Last week I made many references to this particular Passover feast as the last supper, or the final Passover feast. Obviously, the Jews still celebrate Passover even to this day. I used those terms in spite of these continuing feasts because it was all fulfilled in Christ. These OT practices are finally fulfilled once and for all in Jesus. So, there are those, even among Christians who like to continue having Passover meals or Seder meals, and I suppose it’s good for educational purposes, but as far as casting that forward looking prophetic purpose Jesus is the final Passover Lamb. I will be starting off by finishing up what I had from last week, and then we will move on to the main point for today—the announcement of the covenant.

Remember from last week verses 29-31, Peter’s words to Jesus, “Even if all are made to stumble, yet I will not be.” Jesus said to him, “Assuredly, I say to you that today, even this night, before the rooster crows twice, you will deny Me three times.” But he spoke more vehemently, “If I have to die with You, I will not deny You!” And they all said likewise. Interestingly, that our Gospel of Mark is Peter’s account of the gospel to John Mark, and he is sure to tell John Mark that he swore he would not betray His Lord. But notice also that all the others said the same thing. In the midst of Jesus’ prophecy of His betrayal and the disciples’ desertion, we have this institution of the Lord’s Supper.

We continue to learn about the creation of the Kingdom as seen in 5 parts, and examined through the concept of covenant.

Today is a special episode from the Book of Luke. We will be back to Mark, Lord willing, next week.

There are religions out there, some of them even masquerading as some form of Christianity, which teach people in one form or another to work for salvation. They have a theology which requires certain things to achieve salvation. This kind of false teaching, at its core, does not see salvation as a free gift.

What does the Bible say about such things?

Today we begin our journey through the last 3 chapters of Mark’s Gospel. In chapters 14-16, we are going to see the creation of the Kingdom.

Today we will take a break from the Gospel of Mark and look at the Parable of the Prodigal Son. May this be a blessing to you. Don't forget to share this podcast with others.

Something that we often miss in our culture today is the use of poetic, figurative, and judgment language in the Hebrew language. When we read of the sun being darkened, the moon not giving its light, stars falling from the sky, floods, fire, and smoke—these are very standard prophetic imagery for political and social collapse. It does not mean now, nor did it mean in the OT when the prophets said these things that physical stars were going to fall out of the sky. It did not mean that the moon was not going to physically go dark forever. In fact, we absolutely know that these things did not happen. It is an absolute fact that Hebrew people understood the figurative way of a prophet saying things were about to get bad. Because we are well-educated Americans, living in the West, when we read, “sun, moon, and stars,” our mind goes to the actual physical heavenly bodies. It’s understandable. But the very first rule of proper Bible interpretation is to ask the question, “How would the original audience understand what I just read?” It’s a hard question to hold yourself to. But to be consistent and honest, we have to ask that question. It is the first rule of hermeneutics. What did the disciples understand? What did the Israelites understand? The disciples, unlike you and I today, were not steeped in Western thought, they were steeped in Hebrew thought.

Today’s sermon is a continuation from last week’s sermon where we were discussing the Olivet Discourse. We are going to continue on today, but I am speaking specifically about what is called the “abomination of desolation”.

We live in a world which seems to be in constant turmoil. In fact, it has been stated that the 20th century was the bloodiest century of known history. From 1900 to 1988 170 million men, women, and children were shot, beaten, tortured, knifed, burned, starved, frozen, crushed, or worked to death. Governments invented ways to kill people. Burning, drowning, hanging, and bombing are just a few of the ways it was done. One estimate is as high as click 203 million people now dead over the last century at the hands of governments given to wicked, godless worldviews and abuse of power. Of course we know about the constant saber rattling of governments all over the world today. There’s the ever present threat of China, the invasion at our Southern border, the war between the Jews and Hamas, the war between Russia and the Ukraine, and we just saw a little over a month ago now the assassination attempt on a presidential candidate. Then there is the crisis of the ever-weakening dollar, environmental hazards, pesticides in our food, global warming or cooling—climate change.

There are many different conspiracy theories that abound on the internet and social media outlets or the social unrest simmering just below the surface click with groups like ANTIFA and BLM. The media now calls us "Christian Nationalists" if we appeal to God as the source of our rights. We rejoiced that Roe v. Wade click was finally over-turned, but what it has revealed in more states than not, is that people want to keep killing the fatherless in the womb. When I stand here as a Christian and say, “Jesus is King right now,” I can understand how many—even other believers might say, “That’s just not true! How can you possibly believe that Jesus is reigning right now? Don’t you know these are the signs of the end of days?”

Today’s sermon is going to be a little bit different than my normal format. I already know that there will be at least 2 parts, and very possibly 3 parts as we look at this section of Scripture. Today, I will begin at verse 5. I am going to take each one of Jesus’ statements and give you some historical, cultural, and grammatical context. I want to present it to you because when we look at Scripture whether it is this subject or any other subject, we need to ask ourselves how the original audience would have understood what was being said or written. And, as always, I want to give you doctrinal truth so that you will be equipped to withstand false teachings.