Nepaug Bible Church - http://www.nepaugchurch.org - Pastor's Prayer Meeting Lesson Notes - http://www.nepaugchurch.org/pm/pm19970402.htm

MARK: GOSPEL OF THE SERVICE OF CHRIST, GOD'S SERVANT
Part LIII: Learning To Leave Our Protection Needs With God In Christian Service
(Mark 14:10-18)
  1. Introduction
    1. When the believer serves the Lord, he does so amidst incredible spiritual opposition in the angelic conflict, which opposition can spill over into human and governmental relationships to threaten his effectiveness.
    2. However, all that God wants the believer to achieve he can achieve regardless of the pressures to the contrary so that the believer needs to leave the protection of his ministry efforts with God. Mark 14:10-18 reflects this lesson in a powerful way as follows:
  2. Learning To Leave Our Protection Needs With God In Christian Service, Mark 14:10-18.
    1. Just before Jesus prepared to eat the Last Supper with the twelve disciples, a very precarious state of affairs came into being threatening to disrupt that meal and thus nullify the institution of this ordinance:
      1. At a previous dinner where Jesus had accepted Mary of Bethany's anointing of his feet with very costly perfume, the disciples, as instigated by Judas Iscariot's criticism, had rebuked the woman for not rather selling the perfume and giving the money to feed the poor, Mk. 14:3-5 with Jn. 12:1-5, 7-8.
      2. Judas had complained out of greed: being the treasurer of the disciples, he used to skim from the donations to the poor, and lusted after all of the money for the coffers he could, Jn. 12:6.
      3. Thus, when Jesus rebuked the criticism of this woman's deed, Judas was especially frustrated, and had consequently formed a secret pact with the chief priests to betray Jesus unto them, Mk. 14:10-11.
      4. We know from John 13:2 that Satan was involved in Judas' decision to betray Jesus. Thus, this whole matter involved much more than human relationship dynamics, but the angelic conflict as well!
      5. Thus, Jesus faced a very difficult state of affairs when it came to preparing the Last Supper Pascal meal:
        1. It was the will of the Father that Jesus be betrayed by Judas to fulfill Psalm 41:9 with John 13:18. Thus, Jesus did not want to name Judas as a traitor until at least after Judas had fulfilled the prophecy by dipping the sop with Jesus lest the other disciples turn on him and foil that prophecy.
        2. However, Jesus did not want Judas to use the Last Supper as the location to betray Him lest it interrupt His instituting the ordinance of the Lord's Table, cf. 1 Cor. 11:23-25. Thus, Judas needed to be kept in the dark about the location of this supper so it could proceed as planned.
        3. Thus, Judas needed to be at the last supper, but not have prior knowledge of where it would be, and the other eleven disciples also needed to be kept in the dark about Judas' intent to betray Jesus until at least after Judas had fulfil led prophecy and had dipped the sop with Jesus at the Passover meal!
    2. Accordingly, Jesus used great wisdom to protect the institution of the Last Supper even to going way beyond the knowledge of the disciples at the time, Mark 14:12-16, 17-18:
      1. When the disciples, including Judas Iscariot, asked Jesus where He would have them go to prepare the Passover meal, Jesus did not reveal its location to the disciples as a whole at that time, Mk. 14:12.
      2. Rather, retaining the Satanically-influenced Judas with Him along with the other unsuspecting ten disciples, Jesus sent Peter and John (Lk. 22:8) on ahead to prepare the supper, Mk. 14:13.
      3. With Judas listening, Jesus told Peter and John to enter Jerusalem and meet a man carrying a pitcher of water. As this act was typically a woman's practice, this man would signal to the disciples something unusual, and they were to follow him to a house in as yet an undisclosed location, Mk. 14:14a. When this man entered the house, Peter and John would ask the house's owner for use of his guestchamber for Jesus, and the owner would show them the room furnished; Peter and John were to prepare the Passover meal there and the others, including Judas and Jesus who would arrive together later, 15-16.
      4. In this way, Judas would be ignorant about the location of the Last Supper until he actually attended it, foiling any opportunity for him to tip off the priests ahead of time to betray Jesus there; also, the other men wouldn't know of Judas' intent to betray Christ at least until after he had dipped the sop with Jesus. In this way, both prophecy of Judas' betrayal and the institution of the Lord's Table would come to pass.
Lesson: God's purposes cannot be thwarted regarding the believer's life and service. If we realize this, we need not WORRY about events that SEEM overwhelmingly to BLOCK our service efforts. RELAX -- God is paving the way for success and protecti ng us even when we don't KNOW we have problems!