Sermon Tone Analysis

INTRO

Who is looking forward to Thanksgiving?

What are some of your favorite special family dishes?

Stuffed dates is one our traditions.

The food will be delicious; we will say there’s too much, but what we are really looking forward to is the people who will share the meal with us.

And we often long for and remember those who are no longer with us.

Pray especially for those with empty chairs this year.

In Luke 22:15-16 Jesus sat down with his disciples and said, “I have earnestly desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer.

This was the last time they would all be together before his death.

And he had been looking forward to a special time of fellowship with these twelve men.

He loved them and they were deeply devoted to Him.

His last meal was not spent with his earthly family but with his disciples.

These were the men who would carry out his great commission to share the Gospel with the world.

Have you ever moved out of town or out of state?

You knew that you would see these people for a long time.

Sharing a meal with the people we care about becomes so much more important when time is running out.

This morning we come to the Last Supper in Mark’s Gospel.

Series

We are continuing our series The Crown & The Cross.

Mark has shown us Jesus as a man with a clear message and mission, and the reader is called to actively response to the message.

Jesus’ life on earth helped us all better understand God’s heart and what His kingdom is like.

In the first half of Mark the emphasis was on seeing Jesus revealed as Messiah - the King who deserved the crown.

The second half’s focus is on Jesus in Jerusalem fulfilling His life’s mission to suffer and die on the cross - and to rise from the dead.

As we continue in chapter 14 Jesus knows he is about to be betrayed, arrested, falsely accused and executed on a cross.

He chooses his last meal as a time to show love to his disciples and prepare them for what’s coming.

A single theme runs through each scene: Jesus’ foreknowledge of events.

None of these things surprised Jesus.

God’s redemption plan was unfolding just as he pre-ordained.

Our parallel passages are in Matthew 26, Luke 22, and John 13.

If you missed anything you can watch or listen on our website or YouTube page.

PRAY

READ Mark 14:12-25

Preparation

I’m sorry, but I couldn’t help but alliterate today’s key points.

Two of the main themes are right there in the first verse: Prepare the Passover.

And we also have a Prophecy from Jesus.

Mark tells us that it’s now the first day of Unleavened Bread or the Feast of Passover and the disciples are wondering where they will celebrate the Feast.

V. 13 says Jesus sent two of his disciples into the city of Jerusalem ahead of the rest to make preparations.

Luke 22 tells us it was Peter and John two of his closest friends.

You will find a man carrying a jar of water.

Follow him.

If you recall from our earlier messages, the city of Jerusalem may have a million plus people during the Passover.

How will the find the right man?

The man will be more easily identified, since water jars were normally filled at a public well and carried home by women.

This was not typically a man’s work.

v 14 When he enters a house, go in and say to the owner, “The Teacher says “Where is my guest room, where I may eat the Passover with my disciples?

The man will show you a larger upper room already furnished for our dinner and you can prepare the meal for us.

Some tradition and history suggests that this home belongs to the family of John Mark - the author of our Gospel of Mark.

It was certainly someone who knew Jesus as “The Teacher” and was it was someone ready and willing to share his home.

Perhaps John Mark had been the one carrying the water jug and the maybe he was the also the un-named young man who later runs from the garden leaving his robe behind.

This is not clearly stated in the Gospels, but we do know that John Mark’s home was a center for Christian fellowship in Jerusalem (Acts 12:12).

And Mark would not name himself in the narrative.

He wants the focus to be on Jesus.

This is just speculation, but the point is - Jesus saw all of these things coming.

Verse 16 says the two disciples found everything just like Jesus said.

Jesus knew exactly was they would find and he knew what was coming afterwards - the cross.

Peter and John prepared for the Passover feast.

That meant getting the sacrificial passover lamb, gathering the bitter herbs, making the sweet marror apple fruit dish, having enough wine and unleavened bread - all ready for the symbolic meal that gave thanks to God for rescuing His people from slavery in Egypt and saving them from the judgment of death of the first-born throughout Egypt.

Each element helped parents tell their children and grandchildren about God’s faithfulness and great provision through their history.

In Luke 22:15-16 Jesus sat down with his disciples and said, “I have earnestly desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer.

For I tell you I will not eat it until it is fulfilled in the kingdom of God.”

I love this detail, Luke provides.

Jesus earnestly desired to share Passover with them.

This is so similar to our looking forward to sharing holiday meals with the ones we love today.

Jesus knew that his death was near and he wanted one last time of fellowship.

What he would say and do that night would change history.

But first, there was impossibly bad news to share with them.

Prophecy

Table fellowship had more significance for Jews than simply a social gathering.

4:18.

While they were eating the Passover meal, Jesus declared, one of you will betray me—one who is eating with me.

To break bread with someone was to enter into a pact of friendship and mutual trust.

Eating together was evidence of peace, forgiveness, and brotherhood.

To betray the one who had given you his bread was a horrendous act.

It would be an act of incredible treachery to break bread and then to betray your host.

Not only was it someone who was breaking bread with Jesus—but it was one of his own friends who had been with him for the past three years of ministry.

This must have seemed unbelievable to the disciples.

They did not know that Judas had already made arrangements to betray Jesus.

One by one, they sadly asked Jesus “is it I?”John’s Gospel in chapter 13 gives us more insight.

The disciples did not hear this private interchange between Jesus and Judas.

Don’t you think, quick-tempered Peter would have immediately jumped up and attacked Judas?

But Judas’s betrayal was the only first step in the defection of all the disciples.

There was only one betrayer, but every one of them would fall away that night as the events leading to the crucifixion unfolded.

Peter and John watched the trial from nearby, but did not defend Jesus or try to stop it.

In spite of Jesus’ knowing they would fall away, he still goes on with the meal and continues to love them.

Passover

The actual Passover meal was divided into four parts, each concluding with the drinking of a cup of wine.

A blessing was first pronounced by the head of the family narrating the gathering.

Then, in response to a child’s question, “ ‘Why is this night different from other nights?’

” the father recounted the deliverance from Egypt according to Deut 26:5–9.

Next, the father pronounced a benediction over the various foods that symbolized the bitter captivity in Egypt and both the hardships and blessings of the Exodus: unleavened bread, bitter herbs, greens, stewed fruit, and roasted lamb (with no bones broken).

Family and guests were then invited to partake of the meal.

Near midnight the feast concluded with the singing of Psalms 116–18 and the drinking of the fourth cup of wine.

Mark refers to the passover lamb, but it is only John’s Gospel that clearly states that Jesus is ‘the Lamb of God’ (John 1:29), although ‘Christ our Passover’ is a phrase the Apostle Paul would use (1 Cor.

5:7), and it became familiar to the church later.

The reference to “eating” (v.

18) signals the third phase of the meal.

BREAD

Blessing for Bread: Blessed are thou, Eternal our God, Ruler of the universe, Who brings forth bread from the earth.

In this setting, however, bread carries another set of meanings as well.

It symbolizes not only life and salvation, but also as Jesus gives it to Judas intimacy and betrayal.