Being alert can be very important at times.  If you don’t look both ways before you cross the street, it can be a deadly mistake.  If you fall asleep while driving, it can cost you your life.  If you don’t read the safety precautions before taking certain medications, you can get very sick.  Being alert can be very important.

When the Messiah tells you to be alert about something, it’s probably pretty important.  Jesus in this passage tells three of his disciples to be on guard.  He tells them to “Watch and pray lest you enter into temptation.”  This was an important warning.

Passage: Mark 14:32-42
Author: Rev. W. Reid Hankins, M.Div.
Sermon originally preached during the Morning Service at Trinity Presbyterian Church (OPC) on 02/01/2009 in Novato, CA.

Manuscript: Watch and Pray

 

 Watch and Pray [36:35m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (38)

How far are you willing to follow someone?  Are you willing to follow someone, even to your death?  Who you are going to follow, and when it is fool hearty to give up your life, and when it is noble, isn’t always so easy to tell.  This tension is behind our passage for today in Mark.  The disciples will be instantly confronted with a choice.  How far are they willing to follow Jesus?  By this point, Jesus had repeatedly told them that his future held suffering and death.  At this point, that suffering and death is imminent.  It will be that very night that Jesus is betrayed by Judas.  The next day he will be convicted, beaten, and hung on the cross to his death.  That was Jesus’ imminent future.  Would they stand by Jesus at that time?  Would they faithfully follow Jesus all the way to the end?  What the disciples thought isn’t what Jesus knew would happen.  In this sermon we’ll see how the loving Shepherd takes care of his wayward sheep.

Passage: Mark 14:27-31
Author: Rev. W. Reid Hankins, M.Div.
Sermon originally preached during the Morning Service at Trinity Presbyterian Church (OPC) on 01/25/2009 in Novato, CA.

Manuscript: They All Said Likewise

 

 They All Said Likewise [34:23m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (193)

We live in a world very concerned about legal matters.  Breach of contract is a very serious thing.  And that is fitting.  People who enter into contracts should plan to keep the promises that they are making.

In our passage for today, Jesus talks about something kind of like contracts.  He talks about covenants.  But he talks about covenants in the context of instituting the Lord’s Supper.  He speaks of his blood being the blood of the new covenant.  Let’s look what the Lord’s Supper has to do about the creating of a new covenant.

Passage: Mark 14:22-26
Author: Rev. W. Reid Hankins, M.Div.
Sermon originally preached during the Morning Service at Trinity Presbyterian Church (OPC) on 01/18/2009 in Novato, CA.

Manuscript: The Blood of the Covenant

 

 The Blood of the Covenant [34:12m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (306)

Have you ever been betrayed?  In our passage for today, Jesus predicts his own betrayal.  One of his closest friends would betray him to his death.  That is amazing: that Jesus knowingly entrusted himself to someone who would break that trust.  Why?  Why does Jesus allow himself to be betrayed?  And why he is telling this to the twelve here?  Let’s study this passage to find out.

Passage: Mark 14:12-21
Author: Rev. W. Reid Hankins, M.Div.
Sermon originally preached during the Morning Service at Trinity Presbyterian Church (OPC) on 01/11/2009 in Novato, CA.

Click here for the manuscript.

 

 Surely Not I? [35:07m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (131)