During Fourth of July last year, 2025, I had gotten cut from my Division One cross country team. That put a lot of weight on me. I was dealing with some breakup. I just was not in the right headspace. I was like, man, where do I go? where do I turn? I don't know where to go. God is good, but I don't know what to do, right? And I just kind of fell apart a little bit, and I lost like a part of myself. And on July 6, 2025, there was a sermon here on the parable of the sewer, Mark 4, and it says one of the seeds is placed on rocky or thorny soil, and it gets caught up by the thorns, and it produces no grain. And I turned to a friend of mine, and I felt so utterly convicted because I was caught up in the cares of my world, not knowing what to do with my faith, or if I had faith or not, not knowing what to do with the Lord. And I turned to my friend. I was like, bro, we need to talk. And I end up talking to him. I was like, bro, I don't know what to do. I am just like, bro, I know I cannot live with these things. I cannot put these things first. And I got shown a verse, 1 Peter 2:24, “He bore our sins on that cross to die for our sins.” The same verse that was shared on Wednesday, and it clicked to me. The veil was relieved from my eyes. I was like, my same sins are the sins that Jesus died for? I do not have to live for this anymore, but I can live for him. And so, that July 6, even though I was at 4th of July, I was in Long Beach. I was living for myself, partying with my teammates, just out there looking for lustful relationships and sexual immorality. July 4th, I got saved. July 6th, and then now, this July 4th, I'm able to evangelize. So, praise the Lord, I got saved. That July 6th, two days after Fourth of July and the Parable of the Sower, Jesus saved me, and now I'm able to evangelize. Look forward to the great things that God and Jesus have in store for us, and I'm able to live for him, and I just want to thank him for saving my life. So, praise the Lord.

Well, Matthew, we join you in praising the Lord, my brother. It's such a joy to just see the joy that you have now, and the way that you want to serve the Lord and love his people. So, brother, based on your profession of faith, it's my privilege to baptize you in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.

Is that awesome that Matthew got saved one year ago. Mark 4. Let's see what happens if we open up to Mark 14, shall we? I want to invite everybody to open up your Bible with me. We're going to the Gospel of Mark. This is the 52nd time we're turning to the Gospel of Mark together to study this book, and I want to welcome anybody, if you're here for the first time, can we give them a warm welcome this evening? Thank you for joining us. Maybe you're thinking, well, I guess I'm 51 times late for this, right? Oh no, this is a new section in the Gospel of Mark. This is the end of the life of Jesus, from Mark 14 to Mark 16. For the rest of this year, we're going to be studying how Jesus is betrayed, how he's arrested, how he's beaten, how he's killed, and how Jesus rises from the dead on the third day. So, you're here at a perfect time. If you're just joining us, you're here for the most important thing, which is the gospel of Jesus Christ. And I remember that sermon about the parable of the sewer and the seed, and I remember the power of the Word of God when we looked at the teaching of Jesus one year ago. And I'm here to tell you that this Word of God we're going to study tonight is just as powerful, and so I want to invite everybody, look at Mark 14:1-11. And out of respect for God's Word, let's stand up for the public reading of Scripture. If you don't have a Bible, you can open up your bulletin. There's a handout in there where all eleven verses are printed up for you, and you can read along with us. We are now beginning here, and this is the beginning of the end. And so, these are critical events in the life of Jesus. Please follow along as I read Mark 14:1-11.

It was now two days before the Passover and the Feast of Unleavened Bread. And the chief priests and the scribes were seeking how to arrest him by stealth and kill him, for they said, “Not during the feast, lest there be an uproar from the people.” And while he was at Bethany in the house of Simon the leper, as he was reclining at table, a woman came with an alabaster flask of ointment of pure nard, very costly, and she broke the flask and poured it over his head. There were some who said to themselves indignantly, “Why was the ointment wasted like that? For this ointment could have been sold for more than three hundred denarii and given to the poor.” And they scolded her. But Jesus said, “Leave her alone. Why do you trouble her? She has done a beautiful thing to me. For you always have the poor with you, and whenever you want, you can do good for them. But you will not always have me. She has done what she could; she has anointed my body beforehand for burial. And truly, I say to you, wherever the gospel is proclaimed in the whole world, what she has done will be told in memory of her.” Then Judas Iscariot, who was one of the twelve, went to the chief priests in order to betray him to them. And when they heard it, they were glad and promised to give him money. And he sought an opportunity to betray him.

That's the reading of God's Word. Please go ahead, grab your seat. What we have here is a Markan sandwich, ladies and gentlemen. It's a phrase we like to use for this writing style of Mark in his gospel. The technical term for it would be an intercalation, where he starts with one thought, then goes to another, and then comes back to the original thought. And so, you can see here, we start with the chief priests and the scribes who are thinking we’ve got to find a way to kill him and to arrest him, but we can't do it right now because there's such a big crowd that's so interested in him, listening to him in the temple. Some are cheering as he comes into Jerusalem. That's what we've been looking at in Mark 11, 12, and 13. So, how can we arrest him? How can we kill him?

Well, the answer comes in verses 10 and 11 when Judas, seemingly put off by this interaction here in our text, Judas goes to the chief priests, and he's saying, "I'm ready to betray him,” and they're going to give Judas money. So, in our bun of our sandwich, we have a bun of betrayal, and in the middle, we have a protein of adoration, is what we have as this woman comes and breaks this flask of ointment, and Jesus receives it as a grand gesture and a great gift. He says that she has anointed him for burial. And so, we have this woman who is so deeply moved by Jesus, so thankful for him that she has this real adoration, this real profound worship, and that is intentionally contrasted with the attitude of Judas being willing to betray Jesus to the chief priests and the scribes. So, if you're going to take notes, we have that handout there in the bulletin.

Point number one: You want to “Consider the contrast of adoration and betrayal.” That's clearly Mark's intent for us as we read and study these verses together this evening. What would motivate this woman to do such a grand gesture of adoration, and then what would motivate Judas towards betrayal of Jesus? Clearly, two highly impacted people going in different directions. It brings us into the polarization of Jesus Christ. It gives us a glimpse that people go dramatically different ways in response to who Jesus is, and so Mark clearly, as he now is getting us into the plot of the betrayal, the arrest, the beating, and the death of Jesus, it begins with this contrast. Go back to chapter 11 because this happens in Bethany, and Bethany is a key place. If we had a map, Bethany would be right outside of Jerusalem. It's very nearby. If you go to Mark 11, verse 1, when “they drew near to Jerusalem to Bethpage and Bethany at the Mount of Olives.” So, Bethany is just right outside of Jerusalem. And if you jump down to verse 11 of Mark 11, you can see that he entered Jerusalem. He went into the temple. He looked around at what's going on at the temple. It was late, and he went out to Bethany with the twelve. So, ever since Jesus rode into Jerusalem on a donkey here in Mark 11, he's been in the temple teaching and really driving out the scribes, driving out the money changers, really kind of holding court there in the temple. But every evening he's been going out to Bethany, and so that's going to be the setting in this little town outside of Jerusalem. That's the setting. You can see we're at Simon the leper's house. If you go back to chapter 14, and you can see in verse 3 we're at Bethany in the house of Simon the leper, and we're having this nice dinner. We're reclining at the table, and that's when this woman comes in with this flask of pure nard. We're talking prime, expensive ointment here. And so, that's the setting. But at the same time, this idea of betrayal, that's the contrast.

If you jump down to verses 10 and 11, you can see it says “betray” in both of those verses. You may want to circle that because this has been a theme that has been building. Jesus, if you go back to chapter 10 or chapter 9, Jesus has already taught his disciples that the Son of Man will be delivered over to the chief priests and scribes, and he will be betrayed. It's the same word. Sometimes translated "delivered over,” sometimes translated "betrayed”. Even in Mark 13, if you remember, Jesus was telling his disciples Peter, James, John, and Andrew on the Mount of Olives. He was telling them that they would be betrayed. They would be delivered over. So, he's been saying that it's coming. Well, now we get Judas actually going to the chief priests and seeking to betray him. So, what would inspire a woman to come in there and break this flask of ointment over Jesus, and Jesus says, that's my anointing for burial. And then, what would inspire Judas to go out and find the enemies and to say, "I have an opportunity for you,” and to betray Jesus?

Mark wants you to think about this, Mark wants you to see the contrast because he could have just told us what Judas was doing, and he could have told us what this woman was doing. But the way he writes it is intentionally designed to draw your attention to the fact that these are two different things that are taking place. Now, this is important on what this woman does. In fact, if you go to verse 9 of Mark 14, you can see it says, "Truly I say to you, wherever the gospel is proclaimed in the whole world, what she has done will be told in memory of her.” And that's why Mark decides and Matthew decides to write this account in their gospel. John has an account of this woman doing this in his gospel also. Luke has a woman doing something similar. It's not sure that it's the same woman. Actually, seems like it could be a different setting, but the same idea. And so, Jesus is saying, hey, don't dismiss what this woman just did. She just did something very significant. So, clearly, if you're going to know the good news of Jesus dying on the cross for your sins and rising again to give you a new life, so that you, like Matthew, could be baptized and let everyone know that you have died to sin and you have a new life in Jesus. Well, if you're going to hear the story of Jesus, you're supposed to hear about what this woman does with this ointment, and so this is something we need to take a moment here tonight to really think about.

Turn with me to John, chapter 12, and let's get to know who this woman is a little bit more clearly. If you go to John chapter 12, verses 1 to 8, John tells this story with adding more detail, and a lot of people agree that this is the same account here in John 12:1-8. It says, “Six days before the Passover,” which is a little bit different than the time given in Mark. In Mark, it says “Two days before the Passover,” which is clearly referring to a conversation among the chief priests when they want to kill Jesus. Well, it's possible that that happens two days before, and then this, with the woman coming in to anoint him happened even before that, but Mark's telling it to us in the order because he wants to highlight the contrast. So here it says, “Six days before the Passover, Jesus therefore came to Bethany where Lazarus was, whom Jesus had raised from the dead.” Hey, big theme here in the Gospel of John, maybe. You have heard of Lazarus and his two sisters, Martha and Mary. Who's ever heard of those siblings before? Right? Famous characters in Scripture, not really mentioned in the Gospel of Mark that we're going through. Well, oh, here we go in John 12. Lazarus, he's in Bethany, and Jesus raised him from the dead, so they gave a dinner for him there. Martha served at this dinner, which we know was Martha's way, from Luke chapter 10, and Lazarus was one of those reclining with him at table. Is it possible that this dinner is happening at Simon's house in Bethany? Well, we know it's in Bethany. Lazarus is there, Martha's there, and verse 3 says, "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 his disciples (he who was about to betray him), said, ‘Why was this ointment not sold for three hundred denarii and given to the poor?’ He said this, not because he cared about the poor, but because he was a thief, and having charge of the moneybag 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 always have with you, but you do not always have me.’”

So, you can tell that John writes the story a little bit differently, but seems very similar. But we get more specifics that the woman is Mary, Mary the sister of Lazarus, Mary in Luke 10, who's the one who sits at Jesus's feet while he's teaching. Martha is busy with much serving, but Mary sits there listening to Jesus. And which one does Jesus say is doing the right thing? Martha serving or Mary sitting at the feet of Jesus? He highlights Mary as the one who's doing the right thing. Well, go back in John. Go back a little bit in John 11 to verse 31, where Jesus just interacted with Mary. I mean, Lazarus just got raised from the dead in the chapter before this in the Gospel of John. And so, if you go back to verse 31, “When the Jews who were with her in the house consoling her saw Mary rise quickly and go out, they followed her.” So here comes Mary and some of the Jews that are there, trying to comfort her because her brother has died, 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 him, ‘Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.’” So, right away we see that Mary is a woman who has a close connection with Jesus, and she has real faith in who Jesus is. Jesus, she knows is a miracle worker, a healer. He could have saved her brother's life. She's confident about that, and she says that to him right away, in verse 33. “When Jesus saw her weeping, and the Jews who had come with her also weeping, he was deeply moved in his spirit and greatly troubled. And he said, "Where have you laid him? They said to him, ‘Lord, come and see.’” And then you have an often memorized verse, easy to remember, John 11:35, “Jesus wept.”

So, if anybody asks you, have you been memorizing any verses of the Bible lately? You can tell them, why, yes, I have. John 11:35. Notice Jesus weeps. Why specifically? Because he sees Mary weeping about her brother. Does Jesus know he's going to raise Lazarus from the dead? Is that not the very reason he has come at the time that he has come? But yet, even though he knows that, seeing Mary's love for her brother and her sadness about his death moves Jesus in his spirit to weep with those who are weeping. Who's Jesus weeping with? He's weeping with this woman, Mary. This woman, Mary, is the one bringing this very expensive flask and breaking it and anointing Jesus with it for his burial. Oh well, now the lightbulb is going off in our brain. What would inspire this woman to do this where her beloved brother just got raised from the dead? What would you do to express your appreciation over your loved one being raised from the dead? What a unique situation Mary is in, and she comes to offer a sacrifice, to give worship, to adore Jesus in a way that honestly, the mask of Judas has been blending in with the rest of the twelve disciples throughout the entire gospel. But when Mary comes in to give this gift to Jesus, this sacrifice is so over the top with her love for Jesus that Judas kind of says what he really thinks, and Judas and Jesus actually, according to John and Mark, it's like the disciples, and then we see Judas going to betray him. Well, John, he's now letting us know, yeah, it was Judas who said that. It was Judas who put a price tag, who put a dollar amount on Mary's sacrifice. And so, we want to see that Mary is so deeply moved in her spirit because how Jesus just raised her brother from the dead, and she's trying to express with this pure nard, she's trying to express pure worship of Christ.

So, let's get this down for number two: You need to “See Mary's flask of sacrifice.” See Mary's flask of sacrifice. In Mark, it is very clear that she breaks this flask and she does it and she anoints the head of Jesus. Here it highlights how it goes all the way down to his feet, and how she's wiping his feet with her hair. So, we're talking about a lot of ointment here in this flask. We're talking about the whole room smelling a different way. So, we're not just smearing a little bit of oil on the forehead of Jesus, or we're not just putting a little bit of ointment on the feet of Jesus. We're talking about like Jesus is saying, this is preparing me for burial. We are taking all of this ointment that we have, and we're giving it all to Jesus. And Judas is the one who gives the idea, both in John and in Mark, 300 denarii.

If you're taking notes, let's write that down under point number two, or let's circle that on your handout. “300 denarii.” We want to think that through together for a minute. What does that mean? A denarius is a day's wage. That is a unique measurement of money that they had at this time, so 300 denarii would be 300 days’ pay. So, if you think about a year, a year in the Jewish calendar having 350-something days, well, you know they did not work on 52 of those days because they did no work on what day, everybody? The Sabbath. So, you take 300 denarii. Well, if there are 350-something days in the Jewish calendar, you minus 52. This is a year's income is what we're talking about here, a year's income of ointment. Somebody, when we were praying for the service before this, said that must have been some pure nard right there. If that's a year's income, that must have come on a camel from India. I mean, that must be the most exotic ointment that you could find. I mean, to me, a whole year's income on one flask of ointment that you then go all in on out of your love and worship and sacrifice to Jesus. I mean, this is a powerful moment.

Okay, so I started looking into this. We talked about John 12:1-8 in 2016 here at this church. So, this is our second time preaching about what Mary did to anoint Jesus for his burial to prepare him for death. Do you know that when we preached about this ten years ago, the population in Huntington Beach was greater than it is now. Did you know that Huntington Beach is shrinking on our watch? Used to be over 200,000. Now we're mid-190,000 people. We used to be the place to move to. Now we've become a place to move from. It seems for many of our neighbors, the average median income, just like the number that's right in the middle of all the incomes reported from 2016, was about $86,000. This was the average median income in the city of Huntington Beach. Anybody know what the average median income is now ten years later? In our city, and I got this from the Huntington Beach government website, we're looking around $123,000. So just to show you how things have changed over the last 10 years, from 86 to 123, roughly. That's the average income, the median income. Now, this didn't make sense to me. Where maybe it makes sense to you. Maybe you feel like this because it said the average income is somewhere around 123,000 and the average household expenditures is somewhere around 134,000. So, how's that going to work out for everybody, right? But can you imagine if somebody came and broke a flask of $123,000 in worship of Jesus? Because that's what Mary did. That's how she wanted to express her adoration of Jesus. What a sacrifice! And maybe when you hear $123,000 of ointment being used, we're breaking this flask. We're not rationing this out. We're going all in on giving this to Jesus right now. Well, that's what brings Judas out. Well, I mean, he's just seeing dollar signs go away, and John, he just cuts right to it. He says, yeah, the guy he held our money bag, and looking back now, I can tell you he was taking from that money bag. This guy was to some degree profiteering off of the Lord Jesus Christ. And so, when he sees this extravagant adoration, he has a reaction to it, and he's indignant. He's angry, and Jesus is like, leave that woman alone. Do not trouble her. Jesus defends what she's doing to Judas, and it seems like perhaps Jesus's rebuke might be what breaks Judas and sends him off to betray him.

So, it's such a grand gesture that Mary has, that it exposes the hypocrisy that Judas has had the entire time. And this has always been what happens to Jesus. There are people who will die in their love for Jesus, and there are people who will be revealed in their rejection of Jesus, and we see that in this house in Bethany here. And so, what does it look like for you to offer yourself as a sacrifice to Jesus? Right? We should write down under point number two, Romans 12:1-2. That is the only logical response when you really think about the mercy of God and how God's not judging you according to your sins as you deserve. And when you really think about all that God has done in his love to send his one and only Son, and how he was willing to sacrifice his Son to die in our place, to pay for our sin, to take our judgment. And we receive the righteousness of Jesus Christ, freely given to us as a gift. By grace, through faith, we are given the righteousness of Jesus imputed to our account. So, God now sees us as pure through the blood and the body of Jesus Christ. When you think about all that God has done, it says the only logical response, the only reasonable service, the only worship that makes sense when you know what God has done for you through his Son Jesus, is to offer your body as a living sacrifice. You have to give in response to Jesus. You can't just get in response to Jesus. If you really see Jesus, you don't just want to receive what Jesus gives you? You want to give what Jesus gives you. You want to give your whole life to him. You want to give what he's given you. You want to pass it on to other people. See, people who really see Jesus, they want to give in the same way that they have received. But see, Judas, he’s on the take. Judas is on the get. Judas has found a way, like so many people who go to church, for the mutually beneficial relationship with Jesus. That's also working out for him financially as well. See Mary, she's so just thankful and offering worship to Jesus that a year's salary? Oh well, Jesus is worth it. Look what he's done. But Judas, he can't handle that. He doesn't relate to that kind of a heart-response of sacrifice.

And so, you’ve got to see this woman who comes into this dinner. This woman, who was weeping over her dead brother, is now so moved that her brother is alive at this dinner that she comes in and she breaks this very expensive flask. I mean, a year's income in worship of Jesus, right there in that moment. That is a powerful expression of praise and adoration. What does your praise and adoration of Jesus look like? What does it look like for your heart to be deeply moved by Jesus, and to produce a sacrifice, an offering, a response to Jesus. See, if you've been loved by Jesus, what is your love for Jesus looking like in your life? See, we see her action is so grand it reveals a heart that is clearly moved. Is your heart moved in response to Jesus?

Now, I want to get into what Judas says. Look at what Judas said in John 12, verse 4. Judas Iscariot, one of his disciples. Yes, we know the one who's going to betray him. He said, "Why was this ointment not sold for 300 denarii?” We've talked about that. That's a year's income. So maybe you know how much money you made last year. Put that in there for the 300 denarii and then given to the poor now. Judas here is a part of a long line of people who want to make a pretense of giving to the poor as a religious activity, but they don't really care about the poor at all. There are a lot of people who will bring up the noble idea of giving to the poor, but that's not really what they care about. Judas here is the poster person for this kind of hypocrisy.

We need to understand something. We need to not be naive. We need to be as innocent as doves, but we need to be as shrewd as serpents here at this church. There are many people who will put on a religious face for their own benefit, there are many people who go to church and they are on the take and they are on the get and they are in it for themselves. We need to be very clear about this. Jesus handpicked twelve, and one of them was a betrayer. So, we need to understand that oh, that person's so nice. Oh, they go to church. They must be a good person. They give to the poor. Yeah, a lot of people who go to church and talk about Jesus and give to the poor are the most evil kind of people you're ever going to meet. That's what we need to say. Just because they seem good on the outside, here's Judas now revealing a little bit of the inside, and John just has to flat out say it. He said this. Look here, John is just saying under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, not because he cared about the poor. What Judas said at that dinner at Simon's house in Bethany was a lie. John says to you that wasn't true. He wasn't really thinking the poor would benefit from that. He didn't care about the poor. He wanted some of that for himself because he had charge of the money bag, and he's thinking 300 denarii minus the amount that I could get away with that they wouldn't know was missing. That's a good sum, is what Judas is thinking. I mean, there are definitely people at church who would steal from the church if they have an opportunity. Do not be deceived. And Judas is one of them. And John just flat out says that's how it is.

Now, when Jesus says this in verse 8, “The poor you always have with you,” and in Mark 14 he says it very similarly the way Mark writes it, when he says in verse 7 of Mark 14, "For you always have the poor with you.” On your handout, if you're taking notes, could you write next to that Deuteronomy 15:11 because Jesus, I believe, is actually referring to a verse from the Law of Moses when he says, "You always have the poor with you.” So don't think that in any way Jesus is disparaging giving to the poor. No, he's making a reference to a passage about giving to the poor, and we can put Deuteronomy 15:11 up here on the screen. “There will never cease to be poor in the land. Therefore, I command you, you shall open wide your hand to your brother, to the needy and the poor in your land.” And you can go read there in Deuteronomy 15 how it gets more into that. And I would even say, notice how it calls them your brother, and it's not just using a slang term like bro, like how we might talk. Today, no, it's specifically talking about people within the nation of what? Israel, your countrymen, your fellow Jews, and it's a lot of the law on how you should love your neighbor as yourself. And they had this whole system of how debt worked and how their debts would be forgiven after so many years. And it was this whole way of how they're supposed to be helping one another, very similar to what we do in the church when we take a collection and people are generous to give, and then another brother or another sister they have a need that comes up that they weren't expecting, and now they don't have the money they thought they would have, and then we can meet their needs.

So, if you go back to Deuteronomy 15, it's very similar in how it's describing the people of Israel looking out for their brothers, their countrymen, their neighbors. It's similar to what we seek to do here at our church, to look out for one another. And so, Jesus is referring to, there's a good thing to give to the poor, but what Mary's doing here is she's honoring me, and she maybe is even understanding what's about to happen to me, that I'm about to die. I'm about to be killed. In fact, who's the one who's kickstarting this whole suffering operation? It's the guy who's so upset about what Mary's doing. See, what happened in that house in Bethany set things on a course that we never expected. I mean, this is the inciting incident to the end of the story, right here. One woman was so moved by Jesus and so generous that it pushed Judas the other direction to go and betray Jesus, and it all happened at dinner. And so, Jesus is saying, hey, considering the poor, that's a good thing, but what she's doing here, this is unique. This is one of a kind. There's never going to be another Son of Man who did not come to be served, but to serve and to give his life. And she's preparing him to give his life to the point of death, even death on a cross.

And so, this kind of worship transcends even what you're talking about, Judas. That's what Jesus is saying. What she's doing here, I want every Christian everywhere to know about what she has done. This lady's not wasting this ointment. She's not being too over the top with this extravagant sacrifice. This woman right here, she's worshiping me, and I want every believer to know what she's done. When she broke the flask and the whole room smelled with the ointment, that was the smell of worship to Jesus Christ, and it was beautiful. He said it was good. I don't think the problem is our sacrifices for Jesus are too big, and Judas thought that was the problem, and Jesus called him out. Now, go with me to Matthew 26. Let's see what Matthew has to say about this as the plot thickens here with Judas, because we see how central Judas was there at the dinner in John 12. In Mark 14:10-11, we see Judas going to the chief priests, setting up this opportunity to betray him. But here in the in the Gospel of Matthew, chapter 26 look at verse 14. Matthew 26:14, “Then one of the twelve, whose name was Judas Iscariot, went to the chief priests. Now notice the quote here, because we don't get this in Mark. “What will you give me if I deliver him over to you,” or what will you give me if I betray him? Can everybody see? It might be hard to completely understand what's going on in the heart of Judas, but we can get an idea out of the abundance of his heart, his mouth speaks. What's in it for me if I give you Jesus.

So, we have one who's ready to sacrifice in a grand way for Jesus, and then we have another who's ready to sell out Jesus for what they can get for themselves. I mean, Judas, think about this-he's been standing with Jesus and the other disciples. When the chief priests have been standing over here and the scribes, when everybody's been mad dogging each other and staring each other down in some kind of staring contest in the temple, Judas has been with Jesus and now he's coming in like the mole. He's selling out. And then, this is the answer. They paid him 30 pieces of silver. Now we don't get this detail in the Gospel of Mark. That's why we're coming here to Matthew 26:15, “And from that moment, he sought an opportunity to betray him.” Now, you might be doing mathematical equations. How much is 30 pieces of silver? Well, it's not that much compared to 300 denarii. But here's the significance of the 30 pieces of silver is if you're familiar with the Scripture, that's an amount you've heard of before, and so next to 30 pieces of silver, you want to write down right above point number 3, 30 pieces of silver, that's what he sells him out for. And next to that, put this verse from the book of Zechariah, chapter 11, two verses, verses 12 and 13. “Then I said to them, ‘If it seems good to you, give me my wages; but if not, keep them.’ And they weighed out as my wages thirty pieces of silver. Then the Lord said to me, ‘Throw it to the potter’—the lordly price at which I was priced by them. So I took the thirty pieces of silver and threw them into the house of the Lord, to the potter.” So, maybe, if you're familiar with Scripture and you hear this written by Matthew in the Gospel that it was 30 pieces of silver, you might think to yourself, hold up! I've heard of 30 pieces of silver before. That's from Zechariah, who's a prophet after the exile, and he's saying those 30 pieces of silver. What's going to happen to those 30 pieces, everybody? They're going to get thrown to the potter. So right now, reading Matthew, should we expect these coins to get tossed at some point here, everybody? So, there's a prophecy specifically calling 30 pieces of silver. Now that's not the first time 30 pieces of silver has come up in the Scriptures already. Let's go all the way back to the book of Exodus, chapter 21, verse 32, where it's talking about things that could happen in the law of Israel. Well, it says this line that might seem like ancient history to us, but it says, “If the ox gores a slave, male or female, the owner shall give to their master 30 shekels of silver, and the ox shall be stoned.” So, don't let your oxes out on the loose, everybody, because you can see here that this idea of 30 shekels of silver becomes the price of a slave from that verse, right? So even though the verse is trying to give value to people who were serving as slaves, fast forward in history, we would have a very negative view on this whole idea of slaves. And 30 pieces of silver for somebody's life does not seem like a grand amount. So, when these chief priests say to Judas, "We'll give 30 pieces of silver,” do they perhaps know this Scripture themselves, and are they perhaps saying that Jesus is just like another slave? His life is really not of any significance. Could be what they're implying by that.

So, this takes us pretty deep into Scripture. This idea of 30 pieces of silver. Like if you and I know these other passages and we're reading through the Gospel, and now Judas is going to betray him, what will you give me? We'll give you 30 pieces of silver. Our biblical antennas should be up and receiving this right now. Now let's see what happens. If you keep going in Matthew, go to Matthew 27. Jump ahead to the next chapter because Matthew tells us how this all plays out for Judas. Judas is going to come betray Jesus with a kiss. Then we're never going to hear of Judas again in the Gospel of Mark, so maybe you're wondering, well, what happens to Judas who decides to betray him and later on betrays him with a kiss? Well, Matthew gives us that information starting in Matthew 27, verse 3. “Then, when Judas, his betrayer, saw that Jesus was condemned, he changed his mind and brought back the 30 pieces of silver to the chief priests and the elders, saying,” and this is critical right here. Listen to what Judas says: “I have sinned by betraying, what does he say, everybody? Innocent blood. You know what happens when you betray Jesus? You know what happens when you use Jesus to get whatever you can? You are filled with regret. That's what happens. Did you hear Matthew talking about it when he said worldly grief? Did everybody hear him say that? That's from 2 Corinthians, chapter 7, verse 10, where there is worldly sorrow, and there is godly sorrow, and what the idea is is it's sorrow over your sin, and a lot of people feel bad about their sin, and that sorrow, that guilt, that shame hangs on them. Worldly sorrow leads to death, but godly grief or godly sorrow leads to repentance. It leads to a desire to prove yourself innocent. It leads to a desire to clear yourself with the people around you and before God. It leads to this anger about why did I do that sin and this passion to not do that sin again. No, if you go read 2 Corinthians 7:10-11, it's a beautiful description of what repentance really looks like.

See, a lot of people feel bad about their sin. I've heard people say, "Well, if you feel bad about your sin, you must be a Christian.” No, if you feel bad about your sin, that's just a sign you're a human. A lot of people feel bad about their sin. Who really repents of their sin? Judas immediately sees that what he did to betray Jesus was terrible, but he doesn't really repent. Look at what happens. Verse 5, “Throwing down the pieces of silver into the temple.” There it is, just like Zechariah said, the silver's getting tossed, the coins are getting thrown. “He departed and he went, and” what everyone? He hanged himself. His grief took him all the way to death. Worldly sorrow leads to death. You get a glimpse into the divided, tortured soul of Judas to know so much of the Christ, and to still be so in it for yourself. He knew that what he had done was wrong but yet could not really repent. And then look at what happens. Verse 6, “The chief priests.” You want to talk about hypocrisy? Let's talk about a master class of hypocrisy. “The chief priests, taking the pieces of silver, said, ‘It is not lawful to put them in the treasury since it is blood money.’” Okay, we just talked this guy into betraying Jesus, who we're going to kill. But let's make sure we obey the law when it comes to these 30 pieces of silver. Talk about missing the point. “So they took counsel and bought with them.” What did they buy, everybody? Wait. They bought the potter's field? The potter that Zechariah was talking about in chapter 11? What did Zechariah say about the 30 pieces of silver? Did he say they would be thrown? Did he mention the potter? Do we have thrown 30 pieces of silver, and are they buying the potter's field? “Therefore,” verse 8, “that field has been called the field of blood to this day. Then,” verse 9, “was fulfilled what was spoken by the prophet Jeremiah, saying, ‘And they took the 30 pieces of silver, the price on whom a price has been set by some for the sons of Israel, and they gave them for the potter's field as the Lord directed me.’”

Now Matthew, if you've studied his gospel or read through it before, he loves to bring up the prophecies that are fulfilled in the life of Christ. And so, when you've got something as juicy as these 30 pieces of silver that are getting thrown, that are buying the potter's field that God is clearly calling what's going to happen with Judas before it ever takes place. Matthew, you know he's going to draw attention to that because he loves to say what the prophet has fulfilled. But did you notice that he didn't quote the prophet Zechariah? What prophet did he quote, everybody? And so, a lot of very smart people that study the Bible these days think simpleton Matthew must not know what he is talking about, quoting Jeremiah when clearly it was Zechariah that said it. Unless Zechariah is also referring to Jeremiah and this prophecy goes multiple levels deep. And Matthew might actually, perhaps, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, know exactly what he's talking about.

Now we were just in Jeremiah, were we not? Was anybody here last week? Did we not just do Jeremiah 18 last week on the holiday weekend? In fact, in Jeremiah 18, tell me if I'm wrong, did we not go to the potter's house? Does anybody remember this? Maybe we should go to Jeremiah 19 and see what happened immediately after that. I didn't plan this that we would end up right back where we left off after last week, but if you go to Jeremiah, chapter 19, you might be able to get a glimpse into why Matthew refers to Jeremiah. And remember, Jeremiah is a prophet in Jerusalem talking to the people of Judah before the exile. The exile being seventy years, where they're not there in Jerusalem because King Nebuchadnezzar from Babylon comes, and remember, he's going to desecrate the temple. He's going to destroy Jerusalem. He's going to take Daniel and his friends and others back to Babylon. So, Jeremiah, he is a pre-exilic prophet, which is just a fancy way to say he's before the exile, and then Zechariah, he's a post-exilic prophet, which is just a fancy way to say Zechariah is after the exile.

So, let's think about this. Is it quite possible that Zechariah was one hundred percent familiar with the prophecies of Jeremiah? Okay, so when Zechariah is bringing up the potter, is he perhaps referring to the reference in Jeremiah, chapters 18 and 19? Well, look at how chapter 19 begins. “Thus says Yahweh, ‘Go, buy a potter's earthenware flask, and take some of the elders of the people.’” Wait a minute. Hold the time up. Did we just say buy a potter's flask and take some of the elders of the people and some of the elders of the priests and go out to this valley of the son of Hittim at the entry of the potsherd gate and proclaim there the words that I tell you. You shall say. So, we're going to go out now with the potter's flask, and we're going to go out to this valley, and we're going to say, "Hear the word of the Lord, O kings of Judah and inhabitants of Jerusalem. Thus says Yahweh of hosts, the God of Israel: ‘Behold, I am bringing such disaster upon this place that the ears of everyone who hears of it will tingle, because the people have forsaken me, and have profaned this place by making offerings in it to other gods, whom neither they nor their fathers nor the kings of Judah have known, and because they have filled this place with the blood of” who, everyone? What did Judas just say about Jesus' blood? That it was now through prophecy. Matthew's referring to Jeremiah, who's got a flask from the potter going out to a valley where they have been killing the blood of innocents, huh? The blood of innocence. What are we talking about there? I think we're talking about precious babies. I think we're talking about babies being killed in child sacrifice. I would imagine there's a lot of sexual immorality in connection with that idolatry that would lead to child sacrifice. Killing of babies is something we know all too well here in the United States of America. “The blood of innocents cries out from the ground in the Valley of Hinnom,” and so, God has something to say about it here today, because “they have filled this place with the blood of innocents,” at the end of verse 4, “and have built the high places of Baal to burn their sons in the fire as burnt offerings to Baal, which I did not command or decree, nor did it come into my mind. Therefore, behold, the days are coming, declares the Lord, when this place shall no more be called Topheth, or the Valley of the Son of Hinnom, but the Valley of Slaughter, and in this place I will make void the plans of Judah and Jerusalem. I will cause their people to fall by the sword before their enemies, and by the hand of those who seek their life. I will give their dead bodies for food to the birds of the air and the beasts of the earth, and I will make this city a horror, a thing to be hissed at. Everyone who passes by it will be horrified and will hiss because of all its wounds. And I will make them.” This literally happens in history, “I will make them eat the flesh of their sons and their daughters, and everyone shall eat the flesh of his neighbor in the siege and in the distress with which their enemies and those who seek their life afflict them.” Then he says this, verse 10, “Then you shall break the flask in the sight of the men who go with you, and shall say to them, ‘Thus says the Lord of hosts, ‘So will I break this people in this city as one breaks a potter's vessel, so that it can never be mended.” They took the money that Judas threw down, the 30 pieces of silver. In their hypocrisy, they didn't want to use it at the temple, so they bought a field, the field of blood. We have two flasks. You can either break your flask in worship of Jesus, or your flask will be broken, and it will not be mended. And Judas in the field of blood, what happens to Judas, “a man who it would have been better if he had not been born”? What happens to Judas is not supposed to sit well with anybody here tonight, and God has got layers deep into these 30 pieces of silver, and the fact that Judas ends up throwing the coins, and the blood of the innocents, and they end up buying a field. Wow, that takes us all the way back to the potter's flask. And what did it say there? As one breaks a potter's vessel so that it can never be mended.

Let's get this down for point number three: We want you to “See Judas' flask of regret.” This is what happens when you know about Jesus, but you still try to live your life for yourself. When you're still on the take, on the get, how can I use Jesus for my advantage? You know enough about Jesus that you want to get it for yourself. You don't really know Jesus. You're not ready to give it all to Jesus. You're not ready to give your life away for other people. But you know enough about Jesus that you know you want it. And see, Judas, he's like so many people. Halfway in, halfway out. Yes, I'm sorry that I shed the innocent blood of Jesus, but I was in it for myself, and that's how the story of Judas ends.

Now I need everybody to grab their Bible and turn with me to Luke, chapter 7, because we have a very interesting account in Luke, chapter 7, verse 36, where there's another dinner at a Simon's house. Now, this dinner has some differences, but it has also many similarities. So, in Luke's gospel, he does not have Mary in Bethany breaking her flask to adore Jesus, but he does have a woman here in Luke 7:36 who comes to Simon's house and does something very similar with kissing his feet and anointing them with ointment. So, let's look at what happens here in Luke 7. So, in some ways it's a very similar story, but in other ways it seems like a different account than what we're studying in Mark 14, in Matthew 26, and John 12. So, look at it here as Luke 7:36, “One of the Pharisees asked him to eat with him, and he went into the Pharisee's house and reclined at the table.” Here we are, another dinner setting. We're reclining. We're having a nice meal. “Behold, a woman of the city, who was a sinner, when she learned that he was reclining at table in the Pharisee's house, brought an alabaster flask.” Here's another flask of ointment. “And standing behind him at his feet, weeping, she began to wet his feet with her tears and wiped them with the hair of her head, kissed his feet and anointed them with the ointment. Now, when the Pharisee who had invited him saw this, he said to himself,” which is a very dangerous thing to do when you're around Jesus, is to say or think anything to yourself. He said to himself, "If this man were a prophet, bad start, he would have known who and what sort of woman this is who is touching him, for she is a,” yeah, I think Jesus knows about that. “And Jesus, answering, said to him, ‘Simon’.” So, notice this Pharisee is also Simon. So, some people are like, is it the same Simon? Well, there's probably more than one Simon out there, and we even know Peter is actually a Simon, right? So, Simon is a very common name at this time. Even at a church like ours, you know, all you’ve got to do is just say Chris or Mike or Steve, and you'll have multiple brothers running to your aid. Okay, so just because it says Simon, could it be two different Simons? Seems like perhaps it is. And so, notice what he says to this Simon, “’I have something to say to you.” And he answered, ‘Say it, teacher.’” Verse 41. Here's Jesus now teaching at this dinner. “’A certain moneylender had two debtors. One owed 500 denarii.” We know about that. That's like over two years' worth of salary. The other 50. Okay, that's like a couple of months. “When they could not pay, he canceled the debt of both. Now, which of them will love him more?’ Simon answered, ‘The one, I suppose, for whom he canceled the larger debt.’ And he said to him, ‘You have judged rightly.’ Then, turning towards the woman, he said to Simon, ‘Do you see this woman? I entered your house, you gave me no water for my feet. She has wet my feet with her tears and wiped them with her hair. You gave me no kiss, but from the time I came in, she has not ceased to kiss my feet. You did not anoint my head with oil, but she has anointed my feet with ointment. Therefore, I tell you, her sins, which are many, are forgiven. For she loved much, but he who is forgiven little loves little.’ And he said to her, ‘Your sins are forgiven.’ Then those who were at table with him began to say among themselves, ‘Who is this who even forgives sins?’ And he said to the woman, ‘Your faith has saved you. Go in peace.’” Now, maybe it might be difficult for us to get our mind all the way around Mary's flask, and how Mary was overjoyed that Jesus had raised her brother Lazarus from the dead. That seems like a very unique moment, and maybe it might be hard for us to get our minds all the way around Judas's flask, who actually betrays Jesus to his death.

That's why I like coming to this account of a woman doing a similar thing, because in this account it's about her love for her sins being forgiven. That's why she's doing this, and Jesus is saying that this woman does love him. He's saying to this woman that her sins are forgiven, and there are a lot of others at this dinner that are not believing. And just to make it clear, Jesus says your faith has saved you. Go in peace to the woman who's a sinner coming to Jesus in love. So, when you read this story, it forces you to consider yourself, are you the kind of sinner who has been forgiven much, or are you the kind of sinner who's been forgiven little? Are you the kind of person who wants to get down on the floor and wash and kiss the feet of Jesus, or are you the kind of person who's just okay with having Jesus over for dinner? Because Jesus, like he rebuked Judas, he kind of calls this guy Simon out. You didn't wash my feet, you didn't kiss me, which was that we know was a common greeting at that time? Greet one another with a holy kiss. We know Jesus thinks when you have a supper you should wash feet. We know it was regularly encouraged to greet one another with a holy kiss. Anointing with oil was obviously a big deal at this time, and so Jesus basically says to this Simon the Pharisee, the religious man. This lady's loving me a whole lot more than you do. Even though Simon sees her as a sinner, if she's a sinner, then what does Simon see himself as? See, not that bad of a sinner, and I hope that's not the way you see yourself. See, this is something we can all relate to. Have your sins been forgiven by Jesus? Have you been sorry, like a godly sorrow over your sin, where you wanted to prove yourself innocent, and you believed that there was a way you could be innocent by the blood of the one who is innocent, and you felt such an anger with yourself over your sin. You felt such a desire to turn and live a new way, and you believed that it could be possible because Jesus died for that sin. He paid for it. He said, tetelestai, Paid in full. “It is finished.”

See, the question is, how many of your sins has Jesus forgiven? And the answer is, well, that's up to you. Let's put it down for number four: “How many of your sins has Jesus forgiven?” Because the answer for those who have repented and believed in the gospel of Jesus's death for our sin and his resurrection to give us a new life, for those who believe in the gospel of Jesus, he has forgiven all of your sins. Can I get an amen from anybody on that? Not only has he forgiven you. I mean, I don't know what you think was your worst moment. I don't know what you think are the things that you wouldn't want to go back to or bring up in front of polite company. Not only has he forgiven you for that, but he has also washed you as white as snow from that. Not only is he treating that as if it did not happen, but when you say that same thing that you shouldn't say later this week, and you think that same thought that you shouldn't think later this week? He forgives you for that too. He forgives you for all of your sins. And if you know yourself to be a sinner, to be forgiven by Jesus, I have been forgiven much, and I should love Jesus much. Can I get an amen? Because the only other option is he's forgiven none of your sins. It's all of your sins, or it's none of your sins. Jesus, his blood doesn't cover some of your sins. His body wasn't sacrificed for most of your sins. See, with Jesus, what we're learning here together tonight, if you could see him recline at the table, and you could see the woman come and put ointment on him, and the haters start to hate, you would see that with Jesus it is all or it is nothing. And some of you might just be invite Jesus over for dinner kind of people. Some of you might just be, I like Jesus and I like what I get from Jesus’ kind of people, and you need to ask yourself very carefully here this evening, how many of your sins has Jesus forgiven? Do you believe he has the authority, the power, to forgive sin, because only God can do that? And do you know that because of your faith you have been saved? Because not your faith is your response. What is really? It's what your faith is in. What is your faith in? It's in the blood of the innocent. And you will either be forgiven because of the blood of the innocent, or you will regret it for eternity. You will either be like Mary, or you will be like Judas in the end. All of us will be on one of those two extremes.

And so, where are you tonight? If you have been forgiven by Jesus, we're going to sing a song right now, and I said we're going to sing this song. This is probably the most sung song in the history of Compass Bible Church, Huntington Beach. “Jesus paid it all. All to him I owe.” When you think about it like that, even a year's income isn't that much. That's what we're going to sing right now, and I hope you can sing it from your heart. I hope you can sing it at the top of your lungs. I hope you can sing it like you mean it. And if you know, I would regret where I'm at with Jesus right now. I don't really think I love Jesus, then you could ask him, and you could come to him, and he could forgive your sins this very night. Let me pray.

Father in heaven, thank you for taking us to the town of Bethany, to Simon's house, to the table, and look, there's Lazarus, and there are the disciples, and here comes Mary with this extremely expensive flask, and she just breaks the flask, and she anoints Jesus as if he is going to die, and she loves him and adores him and worships him, and then let us see Judas over here saying, no, wait, we could have done something different with that money. God, I pray that everybody here tonight would have their eyes open to see that the greed of Judas was never satisfied in this life, and all he ended with was regret. But the praise of Mary is to be honored forever. Where anyone believes the gospel, they will know what it's like to love Jesus, to adore him, to worship him, to want to give him the greatest sacrifice. God, let us be the people who love much, because we have been forgiven much. We have seen not only ourselves but other people we love. We have seen them raised from the dead, as in they were dead in their sins, and you made them alive in Christ. Father, we want to say thank you for saving Matthew. Thank you for his testimony that he has life now, rather than regret. And we pray, Father, that even on this very night, July 11, 2026, that people will stop thinking like Judas, trying to get for themselves. And they will come and give their lives to Jesus. Jesus paid it all. All to him we owe. Let us now offer our pure worship in response tonight. We pray this in Jesus' name, Amen.