointment on my body, she has done it to prepare me for burial.

Truly, truly, I say to you, wherever the Gospel is proclaimed in the whole world, what she has done will also be told in memory of her.'" What Judas called wasteful, what Jesus called beautiful. What Judas called wasteful, Jesus called beautiful. And there's something important to kind of note about Judas and his kind of summation of this. Those who don't comprehend grace can't comprehend and fathom this kind of act. It just perplexed Judas. He just couldn't get it. He couldn't get it. This beautiful act is what Jesus calls it, just bothered him because he couldn't understand it and he could also not produce it.

He couldn't understand it, and it certainly was never going to come out of his life. There's a quote from Oswald Chambers' book, "Mottmos for His Highest," that has stuck with me for a long time. "If human love does not carry a man beyond himself, it is not love. If love is always discreet, always wise, always sensible and calculating, never carried beyond itself, it is not love at all. It may be affection. It may be warmth of feeling, but it has not the true nature of love in it." So let's contrast these two people, Mary and Judas. Our first contrast was Mary and Martha, so let's contrast these two.

In Christ, Mary found somebody that she could pour out her whole life on. And in Christ, Judas found somebody that he could sell out for more money. So what can we say in conclusion? Mary wasted her life on Jesus, her Savior. She got a bad rap. People were always pointing at her and saying, "She's being wasteful." She's being wasteful. But Mary was pouring her life out on Christ. And Christ said that that was a beautiful waste. Christ said that was a beautiful waste. So there's a man I want to talk a little bit about today. You can tell from the picture on the screen. He's got a pretty great beard.

Tommy, I think if you worked a little harder, you could get to this level, man. So this is John G. Patton, a Scottish missionary. And this is also the person that we named our son after. JP is John Patton. So this is John G. Patton. He's born in 1824 in Scotland. And during his youth, Patton felt called by God to serve overseas as a missionary. He married Mary Patton, his wife. And if you read his autobiography, John and Mary met because John would go out in the woods as young man and pray. And he would pray at the foot of a tree. And he would hang his hat up on the tree. And he would get down at the base of the tree and he would pray.

And Mary, being a local girl in town, saw him doing this and would see him often. And one day she just decided that she's going to go over there and steal John Patton's hat while he's praying. So she takes his hat off the tree. And he doesn't know if she was there. And she just kind of takes off with it. And he gets up and praying. He looks around and says, "Where's my hat? Where's my hat?" And she later on writes him a letter and apologizes and repents and says, "I took your hat. I took your hat. I'm very sorry.

You were praying in the woods and I just wanted to talk to you and I just decided to take your hat as well." So, you know, naturally they got married. So that's the next step in that story is you steal her hat and then you get married later. So John Patton felt called to mission work. And in 1858, John and his new wife, Mary Patton, landed on the island of Tanna in the southern part of the New Hebrides Islands in the South Pacific. And these islands were well known and infamous for the deaths of John Williams and James Harris from the London Missionary Society.

So these two men in 1839, as missionaries, went to this island of Tanna and they landed and they put their feet on shore and within minutes they were dead and eaten by cannibals. So this island is very well known. News of this spread to all of Europe and even in Scotland where John Patton is a member of his local church and they know about these things. So the decision to go be missionaries to this island is certainly not a like one. It's not a like one. Three months after their arrival, a son, Peter, was born on February 12, 1859. And 19 days later after his birth, Mary dies from tropical fever.

And just a few days later, at 36 days of age, their son Peter passes away as well. And it's just John Patton left on this island. So John buries his wife and his child close to their house where they live in a place called Resolution Bay. And history tells us that he spent nights sleeping on their graves to protect them from the local cannibals. So the graveside is still there today. Sometime in the 90s, somebody put a marker there and it's there today where he buried his wife and his son. So what's really incredible is that Patton continued his work as a missionary on this island even after that.

He continued, in spite of constant animosity from the natives and many attempts on his life. During one attack, a ship arrived just in time to rescue him and some other missionaries to take them to another part of the island to safety. And he winds up going home. He goes back to Scotland. He meets somebody else. He remarries a lady named Maggie. And then he comes back to the same set of islands. He comes back after all that, after losing his wife and his son, after being chased around this island by cannibals and being evacuated and making it home and remarried. He decides to come back because this is what God's called him to do.

This is what God's called him to do. Arriving back to the New Hebrides on August 1866, John and his new wife, Maggie, established a new mission station on Anewa Island, the nearest island to Tana. There they lived in a small native hut while they built a house for themselves in two houses for orphaned children. Later, a church, a printing house, and other buildings were erected. These folks were busy. They continued in their missionary work, and it was there to Anewa that six of their ten children were born, four of whom died in early childhood or in infancy. John learned the language of the natives and reduced it to writing.

Maggie taught a class of about 50 women and girls who became experts at sewing, singing, and plating hats, and reading. They trained teachers, translated and printed, and expounded the Scriptures, ministered to the sick and dying, dispensed medicines every day, taught them the use of tools, held worship services every Lord's Day, and sent native teachers to all the villages to preach the gospel. Now, that's a lot, but you know what that is? That's the local church. That's First Baptist Church, Anewa Island, or whatever you want to call it, Grace Life Church of Anewa Island.

They built a local church and even built it to the point where they could send out missionaries to other parts of the island. And after many years of patient and perilous ministry, the entire island of Anewa professed Christianity. In 1899, John G. Patton saw his Anewa New Testament printed and the establishment of missionaries on 25 of the 30 islands in the New Hebrides. Now, one of the best parts of this story comes before all of this happened. So, John Patton is a young man before he leaves for the first time to go to this island. He's in his church and he's told his church that God has called him as a missionary to go to these islands.

And it's not lost on them the enormity of this because they know this island. It's infamous. It's been in the news. These missionaries went there, their feet touched the shore, and minutes later they were eaten by cannibals. So, one of his elders comes to him and pulls him off to the side and does maybe what elders do. He tries to talk a little sense into him. He says, "John, you will be eaten by cannibals." To which Patton responded, I'm quoting here, Mr. Dixon, which is his elder, Mr. Dixon, you are advanced in years now and your own prospect is soon to be laid in the grave there to be eaten by worms.

I confess to you that if I can but live and die serving and honoring the Lord Jesus, it will make no difference to me whether I'm eaten by cannibals or by worms. And I ask this next question with a lot of weight because it bears on all of us. It bears on me and my wife. It bears on you. What will we waste our lives on? What will we waste our lives on? Let's look back at what Jesus says to Martha again in Luke 10. Martha, Martha, you are anxious and troubled about many things, but one thing is necessary. Mary has chosen the good portion which will not be taken away from her.

There's a verse in Ephesians 5, I think is relevant to our discussion today. Ephesians 5, 15-17, "Look carefully then how you walk, not as unwise but as wise, making the best use of the time because the days are evil. Therefore, do not be foolish but understand what the will of the Lord is." Mary had one bottle of ointment, just one, just one bottle of ointment to choose what to do with, and she chose to pour it out on Christ. We have one life, one life, one precious life to pour out, and it's being poured out every day. The only question is, what are we pouring in that life out on? Mary anointed the feet of Christ with her offering.

She had Christ there in front of her, the physical body of Christ, and she served Him. She anointed His feet. She did a great thing and anticipated His burial. We have the body of Christ right here in front of us. We have the spiritual body of Christ right here in front of us. And our call is to serve and be poured out on that body of Christ, the local church. Not many people will get this or understand this, but the local church, and I've heard Chris say this many, many times, the local church is the center of God's activity on earth. Where else would you want to be pouring out your life other than the local church?

If not Christ's kingdom, then what better kingdom could we build? I brought up sandboxes, but I think about kids playing in the sandboxes, building little castles and little kingdoms. If we don't build Christ's church, then we're in the sandboxes, and we're building little kingdoms out of sand. I don't know if your engineering skills are up to par or not, but castles made of sand don't exactly stand the test of time, do they? So when we stand before the Lord, and I speak for myself here, when I stand before the Lord, I don't want to have a pile of ashes there in front of me, because I poured myself out on lesser things.

I poured myself out on lesser things. We want to, and I want to choose the good portion that can't be taken away, the good portion. Let's pray.