Tauranga House of Prayer
Archive for the ‘Prayer’ Category
Exploring the Biblical Foundation of the Call to Day and Night Prayer
by: Nick Badger
There has been a ground swell of night & day prayer all through out history – from the days of Moses to the birthing of the early church to the recent decades of our own generation. Night & day prayer has been an integral part in the release of God’s redemptive plan through out history. And as this same reality takes shape here in Tauranga, here’s 3 Biblical facets of our foundation at the Tauranga House of Prayer that sustain & undergird everything we do:
1) Jesus’ Worth & the Glory of God – Jesus is worthy & eternally deserving of praise and adoration day & night simply because He’s worth it, He’s glorious enough to sustain it & it’s right that we give it. Around the throne of God in heaven we find a song of worship declaring the everlasting worth & greatness of God & His Son that never ceases both “day (or) night.” (Rev 4:8,11; 5:9-10, 12, 13). And in light of Jesus’ prayer that it would be “on earth as in heaven’ (Mt 6:10), a place is being established here in Tauranga, “at the ends of the earth” where songs would rise day & night declaring “glory to the righteous one” (Is 24:15-16).
2) Revival & Awakening – Jesus has a desire to corporately & individually awaken His church & the cities of the earth to the revelation of His grace & glory (Acts 2:17-21; Is 4:2). Thus, after the Biblical mandate of Joel 2 (see also Acts 1 & 2), THOP is a context where the corporate church in our region can come together to contend in prayer, fasting & worship for a historic out pouring of the Holy Spirit that would awaken the church & bless our region. Jude 3 exhorts us to contend for the faith earnestly. We are a “house of prayer for all nations” that contends for this fullness (Is 56:7; Eph 3:16-21).
3) Messengers & Leaders – The House of Prayer is an environment where people can come to be trained in the word of God in a context of prayer, fasting & worship that equips them to be effective leaders & communicators of the gospel & what God is doing in this hour. As pressure & troubles begin to mount on the global stage, the LORD is giving the South Pacific a “green house” where effective leaders & messengers can be trained, equipped & released. Daniel spoke of those “who would know their God & who do great exploits.” (Dan 11:32) In this vein, just before the first coming of Jesus, the LORD raised up John the Baptist to prepare his generation for the Lord’s arrival in his small local context of Israel (Luke 1:16-17). In like kind, just before the 2nd coming the Lord will raise up multitudes of young & old like John, who will prepare the way of the LORD’s return across the entire globe (Is 40:1-5; 62:6-12; Mt 17:11-13). THOP is a beach head for this to happen & it’s our passion & vision to train, equip & send people into all that God has for them.
Prayer, Power and the Life of Daniel
by Stefan Miller
The power-bases of the nations are not located in capital cities or national parliaments. It rests in the hands of the praying church. This is one of the foundational reasons why God is establishing an unprecedented prayer movement in our generation. The life and message of Daniel is therefore radically relevant right now.
The book that bears his name paints a vivid picture of the interplay between prayer and the dispensing of God’s power to govern history and alter the destiny of nations. There are four things about Daniel that make his lifestyle vital for us to follow as we eagerly seek the in-breaking of justice, righteousness and salvation in the nations. They are (1) His grand vision of God, (2) his identity before the Lord, (3) his spiritual insight and (4) his heart posture. These four things formed a man whose prayers caused angels to move, demons to tremble, ungodly governments to topple and wicked legislation to bow down.
1. Daniel knew a great God. He had a glorious vision of the sovereign God who is not only involved in the course of world history but reigns over it; subduing nations and exalting others in their place (Dan. 2:21). Daniel knew many powerful rulers. But His God had authority to direct the very hearts of kings (Dan. 4 cf. Pro. 21:1), including presidents, prime ministers and legislators; and sustain them in their course or tear them down in a breath (Dan. 5:23). God’s irrepressible power to act was the rock solid reality that empowered Daniel in prayer. If we would pray great prayers that carry great weight and alter real circumstances – personal or national (e.g. the overturning of legislation permitting baby slaughter in the womb) – we must know and have confidence in a great God (Eph. 3:20).
2. Not only did he have deep understanding of the Lord, he also knew his own identity in the eyes of heaven. Daniel persisted in prayer because he was confident in love. His assurance that mountains would be moved when he spoke weak words (Dan. 9:23; 10:12) rested in his assurance that he was beloved and highly esteemed (Dan. 9:23; 10:11, 19). We will have the same courage and longevity in prayer only when we comprehend the immeasurable pleasure in God’s heart towards us (Eph. 3).
3. Also, Daniel possessed acute insight about the context he lived in. He knew the times and the seasons that had been decreed by heaven and he was able to pray with insight into God’s purposes (Dan. 9:2). Our context, at the end of the age, urgently demands insight for our generation. The Lord is calling His people to partner with Him in prayer; to agree with His ways and bring to pass His purposes on the earth (2 Pet. 3:12; Rev. 8:3). Like Daniel in his day, our prayers will alter circumstances to the degree that we possess the knowledge of God’s will from His word and are filled with His desires (Dan. 9:2, Jer. 25 cf. John 15:7, Ps. 37:4).
4. Lastly, Daniel lived with a life posture of sobriety and humility before the Lord. Daniel’s dependence and sobriety – fasting, mourning, and steadily seeking the Lord (Dan. 1:8, 6:10, 10:2-3 etc.) – was his lifestyle for 70 plus years. He was persistent. He had a history in prayer. I wonder if many in our day have swallowed a sub-biblical (mis)perception of God’s sovereignty that has led to less constancy and urgency in prayer instead of more. This was not so with Daniel (Dan. 6:10; 9:2-3). And it must not be so with our generation. To those given wholly to God He has delegated true power and authority to affect the course of history under His sovereign leadership (James 5:16-18). Praying for Daniel’s in our time who will give God no rest until righteousness prevails, injustice is abolished, and the whole earth is filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord.
The Call to Day and Night Prayer: Intimacy and Impact
The Scriptures are clear that at the end of the age God will establish a global prayer movement. In fact, one of the main themes of the book of Revelation is the earthly and heavenly prayers of the saints mingling to release the end-time judgments upon the earth. The church is pictured in the book of Revelation as a sort of Moses and Aaron-like company who through prayer, prophecy and proclamation release the supernatural purposes of God upon the earth in the same way that Moses and Aaron through the same means released the plagues upon Egypt and wrought the deliverance of the Jews.
I see four primary reasons why day and night prayer is a necessary ministry in these awesome days.
First, the soul of man is never truly satisfied apart from partaking of the consummate pleasures of communion with God. The call to day and night prayer is the call to satisfaction in God; not in what God does or gives but who He is. It is the call to pleasure; the pleasure that does not come automatically at the new birth, but the kind that is experienced when a wife feels personally and intimately cherished and nourished (Eph. 5:25-32). This sort of pleasure is only had where there is communion. So, in a word, the call to day and night prayer is the call to communion; the call to fellowship.
The Lord gave this promise to the priests of Israel in the age to come: “I will satiate the souls of the priests in abundance, and my people will be satisfied with my goodness” (Jer. 31:14). Souls are satiated and satisfied when they encounter the worth of God’s person; when they behold and adore and treasure and experience His excellency; when they touch His Godhood. Most of us live our lives unmoved by God. We live with an intellectual and cognitive consideration of Him but without an encounter with Him. Knowledge without experience is not Biblical. The theology of the apostles was meant to be experienced – not simply studied and intellectually attained.
Some of the ‘unblushing promises of the Gospel’ (in the words of Lewis) are that the redeemed would be thoroughly satisfied, profoundly moved by God’s attributes and emotions and filled with authentic and abiding joy. But this isn’t automatic. It’s as automatic as my relationship with my wife. If I stay at a distance, neither I nor her is satisfied in the other. It is simply impossible to have a satisfying marriage where the two do not experience the other; where the two do not ascribe worth to the other by the declaration of all their superior attributes. My wife is honoured when I enjoy her. And I am honoured when she enjoys me. Laundry and a clean kitchen can never replace devotion. I desire my wife’s love more than her labor. This is the logic behind 1 Corinthians 13. What is the noblest labor without love? – Absolutely nothing!
We cannot enjoy God at a distance. But sadly, many of us will never draw near because of our perception of God’s heart towards us. Most of us perceive that He is mostly frustrated and agitated with us. on account of our profound shortcomings. We believe He loves us, yes! But we do not and cannot believe that He enjoys us. We are comfortable saying that “He died for us” but not that “He delights in us.”
It’s when we find that He delights in us that everything changes. Isaiah prophesied of the conjunction between the revelation of God’s rejoicing heart and the role of prayer at the end of the age. In verse 62:5 we read: “…and as the bridegroom rejoices over the bride, so shall your God rejoice over you.” And in verses 6-7 we read: “On your walls, O Jerusalem, I have set watchmen; all the day and all the night they shall never be silent. You who put the LORD in remembrance, take no rest, and give him no rest until he establishes Jerusalem and makes it a praise in the earth.”
When those called to “take no rest” and to “give [God] no rest” for the sake of Israel become smitten by the message to Israel – that they shall be delighted in that is – something within them changes and the prospect of setting themselves before His face is no longer intimidating but longed for.
Secondly, day and night prayer is the optimum context from which prophetic voices are forged. The Scriptures are clear that the close of this age will be accompanied be the greatest proclamation movement in human history.
Biblically, prophetic voices emerge only in the context of prayer and fasting. From Noah to Samuel to David to Elijah to the exilic prophets (Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Joel, etc.) to John the Baptist we see that God forges prophets in the place of communion, fellowship with His heart. Friendship is the only basis on which God commissions prophets. The weight of that sort of calling and grace will destroy anyone whose heart is not settled in communion with God. John the Baptist needed his 30 years in the wilderness to be capable in the grace of God of stewarding the call of God on His life. Paul needed the 14 years in Arabia before stepping into His mandate. David needed his years of wilderness wandering before receiving the promises given to him by Samuel. Moses needed the 80 years in Midian. Joshua needed the 30 years in the Tent of the Meeting. Elijah needed his time by the brook. Jeremiah needed his formative years in Anathoth where the House of Prayer was.
A Jewish historian recorded that 40,000 people a month were going out to the Jordan River to see John the Baptist. There were no cars or trains then and the Jordan wasn’t exactly a prime piece of real estate for an international ministry base. John’s word divided a nation. And he ended up being murdered for those words. But not before the entire nation had heard him.
God is going to release this same grace at the end of the age on His witnesses; but greater. And He will release it on those who have been in their own ‘wilderness’ being forged for that hour. Day and night prayer is necessary for us just as it was for John.
Thirdly, God has ordained that corporate, unified prayer is the means by which the church is to contend for revival and awakening. History is rife with examples of the reality that God pours out great measures of His Spirit when the people of God give themselves to prayer and intercession on behalf of a geographic region.
The book of Acts contains the account of the greatest spiritual awakening in Scripture. And in it we find a model of how to posture our hearts individually and corporately. In Luke 24 and Acts 1 Jesus tells them to set aside ministry aspirations until they are endued with power from on high. He tells them to set themselves in prayer and fasting in the spirit of Joel chapter 2. And they did. In Acts 2, when at a prayer meeting, the Holy Spirit was poured out. This outpouring resulted in widespread awakening and the conversion of thousands in one moment. In Acts 4:42-47 we read that the inception of the church was marked by these thousands of converts setting themselves in community of prayer and fellowship. In Acts 3:1 Peter and John were going to the House of Prayer to pray with the rest of the believers in Jerusalem when they were interrupted by a crippled man. This run in resulted in a miracle and another sermon. This message resulted in thousands more being added. What were they added to? – the fellowship and culture of prayer that was conceived in 2:42. In Acts 4 they gather together and cry out in fasting and prayer. This releases “great grace” and mass conversion. In Acts 5 this culture of prayer and proclamation was maturing. The intensity of the presence of God reached such heights that the Holy Spirit killed two people because of their unfaithful speech. In Acts 6 the apostles pull out of every other obligation and responsibility to give themselves completely to “prayer and ministry of the word.” As a result many priests converted because they saw that the apostles did not forge a new religion; they saw the continuity from the OT priesthood and the NT priesthood: communion with God. In Acts 7 the awakening intensified and a young man was killed under the leadership of a man named Saul. This man would be the target of the prayers of the saints in the coming months and he would be ruined with a vision of Jesus in Acts 9 and commissioned as the chief apostle to the Gentiles. In Acts 8, in the wake of the murder of Stephen, the awakening explodes and persecution breaks out and the believers flee Jerusalem. In Acts 10 the Holy Spirit is poured out on Gentiles because of a centurion who gave himself to prayer and fasting. And in Acts 13 we read of the establishment of the first international missions base. Paul would be sent from here. It was in Antioch. Antioch was a community of day and night prayer and fasting. And in that context apostles were sent out and the Roman Empire shook.
Scripture is clear: awakening comes when the saints lift their voices. Whether the awakening is the salvation of the lost, the ending of abortion, the healing of the sick or the abolition of sex-slavery, God has ordained that “justice” is given to the “elect who cry out day and night” (Luke 18). Our pursuit of justice and awakening must be grounded in day and night prayer.
Fourthly, Jesus returns in response to the prayers of the saints; not at some random time on a random Thursday afternoon. As was mentioned before, one of the main themes of the book of Revelation is the role of the prayers of the saints in the releasing of the end-time judgments. But by the time we get to Revelation chapter 22 verse 17 we read that “the Spirit” in concentrated unity with “the Bride” of Christ is “crying” to Jesus to “come.” And the breath-taking thing about this verse is: there will be a day when He answers that prayer and actually comes!
There is a delusional idea running rampant in the church right now that says Jesus will return “like a thief” and will take everyone by surprise. This is not true. The two times the Scriptures refer to Jesus’ return being like a “thief in the night” we are commanded to “know the hour” of His coming for we are “sons of light and not sons of disobedience” (see 1 Thess. 5 and Matthew 24:42-44). We are called to know Jesus as a Husband at His return not as a thief. If you know Him as a thief at His return, you do not know Him. The point of Matthew 24, and the seven times Jesus said “know,” was to convince us that we can and must know the hour of His return.
When we “discern” the changing of the global “season” we “know that summer is near” (Mt. 24:32-34); that is, we see that His return is soon. And when those global timing indicators mentioned in Matthew 24 begin to signal, we need to posture ourselves in such a way that we can endure the coming storm and stand unashamed at His appearing crying out under the grace of the Holy Spirit “Come!”
God is raising up day and night prayer all across the earth in this unique hour of redemptive history. The call to unbroken communion with God is unto (1) the satisfaction of our souls, (2) the formation of prophetic voices, (3) the catalyzing of widespread awakening and (4) the tearing of the skies and the return of Jesus to the earth. The application of these realities will be different in different contexts as different people with various callings engage with them. But the heart of these realities must be discerned, embraced and implemented in our lives and communities whoever and wherever we are.
Five Reasons to Emulate King David
Here are five reasons why I want to emulate King David in my life:
First, David’s great obsession was to have present tense intimate communion with God. The primary way David pursued this was through studying God’s emotions and attributes. No one in Scripture wrote more about God’s emotions or attributes than David. To the degree that I set my heart to see and understand what God is like and what He feels is the degree that I will live with a satisfied heart. David knew that being King could never meet the great need of his heart: the need for consummate joy. David knew that encountering God’s emotions and attributes was the fountainhead of all authentic joy.
Second, David understood the invincible power of gratitude that flowed from encountering God’s emotions and attributes. The Psalms abound with commands to “give thanks to the Lord.” In Psalm 118 the command is followed by the statement: “for He is good and His mercy/lovingkindness endures forever.” I want to live with the power of gratitude resting on my heart. With so many reasons to embrace bitterness, depression, anxiety and shame David gives me reason to believe that thankfulness is something to seek with all my might. And he tells me that it’s birthed, nurtured and sustained through encounter with God.
Third, David sought to walk in complete obedience before God in every area of his life (dozens of Psalms communicate this zeal). While he fell tragically short of that obedience on a consistent basis, it was clearly the focus of his life; yea even obsession (as many of the Psalms reveal). In an hour when compromise and perversion abounds, David is a signpost of how to live before God.
Fourth, David sought to walk in complete obedience so that he could experience greater depth of personal joy. His pursuit of obedience wasn’t religious externalism. It wasn’t just abstinence. It wasn’t merely behavioural change. David understood that purity of heart made him susceptible to the Holy Spirit which in turn maximized his joy. David’s pursuit of personal holiness was driven by a fierce determination to feel the greatest degree of personal pleasure possible. The reality of the superior pleasures of God to the inferior pleasures of sin took hold of David and consumed him; to the point where everyone from his family to the “drunkards” on the streets mocked him because of his focus and consecration. David understood that his will was no match for the powers of sin and that apart from a greater pleasure to take the place of the sin he was engaging in he’d never get free from it.
Fifth, David’s highest vision for his city and his generation was for the establishing of what he called “a dwelling place;” or, in other passages, “a resting place.” David understood that God was “great” and therefore “greatly to be praised.” And he understood that if God was praised, God would “inhabit the praises of His people” (Ps. 22:3) in great power. So, in order to establish a place where God could dwell with and rest with His people in an inhabiting way, David financially released 4,000 musicians and 288 singers to minister to the Lord incessantly. I want to give my time, my best energy and my money to see men and women established in this same ministry in the cities of the earth that God might dwell in our midst in a manifest way. David presents us with some of the most important truths concerning the historic visitation of God’s manifest presence; that is, how it’s invited, honoured, fostered and stewarded.
When David encountered God’s emotions (‘He is good and His mercy endures’) it filled him with gratitude (‘give thanks to the Lord for’). This gratitude motivated and sustained personal holiness. And the reward of personal holiness was abiding communion with God. To create the optimum context for abiding communion to take place on a corporate level, David fought to establish a dwelling place. This is why he’s one of my greatest heroes; one that I desire earnestly to emulate.
The promise of the presence and power of the Holy Spirit in the lives of believers is a promise of glorious personal interior blessing with manifold external implications.
The first text of many that we’ll look at in this ongoing series to develop a holistic understanding of the ministry of the Holy Spirit is Ephesians 3:14-19 where Paul prays this:
For this reason I bow my knees before the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth is named, that according to the riches of his glory he may grant you to be strengthened with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith—that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.
This passage is so precious for a number of reasons. First because it emphatically declares that God’s desire (as displayed through Paul’s intercessory cry) for His people is that they would be mature in love for Him; and secondly, because it explains how we grow into this maturity. These two subjects (i.e. God’s desire for us to be mature in love and the way in which we grow into it) are two of the most important subjects we could ever set our minds upon.
Before we move into the text, here’s an outline of the prayer. The progression of Paul’s prayerful propositions looks like this:
1. He prays that:
- We would be granted divine strength through the Holy Spirit
- In our inner-being/man
- According to the riches of God’s glory
2. So that:
- Christ may dwell in our hearts through faith
3. So that:
- Being rooted and grounded in love
- We would have strength
- To comprehend
- The boundless dimensions of the love of Christ
- That surpasses knowledge
4. So that:
- We would be filled with the fullness of God
The four times the word “that” is mention points to four main points: (1) prayer for our strength, (2) prayer for the indwelling Christ, (3) prayer for comprehension of God’s love and (4) prayer for our being filled with the fullness of God. So the prayer is a passionate cry for us to be strengthened by the Holy Spirit to receive the indwelling Christ so that we’d be able to experience God’s love so that we’d be able to receive the fullness of God in our beings.
The END objective in God’s mind for His people is that we would be filled with His fullness having experienced the infinitely boundless dimensions of the love of God towards us; that we would be strong in the power of the Spirit to feel and know God’s deep affections for us (note the two times Paul prays for “strength”). The MEANS by which this objective is met is the dispensing of the Spirit upon weak believers who lack the ability within themselves to experience this boundless love.
God’s highest vision for our lives is that we would be fervent in love (Matt. 22:37; Jn. 17:26; 1 Cor. 13:1-13; Rev. 2:2-5). And fervency in love is impossible outside of a personal experience of God’s fervent love for us. This was John’s point in 1 John 4:19 when he was explaining how “love is perfected.” He said “We love [God] because [we experience that] He first loved us.”
The baptism of the Holy Spirit that John the Baptist prophesied in Luke 3:16, that power that Jesus promised in Luke 24:49 and the outpouring that the disciples experienced in Acts 2 all were centered primarily around God’s esteem for the First Commandment and secondarily for the Great Commission. The completing of the Great Commission is primarily an issue of quality and secondarily an issue of quantity. And thus the completing of the Great Commission is rooted in the obeying of the First Commandment.
And this is why Paul is praying the way he is in Ephesians 3. He knows that none of us have the ability to conjure up love for God in and of ourselves. We need the power of the Spirit to love God and obey Him to walk in the First Commandment.
Look at how Paul prays: “God strengthen them!” The way we are strengthened is revealed in the next request: “Strengthen them in their inner-man by the Holy Spirit!” The impact of the ministry of the Holy Spirit on our inner-man is revealed in the next statement: “Root them and ground them in love!” The love that Paul is speaking about is the love of God for us. The impact of being rooted and grounded in God’s love for us is revealed in the next statement: “…so that they’d have the ability to comprehend that which they have no ability to comprehend – your boundless affections for them!”
To speak about being “endued with power from on high” or about being “baptized in the Holy Spirit and fire” is to speak about the God-given power that is injected into the human heart that enables it to experience God’s emotions towards us. To limit the baptism of the Holy Spirit to just powerful and effective ministry is to undermine so many breathtaking passages like Ephesians 3:14-19 where the purpose of power is the receiving and reciprocating of love.
God strengthens His people to experience His love and to reciprocate that love by gently breathing upon their hearts with the Holy Spirit (like He breathed upon the disciples in John 20:22) and by powerfully overwhelming their hearts in the life-altering baptism of the Spirit (like when He came like wind and fire in Acts 2). Both are precious and both are to be pursued and contended for. We need to cherish the gentle breath of the Spirit and the strength of the baptism of the Spirit in our pursuit of obedience. Because remember: The height of our obedience is displayed through our fleshing out of the First Commandment; and we can only flesh that out when we possess the divine provision of power upon our hearts to do so.
And here’s how this plays into the completing of the Great Commission and the reason why Jesus yoked ‘the promise of the power of the Spirit’ to ‘the sending of witnesses into the nations.’ Those who have received the ability to experience and reciprocate God’s love are those who will possess the inner inclination, motivation and desire to bear witness to the Gospel in the nations. And therefore I want to make this very clear: our lack of impact in the nations is a product of our lack of intimacy with God.
When we gain intimacy in our hearts through the power of the Spirit we gain impact in the nations through the power of the Spirit. Let’s contend for it and receive it.
The Overwhelming of Mary from Bethany
The family of an ordinary young Jewish girl named Mary – like so many other ordinary Jewish girls at that time – had the sublime privilege of hosting Jesus for an evening. John 12, Mark 14 and Matthew 26 all record the event.
The Overwhelming of Mary from Bethany
At some point during the meeting, this young girl arose with a jar, or a flask full of costly oil in her hand. That little jar of oil was equivalent to a year’s wages. She, being motivated by some overwhelming sense of necessity, proceeded to anoint Jesus’ feet with it. That is, she took this expensive alabaster jar and dispensed the entire thing upon the One in her living room.
This is the equivalent of one of us taking a handful of hundred dollar bills amounting to $40,000 and lighting them on fire at the feet of Jesus as a way of expressing our conviction that nothing compares to the supreme worth of the One in front of us.
As she expressed that conviction, awkwardness settled in the room and tensions began to mount. The family to whom Mary belonged felt compelled to end this display of youthful zeal and religious freakishness. But they were quickly rebuked. The traitor who later sold Jesus to the authorities for 30 shekels felt compelled to point out the financial stupidity of her act informing the witnesses that it was worth a years wage and could be better spend on ministry endeavors. He was quickly rebuked. The other disciples felt compelled to reinforce the traitors conviction saying that this young woman was severely handicapping their ministry by wasting this much money. They too were quickly rebuked.
As the family stood in the corner in horror of what their sister had done, 2 as the traitor sat back plotting how to usurp His dumb leader and as the disciples sat around the living room offended at Jesus’ public condemnation of their ministerial advice, Mary sat with tears in her eyes, oil in her hair and fear in her heart; tears because of the intense burnings that drove her to express her adoration of Jesus, oil because she washed Jesus’ feet in oil with her own hair, and fear because of not knowing what Jesus was going to say and do next. Would He affirm what she did of would He rebuke her also?
Her heart was soon settled as Jesus publicly affirmed her and said these words to all within hearing:
“For in pouring this fragrant oil on My body, she did it for My burial. Assuredly I say to you, wherever this Gospel is preached in the whole world, what this woman has done will also be told as a memorial to her.” (Matthew 26:12-13)
Mary from Bethany was overwhelmed. And it resulted in the sudden liquidation of her financial stability for the years to come. Whatever 300 denarii meant to her, Jesus meant more. Whatever position she enjoyed because of it, she enjoyed the position that Jesus secured for her more. Whatever this inheritance was to her, Jesus was more. And that is the central message of this profound encounter. The central message of this story – as with so many other Gospel testimonies – is the supreme worth of Jesus in the eyes of this ordinary Jewish girl.
In this text from Matthew 26 we read that Jesus – looking the future apostles and church planters in the eyes – gave a command to all who preach the Gospel: “Tell them about what Mary did on that evening that initiated the Passion Week.” He was saying, in effect, “Peter, Philip, John, James, Nathaniel and all the rest of you, wherever I send you in the coming years to declare the Gospel I am commanding you to remember this night and to speak of it with as much esteem in your heart as I have in mine for it.” In other words, “Let this forever define the way you understand what’s about to happen at the end of the week.”
I believe that as the disciples looked back on this grand event after Jesus’ ascension to the Father and their commissioning to the nations they were aware of the indelible impact it made on them. They would always remember the smell of that living room that night in the same way that we remember smells and fragrances of our past. Like the scent of a grandmothers house or a mothers perfume or a high school cafeteria, the scent of that oil remained with these 11 young men until their death when they too ‘broke the alabaster jar’ of their lives at the feet of the One who is forever worthy.
What Mary Understood that the Disciples Did Not
Sadly though, this memory wasn’t forged in their minds and hearts as precious until sometime later. It wasn’t until they understood what would happen later in the week that would understand Mary. There is a very important statement in the verse quoted above:
“For in pouring this fragrant oil on My body, she did it for My burial.” (26:12)
Jesus was interpreting for them and for us what was actually happening. He was saying that the primary reason that she did what she did was because He was to be buried. He was saying that the primary motivation for Mary’s extravagance was Mary’s intimate understanding of the meaning and significance of the death of Christ.
Mary understood something that the disciples did not. She understood that Jesus was going to die. She understood that He was born to die. And she understood the implications of that. She was so impacted by this understanding that she wasted her inheritance and her financial reservoir in a matter of seconds!
But as late as Luke 24, AFTER the resurrection (!), Jesus was rebuking His disciples for still being confused about the crucifixion. In Luke 24:25 Jesus calls His disciples “foolish and slow of heart” for being ignorant of what was happening during those 72 hours between crucifixion, burial and resurrection. That’s a nice way of saying “You’re dull and stupid – Look around boys.”
But for Mary things were very different. Mary was so dramatically wounded by this vision of Jesus’ imminent and necessary death that such an extravagant expression of gratitude and adoration was as easy as breathing. And the disciples became indignant at the sight of it.
Often times Mary of Bethany is spoken about in some generic sense as though she loved Jesus so much that she broke her alabaster jar at His feet. While that is definitely true, it isn’t accurately following what the Gospel writers were getting at. They all associated the pouring of the oil explicitly and specifically with the burial of Jesus. Mary was being driven by a conviction that Jesus’ death was the single greatest event in human history with such implications and achievements that all the oil and all the denarii’s in all the world couldn’t compare to the glory of intimate fellowship with this man. As she wept and poured out that oil she was declaring with her actions what she couldn’t express with words. But if we were to try to identify what she meant in words, we might say she meant something like this:
“I know who You are. And I know what You are about to do. And I know what it will mean; both for You and for me. And I love you for it. You are so much more precious than this precious oil that it offends me to have it in my presence when You are here with Me. You are so much more valuable than all the riches of this evil age that all the silver and all the gold in all the hills and all the mountains of this world couldn’t be enough to persuade me to part from You. I am forever yours and You are forever worthy of all I have to give.”
Jesus heard this prayer as Mary poured that oil on Him. And He would be reminded of it for the next week as the smell stayed with Him and upon Him. As He headed towards Jerusalem He and the other 12 would be reminded every moment of the day of what had happened. The fragrance of Mary’s adoration would have possibly even remained upon Jesus as He hung at Golgotha.
The Emergence of a Young Adult Worship Movement at the End of the Age Gripped with the Meaning and Significance of the Death of Christ
This is a snapshot of what the young adult worship movement at the first coming looked like. This revelation that smote Mary’s heart would soon bleed out impacting many more. Those 11 young adults set out north, south, east and west preaching Christ and Him crucified. By the time Romans was written, the apostle Paul was saying that their witness was so widespread that there wasn’t anywhere he could go without hearing about Jesus and His crucifixion. 5 All of those disciples minus John shed their blood for Jesus and died as martyrs and as faithful witnesses. This was a movement. And it was led primarily by young adults. And it was driven and motivated chiefly by the supreme worth of Christ and His cross. Therefore it was a young adult worship movement that was the sole agent of the proliferation of the Gospel in the first century. The generation that witnessed the first coming also witnessed the emergence of the most extraordinary youth movements in history. But let it be said: Before the second coming we will witness a far greater young adult worship movement.
Before this age ends God is going to so grip a generation of ordinary young adults that nothing in this age will satisfy them or pacify their longings. If He did it for that young girl before His first coming, what is He going to do before His second?!
The book of Revelation gives us the clearest picture of what this worship movement will look like. It will mature to such fervency and ardency that it will actually be the catalyst for Jesus’ taking of the scroll, tearing of the seals and beginning of the great tribulation. 6 As the redeemed in heaven and on earth join together to sing “You are worthy to take the scroll and to open its seals for You were slain and redeemed us to God by Your blood,” the transition between this age and the next will take place. In fact, God will not hand the scroll over and the Son will not take it until a generation becomes obsessed with the worth of the only One who is capable of tearing those seals.
Mary’s life is a picture of who we are called to be. And her life is a picture that displays the beauty of Jesus unlike many other stories can.