The Garden

The Garden

Andrew Lovette

The Garden

Mark 14:26-52

Main Idea: Trying times call for dependence on the dependable One.

I. The Denial of the Disciples (14:26-31)

II. The Agony of the Savior (14:32-42)

Psalm 75:8:

For in the hand of the Lord there is a cup

with foaming wine, well mixed,

and he pours out from it,

and all the wicked of the earth

shall drain it down to the dregs.

III. The Betrayal of the King (14:43-52)

There was no accident or chance in any part of the close of our Lord’s earthly ministry. The steps in which He walked from Gethsemane to Calvary, were all marked out hundreds of years before. The twenty-second Psalm, and the fifty-third chapter of Isaiah, were literally fulfilled. The wrath of His enemies,—His rejection by His own people,—His being dealt with as a malefactor,—His being condemned by the assembly of the wicked,—all had been foreknown, and all foretold. All that took place was only the working out of God’s great design to provide an atonement for a world’s sin.

- J. C. Ryle

1 Peter 5:5-8: Clothe yourselves, all of you, with humility toward one another, for “God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.” Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God so that at the proper time he may exalt you, casting all your anxieties on him, because he cares for you. Be sober-minded; be watchful. Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour.

The Last Supper

The Last Supper

Ian Thomas

The last supper

Mark 14:12-25

Main Idea: Jesus’ death is an act of grace for the undeserving and the sovereign fulfillment of Passover.

I. The Shadow of Passover (14:12-16)

Exodus 12:14: This day [Passover] shall be for you a memorial day, and you shall keep it as a feast to the Lord; throughout your generations, as a statute forever.

As the Israelites observed Passover in Jerusalem annually, each component of the meal was infused with symbolism and significance:

• Unleavened bread (to remember their hasty exit from Egypt)

• Bitter herbs (to remember their time of bitterness)

• Cup of salt water (to remember their tears in Egypt and the crossing of the Red Sea)

• Four cups of wine (to remember the four promises of Exodus 6:6-7)

• A lamb (to remember their deliverance by the blood)

II. Sovereignty and Sin (14:17-21)

Romans 2:4: Or do you presume on the riches of his kindness and forbearance and patience, not knowing that God’s kindness is meant to lead you to repentance?

It is essential to keep together these two complementary ways of looking at the cross. On the human level, Judas gave him up to the priests, who gave him up to Pilate, who gave him up to the soldiers, who crucified him. But on the divine level, the Father gave him up, and he gave himself up, to die for us. As we face the cross, then, we can say to ourselves both, “I did it, my sins sent him there,” and “He did it, his love took him there.

~ John Stott, The Cross of Christ

III. The Substance of Christ (14:22-25)

As the fulfillment of Passover, Jesus presents his impending death and crucifixion as: 

1. Sacrificial (cf. John 1:29, 1 Cor. 5:7b)

2. Substitutionary

The concept of substitution may be said to lie at the heart of both sin and salvation. The essence of sin is man substituting himself for God, while the essence of salvation is God substituting himself for man. Man asserts himself against God and puts himself where only God deserves to be; God sacrifices himself for man and puts himself where only man deserves to be. Man claims prerogatives that belong to God alone; God accepts penalties that belong to man alone.

~ John Stott, The Cross of Christ 

When Jesus first shared the Supper with his disciples, he was giving them something firm to hold on to—like a beam set in concrete. Jesus would soon be betrayed and crucified in their place. He wanted them not only to remember the sacrifice, but also to grasp its significance. Jesus was leaving, and other people, priorities, and persecutions would soon threaten the devotion of their hearts. But the Lord’s Supper was a handle they could grasp through it all. Doubts would come, but they would remember. Dangers would come, but they would remember. Dissenters would abandon them, but they would remember that indelible moment when Jesus broke the bread and served the cup. It was a simple act, a common meal, but it would soon become their sustaining grace.

~ Daryl Crouch

1 Corinthians 11:26: For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes.

Object of Hope or Obstacle of Ambition

Object of Hope or Obstacle of Ambition

Rob Lourcey

Object of hope or obstacle of ambition

Mark 14:1-11

Main Idea: Jesus is either the object of our hope or the obstacle of our ambition.

I. Religious Rage (14:1-2)

Mark 12:12: And they were seeking to arrest him but feared the people, for they perceived that he had told the parable against them. So they left him and went away.

II. Wondrous Worship (14:3-9)

“If a man once understands the sinfulness of sin, and the mercy of Christ in dying for him, he will never think anything too good or too costly to give to Christ… He will fear wasting time, talents, money, affections on the things of this world. He will not be afraid of wasting them on his Savior. He will fear going into extremes about business, money, politics, or pleasure; but he will not be afraid of doing too much for Christ.”

- JC Ryle

III. A Bankrupt Betrayer (14:10-11)

The End of the Temple and the End of the World

The End of the Temple & the End of the World

Ian Thomas

The End of the temple and the end of the World

Mark 13:1-37

Main Idea: We must endure through the hardships of this present world, staying alert and awake for the return of Christ.

I. Endurance in Suffering (13:1-13)

Life in the 1st century (and life in general in this fallen world) will be marked by the “non-signs” of:

1. Messianic Pretenders (13:6)

2. Military Conflict (13:7)

3. Political Upheaval (13:8a)

4. Natural Disasters (13:8b)

5. Persecution & Martyrdom (13:9, 11-13a)

6. Widespread Gospel Proclamation (13:10 | Acts 1:8)

1 Peter 1:6-7: In this you rejoice, though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been grieved by various trials, so that the tested genuineness of your faith—more precious than gold that perishes though it is tested by fire—may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ.

II. The Exultation of Christ (13:14-31)

A. The Roman Destruction of Jerusalem & the Temple (13:14-23)

B. The Vindication of the Son of Man (13:23-27)

Daniel 7:13–14: “I saw in the night visions,

and behold, with the clouds of heaven

there came one like a son of man,

and he came to the Ancient of Days

and was presented before him.

And to him was given dominion

and glory and a kingdom,

that all peoples, nations, and languages

should serve him;

his dominion is an everlasting dominion,

which shall not pass away,

and his kingdom one

that shall not be destroyed.

C. The Lesson of the Fig Tree (13:28-31)

“The destruction of Jerusalem and the temple and God’s judgment on Israel in 70 AD is all about Jesus. It’s about who he is and how he reigns as sovereign Lord. It’s about the truth of who he claimed to be, as over against the blasphemous lies and rejection of him by the religious leaders in Israel, together with the extent and duration of his dominion over all creation… [Jesus] is the true temple of God. He is the person and place of sacrifice where forgiveness is found and God's voice is heard and God's glory and presence are encountered. So, when the temple in Jerusalem was razed, leveled, and flattened such that not one stone was left upon another, the people of that day "saw" that everything the temple symbolized and achieved is now found in King Jesus who rules over all the universe. There has been a regime change. The temple is dethroned. Jesus is enthroned.”

~ Sam Storms, Kingdom Come

III. Expecting His Return (13:32-37)

As we consider the return of the “master,” we must:

1. Be on Guard (13:9, 23, 33)

2. Stay Awake (4x in 13:32-37 | cf. 1 Thess. 5:1-11)

2 Peter 3:8-12a: “But do not overlook this one fact, beloved, that with the Lord one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day. The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance. But the day of the Lord will come like a thief, and then the heavens will pass away with a roar, and the heavenly bodies will be burned up and dissolved, and the earth and the works that are done on it will be exposed. Since all these things are thus to be dissolved, what sort of people ought you to be in lives of holiness and godliness, waiting for and hastening the coming of the day of God.”

Ash Wednesday 2023 | He Knows Our Frame

Ash Wednesday Homily - He Knows Our Frame

Ian Thomas

He Knows Our Frame

Psalm 103:6-19

Genesis 3:19:
By the sweat of your face
you shall eat bread,
till you return to the ground,
for out of it you were taken;
for you are dust,
and to dust you shall return.

Ash Wednesday invites us to remember 3 realities:

I. The Certainty of Death

II. The Cause of our Pain

“Lent is not a general sadness about the inevitability of death but an explicitly Christian diagnosis of the cause of death. We sin and die because humanity rebelled against God. There is nothing natural at all about death. It is an alien intrusion into the good world God created… Through the imposition of the ashes, Ash Wednesday reminds us that death and sin cannot be completely separated. This does not mean a particular form of death is punishment for specific sins, but sin and death are partners.”
~ Esau McCaulley

III. The Cross of Christ

“Instead of becoming a source of despair, our sin becomes the arena of God’s glory. He doesn’t have barely enough grace to forgive us. He is rich in this stuff; it overflows from his very nature. Ash Wednesday invites an introspection that leads to an acknowledgement of our sin that collides with an explosion of God’s grace. No step in this process can be skipped.”
~ Esau McCaulley

The Greatest Commandment

The Greatest Commandment

Ian Thomas

The Greatest Commandment

Mark 12:28-44

Main Idea: We can only love God wholly and others rightly by beholding the loving Lordship of Christ.

I. The Greatest Commandment(s) (12:28-34)

1 John 4:11, 19-20: Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another… We love because he first loved us. If anyone says, “I love God,” and hates his brother, he is a liar; for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen cannot love God whom he has not seen.

“One draws near to the kingdom of God not by proper theology but by drawing near to Jesus. Jesus exhibits his messianic authority in declaring who is on the threshold of the kingdom of God, which is present not in the Torah but in himself.”

~James Edwards

II. The Greater Lord (12:35-37)

Jesus quotes Psalm 110, a “coronation hymn,” which is the most frequently cited OT passage in the NT related to Jesus’ exaltation, ascension, and enthronement. Jesus cites this in order to assert:

1. The divine authorship of the Psalm (“in the Holy Spirit”)

2. The earthly monarchy was meant to prefigure the coming Messiah-King

3. He is not only David’s son, but also something more.

III. The Genuine Offering

Jesus contrasts the pretentious, public religious practice of the scribes with the humble, sincere faith of the widow as a conclusion to his public ministry that began in 1:17.

Matthew 6:1–2: “Beware of practicing your righteousness before other people in order to be seen by them, for then you will have no reward from your Father who is in heaven. “Thus, when you give to the needy, sound no trumpet before you, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, that they may be praised by others. Truly, I say to you, they have received their reward.”

“In purely financial terms, the value of her offering is negligible—and unworthy of compare to the sums of the wealthy donors. But in the divine exchange rate things look differently. That which made no difference in the books of the temple is immortalized in the Book of Life… How powerfully ironic is the word “more” in Mark’s description. Everything about this woman has been described in terms of less, particularly in comparison to the scribes and wealthy crowd. And yet, the contrast between her genuine piety and faith and the pretense of the wealthy is beyond compare. For Jesus, the value of a gift is not the amount given, but the cost to the giver.” 

~ James Edwards

What Matters Most

What Matters Most

Aaron Proffitt

What mATTERS mOST

Mark 12:13-27

Main Idea: What matters most to us truly comes down to who and what we represent!

I. Who We Represent (12:13-17):

Render to Caesar what are Caesar’s and what are God’s to God” that is the image of Caesar, which is on the coin to Caesar, and the image of God, which is on man, to God - so as to render to Caesar indeed money, and to render to God even yourself.

~ Tertullian

“The coin has no knowledge of its bearing the image of the prince. But you are the coin of God and so far highly superior as possessing mind and even life, so as to know the one whole image you bear.”

- Augustine.

II. What We Represent (12:18-27)

Once you become aware that the main business that you are here for is to know God, most of life's problems fall into place of their own accord.

~ J.I. Packer

Reflect: Is what matters most to you Christ and his gospel? Why or why not?

A Trustworthy Authority

A Trustworthy Authority

Ian Thomas

A Trustworthy Authority

Mark 11:27-12:12

Main Idea: We can build our life on Jesus because he has a trustworthy, heavenly authority over all things.  

I. The Water (11:2-33):

The religious leaders reject Jesus for 3 reasons: 

1. They are unwilling to acknowledge his authority (11:27-28)

2. They are unwilling to consider the evidence in good faith (11:29-31)

3. They fear man more than they fear God (11:32-33)

II. The Vineyard (12:1-9)

Hebrews 1:1-2: Long ago, at many times and in many ways, God spoke to our fathers by the prophets,  but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed the heir of all things, through whom also he created the world.

Matthew 23:37-38: O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to it! How often would I have gathered your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and you were not willing! See, your house is left to you desolate.

Romans 2:4: Or do you presume on the riches of his kindness and forbearance and patience, not knowing that God’s kindness is meant to lead you to repentance?

His graciousness is as conspicuous as his glory. There was never such a one as he. None of us loves men as Christ loves them; and if the loves of all the tender-hearted in the world could be run together, they would make but a drop compared with the ocean of the compassion of Jesus… He hid not his face from shame and spitting, nor his body from the shedding of blood, nor his soul from deadly agony; but he loved the church, and gave himself for it. It is this lover of souls that becomes God’s advocate with us, and pleads with us that we would cease from our rebellion. Do not refuse him! If you reject him, he answers you with tears; if you wound him, he bleeds out cleansing; if you kill him, he dies to redeem; if you bury him, he rises again to bring us resurrection.

~ Charles Spurgeon, “The Pleading of the Last Messenger”

III. The Stone (12:10-12)

In Hebrew, the punch line involves a provocative pun: a story about a rejected son (‘ben’) becomes a lyric about a rejected stone (‘eben’), which then becomes the most foundational stone of all. For those with ears to hear, it is a parable about Jesus: the Son, and the Stone, who is cast aside, only to be vindicated and exalted to the place of highest honor.

~ Andrew Wilson, The God of All Things

The True Temple

The True Temple

Ian Thomas

The True Temple

Mark 11:1-25

Main Idea: Jesus’ messianic arrival invites us to exchange empty religious practice for faith and fruitfulness in him.

I. Parades and Palms (11:1-11)

The divine royalty of Jesus:

1. His sovereign authority to acquire a colt

2. The reception and praise of the people

The humility of Jesus:

1. The humility of a colt

2. The anti-climax of his arrival

Zechariah 9:9: Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion!

Shout aloud, O daughter of Jerusalem!

Behold, your king is coming to you;

righteous and having salvation is he,

humble and mounted on a donkey,

on a colt, the foal of a donkey.

“They believe that salvation means the Messiah will come and destroy the people oppressing them. They will be saved or liberated, and the oppressors will be destroyed. They expect Jesus to judge the nations and save them. They never would have expected that he would judge them and save the nations. What is missing in the story is a repentant people who realize that the true problem is not the Romans but themselves.”

~ Jason Meyer, Mark For You

II. Trees and Temples (11:12-21)

Jeremiah 7:3-11: Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: Amend your ways and your deeds, and I will let you dwell in this place. Do not trust in these deceptive words: ‘This is the temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord.’ “For if you truly amend your ways and your deeds, if you truly execute justice one with another, if you do not oppress the sojourner, the fatherless, or the widow, or shed innocent blood in this place, and if you do not go after other gods to your own harm, then I will let you dwell in this place, in the land that I gave of old to your fathers forever. “Behold, you trust in deceptive words to no avail. Will you steal, murder, commit adultery, swear falsely, make offerings to Baal, and go after other gods that you have not known, and then come and stand before me in this house, which is called by my name, and say, ‘We are delivered!’—only to go on doing all these abominations? Has this house, which is called by my name, become a den of robbers in your eyes? Behold, I myself have seen it, declares the Lord.

“In the temple you had all the leaves, you had all the externals of worship, but there was no true prayer, no belief in the great Lamb of God’s Passover, no truth, no righteousness, no love of men, no care for the glory of God; and so the temple, which had been a house of prayer, had become a den of thieves. You do not marvel that the temple was destroyed. You and I may become just like that temple. We may go on with all the externals of religions, nobody may miss us out of our seat at Tabernacle, nay, we may never miss our Christian engagements; we may be in all external matters more precise than we used to be, and yet for all that, we may have become in our hearts a den of thieves; the heart may be given to the world while external ceremonies are still kept up and maintained. Let us beware of this, for such a place cannot be long without a curse.”
~ Charles Spurgeon, Nothing But Leaves

III. Faith and Fruit (11:22-25)

John 15:5-7: I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing. If anyone does not abide in me he is thrown away like a branch and withers; and the branches are gathered, thrown into the fire, and burned. If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you.

Entering the Kingdom

Entering the Kingdom

Ian Thomas

Entering the Kingdom

Mark 10:13-31

Main Idea: We can only enter the Kingdom of God by receiving Christ’s generosity empty-handed like a child.

I. The Dependency of a Child (10:13-16)

“Children are not blessed for their virtues but for what they lack: they come only as they are—small, powerless, without sophistication, as the overlooked and dispossessed of society. To receive the kingdom of God as a child is to receive it as one who has no credits, no clout, no claims. A little child has absolutely nothing to bring, and whatever a child receives, he or she receives by grace on the basis of sheer neediness rather than by any merit inherent in himself or herself. Little children are paradigmatic disciples, for only empty hands can be filled”
~ James Edwards

II. The Trap of Riches (10:17-22)

1 Timothy 6:9-10: But those who desire to be rich fall into temptation, into a snare, into many senseless and harmful desires that plunge people into ruin and destruction. For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evils. It is through this craving that some have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many pangs.

“How do you know that money isn't just money to you? Here are some of the signs: You can't give large amounts of it away. You get scared if you might have less than you're accustomed to having. You see people who are doing better than you, even though you might have worked harder or might be a better person, and it gets under your skin. And when that happens, you have one foot in the trap. Because then money is no longer just a tool; it's the scorecard. It's your essence, your identity. No matter how much money you have, though it's not intrinsically evil, it has incredible power to keep you from God.”
~ Tim Keller

III. The Economy of the Kingdom (10:23-31)

"The entrance fee to the Christian life is nothing at all, and the annual subscription is everything you have."
~ Dick Lucas

1 Timothy 6:17–19: As for the rich in this present age, charge them not to be haughty, nor to set their hopes on the uncertainty of riches, but on God, who richly provides us with everything to enjoy. They are to do good, to be rich in good works, to be generous and ready to share, thus storing up treasure for themselves as a good foundation for the future, so that they may take hold of that which is truly life.

2 Corinthians 8:9: For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sake he became poor, so that you by his poverty might become rich.