the Passover — Luke 22

0:00 Let's commit this time to the Lord. Dear heavenly father we come to you for Thank this you for this time that we have to open your word. Lord, as we are studying through the book of Luke, we're studying the Lord Jesus Christ and we open your word now and ask that you bless this time. Bless your word. May our hearts be open to hear things from your spirit.

0:31 Commit this time to you. Ask that you speak to us, Lord. Just use me as a tool, but we ask that you would have your words shine forth and that you might be glorified. We pray these things in the Lord Jesus' name, amen. So we are covering today chapter 22 verses one through 23.

0:57 Last week, Abdiel Lopez was here and he started in verse 24 and covered a little little bit there. So, we went a little out of order due to some other unforeseen circumstances. So, but that's okay. We went a little out of order just a bit, but now we're going to back up and get this first section of the chapter handled. Abdiall just didn't have the time to get through this because he was giving that missions update and also had to work through a translator.

1:29 So we were trying to work on how to best make that work. So here we are, little out of order. But Luke 20 two:one-twenty three and let's just read through the whole text. I wanna get a little bit of context here. Now the feast of unleavened bread, which is called the Passover, was approaching, and the chief priests and the scribes were seeking how they might put him to death for they were afraid of the people.

1:54 And Satan entered into Judas, was called Iscariot, belonging to a number of the 12. And he went away and discussed with the chief priests and officers how he might betray him to them. And they were glad and agreed to give him money. And he consented and began seeking a good opportunity to betray him to them apart from the multitude. Then came the first day of unleavened bread, on which the Passover lamb had to be sacrificed.

2:19 And he sent Peter and John saying, Go and prepare the Passover for us that we may eat it. And they said to him, Where do you want us to prepare it? And he said to them, Behold, when you have entered the city, a man will meet you carrying a pitcher of water. Follow him into the house that he enters. And you shall say to the owner of the house, the teacher says to you, where is the guest room in which I may eat the Passover with my disciples?

2:45 And he will show you a large furnished upper room, prepare it there. And they departed and found everything just as he had told them, and they prepared the Passover. And when the hour had come, he reclined at the table and the apostles with him. And he said to them, I have earnestly desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer. For I say to you, I shall never eat again, eat it until it is fulfilled in the kingdom of God.

3:13 And when he had taken a cup and given thanks, he said, Take this and share it among yourselves. For I say to you, I will not drink of the fruit of the vine from now on until the kingdom of God comes. And when he had taken some bread and given thanks, he broke it and gave it to them saying, this is my body, which is given for you. Do this in remembrance of me.' And in the same way, he took the cup after they had eaten saying, this cup, which is poured out for you is the new covenant in my blood. But behold, the hand of the one betraying me is with me on the table.

3:49 For indeed the son of man is going as it has been determined, but woe to that man by whom he is betrayed. And they began to discuss among themselves which one of them it might be who was going to do this thing. This is a very emotional passage. And it's a lot to get through, but bear with me. We'll do our best.

5:06 And the feast here, it refers to the beginning of the Passover and extending for seven more days, during which no leavened bread was eaten. The Passover was held on the fourteenth day of the month Nisan, which is the first day of the Jewish calendar. And so the seven day span from day eight to 15 was known as the feast of unleavened bread. But in verse one here, we're talking generically about the whole feast, including Passover. And if Luke had been writing primarily to the Jews, he wouldn't have had to break this out and mention this.

5:48 He's writing to the Greeks, but were it being Matthew writing this, he wouldn't have had to go through all such trouble. But because it was a major feast, many of the people who had heard Jesus, and his ministry around Galilee had come to Jerusalem. They were they were following him. The people were following him. There was generally a sense of respect and great expectation for Jesus and his ministry, which is why the chief priests and the scribes feared the people.

6:23 So they've been conniving for a long time, chapters and chapters and chapters, right? A lot of... They've been conniving for all of Jesus' ministry really, and devoting a lot of time to figuring out how they can get rid of him. And they don't fear God, but they do fear the people. So they were not afraid to kill the son of God, they just had to find a politically smart way to do it And a way that, didn't incriminate them or incite too much riot against them.

7:00 So Satan enters Judas, it says in verse three. So Satan prompted and even guided Judas in his crime. Now this doesn't diminish Judas' responsibility because none of this was done against his will. He wasn't he wasn't being controlled. But it shows also that the real enemy of Jesus was Satan.

7:34 Even as much or more than Judas was the enemy. Now, in John's account of this, it's in chapter 13 in verse 27, This action is said to have taken place after Jesus handed him the piece of bread that had been dipped during the meal, during the Passover meal. So we can summarize... Summarize that this either took place in successive stages or Luke is perhaps just emphasizing the fact that this took place rather than to the... Rather than the precise moment or time.

8:10 We have some other timeline things we're gonna get into in a minute here too. But many have wondered about Judas' motive. And we might we might think about Judas' motive here and what really happened, and why this occurred. Now, some have even said that maybe Judas had a noble motive here. Maybe.

8:32 So maybe he wanted to put the Lord in a circumstance or situation where he had to reveal himself as the Messiah. Scripture doesn't really give any such praiseworthy intention, and I'm not really inclined to give him any either. I don't think that was the case. But we can make some other points. One of which is really clear, but a couple of other speculations.

9:02 Judas was named Iscariot. And Iscariot, we also don't have a hard definition, firm definition, but it it could... The name could come from the fact that he may have been from Karioth, which is a city in Southern Judea. And the reason this is significant is because that would have made Judas the only Judean among the disciples who were all Galilean. So there might have been some contention there.

9:27 Maybe he had... Maybe he was a little fed up with the Galilean, brothers and maybe he had... There was some resentment there. Others think that the name Iscariot refers to the word, which means assassin, and is a link to the the underground Jews who were carrying out violence against the Roman occupiers. So we don't know for certain, but there are some, there are some possibilities there.

10:00 But another thing we can consider is that Judas may have followed Jesus in the first place out of selfish motives. He might have been expecting a position of status, recognition, prestige, especially when Jesus came to Jerusalem in the triumphal entry. Right? Judas is thinking that he's gonna get something out of this if he follows Jesus. And so, Jesus came, it was evident that he was not going to be the type of Messiah that Judas was hoping he would be.

10:43 Because he needed the Messiah to be here, you know, and the Messiah, Jesus is always up and to the right. He needed the Messiah to be here, but then Judas wanted to be right underneath him, right, with the rest of the 12, right, and getting whatever they're supposed to get. And so maybe Judas is feeling betrayed by Jesus. You know, you weren't the kind of Messiah you were supposed to be, so now I'm going to betray you. These are all possible ways to help us enter Judas' mind and understand some of it.

11:56 Now, maybe he could have had a lot of other motives and they were all kind of coming together to a head, but this was a good one. And we know that Judas was greedy because in John chapter 12, four through six is where Mary anoints Jesus' feet. And we see the time when she pours a whole year's worth of wages on Jesus' feet and Judas gets all uptight about it and says she should have sold it and give this money to the poor. And John tells us, well, that's because he kept the purse. He was the man in charge of the money and he used to help himself to it when he felt like it.

12:36 So he was greedy, lying thief. So this is painfully clear as a motive. Now, 30 pieces of silver is what the agreed upon price was. And that's not detailed here in Luke, but the other gospels tell us this. And 30 pieces of silver, I had to look this up, and we don't know an exact number, but here's here's the number that's all agreed upon is that 30 pieces of silver is worth less than $500.

13:13 Somewhere in the neighborhood of 200 to $400 in today's money is what 30 pieces of silver is. And that that tells you... That gives you so much into Judas' mind because what a pathetic price that is. He didn't have any... There was no doubt.

13:35 There was no conflict in him. Know, gee, if you gave me 3,000,000, I do love the Lord, but man, that's, you know, right? That that'd be a different kind of conflict, but like couple $100. Sure. He had he had no love for the Lord.

13:52 He had no relationship with the Lord at all. And we also might think about Satan's motive. And this was mentioned a little at the meeting this morning. You know, the death of of Jesus on the cross was a great defeat of Satan. So, why did the devil steer things towards that course?

14:19 Satan isn't omniscient. He's not all knowing. We know that. However, you know, he should have known because he knows scripture. He probably knows scripture better than a lot of us in here.

14:34 He knows the bible. So, he should have known. In Genesis three fifteen, it says that the death of Jesus, you know, Jesus would crush his head. I mean, Satan knew this. So, he steers these things this way, and why?

14:50 Probably because his hatred got the best of him. He is blinded by so much hate, and we think about the fact that he's the greatest deceiver, we all deceive ourselves from time to time, right? That's the thing that we do. I mean, was he so blinded that he deceived even himself and thought he might have a chance? He might actually thought he could actually win.

15:22 So he promised and sought opportunity to betray him. God would use the wicked works of Judas to further his eternal plan. This was the appointed time for Jesus to go to the cross. This was the time. But before Judas' treachery, the leaders had no intention of doing it right now.

16:13 And, as I mentioned, this was a very moving commemoration for our Lord. Passover remembered Israel's deliverance from Egypt, which was the central act of redemption in the Old Testament, the central act of redemption. And now Jesus is providing a new center of redemption remembered or commemorated by a new ceremonial meal. The day of unleavened bread, again, is a generic description here for the whole week long feast, which actually originally began at the beginning of harvest, but then it was later combined with the Passover. So he gives...

17:05 Jesus gives Peter and John some instructions. And he lays out what's gonna happen and tells them to to go do it. So he tells him to go look for a man carrying a pitcher. And Jesus is showing his complete and total knowledge of all things in these instructions. And he wants him to go find a man carrying a pitcher.

17:28 Now here's the thing. A man carrying a pitcher in the city was weird because that was a woman's job. He was telling them, go down to East 9th And Superior, you're going to find a man dressed in a tuxedo riding a horse. It was like, you're going to go into town and like, it's going be easy to spot. Men would usually carry liquids in animal skins, know, but the jars, the pitchers were for women.

17:57 So they had a real distinctive thing to look out for. Real obvious. And the man that they were looking for wasn't actually the homeowner. The man that they were looking for was the one who led them to the homeowner. And we could say that the man here makes a good representation, a good picture of the Holy Spirit actually.

18:20 Because he led the disciples to where they needed to go And the Holy Spirit leads us, he leads the seeking souls, right, to a place of communion with the Lord. So there's a little there's a little bit of a picture here. And the Lord not only foreknew his location and the route, but he knew that the homeowner would be willing to make his large furnished upper room available. Now, maybe the homeowner knew the Lord. He may have given himself over to the Lord, total commitment of his person and possessions.

18:59 We don't know for sure, but it's likely that he did know the Lord. And I'll explain that in a second. But there's also a difference between the upper room, I'm sorry, the guest room and the large furnished upper room. The guest room was the smaller room. So he tells Peter and John to ask for the guest room, and then he also tells them, he's going to show you the large furnished upper room.

19:29 And so the generous host is providing better facilities than what the disciples asked for. He gave him something better. They only asked for the guest room, but he was to give them the large furnished upper room. And the Lord, of course, knew this. And they were to address him.

19:48 Peter and John were to address the homeowner and say, the teacher says to you, right, this gives credence to the notion that the homeowner knew the Lord and was a follower of Jesus. And the general scene here implies a certain amount of secrecy, no doubt, because Jesus didn't want Judas to betray him before he could give this final talk, this instruction, and meet and have the Passover with his disciples. So, he wants to eat the Passover with his disciples. This is what they're telling the homeowner. Where is the guest room in verse 11?

21:08 And that Jesus was actually crucified on Passover. John 18. And there's some discrepancy here, but there is a general understanding that there was an unofficial calendar and there was an official Jewish calendar. Leon Morris said it like this. He said, possibly the best explanation is that there were different calendars in use.

21:36 Jesus died as the Passover victims were being slain according to the official calendar, but he had held the Passover with his followers the previous evening according to the unofficial calendar. And a similar solution was presented by Adam Clark who said, it is common opinion, 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 preceding evening, which was the beginning of the same sixth day or Friday. The Jews begin their day at sunsetting, we at midnight. Thus, Christ ate the Passover on the same day with the Jews, but not in the same hour.

22:23 None of the synoptic gospels though mention a lamb at this meal. That doesn't mean there wasn't, but none none of them mention it and we might surmise that this is because, strictly because this was eaten the day before the actual Passover when there wasn't one available. But it also could have been, it could have been that the Lord wanted it that way. Because if there wasn't an a traditional lamb at the meal, it was because to emphasize the fact that he was the new Passover lamb. And that he was the Passover sacrifice.

22:58 So, there's a little bit of speculation in here just in the absence of that being mentioned, but if that is the case, I think that's a compelling reason. So, starting in verse 14, then we get to the Lord's Supper. And Jesus eats the Passover with his disciples and institutes the new ceremonial meal. And he says, I have earnestly desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer. Verse 13.

23:34 Again, a passionate moment of the Lord. It wasn't so much that he was saying goodbye. As much as it is that he's now arriving at the central reason that he came. The central reason he came to earth, the central reason he came to mankind, which was to institute a new covenant based on his own sacrifice. So this wasn't the beginning of the end, really.

24:10 It's the beginning of the beginning. And he takes the cup and in the following verses, Luke tells us that Jesus also took the cup after supper, verse 20. So Jesus took the cup before and after supper, which wasn't strange because during the Passover meal, and according to those customs, this wasn't unusual. There was, different cups of wine that were ceremoniously sipped throughout that meal, so this isn't unusual. And he says, I will not drink of the fruit of the vine until the kingdom of God comes.

24:51 Jesus has not yet celebrated a Passover in heaven. He's waiting for all of his people to be gathered to him, at which point there will be the great supper, right? The marriage supper of the lamb in Revelation 19. This is the fulfillment of the kingdom of God that Jesus is longing for. And now in verse 19, he institutes the new covenant.

25:49 Those were the were the words. And everything at the Passover meal had a symbolic meaning, of course, right? The the bitter herbs recalled the bitterness of slavery. The the salty, water remembered the tears that were shed under Egypt's oppression. And the main course of the meal though, the lamb freshly sacrificed for that particular household, that did not symbolize anything actually connected to the agonies of Egypt.

26:20 The lamb, that was the sin bearing sacrifice that allowed the judgment of God to pass over the households that believed. In a certain sense, we could say that the Passover created a new nation. You have a slave mob in Egypt and they are delivered out of Egypt and become a nation. They were still actually a nation while they were in Egypt, you get where I'm going with this. You get what I'm saying.

26:50 So it kind of brought... It made Israel a nation rather than just slaves, a group of slaves. And so we could call the Lord's Supper the new Passover. Right? And I use that term kind of loosely.

27:07 But if we have the new Passover meal, that also kind of creates a nation. And hear me out. Because the Passover... I'm sorry, not the Passover. The meal itself, the Lord's Supper, does not create the nation itself.

27:23 Right? Us celebrating the Lord's Supper doesn't create the nation. But the covenant that it represents of the Lord's sacrifice by which we can be saved. Right? So all true born again believers become part of the new nation.

27:43 The new unified church. Those who are united in Jesus Christ who remember and trust in his sacrifice. Again, it's not the meal itself that does this, but the death of Christ represents and the new covenant that he instituted here, which is salvation by grace through faith. He says, This is my body which is given for you and this cup is the new covenant in my blood. He didn't give the normal explanation of the meaning of each of the items here.

28:23 He reinterprets them in himself in a way. And the focus is no longer on the suffering of Israel in Egypt, but the focus is on the suffering of Jesus on their behalf. Carson said, the words, this is my body, had no place in the Passover ritual. And as an innovation, they must have had a stunning effect. An effect that would grow with the increased understanding gained after Easter.

29:00 So this is how we remember what Jesus did for us. As we eat the bread, we should remember how he was broken, pierced, and beaten for us for our redemption. And as we take the cup, we should remember that his life was poured out on Calvary for us. This is how we fellowship with Jesus. This is how we, as believers, fellowship with Jesus.

29:30 Because his redemption has reconciled us to God, we can sit down to a meal with Jesus, and we can enjoy one another's company. What we celebrate every Sunday is we celebrate the Lord's supper. We do remember the Lord and it is a time of worship and it's a time of remembrance. But it is a ceremonial meal that we can have with Jesus as we look towards what's coming. We look at what's past, what has come from behind in his sacrifice.

30:58 And Martin Luther held the idea of consubstantiation which is that the bread remains bread and the wine remains wine, but by faith, they are the same as Jesus' actual body and blood. He may not have believed in the Roman Catholic faith, but he didn't stray very far from it. Now, John Calvin taught that Jesus' presence in the bread and the wine was real, but only spiritual and not physical. Zwingli, who was a contemporary of Martin Luther, taught that the bread and the wine were significant symbols that represent the body and the blood. And so when the Swiss reformers were debating this with Martin Luther at Marburg, there this big fight that they all had.

31:54 And Luther insisted on some kind of physical presence, saying, because Jesus said, this is my body. And he insisted this over and over again. He wrote it on the velvet tablecloth in Latin, which is this is my body. And Zwingli replied to him and said, Jesus also said, I am the vine, and I am the door. But we understand what he was saying.

32:22 To which Luther said, I don't know, but if Christ told me to eat dung, I would do it, knowing it was good for me. So you have to give credit to the man. He was a little was a little bit misguided, but you had to give him some credit. And Zwingli was actually on the right... Was actually headed on the right track here.

32:44 So scripturally, we understand that the bread and the cup are just reminders. They're just physical things that help guide our minds. There's nothing magical about them. There's nothing supernatural about them either before or during or after. Nothing happens to them.

33:06 It's just a loaf of bread. It's just some juice in a cup. But there are powerful there are powerful pictures that we partake of, that we put ourselves in as we see the Lord's table and as we look at this as sort of the the new Passover meal. We need the help to guide our minds. That's that's what it's here for.

33:37 You know, kind of like how we have cake at a birthday party. Right? Because without the cake, did you actually celebrate the birthday? Right? Otherwise, we just all had a meal together and that's fine.

33:54 But unless you have... And it shouldn't be cake, I'm sorry. It should be ice cream or pie or an ice cream cake. There's so many other better things than cake. But something has to have a candle in it.

34:04 And here's the thing, you light those candles and everyone's focus, right, goes like this. And it's all centered around the person who's being sung to. And in that moment is when you're doing the most like focus on on the person whose birthday it is and what new number they're turning. It's right. And that's like what the cake does.

34:26 And that's what this... There's nothing special about the cake. It just gives us that focal point to come around the person we're celebrating and that's what this is. That's what this is. And I hope I hope the Lord doesn't think that's offensive.

34:59 The Lord's Supper and baptism. You know, baptism doesn't save you. You don't win brownie points for being baptized. It doesn't actually do anything, baptism. What is it?

35:08 It's the public declaration of your faith. It's publicly acknowledging as you identify with Christ in his death and burial and resurrection. But you're saved... You're you're... You've you've already been saved.

35:19 Your salvation has already taken place. And here at the Lord's Supper, we do the same thing. The Lord has already suffered and bled and died for us and rose for us. And we take this bread and cup as we remember that and as we look forward to when we can celebrate it with him in heaven. And remarkably here, Jesus institutes this new covenant.

35:50 So he institutes this new covenant because no mere man could do it, couldn't institute a new covenant between God and men. But because Jesus is God, he can do it. He has the authority to establish a new covenant that is sealed with his own blood even as the old covenant was sealed in blood. In Jeremiah thirty one thirty three and thirty four, we see that the new covenant concerns a sort of inner transformation that cleanses us from all sin. Now, the new covenant, not not the meal that we take literally.

36:31 Right? The new covenant, Christ's sacrifice and purchasing our redemption, right? That cleanses us from sin when we accept his offer by faith. And in Jeremiah, the Lord speaking says, for I will forgive their iniquity and their sin I will remember no more. That's in the new covenant.

36:54 This transformation puts God's word and his will in us. He says, I will put my law in their minds and write it on their hearts. And this covenant is about a new close relationship with God. The Lord says, I will be their God and they shall be my people. So this is what happens.

37:14 The new covenant is created a new way of salvation by faith. And as we take that, as we receive that, as we believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, now we are partakers of that new covenant. We can say that the blood of Jesus made the new covenant possible, and it also sure as heck made it reliable. It was confirmed with the life of God himself. Moving on to verse 21 through 23.

37:56 But behold, the hand of the one betraying me is with me on the table. For indeed, the son of man is going as it has been determined, but woe to that man by whom he is betrayed. And they began to discuss among themselves which one of them it might be who was going to do this thing. This would seem... Again, we got...

38:22 We have another little chronology of events issue here. It would seem to indicate that Judas was present when Jesus passed the bread and the cup. However, in John's account, it seems equally clear that Judas left the room after Jesus handed him the bread. Since that took place before the Lord's supper, it would seem he wasn't present during, the bread and the cup being passed. But the Lord says that the son of man goes on as it has been determined.

39:04 It was determined by prophecy that the Messiah would be betrayed. Psalm 41 and verse nine. Nevertheless, woe to that man who actually betrayed the Messiah. Judas could never claim that he helped Jesus by fulfilling prophecy. Can't can't claim that.

39:36 Just helping you out and to fulfill the prophecy. No. Judas was and is fully accountable for his sin before God. But the fact that God overrules the evil that bad people do as he brings his purposes to pass, that does not make them any less evil. Right?

40:00 God will use Use us all to accomplish his purposes purposes, good things and the bad things we do. The believers and non believers alike, it doesn't matter. He uses all of us to accomplish that. I want to close with a excerpt from a message by Charles Spurgeon that he gave, it's not actually too long, it's just a short little excerpt. He said, There is no salvation in what some people call sacraments.

40:44 Believe me, they are but delusions to those who do not come to Christ with their heart. You must not come to the outward sign if you have not the thing signified. Here is the way of salvation. Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and you shall be saved. To believe in him is to trust him.

41:06 To use an old word, it is recumbency. It is leaning on him, resting on him. Here, I lean on this platform rail. I rest my whole weight on this support before me. Do so with Christ in a spiritual sense.

41:23 Lean on him. You have a load of sin? Lean on him, sin and all. You are all unworthy, weak, and perhaps miserable. Then cast on him the weakness, the unworthiness, the misery, and all.

41:40 Take him to be all and all to you. And when you have thus trusted him, you will have become his follower. Go on by humility to be his disciple, by obedience to be his servant, by love to be his friend, and by communion to be his table companion. May the Holy Spirit so lead you for Jesus' sake. Amen.

42:37 We see the agony and the suffering of our Lord Jesus Christ. Lord, as we go forward, as we take the Lord's Supper, as we remember our Lord every Sunday, may we not forget. May we not take for granted these things. May we not take for granted our salvation, our sanctification. May we not take for granted the cost that it took to purchase our redemption.

43:15 We thank you for this time. Lord, we ask that you bless your word on our hearts. May we remember. May we, may your words stick to us. May we remember.

43:29 And may we look forward to that time when we may celebrate this meal anew with you in your kingdom. We ask for your blessing as we go. In Christ's name we pray, Amen.