Well let's turn to the Word of God in Mark
14. We need to be on the fast track in Mark, as
you know. And you're probably aware that next Sunday
is Easter Sunday and there is no way we are going to be at the resurrection by next Sunday. So that will be a few weeks after that. So we're going to have an Easter Sunday celebration
next week but the message is going to be on our Lord's experiencing Gethsemane, in Gethsemane. We will celebrate the resurrection but we'll
stay with the chronology as we flow through the gospel of Mark. These are wonderful days for us. We are covering a lot at a rapid pace, but
I think it's a wonderful way to experience these last hours of our Lord's earthly live. I want to draw you to chapter 14 of Mark and
verses 17 through 26...Mark 14:17, "When it was evening, He came with the Twelve. As they were reclining at the table and eating,
Jesus said, 'Truly I say to you, one of you will betray Me, one who is eating with Me.' They began to be grieved and to say to Him
one by one, 'Surely not I.' And He said to them, 'It is one of the Twelve,
one who dips with Me in the bowl, for the Son of Man is to go just as it is written
of Him. But woe to that man by whom the Son of Man
is betrayed, it would have been good for that man if he had not been born.' While they were eating, He took some bread
and after a blessing, He broke it and gave it to them and said, 'Take it, this is My
body.' And when He had taken a cup and given thanks,
He gave it to them and they all drank from it. And He said to them, 'This is My blood of
the Covenant which is poured out for many. Truly I say to you, I will never again drink
of the fruit of the vine until that day when I drink it new in the Kingdom of God.' After singing a hymn, they went out to the
Mount of Olives." This takes place, as you know, on Thursday
night of Passion Week. It is in the Jewish calendar the fourteenth
of Nisan, year 30 A.D. And on that Thursday night is the Passover
celebration for all of the Galilean Jews. In the Galilee, they celebrated their Passover
on Thursday because they mark the Passover day from sunrise to sunrise. The Judean Jews in the south celebrated their
Passover on Friday because they marked the Passover day from sunset to sunset. This difference we know from the writings
of the Jewish Mishnah which are the official documents concerning the conduct of the Jews,
and also from the history of Josephus. That's important because that allowed our
Lord to celebrate the Passover on Thursday night for a lot of critical reasons and still
be the Passover on Friday, because they were two authorized and legitimate celebrations. This Passover is monumental. For 1500 years since the Exodus, Passover
has been celebrated at that time of year by the Jews without a break. This is the last Passover. This is the final legitimate Passover. This marks the end of the Old and the beginning
of the New. It is not only the last Passover, it is the
first communion. Our Lord Himself makes the transition, taking
the components of the last Passover and redefining them as the elements of His table. The Old Testament is over and the New Testament
has come. Now it is essential that our Lord be the Passover
on Friday and die at three o'clock at exactly the time the Judeans were slaughtering the
lambs for their Passover, for He is the Passover Lamb and God made the timing perfect because
Jesus died exactly at that time on Friday. But it also is crucial that He celebrate the
Passover and thus this tradition of one on Thursday and one on Friday fits perfectly
in to the purpose and plan of God who is in control, after all, of all of history. The Lord needs to celebrate this final Passover
because it is commanded to do that and that allows Him again, as always, to fulfill all
righteousness. He also needs to celebrate it in order that
He might define it as the end and that He might inaugurate the new memorial that we
call Communion and make the transition. It is also critical that He have time, prolonged
time, from the very beginning of evening till after midnight to instruct His disciples. And all of that instruction is contained in
John chapter 13 through chapter 16. It is a crucial area of biblical instruction
and it is capped off by the great High Priestly prayer of our Lord recorded in John 17. Within that there are promises about the future,
as well as a listing of all the necessary resources for their survival in what was to
come. The main promise that our Lord gave them during
those hours was the promise of the coming of the Holy Spirit. It also provided an opportunity for Him on
His schedule, on His timing when He wanted it done to initiate the action of Judas, to
bring about his death right on God's schedule, a crucial Thursday evening then. Now having said that those are the components
of that evening, we don't know all of the chronological sequence with any precision. It really isn't that important to know what
followed what. It only matters that we know what happened. All of these things that are important are
laid out for us by the four gospel writers who write about Thursday night and collectively
we get the full picture, if not in any kind of order. What happened is critical, the sequence is
not. The lamb for the sacrifice was chosen on Monday
and God chose His Lamb on Monday and as the rest brought their lambs into the city on
Monday, so our Lord came into the city of Jerusalem as God's chosen Lamb on the day
the lambs were chosen. The lambs would then be killed either on Thursday
or Friday, whether you were a Galilean or a Judean determined that. They would be killed by the priests and then
eaten by those who brought their lamb. This Lamb, however, was not killed by the
priests, the true Lamb of God would be killed by God Himself. It pleased the Lord to do that. Passover was a very simple memorial. It looked back to the Exodus in Egypt. The final plague, you remember in the book
of Exodus, was the slaying of the firstborn in every family. And the only way that you could avoid the
angel of death coming by and killing the firstborn was to sacrifice the lamb and spread the blood
of that lamb on the cross piece and the side pieces, the wooden pieces of the door. And where the angel of death saw that, he
passed by, hence-Passover. What that said was that protection from the
judgment of God, deliverance from the wrath of God requires death and requires, listen,
the death of an innocent substitute. That's what the sacrificial system communicated. Very simple, that deliverance from sin's judgment,
from divine wrath can be provided by the death of an innocent substitute. The lamb was innocent from an iniquitous viewpoint. But no lamb ever satisfied God. That is why millions of them had been slaughtered
through those fifteen hundred years. But now, this would be the last legitimate
Passover because the next day the one who was the true Passover Lamb, 1 Corinthians
5:7, Christ our Passover, would be slain. And the reality would come, the substance
would come and the symbols and the shadows would cease. The slaughter of these lambs had gone on for
centuries, but now only one more day. At exactly the hour of slaughter on Friday
afternoon, the true Lamb would die, the veil in the temple would be ripped from top to
bottom, and the system of sacrifice, the Levitical system would come to its final end. And it would be ended not by Judas and not
by Herod and not by Caiaphas and not by the Jewish leaders at the Sanhedrin and not by
the Romans, it would be ended by God who offered up His own Son as the perfect sacrifice. And now again, it's Thursday evening. Peter and John have gone to make preparations. The disciples as Thursday began, you remember,
said, "Where are we going to have the Passover? There's thirteen of us, where are we going
to have the Passover?" And remember now, they were Galileans who
had an iterant ministry not only all over Galilee but in the last year of our Lord's
ministry, in Judea and they had to stay with somebody. Our Lord even said, "The foxes have holes,
the birds have nests, the Son of Man has not where to lay His head." They had been staying that week in the home
of Mary, Martha and Lazarus. But the question is, where are we going to
hold the Passover? And the Lord answers the question by sending
Peter and John, Luke tells us that in Luke 22:8, to find a man carrying a water jar and
follow him and the Lord had obviously set it up. And he will take you to the place. They went to the place, Peter and John, and
never left. So when Thursday evening comes, the other
ten and the Lord head toward an unknown place. Why the secret? Judas, that's why. Our Lord knew what Judas was plotting. He knew what he was planning. And He knew that it would have been a perfect
place for Him to be taken by the temple police under the leadership of the Sanhedrin if He
was in a room at night, the streets were empty, the place was pitch dark, it wouldn't be in
public view and if they knew He was going to be there, He would be defenseless and they
would come and take Him. And in order to prevent Judas from having
the opportunity to know where the place was and go tell the leaders of Israel, He made
sure they never knew until they arrived there and then Judas couldn't leave or he would
have been exposed. He would leave, but he wouldn't leave until
the Lord commissioned him to leave so that everything would happen on the Lord's timetable
and not that of Judas or the Jewish leaders. So eventually, they all arrive. And that's what we see in verse 17. It was evening of that Thursday and He came
with the Twelve. He actually came technically with ten, the
other two remaining there and they were all together. And again, we don't have a fixed chronology,
but this evening then begins...when evening begins at the setting of the sun, and runs
past midnight. It is a long meal. Into that evening, the four gospels fit the
following components...the Passover meal itself, the exposure of Judas, the action of Satan,
the confrontation of Peter about his denial, the discussion among the Apostles about who
of them will be the greatest, the unparalleled act of washing their feet, the teaching of
John 13 to 16 which includes the promise of the Holy Spirit and persecution, and all other
resources that will be made available to them, the prayer of Jesus in John 17, and some other
warnings to the Apostles. All of that occurs and is woven and around
the events that go on many hours at the Passover. Again, the components are crucial, the sequence
is not. Let's just break it up into two parts: the
final Passover and the First Communion, okay? Let's look at the final Passover, verse 17. Sunset officially starts Passover traditionally. The lambs have been slain. Prior to that, the place has been set. It is unknown to us. I know there's a traditional place in the
city of Jerusalem where they say the Lord had His last Passover, but that is purely
a traditional place. There is nothing in the New Testament that
indicates where it was. And that makes sense if you're trying to keep
it a secret at that time, and maybe the disciples didn't even know whose it was when they were
there. We don't know for sure what they knew, but
we know that we don't have any information about it. It had to be secret, absolutely secret in
order for our Lord to accomplish what He wanted to accomplish, so that Judas couldn't tell
them who wanted Him dead and He'd be arrested so that He had no interruptions but He had
the full time to go through all the things that needed to be accomplished that night,
all that incredibly critical teaching contained in John 13 to 16 and even at some point including
His great High Priestly prayer of John 17. Now this night is a monumental transition. I can't emphasize that too much. The Old is gone, the New has come. In verse 17 we pick it up that He came with
the Twelve and as they were reclining at the table and eating...stop there just long enough
to say, this is not a quick lunch. This is not a fast meal. They recline. And when they wanted a prolonged meal, that's
what they did. Their heads would be at the table, their feet
reclining away from the table. They didn't put their feet under the table,
as we do. We sit in a chair, put our feet under the
table. They were on some kind of a reclining couch
of some nature with feet away from the table and their heads toward the table. This is what they did when they had a prolonged
experience at a meal. Originally, however, if you go back to the
Exodus, do you remember the instruction? The instruction of God was this, "Eat with
your loins girded," that is with your belt on, all the loose ends pulled together. "Your shoes on, your staff in your hand, standing
up in a hurry." And they were to do that and traditionally
did that for some years because they were remembering the hurried reality of the Exodus. That custom had changed. That tradition had changed. And Passover became a more languid experience. The reclining would give the opportunity for
our Lord to accomplish everything that He wanted to accomplish. Now Josephus, the historian, tells us that
no less than ten men and no more than 20 would eat a Passover lamb. So they would have picked out their lamb,
it had gone to the temple, been killed by the priest, offered on the altar. Some of the meat kept, some of the meat burned,
and the rest taken by the disciples back to the Passover place and there they were ready
to eat it. According to Exodus 12:43 to 46, they had
to eat all of it. And so they would have spent the evening,
the appropriate number of men, eleven of them, plus Judas, plus Jesus, within the bounds
of ten to twenty, and they would have enjoyed that Passover meal. Now let me give you an idea of what went on
at a Passover and what you have to understand is this is a series of things, a sequence
of things at Passover in and around which were woven the other elements that we know
to be occurring on this night. First it began with a prayer of thanks and
it was followed by the first cup of red wine, doubly diluted with water... the first cup
of red wine, doubly diluted with water. After that first cup, which kind of launches
it, there was a ceremonial and an actual washing of hands. They actually washed their hands because they
ate with their hands and there was a ceremonial significance to it because it symbolized a
need for cleansing and a need for holiness. So the opening cup and then the cleansing
after the prayer of thanks. It seems to me that this might be a good place
to assume that while they were talking about the need for cleansing, while they were talking
about their unholiness, maybe that is where the Lord pointed out a problem with them because
Luke 22:24 says, "A dispute arose among them as to which of them was regarded to be the
greatest." Same ole, same ole, right? It is very likely that at that time as they're
just getting beginning into this and the issue becomes a heart holiness that our Lord confronts
that arguing about who is going to be the greatest, that ugly pride, by doing what John
13 says He did. "Jesus rose from supper, laid aside His garments,
taking a towel, began to wash the disciples feet. And He gave them a profound lesson on...what?...humility." It had to be juxtaposed against their arguing
about which of them was the greatest and such an open manifestation of pride. And then He said to them, "I've given you
an example for you to do as I have done for you." And then He even said to them, as recorded
in Luke 22:25 and 26, "The kings of the Gentiles lord it over them." That's what Gentiles do. "But not so with you." He went on to say the greatest of you become
as the least, as the servant, the slave. So just getting in to the Passover and they're
already demonstrating their sinfulness, the symbol of the washing would have been a perfect
time for them to confront that sinfulness. Our Lord perhaps does that at that interval
and then washes their feet to give them a lesson on humility. This was followed then, this washing, by the
eating of bitter herbs. This is when the bread would be broken. It would be flat bread, not a big fat loaf,
flat bread broken and distributed and then dipped into a paste made from fruit and nuts. And then after that, that would be first course,
kind of, they would sing the Hallel. The Hallel, from which we get the word Hallelujah,
are series of hymns that praise God from Psalm 113 to Psalm 118. And they sang them all at the Passover. Traditionally they would sing Psalm 113 and
114, and then would come the second cup of wine. And then after that cup would be the eating
of the lamb, the eating of the meal. That would be the great first course, or main
course, I guess you should say. And after the main course was completed would
be the third cup of wine and after that they would sing the rest of the Hallel, Psalm 115,
116, 117 and 118. And then they would have a final sip of wine
and one more Psalm and leave. That was the evening. That could have all been done rather in a
brief amount of time, however, it was strung out for many, many hours, being interrupted
by all the other things that we talked about going on. Early in this celebration in this sequence,
our Lord says something that I think is important for us to hear in Luke 22:15 and16. "He said to them, 'I have earnestly desired
to eat this Passover with you before I suffer.'" The language is very, very strong. Literally He says, "I desire with a desire,"
that's emphatic in the Greek. This is a very strong passion, "I must celebrate
this Passover with you before I suffer. This has to happen for all the reasons that
I told you." Not only because it's right because it's commanded
by God, but because He must make this transition. He must end an era. He must bring to a completion an entire system
and launch a new one and He must lay out all the promises upon which every believer through
all of redemptive history draws and He must tell them of the coming of the Holy Spirit,
and He must confront their sin, and He must give them a lesson on humility and all these
things are so compelling. He knows that He can't die until all of this
is clearly delineated to them and the Holy Spirit will bring it back to their memory
in the future and they will write it down and it will be inscripturated and we will
follow that instruction and cling to those promises. This has to happen before He dies. He has, like everybody else, lived His whole
life seeing animals sacrificed and all of them, He knew, pointed to Him. And now He was eating a meal at which the
last legitimate Lamb was sacrificed and would be eaten and in a matter of hours it would
be over. And He was the fulfillment of all those sacrifices. And in the view of His imminent suffering,
He knows He will die, He knows He will not live to another Passover, He understands the
urgency of this hour. And there's another component, John 13 begins
by saying this, "He loved His own who were in the world, eis telos , to the max, to the
limit, to the end. It was not simply a theological demonstration
here. What He said to them, what He promised to
them, what He pledged to them, and what He called for them to do was all a part of loving
instruction. It was His profound love for them, as well
as their profound necessity for the truth He would give them that compelled this to
occur. He says in verse 16 of Luke 22, "I say to
you, I'll never again eat this meal with you until it is fulfilled in the Kingdom of God." And with that statement, we have the end of
all legitimate Passovers. It was a...it was a...this was His last meal
before the cross, He ate the lamb and then became the Lamb hours later. Will there ever be another Passover, legitimate
one? Will there ever be? There will, He says that, please notice it. This is not going to happen, He says in Luke
22, until it is fulfilled in the Kingdom of God. Even Passover has not yet reached its final
fulfillment. That's going to happen in the Kingdom. Paul says, "We do this until he comes." Matthew 6:29 talks about the fact that it's
going to occur in the Kingdom. It is unmistakable what He means in His earthly,
millennial reign for a thousand years in Jerusalem in the future when He returns, He will celebrate
the Passover meal with His own redeemed people again. He will. The prophet Ezekiel gives a picture of the
millennial worship in Ezekiel 4o to 48, that whole section is a picture of millennial worship,
the worship of Christ in the Kingdom to come. Within that section of 40 to 48, right about
in the middle, chapter 45 verses 21 to 25 describe the celebration of the Passover. There will be a temple built in the Millennium. There will be a Passover held at that time
in the Millennial Kingdom, not as a memorial to the Exodus, but as a memorial to the cross...as
a memorial to the cross, to the true Lamb. The Passover will be celebrated there, Christ
will officiate at that celebration as He did with His disciples on that Thursday night
and it will look at His death as the perfect Passover Lamb. This is good news for them because He's talking
about His death and they need to know that not only will He die, but He will rise and
He will establish His Kingdom, and they will be there and He will be with them there and
they will celebrate a Passover again. This is wonderfully encouraging to them, and
they hung on this one. When He talked about His death, they didn't
allow that to register. When He talked about the Kingdom, they got
that. They were on that channel all the time. That's why in Acts 1 they said, "Will You
at this time restore the Kingdom to Israel?" So He sees His suffering coming. He sees His resurrection. He also sees His Kingdom glory and He lets
them know it's a reality, everything in the plan of God. That's from Luke. Now back to Mark. We'll move a little faster. "As they were reclining at the table and eating,
Jesus said, 'Truly I say to you that one of you will betray Me, one who is eating with
Me.'" Somewhere in the middle of this Passover,
this last Passover, Jesus says, "One of you will betray Me. One of YOU." This is related back to Psalm 55, you probably
remember that Psalm because it is familiarly linked, "For it is not an enemy who reproaches
Me, then I could bear it, or is it one who hates Me who has exalted himself against Me,
then I could hide Myself from him, but it is you, a man, My equal, My companion, My
familiar friend who had sweet fellowship together, walked in the house of God in the throng." It's one of YOU! Of course our Lord knew all along who it was. He knew it was Judas. He knew Judas' heart, He could read minds,
John 2, He knew what was in the heart of man. In John 6 verse 7 He said, "One of you is
a devil, an adversary, an enemy," and He knew who it was. He knew Judas and He knew his heart. You remember, don't you, recently back on
Saturday that Mary had broken the vial of perfume, poured it all over Jesus and it was
Judas who protested that the money could have been saved and this could have been sold and
the money given to the poor. And the Scripture says he said it not because
he cared about the poor, but because he held the purse and he was stealing from it all
the time. Jesus knew that. But the disciples didn't know it. He was a very skilled hypocrite...very skilled. So when Jesus said, "One of you will betray
Me, one who is eating with Me," that was outrageous. When you had a meal with someone, that was
safety, that was friendship. You didn't violate the person you were having
a meal with, unthinkable in the Jewish culture. "One of YOU." Well they had no idea it was Judas. Verse 19, "They began to be grieved and to
say to Him, one by one, "Surely not I." The word "grieved," lupeo means to be distressed,
sorrowful, profoundly pained. Matthew adds, "They were exceedingly summotra,
strongly, violently distressed, agitated. John 13:22 says they were doubting of whom
He spoke, they had no clue. For three years, Judas had been the most clever
of hypocrites. When they preached, he preached. When they talked about the Kingdom, he talked
about the Kingdom. When they prayed, he prayed. When they listened, he listened. Apparently when they healed, he was out there
healing. In their shock and disbelief, they had no
clue. So one by one, each of them says, "Surely
not I?" There's incredulity in that but there's a
sense which you could call wholesome self-distrust. They knew their hearts. They knew they were weak. It is instructive to find out a little more
detail about this by reading from the thirteenth chapter of John in verse 18, He says, "I don't
speak of all of you, I know the ones I've chosen. I know who it is. But it is that the Scripture may be fulfilled,"
and then He quotes Psalm 41:9, "He who eats My bread has lifted up his heel against Me." Well the disciples, verse 22, began looking
at one another at a loss to know which of them He was speaking. And there next to Jesus was John, the one
whom Jesus loved, he always calls himself like that. Simon Peter says to John, "Ask Him, ask Him,
ask Him." John said, "Lord, who is it? Who is it?" "Jesus then answered, 'That is the one for
whom I shall dip the morsel," so now we know they're at the point where they're ready to
dip the bread and give it to him. "So when He had dipped the morsel, He took
and gave it to Judas, the son of Simon Iscariot. After the morsel, Satan then entered into
him. Therefore Jesus said to him, 'What you do,
do quickly.'" They were honest, humble haters of hypocrisy,
these men. They were lovers of Jesus in their own way. They desired their master to give them an
honest answer and they wanted to know if it was one of them. They asked an honest question. Judas was such an adept hypocrite, such a
crafty thief that he had been stealing from the bad all along and they never knew that
either. Judas was another Ahithophel. You remember the story of Ahithophel in 2
Samuel 16 who turned traitor against David and ended up strangling himself. As wretched and foolish as Judas was, as much
as he operated on his own evil, wretched desires, he did not function outside the plan of God,
nor did he alter the plan of God, or thwart the plan of God or adjust the plan of God,
but verse 21 says, "For the Son of Man is to go just as it is written of Him. He is to go just as it is written of Him. And it is written of Him that He will be betrayed
by a familiar friend, that He will be betrayed by one who lifts up his heel against Him who
also takes bread with Him." It is written of him. He will go the way it is written of him. Every detail, the details of His crucifixion
in Psalm 22, the meaning of His crucifixion in Isaiah 53, the detail of Him being pierced
in Zechariah 12:10, the details of His resurrection in Psalm 16 and other features of Old Testament
prophecy all prewritten. That is why when Paul preaches the gospel
in 1 Corinthians 15, verse 3 he says, "Christ died according to the scriptures," the next
verse, "and rose the third day according to the scriptures." Everything was laid out in Scripture. Our Lord was not killed at the whim of Judas,
or Pilate, or Caiaphas, or Herod, or the Sanhedrin, or the Romans, or even Satan, but by God on
God's timing and in God's manner. "Still...verse 21 says...woe to that man by
whom the Son of Man is betrayed. It would have been good for that man if he
had not been born." Because God used Judas in His plan, does not
exonerate Judas. In case you wondered, God will use every human
being who rejects Him to accomplish His own purpose in His own plan and none of them will
be exonerated because our sovereign God overrules for His own ends and His own glories their
choices. That's nothing different with Judas than it
is with anybody. If you think that, if anyone thinks that they
can thwart the purposes of God by acting against Christ and against His church and against
the gospel and against God Himself, that is a fool, to be sure. For God orders everything according to His
own purpose. Judas, like any rejecter, like any sinner,
acts on his own motives...acts on his own choice, acts by his own will, as a result
of his own mental machinations and the drivings of his own evil lusts. He operates on his own greed and his own selfishness
and his own materialism and he betrays Christ and He works it all out, yet everything He
does is fit by God into a divinely chosen part of God's plan so that Judas plays a crucial
role in the death of Christ, just as God designs. In fact, he was allowed to be an Apostle for
that reason. Yet the Lord gave him opportunity even while
he was there to believe the truth. The rejection was his choice and he'll be
punished for it. "Woe to that man by whom the Son of Man is
betrayed. Woe to that man." Woe means cursed, damnation, hell. And we know the end of Judas, don't we? He hanged himself, the rope broke and his
bowels were exploded on the rocks below and he was thrown into the dump, the trash heap,
outside Jerusalem, and worse into the eternal Lake of Fire. By the way, there is no stronger statement
in Scripture on human responsibility than the statement, "It would have been good for
that man if he had never been born." That is the strongest statement that I know
of in Scripture on human responsibility. We talk a lot about the sovereignty of God,
but that is the strongest statement on human responsibility. Better never born than damned forever. The severest punishment of hell is for those
who knew the most about Christ, Hebrews 10:29, if you know the most and you trample it underfoot,
you will receive the severest punishment. Add to what we've experienced, all the teaching
in John 13-16, the High Priestly prayer of Jesus and other things the other gospel writers
have told us, and you fill up that evening. It all ends, the greatest single observance
that the Jews were given and it was before the priesthood, before the Levitical things,
the remembrance of the Passover. It is now done until the Kingdom. At this point, the record tells us Judas left. And he went to get his money and to tell the
leaders of the Sanhedrin where they could find Jesus, in the Garden later. And now the eleven remain and the Lord instructs
them on His table. We come to verse 22, now I know we have several
verses left, but this is something you're very familiar with. So I'm not going to spend a lot of time on
this. "While they were eating, He took some bread." At some point in this Passover, pretty high
drama by now, He blesses it, which is what went on as they ate, they blessed the cup,
they blessed the bread, they blessed the Lamb, they blessed the whole event, He broke it,
gave it to them and said, "Take it, or take, actually, this is My body." Judas is gone now. Judas is gone. It's a good thing he's not there because you're
not supposed to be at the Lord's Table and eat unworthily, 1 Corinthians 11:27. Although it wouldn't have changed anything
with him. He took the bread, the artos , the flat bread,
and He gave thanks, He blessed it. All the giving of thanks is why this is called
the Eucharist, the Greek verb for thanks, giving thanks is eucharisteo. So the Roman Catholic Church calls it the
Eucharist because of the blessing on the cup and the blessing on the bread. He broke it, that's so they could all share,
it was baked as a unit of some kind. That's not symbolic because not a bone of
His body was broken, John 19:36 says, as it was prophesied. Broken only to be distributed, it was given
to them, "Take, eat," then He said, "This is My body," and that's new. The bread of the Passover had never been anything
but a memorial to the Passover itself in Egypt and the unleavened bread which they baked
for that Passover meal, this is all brand new. In fact, Luke adds this, Luke 22:19, "This
is My body which is given for you," that's so important, isn't it? "Do this," and here are the key words, "in
remembrance of Me. Do this in remembrance of Me." That explains what this act means. It is remembrance. Paul got it, 1 Corinthians 11:24, "When He
had given thanks, broke it, said, 'This is My body which is for you, do this in remembrance
of Me.'" What is the point of the Lord's table? It is remembrance. It is a reminder of the gift of deliverance
from sin through the body and blood of Christ. It was killed for us. The Roman Catholic Church has prostituted
this into something bizarre, into what is called transubstantiation whereby some priestly
blessing, what is bread coming out of the kitchen becomes the actual body of Jesus in
the hands of the priest. There's nothing in Scripture about that. The Lutherans didn't like that, so they came
up with consubstantiation which says well it isn't the physical body of Jesus, but it's
the spiritual body of Jesus. You're not eating Him physically, you're eating
Him spiritually, neither of which is true. Why do we do this? Do this in...what?...in remembrance. It is purely bread, simply wine so that we
can remember. When they ate the Passover lamb, they weren't
eating God. It was just a memorial, it was just a symbol. This is just a remembrance. Get so complicated now because the Catholic
Church doesn't want you to spill the actual blood of Jesus so you can't ever drink that...only
the priest can touch that because he's not going to spill it and whatever is left over
goes...put in the freezer somewhere so it's protected. It becomes so bizarre. It's a remembrance, nothing more. By it we remember that He was bruised for
our iniquities, that He was chastened for our peace, He was wounded for our transgressions. Isaiah 53,Galatians 3, that He was made a
curse for us, He was made sin for us who knew no sin. That He bore in His own body our sins on the
cross. All of those things that the New Testament
talks about, it is simply remembrance. That is the bread and the cup is the same. When He had taken a cup, a cup...Matthew calls
it THE cup. Luke, 1 Corinthians calls it THE cup and so
does Paul, THE cup. That would correspond, I think, to the third
cup of the Passover after the eating and before the final singing. This is often called the cup of blessing. He took the cup and gave thanks. He gave it to them, they all drank from it
and He said to them, "This is My blood of the Covenant which is poured out for many." You can't take the past and carry it on anymore. No place for Passover. That cup doesn't mean that. That bread doesn't mean what it used to mean. They all drank, the unity of believers there,
in the Roman Catholic Church, one priest drinks for everybody. This is My blood of the Covenant. Shedding the blood was always God's requirement
to establish a covenant. You see that in Genesis 8:15; Exodus 24; etc. Covenants were established, promises were
guaranteed by blood. Shedding blood was God's requirement to establish
a covenant. Reconciliation with God, covenant relationship
with God, entering in to God's promise of forgiveness and salvation required a blood
sacrifice. That blood sacrifice could be an innocent
substitute. Christ is that innocent substitute. He offers Himself on the cross. He pays the price for sin, satisfies the justice
of God, takes our sins in His own body and bears in full the wrath of God for us and
that is the act that validates and ratifies the New Covenant forgiveness. Just a quick note. There's a lot of covenants in the Bible. God made a lot of promises. He promised not to drown the world again,
that's the Noahic Covenant. He gave us the law, that's the Mosaic Covenant. He had a priestly covenant about the behavior
of the priests. There was the Abrahamic Covenant which did
promise salvation but no means. There is the Davidic Covenant which promises
a Kingdom and a King, the Messiah and the future Kingdom. The new covenant promises forgiveness of sin,
salvation, regeneration and new life. It is laid out in specific in Ezekiel 36,
in Ezekiel 37 and in Jeremiah 31. It is a saving covenant. You get a new heart and a new Spirit and complete
forgiveness. It's regeneration. That's salvation. That's always been in operation. It's always been in operation. But it was ratified by the death of Jesus
Christ. The Old Covenant could be written constantly
in animal blood because it was only a covenant of promise, it consisted of promise. The New Covenant is fully satisfied in the
blood of one Lamb, the blood of Christ because it consisted not of promise but of fulfillment...fulfillment. The actual purchase of our redemption was
made by Christ and He paid the price for the redemption of all the people who were before
Him, all the way back to Adam. The bloodshed, the blood which is shed, Matthew
says, Matthew 26:28, the blood which is poured out. And here, please, it says, "This is My blood
which is poured out for many...for many." Isaiah 53:12 says the same thing, He did this
for many. Matthew adds, "For the forgiveness of sins. Final payment was made, now there's no more
need for the symbolic lambs, all we need to do is remember the cross...remember the cross. The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of
the world." So we come together, don't we? Regularly, all the time, we'll do it on Friday. In a sense, this sermon will be completed
on Friday when we act out what our Lord has instructed His disciples on this night to
do. And again giving confident hope, verse 25,
"Truly I say to you, I will never again," strong emphatic language, "I will never, ever,
ever again drink of the fruit of the vine until that day when I drink it new in the
Kingdom of God." Oh, so not only in the Kingdom to come will
we be rejoined to the Lord, and not only will be rejoined to Him to come to His table to
celebrate the Passover, but we'll also celebrate His table, Communion. That's the Kingdom. Matthew, Mark and Luke record this statement
that I'll never do it again until I do it with you in the Kingdom. Folks, there has to be a Kingdom. This is the great Millennial promise. The Old Covenant has ended, the New Covenant
has come, it has been ratified with the death of Christ. The last Passover, the first Communion, we
celebrate that Communion till He comes. When He comes, sets up His Kingdom, we will
have a new kind of worship in which we will gather together as He leads us and celebrate
a Passover and a Lord's table that both look at His cross. Apostate Israel at this time has been cut
off from blessing. We are the Gentiles who have been grafted
in, Romans 9 to 11. We keep the Lord's Table memorial. We drop the Passover until the Kingdom when
both will be a part of that great day. Well it was almost over. They had one more...one more hymn to sing. I want you to look at it, Psalm 136 would
have been their final Passover hymn...Psalm 136. Twenty-six verses and it's about the Lord. I'm just going to pick up the highlights. "The Lord is good. The Lord does great wonders. He made the heavens with skill. Spread out the earth above the waters. Made the great lights. Moon and stars to rule by night." And here we come. This was the closing of Passover. "He smote the Egyptians and their firstborn. He brought Israel out from their midst. With a strong hand and an outstretched arm
and He divided the Red Sea asunder and He made Israel pass through the midst of it. And He overthrew Pharaoh and his army and
the Red Sea and He led His people through the wilderness. And He smote great kings. You remember, and He slew mighty kings, Sihon,
Og, and He gave their land as a heritage. A heritage to Israel His servant. He remembered us in our lowest state, rescued
us from our adversaries. He gives food to all flesh. Give thanks to the God of heaven." Twenty-six times, what line is repeated, "For
His...what?...Lovingkindness is everlasting. That's what they sang. His loving kindness is everlasting. They repeated that statement 26 times. And if ever that statement should be repeated,
it should be repeated by the people who understand the cross, right? Cause that's where His loving kindness in
its everlasting nature is made available. Father, we thank You for a wonderful time
of worship and fellowship this morning. Every one of these portions of Scripture is
so rich and so instructive and so divine, so supernatural. How our hearts are encouraged and lifted up. We think about the week to come and the opportunity
to come to Your table on Friday, may it be infused with some fresh new joys and understanding. Would You prepare our hearts for that. Lord, we know that in the midst of this, all
this beauty, all this majesty, all this divine sovereign control of everything, the worst
of men are plotting the death of the Savior. And even His own are going to defect and flee,
as we'll find out tonight. Even at our highest moments, even at the exalted
hour, being with Christ in that upper room and hearing everything they heard and all
the promises, the whole thing, it was just one short step to weakness and failure. Deliver us from that, Lord. And strengthen us by what we hear tonight. And we ask now, Lord, that You will bring
in to the prayer room those who need to come, those who need Christ, those who need to be
saved from their sins, who don't need to go to Judas' place. Lord, I pray that You'll break open hearts
and You'll give understanding to those that do not understand that You'll give clarity
to those who are confused. May they see the glory of Christ, open their
heart to Christ, come to Him as savior and Redeemer, seek the forgiveness of sin and
receive eternal life. Father, we pray that You'll do that mighty
work and that You'll enable us to help those folks. Draw them to those who can talk with them
and pray with them. Continue to build our church and strengthen
us for Your glory we pray. Amen.
