Sermon Tone Analysis

Intro:

Have you ever had one of those meals that was so memorable?..... what about a meal that ended in everyone leaving.... and leaving quickly?.......

If you were planning the perfect meal with Jesus, would you want to control the emotion of the moment?...... Want to set the stage for everything to be perfect?

Disciples were asked to go and prepare the passover.....

Jesus gets there and no servant washes their feet so Jesus does

Judas is called out as the betrayer.....

Jesus shares he is emotionally troubled

Let’s everyone know he is going to be betrayed

There is food..... with new significance given by Jesus...... Powerful

There is singing

There is a moment when the leader of the disciples is told he would deny Jesus.... argument ensues

Jesus is praying.... no one else can seem to do it....

Jesus is arrested… and he is completely abandoned

Dinner party ...... Success? or Failure!?..... but this is Gods plan this is God’s purpose for Jesus!

This morning, I want to walk through this text in Matthew 26 and highlight a few things for us this morning as we see this meal for the ages!

1. Jesus Establishes the New Covenant

- Passover meal - Exodus 12 - Male sheep or goat, roasted, unleavened bread and bitter herbs,

And you shall observe the Feast of Unleavened Bread, for on this very day I brought your hosts out of the land of Egypt.

And when your children say to you, ‘What do you mean by this service?’

27 you shall say, ‘It is the sacrifice of the Lord's Passover, for he passed over the houses of the people of Israel in Egypt, when he struck the Egyptians but spared our houses.’”

And the people bowed their heads and worshiped.

God passed over the houses where the blood of the lamb was covering the doorposts…Marked as God’s chosen people who obeyed his command!

Jesus establishes the “New” Covenant Meal

quick Note on Covenants - We don’t use this language much.... but a covenant is an agreement.... Like your HOA.... God establishes them (not us to God)..... agreements with him backing himself that he will do it......There are always signs and sometimes meals that mark a reminder of the covenant agreement.

Adam - Tree of the knowledge of Good and Evil..... Blessing for obedience, curse for disobedience

Noah - No longer flood the earth.....

The rainbow - the sign

Abraham - Start of the nation of Israel - Circumcision..... marking out God’s people

Moses - Law - The Law was given sign - Special celebrations and meals given - Passover was one of those meals

David - King on the Throne forever - continuation of the promise to Abraham and Israel

The New Covenant - Promised by prophet Jeremiah in OT, seen here to be put in place by Jesus Christ

Sign is faith.....

The blood is no longer on the doorpost, but the blood of the Lamb of God is on our hearts in Faith!

meal - unleavened Bread and Wine/fruit of the vine

The Bread - unleavened matza - Not Panera bread! - His Body given, broken for the forgiveness of sins

the Wine - represented his blood that was shed - Without the shedding of blood there is no atonement for sin.

Jesus Emphasis

Not literal, but figurative....Not canabalism

The bread and wine do not become Jesus

Jesus is not somewhere hiding in or around the Bread and Wine

Jesus commands us to do this in remembrance of him

We do this in fellowship with Him and our church family

o Looking backward and looking forward

As of as you do this..... do it in remembrance of me.

We look backward to Jesus crucifixion and resurrection from the grave..... giving us the forgiveness of sins.

Matthew 26:26-28 “26 Now as they were eating, Jesus took bread, and after blessing it broke it and gave it to the disciples, and said, “Take, eat; this is my body.”

27 And he took a cup, and when he had given thanks he gave it to them, saying, “Drink of it, all of you, 28 for this is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins.”

We look forward in anticipation that we will drink this cup in heaven with him v. Matthew 26:29 “29 I tell you I will not drink again of this fruit of the vine until that day when I drink it new with you in my Father’s kingdom.””

Looking Inward and Outward

We examine our hearts as Paul instructs the Corinthian church

1 Cor 11:28 “28 Let a person examine himself, then, and so eat of the bread and drink of the cup.”

We proclaim outward Jesus’ death until he returns

1 Cor 11:26 “26 For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes.”

2. Jesus is troubled

o Troubled in spirit

Jesus felt everything and did not sin..... Hebrews 4:15 “15 For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin.”

Betrayed

You may have had a friend that has betrayed you.... but not unto arresting you when you were innocent and didn’t deserve it!

- Denied

- Abandoned

Our language concerning this last few hours before the cross and the cross itself.... Is that we say.... “Jesus suffered”..... and yet it goes to show how little it is understood.... take for instance the hym by Joseph Hart in the 1700’s

Much we talk of Jesus' blood,

But how little understood!

Of His sufferings so intense,

Angels have no perfect sense.

Who can rightly comprehend

Their beginning or their end?

'Tis to God and God alone

That their weight is fully known.

See the suffering Son of God,

Panting, groaning, sweating blood!

Boundless depths of love divine!

Jesus, what a love was thine!

    ("Thine Unknown Sufferings" by Joseph Hart, 1712-1768).

You may think, Brothers and Sisters, that you know something of Christ’s sufferings, but they are a unfathomably deep, a height to which the human imagination cannot soar! - Charles Spurgeon

To explain deepest emotions of Jesus would be for my words to fail..... Whatever you have experienced in the past, in the present or in the future.... Jesus has walked that road, and here he knows a troubled soul.... he knows betrayal of friends.... he knows denial..... he knows abandonment!

But we celebrate today the meal for the ages because...... Jesus Drank the Cup.

3. Jesus Drank the Cup

- Garden of Gethsemane

John......

He entered the Garden..... like adam and eve ....

Only one who could enter into a Garden and come our sinless!

He came out obedient and still ready to accomplish the purpose of the cross before him!

Jesus’ prayer Take this cup from me

Images of the wrath of God in OT

Jeremiah 25:15 + The cup is used as a symbol of God’s wrath several time in the Old Testament (Jeremiah 25:15-16; Isaiah 51:17, 22; Lamentations 4:21; Ezekiel 23:28-34; Habakkuk 2:16).

It is likewise used as a symbol for enduring God’s wrath in Revelation 14:9-10 and 16:19.

Jesus Drank the Cup of God’s wrath so that we might share in the cup of life for eternity!

Jesus Drank the Cup of God’s wrath so that we might share in the cup of life for eternity!

Jesus Drank the Cup of God’s wrath so that we might share in the cup of life for eternity!

He was sinless, yet he died in our place..... the sinless Jesus for the sinful humanity..... the righteous JEsus for the unrighteous

He satisfied the wrath of God

He was obedient even unto death, death on a cross

Jesus Drank the Cup of God’s wrath so that we might share in the cup of life for eternity!

This morning.... the invitation is real it is still available this morning to all of us..... the new covenant of faith found in Jesus Christ our Savior.

You deserved the cup of gods wrath… every drop.... your good works didn’t lessen it.... .your

earthly wisdom could not avoid it......

The reality for us all was death… eternal death.... separation from God for eternity in Hell.

Jesus drank it to it’s completion....No more passover lambs needed!

He drank every last drop..... once and for all!