The word desire is the same word
that is generally translated lust or concupiscence in your
King James Version. It's a word that expresses strong
desire. And you know when our Lord says
this, this is not a reference to evil lust. He never lusted
in that sense. But he is saying to his disciples. And to every one of his people.
With desire, have I desired to eat this Passover with you? Now, I want you to think about
that. Can you imagine the Lord looking at you personally? Let's
just forget about everybody else. Can you imagine the Lord looking
at you and saying with desire, with earnest craving? Have I
desired to eat this Passover with you? Now, no matter how
hard I try, I have a difficult time with that, to think that
the Lord would look at me, me, and say, I have craved you. I have desired you. And the only way that this can
be understood, you know this, is in light of union with Christ. In Christ, every believer is
altogether lovely. And it's something that's real
to where the Lord looks at you and He says, with desire, with
earnest craving, have I craved to eat this Passover with you. Every believer is the object
of this desire. Not just the twelve, but every
believer, that includes me, is the object of this desire. When he said this two thousand
years ago, he was making reference to every single one of his people. And look up in verse seven of
Luke fifteen. Then came the day of unleavened
bread when the Passover must be killed. And I like that language,
don't you? The Passover must be killed. Do you remember the tenth plague? God said he's going to come to
the land of Egypt and he's going to kill the firstborn in every
house. But he told Israel, you take
a lamb without blemish and without spot and kill it. And you take
the blood of that lamb that has been slain, and you put it over
the doorpost and lintel of your house. And you take that lamb
and roast it with fire and eat it. And you eat it in that house
with the blood over the door. And God makes this promise. And
I want you to see if this is gospel to you. He said, when
I see the blood, I will pass over you. Do you find that to
be gospel? When I see the blood. Not when
I see your faith. But when I see the blood. Not
when you see the blood. When I see the blood. That's
what God was looking for. When I see the blood, I will
pass over you. Now that's the gospel as clear
as it can be stated. When I see the blood, I will
pass over you. Now the children of Israel were
instructed to eat this supper every year. And some 1,200 years
had passed since God said, when I see the blood, I'll pass over
you. And the time of this last Passover supper, when the Passover
must be killed. Do you remember what John the
Baptist, the forerunner of Christ, said when he first saw Christ
announcing his public ministry? Do you remember what he said?
Behold what? The Lamb of God. And by that, he meant the Paschal
Lamb, the Passover Lamb of God's providing, of God's appointment. Behold the Lamb of God which
takes away the sins of the world. And you know, I've often wondered,
our Lord lived some 33 years upon this earth, and I'm sure
that as soon as He was able, He participated in the Passover
dinner. What must he have felt when he
saw that lamb roasted with fire and he saw people eating it and
the blood? He knew, I'm the lamb. I'm the
one of whom this speaks of. He knew that every time. And
this is the last Passover that we just read about. All Passovers
have ended because he is the Passover. The substance has arrived
to take away the shadow. This is the last Passover dinner.
Let's go on reading. Then came the day of unleavened
bread when the Passover must be killed, and he sent Peter
and John, saying, Go and prepare us the Passover that we may eat.
And they said unto him, Where wilt thou that we prepare? And
he said unto them, Behold, when you are entered into the city,
there shall a man meet you bearing a pitcher of water. Follow him
into the house where he entereth in, and you shall say unto the
good man of the house, The master saith unto thee, Where is the
guest chamber, where I shall eat the Passover with my disciples? And he shall show you a large
upper room furnished there made ready. And they went and found,
as he had said unto them, and they made ready the Passover.
And when the hour was come, he sat down and the twelve apostles
with him, and he said unto them, With desire Have I desired to
eat this Passover with you? Now, this truly is the last Passover. Look down in verse 20. Likewise,
also the cup after the supper saying now this is the last Passover.
And when they observed the Lord's table, it was after the Passover
had already been completed. And I think there's a whole lot
more to this supper being ended in saying that this particular
supper was ended. All Passover suppers have now
ended. The Old Testament is fulfilled. It's completed. This supper truly
ended. And now he's going to begin the
Lord's Table or the Lord's Supper. And he says, With desire have
I desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer. For
I say unto you, I will not eat any more thereof until it be
fulfilled in the kingdom of God. Now, after this supper has ended,
He takes the cup. And he gave thanks and said,
take this and divide it among yourselves, for I say unto you,
I will not drink of the fruit of the vine until the kingdom
of God shall come. And he took bread and gave thanks
and break it and gave it to them, saying, this is my body, which
is given for you. This do in remembrance of me,
and I think it's interesting, turn to first Corinthians 11,
hold your finger there and Turn to 1 Corinthians 11 when Paul
is talking about the Lord's table and what it means in 1 Corinthians
11. We read in verse 24, and when
he had given thanks, he break it and said, take 1 Corinthians
11, 24, take ease. This is my body, which is broken
for you. Notice. When Paul talks about
it, he doesn't talk about the life being given and the body
being given. He says, this is my body broken
for you. And it represents the sufferings
of our Lord Jesus Christ as the sinner substitute. It was broken. But here our Lord said, this
is my body, which is given. God so loved the world that he
gave. Now, I want us to understand
this. God did not give His Son to make a way for Him to love. He gave His Son because He did
love. And this Son, this precious gift,
He says, is given for you. Now, this is probably of all... The more I look into the scriptures,
I mean, the more I believe what I believe, and the more it seems
so vast to me, so beyond comprehension. And of all the things, there's
a whole lot of things that seem beyond my comprehension, believe
me, a whole lot of things. And really, there's a lot more
things that are beyond my comprehension that I even know about. I'd probably
prove how little I know about them if I think I got them down
pat. But this is something that I just, God gave His Son for
me. That He didn't give His Son to
make a way to love me. He gave His Son because He did
love me. Behold, I have loved you with
an everlasting love. A love that never had a beginning
and a love that will never end. Verse 20 says, Likewise also
the cup after supper, saying, This cup is the New Testament,
the new covenant in my blood, which is shed for you. Now, the
New Testament or the new covenant is actually older than the Old
Testament. Yet it's called new because the
blood is ever new. It always speaks powerfully to
the Lord, and I've said this before, but I think it bears
repeating. You commit the same sin over and over again. And you
think, when will the Lord say, well, that's enough? That's enough. Now, I'm not saying
this to give anybody any comfort in sin. But I am saying this,
the blood is always new, always powerful, and always fresh before
the Father. It's always new. And it always
speaks powerfully. to the Father. And that sin that
I've committed over and over and over again, the blood is
always new and powerful to wash it away. Isn't that wonderful? It's always the New Testament.
It's always new. It's always powerful. It's always
fresh. The new covenant. Now that old covenant, the covenant
of works, the new one's older than the old one. In the old
covenant, God said, if you obey, you'll live. In the new covenant,
God says to Christ, if you obey, they will live. And all of our
hope, all of our salvation is found in that new covenant. His Father presents to Him a
people. He says, will you be their representative?
He says, I'll do it. I will. And that's exactly what
he meant when he said, Lo, I come, in the volume of the book, it's
written of me, to do thy will, O God. He's coming as the representative
of his people. Now, as we eat the bread and
drink the cup, we do not offer up a sacrifice. The sacrifice
has already been offered, and it's already been accepted. Our Lord didn't offer up a lamb. There wasn't any lamb involved
in observing the Lord's table. Bread and wine. No lamb. You
see, the lamb has already been offered to never be offered again. Christ once put away the sins
of His people. He came once, and there's no
need for Him to come again for this. And as we partake of the
Lord's table, the bread and the wine, We're really celebrating. We're
celebrating the... I'm celebrating the broken body
of the Lord. That's my only hope, that He took what I have coming.
And I'm celebrating the shed blood of the Lord. I'm always
welcome. I'm always accepted. God still
says, when I see the blood. I will pass over you." That's
always what he says. Isn't it wonderful? So as we
Take the bread and wine. May the Lord enable us to do
this in remembrance of him. I've said this before. I used
to dread the Lord's table because I'd read that passage of Scripture.
It said, if you eat and drink unworthily, you're guilty of
the body and blood of the Lord. And I remember I heard preachers
say, if you've got sin in your life that's unconfessed, you
better not take it. Well, I'm not saying there's anything good
about sin being in your life unconfessed, but that's not what the Lord's
table is all about. I take the Lord's table because I am a sinner.
And I find complete salvation in what he did. And we're doing
this truly in remembrance of him. And this is what we're doing
together as a body. We do this in remembrance of
him. Now let's pray together.