Category: Encouragement

Intro to Philippians

• Introduction to Philippians (Notes from Christian Standard Bible Study Bible Richard R. Melick Jr., “Philippians,” in CSB Study Bible: Notes, ed. Edwin A. Blum and Trevin Wax (Nashville, TN: Holman Bible Publishers, 2017), 1882.)
• author: Paul the apostle wrote this short letter, a fact that no scholar seriously questions.
• background: The traditional date for the writing of Philippians is during Paul’s first Roman imprisonment (AD 60–62); few have challenged this conclusion. Paul planted the church at Philippi during his second missionary journey (AD 50) in response to his “Macedonian vision” (Ac 16:9–10). This was the first church in Europe (Ac 16).
  • The text of this letter from Paul suggests several characteristics of the church at Philippi. First, Gentiles predominated. Few Jews lived in Philippi, and, apparently, the church had few. Second, women had a significant role (Ac 16:11–15; Php 4:1–2). Third, the church was generous. Fourth, they remained deeply loyal to Paul.
  • Philippi, the ancient city of Krenides, had a military significance. It was the capital of Alexander the Great, who renamed it for his father Philip of Macedon, and it became the capital of the Greek Empire (332 BC). The Romans conquered Greece, and in the civil war after Julius Caesar’s death (44 BC), Antony and Octavius repopulated Philippi by allowing the defeated armies (Brutus and Cassius) to settle there (eight hundred miles from Rome). They declared the city a Roman colony. It flourished, proud of its history and entrenched in Roman political and social life. In his epistle to the Philippians, Paul alludes to military and political structures as metaphors for the church.
  • Paul thanked the church for their financial support (4:10–20). He also addressed disunity and the threat of heresy. Disunity threatened the church, spawned by personal conflicts (4:2) and disagreements over theology (3:1–16). The heresy came from radical Jewish teachers. Paul addressed both issues personally and warmly.
  • The church at Philippi sent Epaphroditus to help Paul in Rome. While there he became ill (2:25–28). The church learned of Epaphroditus’s illness, and Paul wished to ease their concern for him. Some people possibly blamed Epaphroditus for failing his commission, but Paul commended him and sent him home. Perhaps Epaphroditus carried this letter with him.
• message and purpose
  • One purpose of this letter was for Paul to explain his situation at Rome (1:12–26). Although he was concerned about the divided Christian community at Rome, his outlook was strengthened by the knowledge that Christ was being magnified. Paul’s theology of life formed the basis of his optimism. Whether he lived or died, whether he continued his service to others or went to be in Christ’s presence, or whether he was appreciated or not, he wanted Christ to be glorified. Within this explanation are several messages.
  • unity: Paul exhorted the church to unity (1:27–2:18). Two factors influenced him. The church at Rome was divided, and he lived with a daily reminder of the effects of disunity. Further, similar disunity threatened the Philippian church as two prominent women differed with each other. Selfishness lay at the heart of the problems at Rome and Philippi. Paul reminded the believers of the humility of Jesus. If they would allow the outlook of Christ to guide their lives, harmony would be restored. The hymn to Christ (2:5–11) is pivotal to the epistle.
    • Christian unity results when individuals develop the mind of Christ. In more difficult situations, the church collectively solved problems through the involvement of its leadership (4:2–3). Harmony, joy, and peace characterize the church that functions as it should.
  • freedom from legalism: Paul warned the church to beware of Jewish legalists (3:2–21). Legalistic Jewish teachers threatened to destroy the vitality of the congregation by calling it to a preoccupation with external religious matters. Paul countered the legalists with a forceful teaching about justification by faith. He chose to express his theology through his personal experience. He had personal experience with their message and found it lacking.
  • salvation: Salvation was provided by Christ, who became obedient to death (2:6–8). It was proclaimed by a host of preachers who were anxious to advance the gospel. It was promoted through varying circumstances of life—both good and bad—so that the lives of believers became powerful witnesses. Finally, salvation would transform Christians and churches into models of spiritual life.
  • stewardship: Paul thanked the Philippian believers for their financial support. The church had sent money and a trusted servant, Epaphroditus, to care for Paul. Their generosity encouraged Paul at a time of personal need, and he took the opportunity to express the rewards of giving and to teach Christian living.
    • The church at Philippi had reached a maturity regarding material possessions. It knew how to give out of poverty. It knew the value of supporting the gospel and those who proclaim it, and it knew that God could provide for its needs as well. Paul also demonstrated his attitude toward material things. He could maintain spiritual equilibrium in the midst of fluctuating financial circumstances. Christ was his life, and Christ’s provisions were all he needed. In everything, Paul’s joy was that Christ was glorified in him.
  • imitation: The epistle abounds with Christian models for imitation. Most obviously, the church was to imitate Jesus, but other genuine Christians also merited appreciation. Paul, Timothy, and Epaphroditus embodied the selflessness that God desires in his people.
• contribution to the bible
  • Paul’s letter to the Philippians teaches us much about genuine Christianity. While most of its themes may be found elsewhere in Scripture, it is within this letter that we can see how those themes and messages impact life. Within the NT, Philippians contributes to our understanding of Christian commitment and what it means to be Christlike.
• structure
  • Philippians can be divided into four primary sections. Paul had definite concerns that he wanted to express, and he also wrote to warn about false teachers who threatened the church. Many of Paul’s letters can be divided into theological and practical sections, but Philippians does not follow that pattern. Paul’s theological instruction is woven throughout the fabric of a highly personal letter.
    • outline
      • I. Salutation (1:1–2)
      • II. Explanation of Paul’s Concerns (1:3–2:30)
        • A. Paul’s thanksgiving and prayer (1:3–11)
        • B. Paul’s joy in the progress of the gospel (1:12–26)
        • C. Exhortation to Christlike character (1:27–2:18)
        • D. Paul’s future plans (2:19–30)
      • III. Exhortations to Christian Living (3:1–4:9)
        • A. Exhortations to avoid false teachers (3:1–21)
        • B. Miscellaneous exhortations (4:1–9)
      • IV. Expression of Thanks and Conclusion (4:10–23)
        • A. Repeated thanks (4:10–20)
        • B. Greetings and benediction (4:21–23)
• Introduction Continued (Background and History from William Barclay’s The New Daily Study Bible: The Letters to the Philippians, Colossians, and Thessalonians)
• Philippi
  • When Paul chose a place in which to preach the gospel, he alway did so with the eye of a strategist. He always chose one with was not only important in itself but was also the key point of a whole area. To this day, many of Paul’s preaching centers are still great road centers and railway junctions. Such was Philippi, which had at least three great claims to distinction
    • In the area, there were gold and silver mines, which had been worked as far back as the time of the Phoenicians
      • By this time, these mines had been exhausted, but they had made Philippi a great commercial center of the ancient world
    • The city had been founded by Philip, the father of Alexander the Great; and it is his name that it bears
      • It was founded on the site of an ancient city called Krenides, a name which means the Wells or Fountains
      • Philip had founded Philippi in 368 BC because there was no more strategic site in all Europe. There is a range of hills which divides Europe from Asia, east from west; and at Philippi that chain of hills dips into a pass, so that the city commanded the road from Europe to Asia, since the road had to go through the pass
      • This was the reason that one of the great battles of history was fought at Philippi; for it was here that Antony defeated Brits and Cassius, and thereby decided the future of the Roman Empire
    • Not very long after this, Philippi was raised to the status of a Roman colony
      • The Roman colonies were amazing institutions. They were not colonies in the sense of being outposts of civilization in unexplored parts of the world. They had begun by having a military significance. It was the custom of Rome to send out parties of veteran soldiers, who had served their time and been granted citizenship, to settle in strategic road centers
      • These colonies were the focal points of the great Roman road systems, which were so engineered that reinforcements could speedily be sent from one colony to another. They were founded to keep the peace and to command the strategic centers in Rome’s far reaching empire
      • At first they had been founded in Italy, but soon they were scattered throughout the whole empire, as the empire grew. In later days, the title of colony was given by the government to any city which it wished to honor for faithful service
      • Wherever they were, these colonies were little fragments of Rome, and their pride in their Roman citizenship was their dominating characteristic
        • The Roman language was spoken; Roman-style clothes were worn; Roman customs were observed; their magistrates had Roman titles, and carried out the same ceremonies as were carried out in Rome itself. They were stubbornly and unalterably Roman and would never have dreamt of becoming assimilated to the people among whom they were set
        • We can hear the Roman pride breathing through the charge against Paul and Silas in Acts 16:20-21
        • 20 Bringing them before the chief magistrates, they said, “These men are seriously disturbing our city. They are Jews 21 and are promoting customs that are not legal for us as Romans to adopt or practice.”
        • Philippians 3:20: Our citizenship is in heaven, and we eagerly wait for a Savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ.
          • Another way of translating that is that you are a colony of heaven…Just as the Roman colonists never forgot in any environment that they were Romans, so the Philippians must never forget in any society that they were Christians. Nowhere were people prouder of being Roman citizens than in these colonies; and Philippi was one such colony
• Paul and Philippi
  • It was on the second missionary journey that Paul first came to Philippi
    • Acts 16:6-15: 6 They went through the region of Phrygia and Galatia; they had been forbidden by the Holy Spirit to speak the word in Asia. 7 When they came to Mysia, they tried to go into Bithynia, but the Spirit of Jesus did not allow them. 8 Passing by Mysia they went down to Troas. 9 During the night Paul had a vision in which a Macedonian man was standing and pleading with him, “Cross over to Macedonia and help us!” 10 After he had seen the vision, we immediately made efforts to set out for Macedonia, concluding that God had called us to preach the gospel to them. 11 From Troas we put out to sea and sailed straight for Samothrace, the next day to Neapolis, 12 and from there to Philippi, a Roman colony and a leading city of the district of Macedonia. We stayed in that city for several days. 13 On the Sabbath day we went outside the city gate by the river, where we expected to find a place of prayer. We sat down and spoke to the women gathered there. 14 A God-fearing woman named Lydia, a dealer in purple cloth from the city of Thyatira, was listening. The Lord opened her heart to respond to what Paul was saying. 15 After she and her household were baptized, she urged us, “If you consider me a believer in the Lord, come and stay at my house.” And she persuaded us.
    • The story of Paul’s stay in Philippi is told in Acts 16 and centers around three characters
      • Lydia that we just read about
        • Lydia was from Asia, and her nam may well be not a proper name but simply “the Lydian lady”. She was the dealer in purple, on of the most costly substances in the ancient world, and was the equivalent of a merchant prince (Merchant of great wealth)
      • The demon possessed slave girl
        • The slave girl was a native Greek. The girl was a lave and therefore in the eyes of the law not a person at all, but a living tool
      • The Roman jailer
        • The jailer was a Roman citizen. The jailer was a Roman citizen, a member of the sturdy Roman middle class, from which the civil service was drawn
      • The whole empire was being gathered into the Christian Church. In these three, the top, bottom, and the middle of society are all represented. No chapter in the Bible shows so well the all-embracing faith which Christ brought to men and women
• Persecution
  • Paul had to leave Philippi after a storm of persecution and illegal imprisonment. That persecution was inherited by the Philippian church
  • He tells them that they have shared in his imprisonment and in his defense of the gospel (1:7). He tells them no tot fear their adversaries, for they are going through what he himself has gone through and is not enduring (1:28-30)
• True Friendship
  • There had grown up between Paul and the Philippian church a bond of friendship closer than that which existed between him and nay other church. It was his proud boast that he had never taken help from any individual or from any church, and that, with his own two hands, he had provided for his needs. 
  • It was from the Philippians alone that he had agreed to accept a gift. Soon after he left them and moved on to Thessalonica, they sent him a present (4:16). When he moved on and arrived in Corinth by way of Athens, once again they were the only ones who remembered him with their gifts (II Cor. 11:9)
• The Reason for Writing the Letter
  • When Paul wrote this letter, he was in prison in Rome, and he wrote with certain definite aims
    • It is a letter of thanks
      • The years have passed; it is now AD 63 or 64, and once again, the Philippians have sent him a gift (4:10-11)
    • It has to do with Epaphroditus
      • It seems that the Philippians had sent him not only as a bearer of their gift, but that he might stay with Paul and be his personal servant. But he Epaphroditus had become ill. He was homesick, and he was worried because he knew that the people at home were worried about him
      • Paul sent him home; but he had the unhappy feeling that the people in Philippi might think of Epaphroditus as a quitter, so he goes out of his way to give him a testimonial
        • Philippians 2:29-30: 29 Therefore, welcome him in the Lord with great joy and hold people like him in honor, 30 because he came close to death for the work of Christ, risking his life to make up what was lacking in your ministry to me.
      • There is something very moving in the sight of Paul, himself in prison and awaiting death, seeking to make things easier for Epaphroditus, when he was unexpectedly and unwillingly compelled to go home
    • It is a letter of encouragement to the Philippians in the trials which they are going through (1:28-30)
    • It is an appeal fro unity, from which rises the great passage which speaks of the selfless humility of Jesus Christ (2:1-11)
      • In the church a Philippi, there were two women who had quarreled and were endangering the peace (4:2); and there were false teachers who were seeking to lure the Philippians from the true path (3:2). This letter is an appeal to maintain the unity of the Church

Mark 15:33-16:20

• Mark 15:33-41
• 33 When it was noon, darkness came over the whole land until three in the afternoon. 34 And at three Jesus cried out with a loud voice, “Eloi, Eloi, lemá sabachtháni?” which is translated,“My God, my God, why have you abandoned me?” 35 When some of those standing there heard this, they said, “See, he’s calling for Elijah.” 36 Someone ran and filled a sponge with sour wine, fixed it on a stick, offered him a drink, and said, “Let’s see if Elijah comes to take him down.” 37 Jesus let out a loud cry and breathed his last. 38 Then the curtain of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom. 39 When the centurion, who was standing opposite him, saw the way he breathed his last, he said, “Truly this man was the Son of God!” 40 There were also women watching from a distance. Among them were Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James the younger and of Joses, and Salome. 41 In Galilee these women followed him and took care of him. Many other women had come up with him to Jerusalem.
  • Here comes the last scene of all, a scene so terrible that the sky was unnaturally dark and it seemed that even nature couldn’t bear to look upon what was happening
  • Let’s look at the characters present
    • There was Jesus, who said two things that Mark recorded
      • He uttered the terrible cry, “My God, my God, why have you abandoned me?”
        • Jesus had taken this life of ours upon Him. He had done our work and face our temptations and our trials. He had suffered all that life could bring. He had known the failure of friends, the hatred of foes, the malice of enemies. He had known the most searing pain that life could offer. Up to this moment Jesus had gone through every experience of life except one—He had never known the consequence of sin. Now if there is one thing sin does, it separates us from God. It puts between us and God a barrier like an unscalable wall. That was the one human experience through which Jesus had never passed because He was without sin.
        • At this moment that experience came upon Him—not because He had sinned, but because in order to be identified completely with our humanity He had to go through it. In this terrible, grim, bleak moment, Jesus really and truly identified Himself with human sin. Here we have the divine paradox—Jesus knew what it was to be a sinner. And this experience must have been doubly agonizing for Jesus, because He had never known what it was to be separated form God by this barrier
        • That is why he can understand our situation so well. That is why we need never fear to go to Him when sin cuts us off from God. Because He has gone through it, He can help others who are going through it. There is no depth of human experience which Christ has not experienced
      • He let out a great cry
        • Both Matthew and Luke tell of it. John does not mention the shout but tells us that Jesus died having said, “It is finished.” In the Greek that would be one word; and that one word was the great shout. FINISHED! Jesus died with the cry of triumph on His lips, His task accomplished, His work completed, His victory won. After the terrible day there came the light again, and He went home to God a victor triumphant
    • There was the bystander who wished to see if Elijah would come. He had a kind of morbid curiosity in the face of the cross. The whole terrible scene did not move him to awe or reverence or even pity. He wanted to experiment while Jesus died
    • There was the centurion.
      • A seasoned Roman soldier. He would have been the equivalent of a regimental sergeant-major. He had fought in many a campaign and he had seen many men die. But he had never seen men die like this and he was sure that Jesus was the Son of God. If Jesus had lived on and taught and helped He might have attracted many, but it is the cross which speaks straight to the heart of men and women
    • There were the women in the distance
      • They were bewildered, heartbroken, drenched in sorrow—but they were there. They loved so much that they could not leave Him. Love clings to Christ even when the intellect cannot understand. It is only love which can give us a hold on Christ that even the most bewildering experiences cannot break
  • There is one other thing to note
    • The curtain of the Temple was torn in two, from top to bottom. This was the curtain which shut off the Holy of Holies, into which no one might go. Symbolically that tells us two things
      • The way to God was now wide open. Into the Holy of Holies only the high priest could go, and he only once a year on the Day of Atonement. But now, the curtain was torn and the way to God was wide open to everyone
      • Within the Holy of Holies dwelt the very essence of God. Now with the death of Jesus the curtain which hid God was torn and He could be seen face to face. No longer was God hidden. There was no longer any need to guess and grope. Anyone who looked at Jesus could say this is what God is like. God loves me like that
• Mark 15:42-47
• 42 When it was already evening, because it was the day of preparation (that is, the day before the Sabbath), 43 Joseph of Arimathea, a prominent member of the Sanhedrin who was himself looking forward to the kingdom of God, came and boldly went to Pilate and asked for Jesus’s body. 44 Pilate was surprised that he was already dead. Summoning the centurion, he asked him whether he had already died. 45 When he found out from the centurion, he gave the corpse to Joseph. 46 After he bought some linen cloth, Joseph took him down and wrapped him in the linen. Then he laid him in a tomb cut out of the rock and rolled a stone against the entrance to the tomb. 47 Mary Magdalene and Mary the mother of Joses were watching where he was laid.
  • Jesus died at 3 pm on Friday and the next day was the Sabbath. We have already seen that the new day started at 6 pm. Therefore when Jesus died, it was already the time of preparation for the Sabbath, and there was very little time to waste, for after 6 the Sabbath law would kick in and no work could be done
  • Joseph of Arimathea acted quickly. It recently happened that the bodies of criminals were never buried at all, but were simply taken down and left for the vultures and the scavenging wild dogs to deal with. In fact it has been suggested that Golgotha may have been called the place of the skull because it was littered with skulls from previous crucifixions. 
  • Joseph went to Pilate. It often happened that criminals hung for days on the crosses before they died, and Pilate was amazed that Jesus was dead only six hours after ha had been crucified. But when he had check the facts with the centurion, he Gove the body to Joseph
  • Joseph is a curious case
    • It may well be that it is from Joseph that all the information came about the trial before the Sanhedrin. Certainly none of the disciples were there. There information must have come from sone member of the Sanhedrin, and it is probably that Joseph was the one. If that is so, he had a very real share in the writing of the gospel story
    • There is a certain tragedy about Joseph. He was a member of the Sanhedrin and yet we have no hint that he spoke one word in Jesus’ favor or intervened in any way on His behalf. Joseph is the man who gave Jesus a tomb when He was dead but was silent when He was alive. It is one of the commonest tragedies of life that we keep our wreaths for people’s graves and our praises until they are dead. It would be infinitely better to give them some of these flowers and some of these words of gratitude when they are still alive
    • But we cannot blame Joseph too much, for he was another of those people fro whom the cross ddid what not even the life of Jesus could do. When he had seen Jesus alive, he had felt His attraction but had gone no further. But when he saw Jesus die—and he must have been present at the crucifixion—his heart was broken in love. First the centurion, then Joseph—it is an amazing thing how soon Jesus’ words came true that when He was lifted up from the earth He would draw all people to Himself (John 12:32)
• Mark 16:1-8
• When the Sabbath was over, Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James, and Salome bought spices, so that they could go and anoint him. 2 Very early in the morning, on the first day of the week, they went to the tomb at sunrise. 3 They were saying to one another, “Who will roll away the stone from the entrance to the tomb for us?” 4 Looking up, they noticed that the stone—which was very large—had been rolled away. 5 When they entered the tomb, they saw a young man dressed in a white robe sitting on the right side; they were alarmed. 6 “Don’t be alarmed,” he told them. “You are looking for Jesus of Nazareth, who was crucified. He has risen! He is not here. See the place where they put him. 7 But go, tell his disciples and Peter, ‘He is going ahead of you to Galilee; you will see him there just as he told you.’” 8 They went out and ran from the tomb, because trembling and astonishment overwhelmed them. And they said nothing to anyone, since they were afraid.
  • There had not been time to fully prepare Jesus’ body for burial
  • The Sabbath had begun, and the women who wished to anoint the body had not been able to do so. As early as possible after the Sabbath, they set out to perform this task
  • They were concerned about moving the heavy stone that sealed the tomb, because it would have been too heavy for them
  • But when they arrived, they found the stone rolled away, and inside was a messenger who gave them the unbelievable news that Jesus had risen from the dead
  • One thing is certain—if Jesus had not risen from the dead, we would have never heard of Him. The attitude of the women was that they had come to pay the last tribute to a dead body. The attitude of the disciples was that everything had finished in tragedy. By far the best proof of the resurrection is the existence of the Christian Church. Nothing else could have changed sad and despairing men and women into people radiant with joy and aflame with courage. The resurrection is the central fact of the the whole Christian faith. Because we believe in the resurrection certain things follow
    • Jesus is not a figure in a book but a living presence. It is not enough to study the story of Jesus like the life of any other great historical figure. We may begin that way but we must end by meeting Him
    • Jesus is not a memory but a presence. The dearest memory fades. The Greeks had a word to describe time meaning time which wipes all things out. Long since, time would have wiped out the memory of Jesus unless He had been a living presence forever with us. Jesus is not someone to discuss so much as someone to meet
    • The Christian life is not a matter of knowing about Jesus, but of knowing Jesus. There is all the difference in the world between knowing about a person and knowing a person. Most people know about the King of England or the President of the United States but not so many know them. The greatest scholar in the world who knows everything about Jesus is less than the humblest Christian who knows Him
    • There is an endless quality about the Christian faith. It should never stand still. Because our Lord is a living Lord there are new wonders and new truths waiting to be discovered all the time
  • But eh most precious thing in this passage is in two words which are in no other gospel. But go, tell His disciples and Peter
  • Barclay and I differ on our thoughts on this
    • Barclay thinks this must have cheered Peter up, because he was still being tortured with the memory of denying Jesus, and Jesus singles him out
    • I think there is a little more to it than that. Peter is still dealing with his denial. And doesn’t feel himself worthy of being a disciple. Jesus singles him out and doesn’t include him with the disciples. I think this is Jesus allowing Peter to continue to feel the pain of that denial for a little while longer, before, in John’s account, we see Jesus specifically reinstate Peter. He doesn’t do this to be mean to Peter, but to help drive home the lesson of faithfulness, but also of grace. And Peter learned it well.
• Mark 16:9-20
• [9 Early on the first day of the week, after he had risen, he appeared first to Mary Magdalene, out of whom he had driven seven demons. 10 She went and reported to those who had been with him, as they were mourning and weeping. 11 Yet, when they heard that he was alive and had been seen by her, they did not believe it. 12 After this, he appeared in a different form to two of them walking on their way into the country. 13 And they went and reported it to the rest, who did not believe them either. 14 Later he appeared to the Eleven themselves as they were reclining at the table. He rebuked their unbelief and hardness of heart, because they did not believe those who saw him after he had risen. 15 Then he said to them, “Go into all the world and preach the gospel to all creation. 16 Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved, but whoever does not believe will be condemned. 17 And these signs will accompany those who believe: In my name they will drive out demons; they will speak in new tongues; 18 they will pick up snakes; if they should drink anything deadly, it will not harm them; they will lay hands on the sick, and they will get well.” 19 So the Lord Jesus, after speaking to them, was taken up into heaven and sat down at the right hand of God. 20 And they went out and preached everywhere, while the Lord worked with them and confirmed the word by the accompanying signs.]
  • In the introduction, many months ago, we talked about Mark really ending at verse 8. We only have to read this passage to see how different it is from the rest of the gospel, and it appears in none of the great manuscripts of the gospel. It is a later summary which replaces the ending which either Mark did not live to write or was lost at some point
  • Its great interest is the picture of the duty of the Church that it gives to us. Whoever wrote this concluding section obviously believed that the Church had certain tasks committed to it by Jesus
    • The Church has a preaching task. It is the duty of the church, and that means it is the duty of every christian, to tell the story of the good news of Jesus to those who have never heard it. The Christian duty is to be the herald of Jesus 
    • The Church has a healing task. Here is a face the have seen again and again. Christianity is concerned with bodies as well as minds. Jesus wished to bring health to the body and health to the soul
    • The Church has a source of power. We need not take everything literally. We need not think that the Christian is literally to have the power to pick up venomous snakes and drink poisonous liquids and come to no harm. But at the back of this picturesque language is the conviction that the Christian is filled with a power to cope with life that others do not possess
    • The Church is never left alone to do its work. Always Christ works with it and in it and through it. The Lord of the Church is still in the Church and is still the Lord of power
• And so the gospel finished with the message that the Christian life is lived in the presence and the power of Him who was crucified and rose again

Mark 15:1-32

• Mark 15:1-5
• As soon as it was morning, having held a meeting with the elders, scribes, and the whole Sanhedrin, the chief priests tied Jesus up, led him away, and handed him over to Pilate. 2 So Pilate asked him, “Are you the king of the Jews?” He answered him, “You say so.” 3 And the chief priests accused him of many things. 4 Pilate questioned him again, “Aren’t you going to answer? Look how many things they are accusing you of!” 5 But Jesus still did not answer, and so Pilate was amazed.
  • As soon as it was light, the Sanhedrin met to confirm the conclusions they had arrived at during their unlawful meeting in the night. They themselves had no power to carry out the death penalty. That had to be imposed by the Roman governor and carried out by the Roman authorities
  • It is from Luke that we learn how deep and determined the bitter malice of the Jews was. As we have seen, the charge at which they ad arrived was one of blasphemy. But that was not the charge on which they Brough Jesus before Pilate. They knew all that Pilate would have had nothing to do with what he would have considered a Jewish religious argument. When they Brough Jesus to him they charged him with perverting the people, forbidding them to give tribute to Caesar and calling Himself a king. They had to evolve a political charge or Pilate would not have listened. They knew the charge was a lie—and so did Pilate
  • Pilate asked Jesus, “Are you the King of the Jews?”
    • Jesus gave a strange answer. He said, “You say so.”
    • Jesus didn’t give a yes or no answer. What He basically said was, “I may have claimed to be the King of the Jews, but you know ver well that the interpretation that my accusers are putting on that claim in not my interpretation. I am no political revolutionary. My kingdom is a kingdom of love.”
    • Pilate went on to question Jesus more, and the Jewish authorities went on to multiply their charges—and Jesus remained silent
  • There is a time when silence is more eloquent than words, for silence can say things that words can never say
    • There is the silence of wondering admiration
      • It is a compliment for any performance or oration to be greeted with thunderous applause, but it is still a greater compliment for it to be greeted with a hushed silence which knows that applause would be out of place
      • The Passion of the Christ
    • There is the silence of contempt
      • It is possible to greet someone’s statements or arguments or excuses with a silence which shows they are not worth answering. 
    • There is the silence of fear
      • People may remain silent for no other reason than that they are afraid to speak
      • The cowardice of their souls may stope them from saying the things they know they ought to say
    • There is the silence of the heart that is hurt
      • When people have been really wounded they do not break into protests and recriminations and angry words. The deepest sorrow is a dumb sorrow, which is past anger and past rebuke and past anything that speech can say, and which can only silently look its grief
    • There is the silence of tragedy
      • That is silent because there is nothing to be said
      • Barclay claims this is why Jesus was silent. He knew there could be no bridge between Himself and the Jewish leaders. He knew that there was noting in Pilate to which He could ultimately appeal. It is a terrible thing when a person’s heart is such that even Jesus knows it is hopeless to speak
      • I would argue that Jesus was actually silent not because it was hopeless, but because He was on the correct path. He had to go to the cross, and to answer the charges against Him here would have been counterintuitive
• Mark 15:6-15
• 6 At the festival Pilate used to release for the people a prisoner whom they requested. 7 There was one named Barabbas, who was in prison with rebels who had committed murder during the rebellion. 8 The crowd came up and began to ask Pilate to do for them as was his custom. 9 Pilate answered them, “Do you want me to release the king of the Jews for you?” 10 For he knew it was because of envy that the chief priests had handed him over. 11 But the chief priests stirred up the crowd so that he would release Barabbas to them instead. 12 Pilate asked them again, “Then what do you want me to do with the one you call the king of the Jews?” 13 Again they shouted, “Crucify him!” 14 Pilate said to them, “Why? What has he done wrong?” But they shouted all the more, “Crucify him!” 15 Wanting to satisfy the crowd, Pilate released Barabbas to them; and after having Jesus flogged, he handed him over to be crucified.
  • We don’t know anything about Barrabas outside of the gospel narratives. He was not a thief, he was murderer and a leader in the rebellions
  • Palestine was filled with insurrections. There was one group of Jews called the Sicarii, which means the dagger-bearers, who were violent, fanatical nationalists. They were pledged to murder and assassination. They carried their daggers beneath their cloaks and used them as they could. It is very likely that Barabbas was a man like that, and, thug though he was, he was a brave man, a patriot, and it is understandable that he was popular with the mob
  • People have always felt it a mystery that less than a week after the crowd was shouting a welcome when Jesus rode into Jerusalem, they were now shrieking for His crucifixion. There is no really mystery. The reason is quiet simply that this was a different crowd. Think of the arrest. It was deliberately secret. True, the disciples fled and must have spread the news, but they could not have known that the Sanhedrin was going to violate its own laws and carry out a trial by night. There can have been very few of Jesus’ supporters in that crowd. It was not necessarily that the crowd was fickly, but that it was a different crowd
  • Nonetheless they had a choice to make. Confronted with Jesus and Barabbas, they chose Barabbas
    • They chose lawlessness instead of law
      • They chose the law-breaker instead of Jesus
    • They chose war instead of peace
      • They chose the man of blood instead of the Prince of Peace
      • In almost 3,000 years of history there have been less than 130 years where there has not been a war raging somewhere
    • They chose hatred and violence instead of love
      • Barabbas and Jesus stood for two different ways
      • Barabbas stood for the heart of hate, the stab of the dagger, the violence of bitterness
      • Jesus stood for the way of love
      • As so often happens, hate reigned supreme in human hearts, and love was rejected. The people insisted on taking their own way to conquest, and refused to see that the only true conquest was the conquest of love
  • There can be hidden tragedy in a word
    • After having Jesus flogged is one word in the Greek. The Roman scourge is a terrible thing. The criminal was bent and bound in such a way that his back was exposed. The scourge was a long leather whip, studded here and there with sharpened pieces of lead and bits of bone. It literally tore a man’s back to shreds. Sometimes it tore a man’s eye out. Some men died under it. Some men emerged from the ordeal raving mad. Few retained consciousness through it. That is what they inflicted upon Jesus
• Mark 15:16-20
• 16 The soldiers led him away into the palace (that is, the governor’s residence) and called the whole company together. 17 They dressed him in a purple robe, twisted together a crown of thorns, and put it on him. 18 And they began to salute him, “Hail, king of the Jews!” 19 They were hitting him on the head with a stick and spitting on him. Getting down on their knees, they were paying him homage. 20 After they had mocked him, they stripped him of the purple robe and put his clothes on him.
  • The Roman ritual of condemnation was fixed. The judged condemned the prisoner, turned him over to the soldiers while the cross was being prepared.
    • It was while the cross was being prepared that Jesus was in the hands of the soldiers
    • The Praetorium was the residence of the governor, his headquarters, and the solders involved would be the headquarter’s cohort of the guard. We would do well to remember that Jesus had already undergone the agony of the scourging before this mockery of the soldiers began
  • It may well be that of all that happened to Him this hurt Jesus least. The actions of the Jews had been venomous with hatred The consent of Pilate had been a cowardly evasion of responsibility. There was cruelty in the action of the soldiers, but no malice. To them Jesus was only another man for a cross, and they carried out their mockery not with any malice, but as a coarse jest
  • It was the beginning of much mockery to come. Always the christian was liable to be regarded as a jest. Scribbled on the walls of Pompeii, whose walls are still chalked with coarse jests today, there is a picture of a Christian kneeling before a donkey and below it scrawled the words, “Anaximenes worships is God.” If people ever make a jest of our Christianity, it will help to remember that they did it to Jesus in a way that is worse than anything likely to happen to us.
• Mark 15:21-28
• 21 They forced a man coming in from the country, who was passing by, to carry Jesus’s cross. He was Simon of Cyrene, the father of Alexander and Rufus. 22 They brought Jesus to the place called Golgotha (which means Place of the Skull.) 23 They tried to give him wine mixed with myrrh, but he did not take it.24 Then they crucified him and divided his clothes, casting lots for them to decide what each would get. 25 Now it was nine in the morning when they crucified him. 26 The inscription of the charge written against him was: The King of the Jews. 27 They crucified two criminals with him, one on his right and one on his left.
  • The routine of crucifixion did not alter. When the cross was prepared the criminal had to carry it to the place of execution. He was placed in the middle of a hollow square of four soldiers. In front marched a soldier carrying a board stating the crime of which the prisoner was guilty. The board was afterwards affixed to the cross. They took the longest way to the place of execution so that as many as possible should see and take warning. When they reached the place of crucifixion, the cross was laid flat on the ground. The prisoner was stretched upon it and nailed to it. The nails were usually driven through the wrists. The fee were not tailed but only loosely bound. Between the prisoner’s legs  projected a ledge of wood called the saddle, to take his weight when the cross was raised upright—otherwise the nails would have tor through the wrists. The cross was then lifted upright and set in its socket—and the criminal was left to die.
  • Sometimes prisoners hung for as long as a week, slowly dying of hunger and of thirst, suffering sometimes to the point of actual madness
  • Simon of Cyrene was forced into service to carry the cross. We don’t know all the details, but it appears that Simon was highly effected by this
    • Father of Alexander and Rufus, meaning that Mark expected his audience to recognize Simon this way
    • Romans 16:13 “Greet Rufus chosen in the Lord; and greet his mother—a mother to me also”
    • Acts 13:1 there is a list of men of Antioch who sent Paul and Barnabas out on their first missionary journey.
      • Simeon who was called Niger; Simeon is another name for Simon, and Niger was the regular name for a man of dark skin who came from Africa, which is were Cyrene was located
  • Jesus was offered wine mixed with myrrh to numb the pain, but He refused, going to the cross with full mental ability
  • The soldiers gambled for His clothing, fulfilling prophecy
• Mark 15:29-32
• 29 Those who passed by were yelling insults at him, shaking their heads, and saying, “Ha! The one who would destroy the temple and rebuild it in three days, 30 save yourself by coming down from the cross!” 31 In the same way, the chief priests with the scribes were mocking him among themselves and saying, “He saved others, but he cannot save himself! 32 Let the Messiah, the King of Israel, come down now from the cross, so that we may see and believe.” Even those who were crucified with him taunted him.
  • The Jewish leaders flung one more challenge at Him, basically saying, come off the cross and save yourself and we will believe
  • But to do so would have proved Jesus not to be the Messiah, because His death on the cross was necessary for salvation
  • Jesus went the whole way and died on the cross, and this means that there is literally no limit to God’s love, that there is nothing in all the universe which that love is not prepared to suffer for us, that there is nothing, not even death on a cross, with it will refuse to bear for us
  • When we look at the cross, Jesus is saying to us, “God loves you like that, with a love that is limitless, a love that will bear every suffering earth has to offer.”

Mark 14:27-52

• Mark 14:27-31
• 27 Then Jesus said to them, “All of you will fall away, because it is written: I will strike the shepherd, and the sheep will be scattered. 28 But after I have risen, I will go ahead of you to Galilee. 29 Peter told him, “Even if everyone falls away, I will not. 30 “Truly I tell you,” Jesus said to him, “today, this very night, before the rooster crows twice, you will deny me three times. 31 But he kept insisting, “If I have to die with you, I will never deny you.” And they all said the same thing.
  • It is a tremendous thing about Jesus that there was nothing for which He was not prepared
    • The opposition, the misunderstanding, the enmity of the orthodox religious people, the betrayal by one of His own inner circle, the pain and the agony of the cross—He was prepared for them all
    • But perhaps what hurt Him most was the failure of His friends
      • It is when we are up against it that we need our friends most, and that was exactly when Jesus’ friends left Him all alone and let Him down. There was nothing in the whole gamut of physical pain and mental torture that Jesus did not pass through
  • Jesus had supremely, more than anyone who has ever lived, this quality of fortitude, the ability to remain steadfast no matter what blows life assaulted Him with, this serenity when there was nothing but heartbreak behind and torture in front
    • Inevitably every now and then we find ourselves catching our breath at His heroism
  • When Jesus foretold this tragic failure of loyalty, Peter could not believe that it would happen
    • In the 18th century, the Marquis of Huntly was captured. His captors pointed at the block and the axe and told him that unless he abandoned his loyalty he would be executed then and there. His answer was, “You can take my head from my shoulders but you will never take my heart from my king.” That was what Peter was saying that night
  • There is a lesson in the word Jesus used for “fall away”
    • The Greek verb is skandalizein, from skandalon, or skandalethron which meant the bait in the trap, the stick on to which the animal was lured and with snapped the trap when the animal stepped on it
    • So this word came to mean to entrap, or to trip up by some trick or guile
    • Peter was too sure
      • He had forgotten the traps that life can lay for even the best among us. He had forgotten how easy it is to step on a slippery place and fall. He had forgotten his own human weakness and the strength of the devil’s temptations
      • But there is one thing to be remembered about Peter—his heart was in the right place. Better a Peter with a flaming heart of love, even if that love did for a moment fail most shamefully, than a Judas with a cold heart of hate. Let those people condemn Peter who never broke a promise, who were never disloyal in thought or action to a pledge. Peter loved Jesus, and even if his love failed, it rose again
• Mark 14:32-42
• 32 Then they came to a place named Gethsemane, and he told his disciples, “Sit here while I pray.” 33 He took Peter, James, and John with him, and he began to be deeply distressed and troubled. 34 He said to them, “I am deeply grieved to the point of death. Remain here and stay awake.” 35 He went a little farther, fell to the ground, and prayed that if it were possible, the hour might pass from him. 36 And he said, “Abba, Father! All things are possible for you. Take this cup away from me. Nevertheless, not what I will, but what you will.” 37 Then he came and found them sleeping. He said to Peter, “Simon, are you sleeping? Couldn’t you stay awake one hour? 38 Stay awake and pray so that you won’t enter into temptation. The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak.” 39 Once again he went away and prayed, saying the same thing. 40 And again he came and found them sleeping, because they could not keep their eyes open. They did not know what to say to him. 41 Then he came a third time and said to them, “Are you still sleeping and resting? Enough! The time has come. See, the Son of Man is betrayed into the hands of sinners. 42 Get up; let’s go. See, my betrayer is near.”
  • The fact that Judas knew to look for Him in Gethsemane shows that Jesus was in the habit of going there
    • In Jerusalem itself there were no gardens. The city was too crowded, and there was a strange law that the city’s sacred soil might not be polluted with manure for the gardens
    • But some of the rich people possessed private gardens out on the Mount of Olives, where they took their rest
    • Jesus may have had some wealthy friend who gave Him the privilege of using his garden at night
  • When Jesus went to Gethsemane there were two things He sorely desired. Human fellowship and God’s fellowship
    • In time of trouble we want friends with us. We do not necessarily want them to do anything. We do not necessarily even want to talk to them or have them talk to us. We only want them there. Jesus was like that. 
    • It was strange that men who so short a time before had been protesting that they would die for Him could not stay awake for Him one single hour. But none can blame them for the excitement and the tension had drained their strength and their resistance
  • Certain things are clear about Jesus in this passage
    • He did not want to die
      • He was 33 and no one wants to die with life just opening on to the best of the years
      • He had done so little and there was a world waiting to be saved
      • He knew what crucifixion was like and He shuddered at the thought of it
      • He had to compel Himself to go on—just as we so often have to do
    • He did not fully understand why this had to be
      • He only knew beyond a doubt that this was the will of God and that He must go on
      • Jesus had to make the great venture of faith, He had to accept what He could not understand
    • He submitted to the will of God
      • Abba is the Aramaic for “my father”. It is that one word which made all the difference
      • Jesus was not submitting to a God who made a cynical sport of men and women
      • Even in this terrible hour, when He was making this terrible demand, God was Father
        • When Richard Cameron, the covenanter, was killed, his head and hands were cut off by one Murray and taken to Edinburgh. His father was in prison for the same charge, and they wanted to add grief to him. They gave him his son’s hands and head, asking if they knew who they belonged to. He kissed them and said, “I know them—I know them. They are my son’s—my own dear son’s. It is the Lord. Good is the will of the Lord, who cannot wrong me nor mine, but hath made goodness and mercy to follow us all our days.” 
      • If we can call God Father everything becomes bearable. Time and time again we will not understand, but always we will be certain that the Father’s hand will never cause His child a needless tear. That is what Jesus knew; that is why He could go on—and it can be so with us
  • We must note how the passage ends
    • The traitor and his gang had arrived 
    • What was Jesus’ reaction? Not to run away, although even then, in the night, it would have been easy to escape. His reaction was to face them. To the end, He would neither turn aside nor turn back
• Mark 14:43-50
• 43 While he was still speaking, Judas, one of the Twelve, suddenly arrived. With him was a mob, with swords and clubs, from the chief priests, the scribes, and the elders. 44 His betrayer had given them a signal. “The one I kiss,” he said, “he’s the one; arrest him and take him away under guard.” 45 So when he came, immediately he went up to Jesus and said, “Rabbi!” and kissed him. 46 They took hold of him and arrested him. 47 One of those who stood by drew his sword, struck the high priest’s servant, and cut off his ear. 48 Jesus said to them,“Have you come out with swords and clubs, as if I were a criminal, to capture me? 49 Every day I was among you, teaching in the temple, and you didn’t arrest me. But the Scriptures must be fulfilled.” 50 Then they all deserted him and ran away.
  • Here is sheer drama and the characters stand out before us
    • There is Judas, the traitor
      • He was aware that the people knew Jesus well enough by sight. But he felt that in the dim light of the garden, with the darkness of the trees lit in pools of light by the flare of the torches, they needed a definite indication of who they were to arrest. And so he chose that most terrible of signs—a kiss
      • It was customary to greet a Rabbi with a kiss. It was a sign of respect and affection for a well-loved teacher. But there is a dreadful thing here
        • When Judas says, “The one I kiss, he’s the one”, he uses the word philein which is the ordinary word. But when it is said that he came forward and kissed Jesus, the word is kataphilein
        • The kata is intensive and suggests that the kiss was prolonged in order to give a clear signal. But more than that, it was not a mere formal greeting. It was the greeting of a friend. That is the grimmest and most awful thing in all the gospel story
    • There is the arresting mob
      • They came from the chief priests, the scribes, and the elders. These were the three sections of the Sanhedrin, and Mark means that they came from the Sanhedrin
        • Even under Roman jurisdiction the Sanhedrin had certain police rights and duties in Jerusalem and had its own police force
      • No doubt an assorted mix had attached itself to them on the way. 
      • Somehow Mark manages to convey the pent-up excitement of those who came to make the arrest. Maybe they had come prepared for bloodshed with nerves taut and tense. It is they who emanate terror—not Jesus
    • There is the man who drew his sword and struck a blow
      • John tells us that it was Peter. It sounds like Peter, and Mark very likely omitted the name because it was not yet safe to write it down. In the scuffle no one saw who struck the blow; it was better that no one should know
      • But when John wrote forty years later it was then quite safe to write it down
      • It may be wrong to draw a sword and hack at a man, but somehow we are glad that there was one man there who, at least on the impulse of the moment, was prepared to strike a blow for Jesus
    • There are the disciples
      • Their nerve cracked. They could not face it. They were afraid that they too would share the fate of Jesus, so they fled
    • There is Jesus Himself
      • The strange thing is that in all this disordered scene Jesus was the one oasis of serenity
      • As we read the story it reads as if He, not the Sanhedrin police, was directing affairs
      • For Him the struggle in the garden was over, and now there was the peace of the Man who knows that He is following the will of God
• Mark 14:51-52
• 51 Now a certain young man, wearing nothing but a linen cloth, was following him. They caught hold of him, 52 but he left the linen cloth behind and ran away naked.
  • These are two strange and fascinating verses
    • At first sight they seem completely irrelevant. They seem to add nothing to the narrative and yet there must be some reason for them being there
  • We saw in the Introduction that Matthew and Luke used Mark as the basis of their work and that they include in their gospels practically everything that is in Mark. But they do not include these two verses
  • That would seem to show that this incident was interesting to Mark and not really interesting to anyone else. Why then was this incident so interesting to Mark that he felt he must include it
    • The most probable answer is that the young man was Mark himself, and that this is his way of saying, “I was there”, without mentioning his own name at all
  • When we read Acts we find that the meeting place and headquarters of the Jerusalem church was apparently in the house of Mary, the mother of John Mark. If that is so, it is at least probable that the upper room in which the Last Supper was eaten was in that same house
  • There could be no more natural place than that to be the center of the Church. If we can assume that, there are two possibilities
    • It may be that Mark was actually present at the Last Supper. He was young, just a boy, and maybe no one really noticed him. But he was fascinated with Jesus, and when the company went out into the dark, he slipped out after them when he ought to have been in bed, with only the linen sheet covering him. It may be that all the time Mark was there in the shadows listening and watching. That would explain where the Gethsemane narrative came from. If the disciples were all asleep, how did anyone know about the struggle of soul that Jesus had there? It may be that the one witness was Mark as he stood silent in the shadows, watching with a boy’s reverence the greatest hero had ever known. 
    • From John’s narrative, we know that Judas left the company before the meal was fully ended. It may be that it was to the upper room that Judas meant to lead the Temple police so that they might secretly arrest Jesus. But when Judas came back with the police, Jesus and His disciples were gone. Naturally there was an argument. The uproar wakened Mark. He heard Judas propose that they should try the garden of Gethsemane. Quickly Mark wrapped his bedsheet around him and sped through the night to the garden to warn Jesus. But he arrived too late, and in the scuffle that followed was very nearly arrested himself.
• Whatever may be true, we may take it as fairly certain that Mark put in this passage because it was about himself. He could never forget that night. He was too humble to put his own name in, but in this way he wrote his signature and said, to anyone who could read between the lines, “I was there as a boy.”

Mark 14:12-26

• Mark 14:12-16
• 12 On the first day of Unleavened Bread, when they sacrifice the Passover lamb, his disciples asked him, “Where do you want us to go and prepare the Passover so that you may eat it?”13 So he sent two of his disciples and told them, “Go into the city, and a man carrying a jar of water will meet you. Follow him. 14 Wherever he enters, tell the owner of the house, ‘The Teacher says, “Where is my guest room where I may eat the Passover with my disciples?”’ 15 He will show you a large room upstairs, furnished and ready. Make the preparations for us there.” 16 So the disciples went out, entered the city, and found it just as he had told them, and they prepared the Passover.
  • Again and again we see that Jesus did not leave things until the last moment
    • It appears that He had possible arranged the cold to be ready for His ride into Jerusalem; and here we see that all His arrangements may have been made long beforehand (I say maybe, because I like to leave the possibility of all of this being supernatural/miraculous as well)
  • His disciples wished to know where they would eat the Passover
    • Jesus sent them into Jerusalem with instructions to look for a many carrying an water jar. To carry a water jar was a woman’s duty. It was a thing that no man ever did. A man with a water jar on his shoulder would be very easy to pick out in any crowd.
  • The larger Jewish houses had upper rooms
    • Such houses looked exactly like a smaller box placed on top of a bigger box. The smaller box was the upper room, and it was accessed by an outside stair, making it unnecessary to go through the main room
    • The upper room had many uses
      • It was a storeroom, ti was a place for quiet and meditation, it was a guest room for visitors
      • But in particular it was the place where a Rabbi taught his chosen band of intimate disciples. Jesus was following the custom that any Jewish Rabbi might follow
  • We must remember the Jewish breakdown of days
    • The new day began at 6 PM
    • Up until 6 pm it was the 13th of Nisan, the day of the preparation for the Passover
    • But the 14th of Nisan, the Passover day itself, began at 6 pm. In other words, Friday the 14th began at 6 pm on Thursday the 13th
  • What were the preparations that a Jew made for the Passover?
    • First was the ceremonial search for leaven
      • Before the Passover, every particle of leaven must be banished from the house. That was because the first Passover in Egypt had been eaten with unleavened bread
      • It had been used in Egypt because it can be baked much more quickly than a loaf baked with leaven, and the first Passover, the Passover of escape from Egypt, had been eaten in hasted with everyone ready for the road
      • In addition, leaven was the symbol of corruption
        • Leaven is fermented dough, and Jews identified fermentation with putrefaction, and so leaven stood for rottenness
        • The day before the Passover, the master of the house took a lighted candle and ceremonially searched the house for leaven. Before the search he prayed
          • Blessed are though, Yahweh, our God, King of the Universe, who has sanctified us by thy commandments, and commanded us to remove the leaven
        • At the end of the search the householder said
          • All the leaven that is in my possession, that which I have seen and that which I have not seen, be it null, be it accounted as the dust of the earth
    • Next, on the afternoon before the Passover evening, came the sacrifice of the Passover lamb
      • All the people came to the Temple. The worshiper must slay his own lamb, thereby, as it were, making his own sacrifice
      • In the Temple the worshiper slew his own lamb. Between the worshippers and the altar were two long lines of priests, each with a gold or silver bowl. As the lamb’s throat  was slit the blood was caught in one of these bowls, and passed up the line, until the priest at the end of the line dashed it upon the altar
      • The carcass was then flayed, the entrails and the fat extracted, because they were part of the necessary sacrificed, and the carcass handed back to the worshiper 
      • If the figures of Josephus are anywhere close to correct, and there were more than 250,000 lambs slain, the scene in th Temple courts and the blood-stained condition of the altar can hardly be imagined
      • The lamb was carried home to be roasted. It must not be boiled. Nothing must touch it, not even the sides of a pot. It had to be roasted over an open fire on a spit made of pomegranate wood. The spit went right through the lamb from mouth to other end, and the lamb had to be roasted entire with head, legs, and tail still attached to the body
  • Certain things were necessary and these were the things the disciple would have to get ready
    • There was the lamb, to remind them of how their houses had been protected by the badge of blood when the angel of death passed through Egypt
    • There was the unleavened bread to remind them of the great they had eaten in haste when they escaped from slavery
    • There was a bowl of salt water, to remind them of the tears they had shed in Egypt and the waters of the Read Sea through which they had miraculously passed to safety
    • There was a collection of bitter herbs
      • Horseradish, chicory, endive, lettuce, and horehound
      • To remind them of the bitterness of slavery in Egypt
    • There was a paste called charosheth, a mix of apples, dates, pomegranates, and nuts, to remind them of the clay of which they had made bricks in Egypt
      • Through it there were sticks of cinnamon to remind them of the straw with which the bricks had been made
    • There were four cups of wine
      • The cups contained a little more than half a pint of wine, but three parts of wine were mixed with two of water
      • The four cups, which were drunk at different stages of the meal were to remind them of the four promises in Exodus 6:6-7
        • 6 “Therefore tell the Israelites: I am the Lord, and I will bring you out from the forced labor of the Egyptians and rescue you from slavery to them. I will redeem you with an outstretched arm and great acts of judgment. 7 I will take you as my people, and I will be your God. You will know that I am the Lord your God, who brought you out from the forced labor of the Egyptians.
        • I will bring you out from the forced labor of the Egyptians and rescue you from slavery to them
        • I will redeem you with an outstretched arm and great acts of judgment 
        • I will take you as my people
        • I will be your God
  • Such were the preparations which had to be made for the Passover. Every detail spoke of that great day of deliverance when God liberated His people from their bondage in Egypt
  • It was at that feast that He who liberated the world from sin was to sit at His last meal with His disciples
• Mark 14:17-21
• 17 When evening came, he arrived with the Twelve. 18 While they were reclining and eating, Jesus said, “Truly I tell you, one of you will betray me—one who is eating with me.” 19 They began to be distressed and to say to him one by one, “Surely not I?” 20 He said to them, “It is one of the Twelve—the one who is dipping bread in the bowl with me. 21 For the Son of Man will go just as it is written about him, but woe to that man by whom the Son of Man is betrayed! It would have been better for him if he had not been born.”
  • The new day began at 6 pm and when the Passover evening had come, Jesus sat down with the disciples
    • There was only one change in the old ritual which had been observed so many centuries ago in Egypt. At the first Passover Feast in Egypt, the meal had been eaten standing. But that had been a sign of haste, a sign that they were slaves escaping from slavery
    • In the time of Jesus, the regulation was that they meal should be eaten reclining, for that was the sign of free people, with a home and a country of their own
  • We can see certain great things here
    • Jesus knew what was going to happen
      • That is His supreme courage, especially in the last days. It would have been easy fro Him to escape, and yet undeterred He went on
      • With a full knowledge of what lay ahead, Jesus was for going on
    • Jesus could see into the heart of Judas
      • The curious thing is that the other disciples seem to have had no suspicions. If they had known what Judas was up to, it is certain that they would have stopped him even by violence
      • There may be things we succeed in hiding from other people, but we cannot hide them from Jesus Christ. He is the searcher of human hearts. He knows what is in each one of us
    • In this passage, we see Jesus offering tow things to Judas
      • He is making love’s last appeal
        • It is as if He is saying to Judas, “I know what you are going to do. Will you not stop even now?”
      • He is offering Judas a last warning
        • He is telling him in advance of the consequences of the thing that it is in his heart to do
        • But we must note this, for it is of the essence of the way in which God deals with us—there is no compulsion
        • Without a doubt, Jesus could have stopped Judas. All He had to do was tell the other eleven what Judas was planning, and Judas would have never left that room alive
        • Here is the whole human situation. Og d has given us free will. His love appeals to us. His truth warns us. But there is no compulsion
        • We hold the awful responsibility that we can spurn the appeal of God’s love and disregard the warning of His voice. In the end, there is no one but ourselves responsible for our sins
        • God does not stop us, whether we like it or not, from sin. He seeks to make us love Him so much that His voice is more sweetly insistent to us than all the voices which all us away from Him
• Mark 14:22-26
• 22 As they were eating, he took bread, blessed and broke it, gave it to them, and said, “Take it; this is my body.” 23 Then he took a cup, and after giving thanks, he gave it to them, and they all drank from it. 24 He said to them, “This is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many. 25 Truly I tell you, I will no longer drink of the fruit of the vine until that day when I drink it new in the kingdom of God.” 26 After singing a hymn, they went out to the Mount of Olives.
  • First we must lay out the various steps of the Passover Feast, so that in our mind’ s eye we can follow what Jesus and His disciples were doing. The steps came in this order
    • 1. The cup of the Kiddush
      • Kiddush means sanctification or separation. This was the act which separated this meal from all other common meals
      • The head of the family took the cup and prayed over it, and then all drank of it
    • 2. The first hand washing
      • This was carried out only by the person who was to celebrate the feast
      • Three times he had to wash his hands in the prescribed way which we have already described when studying chapter 7
    • 3. A piece of parsley or lettuce was then taken and dipped in the bowl of salt water and eaten
      • This was an appetizer to the meal, but the parsley stood for the hyssop with which the mantle of the door had been smeared with blood, and the salt stood for the tears of Egypt and for the waters of the Red Sea through which Israel had been brought in safety
    • 4. The breaking of the bread
      • Two blessings were used at the breaking of the bread
        • Blessed be thou, O Lord, our God, King of the Universe, who brings forth from the earth
        • Blessed art thou, our Father in heaven, who gives us today the bread necessary for us
      • On the table lay three circles of unleavened bread
        • The middle one was taken and broken
        • At this point only a little was eaten. It was to remind the Jews of the bread of affliction that they ate I Egypt and it was broken to remind them that slaves had never a whole loaf, but only broken crusts to eat
          • As it was broken, the head o fate family said, “This is the bread of affliction which our forefathers ate in the land of Egypt. Whosoever is hungry let him come and eat. Whosoever is in need let him come and keep the Passover with us
    • 5. Next came the relating of the story of the deliverance
      • The youngest press present had to ask what Madde this day different from all other days and why all this was being done
      • The head of the house then had to tell the whole story of the history of Israel down to the great deliverance which the Passover commemorated
      • The Passover could never become a ritual. It was always a commemoration of the powered the mercy of God
    • 6. Psalm 113 and 114 were sung
      • 113: Hallelujah! Give praise, servants of the Lord;
        praise the name of the Lord. 2 Let the name of the Lord be blessed both now and forever. 3 From the rising of the sun to its setting, let the name of the Lord be praised. 4 The Lord is exalted above all the nations, his glory above the heavens. 5 Who is like the Lord our God—the one enthroned on high, 6 who stoops down to look on the heavens and the earth? 7 He raises the poor from the dust and lifts the needy from the trash heap 8 in order to seat them with nobles—with the nobles of his people. 9 He gives the childless woman a household, making her the joyful mother of children. Hallelujah!
      • 114: When Israel came out of Egypt—the house of Jacob from a people who spoke a foreign language—2 Judah became his sanctuary, Israel, his dominion. 3 The sea looked and fled; the Jordan turned back. 4 The mountains skipped like rams, the hills, like lambs. 5 Why was it, sea, that you fled? Jordan, that you turned back? 6 Mountains, that you skipped like rams? Hills, like lambs? 7 Tremble, earth, at the presence of the Lord, at the presence of the God of Jacob, 8 who turned the rock into a pool, the flint into a spring.
        • Psalms 113-118 are known as the Hall, which means the praise of God. All theses psalms are praising psalms. They were part of the very earliest material which a Jewish boy had to memorize
    • 7. The second cup was drunk
      • It was called the cup of Haggadah, which means the cup of explaining or proclaiming
    • 8. All those present now washed their hands in preparation for the meal
    • 9. A grace was said
      • “Blessed are thou, O Lord, our God, who brings forth fruit from the earth. Blessed are thou, O God, who has sanctified us with they commandment and enjoin us to eat unleavened cakes.”
      • Then small pieces of the unleavened bread were distributed
    • 10. Some of the bitter herbs were placed between two pieces of unleavened bread, dipped in the charosheth, and eaten
      • This was called the sop. It was the reminder of slavery and of the bricks that once they had been compelled to make
    • 11. Then followed the meal proper
      • The whole lamb must be eaten. Anything left over must be destroyed and not used for any common meal
    • 12. The hands were washed again
    • 13. The remainder of the unleavened bread was eaten
    • 14. There was a prayer of thanksgiving, containing a petition for the coming of Elijah to herald the Messiah
      • Then the third cup was drunk, called the cup of thanksgiving. The blessing over the cup was
        • Blessed art thou, O Lord, our God, King of the Universe, who has created the fruit of the vine
    • 15. The second part of the Hallel was sung (Psalm 115-118) (Ask for volunteers to turn to, and read these)
    • 16. The fourth cup was drunk, and Psalm 136, known as the great Hallel, was sung (another volunteer)
    • 17. Two short prayers were said
      • All thy works shall praise thee, O Lord, our God. And thy saints, the righteous, who do thy good pleasure, and all thy people, the house of Israel, with joyous song, let them praise and bless and magnify and glorify and salt and reverence and sanctify and scribe the Kingdom to thy name, O God, our King. For it is good to praise thee, and pleasure to sing praises to thy name, for from everlasting unto everlasting thou art God
      • The breath of all that lives shall praise thy name, O Lord, our God. And the spirit of all flesh shall continually glorify and exalt thy memorial, O God, our King. For from everlasting unto everlasting thou art God, and beside thee we have no king, redeemer or savior
  • Thus ended the Passover Feast
    • If the fest that Jesus and His disciples sat at was the Passover it must have been items 13 and 14 that Jesus made His own, and 16 must have been the hymn they sang before they went out to the Mount of Olives
  • Now let us see what Jesus was doing, and what He was seeking to impress upon His disciples
    • More than once we have seen that the prophets of Israel resorted to symbolic dramatic actions when they felt that words were not enough
    • It was as if words were easily forgotten, but a dramatic action would print itself on the memory
    • That is what Jesus did, and He allied this dramatic action with the ancient feast of His people so that it would be the more imprinted on the minds of the disciples
      • He said, “Just as this bread is broken, my body is broken for you! Just as this cup of red wine is poured out, my blood is shed for you”
  • What did He mean when He said that the cup stood for a new covenant?
    • The acceptance of the old covenant is set out in Exodus 24:2-8; and from that passage we see that the covenant was entirely dependent on Israel keeping the law. If the law was broken, the covenant was broken and the relationship between God and the nation shattered. It was a relationship entirely dependent on law and on obedience to law. God was judge. And since no one can keep the law the people were always in default
    • But Jesus says, “I am introducing and ratifying a new covenant, a new kind of relationship between human beings. And it is not dependent on law, it is dependent on the blood that I will shed.” That is to say, it is dependent solely on love. The new covenant was a relationship between human beings and God, dependent not on law but on love. In other words Jesus says, “I am doing what I am doing to show you how much God loves you.” Men and women are no longer simply under the law of God. Because of what Jesus did, they are forever within the love of God. That is the essence of what at the sacrament says to us
  • We not one more thing
    • In the last sentence we see again the two things we have so often seen. Jesus was sure of two things
      • He knew He was to die, and He knew His kingdom would come
      • He was certain of the cross, but just as certain of the glory. And the reason was that He was just as certain of God’s love as He was of human sin; and He knew that in the end that love would conquer that sin

Mark 14:1-11

• Mark 14:1-2
• It was two days before the Passover and the Festival of Unleavened Bread. The chief priests and the scribes were looking for a cunning way to arrest Jesus and kill him. 2 “Not during the festival,” they said, “so that there won’t be a riot among the people.”
  • The last crowded act of Jesus’ life was now about to open
  • The Passover and the Festival of Unleavened Bread were two different things
    • The Passover fell on 14th Nisan around April 14th
    • The Festival of Unleavened Bread consisted of the seven days following the Passover
    • The Passover itself was a major feast and was kept like a Sabbath
    • The Festival of Unleavened Bread was a minor festival, and, although no new work could be started during it, fork that was necessary for public interest or to proved against private loss was allowable
    • The really great day was Passover
  • The Passover was one of the the three compulsory feasts
    • The others were the Feast of Pentecost and the Feast of Tabernacles
    • To these feasts every male adult Jew who lived within fifteen miles of Jerusalem was bound to come
  • The Passover had double significance
    • It had a historical significance
      • It commemorated the deliverance of the of the children of Israel from their bondage in Egypt
      • The angel of death was to walk through the land of Egypt and kill every first-born son in every home
      • The Israelites were to slay a lamb
      • Using a bunch of hyssop they were to smear the mantle of the doorpost with the blood of the lamb, and when the angel of death saw the doorpost marked, he would pass over that house and its occupants would be safe
      • Before they went on their way the Israelites were to eat a meal of roasted lamb and unleavened bread
      • It was that passover, that deliverance and that meal that the Passover commemorated
    • It had an agricultural significance
      • It marked the gathering in of the barley harvest
      • On that day a sheaf of barley had to be waved before the Lord
      • Not until after that had been done could the barely of the new crop be sold in the shops or bread made with the new flour be eaten
    • Every possible preparation was made for the Passover. For a month before its meaning was expounded in the synagogue, and its lesson was taught daily in the schools
    • The aim was that no one should come ignorant and unprepared to the feast. The roads were all put in order; the bridges repaired 
    • One special thing was done. It was veery common to bury people beside the road. Now if any pilgrims had touched one of these wayside tombs they would technically have been in contact with a dead body and so rendered unclean and unable to take part in the feast. So, before the Passover, all the wayside tombs were whitewashed so that they would stand out and the pilgrims could avoid them
    • Psalms 120-134 are called Psalms of the Ascent, and it may well be that these were the psalms which the pilgrims sang on their way to the feast, as they sought to lighten the road with their music. It is said that Psalm 122 was the one which they actually sang as they climbed the hill to the Temple on the last part of their journey
      • I rejoiced with those who said to me, “Let’s go to the house of the Lord.” 2 Our feet were standing within your gates, Jerusalem—3 Jerusalem, built as a city should be, solidly united, 4 where the tribes, the Lord’s tribes, go up to give thanks to the name of the Lord. (This is an ordinance for Israel.) 5 There, thrones for judgment are placed, thrones of the house of David. 6 Pray for the well-being of Jerusalem: “May those who love you be secure; 7 may there be peace within your walls, security within your fortresses.” 8 Because of my brothers and friends, I will say, “May peace be in you.” 9 Because of the house of the Lord our God, I will pursue your prosperity.
  • As we have already seen, it was compulsory for every adult male Jews who lived within fifteen miles of Jerusalem to come to the Passover, but far more than these came
  • It was the one ambition of all Jews to eat the Passover in Jerusalem before they died. Therefore from every country in the world pilgrims came flocking to the Passover Feast. During the Passover all lodging was free. Jerusalem could not hold the crowds, and Bethany and Bethpage were two of the outlying villages where pilgrims stayed
  • A passage from the historian Josephus gives us an idea of how many pilgrims actually came. He tells that Cestius, governor of Palestine around AD 65, had some difficulty in persuading Nero of the great importance of the Jewish religion. To impress him, he asked the then high priest to take a census of the lambs slain at the Passover in one year. The number, according to Josephus, was 256,500. The law was that there must be a minimum party of ten people to one lamb, so that they must have been close to at least 3,000,000 pilgrims in Jerusalem
  • It was jut there that the problem of the Jewish authorities lay
    • During the Passover, feelings ran very high. The remembrance of the old deliverance from Egypt made the people long for a new deliverance from Rome. At no time was nationalism feeling so intense
    • During the Passover time special detachments of troops were drafted into Jerusalem and quartered in the Tower of Antonia, which overlooked the Temple
    • The Romans knew that at Passover anything might happen and they were taking no chances. The Jewish authorities knew that in an inflammable atmosphere like that, the arrest of Jesus might well provoke a riot. That is why they sough some secret strategy to arrest Him and have Him in their power before the people knew anything about it
  • The last act of Jesus’ life was to be played out in a city crammed with Jews who had come from the ends of the earth. They had come to commemorate the event whereby their nation was delivered from slavery in Egypt long ago. It was at that very time that God’s deliverer of all humanity was crucified upon His cross
• Mark 14:3-9
• 3 While he was in Bethany at the house of Simon the leper, as he was reclining at the table, a woman came with an alabaster jar of very expensive perfume of pure nard. She broke the jar and poured it on his head. 4 But some were expressing indignation to one another: “Why has this perfume been wasted? 5 For this perfume might have been sold for more than three hundred denarii and given to the poor.” And they began to scold her. 6 Jesus replied, “Leave her alone. Why are you bothering her? She has done a noble thing for me. 7 You always have the poor with you, and you can do what is good for them whenever you want, but you do not always have me. 8 She has done what she could; she has anointed my body in advance for burial. 9 Truly I tell you, wherever the gospel is proclaimed in the whole world, what she has done will also be told in memory of her.”
  • Jesus was in the house of a man called Simon the leper, in the village of Bethany
    • People did not sit to eat; they reclined on low couches, resting on their left elbow and using the right hand to eat
  • It was custom to pour a few drops of perfume on a guest when he arrived at a house or when he sat down to a meal. The jar this woman had, contained a very precious ointment made from a rare plant that came from far-off India. But it was not a few drops that this woman poured on the head of Jesus. She broke the flask and anointed Him with the whole amount
  • There may be more than one reason why she broke the flask
    • Maybe she broke it as a sign that all was to be used
    • There was a custom in the middle east hat if a glass was used by a distinguished guest, it was broken so that it would never again be touched by the hand of any lesser person
    • One thing that was not on her mind that Jesus saw. It was also the custom in this part of the world, first to bathe, then to anoint the bodies of the dead. After the body had been anointed, the flask in which the perfume had been contained was broken and the fragments were laid with the dead body in the tomb. Although she may not have had it in mind, that was the very thing this woman was doing
  • Her action provoked the criticism of some of the bystanders, including some of the disciples. The flask was worth more than 300 denarii, almost a year’s worth of wages for the common man. To some it seemed a shameful waste; the money might have been given to the poor
  • The story shows the action of love
    • Jesus said that it was a lovely thing the woman had done
    • In the Greek there are two words for good. There is agates, which describes a thing which is morally good; and there is kalos, which describes a thing which is not only good but lovely. That is the word used here
    • Something that is fine and attractive; and that is exactly what this woman did. Love does not do only good things. Love does lovely things
  • If love is true, there must always be a certain extravagance in it
    • It does not nicely calculate the less or more. It is not concerned to see how little it can decently give. If it gave all it had, the gift would still be too little. There is a recklessness in love which refuses to count the cost
  • Love can see that there are things, the chance to do which comes only once
    • It is one of the tragedies of life that often we are moved to do something fine and do not do it. It may be that we are too shy and feel awkward about it. It maybe that second thoughts suggest a more prudent course. It occurs in the simplest things—the impulse to send a letter of thanks, the impulse to tell someone of our love or gratitude, the impulse to give some special gift or speak some special word. The tragedy is that the impulse is so often strangled at birth. This world would be so much lovelier if there were more people like this woman, who acted on her impulse of love because she knew in her heart of hearts that if she did not do it then she would never do it at all. Hw that last extravagant, impulsive kindness must have uplifted Jesus’ heart
  • Once again we see the invincible confidence of Jesus
    • The cross loomed close ahead now but He never believed that it would be the end. He believed that the good news would go all around the world. And with the good news would go the story of this lovely thing, done with reckless extravagance, done on the impulse of the moment, done out of a heart of love
• Mark 14:10-11
• 10 Then Judas Iscariot, one of the Twelve, went to the chief priests to betray Jesus to them. 11 And when they heard this, they were glad and promised to give him money. So he started looking for a good opportunity to betray him.
  • There is always a studded of the heart as we think about Judas
    • Dante sets him in the lowest of all hells, a hell of cold and ice, a hell designed for those who were not hot sinners swept away by angry passions, but cold, calculating, deliberate offenders agains the love of God.
  • Mark tells the story with such economy of words that he leaves us no material for speculation. But at the back of Judas’ action we can distinguish certain things
    • There was covetousness
      • Matthew 26:15 actually tells us that Judas went to the authorities and asked what price they were prepared to pay and drove a bargain with them for thirty pieces of silver. John 11:57 drops a hint. That verse tells us that the authorities had asked for information as to where Jesus could be found so as to arrest Him. It may well be that by this time Jesus was to all intents and purposes an outlaw with a price upon His head, and that Judas knew it and wished to acquired the offered reward. John is quite definite. He tells us that Judas was the treasurer of the disciples and used his position to pilfer from the common purse
      • The desire for money can be a terrible thing. It can make people blind to decency and honesty and honor. It can make them have no care how they get so long as they get. Judas discovered too late that some things cost too much
    • There was jealousy
      • Friedrich Klopstock, the German poet, thought that Judas, when he joined the 12, had ever gift and every virtue which might have made him great, but that bit by bit he became consumed with jealousy of John, the beloved disciple, and that this jealousy drove him to his terrible act. It is easy to see that there were tensions in the 12. The rest were able to overcome them, but it may well be that Judas had an unconquerable and uncontrollable demon of jealousy within his heart. Few things can wreck life for ourselves and for others as jealousy can
      • There was ambition
        • Again and again we see how the 12 thought of the kingdom in earthly terms and dreamed of high position in it. Judas must have been like that. It may well be that, while the others still clung to them, he came to see how far wrong these dreams were and how little chance they ever had of any earthly fulfillment. And it may well be that in his disillusionment the love he once bore to Jesus turned to hate
        • There is an ambition which will trample on love and honor and all lovely things to gain the end it has set its heart upon
      • Minds have been fascinated by the idea that it may be that Judas did not want Jesus to die at all
        • It is almost certain that Judas was a fanatical nationalist and that he had seen in Jesus the one person who could make his dreams of national power and glory come true. But no he saw Jesus drifting to death on a cross. So it may be that in one last attempt to make his dream come true, he betrayed Jesus in order to force his hand. He delivered Him to the authorities with the idea that now Jesus would be compelled to act in order to save Himself, and that action would be the beginning of the victorious campaign he dreamed of. It may be that this theory is supported by the fact that when Judas saw what he had done, he flung the accursed money at the feet of the Jewish authorities and went out and hanged himself. If that is so, the tragedy of Judas is the greatest in history
      • Both Luke and John say quite simply that the devil entered into Judas
        • In the last analysis that is what happened. Judas wanted Jesus to be what he wanted Him to be and not what Jesus wanted to be. In reality Judas attached himself to Jesus, not so much to become a follower as to use Jesus to work out the plans and desires of his own ambitious heart. So far from surrendering to Jesus he wanted Jesus to surrender to him; and when Jesus took His own way, the way of the crosse, Judas was so incensed that he betrayed Him
        • The essences of sin is pride; the core of sin is independence; the heart of sin is the desire to do what we like and not what God likes. That is what the defvil, Satan, the evil one stands for. He stands for everything which is against God and will not bow to him. That is the spirit which was incarnate in Judas
  • We shudder at Judas. But let us think again—covetousness, jealousy, ambition, the dominant desire to have our own way of things. Are we so very different? These are the things which made Judas betray Jesus, and these are the things with still make people betray Him

Mark 13 Intro and 1-2, 14-20, 9-13

• Mark 13 Intro
• This is one of the most difficult chapters in the NT for modern readers to understand. That is because it is one of the most Jewish chapters in the Bible. From beginning to end it is thinking in terms of Jewish history and Jewish ideas
• The difficulty about the doctrine of the second coming is that today people are apt either to completely disregard it or to be so completely unbalanced about it that it becomes the only doctrine  of the Christian faith. It may be that if we study this chapter with some care we shall come to a sane and correct view about this doctrine
• The Day of the Lord
  • This whole chapter must be read with one thing in mind
  • The Jews never doubted that they were the chosen people, and they never doubted that one day they would occupy the place in the world which the chose people, as they saw it, deserved and were bound to have in the end
  • They had long since abandoned the idea that they could ever win that place by human means, and they were confident that in the end God would directly intervene in history and win it for them
  • The day of God’s intervention was the day of the Lord
  • Before that day of the Lord, there would be a time of terror and trouble when the world would be shaken to its foundations and judgment would come
  • But it would be followed by the new world and the new age and the new glory
    • In one senes this idea is the product of unconquerable optimism
      • The Jews were quite certain that God would break in
    • In another sense it was the product of bleak pessimism
      • It was based on the idea that this world was so utterly bad that only its complete destruction and the emergence of a new would would suffice
    • They did not look for reformation. They looked for a recreating of the entire scheme of things
    • OT References
      • Amos 5:16-8, 20
      • Isaiah 13:6, 9-10
      • Joel 2:1-2, 30-31
    • Between the OT and NT there was a time when the Jews knew no freedom. It was only natural that their hopes and dreams of the day of the Lord would become even more vivid
    • In that time a kind of popular religious literature sprang up
      • The writings which this literature consisted of were called the Apocalypses (An unveiling)
      • These books were dreams and visions of what would happen when the day of the Lord came and in the terrible time immediately before it
      • They were never meant to be taken prosaically as maps of the future and timetables of events to come
  • Different Strands
    • Here Mark collects Jesus’ sayings about the future
      • Even with a cursory reading, with no special knowledge, shows that though all these sayings were about the future, they were not all about the same things
    • 5 Different Strands
      • There are the prophecies of the destruction of Jerusalem
        • 1-2 and 14-20
      • There is the warning of persecution to come
        • 9-13
      • There are warnings of the dangers of the last days
        • 3-6, 21-22
      • There are warnings of the second coming
        • 7-8, 24-27
        • The imagery of the day of the Lord and of the second coming are inextricably mixed up. It had to be so, because no one could possibly know what would happen in either case
        • The only pictures Jesus could use about His second coming were those which prophets and apocalyptists had already used about the day of the Lord. They are not meant to be taken literally. They are meant as impressionistic pictures, as seer’s visions, designed to impress upon people the greatness of that even when it should come
      • There are the warnings of the necessity to be on the watch
        • 28-37
  • This chapter will make far more sense if we remember these various strands in it and remember that every strand is unfolded in language and imagery which go back to the OT and apocalyptic pictures of the day of the Lord
• Mark 13:1-2
• As he was going out of the temple, one of his disciples said to him, “Teacher, look! What massive stones! What impressive buildings!” 2 Jesus said to him, “Do you see these great buildings? Not one stone will be left upon another—all will be thrown down.”
  • The Temple which Herod built was one of the wonders of the world
    • It was begun in 20-19 B.C. and in the time of Jesus was not yet completely finished
    • It was built on the top of Mount Moriah (Abraham sacrifices Isaac). Instead of leveling off the summit of the mountain, a kind of vast platform was formed by raising up walls of massive masonry and enclosing the whole area. On these walls a platform was laid, strengthened by piers which distributed the weight of the superstructure. 
    • Josephus tells us that some of these stones were 40 feet long by 12 feet high by 18 feet wide. It would be some of these vast stones that moved the disciples to such wondering amazement
  • The most magnificent entrance to the Temple was at the south-west angle. Here between the city and the Temple hill there stretched the Tyropoeon Valley
    • A marvelous bridge spanned the valley. Each arch of the bridge was 41 1/2 feet and there were stones used in the building of it which measured 24 feet long
    • The valley was over 225 feet below
    • The bridge was 50 feet wide and 354 feet long
    • It led straight into the Royal Porch, which consisted of a double row of Corinthian pillars all 37 1/2 feet high and each one cut out of one sold block of marble
  • Of the actual Temple building itself, the holy place, Josephus writes, “Now the outward face of the Temple in its front wanted nothing that was likely to surprise men’s minds or their eyes, for it was covered all over with plates of gold of great weight, and, at the first rising of the sun, reflected back a very fiery splendor, and made those who forced themselves to look upon it to turn their eyes away, just as they could have done was the sun’s own rays. But this Temple appeared to strangers, when they were at a distance, like a mountain covered with snow, for, as to those parts of it which were not gilt, they were exceeding white…Of its stones, some of them for 45 cubits x 5 cubits x 6 cubits in breadth” (a cubit is about 18 inches)
  • It was all this splendor that so impressed the disciples
    • The Temple seemed the summit of human art and achievement, and seemed so vast and solid that it would stand forever
    • But Jesus made the astonishing statement that the day was coming when not one of these stones would stand upon another
    • In less than fifty years His prophecy came tragically true
• Mark 13:14-20
• 14 “When you see the abomination of desolation standing where it should not be” (let the reader understand), “then those in Judea must flee to the mountains. 15 A man on the housetop must not come down or go in to get anything out of his house, 16 and a man in the field must not go back to get his coat. 17 Woe to pregnant women and nursing mothers in those days! 18 “Pray it won’t happen in winter. 19 For those will be days of tribulation, the kind that hasn’t been from the beginning of creation until now and never will be again. 20 If the Lord had not cut those days short, no one would be saved. But he cut those days short for the sake of the elect, whom he chose.
  • Jesus forecasts some of the awful terror of the siege and the final fall of Jerusalem
    • It is His warning that when the first signs of it came people ought to flee, not even waiting to pick up their clothes or to try to save their goods
    • In fact, people did precisely the opposite
      • They crowded into Jerusalem, and death came in ways that are almost too terrible to think about
  • The phrase the abomination of desolation  has its origin in the book of Daniel
    • The profanation that appalls
    • We talked about Antiochus a few weeks ago; wanting to introduce Greek thought and the Greek way of life into every culture, no matter what
    • He desecrated the Temple by offering pig’s flesh on the altar and by setting up public brothels in the sacred courts
    • Before the very Holy Place itself, he set up a statue of Zeus and ordered the Jews to worship it
    • The phrase the abomination of desolation, the profanation that appalls, originally described the pagan image and all that accompanied with which Antiochus desecrated the Temple
    • Jesus prophesies that the same kind of thing is going to happen again
    • He is saying “Some day, white soon, you will see the very incarnate power of evil rise up in a deliberate attempt to destroy the people and the Holy Place of God”. He takes the old phrase and uses it to describe the terrible things that are about to happen
  • It was in AD 70 that Jerusalem finally fell to the besieging army Titus, who was to be emperor of Rome
    • The horrors of that siege form one of the grimmest pages in history
    • The people crowded into Jerusalem from the countryside. Titus had no alternative but to starve the city into subjection. The matter was complicated by the fact that even at the terrible time there were sects and factions inside the city itself. Jerusalem was torn without and within
  • Josephus tells the story of the terrible siege
    • He says that 97,000 were take captive and 1,100,000 perished by slow starvation and the sword
    • To make it still grimmer, there were inevitable ghouls who plundered the dead bodies
    • Josephus tells grimly how when not even any herbs were available “some persons were driven to such terrible distress as to search the common sewers and old dunghill sod cattle, and to each the dung which they go there, and what they could not endure so much as to see, they now used for food.”
    • He paints a grim picture of men gnawing the leather of straps and shoes, and tells a terrible story of a woman who killed and roasted her child, and offered a share of that terrible meat to those who came seeking food
  • The prophesy that Jesus made of terrible days ahead for Jerusalem came most abundantly true. Those who crowded into the city for safety died by the 100,000, and only those who took His advice and fled to the hills were saved
• Mark 13:9-13
• 9 “But you, be on your guard! They will hand you over to local courts, and you will be flogged in the synagogues. You will stand before governors and kings because of me, as a witness to them. 10 And it is necessary that the gospel be preached to all nations. 11 So when they arrest you and hand you over, don’t worry beforehand what you will say, but say whatever is given to you at that time, for it isn’t you speaking, but the Holy Spirit. 12 “Brother will betray brother to death, and a father his child. Children will rise up against parents and have them put to death. 13 You will be hated by everyone because of my name, but the one who endures to the end will be saved.
  • Now we come to the warnings of persecution to come
    • Jesus never left His followers in any doubt that they had chosen a hard way
    • No one could claim that the conditions of Christ’s service had not been explained
  • The handing over to councils and the scourging in synagogues refer to jewish persecution
    • In Jerusalem there was the great Sanhedrin, the supreme court of the Jews, but every town and village had its local Sanhedrin. Before such local Sanhedrins the self-confessed heretics would be tried and in the synagogues they would be publicly scourged
    • The governors and kinds refer to trials before the Roman court, such as Paul faced before Felix, Festus, and Agrippa
  • It was a fact that the Christians were wonderfully strengthened in their trials
    • When we read of the trials of the martyrs, even though they were often uneducated men and women, the impression often is that it was the judges and not the Christians who were on trial
    • Their Christian faith enabled them to fear God so much that they were never afraid to stand up to anyone
  • It was true that people were even sometimes betrayed by members of their own family
    • In the early Roman Empire one of the curses was the informer
      • There were those who, in their attempts to curry favor with the authorities, would not hesitate to betray their own family and friends
    • In Hitler’s Germany a man was arrested because he stood for freedom. He endured imprisonment and torture with stoic and uncomplaining fortitude. Finally, with spirit still unbroken, he was released. Some short time afterwards he committed suicide. Many wondered why. Those who knew him well knew the reason—he had discovered that this own son was the person who had informed against him. The treachery of his own flesh and blood broke him in a way that the cruelty of his enemies was unable to achieve
    • Life becomes a hell upon earth when personal loyalties are destroyed and who love is a source of suspicion rather than trust
    • It was true that the Christian were hated
      • One Roman historian, Tacitus, talked or Christianity as an accursed superstition; another, Suetonius, called it a new and evil superstition
      • The main reason for the hatred was the way in which Christianity cut across family ties
        • The fact was that love for Christ had to come before love for father or mother, or son or daughter
      • And the matter was complicated by the way the Christians were much slandered
        • It is beyond doubt that the Jews encouraged these slanders
        • The most serious was the charge that the Christians were cannibals, a charge supported by the words of the sacrament which speak of eating Christ’s body and drinking His blood
  • In this, as in all other things, it is the one who endures to the end who is saved
    • Life is not a short, sharp sprint; It is a marathon. Life is not a single battle; it is a long campaign 

Mark 12:35-44 and Intro to Mark 13

• Mark 12:35-37a
• 35 While Jesus was teaching in the temple, he asked, “How can the scribes say that the Messiah is the son of David?  36 David himself says by the Holy Spirit: The Lord declared to my Lord, ‘Sit at my right hand until I put your enemies under your feet.’ 37 David himself calls him ‘Lord.’ How, then, can he be his son?”
  • In the early parts of the NT Christ is never a proper name as it has since come to be. It has in fact in this passage the definite article before it and so is translated the Messiah.
    • Christos and Messiah are the Greek and Hebrew for the same word, and both mean the Anointed One
    • The reason for the use of the title is that in ancient times a man was made king by being anointed with oil—a practice that still continues in modern coronation ceremonies
    • Christos and Messiah then both mean God’s anointed king, the great one who is to come from God to save his people
  • Jesus is not directly referring to Himself in this question
    • In reality, He’s saying, “How can the scribes say that God’s anointed king who is to come the Son of David?”
    • The argument which Jesus puts forward in support is this
      • He quotes Psalm 110:1 “The Lord says to my lord, Sit at my right hand”
      • The Jews at this time assumed that all the Psalms come from the hand of David
      • They also held that this Psalm referred to the common Messiah
      • In this verse, David refers to this coming one as his lord
      • How if he is his son can David address him by the title of Lord?
  • Son of David was the most common of all titles for the Messiah
    • The Jews looked forward to a God-sent deliverer who would be of David’s line
    • Jesus was often addressed by that name, especially by the crowds
    • The NT shows the conviction that Jesus was in fact the Son of David in His physical descent
    • Matthew and Luke both show genealogies to show that Jesus was from the line of David
    • Jesus is not denying that the Messiah is the Son of David, nor is He saying that He Himself is not the Son of David
    • He is saying that He is the Son of David—and far more, not only David’s son but David’s Lord
  • The problem was the title Son of David had gotten entangled with the idea of a conquering Messiah
    • It was involved in political and nationalistic hopes and dreams, aims and ambitions
    • Jesus was saying that the title Son of David, as it was popularly used, is a quite inadequate description of Himself
    • He was Lord
      • This word Lord is the regular translation of Yahweh in the Greek version of the Hebrew Scriptures
      • Always its use would turn people’s thoughts to God
    • What Jesus was saying was that He came not to found any earthly kingdom, but to bring men and women to God
  • Jesus is doing here what He constantly tried to do
    • He is trying to take from people’s minds their idea of a conquering warrior Messiah who would found an earthly empire, and seeking to put into them the idea of a Messiah who would be the servant of God and bring to them the love of God
• Mark 12:37b-40
• And the large crowd was listening to him with delight. 38 He also said in his teaching, “Beware of the scribes, who want to go around in long robes and who want greetings in the marketplaces, 39 the best seats in the synagogues, and the places of honor at banquets. 40 They devour widows’ houses and say long prayers just for show. These will receive harsher judgment.”
  • This first sentence more than likely goes more with this new section than it did with the previous section
    • The verse divisions of the NT were first inserted by Stephanus in the sixteenth century
    • They are by no means always the most suitable divisions, and this seems to be one requiring change
    • It is far more likely that the mass of people listens with pleasure to the denunciation of the scribes than they did to a theological argument
  • In this passage Jesus make a series of charges against the scribes
    • They liked to walk around in flowing robes
      • These were robes which swept the ground and were the sign of a notable person
      • They were not suitable for work or for hurry
      • They were the sign of a leisured man of honor
      • Jews wore tassels at the edge of their outer robe
        • These tassels were to remind them that they were the people of God. Quite possible these legal experts wore outsize tassels for special prominence
      • At all events they liked to dress in such a way that it drew attention to themselves and to the honor they enjoyed
    • They liked the greetings in the market place
      • The scribes loved to be greeted with honor and respect
      • Rabbi means “my great one”. To be so addressed was agreeable to their vanity
    • They liked the front seats in the synagogue
      • In the synagogues, in front of the ark where the sacred volumes were kept and facing the congregation, there was a bench where the specially distinguished sat
        • It had the advantage that no one who sat there could possibly be missed, being in full view of the admiring congregation
    • They liked the highest places at feasts
      • At feasts precedence was strictly fixed
      • The first place was that on the right of the host, the second to the left of the host, and so on, alternating right and left, around the table
      • It was easy to tell the honor in which people were held by the places at which they sat
    • They devoured widow’s houses
      • This is a savage chargeAn expert in the law could take no pay for his teaching
      • He was supposed to have a trade by which he earned his daily bread
      • But theses legal experts had managed to convey to people that they’re was no higher duty and privilege than to support a Rabbi in comfort; that such support would undoubtedly entitle him or her who gave it to a high place
      • It is a sad fact that religious charlatans have always preyed upon vulnerable people, and it would seem that these scribes and Pharisees imposed on people who could ill afford to support them
    • The long prayers of the scribes and Pharisees were notorious
      • It has been said that the prayers were not so much offered to God as offered to other people
      • They were offered in such a place and in such a way that no one could fail to see how pious they were
  • This passage warns against three things
    • It warns against the desire for prominence
    • It warns against the desire for acclaim
      • Almost everyone likes to be treated with respect. And yet a basic fact of Christianity is that it ought to produce the desire to obliterate self rather than to exalt it
      • Those who enter upon office for the respect which will be given to them have begun the wrong way, and can’t, unless they change, be in any sense the servants of Christ and of their neighbors
    • It warns against the attempt to make a traffic of religion
      • It is still possible to use religious connections for self-gain and self-advancement
      • But this is a warning to all who are in the Church for what they can get out of it and not for what they can put into it
• Mark 12:41-44
• 41 Sitting across from the temple treasury, he watched how the crowd dropped money into the treasury. Many rich people were putting in large sums. 42 Then a poor widow came and dropped in two tiny coins worth very little. 43 Summoning his disciples, he said to them, “Truly I tell you, this poor widow has put more into the treasury than all the others. 44 For they all gave out of their surplus, but she out of her poverty has put in everything she had —all she had to live on.”
  • Between the Court of the Gentiles and the Court of the Women there was the Beautiful Gate
  • In the Court of the Women there were thirteen collecting boxes called “the Trumpets” because of their shape
    • They were for contributions for the daily sacrifices and expenses of the Temple
    • Many people were throwing large contributions in
    • Then came a wide who put in two coins
      • The coins were called a lepton, which literally means a thin one. It was the smallest of all coins
      • And yet Jesus said that here tiny contribution was greater than all the others, for the others had thrown in what they could spare easily enough and still have plenty left, while the wide had given all she had
  • The real lesson in giving
    • Real giving must be sacrificial
      • The amount of the gift never matters as much as its cost to the giver
      • Not the size of the gift but the sacrifice
      • Real generosity gives until it hurts
    • Real giving has a certain recklessness in it
      • The woman might have kept one coin. While it wouldn’t have been much, it would have been something. Yet she gave everything she had
      • There is a great symbolic truth here
      • We rarely make the final sacrifice and the final surrender
    • It is a strange and lovely thing that the person whom the NT and Jesus hand down to history as a pattern of generosity was a person who gave the gift of so little value in monetary terms
      • We may feel that we have little in the way of material gifts or personal gifts to give to Christ, but if we put all that we have and are at His disposal, He can do things with it and with us that are beyond our imagination
• Mark 13 Intro
• This is one of the most difficult chapters in the NT for modern readers to understand. That is because it is one of the most Jewish chapters in the Bible. From beginning to end it is thinking in terms of Jewish history and Jewish ideas
• The difficulty about the doctrine of the second coming is that today people are apt either to completely disregard it or to be so completely unbalanced about it that it becomes the only doctrine  of the Christian faith. It may be that if we study this chapter with some care we shall come to a sane and correct view about this doctrine
• The Day of the Lord
  • This whole chapter must be read with one thing in mind
  • The Jews never doubted that they were the chosen people, and they never doubted that one day they would occupy the place in the world which the chose people, as they saw it, deserved and were bound to have in the end
  • They had long since abandoned the idea that they could ever win that place by human means, and they were confident that in the end God would directly intervene in history and win it for them
  • The day of God’s intervention was the day of the Lord
  • Before that day of the Lord, there would be a time of terror and trouble when the world would be shaken to its foundations and judgment would come
  • But it would be followed by the new world and the new age and the new glory
    • In one senes this idea is the product of unconquerable optimism
      • The Jews were quite certain that God would break in
    • In another sense it was the product of bleak pessimism
      • It was based on the idea that this world was so utterly bad that only its complete destruction and the emergence of a new would would suffice
    • They did not look for reformation. They looked for a recreating of the entire scheme of things
    • OT References
      • Amos 5:16-8, 20
      • Isaiah 13:6, 9-10
      • Joel 2:1-2, 30-31
    • Between the OT and NT there was a time when the Jews knew no freedom. It was only natural that their hopes and dreams of the day of the Lord would become even more vivid
    • In that time a kind of popular religious literature sprang up
      • The writings which this literature consisted of were called the Apocalypses (An unveiling)
      • These books were dreams and visions of what would happen when the day of the Lord came and in the terrible time immediately before it
      • They were never meant to be taken prosaically as maps of the future and timetables of events to come
  • Different Strands
    • Here Mark collects Jesus’ sayings about the future
      • Even with a cursory reading, with no special knowledge, shows that though all these sayings were about the future, they were not all about the same things
    • 5 Different Strands
      • There are the prophecies of the destruction of Jerusalem
        • 1-2 and 14-20
      • There is the warning of persecution to come
        • 9-13
      • There are warnings of the dangers of the last days
        • 3-6, 21-22
      • There are warnings of the second coming
        • 7-8, 24-27
        • The imagery of the day of the Lord and of the second coming are inextricably mixed up. It had to be so, because no one could possibly know what would happen in either case
        • The only pictures Jesus could use about His second coming were those which prophets and apocalyptists had already used about the day of the Lord. They are not meant to be taken literally. They are meant as impressionistic pictures, as seer’s visions, designed to impress upon people the greatness of that even when it should come
      • There are the warnings of the necessity to be on the watch
        • 28-37
  • This chapter will make far more sense if we remember these various strands in it and remember that every strand is unfolded in language and imagery which go back to the OT and apocalyptic pictures of the day of the Lord

Mark 12:18-34

• Mark 12:18-27
• 18 Sadducees, who say there is no resurrection, came to him and questioned him: 19 “Teacher, Moses wrote for us that if a man’s brother dies, leaving a wife behind but no child, that man should take the wife and raise up offspring for his brother. 20 There were seven brothers. The first married a woman, and dying, left no offspring. 21 The second also took her, and he died, leaving no offspring. And the third likewise. 22 None of the seven left offspring. Last of all, the woman died too. 23 In the resurrection, when they rise, whose wife will she be, since the seven had married her?” 24 Jesus spoke to them, “Isn’t this the reason why you’re mistaken: you don’t know the Scriptures or the power of God? 25 For when they rise from the dead, they neither marry nor are given in marriage but are like angels in heaven. 26 And as for the dead being raised—haven’t you read in the book of Moses, in the passage about the burning bush, how God said to him: I am the God of Abraham and the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob? 27 He is not the God of the dead but of the living. You are badly mistaken.”
  • This is the only time in Mark that the Sadducees appear and their appearance is entirely characteristic of them
    • They were not a large Jewish party. They were aristocratic  and wealthy. They included most of the priests; the office of high priest was regularly head by a Sadducee
    • Being the wealthy and aristocratic party, they were not unnaturally  collaborations, for they wished to retain their comforts and their privileges. It was from them that there came those who were prepared to collaborate with the Romans in the government of their country
    • They differed very widely from the Pharisees in certain matters
      • They accepted only the written Scriptures and attached more importance to the Pentateuch, the first five books of the OT, than to all the rest
        • They did not accept the mass of oral law and tradition, the rules and regulations which were so dear to the Pharisees
        • It was on the written Mosaic law that they took their stand
      • They did not believe in immortality, nor in spirits and angels
      • They said that in the early books of the Bible there was no evidence for immortality, and they did not accept it
  • The Sadducees came to Jesus with a test question designed to make the belief in individual resurrection look ridiculous
    • Jewish law from Deuteronomy 25:5-10
      • 5 “When brothers live on the same property and one of them dies without a son, the wife of the dead man may not marry a stranger outside the family. Her brother-in-law is to take her as his wife, have sexual relations with her, and perform the duty of a brother-in-law for her. 6 The first son she bears will carry on the name of the dead brother, so his name will not be blotted out from Israel. 7 But if the man doesn’t want to marry his sister-in-law, she is to go to the elders at the city gate and say, ‘My brother-in-law refuses to preserve his brother’s name in Israel. He isn’t willing to perform the duty of a brother-in-law for me.’ 8 The elders of his city will summon him and speak with him. If he persists and says, ‘I don’t want to marry her,’ 9 then his sister-in-law will go up to him in the sight of the elders, remove his sandal from his foot, and spit in his face. Then she will declare, ‘This is what is done to a man who will not build up his brother’s house.’ 10 And his family name in Israel will be ‘The house of the man whose sandal was removed.’
      • If a group of brothers lived together—a point that the Sadducees omitted from their quotation of the law
      • Theoretically this would go on as long as there were brothers left and as long as no child was born
      • When a child was born, the child was held to be the offspring of the original husband
      • The whole point of this law was to ensure two things
        • The family name continued
        • The property remained within the family
        • As a matter of fact, strange as it seems to us, there were certain similar regulations in Greek law
        • The whole thing, again, is designed to maintain the family and to retain the property within the family
  • The question that the Sadducees asked may have presented an exaggerated case, but it was a question founded on a well-known Jewish law
    • If in accordance with the regulations governing this law, one woman has been married in turn to seven brothers, if there is a resurrection of the dead, who’s wife is she who that resurrection comes?
    • They thought that by asking that question they rendered the idea of resurrection completely ridiculous
  • Jesus’ answer really falls into two parts
    • He deals with what we might call the manner of the resurrection
      • He lays it down that when a person rises again, the old laws of the physical life no longer obtain
      • The risen are like the angels (Not angels), and physical things like marrying and being married no longer enter into the case
      • Jesus was saying nothing new
      • Jesus’ point was that the life to come cannot be thought of in terms of this life at all
    • He deals with the fact of the resurrection
      • Here hi meets the Sadducees on their own ground
      • They insisted that the Pentateuch showed no evidence of immortality
      • It’s from the Pentateuch that Jesus draws His proof
        • Exodus 3:6
        • 6 Then he continued, “I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.” Moses hid his face because he was afraid to look at God.
        • If God is the God of these patriarchs even now, it means that they must still be alive, for the living God must be the God of living people, and not those who are dead
        • And if the patriarchs are alive then the resurrection is proved
        • On their own grounds, and with an argument to which they could find no answer, Jesus defeated the Sadducees
  • This passage show two eternally valid truths as well
    • The Sadducees mad the mistake of creating heaven in the image of the earth
      • There has always been a tendency to create in thought a heave to suit human desires
      • We do well to remember that Paul was right when he took the words of the prophet Isaiah (64:4) and made them his own
        • I Corinthians 2:9
        • 9 But as it is written, What no eye has seen, no ear has heard, and no human heart has conceived—God has prepared these things for those who love him.
        • The life of the heavily places will be greater than any conception this life can supply
    • In the end, Jesus based His conviction of the resurrection on the fact that the relationship between God and a good man or a good woman is one that nothing can break
      • Psalm 73:23-24
      • Yet I am always with you; you hold my right hand. 24 You guide me with your counsel, and afterward you will take me up in glory.
      • It is inconceivable that a relationship with God can ever be broken
• Mark 12:28-34
• 28 One of the scribes approached. When he heard them debating and saw that Jesus answered them well, he asked him, “Which command is the most important of all?” 29 Jesus answered, “The most important is Listen, Israel! The Lord our God, the Lord is one. 30 Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength. 31 The second is, Love your neighbor as yourself. There is no other command greater than these. 32 Then the scribe said to him, “You are right, teacher. You have correctly said that he is one, and there is no one else except him. 33 And to love him with all your heart, with all your understanding, and with all your strength, and to love your neighbor as yourself, is far more important than all the burnt offerings and sacrifices.” 34 When Jesus saw that he answered wisely, he said to him, “You are not far from the kingdom of God.” And no one dared to question him any longer.
  • There was no love lost between the expert in the law and the Sadducees
    • The profession of the scribes was to interpret the law in all its many rules and regulations
    • Their trade was to know and apply the oral law, while the Sadducees did not accept the oral law at all
    • The expert in the law would no doubt be well satisfied with the defeat of the Sadducees
  • This scribe came to Jesus with a question which was often a matter of debate in the Rabbinic schools
    • There was a tendency to expand the law limitlessly into hundreds and thousands of rules and regulations
    • But there was also the tendency to try to gather up the law into one sentence, one general statement which would be a say of its whole message
      • Rabbi Hillel was once asked by a convert to Judaism to instruct him in the whole law while he stood on one leg. Hillel’s answer was, “What you hate for yourself, do not do to your neighbor. This is the whole law, the rest is commentary.”
      • Rabbi Akiba had already said, “Go and learn, you should love your neighbor as yourself”; “This is the greatest general principle of the law”
      • Simon the Righteous had said, “On three things the world stands; the law, the worship, and works of love”
      • Sammlai had taught that Moses received 613 laws on Mount Sinai, 365 according to the days of the sun year, and 248 according to the generations
      • David reduced the 613 to 11 in Psalm 15
        • Lord, who can dwell in your tent?Who can live on your holy mountain? 2 The one who lives blamelessly, practices righteousness, and acknowledges the truth in his heart—3 who does not slander with his tongue, who does not harm his friend or discredit his neighbor, 4 who despises the one rejected by the Lord but honors those who fear the Lord, who keeps his word whatever the cost, 5 who does not lend his silver at interest or take a bribe against the innocent—the one who does these things will never be shaken.
      • Isaiah reduced them to six (Isaiah 33:15)
        • The one who lives righteously
        • and speaks rightly,
        • who refuses profit from extortion,
        • whose hand never takes a bribe,
        • who stops his ears from listening to murderous plots
        • and shuts his eyes against evil schemes—
      • Micah reduced them to three (Micah 6:8)
        • Mankind, he has told each of you what is good and what it is the Lord requires of you:
        • to act justly,
        • to love faithfulness,
        • and to walk humbly with your God.
      • Isaiah again brings it down to two (Isaiah 56:1)
        • This is what the Lord says: Preserve justice and do what is right, for my salvation is coming soon, and my righteousness will be revealed.
      • Finally Habakkuk reduced them to one (Habakkuk 2:4)
        • Look, his ego is inflated; he is without integrity. But the righteous one will live by his faith.
  • It can be seen that Rabbinic ingenuity did try to contract as well as to expand the law. There were really two schools of thought
    • There were those who believed that there were lighter and weightier matters of the law, that there were great principles which were all important to grasp
    • But there were others who were much against this, who held that every smallest principle was equally binding and that to try to distinguish between their relative importance was highly dangerous
    • The expert who asked Jesus this question was asking about something which was a living issue in Jewish thought and discussion
  • Jesus took two great commandments and put them together
    • Listen, Israel! The Lord our God, the Lord is one.
      • That single sentence is the real creed of Judaism
      • It had three uses. It is called the Shema. Shema is the imperative of the Hebrew verb to hear, and it is so called from the first word in the sentence
        • It was the sentence with which the service of the synagogue always began and still begins
          • It is the declaration that God is the only God, the foundation of Jewish monotheism
        • The three passages of the Shem were contained in the phylacteries, little leather boxes which devout Jews wore on their foreheads and on their writs when they were at prayer
          • As they prayed they reminded themselves of their creed
          • This is founded in Deuteronomy 6:8
        • The Shema was contained in a little cylindrical box called the Mezuzah, which was and is still affixed to the door of every Jewish house and the door of every room within it, to remind Jewish families of God as they went out and as they came in
    • Love your neighbor as yourself
      • This is a quotation from Leviticus 19:18
        • Jesus did one thing with it. In its original context it has to do only with fellow Jews. It would don’t have included the Gentiles, whom it was quite permissible to hate. But Jesus noted it without qualification and without limiting boundaries
        • He took an old law and filled it with new meaning
  • The new thing that Jesus did was to put these two commandments together. No Rabbi had ever done that before
  • No one until Jesus put the two commandments together and made them one
    • Religion to Him was loving God and loving one another
    • He would have said that the only way to prove love for God is by showing love for others
    • The scribe actually willingly accept this, and went on to say that such a love was better than all sacrifices
      • I Samuel 15:22
      • Then Samuel said: Does the Lord take pleasure in burnt offerings and sacrifices as much as in obeying the Lord? Look: to obey is better than sacrifice, to pay attention is better than the fat of rams.
      • Hosea 6:6
      • For I desire faithful love and not sacrifice, the knowledge of God rather than burnt offerings.
  • But it is always easy to let ritual take the place of love. It is always easy to let worship become a matter of the church building instead of a matter of the whole life
    • The priest and Levite could pass by the wounded traveller because they were eager to get on with the ritual of the Temple
    • This scribe had risen beyond his contemporaries, and that is why he found himself in sympathy with Jesus
  • There must have been a look of love in Jesus’ eyes, and a look of appeal as He said to him, “You are not far from the kingdom of God.” Will you not come further and accept my way of things? Then you will be a true citizen of the Kingdom.