Luke 10:38-42

Luke chapter 10, verses 38 to 42 for our text and study this morning. Now, it came to pass as they went that he entered into a certain village, and a certain woman named Martha received him into her house. She had a sister called Mary, who also sat at Jesus’ feet and heard his word. But Martha was cumbered about much serving. And came to him, said Lord, Dost thou not care that my sister hath left me to serve alone? Bitter, therefore, that she helped me. And Jesus answered and said unto her, Martha, Martha, thou art careful and troubled about many things. But one thing is needful, and Mary hath chosen that good part, which shall not be taken away from her. May God bless to us, His sacred and holy word this morning. Showing the hospitality to others is certainly an important Christian duty. Scripture tells us to use hospitality without grudging and to use hospitality one to another, 1 Peter 4.9. You remember in the Old Testament that Abraham showed hospitality to three visitors that were traveling his way, and he entertained angels unaware, as Hebrews told us. One of those was evidently the angel or the messenger of God. He was the Lord Jesus Christ pre-incarnate at that time. Indeed, that was, was quite a surprising event that one ended up being the Lord out of the three that accepted his hospitality. Our Lord, our tax here provides an account of our Lord’s dealings with Martha, who is showing hospitality in this particular passage to the Lord and his disciples at her house. Christ and his disciples entered were told a certain village. According to John’s Gospel, this was Bethany, where Martha lived with Mary and her brother Lazarus. This was two miles east of Jerusalem, very close by. The Son of God, though he is the creator of all, though he is the Lord of all, for our sakes became poor and isn’t interesting, he has to be the Creator of all, he has to be taken care of by his own creatures while he is here on the earth. And they feed him at this point. Now Martha demonstrated Christian love by extending hospitality to Christ and his disciples. This was no small undertaking. I mean, there’s at least 13 people here that she’s taking into the house and providing food and supplies for it and accommodations. No sooner has Christ entered the house while she is preparing the food, he decides he would use the occasion to teach. And so he is teaching while she is getting the food prepared. Martha’s sister, Mary, being eager to profit from Christ’s teaching, decides that she’s going to sit at Jesus’ feet and soak in the message that he has to speak. And hear his word. But this created as we see some friction with her sister Martha, who was busy about taking care of things, and she thought Mary should be helping her. Our Lord here has some very instructive things to say to Martha, which is, I think would be beneficial for all of us as the people of God to consider as well. It’s not easy to maintain the balance that’s necessary for the Christian life. But the story here that’s provided in these verses is only recorded in Luke’s Gospel. So this is the only place we have that we can consider with regard to what took place here. Now let me begin by saying this. You find true Christians may be very different. Both Martha and Mary were believers in the Lord Jesus Christ. There’s no doubt that Martha and Mary were godly woman, that they followed the Lord Jesus Christ. We hear Martha saying in John 1127, yea, Lord, I believe that thou art the Christ, the Son of God, which should come into the world. She certainly believed in Jesus Christ and had faith in him. Both love the Lord Jesus Christ. Martha is showing her love to Christ by showing hospitality and providing for Christ and his disciples. Mary shows her love and her quiet devotion to the Savior. Martha meant to honor Christ by feeding and entertaining. But so did Mary by her careful attention to Christ’s teaching. The personalities of these two women were quite different. Martha was active, busy, impulsive, not afraid to speak up when she thought she was right. Mary, however, is sort of quiet, still, contemplative, said, less than she felt. Grace reigned in both their hearts, but each showed it different. So they’re both believers, and I don’t think we should have any question about that. But we see here, you must not expect all Christians to be exactly alike. God doesn’t make clones when he saves people from their sins. It’s probably a good thing that we’re not all Peters. But there’s some Timothy’s and Phillips and Johns and James’s and there too. Yes, all God’s people are being conformed to the image of Christ, the spiritual image, but the personalities of God’s people are many, and they are varied. Care must be taken not to think others lack true faith because they’re not exactly like you. There’s a tendency to think, as Paul tells us, that that he told the Corinthians to think more highly of ourselves than we ought to. I think we have a tendency to do that at times. So Martha here condemned Mary for not doing exactly what she was doing in showing hospitality. She didn’t doubt Mary’s salvation, but she thought she was lacking something spiritually. Where’s her sense of Christian hospitality? All true believers agree on the fundamentals of the faith. We all agree that salvation is by Christ alone and by faith in Christ alone. We’re all led by the Spirit of God. We’re all brought to repentance and belief in Christ and have holiness of life, but we’re not identical. There are some are going to be more like Martha, and there’s a good. going to be some that are going to be more like Mary. In every age, this is going to be a case. We have to learn to appreciate both personalities. Appreciate everybody that Christ brings into the church. Because every believer has his own gifts and graces and abilities. And in the body of Christ, we need each person to use those gifts and graces for the body of Christ. We need each person to use those gifts and graces for the betterment of the whole assembly. So what you are lacking, someone else may supply. So let us be thankful for the diversity that is found in the Church of Christ. Now, Russell read from 1st Corinthians chapter 12, verses 14 to 17, this morning, about the body of the church. A human body, we know, has many. different members. There’s the head, there’s the eyes, the ears, the nose, the mouth, the arms, the legs, the feet, the toes. A body cannot just be made up of all heads or all eyes or all toes. That doesn’t make up a good body, does it? Each part is necessary for the proper function of the body, and so the same is true with Christ’s body, the church. Now, Paul, focus is in 1st Christchurchase chapter 12 on contentment and the importance of it. It’s unreasonable for you to complain that all the members should be exactly alike, or that you are not like someone else in the church, or that everyone is not like you. It’s like Martha complaining about Mary, that she was not doing what Mary or what Martha was doing. Has not God set all the members in the body, every one of them, as it hath pleased Him? First Corinthians 1218. Yes, some members are more feeble, some are less honorable than others, but they’re still the part of Christ’s body, and they have a function, a role to play in Christ’s body. church. Use the gifts that God has given you to aid in the usefulness and life of Christ’s church. If you’re called to preach, then by all means preach. If you have the gift of being an encourager, then encourage. If you’re a prayer warrior, then spend your time in prayer. If you have evangelistic, then by all means, you know, then by all means, you’re a prayer. You know, you’re a prayer warrior, then spend your time in prayer. those. If you have hospitality that you can show, by all means use that. Whatever you have that you can use that would benefit the body of Christ, use that gift. So you find true Christians may be very different. Mary and Martha are completely different. Secondly, you can be guilty of allowing earthly concerns to take up all your attention. Now let’s look at verses 40 and 41 here. But Martha was cumbered about much serving and came to him and said, Lord, dost thou not care that my sister have left me alone? Bitter, therefore, that she helped me. And Jesus answered and said under her, Martha, Martha, thou art careful and troubled about many things. Now, it’s very clear here that Martha was totally consumed with showing hospitality. It’s commendable that Martha desired to show hospitality to Christ and his disciples. She deserves credit for that effort. This is a good Christian duty, and I don’t wish to undermine it. She truly did love the Savior. But she is so completely engaged here. She is so extremely engaged here. She is so extremely busy that all her energy and all her thought are taken up with providing hospital. And then we read those words here that Martha was cumbered about much serving. The word cumbered is an English, an older English word that means drawn away, distracted, overoccupied, with this. And this is what led to her complaint against Mary in verse 40. Martha felt her sister should be helping her instead of sitting there just listening to Jesus. Her excessive zeal for earthly provision caused her to be carried away. So she was totally consumed with showing hospitality to Christ and her disciples. You and I deserve to have a rebuke when we have our priorities mixed up. Jesus appreciated Martha’s hospitality, and so he gently rebukes her here. He doesn’t harshly rebuke her. He gently rebukes her. He gently rebukes her because she is a godly woman and she, her heart is certainly right in the sense of what she’s trying to do. so he doesn’t he’s not harsh in this he’s gentle trying to lead her to the right conclusion without lowering the boom so to speak on her as many as Christ loves he rebukes and chasons revelation 319 she’s dear to the Lord but she’s so anxious she’s so troubled about many things which are of secondary important she should not be discouraging Martha’s faith or Mary’s faith or devotion to Christ Mary’s desire to hear Christ was a good thing according to Jesus. The fault of Martha is a common problem, I think, in many Christians. You get distracted by your earthly concerns. Even when you’re trying to do something good, it, something beneficial, maybe even something useful to the cause of Christ. So in the process of doing good and serving others, sometimes you fail to see what’s best for your own soul. During the American Revolution, Colonel Raw, of the British commander of the troops at Trenton, New Jersey, was engaged in a card game when someone came and gave him an urgent message. Because he was so distracted by the card game, he just shoved the message in his pocket. The problem was it was a message telling him that General Washington was crossing over the river with American troops and he needed to get ready. When he finally got the card game over and he looked at the message it was too late and he got called off guard. And of course, what happened was it cost him his life, his honor, and the liberty of his soldiers. You can do the same thing spiritually with regard to your earthly concerns when they take priority of your spiritual well-being. Now there are those professing Christians who engage in caring for others through various programs of the church, or their church. There are churches that have meals, on wheels who care for the elderly. It take food to the elderly. There are those churches that have soup kitchens that care for the poor. There are those who have quilting groups that make blankets for the homeless. There are those who give counseling and aid to unwed mothers. There are those who handle boys and girls clubs so that the children of the church have some kind of like spiritual Boy Scouts or something like that nature. We had like Boys Brigade, I believe, at one point at our church when I was growing up. It was sort of like Boy Scouts, but it was like with a religious overtone to it. There are those churches that have adoption services to find homes for orphans and so forth. However, in all this so-called church activity, You may end up neglecting the state of your soul. Remember we read about this in Song of Solomon, Chapter 1 of verse 6. They made me the keeper of the vineyards. By my own vineyard, I have not kept. So you may be guilty of not maintaining in all your religious activity the communion of your soul with the Lord Jesus Christ as you should. And that wouldn’t be good. So you’re busy. but somehow in your busyness you’ve lost your first love and you failed to keep near to the same. So you lose perspective of what is vital in the midst of your full engagement in all kinds of church programs, let’s say. Must Christ reprove us? Must Christ ask, where art thou? Are you cumbered about much serving to your soul’s ultimate? detriment. So you can be guilty of allowing earthly concerns to take up all your attention. Thirdly, this morning, you should give your soul’s spiritual welfare the priority in life. Verse 42. But one thing is needful, and Mary have chosen that good part, which shall not be taken away from her. The one thing that was needful was what Mary chose. To sit at Jesus’ feet and to hear the words of Christ. It indicates your readiness to believe what the Savior taught, to accept it and obey it. So you were to have a delight here in the precepts that come from the lips of our Savior. This is the one thing needful. If you have it, then you have spirit and you have life. Here’s what sitting at Jesus’ feet implies. Four things. One is submission. You’re no longer in a state of rebellion. You’re no longer opposing Christ, but you’re humbling acknowledging his rule if you’re sitting at his feet. He is overpowered. He has won you over. He is your king. He is the redeemer of your soul. He is the redeemer of your soul., and Do you remember the maniac of Godira or Gatora? Remember this wild demon-possessed man that we read about in the book of Luke chapter 8? He didn’t get along with anybody. The Bible says he was full of a legion of demons, if you would. He wanted nothing to do with Christ, and the demons made him hostile to the Lord. What have I to do with the Jesus, is thou son of God most taught. However, would Jesus cast the demons out of this man? He was a wild and crazy man before salvation. But when he brought him to salvation, what do we read? The inhabitants of the city found the man out of whom the devils departed, what? Sitting at the feet of Jesus, clothed and in his right mind. What was he sitting at the feet? feet of Jesus for listening to what Jesus had to say. He’s a different person. He’s submissive to the Savior. And this is what Christ does for the sin. He ends our hostility toward God. He brings us into submission to himself. And that’s needful because we can’t be in rebellion against Christ and be in his kingdom. And so you can’t know Christ while being opposed to Him, he must be submitted to us, the Lord of your life. And so the first thing we see is submission. The second thing I think we can see here is faith. Mary believed everything Jesus said. She sat there to hear God’s truth. She has faith in Christ. In his power as God manifests in the flesh. You remember what she said in John 11 when Lazarus said died? Lord, if thou had been here, my brother had not died. I know you could have saved him. She believed his coming death would be a substitutionary death for herself and others. Remember, she is the one who an anointed Christ with precious ointment prior to his death. And Jesus said this, let her alone against the day of my bearing, how she kept this. She expected Christ to die. She expected Christ to die on her behalf. And thus she looked to him in faith as the Savior. Is this what you believe? Do you believe Christ’s death is her propitiation, which turns away the wrath of God, that He is the propitiation for our sins, and that propitiation is appropriation is appropriated by faith? And we are then made acceptable to God. So you must trust in Christ for time and eternity, as prophet, as priest, and as king. If you believe not that I am he, the Messiah, and the Savior, you shall die in your sins. That’s what Jesus. So you must rely upon him for everything. and steadfastly trust in faith. The third thing this suggests to us is discipleship. Sitting at Jesus’ feet implies a desire to learn of him, as he spoke of in Matthew 1129, to be his disciple. Discipleship is often forgotten, but it is an important duty, I think, in the Christian life. In the Great Commission, the Lord commanded the Church to go into the and literally disciple all nations. So you were to be a learner in the school of Christ, be willing to be taught by the Savior. Just as Paul recalled, sat at the feet of Gamaliel, the Jewish instructor, and became his disciple. So we were to sit at the feet of Jesus and be his disciple. and learn of him. He’s our master, or to be at pupils, taking in all the truth that he reveals to us. Discipleship. Fourthly, let me suggest you also love. Mary would not have been sitting there at ease and happy in mind if she didn’t love the Savior. She didn’t want to miss anything Jesus said. He was altogether. they’re lovely to her. She knew how much he loved her, and she thought of him as the chiefest among 10,000, as the song of Solomon 5’10 states and her beloved. Unless you love the Lord Jesus Christ, you’re never going to like to sit at his feet and learn of him. You will not pursue him like the bride in the song of Solomon unless you desire his fellowship because you love him. you rejoice in Christ’s teaching. You’re captivated by love for him. You’re eager to hear everything he has to sign. Well, Christian hospitality, I think, is an important Christian duty. But in displaying it, we must not be like Martha here, where we get so focused on that that we miss more important things. Earthly concerns can steal away your attention and become cumbered with them, drawn away with them, distracted by them. You are not focusing on what is most needful, and that is the spiritual welfare of your soul. That’s a priority. It is true that there’s diversity in the church, but sometimes we need more Mary’s and less Martha’s in the Church. more that are focused on their soul than just on activities. And so let us hit a balance, but realize that the soul is the good part. That’s the primary area that we should be focused upon. Well, let’s close with a word of prayer this morning.