Sermon Tone Analysis

Intro:

“We do not, of course, worship the Bible but, under the supreme glory of the Lord Jesus Christ, we can never exalt or prize it to highly.”

Alec Motyer

Insert ppt slide of series title with ref to vv 1-6

Please open your print or digital Bibles to . . .

(Read vv 1-6) This morning we are going to begin a two Sunday sermon series, 2 Days that Changed the World Forever … using the final three chapters of the gospel of Luke as our text.

Pray

Pray

All of us can look back at our lives and identify a handful of days which changed our lives forever.

A few of these for me would include the day we moved out of the city of Harrisburg to Lewisberry in northern York County.

This brought a whole truckload of changes … but the most significant is that for the first time in my life I got connected on a regular basis with a local church thru its youth group and … at a summer weekend retreat at Camp Penn near Gettysburg … Christ found me --- making that day a day that changed my life forever.

All of us can look back at our lives and identify a handful of days which changed our lives forever.

A few of these for me would include the day we moved out of the city of Harrisburg to Lewisberry in northern York County.

This brought a whole truckload of changes … but the most significant is that for the first time in my life I got connected on a regular basis with a local church thru its youth group and … at a summer weekend retreat at Camp Penn near Gettysburg … Christ found me --- making that day a day that changed my life forever.

Another, of course would be May 13, 1978 when I said “I do” when Pastor Charlie Scheihing asked me if I desired to take Sharon Pietrowski as my wife.”

That day changed my life forever!

And then there was the day just two months later … when I heard a woman’s voice say to me over the phone, “Congratulations, Mr. Smith, you are going to be a father!”

Yup … at age 22 … and as I walked away from that phone booth, I was clueless as to just how much my life was about to change!

This morning and next week … we are going to take a look at two days … two days that did more than just change the life of this person or that … but two days that changed the world we live in FOREVER!

This morning and next week … we are going to take a look at two days … two days that did more than just changed the life of this person or that … but a day that changed the world we live in FOREVER!

Day One: 7 Events

As we consider the first of these two days, we will do so by doing a survey of what I consider to be the 7 key events of this, the final 24 hours of Jesus’ earthly life.

Now these 7 events occur in different venues … we will begin our survey in a Jerusalem upper room … then follow Jesus and his disciples as they walk to the Mt of Olives outside the city … where Jesus will enter the Garden of Gethsemane … then from there Jesus is led back into the city to face his accusers (while most of the disciples flee) … and finally … back outside the city to Golgatha as he is crucified.

We then will finish our survey as his body is laid in a nearby tomb.

The Upper Room: The Last Super (Luke 22:14-22)

The Last Supper (Luke 22:14-24)

The Last Supper ()

The Last Supper ()

The Last Supper (vv.

14-38)

This event occurs AFTER Luke records for us the agreement betw Judas and Jesus’ enemies to hand Jesus over to them and the preparations for the passover meal … which they would share together in the upper room.

Let’s get to the heart of what is happening here .... by reading

So it is the Jewish Passover meal they are eating together … a meal instituted by God so that his people Israel would never forget their great deliverance from their bondage in Egypt.

Luke 22:

So … out of this Last Supper experience (which was the Jewish passover meal) … Jesus took elements that were on the table and established for the church what we know and love as the Lord’s Supper … or simply put … communion.

Jesus gave this gift to us so that we would … through this powerful interactive manner … remember him and his love for us and what that love for us compelled him to do!

And in using elements from the Passover meal … it was his way of saying, I am the only Passover Lamb you will ever need!

This main event occurs after Luke records for us the agreement betw Judas and Jesus’ enemies to hand Jesus over to them and the preparations for the passover meal … which they would share together in the upper room.

Let’s get to the heart of what is happening here .... by reading .

So … out of this Last Supper experience (which was the Jewish passover meal) … Jesus took elements that were on the table and established for the church what we know and love as the Lord’s Supper … or simply put … communion.

Jesus gave this gift to us so that we would … through this powerful interactive manner … remember him and his love for us and what that love for us compelled him to do!

Jeremiah 31:31

For the Jews, it meant the deliverance from Egypt into Canaan.

But now it is to be filled with its full meaning, and from this year onwards will signify to the people of God a deliverance of the profoundest kind, from sin and death into eternal life.

Moses’ exodus will be fulfilled in Jesus’s exodus.

For the Jews, it meant the deliverance from Egypt into Canaan.

But now it is to be filled with its full meaning, and from this year onwards will signify to the people of God a deliverance of the profoundest kind, from sin and death into eternal life.

Moses’ exodus will be fulfilled in Jesus’s exodus.

INVITE … to our Easter Thursday communion service this coming Thursday eve as we walk together through the events of the Last Supper

INVITE … to our Easter Thursday communion service this coming Thursday eve as we walk together through the events of the Last Supper

INVITE … to our Easter Thursday communion service this coming Thursday eve as we walk together through the events of the Last Supper and celebreate the sacrifice of Christ on our behalf!

Now … once the supper was over .... Jesus and his disciples left the upper room and walked through the night to the Mt. of Olives … once there, Luke records the account of Jesus and his prayer to his father in the Garden of Gethsamen.

The Prayer of Jesus ()

After giving his disciples instructions to pray, he left them at the entrance of the garden … and here is what happened next according to Luke:

The Garden of Gethsemane: The Prayer of Jesus ()

A couple of things to note:

For the Jews, it meant the deliverance from Egypt into Canaan.

But now it is to be filled with its full meaning, and from this year onwards will signify to the people of God a deliverance of the profoundest kind, from sin and death into eternal life.

Moses’ exodus will be fulfilled in Jesus’s exodus.

Jesus knelt down .... usual posture for a Jewish man in prayer … to stand upright with eyes and hands lifted toward heaven.

The fact that he fell to his knees shows the weight of the burden he was carrying!

(Matthew and Mark note that he actually ended up face down on the ground … so heavy was his burden)

He uses a metaphor of a cup to refer to what laid before him … in this cup would have been two things ....

1.

The sins of humanity … all of the … past, present and future.

As sin-bearer … he knew he would have to ‘drink’ this cup in its totality … draining it dry!

2. God’s wrath against that sin!

A wrath so fierce that Jesus would cry out on the cross “My God, my God, why have you abandoned me?!” ( and )

3.

BTW - This was the ONLY time in the gospel record where Jesus, in addressing God in prayer did not refer to him as “Father”

So after looking into this cup and seeing hell open up before him, Jesus shrank back and pled with the Father if justice could be accomplished in any other way … let it be done!

BUT THEN, with his very next breath, he said - “not my will, but yours, be done!”

You see .... for Jesus what mattered most … more than avoiding the horrors of hell itself was to do the will of his Father!

Hallelujah!

What a Savior!

Luke adds the observation that Jesus was not alone in the garden as he prayed …

Luke 22:

Luke 22:

The book of Hebrews tells us that the angels are sent by God to minister to the needs of his elect, and here, of course, the supreme chosen one of the Father becomes the object of the ministry of the angels.

(R. C. Sproul)

The book of Hebrews (1:14) tells us that the angels are sent by God to minister to the needs of his elect, and here, of course, the supreme chosen one of the Father becomes the object of the ministry of the angels.

(R. C. Sproul)

One other event occurs in the vicinity of the garden once Jesus emerged from his agonizing time in prayer …

The Betrayal of Judas ()

It is obvious from the question Jesus asks Judas … that the signal Judas had given to the men who came to arrest Jesus was none other than a kiss … a common greeting in that day and age.

It was a greeting which … as it does even today … communication love and affection.

You know what an oxymoron is … yes?

Two seemingly contradictory terms put together to express an idea … examples:

Pretty ugly, jumbo shrimp, original copy, virtual reality,

Recently a mailman offered this oxymoron … postal service!

Well what we have here is an oxymoron … a betraying kiss!

And if you have ever felt betrayed … as I am guessing you have … it cuts to the heart does it not?

More suffering for our savior as this final day of his life unfolds!

The Denials of Peter ()

As the rest of the disciples fled .... Peter followed at a safe distance.

While waiting outside in the courtyard of the high priest’s house … Peter is asked not just once, not just twice but three times about his relationship with Jesus … here is what happens with his third and final denial . . .

As we move to scene three … Jesus is lead to the high priest’s house where he will await for the first of three trials which Luke records for us.

And before the first trial starts … something happens out in the courtyard …Peter is asked not just once, not just twice but three times about his relationship with Jesus … here is what happens with his third and final denial . . .

Luke 22:

As we move to scene three … Jesus is lead to the high priest’s house where he will await for the first of three trials which Luke records for us.

And before the first trial starts … something happens out in the courtyard …Peter is asked not just once, not just twice but three times about his relationship with Jesus … here is what happens with his third and final denial . . .

Question ---> Can you imagine what Peter must have felt the moment the rooster crowed and Jesus turned and looked at him?

He had just a couple of hours earlier went on record to say, “I’m ready to go with you both to prison and to death.”