Thru the Bible

Steve Schwetz: A plot, a plan, some preparation, a pledge, and a prayer. Sounds like the makings of a terrific movie, doesn't it? Well, that's actually how Dr. J. Vernon McGee introduces our study here on Through the Bible. I'm Steve Schwetz, and we're in Mark chapter 14. So, find your seat on the Bible bus and buckle up. And while you do, Greg Harris is here with a few more stories that have come in from our app listeners.

Greg Harris: Yeah, I love this that we get to do this. We try to do this every month. Uh we ask our team to share responses that came through our app. And one of the reasons we want all of our listeners to know is is the app is so great. It is really the ideal way to listen to Through the Bible because it's very hard to be at the same place the same time Monday through Friday. Very few of us can do that. And but there's so many resources in the app. And the feedback mechanism, you just go to that what they call the hamburger nav, the three lines.

Steve Schwetz: Yeah. Yep.

Greg Harris: Click feedback, and it's as easy as either typing a text or even dictating.

Steve Schwetz: Yeah, I don't send in a lot of I I do a couple of uh bug reports or whatever, and I always verbally put them in. I I never type them in. So, it's super easy. If you're not a big letter writer, everybody talks. You can always talk into the app.

Greg Harris: Yeah. Yes. Yeah. Exactly. Some of us more than others, but we won't go there. Yeah. So, you want to read this first one from Roger?

Steve Schwetz: Yeah. Yeah, this is this is from Roger. And if anybody out there thinks, oh, I'm too old to get an app or start using it, listen to this testimony. I was an over the road truck driver for many years, and I listened to your program. And one thing about Through the Bible, no matter what state you were in, and sometimes even the time of day, you could get the program. I think maybe one of the biggest demographics that you have listening are truck drivers across the United States and Canada because when I first started driving a truck, the mom and pop truck stops, as they were called, now they're out of business and it's all commercial.

But mom and pops always had a chapel. And some of them even had a chaplain. And there would be resources at different truck stops, including Bibles and pamphlets. I'm retired now. I love this combination. I'm retired now, and I listen on the app. And I appreciate your program even more now that I'm older. For some reason, it just seems like I can understand things a little better now. I just wanted to thank you for your wonderful program. I pray for you specifically that TTB will have an impact on the American trucker. They spend long hours alone on the road without their families, and they really need a program like yours to support their spiritual growth.

Thank you for everything.

Greg Harris: That's fantastic, and we are so excited just this picture that we've gotten over the years that as truckers are traversing the US and Canada earlier this month, we talked about testimonies from Canadian truck drivers that that God, as you said, is using their cab as a theological library. That's a good one, Steve. I may borrow that from you.

Steve Schwetz: Yes. Yeah. Yeah. Well, thank you.

Greg Harris: Uh let's hear from Kathy in Indiana who writes, hi Greg and Steve. Hi Kathy. She says, my husband and I have been on the Bible bus for several years, me longer than him. We love to close out our day listening to the app. It comforts us to hear God's word at the end of the day, to hear the familiar hymn played at the beginning of the program, to read the letters, and to bask in the richness of God's perfect, infallible word expounded by our favorite Dr. McGee. That rounds out whatever day we are having, knowing that God is in control and he is sovereign.

We love the Lord, and we love partnering with you in this ministry to the whole world. I pray with others on the world prayer team. It is a joy to share with brothers and sisters around the world God's marvelous works. The Bible bus cards are a great way for me to give glory to the gospel. God bless you all and keep the bus moving ahead until Jesus comes.

Steve Schwetz: Oh Kathy, thank you so much for that encouraging letter, and you mentioned so much in there including the Bible bus passes and your faithful listening. You're on the world prayer team. So, thank you for being such a vital part of this ministry. Greg, why don't you go ahead and pray for us?

Greg Harris: Yep. Father, we rejoice that technology has made the accessibility to your word so much easier, more convenient so that people can really go deep with through the Bible. We thank you for that. We pray that will happen all over the world in many languages in Jesus' name. Amen.

Steve Schwetz: We're off to Mark 14 on Through the Bible with Dr. J. Vernon McGee.

Dr. J. Vernon McGee: Now friends, we've come here to the 14th chapter, the Gospel of Mark. And it's the longest chapter in the Gospel of Mark. 72 verses to be exact. And let me say that we might not have had the kind of action that you were expecting in the last two chapters, although I felt it was there. But we've certainly come to it now. But Jesus is no longer the one performing the action. He's being acted upon by others, both friends and enemies. And the time now has come for him to be delivered up. His earthly ministry is concluded.

In the fulfillment of the prophecy, he is brought as a lamb to the slaughter. Now he's delivering himself into the hands of man. Mary anoints him. Judas betrays him. Peter denies him. The Sanhedrin arrests him. And he delivers himself into the will of the Father. Now as we come here into the shadow of the cross, the reverend heart feels this Well, you feel as if you'd like to take the spiritual shoes off of your spiritual feet. There are depths that have not been plumbed here in heights that have not been scaled. And the action of this moment involves the anguish and agony of his soul.

His hour has come, friends. When you come here, he told his mother there in the wedding in Cana of Galilee, mine hour is not yet come. Well, it's come now. And there is in this chapter and the one that follows, there is a strange agreement of heaven and hell. Light and darkness are going together in the same direction. Righteousness and sin are going to the cross. And God and Satan have decided that Jesus shall be crucified. And there are individual decisions that are converging upon this cross. Still true today, by the way. Now this chapter and I won't be able to finish it today.

But here is the way we divide it, and I'd like to give this to you. In the first two verses, the chief priests and scribes plot to kill Jesus. And then verses three to nine, Mary of Bethany pours ointment upon the head of Jesus. Verses 10 and 11, Judas plans to betray. And then in verses 12 through 25, Jesus prepares for the last supper and the first Lord's supper. And then Peter pledges his allegiance, verses 26 through 31. Then in verses 32 to 42, Jesus prays in the garden of Gethsemane. And then verses 43 to 52, Jesus place under arrest.

And then verses 53 to 65, Jesus put on trial before the Sanhedrin. And then verses 66 through 72, Peter protests that he does not know Jesus. We have a plot, pouring of the ointment, a plan to betray him, the preparation for the Passover, the pledge of allegiance of Simon Peter, and the prayer of the Lord. He's placed under arrest. He's put on trial. And you have Peter protesting. And again, we have a pod full of peas here as you can see. Now let's look at this beginning with verse one. After two days was the feast of the Passover.

And unleavened bread, you see the Passover was on the 14th day of the first month at even as the Lord's Passover, the way that Leviticus 23:5 reads. That's the month generally of April. Nisan. And then you have the feast of unleavened bread was on the 15th day of the same month, and it continued for seven days. And in Leviticus 23:6, and on the 15th day of the same month is the feast of unleavened bread unto the Lord. Seven days you must eat unleavened bread. Now it was, I think, the intention of these 11 rulers to take Jesus at the end of the Passover season after the crowds had left Jerusalem and then they intended to put him to death.

Let me read that again with this in mind. After two days was the feast of the Passover and unleavened bread. And the chief priests and the scribes sought how they might take him by craft and put him to death. But they said, not on the feast day, lest there be an uproar of the people. That is, not during the Passover season, which is the feast of unleavened bread that would extend for seven days. You see at the end of that seven days, the people would begin to depart from Jerusalem. And at that time, they had reached out and put their hands on him.

Now we find here that the reason they didn't want to touch him during the feast days was lest there be an uproar of the people. The crowds were with the Lord Jesus, the common people heard him gladly. He fed and healed him. And then notice verse three. And being in Bethany in the house of Simon the leper, as he sat at meat, there came a woman having an alabaster box of ointment of spikenard, very precious. She break the box and poured it on his head. This is a lovely thing. And John's gospel places this incident six days before the Passover.

You'd go back to John 12, you'd find that's true. But the question arises sometimes, have Matthew and Mark erred in placing it right before the Passover? Well, let's be very candid here and say that Matthew and Mark, neither of these two writers are attempting to give a chronological order. Their obvious purpose is to place this lovely incident next to the dark deed of Judas. And they are making a contrast here. And that's the reason they brought together like this. There's no attempt either Matthew or Mark to give you a series of events in a chronological way to give you a biography of Christ.

They're just not doing that. And what we have here therefore is a very vivid contrast of a conflict of light and darkness. Light in the act of Mary of Bethany. And by the way, John tells us that the woman was Mary, the sister of Martha and Lazarus. And this is the thing that is quite interesting, I think, to note at this particular point. Now let's read on here because this is important. And there came some that had indignation within themselves and said, why was this waste of ointment made? Now John also tells us in his account that Judas led in the defection, and it caused others to follow along.

And in verse five, for it might have been sold for more than 300 pence and have been given to the poor. And they murmured against her. Now the past suggestion that the proceeds be used for charitable purposes covered up the real reason. Judas wanted to appropriate it of course for his own selfish ends. And there's a lot of that being done even today in many ways in Christian work. And we find here that this man raises that objection. And he uses that all it might have been used for a very pious way, but the question is, had they given it to Judas as that where it would have gone?

Verse six. And Jesus said, let her alone. Why trouble ye her? She hath wrought a good work on me, for ye have the poor with you always. And whensoever ye will, ye may do them good. But me ye have not always. Now if they were sincere, there'd be many opportunities to help the poor. And they could avail themselves of it. And the presence of the poor is one of the characteristics of this age. There'll be no elimination of poverty until Jesus comes. This idea today that you can eliminate poverty by passing out dollars or checks is the biggest mistake, of course, in the world.

That's not the way that you're going to eliminate it. There's so many other things that are wrong in the world that will have to be made right first. Now notice what our Lord said here in verse eight. She hath done what she could. She has come aforehand to anoint my body to the burial. Now she's done what she could. And that's all God's ever asked of a man to do. But the important thing to note here is that Mary had a spiritual discernment which was sadly lacking even in the apostles at this particular time. She anointed his body for the burial.

Just think of this. This poor, frail woman, she stood on the fringe of the events which were leading to the cross and let the Lord Jesus know that she understood. May I say to you that none of the apostles sensed this, but she did. And the fragrance of the box of ointment she broke that day has been born across the centuries by the Holy Spirit under our day. And it still fills hearts with its sweetness even at the present hour. And I trust right now the fragrance of this box of ointment might be wafted in by radio where you are and see this lovely thing that she did.

And our Lord added this. He said, verily I say unto you, wheresoever this gospel shall be preached throughout the whole world, this also that she hath done shall be spoken of for a memorial under her. And the aroma of the alabaster box fills the world where the gospel goes. I wonder today so easy to read this. And it become meaningless to us. But have any of us broken our alabaster box upon Jesus that there might be a fragrance in our lives? And it might be a blessing to others. And I think that maybe if some broke the alabaster box of ointment, it would be to help the poor.

I'm wondering today if those that are God's people are really doing what they should do today. Somebody needs to break their alabaster box of ointment. Now will you notice we come here to verse 10 and 11. And right next to this, this lovely thing that she did and the light of it, the love of it. Right next to it, we have here the plan of Judas to betray our Lord. And Judas Iscariot, one of the 12, went unto the chief priests to betray him under them. And when they heard it, they were glad and promised to give him money.

And he sought how he might conveniently betray him. Now this man Judas, his act is an act of darkness. And it's right down next to this lovely thing that Mary did. But the thing that we have here is this man plotting now to put Jesus to death. Now he's going to wait. That is the plot was that they would wait till it was convenient to betray him. And you see our Lord upset the apple cart. You find that in the Gospel of John. Our Lord, you remember, said to him, what you do, do quickly. And Judas rushed out.

And he looked up the Pharisees, and he said, you better go get him now cuz our plot's been discovered cuz he told me that what I do, I better do quickly and he may leave town. And they got the soldiers immediately, and they went out and arrested him. Well, let's notice what we're told here. Our Lord now is preparing for the Passover. I'm reading verse 12. And the first day of unleavened bread, when they kill the Passover, his disciples said unto him, where wilt thou that we go and prepare that thou mayest eat the Passover?

Now again, we have something here that's quite interesting. The Passover was to be eaten with unleavened bread. And then seven days of unleavened bread followed. I was in Israel at the time of the Passover. And then the hotel I stayed in in Haifa, we had unleavened bread for the next seven days. And I won't tell you, friends, I got pretty tired of that bread. I like hot biscuits, too. And that unleavened bread got very monotonous, but the rest of the food was delicious. I enjoyed the way they fixed lamb there. You can't help but recognize that this is the area where they raised lamb and there's been no better picture of him than the lamb of God that takes away the sin of the world.

Now the disciples, even here, they were meticulous in following the letter, the Mosaic law. And they want to know, where we're going to eat the Passover? Where wilt thou that we go and prepare that thou mayest eat the Passover? You see, they're going to do it right. That is according to the Mosaic law. And he sendeth forth two of his disciples and saith unto them, go ye into the city, and there shall meet you a man bearing a pitcher of water. Follow him. And wheresoever he shall go in, say ye to the goodman of the house, the master saith, where is the guest chamber where I shall eat the Passover with my disciples?

Now again, I think this is a revelation of the human side of our Lord. And it also reveals the fact that there were those that loved him at this time and that they were preparing the Passover for him. And it reveals the fact that our Lord was the omniscient God, by the way. And he says here, the goodman of the house was evidently some unknown follower of our Lord. And there's no reason to doubt that there had been a previous offer of the guest room to Jesus. I'm of the opinion that sometime in those three years of his public ministry, this man had come to the Lord Jesus.

And he provided this room for him. I I think he told him, said, now when you come up to Jerusalem for the Passover, I have this for you. This room will be prepared for you. This was what this man did. I tell you, this was a wonderful service he performed. You can do so many things for the Lord Jesus. This is what this man did. Now he says here, Jesus celebrated the Passover. Now notice here in a barred room. And he will show you a large upper room furnished and prepared that make ready for us.

This man had it ready for him. And I think there'd been a previous commitment on this. I think this man was a follower of our Lord. I don't think you need to read in, hear something that is not here at all. I think that the host on this occasion should not be blamed for not being there to wash the feet of the disciples either. It was a private Passover. You remember our Lord had said, I shall eat the Passover with my disciples. And this man said, I got a room for you. And it would be private and he'd not interfere.

Now you'll recall that we'd had a former experience like this with a little donkey for the triumphal entry. And his disciples went forth, came into the city, and found as he had said under them, and they made ready the Passover. And I think that there'd been an arrangement made for the little donkey. You see our Lord knew what he was doing and made the arrangements as he went along. Now we come to the Passover in verse 17. And in the evening, he cometh with the 12. And I want you to notice that he came in the evening.

That's when the Passover began at sundown. And he came in, I think, under cover of darkness. He's not going to force their hand until he's ready. But at the time, he'll deliver himself into their hand, and they'll crucify him not according to their schedule, but according to his schedule, by the way. This is a very marvelous thing. In the evening, he cometh with the 12. And this was a lovely occasion. He ate the Passover leisurely with them. And very informally, by the way, we've made the Lord's supper on Sunday morning a very formal service. And you'll find out he ate the Passover supper here with him, and the next meal he had with him was breakfast on the shores of the Sea of Galilee after his resurrection.

And I think this was a wonderful time of fellowship. I personally do not criticize church dinners in and of themselves. I think they can serve a wonderful purpose. But the type the church dinners we have today, they're not quite what they should be. It's a wonderful time for people to meet and have fellowship around the person of Christ. And when he's not the center and we're having it just to have a gay old time and then call it fellowship, I think we've missed the entire point. And I think that it's far from being what it should be.

And it's an occasion to meet around the person of Christ, and that was the purpose of this Passover feast, by the way. And as they sat and did eat, Jesus said, verily I say unto you, one of you which eateth with me shall betray me. They began to be sorrowful. They say unto him, one by one is it I? And another said, is it I? All of them knew they were capable of doing it, friends. If you have not yet discovered that you are totally depraved and that you're a sinner, friends, that you're not a good person, you're a sinner, and you're thoroughly capable of turning your back on God.

If you haven't discovered that, you haven't discovered very much. I'm afraid we got a lot of people in the church today that their spiritual IQ is pretty low. In fact, we got a lot of spiritual morons. The natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God. They don't recognize that they're lost. These men could say, is it I? He answered and said unto them, it's one of the 12 that dippeth with me in the dish. The Son of man indeed goeth as it is written of him, but woe to that man by whom the Son of man is betrayed.

Good were it for that man he'd never been born. And that's Judas Iscariot that made this decision. The responsibility of Judas was great for he had the opportunity of being with Jesus for three years. And you remember the psalmist, Psalm 41:9, yea, mine own familiar friend in whom I trusted, which did eat of my bread hath lifted up his heel against me. Well, we'll pick up right at verse 22 next time. May God richly bless each one of you.

Steve Schwetz: How's your spiritual IQ? Well, if you want to have the fellowship that Dr. McGee described, why don't you click on How to know God in our app or at ttb.org to view some resources to help or call us at 1-800-65 Bible if we can send a few by mail. And for more great teachings this weekend, join me for the Sunday sermon Jesus Only from Mark 9. It's one of Dr. McGee's most beloved messages. Listen on our app at ttb.org or call 1-800-65 Bible for help finding a local station. Well, the Bible bus continues on Through the Gospel of Mark.

I'm Steve Schwetz, and I'll save you a seat.

Guest (Male): Our story on the Bible bus today is just one step in a five-year journey Through the entire word of God. Come along for the ride, and you'll study both the Old Testament and New Testament, discovering God's great redemption story. Is this your story, too?