Untitled Sermon (10)

A young girl had just taken her grandmother to the optometrist. She would be blind in 2 years and would not be able to get her drivers license renewed.

A young man had just graduated bible college in the mist of the worst recession.

Much of life seems unexplained. We face challenges that seem unexplainable. Maybe you are facing one right now. In fact that is one of the greatest philosophical questions is “why are we here.”

I believe a little story in Marks Gospel can help us answer that.

Story

There was an official notice out for Jesus arrest. John 11:57

John 11:57 CSB

The chief priests and the Pharisees had given orders that if anyone knew where he was, he should report it so that they could arrest him.

The Chief Priests and the scribes are looking high and low for Jesus. They have even worked out at behind closed doors deal with Judas where they will give him money if he can find the right opportunity to betray his Rabbi to them.

The rest of the 12 disciples did not as of yet know this. Only Jesus knows and He only knows because He knows all things.

The disciples have other concerns. Like always they want to know when they are going to eat.

Christian Standard Bible Chapter 14

Where do you want us to go and prepare the Passover so that you may eat it?”

The Bible Knowledge Commentary 14:12

Since the Passover meal had to be eaten within Jerusalem’s walls, the disciples asked Jesus where He wanted them to go and make preparations (cf. v. 16) for the meal.

They could not leave Jerusalem even though all around people are looking for Jesus.

Now, I am the kind of person who does not think that anything happens on accident.

And how Jesus answers His disciples confirms this for me once again.

They wanted to know where to prepare the passover and He only sends two not all of the 12. There are 2 who are chosen.

and He tells them to look for a man carrying a jar of water.

The Bible Knowledge Commentary 14:13–15

A man carrying a jar of water would meet the two disciples, presumably near the eastern gate. This unusual, eye-catching sight suggests that it was a prearranged signal because normally only women carried water jars (men carried wineskins).

So this is very specific.

Read the red letter text.

Can you imagine being the disciples and wondering if the man would really be there. The suspense of looking for him?

The Bible Knowledge Commentary (14:16)

14:16. Presumably preparing the Passover meal involved roasting the lamb, setting out the unleavened bread and wine, and preparing bitter herbs along with a sauce made of dried fruit moistened with vinegar and wine and combined with spices.

Some say this is a miracle and that God supernaturally directed the men to be there and the home to become available by divine intervention. Like maybe the man caring the water was an angel and not a human.

However most scholars say that this man was secrete disciple and that these details were prearranged by Jesus

Jesus had many secret disciples remember the story of Nicodemus.

It is very possible that Mark who wrote this gospel and his mother and father as we will see in a minute were also secret disciples.

At any rate everyone in the story was there for a reason. Jesus had set up a reason of them to be where they were. The timing and the details were all God arranged.

God directed them to this room too because it also had a God ordained purpose. This would not only be the scene of the last supper but also of Pentecost and a place where the 1st Christian would meet after the resurrection. That is why we think that Marks mother and father were secret disciples. Maybe his dad was the one carrying the water jug.

You see there are not accidents. God has a reason for everything.

Question: Do you believe in divine appointments?

Story of the roster oven.

If you are a Christian and you don’t believe in divine appointments like why not… That makes no sense to me. Why not. If you believe in God surely you have to believe in divine appointments.

Finish the story about the girl and the boy and the census.

So why are you here?

Joke Mark Twain .... Because you paid 70 bucks for a ticket.

God has you here today for a reason and a purpose. That difficulty in your life right not God has a reason for that. The sooner you discover that reason they greater impact you can have in helping others with their difficulties.

1 Corinthians 13:12 CSB

For now we see only a reflection as in a mirror, but then face to face. Now I know in part, but then I will know fully, as I am fully known.

The KJV renders it “For now we see through a glass, darkly; but then face to face: now I know in part; but then shall I know even as also I am known.”

Some day when we see Jesus face to face all the smoke and mirrors of this world will make sense.

Everything happens for a reason. People may says there is not rhyme or reason… God says the rhyme and the reason is ME.