The Passover
Journey to the Cross • Sermon • Submitted
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The Passover
The Passover
Journey to the Cross Mark 14:12-25
Over the next few weeks we are going to be looking at the Journey of the Cross. This is referred to as the passion of the Christ.
This consist of three events
Starts with Palm Sunday.
This is when Jesus entered into Jerusalem on the back of a colt.
Runs through Good Friday.
This is when Jesus is put to death on the cross.
He is crucified, taken of the cross and buried in a tomb.
Climaxes with Easter.
This is when Jesus was resurrected.
After being put in a tomb, Jesus was brought back to life.
Tonight we are going to look at what is commonly known as “The Last Supper.”
We find this event in Mark 14:12 this is where we will be reading.
Read 14:12-16
And on the first day of Unleavened Bread, when they sacrificed the Passover lamb, his disciples said to him, “Where will you have us go and prepare for you to eat the Passover?” And he sent two of his disciples and said to them, “Go into the city, and a man carrying a jar of water will meet you. Follow him, and wherever he enters, say to the master of the house, ‘The Teacher says, Where is my guest room, where I may eat the Passover with my disciples?’ And he will show you a large upper room furnished and ready; there prepare for us.” And the disciples set out and went to the city and found it just as he had told them, and they prepared the Passover.
What the heck is the Passover?
We find it mentioned in 4 times in 5 verses.
It seems like there is a great deal of importance as it was something that Jesus was taking part in.
-The Passover reminds Israel of their freedom.
In the time of Moses, the Israelites were enslaved to the Egyptians.
God’s plan was to deliver them out of slavery.
God would send Moses to Egypt where he would ask Pharaoh to let God’s people go.
Pharaoh said no he would not do this.
God would then send 10 plagues.
The first one was the water turned to blood.
God turned the Nile river and all of the springs where one would get water from to blood.
No one was able to drink the water.
Thinking this would be enough for Pharaoh to change his mind, Moses goes to him and ask to let God’s people go, and Pharaoh says NO
The second was frogs were literally everywhere.
Moses goes to Pharaoh he says NO
The third was gnats.
Moses goes to Pharaoh he says NO
The fourth was flies
Moses goes to Pharaoh he says NO
The fifth was all the livestock died
Moses goes to Pharaoh he says NO
The sixth was boils
Moses goes to Pharaoh he says NO
The seventh was hail
Moses goes to Pharaoh he says NO
The eighth was Locusts
Moses goes to Pharaoh he says NO
The ninth was darkness
Moses goes to Pharaoh he says NO
Then God tells Moses about the final plague.
The plague of Death to all the firstborns.
However; God offers hope
Exodus 12:12-13
For I will pass through the land of Egypt that night, and I will strike all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, both man and beast; and on all the gods of Egypt I will execute judgments: I am the Lord. The blood shall be a sign for you, on the houses where you are. And when I see the blood, I will pass over you, and no plague will befall you to destroy you, when I strike the land of Egypt.
The final plague can be best described as death.
Moses warns Pharaoh and he still says no, that he will not let God’s people go.
So God sends the angel of Death and this name is not given to the angel for all the life he creates but all the death that comes from here.
Thousands died.
Unless you were to sacrifice a pure spotless lamb.
We tend to that this lamb was just happy to die we think that it just let us do this and it didn’t shake or freak out.
If someone is trying to hurt us, we would freak out a bit and so would have the pure spotless lamb.
It would have fought back, it would have screamed as its blood was drained from it body.
An animal was sacrifice was messy, gross, and the only way sin could have been forgiven in the old testament.
The blood would have been completely drained from the lamb the man who was in charge of the house would take the blood and he spread the blood on the doorpost of his house just as God command so that the angel of death would Passover his family’s home.
Picture rows of houses, every one of them the same.
However, every so often someone has a door with blood on it.
He then sends the angel of death to go into every house and kill the firstborn. Who is a firstborn here?
You all and myself would have a mark on us.
However, if your parents or you or me would go out and a put blood from a the perfect that we just sacrificed to God on our door then the angel of death would walk up to the door and he would literally Passover us and not enter our home and not kill the firstborn of that home.
After the blood was put on the doorframe, God sent the final and most destructive plague to earth.
He sent death, and death come and killed every firstborn in all of Egypt.
Pharaoh was awoken by the cries of the city, he ordered that Moses come to him, and he released God’s people.
The Israelites were free from slavery their freedom was given and they left.
This day would then be marked as one of the most important Jewish holidays.
The Jewish people would gather together and have every year to celebrate this event that took place, and the freedom given to them.
This meal had some many different parts to it.
It is called the Seder meal. It would have taken a long time to finish this meal.
I am just going to highlight two parts of this meal.
They would have four cups of wine the wine represented.
This is in reference to Exodus 6:6-7
Say therefore to the people of Israel, ‘I am the Lord, and I will bring you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians, and I will deliver you from slavery to them, and I will redeem you with an outstretched arm and with great acts of judgment. I will take you to be my people, and I will be your God, and you shall know that I am the Lord your God, who has brought you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians.
This is God’s plan of deliverance for the Israelites.
I will bring you out- Sanctification
I will free you- The Plagues
I will redeem you- Redemption
I will take you as my own- Completion
Four cups would be consumed at different times during the meal.
The second is that they would have leavened bread, which is just bread that has no yeast it.
This bread represented the haste that they left Egypt.
Do we have a Seder meal?
No, the answer is no we do not do this, but we do have something else.
Hold on to your seat because Jesus is about ready to change everything.
-The Last Supper illustrates the passing of the Old and the coming of the New.
After Jesus tells the disciples that one of them is going to betray him.
We know this to be Judas.
Jesus grabs some bread and changes the rules forever.
Mark 14:22-25
And as they were eating, he took bread, and after blessing it broke it and gave it to them, and said, “Take; this is my body.” And he took a cup, and when he had given thanks he gave it to them, and they all drank of it. And he said to them, “This is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many. Truly, I say to you, I will not drink again of the fruit of the vine until that day when I drink it new in the kingdom of God.”
Jesus and the disciples gathered for Passover just like everyone else to remember the past but Jesus would usher in what the new Covent would be.
Jesus takes the bread and says this is my body.
This is my body which I will give up to protect you by going to the cross.
This is my body which I am giving up freely for you, take it and eat it and remember me.
The bread that use to symbolize the unleavened state that the Israelites had to leave Egypt now means something different.
The bread now becomes Jesus body, which is given for us, which is put on a cross for us.
We see that the old passed away and the new had come and put a tree to bare the sins of the world.
Remember me as often as you eat it.
Jesus then takes the cup of wine.
Which represented Sanctification, the Plagues, redemption, and completion in the ways of the old.
Jesus then take the cup, and says this is my blood.
The blood of the new covenant.
Which is poured out too many.
This is my blood which will be taken from me.
This is my blood that will pour out of my body.
This is my blood which just like the lamb that had to sacrificed for the payment of sin my blood will now pay for.
This is my blood which will cover your sins and my sins and the worlds sin.
Drink it and remember me.
The Passover meal would no longer need to continue.
The Passover meal reminded Israel of their freedom
The last supper bridges the old with the new
What I just described is where Jesus took the bread and the cup and gave it, is what we call communion.
-Communion reminds Christians of their salvation.
The last supper was night on the night that Jesus would be betrayed.
He sat with his disciples and he changed the rule on everything.
Gotham city was corrupt place where evil ran rampant until Bruce Wayne became Batman and rid the city of evil.
By doing so others got a hold of the good he was doing and it spread like wildfire through Gotham and people were changing as well.
Batman changed the game, he changed the way the people of Gotham City viewed everything.
He changed things, forever.
Jesus is telling the disciples what there were to do now.
This is the crazy part that can be difficult to grasp.
Jesus is setting up this new covenant which is him going to the cross and dying for the sins of the world.
Jesus is setting up something that will only begin once he goes and gives up his body, and sheds his blood.
Thank goodness we have a savior who does not let us down.
Thank goodness we have a savior who will do as he promises.
Jesus was taken after this last meal.
He was taken and beaten.
His body was hit, it was stabbed, it was ripped, it was beaten, it was brused.
Blood was pouring out of the Son of God.
The men who took Jesus, led him to the cross.
They put nails in his hands and feet.
They lifted him up on a wooden tree.
Where the pure spotless lamb would be sacrificed.
His blood covering not just one families sin but all the sin both past, present and future.
Something that no lamb could cover, only the Son of God could cover, with his blood.
Blood that would be our new covenant our new promise.
The promise that if we believe in Jesus then we will have eternal life.
God’s plan for salvation started the moment Adam and Eve sinned in the garden and it was done with the words of Christ on the cross saying it is finished.
Where are you at?
Do you believe in Jesus?
Do you have that relationship with him?
Are you leaving out your life for Christ?
Do not let another moment pass by.
If may you are thinking that you are not good enough, or maybe that you have messed up may too many times to be considered to join Jesus at the table?
Let me remind you that Judas was at the table.
“Jesus Knew, but Judas ate too.
Think about this for a second. Jesus knew.
He goes into that room with His disciples. He knows He is going to be betrayed. He knows it is Judas who will turn against him. He knows that He has been sold out for a handful of silver. Stabbed in the back by one He has poured His life into .
Yet, in that room, hours before the death of Jesus, Judas ate too. Jesus fed Judas too. Jesus prayed for Judas too. Jesus washed Judas’ feet too. I struggle to fathom that kind of love. A love that would feed the mouth that deceived you. A love that would wash the treasonous feet of the traitor. A love that could forgive even the vilest of betrayals .
I honestly struggle to comprehend it. And then, suddenly, I realize that I’m Judas. And in that moment, I’m so thankful & altogether overwhelmed that Judas ate too.” .
Judas took the bread, and the cup right there with Jesus.
Jesus could have stopped Judas, all he had to do was say the word and the other disciples would have taken care of him.
Yet Jesus chose to have Judas sit at the table, Jesus washed his feet, They shared a meal together— Judas would later go on to betray Jesus, yet Jesus showed him unspeakable love and compassion and grace.
Maybe this is where you find yourself, a sinner in need of grace, love and compassion— you do not have to look much further than Christ— who offers all of that plus more.
I am really excited for the rest of this series as we look at the finally days of Christ.
Pray