If this was your last night, how would you spend it? That dark scenario is the occasion of the text. It was late Thursday night. The evening was spent in the Upper Room, observing the Passover. Jesus instituted the Lord’s Supper and broke the news about what would soon occur.  One of them would betray him.  Another one would deny him.  All of them would desert him.  The disciples could not process these unbelievable predictions. They would not have long to try. The predicted events were imminent. Within hours, what Jesus said to and about them would come to pass. Under these circumstances, Jesus led the disciples to a place called Gethsemane. He would not leave a free man. Judas led...

On the Ides of March 44 B.C., Julius Caesar was assassinated at a meeting of the Roman senate. Sensing a bad omen, his wife urged him to stay home. Yet he pressed his way to the meeting. Within minutes of his arrival, Caesar was stabbed twenty-three times by senators. The final wounds were inflicted by Marcus Julian Brutus, whom Caesar considered a son. His final words were to Brutus, “You too, child?”   The assassination of Julius Caesar is considered the greatest act of betrayal in history. What Judas did to Jesus is infinitely worse than what Brutus did to Caesar.  Brutus betrayed a tyrant in the making.  Judas betrayed the incarnate Son of...

Mark 13 records the Olivet Discourse in which Jesus predicts his Second Coming at the end of the age. Mark 14 abruptly shifts from triumph to suffering. The one who will return in glory will die for the sins of the world. By the end of chapter 15, Jesus will be betrayed, arrested, condemned, crucified, and buried. Mark begins his Passion Narrative in our text. It is a chiastic “sandwich story.” Mark often begins a story, interrupts himself to tell a seemingly unrelated story, and then returns to finish the original story. This is what we find in verses 1-11.  Verses 1-2 records the religious leaders’ plot to kill Jesus.  Verses 3-9 records an unnamed woman’s love for Jesus.  Verses 10-11 records Judas Iscariot’s...

Some Christians are fanatical about biblical prophecy. They have an unhealthy fixation with the future, end-times, and Second Coming. It is easy to mock the caricature of the person who goes overboard about prophecy. But those who fit that category are few and far between. There are many more Christians who ignore the subject altogether. They have their heads in the sand, unable or unwilling to look up. The neglect of biblical prophecy is as bad as the abuse of it, maybe worse.  The Old Testament is filled with prophecies of the coming of Christ. Did you know it is also filled with prophecies of his second coming? There are 1,845 predictions of the second coming in the Old Testament. There are 318 references to the second coming in the 260 chapters of...

And as Jesus taught in the temple, he said, "How can the scribes say that the Christ is the son of David? David himself, in the Holy Spirit, declared, "'The Lord said to my Lord, "Sit at my right hand, until I put your enemies under your feet."' David himself calls him. Lord. She how is he his Son?" And the great throng heard him gladly. And in his teaching he said, "Bewared of the scribes, who like to walk around in long robes and like greetings in the marketplaces and have the best seats in the synagogues and the...

And one of the scribes came up and heard them disputing with one another, and seeing that he answered them well, asked him, “Which commandment is the most important of all?” Jesus answered, “The most important is, ‘Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’ The second is this:‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no other commandment greater than these.” And the scribe said to him, “You are right, Teacher. You have truly said that he is one, and there is no other besides him. And to love him with all the heart and with all the understanding and with all the strength, and to love one’s neighbor as oneself, is much more than all whole burnt offerings and sacrifices.” And when Jesus saw that he answered wisely, he said to him, “You are not far from the kingdom of God.” And after that no one dared to ask him any more questions. - Mark 12:28-34 Armies win battles through bombardment. They repeatedly attack until their enemy’s defenses break down. After the barrage, the weakened adversary is defeated. Spiritual warfare advances this way. Do not let your guard down after any battle. Another wave of attack is sure to come. It happened to Jesus in Mark 12. Upon arriving in Jerusalem, Jesus cleansed the temple, disrupting the business administration of the sacrificial system. The religious authorities, guardians of the temple and its operations, sought to destroy Jesus. In chapter 12, three deployments of religious leaders attack Jesus to bring him...

And Sadducees came to him, who say that there is no resurrection. And they asked him a question, saying, “Teacher, Moses wrote for us that if a man's brother dies and leaves a wife, but leaves no child, the man must take the widow and raise up offspring for his brother. There were seven brothers; the first took a wife, and when he died left no offspring. And the second took her, and died, leaving no offspring. And the third likewise. And the seven left no offspring. Last of all the woman also died. In the resurrection, when they rise again, whose wife will she be? For the...

And they sent to him some of the Pharisees and some of the Herodians to trap him in his talk. And they came and said to him, "Teacher, we know that you are true and do not care about anyone's opinion. For you are not swayed by appearances, but truly teach the way of God. Is it lawful to pay taxes to Caesar, or not? Should we pay them or not? But, knowing their hypocrisy, he said to them, "Why put me to the test? Bring me a denarius and let me look at it." And they brought one. And...

  And a leper came to Jesus, imploring him, and kneeling to him said, “If you will, you can make me clean.”– Mark 1:40   The last passage of chapter 1 (verses 40-45), records the miracle of Jesus cleansing a leper. It is also recorded in Matthew 8:1-4 and Luke 5:12-15. Leprosy was the most dreaded disease in the Bible. The term “leprosy” was used to describe anything from a skin rash to Hansen’s Disease (the modern name for leprosy). Luke 5:12 says this man who came to Jesus was “full of leprosy.” This was no skin rash. It was...