If you would now switch books and turn to the book that is the Bible. Our text this morning comes from the Gospel of Luke.
We're making our way through the Gospel of Luke. We are in chapter 22 and I'll be looking at verses one through 13. Let's go to the Lord in prayer, asking for his blessing upon His Word.
Let's pray, Lord, as we just confess we believe in the Holy Spirit. And Lord, we need your Holy Spirit, Lord, we need your spirit to open up our eyes again, to see, to behold the Lord Jesus Christ to embrace Him by faith, Lord, unless your Holy Spirit works among us, we are here in vain. We are wasting our time. But Lord, You have promised that you will be with your people, that you will bless your people, that you will comfort your people in Christ, Lord, help us to be as the prophets of old, to be looking out to see what you will say to us this morning. Be with your people. And it's in Jesus's name we pray. Amen, people of God, hear God's word this morning from the Gospel of Luke chapter 22 beginning in verse one, reading down to verse 13, now the feast of unleavened bread drew near, which is called the Passover, and the chief priest and the scribes were seeking how to put him to death, for they feared the people. Then Satan entered into Judas called Iscariot, who was of the number of the 12. He went away and conferred with the chief priests and officers how we might betray him to them. And they were glad and agreed to give him money. So he consented and sought an opportunity to betray him to them in the absence of a crown.
Then came the day of Unleavened Bread, on which the Passover lamb had to be sacrificed. So Jesus sent Peter and John, saying, Go and prepare the Passover for us that we may eat it. They said to Him, where would you have us prepare it? He said to them, Behold, when you have entered the city, a man carrying a jar of water will meet you. Follow him into the house that he enters, and tell the master the house, the teacher says to you, where is the guest room where I may eat the Passover with my disciples, He will show you a large upper room furnished, prepare it there. And they went and found it, just as he had told them.
And they prepared the Passover.
He who has ears, let let him hear the Word of God. Please be seated.
For those of you who have been here at Bay haven for some time, you know that we've been in Luke for some time, and we've come to the place in Luke where we are in Jesus's last week of life, that is his earthly life. He has entered Jerusalem. He's wept over it. He knows that destruction will come to Jerusalem. Jerusalem will be destroying, if you remember from last week and again, if you put on those redemptive historical bifocals, it was an event that would happen in real time that was near that was a picture of the of God's judgment upon Jerusalem for the rejection of the Messiah, for the rejection of God, but it's also a picture that looks farther out, that is when God will come in judgment, as you just confessed, to judge the living and the dead. It was a picture, a memorial for you and me to remember that there is a day of judgment to come, and are you ready? Are you prepared for that day? Our text also reminds us here in the last week of Jesus's life, it is happening during the Feast of Unleavened Bread, or Passover. Unleavened bread was often made in haste to serve and maybe an unexpected guest. The Jewish custom, if you had a guest come over, you had to show hospitality. You had to prepare food, but you had to do it quickly, because they didn't let you know they were showing up. So you had made unleavened bread. It was made in haste, but it was, it was here to remind the Israelites that they had to quickly depart from the land of slavery that was Egypt, that they were to be waiting expectantly with their belts fastened and their sandals on and their staffs in hand for the final plague to come to an end, and for their promise per.
Protection and deliverance to be realized, and that's us now, as Jesus has already told, hold us that we too are to be ready, expectantly waiting for the Lord's deliverance, because we know not the time of His return.
And in our text, it says, during the Passover, well, let me just say, during the Passover, the city is going to grow, it's going to swell in size. It's going to at least double in size. It usually triples in size, if not more. There are people all now coming in Jerusalem. The Passover was one of the three feasts by which all the Israelites would travel together into Jerusalem, the city of God, and celebrate this feast. And you would think, it's a busy time for the priests, and it was, it's a busy time for the preachers and and teachers. And it was you have all these people coming into but what are they busy in themselves doing? They are not busying themselves with services. They are not busy busying themselves with the sacrifices. It tells us that they are busying themselves with plans for murder. In verse two tells us the chief priests and the scribes were seeking how to put him to death. And I just want to begin by pointing out here that the first step in putting Jesus to death was not taken by people out there, but taken by people in here. In fact, it was done by religious leaders, the very men whose job and commission was to declare the Messiah, to declare that he has arrived. This was their calling, to prepare his way. Are the very people who are now conspiring to put him to death.
These were officers of the church. They knew the scriptures better than you and me, most likely, and yet they are spiritually blind. They cannot see. They do not understand who is right before them. It's a reminder that in church history, the greatest heresies that have affected the church and plague the church again, have not come from outside, but have come from within, and have been even from ordained men. So do not put your trust in men. Do not put your trust in titles. Do not put your trust in positions. Show honor to those that God has put authority in your life. You know, keep the fifth commandment, Honor your father and your mother. But this is a call to you to seek the scriptures, to know it for yourself. Don't just listen to me. Is what I'm saying. Is it true? Is it scriptural? Is it there in the text? Do you have your Bibles open? Are you looking at it? Are you thinking about it after it's over? Is it true? Is it correct? Is this what God has said? Does this make sense in the context of Luke does this make sense in the context of the Gospels? Does this make sense in the in the context of all of Scripture, because I will fail, and I do fail, I don't say things as clearly as I ought to. I can sometimes avail the gospel.
Don't just rely on me or ministers or sermon audio or sermons, whatever you're listening to. You need to be in the word that you might know it, that you might not be deceived.
Don't listen blindly. Open the scriptures and know it and seek it for yourselves. Jesus told them, as he's told you, to beware, beware of the scribes, beware of spiritual hypocrisy.
Remember they they cared more about what they wore, they cared more about the titles, they cared more about people praising them because look at all the stuff that they've given. Look, look, they're just so spiritual.
Look at their prayers. They pray for so long. How do they pray for so long? They must really love God. Look at all the things they're giving. They must so they must love God so much, but they were doing it for the praise of men and not for God.
Beware. They feared man rather than God. The scribes and priests, their ministry was about being a leader. Well, that sounds kind of similar to some of the leaders that we have even in our own country, right? Their job, it seems, has not become the service of you know, whatever their job is supposed to do, but it becomes their job is just to stay a leader, to stay in control, to stay in power. And that's exactly what the scribes and the priests were doing, that they had made their job not about proclaiming. The Kingdom of God, proclaiming the Messiah who was now in their presence. Their job had been becoming about staying in power, staying a leader, staying respected and liked by all. And they hated Jesus, and their hatred has grown for Jesus, because He threatens that they hated that people are now listening to him, that the Passover is growing and the city's growing and more and more people are listening to Jesus.
The crowds are growing. They hated the influence that Jesus was having over so many people, and that people were listening to him, and they hate Jesus, because He also claimed to be the I Am. He claimed that he could forgive sins. He claimed that He is the WAY, the TRUTH and the LIFE, and that no man comes to the Father except through Him. And they hate that because they want people to come through them, not through Jesus.
And so they've tried to challenge Jesus and His authority, and they failed on that. They try to, they trip him up. If you remember, who do they who do we pay taxes to Caesar or no? Well, they fail on that.
They've tried to lay their hands on him. And even if you just flip back to chapter 19, verse 47 it says they want to destroy Jesus. It doesn't say that we just don't get along. We have a different philosophy of ministry. We just have a different opinion of interpretation on the scriptures. They want to kill him. They want to destroy him.
They want to rip him apart.
So why don't they do something, if Jesus is that much of a threat, and if you're, if you're a person in leadership in the church, and there's someone who is that much of a threat, why don't they do something? Why don't they say something if he's, if he's, if he's that, if he's that terrible, well, why don't you do something about it?
Why don't they do something well, the text tells us, because they they fear the people that we don't. We don't want to get people upset. You know, people like Jesus, and if we say we don't like Jesus, well then they might not like us, and then where again, we might not be as respected and lose our position of leadership. They are cowards.
That's what they are. They are not protecting the sheep. In fact, they're doing the opposite, though, the one whom they should be pointing to, or that they're directing them away from him. And so you can imagine they they've tried all these things. They've tried to destroy him. They've tried to lay their hands on them. They're trying to trip him up, and it's not working. Imagine they're feeling very frustrated, and maybe they're even praying, God help us. Help us to catch this guy.
God help us to that we get him alone. You know, when he's by himself, not with all these crowds, God, please, would you answer our prayers? And guess what happens? Guess who walks in Judas? And they might think, God, thank you. Thank you. I bet many of them said that I guarantee. I can't guarantee. I don't know, but I bet that's what they were thinking, I shouldn't bet, not bet, not gamble, not not promoting that either. Man, my guess is that that's what they were thinking, God, thank you, Judas. I you. I knew you would there was always.
There was other 12. But you, Judas, I knew there was. I knew that you were smarter than the other. They were just fishermen and stuff too. But you Judas, Judas comes in. Judas Iscariot, and it tells us that he's one of the 12, one of the 12. He was one of the 12 apostles, one who had been commissioned by Jesus to be a fisher of men, Judas knew Jesus. Judas was one of the closest people to Jesus. Judas probably knew Jesus better than most people Jesus had. Judas had had seen all of Jesus's miracles. Judas had heard every sermon that Jesus taught. Judas had left everything to follow Jesus. He was a professor of faith in Jesus, and he would have said, I'm Jesus's friend.
I'm his friend. Why would Judas do this? Yeah. Well, I think there's could be a couple of reasons. I think one, it could be Judas felt betrayed by Jesus, because here he comes into Jerusalem, and as many of you remember, Jesus is not the Messiah that many people thought he would be. We maybe Judas thought that Jesus was going to be that, that conquering Messiah, and what the that he's going to come into Jerusalem on the White Stallion and put Rome under his feet, and all the blessings and benefits of being a conqueror would be his with Jesus. But Jesus comes in Jerusalem riding a donkey. I don't want that kind of Messiah, Jesus, that's not what I signed up for. I signed up for the King of Glory, not for the king of humility. I don't know. It doesn't tell us that's what he believed, that's what he was thinking. But I think that's possible. But one thing we do know why Jesus, why Judas, betrayed. Jesus was for money.
This is a warning that Luke has been telling us time and time and time again, if you again, if you have been following us in Luke, is not this a theme in the Gospel of Luke that the love of money is a root of many evils.
He loved money, and Judas chose money over the Savior. Matthew's account tells us that Judas is the one who brings up the whole subject of compensation. He says, What will you give me if I deliver him up and they agree to give him money, Judas loved money more than Jesus. This is just like the rich young ruler, he was willing to hold fast to his possessions and not Jesus.
Remember, what does it profit a man to gain the entire world yet lose your soul? Nothing but to Judas? He didn't see that. He didn't understand that Jesus is the Pearl of Great Price. He chose money over the Savior, and also too. And we're told that when he objected to Mary anointing Jesus's feet with perfume, he said, why wasn't this sold and given to the poor?
And the apostle John is able to look back and say, It's not that he said it because he cared for the poor, but because he loved the money, and was in charge of the money bag, and he was a thief and could take money out of it. We see that he loved money. This is a warning for you and me. One of the 12 was taken down by the love of money.
Listen to the words of Jesus. He says, take care and be on your guard against all covetousness, for one's life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions. Do not let it do to you what it has done to Judas and drag you down to the pits of hell. The love of money is subtle, and it is nearer to us than we think. The love of money is a socially acceptable sin.
And not only is it a socially acceptable sin, it is a socially encouraged sin. Again, if you turn on the sports network of whatever you watch, it's all about how big contracts people can get, how much money people can acquire, and it's all celebrated and more and more and more. Now you can have money and not love it, and you can also have not have money and love it.
But what God is calling us here too is contentment. No servant can have two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he'll be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and money. You know there are so many of our sins that are related to a lack of contentment. And so let us watch and pray. Let us watch and pray.
Remember, Judas was just like you, listening to all of Jesus's sermons, attending to all of Jesus's services, a professor of faith, yet the love of money drove drug him down to the pits of hell. Verse three, though, says, Then Satan entered into Judas Well, wouldn't we say, well, isn't it that's not really Judas fault. I mean, it's the devil kind of made him do it, right? Isn't that what verse three is saying. And this is no ordinary demon. This is not even a legion of them, but this is Satan himself. This is God's first betrayer, an enemy. And this is a reminder of the spiritual warfare that is happening here. There is much more happening here than we can see, and this is a reminder to us, not only here, but also right now. There's a. Spiritual Warfare happening for your soul.
The devil can't make you do anything against your will. The devil can't make you sin. Judas has willingly opened up his heart to greed and corruption.
He was willing to comply to the will of Satan. He was willing to listen to his lies, to be to betray Jesus for 30 pieces of silver. He willingly opened himself up, and that's what we see in the other demon possessions. In Luke it's not that someone is possessed unwillingly. They've all given themselves over and they're they're willfully following and listening and going the way of evil and destruction. With Judas, they now had the perfect plot. They'd all figured it out.
Judas had come right at the right time. Judas was an answer to their prayer, and they now have the perfect plot to put Jesus to death, and essentially the rest of Luke is the result of that plot. And look at verse five. What's the result? They are glad. They are glad. We have a perfect plot for murder. And what's the result? Gladness?
Yay, murder, Jesus. And you know what this is, though, that is the true reflection of every man's heart outside of the Lord Jesus Christ, glad to put God to death again. This is Psalm two.
I'm done with God. Let's cast him aside.
Let's put him aside. It's about me. It's about my glory. It's about my kingdom, not God's let him. Let's put him to death.
This is all of our hearts, apart from the grace and goodness of God. But they thought they had a perfect plot, and maybe they did, but there is a real perfect plot, actually, that has in the works, a plot by the Father Son and Holy Spirit from eternity past to crush Satan through the crucifixion and death of the Lord Jesus Christ, at the very time Satan that is actively seeking to destroy Jesus, it will lead to his destruction.
What we see here happening is the result of what you see all the way back in Genesis, chapter three, verse 15, I will put enmity between you and the woman and between your offspring and her offspring. He shall bruise your head and you shall bruise his heel. Everything seems a little bit chaotic now, doesn't it? It seems like things are maybe getting out of control, but this is a reminder here in our text that God is in control, that God's perfect plan, even that he revealed to us all the way back in Genesis, and it's being woven out through history.
It's all happening according to God's plan, even Judas showing up on the scene, even Judas plotting to kill Jesus. It's not happening outside of God's control. Verse seven tells us then came the Day of the Day of Unleavened Bread, on which the Passover lamb had to be sacrificed. Why did the Passover lamb had to be sacrificed? Why?
Well, you remember this. You remember Do you remember the Passover, the first Passover, when it started, when it was initiated, inaugurated, the Passover. Do you remember the people of Israel that they've been enslaved in Egypt for for hundreds of years, 400 years, brutally enslaved. God calls Moses. Moses reluctantly goes, and God gives them plagues. And you'll see the frogs and death and locusts and gnats, and you remember the 10th plague, the death of the firstborn, death of the firstborn son. And God said, if you want death to pass over you, if you want to be spared from death, here's what you do.
You find a lamb, and not just any lamb. Has to be a lamb without blemish, without spot, a perfect lamb, if you will, and you have to take them, and you have to kill them, and then you're going to take that lamb's blood and you're going to smear it on your doorpost. And the blood's Lamb, the lamb's blood, is going to save you, because when the angel of death comes upon. You, it's going to see the blood and the the angel death is going to to pass over you that you would not die, but that you would have life, that you would be delivered. And so then every year, since now, for 1500 years, the people of Israel have been having a Passover feast every year, every year for 1500 years to remember that they've been delivered from slavery. They've been delivered from death, and have been now given life, life given to them by the blood of the Lamb that was slain for them and God established the Passover, though not and in itself, the Passover was not intended to continue to go on forever. Just kind of remember, like the the temple. Remember last week we talked about the temple, how the temple was not ever planned to go on forever.
The temple was going to be destroyed. The temple was going to come down. You know why? If you're here last week, you remember because the true temple had shown up. Jesus had shown up. He's the true temple.
Remember, you go to the temple that that you might commune with God, that you might come into God's presence. But now Jesus is there. He is the one that everything the temple looked looked that does and look forward to he's there you come now to God through the Lord Jesus Christ. And it is the same with the Passover. Remember John the Baptist when he sees Jesus for the first time, he says, Behold, the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world. And that's what John the Baptist was saying, is that's the Passover lamb. And so now the Passover lamb has entered into Jerusalem to be slain, to shed his blood, that you and I would not perish but have eternal life. And we don't take Jesus's blood and smear it around our house. We take Jesus's blood by faith and we smear it on our hearts. So when the day of judgment, death passes over us, the precious blood of the lamb saves us. His sacrifice secures our salvation and provides deliverance, everything that the Exodus pictured happens in the Lord Jesus Christ. And he institutes a new supper. And we'll look at this more next week. But he'll institute a new supper. He'll set a new table where we will fill ourselves on the Lord Jesus Christ, we will fill ourselves on his body and his blood where we come to the table and we remember that I'm a betrayer, I'm a denier, but he is faithful that he never abandons, that we remember that I have been deceitful, but he is always true. Where we remember that I have been impure, but he is without blemish. I am fickle.
There is no shadow of turning in the Lord Jesus Christ, there at the new feast, we remember that he has borne our griefs, as Isaiah says, and carried our sorrows. Yet we esteemed him stricken, smitten by God and afflicted. But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities. Upon him with the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his wounds, we are healed all we, like sheep, have gone astray. We have turned everyone to his own way, and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us. All. He was oppressed and He was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth. Like a lamb that is led to the slaughter, and like a sheep that is before it shears.
Is silent, so we open not his mouth. And so what we should be seeing even as we come to the table here is I need the Passover lamb. I need the blood.
I need to be washed. I need to be cleansed. I need the Lord Jesus Christ. You know, one of the things it's interesting. If you look there at verses, kind of seven through 13, there's a lot of detail about the setting up of the Passover. And then, if you will, skip ahead, but if you just look next in the institution of the Lord's Supper. There's only two verses that Jesus actually institutes the Lord's Supper, only two verses about the institution of the Lord's Supper, and then seven verses about how to find this room and someone's house that we don't know. And it just seems like why would Luke spend the time to get. Us the detail about finding this upper room, but only give us two verses about the Lord's Supper. Doesn't that seem a little odd? Again, it's a reminder that Jesus is in control of everything. He's willingly going to the cross.
He's willingly going to be betrayed. He's willingly laying down his life that you and I might have life they didn't have a fellowship hall. Jerusalem, again, is swarmed. Where will we find a room to have a feast? And what does Jesus do? He provides.
He provides for the needs of his people. Jesus instructs them to this large room. It's a room that's already been prepared, and it works out, just as Jesus said it would work out verse 13.
This is the theme. This is the theme. Just as he said, everything that Jesus says, this is going to be the result, everything that Jesus has said, this is going to happen, and we're going to say it's just as he said, just as he said he is true. And it might seem like a small detail again in this room, but that's the point that he's in control of every small detail, not only of this event, but he is faithful even in the small events of your own life, that God works out his perfect plan, his perfect Passover plot through the greatest crime to ever occur in history. Imagine that God is if God can work, if we might, or we might even ask, Did God work through the greatest perversion, through the greatest wickedness, through the greatest horror in all of history, the Lamb of God being sacrificed, the innocent lamb being betrayed and murdered.
There's no greater horror in all of human history than that, but did God ordain it for His glory and our good? He did? We say yes, he did. And so we look at our own lives, and all of you have faced different horrors and different evils and different things happen in your life, and you do not know why or why it's going on, and things seem chaotic and out of control, but if God uses that, certainly he uses those things in your life for His glory and our good, and we might not know it at the time. It might not be revealed to you until glory. But you can trust in His character. You can trust in the provision of the Lord Jesus Christ that he's working it all out for his glory and our good. We can be afraid of things that are going on in our families, of our churches, of our country, but we don't need to be afraid. We can believe and all will be made well. And just like this feast here, of the Unleavened Bread is to remind Israel that they had to flee from slavery the very night in haste or be left in slavery and death. We too are eagerly waiting for the consummation of our salvation, you and I, who are here and we are called to be ready. We must be found ready to return, ready at the return of Christ, at the unknown hour, and nothing must occupy our attention except Christ. We must be ready. Are you ready for the angel of death to come? Have you smeared the blood of Christ by faith upon your hearts so at the time of your death you will not perish, but have eternal life. Jesus says He will come again, and it will happen just as he said, Are you ready? Are you ready? Let us put our faith in the Lord Jesus, Christ, the Passover lamb. Let's pray our Heavenly Father. We thank you for giving us the Lord Jesus, Christ, for saving us.
Lord, help us not to trust in the things of this world, but to trust in our Savior, the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world. Lord, I pray that you'll strengthen our faith.
Help us to nourish ourselves on Christ, to prepare ourselves for His coming. And it's in Jesus's name we pray amen.