Who are we going to talk about?
We're going to talk about the Lord Jesus Christ. The second
Person of the Trinity who is God over all, blessed forever. We must always remember that
the One who laid down His life to save His people from their
sins is Himself God of very God. And, in order to save us, He
had to take our nature into union with Himself, and therefore He
is also referred to as the Son of Man. He is the Son of God,
and He is the Son of Man. Now, He came into this world
for a reason. Actually, He came to die. This
was the purpose of God. He had to die in order to justify
us, to satisfy God's law, and in order to save us from our
sins. That's the reason He came. That
was His purpose. That was His aim. The death of
Jesus upon the cross of Calvary was not God's alternative plan
because man messed up his first plan. That's what dispensationalists
believe, and that is just heresy. Our Lord, it says in the Scriptures,
He was the Lamb who was slain before the foundation of the
world. This is God's purpose being fulfilled
here. He came to die. He came to save
His people from their sins. And in order to do that, all
of the attributes of God had to be satisfied. The holiness of God said, nobody's
going to stand before God in acceptance except they be perfect. The justice of God said, I've
got to punish every sin of those who appear before God in righteousness. The love of God said, I have
great love in my heart for these, the people God chose, an everlasting
salvation. The grace of God said, I will
save. I will rescue. I will preserve. And the wisdom of God said, I
know how to honor justice. I know how to honor holiness.
I know how to honor God's law. And I know how to express the
love of our God toward these sinful people. A redeemer will
come. A substitute. See, that Christ
came as our substitute. He came to live and to die in
the stead of those people that He came to save. and the purpose
of God would be fulfilled. Our Lord Jesus would die. Now, He died according to the
purpose of God, but you know what? He also died according
to the purpose of men. Because His enemies despised
Him. So how could anybody despise
Jesus of Nazareth? After all, He performed all these
miracles. He did good everywhere He went.
He healed people of every disease. He raised the dead. There wasn't
any miracle that needed to be performed that He did not perform,
that He could not perform. He was good before God and He
was good before men. But that which angered them,
that which drew forth their wrath, their hatred, was that he said
he was the Son of God. He said he was God. And they
despised him for that. And they purposed in their hearts
before long, as their hatred began to boil over, as their
hatred began to reach a crescendo, as it reached its peak, they
said, we are going to kill him. We are going to kill him. And
thus, both the purpose of God and the purpose of his enemies
was fulfilled. Now they had two opposite reasons
for fulfillment. The purpose of God in the death
of his son was the salvation of his people. The bringing in
of everlasting righteousness. The removal of our sin debt. but the purpose of the enemies
of our Lord Jesus was to do away with Him. And in their minds,
they thought they could forever silence Him. He will never preach
again. He will never say that He's the
Son of God again. This will be the end of Him.
And so both the purpose of God and the purpose of men met at
Mount Calvary. but with opposite desires. The desire of the enemies will
not be fulfilled. They want it to do away with
it. But this is not the death of our Lord Jesus. That wasn't
the end. I was reading this week, and one
very liberal writer on the Internet said, For one who had such a
happy beginning, he came to a very sad ending." Well, that's absolutely
absurdity. He didn't come to a sad ending.
His death was not the end. His death was the beginning of
His glory. For by the shedding of His own
precious blood, He redeemed His people. He satisfied God. He
paid our sin debt. And having died for our sins
according to the Scriptures, His soul went back to God into
Paradise. And on that next Lord's Day morning,
His soul came back to re-inhabit that body. And that body was
not only re-inhabited, but it was glorified. And in that body, He lived and
walked and showed Himself before people after His resurrection
for 40 days. And He ate with people. He appeared
to people. He preached to people. He instructed
His disciples and then He went home to glory where He sits upon
His throne. his glorious royal regal throne,
exercising dominion over all. Well, to go back to how his death
will come to pass, the fulfillment of God's purpose and the fulfillment
of the enemy's purpose, well, certainly Judas had a part in
this. for 30 pieces of silver. He went
to the enemies of our Lord and said, I'll sell him out to you
for 30 pieces of silver. I'll tell you where he's going
to be. I'll identify him for you. And you can have your way
with him. And indeed, our Lord Jesus would
go forth to die. In this portion of Scripture
that Ron read to us, do you remember that passage, these verses that
said, the Lord said, go into the city to an unnamed person
and an unnamed address. No name given, no address given. Just go into the city to see
Mr. So-and-so. Well, there are lots
of people in the city. There's some question as to whether
it was in the city of Bethany where he usually spent the nights
or whether they went to Jerusalem. I suspect that they went to Jerusalem.
But be that as it may, how are they going to know who Mr. So-and-so
is when he didn't give an address and didn't give a name? Well,
Mark and Luke both help us out with this because the Savior
said, go into the city, and you'll see a man carrying a big picture
of water. You say, well, man, there are
thousands of people, especially in the city of Jerusalem. Two million people is estimated
where they're at Passover time. How are you going to find one
man carrying a water pot? Oh, he will stand out, because
the women carried the water pots. You remember in John chapter
4, the Samaritan woman carried the water pot to draw water at
noon. And so they go to the city, and
when they enter in, they see a man, he's got a water pot up
on his shoulder. And they follow Him, and He goes
in the house, and they go in the house right with Him. And
they see the owner of the house, and they said, the Master said,
this is where we'll celebrate Passover tonight. And indeed,
that's how that came about, that our Lord is seated with His 12
disciples at this last Passover meal. What do we know about the Passover?
And those of you who have been under the sound of the Gospel
for a lot of years, you're certainly very familiar with the Passover.
A lamb was selected. A male of the first year didn't
have any spot or blemish or any disease or anything like that.
He'd be a perfect lamb. And then as I was reading this
week and doing some reading of Jewish history, they actually
brought that lamb into the house and it became a pet. The kids
loved it. They loved having a lamb in the
house. They're gentle. They'd rub them. They just loved
having a lamb in the house. In fact, most of them considered
that lamb to be like a friend. a good, close friend. And they'd keep that lamb up
for four days in fulfillment of the scripture. And then on
the morning of Passover, on the afternoon of Passover day, and
I say Passover day, and that's kind of using a little liberal
talk or not being specific because actually when you talk about
Passover, it was really just a meal. That's what it was. It was just a meal. But the Jews
speak of Passover and the Feast of Unleavened Bread kind of in
the same breath. And so it was eight days together.
In fact, right here, I'll just draw your attention to this here
in the passage of Scripture that Ron read to us, 26-17. And he started off reading this,
Now the first day of the feast of unleavened bread, the disciples,
they came to Jesus saying unto him, Where wilt thou that we
prepare for thee to eat the Passover? And the Jews would speak very
generally of this time together as either the Passover, all eight
days, or as the Feast of Unleavened Bread. And they would include
the Passover, and so it would be eight days together. So Peter and John, we know that
those were the two people that are, we know that from Luke's
gospel. Those were the two men that the
Lord selected to go into the city and follow a man carrying
a pitcher of water and then get that place that the Lord said,
that's where I'll observe the Passover. That was the location
of both the last Passover, and the first Lord's Supper. Now let me tell you about this
lamb. Go back to Exodus chapter 12. I think we need to get a
little bit of Old Testament history here. Look back in Exodus chapter
12. And he speaks here of a month
in the year, the Jewish calendar, called Nisan. It's Nisan. And it became to be the very
first month in the religious calendar of Israel. Because this was the month of
their liberation. This was the month of their exodus.
This is the month when God would redeem them out of Egyptian bondage. Chapter 12, verse 1. You there?
Okay, here we go. And the Lord spake unto Moses
and Aaron, Exodus 12, 1, in the land of Egypt, saying, This month,
Nisan, or Abib. Sometimes they call it Abib.
Usually it's Nisan. This month shall be unto you
the beginning of months, that is the beginning of months
as far as the religious calendar was concerned. It shall be to
you the first month of the year to you. Speak ye unto all the
congregation of Israel, saying, In the tenth day of the month
they shall take unto them every man a lamb according to the house
of their fathers, a lamb for a house. Let's just stop right
there. So now we have a specific date. Now you know we have designated
holidays on our calendar, and those designated holidays on
our calendar, they fall on different days, right? Like Christmas is
always December 25th. But it isn't always on the same
day of the week. You with me? July 4th. Always on the calendar, it's
designated as Independence Day. And it's always July 4th. But
July 4th doesn't always fall on the same day. Well, so it
was that the 10th day of Nisan, it was always specific on that
particular day of the month, that's when they'd choose a lamb. When we get to our Lord's Day,
and on this particular occasion of the Passover Feast, the 10th
day of Nisan was Monday. You can check it on your calendar,
you can look it up, it's as easy as I did. It's on Monday. Monday. Well, what happened with our
Lord on Monday of crucifixion week? That was the day He made
His great entrance into the city of Jerusalem. It's called His
triumphant entry. That's the day, as it were, when
the Lamb of God was presented. The Lamb of God was presented
into Israel Remember people celebrated His entrance? Here the Lamb of
God is selected. It's selected. He's selected
on this day. Keep reading, verse 4. If the household be too little
for the lamb, let him and his neighbors next unto his house
take it according to the number of the souls. Every man according
to his eating shall make your account for the lamb. Your lamb
shall be without blemish, a male of the first year, that is in
the very strength of his years. Ye shall take it from the sheep
or the goats, and ye shall keep it up unto the fourteenth day.
The 14th day. So they had this lamb, the Jews,
in every house. They had a lamb as a pet, as
a good friend, a sweet companion to the children. They had this
lamb in every house from Monday till Thursday, that is going
by the time when our Lord was crucified. Here from the 10th
day until the 14th day. And you see our Lord Jesus, He
was set forth as the Lamb of God on Monday making His entrance
into Jerusalem. And for four days, Monday, Tuesday,
Wednesday, Thursday, For four days, he was closely observed. He was watched. You know what
he did during those four days? He drove the money changers out
of the temple. He cursed the fig tree. He taught
the people, he preached to the people one more time And the
fourth day, the 14th day of Nisan, that's when He died. That's when
He died. You see, all of the Scriptures,
and this is what I want you to see, all of the Scriptures is
about Him. It's about that Lamb of God that
they sang about. It's about the one who came and
lived and died for sinners that God might be just and a just
God and a Savior. This is our Lord Jesus who presented
Himself on Monday and then died on Friday. The perfect Lamb of
God. Now, let me back up just a little
bit. Let's go back to Matthew chapter 26, and let me show you
something else. So on Thursday morning, okay? On Thursday morning, our Lord
sends, and we find this out from Luke, He sends Peter and John
into the city to find a place for the observance of the Passover. But Peter and John would have
also done something else. And actually, this would have
begun on Monday. What would they have had to have
done on Monday? Choose a lamb. You with me? They had to choose a lamb. And
they chose a lamb, and perhaps my guess is, and your guess is
as good as mine, I suspect that they put it up in somebody's
house in Bethany, most likely in the house of Mary, Martha,
and Lazarus. That seems reasonable to me.
That doesn't come out of the Bible, but it seems the most
reasonable thing. And when Peter and John left
that morning to go into the city to arrange to have a place where
the Lord Jesus with the disciples would celebrate the Passover,
they would have taken this lamb along. Now, after they had got to this
house where the man lived, Mr. So-and-so, After they got to
that house and all arrangements are made, this is where the Passover
meal is going to be eaten this evening. Then Peter and John
would have gone to the court of the temple. They could only
kill lambs in the court of the temple and only from 3 p.m. to 5 p.m. So it's a two-hour
window that they had to kill the lambs. And can you imagine
the thousands upon thousands of lambs that would have died
on that Thursday between 3 and 5? And also, only two people could
take the lamb. You couldn't have the whole family.
I'm sure the kids who had the lamb in their house would have
said, Dad, can't we go with you? We want to go. No. No. Keep the two people going. We've got to be there between
three and five. That's when all the lambs will
be killed. And so, Peter and John took the
lamb to the court of the temple, and there the lamb was offered,
its life was offered, blood was shed, and then they would have
taken the lamb back to this location where they were going to have
the Passover supper. The lamb had to be roasted. just
like it was talked about there, and you can study that further
in Exodus chapter 12. One thing, if you're a student
of the Scriptures, and I don't want to labor this point very
long, but if you're a student of the Scriptures, you're very
much aware that, of course, first of all, our Lord ate the Passover
supper on Thursday evening. There's no question about that
because Matthew, Mark, and Luke, they speak of that. It's Passover. It's the Passover meal. But if
you go over to the book of John chapter 18, when our Lord is going to be
crucified on that day, which was Friday, there's no question
about that. the religious leaders of Israel
would not go into the Gentile court lest they be defiled and
they could not eat the Passover meal. Do you remember reading
that? So then what do we have? A contradiction
in Scripture? Now some people say, well, our
Lord ate the Passover meal early. No, because too many times it
says it was Passover. But there is a reason. There
is a reason for this. The northern Jews, that is the
Galilean Jews, our Lord was from Galilee, as were his disciples,
as were a good many of the Pharisees. They ate the Passover meal on
Thursday, Thursday evening. So the lambs that the northern
Jews brought They were killed between three and five in the
afternoon on Thursday, and then the Passover meal was eaten by
the Galilean Jews on Thursday evening. On the other hand, the
Judean Jews from southern Israel, along with most of the Sadducees,
they celebrated the Passover meal on Friday evening. That's when they celebrate it.
That's when they ate it. So what you have is there are
two different Passover meals that take place, one on Thursday
evening, one on Friday evening. And both of them happen in the
evening, the lambs having been killed between three and five
in the afternoon for the northern Jews on Thursday. You with me? On Thursday. And for the southern
Jews, the Passover lambs were killed between three and five
on Friday. And then they had the Passover
meal on Friday. So there is no contradiction
in scriptures. Now this served to keep things
more orderly in the court of the temple, lest everybody be
there. to have their lambs killed. We
can understand that. But it also means this. When
our Lord Jesus, when He actually died upon the cross of Calvary,
which was roughly about 3 o'clock or a little after, on Friday
afternoon, when He was dying, very close by in the court of
the temple, thousands of lambs were dying. and they could hear
the bleating of the lambs as they were killed one after another. All of the priests were called
in to work. Nobody out that day. Nobody off
that day. They've all got to work. All
of these lambs being killed, the blood ran. The history writers,
Josephus if you have him, blood ran like a river. down out of
the temple into the brook Kidron, flowing all the way to Bethlehem. What was happening? The lambs
were dying. Well, what's happening on Mount
Calvary? The Lamb of God was dying. The
Lamb that God ordained to die in order to satisfy His law and
justice. The Lamb of God was dying in
order to save us from our sins. Oh, how beautiful this picture
is. And so, on Thursday, the lamb
having been killed and having been roasted, our Lord Jesus
meets with His 12 disciples in this designated place. And by the way, I thought about
this What was the reason, do you think, why the Lord did not
identify Mr. So-and-so or give his address? Just my thought on this, because
there was one there in the midst of the disciples who was the
enemy. And if he found out ahead of
time where they would be eating the Passover meal that evening,
He could notify the enemies, and they could wait for the Master
there. But that wasn't the time for
Him to die. You see, all things move on God's
timetable, not man's. So Judas didn't know ahead of
time. The only disciples who knew was Peter and John. And
so all the disciples meet with our Lord here at this location
for the taking of the Lord's Supper. And I'll tell you this, as Ron
was reading to us about the very simple meal, the Lord's Supper,
because you see what happened, the Passover, it kind of dissolved
into the Lord's Supper with great simplicity. There's no great
ceremonialism here. They're not wearing religious
garments to set them apart from everybody else. They're not kneeling. They're dressed in everyday garb. And they meet together and very
simply, our Lord eases into this Lord's Supper that he instituted. Now, let me tell you another
thing here. When they had the Passover meal,
they had unleavened bread, right? Which is what we have. And they
had wine. The bread had to have no leavening
agent, no outside agent, according to the commandment of God. In
fact, you can read back there in Exodus chapter 12, the men
had to go through the house and hunt in every cupboard, every
room. No leaven is what the Lord said.
No leaven inside the house whatsoever. Because leaven is a picture of
sin and hypocrisy. So they couldn't have any leavening
agent. Because our Lord Jesus, he was
pure and free from sin and hypocrisy. And they had wine. You can do a little bit of reading
about even today. You can Google. Who doesn't Google
today? If you have a computer, you Google.
You can Google a typical, even today, Jewish Passover. They
don't use the word Passover. They have another word that they
use for it, but essentially it's the same thing. And you'll find
that at a typical Jewish Passover supper, They always had the unleavened
bread. They had bitter herbs, chicory
and endive and horseradish, kind of all mixed together, bitterness
to eat with the meat. And then they had mashed apples
and pomegranates and grapes. Sweet fruits were mashed together,
and that's what they dipped the sop in. the unleavened bread. You remember in this passage
of Scripture that Ron read to us, remember what the Savior
said? Look at verse 23. They wanted
to know who was going to betray Him, and He says to them, He
answered them, He that dippeth His hand with Me in the dish,
He who takes off a piece of unleavened bread and dips it in that fruit
that's been mashed up, ground up, mixed together. He who does
that, that's the one. And we read in the book of John,
chapter 13, of course it was Judas, and Judas is identified
here. So here's the setting. A very
simple, simple meal. Now let me talk to you about
the wine. And in order to do this, I want you to go back with
me to the book of Exodus again. Exodus chapter 6. Exodus chapter 6. At the Passover meal, they always,
and I'll wait until you get there because I want you to get this,
At the Passover meal, they had the unleavened bread, but they
always had four cups of wine, always diluted with water, because
it was four cups that they're going to drink, and they don't
need to be drunk, inebriated. So they had four cups. So where'd
that come from? From this passage of Scripture
in Exodus chapter 6. And this is a covenant that God
made with Israel. Here are the promises that He
made. Beginning at verse 6, end of verse 7. Wherefore say unto
the children of Israel, He's talking to Moses. He says, wherefore
say unto the children of Israel, I am the Lord, First, here's the first covenant
promise. I will bring you out from under
the burden of the Egyptians. First covenant promise. And they
drank a cup of wine. They drank a cup of wine. Number
two, I will rid you out of their bondage. In other words, I'll
release you from their slavery. Second cup of wine. and I will redeem you, redemption
now, with a stretched out arm and with great judgments, that
is, with power and by price. The great judgment is the death
of the Passover lamb. Third cup. That's the third cup.
And here's the fourth cup that they take in memory of, verse
7, this covenant promise. And I will take you to Me for
a people, and I will be to you a God, and ye shall know that
I am the Lord your God, which bringeth you out from under the
burdens of the Egyptians. Here are four covenant promises
that God made to Israel. and attached to each one of them
would have been a cup of blessing, they called it. A cup of blessing. And so, when the first promise
of God was read, I'll bring you out from under the burden, the
heavy burden of the Egyptians, drink a cup of wine. It was called
a cup of blessing. And then God said, I will rid
you out of their bondage. They drank a second cup called
a cup of blessing. And then I will redeem you. I will redeem you with a stretched
out arm and with great judgments which they called the cup of
blessing. And then the fourth one, and
I will take you to Me for a people and I'll be to you a God. This
is the relationship that was a cup of blessing. And you'll
notice, now go back to Matthew chapter 26. Matthew chapter 26. Verse 26. And as they were eating, Jesus
took bread and blessed it and break it and gave it to the disciples
and said, take eat, this is my body. And he took the cup, the
cup, and gave thanks and gave it to them saying, drink ye all
of it. Now, let me show you one passage
of Scripture in 1 Corinthians chapter 10. 1 Corinthians chapter 10. I Corinthians chapter 10 and
verse 16. Watch the language of Scripture. I Corinthians 10 and 16. The
cup of blessing which we bless. Oh, now we're going to connect
that back to Exodus chapter 6. I will redeem you. And we know
that's what Paul is talking about because read further. The cup
of blessing, not a cup. Listen, any cup from the Lord
that He gives to His people in love and grace and kindness is
a cup of blessing. We know that. But he says, the
cup of blessing which we bless, is it not the communion of the
blood of Christ? The bread which we break, is
it not the communion of the body of Christ? So you see, when our
Lord Jesus, and these things are not recorded, because it's
a strict Passover meal, the four different cups, and He said,
I came not to destroy the law, but to fulfill it. So He wouldn't
have fulfilled the four cups. We don't have everything that
happened here, but we do know when He got to that third cup,
He took the cup and He says this. Go back to our text now in Matthew
chapter 26. He says here in Matthew chapter
26, And look at verse 27 again. And He took the cup and gave
thanks, and gave it to them, saying, Drink ye all of it, for
this is My blood of the New Testament, which is shared for many for
the remission of sins. And the disciples, having observed
the Passover, for several years, ever since he was 12 years old
and had to go to Jerusalem to observe the Passover every year,
they knew about the four cups and they knew about the third
cup, where God promised redemption. And you see, the redemption of
the Lord's people was promised in the covenant of grace. His
blood in Hebrews chapter 13 is called the blood of the everlasting
covenant. So the disciples knew perfectly
well about these different cups, and they knew the third cup was
the cup signifying redemption by blood. Redemption by blood. And our Lord ties it all together. Now He says, and let me give
this to you briefly, He says, This is my blood. Was it literally? Well, obviously not. But there are some who say it
was. But the Word of God is full of
language that is figurative to name something else to identify
with a person. For instance, our Lord is called
the Lamb of God. That's what you all say. Behold
the Lamb. Is He really a lamb on four legs? Well, of course He is not. He's
called the Lion of the tribe of Judah. Is He a lion? Of course
He is not. He's the God-man. But by that
language, it's figurative language, we understand what He's saying.
And when He says, this is My blood, like you're going to have
the wine in a little bit, He says, My blood. We understand
that represents His blood. And the same with the bread.
It represents the bread or the body of our Lord Jesus Christ. So here we have bread and wine.
The bread speaks of His body, crushed for us. The wine speaks of the blood
of the New Testament shed for us. And you can go over with
me for one last reference to 1 Corinthians 11. 1 Corinthians 11. And as you do, I want to remind
you of the receivers of the very first Lord's Supper. Simon Peter was there. And you
know, in just a few short hours, he's going to deny that he ever
knew the Savior. But he partook. You say, I'm
not worthy, I'm a sinner. Look at Simon Peter. In fact,
on the way to this supper, the disciples were arguing about
who's going to be greatest in the Kingdom of God. These were
a bunch of sinful men, just like we're a bunch of sinful men and
women who believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. But there was one
there who was a devil. Judas. Did the Lord make sure that he
partook also? Judas was free to partake and
apparently he did. Because they all ate and they
all drank. So the Lord knew what He was
going to do and what He had already done. He had worked a deal. Of
course He knew. This was mysteriously decreed
in the covenant of grace. It's one of the dominoes that
had to fall in order for the Savior to die. And yet, Judas did exactly what
he wanted to do. And Judas was permitted to take
this first Lord's Supper, though he was a devil. Well, what do
you take away from that, pastor? Let a man examine himself. I
guarantee you the Lord examined his heart. The Lord knew the
hearts of all those men there. He knew perfectly well what Simon
Peter was going to do and what Judas was going to do. Served
him anyway. Let a man examine himself. And
that's what you want to do. When these men serve you the
bread first, and the bread will be in a little cup, I forgot
to tell you that last time, so don't be surprised when you get
the bread in a little cup. Just make it more sanitary or
whatever, you know. When they serve you bread and
the wine, it's up to you as to whether you want to eat and whether
you want to drink. Examine yourself. What's the
examination about? Whether you be in the faith.
Do you believe on the Lord Jesus Christ? That's what it's about. and then eat, and then drink. Here's one last verse, two verses. 1 Corinthians 11, verses 24 and
25. And when he had given thanks,
this is the Lord Jesus, the night He was betrayed, He took the
bread, when He had given thanks, He break it and said, Take ye,
this is My body which is broken for you, this do in remembrance
of Me. After the same manner also He
took the cup, when He had supped, saying, This cup is the New Testament
in My blood, this do ye as oft as you drink it in remembrance
of Me. So this is what I want to leave
you with. Why are we doing this? What's this all about? It's done
in remembrance of our Savior. And that word remembrance, it
means to weigh this heavily in your mind with great seriousness. This is not something to be entered
into lightly. We're remembering our Lord's
death until He comes again. This is how He saved us. This
is how we were reconciled to God. By the bloody sacrifice
of that God-man, Christ Jesus. And by His death, He saved us. So we take this bread and we
take this wine in the cup, in remembrance, in great consideration
of our Lord Jesus Christ. The men are going to serve you
first with the bread. And if you're a believer, feel
free to partake of the bread. Take the bread and of course
we'll all eat at the same time after I pray. Okay.