It needs to be restated, that Mark is not writing a biography, but a gospel.  In other words, he is not attempting to record every little detail that occurred in the life of Jesus.  None of the four gospel writers do that.  Some may omit some things the others include, while including some things others omit.  And the reason for that is that they are writing a gospel, or a sermon if you will, which presents certain doctrines and principles of the gospel of Jesus Christ that they want to emphasize. 

So as we consider this text before us today, it’s important that we resist the temptation to try to fill in all the blanks or gaps in the historical narrative, by bouncing around all the other gospels for the parts Mark seemingly left out.  We must remember that behind Mark is the authorship of the Holy Spirit.  And the Holy Spirit, speaking through Mark, certainly knows that He is omitting certain details.  So rather than focusing on what is not said, we need to focus on what is being said.  The important question then is what is being emphasized in this gospel account?  What is the message that Mark, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, is trying to convey to us?  

Well, to start with, we are introduced to a couple of new characters in this passage.  The first being the governor of Judea, who is Pilate, and the other being Barabbas, a convicted robber, murderer, and insurrectionist.  These are the main players in this scene before the crucifixion. The other players who have side roles are the Sanhedrin, who are the governing religious body of the Jews, and the crowd, and the Roman soldiers. 

In vs1, we see the Sanhedrin, which is the whole Council that Mark mentions, made up of the chief priests and 70 the official religious leaders of the Jews, having a quick trial now that it was daylight, in order that they might officially condemn Jesus to death.  Now they had already had a trial during the early morning hours, but it was an illegal proceeding since  it was against the law to condemn a man to death in a nighttime trial. So they convene again at dawn, condemn Jesus as worthy of death, and bind Him and send Him to Pilate.  Notice some of the symbolism here; that He was bound, that He might set men free.  He was rejected, that men might be accepted.  He was condemned, that we might be forgiven.  

And so the Sanhedrin condemned Jesus of blasphemy in their religious trial.  They say in the previous chapter that His claim to be the Son of God makes Him worthy of death. But the Sanhedrin do not have the authority to take a person’s life. They don’t have the authority to put a person to death.  For that, they must get Roman approval.  But Rome didn’t care too much about blasphemy. They were, however, concerned about crimes against the state. So the Jews are going to accuse Jesus in the civil trial before Pilate with the crime of treason; particularly claiming to be King.

We looked at the religious trial of the Sanhedrin in detail in a previous message, so today we will not spend much time on that.  But Pilate is the officiator of the civil trial.  And Pilate seems to only be concerned about the  charge of Jesus claiming to be a King. Not just because of the possibility of insurrection, but perhaps because he was only the governor of Judea, and if it was true that Jesus was a king, then Jesus would have outranked him.   First and foremost, Pilate is a politician.  He served under Caesar Tiberius.  He had in fact gotten in trouble in time past with the Jews, and had been censored by Caesar.  So he is very concerned to keep his position, to hopefully advance his career in Roman government, and to do so he must try to walk a line between pleasing Rome and not offending the Jews in his jurisdiction.

One thing about Pilate’s position though, it is that he has been given the authority to administer the death sentence.  That is why the Jews have come to him. 

So he asks Jesus, “Are You the King of the Jews?” And Jesus answered him, “It is as you say.” Mark adds that the chief priests began to accuse Him of many things.  Luke and John’s gospel’s add considerable more to the dialogue.  And I would encourage you to read their accounts for yourself.  But what I think Mark is trying to emphasize here is the contrast between this petty, political ruler of Judea, and the King of the Jews.  Pilate is governor by the decree of Caesar, and so he has judicial rule over Judea, only a portion of Israel, but which does include the Jewish capital, which is Jerusalem. 

Jesus, on the other hand, is the King of the Jews.  In actuality, Jesus is King over the whole Earth, but since He specifically came to fulfill the purpose of the Messiah, it is to the Jews that He claims sovereignty.  He is sent to the Jews first.  He is of the royal line of David. So He is a legitimate heir to David’s throne. He has already told the high priest in the preceding chapter that He was the Messiah, the Son of God. Now in response to this appointed politician, He adds the claim that He is King of the Jews.  

It’s interesting to note the contrast between Jesus and Pilate.  Pilate has the authority to condemn, but Jesus has the authority to forgive.  Pilate has the authority to put to death, but Jesus has the authority to give life.  Pilate has a limited, temporal rule, Jesus has a sovereign, eternal reign.  According to John’s gospel, Jesus said to Pilate that His kingdom is not of this world.  It is a spiritual kingdom.  And thus it has no boundaries, it has no end, and no limitations.  Pilate’s rule will come to an end, a rather inglorious end at that as tradition tells us he commits suicide in his later years. 

Pilate represents the natural man, the material man, the temporal man, who claims his right to self rule, who thinks that he can determine for himself what is right and what is wrong.  He thinks he has freedom, when in fact he is in servitude.  He thinks he is making his own decisions, but in fact he is cowering and caving in to popular opinion.

Jesus, in affirming that He is King, adds another dimension to what it means to believe in Him.  Faith in Christ means acknowledging that He has the right to rule over your life.  He is the creator of life, He has authority over life, and He has the power to give life.  But Pilate, as the quintessential natural man, though intrigued by Jesus’s claim,  will not believe in Him, will not submit to Jesus’s sovereignty.  

Isaiah writing 700 years earlier prophesies concerning this failure to recognize Jesus as King in Isaiah 53:2-3,  “For He grew up before Him like a tender shoot, And like a root out of parched ground; He has no stately form or majesty That we should look upon Him, Nor appearance that we should be attracted to Him.  He was despised and forsaken of men, A man of sorrows and acquainted with grief; And like one from whom men hide their face He was despised, and we did not esteem Him.”

Then Mark tells us that the chief priests begin to accuse Jesus harshly. We could piece together all that they were accusing Jesus of from the other gospels, but the details do not concern Mark as much as the fact that they make all kinds of wild accusations, and yet He makes no answer.  Pilate, on the other hand, feels he must respond to their accusations.  Because Pilate is a politician.  He makes his career by acquiescing, or at  least appearing to acquiesce, to the demands of the Jews and to the demands of Rome.  But Jesus answers to no man. This judge and jury think that they have authority over Him, but in fact, all authority in heaven and on earth belong to Jesus.  He has the authority to lay down HIs life.  But He is not going to try to defend Himself.  He has said, I am the Messiah the Son of God.  I am the King of the Jews.  And that is all He needs to say in HIs defense.   In fact, He makes no defense at all.  It may be argued that Jesus is on the offensive, not the defensive.  He is going to lay down His life, voluntarily.  He is resolutely headed for the cross. He’s not interested in trying to avoid it.  And so He doesn’t defend Himself and Pilate is amazed at His silence.

But even His silence is fulfillment of the prophecy that He was the Messiah.Isaiah 53:7  “He was oppressed and He was afflicted, Yet He did not open His mouth; Like a lamb that is led to slaughter, And like a sheep that is silent before its shearers, So He did not open His mouth.”

Mark then tells us that it was the custom to release a prisoner at the feast of the Passover.  And so the Jews come to Pilate and ask for him to do that.  So Pilate asks them, “‘Do you want me to release for you the King of the Jews?’ For he was aware that the chief priests had handed Him over because of envy.” Pilate, the politician, is trying to walk both sides of the fence.  The other gospels tell us that Pilate had already announced that he found no fault in Jesus.  But rather than seeing that justice was done and releasing Jesus, he wants to please the crowd.  However, perhaps this was just an attempt to pass the blame onto the Jews, by offering to release Him.  But I think that Pilate knows that they will not want Jesus released.  The Jews have made it clear that they want Jesus dead.  I think Pilate is just trying to salve his conscience somewhat by being able to say he offered to release Jesus.  And Mark says that he knew that there was no evil that Jesus committed, it was just a matter of jealousy on the part of the priests.  So I think Pilate knew that they wouldn’t let Jesus be released, but he is just trying to portray that he is innocent in the matter. 

And let me say again that Pilate is a good example of the natural man who thinks that he is his own ruler, he is the king of his castle, but in reality, he is subservient to the peer pressure of  the world.  He claims to be independent, but actually he is a slave of popular opinion.  He caves in to the dominance of the world’s demands, whether it be from the media, or the entertainment industry, or his career, or from the influence of friends.  They reject the dominion of Christ as King, but become enslaved to the passions of sin and the world, which is ultimately orchestrated by the devil.  Like Bob Dylan once wrote, everyone is going to serve somebody.  It may be the devil, or it may be the Lord, but you’re gonna serve somebody.  Pilate chooses to serve the world, which ultimately achieved the purposes of the devil.

Vs.11 “But the chief priests stirred up the crowd to ask him to release Barabbas for them instead.”  So Mark indicates that the crowd is induced by the priests to ask for the release of Barabbas instead.  And Pilate, wishing to accommodate the crowd, releases Barabbas, the condemned murderer, and delivers Jesus to be crucified.

What Pilate and the Jews do not realize, is that by their actions they have illustrated the symbolism of the Passover.  Barabbas, the convicted robber, murderer and insurrectionist, is obviously guilty of his sins and condemned to death. He represents the sinner.  And in setting the sinner free, and putting to death the righteous, spotless Lamb of God, they have illustrated nothing less than the truth of the gospel.  Especially that principle of the gospel that Jesus came to save sinners.  The principle that the innocent would die for the ungodly.  The principle that God would transfer our sins upon Jesus, who would be punished to die in our place, so that we might be set free from sin and death, and receive the transfer of Christ’s righteousness upon us.  That is the gospel, and though they rejected it, yet by their actions in freeing the guilty and condemning the righteous they have given us a tremendous illustration of the gospel of God.

Once again Isaiah predicts this divine justice wrought by God upon Christ for our sins. Isaiah 53:6 “All of us like sheep have gone astray, Each of us has turned to his own way; But the LORD has caused the iniquity of us all To fall on Him.”

Such an illustration of God’s grace towards sinners makes me wonder what happened to Barabbas.  Nothing more is said in scripture concerning him. But  I cannot help but wonder if this great exchange, resulting in his freedom, while Christ went on to suffer and die, did not have a tremendous effect on this condemned man.  I cannot help but wonder if he did not follow the crowd to Calvary, and there watch as Jesus was crucified in his place.  I can’t help but wonder if he was converted by this divine act of the innocent dying for the guilty. I suppose we will find out in heaven.  But maybe we will see Barabbas in heaven. 

However, let’s not miss the point that all of us here today are represented by Barabbas.  According to the gospel, we are all sinners, condemned to death, but Jesus took our place on that cross, so that we, by faith in Him, might be set free.

The question of the ages for every man is found in the next verse, 12, “Answering again, Pilate said to them, ‘Then what shall I do with Him whom you call the King of the Jews?’”  What shall I do with Jesus?  That is the question for every man. That is the question for you today.  What will you do with Jesus?  Will you accept Him as your Savior from your sins?  Will you accept Him as your King?  Will you bow your will to Him?  Will you trade your sinful life for new life in Him?  What will you do with Jesus? Pilate wanted nothing to do with Him.  He tried to get out of making a decision concerning Jesus.  He tried to shunt Him off on Herod.  He tried to release Him.  He said repeatedly that He found no fault in Him.  But ultimately, Pilate did not submit to Jesus as King.  Ultimately, Pilate choose the favor of the world, and rejected the Savior of the world.

Some of you here today may not want to make a decision concerning Jesus.  You want to remain ambivalent about Jesus.  But if you put Him off today, if you put Him off until a more convenient time, then you are really doing exactly what Pilate did.  You are rejecting the Lord in favor of maintaining your own sovereignty.  And as such, you condemn yourself.  You are not guaranteed another opportunity tomorrow.  Tomorrow may be too late.  What will you do with Jesus?

Well, when the crowd was offered that choice, they cried out, “Crucify Him!”  They wanted to murder the Son of God.  Their hatred for Christ has reached a fever pitch.  Pilate calls back, “Why, what evil has He done?” But they shouted all the more, “Crucify Him!”  They didn’t have to have a reason to want to kill Christ.  Their hatred is all the reason that they need.  You know, Jesus was correct to equate hate as murder in the Sermon on the Mount.  Hatred is a scary thing.  I’ve personally seen hatred escalate to murderous intent.  I’ve seen hatred become so manifest in a person it was scary, it changed them into a monster.  And I will tell you something, rejection or rebellion leads to hatred.  Rejection of the truth is not an innocuous thing.  It’s not a harmless choice. It’s not as simple as you believe what you want, and I’ll believe what I want. Rejection of the truth leads to hatred of the truth, and that leads to murder of the truth. 

Notice what Mark says concerning Pilate in vs 15 “Wishing to satisfy the crowd, Pilate released Barabbas for them, and after having Jesus scourged, he handed Him over to be crucified.”  Wishing to satisfy the crowd.  I wonder how many people have crucified Jesus by wishing to satisfy the crowd?  Trying to satisfy the lusts of the world, we crucify Jesus Christ.  Trying to make people like us, to not lose face in public, trying to gain the approval of the world, we crucify the King of Glory. 

Mark barely mentions in vs15 of the flogging that Pilate gave Jesus.  But a cat of nine tails was commonly used to scourge a convicted person before heading to the cross.  It was meant to weaken them, so that they might not last too long on the cross.  It is said that such a flogging was stopped at 39 lashes, because it was determined that 40 would kill you.  Such a tremendous cost was our sin, that it required such a terrible punishment.  

Once again, consider Isaiah 53:5 “But He was pierced through for our transgressions, He was crushed for our iniquities; The chastening for our well-being fell upon Him, And by His scourging we are healed.” What a travesty of salvation when the modern day faith healers use this verse as some sort of mantra to guarantee healing of diseases. By His scourging, we are cleansed of our unrighteousness. That is what Isaiah says.  He was pierced for our transgressions, He was crushed for our iniquities. Our physical health is not the issue, it’s our spiritual health that is being spoken of.  The wrath of God against our sin was satisfied in the suffering of Jesus our Savior.

So beaten to within an inch of His life, His back and legs ripped to shreds, there are still more indignities left for Jesus to bear.  The soldiers now take part in the ridicule and mocking of Jesus.  Mark tells us more detail of the mocking than he does of the scourging. Perhaps the wounds caused by words cut deeper than the whip.  And the mocking of the soldiers is especially cruel.  Perhaps they took out their pent up hatred for the Jews upon Jesus.  After all, He was said to be the King of the Jews.  It was common in those days to disrespect the fallen monarch of a defeated enemy.  Maybe that was it then, as the soldiers call all the Roman cohort from the Palace together to ridicule and scorn Jesus.  

The whole idea of Jesus being a King is obviously the point of their ridicule.  They dress Him in purple, a royal fabric, and crush a crown of plaited thorns upon His head, calling out “Hail, King of the Jews!”  Vs19 “They kept beating His head with a reed, and spitting on Him, and kneeling and bowing before Him.”

This is savage mockery.  This is hatred at it’s lowest form.  It’s easy to imagine that these soldiers were the lowest of the low.  That they were no better than animals.  But the fact is, that such savage mockery of Christ happens today on our concert stages and in our theaters and it is applauded by the world.  The fact is that sin is a savage beast.  Sin is an evil that turns men into the lowest of the low.  God’s is justified in dealing with divine wrath upon sin. But the retribution that these hateful soldiers deserved, God struck the blows due to them upon Jesus. 2Cor. 5:21 “He made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.”

God’s wrath against sin will be satisfied.  And God’s purpose is that in Jesus He would punish sin, put to death sin, and by His resurrection overcome sin.  If you remember in the Garden of Eden at the fall, God pronounced a curse upon the earth.  He said in Genesis 3:18 that part of the curse would be that the land would produce thorns and thistles.  Thorns then are a picture of the curse of the fall.  The soldiers by crushing the crown of thorns upon Jesus’ head, unwittingly illustrated the justice of God, that He would put the curse of sin upon Jesus, that we might be free from sin.  

So as the soldiers hit Him and spit upon Him and revile Him, I can picture Jesus standing there in all of HIs bloody wounds, standing there bravely and purposefully bearing our reproach, that even those who were assaulting Him might go free.  Isaiah 53:4 says “Surely our griefs He Himself bore, And our sorrows He carried; Yet we ourselves esteemed Him stricken, Smitten of God, and afflicted.”

Then Mark tells us in vs20 “After they had mocked Him, they took the purple robe off Him and put His own garments on Him. And they led Him out to crucify Him.”  

The question that I want to leave with you today, is what will you do with Jesus?  You cannot avoid the question.  You cannot avoid making a decision.  If you try to avoid it, then you are really rejecting Jesus as your Savior and King.  I pray that no one here is like Pilate.  I pray that no one here is like the chief priests, or the soldiers who scorned Him, nor the crowd who hated Him without a cause.  I pray that you would be like Barabbas.  That you would recognize that your sin has condemned you to death, but that Jesus has taken your punishment upon Himself, that He might grant you life everlasting.  

If you don’t know Jesus as your Savior and King, then today I urge you to accept His invitation to enter into His kingdom.  Jesus said in Revelation 22:17  “The Spirit and the bride say, “Come.” And let the one who hears say, ‘Come.’ And let the one who is thirsty come; let the one who wishes take the water of life without cost.”  Come to Jesus today.  He will save you.  Jesus said in Matt.11:28-30  “Come to Me, all who are weary and heavy-laden, and I will give you rest.  “Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and YOU WILL FIND REST FOR YOUR SOULS. For My yoke is easy and My burden is light.”

Jesus has taken the burden of our sin upon Himself, that we might be given the righteousness of God.  If you confess your sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sin, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.  He can forgive us, because He has paid our penalty.  Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you shall be saved. For with the heart man believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.  Come to Jesus today as your Savior and King and receive the righteousness of Jesus Christ, resulting in salvation unto life.

In the passage of scripture we read today, we have seen a tragic picture of the fall of one of Christ’s closest friends, and devoted disciples.  Peter, by all accounts, was the foremost of the disciples.  He was the first to declare that Jesus was the Messiah, the Son of God.  He was the one to jump in the water to walk on the waves with Christ in a storm.  If he had been a fireman, or a policeman or soldier, he would have always been first through the door.  Peter was a man that everyone looked up to.  He was a natural leader.  And yet we see him here falling – falling to the lowest level that anyone could have ever imagined.

It reminds me of the lament that David sang of Saul and Jonathan when they died on the battle field.  David said, “Oh, how have the mighty fallen!” Peter was the mightiest, the most courageous of all the disciples, and yet here he is pictured, denying the Lord three times while Jesus was being tried and beaten just a few yards away.  A tragic figure.  A terrible fall into sin. The old adage seems to be true that the bigger they are, the harder they fall.

The question though, as we see Peter rushing out into the night, weeping bitter tears, ashamed at his lack of faith, the question is, how did Peter get to this point? How did he go from being the foremost disciple, part of Jesus’s inner circle, the leader of the band of 12, how did he end up swearing repeatedly that he never knew Him? 

Well, to understand Peter’s fall, we must go back in the gospel accounts to the first step in his decline.  No one goes from the heights of faith to the pit of despair in just a moment. It’s a progression, a downward slide that may be an almost indiscernible drift at first, but it ends up in shipwreck.  It’s like when I see a homeless person on the streets, caught up in addiction, living in poverty and filth, I have to remind myself not to judge him by the way he looks now.  But remember that once upon a time he was a young boy, running around the neighborhood.  Once he was an innocent child.  And I cannot help but wonder what happened in his life that caused him to end up there?  

So let’s retrace the steps of Peter’s denial.  Because I believe we can show that there was a progression which led him to deny Christ.  And perhaps Peter’s fall might serve as a warning to us, that when we think we stand, let us take heed lest we fall.  If Peter could fall, then we all could fall. And perhaps this lesson learned from Peter might even reveal our own fleshly attitudes and actions which are leading us towards a similar fall, and a similar denial.

The first step in the progression of Peter’s failure of faith is found in vs29.  There we see Peter boasting in himself.  Peter said to Jesus, “Even though all may fall away, yet I will not.”  The key to what was wrong in Peter’s response to the Lord’s statement that all of them would fall away that night, was not necessarily in his determination not to fall, but in his superior attitude.  Proverbs says that “pride goes before a fall,”  and Peter shows that in his pride he considers himself superior to the other disciples.  They may fall, they may be weak, but I am not.  I’m better than the other disciples.  I’m not spiritually weak like they are.  

Paul warned the Corinthians not to compare themselves against one another. 2Cor. 10:12 “For we dare not class ourselves or compare ourselves with those who commend themselves. But they, measuring themselves by themselves, and comparing themselves among themselves, are not wise.”  Avoid the pitfall of pride by comparing yourself to others and recognize that it is by grace that you stand. Recognize your sinful nature and know that it’s not by your merit, but by the grace of God you have been saved.

The pride that Peter’s answer reveals is that he is trusting in his flesh, in his courage, in his strength of will to accomplish what the others could not do.  But again, Paul writing the Romans tells us not to trust in the flesh.  Rom. 7:18 “For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh; for the willing is present in me, but the doing of the good is not.”  We have to walk in the Spirit, to keep from fulfilling the desires of the flesh.  Peter though is boasting in his flesh, in his strength. And that’s a dangerous first step in the wrong direction.

The second step in the progression to backsliding, was that Peter argued with the Lord and with the word of the Lord. Vs.31, “But Peter kept saying insistently, ‘Even if I have to die with You, I will not deny You!’ And they all were saying the same thing also.”  Notice, he kept on
insisting even after Jesus corrected him.  Jesus said that they would all fall away, then Peter denied it.  Then the Lord specifically told Peter that before the cock crowed twice he would deny Him three times.  And Peter argues with the Lord.  He keeps on insisting that he is right. 

It’s a dangerous thing to argue with the Lord. You may say, well I would never do such a thing.  But of course you do that very thing when you argue with God’s word.  When God says, leave something alone, do not touch, we argue that it won’t really be a bad thing for us.  We can do it and not be tempted, we can go there and not fall away.  It may happen to others, they may become alcoholics, but not me.  They may fall into sexual sin, but not me. That admonition might be true for some people, but it doesn’t apply to me. And so we find ourselves arguing with the Lord.  We think we know ourselves better than our Maker does. 

Peter should have remembered what Jesus said to him earlier; “Satan has demanded permission to sift you like wheat.”  It turns out that Satan didn’t have to use some great tool  to turn Peter.  He simply had to use the accusation of a little servant girl, and Peter ’s faith fell like a house of cards.  Because he was dependent upon his own strength. And Satan knows that though our spirit is willing, the flesh is weak.  To rely upon the Spirit, is to walk according to the word of God.  “Your word have I hid in my heart, that I might not sin against you.” (Psalm 119:11)  And Isaiah 45:9 says, “Woe to him who strives with his Maker!”  If the Lord said it, don’t be foolish enough to go against His wisdom in lieu of your own.  Let God be true, and every man a liar.

The third step in the progression to Peter’s betrayal is that he was sleeping when he should have been praying. Vs.37.  “And Jesus came and found them sleeping, and said to Peter, ‘Simon, are you asleep? Could you not keep watch for one hour? Keep watching and praying that you may not come into temptation; the spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak.’”  There is a saying that an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. And I suggest that one of the best ways to prevent falling away is by prayer.  It’s hard to be praying and fall into sin at the same time.

It’s interesting that Mark says that Jesus came to them three times to wake them up from their sleep.  You would think that they would have set themselves on fire in order to stay awake after the first time they fell asleep.  But instead, they seem to have become calloused.  They have no sense of urgency.  They forgot the admonition of Prov. 6:9-11 “How long will you lie down, O sluggard? When will you arise from your sleep?  “A little sleep, a little slumber, A little folding of the hands to rest”–  Your poverty will come in like a vagabond And your need like an armed man.”  Now in context, Solomon was talking about laziness in regards to work, but it certainly applies as well to spiritual poverty.  Phil.2;12 says we are to work out our salvation with fear and trembling.  Peter himself, though writing many years later in his last letter says, “be on your guard so that you are not carried away by the error of unprincipled men and fall from your own steadfastness.”

There are really only two sources of spiritual strength, prayer and the word of God.  And notice that Jesus puts a great deal of emphasis on prayer as the means of overcoming or resisting temptation. That’s when we confess with our mouth our faith.  That’s when we call upon the Lord to help us to stand, to keep us from falling.  And finally, I can’t help myself on this one, notice that Jesus says, “could you not keep watch for one hour?”  I’m amazed at the excuses that people come up with in regards to coming to church.  One hour a week, and that is too much it seems.  And then we don’t understand why we are having such problems in our lives. Jesus said the church should be a house of prayer.  Peter could have possibly prevented a lifetime of heart ache if he would have just made prayer a priority.  

There is an old song, “What A Friend We Have in Jesus.” The one line declares “O what needless pain we bare, all because we do not carry everything to God in prayer.”  Prayer is not just declaring what we want, but our submission to what God wants.  Jesus taught us to pray “Your will be done.” But ultimately, the error of Peter was he prioritized his physical needs above his spiritual needs. And I think that error is common to many of us. We prioritize the physical above the spiritual, and that leads us to fall away from the Lord.

Another step in the progression to failure of Peter’s faith, is that in the garden he relies upon physical weapons to fight a spiritual battle. Vs.47, “But one of those who stood by drew his sword, and struck the slave of the high priest and cut off his ear.”  That individual was Peter, according to the gospel of John.  And we would have expected no less.  They only had two swords among 12 disciples, but you would have expected that Peter made sure he would wear one of them. 

Listen, what happens when we walk in the strength of our flesh, in the wisdom of our mind, rather than in the wisdom of God and the Spirit of God, is that we then find ourselves fighting spiritual battles with fleshly methods.  And not only does that not work, it’s counterproductive to spiritual things.  We may think it makes perfect sense.  We may think we have figured out a method for dealing with a problem, but in the long run, it accomplishes nothing for the faith, or even results in outright disaster.  

Peter forgets that Jesus could have called 10,000 angels to defend Himself if He had wanted to do that.  This was a pretty large mob, it included not only the temple guards of the high priest, but also a group of Roman soldiers.  Peter’s efforts could have ended up getting him and the rest of the disciples killed.  And the sad part of that is, that it was not God’s will.  It was just the consequences of a headstrong, foolish determination on Peter’s part to do things according to what he thought was right.  It’s one thing to suffer for the Lord, it’s another to suffer the consequences of unspiritual thinking.  Peter learned his lesson here though, because many years later he writes; in 1Peter 3:17 “For it is better, if God should will it so, that you suffer for doing what is right rather than for doing what is wrong.”

The fact is that what seems like common sense to us is often not the method of the Lord. Isaiah 55:8-9  “For My thoughts are not your thoughts, Nor are your ways My ways,” declares the LORD. 9 “For as the heavens are higher than the earth, So are My ways higher than your ways And My thoughts than your thoughts.”  And Zechariah 4:6 speaks to that as well, “Not by might nor by power, but by My Spirit,’ says the LORD of hosts.”

The fifth step in Peter’s progression to denial is found in vs54, which says Peter followed the Lord at a  distance. “Peter had followed Him at a distance, right into the courtyard of the high priest; and he was sitting with the officers and warming himself at the fire.”  After Jesus’s arrest in the garden, Peter fled with all the other disciples.  But then he sort of doubled back and followed the mob back to the high priest’s house.  But whereas in the garden, Peter was right beside the Lord, now he is following at what he thought to be a safe distance. 

Listen, there is no safe distance to be from the Lord.  The further you are from the Lord, the more unsafe it is.  If you think you are in a comfortable place with the Lord, then you are about to get a lot more uncomfortable.  James said, “Draw near to God, and He will draw near to you.”  But we often think that we don’t want to end up looking like a religious nut, so we find ourselves a comfortable distance from the Lord, where we think we are still close enough to hear Him and see Him, but not too close for comfort, and not so close as to bring undue scrutiny upon ourselves by the world.  We follow at a distance when our hearts are not fully given to the Lord.  We think we are ok being half way.  But that’s a dangerous place to be.

The truth is, we need to be as close as being in the same yoke with the Lord if we are going to have any safety.  It’s much safer to be close to the Lord than close to the world.  The world hates you, if you are a Christian.  Satan is your mortal enemy and looking for an opportunity to devour you, to sift you like wheat.  And when you start hanging near the back of the herd, and then straggling a few dozen yards behind everyone else, the devil’s ears prick up and he begins to stalk you, looking for the right moment to attack.  But poor old Peter has to learn the hard way.  His prideful confidence regarding his own resources is his downfall, and already he has started to pick up the pace in his descent.

The devil is always going to tempt you to think that you can go over there and still be ok.  You can do this or that and still be a Christian.  He uses the allure of the world to lure you further and further from being in communion with the Lord.  It reminds me of the story of a rich man that was hiring a new chauffeur to drive his limousine.  And so he came up with a test course to see how well each applicant could drive.  And the road near his mansion had a hairpin curve around a mountain, with a sharp cliff off the side of the road.  The first driver drove his car pretty fast around the curve, and got within a few feet of the guardrail without skidding out.  The second driver decided he needed to outdo the first, so he went even faster and got within a foot of the edge of the road, and he made it fine.  The third driver drove very slowly around the curve, and he stayed as far away as possible from the edge of the road.  Well, the rich man hired the last driver.  He had no interest in seeing how close he could come to running off the road.  He wanted a driver that would stay as far away as possible from danger.

Now that’s the attitude that we need to have.  When we want to see how close to the world we can get and not end up in trouble, then we are playing right into the devil’s hands.  Our desire should  not be to see how close we can live to this world, but how close we can live to Jesus.

Finally, we see Peter warming himself and sharing a fire with the Lord’s enemies. Psalms 1:1 tells us that there is a progression to falling away from the Lord.  It says, “Blessed [is] the man Who walks not in the counsel of the ungodly, Nor stands in the path of sinners, Nor sits in the seat of the scornful.”  Notice that there is a progression; walking in the counsel of the ungodly, then standing in the path of sinners, then finally sitting in the seat of the scornful.  Peter made the same mistakes.  He walked afar off.  He stood near the fire.  Then finally he is seated with and sharing the fire with the very men that are enemies of the Lord.

Trying to find friendship with the world is always a sign of having moved away from a close relationship with the Lord.  And when we find ourselves sitting by the fire of the world, we find ourselves dangerously close to denial of the Lord.  James 4:4 says “Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Whoever therefore wants to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God.”  

Peter found himself sitting by the fire of the enemies of Christ, the very servants of the high priests who would strike the Lord repeatedly as He was blindfolded, and without realizing it he had put himself in a position to readily deny the Lord, not just once, but three times.

Yet I am sure that none of us today would think that we would ever deny the Lord.  Oh, everyone else may deny the Lord, but I never will.  Yet we may already have denied the Lord either by our words or our actions.  We may have denied HIs word, by not doing what He says, by thinking that His word doesn’t apply to me.  We may have denied Him by avoiding spending time with Him in prayer as He desires.  We may deny Him by the way we talk, or the way we act when we are around the world. No body can tell that we are a Christian.

Notice, that the more the enemies by the fire accused Peter of being with the Lord, the more incensed he became, until he finally begins to curse and swear.  Now cursing and swearing can be a sign of a heart that is far from the Lord, but I don’t think Peter was necessarily saying curse words.  The commentators tell us that Peter was swearing by God, and pronouncing a curse upon himself if he was not telling the truth, that he did not know the Lord.  That’s really a lot worse than saying a couple of four letter words.  It’s hard to imagine Peter falling that far, that fast.  Yet as we saw, it really wasn’t an immediate thing.  It was a downhill slide that started some time before with an attitude of pride.

I think Mark is careful to point out the contrast between Jesus speaking under oath in the inner courtroom and Peter’s oath in the courtyard. Jesus said he was the Messiah, the Son of God, and Peter denied that he knew Jesus at all.  If there is anything good that comes out of this situation, it is that Peter’s pride was broken that night.  He realized when the cock crowed the second time that what Jesus had prophesied concerning him had come true.  His spirit was willing, but his flesh was weak.  Luke tells us that when the cock crowed, Jesus looked at Peter.  And I’m sure that look broke his heart, because Mark tells us that he ran out and wept.  

Sometimes, God has to break us before He can use us.  I heard the story of a famous conductor who had written a beautiful love song, and a  young woman was chosen to sing it in his presence at a rehearsal.  The woman was very talented, and she sang the song perfectly.  But when the friends of the conductor asked him what he thought of her rendition, he said, “She will be great when something happens to break her heart.”  

In the life of faith, whereby we walk by faith and not by sight, it is not enough to simply believe with your mind the facts of Jesus’s life.  But  a necessary component to faith is repentance, and that comes not simply from sorrow, but from brokenness over your sinfulness.  Recognizing as Paul said, that there is nothing good in you.  And yet the Lord still loves you, and has died for you, so that He might purchase you for His own.  Brokenness is the key to usefulness. Brokenness is realizing that the flesh is worthless.  Jesus said in John 6:63 “It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh profits nothing; the words that I have spoken to you are spirit and are life.”

Even Peter’s professed love for the Lord was not able to sustain him in his time of trial because he was dependent upon his flesh, on human abilities and human resources, to carry him through. In the hour of crisis, even love was not really effective in keeping him close to the Lord. Love and loyalty and determination mean nothing when they rest on the shaky foundation of the  human will.  Our steadfastness is not dependent upon our will power, but on the power of the Holy Spirit, who works in us through prayer and the word of God. 

When I look at the lives of many Christians today, I am afraid for them because they depend upon the flesh.  They exhibit sentimentalism instead of sacrificial love. They evaluate spiritual things with worldly appraisals. They propose fleshly methods for dealing with spiritual problems. But God choses to work in the Spirit, which is contrary to the flesh.  Jesus said, “God is Spirit, and they that worship Him must worship Him in spirit and in truth.”  

But we bring fleshly desires into the church, we bring the world’s perspective into the church, and like Peter slashing with the sword, we try to fight spiritual battles with worldly weapons.  And like Peter, it leads to our spiritual destruction.  That’s why Paul could say, that he gloried in his weakness.  Notice he doesn’t say he gloried in his sinfulness.  He was not glad he was weak, but in recognition of his weakness he knew his dependency was in Christ.  And so he dared not stray from  closeness to Christ.

Paul goes on to say in 2Cor. 12:5, 9-10  “On behalf of such a man I will boast; but on my own behalf I will not boast, except in regard to my weaknesses. … 9 And He has said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for power is perfected in weakness.” Most gladly, therefore, I will rather boast about my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may dwell in me.  Therefore I am well content with weaknesses, with insults, with distresses, with persecutions, with difficulties, for Christ’s sake; for when I am weak, then I am strong.”  The source to our spiritual strength is our utter dependence upon Christ dwelling in me and my fellowship with Him through prayer and through His word.

The late Paul Harvey used to end his popular radio broadcasts by saying, “And now you know the rest of the story…”  The chapter ends with Peter going out and weeping bitter tears at denying Christ.  But I want to leave you with the rest of the story.  Jesus, after He was resurrected, made a special  private visit to Peter in order to restore him to Himself again.  And then, one more time before His ascension, Jesus made another appearance as Peter and the disciples were fishing, and this time Jesus publicly restored Peter not only to fellowship with Him, but also usefulness to the kingdom. Once Peter recognized his weakness, and repented of his pride and self sufficiency, then the Lord could use him.

The good news is, that if you have seen in yourself some parallel today in the life of Peter, you recognize that you have started slipping away from fellowship with the Lord, then there is the invitation of Christ to be renewed and restored to usefulness.  And that starts with repentance.  David, who also fell away and by his actions denied the Lord, prayed a prayer of repentance in Psalm 51, 10 “Create in me a clean heart, O God, And renew a steadfast spirit within me. … 12 Restore to me the joy of Your salvation And sustain me with a willing spirit. … 17 The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; A broken and a contrite heart, O God, You will not despise.”

The Lord is willing to forgive and restore all who come to Him in faith and repentance.  

I am sure that the passage of scripture that we are looking at today is familiar territory for most of you.  I assume everyone here has at least a basic knowledge of the trial of Jesus Christ. 
But I want to look at the historical context in a moment, and make sure we understand that correctly.  And then ultimately, I want to apply the spiritual principles that I think are incorporated in the text.  However, since we have already read the text, I think it will be helpful if we identify what the crux of this passage is teaching before launching into our exposition.

And I would suggest that the crux of this section deals with the identity of Jesus of Nazareth.  That is what He was on trial for. And the application to us is to ask each of you here today, who do you say that Jesus Christ is? What do you believe about Jesus?

I heard of a small girl that was in the children’s section of a big bookstore one day, and she was busily drawing with a box of crayons, and the clerk came over and asked the child what she was drawing. The little girl said, “I am drawing a picture of God.” “But how do you know what God is like?” the clerk said. “That,” said the little girl, “is why I’m drawing him. I want to find out.” She was making up her own mind about what God should be like. And very often when people come to the testimony of scripture that is the kind of attitude that they have. They do not come seeking to learn, but they come seeking to substantiate some preconceived ideas that they have concerning Him.

But the scripture says that Jesus is the exact manifestation of God in human flesh. Heb 1:1-3 says, “God, after He spoke long ago to the fathers in the prophets in many portions and in many ways, in these last days has spoken to us in His Son, whom He appointed heir of all things, through whom also He made the world. And He is the radiance of His glory and the exact representation of His nature, and upholds all things by the word of His power. When He had made purification of sins, He sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high.”

But the question of who do you say that Jesus is, is of upmost importance, because the scriptures teach that believing in Christ is the basis for salvation. Jesus says in John 3:16, “For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believes in Him might have everlasting life.” So believing in Jesus constitutes faith, and faith is the means of salvation. 

Jesus says virtually the same thing on several other occasions, one of which is John 11:26 “everyone who lives and believes in Me will never die.”  And Paul makes the same assertion in 1Tim. 1:16 “Jesus Christ might demonstrate His perfect patience as an example for those [who would believe in Him for eternal life.”  Paul and Silas said in Acts 16:31, “Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved, you and your household.” I could give you many more references to the fact that belief or faith in Christ is the basis for salvation, but I would hope that is already a settled doctrine for you all, and so I don’t need to belabor it.  

However, the question could be legitimately asked, to what degree must belief be developed to be saving faith?  In other words, at what point does one believe unto salvation?  What constitutes saving faith? Is it merely believing in a historical Jesus?  The fact He lived on earth 2000 years ago is supported by virtually irrefutable evidence.  Even many historians who are for the most part atheists are in agreement that the facts of history indicate that Jesus lived and died on earth 2000 years ago.  They believe that He lived, yet they are not Christians by their own admission.

In fact, even non Christian Jewish historians and scholars do not doubt that Jesus lived.  The Jews have nothing to gain from accepting that Jesus lived.   But rather than try to deny His existence, the Jews simply deny that He was the Messiah, and they try to deny that they contrived His death.  To quote Haim Cohn, an internationally famous expert in Jewish legal tradition, he said that Annas and Caiphas, the high priests mentioned in our text, “Did all that they possibly and humanly could to save Jesus, whom they dearly loved and cherished as one of their own.” (quoted by Hendricksen, NTC Mark)  So most Jewish scholars believe that Jesus lived, they just refute the gospel’s account of their actions towards Him.

And of course, the other great universal religion, Islam, believes that Jesus was a notable prophet of God.  They believe that He lived and taught the scriptures. And yet they are not Christians. So the three world religions, Judaism, Islam, and of course Christianity, are all in agreement that Jesus lived and existed as the Bible teaches.  Yet by no means do all adherents of those religions claim to be saved.

So if we were to draw a diagram which has a horizontal line denoting belief, and at the left end we write the words absolute agnostic, meaning as much of an agnostic as possible, and on the right end we write absolute saving faith, meaning saved beyond a doubt, at what point towards believing would you place a mark on the line to indicate when a person is saved?  Does one have to have full complete faith, full knowledge of all doctrines, full understanding of all  theology in order to be granted saving faith?  Or is it somewhere further down on the line?  Is is perhaps way down at the first dawning of belief?  I must confess that I often wrestle with that. The fact is that I cannot say with absolute certainty where exactly you should make a mark on that line.  I suppose that only God knows for sure where that mark is.  That doesn’t mean that you cannot be sure of your salvation, because I believe you have the inner witness of the Holy Spirit to assure you of that.  But I don’t think that you can necessarily determine with certainty others salvation based on their point on that line. Only God can do that because only God can judge the heart. 

However, I think that the minimum that you must believe to be saved is delineated in Romans 10:9 which says, “that if you confess with your mouth Jesus [as] Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved; for with the heart a person believes, resulting in righteousness, and with the mouth he confesses, resulting in salvation.”

However, I did think of an illustration of what I think common belief vs saving faith might look like. When I was a kid, I used to like to fish in some of the ponds near my home in NC.  We were not very sophisticated fishermen – we used a little Zebco spinning reel set up with a bobber and lead weight, which had a worm on a little hook as bait.  And I enjoyed watching that bobber bounce up and down in the water, signifying that a brim or bass was toying with my bait.  If the bobber ever disappeared, then I knew to pull back on the rod and hopefully catch a fish.

But as those of you who are fishermen know, the fact that the bobber is moving up and down doesn’t always mean that the fish swallowed the hook.  Lots of times, most of the time, in fact, the fish would come up and look at the bait, smell the bait, nibble at the bait, pull on the bait, but in the end it might spit it out and swim off.  Sometimes it would come back and go through the whole process again.  And you might never hook a fish, but you could get a lot of “bites”, as we used to call them.  

And that reminds me of the verse found in Heb. 6:4-6 “For in the case of those who have once been enlightened and have tasted of the heavenly gift and have been made partakers of the Holy Spirit,  and have tasted the good word of God and the powers of the age to come,  and then have fallen away, it is impossible to renew them again to repentance, since they again crucify to themselves the Son of God and put Him to open shame.”  Now a lot of theologians have a field day offering various interpretations of this verse, but I think it’s talking about people who have come to the faith, looked it over, smelled it, nibbled on it, but ultimately, they don’t swallow it, they end up spitting it out.  They have been given enough light to believe, they have been given enough conviction of the Holy Spirit to repent, they have been given enough evidence of the transforming power of salvation, yet they end up rejecting it.

Now I think there are a lot of so called Christians like that out there.  And I say “so called Christians” because they show by their lives that they are not really saved.  Because if you truly believe who Jesus is and what He has done on the cross to atone for your sins, if you truly believe that He is Lord, that He has sovereignty over your life, if you truly have saving faith, it will result in a change of heart, a change of nature, a change in direction and a changed life.  The Bible makes that clear.  When one is truly saved, they are converted, changed, and they have a new life.

Now that was a long introduction, but hopefully we answered the fundamental question of Jesus’ trial, and now we need to look at the historical context for a few minutes and then we will make application to us here today.  It helps to understand that there were actually two trials going on.  There was the ecumenical trial, which was the religious trial, and then the civic trial.  The high priests and the governing religious body of the Jews known as the Sanhedrin arrested Jesus, with the help of the temple police and also Roman soldiers.  The Jews could try a person for a religious crime, but they could not legally punish him.  They had to get the approval of the Roman governor to execute punishment, especially corporal punishment.

So they arrest Jesus sometime around midnight and they take him to a hearing with the father in law of the high priest named Annas.  Mark doesn’t include this fact, but John does. Then there is the trial before the Sanhedrin, which is the religious governing body made up of 70 persons, not all of whom were probably there since it was held before dawn.  Those were illegal trials, by the way.  It was illegal to try someone before dawn. So there was another trial after daybreak with the high priest Caiaphas. Then there were three stages in the civil trial, first before Pilate, then before Herod, and back to Pilate again.  

In the ecumenical trial, they focus on getting the verdict of blasphemy.  At the civil trial, they try to accuse Him of insurrection and treason against Caesar. But our passage only focuses on the ecumenical trial today.  We are told at the outset that Peter follows at a distance and ends up in the courtyard of the high priest’s house, sitting with the officers by the fire.

Now I am not a legal expert on Judaic law.  However, I will say that most experts in such things concur that this trial was a travesty of justice.  It was an illegal trial, the witnesses were made up of the judges, who were also the prosecuting attorneys, It was held during the Feast, which was forbidden, and no conviction was allowed at night, but yet they proceed to do so.

They also attempt to get Jesus to incriminate Himself. In vs 60 they try to get Him to tell them what the charges were that were being made against Him.  And Mark tells us that their testimonies do not match up.  They also misquote Jesus in vs58. They say, “We heard Him say, ‘I will destroy this temple made with hands, and in three days I will build another made without hands.’” Actually, the words of Jesus according to John 2:19 were, “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.” The Jews then said, “It took forty-six years to build this temple, and will You raise it up in three days?” But He was speaking of the temple of His body.”

Their hope was to accuse Him of defaming the temple.  After all, they were very angry that He had just cleaned out the temple of the money changers and vendors.  That was their own business enterprise that He had disrupted.

In vs 60 the high priest asked “Do You not answer? What is it that these men are testifying against You?” But He kept silent and did not answer.”  Jesus knows that they are not interested in truth, but in proving their falsehoods.  So He does not answer them. 

The point that needs to be understood though, is that from the very beginning they have already made up their minds about Jesus.  The trial was never an attempt to uncover the truth, but simply an attempt to justify their desire to kill Him.  They had already decided that they would not accept Him as the Messiah, they hated Him without a cause, and they wanted to kill Him. All the evidence in the world wasn’t going to change their minds.  And so in that respect, the religious leaders are an example of those who do not believe in Jesus Christ.  They rejected who He really was because they saw Him as a threat to their position of authority in the nation.

So Caiaphas is irritated over the fact that Jesus does not answer these charges, but in fact Jesus is fulfilling the prophecy of Isaiah 53:7, which says, “He opened not His mouth.”  So in reality, their trial is really turning out to be a farce, until Caiaphas finally asks Him the key question.  This question was really the point of the whole trial and they finally come straight out with it; “Are You the Christ, the Son of the Blessed One?”  How many times had they asked Him this during His ministry.  “Tell us plainly, if you are the Christ.” (John 10:24)  

Now up to this point, Jesus had not publicly come out with that declaration in no uncertain terms.  Others had declared this to be true, such as the disciples, and Jesus had confirmed that such a declaration came from God.  He had also defended those who called “Hosanna to the Son of David,” which was another title for the Messiah.  He had called Himself the “stone which the builders rejected, which has become the cornerstone” which was a key prophecy of the Messiah.  And He had told the woman in Samaria that He was the Messiah.  But in Jerusalem especially He had not made such an outright claim to being the Messiah to the religious leaders.

But now that HIs hour had come, now that events had transpired to bring Him to the cross as determined by the plan of God, it was the appropriate time to make that declaration. Other questions that are asked in the trials of the Jews and Romans were not of concern to Him.  Their minds were already made up.  But this question was one that He was ready to declare openly and plainly – that He was the Messiah, and all that title represented.

And notice something interesting in their question before we move to Jesus’s answer.  We can see by their question that they considered the Messiah and the Son of God to be analogous. Therefore according to Jewish theology, they considered that the Messiah had to be the Son of God, therefore being equal with God.  Modern liberal theologians who try to make a distinction between being the Messiah or the Son of God do so contrary to Jewish theology, which was the governing principle in this trial as well as in Christ’s declaration.

So notice Jesus’s answer.  In fact, He goes further than just answering their question.  He declares another prophecy concerning Himself and the nature of His Kingdom. Vs.62, And Jesus said, “I am; and you shall see THE SON OF MAN SITTING AT THE RIGHT HAND OF POWER, and COMING WITH THE CLOUDS OF HEAVEN.”

Now what Jesus says is important, but especially in regards to what constitutes saving faith in Christ. This declaration of Jesus is crucial for defining our faith.  So let’s break it down.  First, in answering simply “I Am”, Jesus is speaking volumes.  He not only claims to be the Messiah, the Anointed One, but He also makes claim to the personal name of God that was given to Moses out of the burning bush, “I am that I am.” 

But I also think that Jesus is saying that as a reminder of a previous answer that He gave the Pharisees in Jerusalem two years earlier. At that time, Jesus said to them in John 8:58 “Truly, truly, I say to you, before Abraham was born, I am.” On that occasion they tried to stone Him to death, and now He states His eternal nature again, and this time they will succeed in killing Him.

Secondly, in the next part of His answer, Jesus quotes from two different scriptures.  One part of His answer refers to Psalm 110, verse 1.  “The LORD said unto my Lord, Sit thou at my right hand, until I make thine enemies thy footstool.” Jesus has said you shall see the Son of Man sitting on the right hand of power.  He is claiming the ultimate throne of His kingdom.  It is a spiritual kingdom of God through which the Messiah rules the world, in the hearts of His people.  It is the throne which is above every throne, above all rule and authority, and certainly above the rule and authority of these corrupt, evil religious rulers.  It is the throne to which those who believe in Him must bow.

And He is making the claim that not only is he the Messiah, but no matter if they kill Him, they are going to see Him on HIs throne. He is going to be raised from the dead triumphant, and he is going to sit on the right hand of the Majesty on high. And when He comes with the clouds, He refers not only to His second coming, but coming in judgment upon the world.

The other text Jesus refers to is found in Dan.7:13, “I saw in the night visions, and, behold, one like the Son of man.”  In referring to Himself as the Son of Man in this context, Jesus is alluding to the prophecy of Daniel, especially that which says in vs14,”And to Him was given dominion, Glory and a kingdom, That all the peoples, nations and men of every language might serve Him. His dominion is an everlasting dominion which will not pass away; And His kingdom is one which will not be destroyed.” So Son of Man is a Messianic title that they would have been familiar with.

Now, I would suggest that Jesus’s answer to the high priest  is the definitive answer to what constitutes saving faith. Believing in Jesus Christ then by His own standard is recognizing that He is God, the great I Am, He is the Son of God, which according to the testimony of the Jews meant that He was equal with God in all respects, and that He is the Son of Man, meaning that He became flesh and dwelt among us, that He might become our substitute, so that He might die on our behalf that we might be made the children of God, to become His kingdom, that we might live for Him and serve Him and rule with Him in His eternal kingdom, which shall never pass away.  All of that constitutes saving faith, what it means to believe in Jesus.

Well, the Jews rejected that outright.  They refused to believe.  In fact, Caiaphas makes a great show out of rending his garment, which was done in a prescribed way to show grief.  But in actuality he wasn’t experiencing grief, I think he was happy that Jesus had made this confession, because he could now condemn Him of blasphemy.

Mark 14:63  Tearing his clothes, the high priest said, “What further need do we have of witnesses?”You have heard the blasphemy; how does it seem to you?” And they all condemned Him to be deserving of death.”

Their judgement towards Christ, in spite of all the evidence that He had provided during His three years of ministry that He was the Messiah, was to reject it, to claim blasphemy and condemn Him to death.  I believe that they actually knew that He was the Messiah, and yet in spite of the evidence, wanted to kill Him because He did not fit into their plans and He threatened their power and position.  I believe they knowingly put to death the Son of God.  I can’t be dogmatic about that.  However, I believe ample evidence was there, and more than enough prophecy concerning the Messiah had been fulfilled that they had to have known about. But they rejected it.

Well, the hatred of these self righteous religious leaders had come to the boiling point, to where they could actually bring about the murder of the Messiah.  They take this opportunity to spit on Him, to punch Him, to strike Him.  They even blindfolded Him and then hit Him, while asking “who hit you?”  They truly revealed the evil nature of their hearts.  Their hatred towards Christ had become murderous.

Well, we must close.  But let me try to apply this to us today if I can.  Let’s imagine that you are the judge and jury at the trial of Jesus Christ.  You are the one that must decide who you will say that Jesus is. Who do you say that He is?  It is not enough to recognize that He was a good teacher.  Or that He was a miracle worker and prophet who lived 2000 years ago.  By the words of Jesus own mouth, He declared Himself to be the same God that appeared to Moses in the burning bush 2000 years before. He was the same God that existed before Abraham. He is the same God that existed with God since the beginning of the world. He is either crazy, or a liar, or He is the great “I Am”, the eternal God.

Jesus claims to be the Son of God.  He answered that question of Caiaphas in the affirmative.  That claim makes Him the equal with God. He told the disciples that He and the Father are One. That if you have seen Him, you have seen the Father. He is the author of salvation.  He is the Sent One, the Anointed One, the Lamb of God that takes away the sin of the world, who redeems to Himself a people from every tribe and nation. He is the Lord God Almighty,  seated at the right hand of the Father on the throne of God above all power and rule and authority.  And by that claim, He claims sovereignty over our lives.  If we believe in Him as Lord then we will be His people who serve Him. And He is coming again in power and glory for His chosen people.  That is the definition of faith in Jesus Christ, or believing in Jesus Christ, as defined by Jesus.  

How do you judge Him by that statement?  Do you believe in  Him?  The Jews didn’t believe Him and they thought they could condemn Him.  But in actuality they condemned themselves. John 3:18 says “He who believes in Him is not condemned; but he who does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.”

If you believe in Him, in all that He claimed to be, then that faith is the means of justification.  “For by grace are you saved through faith, and that not of yourselves, it is a gift of God, not of works, lest any man should boast.”  I pray that no one tasting of the truth  today hardens their hearts, and spits out the truth of God, and goes away from this place unsaved.  Jesus came to earth to save sinners, and He has paid the price for your sin, that whosoever believes in Him might be saved.  Let’s pray.

We are looking today, in our ongoing study of the book of Mark, at the night before the death of Jesus Christ.  It is the night of His betrayal.  Actually, there are multiple betrayals.  We are all familiar with the betrayal by Judas, but we will see that before the night is over, all of Jesus’ disciples will have deserted Christ.  Now remember that at the beginning of that evening, which was Thursday evening, Jesus and His disciples observed the Passover.  It was customary for the Galileans to observe the Passover supper on Thursday, and the Judeans would observe it on Friday.  Hence Jesus was able to observe the Passover on Thursday, and change it’s symbolism to the Lord’s Supper in so doing, and then the next day, Friday, He was able to offer Himself as the Passover Lamb for the sins of the world.  God’s timing was impeccable, planned in infinite detail since before creation, and Jesus knew exactly what and when all things pertaining to His death would occur.  

I believe that realization on the part of Jesus of the exact details of His death is very important for us to understand.  Some theologians seem to love to portray Christ as an unwilling, and unwitting victim.  But we will see that Christ showed unwavering courage and commitment to the Father’s will, and even more so because He fully knew the horrors set before Him.  Jesus was no coward, He knew what was coming, and yet He courageously set His face towards the cross and no power on Earth could have stopped Him from laying down His life.  And He did that not only because He loved the Father and wanted to do His will, but also because He loved us, and He wanted to obtain for us the price of our redemption.

Another indication that Jesus fully knew what was ahead of Him, is because it was traditional at the close of the Passover meal to sing the Hallel, which was the hymn they sang before going out on the Mt. of Olives.  The Hallel comes from Psalms, and particularly we see in Psalm 118: 27 “Bind the festival sacrifice with cords to the horns of the altar.”  In Psalm 116, the same hymn, we read in vs 3 “The cords of death encompassed me And the terrors of Sheol (Hades) came upon me; I found distress and sorrow.”   I would suggest that if you read the entire Hallel, you will understand that Jesus faced the knowledge of His death with courage and commitment, and He left the Upper Room after singing His battle song, the Hallel, then He  headed for the Mt. of Olives.

As the disciples followed Jesus out of the Upper Room, headed towards the Mount of Olives, it was dark, and they wound their way through the streets of Jerusalem towards the Kidron Brook, which already was flowing red with blood as the temple mount and the altars drained directly into it.  And as they waded across this bloody brook by the moonlight, Jesus said to them, “You will all fall away, because it is written, ‘I WILL STRIKE DOWN THE SHEPHERD, AND THE SHEEP SHALL BE SCATTERED.’ But after I have been raised, I will go ahead of you to Galilee.”

Jesus is quoting from a passage in the Old Testament, in Zechariah 13:7.  I suggest to you that it is the Spirit of Christ who was the author of that prophecy, so it is no surprise that Jesus knows it by heart.  Peter writes later in 1Peter 1:10-11 “As to this salvation, the prophets who prophesied of the grace that would come to you made careful searches and inquiries,  seeking to know what person or time the Spirit of Christ within them was indicating as He predicted the sufferings of Christ and the glories to follow.” So Jesus Himself was the author of the prophecies concerning His death. 

And I make much of this principle of the deity of Christ and His divine nature which is spoken of in Hebrews 1:3, because it is important that we understand that it must be God that dies on the cross in order to effect our salvation.  Jesus, if just a man, was no more than just a martyr. Many people have died as martyrs, even many people have died on a cross.  Jesus had to be God in human form in order to effect our salvation through His death.

There is nothing inherently holy in crucifixion. There was an article  in the news some time ago about a primitive and superstitious culture in the Philippines which every year before Easter act out several crucifixions.  They actually flagellate themselves as they walk on these marches, and then it culminates with several of them being tied to a cross and then nails driven into their hands.  The sad thing is that such sacrifice and suffering does nothing in regards to obtaining justification or holiness.  They are suffering needlessly.  Only a holy, righteous God can atone for sin.   And Jesus was the divine, spotless, Lamb of God that takes away the sins of the world. 

Notice also in this statement of Christ in vs 27,28, that Jesus predicts not only their falling away, but also His death and resurrection, and also the regathering of the disciples afterwards. He says in vs28 “But after that I am risen, I will go before you into Galilee.” He knows all that is going to happen before it happens. It is all going according to a divine plan.

However, Peter doesn’t believe Him. Peter says that even though all the other guys may fall away, that He would never fall away.  I want you to notice some dangerous attributes that Peter exhibits in this statement.  First, he disregards the word of the Lord.  God has given us His word, even His commandments as warnings that we need to heed.  But how often do we brush aside the word of God in view of our own confidence?  We think we know better than the Lord.  The word  says, do not be unequally yoked; we say, we don’t see a problem with it.  The word says, do not be drunk with wine, we say, a few drinks won’t hurt you.  The words says, do not commit fornication, we say, that’s unrealistic in today’s culture.  How foolish Peter was to brush aside so easily the word of the Lord.  And how foolish we are today when we think what the Bible says doesn’t really apply to us, or that there won’t really be any consequences when we disregard it.

Secondly, another dangerous attribute of Peter is that he shows a superior attitude towards his fellow disciples. “They may fall away, but I never will.”  We often do the same thing, don’t we?  We look down at others who have fallen into sin, and yet somehow think that we are above such a thing.  We routinely think that what we do isn’t really so bad.  We conveniently forget how often we sin against God. As I said the other day, we should never see a person enslaved to some grievous sin, without saying, “There, but for the grace of God, go I.”  The scriptures say, “there is no temptation overtaken you, but such as is common to man.”  It’s a dangerous thing to look down upon others while thinking that you are above such things.

The third dangerous attribute of Peter is that he shows that he doesn’t know himself. He has an inflated, conceited opinion of himself as events are going to show. Prov. 16:18 says pride goes before a fall.  Peter is controlled by his ego. Ego is self esteem.  And I think ego is the opposite of humility.  Humility should be the guiding principle of the life of a Christian, not your self esteem. Self esteem doesn’t really think you are that bad. Self esteem makes you think you’re not a sinner.  Self esteem is just a nicer word for pride. And self esteem wants others to confirm or build up your ego.  It’s really a terrible sin that is not often repented of or recognized for what it is. But pride is the original sin, and it’s insidiously rampant among Christians.

Jesus then rebukes Peter with an even more detailed prophecy of the hours to come. “Truly I say to you, that this very night, before a rooster crows twice, you yourself will deny Me three times.”  Jesus is referring to the third watch of the night, between midnight and 3am.  That’s pretty specific, I would say.  And yet Peter denies the word of the Lord again, with an even stronger emphasis, “Even if I have to die with you, I will not deny you.” Though Peter did not know himself, yet the Lord knew his heart.  And notice that Mark says, the other disciples said the same thing.  Yet in just a few hours, all would desert Him and flee.  

How many of us confidently assert that we will never be untrue to the Lord, yet find ourselves later forsaking Him and His word. We do not know our hearts.  Jeremiah 17:9 says “The heart [is] deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?” The point that needs to be made if we are to fully understand what is going on in Gethsemane and then at Calvary, is that we are all utterly sinful.  The word of the Lord says in Romans 3:10-12 as it is written, “THERE IS NONE RIGHTEOUS, NOT EVEN ONE; THERE IS NONE WHO UNDERSTANDS, THERE IS NONE WHO SEEKS FOR GOD;  ALL HAVE TURNED ASIDE, TOGETHER THEY HAVE BECOME USELESS; THERE IS NONE WHO DOES GOOD, THERE IS NOT EVEN ONE.” Six times the word of God says “there is none.”  That includes you. Not your neighbor, but you are a depraved sinner.  And in Isaiah 53:6, “All of us like sheep have gone astray, Each of us has turned to his own way.”  And furthermore, the word of God says in Romans 6:23 that “the wages of sin is death.” So the sinful man is cut off from God, without hope, and fully deserving of the punishment of eternal death away from God.  

There is no hope in good works, there is no hope in being better than your neighbor, there is no hope in religion.  There is no way to atone for your sins. The only hope is that God will have mercy and forgive us.  But God cannot wink at sin.  God cannot break His own law. If God is a good God, then God must also be a just God. And the justice of God must be meted out towards sinners.  There is only one way for us to escape the judgement that we rightly deserve.  That is if God might transfer our iniquity on another, who takes our place, and punish Him, so that we might go free.  And that is exactly the point of the gospel.  Isaiah 53:6 says, “God has laid on him the iniquity of us all.” And 2Corinthians 5:21 says, “God made [Jesus], who knew no sin, to become sin for us, that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him.”  God did not stop counting sin, He just stopped counting my sins against me, and He counted them against Christ. That is the symbolism of the Passover, the innocent spotless lamb dying in the place of the guilty.

I believe that our iniquity, the sins of the world, began to be placed on Jesus that very night in the Garden of Gethsemane.  Gethsemane is a garden on the Mount of Olives, and as you might expect in an olive grove, it was the place where there was an oil press, where the olives were taken to be pressed into olive oil.  In fact, that is what the name Gethsemane literally means, an oil press.  I believe that what happened there that night was the fulfillment, at least in part, of the prophecy in Isaiah 53:10, which says, “But the LORD was pleased To crush Him, putting Him to grief; If He would render Himself as a guilt offering.” “The LORD has caused the iniquity of us all to fall on Him.”  It was there, in the Garden of Gethsemane, the Lord began to crush Him, putting Him to grief for our sins.  The guilt of the world began to crush Him, until as Luke 22:44 tells us, “And being in an agony he prayed more earnestly: and his sweat was as it were great drops of blood falling down to the ground.”

Notice that Mark says, after Jesus left some disciples and went off by Himself to pray, that he says Jesus was greatly distressed and troubled. I don’t think that the English translation does that phrase justice. I think it could be better translated, filled with horror and anguish. Jesus goes on to say to Peter, James and John who went a little further with Him, “I am overwhelmed with sorrow to the point of death.”  Then Mark says that Jesus going further still, alone, He threw Himself to the ground and prayed, “Father all things are possible for you, remove this cup from Me; yet not what I will, but what You will.”

Now what is going on here? How does one sorrow to the point of death? Can extreme grief kill someone? I suppose it can. But didn’t Jesus know that this suffering was coming?  Is He now wishing for another way out?  Is He looking for a way to avoid the cross?  Is He crying because He is sick in fear of what is to come in the crucifixion?  I would answer – No! Never!  I think His anguish was not caused by anticipating the cross.  On the contrary, He was looking forward to it.  It was the purpose for which He came.  

No, I think that what was agonizing to Jesus was the horror of sin.  He had never known sin.  He had been always in perfect communion with the Father from eternity past.  Now He begins to know the burden of sin, the horror of sin, the weight of sin, upon His spotless, holy, righteous soul, and the anguish and horror of experiencing our sin  drove Him to the ground, and the weight of all our sins pressed down upon His soul until great drops of blood began to be sweated out of Him.  And in regards to that horror, previously unknown, Jesus calls out  “Abba, Father, all things are possible for You. Take this cup away from Me; nevertheless, not what I will, but what You will.”Jesus is calling out to the Father to remove, not the cross from Him, but the weight of sin from Him, that if there was any other way than to bear this unholy burden of sin then He would that God would do it.  Yet He is willing to bear it, as deemed necessary by the will of the Father.

I want you to see something else that is given to us in this passage for our instruction.  And that is the contrast in attitude between Jesus and the disciples regarding prayer.  Between the two, Jesus and the disciples, it would seem that the Lord needed prayer a lot less than the disciples.  But as the text illustrates, Jesus prays fervently, repeatedly, but the disciples repeatedly are found sleeping instead of praying.

Christ is the quintessential spiritual man, but the disciples are natural men in their actions and attitudes.  The disciples may have been saved, but they are still natural in the way that they view the world around them and their response to circumstances they find themselves in.  And so they do not obtain victory in their lives, because they fail to live by the Spirit, but instead they are walking according to the flesh.

An essential component of a victorious spiritual life is prayer. Prayer is spiritual conversation. Prayer is spiritual connection to God who is Spirit.  So when Jesus warns the disciples to be on the alert, because the spirit is willing but the flesh is weak, He is speaking to that very principle that it is necessary to be in the spirit, to be in communication with the Spirit of God, if we are going to be able to stand firm in the natural world. 

Ephesians 6 tells us that we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against angelic principalities and spiritual forces that are fighting against us.  And Paul’s list of the Christian armor gives us only two weapons that we might use in this spiritual battle that we are engaged in.  One is prayer and the other is the Word of God.  Paul has this to say in regards to prayer, “With all prayer and petition pray at all times in the Spirit, and with this in view, be on the alert with all perseverance and petition for all the saints, pray on my behalf, that utterance may be given to me in the opening of my mouth, to make known with boldness the mystery of the gospel.”  

So as we see this contrast between Jesus and the disciples. Jesus is praying fervently. Jesus is throwing Himself on the ground. He is crying, beseeching the Lord.  He is sweating drops of blood as He prays.  He prays repeatedly.  He prays for hours.  We have recorded elsewhere that many times Jesus prayed all night.  And also Jesus implores, practically begs the disciples to pray with Him and for Him.  So that is how Jesus prays in the Garden.  On HIs face in the dirt, crying with tears, sweating with drops of blood, for hours calling out to God. 

Then look at the disciples.  They were too sleepy to pray.  They were too conceited in their own strength to feel a need to pray.  They had physical, rational, normal, natural reasons to lay their heads down and go to sleep.  They just couldn’t see what Jesus was so worked up over.

I wonder which example is the one that is most like our spiritual life?  Do we tend to pray more like Jesus, or more like the disciples?  And let me point out one more thing about this prayer time.  Jesus says, “Keep watching and praying that you may not come into temptation; the spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak.”  Remember Jesus said earlier to Peter, “Satan has demanded permission to sift you like wheat, but I have prayed for you that your faith may not fail.”  Satan has demanded permission to sift you folks here today like wheat, to sift your children like wheat, to sift your spouse like wheat.  Have you prayed for them, that their faith may not fail?  Your fervent prayers may be the only thing that keeps them from falling.

The point that needs to be made is that if you are desiring to live the spiritual life, the victorious life, then it’s necessary to be proactive spiritually, and not reactive.  In other words, Jesus is saying that prayer now delivers from temptation later.  Prayer now delivers from trials later. I used to have a teacher who said, “Proper prior planning prevents poor performance.”  I think you could also revise that and say, “proper prior prayer prevents poor performance.” 

 The natural instinct is that you live the way you think makes sense now, you do what seems natural now, and then when things fall apart, then when consequences come, then when the crisis arises, then you pray.  But we need to be proactive in our prayer life, that we may not come into temptation. That’s the secret to a successful spiritual life, it’s praying at all times, in good times, when it seems there is no necessity to pray.  Pray at all times in the spirit. I will assure you of this, that if you are in prayer, it is highly unlikely that you will fall into temptation to sin. Prayer is resistance to sin.

Well, the time of trial comes unexpectedly for the disciples, even though they are weary, in fact, it deliberately comes in their weariness.  The devil always attacks us when we are weak.  When we are tired.  He hits us when we are down. And so Judas and the mob are approaching and Jesus who has been watching and praying hears them and says, “Get up, let us be going.  The one who betrays Me is at hand.”  

Some people point to this statement as evidence that Jesus wanted to flee the cross. But in fact the opposite is true.  Jesus wants to go out to meet them.  And as He does, Judas and the mob come up and Judas runs up to Jesus and greets Him with a kiss, which was the prearranged signal with the mob that this was Jesus whom they were supposed to arrest.  It’s only been a few hours since Jesus washed Judas’s feet in the Upper Room and served Him the Passover meal.  Judas went out into the night, told the High Priests that He knew where Jesus would be sleeping that evening, and was given this mob made up from the temple police and Roman soldiers.

Peter though is still determined that through sheer force of will he will not deny the Lord, in fact he will die with Him if necessary.  So he draws his sword and takes a swing at the nearest man and ends up cutting off his ear. Luke’s gospel tells us that Jesus healed the man’s ear and Matthew’s gospel tells us that Jesus rebuked Peter.   The point Jesus made in response to the mob and their arrest of Him was not to fight them with swords.  They came with swords and clubs.  They came with all the physical strength and weapons they could muster.  Peter thought that the disciples must fight fire with fire.  But Jesus doesn’t do that.  Instead, He says all this was done to fulfill scripture.  It was the Father’s plan not to fight against flesh and blood, but to fight against sin and death.  And Jesus would accomplish this great spiritual victory by delivering Himself over to death, so that He might experience the suffering and death that we all deserved, so that we might be given eternal life.  The enemy was sin and death, and Jesus would defeat sin through His righteousness and paying the penalty of our sin through His substitutionary death.

The disciples though, still seeing through physical, natural eyes, are totally taken aback at Jesus’s response.  They don’t understand the spiritual yet.  They are still operating in the natural realm.  They don’t see Jesus doing anything that is going to bring about victory, they think that Jesus is surrendering to the stronger power of the mob.  They think He’s raised the white flag of surrender.  And so they all flee.  

Almost as a footnote, Mark adds an autobiographical note in vs51 and 52.  He was the young man who escaped naked.  Not yet a disciple, just a young hanger on, eventually he would become mentored by Peter and become a valued asset to the church.  But like all the rest, he too deserted Christ that night.

I hope that you recognize in this passage of scripture we have studied today, why Jesus had to suffer and die.  Jesus suffered and died in our place, so that He might fulfill the justice of God, the wrath of God against sin which was poured out on Him.  And He did that so that we through faith in who He is, and what He has done, might be made righteous in Him.  I pray that you have accepted through faith this marvelous gift which Jesus purchased for us.  Saving faith is not just believing Jesus existed, but believing that His substitutionary death was sufficient to satisfy the judgement of God towards me.  And that assurance is given in that God raised Jesus from the dead, having satisfied all judgment.

And then secondly, I hope that you will be encouraged to walk in the Spirit, to live in the Spirit.  1Cor. 2:14-15 says “But a natural man does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually appraised.  But he who is spiritual appraises all things, yet he himself is appraised by no one.”  You want to live the victorious life over sin, which Jesus died to procure for us? Then walk in the Spirit, and you will not fulfill the desires of the flesh.  Pray at all times in the spirit.  Don’t be wise in your own estimation.  Don’t think too highly of your strength of will.  But put your faith and trust in the Lord and seek Him in all things and at all times.  And if we are diligent to do these things, then I believe it will ensure that we will never forsake the Lord.   

Today we are looking at the section of scripture in which Jesus institutes the Lord’s Supper.  It is called by various names in Christianity today. In some churches, it is the eucharist, in some, it is communion. All refer to the same ceremony, yet all do not observe it in the same way.  It is the belief of this church, and most conservative, evangelical Christian churches, that this ceremony is one of two essential ordinances for the church, the other being baptism.  In fact, some theologians have said that the identifying factors of the church are that it observes the preaching of the word and the observation of the ordinances. So it is important that we know how we are to observe the ordinance of communion, and why.

I believe that the answers to those questions can be found in this passage of scripture.  For the answer to how we are to observe it, I would point to the precursor of the Lord’s supper as the template from which it was established.  And as we se in vs12, it is the ceremony or ritual of the Jews that was known as the feast of Unleavened Bread.  And if you look back at vs 1 of chapter 14, you will see that the Passover and the feast of Unleavened Bread are presented as synonymous.  They refer to the same event, which is a week long celebration of Passover.  

The Passover was perhaps the most important ceremony celebrated in Israel.  It was observed in memory of the deliverance of Israel from captivity to Egypt. You will remember that Israel was held captive by Egypt for 430 years, and God raised up Moses to be their deliverer.  God, through Moses demanded that Pharaoh would let Israel go, but Pharaoh hardened his heart, even though God showed great signs and caused plagues to fall on the Egyptians.  Until at last the patience of God was finished, and God pronounced a final judgement saying that at midnight the death angel would pass through the land, and God would strike dead the firstborn son of whomever did not have the blood of the Passover lamb upon the door posts of their house.

But to provide for the salvation of Israel from the plague of death, God instituted an ordinance which required for the Israelites to take an unblemished lamb and slay it, and put some of the blood upon the doorposts of their house.  Then they were to roast the lamb whole in fire, and eat the lamb with a side dish of bitter herbs and with unleavened bread.  And the angel of death would passover the house that had the blood on the doorposts. Then as a perpetual commemoration of God’s deliverance, this meal was to be taken once a year on the first month of the year, as a way of remembering God’s deliverance of the Israelites from slavery and from death.  

And though all the Jews may not have understood all the full spiritual significance of the feast, other than the historical application, yet from our perspective we know that there were many symbols in the feast which were to be for our instruction.  Namely, that  as the scripture said in Hebrews 9:22, that without the shedding of blood there is no remission of sins. The unblemished Passover lamb that was to live with the Jews in their home for 3 days, and then be sacrificed was a substitute for sin.  It presented the principle of the innocent dying for the guilty.  God allowed for the spotless lamb to be slain for the sins of the  believing family.  The bitter herbs represented the bitter years of slavery to Egypt, which in turn represented the bitter years of enslavement to sin and the world.  And the symbol of unleavened bread represented the removal of sin; sin being signified by the removal of yeast which causes corruption in the bread, making it rise, or in the absence of it, causing it to be unleavened, or uncorrupted.

So the Passover was observed every year in Jerusalem, and Jesus has been heading for this particular observance since the day He began His ministry, referring often to His appointed hour, which was the exact time when the lamb would be slain during the Passover.  Now on the day of the feast, Jesus sends two of His disciples to prepare the meal in a room which He has designated for this important event.  And there is an aspect of mystery to Jesus’s instructions.  He says “Go into the city, and a man will meet you carrying a pitcher of water; follow him.”  It sounds like some clandestine arrangement like you would read about in a spy novel or something.  But actually, there is a reason why Jesus would want to keep the location secret, and that is that Judas was looking for a way to betray Him to the rulers. So in saying look for a man carrying a water pitcher, the disciples would readily recognize the incongruity of a man doing something which was typically something only women did, and in so following this man they would be taken to the house which the Lord had designated, without Jesus having to divulge it’s exact whereabouts ahead of time.  Now we don’t know whether or not Jesus had prearranged this, or whether it was His divine foreknowledge, but either way, it was something Christ had arranged, either through divine providence or prearrangement. 

And I believe it was by divine providence, as Christ is able to even tell them the details of the conversation they will have, and Mark tells us that they found everything just as Jesus said it would be.  And so they prepared everything for the Passover meal.  

When it was evening, Jesus came to the house with the rest of the disciples, all twelve of them being now present, and Jesus as the host would have conducted the ceremony.  The timing of this is Thursday evening, by the way.  I’ve heard some Bible scholars explain that the Galileans celebrated the Passover on Thursday evening, but the Judeans celebrated it on Friday. But in any event, according to the Jewish concept of time, the next day began at sundown of the previous day, so therefore Jesus could celebrate the customary meal with His disciples on what we would call Thursday evening, but then be sacrificed Himself on Friday as the Passover Lamb for the remission of sins, even as thousands of lambs were being slain in the temple.

Now according to John’s gospel account, Jesus first washes the disciples feet in preparation for the meal. It was customary to wash the guests feet before entering a house to eat.  And so Jesus takes on the position of a servant, that He might wash the disciples feet.  You can read that account in John 13 if you like, but I will not expound on that aspect of the evening except to point out one fact; and that is that Jesus also washed Judas’s feet.  If you want to know what love looks like, then look no further than at the humility of Jesus who washes the feet of the man whom He knows will betray Him that very night.  

And we see that divine omniscience of Jesus revealed in His remark as they were then seated and eating the meal, “Truly I say to you that one of you will betray Me—one who is eating with Me.”  Now this was a shocking statement, and it should be noted that the word betray means literally, to deliver over.  So it is clear what Jesus is saying, yet it is unclear of whom He is speaking of.

If this were a “who dunnit” mystery story then such a statement might draw conspiratorial glances around the dinner table, each of them appraising the criminal intentions of his neighbor.  But to their credit, it sparks intense introspection on the part of the disciples, as they each wonder whether or not they could be the culprit.  They show a healthy sense of self distrust.  They don’t think of themselves as too far above such a thing as disloyalty or even betrayal of their Lord.  

And I say such an attitude is healthy, because we should always have the mindset that we should not think of ourselves as being above temptation to some sin. We should always have a view towards anyone found in some public sin, that there, except for the grace of God, go I.   In fact, to some extent, everyone of them would desert Him that night.  And Peter would in fact publicly deny Him three times.  Betrayal is just one step further.

So they each ask with a sense of inner grief, “Surely, not I?” They grieve because they mourn their own lack of fortitude or certitude.  They know they are weak, but they pray that they are not that weak.  And Jesus does not immediately allay their fear.  Nor does He identify the culprit.  But Jesus allows a moment of introspection and examination.  And in 1 Corinthians 11:28, Paul warns that before taking the Lord’s Supper we too must take a moment to examine ourselves that we do not eat of the table of the Lord unworthily.  We need to take the time to examine ourselves, to look for the yeast which needs to be removed from the Lord’s house, whose house we are, if we are to properly celebrate what Jesus has done for us in His sacrifice.

Jesus gives an answer to their questions of “Is it I” by giving an ambiguous answer, “It is one of the twelve, one who dips with Me in the bowl.”  This was referring to the practice of eating a piece of bread dipped in the juices and herbs and meat.   He was referring to the unthinkable act of sharing His food and yet plotting His betrayal by one of His own friends and close acquaintances.

But though Jesus’ statement was meant to be ambiguous to the disciples, it must have cut like a knife to Judas, who had already planned to betray Jesus, and now understood that Jesus knew his heart.  It’s very likely that among the disciples none were more highly esteemed than Judas.  He was above reproach.  He was the treasurer, even though someone like Matthew, the former tax collector, had more experience with handling money.  Judas was a Judean, whereas all the others were Galileean.  Therefore he was probably from a higher level of society, was better educated, even possibly more noble in appearance. And yet we are reminded that God said, “man looks on the outward appearance, but God looks at the heart.”  And Jesus knew what Judas had planned in his heart.

And then Jesus adds a warning for Judas. “For the Son of Man is to go just as it is written of Him; but woe to that man by whom the Son of Man is betrayed! It would have been good for that man if he had not been born.”  Though the Christ had been prophesied in the scriptures that He would die, (in Isaiah 53 especially) yet Jesus is saying that Judas is still responsible for his actions. Though God appointed that Jesus would suffer for the sins of the world, yet still man who caused His suffering is responsible.  Nowhere in scripture does predestination cancel human responsibility. 

Jesus intended it as a warning to Judas, but also as an opportunity to repent.  Judas could still  have repented.  Perhaps even up to the moment Judas kissed Jesus as a signal to the mob later on that night, he could have still repented.  But like Pharaoh, Judas continued to harden his heart.

Well, at this point, Judas goes out of the room, and the other disciples thought that Jesus must have given him some mission to go buy something that was needed. And so Jesus resumes the Passover meal, and in so doing He institutes the ordinance of the Lord’s Supper.  And please note that I try to consistently use the term “ordinance.”  There is another word that is often heard in this regard which is “sacrament.”   Sacrament infers an inherent sacredness by which a certain measure of righteousness is attained.  The Roman Catholics, for instance, believe that as a sacrament, taking the host actually credits you with righteousness. They believe it is a means of salvation. They also believe in transubstantiation, in which the bread and wine become the very body and blood of Christ as it is taken.  The Reformation began to move Protestants away from that view, and most evangelical Christians today believe that it is representative, or symbolic of Christ’s body, but it is not His actual body. 

And we believe that Jesus was speaking figuratively.  Because as the Passover meal was symbolic of God’s deliverance of Israel from their sins, in like manner the Lord’s Supper is symbolic of Christ’s deliverance from the penalty of sin.  Jesus often used symbolic language to teach spiritual principles.  For instance, Jesus said “I am the vine, you are the branches.” That’s obviously symbolic.  Jesus said about Himself that He is the door, He is the light of the world, He is the good shepherd, He is the bread that came down out of heaven, He was the rock in the wilderness, He is the water of life.  In all those expressions we understand them to be symbolic, and so also then is the Lord’s Supper.

Furthermore, Jesus was sitting at this supper in front of them in His natural body, a 33 year old Jewish man, and He was holding out a piece of bread and a cup of wine and saying, “this is My body, this is My blood.”  He was not yet crucified, so He could not be actually offering those things to them as His physical body, but as symbols, representing what He would accomplish for them on the cross.

So without further debate, it was a symbolic ceremony that Jesus was instituting.  But what does it symbolize?  Well, once again we need to look at the precursor, the Passover meal.  Jesus was declaring that He was the Passover Lamb.  We are the people that must offer an unblemished sacrifice for the remission of sins, that the angel of death might pass over us. We do not have a qualified unblemished lamb that we may offer to God.  The Bible says that there is none righteous, no not one.  The original Passover Lamb in Egypt was a symbol of the true Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world – which at that time was yet to come.  The Passover pointed forward in faith to the day when Christ would be slain as the unblemished Lamb of God.  The Lord’s Supper points back in faith to the day when Christ was slain as the unblemished Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world. 

As the Jews ate the Passover meal, they looked forward to that promise which would be fulfilled by the Messiah.  Even so, as we eat the Lord’s Supper, we look back in faith to what Christ accomplished on the cross, the righteous dying in the place of the unrighteous.  The innocent dying for the guilty.  We recognize that we are guilty and that He died in our place.  And then we eat of the unleavened bread, symbolic of receiving the righteousness of Christ which is applied to us by faith.  As He is righteous, we by faith become righteous.  That is why we eat the unleavened bread.  It represents His righteous, sinless body, which was broken for us. 

And then we drink of the cup.  The cup, Jesus said, was the new covenant in His blood.  God made a covenant with man.  A covenant is a binding agreement, a promise, usually sealed with an oath, or a deposit, or sometimes with blood.  Jesus made the strongest possible covenant, when He sealed it with His own blood, the very blood of God.  By faith in the shedding of His blood we are saved.  Romans 5:9 “Since, therefore, we are now justified by his blood, much more shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God.”  

The Old Testament spoke of this new covenant, especially in Jeremiah 31:33-34 “But this is the covenant which I will make with the house of Israel after those days,” declares the LORD, “I will put My law within them and on their heart I will write it; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people. They will not teach again, each man his neighbor and each man his brother, saying, ‘Know the LORD,’ for they will all know Me, from the least of them to the greatest of them,” declares the LORD, “for I will forgive their iniquity, and their sin I will remember no more.” This covenant between God and man for our forgiveness is ratified by Christ’s blood.

The author of Hebrews tells us that Jesus is the guarantee of a better covenant with better promises.  Though we celebrate the Lord’s Supper again and again, it is in remembrance, not by a continual sacrifice.  The scripture says once and for all His sacrifice has sufficed to be the guarantee of our inheritance in heaven as children of God.  But notice that Jesus says that His blood has been poured out for many.  That is, for those who receive His sacrifice and substitution for themselves.  Those who believe in Him, and who accept Him as their Lord and Savior.  And that is what we are symbolically referring to  when we eat and drink of the Lord’s Supper.  Just as baptism does not save us, but it represents dying to sin and being raised to newness of life, so the Lord’s Supper represents what Christ has done in dying for our sins, and what we have believed and received, and now live with Him in us, and us in Him.

Finally, there is one last statement which Jesus makes in vs. 25, “Truly I say to you, I will never again drink of the fruit of the vine until that day when I drink it new in the kingdom of God.”  In this statement Jesus reveals that the Lord’s Supper not only points back in remembrance to the cross, but also it points forward to the second coming.  When Jesus speaks here of the Kingdom of God, He speaks of the consummation of the kingdom, when Jesus comes for His bride the church, and we are with the Lord, and participate in the Marriage Supper of the Lamb.   Jesus is prophesying, in the face of His imminent death, that He will rise again, and He will return to claim His kingdom as it’s King.  It is then not just a solemn remembrance of His death, but also a blessed hope of the resurrection, not only for Christ as the first fruits, but also for us as His bride, who will never taste death but will be raised with a new, glorified body to be with the Lord forever.  And that is something to celebrate.

In vs.26, Mark says that they concluded the ceremony by singing a hymn, and went out on the Mount of Olives.  I would point out that this is the only time we are told in scripture that Jesus or the disciples sung.  I’m sure it wasn’t the only time.  But it’s scarcity tells us that singing did not have the emphasis in New Testament worship that we have given it in the church today.  Now you can make as much of that as you want.  But I think we need to examine what we do today in the church in the name of worship by looking at the example of the early church.  There were other examples of singing in the church, Paul and Silas singing in prison comes to mind. And both James and Paul instruct us to sing.  

But if we look at the traditional Passover Feast ceremony, then we learn that the hymn they closed the Passover feast with was called the Hallel, which is Psalm 116 to 118.  I wish I could take this opportunity to read them in their entirety, but we do not have the time.  It is particularly poignant though to read some of the verses while recognizing what Jesus was about to go through as He was singing them. We don’t know the melodies of these songs today, but I can’t help but imagine that they were like fighting songs, like marching songs, that stirred up courage and faith in a time of trouble.  And so in closing, I would like to read just a few random verses as they speak so vividly of what Jesus must have been thinking and feeling as He prepared Himself for the cross.

We read Psalm 116 at the start of our service, so I will just read a few from Psalm 118.

Psalm 118:1, 5-6, 8, 14, 16-17, 19, 22, 27-29 . … 5 From my distress I called upon the LORD; The LORD answered me and set me in a large place. 6 The LORD is for me; I will not fear; What can man do to me? … 8 It is better to take refuge in the LORD Than to trust in man. … 14 The LORD is my strength and song, And He has become my salvation. … 16 The right hand of the LORD is exalted; The right hand of the LORD does valiantly. 17 I will not die, but live, And tell of the works of the LORD. … 19 Open to me the gates of righteousness; I shall enter through them, I shall give thanks to the LORD. … 22 The stone which the builders rejected Has become the chief corner stone. … 27 Bind the festival sacrifice with cords to the horns of the altar. 28 You are my God, and I give thanks to You; You are my God, I extol You.

Let us not forget that Jesus suffered and died for us, that those who believe in Him and accept Him as their Savior and Lord might have the forgiveness of sins and have everlasting life. We are now going to celebrate the Lord’s Supper.  Let’s pray as we examine our hearts.  

Back in chapter 12, you will remember that Jesus was asked, “what is the foremost commandment?”  And of course the answer that Jesus gave was “YOU SHALL LOVE THE LORD YOUR GOD WITH ALL YOUR HEART, AND WITH ALL YOUR SOUL, AND WITH ALL YOUR MIND, AND WITH ALL YOUR STRENGTH.”  

Now that should be very familiar to all of you.  However, have you really thought about this foremost commandment of God?  If you consider all of the traditions of all the false religions and false gods of the world, in which of them does their god declare that the most important thing is that you love him?  Fear him, maybe.  Obey him, probably.  But love him?  I dare say that our God is the only deity I am aware of that desires that His subjects love Him, first and foremost.  Now granted, such love necessitates obedience and reverence.  But the overriding principle is that you love Him with all your heart.  That reveals the fact that we are designed to have an intimate relationship to God which is distinct from  any other religion.

Today we are going to look at the characteristics of that kind of love, as illustrated primarily by a woman. And in her actions, we see exemplified the great sacrifice, the great extravagance, and the tremendous effect of such unmitigated love, a love with all your heart, soul, mind and strength.  Then in contrast, we are going to see someone that is attracted to Christ, that purports to be a follower of Christ, and yet does not love Him, but loves himself and loves the world. 

Now to be clear, love is not the means of salvation. Faith in Christ is the means of justification.  Faith is the way we are considered righteous before God. Abraham believed God and He counted it to him as righteousness.  However, once we have been justified by faith,  love is the means of sanctification.  Love is the outworking of that righteousness.  Love is how we become like Christ.  We love, because He first loved us. And because we love Him, we do the things that are pleasing to Him.  There was another woman who anointed Jesus with perfume at the beginning of His ministry in Luke 7.  And though Jesus praised her outpouring of love for Him, yet He said “your faith has saved you.” Love was working with her faith.  We are saved by faith, and love is the result. 

Now Mark’s account picks up the story in the middle of the Passover week, two days  before Passover.  Jesus and the disciples are visiting Bethany, which is about 2 miles from the Mt.of Olives in Jerusalem, which is where Mary and Martha and Lazarus lived, and they had dinner at the home of a man called Simon the Leper.  The Gospel of John tells us that the woman whom Mark leaves unnamed was actually Mary, the sister of Martha and Lazarus.

So Jesus and the disciples are having dinner with Simon the Leper.  And it’s likely that not only  Mary, but Martha and Lazarus are there.  Lazarus, you will remember, was just recently raised from the dead by Jesus. And we might also assume that Simon the Leper was healed by Jesus at some point previously as well, because the fact is that if he were still a leper, no one would have come to his house for dinner.  He would have been an outcast from society.  It’s obvious that he had been healed by Jesus at some point previously.  So it’s a dinner party, and considering what has recently transpired, it was a happy occasion, perhaps even meant to be a celebration.

Now it was customary for the host to provide for foot washing at such events.  That was normally taken care of by the servants of the host. In some wealthier homes, the attendees might even be anointed with perfume.  That might be a luxury provided by a wealthy host.  But in this case, as Jesus is reclining at the table, Mary comes in and begins to tend to Jesus in a most peculiar way. 

Mark tells us that she had an alabaster vial of very costly perfume called nard.  Nard would have been imported from India, and so it was very rare and valuable.  And what is important to understand is that such vials were used as a way of storing wealth.  Perfume such as this was like liquid gold, that was able to be stored and preserved for the future.  Many people did not have access to savings accounts at banks such as we have today, and so this was a way of putting aside money for the future.  Of course, it could be used in small amounts as well for special events, but for the most part it represented an investment.  This particular ointment was kept in an alabaster vial, a translucent, glass vial that was expensive in it’s own right.  

If you look further along in the text, you will notice that the disciples said this perfume might have been sold for 300 denarii.  A denarius was equivalent to a day’s wage, so 300 denarii means that it was worth around $30,000, or close to a year’s wages.  That’s a lot of money for perfume, or better yet, representative of a lifesavings.

But there is more to it than that, I believe.  In those days, it was customary for a young woman to receive a dowry from her family to be used to help her acquire a husband.  Now this worked both ways.  On the one hand the bridegroom gave gifts to the parents, but the woman also had a dowry which was used as a financial gift to the groom from the brides family. Women were not considered in those times in the same way we think of them today. Marriage was many times a financial as well as a social arrangement.  And so the dowry would sometimes be a financial incentive for a woman to get a husband.  And without a husband, a woman had a very poor future.  She was very limited in terms of owning property or having any sort of employment that would provide for her living.  

However, it cannot be overstressed how important marriage was to a young woman in that society.  Much like in our day, many young women look forward to and plan for their wedding day long before they even find a suitor, in hope that finding a husband will be the beginning of  fulfilling their dream of children and a family. And it was even more true in that culture. So I believe that this alabaster vial of very expensive ointment was Mary’s dowry.  And these vials of expensive perfume acted as a sort of savings account for the woman which would become her dowry which was given to her husband.  And in the case that she didn’t find a husband, she could sell this perfume and it would help provide financially for her future. 

So Mary comes to Jesus as He is seated at dinner, and she anoints Jesus, but in so doing she  breaks the vial and pours it on His head and on His feet, and John even tells us that she washes His feet with her hair. What she did must have caused a tremendous affect on everyone there.  It would have just stopped all dinner conversation.  It would have caused everyone to stop eating and just stare in disbelief.  It would have just been a magnificent act of extravagance that dumbfounded everyone present. 

What Mary’s offering represented was an act of sacrificial love. It was a tremendous cost not only in terms of money, but even more telling, in terms of her future.  It was as if she was saying that her love for the Lord was more important than that of the love of a future husband. She was putting all that she had hoped in for this life, in this great act of devotion for Jesus.  I find it very similar to the widow of chapter 12, who in giving an offering in the temple gave two small coins, which Jesus said was all she had to live on.  And consequently, when Jesus saw it, He said, this widow has given more than all the contributors, because she gave all that she had, all that she had to live on.  Though Mary’s gift was considerably more valuable in terms of money, it was no less valuable in terms of worth as it represented all that she had hoped for in this world.  And as such it illustrates the sacrificial, all encompassing love that we are to have for the Lord.

As I have mentioned previously, it’s reminiscent of the love of Jonathan for David.  It was a noble love that David, as a type of Christ, said  surpassed the love of a woman.  That is the love we are to have for the Lord.  It is not a romantic love, but a noble, sacrificial love.  Our hope is not in a mate, not in finding a husband or wife, but our hope is in the Lord, and we love Him supremely above every human affection. And please understand that Mary’s love for the Lord was not a romantic love. It was on a higher level than sentimental, or romantic love. She loved the Lord more than life itself. More than all that this life might offer.

Mary’s act of love was not only sacrificial, it was extravagant.  It would have been more reasonable to have poured out a few drops, or perhaps as much as a handful of the precious ointment.  That would have been more than generous.  But Mary broke the vial and lavished it’s contents on the head of feet of Jesus.  Nothing could be gathered up and put back in the alabaster vial.  It was spent, it was spilled, it was splashed over Him from His head to HIs toes. John’s gospel tells us that she wiped His feet with her hair.  She kneels before Him and uses her hair to wipe Jesus’s feet.  What a magnificent act of humility, what an extravagant expression of her love for Christ.

Then thirdly, Mary’s act of love effected everyone around them.  Have you ever noticed when someone has put on a little too much perfume or cologne?  There is an almost overwhelming, pungent aroma that pervades the room, or trails the person as they walk by.  Well, Mary just emptied a pound of this extremely powerful, costly perfume on Jesus.  And again, we look to John’s gospel for this detail, and he says the house was filled with the fragrance.  I bet it was.  In fact, I bet Jesus had this powerful aroma on His body and clothes for days afterward.  In fact, Jesus alludes to that by saying to the disgruntled disciples, “she has anointed My body beforehand for the burial.”  I suppose that there was still the aroma of Mary’s perfume on His body when they laid the cat of nine tails against His back.

But her act of love not only anointed Jesus with the perfume, but she was covered with it as well.  It was now on her hair.  Her lavish gift of love for Christ anointed herself even as she was anointing Him.  This is an illustration of the verse, “it is better to give than to receive.”  For in giving to the Lord, you bless yourself. In loving the Lord, you are loved. 

And not only did she bless herself, but it had an effect on all who were in the house.  Everyone there had the aroma of this offering upon themselves.  All of them left the house that night and carried with them the tangible reminder of this woman’s unabashed, unmeasured love for the Lord as a testimony to them.  When we love the Lord with all our heart, with all our soul and mind and strength, then the world will smell the pleasing aroma of that sacrificial love and it will be a testimony greater than any words can express.

In fact, Jesus said that her testimony was not only going to fill the house, effecting everyone present, but it would also stand throughout the ages to come as a testimony to future Christians of what unmitigated love for the Lord really looks like. Jesus said in vs9 “Truly I say to you, wherever the gospel is preached in the whole world, what this woman has done will also be spoken of in memory of her.”

 And I would suggest to you that when you truly love the Lord and worship Him with an all encompassing, sacrificial love like Mary had, then it’s going to start affecting others in your house.  So you live with a husband  who doesn’t care about things of the Lord?  The answer is not to nag him to death, but to so love the Lord with an all encompassing, sacrificial love that he cannot help but be affected by it.  Your kids don’t seem interested in the things of God?  The answer is to love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your strength and with all your mind.  And when you are consumed with the genuine love of God, that fragrance is going to affect everyone in your house.  Every marital problem, every family problem, every sin problem, finds it’s solution by putting Christ first and foremost in every place in your life.  When you get your love for the Lord right, then those other things are going to start to fall into place.

Well, though it should be obvious to all of us that Mary’s love is one to be emulated by generations of the church throughout the ages to come, yet it seemed to be a sore subject to the disciples.  Mark tells us that some of the disciples were indignant.  John, once again, gives us a little more detail.  He says it was primarily Judas who was indignant. Perhaps Judas was just the most outspoken of the 12 concerning their indignation.  

In vs4, they said, ““Why has this perfume been wasted? For this perfume might have been sold for over three hundred denarii, and the money given to the poor.” And they were scolding her.  Notice that they considered the anointing of Jesus to be a waste of money.  They saw it as throwing money down the drain.  In actuality, Mary was transferring her savings from earth to heaven.  She was storing up treasure for herself in heaven, rather than on earth.  

The fact is, the disciples are only focused on the here and now.  As we have seen, they have been squabbling over who will be the greatest in the kingdom.  In  just a day more, they will still be arguing about who is the greatest as they file into the upper room for the Passover Feast, blissfully unaware that this is Jesus’s last meal with them.  But somehow, Mary has gotten a true sense of what is going to happen.  Perhaps the fact that her brother had died and risen again helped her to understand better when Christ taught that the Son of Man would die and rise again.  Or maybe it was the fact that when others were working in the kitchen, or arguing about who would be the greatest, Mary was found sitting at Jesus’s feet, soaking up the words being taught by the Savior.  Somehow, God  revealed to her that Jesus is going to die, and so she has taken this opportunity to anoint Him with her gift of love for His burial.

And that reveals yet another aspect of her love that needs to be emphasized.  And that is the urgency and immediacy of her gift.   Jesus said in vs 7, “For you always have the poor with you, and whenever you wish you can do good to them; but you do not always have Me.”  In just a couple of days, Jesus would be arrested and crucified.  The time for her sacrificial gift was now.  Certainly, the disciples, especially Judas, were being hypocritical in their concern for the poor.  John says Judas said that not because he was concerned about the poor but because he carried the bag and used to pilfer what was put in it.  

But Mary recognizes the immediacy of the need to show her devotion for Christ.  So many times we put off for tomorrow what should be done today. We are not guaranteed tomorrow.  The scriptures says, “Today is the acceptable day of salvation.”  We think we have a lot of time left to serve the Lord.  After I get this done I will really devote myself to the Lord.  After I get to the next level in my job, after I get married, after I move to my new house, whatever our excuse, it’s just an excuse.  Today is the acceptable day.  Today if you hear His voice, do not harden your heart.  Love requires an immediate response. Now is the acceptable time to serve the Lord with all your heart.

But the contrast to Mary’s love is that Judas loved money more than he loved the Lord. He would betray Jesus for 30 pieces of silver.  He loved money so much it really irritated him to see Mary lavishly give her life’s savings in one grand gesture of love.  She gave $30000 to anoint Jesus for burial, and Judas sold Him out to be killed for 30 pieces of silver, the price of a common slave. 

I’m sure most of us today are appalled at what Judas did.  We may think that though we might not reach the height of sacrificial love that Mary had, we would never betray Jesus like Judas did.  But perhaps we already have.  Matt. 6:24 says, “No man can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. You cannot serve God and wealth.” And James 4:4 says, “You adulterers and adulteresses, do you not know that  friendship of the world is enmity with God? whosoever therefore will be a friend of the world is the enemy of God.”  And finally, consider 1John 2:15 “Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him.” I’m afraid if we love the world, if we put the things of this world ahead of our love for the Lord, then we have done exactly what Judas did, in selling his soul for the temporal gain of this world. Mark 8:36  “For what shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul?”

Let me remind you of something.  Judas was close to the Lord.  Judas was revered by the other disciples.  He was part of the inner circle of Christ.  He had a position of great privilege.  He even participated in the healing and miracles and casting out of demons.  By all measures, he was a leading member of Christ’s church.  And yet, Jesus said he had a devil.  He was the son of perdition. He sold out Jesus for a little bag of money.  Our prominence in the church is not what counts before the Lord.  Our position in the church is not an indication of our love for the Lord. Our esteem by others is not what counts before the Lord.  It is the whole hearted love for the Lord from a pure heart that God sees which is what really matters. 

That reminds me of another disciple.  There was one of Paul’s disciples named Demas. He went with Paul on mission trips, he worked with Paul for a long time.  But finally, Paul wrote, “Demas has deserted me, for he loved this present world.”  He loved the world and the things of this world more than he loved the Lord, and as a result he deserted Paul. And Paul said that such “went out from us, because they were never part of us.”  That’s the same story with Judas, though he was with Jesus and the other disciples for three years, yet his heart was never given completely to the Lord and so he went out from them and deserted Jesus and in the end he was destroyed by his own desires.

Let me just mention one final point in closing.  And that is, even though Jesus was all knowing, and He knew that Judas was pilfering from the money box, yet Jesus never rebuked him, never had that “I got you!” moment with Judas.  Right up to the very end, even when Judas was betraying Christ with a kiss, Jesus was giving Judas the opportunity to repent.  The Bible says that the kindness of God draws you to repentance.  Jesus was very patient with Judas.  

That reminds me of the scripture which says, that in the days of Noah, the patience of God was  kept waiting, waiting for men to repent of their wickedness.  This idea that God is hiding around the corner with a baseball bat ready to whack you over the head if you get out of line is not biblical.  God is patient, not willing for any to perish, but for all to come to repentance.  Judas never did repent.  He kept hardening his heart, until it says that Satan himself entered into him and he went out from the Lord.  And as a result he never found forgiveness and hung himself in a fit of despair.  

Well, we have seen two contrasting examples of how to love the Lord.  The example of Mary, who gave all her hopes and dreams up to the Lord in a lavish, extravagant, sacrificial outpouring of love, or that of Judas, a self serving, self righteous love of the world and the things of the world.  I wonder which example best describes us? I pray that I might be like Mary, and lay everything at the feet of my Savior and Lord.  The good news is, even if we have fallen short, even if we have sold out the Lord time and time again for the temporal pleasures of this world, the Lord is patiently offering us a chance to repent and be forgiven.  But the time is now.  Don’t put off until tomorrow what the Lord wants from you today.  Today is the acceptable day of salvation.  

One of the titles of Jesus that we are looking at today is the title of Lord.  I think that the true sense of that word is somewhat lost on our culture today.  It would be better understood in a feudal system, where someone who was considered the lord owned all the land, provided protection and was served by the people of the land.  Over time, the title extended to various types of nobility, such as a Lord of Parliament, or someone called Lord who held an office of authority in government. Another historical use of the word was, of course to denote divinity.  The Caesars used to claim the title of lord, and would make their subjects offer incense once a year and they were forced to proclaim when making the incense offering that Caesar is lord. So there were many different possible meanings of the title Lord, ranging from master or owner, to nobility, to sovereign, to that of divinity.

And one of the things that makes it even more confusing to 21st century Christians is that the title of Lord is used in a variety of ways in the Bible, in both the Old and New Testaments.  One of my favorite references of this title is found in 1 Peter 3:6, and one which I have tried to remind my wife of, but with little success, which says that Sarah obeyed Abraham, calling him lord.   Now obviously, that is not something that is commonly done in our culture, nor in my house either, for that matter.  

But to understand the full significance of this title, we need to consider it in the context of this passage which occurs in the last week of Jesus ministry before the cross, which is called the Passion week.  You will remember that in chapter 11 Jesus had come into the city of Jerusalem riding on a donkey on Sunday morning, and the crowds were calling out ““Hosanna! BLESSED IS HE WHO COMES IN THE NAME OF THE LORD; Blessed is the coming kingdom of our father David; Hosanna in the highest!”  So they were saying that He was coming as the Son of David, which was understood to be a title of the Messiah.  And He is coming in the name of Jehovah, which is the personal name of God, which is what the word LORD was substituted for.

Then the next day, Jesus came into the temple and drove out the money changers and the vendors and stopped the commercial enterprise of the priests who were taking advantage of the people.  And Mark tells us that the scribes and Pharisees and high priests came and asked Him, “By what authority are You doing these things, or who gave You this authority to do these things?”  

Jesus avoided a direct answer to that question by asking them a question concerning John the Baptist’s authority.  But He gave an illustration in a parable of the vine growers, which describes a similar setting to that of a feudal system, in order to illustrate that Israel was the vineyard, and He was the owner of the vineyard’s Son whom they would plot to kill.  So by illustration He claimed authority of Lord by virtue of the fact that He was the Son of God. 

Now that infuriated them, so they conjure up three questions to try to entrap Him in something that He might say, so that they might put Him to death.  When He brilliantly answered them all they are rendered speechless.  They don’t know how to respond to His wisdom.  So now, in response to their silence, Jesus asks them a question which speaks once again as to His authority which they had called into question.

And He does so by building upon the shouts of the multitude who hailed Him as the Son of David, which was understood to be referring to the Messiah.  So in chapter 12 vs 35, Jesus poses the question, “How is it that the scribes say that the Christ is the son of David?
David himself said in the Holy Spirit, ‘THE LORD SAID TO MY LORD, “SIT AT MY RIGHT HAND, UNTIL I PUT YOUR ENEMIES BENEATH YOUR FEET.”’ David himself calls Him ‘Lord’; so in what sense is He his son?”

Notice first of all that Jesus confirms the inspiration of scripture by saying that David spoke in the Holy Spirit this prophecy concerning the Messiah. Peter would later elaborate on that doctrine of the inspiration of the scriptures, saying in 2Peter 1:21 “for no prophecy was ever made by an act of human will, but men moved by the Holy Spirit spoke from God.” It’s really amazing to notice how often Jesus, who was the Word made flesh, utilized the scripture in His ministry. He had no problem with it’s authority and inspiration and infallibility as the Word of God.

Now what was commonly understood by the Jews was that the Messiah would be of the lineage of David, and that He would restore the throne in Jerusalem and Israel would once again be a great nation, receiving the full blessings of God through the reign of the Messiah.  They see this reign as a purely physical, temporal reign.  The Sadducees, remember, didn’t believe in the resurrection so they were only concerned about the present.  And they were also the party of the high priests.  So they thought they would be the administrators of the kingdom under the Messiah.

So the multitudes had shouted the refrain that Jesus was the Son of David as they ushered Jesus into Jerusalem only three days earlier.  And both the multitudes and the scribes and high priests understood this saying to be the concerning the fact that the Messiah would come from the line of David and restore the throne and restore the dominance of Israel as a nation.  

But in Jesus’s answer, He seems to be bringing that doctrine into question saying, “How is it that the scribes say that the Christ is the son of David?”  It is clear that Jesus is speaking of Himself as the Christ.  They wanted to show that He could not be the Messiah, but He is taking the approach that the children in the streets calling out “Hosanna to the Son of David” were speaking of Him appropriately.  By the way, Messiah is the Hebrew word translated into the Greek as Christ. So Jesus in a roundabout way is confirming what the multitudes have said about Him, but He brings into question this idea that the Messiah is the son of David.  He wants to show that the Messiah is more than just the son of David.

And He does so by quoting from Psalm 110.  Now in the our Bibles it is presented as Jesus quoting from the Greek Septuagint translation.  That was the Greek translation of the Old Testament which was in use at that time.  But in the original Hebrew language, there is more distinction in the Psalm.  And that distinction comes in the usage of the word Lord. In the Hebrew text, the name Jehovah, or Yahweh, was considered so sacred by the scribes as the personal name of God that it could not be spoken, or even written.  So in order to accommodate that idea, they used a tetragrammaton to signify the word Jehovah, which was the word LORD, which was substituted for Jehovah. 

There is another word for Lord in the Old Testament, and that is the word Adonai.  Both words, Yahweh and Adonai  were names denoting God. The first  being His personal name and the other being His title.  In the New Testament, the word for Lord is the Greek word kyrious. And in our Bibles which are translated from the Greek, to show the difference between Adonai, and Jehovah, Adonai is presented as Lord, and Jehovah is presented in all caps, as LORD. 

Jesus is quoting from the Septuagint translation, which is the Greek translation then in use.  But in Hebrew it would read as, “Jehovah said to my Lord, sit at my right hand until I put your enemies beneath your feet.”

The point that Jesus is making is that though the Messiah was to be a son of David, David by inspiration of God calls the Messiah his Lord. So the question Jesus asks is how can David call the Messiah his Lord if He is his son?  The answer of course is that the Messiah was not only the Son of Man, but the Son of God. This is known in theological terms as the hypostatic union of Christ. He was fully God and fully man.  He was born of the Spirit and born of a virgin.  He was of the lineage of David and yet He is the Son of God.  

What the Lord Jesus wants to illustrate to these unbelieving religious leaders is that the authority He has to cleanse the temple is because it is His Father’s house.  The authority that He has to heal or forgive sins, or to teach the truth concerning the kingdom of God, is because He is the Son of God.  He is One with God, and so His authority is from God. Therefore, the son of David is not only Messiah, but He is Lord God.  

Now we can only imagine how infuriated this made the scribes and high priests.  But Mark records the crowd as enjoying listening to Him.  I doubt most of them understood all that He was saying, but they understood it to be a rebuke of the religious leaders and so they enjoyed seeing them corrected to some extent.  But notice that Mark uses the same turn of  phrase to describe their enjoyment as he used in the passage where he said Herod used to enjoy listening to John the Baptist.  Yet Herod eventually put John to death, and in a few days some of this very crowd would call for the death of Christ as well.  So the fact that the crowd enjoyed listening to Him does not equate to them believing in Him unto salvation.  

Now there is an important connection to an earlier passage that we must make sure we see here.  In vs 28, a lawyer had asked Jesus what was the foremost commandment.  And Jesus answered with the Shema, “HEAR, O ISRAEL! THE LORD OUR GOD IS ONE LORD; AND YOU SHALL LOVE THE LORD YOUR GOD WITH ALL YOUR HEART, AND WITH ALL YOUR SOUL, AND WITH ALL YOUR MIND, AND WITH ALL YOUR STRENGTH.”  What the Lord is now saying is, “The Lord our God is one Lord: And you shall worship the Lord with all your heart, with all your mind, with all your soul, and I am not only David’s son, I am David’s Lord.” The Lord that we are to worship with our whole heart, our whole soul, our whole mind, is the Lord Jesus Christ Himself. 

The Lord Jesus Christ is our Sovereign, He is our Master, the owner and provider of every good thing. He is the Creator.  John says in the first chapter of his gospel that nothing was made without Him that was made.  He is God incarnate, God in the flesh.  The Word that was in the beginning with God, who made all that was made, who became flesh and dwelt among us.  

Isaiah in the Old Testament should have informed the Jews that the Messiah would be much more than just  human  royalty.  Speaking clearly of the Messiah, Isaiah 9:6 says, “For a child will be born to us, a son will be given to us; And the government will rest on His shoulders; And His name will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Eternal Father, Prince of Peace.  There will be no end to the increase of His government or of peace, On the throne of David and over his kingdom, To establish it and to uphold it with justice and righteousness From then on and forevermore. The zeal of the LORD of hosts will accomplish this.”  Isaiah makes it clear that Messiah is the son of David, and will sit on the throne of His eternal Kingdom, and that He is the Lord God.

So the church is to be the Lord’s vineyard, and we are to be His servants.  Salvation comes not only in faith in Jesus as a person, but in confessing Jesus as Lord.  Romans 10:9-10 says, “that if you confess with your mouth Jesus [as] Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved; for with the heart a person believes, resulting in righteousness, and with the mouth he confesses, resulting in salvation.” As our Sovereign Savior and Lord, we bow to Him and yield to Him our lives in service for the glory of God and for His kingdom. Jesus’ identity is the central issue of spiritual life. What is Jesus to you? Is he Lord? The whole issue of how to enter the kingdom and how to live in the kingdom of God hangs at that point: Is Jesus your Lord?

Is Jesus the Lord of your life? Is He the one who governs your life? His lordship is the key to our life in Christ. That is why all through Paul’s epistles you find many practical exhortations which are linked always with “as unto the Lord”: “Wives, be subject unto your husbands as unto the Lord,” (Ephesians 5:22). “Husbands love your wives as Christ loved the church,” (Ephesians 5:25). “Children obey your parents in the Lord,” (Ephesians 6:1). “Stop stealing for the Lord’s sake,” (Ephesians 4:28). “Masters be kind to your employees for the Lord’s sake,” (Ephesians 6:5-9). In every aspect of life Jesus Christ must be Lord of your life.

Mark concludes this account with an illustration that indicates how Jesus’ lordship will manifest itself. The true expression of a heart submitted to the lordship of Jesus is demonstrated by a contrast between the pious, proud, religious scribes and a humble, poor, and godly widow. The scribes loved to be seen and admired for their positions and their adherence to certain rituals and ceremonies which they thought made them appear holy and righteous.  The widow, on the other hand, presents a picture of someone who loves the Lord with all their heart. And as we know from the life of David, God judges the hearts, not by outward appearances.

Let’s first consider these scribes.  Jesus lists six things that show their hearts are evil. First He says beware of the scribes because they like to walk around in long robes.  You want to put that into a contemporary context, beware of religious leaders who like to dress up in some religious outfit that they think gives them some sort of pious look.  I would add to that, beware of pointy hats.

Next, He says beware of those who love respectful greetings in the market places.  They love the fawning attention that their positions render them and the titles and so forth that people use when addressing them.  To tell you the truth, I don’t really enjoy being called “pastor.”  I understand that people are trying to show respect, but I would just as soon be called Roy.  Paul was called simply Paul, and that’s good enough for me.

Third, He says beware of those who like the chief seats in the synagogue.  That was the seats up on the podium facing the congregation. They were the chief seats.  That sort of thing was also done with the parishioners in the early churches in the middle ages and even afterwards.  The rich gave money to patronize the priest and the church and so they would have the side benches up front with their names inscribed upon them.  And so the order of the congregation would follow suit with the wealthiest up front and the poorer people in the rear.  

Fourth, they love the place of honor at banquets. It’s more of the same, using their positions to an advantage, their religion to garner respect and public admiration.  We see religious celebrities cashing in today through the sale of books and television specials and so forth. They are masters at self promotion.

Fifth, Jesus says they devour widow’s houses.  They took advantage of poor widows by robbing whatever resources may have been left to their estate.  This is the most egregious of all their abuses as far as I’m concerned.  And this is what I see as the sin of a lot of television preachers today.  Paul speaks of those wolves in sheep’s clothing in 2Tim. 3:6 “For among them are those who enter into households and captivate weak women weighed down with sins, led on by various impulses.”  I see that speaking of these false teachers on TV as entering into widow’s houses and leading them astray and taking advantage of them, devouring their financial resources as well as devouring them spiritually.  

And then number six, Jesus says beware of those who pray long prayers.  He says that they do not pray to be heard of God, but they do so for appearance sake.  They love to be seen as pious, as knowledgeable.  So they pray to be heard of men in offering long, laborious prayers.  Beware of praying to be heard of men.  God doesn’t answer those prayers, and furthermore, He is opposed to them.  

So what is the synopsis of those religious hypocrites?  They love to perform their religious ceremonies to be seen of men and to win their approval.  They superficially give praise to the Lord, they superficially love the Lord.  But the Lord sees their hearts and consequently does not regard their service as acceptable.  They have their reward here on earth.  People call them holy, righteous and look up to them, and approve of them.  And so they have their reward on earth.  But they have not earned any reward in the Kingdom of God.  

Note now the contrast in the last 3 verses as we see Jesus recognize the heart of the widow.  Jesus was seated near the treasury in the temple.  And what they did was they had 13 trumpet shaped repositories made which hung on the walls of the temple court.  And the people would file into this area to give their offerings to the Lord.  Mark says that the rich people were dropping large amounts into the coffers.  I read somewhere that the way these were constructed, and the type of coins that were being given as a offering, meant that there was a corresponding loud clatter when a large amount of coins were dropped in.  To make it even more ostentatious, Jesus said elsewhere that some even had actual trumpet players announce their coming into the temple to make an offering to make sure everyone noticed them giving. 

But irregardless, when a rich person came in the temple to give, it probably sounded a lot like hitting triple sevens on the one armed bandit in the casino. Not that I speak from experience, mind you. A cascading sound of coins flowing into the trumpet shaped urn which would resonate throughout the temple and draw approving glances from the people in attendance.  

Then Mark says that a poor widow came in and dropped two small coins into the treasury, which amounted to a cent.  Now there is a lot of commentary on exactly how much she gave, but the best sources I can find say that what she gave was probably equivalent to about a dollar in today’s currency.  And it was in the form of two small, thin coins.  To drop such slight coins in the trumpet vase would have barely made a discernible noise.  

But though her offering made little noise and drew no attention of the crowd, yet it made a great impact on Jesus. He said, “Truly I say to you, this poor widow put in more than all the contributors to the treasury; for they all put in out of their surplus, but she, out of her poverty, put in all she owned, all she had to live on.”

Here again we see revealed the divine nature of Christ, in knowing not only what she put in the offering, but also in knowing what she had left to live on.  But there is another lesson here that must be seen.  And it is not a lesson on tithing. I try to avoid talking about tithing or giving offerings as much as possible.  Paul said  giving must be not out of compulsion, that God loves a cheerful giver.  I know a lot of preachers have used this text to preach about money.  I’m not going to do that.  You are smart people, you can read into that if you want yourselves.  

But what I believe the real point of this is, is that this widow gave the Lord everything.  She didn’t hold anything back for herself.  There were two coins, she could have said I will give the Lord one and I will use the other for myself.  But instead, she gave everything to the Lord.  This woman revealed that she loved the Lord with all her heart, with all her soul, and with all her strength.  She didn’t hold anything back. She recognized that all that she had was the Lord’s, and so she gave all that she had to the Lord.  She fulfilled the foremost commandment.

And I think that is the point of this whole passage.  If you believe in Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, then you must believe that He also is Lord.  And if He is Lord, then He demands your life, your heart, your all.  He isn’t interested in pretentious, pretend Christianity that parades it’s virtues to be seen of men.  But He demands all your life.  That is how we are saved, ladies and gentlemen.  We surrender all. He is Lord of all.  He is worthy of all that we have and all that we can give.  We can never repay all that He has done.  But the least we can do is give Him our complete devotion and worship Him as Lord.

As we look at the passage before us today, we see three sets of people who ask questions of Jesus, but not so that they might gain understanding or knowledge, but so that they can trap Him in something that He said in order to use it against Him.  Their ultimate goal is to put Him to death, so they are looking for some sort of justification, hoping for something that they can label as blasphemous in order to have a reason to put him to death.  

What’s interesting is that Jesus has managed in three short years of teaching to invoke such hatred against Him, so that His enemies, who were also enemies of one another, have unified in their common desire to have Him killed, and so they set aside their differences in order to accomplish their common goal.

We see that particularly in the first incident in which the Pharisees team up with the Herodians to try to test Him, or trick Him into making a statement they can use against Him.  All of you are probably aware of who the Pharisees were; strict, sanctimonious religious teachers who prided themselves on keeping the law.  The Herodians though are less  known; they were supporters of King Herod, lovers of Greek culture, people who were about as worldly as you could be and still be a Jew.  These folks normally could not stand one another.  But they come together in their common hatred of Jesus and what His gospel.  There is an ancient saying which predates Christ by some 400 years which states “the enemy of my enemy is my friend.”  That was especially true in the case of the enemies of Christ.  In a minute we will look at another religious group which is the Sadducees, and they and the Pharisees were like Democrats and Republicans.  But they also come together in a bipartisan effort here to eliminate Jesus and the gospel He is teaching. 

So in true political form, they use lofty titles and flattery in order to try to disarm Jesus, in hope of tripping Him up. They start off by calling Him Teacher, but they themselves claimed to be the true teachers of the law.  Yet Jesus called the Pharisees the blind leaders of the blind. They fawningly say to Jesus “Teacher, we know that You are truthful and defer to no one; for You are not partial to any, but teach the way of God in truth.”  

That’s pretty heavy hypocrisy isn’t it?  Especially when we know that they were plotting to kill Him at that very moment.  If they really believed what they were saying, then they would have recognized that He who isn’t partial to anyone, but tells the truth regardless, would not be fooled by crass flattery.  So all of that simply tells us that their question was not sincere.  As Mark said in vs 12, they were buttering Jesus up “in order to trap Him in a statement.”

So the test they proposed to Him was “is it lawful to pay a poll-tax to Caesar, or not?” Now to understand the full significance of this question, you need to know a couple of things.  First, a poll tax was the annual per capita tax which was imposed by the Romans upon every adult Jew.  

Another important thing to consider is that the Jews were in a constant state of rebellion over this tax, because they hated the Roman oppression, and furthermore, the Jews considered it a sacrilege to give the Emperor honor, because he claimed to be deity. So the most conscientious Jews considered it an affront to God. 

So the question put to Jesus was very clever.  If He said that you should pay the tax, then He risked alienating many devout, patriotic Jews.  And if He said that you should not pay the tax, then He could be accused of sedition against Rome.  So they thought that they had Him, no matter which way He answered the question.

But notice the response of Jesus.  Remember, God sees the heart; vs 15, But He, knowing their hypocrisy, said to them, “Why are you testing Me? Bring Me a denarius to look at.”  A denarius was the common coin of Rome.  It was equal to a laborer’s wage for a day’s work. And it was also the amount due for the poll tax.

So they give Jesus a denarius and He asks, “Whose likeness and inscription is this?” And they said to Him, “Caesar’s.” And Jesus said to them, “Render to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, and to God the things that are God’s.”

I understand that on this denarius there is a bust of Tiberius on one side, and on the reverse he is shown sitting on a throne.  But the really interesting thing is the inscription, which reads; Tiberius Caesar, Son of the Divine Augustus, Highest Priest. 

Yet in spite of this blasphemous inscription, Jesus acknowledges that this was Roman currency, and as the governing authority, it was issued by them, and as the governing authority it was due certain taxes for the blessings such government provided.  Rome had achieved what is called the pax Romana, a measure of peace that the world had not seen before.  They had built roads and bridges and waterworks.  They provided protection and freedom so that the people were able to live their lives in relative peace and prosperity.  And for all that government provides, Jesus said you should render to Caesar that which is due to Caesar.  Jesus is saying government has a right to exert taxes for the services it renders to it’s citizens.

For us that translates that we are to pay your taxes.  Give what is due to the government for it’s services.  Paul makes this principle clear in Romans 13:1-2 saying, “Every person is to be in subjection to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and those which exist are established by God. Therefore whoever resists authority has opposed the ordinance of God; and they who have opposed will receive condemnation upon themselves.”  In other words, give the government it’s due, and if you do not, you will receive condemnation not only by the government, but also from God.

There is another principle though that Jesus makes which should be given equal attention.  And that is “render unto God the things which are God’s.”  What is due to God?  Well, as we will see in a few verses later, our duty to God is to love Him above all, with all our being. Jesus said elsewhere that if you love Me you will keep My commandments. So we owe God our obedience.  He is the Creator of our life.  So we are to render unto Him our very life.  Considering all that He has done for us, how can we not give Him our all? So God has priority over government, but government has authority over us, as an extension of God’s authority.

Now let’s look at the next test, the next question employed this time by the Sadducees to try to trap Him.  Now who were the Sadducees?  Mark tells us the defining characteristic of the Sadducees in vs18, they said there was no resurrection.  So how ironic and hypocritical then is their question which they asked about the resurrection.  But also, it should be noted that the Sadducees did not believe in angels. They only believed in the inspiration of the Pentateuch, that is the first 5 books of the OT written by Moses. And also they were the religious/political party of the high priest.  The high priests were selected from this party.  Considering that Jesus had just the day before entered the temple which was the high priest’s domain and cleaned out the merchants and disrupted the money making scheme they were running there, there is no doubt that these Sadducees were gunning for Jesus and hoping to catch Him in saying something that could be used against Him.

Well, we’ve read the fictitious scenario that these guys have concocted concerning a woman who had seven husbands.  It was obviously a fictional situation which was designed to make the doctrine of the resurrection sound absurd.  And here is an important point; the kingdom of God which Jesus was preaching was founded on the doctrine of the resurrection.  The religious leaders were looking for a temporal kingdom of God, a geopolitical kingdom in which they had the chief positions and which would greatly benefit them in this life.  Jesus was preaching about a spiritual kingdom which has it’s origin and culmination primarily in the spiritual realm, and so therefore it is dependent upon the resurrection for it’s fulfillment.  So in asking this absurd question they were trying to undermine the credibility of His gospel. 

We have the same thing happening today in attacks from liberals on the gospel.  They try to show the absurdity of the idea of hell and the judgment to come. “ Is God really going to burn in hell billions of people for eternity?”  They even try to show the absurdity of heaven.  “Who wants to spend eternity with a bunch of right wing hypocrites anyway?  What are you going to do, sing hymns for millions of years?”  They try to show the absurdity of faith in God as Creator in contrast to the pseudo-intellectualism of science.  

But the answer Jesus gives the Sadducees contains the answer to the naysayers down through the ages. vs24,  “Is this not the reason you are mistaken, that you do not understand the Scriptures or the power of God?”  It’s amazing to me that those who would deny the supernatural in regards to God will accept so many other ludicrous ideas.  They would rather believe in space aliens than in a divine Creator.  They would rather believe in evolution which supposedly took billions and billions of years to make life as we know it rather than believe in a literal creation by an Almighty God.  They would rather believe in the improbability that out of chaos could come a universe so precise and ordered that it follows exact mathematical equations.

Jesus says there are two areas in which you are mistaken and therefore without understanding.  First is that you don’t understand the scriptures.  In the case of the Sadducees, they said they believed the Pentateuch, but they didn’t really know the scriptures in the Pentateuch which clearly taught that there was life after death.  The problem with the Sadducees is very similar to the problem with many critics today; they focus on scriptures that they like, that fit their agenda, but disregard those that they don’t like.  

Secondly Jesus says that they don’t understand the power of God.  If they truly understood the power of God, then the  doctrine of the resurrection should not have been that difficult to accept.  Certainly the God who made all life and everything in the universe by the word of His mouth could raise the dead.  The secret to understanding and knowledge is studying the scriptures.  It’s not through some vision, it’s not through some ecstatic experience, it’s through studying the scriptures.  That is how we come to know God and how we are able to worship God in spirit and in truth.  God is revealed in scripture.

Jesus then tells them the truth about the resurrection and marriage.  vs 25, “For when they rise from the dead, they neither marry nor are given in marriage, but are like angels in heaven.” First of all in heaven there will not be the need for marriage, because there will be no more procreation.  We will live forever.  Secondly, marriage on earth is a picture of our relationship with Jesus Christ as His bride, the church.  So in the resurrection, our fidelity is to Christ.  He is the bride groom and we are His bride.

I also want to point out that Jesus is unequivocally declaring that there will be a resurrection.  Many churches don’t really talk about the resurrection from the dead.  The common doctrine that a lot of people are being taught is that when you die you go to heaven.  The Bible however speaks of the dead being raised at the resurrection at the second coming of Christ.  And then after the resurrection the Lord will institute a new heaven and a new earth.  Jesus spoke of the dead in the story of Lazarus and the rich man as being in the bowels of the earth in Hades.  Lazarus was in Abraham’s bosom, a Jewish way of speaking of Paradise, and the rich man was in torment, that is in the flames of hell.  And Jesus said between the two there was a great gulf which no one could cross. Now a lot of people want to dismiss all of that, because they don’t understand it, or it doesn’t fit their template.  But that is what Jesus told us in Luke 16.  

At the resurrection then those that are in Paradise will be resurrected with a new body. 1Thess. 4:16 “For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first.”  Some have construed that to mean that our old physical bodies will be lifted from the graves.  That may not be necessarily true.  Consider what Paul said concerning the resurrection and this heavenly body in 1Cor. 15:36-44, 50, “That which you sow does not come to life unless it dies;  and that which you sow, you do not sow the body which is to be, but a bare grain, perhaps of wheat or of something else. But God gives it a body just as He wished, and to each of the seeds a body of its own.  All flesh is not the same flesh, but there is one flesh of men, and another flesh of beasts, and another flesh of birds, and another of fish. There are also heavenly bodies and earthly bodies, but the glory of the heavenly is one, and the glory of the earthly is another.  There is one glory of the sun, and another glory of the moon, and another glory of the stars; for star differs from star in glory.  So also is the resurrection of the dead. It is sown a perishable body, it is raised an imperishable body;  it is sown in dishonor, it is raised in glory; it is sown in weakness, it is raised in power;  it is sown a natural body, it is raised a spiritual body. If there is a natural body, there is also a spiritual body. …  Now I say this, brethren, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God; nor does the perishable inherit the imperishable.”  

Notice Paul said, it is sown, that is it dies and is put in the ground as a natural body, but it is raised a spiritual body.  So then what Paul says is that what is put in the ground is natural, but what comes out of the ground is spiritual.  What manner of beings are in Paradise?  They are spirits, and they will be raised with spiritual bodies.  And if you really want to start speculating what that looks like, then I can only tell you that a oak seed doesn’t look anything like an oak tree.  What will we look like?  Consider what John says in 1John 3:2 “Beloved, now we are children of God, and it has not appeared as yet what we will be. We know that when He appears, we will be like Him, because we will see Him just as He is.”  In our eternal bodies we will be like Christ. That’s good enough for me.

Then Jesus turns to the scriptures to refute the Sadducees, and He picks a scripture from the Pentateuch.  He quotes from Exodus 3 in the passage about the burning bush.  Vs26, “But regarding the fact that the dead rise again, have you not read in the book of Moses, in the passage about the burning bush, how God spoke to him, saying, ‘I AM THE GOD OF ABRAHAM, AND THE GOD OF ISAAC, AND THE GOD OF JACOB’? He is not the God of the dead, but of the living; you are greatly mistaken.”

What Jesus is saying is that when God spoke of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, He spoke of them as being alive.  They are alive in their spirit awaiting the resurrection.  In fact, going back to the story Jesus told in Luke 16, He said  Lazarus was in Paradise being comforted by Abraham.  Abraham had a conversation with the rich man.  So Abraham was obviously very much alive.  At the transfiguration, Jesus appeared with Moses and Elijah, and they were talking about the things to come.  And they were alive and cognizant and able to have a conversation about what was going on in the world at that time.  Jesus said in John 11:26  “everyone who lives and believes in Me will never die. Do you believe this?”  This is the hope of the Christian, ladies and gentlemen.  This is how we face the future without fear.  We will never die.  At death we will be alive in spirit with those who have gone on before us.  We will be with the Lord forever.  And furthermore, at the last trumpet we will be resurrected from the dead with a new body, a glorified, spiritual body that is far beyond what we can imagine, but it will be like the Lord’s body.  That’s a tremendous hope.

Well, there is one more test.  This time it’s a lawyer who comes to test Jesus.  The question asked by this lawyer is which of the commandments or laws was the foremost? Not the first, but the foremost in importance. Now there were many more than 10 commandments.  The scribes and lawyers had determined that there were no less than 613 commandments, 248 of them positive, and 365 negative.  One for every day, it would seem.  And the Pharisees seemed to focus on the negative.  Jesus, however, is going to give the positive.

Furthermore, in His answer, there is a sense in which the entire law is being boiled down to it’s essence, or summarized into one brief sentence.  I wonder if you could very easily condense the gospel into one sentence.  It’s not that easy.  But Jesus does so readily, once again quoting from scripture.  He quotes from Deut. 6:4, 5, ‘HEAR, O ISRAEL! THE LORD OUR GOD IS ONE LORD; AND YOU SHALL LOVE THE LORD YOUR GOD WITH ALL YOUR HEART, AND WITH ALL YOUR SOUL, AND WITH ALL YOUR MIND, AND WITH ALL YOUR STRENGTH.’

What Jesus is saying is that the whole law can be summed up with love for God. God’s wholehearted love for us must not be answered in half hearted love from us. But we love Him above all, and with all our being.  We love Him above all other love, even the love of family, even the love of ourselves.  We put Him first above all things.

Secondly, Jesus said that this love not only must be directed towards God foremost, but that the second most important commandment is that we must love our neighbor as ourselves.  Once again Jesus quotes scripture, this time from Lev. 19:18 which says  “You shall not take vengeance, nor bear any grudge against the sons of your people, but you shall love your neighbor as yourself; I am the LORD.”

The second commandment resembles the first in this respect; they both require love.  In the case of the second, it is love towards those who bear the image of God.  When Jesus held up the denarius and asked whose image was there, He said “render unto Caesar the things that are Caesar’s.”  So by similar application, when we look at our fellow man, we need to see that he bears the likeness of God, man was made in the image of God. Gen 1:26 “Then God said, “Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness.”  Gen 1:27, “God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them.” 

How do you love mankind who was made in God’s image?  As you would love yourself.  That is the measure by which you measure to another.  Do unto others as you would have them do unto you. (Luke 6:31) And who is my neighbor?  According to Jesus’s parable in Luke 10:30, it is anyone who God places in your path.  Furthermore, in Matthew 5:43 Jesus even includes our enemies as those we should love.

Well, hearing this answer, the lawyer is so impressed by the wisdom of Christ that he cannot help but offer his praise, saying in vs32, ”Right, Teacher; You have truly stated that HE IS ONE, AND THERE IS NO ONE ELSE BESIDES HIM;  AND TO LOVE HIM WITH ALL THE HEART AND WITH ALL THE UNDERSTANDING AND WITH ALL THE STRENGTH, AND TO LOVE ONE’S NEIGHBOR AS HIMSELF, is much more than all burnt offerings and sacrifices.”  His enthusiasm indicates that Jesus has just made one of His enemies into a possible disciple. And Jesus recognizing that says in return, “You are not far from the kingdom of God.”

Listen, what an answer to those today who would offer the sacrifices of praise and worship and not the sacrifice of obedience.   What an answer to those who would offer lip service, but will not surrender their lives in service to the Lord.  In our study of the life of David, we heard Samuel emphasize a similar point to Saul that this lawyer made to the Lord.  Samuel says in 1Samuel 15:22, “Has the LORD as much delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices As in obeying the voice of the LORD? Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, And to heed than the fat of rams.”  

Love towards God cannot truly exist without obedience towards the Lord.  There was just one more step needed by this lawyer to go from being not far from the kingdom of God to being in the kingdom of God.  And that was believing in Jesus Christ as the Son of God.  Jesus said in John 6:40  “For this is the will of My Father, that everyone who beholds the Son and believes in Him will have eternal life, and I Myself will raise him up on the last day.”  

In John 11:25-26 Jesus said to Martha, “I am the resurrection and the life; he who believes in Me will live even if he dies,  and everyone who lives and believes in Me will never die. Do you believe this?”

I would close today in asking you the same question.  Have you believed in Jesus Christ as the Son of God who came into the world to offer the complete sacrifice for your sins?  And are you willing to obey Him and give your life to live for Him as your Lord and Savior?  If you will but believe in Him and surrender your life to Him, He will give you life, He will guarantee your resurrection and you will never die but live eternally with Him in glory.  I pray that you have surrendered to Jesus today and be given a new heart and a renewed spirit that you might love Him with all your heart and soul. 

In Hebrews 1:3 the scripture tells us that Jesus is “the radiance of [God’s] glory and the exact representation of [God’s] nature, and upholds all things by the word of His power.” And to that end, in the last couple of chapters we have seen Mark present different dimensions of Jesus’ divine nature, each displaying a different aspect of God’s character.  In chapter 10 we see Jesus presented as the Good God, as the Savior, as our Sacrifice, as the Suffering Servant, as the Son of Man, and as the Son of David.  In chapter 11, we see Jesus described as the Lord, as the coming King, and as the Righteous Judge. 

These passages show that it’s simply bad theology to emphasize the characteristics of God in only one dimension, such as in God is love, without also taking into consideration His Lordship, His sovereignty, His holiness and the supreme judge of the earth.  A lot of people are willing to accept the idea of a God, even perhaps Jesus as the Son of God, as long as He conforms to what they think God should be. God is ok as long as He is serving me and insuring that I have a good life.  But a God that judges me, that determines what is right or wrong for me, that may send me to either heaven or hell, that’s a God that most people do not want to accept nor believe in.  However, a god that you determine is not really God at all; it’s an idol formed according to your design.  God said to Moses in Exodus 3:14, “I am who I am.” God is who He is, and as He has been from eternity past, and we must worship Him in spirit and in truth according to how He has revealed Himself through His Word.

So Jesus’ divinity is the issue that we see before the religious leaders of Israel in the passage we are studying today.  They cannot dispute His manifested power to heal or raise the dead or feed thousands of people from a few loaves of bread.  Nor can they dismiss  the truth of His teaching.  But they will not submit to Him as Lord.  They will not submit to His rule and authority over them.  Actually, in spite of the evidence that Jesus has given, they have determined that they will not have this man rule over them.  And yet I believe that they had overwhelming evidence to convince them that Jesus was the Messiah.  But they would reject Him and plot to kill Him because they would not have Him be Lord over them. And that really is the issue today as well.  People are willing to believe that Jesus existed, even believe that He is the Savior, yet for a lot of people their faith fails at the point of declaring Jesus as Lord.  They refuse to acknowledge His authority to rule their lives and consequently they will not let Him be the Lord of their life.

Now as we saw in the first part of the chapter, Jesus entered into the temple after His triumphal entry into Jerusalem and looked around discretely during the evening, assessing what was going on.  And then the next morning, Jesus came back to the temple with a vengeance, sweeping aside the money changers and the vendors of sacrificial animals, and basically putting a stop to all commerce in the temple.  He disrupted the daily sacrifices, He stopped them from making money off of the temple service, and He basically asserted His authority over the temple as His house and His domain.

Well, we pick it up the story the following morning as Jesus and His disciples come back into Jerusalem and Jesus is once again walking through the temple, vs 27, and the chief priests and the scribes and the elders came to Him, and began saying to Him, “By what authority are You doing these things, or who gave You this authority to do these things?”

Now lest you miss it, these are the top brass of Israel.  These are the chief priests and the rulers of the Sanhedrin.  They control the temple worship and all practices in the temple and thus, they control Israel. They are very powerful and very wealthy men.  And at this point, they are very angry men.  Their income has been interrupted and called into question during what was the busiest week for sacrifices and offerings of the year.  It’s the equivalent of the week before Christmas in the Mall of America. Imagine if someone shut off the power and stopped everyone from doing business.  There would be an uproar.  And that’s what is happening here.

So they stop Jesus as He is walking in the temple, and they ask Him, “By what authority are you doing these things?”  What authority do you have to disrupt the temple service and determine what is appropriate?

Jesus’ authority is really is a key question that they keep coming back to.  They have previously accused Jesus of casting out demons by the Devil’s authority.  They have resolutely refused to recognize Jesus’ authority as the Messiah, although they have had plenty of evidence for it, and of all people they should have been the first to acknowledge Him as the Messiah.

Well, Jesus answers their two questions with a question of His own.  It’s interesting to note that 8 times in Mark’s gospel, the critics of Jesus ask Him a question in order to attack Him or try to trap Him, and each time Jesus answers with a question of His own. I think what that shows us is that often people are asking the wrong questions.  It’s possible to ask a question designed to elicit a certain answer.  I guess that is what the pollsters do.  That’s why their polls are usually skewed to show the results that they want to show.  But rather than play their game, Jesus asks His own question.  And in that very thing, He shows His authority.  God is not subject to our questions.  God will ask the questions of us.

Vs 29, And Jesus said to them, “I will ask you one question, and you answer Me, and then I will tell you by what authority I do these things. Was the baptism of John from heaven, or from men? Answer Me.” That’s an important question we need to ask ourselves in our ministry and in our worship even today.  Is it from God or from men?  If we really consider our worship, our ministry, our church from that perspective, then I think there are a lot of sacred cows in the church that might fail the test.  A lot of what we take for granted in church should be subjected to that paradigm. Is it from God or from men?

Now according to Mark chapter 1 the baptism from John was the baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins.  It was the conclusion to the message of “prepare the way, the kingdom of God is at hand.”  The Messiah is coming.  So in preparation for the coming of the Messiah, John urged the Jews to repent and be baptized, which symbolized the confession of their sins.  And when John eventually saw Jesus coming to him, he said in John 1:29, “Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world.”  

The scribes and the chief priests knew all of that of course.  They had come out to see the baptism of John and He called them a “brood of vipers,” telling them to bear fruit in keeping with repentance.   So they weren’t fans of John the Baptist.  But Jesus had them cornered with this question. Vs 31 They [began] reasoning among themselves, saying, “If we say, ‘From heaven,’ He will say, ‘Then why did you not believe him?’ 32 “But shall we say, ‘From men’?”–they were afraid of the people, for everyone considered John to have been a real prophet.”
So the religious leaders considered their options, and they didn’t like them. They wanted approval from the people, but they had rejected John’s ministry. So they answered “We don’t know.” They would have been more honest had they said, “We won’t say.”  And Jesus responds to that unsaid answer.  Jesus *said to them, “Nor will I tell you by what authority I do these things.”

The question that comes to my mind is why didn’t Jesus tell them who He was? Why not state outright that He was the Son of God?  People are still debating today whether or not Jesus said He was the Son of God.  The Pharisees said to him on another occasion, in John 10:24, “how long will you keep us in suspense?  If you are the Christ, (that is the Messiah) tell us plainly.”  And when Jesus said in response, “I and the Father are one,”  they took up stones to kill Him.

Now they still want to kill Him.  And the reason they want Him to say that He is the Son of God is they want to accuse Him of blasphemy and put Him to death.  And at His trial in a few days, they will do exactly that, and make that same accusation.  But that time is not yet. Jesus has an appointed time to die, and that is on the Passover, when the Lamb of God will be slain for the sin of the world.  And that’s still three days away.  It is not yet the appointed time to die, so Jesus doesn’t give them the plain answer they want to hear. They want Him to answer that He is the Son of God, so that they will have a reason to convict Him of blasphemy and put Him to death. But the crux of faith is not that Jesus confesses that He is Lord, but that He wants man to confess that He is Lord.

So rather than give them an outright, plain answer, Jesus gives them a parable.  Remember why Jesus said He used parables?  Back in chapter 4 vs 11 Jesus told His disciples, “To you has been given the mystery of the kingdom of God, but those who are outside get everything in parables, so that WHILE SEEING, THEY MAY SEE AND NOT PERCEIVE, AND WHILE HEARING, THEY MAY HEAR AND NOT UNDERSTAND, OTHERWISE THEY MIGHT RETURN AND BE FORGIVEN.”

The parable then He gives is based on Isaiah 5:1-7.  This is one of the most clear parables that Jesus has given, because it is so obviously based on Isaiah 5 that they would have known exactly what He was referring to. Most parables Jesus gave He also needed to explain how to understand them.  But in this case, their knowledge of Isaiah should have provided them the key. Isaiah gives an allegory in chapter 5, “Let me sing now for my well-beloved A song of my beloved concerning His vineyard. My well-beloved had a vineyard on a fertile hill.  He dug it all around, removed its stones, And planted it with the choicest vine. And He built a tower in the middle of it And also hewed out a wine vat in it; Then He expected it to produce good grapes, But it produced only worthless ones. “And now, O inhabitants of Jerusalem and men of Judah, Judge between Me and My vineyard.  “What more was there to do for My vineyard that I have not done in it? Why, when I expected it to produce good grapes did it produce worthless ones?  “So now let Me tell you what I am going to do to My vineyard: I will remove its hedge and it will be consumed; I will break down its wall and it will become trampled ground.  “I will lay it waste; It will not be pruned or hoed, But briars and thorns will come up. I will also charge the clouds to rain no rain on it.”  For the vineyard of the LORD of hosts is the house of Israel And the men of Judah His delightful plant. Thus He looked for justice, but behold, bloodshed; For righteousness, but behold, a cry of distress.”

God said that Israel is His vineyard.  He planted the vineyard, and tilled it, and took care of it, and protected it, and yet it did not produce the fruit of righteousness.  So God pronounces judgment upon it.  

Now keeping that allegory in mind, let’s look at the parable which Jesus gives the religious leaders at the beginning of chapter 12. “A man PLANTED A VINEYARD AND PUT A WALL AROUND IT, AND DUG A VAT UNDER THE WINE PRESS AND BUILT A TOWER, and rented it out to vine-growers and went on a journey.  “At the harvest time he sent a slave to the vine-growers, in order to receive some of the produce of the vineyard from the vine-growers. “They took him, and beat him and sent him away empty-handed.  “Again he sent them another slave, and they wounded him in the head, and treated him shamefully.  “And he sent another, and that one they killed; and so with many others, beating some and killing others.  “He had one more to send, a beloved son; he sent him last of all to them, saying, ‘They will respect my son.’  “But those vine-growers said to one another, ‘This is the heir; come, let us kill him, and the inheritance will be ours!’  “They took him, and killed him and threw him out of the vineyard. “What will the owner of the vineyard do? He will come and destroy the vine-growers, and will give the vineyard to others.  “Have you not even read this Scripture: ‘THE STONE WHICH THE BUILDERS REJECTED, THIS BECAME THE CHIEF CORNER stone; THIS CAME ABOUT FROM THE LORD, AND IT IS MARVELOUS IN OUR EYES’?”

The correlation to Isaiah 5 is obvious.  But Jesus adds a new element.  He says the owner sent his servants to receive some of the produce from the vine growers.  The vine growers are those who have been given stewardship over the vineyard.  My father, when he was a young man, grew up during the Depression.  And like a lot of people back then, they did not have very much money.  They lived on a farm in eastern North Carolina, and they were sharecroppers.  Sharecroppers lived on someone else’s farm, they took care of the farm and tended it for the landowner.  Then at harvest time, they would reap the crops and pay the owner a percentage of the yield.  That was the way they made a living.  They didn’t own the land, they didn’t pay for the seed, etc, they simply were stewards of the owners farm and investment.  

So what Jesus is describing is that when the servants of the landowner come to receive his share, the sharecroppers attack the servant and send him back empty handed.  The amazing thing is that when the servant comes back to the owner, the owner doesn’t go and take retribution on the tenants, but instead he patiently sends another servant, and then another one, each time having his servants beaten and rejected by the sharecroppers.  That shows tremendous patience and long-suffering of the landowner.  

And of course, Jesus is portraying a picture of the patience of God and prophets that He sent to Israel,  His vineyard.  And again and again they persecuted and even killed His prophets.  But God was patient with Israel, sending HIs prophets one after another down through the centuries until at last God sends His only Beloved Son.  There is a poignancy in Jesus’s statement, “he sent him last of all to them, saying, ‘They will respect my son.’”  But rather than show respect, Jesus says instead they conspire together and say, “‘This is the heir; come, let us kill him, and the inheritance will be ours!’ They took him, and killed him and threw him out of the vineyard.”

Let’s be sure we don’t miss the courage of Jesus, who is looking into the angry, arrogant faces of the very ones who in just three days would arrest Him and try Him and crucify Him, thinking that they had kept the nation of Israel for their own selfish gain.  Jesus knows that they are plotting to kill Him.  And in a not very subtle way He is calling them out and exposing their evil hearts.  

So Jesus concludes the parable with a question, which Mark records for us the answer in vs9 “What will the owner of the vineyard do? He will come and destroy the vine-growers, and will give the vineyard to others.”  Because of the hardness of their hearts and their rejection and murder of God’s Son, the gospel of salvation, the kingdom of God, will be taken from Israel and be given to another people, or nations, who will render fruit in due season. There we see the justice and the wrath of God.  God is loving, God is long suffering and patient towards us, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.  But there will come a day when God will come to the vineyard, fully expecting His due, and on that day every deed will be judged, whether good or evil.  The day of judgment had come upon Israel.  They thought they were judging Jesus.  But in effect they were condemning themselves.  In just three days, the curtain of the temple would be rent into from top to bottom. The Spirit of God would depart from the temple. And in one generation, just 40 years, the temple would lay in ruins and the religious leaders would be scattered and killed because they rejected the Holy Son of God during His visitation.

Now to the question of by what authority did Jesus do these things, the answer is obviously that Jesus is the Son of God who came to visit His vineyard.  And so to make that point unmistakably clear, Jesus says in vs 10, in which He quotes from Psalm 118:22, 23, “Have you not even read this Scripture: ‘THE STONE WHICH THE BUILDERS REJECTED, THIS BECAME THE CHIEF CORNER stone; THIS CAME ABOUT FROM THE LORD, AND IT IS MARVELOUS IN OUR EYES’?”

Jesus is saying that He is the stone which they the builders had rejected, but God had made Him the cornerstone of His church.  They would reject Him and even crucify Him, but marvelously God would raise Him from the dead, and He would be the cornerstone of the church, a new temple which is the people, or vineyard of God.  

So in answer to the priests question, Jesus Himself is the authority.  After Jesus rose from the dead in a few more days He would say according to Matt. 28:18 “All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth.” Jesus is the Lord of the vineyard, He is the King of heaven and Creator of all the earth.  He has the authority over all  and we as His people must submit to Him as both Lord and Savior.  If we reject Him, we do so to our own eternal condemnation.  

Mark concludes this passage by telling us that the religious leaders knew that Jesus had spoken this parable about them.  He had pronounced judgment upon them, and they in turn pronounced judgment upon Christ.  Vs 12 “And they were seeking to seize Him, and yet they feared the people, for they understood that He spoke the parable against them. And so they left Him and went away.”  Within a few days time they would act to kill Him and in so doing they would seal their own fate.  The patience of God would soon come to an end for the nation of Israel and God would open the kingdom to the Gentiles as the Church of God.

But the principle that was in effect for Israel is also in effect for the church.  The church is God’s house.  He is the builder of it.  He is the Lord of the church.  We are His temple, and He is the cornerstone.  Christ has laid down His life for the church.  Christ has planted carefully His church by the word of God.  He has sown it with the seed of truth.  He has watered it, sent His prophets to tend to it.  And one day Christ will come again to receive the fruit of His church.

Phil. 2:8-11 says, “Being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.  For this reason also, God highly exalted Him, and bestowed on Him the name which is above every name,  so that at the name of Jesus EVERY KNEE WILL BOW, of those who are in heaven and on earth and under the earth,  and that every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.”

We need to understand that Jesus is the authority in the church.  We need to ask ourselves if what we are doing in response to that authority is of God or man.  And we need to bow to Him and submit to His authority over our lives. That is what it means to worship Him. Rom 12:1-2 says, “Therefore I urge you, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God, [which is] your spiritual service of worship. And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect.”

In connection with the events of the Passion Week we have seen two figures in which Jesus has presented the church as a fruit yielding plant; the fig tree, and the vineyard.  The symbolism is intended to teach us that our purpose is to bear fruit.  Jesus said in John 15:8, “My Father is glorified by this, that you bear much fruit, and so prove to be My disciples.” Jesus said we glorify God when we bear fruit.  And we bear fruit when we bear a resemblance to the image of Jesus Christ.  When we act like He acted, when we look like He looked, and when we work as He worked.  In short, when we are conformed to the image of Jesus Christ then we bear fruit and the Father is glorified.  And we are able to be like Christ because we have the Spirit of Christ working in us.  Let us therefore walk not according to the lusts of the flesh, but walk by the Spirit of God, that we might bear the fruit of the Spirit in our lives.  

Some of the events that are recorded before us today are probably very familiar to many of you.  If you’ve been at church on the major holidays during your life then you’ve probably heard a few messages on Palm Sunday, and may have been given little palm branches to take home.  Well, today is not Palm Sunday, but we are going to be looking at events that start on what is called Palm Sunday and continue to Tuesday in what is known as the Passion week.  

However, I would like to forego a lot of the traditional emphasis that is usually placed on these events and instead focus our attention on the spiritual aspects of what is recorded here for us.  Because as you are probably aware, the Jews were looking for the Messiah to resurrect the Davidic kingdom and the overthrow of Israel’s oppressors.  And as such they missed out completely on the significance of what was happening.  Jesus came the first time, some 2000 years ago, to establish a spiritual kingdom.  He will return again one day to usher in the physical consummation of all things at His second coming.  In the meanwhile, we are concerned about entering into the spiritual kingdom of God.  That spiritual kingdom is where Christ rules and reigns in the hearts of His people.  So that is the focus of this message and what I would like to try to show as we study this passage.  It’s a rather long passage, covering a lot of material and we could spend three or four Sundays exploring all the references and cross references that have to do with this passage.  But just as I believe Mark does in his gospel, I want to focus on the spiritual characteristics  of the kingdom of God, as Christ comes riding into Jerusalem in triumphant procession and enters into the temple of God.

As we finished up the previous chapter, we saw the Lord Jesus resolutely leading His followers towards Jerusalem.  Mark has really focused practically all of his gospel on the last few months of Jesus’s ministry, and now  we are at the last week before His crucifixion.  There are just 16 chapters in Mark’s gospel, and we are already on chapter 11, and in verse one it is Sunday morning, the first day of the passion week.  Mark is rushing us towards the climax of the gospel story, and in this first day of the week we see what I am calling the triumph of the gospel.  A triumph refers to the Roman victory procession when the victorious general would parade into the city with his captives in his train, and his soldiers following him, and he would be celebrated and praised by his people.  And that is essentially what we see here in spiritual terms as Christ enters Jerusalem.

As the chapter opens, we see Jesus instructing two of His disciples to go into the next village, Bethany or Bethpage which was practically a suburb of Jerusalem, and find there a colt of a donkey which was tied there near the entrance.  Mark says it was a colt that was unbroken, no one had ever ridden it.  And so the unnamed disciples go there and find the colt as Jesus had described it would be, and as they started to take it, those who were nearby said “why are you taking the colt?”  And they said, “The Lord has need of it.”  All of that discourse was exactly as Jesus had said it would be.  

Some commentators find it necessary to explain that Jesus must have prearranged this sometime in advance in order for this to work out in this way.  But I believe that Jesus knew that the donkey would be there.  And furthermore, Jesus knew who the donkey belonged to.  And this owner was undoubtedly a follower of Christ.  I believe that because Jesus tells them to say “the Lord has need of it.”  If they were not a believer, then it would have been necessary to say “Jesus of Nazareth has need of it.”  But since they were a believer, all that was necessary was to say “the Lord has need of it.”

And I think that this is an indication of the all encompassing nature of the kingdom of God.  Here was this secret disciple, or at the least, a not so obvious follower of Christ who was unknown to the rest of the disciples.  I’m reminded of the time Elijah was discouraged and said to God, “I alone am left.”  And the Lord said I have 7000 men who have not bowed the knee to Baal.  The spiritual kingdom of God would extend far beyond the immediate circle of the disciples, to the far reaches of Israel, and to include all the nations of the earth, as Mark records Jesus adds in vs 17, saying that the house of God would be a house of prayer for all the nations.  The disciples had a limited view of the kingdom.  They were picking out the chief seats for themselves around the throne.  But the Lord had a view to reach the nations with the gospel, which they were at this point unaware of.

And I think it also speaks to the necessity of our involvement in the establishment of the kingdom.  The Lord desires to work with us and through us to establish His kingdom.  We are to participate.  We see that in the praise and worship of the multitudes, the obedience of the two disciples who fulfilled their mission, and the sacrifice and faith of the person that gave his colt to be used by the Lord.  Some served in great acts, some in lessor acts, but God uses both great and small gifts in the furtherance of His kingdom. Everyone contributes according to his ability and his stewardship. So in the words of the Lord, let us not despise the day of small things.  One man gave a lowly donkey, and yet it was used to usher in the Lord of Hosts in the triumph of the gospel.  It was used in fulfillment of prophecy, particularly Zechariah 9:9 which says “  Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion! Shout aloud, O daughter of Jerusalem! Lo, your king comes to you; triumphant and victorious is he, humble and riding on an ass, on a colt the foal of an ass.”

I would urge you here today, if you are a follower of Christ, to consider how you are contributing to the furtherance of the kingdom.  What resources has God given you that you might give back to God for His use?  God would like to use you, to bless you, if you are willing to use your stewardship for His glory.  “The Lord has need of it.”  What is your response? “No, I need it more?”  Or rather acknowledge that if He is Lord, then it is His to use as He sees fit.

So the disciples bring the donkey to Jesus and they laid their garments on it’s back as a saddle, and the Lord begins to ride into Jerusalem from the Mount of Olives.  There is a large crowd following Him now, and they lay their robes on the ground that He might ride upon them, and then they lay down palm branches in the road, all the while the enthusiasm and excitement is building and they cry out “Hosanna!” which means “save now”.  “Hosanna! BLESSED IS HE WHO COMES IN THE NAME OF THE LORD; Blessed is the coming kingdom of our father David;  Hosanna in the highest!” Notice that there is an element of sacrifice in their worship, as they laid down their cloaks in His path.  Worship always involves sacrificial obeisance. 

However, though it’s true that they call out praise to the Lord because they believe He is the Messiah, yet it’s pretty obvious as the events roll out during the week that their praise was founded on wrong expectations concerning the Messiah.  That is indicated perhaps in the phrase, “Blessed is the coming kingdom of our father David.”  They are looking for Christ to take the throne of David, not in a spiritual sense, but in a physical way, to sweep away the enemies of Israel and resume the throne in Jerusalem and reestablish Israels sovereignty. 

But lest we think too little of these poor peasant people who are following Jesus into the city from Galilee, let’s make sure that we are not suffering under the same delusion.  Do we also  put undue emphasis on the gospel of the kingdom in regards to fulfilling our physical expectations?  Do we expect God to fill our cupboards as He fed the multitudes?  Do we expect God to heal our diseases as He healed blind Bartimaeus?  Do we become disgruntled and dissatisfied with God when He doesn’t fulfill our expectations of physical deliverance from whatever difficulties we are encountering?  I know I have to restrain my discouragement when God doesn’t act on my perceived difficulties as I expect Him to.  And I am sure that many of you as well find yourselves at times disgruntled with God that He does not deliver you from whatever difficulty you are dealing with.  Sometimes I think we would rather have a physical or political Messiah than a spiritual one.

Now notice vs11, “Jesus entered Jerusalem and came into the temple; and after looking around at everything, He left for Bethany with the twelve, since it was already late.”  The temple was of course designed to be the center of spiritual, religious life in Israel.  And here we see Jesus going there late in the evening and looking around.  It would be easy to skim over that and not see the importance of this incident. 

Many years ago I used to work in a very large luxury hotel in Florida.  And the hotel general manager was notorious for going through the hotel at night after many of the department managers had left for the day and doing an inspection.  And it was a terrible thing to come in the next morning and find these write ups that he had done on your department the night before.  Things that he had found lacking.  

Perhaps to some extent that’s what is going on here.  Jesus has come back to Jerusalem after being gone for some time.  And He goes into the temple, what He has previously called “His Father’s house,”  and He makes an inspection.  If you read between the lines it would seem that He did this without any fanfare.  Perhaps He even disguised Himself.  I don’t know.  But He looks around at His house, and He is not happy with what He finds there.

I don’t know about you, but I tremble to consider what kind of invisible inspections the Lord must do in our houses.  We are the house of God, not this building, but you people are the temple of the Holy Spirit.  1Cor. 6:19  “Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and that you are not your own?”  

I wonder if Christ secretly walked through your house last night and did an inspection.  I wonder what He saw that He may have been displeased about, or what He found that He was pleased with.  I wonder what HIs assessment of our temple would be? Paul said, We are not our own, we are bought with a price.  What are we doing with this temple to glorify God?  In the next few verses we will see that Jesus comes back the next morning in judgment against the temple. He accuses them that they have made what should have been a house of prayer a house of merchandise, a  place of thieves and robbers.  They had made the temple into a commercial enterprise.  I can’t help but wonder if we are not guilty of the same, of making what should be for holy use, to be used in profane and unholy things.  Are we so busy serving mammon that we do not serve the Lord?

But before we look at that incident later the next day, we see that first thing in the morning there is a symbolic illustration of the situation Jesus found in the temple the night before.  This is really like a living parable, it is an earthly illustration of a spiritual principle.  And we see that unfold as they are walking back to Jerusalem, Jesus is hungry and He sees a fig tree in the distance in full bloom.  I am told that fig trees produce figs as soon as they produce leaves.  And so seeing the leaves, it was to be expected that it would have figs that were ripened and ready to eat.  But when Jesus went to the tree, it had no figs.  And so Jesus does something that seems shocking, at least on the surface.  He curses the fig tree, saying, “May no one ever eat fruit from you again!”  And His disciples took note of what He said.  

We will look at this again later, but suffice it for now to note that Israel is pictured in the fig tree.  They are the fig tree which the land owner planted and checked for three years to see if it had produced fruit, and finding none, cursed the tree and cut it down, according to the parable of the fig tree found in Luke 13:6-9.

So leaving there, Jesus goes back into Jerusalem and  enters straight away into the temple. This time He doesn’t come quietly or secretly.  This time Jesus comes with a vengeance.  This, by the way, is the second time that Jesus comes to the temple and cleanses it.  The first time was at the beginning of His ministry and the gospels tell us that He made a whip and used it to drive out the money changers and the merchants.  This time, no whip is mentioned, but I would like to think that He once again picked up a ox whip or something and began to lay it about on the tables and the backs of the brokers.

And I think that those two visits to the temple are an illustration of Christ’s first and second coming.  The first time He came was in His incarnation, to initiate His kingdom by making a way for man to be reconciled to God.  The second time He comes is in the consummation of His Kingdom, to take possession of His church, to gather the fruit and to bring judgment upon the tares.  And even in the first coming, Jesus caused division between the gospel and religion.  He said He came not to bring peace but a sword, to cause division between a man and his family.  

So this incident as Christ cleans out the temple is correlated to the incident when Christ cursed the fig tree. The temple is full of activity, it is conducting a lively business, but there is no spiritual fruit there.  It’s a picture of the church at large far too often today; full of activity, programs, people running here and there, but no real spiritual fruit.  Fruit being the evidence of Christ in the lives of His people.  Fruit being not just lip service, but a life lived in obedience to the seed which is the  word of God.

Now what was going on in the temple was a commercial enterprise that was organized and approved by the priests and Sanhedrin.  It was a scam really, in which the priests would examine the animal you brought in to have sacrificed, and tell you that it had some imperfection which rendered it unfit, and so you were forced to buy a pre approved animal from one of their vendors.  That one would of course be priced at an exorbitant amount, but you had really no choice if you wanted to offer an acceptable sacrifice.  The priests of course were getting a kick back from the vendors.  And the same thing happened with the temple tax.  The tax was required to be paid in Jewish coin.  So again for a fee, they had people there who would exchange your Roman coins for Jewish coins so you could pay the temple tax. And so Jesus turns over the tables of the merchants and drives them out of the temple and doesn’t allow anyone to carry merchandise through the temple.  

Mark understates what this must have done to the proceedings of the temple that day.  It was the Passover week.  Thousands of pilgrims are coming to the temple to offer sacrifices.  It was like turning off the power in the mall the week before Christmas. No one could do business.  And so as a result of His actions the wrath of the priests and the Sanhedrin would reach a fever pitch, resulting in their plot to murder Jesus.

And unfortunately, that is one of the repercussions of preaching the truth of the gospel today.  People are content in the activity of religion however corrupt it may have become – however far from the truth it may be.  But if you call out that activity as hypocrisy, the kick back is that they hate you and try to destroy you.  No repentance, no contrition, just a resentment that their commerce or corruption or hypocrisy has been uncovered.  But nevertheless, I take my cue from Jesus Himself.  He didn’t mince words.  He didn’t try to coddle them.  He called it what it was and He told them to get out.  vs.17, “Is it not written, ‘MY HOUSE SHALL BE CALLED A HOUSE OF PRAYER FOR ALL THE NATIONS’? But you have made it a ROBBERS’ DEN.” They were robbing God in His own house.

Now at the possibility of raising the ire of some, let me make this application on a subject that if you are honest you have to admit I don’t often speak of, if at all.  But if you are the temple of the Holy Spirit, is there an application that you possibly rob God as well?  Malachi 3:8-11 says,  “Will a man rob God? Yet you are robbing Me! But you say, ‘How have we robbed You?’ In tithes and offerings. You are cursed with a curse, for you are robbing Me, the whole nation of you! Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse, so that there may be food in My house, and test Me now in this,” says the LORD of hosts, “if I will not open for you the windows of heaven and pour out for you a blessing until it overflows. Then I will rebuke the devourer for you, so that it will not destroy the fruits of the ground; nor will your vine in the field cast its grapes,” says the LORD of hosts.

Now let me hasten to say that I don’t say this, but God says it.  I would rather not say it.  I would rather the Lord deal with those who are disobedient in this, and not even mention it.  But for your sakes I mention it, because I think that to be disobedient in this is to bring upon yourself a curse, even as God said, “You are cursed with a curse.”  If you want to have that curse removed, then render to God to things that are God’s, and then God said He will pour out for you a blessing until it overflows.  Now let’s move on before someone throws stones.  

Well, vs 18 says, “The chief priests and the scribes heard this, and began seeking how to destroy Him; for they were afraid of Him, for the whole crowd was astonished at His teaching.”  That’s the effect of sound biblical preaching, some get mad and some are afraid and some are astonished.  But preaching should have some cleansing effect.  Preaching that makes everyone feel warm and fuzzy isn’t the preaching of the gospel, I’m afraid.  As Jesus said, “I came not to bring peace, but a sword.”

So in vs19, Jesus and His disciples leave the city that night again as was their custom.  I think they are sleeping out on the Mount of Olives each night.  That’s how Judas is able to betray Him to the high priests.  He knows that is where Jesus and the disciples spend the night. 

The next morning, Tuesday, as they come back to Jerusalem, Peter sees the fig tree, and it has withered from the roots up.  This is a symbolic reference to the prophecy Jesus made concerning Israel in Matt. 3:10  “The axe is already laid at the root of the trees; therefore every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.”  So Peter said to Jesus, “Rabbi, look, the fig tree which You cursed has withered.”  I think that there is surprise among the disciples that the apparently  healthy tree they saw the day before had so quickly withered.  And that suddenness is a picture of how quickly Israel would wither as well, as in less than 40 years later the temple would be destroyed and the Jews dispersed. In one day the tree withered, and in one generation Israel would be destroyed.

And Jesus answered Peter, “Have faith in God.” Now doesn’t that seem like a strange way to answer him?  Isn’t this a strange transition to start talking about how to move mountains?  A lot of people take these next verses out of context, as some sort of formula whereby we can do miracles or get whatever we want. But Jesus is not telling us how to curse fig trees or work miracles, but how not to be cursed like the fig tree.   The nation of Israel was cursed because it did not seek the kingdom of God through faith but through dead works. They substituted ritual and ceremony for faith in Christ, and so they had become cursed.  They had an outward form of religion, but inwardly they were dead.

“Have faith in God,” means that faith is the way to life in Christ. This is the way to have life that is fruitful.  To trust that the Lord knows what is best for us, to believe what he says, to obey what he commands, to do what He asks.  Faith in Him makes us a fruitful person, or a fruitful church, as the case may be.  

Then Jesus went on to say something even more puzzling: “Truly, I say to you, whoever says to this mountain, ‘Be taken up and cast into the sea,’ and does not doubt in his heart, but believes that what he says will come to pass, it will be done for him.” Once again, this is not a formula for miracle working.  But the mountain Jesus speaks of is the Mount of Olives.  The sea is the Dead Sea.  They are standing there looking at this mountain and contemplating throwing it into the Dead Sea?   That is impossible.  The mountain is a figure of the impossible.

But Jesus is not giving us a formula here for throwing mountains into the sea. He is telling us that to have faith in God at times is difficult to do. He knows that. There are mountains which oppose our faith and make it difficult for us. There are obstacles to faith.  There are impossibles in our Christian life.  But in chapter 9:23 we read Jesus said, “All things are possible to him who believes.”  And in chapter 10 vs 27 Jesus said, “With people it is impossible, but not with God; for all things are possible with God.”

But remember what we said at the beginning. This is the spiritual kingdom of God that Jesus is establishing.  These impossible things are things which are spiritual.  The mountain, though literal and physical, is but a figure of the obstacles to the  spiritual. Faith is the means by which we overcome the world and we are saved spiritually.  Faith is the means by which we receive eternal life, even the abundant life in Christ.

And then he goes on to tell us how in vs24, “Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask in prayer, believe that you will receive it, and you will. And whenever you stand praying, forgive, if you have anything against any one; so that your Father also who is in heaven may forgive you your trespasses.” 

What Jesus is saying is, that repentance is necessary for faith. ”The great hindrance to having faith in God is sin, and that’s illustrated by the sin which refuses to forgive. Sin is like a mountain which hinders your faith. Your prayers are hindered.  David prayed, “if I regard iniquity in my heart the Lord will not hear me.”  Before we can have the proper expression of our faith which is effective prayer, we must repent of the sin in our lives. 

Maybe that means we need to forgive someone who has injured us, even as Christ has forgiven us for injury against God.  Maybe unforgiveness is the sin that is hindering your fruitfulness.  Jesus, when He taught us to pray said pray this way, “Forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us.”  

In conclusion then, faith is the means of gaining spiritual life.  Faith is expressed in prayer.  As the temple of God, we are to be a house of prayer.  Faith by the way, is not a fervent belief that whatever we ask for God will give us.  But faith is a fervent belief in what God has promised He is faithful to perform.  Then finally, if we are to  have effective prayer, it must be prayer from clean hands and a clean heart.  We must not harbor sin if we would have effective prayer.  May God help us, then, to forgive one another.  That is the fruit of faith, that we love one another, even as Christ loved the church and gave up His life for her.