Sleepy Judas - Mark 14:10-16 Series

Mark 14:10 Then Judas Iscariot, one of the Twelve, went to the chief priests to betray Jesus to them. 11 They were delighted to hear this and promised to give him money. So he watched for an opportunity to hand him over. 12 On the first day of the Feast of Unleavened Bread, when it was customary to sacrifice the Passover lamb, Jesus' disciples asked him, "Where do you want us to go and make preparations for you to eat the Passover?" 13 So he sent two of his disciples, telling them, "Go into the city, and a man carrying a jar of water will meet you. Follow him. 14 Say to the owner of the house he enters, 'The Teacher asks: Where is my guest room, where I may eat the Passover with my disciples?' 15 He will show you a large upper room, furnished and ready. Make preparations for us there." 16 The disciples left, went into the city and found things just as Jesus had told them. So they prepared the Passover. 17 When evening came, Jesus arrived with the Twelve. 18 While they were reclining at the table eating, he said, "I tell you the truth, one of you will betray me-- one who is eating with me." 19 They were saddened, and one by one they said to him, "Surely not I?" 20 "It is one of the Twelve," he replied, "one who dips bread into the bowl with me. 21 The Son of Man will go just as it is written about him. But woe to that man who betrays the Son of Man! It would be better for him if he had not been born."

Introduction:

Divine Providence vs. Human Evil

Imagine you have a 12-year-old son who loves to ride his bike. He’s on it every spare mi-nute, it’s his constant companion, he loves it. But one day while he’s at school you notice there’s a crack in the frame—the whole thing could break in half at any time. So you go and buy him a really nice, high-end bike to replace it, and you’re going to give it to tomorrow on his birthday. So you bring the bike home, hide it, and you want to make sure he doesn’t injure himself today after school, so you set his old bike out with the trash. The garbage man doesn’t come in time, and just as your son arrives home from school , he’s coming down the street just in time to see some other kid stealing that old bike. The thief doesn’t even know it’s trash—he just thinks he’s stealing a bike that got left out. And now your son is heartbroken because he just lost his bike.

Here’s my question: Who’s responsible for him losing his bike? If you say the thief, you wouldn’t be wrong. But mainly, it was you. The thief played a role, but you were really the mastermind behind it. You and the thief did the same thing—you both took his bike away—but you meant it for good and the thief meant it for evil. Two actors doing the same action but with opposite purposes.

And if you’re already thinking Genesis 50:20 then you’re way ahead of me. Joseph’s brothers sold him into slavery. They’re like the thief, doing evil. But God masterminded that in order to get Joseph down there in Egypt where years later he could end up saving his fami-ly’s lives.

Genesis 50:19 But Joseph said to them, "Don't be afraid. … 20 You meant it for evil but God meant it for good.”

Right off the bat, in the first book of the Bible, God wants us to have a really clear under-standing of this concept that in the very same action, two different parties can be at work. Hu-man beings doing something evil while God is doing something wonderful. God wanted to make that clear, and yet so often it’s not clear to people. Christians go around and around ar-guing about the sovereignty of God vs. the free will of man. One side says, “Man has free will! God doesn’t decide what happens, he just responds to what man decides.” And the other side says, “No! God has free will. He controls everything.”

“No, it’s man.”

No! it’s God.”

And on and on it goes. And God is saying, “Would you go back and read the first book of the Bible again?”

Now, why do you think it was so important to God to teach us this concept right away in the first book of the Bible? Why is it so important for me to grasp this concept of there being a human side and a divine side to all the things people do? Here’s why: because sometimes it’s important for me to look at certain events mainly from the human side. You don’t want a judge sentencing a murderer saying, “Oh well, God foreordained what you did from the foun-dation of the world, so don’t sweat it.” No. In that moment, God wants us to focus on the hu-man responsibility side.