Last Supper

Intro:

We have been studying the Old Testament for the last three years

For the last year and a half we have been looking at the Israelites in the wilderness

Before they traveled to the Promised Land God had them commemorate the Passover meal

They had to make unleavened bread eaten with bitter herbs and sacrificed lamb

It is called passover because they had to take some blood from the lamb and put it on the doorposts

When the Angel of Death flew over Egypt those with the blood would be passed over

Hence the name of the meal and where we get the principle “Covered by the Blood”

Tonight we are going to look at the Last Supper, which was celebrated during Passover

This must have been a very moving commemoration for Jesus.

Luke 22:15-16 indicates Jesus’ strong desire for such a meal with his disciples before his death, and his awareness that the time was short.”

Luke 22:15-16 And he said to them, “I have earnestly desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer. 16 For I tell you I will not eat it until it is fulfilled in the kingdom of God.”

Passover remembers the deliverance of Israel from Egypt, which was the central act of redemption in the Old Testament.

Jesus now provided a new center of redemption to be remembered by a new ceremonial meal.

My interest isn’t to show you Christ in the Passover but how Christ replaced that meal with His life

Read Matt 26:17-19

I. Preparations vs. 17-19

This passage should seem similar to what we looked at Sunday

Jesus told two of his disciples to go into the city and find a colt

Here they ask Jesus where they should prepare the passover

Once again, Jesus tells them to go into the city and tell a certain man that Jesus was going to keep passover at his place

This is the famous Upper Room where so much will take place in the history of the church

I got to visit a room in Jersualem that they propose is the actual room

It is a second story banquet hall that can accommodate large groups of people

This mention of the first day of the Feast of the Unleavened Bread brings up complicated issues of the precise calendar chronology of these events.

The main complicating issue is that Matthew, Mark, and Luke present this meal Jesus will have with His disciples as the Passover meal – normally eaten with lamb which was sacrificed on the day of Passover with a great ceremony at the temple.

Yet John seems to indicate that the meal took place before the Passover (John 13:1), and that Jesus was actually crucified on the Passover (John 18:28)

“It is a common opinion that our Lord ate the Passover some hours before the Jews ate it; for the Jews, according to custom, ate theirs at the end of the fourteenth day, but Christ ate his the beginning evening, which was the beginning of the same sixth day, or Friday;

The Jews begin their day at sunsetting, we at midnight.

This is why they wanted to hurry Christ down from the cross before sunset so they could get to the passover dinner

Thus Christ ate the Passover on the same day with the Jews, but not on the same hour.”

“The simplest solution…is that Jesus, knowing that he would be dead before the regular time for the meal, deliberately held it in secret one day early.

The disciples went and made the proper preparations for the meal

II. Washing Feet vs. John 13:1-20

There are several aspects of this meal that Matthew doesn’t record

The Apostle John actually records the last supper from chapter 13 through 17

In that time Jesus records some of the most important doctrine in the church

Chapters 13–17 record what we have come to know as the Upper Room Discourse.

In these five chapters we see intimate teaching about service, love, the Holy Spirit, Heaven, our union with Christ, and prayer.

Alexander Maclaren eloquently put forth his estimation saying: Nowhere else do the blended lights of our Lord’s superhuman dignity and human tenderness shine with such lambent brightness. Nowhere else is his speech at once so simple and so deep. Nowhere else have we the heart of God so unveiled to us.

The probably started dinner at sunset and went till midnight

One of the acts that happened at the meal was Jesus washing the feet of the disciples

Vs. 3-5 Jesus, knowing that the Father had given all things into his hands, and that he had come from God and was going back to God, 4 rose from supper. He laid aside his outer garments, and taking a towel, tied it around his waist. 5 Then he poured water into a basin and began to wash the disciples’ feet and to wipe them with the towel that was wrapped around him.

Jesus wanted to show his disciples how to serve

Even with the knowledge that Judas was going to betray him, but that his father had given everything into his hands

This wasn’t something that Jesus came to know just at this hour.

Several years before in His ministry, Jesus said The Father loves the Son, and has given all things into His hand. (John 3:35)

But this means that at this particular time, and in this particular circumstance, it was important that Jesus knew the Father had given all things into His hands.

He rises from the supper table and takes off his outer garments and wraps a towel around his waist

Jesus literally takes the role of the lowest servant

This produced an awkward moment at dinner

The guy who was just coronated king is humbling himself to a servant

Jesus shows incredible loving tenderness to his disciples

He was willing to get dirty for those he loved

Vs. 6-11 Peter has an issue with it and Jesus has to lovingly rebuke him

If you don’t let the tender of mercy of Christ clean up your life then you will have no part with Him

Vs. 12-15 Jesus instructs them to serve each other

This would be vital going forward as a church

One way to diffuse division is by lowering ourselves to serve each other

III. Betrayed vs. 20-25

IV. Lord’s Supper vs. 26-29

We now get to the institution of the Lord’s Supper

Since John did not describe the institution of the Lord’s Supper in his gospel account, there is debate as to if Judas was present when the Lord’s Supper was first given, as described in the following passage.

Most confidently believe Judas was not part of this part of the Lord’s Supper

Morgan: “Before the new feast was instituted, Judas had gone out (John 13:30).”).

When the bread was lifted up at Passover, the head of the meal said: “This is the bread of affliction which our fathers ate in the land of Egypt. Let everyone who hungers come and eat; let everyone who is needy come and eat the Passover meal.”

Everything eaten at the Passover meal had symbolic meaning.

The bitter herbs recalled the bitterness of slavery; the salt water remembered the tears shed under Egypt’s oppression.

The main course of the meal – a lamb freshly sacrificed for that particular household – did not symbolize anything connected to the agonies of Egypt.

It was the sin-bearing sacrifice that allowed the judgment of God to pass over the household that believed.

Jesus didn’t give the normal explanation of the meaning of each of the foods.

He reinterpreted them in Himself, and the focus was no longer on the suffering of Israel in Egypt, but on the sin-bearing suffering of Jesus on their behalf.

This is how we remember what Jesus did for us.

As we eat the bread, we should remember how Jesus was broken, pierced, and beaten with stripes for our redemption.

As we drink the cup, we should remember that His blood, His life was poured out on Calvary for us.

This is how we fellowship with Jesus. Because His redemption has reconciled us to God, we can now sit down to a meal with Jesus, and enjoy each other’s company.

Jesus announced the institution of a new covenant.

No mere man could ever institute a new covenant between God and man, but Jesus is the God-man.

He has the authority to establish a new covenant, sealed with blood, even as the old covenant was sealed with blood

The new covenant concerns an inner transformation that cleanses us from all sin: For I will forgive their iniquity, and their sin I will remember no more (

Jeremiah 31:33-34 For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, declares the Lord: I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts. And I will be their God, and they shall be my people. 34 And no longer shall each one teach his neighbor and each his brother, saying, ‘Know the Lord,’ for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest, declares the Lord. For I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more.”

This transformation puts God’s Word and will in us

This covenant is all about a new, close relationship with God: I will be their God, and they shall be My people