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Advent HOPE Sabbath School

Eric Walsh

Of Prophecy and Praise

Have you Sabbath Church family good to be back at having hope and let's get right into God's word today.

We're starting the book of John the twelfth chapter John chapter 12 starting at verse 1.

The scripture says, then Jesus, 6 days before the Passover came to Bethany, where Lazarus was, which had been dead, whom he raised from the dead.

There they made him a supper and Martha served, but Lazarus was 1 of them that sat at the table with him.

Our sermon this Sabbath morning is entitled of Prophecy and Praise, of prophecy and praise.

Father God, we thank you for this opportunity to go into your word and to study your truths.

I ask Father God for your Holy Spirit in a special way today.

Lord, let Eric Walsh not be seen or heard, but we really need an outpouring of your Holy Ghost and a message from the throne room of grace.

This is our prayer in Jesus's precious and holy name.

So we start our story in the book of John, the 12th chapter, with Jesus at Simon's table.

Simon was higher up in the Jewish organization but he was 1 that believed in Jesus so he hosted him at his house.

Here is Jesus with not just Simon, but also with Lazarus.

In the previous chapter, of course, Lazarus is raised from the dead.

And in fact, we're told that this is Jesus's crowning miracle, in a sense.

To wait 3 days after the body would have begun to rot and stink, and then go to the tomb and raise him from the dead really messed up the entire religious establishment.

The Sadducees, you see, didn't believe in a resurrection.

So they were really messed up when they actually witnessed 1.

And of course, the Pharisees, believing in a resurrection, really didn't want to believe in Christ.

They didn't want to believe that they were meeting the Messiah himself.

So they were in a, they were in this all messed up in a very bad place.

Lazarus really was a walking, living, breathing, almost, and I guess essentially a proof of the divinity of Christ.

So as he's walking around, it really troubles the establishment that he's alive.

Each 1 of us is like Lazarus You see each 1 of us was once dead in our sins and the devil hates if we are walking around alive in Christ Because every time the modern-day Pharisees and Sadducees in your life can't stand you they don't like you They don't like to see you in your newness of Christ because every time you who used to do the things you used to do Now denounce what you used to do like Lazarus you are evidence to your friends and family that there is a God in heaven and that Jesus saves.

We each should be an example, and we should each be a testament of the love of God and the saving power of Jesus Christ.

We should be evidence that the blood of Jesus Christ washes clean.

And every time someone comes in contact with us, we should be living proof that Jesus is Lord.

I was in Sacramento just Thursday presenting at a statewide conference on health disparities and different things, and I put together my talk.

And when I got there, 1 of the leaders of the organization that brought me to Sacramento to speak along, you know, of course there were state senators and assemblymen and all those type of people.

But this woman came up to me and she began to talk to me and she heard that I went to Oakwood University.

And then she heard, that she saw that I spent time at Loma Linda and she said, you're Adventist, aren't you?

She said, I'm good friends with Hyveth Williams.

And in the conversation, it was easy and quick to see she was bitter and angry with the church.

So I went back that night and she said some things and I was really like, Lord I should have said this And I should have said that.

And the guy said, don't worry, you have the stage tomorrow.

You get to speak in front of hundreds of people and in front of dignitaries.

And they think you came to explain why there are health disparities.

And you came to explain allostatic load and overload and the built environment and the social determinants of health.

And do you know in front of that scientific assembly of businessmen and politicians and public health leaders, I started the whole talk with quotes from the scripture.

I made sure to bring up the Adventist health study.

Because at some point in there, I started to realize, this other stuff is what I do.

I mean, you know, it's like swimming in a pool, but God hadn't asked me to come and swim.

He asked me to come and drag somebody else out of the pool.

And I began to witness through the talk, and in fact it was interesting because she didn't come and talk to me after the talk But another young man came to me afterwards that you know, I was raised Adventist He said I can tell you're an Adventist He said I've given up and he said I need to return to what I used to believe because I want the life that will get I want the long life that you talked about in your Each of us is supposed to be like Lazarus The fact that you're alive that you're breathing that you exist that God sends you into the medical field or nursing field or politics or business no matter where in life you wind up you should be a living breathing example that Jesus still has resurrection power.

Verse 3 the Bible says Then took Mary a pound of ointment of spikenard, very costly, and anointed the feet of Jesus and wiped his feet with her hair, and the house was filled with the odor of the ointment.

Then said 1 of the disciples, Judas Iscariot, Simon's son, which should betray him, why was not this ointment sold for 300 pence and given to the poor?

Now, of course, this is rich with meaning as well, right?

Judas is a, I mean, let's just face it, he's a crook.

And he's a good crook because a smart crook always controls the money.

And so he's the 1 walking around with the bag of money.

So anytime they get a donation into the pot, he's the 1 controlling the money.

So he can take the money, use the money, spend the money, he can do whatever he wants with the money, and Judas was doing that.

And so when he saw this expensive perfume being used on Jesus' feet to anoint him, he was upset, not because he thought she wasted the money, but because he had missed an opportunity to steal.

But Judas really had no concern for the poor.

I want to take a little detour and say that the church must be concerned about the poor.

In fact, even the government to some extent must be concerned about the poor.

The Bible says, as I live, saith the Lord God, Sodom thy sister hath not done, nor she nor her daughters, as thou hast done thou and thy daughters.

Sodom is who Israel is being compared to in this stage of Ezekiel.

It says, behold, this was the iniquity of your sister Sodom.

Pride, fullness of bread, and abundance of idleness was in her and in her daughters.

Neither did she strengthen the hand of the poor and needy.

Bible says in verse 50, and they were haughty and committed abomination before me.

Therefore, I took them away as I saw good.

The sin of Sodom, long before there was any abomination, was pride.

It was having too much and feeling you didn't need God.

It was having idleness among, especially probably, the youth.

And my grandmother would say that an idle mind is the devil's workshop.

And that last line of verse 49 says, neither did she strengthen the hand of the poor and needy.

Jesus was very much concerned with the poor.

Part of the reason they collected the bag and had the bag and why most of our churches have poor funds, we're supposed to be concerned with the poor.

We should be willing to give something to the poor.

And 1 of the signs of the end, in my opinion, is that, in fact, the poor in the world will be completely overlooked.

When the Bible speaks about famines and pestilences, 1 of the things that will happen is that there will be a lack of concern by those who could have made good on doing better for the poorest and most vulnerable people in the world.

We have examples like Rwanda, where great war breaks out, and where the US has gone into other countries at the drop of a dime.

The whole world stood back and watched as a genocide unfolded at a faster pace than in Nazi Germany under Hitler.

In fact, 1 of the signs that a people and a civilization has begun to deteriorate is that they begin to have no concern for the poorest among them.

Judas, the Bible is speaking of now, it says, This he said, not that he cared for the poor, but because he was a thief, and had the bag and bear that was put therein.

Now look at how Jesus comes to her defense.

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