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Advent HOPE Sabbath School

Alistair Huong

One Thing is Needful

Our gracious Heavenly Father, we are thankful for the Sabbath, we're thankful for your Word, we're thankful for this place in which we can worship in peace.

Lord, we ask that as we pause for a quiet moment to open our minds and to open the pages of scripture, that you will speak to us and you will communicate to us what you want us to hear.

And may we hear and see the heart of Jesus and His calling on our lives today.

May you soften my heart that I might understand what you intend for me and in part what you share to me to others.

Please take your Bibles and look with me in the book of Luke, chapter 10.

We're going to be studying a story in the life of Jesus tonight together.

A few short verses, a familiar story that we've all heard before.

Luke chapter 10, we'll begin reading in verse 38.

Either everyone is looking on smartphones or people aren't turning their pages because I don't hear anything.

Luke chapter 10 verse 38, Now it came to pass, as they went, that he, meaning Jesus, entered into a certain village.

And a certain woman named Martha received her into her house.

And she had a sister called Mary, which also sat at Jesus' feet and heard His word." So what city are we talking about?

This is the village where Mary and Martha and we also know Lazarus who doesn't happen to be mentioned in the story.

It's the story where they or the village where they live.

So we know this is the village called Bethany and It says that Martha received him into her house It's fascinating that it says it's Martha's house and not Lazarus's house or Martha's husband's house or Martha's father's house or Martha's brother's house or some other man's house that Mary, Martha happened to live with.

What is, what's so significant about that?

Well women back in these days didn't own property.

It was an exception to the rule, generally speaking.

There were exceptions in which women were permitted to own property.

And in this case, we see Martha owned a house.

Now, whatever the circumstances were leading to that, we're not sure.

If it was an exception that she received the house from the deceased of her husband, or whether she received it as an inheritance, or whether she was a businesswoman that somehow was able to acquire a home, we don't know.

But the fact is, she had a house, when the vast majority of women don't have houses in her day.

This tells me that Martha is a certain type of woman.

Perhaps we look at her today as the CEO of companies like IBM or Yahoo or I guess Facebook doesn't have a female CEO but companies like that.

So Martha is a woman with responsibility, with capability, and she has means, and she owns a house.

Okay, And then she also has a sister called Mary, which also sat at Jesus' feet and heard his word.

Now, of course, generally we understand that this Mary probably was also the Mary that had issues, shall we say, that Jesus had to help her with.

We're not going to dwell on that side of the story tonight, but these are the 2 women that we're going to be looking at, Mary and Martha.

So, Jesus just arrived, it said, and this is the first time to Bethany.

And we're within the context of the story, he had just come from Jericho.

They had just walked a long ways, dusty, weary, and hungry.

And so as a first time guest to someone's home in the Middle Eastern culture, it is almost a sacred responsibility to be hospitable.

To give a drink of water is like an act that is equivalent to like saving someone from drowning.

I mean, it is a Responsibility, even if it is your sworn enemy and they need a glass of water, you give it to them.

And so Martha, being the type of woman that we sort of can guess that she is, there's this rabbi that has masses of people flocking to him to listen to his teachings.

What do you suppose Martha's going to do?

Well, she's going to be a good hostess, and she's going to fulfill her duty in caring for her guests.

It says, first of all, that Martha was described as cumbered about much serving.

What does the word cumbered, you know, what kind of connotation does that word generate in your mind?

You get the idea like the brow is furrowed, she's stressed, she's tense, she's sort of sharp with people, like, hey you, hurry up, what are you doing?

Stop that, get over here, that kind of attitude, right?

She's stressed, she's very busy, she's frazzled in the kitchen, right?

Because she's cumbered about much serving.

She's preparing a meal for 12 grown men and their teacher.

And Mary and all of her other house guests are there.

But was what she was busy about doing, were they bad things?

Was she cumbered about doing inappropriate behavior?

Is she like, I'm too busy trying to, you know, work on my business or doing inappropriate things and ignoring Jesus?

Or was her busyness actually centered around Jesus?

So she was cumbered about much serving but she was cumbered about much serving of Jesus, not serving herself.

So this is a somewhat of an interesting dilemma because Martha is very stressed while working for Jesus.

Is it possible that in doing the right thing, we can lose sight of the Lord that we claim to serve?

I think you don't need me to answer that question for you.

And she was so troubled about doing her best for Jesus.

She was so burdened that Jesus is taken care of, that his work can be made easier, that his comforts are being taken care of, and that she fulfills her known responsibility and stated duty.

And in doing those things, she became fuzzy.

And she began to lose sight of the 1 who was most important.

You know, Jesus was sitting right there in her living room and she forgot about it.

She became so stressed to work for Jesus that she forgot Jesus.

But this gets a little bit worse because back in verse 40, she doesn't just get stressed and keep it in, right?

You're in the kitchen and you're stressed and you know you got guests coming over, the dishes are piling up in the kitchen, the food's not done, the house isn't cleaned, and people are starting to show up.

But generally, especially if you're like the Asian culture, it's like you're in the kitchen and you're like about to explode, but when people come in, oh, hi, thank you so much, I'm so glad you're here, oh yeah, oh, can we help, right?

Right, That's how we are supposed to react.

But Martha is so stressed that she comes and she tells Jesus something.

And this is amazing what she says, because this is the first time Jesus ever visits Bethany.

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One Thing is Needful

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