Matthew 26:17-35 The Last Supper
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Intro: Dog in Communion
Intro: Dog in Communion
Our first Easter Sunday was at the White Oak Inn
Having hotel guests and trying to do church services provided a few interesting scenarios
We had converted the old restaurant to our sanctuary
We were closing out the last service and ready to serve communion
Just as I was getting ready to explain the elements a golden retriever wandered up one of the aisles, trotted in front of the altar, and then down the other aisle and out of the room
It happened so quick and the dog was so nonchalant that everyone was silent and then we broke out in laughter
What made it even more comical was that one the east side of the room was a bank of windows that looked out onto the lawn of the hotel
The dog’s owner was being very demonstrative as she wandered around the lawns looking for her dog
When she finally found the dog it was like it had been lost for years
It was a living example of what communion represents
We were lost but God sent His son to seek and save the lost
Read Matthew 26:17-19
Read Matthew 26:17-19
Transition:
At the very heart of the life and worship of the early Christian community was the celebration of the Lord’s Supper.
In the early days of church history, the celebration of Communion was known by different names.
On the one hand, the early church used to come together and celebrate what they called an “agape feast” or a “love feast” in which they celebrated the love of God and the love that they enjoyed with one another as Christians in this holy supper.
The sacrament was called the Lord’s Supper because it made reference to the last supper that Jesus had with His disciples in the Upper Room on the night before His death.
In the early church and later, the Lord’s Supper was called the “Eucharist,” taking its definition from the Greek verb eucharisto, which is the Greek verb that means “to thank.”
Thus, one facet of the Lord’s Supper has been the gathering of the people of God to express their gratitude for what Christ accomplished in their behalf in His death.
The Lord’s Supper is a drama that has its roots not only in that Upper Room experience, but the roots reach back into the Old Testament celebration of Passover.
In fact, before Jesus instituted the Lord’s Supper in the Upper Room, He had given requirements to His disciples that they would secure a room for the purpose of their meeting together on this occasion because He was entering into His passion.
He knew that His trial, death, resurrection, and return to the Father were imminent, so He said to His disciples, “I deeply desire to celebrate the Passover with you one last time.”
The link to Passover is seen not only in His words to the disciples but also in similar language used by the Apostle Paul when he wrote to the Corinthian church.
Cleanse out the old leaven that you may be a new lump, as you really are unleavened. For Christ, our Passover lamb, has been sacrificed.
It’s clear that the Apostolic community saw a link between the death of Christ and the Old Testament Passover celebration
I. Preparing the Passover vs. 17-19
I. Preparing the Passover vs. 17-19
Matthew is very brief on his description of the preparation
Why? Because he is writing to Jews who know all about the Passover
Luke tells a different story
Jesus tells Peter and John to go
Tells them to follow a man carrying water
Says that a large upper room will be available
Saw a joke about the last supper
It’s Peter and John asking for a table for 24
The waiter verified there were 24 in their party
Peter replies “No, only 13 but we’re all gonna sit on the same side of the table”
Look at vs. 18
Jesus says my time is at hand
Jesus wanted the passover to be the last meal he celebrated with the disciples
We have to look back to the pages of the Old Testament to the historical context of the institution of the Passover.
We must remember the enslavement of the people of Israel in Egypt under the domination of a ruthless pharaoh
There were ten plagues in all, but it’s in the first nine that we see an escalation of drama and conflict between Moses and Pharaoh.
One plague would befall the Egyptians. Then, Pharaoh would relent and say, “Okay, leave; take your people and go.”
But as soon as the phrase left the lips of Pharaoh, God would step in and harden Pharaoh’s heart.
This was to make it very clear to the people of Israel that their redemption was from the hand of God and not from the grace of Pharaoh.
Jesus’ death on the cross does the same thing
We aren’t granted eternal life by keeping the law
It is only by the substitutionary death of Jesus Christ
II. Traitor in the Midst vs. 20-25
II. Traitor in the Midst vs. 20-25
vs. 20-23 One will Betray
We’ve seen this building up
Last week Jason showed how the religious leaders plotted to kill Jesus and Judas was willing to go along
Jesus knew that he would be betrayed from the beginning
Jesus answered them, “Did I not choose you, the twelve? And yet one of you is a devil.”
As always OT prophecy foretells this happening
Even my close friend in whom I trusted, who ate my bread, has lifted his heel against me.
Jesus’ quotation from Psalm 41:9 referred to Ahithophel’s betrayal of David by helping Absalom plot against his father (see 2 Sam. 16:15–17:3).
Ahithophel was an Old Testament parallel to Judas, the ultimate betrayer.
This made the disciples very sorrowful
In the ancient Near East, the eating of a meal with someone was considered a mark of friendship, and therefore to eat with a person just before betraying him would be to compound the treachery
Jesus’ response did nothing to alleviate their anxiety.
In fact, it emphasized again that the betrayer was one of them.
He said cryptically, “He who dipped his hand with Me in the bowl is the one who will betray Me.”
Because each one of them had dipped his hand … in the bowl, the disciples had no better idea of the betrayer’s identity than before.
Jesus did, however, assure them that only one of them was guilty and that the others genuinely belonged to Him. “I do not speak of all of you,”
vs. 24-25 Woe to the Man who Betrays
Jesus says “Woe t the man by whom the Son of Man is betrayed”
Woe means pain or calamity
It’s not going to go well for the betrayer and it doesn’t
Had Judas not said to Jesus the same thing as the others, he would have become suspect.
He therefore imitated their astonished disbelief and parroted their anxious queries to the Lord.
He even called Jesus Rabbi, as if to reinforce his feigned loyalty.
Jesus did not respond with a direct accusation but said simply, “You have said it yourself,” affirming that Judas had condemned himself out of his own mouth
As soon as Judas took the morsel he sealed his destiny for all eternity, because “Satan then entered into him”
Then after he had taken the morsel, Satan entered into him. Jesus said to him, “What you are going to do, do quickly.”
III. The First Communion vs. 26-29
III. The First Communion vs. 26-29
After Judas left and Jesus was alone with the eleven faithful disciples, He transformed the Passover of the Old Covenant into the Lord’s Supper of the New Covenant.
Passover was the oldest of Jewish festivals, older even than the covenant with Moses at Sinai.
It was established before the priesthood, the Tabernacle, or the law.
It was ordained by God while Israel was still enslaved in Egypt, and it had been celebrated by His people for some 1,500 years
But the Passover Jesus was now concluding with the disciples was the last divinely sanctioned Passover ever to be observed.
In fact, Christ ended the Passover and instituted a new memorial to Himself.
It would not look back to a lamb in Egypt as the symbol of God’s redeeming love and power, but to the very Lamb of God, who, by the sacrificial shedding of His own blood, took away the sins of the whole world.
In that one meal Jesus both terminated the old and inaugurated the new.
vs. 26 The Bread
vs. 26 The Bread
When Jesus celebrated His final Passover with His disciples, He departed from the standard liturgy in the middle of the celebration.
He added a new meaning to the Passover celebration as He took the unleavened bread, attaching a new significance to it when He said, “This is My body which is broken for you
He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness. By his wounds you have been healed.
Breaking the unleavened bread was a normal part of the traditional Passover ceremony.
But Jesus now gave it an entirely new meaning, saying, “This is My body.”
From henceforth the bread would represent Christ’s own body, sacrificed for the salvation of men.
vs. 27-28 The Cup
vs. 27-28 The Cup
There are four cups of wine in the Passover meal
After the supper had been completed, He took the wine and he said, in effect, “I’m attaching a new significance to this element as you celebrate the Passover because this wine is my blood.
Not the blood of the lamb in the Old Testament whose blood was marked on the doorpost, but now this cup is my blood.”
In essence, Jesus was saying, “I am the Passover; I am the Pascal Lamb; I am the one who will be sacrificed for you.
It is by My blood being marked over the door of your life that you will escape the wrath of God.”
So He said: “From now on, this is My blood, which is shed for you for the remission of your sins.
This is the blood of a new covenant.
For the life of the flesh is in the blood, and I have given it for you on the altar to make atonement for your souls, for it is the blood that makes atonement by the life.
Indeed, under the law almost everything is purified with blood, and without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness of sins.
Jesus therefore did not simply have to die but had to shed His own precious blood
And although the shedding of His blood was required, it symbolized His atoning death, the giving of His unblemished, pure, and wholly righteous life for the corrupt, depraved, and wholly sinful lives of unregenerate men
IV. Scattered Sheep vs. 30-35
IV. Scattered Sheep vs. 30-35
vs. 30-32 You will All Fall Away
vs. 33-35 Peter’s Denial