Maundy Thursday 2026

Welcome to our Maundy Thursday Service

I probably should explain how all this started

A few years ago while I was driving I heard the DJ’s talking about Maundy Thursday or Holy Thursday and having a church service

They did a footwashing service and I thought Oh that's cool

Then I started thinking what I know some people do a good Friday service

So we have Holy Thursday and Good Friday and of course resurrection Sunday

Poor Saturday I thought

If we were going to do a Maundy Thursday Service then we would most defiantly do what we have called an In the Grave Saturday

The other cool thing about doing Easter like this is that it gives you time to preach through the events that happened

Because they are so different and so meaningful

For example on Sunday you preach through Jesus coming into Jerusalem and everyone was so excited

Then tomorrow you see people are shouting crucify Him such a stark difference

So Maundy Thursday a few things happen tonight

They have the passover meal and from that we get the Lord Supper instituted to us

Jesus spends some intense time praying in the Garden

Jesus is arrested and the sham trials begin

This evening I want us to focus on their passover dinner

They come to the upper room and as they come in Jesus does something you don’t associate with a king

Jesus takes time during the passover meal to wash the disciples feet

This is something a king wouldn’t have done

John 13:1–4 NASB95

1 Now before the Feast of the Passover, Jesus knowing that His hour had come that He would depart out of this world to the Father, having loved His own who were in the world, He loved them to the end. 2 During supper, the devil having already put into the heart of Judas Iscariot, the son of Simon, to betray Him, 3 Jesus, knowing that the Father had given all things into His hands, and that He had come forth from God and was going back to God, 4 got up from supper, and laid aside His garments; and taking a towel, He girded Himself.

This last verse

Knowing what was about to happen

He prepared to serve

I don’t want us to miss the fact that Jesus came to serve and not to be served

In fact that is one way we love the lost and love the believer alike is by serving them

I know and understand that you shouldn’t do everything for everyone because they won’t learn for themselves however we are to serve people

So Jesus does serve people and humble himself

Philippians 2:7 NASB95

7 but emptied Himself, taking the form of a bond-servant, and being made in the likeness of men.

This is what Jesus came to do

To serve

He was doing that physically by washing feet

And church He was doing that by also being obedient to lay His own life in our place

This is what a servant does is to humble themselves to serve

John 13:5–15 NASB95

5 Then He poured water into the basin, and began to wash the disciples’ feet and to wipe them with the towel with which He was girded. 6 So He came to Simon Peter. He said to Him, “Lord, do You wash my feet?” 7 Jesus answered and said to him, “What I do you do not realize now, but you will understand hereafter.” 8 Peter said to Him, “Never shall You wash my feet!” Jesus answered him, “If I do not wash you, you have no part with Me.” 9 Simon Peter said to Him, “Lord, then wash not only my feet, but also my hands and my head.” 10 Jesus said to him, “He who has bathed needs only to wash his feet, but is completely clean; and you are clean, but not all of you.” 11 For He knew the one who was betraying Him; for this reason He said, “Not all of you are clean.” 12 So when He had washed their feet, and taken His garments and reclined at the table again, He said to them, “Do you know what I have done to you? 13 “You call Me Teacher and Lord; and you are right, for so I am. 14 “If I then, the Lord and the Teacher, washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another’s feet. 15 “For I gave you an example that you also should do as I did to you.

Jesus begins to wash their feet

This was custom when you came in because you feet were dusty and needed to be cleaned

Peter steps in and say oh no not you

You won’t wash my feet, thinking there is no way the Teacher would ever stoop so low as to wash my feet

Jesus explains to him that if He doesn’t wash your feet then you have no part

Then Peter does what I think is very normal

Then wash all of me Jesus

It is evident that Peter wants whatever Jesus has to offer

Jesus explains you are already clean just need to knock off the dust

You who already know Christ personally still need to knock off the dust in your life

Need to repent of the sin you pick up like someone walking around on a dusty road would pick up dust

Jesus is serving people to help make them clean

He even explains just as I have served you also ought to serve others

Now we are not going to wash feet tonight but you are to serve one another because that is what Jesus came todo

After Jesus had finished washing their feet

They sit down to take the Passover meal

Exodus 12:1–11 NASB95

1 Now the Lord said to Moses and Aaron in the land of Egypt, 2 “This month shall be the beginning of months for you; it is to be the first month of the year to you. 3 “Speak to all the congregation of Israel, saying, ‘On the tenth of this month they are each one to take a lamb for themselves, according to their fathers’ households, a lamb for each household. 4 ‘Now if the household is too small for a lamb, then he and his neighbor nearest to his house are to take one according to the number of persons in them; according to what each man should eat, you are to divide the lamb. 5 ‘Your lamb shall be an unblemished male a year old; you may take it from the sheep or from the goats. 6 ‘You shall keep it until the fourteenth day of the same month, then the whole assembly of the congregation of Israel is to kill it at twilight. 7 ‘Moreover, they shall take some of the blood and put it on the two doorposts and on the lintel of the houses in which they eat it. 8 ‘They shall eat the flesh that same night, roasted with fire, and they shall eat it with unleavened bread and bitter herbs. 9 ‘Do not eat any of it raw or boiled at all with water, but rather roasted with fire, both its head and its legs along with its entrails. 10 ‘And you shall not leave any of it over until morning, but whatever is left of it until morning, you shall burn with fire. 11 ‘Now you shall eat it in this manner: with your loins girded, your sandals on your feet, and your staff in your hand; and you shall eat it in haste—it is the Lord’s Passover.

This is what they were to eat as they remember what the Lord had done so long ago

They were to remind themselves of God’s saving them from Egypt

The lamb was sacrificed in their firstborn’s place

Then they would eat bread with no yeast and bitter herbs

The bread with no yeast because they were in a hurry

The bitter herbs was to remind them of their time in Egypt how it was bitter and not to return

There is more to the passover dinner and I would encourage you to study it

But as they are doing it they are to remind themselves that God saved them from Egypt

What we are about to see is God saving them from sin and giving them an opportunity to have a personal relationship with the God of the universe

In Luke we see Jesus give them bread and wine

We know this to be the Lords Supper

It was in that last night during the Passover Dinner that we have instituted for us the Lords Supper

We have bread and juice

Luke 22:17–20 NASB95

17 And when He had taken a cup and given thanks, He said, “Take this and share it among yourselves; 18 for I say to you, I will not drink of the fruit of the vine from now on until the kingdom of God comes.” 19 And when He had taken some bread and given thanks, He broke it and gave it to them, saying, “This is My body which is given for you; do this in remembrance of Me.” 20 And in the same way He took the cup after they had eaten, saying, “This cup which is poured out for you is the new covenant in My blood.

Jesus gives them bread and broke it

This is to signify that Jesus’s body is about to be broken for you and I

That Jesus’s physical body is about to experience horrendous trauma for you and I

His body was given for you and I in our place

If you will recall when we preached on the Lords Supper we brought tables up and everyone got to break their cracker

When you heard some of you said it sounded like whips which would lead us to remind ourselves that Jesus’s body was broken for you and I

We are to remind ourselves of what Jesus and what it cost Him to save you and I

Then he also passes around a cup of wine which represents His blood which was spilt for you and I

Remember during the passover the lamb was slaughtered and the blood was on the doorpost so the Lord would see and passover

So Jesus the lamb of God would spill His blood so that we can be covered and God would see Jesus’s blood and not our sin

This is why we the Lords Supper is for those who are believers

Because non believers or those who are not saved and do not have a personal relationship with Jesus can’t remember what He did for them

We can remember what Jesus did for us and how His blood was spilled so we would be covered

This is what the Lords Supper is about

Remembering what Jesus did for us

To remember that Jesus stepped out of heaven and entered humanity through a virgin named Mary

Who grew up and was sinless

And willingly entered Jerusalem to serve and sacrifice as we will later see

So this evening we are going to do things a bit different

We are going to give you sometime to come and take the Lords Supper on your own or as a family

Church as you have spent time remembering what Jesus did in your life through salvation

Maybe you want to spend sometime at the alter in prayer you are encouraged to do just that come to the

Maybe you don’t know Jesus personally or you have questions about a personal relationship you are encouraged to come to the front and speak with someone

1 Corinthians 11:23–26 NASB95

23 For I received from the Lord that which I also delivered to you, that the Lord Jesus in the night in which He was betrayed took bread; 24 and when He had given thanks, He broke it and said, “This is My body, which is for you; do this in remembrance of Me.” 25 In the same way He took the cup also after supper, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in My blood; do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of Me.” 26 For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until He comes.

Mark 14:22–26 NASB95

22 While they were eating, He took some bread, and after a blessing He broke it, and gave it to them, and said, “Take it; this is My body.” 23 And when He had taken a cup and given thanks, He gave it to them, and they all drank from it. 24 And He said to them, “This is My blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many. 25 “Truly I say to you, I will never again drink of the fruit of the vine until that day when I drink it new in the kingdom of God.” 26 After singing a hymn, they went out to the Mount of Olives.

Matthew 26:26–30 NASB95

26 While they were eating, Jesus took some bread, and after a blessing, He broke it and gave it to the disciples, and said, “Take, eat; this is My body.” 27 And when He had taken a cup and given thanks, He gave it to them, saying, “Drink from it, all of you; 28 for this is My blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for forgiveness of sins. 29 “But I say to you, I will not drink of this fruit of the vine from now on until that day when I drink it new with you in My Father’s kingdom.” 30 After singing a hymn, they went out to the Mount of Olives.

This is not 3 different accounts but the same account told from 3 different authors

Each time