The Upper Room (2)
Notes
Transcript
Soft music playing as people are entering
Video : (3 mins) https://sermons.logos.com/logos-media/378481-17069422--
The scene for the last supper didn’t begin in the upper room it began some 1500 years before
in Exodus 12:1–11 “1 The Lord said to Moses and Aaron in the land of Egypt, 2 “This month is to be the beginning of months for you; it is the first month of your year. 3 Tell the whole community of Israel that on the tenth day of this month they must each select an animal of the flock according to their fathers’ families, one animal per family. 4 If the household is too small for a whole animal, that person and the neighbor nearest his house are to select one based on the combined number of people; you should apportion the animal according to what each will eat. 5 You must have an unblemished animal, a year-old male; you may take it from either the sheep or the goats. 6 You are to keep it until the fourteenth day of this month; then the whole assembly of the community of Israel will slaughter the animals at twilight. 7 They must take some of the blood and put it on the two doorposts and the lintel of the houses where they eat them. 8 They are to eat the meat that night; they should eat it, roasted over the fire along with unleavened bread and bitter herbs. 9 Do not eat any of it raw or cooked in boiling water, but only roasted over fire—its head as well as its legs and inner organs. 10 You must not leave any of it until morning; any part of it left until morning you must burn. 11 Here is how you must eat it: You must be dressed for travel, your sandals on your feet, and your staff in your hand. You are to eat it in a hurry; it is the Lord’s Passover.”
12 On the first day of Unleavened Bread, when they sacrifice the Passover lamb, his disciples asked him, “Where do you want us to go and prepare the Passover so that you may eat it?”
13 So he sent two of his disciples and told them, “Go into the city, and a man carrying a jar of water will meet you. Follow him.
14 Wherever he enters, tell the owner of the house, ‘The Teacher says, “Where is my guest room where I may eat the Passover with my disciples?” ’
15 He will show you a large room upstairs, furnished and ready. Make the preparations for us there.”
16 So the disciples went out, entered the city, and found it just as he had told them, and they prepared the Passover.
Today, we begin our service by noticing the darkness. No doubt, as Satan, the chief priest, and Judas were conspiring, it seemed as if darkness was winning.
No doubt, darkness believed it was winning. For long ago, in the Garden of Eden, a prophetic word by Yahweh himself proclaimed there would be a a conflict between the seed of the woman and the seed of the serpent.
That one from the seed of woman would crush the head of the serpent.
No doubt, from that time on, Satan and his minions were on guard to make sure that this prophecy would not be fulfilled. They wanted Jesus dead and now was the time. The plan was in place. Hearts had been hardened; the people procured. in just a few short hours, It would seem as if darkness had won.
As this time was drawing close Luke makes this statement.
Then the Day of Unleavened Bread came when the Passover lamb had to be sacrificed.
Jesus, knowing all that was about to take place, desired to spend with them one last passover meal. The Passover meal celebrated for generations would show them that this rescue plan had begun 4,000(?) years ago. Yet they did not understand fully what they were celebrating. When the disciples gathered to partake of this celebratory time they had no idea that they would be forever celebrating and proclaiming the sacrificial death of Christ.
To be raised in a Jewish home meant that you thought of Moses and Egypt. They would have thought about the ten plagues. They would have remembered the blood on the doorpost that protected the children of Israel from the wrath and judgement of God against Pharaoh. This was passover. In their eyes this had little to do with the future.
However Jesus would now reveal to them the true meaning of the Passover. He would reveal to them that he was the rescue plan. That he was the sacrificial lamb. He would forever change its celebration. He was the means by which sin would be forever passed over. He would become the sin for us.
So Jesus instructed his disciples to prepare for this night. He told them what room to reserve so they could all be together.
So they went and found it just as he had told them, and they prepared the Passover.
Now this term “Last supper” is kind of deceiving for while it was the last passover meal that Jesus would celebrate with His disciples before his crucifixion, it was the first of its kind in celebrating the “new Covenant”.
When the hour came, he reclined at the table, and the apostles with him.
Then he said to them, “I have fervently desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer.
For I tell you, I will not eat it again until it is fulfilled in the kingdom of God.”
Now this might have been a confusing statement. No doubt the disciples were thinking wasn’t the passover already fulfilled. Didn’t our rescue from slavery in Egypt already take place.
or
Perhaps they still thought that Jesus was going to rescue them from Rome like he did from Egypt.
Then the scriptures tell us that Jesus fervently wanted to eat this passover with them before he suffered.
Jesus was pointing them to something huge. The passover had been and always was about Him. About a greater rescue that would finally come. So he would share this meal with anticipation. Not because he was desirous of the suffering and pain he would endure but rather because the rescue would finally be complete.
The Elements
The Elements
The Bread...
And he took bread, gave thanks, broke it, gave it to them, and said, “This is my body, which is given for you. Do this in remembrance of me.”
While sacred in its imagery, the elements themselves are common.
The bread would have been unleavened bread. Throughout the O.T. and even in the Gospels leaven was a representation of sin.
The body that was sacrificed had to be pure it had to be without sin. It had to be a perfect spotless lamb.
But where could a truly perfect sacrifice be found.
He made the one who did not know sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.
As Jesus took the bread and broke it, I can’t imagine how he felt. With His own hands. the hands that would soon be pierced He broke the bread and proclaimed this is me. This is my Body.
No doubt there was emotion and agony in his tone and his words. As the God of all creation knew exactly how many strokes of the hammer on the nails it would take to piece his hands and his feet.
He knew exactly how many labored breaths he would take before he proclaimed it was finished.
One of the Prophecies of the Messiah’s suffering describes the torture that Jesus was about to endure.
But he was pierced because of our rebellion, crushed because of our iniquities; punishment for our peace was on him, and we are healed by his wounds.
While it would be by the hands of men that he would be beaten, and pierced. It would by the hand of God that he would be crushed under the weight of God’s wrath for our sins.
Yet the Lord was pleased to crush him severely. When you make him a guilt offering, he will see his seed, he will prolong his days, and by his hand, the Lord’s pleasure will be accomplished.
His Body was broken for you.
At this time, I would ask that one person from each table stand and break the bread and distribute it to the others . If you are sitting as a family, Husbands serve your family in this way. If you are with friends without deliberation someone break the bread and distribute it. Then Before we eat it we will have a quiet moment of prayer and reflection.
Lord we thank you that you did not run from the pain and agony. Lord we thank you that your love for us and for your glory caused you to endure this torture to freely offer redemption to even those who would refuse. We thank you for your great love.
