The Life of Christ
Message 163
Serving by Being Available


163.w#text file
Mark 14:12-16
12	And the first day of unleavened bread, when they killed the passover, 
	his disciples said unto him, Where wilt thou that we go and prepare 
	that thou mayest eat the passover?
13	And he sendeth forth two of his disciples, and saith unto them, Go 
	ye into the city, and there shall meet you a man bearing a pitcher 
	of water: follow him.
14	And wheresoever he shall go in, say ye to the goodman of the house, 
	The Master saith, Where is the guestchamber, where I shall eat the 
	passover with my disciples?
15	And he will shew you a large upper room furnished and prepared: there 
	make ready for us.
16	And his disciples went forth, and came into the city, and found as he 
	had said unto them: and they made ready the passover. (KJV)

What we find here is an unnamed Christian who served God and the church by 
hosting in his home one of the most profound events of history.  It is in 
this upper room that Jesus instituted the celebration that we know as the 
Lord's Supper.  It may be that it was this same upper room where the church 
tarried in prayer while awaiting the Holy Spirit after Jesus' ascension into
heaven.

Acts 1:12-14
12	Then returned they unto Jerusalem from the mount called Olivet, 
	which is from Jerusalem a sabbath day's journey.
13	And when they were come in, they went up into an upper room, where 
	abode both Peter, and James, and John, and Andrew, Philip, and Thomas, 
	Bartholomew, and Matthew, James the son of Alphaeus, and Simon Zelotes, 
	and Judas the brother of James.
14	These all continued with one accord in prayer and supplication, with 
	the women, and Mary the mother of Jesus, and with his brethren. (KJV)

Some of the commentators think that this may have been the home of John Mark 
and that this man was his father.  No doubt the house was not far from the 
temple, since the church would go to the temple to worship and return here 
to pray.  Jesus here inaugurates the first meeting place for the church with
the celebration of communion.

What we want to look at today is how a person serves God by being available 
to serve without hope of reward or notice.

Passover

First, let us remind ourselves of the Passover and what was about to occur.

The Passover was originally instituted by God through Moses at the end of 
the plagues on Egypt when Israel was in captivity there.  The last of the 
terrors that God brought against Egypt was the death of every firstborn in 
the entire land, even the firstborn of the cattle, Ex. 12.  The death angel 
of God passed through the land, taking the lives of the firstborn in every 
household.

There was one way to escape the sword of the angel.  Each family was to 
take a first year lamb and  prepare it in a special way along with un-
leavened bread.  They were to take some of the blood of the animal and 
place it on the door posts of their homes.  When the death angel saw the 
blood, he ‘passed over' that house and spared the home from death.

This became one of the major celebrations of the Jewish people throughout 
their history.  Jesus is here breaking somewhat with tradition because the 
idea was that one would celebrate the feast at home and with one's family.  
Here he is meeting in a home that is not His with people who are not His 
biological family.  But Jesus seemed always to be breaking either one 
tradition or another.  He emphasized the fact that in any celebration and 
any symbol, it was the celebration of the truths symbolized that was more 
important than adhering to the correct form.

Having 13+ people in one's home for a meal is always much extra work.  To 
have them with almost no notice is practically unheard of.  Yet Jesus very 
casually imposed upon this family this great burden.  And the family 
responded with complete openness and hospitality.