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A regular theme in the letter is the role of good works and an openly virtuous life that flows from the Gospel being essential to evangelism in the community.

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In Daniel chapter 9, the angel Gabriel appears in answer to Daniel’s prayer and gives him an astounding answer about the future of Israel.

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Christians will not be saved by their works but will be judged by them. God desires to see good works lived out and, by the Spirit, with full obedience to all His commands.

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God's sovereignty and authority over all things are displayed in His precise predictions as the disciples prepare for the Passover and Judas' imminent betrayal.

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God's sovereignty and authority over all things are displayed in His precise predictions as the disciples prepared for the Passover and Judas' imminent betrayal.

This world that we're living in is so filled with unexpected and difficult events. Some of them bringing us pain, change, things that we never anticipated. Very famously, Hamlet and his “to be or not to be” soliloquy, talked about the slings and arrows of outstanding or outrageous fortune. He also talked about a thousand natural shocks. That implies things coming at us that we never saw, and they're devastating, all their outrageous fortune. But we Christians know better, because the great consolation of our Christian faith in this uncertain and painful world, is that our Heavenly Father knows absolutely everything that will happen before it comes to pass. The Bible's very clear about that. And not only that, He knows it and He's aware of it, but He's actually decreed whatsoever will come to pass. It's part of His wise and loving plan. As one hymn writer put it, "I don't know what tomorrow holds, but I know who holds tomorrow." And that brings us great comfort.

Foundational to this concept is the idea of God's exhaustive foreknowledge, God's exhaustive foreknowledge. The exhaustive foreknowledge of God and of his son Jesus Christ. We see aspects of that in today's text. In this account, we're going to see some remarkable knowledge that Jesus has of decisions made by people, free will decisions, ahead of time. I don't deny that this is an infinite mystery, but it's on display. The context here is Jesus preparing the Passover.

 We began the whole preparation language last week, and we continue now in this passage as Jesus prepares the Passover. Part of all of this is the stunning foreknowledge of God. We believe that God's foreknowledge comes first and foremost from His eternality. We believe that God is outside of time. Psalm 90 in verse 2, "Before the mountains were born or you brought forth the earth in the world, from everlasting to everlasting, you are God."

God's outside of time, He's not bound by time the way that we are. When it comes to human history, God knows the end from the beginning, as it says, ascribed to Christ in Revelation 22:13, "I am the Alpha and the Omega, the first and the last, the beginning and the end." So God ordains the entire flow of human history. He declares many of His purposes even centuries beforehand. Isaiah 46:9-10, "I am God and there is no other. I am God and there is none like me. I make known the end from the beginning, from ancient times, what is still to come. I say my purpose will stand and I will do all that I please." We should not imagine that God's exhaustive foreknowledge is because He's just really good at predicting things. God really is good at seeing what's about to happen and predicting it. Not at all. God's foreknowledge is tied to the fact that He has ordained things before they come to pass.

God makes decrees and then makes certain that they happen, as it says in Ephesians 1:11, "God works everything in conformity with the purpose of his will." This Passover time that we're walking through, in this account of the final week of Jesus's life, is part of God's divine foreknowledge and His preparation for the cross. We discussed this last time, so there's no need to go into great detail, but just by way of reminder. Almighty God, when planning the exodus of the Jewish nation from Egypt, included the ten plagues as part of it that He might display His power to all the earth. Most terrifying of all, of course, was the tenth plague, the plague on the firstborn. Exodus 11, "This is what the Lord says, ‘About midnight, I will go throughout Egypt. Every firstborn son in Egypt will die, from the firstborn son of Pharaoh, who sits on the throne, to the firstborn son of the slave girl who is at her hand mill.’"

Ezekiel 20 makes it plain that the Jewish nation was every bit as idolatrous and wicked as the Egyptians who enslaved them, and that their firstborn deserve to die as well. God's very clear about that. If you don't sacrifice the Passover lamb and paint the blood on your doorpost, your firstborn will die too. We see the grace of God extending to Israel. God graciously made a provision to save the sons of Israel by the shedding of the blood of the Passover lamb, and the application of that blood to their houses. Exodus 12, "On that same night, I will pass through Egypt and strike down every firstborn, both men and animals, and I'll bring judgment on all the gods of Egypt. I am the Lord. The blood will be a sign for you on the houses where you are. And when I see the blood, I'll pass over you. No destructive plague will touch you when I strike Egypt."

God established this Passover, not just that first time, that dreadful night, but as an annual ceremony, a continual reminder of these great acts of God for the Jews in every generation, in that same chapter, Exodus 12: 14, "This is a day you are to commemorate. For the generations to come, you shall celebrate it as a festival to the Lord, a lasting ordinance." I could use the language we're going to get to later in this sermon. Effectively, the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob was saying, "Do this in remembrance of me," the Passover, and so they did, generational. This is part of God's wonderful foreknowledge and His sovereignty, establishing this ordinance as a picture of the death of Jesus Christ on the cross, the shedding of His blood, which would then be applied, spiritually, by the work of the Holy Spirit, so that we would not die. Every generation of Jews for fifteen centuries had commemorated the Passover with the slaughter of the lamb.

In this last week of Jesus's life, the time now for the fulfillment of this prophetic image has come. Mark, in his Gospel account, directly links Jesus's disciples’ question with the slaughter of the Passover lamb. Look at verse 12. "On the first day of the feast of unleavened bread, when it was customary to sacrifice the Passover lamb, Jesus's disciples asked him, ‘Where do you want us to go and make preparations for you to do the Passover?’”  He's uploading that in the minds of the readers, and it was uploaded in their minds as well. The Passover itself was preparation for the death of Jesus, that we would understand its meaning. 

But along with this comes some remarkable and stunning, meticulous foreknowledge on the part of Jesus. Look at verses 13-16, "So he sent two of his disciples, telling them, ‘Go into the city, and a man carrying a jar of water will meet you. Follow him. Say to the owner of the house he enters, the teacher asks, where is my guest room where I may eat the Passover with my disciples?  He will show you a large upper room, furnished and ready. Make preparations there.’ The disciples left, went into the city and found things just as Jesus had told them so they prepared the Passover." Here the providence of God extends beyond merely comprehensive foreknowledge, but it does include that. God in His eternality knows all of the details, even the tiniest details that will happen before any of them come to pass. As he says in Matthew 10:29-30, "Not one sparrow falls to the ground apart from the will of your Father, and even the very hairs of your head are all numbered." A sparrow dying and falling off a branch to the ground is not considered a significant moment in history. It would never be recorded in history. It's just a happening. But Jesus said, "Not one sparrow on earth falls to the ground apart from the will of God.” And then, “even your very hairs of your head are all numbered.” The number of hairs in your head changes daily, but God's up on the count. You're like, "Doesn't He have better things to do?" God's omniscience can cover that detail. Even the very hairs of your head are continually numbered. 

Now in this case, what's amazing is the detail of a man carrying a jar of water walking into a big city, and the timing of all that. Picture this. There are hundreds of thousands of Jewish pilgrims that have assembled from all over that part of the world for the Feast of Unleavened bread. Hundreds of thousands. Now, what are the odds that two disciples that Jesus sends at a certain moment, when they've finished this conversation, sent into the big city, are going to line up with a guy carrying a jar of water? That particular guy, but it happened. It wasn't an accident, everything had been orchestrated.

When I was in college in the Boston area, I had a friend, a mentor, Tim Schuman, who discipled me. He was a great brother, a man of God. He's also a distance runner. He ran the Boston Marathon. I grew up in eastern Massachusetts.  The Boston Marathon was a big part of our culture. I knew about it very well, and he asked if I would drive him out to Hopkinson where the race began. I did drive him there, and he gave me all of his stuff. We agreed to meet at the finish line. Anybody who knows anything about the city of Boston and knows anything about the Boston Marathon, knows how stupid we were at that moment. Yeah. So let's meet at the finish line. Why don't you meet your friend in Los Angeles? All right. See how that goes? Where? I don't know, just Los Angeles. You're going to meet up somewhere. It's just incredible.

But somehow... Now this is in the days before the cell phone and “Find my Friend”, as I mentioned last week. I found him with one of these aluminum foil blankets sitting at a Brigham's waiting for me to find him. Somehow we found each other. That was close to a miracle, but it's still an hour after he had finished the race. We should have done better. I should have known better, but that's a picture of just how preposterous this whole thing is. "Go in to the city and a man carrying a jar of water will meet you. Follow him." There were eleven gates into the city of Jerusalem. Let's just start there. Which gate? Not specified. You just see the improbability of the detail of something like this. Everything had been choreographed by the plan of God. So the man carrying the jar of water did meet them at the right gate, at just the right time.  He led them to a house that Jesus had arranged ahead of time for He and His disciples to eat the Passover. The owner of that house met them at the door of his house and led them up to what would become the most famous room in the history of the human race.

This is a very significant room. This is the place where the last Supper would occur. This is the place where the resurrected Jesus would appear, though the doors were locked, and give physical evidence of His resurrection to the apostles. This is the very place where they're waiting for the gift of the Holy Spirit to come, in which on the day of Pentecost, did come. And which after the Holy Spirit was poured out, they flooded out from that room and began to change the world. It's a very significant room in history. Jesus somehow had already made arrangements with this man. We don't know how. It's not miraculous. It was just practical administrative foresight on the part of Jesus. What's amazing is the man with the water jar and the timing of all that. But the preparation had been made.

Now think, when Jesus was born in Bethlehem, there had been no room at the inn. The problem of finding a place would have been even more extreme in those days. Just a limited number of places where they could meet. But Jesus had, God had, the foresight to get all of this arranged ahead of time. The room was provided, furniture was sufficient. It was a large room, an upper room. It was furnished and ready. Everything's in place. The two disciples then could go begin their preparation for the actual feast, the unleavened bread, the lamb, the wine, the table settings, the cups, plates, napkins, cushions. Everything they would need, they would go and do that.

Now, far more significant than those details, however, of course is the big picture. The meticulous preparation, for centuries, even before the foundation of the world leading step by step to the cross of Jesus Christ. None of this was thrown together at the last minute, but everything was ordained and planned carefully by God before the foundation of the world. 

Next, we see this same aspect of God's astonishing foreknowledge as Jesus predicts Judas's betrayal. The betrayal of Judas Iscariot, one of the twelve apostles, ranks as one of the most repulsive acts in human history. We already know that Judas was never truly a disciple of Jesus, but was called a devil by Jesus in John 6, after the “eat my flesh and drink my blood” teaching. We know also that Judas was just in it for the money, because he used to steal money from the money bag that had been entrusted to him by Jesus, violating that trust.

We saw last time that Judas went to Jesus's enemies and agreed to betray Him for the price of 30 pieces of silver. In this passage, Jesus predicts it. So Judas has gone on quietly, slunk off by himself, to make this arrangement. But now Jesus is going to predict it in front of them all. Look at verses 17-21, "When evening came, Jesus arrived with the twelve. While they were reclining at the table, eating, He said, ‘I tell you the truth, one of you will betray me, one who is eating with me.' They were saddened, and one by one they said to him, ‘Surely not I.’ ‘ It is one of the twelve,’ he replied, ‘one who dips bread into the bowl with me. The Son of Man will go just as it is written about him. But woe to that man who betrays the Son of Man. It would be better for him if he had not been born.’"

What makes Judas's betrayal so heinous was the loving and tender heart that Jesus had for each of the twelve, His affection for them. That's what makes this so horrible. It's a betrayal of a love relationship. Luke 22:15, "Jesus said to them, ‘I have eagerly desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer.’" Think about that. "I want to have this meal with you." It's a very significant statement. It displays the ultimate heart of Jesus for all of us. The delight of close loving fellowship. I'm going to return to that theme at the end of the sermon, but that's Jesus's heart. He wanted to be with them. It also displays the unspeakable pain that Judas's betrayal must have caused the loving heart of Jesus. 

It's also remarkable because the other disciples had been arguing about which of them was the greatest. That was precisely why Jesus washed their feet, as recorded in John 13. So here's Jesus, this loving heart toward them, and they're bickering about which of them is the greatest, so He washes their feet to give them a display of the loving service that they should have toward one another. As He says in John 13:14- 15, "Now that I, your Lord and teacher have washed your feet, you also should wash one another's feet. I've set you an example that you should do as I have done for you." That's the setting. and now Jesus predicts Judas's betrayal. The timing is, it says, while there are reclining at the table. Leonardo da Vinci's famous portrait of the last Supper shows all of them sitting upright as if they're sitting on chairs at a long table. I also find it odd, they're all sitting on one side of the table. I've never seen a feast like that. Hard to look at each other, left to right, but they're good for Leonardo as he's painting the picture. So they're all facing outward that way. The near East pattern wouldn't have been that. It would have been a very low table. They're reclining on cushions. So their head right at the table, maybe they're reclining on their elbows with their feet away from the table. That's the usual pattern.

If this Passover had followed the traditional pattern, it would have begun with a prayer of thanksgiving for God's deliverance and for His protection and loving care for the Jewish nation. Then there would have been four successive cups of diluted red wine. Then a ceremonial hand washing, symbolizing the need for purification from sin. Then they would have eaten bitter herbs, symbolizing the bitterness of their centuries of in Egypt.  At the same time, then, they would partake of loaves of flat unleavened bread, which is where the feast gets its name, Feast of Unleavened Bread. They would have been passed out, and they would have eaten those loaves of unleavened bread. They would have then dipped them into a thick paste of mashed fruit and ground nuts. Then they would have sung two Psalms of praise from Psalm 113 to 118. At that point, the head of the household, which would have been Jesus, in this case, usually explain the story of the Passover and its symbolism to everyone in the house. Then the roasted lamb and the unleavened bread would have been served. After the main course had been consumed, the third cup of red wine would have been passed out. The rest of the Psalms of praise from Psalm 113 to 118 would have been read, and they would have finished with the fourth and last cup of red wine.

Now, somewhere in all of this, Jesus announced the coming betrayal. John 13:21 tells us Jesus' emotions concerning this. It tells us that He began to be deeply distressed and troubled and said, "I tell you the truth, one of you will betray me." The exhaustive foreknowledge doesn't take away the pain and the sorrow of it. He knows it, but it hurts, hurts. In our account, in verse 18, "I tell you the truth, one of you will betray me, one who is eating with me." The disciples, at that moment, are shocked, trying to figure out who it is. Verse 19, "They were saddened. One by one said to him, ‘Surely not I.’" True disciples are aware of the corruption of their own hearts. Genuinely born again, they understand, like the parable of the Pharisee and the tax collector, that they're sinners and they're corrupt.  I think they wonder, "It really might be me. Could be me." It's evidence of their humility and of the Holy Spirit's convicting work in their lives. 

But also the shocking nature of the news. They're just completely back on their heels. They didn't see this coming. Then Jesus identifies his betrayer, verse 20, “‘It is one of the twelve,’ he replied. ‘One who dips bread into the bowl with me.’" The fact of saying one of the twelve shows that intimacy, that closeness, and the privilege of being one of the apostles. Jesus had prayed all night before identifying this one of the twelve. But then there's this issue of the dipping of the bread into the bowl. John's Gospel unfolds this moment, a very significant moment here. John 13:22 through 27, "His disciples stared at one another at a loss to know which of them he meant.  One of them, the disciple whom Jesus loved, it's John, was reclining next to him. Simon Peter motioned to this disciple and asked, ‘Ask Him which one He means.’ Leaning back against Jesus, he asked Him, ‘Lord, who is it?’ Jesus answered, ‘It is the one to whom I will give this piece of bread when I have dipped it into the dish.’ Then dipping the piece of bread, He gave it to Judas Iscariot, son of Simon. As soon as Judas took the bread, Satan entered into him." This is stunning. It's almost like Judas accepting the bread with that language having been attached to it, was making a willing choice for that role. "I'm willing to play that role." His soul is open at that moment and Satan, it says, entered into him which also shows Satan's direct activity in leading toward Jesus's death on the cross. 

Satan had already been tempting and prompting Judas. It says in John 13:2, "The evening meal was being served and the devil had already prompted Judas Iscariot, son Simon, to betray him.” But now this is a whole different matter. He's not demon possessed, Judas, he’s Satan possessed. Now we get to the infinitely deep theology of this betrayal. This is the most complex, and I think significant, case of divine sovereignty and human responsibility you'll find in the Bible. Look at what Jesus says in verse 21, "The Son of Man will go just as it is written about him, but woe to that man who betrays the Son of Man. It would be better for him if he had not been born." The beginning of Jesus's statement, “the Son of Man will go just as it is written about him,” means He's going to die, having been betrayed by one of his close friends and rejected by the Jewish nation. It's going to happen exactly as the prophets have said. It was specifically part of God's plan, including Judas Iscariot's role.

It's predicted in Scripture, it's ordained by God. Nothing would change. It would most certainly happen as the church prayed in Acts 4:28, speaking of the plots of Jesus enemies leading to his death. "They did," speaking of God, "They did what your power and will had determined beforehand should happen." But then the next part, "But woe to the man who betrays the Son of Man." The word “woe" is the common word of prophetic judgment. When a prophet speaks a word of judgment like Isaiah 5, “Woe, woe, woe, woe,” or Jesus's sevenfold woe in Matthew 23. This is a common word of prophetic judgment, divine judgment. It shows that Judas is still responsible for his actions. He's accountable for what he did. He's judged for his motives and his reasons, his purposes, as well as what he actually does to betray Jesus. Then Jesus says, "It would have been better for him if he had not been born." I don't think we'll ever be able to probe the depth of that statement.  Judas is identified in the end as a son of perdition, a son of lostness, son of means characterized by hell, understanding the statements made about him and what he did. He's the only person we know, by name, in hell. Yet this very man, we are instructed, was knit together step by step in his mother's womb by the direct activity of Almighty God. No human being gets a body apart from that. Every moment that God was knitting Judas's body together, He knew very well what Judas would do. Very well. So why then did He make him? 

Why did He create him if it would have been better for Judas if he had not been born? Well, the answer is no, it wasn't better for Judas, but it was better for the glory of God and the plan of God, and it was better for us. Better for us, not better for Judas. And so he was born, and not only was he born, but he was sustained every day of his life. For in God we live and move and have our being. God fed him every meal that He ever gave him. He gave him lavish gifts of love. Jesus gave him above and beyond, the privilege of being one of the Apostles. So it is not true, in a simplistic sort of way, that God loves everyone and has a wonderful plan for everyone's life. It's not true. It wasn't a wonderful plan for Judas. It would have been better for Judas not to have existed at all. 

We also need to understand the complexity of Satan's motives here. What is Satan doing? Does Satan really want Judas to betray Jesus to his death? Does he not know where all that's going to lead? Earlier, he had been influencing Peter to tempt Jesus not to go to the cross. Remember? "Get behind me, Satan." Remember? So now Satan is in Judas orchestrating Jesus's arrest for the end of his death. And in so doing, he will destroy his own dark kingdom.

Praise God for what I call satanic confusion. "I don't know what to do with the incarnate Son of God. Do I let him live or do I kill him?" In the end, he did what his nature is. He's a murderer. There's nothing more that he could do except just kill him. And in so doing, by Jesus's death, it says in Hebrews 2, he destroyed Him who holds the power of death, that is the devil, and freed those who all their lives were held in slavery by their fear of death. Thanks be to God. Amen. There's Judas and Satan conspiring to destroy Satan's dark kingdom.

Now we get to the Lord's Supper. Jesus symbolizes the new Covenant. Look at verses 22-24. "While they're eating, Jesus took bread, gave thanks and broke it and gave it to his disciples saying, ‘Take it, this is my body.’ Then He took the cup, gave thanks and offered it to them, and they all drank from it. ‘This is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many,’ He said to them."

Jesus uses the ceremony of the Old Covenant, the Passover, to declare the reality of the New Covenant. He gives the bread a new symbolism. The unleavened bread had been a symbol of the Exodus, and of their haste, as you remember, in eating it because they didn't have time for the bread to rise. Remember always you had to eat it in haste because you are fleeing out of bondage in Egypt. It's remembering that. But now He said, "This is my body." It symbolizes His body, by which they would be delivered from their true slavery. The true slavery is slavery to sin, and to the death sin deserves. By his body He would set them free. The bread is also a symbol of life. Jesus came that we might live. We need food to live. There's nourishment that comes from it. So Jesus said in John 6:51, "I am the living bread that came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever. This bread is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world."

In doing this, Jesus established a new pattern of worship in the New Covenant with the Lord's Supper. Then He takes the cup. After supper, He took the cup, He gave it to all of them to drink. He identified the symbolism of the cup with these significant words. "This is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins." Luke adds the word "new." Luke 22:20, "In the same way, after supper, he took the cup saying, this cup is the New Covenant in my blood, which is poured out for you." Very significant words here. The Old Covenant had been established and founded on animal sacrifice. It was the centerpiece of the Old Covenant, the blood of bulls and goats and lambs.  In this, in Leviticus, God made it clear that it was by the shedding of blood that forgiveness was worked, which is essential to our salvation. Leviticus 17:11, "For the life of a creature is in the blood and I've given it to you to make atonement for yourselves on the altar." It is the blood that makes atonement for one's life. But the author to Hebrews tells us that the endless annual repetition of these animal sacrifices shows that they are ineffective. They didn't really do anything. They're just symbols. Just symbolic. Hebrews 10:3-4, “But those sacrifices are an annual reminder of sins, because listen, it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sin.” That's a once for all statement. It never did anything. It never actually removed any sin. Instead, the New Covenant is established, also based on blood, but this is the blood of the only-begotten Son of God.

The Word became flesh, and that blood shed once for all for the sins of all of his people throughout all time. Hebrews 9:12, "Jesus did not enter by means of the blood of goats and calves, but he entered the most holy place once for all by his own blood, having obtained eternal redemption." This is the blood of the New Covenant and it shed once for all time, never to be repeated again. Again, by faith in the blood of Christ, are our sins forgiven forever. Ephesians 1:7, "In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins in accordance with the riches of God's grace." 

I just want to say something about the mass that the church has made of this whole thing since that time. This is a meal that should have united Christians, but instead it's been one of the most divisive theological topics there's ever been in church history and part of it centers on the conception of real presence. The idea that in some way the bread and wine, we now use juice, become the literal body and blood of Jesus or spiritual body and blood, in that sense, an actual body and blood. That's the doctrine of “real presence”. For Roman Catholics, they say this happens by the mystery of transubstantiation, leaning on some Aristotelian philosophy. That's a little hard to follow, hard to explain, which I won't go into here, but that's how they argued in the Middle Ages is how it happens. 

It all started with the statement, "This is my body and this is my blood." Martin Luther came along, rejected the link with Greek philosophy, but still believed in real presence. Believed it ardently, so much so, that he got into a very nasty argument with Ulrich Zwingli, the leader of the Swiss Reformation on this very issue.  Ulrich Zwingli didn't see any of this in the New Testament. He was just a simple Bible reading guy, and to him, the Lord's Supper was what we call a mere memorial. It's just something that we just do whenever we want to. He tended to very much downplay it. Zwingli did, so they had it about once a year. He went too far, very much so. But Luther was so ardent about real presence. He wrote in Latin, "Hoc est corpus meum," ”This is my body” in chalk on a table and then pounded the table, as only Luther could do, saying this is the text that will break you. It was not a nice interaction between two great men of God. They're getting along great now. I'm confident, absolutely confident. But it was a terrible dispute. 

John Calvin came along with what I call the spiritual presence view, which is what I hold to, which is that the ordinance is valuable in proportion to your faith in the word of God. That as the Holy Spirit's active and takes these words and presses them to your home, you take them seriously by faith, then this will be a meaningful participation, spiritually, in the death of Jesus Christ. I am troubled by the fact that with transubstantiation, the Roman Catholics believe that the priest is forever offering Jesus again and again and again and again and again. I find that incredibly problematic. Because the author to Hebrews tells us that Jesus died once for all time never to be repeated. So that's a part of the problem I have with their view of the offering being given up. Also, it's problematic in that when Jesus actually literally spoke what we know as the “words of institution”, “this is my body,” his body was there. There it was. There were his hands, and there's the bread. So you're looking at, if you had been there, his actual body, and the bread wasn't it. Jesus was very accustomed to doing metaphorical statements, like “I am the door for the sheep,” this kind of thing. Jesus isn't a door, but his ministry is similar to a door in that sense. Jesus then said in John 6:63, "The spirit gives life. The flesh counts for nothing. The words I have spoken to are spirit and they are life." 

Beyond that, Jesus also symbolizes the future heavenly feast that we're all going to enjoy. Look what He says in verse 25, "I tell you the truth, I will not drink of the fruit of the vine until that day when I drink it anew in the kingdom of God." He makes two predictions here. First, this is the last supper, this is it. I'm not going to eat or drink with you again. This is the last time.

Secondly, Jesus is also predicting that in the kingdom of God, He will drink of the fruit of the vine anew in the kingdom of God, a prediction of heavenly feasting.  I love the word “new.” "I'm going to drink it anew with you." That's such a powerful word, isn't it? Revelation 21:5, "He who was seated on the throne said, ‘Behold, I am making all things new.’" The very thing we get with the new covenant, in Luke 22:20, "This cup is the New Covenant in my blood, which is poured out for you." Hebrews 8:13, "By calling this covenant new, He has made the first one obsolete. And what is obsolete and aging will soon disappear." All the new things are yet to come. The new thing, the new covenant is here, but there's a new heaven, a new earth, and a new Jerusalem coming.

That's where we're heading. "I saw a new heaven, new earth for the first time in the first earth that passed away. I saw the holy city, the new Jerusalem coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride, beautifully dressed for her husband." In that new world and in that new Jerusalem, we're going to have new feasting. We're going to feast with Jesus. It's the fulfillment of the very thing I said earlier about Jesus's eagerness to eat with us. "I've eagerly desired to sit at table with you and feast with you." So many times in the Gospels we have this future heavenly banquet predicted.  Matthew 8:11, "I tell you that many will come from the east and the west and will take their places at the feast with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven." How cool will that be to sit next to Abraham and the kingdom? What would you talk to father Abraham about or something like that? Or all these other great men and women from history. Or again, Matthew 22, "The kingdom of heaven is like a king who wanted to prepare a wedding banquet for his son. And he sends out messengers and says, look, the oxen are fattened, cattle have been butchered. Everything's ready. Come to the banquet." It's a heavenly banquet, a heavenly feast. Or again, Luke 22:29-30, "I confer on you a kingdom just as my Father conferred one on me, so that you may eat and drink at my table in my kingdom." Think about that. You may eat and drink with Me at my table in my kingdom.

Therefore, I love thinking about Revelation 3:20. I know it's for now, but I also think it's a foretaste of that heavenly banquet we're going to have. Revelation 3:20. "Jesus says, behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with him and He with Me." There is that yearning for table fellowship that He has with the people of God. How sweet is that?

First, the Lord's Supper. Look back and look ahead. Passover was a yearly reminder to the Jewish nation of their deliverance from bondage in Egypt. So also the Lord's Supper is a continual reminder for us, as Christians, of the blood of Christ shed on the cross for our sins. First Corinthians 11:26, "For whenever you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord's death.”  Whenever we do this, we're proclaiming Jesus died for us. Remembering that. It's vital for us to be forever mindful of what Jesus did for us, once for all time. Luke 22:19, "He took bread, gave thanks and broke it and gave it to them saying, this is my body given for you. Do this in remembrance of me." We need that, don't we? We need these reminders. The Lord's Supper, which we're about to partake in, is a reminder to us of the price that was paid for our sins. We need to think continually of the blood of Jesus shed for our sins, so we can be humbled. 

We can also be thankful for our salvation. But we're also supposed to look ahead. I Corinthians 11:26, "For whenever you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord's death until he comes.” This causes us to look ahead with faith through the second coming of Christ when He will destroy all His enemies, and the last enemy to be destroyed is death. Then we will feast with Christ sitting at table with Him. So at the Lord's Supper, which we're about to partake in, and indeed every day, be mindful of your sins forgiven at such a high cost, the body and blood of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Be mindful and be thankful for that indescribable gift of grace. Be humble in reference to it. Be willing to forgive others because you've been given so much, and be expectant of the feast that we're going to enjoy when we finally get to heaven.

Beyond that, think about the deep themes that we've walked through today. God's exhaustive foreknowledge of all things.  There's no lucky events that happen in life. There's no chance encounters. The guy carrying the jar of water, God does that stuff every day. Sparrows don't fall to the ground and hairs don't fall off our heads without God planning it and orchestrating it. That gives us confidence about our lives in this world. 

We're going to close the time of preaching now with prayer, and then we'll go over to the Lord's Supper. Father, thank you for the Word of God. We thank you for the things that we've learned from it. Father, we thank you for feeding us by it. We're grateful for it. And we ask now that as we transition to the Lord's Supper, that you would strengthen us with its lessons as well. In Jesus' name. Amen.

Paul discusses the importance of old men and women in training and guiding the younger generation for a healthy church.

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In Daniel chapter 9, Daniel prays with great passion and urgency for the rebuilding of Jerusalem. He does so for the praise of God’s glory, not because of people’s righteousness.

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We bring zero works to your justification; Christ brings total perfection to our justification, and that’s why it corresponds to election.

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Jesus’ death on the cross was the result of the meticulous plan and purpose of God, orchestrated in space and time.

It is the manner of God, before He bestows any signal mercy on the people, first to prepare them for it, so said Jonathan Edwards talking about the Great Awakening as God moved a lot of pieces together to produce that revival. And it is absolutely true. If you look at the scripture, God is a God of meticulous preparations, laying out the raw materials for a providential work before He does that work, of throwing the unformed clay onto the center of the potter's wheel before He shapes it into the vessel He has predetermined to make, or of arranging the wood and the sacrifice on the altar before the fire comes down and ignites it.

God is a God of meticulous preparation, we see it in Genesis 1 with the entire earth, with the worlds that He made. In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth, and the earth was formless and empty. Interesting statement. Darkness was over the surface of the deep and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters. Formless, empty, the earth, that was planet earth. Then God got busy shaping a planet just right for human life, working day by day, creating light, separating light from darkness, separating the waters in the atmosphere from the waters down below on the surface of the earth, separating the sea from the dry land, step by step, preparing things, getting things ready for human life, for man created in the image of God. God is a God of meticulous preparations.

But if that's true of physical creation, it's even more true of the complexities of redemptive history. God has meticulously arranged the pieces for our salvation on the chessboard of human history, moving this piece here and that piece there, putting it all together as century unfolded after century until, as Galatians tells us, "In the fullness of time, in the fullness of time God sent his son into the world." In the fullness of time means, effectively, when all of God's preparations for the coming of his son into the world were complete. God had raised up the Jewish nation. He had established the kingly line of David. He had spoken clearly through the prophets. He had borne patiently for centuries with the sins of the Jewish nation. He brought judgments on that nation through two exiles, first to Assyria and then to Babylon. Then reestablished a small remnant of Jews in the Promised Land under Gentile dominion. Then at just the right time, brought Jesus, his only-begotten son into the world.

Then God meticulously prepared Jesus for 30 years for his role as Savior of the world. Jesus grew in wisdom and in stature and in favor with God and man, step by step being gotten ready, for 30 years, getting ready until the time came for Him to be revealed to Israel, and that He could begin his work of amazing miracles and perfect teachings that identified Him as the only-begotten son of God, the Savior, the only Savior from sin.  Then at just the right time, God prepared the climax of Jesus' mission to the world, the journey to the cross and then to the empty tomb. The final three chapters of Mark's gospel depict that journey, and we're beginning that today. Mark 14, 15 and 16, Jesus' journey to the cross. And in this account, today, we're going to see overwhelming evidence for this God's meticulous preparation, preparation for the cross.

We see the concept of preparation, of getting things ready in a number of verses in the text you just heard read.  Look down at verse 8, speaking of Mary's anointing, "She poured perfume on my body beforehand to prepare for my burial.” One of the translation says, prepare for my burial. Then, a few verses later, verse 12, Jesus' disciples asked him, "Where do you want us to go to make preparations for you to eat the Passover?" We'll deal with that text next week, God willing, and also, in verse 15 and 16, next week, "He will show you a large upper room furnished and ready. Make preparations for us there. So the disciples left and went into the city and found things just as Jesus had told them. So they prepared the Passover." We're going to look at all that next week, but that's where we're heading, it's preparations, it's getting things ready.

And as we'll see today, these are just some of the preparations that God was orchestrating to bring Jesus' son to his bloody substitutionary death on the cross. This morning, we're going to see that God's preparations for that, for the cross, went back before the foundation of the world, extended through all of Jewish history, included Jesus' most hateful enemies, included Jesus' most devoted followers, extended even to the bitter betrayal by one of his closest followers, one of Jesus' apostles, step by step, meticulous preparation, bringing us to the cross. 

Now the cross, we believe as Christians, is the centerpiece of the Bible and of all of human history. It is the center of Christian theology. By the cross alone are our sins atoned for. By the cross alone are we reconciled to a holy God. By the cross alone are we delivered from God's righteous sentence of death and hell. By the cross alone are we cleansed of all of our defilement and made pure. By the cross alone are we clothed in perfect righteousness. By the cross alone are we brought into an eternity in heaven.  We understand the centrality of the cross, for this reason, Paul said in 1st Corinthians 2:2, "I resolved to know nothing while I was with you, except Jesus Christ and Him crucified." Or again, later in that same epistle, 1st Corinthians 15:3 and 4, "For what I received, I passed on to you as of first importance," top priority, "Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures, and that he was buried, and he was raised on the third day according to the scriptures." That's the centerpiece.

Then, finally, Paul's own personal statement, he makes many of them, but I love this one, Galatians 6:14, "May I never boast, except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, through which the world has been crucified to me and I to the world." Paul's saying, "The cross changed everything for me, the entire way I look at myself and the world and everything, and I'm only going to boast in the cross of Christ." The infinite value of the cross can only be seen by faith.

It's easy to misunderstand Jesus' death on the cross as though it were some kind of tragic mistake, some kind of horrific blunder, a hideous miscalculation on the part of Jesus. He had made enemies of very powerful men. He was sucked into their vortex of pride and power, got sucked in over his head, suffered the ultimate penalty for his naiveté.  But this is a grave error, no, it's not that way at all. Jesus' death on the cross was the result of the meticulous plan and purpose of God orchestrated in space and time to the specific actions of people who are doing God's will, whether they knew it or not. Jesus said it plainly, John 10:18, "No one takes my life from me, but I lay it down freely of myself. I have the authority to lay it down and I have the authority to take it back up again, this command I receive from my Father." It says it all.

So we see this when it comes to the cross, the centerpiece of all human history, all biblical theology, all roads lead to Calvary, all roads lead to the bloody cross of Jesus Christ. Here we see God's sovereign, meticulous preparation that brought us there. So in today's outline, we're going to see the preparation by predestination and then, by prophecy, by prediction, by plotting, by the perfume poured out on him, and by betrayal. So let's walk through these.

The Bible reveals that the cross was predestined by God before the foundation of the world. Now we're at Passover time. I'm going to talk about the Passover in a moment, but before any of that happened, God knew about the cross God had planned the cross. The cross was founded in the mind of God before time began. Revelation 13:8 says that Jesus was, "the lamb that was slain from the creation of the world.”  1st Peter 1:19, 20 says, "You," us, we Christians, "were redeemed by the precious blood of Christ, a lamb without blemish or defect. He was chosen before the creation of the world, but was revealed in these last times for your sake." So before the creation of the world, the substitutionary atonement of Christ had been predestined in the mind of God. Jesus was the lamb of God slain in the mind of God from the creation of the world. Since this was the plan of God, every step toward the cross, even taken by Jesus' sworn enemies, was part of that plan.

As Peter preached in the streets of Jerusalem 40 days after Jesus' death, Acts 2:23, "Jesus was handed over to you by God's set purpose and foreknowledge, and you, with the help of wicked men, put him to death by nailing him to the cross." God's set purpose and foreknowledge involving the people of Jerusalem and wicked men led to Jesus being nailed to the cross.  Then later, two chapters later, in Acts 4, as persecution starts to ramp up, the church prayed to God. In Acts 4:27, 28, "Herod and Pontius Pilate met together with the Gentiles and the people of Israel in this city to conspire against your holy servant, Jesus. They did what your power and will had determined beforehand should happen." That says it plainly, doesn't it? Even the plots of wicked men were part of God's eternal plan. The preparation for the cross was ultimately in the mind of God before time began.

Next, we see the preparation of the cross by prophecy. God had already formed this plan before He said, "Let there be light," but then He paid out information gradually over redemptive history through prophecies that said what He was going to do step by step. God communicated the details of the cross through many prophecies. God sent many prophets and spoke many words of prophecy predicting the cross of Christ. Every animal sacrifice itself was an acting  out prophecy of the cross.

Now, clearest in this text was the Passover itself, it was a lived-out, acted-out prophecy from centuries before pointing toward the cross of Christ. This account begins with the approach of the Passover. Verse 1, "Now, the Passover and the Feast of Unleavened Bread were only two days away”. The preparation of the Passover is a big part of this account and next week's account, God willing. The disciples wanted to know where they should go and prepare the Passover feast. Everything's getting ready. All the people have come from miles away to prepare for the Passover. The Passover itself was God's sovereign preparation for the cross, getting everybody ready to understand it, fifteen centuries before Christ. You remember the story of the Exodus and how God brought the enslaved nation of Israel out of Egypt with a mighty hand and outstretched arm, and with ten plagues, terrible plagues.

The tenth plague was the worst of them all, the plague on the firstborn. The angel of death would visit every home in Egypt that terrible night and kill the firstborn in that home. From the highest to the lowest, from the throne of Pharaoh to the lowest slave, no one would be exempt.  And the Jews were no better, Ezekiel 20, "They are as idolatrous as the Egyptians were,” and they deserve their firstborn to be slaughtered as much as the Egyptians did. So God made a provision to make a distinction between Israel and Egypt by means of this sacrifice. The clear implication, when you have to paint the blood on your doorpost and your lintel or your firstborn would die, your firstborn deserves to die as much as anybody else's. It's only by the shed blood of the substitute that that death doesn't come to you.  God commanded each family to select a lamb without blemish or defect, slaughter it, paint the blood of that lamb on the doorposts and lintels of the house. The promise was that the angel of the Lord would see the blood of the lamb and pass over that home not killing the firstborn. Thus, the Passover is the picture of what God had already predestined before the foundation of the world to do, the cross of Christ. He's the lamb that was slain before the foundation of the world. Now it's acted out that very night, the night of the tenth plague, the shedding the blood, a substitute delivering sinners from death. Then, it was reenacted year by year for fifteen centuries as part of their heritage, part of their religious year. God established this as a preparation, getting their minds ready for the fulfillment.

In Jesus' time, it's estimated that over two million Jewish pilgrims would come to the city of Jerusalem for the Feast of Unleavened Bread and Passover. That feast, that particular Passover that year, Jesus would fulfill that image for all time. Christ is the end of the law so that there might be righteousness for all who believe. And so, it would be fulfilled. It wasn't an accident that Jesus died right at the Passover time, right when the Lamb would be slain, it was exactly to fulfill that imagery.

So the application of the blood of Jesus, the substitute, to our souls is what enables us to survive Judgment Day. As Romans 3:25 says, "God presented him as a propitiation through faith in his blood." Propitiation means one who turns aside the wrath of God by the payment of a sacrifice. That's what propitiation means. Jesus is that. So, Romans 5:9 says, "Since we have now been justified by his blood, how much more shall we be saved from God's wrath through him?"

Of course I haven't given the whole raft of prophecies from the Old Testament pointing toward Christ, which there are many, but I'm focusing on the prophecy, the acted out prophecy that was the Passover.

Next, we see the preparation for the cross by prediction. In this, I mean, specifically, Jesus' stated predictions of what was going to happen leading up to the cross, effectively saying, "I am the fulfillment of all those prophecies. It's happening now." He got them ready by predicting what would happen to him.

We're told in Matthew 16:21, "From that time on," that was in Caesarea Philippi when Peter made his great confession, "You are the Christ, the Son of the living God," "Blessed are you Simon Jonah. This was not revealed to you by man, but my Father in heaven." All that, Caesarea Philippi. "From that time on," Matthew 16:21 tells us, "Jesus began to explain to his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things at the hands of the elders, chief priests, and teachers of the law, that he must be killed. And on the third day, raise to life." He did this again and again and again, predicted, predicted, predicted. Especially at this time again in Matthew 26:2, it says, "The Passover is two days away and the son of man will be handed over to be crucified." That's a clear statement Jesus made in Matthew's account. Mark doesn't pick up on it, but he did say it, "As you know, this is all happening. I'm about to die to fulfill the Passover." His prediction linked his own life to the Passover imagery.  Now He did this to prepare his disciples ahead of time so that they wouldn't lose their faith. John 13:19, "I'm telling you now before it happens, so that when it does happen, you'll believe that I am, that I am God, and that I am the Messiah." The predictions got them ready, but they didn't really listen. Did you notice? They had no idea. One person listened though, the woman in our account. We will get to her in a moment. She listened. She paid attention, but the others, they were fighting it. They couldn't conceive of it.

Next, we see preparation of the cross by plotting.  Jesus' enemies were directly plotting his death. Look at verse 1 and 2, "Now the Passover and the Feast of Unleavened Bread were only two days away and the chief priests and the teachers of the law were looking for some sly way to arrest Jesus and kill him, but not during the feast, they said, or the people may riot."  “Not during the feast," they said. Isn't it beautiful that He was killed during the feast? We'll get to all that. So much for the plans of the enemies, but they're plotting concerning this.

Why did they hate Him so much? It's instructive for us to probe that. Why did they hate the only perfect man that's ever lived, filled with love, perfect in love toward God and toward others? Why did they hate Him? First, Jesus himself said the reason they hate Him is He testifies that what they do is evil and their pride won't let them listen to Him. He says they are evildoers. They hated Him because He exposed their righteousness as a sham. He called them, "whitewashed tombs, which look beautiful on the outside, but inside, full of dead men's bones and everything unclean."

They hated Him because He cleansed the temple twice, at the beginning of His public ministry and then at the end, thus He was touching the nerve of what they cared about the most, money. So they hated Him for that. They were jealous. They hated Him because they were jealous of his popularity with the people who loved Him, and these enemies were jealous. And they hated Him because they were afraid of what the Romans would do in reference to Him, that the Romans would come away, come and take away their place in their nation because they were threatened by Him, so they hated Him.

Throughout His ministry they opposed Him. And at a certain point, from a certain point on, they're looking to kill Him. They're openly wanting to kill Him. At some points, even picking up stones right there and then to kill Him like in John 8. They want to kill Him, many times already, but they're not able to do so, we're told, especially in John's Gospel because His time had not yet come. Timing is everything, fullness of time. So they were not able to do it.

Now, however, the time has come, Jesus prays that in John 17, "Father, the time has come, glorify your son." The time's there, but God has His timetable, the enemies have theirs as He just hinted at a moment ago. God wanted Jesus to die at exactly the right time to fulfill the imagery of the Passover. God loves symbolism, and He wanted to fulfill that and make it easy for them to see the connection.

But we see the irony, for Jesus' enemies, this is exactly the wrong time to kill Jesus. This is absolutely not what they want to do, not because they didn't want Jesus to fulfill prophecy, they weren't thinking about that at all, it's because of the threat to their nation and to their own position of this huge crowd and Jesus' stunning popularity with the crowd. Remember the triumphal entry? It terrified them. They were clearly afraid of Jesus' popularity with the crowds. So if they arrest Jesus in public, the crowds are going to riot, they're going to kill those that are there to arrest Jesus and defend Jesus.

But they're also afraid, as I mentioned, of what the Romans would do if the crowds took Jesus and made Him king even by force, as John 6 said they wanted to do. In that case, Jesus' enemies would be left out, right? Either the Romans would come in and that moment would fail through Roman power and Jesus would be slaughtered and His followers slaughtered, and then the Romans would just come and take over and they would lose their place of power and position in the nation, or Jesus would succeed and be the king of the world, whereupon they're out because they're His enemies. Either way, this is not the time they think to arrest.

They want to arrest Jesus, "in some sly way," that's one translation, the Greek says, "by subterfuge, by treachery or trickery." Ideally, they would like to arrest Jesus maybe at night or sometime when there's not many people around, and they needed information on His coming and going. They didn't have “Find My Friends” back then yet, so they needed to know where He's going to be and when, they need an insider. But how could that be? Jesus' twelve followers are fanatically committed to Him, so they thought. They had a problem, but in any case, they know, not during the feast.

But yet, isn't it beautiful? God's plan cannot be stopped. It was during the feast because that's what God wanted. "Many are the plans of a man's heart, but it's the Lord's purpose that prevails." And so, the passages tell us, Acts 2, "Jesus was handed over to you by God's set purpose and foreknowledge, and you, with the help of wicked men, put him to death by nailing him to the cross." Their actions are part of the plan. Or again, "Herod and Pontius Pilate met together with the Gentiles and the people of Israel in this city to conspire against your holy servant Jesus whom you anointed. They did what your power and will had determined beforehand should happen." God willed that Jesus should die at the Passover and that these wicked men would be essential to making that happen by their plots, and so would Judas' betrayal, so would Judas' betrayal. We'll get to that.

Next, we see preparation for the cross by the poured perfume. In the middle of all this swirling evil, there is this act of pure beauty, pure beauty, sacrificial worship poured directly on the head and feet of Jesus. And I would argue to some degree, I think even simply straight out, this is the point of everything, it really is, the point of the cross.

Why did God make the universe to begin with? For His own glory, for a radiant display of His glory. But God already knew how glorious He was, He didn't need to make anything to prove it to himself. So then, God made sentient beings, angels and humans to be able to see and appreciate His glory and praise Him for it. He made the universe because He's generous and He wanted to share Himself.

I's all about worship, but sin entered the world blocking that worship that God created us to do. Jesus came to remove that sin problem, that sin blockage by His death and His resurrection, by the outpoured Spirit, by His salvation plan to heal us of sin so that we could get back to the original purpose, which is worship, worship. Jesus came into the world for that purpose to affect worship as He said to the Samaritan woman in John 4, "A time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks. God is spirit and those who worship and must worship in spirit and truth."

So in the midst of all of this wickedness, this confusion, swirling plots by these powerful, wicked men, in the midst of the apostles at their worst, we're told in another place, some of them bickering about which of them was the greatest, some of them boasting that they love Jesus more than any of the others, and one of them showing his true nature as the devil, betraying Jesus, that's going to happen that night, in the middle of all of that, we get one beautiful act of worship by this woman. So beautiful.

Let's look at the act, the act described. Look at verse 3, "While he was in Bethany reclining at the table at the home of a man known as Simon the Leper, a woman came with an alabaster jar of very expensive perfume made of pure nard. She broke the jar and poured the perfume on his head." Now, all four Gospels have an account of a woman anointing Jesus. Luke speaks of a sinful, but forgiven woman who anoints Jesus' feet with her tears and dries them with her hair. But Matthew, Mark and John all speak of this one incident that we're looking at now, and I think it's clearly a different time, a different woman too, I believe.

John identifies this woman as Mary, the sister of Lazarus, the man that Jesus raised from the dead in John 11 and with whom Jesus had a close love relationship. Martha, Mary and Lazarus were close friends with Jesus. Martha and Mary are also well known. They were dear friends of Jesus. We're told the anointing takes place in Bethany very close to Jerusalem. We're told it happened in the home of a man known as Simon, the leper. We know nothing else about this man. He's not mentioned in any other account, so there's nothing to say about him, just where his home was.

John tells us, this anointing took place eight days before the Passover. John positions it chronologically. So Mark has rearranged it and kind of inserted it here, but with John, we get the full picture of the chronology. It was a sacrificial gift. Mary took an alabaster jar of pure spikenard. One of the translations gives spikenard. John says it was pistik nard coming from the head or spike of a fragrant East Indian plant belong to the genus Valeriana, which yields juice of a delicious odor. The plant grows in the distant Himalayan mountains and was extremely costly, you can well imagine.  It's traveled a long distance to get there.  John tells us, and Mark tells us here that it was valued at 300 denari. A denarius was a day's wage for a laborer, so that's a year's worth of money. It's a lot of money. Furthermore, it was in a costly alabaster jar. You picture like a flask with a slender neck sealed at the top. For her to get at it quickly, she chose to break the neck of the alabaster jar and pour the whole bottle over Jesus' head, and also, John tells us, over his feet, Mark just says head, but head and feet.

Then, we get the disciples' reaction, verse 4 and 5, "Some of those present were saying indignantly to one another, ‘Why this waste of perfume? It could have been sold for more than a year's wages and the money given to the poor.’ And they rebuked her harshly." John tells us that Judas was the ringleader of all this, he led out in this. John, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, probes Judas' heart, John 12:6, "Judas did not say this because he cared about the poor, but because he was a thief. As keeper of the money bag, he used to help himself to what was put into." It's absolutely disgusting. Because we are told in Luke 8 that some women, some wealthy women were supporting Jesus out of their means and Judas is plundering that on the side.  Jesus had given the money bag to him to take care of.  It's not like he didn't know who Judas was. However, it seems all of the disciples shared, to some degree, Judas' abhorrence of this action. They're all on board with what he's saying. They don't get it, it doesn't make sense. I mean, Jesus has just got done in Matthew's Gospel with the whole sheep and the goats thing, remember? The sheep and the goats, "I was hungry, you fed me. I was thirsty, you gave me something to drink." All of that. That's a whole bunch of benevolent ministry, a whole bunch of mercy ministry, and if you do it, you're in heaven. If you don't do it, you're in hell. And all this. Then, just a short time later, there's a woman pouring a year's worth of wages all over Him, and He's fine with it. It's confusing.

Years ago, remember those, "What would Jesus do?" bracelets? I don't always know what Jesus would do. Does He seem unpredictable to you? I think I would've understood their objections, but He defended her. Look at it in verse 6 through 9, “'Leave her alone,’" said Jesus, “'Why are you bothering her? She has done a beautiful thing for me. The poor you'll always have with you and you can help them anytime you want, but you will not always have me. She did what she could. She poured perfume on my body beforehand to prepare for my burial. I tell you the truth, wherever this gospel is preached throughout the world, what she has done will also be told in memory of her.’" I can't imagine a stronger defense.

He describes her lavish gift as a beautiful thing. The Greek word implies that it's a virtuous act. He addresses their concern for the poor by citing Deuteronomy 15:11, "There will always be poor in the land." He then challenges them about the poor, you can help them anytime you want. It's a bottomless pit. It never ends. You always have poor people with you. And anytime any of us wants to help the poor, we can do it. And I do believe, as in the sheep and the goats, God's going to talk to us about it on Judgment day, how much that was.  But Jesus said, "You'll not always have me," not like this. This is an amazing statement. He's returning to the topic of His imminent death. He's soon to be physically taken away from them. He specifically says she anointed His body to prepare for His death. Verse 8, "She did what she could. She poured perfume on my body beforehand to prepare for my burial." Then Jesus makes this amazing, prophetic statement about how she would be remembered forever, "I tell you the truth, wherever this gospel is preached throughout the world, what she has done will also be told in memory of her."

Jesus knew at that moment that these stories would be told to the end of time. How did He know that? Because He's God. And He knew that there would be a careful gospel record under the direct inspiration of the Holy Spirit and that this account would be included in that and that this gospel will be preached through the whole world. He already said that in Matthew 24:14 it's going to happen, and this story is going to ride along with that gospel proclamation, it's going to come with it and people are going to hear about her to the end of time, and I say beyond, beyond.

I believe his statement's being fulfilled right now as I preach. Here we are in Durham, North Carolina, which is a long way from Jerusalem, and we're centuries later, and we're talking about her. Jesus is a prophet. But I think it goes beyond, it goes beyond this moment, it goes on into heaven. It goes into heaven. Why is that? Because we already learned from Mark 13:31, "Until heaven and earth pass away, my words will never pass away." Heaven and earth will pass away, my words will never pass away. What? Including this one? Yes. For all eternity, we'll be talking about this woman's anointing. That's pretty awesome.

But then I thought about it as I was meditating about heaven, writing my book on heaven, I thought, we're not just going to talk about her active, sacrificial giving, we're going to talk about all of them, all of them. Which ones? Well, the ones you all did too, and the ones that I did. Why just this woman? If we're going to remember her good works, we're going to remember everybody's, and so, I believe we will. We're going to remember, "And my Father will honor," Jesus said, "the one who serves me." That's a beautiful thing.

I love what it says in verse 8, "She did what she could." Isn't that powerful? What else can we ever do? Reminds me of Moses and the burning bush and that interaction. At some point, God says to Moses, "What do you have in your hand, Moses?" "A staff." "Throw it on the ground." Remember? It's like, "What do you have with you? I can use that. I can use that staff. Throw it on the ground." What about you? Are you doing what you could? That's the question. We'll get back to this. I want to circle back, but this is a beautiful moment.

We go from that to... We go from the height of beauty to the depth of darkness. It's disgusting what happens next, but it's the truth, isn't it? Look at verses 10 and 11, preparation for the cross by betrayal. "Then Judas Iscariot, one of the twelve, went to the chief priests to betray Jesus to them. They were delighted to hear this and promised to give him money. So he watched for an opportunity to hand him over." So now we get to betrayal.

Keep in mind, Jesus is in no way surprised or caught unaware by Judas. He knew this was coming. After the whole “eat my flesh, drink my blood "teaching in John 6, He says to the twelve, "You don't want to go away too, do you?" Peter says, "To whom should we go? You have the words of eternal life." Then Jesus says, "Have I not chosen you the twelve? And one of you is a devil." Not one of you will later will become a devil, you're a devil right now. He already knew. But still, just because Jesus knew didn't mean it wasn't painful for Him. Jesus knew about the cross, it was painful.

This is betrayal. Betrayal shows a violation of trust, a love relationship. You can't betray someone you don't know or have no connection with, it always has to do with a close friend, has to do with a spouse, it has to do with a son or daughter or father or mother, a close relation. It has to do with a national affinity, you can betray your country. But you can't betray someone you have no connection with, a total stranger and there's no connection. So this is hurtful, painful betrayal.

Why did Judas betray Him? He was never a believer. It's not like he lost his faith, he never had any. Jesus gave him charge of the money bag because that's all he cared about, it's the only way He could keep him to stick around. He was in it for the money. He was embezzling. In all of the gospel accounts, it's immediately after this anointing by Mary that he goes out to say, "What can I get for Jesus?" It's directly, you get a sense of cause and effect, it's like, "All right, if we're going to be doing that, we're going to pour a year's worth of wages on the ground, the game's up. It's time to trade Jesus in for what I can get from them.”  Look at the valuation, you can't see it, but listen to the valuation question in Matthew's account, Matthew 26:14, 15, "Then one of the twelve, the one called Judas Iscariot, went to the chief priest and asked," listen to this, "What are you willing to give me if I hand him over to you?" "What's it worth to you?" It makes you want to vomit. "What's he worth to you?" "Thirty pieces of silver." Little knowing, both sides, that they were directly fulfilling a prophecy in Zechariah, but 30 pieces of silver. They measured out thirty silver coins, cold-blooded idolatry on the part of Judas. He was in it for the money. He loved money. He was covetous. Then, selling his soul for 30 pieces of silver.  Yet, his initiative is instrumental, it's a catalyst for the timetable of Jesus' death. It was instrumental because now, they have what they were looking for, an insider who can give knowledge, specific knowledge of Jesus' comings and goings, and that's going to lead to Gethsemane where Jesus would be arrested.

The point of all of this, as I've said, is worship, so let's bring this to application and bring it to a close. God created you and me to worship Him. The only reason we don't is sin, that's why we don't worship Him as we should. Mary's act of sacrificial giving was both a unique moment in time that could never be repeated, but also a timeless pattern or paradigm of worship. It's both. It was unique because Jesus said, "You will not always have me." We cannot anoint Jesus' head and feet physically, He's up in heaven, we do not have that ability to do it. Furthermore, we can't prepare for His burial because death no longer has mastery over Him. He will not die again. He doesn't need to be prepared for burial. That moment has passed. So it's not possible for us to love Jesus specifically the way Mary did.

And yet, as unique as that moment was, it clearly also is, to some degree, a paradigm for lavish worship. It's based on faith. What was she doing? Preparing Him for what? Burial. So I told you, there was one disciple there who took Jesus' word seriously, He's going to die. She maybe didn't fully understand, of course, she didn't fully understand, but she believed that what Jesus said was true and she took Him at face value. Mary was this kind of a woman, she was a contemplative listener, ponderer, she sat at Jesus' feet and listened to His teaching. She took it seriously, that's who she was. Luke 10:42, Jesus said, "Mary has chosen what is better and it will not be taken from her." That's who she was. So as faith, it was based on Jesus' word.

Secondly, it was loving. She cherished Jesus and sought to honor Him. She poured out this costly perfume out of a heart of love for Him. The beauty of the action was the love that was in her heart. It was lavishly sacrificial, it was costly, costly. Love can always be measured by cost, by sacrifice. No sacrifice, no love. Jesus said, "Greater love has no one than this that he laid down his life for his friends." The greatest gift God has ever given us, God the Father, is the gift of His son. That's the measure of God's love for the earth. God did not spare His own son, but gave Him up for us. That word “spare”, she didn't spare, she didn't hold back, she didn't pour a few drops on Jesus, she poured it out, poured it out.

It recognizes, therefore, the supremacy of Christ above all. Yes, it is right to serve and love the poor, to share the gospel, to do many horizontal acts of kindness to other people, but we are created, first and foremost, for God and for Jesus. If we love anything more than we love God, including poor people, we're not worthy of Him. Jesus demands and deserves our best. That's a picture of worship.

The challenge for us in terms of worship is are you doing what you can? She did what she could, what about you? What's in your hand? What's in your life? Are you living a life of self-denying sacrificial love for Jesus? That's the challenge. That's the challenge.

As I finish my comments, now I want to go back to the beginning. The whole thing's about preparation. The best thing I can hope about all of you who are listening to me today is you are what Romans 9:23 calls, "vessels of mercy prepared in advance for glory." How beautiful is that? God is the potter, we are the clay. Is He preparing you, shaping you for glory? Have you trusted in Jesus for the forgiveness of your sins? That's the first direct preparation on a soul to get you ready for heaven. Have you trusted in Jesus for the forgiveness of your sins? And if so, then do you see the shaping hands of God in your life preparing you for an eternity in glory? That's a beautiful picture, isn't it?

Close with me in prayer. 

Father, we thank you for the time that we've had to study this beautiful text. Father, I pray that you would work in us such a heart of sacrificial love for you, Lord Jesus, that we would hold back nothing, that we would spare nothing, that we would give and give. We are so stingy, Lord. I feel ashamed as I read this account. I feel how stingy I am toward you, how much I hold back from genuinely serving you and loving you. I pray, oh Lord, that there would be no one here listening to this sermon now that's outside of Christ, but that everyone would repent and believe and trust, simply trust in His blood shed on the cross for the forgiveness of sins, but then, that you would do that beautiful preparatory work in us so that we would be able to give and give and give worship for all eternity. In Jesus' name, Amen.

Jesus’ death on the cross was the result of the meticulous plan and preparation of God, orchestrated in space and time.

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