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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.
Preparations for the Passion
Series Luke
| Sermon ID | 2914140245 |
| Duration | 1:33:49 |
| Date | |
| Category | Sunday Service |
| Bible Text | Luke 22:1-13 |
| Language | English |
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