Introduction: Text – Acts 8:26-35

Today I shall direct your attention to a portion of matchless truth, which springs forth from the unsearchable riches of this inexhaustible old book, which we call the Holy Bible. From now through Easter, I shall be preaching each Sunday morning about Jesus Christ; and the events of His last week of mortal life. I shall call this series of sermons "The Week They Killed Our Lord." I want you to get a feel of the treachery, the deceit, the confusion, and the feverish pitch of activity that occurred that last fateful week of Jesus’ earthly life. The agony and the ecstasy were both there. The darkest day of all time and eternity occurred the week they killed our Lord; and the brightest day of all also occurred that week.

To start this dramatic series of messages, I preach today from Acts 8:26-35. I shall also preach from this same text tonight. I am calling these two messages, "As A Lamb To The Slaughter." Let us now read the text.

Today, I want you to see that Jesus was God’s Lamb; and that when He turned His face toward Jerusalem, He was going as a lamb to the slaughter. The venomous human race was going to actually murder God’s innocent Lamb. I suppose it would be wise to back up right here, and start at the first of this story. The story of the week they killed our Lord actually begins in Bethany, six days before the Passover, and the crucifixion of the next day.

1. LET US TAKE A CLOSER LOOK AT WHAT HAPPENED IN BETHANY.

A. Bethany was a very small town about two miles outside of Jerusalem.

1. John said, "Now Bethany was nigh unto Jerusalem, about 15 furlongs off," John 11:18. A furlong is 220 yards, or 1/8 mile. So Bethany was actually one and 7/8 miles from Jerusalem.

2. Bethany was actually located on the Mount of Olives, Luke 19:29, on the road that led to Jericho.

3. Jesus often lodged there, Matthew 21:17, Mark 11:11-12, etc. He also raised Lazarus from the dead at Bethany, John 11:1-46.

4. Jesus also ascended back into heaven from very near this town. Luke 24:50-51 reads, "And he led them out as far as to Bethany, and he lifted up his hands, and blessed them. And it came to pass, while he blessed them, he was parted from them and carried up into heaven."

B. One week before He was crucified, Jesus came to Bethany.

1. John 12:1 states, "Then Jesus, six days before the Passover came to Bethany."

2. Bethany was the home of Lazarus, and his two sisters, Mary and Martha. John 11:1 says, "Now a certain man was sick, named Lazarus, of Bethany, the town of Mary and her sister Martha." When you consider that Jesus was a precious friend of Lazarus, Martha, and Mary, and that Jesus had raised Lazarus from the dead, it is not hard to see that this was no doubt a joyous occasion. How glad they were to see the Lord, who had again come to their house for a visit.

C. While Jesus was in Bethany, Mary came and poured a whole box of precious ointment on Jesus.

1. Matthew 26:6-7 tells it this way, "Now when Jesus was in Bethany, in the house of Simon the leper, there came unto him a woman having an alabaster box of very precious ointment, and poured it on his head, as he sat at meat."

2. John explains that this Mary, who anointed Jesus, was Mary, the sister of Lazarus, whom Jesus raised from the dead, in John 11:2. The appreciation, devotion, and godly love she had for the Lord stands out. She’s the one of whom the Lord said, "Mary hath chosen that good part, which shall not be taken away from her," Luke 10:42.

3. It is noteworthy that when Mary anointed Jesus with the very costly spikenard, "She brake the box," Mark 14:3. For Mary, there was no turning back. The container was gone: broken. She couldn’t take the precious ointment back. Like Elisha, who sacrificed his farm oxen to God, and used the plow for wood to burn the sacrifice, I Kings 19:19-21, there was no intent of taking back that which was given to God. Oh, what commitment! Oh, how I wish to God that more of us would burn the bridges to the world behind us.

4. Some people thought what Mary did was a waste. Judas Iscariot thought that. He asked, "Why was not this ointment sold for three hundred pence, and given to the poor?" John 12:5. But Judas was not the only one who complained about what was given to the Lord. Others asked, "Why was this waste of the ointment made?" Mark 14:4. Mark 14:5 says many of them "murmured against her." Folks, in any day, there will be some who complain about what you give to the Lord, especially if it is big and costly, and without retread, like your life. But, just remember that it is never a waste to give what you have to God, especially if it is your own self that you give. Jesus said of Mary, "Verily I say unto you, wheresoever this gospel shall be preached throughout the whole world, this also that she hath done shall be spoken of for a memorial of her," Mark 14:9. And whatever you give to God is eternal treasure laid up in heaven, "where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt, and where thieves do not break through nor steal," Matthew 6:20.

5. Jesus said that Mary’s anointing had special significance. It was a special anointing of His body for it’s burial. His words in Mark 14:8 are, "She hath done what she could: she has come aforehand to anoint my body to the burying." A week later, Jesus was crucified. It was late in the day when Jesus died (past 3 beginning of the Sabbath (6 p.m.), Jesus’ buriers did not have time to finalize the anointing process of His body with the customary oils, Luke 23:50-56. John 19:38-40 points out that there were certain embalming spices used on Him, but you can see from Mark 16:1 that there was more anointing to be done. So Mary’s offering of precious ointment became a special anointing of Jesus for His approaching death and burial.

D. While these events were occurring in Bethany, a diabolical plot was in the making in nearby Jerusalem.

1. The political and religious leaders of the day had long hated Jesus, Mark 11:18, Luke 19:47, Matthew 21:45-46.

2. So while Jesus was in Bethany (apparently about four days; compare John 12:1 and Mark 14:1-2), these leaders were having a meeting in Jerusalem to plot the death of Jesus. Matthew 26:3-4 says, "Then assembled together the chief priests, and the scribes, and the elders of the people, unto the palace of the high priest, who was called Caiaphas, and consulted that they might take Jesus by subtilty, and kill him."

3. Judas Iscariot was full of hatred. He resented the fact that Mary anointed the Lord, so he went to Jerusalem to the Jewish leaders, and there covenanted to betray Jesus into their hands. Mark 14:10-11 records the transaction. "And Judas Iscsariot, one of the twelve, went unto the chief priests, to betray him unto them. And when they heard it, they were glad, and promised to give him money. And he sought how he might conveniently betray him."

4. Judas didn’t have enough courage to betray Jesus out in the open; nor did the Jewish rulers have the courage to seek His death publicly. So they sought a way to do it in the backhanded, deceitful, conniving way. Luke 22:1-6 makes that clear. Verse 6 says, they "sought opportunity to betray him unto them in the absence of the multitude."

5. So the stage was set. They were hostile, ambitious, just waiting for a chance to attack Him: the guilty waiting for a chance to destroy the just and innocent.

1. That’s a bunch of hogwash. To think like that is rotten heresy. Jesus knew exactly what was going on, what Judas and the Jews were planning, and what was going to happen to Him. Matthew 9:4 and Luke 11:17 says Jesus knew their thoughts. Furthermore, when Judas and his execution mob came to betray Him in the garden of Gethsemane, "Jesus therefore, knowing all things that should come upon him, when forth, and said unto them, Whom seed ye?" John 18:4. That surely erases any false idea that Jesus was in the dark as to what was going on.

2. Jesus knew exactly where He was headed. In speaking of His sufferings and death on the tree, He said in John 12:27, "Now is my soul troubled; and what shall I say? Father come, save me from this hour; but for this cause came I unto this hour." The fact that He said that Mary’s ointment was for His burying, John 12:7, is testimonial that He knew what was coming. Listen to Mark 8:31, "And he began to teach them, that the Son of man must suffer many things, and be rejected of the elders, and of the chief priests, and scribes, and be killed, and after three days rise again."

3. Folks, the glorious truth is that Jesus went to Jerusalem, knowingly and willingly. Love sent Him there to die on that cross John 3:16. Jesus could say, "No man taketh my life from me, but I lay it down of myself," John 10:18. I don’t know why Jesus loves us so much, but He does; and He proved it when He knowingly and willingly went to the cross in our place. An old hymn says:

Why should he love me so?
Why should he love me so?
Why should my Savior to Calvary go?
Why should he love me so?"