Hey there friends, another week, another episode
of the Semi -Seminarian. In this week's episode,
I want to focus on a story of Jesus' life at
the very end of his ministry when he gathered
at what we call the Last Supper. And I'd like
to use that story to illustrate something that
is very important for us to understand about
God, that in the middle of an uncertain life,
When things in our lives, circumstances in our
lives are incredibly uncertain, we can always
trust that God is certain, that he's always faithful.
I hope that you will enjoy this episode, and
I will see you on the other side. One of the
most dramatic moments in the Bible, and well,
perhaps even in all of human history, took place.
in an environment that we have come in our culture
to know as the upper room. It was something that
took place at the end of Jesus' ministry. And
if we've even been to church one time on Easter,
we've all heard bits and pieces of this story.
And essentially, he and his disciples had come
to the city of Jerusalem, and they were going
to celebrate Passover together. Now Passover
was this meal that they shared in that upper
room. Now it was also kind of a festival and
the meal was a remembrance meal where the Jewish
people would get together and they'd have a meal
and remember what had happened hundreds of years
earlier when the Israelites were in Egypt and
they were slaves and they were having their last
meal in Egypt. And then the next morning, They
were all going to get up and walk out of Egypt.
And they had been in Egypt for 400 years. All
they had ever known, their whole history to them
as a nation, was as slaves. And since the very
beginning, all that these people had ever known
was slavery. And they had prayed and prayed and
prayed to their God. And for 400 years, their
prayers went unanswered. 400 years. If you're
anything like me, after four days of praying
for something and we don't get it, I'll ask,
I mean, is there even a God? 400 years, their
prayers had gone unanswered. And eventually,
God finally sends them a deliverer by the name
of Moses. And Moses said to his people, tomorrow
we're leaving, and tonight, an angel of death.
is going to pass over the land of Egypt and kill
every single someone, that someone being the
firstborn from every single family that does
not have the blood of a lamb over the door and
over the doorpost of their home. And so the Israelites,
taking Moses at his word, slaughtered a lamb,
had a meal, and then put that blood on the doorpost,
if you've heard that story from Hebrew scripture.
And that night, The angel of death passed over
the land of Egypt and the next morning, Pharaoh
said, you may now go. And that was their last
meal. That was the last supper. That was the
last time Israelite families gathered together
in Egypt and the next day they packed up everything
that they owned and left. And now, 1400 years
after that event, 1 ,400 years after that original
meal, Jesus is going to gather with his disciples
and have their Passover meal. Now, they had done
this before, but this time it was different.
There had been a time when they had gathered
for the Passover meal and things were going great
because Jesus was a star. Jesus was a celebrity.
He was a cultural icon at this point. Thousands
of people had gathered together just to hear
him speak. And the disciples were feeling like,
hey, things are going great. There's a lot of
momentum. The crowds are getting bigger and bigger.
The miracles are getting bigger and bigger. But
as they were about to gather for this, we call
it the Last Supper, because it was the last time
he would share Passover with them on the earth.
Things weren't going well. In fact, the momentum
had turned around. There were rumors that there
were a group of people trying to arrest Jesus,
trying to isolate him from the crowd, get him
alone, and arrest him and accuse him of all kinds
of things. And the disciples knew that if Jesus
went down, they were going to go down with him.
And then he began to talk about his death, and
he talked about being taken. And they just sort
of filtered all of that out because in their
way of thinking, much like in our way of thinking,
if God is with you and if God is, you know, working
with you and if God is moving around you, then
things get better, right? Because whenever God
shows up, things get better. When God shows up,
there's more certainty, not less certainty. They
found themselves at a time when they were just,
well, things just weren't going well. In fact,
generally Jesus would tell them, hey, we're going
to celebrate Passover in this city and you guys
get ready. And here they were, the afternoon
of Passover, and Jesus still hadn't even told
them where they were going to celebrate Passover.
They were going to Jerusalem. He said, when I
go to Jerusalem, things are going to get really,
really bad. And of course, they're like us. And
they're going, so Jesus, why are we going there?
I mean, it was like Jesus had some sort of death
wish. It was like he was going to walk right
into the jaws of death. Things are going to be
bad when we get to Jerusalem, he said. But follow
me. And they get to the outskirts of Jerusalem
and they stop and they wait for the sun to set.
And Jesus sends two of them into town to meet
a mysterious man who takes them to a mysterious
place. And somehow Jesus had prearranged this
Passover meal, but he had never told his disciples
about it because this was at a time when he wasn't
even sure if he could trust them. And as it turns
out, he couldn't. He didn't want anybody to know
where they'd be because they'd be isolated from
the crowds that adored him. And as a result,
he would be vulnerable. So they sneak into Jerusalem
under the cover of night. Not a big celebration
this time. Not people shouting Hosanna. Not all
of the other things that they had experienced.
They sneak into Jerusalem under the cover of
night and they go to this home and they go upstairs
and they gather in this place, the upper room.
And it was strange, and it was eerie, and there
was no certainty. And then if things weren't
bad enough, Jesus begins the conversation this
way. I'm reading from the Gospel according to
Mark, in the 14th chapter, verse 17, Scripture
says this, When evening came, Jesus arrived with
the twelve, and while they were reclining at
the table eating, He said, Truly I tell you,
One of you will betray me. Literally one of you
is going to turn me in to the authorities. And
nobody in that room raised their hand and said,
hand you over to who? Because they already knew
the answer to that question. The momentum had
shifted. Things were not going well. One, he
says, who is eating with me. And this would have
punctuated the insult. To eat with somebody in
that culture is like eating with somebody in
our culture. It'd be like having somebody over
into your home and saying, thank you for coming
to my home. By the way, I know that you're going
to betray me. Not only is it one of you, it's
one of you who has chosen to gather with me around
this sacred table and to celebrate this amazing
thing God has done. And one of you who is eating
with me is going to betray me. They were saddened
or disappointed, and one by one they said to
him, Surely not I. They looked to their teacher
and said, Surely, Jesus, not me. It is one of
the twelve, he replied, one who dips bread into
the bowl with me. The Son of Man will go, and
here's God's plan in play, just as it was 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. The Bible is full of stories,
full of narratives written and taking place in
the midst of extraordinary uncertainty. In fact,
I would say this, as we as families and people
and as a nation, as a culture faced uncertainty
like we've never faced before, The Bible should
be a perfect place to run because your favorite
Bible story, whatever that Bible story is, the
one that you were raised on, the one that you
love to hear repeated again, your favorite passage
from Scripture, your favorite psalm, whatever
your favorite bit is, was written and reflected
a time of uncommon uncertainty. The Bible is
not. a book about rich people having fun. The
Bible isn't a book about when things went great,
Monday got even better. Then Tuesday, you got
the job and Wednesday, you got a raise. Thursday,
you got a bonus. And then your kids, you know,
they all grow up and they become professional
athletes and they all go to medical school on
scholarship. I mean that all of those wrinkle
-free life kind of things, you know, like, and
then they lived happily ever after. And there
was no divorce in the land. And God, you know,
it's just not in there. Every single passage,
the thing that we draw hope and security from,
all of those come from extraordinarily troubled
times. From the lives of people who discovered
that in the midst of uncertainty, God is still
certain. That in the midst of uncertainty, When
you couldn't even trace God's hand, when it seems
like He's absence. You know, like to the tenth
power, they discovered that God is still trustworthy.
And if ever there was a time for us to pick up
the Bible and read it, it's now. And we can read
the story about David, King David, who eventually
the Messiah would come from his lineage. And
he awoke one day, and I know you have problems
with your kids, but he awoke one day to discover
that his son had raised an army and was about
to invade the capital city to conquer him as
king and replace him. An army to destroy his
father. And you can read this story and you can
discover that God was in the middle of that with
David. Then there's a story that many of us had
heard growing up about a mother who had a baby
son and was told that Pharaoh decided to murder
all the baby boys because there were just too
many Israelites in the land. Here's a mother
who wraps up her newborn son and puts him in
a basket, shoves him into the Nile River as if
to say, if it's between the crocodiles and the
Egyptian butchers, I'll take my chances with
the river. And we can read that story and we
can discover that God was there. That that little
baby boy was found. And they named him Moses.
And he became the deliverer of his nation. But
before she had known the end of that story, where
was God in that? And then a reflection or perhaps
a foreshadowing of another baby that would be
rescued from a similar fate. As Mary and Joseph
discovered that Herod, in his jealousy for the
kingdom, based on just a rumor that there was
a baby being born that would grow up to be the
Jewish king, decided instead of trying to find
that baby, just to wipe out an entire generation
of little boys and send his butchers into Bethlehem
and the surrounding area and murdering every
single baby. And she escapes of all places back
to Egypt. To save the baby Jesus. And as there
was weeping and wailing in the land. You read
that story and you discover that God was right
there. In the middle of all that. That God somehow
still had the whole world in his hands. That
all the things, every single story. I mean, we
read these stories for ourselves. And when it
seems like things have spun out of control. And
all of the momentum is backward momentum. And
all of God's activity has ceased. And it seems
like the bad guys have won. And the evil king
has won. And the gods of the pagan empires have
won. We read those stories and we discover that
in the midst of that extraordinary uncertainty,
there's God. The message for all of this, the
word God has for each one of us is in the midst
of uncertainty. God is still certain. And nothing
has changed. And he still has the whole world
in his hands. Let me read the rest of that story
about that upper room. Verse 22. And while they
were eating. Jesus took bread and I'm telling
you, this would have sucked the life out of his
disciples. While they were eating, Jesus took
bread and when his disciples, when he had given
thanks, he broke it and he gave it to his disciples
and he said, oh yeah, by the way, this isn't
what you think that it is. You've been taking
Passover and eating this Passover meal since
you were children, but from now on when you eat
it, this is my body. Luke says, Jesus said, this
is my body that has been broken for you. Jesus,
what do you mean this is your body? Here's all
that death talk again, Jesus. We don't want to
hear this. If you really are from God, then things
have to turn around. If you're from God, then
things go well. If you're from God, there needs
to be more certainty, not less certainty. Then
he took the cup, and when he had given thanks,
he gave it to them, and they all drank from it.
And he said this, this is my blood. This is the
blood of the covenant, which is poured out for
many. And he foreshadows what's going to take
place just a few hours later when he's going
to be nailed to a cross and die in front of their
very eyes. Then they leave that room and they're
going to this place called the Garden of Gethsemane.
And there's so much drama that happens there
where he's eventually arrested. And then on the
way, the news got even worse. He said, oh yeah,
by the way, not only will one of you betray me,
all of you, all of you will fall away. For it
is written, I will strike the shepherd and the
sheep will be scattered. But after I have risen,
and they didn't hear this part, but after I have
risen, I will go ahead of you into Galilee. And
Peter, Peter is following along and he's thinking,
enough. Enough of this negativity, enough of
this bad news, enough about this arrest, enough
is about this betrayal. There is no way, Jesus,
we're going to allow this to happen because if
God is with you and if you are the son of God,
that's not how this story goes. There's more
certainty. There's more faith. There's more miracles.
But Peter declared, even if all fall away, I
will not. Because that's not how the story is
supposed to go, Jesus. Even if everybody abandons
you, I'm not going to fall away. I'm going to
stick with you through the very end. And later,
the very same man with all of that faith would
listen to a young girl accuse him of being one
of Jesus' followers, and he would deny it three
times. Now, here's the question for you and for
me. As we continue to experience extraordinary
uncertainty in our families, in our jobs, with
our children, with our leadership, with the Congress
and the Senate, with our government leaders and
our state leaders, with the economy, with what's
happening to our retirement, with all of that
uncertainty, here's the question. Can you trust
God? I mean, can you maintain faith in God when
there is absolutely no evidence of His activity
in your life? Can you continue to embrace faith
in God as a personal Heavenly Father when there's
absolutely no evidence of His activity in your
life, in your culture, in our country, seemingly
at times in the world? Your answer to that question,
my answer to that question, will determine our
response to the uncertainty in our lives with
our children, with our family, with our parents.
And I imagine if you were to go to the disciples,
those men that were gathered around that table
months later, and you were to ask them the question,
guys, when was the darkest moment when you followed
Jesus? When was the darkest time? When did you
have the least amount of hope? And I would believe
that they would say to us, it began when we gathered
around a dinner table Things aren't going to
get better. It's when we gathered around the
table that night and he promised instead that
things were going to get worse. And not only
would one of us betray him, but all of us would
fall away. And in a few hours, all of us had
fallen away. And the one man that said he would
never fall away, he denied him three times. And
then hours later, we saw him arrested. We saw
him tried. We saw him die. You want to know when
the darkest hours was for us? It was those hours
when we realized we had completely wasted our
lives and God isn't up to anything here. But
it was in those darkest, darkest hours when it
seemed like God was completely inactive, he was
the most active. Because those darkest hours
were the epicenter of the salvation of all of
mankind. That these would be the hours that for
literally thousands of years later, people all
over the world would look back to and rejoice
in God's goodness and grace. But if you would
have asked us in that moment, we would have said,
game over. Waste of time. Not a man of God. We
have wasted our lives. And that's a difficult
message for us. That's a difficult message for
American Christians. And yet... It is our story
as those of us, for those of us who've chosen
to follow God, and specifically for those of
us who've decided to place our faith in Jesus.
And it's not only your story, it's all of our
story. Because for many of us, that's our experience.
That God seems to take broken things and do His
most amazing work. That God seems to wait for
the last minute. to do His amazing work, that
God takes the busted and broken and hopeless
situations and show up in a way, not the way
we would choose, but we would never allow things
to get as bad as oftentimes they get. And that,
friends, counterintuitively, is the good news.
So how can we know to trust God? The greatest
things. Begin in the biggest messes. And that's
the truth of God we can take with us. The most
amazing works of God generally are launched at
a time of the biggest amount of brokenness. Because
this is what God does. But the question for you
and for me is will we maintain faith when we
cannot see his hand? And as our faith begins
to stutter, as our faith begins to shake a little
bit, as our faith begins to waver and we begin
to look to the left and look to the right and
look at our circumstances and we begin to doubt
more than ever, the Bible is the place to go
because all of these stories we read in the Bible,
all of the words in the Bible, the story of our
very salvation was birthed at a time of extraordinary
darkness. and extraordinary uncertainty. And
you can be listening to this podcast right now
and you can think, look, that's all neat, right?
Maybe it's even a little bit inspirational, but
that's not going to help me get a job. And that's
not going to help my kids in school. That's not
going to change anything. When tomorrow my wife
goes back to work and we find out whether or
not she's going to be able to keep her job. That
won't get me a commission. That won't change
anything about my prodigal son or my prodigal
daughter. And that doesn't make me well. And
you're right. And I struggle to find out faster
and quicker how we can do practical things to
help each other more. But here's one thing I
do know. Because this is our message. That although
that idea, that insight, that truth about the
scripture doesn't change anything about our current
circumstances. But here's what it does do. It
allows us to embrace uncertainty with the certainty
of knowing that God is still in control. That
although our life is uncertain. God is not uncertain.
Although life is uncertain and family is uncertain
and our economy is uncertain and the world certainly
is, God is not uncertain. He still has the whole
world. in his hands and this knowledge and the
bracing even if it's just with our fingertips
barely holding on it allows us to keep from making
decisions that even further complicate the difficulties
that we're facing it allows us to go to bed at
night and discover that there is there is a way
to have peace even in the midst of the storm
It will teach us to keep an eye out for the activity
of God that often takes us by surprise, as it
often took the characters of Scripture by surprise,
to hang on, to embrace the simplest truth that
even though life is uncertain, God is not uncertain.
It's easy for me to say, because I don't, at
the end of this podcast, have to get into your
car and go back to your home. Or go back to your
circumstances. I don't have to get up tomorrow
like I know many listening here are doing and
wonder, what am I even going to be able to do
today? I don't have to go home and figure out,
how am I going to figure this out? I realize
that our circumstances are all very different.
And what gives me the nerve to try to encourage
you? Am I painting a picture of pie in the sky
by and by? Is this just some sort of pep talk?
So after we're done here, you can work out how
you can maintain your faith. Is this just what
someone like me is supposed to say? I understand
all of that. And especially if you're new to
faith or if you've had a bad negative experience
or you've never seen it make a difference. I
understand that. But here's what I would say
in response. The foundation of this message is
this. In a way that we all need to understand
that when life is uncertain, God is not. The
children's song is right. He still has the whole
world in his hands. And he still has your world
and your family in his hands. And he still has...
Your life in his hands. He still has your personal
finances and jobs and kids and all the things
that worry us. Friends, I don't know what the
future holds for us as a nation or for families
or in our cities any more than anybody else does.
But although life is uncertain, I do know that
God is not. He still has the whole world in your
hands. And regardless of what we see or we don't
see, we have the opportunity to embrace a faithful,
faithful God. Even through circumstances where
it's very difficult, maybe impossible to see
his hand or even catch a glimpse of faith because
God is still in control. He's still on the throne.
God is still a God we can worship with abandon.
And God is a God that we can continue to trust
that even though our lives are uncertain, he's
not. He still has the whole world in his hands.
Well, there you have it. I hope that you are
able to draw. encouragement from that truth the
way that I am. Hey, before we go... I would ask
you to do me a favor, however it is that you
listen to this podcast, if you could take the
time to rate and review the podcast, I would
greatly appreciate it. It helps spread the word
out there for others that might be looking for
an encouraging word to listen to. Also, in the
show notes of this episode are all of the ways
that you can find us on the internet for our
website, thesemiseminarian .com, also our social
media. I'd love to connect with you there if
you have questions or comments. I'd love to hear
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Well, friend, I hope that in the coming week
you will be blessed and you can be a blessing.
We'll see you next time.