- Even when EVIL seems to win. (Mk 14:43-47)
- Even when CIRCUMSTANCES look chaotic. (Mk 14:47-52)
Sermon Notes (PDF): BLANK
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Thank you for watching with us for our snow day makeup as we're walking through the gospel of Mark.
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Jesus on tour at Harvest Bible Chapel.
00:09-00:15
We are studying that Jesus Christ is indeed the Lord and the Lamb and the life.
00:16-00:21
And this message comes from the gospel of Mark chapter 14 verse 43.
00:22-00:26
If you want to turn there, I have something here that means a lot to me.
00:26-00:29
Actually, this is the television remote.
00:30-00:33
And this thing means so much to me.
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How could you tell how much this thing means to me?
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Well, all you need to do is watch me panic when the Pittsburgh Penguins are coming on TV and I can't find this.
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Then you see how much this thing means to me.
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It's so much more than plastic and batteries.
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This thing gives me and probably you, it gives us a sense of control.
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And even if I'm just sitting down watching TV, and even if I don't really care what's on, I'm just relaxing, I wanna have this thing close to me.
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I just wanna have it near and just gives me that sense of control.
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But I've come to realize that I have very little control over things in my life.
01:18-01:23
You know, finances need a little more and I don't know where it's coming from.
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and I can't control my bank account.
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And what about relationships?
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You know, we just need them to understand.
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We just need them to see things our way.
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And I can't control their mind.
01:34-01:35
What about health?
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You know, I just need this illness to go away or I just need my child's illness to go away and I can't control the problem in the body.
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Further I go, the more I realize that I actually do have very little control over what happens in my life.
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And church people, we go to church on Sunday and we believe that God is sovereign.
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That word sovereign means that He solely reigns.
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We believe that and we preach it and we teach it and we sing about it.
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And we talk about it in our small groups.
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And to think that God is sovereign and that He's in control over everything, it seems true on Sunday.
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But it doesn't look like it on Monday a lot of times.
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And we're going to turn here to a passage in Scripture that is probably the most chaotic passage in the Bible.
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It's Jesus' arrest.
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So do you have your Bibles?
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Read along with me here.
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We're in Mark chapter 14 and verse 43.
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It says, "And immediately while he was still speaking," that's Jesus, "while he was still speaking, Judas came, one of the twelve, and with him a crowd, with swords and clubs, from the chief priests and the scribes and the elders.
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Now the betrayer had given them a sign, saying, 'The one I will kiss is the man.
03:09-03:16
Seize him and lead him away under guard.'" So what was up with this sign?
03:16-03:19
Well, this would have been in the middle of the night.
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You know, Jesus would have looked just like any other Jewish man.
03:23-03:30
And trying to find a Jewish man in the dark near Jerusalem was going to be tough, unless it was somebody that really knew Jesus.
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And they didn't want to grab the wrong guy.
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So Judas said, I'll lead you right to him.
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In fact, I'll kiss the guy that you need to grab.
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It says, verse 45, "And when he came, he went up to him at once and said, 'Rabbi!' him and they laid hands on him and seized him but one of those who stood by drew his sword and struck the servant of the high priest and cut off his ear okay we know from John chapter 18 that was Peter that was doing the sword swinging there and he cut off the ear of a Malchus who was as Mark tells us here the servant of the high priest.
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And Jesus said to them, have you come out as against a robber with swords and clubs to capture me?
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Day after day I was with you in the temple teaching, but you did not seize me.
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But let the scriptures be fulfilled.
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And they all left him and fled.
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And a young man followed him with nothing but a linen cloth about his body.
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And they seized him.
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He left the linen cloth and ran away naked." Yeah, those last two verses, did you know those were in the Bible?
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What's going on there?
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This guy comes out, apparently he was awoken from the noise of the crowd coming through to arrest Jesus, and he just kind of wraps his sheet around himself.
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And in the chaos, somebody grabs him, but he takes off running, and they're left holding his sheet.
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He's left running in the buff.
05:19-08:15
So all of these things, from our point of view, when we read this passage, look, if you just put yourself in this scene and kind of detach yourself from what you know is coming, imagine being one of the disciples, and you're there, and you're watching all of these things take place. This looks completely out of control, but I want you to notice what Jesus says about this in verse 49. Look again, and this should be underlined in your Bible. Jesus said, "But let the Scriptures be fulfilled." In other words, this is all happening according to God's plan and under God's watch. So there's hope for us in this passage. If you're taking notes, I want you to jot a couple of things down. Word of encouragement for you today, and that is this, God is in control. Just two points in this sermon quickly. Number one, God is in control even when evil seems to win. We see that in the first part of the passage verses 43 through 47. There's just evil to the brim in this passage. We have the chief priests and the scribes and the elders, you know, these religious leaders basically went and got a group of security guards and got the army to come and grab Jesus. And then you have Judas. I mean Judas was a man for three years followed Jesus around and he he saw it all and he heard it all and he experienced it all and he got the t-shirt and he sells out Jesus for a handful of coins. You know sometimes it looks like evil is winning. We are people who live in a sinful world and we are surrounded by sinful people and these sinful people do sinful things and a lot of times sinful people do sinful things to you. When gossip at work hurts your reputation, when a wife is hit or a child is neglected. I'm sure you've been following the reports of ISIS killing Christians in the name of Islam, beheading people just because they would align themselves with Jesus Christ. Sometimes it seems that evil is winning and you know we can look at our own circumstances and evil done to us and we can turn on the news and see the evil that's done on a global scale and we've all been there. I've been there to say God how can you just sit by and let these things happen? But you know if there was ever any time in history that that question seemed appropriate it's in the passage that we just read.
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This was evil's best shot at Jesus and Jesus didn't despair. I want you to write that down. Jesus didn't despair because he knew my father is in control. And if God is in control of these crazy circumstances that we just read in God's Word, and he was, we can rest assured that he is sovereign over the evil that's being done to us. Evil is not going to ultimately triumph. Evil is nothing more than a pawn that God is going to use to make you into the person that he's called you to be. So like Jesus in the midst of evil coming upon you can you stand with Jesus and say I'm not going to despair because I know that God is in control. The second point is this God is in control first of all when evil seems to win but second of all God is in control even when circumstances look chaotic. You know, verse 43 tells us that a crowd comes. How many people were in this group of the temple guards, the Roman guards, how many people there are estimations that there could have been hundreds, maybe even upwards of a thousand people that came. All these people came to arrest who? Jesus Christ.
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You know, here we have a scene that it's dark because it's the middle of the night.
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Peter goes all clumsy Zorro on the high priest's administrative assistant and tries to cut his head off and ends up cutting his ear off.
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I think Peter didn't mean to cut his ear off.
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I think that was-- I think he missed his intended target and actually ended up cutting the man's ear off.
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So you have all of that going on and then you have this naked guy running around like it's some crazy episode of cops.
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And Jesus just simply says to them, "You armed yourselves to come after me?
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I was standing right beside you, teaching all week in the temple." But he said again, "Let the scripture be fulfilled." In the midst of the circumstances looking chaotic, Jesus didn't panic because he said, "My father is in control." From our point of view, a lot of times, our circumstances do look chaotic.
10:52-11:00
From our point of view, it looks like we are losing control of our lives or the circumstances around our lives or around our family's lives.
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We need to see our circumstances from God's point of view, just as Jesus did in this passage.
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God used all of this to take Jesus to the cross to purchase our redemption.
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And like Jesus, we can embrace the promises of God's Word, and we can embrace the God who keeps these promises.
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And some might say, "Well, I hear what you're saying, but Jesus had direct prophecies about him that applied." And I want to encourage you today that God has a Word for you too.
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And he has many words to encourage you in this area, but one in particular I want you to meditate on.
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Romans 8.28 says, "And we know that for those who love God, all things work together for good." All things work together for good.
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But what about when people mistreat me?
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Does that fall under the category of all things?
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What about when everything seems out of control with my finances and my relationships and health issues?
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What if all of those things seem out of control?
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Well, do those things fall under the category of all things?
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They certainly do.
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And God has given a promise to you that He is going to bless you through those things that He's taking you through, through those circumstances that He's allowing in your life.
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We know that for those who love God, all things work together for good.
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So when life seems out of control, you can rest assured knowing God is always near the remote.
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Thank you so much for watching tonight, and you are loved.
Small Group Questions (Whole Group):
Read Mark 14:43-52
How did Jesus keep from panicking in the midst of betrayal, arrest, and violence? What principles from this can you use to apply to your life when it gets chaotic?
Is God sovereign over evil? Why does God allow evil to harm His people? How can God be sovereign, be all good, AND allow evil to occur?
Breakout Questions:
Pray for one another.