Friend or Foe
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As we come to Mark 14-16, we have come to the most important event in all of history. These next chapters focus solely upon the Cross of Calvary and Resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ. The cross is the central theme of Scripture from Genesis to Revelation.
Jesus’ substitutionary death is foreshadowed throughout the Old Testament: in the promised deliverer of Genesis 3:15; in the animal God killed to provide a covering for Adam and Eve (3:21); in the acceptable sacrifice offered by Abel (4:4); in the ram caught in a thicket that took Isaac’s place on Mt. Moriah (22:13); in the Passover lambs that were slain in Egypt (Ex. 12:6); in the entire system of Levitical sacrifices (cf. Heb. 10:1–13); in the bronze serpent lifted up in the wilderness for healing (Num. 21:8–9; cf. John 3:14–15); and in the concept of the kinsman-redeemer (cf. Ruth 4:14).
The cross remains central in the New Testament, where it is the focus of all four Gospels. The book of Acts is the proclamation of the cross throughout the world, from Jerusalem and Judea to Samaria and the ends of the earth (Acts 1:8). The Epistles are saturated with the theology of the cross and its practical implications for believers (cf. 1 Cor. 1:17–18; Gal. 6:14; Eph. 2:16; Col. 2:14; Heb. 12:2; 1 Peter 2:24, etc.). The book of Revelation looks back to Calvary, portraying the Lord Jesus as the perfect Lamb who was slain to make redemption possible by His blood (5:6, 12; cf. 13:8).
MacArthur, J. (2015). Mark 9–16 (p. 267). Moody Publishers.MacArthur, J. (2015).
This morning we are going to begin with the final Passover and Feast of Unleavened Bread. This is the most important celebration of the Jewish people. And in this final feast we will find those who are the Friends or Foes of Jesus.
Text: Mark 14:1-11
1 After two days it was the Passover and the Feast of Unleavened Bread. And the chief priests and the scribes sought how they might take Him by trickery and put Him to death.
2 But they said, “Not during the feast, lest there be an uproar of the people.”
3 And being in Bethany at the house of Simon the leper, as He sat at the table, a woman came having an alabaster flask of very costly oil of spikenard. Then she broke the flask and poured it on His head.
4 But there were some who were indignant among themselves, and said, “Why was this fragrant oil wasted?
5 For it might have been sold for more than three hundred denarii and given to the poor.” And they criticized her sharply.
6 But Jesus said, “Let her alone. Why do you trouble her? She has done a good work for Me.
7 For you have the poor with you always, and whenever you wish you may do them good; but Me you do not have always.
8 She has done what she could. She has come beforehand to anoint My body for burial.
9 Assuredly, I say to you, wherever this gospel is preached in the whole world, what this woman has done will also be told as a memorial to her.”
10 Then Judas Iscariot, one of the twelve, went to the chief priests to betray Him to them.
11 And when they heard it, they were glad, and promised to give him money. So he sought how he might conveniently betray Him.
1. The Passover; 1-2
1. The Passover; 1-2
The Passover/Feast of Unleavened Bread was a time of thanksgiving for God’s deliverance of the Hebrews from Egyptian bondage (Exod 12). This was the Jewish “Independence Day”. It included the slaughter of the Passover lamb, whose blood on the doorpost 1,400 years earlier had caused the “death angel” to pass over each home where he saw it, sparing the life of the firstborn in that family. [Pictures Christ substitutionary death for mans sin]
The Passover was observed on the 14th day of the first month which is the Jewish month Nisan and corresponds to our April.
5 On the fourteenth day of the first month at twilight is the Lord’s Passover.
The Feast of Unleavened Bread started on the 15th of the same month and lasted for 7 days.
6 And on the fifteenth day of the same month is the Feast of Unleavened Bread to the Lord; seven days you must eat unleavened bread.
Two things are relevant about these verses.
God’s time table for His Son to be sacrificed for the sins of mankind was going to take place exactly when He appointed it. This would be in two days from that long Monday Jesus had, making it a Wednesday the day of Jesus’ crucifixion.
40 For as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the great fish, so will the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.
2. In a time where the religious leaders should be leading the people in praise and
thanksgiving to God they were devising a plan of how to kill Jesus. Though their
motives are evil, God can use that plan of evil to promote His good, salvation!
20 But as for you, you meant evil against me; but God meant it for good, in order to bring it about as it is this day, to save many people alive.
2. Friends; 3, 6-8
2. Friends; 3, 6-8
Friend is a word used too loosely today. The word has two different definitions scripture.
[Rea’] casual acquaintances such as work associates, neighbors or those you come in contact with publicly but not privately.
[‘Ahab] one who loves and is committed to you regardless of circumstances
Jesus was with friends [‘ahab] in Bethany having a meal with them.
Simon the Leper- we really know nothing about him except that he opened his house to feed Jesus and fellowship. More than likely he was a man who had been healed by Jesus of leprosy, he was clean, but the name stuck with him.
Friends fellowship in eating a meal together. Having someone eat with you in that culture was to consider them a part of your family. I believe a large part of ministry building is taking time to fellowship with one another at the dinner table.
20 Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and dine with him, and he with Me.
Friends are people who know all the bad about us and love us anyway. Jesus ignored the stigma of leprosy and loved this man. We need to ignore the stigma’s placed on people in society and love them as Christ does. [woman in adultery]
11 For there is no partiality with God.
11 She said, “No one, Lord.” And Jesus said to her, “Neither do I condemn you; go and sin no more.”
A Woman- some believe this is Mary the sister of Martha [ref. John 12]. Whoever she is she considered Jesus her friend and she showed him thanks in an act of sacrificial love by anointing His head with oil.
Within that flask was a substance called “spikenard”, or just “nard”. It is a red-tinted ointment that is drawn from a plant that grows in India. It was a perfume that was used in the embalming process. It was so expensive that only the very wealthy could afford to purchase it. We are told in verse 5 that it was worth “300 pence”. This is a year’s pay for the average worker. In today’s economy, this gift was worth around $20,000.000. It was an extravagant gift which made it a sacrificial gift.
This woman took the most precious thing she had and gave it to Jesus in the most significant way, in an act of anointing. The oil used for anointing the head cost only a mite, the smallest coin in circulation. But the oil she used was the oil used by kings, and they used it only drop by drop. This woman emptied her flask to anoint the King of Kings!
This woman placed the value of her friend Jesus, above the value of everything else in her life. We can learn from her act of love!
Are we totally committed to Jesus in extravagant love and worship?
Is Jesus more valuable to us than the things we possess in life?
Have we reached a place in our walk with Jesus where we no longer care what others think about us? [v. 4, wasted]
Are we willing to suffer shame if it brings Jesus glory? [v.5, criticized]
[6-8] Jesus rebuked those who troubled this woman for she had done a “good” work for Him.
The word Christ used for good is not agathos which speaks of moral goodness, excellent benevolence [God]. He chose to use the word kalos which means coming from an attitude of love, being appealing and pleasant. She anointed Him for burial.
8 For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God,
9 not of works, lest anyone should boast.
10 For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them.
Friends act on others behalf, out of love!
3. Foe’s; 10-11
3. Foe’s; 10-11
Foe- enemy or opponent. In this setting there are three groups that are foe’s. The religious leaders in v.1, the indignant disciples in v. 4-5, and Judas in v.10-11.
Religious leaders- they hated Jesus and wanted Him dead because He was diminishing their power over the people, destroying their profits from the temple merchants and exposed them as the hypocrites they really were.
Indignant Disciples- feeling or showing anger or annoyance at what is perceived as unfair treatment: There may have been more than Judas that felt this way. They felt the money could have been used in a better way.
Jesus could have fed the five thousand with two hundred denari. Here are three hundred denari … no wonder the disciples sitting there saying, “Why all this waste?” [When we as christians begin to earmark anything we give to the Lord’s ministry at Westview, we become indignant to the work of ministry as a whole and a foe of God]
10 Bring all the tithes into the storehouse, That there may be food in My house, And try Me now in this,” Says the Lord of hosts, “If I will not open for you the windows of heaven And pour out for you such blessing That there will not be room enough to receive it.
Judas Iscariot- Why did Judas offer to betray Jesus? Why did this man who walked with Jesus for 3 1/2 years become his enemy/foe? Suggestions have been made, each of which may contain an element of truth:
(1) Judas, the only non-Galilean member of the Twelve, he may have responded to the official notice. Iscariot possibly refers to Kerioth a town in Moab.
57 Now both the chief priests and the Pharisees had given a command, that if anyone knew where He was, he should report it, that they might seize Him.
(2) He was disillusioned by Jesus’ failure to establish a political kingdom and his hopes for material gain seemed doomed.
(3) His love for money moved him to salvage something for himself.
6 This he said, not that he cared for the poor, but because he was a thief, and had the money box; and he used to take what was put in it.
(4) Ultimately he came under satanic control.
2 And supper being ended, the devil having already put it into the heart of Judas Iscariot, Simon’s son, to betray Him,
27 Now after the piece of bread, Satan entered him. Then Jesus said to him, “What you do, do quickly.”
Since Jesus died for the sins of man, it is the choice of man to either be a friend or foe of Jesus. Divine sovereignty is the act of God’s grace towards man in salvation through Jesus Christ, but human responsibility is the choice of man in either submitting to that grace or rejecting it.
Unfortunately Judas made a bad choice!
Close:
According to the choices we make in life is how we will be remembered when we’re gone.
This woman made a choice of sacrificial love towards Jesus and He said;
9 Assuredly, I say to you, wherever this gospel is preached in the whole world, what this woman has done will also be told as a memorial to her.”
Judas made a choice to betray the Lord Jesus and it is said of him by Jesus;
21 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 never been born.”
We all have a choice to make today concerning Jesus. We can choose to be a friend that loves, worships and fellowships with the Savior or we can choose to be His foe!