Wednesday, July 20, 2022 PM

needs of our missionaries, the needs of our community, our world. So Lord, we ask your blessing upon all that we do.

We pray these things in Jesus' name, amen. Okay, Luke chapter 22, beginning in verse 1.

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, for they feared the people.

Then Satan entered Judas, surnamed Iscariot, who was numbered among the twelve.

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 saw 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 twelve apostles with him. Then he said to them,

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 vine until the kingdom of God comes. And he took bread and gave thanks and broke it and gave it to them, saying,

This is my body which is given for you. Do this in remembrance of me. Likewise he also took the cup after supper, saying,

This cup is the new covenant in my blood which is shed for you. But behold, the hand of my betrayer is with me on the table.

And truly the Son of Man goes as it has been determined. But woe to that man by whom he is betrayed.

Then they began to question among themselves which of them it was who would do this thing. So the timing of all these events, the crisis, the showdown that happened at the temple and the inflammatory parables that Jesus has been telling, the warning, the woe, the promised judgment upon the city of Jerusalem and the temple, all of this has been building up to this very important moment which happens to fall at Passover.

And what do we remember about Passover? What are some of the distinctive themes, elements, important aspects of the story of Passover?

It's a remembrance of the last plague of Egypt wherein

God sent his angel of death into the land of Egypt to kill the firstborn of every family except for those who did what?

Right, so they were instructed to take a lamb without blemish, to isolate it and to care for it to make sure there was nothing wrong with it.

And they were to kill this lamb in such a way that they would collect the blood in a bowl as it bled out and they would take some hyssop and dip it into the bowl and they would paint essentially the doorpost of their house with the blood.

And what did they do with this lamb? Well, they cooked the lamb and they ate every part of it that they could and anything that they were not able to eat they burned with fire so it was entirely consumed.

And they also, in remembrance of this Passover, they were to commemorate it moving forward by eating unleavened bread, remembering that they had not time because of the speediness of the delivery, they had not time for the to make regular bread where the bread would would rise from the yeast.

And so they were to commemorate a feast of unleavened bread and Passover all as one.

And as they moved forward in the traditions of their people, they of course they observed the unleavened bread and they were instructed further that they were to remember to remove sin from their midst and they were to practice that by removing leaven from their houses.

In fact, the parents would come up with a game and they would hide a little bit of leaven in the house somewhere and the challenge the children to go find the last little bit of leaven to get it out of the house and they would teach them in that way.

Also they developed four different cups of wine to be drunk during Passover and each one had a special name and this was something that they developed and it became a part of the celebration of the

Passover meal up to the time of Christ. So when we read about Jesus and his disciples partaking in this

Passover meal, we see the element of the bread, of course, is there, but then also there's this wine that we don't see in the original instructions in Exodus and Leviticus and Numbers and so on about how to celebrate the meal.

So when Jesus says in this passage that he has been anticipating this because this is the last time he's going to partake of this meal prior to the climactic moment of his death and his resurrection and the ushering in of the kingdom of God.

So when we look at the timing, the feast of the unleavened bread, this is one of the most important moments in the

Jewish religious life. All manner of people are crowding into Jerusalem. It's going to be very difficult indeed for Judas to make good on his promise to alert the religious leaders at a time when

Jesus will not be in the safety of the crowd. The religious leaders want to kill Jesus but they fear the crowd and so they must handle this situation in a way that the crowd will not know until it's too late.

And they can control the story and say, well he blasphemed or he said this or he broke this law and so forth.

So they fear the people but the story goes with Judas Iscariot.

Then Satan entered Judas, we see in verse 3, surnamed Iscariot who was numbered among the twelve.

We are reminded of the significance of the betrayal because he was numbered among the twelve. And we have questions often about this, well was

Judas Iscariot simply Satan's puppet? Was Satan just wearing

Judas Iscariot like a cloak? No, because Jesus says that Judas is responsible for these actions and that he would be judged for these actions.

He did not say something to the effect he knew not what he did. And of course we know that he could very well say such a thing.

But Judas Iscariot was held accountable for what he did but certainly he was in agreement with the stealing and the killing and the destroying and the accusing and the lying and the deception that Satan is all about.

And this is exactly the kind of behavior that Judas engages in. Now many people have wondered what was the motive?

I mean obviously the money wasn't all that great. Why would Judas desire to betray

Christ? And we're not really given a whole lot of information. And we can suppose that perhaps he didn't like this servant and suffering side of Jesus.

And we can suppose that he thought that there'd be a lot more political power that he was signing up for. And we could suppose that the money that he had been taking from the money purse simply just wasn't enough to satisfy his desires.

But we're not really told ultimately all the various motivations that drove

Judas Iscariot. We are left exactly with what he did. And he went his way and conferred with the chief priests and the captains how he might betray him to them.

And they were glad and agreed to give him money. So they promised and saw opportunity to betray him.

So he promised and saw opportunity to betray him to them in the absence of the multitude. So the very first opportunity for there to be the absence of the multitude was when?

What about during the supper? We have no crowd pressing in around Christ in the upper room, do we?

As so often as we find in Jesus's travels, when he's inside of a home, inside of a structure, and everyone crowding around so that nobody can get in.

This was the very first opportunity, wasn't it? The very next thing we read, it's time for a Passover meal.

Passover meals were generally somewhere between 10 and 20 people that would gather for a Passover meal. And they would need to have the bread.

And they would, of course, kill the Passover lamb in a way that it was required and prepare that. There would be also bitter herbs to eat to remind them of the bitter slavery that they endured while they were in Egypt.

There was, of course, the need to secure the wine and a place to go through and have this meal together, a place where they could sing the

Psalms of Ascent or the Great Hallel. And they would sing their songs together, and they would have this meal together.

But they needed a place to be alone. And notice how Jesus takes care of this.

Verse 8, 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? So obviously, there had been no open planning as to what they were going to do.

These are Galileans. Of course, the Son of Man had no place to lay his head, so he had no place to host the

Passover meal. But they're also Galileans, and they're traveling about. And they don't have any real base of operations there in Jerusalem and the surrounding villages, except for maybe over in Bethany.

But they needed some place to meet. And they had not made any plans. So Judas does not know where they're going to have the

Passover meal. So notice how Jesus arranges for this. 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? And 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 this Passover. We're not told how

Jesus arranged this. There is, of course, the reality that as fully

God and fully man, two natures in one person, he would have known exactly all of this in advance without ever having to speak to the owner of the house, to the servant who would be carrying the water and so on.

Of course, there is the possibility at some level Jesus simply made arrangements without his disciples knowing what had happened.

But this is, in all honesty, a very odd and secretive way to set up for a

Passover meal. This would not necessarily be a normal way of going about it.

So what about this signal? You're going to see a man carrying a pitcher of water. So what?

But just like a babe lying in the manger, ostensibly the feeding trough being outside, wrapped up in swaddling clothes, here's a baby in the manger, a sign for the shepherds to find.

His disciples are going to find a man carrying a pitcher of water. Men did not carry pitchers of water in the ancient

Near East. Women did. Men would carry skins of water. That's how they carried it. So for them to see a man carrying a pitcher of water would have caught the eye.

That's weird. That's strange. That's odd. And maybe, who knows how

Jesus knew? Either because he is fully God, or because he knew the owner of the household, and he knew how his servant carried the water in a strange way.

But either way, Jesus knew how it was all going to be arranged, and he told his disciples to follow through.

And they did. And they believed what their master said. And they went, strange instructions indeed, but they just followed through.

And behold, the provision was there for their obedience to follow through. Which is always encouraging to see.

We get to verse 14. When the hour had come, he sat down and the twelve apostles with him. Then he said to them,

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. So this

Passover is significant because it happens right before his suffering. He's been telling them.

The Son of Man is going up to Jerusalem, and he's going to be handed over to the chief priests and to the Pharisees.

And he is going to be betrayed, and he's going to suffer. And he's going to die and be raised the third day.

He told them this. They didn't want to hear that. They didn't quite understand what he was saying. It disturbed them greatly.

But he had set his face toward Jerusalem. And he had said many different things about how he had a baptism yet to undergo.

And how desirous he was to undergo it. There at the end of Luke chapter 11. A baptism?

He had already been baptized. The heavens parted and the dove came down. The Holy Spirit in the form of a dove came down upon him.

And the Father said from heaven, This is my beloved Son whom I am well pleased. So what kind of baptism is

Jesus talking about? He's already been anointed by the Holy Spirit. He's done a baptism of the Spirit. He's already been baptized by water.

John the Baptist has already immersed him. So what kind of baptism is he anticipating coming?

His death and resurrection. Which is of course why we retain the symbol in the ordinance.

And so he has been anticipating this for quite some time. And here he says,

It's important that we have this Passover together before I suffer. And he wants them to connect the way that he's going to conduct this

Passover meal with his coming suffering. He wants them to connect this Passover with the coming of the

Kingdom of God. He wants them to think about what's happening here at the Passover meal. And to hold that near and dear to their hearts.

To treasure it. To think about it. To meditate on it. So that they will be helped to understand what's about to happen.

When he suffers and he's crucified. And he is buried when he rises from the dead.

So verse 17, 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. He said,

Well why is Jesus starting with the cup? I thought he started with the bread. Remember there's four cups of wine that are shared in the

Passover meal. And he, this may have been the first or the second cup.

We don't really know. But he shares this cup with them. And he makes the point that he will not drink of the fruit of the vine until the

Kingdom of God comes. We'll see later on, they tried to give him some sour wine to drink.

And he, after tasting it, refused it. Because he was not going to drink of the fruit of the vine until after his resurrection.

And then he took the bread, gave thanks and broke it. And he gave it to them saying,

This is my body which is given for you. Do this in remembrance of me.

Now this is the, this is the very similar formula about the cup.

But let's just think about the bread for a moment. He gives thanks, he breaks it and he's handing it out to his disciples.

And there's many things that he could say at this moment. And he chooses to say this, This is my body which is given for you.

Do this in remembrance of me. So obviously Jesus is handing to them a very significant metaphor.

Because he's still in the flesh in front of them. So Jesus is not confused.

He's alive in front of them in the flesh. But he's saying,

This bread is my body. And he wants them to consider what is offered for them.

What is broken for them. What has been blessed for them.

And to see that in the symbol of the bread. To consider the bread that was eaten just prior to their deliverance.

From Egypt, from slavery. As in the story of their redemption as they were brought out of Egypt.

And to think about in the breaking and the blessing and the offering up of the body of Christ.

What are they to remember? What are they to reflect upon? They are to reflect upon redemption. They are to reflect upon deliverance. They are to reflect upon purity and sinlessness and this unleavened bread.

And they are to reflect upon God giving to them that which they were unable to take for themselves.

This is my body which is given for you. Do this in remembrance of me. And so he makes it a remembrance of him.

Something for his followers to remember. He's instituting something here that was going to happen again and again.

And every time his followers, every time we as Christians engage in the

Lord's Supper. And partaking of this ordinance and the breaking of the bread and the taking of this unleavened bread.

It is in our remembrance of Christ. Our remembrance of Christ.

It's not a situation in which, for instance, in a Roman Catholic sense.

Where it's Christ remembering us. Sacrificing himself yet again for us.

It's our remembering him. It's our remembering him, what he has already done.

For he died, for the death that he died, he died once for all to send the life that he lives, he lives to God.

And Hebrews says it's impossible to offer Christ up again. So likewise, he also took the cup after supper.

Saying, this cup is the new covenant in my blood which is shed for you.

Now reflect again about the drinking of the wine during Passover.

And reflect about how the blood was used originally in Passover.

It was the blood of the lamb. It was the blood that they collected from the lamb without blemish.

The lamb without spot. The lamb that had been brought in and cared for and treasured amongst the family.

The kids would be attached to it within three hours, let alone three days. And they had to kill this lamb.

And the blood had to be collected and then covering over the doorposts of their house.

So that God's justice would be satisfied.

So that the angel of death would pass over seeing that a substitution had been made.

A sacrifice had vicariously been made. And it was a sacrifice that God had chosen, that God had declared would be satisfying to him.

And they had laid hold of that by faith. And the angel of death passes over them.

But that was the shadow and here is the substance where Christ is saying, My blood will be shed for you.

He's presenting himself as that lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world, as John the

Baptist said. He's showing that he himself is God's lamb whose blood will cover his people.

That God will be satisfied in this chosen sacrifice even as his followers are satisfied in this chosen sacrifice.

And in this fulfillment of what we would call the wave offering or the peace offering in the Old Testament. Where the sacrifice is offered to God and to man.

Where it was consumed by the mediators bringing the people together. It was seen as the people and God eating together the sacrifice that was made to reconcile them together.

And so Jesus is saying this cup is the new covenant in my blood which is shed for you.

So he's changing some things and some things are very different about this Passover meal.

Throughout the Old Covenant the people were to celebrate the Passover meal. And they had various regulations about how they were to do it.

Who could show up and who couldn't. How often they were to observe the Passover meal.

What would happen if they failed to follow through on the Passover meal. But now here in the description of the

Passover meal we don't have anything about bitter herbs. We don't even really hear hardly anything about a lamb being slaughtered and butchered.

And being eaten in full and all the extraneous parts burned if the whole thing couldn't be eaten.

That's all gone. That's not even being talked about. It's not talked about in any of the Gospels.

Something is different. Jesus is talking to them about a new covenant. And although the

Passover lamb is not in the text the Passover lamb is in the text.

Because this is about Christ. It's about his body being broken. It's about his blood being shed.

And so he says this cup is the new covenant in my blood. There's a new covenant now.

A new covenant. There is a similarity to the old but there is a transforming fulfillment in the new.

This cup is the new covenant in my blood which is shed for you. And with that expression new covenant comes a wave of Old Testament promises that they should be reflecting upon.

He continues, but behold the hand of my betrayer is with me on the table. In other accounts he says he who dips his hand in the bowl with me is the one who betrays me.

And so he's pointing out that the one who betrays him is very close at hand. And that of course is

Judas Iscariot as we've already been told. And here's something, here's a verse that we need to reflect upon.

People always ask the what if questions. Yeah, but what if it was somehow different?

I mean Jesus knew who it was who betrayed him, who was going to betray him. Why didn't he stop it?

Why didn't he do something different? But notice how he, notice how Jesus rests in the sovereignty of God all the while man remaining responsible.

And it doesn't seem to give Jesus indigestion as it does us. But look at it.

In verse 22, and truly the Son of Man goes as it has been determined.

But woe to that man by whom he is betrayed. So forget the question about well did the devil make

Judas do it? Is the devil the one really to blame rather than Judas? Actually it's even a bigger question.

The Son of Man goes as it has been determined.

The betrayal of the Son of Man. The arrest of the Son of Man. The beatings of the

Son of Man. The kangaroo court trials of the Son of Man. The scourging of the

Son of Man. The crucifixion of the Son of Man. His death upon the cross, his burial.

The Son of Man goes as it has been determined. Who determined it? God had determined it.

Every little detail had been determined. And indeed we see prophecy after prophecy from Genesis to Malachi.

Telling us about how it was that the Son of Man would suffer in our place as God's Lamb. Satisfying the justice of God so that we may be forgiven and know nothing but God's mercy.

It was determined by God. And at the same time, the one who plays this wretched betrayal,

Judas Iscariot, is still fully responsible for what he does. Woe to that man.

Woe to that man by whom he is betrayed. The Count Matthew says it would be better if he had never been born.

And given the realities of hell, that is a very true statement. So we see great evil in what

Judas Iscariot does. And we're going to see great evil in how the chief priests and Sadducees, the

Pharisees, the Sanhedrin, Herod, Pilate, the Roman soldiers.

How they all work together in their self -interest to murder the Christ, the

Son of God. Great evil was done. And yet we are reminded from that prayer in Acts chapter 4, that they were all gathered together according to the full ordained plan of God.

According to his mighty hand. To do what he had determined to be done. And so God took the greatest evil ever committed upon the face of the planet to accomplish the greatest good ever in the history of mankind.

Our salvation. Redemption. The death and resurrection of Christ to bring about a new creation.

So here in verse 22, it's just a model of resting in the sovereignty of God and the responsibility of man.

Verse 23 is the last verse for our reading tonight. Then they began to question among themselves which of them it was who would do this thing.

They're full of questions. Full of concerns. And they're going to start arguing here in a little bit.

It must have been an extra burden upon Jesus in this critical moment to have his closest followers all over the place.

Like this. I think it would have been very, very lonely for him. Okay. Any questions or thoughts about our reading tonight?

Yes. When he's raised from the dead,

Jesus comes up from the grave. And he comes out of the grave and speaks to his disciples and says all authority has been given to me in heaven and on earth.

And the indicators from the prophecies are that the kingdom of God is a doctrinal synonym for the new covenant.

So what he brings about, as he's talking about here, he's bringing about the new covenant in his blood.

Okay. And once that's been brought about, thus he has the kingdom.

It was precisely the death upon a cross that is the hinge in Philippians chapter 2 where Paul says for this reason

God has also highly exalted him and given him a name which is above every name.

So the kingdom is intrinsically tied to the victory that Christ wins in his death and resurrection.

And we find Jesus for 40 days after his resurrection fellowshipping with his disciples.

And he already told them he wasn't a ghost and he ate some food with him to prove it to them. So he certainly had bread and wine with his disciples in his days before his ascension.

All right. Well, let's turn our attention to prayer. I know that.