CONSECRATION PART II

  1. Mary poured out the very expensive ointment of pure nard worth three hundred denarii to anoint the head of the Lord. John 12:3; Matt. 26:6-13
    1. Three hundred denarii worth of ointment (Mark 14:5) is considered equivalent to a good pay for approximately a year’s labor.
    2. Although she did not come from a wealthy family, she exchanged everything she had for the ointment of pure nard, and poured it on the Lord. The flask of ointment was Mary who poured out all what she had on the Lord.
    3. The Lord told His disciples four times that He will die (Matt. 16:21; 17:22-23; 20:17-19; 26:1-2), but the disciples did not understand what He meant. But Mary understood the Lord’s death is for her. Only she understood the Lord’s death, and only she had the offering and sacrifice.
    4. After the Lord dies, men will surely anoint Him with ointments, frankincense, and myrrh. But Mary did not want to wait until He dies. She poured everything on Him while He is living - no use of pouring all these things after He has died.
    5. Like Mary we should see that the Lord died for us. Because He gave His life for us we should also give our all to Him. We should not wait until till death comes and offer ourselves and everything to Him; that would be too late.
  2. Judas and other disciples thought Mary’s act was a waste and a throw-away. Matt. 26:8; John 12:3-5
    1. When Mary poured the ointment on Jesus’ head, she was criticized by many. They murmured that it was a waste of three hundred denarii to anoint the head of the Lord, and that money could have been given to the poor and taken care of many.
    2. The same two principle exist in the church today.
      1. There is one group of people who, like Mary exercise their love toward the Lord and give everything to Christ. They consider Christ to be worthy of everything, and their love for Christ prompts them to give Him everything. For those who love Him three hundred denarii are nothing. Even three million denarii are nothing. They are not concerned about right or wrong, gain or loss, success or failure; they care only for the Lord’s pleasure.
      2. There is also another group of people who, like Judas, exercise their mentality. When these kind of people offer money to the Lord they calculate over and over again. They are economist. Whenever money matter enters our heart, love leaves. If the relationship between Christ and us becomes a matter of money, love is gone. In the eyes of Judas for Mary to offer to the Lord three hundred denarii in an instant was impractical, wasteful and foolish. Judas was more down-to-earth, practical, wise, and thoughtful about humanity. But the Lord would rather see the church filled with foolish Marys than see one wise Judas.
  3. The amount you offer to the Lord speaks of the amount that He is worth you.
    1. The amount you are willing to pay for a price of merchandise is the worth of that piece of merchandise to you. If a watch is worth five dollars, you will not to spend six dollars on it; you will pay only five dollars and no more. The five dollars you put out equal the five dollars the watch is worth. The price always matches the worth.
    2. Likewise, the price you are willing to pay for the Lord determines the Lord’s worth to you. The amount you offer to the Lord speaks of the amount that He is worth to you. If you can not give Him very much, it means that He is not worth very much to you.
    3. A person’ sacrifice to the Lord tells us not of his generosity, but of Christ’s worth. A martyr is able to sacrifice his body because the Lord is worth more than his life, not because he is able to renounce everything. Every suffering and consecrated believers tells us the worth of Christ, and a person who is willing to offer up His time to the Lord tells us how much is the Lord to him. The only reason a Christian is willing to sacrifice everything is that Christ is worth everything.
  4. Whenever the gospel is preached, the story of Mary is to be preached also.
    1. The Lord considered what Mary did as a noble deed done to Him and said, "Wherever this gospel is proclaimed in the whole world, what this woman has done shall also be told as a memorial for her (Matt. 26:10, 13)." If there is a place which only preaches the gospel without mentioning the story of Mary, the truth is unbalanced.
    2. The gospel preached among us and everywhere in the world is the gospel that satisfies only man and not God. A man believes in the gospel because he wants to profit, rejoice, live well, gain something and to be saved from death and hell and to receive eternal life and go to heaven.
    3. Many people only see that being saved is receiving eternal life, blessing and satisfaction; they have not seen that being saved is for the Lord to gain them. They do not understand what Christ wants to accomplish. This is why there is a need to speak the story of one that sacrificed and gave everything for Christ.
    4. The purpose of the Lord’s death and resurrection for us is that we may live for Him (II Cor. 5:14-15). Paul said that we are not only appointed to believe in the Lord; we are also appointed to suffer for Him. Many people don’t know what is to believe in Christ. They have not believed to the extent that they will give up everything and suffer for His sake. But a perfected believer, one who belongs absolutely to Christ, is one who believes in the Lord to the extent that he is both accepted by God and rejected by men. There are many who believed in the gospel today, but there are not many who are like Mary. May more Marys be raised up in the church who are willing to offer their life and everything and willing to suffer tribulation and rejection for the Lord’s pleasure and satisfaction. The gospel is for us to gain the Lord for our satisfaction, while the story of Mary is for the Lord to gain us for His satisfaction.