The Lords Supper - Luke 22 Vs 7-21

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Good morning everyone! Alright, glad to see you all here today. Thank you for being here.

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I just want to go through a few announcements, if I could, of our Bible study. It's a study in the

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Epistle of Paul, the Apostle to Titus. It continues this Wednesday at 5 .30pm.

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That one's also streamed on YouTube for anyone who wants to do it that way. We have

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Women's Bible Study. That's going to be this Saturday at 10am.

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Our Missionary of the Month is Donna Wolfert. She serves with BMW Biblical Ministries Worldwide in Mexico.

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She does a teaching and supporting ministry there. She establishes local churches. She's been doing that for 40 years.

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She was later involved with correcting Biblical Correspondence courses in Spanish in Atlanta before she retired in Lancaster, Pennsylvania.

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She volunteers with the Chaplaincy of Lancaster County Prisons. So just pray for her health.

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Dear Lord, thank you for today. Thank you for bringing us all here together. Lord, we just pray that as we worship through your word and through song,

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Lord, we just pray that you would just keep our hearts open. And I pray that we can take what we learned here today,

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Lord, and take that and bring it to the world, Lord, because that's what you call us to do. We love you and we praise you in Jesus' name.

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Amen. Let's all stand together. Victor picked out a couple new ones for us again. He does a good job of that, kind of stretching your repertoire.

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And so the first one is, For God So Loved the World. Next one is,

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Worthy is the Lamb. And you'll see a theme this morning as we talk about Passover and Christ is our ultimate sacrifice and what he did for us.

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And just be thinking about that as we sing, Worthy is the Lamb. For my soul, for my soul, for my soul, for my soul, for my soul, for my soul, for my my soul, for my soul, for my soul, for my soul, for my soul, for my soul, for my soul, for my soul, for my soul, for my soul, for my soul, for my soul, for my soul, for my soul, for my soul, for my soul, for my soul, for my soul, for my soul, for my soul, for my soul, for my

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For this morning is Exodus chapter 12 verses 1 through 7,

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Exodus chapter 12 verses 1 through 7. Now the

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Lord spoke to Moses and Aaron in the land of Egypt saying, This month shall be a beginning of months.

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It shall be the first month of the year to you. Speak to the congregation A message of Israel, saying on the 10th of this month, every man shall take for himself a lamb, according to the house of his father, a lamb for a household.

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And if the household is too small for the lamb, then let his neighbour next to his house take it according to the number of the persons.

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According to each man's need, you shall make your account for the lamb. Your lamb shall be without blemish.

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A male with the first year may take it for the sheep or for the goats. Now you shall keep it until the 14th day of the same month.

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Then the whole assembly of the congregation of Israel shall kill the twilight. And they shall take some of the blood and put it on two doorposts, and on the little of the houses where they eat.

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May the Lord, I invite you to read this word. This next song is entitled,

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When I See the Blood, and it's a wonderful picture of, it starts off as Christ is the

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Redeemer, Christ is the Saviour, He is the Judge, and then expression of His great compassion over us, and do we have the blood.

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Let's stand together and think about these words as we sing. 🎵

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Before I read from Luke 22 today, I do want to make an announcement that this

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Friday, I believe, is Fall Equinox, and I don't really do much with seasons or weather or anything like that, but I was made aware this year that there are about eight festivals that witches and Satanists celebrate per year, and Fall Equinox is one of them.

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And I only found out from, there was a book on Halloween at our church library, and they listed all eight.

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Spiritual warfare is real, and I do recommend any who are able to pray and fast on that day, pray for the church, pray for your family, pray for the unsaved members of your family and friends, because they can be impacted too.

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And pray for your children especially. Pray for our children. They are more spiritually aware than you think, so please pray and fast on that day if possible, mainly because, yes, spiritual warfare is real, but we serve a risen

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King who is victorious, who is not affected or impacted by Satanic ritual, but we do need to depend on Him, not on our own strength.

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So with that, let us turn to Luke chapter 22, verses 7 through 20.

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Luke chapter 22, verses 7 through 20.

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Then came the day of unleavened bread, when the Passover must be killed. And He sent

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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?

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And He said to them, Behold, when you have entered the city, a man will meet you carrying a pitcher of water.

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Follow him into the house which he enters. Then you shall say to the master of the house,

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The teacher says to you, Where is the guest room where I may eat the Passover with my disciples?

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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

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Passover. When the hour had come, He sat down and the twelve apostles with Him.

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Then He said to them, With fervent desire I have desired to eat this

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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.

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Then He took the cup and gave thanks and said, Take this and divide it among yourselves. For I say to you,

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I will not drink of the fruit of the vine until the kingdom of God comes. And He took bread, gave thanks and broke it, and gave it to them, saying,

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

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This cup is the new covenant in my blood which is shed for you. This is the word of the Lord.

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Let us pray. Father, we are grateful that Jesus has died for our sin.

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He suffered the wrath that we deserved, and He rose from the dead so that we may be part of His family.

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Father, help us to see the importance of the Passover and how

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Christ fulfills it. Help us to see the great redemption that we have in Christ.

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And help us to live as the people who are saved. In Jesus' name, Amen. All the

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Gospel accounts slow down for this Passover meal. And whenever a narrative, whenever God's word slows down, we also need to slow down and unpack it.

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Although they show different angles, this Passover meal is portrayed as more important than any other meal.

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And this is because Jesus fulfills the Passover feast. The term fulfillment is really important to understand.

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Fulfillment does not mean maintain. Maintain would mean we do whatever they've been doing for the last thousands of years.

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Fulfill means to take something to its intended end. It means to accomplish.

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Fulfill is not a status quo. What fulfill does is fulfill remarkably changes and gives new significance to something that already has existed.

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So, this is an important way that we read the

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Old Testament. Christ fulfills direct prophecies.

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He does fulfill the direct prophecies of where He's going to be born, what family

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He's going to be born into, and what He will do, how He will die, and how

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He will rise from the dead. Those are direct messianic prophecies. But then, this morning we see a type of prophecy that we would call typological prophecy.

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Typological prophecy is not in the Old Testament context.

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It's not clear that the Messiah would fulfill it, such as the

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Passover meal, but He fulfills it typologically, as in the

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Passover lamb is a type of Christ. As in Jesus Christ is the greater

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Passover lamb. He takes the Passover feast and the lamb, and He accomplishes it on earth when

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He dies and rises from the dead. He is the greater Passover lamb, in that sense that by the shedding of His blood, the judgment of God passes over us.

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Just as it was read this morning by Jim in Exodus 12, the Passover lamb's blood passed over for that one night in Egypt, as the angel of death passed by.

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But for those who are covered by the greater

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Passover lamb, Jesus Christ, all of God's judgment passes over us.

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That's what typological fulfillment means. And you can see that with various sacrifices, and you can see that with various festivals.

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Jesus Christ fulfills them all. And He takes them to its intended end.

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In one sense, the Old Testament rituals and feasts and sacrifices prepare the heart of God's people to receive the ultimate form of all those sacrifices, feasts, and festivals.

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And this is important for us this morning, because what Christ institutes and explains in this meal will permanently affect our salvation.

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Have you ever wondered why Israel was commanded in Exodus to continually keep the

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Passover and the Feast of Unleavened Bread, but when was the last time you slaughtered a lamb and roasted over the fire without breaking any of its bounds?

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In that sense, we have to look at the typological fulfillment.

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We do celebrate the Passover as how God has intended. We celebrate the ultimate

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Passover lamb. And in fact, the narrative sets us up for that.

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Have you ever noticed that all the accounts of the Last Supper, there's the bread, there's the wine, just as how the

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Jews would have eaten it, unleavened bread, and the wine, but none of them mentions the meat.

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The focus is not on the slain lamb, but the focus is on the ultimate lamb that's about to be slain.

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That's what Jesus will do. That's what the text is doing.

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It's pointing to the ultimate fulfillment of the Passover. This morning, the main point, the main question we ought to ask is how does

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Christ fulfill the Passover feast? How does Jesus fulfill the Passover feast?

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First, God sovereignly prepared Christ, the ultimate Passover lamb, whose substitutionary death redeemed us.

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God sovereignly prepared Christ, the ultimate Passover lamb, whose substitutionary death redeemed.

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Now, as Jesus' crucifixion approaches, Luke slows down the narrative.

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In a modern -day context, the director zooms in, and every little detail matters.

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And Luke sets the background in verse 7. Then came the day of unleavened bread when the

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Passover must be killed. This setting carries a huge theological weight.

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As mentioned before, the feast of unleavened bread and the Passover celebrated

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God's deliverance of the Israelites from Egypt. And on this day, they would slay the unblemished lamb, the pure lamb.

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And it would have happened around afternoon, 2 .30 to 5 .30 p .m., to commemorate the fact that an innocent lamb took the place of the

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Israelites so that God's judgment passed over. And the only way, when

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God's judgment occurred in Egypt, the only way His judgment would pass over was because an innocent life died on the behalf of the faithful family who listened and trusted

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God. An innocent being died to save others from God's judgment.

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That is the setting of this meal. And in order to celebrate such an important historical event,

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Jesus sends Peter and John to procure a place for their feast.

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Go and prepare the Passover for us that we may eat. Peter and John are both significant apostles in the

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New Testament. They both witnessed Jesus' transfiguration, in which briefly they got to see

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Jesus' glory on the mountain. And they both will witness the resurrection together.

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And here, they will both have to find a place, sacrifice the lamb, pick some bitter herbs, and buy some unleavened bread for their

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Passover feast. Now, naturally, they ask Jesus how this must be done.

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Where do you want us to prepare? After all, close to a million pilgrims gathered around Jerusalem to celebrate this feast.

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And just like them, they were searching for a place to feast as well.

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They didn't own homes in Jerusalem. They came from Galilee. Mystically, Jesus has the complete answer.

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Behold, when you have entered the city, a man will meet you carrying a pitcher of water.

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Follow him into the house which he enters. The man carrying a pitcher of water presumably would be the servant of the house.

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In the olden days, the job of getting water into the house was done by other women or servants.

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So, Jesus knows that there would be a random, seemingly random, servant, man, who's carrying a pitcher of water, and they,

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Peter and John, are to follow him into the servant's house. Now, after following the servant to his master's house, they are to ask the master who will provide.

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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

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Passover with my disciples? All they have to do when they get to this stranger's house is to mention

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Jesus and that he asked. When Jesus asks, it will be given.

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Then he will show you a large furnished upper room. There make ready. The large furnished upper room would have been the best room for the feast.

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Furnishing here means that there were couches on which that these men would recline on, because in the first century, a lot of feasts were enjoyed lying down.

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And it is a fitting way to celebrate a feast in the first century

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Judea. And verse 13 confirms that it was all done as Jesus had said.

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Everything unfolded just as Jesus ordered and predicted. Now, it is unknown how this arrangement was made.

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Was it a miracle? Did the master of the house have a dream? Was there an angelic visitation before to prepare all this?

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Or did Jesus know this family prior to this meal? And he made an arrangement beforehand?

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We don't know. And that's because Scripture doesn't tell us. It's silent on it.

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Yet, we do know one thing. Jesus is sovereignly in control of every moment, even before his betrayal and death.

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Jesus has control over every single little detail, even up to his death.

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Even the Passover meal before his death, the very last meal before he is betrayed by one of their own, he was fully in control.

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At no point was Jesus caught off guard. At no point did

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Jesus make an oopsie. Just as they are about to commemorate

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God's past redemption of his people through the death of an innocent life, God was unfolding a greater redemption of his people through the impending death of his innocent son.

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Nothing about the Passover week was accidental. From the very location of the feast and the very occasion of the betrayal,

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Jesus' death on the cross was divinely ordained to rescue sinners from their sin.

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And this is because the only way for the Holy God to show mercy to rebellious sinners was for him to take their place.

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No one can justly stand before God in their own record of unrighteousness.

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In fact, all of us would be condemned before the Holy God if we were to stand before God in our own record alone.

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Yet, in our sinful mind, we might ask, well, why can't God just forgive us?

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The reason is God would be unjust to ignore even the smallest sin. God would disqualify himself as an unjust judge if he were to forgive even the smallest sin.

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God would stop being God to forgive anyone by fiat, just by saying, oh, you're okay.

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And the question really is, how could God forgive anyone? And this dilemma is solved through the doctrine of substitutionary atonement.

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Substitutionary means there was a substitute. Atonement is the sacrifice in which

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God can forgive. Because we cannot possibly stand righteously before God, God the

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Son became man and lived the flawlessly righteous life that we failed to live, and he faced the wrath of God and death that we deserved.

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That those who trust in him would be forgiven in Jesus Christ.

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Just as the Passover lamb was a substitute for the Israelites' household in Egypt, Jesus Christ serves as the greater substitute for all who trust his death and resurrection.

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For all believers, when you stand before God, he does not see your filthy records, but he sees

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Christ's perfect record instead. That's how

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Jesus fulfills the Passover. You're not just saved from one night of judgment, but you're saved from the eternal judgment if you stand under Christ, if you trust in Christ, if you are covered by Christ's sacrificial death, then you are forever protected from the judgment to come.

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Now, what does Jesus accomplish on this Passover? Through his sacrificial death,

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Jesus gives new covenantal significance to God's past redemption. Through his sacrificial death,

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Jesus gives new covenantal significance to God's past redemption. Now, as Jesus and his disciples enter the room, we see the setting of the feast.

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When the hour had come, he reclined and the twelve apostles with him. Some translations have sat down and others have reclined, and the reason is the

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Greek word can be either one. Sitting down, reclining are valid translations.

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But since historically the ancient Jews reclined on their couches during feasts, it's probably more likely that Jesus reclined with the twelve other apostles.

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And in fact, it's a suitable way to celebrate their freedom from enslavement.

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They could enjoy the feast lying down instead of standing up waiting on their old masters.

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And Luke specifically points out that Jesus was eating with his twelve disciples or apostles here.

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This is not just any meal, but a special intimate meal. Jesus is feasting with the twelve of his closest friends.

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In fact, Jesus is feasting with the twelve closest friends, and one of them will betray him.

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That's what makes it so impactful. And with that background in mind, Jesus speaks to them.

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With desire I have desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer. The NKJV italicizes the word fervent when it says fervent desire, and because the translator supplied it for us to make this

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Semitic speech understandable. Otherwise, it just sounds like, as I've read it, with desire

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I have desired. It sounds redundant. It sounds repetitive. Of course, you've desired with a desire.

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That's what desiring means as a verb. However, in Aramaic or Hebrew, Semitic languages, repetition existed for emphasis.

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Repetition accentuated. Repetition highlighted. So Jesus eagerly looked forward to this meal with his disciples.

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That's what it means for with desire I have desired. In fact, if you read

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Genesis 2, when God says do not eat of the fruit of the knowledge of good and evil, the wooden translation would have been, dying you will die.

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You will surely die. The repetition meant emphasis. This means

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Jesus, from the bottom of his heart, looked forward to this meal, one last meal, with his friends.

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And in the background of this discussion is still the suffering on the cross.

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It is the last Passover meal before he is crucified. And the question is, how is it that Jesus looked forward to this meal?

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The desire comes not from the exquisite taste of the lamb that is in front of them, as if Jesus wore on a death row receiving his last favorite meal, but rather the desire comes from the eschatological banquet that is to come when he dies on the cross for his friends and rises from the dead.

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Verse 16, For I say to you, I will no longer eat of it until it is fulfilled in the kingdom of God. Jesus knows that the betrayal and excruciating suffering on the cross will allow him to celebrate an even greater feast with his friends.

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The marriage supper of the lamb, the heavenly banquet with all his saints, that is why he desires to eat of this meal.

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He is looking forward to the greater meal. At one level, the commemoration of God's past salvation points to not only the present, but parallel redemption on the cross, but the future eschatological fulfillment of complete restoration.

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The Passover that happened in the past ultimately finds its fulfillment not only on the cross, but the greatest redemption of all, both spiritually and physically, the full restoration of God's created realm.

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The Passover meal will now receive a greater, newer significance of God's redemption.

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It's more than just a commemoration of emancipation from Egypt, but the foretaste of the final fulfillment of God's complete redemption.

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That's what this meal represented. And all this because he will go to the cross and rise from the dead.

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In verses 17 to 18, Jesus treats the wine cup similarly as he did the meal.

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When he took the cup and gave thanks and said, Take this and divide it among yourselves.

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For I say to you, I will not drink of the fruit of the vine until the kingdom of God comes. Just as he will not feast until the kingdom is fulfilled, he will not have a celebratory drink until the full redemption of the world takes place.

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Luke is the only gospel account that gives us two cups, one that is shared by the disciples and the other that he holds up to give a new meaning of the new covenant.

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And here is the first cup that the disciples share. And Jesus will bring a new significance to the other cup in verse 20.

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And that is confusing. How come there are two cups? We only celebrate one cup during the

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Lord's Supper. Here's the explanation. In the first century

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Passover celebration, there were three to four cups of wine. The first cup was the cup of blessing consumed at the beginning.

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The second cup was consumed after the significance of the Passover meal was explained, recollecting how the

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Lord delivered Israel by judging Egypt. The third cup followed the eating of the lamb and unleavened bread.

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And the fourth cup was the concluding cup as they sang a psalm at the end.

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Now this first cup that they shared was the first cup that Jesus blessed and gave thanks to God.

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This act of giving thanks is the reason why some Christians call the Lord's Supper the

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Eucharist, which comes the Greek word eucharisto, to give thanks.

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Gratitude is a fitting response to God's salvation and provision. Now in the next two verses,

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Jesus institutes the Lord's Supper so that his people may remember him until the eschatological feast takes place.

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Verse 19 institutes the bread. And he took bread, gave thanks, and broke it, and gave it to them, saying,

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This is my body which is given for you. Do this in remembrance of me. First, the unleavened bread represents

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Jesus' body. The bread is to remind us that Jesus' sacrificial death was what saved us from our sin.

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Now there's a heretical view that bread can suddenly turn into Jesus' real body, and that's called transubstantiation.

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Trans - change, substantiation of the substance. The Catholics believe that after the priest blesses the bread, it suddenly becomes

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Jesus' body, real body. I will explain why that cannot be in three different reasons, in three different ways.

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First, grammatically the verb to be here can show representation rather than identification.

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Representation means it symbolizes the body rather than it is the body. In fact, we don't take other cases of this verb to be literally, but symbolically.

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Here's one example, John 10, 7. Truly, truly, I say to you, I am the door of the sheep.

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It would be absurd to claim that Jesus is a literal wooden door guarding his sheep.

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It would be ridiculous to think that Jesus' body was made out of wood, just because he said,

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I am the door guarding the sheep. Second, contextually he tells us the purpose of this meal.

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Do this in remembrance of me. The purpose of breaking the bread was to institute the

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Lord's Supper so that his followers would remember what he has done for them, not to have a mystical experience of bread turning into the body, flesh.

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In one sense, it is one of the most tragic things Jesus has said. He came to die to save them.

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Yet there is a chance that his followers may forget what he has done unless they're physically reminded to partake in the

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Lord's Supper. And how often do we forget

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Jesus' sacrifice on the cross for us, even when we do partake in the

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Lord's Supper regularly? Third, theologically

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Jesus' resurrected body is up in heaven, and Jesus resurrected physically.

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Jesus is the only person with a physical body in heaven. All the other saints are awaiting for their resurrection.

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And the only way Jesus' physical body would come back to earth would be his second coming.

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Which means he has not physically come back to earth since his ascension.

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Then the question is, how could a mere Catholic priest bless a piece of unleavened bread to bring the body of Christ down from heaven?

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It is a huge assumption. Neither scripturally, theologically, nor scientifically can be proven that the bread suddenly becomes the real body of Christ.

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Then Jesus institutes the second element of the Lord's Supper in verse 20. Likewise, he also took the cup after supper, saying,

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This cup is the new covenant in my blood which is shed for you. This cup would have been the third cup that followed the lamb and the unleavened bread.

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And here Jesus gives a new significance to it. It's more than just to remember what

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God has done in Exodus. He uses the word covenant.

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In fact, not just any covenant, new covenant. Covenant is a treaty or promise or an official contract of commitment and allegiance.

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We don't use this word anymore. But covenant, one of the more well -known examples of a covenant relationship, is marriage.

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Marriage is a covenant relationship. A man and a woman vow before God to stay faithful to each other until death.

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And that's because you can't break a covenant or death ensues.

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They stay together not because the wife is beautiful. They stay together not because the husband makes a lot of money.

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They stay together because they're bound by the covenant, the promise they made to each other before God.

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Their commitment is to the covenant, the promise to each other.

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That's the modern example of covenant. Covenant is faithful.

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Covenant is relational. Covenant is personal. Covenant is about commitment.

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And with that in mind, Jesus institutes a new covenant. This is more than just a commemoration of the first Passover meal.

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But rather it points to the greater redemption of the ultimate Passover lamb, Jesus.

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Whose blood was poured out on the cross. The cup of the new covenant in his blood is important here.

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It's an important phrase, the cup of the new covenant in his blood. The new covenant signifies there's a new chapter in God's redemptive history.

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The new covenant signifies a new way in which God saves his people. Under the old covenant,

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Israel was saved by God from their enslavement in Egypt. Under the old covenant,

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God's judgment passed over them because of the blood of the innocent lamb. Here, Jesus inaugurates the new covenant, not by the blood of animals like in the old covenant.

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Think Exodus 24, 8 when Moses sprinkled blood on Israel. But ultimately by his own blood poured out on the cross for us.

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Jesus' atoning sacrifice on the cross allows God to make a new covenant with his people.

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Which is significantly better than the old covenant that the ancient Israelites entered into after they left

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Egypt. The fact that there's a new covenant means the old has passed away.

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And one of the best places to see the distinction of the new covenant is actually in the

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Old Testament. Jeremiah 31, 31 -32 Behold, the days are coming, declares the

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Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah. Not like the covenant that I made with their fathers on the day when

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I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt. There is a specific remembrance of the

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Passover. My covenant that they broke, though I was their husband, declares the

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Lord. God was not the one who broke the covenant.

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He was faithful. He was committed. But Israel, they broke it.

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God makes clear through the prophet Jeremiah that the new covenant will not be like the old covenant that the ancient

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Israelites entered into under Moses. And I will be going over three important distinctions that set apart the new covenant from the old.

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Because after all, there are similarities. It's the same God. And of course, the proper response to this

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God is belief, to trust. The Israelites had to trust God. So do

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Christians. But there are three distinctions that make the new covenant the fulfillment of the old.

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The better. It's what God intended. It's been accomplished by Christ.

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First. The new covenant people will be able to better obey

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God because the laws will be written on their hearts. That's from verse 33 of Jeremiah 31.

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For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, declares the

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Lord. I will put my law within them and I will write it on their hearts. And I will be their

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God and they shall be my people. Unlike the old covenant in which the laws were written on stones or leather.

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Scrolls. God will actually write his laws on people's hearts.

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God will regenerate the new covenant people from inside out. What that means is they will obey

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God because their hearts are changed to obey God. It is not a stricter consequence.

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It is not a better reward that gets them. It's that they are a new regenerate creation.

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They are a new. They have a new identity. The moment they enter into the new covenant.

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That's what allows them to obey. It is not a behavioral modification, but the change, the transformation of the heart.

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To desire to obey God. After all, in the end, whenever we sin, whenever we disobey

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God, it comes from our false desire. We desire something that God told us not to have.

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But how much better would it be if God's laws are written on our hearts?

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And obeying him is our second. The new covenant people will experience the

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Lord personally. This comes from verse 34. Under the old covenant, not every

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Israelite knew the Lord personally. That's because they were marked by their ethnic background.

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You were born into God's people. And if you're a man, you're a baby boy, you're circumcised on the eighth day.

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You're part of the covenant people. That means there were

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Israelites who did not really know a thing about God. Hence, God raised up intermediaries to bring them to himself.

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The priests, the Levites, the kings, and the prophets. All of them were tasked in one way or another to bring the wayward

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Israelites back to God. What that meant was the old covenant people naturally had human intermediaries between them and God.

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They sinned, they need to go to the priest. They need to learn more about God. The Levites would teach them.

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They needed to have a national devotion to God. The king would lead them, if it's a good one.

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They're so far gone and they're worshipping different gods. Well, God would send prophets.

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And they would attempt to bring them back. There were intermediaries because they personally, not all of them knew

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God. Not so under the new covenant.

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When you trust in Jesus Christ, the only intermediary between you and God is none other than God himself.

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God the Son, Jesus Christ. You can have a relationship with God and maintain that relationship.

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Not because you go to a priest to confess your sin regularly, but because you go to Christ who died for your sin.

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And that is true from the least of them to the greatest. From a toddler who ends up in a

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Sunday school to the pastors and elders who know the Bible pretty well.

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They all will personally know God if you belong to the new covenant. Because the new covenant is inaugurated by Jesus' death on the cross.

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And all it takes is to believe Jesus' death and resurrection. Lastly, under the new covenant there is eternal forgiveness of sins.

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For I will forgive their iniquity and I will remember their sin no more. This is not to say that God has a divine amnesia and forgets your sin.

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It's not that under the new covenant God is just getting too old to remember things. Rather, it's a figurative way of saying that God will no longer hold your sin against you.

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He will never bring it up. What's been paid for will not be resurrected again.

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Your sin which has been nailed to the cross with Jesus Christ will not come back to life.

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Only Jesus came back from the dead. And the reason for this is because the animal sacrifice of the

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Old Testament never purified the sinners internally. Their bodies may have been cleansed.

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They were ritualistically cleaned so that God would dwell among them physically in the temple or the tabernacle.

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But their conscience was left unclean. Hebrews 10 .4

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says, For it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins. This means that thousands and thousands of innocent animals dying in the

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Old Testament only allowed God's wrath to temporarily pass over their sin until a later date.

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After all, they were not pure inside. And the reason is, animals are not fitting substitutes to redeem a human being.

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Rather, a human must substitutionarily atone for another human life.

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It makes sense. No number of animals can equal the value of a single human being.

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After all, even the law says eye for eye, tooth for tooth. Bulls for a human is an unfair trade.

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Rather, a human needed to redeem a human.

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The problem is, until Jesus Christ, no human was perfect and unblemished to be offered up to God.

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No one could redeem a human being because there was no human being who could.

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No human being had the right to take away anyone else's sin. They had their own sin to worry about.

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And that's what makes Jesus Christ special. Only Jesus Christ, God incarnate,

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God made flesh, God who became man, could take away our sin and our offense because He is fully

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God. He is the one who can take away our sin because He is the very offended party.

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It would be ridiculous for me, for anyone for that matter, to claim that you are forgiven by God when

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I'm not God myself. I can't accomplish God's forgiveness for you, nor can anyone else.

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But God, God can take on your sin and deal with it completely.

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Yet, Jesus could take your place in judgment because He is fully man and became mortal.

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Because the wages of sin is death. Death was required for breaking

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God's law, disobeying God, rebelling against God. But how could God die?

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That's why He became man. He could take your place in judgment and suffer the wrath that you deserve because He is also fully man and He can completely redeem you once and for all.

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Under the new covenant, you have the guarantee of true forgiveness. Not a delayed judgment, but a true forgiveness.

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God doesn't hold it against you anymore because it's been paid for.

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And you can find true forgiveness from God only from one person and one person alone, and that is

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Jesus Christ. There are no other gods, there are no other prophets, there are no other angels who shed their blood for you so that you may live.

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And this morning, we worship the ultimate Passover lamb through whose shed blood we are rescued from the great judgment to come.

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Let us pray. Father, help us to cherish

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Jesus' sacrifice on the cross. Help us to cherish Jesus. And help us to surrender anything, whether past sin, present sin, future sin, that we try to hold on to or try to place ourselves back under judgment.

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Help us to live as forgiven people because of the greater

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Passover lamb. Help us to live in that reality and identity once and for all, knowing that our sins didn't resurrect from the dead, only our

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Savior did. In His name we pray. Amen. As we close, stand together with me as we honor our holy

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God who paid the complete price for our sin. I sing.