Luke's Gospel, chapter 22.
Now, the Feast of Unleavened Bread, Drunai, which
is called the Passover.
The Feast of Unleavened Bread actually was for
six days from the 15th of Nisan to
the 21st.
However, the 15th of Nisan was the day
of the Passover.
And so, it was drawing nigh.
People were beginning to prepare for it.
Two days before the feast, they would go
through the house with brooms and brushes and
make sure that they got rid of all
of the leaven out of the house in
quite a ceremony.
And of course, they'd always leave a little
bit of leaven for one of the children
to find in order that they could find
the last bit of leaven that was there.
And they would purge the house of leaven
in preparation for the Passover.
And so, this time was drawing close.
And the chief priest and the scribes thought
how they might kill Jesus, but they feared
the people.
Then Satan entered into Judas, surnamed Iscariot, being
of the number of the twelve.
And he went his way and communed with
the chief priest and the captains how he
might betray him unto them.
And they were glad and covenanted to give
him money.
And he promised and sought opportunity to betray
him unto them in the absence of the
multitude.
So, it was their desire to catch Jesus
away from the multitudes.
Because as we noticed last week in our
study, the crowds were coming to hear him
in the temple daily as he was teaching.
And many counted him to be a prophet.
And so, though the scribes and the high
priest and all were wanting to move against
Jesus, they were too cowardly to move against
the popular movement of the crowd that was
being attracted to Jesus at this point.
And so, when Judas came to them, they
were very happy, actually, that they might have
this opportunity of catching Jesus away from the
crowd, arresting him, and getting the movement going
the other direction before the people would really
realize what was happening.
Judas Iscariot is, of course, a very interesting
character.
We're not really told too much about him.
As we get into John's gospel, we'll learn
that he was actually the treasurer of the
group.
And according to John, had been pilfering out
of the group treasury.
Here we are told that Satan entered into
him.
He is called the son of perdition by
Peter.
And Jesus said of him, it would have
been good for that man if he had
never been born.
A tragic life, a man who became obsessed
by the greed, the desire for power.
And there are many suggestions as to the
motives behind Judas' betrayal of Jesus.
There are those who suggest that he was
only trying to force Jesus to establish the
kingdom.
And that he felt by betraying him and
turning him over to the Jews, it would
force the hand of Jesus that he would
not be able to wait any longer, but
would have to manifest who he was and
establish the kingdom of God.
And that when Jesus was not defending himself,
but was submitting to the edict of death,
that his plan more or less backfired.
And that's when he came to the priest,
bringing the money back and throwing it at
their feet.
Who knows what the true motive of a
man is?
These are only speculations by men who have
perhaps tried to somehow excuse, in a way,
the actions of Judas Iscariot.
I personally feel that his actions are inexcusable.
The method by which he chose to betray
the Lord with a kiss is reprehensible.
Now, verse 7, the day for the preparation
of the Passover has come.
Now the day came of unleavened bread when
the Passover must be killed.
The Passover was a Sabbath day in which
they were to do no work.
It was a feast day.
And this day had come in which they
were to kill the lamb for the Passover
dinner.
All of the cooking, all of the baking,
all of the preparation had to be done
before sundown.
It is important that we recall that the
Jewish day begins at six o'clock in
the evening.
So all of the preparation had to be
made for the Passover dinner before six o
'clock in the evening.
And to them, the day began, the day
of Passover began at six o'clock in
the evening and did not end until the
following day at six in the evening.
Now, by the end of the following day,
Jesus had been crucified, which means that Jesus
was crucified on the day of the Passover
feast, which began at six o'clock the
evening before when he celebrated the feast with
his disciples.
But he was crucified on the day of
Passover, which, of course, is extremely significant.
When you remember that the Passover was a
memorial feast to remind them of how God
had delivered their fathers from the plague of
death in Egypt, when they followed the instructions
of God and had slain the lamb and
put the blood on the lintel in the
doorpost of their house so that when the
Lord passed through Egypt that night, when he
saw the blood upon the doors of their
houses, he passed over those houses.
Hence the word Passover.
He had passed over those houses and the
firstborn was saved alive because of the sacrificial
lamb, the lamb for the house.
That was only to look forward to the
lamb of God that would one day take
away the sins of the world.
Our sacrificial lamb, who by his death, by
his sacrifice, has spared us from death.
And so this Passover feast that the Jews
observed was looking back, but it was also
looking forward and it had its fulfillment in
Jesus.
Paul, in writing to the Colossian church about
the Sabbath days, about the new moons, the
holy days, and of course the Passover was
related to the new moon, in talking to
them about these, he said these were all
a shadow of things to come, but the
substance is of Christ.
They were all really looking forward to their
fulfillment in Jesus Christ.
And so the feast of the Passover was
fulfilled in the death of Jesus Christ on
that very day, God's lamb slain for the
sins of the world.
The feast of Pentecost was fulfilled 50 days
later when the Holy Spirit was poured out
upon the church and 3000 people were converted.
The first fruits of what we see the
continuing work today as the feast of Pentecost
was the feast of first fruits, the offering
of the first fruits unto the Lord.
In as much as these two major feasts
have their fulfillment in the New Testament and
in the church, we would then conclude that
that third feast, which was inaugurated by God
in the Old Testament, the feast of trumpets
must also have a fulfillment within the church.
That feast that looked back to God's delivering
their fathers out of the ravages of the
wilderness and bringing them into the promised land.
And so it's fulfillment is yet awaited by
the church when the trump of God shall
sound and we who are alive and remain
to be caught up to meet the Lord
in the air and never be with our
Lord.
So came the day of unleavened bread when
the Passover must be killed.
And he sent Peter and John saying, go
and prepare the Passover for us that we
may eat.
And they said unto him, where do you
want us to prepare it?
And he said to them, behold, when you
enter the city, there you will find a
man who will meet you and he is
bearing a pitcher of water.
Follow him into the house where he goes
and you shall say to the good man
of the house, the master says to thee,
where is the guest chamber where I shall
eat the Passover with my disciples?
And he shall show you a large upper
room furnished there, make ready.
And they went and found as he had
said unto them and they made ready the
Passover.
And when the hour was come, he sat
down and the twelve apostles with him and
he said unto them with desire, have I
desired to eat this Passover with you before
I suffer?
For I say unto you, I will not
eat any more thereof until it be fulfilled
in the kingdom of God.
And he took the cup and he gave
thanks and he said, take this and divide
it among yourselves.
For I say unto you, I will not
drink of the fruit of the vine until
the kingdom of God shall come.
And he took the bread and he gave
thanks and he broke it and he gave
it unto them saying, this is my body,
which is given for you.
This do in remembrance of me.
And likewise, also the cup after the supper
saying this cup is the new covenant in
my blood, which is shed for you.
And so Jesus here instituted what we call
the Lord's supper with his disciples as he
took the traditional Jewish Passover feast and gave
to the emblems of that feast their true
meaning.
Now, they always had these three pieces of
bread that they would put in these little
sacks.
The middle piece was broken, sort of a
matzo loaf, and it was broken.
And Jesus broke it and said, take, eat.
This is my body, which was broken for
you.
And then after dinner, they always had the
final cup.
And when they were having this after dinner
cup, Jesus said, this cup is the new
covenant in my blood, which is shed for
the remission of sins to study the traditional
Jewish Passover feast, even as it is, it
is observed by them today is extremely enlightening
and extremely significant to us as Christians, because
you can see in its symbology, Jesus Christ.
So clearly you can see the gospel so
clearly.
Their hearts surely should have been prepared by
it for the receiving of Jesus Christ.
It's just woven into the traditions of the
Passover feast.
But to them, it was a memorial of
God's deliverance in Egypt.
From the time the child said, what makes
this night different from all other nights?
And the father begins to explain the story
of God's delivering of their fathers out of
the bondage of Egypt with the various things
around the table, representing the bondage of Egypt
and God's deliverance.
Now a whole new meaning is given to
it by Jesus Christ, for it has now
been fulfilled and the bread now represents the
broken body of Jesus and the cup now
represents his blood that was shed for our
sins.
But behold, he said the hand of him
that betrays me is with me on this
table.
And truly, the son of man goes as
it was determined, but woe unto that man
by whom he is betrayed.
The Bible tells us that Jesus knew who
it was that was going to betray him.
Here he is just giving a solemn warning.
I think that with his solemn warning, Judah
still had a chance to back out if
he wanted to.
And they began to inquire among themselves which
of them it was that should do this
thing.
And there was also a strife among them
of which of them should be accounted the
greatest.
Sort of sad, sort of pathetic.
Here Jesus is filled with the knowledge that
he is soon going to be suffering on
the cross.
And he is saying, look, I've really wanted
to eat this supper with you before I
suffer.
Now, this bread is my body.
It's going to be broken for you.
This cup is my blood.
It's going to be shed for the remission
of sins.
This is going to be God's new covenant.
And he is really now sort of obsessed
with the suffering and the cross.
And the disciples are arguing among themselves as
to which one is going to be the
greatest when he establishes the kingdom.
And so he said unto them, the kings
of the Gentiles, and the word Gentiles in
the New Testament is equivalent to heathen, they
exercise lordship over their subjects.
And they that exercise authority upon them are
called benefactors.
Hasn't changed much.
The government today declares that they are our
benefactors.
They take away $100 and then give you
back one, declaring them to be your benefactors.
But he said it shall not be so
among you.
But he that is the greatest, let him
be as the youngest.
And he that is chief as he that
does serve.
For whether is greater he that sits at
meat or he that serves is not he
that sits at meat.
But I am among you as one who
serves.
Jesus is teaching his disciples that the true
path to greatness is the path of serving.
Jesus said, I am among you as one
who serves.
He also said in another place, the servant
is not greater than his Lord.
Too many ministers have the wrong concept of
the ministry.
They fail to see the servanthood of the
ministry.
They get to the place where they almost
expect people to do special favors for them
because they are the minister.
But in reality, as a minister, it means
that I am a servant, a servant to
all.
Now, the Gentiles love these positions of authority.
They love to rule over people.
They love dominion over people's lives.
But Jesus said it shall not be among
you.
You need to learn to be servants.
And then he said unto them, you are
those who have continued with me in my
temptations, and I appoint you a kingdom as
my father has appointed unto me, that you
may eat and drink at my table in
the kingdom and sit on the thrones, judging
the 12 tribes of Israel.
Now this he is saying to his 12
apostles, of course, excluding Judas Iscariot, but he
is telling the apostles.
And I think Paul actually is the one
who got appointed to take the place of
Judas, though the church drew straws and picked
Matthias.
That was the luck of the straws, but
it would appear that it was God's choice
that Paul was the 12th.
But the Lord is saying, and this to
me is something that is glorious to contemplate,
that you may eat and drink at my
table in my kingdom and sit on the
thrones, judging the 12 tribes of Israel.
And the Lord said, Simon, Simon, behold, Satan
has desired to have you that he may
sift you as wheat.
But I have prayed for thee that thy
faith fail not.
And when thou art converted, strengthen your brothers.
There's something special about Simon.
They say that he was large of physical
stature.
He was impulsive, lovable, just a big, strong,
lovable guy.
Because of his impulsiveness, getting into trouble, he'd
often just speak up and say the first
thing that came into his mind, right or
wrong.
And sometimes it was right and very good,
and sometimes it was very wrong.
But Jesus said of him, Satan has desired
to have you that he might sift you
as wheat.
But I have prayed for you that your
faith fail not.
I believe that the prayer of Jesus was
answered.
I don't believe that the problem of Peter
was the problem of faith.
Oh, he failed as a witness.
He denied his Lord, but there was never
a failure of his faith.
He always believed in the Lord.
And when you are converted, when you're turned,
strengthen your brothers.
And he said unto him, Lord, I am
ready to go with thee both into prison
and to death.
Yes, Peter, we know.
And he said, I tell thee, Peter, the
cock shall not crow this day before you
shall have thrice denied that you even know
me.
And then he said unto them, when I
sent you out.
Now, this is when he had sent them
out into the ministry two by two.
I told you not to take a purse,
not to take any script, not to take
extra shoes.
Did you lack anything?
And they said nothing, Lord.
And he said unto them, but now if
you have a purse, take it.
And likewise, script and he that has no
sword, let him sell his garment and buy
one.
For I say unto you that this that
is written must be accomplished in me.
And he was reckoned among the transgressors for
the things concerning me have an end.
Jesus is saying, look, I sent you out
before I provided for you, but you're going
to be going out soon again.
I'm not going to be there this time.
And things are going to be different.
It's going to be tough before you were
received.
You're going to be rejected.
You're going to be in prison.
You're going to be hailed before the courts.
You're going to have persecution.
It's going to be hard.
And they said, Lord, here are two swords.
And he said unto them, it is enough.
In other words, you don't really understand, but
you will.
Jesus is not telling them to go out
and make war against the world with swords,
but he's just indicating the difficulty of that
ministry that they're going to face after he
has been taken away from them.
Now in verse 37, he said, those things
must be accomplished in me, which the scriptures
declare.
Jesus had absolute confidence in the prophecies declaring
they must be fulfilled.
You can have that same absolute confidence in
the word of prophecy.
You can know that it must be fulfilled.
Now, many times we make a mistake when
we guess how it is going to be
fulfilled.
And a lot of damage has been done
to the subject of prophecy by men's guesswork.
To try to guess just who the Antichrist
is, is a dangerous and futile bit
of speculation.
We know that there shall arise an Antichrist.
We don't know who he is.
We know they're going to rebuild their temple.
We don't know when or how.
We know that the scriptures must be fulfilled.
They will be fulfilled.
And Jesus had that confidence.
And the scripture said, Isaiah 53, he will
be numbered with the transgressors.
This, he said, has to be fulfilled.
And so he came out of the upper
room and he went as he was accustomed
to doing to the Mount of Olives and
his disciples followed him.
And when he was at the place, he
said unto them, pray that you enter not
into temptation.
Good prayer.
Lord, help me not to enter into temptation.
And he was withdrawn from them about a
stone's cast.
And he kneeled down and prayed.
And he said, Father, if thou be willing,
remove this cup from me.
Nevertheless, not my will, but thine be done.
And there appeared an angel unto him from
heaven, strengthening him.
And being in an agony, he prayed more
earnestly and his sweat was as it were
great drops of blood falling down to the
ground.
And when he rose up from prayer and
he was come to his disciples, he found
them sleeping for sorrow.
And he said unto them, why sleep?
Rise and pray, lest ye enter into temptation.
The prayer of Jesus is significant because Jesus
is talking about redemption for man.
If it is possible, if what is possible?
If salvation for man is possible by anything
other than the cross, let this cup pass
from me.
That's basically what he was praying.
That is why the cross of Jesus Christ
offends many people today because they say Christianity
is too narrow.
All roads lead to God.
It doesn't matter who you believe in.
It's just important that you believe and have
faith.
But the cross of Jesus Christ declares that
there is only one way to God, and
that is through the cross.
If it is possible, if it were possible
that man could be saved by being religious,
the cross would be unnecessary.
If you could be saved by keeping the
law, the cross would be unnecessary.
If you could be saved by being good,
the cross would be unnecessary.
The cross declares that there is only one
way by which a man can have forgiveness
of sins and approach God, and that is
through the death of Jesus Christ, and it
declares a narrow one-way path.
And that's why it offends a lot of
people.
And so the cross, the Bible says, is
an offense to the Jews.
To the Greeks, it's foolishness.
But unto us who have been saved, thereby
it is the power of God unto salvation.
So Jesus is praying about the cross, really
asking the Father for a substitute way if
it is possible.
And the fact that he went to the
cross declares it was not possible.
There's only one way by which man could
be redeemed.
And while he was yet speaking to his
disciples, behold a multitude, and he that was
called Judas, one of the twelve, went before
them, and they drew near to Jesus to
kiss him.
And Jesus said unto him, Judas, betrayest thou
the Son of Man with a kiss?
When they which were about him saw what
would follow, they said unto him, Lord, shall
we smite with a sword?
The disciples had just awakened.
Now there's a crowd there, and they're getting
ready to arrest Jesus, and the disciples are
confused, and they ask, Lord, shall we smite
with a sword?
He had just said, you know, if you
don't have a sword, sell your garment and
get one.
And one of them, we're told in another
gospel which one it was, and of course
we could guess, couldn't we?
Peter, smote the servant of the high priest
and cut off his right ear.
He can be lucky Peter was sleepy.
Peter would have halved him.
And Jesus answered and said, that's enough.
And he touched his ear and healed him.
Then Jesus said to the chief priests and
the captains of the temple and the elders
which had come to him, are you come
out as against a thief with swords and
staves?
When I was daily with you in the
temple, you did not stretch forth your hand
against me, but this is your hour, the
power of darkness.
Oh, what a horrible hour in the history
of mankind when the power of darkness took
over.
And they took him and led him and
brought him to the high priest house, and
Peter followed afar off.
And when they had kindled a fire in
the middle of the hall and they were
sat down together, Peter sat down among them.
But a certain maid beheld him as he
sat by the fire and earnestly looked upon
him and said, this man was also with
him.
And he denied him saying, woman, I don't
know him.
And after a little while another saw him
and said, thou art also of them.
And Peter said, man, I am not.
And about the space of an hour after
another one confidently affirmed saying of a truth,
this fellow was also with him for he
is a Galilean.
And Peter said, man, I don't know what
you're talking about.
And immediately while he yet spoke the cock
crew and the Lord turned and looked upon
Peter.
And Peter remembered the word of the Lord,
how he had said unto him before the
cock crows, you will deny me thrice.
And Peter went out and wept bitterly.
Lord, I'm ready to go to prison.
I'm ready to die with you.
Now, do not think that Peter was insincere.
I believe with all of my heart that
Peter meant that exactly.
That in his heart, he was ready to
go to prison.
He was ready to die for Jesus.
Even as when we make our promises to
the Lord, there is great sincerity.
However, so many times when the showdown comes,
we find ourselves with Peter denying even in
simple things.
How is it that he denied his Lord?
First of all, I think that we observed
that he was sleeping when he ought to
be praying.
I think that that's one of the reasons
behind his failure as it is a reason
behind our failures.
So often we are sleeping instead of praying.
Secondly, he sought to follow the Lord afar
off.
That again is a dangerous place to be.
Trying to just be a fringe Christian, follow
the Lord from afar, not to make that
deep total commitment, but just, well, yes, I
think it's great to go to church and
that's fine and people should, you know.
And then he was warming himself at the
enemy's fire.
Another dangerous thing.
The result, his denial.
Now, how did Jesus look at Peter?
I do not think it was a, Peter,
how could you look?
Nor do I think it was a, I
told you so, look.
Someone came up to me this morning.
They had been in the fellowship hall where
you get a close up and they noticed
this spot on my head.
And they said, tell your wife to be
more gentle with you.
And I said, would you believe that I
bumped it on a cupboard door in the
kitchen?
I was messing around in the kitchen and
I had left the upper cupboard door open
slightly and, you know, wasn't looking or paying
attention and whammo.
And here I saw that skin and flesh
on the corner of the door.
And my wife, when she saw my head
said, I've told you to close those doors.
All the sympathy I get.
I think that the look that Jesus gave
Peter was, Peter, I understand.
I understand, Peter.
I love you still, Peter.
I think it was a look of love.
Perhaps the deepest love that Peter had ever
observed in one's eyes.
The understanding of Jesus.
More or less, that's all right, Peter.
I understand.
And that's what broke Peter's heart.
The Bible said, don't you realize that it
is the goodness of God that brings man
to repentance?
You know, if a person comes down really
hard on you, your tendency is to defend
yourself, to stiffen, to justify your actions.
But when a person comes and puts their
arm around you say, oh, I understand.
And I'm praying for you.
And I love you, brother.
Hey, that breaks you up.
Or, you know, you have no defenses against
that.
It just, it melts you.
And I think that's exactly how Jesus looked
at Peter.
Peter, I love you.
I understand, Peter.
That's okay.
And Peter went out and he wept bitterly.
Failure.
God, must I always be a failure?
No, Peter, not always.
In a few days, you're going to receive
power.
And you're going to be the witness God
wants you to be.
We'll get to that in the 24th chapter.
And the men that held Jesus mocked him
and smote him.
And when they have blindfolded him, very cruel
thing to do, because the body is marvelously
constructed so that when we can see a
blow coming, there is that natural reflex action
of the body, of a movement with the
blow that cushions the blow.
The body is marvelously coordinated.
And we have marvelous reflex capacities.
The quarterback is injured when he's blindsided.
You see these big 300 pound guards coming
in and throwing their shoulder in and knocking
him to the ground and another guy bouncing
on him and he bounces up and gets
back into the huddle.
When they get hurt is when he gets
blindsided.
He doesn't see it coming.
He isn't able to roll with it.
He isn't able to relax and roll with
it.
That's when you get hurt.
You can jump off of a table and
not hurt yourself because you're expecting it.
You're bracing for it and you're bending your
knees and you're giving with it when you
hit.
And yet you can step off of a
curb and break your leg if you don't
realize the curb is there.
Just that six inches can jar you so
bad it can break an ankle, break a
leg if you're not expecting it, if you're
not coordinating for it.
The same with a blow.
If you're blindfolded and you can't see the
blow coming, you're not able to move.
You're not able to faint with it or
move with it and it hits you with
its full force.
And that hurts.
And so blindfolding him and then beginning to
hit him, his face began to be disfigured
as these lumps began to rise.
The eyes began to blacken and these huge
lumps began to form from these blows.
Isaiah tells us that his face was so
beaten, so marred that when they were through
you could not recognize him as a human
being.
And he said, we hid as it were
our faces from him.
To look at him was such a shocking
thing.
We couldn't stand to look.
You just sort of cringe and close your
eyes and turn away.
It's too horrible.
You can't, you know, you just can't look.
You're shocked.
And they mocked him saying, prophesy, who is
it that hit you?
And many other things, blasphemously spake they against
him.
As he said, this is your hour.
It is the power of darkness.
And we see man at his worst.
And as soon as it was day, the
elders of the people and the chief priests
and the scribes came together and they led
him into their council saying, art thou the
Christ?
You see, it was not lawful for them
to assemble until daylight.
And so they held him.
And as soon as it was day, they
gathered him into their chambers and they said,
art thou the Messiah?
Tell us.
And he said unto them, if I told
you, you wouldn't believe.
And if I ask you, you will not
answer me or let me go.
Hereafter shall the Son of Man sit on
the right hand of the power of God.
Then said they all, are you then the
Son of God?
And he said unto them, you said it.
And they said, what need we for any
further witness?
We ourselves have heard it out of his
own mouth.