Well, our passage that we're considering this morning here in Mark chapter fourteen is organized around the theme of preparation. Preparation, and that is not a foreign idea to us. We prepare for weddings. We prepare new additions to our families. We prepare for a new start of a school year.
We prepare for a threatening storm or tornado watch. We prepare for a medical procedure. We prepare for a vacation. Preparation needs to be made for a major holiday, for out-of-town guests, for an economic downturn, for an unknown financial emergency. The farmer prepares his field for a new planting season.
Preparation is so much a part of our lives, and this is true not only in the everyday flow of life, but also in the spiritual realm. There are a few things that we may think that we do spontaneously, but even those things that are spontaneous have some preparation to them. We have a tri-state particular Baptist fellowship that meets here four times a year on a quarterly basis, and I am now the moderator. But prior to me, Al Bean was the moderator from Fayetteville, North Carolina, and on a particular scheduled meeting date, I walked into. The auditorium and I noticed the agenda on the front chair, and it had the scheduled speakers except for one.
It said to be T T B A, to be announced. I'm not a mystic, by the way. I didn't hear God speak to me. But I thought to myself, you know what? There's only ten preachers that come to this meeting on a good day, and three of them are already scheduled to pray.
I'm going to be one. I pray I to get to my office and give some thought to what I may preach if I'm the person asked. The time came. I'm sitting there, and Brother Al says, "I've been praying all week. Prayed all the way over here from Fayetteville, and I believe." The Lord has laid on my heart, brother Carnes, to come preach.
So that sounds a bit spontaneous, but I had done a little preparation, right? We were told at school to be ready to pray, preach, or die at a moment's notice. That was my opportunity.
So I am now the moderator.
So I get to play that on someone else. I haven't done that yet, but. We make preparations in the spiritual realm. Your preparation for the Lord's Day probably began yesterday. For some, with ministry responsibilities, your preparation may have lasted most of the week.
Part of your preparation is preparing your heart for worship. The choir came before us, having already prepared to lead us in worship. The preachers of the day are and have been engaged in preparation all week. And that's the theme that we have before us, but it's not a new theme because when you examine the Gospel of Mark, you see preparation has been on Mark's mind as he has given this narrative, this life story of the person and work of Jesus Christ. It runs throughout Mark's Gospel.
And then it accelerates as we get closer and closer to the cross and the suffering of Christ. Let me remind you of how Mark began his gospel. He begins by setting before us not the Lord Jesus Christ, but the forerunner, John the Baptist, and in Mark one verse three. The voice of one crying in the wilderness. What?
Prepare the way of the Lord. Make his path straight. This theme of preparation was prominent in the passage that we looked at last Sunday evening. Recall the preparation of the Sanhedrin, the chief priests, the scribes, Caiaphas, the high priest. Convening, the scheme, the plot, and make preparation to put Christ to death.
The preparation of Mary, to come and anoint Jesus with the expensive flask of oil. The preparation of Judas, as he looked for a convenient time to betray Jesus, having already gone to the chief priests to communicate his diabolical intentions. And then the Lord Jesus Himself, as He gave Himself in preparing His disciples, and had been for a long time, preparing them for His pending suffering and death. We read in Matthew twenty-six, verse two: "Jesus said, 'You know.'" Speaking to the disciples, you know that after two days is the Passover, and the Son of Man will be delivered up to be crucified. He's preparing them for what's coming.
So, this morning, this preparation intensifies. I want you to notice with me. We're going to look at ten details from this narrative and draw application from those.
So the first thing I want you to see is the mention of the verb "prepare." It appears three times in verse twelve, verse. Verse fifteen and in verse sixteen, notice again that verb. Verse twelve.
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?" Verse fifteen. Then he will show you a large upper room, finished. Furnished and prepared. Verse fifteen, verse sixteen.
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. The verb means to make ready beforehand for some purpose, use, or activity. The preparation. Spoken of in these three verses is related to the immediate context, which is preparation for the Passover observance. The whole city, all the occupants of the city, all the pilgrims who have come for the annual feast day, have prepared and are in the process of preparing.
The whole religious system is in the mode of preparation. As the priests, the Levitical priests, are prepared to receive the animal sacrifices, and direct in the events related to the Passover celebration, Mark draws our attention both near and far. You say, "What do you mean, near and far?" Near, because that is the immediate context. It is the Passover that Jesus will be observing with his disciples. That is what is going on in Jerusalem.
That is what is near. But he directs our attention beyond the immediate to the far. And what do I mean by far? Notice verse twenty-one. The end of the passage that we are considering this morning: the Son of Man indeed goes just as it has written, just as it is written of Him, written of Him.
What is being played out is what has been planned and prepared by the Triune God in eternity past. As it is written of him, that's what is taking place. It's already been predetermined. It has been planned. It has been prepared.
So we don't want to lose sight of the fact that there is this observance, there is this Passover observance. But listen to what Paul tells us in relationship to the Passover. He says, verse. Seven of one Corinthians chapter five. Therefore, purge out the old leaven, that you may be a new lump, since you truly are unleavened.
For indeed, Christ, our Passover, was sacrificed for us. We don't want to miss. We don't want to lose sight of Christ in the midst of what is being set before us.
So our attention is drawn to what God has been preparing in eternity past. Peter says in First Peter one verse twenty that Christ was foreordained before the foundation of the world, but was manifest in these last times for you. John said of Jesus, "Behold the Lamb of God who taketh away the sin of the world." John in Revelation thirteen eight says that he, that is the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world, is the object of eternal worship. In Luke's account, all four the gospel record, all four the gospels give a record of this event that we're looking at today. In Luke's account.
Of the preparations for the Passover, chapter twenty-two, verse twenty-two, he says, "Truly, the Son of Man goes as it has been determined. But woe to that man by whom he is betrayed! Determined by whom? Determined by what? By determined by the Eternal God and by His eternal decrees." That's the answer to that.
So, Mark is drawing our attention to this theme of preparation, both near and far. But what is fascinating is the fact that while the disciples. Will be preparing for the Passover feast. God Himself is orchestrating events to prepare the Passover Lamb for us. And how is He doing that?
Through the murderous thoughts of the Jewish religious leaders, through the interaction of Satan, who will enter Judas. And the betrayal of Judas by word and deed—amazing.
Now let's take a close examination of the text that's before us. Notice first the question. Verse twelve.
Now, on the first day of unleavened bread, when they killed the Passover lamb, his disciple said to him, "Where do you want us to go and prepare that you may eat the Passover?" Question mark. Where do you want us to go? Notice. Verse thirteen says, and he sent out two of his disciples, two, not all twelve, not Peter, James, and John, but two. And the question is, why would why would Mark draw our attention to the fact that Jesus was going to send two?
Well, here's the answer to that, because the city has. Swollen to enormous proportion because of all the pilgrims, all the people who are coming to observe this annual feast, and it's too crowded in the courtyard for multiple people.
So two people.
Now, who do you think those two people might have been? Any idea? We're not left to guess. Luke tells us in Luke 22 verse 8 that those two disciples are Peter and John. Peter and John.
Where do you want us to go? That's the question. Folks, in life, there are going to be a lot of questions that we have about a lot of things. And rather than ponder them and search for answers through introspection, it's good to bring our questions to the God who is all wise, all knowing.
Now, that doesn't mean when we come to Him that He's obligated to give us answers to all of our questions. But all of our questions need to be settled with Him, right? And before we begin to ask questions, we must first have our questions undergirded by this fundamental reality. And what is that? We are to live our lives by what?
Faith. For without faith, it's impossible to please God. There are times. That we do get answers to the perplexities of life, but there are a lot of questions answered in the Word of God.
So we need to be thoughtful. We need to be mindful. We need to be in a practice of bringing our questions to the Word of God and finding answers when they're there for us. Secondly, not only notice the question in verse twelve, but notice the instructions in verse thirteen to fifteen. He sent out two of his disciples, and he said to them, "Go into the city, and a man will meet you.
Wait a minute. A man will meet you, carrying a pitcher of water. Follow him." Question. Good many of you have been to the North Carolina State Fair, right? I've been to the State Fair a few times, and after I've been there, I've been, I've discovered someone else was there at the same time I was, and said, "Didn't you see me?" "No, I didn't see you." There's throngs of people there.
Well, we were there for an hour and a half.
Well, we were there an hour and a half too. Never saw you. You you know what I'm saying. I'm I'm painting a picture for you. Jerusalem streets were so crowded it was like this.
People were walking, and Jesus says to them, "Go into the city, and a man will meet you. A man will meet you. How are we going to identify this man?" He's going to be carrying a pitcher. What do we learn from that?
Well, that's contrary to the culture. Women carried water; men didn't carry water. Slaves carried water. The Essenes—they were a sect of that time. The men carried water because there were very, very few women of that sect.
So here's a man. Maybe a slave, maybe an Assyrian, but that's how you're going to identify this man, and you don't need to go looking for him. He's going to come looking for you. Oh, how does he know that? We don't have an answer in Scripture, but we know that God is ordering all things after the counsel of His own will.
That's how we know. Go into the city. A man will meet you carrying a pitcher of water, and what are you supposed to do? You're to follow him. Follow him.
Follow him where? Follow him to his house. Verse 14. Wherever he goes in, 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?" Okay. You know what's interesting?
We don't have the time to look at it, but what what is happening here is very, very similar to what happened with the instructions Jesus gave concerning the triumphal entry. Remember, go and find a donkey. Man will find when they when they ask you about the master has need of it. Exactly what Jesus said they would encounter took place. That's what's happening here.
Verse 15. Then he will show you a large upper room, furnished and prepared. There, make ready for us. Those were the instructions. The identity of the man.
You're to follow him. You're to say to the master. Your you are to discover this room, and you are to prepare. And you know what? It shouldn't surprise us, should it?
That we read verse sixteen.
So as disciples went out and came into the city. And found it just as he had said to them. Surprised? No, we're not surprised, folks. When Jesus makes a promise to his redeemed people, we will find when we trust that promise that it is as he said it would be.
You will not be disappointed. All right. We can follow his instructions. We follow his instructions to the welfare of our soul. We ignore them, refuse them, to the peril of our souls.
We need to be like these disciples. Whatever Jesus said to do, do it. And we're not to follow some man with a pitcher on his head. We're to follow him. Right.
Follow him, and if you'll follow Jesus, you will not be disappointed. I think there's a question that that begs needing answer or asked and then answered, and that is, well, why the necessity for the Passover? What what's driving this? There's this urgency. We we must do this.
We have to do this. We we've got to make preparation.
Well, because Jesus came to fulfill the law, all of it, and this is part of the law. He came to fulfill all righteousness, and that's the necessity of it.
So we've seen the question, the instructions. The necessity. What else are we going to see? The preparation, the preparation, verse sixteen.
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. They prepared the Passover.
Now. A lot of preparation here. They had to secure lamb. They had to take it to the priest. The lamb had to be inspected to make sure that it was without blemish.
The lamb had to be slaughtered. Herbs had to be collected for the bitter herbs. Wine had to be purchased for the four cups of wine that are part of the Passover observance. There was a lot of preparation involved. But it says, "And they prepared the Passover.
In the evening, he came with the twelve." In the evening, Jews marked time from sunset till sunrise.
So a day began at sun sunset.
So the evening at six o'clock was a new day, according to the Jewish calendar and the way they marked time. Jesus was in Bethany. It is a two-mile walk from there to Jerusalem, and we're told that in the evening he came with the twelve.
So apparently, no, not apparently, obviously, John and Peter had made the preparations, returned to Bethany, and then joined Jesus with the other ten as they came into Jerusalem. And made their way to the prepared place for the observance of the Passover. Then the observance in the evening. He came with the twelve.
Now, as they sat and ate. Most of us have seen the portrait, the picture of the Last Supper. It is erroneous in a lot of ways. If you look at it carefully, there's windows and there's light shining through. It wouldn't there have been no light.
It happened in the evening. It was dark. They're not sitting in chairs like we would sit around a table. They would be reclining. On one elbow, with their feet away from the table.
That's not portrayed in the in the portrait or in the painting. And there's other things that are important about the way they were assembled there that we'll get to here in a moment.
So the observance. As I've already said, Jesus walked the two miles from Bethany into that chaotic scene in Jerusalem, crowded with pilgrims that were gathered there for the Passover. Then the text, the story, the narrative gets very intense. Let me give you my review. First, the question.
Number two, the instructions. Number three, the implied necessity to fulfill all the law. Number four, the precision and exactness of providence. The precision and exactness, and it shouldn't surprise us, folks. It's not just in this.
One particular area that we're looking at, the Bible tells us that He is ordering all things, and all means all here after the counsel of His own will. Nothing happens by chance; everything happens according to the decree of Almighty God. Number five, the preparation. Number six, the observance; they observed the Passover, and then number seven, the shocking announcement. The shocking announcement in verse eighteen.
Now, as they sat and ate, Jesus said, "Assuredly, I say to you, in other words, men." What I'm getting ready to say, you want to pay attention. Assuredly, I say to you, this is this is serious. Assuredly, I say to you, one of you who eats with me will betray me. And a shocking announcement. Then a sorrowful introspection.
Verse 19. And they began to be sorrowful, and to say to him one by one, "Is it I?" And another said, "Is it I?" Shockingly, we don't have it recorded that one of the disciples said, "I know who it is." I've been leery of this guy for a long time. He's the guy carries the money. It's Judas. No, they don't suspect Judas.
Judas has been a counterfeit. Judas has played the game, deceived everybody but Jesus. The sorrowful introspection. John has some interesting insight in his account. John chapter thirteen.
We see, we read these words. Verse twenty one of chapter thirteen. When Jesus had said these things, he was troubled in spirit and testified and said, "Most assuredly, I say to you, one of you will betray me." Then the disciples looked at one another, perplexed about whom he spoke.
Now. There was leaning on Jesus's bosom one of his disciples whom Jesus loved, and that qualifier identifies a particular disciple. And who is that? John. John is the closest to Jesus, who is the guest at the Passover table.
John is leaning on Jesus's breast. Simon Peter therefore motions to him, and you can get this picture. Simon Peter gets John's attention; their eyes meet, and Peter's going. In other words, ask him, ask him who it is. Peter therefore motioned to him, that is to John, ask him who it was of whom he spoke.
Then leaning back on Jesus's breast, he that is John said to him that is Jesus, Lord, who is it? That's a direct question. Lord, who is it? Jesus doesn't give as direct of an answer that they probably were hoping for. Verse twenty six.
Jesus answered, "It is he to whom I shall give a piece of bread when I have dipped it." And having dipped the bread, he gave it to Judas Iscariot, the son of Simon. What does that suggest about Judas's place around the table? There was this. Cup this reservoir of bitter herbs. They were to take bread, dip in that, and were to partake of that to remind themselves this is the Passover celebration.
To remind themselves of the bitter slavery that they were rescued from in Egypt. That was the point of the bitter herbs. But for Jesus to dip the bread in the herbs. It tells us that John wasn't sitting at the other end of the, or Judas wasn't sitting at the other end of the table. Judas had to be in close proximity to Jesus for it to be true.
For it says, "It is he whom I shall give a piece of bread when I have dipped it." Jesus isn't getting up, walking around the table. He is reclining at the table. John on his bosom. Peter in close proximity, at least to make eye contact with John.
So Judas is close, which again is part of his cover, part of the deception. He wasn't at the other end of the table. He hadn't distanced himself from Jesus. He wasn't. You see what's going on here.
The sorrowful introspection. They're all asking and wondering up until this point, but the betrayer is identified. Listen to Matthew's account. Matthew twenty six. Verse twenty-two.
It says, "And they were exceedingly sorrowful, and each of them began to say to him, 'Lord, is it I?' He answered and said, 'He who dipped his hand with me in the dish will betray me.' The Son of Man 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 not been born. Then Judas, who was betraying him, answered and said, "Rabbi, is it I?" He, Jesus, said to him, "You have said it. You have said it." He's been identified as the betrayer.
Mark is the only one of the four gospel writers that tells us that it is one of the twelve, one of the insiders, one of the ones who walked with Jesus for three and a half years, one who knew him more intimately, walked more closely with him than anybody else on the face of the earth ever has. Judas. How close to the truth can you be and miss it? He rubbed shoulders, elbows with him who is the truth, the way, and the life. The pronouncement.
The pronouncement. Back to Mark. The Son of Man indeed goes just as it is written of him. But woe to that man! Judgment—that is a word of judgment.
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. Why is that? Because he's the Son of Perdition. Because he's going to live forever and ever and ever in in eternal torment, separated from God.
It would been better for him never to have been born than to have that future ahead of him.
Well, what do we have going on here? We have something that theologians referred to referred to as concurrence. That may be a new term to you, but concurrence is the fact of two or more events or circumstances happening or existing at the same time. Meaning what?
Well, let me give you an example from the Genesis account of Joseph at the end of Genesis 50. That narrative, Jesus says to his brothers. Referring to them, them selling him into slavery, you meant this for evil. Same event now. You, you meant it for evil.
But God, same event, meant it for good. Concurrence: the fact of two or more events or circumstances happening or existing at the same time. The fact that God turns the wrath of man to His praise does not excuse the wrath of man. Joseph's brothers were guilty; they were culpable of their their sin of selling their their brother into slavery. Judas will not get a pass.
By saying, "Hey, I was just a pawn in the game. I just fulfilled what was decreed. I was the son of perdition. I didn't have a choice in that matter. No, God used him.
God used Satan. God used the religious leaders to accomplish what He had foreordained to accomplish. But none of those, with their sinful motives, are." Not comp, not liable. They're liable for their sin. God will hold them accountable.
It's a mystery, isn't it? We have that. That was preached on the day of Pentecost, Acts chapter two. Peter says, "Men of Israel, hear these words: Jesus of Nazareth, a man attested by God to you by miracles, wonders, and signs, which God did through him in your midst, as you yourselves also know. Him, being delivered by the determined purpose and foreknowledge of God, that's God's sovereign, overarching purpose." You have taken by lawless hands, have crucified and put to death, whom God raised up, having loosed the pains of death, because it was not possible that he should be held by it.
I think the most frustrating being in the entire universe has to be Satan himself. He has nothing but hatred. He has nothing but ill will for the church, for the people of God. But at every turn, he is an unwilling servant of Jehovah. Satan can't get near you.
He can't touch you. He can't. He can't bother you, pester you. Apart from getting permission from Almighty God. And if God gives him permission, God has a good purpose in whatever He wants to see accomplished in your life, and He will use the devil to do it.
Remember, Peter, Peter, Satan has desired to sift you as wheat, but I have prayed for you.
So Peter was sifted, wasn't he? But his self confidence, his pride, needed to be removed from him. He needed to grow in humility, and he did.
So, a man I'm very fond of said. In this place, some years back, that heaven is a prepared place for prepared people. Heaven is a prepared place for prepared people. I like that, but the second part of that needs qualification. Because it seems to suggest, or could by some imply, that there's something that I've got to do on my part in my preparation so that I can go to heaven.
Heaven is a prepared place for prepared people. But the question is, who does the preparing? Is it the sinner? He just left to figure out it, figure this out. He just has to work harder, do better than the religious leaders did.
Jesus said, "Accept your righteousness, exceed that of the the Pharisees. You will know why is enter the kingdom." Does that mean they they have to have a better righteousness than the Pharisees?
Well, yes, it does mean that. But it doesn't mean better than the kind of righteousness that they were trusting. No, they needed a righteousness of a different kind, a forensic righteousness, a righteousness outside themselves.
So, the only sinner, the only way a sinner is prepared for heaven, is God comes to that sinner in mercy and grace, and grants him a righteousness that he demands. That he must have in order to get to heaven, but it's all God. It's not the sinner.
Now, what does the sinner do? The sinner has to believe. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved. We live in a day of easy believeism. I'm, I'm nauseated by the commercials I see, thirty second clips of the gospel of a man walking along the beach, telling us little.
Snip it about God and how He loves people, and if you pray this prayer, you're going to heaven, and we'll send you a book or a Bible. That's not the gospel. Jesus said this: "I am the resurrection and the life. He who believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live. And whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never die." Believest thou this?
It's that living part that is missing by so many people. That's the part that gets missed in this easy believeism.
Now, it's captured in the language: "Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ." What does that mean? You can't believe on him as your savior and negate the fact that he's Lord. If you're a saved person, you've believed in Jesus Christ, the Lord Jesus Christ. Too many people think they've got a ticket that's going to rescue them from the flames of hell. And yet, they have their own agenda.
I'm going to live my own life. I'm my own captain. I'm going to do what I want to do. But at the end of my life, I'm good because why? I believed on Jesus.
I listened to that preacher on TV. I did what that preacher in that church told me to do. I walked down front. I prayed this prayer. In fact, good night.
I right here's the date in my Bible. What what is missing here? I'm not interested in a date in your Bible. I'm interested in: Are you believing right now and living a life that conforms to a believer in Jesus Christ? Are you a follower of Jesus?
That's the difference, right? History of this church: we had a we had bad methodology, and behind the bad methodology was bad theology. All right. We had a pastor who was very gifted in making an appeal at the end of a service. People come to the altar.
People came to the altar. People came to the altar. Made decisions. Made decisions. Made decisions.
And after a while, I wasn't here when it was going on. But after a while, the leadership says something's not right here. These people who have come and prayed and believed on Jesus, we've gone and followed up on them and. Their lights go out when we knock on their door. They don't want to talk to us.
We don't see them in church.
Something's not right. And that was the beginning of a reorientation in this church to a proper understanding of the gospel. Heaven is a prepared place for prepared people. And for everyone who's going to heaven, God, through the operation of His Spirit, is at work in preparing that sinner for that prepared place, isn't He? Listen to me.
Not a single person for whom Jesus bled and died on the cross of Calvary will miss heaven. Every one for whom Jesus died will make it safely home to heaven. No exceptions. Why is that? Because Jesus said, "Father, I've kept those you've given to me, and not one of them is lost, except what the son of perdition you gave him to me." He had a purpose in your plan, but he wasn't one of mine.
He wasn't one of my genuine followers. He's the only one I didn't keep because he wasn't one that I was under obligation to keep.
Well, a lot in this passage. And in God's kindness, the next time I stand here and preach, we'll be preaching from Jesus institutes the Lord's Supper, and it will be the Sunday we observe the Lord's Table.
So, I didn't arrange that; the Lord arranged that. Let's pray together, Father. We thank you for the gospel of your Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. We thank you, Father, that you are a God who rescues hell-deserving sinners, and we rejoice in the mercy that's been extended to us. And I thank you, our Father, for your Son, who left the glories of heaven, came on a rescue mission, obeyed every Every jot and tittle of the law satisfied the law completely in the stead of sinners, so that that could be credited to our account, and then died a death that we deserved to die.
An atoning death that satisfies your just wrath against sinners. How we rejoice in such a rich gospel, and for making us recipients of it. Father, deepen our love for Christ. Deepen our devotion for Him. Help us each to examine our lives and see if our lives match that of a genuine follower, one who is living out under the lordship of Jesus Christ.
Cause your word to bear fruit in our lives. I pray in Christ's name, Amen.
