Lesson 38

We're in Mark chapter 14. Our dear sister across the pond. Mark chapter 14. God willing we'll be starting in verse 10 this morning. Mark 14 and verse 10. Alright, if you'll go ahead and look here with me. I see someone else just tuned in. Good to have you with us as well. Mark 14 verse 10 is where we are. And we're looking at the betrayal of Christ and the Last Supper. And we may even get into the arrest and get close to the crucifixion anyway. We'll see how far we get today. If you look here Mark 14.10 and Judas Iscariot, one of the twelve. That means one of the twelve apostles that he, good morning Galenfield. One of the twelve apostles that Jesus chose. It says in verse 10, "And Judas Iscariot, one of the twelve, went unto the chief priest to betray him unto them." So Judas went to the chief priest because they wanted to kill Jesus. Jesus was getting all the attention and they were afraid that they were going to lose their jobs. And the truth is in a sense they would have lost their jobs because you don't need a priest and sacrifice after the true priest and sacrifice comes. But in another sense they wouldn't have. Because had they been followers of God as they should have been, then they would have gone from being priests who teach the people to being pastors who teach people in churches. It would have just been a natural transition. But they were rebellious against God and they were just in the ministry, so to speak, for what they could get out of it. And that was basically it and that's the way a lot of people are today. It's never been any different. You have hypocrites and you have genuine folks. It's just that simple. Alright, let's go ahead and look here now in verse 11. "And when they heard it," that is when the chief priests heard it, "they were glad and promised to give him money. And he sought how he might conveniently betray him." Now Judas was never a believer. He was never a Christian. Jesus, speaking to the twelve he chose one day, said, "Have not I chosen you twelve and one of you is a devil." And Jesus knew the whole time and Jesus chose Judas on purpose. And what do we learn from Jesus choosing Judas? Why would he choose Judas? Someone would look at that and think, "Well, maybe he made a mistake." There was no mistake. He knew from the whole time the Bible says. Why would he choose Judas? How is that an encouragement and a blessing to us? What truth does that teach us? How does that enlighten us? Anybody? All scriptures fulfilled? Well, all scriptures fulfilled because it was prophesied in the Old Testament. My own familiar friend and whom I trusted that ate bread with me has lifted up his hills against me. And that's one thing. But here's the reason Jesus chose Judas. When we look at Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden, do you know what we learn? Do you know what society tells us? Society says, "Well, if only we had the right environment, then everyone would be okay." If they weren't raised in the hood or if they were put in a better school system or if we had, you know, more money in the system we have, everything would be fine and we wouldn't have violence and oppression and crime and things like that. We just need a better environment. Well, Adam and Eve were in the perfect environment. Or if they said, "Well, we're only human." That's just what humans do. Adam and Eve had no imperfections at all when they chose to sin. They had a perfect environment. We always say when our children get in trouble, we say, "Well, they got with the wrong crowd." And you guess what happens when the parents of the wrong crowd, when their kids get in trouble? "Well, they got with the wrong crowd. They're pointing back at your kids." You know? And it's not the wrong crowd. There was no crowd for them to be around. But they chose to sin against God anyway. It was a choice. With Judas here, once again, what do we see? You can have the perfect pastor. Jesus was the perfect pastor. You can have the perfect pastor, the perfect church, and the greatest teaching. A lot of people say, "Well, people just need to be loved. They just need to be loved and accepted." Nobody loved Judas more than Jesus. We'll see here after a while when Judas betrayed Jesus. Jesus called him friend, even though he knew he was betraying him. Judas was accepted. Judas was loved. He wasn't accepted as a man because he never trusted in Christ. But he was accepted as a friend. And he was loved. But all of those things don't matter. You can have the perfect church, the perfect environment, instill, and look like you are in the middle of the ministry, and you're really high up in the religious crowd. I mean, Judas was in the right crowd, right? I mean, if someone's in a Mormon church, or if someone's in a Buddhist temple, or if someone's in a mosque this morning, it might be easy for us to say, "Oh, well, they're not Christians." But then you take someone to put them in our church, or you take someone to put them here with Jesus in the perfect church, you think, "Well, they've got to be Christians." Judas was the treasurer, the treasurer, church treasurer. He did what Brother Doug did, and yet he betrayed Christ. So don't assume that somebody is a Christian just because of the position that they occupy, just because of the preacher that they follow, just because of the crowd they're in. Only God can see their heart. Let's look here now, and ultimately it's what they do with Jesus that matters, and we see what Judas did with Jesus. So he starts seeking a way he can conveniently betray Christ. How can I do this? Make it easy on me. Verse 12, "In the first day of unleavened bread, when they killed the Passover, the first day of unleavened bread, when they killed the Passover." Now, this is important. There were two feasts that ran together, and that was the Feast of Unleavened Bread, and that was the Feast of the Passover. So in Exodus, when they had the Passover, they were to eat unleavened bread, and they were to eat the flesh of that animal that died, but they were to have a series of days, not just the Passover were the eighth unleavened bread, but several days when they ate the Passover. It's in Exodus 12. In verse 18, it says this, "In the first month, on the fourteenth day of the month at even, ye shall eat unleavened bread until the one and twentieth day of the month at even." So from the fourteenth till the twenty-first, what is that? Seven days. He goes on in Exodus 12.19, "Seven days shall there be no leaven found in your houses. For whosoever eateth that which is leavened even, that soul shall be cut off from the congregation of Israel, whether he be a stranger or born in the land. Ye shall eat nothing leaven in all your habitations, shall ye eat unleavened bread." So on the fourteenth day of the month, the first day of the month, I'm sorry, the first month of the year, which is not January, but it's the month of Bib, which is in the springtime, all right? So on the first day of the Jewish calendar, I'm sorry, the first month of the Jewish calendar, on the fourteenth day of that month, that's when they killed the Passover. And then they ate that Passover lamb that evening, roasted with fire. On that same day that they killed the Passover on the fourteenth day of the month, that started the first day of unleavened bread. See how this works? It's kind of fun. That first day of unleavened bread lasted from the fourteenth till the seventeenth. So you had the Passover beginning the first day of unleavened bread, and then you eat unleavened bread for how many days? Seven days. Now who can tell me what seven means in the Bible? Perfection. Perfection. What's happening here is there is an association between the Passover being slain and the unleavened bread being eaten. You see that? Slain on the fourteenth, eat on the fourteenth, and then on the fourteenth you eat unleavened bread with that Passover, and after that you continue to eat unleavened bread for seven days. The perfect food. The perfect sustenance. And so there's this connection between the Passover and the bread, because the Passover represents Jesus crucified for us. The bread represents Jesus' sustenance for us, Him being the bread of life. That came down from heaven to give life unto the world, and when you have that grain, you crush the grain, and then you bring the grain into the fire, and then after it passes through the fire and it's cooked in the oven, which represents Jesus' sufferings and His affliction on our behalf, then you eat it. And so everything here represents Christ as being the perfect bread. When you eat Christ, it totally fills you forever. When I eat food like He saw, if I just eat a regular bowl of soup, it nourishes my physical body for a few hours, and then I'm hungry again. When I partake of Jesus as my Savior, I am satisfied for all of my needs forever. In other words, having accepted Christ as my Savior, I have no other Savior to look forward to. I have no other need for forgiveness. I have no other hope that I need to look for to be delivered from the dead and to live forever. He has met all of my needs. He is the perfect Savior, the perfect salvation, the perfect bread for me. So that's what we see here. Now, when you get back to the Gospel of Mark, chapter 12, now it'll make more sense to you. And the first day of Unleavened Bread, sit with me, when they killed the Passover. See that? Is everyone there? Okay. The first day of Unleavened Bread, when they killed the Passover. So it's synonymous. And so on this day, when they killed the Passover, the first day of Unleavened Bread, His disciples said unto Him, "We're wilt thou that we go and prepare that thou mayest eat the Passover." So it was the law that they were to eat the Passover that night. And of course, Jesus is going to keep the law. He's the one that gave the law. He wants His disciples to keep the law. The thing is, this is going to be a transition, because at some point in time, you have to go from a Passover being a lamb to a Passover being the Son of God, who came to truly die for you. So at some point in time, you've got a transition from the symbol to the substance, from the shadow to the body, as we looked at last week. And so verse 13, "And he sendeth forth two of his disciples, and saith unto them, Go ye into the city, and there shall meet you a man bearing a pitcher of water. Follow him." Jesus knows everything. He knew this man. He knew his routines. He knew where he would be. He made the man and says, "You go into the city, there will be a man with a pitcher of water. Just follow him. And whosoever he shall go in, say ye to the good men of the house. The masters sayeth, Where is the guest chamber, where I shall eat the Passover with my disciples?" And He will show you a large upper room, furnished and prepared, there make ready for us. Verse 16, "And his disciples went forth and came into the city, and found, as he had said, unto them, and they made ready the Passover." So now they're getting ready for the Passover meal, verse 17. "And in the evening he cometh with the twelve, and as they sat and did eat, Jesus said, Verily or truly I say unto you, One of you, which eateth with me, shall betray me." Jesus knew who was going to betray Him. Isn't it crazy? It is. It's amazing. "And they began to be sorrowful, and to say unto him one by one, Is it I? And another said, Is it I?" Do you know what no one said? No one said, I bet it's old Judas. No one said that. Judas had everybody but Jesus fooled. Everybody but Jesus fooled. Alright, let's go ahead and keep looking here. Verse 20, "And he answered and said unto them, It is one of the twelve that dippeth with me in the dish." Back then they would take their bread and they'd dip it into like fruit, a mashed fruit, kind of like we would put a biscuit and jelly together. So they did the same thing. And so it's one that dippeth with me in the dish. Verse 21, Jesus said, "The Son of Man indeed goeth," in other words, He'll be crucified, "as it is written of Him, that is in the Old Testament, but woe to that man by whom the Son of Man is betrayed. Good were it for that man if he had never been born." So Jesus said, "I'll go. I'll die the way the Scripture said." And the Scripture said, "I'll be betrayed," just like Brother Jess was saying earlier. So the Scriptures would be fulfilled, "but woe unto that man that betrays me." It'd be better if he was never born. Verse 22, "And as they did eat, Jesus took bread and blessed it," I'm sorry, "and blessed and break it." Now, what kind of bread is this? It's the unleavened bread, because this is also the first day of unleavened bread. So He takes this unleavened bread, He gives God thanks, and then He breaks that unleavened bread. This is, you know, when we have the Lord's Supper here, you'll notice me, I'll break it in front of you. Because that's what Jesus said, He takes that bread, He didn't take a knife and just kind of nicely slice it up and say, "Boy, there's not like sliced bread," you know. He breaks the bread in front of them, because that bread represents His body that's about to be broken for the life of the world when He goes to the cross. Let's look and see what He says here. It says, verse 22, "And as they did eat, Jesus took bread and blessed it and gave to them, and said, 'Take, eat, this is My body.'" So what is He saying? He takes the bread, He breaks it, He then gives it to Him. Because nobody's going to take Jesus' life from Him, He freely gives it. He breaks it in front of them, He says, "Look here, this is My body, eat it." And so now there's this picture set up here that Jesus is going to do something, and when He says, "This is My body," suddenly everything's changed. Now, they've been eating the Passover their entire lives as little boys. But now something's different because Jesus takes this bread that they've been eating on the Passover, the first day of unleavened bread. Again, as long as they can remember, and now He takes the bread, He does something entirely different. He breaks it, He says, "Here, this is My body." What is He telling them? He said, "This represents Me. Everything about this Passover you've been doing since you were a little boy, it points to Me. And My body is about to be broken, as this bread was just broken for you. I'm about to be baked, I'm about to be crushed, I'm about to be brought into the fire, I'm about to be broken, and you'll need to eat of that. Eat of My crucifixion, eat of My sacrifice. Take that as the means for you to live." Does that make sense? "Take My death as the means for you to live." Now, unleavening is fermentation. So when Jonathan makes that bread, what do you put in that bread? Do you put yeast in there? So when Jonathan makes that bread, he puts yeast in there, the yeast eats the sugars in that bread, breaks it down, and then from the gases that yeast expels, it expands that bread. But it's fermenting, it's breaking that bread down, is what it's doing, the flour. It's fermentation, it's a form of corruption. It makes the bread soft and yummy, but since it breaks it down and ferments it, that cannot represent Jesus, because there is no corruption in Him, there's no fermentation spiritually in Him. This is why this bread is unleavened. So he's talking about a sinless body broken as a substitute for sinful people, and they take His death as their means to live. All right, let's go ahead and look back here now. In verse 23, "And He took the cup." So now they have a cup here. "And when He had given thanks, He gave it to them, and they all drank of it." So this cup has not been spoken of in the Old Testament, but naturally you drink something whenever you eat. So He takes this cup of grape juice, and He had given thanks, and He gave it to them, and they all drank of it. Verse 24, "And He said unto them, This is my blood of the New Testament, which is shed for many." So now something's new here. Now something's different. We keep the unleavened bread, but now here's something different. This is a New Testament. Now, do you remember what a testament is? Do you remember what a testament is? All right, look. In the Bible, we always talk about Old Testament and New Testament. Okay? So in the Bible, there are covenants all in the Bible, right? God made a covenant with Abraham. God made a covenant with David. God made a covenant with creation after the flood. I mean, He made all kinds of covenants. He made a covenant saying, "Keep this law, and it'll go well with you," and all these other things. In the Bible, there are different kinds of covenants. One covenant is what we call a bilateral covenant. You do this, that's your part. I will do this, that's my part. Okay? Your company has bilateral covenants with the people they contract for. We will deliver A to destination. You give us so much money in return. But there's also unilateral covenants in the Bible. That's where one person just makes a promise to do something. Remember how Abraham was put to sleep, and then God passed between those? That was a unilateral covenant. God's the only one doing it. That'd be like me saying, "Jonathan, on your birthday, I'm going to get you a new motorcycle, a new dirt bike." All right? Now, I didn't say, "Jonathan, if you'll do A, I'll do B. If you're a good little boy on your birthday, I'll get you a dirt bike." I just said, "I'm going to get you a dirt bike." That's a unilateral covenant. But now there's another kind of covenant that's a very special kind of covenant, and it's conditioned only upon the death of an individual, the individual making the covenant. It's the only way, okay? So that type of covenant is only in force when the person dies. That's called a testament. Exactly, exactly right. And for those who do not hear online there since I have this, when we have a will, we will say, "This is my last will and testament." So if I say, "Chris, I am going to put you in my will and I'm going to leave all of my belongings to you." Okay? Can he then come over the house and say, "Oh man, I like my new house here." No, because me leaving him my stuff, what's in my bank account, my house, my goods, my cars, my covenant to leave him my stuff is no good until what happens, until I die. That is a covenant given in the form of a testament. Now in the Old Testament, an animal died. In the New Testament, the Savior dies. So when you had a law in the Old Testament, and guess what? Under that Old Testament, you had to have a Day of Atonement every year and sacrifices on top of that. And it was only good if that animal dies. But now in the New Testament, Jesus takes this wine. He says, "This is my blood, my blood." Not an animal's blood, not a substitute's blood, my blood of the New Testament. So when we're looking at the Old Testament and the New Testament, it's not that we say, "Well, that's the Old Testament." You know, we don't go by that anymore. It's that the New Testament fulfills that Old Testament as a body and a shadow go together. Okay? The body doesn't take away the shadow. I'm looking at Chris's body, and I'm looking at a shadow right there. But when I talk to Chris, I don't stare at the shadow's face. I don't stare at Chris's face. I understand the shadow for what it is, and I understand its relationship to Chris. But I never try to say, "Oh, that shadow's nothing," because it is. It is. And so I just understand the relationship between the two. And for a while, that's all Israel had was the shadow to go by. Just like for now, the Word on paper is all we have to go by. But in the end, because the Bible says in the Gospel of John chapter 1, "In the beginning was the Word, the Word was with God, the Word was God." So right now, this isn't a shadow, but it's kind of like a shadow, because we have the Word on paper. In the end, we'll have the Word come down in person. We'll see the Word face-to-face. In his Word, we'll be in our hearts rather than a book. Okay? And so that's all part of that New Testament. No more shadows. No more symbols. It'll all be substance, the real thing. All right? And so let's go ahead and look here now in verse 25. Verily, he said, "I say unto you, I will drink no more of the fruit of the vine, until that day that I drink it new in the kingdom of God." And so you drink this now. This is a symbol of you drinking my blood that's about to be shed for you when my body is broken. This is the New Testament. You will inherit eternal life when I die. And you'll only get it if I die. Right? You take away Jesus' death, there is no life to inherit. There is no promise to inherit. The Bible says we are heirs according to the promise that God gave Abraham. But you can only be an heir. Once the testator dies, once the person making the testament dies. And so we've been made heirs because of Jesus' death. If you try to take away Jesus' death, you try to take away the cross out of religion, you're going to have a person working all the time, but he'll never inherit anything. You'll just have a mess. All right? Now let's go ahead and look back here. Verse 26, "And when they had sung in him, they went out into the mount of Olives, and Jesus saith unto them, All ye shall be offended because of me this night. For it is written, I will smite the shepherd, and the sheep shall be scattered." So Jesus is quoting the Old Testament. The shepherd's about to be smitten when he's crucified on the cross and arrested. And the sheep will be scattered. They'll run away. They won't know what to do. Verse 28, "But after that I am risen, I will go before you into Galilee." You see what Jesus is saying? He said, the Old Testament says, promises I'm going to smite the shepherd. So Jesus is letting them know, I'm your shepherd. I'm about to die for my sheep. When I die, the sheep are going to be scattered. They're not going to know what to do. It's going to be a lot of confusion. Then he says, "But after I'm risen, what is he telling them?" I'm going to rise again. After I'm risen, he says, I'll go before you into Galilee. In other words, I'll meet you. Verse 29, "But Peter said unto him, although all shall be offended, yet will not I. And Jesus said unto him, Verily I say unto thee, that this day, even in this night, before the cock, that is the rooster, crow twice, thou shalt deny me thrice. For the rooster crows twice, thou shalt deny me three times." So never be arrogant and thankful. I'll always be true to the Lord. I'll never do this. I'll never do the other. Be humble and trust God. But don't be proud in your flesh. Verse 31, "But he spake them more vehemently, if I should die with thee, I will not deny thee in any wise. Likewise also said they all, and they came to a place which is called Gethsemane. And he saith to his disciples, Sit ye here, while I shall pray. And he taketh with him Peter, and James, and John, and began to be sore amazed, and to be very heavy, and saith unto them, My soul is exceeding sorrowful unto death, tear ye here, and watch." Jesus knows what's about to happen to him. He knows he's about to go to the cross. And as a man, it's scary. Jesus was God in the flesh, but he was a man because he came to die for a man. And this was a very difficult time for him. But you know what? Even though he knew what he was about to face, he went ahead and did it in any way. He did it for two reasons. Number one, because that's what God sent him to do. Number two, because he loves us. Because he was willing to suffer and die for us. For you. He does it anyway. Let's go ahead and look here now. Back in verse 35, "And he went forward a little, and fell on the ground, and prayed, if it were possible, the hour might pass from him. And he said, 'Abba, Father,' or like that, 'Abba's like Daddy.' 'Abba, Father, all things are possible unto thee. Take away this cup from me. Nevertheless, not what I will, but what thou wilt.'" What is he saying? He's saying, "Lord, Heavenly Father, everything's possible to you. You can do anything. If it's possible, then take away this cup from me." Now, when he's saying a cup, you know, what is the absolute worst tasting medicine you've ever tasted? Huh? Robitessen? Does it make you go like that? Anything black licorice. Black licorice. I tell you what, the worst thing I think I've ever tasted, there's two things. One is go lightly. That stuff you have to drink when you're going to have your colonoscopy. And the, oh, it is really gross. And the other is this stuff, was it barium or whatever you swallow when you're going to have, you know, the, "Oh my goodness." Yeah, yeah, okay. You change your mind to that. So, the idea here is that it's a metaphor that the cross, his crucifixion, is like a cup of very, very bad, bitter tasting stuff. And he's saying, "Lord, don't let me have to drink this down." And he says, "If it's possible, don't let me go through this. Don't let me go and swallow that experience down." That's the day I did. He's giving us here. Let's see what he says now. "If it's possible." Verse 36, and he said, "Abba, Father, all things are possible unto thee. Take away this cup from me. Nevertheless, not what I will, but what thou wilt." What a prayer. God, this is what I want. I'm asking you to take it away if it's possible. But nevertheless, even though that's what I want, it's not my will but yours that I want done. What a man. What a man for us to be like, you know. But you know, God didn't take that cup away from him, did he? He had to drink it all down. And you know what that tells us? He says, "If it's possible, take this away from me." It tells us it wasn't possible. It tells us that the death of Jesus Christ on the cross is the only means by which man can be saved. It's telling us that if there was any other way, because that's what Jesus was praying, "Lord, Father, Abba, Father, if there's any other way, don't make me go through this." And the fact that he went through this shows us there is no other way. There's no other way for the law to be obeyed unless we have a substitute to obey it. There's no way for our penalty to be paid and us to still live unless we have a substitute to bear that penalty in our place and an innocent substitute dying for guilty people and satisfying God on our behalf so that we could stand before God in his merit instead of our own. Again, if you remove the cross, if you remove the gospel from religion, you have nothing. And that's why I always say there's only two religions in this world. Those without the cup and those with the cup. Really, that's all it boils down to. Every religion in this world is minus the bitter cup that Jesus drank. It's got apostles, it's got disciples, it's got a guru or a savior or whatever. It's got it all. I mean, the Islamic religion, they've got Muhammad, they've got mosques, they have a God, they have holy scriptures that they call. They have everything but the bitter cup. That's it. Everything but the lamb that dies, everything but the broken body, that they deny. And by denying that they're saying it is possible that I can satisfy God without him. I'll satisfy him on my own. And that's why they go to these extremities of blowing themselves up or killing somebody else thinking somehow God will be pleased with this if I do this. And so with that, this is a good place for us to stop. I'm glad I have a religion with a bitter cup. Now, before we close, you've got to put these two things together. Don't miss this. Jesus drank the bitter cup. God handed Jesus the bitter cup. Jesus handed his disciples that same night the sweet cup. They drank his blood. He drank their sin. See the difference? Man, what an exchange. Jesus took the bad down so we could drink in all the sweet goodness of the life he gave for us. Father, we thank you so much for your precious word and we thank you, Father, for that bitter cup that he drank down, leaving us nothing but the sweetness of the blood he shed for us through his broken body. For that we give you much thanks. In his name we pray. Amen. Yes, sir. Maybe I didn't get it when you explained it, but why did Jesus choose Judas? Yeah, again, Jesus chose Judas to show us that you can have the perfect environment, you can have the perfect pastor, the perfect church, you can be in a very high position in the ministry and still not be saved. The reason Judas wasn't a Christian is because he did not trust in Christ as his Savior. The Bible very specifically says that he did not believe. And so by choosing Judas, he shows us you can work your way up as high as you want to in the church, you can be in the ministry, you can have a great occupation like being the treasure, a great position like that. You can follow Jesus around everywhere he goes, like he did, and everyone except you as a Christian. But the one thing that Judas did was instead of accepting that cup that Jesus is offering, instead of accepting his death and his deliverance and salvation, Judas said, "No, I will trade that for some money." Judas didn't... all Judas saw Jesus good for was money. That is it. When we see Jesus, we see Jesus good for our eternal life, our resurrection from the dead, our forgiveness from sins. And man, I wouldn't sell that for any amount of money. That money is not going to do me any good, moment my heart quits beaten. No, sir. Good question.