Take your Bibles together with me and turn to Matthew 26, if you would, please. Today, we're going to be talking about a transition from the old covenant to the new covenant. Title of today's message is Passover and the Lord's Supper. This is a monumental text here in Matthew 26, verses 17 to 30. In many ways, this is a major text in the New Testament, because in this text, Jesus makes a clear transition from the promises in the Old Testament to the fulfillment of them in the New Testament. There is a transition here from the celebration of the Passover to the celebration of the Lord's table. The very significance of the event itself is evidenced by the fact that all three synoptic gospels record the events that we're going to be studying this morning. Matthew, Mark and Luke all have an account of the upper room that records the words of Jesus when he says, this is my body and this is my blood. And John has a full discourse or discussion of the events of the upper room in John 13 through 17. And it reveals even more details about the specific instructions that Jesus gave to his disciples and the address of Judas and a revelation of what was going on in his heart. This is a very significant text. It's a very well-known text. This is a text that we make reference to every time we celebrate the Lord's table. And I think it's very much worth our attention this morning to go through this in a little bit of a deliberate sense, but also to cover all the material in one message, because what I hope to do is not just to go through the details. We've done that before when we've gone through Luke's gospel, when we've talked about the text in John's gospel. We've also gone through messages on the subject of communion, et cetera, and understanding those things. And we're a biblically literate church, so I'm not covering anything today that I don't think you're familiar with. In fact, I think sometimes we become a little overly familiar with some texts. And what I really hope to accomplish today is to snap back into focus for each of us an appreciation and understanding of what not only happened that night in the upper room when Jesus established the ordinance of communion or the Lord's Supper or the Lord's Table, however we want to refer to it. And so that we remember what we're remembering when we celebrate it more than anything, that's what I hope to accomplish today. I really hope that the events that took place during the Last Supper leading up to and including the celebration of the Passover and the Lord's Table being established as an ordinance. I hope that as we look at these two key events, we will understand not only the nature and practice of the Passover celebration itself, that the Lord's table is derived from, but also that we'll comprehend then the significance of the Lord's Supper that we celebrate, that Jesus established for us as an ordinance. I hope this elicits within each and every one of us as believers a true appreciation of God's sovereignty, both in knowing the future and identifying that Jesus knew full well not only that He was going to be betrayed and that He was going to the cross, but even who was going to do it and when and where. And at the same time, all the way back in the days of Moses, When God established the Passover to begin with, even the way that he delivered Israel from bondage in Egypt and established the Passover celebration, he intended in that not only to be a memorial practice for the nation of Israel about what God had done in delivering them from bondage in Egypt, but also to set the stage for what Jesus was going to do once and for all when he died in our place on the cross. I really hope that you see that we have a saving God and that you realize that when we celebrate communion, we're not just doing something that we're commanded to do. We're doing something that is supposed to repeatedly direct our attention to an expression of love and worship and appreciation to Jesus Christ for what he did for us. So if you're Taking notes this morning, I've divided the passage and our lesson into two pieces. We're going to take a look at two key events that will help us really to understand the nature of the ordinances of God in Passover and communion by looking first at the celebration of the Passover and then at the establishment of the Lord's Supper. So there's your two points if you're taking notes. The two key events we're going to focus on that are given to us here in Matthew, chapter 26, verses 17 to 30, are the celebration of the Passover and then the establishment of the Lord's Supper. Now, to begin with, let's take a look. And the nature of this morning's text, I think, necessitates me doing a little bit more of kind of a teaching approach as opposed to preaching. I can't promise you I won't wind up preaching a little bit here, but my intention is first and foremost to just flesh out your understanding because we don't go to Jerusalem every year and celebrate the Passover, do we? In fact, I would bet most of us have never been to an actual Jewish Passover celebration. Is that fair? How many of you have never been to a Passover celebration? OK, exactly now. What I want you to see, and today it's a little different even than it was in the first century, which is a little different than it was through the period of the kings, which is a little different than it was in Moses' day, but there are instructions that are given in the Old Testament that clearly lay out what the procedure was to be from that first night and moving forward. So we're going to take a look at those details and see the practice that went on. We're going to resolve an interpretive issue, and then we're going to see how Jesus built his instructions to his disciples to remember him on top of the Passover ordinance. OK, so let's start by looking at the celebration of the Passover and the details there in the verses 17 to 19. Now, the origin of this practice dates all the way back to what the exodus goes all the way back to 1445 BC when God delivered Israel from bondage in Egypt. And we've talked about this in the past and we've covered the covenants, etc. in previous weeks as just over the summer as we were getting ready to go through the Olivet Discourse. So I'm not going to go through all of this again. But I do want you to realize that this practice that the Jews were involved in as an annual celebration called the Passover dates all the way back to the days of Moses. And in Matthew 26 and verse 17, you notice that we're told that now it was the first day of unleavened bread. That is the beginning of the Passover celebration. Passover was the first day, but the feast of unleavened bread went for the whole week. The day of preparation was the day when they would go through the house and they would take out all anything that had leaven in it, get rid of it all, clean it all out the whole bit. And then they would sacrifice the animal on the afternoon and then celebrate the Passover that evening. And that is the beginning of the Feast of Unleavened Bread. Now, there are some liberal scholars that get into this whole discussion about, well, actually there was a Passover celebration and there's a celebration of unleavened bread, and originally both of those were tied to celebrating the harvest or this or that or the other thing, and then over time they got put together, yada yada. These guys can't even agree on whether Moses wrote any of the Pentateuch, much less admit that he wrote the whole thing under inspiration. So we're going to ignore all of that silliness. I again, I will. Now this might be a little of my bias coming out, but listen, if you don't believe the Bible is true, I don't know why you're reading it or studying it in all fairness. And I don't mean to be flippant. I don't mean to be needlessly caustic or argumentative. I just don't know why You would spend time, other than just as a superficial interest, why you would spend your life studying the Bible only to say it doesn't mean what it says. If it doesn't mean what it says, if you don't believe it, that's fine. According to the Bible, who wrote Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy? Moses did. Now, if you believe that and you believe he wrote it, as God told him to write it, which is what it claims. And if you believe it's inspired of God, which is what not only Jesus affirms in the New Testament, but the rest of the Bible says, then what it says is true and truthful and historically accurate, right? Now, what I want to start with here is showing you exactly what the Bible says happened and was given as instructions from God through Moses to the nation of Israel all the way back in the days of the Exodus. So we're going to take the Bible at face value to be true and that there actually was an exodus. And that it actually happened in the days of Moses and it was actual literal deliverance of Israel from bondage in Egypt as they took them to the edge of the promised land. This celebration of the Passover was the culmination of that deliverance from bondage. It was directly tied to when That last plague was poured out by God that slew all the firstborn in Egypt, remember? And what God said is to the nation of Israel, you are to choose a lamb for your household on the 10th of the month. And this month, the month of your deliverance is going to be the first month on your calendar from now on. And on the 10th day of the month, each household will pick a lamb. And if your household is too small, then your closest household is also too small. The two of you are going to share one. You pick a lamb, you bring it into your home. And Kath and I, this summer, we saw what we're talking about, homes. Homes in those days are tents or small little shelters. And you literally have the livestock in the living room or the den or whatever. And then you have a wall. And then you have the middle room, which is where all the cooking and eating and all that stuff happens. And then you have where you and your kids sleep. So basically the structure was set up with outer walls and two dividers. Animals on one side of the house. Family on the other side of the house. And everything else goes in the middle. Olive press, whatever you have. So you bring that lamb into the house. on the 10th. On the 14th, you clean all the leaven out and the afternoon you put that you sacrifice that lamb. You put its blood on the doorposts and the lintel. The lintel is just a really cool term that means the big plank that sits across the top of the two doorposts. So your blood is there. Blood is there. Blood's across there. And that blood is the mark that shows, like God said, you have sacrificed the lamb that was blameless spotless. And you put the blood of that lamb on the doorposts and you trust that he will therefore on the basis of the shed blood of that lamb pass over your house and the angel of death will not visit you and kill the firstborn in your household. That's the original Passover. Now I want you to take your Bibles with me. And I want you to turn to Exodus 12. And I want you to see this is precisely what the Bible says. And this is precisely then what the Jews did really from that point forward. Now, there were periods of time through the years when is my mic not on? No, I'm OK. All right. There were periods of time through the years when Israel didn't celebrate the Passover. And there were high points and low points through the years of the kings when, you know, like like like one year all of a sudden they go, hey, you know, we were we were looking in the temple and guess what we found. We found the Bible. It says we should be doing all these things and not doing all doing all these things we're not doing and not doing all these things we are doing. What do we do? We better repent, right? And one of the things is starting to celebrate the Passover, etc. There were high points throughout the history of Israel that went like that. By the time you get to Jesus' day, because of the focus on the temple and the emphasis in turning it into a magnificent structure, etc., and the control of the high priest, etc., that celebration of the Passover was a national event that was practiced regularly every week. It was probably more consistent, more regular, and more of a big deal in Jesus' day than at any point in redemptive history. But in Exodus chapter 12 in the original Passover, notice it is God that institutes this, and it's directly tied to that night of Passover. Exodus 12 and verse 1, the Lord said to Moses and to Aaron in the land of Egypt, so they're still in bondage, this month right here right now today. We're starting your calendar in this month because this is the month you're going to begin as a nation. So this will be the month that you're beginning of your calendar. This month shall be the beginning of months for you. It is to be the first month of the year to you. Speak to all the congregation of Israel. In other words, everybody, all the Israelites that on the 10th of this month, they are each one to take a lamb for themselves according to their father's households, a lamb for each household. Now if the household's too small for a lamb, he and his neighbor nearest to his house are to take one according to the number of persons in them. According to what each man should eat, you are to divide the lamb. So you got a small family, then a couple of families, two, three households work together. Your lamb shall be an unblemished male, a year old. You can take it from the sheep or the goats, but this is what you're going to take. And notice it's on the 10th. You shall keep it until the 14th day of the same month. And then the whole assembly. of the congregation of Israel is to kill it at twilight. It's in the afternoon. Moreover, they shall take some of the blood and put it on two doorposts and on the lintel of the houses in which they are to eat it. So it doesn't go on every house. It goes on every house where you're going to gather to eat. But it's a blood on both doorposts and across the top of the doorframe for us. They shall eat the flesh that same night roasted with fire. They shall eat it with unleavened bread and bitter herbs. You'll see if you continue to read through the Law of Moses, the bitter herbs are to represent the bitterness of their time as a memorial, the bitterness of their time spent there in bondage. And the unleavened bread is a picture of the fact that in haste they left the next day and went out as God delivered them. He says, don't eat any of it raw or boiled at all with water. On this event, it doesn't matter how you like to eat it. On this event, you're all doing it the way it happened on that day. This is a memorial of that event. Rather roasted with fire, both its head and its legs along with its entrails, and you don't leave any of it over until morning. Whatever's left over until morning, you burn with fire. No leftovers. You shall eat it in this manner, Notice there are even instructions on how you dress. Your loins are girded, your sandals are on your feet, your staff is in your hand, and you shall eat it in haste. It is the Lord's Passover. 4. I will go through the land of Egypt on that night, and I will strike down all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, both man and beast, and against all the gods of Egypt I will execute judgments. I am the Lord. 5. The blood shall be a sign for you on the houses where you live And when I see the blood, I will pass over you and no plague will befall you to destroy you when I strike the land of Egypt. Now, that's what you're to do. And that's the process. And here's why, by the way, as you continue to read, you see the next day that night is that's exactly what God does. And at midnight, he strikes down the firstborn and all in Egypt. And then in the middle of the night, everybody wakes up. Pharaoh realizes even his firstborn is dead. He calls Moses and says, Get your people out of here. You can go take everything you want. Just get out. And so the next more that that's what they do. Get up the next morning and they are gone and they pillage the Egyptians as they leave. Now, here's the key. Look at verse 14. Even before that event happens, God gave instructions to remember what this night as a memorial of God's deliverance of that night. He says this day will be a memorial for you. What is a memorial mean? It's a remembrance. It's a it's something that you go through to remember something that happened in the past in a very real way. We have two annual memorials that we celebrate every year related to the church calendar and to to the ministry of Jesus Christ. Can you think of what they are? Christmas and Resurrection Sunday. And Christ Mass. I don't like that term either because Mass, we don't celebrate a Mass, but never mind. I'm giving up. We'll call them Christmas and Easter and wait till heaven until it's all biblical. In any case, we memorialize, we remember and celebrate what? The incarnation even though it didn't happen in December. And we celebrate the death, burial and most particularly the resurrection of Jesus Christ and what he did for us. OK, for Israel. In the Old Testament context, this day. OK, the 14th of the month. This day is a memorial for you and you shall celebrate it as a feast or festival to the Lord throughout your generations. You are to celebrate it as a permanent ordinance. This is why we call the Lord's Supper an ordinance. It is a prescribed regular practice. That's what ordinance basically means. It's an order. It's instructions to follow. Seven days you shall eat unleavened bread. But it's on the first day you remove the leaven from your houses, and whoever eats anything leavened from the first day until the seventh, that person is cut off from Israel. On the first day you have the holy assembly, and another holy assembly on the seventh day. No work at all shall be done on them except what must be eaten by every person, that alone may be prepared by you. And you shall also observe the Feast of Unleavened Bread. Notice this feast is tied to Passover from the very beginning. This is not a later introduction. These two are connected. You shall observe the Feast of Unleavened Bread, for on this very day I brought your hosts out of the land of Egypt. Therefore, you shall observe this day throughout your generations as a permanent ordinance. These are a set of instructions I'm giving you to follow permanently every year. On the 14th of the month, you sacrifice the lamb, you celebrate the Passover just like it was celebrated here, and for the next week, you remember you were delivered from bondage in Egypt in haste and you eat unleavened bread for the rest of the week. And you set up as a practice, a memorial a remembrance of how I delivered you and made a nation out of you. Then he goes on with more instructions. Let's just skip down to verse 23. Notice the further explanation. For the Lord will pass through to smite the Egyptians. And when he sees the blood on the lintel and on the two doorposts, the Lord will pass over the door and will not allow the destroyer to come into your houses to smite you. And you shall observe this event as an ordinance for you and your children forever. And when you enter the land, which the Lord will give you, as he has promised, you shall observe this right. And when your children say to you, what does this right mean to you? you shall say it is a pass-over sacrifice to the Lord who passed over the houses of the sons of Israel and Egypt when He smote the Egyptians, but He spared our homes." And then the people bowed down low and worshipped in response to these instructions that Moses was giving to them from God. And you can go on. There's more details. When you jump down, for example, you can turn over to Deuteronomy 16. I'll just point this out. This shows you a little bit of the transitional nature. In Deuteronomy 16, verse 1, you observe the month and celebrate the Passover to the Lord your God, for in this month the Lord your God brought you out of Egypt by night. You shall sacrifice the Passover to the Lord your God from the flock and the herd in the place where the Lord chooses to establish His name. That is one change that God says through Moses to the nation of Israel that's going to happen in the future. When God picks the place where his name will be fixed, this is his city, this is where his temple is, this is where he is to be worshipped. When that happens, you all go there. That's a prescribed change in the future. You follow me? You shall not eat unleavened bread with it. Seven days you shall eat with it unleavened bread, the bread of affliction, for you came out of the land of Egypt in haste so that you may remember all the days of your life, the day when you came out from the land of Egypt. Verse five, you are not allowed to sacrifice the Passover in any of your towns which the Lord your God is giving you, but only at the place where the Lord your God establishes or chooses to establish his name. You shall sacrifice the Passover lamb in the evening at sunset at the time that you came out from Egypt. OK, that this is what you are to do. And when I tell you what the place is, which we know is where Jerusalem, when that gets established, then everybody comes to Jerusalem. So what's different from the days of Moses when everybody was in Egypt and then were delivered? And then after that, they're scattered. And they're all celebrating it on their own. And then when God establishes Jerusalem in the time of David and Solomon in the building of the temple, from that point on, that's where the festival is to be held. This is the meaning of Passover. Now, tell me, what is it, class? What is the main point of the Passover? What does Passover even mean? Seems like a fancy term. Where's the term come from? Because it is a remembrance of the fact that God provided a lamb and gave instructions promising if they sacrifice the lamb and put the blood of the lamb on their doorposts, and they ate the Passover the way he told them to, when the angel of death came over, that angel would be required to pass over them and spare them when he struck down everyone else that didn't act in obedience and trust and believe in God. He struck them down, but not those who believed in him and walked in obedience, right? It's an annual reminder of deliverance. It's an annual reminder of the fact that death is involved, and an annual reminder that God has rescued his people and made a nation out of them. And every year, and every year, and every year, this is what they were to practice, and this is what they were to teach their kids. And when their kids asked, well, what does this mean to you? Why are we doing this? What were you supposed to say? We remember that we only exist as a nation because God rescued us and he brought us here. That's Passover. That's the celebration of Passover. And if you go back to Matthew 26 now, we're told it's the first day of unleavened bread. Why do we call it unleavened bread? Because that's the feast. Passover is the first day of it. The first day of unleavened bread. So this is the day that the house is to be cleaned of all leaven and the lamb is to be sacrificed. This is the 14th. And the disciples came to Jesus and they asked, Where do you want us to prepare for you to eat? What the Passover? Why would they ask? Because this is the first day of unleavened bread. And he said, Go into the city to a certain man, say to him, The teacher says, My time is near. I am to keep the Passover at your home with my disciples. And so the disciples did as Jesus had directed them, and they prepared the Passover. So you tell me, according to Matthew, what is it that Jesus and his disciples are going to eat that night? What meal was set before them on the night in which Jesus was betrayed? Passover. So you guys are so far ahead of these guys with PhDs, the liberal scholars. Okay? I could give all of you a degree right now. And I could take theirs away since they clearly don't know what they're doing with it. Sorry, that might be my bias coming out. Now you take a look at verses 17 to 19 again. There's a couple of things that seem odd here, don't they? Like why doesn't he say go into town and look for Joseph or Simon or Bob, right? Why did he say go see a certain man? You know, it's interesting when you look at Mark 14 and Luke 22, it's essentially the same thing. In fact, if you keep your finger in Matthew 26, just for the sake of convenience, take a look at Luke 22 with me. It's a little bit fuller description here. Luke 22, verse 7. then came the first day of unleavened bread on which the Passover lamb had to be sacrificed. Now see, now you know why that's the case, right? Because that's what God says in the Old Testament. On the first day, on the 14th, this is the first day of unleavened bread, this is the day the Passover sacrifice is to be killed. That's where we're at. The first day of unleavened bread came on which the Passover lamb had to be sacrificed. So Jesus sent Peter and John. Now, now you know who the disciples are, right? Mark tells us Jesus sent two disciples. Matthew just says the disciples here. Luke makes it clear. The two disciples were none other than Peter and John. And he sent Peter and John saying, go prepare the Passover for us so that we may eat it. And they said to him, Where do you want us to prepare? Now, there's the question that Matthew had for us. Where do you want us to prepare the Passover? So they only ask where because Jesus started by saying, hey, you two, go prepare the Passover. They said where? Well, what's that show you up to this point? None of the disciples know where. Now, can you guess why Jesus might not be telling all of his disciples where the Passover is going to be eaten? Remember last week? What do we already learn last week? Judas has already decided to betray the Lord. In fact, if you look back to Luke 22, verses 1 to 6, the Feast of Unleavened Bread, which is called Passover, was approaching. The chief priests and scribes were seeking how they might put him to death. They were afraid of the people, so they weren't going to act. And already in verse 3, we're told Satan entered into Judas, who was called Iscariot, belonging to the number 12. And he went away and discussed with the chief priests. That's what we looked at last week, right? You know, Satan's already involved in leading Judas and empowering Judas to have the courage, if you will, to betray Jesus. You want to know why Jesus didn't make it public knowledge even amongst his disciples where the Passover is going to happen? Because he still had work to do. He still had instructions to give to his disciples. That last night and the instructions you read in John 13 to 17 and the establishment of the Lord's Supper, et cetera, as an ordinance, all that stuff hadn't happened yet. Jesus is still absolutely full knowledge of what's going on and in control of all the circumstances. So he tells Peter and John, go prepare the Passover. And they say, well, where do you want us to do it? Notice he doesn't say go see Joe. What's he say? When you've entered the city, A man will meet you carrying a pitcher of water. Follow him into the house that he enters, and you shall say to the owner of that house, the teacher says to you, where is the guest room in which I may eat the Passover with my disciples? And he will show you a large furnished upper room. You prepare it there. And they left and they found everything just as he had told them, and they prepared the Passover. You say, that just seems so odd. Why would, I mean, and somebody, some commentators go, well, see, Jesus had made arrangements ahead of time. Well, maybe he did. We're not told that. It sure seems to me, just as I read this, if you take it at face value, that God prepared it. And when Jesus gives these kinds of instructions, he doesn't say, you're going to see Joe out there. He says, you're going to find a man, what? With a pitcher of water. Follow him into his house. And then tell him, Jesus says we're having a Passover here. Where do we set up? And the guy took him up and it's already furnished, right? What does this show you? Who's in control? God's in control. And what are they going to celebrate? The Passover. Now, we could leave it there and just go into the Lord's Supper at this point if it weren't for one thing. And here's where it gets fun. You ready? So I want you to put on your best student caps. Did you bring those? No, some of you are panicked and looking for an excuse to slip out. All right, there's no quiz, just an exam. Take your Bibles and turn with me to John's Gospel. I want you to look at John 18 with me. We're going to go ahead and resolve this today just because I think it makes it easier to resolve it here than it does later. When you think about the veracity of scripture, the truthfulness of scripture. OK, when you think about the fact the Bible claims to be true in every word, that means it has to be historically accurate. Right. And if you have multiple accounts of the same events, there has to be a way to harmonize all of those accounts so that they're all telling you truthful. If some of them are factually wrong, then the truthfulness of the Bible has been compromised and you can't really count on it to be true. Right. Does that make sense? Make sense? Some of you are going, yes. Does that make sense? Yeah. Okay. Now here, we've just seen, we didn't bother to go to Mark because it says the same thing, but both in Matthew and Luke, and you could see it in Mark, what have those Gospels told us Jesus and his disciples are going to celebrate then on Thursday? The Passover. John 18. Look with me. at verse 28. This is after the upper room. After the Garden of Gethsemane, after Jesus is led before the high priests. This is when Jesus, Peter has already denied him three times and Jesus is now brought to Pilate. John 18 verse 28 says, then they, that is the religious leaders, They led Jesus from Caiaphas into the praetorium. This is whether it's in the fortress Antonia or whether it's up on the high and rich hill of Herod's palace. In either case, the praetorium there is where Caius or where a pilot was holding court. And they led Jesus from Caiaphas, the high priest, into the praetorium. And it was early. So this is Friday morning. And they themselves did not enter into the praetorium so that they would not be defiled, but might eat what? The Passover. Well, I thought the Passover was yesterday. How is it they didn't eat it? I want you to turn over to John 19 for a minute. Verse 13, Pilate heard all these words and he brought Jesus out and sat down on the judgment seat at a place called the pavement. But in Hebrew, it's called Gabbatha. It was the day of preparation for the Passover, about the sixth hour. Now, that's my Roman time, so it's not quite time yet for the lambs to be sacrificed. And he said, Behold your king. So this is right before he dismisses Jesus to be crucified. And what did John just say this is? This is the day of preparation for what? Passover. What's that make it? It's the 14th. I thought that was yesterday. You see the problem now? Look at verse 42. Because of the Jewish day of preparation, this is after Jesus has died, after they take his body down. Because of the Jewish day of preparation, since there was a tomb nearby, they laid Jesus there. And this is Nicodemus' tomb, or Joseph of Arimathea. I just forgot. It doesn't matter. Wow, how can I forget that? In any case, it's one of those two guys. I think it's Nicodemus's tomb. Joseph's tomb? Yeah. Okay, so it's Nicodemus brought all the spices and Joseph provided the tomb. In any case, okay, when Jesus dies there on the hill in the quarry, okay, on the execution point, as you look in the quarry, you'll see, remember the pictures I showed you this summer? Of all the quarries all dug out for all the stones that they made the temple mount out of And so there's this big open area and the stones are no longer the quality that you cut and build buildings out of so they just carved holes Into the side wall there and those are rich people's tombs So jesus and this is just a fulfillment of isaiah He was crucified as a criminal, but he was treated as a rich man in his death. He got buried in a brand spanking new Mercedes tune. Okay? Why? Well, number one, because it's right there closely located with the point place of execution. Normally they would have taken him out and given him a criminal's burial. Instead, they gave permission to bury him there in a brand-new, never-before-used tomb. Okay? See all of this stuff that's working together? But the key for us today is because of the Jewish day of preparation, since the tomb was nearby, they laid Jesus there. They wouldn't be allowed to carry him that far. They'd be working. This is the day of preparation. Well, how can this be the 14th and not be the 14th? Lots of commentators, lots of commentators have all kinds of different ways to resolve this. We're going to get rid of all the people that are liberal that want to deny historicity and all that kind of stuff. And we'll narrow it down to just a few that are genuinely trying to harmonize the account. Some view this as a matter of Jesus celebrating the Passover without the lamb a day early since he knew he was to be the Passover lamb the next day. My problem with that is that's not what the Bible says. The Bible says he celebrated the Passover and that it was the day of preparation. So I just I no matter how good of a commentator is no matter how evangelical he is. I love you and I appreciate you. But it doesn't say that. So I can't go there. Others see it as a matter of Jesus celebrating the Passover in keeping with traditional practices, and the Day of Preparation being referred to in John as speaking not about the Day of Preparation for the Passover, but the Day of Preparation for the Feast of Unleavened Bread. My problem with that is the same as the last one. In John, he says the Day of Preparation for the Passover. So it just seems absolutely unresolvable, right? No. What's really interesting is there are historical records that confirm, and this is typical of Jewish-Gentile relations, and it is also present and visible, especially in John's gospel compared to particularly Matthew's gospel. John is using the Roman time system in the way he's keeping time. When he says which hour it is, he's using Roman terminology. the empire terminology. When you go all the way back to the first century of Israel, the northern Jews, Galilee, where Jesus and most of the disciples are from, they mark days beginning at sunrise. Round numbers, 6 a.m. In the south, in Judea, the Jews marked days, dates, by sunset on all the way back to then there was morning and there was evening one day there was morning and there was evening a second day a third day so the Jews that were more traditional more biblical if you like marked the end of their calendar day as the evening time slot as opposed to the morning time slot interestingly enough when do we change days halfway between. When does the date change for us? Midnight. And it seems normal to us, right? Why would anybody else do anything different? In those days, those that were in Galilee, they considered the 14th to start at dawn. The Jews that lived in and around Jerusalem and Judea, they considered the 14th to start at sunset. So guess what? For Jesus and all the Galilean Jews and most of the Jews from around the world that came in the 14th, the day that they are supposed to sacrifice the lamb is Thursday. For those who are tighter on to traditional Jewish calendarization, they recognize the 14th starting not at dawn on Thursday, but at dusk on Thursday. So the 14th when the sacrifice happens for them is Friday. Incidentally, the one thing that I didn't bother to make a point out of that to me is really the main thing here. Jesus says he's going to be the Passover, right? Behold, John says, behold, the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world. There's only one way Jesus can celebrate the Passover and be the Passover. And that's if there are what? consistently two celebrations of the Passover. So was Jesus crucified on Thursday or Friday? Friday, in keeping with the practices in Jerusalem. He was the Passover Lamb for Israel in keeping with the practices even of the priests that condemned Him. However, He also celebrated the Passover the night before fully in keeping with uh... the practices of the old testament with all of that i hope that helps you to understand maybe some of the confusions in reading through all of this uh... and uh... it helps you to see You know, there are times when things seem maybe a little bit difficult to understand and we kind of get nervous like, oh, if I tell an unbeliever that this is what the Bible says and they ask me about, well, there's errors in the Bible because one writer says that Jesus ate the Passover and another writer says that the Jews hadn't eaten it when he died. How can that be? Well, maybe I got to do a little work and a little homework and a little study to see if there's a way to resolve this. And then when you do, guess what you find? Oh, it makes perfect sense. And in fact, God had to have the calendars working that way because that's the only way he could possibly facilitate both Jesus celebrating the Passover and ordaining the Lord's Supper and at the same time being the Passover, which incidentally is precisely what the Apostle Paul says when he says Jesus is our Passover lamb. as we move on to the Lord's Supper now. We're going to break this into two little pieces. The establishment of the Lord's Supper involves first Jesus announcing the betrayal and then establishing a memorial. Start with the announcement of the betrayal. Now we can turn back to Matthew 26 and spend most of our time here now. Verse 20, when evening came Jesus was reclining at the table with the twelve disciples. As they were eating, He said, Truly, I say to you, one of you will betray Me." Notice the word, truly. That's the Greek word, amen. It comes from the Hebrew word, amen. It's similar to the English word, amen. You know what, in your King James it says, verily. In your NIV I think it says, truly. You know what it means? Bank on this. And unlike when we pray and add an amen, that's really what I believe and really what I want. Or when we pray in Jesus name, amen, we're affirming, we're convinced that's what Jesus would ask for if he were praying this for us. Jesus starts his statement with an amen. He doesn't need anybody to put an amen to what he says because he's Jesus. And he says, truly, most certainly, without question, I tell you, one of you will betray me. Verse 22, being deeply grieved, they each one began to say, surely not I, Lord. And the way the question is asked in the Greek, it implies a no, no, don't worry. deeply grieved. The word grieve can be taken to mean anything from sorrow or grief or distress or even great sadness to irritation, agitation, or sometimes even offense or insult. And when you look at the emphatic statement that is given by their question and response, I think, at least for me, I get the impression that each of these guys is concerned it might be them. Surely I tell you. Verily I tell you. Amen. I tell you. One of you will betray me. You imagine if you're sitting in the room with Jesus celebrating the Passover and there's 12 of us there together and we've been with him for the better part of the last three years in ministry. And he says to us, one of you will betray me and I guarantee it. Let me something. knowing that you're not perfect, knowing you've already had to be admonished and corrected and and instructed time after time after time. Wouldn't you be a little anxious? Wouldn't you be deeply disturbed that he say? Wouldn't you immediately think, well, how could I do it? How would have I done it? What wouldn't you just be think? I think that's the impression. That's at least the impression I get from here, both in the deeply grieved terminology as well as the surely not I Lord. I think each one of them is struck to the core. I think each one of them is hurt. I think there's even a measure of panic in each one, like, will I blow it? Have I blown it? Surely not me. Notice it says each one. They're all concerned it might be them. As a footnote, have you noticed what it doesn't say? It doesn't say they all stopped and went. It's Judas, isn't it? I knew it. That's why he was never able to do miracles. That's why we always come up short after the money is counted out. I knew it. He's always been grumpy. You know something? He's the only one that's not from Galilee, too. Did you notice that? He's the Judean. All the rest of us are from Galilee. Oh, and he disappears sometimes, if you know. I knew it was Judas. In fact, you've always been able to tell because Jesus always gives him those looks. Right? And when we came in here, remember John 13 starts with what? Jesus washing all the disciples' feet. In fact, His feet were dirtier than all of ours. And Jesus even looked at them and spat on them first, right? He said, here, clean your own. Those are yuck. You know what? They all look not at each other but at themselves. You know what that shows you? That shows you not only, again, did Judas do miracles just like everybody else, but Jesus treated him just like everybody else. Jesus' perfect love and perfect relationship with Judas was the same as it was to all the eleven. I think that would preach, wouldn't it? Now, I won't because I promised today's teaching not preaching, but I think if you went home and thought about that a little bit, when Jesus says, love your enemies, And Jesus has already proven to us repeatedly he knew who his enemy was and who is going to betray him. Nobody could tell any difference in the way he treated Judas as opposed to the way he treated everybody else. And again, since we're not preaching, we'll skip that. Verse 23, everybody starts asking, is it me? And Jesus answered, he who has dipped his hand with me in the bowl is the one who will betray me. A lot of times when you read this, when people read this, they immediately tie this to John 13 as though this is when Jesus had just dipped the stuff in and handed it. This is a general statement here. This is not that same statement. It's not the same words. It's not the same idea. It's not the same context. Okay? The context in John 13 is after Jesus goes through and says all this stuff, the Passover is set up in kind of a horseshoe table. And then the tables are a horseshoe bench and you lean over its cushions and you lean over the cushion on your left arm. You got your right arm free to eat with. You got the big horseshoe there, the table in the middle. And then right here on Jesus's right was the apostle John, because he's the one that leaned on Jesus's breast. If you got your left elbow down, you got your left elbow out. Right. So if you left elbow in, you got your disciples all about. You got John right here with his head on Jesus's breast. And yet he's eating here. Judas is in the seat of honor right here next to Jesus. By the way, again, treating Judas with honor, knowing full well he's going to betray him. Peter is on the opposite side of the table, right across from John. So when Jesus says, one of you is going to betray me, and then he says, one of you who has dipped his bread in the bowl with me, well, guess which one of them that is? All of them. See, he's not identifying who it is at this point. He's saying it's one of you closest of my friends that's going to betray me. Now, John goes on to say after that, Peter goes to John, hey, hey, ask him who? Ask him who? Peter always talking for all of us, isn't he? And that's when John leans over and asks him who? And Jesus says, the one that I give the sop to. One and I give the the position of honor of the first. I serve first. And so he dips it in and hands it to Judas. And that's how Peter and John know at that moment who it will be. But even when he dismisses Judas, you know what all the disciples are thinking? We must have dismissed him because he's he's the keeper of the money bag. You must have something to do. They still didn't connect the dots. They still couldn't. They still didn't just immediately go, oh, it's Judas. Now, we come back here. He says, it's he who has dipped his hand with me in the bowl is the one who will betray me. And here's the here's the I think the most terrifying statement that you can read in this context. Verse 24, Jesus says, the son of man, which you remember, that's a that's a reference to himself in his unique role as the son of man, the one with the right to reclaim the throne of man, the throne of Adam that God established, the son of man, is to go just as it is written of him. Jesus knows full well where he's going to the cross. He knows when, how and why. And he knows what's going to happen and what the ultimate culmination of that is. But he says, but woe to that man by whom the son of man is betrayed. It would be good. It would have been good or would have been better. You could even translate it for that man if he had not been born. You know what that tells you? Eternal condemnation is real. And even though God takes evil done to His people and turns it to their good, Even though God is able to use the very schemes and plans of the wicked one and those doing evil, seeking to oppose him, even though he turns those very plans on their head and uses those to be the means that he accomplishes his purposes, the people who do evil, those who oppose him are still eternally accountable for their actions, period. The Son of Man is going to go just as it is written about him. Scripture is going to be fulfilled. I'm going to die. But woe to that man by whom the Son of Man is betrayed. It would have been better for him if he had not been born. In verse 25, Jesus having said that, Judas who was betraying him said, Surely it's not I, Rabbi. Do you notice a difference in what Judas says compared to what everybody else says? See anything different? Now, the first part's identical. Surely it's not I. But what's different? All the other disciples said, Surely it's not I, Lord. And Judas said, Surely it's not I, Rabbi. You know what's really interesting? Now, some of the commentators will say to you, Oh, that's just semantics. Or that's just Matthew writing it differently for the sake of making it more interesting to read. Okay. But I thought it was inspired scripture and every word mattered. And I thought it was historically accurate, which it is. All the other disciples say, surely it's not me, Lord. And what does Lord mean? You own me. You're my master. You're sovereign over me. What does rabbi mean? Distinguished teacher. He still recognizes him as a distinguished teacher, but he's not his Lord anymore. He's not loyal to him anymore. He's not in submission to him anymore. And notice Jesus doesn't call him out on it in a way that reveals into all the other disciples but he does say interestingly exactly the same thing he's going to say to the high priest he says you have said it what yourself now none of all the other disciples don't catch this as being condemning but I can't imagine especially when you continue to go forward reading in the gospel here and you see that when Jesus is a high priest he immediately Gets upset. I think Judas knew Jesus nailed him right here. You said it yourself You said it yourself Verse 26 while they were eating Jesus took some bread and After a blessing he broke it and gave it to the disciples and said take eat. This is my body And when he had taken a cup and given thanks, he gave it to them, saying, Drink from it, all of you, because this is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins. But I say to you, I will not drink of this fruit of the vine from now on until that day when I drink it new with you in my father's kingdom. And after singing a hymn, they went out to the Mount of Olives. Now, let me just quickly build this into the Passover celebration for you. When you sat down for a Passover meal, it had a basic outline. The meal opened with a blessing, and then the first cup is shared to start the meal. The food is brought in. It included unleavened bread, roasted lamb, some side dishes including a mix of bitter herbs and stewed fruit. The bread could be dipped into. Hence, as they're beginning to eat, they're all eaten from the same bowl. So when he says somebody that dipped his bread into the bowl with me, it could be anybody in the room. At this point in those days, The youngest son in the room would ask, what is so special about tonight, dad or grandpa? And the head of the family would then begin to explain the memorial by recounting Exodus, just like what we were told in Exodus 12. Remember? And at the end of the explanation, the first of the Hallel Psalms would be sung. That's the Psalms 113 and 114. Some include 115. Some save it till the end. Doesn't matter. One way or the other. Psalm 113. 114 are sung, then the second cup is shared. At this point, the unleavened bread is blessed and broken and shared around the table. That flat loaf of unleavened bread is broken before all of them. So he takes that first loaf and he breaks it and he gives it to his disciples and says, take, eat. This is what? My body. Now, clearly, it's not actually his body, is it? His body is still there. So you can you can say this is my body in the sense of this represents my body. Take. Eat. This is my body given for you. Do this in remembrance of me as you as you look at the other gospels and and put together the full picture. This is Luke 22 and verse 19 that we reference every time we celebrate communion. This is Jesus saying, in the same way that a lamb died to lead the angel of death to pass over you when God delivered Israel as a nation, so too now I'm going to give my body so that you can be forgiven. Then that bread is eaten with the herbs and the fruit, while the head of the house goes on explaining the meaning of the bread. Then the meal itself follows, and it has to finish before midnight, because remember, that's when the angel of death struck. And when it does come to an end, the head of the family blesses the third cup, and this is Luke 22.20. This is right here in verse 27. When he had taken a cup and given thanks, he gave it to him saying, Drink from it, all of you, For this is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins. You know, when you go back to the Old Testament and you think about the Passover, remember the covenant at Sinai? Remember the promises that God made to Israel and they came forward and agreed with? Remember what it was? Here's my law. If you obey me, I will what? I will bless you. I'm going to bring you into the promised land, just like I promised your forefathers. And here are the stipulations for you to enjoy blessing while you're there and to be able to stay in the land. If you obey me, I'll give you victory over your enemies. I'll give you possession of the land. I'll bless your flocks and your herds and your crops and on and on it goes. But if you disobey me, then I'm going to bring consequences, curses, hardships, afflictions. And ultimately, if you persist in disobeying me, I'm going to kick you out. Right. And their participation in the kingdom and the kingdom blessings were all tied to their personal and corporate what obedience. The Passover was an annual celebration, a memorial reminder of that covenant and that relationship and that deliverance and that and that bringing in of the kingdom. Do you know what the new covenant is? The new promise? Remember, covenant's a promise. Do you know what the new promise is? It's the promise of the gift of the Holy Spirit and of a new heart so that you can participate in this covenant, even though you can't. measure up. That's the new covenant. You don't need to turn there, but in Jeremiah 31, just listen. Behold, God says, days are coming when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah, not like the covenant which I made with their fathers in the day I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt. my covenant which they broke although i was a husband to them declares the lord but this is the covenant which i will make with the house of israel after those days i will put my law within them and on their heart i will write it and i will be their god and they will be my people and they won't teach again each man his neighbor in each man his brother saying no the lord because they'll all know me from the least of them to the greatest of them declares the lord because i will forgive their iniquity and their sin i will remember no more When Jesus is there preparing himself to die the next day for us and pay for our sins, he says, this is my body given for you. And this is my blood of the new covenant shed for you. I'm giving my life to pay for your sins so that you can participate in my covenant and have a place in my father's kingdom. Not because you deserve it, not because you've earned it, but because I died for you. You know what you're supposed to remember at the Lord's table? Not your sins against everybody around you, but that Jesus died to pay for all of your sins so that you could be in a right relationship with Him. And Jesus' promise in verse 29 is so magnificent. He says, I say to you, I will not drink of this fruit of the vine from now on until the day I drink it new with you in my father's kingdom. That's not a that's not a declaration of abstinence on his part from drinking. This is a promise that says I'm not going to enjoy the kingdom until you're with me. This is a statement of hope, a declaration, a promise. Yeah, I'm going to go die for you so that you can be forgiven and have a place in my kingdom. And you know, the next time I'm going to celebrate this, it'll be with you in my father's kingdom. And then after singing a hymn, they went out to the Mount of Olives. This hymn is the rest of the Hillel, Psalms 115 to 118. Or if you think 115 is in the first half, then it just starts with 116. In either case, you may not realize this, but it was probably sung antiphonally. You know what that means? It means Jesus sang the verses and they sang Hallelujah after each verse. Go home this afternoon and read those Hallel Psalms, Psalm 115 to 118, and imagine Jesus singing a verse and you singing Hallelujah. And notice how many of those verses are a declaration of commitment to be faithful to Yahweh and fulfill His purposes. It's amazing. You know what the celebration of communion is all about? You know what this memorial is supposed to be? It's not a means by which we get reconciled to God. Jesus' death does that. So any view of communion that says it's salvific or sanctifying or whatever, it's wrong. Jesus says do this in remembrance of me. Just like the exodus was a memorial, uh... or the passover was a memorial of the exodus so to communion is a memorial of the death burial resurrection of jesus christ the elements remind us that he gave up himself and he died it to pay for our sins and it is meant to remind us that the that that we have a place in his father's kingdom because of what he did for us and that should move us to appreciate him, to worship him, to recognize him as our lamb and our Lord, as our deliverer and as our substitutionary sacrifice. Now, one final note that I want to share with you, and that is we're going to make one small change to the way we celebrate communion from now on. Instead of using styrofoam discs for the bread, That might be my bias coming out. Or ancient dried crackers that get stuck in the throat. We're actually going to use bread, and we'll break a loaf in the context. Not because we believe we're doing anything wrong, except from a dietary perspective. We're actually going to use loaves of bread, probably not garlic bread, despite what Chuck was suggesting earlier. No, I'm just kidding. OK. We're just going to take loaves and we're going to break them. We'll have three broken pieces for you if you want to get a quick one or we'll have a couple of halves that are dropped in if you want to pull off your piece. Because when you read what Paul says, for example, in First Corinthians, he says there's the one loaf which is Christ and the whole point of communion and breaking that loaf and everybody getting a piece from that one loaf illustrates the fact that we we are the individual little pieces. that all have a common share in the one loaf who is Christ so just in order to better. I think illustrate what we're trying to remember. In that celebration communion of the one little change that we make and the rest of it will be the same but I hope I hope that that will encourage you. Even though we're changing something we do regularly a little bit I hope that I encourage you just to think about what we're actually trying to remember a communion. Jesus gave himself for us. Not just you, not just me, not just a couple of us, all of us. And so when you break the loaf and you each get a share, you remember we are part of his family. We are part of his kingdom because he gave himself up for us. And when we drink of the cup, we remember he shed his blood and died for us so we could be forgiven. Amen. Father, thank you for this day. Thank you for your word. Thank you, Lord Jesus. Both for the memorial of your table, which is built on the deliverance in the exodus and the establishment of the Passover. And it shows you've had a plan for redemptive history from before Genesis one. And everything has pointed us to Christ. And at this point, everything continues to point us to him not just in what he did for us in the past but the promises that he has for us in the future and I pray that in our celebration of communion and in our reading of scripture in our confidence in your word and indeed in even the living of our whole lives that we might be people who seek to live a life that isn't trying to avoid discipline or punishment from you but rather is committed to living a life expressing appreciation to you for who you are and for what you've done for us in Christ. In Jesus' name, amen.