The Heart Revealed

Order of Service

• Call to Worship — Psalm 100
• Hymn — All People That on Earth Do Dwell
• Prayer of Invocation
• Old Testament Reading — 1 Samuel 16:1-13
• Hymn — All Hail the Power of Jesus' Name
• Pastoral Prayer
• Offering
• Prayer
• Hymn — Spirit of the Living God
• Sermon
• Hymn — Christ for the World We Sing
• Benediction — 2 Corinthians 13:14

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Sermon Title: The Heart Revealed

Scripture: John 12:1-8

I. The Heart of Mary

A. The extravagance of Mary's gift

1. The ointment was pure nard, imported from northern India — genuine and unadulterated
2. Valued at 300 denarii — approximately one year's wages — an extraordinary sum

B. The oddity of Mary's action

1. Anointing feet with perfume was unusual; wiping with her hair was stranger still
2. Jewish women never unbound their hair in public — it was associated with shame (cf. Numbers 5:18)
3. The act is best described not as humble devotion but as humiliated devotion

C. The heart of the gospel displayed

1. Mary sets aside social and moral customs, stooping like a servant before her Lord — echoing David's dance before the ark in 2 Samuel 6
2. Her service is before the eyes of the Lord, not the eyes of men
3. In Matthew 26:10 Jesus calls it "a beautiful thing" — the same humiliation Mary enacts foreshadows Christ's own humiliation at the cross
4. Jesus quotes Deuteronomy 15 — "the poor you always have with you, but you do not always have me" — the heart of the gospel is Christ, not merely social good

II. The Heart of Judas

A. Judas's character exposed

1. This is the only place in the Gospels where Judas's corrupt character is revealed before the betrayal
2. He held the money bag and skimmed from it — a thief by habitual practice
3. According to Matthew 26 and Mark 14, it is immediately after this episode that Judas goes to the authorities to betray Jesus — the loss of financial gain may have been the final provocation

B. The nature of apostasy

1. Apostasy is not the loss of salvation but the open exposure of what was always in the heart
2. 1 John 2 — "they went out from us because they were never of us"
3. Judas did not fall suddenly; his rebellion was built up incrementally, small compromise by small compromise

C. A warning to believers

1. Give the devil an inch of your life and he will take it all
2. Sin hardens the heart progressively — little exceptions to God's commands accumulate until the levy breaks
3. As John Owen warned: be killing sin, or it will be killing you
4. Keep vigilant watch over your heart (Proverbs 4:23)

III. The Heart of Jesus

A. The word therefore in verse 1 connects back to John 11:54

1. Jesus had retreated to the wilderness because the authorities sought to kill him
2. Now he deliberately returns to Bethany — only 2 miles from Jerusalem (John 11:18) — the headquarters of those plotting his death
3. Bethany is Jesus's "last homely house" — a place of rest with friends before he meets the cross

B. Jesus interprets Mary's act as preparation for his burial (John 12:7)

1. The word for burial refers to preparation of the body, not the burial itself — anointing with spices was Jewish custom (cf. John 19:40)
2. Christ, reclining alive at table, already has his heart set on the cross

C. Christ's heart set on the cross is the only ground for our hearts being set on God

1. Thomas Chalmers, The Expulsive Power of a New Affection — old affections cannot be displaced except by a new and stronger affection
2. The atonement of the cross opens the way for sanctifying influence into the sinner's heart
3. Jesus, the last Adam, replaces the corrupted affections inherited from the first Adam with holy and self-giving love
4. To have a heart warm toward God and cold toward the world, sit often at the cross — your heart can only be right with God when united to the heart of Christ broken for you