Countdown to CALVARY
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
Countdown TO CALVARY A study of Christ’s final week on Earth, as recorded in Mark’s Gospel with David Legge COUNTDOWN TO CALVARY David Legge David Legge is a Christian evangelist, preacher and Bible teacher. He served as Assistant Pastor at Portadown Baptist Church before receiving a call to the pastorate of the Iron Hall Assembly in Belfast, Northern Ireland. He ministered as pastor-teacher of the Iron Hall from 1998- 2008, and now resides in Portadown with his wife Barbara, daughter Lydia and son Noah. Contents 1. The Servant King’s Short-Lived Welcome - 3 2. Question Time – 15 3. Signs Of The Second Coming – 28 4. A Miserable Betrayer and An Extravagant Worshipper - 40 5. The Sop And The Supper - 51 6. The Agony Of Gethsemane - 63 7. Trial And Denial - 75 8. Golgotha - 86 This series is part of a longer study through the entire Gospel of Mark - ‘Studies In Mark’ is available on our website in both MP3 audio and PDF formats should you wish to continue through his entire Gospel. The audio for this series is available free of charge either on our website (www.preachtheword.com) or by request from [email protected] All material by David Legge is copyrighted. However, these materials may be freely copied and distributed unaltered for the purpose of study and teaching, so long as they are made available to others free of charge, and the copyright is included. This does not include hosting or broadcasting the materials on another website, however linking to the resources on preachtheword.com is permitted. These materials may not, in any manner, be sold or used to solicit "donations" from others, nor may they be included in anything you intend to copyright, sell, or offer for a fee. This copyright is exercised to keep these materials freely available to all. 2 COUNTDOWN TO CALVARY David Legge Countdown To Calvary - Chapter 1 "The Servant King’s Short-Lived Welcome" Copyright 2011 by David Legge ood morning, it's good to be with you again to Ards Evangelical to minister God's word. I've really been looking forward to the next four weeks, including today, together as we G look at God's word. I do hope sincerely that you're not here to hear me, because you'll be sadly disappointed. I hope that you're here to hear from God, and hopefully through the exposition of God's word you will hear His voice - that's what I've been praying. I've been seeking God over what to bring to you these four weeks, and I feel led to start by turning to Mark's gospel chapter 11. What we're going to do in these four weeks, morning and evening, is to go through the last week of the life of our Lord Jesus. So that's what we're going to do, now I can't make any promises how far we're going to get - I hope we might get through the whole week. We've got eight sessions, I think I'm right in saying, and the Gospel will be throughout these studies - so there'll not be one particular message a Gospel message as such, but the Gospel will be here and there - how could it not be when we're looking at the last week of our Lord's life as He goes towards Calvary, the cross? So we're turning to chapter 11 of Mark, and this morning I want us to consider verses 1 to 26 - but we're only going to read just now verses 1 to 10: "Now when they drew near Jerusalem, to Bethphage and Bethany, at the Mount of Olives, He", that is, the Lord Jesus, "sent two of His disciples; and He said to them, 'Go into the village opposite you; and as soon as you have entered it you will find a colt tied, on which no one has sat. Loose it and bring it. And if anyone says to you, 'Why are you doing this?' say, 'The Lord has need of it,' and immediately he will send it here'. So they went their way, and found the colt tied by the door outside on the street, and they loosed it. But some of those who stood there said to them, 'What are you doing, loosing the colt?'. And they spoke to them just as Jesus had commanded. So they let them go. Then they brought the colt to Jesus and threw their clothes on it, and He sat on it. And many spread their clothes on the road, and others cut down leafy branches from the trees and spread them on the road. Then those who went before and those who followed cried out, saying: 'Hosanna! 'Blessed is He who comes in the name of the LORD!' Blessed is the kingdom of our father David That comes in the name of the Lord! Hosanna in the highest!'". Let us pray together, and I would ask you please that you pray with me now, do pray with me now that the Lord may speak to you. Are you looking for the Lord to speak to you? You come here, perhaps, with needs, with burdens, with heartaches, with problems, besetting sins, shortcomings. You need the Lord to speak to you. Maybe you have come and your head is cluttered with all sorts of stuff, maybe even how you failed Him yesterday, or last evening, or this morning. All sorts of things can happen, you can have a row with the husband or the wife on the way out to church, and I know what it's like trying to get a clatter of children out as well! But let's just calm ourselves now, conscious that we are in the presence of God, the One whom we've been praising. Let's now supplicate Him, ask Him, to speak to us, and to manifest Himself in a very real way in our meeting this morning. Father, Abba Father, Holy Father, we come in the name of Your Holy Child Jesus, and we ask 3 COUNTDOWN TO CALVARY David Legge now for Your help as we come to this portion of Scripture, and indeed this very sacred holy week, the last week of our Lord's life. Lord, we pray that this will not just be a Bible study, we pray that it will not just be a session of teaching where we will learn more than we knew before - but we ask in His name that this will be a time, and indeed this series of meetings will be an experience, of meeting the risen, glorified Lord; and that through the Holy Spirit He will come to us. Lord Jesus, that is Your promise to Your people: 'I will not leave you orphans, I will come to you'. So Lord, we pray that as we look at the last week of Your blessed life, that we would not look at this as history, but we would encounter You as real, and that You may minister the truths of those last days of Your life into our lives that we may be changed. For this we know we need the Holy Spirit, and so we ask now for the breath of Your Spirit to be upon us, and to minister not just to us but in us - for the glory of Jesus Christ we pray, Amen. Now we all know that a man or a woman's last words are very important. There are whole books on that, I have one in my library about the last words of famous men and women. As the last words of anyone are important, so are the final acts, the things that they did before they died. Now of how much more importance must be the last words and the final acts of the Son of Man and the Son of God? Now that's Mark's emphasis from chapter 11 right to chapter 16. If you're familiar with Mark's gospel, you will know that Mark's gospel is the gospel of the Suffering Servant, and it's the gospel of the cross - now that's not to say that the other gospels don't mention the cross, or emphasise it, but Mark in particular gives what we would have to say is a disproportionate amount of his gospel to the last week in the life of our Lord Jesus as He goes to Calvary. So we see clearly that this is his emphasis. Now the words and the actions of our Lord Jesus Christ - and this is very important - all His last words and final acts were with the perfect knowledge of what was going to happen during this week. That's what makes this week, the last week of His life, different than the last words or final acts of any other human being that has ever lived - because He knew what was going to happen. Indeed, not only had He premeditated the events, but these events were prophesied in the Old Testament, and more than that: they were preordained by God, they had to happen, and they had to happen in the exact manner and order that they did happen as we will see these weeks. That's profound, because I'm left in awe of that: what a Servant! This gospel is about the Servant of the Lord, the One who has come - chapter 10 tells us that He did not come to be served, but to serve, and give His life a ransom for many.