Grace be unto you and peace from God our Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ. Let us prepare our hearts for worship. Yeah. So, Yeah. so so so We welcome all of you in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ to Dayspring Fellowship this morning. We are so glad for your presence with us, and we're especially glad for those of you who are visiting with us. I encourage you to sign our guest register so that we can have a record of your visit. And while you're there, please pick up a free copy of a booklet we have called Ultimate Questions. We like to give that booklet as a free gift to all who visit us and join us for worship. I want to direct your attention to the bulletin where you'll notice on the left-hand side there that this morning our elder David Riedel taught Sunday school and adult Sunday school on 2nd Corinthians 318. The title was Biblical Models of Change. If you were providentially hindered from being here for that lesson, it will be online this week. I encourage you to get a hold of it and to listen to that and be in prayer for Our brother and elder Mack Smith, sister Ann, are in Little Rock. They'll be traveling back home tomorrow. Also notice that on Wednesday evening of this week, we'll have our brown bag supper as usual in the fellowship hall at 545, followed by our study in Genesis at 630. We'll be in Genesis chapter 9. Title of our message will be Blessing, Covenant, Sin, and Curse. And then I'd like to direct your attention to the right-hand side of the page. You will see there that Al Mohler is in town. He got in safely last night. He's preaching at High Point Baptist Church this morning and this evening at 5 p.m. All of Dayspring are invited to join our brothers and sisters as Al Mohler, who is the president of Southern Seminary, where I attended seminary, will be leading a discussion on current cultural trends and their effects on us, on our churches, and on our witness. And I have the address there for locating High Point. Also tomorrow evening, Al Muller's going to stay over an extra day, and he's going to go up to UT and be on the campus of the University of Texas speaking there about thinking as a Christian in college. And so if you're a young person already thinking about college, if you're in college, or you're just interested in that topic, I would highly encourage you. It's a free event. to go and see Al Mohler at his best when he is interacting with the world on a college campus, taking questions. He'll be doing quite a bit of that. I remember back in about 2003 when I was thinking about going to seminary and doing theological studies and I was looking at master seminary out in California. I was looking at the reform theological seminary in Jackson, Tennessee or Mississippi and then I had a talk with with Jackson Boyette and Jackson said, you need to go look at Southern Seminary. There's a guy up there, Al Moller, he's kicked out all the liberals and all the Armenians and he's doing some great things. I'm so thankful for that because the seminary wasn't even on my radar. looked into it, it turned out to be the perfect place for me. And I've been encouraged with a lot that Al Mohler has done. So this evening and tomorrow evening will both be edifying times with Dr. Mohler. And then secondly, I want to mention Brandy Clopton and the gift that we are going to give to her. Many of you might have seen this in the news that this week, just on Tuesday of last week, Her parents were killed by a drunk driver here in Austin, Texas, and they were servants and stewards at Gateway Church here in Austin. I attended the funeral, which was yesterday morning. It was very encouraging. The gospel clearly presented, and this orphaned 16-year-old stood up and talked about her mommy and her daddy. and about how the three of them had recently all come to saving faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. They'd been baptized like a household baptism, the three of them together. And I spoke with the pastors and with other leaders in the church about how we as a church could reach out to them and to help them in this time of need, knowing all that we have gone through and the connection that we have. And they said that they would be opening up a college scholarship for Brandy, and so that's something that we could contribute to. And that also, they don't know exactly who's going to have custody. There's two sides of the family, but it sounds like it's going to be a paternal grandmother who gets custody of Brandy and that grandmother is just living off of disability and so they said that gift cards to Walmart and gift cards to H-E-B would be something that would be appropriate for us to do as well. So the elders are going to get together decide what we want to do to minister to our brothers and sisters and exalt Christ in that way. But if you want to give to that effort, you can make a check out to Dayspring and just put Brandy in the notes section. The trial is ongoing. We thought it might be over by this week. But it was an encouraging week with lots of Dayspringers praying for one another, caring for one another, consoling one another as we continue to grieve and move forward in hope. And so I just want to make mention of the fact that tomorrow morning at 9 AM, the jury will continue their deliberations and then return with a verdict. And if that verdict is guilty, they'll then go pretty immediately into a punishment phase where witnesses will be called, including our elder, Ben Fletcher, our sister, Barbara Harrell, and the jury will then deliberate on the punishment. And after that phase, there's something called allocution in which several are going to be able to stand on the witness or take the witness stand, speak directly to Terry Elmore. And so I intend to take an opportunity to present the gospel very clearly to her in that setting. So you'll be praying for this week's events. Remember that planning cards need to be handed in, so if you haven't already turned in your planning card, please do that today. Place them in the plate in the back of the chapel. And we need those very soon. Our annual business meeting is going to be on Sunday evening, February the 23rd at 6 p.m. So we will worship together corporately that morning, come back that evening for our annual business meeting. All day springers are expected to attend, so please do mark your calendars now and plan on being there for that important meeting. We only do it once a year. Final note there is that the Austin Marathon is something that also happens only once a year, and it's next Sunday. So a week from today, you'll want to make plans as 40,000 people hit the streets of Austin. And many streets are going to be closed or be having police direct traffic. That includes 51st Street eastbound between Duval and Guadalupe. So you want to plan your drive accordingly tomorrow morning and expect some traffic delays. As we begin this morning, please turn in your red hymnal to hymn number 97. Hymn number 97. And please stand together for our call to worship. Our call to worship comes from the 99th Psalm. The Lord reigns. Let the peoples tremble. He sits enthroned upon the cherubim. Let the earth quake. The Lord is great in Zion. He is exalted over all the peoples. Let them praise your great and awesome name. Holy is He. The King in His might loves justice. You have established equity. You have executed justice and righteousness in Jacob. Exalt the Lord our God. Worship at His footstool. Holy is He. Let us sing together. ♪ To God our Redeemer, Creator ♪ ♪ In grateful devotion and tribute we pray ♪ ♪ We lay it before you, we kneel and adore you ♪ ♪ We bless your holy name and praises we sing ♪ We worship you, God of our fathers, we bless you, who life-sore and deathless our guide you have been. Let us pray together. Our God and Father, we come to you this morning asking you to come to meet with us, and we come acknowledging your Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, to be our Almighty King. And so we come to you in His name as the family that you have adopted as your own. And we give you thanks, Lord God, for sending us the Holy Spirit of adoption into our hearts to bear witness to you, to apply your word to our lives. And so we come as your children today to praise you and to honor you, to seek your face, to worship you in spirit and in truth. Please meet with us and grant to us the ability to glorify you today. We pray that you would comfort the hearts of your people today. Give us the assurance of the righteousness that has been imputed to us from Jesus Christ, the Holy One. Meet with us as we partake of the Lord's Supper. Heal our wounded spirits and our sin-sick souls as we come to you, repenting of our sins. We pray, Lord God, that you would remind us afresh today that there is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. And we pray, Heavenly Father, that it would be your voice that we hear shepherding our souls as your Word is read and preached today. Do your sovereign work by your Spirit in each heart here. And we pray, Lord God, that in all things you would ensure that you receive for yourself all the glory and honor. In Jesus' name we pray, amen. You may be seated. Please turn over to number 535. Let's sing of the deep, deep love of Jesus, number 535. O the deep, deep love of Jesus, vast, unmeasured, boundless, free, rolling as a mighty ocean in its fullness over me. Underneath me, all around me, is the current of Thy love. Leading onward, leading onward, to Thy glorious vessel. How He watches o'er His loved ones, like to call them of His own. ♪ Tis the haven sweet confessor ♪ ♪ O the deep, deep love of Jesus ♪ ♪ Tis the heaven of thanks to Thee ♪ ♪ And it lifts me up to glory forevermore ♪ Now please turn over to number 468, My Faith Has Found a Resting Place. Number 468. I need no other argument, I need no other plea. enough for me that Jesus saves, listens my fear and doubt. A sinful soul, I come to Him, He'll never cast me out. I need no other, I regret, I need no other, He died for me. I'm always leaning on the Word, the written Word of God. Salvation by my Savior's name, salvation through His blood. I need no other. For me, His precious blood He shed. We read in the Book of Acts that every Lord's Day the disciples came together and devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching and to prayers and to the breaking of bread. And we celebrate the Lord's Supper every Lord's Day here at Dayspring. If we went even a Lord's Day without doing so, it would be to us like having a Lord's Day celebration without the preaching of God's Word. This is an integral part of our worship service as we are nurtured in the supper. And we invite those of you who are visiting with us to not feel at all estranged about partaking with us. This is not our table. This is the Lord's table. And so we invite you to join us in partaking of the Lord's Supper. We do ask three things of you. We ask firstly, as we have just sung, that your faith has found a resting place. and that that resting place is in Jesus Christ alone. You're not trusting in any goodness in yourself, in any merits or any works that you have done, but you are looking to Jesus and to His finished work on the cross, His perfect righteousness imputed to your account, and depending upon Him, trusting in Him alone for your salvation. And secondly, we ask that you be a baptized believer. but we leave the details of your baptism up to your individual conscience. And finally, we ask that you not be under discipline from your local congregation so that we might respect the work of the Lord as he builds his church in the world. As we prepare to come to this table, let's turn in the red hymnal to hymn number 248. 248 in the red. ♪ All who Jesus has defended ♪ ♪ Have meant to judge me ♪ ♪ Have been imprisoned and killed ♪ ♪ By false diviners ♪ ♪ Why are you rejected? ♪ ♪ Who was the victim? ♪ ♪ Who was the guilty? ♪ ♪ Who brought this upon thee? ♪ ♪ Who was thy treason? ♪ ♪ Jesus hath undone thee. ♪ ♪ Falls our Lord Jesus ♪ ♪ I am lost in thy way ♪ ♪ I crucify thee ♪ ♪ O Lord, you shall be mine ♪ I'll be there when you need me, calling to see you. ♪ Therefore pray Jesus, since I cannot pray Thee, I do adore Thee, and will ever pray Thee. ♪ One by this earth ♪ I usually like to read Zacharias' prophecy during the Advent season, but it applies any time, so if you don't mind. Zacharias, as you remember, was the father of John the Baptist, and he said words that casted a little bit of doubt on the sovereignty of God. God closed his mouth so he was not able to speak for at least nine months, which means he had plenty of time to think. And that's what we're supposed to do here at this table. We're supposed to meditate on the Lord, and this is what came out of that thinking of Zacharias. And his father, Zechariah, was filled with the Holy Ghost and prophesied, saying, Blessed be the Lord God of Israel, for he has visited and redeemed his people. He has raised up a horn of salvation for us in the house of his servant David, as he spoke by the mouth of his prophets from of old that we should be saved from our enemies, and from the hand of all who hate us to show the mercy promised to our fathers and to remember his holy covenant. The oath that he swore to our father Abraham to grant us that we being delivered from the hand of our enemies might serve him without fear. In holiness and righteousness before him all our days And you, child, will be called the prophet of the Most High, for you will go before the Lord to prepare His ways, to give knowledge of salvation to His people in the forgiveness of their sins, because of the tender mercy of our God, whereby the sunrise shall visit us from on high. to give light to those who sit in darkness, and in the shadow of death, to guide our feet into the way of peace. I speak as to sensible people. Judge for yourselves what I say. The cup of blessing which we bless, is it not a participation in the blood of Christ? And the bread that we break, is it not a participation in the body of Christ? As there is one bread, we who are many are one body, for we all partake of that one bread. Whoever, therefore, eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty of profaning the body and the blood of the Lord. Let a person examine himself then, and so eat of the bread and drink of the cup. For anyone who eats and drinks without discerning the body eats and drinks judgment on himself. That's why many among you are weak and ill, and some have died. But if we judged ourselves truly, we would not be judged. But when we are judged by the Lord, we're disciplined so that we will not be condemned along with the world. Will you please take a moment and examine yourself? Lord our God we come before you realizing that you have sent your son to save our souls and to give us peace and Lord we receive that salvation with hearts that are full of thanksgiving. We thank you, O Lord, for your eternal love. We thank you, O Lord, for your eternal peace. And, Lord, we do pray that as we come to this table that we will remember the awful price that had to be paid to redeem us. We thank you, O Lord, that you were willing to suffer that death yourself instead of us. You are our substitute and so we can come before you fully clothed in righteousness and garments that are spotless. and we can come into your very presence because of our Lord and Savior. We pray, O God, that you would bless the elements at this table, bless the bread, set it apart for its holy use, and, Lord, we pray that you would sanctify this cup, bless it, and set it apart for its holy use, and bless us in partaking of it to do so worthily. In the name of Jesus, our Savior, amen. For I received from the Lord what I also delivered to you, that the Lord Jesus, on the night when he was betrayed, took bread. When he had given thanks, he broke it and said, this is my body, which is for you. Do this in remembrance of me. And in the same way also he took the cup after supper, saying, this cup is the new covenant in my blood. Do this as often as you drink it in remembrance of me. For as often as you eat this bread, and drink this cup you proclaim the Lord's death until he comes. This is the body of the Lord Jesus which is broken for you. This is the blood of the Lord Jesus which is shed for your sins. Thank you. Please turn to number 606. Teach me thy way, O Lord. Number 606. ♪ Help me to know Him ♪ ♪ For I am blessed by sight ♪ ♪ In Him be verified ♪ ♪ Teach me thy way ♪ ♪ And I am satisfied ♪ ♪ Teach me thy way ♪ ♪ Give me joy divine ♪ In times of happiness, in times of darkness, in failure or success, teach me thy way. In doubts and fears of life, teach me thy way. In storms and trebuchets, teach me thy way. Oh, say does that star-spangled banner yet wave Please turn with me in your red hymnals to 839. Page 839 in the red. And let us read responsibly Psalm 146. Please stand together. Praise the Lord. Praise the Lord, O my soul. I will praise the Lord all my life. Do not put trust in princes and mortal men who cannot save. Blessed is he whose help is the God of Jacob, whose hope is in the Lord his God. He upholds the cause of the oppressed and gives food to the hungry. The Lord lifts up those who are bowed down. The Lord loves the righteous. The Lord reigns forever, your God, O Zion, for all generations. Praise the Lord. Let us pray together. Our gracious God and Heavenly Father, we thank you that you do reign forever for all generations and that you sustain the fatherless. And so we lift up to you this fatherless teenage girl, Brandy Clopton, who was orphaned on Tuesday. We pray that you would be a father to her and sustain her in her faith and in her life through the care of your people. Lord, we thank you for your mercy to this church this week. We thank you, Lord God, for providing us with brothers and sisters who encourage and comfort one another in the gospel, who serve one another and care for one another's children and provide meals to one another and love one another. We pray, Lord, that you would continue to be with the Bowermans and the Savories. We pray that you would be with our Avey Lewis as she recovers at home from the effects of her recent fall. We lift up to you, Lord, this woman, Terry Elmore. We pray that you would have mercy upon her and reconcile her to yourself by your sovereign grace. We pray that you would make the gospel clear to her this week. We pray that you would be with the 12 jurors, that you would give them sober-mindedness and that you would minister to their souls through all that they have heard and seen. Be with the prosecuting and defending attorneys. Grant them rest. We lift up to you, Lord, our world and pray for those who are ministering in your name. We thank you, Lord God, for blessing our brother Ken Barber, giving him your favor in Belize. We pray that you would continue to tear down the enemy's strongholds and allow your gospel to penetrate hardened hearts in the prison system there in Belize. We pray for our dear brother David Sitton as he writes and speaks and helps to train up missionaries to take the glorious gospel to unreached peoples throughout the nations. We thank you for the encouragement that Tommy has been to us this past week and pray that you would give her safe travel back home in the days to come. We lift up to you our dear brother Bill Phillips as he serves our country in Missouri today on his birthday. We pray that you would be especially with the Phillips family as they experience the difficulties of his absence and await his return next month. We pray for Max and Ann Smith that you would bless their time with Amanda and Little Rock and bring them home safely tomorrow as they drive. And we lift up to you all who are preaching your word and speaking of your great deeds today. We pray that you would especially be with Al Mohler as he proclaims your gospel to the saints at High Point Baptist Church this morning, that they would be strengthened in their faith in you. And we pray for your great blessing upon our time with him tonight. We pray, Heavenly Father, that you would bring revival into our own homes and our own hearts, strengthen the marriages of this congregation and the families here, bring our children, bring our lost loved ones to saving faith in Jesus. And we pray, Lord God, that you would bring your kingdom to its fullness, that all Israel might be saved, and that the earth might be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord as the waters cover the sea. In Jesus' name we pray, amen. You may be seated. And our children can go out to Children's Church at this time. As they go, I would ask if you would turn in your copy of God's Word back to Luke's Gospel. Gospel of Luke, beginning in chapter 22 this morning. Luke chapter 22, beginning in verse 1. 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. Then Satan entered into Judas, called Iscariot, who was of the number of the twelve. He went away and conferred with the chief priests and officers how he might betray him to them. and they were glad and agreed to give him money. So he consented and sought an opportunity to betray him to them in the absence of a crowd. Then came the day of unleavened bread on which the Passover lamb had to be sacrificed. So Jesus sent Peter and John saying, go and prepare the Passover for us that we may eat it. They said to him, where will you have us prepare it? He said to them, Behold, when you have entered the city, a man carrying a jar of water will meet you. Follow him into the house that he enters and tell the master of the house, the teacher says to you, where is the guest room where I may eat the Passover with my disciples? And he will show you a large upper room furnished. Prepare it there. And they went and found it just as He had told them, and they prepared the Passover. We have come this morning to a significant point of transition in Luke's Gospel. For the last few chapters, Luke has been presenting Jesus's final weeks in Jerusalem. And in that week, the tension between Jesus and the religious leaders of Israel has been escalating as Jesus is teaching the crowds. And he's begun to more openly proclaim judgment on Jerusalem and on Israel and the temple and the religious leaders of Israel. and at the same time pointing to His own coming glory and greatness. You see in verses 37 and 38 of chapter 21 that the crowds are drawn to Jesus who is teaching every day in the temple. And Luke says all the people, they're coming to Him to hear Him. And this really brings things to a head then between Jesus and the religious leaders. We see that in verse one of our passage. 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 with this, we enter into what is commonly called the passion narrative. And used in this way, that word passion, it's not referring to the excitement or the emotion of Jesus Christ. In this case, passion is being used to speak of the gospel narrative which focuses on the final events of Jesus' life in which he was betrayed, arrested, mistreated, brutally killed, and buried. This term passion, it's taken from the Greek verb pascho, which means to suffer. So this is the account of Jesus' suffering and death. These events are among the most significant historical events that are recorded in all of scripture and in all of human history. Of course, every aspect of history fits together as a part of God's plan. He is sovereign over all of it, and so at one level it's arbitrary to make distinctions of what's most important, but it's significant that all gospel writers, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, They show things here in the same sequence, and they slow things down significantly, dramatically, right at this point, to give a very detailed account of what happens to Jesus over a period of just a few days. You know, only two Gospel writers speak in any detail about the events of Jesus' birth. And in terms of Jesus' teaching, there's a variety of what we might see in the various Gospels, but all four testify, all four Gospels testify together to the centrality of Jesus' suffering and His death. And we see that here in Luke's Gospel. Some people actually speak of the Gospels as passion narratives with extended introductions. And at one level, there's a lot of truth to that. These are events that everything else up to this point has been moving forward, moving toward, and leading up to. You can go back to chapter 9 and verse 51 when Luke says, the days drew near for Jesus to be taken up, and Jesus set his face to go to Jerusalem. This was his goal. This is where he was headed, and now here he is at this moment. In our passage this morning, Luke, as a skilled writer, puts before you at the beginning here the setting and the characters, those who would be the main figures in these final events of Jesus' life and his ministry upon the earth. Preparations are being made by various people. The scene is being set, the table is being laid for all of the events which are about to transpire. A helpful way to think about this passage might be to divide up these preparations for the passion that you see in our passage under three key headings. So first of all, there were Passover preparations that were going on. Secondly, there were demonic preparations that were taking place. And thirdly, there were sovereign preparations that were being made. I want to notice and consider each of those in turn. But before we do that, let me say one more word of general introduction as you head into the Passion narrative. I've said this before about just the way that we've approached Luke's Gospel. I think it's important to maybe just repeat it here as we go into the Passion narrative, that these are unique events in the history of the world. Okay, these are events that are being carried out once and for all in the fullness of time as the unrepeatable and unique basis for the salvation of God's people. And you need to keep that in mind as you make your way through this narrative testimony. On the other hand, throughout the retelling of these events, you will be coming into contact with a variety of people and examples that have significant implications and applications to the way that you live in response to the Lord today. Okay, so that even Jesus himself, Jesus was your sacrifice and your substitute if you belong to him. Utterly unique in that. And yet he is also your example of a perfectly righteous man in the way that he related to God and in the way that he bore up under his suffering with faith in God. the disciples and the religious leaders in the crowds, they're going to respond to Jesus at a very unique time of history and under a unique set of circumstances. But they also teach you a great deal about how you do and about how you might respond to Jesus today in your own life. So throughout the Passion narrative, you should seek to recognize and to hold up both of these aspects, the utter uniqueness of what is happening in the suffering and in the death of Jesus, and also the examples and the applications that would apply to the way that you live today. Okay, so as you look at the preparations for these events of the Passion Narrative, the first thing that you see is that these are our Passover preparations. This is a key element for Luke in setting the scene. This morning in Children's Sunday School, we were considering together the supremacy of Jesus Christ in the Old Testament. And so, of course, we had to consider the Exodus story and the Passover lamb and the significance of the Passover. It's no coincidence that these events are happening during the week of Passover. Once again, this is how Luke begins in verse 1. Now, the feast of unleavened bread drew near, which is called the Passover. Now, if you're not familiar with the Passover, this was a national celebration that God had commanded the people of Israel to hold once a year. They were to celebrate in remembrance of God's deliverance of the people of Israel from out of their slavery in Egypt. We commonly refer to that also as the Exodus, the Passover and the Exodus. So this was when God intervened in Israel's history and in such a dramatic way. He brought a variety of supernatural plagues upon the Egyptians. Those culminated And the tenth plague, which was the killing of every firstborn Egyptian son in a single night at midnight as the Lord took the lives of the firstborn. Every firstborn son was killed by God in every household that didn't have the blood of the Passover lamb on the doorpost. So God had allowed Israel to kill a lamb in the place of their sons, so that their sons would be spared. And then Pharaoh would finally let the people go free to go out into the wilderness and worship God in the fear of the Lord. And the Jews had been celebrating that deliverance for well over a thousand years. Officially, there was a feast on the first day of the celebration called the Passover Feast, when they would sacrifice a lamb in remembrance of God's mercy, and they would eat it that evening at dinner. That would then be followed by a week-long celebration that was called the Feast of Unleavened Bread. And in that week, they would not eat any bread that had any leaven in it. That was a reminder of the quickness in which they had to leave Egypt because they didn't have time for the bread to rise. It was also symbolic of them removing any evil or sinful influence from their lives as they followed the Lord in faith. And that Passover feast, that meal, a feast of unleavened bread, they basically came together in this week-long single celebration so that the whole thing could be called the Passover or the whole thing could be called the feast of unleavened bread. It was basically one celebration. the regular activities of the whole nation would come to a halt as they remembered this remarkable moment in their history and there would be a massive influx of people into Jerusalem for this important celebration. And yet it was more than just a reminder. It was more than just a reminder of what God had done in their past. It was also an expression of hope in what God was still going to do in the future. They were looking forward to a new deliverance, where they were waiting upon God to fulfill His promises to them. Because at this time, Israel was not free. They were under the governance and the oppression of a foreign pagan government. And the pretender who was calling himself the king of the Jews, he wasn't even fully a Jew and he wasn't in the line of David. And so as they would celebrate the Passover, they would remember that remarkable deliverance from the Exodus, but it was also an expression of hope and of anticipation of a new work that God was going to do. And as Luke is about to set the events of the Passion narrative before you as his readers, he clearly wants you to know that the Passover is central to the background, to all that is taking place. So verse 1 again, the feast of unleavened bread drew near which is called the Passover. Verse 7, then came the day of unleavened bread on which the Passover lamb had to be sacrificed. Again, verse 8, so Jesus sent Peter and John saying, go and prepare the Passover for us. Verse 11, tell the master of the house, the teacher says to you, where is the guest room where I may eat the Passover with my disciples? Again, verse 13, they went and found it just as he had told them, and they prepared the Passover. I believe that Luke wants you to know that the Passover is happening. This is the background to all that is about to unfold. There's something significant about that setting for the passion narrative. And those of you who know the end of the story, you know that it is because this new act of deliverance that God was carrying out for His people was happening in and through the death of Jesus. Not just a temporal, earthly, political freedom, but an eternal freedom to once and for all live under the kingship and the provision of God Himself. God Himself would be the everlasting King over His people. And that would happen through the death of Jesus Christ. He was the Passover Lamb who was being sacrificed once for all for the sins of God's people. Remember John the Baptist when he was preaching repentance and teaching. Before Jesus had even begun his public ministry, he sees Jesus and he says, look. And everyone looks. Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world. And so that supernatural deliverance out of Egypt, the Exodus, with all of its displays of power and protection and rescue that came directly from the hand of Almighty God, things so remarkable that today many people have trouble believing that they are even true. Remarkable acts of God's power and deliverance. That was just a small prelude to what God was about to do. in the death of Jesus Christ. It was the sign that tells you the real destination is coming if you keep heading in that direction. And that's not a statement about how small the accomplishment of God was in the Exodus. That's a statement about how incredible was God and what he was about to accomplish in the sacrificial death of Jesus Christ on the cross. Well, next week, Lord willing, we're really going to delve deeply into the significance of this Passover background and how it helps us to understand what is happening in the death of Jesus. But for now, in this preparatory passage, you just need to see how clearly this Passover setting is essential in God's plan as the backdrop for the events which are about to follow. So you have Passover preparations. You also have demonic preparations which are going on here. Here you're introduced to a variety of individuals who play a crucial and an evil role in the suffering of Jesus. And as you are briefly introduced to each of these characters, one of the overarching points that comes through here is that even as God was sovereignly accomplishing His plan of salvation and the suffering and death of Jesus, There was, nevertheless, great sin and wickedness that was being carried out by the enemy of God, by those who were opposed to Jesus. Wickedness that they were responsible for and that would bring God's righteous and just and terrible wrath upon them for it. In this regard, you see the Jewish leaders You see that fallen angel, Satan himself. And you see Judas, the traitor who betrays the Lord he pretends to follow. All of them sinfully opposed to Jesus and to the plan of God. So I want you to look at each one of these characters briefly and see what lessons they may teach you today. Okay, so first you have the Jewish leaders making demonic preparations against Jesus. And the chief priests and the scribes were seeking how to put him to death for they feared the people. Okay, so these are the religious leaders of Israel. They were entrusted with providing spiritual leadership and guidance to the people in their relationship to God. And unfortunately what you see is that they, and you've seen this throughout Luke's gospel, they are insincere. They are hypocrites. They are greedy. They are self-righteous. They are political manipulators. They are out to glorify and to serve themselves rather than to glorify the God they pretend to serve. Rather than to serve His people. Rather than to carry out truth and righteousness and standing firmly upon these things, they would maneuver in whatever direction they thought would serve their own self-interests. And in this case, they're now concerned to find just a quiet way to kill Jesus. Because if they oppose him openly, they're afraid of the crowds of people who've gathered in Jerusalem, who are drawn to Jesus, who are hearing his teaching in the temple, who are interested and excited about Jesus. So that if these leaders were to oppose Jesus openly, they're afraid that the crowds would turn against them. Matthew 26, 3-5 says, Then the chief priests and the elders of the people gathered in the palace of the high priest, his name was Caiaphas, and plotted together in order to arrest Jesus by stealth and kill him. But they said, Not during the feast, lest there be an uproar among the people. Okay, so the only thing that is keeping these leaders from just openly murdering Jesus is that they need to find a way to do it secretly because they're afraid of how the people might treat them. That's why they're so delighted about Judas' betrayal. Our passage points out how glad they were. One very practical application here is to recognize that holding a position of religious leadership or authority or ministry of any kind does not in itself give someone a right standing with God or even protect them from great spiritual blindness and sin. Unfortunately, you can all think, I'm sure, of too many leaders in the church today who have abandoned biblical truth for personal gain, for political gain, for cover to their personal sin and wickedness. And ultimately, you need to remember that everything and everyone must be assessed by the Word of God, not by their position of authority or leadership or standing within a community. And that's the responsibility not just of religious leaders, but of the church as a whole. And unfortunately, you're going to see that many of the people are going to end up following these leaders in their rebellion against Jesus. They're also going to be shouting for Christ's death. And the leaders will bear a unique responsibility in that, but the people will also bear their own responsibility for that. Remember how the Apostle Paul said in Galatians 1-8 to the Galatian church, which was in danger as a church of abandoning the biblical gospel, and Paul said, But even if we, that is the apostles, even if we or an angel from heaven should preach to you a gospel contrary to the one we preach to you, the biblical gospel, let him be accursed. You judge for yourselves from scripture the words that you hear. So I say to myself, to my fellow elders, to anyone here who may aspire to church leadership of any kind, let us be warned by the example of the chief priests and the scribes. And let us hold firm to the gospel. Let us humbly submit our lives to the Word of God and stand under it and not over it. We see the demonic preparations of the Jewish leaders. We also see the demonic preparation of Satan. Look at verse 3. Then Satan entered into Judas, called Iscariot, who was of the number of the twelve. He went away and conferred with the chief priests and officers how he might betray Jesus to them. Okay, so Satan enters into Judas. I want to come back in just a moment to Judas and consider him as one demonized, influenced by Satan. But the point I want to highlight here in regard to Satan is to recognize there was a great spiritual battle that was taking place in the events that surrounded Jesus' death. And this battle is still raging today. just as it has been throughout all of history since Genesis 3.15 and until today. It's raging today in regard to the lives of individual people. Satan hates Jesus. Satan wanted to destroy Jesus. Fortunately for us, he could not and cannot do that. But he will do everything in his power to oppose Jesus. He will do everything in his power to lead others in rebellion against him. He did it with Judas, one of the twelve who had been with Jesus all the way through the three years of his ministry. He still seeks to do it today. 1 Peter 5 and verse 8 says, be sober-minded, be watchful. Your adversary, the devil, prowls around like a roaring lion seeking someone to devour. Resist him firm in your faith. The reality is most people in our culture, in our country, they live and they work and they play with absolutely zero awareness that there are supernatural realities beyond what they can see and hear and taste and touch. The Bible says that what is real is that there has been a battle that is raging. It's been raging throughout history and it's a battle for the allegiance, for the hearts and minds of men and women. Satan is an evil spiritual being, a fallen angel who has taken the lead in this battle in opposition to the one true and living God. Satan's power in that battle is limited, especially this side of the cross, but it is real and he wants to do everything that he can to influence hearts and minds away from faith in Jesus, away from dependence and trust in the one true God toward anything that would be in opposition to faith and righteousness. In this case, Satan attacks the Son of God himself head on, which at the very least shows you his ruthlessness, if not his foolishness in the end. Satan knows that he's not going to defeat the Holy One of God. You've seen that clearly already from the confession of the demons in Luke's Gospel. But if he's not going to defeat him, he will do everything in his power to make things as ugly and as painful and as difficult as he can possibly make them. And while he goes down in defeat against Jesus Christ, he's going to do as much damage as he can. And he's going to take as many people down with him as he can. That's what happened during the Passion Week. That's what's happening all around us today. And that brings us to the demonic plans of Judas. Look again at verse 3. Then Satan entered into Judas, called Iscariot, who was of the number of the twelve. He went away and conferred with the chief priests and officers how he might betray him to them. And they were glad and agreed to give him money. So he consented and sought an opportunity to betray him to them in the absence of a crowd. Why did Judas agree to betray Jesus? This man who had been personally selected by Jesus to be one of the twelve, one of those who were with Jesus throughout His ministry, he had the opportunity to see all of Jesus' miracles. He had the opportunity to hear all of Jesus' teachings, to live day by day, face to face, with perfect righteousness, perfect wisdom, and love, and humility, and compassion, and meekness. Just imagine, day by day, with Jesus. Why would he betray Jesus? There are multiple ways to answer that question, and there are some that we surely don't know, but there are some things that God tells us. On one level, you can say it was because Judas had given his allegiance over to sinful desire. He had given himself over to sinful desire. Specifically, you're told in John 12 that Judas was a thief. He'd been given charge of the money bag that provided for all of Jesus' disciples, and we're told that he would regularly steal money for himself. This greed obviously played out here during the Passion Week, as he sought out payment for his betrayal of Jesus. In Matthew's version, you're told that Judas actually asked the Jewish leaders, what will you give me if I deliver Jesus over to you? So at one level you could say that Judas betrayed Jesus at least in part because his heart was ruled by a sinful love of money. This also helps you understand then Satan's influence over Judas. Because the passage indicates that Judas, he was demonized by Satan. So Satan here is exercising a tremendous influence over Judas in the betrayal. But Satan doesn't exercise his influence in this way over people who are living in faith. People who are living lives producing fruit and keeping with repentance. Satan exercises influence where sinful desire is dominating a person's heart. You see this in Ephesians 2. It is those who are dead in their trespasses and their sins who are following the course of this world. In other words, sin has dominance over their lives. Those are those who follow the prince of the power of the air, who is Satan. These things go together. That's what we see happening in Judas. Satan's power or influence comes together with Judas' own sin. And that's what leads Judas to betray Jesus. Now, two things then stand out dramatically as you consider Judas' role in all of this. One, beware of giving yourself over to sinful desire. Beware of the resulting foothold that that may give for Satan's influence, the devil's influence in your life. Satan is not sovereign over your hearts and your minds, but his influence is real. He is alive, and He is active today. That's what 1 Peter 5 says. That's what Ephesians 6 says. And the avenue through which He gains and exercises influence in your life is through your own sin and unbelief. So as Peter tells you, you resist the devil by remaining firm in your faith, by letting go of your sin, and by clinging to Jesus. Now, as you're going to see later in Luke's Gospel, there's something even deeper underneath that. There's Jesus' commitment to hold you. You're going to see that with Peter. But right now, the application for you is, what do you do? You release your sin, and you cling to Jesus, trusting in Him, and you won't give Satan a foothold in your life. Second, you see Judas' decision to betray Jesus that simple association with and proximity to Jesus does not indicate saving faith in Jesus. So simple association with and proximity to Jesus does not indicate saving faith in Jesus. Judas was closer to Jesus in terms of personal, relational proximity and association than most people have ever lived. Maybe only superseded by a few of the disciples. And yet this, in and of itself, did not make Judas right with God. And so similarly, you cannot assume that simply because you are in proximity to Jesus or associated to Jesus by being with the church on the Lord's Day like you are this morning, by reading your Bible, by praying or just by knowing a lot of things about Jesus. You cannot assume based on those things that you are reconciled to God, that you are forgiven of all of your sins, that you are spiritually made new. Because salvation comes through personal faith in Jesus Christ and that alone, and personally receiving Him as the Lord, recognizing Him, and personally trusting Him to save you from all of your sins by virtue of His righteousness and His substitution on the cross. If you have not done that, You should not put your hope in those other things. You shouldn't assume that the outcome of your life will be any better than that of Judas if you're not trusting personally in Jesus alone. Now, if you're here today and you're watching online or listening to a recording of this and that is your situation, my exhortation to you is not stop listening, stop coming to church, stop reading your Bible, or stop praying. My exhortation to you is to enter by faith into a personal relationship with Jesus Christ, in Him alone, and let that then shape how all of those other things play out in your born-again life in the right way. But that's where it's got to start. It's got to start with turning and trusting in other things, and personally trusting in Jesus. Judas never did that. Three years of walking and talking and eating and living in community with Jesus Christ, and he never did that. Take heed from his example. You've seen in our passage Passover preparations, and now you've seen a number of demonic preparations. And lastly, you see sovereign preparations. This last point is going to be very brief. but it's disproportionate in terms of its significance because it's crucial to highlight here that the preparations that were leading to the suffering and the death of Jesus are all under His own sovereign control. Even as you see this powerful array of murderers, both human and demonic, aligning themselves as one against Jesus to carry out their sinful plans. The picture that you get both in the passage here and more broadly in the Bible is that Jesus is still in complete control of his circumstances. In fact, he is planning things out so that he might willingly fulfill all that the Father had given him to accomplish. In no way does this diminish the sinfulness of those rebelling against Him. And in no way does this make Jesus the author of sin. And yet He's in control of everything that takes place. This is a theme that will be revisited many times in the weeks ahead, but just a few closing comments in this regard. You see Jesus' sovereign preparations in the way that he instructs Peter and John to prepare for the Passover. You've seen things like this in Luke's Gospel. Remember the triumphal entry. So Jesus here, he tells them to go into the city. They're going to be met by a man carrying a jar of water. He's going to lead them to a house where they will be received. There's going to be a room that's ready, furnished, prepared for them to gather and to celebrate the Passover meal. And then look at how Luke summarizes that in verse 13. They went and found it just as he had told them. Now the significant point here is the picture that is given to you of Christ. Jesus is in control. He's marching forward with his own plans. And events are, they're going to unfold exactly the way that he wants them to. The fact that the Passover meal and the sacrificing of the Passover lamb would serve as the immediate backdrop to Jesus' death on the cross, this was no coincidence, just happenstance of history. This shows Jesus' sovereign control over all that is happening. Because remember from Matthew 26, which I read earlier, the religious leaders, they'd explicitly said amongst themselves, as they were plotting to murder Jesus, not during the feast. We want to kill this man, but not during the feast. But what happens? It happens during the feast. Because that was Jesus' plan. And what the Jewish leaders could not have engineered on their own, it was initiated by the betrayer who had been handpicked by Jesus. Judas' betrayal had been foretold by God centuries before the scriptures, before the New Testament scriptures. We see it in Psalm 41, we see it in Psalm 55, we see it in Zechariah 11. Jesus said to the disciples in John 13, 18, I know whom I have chosen, but the scripture will be fulfilled. And then he quotes Psalm 41, 9. He who ate my bread has lifted his heel against me. I am telling you this now before it takes place, so that when it does take place, you may believe that I am. Jesus was in total sovereign control of his own betrayal, of his own suffering, of his own death. You see it again in John 10, 17, and 18. Jesus says, I lay down my life that I may take it up again. No one takes it 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. This charge I have received from my Father. These are the sovereign preparations and actions carried out by our Lord in His suffering and His own death. And you don't just see great sovereignty here, you also see great love. Great love demonstrated for undeserving sinners to provide freedom from bondage and forgiveness of sin by willingly taking upon himself the wrath of God that we deserve. Ephesians 5 says, Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her. He's sovereign. He gave himself up. Why? Because he loved the unlovable church. This was a love so great that Paul had to pray for the Ephesian church, that they would actually have the strength to comprehend it. It's a love that Paul says surpasses knowledge. As we make our way through the Passion narrative in the weeks to come, that is my prayer for each of you, that you would be able to comprehend the inexpressible love of Jesus Christ that is shown to you when under His own sovereign will, He takes upon Himself the very judgment of God for the sins of everyone who belongs to Him. Let us pray together. Our sovereign Lord Jesus, how we praise you and worship you as we just begin to glimpse the significance of all that was accomplished in your suffering and your death for us that is made known in Luke's gospel account of these final days. Lord, we praise you for your sovereignty demonstrated in these events. We praise you for your humility demonstrated in these events. And we praise you for your great compassion and love that is demonstrated toward us, your people, in the events of your suffering and your death. Lord, we also thank you for the warning in the example of those who would stand opposed to you and not submit to you as Lord and Savior. We pray that you would guard our hearts from giving ourselves over to sinful desires and giving Satan a foothold. Lord, keep us close to you. Keep us humble in you. May our hope and our trust be firmly placed in you, finding the joy and the peace of your great salvation. In your precious name we pray. Amen. Please stand together. I look forward to seeing many of you tonight at High Point Baptist Church at 5 o'clock. This will be a great time of fellowship between churches with other brothers and sisters. And I want to remind you that these are brothers and sisters who for over two years have kept you very much in the forefront of their thoughts and their prayers. It will be an encouragement to them to see you, an encouragement for you. to be with them. Be sure to greet our visitors and to visit with Tommy Sitton, David Sitton's wife, who has been with us, encouraging us all week. And now may the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God, and the fellowship of His Holy Spirit be with you all. Amen. Thank you.