Passover with the Lamb

ReCAST Church of Mattawan

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You're listening to the podcast of Recast Church in Matawan, Michigan. This week, Pastor Don Filsek takes us through his series on the book of Matthew called

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Not Your Average Savior. Let's listen in. Welcome to Recast Church.

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I'm Don Filsek, I'm the lead pastor here, and I'm really glad to be together again with you this week. I love the way that God brings us together and has brought us together as a church under the core values that are an acronym that form our name,

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Replication, Community, Authenticity, Simplicity and Truth. And you see that right by the donuts, because the donuts seem to be a mild core value as well.

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So I didn't make the cut. So it's not recast. But the donuts, the donut holes at least are a vital thing.

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We want to when we say those things, though, and I say those things and you see them written on the wall up there and you kind of think them through.

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I'm not sure how often I clarify what we mean by those things. So we want to see God's kingdom expanded through replication.

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Our goal would be that we would be able to plant other churches, but also equally that we see the work that God is doing in our lives, the growth that he's giving to us replicated in the lives of our neighbors, co -workers, family members around us, that the things that he's doing is not just for us, but we recognize that it goes out beyond us.

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We want to be a blessing to the community, the C community, where God has planted us, and that happens to be

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Matawan. So we want Matawan to be glad that Recast Church exists. We want them to be glad that there's a church here in this area and that they would miss us if we were gone.

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We want to forge authentic, we talk about authenticity, authentic relationships with others here in this church.

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That means that nobody, our goal would be that nobody mourns alone and nobody celebrates alone, that if things are going down for you, you have somebody to reach out to and somebody to shed some tears with.

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But equally, and I've said this often, I think some of the most lonely times in life are when things are going well and you look around and there's nobody else celebrating with you, right?

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So sometimes it's having somebody to celebrate with that's valuable as well. And then simplicity, we believe that you need faith, community, and service.

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You need to be growing in those areas, and so we try not to over -program, but we have a primary program for faith, primary program that Linda was talking about, community groups, for growing community, and then we use our gifts to serve one another.

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And lastly, as we know, we dig into God's word every week. The Bible is the capital -T truth that we need in order to know

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God and make Him known, and so we dig into God's word every week when we gather together because we believe that the

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Bible is the truth, the true way to live, the true basis for our lives.

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So this morning, we're going to be in God's word, obviously, and we're going to be in Matthew 26 back there as the text is going to slowly but intentionally take us through the moments and hours leading up to the death, burial, and resurrection of our

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Lord. All of the Gospels slow down significantly in the last week of Jesus' life, and here in our text, we're in that slow -down period in the

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Gospel of Matthew where more details are given. It just seems like the days and the hours stretch on longer as we get more detail about the things that Jesus did during those last even 48 to 24 hours of His life.

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In this passage, we're going to see the Last Supper of Jesus with His disciples. We see that final

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Passover that Jesus celebrated with His closest friends, and I'm really quite convinced that the disciples didn't scratch the surface of the understanding of the significance of the meal that they took with Jesus that night.

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Now, looking back, of course, I think they could, but they're going to eat this symbolic lamb that needs some explanation about why in the world did the

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Jews do this, why do they do this regularly. They're going to eat the symbolic lamb, but the disciples don't realize that they're eating it with the real and true

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Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world. He tries to tell them in the event, what's happening here is significant, and what's going to happen to me tomorrow is even more significant.

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But there's little to no indication that they got it until after He was raised from the dead.

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But Jesus is here in the midst of the text, full of the knowledge and wisdom, full of the understanding that just as the lamb that they consumed was killed and its blood was shed, that all of those years and decades and centuries of the

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Jews participating in the Passover meal, it was all pointing to Him and what

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He would do in just a few hours from the time of partaking this with His boys in the upper room. I suggest to you,

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I mean, put yourself in His shoes. How many would be a bit emotional that night? Would it be a routine like, hey, let me just show you what to do, and here's what's going to happen, and dot, dot, dot, dot, dot, let me prepare your hearts, okay, here we go, like a robot?

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Is that how you view Jesus in these moments? Or do you view Him with some sense of recognizing

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His emotion? He knew what was going to happen tomorrow, and we read everything that He does on this day.

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So let's turn in our Bibles or your devices or your apps to Matthew chapter 26, verses 17 to 29.

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Again, that's Matthew 26, 17 through 29. I used to say this all the time, and I want to kind of refresh this in your minds.

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If there's anyone here who does not own a paper copy of God's Word, and you would like one, and you would use one, and you would like to take it home with you, and you would have it there to read,

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I want you to let them know out at the welcome table on any Sunday, but even this morning before you leave, and they would be glad to give you a nice Bible that you can have for your own, take it home with you, and enjoy the

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Word of God. But let's read together, again, God's Holy Word, Matthew chapter 26, verses 17.

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I said through 29, but it's actually, I'm gonna read all the way through 30 this morning. Church, God's holy and precious

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Word, what He desires for us to hear in the gathering this morning. Now, on the first day of unleavened bread, the disciples came to Jesus, saying, where will you have us prepare for you to eat the

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Passover? He said, go into the city to a certain man and say to him, the teacher says, my time is at hand,

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I will keep the Passover at your house with my disciples. And the disciples did as Jesus had directed them, and they prepared the

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Passover. When it was evening, he reclined at table with the 12. And as they were eating, he said, truly

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I say to you, one of you will betray me. And they were very sorrowful and began to say to him, one after another, is it

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I, Lord? He answered, he who has dipped his hand in the dish with me will betray me.

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The Son of Man goes as it is written of him. But woe to that man by whom the

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Son of Man is betrayed. It would have been better for that man if he had not been born. Judas, who would betray him, answered, is it

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I, Rabbi? He said to him, you have said so. Now, as they were eating,

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Jesus took bread, and after blessing it, broke it and gave it to the disciples and said, take, eat, this is my body.

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And he took a cup, and when he had given thanks, he gave it to them, saying, drink of it all of you, for this is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins.

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I tell you, I will not drink again of this fruit of the vine until that day when I drink it new with you in my

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Father's kingdom. And when they had sung a hymn, they went out to the Mount of Olives.

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Let's pray. Father, we thank you for this day that you have given to us.

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We recognize that it is from your hand that we woke up and had another day to worship you.

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And so, Father, I pray that you would move in our hearts to do exactly that, that we would be in this gathering, worshipful, thinking about you, cognizant of the salvation and the great gift that you have given to us in your

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Son, Jesus Christ. I do pray for our youth, as there are so many who are up at Barachel right now, wrapping up a retreat.

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I pray that it would be an event with all kinds of inside jokes and all kinds of fun and all kinds of things that would forge community with them, but also a time of great connection with you, as well as they wrap up chapel and head for home.

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I pray for safety for them as well on the road as they're gonna be heading back south to us this afternoon.

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Father, I pray that you would be with our worship and help it to be ignited by what we know to be true, that as I introduce this message, it's so much more than just trying to set the tone or something like that, but it's to really engage with you and what you have done for us.

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I pray that the reality of Christ's blood shed for us and his body broken for us, we reflect on that at the end of most messages, but here we have an opportunity to reflect on it all the way through and just think and contemplate what a great sacrifice has been given to us.

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I pray that that would be the thing that ignites our passion, not just good songs and a good voice from Dave and the drums just on this morning and the bass hitting all the right notes in the right order.

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Father, I pray that it would be an act of worship to you from all of us. I know that everybody on stage right now wants that too.

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So Father, I pray that you would be lifted high in our gathering, in our hearts and in our minds and through our voices, in Jesus' name, amen.

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Make yourself comfortable if you need to get more coffee or juice or donut holes. I know we just took a little bit of an intermission there for a second, but if you need that at all during the message, feel free to get up.

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And then I would ask that you please keep your Bibles open or your devices open to Matthew 26, verses 17 through 29.

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That is the outline, the structure really for the text or for the morning is that text.

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And so I'm gonna give you an outline that fundamentally is designed to remind you that we're looking at a passage that shows the deep concern of Jesus for his disciples.

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You see, everything that he does or says in these 14 verses we're gonna be looking at this morning is for their benefit.

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If you were to really ask, why does this text exist? Why did Jesus say the things that he said?

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It was for the benefit of the disciples. He's preparing them, everything in this text is preparing them for what is going to come.

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And I just wanna ask you, how much does he love his people? How much does he love his people? I mean, he loves us enough to prepare us for what's coming, even to the degree that I would say he prepares you for this week.

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He has strengthened you, given you the skills, the ability, the knowledge, the things that you need for what is coming for you.

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For the disciples, the next 72 hours of their lives are gonna be full of confusion, heartache, loss, betrayal, fear, doubt, a lot of tough words.

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And some of us have had weeks like that, some of us have had seasons like that, but I don't think anything that quite as close to the kind of week that they are about to experience here.

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So the outline is kind of strange, but I think you're gonna see the organization of the text as follows, and probably if you were to read it, you'd go, oh,

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I see that. The first is the meal prep, verses 17 through 19. So 17 through 19 is meal prep.

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Verses 20 through 25, a little strange way to word it, but betrayal prep. And then verses 26 through 30, death prep.

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So meal prep, betrayal prep, and death prep is our outline. And we're gonna start by talking about the meal prep, the preparation for the meal that they're about to partake up in, verses 17 through 19.

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The centerpiece of this passage is, of course, the Passover meal that Jesus is going to have with his disciples, with those 12, really 11, closest followers.

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But the meal itself needs to be prepared. Every good meal has to have a cook. And so once again, far from being mere filler to merely move the story along, we see three themes that emerge, and I think are worthy of mentioning in this first section about the preparation of the meal.

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The first two are a little of a stretch. They're a little subservient to the bigger picture one, but the first is a theme of Jesus as a leader.

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Now, in verse 17, the disciples come to Jesus on what I believe to be two days before the regular time to eat the Passover, and they are eager to make preparations.

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Now, some of you have, how many of you have planners in your life? Maybe you are the planner in your life, right? But you like to plan ahead, and you're kind of like put down on lists, and you like to have a calendar, and you like to have things on the calendar, and all of that kind of stuff.

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And so we know that there's different kinds of people, but I find it personally comforting that Jesus doesn't initiate every event.

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He's not the initiator right away in verse 17. Jesus has surrounded himself with men who are planners, and I would suggest to you that sometimes as a leader,

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I feel like every plan is supposed to initiate with me, but the disciples ask Jesus, what do you want us to do for the

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Passover? How do you want us to prepare it? And he tells them what to do, and then they do it. Now, it would be wise for all of us to come to Jesus and ask him for wisdom in our plans, and I think that's a reasonable thought in this text where the disciples come to him, say what do you want us to do, and then go out and it says obey him, do what he says.

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And so to come and bring our plans to Jesus seems to be a reasonable thing. And then that we would follow him like the disciples do in this text would obviously be important too.

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Anything that he has said about our plans, we bring our plans to him. Anything that he says very clearly in his word, we would follow that, and I hope that you would take that on.

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But those instructions to us usually don't include where to eat, where to go to prepare a meal, that kind of stuff, what meal to prepare.

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But I would suggest to you that when we come and bring our plans before, and what we ought to most be concerned with is anything moral about what we're trying to decide and work through.

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There is often a moral element in what we're trying to plan and plot and scheme and think through and figure out for our lives, and we would come to Christ and listen to him.

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And obviously his desire would be for us to flee from any sinful choices, that's obvious. And just a word for those of you that maybe wanna dive a little bit deeper, kind of thinking,

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I'll just plant the seed there because it's pretty common, and even some study Bibles will make mention of it, and you might be aware of it.

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There's some debate over the timing of the Passover meal in the life of Jesus. Because the disciple

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John in his gospel is emphatic that Jesus is arrested prior to the routine and official

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Jewish Passover mealtime. So that many scholars believe that Jesus was actually crucified, like he will die around the same time that the

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Passover lambs are usually killed in the temple, where they're sacrificed and then they go out and they have their meals after that.

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So how in the world, ask yourself this, how could Jesus participate in a Passover meal if he's crucified at the time that the

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Jews would actually be slaughtering the lambs for the Passover meal? And so you have to figure that out because all the other gospels, by the way, all four gospels record this last supper.

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So how do you reconcile these accounts? And I don't believe that this

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Passover meal that Jesus and his disciples actually participate in is actually at the same time of the man -made tradition of the

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Jews. So they actually are participating in this a day before the routine

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Passover time. And I believe that they are not bound to what often the

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Jews would create laws upon laws, timing upon timing, legislation upon legislation to try to orchestrate and organize things.

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And there's some fluidity to this celebration. So those of you that have more questions about that, you can come and talk with me.

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And I mean, some of you like really like to dive deep into this kind of stuff. And some of you are like, I don't even know what Don just said for the last five minutes and we'll just move on.

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So the second theme in this first section, the first is just straight up like Jesus's authority, his leadership and his leadership style in this.

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Again, a minor point. The second theme in this first section of meal prep is one of hospitality.

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Again, a minor point, but you might miss it. But a man in the busy city of Jerusalem busting at the same city of Jerusalem allows

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Jesus and company the use of a fairly substantial room enough to accommodate a meal for at least 12.

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And this is indeed, I would suggest to you hospitality that's going on here in this text. I don't think it's a stretch, by the way, to draw out an application from a narrative portion of scripture.

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So you go like, oh, a guy was hospitable. So go be hospitable too. But the reason

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I feel comfortable tying that together with some instruction for us and some thought for us is because of a specific command that we see in scripture in Romans 12, 13, where Paul literally says, practice hospitality in the command form to the church.

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Practice hospitality. We are commanded to do so. What is hospitality? The use of our resources, the use of our facilities, the use of our food to bless others and to participate in that together.

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And whether you believe it or not, I think something as simple as using the houses that God has given to us as a place of blessing to each other and to our neighbors and to our coworkers and to our family and our friends,

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I believe that could radically enhance our Christian experience together as a church. As a matter of fact,

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I think it could make us stand out in a culture that is increasingly isolating. Are you getting what

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I'm saying in that? And I mean, how many of you would just say, at some point in the last couple of years, I felt a little isolated?

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Raise your hand if you would say that. I think that's a lot of us, right? And so I think that this is a lost art.

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Part of it is the Martha Stewart, everything has to be just right with the napkin folded. And I don't even know which side the fork's supposed to go on, so I can't practice hospitality, right?

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Like, I don't know that kind of stuff. Where's the napkin usually? Somebody's like, oh, the napkin goes in your lap. All right,

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I thought it was just like, you know, mine's crumpled up up here somewhere. If you wait until you have everything just right and you got all the china polished and all this,

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I think you polish the silver, don't you? Anyways, you got everything polished and just right, you might never have somebody over.

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And it was really cool, because a great illustration of this for me is that, how many kids did

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Stavells have in England? They had five kids, all young, super young kids, and they had somebody over every afternoon after church, and their house was chaos, and we'd pitch in and help fold laundry with them.

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It was just like, I mean, it was that kind of like, wow, thanks for sharing your house and sharing a meal, and here, why don't you get to work and here's some chores?

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But I mean, so what I'm trying to say is that this couple in England took us under their wing as the ugly

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Americans and kind of brought us in and just brought us into their lives. Super awesome, super cool.

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And if they had waited until everything was just right, they probably still wouldn't have had anybody over. Right, I mean, it's a very busy household.

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So all that, this sounds like a strong statement. I'm just saying, I think that we would be radically enhanced as a church.

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And yes, I'm bringing it up because I see it in the text, but I'm also bringing it up because I see it as a weak point for us. And I'm being honest,

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I don't say this very often, and I'm not trying to beat you guys up. I'm just saying, this would be an awesome year if 2023 was the year of having people in your house.

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I think it would be substantial for our church. If this was the year where you finally said, you know, we've been talking about inviting people over, but we never have, this would be a great year to start that.

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That'd be a great obedience to the instructions from Romans and here the example of this one man that's unnamed.

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The unnamed man in the text who provides the upper room in which the disciples and Jesus participate in a celebratory meal together.

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So the final theme in this first section is much more important, and it's found at the end of verse 19. It highlights the meal that they are preparing.

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The disciples went out to prepare for what? The Passover. And that really is everything.

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They're not just participating in kind of like a, this isn't snacks before the football game, or you know, this isn't a tailgate or something.

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They're practicing the Passover meal. Now it's possible that some of you have experienced something like that.

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I've experienced in my past a Seder, or what is like kind of a modern walkthrough of the Passover meal that the

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Jews still participate in. A little, it's kind of like Passover light now, and I'll explain that.

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But I remember back in the early 80s, having a man who ministered among Jews come into our church. I've been to two or three of these, and he walked us through the symbolism of the modern

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Passover. And yet I would suggest to you, how many of you have had that happen before, by the way? Any of you, any of you do that?

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Okay, so excellent. I'm gonna kind of riff on it for a second here. Not on you for doing it.

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Just a little bit of clarity that you haven't done what you think you've done. So having experienced that,

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I would suggest to you that there is so much missing as to make it almost lacking in value. So those of us that raised our hand think that we understand something about the

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Passover, but we understand very little about the Passover. If you've had that kind of experience, or you haven't had that kind of experience, but maybe you just think,

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I've read the book of Exodus, so I understand what it was like for the Egyptians to, you know, I get it,

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I can talk about the details. The Egyptians had to sacrifice a lamb, and then take the blood and sprinkle it over the doorpost.

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How many of you know what I'm talking about? Passover. Take the blood, sprinkle it over, because there were all of these terrible things happening, right, the plagues happening in Egypt, and there was the gnats and the frogs and the blood and all of that kind of stuff, and the darkness and sores and all that stuff was going on, and then it came down to the last one.

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It was like, the firstborn in your house is gonna be dead in the morning unless you follow these instructions.

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And then the angel of death is going to what? Passover your house.

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The judgment will not rest on you any longer if the lamb takes it for you.

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That's the picture. That's what we're talking about when we're talking about Passover. And so I am convinced that none of us in this room really get what the disciples went to do in preparing this meal, because none of us have done it.

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I say this because what you and I miss by not participating in this meal prep is truly the heartbeat of the whole thing.

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And what those of you who participated in a Seder meal who sat down at a prepared meal for you, the lamb is cooked, you add the bitter herbs, and somebody's explaining all of the other details, the empty seat for Elijah, and why in the world are we using unleavened bread?

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Because leaven represents sin, and none of us selected the little lamb from the flock.

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I didn't do that. I sat down and then they proceeded from the point where the meal's already been prepared.

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I didn't raise the little guy. I didn't watch my kids laugh as he skipped playfully like little lambs do.

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I didn't have my youngest child name the lamb only for me to slit the lamb's throat, spill the blood in a bowl, and take hyssop and spread that little lamb that played with my kids over the doorpost of my house.

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I didn't do that. That's what this is about. How can you say you participate in it if you just kinda like,

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I had some of the meat. I ate some of the roasted vegetables and had the bitter herbs.

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What is this preparation for Jesus? This preparation had to be for Jesus, the ultimate reminder of his mission, the ultimate reminder for what he is about to do for you and me.

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He has come to be the sacrificed lamb so that God will pass over my sin and your sin and he will suffer in our place so that our sins can be covered and the judgment will pass over me.

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The meal prep here, church, is not trivial. The meal prep is a vital part of the symbolism, the spilling of the lamb's blood.

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The Israelites here in this time that we're reflecting on, the Israelites around Jesus are remembering that the blood of the lamb was applied to the doorpost of the houses of Israel in order to avoid the angel of death on that first Passover.

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That's what this remembrance is about and that's what makes it celebratory, right? It's celebratory. It's not for them morose.

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It's not for them dark. I think it was for Jesus dark. I think for Jesus it was difficult because it was what he was about to go through, but everybody around him is like, this is supposed to be delightful.

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This is supposed to be joyous. The angel of death passed over our houses and here now the lamb of God will participate in this

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Passover just the evening before his blood will be spilled to cover our hearts so that eternal condemnation might pass over us.

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The second major preparation in the text is the preparation for the betrayal. The meal's been prepared.

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They've gathered in the upper room. They're probably having some discussion before we get to verses 20 through 25.

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As a matter of fact, the other gospels, some of them record different conversations for us. Some of them, one of them even records that the disciples had been arguing at some point during this meal about who's best, who's gonna be first, that kind of stuff.

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Jesus washes their feet. We know that that's in this context as well. But the meal has been prepared and laid on in the evening of the day before he's going to be crucified,

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Jesus and his 12 disciples partake of this Passover meal. Now Matthew has a quite abbreviated account of these events.

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Like I said, he leaves out the foot washing. He leaves out the king teaching the discourse, a really long teaching discourse from John, the upper room discourse.

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He sticks to the focus of the deep care that Jesus expresses to his disciples in preparing them for what's coming.

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And that's what struck Matthew's heart. And that's what the Spirit revealed to Matthew to record for us. And so that's what we have primarily in Matthew's account of this upper room event.

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The betrayal will be a stark feature of the next few hours for the disciples if you put yourself in their shoes.

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So while they're there and they're eating the lamb and the bitter herbs and sharing in the ritual four glasses of wine that would have been shared amongst them, that was all part of the

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Passover observance. Jesus says at some point in the evening, a stark statement found in verse 21.

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One of you. Now imagine how this deadens the conversation. Imagine how this like settles on them like, dude, this is a celebration meal.

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Like we're celebrating what God did for us in Egypt. Really Jesus? One of you will betray me, he says.

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Judas, I wonder if he just kind of like, have I been caught? Does he know?

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Who ratted me out? I wonder. What was his, can you imagine seeing his face at the moment that Jesus says this?

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How does he know that? Does he know that I've already made arrangements with the chief priest?

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Does he know about the 30 pieces of silver? But he tries to cover his tracks.

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And I wanna focus my attention for just a moment first on the response of the 11 disciples before we talk about the one who will betray.

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Note that those who are to be saved by Jesus, those 11 who will be in his kingdom and will sit on thrones with him and will judge the nations and will be there with him for eternity, forever and ever and ever, with whom he will share his rule.

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The 11 disciples in the book of Revelation featuring prominently in that eternal kingdom. They do not wanna be the ones to betray him.

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One of the signs of salvation is revulsion at the thought of betraying your

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Lord. I often find in counseling people, even here in this church,

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I find a fear of falling away among those who are saved. And I suggest to you that most often, this is a sign of devotion and love for Jesus.

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His loyal followers who will indeed be saved by him. It's unclear what the disciples understood and how much they were understanding the gospel of redemption through the blood of Jesus.

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I mean, they're trying to get this and this is like a fire hose coming at them and this week is tough and eventually they get it, probably after the resurrection for all of them.

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But they are sorrowful at the thought of betraying him. Sorrow is the word used in the text. Deep abiding turmoil within their soul.

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May it not be me. While there is one who will depart to take care of the vile business, according to the gospel of John, in this very context, as he declares it,

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Judas will depart very shortly. So take heart, church.

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If you find the thought of betraying your Lord is sorrowful, take heart that that is a decent sign of redemption.

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And I also wanna note how closely Judas must have held his cards. I mean, think about this.

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They walked the countryside. Judas has not betrayed his lack of loyalty to Jesus enough that the other disciples catch on.

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Nobody asks in this context, is it Judas? Is it

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Judas? As a matter of fact, unlike, it's really bizarre, but unlike their usual competitiveness, notice that sorrow and deep concern that they may be the ones who unwittingly betray him, and that is their first concern.

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And to a person, is it I, Lord? Is it I, Lord? Is it I, Lord? That's a surprising response from this rabble.

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If you follow their lives and you follow what the kinds of stuff that they say, you at least expect Peter to say something dumb, right?

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Put his foot in his mouth. But what I expect in this context versus is it

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I, Lord, is what I expect is it's probably Judas, or I'm betting on Bart, or I'm betting on Thad, right?

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But the statement from Jesus in verse 23, I always wonder, how does this clarify?

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It's always been confusing to me. How is it the one who dips his hand in the cup will be the one who betrays me or the one who dips his hand in the food?

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Does Jesus clarify for all of them who it is in this moment? And they were all like, ah, okay, it's Judas. No, that's not actually what he's saying here.

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The construction is studying it a little bit deeper this week and kind of going through kind of what's the language construction here.

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It doesn't imply that Judas happened to have his pita bread in the common dish with Jesus at just the same time.

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And they're all like, aha, got him. The one who happens to have, and everybody's trying to pull their hands back from the dish, right?

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It's like, that's not me. I'm not dipping my hand in that dish. What helped me was just studying it this week.

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And this is what Jesus says here is only merely to heighten the tension for a moment. He doesn't let him off the hook.

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He's heightening the tension. And his statement is actually one of generic emphasis to further make what

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Judas is about to do more heinous. It's a close friend. It's one who has eaten and dipped his hand in the dish regularly with me is what

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Jesus says. It is indeed one of you in this room is what

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Jesus is reemphasizing. He doesn't let him off the hook, but instead he says, yeah, it's that close.

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It's that personal. And in verse 24, there's some overlap between his prep for betrayal and the prep for his death, his preparing the disciples for his betrayal, rather than his preparation for his death with them.

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Because he declares openly that the thing about to happen to the son of man himself is going the way of things already written.

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There at the start of verse 24, prophecy is spelled out where he's going in the next few hours.

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But the one who betrays the son of man, he clarifies that betrayal again, woe to him.

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The word woe could be translated doom on. Doom on him is what woe means.

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It would have been better for Judas had he not been born, says

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Jesus. Jesus knows that Judas will indeed be condemned for his role in this betrayal.

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His condemnation is sure, and Jesus says as much. And yet it will be what Judas has signed up for.

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He wants nothing to do with the kingdom of Jesus. And so he's done with him. And he will in this act of betrayal reject the

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Lord, reject his grace, reject his power, reject his authority.

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And he will be consigned to a place without the grace of Jesus, a place away from the favor of God forever.

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Because Judas wants silver. And as I said last week,

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Judas would rather have 30 pieces of silver without Jesus. Rather have 30 pieces of silver without Jesus.

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And an application to this understanding of this betrayal and where the betrayer is going is really for us to have a godly sorrow, but an honest assessment of condemnation.

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In this application, it's not go do something, it's kind of take on something, believe something. Rather than see condemnation as unjust, why don't we take

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Judas as a model and keep him in the forefront when thoughts of condemnation come? He who sat with grace incarnate, he who benefited from the miracles, he who benefited from the blessings and the common grace of God, laughter and the amazing kindness of our

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Lord. He who was there in the boat when the seas were calmed, he heard the authoritative power and teaching of the

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Sermon on the Mount. He saw Lazarus come forth from the grave. He ate the bread and the fish with the 5 ,000.

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And he sold it all for a piddly bag of silver. This is the status of the condemned.

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We grieve their fate, right? How many of you would say, this is just terrible? Think of it, hell is real.

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Raise your hand if you grieve that fate. We grieve their fate, but I'm not convinced that they do.

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I'm not convinced that they do. As N .D. Wilson says in his notes from The Tilted World, and I'm summarizing probably half a chapter in this statement, so this is not a direct quote.

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It's more of a paraphrase of the concept from N .D. Wilson. He says, those in hell would love to be in heaven if only

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God wasn't there. Those in hell would love to be in heaven if it was without God, but his presence makes them, fine,

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I'd rather be in hell. If you wanna be there with him, church, you might just find it hard to believe that there are genuinely

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Judas's who do not want anything to do with him and would betray him for a pittance.

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Judas says something chilling in verse 25. I'm convinced he says it to fit in, but it betrays himself.

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In verse 25, what does he say? Is it I, Rabbi? But there's something that's different.

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All of the other disciples have said something different. Did you catch it? What did they say? Is it

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I, Lord? Is it I, Master? Is it

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I, King? Is it I? Would I betray you, Lord? Please say no. And Judas calls him teacher.

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Is it me, teacher? I wanna clarify and be direct.

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Nobody will be saved if Jesus remains merely your teacher.

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Nobody is saved by having Jesus as your teacher. A guy who came and showed me some way to live and I'm just trying to be meek like him,

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I'm just trying to be smart like him, I'm trying to do life like him, I'm trying to be kind like him, I'm trying, trying, trying, trying, trying.

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No, the only pathway to salvation is to receive him as your Lord. He calls the shots.

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He guides you, he directs you. You recognize that the good in your life is only because of Christ in us, the hope of glory, that Christ lives through you.

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That's where power is. That's where salvation is. Starting in verse 24 through the remainder of the passage, we see the more specific preparation for his death, death prep.

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In verse 24, I mentioned that Jesus starts to prepare them by indicating that he's about to go the way written of him.

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So it kind of goes into 24, starts at the start of 24 and then kind of skips over the reminder of Judas and then goes on.

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But he's gonna go the way of what's written about him but written where, written by whom? Well, written in the

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Old Testament by God about the Messiah, about himself. You see, the

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Old Testament says, well, let me read verse 24 again. The Son of Man goes as it is written of him.

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That's where I'm going. And what was written? The Old Testament says the

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Messiah will be a man of sorrows, bruised for our iniquities, crushed and stricken by God, pierced and surrounded, wounded for forgiveness and healing.

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The Son of Man will be the Lamb of God, slain from the foundations of the world for our sins and he will go the way of those prophecies and he knows it.

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He declares openly, this is where I'm going. Well, woe to the betrayer because that's where he's going but I'm going this way.

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And according to John, at that point, probably quietly,

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Judas says, is it I? And in the hubbub of the disciples, I don't think that it was clear to them.

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I think that it was probably said on the side where Jesus says, go and do as you have planned.

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You have said it. You have said it, according to Matthew. And he departs into the night.

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And then Jesus initiates this epic preparation for them and a reminder for all of us, starting in verse 26, a perpetual reminder for all of us.

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Jesus took the loaf of unleavened bread and broke it. And unleavened bread, it's like a cracker. It breaks really easily and he took it and he broke it and indicated a metaphor of this loaf being his body broken.

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And he took the cup of wine and gave thanks and he gave it to them, commanding that they drink it as his blood.

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Now, we're really familiar with this. And maybe I suggest to you, too familiar with it, or not too familiar, but so familiar, to let it settle on us in all of its proximity to cannibalistic ritual, like the wording doesn't settle on us the way that it would have in that early church.

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Eat his body, drink his blood. What is going on here?

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How many of you think that the disciples might have been just a skosh, like skittish at that point? It's a little bit like, what?

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Eat what? Drink what? But he clarifies in verse 28 what he's going on about.

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He's preparing them for what is about to take place. His blood will be poured out for the forgiveness of sins.

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Oh, sacrifice, we do get that. His blood will be the new covenant between God and man.

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He will be the one who will be the sacrifice to mend the broken covenant between God and humanity. Verse 28 is astounding in what it claims in really so few words.

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The blood of the sacrifices have been poured out at the base of the altar for centuries, centuries upon centuries, to cover the sins of the people, the

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Jews. It's been done daily. It's been done ritually. And according to Jewish tradition, it should never end.

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It should always be going. It is never finished, except that we know that he uttered, it is finished.

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When he died, he said, it is finished. But as the book of Hebrews makes very clear, he will shed his blood as a once for all sacrifice, a final, ultimate, acceptable sacrifice to the

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Father on our behalf. He is the perfect lamb, and he stood in the place of us, and he will be condemned in our place.

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His body broken in place of our punishment, his blood poured out in a covenant of grace to the Father. I'm gonna speak more about the significance of this eating and drinking that we do every week here in just a moment to prepare us for communion.

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But verse 29 always gets me in the feelings. I think what

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Jesus is saying is different than what we read it. I tell you, I will not drink again of this fruit of the vine until the day when

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I drink it new with you in my Father's kingdom. Wine, an element of celebration, wine, an element of gladness, wine, an element of joyful party at a wedding, and all of those things.

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Why wine? I'm not gonna celebrate with you boys anymore. Why mention them specifically when

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I drink it new with you in my Father's kingdom? I listened to this when I was younger. I heard sermons on this, and of course, you hear a lot about communion in the church and stuff like that, and I always thought, oh, this is just mechanical

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Jesus, robot Jesus preparing his disciples for what is going to come. Do you know what

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I'm talking about? Is he human? Yeah, he's the

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God man, but was he human? Please answer yes to that. Fully human and fully

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God. Fully human. Like, did he just say these words mechanically?

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Do you have, what room do you have for Jesus to just say this mechanically?

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Jesus loved these guys. Judas has departed, and he's now with his 11, who he's gonna sit on thrones and rule for eternity with, and they were his boys with a

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Z. I read verse 29 as an internal reflection of the heart of our

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Lord. I hope you can feel it. I hope you can see it. We're seeing a loving, forlorn sorrow on the part of a man who enjoyed drinking wine and merry gladness with his friends.

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If the wine gets in the way, then you're not gonna be able to see what Jesus is expressing from his very heart, and for some of us,

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I know that some of us, the wine gets in the way, right? Okay, I was raised

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Baptist too. But Jesus wants to enjoy fellowship with his friends again, and he is losing something here for a season and a time, and it's been a long season.

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A day is coming when they will gather around the table again but it's not going to be for a while, and Jesus is looking forward to that day.

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Now, I wanna point out and just emphatically state, Jesus never got drunk, but he got accused of it.

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Wine is featured in some fun times of his life, and he expresses that here. I was taught the technical side of this statement but never the heart.

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Jesus loves, loves, loves, loves hanging with his guys, and he will deeply miss it, and I think he kind of already is as he thinks about what's coming tomorrow, what he's gonna do in love for them and for us.

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Picture him looking off, and say I'm being too dramatic or whatever, but I see him looking off with misty eyes, saying, boys, it's gonna be a long while before we do this again.

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It's gonna be a long time. They didn't get it. They didn't get it that he was preparing them for this time, but you can be sure, and I am confident that he was getting it, confident he knew what was coming.

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They sung a hymn together, which is kind of a dumb translation, English standard version. I don't know why they don't translate it

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Psalm, because every Passover meal historically, it's well -documented, ends with a

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Psalm, and we know what Psalms, they actually did a mashup of Psalms at the end of every Passover, every

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Seder. Psalm 115, you can look this up later, you can write it down. Psalm 115 to 118 mashed up.

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We have really strong evidence that that is a song that they sang here to wrap up this meal. You wanna know what

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Jesus' last words with the boys gathered were?

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This is it. This is when they're together, they're celebrating that Passover, and they sing that song in closing over a shared final glass of wine.

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I wanna take a little longer look at communion here this morning as we get ready to celebrate it together, because this is usually the time where I say the word communion, and then

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I watch everybody fold their Bibles up, put them down, and zone out.

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So I would like to take a little more extended view of what we're doing when we take communion together in light of this passage.

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Michael Wilkins, in his commentary on this passage, used six words. Somebody reminded me they are,

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I think the way that I constructed was adverbs, but I am trying to put them in prepositions, but it doesn't really matter, because some of you were like, why did he even say that, and I don't know.

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Communion is, there are these words that I wanna emphasize from Michael Wilkins, backward, forward, inward, upward, around, and outward.

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Communion is backward -facing. It looks backwards to the cross. It looks backward to his body, broken for us historically in a real place in a real time, his great love expressed in his blood poured out for us.

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It's a historical look backward to what is completed. Communion is forward -facing.

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It looks forward to meals shared in his real, literal, physical kingdom. So you kinda go like, well, don't the disciples have fellowship?

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I mean, they died, but they're with Jesus right now, and the answer is yes, but they're not physical. Their bodies have not been resurrected yet.

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They will be resurrected at the second coming of Christ. And so you go, well, they're together, but they're not fully together yet.

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Those who have gone before us actually are looking forward to the return of Christ and the resurrection. They're in a better place, but they're not in the final place.

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And so there's a forward -facing look to this where there are gonna be meals shared with Jesus in that kingdom.

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In his sacrifice, he has sealed a marriage supper of the Lamb. We will be together with him in an oh -so -real celebration.

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Communion is inward -facing, as we are called to consider our love and unity for one another. Now, I learned this,

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I think, wrong my entire life, and then it wasn't really until I began to study some of the passages in Corinthians and stuff, and we're gonna go there, but the understanding that communion is really a somber time to just basically say, did

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I do anything wrong this week? How many of you know the answer's always yes? You don't really have to ask the question.

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You did a bunch of wrong things. And then I thought what I was supposed to do, like, before I got up and went to the table, was like, remember everything that I could and say

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I'm sorry, right? Like, that's what it meant to look inwardly and not take the

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Lord's Supper in an unworthy manner. What does it mean, the inward look of our lives?

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We are told, by the way, very clearly to not participate in this in an unworthy manner. So how many of you think it might be good to know what that means?

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An unworthy manner is a state of, according to Corinthians, quarreling and dissension among you.

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It is disunity that disqualifies you from participating in the unity that is communion.

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If you're disunified with one another, why would you go to those tables and pretend that you are?

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If you have something against a brother or a sister in this gathering or in the church at large, jump out in the lobby, make a phone call, reconcile that before you take that.

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If there's somebody you need to walk across the room and say, I'm sorry, brother, I'm sorry, sister, I did this and this and this, and that's on me.

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I'm sorry, will you forgive me? Give a hug, then go together and take that. Do you get what

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I'm saying? That's what it is to take it in an unworthy manner. If it was that I had to confess every sin that I had committed this week before I was worthy to take that,

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I'll never take it. I don't even remember all the sins that I've committed this week.

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Do you know what I'm saying? I mean, I try, I confess, I say, I'm sorry, God, and I'm sorry for the things I don't remember. Do you know what

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I mean? But what does it mean to take it? So inward facing, you ought to never take communion in this room when you have unresolved grievances with others in the church.

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The inward facing, communion is upward facing. In communion, we look up to see the smile of the

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Father who accepts us now as his children through the gracious sacrifice of the

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Son on our behalf. We are reconciled to God through Jesus Christ.

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Communion is others facing. As we look around, we see the glory of the church, that we are the redeemed of God, warts and all, and he loves us and has brought us together in his great love, that we might serve one another and love one another as he has loved us.

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And lastly, communion is outward facing. We should be, we should come to these tables and just at least with a skosh of curiosity about who's not here that should be.

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And I'm not talking about people that are traveling this weekend or our kids that are up at Bearkell. I'm talking about who should you be seeking to bring to these tables?

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Is it an unsaved neighbor, unsaved coworker, unsaved friend? Who are you working on and who are you sharing the gospel with that you're trying to bring to these tables?

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Who is God calling you to invite to the table through openly sharing good news with them? We ought to consider the absence of others from communion as well as a reminder to share the love of God in this world.

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So let's come to honor him. Let's honor him backwards, forwards, inward, upward, around, and outward.

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How has he loved us, church, in these tables? It's this and this and that and that.

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This is where we see his love for us. Let's pray. Father, I thank you.

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I cannot imagine what Jesus went through in those final hours, what he went through in the anticipation. And I'm sure that just everything, a last step for him here in this place, knowing the torture, knowing the punishment, knowing the broken body and the shed blood, knowing that he would bear our sins on his shoulder and that the

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Father would look upon him with wrath that we deserved. I can't imagine what that is.

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It's just the exponential pain and suffering that he went through in your wrath poured out on your son where we deserved it.

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Father, I pray that as we take communion, it would be so much more than just going to these tables and having a cracker and some juice, but we would reflect deeply on the things that you mean for us to remember in this, our unworthiness and your great love.

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And I ask that that would empower us in this week to even go as we think about that outward side of things, to go out and share the love that you have given to us, that we would testify of your goodness, testify of your glory, and invite others to taste and see that the