67 26.17

INTRODUCTION

Does anyone enjoy going to see a doctor?

A woman went to see a new doctor. The doctor asked if she had been to any other doctor about her complaint before coming to see him. She said, “No, but I did go to my druggist.” “Well, that shows just how much sense some people have! And what sort of silly advice did your druggist give you?” “Oh,” she answered sweetly, “He told me to see you.”

Most of the time, doctors are not our most favorite people to go see and for several reasons. Sometimes we’d rather go take to pharmacist for some advice. One reason why we don’t like to go see doctors is because we’re afraid they’ll want to send us to a surgeon. And who in the world wants to be operated on?

A surgeon was talking to a man about to have surgery about his recovery time. “Let me tell you how I work,” the doctor said.” I believe in getting my patients up and around very quickly after surgery. Three hours after surgery you’ll sit up. Five hours later, you’ll stand up. The next day you’ll be walking.” “Fine,” the patient said, “But will you let me lie down during the surgery?”

Another reason we don’t like to go see doctors is that we’re afraid they’ll find something wrong with us and maybe even something fatal.

After careful examination, the doctor said to his patient, “I’m sorry to tell you that you have only a short time to live, perhaps only days. Is there anyone else you would like to see before you go?” “Yes,” answered the patient, “I’d like to see another doctor.”

In our passage tonight Jesus is coming near to his death. And what is his desire? He doesn’t want another opinion. Jesus desires to celebrate the Passover with his disciples. Jesus said,

My appointed time is near. I am going to celebrate the Passover with my disciples.

How could he have this attitude when he knew his death was so near? It was possible because he was prepared to die.

One man put it this way:

I’m not ready to die, but I’m prepared to die.

There were some things he would still like to do in life, but he is prepared to die. Having placed our faith in Jesus, knowing our sins are forgiven and that when we die we will go to be with him, we may not be ready to die, but we can be prepared.

SERMON

Turn to Matthew 26. After spending several chapters on the last Tuesday of Jesus’ life, Matthew spends only a few verses on Wednesday which quickly spills into Thursday when Jesus eats his last supper with his disciples. They have come to Jerusalem for two reason and we see one of them tonight. One reason was to die on the cross, but before that Jesus wants to share the Passover with his disciples one more time.

Video

SLIDE 1 If you knew that you were going to die tomorrow what would you want to do? Would you want to go somewhere that you’ve never been before, or see something that you’ve never seen before?

If you knew that you only had a few hours to live who would you want to talk to? Who would you want to spend time with? Would you want to go see an old friend that you haven’t seen in a while? Or maybe you would just like to spend a relaxing evening at home with your family.

In our passage tonight we see how Jesus chose to spend the last few hours of his life. Jesus realized that his life on earth was quickly coming to an end. He didn’t choose to do something that he had never done before, or talk to someone that he had never met. Instead he chose to do something that he had done many times. Jesus chose observe the Passover with his Disciples. He chose one more time to fellowship with his closest friends. However, this supper was more than just another Passover celebration, or another meal together. It was so much more than that.

In this passage of scripture Jesus reveals to us four things about the last supper, that teaches us about ourselves and God’s plan for salvation.

SLIDE 2 First, the last supper reveals that God is always in control.

Jesus is now living the last hours of his life on earth. He knows what is ahead in the hours to come and here we find him, not frantic, not worried, and not rushing through trying to settle up old matters. He is in complete control, he sends his disciples ahead already knowing that this certain man had a room for them to celebrate this Passover meal together. He is in complete control.

The Jewish calendar was full of feast days and celebrations. They had the Feast of Purim, the Feast of Tabernacles, the Day of Atonement, the Feast of Pentecost, and the Feast of Trumpets. But the most important feast of all was the Feast of Unleavened Bread. The Feast of Unleavened Bread was one of the most important to the Jews. It was one of only three feasts where adult males were required to go to Jerusalem to celebrate.

The Feast of Unleavened Bread is kind of a broad title though. It’s a broad title because it included three feasts that kind of got rolled into one. First, there was Passover. Then Passover rolled right into the actual feast of Unleavened Bread. That feat lasted seven days. Then they wrapped up the whole thing with the Feast of Firstfruits. All three of those put together came to be known as the Feast of Unleavened Bread. But the key event was clearly the one that kicked it off and that key event was the Passover.

The Passover was a time when every Jewish family remembered when God delivered the Israelites from bondage in Egypt. And this is the feast that Jesus was celebrating with the disciples. They were doing exactly what God had commanded the Jews to do. They were remembering God’s miraculous deliverance of Israel. They were engaged in a ceremony to remember the Lord’s saving work on their behalf.

Even though the ceremony was simple, it did require preparation. Tradition wouldn’t allow any more than two men to bring each lamb to the temple for sacrifice. Then after one of the over six hundred priests carried out the sacrifice, the lamb was immediately taken home and the meat was roasted. This was all part of the preparation for the meal.

Since all the Jews were required to take the Passover in Jerusalem, there were more than a million more of them in town at this time. That made finding a place to hold the ceremony a chore. But it’s obvious from our passage that Jesus had already taken care of that. Apparently, he had already picked out the lamb and the place. All that was required for preparation now was the sacrifice and the actual preparation of the meal. This took several hours, as all those people crowded into the temple.

As Jesus and the disciples gathered there in the upper room, they made the final preparations. The sacrifice had been made. The meat was still cooking. Jesus made the final preparations by pouring the first cup. The Passover meal was structured around the sharing of four cups of wine. The host would pour those four cups at different intervals throughout the ceremony. The actual Passover meal began when the host poured and blessed the first cup. This signified that all the preparations had been made and the meal was now to begin. We only read about the last cup in Matthew and Mark while Luke mentions two.

In Luke’s account of this event we also read that Jesus said, “Do this in remembrance of me.” The reason that we celebrate the Lord’s Supper is because of this instruction. Jesus didn’t tell us how often we are to do it, but he did say that as often as we do, we are to do it in remembrance of him. There are some churches that take communion one a month, some once a quarter, and others once a year. We take communion once a week because that’s the example we see from the early church. For example, in Acts: SLIDE 3

On the first day of the week we came together to break bread. (Acts 20:7a)

When you begin to understand that God is in complete control of this world and everything in it, our lives will change forever. God is sovereign. SLIDE 4

He is omniscient – he can answer your most trying questions

He is omnipotent – he is strong enough to overcome your biggest obstacle

He is omnipresent – wherever you may go he will be there with you

No matter what pain, trial, or tragedy comes your way, rejoice that your Father will be there to work it out for good no matter what. The last supper reveals that to us that there is never a point when God is not in control.

SLIDE 5 Second, the last supper reveals that our sins are not hidden from God.

You can imagine that Judas never mentioned anything about his betrayal of Jesus publicly. I am quite confident that he thought all of this is a secret. He would get the thirty pieces of silver and still be able to fellowship with Jesus. What Judas didn’t understand is who in fact Jesus is. Jesus is almighty God. Jesus saw Judas’ heart and knew his mind. Jesus already knew what his intentions were.

There are many things that we do that we think is secret from everybody. We may have thoughts that aren’t clean, we may gossip about someone, we may use some language that a Christian shouldn’t use, or we might cheat someone out of money or something and think that “no one will ever know about this but me.” But as the last supper reveals, nothing is hidden from God.

Judas thought he could get away with what he was doing, but he soon realized he wasn’t getting away with anything. Do you want to know something; neither do we. Jesus sees. Jesus knows. Knowing that we need to stop whatever we try to hide and confess it to him who already knows. God’s word promises that: SLIDE 6

If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness. (1 John 1:9)

Let God forgive you before it destroys you like Judas.

SLIDE 7 Third, the last supper reveals the true purpose for Jesus coming to earth.

Once Jesus shared the first cup with the disciples, bitter herbs were served in the meal. The bitter herbs represented the bitter bondage the Israelites experienced while they were slaves in Egypt. Pharaoh was intimidated by the growth of the Israelites within his country. Because he was intimidated by them he decided to enslave them. He made life so miserable for them that they cried out to the God they had nearly forgotten about. Their captivity was hard. It was a struggle and there was no way they could resist. They couldn’t arm themselves and even if they could they weren’t warriors, they were shepherds. Egypt was the most powerful military of the day. How could a bunch of simple shepherds stand up against that? They couldn’t. They were in bondage and couldn’t do anything about it. They had no hope.

After the bitter herbs comes the second cup. After the second cup, the person leading the Passover would break bread and dip it in the bitter herbs. The bread was unleavened. It represented the haste with which the Israelites left Egypt when Pharaoh finally released them. They didn’t have time to allow the dough to rise. But too, in the Bible sin is often represented by yeast while unleavened bread represents sinlessness and purity. In this picture of dipping the bread into the bitter herbs sinlessness and purity took on the bitterness of sin and bondage.

As Jesus sat down with his disciples, there was sin in their midst. Luke tells us that Satan literally possessed Judas prior to the meal when he agreed with the chief priests and scribes to betray Jesus. And Jesus would not continue with the meal until he had purged the sin in their midst. So what did he do? First, Jesus exposed it. He identified his betrayer. He exposed the sin in their midst. And then he got rid of it. In John’s account, Jesus then told Judas, “That you do, do quickly.” Jesus told Judas to leave. Jesus exposed sin and bitterness in their midst and he got rid of it.

In the same way, Jesus requires you to confess the sin that binds us. Expose it. See it for what it is. Quit making excuses for it. Quit trying to rationalize it. Quit comparing it to other people. Expose it by confessing it. Confessing simple means seeing it the same way that God does. And God sees sin as an affront to his holiness. Sin is dark, disgusting, evil, inexcusable, and worthy of death.

Jesus didn’t come to just teach us some good moral things about life; he came for a purpose and a reason. Jesus came for the purpose of “giving his life as a ransom for many”. He came to be our blood sacrifice, so that in this new covenant our sins would be forgiven, so that those who place their faith and trust in him would be righteous before God. Jesus came to die in our place. He came to suffer in our place. He came to shed his innocent blood in the place of our guilty sin stained life. He came so that we may have life, eternal life.

He came to give me what we could never earn, pay for, or borrow. He came to give us salvation full and free, free for us, but cost him his life on the cross.

SLIDE 8 Fourth, the last supper reveals the promise of our eternal future.

Jesus had just finished implementing the ordinance of the Lord’s Supper the ordinance we still practice today. And then what did he say? He said, “That’s it. There will be no more cups.” Actually, we don’t know that he said that. However, he could have said something like that. As I mentioned earlier, the Passover meal had four cups that were drunk at specific times of the meal each with its own meaning and significance, which is why there probably not a fourth cup that night.

The Jews took the fourth cup as a celebration of the coming kingdom. So why would Jesus not have this traditional cup at this last meal? Jesus may have skipped it in order to point to his coming kingdom when he returned. Jesus said that he would not drink from the cup until he drank it with his disciples in his Father’s kingdom.

Jesus not partaking of the cup is a promise from Jesus to us. Jesus promised to celebrate the supper again with his followers in the future. This is a great promise from Jesus to us that we will sit with Jesus at the great marriage feast of the Lamb. It is a promise of being part of the new heavens and the new earth, and sitting with Christ in the kingdom of God.

Heaven’s not now – we’ve got work to do first. Of course we know the work that Jesus had to do. The cross awaited him. Within just a few hours he was hanging on a cross. Jesus died on a cross with a sign over his head that mockingly proclaimed his title to the world: King of the Jews. It may have been hung there mockingly, but it was true. As Jesus hung there he was sealing the promise of the Kingdom.

John records the comforting words Jesus gave his disciples there in the upper room before they sang their hymn and left for the Mount of Olives. Those words are recorded in John 14. Slide 9

1 Do not let your hearts be troubled. You believe in God; believe also in me. Slide 10 2 My Father’s house has many rooms; if that were not so, would I have told you that I am going there to prepare a place for you? Slide 11 3 And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am. (John 14:1-3)

Why do we remember? We remember because Jesus told us to. But we need to do more than remember, we need to urgently remember because Jesus is coming back. And he is coming back soon. Jesus is preparing a place for you. Are you ready to receive it? Are you urgently preparing your life every day for his return? Are you urgently purging your sin every day, ready for his return? Are you urgently partaking of his grace every day, looking for his return? And are you urgently looking for the promise of his return every day?