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Clarify, Unify, Glorify in Matthew • Sermon • Submitted • Presented
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ME (A hook):
ME (A hook):
WE (Why does this matter to us?):
WE (Why does this matter to us?):
GOD (Teach the text):
GOD (Teach the text):
26
(2-5)
The chief priests and elders plot together to sneakily arrest and kill Jesus.
But they originally plan on waiting until Passover ends.
Because Passover is perhaps the most important Jewish feast.
It celebrated their deliverance from Egypt,
When the angel of death literally passed over the homes of the Israelites.
During Jesus’ time,
It was celebrated on the 15th of the first month of the Jewish calendar,
Which is called Nisan.
It lines up between late March and early April in our calendar.
It is different because their calendar is based on the moon.
So, the 15th of Nisan is the first full moon after the spring equinox.
On that day,
The Jews would sacrifice an unblemished lamb and eat it.
They would also remove all leaven from their homes,
Eating only unleavened bread for the entire week,
Because leaven symbolized sin.
This is why it became known as the Feast of Unleavened Bread.
So, you have all these Jews from far off places,
Gathered in Jerusalem for this important celebration.
Therefore, these religious leaders are thinking,
“Let’s wait until after the celebration,
And everyone leaves Jerusalem,
And we don’t have to risk getting them all worked up,
Then we can kill Jesus.”
But God’s plan was for Jesus’ death to take place right in the midst of this feast.
Looking ahead to vs. 17,
Matthew says the night before Jesus’ death was the first day of Unleavened Bread,
It is the day of preparation for Passover.
On that night,
Jesus celebrated Passover with His disciples,
And the next day,
He was crucified.
(8)
When the disciples see this woman pouring out this expensive ointment,
It says they were indignant!
They were furious!
In John’s Gospel,
It mentions that Judas vocalizes this hypocritical objection,
Because he has been pocketing money from the purse for some time.
But Matthew shows that Judas was not alone in this case.
The other disciples agreed with him,
They were frustrated by what they saw as a waste.
(11)
Interestingly, Jesus seems to downplay the need to care for the poor,
Because there will always be poor people in this world.
But Jesus is obviously not saying to neglect those who are in need.
God specifically commands care for the poor throughout the Bible,
And Jesus demonstrates care for the poor throughout His ministry on earth.
But Jesus shows how caring for the poor cannot have a higher priority than Jesus.
No thing can have a higher priority than Jesus.
Not even our own families.
God similarly commands us to honor our father and mother,
For husbands and wives to love and trust and serve one another,
And children to obey their parents.
Yet, above all these important duties and intimate relationships,
Is Jesus.
As country singer Josh Turner says,
“Ain’t nobody gonna come between me and God…He’s my Father, He’s my Friend, The Beginning and the End, He rules the world with a staff and a rod. We’re a team, me and God.”
(18)
In vs. 18, Jesus tells the disciples “My time is at hand.”
This is a reference to the terrible events He has repeatedly warned His disciples would come.
But by declaring it has come,
He is also demonstrating how all these terrible events were completely under God’s control.
(24)
In vs. 24,
Jesus again refers to Himself as the Son of Man twice.
He first did this back in 8:20.
It is a title that reveals multiple things about Jesus.
For one,
It reveals He is a human being.
That He is living the full human experience.
It describes His humanity.
Secondly, it is a title that predicts His suffering, death, and resurrection.
For example, Matt. 17:22-23 says,
As they were gathering in Galilee, Jesus said to them, “The Son of Man is about to be delivered into the hands of men, and they will kill him, and he will be raised on the third day.” And they were greatly distressed.
This alludes to the suffering servant prophecy of Isaiah 53.
It attaches Messianic prophecies to the title, Son of Man.
This part of the title is perhaps the most overwhelming for the disciples,
The most difficult for them to accept,
They don’t want to hear anything about His suffering.
And they seem to not believe Jesus when He predicts these things.
But thirdly, this title has an apocalyptic connection to Daniel 7.
Daniel prophesied that the Son of Man would appear at the Judgment at the end of time,
And He would rule over the world,
Receiving worldwide worship.
So, Jesus is pulling together these three aspects of His character at this crucial time,
Teaching how,
As the Son of Man,
His death is not merely the result of corrupt and wicked authorities.
Rather, it is an intentional death to pay the price for the consequences of all humankind.
So, the events and the circumstances from this point forward are not beyond the scope of God’s sovereignty.
The first event,
Which becomes the catalyst leading to His eventual death,
Is the betrayal of a close and beloved friend.
Not only is the experience of this betrayal a fulfillment of prophecy,
But it is a real human experience.
When we think of Jesus’ ability to sympathize with our experiences,
Think of this betrayal.
And listen to the way the Psalms express this.
Even my close friend in whom I trusted, who ate my bread, has lifted his heel against me.
Psalm 55:12–14 (ESV)
For it is not an enemy who taunts me— then I could bear it; it is not an adversary who deals insolently with me— then I could hide from him. But it is you, a man, my equal, my companion, my familiar friend. We used to take sweet counsel together.
It is deeply painful for Jesus to endure this betrayal.
And yet,
This real human experience,
This close, intimate betrayal,
Had been ordained by God,
Before the world was even formed.
And yet,
At the same time,
Judas,
And those who brought about the death of Jesus,
Remain responsible for their actions.
This tension of God’s sovereignty and human responsibility is an ever-present reality,
Both in Scripture,
And in our lives.
(26-29)
Prior to Christ establishing the church,
The Passover meal celebrated God’s deliverance of His people from Egypt in Exodus.
Here in Matthew 26,
Jesus transforms His last Passover meal into the Lord’s Supper.
By instituting the Lord’s Supper this way,
Jesus is showing the consistent thread of God’s redemption of His people,
Throughout both the Old and New Testament.
The Lord’s Supper demonstrates the continuity between the old and new covenants.
It reveals how the true meaning of the Passover,
Lies is the deliverance of sin accomplished by the sacrifice of Christ’s life.
Since we are going through this passage this morning,
I do want to briefly address a doctrine that you may or may not have heard of.
It is the doctrine of transubstantiation.
It is a Roman Catholic teaching.
And the basic idea is that the essence of the bread and the juice are transformed into the literal body and blood of Christ.
So, let me be clear,
We don’t believe this doctrine to be true.
Going back to the Reformation,
John Calvin,
And many others,
Rightly corrected that the bread and juice represent Christ’s body and blood.
They were the first to really question the nature of Christ’s presence in the Last Supper.
Jesus was physically with His disciples when He instituted the Lord’s Supper.
So, the idea that the essence of the bread and the wine were literally transforming into His body and blood,
Would not have occurred to the disciples.
Especially since this also precedes His death.
And not to be too crash,
But if Jesus wanted His disciples eating His body and drinking His blood,
He was there,
He didn’t need to use bread and wine.
So, the bread and the wine are clearly symbols.
They engage all our senses to communicate the gospel in a visceral way,
Specifically, Christ’s atoning death.
The sound and feeling of the bread breaking as we chew.
The sight of the red juice pouring out of the cup like blood.
And the reminder that Jesus did this for the forgiveness of our sins.
It is a vivid picture of the Gospel.
And it is an obedient act of worship.
As Christ’s body,
We share the bread and the cup to commemorate His death,
And celebrate the new life,
The new relationship with God Christ’s death affords us.
At the table,
We give thanks to Christ for His finished and acceptable work of atonement on our behalf.
The Westminster Confession of the Lord’s Supper is well written,
“Our Lord Jesus, in the night where He was betrayed, instituted the sacrament of His body and blood, called the Lord’s Supper, to be observed in His church, unto the end of the world, for the perpetual remembrance of the sacrifice of Himself in His death; the sealing of all benefits thereof unto true believers, their spiritual nourishment and growth in Him, their further engagement in and to all duties which they owe unto Him; and, to be a bond and pledge of their communion with Him, and with each other, as members of His mystical body.”
And Matthew is not the only place we find the Lord’s Supper.
It is also recorded in Mark 14, Luke 22, and taught about in 1 Cor. 10-11.
Jesus also alluded to this same idea when He said,
“I am the bread of life” in John 6.
This teaching, in fact,
Is what reveals to us what the Lord’s Supper signifies.
And that is our need for communion with Christ by grace through faith.
R.C. Sproul comments,
“The Lord’s Supper has a past reference to Christ’s death. It has a present reference to our corporate participation in Him through faith. It has a future reference in that it is a pledge of His return.”
The Lord’s Supper encourages us to moment by moment and day by day faithfulness.
So, as members,
We participate in the Lord’s Supper,
As an act of worship,
Remembering the suffering Christ endured for us.
This is a distinct mark of Christ’s members all around the world.
(28)
One last thing to mention about the Lord’s Supper before moving on.
Jesus talks about the blood of the covenant in vs. 28.
This is not only a reference to the old covenant God established in Exodus.
This connects to what Jeremiah prophesied in Jer. 31:31-34,
Where God said through His prophet,
“Behold, the days are coming, declares the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah, not like the covenant that I made with their fathers on the day when I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt, my covenant that they broke, though I was their husband, declares the Lord. For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, declares the Lord: I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts. And I will be their God, and they shall be my people. And no longer shall each one teach his neighbor and each his brother, saying, ‘Know the Lord,’ for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest, declares the Lord. For I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more.”
Jesus is the fulfillment of this prophecy.
His sacrifice is what the Lord’s Supper points to,
And it is His sacrifice that grants us forgiveness,
So, that God remembers our sins no more.
(31)
The prophecy Jesus mentions in vs. 31 comes from Zechariah 13:7,
Which says,
“Awake, O sword, against my shepherd, against the man who stands next to me,” declares the Lord of hosts. “Strike the shepherd, and the sheep will be scattered; I will turn my hand against the little ones.
In the context of Zechariah,
The scattering that follows the striking is what renews God’s people.
So, in a shocking and unexpected twist,
The disciples deserting Jesus represents Israel’s rejection of Jesus,
But the mention of Zechariah here,
Reminds us of the hope of a remnant that God will save.
(39)
The cup Jesus is talking about is the cup of God’s wrath,
Which is about to be poured out on Him.
And the thought of drinking the fullness of God’s wrath is a horrifying prospect to Jesus.
Because Jesus knew that the Father would not be with Him when this happens,
But rather the Father would be against Him in judgment.
As Mark notes,
Jesus cries out from the cross,
“Father, why have you forsaken Me?”
(52)
Peter was ready to defend Jesus by force.
But that is how earthly kings establish their kingdom.
Not Jesus.
(54-56)
Jesus goes on to explain how the Scriptures prophesy salvation through His death.
They must be fulfilled.
Yet, Jesus has continued to teach how He would rise from the dead.
All this is the Gospel.
All this is part of God’s will.
(59-61)
So, as Jesus is facing His trial,
The religious council had trouble finding false witnesses to testify against Jesus.
John’s gospel mentions that early in His ministry,
Jesus said,
John 2:19 (ESV)
“Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.”
So, they distorted this statement to use it as a charge against Him.
The Jewish leaders were taking extreme actions to get rid of Jesus.
(63)
27
YOU (Response):
YOU (Response):
WE (Paint a picture of the future):
WE (Paint a picture of the future):