[0:00] amazing love amazing love amazing amazing grace and amazing love our Savior is amazing he is worthy worthy is the lamb that was slain father we bless your name we praise you in Christ your son we declare that he is Lord he is master of all he surveys he surveys everything we are his sheep we are your sheep father we are your people your children you're called out we are a rag tag a group of folk weak and sinful and messed up but you love us you've chosen us before the foundation of the world that we might live for your glory that we might be blameless in your sight you sent Jesus to make it so and you sent your spirit to draw us to Jesus and to work that work of transformation in our lives and hearts oh that we would be more like Christ oh that you would do that holy work day by day and transforming us so that we stink we want to smell up this world with the prep the aroma of Jesus help us Lord help us forgive us Lord for where we fail oh God do a work of repentance and new faith in us renew us oh Lord even today oh thank you thank you to have you have been present with us throughout this service and now Lord I ask that you would be present in the preaching of your word grant your servant the strength he needs to preach your word your son your glory your kingdom and may we all hear from you in whatever way we need to hear may we hear from you may your word not return to you void but may accomplish all that you intend reprove rebuke exhort grant me great patience and careful instruction that your people might hear a clear sound from your word use your unworthy servant he needs you he loves you he depends on you in Jesus name amen
[2:43] John chapter 12 once again verses 1 through 11 six days before the Passover Jesus therefore came to Bethany where Lazarus was whom Jesus had raised from the dead so they gave a dinner for him there Martha served and Lazarus was one of those reclining with him at table 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 his disciples he was he who was about to betray him said why was this ointment not sold for 300 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 money bag he used to help himself to what was put into it John just tells it like it is
[3:45] 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 when the large crowd of the Jews learned that Jesus was there they came not only on account of him but also to see Lazarus whom he had raised from the dead so the chief priests made plans to put Lazarus to death as well because on account of him many of the Jews are going away and believing on Jesus that is the word of the Lord please be seated thank you praise team that was God used you profoundly at this one thank you thank you thank you you stink you ever have someone tell you that now they can mean two things by that statement they can mean two things one you are funky you have really bad B.O.
[5:08] or they could be talking about your attitude or actions in a bad light you stink because of your attitude your attitude stinks right at that moment they are not your fan you know what I mean now I gotta forgive me but I'm old school there was a Looney Tunes cartoon I don't know if this Pepe Le Pew anybody remember Pepe come on am I the only one thank you Pepe Le Pew now Pepe you remember Pepe Pepe was this skunk who was this was in France was being in France and Pepe was French and Pepe fell in love with a black cat that he thought was a skunk okay and Pepe man that boy could pitch some woo he knew how to lay the wrap on Pepe flowers and candy he was wooing her and he couldn't understand why she kept running away from him Pepe was in love man he wanted her and she was like no and so Pepe but Pepe realized something that was strange every time he came to town humans would go
[6:19] Le Pew and they'd run away Le Pew and so Pepe said okay this is getting on my nerves why why do they keep saying Le Pew so he got a dictionary out put his reading glasses on he's reading and he's reading what Pew means and he starts reading he goes no Sacre bleu I am not the Pew no I cannot be a Pew no no no no this is not true I am not the Pew close the book goes back to town the people do it again Le Pew Le Pew the cat runs away and then Pepe stands there and it dawns on him he realizes it it hits him like a ton of bricks he stands there and says it is true I am a Pew I stink this is what I am followers of Jesus at one time in this country biblical values and biblical character even biblical doctrine were accepted we were not a Christian nation never were but biblical ideas were accepted and and biblical character a God fearing man these were good qualities and people appreciated them to some extent to a large extent but those values and doctrines are now seen as the enemy they stink they stink we saw this this is Reformation Sunday we saw this even back in the Reformation when the aroma of the gospel was rediscovered by men like
[8:20] Martin Luther and and Germany and and John Calvin in Geneva people of that day were hungry they were largely the gentry was largely poor and and and many people were starving physically and spiritually they they they didn't have the Bible in their own language and many were just hungry for God and hungry for hope and they were coming to the Roman Catholic Church of that day and they did not find help this is history now I'm not picking on anybody this is history but when but when the aroma of the gospel sounded forth from Wittenberg Castle and Wittenberg Germany and began to spread not just there but even to places like Africa and around the world and finally making it later when the this nation was founded making its way this direction and throughout the Caribbean the gospel it smelled up the joint it was not perfectly propagated if you know what I mean but it was real it was revival and it caused a revolution as people smelled the aroma of Jesus truly as the good news of the gospel that we are saved by faith alone through grace alone in Christ alone to the glory of God alone by the scriptures alone you see that washed over the world actually and as John told us the counter reformation was a rejection of that aroma the aroma of the true biblical Jesus is rank the true biblical Jesus it can be ranked to people and it still is today and that smell is getting worse and worse worse and worse anyone associated with that aroma is being less and less tolerated it's always been so in various countries but now the west and especially
[10:41] America is seeing that Christian beliefs Christian faith is now the enemy we're troublemakers we're causing the problems Jesus the Jesus of the Bible is problematic he stinks we're homophobes transphobes bigots heteronorms narrow minded etc we stink as the people of God if we smell like Jesus I didn't say because we're jerks I said because we smell like Jesus I gotta ask you a question I gotta ask all of you I gotta ask everybody a question I gotta ask myself this question are we okay with smelling like Jesus to such an extent that we stink up the world you okay with that remember we were looking we've been looking at this passage and it's just amazing really in so many ways when we talk about
[11:44] Christ's aroma we're talking about his actions and actions in us the aroma of Christ his actions his attitudes his way it's the fruit of the spirit right Galatians this is what the spirit of God produces in those who repent of their sins and follow Jesus the spirit does the heavy lifting the spirit is the one who transforms you don't transform you the spirit of God transforms you he creates Christ in you and you look like this Galatians 5 22 to 23 but the fruit of the spirit is love joy peace patience kindness goodness faithfulness gentleness self control that's just Jesus y'all that's Jesus characteristics and that's not all he does he also gives us courage and compassion willingness to self sacrifice he puts truthfulness in us so that we are people who not only say we believe the truth but we speak the truth that's
[12:58] Jesus Christ displayed in us welling up in us by his work of spirit through the word of God transformed causing us to repent of our sins as he shows us our muck and mire and we say oh Lord have mercy on me a sinner and he begins to continue to work in us molding us into his image we bear the aroma of Christ like Mary's devotion at that ointment in her hair as she poured it out she went around the house stinking up the joint that's what happens to us as Jesus permeates our lives and we in the last time examining beginning to examine Judas and how he and the other disciples we saw that was not just Judas he was the spokesman how they rejected Mary's gift it was a waste of money I always imagined
[14:00] Mary I said Mary yeah that's a good point Mary why didn't you take that and just give it to the poor because something more important was needed devotion to Jesus and Judas rejects it because he's not a true disciple but he was in the church he was not devoted to Jesus and so Mary's self sacrificial display of love and faith in Jesus offended him it stank and it's again it's still true today religious people who are not devoted to Jesus are still offended when the when some of us give all to follow Christ yet you are the very one who smells like Jesus and receive this smile listen okay now how did Jesus respond to this here we go how did Jesus respond to Mary's devotion and Judas's displeasure the beautiful aroma is what really glorifies
[15:07] Jesus that's how he responds he was glorified notice this in verses 7 and 8 he leave her alone so 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 Jesus response another one our Lord rebukes those who discourage his sheep from beautiful costly devotion leave her alone another way of translating that verse is leave her alone she intended to keep it for the day of my burial Mary didn't know all the details she seems to have had a sense maybe that Jesus was going to die it was the work of God's spirit in her that led her to this act of devotion because listen sometimes the spirit of God will have you do something that will have greater consequences later but you don't know that at the moment you're just being obedient you're just following the leading of the word and spirit and you don't know what's going to blow up later like like when you start a school in 2020 brothers are here
[16:23] I need to go but God sees what's coming you see a Jewish person would normally when they died they'd be wrapped in all these spices and perfumes like what Mary used her nard was part of that she felt his death was nigh and her gift was precious to Jesus it was precious to him before he suffered it comforted him and he's telling them that my presence among you is more important than anything even the poor you can serve the poor anytime he says but you don't always have me in the flesh now I said I would come back to that point because we can get crazy with that statement I don't want anybody to get crazy I'm already crazy enough Jesus is God is the priority love the greatest commandment is what love the Lord your God with all your heart soul mind and strength right the second is love your neighbor as yourself there are not two co great commandments there's one great commandment
[17:33] God loving him but when you love God because remember we love him because he first loved us when you are saturated by the love of God in Christ when you are overwhelmed by the fact that you being a sinner have been given royal privilege when you being a sinner have been welcomed into the house of the Lord when you being the lame beat up broke down human being that you are have been welcomed and will be glorified in the presence of God when you let that wash over you you find yourself loving God for it I think we don't love God because we don't realize just where we are but the second thing should happen when you love God truly when his love is living in you what naturally happens and this is where I think we sometimes don't really know what love God means the natural thing is the second greatest commandment that you love your neighbor that you love your neighbor you love yes the poor you see don't see sometimes
[18:51] I think we've done this we've talked about loving God and being doctrinally pure and yet we've turned that almost against what it means to love the poor that shouldn't be or the care for the poor or those less fortunate or just your neighbor the person who lives next door to you or across the street from you that you never speak to someone just convicted me recently how busy I can be and don't have time to talk to my neighbors don't have time to care people don't knock on their door I haven't seen one neighbor in some time now I knocked on his door last week and he didn't come to the door but I hadn't seen him for weeks he's an older man I didn't I didn't really care
[19:52] I was busy see I was running around going to play preaching the gospel in other countries and and coming to DR and and and and being at New City and I mean these are all important things and traveling a little bit but listen my neighbor across the street an older man I haven't seen him he could be dead someone convicted me of that recently the Lord used that person the Lord isn't telling us not to care about the poor because we care about him he's just making it sure understanding that he's first but we should but we but then we but we should love and care about the poor he's assuming we will he's it's an assumption in his statement the poor you will always have with you he's assuming that they're going to care about the poor and that's what the apostles told
[20:57] Paul when Paul went to be examined by the presbytery of the apostles he showed up and the apostles examined what Paul had been teaching what he and Barnabas had been going around the country the area preaching it's in Galatians in Galatians 1 and 2 they're examining Paul and Paul says they were happy with everything I said they only said one thing they said one thing remember the poor that's the last thing they said to him it was so important that they made sure Paul got it don't you miss this Paul remember the poor and Paul said I'm just going to do that anyway what do you mean what I'm Paul he didn't do that he didn't do that that's Kevin Smith remember the poor that's why we partnered with John and Christian school as a church to have the Glenwood school here it's a school that's designed first and foremost to allow children who cannot afford a Christian education to have one to have a
[21:59] Christian to have a foundational Christian education reading writing get down but in a Christian format so that they are beholding the glory of Jesus in that education and they can go anywhere after that any middle school they want to any high school but the foundation is being laid that's why we do that here at New City it's not possible for the poor to rise out of poverty without education that's why we still that's why we tutor that's why we tutor kids from the public school we're not against the public school we appreciate everybody can't come to the Glenwood school we're not even trying to do that that's not the problem so we still committed to the public school and we continue to teach and tutor led by Paul Green and others involved in doing that amen so we continue to have people and people come to our church office and they need help we do what we can to help them to pay their bills but more than that we want to give them
[23:05] Jesus when you prioritize Jesus rightly our hearts will be moved toward others in need and especially the poor you can't love God and we've done that in this nation all of our right theology and you know I believe in right doctrine it reveals God reveals his ways if you get that wrong you don't know anything it reveals Jesus right doctrine reveals Jesus because when you when you say Jesus is Lord that's doctrine you can't get anything right but listen that doctrine should move us to love 1st John 4 12 420 if anyone says I love God and hates his brother he is a liar for he who does not love this brother whom he has seen cannot love God whom he has not seen if you look at your neighbor and say
[24:08] I got no time for you and I know you're hurting where's there's no love of God in you where's the love of God if you look at your brother in this in this church no matter what race or color they may happen to be and you look at them and you say you're not my people you're not my I can't I can't reach out to you because you're not like me then where's the love of God in you we've gotten what it means to love God wrong so we don't love our neighbor we don't love the poor like we could and should I'm just wondering I'm letting you in wondering out loud Jesus was rich and be paying poor that he might make the poor rich in God yeah if his spirit lives in us we won't say we're prioritizing
[25:13] Jesus so we can't help the poor we won't say that our heart will be moved for the plight of the poor and those who are in need and by God's kindness we might lead them to the true riches found only in Jesus because listen brothers and sisters we can do I mean we should be involved in different ways and whatever way God has gifted you and given you but what does it profit a man to gain the whole world and lose his soul we can never forget the gospel it's the most important gift that we have to give Jesus is the great gift all that we do the help of the people if we don't point them to Jesus we failed Mary's gift to Jesus was heartwarming self sacrificial loving it spoke of her devotion to him her possessions were a means of exalting him who she knew would give all for her and Jesus says well done
[26:29] Judas couldn't stand it but Jesus says well done let me ask you another personal question how do you view your possessions are they to be hoarded and guarded or is everything you have at the Lord's disposal is your house at the Lord's disposal is where you live at the Lord's disposal 300 denarii that's almost a year's wage I've mentioned this several times now so I was going to keep that in front of you her gift was extremely expensive extremely by their standards and today's standards she gave it to Jesus you see when you realize that Jesus gives you everything by dying and rising you have more of the gospel than she did she didn't understand the gospel she didn't know you and I know we know what he's going to do and why he's going to do it we know we can yell at
[27:30] Mary Mary we understand baby girl we're with you we know more than you do Mary but oh how I cling to my stuff how I hold on to my stuff but when I wake up when I have my moments of sanity the spirit of God breaks through I realize this stuff is nothing compared to what Jesus has given me this stuff is nothing compared to who he is for me and for all who believe he is the gospel's ultimate and greatest gift and when I realize that he's the gospel's ultimate and greatest gift this world's treasures gets in its proper place and I can hold it loosely see you're going to value something you're going to value something ultimately and then whatever you value ultimately you will cling to it you will hold tight to it and if anybody touches it you will go after them with everything you got if that thing is not
[28:45] Jesus it's an idol and idols destroy you idols hurt you if the idol is people you might crush them trying to hold on to them is Jesus your great treasure here Rick Phillips what a blessing it is he says when our awareness of the priceless love of Christ has set us free from our need to possess people and things if we have Jesus we have everything that we could ever really want or need but sometimes we have to let go of other things we love to recognize the preciousness of Jesus when Mary gave that ointment and Judas blew up she was letting go something so she could have something better by the way just so you know according to Matthew 26 it was after this event that
[30:05] Judas decided that Jesus was not the Messiah he wanted he went to the chief priest to agree to betray him for money after this moment that brings me to my next point and I'm going to move quickly the beautiful aroma is a dangerous odor to those who don't believe in Jesus dangerous odor you might not remember how chapter 11 ended I didn't preach on that because I was saving it for this passage chapter 11 beginning of verse 45 and I can't read it all for sake of time but there you see the smell of death you see the Sanhedrin got together the Jewish leaders got together they were sick of Jesus he got to go all this raising people from the dead stuff ain't cool making us look bad so they so in verse 47 and 48 the chief priests and the
[31:09] Pharisees gathered the council minds if we let him go on like this everyone will believe in him and the Romans will come and take away both our place and our nation do you I'm almost speechless that blows my mind he just raised a man from the dead and they say this is dangerous because it is Jesus scares them he knew by raising Lazarus from the dead he set into motion that final week we're into the final week of Jesus life he knew that this would be the click this would be the boom raising Lazarus knew it would point to something better coming his resurrection he knew his time was short he knew that right now they would come for him and there they are planning and plotting his death they were concerned verse 48 shows that if people continued to follow
[32:10] Jesus there would be an uprising against Rome they were afraid that the people would revolt that the people say we're done here's our messiah let's go be free we're going to free ourselves from Roman tyranny and then the Romans will come and take away both our place and our nation did you catch that both our place and our nation their place means their positions of authority Jesus had to go because he would get in the way of their ambition and power Jesus is always in the way of ungodly ambition and power he's always in the way he had to go because he would keep them from achieving their goals their career goals and their comfort goals he would keep them from being in place of power is Jesus against power he is power he's against ungodly wielding of power and position he stank to them because he didn't get excited about the rich and the powerful and the popular like us he could not be bought he raised up the poor he stood against those who would oppress others you see comfort and wealth were not his motivation it was the kingdom and glory of God and we face the same temptations but don't look at them those Pharisees and think that you're not like them we still face those temptations how many
[33:52] Christians have compromised their faith in Jesus in order to be more comfortable or to get a promotion or to be liked more and more we're pursuing I feel like the churches are pursuing to be liked are you being tempted right now to pursue to be liked and to be popular and to and to and to be welcomed you should not go out of your way to make people hate you that is not Christian by the way but when you pursue people to like you when you make them the standard for your self-esteem when you make you know you know we're I'm just oh help me Lord Jesus is
[34:53] Lord of life but following him may look like death at times but it's still life when you refuse Jesus you traffic in death no matter what temporary benefits you might receive the high priest if you read the passage when you get a chance the high priest actually makes a true prophecy he tells them listen guys it's to our benefit that one man died for the nation he had no idea what he was talking about he meant listen we may have to kill this guy and to keep the nation from getting in trouble that's what he meant but he but the John says he was prophesying but didn't know it because Jesus would die for the sins of his people he would die for the nation but he didn't understand what he was saying the Lord of the spirit of God will use the enemy of the gospel to sometimes speak truth twisted truth but truth you see getting rid of Jesus looks like a good idea because you don't have to give an account to anyone anymore if I get rid of Jesus
[35:59] I get rid of God I don't have to give an account I can do what I want Cornell I can do what I want all I want because it's all about me it's all about me get rid of God there's no more accountability I can identify myself any way I want because it's all about me I can do anything I want to you if you get in my way because really it's all about me and I believe in evolution survival of the fittest if I'm more fit than you bye bye bye bye get out my way here I come people say I feel free when I don't have the fear of God or Jesus all that kind of Christian stuff not free no one is free until they find freedom in
[37:04] Christ until you find faith in Jesus and letting him cleanse you and love you and applies all of love to you you you are not free you you are in bondage to you and other people Jesus is also dangerous to religion to self serving preservation of power and comfort he's dangerous to our service to human kingdoms over the kingdom of God he's dangerous to idols that are only God substitutes with no voice and no no power to help or protect you Jesus is the enemy of the great equalizer death and when you reject Jesus you choose death family I want to wrap this up give me five minutes the beautiful aroma is a smell of resistance also to the forces of darkness resistance the beautiful aroma is offensive people going to get rid of it and kill it because the reason is because it's resistance do you understand what's happening here in chapter 12 they're having a party they're celebrating
[38:26] Jesus yet let chapter 11 end it with these words now the chief priest and Pharisee said given orders that if anyone knew where Jesus was where he was he should let them know so that they might arrest him and they threw a party a public party they didn't care the forces the powers that be have said if you know where he is you gotta tell us and we will take care of him and they said forget you we're celebrating Jesus civil disobedience they didn't care they weren't afraid of the powers that be they weren't afraid of what they might do to them passion the aroma of Christ always stands against evil it stands against corruption and injustice but it does these things in the name of
[39:31] Jesus and for his glory not because it's trendy not because it's a vague sense of rightness but for Jesus in Jesus name we stand against injustice in Jesus name we speak out against police brutality or people criminal activity of people in Jesus name we call on the powers that be to help us care for the poor in Jesus name not because we're a bunch of do gooders not because we have a vague sense of doing the right thing I think that's I really feel good when I do nice things okay that's great glad you're doing the right thing but that's not us it's for glory of Jesus it's for the majesty in name of Jesus and we're not afraid to name him we're not afraid to identify to self identify with
[40:33] Jesus we're not afraid to say listen when sometimes I've been asked to pray at places every so often that were maybe governmental civic whatever and my question is you know I'm a Christian I'm gonna pray the name of Jesus you okay with that otherwise I ain't going I don't need you I don't need the glory of the world I don't need to be loved by the world I'm loved by Christ and his true church I got a family I got a savior listen these people weren't afraid of what they might do to them even though listen if you smell like Jesus and your actions and attitudes meaning Jesus made a huge difference in your life you will become dangerous too and that's why they wanted to put Lazarus to death Lazarus didn't do nothing he did nothing y'all and they gonna kill Lazarus because on account of his transformed life he was leading people to
[41:38] Jesus saints don't you see it Lazarus wasn't he wasn't dangerous because of what he did he was dangerous because of what Jesus did to him that's what makes you and I dangerous it's what Jesus has done to us as he's transforming us showing that this that the that this life is not all there is showing that the worldly possessions of this world are not the true riches in the universe when he come on somebody thank you brother I see you when we recognize that there's truth because of Jesus he is the truth when we oh come on somebody when we when we recognize that peace doesn't come from a bottle or from a pill but it comes from the prince of peace when we want to stand up and say listen listen listen we have something that cannot be taken away from us we have eternal life in
[42:41] Jesus and we're not afraid of what you might do to us we we become dangerous we are very dangerous when we recognize that there's a stronger power than the state we don't bow down to the state to the republicans or to the democrats in this country we don't bow down to them we don't even fit in their groups we may vote that way but we don't fit because we serve a greater kingdom we serve a greater king and when we get in those groups they get nervous they here's the problem they're not nervous because we fit because we sold out our passion is not for christ it's for america i love my country but i love the kingdom of god a whole heap of a lot more do you understand when you live like that you're dangerous and the forces of darkness are going to come for you but fear not little flock it is the father's good pleasure to give you the kingdom fear not fear not let your love for jesus be overt stink up the joint let your love for christ be this let it be real in you don't hold back don't try to mask him remember that don't try to mask his aroma with other smells don't wear some kind of chameleon cologne so people can't smell you because you want to be like everybody else and accept it like everybody else and no saints then you have nothing to offer if you're like everybody else they want hope will you point them to christ will you let jesus well up in you his love will shadow you overflow will you let him show in you his love his compassion his truth his holiness will you let him loose in you as you walk with him and day by day are blown away by his grace to you that's what changes us every day why would he take me why would he save me why don't mask the aroma of christ stink up the joint don't be afraid don't be afraid the lord is with you father thank you for your love and faithfulness and lord forgive us for how we do try to hide your aroma we do it we do help us lord we all do it at some point or another we just get scared because we think the world is greater than you we think but we have nothing to fear may the aroma of christ be more and more upon this church and upon the people of this church in every true church in this city may we stink up chattanooga with the aroma of jesus may lord may you use us to make difference in our communities in our families in our communities in our workplaces in our schools throughout this city may the love and compassion of jesus be seen in us may his holiness be seen in us may his truth be seen in us his name we pray amen please please stand for our closing song to and to you or