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Amazing Facts

Doug Batchelor

At Jesus’s Feet

This presentation is brought to you by the Friends of the Amazing Facts Ministry.

There's only 2 records in the Bible of anyone kissing Jesus.

Mary was content to kiss the lowest spot.

Judas wanted the highest spot, and he betrayed him.

♪♪ Tonight we are going to be dealing with 1 of the heroes of faith that is a real interest of mine.

You know, she's 1 of the enigmatic characters that you find throughout the gospel story that appears in a number of interesting geographical situations where she's always at Jesus' feet.

And through those stories, we learn a lot about the gospel and we learn a lot about salvation and our relationship with the Lord.

And so today is our case study in our Heroes of Faith.

We're going to find out what the Bible tells us about Mary.

Now to start with, the first passage we're going to consider is from the Gospel of John 8 and it's a story you only find in the Gospel of John and it says here, I'll start with the first verse, But Jesus went to the Mount of olives.

Now early in the morning he came again into the temple and all the people came to him and he sat down and he taught them.

And then the scribes and the Pharisees brought to him a woman caught in adultery.

And when they had set her in the midst, they said to him, Teacher, this woman was caught in the act of adultery, or caught in adultery in the very act, and Moses in the law commands that such should be stoned.

This they said, testing him, that they might have something of which to accuse him.

But Jesus stooped down on the ground, and with his finger he wrote as though he did not hear.

Now, the reason that they had developed this whole trap was because they were trying to get rid of Jesus and they knew that only the Romans were allowed to pronounce the death sentence and if any of the rabbis or religious leaders pronounced the death sentence on someone they were going to execute Mary right away, they didn't care.

Then they would run to the Romans and say, this Rabbi Jesus doesn't respect your authority, Jesus would be arrested.

If Jesus said, no, I don't believe in the law of Moses, they were gonna use their stones to create a riot and stone Jesus for rejecting the law of Moses.

So they thought either way we've got him now.

And what they did is they created a trap.

There was a young lady that had come to Jerusalem for the feast, this was a feast week.

Her name was Mary and I believe it was Mary Magdalene.

Magdalene was a town on the Sea of Galilee that had a notorious reputation.

It's where the Roman soldiers went for vacation.

And if, you know, they have Jesus of Nazareth, the town you're from, Mary Magdalene is Mary of Magdala, but if you were to say it today, you would say Mary of Las Vegas.

You know, that kind of takes on Sin City, takes on a whole different scenario.

And so just the very name meant something.

And so they knew what her line of work was and it was easy to set her up.

Now, can you imagine if you were married and you're doing something that you shouldn't be doing?

And all of a sudden, the religious leaders in the community come bursting into your place of business.

And without giving you a chance to get properly clothed, they drag you through the streets of the city, creating a spectacle as you go.

And then they bring you to the holiest place on the planet and they throw you down at the feet of the holiest man who ever lived.

Would that be a shameful situation to be in?

I can't imagine how embarrassed Mary must have been.

But you know, I heard a preacher say 1 time, that's probably the best place in the world you could be when you're in trouble is at the feet of Jesus.

And there's where she first appears in the Bible.

And when she recognized that he was willing to forgive her she thought now here is a real man of God, she sensed in the presence of Jesus the power and the love of God, and Mary had probably known a few men, and they had all had ulterior motives, and here was someone who was going to love her with a pure, unselfish love, and it broke her heart.

And whenever I read about Mary Magdalene I think you've heard the story, looking for love in all the wrong places a lot of people get into trouble because they're looking for love and that's what she was looking for and when Jesus loved her with that pure love that unconditional love it melted her heart and she became his most devoted follower because she understood something no 1 else seemed to understand and I'll get to that as we go on next study we're going to find Mary is at the feet of Jesus, but now she's doing Bible study.

You turn to the Gospel of Luke, and in chapter 10, you can find where it says that there was a dinner in Galilee, and verse 38, Luke 10, 38, it happened as he went into a certain village, a certain woman named Martha welcomed him into her house, and she had a sister called Mary that also sat at Jesus' feet and heard His word.

But Martha was distracted with much serving, and she approached him and said, Lord, do you not care that my sister has left me to serve alone?

And Jesus answered and said to her, Martha, Martha...

That's the only time in the Bible I think the Lord says a woman's name twice.

He often said Abraham, Abraham, or the different Samuel, Samuel.

Martha, Martha, you're worried and troubled about many things, but 1 thing is needful.

And Mary has chosen that good part, which will not be taken away from her.

Like the demoniac we talked about the other night, she's sitting at Jesus' feet, drinking in the Word.

He's teaching her how not to make the same mistakes that had caused problems in the past.

And you know, when Jesus said that's the 1 thing, this is so important because you get 2 women here.

1 is sitting at the feet of Jesus in love and devotion and drinking in the Word and the other is work, work, work.

She's serving the Lord, but she's so busy with the work of the Lord, she forgets the Lord of the work.

And a lot of people get involved in doing good deeds for church, for the Lord, and they don't have that one-on-one relationship, a personal relationship.

Doesn't the Lord say that in the judgment when He comes, He'll declare to many people, depart from me, I don't know you.

Oh, but Lord, we taught in your streets and we conducted many potlucks and we gave to the orphanages and we went to the hospitals and we took care of the clothes, and we went to the prisons, and they'll say, I don't know you.

That's why we're saved by a personal relationship with Jesus.

I didn't marry Karen the first day I met her.

When you fall in love with somebody, you communicate.

Whenever you're gonna love somebody, it takes communication.

That's why we sing that song each night, give me the Bible, it's through His Word.

Do you have regular time at Jesus' feet listening to Him?

It has to be more important to you than your daily bread.

I've steamed the words of His mouth more than my necessary food.

Jesus said, Man will not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.

And it's not only His talking to you, it's your talking to Him.

And then, of course, you show it by deeds of service and love, but first you've got to have the love relationship.

When we look in His word and we see what He did for us, it inspires us with love.

So she sits at Jesus' feet and she hears the word, and this helps her develop that love relationship with Jesus and we need to have that kind of relationship with Jesus also Then we've got another point where Mary is at Jesus' feet, praying for her brother that is dead.

Now if you look in John chapter 11, you remember a message comes to Jesus, your friend that you love, Lazarus is sick, And Jesus does not come right away to heal him.

Several days go by and by the time Jesus gets there, Lazarus has not only died, he's been dead several days.

And they run to Jesus and you can find Mary, you can see it here in John 11, 32, when Mary came to where Jesus was and saw Him, she fell down at His feet and said to Him, Lord, if You had been here, my brother would not have died.

Therefore, when Jesus saw her weeping, and the Jews who had come with her from the funeral weeping, he groaned in his spirit and was troubled.

And they said to him, Lord, come and see.

And Jesus wept." And it's the shortest verse in the Bible, at least in the English.

You know, Jesus brought them to the tomb, and He said, roll away the stone.

And they said, oh Lord, but This is bad, you know, He's been dead 4 days.

And Jesus told Martha, He says, look, I'm going to raise Him up.

And she said, well, I know He's going to be raised in the resurrection at the last day, which is an important point.

I think 3 or 4 times just in the Gospel of John it says the resurrection and the last day.

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At Jesus’s Feet

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