When Jesus Christ Is Truly Lord | Bethany & the Headship of Christ (Part 2)

(continued from Part 1)

There has to be some who hold out for nothing but the headship of the Lord and who will so stand against all the attacks of the enemy. We have the ground, the land, the place, the position, and the practice. We will not give in to you, foreigner, who has come into God’s city and set yourself up to rule; you, alien, whether it be the alienness of man trying to rule God’s kingdom or the satanic rule of angels ruling the city, we shall not be ruled by man.

Now, we have a picture of this in the gospels. It’s so beautifully unfolded. Martha received him. Brothers and sisters, God wants a place; Jesus Christ wants a place where He is received. I don’t know if I can express the simplicity of that. When Jesus Christ comes in and sits down, He is received as Lord, and there’s no question who’s Lord, who’s head, who’s king. He’s received. Martha opened her home and said, “Lord, come in.” He came in, and He sat down, and this was His place. That is a picture of the church receiving Christ; Christ received.

Well, now, a little bit of the story. The Lord Jesus came in, and there was Martha, and there was Mary. This passage is very graphic in presenting Mary. It said she sat at Jesus’ feet and just stayed there. Well, in Jerusalem, how was the church built? The disciples just sat down and said, “Alright, we receive.” How did Corinth begin? There were many people in that city. How did Thessalonica begin? Because a woman said, ” We will receive you.”

Mary just sat down at the feet of the Lord Jesus. This is the attitude of the church – that Jesus Christ is in our midst, and we are just going to receive Him. We are going to sit at His feet, under Him, and receive from the Lord. And she persisted. Praise the Lord for sister Martha. Don’t disdain sister Martha; she was as much a part of that receiving as Mary was. She opened her doors and received him in, but at first, she was a little confused about what service was.

We’ve all been through this. Here in our midst is Jesus Christ, the Son of God. Who has ever had Him in her home before? There’s got to be a meal worthy of Him. Suddenly, this is all that Martha can think about: doing the proper thing toward preparing something for the Lord and serving Him. She begins to work, and Mary is with her, and then Mary runs out to listen for a while. Martha comes to her; Mary comes in, but she’s got one ear. She comes back, and in a minute she’s gone.

Martha finally gets very frustrated and comes out very accusingly and says, not to Mary, but to the Lord…can you get inside of Martha? The frustration… I am doing the Lord’s work, and nobody else cares. The Lord doesn’t even care. The Lord hasn’t noticed the neglect of me. Then Mary hasn’t cared a bit, and she’s frustrated. She comes in, and she says, ”Lord, are you going to let Mary just sit there and listen to you? She persists in listening to you. Will you not have her come help me?” And you know what the Lord said. He said, “Martha, your commitment is in the wrong place. You are tied up with the wrong thing. It’s not what you’re doing, Martha; it’s that your commitment is to it. Mary had chosen the better thing. After all, what was Martha doing? She was fixing a meal, and Mary was learning under the Lord Jesus.

Brothers and sisters, be very careful. The Lord could not tell Martha to stop serving. He said, “Move the commitment.” It was almost as if to say, “Either come in and join us or do something very simple that will not get you complicated. We’ll eat later; there will be something provided, but this is the main thing. The main thing is to not be distracted into something else, but that there might be a people who sit under the Lord Jesus Christ.

Now that’s the first one. This is the first lesson the church so frequently learns. We do not get frustrated and become utterly committed to our service, but to sitting under the Lord Jesus Christ.

This next passage, Matthew 21, I would like to go back to again. Jesus Christ has been in a city: Jerusalem. During the day, He saw the money changers. During the day, He saw the sin of that city. He walked out of it and went to Bethany with a heavy heart. He spent the night in Bethany. He is not welcome in Jerusalem, but there is a place where He is received.

Then the next morning, very disillusioned -Jerusalem will not hear, and Jerusalem will not receive. He walks by a fig tree full of leaves, but no figs. Christ looks at it and says, “You no longer feed me. Let you be cursed forever. You shall never again bear fruit.” What is that tree? That tree is Judaism. Here is a fig tree that will no longer feed its Lord or bear His fruit. That night, the Lord Jesus Christ came back to Bethany, and He fellowshipped there, dined there, was received there, rested there, and was fed there.