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Reading Mark 14:12-25 where Jesus and His disciples partake in the Passover meal, and then He institutes the Lord's table to be practiced in remembrance of Christ. Visit wwutt.com for all our videos!
Jesus instituted for his disciples the Lord's Table. It was practiced by them with Jesus, and it has been practiced in the church for these 2 ,000 years, proclaiming the Lord's death when we understand the text.
This is When We Understand the Text, a daily Bible study in the word of Christ that men and women of God may be complete, equipped for every good work. Tell your friends about our ministry at www .utt .com.
Here's your teacher, Pastor Gabe.
Thank you, Becky. In our study of the Gospel of Mark, we're in chapter 14 and reading today about the Passover meal Jesus will eat with his disciples and the institution of the Lord's Table. So let me begin reading here at verse 12.
We'll go through verse 26 out of the Legacy Standard Bible. Hear the word of the Lord. And on the first day of unleavened bread, when the Passover lamb was being sacrificed, his disciples said to him, where do you want us to go and prepare for you to eat the Passover?
And he sent two of his disciples and said to them, go into the city, and a man will meet you carrying a pitcher of water. Follow him. And wherever he enters, say to the owner of the house, the teacher says, where is my guest room in which I may eat the Passover with my disciples?
And he himself will show you a large upper room furnished and ready. Prepare for us there. And the disciples went out and came to the city and found it just as he had told them. And they prepared the Passover.
And when it was evening, he came with the 12. And as they were reclining at the table and eating, Jesus said, truly, I say to you that one of you will betray me, the 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 12, the 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.
And 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.
And after singing a hymn, they went out to the Mount of Olives. Yesterday at the conclusion of the lesson, I prayed as I usually do at the end of these devotionals. And I had prayed that God would keep us from becoming like Judas, only I got the names switched.
I said, Jesus, instead of Judas, help us to not become like Jesus. It was late, I was tired when I recorded that, but it doesn't help that the names are also very similar anyway, Jesus and Judas. Well, somebody caught it and had sent me an email about it.
And so I went back and edited the audio, but all I did was remove that part of the prayer. So in case you want to go back and try to catch the mistake yourself, it has already been removed. And there are some sites out there that will grab the podcast and they will kind of mix their own audio or they will put the audio on their site and they do that automatically.
And so there probably are still some versions out there with that mistake in it. But as for the main audio, the way that you will hear it on Podbean or iTunes or Spotify, it has been corrected. I was bound to do it at some point if I have never done it before.
But anyway, right here we have the name that is above all names, Jesus. And we have the name below all names, Judas. Think about how infamous that name is. Oftentimes the name Hitler evokes a certain reaction, right?
You think about one of the worst tyrants in world history, Hitler, who was the great leader of Germany during the period of World War II, instigated World War II and persecuted many Jews, 6 million Jews that died in the Holocaust at the hands of Adolf Hitler.
So who after that would name their kid Adolf or Hitler? That's kind of a cursed name after that, right? Well, before there was Hitler, the name even more infamous than that one is Judas. And even still to this day, there are people worldwide who understand the name Judas as the one who betrayed the son of God.
In fact, to even call a person a Judas is an insult. To refer to them as like the worst of the betrayers. Indeed, Judas is referred to in the scriptures as the son of perdition or the son of destruction.
He was born to be destroyed. He was destined for this. For the Old Testament scriptures, the prophecies were made about him that this was the purpose that he would fulfill, betraying the son of God unto the hands of those that would put him to death so that the purpose and the plan of God that had been predestined from before the foundation of the world would be accomplished.
The crucifixion of the son of God as an atoning sacrifice for our sins so that all who believe in him will not perish, but have everlasting life. As said in Philippians 2, because he was obedient even to the point of death on a cross, therefore God has highly exalted him and given him Jesus, the name that is above all names, so that at the name of Jesus, every knee should bow in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father.
So as we read here in verse 21, the son of man, the name above all names, is to go just as it is written of him, but woe to that man, the name below all names, by whom the son of man is betrayed. It would have been good for that man if he had never been born, having committed the worst sin that has ever been committed in the history of mankind, the betrayal of the son of God.
I'm gonna expound on that concept a little bit more when we get to Jesus' arrest in the Garden of Gethsemane. That's gonna be next week when we get to that section. Today, we'll primarily focus upon the Lord's table.
So let's come back to verse 12. We're on the first day of unleavened bread when the Passover lamb was being sacrificed. His disciples said to him, where do you want us to go and prepare for you to eat the Passover?
Now, coming up at some point, I'm going to talk about the possibility that this is on Wednesday and not on Thursday as it's traditionally recognized. So the Passover meal is happening on a Wednesday night and the crucifixion potentially could be happening on a Thursday.
We're gonna look at this from a different vantage point than we did when we were going through Matthew. We'll get to that timeline a little bit later. Verse 13, and he sent two of his disciples and said to them, go into the city.
This would be Jerusalem. And a man will meet you carrying a pitcher of water. Follow him. And wherever he enters, say to the owner of the house, the teacher says, where is my guest room in which I may eat the Passover with my disciples?
This is very prophetic. Jesus detailing this out for these two disciples and they're gonna find it exactly as he describes it. And he himself, it says in verse 15, will show you a large upper room furnished and ready.
Prepare for us there. You have to wonder the amazement in the faces of these two disciples when they see all of that happen before their very eyes, just as Jesus said it would happen and so it does. And they come to this upper room and they find it furnished.
And by the way, this is going to be the same upper room that the disciples gather back into again after Jesus ascends into heaven. That's talked about in Acts chapter one. So the very place where they celebrate this Passover meal becomes a regular meeting place for them for many weeks afterward.
In fact, the very first church gathers there when you consider the 120 in Acts one as it's talked about, gathered there in the upper room when the Holy Spirit even comes upon them before they go out into Jerusalem and preach the gospel for the first time.
So they come to that place, the disciples went out, they came to the city and found it, it being the upper room, just as he had told them and they prepared the Passover. And when it was evening, he came with the 12.
Now that's important. There's a reason why Mark specifies that the Passover meal was shared with the 12 because Jesus had many other disciples. There were dozens of disciples that followed Jesus, but there are some times where it's to be understood that there were only this 12 that he had selected that he poured into that he had ordained to be the apostles.
And then of course there was an inner core, even from that 12 that were closer to Jesus than the rest. And that was Peter, James, and John. We read about them going up with Jesus onto the Mount of Transfiguration.
None of the other disciples got to see that, but those three did, and then would even write about it later. John talks about it in 1 John 1, Peter mentions it in 2 Peter 1. So there were certain things that these three even got to fellowship with Jesus in that the rest of the other nine did not get to partake in.
But here we see that it's the 12 that's with Jesus. However many other disciples there were, it's never really given to us. Remember that there was the sending out of the 72. We'll see that in Luke's gospel.
So many other disciples then in addition to that, that's what, 60 other disciples. There are other disciples that are mentioned even in Mark's gospel. We're gonna see that when we get to the Garden of Gethsemane but for now, this is just the 12.
So it's just 13 people in the upper room, Jesus and the 12 apostles. In verse 18, and as they were reclining at the table and eating, Jesus said, truly I say to you that one of you will betray me, the 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 12. So again, you have it specified that it's the 12 here. It wouldn't be any of those other disciples that are probably eating the Passover meal nearby.
They have other places that they have gone to to partake in this meal. And when they're done and they go out and go to the Garden of Gethsemane, those other disciples are gonna join them also. But here just being with the 12, Jesus is saying the one who is gonna betray me will be one of you.
The one who dips with me into the bowl. And then verse 21, 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 better for him if he had not been born.
So you think of the hell of fire, the perdition, the destruction that is destined for Judas and how awful that is for him for all eternity. If there's anybody in the Bible we know for sure went to hell, it's him.
And he will perish there for all eternity in the lake of fire. So let us be wary just as I prayed yesterday, lest we become like Judas, got the name right that time. We need to be careful that we don't betray Jesus.
How many years we had said that we were followers of Jesus, that we love Jesus, but then there's actually something else that our hearts are set upon, a passion that we have that is something other than Christ.
Judas loved money. As I had mentioned yesterday, reading from John 12, he was the one that was in charge of the money bag and he used to steal from the money bag. And so he put money ahead of Christ and even sold the son of God for 30 pieces of silver, which is not really that much at all.
Christ, of course, being priceless, the pearl of great price as talked about in one of the parables, he is infinitely of more value than anything that even the entire universe combined. But Judas sells him out for 30 pieces of silver.
Now, as far as we know, Judas was with Jesus and the rest of the disciples when they partook in the Lord's table. And so Jesus did eat of this meal that he instituted with his disciples, but he would have eaten and drank condemnation on himself as the apostle Paul warns the rest of us not to do when talking about the Lord's table in 1 Corinthians 11.
So here verse 22, 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.
Now I've been in various different church settings where this is handled a different way and surely you have seen this as well. You may have been in several churches in your life, growing up and then finding a church of your own and then getting married and you find another church together, you move and then you have to find another church or that church falls apart and you have to find another church.
You may have been through several church settings in your lifetime and every time, every church you've been in, probably handled the Lord's table in a different way. In fact, I can say with near certainty, they all handled it a different way.
Maybe some had the Lord's table every day or every day, every Sunday, you were partaking of the Lord's table. And there were others that did it what, once a month and there are others that did it quarterly.
I've even heard of some churches doing it only once a year and in that Passover season would be the only time that they partake of the Lord's table. Some can even get kind of legalistic about it as to when we are gonna partake.
And then there are various different things that go with the cup. Is there wine in it or is there grape juice? How about the bread? Is it actual bread, like leavened bread or is it unleavened bread? Or is it bread with yeast or is it like a cracker or a wafer or something to that effect?
And then some, some will pray over both elements. Here's a prayer for the cup and here's a prayer for the bread. Some will just pray once at the beginning and bless both the bread and the cup. And then some people will come forward and take the cup and the bread or there might be ushers that will go around and pass all of the elements around.
So there's various different ways in which this is handled but it's always still the same elements, right? It's still the cup and the bread and it's supposed to be something simple, just like that that represents the body and the blood of Jesus and not just represents it.
These are more than just symbols. Yes, even as a Protestant, I can say that and should say that these are more than just symbols. The presence of Christ is with us in the elements and when we partake at this table.
Now, I want to emphasize that these elements do not change into the literal body and literal blood of Jesus as the Roman Catholics pronounce and even partake in believing they're eating the literal flesh and drinking the literal blood of Jesus and claiming this is the communion you have to have or you're not really saved based on what Jesus said in John 6.
But I know matter of factly that these elements do not actually change into the flesh of Jesus and the blood of Jesus for two reasons. Number one, common sense. And in the reformed statements of faith, that's even said.
Common sense, we know that these elements don't turn into flesh and blood. They still taste like bread and the cup whenever you put them in your mouth. But also we can know this from scripture. We can prove it from the Bible that these elements don't literally turn into the flesh and blood of Jesus but are symbolic of his body and his blood.
How can we know that from the scriptures? Well, it's right here, even in Mark 14. Let me go on verse 24. 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.
And there you have it. When Jesus is passing the cup, he says, it's the fruit of the vine. He says, this is my blood, but I will not drink again of this fruit of the vine. That's what it still is. It's still wine.
It did not actually transform into his blood. You can see it stated matter of factly, even in the way that Jesus describes the elements that he passes among his disciples. The Roman Catholics do more than just believe that these elements turn into the literal body, the literal flesh and the literal blood of Jesus.
They even worship them. For when the priest pronounces or makes that convocation that would transform the Eucharist into these elements, then the people worship. They literally think that's actually Jesus, that his bodily presence is among them and they worship it.
They are worshiping an idol. They're worshiping bread flour that has been baked into bread. That's all they're worshiping. It is not the flesh of Jesus. It is not his bodily presence in that monstrance or whatever you call that, the golden sun thing that they will parade the Eucharist around in so that everybody can hail it and pray to it and bow to it and whatever else.
That's idolatry. That is a complete misuse and blasphemy of the Lord's table. That is not what Jesus is presenting to his disciples here. He hasn't even gone to the cross yet. His body hasn't been pierced.
His blood has not been spilled. And they would not have been taking those elements at the Lord's table thinking, ooh, his body, his blood. They may not have truly understood what Jesus was saying to them, but they did not think of those elements as literally becoming his flesh and his blood.
But this is nonetheless a very sacred practice for us. And these elements are sacred, meaning set apart for this particular use. We call them sacraments, which means sacred. We call this table an ordinance because it was ordained by Christ.
And contrary to what the Roman Catholics say, there are two ordinances, and that is baptism and the Lord's table. But everything must be practiced in the right way and in the right order. It is right that we call the bread the body and we call the cup the blood.
That is perfectly fine, but it is also still the bread and the cup. I still proclaim it as the body of Jesus and the blood of Jesus. And I'm not saying anything blasphemous with that because I'm repeating the very words that Christ used.
But we understand these things as symbols of his body, symbols of his blood, and still yet even understanding that he is with us in these elements and at this table. We are not literally consuming Christ.
We are just eating bread and drinking a cup. But may these things remind us of the death of Christ, the body that he gave, and the blood that he spilled for the forgiveness of sins. That's why we do it.
That's why we practice it, to remember this. That's why it is said, do this in remembrance of me. And Paul's saying in 1 Corinthians 11, for as often as you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord's death until he comes.
What a blessed offering that Jesus gave to us, instituting this table for us, that we might tangibly be able to touch and taste in remembrance of Christ. It puts an action to it. It causes us to meditate and think about it, and even reflecting upon ourselves before we partake with the instruction that is said, that we examine ourselves before we come to the table, and then we take and eat, so that we do not eat and drink condemnation on ourselves, like Judas did here.
Let us take this seriously, that if we believe Jesus gave himself for us, the infinitely valuable son of God, gives himself for us, the sacrifice that was needed for us, to be forgiven our sins and to have fellowship with God.
If we believe that is true about Christ, and we believe that is what he did for us, dying on the cross for our sins, then we should take it very seriously, when we come to that table and remember what he has done for us.
Jesus' broken body, spilled blood, he was then buried in a tomb and rose again on the third day for our justification, as said in Romans 4 .25, so that all who believe in him, our sins are forgiven, and we have everlasting life with God.
Nothing at that table gives us eternal life. Jesus gives us eternal life. Nothing at that table is a re-sacrifice of Christ, as the Catholics will proclaim as well. A perpetual sacrifice whenever the mass is held.
For Hebrews 7 .27 says that Jesus did this once for all when he offered up himself, not doing it continually, but he died once, and then our partaking of that table is a remembrance of the death that he gave for us, so that all who believe in him by faith are saved.
We've been saved by Christ, by the grace of God, and receive it by faith. Heavenly Father, we thank you for what we have read here, and I pray that indeed this is something that stirs our hearts and our souls, that we fear before God, and we not think too highly of ourselves, too confidently in our own abilities to do it ourselves, lest we stumble and fall into betrayal just as Judas had done.
But we continue to fix our eyes upon Christ, and make Christ be our greatest passion and our greatest joy. We put nothing ahead of Jesus. We want, with everything that we are, to be like and be with our Savior.
So forgive us our sins, and when we come to this table to eat and drink and remember what it is that Jesus had done for us, may we do so in a worthy manner. For none was more worthy than Christ when he gave himself the perfect spotless lamb as a sacrifice for our sins.
By faith in him, we are made worthy to stand before God justified, and we remember what was given for us to be in that condition whenever we partake of this bread and of this cup. May we be reverent when we do so, remembering the sacredness of the sacraments, and give us our daily bread.
Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one. It is in the name of Jesus that we pray.
Amen.
Gabe is a pastor of Providence Church in Casa Grande, Arizona. For more information about our ministry, visit providencecasagrande .com. Join us again tomorrow as we continue our Bible study when we understand the text.