MidTree Church
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MidTree Church
Breaking Bread and Betrayal: Understanding the Last Supper | Thomas Grocki | March 2nd, 2025
The tension between control and betrayal during the Last Supper reveals deep truths about human nature and divine fate. We explore Judas Iscariot’s decisions and the significance of Jesus’s sacrifice through the lens of Luke 22.
• Key events leading up to the Last Supper
• The significance of Passover in the context
• The motivations behind Judas's betrayal
• Jesus's transformative teachings at the meal
• Understanding the new covenant introduced by Jesus
• The call to heartfelt introspection for believers
• The implications of Jesus's sacrifice for our lives
• The importance of authentic faith over appearances
• The assurance of God's control throughout the narrative
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Please turn in your Bibles to Luke 22, 1 through 2, and then 14 through 23, which is on page 881 in the Pew Bibles, and follow along as I read God's Word. Now. The feast of unleavened bread drew near, which is called the Passover, and the chief priests and the scribes were seeking how to put him to death, for they feared the people. Now picking up in verse 14. And when the hour came, he reclined at 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 tell you I will not eat it until it is fulfilled in the kingdom of God. And he took a cup and when he had given thanks, he said take this and divide it among yourselves, for I tell you that from now on, I will not drink of the fruit of the vine until the kingdom of God comes.
Speaker 1:And he took bread and when he had 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 likewise the cup, after they had eaten, saying this cup that is poured out for you is the new covenant in my blood, but behold the hand of him who betrays me is with me on the table, for the son of man goes at it as it has been determined. But woe to that man by whom he has betrayed. And they began to question one another which of them it could be who was going to do this. This is the word of the Lord.
Speaker 2:Check, check. Hey, how's it going guys? Good morning. My name is Thomas. If I haven't gotten the pleasure to meet you, if you can't tell, I'm the youth pastor, and so here's what I'll say. Will might have made a mistake. He gave me five different passages and he said just pick one of these for you to be able to preach through. And if you guys don't know, I'm like a super nerd and so I was like I'll take Passover, like that sounds really fun to me, and so we may be having secret church this morning. We may go six hours. Who knows, the second service may come and join us. Here's also what I'll say.
Speaker 2:Will's been doing this really cool thing where he like writes with his pen and he like highlights and all that kind of stuff, and I really really wanted to be able to do that and I was like that's so cool and I want people to see my thought process and all that kind of stuff and write things down on the screens. But I have horrible handwriting and whenever I do that with the youth, whenever I like write something down, they act like demon possessed and they're like I can't read that and they start writhing in pain and I wanted to spare kind of the congregation from that and I didn't want also anyone to think that I was writing in Korean because I don't know Korean. But so we're going old school, I'm clicking the slides, they're doing the scriptures, but we are gonna rock and roll this morning in Luke, chapter 22. So the question of the morning that I want to frame this text in the one that Lane just read may be a little strange and I feel kind of cheap using it, because this could be applied to any text. But this morning specifically, I want us to consider who is in control, and I mean this in two different ways. I mean this one, like where we probably beeline, is who's in control of my life, who's in control of me and my destiny, my decisions, all of that kind of stuff. So, yes, I want us to get there, but first and foremost, I want us to wrestle with and to consider and to slowly read this passage and wonder, without spoilers, who is in control of what's happening? Who's in control of the decisions and the power to influence or direct people's behavior or the course of events? And so this morning we're going to see different factions of different people trying to do just this. They're going to be trying to get control. They're going to try to manipulate things in a way that goes beneficial for them and kind of them alone. And so, as we read, especially the front part of this, I want you to question who is in control? And yes, it's God, but don't just say God on the front end. And so the setting of where we are.
Speaker 2:If you guys have paper Bibles, look with me just at the physical book. If you guys have those, at Luke, chapter 22. Now I don't know if you guys have red letter Bibles. I always to you students and just people I talk, to recommend red letter Bibles if you can get one. I believe all of God's word is inspired. They all carry the same weight. Just because Jesus is saying it doesn't make it any greater or heavier. But sometimes it's nice just to be able to see when Jesus is speaking and when a story is happening, or see when someone else pipes up and asks a question. It's nice to be able to see. And if you look back in Luke, chapter 21, it's mostly all red letters. It's mostly all red letters.
Speaker 2:We're coming right off the heels of just a pretty dense, a pretty just, theologically rich teaching of Jesus. We just got through a month of this Will preaching, through this. Actually, I have a note In between services. Today, will mentioned this generation will not pass until these things come to happen. Will's teaching a little class in the one another room. Is that right? One another room Next week? Okay, next week Will's teaching a little class. So if you have any questions about kind of the end times, will said that he's got it all figured out and that he would love to walk through a detailed map of the end times and he's really excited about it. And so that's next week. In between services. Come with your questions. I don't think he'll answer any of them directly, but Jesus is preaching, he's teaching and he's doing actually a lot more targeted teaching towards the Pharisees, the scribes and the chief priests. He starts to, if I can say it this way, have a little bit more venom in his mouth where he's kind of going from general good theology and teachings to kind of narrowing in on their hearts and they don't like it.
Speaker 2:So we turn the page to Luke, chapter 22, and here we get some black letters indicating that it is about to be a story, and so in this passage there's a little bit of teaching but there's a lot of story, and let's see how it starts. It says Now the feast of unleavened bread drew near, which is called the Passover, and the chief priests and the scribes were seeking how to put him to death, for they feared the people. And so now we kind of get into this kind of like tonal difference where Jesus is kind of the hero of the story. Jesus is being celebrated by the crowds. He's kind of putting to shame, sometimes the Pharisees, and now they are sick of it. They've gone long past trying to be amicable, trying to be friendly, trying to garner respect for one another. They are seeking how to put him to death, not if they should, but how they should.
Speaker 2:There's two issues with this for the chief priests. One they love the Bible, they love the Old Testament and unfortunately for them, the Old Testament says something about murder. It says you shouldn't do it. And so they're like we can't just outright kill him. So what should we do? They decide let's get Rome involved and let's get a band of soldiers to come together. And they say that's a great idea. Wait, we can't do that right away because the people love Jesus right away, because the people love Jesus, the people see how he interacts with the sick and they're drawn to it. They're like this guy's different. They see how he interacts with the sinner and they're like this guy's awesome, like we want to be around this guy while the Pharisees are on the outside pouting.
Speaker 2:They know that they need to put Jesus to death from their perspective, but it wouldn't be simple. They would have to get crafty if they wanted things to go their way. And as they're kind of huddled up, I'm picturing in the dead of night, they're wondering. They're talking how are we going to do this? How are we going to put him to death? They get one of the greatest gifts that they could have imagined.
Speaker 2:Look with me in verse 3. It says Then Satan entered into Judas, called Iscariot, who was one of the number of the twelve. He went away and conferred with the chief priests and officers about how he might betray them Verse 5, and they were glad. I think that's an understatement that they're huddled up, wondering how are we going to stick it to this guy, this teacher, maybe a prophet, we don't know, but he is throwing a wrench in our plans and our religiosity and our followings. What are we going to do? And lo and behold, one of Jesus' closest followers walks up with the intention of hey, you guys want Jesus gone. Let me help you with that. They must be over the moon. And the irony of this is that the chief priests, the ones who are responsible for handling the sacrifices and representing the people of God to God, are now in league with Satan himself, like they are partnering with Satan through Jesus how to get rid of Jesus. And they don't have eyes to see because they are so blinded by their rage, their jealousy, their envy, their demand to keep the status quo, whatever it is. They can't see that Judas is being evil, he's betraying his rabbi, which would have been seen as a disrespectful, evil thing, and that he is full of Satan per verse 3. They can't see it. They themselves are blind to one of the saddest realities in Scripture.
Speaker 2:These are kind of the three biggest villains in Scripture all teaming up. I don't know about you guys. I as a young man, as a little boy, I loved the villains. The villains were always the more compelling people in the stories, in the movies, all of that kind of stuff. I did not want to be Luke Skywalker when I grew up. I wanted to be Darth Maul when I grew up I wanted to be Darth Maul. Like villains, like they draw us in because they create this tension. They create this part of the story where things aren't going to go right and we as audiences want to see who's going to win. Is it the bad guys or is it the good guys? And so here we have three of the biggest kind of bad guys in the New Testament teaming up together to try to take out Jesus.
Speaker 2:And this comes without much warning on Judas's part. Why does Judas do this? The Bible doesn't say explicitly. Some people think it was greed. Some people think that he was just looking for an opportunity to receive money from the chief priest. I think 30 pieces of silver just from what I've read wasn't a ton. It was a good chunk, but it probably wasn't the driving factor.
Speaker 2:Even though it says that Judas was a thief, some say that he tried to force Jesus's hand against the religious elite. He wanted to get the ball rolling and if he needed to hold the pool queue he was willing to do that. Like if he needed to set things in motion, he definitely would. Others think that Judas saw the writing on the wall and that he knew that Jesus's torch was about to get snuffed and he wanted to be on the right side of history. He wanted to be on the right side of the majority, that if people were holding pitchforks, he wanted to be with them and not in the minority. The bottom line is we don't know the exact reason, because scripture doesn't say. But what I can tell you is that Judas wanted to be in control of the situation. He didn't trust Jesus, he didn't trust the plans of God. Whatever reason whether it was diabolical or quote-unquote, noble, we don't know he wanted to be in control of the situation. He said I'm going to take the ball and I'm going to run with it. And so all three of these are conspiring against Jesus.
Speaker 2:And so the question is so far in the story, who is in control? Who is the ones dictating the story? Who's moving the tension along? Is it the chief priests? Because they have religious power. They actually do have some power with Rome, tandem to Rome. They are the ones who are gonna say if you let Jesus go, you're no friend of Caesar. Are these guys in control? Is it Judas? Judas is the one with a foot in both camps. He says I'm team Jesus over here and I'm also maybe not team Jesus, I'm team Pharisee over here. He's the one that maybe has the best purview, since he is getting inside information from Jesus and he is getting inside information from the chief priest.
Speaker 2:Is Judas in control? Is it Satan? Satan like the enemy from Genesis 3. Is he the one in control? Perhaps Satan thought he knows the prophecy Genesis 3, 15. Perhaps he thought I know that I get to strike his heel because God said that that one day the child of Eve is going to come and I am going to be able to strike his heel, but he's going to crush my head. Perhaps Satan thought if I can get my fangs deep enough, perhaps if I can catch him just enough off guard, perhaps if I can maybe pull the rug out from under him and get my fangs in his heel, maybe I can win. Is Satan in control? We see kind of jumping to the end of the story. Who really is in control of this story?
Speaker 2:The true shock and kind of the reveal of who is in charge comes at the table after the Passover meal, where Jesus shows his hand and he says capital, I am in control. Look with me at verse 21 of the same chapter. This is Jesus speaking and he says but behold, they go through this whole meal and they're very familiar. So picture yourself in this scene and we're gonna get to the meal. They're sitting together, probably just the 13 of them Jesus and the disciples and they're having this intimate meal. They're enjoying one another, they're remembering the past and they're doing all of this stuff. It's a tight knit family. Picture your MCG. If you get along with your MCG, they're doing life together in the right way. And Jesus kind of says before they pick up the dishes and before they sweep the floors, he says I got one more thing for you guys. He says in verse 21, behold the hand of him who betrays me is with me at the table. Like Jesus often does speak in riddles and parables, this is pretty clear and they're probably like what do you mean, jesus? Like they don't know exactly what Jesus knows. They don't know what's coming, even though Jesus has talked about it many times before. But he says verse 22, for the son of man goes as it has been determined. But woe to that man by whom he is betrayed.
Speaker 2:Jesus knows Psalm 41. This is Psalm 41. We were in a room kind of doing a Bible study and I was like Judas betraying Jesus, like that's, like some prophecy of old. What is that? And we looked it up and me, mitch Aldridge, laura, our jaws were on the floor because we were like we've never read this or we have, but we've never connected the dots. We've never heard this preached Psalm 41, never heard this preached Psalm 41, verse 9, it says even my close friend in whom I trusted, he who ate my bread, he has lifted his heel against me. That's David writing hundreds of years before this happens, as a prophecy about the kind of death that Jesus would die that even a close friend he would consider Judas to be a close friend has lifted his heel and betrayed him. Go back to verse 23.
Speaker 2:I think this is, I think, one of the most interesting parts and I think maybe a word of warning to us. And they began to question one another which of them it would be. Who is going to do this? My favorite, I think, part of this is Jesus says one of you, 12 is going to betray me. And they didn't all look at Judas, they didn't all crane their necks and say, well, it's got to be that guy, because he fill in the blank.
Speaker 2:We have been reading a children's kind of Bible to Emmett and Hamish while they run around. This was a picture of one half was the disciples, the other half was the other. See these guys. There's only seven disciples. Which of these guys do you think is Judas? I kind of blurred out the names. I blurred out the names. So it's an honest test. Which one do you think is Judas? Because it was this guy.
Speaker 2:This guy, if Jesus says at the table, and these are their postures, if these are their faces, if he says one of you guys is going to betray me, I bet the other six look at that guy on the end that doesn't want to be there, like that's kind of a natural type thing. This is how I think we think of Judas as this kind of guy in the back that's kind of rubbing his hands in an evil fashion. Maybe he's got a long dark black trench coat and he kind of just looks shady. I think from the witness of Scripture you can put it back on verse 23, they genuinely didn't know who was gonna betray him. They genuinely didn't know, per, what we have in the other gospels. Jesus says one of you guys will betray me, and Peter and John literally questioned Lord, is it me. Am I the one that's gonna do it? I look at these other guys. I think they're rock solid. All 11 other guys. Is it me? I want to know so that I can fortify myself. And Jesus says no.
Speaker 2:In other words, and I think this is the word of warning, judas seemed, by outward appearance, above reproach. This guy may have been a deacon at a church. He may have even been an elder of a church. He had every outward appearance to say I am one of you guys. When Jesus sends out the 72, they go in pairs. Judas had a pair and they did miracles, they taught, they prayed and they came back and they all celebrated together. The guy with Judas didn't say, hey, things got a little hairy and he kind of lost his mind. He was one of them.
Speaker 2:1 Samuel 16, verse 7. It says and so kind of the application here is not to examine others with suspicion. It's not to look around and say, hmm, there might be a Judas amongst us. I wonder who it could be. I think the application is that inward introspection almost is it me, lord? Type questioning, introspection almost is it me, lord? Type questioning. And I think one of the ways to question this is is there a difference between your public life and your private life? Is there a difference between how you portray yourself on Facebook or at church or at work? And inwardly you are very different and disconnected.
Speaker 2:I think that's kind of the earmark of Judas, especially right here, that outwardly no one would have known, but inwardly his heart was very far from the Lord. I think the warning is that proximity to Jesus and his people does not always equal intimacy and union with him. It does not always equal intimacy and union with him Does not always mean intimacy and union with him. Yes, it can, it definitely can. The people who are united to Christ, the people who are intimate with Jesus, that know him and love him, will desire to be with God and his people. But just because you're in the room today doesn't mean that you are one of his people, just like the fact that Judas was at the table when they did the Last Supper. Judas was there and just talking with people about the text and as we've read it together, almost one thing comes up uniformly is people go. Does that mean Satan was there at the Last Supper? Because it says in verse three that Satan entered Judas and Judas was at the Last Supper.
Speaker 2:I think, yes, I think there's no indication that Satan left. Maybe he did, but the powers of darkness have conspired against Jesus and I think one of the big points is it didn't catch Jesus off guard. There was no blind side. It wasn't out of the blue. They didn't come out of the shadows and apprehend him. Jesus knew from the beginning probably even from the writing of Psalm 41, that this would happen.
Speaker 2:I think, demonstrating that Christ is in control, not the chief priests, not Judas, not Satan, but Jesus is the one controlling the narrative, he's the one pushing it forward and he is the one that holds all things in his hands. And we see that here in the big picture Cosmic powers, Satan, all this kind of stuff, betrayal but what about the mundane? What about the day-to-day? Is Jesus only overseeing the large picture, cosmic type stuff, or does he know the details of our day-to-day in the smallest degree? Sometimes I think my tendency is to think that God is so big and so great that he's manning kind of the planets and their orbits and all that kind of stuff that he doesn't care about my Thursday morning or my Saturday afternoon. He's got bigger fish to fry, so to speak. Look with me in verse 7.
Speaker 2: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. And they said to him when will you have us prepare it? This is what Will read earlier. 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 of the house. The teacher says to you when is the guest room where I may eat the Passover with my disciples?
Speaker 2:I think by having these two stories, almost as bookends to the passage, we're about to look in the middle at the meat of it. But almost as bookends we see that Jesus is. He knows the large, big stuff, like Satan being on the move, and he knows and controls the small details, down to a man carrying a jar. It seems like a strange small, insignificant detail until you realize that he is the one manning it all and this should be a great comfort to us. He's not so in the details that he kind of misses the big picture of, let's just say, our salvation and things like that. And he's not so big picture that he kind of loses us and we're just a number to him. He knows each and every one of us, he knows the numbers of hair on our heads, he knows what we're feeling and what we're thinking as we walk into church, as we walk into any place. He knows it all and this should be a great comfort to us.
Speaker 2:And so, as we kind of hone in on the middle of the passage six times, there is a word repeated in this text. It's the word Passover. The repetition of Passover. I don't think it's just a stylistic choice or that Dr Luke ran out of the words to say, but I think it underlines the centrality of Passover and what Jesus is doing tonight, as we'll see. And so what was the Passover For our purposes this morning? Let's just say it was the epitome of God's control God orchestrating events and God orchestrating people in the way that he wanted it to go, in a crooked and twisted generation.
Speaker 2:In a nutshell, god's people were in slavery. They were in slavery to a Pharaoh and the Egyptians, and so if you would have asked anyone in that day who's in charge here, they would have pointed at the big pyramid and said that guy's sitting up top, the Pharaoh is in charge, and God made promises to rescue and redeem his people and to bring them out into a land flowing with milk and honey. And so God sees his people in slavery. It says that he hears their prayers, he hears their cries and God appoints someone Moses to talk to the Pharaoh and to compel him to let his people go free so that they can worship the Lord. One thing I want to highlight when God says you guys are leaving slavery, he gives them a purpose. He says I want you to worship me and he gives them a place. He doesn't just say you guys are going to wander. He says you're going to a land flowing with milk and honey and he gives them a place. He doesn't just say you guys are gonna wander. He says you're going to a land flowing with milk and honey and I want you to worship me there. He doesn't say I'm getting you out of slavery. Now, you know, do your best, remind your own business. And so Moses tells Pharaoh let God's people go so that they can worship him. And he refuses.
Speaker 2:And nine plagues ensue on the people Gnats, hail, frogs, darkness, etc. And finally, god tells Moses there's one last plague that must occur and it's the hardest one, it's the heaviest one. He says tonight every firstborn in the land of Egypt shall die. Would you throw up that Exodus 11 passage? So Moses said. Thus says the Lord about midnight I will go out in the midst of Egypt and every firstborn in the land of Egypt shall die, from the firstborn of Pharaoh who sits on the throne even, to the firstborn of the slave girl who's behind the hand mill, and all the firstborn of the cattle.
Speaker 2:Here's kind of the wrench or the interesting thing about this. God doesn't say the firstborn of every Egyptian is going to die. He says every firstborn in the land of Egypt. There are some plagues that kind of went to all of the people and there were some plagues that only affected the Egyptians. In this one, in this last one, in this kind of death blow that God gives to Pharaoh, he says in verse five every firstborn in the land of Egypt shall die.
Speaker 2:The people of Israel are in slavery, living in Egypt. The slave girl, from the firstborn of the slave girl who's behind the handmaul, who is the slave girl, if not the Egyptian or the Israelite women, like, every firstborn is going to die, including the Israelites who are in Egypt, but the Lord gave them a way to be spared. He says take a spotless lamb, kill it, drape its blood over the doorposts. And when I come to take vengeance, if I see the blood of the lamb if you didn't know this, this is literally where the word come from I will pass over your house. I'm going through the town, I'm going through the streets and I'm going to invade every house that there is in Egypt, but if there's blood on the doorpost, I will pass over it because I don't need to take any blood because blood has already been spilt. And so he goes, and he goes, and that night occurs and Pharaoh says get out. And they do. In a sense, god did not spare them from the punishment of the world around them, but he gave them a shield, something to protect them. If they were covered in the blood of the lamb, no further blood had to be spilled.
Speaker 2:And so, if I could boil down Passover to three points this morning and we're gonna tie it into the Lord's Supper One the Passover represented God's care for his people. That, yes, he was big, but he also heard the cries of the infants. He heard the cries of the slave woman. He heard the cries of his people and he cared enough about them to do something. Passover was God's way of caring for his people. Number two it was a shield for his people. It was God's way of caring for his people. Number two it was a shield for his people that they would literally huddle under the blood of the lamb and that was kind of their escape from the sins of the world around them. The reason that they're in this situation is because Egypt sinned and because Egypt was putting them in slavery, and God gives them a shield for his people. And then, number three, it's God delivering his people from slavery to the promised land.
Speaker 2:Again, he doesn't lead them out of the dungeon, so to speak, and say figure it out Like your life is yours now, like make good choices, I hope you do what's right. He says I'm taking you out of Egypt and I'm going to lead you by the hand to the land that I have prepared for you. This is who is in charge. Pharaoh has nothing to say against the God of the Bible and the God of Moses. And so, with these three things and there's guys, probably 50 other things that we could say, but with these three things in mind, the Passover was something that the people of Israel rehearsed, they celebrated and they did every year like they were supposed to. This is like us celebrating Easter. No one says is it Easter again? Didn't we just do that Like we had Easter last year? Do we have to continue? This is like Christmas, like the way that we kind of build our lives around some of these holidays. They would have built their life around celebrating the Passover. They would have dictated when and where they traveled, how they went about, who they saw during the year. Passover dictated really much of their lives.
Speaker 2:And think about this Jesus has been doing ministry for three years with his disciples. This is year three. He started when he was 30. He gets crucified when he's 33. And so just think about the fact that twice before they've probably done Passover with Jesus, they've probably had the meal and had the celebration and sung the hymns and confessed the sins and all of the kind of stuff that goes along with Passover. They did it once normal. They did it the second time normal. And this time is going to be different.
Speaker 2:Look with me at verse 14. And when the hour came, he reclined at table and the apostles with him, and he said to them. I have we don't see this a lot from Jesus. He says I have earnestly desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer. He says this one. He doesn't tell him why yet, but he says this one's going to be different and I've looked forward to, I've earnestly desired it's almost kept me up at night thinking about doing this with you guys. And he says for I tell you, I will not eat of it until it is fulfilled in the kingdom of God.
Speaker 2:Think about the symbolism that is happening on this night, the night of Passover, the night that the Passover lamb was to be slaughtered, each for his own household, and so probably in Jerusalem, the streets and the ravines and the rivers are probably flowing with blood of lambs because each household needed their own lamb. Think about the symbolism. Jesus knows that in a matter of hours he will be hanging on a cross for the sins of his people. The apex of the meal and the celebration was the sacrifice of the Passover lamb, and this is a title that Jesus has worn for a little while. You guys remember John the Baptist and John Jesus at the very beginning of his ministry. He's kind of just walking around. He's got maybe a handful of disciples. John has a lot of disciples and he's walking around and John says it says the next day he saw Jesus coming towards him and John yells out behold the lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. Interesting thing about the Passover lamb it was supposed to. It didn't really take away the sins, but it covered the sins of each household. John looks at Jesus and he says this isn't a household lamb, it's bigger than that. This isn't a nation lamb, this isn't just for Israel. He says behold the lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. John knew something that even Jesus's closest disciples didn't.
Speaker 2:Verse 19, we get to kind of the apex of our text They've had the meal.
Speaker 2:We get to kind of the apex of our text They've had the meal. Presumably this is probably a post-meal teaching that Jesus gives. And it says in verse 19 that he took the bread and when he had given thanks, he broke it and he gave it to them, saying this is my body which is given to you. Do this in remembrance of me. Jesus takes the loaf same loaf, big loaf, and he starts to rip it apart, piece by piece, so that he can hand it to his disciples and he says do this in remembrance of me. This symbolizes, this represents my body, which is going to be torn for you, which is going to be torn for you the way that that one loaf fed all of the disciples. Christ, when he is being torn, he feeds us all from his same singular body.
Speaker 2:And rather than pointing backwards in remembrance to Moses, jesus points forward. He says I'm doing this for a reason, I'm doing this for you. He says, in effect, a slaughtered lamb won't be your shield anymore. A broken and bloody me will be your shield, the way that you guys would put your faith in the spotless lamb, because that's what God told you to do. He says you're going to put your faith and trust in me and my finished work by my broken body.
Speaker 2:In verse 20, he says likewise after they had eaten, he took the cup and he said this cup is poured out for you. This is the new covenant in my blood. And so he kind of does the same thing, using a different representation, and he says that this blood is going to be spilled, and it's represented here by the wine that I hold. But there's a little phrase tucked into the sentence that I think we gloss over. He doesn't say this is my body, this is my blood. That's it. There's a little phrase, and I think we were praying, josh Page, this is the hinge point of history. I already had that in my note, but you prayed that and so I was very happy about that. The hinge point is this phrase, this cup that is poured out for you. It is the new covenant in my blood, and if this sounds super nerdy, I apologize, but I promise you, if we can wrap our minds around the new covenant and what it means and the promises entailed in it, I think it enriches our Christian life and maybe even hinges on it.
Speaker 2:What is a covenant? It's basically just a promise. It's a commitment. The best thing that we have today is marriage. It's a contract, but it's more than that.
Speaker 2:It's highly relational, and a new covenant implies an old covenant, and so, as Moses led his people from slavery out of Egypt to the promised land, god gave them a covenant. God said I'm rescuing you. You guys are my people and these are kind of the rules, these are the statutes that I want you to abide by, because you are my people and I don't want you to look like the rest of the nations. I don't want you to look like the Philistines. I don't want you to act like the Moabites. I want you guys to be set apart. I want you to be different. I know you can't see it, but this is the Ten Commandments, exodus 20.
Speaker 2:This is the old covenant. When everyone says old covenant, this is what they mean. And God spoke all these words saying I am the Lord, your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery. And it gives basically 10 either you shalls or you shall not. This is the old covenant. If you do these things, if you worship me and me alone, great. I'm going to be your God. I'm going to be close with you and I'm going to give you peace from your enemies. I'm going to give you this land you shall not steal, you shall not commit adultery. If you can stay away from those things like great, it's going to go great for you in the land. I'm going to bless you. You're going to have peace and all of these things.
Speaker 2:When God gives this, if we can look forward to the New Testament, what Paul would say is it was not meant to save, but it was meant to demonstrate how much we needed a savior, that these are good rules that we still should abide by, that we still should see, because these are a picture of God's heart. But even if we tried, we wouldn't be able to keep these and we would have to do so perfectly to be saved. That was the old operating system for Israel, and Jesus says I'm going to supersede this with something even better. You guys are going from a flip phone that you can only play Snake on, you can't even text, to an iPhone Pro Max, 16, whatever. You're going to have just a different operating system altogether.
Speaker 2:Jeremiah 31,. You don't have to turn there. But if you turn there, the header of this is the new covenant. This is a couple hundred years before Jesus and Jeremiah predicts, he prophesies, he hears from the Lord that this is what's going to happen. I won of the land of Egypt my covenant that they broke, even though I was their husband, declares the Lord, for this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel. And he goes into this list of things that God himself is going to undertake. He says, in effect, in the new covenant, you don't have to do the work. There's no you shalls. He says I will do this for you.
Speaker 2:When Jesus says this blood that is spilled is the blood of the new covenant, what he's saying is all of these I wills God speaking, I wills are about to apply. He says I will put my law within them. In the old covenant, the law was written on tablets of stone. Jesus is saying now that I'm here, now that I'm about to shed my blood and die and resurrect, it's not going to be written on tablets of stone, it's going to be written on your hearts and you guys are going to want to do the things that I want you to do, and you guys are going to want to be with me and I will be their God and they shall be my people. Look at the very bottom, their God, and they shall be my people. Look at the very bottom and I will forgive their iniquity and I will remember their sins no more. Guys, what a great grace it is that God gives us any covenant, let alone this new one. We do not have to guess on the left side what pleases him. We don't have to, you know, kind of huddle up and say what does God want from us today? He's told us clearly in the old covenant what pleases him, and we don't have to guess what he will do for us. He's told us clearly I will make you my people. Though you didn't ask for it, though you didn't deserve it, I will make you my people.
Speaker 2:The new covenant I would suggest is the heart of the gospel Baseline, like. What we need are new hearts. We need hearts that want to please God. Naturally, we want control. We want to dictate our lives, whether it be our time, our talent, our treasure. We want to call the shots. We may feel comfortable cutting God a check, but my time is my time. It may be I'll give God all the time that I want, but I don't have a lot of money. I kind of need to hold on to it. Whatever it is, we want control and the new covenant gives us new hearts. We want control. Sometimes it's sinister, like Judas. Sometimes we are bent on outright evil, and sometimes it's just us wanting to do what benefits us the most. Sometimes it's us not looking after our neighbor. Sometimes it's not doing the right thing when we know that we're supposed to. But the new covenant gives us beating hearts at great cost to himself.
Speaker 2:So if this is what Passover represented, we have even a better list in what the Lord's Supper represents, that, as Jesus says, passover was great. I'm not diminishing it. What I'm doing is so much better and superior. This is kind of a list that God still cares for his people, and even in bigger and greater and grander ways God cares for his people. Number two Jesus as a shield for his people. We do not put our faith and trust in the blood of goats and lambs and things like that, but we have God in the flesh spilling his blood for us. And then, lastly, god delivering his people from death into eternal life, into knowledge and communion with the Father, and so it's not just a physical thing, but this is a highly spiritual and eternal thing that we are about to do.
Speaker 2:And so, ushers, if you guys are ready to come down as we prepare to come to a table, a couple of warnings and some encouragements for us. I think it's just one of each, though, unbelievers. The warning is this is a meal. The warning is this is a meal that is for the family of God. There is no magic in it. There's nothing virtuous in and of itself in this meal, in these elements. Nothing is going to happen. If I can remind you that Judas was at the table and it did not go well for him. There's nothing about coming here and receiving this that's going to make you any more spiritual, but it is an open table and so you don't have to be a member of midtree as long as you are a member of the household of God. If you are a Christian, if you have your faith and trust in Christ, come and eat and partake. It is a wonderful thing when we are able to gather together from the same loaf and to feed ourselves both physically and spiritually.
Speaker 2:Believers, we come in here with a wide range of spiritual states. Some of us are walking with the Lord and feel great, and we love doing all this kind of stuff. Praise God for that. Praise God for those people. Some of us, even though we're in Christ, have an accuser whispering in our ears. Some of us may hear things like even though you're in Christ, you are not worthy, and to that I would say you're right, I'm not worthy. But he is, and he is the one who invites me, calls me, commands me to come and eat.
Speaker 2:The accuser may say you are too sinful. To that I'd say that's, in a sense, true sinful. To that I would say that's in a sense true, but he remembers my sins. No more Part of the new covenant. The accuser may say God is angry with you and that you shouldn't be here. You are not ready for this meal yet. You've got work to do before you can come and take To that I would say he has already done the work for me, and me.
Speaker 2:Eating is participating in that work and receiving it in faith, and so we find comfort at a table, at a meal that doesn't just change our circumstances, like the Passover did, but this meal changes our hearts, that Jesus has established through his work In all things circumstances, both great and small, from Judas' betrayal to a man carrying a jar, to the breaking of his body and the spilling of his blood the lamb is in control and he invites us to eat with him.
Speaker 2:And so I'm gonna throw Revelation 7 on the screen. I'm not gonna read it If you guys would just take a minute or two. Stokes is gonna lead you, but just read this. This is a picture of what's to come. That we have the lamb now on the throne. I'll let you read it yourself, but if you pray, thank Jesus, talk to him, spend time with him. If you want to pray with people on the side, we'll be over on the side, but Stokes will call you up and he will take it from there. But we worship a lamb who has been slain and he loves us and he's done the work for us, so let's pray to him and worship him together this morning.