The Last Passover

Mark 14:22-26; Luke 22:14-23

SERMON OUTLINE

The Last Passover    Mark 14.22-26; Luke 22.14-23

Introduction

-“I have earnestly desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer”.

-“With desire, I desired”

-Only the disciples

Jesus Loved These Men

-Jesus knew them and still loved them

-They would not watch with him and would forsake him

-Jesus loves us in the same way

The Deeper Communion that was Coming

-They needed to have their sins forgiven

-The inauguration of the New Covenant

-With the new birth came the indwelling Holy Spirit and a new relationship with Jesus. John 14.16-20

-We draw near in fellowship with Jesus as a congregation at the Lord’s Supper as we anticipate being with him and as Jesus anticipates being with us.

A Means of Encouraging the Disciples

-When they would remember this time with Jesus

-When they would remember him washing their feet. John 13

Anticipating the Fulfillment of the Kingdom of God

-Not eat and not drink until the Kingdom of God comes Luke 22.16, 18

-Did not drink the fourth cup. Mark 14.25-26

-The marriage supper of the Lamb. Revelation 19.9

Conclusion

Let us share in the Lord’s fellowship together this morning as we anticipate our meeting together again with him in the Kingdom of God

SERMON NOTES

The Last Passover                         Mark 14.22-26; Luke 22.14-23

This morning I want to draw your attention to verse 15, “I have earnestly desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer”. In this declaration Jesus uses both the noun “desire” and the verb “desired” showing how much he longed to spend this Passover with his disciples. Jesus said, “with desire I desired this Passover to eat with you before I suffer”. The ESV and the NASB show this desired desire by saying, “I have earnestly desired”. The NIV says, “I have eagerly desired”. The KJV translates this literally, “with desire, I have desired”. So Jesus was looking forward with great longing to this last Passover with his disciples.

Another thing to notice here, Matthew and Mark specifically say that Jesus “reclined at table with the twelve” and Luke says the “apostles with him”. Jesus did not invite his mother or Mary Magdalene or any of his other disciples and followers to this Passover, only his disciples. This was to be a private and intimate moment between Jesus and his twelve disciples, a very precious moment for our Lord to be with his disciples.

Why was this last Passover so important to Jesus and why did he so earnestly desire to eat it alone with his disciples? We could come up with a number of reasons but let me give you four this morning.

1) Jesus loved these men. Jesus had spent three years with these men. Jesus knew their sin, he knew their rough ways, their prejudices, he knew they did not yet understand who he was and what his mission was, but he loved them anyway. Jesus knew their sincere hearts, their love for him, their willingness to learn, and their love for God his Father. Jesus loved these twelve men as his creation but also as his friends and companions. Jesus loved them as his disciples and as those who would go on to give their very lives in love for him. Jesus loved them as future sons of God and co-heirs with him of God. In just a few hours they would fall asleep while his soul wrestled sorrowfully unto death in prayer, leaving him alone in the hour of his greatest human need for support. They would all soon dessert him and Peter would even betray him three times. Jesus knew all those things and yet he loved them deeply and wanted to be with them for this last meal.

That Jesus loved these disciples in spite of their flaws and wanted to spend his last meal with them is a comfort to me. It teaches me that Jesus truly deeply loves us as his creation and all the more as his brothers and sisters, as his bride, and his body. That is why he calls us to gather together and to gather with him at this Table as often as we can. This Table shows us the love of Jesus and calls us to experience his love by the Holy Spirit as we gather together with him. Jesus loved the disciples and he loves us as well.

2) The deeper communion with them that was coming. Jesus was going to suffer and to die on the cross and then rise again on the third day for the forgiveness of sins. Even though Jesus loved these men they still needed to be saved from their sins. Jesus was going to the cross to be that perfect sacrifice to satisfy the holiness of God that their sins might be forgiven. With the forgiveness of sins would come the experience of new birth and the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. With the indwelling Holy Spirit they would be “in Christ” and be organic members of the body of Christ. They would understand the purpose of Christ’s coming, their own purpose to make disciples, and anticipate the return of Jesus Christ. Jesus desired this for the disciples and desires this for all of us as well. Jesus earnestly desired this last Passover as the inauguration of the New Covenant and the new relationship that the New Covenant would bring with his disciples. Here is what John writes about this new relationship, “I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Helper to be with you forever, even the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him. You know him, for he dwells with you and will be in you. I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you. Yet a little while and the world will see me no more, but you will see me. Because I live, you will also live. In that day you will know that I am in my Father, and you in me, and I in you.” (John 14.16-20). Jesus would no longer be with the disciples but in the disciples by the Holy Spirit. Jesus was looking forward to the deeper Holy-Spirit-to-human-spirit communion with the disciples.

Let me add another thought to this. Today Jesus has fellowship with millions of believers through the Holy Spirit. This would not have been possible with Jesus on earth, and without his suffering and death and the coming of the Holy Spirit. Through the command to practice the Lord’s Supper we can draw near to Jesus as a congregation, as one body in fellowship with Jesus.

Let me add one more thought here. The Lord’s Supper is like a telephone. At the last Passover Jesus was physically with the disciples. Then after his resurrection he returned to heaven but left them the command to practice the Lord’s Supper. At the Lord’s Supper Jesus meets with his disciples by the Holy Spirit. While Jesus is physically away from his disciples he has given us this special means of communion with him as we gather around the Lord’s Table. It is like calling or texting a loved one who is absent, anticipating the time when we get to physically be with them again. So as we gather around the Lord’s Table there is this sense of anticipation of meeting again soon and the joy of communion with Jesus until the meeting again takes place. This anticipation of soon meeting again with Jesus is two-sided. Not only do we look forward to meeting with Jesus again as we gather around the Lord’s Table, but Jesus anticipates our physical reunion as well. Until that physical meeting we fellowship with Jesus and with one another around the Lord’s Table, a deeper communion than when Jesus was physically present with the disciples.

The last Passover was a foreshadow of this deeper fellowship around the Lord’s Table.

3) A means of encouraging the disciples for the task ahead of them. I think this last meal with Jesus with the declaration of the New Covenant in his blood, though not understood at the time, would be a strong encouragement for the disciples when they remembered this intimate time with Jesus after the resurrection and their commission to go into all the world and make disciples. The continued practice of the Lord’s Supper would then add to that encouragement.

We are told in John 13 that on that night Jesus washed the disciple’s feet and wiped them with a towel as a servant, showing the great example of humble love. This last Passover was an encouragement and an example upon which to pattern their future life and service.

4) Finally this last Passover was an anticipation of the fulfillment of the Kingdom of God. Jesus says in Luke 22.16, “for I tell you I will not eat it until it is fulfilled in the kingdom of God”. Then in Luke 22.18, “I tell you that from now on I will not drink of the fruit of the vine until the kingdom of God comes”. Jesus promised that he would not eat bread and drink the fruit of the vine until the coming of the Kingdom of God.

You have heard me say before that Jesus left the fourth cup of the Passover untouched. It says in Mark 14.26, “and when they had sung a hymn, they went out to the Mount of Olives”. When we celebrated the Passover with Daniel Muller we drank of the third cup followed by songs of praise and then we drank the fourth cup – the cup of Praise. Jesus did not drink from that cup with his disciples. Daniel Muller also believes that Jesus did not drink from the fourth cup but left it untouched. Mark 14.25 says, “Truly, I say to you, I will not drink again of the fruit of the vine until the day when I drink it new in the kingdom of God”. Jesus anticipates the gathering again of his disciples, not only the original disciples that were at the Last Passover but all of us together when the fullness of the Kingdom of God has come. Revelation 19.9 says, “And the angel said to me, ‘Write this: Blessed are those who are invited to the marriage supper of the Lamb.’ And he said to me, ‘These are the true words of God.’” The angel wanted John to record this and reminds John that these are the true words of God. There is no question that God’s people are going to sit down with Jesus in the new age and the Kingdom of God and physically be with him again and forever. Jesus desired to eat this last Passover with the disciples because he anticipated the fullness of life that it would bring to the disciples and to all those who would believe in him and be saved from sin, and would spend eternity with him in the kingdom of God.

As we participate in the Lord’s Supper this morning let us remember afresh that Jesus deeply loves us, the depth of fellowship we have with Jesus even now as we gather together around the Lord’s Table. And let us be encouraged today as we anticipate our gathering together at the marriage supper of the Lamb and look forward to eternity in the presence of God.