Welcome to this message from the teaching ministry of University Presbyterian Church in Orlando, Florida under the leadership of senior pastor Mike Osborne My name is Matt and one of the pastors here and it is now our time to look into the word So if you have a Bible, you can turn it to Luke chapter 22 and We're going to look at verses 7 through 23. It's on page 1443 if you're using one of the Bibles that we provide Luke 22 7 through 23. This is God's holy and inspired word Then came the day of unleavened bread on which the Passover lamb had to be sacrificed Jesus sent Peter and John saying go and make preparations for us to eat the Passover Where do you want us to prepare for it? They asked he replied as you enter the city a man carrying a jar of water will meet you Follow him to the house that he enters and say to the owner of the house the teacher asks Where is the guest room where I may eat the Passover with my disciples? He will show you a large upper room all furnished make preparations there They left and found things just as Jesus had told them so they prepared the Passover When the hour came Jesus sent his apostles reclined at table and he said to them I have eagerly desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer For I tell you I will not eat it again until it finds fulfillment in the kingdom of God After taking the cup he gave thanks and said take this and divide it among you for I tell you I will not drink again of the fruit of the vine until the kingdom of God comes and he took bread gave thanks and broke it and gave it to them saying this is my body given for you Do this in remembrance of me in the same way after the supper he took the cup saying this cup is the new covenant in my blood Which is poured out for you But the hand of him who is going to betray me is with mine on the table the son of man will go as it has been decreed But woe to that man who betrays him they began to question among themselves which of them it might be who would do this Let's pray Father we long to see The glory of Jesus this morning. We long for your word to Transform us to change us to help us to believe or believe even more deeply we long to see Christ exalted and that is the intent of this text with all the texts of your scriptures And so as we open your word would you pour out your spirit upon us? Would you open our hearts to receive what we see here in your word? Would you use it for your glory and our good and the discipling of the nations for we pray in Jesus name amen Starting a new sermon series this morning. We're gonna be looking at several things that took place in The last week of Jesus earthly life and ministry and it's called the passion because Historically the church has referred to this week this last week of Jesus's life as Passion week because we see several things that point to his passion and his Amazing determination to fulfill his mission to seek and save the lost and to give his life as a ransom for many And so we're gonna look at the upper room this morning Jesus and the upper room in the coming weeks as we lead up to Easter Sunday we'll cover such topics as Jesus praying Jesus in the garden of gifts. Seminy will look at Jesus's trial We'll on Monday Thursday will look at Jesus on the cross and then on Easter Sunday We will talk about the glorious resurrection of the king of kings and I do want to plant a little seed I want to encourage you to start thinking now about maybe a friend or coworker or neighbor that you might want to invite to worship with us on Easter Sunday a lot of people are really open to checking out a church on Easter Sunday And so we would we would hope that we could fill this place with people who don't yet know Jesus So let me give that assignment to you. You can file that away for later But so we're gonna talk about this morning this really interesting scene On the night in which Jesus was betrayed where he is celebrating the Passover meal with his Apostles and one of the things that jumps out at you when you read this is verse 15 look back at verse 15 and Notice what Jesus says to his disciples. He says I have eagerly desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer Now That phrase is also translated in the New Testament in this way an Intense longing so Jesus is telling his disciples I have had an intense longing to be in this room with you guys celebrating this meal It's pretty powerful pretty compelling So we're gonna look at three things. We're gonna look at the three reasons why why was Jesus so Passionate about this night this moment. Why had he had why did he have this intense longing to be there with his disciples that night and we're gonna look at the three reasons One is that it was a meaningful meal actually wait. Let's go back. That's important This is this is the main thing I want us to take away that Jesus understands our longings in the same way that we see him having this great Longing we need to understand that he gets that fact. He is fully God, but he's also fully man So he understands what it means to long for something He knows what to do with our longings. So now let's look at the three things we're gonna look at this morning Number one reason why Jesus had an intense longing or an eager desire to celebrate this meal with his disciples was that it was a meaningful meal Then we'll talk about how it was a teaching tool and last we'll talk about how Jesus knew it was time for something new So a meaningful meal a teaching tool and time for something new Let's talk about why it's a meaningful meal look at seven and eight Talks about the day came when I'm sorry the then came the day of unleavened bread This was a celebration And the Passover was part of that celebration and it was a very very special Meal a very special Celebration families would get together and Jewish families would get together and celebrate the Passover And they had done it for generations all the way back since the Exodus took place So for years and hundreds of years and generations and generations every year Jewish families would get together and they would celebrate the Passover meal And so it was an extremely meaningful meal because it represented It reminded them of the fact that the Israelites were once slaves in Egypt and then they had been set free by God And the Passover meal was to remind them of the fact that God had delivered them from slavery It was probably something that the families looked forward to all year Because there was a lot of special kind of ritual things involved in it that I would think probably pretty fun In fact, there was several things that God had them do Which we see in Exodus 12 that then would cause the children to ask questions So that the parents could then explain to the kids what had happened with the Exodus So one of the things that they would do when they celebrated Passover is they would eat bitter herbs And so just imagine little kids around the table Eating these bitter herbs and you know we experience anybody with young kids knows that you can give them Good-tasting things and they will still spit it out and make faces and all that stuff So imagine giving them some bitter herbs and the faces they would make and oh why are we eating this and that was the point The point was to get them to say why are we doing this? Why would we put that in our mouths? And the answer that the parents would give is the bitter herbs are to remind us of the bitterness Of the slavery that we used to be experiencing another thing There would eat a lamb They would kill and prepare a lamb and then they that would be their meal And what that was about was the Passover itself had to do with this the people of God had been enslaved in Egypt For hundreds of years and God sent Moses to lead them out Moses and his brother Aaron to lead them out And he had Moses explain to Pharaoh that you need to let the Israelites go or bad things are gonna happen and Pharaoh said no So God began to sort of lay the smackdown on Pharaoh and his people and he sent gnats and flies and frogs and all sorts of Terrible plagues that just kind of ruined the situation there in Egypt, but still Pharaoh's hard heart Refused he kept refusing to let the Israelites go So finally God told Moses scenario and to tell Pharaoh that if he didn't let The Israelites go that he was gonna send death and that the firstborn of every family in Egypt and even the livestock would be killed and Pharaoh stayed hard-hearted and still said no and so God did send his angel of death through Egypt taking the lives of the firstborn of all the families in Egypt except For the families of the Israelites What he what God had instructed the Israelites to do was to take a lamb and slaughter it and then take the blood of that lamb and paint it on the door frame and door posts of their house And so when the angel of death would be moving through Egypt taking the lives of the firstborn of the Egyptians Every time the angel of death saw a house with the blood he would pass over that house And so in reality what happened was the judgment that God poured out on his enemies resulted in the salvation of God's people and so They were set free And so they would eat a lamb to be reminded of the fact that it was putting that blood on their door that enabled them to be free And then they would also eat unleavened bread and The children would ask why are we eating unleavened bread and basically what happened was when Pharaoh realized that God wasn't kidding and all these firstborn were dying in the land of Egypt he finally said okay let them go they can go And they had to run so that the Israelites had to really kind of pick up and run and what the unleavened bread represented is the fact that it was like bread that didn't have time to rise So it pointed to the fact that they didn't have time they had to just grab everything and go to freedom And then also they would recline They would lay down at the table When you when they would celebrate the Passover there would be a very low table and there would be cushions all around it and they would lay down Can I got to be honest if I came in and there was a low table and some cushions on the floor and my dad was laying there and there's food I'd probably say dad What are we doing and and then the the answer the response that they would give to their children Was we're lying down we're reclining at this meal to show that we're free We're not enslaved in Egypt anymore so we can relax we can rest we can lie down And so Passover was a very special Special celebration in the life of all of the Jewish kids and the Jewish families all through The Old Testament after the Exodus and leading all the way up to the New Testament time It was a meaningful meal it was a very special thing and the reality is that it was celebrated with family And you and I a lot of us have really sweet memories of Christmas We love to get together at Christmas. We love to have the meals that we have and view with the people that we are with It's a very special time for a lot of us So think about the fact that this very special meal that Jesus had always celebrated with his family now He has this intense longing to celebrate it with his followers
And what that tells us Is that Jesus really enjoys his followers. He really wants to be with us He doesn't just love us. He likes us He loves to be in our presence. He longs to be in our presence or for us to be in his presence It's a very amazing and almost astonishing thing to think that the king of kings wants to be around you But he does Just like he had a longing to be with those disciples that night because he enjoyed their company He wanted them to realize he sees them like family and that's the beauty of a church is we get to be a family Not that our relationships with our family take a back seat back seat But our relationships with each other are elevated to this level of very special family strong bond So we have available here to us through the gospel So it's a beautiful thing that we see here that pursuing Christ together gives us this beautiful opportunity to love each other Like family and enjoy such things together. So that's the reason number one. He was really looking forward to it It had an intense longing To celebrate the Passover meal with his disciples that night because it was a very meaningful meal But that's not it. It was also a teaching tool Phenomenal Teaching tool If you look at verses 10 through 20 you see that they Went to prepare things just as Jesus had instructed them to and everything was set up just like they were told what happened They met the man with water carrying water and he took them to the man with the house And they asked the man with the house about the room and he showed them the room and they got up there Everything was all set which means that the table was there and the cushions were there and then in verse 13 We see that they then went to prepare the Passover And so what it's referring to there is they were going to put the meal together So I want you we need to see what they saw or think about what they what was on their mind when Jesus said the rest of what he says here so Peter and John They go and They make sure the room is all set up and it is so then they go to make sure the meal set up and they need to get the herbs They need to get the the unleavened bread They need to get wine. They need to get a bunch of things and they also need to get that lamb Which means that they went to where the animals were sacrificed And they watched with their own two eyes As the appropriate person took a lamb slaughtered it poured out its blood And roasted it and prepared it to be eaten And they watched it and you you can be sure they watched because in the Old Testament one of the laws was that you cannot eat Meat that still has blood in it so they didn't just watch the lamb lose its life they watched a lamb slaughtered and bleeding to death And that's what's on their mind when they're reclining a table And Jesus starts saying some very interesting things He tells them That this bread that he has is his body that it represents his body Given for them do this in a remembrance of me and then he says he takes the cup and he says this cup is a new covenant in my blood Which is poured out for you Body and blood Thinking about what they had just seen Okay, so here's some more information for you this the word given When Jesus says given for you that Greek word that we translate into English as given was always used That's the same word always used in reference to a sacrifice So they didn't hear Jesus saying hey, I'm giving you my body what they heard is this is my body which is going to be sacrificed for you And they didn't also it's the the the term or the phrase for you To them it didn't mean like I'm gonna do this for your benefit or for the good of the world or as some example For you literally meant in your place
So as Jesus said these things having just their disciples having just watched a lamb being slaughtered that they'd seen For years and years all their life growing up. They'd seen their father do it. They'd seen it done They'd seen so many lambs bleed to death. They'd seen this before and now Jesus is telling them That is him
Paul says this in first Corinthians 5.7 he says that our Passover lamb Christ our Passover lamb has been sacrificed That's what he was showing them he was showing them that he is the true Passover lamb And they had just seen that happen and then they're seeing him explain to them what it means. This is a powerful teaching tool A beautiful teaching tool showing them that basically in the same way That when the Exodus happened The judgment of God was coming but it was passing over the Israelites what Jesus was showing is that my body is going to be sacrificed in your place My blood is gonna be poured out in your place so that when the judgment of God comes again for the sin of man Not just on Egypt, but on the entire world it will pass over you
He was telling Them and he's telling us that he was our Passover lamb dying in our place Jesus died in our place and this meal taught that and teaches that so clearly so powerfully Came across a story from the Civil War and It says that there's not long after the Civil War had ended a man in farm clothes was kneeling at a soldier's grave in Nashville, Tennessee And a sympathetic bystander asked him is that the grave of your son? No the farmer replied I have seven children all of them young and a wife on my poor farm in Illinois I was drafted into the Union Army and despite the great hardship it would it would cause to my family I was required to serve but on that morning on the morning. I was to depart the man who now lies in this grave My neighbors oldest son came over and offered to take my place in the war when the farmer stepped away the bystander could see The words he had written on the grave stone. They simply read He died for me and that's what Jesus is teaching them and that's what he's teaching us He died in our place you and I are the ones who belong on the cross you and I are the ones who deserve to experience what Jesus Experience you and I are the ones who deserve to be slaughtered and bleed to death. That's what we deserve for our sin That's how serious our sin is But it's also how glorious Jesus is that he would see us in our situation The ones who are headed to the cross ourselves and he says no I will go in your place Then that's what he's teaching here
My body will be broken not yours. My blood will pour out not yours. That's what he was telling us in this amazing teaching moment And if you think about that the more we really see ourselves in the same way that the man who was so grateful and thankful to the young man who took his spot in the war and then it died for him In the same way that that farmer wanted to go and and and thank him or write something on the grave or be there It should cause in us the more we think about the fact that we are the ones who really belong on the cross But Jesus went there for us the more we think about that the more we would have a longing to be with him Alonging to be with the one be with him to worship him to sing to him to praise him
To be in his very presence one day and that's why It was also time for something new this amazes me look at 17 through 20 And notice that in verse 17 he mentions the cup and then in verse 19 he lifts the bread And then in 20 he gives another cup We're going to celebrate the Lord's supper this morning and You know that we don't drink wine eat bread drink wine do we Okay, this is what Jesus was doing here. He was setting up something new that would carry the continuity of the the process and the practice of having a meal together But it would have some new meaning and this is what's so powerful here Okay When when we believe Jesus actually died in our place we begin to long for him and he knows that He knows that we long to be with him we long to be around him and he also knows that in the moment there There's he knew that the disciples are about to lose somebody that they dearly loved
They had spent almost all day of almost every day of the last three years with him learning from him being taught by him Being transformed by him you know that they loved him absolutely dearly and he knew that too But here's the thing pass over itself was coming to a close Because what had it had been teaching and getting the people of Israel ready for so many years hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of years to get to the point to teach what What's going to happen on the cross But there's no reason for sacrifice after that So technically the meal would basically come to an end But it couldn't because Jesus knows how our hearts work And he knows how we long to be with people that are special to us especially after they're gone So the meal had to continue think about this Most of us in this room have lost somebody close to us And so you know That it doesn't take long before you really just want to see them one more time If you could just see them one more time or if you could just smell them again So much so that we will go and we will take an old shirt of that person and just smell it just to remember you just long to smell Their smell once again you long to touch them If you could just hold them one last time and you long to taste their cheek on your lips you long to hear their voice one more time Jesus knows how it works And he also knows this when we are hurting because we have lost somebody that is so special to us What do we do we tend to want to go to their grave Because even though we know they're not there there's something about being it's it's like some sort of way to be in their presence at least a little bit
But Jesus wasn't going to be in his grave
He knew we'd have nowhere to go and so he takes the Passover meal And ends the Passover meal with the the first cup of wine And then begins fades it right into the Lord's supper with the bread and the wine So that We have a meal that continues because we have a longing in our heart to be with the one Who has saved us to be in his presence and in the Lord's supper We get that because we get to we get to we can see the elements we can see the bread and we can see the wine And we can feel the bread and we can feel the wine and we can taste the bread And we can taste the wine and we hear the words of institution as they come out to us We get to be with him. It's the closest thing we have to being physically with him And it's a taste of the fact that one day when he returns all our longing that we have to be with him physically We'll be met because we'll be with him As well as with all the other people that we've lost who are in Christ It's so powerful. This meal had to continue Because there's no grave to go to There's a meal to come to instead I want you to look at the bread and the wine today. I want you to smell the bread and the wine today I want you to realize you're feeling the bread and the wine today I want you to listen to the words of institution. I want you to commune with your Savior this morning when Mike leads us in the Holy Sacrament of the Lord's Supper Because he longs to meet us here at this table And if we know him as Savior we long to meet him too, don't we? JC Riles a Theologian few years back he used to refer to the Lord's Supper as a visible sermon It's a visible sermon. It's a tangible sermon It's a taste of a sermon. That's what that is
There was a Survey done Not too long ago And this question was simple
What are the words or phrases that you most long to hear? in third place In our country not surprising as supper's ready. That was the third third thing. Okay, shocker. I know In second place was I forgive you Because that's that makes sense we we all make mistakes and when we do we long to hear those words that we're forgiven And number one also not a shocker. I love you
Jesus knows what to do with our longings and what he does is he's dies in our place and he makes our longing to be with him And he meets that longing by being with us in this way for now knowing that one day we will be in his presence for real in the new heavens and new earth when kingdom comes And for the meantime here those things we all desperately long to hear I love you. I forgive you Supper's ready Let's pray Father, we are thankful That you would not only send your son but That you Lord Jesus would not only give yourself in our place, but then give yourself to us through This most special meal Would you help us to feel your spiritual spiritual presence in these elements would you help us to to really realize how you want to engage all of our senses Would you show us that this is a meaningful meal this is a phenomenal teaching tool and this may this be something new for those of us who have never understood the weight and the beauty Of communing with you through the Lord's Supper We just give you praise and thanks and ask that you would Take what we've seen in your word and take what we're about to see and touch and feel through the visible sermon Of the Lord's Supper and use it to build a sub-strength and us send us out to go and make disciples of all nations For it is in Jesus' name that we pray Amen We at University Presbyterian Church thank you for listening to this message Our mission is to help people know God, wrote together and serve others To learn more about the church or how to have a vital relationship with God Visit our website at www.uPC- Orlando.com or call our offices at 407-384-3300