Jesus Declares His Full Deity! Mark 14:60-72

Text: “…Again the high priest asked Him, and said unto Him, Art Thou the Christ, the Son of the Blessed? (Capital B) And Jesus said, I AM: and ye shall see the Son of man sitting on the right hand of power, and coming in the clouds of Heaven.”

Mark 14:61-62.

 “And Moses said unto God, Behold (look closely, and fully understand), when I come unto the children of Israel, and shall say unto them, The God of your fathers hath sent me unto you; and they shall say to me, What is His Name? What shall I say unto them?  And God said unto Moses I AM THAT I AM: and He said, Thus shalt thou say unto the children of Israel, I AM hath sent me unto you.”

Exodus 3:13-14.

God morning, Fully-believing Christian!  Not for you some half-way-house belief in the Lord God, or some parttime belief in the veracity of God’s revealed will.  No!  You and I are called to be 100% Bible-believing Christians, fully-believing Christians, or we are not true Christians at all! Fact. 

Those that quibble and hesitate, and falter in belief that Jesus Christ IS, was, and Eternally has been, and Eternally shall be – God of Very God, the Creator of this entire world, and mankind in Adam – are NOT genuine Christians at all.  FACT! 

We have God’s own inspired Word on this vital matter: “He that believeth (continual verb: believes and continues to believe; trusts, and continues to trust) on Him (Jesus Christ) is not condemned: but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the Name of the only begotten Son of God.” (John 3:18) Now, this is as clear as a bell, right?

“Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that heareth My Word, and believeth on Him (God the Father) that sent Me (God the Son), hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation; but is passed from death unto life.” (John 5:24)

The Lord Jesus Christ is, was, and always shall be God of Very God. Believe it, dear friend, for there is no Salvation for those that do not believe this vital fact of Salvation. Believing that Jesus Christ was a very good man; or God’s example of what we should be as Christians – is just NOT ENOUGH to be Eternally saved.  But it is enough to be Eternally lost!  Jesus Christ IS the Lord God.  If you are to miss some fact of faith – don’t let it be this one!

The Apostle Paul writes (at all times in the full inspirational authority of God the Holy Ghost) “Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus: Who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God: but made Himself (by the incarnation – God in bodily form) of no reputation, and took upon Him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men: and being found in fashion as a man, He humbled Himself, and became obedient (to God the Father’s will) unto death, even the death of the Cross. Wherefore (a conclusion) God also hath highly exalted Him, and given Him a Name which is above every name: that at the Name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in Heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth; and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.”  (Philippians 2:5-11) Amen! Hallelujah!

J.C. Ryle Comments:

Let us observe, lastly, in these verses, what distinct testimony our Lord bore to His own Messiahship, and second advent in glory. The high priest asks Him the solemn question, “Art thou the Christ, the Son of the Blessed?” He receives at once the emphatic reply, “I am: and ye shall see the Son of Man sitting on the right hand of power, and coming in the clouds of heaven.”

“These words of our Lord ought always to be had in remembrance. The Jews could never say after these words, that they were not clearly told that Jesus of Nazareth was the Christ of God. Before the great council of their priests and elders, He declared, “I am the Christ.” The Jews could never say after these words, that He was so lowly and poor a person, that He was not worthy to be believed. He warned them plainly that His glory and greatness was all yet to come. They were only deferred and postponed till His second advent. They would yet see Him in royal power and majesty, “sitting on the right hand of power,” coming in the clouds of heaven, a Judge, a Conqueror, and a King. If Israel was unbelieving, it was not because Israel was not told what to believe.

“Let us leave the passage with a deep sense of the reality and certainty of our Lord Jesus Christ’s second coming. Once more at the very end of His ministry, and in the face of His deadly enemies, we find Him asserting the mighty truth that He will come again to judge the world. Let it be one of the leading truths in our own personal Christianity. Let us live in the daily recollection, that our Saviour is one day coming back to this world. Let the Christ in whom we believe, be not only the Christ who died for us and rose again, the Christ who lives for us and intercedes, but the Christ who will one day return in glory, to gather together and reward His people, and to punish fearfully all His enemies.” (J.C. Ryle’s Exposition of Mark’s Gospel)

The high priests and religious rulers of Jerusalem reacted to Christ’s declaration of His full deity by accusing Him of ‘blasphemy’!  Then they proceeded to ‘…condemned Him to be guilty of death…spit on Him…cover His face…buffet Him (punch Him hard), torment Him; and “the servants did strike Him with their hands.” 

Hell will be so much more torturous to those that have treated the Christ of God, and His Christian followers, with such brutal contempt.

Peter was faithful enough to follow Christ into the heart of the conflict – but then began to ‘warm himself at the fire of the world’.  Are Christians like you and I doing the same today?  Are we obvious Christians when in the company of other believers, then warming ourselves at the fires of the world when we are not?  Sobering thought, beloved in Christ.

Thought: Keep fully believing that Jesus is the Christ – God of Very God – He is risen! Hallelujah!

An Abundance of False Witnesses! Mark 14:55-59

Text: “And the chief priests and all the council sought for witness against Jesus to put Him to death; and found none. For many bare false witness against Him, but their witness agreed not together.”

Mark 14:55-56.

 “Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbour.”                                                                                                      Exodus 20:16.                                                                                                              “Thou shalt not raise a false report: put not thine hand with the wicked to be an unrighteous witness.”                                                                                                                                        Exodus 23:1.                                                                                    

Good morning, Commandment-honouring Christian!  Praise God for Christian believers who take God’s Ten Commandments to be profoundly serious instructions for living obedient lives in Christ Jesus! You do well, dear sister! You do well, dear brother! The Lord is pleased with us when we hear His Commandments with our hearts, and seek diligently to obey them, in the ever-given power of God the Holy Spirit, and to the best of our all-to-often weak and human fallibilities. Praise the Lord for Commandment-honouring Christians!

The alternative to being Commandment-honouring Christians, is a consequence too dire to consider.  If the Lord God has spoken to our hearts/minds – we should be careful to obey His Word.

“And Samuel said, Hath the Lord as great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices, as in obeying the voice of the Lord? Behold (look and fully understand) to obey is better than sacrifice, and to hearken than the fat of rams.  For rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft, and stubbornness is as iniquity and idolatry.  Because thou (king Saul) hast rejected the Word of the Lord, He hath also rejected thee from being king. And Saul said unto Samuel, I have sinned: for I have transgressed the commandment of the Lord, and thy words: because I feared the people, and obeyed their voice.”  (1 Samuel 15:22-24)

Disobedience doomed Saul to an ignominious future and eventual defeat in death.  Let us continue to obey God’s Word, especially His Ten Commandments.  Apparently, the Roman Catholic religious system has recently removed the Second Commandment from Roman Catholic Bibles, I wonder why? (Exodus 20:3-6) Could it have anything to do with worshipping ‘graven-images’, or idols of what they call ‘Mary, the queen of heaven’?  Beware such disobedience. (Jeremiah 44:15-30)

However, true and genuine Bible-believing, Spiritually regenerate Christians may also fail, fall, and falter in our faith. Show me the Christian who has never sinned, and I will show you the altogether pure, Holy, and ever-victorious Jesus Christ alone.  (Hebrews 4:15-16)

J.C. Ryle Comments:

Let us notice, lastly, in these verses, how much the faith of true believers may give way. We are told that when Judas and his company laid hands on our Lord, and He quietly submitted to be taken prisoner, the eleven disciples “all forsook Him and fled.”

“Perhaps up to that moment they were buoyed up by the hope that our Lord would work a miracle, and set Himself free. But when they saw no miracle worked, their courage failed them entirely. Their former protestations were all forgotten. Their promises to die with their Master, rather than deny Him, were all cast to the winds. The fear of present danger got the better of faith. The sense of immediate peril drove every other feeling out of their minds. They “all forsook him and fled.”

“There is something deeply instructive in this incident. It deserves the attentive study of all professing Chris­tians. Happy is he who marks the conduct of our Lord’s disciples, and gathers from it wisdom!

“Let us learn from the flight of these eleven disciples, not to be over confident in our own strength. The fear of man does indeed bring a snare. We never know what we may do, if we are tempted, or to what extent our faith may give way. Let us be clothed with humility.

“Let us learn to be charitable in our judgment of other Christians. Let us not expect too much from them, or set them down as having no grace at all, if we see them overtaken in a fault. Let us not forget that even our Lord’s chosen apostles forsook Him in His time of need. Yet they rose again by repentance, and became pillars of the Church of Christ.

“Finally, let us leave the passage with a deep sense of our Lord’s ability to sympathize with His believing people. If there is one trial greater than another, it is the trial of being disappointed in those we love. It is a bitter cup, which all true Christians have frequently to drink. Ministers fail them. Relations fail them. Friends fail them. One cistern after another proves to be broken, and to hold no water. But let them take comfort in the thought, that there is one unfailing Friend, even Jesus, who can be touched with the feeling of their infirmities, and has tasted of all their sorrows. Jesus knows what it is to see friends and disciples failing Him in the hour of need. Yet He bore it patiently, and loved them not­withstanding all. He is never weary of forgiving. Let us strive to do likewise. Jesus, at any rate, will never fail us. It is written, “His compassions fail not.” (Lamentations 3.22)

“Footnote: The question has often been asked, “Who was the ‘certain young man,’ mentioned at the end of this passage, on whom the young men laid hold, and who fled away naked?” (Mark 14:51-52) St. Mark is the only evangelist who relates this circumstance; and he has given us no clue to further knowledge as to who it was, or why the event is mentioned.

“No satisfactory answer to these questions has yet been given. The utmost that can be said of any of the explanations attempted, is, that they are conjectures and speculations.”  (J.C. Ryle’s Exposition of Mark’s Gospel)

One thing this young man had in common with Christ’s disciples, he too ‘…fled from them naked…’  Even the most faithful Christian man/woman is still merely a man or a woman. We must trust in Christ.

Thought: Let us seek God’s help to be faithful and true witnesses for Christ, daily.

The Living Jesus – Betrayed by a Kiss! Mark 14:43-49

Text: “And he that betrayed Him had given them (the chief priests and religious rulers) a token (or a prearranged signal), saying, Whomsoever I shall kiss, that same is He; take Him, and lead Him away safely. And as soon as he was come, he goeth straightway to Him (Jesus), and saith, Master, Master; and kissed Him.  And they laid hands on Him, and took Him.”

Mark 14:44-46.

Good morning, loving Christian!  Because of the deep love and affection, you feel in your heart for, perhaps, your husband/wife, your little and not-so-little children; your fiancée, or favourite aunt/uncle – you often express such wonderful love by kissing such persons.  You do well, beloved sister; you do well, tender-hearted brother, the Lord is pleased when we can express such innocent love to our families and one another in Christ Jesus.

“Beloved, let us love one another: for love is of God; and every one that loveth is born of God, and knoweth God. He that loveth not knoweth not God; for God is love.”   (1 John 4:7-8)

Judas Iscariot, now, today, no doubt languishing in a particularly hot section of Hell, believed in the concept of offering a holy kiss; as was the tradition of the early church.  However, as a man thinketh in his heart, so is he.  Judas’ heart was black and perverse indeed, and thus he perverted that very same tradition and used his treacherous kiss to betray the Son of God, Jesus Christ, to the enemies of the Lord God Almighty.  Christ Jesus was betrayed by a kiss.

“And he that betrayed Him had given them (the chief priests and religious rulers) a token (or a prearranged signal), saying, Whomsoever I shall kiss, that same is He; take Him, and lead Him away safely. And as soon as he was come, he goeth straightway to Him (Jesus), and saith, Master, Master; and kissed Him.  And they laid hands on Him, and took Him.” (Mark 14:44-46)

An Old Testament prophecy of king David was being clearly fulfilled, as all prophecy in Scriptures must surely be fulfilled to the letter.  God’s Word is truth. (John 17:17)

“I speak not of you all: I know whom I have chosen: but that the Scripture may be fulfilled, He that eateth bread with Me hath lifted up his heel against Me.”  (John 13:18)

“While I was with them in the world, I kept them in Thy Name: those that Thou gavest Me I have kept, and none of them is lost, but the son of perdition, that the Scripture might be fulfilled.” (John 17:12)

“Yea, mine own familiar friend, in whom I trusted, which did eat of My bread, hath lifted up his heel against Me.” (Psalm 41:9)

Let us more fully understand from our selected Bible passage today, the nature of Christ’s Kingdom: Christ’s Kingdom is not of this pathetic world, Jesus was not just some charismatic political leader who would win the carnal hearts of the Jewish nation and lead them to overthrow the Roman occupation armies of Caesar by armed violence. No! Christ’s Kingdom is a Spiritual Kingdom, a Heavenly Kingdom, an Eternal Kingdom – a Kingdom that shall continue on throughout all Eternity and know absolutely no end.  Hallelujah!

“And in the days of these kings shall the God of Heaven set up a kingdom, which shall never be destroyed: and the Kingdom shall not be left to other people, but it shall break in pieces and consume all these kingdoms, and it shall stand for ever.” (Daniel 2:44)

We Bible-believing, born-again Christians, are not called to physically fight and kill for Christ’s Kingdom – He has already won the victory at the Cross of Calvary, indicated by His cry from that cruel Cross: “It is finished!”  Nothing more needs to be done to establish the Kingdom of the Lord Jesus Christ.  “Stand still, and see the Salvation of the Lord!”

J.C. Ryle Comments: 

“Let us notice in these verses, how little our Lord’s enemies understood the nature of His kingdom. We read that Judas came to take Him “with a great multitude, with swords and staves.” It was evidently expected that our Lord would be vigorously defended by His disciples, and that He would not be taken prisoner without fighting.

“The chief priests and scribes clung obstinately to the idea, that our Lord’s kingdom was a worldly kingdom, and therefore supposed that it would be upheld by worldly means. They had yet to learn the solemn lesson contained in our Lord’s words to Pilate, “My kingdom is not of this world, then would my servants fight, that I should not be delivered to the Jews: but now is my kingdom not from hence.” (John 18:36)” 

“We shall do well to remember this in all our endea­vours to extend the kingdom of true religion. It is not to be propagated by violence, or by an arm of flesh. “The weapons of our warfare are not carnal.” “Not by might, nor by power, but by my Spirit, saith the Lord of hosts.”        (2 Corinthians 10:4; Zechariah 4:6)

“The cause of truth does not need force to maintain it. False religions, like Mahometanism, have often been spread by the sword. False Christianity, like that of the Roman church, has often been enforced on men by bloody persecutions. But the real Gospel of Christ requires no such aids as these. It stands by the power of the Holy Ghost. It grows by the hidden influence of the Holy Ghost on men’s hearts and consciences. There is no clearer sign of a bad cause in religion than a readiness to appeal to the sword.”              (J.C. Ryle’s Exposition of Mark’s Gospel)

Fear is a terrible thing, not only did Judas betray Jesus, ALL the rest of his disciples ‘…forsook Him, and fled.’ (V.50) You and I would probably not have acted differently. The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak, comes to mind. (Mark 14:38)

Thought: Jesus was led away to be humiliated, brutalised, slain: for your sins and mine.  Let our love for Him be genuine heart-love and obedience. He comes soon, beloved Reader.