This is a message by Pastor Mark Fox of Antioch Community Church in Elon, North Carolina. For other sermons from Antioch, you can visit the church website at antiochchurchnc.org. Now, let's turn our hearts to the Word of God. Well, we are back into the book of Mark this morning, and so Mark will be preaching from Mark 14. If you want to go ahead and turn to that this morning, we'll be in verses 12 through 25. Mark 14, 12 through 25. And I know we just sat down, but just to continue in our worship and adoration of the Lord, let's stand as we read the word of the Lord together this morning. and prepare our hearts to receive from him that which he would have for us this morning. I'll be reading from the ESV version, just join me with whatever version you have before you. On the first day of the unleavened bread, when they sacrificed the Passover lamb, his disciples said to him, where will you have us to go and prepare for you to eat the Passover? And he sent two of his disciples and said to them, go into the city, and a man carrying a jar of water will meet you. Follow him, and wherever he enters, say to the master of the house, the teacher says, where's my guest room? Where may I eat the Passover with my disciples? And he will show you a large upper room furnished and ready there prepared for us. And the disciples set out and went to the city and found it just as he had told them, and they prepared the Passover. And when it was evening, he came with the twelve, and as they were reclining at table and eating, Jesus said, Truly I say to you, one of you will betray me, one who is eating with me. They began to be sorrowful, and to say to him, one after another, is it I? And he said to them, it is one of the twelve, one who is dipping bread into the dish with me. For the son of man goes as it is written of him, but woe to that man by whom the son of man is betrayed. It would have been better for that man if he had not been born. And as they were eating, he took bread, and after blessing it, broke it, and gave it to them, and said, take, this is my body. And he took the cup, and when he had given thanks, he gave it to them, and they all drank of it. And he said to them, this is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many. Truly I say to you, I will not drink again of the fruit of the vine until that day when I drink it new in the kingdom of God. Well, good morning. Welcome to Antioch. All of you who are here physically with us and all of you who are here digitally or however you say that on the internet with us. We're glad you're here as well. So time is short for Jesus. He knows that in less than 24 hours He will be delivered over and He will be hanged on a cross. He spends His final day with the disciples, doesn't He? He eats his final meal with the disciples, at least his final meal before the cross. We call it the Lord's Supper, but for them it was the final Passover. You might say the completed Passover, right? Because the true and perfect Lamb, without spot, without blemish, would offer himself for the sins of the world once and for all. And Jesus did not just preside over this feast. He is the feast, as we see in this text. Let's look at this passage today under three main points. The sovereignty of the Savior, the sorrow of the disciples, and finally, the surprise of the supper. First, the sovereignty of the Savior like that da Carson quote not a drop of rain can fall outside the orb of Jesus sovereignty Amen now Jesus moves deliberately toward the cross. He continues to show that he is in Complete control. There's not a hint. There's not a whisper of of anything taking Jesus by surprise, not even any evidence of him being desperate or fearful about some evil plot that has been carried out against him. In fact, he said in John's Gospel, remember in John 10, no one takes my life from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. I have authority to lay it down And I have authority to take it up again, John 10, 18. James Edwards says, Jesus displays a sovereign freedom and authority to follow a course He has freely chosen in accordance with God's plan. Judas and others may act against Him, but they do not act upon Him. We need to understand that. They act against Him, oh yes, but they cannot act upon Jesus. He is sovereign. Now we see the sovereignty of the Lord in this text in several ways. First we see it in the way He sends two disciples. Remember the last time He sent two disciples to do something? Right? It was before the triumphal entry. Before he entered into Jerusalem for the final time, he sent two disciples. This time he does the same thing, and this time they are to go and make arrangements for the Passover meal. You see that everything was just as he said it would be. He's in complete control. Every detail from the man carrying the jug of water who meets them in town to the large upper room which is fully furnished that has been prepared for them. Jesus knows what he's doing and he knows what is needed. We also see the timing or the sovereignty of Jesus in the timing of this last meal itself during the Passover. One of the, maybe the most important celebrations of the Jewish people. Remember the Passover looked back to the night when God delivered his people from slavery, from bondage, 430 years of it. in Egypt, he delivered them that night from slavery. Ten plagues were poured out on Pharaoh and on the nation of Egypt. And culminating in the final one when God sent the angel of death, remember, and killed the firstborn of every family and the firstborn beasts even. But God made a way of escape for those who believed. Remember that? God told his people to prepare a Passover lamb, to slaughter the lamb, to eat the lamb in a certain way, but also to take the blood of the lamb and put it over the doorposts of their homes, so that when the angel of death went through the land, killing the firstborn, those whose houses were covered by the blood of the lamb were passed over. It's no mistake then that Jesus' last meal this side of eternity, and that's a typo, it should say this side of the cross, because he did come back, right? He was resurrected, he ate with the disciples again. The last meal this side of the cross was the Passover meals. Paul said, for Christ our Passover lamb has been sacrificed. So He's sovereign over the details of the event. He's sovereign over the timing of the event. But one of the things that's most amazing about this is Jesus is sovereign even over His own betrayal. He knew who would betray Him and He allowed it to happen. But neither Jesus nor Judas were pawns in this. Very important to understand. Jesus willingly took up the cross that was ordained for Him and chosen by Him. Judas also willingly sold his master into his death for 30 pieces of silver. Though that was exactly what was ordained for him to do. It was predicted in the Old Testament, prophesied in the Old Testament. Jesus says, verse 21, for the Son of Man goes as it is written of Him, but woe to that man by whom the Son of Man is betrayed. It would have been better for that man if he had not been born. And by the way, just a side note, Jesus says the Son of Man goes as it is written for Him. Jesus again at this point elevates the authority of scripture and says this is what's important. We live our lives by this as it is written. Do not go beyond what is written Paul said in first Corinthians. And Jesus says, it is exactly as it was written for me. Edwards writes this, I love this quote, divine providence neither cancels human freedom nor relieves human responsibility for moral choices. That's important. In other words, Judas did what Judas wanted to do, as do you and I. Right? But don't forget, though Judas was the only traitor in the formal sense, listen to this, all the disciples would betray Jesus. Judas does so for greed, for 30 pieces of silver. Peter, James, and John are going to do so in the garden because of human weakness. They can't stay awake even though Jesus told them more than once, can't you stay awake with me and pray for an hour? They don't do it. And in fact, all of them, all of the disciples will betray him as it says in verse 50, and they all left him and fled. They all left him and fled. And finally, Peter does so three times out of fear when asked if he knows Jesus. We'll get to that text in a while. They each did what they chose to do at the time because that's what they wanted to do. And that's true of each of us. We basically, as Dick has said many times, people basically do what they want to do every single day. They do what they want to do. It's the grace of God that intervenes at times that allows us to not do what we want to do when we realize that what we want to do is going to be harmful to us and or harmful to other people. And then we say, okay, God, I can see I'm not supposed to do this. This is what I want to do, but I'm going to set aside my flesh and I'm going to obey the move of the Spirit on my life. So that was the sovereignty of the Lord. Let's look at the sorrow of the disciples in verses 17 through 19. The Passover meal would last for several hours. But at some point during the meal, Jesus says the last thing the disciples wanted to hear him say. What does he say? One of you will betray me. I think of the shock when they heard those words. I mean, Jesus is the one that they've left everything for. Remember, Peter, James, and John, they left their fishing nets, they left their families, and they went in with Jesus to go wherever he wanted to go. And Matthew left his tax-collecting booth and all of the lucrative business that he had built up, he left it all, and he followed Jesus. And Jesus says, one of you will betray me. And they knew what he meant by that. One of you will betray me to my death. They followed him for three years, but you know, it's interesting at this moment, I think they're sorrowful of the idea that there's going to be a betrayal and Jesus is gonna die. They're finally maybe beginning to understand that, but what are they really sorrowful about at that moment? Lord, is it possible that it's me? Are you talking about me, right? their sorrows for themselves, their greatest fears that they would be the one he's talking about. It says that should be our concern as well. Lord, help me not to betray you. Lord, help me not to be the one who turns his back on you, deconstructs my faith, or whatever you wanna call it, and washes my hand of the gospel, and in the darkness, forget what I learned in the light, and walk away from you. Lord, help me not to be that man. By God's grace, I won't be that man. But one by one they ask him, is it I? Is it I, Lord? One of the fathers of the faith, the church father's origin is his name, wrote about this moment, that the disciples believed Christ's words more than their own consciousness. In other words, most of them were conscious of the fact that they loved Jesus, they were deeply devoted to Jesus, they would do anything for Jesus. And in fact, most of these men, of course Judas excluded, but most of the disciples that are left will be martyred for him. They'll give their lives believing, proclaiming, exalting the name of Jesus. But they want to know who it is, and Jesus answers their question that his betrayer is one of the twelve, one who's dipping his bread in the dish with him. In other words, he's an insider, someone who is a close follower, which makes it even harder. Right? The closer the betrayal, you ever been betrayed by a friend? The closer the betrayal, the deeper the wound. Again we see the sovereignty of our Lord in this passage. He loved Judas. He walked with him. He taught Judas for three years. On the night he knows Judas will betray him, Jesus washed Judas' feet. Jesus served Judas the Passover meal. Jesus broke bread and ate with Judas. And later that evening, Jesus will not refuse a kiss from Judas who betrays Him. Finally, let's look at the surprise of the supper. This is the longest point and the most important, perhaps. Verses 22 through 25. As we've talked about before, the Passover meal was an important time for every Jewish family. Everything in it had significance. Everything in it was kind of scripted by the Jews over the years in the Mishnah, the extra writings of the Jewish people. And everything in it, remember the Passover pointed back to the deliverance of Israel from slavery. We talked about that. But we know since that last Passover, on this night in Jerusalem, the Passover that Jesus celebrated on the earth, that everything about it was always pointing forward. They didn't know that until then, but everything in the Passover, thousands of years before, was pointing forward to this final. Passover when we would not just be delivered from slavery to human governments We would be delivered forever from sin and from death That's why John the Baptist when he saw Jesus walking this is before Jesus even started his ministry and John the Baptist said behold what behold the Lamb of God who does what? takes away the sin of the world and That was a prophetic utterance from John the Baptist about his cousin, wasn't it? Behold the perfect Lamb of God, the final sacrifice was setting up this moment. Jesus has already surprised the disciples with this announcement that one of them would betray Him, but there are other surprises to come in this meal. Now look, the disciples were intimately familiar with the Passover celebration. These guys were Jewish. They had grown up Jewish. They had grown up doing the Passover every year with their families. They knew how it worked, right? It was always a family affair, which is interesting because the Passover was not celebrated by 12 men or 13 men in this case. The Passover every year was celebrated in a family. The father, if he was still alive and if he had not abandoned his family, if the father was in the home, he led the Passover event. Remember the youngest son in the family had an important job. What did the youngest son do? Does anybody know? He asked the questions, right? He would be given the script. Here are the questions, here's when you ask them, right? And so he was being trained to ask the father, why did we do this? Why did we do that, right? And so it's important for us to understand that this was an important event for the family, right, about the exodus of the people. Now, Mark, greatly abbreviates the Passover element of this. He wants us to see the Lord's Supper. That's the most important thing. But they celebrated the Passover before they did the Lord's Supper. And most people believe that even though women and children are not mentioned in this text, they were probably there. Mark 15, 41 says there were also many women who came up with him to Jerusalem. Why would these women who came with Jesus to Jerusalem be left out of the Passover of which they were constituent parts? A large room was prepared. You don't need a large room for 13 men. who were sitting on the floor, basically. When they say furnished, that means they had couches on, I mean, pillows on the floor for them to recline at table. And then Jesus, when asked, is it I, is it I? Jesus says, one of the 12. If it's only, he says, one of you will betray me. The disciples close to him says, is it I, Lord? Is it I, is it I, is it I, is it I? He says, one of the 12. Why would he say one of the 12? if it was only the 12th in the room with him. Now that's not a big deal, don't build a doctrine on that, don't start a, you know, I believe that the women and children were at the Passover church of, the first women and children Passover church of Burlington. Don't do that, that's silly. But it's important that they were there. This wasn't just, you know, a men's retreat. But the greatest surprise of the meal comes when Jesus speaks after breaking the bread. Now look, after the bread was broken in a normal Passover celebration, there would be a spoken word. But here's what it was. Oh Lord, the father would say, blessed are thou, oh Lord our God, king of the world, who brings forth bread from the earth. That would be the traditional Passover blessing of the bread. Now Jesus may well have said that, Mark didn't record it. What Mark does record was what shocked everybody in the room. When Jesus took the bread, and maybe after that traditional blessing, he says, take This is my body. What is he saying there? Why was it so shocking when Jesus said, take this bread. This is my body. Now, if he spoke in his normal language, his first tongue was Aramaic. He said, take, this is my person. The word in Aramaic would mean my whole person, my whole being. Mark uses Greek here. The word is somos, which is body, not flesh. So what's going on here? Jesus is connecting himself to the Passover, but he's also instituting, from the last Passover, he's instituting the first of Lord's Suppers, which we continue to do today. It commemorates the gift of Jesus' body and blood. Jesus did give his body. He did spill his blood on the cross. Had he not, we would not be able to be saved. There had to be a perfect blood sacrifice. Jesus was the only one who could do it, and he did it. But when Jesus says, this is my body, the best way to understand this is through metaphor. Remember in John 6, he says, I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me shall not hunger. If you take that literally, then I need to get a piece of Jesus' skin and eat it, and then I will not be hungry again. Jesus didn't mean that. He didn't mean come and take a bite of me. He is using metaphor here. I am the bread of life. I am the resurrection. I am the light of the world. I desire like a hen to gather my children to myself. It says in the Old Testament, God says that. And then Jesus, when he weeps over Jerusalem. So in other words, James Edwards says again here, when Jesus says, take and eat, this is my body. And take and drink, this is the blood of a new covenant. The bread means or conveys my body. Now look, the medieval Catholic Church, back in the medieval period, the Catholic Church began to teach that when Jesus said, this is my body, he meant this is his actual body. This belief is still taught in the Catholic Church today. It's called transubstantiation, that when you take that cracker and that juice, or in our case, in their case, a piece of bread and wine, when you take those elements, you're literally eating and drinking the body and the blood Jesus. Now the Protestants disagreed with that and there's lots of written about this you can research and you can read all about it, but the Reformers rejected that idea. Calvin wrote this in the 1500s that because, just listen to this, because Jesus was a man, remember Jesus has a physical body right now doesn't he? Yes, he's had a physical body since he was born in Bethlehem. He will have a physical body for the rest of time and time never ends. And so Calvin said, hello, Jesus is a man, he can't be in more than one place at a time, so it's impossible for him to be physically present each time communion is celebrated. Instead Calvin said, Jesus is physically present. when we tell, I'm sorry, spiritually present. So the bread and wine are not the actual body of Christ, neither are they just symbols. I know we say that sometimes, that the bread is a symbol of his body and the blood is a symbol of his blood, the wine is a symbol of his blood, but Jesus is saying here that I am present with you, not physically, but I'm spiritually present with you. Now, I hope that helps clear up some of the transubstantiation. I know the Lutherans also believe in consubstantiation, and that simply means, oh, no, no, it's not the body and the blood when you put it in your mouth, but once you swallow it and it becomes part of you, it turns into the body and the blood. Again, folks, we don't believe that, we don't think that's biblical teaching, and we think it's dangerous to go there. Now, Jesus then gets to the third of the four cups of wine. There were four cups of wine in every Passover meal. When he gets to the third, he uses metaphor again. This is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many. Remember, what were Jews taught about the blood? What did the blood represent in a creature? Life. In the blood was life. You take the blood, you take the life. So Jesus is saying in this new covenant I am pouring out my life for you. The old covenant which can only be maintained by the constant shedding of blood from goats and bulls and lambs was being replaced with the new covenant. with the imperishable blood of the Lamb of God. Sometimes look at Hebrews chapter 9. We're not going to look at all of it today. Hebrews chapter 9 verses 11 through 28 is an amazing passage that explains the difference between the Old Covenant and the New Covenant. Hebrews is all about Jesus is better. Jesus is the best priest, right? Jesus is the best, the covenant in Jesus is the best covenant, etc. And so read that and you'll see a wonderful teaching about the first covenant that God cut with his people in the Old Testament and then the new covenant that Jesus cut with his own blood. I'll give you a couple of verses. For if the blood of goats and bulls and the sprinkling of defiled persons with the ashes of heifer sanctify for the purification of the flesh, how much more will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without blemish to God, purify our conscience from dead works to serve the living God? How much better, right? The blood of bulls and goats and lambs and the Old Covenant could only sanctify the body and only for a time. There had to be other bloodshed, and other bloodshed, and other bloodshed. But the blood of Jesus Christ washes us and cleanses us from sin once and for all. That's why John wrote in 1 John 1, 7, but if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another. And the blood of Jesus, his Son, cleanses us from all sin. Now I brought up four cups. What about the fourth cup? Did they drink the fourth cup of the Passover in this final Passover, if you will? They didn't. Jesus refers to it in verse 25, look there. I will not drink again of the fruit of the vine until that day when I drink it new in the kingdom of God. And the four cups were basically taken from Exodus 6. The first one, I will bring you out. I will rescue. The second one, I will redeem you. The third, and I will take you as my own people and I will be your God. When does that happen? Finally and forever. When Jesus returns, he comes back for his bride. He takes the church. All who truly believe in Jesus have been born again, will be taken, and there at the wedding feast of the Lamb, Jesus, for the first time since he ascended, or since this Passover meal on the last night before he was crucified, for the first time, Jesus will drink wine with us in heaven. So he's not saying, hey, the cup is the celebration of the Passover. I'm not bringing that to an end right here. I'm extending it. I'm prolonging it. It's going to be better than you've ever imagined. But first, I have to go to the cross. First, I have to go and pay the price for your sin and for the sins of those who will come after you whom God has chosen to follow me all the days of their life. Let's pray. Father we're thankful this morning that the Passover became the Lord's Supper and we participate in that month by month remembering what you did that night in the upper room and what you did the next day from nine o'clock in the morning until three o'clock on that Friday when you gave your life for us. Lord, we don't take that for granted. Help us not to live in ignorance of that. Help us not to shy away from proclaiming that good news whether we are rebuffed or not. Lord, help us not to be ashamed of the gospel for it is the power of God for salvation for all who will believe. We thank you, Lord. We trust you, we love you, and we want to live the rest of our days honoring you with all that we do and say. We pray this in Jesus' name, amen. Thank you for listening to this message by Pastor Mark Fox of Antioch Community Church in Elon, North Carolina. Antioch meets every Sunday for worship at 10 o'clock a.m. at 1600 Powerline Road in Elon. You can download other messages by Pastor Fox at antiochchurch.cc. You can also learn how to order his books or subscribe to his blog at jmarkfox.com. you