Session 1

Dear listener, we welcome you in our study from the book of Mark with Dr. Nagy Youssef. Today we will study chapter14. Dr. Nagy, in the beginning of chapter 14 we read these words. "After two days, it was the Passover and the Feast of Unleavened Bread. And the chief priests and the scribes sought how they might take Him by trickery and put Him to death." (Mark 14:1-3) My question is, why were the Chief priests and the Jews seeking to arrest the Lord Jesus and to kill him although it was written that He was the one who went about doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil? (Acts 10:38)

The reason in essence is a spiritual reason that led them to crucify the Lord Jesus all Glory belongs to Him. The Bible says," that the natural man, who is not filled with the spirit of God, or is not born of God, cannot understand the things of God because he is ignorant". Therefore, those people could not understand the coming of Christ to the world to save the sinners and to die on their behalf. As a result they strongly resist Him. But there are some reasons that drove them to do it, ones deriving from the first reason that we have already mentioned. The most important one was the teachings of Christ. Christ, all Glory belongs to Him, made Himself equal to God and according to them, He claimed that He is the Son of God i.e. God coming in the flesh. The second reason is that He raised Lazarus from the dead and this made him very popular which stirred the envy of the chief priests. The third reason is that they were waiting for the Messiah who was going to subdue the nations and when they found that Jesus was a humble meek man, they doubted His person and they resisted Him and sought to kill Him.
In the chapter we read about the Pharisees and the priests who wanted to arrest Jesus and to kill Him, then it goes to tell about the woman who broke the bottle of perfumed ointment. How does this story fit into the rest of the events?
In this story we learn many precious lessons that are related to the events of the cross. The story says that a woman came having an alabaster flask of very costly oil of spikenard. Then she broke the flask and poured it on His head. But there were some of who were indignant among themselves, and said, "Why was this fragrant oil wasted? For it might have been sold for more than three hundred denarii and given to the poor." But Jesus said, " Let her alone. Why do you trouble her? She has done a good work for Me. (Mark 14:3-6) Here we find that what God is looking for in the heart of man is love and reverence. The act was very simple, but it was highly appreciated by the Lord Jesus because the expensive ointment was a reflection of the woman's love and appreciation to the Master, all Glory belongs to Him. The second thing was the fact that Jesus foretold the disciples that He was going to die. But His body was not going to be embalmed by ointments and spices that women commonly used for the dead on the third day because the Bible says that when the women went with the balm to the tomb, they found that Jesus was resurrected already. The third thing is the prophecy of Jesus, all Glory to Him that the gospel was going to be written and preached in the entire world.
In verse nine we read," Assuredly, I say to you, wherever this gospel is preached in the whole world, what this woman has done will also be told as memorial to her." What is meant by the word gospel here?

The word gospel means the good news, and this is what we discussed in detail already in the beginning of our study for the book of Mark. The gospel is a group of teachings or events or works that the Lord Jesus did since the time He was born until He went to heaven. Even of this gospel was not written by the Lord Jesus Himself using ink and paper, in heaven or earth, but He wrote it by His words, teachings and works engraved into the hearts of the disciples and His hearers. They in turn, by the power of the Holy Spirit, passed it to other human beings until the day came when four of the disciples of the Lord Jesus wrote it down, forming four writings known to be the four gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John.
In chapter 14 and verse 10, the gospel of Mark says that Judas Iscariot, one of the disciples or the twelve followers of Christ, went to the chief priests to hand Jesus over to the Jews. Why would someone, who lived that long with Jesus, become a betrayer and a deliverer of his master? What made him do that?
The issue is not how long you spent following Jesus or how much fasting or prayer you did or trying to do better things, but the issue is the true change that takes place in the heart and the human nature. Many people, who have the appearance of piety but deny its power, claim to be disciples of Jesus or to be pious men of God. But their hearts are still unchanged and therefore they are still under the weight of their sins and walking in their evil ways. This is what the Lord Jesus meant when He said, "Not everyone who says to Me, Lord, Lord shall enter the kingdom of heaven." And "many will say to Me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Your name, cast out demons in Your name, and done many wonders in Your name? And then I will declare to them, I never knew you; depart from me, you who practice lawlessness! (Matthew 7: 21,23) In addition to the fact that his heart was unchanged, Judas was as the Bible says a thief although he was in charge of the treasury box. The Bible says about him that he loved the wages of unrighteousness. The priests gave him thirty pieces of silver to betray Jesus because Judas asked them, "What are you willing to give me if I deliver him to you?"
according to the book of Matthew. In addition, the Bible says that Satan entered Judas and he obeyed him. I want to ask you a question. Do you think that what Judas did was much worse than what Peter did?
Of course, otherwise Judas would have been forgiven and restored like Peter. I think the sin of Peter was as grievously as the sin of Judas against Christ. Peter denied knowing Jesus before the servants; he disowned Jesus. In the gospel of Matthew chapter 27 verse 74, we read that Peter began to curse and swear, saying, "I do not know the Man!"
If the two sins were equally bad, why was the ending of the two disciples different? Peter went back to be among the disciples and Judas hanged himself?

The only reason is that Peter while convicted of his sin he repented. When his eyes met the eyes of the Lord Jesus, he wept bitterly as the Bible says, and the Almighty heard his prayer and his confession of sin and He forgave him. He was restored to his original position. But Judas in spite of being warned by the Lord Jesus explicitly and gently to the point that Jesus called him friend, never repented or asked the Master's forgiveness. But he went and hanged himself and was full of despair. So the whole issue is about repentance and turning back to God and whatever man's sin is, the Almighty forgives it because He is the merciful one.

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