Through the Word in 2020 #131 - Oct. 12 / Big Picture Prayer

The sacrificial death of Jesus on the Cross for sinners, it the most climactic moment in human history. At the very moment when man was committing his most heinous crime - murdering the very Son of God - God was providing in His Son the means whereby humankind’s most heinous sins could be forgiven. It truly staggers the mind.

I’ve little doubt it will take all eternity for us to search out all the depths and implications of the Cross. But one aspect stands out especially in our reading today in Luke 22:14-30. It is significant that Jesus died on the Passover.

More on that today as we consider the Luke passages as well as Jeremiah 2-5:13 and James 5:13-1 Peter 1:2. I’m Reid Ferguson, and this this Through the Word in 2020.

It is a curious thing to me that Jesus died at the Passover, rather than on the Day of Atonement. Some day, I hope to be able to unpack the reasons behind that more fully. To me, it just makes sense. But to the all-wise God, Passover was more fitting. And in considering that fact, at least one glorious aspect of Jesus’ death gets spotlighted in a profound way. It is wrapped up in the idea that the The Lord's Supper is typified in and built around the theme of deliverance.

The death of Jesus Christ on the Cross not only addressed the matter of our guilt before God. Though that too is of supreme importance. But it also signaled the nature of the Believer’s deliverance. Even as the first Passover was all about deliverance.

In fact, the types and shadows go back even further. In Genesis 14 when Melchizedek met Abraham after his victory over the kings who had raided Sodom, they share a meal foreshadowing the Passover of Exodus 11. Why? Because there had been a great deliverance wrought - freeing Lot and his fellow citizens from capture.

Then we come to the 1st. Passover in Exodus 11. And there, the spotlight is in Israel’s deliverance from the slavery of Egypt.

And it is then on the anniversary of that deliverance that Jesus institutes The Lord's Supper.

A. Rom. 7:21-8:1 / Delivered from the law of sin and death - "sin and you will die" to "Believe and you will live". NO CONDEMNATION!

B. Col. 1:11-13 / Delivered from the domain of darkness and transferred into the Kingdom of His Dear Son.

C. 1 Thess. 1:9-10 / Delivered from the Wrath to come.

D. Heb. 2:14-15 / Delivered from the fear of Death.