Latest / A Chapter a Day Bible Reading / April 2 - Mark 14

Transcript

April 2 - Mark 14 · A Chapter a Day Bible Reading

• 0:11
  Hello friends, it's Sean here. It's Thursday, it's the 2nd of
• 0:16
  April and it's not just any Thursday, but it is Monday.
• 0:20
  Thursday. Yep, we have reached the
• 0:22
  business end of Holy Week where things get awfully real as we
• 0:27
  follow the story of Jesus walking his path toward that
• 0:32
  hill called Golgotha, where he will do what he does for us.
• 0:37
  And today, we follow Jesus and his disciples into that upper
• 0:40
  room where they will sit down and feast together for the last
• 0:44
  time. And what a phenomenal
• 0:46
  opportunity we have, thanks to these authors, to actually be
• 0:50
  there in that room and to hear the conversation that went on.
• 0:54
  Because when Jesus talks to and prays for his disciples, that's
• 0:58
  not just for those people in that room, but friends, that is
• 1:01
  for you and that is for me today as we live our lives for Jesus.
• 1:07
  So Holy Spirit, as we hear the story, probably for the
• 1:10
  umpteenth time, and I pray that you would open our hearts fresh
• 1:16
  to stand in wonder of you and all that you have done for us.
• 1:23
  Well, friends with wide open hearts, let us read together
• 1:26
  Mark chapter 14. It was now two days before
• 1:40
  Passover and the Festival of Unleavened Bread.
• 1:43
  The leading priests and the teachers of religious law were
• 1:46
  still looking for an opportunity to capture Jesus secretly and
• 1:50
  kill him. But not during the Passover
• 1:53
  celebration, they agreed, or the people may riot.
• 1:57
  Meanwhile, Jesus was in Bethany at the home of Simon, a man who
• 2:01
  had previously had leprosy. While he was eating, a woman
• 2:05
  came in with a beautiful alabaster jar of expensive
• 2:09
  perfume made from essence of Nard.
• 2:12
  She broke open the jar and poured the perfume over his
• 2:15
  head. Some of those at the table were
• 2:18
  indignant. Why waste such expensive
• 2:21
  perfume, they asked. It could have been sold for a
• 2:23
  year's wages and the money given to the poor.
• 2:27
  So they scolded her harshly. But Jesus replied, leave her
• 2:31
  alone, why criticise her for doing such a good thing to me?
• 2:36
  You will always have the poor among you, and you can help them
• 2:40
  whenever you want to, but you will not always have me.
• 2:44
  She has done what she could and has anointed my body for burial
• 2:48
  ahead of time. I tell you the truth, wherever
• 2:51
  the good news is preached throughout the world, this
• 2:54
  woman's deed will be remembered and discussed.
• 2:58
  Then Judas Iscariot, one of the 12 disciples, went to the
• 3:02
  leading priests to arrange to betray Jesus to them.
• 3:05
  They were delighted when they heard why he had come, and they
• 3:09
  promised to give him money. So we began looking for an
• 3:12
  opportunity to betray Jesus. On the first day of the Festival
• 3:17
  of Unleavened Bread, when the Passover lamb is sacrificed,
• 3:21
  Jesus disciples asked him, Where do you want us to go to prepare
• 3:25
  the Passover meal for you? So Jesus sent two of them into
• 3:29
  Jerusalem with these instructions.
• 3:31
  As you go into the city, a man carrying a pitcher of water will
• 3:35
  meet you. Follow him at the house he
• 3:38
  enters. Say to the owner.
• 3:41
  The teacher asks, where is the guest room where I can eat the
• 3:44
  Passover meal with my disciples? He will take you upstairs to a
• 3:48
  large room that is already set up.
• 3:51
  That is where you should prepare our meal.
• 3:54
  So the two disciples went into the city and found everything
• 3:57
  just as Jesus had said, and they prepared the Passover meal
• 4:01
  there. In the evening Jesus arrived
• 4:04
  with the 12. As they were at the table
• 4:07
  eating, Jesus said, I tell you the truth, one of you eating
• 4:12
  with me here will betray me. Greatly distressed, each one
• 4:17
  asked in turn, Am I the one? He replied, It is one of you 12
• 4:22
  who is eating from this bowl with me?
• 4:25
  For the Son of Man must die, as the scriptures declared long
• 4:28
  ago. But how terrible it will be for
• 4:31
  the one who betrays him. It would be far better for that
• 4:35
  man if he had never been born. As they were eating, Jesus took
• 4:40
  some bread and blessed it. Then he broke it in pieces and
• 4:44
  gave it to his disciples, saying, Take it, for this is my
• 4:48
  body. And he took a cup of wine and
• 4:52
  gave thanks to God for it. He gave it to them and they all
• 4:55
  drank from it. And he said to them, This is my
• 4:59
  blood, which confirms the covenant between God and his
• 5:02
  people. It is poured out as a sacrifice
• 5:06
  for many. I tell you the truth, I will not
• 5:09
  drink wine again until the day I drink it new in the Kingdom of
• 5:13
  God. Then they sang a hymn and went
• 5:17
  out to the Mount of Olives. On the way Jesus told them, All
• 5:22
  of you will desert me. For the Scriptures say God will
• 5:26
  strike the shepherd and the sheep will be scattered.
• 5:30
  But after I am raised from the dead, I will go ahead of you to
• 5:33
  Galilee and meet you there. Peter said to him, Even if
• 5:37
  everyone else deserts you, I never will.
• 5:40
  Jesus replied, I tell you the truth Peter, this very night
• 5:45
  before the rooster crows twice, you will deny 3 times that you
• 5:50
  even know me. No, Peter declared emphatically.
• 5:54
  Even ever have to die with you, I will never deny you.
• 5:58
  And all the others vowed the same.
• 6:02
  They went to the olive Grove called Gethsemane, and Jesus
• 6:06
  said, Sit here while I go and pray.
• 6:09
  He took Peter, James and John with him and he became deeply
• 6:13
  troubled and distressed. He told them, My soul is crushed
• 6:17
  with grief to the point of death.
• 6:19
  Stay here and keep watch with me.
• 6:22
  He went on a little farther and fell to the ground.
• 6:26
  He prayed that if it were possible, the awful hour
• 6:29
  awaiting him might pass him by. ABA, Father, he cried out,
• 6:35
  everything is possible for you. Please take this cup of
• 6:39
  suffering away from me, yet I want your will to be done, not
• 6:45
  mine. Then he returned and found his
• 6:48
  disciples asleep. He said to Peter, Simon, are you
• 6:52
  asleep? Couldn't you watch with me even
• 6:55
  one hour? Keep watch and pray so that you
• 6:59
  will not give in to temptation, for the Spirit is willing, but
• 7:03
  the body is weak. Then Jesus left them again and
• 7:08
  prayed the same prayer as before.
• 7:10
  When he returned to them again, he found them sleeping, for they
• 7:14
  couldn't keep their eyes open and they didn't know what to
• 7:17
  say. When he returned to them a third
• 7:20
  time, he said, go ahead and sleep, have your rest.
• 7:25
  But no, the time has come. The Son of Man is betrayed into
• 7:29
  the hands of sinners. Up.
• 7:32
  Let's be going. Look, my betrayer is here.
• 7:36
  And immediately, as Jesus said this, Judas, one of the 12
• 7:40
  disciples, arrived with a crowd of men armed with swords and
• 7:44
  clubs. They had been sent by the
• 7:46
  leading priests, the teachers of religious law, and the elders.
• 7:50
  The traitor Judas had given them a prearranged signal.
• 7:54
  You will know which one to arrest when I greet him with a
• 7:57
  kiss. Then you can take him away under
• 8:00
  God. As soon as they arrived, Judas
• 8:04
  walked up to Jesus. Rabbi, he exclaimed and gave him
• 8:08
  the kiss. Then the others grabbed Jesus
• 8:12
  and arrested him. But one of the men with Jesus
• 8:15
  pulled out his sword and struck the high priest's slave,
• 8:18
  slashing off his ear. Jesus asked them, Am I some
• 8:23
  dangerous revolutionary that you come with swords and clubs to
• 8:27
  arrest me? Why didn't you arrest me in the
• 8:29
  temple? I was there among you, teaching
• 8:32
  every day, but these things are happening to fulfil what the
• 8:36
  scriptures say about me. Then all his disciples deserted
• 8:40
  him and ran away. One young man, following behind,
• 8:45
  was clothed only in a long linen shirt.
• 8:48
  When the mob tried to grab him, he slipped out of his shirt and
• 8:51
  ran away naked. They took Jesus to the high
• 8:55
  priest's home, where the leading priests, the elders, and the
• 8:58
  teachers of religious law were gathered.
• 9:01
  Meanwhile, Peter followed him at a distance and went right into
• 9:05
  the high priest's courtyard. There he sat with the guards
• 9:08
  warming himself by the fire. Inside, the leading priests and
• 9:12
  the entire council were trying to find evidence against Jesus
• 9:16
  so they could put him to death, but they couldn't find any.
• 9:20
  Many false witnesses spoke against him, but they
• 9:23
  contradicted each other. Finally, some men stood up and
• 9:27
  gave this false testimony. We have heard him say, I will
• 9:31
  destroy this temple made with human hands, and in three days I
• 9:35
  will build another made without human hands.
• 9:38
  But even then they didn't get their stories straight.
• 9:42
  Then the high priest stood up before the others and asked
• 9:45
  Jesus, Well, aren't you going to answer these charges?
• 9:50
  What do you have to say for yourself?
• 9:52
  But Jesus was silent and made no reply.
• 9:56
  Then the high priest asked him, Are you the Messiah, the Son of
• 10:01
  the Blessed One? Jesus said I am and you will see
• 10:07
  the Son of Man seated in the place of power at God's right
• 10:11
  hand and coming on the clouds of heaven.
• 10:15
  Then the high priest tore his clothing to show his horror and
• 10:19
  said, why do we need other witnesses?
• 10:21
  You have all heard his blasphemy.
• 10:23
  What is your verdict? Guilty, they all cried, He
• 10:27
  deserves to die. Then some of them began to spit
• 10:31
  at him, and they blindfolded him and beat him with their fists.
• 10:35
  Prophecy to us. They jeered and the guards
• 10:39
  slapped him as they took him away.
• 10:43
  Meanwhile, Peter was in the courtyard below.
• 10:45
  One of the servant girls who worked for the high priest came
• 10:48
  by and noticed Peter warming himself at the fire.
• 10:52
  She looked at him closely and said, You were one of those with
• 10:56
  Jesus of Nazareth. But Peter denied it.
• 10:59
  I don't know what you're talking about, he said, and he went out
• 11:02
  into the entryway. Just then a rooster crowed.
• 11:07
  When the servant girls saw him standing there, she began
• 11:10
  telling the others this man is definitely one of them.
• 11:14
  But Peter denied it again. A little later, some of the
• 11:19
  other bystanders confronted Peter and said, You must be one
• 11:22
  of them because you are a Galilean.
• 11:25
  Peter swore a curse on me. If I'm lying, I don't know this
• 11:29
  man you're talking about. And immediately the rooster
• 11:33
  crowed the second time. Suddenly Jesus words flashed
• 11:38
  through Peter's mind. Before the rooster crows twice,
• 11:42
  you will deny 3 times that you even know me.
• 11:46
  And he broke down and wept. Jesus, you tell us that a life
• 12:02
  following you is a life of sacrifice and a life of
• 12:08
  suffering, just as you suffered on this terrible day, giving up
• 12:13
  everything out of love for us. And Lord, as we consider our
• 12:18
  lives of service to you, that we are willing to sacrifice
• 12:22
  everything in order to be true to you and faithful to you, our
• 12:26
  incredible, loving God and Lord. I wonder what parts of our life
• 12:32
  there are where we find ourselves in the courtyard
• 12:34
  outside the high Priest's house and we have opportunity to
• 12:39
  either claim you or deny you. And we see in this reading that
• 12:46
  it's only too easy to deny you, to distance yourself from what
• 12:51
  others might see as irrational or madness or very unpopular.
• 12:59
  But Lord, I pray that it is your spirit inside us that would be
• 13:04
  our guiding light, and that your spirit is not a spirit of
• 13:07
  timidity, but a spirit of power and of strength, a spirit that
• 13:13
  is willing to stand up for truth.
• 13:16
  Lord, I pray that your spirit would grow in us so that we
• 13:20
  would have the power to speak of you, your truth, and Your love,
• 13:26
  even when that's not the popular thing to share.
• 13:31
  Holy Spirit, come, embolden us, shape us, and make us your
• 13:36
  children. We pray this in the saving name
• 13:39
  of Jesus, Amen.