The Passover

the gospel according to Luke, and we'll look at chapter 22 verses 14 through 20. That's Luke chapter 22 verses 14 through 20. And when the hour came, he reclined at table and the apostles with him. And he said to them, I have earnestly desire to eat this Passover with you before I suffer. For I tell you, I will not eat it until it is fulfilled in the kingdom of God. And he took a cup. And when he had given thanks, he said, take this and divide it among yourselves. For I tell you that from now on, I will not drink of the fruit of the vine until the kingdom of God comes. And he took bread. And when he had given thanks, he broke it and gave it to them, saying, this is my body which is given for you. Do this in remembrance of me. And likewise, the cup after they had eaten, saying, this cup that is poured out for you is the new covenant in my blood. May God richly bless both the reading and the hearing of his holy word. I was reading a blog post earlier this week. And the blogger gave a scenario. He said that in his town, the town in which he lives, there's a church that has a big board out in front of big sign out in front where they usually put different messages. And this particular week, the message was, it was really in the form of a question. It was kind of like a big blackboard, the kind of material that you find a slate like a blackboard. And the question in the center was, where do you find God and all around the question as almost as arrows point to get. And these are various responses that were given. There were a number of responses. Some said, one had, I see God or I find God in my family. And then another one in the sunset and another in nature and another in human, in acts of human kindness. And the writer went on to express how he was, it just kind of struck him, all of these different responses to how people, given the fact that it was a Protestant church, he says, what struck him was not just all the answers that people gave, but it was the one answer that was not there. He says, there was no reference to an incarnation. And there was no reference specifically to bread and wine. None of that. And it just, and he went on to make the case of how people are looking for God, as the old saying went in the 70s looking for God, a love in all the wrong places. But how people are looking for God and finding him according to their understanding in all the wrong places. It's not just that people say that I find God in my family or I see God in my children or I see God in acts of human kindness. The fact is what the most troubling is for them that is the revelation of God most fully succinctly and definitively. But that is not, and really it kind of how you see God, how you receive or perceive that you receive God or experience him tells us a lot about the God that you think you receive. And so what I want to do this morning is look at the words of Jesus in light of the answer that that the writer of the blog or the blogger said what he didn't see on that board. He saw God being found in a whole assortment of places. But what he did not see was someone answering that I see God in bread and wine at the communion table. So let's look at the words of Jesus or really the words of Luke as we get really sort of a slightly different twist on his words or his account of the institution of the Lord's supper. And there are three main thoughts that we want to look at here as Luke gives us this account. The first one is in it's found in verse 15 and that's in the in the words of Jesus where Jesus says I have earnestly desire to eat this Passover with you and notice this phrase before I suffer. That's the first thing that we want to look at and there's a that Jesus makes this correlation between the meal that they are about to receive and the suffering that he is about to endure. In other words now it's worth pointing out that obviously in the years of his public ministry this is not the first time that Jesus shared a Passover meal with his disciples. But in this passage he expresses an intense desire to experience or to share this meal with them and and understand because we know again that they understood what the Passover represented and even though he had experienced it so many times before with them although in the past it had never been experienced this close to his actual death. And here's what we know on a number of occasions Jesus had already begun to begun to teach his disciples that he not only the necessity of his death but the nature of his death. He's already begun to open it up we see it in Matthew's gospel where Matthew records in Matthew 16 where Peter confesses that Jesus is the Christ the Son of the living God and then after this Jesus began to teach how he must go into Jerusalem and suffer at the hands of the religious leaders and then be offered up and die and then be raised on the third day so he has already tried to explain the fact or the nature and the necessity of his death but with all of his explanations with all of his teachings his disciples still did not get it up to the very end. In fact it's interesting that even after Jesus pronounces or gives them or institutes in the Lord's supper that his disciples are still arguing about who's the greatest and it really does underline the fact that they had not gotten it all that he had tried to explain with words they had not gotten about his death and so what Jesus does when he says that I have intensely desired I have earnestly desired to share this Passover with you before I suffer it's not that it'll be understood fully and right away but basically what he's saying is that eventually you will connect all that is happening to you in light of all that is happening to me. In other words Jesus' death will illustrate what the or this meal illustrates what Jesus' death is all about and so even though it won't happen right away eventually the disciples will be able to make the correlation between the meal of the broken body and shed blood of Jesus and the suffering of Jesus and that correlation between the broken body and shed blood of Jesus will become the grid that they will use to interpret all of their earthly experiences. In other words this broken body simple as it is and it's amazing how that works but the broken body or the bread that represents the broken body the cup that represents the shed blood will form the grid by which all of the rest of reality and and horizontal and and existential experiences will be interpreted in light of that. In other words it becomes the defining grid for Christian experience and Christian living. Jesus there are two statements that I want to use by the Apostle Paul that sort of flashes this out. The first one which we read every first Sunday from our response of reading in 1 Corinthians chapter 11 Paul says that as often as we eat this bread and drink this cup we do show the Lord's suffering or the Lord's death or as some translations have it we proclaim the Lord's death until he comes and what Paul is assuming and making that correlation that this is not just healing for saints but it's really the interpretive grid if we had no broken savior if we had no shed blood then brothers and sisters see an end would drive us nuts if there is no suffering savior if there is no sacrifice lamb then every time every we would be tied to the ticker tape of Wall Street of Wall Street to see what our security is like it becomes the interpretive grid by which we are to understand the rest of the world this is what even though I said two passages by Paul but there's another statement in Psalm 73 by ASAP who looked around him and he saw the wicked prospering and the righteous suffering and he said my feet almost slipped until I went into the house of the Lord and what does he see in the house of the Lord he says then I realize that the wicked their feet are in slippery places and what did he see in my good friend Bob Gottfried always says that what he saw that probably jarred his memory was a bloody altar and on that bloody altar it was a reminder of the sacrifice that had been made and for all of those that are not covered in that bloody altar their end is certain brothers and sisters here's what he sang in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation sometimes the only place and the only way that we are able to make sense of the world in which we live is the suffering that Jesus endures and the thing that best explains the suffering of Jesus is his broken body and shed blood presented in the supper I said two statements by Paul the first is first Corinthians 11 the second is actually in Galatians Galatians chapter 6 verse 14 where Paul says this but far be it from me to boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ by which the world has been crucified to me and I to the world here's what Jesus says that night he goes in and he says I have earnestly desired to experience this meal with you before I suffer why so that after I suffer you'll be able to better understand if you see my suffering portrayed in that meal then the world in which you live will begin to make more sense here's what Paul says my boasting my boasting let's in fact if you look at before his conversion when he explains what he boasted in prior to his conversion in Philippians he says he was a Jew among Jews he circumcised on the eighth day born of the tribe of Benjamin he was a Pharisee of Pharisees and concerning the law he was perfect until he encountered the resurrected Jesus and encountering Jesus put everything else in different perspective so he says that I counted all as Dung for the surpassing knowledge of Jesus and it's not just Jesus in fact what he says in 1 Corinthians chapter 2 he doesn't say I just I just want to preach Jesus among you but he says I don't want to know any I declare to know nothing among you except Jesus and him crucified so when Paul says here that or when Jesus says here that I desire to to to have this meal with you which he's had on a number of occasions at least perhaps two other occasions depending on where we're counting where he begins his public ministry and he begins to share this Passover season with his disciples certainly he had had this experience with them before but now in the out that his hour had come there is an even stronger tie that perhaps they won't get it now we know they won't that we know they don't get it right away because what happens when Jesus is crucified they scatter like roaches when the lights come on they hide behind closed doors and go back to old professions and start thinking the same old way and start thinking nostalgicly about the Jesus that they thought was the Messiah but he couldn't have been because he died but then when Jesus comes all he does he doesn't give them any new endowments but he gives them a better perspective on his suffering and so when he says here I desired I desired I've earnestly desired to share to eat this Passover meal with you before I suffer so that after I suffer after my suffering is over and in days to come and in years to come that the grid by which you would interpret the rest of your human experience would be through the grid or the lens of his suffering there's a second thing to note in Luke's description here and that is the connection that Jesus between this meal and the kingdom of God the connection that Jesus makes so we see first the correlation between the meal and his suffering and that suffering that correlation becomes the grid by which they will interpret all of their existential experiences but the second thing and perhaps even more than the other writers that give an account of the institution Luke focuses twice he mentions the kingdom of God in conjunction with this meal in verse 16 Jesus says I will not eat it referring to the meal until it is fulfilled in the kingdom of God what is it I will not eat it this meal until it this meal is fulfilled in the kingdom of God in verse 18 he says I will not drink of the fruit of the vine until the kingdom of God comes as he is having this meal understand that Jesus and his disciples are physically a part of the Roman Empire at the moment they that Jesus institutes this supper and at the moment that they are eating the Roman Empire is in control and it's so bad that the Romans are the ones who appoint who would be king over Judea that's how you get a despot like Herod that that that Rome not not the lineage not the way that in Old Testament Israel they were able to select a king that that it was through a dynasty through the family of one man but yet here it is so so why why Herod could be a fake king here here it is despite wait a minute what's happened to our land what's going on here Rome is in charge we have a despot on the throne who's not even a legitimate heir to David and yet here Jesus is mentioning the kingdom of God brothers and sisters this is a reminder of dual citizenship in fact it's interesting that when Jesus delivered over to Pilate Pilate asked him the question are you a king and Jesus never says no he just says my kingdom is not of this world doesn't mean that his kingdom doesn't involve this world we know that it transcends in one sense but it also controls but he simply says listen my kingdom is not of this world if it were that kind of kingdom and that kind of power trust me we'd be in different positions in having this conversation you'd be the one bound if if my kingdom was based on power as you thought then then angels would come and deliver me from this moment and you would be the one in front of me is basically what Jesus is saying and so here's the issue when we have dual citizenship in fact we have dual citizenship that Paul also says he reminds us in Colossians chapter that we have been delivered from the domain of darkness and we have been transferred into the kingdom of his beloved son Hebrews chapter 12 verse 28 says therefore let us be grateful for receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken and thus let us offer to God acceptable worship with reverence and all brothers and sisters here's the point that Jesus is making to those that he whose reality will be interpreted by his suffering brothers and sisters here's what we are what Jesus is telling us is that we will often be made weary as we deal with the ups and downs of this present kingdom the kingdom that is in control at the time Jesus speaks these words will be responsible for a number of individuals who are present in that room having their lives lost Peter would ultimately be crucified upside down James would be beheaded in this kingdom and yet here's what Jesus says he he's reminding them that you have a dual citizenship and and he's reminding them that this press in this present kingdom you will experience a number of things but this suppers a reminder brothers and sisters that you are a part of another kingdom but also sometimes not only will we find that this kingdom will get us down and it's interesting that Christians only bark against this system this kingdom we only bark against it when it hurts us physically we only bark against it when when it hurts us in our pocket books but but here's another danger that John reminds us of of this world and the kingdoms of this world that they can seduce us you see the kingdoms of this world will not only destroy us physically and will find it so many ups and downs in it but the kingdoms of this world they will seduce us we it's it's possible for even believers to be seduced by this fading kingdom and therefore allowing this fading kingdom to define our appetites to define our being and to control our thoughts as well as our behavior we do and tonight I'm going to be talking about God's busy signal so that we where he disengages us so that we can listen to a mindset a different or have our minds renewed but here's what what what what we have to worry about with this present kingdom you see that we love that this kingdom will define for us what love is this this kingdom this falling fading kingdom defines for us what love is and how it is to be expressed it is redefine human human the human experience as well as human sexuality and so we can be easily not only overthrown by this the kingdoms of this world but seduced by the kingdom of this world and here's what Jesus does in this meal he reminds us that we have a dual citizenship he reminds us by by what what what this meal ought to have one of the effects that it ought to have on us is a sobering effect as we partake of the meal of the broken body and shed blood of our of our Lord we should be reminded our our thoughts should be elevated to a kingdom that is greater than this so that we could do what Paul says in Romans chapter 12 that we would not be conformed to this world but we would be transformed by the renewing of our minds an example that Paul gives of this is in first Corinthians when he talks about Christian suing one another now is it permissible sure it's permissible but but here's the radical new kingdom concept that creeps in that can't be legislated he says why aren't you willing to take a loss brothers and sisters when we are driven by by kick protect you do this to me then I do it twice to you when we're driven by vengeance trying to get even with someone because you hurt my feelings what is that other than the kingdom of this world manifesting in our thoughts and Jesus says listen remember in other words what he's saying is I'm giving you a meal from where you really from I went I lived I grew up in Los Angeles said well a lot of people are not from Los Angeles don't really know about the city but it was South Central it was kind of hood a little bit I went to college in Malibu and Malibu is it ain't ghetto but it like that it ain't it ain't ghetto Malibu was about 45 miles from where I grew up but I lived on campus and I remember one year that I had a debate tournament for the for the during the Thanksgiving holiday so I wasn't going to be home for the holiday so I went home before I left for the holiday and went back home and and my mother had fixed me some food to take back and put in my room and among the things that she put there was potato pie sweet potato pie I'm sure I'm sure it was probably the only sweet potato pie on campus and so when I got ready when I got back to my room and I I took out a slice of pie I'm looking out of my bedroom window out on the Pacific Ocean and I'm looking out up the hill where where Bruce Jenner lived Bruce at the time where where he lived and I'm looking at at Hollywood stars running on our track and and as I ate the pie I was reminded that this is where I'm living but this ain't home Jesus gives a meal from where they're really from you living in a room and empire but your kingdom is not like this let me give you a little care package from home I'm not going to eat with you but when we get home I will brothers and sisters here's what Jesus is basically saying is that your home this meal is a reminder of your home isn't that true because what is he how is the kingdom of God described it is the kingdom of righteousness and here he gives us a taste of what that kingdom is you see we are told in the be attitudes that one of the characteristics of those that God gives the kingdom to is they will hunger and thirst for righteousness where do we get that righteousness that we thirst from not in the kingdoms of men and so Jesus therefore he he sets this meal what better way what better way for him to remind his disciples that you are from a different place than to give them appetizers off the kingdom menu here's a little care package until you get home oh isn't that good and he gives them the anticipation don't worry about eat it eat it it seems like it's an appetizer listen I love chicken wings but you know the buffalo the buffalo wings and I like to order them naked but you know where I always have to order them from off the appetizer menu and then when they serve and they say well do you want them as I want them as a meal that's that is my meal these that I put you call it appetizer whatever you want but just make sure they are here and I'll fix it up because that is my meal I'm not wondering anything else after that that's that's my meal and likewise God gives us what looks like according to the banquets of men it looks like an appetizer but don't get it twisted it ain't an appetizer it's a meal God gives us this meal from home to sustain us and having that meal from home is one of the reminders of the of making the correlation between the meal and the suffering but that brings us to a third and final thing which kind of brings it all home and this is where Jesus how he sort of introduces the elements in conjunction with the suffering notice what he says here Jesus says I give you and by the way Luke is one of the only gospel writers to give us an indication of more than one cup being shared in this Passover meal it actually would have been four cups of wine now they did mix it a little bit differently but it was still wine but they did they it was more diluted than your regular wine and so it even here it eludes to two cups he drinks apparently from the first one but he doesn't drink from the last one and so here Jesus says two things that are worth noting he says as it relates in giving them the supper he says this supper constitutes my body and I love the wording here given to you my body given to you and and so what is it that we receive in the Lord supper we receive in essence by faith the body of Jesus not just given for which is referenced in other places but given to us and isn't this an obvious reference to the perfection of his life that is given to us in other words in Hebrews chapter 10 which we read during the for our preparation for the Lord supper Jesus is quoting from Psalms 40 verses 6 through 8 and he quotes he says a sacrifice an offering you have not desired but a body you have given me to do your will oh God so what do we have in the supper we have Jesus giving us his body in which he perfectly carried out the will of the Father brothers and sisters here is the gift of righteousness that the kingdom says we ought to thirst for so Jesus has given us the gift of his perfect life now where does that help us because I like what the writer of Hebrews says in chapter 4 verse 16 that we have boldness to come to the throne of grace and receive grace and mercy in our time of need let us go boldly he says to the throne of grace so that we can receive grace when do you need grace when you messed up right you nobody that that is not messed up no one that's not messed up needs grace that's that's Paul's rationale in Romans chapter 4 he said that if if Abraham was rewarded because of works then he makes grace of no avail so so in other words grace is only needed when you mess up and let me just let you in on a secret I know you we think highly of our bodies and I know we think that I'm so glad that the Lord has delivered me from what I used to be and you should have seen me back then but let me just tell you something right now it's just me and you we're only talking that's it let me just tell you your body is messed up I don't mean it hurts I mean it is your accomplice to carry out all of the evil that's in your body or in your mind that's what your your body you take it with you and you have used it as an instrument of unrighteousness and here's what we receive a new every time we receive of the Lord's table he says here's mine here's my body here's my body and what is that body that we receive it is without spot it is without blemish it is his body that is perfectly kept the law of God it is in his body and his body only that the will of God has ever been perfected by a human being he says take this is my body which is given to you I remember watching a commercial I think it was a Pepsi commercial you had a young boy and he had an older brother the older brother was this baseball star and it shows the the older brother older brother always messing with his younger brother as they're growing up and then the older brother becomes this you know he's his baseball star and the younger brother he and the older brother I think it's drafted into the major leagues or something and then he comes to the younger brother who's looking up to him and he just tosses him his glove and as if to say here here my success I'm giving it to you what what what I have earned what what what has gotten me this professional contract I'm giving it to you therefore that's how I hear the words of Jesus as cited in the book of Hebrews here am I and the children you have given me and brothers and sisters when your body fails not fails in terms of breaking down even though that's included

but when we sit in our secret places and we truly realize that our thoughts have not been what they ought to be that our words have been less kind than they should but right now we're harboring in our hearts that which is contrary to God's word and will towards both him and our neighbors here's what Jesus says here's my body here's my body here's my body amen here's my body it's wounded it's going to be wound you're going to understand my body more once you see the blood you you don't get it now but here's my body this is the body that the father has taken pleasure in here is my body and the good news for you is when you fell in yours every time you eat this meal you are reminded there's another body that the father sees notice what he else what else he says not only does he say this is my body given to you but he also says that here is the cup and I love the wording here again the cup that is poured out for you is the blood or is the new covenant in my blood elements here elements of this statement first off I love the phrase poured out because again it makes it clear that same way in fact it's the same terminology that Paul uses in Romans 5 when he says that the love of God has been poured abroad in our hearts so in other words it's not sprinkled you know it's it's kind of like you know when you get when you get clam chowder and you get a taste of clam the flavor but not the meat

and and so what it says is that his blood has not been sprinkled sparingly no but his blood has been poured it's it's like you know give it a little extra and his blood has been poured out for us that's that's just vivid language and and and very picturesque that that Jesus has poured out his blood completely and thoroughly for us which means so if his body gives me righteousness then his blood purges my unrighteousness is he his body has given me his obedience but his blood has covered my disobedience so I love that because it's it's a it's a it's it's it's one for the other his blood purges but his body has met the requirements but but there's a second part of that is that he says this blood that was been has been shed out he calls it a new covenant and of course he's using the language of Jeremiah 31 where God says I'm giving you a new covenant and that new covenant he says in that new covenant that I will remember your lawless deeds no more and you know others will always remember but I'm glad they don't judge it's it's hard it's hard dealing with folk who have dealt with you it's hard because people and I just shared this with for a brother last week writing a paper on on the dynamics of horizontal grace that how oftentimes we who are the biggest consumers of vertical grace in other words God's grace towards us that we are stingy when it comes to giving grace to others we're gladdened we love it to have our sins forgiven but we have a hard time forgiving so people say well I'll forgive but I ain't gonna forget but brothers and sisters that's why he doesn't tell us to forgive as you forgive each other he says forgive as I have forgiven you here's the way that works brothers and sisters when we turn in repentance to Christ for salvation the blood of Christ forever covers our unrighteousness the righteousness of Christ forever covers us so when we go to the Father for the umpteenth time over that same issue that we've been wrestling with he says it's already forgiven because the righteousness of his son nor the blood of his son ever runs out he does forget he does forget he treats us as if we never did it God looks at us perpetually as if we are his righteous son so here's what he says I will forget I will remember your lawless deeds no more can you imagine I know it's it's really word language here or it's word images here but when God says he will remember no more that's a conscious effort that doesn't mean oops it slipped my mind that's a powerful statement he looks us in the face knowing what we were and treats us like we have loved him and never stopped loving him that's not hypocrisy that's called grace and so here's what he says that the grace that that my blood this is this is the blood that's been poured out for you it seals the new covenant and the new covenant gives us not only forgiveness of sins but notice what he also says I'll put my law in their hearts and I will remember their lawless deeds no more but then brothers and sisters he gives us this third element he says in essence that this cup that is poured out confirms a new covenant this is my blood so he says in essence that that this cup he says this cup which is poured out for you is the new covenant and that new covenant is in my blood brothers and sisters here's what Jesus does on the night that he's arrested he's been having Passover meals with his disciples ever since he began his public ministry but on the night that he was arrested he's been teaching him for all these years listen I'm going to die and here's how I'm going to die and here's why I'm going to die they didn't get it they got it but it slipped away Peter confessed that his cesarea philipi and then went right back and and you know confessed that ought to Christ the son of the living God which means you know that he is to be sacrificed but then when Jesus began to teach that he must go up and die Peter stood up and said no Lord I'm not going to let that happen you see brothers and sisters we think we know but we don't always know and so Jesus has been teaching them that he would suffer but now he understands that when he suffers he wants to have this meal with them before he suffers so that after he suffers somewhere along the lines there would be an aha experience and they would recognize that in his death his death literally is the death of the Passover lamb that the only reason that judgment would stay them is because they are covered by the blood of that lamb that's why Peter says we have been we have been redeemed not with perishable things but with imperishable that of the precious shed blood of the lamb that was slain since before the foundation of the world Jesus gathers his disciples together and he lets them know here's your reality interpret your reality through these wounds it tells them in essence that this is a kingdom meal and it's a reminder that I know everybody says this is a global community but this is more than global I'm going to give you a meal from home to remind you that you're not home because some of you are too overwhelmed by this kingdom Paul writes of those who have loved this world more than they have loved the body and so that we would have a sense of where we are really from here's a potato pie and I guarantee you there's not another one on campus there's no other place there is no other place that can give you this meal and then he tells you here's what this meal signifies that the righteousness that you lack has been given in this body the purging and the cleansing that you don't have has been accomplished in this cup so eat and know that your father loves you and when we all get home that's because that's the hint of this going and eat saying it'll be the last time eat and when we eat again we'll eat together and when we eat together here's good news brothers and sisters when we eat together we won't have to say this is his body because when we eat together we'll be in bodies that are incorruptible when we eat together we won't have to eat to remind us that our sins or drink to remind us remind us of our sins being forgiven or having sins that need to be forgiven but when we drink in his presence we'll have no sense to forgive brothers and sisters you're not home yet your body betrays you your kingdom does but God has given us some meal to remind us of the kingdom and he tells us to do it until he comes where do we find God in a world like this where do we find God where do we see him it's not in our families it's not in a sunset where we see God most pre-eminently displayed is in the simplicity of broken bread and a cup of wine that takes us beyond where we are amen