Mark Chapter 14 Verses 51 – 52

•And there we have the first ever recorded streaker! HA! Proof that streaking is entirely Biblical! HA! NOT! But this is interesting because it is entirely out of place. Doesn’t even seem to fit at all…and most commentators believe this actually to be Mark. Remember, this is the Mark’s Gospel but nowhere is he mentioned in it. Why? Because Mark wasn’t a disciple of Jesus while Jesus was alive on earth. He would have been around 12 years old most likely at this time…and so the Gospel According to Mark is most likely Peter’s account being dictated to John Mark…and we have gone over several reasons why we believe that…pick up the study on the Introduction to Mark if you’d like to hear those details…

•And so this is probably Mark…inserting himself somewhere and the result is somewhat awkward…but nevertheless, there he goes buck neked into the night!

Mark Chapter 14 Verses 53 – 54

•Now this is meaningful…this is significant…because here is where the betrayal begins. Remember, Jesus told Him that before the rooster crows twice, you will deny Me thrice! The betrayal is on its way but you gotta see this, this is relevant, it has already begun!

•Mark tells us, Peter confesses…I followed Jesus at a distance. Backsliding (Christianese for compromise in a Christian’s life) never begins with THE event…the fall…the sin…the failure. It begins WELL before that. No time for the Word. Life is too hectic. Too much going on. No time for fellowship. Just can’t seem to make it to church consistently like I used to. No comms with God…prayer is somehow forced now when it used to be so natural. Little allowances for the flesh…The betrayal has begun, man.

•It’s like what I saw in a wanted add on Thursday…”I’m seeking out (ISO) costumes for a size 7/8 girl, 6/7 boy, 4/5 boy and girl and 18/24 months boy reasonably priced…” The day is tomorrow! I wonder how successful they were in finding all those costumes in less than 24 hours. And if they fail, was it because they didn’t find costumes THAT DAY?!? Where were they for the past 24 days!

•It’s like getting a lame card on Mother’s Day from your husband…why? Because they were one of a million men huddled around the 4 remaining cards at Walgreens! Bro you’ve had a whole YEAR! HA! You see the failure started 364 days ago man! HA! Just like what leads up to the last passage we’ll look at today. Where Peter is all cursing and yelling and fleshing completely out…betraying Jesus publically. It begins right here…following Jesus from a distance…

Mark Chapter 14 Verses 55 – 59

•Now that’s interesting…because didn’t Jesus say that? Indeed He did…it’s found in the second Chapter of John’s Gospel. Jesus’ first cleansing of the temple…He said openly to the Jews, “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.” Pretty close…close enough for a bingo IMHO, (in my humble opinion). So what’s the deal with it being called “false witness” here by the Holy Spirit?

•I think this is interesting. It’s the word there for “bearing false witness.” That phrase is just one word in the Greek and its pseudomartyreo (pseudo-mar-tu-re-o). It literally means “to testify falsely” which doesn’t necessarily mean the facts are false, but rather they have been delivered falsely. This is just my take on this…take it or leave it…but what is said here against Jesus isn’t…well it isn’t a lie. So why would it be false witness?

•Here’s the answer I believe. “Their testimonies did not agree.” Here’s what I’m getting to. We can quote scripture, we can proclaim forth what is true and what is right, but if our testimony does not agree with the testimony of the cross of Jesus Christ…then the witness of the Way, the Truth, and the Life…is false. Paul wrote in 1 Corinthians 13, “Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love (agape), I have become a sounding brass or a clanging cymbal. And though I have the gift of prophecy (truth), and understand all mysteries (deep theological understanding), and all knowledge (practical know-how), and though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing…false witness he proclaims himself to be…without love…

•Powerful bit there that we have got to understand. If we are to get anything right, let’s get love right. Lets learn the heart of the Lord through the scriptures and therefore not only record correctly in our memories, not only rap correctly when we open our mouths, but most importantly, that we represent God correctly! I don’t want to be a false witness…I was for years. Giving the right information, with the wrong implication...With all knowledge, with all faith, and yet as annoying as that monkey toy that you wind up and all it does is clang those cymbals…

Mark Chapter 14 Verses 60 – 62

•“I am!” There it is again! Jesus said, “I am!” Just like we looked at last week…who is Jesus? He is indeed the Great I Am…condescending to the level of man, becoming a man, to reverse what man put into motion at the dawn of creation…Now the High Priest is about to go bonkers, wig out, flip his lid, fly off the handle, go off the deep end, blow his stack, come unglued, go postal…why? Because what he actually just asked Jesus…”Are you God?"

•Why? Why say that? Because the Jews knew, and they KNOW, that the Christ, the Messiah, is the Son of God…deity…divine! And that God Himself would somehow be the Savior. We just read this together as a church…Isaiah 43 verse 11, “I, even I, am the Lord, and besides Me there is no Savior!” So we are about to see the Chief Priest…ahhhhhh FREAK OUT! Why? Because he asked, and he knew what he was asking, and Jesus answered…I AM!

Mark Chapter 14 Verses 63 – 64

•There it is! They call it…blasphemy!!!

Mark Chapter 14 Verse 65

•This is some horrible stuff here…They covered His face and began to beat Him. Brutal…extremely brutal because if the eye sees the blow coming, the body is prepared, but when the eye is darkened…the blows catch the body off guard…Psalm 22 reads, “I am poured out like water and all My bones are out of joint…” A blow to the face without seeing it coming…this may very well have dislodged His jaw…According to Isaiah, they beat Him so harshly that you couldn’t recognize Him as a human being…

Mark Chapter 14 Verses 66 – 71

•A servant girl?! This whole scene began because of a servant GIRL!? Jesus stands silent in front of the leaders. The rulers. The ruling old men in their fancy seats and fancy robes and 50 pound hats! And yet Peter, facing a peasant servant girl, negotiates, pleads and defends himself! See how much we need to work in the power of Jesus and not our own!? Where do we get powered up? Doing all the things that are forsaken when the betrayal starts!!! Word, Worship, Fellowship, Prayer, Service…

Mark Chapter 14 Verse 72

•Peter called to mind the word that Jesus had said to him…not a bad place to arrive at in the face of failure like this. A place we often miss…and Peter weeps. Why? Because Jesus was right when He said Peter would deny Him? Maybe. Or could it be because of what Jesus had said earlier…Mark Chapter 8 verses 34 – 38.

•“Whoever desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me. For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake and the gospel’s will save it. For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world, and loses his own soul?”

•Peter has gained the whole world…and yet his heart is a pit…and so he weeps…is that you? Are you thirsty…and nothing seems to fix it? Tired? What good will it be if you gain the whole world…and yet lose all of eternity?

•The world will deliver your dreams…and then steal them from you…like our church signs that get taken all the time…what do we go and do? Order new ones! So wouldn’t it just make sense that the thief is the sign company?! Right!? Well the world is man…the flesh is man…the enemy is man…gain the whole world…and find your heart as empty as a pit…