WEBVTT 00:00:08.480 --> 00:00:22.879 Matthew 26, where we just left Jesus, and there's kind of this cascading series of events here that we've been looking at tonight. 00:00:23.359 --> 00:00:28.559 Of course, the passage in Matthew 26 begins where Jesus is overlooking the temple. 00:00:29.280 --> 00:00:46.240 Of course, it is just on the right side of the temple from the Mount of Olives where Jesus is looking, where he will be beaten, where he will be led uh to Herod's fortress, where he will be stripped and uh shuttled back and forth over there. 00:00:46.320 --> 00:00:50.000 It's on the left side of that where Caiaphas' house is, where he'll be kept overnight. 00:00:50.159 --> 00:00:56.399 It's on the back side of that, which he wouldn't be able to see from there, where he'll be crucified and buried. 00:00:56.640 --> 00:01:14.000 And in front of him at this moment is the whole valley, the Kidron Valley below him, and the Garden of Gethsemane, uh, where he had where he will be sweating great drops of blood, as it were, and then walking from there into the temple area. 00:01:14.400 --> 00:01:22.079 The key event of that night coming up, the night that we're going to read about now, is of course the Passover celebration. 00:01:22.239 --> 00:01:30.560 That would be just a massive holiday that is hard for us to fully understand the role that that played in the evening. 00:01:30.799 --> 00:01:38.879 But you would understand from an American perspective, if a series of key events were taking place like the week of December 25th. 00:01:39.040 --> 00:01:52.959 You know, you're you're looking, you're advocating for something at work or there's a school assignment due or something, and December 25th is in the middle of that, you understand how that one day, even in secular America, that one day is gonna tower over the whole week. 00:01:53.120 --> 00:01:57.760 Everything in that week is gonna revolve around what's gonna happen that that Christmas morning. 00:01:58.000 --> 00:02:02.879 There'll be Christmas Eve things, there'll be Christmas families, everything's gonna be closed, like just the reality. 00:02:03.040 --> 00:02:06.239 Whether or not you're a Christian, you could be a Muslim in America, it doesn't matter. 00:02:06.400 --> 00:02:15.120 You know, the week of December 25th, that's gonna structure everything in the week, is gonna be just revolving around that, whether you like it or not. 00:02:15.520 --> 00:02:18.080 So that's what that's what Passover is like. 00:02:18.319 --> 00:02:29.840 But even in a sense, to a bigger degree, because there are pilgrims, Jews from all over the diaspora, all over the Roman Empire, are flooding into Jerusalem this week. 00:02:30.080 --> 00:02:31.840 It's just a massive event. 00:02:31.919 --> 00:02:35.120 There's nothing else like it, really, in Judaism. 00:02:35.199 --> 00:02:36.960 That's the week that this is happening. 00:02:37.199 --> 00:02:41.120 So that week where Jesus clears out the temple, that's Passover week. 00:02:41.840 --> 00:02:49.120 The week that the Passover lambs will be slaughtered in the temple, that's when Jesus clears out the temple and says, You're turning my father's house into a den of thieves. 00:02:49.280 --> 00:02:51.280 That's the week he's teaching on the temple mount. 00:02:51.360 --> 00:02:57.520 The steps up to the southern steps of the temple, where he's teaching every day, that's this week that this is happening. 00:02:57.840 --> 00:03:10.159 So when he's up on the on that Wednesday here, when he's up on the Mount of Olives, overlooking the Garden of Gethsemane, overlooking the temple, Caiaphas's house, the Antonio fortress, looking over all of that, that's this week. 00:03:10.240 --> 00:03:17.919 And so when he says in a few days he's going to be crucified, in a few days he's going to be delivered over to be killed, that's what's this is framed around. 00:03:18.080 --> 00:03:20.159 That's Passover, he's talking about. 00:03:20.879 --> 00:03:25.360 Now the big question is, where are you going for Passover? 00:03:25.599 --> 00:03:27.120 That's the question Americans ask. 00:03:27.199 --> 00:03:28.719 You know, where are you going for Christmas? 00:03:28.879 --> 00:03:33.039 Again, even Muslim Americans will be asked, what are you doing that week? 00:03:33.199 --> 00:03:35.280 Are you going to go see family, etc.? 00:03:35.759 --> 00:03:38.879 The whole world revolves around that, so to speak. 00:03:39.360 --> 00:03:42.960 And so the question is, where are we going to celebrate Passover? 00:03:43.039 --> 00:03:44.960 That's verse 17 of Matthew 26. 00:03:45.120 --> 00:03:46.960 Where are we going to go to Passover? 00:03:47.199 --> 00:03:49.039 Jesus, what's the plan here? 00:03:50.319 --> 00:03:58.400 Jesus keeps the plan secret, remember, because he does not want to be betrayed until after the celebration of Passover. 00:03:58.560 --> 00:04:00.240 That's critical to this. 00:04:00.800 --> 00:04:07.520 If he's betrayed before the celebration of Passover, he does not get the chance to transform Passover into communion. 00:04:07.599 --> 00:04:08.879 And so he's timing this. 00:04:08.960 --> 00:04:11.759 He cannot be betrayed until Passover is over. 00:04:12.000 --> 00:04:20.480 So he's got to keep Judas in his sight and he's got to keep the celebration of the Passover secretive so that Judas doesn't know where it is. 00:04:21.279 --> 00:04:34.319 This is why all the rig and roll of it's not fully described in Matthew's gospel, but in Mark and Luke, where Jesus says, you're going to go in and you're going to find a guy with a water jug, which would be unusual while getting the water is usually a women's task. 00:04:34.480 --> 00:04:38.480 They find the guy with a water jug and tell him the Passover is going to be at your house, follow him. 00:04:38.560 --> 00:04:41.199 It's like this whole cloak and dagger kind of thing. 00:04:41.439 --> 00:04:46.879 Because it's providentially arranged that they're going to celebrate Passover in this particular room. 00:04:47.839 --> 00:04:49.600 That's where they're headed. 00:04:50.079 --> 00:04:54.800 It's back over, actually very close to Caiaphas's house, really, on the other side of the Temple Mount. 00:04:54.959 --> 00:04:55.759 So they're arranging it. 00:04:55.920 --> 00:04:57.519 Judas doesn't know where it is. 00:04:57.759 --> 00:04:59.839 He does not know where they're going to celebrate Passover. 00:04:59.920 --> 00:05:02.639 He's got to stay with Jesus and the other ten disciples. 00:05:02.800 --> 00:05:07.600 The two of them went away to go make the arrangements by following the guy with the water jug and all that. 00:05:07.680 --> 00:05:09.519 And now they've ended up in that upper room. 00:05:09.600 --> 00:05:10.879 It is the night of Passover. 00:05:11.040 --> 00:05:17.199 Passover is not just a you, it's not like we do communion where pass the cup and take the bread and the wine and now you're done. 00:05:17.360 --> 00:05:19.439 No, no, this is an all-meal affair. 00:05:19.519 --> 00:05:22.160 This is a several-hour event that's going on here. 00:05:22.399 --> 00:05:25.519 They wouldn't be sitting like we think of sitting around the table. 00:05:25.600 --> 00:05:27.360 You're more reclining at a table. 00:05:27.439 --> 00:05:29.600 You kind of lean on the person next to you all the way around the table. 00:05:29.759 --> 00:05:30.959 The table is low to the ground. 00:05:31.120 --> 00:05:34.319 People would be serving, walking in and out, of course. 00:05:34.480 --> 00:05:35.600 And that's the scene here. 00:05:35.680 --> 00:05:41.759 And it's while that's happening, in the middle of the Passover meal that they're celebrating, so far everything is normal. 00:05:42.720 --> 00:05:46.480 And then Jesus declares, one of you is going to betray me. 00:05:46.879 --> 00:05:54.639 Of course, they're all do the is it, you know, is it I, Lord, is it I, Lord, Jesus says, the person I share this food with, the person who dips this thing, it's Judas that does that. 00:05:54.800 --> 00:05:56.720 It still doesn't dawn on people, really. 00:05:56.879 --> 00:06:01.120 There's no evidence when you read the four gospels that people put the pieces together. 00:06:01.279 --> 00:06:02.639 Which is so weird, isn't it? 00:06:02.720 --> 00:06:03.920 Because, you know, who is it, Lord? 00:06:04.000 --> 00:06:04.240 Who is it? 00:06:04.319 --> 00:06:11.439 And Jesus says, the one who I dip with, and then he and Judas dip, and then Judas leaves, and everybody's like, I don't get it. 00:06:12.959 --> 00:06:14.000 What just happens? 00:06:14.160 --> 00:06:16.560 They assume he's going to buy more food, remember? 00:06:17.040 --> 00:06:19.279 They think he's got something to do. 00:06:19.519 --> 00:06:22.160 Go get more food for the who knows what Jesus is doing. 00:06:22.240 --> 00:06:23.519 He's always doing things like this. 00:06:23.680 --> 00:06:25.920 They've got accustomed to it by this point of the ministry. 00:06:26.079 --> 00:06:31.680 It doesn't seem to click on anyone that Judas had left to go betray Jesus. 00:06:32.160 --> 00:06:39.920 But providentially, once Judas is gone, that's when the Lord transforms this Passover meal. 00:06:40.000 --> 00:06:48.079 Again, a very emblematic, obviously, it's almost two on the nose here how Passover points forward to the death of Christ. 00:06:48.319 --> 00:06:52.160 Jesus transforms Passover now into the celebration of communion. 00:06:52.319 --> 00:06:54.480 He does not do that until Judas goes. 00:06:54.800 --> 00:06:59.759 Judas has to leave because Passover, you know, for Israel, is going to become communion. 00:06:59.839 --> 00:07:00.959 Communion is for believers. 00:07:01.120 --> 00:07:05.360 Communion is for those who are who are in communion with one another in the church. 00:07:05.519 --> 00:07:09.519 It wouldn't be appropriate for that to happen with Judas at the table. 00:07:09.759 --> 00:07:15.839 And I preached on this before, but by the way, this is why we often do church discipline at communion services. 00:07:16.399 --> 00:07:26.879 It's in remembrance of how Jesus instituted the first communion service by having Judas leave the room before the breaking of the bread. 00:07:27.839 --> 00:07:32.959 Well, the communion would take place, the Passover would take place in somebody's house. 00:07:33.040 --> 00:07:34.160 It could be really in anybody's house. 00:07:34.319 --> 00:07:44.639 Oftentimes they would rotate, but the Passover would be led either by the person whose house it is in, or by the most senior person there, kind of the patriarch of the family. 00:07:44.879 --> 00:07:50.160 So even if, you know, grandpa would be leading it, even if it was in your brother's house, so to speak. 00:07:50.240 --> 00:07:51.279 It's kind of the patriarch. 00:07:51.439 --> 00:07:53.519 Now the person who owned the house, he could be leading it. 00:07:53.680 --> 00:07:56.560 In this instance here, it's at somebody's house. 00:07:56.720 --> 00:08:00.000 We don't know whose house it was, but it's at this house that's happening. 00:08:00.160 --> 00:08:02.560 Yet Jesus is clearly the one leading it. 00:08:02.720 --> 00:08:06.879 There's no doubt that he's the teacher, he's in charge, he's the rabbi here. 00:08:07.279 --> 00:08:10.959 As Passover is celebrated, it's almost scripted out. 00:08:11.120 --> 00:08:16.959 It's a very ritualistic, complex ceremony between the different uh courses. 00:08:17.040 --> 00:08:21.519 Uh everything is symbol uh is symbolic, everything points to something else. 00:08:21.600 --> 00:08:25.199 There's almost a script that you follow, and uh, you know, there's leeway. 00:08:25.360 --> 00:08:29.920 You don't have to pray the prayers in the Jewish household, you don't have to pray the prayers that everybody always prays. 00:08:30.079 --> 00:08:35.440 Uh but you kind of follow that structure, and it is the patriarch who does it. 00:08:35.919 --> 00:08:50.000 Of course, the center of the Passover meal is the lamb, the Passover lamb that was slain, and this goes back to the Old Testament where the blood was put on the doorposts, Exodus chapter 12, blood smeared on the doorpost, so the angel of death passes over the houses. 00:08:50.080 --> 00:08:51.600 This is why it's called Passover meal. 00:08:51.759 --> 00:08:58.639 The houses without the blood on the doorpost, the firstborn in those houses die, the house with the blood on the doorpost, the firstborn is spared. 00:08:58.799 --> 00:09:01.919 So in the Passover celebration, there is the Lamb. 00:09:02.000 --> 00:09:10.240 That's the main course, literally, and the whole night is structured around how God delivered Israel from the Egyptians. 00:09:10.639 --> 00:09:17.039 Now you recognize that the purpose of these celebrations is to reenact or to remember events for a generation that wasn't there. 00:09:17.279 --> 00:09:20.320 Thanksgiving would be the most obvious American analogy for this. 00:09:20.480 --> 00:09:31.120 We celebrate Thanksgiving, and you know, even the elementary school here does the, you know, the pilgrims and Indians kind of thing they do up there, which is, I don't know if you're they're still allowed to do it, but they still do it, whatever. 00:09:32.000 --> 00:09:32.799 It still happens. 00:09:33.039 --> 00:09:36.960 The whole idea is it's it's reenacting something for a generation that wasn't there. 00:09:37.120 --> 00:09:42.480 We weren't there, but we have you eat the same food all the time to remember what the pilgrims ate, supposedly. 00:09:42.720 --> 00:09:45.200 I don't know the veracity of it, but that's the idea. 00:09:45.519 --> 00:09:46.799 So it is with Passover. 00:09:46.879 --> 00:09:58.480 The Passover lamb's at the middle of this, so that a new generation, so long, so many centuries afterwards, remembers how God spared them from the land. 00:09:59.120 --> 00:10:01.919 The bread is dipped in the bitter herbs. 00:10:02.159 --> 00:10:03.600 Why the bitter herbs? 00:10:03.840 --> 00:10:12.879 It's a reminder, and if you as you read uh Exodus, the bitter herbs have a very prominent role in it, and it's to remind you of the bitterness of the time in Egypt. 00:10:13.039 --> 00:10:14.320 You didn't like Egypt. 00:10:14.480 --> 00:10:19.840 Even though the slaves in the wilderness wandering are like, oh, we had leeks and we had onions, and being a slave wasn't that bad. 00:10:19.919 --> 00:10:21.440 Think of the onions we had. 00:10:21.759 --> 00:10:28.799 Bitter herbs are put into the Passover meal so that it's a reminder, this tastes bitter. 00:10:29.120 --> 00:10:30.639 Yeah, you know what else was bitter? 00:10:30.879 --> 00:10:31.679 Eating sand. 00:10:31.919 --> 00:10:32.799 That was bitter. 00:10:33.039 --> 00:10:35.919 Being a slave for 400 years, that was bitter. 00:10:36.080 --> 00:10:38.000 Just like these bitter herbs. 00:10:38.080 --> 00:10:39.679 And of course the unleavened bread. 00:10:39.919 --> 00:10:44.320 The unleavened bread, they were supposed to eat bread for seven days that was unleavened. 00:10:44.559 --> 00:10:45.679 Why unleavened bread? 00:10:45.919 --> 00:10:48.159 Leavened bread just rises, it takes time to rise. 00:10:48.240 --> 00:10:52.399 They were supposed to eat unleavened bread as a testimony to the fact that they left in haste. 00:10:52.559 --> 00:10:54.080 Because Pharaoh was going back and forth. 00:10:54.240 --> 00:10:55.840 Remember, yes, you can go, no, you can't go. 00:10:55.919 --> 00:10:57.120 Yes, you can go, no, you can't go. 00:10:57.279 --> 00:10:57.600 You can go. 00:10:57.679 --> 00:10:58.799 Now go get them. 00:10:59.440 --> 00:11:04.879 And so the unleavened bread was a reminder that we were running for our very lives. 00:11:05.200 --> 00:11:09.919 Chariots were after us, horses were after us, we were hemmed in on the Red Sea. 00:11:10.159 --> 00:11:11.759 We almost died. 00:11:13.360 --> 00:11:15.200 That's the unleavened bread. 00:11:15.519 --> 00:11:17.840 Leavened bread would have taken time to rise. 00:11:18.240 --> 00:11:21.279 We got enemies coming, but man, the cake has 15 more minutes. 00:11:21.440 --> 00:11:22.159 Come on. 00:11:22.559 --> 00:11:27.120 So again, this whole meal is structured around how they were fleeing in the Passover. 00:11:27.279 --> 00:11:35.440 Now that Judas is gone, Jesus takes those things and gives them new meaning. 00:11:35.919 --> 00:11:41.600 Jesus hijacks Passover and transforms it into communion. 00:11:42.080 --> 00:11:45.840 He reorients the whole event around himself. 00:11:46.159 --> 00:11:47.360 And it really is shocking. 00:11:47.440 --> 00:11:56.240 When you realize how central Passover was to the Jewish identity, it is stunning what Jesus does to it. 00:11:56.639 --> 00:12:03.120 People talk about trying to find evidences of Jesus' deity and you know the I am statements and everything. 00:12:03.200 --> 00:12:07.440 There's all kinds of evidences of Jesus' deity, but this is an often overlooked one. 00:12:07.519 --> 00:12:12.960 I mean, a mere man can't reorient Passover around himself. 00:12:13.919 --> 00:12:16.720 But that's exactly what Jesus does. 00:12:16.960 --> 00:12:22.000 He gives three new layers of meaning to Passover, and I want to kind of give those as an outline tonight. 00:12:22.240 --> 00:12:23.679 The bread, the wine, and the kingdom. 00:12:23.759 --> 00:12:26.159 Those will be your three points: the bread, the wine, and the kingdom. 00:12:26.320 --> 00:12:30.720 Jesus takes all three of these elements and retools them. 00:12:31.279 --> 00:12:37.279 You know, Passover was built around the lamb, the herbs, and the unleavened bread. 00:12:37.600 --> 00:12:44.480 Jesus restructures it around the bread, the wine, and the kingdom. 00:12:45.600 --> 00:12:46.960 First the bread. 00:12:47.279 --> 00:12:49.840 The bread at this point of the meal would have been broken in half. 00:12:49.919 --> 00:12:54.240 It would have been a common loaf, not the little pieces that we, you know, we do in communion. 00:12:54.399 --> 00:12:55.840 Who knows how traditions develop? 00:12:55.919 --> 00:12:56.720 I have no idea. 00:12:56.879 --> 00:13:00.000 But the communion, the bread that they would have had at Passover would have been a loaf. 00:13:00.159 --> 00:13:02.799 And it's passed around and you pull pieces off of it. 00:13:03.039 --> 00:13:07.360 It would have been broken often in half to go two different directions around the table. 00:13:07.679 --> 00:13:12.000 It would be the host or the father figure who's the one who holds it up and breaks it. 00:13:12.320 --> 00:13:14.639 Again, obviously, Jesus is leading the meal. 00:13:14.799 --> 00:13:19.440 It says in verse 26, as they were eating, Jesus took the bread. 00:13:19.919 --> 00:13:22.559 A very formal part of the meal, the lifting up of the bread. 00:13:22.720 --> 00:13:24.000 There's bread all around the table. 00:13:24.080 --> 00:13:30.799 People are eating bread all through the meal, but the taking of the bread and holding it up above everybody and giving thanks, that's not something that happens all meal. 00:13:30.879 --> 00:13:32.879 That's something that happens right here at this point. 00:13:33.120 --> 00:13:34.559 The blessing of the bread. 00:13:34.799 --> 00:13:36.240 And Jesus prays for the bread. 00:13:36.399 --> 00:13:39.600 Again, that's something that the host or the father figure would have done. 00:13:39.919 --> 00:13:41.519 A common Jewish prayer for the bread. 00:13:41.600 --> 00:13:43.039 We don't know exactly what Jesus said. 00:13:43.600 --> 00:13:56.320 Because it's not recorded, it's likely he just used the common Jewish blessing for the bread, which was, you know, there's several, but the most common one is probably, Blessed art thou, O Lord our God, King of the universe, who brings bread from the earth. 00:13:56.559 --> 00:13:58.399 And God brings bread from the earth. 00:13:58.559 --> 00:13:59.120 You're giving thanks. 00:13:59.200 --> 00:14:00.159 It's like a Thanksgiving meal. 00:14:00.240 --> 00:14:01.840 You're giving thanks that God gave you bread. 00:14:02.000 --> 00:14:03.279 Here's a big loaf of bread. 00:14:03.440 --> 00:14:06.240 The leader of the feast says, Thank you, Lord, for this bread. 00:14:06.480 --> 00:14:08.320 Thank you, God, for making this bread grow. 00:14:08.399 --> 00:14:09.200 We're grateful for it. 00:14:09.360 --> 00:14:09.759 Break it. 00:14:09.919 --> 00:14:10.399 Let's eat it. 00:14:10.480 --> 00:14:11.759 That's what happens at this point. 00:14:12.000 --> 00:14:13.519 Jesus does that. 00:14:13.759 --> 00:14:21.759 So he lifts up the bread, thanks God for the bread, breaks the bread, says, Take it and eat it. 00:14:22.720 --> 00:14:23.600 And then this. 00:14:24.240 --> 00:14:25.840 This is my body. 00:14:26.320 --> 00:14:28.720 Do you see how out of place that is? 00:14:29.120 --> 00:14:30.240 Here's the bread. 00:14:30.399 --> 00:14:34.720 Thank you, Lord, in heaven who makes the bread from the grain that grows. 00:14:34.799 --> 00:14:35.919 We give you thanks for it. 00:14:36.320 --> 00:14:38.159 Break, you guys take and eat it. 00:14:38.639 --> 00:14:40.080 This is my body. 00:14:41.600 --> 00:14:44.559 He's reorienting the event around himself. 00:14:44.960 --> 00:14:52.240 Again, in the Old Testament, the unleavened bread represented their flight from Egypt because they left in haste. 00:14:52.480 --> 00:14:55.279 Jesus uses it to teach a few different truths. 00:14:55.440 --> 00:15:00.080 First of all, Jesus, by saying this is my body, he's underscoring that he has a body. 00:15:00.320 --> 00:15:04.240 This would be so obvious, it's not even worth stating for the people in the room there. 00:15:04.480 --> 00:15:06.639 Jesus is the one holding it, this is my body. 00:15:06.720 --> 00:15:08.480 It's very clear that he has a body. 00:15:08.559 --> 00:15:11.120 He's holding the bread in the air with his body. 00:15:11.279 --> 00:15:12.240 The guy has a body. 00:15:12.399 --> 00:15:14.399 But for the church, it's very interesting. 00:15:14.559 --> 00:15:19.279 This is the first real heresy that came up into the church that Jesus didn't have an actual body. 00:15:19.759 --> 00:15:30.639 The first real heresy that infiltrated the church was that, you know, a form of Gnosticism that the body is, you know, fallen and created and so not appropriate for God, kind of thing. 00:15:30.799 --> 00:15:33.600 Jesus would have walked in the sand and all of footprint, so to speak. 00:15:33.919 --> 00:15:41.600 Jesus almost anticipates that by ingraining in the church the reality of the incarnation, that God became a man. 00:15:42.159 --> 00:15:44.720 That Jesus was born, that he lived. 00:15:44.879 --> 00:15:47.200 That's the doctrine of the incarnation. 00:15:47.600 --> 00:15:49.120 He was a real person. 00:15:49.919 --> 00:15:52.159 This is why we take bread. 00:15:52.559 --> 00:15:57.279 Real bread, as real as bread can be, packaged in China, shipped over the ocean. 00:15:57.919 --> 00:15:58.960 But you get the point. 00:15:59.039 --> 00:16:04.639 It's still real, regardless of where it was made or how much caloric value it has, it still actually exists. 00:16:04.960 --> 00:16:06.559 You're eating something. 00:16:06.799 --> 00:16:11.679 That's a testimony to you of the reality of the Lord's body. 00:16:11.840 --> 00:16:13.120 He was a real person. 00:16:13.519 --> 00:16:15.679 You can never deny his humanity. 00:16:15.919 --> 00:16:18.639 He was not a shadow, he was not an angel. 00:16:19.360 --> 00:16:23.840 This is setting up when he speaks of his death that he was made flesh among us. 00:16:24.000 --> 00:16:25.120 1 Timothy 3:16. 00:16:25.279 --> 00:16:30.080 Great is the mystery of godliness, that God was revealed in the flesh. 00:16:31.279 --> 00:16:48.960 The second person of the Trinity, the Son of God, God, a very God, came on, begotten from the Father, came to earth, robed himself in human flesh, begotten from the Father in eternity past, born to the Virgin Mary, with a real human soul, a real human nature, a real human body. 00:16:49.759 --> 00:16:57.200 This is so important because this very day, of course, the Jewish calendar of the day begins at sundown, this very day that Jesus is doing this, he will die. 00:16:57.360 --> 00:17:01.120 His body will be put in the grave before sundown the next day. 00:17:01.360 --> 00:17:06.240 So when he says this is his body, he's speaking of the reality of the incarnation. 00:17:06.400 --> 00:17:07.920 This is his identity. 00:17:08.160 --> 00:17:12.720 This bread that he would have been holding in his hands represents what he is coming to. 00:17:13.119 --> 00:17:16.720 As he has broken the bread, so his body will be broken. 00:17:16.799 --> 00:17:18.720 Certainly that's wrapped up into it. 00:17:18.880 --> 00:17:27.519 I know because he was a precious lamb, a holy Passover lamb that's not gonna have any defilement to it, and so none of his bones in that sense would be broken. 00:17:27.759 --> 00:17:37.119 And I think that's speaking kind of big picture here, like his femur is not gonna be broken, his you know, his main bones are not gonna be broken, he's not gonna be defiled. 00:17:37.200 --> 00:17:39.759 It's not saying if you take an x-ray and look at all the little bones in the hand. 00:17:39.839 --> 00:17:40.799 I've had people asking that. 00:17:40.960 --> 00:17:47.440 If you look at all the little bones in a person's hands, how can you put a nail through someone's hand or someone's wrist and not break any of the tiny bone fragments? 00:17:47.599 --> 00:17:48.480 That's not what it's talking about. 00:17:48.559 --> 00:17:54.720 It's talking about if you were to look at a lamb, this you can't bring a three-legged lamb over as the Passover lamb. 00:17:54.880 --> 00:17:56.640 You're like, oh, which lamb should we sacrifice? 00:17:56.799 --> 00:17:57.359 The lame one. 00:17:57.440 --> 00:17:58.799 Sacrifice that one. 00:17:59.200 --> 00:18:01.440 No, Jesus was not defiled. 00:18:01.519 --> 00:18:02.880 There was nothing wrong with him. 00:18:02.960 --> 00:18:04.319 He was sinless. 00:18:04.960 --> 00:18:06.480 That's the idea here. 00:18:06.640 --> 00:18:08.160 And yet he was murdered. 00:18:08.400 --> 00:18:09.599 He really did die. 00:18:09.680 --> 00:18:14.720 And so, as the bread is broken, that's representing the idea that his death is going to be real. 00:18:14.799 --> 00:18:18.160 Just as he has a real body, it's really going to die. 00:18:19.200 --> 00:18:22.720 His life and his mission is wrapped up in this bread. 00:18:22.880 --> 00:18:27.039 He came from heaven to earth, and he will die on earth. 00:18:27.519 --> 00:18:28.640 He will die on earth. 00:18:28.720 --> 00:18:32.079 And it's one comment here about both the wine and the bread. 00:18:32.400 --> 00:18:42.799 Very common for those of you raised in the Catholic Church to have this idea of transubstantiation that in the celebration of communion, the bread becomes his body in a literal way. 00:18:42.960 --> 00:18:47.759 The wine is transformed into his blood in some kind of literal way. 00:18:47.920 --> 00:18:54.720 Even the Lutheran idea of consubstantiation doesn't actually transform into his body, but you know, kind of does, sort of. 00:18:55.759 --> 00:19:02.960 I just want you to locate your imagination in that room that night as he holds up the bread and holds up the cup. 00:19:03.200 --> 00:19:05.039 I mean, he's there with it. 00:19:05.279 --> 00:19:09.680 He's not saying this bread is my actual body. 00:19:09.839 --> 00:19:11.839 That is is we he's right there. 00:19:12.000 --> 00:19:16.400 The bread and the person of Jesus are in the same room at the same place at the same time. 00:19:17.200 --> 00:19:18.799 They're not conflated. 00:19:19.759 --> 00:19:28.160 I mean, speaking in Aramaic, Aramaic lacks that kind of helping verb is that Greek provides and the New Testament provides the word is. 00:19:28.240 --> 00:19:40.000 This is why some translations don't even say this is my body, but this represents my body, or you know, literally in Aramaic, it would sound like it'd be three words in Aramaic: bread, mine, body. 00:19:40.240 --> 00:19:41.039 That's it. 00:19:41.279 --> 00:19:43.440 You know, is might be too strong of a word. 00:19:43.599 --> 00:19:44.799 This bread is my body. 00:19:44.880 --> 00:19:46.400 That's a word that we're providing. 00:19:46.559 --> 00:19:47.599 It's kind of too strong. 00:19:47.839 --> 00:19:49.279 This bread represents my body. 00:19:49.359 --> 00:19:51.119 That might be a little on the soft side. 00:19:51.440 --> 00:19:52.960 Might be a little soft there. 00:19:53.119 --> 00:19:57.759 He's saying that this bread, it's pointing to him. 00:19:58.000 --> 00:19:59.200 He's hijacking it. 00:19:59.279 --> 00:20:00.720 He's saying, This is me. 00:20:00.880 --> 00:20:03.759 This bread used to point to the flight from Egypt. 00:20:04.000 --> 00:20:06.640 Now it points to my body. 00:20:07.680 --> 00:20:09.519 Me, he's saying. 00:20:10.240 --> 00:20:14.079 His real body, wrapped up in that bread, so to speak. 00:20:14.559 --> 00:20:20.400 Secondly, his bread, the body, um, speaks of our communion. 00:20:20.640 --> 00:20:23.920 The bread points to his body, and the bread points to our communion. 00:20:24.160 --> 00:20:25.680 We are part of his body. 00:20:25.920 --> 00:20:32.000 As we have fellowship with one another through him, this is how the New Testament picks up on this communion metaphor. 00:20:32.480 --> 00:20:37.519 Jesus, of course, has already said man doesn't live in bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God. 00:20:37.759 --> 00:20:45.200 Jesus, as he puts forward the bread and identifies his body with that bread, he's demonstrating that he sustains us. 00:20:45.440 --> 00:20:48.319 We are designed to have communion and fellowship with him. 00:20:48.559 --> 00:20:50.960 Our spiritual nourishment is walking with him. 00:20:51.200 --> 00:20:52.640 It is eating his words. 00:20:52.799 --> 00:20:54.000 We have communion with him. 00:20:54.240 --> 00:20:56.880 We have communion with one another as we have communion with him. 00:20:57.119 --> 00:20:59.440 It is his Holy Spirit who binds our church together. 00:20:59.599 --> 00:21:04.480 It's the spiritual gifts in 1 Corinthians 12 that links us together, one to another. 00:21:04.559 --> 00:21:09.119 We're all in a spiritual body together, joined to each other as we serve the Lord together. 00:21:09.279 --> 00:21:13.680 We're walking with Jesus through his word, indwelled by his Holy Spirit. 00:21:13.839 --> 00:21:15.359 We have communion with each other. 00:21:15.519 --> 00:21:17.039 That's where Paul goes to the Corinthians. 00:21:17.119 --> 00:21:20.160 He talks about the union we have in spiritual gifts, one body. 00:21:20.400 --> 00:21:22.559 We're united together in one body. 00:21:22.799 --> 00:21:24.240 We have love for each other. 00:21:24.400 --> 00:21:25.519 Our head is Christ. 00:21:25.680 --> 00:21:28.960 1 Corinthians 14, the 13, the immature passes away. 00:21:29.039 --> 00:21:31.680 We grow into the full image of Christ, who is our head. 00:21:31.920 --> 00:21:37.359 Chapter 14, now, we gather together for worship as one body with Jesus. 00:21:37.759 --> 00:21:39.359 That's our communion. 00:21:40.000 --> 00:21:43.200 Meals, of course, are a source of fellowship and communion. 00:21:44.160 --> 00:21:48.559 Jesus is identifying himself as the center point of the church's identity. 00:21:48.880 --> 00:21:50.960 The center point of the church's worship. 00:21:56.559 --> 00:22:03.920 You want to get to know them, you invite them over to their house, or you go over to their house, and people still I hear that the Americans, even today, still invite people over to their house for dinner. 00:22:05.440 --> 00:22:06.960 And I I hope you do that, by the way. 00:22:07.039 --> 00:22:08.559 I say it jokingly, but I hope you do that. 00:22:08.640 --> 00:22:10.720 I hope your homes are open for people in the church. 00:22:10.799 --> 00:22:19.759 I hope you're inviting people from the church over into your house for lunch on Sunday afternoons, for dinner midweek, for just things in your house. 00:22:19.920 --> 00:22:24.160 Because there's a certain amount of fellowship that happens in that kind of environment. 00:22:24.319 --> 00:22:27.519 It's it's Christians should not be those that don't have people in their house. 00:22:27.839 --> 00:22:31.039 That's a bit of a warning sign that something's not quite quite right there. 00:22:31.119 --> 00:22:34.400 And I'll let you figure out what's not quite right in your own house on that one. 00:22:35.759 --> 00:22:42.079 The idea that Jesus is our communion here, it's centered around food, it's centered around eating. 00:22:42.559 --> 00:22:48.000 I used to work at a restaurant, and as a busser at a restaurant, we would play games. 00:22:48.160 --> 00:22:56.880 We would like we would try to predict what different people were eating at their at the restaurant, how what their relationship was to each other, like, oh, those two people there on a first date. 00:22:56.960 --> 00:22:58.000 Oh, he's gonna propose. 00:22:58.079 --> 00:22:59.440 Oh, those people barely like each other. 00:22:59.519 --> 00:23:01.119 It must be a business meeting. 00:23:02.000 --> 00:23:04.799 And I learned pretty early on, this is before I was a Christian. 00:23:04.880 --> 00:23:05.599 I was a high schooler. 00:23:05.759 --> 00:23:15.440 Before I was a Christian, I learned if you had a group of people at a table together that didn't look like they had anything in common, but they looked like they liked each other, they were Christians. 00:23:15.680 --> 00:23:17.680 Like, what do those six people have in common? 00:23:17.920 --> 00:23:18.880 They're believers. 00:23:19.119 --> 00:23:20.079 There you go. 00:23:20.799 --> 00:23:21.920 This is so evident. 00:23:22.240 --> 00:23:26.640 Jesus makes that happen because he is our communion. 00:23:26.799 --> 00:23:28.000 He is what we have in common. 00:23:28.160 --> 00:23:30.480 He binds us together. 00:23:31.039 --> 00:23:33.119 And of course, in the evening, this is true in the Old Testament. 00:23:33.200 --> 00:23:38.000 The unleavened bread in the Old Testament was the source of the Jewish, it represented the Jewish identity. 00:23:38.240 --> 00:23:40.480 It represented their holiness and their identity. 00:23:40.640 --> 00:23:42.480 That really gets to the third point here. 00:23:42.640 --> 00:23:45.599 That the bread represents our own holiness in the church. 00:23:45.920 --> 00:23:46.720 Our own holiness. 00:23:47.119 --> 00:23:50.640 For the Jewish world, the unleavened bread represented the speed in which they left. 00:23:50.880 --> 00:23:53.599 Everybody eats bread that is leavened. 00:23:53.680 --> 00:23:59.200 Everybody eats bread that is soft and fluffy and delicious and wonderful and warm. 00:23:59.519 --> 00:24:03.680 Jews have this different identity based upon their flight out of Egypt. 00:24:03.839 --> 00:24:07.839 They unleavened bread because it was part of their ethnic identity. 00:24:08.160 --> 00:24:12.720 Jesus becomes our identity, so to speak, not ethnic identity. 00:24:12.880 --> 00:24:16.480 It transcends nations and transcends language groups and national boundaries. 00:24:16.559 --> 00:24:22.480 You have more in common with a Christian who speaks a different language from a different nation than you do with a non-Christian from your language and from your nation. 00:24:22.880 --> 00:24:23.920 I hope you understand that. 00:24:24.079 --> 00:24:29.599 It's the body of the Lord that gives us that common identity and it speaks to our sanctification. 00:24:29.839 --> 00:24:33.680 Jesus is not just our focal point of our identity, he transforms our life. 00:24:33.759 --> 00:24:37.359 And so communion speaks of the sanctified church. 00:24:38.880 --> 00:24:40.880 We take on the flavor of the word. 00:24:41.680 --> 00:24:45.680 As we participate with the Lord, we take on his flavor. 00:24:45.920 --> 00:24:56.880 You know how some foods have a smell that, you know, I had a roommate that used to make his own kimchi, this Korean dish, and I could smell from outside of the house when he was making kimchi. 00:24:57.039 --> 00:24:59.599 I could smell for like two days after he ate kimchi. 00:25:01.039 --> 00:25:03.759 Believers should be like that with the Lord. 00:25:03.839 --> 00:25:06.160 We take on the Lord's identity. 00:25:06.559 --> 00:25:10.720 We eat, so to speak, the communion. 00:25:10.960 --> 00:25:17.039 Our lives are sanctified, and we take on the aroma of life that leads to life. 00:25:17.359 --> 00:25:21.200 This is picked up in the New Testament, of course, 1 Corinthians 5. 00:25:21.359 --> 00:25:24.640 Clean out the old leaven so that you may form a new lump. 00:25:24.880 --> 00:25:26.559 Just as you, in fact, are unleavened. 00:25:26.640 --> 00:25:30.400 Speaking of sanctification, you're cleaning out your sin, you're taking off your sin. 00:25:30.480 --> 00:25:31.759 You're leading a sanctified life. 00:25:31.920 --> 00:25:35.200 Because Christ, our Passover, has also been sacrificed. 00:25:35.359 --> 00:25:36.480 Notice Paul's language. 00:25:36.640 --> 00:25:42.400 You lead a sanctified life because Jesus, our Passover, he's referencing the communion meal. 00:25:42.720 --> 00:25:43.839 He's been sacrificed. 00:25:44.000 --> 00:25:52.640 Therefore, let us celebrate the feast, not with the old leaven, malice and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth. 00:25:53.119 --> 00:25:54.720 So Paul is using this communion. 00:25:54.960 --> 00:26:01.359 As Jesus took over Passover, Paul is taking communion to speak of the sanctification of the church. 00:26:02.079 --> 00:26:12.480 You don't celebrate the old Passover meal as a Christian any more than you would keep gossiping, any more than you would keep living in malice and wickedness. 00:26:13.359 --> 00:26:15.279 No, you have been transformed. 00:26:15.519 --> 00:26:18.960 And so you speak with sincerity and with truth. 00:26:19.200 --> 00:26:23.359 It speaks of our holiness, the holiness of the church body. 00:26:23.440 --> 00:26:24.799 1 Corinthians 10, 21. 00:26:24.960 --> 00:26:28.160 This is why you cannot partake in the Lord's table and the table of demons. 00:26:28.319 --> 00:26:30.240 Paul goes on to that conclusion. 00:26:30.480 --> 00:26:37.359 You cannot, a person with the Holy Spirit cannot say Jesus isn't Lord, can't deny the Lordship of Christ. 00:26:37.599 --> 00:26:40.240 That again is why Judas was dismissed. 00:26:40.480 --> 00:26:44.880 This was an event that could not possibly be celebrated by those who were living for the devil. 00:26:45.119 --> 00:26:48.240 It becomes a watermark of holiness in our life. 00:26:48.400 --> 00:26:54.880 So first, the bread, which speaks to the body of the Lord, the communion we have and our own holiness. 00:26:55.039 --> 00:26:56.319 Second, the wine. 00:26:57.039 --> 00:26:58.400 The wine, verse 27. 00:26:58.559 --> 00:27:00.000 Then he took a cup. 00:27:00.319 --> 00:27:07.119 And when he'd given thanks, this would be the cup of thanks, or the cup of blessing, as it's called at the Passover meals. 00:27:07.279 --> 00:27:08.720 This comes at the end of the meal. 00:27:08.880 --> 00:27:11.119