Six Signs Of Sleepiness - Mark 14:1-9 Series

Mark 14:1 Now the Passover and the Feast of Unleavened Bread were only two days away, and the chief priests and the teachers of the law were looking for some sly way to arrest Jesus and kill him. 2 "But not during the Feast," they said, "or the people may riot." 3 While he was in Bethany, re-clining at the table in the home of a man known as Simon the Leper, a woman came with an alabas-ter jar of very expensive perfume, made of pure nard. She broke the jar and poured the perfume on his head. 4 Some of those present were saying indignantly to one another, "Why this waste of perfume? 5 It could have been sold for more than a year's wages and the money given to the poor." And they rebuked her harshly. 6 "Leave her alone," said Jesus. "Why are you bothering her? She has done a beautiful thing to me. 7 The poor you will always have with you, and you can help them any time you want. But you will not always have me. 8 She did what she could. She poured perfume on my body beforehand to prepare for my burial. 9 I tell you the truth, wherever the gospel is preached throughout the world, what she has done will also be told, in memory of her."

Introduction: The Stakes

Every year, about 100,000 people in the United States crash their cars because they fell asleep at the wheel. They started out awake but sleep overtook them without them realizing it. There was never time when they realized, “Oh, in 10 seconds, I’ll be asleep. That’s just enough time to pull over.” It doesn’t work that way. Sleep sneaks up on you. The transition is so gradual that at the moment you cross that line into sleep, you’re not aware that you’re crossing it.

Spiritual sleep is the same way, which is why Jesus repeated his warning about staying awake so many times at the close of the Olivet Discourse. Stay awake, keep your head in the game, don’t lose conscious awareness of the spiritual realm. If you’re not constantly on you guard, sleep will overtake you without your realizing it. So before moving on in Mark 14 I thought it would be good to do an-other message just on this one question : What does this passage teach us about how we can know if we’ve been drifting off? I showed you last time how Mark structures this in such a way as to show that he means us to read chapter 14 in terms of observing the sleepiness and wakefulness of the vari-ous people. So that’s what we’re going to do. And if you’re not sure it’s worth spending another whole session on this, just look at verse 21. This is what can happen if you fall asleep.

Mark 14:21 … woe to that man … It would be better for him if he had not been born.

Is that a terrifying statement or what? Judas goes from being one of the 12 Apostles of the Lord Jesus Christ to having the Lord say it would be better for him if he had not been born—all because he didn’t stay awake.

So what are the signs? How can you tell if it’s happening? When you’re driving you can tell it’s starting to happen when you keep finding yourself half way on the shoulder or in another lane. What are the indicators that it’s happening spiritually?

Signs That You Are Dozing Off

Sign #1 Diminished Fear of God

The first one we’ll learn from the chief priests. These guys are spiritually comatose. Mark 14:1 … the chief priests and the teachers of the law were looking for some sly way to arrest Jesus and kill him. 2 "But not during the Feast," they said, "or the people may riot." What does that tell us about them? They’re afraid of the people, but not God. They’re scared to death of what the people might do if they arrest their favorite celebrity , but they aren’t one bit afraid of what God might do if they murder his Son. Fear of the people keeps them from doing what they really want to do. Fear of God has no impact on their behavior. God’s displeasure isn’t a factor.

So one clear sign that sleep is overtaking you is when you’re more afraid of displeasing people than you are of displeasing God. More of your actions are calculated to please or impress certain people than to please God. When people are happy with you or people are angry with you, that affects your emotions more than if God is happy or unhappy with you. Fear of man is a sign of sleepiness. It’s a sign that your vision of the spiritual world is fading, and all you can see is the physical world, which is the definition of spiritual sleepiness.