FBC Maundy Thursday Service 2022

Well, good evening. Glad you could come this evening for this special Maundy Thursday service and look forward to the next hour together as we reflect upon that the night before our savior was crucified, he spent that time with his disciples.

A whole lot more happened in that evening than we will cover this tonight. But what a powerful and packed evening that was, wasn't it? I want to begin this evening reading in Luke chapter 22, and you might want to turn in your Bibles to this passage.

The Upper Room and the Passover Preparation

We'll be focusing in the Gospel of Luke tonight. Luke 22, and I want to read the first 14 verses. It says, now the Feast of Unleavened Bread drew near, which is called Passover, and the chief priests and the scribes sought how they might kill him, that is Jesus, for they feared the people.

Then Satan entered Judas, surnamed Iscariot, who was numbered among the 12. So he went his way and conferred with the chief priests and captains how he might betray him to them. And they were glad and agreed to give him money.

So he promised and sought opportunity to betray him to them in the absence of the multitude. Then came the day of Unleavened Bread when the Passover must be killed. And he sent Peter and John saying, go and prepare the Passover for us that we may eat.

So they said to him, where do you want us to prepare? And he said to them, behold, when you have entered the city a man will meet you carrying a pitcher of water. Follow him into the house which he enters.

Then you shall say to the master of the house, the teacher says to you, where is the guest room where I may eat the Passover with my disciples? Then he will show you a large furnished upper room. There make ready.

So they went and found it just as he had said to them, and they prepared the Passover. When the hour had come, he sat down and the 12 apostles with him. Let's pray together. Our father and our God, as we look forward to this coming Lord's day, we realize that before the resurrection, there was the cross.

And before the cross, there was this evening with his disciples as our savior met with them, instructed them, encouraged them, and offered them comfort before they knew they needed it. And we pray as we reflect on that evening tonight, that you would also speak to us, encourage us, comfort us, even in the anticipation of resurrection Sunday.

And this we pray in Jesus name, amen. So to prepare our hearts for the Lord's supper, we want to begin in our supplement book with number 35. In number 35, and the hymn, How Sweet and Awful is the Place.

So we'll sing the first four stanzas only, stanzas one through four. How sweet and awful is the place With Christ within the door Everlasting love displays the choicest of her stories

Our hearts and all our songs join to admire the feast Christ, Lord, why was I against you? Was I made to hinder while there's roses make a wretched choice? And rather starve than cause the same love that spread the feast?

What else we had still to lose to taste? So there in that upper room, the feast has been prepared. The meal has pretty much been finished and completed. There's one cup that they will drink of, and then the Lord is going to take the elements that we'll partake of here in a moment.

Trust when you came in, you picked up a cup of the bread and the usher, the deacons, will serve us in a few minutes with the cup. First is I want to continue reading in Luke 22, verse 15, down before the partaking of the bread.

Verse 15, Jesus said to his disciples, with fervent desire, I have desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer. For I say to you, I will no longer eat of it until it is fulfilled in the kingdom of God.

Then he took the cup and gave thanks and said, take this and divide it among yourselves. For I say to you, I will not drink of the fruit of the vine until the kingdom of God comes. And he took bread and he gave thanks.

And so as we take the bread, and the Lord broke that loaf of bread and distributed it to his disciples, he broke it and he gave it to them. And he said to them, this is my body, which is broken for you.

This do in remembrance of me. Next verse says likewise, he also took the cup after supper. Gentleman will now service the cup. So he took the cup and he says, this cup is the new covenant in my blood, which is shed for you.

All of you drink of it. Matthew's gospel tells us that when they had sung a hymn, they went out to the Mount of Olives. So we wanna take our hymnal and turn to number six. In number six, we'll sing the hymn, I Sing the Mighty Power of God.

The hymn that they sung would have been a song of praise and exaltation and worship of our God. ["I Sing the Mighty Power of God"]. That made the mountains rise That spread the flowing seas abroad And built the lofty skies I sing the wisdom that ordained the sun to rule the day The moon shines full at his command And all the stars obey I sing the goodness of the Lord That filled the earth with food He formed the creatures with his word And then pronounced them good Our display I serve to tread or gaze upon the sky But makes thy glories known And clouds arise and tempests blow By order from thy throne While all that borrows life from thee Is ever in thy care

Gethsemane, Betrayal, and the Agony of the Cup

In Luke chapter 22, beginning in verse 39, it says, coming out, he went to the Mount of Olives as he was accustomed, and his disciples also followed him. When he came to the place, he said to them, pray that you may not enter into temptation.

And he was withdrawn from them about a stone's throw, and he knelt down and prayed, saying, Father, if it is your will, take this cup away from me. Nevertheless, not my will, but yours be done. Then an angel appeared to him from heaven, strengthening him.

And being in agony, he prayed more earnestly. Then his sweat became like great drops of blood falling down to the ground. When he rose up from prayer and had come to his disciples, he found them sleeping from sorrow.

Then he said to them, why do you sleep? Rise and pray, lest you enter into temptation. And while he was still speaking, behold a multitude. And he who was called Judas, one of the 12, went before them and drew near to Jesus to kiss him.

But Jesus said to him, Judas, are you betraying the Son of Man with a kiss? Let's take our supplement books again and turn to number 64. 64, the hymn, "'Tis Midnight and on Olive's Brow.". Reading earlier today an article having to do with a reporting on an interview that a recently widowed mother had with a reporter.

She was bereft of her husband and left with a two-year-old child. She was recounting the horror of the day that her husband was brutally murdered. Of all things, he had dropped off two of the older kids at another location, and he was driving with the two-year-old in a car seat in the back of his car.

He was driving down this road, and right in the middle of the road, right in his path, was a wheel from another vehicle. It was just lying there in the road. And so he pulled off the shoulder of the road and got out to get that wheel off the road so he could go on his way, and it wouldn't be in other people's way as well.

But he got out of the car and went to move that wheel, and somebody drove by in a black pickup truck and just stopped, opened the door, and fired multiple shots and just killed this man. And the two-year-old child was in the back seat of the car and watched and heard the whole thing.

And the mother, you could just read in this interview how filled with anguish and agonizing this was for her, especially as she recounted how ever since that time just a couple of weeks ago, the child would curl up every night with the blanket that her daddy bought her, got for her, and would just talk about the boom, boom, and daddy's lying on the ground.

You can't imagine the agony of such an incident. And as agonizing as that is, though, it really doesn't compare to the agony of the garden scene. As Jesus is praying to the Father and saying, if it is possible, let this cup pass from me.

The verse we read earlier, verse 44 of Luke 22, says that Jesus being in agony, he prayed more earnestly. In agony. But in agony over what? I mean, think about earlier in the week and all that he had experienced.

On Sunday, the triumphal entry, he heard the throng of people shouting, Hosanna, Hosanna, and welcoming him as the king. After that, he had successfully purged the temple from a bunch of greedy merchants.

He saw opposition melt before him. Opposition that wanted to take him and wanted to get rid of him. But they were afraid to do anything. In fact, they couldn't do anything. And he had just enjoyed, an hour or so earlier, just enjoyed this Passover meal with his closest friends.

So over what was he agonizing? Well, it all had to do with the cup. The cup. Verse 42. Father, if it is your will, take this cup away from me. Take this cup away from me. There must have been something in that cup, something that he saw that was great and grievous.

The scripture reports that his agony was so intense, in verse 44, that in that cool spring evening, his brow burst forth with sweat. And so intense was his agony that the sweat drops were drops of blood falling down to the ground.

What agony the Savior endured. And at the root of that agony was our Savior's knowledge. He knew that a betrayal was coming. He said back in verse 21, Behold, the hand of my betrayer is with me on the table.

So he not only knew the identity of the betrayer, he knew the betrayer's tactics. And he knew that this betrayer was right there with him in the room. He knew exactly who he was. And he knew exactly what this betrayer was going to do.

He also knew that denial was coming. In verse 34, he said, I tell you, Peter, the rooster shall not crow this day before you will deny me three times. Deny three times that you know me. He knew denial was coming and that this denial was coming from one of his closest disciples, from the inner circle.

The song we just sang talked about the disciple whom Jesus loved did not even recognize the significance of that event in the Garden of Gethsemane. But here is one of the other disciples so close to Jesus.

And yet Jesus sees and knows as he looks in that cup that this disciple is going to deny him. Jesus knew, furthermore, that suffering was coming. Back in verse 15 of Luke 22, he said to them, With fervent desire I have desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer, for I suffer.

The disciples were clueless as to what in the world Jesus was talking about. What suffering? Even though Jesus had warned them ahead of time and told them what was coming in some relative detail, they seemed to be oblivious to it.

But Jesus knew. Jesus looked in that cup and he knew that suffering was coming. He was fully aware of the pain that awaited him, the trauma that his body would endure, but he also knew the whole scope of not only the physical, but the emotional and particularly the spiritual suffering that he was about to endure.

He knew that suffering was coming. And in our Savior's knowledge, he also knew that death was coming. As I said a minute ago, Jesus had told his disciples about it. In Matthew 20, verses 17 -19, he was very specific.

He said, Jesus says, Jesus, going up to Jerusalem, took the twelve disciples aside on the road and said to them, this had not been all that long before the night of the betrayal. He said to them, Behold, we are going up to Jerusalem, and the Son of Man will be betrayed to the chief priests and to the scribes, and they will condemn him to death and deliver him to the Gentiles to mock and to scourge and to crucify, and the third day he will rise again, but being delivered to mock and to scourge and to crucify.

Jesus knew the plot that there would be a betrayer. Jesus knew the path that he would take from the upper room and the garden of Gethsemane to the cross. He knew the path. He knew the means of death that he would endure, that it would involve scourging, it would involve mockery, it would involve a crucifixion.

So as Jesus prayed, he looked into that cup of agony, and because of what he knew, he saw in that cup of agony the bitter gall of betrayal. That betrayal is something that was prophesied in the Psalms, in the Old Testament.

Psalm 41, verse 9, the psalmist wrote, Even my own familiar friend in whom I trusted, who ate my bread, has lifted up his heel against me. The psalmist was undoubtedly writing about some experience of his own, but Jesus, knowing that psalm, applied it to himself, telling us that that psalmist was writing prophecy, even as he experienced it himself.

Jesus quoted that psalm in John 13, 18 when he announced the betrayal. He said, he's speaking to his disciples there at the table in the upper room, and he said, I do not speak concerning all of you. I know whom I have chosen, but that the scripture may be fulfilled, he who eats bread with me has lifted up his heel against me.

So this betrayal was prophesied. The agony of that betrayal, the bitter gall of betrayal, was prophesied. But then, of course, it was eventually realized. In chapter 22 of Luke, verses 47 and 48, as we read it a minute ago, Jesus is speaking to his disciples there in the garden of Gethsemane, and this multitude came to the garden, and he who was called Judas, one of the twelve, who went before them and drew near to Jesus to kiss him.

Jesus said to him, Judas, are you betraying the Son of Man with a kiss? Think of this. Jesus knew his betrayer personally, could call him by name. Even in the darkness of that garden, he knew exactly who this was.

He not only saw his face, but he saw his heart. And he saw all of this well before the garden event itself. He knew his betrayer personally, and he knew because he knew him intimately. He was one of the twelve, one of the twelve.

How long had this phony disciple been following around the Lord Jesus and professing loyalty, but actually having a heart of betrayal? And this betrayer led the throng. He wasn't just part of the crowd.

He was leading the crowd. He wasn't merely caught up in something as if he'd been swayed by somebody else, but he was the one who was doing the swaying. He was the one who said, give me an opportunity and I will turn him over to you.

He was the instigator of this event. The betrayer led the throng. And of most painful, most painful acts, the betrayer kissed him. Kissed him. Can you sense the agony in Jesus' voice in verse 48 when he said, Judas, are you betraying the Son of Man with a kiss?

Of all things, with a kiss? This had to have been the most painful kiss in human history. So Jesus saw this betrayal, this bitter gall of betrayal. And as he looked in that cup, secondly, Jesus saw the grievous pain of denial.

We read of that account of the denial of Peter's in verses 54 through 62. But that whole thing, and you know the account, how Peter denied the Lord three times. And in verse 60, after the third denial, immediately the rooster crowed.

What I want to zero in on is the agony, the pain that you see in verse 61. When that rooster crowed, the Lord turned and looked at Peter. What did Jesus see? When he looked at Peter. I think certainly he saw a man whose heart was filled with fear.

He was afraid. He was afraid to own any connection with Jesus. He was afraid of what might happen to him. But I think also Jesus saw in Peter anger. Remember, he cursed and he swore when he denied Jesus that third time.

I swear to you I don't know this man. And he saw rage. Rage. The one who expressed rage just a few hours earlier with a sword and cut off Nalcus' ear is now expressing rage in another way. Rage as he says, I do not know him.

I do not know him. So as Jesus looks in the face, in the eyes, in the eyes of Peter, this is what he sees. What did Peter see? What did Peter see? Because their eyes locked for a moment. Jesus saw the hurt.

What Jesus saw hurt him when he saw the anger and the fear and the rage of Peter in his denial. But what did Peter see? He didn't see an I told you so look. Jesus had said you're going to do this. Now as Peter looks at Jesus, Jesus doesn't stand there with a smug look on his face and say, see, I told you you were going to do this.

No. No. He didn't see a sneer. He didn't see contempt. What Peter saw undoubtedly was the pained expression of one whose love has been spurned. Jesus saw in that cup the grievous pain of denial. And then in that cup Jesus saw the brutal anguish of suffering.

Of suffering. He would, Jesus would suffer widespread rejection. We read of this in chapter 23 in verse 18. It says, they all cried out at once saying, away with this man. Away with this man, Jesus, and release to us Barabbas.

You have a choice. Jesus being released or a criminal, a murderer. Give us the murderer. What rejection to be rejected in favor of a murderer. And yet this is what he faced. And to get the sense of the anguish or the agony, the pain of that rejection, you have to put it into context, do you not, of the earlier cries that Jesus heard on that road going into Jerusalem.

Hosanna. Hosanna. Blessed is he that comes in the name of the Lord. Our king has come. You have to consider it in the light of his own cries. Back in chapter 19 in verses 41 through 44. Jesus, as he approaches Jerusalem, he saw the city and he wept over it.

And he said, if you had known, even you, especially on this your day, the things that make for your peace, but now they're hidden from your eyes. And here he cries out, for the days will come upon you when your enemies will build an embankment around you, surround you and close you in on every side and level you and your children within you to the ground.

And they will not leave in you one stone upon another. Jesus saw what the rejection would bring to the city of Jerusalem. What would happen to the city because of their rejection of him. And you have to consider his rejection also, I think, in the light of Pilate's cries.

In chapter 23, verses 14 through 16. What did Pilate cry? He's innocent. Verse 14. I have found no fault in this man concerning those things of which you accuse him. He said. Pilate cried in verse 15.

He is not worthy of death. He said, indeed, nothing deserving of death has been done by him. And his cries in verse 16. Pilate's. I will therefore chastise Jesus and release him. He's to be released. And yet he was rejected.

So he suffered this widespread rejection. He further suffered shameful humiliation. The humiliation of a cross death. Hebrews 12, the last part of verse 2, says that he endured the cross despising the shame.

His death was a death that brought with it a stigma. It was a cross death. He was treated as a common criminal of most heinous guilt. Galatians 3 .13 says, Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law.

Having become a curse for us, for it is written, curse it is everyone who hangs on a tree. And there he hangs on a tree. Jesus looking in this cup saw the brutal anguish of suffering as he would suffer the stigma of a cross death.

He would also suffer the shameful humiliation of perverse delight in his cross death. Verse 35 tells us that the people stood looking on. A spectacle. A spectacle. And he experienced the shameful humiliation of the mockery that came with his cross death.

Matthew 26, verse 67, tells us that they spat in his face and they beat him. And others struck him with the palms of their hands. And here in our text in Luke, we read in verses 35 -37, as they cry out and they sneer at him.

They say he saved others, let him save himself if he's the Christ, the chosen of God. The soldiers mocked him as well. Mockery, contempt, the cross death. Humiliation in his suffering. He would suffer rejection.

He's looking in this cup and he's seeing the agony, the suffering of rejection, the suffering of humiliation. But he's also seeing the suffering of isolation. In Matthew chapter 27, verses 45 and 46, we read of that isolation.

Matthew 27, verse 45, it says,. Now from the sixth hour until the ninth hour there was darkness over all the land. About the ninth hour, Jesus cried out with a loud voice saying, Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani, which is to say, my God, my God, why have you forsaken me?

Here is Jesus, the light of the world, who is isolated by darkness from the light for three hours. Then at ninth hour comes and Jesus expresses the isolation from his father as the darkness of sin isolates the sinless son from the light of the father's presence.

My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? So he sees this severe suffering as he looks in the cup. But then as he looks in the cup, he also sees the crimson wine of sin bearing death. Let this cup pass from me.

In this cup, he saw the weight of bearing your sin and mine. It's wretchedness, it's vileness, it's rebellion, it's arrogance, selfishness, the perversion, the disobedience, the selfish, the self-sufficiency.

He saw it all there in the cup. And he would be where he would be bearing the weight of that sin and all of it. But in this cup, he also saw, in contradiction to the sin that he would be bearing, he saw the purity of his sinless shoulders.

He was untainted by, he was incapable of, he was free from all sin. But in this cup, he saw himself carrying the load. Chapter 22, verse 20 says,. This cup, Jesus says to the disciples, is the new covenant in my blood shed for you.

In Hebrews 9, 28, we read that Christ was once offered to bear the sins of many. And we've seen in 1 Peter, several weeks ago now, but in chapter 2, verse 24, it says that he, his own self, bear our sins in his own body on the tree.

In 2 Corinthians 5, 21, For he, God the Father, made him, Jesus the Son, who knew no sin, to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in him. He saw it all. And he was willing to deal with and accept all of this agony.

Why would Jesus endure such agony? Hebrews 12, 2 tells us, for the joy that was set before him. You see, in his divine knowledge, yes, he saw all of the agonies of betrayal and the denial and the suffering and the sin-bearing death.

He saw all of that. But he also saw the victory of the resurrection and the securing of our redemption. He saw that through his agony, he would redeem a people for himself. Sinners redeemed by the blood of the cup.

So with that, let's turn in our hymnals to number 289 and sing of What a Savior. Sing stanzas 1, 2, and 3. Men of sorrows, what a name! Sinners to reclaim, hallelujah! What a Savior! Shame and scoffing ruined my place.

Condemned he stood. Sealed my pardon with his blood, hallelujah! Guilty, vile, and helpless, we Spotless Lamb of God, was he Atoned, can it be? Hallelujah, what a Savior! In Luke chapter 23, we read in verses 13 and following, that Pilate, when he had called together the chief priests, the rulers, and the people, said to them, You have brought this man to me as one who misleads the people, and indeed, having examined him in your presence, I have found no fault in this man concerning those things of which you accuse him.

No, neither did Herod, for I sent you back to him, and indeed, nothing deserving of death has been done by him. I will therefore chastise him and release him. For it was necessary for him to release one of them at the feast.

And they all cried out at once, saying, Away with this man, and release to us Barabbas, who had been thrown into prison for a certain rebellion made in the city, and for murder. Pilate, therefore, wishing to release Jesus, again called out to them.

But they shouted, saying, Crucify him, crucify him. Then he said to them the third time, Why, what evil has he done? I have found no reason for death in him. I will therefore chastise him and let him go.

But they were insistent, demanding with loud voices that he be crucified. And the voices of these men and of the chief priests prevailed. So then we read in verse 33, When they had come to the place called Calvary, there they crucified him and the criminals, one on the right hand and the other on the left.

The Cross, the Finished Sacrifice, and the Prayer of Committal

Take your supplement book and turn to number 44. 44, this hymn, My Jesus Fair. I want to sing the first four stanzas, number 44. My Jesus fair was pierced by thorns, by thorns grown from the fall. Thus he who gave the curse was torn to end that curse for all.

O love divine, O matchless grace, that God should die for men. With joyful grief I lift my praise, abhorring all my sin, adoring only him. My Jesus meek was scorned by men, by men in blasphemy. Father, forgive their senseless sin.

He prayed for them, for me. O love divine, O matchless grace, that God should die for men. With joyful grief I lift my praise, abhorring all my sin, adoring only him. My Jesus kind was torn by nails, by nails of cruel men.

And to his cross, as grace prevailed, God pinned my wretched sin. O love divine, O matchless grace, that God should die for men. With joyful grief I lift my praise, abhorring all my sin, adoring only him.

My Jesus pure was crushed by God, by God in judgment just. The Father grieved, yet turned his rod on Christ, made sin for us. O love divine, O matchless grace, that God should die for men. With joyful grief I lift my praise, abhorring all my sin, adoring only him.

2344 says now it was about the sixth hour, and there was darkness over all the earth until the ninth hour. Then the sun was darkened, and the veil of the temple was torn in two. And when Jesus had cried out, with a loud voice he said, Father, into your hands I commit my spirit.

Having said this, he breathed his last. Let's close tonight with hymn number 56 in your supplement, See the Destined Day Arise. Number 56 in just stanzas one and two. See the destined day arise, see a willing sacrifice.

Jesus to redeem our loss hangs upon the shameful cross. Jesus who, when you've been made and justice fair, every pang and bitter throw, finishing your life of woe. Alleluia, alleluia, Lamb of God, for sinners slain.

Alleluia, alleluia, Jesus Christ, we praise your name. Who but Christ had dared to drain, steeped in gall the cup of pain. And with tender body bare, thorns and nails and piercing spear. Jesus who, thither flowed, mingled from your side with blood, sign to all attesting eyes of the finished sacrifice.

Alleluia, alleluia, Lamb of God, for sinners slain. Alleluia, alleluia, Jesus Christ, we praise your name. So tonight we end with Jesus' last words from the cross. In your hands I commit my spirit. And then he gave up the ghost.

But Sunday's coming, and we look forward to Resurrection Sunday. We gather together Sunday morning, early, eight o 'clock, if you can make it at that hour. And we begin to celebrate the fact that what happened on Thursday night in the garden and the betrayal and in the pain and the suffering and the agony of watching one of his closest disciples deny him and then experiencing all of the mockery and the contempt and the grievous pain before he finally gave up the ghost, that all of that isn't the end of the story.

This Sunday's coming, and we'll celebrate the resurrection. Our Father and our God, we do thank you for our Savior and for his draining that cup and every last bit of it for the sins of sinful people like we are.

We are so grateful for your grace. We're so grateful for the Savior and for all he has done for the redeemed. Now, Father, as we anticipate the Lord's day and the celebration together of the glorious resurrection of our Savior from the tomb, may these thoughts tonight, may they linger with us as we reflect upon all that our Savior has done in our behalf to be made sin for us that we might be made the righteousness of God in him.

Bless this all to our hearts, we pray in Jesus' name and for his sake, amen. All right, you are dismissed. The Lord bless you.