And the House Was Filled
December 15, 2025
John chapter number 12. John chapter number 12. I appreciate the singing. I like the Christmas songs. And Brother Ted playing and Ms. Chisgarde playing. They say Christmas songs are hard to play. I’ve heard that. And she does a good job on it, though. I appreciate it very, very much. Brother Roberts says he can do a better job. I want to hear him do it now, you know.
I don’t know what he was saying there, but John chapter number 12, John chapter number 12 in God’s word tonight. Glad you’re in God’s house, and you got out and came. Think about those folk back in the day. You have to ride in a horse and buggy or whatnot all the way to church or walk. And you’ve gotten your warm car. How many use remote start? Come on now.
That’s spoiled rotten, but I used it. Amen. You got it. Might as well use it now. Come, yeah, I’ll tell you what. But amen for that. John 12. And we’re going to read verse number one down through verse number eight of John chapter 12. And just cover this story quickly. But we’ll cover the story tonight. How about that? All right.
You know, John 12, verse number one. Would you please stand as we read God’s word together, John 12.
And verse number one: Then Jesus, six days before the Passover, came to Bethany, where Lazarus was, which had been dead, whom he raised from the dead. By the way, Bethany real close to Jerusalem, he passed. Seemed like he would stay there with Lazarus and Mary and Martha, probably Martha’s house where he’d stay at, just to stop an off point there if you would.
Verse number two: There they made him a supper and Martha served. Now, other of the gospels tell us that Simon the leper’s house, not Martha’s up, but she’s serving. She was just a server, a worker. But Lazarus was one of them that sat at the table with him.
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 saith one of his disciples, Judas Iscariot, Simon’s son, which should betray him, Why was not this ointment sold for 300 pence and given to the poor? This, he said, not that he cared for the poor, but because he was a thief and had the bag and bear what was put therein.
Then said Jesus, Let her alone. Against the day of my burying hath she kept this. For the poor always ye have with you, but me ye have not always.
Now would you jump back up to verse number three and we want to focus just on the last part of that when it says, “And the house was filled with the odor of the ointment.” I want you just think about that. We’ll get back there just here at a moment.
And would you pray that the Lord would speak to our hearts tonight and just kind of challenge us just a bit tonight? Would you pray that as I pray the same? Father, Lord, I know I, I’m not always where ought to be in this area. And so I’ve already needed it. Thank you for convicting and challenging me, Lord. I pray to you speak to all of us tonight. Father, we all need kind of a reset here in this area. I pray you would do that.
And we’ll brag on you and thank you and praise you for what you do, Lord. And so in the name of Jesus, we pray. Amen. Thank you so much for standing. You may be seated.
Jesus was eating here. It’s the sign of the leper’s house. Martha’s there serving. And Mary came. She had an alabaster box. I meant to grab. I’ve got a little box someone gave me. It’s alabaster.
But typically in that day and time it had a seal on it. Many think when they say break, they’re not talking about it just broken into pieces, but it broke that seal. Once the seal was broken, whatever was in there, especially spikenard, very expensive, it would just over time evaporate and be gone. And so they would not break that seal until they wanted to use it, especially having spikenard.
Now, spikenard, very expensive. The plant came from India, very hard to come by, and very, very expensive. In fact, it says 300 pence. Now, if a penny, Matthew over there, I think it’s Matthew 20, the Bible uses that as a day’s wage. If you think of $300, if it’s $100 nowadays, well, that’s changed, you know, for sure, but it’s $100, that’s $30,000. A lot of money. Just for some, just for some perfume or ointment, if you will, very expensive.
But it’s interesting. She took this, and here in John, it says she anointed his feet. Now, in Matthew and Mark, it has anointed his head. Some of the other than contradiction of the Bible? Well, it doesn’t say here in John didn’t do his head, just emphasize the feet. And we’ll talk about that. Typically, very typical in that day and time to do their head and their feet. Not unusual at all. So not a contradiction of the Bible. Each of the gospels point out different things and get a different view of Jesus Christ.
And really very interesting, his feet. Mary just really probably emphasizing her humility. Not only that, but it’s very interesting. She wiped his feet with her hair. Corinthians tells us this, it says, “But if a woman have long hair, it is a glory to her.”
Now, imagine she’s taking her hair, or her glory, if you will, she’s giving the glory to the Lord. And there’s something to all this, of course. And then she does that. And of course, Judas begins to complain about it. And we’ve seen some of the other gospels, some of the other disciples complain about it, you know, probably following Judas in that, and said, well, they should have taken that money and given it to the poor and whatnot.
But Jesus said, no, no, no. We don’t know, but there’s a good chance Mary didn’t have much money. That may have been her prize possession, I mean, $30,000 by the day’s wage. Now they may be more like $200 a day in our day and time, you know. And so this is very, very expensive. It may have been her great jewel, her nest egg, if you will, and she’s given her all. In another of the gospels, in Jesus and Mark, he’s saying, kind of leave her long and he says, “She hath done what she could.” It may have been her great value. She’s given her costly thing to the Lord Jesus Christ.
But I want to do this. I want you to just stop for a second with me, and let’s just picture that this scene just happened in that room. Jesus has eaten there, and Mary came in, and she broke the alabaster box, and she put this ointment on his head and on his feet, and she wiped his feet with her hair. And this just happened, and the little complaining Jesus rebukes him for it. And we walk in the room, just imagine you walk in the room.
Now, I don’t know at all. Martha was serving, maybe maybe there was some apple pie. Apple pie gives off a good smell, come on now, you know. And maybe maybe there was involved that they were over there and, you know, close to this. Maybe they’ve been eating fish. We don’t know what they were eating. Maybe they were eating steak, medium rare, you know, not not baked potato, it’s sweet potato. Come on now. Yeah, somebody anybody on more with sweet? We got some sweet potato people. Yeah, yeah, some cinnamon on there and butter on there. Yeah.
And, of course, that smells. All that smell. Brother Bill says, uh-uh, uh-uh, uh-uh, you know. Yeah, yeah, got to have fried okra in there also, you know. Come on now. Yeah, yeah, yeah. If you’re really remunctious, you can get some boiled okra if you can handle the slime. It still tastes good now, you know. I lost most of you on that right there, you know. Yeah, I understand, I understand.
But anyway, you not only you smell the food, but when you walk in there, you smell that fragrance. Well, the fragrance of that. We just read it. Did you notice, we emphasized it? Did you notice what it says there, the bottom verse number three, “And the house was filled with the odor of the ointment.”
Now let me just put a thought in there. Now this represents gratitude and praise and glory to the Lord. If we could walk in your home and your room and your heart and your mind, and if we can some way spiritually smell, would there be that odor there? Would there be that just sweet, sweet ambience, if you will, of praise and gratitude? If we could just walk in that, would the room be filled with that sweet aroma?
They say during World War II, there was a ship that was sunk. The British were on the ship, and it was sunk, but there’s a group of men that made it. A lot of them die, but there’s just a group of men that survived that. And they said that they finally got back to London, and it was later on in the day, but when they got back, they called a preacher that one of them knew and said, “We want to have church tonight. Would you come to the—we’ll meet you there—and we want to have a church service of just giving thanks to the Lord that we made it out of life.” So the preacher came, got anybody who could to come, and they say that was one of the sweetest services he ever been in. It just had that aroma of praise. Amen. Amen.
You know, there’s nothing like a husband or a dad, a leader of the home, that leads the home in creating that sweet environment of gratitude and praise. By the way, you know, it’s a sad thing. Every once in a while I’ll say, pity that wife. She’s married to a grouch. You ever heard about the one lady? Someone asked, “Hey, as you wake up grouchy this morning?” She said, “No, I let him sleep.” Dads is so key that you create that environment in your home. It’s an environment created. And it’s good for you. It’s good for your wife. It’s good for your kids. It just creates aroma.
By the way, ladies, you can control the spirit of the home a lot. Some will say, you know, they really control that. You’ve heard it said, you know, “Happy wife, happy life,” and all those sayings they got there. And there’s a lot to that. And if a wife, by the way, every husband, if it’s a decent marriage and a decent guy, he’s going to make his wife happy. Someone said, “What is me and one in their wives?” Someone said, “I think the biggest, they just want a happy wife.”
And it’s so important that you create that environment of gratitude, that aroma, just you’re thankful and you’re enjoying life and enjoying the blessings of God. And when you walked in that room, Mary had created the aroma, that odor had just filled the whole room. It’s very obvious.
We don’t—we’ve got some older single adults in here, you know, but I’ve only got two children. By the way, did you see Zoe up there in choir practice tonight? Yeah, she’s going to have a solo part singing next Sunday night, right? And we got Lily Rose back there. Lily Rose, you back there? Can you wave to everybody back there? Lily Rose? There she is back there.
You know, it’s amazing how even children, when they’re thankful, they can be just a little light bulb in a home, creating a sweet aroma of thankful gratitude.
I just praise, glory to God. This lady had what she had did, this act, and just filled the whole room. You know, it’s a great testimony to coworkers. That stands out because in our day and time, you don’t get that a lot of the workplace. Anybody? Amen.
I have the privilege of working in a Christian environment. Boy, I remember those days, so many days. Man, if somebody came in with a good attitude, it’s like, “Whoa, what’s wrong with you? What did you drink on the way into work today?” But boy, people will notice that. Wow. I mean, maybe you really are a Christian over there, you know. And you just create that everywhere you go, you bring that odor with you. I mean, Christmas time, we’ll be around relatives. Are you going to bring that with you? That aroma filled the room. That’s so very, very important.
You know, our gratitude or our complaining really goes back to the Lord. “Well, God, you, you, you didn’t bless me more. You didn’t give me this. And Lord, you’re allowing this in my life.” Or, “Thank you, Lord.” It really all goes back because, hey, He’s—He’s the one that’s over, His kingdom rules over all.
So my attitude eventually really goes back to the Lord, either complaining about what God’s allowed and put in my life or praising the Lord for His goodness and His mercy and His grace in my life. Whatever happened to—we just went through Thanksgiving time and everything—“Give thanks, for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you.”
Well, this lady, she was good at it. A couple years ago, it wasn’t this truck. I think it was my white truck before. But I got my truck when they had been working at the house a little bit, if I remember right. And I got my truck, and I thought, “What in the world is in my truck? It stinks in here,” you know? What got my truck? Who’s built? What’s going on? It just stinks, you know? And now I started looking around. I could not—what in the world is stinking in my truck? Now, look at what—what’s going on? You know, this truck stinks, you know?
And after a while, I found out I had stepped in dog poop. And it was on my boots.
You know, if we’re not careful, we’ll go through life just being miserable thinking everybody, everything stinks, and it’s just a matter of it’s us. Our attitude. And we don’t have that heart of gratitude to the Lord Jesus Christ. Mary had that. She was awesome. I mean, that odor filled the whole room up. Wonderful thing. Wonderful thing.
Now, look, something else about it. Something else. I want you to notice. Go back over there, if you will, to verse number four and in verse number five. Verse number four and five. And notice what it says: “Then she just—this, she did this, this ointment, this spikenard, and the odor filled the room.” Then said one 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, her act really of just, in some ways it’s an act of gratitude and glory to God, but in some ways just an act of selling out to the Lord. She’s done what she could. She’s giving it to the Lord. And here’s what I’m getting at: When you have this attitude of gratitude to the Lord and you live like that, some people are going to criticize it. It’s just going to happen.
And by the way, it bothered her. You say, “How do you know?” Well, let me read for you what Matthew says about it. Matthew 26:10: “When Jesus understood it, he saith unto them, Why trouble ye the woman?” In other words, it did trouble her. “Why trouble ye the woman? For she hath wrought a good work on me.”
Now, when you give your precious things, $30,000, $50, whatever it was worth, when you give these precious things to the Lord, some people are going to criticize it. They just are. “You go to church all the time. I mean, don’t you love us anymore? What about family? You give all your money. You give to—you give tithe plus, you give to missionaries. What are they doing for you? Everything, all you ever talk about is the Lord and church and everything is just for the Lord.” And you’re going to be criticized. That’s just part when you sell out.
And you give your allegiance to the Lord. You actually do that door-to-door stuff, or you get out tracks at the gas station. You do that? You give tracks to the waitress? Then everybody, “You better tithe good,” you know, or “You better tip good.” Typical people that are giving, they’re typical tip good, friend. But, you know, you’re just going to be criticized. It’s just part of it.
And friend, just be ready for that. And don’t get when the relatives say, “Well, you go to church all the time. I remember when you used to hang out with us,” you know. Be ready for it. This lady, she was criticized. In fact, the Bible says, “Yea, and all that live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution.”
Here’s something else about it. Here’s something else about it. Look over in Matthew 26. Matthew 26, look over there if you would. So when you sell out, man, you’re just giving your prized possession to the Lord. Some are going to criticize it. And, of course, Judas, he’s the one that took off with that and said, “Man, we could have sold that, gave it to the poor.”
But I don’t want you to notice how Matthew describes it. Matthew 26, look at verse number eight: “But when his disciples—that’s plural, disciples—saw it, they had indignation, saying, To what purpose is this waste?” It wasn’t just Judas. John really describes Judas, but disciples, it spread.
And by the way, at work or wherever it may be, you know, it’s a good chance somebody kind of, “Well, you’re just—you’re always talking about church and living for the Lord and witnessing, and that’s all you ever talk about.” And somebody starts criticizing you, there’s a good chance there’s going to be a group of people starts criticizing. But just don’t be shocked about it. That’s just the way it works. That’s just what happens.
And that’s what happens here. They’re all kind of jumping on board with you. You make everything about God. What you wear and what you listen to. Everything’s about God to you. And other people, they’re going to kind of jump in on you. And don’t be shocked when you give your prized possessions to the Lord, others will. They just will.
Now, some, they’re going to criticize it. Some are going to like it. “Well, man, I like their good attitude. I like it. It’s refreshing. It’s a good aroma.” Some are going to like it. Some are not going to like it. But here’s the important part. Look in verse—back over here in John. Look at verse number seven, verse number eight. John 12:7 and 8: “Then said Jesus, Let her alone. Against the day of my burying hath she kept this. For the poor always ye have with you, but me ye have not always.”
Some are going to like to smell, and some are going to criticize you, but here’s the big thing: Jesus was happy with her. Man, when you’re selling that, giving it all to the Lord, that’s the big thing. By the way, we’re not going to stand in front of them one day at the judgment seat of Christ. I’m going to stand before Him. Promotion doesn’t come from the south or the east or the west. Promotion comes from up.
Jesus was happy. I like what He says of her in Matthew. Matthew 26:13: “Verily I say unto you, Wheresoever this gospel shall be preached in the whole world, there shall also this that this woman hath done be told for a memorial of her.”
Jesus said everybody’s going to know about this right here. He got criticized over it, and it filled the room of the Romans. Some liked it. Some didn’t like it at all. Jesus said, “Don’t worry about that. I’m going to promote you. Everybody in the world is going to know about you, if you will.” By the way, Jesus promotes you. Ain’t nobody can stop that. I mean, and Jesus was happy about it. I like that. Hey, if Jesus is happy with you, you’ll be all right. I mean, everything can be all right. No matter who says what. Hey, all hell can be against it. If Jesus is happy with you, you’ll be all right for it.
Jesus was happy with this lady. He said, “I’m going to make sure everybody else knows about her.” Oh, what a thing. What a statement coming from Jesus Christ. What a wonderful thing.
Now, here’s just an interesting little fault, and we’ll be done. Look back in verse number seven. Verse number seven. We just read it: “Then said Jesus, Let her alone against the day of my burying hath she kept this.” Jesus had already told them at least three times, “I’m about to go. I’m about to be crucified.” A lot of them didn’t get it. She got it.
Here’s another little just interesting thing. We’re not going to be long tonight. Here’s another little interesting thing. You know, a little bit later on, He, of course, was crucified. And remember those women that went to anoint or embalm His body? Remember those group of ladies? This Mary of Bethany, most will call her. She wasn’t part of that crowd, if you will. Some ways she beat him to the punch. I mean, yes, maybe there’s a little bit of embalming, but before that even happened, before He died, humanly speaking, you know, sometimes we don’t appreciate someone until we don’t have them. Humanly speaking here, well, she didn’t wait. She appreciated Him while she had Him, if you will. She didn’t have to go take care of His body. He already took care of it. She beat Him to it a little bit, if it will. And Jesus said, “Everybody in the world’s going to know about that. I was—it’s before I died. She was preparing my body, you know, in my head and my feet.”
That little phrase, “the odor filled the room.” I’m not there like I should be. I like to get back there. Just filling the room with the odor of praise.
There was a man. He was sleeping, and somebody came in, and they took Limburger cheese. You know what Limburger cheese? It tastes all right, but it stinks, folks. And he was—he was sleeping, and they snuck over there, and they put some of that on his mustache.
And in Bible college, we did—I think we did at least once, maybe more, I can’t remember—but we, you ever put shaving cream on someone’s hand while they’re sleeping and then just tickle them a little bit on their face or something like that? And boy, then they take that, you know, and they’re wiping that shaving cream all over. We’ve did that before, a little bit like that. They took that cheese and they got it on there. And a little bit after that, man, he woke up. And you know, it’s right there. That stuff stinks. Man, something around here stinks.
And they got up, he got up, and he looked around the room. He said, “Something in this room stinks. I can’t figure what stinks in this room,” you know? And my bedroom stinks, and then he went out, and he went through the house. He said, “This whole house stinks.” And the story goes, he went over there, and he lifted the—you know, opened the window—and he put his head out of the window, and the whole world stinks. And it’s really him.
If I’m not careful, I won’t be giving off that odor, sweet aroma that fills a room. And for those that don’t give that off, you know what? It usually doesn’t matter a whole lot with the circumstances. Someone said, “Gratitude is not a matter of what’s in your pockets, it’s a matter of what you have in your heart.” Well, when you get back to having that odor, just praise the Lord. By the way, if you’re going to heaven, man, we’ve got a lot. We ought to praise you for it. Sins are washed away. I mean, going to heaven, going to have a mansion up there, no mortgage payment on that. Come on now. No hospitals, no funeral homes, no pain anymore. No, He’s going to wipe the tears from her eyes. Friend, we got—He said, “Rejoice because your name is written in the Lamb’s Book of Life.” Man, let’s have that just aroma about us, of gratitude, a praise to the Lord.
Would you bow your heads and close your eyes? Our heads about eyes are closed.
I need to work at it. I’ll be honest with you. I got to work at it. Let’s don’t let life get us where we’re focused on all the bad. Let’s praise Jesus. He’s worthy of that. Maybe you’re here tonight and you said, “Preacher, I want to work at this thing. I want to take my costly ointment and I want to anoint the feet of Jesus. I want to give Him my glory. I want to give my glory. I want to give my praise. I want to humble myself before Him. He had been so good to me.”
God spoke to my heart about that. That’s you and not—you lift you in the preacher. That’s me. That’s me. I want to give it off. Oh, me too. Me too. I’m with you. I’m with you. I’m with you. It’ll change the aroma around. I promise it will. Would you please stand? We’ll have just a moment of prayer. You come spend some time with the Lord. Have you guide you. You do that. Father, thank you for your goodness. A million times better than I deserve, Lord. Take him not in hell tonight. Thank you for you, shed blood. Thank you, Father, for giving us your Son. Help me, Lord, to take my life and present it to you in gratitude and praise. Help us to have that aroma about us of praise to you. In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen.
Original File: 2025-12-15 - Pastor Paul Chisgar - ＂And the House Was Filled＂ - Sunday PM 12⧸14⧸2025