Sermon: The Passover and The Christ

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your Bibles to the Gospel according to Matthew chapter 26. The Gospel according to Matthew chapter 26.

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It's good to hear those pages turning and I guess you guys doing this.

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Gospel according to Matthew 26 starting in verse 14.

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Hear now the word of the living and the true God. Then one of the twelve whose name was

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Judas Iscariot went to the chief priest and said, what will you give me if I deliver him over to you?

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And they paid him 30 pieces of silver and from that moment he sought an opportunity to betray him.

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Now on the first day of unleavened bread with the 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 a table with the twelve 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 Son of Man is betrayed.

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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 of it new with you in my

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Father's kingdom. Thus far is the reading of God's holy and inspired word. Let's pray together as his people.

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Father, we pray Lord that you'd be glorified today in our worship of you and our Lord. Hearing the proclamation of your word, we pray that Christ would be exalted, glorified, magnified among us as we look at these treasures in your word.

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We pray, Spirit of God, that you would teach today that you would, Lord, open our eyes to your truth, speak through the shepherd of your people today, guide us, teach us, instruct us, renew us, change us.

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I pray that you would bless, Lord, the proclamation of your word today so that Lord we'd be more deeply, deeply committed to Christ and his gospel.

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In Jesus' name, amen. So this is a powerful moment in Matthew 26.

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We've done the section about Judas. We actually did sort of an extensive move through different texts throughout the gospel record about Judas and his betrayal.

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We actually went pretty far ahead and now we're in this section about communion.

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We call it communion where Jesus gives the bread and the cup. Pastor James, as I said, has done a pretty powerful study with us through the

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Lord's table and the history of it and I'm sure we're gonna get more of that so I'm gonna leave that to Pastor James but before we move on in the narrative here in the gospel according to Matthew, I wanted to spend time making sure that as a church body we understand the significance of this moment for the disciples and the

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Lord Jesus and really this core part of the message of the entire Bible, Passover.

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You see, this is one of those examples that we see really throughout the New Testament.

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Of course, we can dig into this until the Lord takes us home and we'll never fully mind the depths of it that the messianic goal of the

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Old Testament is demonstrated in at least two particular ways. Number one, direct prophecy.

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So what's that mean? That means the disciples knew that Messiah was coming. How come?

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Well, you know this because from the very beginning of the Bible as you crack it open you get into the third chapter of Genesis and you're already reading about this one who is coming who's gonna crush the head of the serpents, he's gonna deliver the mortal blow to the serpents and yet he'll be wounded, bruised on his heel in the process and this messianic figure is going to be from the seed of the woman.

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That's unique, that's different and it's at the very beginning of your Bible you're opening this revelation of God and as soon as you crack it open you're already reading about this messianic figure that's coming and as you move through Genesis, that very first book in our

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Bible, you begin to see all the promises of Messiah unfold. Direct prophecy about this one who is coming, a descendant of Abraham, the one who is coming who is gonna be the one that actually brings

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Abraham offspring like the stars in the sky and like the sand on the seashore.

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You're reading about this one who is coming who's gonna bring the nations to obedience to the true and living

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God and then the story begins to unfold even more with those direct prophecies. You have all the details necessary to know

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Jesus as Savior and Lord in the Old Testament through direct prophecy.

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The entire Bible is about Jesus. The Bible has a messianic goal and it is in a person with a specific work given to him by God and you have that direct prophecy that tells you details about Jesus that show it can only be

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Jesus. It'd be a virgin birth, he'd come from Bethlehem, that he would have a specific time in history where he would come.

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The Messiah had to come before the destruction of the second temple, Daniel chapter 9. The Messiah would come and he had a character about him, a righteousness and a holiness that was his that was different than all

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Israel and everything before. There's something about this Messiah in Isaiah 53 that makes him so distinct.

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Israel is called God's servant and yet this one in Isaiah 53 who is coming is called

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God's servant but he has attributes. He has aspects of his character and his life that could be said of nobody in the history of Israel.

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Nobody. Direct prophecy about what he was gonna do, how he was going to die, again when in history he was coming, why he was coming.

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You have all these glorious promises, direct prophecy about Messiah and his kingdom that tell you even the scope of his work in history.

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Salvation, redemption, the nation's coming to God, all the families of the earth returning to worship

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Yahweh, direct prophecy. The disciples were expecting it and that's of course why you see in the gospel narrative these moments where they're saying, hey we think we found the

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Messiah and you have him saying things like can anything good come from Nazareth? What do you mean the Messiah comes from Nazareth?

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This is supposed to be the one who's gonna win the families of the earth, the tribes of the earth back to Yahweh.

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He's gonna bring salvation to the ends of the earth. How is this Messiah coming from Nazareth? They were confused and again as I've said many times before you want to give the disciples a little bit of grace because of course in the

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Old Testament you do see a very complex character who is coming.

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There are things about this Messiah that they probably were perplexed about. How is the Messiah a suffering servant?

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How is he going to be cut off, die a violent death and yet still win the world to God?

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How do we have this Messiah as this one who brings justice to the nations and the law of God goes out into the world and yet he's also this humble and broken figure?

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They had to be confused about it but you have that the messianic goal of the entire Bible with direct prophecy about Jesus it can't be anybody else.

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He had to come and be cut off before the destruction of the second Jewish temple. If Jesus isn't

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Mashiach there is no Mashiach. It's over. That's how specific the prophecy was but there's not just that direct prophecy which

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I think is just fascinating. The thing that fascinates me the most and you've heard me talk about this before is not necessarily the direct prophecy that identifies the who, the what, the where, the when, the why.

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It's the symbolism in the Old Testament. Symbolism that actually connects to this moment we're in right now in the gospel according to Matthew.

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The Passover itself. They had been celebrating this thing for ages. They were doing it.

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It was their special time of year. It was the time of year where you got together with the people who were closest to you.

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This was their Thanksgiving. This was their Christmas. This was their time where they had to have that time together.

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They made special arrangements. They made sure that they had saved money up for it, that they could actually attend, that they could travel if they needed to.

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You sat and reclined a table with the people who were closest to you to engage in this very intimate moment with God's people and with God himself with something that he had actually prescribed.

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Do this. Do this. Don't forget to do it.

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Do it regularly. Do it as I've commanded you. It was very specific and they knew

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God told us to do this. Why? Because we're remembering how God redeemed our people out of Egypt.

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We're remembering his special salvific acts, his power over the idols of Egypt, how he destroyed our enemies behind us in the

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Red Sea, how he brought us out of our slavery and they remembered, here it is, that this

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Passover lamb was the substitute. It was the thing that God gave his people to save them from God.

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Did you hear that? That's what the Passover ultimately was. It was

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God saving his people from God. Now the modern -day evangelical doesn't like to hear that today, right?

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Because God is love. What do you mean we need to be saved from God? Well, it makes perfect sense if you have a biblical worldview and you recognize that you're the enemy of God, you're the rebel, you are the one that violates his laws, you are the one that is guilty.

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God is not merely love. God is also a just God.

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He is a holy God. He doesn't have just merely one attribute, love. God has the attribute of justice.

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He is a righteous God, a just God. And so in the Passover, God gives to his people this specific thing that they could not have possibly understood.

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Let's grant that. Here's, here's what you got to hear. Atheists, agnostics, those who are antagonistic towards the

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Christian faith love the weirdness of the Old Testament ritual and symbol.

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They love it. They love to sit and talk in their groups together and go, look at this really weird thing

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God tells them to do, this weird cult ritual. You have to have this lamb, give me a break, a lamb.

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You got to kill the lamb. It's got to have no spot, no blemish. You got to take blood and put it over your door.

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Is that ridiculous? Oh, and make sure you don't break its bones. They mock the ritual and the symbolism, the acting out of the symbolism among the people of God.

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They look at it and it's strange. To me, it is one of the most glorious things about the story of Jesus.

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I think that of course the direct prophecies of Jesus are amazing.

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They are powerful. They are incomprehensible. But it is truly for me the dress rehearsal and the ritual of the

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Old Testament that I find to be the most compelling because here's why. The Jewish people, remember this, in the

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Old Testament they are doing things prescribed by God and they had no real understanding of Jesus like you and I have today.

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We have the story of Jesus, his life and work and ministry behind us. We get to see all the glory of it, all the things that attach to the

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Old Testament. So we see this picture in full color and the Old Testament saints saw it sort of in a fog.

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There were things there they could comprehend. They understood what a sacrifice was.

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They understood what a substitute was. They understood what wrath was and love was and mercy.

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But they did not comprehend all the glories and the majesty of Jesus. Just consider this.

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When the Jews are in Egypt, these are people who are enslaved under the boot of Pharaoh and God tells them that he's gonna deliver them out of their bondage to Egypt.

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All they know is this moment that they're in, they know that Yahweh is God. They're the people of God and this

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God's gonna now deliver us from our slavery, our bondage. And God does these amazing things and has victory over the idols of Egypt.

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We talked about that recently, remember? How people will say, this is so strange.

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Frogs falling. I mean we have the water turning to blood. You have locusts and all this crazy stuff.

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This has got to be mythology. Until, of course, you read history and you understand, of course, what?

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That these things that happened in the plagues in Egypt were what? They were the things that the

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Egyptian gods are supposed to have power over. Over the water. Over the frogs. All these things

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God is displaying in Egypt that he's the true God and these are false gods. And then

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God, of course, has his people engage in this ritual. Now they didn't have the understanding of Jesus that you and I have.

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They didn't have that. They couldn't comprehend. All they know is this. I'm enslaved.

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God's gonna deliver me and he says he's gonna bring wrath and judgment and take the firstborn. And if I, as the person who follows

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Yahweh, want to be spared from this moment of judgment and wrath in Egypt, I must have a substitute.

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And I'm gonna look for the substitute that has no spot and no blemish. And very specifically,

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God prescribes not to break its bones. And then this substitute has to have its blood shed and put over my house so that the judgment and wrath of God passes over my house.

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I will be released from my bondage, my slavery, to enter into that promised land of relationship with the true

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God. Now they can't see completely everything that God has in store for them. All they know is the moment.

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All they know is the ritual. And then, of course, you know the rest of the story. As they move through this story of Israel, and they get, of course, where they're supposed to go, we have a temple.

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We have a priest. We have animal sacrifices. We have really strange, admit it, rituals and things are supposed to act out that, let's be honest, the

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Jews don't fully comprehend. Why? All they know is that God is saying, he's

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God and do this. And this stuff takes place over a thousand years before Jesus walks the face of the earth.

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They can't possibly create this story. Just consider this. The Old Testament alone, 39 different books written over a period of maybe close to 2 ,000 years, depending on where you date some of the books.

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And you've got it written by different authors, and they are in slavery, then out of slavery. They're in sin, and then they're out of sin, and it's passed on.

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You get a new generation. All they know is they're holding this story together that God's giving to them, saying, do this.

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Here's your temple. Do this with these goats. Do this with the Holy of Holies.

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Do this with the Passover. And so they're acting out these rituals, and they're constantly engaged in this rehearsal for what?

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This. This. You see, they were constantly gathering together every year as families, closest people, reclining at table, and they were going through this ritual of the

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Passover. And they're remembering, God saved us from God. God brought us out of our slavery.

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God redeemed his people. He brought us to himself. And they remembered the Passover lamb, and they ate this thing, and they sat around table, and they had things on the table that reminded them of all the stuff of Egypt, bitterness, and all the rest.

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And they would engage in this moment of memory. Memory. And the amazing thing was, they just did this every year from when they were little kids.

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They were at table, and they were doing this, and they saw that thing, and they ate, and they engaged in this ritual.

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And here's a moment they can't fully comprehend, where the Passover lambs, they were constantly killing, and all this ritual they were engaging in, in this moment, the

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Passover lamb took his place at the table. He took his place at the table.

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This was what it all pointed to. Behold, the

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Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world. All these things start connecting now.

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Hey, wait a minute. That whole ritual, that whole experience, it was teaching me something about this one sitting at the table.

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This is a significant moment in the text. Don't let it pass you by, because the New Testament authors, under the inspiration of the

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Holy Spirit of God, they tell us throughout the New Testament record, these things were really pointing to Jesus.

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Oh, this story, that was really about Jesus. You, you know this. You, you recognize it.

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I'll give you an example, and I do want you to go to it to see it. I'd rather do that than have, have me just read it to you.

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I want you to see it with your own eyes. I want you to know where to get it later. The New Testament sees

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Christ in it all, the whole story of the Old Testament. As, as an example, go to John chapter 6.

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John chapter 6, 47. Truly, truly,

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I say to you, whoever believes has eternal life. I am the bread of life.

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Your fathers ate the manna in the wilderness, and they died.

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This is the bread that comes down from heaven, so that one may eat of it and not die.

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I am the living bread that comes down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever, and the bread that I will give for the life of the world is my flesh.

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And so Jesus, in this moment, has this very peculiar conversation about people eating him, and yet he attaches it to what they knew as the people of God.

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I know the story, manna in the wilderness, people of God wandering around. All they can do is depend on God to feed them miraculously, and you've got manna coming from heaven providing for the needs of God's people, and Jesus says, that was really about me.

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That moment in history, that real moment in history of provision, was supposed to teach you about me.

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I am the bread of life come down from heaven. If you eat from me, you'll never die.

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You see, they ate that bread, and they died. If you eat of me, you'll never die. And he, of course, in this passage, equates eating his flesh and drinking his blood as believing in him, coming to him, believing in him.

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But you see that in a New Testament. They see Christ in it all. Jesus is the temple. Move over to John chapter 2.

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Same book. John chapter 2. Here's a moment where Jesus gives us more instruction about how it was all about him.

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John chapter 2, in verse 18, it says, so the Jews said to him, what sign do you show us for doing these things?

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Jesus answered them, destroy this temple, and in three days,

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I will raise it up. The Jews then said, it's taken 46 years to build this temple, and will you raise it up in three days?

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But he was speaking about the temple of his body.

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When therefore he was raised from the dead, his disciples remembered that he had said this, and they believed the scripture and the word that Jesus had spoken.

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So here's another example where Jesus is now pointing to this temple, which was the center place of their worship.

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It was everything. This thing was beaming light in the daytime because it was so glorious and powerful.

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And Jesus says, destroy this temple in three days, I'll raise it up. What, that thing? What, that, that's our main thing.

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You're gonna destroy it and raise it up in three days? Jesus goes, no, I'm the temple. That was a portrayal of me.

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That was all about me. That temple where you had a representation of God abiding with his people was really about the incarnation.

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It was really about God coming to be with his people. Jesus is the true temple.

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You were just acting that out. That was just training wheels. This is the real ride.

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This is the real thing. And of course, in one more example here, go to 1 Corinthians 5.

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This is, of course, again where the New Testament sees Christ in all of it. In 1

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Corinthians chapter 5, here's where the

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Apostle Paul specifically identifies Jesus as the Passover. We'll just read one verse out of this.

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1 Corinthians chapter 5, verse 7. He says, cleanse out the old leaven that you may be a new lump as you really are unleavened.

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For Christ, our Passover lamb, has been sacrificed.

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Has been sacrificed. Let us therefore celebrate the festival, not with the old leaven, the leaven of malice and evil, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.

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Again, what does he do there? He doesn't say, by the way, this is hashtag theonomy, if you want to know.

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Here's an example of where the Apostle Paul takes a law of God, something he commands his people to do, and he actually says, now this is still relevant, but now you do it in the true fulfilled new covenant way.

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The law of God matters there. It's not just completely dismissed. It was supposed to teach you something about Christ, the true

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Passover, and here as the people of God is how you're instructed to obey this particular law today.

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Whereas in the Old Testament, they did it in a very rudimentary way with a ritual where they would cleanse leaven out of their houses.

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They would do this really interesting ritual that must have been weird for the kids, like why exactly are we cleaning the house out of leaven?

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It was giving them training wheels and causing them to rehearse for the big day, and now that we have

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Christ, what's the command? We don't go around our house cleansing our house of leaven.

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Some of you guys are like, no, that's good sourdough, baby. You don't do that, but what do you do now?

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He says, let us therefore celebrate the festival, not with the old leaven, the leaven of malice and evil, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.

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Here's the real way to celebrate the festival today in Christ. It's a powerful thing, but notice how the

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Apostle Paul says that Jesus is our Passover lamb who has been sacrificed.

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It's over, it's done, once for all. But you see, you also find this in Matthew.

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We're in Matthew now, so I want you to see that Matthew knows this from the beginning of the story, that this really, the story of Israel, all this ritual and symbolism, it was really about Christ.

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The whole history of Israel is a real history. It's a real history. All these things are real acts of God in history, but God in his sovereign will and in his providence was allowing these things to take place to get his people to see

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Christ in his fullness. So I want to show it to you so you can see it in Matthew from the very beginning.

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Go to Matthew chapter 2. I'll give you an example of Matthew's understanding that Jesus is what it was all about.

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The New Testament wants us to see Christ in all of it. In Matthew chapter 2,

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Matthew actually demonstrates to us that Jesus is the true

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Israel. He's what Israel was supposed to be. And so Matthew takes us in Matthew chapter 2, verses 13 through 15, through a particular passage that actually, really was said about Israel, the people of God.

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But Matthew actually says, no, it was about Jesus. In Matthew chapter 2, 13 through 15, the text says, now when they had departed, behold, an angel of the

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Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream and said, rise, take the child and his mother and flee to Egypt and remain there until I tell you, for Herod is about to search for the child to destroy him.

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Pause. Do you remember any other point in Israel's history? In the Bible, where you had political leader trying to kill a specific child?

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The story of Moses, right? And now we have that taking place here. In this, we have Herod trying to search for the child to destroy him.

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In verse 14, and he rose and took the child and his mother by night and departed to Egypt and remained there until the death of Herod.

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This was to fulfill what the Lord had spoken by the prophet. And here's the quotation, out of Egypt, I called my son.

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Now, atheists love this too. They say, ha ha, sneaky Christians and that New Testament authorship.

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What they're trying to do is to try to manipulate the Old Testament itself, because that particular verse wasn't a prophecy saying, this one who is coming, it's going to look like this.

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That verse was about Israel, the people of God. And the answer is, that's right.

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We don't just have direct prophecy about Jesus in the Old Testament, we have the entire story of Israel is a symbol, ritual, and training ground for the people of God to see

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Jesus. And in this moment, Matthew is seeing the life of Jesus put alongside

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Israel. And he says, in this moment, out of Egypt, I called my son, is fulfilled here with Jesus.

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Matthew sees that Jesus is in it all. And one more point of context, you see in the text from Matthew, it's not just Passover, but it's in Matthew 2 and Matthew chapter 4, what do you have there?

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The temptation, the trial in the wilderness. And what do you have in the wilderness?

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What do you have? You have the Spirit of God bring Jesus into the wilderness. And what do you have in the wilderness?

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Jesus, the true and perfect Israel, wandering in the wilderness for 40.

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Anybody recognize that? Anybody else think of anything in the Bible where you have the people of God in a wilderness for 40 years?

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You see, Matthew sees that Jesus is in all of this. And in Matthew's story, he's showing you that Jesus is what

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Israel was supposed to be. Where Israel fails God in the wilderness, sins, doesn't believe, wallows in unbelief, rebels.

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Jesus, the true and perfect Israel, goes into the wilderness and has victory over the tempter, over the adversary, over Satan himself.

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Where Israel fails, Jesus obeys. This whole story was about Jesus.

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You have such a depth here in the New Testament, not just direct prophecy, who, what, where, when, why, from the

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Old Testament, telling us about Jesus so we can identify him. But you also have the ritual, the sacrifice, the symbolism.

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And at this moment, where they're saying we have to have Passover, they're sitting down now, reclining at table with the true

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Passover. It was all about him. This is a powerful moment. It's taking place on time and as plans.

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But you see, there's more. There's more. And this story of Israel really was pointing to the true and perfect Israel.

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You have examples in the Old Testament. Go to it. Israel is called God's son.

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Exodus chapter 4, beginning of your Bibles. Let's get to know our Bibles, everyone. Go to Exodus chapter 4.

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Exodus 4, verse 22.

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This, of course, is the conflict between Yahweh through Moses against Pharaoh.

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And in Exodus 4, 22, it says, Then you shall say to Pharaoh, thus says

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Yahweh, Israel is my firstborn son.

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And I say to you, let my son go, that he may serve me. If you refuse to let him go, behold,

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I will kill your firstborn son. So in the

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Old Testament, you have Israel called God's son. Another example. Move over to Isaiah chapter 41.

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Isaiah 41. Isaiah 41, verse 8.

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God says, But you, Israel, my servant, Jacob, whom

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I have chosen, the offspring of Abraham, my friends, you whom I took from the ends of the earth and called from its farthest corners, saying to you, you are my servant.

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I have chosen you and not cast you off. Fear not, for I am with you.

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Be not dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you. I will help you.

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I will uphold you with my righteous hands. Here's a glorious example of God not only calling

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Israel his son, but he calls Israel his servant. And here's where it gets amazing.

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In this very text where Israel is called God's servant, Isaiah 53 tells us about a servant who's a little different in character.

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And I want you to see it just briefly. Look in Isaiah 53 to show that the story of Jesus is in it all.

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In chapter 53, verse 4, same book that calls Israel God's servant, it says,

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Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows, yet we esteemed him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted, but he was pierced for our transgressions.

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He was crushed for our iniquities. Upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his wounds we are healed.

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All we, like sheep, have gone astray. We have turned everyone to his own way, and the

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Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all. Here's the thing.

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Ready? I can't take your sin, and you can't take my sin. You know why? Because we all have spots and blemishes.

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Amen? Yes? We're all sinners. We're all rebels against God. I cannot lay my life down for you as a sacrifice.

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You do not want Jeff Durbin's life as a substitute for your own before God.

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I've probably got many of you beat on sin. It's nothing to be proud of.

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It's just the nature of the case. You can't take my life.

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God can't lay on me your sin because I'm guilty, and it goes the other way.

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I can't give you my sin because you're a sinner. In order for someone to be a sin -bearer and to actually be an effective person who can redeem, they need to be blameless.

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And this text in Isaiah 53 says, this servant of God who is coming, he carries our sins.

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God lays on him the iniquity of us all, and as you move forward through here in Isaiah 53, and I'm tempted to do it all right now, but I won't.

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It says that it was the will of the Lord, verse 10, to crush him.

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He has put him to grief. When his soul makes an offering for guilt, he shall see his offspring.

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He shall prolong his days. And here's where it gets glorious. It says in verse 11, out of the anguish of his soul, he shall see and be satisfied.

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By his knowledge shall the righteous one, my servant, make many to be accounted righteous, as he shall bear their iniquities.

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Jesus is in it all. The whole story's about Jesus, and this moment for the disciples, they can't even grasp the situation.

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They don't understand. They're trying to actually argue with Jesus. He's telling them he's going to Jerusalem to be crucified.

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He's gonna rise again. Peter's trying to stop him. Jesus is saying, get behind me, Satan. Judas is, is actually conspiring to betray

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Jesus, thinking that's gonna accomplish anything at all ultimately, and in this moment, they're just doing

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Passover. It's what they do, and there's the Passover lamb, reclining at the table with them.

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The summary of the story of the whole history of Israel is sitting at the table with them.

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He's the Lamb of God with no spot or blemish. He's the one who on that cross did not have his bones broken.

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He's the one who is the righteous substitute, who receives the wrath and justice of God in the place of God's people, so that God's judgment passes over us, and we're freed from our bondage and our slavery to sin, to enter into this relationship with God.

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But the whole story's about Jesus. You have to see this moment in Matthew, where Jesus is now reclining at the table at Passover with his people, as this glorious climax in the whole story of Israel.

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It's what the whole thing was about. How many, I mean, how many Passovers had the,

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I should have got this number before we, before I did this, how many Passover celebrations did the covenant people of God have before this moment with Jesus?

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How many? So many. So many rehearsals, so many practice sessions, so many moments, and in this moment, here's the real thing.

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The whole thing was about Jesus. Again, you see direct prophecy, you see symbolism and rehearsal, but you also have moments, and this is where it gets interesting, you also have moments in the

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Old Testament, I don't want to miss this, where Christ appears directly.

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This is actually a powerful thing in Scripture. It's where Jesus showed up in the

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Old Testament history before the incarnation. I'll just give you three specific points to look to.

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Number one is the story of Abraham, and that's in Genesis 18 .1. I'm not going to read the whole thing for you, but you know the story where three people appear to Abraham and talk with Abraham.

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Well, that was Genesis 18 .1. Oddly, it's Abraham talking to God, which had to trip up monotheistic

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Jews. By the way, this is what actually I think is compelling, is Jews and Christians are monotheistic.

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There is only one God. None before, none after. He's the eternal

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God, first and last. He doesn't even know of any other gods. Isaiah 44 .6, Isaiah 44 .8.

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He's the only God. And the Jews know there is only one God. It's in the

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Shema. Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one.

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Only one God. And oddly, weirdly, these monotheistic Jews have in their own history

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God coming and appearing and talking to them. And they have moments where Yahweh rains down fire on Sodom and Gomorrah from Yahweh in heaven.

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The Yahweh on earth is raining down fire on Sodom and Gomorrah from Yahweh in heaven.

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That must have been kind of weird for the Jews, like, oh, this is peculiar because there's only one Yahweh. And actually, why do we have

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Isaiah 9, 6 through 7 saying that it's Yahweh himself who is coming as a child and as a son to save his people from their sins?

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That's peculiar. They couldn't have possibly comprehended the majesty of this story, the power of this story.

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But Christ appears directly with Abraham in Genesis 18, 1. And of course, the famous scene with Jacob, Genesis 32, 22 through 32.

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What's that? Do you know the story of Jacob? Jacob wrestled who?

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God. That's weird. That's a weird moment, isn't it?

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I want you to see this because actually it's powerful. Go to Hosea. Go to Hosea.

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And look what this shows you. The whole thing's about Jesus. It always was. It always was.

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Hosea chapter 12. Still in your

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Old Testament. Hosea chapter 12. Look at verses 3 through 5.

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This is the accounting of that moment with Jacob. Look what it says. In the womb, he took his brother by the heel, and in his manhood, he strove with God.

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Who? Who did he strive with? That's Jacob wrestling with God.

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He strove with God. He strove with the angel and prevailed. He wept and sought his favor.

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So interestingly, you have in the Old Testament text itself, this angel, this messenger who came to Jacob and wrestled with him is also

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God himself. So you have the pre -incarnate Christ, Yahweh himself, actually appearing to his people, interacting with his people.

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It's a powerful thing. Christ is all over the Bible. The whole story is about Jesus directly, indirectly, in symbol, in ritual.

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You have moments where Jesus actually shows up in the Old Testament. It had to confuse them. Admit it, it had to confuse them.

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In Sodom and Gomorrah, Genesis 19 -24, go to the text. This is actually an important text to have as a

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Trinitarian. Genesis 19.

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Genesis 19, verse 24.

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Now, of course, this is, you know, the famous story of Sodom and Gomorrah.

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And in verse 24 of Genesis 19, it says, then Yahweh rained on Sodom and Gomorrah sulfur and fire from Yahweh out of heaven.

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So you have Yahweh on earth raining down sulfur and fire on Sodom and Gomorrah from Yahweh in heaven.

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But how many Yahwehs are there? One Yahweh, here, two persons described.

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The trinities throughout the Bible had, of course, been confusing for the

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Jews at many points because they know there's only one God. But you have moments like this where you see the triune nature of God in the

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Old Testament text itself, and you have Jesus appearing to his people. The whole story is about Jesus.

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He's all over the map. Christ appears directly, and here it is. Christ appears and his work appears as symbol and rehearsal in these things, at least.

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Follow me on this. The temple. The temple itself was supposed to be this identifying symbol of the presence of God with his people collected around the presence of God.

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Only there was a problem with that temple, and that was that the presence of God was actually a place they couldn't actually enter into.

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Only the high priest could enter into that place, and he could never sit down because his work wasn't finished because the blood of bulls and goats could never really take away sin.

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In order for your sin and my sin to be taken away, you have to have a human being, not a beast, not an animal.

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A lamb as a creature could never take away my sin, ultimately.

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That was a foreshadowing of Christ, the God -man, who lived the life that none of us as sons and daughters of Adam and Eve have ever lived.

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He's the one that actually was capable of being our sin -bearer. But that temple system was actually portraying the work of Jesus as a symbol in rehearsal.

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You had, of course, the priest, the one who actually represented the people of God, interceded, mediated for the people of God as priest between the people and God.

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He was the mediator, and in Christ now there is one God and one mediator between God and man, the man

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Christ Jesus. We have Jesus still as mediator. But they were rehearsing this, and guess what?

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The problem with those mediators is what? What was the problem? Give me one problem of those mediators. What's wrong with them?

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They die! What else is a problem with those mediators? They're sinners!

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And they had to know the whole time, um, this isn't exactly working, right? I mean, he's a mediator, you know, maybe a good guy, but he has to actually give a sacrifice for his own sins, too.

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He has to go through, like, ritual cleansing. He's got to, even on the Day of Atonement, he...

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I said it right, see? The Day of Atonement. On the Day of Atonement, he had to actually not only do ritual cleansing, and he had to offer a sacrifice for himself.

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Why? Because that priest who is your mediator is also a sinner, and guess what?

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He's gonna die! And guess what else? If he does it wrong, he's gonna die in the holiest place!

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It's such a complicated thing, and they had to know. This feels stunted. Something doesn't feel like it's working here.

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There is an annual reminder of our sins. This thing is not stopping! Every year, we've got temple, holiest place, priest gets up, offer sacrifices, we've got the goats, we've got blood, and we're doing this thing over and over and over and over, and this guy's a sinner, and he's actually a really bad priest, and this guy's dying.

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When's this ever gonna end? What does all this mean anyways? And down sits the

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Passover lamb. It was always about Jesus. Leviticus 16 is an example of sacrifice.

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I won't go through the whole text for you, but this was, of course, a text on the Day of Atonement. Again, I just said it. The priest has to do a sacrifice for himself.

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Why? Because he's a sinner, just like everybody else. He's a representing that mediator between the people and God.

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He had to offer ritual cleansings. He has to have something die for him, and then what? He has to have goats, and what's he do with the goats?

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Every year, they're doing this. Remember, you're a sinner. It's not over. It's not done. Redo it.

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You have one thing that casts lots, and one goat dies. This is the one that has his blood shed, and then over here, you have another one, and then he comes over, and he places both hands down on this scapegoat, and he confesses.

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Here's the people, or there you are. He presses his hands down on the scapegoat, confessing the sins of the people onto the scapegoat.

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Now, one has to die, and one has the transference of the people's sins onto it, so there's this transferring of sin and guilt to this scapegoat, and then they lead this goat away from the people, and you watch the goat depart from you as far as the east is from the west.

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You watch this goat walk away from you, carrying your sins to see it disappear off in the distance, so you know you have bloodshed.

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You have one thing taking the transference of guilt and shame and condemnation.

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You watch it disappear from you, and then guess what? Next year, same deal, baby. It's coming back again until the

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Passover lamb takes his seat, because he's what it was pointing to all along.

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All of these things intersect in a person. They intersect with the work of the

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Messiah. He is what it was pointing to all along, and I'll point you to another example of Christ and his work as symbol and rehearsal.

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It's not just Passover, but it is summarized beautifully in the Passover. Abraham and Isaac, Genesis 22.

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Go read it later. I want you to have this in your mind so you know Christ is there.

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In Genesis 22, you know the story that people love to use as a weapon against the Christian faith.

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They say, uh, hey, should God say, thou shall not kill? And you say, yes.

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So, you should not kill, right? Right. That's what he says. How come the same

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God told Abraham to kill his son? And, of course, the unbeliever thinks,

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I've got you now. I've got you now. You've got to first ask the question to the atheist, by the way, just a tip.

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Ask him why things have to make sense and why reasoning is necessary. So, stop acting like a

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Christian. And number two, why is a father killing a son a problem in atheism? So, first thing, take their legs off.

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Next thing is explain the glory of this moment. Abraham is promised a son.

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He has a son, and the text says it was the son of his love. God tells him, take your son, the son of your love, and he tells him to go to this place.

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That's a three -day journey. It wasn't God saying to Abraham, hey, take the son of the promise, the one that through him the whole world's gonna be changed, and take this son and just walk over there real fast and offer him as a sacrifice.

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No, God says, go to this specific place, Moriah. It's a three -day journey.

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Abraham says, okay, takes his son, takes some help, three days. Three days.

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And if it was desert and like this, boy, that's awful. But it's a three -day journey, and three days they get to the place, they see it far off, and what does

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Abraham say with his son, the son of his love, his son Isaac that God promised that through Isaac he was going to bless the world.

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He says that he would take his boy, the son of his love, that they would go worship

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God, and that they both were gonna return back to the people that came with.

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Abraham was under no illusion there. He believed that God had the power to raise the dead, and if this is the son of the promise, this is the son of my love, if he's telling me to go there and offer him as a sacrifice, he's gonna raise the dead.

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We're coming back to worship. God's gonna do something. And so Abraham lays the wood for the sacrifice on his son, the son of his love, his only son.

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And they go to this place of the sacrifice, and Isaac looks and he says, father, I see, you know, here's, here's the wood, here's the fire, but where's the lamb?

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It's very specific. Where's the lamb? And Abraham says there in the text,

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Genesis 22, he says, Abraham will provide, sorry, he says, Abraham says,

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God will provide for himself the lamb, my son. And so Isaac is bound, you know the story, takes the knife, and what happens?

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The angel of Yahweh, the messenger of the Lord, shows up and tells him to not harm

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Isaac. He sees, he sees that he truly fears him. And then what happens is they see a ram caught in a thicket.

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They offer the ram there, not the lamb. And then Abraham names that place.

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This is the mount. The Lord will provide it. Provide what? The lamb.

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And it was there that Jesus, God's son, the son of his love, carried the wood to the place of the sacrifice.

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It was there that Yahweh himself provided the lamb. That's where Jesus was killed.

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The lamb of God. Jesus is in all of this. So this moment you have in the text in Matthew 26, where you have

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Jesus there seated for this Passover feast to go through this ritual. The amazing thing that they couldn't have possibly fully comprehended in that moment was that here is the substance of what it all pointed to.

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This is the real story sitting at the table with me. This is the Passover lamb, the one with no spot and blemish, the one who's going to take away my sins.

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This is the one who will avert the wrath of God from me. This is the one who's going to take me out of my true bondage.

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You see, the Jews couldn't understand that, right? In John chapter 8. Whoever commits sin is a slave of sin.

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And the Jews say, we've never been a slave to anybody. What? What? But their true slavery wasn't simply to Babylon.

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It wasn't simply to Egypt. It wasn't to Rome. Their true slavery was their bondage to sin.

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And Jesus says, if the Son sets you free, you shall be free indeed.

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The story was way more glorious than they could have possibly imagined. But you see that all throughout the

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Old Testament. And then, of course, I'll point you to the summary here. And that's the

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Passover. Exodus chapter 12. Exodus chapter 12. Now this is actually a significantly long section, but I'm just going to read a portion of it for you.

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Exodus 12, 21. Then Moses called all the elders of Israel and said to them, go and select lambs for yourselves according to your clans and kill the

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Passover lamb. Take a bunch of hyssop and dip it in the blood that is in the basin. And touch the lintel and the two doorposts with the blood that is in the basin.

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None of you shall go out of the door of the house until the morning. For the Lord will pass through to strike the

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Egyptians. And when he sees the blood on the lintel and on the two doorposts, the

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Lord will pass over the door and will not allow the destroyer to enter your houses to strike you.

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You shall observe this right as a statute for you and for your sons forever. And when you come to the land that the

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Lord will give you as he promised, you shall keep this service. And when your children say to you, what do you mean by this service?

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You shall say, it is the sacrifice of the Lord's Passover. For he passed over the houses of the people of Israel and Egypt when he struck the

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Egyptians but spared our houses. And the people bowed their heads and worshipped.

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And there was the story. And there was the release. There was their redemption, all prefigured in this

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Passover lamb. You see, in the

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Passover, God is saving his people from God. Wrath and judgment are averted by the love of God given by means of a substitute, a lamb with no blemish whose bones were not broken.

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God gave his people this to remind them, to point them to Jesus, to have them see the glory of Jesus.

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Now, you're at the table. Jesus is reclining. Judas has already done his wicked deed.

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He's at table with Jesus. Some things would have happened at that table. I want to just read you this because you've probably heard of, of course, a seder.

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And this is today, Jews today still celebrate Passover in a way, not truly in a biblical way or historical way, but they understand what this means.

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So they have a seder plate and the seder plate has particular elements on the plates.

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One of the elements is parsley, which symbolizes the hyssop used to place the blood of the sacrifice lamb on the doorposts and lentils on the

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Israelite homes during the 10th and most terrible plague God visited upon Egypt. The slaying of the firstborn,

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I'm reading from an actual description of this meal. You also have today bitter herbs, traditionally horseradish, which reminds us, the

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Jews, of the bitterness of the slavery under Pharaoh. There are usually two kinds of bitter herbs, perhaps ground horseradish and a whole horseradish root on a seder plate because this element is mentioned in the plural as herbs in Exodus 12, 8 and Numbers 9, 11.

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You also have a tasty combination of apples, nuts, spices, often cinnamon, and a little wine or grape juice.

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When mixed, it's meant to have a consistency that reminds the people of God, the

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Jews, of the mortar that the children of Israel used to make the bricks as they labored for Pharaoh.

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You also have, this is interesting, a lamb shank bone, which was a symbol of the sacrifice, which can no longer be made because the temple no longer stands.

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This is how they see it today. And then you also, of course, have a hard -boiled egg today. It represents sacrifice, is a symbol of the daily temple sacrifice or the life that sacrifice brings to us, the reconciliation with God.

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You also have some other elements. You have matzah. Three pieces of unleavened bread are wrapped separately in a special three part pouch called a matzah tash.

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You also have salt water, which reminds us of the tears of suffering that our ancestors shed in bondage.

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The parsley is dipped into the salt water at the appropriate moment. You have a bowl of water for ritual hand washing and you also have wine.

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So even today, Jews will actually rehearse this and all of the elements on the table tell a story.

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But they're missing the true Passover. They're missing the true meaning of it all, but they still rehearse this.

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And this night, this Passover, with the Passover lamb seated and reclining at table with the people of God, and this night while they're rehearsing this thing with all of these elements representing other things, what do we see from Jesus?

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Go to the text. Matthew 26 verse 26.

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Now, as they were eating, Jesus took bread and after blessing it, broke it and gave it to the disciples and said,

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Take eat. This is my body. And he took a cup and we had given thanks.

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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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This is no small matter. We're told to do this in remembrance of Jesus, because here in this moment, the

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Passover lamb himself is seated at the table in this momentous occasion, and he now takes elements and he says,

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This is my body. You see, they were used to taking elements and saying, This is that.

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They do it today, right? Here's the saltwater. This is the tears of the people of God.

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This represents this. Now Jesus takes something and he says, This is my body broken for you, and this is my blood.

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The new covenant in his blood poured out for many for their mission of sins.

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This particular meal was now giving them the summary. All of that older stuff, all of that symbolism and ritual before is summarized in me.

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Now do this. Now receive my body into yourself and my blood into yourself.

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This is the source of our hope. This is the source of our redemption. Jesus, the true Passover lamb who takes away the sins of his people.

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You see, the Lord's Supper. Think about this. The Lord's Supper.

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There's much that could be said about what we're gonna do in a moment here as well. But the Lord's Supper is the same in that it points to Christ's body, to his blood that saves us from God's wrath and judgment.

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Remember that Passover lamb in the Old Testament? What was it? You put the blood over the doorpost and everything. What took place?

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God's wrath and judgment passed over that house on account of the blood of the lamb. And this table points to the same concepts.

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Only we have now fulfillment and more intimacy and understanding because this table we're gonna do in a moment here points to God saving us from God in Jesus, the true

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Passover. Because in this table, what are we saying? We're saying Jesus is the substitute.

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His body was broken from my sins and his blood was poured out and shed because of my guilt, because of my shame.

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And Jesus says, now you take this table and you put this into your body, people of God.

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This is truly a glorious thing. It is. It's an amazing thing. Listen, this could not possibly come up be conjured up in any human minds.

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No mortal, no sinful, broken human being can come up with a story that is this glorious.

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And this is a story that God was telling long before Jesus, the true

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Passover lamb came to take his seat. And what you need to hear in this

01:02:44

Matthew 26 section about Jesus, the true Passover, taking a seat and giving us this table.

01:02:50

What you need to hear is how this story actually matters to the people of God.

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How does it matter? God is a just and a holy

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God. You and I will never be right with God through our own attempts towards righteousness and law keeping because we are already guilty before God.

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What you need with a holy and just God is perfection. And that is you need a substitute.

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You need someone to represent you that has no spot, no blemish. Here it is. You need somebody who is not like you.

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You need somebody who does not wallow in unbelief like you. You need somebody who doesn't have inconsistencies like you do.

01:03:36

You need somebody who's not a liar like you are. You need somebody who's not an adulterer like you are in your hearts and your minds or even actually physically.

01:03:45

You need somebody who is not a murderer. You need somebody who obeys the father perfectly and is righteous and blameless.

01:03:53

No spot and no blemish. God is a just and a holy God. Yes, he is love.

01:03:59

And that love aspect, that love attribute of God is displayed in Christ as our true

01:04:07

Passover because God is a holy and just God ought to, as a holy

01:04:13

God, give you judgment wrath. But what does he do in love?

01:04:19

He gives us adoption. He calls us his Children.

01:04:25

When we first come to God, we're enemies of God, Children of wrath. And yet God adopts us in love as a father with Children.

01:04:35

He calls people who were enemies and far off his own. How? Because of his love in the

01:04:40

Passover. Because what he does is he has his wrath and judgment passed over your house, and it's transferred all the guilt, all the shame, all the judgment, all the justice is given to Jesus, the lamb of God, with no spot and no blemish whose bones were not broken, who died on Passover.

01:05:01

See, that's the glory of the gospel is that love and justice meet in Jesus Christ and the call of the gospel.

01:05:13

This whole world story is pointing towards the glory of God in Jesus Christ.

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You understand this, that the climax of human history is not technological innovation.

01:05:26

It's not arts. It's not science. It's not ourselves.

01:05:32

It's not humanity. The climax of human history is Jesus Christ. That's the goal of all human history is his glory.

01:05:43

And if you want forgiveness, if you want freedom, if you want freedom from your bondage to sin, you have to know this

01:05:53

Passover lamb. The call of the gospel is to repent and to believe in Christ.

01:06:03

Jesus, the God man who represents his people perfectly, has a perfect righteousness that satisfies a holy

01:06:10

God who dies a death that you really do deserve. And so do

01:06:16

I. And he rose again from the dead. You see, he's not like that old priest.

01:06:21

End it with that, right? He's not like the old one. He didn't have a sin problem.

01:06:28

He could pass right through the veil and tear it in half. There's no fear of death for Jesus before the father.

01:06:38

He can stand righteously and represent God's people with no sin, no shame.

01:06:45

And Jesus, ready? He's alive forevermore. And he forever lives to intercede for God's people forever.

01:06:58

And this is a once for all sacrifice. It's never repeated again. We don't have to go back to a new year of atonement and sacrifices with sinful priests.

01:07:05

It's finished. It is finished. It is finished.

01:07:11

And that's the glory of the gospel. So do you want peace with God today? The call of the gospel is to repent and to believe.

01:07:19

Be reconciled to God through faith in his Messiah. Peace with God is only in the true

01:07:26

Passover. Do you know him? Do you know him? You see, there's a difference between knowing about Jesus and knowing his theological truths and knowing

01:07:37

Jesus. And this in particular needs to be heard by the children in the room right now. You might have been raised in Christian homes, or you've heard this story a thousand times.

01:07:45

You might have been someone who's been an apology at church for five years. You've been raised around this. You've heard me preach this sermon kind of before.

01:07:54

And knowing all these things intellectually doesn't save you. You need to know him intimately.

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In a moment, you're gonna walk down the aisle if you know Christ, and you're gonna come to this table, and you're gonna take bread, and you're gonna take wine, and you're gonna put it into your body.

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You're gonna testify to the truth, the fact that you are trusting in the Passover lamb, the true one who was crucified for us.

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You are trusting in Christ for forgiveness and salvation. There's a true intimacy to this, a commitment towards trusting in Christ.

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So the question is before you walk to this table to actually demonstrate your trust in this perfect lamb of God, there's something that has to happen before, and that's, do you know him?

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Not merely intellectually. Have you turned from sin to trust in him?

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Are you reconciled to God? Do you have peace with God? Let's pray. Lord Jesus, thank you.

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Thank you for this glorious story. Thank you for your obedience.

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Thank you for the glory of the cross and the resurrection.

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Thank you that you humbled yourself and became obedient even to death.

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Thank you that you came to serve and to lay your life down for your people.

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Thank you that you demonstrate no greater love and that you laid your life down for your friends.

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Thank you that you call us friends, and thank you that you save perfectly.

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Thank you that you mediate for us perfectly, and thank you that there's no condemnation for those who are in you.

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Thank you for your word. I pray that it goes to where it needs to go.

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I pray that you would challenge our hearts and our minds. If anyone in this room does not truly know you as Savior and Lord, I pray that you,

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God, by your Spirit, would bring them to repentance. In Jesus' name, amen.

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So now we come to the table. So if you are in Christ, you've repented and believed, you're trusting in Jesus as Savior and Lord.