Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Speaker A: Foreign
[00:00:04] Speaker B: welcome to Hope for Today, a weekly Bible teaching program that will bring you hope for every day.
Thank you for being there and looking into the Word of God with us. The timeless, unchanging Word of God. Think about the many people die down through the ages who have studied these same stories. It is amazing and very humbling to think about.
Today we continue our study in the Book of Mark. If you can turn to mark 14. Our title is Desire and Destiny and we will look at verses 1 to 16.
The teaching will be divided into two sections. Today we will look at the first two examples of desire and destiny from this passage, and then next time we will look at the last two. JMarc is here to teach today's lesson as he reads these verses. See if you notice the four examples of desire and how it affected their destiny. I'll give you a hint. Two of them are good desires and the other two are not good.
[00:01:11] Speaker A: Human desire is a powerful motivating force. It can be used for good and it can be used for evil.
If you want something badly enough, you'll find a way to get it. You'll find a way to pay the price.
Proverbs 13:19 says, A desire fulfilled is sweet to the soul.
All of us know the truth of that statement.
You see, God created you and me with desires. Desires for food, desires for companionship, for intimacy, for acceptance, and for many other things.
And these desires are good because God didn't make anything bad.
Sin comes when we take a natural desire or a longing or an ambition, and we try desperately to fulfill it without God.
Not only is it a sin, but a perverse distortion of God's image in us.
All of these good things and all of our security are found only in and completely in Him. Um, how you and I deal with our desires can set in motion consequences that change our lives for today and also affect our eternal destiny.
Desire and destiny are closely linked.
In our study of mark chapter 14, we'll observe and contrast the desires of several people, and we will also examine the destiny of those desires produce.
Therefore, I've titled our study Desire and Destiny, and the text will reinforce the linkage between those two.
So listen carefully as I read Mark, chapter 14, verses 1 through 16.
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 Jesus by trickery and and put him to death.
But they said, not during the feast, lest there be an uproar of the people.
And being in Bethany at the House of Simon the Leper. As he reclined 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.
But some were indignant among themselves and said, why was this fragrant oil wasted? For it might have been sold for more than 300 denarii and given to the poor.
And they criticized her sharply.
But Jesus said, let her alone. Why do you trouble her? She has done a good work for me. For you have the poor with you always. And whenever you wish, you may do them good, but me you do not have. Always she has done what she could. She has come beforehand to anoint my body for burial.
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.
Then Judas Iscariot, one of the 12, went to the chief priests to betray Jesus to them.
And when they heard it, they were glad and promised to give him money.
So he sought how he might conveniently betray him.
Now, on the first day of unleavened bread, when they killed the Passover lamb, his disciples said to him, where do you want us to go and prepare that you may eat the Passover?
And he sent out two of his disciples and said to them, go into the city, and a man will meet you carrying a pitcher of water.
Follow him wherever he goes in.
Say to the master of the house, the teacher says, where is the guest room in which I may eat the Passover with my disciples?
Then he will show you a large upper room, furnished and prepared there. Make ready for us.
So his disciples went out and came into the city and found it just as he had said to them, and they prepared the Passover.
Our text provides several illustrations of the relationship between desire and destiny. The illustrations will help you and me to examine our desires and the destiny to which they will lead us.
The first illustration is the desire of the leaders.
Our text notes that the feast of unleavened bread, called the Passover, was drawing near.
The Passover was celebrated on the first day of the eight days of unleavened bread.
And those terms were often used interchangeably.
This was a feast in Israel's religious calendar that was obligatory. And so Jerusalem at this time was jammed with pilgrims.
The chief priests and the scribes were looking for a way to kill Jesus.
Their hatred of him had been growing almost from the very beginning of his ministry.
Mark, uh, chapter three records the healing of the man with the withered hand. In the synagogue on the sabbath day. And after that miracle, verse 6 says this. The Pharisees went out and immediately held counsel with the Herodians against him. How to destroy him.
Now, when someone has such a deeply rooted hatred toward another person and a desire to destroy them, then we must ask, why? What's the reason?
These men were supposedly the leaders of Israel's spiritual life, and yet many of them were morally and spiritually bankrupt.
They were more interested in maintaining their position than they were in defending the truth.
Their grip on power, their status, and their wealth depended on their submission to Rome.
Jesus pointed out the hypocrisy of their attention to the smallest details of the law. While they ignored the true intent of the law, they knew they could not peacefully coexist with Jesus.
When Jesus ministry drew large crowds, they became jealous.
When Jesus entered Jerusalem in triumph just a few days before the passover, Luke records that these leaders sullenly declared, you see that you are accomplishing nothing. Look, the world has gone after him.
These leaders wanted to maintain their position of power and influence, and. And they would accept no opposition, even if that meant putting an innocent man to death. The Son of God, no less.
However, their intense desire brought an inescapable destiny.
Jesus warned in Luke 9:24 25, for whoever desires to save his life will lose it. But whoever loses his life for my sake will save it. What profit is it to a man if he gains the whole world and is himself destroyed or lost?
Do you know any religious leaders today who sacrifice truth to maintain their position?
I know people whose reputations have unjustly been crucified to protect the reputations of leaders who are hiding personal sin or in their leadership team.
Other leaders have used slander and false accusations to defame character and divide congregations, even families, all in an attempt to preserve the, uh, appearance of godliness and to preserve their position.
But that will not stand.
Like these men in our text, they may preserve their position and power for now, but ultimately God will bring judgment.
I want to avoid such people's destiny at all costs, and I hope you do, too.
As the religious leaders continued seeking a way to kill Jesus, their desire would seal their destiny.
This also starkly contrasts with the following example of desire and destiny.
The second illustration of desire and destiny is the devotion of Mary.
What a dramatic change in the narrative from the scheming treachery of the religious leaders to an act of pure and lavish devotion.
Interestingly, this appears to be a flashback to the previous sabbath recorded in John chapter 12, because there, as Jesus reclined at the table. This woman entered the house. John tells us it was Mary, the sister of Martha and Lazarus. She broke the seal on the flask of costly perfume and poured the contents over Jesus head.
If this were Mary, then this may have been an act of thanksgiving to Jesus for raising her brother from the dead.
Anointing a guest's head was a common way to honor someone at a very festive occasion.
But typically you would use perfume or cologne a little bit. But what did she do? She emptied the bottle.
And we know today that nard, also called spikenard, is a spice taken from a plant that grows in the Himalayan areas of India, Nepal and China.
Now, isn't it interesting how someone's extreme devotion to God often makes us uncomfortable and critical?
So when Mary does this, the disciples are indignant. They're angry. They're huffing and puffing in their self righteousness.
Why was this perfume wasted? It could have been sold for more than 300 denarii and the proceeds could have been given to the poor.
They scolded her harshly.
Now are we to believe that these men, who not long before this were jockeying for power, are now suddenly concerned about the poor?
Genuinely concerned with their complaints, the disciples were actually demeaning Jesus.
Mary was the one who grasped his real and incomparable worth. She was the first to realize that the gospel fully implies suffering.
The other women in the resurrection story wanted to do something similar. You remember, they wanted to anoint the body of Jesus. But they were too late, because when they came, Jesus had already risen from the dead.
Mary's lavish gift was the equivalent of a year's wages.
Would you be willing to give a year of your pay to honor Jesus?
Jesus commended her and he rebuked the disciples. He said, stop bothering her. Why are you causing her trouble? She has performed a good and beautiful thing for me. You will always have the poor with you, but you will not always have me with you.
Jesus explained that what she had done was within her power. She had the foresight and the compassion to anoint his body for burial even before his crucifixion.
None of those who criticized her had done anything like this. They still refused to grasp the fact that Jesus would suffer and die.
Mary's desire to worship Jesus impacted her destiny.
Jesus promised that her selfless act of devotion would be immortalized in scripture for all time.
The early preacher John Chrysostom praised her, saying, the simple, beautiful act of a guileless Judean woman is even now being remembered the world over.
Once Again, we see how Jesus honored women. They made up such a vital part of the gospel story.
And yet in the ancient world, they were generally held in low esteem.
Jesus changed that forever.
In the next illustration, we'll see a dramatic contrast between Mary's desire and destiny and the choices of Judas.
But that will need to wait until the next time.
[00:13:01] Speaker B: Today we looked at the desire of the leaders and Mary's desire. What a contrast.
I don't think we could see anything more opposite. I found it interesting how, uh, we're doing exactly what verse nine says will be done.
Isn't Mary's pure devotion and love challenging? God help us imitate her.
The leaders, on the other hand, were so threatened by Jesus and were doing all they could to eliminate him. Today there are still people like this. They are trying to eliminate all influence of Jesus and his followers.
Two opposite desires which totally change their destinies. How are your desires affecting your future?
We'd love to hear your thoughts. You can send an email to hope heraldsofhope.org or you can contact us via our website.
Go to heraldsofhope.org there you will find Contact us under the Partner tab on the top right.
Click on that to message us directly. Thanks so much for joining us today. We must recognize how our desires affect our choices. And our choices have a huge impact on this life and the next our destiny. So please consider carefully what you desire. If you can, join us next time for part two of this lesson. Till then, be faithful.
