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Battle Creek Tabernacle SDA Church

Chris Holland

The Truth Seeker’s Journey

We are living in an age where there is more noise and clamor than ever in the history of humanity.

And the invitation of God is simple be still and know that he is God let's pray our gracious Heavenly Father as we are about to open your word.

We know that we cannot understand your word without the Holy Spirit, and so we pray that the Holy Spirit would lead us into all truth this morning as we study.

That our eyes would be opened, that our hearts would be opened, and our characters would be transformed.

Today help us, amidst the clamor and noise, to be still, and know that you are God.

If you have your Bibles with you, I'd invite you to open them to Luke the 10th chapter.

Luke the 10th chapter beginning in verse 38.

If you don't have a Bible or you didn't bring your Bible, there are Bibles in the pew backs that you can use.

And I would encourage you, even if you have the Bible on your phone, to pull out a Bible and look at the printed page.

Not that I am opposed to technology, but I am opposed to distractions.

Help us to study this morning without being distracted.

The Bible says in Luke chapter 10 beginning in verse 38, now it happened as they went that he entered a certain village.

Who is the they that is being referred to in this passage?

We're not quite sure that the who the they is pointing to.

The they may be pointing to the 12 disciples that were traveling with Jesus or it may have pointed to the larger group which Jesus had just sent out to do ministry and now he was reflecting with them upon the ministry that they had just participated in and that larger group was about 70 individuals.

The Bible says they entered a certain village.

Now it doesn't name the village, but we are given a hint as to what village it is because Mary and Martha are named.

Bethany was a little village on the eastern slope of the Mount of Olives about 2 miles outside of Jerusalem.

For those that are metric, that's about 3 kilometers.

It was about a half an hour or a 45 minute journey by foot.

It seemed to be a place of refuge for Jesus.

During the last week of his life, he stayed in Bethany on several occasions.

When he instructed the disciples to go get donkeys for him to ride into Jerusalem on the triumphal entry.

It seems to be that Bethany was a place of refuge for Jesus Christ.

That when the crowds were all around, It was a place he could go and spend time with his 3 friends.

The word Bethany in its original, literally translated is the house of the poor or the house of the afflicted, or the house of dates.

And just to clarify in our modern time that's dates as in the fruit.

How can it be the house of dates and the house of the afflicted at the same time?

Because it's out of affliction that comes fruit.

For any fruit grower, you know, in order for a tree to fruit, or to force a tree to fruit, the harsher you prune that tree, the more you're able to force it to fruit.

Additionally, there in Bethany, it was the home of Simon the leper.

Right here in this introductory verse, we are introduced to Martha.

Martha welcomed him and this group into her home.

Now I want you to go back, I want you to go back several millennia to that time and imagine that Jesus, who you believe is the Son of God, shows up at your house.

Whether he was invited or unexpected, we don't know.

It seems that it was an either unexpected visit or possibly Jesus arrived earlier than he was supposed to.

Have you ever had that happen to you before?

You're planning a holiday dinner and you tell people dinner will be at 3.

And there's that 1 person that comes at 2.45.

When you're scurrying at the last minute to get everything together, I want you to put yourself in the place of Martha.

Later, she would proclaim that Jesus was the Messiah.

In John 11, when her brother Lazarus had died, and Jesus came to Bethany to raise him from the dead.

Martha proclaimed that Jesus was the resurrection.

Again, literally in the original language, it means to be hospitable and to welcome or entertain a guest.

And so whether Martha was surprised by the visit of Jesus and 12, or Jesus and 70, and once you're at 12, it doesn't matter whether it's 12 or 70 it's a lot more than maybe you were expecting.

I want you to picture the anxiety or the anxious nature that she would have felt had Jesus just come by himself.

Have you ever entertained somebody that is important?

I will tell you I had an experience not too long ago when I was in Nigeria.

1 of the kings of the Akwere tribe wanted to meet me.

And so they set up a meeting for me to go and meet him while I was there in Nigeria.

I didn't know what to expect and If you're unfamiliar with Nigeria, the way of Nigerians is quite laid-back.

And so in my anxiousness to, because I had never met a king before, what's the protocol?

And this continued on and on until I was in the car on the way to meet the king, wondering what's the protocol?

And at that point it was too late because I was wearing what I was wearing.

And I'll never forget, we went to the Seventh-day Adventist church that was right near where the palace was.

And again, I didn't even know what the palace meant.

And there as we arrived at the church, were a group of pathfinders, our young people, and their drum corps.

And they began playing the drums, and they led a parade toward the palace with our car in the rear And my anxiety began to increase exponentially because this was not going to be a, oh I'm going to just kind of slip in the front door moment.

Because there were snare drums and bass drums announcing my arrival to the king.

Which was quite intimidating because the king is the important guy, not me.

And then we arrived at the palace and I want you to imagine in your mind, it was a palace, gates, lion statues, and there was the king standing on the porch, wearing a crown in kingly garb, and my anxiety level increased even more exponentially.

I'm saying to my hosts, what am I supposed to say?

I don't know what to do." As I exited the car, the king was standing on the stairs, and I still don't know what I'm supposed to do.

But he extended his hand, which I figured meant I ought to extend mine.

And I shook his hand and I stayed on the bottom of the stairs while he stayed on the top of the stairs.

But I imagine in my mind that Martha had that same anxiety.

The King of kings and the Lord of Lords was coming to her home.

And then in verse 39, the Bible says, and she had a sister called Mary who also sat at Jesus' feet and heard his word.

Scholars are divided as to whether Mary here of Bethany and Mary Magdalene were the same person.

There is ample evidence that in fact it was the same person.

Why would 1 be from Bethany and the other identified as Mary Magdalene from Magdala?

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