Last Talks

Below is an excerpt from the sermon...

Let’s open our Bibles if you would. Please. We’re in the book of John. John Chapter 11 tonight. Tonight’s Bible study will be the sequence of events before Jesus’ arrest and crucifixion. I just want to give these to you in order. And they have a significant meaning. So, John Chapter 11, and we’re going to look at several passages where Jesus is actually giving His last advice before He leaves Earth.

I got to thinking, just the thing of last talks. Last talks. It’s kind of like that last talk that parents give their kids before they head off to college. “Don’t forget to do this. And don’t forget to wash your clothes like I told you. And don’t…” It’s that last talk as they’re going out the door. I’m sure Olympic coaches have a last talk. Little last words before they go out to do their performance or competition. I’m sure that the person in charge of a battle before his soldiers or his troops go into battle. That last little meeting, those words have got to be so, so important. I was thinking about a boxing match this week. A guy in the corner and the coach for the boxer, his last words right before he goes into the ring. And so that’s what Jesus is doing here.

These last chapters in the Book of John. It’s going to be His last night with his disciples, and soon He’s going to be awaiting trial, and then He’s going to be crucified. So, this is their last time together. And so, I just want you to kind of see the importance of this because we have these talks. We have important talks with people. Notice here, please, just in sequence—John, Chapter 11—and notice this is before he’s even arrested. Notice all the hints Jesus is giving about the crucifixion.

Notice John 11:25: “Jesus said unto her, I am the resurrection, and the life: he that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live:” He is speaking that even before he was crucified, He is prophesying and saying, “Don’t forget, I will rise from the dead. I am the resurrection.” And so, Calvary was not an afterthought. And the empty tomb was not an afterthought. He gave them all kinds of hints about this.

And then if you look in John Chapter 12 for a moment. John Chapter 12. And He is anointed by Mary with the sweet smelling incense. John 12:7—notice what He says: “Then said Jesus, Let her alone: against the day of my burying hath she kept this.” And so again He’s referring to “I’m gonna die. I’m gonna die. I’m gonna rise.” And so, He’s giving them all these hints.

Let’s pray, and then I’m going to give you about 13 right in a row. 13 of these last talks that He’s having with them. Father, Bless now the reading of the Word. Help us as we tiptoe through this very sacred Scripture, something that takes up just about half the Book of John. Half of the book deals with the last week of His life. How important. I pray that we would see the truths that we need in our life here as we as we head toward this Sunday. In Jesus’ name, Amen.

We see #1—if you’re filling in the blanks—Anointed. He was anointed. Notice John 12:1:

“Then Jesus six days before the passover…” The Passover is when He will have the Lord’s Supper. So this is like a full week before He’s betrayed. “…came to Bethany…” Bethany is really important. That is the town that was six miles from Jerusalem, where three of his good friends lived: Mary, Martha, and Lazarus. Anytime he was in Bethany, he was eating at their house. Thank God for people that invited Jesus over, and He felt welcomed. They were hospitable.

And then it says, John 12:2–4 “There they made him a supper; and Martha served: but Lazarus was one of them that sat at the table with him. 3. Then took Mary a pound of ointment of spikenard, very costly, and anointed the feet of Jesus, and wiped his feet with her hair: and the house was filled with the odour of the ointment. 4. Then saith one of his disciples, Judas Iscariot, Simon’s son, which should betray him,” And then we read in verse John 12:7: “Then said Jesus, Let her alone: against the day of my burying…”

Here’s what I’m thinking about this: She had to be a mercy person. Yeah, she had to be someone thinking, “Jesus, this is your last week of life. This is it. You’ve come into town, and we know You’re going to be crucified. I mean, this is the time.” Thank God for people that feel deeply. She anointed Him. Someone had been listening. Remember Simon Peter said, “Lord, don’t talk about Your dying and all that.” But Mary had been listening. Someone had listened. He had said the Son of man will die and be buried, rise from the dead. He said it many times. She listened. And so sometimes the difference and people’s response to the Gospel—some listen and others did not.

So, she anointed him. Thank the Lord for people who do special things for other people. Someone said, all the needs are handled by the offering. Sometimes, it needs to go to individuals. You give you a tithe, you give an offering, and then sometimes God will impress you to encourage someone somehow. And this was what she did. It was very costly, worth a lot of money.

And then #2, we see that Jesus comes into town. We call it Palm Sunday.

I was out soul winning today. I was in Fairfield and almost every door had one of those Catholic poems on it, and one of them it even had a Jesus stapled to it. I guess they sell them in mass. I mean, He was stapled! And they were on every door. So where does that come from? Look down, if you will, please. In John 12:12. “On the next day much people that were come to the feast, when they heard that Jesus was coming to Jerusalem,”