Mark 14:46-59

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@seekHm1st> Okay folks. Let's go ahead and get started.
@seekHm1st> Welcome to the Weekly Server Meeting and Bible study
wonderbird> k
@seekHm1st> Our meeting will be brief this week.
@seekHm1st> And then we will get right into the study
@seekHm1st> I mentioned last week that I have seen several of you who are regular users here directing folks to register on the forums.
@seekHm1st> http://www.forums.christian-chat.net/
@seekHm1st> Please keep it up.
@seekHm1st> For those of you who are new here......
@seekHm1st> He said, scanning the room......
@seekHm1st> I don't see anyone who probably hasn't registered there...
@seekHm1st> But if you haven't, please do so.
@seekHm1st> As the forums and the server are now fully integrated.
<@seekHm1st> Meaning, when you register there....you will be registered here.
@seekHm1st> :)
wonderbird> am I here?
@seekHm1st> Yes
wonderbird> thanks
@seekHm1st> If any of you have any questions about how to do things
@seekHm1st> or if you are unsure about how to go to a room
@seekHm1st> or even what the room is about
@seekHm1st> Feel free to join #help
@seekHm1st> by typing /join #help
@seekHm1st> and folks there should be able to assist you.
@seekHm1st> There are lots of rooms here on the server, which have their ebb and flow through the day.......and the night
@seekHm1st> And there are also lots of opportunities to meet new believing friends..
@seekHm1st> as well as those who are very curious about a faith in Jesus Christ
@seekHm1st> So.................
@seekHm1st> take full advantage of that.
@seekHm1st> Let's go ahead and open in prayer.
@seekHm1st> oh..........
@seekHm1st> one more reminder.........
@seekHm1st> Shield should be back next week.........
@seekHm1st> And I don't think you will want to miss the study....
@seekHm1st> That's all
@seekHm1st> Just saying
@seekHm1st> :)
@seekHm1st> Father in heaven,
@seekHm1st> We lift up our hearts to You, and we ask that You would prepare them to hear what You have for us from Your word
@seekHm1st> Help us to hold it in our hearts and take it into the world that we are sojourning through
@seekHm1st> Sharing the gospel in love, and with the wisdom we need from You.
@seekHm1st> With patience, with care, and with compassion for those who do not know You.
@seekHm1st> We ask these things in Jesus
@seekHm1st> name
@seekHm1st> Amen
Aspros_Tigris> Amen
wonderbird> amen
Red> amen
Deacon> Amen
itsta43> Amen
carol> Amen
froggie> amen
@seekHm1st> Okay, for those of you who are new, we have been studying our way through the book of Mark.
@seekHm1st> Over the last several weeks we have been in chapter fourteen.
@seekHm1st> To bring you up to speed, Jesus has been in the Garden of Gethsemane, praying and waiting for the truth to become known.
@seekHm1st> He had to say the least, some very, very hard things to go through, and He had just been betrayed by one of His own.
@seekHm1st> The soldiers along with Judas had come to the garden, and no doubt, the disciples were now having no trouble staying awake.
@seekHm1st> Mark 14:46 They laid hands on Him and seized Him. 47 But one of those who stood by drew his sword, and struck the slave of the high priest and cut off his ear.
@seekHm1st> Mark 14:48 And Jesus said to them, "Have you come out with swords and clubs to arrest Me, as you would against a robber?
@seekHm1st> Mark 14:49 "Every day I was with you in the temple teaching, and you did not seize Me; but this has taken place to fulfill the Scriptures."
@seekHm1st> "Have you come out with swords and clubs to arrest Me, as you would against a robber?
@seekHm1st> Do any of you have any thoughts about why Jesus asked that question?
froggie is thinking
@seekHm1st> If anyone would like to comment, just raise your hand like so o/ and I will call on you.
@seekHm1st> He went on to say that ---"Every day I was with you in the temple teaching, and you did not seize Me;
itsta43> they were coming against Him as if He were a criminal but they knew He was not
@seekHm1st> Okay...very good point.
itsta43> He knew that they knew
@seekHm1st> When authorities are trying to arrest a robber......what usually happens?
itsta43> they use force
itsta43> ?
@seekHm1st> And why is that?
Red> 0/
@seekHm1st> Red?
itsta43> because they assume the criminal will try to resist
Red> criminals would resist arrest and Jesus would give himself willingly
@seekHm1st> Yes, thank you Red.
@seekHm1st> thank you itsta43
@seekHm1st> Jesus had taught what He knew openly.
@seekHm1st> In the temples.
@seekHm1st> Legally.
@seekHm1st> And He had no intention of doing anything illegal here either.
@seekHm1st> The disciples were probably in shock..........
@seekHm1st> Only hours before Jesus had quoted a passage in Zechariah, telling them that He would be stricken, and that they would all scatter from Him.
@seekHm1st> The time had come for those prophetic words to be proved true.
@seekHm1st> Mark 14:50 And they all left Him and fled.
@seekHm1st> Mark 14:51 A young man was following Him, wearing nothing but a linen sheet over his naked body; and they seized him.
@seekHm1st> Mark 14:52 But he pulled free of the linen sheet and escaped naked.
@seekHm1st> Last week, we looked at the way that Judas had tried to orchestrate events in his life to put Jesus in a place where he wanted Him to be.
@seekHm1st> We cannot look into Judas' heart to fully know all of what his motivation was for certain, but we do know that he was in sin.
@seekHm1st> We know that he was trying to manipulate things in order to suit himself, to serve his own will.
@seekHm1st> Had the disciple who had slashed off the ear of the high priest's servant been doing anything different?
@seekHm1st> He had been defending his friend, surely, to keep Him from dying, but did that make what he was doing the right thing to do?
@seekHm1st> Does anyone have any thoughts?
@seekHm1st> *thoughts
@seekHm1st> okay
@seekHm1st> Way back in February, we began to look at how Jesus had started to teach them all about what was now happening.
froggie> o/
@seekHm1st> froggie?
froggie> sometimes it’s hard to do the right thing I mean if someone was hurting someone I loved then my first thought would be to protect them that’s the only comment I have
@seekHm1st> Sure.
@seekHm1st> That is very relevant here.
@seekHm1st> And Jesus had warned them that He would be rejected by their religious leaders
@seekHm1st> that He would be betrayed, and that He would have to suffer many things and that ultimately after three days, He would rise again
@seekHm1st> Yet, this disciple had acted impulsively, and had drawn his sword to protect Jesus, because He thought Jesus was vulnerable.
@seekHm1st> He thought his friend needed protecting.
@seekHm1st> But he had not taken truly to heart what Jesus had talked to them about before.
@seekHm1st> He had told them that He must suffer and die.
@seekHm1st> They just did not want to hear it.
@seekHm1st> They ignored it, frankly.
@seekHm1st> Because they thought they could orchestrate the events to suit themselves.
@seekHm1st> To fit their own will.
@seekHm1st> But now it was all done. In the disciple's minds, it was all over, and most of them ran for their lives, melting into the darkness among the olive groves.
@seekHm1st> Mark 14:53 They led Jesus away to the high priest; and all the chief priests and the elders and the scribes gathered together.
@seekHm1st> Mark 14:54 Peter had followed Him at a distance, right into the courtyard of the high priest; and he was sitting with the officers and warming himself at the fire.
@seekHm1st> Mark 14:55 Now the chief priests and the whole Council kept trying to obtain testimony against Jesus to put Him to death, and they were not finding any. 56 For many were giving false testimony against Him, but their testimony was not consistent.
@seekHm1st> Mark 14:57 Some stood up and began to give false testimony against Him, saying, 58 "We heard Him say, 'I will destroy this temple made with hands, and in three days I will build another made without hands.' " 59 Not even in this respect was their testimony consistent.
@seekHm1st> I have used the words, --manipulate-- and --motivation-- throughout the last couple of studies I have given.
@seekHm1st> That is partly because of the content and context of the passages we are studying, but also because it is very relevant to all of us. I hope to make clear--- why that is as we go.
@seekHm1st> Judas tried to manipulate Jesus' place in his life. His motivation was sinful, and it served his own will, and not God's will.
@seekHm1st> The disciple who drew his sword and used it, tried to manipulate Jesus' place in his life. His motivation was also outside of God's will.
@seekHm1st> Their motivations were perhaps different...but nonetheless both were not acting with the things of God in mind.
@seekHm1st> And now, the Jewish religious leadership had a sinless man on their hands.
@seekHm1st> And they had plans for Him.
@seekHm1st> They were going to try to manipulate Jesus' place in their lives, and their motivation was completely sinful, and outside of God's will.
@seekHm1st> Their behavior was not outside of His prophecies, but it was outside of His will.
@seekHm1st> And so was their perverted sense of justice.
@seekHm1st> In front of them stood a man whose sense of justice was infinitely pure and perfectly motivated.
@seekHm1st> The only way they could convict Him of anything in their venue was to use perjured testimony.
@seekHm1st> Even at that the Scripture tells us that their stories were not even consistent with one another.
@seekHm1st> At the end of last week's study, I said that Jesus remained steadfast in His intention to concentrate on the purpose God had given to Him.
@seekHm1st> And that we should remain steadfast in that too.
@seekHm1st> If we try to manipulate Jesus' place in our lives, we aren't doing that.
@seekHm1st> If we don't check our motivation whenever we do anything for God...
@seekHm1st> if we don't compare it to Scripture, we run the risk of acting outside of God's will.
@seekHm1st> We run the risk of falling into the same trap that Judas did.
@seekHm1st> We run the risk of trying to manipulate the presence of Jesus in our lives into something other than what it should be.
@seekHm1st> I once had a customer happily invite me to attend a bachelor's party.
@seekHm1st> He told me that I should really come, because there would be 'strippers' there.
@seekHm1st> I told him that I couldn't do that, because I have someone to answer to.
@seekHm1st> A light seemed to go on and he said, "Oh yeah, you're married, aren't you?"
@seekHm1st> I told him that, Yes I was, but that was not the one I was talking about.
@seekHm1st> Now, the light really did come on, and he simply looked at me with an annoyed smirk and replied, "He knows we're human."
@seekHm1st> As if that makes watching strippers an acceptable thing to do before God.
@seekHm1st> This young man was motivated by his enjoyment of a sinful lifestyle.
@seekHm1st> He was living his life in rejection of God's will by manipulating Jesus into a place of subservience to his own will.
@seekHm1st> In his mind, he could freely parti****te in sinful practices because he had simply moved Jesus to a safe place behind himself and his own desires.
@seekHm1st> As believers, do we ever do that?
@seekHm1st> If Jesus is not first in our every consideration, then yes, we do do that.
@seekHm1st> A friend pointed out to me years ago that the only difference between himself and the unbeliever he was sharing with, was Jesus.
@seekHm1st> It made quite an impression on me as a younger believer.
@seekHm1st> I have never forgotten that.
@seekHm1st> And it has hit even more heavily home as we have made our way through these last several chapters.
@seekHm1st> Pro 3:5 Trust in the LORD with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding.
@seekHm1st> Pro 3:6 In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths.
@seekHm1st> God is consistent.
@seekHm1st> He is steadfast.
@seekHm1st> He was even steadfast in the garden....
@seekHm1st> Waiting....praying...
@seekHm1st> Obedient.
@seekHm1st> I think we will leave it right there for tonight.
@seekHm1st> Let's close in prayer.
@seekHm1st> Father, we ask that You would make us the men and women,
@seekHm1st> the followers of Christ that You would have us to be.
@seekHm1st> That You would help us, because we cannot do it in and of ourselves.
@seekHm1st> Of our own strength
@seekHm1st> and help us to remember that You do not want us to
@seekHm1st> Make us thankful, and obedient
@seekHm1st> Help us to order our lives....
@seekHm1st> by giving the ordering of them, to You
@seekHm1st> Keep us steadfastly in Your will
@seekHm1st> Take all thoughts of manipulation out of our hearts...
@seekHm1st> and search us Lord
@seekHm1st> change our hearts
@seekHm1st> and make them seek after Your will in all things.
@seekHm1st> In Jesus' name,
@seekHm1st> Amen
Aspros_Tigris> Amen
Deacon> Amen
Red> amen
carol> Amen
froggie> amen
Yakov> amen