"While they were eating, He took some bread, and after a blessing He broke it, and gave it to them, and said, "Take it; this is My body." And when He had taken a cup and given thanks, He gave it to them, and they all drank from it. And He said to them, "This is My blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many. Truly I say to you, I will never again drink of the fruit of the vine until that day when I drink it new in the kingdom of God."
After singing a hymn, they went out to the Mount of Olives.
And Jesus *said to them, "You will all fall away, because it is written, ‘I will strike down the shepherd, and the sheep shall be scattered.’ But after I have been raised, I will go ahead of you to Galilee." But Peter said to Him, "Even though all may fall away, yet I will not." And Jesus *said to him, "Truly I say to you, that this very night, before a rooster crows twice, you yourself will deny Me three times." But Peter kept saying insistently, "Even if I have to die with You, I will not deny You!" And they all were saying the same thing also."
Good Morning my beloved,
We are living in a time, where many people who profess to be followers of Christ, they identify themselves as Christians, have willingly chosen to compromise God's Word, redefining God's Word rather than to be
labeled as hateful and intolerant, or a bigot, identifying themselves
with the world, essentially rejecting God's Word, buying into the rhetoric of an "alternative" reality, that people are the
gender they prefer rather than the biological sex assigned at birth. I suppose that we all want to be liked. In fact, it has never been my goal in life to be disliked. However, it is absolutely incomprehensible to me to think that I would ever even consider compromising God's life-saving Truth in order to be liked. While hatred and discrimination has no place in our nation, neither does redefining or compromising Scripture in order to make it more palatable, more acceptable, or more tolerable whether to believers or to unbelievers. It is a subtle, deceptive, and damning dereliction of our duty as Christians. Scripture is very clear about the dangers of corrupting God’s Word, it is immeasurably more dangerous than denying Christ, because it gives the appearance of leading people to Christ while actually damning them to Hell. In Matthew 23:13, Jesus condemned the false religious leaders saying "But woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, because you shut off the kingdom of heaven from people; for you do not enter in yourselves, nor do you allow those who are entering to go in."
Our responsibility as Christians goes well beyond merely abstaining from the "deeds of darkness," we are also called to expose them and deal with them biblically. Failure to speak out against such damning heresy in Truth is to help promote it. In Matthew 18, our Lord says "If your brother sins, go and show him his fault in private; if he listens to you, you have won your brother. But if he does not listen to you, take one or two more with you, so that by the mouth of two or three witnesses every fact may be confirmed. If he refuses to listen to them, tell it to the church; and if he refuses to listen even to the church, let him be to you as a Gentile and a tax collector." Yet, there are many professing Christians who are not only content to cover their ears in the spirit of "keeping the peace," but even defend such false Christianity, disobeying the clear commands of Scripture. 2 John 1:9-11 says "Anyone who goes too far and does
not abide in the teaching of Christ, does not have God; the one who
abides in the teaching, he has both the Father and the Son. If anyone comes to you and does not bring this teaching, do not receive him into your house, and do not give him a greeting; for the one who gives him a greeting participates in his evil deeds." One of the greatest tragedies of our day is to minimize, normalize sin, even making it an acceptable behavior rather than a damning offense to God. Scripture is very clear, unconfessed sin, unrepentant sin, unforgiven sin is a rebellion against God, worthy of eternal punishment. Those who practice habitual sin, who make excuses for their sin, reveal they have no desire to obey God and are not Christians, regardless of what they claim, they are of the devil. 1 John 3:10, "By this the children of God and the children of the devil are obvious: anyone who does not practice righteousness is not of God, nor the one who does not love his brother."
To
you claim that you believe in Christ, that you are a follower of
Christ, while living in contrast with His teaching is irrational and a blatant ignorance of the Truth. 1 John 1:6, "If we say that we have fellowship
with Him and yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not practice the
truth." It is the lack of godly leadership, speaking damning lies as if it
were God's Truth, going beyond the clear boundaries that God has set in His
Word, a defection
from the call to ministry is to produce godly people, that has lead to the
church into defection, the people of God to stray from His Truth, and the devastation we're witnessing today. When a church compromises Scripture in order to appease a sinful and rebellious world, whether fornication, adultery, homosexuality, transgenderism or pedophilia, it contradicts the biblical mandate to repent of that sin. The doctrine of repentance is about conversion, a completely changed way of living. Impenitent sinners has no place in the kingdom of God. As faithfully preachers of the Word, it is our responsibility to identify all sin as sin, while lovingly and compassionately calling those caught in its damning trap to repent and turn away from it and believe in the Lord Jesus Christ.
Let us pray
Heavenly Father,
In His Name we ask and pray.
Amen
Today's Message: This Changes Everything
Open your Bibles with me, if you would, to the Gospel of Mark. Mark 14:22-31. I trust you will follow along with me as I read to set the text in our minds as as we listen to hear what the Spirit of God has to say to us today. Mark 14:22-31.
"While they were eating, He took some bread, and after a blessing He broke it, and gave it to them, and said, "Take it; this is My body." And when He had taken a cup and given thanks, He gave it to them, and they all drank from it. And He said to them, "This is My blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many. Truly I say to you, I will never again drink of the fruit of the vine until that day when I drink it new in the kingdom of God."
After singing a hymn, they went out to the Mount of Olives.
And Jesus *said to them, "You will all fall away, because it is written, ‘I will strike down the shepherd, and the sheep shall be scattered.’ But after I have been raised, I will go ahead of you to Galilee." But Peter said to Him, "Even though all may fall away, yet I will not." And Jesus *said to him, "Truly I say to you, that this very night, before a rooster crows twice, you yourself will deny Me three times." But Peter kept saying insistently, "Even if I have to die with You, I will not deny You!" And they all were saying the same thing also."
Let's look at verse 22, "While they were eating, He took some bread, and after a blessing He broke it, and gave it to them, and said, "Take it; this is My body." The elements of bread and wine used to represent the body and blood of Christ, it is a remembrance and nothing more. This contradicts the blasphemous practice of the Roman Catholic Church, the unbiblical system of repeated sacrifices for the atonement for sin, in which the elements of the bread and the wine are supposedly transformed into the actual body in the hands of the priest and blood of Christ, which the priest drinks for everybody because you might spill it, called transubstantiation, denying His singular sacrifice as satisfying the justice of God, perverting His finished work on the cross. Penance and good works can never atone for sins.
In the Passover meal, breaking the unleavened bread was symbolic of breaking free from Egypt. After thanking God for the provision of bread for this wonderful feast
symbolizing His deliverance, He broke the bread, first because it had to
be broken to be distributed, but more importantly, He is reminding them
that His body would soon have to suffer tremendously at the
crucifixion. When we say that His body is broken, it means that He suffered terrible physical pain and damage to His body. Breaking the bread isn’t symbolic of the literal breaking of His
body, as some have suggested, because not one bone of His body was broken. It was
symbolic of new life accomplished by His death, burial and resurrection.
Verses 23-24, "And when He had taken a cup and given thanks, He gave it to them, and they all drank from it. And He said to them, "This is My blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many." Jesus is reminding His disciples that blood has to be spilled to pay for sins, it does not mean that the wine is literally transformed into His blood. Elsewhere in the Bible, Jesus said that He was living water, that doesn’t mean that Jesus is literally water. Again, this symbolic, it is an illustration. The cup of blessing in
the Passover now becomes cup of the Lord in the new feast, the wine was
symbolic, as a graphic illustration of spilled blood that He would soon
shed for the forgiveness of sins. There was nothing in the chemistry of
His blood to save us. Scripture clearly teaches that sin must be paid for with a blood shedding death. Hebrews 9:22, "And according to the Law, one may almost say, all things are cleansed with blood, and without shedding of blood there is no forgiveness." The Lord's Supper is to be physically celebrated, yet it must be spiritually understood.
The apostle Paul, reinforced this in 1 Corinthians 11:23-25, "For I received from the Lord that which I also delivered to you, that the Lord Jesus in the night in which He was betrayed took bread; and when He had given thanks, He broke it and said, "This is My body, which is for you; do this in remembrance of Me." In the same way He took the cup also after supper, saying, "This cup is the new covenant in My blood; do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of Me." From the beginning, shedding blood was God’s requirement to establish a covenant. Through His shed blood, Christ offers a life-saving covenant, which promises forgiveness of sin, salvation, regeneration, a new life. The Lord's Table is intended to remind us of the new covenant. By the way, a covenant is an agreement between two parties, keeping His commandments is our part of the agreement. We do not get to change the terms of our salvation, we either accept them or reject them.
Verse 25, "Truly I say to you, I will never again drink of the fruit of the vine until that day when I drink it new in the kingdom of God." Today we celebrate the Lord's Table until He comes in remembrance of God's amazing love for unworthy sinners, now a people who stand in His grace. When He comes and sets up His kingdom, we will be rejoined together and celebrate with Him! What an amazing hope. I believe that we must also remember that in Christ, we are one body in
Christ, we are a family. I've encountered a number of Christians, who
don't understand that. They fail to live out the true fellowship we have
in Christ. We're not to be divided but united in Christ, there's no separation of class in His Kingdom!
Verse 26, "After singing a hymn, they went out to the Mount of Olives."I n the Greek, it literally says they hymned. They probably sung Psalm 136 as their final hymn after they celebrated the institution of the Lord’s Supper. You see the beauty and the magnanimity in the New Covenant, our forgiveness is found in Jesus and His sacrifice on the cross, it has nothing to
do with what we deserve, it's has everything to do with what God graciously
gives based on the finished work of Jesus Christ. That's why we give thanks to God Who has been so gracious to us.
Verse 27, "And Jesus *said to them, "You will all fall away, because it is written, ‘I will strike down the shepherd, and the sheep shall be scattered." Jesus is quoting a prophecy from Zechariah 13:7, pointing out to us that prophecy is still being fulfilled, "Awake, O sword, against My Shepherd, and against the man, My Associate," Declares the Lord of hosts. "Strike the Shepherd that the sheep may be scattered; And I will turn My hand against the little ones." It certainly must be applied to the apostles, because that’s how Jesus applies it, they're the first to be scattered. But I believe it extends beyond the apostles and the early church, because God allows persecution to continue even today for the sake of the purity of the church. Superficial believers will abandon Christ, and fall away from the Christian faith for fear of persecution, they're not willing to give their lives for the sake of the Gospel. Scripture indicates that there will be a great apostasy during the end times, when it will become dangerous to be associated with Christ. We're already beginning to see that today, aren't we? Obviously, this is very traumatizing for the disciples, they who had been inseparable for three years, to hear that they will scatter from Him, it would happen, this very night, in a few hours, Jesus knew it was coming. Sadly, there are still many over confident believers, overestimating their love for Christ today, they're not prepared to confront their weakness. When the rubber meets the road, many will choose to save themselves. I believe the profound lesson here is none of us our immune, we can't face the enemy in own strength no matter how strong, or
how faithful, we think we are, when the chips are down, our courage will fail. True strength is born out of a recognition of our weakness.
2 Corinthians 12:10, "Therefore I am well content with weaknesses, with insults, with distresses, with persecutions, with difficulties, for Christ’s sake; for when I am weak, then I am strong."
Verse 28, "But after I have been raised, I will go ahead of you to Galilee." What a glorious truth, even though they will all fall away but they're going to be brought back together after His resurrection, except for Judas, of course. I believe that we would do well to remember, that even when it looks like the end, it's not! This passage puts Jesus' promise on display, "I will never desert you, nor will I ever forsake you."
In John 14:3, Jesus said, "If I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to Myself, that where I am, there you may be also."
Verse 29, "But Peter said to Him, "Even though all may fall away, yet I will not." You've really got to hand it to Peter, he just can't seem to help himself from blurting things out, in fact, he's got quite a history of it. I guess that's why he commonly referred to as the "disciple with the foot shaped mouth." He's so consistent, so clear in his convictions, that he refuses to accept that he would ever be too ashamed of Jesus to be identified with Him. That's the gift of humility, isn't it? Humility is characteristic of a true follower of Christ, one who knows himself as he truly is, not as he thinks himself to be. I believe it was Augustine who said, "If you plan to build a tall house of virtues, you must first lay deep foundations of humility." Peter often gets a bad rap for saying what everybody else is thinking but afraid to say, but I believe his heart is in the right place. I believe Satan really loves to mess with Peter, or anyone who is unwilling to recognize their flaws. The lack of humility and awareness of the desperate need for God has made its way into the church, it's lost the true mission of saving souls and rescuing them from Hell, and become more concerned with making sinners are more comfortable, while people are literally drowning in their sin. Later, in the Garden of Gethsemane, Jesus put His finger to the problem; "Keep watching and praying that you may not enter into temptation; the spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak." In the face of temptation, desire and determination are not enough, we need to depend on God through prayer. I've learned throughout the years, I'm weak, I desperately need His help. John Bunyan rightly said, "Prayer will make a man cease from sin, or sin will entice a man to cease from prayer."
Verse 30, "And Jesus *said to him, "Truly I say to you, that this very night, before a rooster crows twice, you yourself will deny Me three times." In chapter 22, Luke records Jesus said, "Simon, Simon, behold, Satan has demanded permission to sift you like wheat; but I have prayed for you, that your faith may not fail; and you, when once you have turned again, strengthen your brothers." Notice Jesus called him by his old name Simon, rather than his new name, Peter. Jesus knew Peter cannot withstand the test that is soon coming. Peter is certainly not the only one, we could literally go on and on about the failures of God’s people, even David failed as both a husband and a father. He coveted another
man’s wife and in
that committed adultery and murder. His relationships with his sons and
daughters are full of strife and deceit.Yet, he is still said to be a man
after God’s heart, not because of his failures, but his willingness and
seek God’s forgiveness. Scripture repeatedly emphasizes that repentance is necessary for forgiveness and salvation, yet we hear so little about it in the church today.
That brings us to verse 31, "But Peter kept saying insistently, "Even if I have to die with You, I will not deny You!” And they all were saying the same thing also." In keeping with his familiar old impulsive nature, once again, we see the persistent proud confidence of Peter. Luke tells us Peter said to Him, "Lord, with You I am ready to go both to prison and to death!" Peter thought he was strong to resist the temptations that were coming from Satan himself. That’s a very dangerous overestimation of one's own spiritual strength. Proverbs 16:18, "Pride goes before destruction, And a haughty spirit before stumbling." And Proverbs 29:23, "A man’s pride will bring him low, but a humble spirit will obtain honor." Satan has always attempted to shatter saving faith, hasn't he? But he can’t do it, without permission. This is only a momentary failure of faith, not a terminal defection like Judas. What made the difference was Jesus praying for Peter that his faith may not fail, so that when he was restored, he would strengthen the brethren. We are protected from permanent defection through the intercessory prayers of our Lord that by His grace our faith would not fail.
I've often been asked about those who fall into apostasy. In 1 John 2:19, John gives us the answer, "They went out from us, but they were not really of us; for if they had been of us, they would have remained with us; but they went out, so that it would be shown that they all are not of us." True Christians do not apostatize, they hold fast to the faith from the beginning to the end. God uses false teachers to infiltrate the church, to attract those who are not real to purge the church, those who follow them are not real Christians, defection is the clear evidence of superficial faith. Paul warns in 2 Timothy 4:3-4, "For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but wanting to have their ears tickled, they will accumulate for themselves teachers in accordance to their own desires, and will turn away their ears from the truth and will turn aside to myths." Those who are drawn to false teachers, can't handle the Truth, they have the wrong view of Christ. So instead of bringing them to repentance, it produces the opposite effect, they'll become hostile, verbally attacking the messenger, assaulting the Word by challenging or they leave the church and run to find someone that will tell them what they want to hear according to their own desires.
In 2 John 1, John says "If anyone comes to you and does not bring this teaching, do not receive him into your house, and do not give him a greeting; for the one who gives him a greeting participates in his evil deeds." Listen, I take that literally, I cannot say anything nice to false teachers who are trying to deceive, I don’t care how likable they are. Scripture clearly commands that I lovingly and confidently confront them with the Truth, and call them to repentance. If you deny the true Gospel, if you not abide in the teaching of Christ, I don't care what you affirm, if you reject any part of it, you're antichrist, a worker of Satan! In Matthew 12:30, Jesus said, "He who is not with Me is against Me; and he who does not gather with Me scatters." I believe that's pretty obvious, and I refuse to become a partaker in their evil enterprise. We have to separate ourselves from deceivers and false teachers, they are nothing but antichrists reserved for the day of judgment. Guard yourselves so that you don't carried away by the error of unprincipled men.
May it be so..
And now may the Lord bless you and keep you;
the Lord make His face shine upon you,
And be gracious to you;
The Lord lift up His countenance upon you,
And give you peace.
Now and forever, in Jesus' name
Amen
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