Admonition Podcast

Good evening.

We are in the Book of Mark.

Mark chapter 14 is where we will pick up as we close out chapter 13.

It's good to see everyone here this evening, and we appreciate your presence.

We're going to begin with a word of prayer, and then we'll get into our study.

Our gracious Father in heaven, we bow before your throne, grateful for the day you've
blessed us with, grateful for the opportunity that we have to serve you.

mindful of the blessings that you shower upon us each and every day.

Lord, we are mindful of those who are in less fortunate scenarios in life, that maybe in
terms of finances, it may be in terms of location, it may be in terms of wars or

disruptions and things going on in their world around them.

Lord, we pray that you will be with them and pray especially that you be with those who
are Christians who are striving to do what is right in your sight.

Lord, we pray that you be with us as we go through this period of study.

May we apply our hearts and our minds to your word that we might know better how to serve
you, how you would have us to live, and also so that we might better understand who you

are and what you have done in history and in bringing about our salvation.

All this we pray and ask in Jesus' name, amen.

Jesus, as He says in verse 32, but of that day and hour no one knows, not even the angels
in heaven nor the Son, but only the Father.

He is referencing the fact that it is the case, because He's just given an analogy, that
heaven and earth shall pass away, but His words will not pass away.

And so building off of that analogy says, but of that day and hour knows no man, not even
the angels in heaven, nor the sun, but only the father take heed, watch and pray.

For you do not know when the time is.

It is like a man going to a far country who left his house and gave authority to his
servants and to each his work and commanded the doorkeeper to watch.

Watch, therefore.

For you do not know when the master of the house is coming in the evening at midnight at
the crowning of the rooster or in the morning, crowing of the rooster, sorry, uh lest

coming suddenly he find you sleeping.

And what I say to you I say to all, watch.

Jesus, as he has warned them concerning this coming judgment against Jerusalem,

against the Judean people and Israel at large, as he speaks to them concerning the end of
their nation and the things that were coming to pass, though they did not understand

really the things of which he spoke, he's going to tell them, you have to be watching.

You have to be ready for these things to occur.

And there's two senses in which they needed to be watching.

They needed to be watching for the signs that would precede the fall of Jerusalem because
he gave them specific signs, correct?

But they also needed to be watching for the time of his return.

Now, if Jesus has already told them that his return will not come until after the fall of
Jerusalem, should any of them have to care about watching for the time of his return?

before that point?

Can't they just live carelessly however they want to until the fall of Jerusalem knowing
that, you know what, uh Christ isn't coming back yet?

Why not?

Not a good plan.

All right.

Alright, because while he might not return before the fall of Jerusalem, and it was very
clear that he would not, the fact of the matter was that didn't mean that they would live

to see the fall of Jerusalem.

And so they needed to watch and be ready.

They needed to be aware that their time on earth would come to an end.

And as a result of that,

The end result is the same thing.

Eventually, they're going to meet their Lord.

Eventually, they, the servant, are going to meet the Lord, the master, and they're going
to have to give an account as to whether or not they were ready for that meeting.

But it is also worth pointing out in this context, because this context and others like
it, revealed to us something that sometimes we think about, and then sometimes we...

Maybe don't grasp.

Is there...

Doesn't know.

then Jesus isn't God.

or maybe not.

Hold on.

If we insist that it is an impossibility for God to have something that he does not know,
then how could Jesus be both God and man at the same time while in the flesh and Jesus

said the Son doesn't know the hour of that event?

And it may seem like a paradox or an impossibility, except we have the answer in
Scripture.

And the answer is not, Jesus is not God, okay?

uh The answer is, the text of Scripture tells us that Christ, when he came to be born in
the flesh, emptied himself, okay?

Paul writes about that, believe it's, I didn't look it up in advance, but I believe it's
Philippians chapter three or four.

I'll let Jacob tell us where it is in a moment.

Philippians two, all right, well I was in the same book.

All right, so if you start reading in Philippians one and you read till you get to end of
the book, you'll get to it, okay?

But the point is that Christ,

because of being God.

had to change the nature of his existence to take on flesh.

True or false, flesh cannot continue into eternity.

True, it cannot.

Paul tells us that, 1 Corinthians chapter 15.

So the nature of God in eternity is completely incompatible with flesh.

So something had to change to come this direction.

Let's add to that.

Is it possible to kill God?

No.

Satan could try to the ends of eternity to try and kill God and would he ever succeed?

Would anyone else succeed?

No.

So in order for Christ to die it had to have been his flesh that died but there's a clear
picture that Christ changed something about his existence in order to take on flesh.

So, one other passage.

Because we read through these passages and we read the text and then we don't always think
about what we read.

Turn to Luke chapter 2.

In Luke chapter 2 we have the record of Jesus' parents bringing Jesus to the feast,
bringing him to Jerusalem, and then departing thinking that he is with a family member or

someone from their group, only to get three days down the road and realize their child is
missing, and they turn around and go back.

They find him there in Jerusalem sitting and uh asking questions of the priests.

But notice uh verse 47.

and all who heard him were astonished at his understanding and answers.

So when they saw him, they were amazed, and his mother said to him, Son, why have you done
this to us?

Look, your father and I have sought you anxiously.

And he said to them, Why did you seek me?

Did you not know that I must be about my father's business?

But they did not understand the statement which he spoke to them.

Then he went down with them uh and came to Nazareth.

and was subject to them but his mother kept all these things in her heart and Jesus
increased in wisdom and stature and in favor with God and man.

If Christ embodied the entire nature of God at every moment of his human existence, and in
no way emptied himself of that role during any point in his human existence, then how

could it be said that God grew in wisdom?

God can't grow in wisdom.

God has all wisdom.

God has all knowledge.

God has all insight.

In order for Jesus to grow in wisdom, there had to have been wisdom he did not yet have.

Okay?

So, stay with me.

John chapter 17, Jesus prays to the Father that his time is about to come, that he is
about to glorify the Father through the work which he is going to complete.

And he prays to the Father that the Father will return to him the glory that he had with
the Father before the world was.

Jesus states emphatically in that prayer in John 17 before he goes to the Garden of Eden
and before the Garden of Gethsemane and before he is betrayed that there was a glory that

he had in his nature that he did not presently at that moment have.

and it was by nature of the fact that he had taken on flesh.

So was he a hundred percent God still?

Yes.

But he withheld certain things from himself so that he might be able to function as a man.

if you turn over to James chapter 1.

James chapter 1 tells us that God cannot, and it doesn't say will not, it's cannot be
tempted with what?

Evil.

It says that it is an impossibility for God to be tempted with evil, and yet Hebrews
chapter 4 tells us that Christ was tempted in all points like as we are, yet without sin.

All of these points declare to us quite clearly that something in the nature of Christ had
to change for Christ to come and take on flesh and to die as a man for us.

to be that atoning sacrifice for us.

And yeah, Paul will write

that Christ was the fullness of the Godhead dwelling bodily.

So we have these tentacles of understanding that help us to realize what Christ did, what
He was willing to give up for us so that it would even be possible for Him to come and

live as a human and to die on the cross, let alone to suffer.

at the hands of His own creation, let alone to then also be willing to be tempted with
sin.

so that we might have a perfect mediator, a perfect covenant, a perfect sacrifice, and we
might have His righteousness brought on us by His blood.

So I bring all of that up to point out as we get into Mark chapter 14.

that Jesus is going to begin in this text the events that will transpire leading up to His
betrayal, His trial, and His death.

and you will see in the process of these events a clear picture of His knowledge of what
is going to come.

and also his submission to it.

His willingness to do it even though he had every ability to remove himself from the
situation.

Chapter 14 verse 1, after two days it was the Passover and the feast of the unleavened
bread and the chief priests and the scribes sought how they might take him by trickery and

put him to death.

But they said, not during the feast, lest there be an uproar of the people.

And being in Bethany at the house of Simon the leper, as he sat at the table, a woman

came having an alabaster flask, a very costly oil of spikenard, then she broke the flask
and poured it on his head.

But there were some who were indignant among themselves and said, why was this fragrant
oil wasted?

if you were to give an analogy here, kind of a uh modern parallel, it would be as if a
woman went out and spent tens of thousands of dollars on a bottle of perfume and, you

know, justified to herself, hey, well, at least it's going to last a long time, right?

Because you're not going to dump the whole thing on you one use.

Alright, yeah tens of thousands of dollars but it's going to last for a long, long time.

Except this woman does what with it?

Youth is it all.

There are some people who very sensitive to smells.

I imagine they were a little overwhelmed at that moment.

But she takes this fragrant oil and she uses all of it.

And the declaration from some who are present is that this had been wasted in its use.

and yet Jesus will disagree.

Now, the statement made is for it might have been sold for more than 300 denarii and given
to the poor.

Basically a year's wage, just shy of a year's wage for an average worker.

So here is this woman, she has access to this uh fragrant oil and instead of selling it,
instead of keeping it,

Instead of using it for herself, she takes it and uses all of it on Jesus at one moment in
time.

And the individual there says that this could have been used for the poor, and the text
says that they criticized her...how?

Sharply.

Here's a woman who understands something that the apostles do not understand.

This was not just another feast and Passover that Jesus was coming to.

This was not just another feast day where Jesus shows up in Jerusalem, because this woman
knows this is the last Passover that Jesus is coming to.

and she understands it when no one else does.

Let's spend just a moment thinking about what we do when we understand what is true and no
one else does.

We are challenged on a daily basis as we go through our lives if we have spent time in the
Scriptures, if we have spent time with the text of the Word of God, if we have taken that

and instilled it into our lives and caused ourselves to become what God would have us to
be and are insistent on being obedient to God, insistent on keeping His commandments,

insistent on living the kind of lifestyle that God insists upon.

and we live every day knowing what people that we come in contact every day do not know.

And there's a challenge on a regular basis to live like we don't know what we know.

to live like everybody else lives just because it's easier to get along and to pretend we
don't know than it is to frankly make it clear that they don't know.

This woman.

performs an act that was a clear statement that she understood what they had not even
begun to grasp.

and she was willing to accept the criticism.

in spite of the fact that she was right and they were wrong.

And it is significant, it is worth pointing out, that there is nowhere in any of the
records of this event where the woman defends herself or her actions.

Rather, is Jesus who defends her actions.

Jesus said, let her alone.

Why do you trouble her?

She has done a good work for me.

as the criticism begins to come by the people who are present, perhaps the apostles, some
of them, it is clear from the other texts, are involved.

We know from one of the other texts that Judas is involved, though Judas' motivation, John
will tell us, is not because he cared about the poor, but rather because of what?

He was the keeper of the money bag.

He wanted the money not in that flask of oil, not used to anoint Jesus.

He wanted the money where he could get access to it.

But Jesus does not say your motivations in questioning her are not right.

He says you misunderstand what is going on.

She has done a good work for me, for you have the poor with you always, and whenever you
wish, you may do them good.

But me you do not have always.

She has done what she could.

She has come beforehand to anoint my body for burial.

Jesus will point out that the actions that this woman takes is because she knows the time
is at hand.

and we read verse 9, assuredly I say to you, wherever this gospel is preached in the whole
world, what this woman has done will also be told as a memorial for her.

as you understand her actions.

Understand that she probably was well aware before she ever entered the house, before she
ever entered the room, that what she was about to do was not going to sit well with

others.

that what she was going to do was going to be considered on the border of being improper.

and yet out of her deep love and her deep care and concern for Jesus and out of her
understanding that existed beyond what even the apostles had of what was coming, she knew

her opportunity to do anything was short.

And so she acted.

Verse 10, then Judas Iscariot, one of the twelve, went to the chief priest to betray him
to them.

Out of this event, and we touched briefly on this and some of the reasons why I believe
that you have these two things connected, that out of this dinner, out of this event at

Simon's house, not Simon Peter, not Simon the one known as Cephas, but Simon, who I firmly
believe to be the father of Judas, because Judas' father's name was Simon.

This Simon was a Pharisee.

And Judas is going to sit here and witness Jesus rebuking his father for his father's
failure to provide hospitality to Jesus, and yet this woman does.

Between the actions of the woman and the rebuke of the father, Judas goes out and goes to
find the chief priest.

when they heard it, they were glad.

like kids in a candy store, we finally got somebody who can give us Jesus.

and promised to give him money so he sought how he might conveniently betray him.

Mark makes it clear Judas goes out with an intent.

And Judas wants a result.

He wants to get paid.

And yet, Judas doesn't want to risk too much to do it.

He wants it to be convenient.

You remember that there was one of the individuals that Paul stood before, and Paul told
him concerning the gospel and concerning judgment and concerning righteousness, and he

said, if I had a more convenient season, I'll call for you again.

To hear more about this Christianity thing, just not so much so that it will inconvenience
me.

Judas sought, means he was looking, he was paying attention, he was always eyeing from
this point forward an opportunity to betray Jesus.

Verse 12, now on the first day of unleavened bread, when they killed the Passover lamb,
his disciples said to him, where do you want us to go and prepare that you may eat the

Passover?

And he sent out two of his disciples and said to them, go into the city uh and a man will
meet you carrying a pitcher of water.

Follow him.

Wherever he goes in,

say to the master of the house, teacher says, where is the guest room in which I may eat
the Passover with my disciples?

Then he will show you a large upper room furnished and prepared there make ready for us."
Jesus is going to send two of his disciples.

He's going to send them with instructions, go and loose this colt.

Sorry, rather go into the city getting my my events confused uh go into the city and find
the man What type of man are they supposed to find?

Alright, one carrying a pitcher of water.

Why is it that they didn't get confused with the other 100 men who were carrying a pitcher
of water?

Alright, the carrying of water pitchers was a woman's job.

So it was pretty easy to identify the one man carrying a pitcher of water.

But he says, when you find him, follow him.

They're going to go, they're going to observe the man, they're going to go with the man.

He says wherever he goes in, say to the master of the house, which indicates that the man
is probably not what?

not the master of the house.

Would indicate he's probably a servant or he is in some lower position than the master of
the house.

You go follow the man who's got the pitcher of water and then you say to the master of the
house, the teacher says, where is the guest room in which I may eat the Passover with my

disciples?

What does this perhaps remind you of earlier on in Jesus' ministry when He sends others
out?

What instructions does he give to the 12 and to the 70 when he sends them out?

So they were to go into the villages and into the cities, and when they entered into a
city, they were to find a house that was willing to lodge them, willing to provide for

them as they're teaching the gospel.

And as they arrived, if that family, that house, was willing to accept them, they were to
leave their blessing with the house, and they were not to go from house to house to house.

They were to stay in that house.

and people would come to them to be taught.

and their blessing was to remain on that house and they were to pronounce peace on that
house.

Jesus is essentially having His disciples do that here in preparation for the feast.

and there to go and Jesus says you're going to find that the master of the house not only
is going to allow it, he's going to show you a large upper room that's already ready.

So his disciples went out and came into the city and found it just as he had said to them,
and they prepared the Passover.

He came with the twelve.

Now as they sat and ate, Jesus said, Assuredly I say to you, one of you who eats with me
will betray me." Now if you do some studying on the Passover meal, you will find that in

standard Jewish fare there is a series of courses in the meal.

There's a process that you go through during that meal.

And without going into all the detail, the point is that as the meal is progressing, more
things are being said.

Now, Matthew, Mark, and Luke give us some of the things that are said.

John gives us volumes more of what is said during this Passover meal.

John chapters 14, 15, 16, and 17 are all in the middle of this meal.

So Jesus is going to tell them about the Comforter coming.

Jesus is going to tell them about Him going away.

Jesus is going to tell them about the gifts of the miraculous of the Holy Spirit.

Jesus is going to tell them about the fact that Jesus is going to pray to the Father
before they leave and depart from the Upper Room.

All of that is going to occur in this meal.

Matthew, Mark, and Luke give a very condensed, focused point.

concerning what is discussed in the meal.

But Jesus first points out that one of you who eats with me will betray me.

and they began to be sorrowful and to say to him, one by one, is it I?

And another, is it I?

Now do you think in their minds, excluding Judaism, that they were thinking like betray me
this very night?

I don't think so.

Think about it.

In their minds they're waiting for Jesus to become king.

They're waiting for the kingdom to be delivered back to Israel.

They're not paying attention at all to the fact that Jesus has told them that he's going
to Jerusalem in order to be betrayed to the scribes and the Pharisees and killed.

They've missed all of that.

They're waiting for...

they started the week

with a triumphal entry of Jesus riding in on a colt and people laying palm leaves down and
laying their coats down and crying out, Hosea, you're the highest.

Their mindset and their disposition is not something's happening before this night is out
and he's going to go to the cross.

furthest thing from their mind.

I think, again, opinion alert, my opinion.

Their mindset is going somewhere down the road.

Think about David.

How David became king and often had those who later on in his role as king, those who used
to be his friends who betrayed him.

Those who started off with him and eventually turned against him.

My opinion is that's what they're thinking he's talking about.

That one of these days down the road after I'm in power and after the kingdom has come and
after all of these things that they're thinking are physical that he's told them all along

are not physical.

That there's coming a day where one of them is going to betray him.

One of them is going to turn back and no longer do what is right.

There is no indication that they comprehend the immediacy of what this is about.

And so they say, is it I?

Is it I?

He answered and said to them, it is one of the twelve who dips with me in the dish.

Part of that feast at one point is to take the bread and dip it into the dish and partake
of it.

So he's utilizing aspects of the feast, aspects of the meal, to bring this discussion
forward.

Then the Son of Man, sorry, rather, indeed goes just as it is written of Him.

But woe to that man by whom the Son of Man is betrayed!

It would have been good for that man if he had never been born.

Jesus will point out that what is going to occur was prophesied, it was in accordance with
the commandment and the Word of God, and it was inevitable.

But the fact that it was inevitable, the fact that it was in accordance with prophecy, the
fact that it was going to happen because God said it was going to happen did not absolve

the person who would cause it.

when we

step back and realize that God holds us accountable for our choices.

We are not always held accountable for the results.

Prime example, we're held accountable for teaching and preaching the gospel, for helping
the lost to know their state and helping them to become saved.

But are we held accountable for the results?

No.

Paul will point out that he planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the increase.

Many other scenarios where we understand that what we're accountable for is the choice.

You go back into the Old Testament, back into the days of the judges, and Gideon is called
by God to go to battle.

And when Gideon gets the army and prepares to go to battle, God says, you have too many
men.

And so God goes through a process to pare down Gideon's army until now Gideon has how many
men?

300.

And he's going to battle against an entire army.

But God's point to Gideon is, is your responsibility to carry out my command.

It is my responsibility to assure the results.

Jesus will point out that for this individual who would betray him, Judas iscariot.

that it would have been better off if he'd never been born.

But did that mean that Judas had no ability to not betray Jesus?

Was Judas forced beyond his own capacity or choice to betray Jesus?

No.

And it is this, again, we're dealing with a number of things tonight that are difficult
for us to explain, difficult for us to grasp because of our finite nature, the existence

of God, the nature of God, and the possibility and the recognition that Christ is both God
and man and yet has all of these things that God can't have.

The ability to sin, the ability to be tempted, the ability to die.

And yet as well in the same text we're dealing with the fact that God has prophesied from
generations before, as a matter of fact, all the way back to the Garden of Eden.

that this betrayal event was going to occur and that he was going to be betrayed.

You go back to Psalm chapter 22, you go back to previous Psalms, and what do you find?

Specific reference concerning a betrayal.

A thousand years before the man who's going to do it's ever born.

And we've got to hold in our understanding both that Judas was going to do it

and it was assured by prophecy that he was, and yet Judas had entirely his complete
ability to choose.

He had agency.

except that Judas had given up his decision-making process to his own selfish interests.

So Judas was willing to betray his Lord so long as he got paid.

We read in verse 22, and as they were eating, Jesus took bread and blessed and broke it
and gave it to them and said, take, eat, this is my body.

Then he took the cup and when he had given thanks, he gave it to them and they all drink
from it.

And he said to them,

this is my blood of the new covenant which is shed for many.

Surely I say to you, I will no longer drink of the fruit of the vine until the day when I
drink it new in the kingdom of God.

When they had sung a hymn, they went out to the Mount of Olives.

All right, so in that short span, that's Mark's whole account

of what John gives in multiple chapters.

And yet, Mark is focused, as Mark always is, he's getting to the cross.

He's getting the immediacy, the urgency, the focused intent of Christ to go to the cross.

Do you have a comment?

Okay.

So, my, again, opinion alert.

All right, my opinion is Judas had seen Jesus escape death multiple times.

There was a point in time where those in Nazareth took Jesus up to the crown of a hill to
throw him off, and Jesus walked right out of their midst.

Jesus had been seen walking on water by Judas.

Jesus had been seen telling the Sea of Galilee in the midst of a storm to be still by
Jesus.

Judas witnessed Jesus take seven loaves and two fish and feed five thousand people.

No, I don't think Judas had any aspect in his mind that this was going to result in Jesus'
death.

This was a payday.

And you see the reaction when Judas realizes what is going to occur by him bringing the
money and throwing it back at the feet of the priest.

oil that he started to focus on the money that he was sidetracked and that's...

John indicates to us that Judas was a thief from the beginning, so that Judas was the
keeper of the bag and Judas was stealing funds from Jesus's ministry all along the way.

And so, there's a couple of things that you can combine here.

Number one, uh

Again, going back to what we discussed earlier about Judas' father, if Judas' father is a
Pharisee, who were the ones that Jesus condemned over and over and over and over again?

Pharisees.

Jesus, if you go read Matthew's account, Matthew 23, Jesus has just leveled, right before
he talks about the destruction of Jerusalem, he's just leveled seven woes at the Pharisees

proclaiming their unrighteousness, their hypocrisy, their hypocrisy.

And so, every single one of if Judas is the son of a Pharisee, that's like getting shot.

My family's getting shot every single time this comes up.

dinner with where he told the prayer about, in his disciples not washing their hands, the
same Simon.

I believe it is.

Add to that yet, alright so here's the mixed bag, the text indicates that at one point
Simon had been a leper.

So here's Simon, his own father, who had been a leper, and how could a leper be made
whole?

Only one way.

Jesus made his father no longer a leper.

Because if he was still a leper, he couldn't be holding a feast, he couldn't be having
people over for dinner, right?

He would have had to have been outside the city.

So you have Judas as this very mixed bag when you pull all of these details in, he's
somebody who's indebted for his father's very life to Jesus, and yet Jesus condemns his

father's.

actions and his allegiance to the Pharisees, and Jesus is going to bring forward against
his father this statement of, didn't provide anything for me when you came in, and brings

about an accusation against him, and yet Judas is in the midst of this watching all of
this, and Judas has a problem with his own selfish interests.

Which, by the way, wasn't too far off of the nature of most of the Pharisees.

He had learned really well from the people he grew up around.

You have a very complicated person in the form of Judas.

We don't talk about it a lot.