The Many Dimensions of the Last Supper (Mark Sermon 78)

God's sovereignty and authority over all things are displayed in His precise predictions as the disciples prepared for the Passover and Judas' imminent betrayal.

- SERMON TRANSCRIPT -

This world that we're living in is so filled with unexpected and difficult events. Some of them bringing us pain, change, things that we never anticipated. Very famously, Hamlet and his “to be or not to be” soliloquy, talked about the slings and arrows of outstanding or outrageous fortune. He also talked about a thousand natural shocks. That implies things coming at us that we never saw, and they're devastating, all their outrageous fortune. But we Christians know better, because the great consolation of our Christian faith in this uncertain and painful world, is that our Heavenly Father knows absolutely everything that will happen before it comes to pass. The Bible's very clear about that. And not only that, He knows it and He's aware of it, but He's actually decreed whatsoever will come to pass. It's part of His wise and loving plan. As one hymn writer put it, "I don't know what tomorrow holds, but I know who holds tomorrow." And that brings us great comfort.

Foundational to this concept is the idea of God's exhaustive foreknowledge, God's exhaustive foreknowledge. The exhaustive foreknowledge of God and of his son Jesus Christ. We see aspects of that in today's text. In this account, we're going to see some remarkable knowledge that Jesus has of decisions made by people, free will decisions, ahead of time. I don't deny that this is an infinite mystery, but it's on display. The context here is Jesus preparing the Passover.

I. Jesus Prepares the Passover

 We began the whole preparation language last week, and we continue now in this passage as Jesus prepares the Passover. Part of all of this is the stunning foreknowledge of God. We believe that God's foreknowledge comes first and foremost from His eternality. We believe that God is outside of time. Psalm 90 in verse 2, "Before the mountains were born or you brought forth the earth in the world, from everlasting to everlasting, you are God."

God's outside of time, He's not bound by time the way that we are. When it comes to human history, God knows the end from the beginning, as it says, ascribed to Christ in Revelation 22:13, "I am the Alpha and the Omega, the first and the last, the beginning and the end." So God ordains the entire flow of human history. He declares many of His purposes even centuries beforehand. Isaiah 46:9-10, "I am God and there is no other. I am God and there is none like me. I make known the end from the beginning, from ancient times, what is still to come. I say my purpose will stand and I will do all that I please." We should not imagine that God's exhaustive foreknowledge is because He's just really good at predicting things. God really is good at seeing what's about to happen and predicting it. Not at all. God's foreknowledge is tied to the fact that He has ordained things before they come to pass.

God makes decrees and then makes certain that they happen, as it says in Ephesians 1:11, "God works everything in conformity with the purpose of his will." This Passover time that we're walking through, in this account of the final week of Jesus's life, is part of God's divine foreknowledge and His preparation for the cross. We discussed this last time, so there's no need to go into great detail, but just by way of reminder. Almighty God, when planning the exodus of the Jewish nation from Egypt, included the ten plagues as part of it that He might display His power to all the earth. Most terrifying of all, of course, was the tenth plague, the plague on the firstborn. Exodus 11, "This is what the Lord says, ‘About midnight, I will go throughout Egypt. Every firstborn son in Egypt will die, from the firstborn son of Pharaoh, who sits on the throne, to the firstborn son of the slave girl who is at her hand mill.’"

Ezekiel 20 makes it plain that the Jewish nation was every bit as idolatrous and wicked as the Egyptians who enslaved them, and that their firstborn deserve to die as well. God's very clear about that. If you don't sacrifice the Passover lamb and paint the blood on your doorpost, your firstborn will die too. We see the grace of God extending to Israel. God graciously made a provision to save the sons of Israel by the shedding of the blood of the Passover lamb, and the application of that blood to their houses. Exodus 12, "On that same night, I will pass through Egypt and strike down every firstborn, both men and animals, and I'll bring judgment on all the gods of Egypt. I am the Lord. The blood will be a sign for you on the houses where you are. And when I see the blood, I'll pass over you. No destructive plague will touch you when I strike Egypt."

God established this Passover, not just that first time, that dreadful night, but as an annual ceremony, a continual reminder of these great acts of God for the Jews in every generation, in that same chapter, Exodus 12: 14, "This is a day you are to commemorate. For the generations to come, you shall celebrate it as a festival to the Lord, a lasting ordinance." I could use the language we're going to get to later in this sermon. Effectively, the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob was saying, "Do this in remembrance of me," the Passover, and so they did, generational. This is part of God's wonderful foreknowledge and His sovereignty, establishing this ordinance as a picture of the death of Jesus Christ on the cross, the shedding of His blood, which would then be applied, spiritually, by the work of the Holy Spirit, so that we would not die. Every generation of Jews for fifteen centuries had commemorated the Passover with the slaughter of the lamb.

In this last week of Jesus's life, the time now for the fulfillment of this prophetic image has come. Mark, in his Gospel account, directly links Jesus's disciples’ question with the slaughter of the Passover lamb. Look at verse 12. "On the first day of the feast of unleavened bread, when it was customary to sacrifice the Passover lamb, Jesus's disciples asked him, ‘Where do you want us to go and make preparations for you to do the Passover?’”  He's uploading that in the minds of the readers, and it was uploaded in their minds as well. The Passover itself was preparation for the death of Jesus, that we would understand its meaning. 

But along with this comes some remarkable and stunning, meticulous foreknowledge on the part of Jesus. Look at verses 13-16, "So he sent two of his disciples, telling them, ‘Go into the city, and a man carrying a jar of water will meet you. Follow him. Say to the owner of the house he enters, the teacher asks, where is my guest room where I may eat the Passover with my disciples?  He will show you a large upper room, furnished and ready. Make preparations there.’ The disciples left, went into the city and found things just as Jesus had told them so they prepared the Passover." Here the providence of God extends beyond merely comprehensive foreknowledge, but it does include that. God in His eternality knows all of the details, even the tiniest details that will happen before any of them come to pass. As he says in Matthew 10:29-30, "Not one sparrow falls to the ground apart from the will of your Father, and even the very hairs of your head are all numbered." A sparrow dying and falling off a branch to the ground is not considered a significant moment in history. It would never be recorded in history. It's just a happening. But Jesus said, "Not one sparrow on earth falls to the ground apart from the will of God.” And then, “even your very hairs of your head are all numbered.” The number of hairs in your head changes daily, but God's up on the count. You're like, "Doesn't He have better things to do?" God's omniscience can cover that detail. Even the very hairs of your head are continually numbered. 

Now in this case, what's amazing is the detail of a man carrying a jar of water walking into a big city, and the timing of all that. Picture this. There are hundreds of thousands of Jewish pilgrims that have assembled from all over that part of the world for the Feast of Unleavened bread. Hundreds of thousands. Now, what are the odds that two disciples that Jesus sends at a certain moment, when they've finished this conversation, sent into the big city, are going to line up with a guy carrying a jar of water? That particular guy, but it happened. It wasn't an accident, everything had been orchestrated.

When I was in college in the Boston area, I had a friend, a mentor, Tim Schuman, who discipled me. He was a great brother, a man of God. He's also a distance runner. He ran the Boston Marathon. I grew up in eastern Massachusetts.  The Boston Marathon was a big part of our culture. I knew about it very well, and he asked if I would drive him out to Hopkinson where the race began. I did drive him there, and he gave me all of his stuff. We agreed to meet at the finish line. Anybody who knows anything about the city of Boston and knows anything about the Boston Marathon, knows how stupid we were at that moment. Yeah. So let's meet at the finish line. Why don't you meet your friend in Los Angeles? All right. See how that goes? Where? I don't know, just Los Angeles. You're going to meet up somewhere. It's just incredible.

But somehow... Now this is in the days before the cell phone and “Find my Friend”, as I mentioned last week. I found him with one of these aluminum foil blankets sitting at a Brigham's waiting for me to find him. Somehow we found each other. That was close to a miracle, but it's still an hour after he had finished the race. We should have done better. I should have known better, but that's a picture of just how preposterous this whole thing is. "Go in to the city and a man carrying a jar of water will meet you. Follow him." There were eleven gates into the city of Jerusalem. Let's just start there. Which gate? Not specified. You just see the improbability of the detail of something like this. Everything had been choreographed by the plan of God. So the man carrying the jar of water did meet them at the right gate, at just the right time.  He led them to a house that Jesus had arranged ahead of time for He and His disciples to eat the Passover. The owner of that house met them at the door of his house and led them up to what would become the most famous room in the history of the human race.

This is a very significant room. This is the place where the last Supper would occur. This is the place where the resurrected Jesus would appear, though the doors were locked, and give physical evidence of His resurrection to the apostles. This is the very place where they're waiting for the gift of the Holy Spirit to come, in which on the day of Pentecost, did come. And which after the Holy Spirit was poured out, they flooded out from that room and began to change the world. It's a very significant room in history. Jesus somehow had already made arrangements with this man. We don't know how. It's not miraculous. It was just practical administrative foresight on the part of Jesus. What's amazing is the man with the water jar and the timing of all that. But the preparation had been made.

Now think, when Jesus was born in Bethlehem, there had been no room at the inn. The problem of finding a place would have been even more extreme in those days. Just a limited number of places where they could meet. But Jesus had, God had, the foresight to get all of this arranged ahead of time. The room was provided, furniture was sufficient. It was a large room, an upper room. It was furnished and ready. Everything's in place. The two disciples then could go begin their preparation for the actual feast, the unleavened bread, the lamb, the wine, the table settings, the cups, plates, napkins, cushions. Everything they would need, they would go and do that.

Now, far more significant than those details, however, of course is the big picture. The meticulous preparation, for centuries, even before the foundation of the world leading step by step to the cross of Jesus Christ. None of this was thrown together at the last minute, but everything was ordained and planned carefully by God before the foundation of the world. 

"The meticulous preparation, for centuries, even before the foundation of the world leading step by step to the cross of Jesus Christ. None of this was thrown together at the last minute, but everything was ordained and planned carefully by God before the foundation of the world."

II. Jesus Predicts Judas’s Betrayal

Next, we see this same aspect of God's astonishing foreknowledge as Jesus predicts Judas's betrayal. The betrayal of Judas Iscariot, one of the twelve apostles, ranks as one of the most repulsive acts in human history. We already know that Judas was never truly a disciple of Jesus, but was called a devil by Jesus in John 6, after the “eat my flesh and drink my blood” teaching. We know also that Judas was just in it for the money, because he used to steal money from the money bag that had been entrusted to him by Jesus, violating that trust.

We saw last time that Judas went to Jesus's enemies and agreed to betray Him for the price of 30 pieces of silver. In this passage, Jesus predicts it. So Judas has gone on quietly, slunk off by himself, to make this arrangement. But now Jesus is going to predict it in front of them all. Look at verses 17-21, "When evening came, Jesus arrived with the twelve. While they were reclining at the table, eating, He said, ‘I tell you the truth, one of you will betray me, one who is eating with me.' They were saddened, and one by one they said to him, ‘Surely not I.’ ‘ It is one of the twelve,’ he replied, ‘one who dips bread into the bowl with me. The Son of Man will go just as it is written about him. But woe to that man who betrays the Son of Man. It would be better for him if he had not been born.’"

What makes Judas's betrayal so heinous was the loving and tender heart that Jesus had for each of the twelve, His affection for them. That's what makes this so horrible. It's a betrayal of a love relationship. Luke 22:15, "Jesus said to them, ‘I have eagerly desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer.’" Think about that. "I want to have this meal with you." It's a very significant statement. It displays the ultimate heart of Jesus for all of us. The delight of close loving fellowship. I'm going to return to that theme at the end of the sermon, but that's Jesus's heart. He wanted to be with them. It also displays the unspeakable pain that Judas's betrayal must have caused the loving heart of Jesus. 

It's also remarkable because the other disciples had been arguing about which of them was the greatest. That was precisely why Jesus washed their feet, as recorded in John 13. So here's Jesus, this loving heart toward them, and they're bickering about which of them is the greatest, so He washes their feet to give them a display of the loving service that they should have toward one another. As He says in John 13:14- 15, "Now that I, your Lord and teacher have washed your feet, you also should wash one another's feet. I've set you an example that you should do as I have done for you." That's the setting. and now Jesus predicts Judas's betrayal. The timing is, it says, while there are reclining at the table. Leonardo da Vinci's famous portrait of the last Supper shows all of them sitting upright as if they're sitting on chairs at a long table. I also find it odd, they're all sitting on one side of the table. I've never seen a feast like that. Hard to look at each other, left to right, but they're good for Leonardo as he's painting the picture. So they're all facing outward that way. The near East pattern wouldn't have been that. It would have been a very low table. They're reclining on cushions. So their head right at the table, maybe they're reclining on their elbows with their feet away from the table. That's the usual pattern.

If this Passover had followed the traditional pattern, it would have begun with a prayer of thanksgiving for God's deliverance and for His protection and loving care for the Jewish nation. Then there would have been four successive cups of diluted red wine. Then a ceremonial hand washing, symbolizing the need for purification from sin. Then they would have eaten bitter herbs, symbolizing the bitterness of their centuries of in Egypt.  At the same time, then, they would partake of loaves of flat unleavened bread, which is where the feast gets its name, Feast of Unleavened Bread. They would have been passed out, and they would have eaten those loaves of unleavened bread. They would have then dipped them into a thick paste of mashed fruit and ground nuts. Then they would have sung two Psalms of praise from Psalm 113 to 118. At that point, the head of the household, which would have been Jesus, in this case, usually explain the story of the Passover and its symbolism to everyone in the house. Then the roasted lamb and the unleavened bread would have been served. After the main course had been consumed, the third cup of red wine would have been passed out. The rest of the Psalms of praise from Psalm 113 to 118 would have been read, and they would have finished with the fourth and last cup of red wine.

Now, somewhere in all of this, Jesus announced the coming betrayal. John 13:21 tells us Jesus' emotions concerning this. It tells us that He began to be deeply distressed and troubled and said, "I tell you the truth, one of you will betray me." The exhaustive foreknowledge doesn't take away the pain and the sorrow of it. He knows it, but it hurts, hurts. In our account, in verse 18, "I tell you the truth, one of you will betray me, one who is eating with me." The disciples, at that moment, are shocked, trying to figure out who it is. Verse 19, "They were saddened. One by one said to him, ‘Surely not I.’" True disciples are aware of the corruption of their own hearts. Genuinely born again, they understand, like the parable of the Pharisee and the tax collector, that they're sinners and they're corrupt.  I think they wonder, "It really might be me. Could be me." It's evidence of their humility and of the Holy Spirit's convicting work in their lives. 

But also the shocking nature of the news. They're just completely back on their heels. They didn't see this coming. Then Jesus identifies his betrayer, verse 20, “‘It is one of the twelve,’ he replied. ‘One who dips bread into the bowl with me.’" The fact of saying one of the twelve shows that intimacy, that closeness, and the privilege of being one of the apostles. Jesus had prayed all night before identifying this one of the twelve. But then there's this issue of the dipping of the bread into the bowl. John's Gospel unfolds this moment, a very significant moment here. John 13:22 through 27, "His disciples stared at one another at a loss to know which of them he meant.  One of them, the disciple whom Jesus loved, it's John, was reclining next to him. Simon Peter motioned to this disciple and asked, ‘Ask Him which one He means.’ Leaning back against Jesus, he asked Him, ‘Lord, who is it?’ Jesus answered, ‘It is the one to whom I will give this piece of bread when I have dipped it into the dish.’ Then dipping the piece of bread, He gave it to Judas Iscariot, son of Simon. As soon as Judas took the bread, Satan entered into him." This is stunning. It's almost like Judas accepting the bread with that language having been attached to it, was making a willing choice for that role. "I'm willing to play that role." His soul is open at that moment and Satan, it says, entered into him which also shows Satan's direct activity in leading toward Jesus's death on the cross. 

Satan had already been tempting and prompting Judas. It says in John 13:2, "The evening meal was being served and the devil had already prompted Judas Iscariot, son Simon, to betray him.” But now this is a whole different matter. He's not demon possessed, Judas, he’s Satan possessed. Now we get to the infinitely deep theology of this betrayal. This is the most complex, and I think significant, case of divine sovereignty and human responsibility you'll find in the Bible. Look at what Jesus says in verse 21, "The Son of Man will go just as it is written about him, but woe to that man who betrays the Son of Man. It would be better for him if he had not been born." The beginning of Jesus's statement, “the Son of Man will go just as it is written about him,” means He's going to die, having been betrayed by one of his close friends and rejected by the Jewish nation. It's going to happen exactly as the prophets have said. It was specifically part of God's plan, including Judas Iscariot's role.

It's predicted in Scripture, it's ordained by God. Nothing would change. It would most certainly happen as the church prayed in Acts 4:28, speaking of the plots of Jesus enemies leading to his death. "They did," speaking of God, "They did what your power and will had determined beforehand should happen." But then the next part, "But woe to the man who betrays the Son of Man." The word “woe" is the common word of prophetic judgment. When a prophet speaks a word of judgment like Isaiah 5, “Woe, woe, woe, woe,” or Jesus's sevenfold woe in Matthew 23. This is a common word of prophetic judgment, divine judgment. It shows that Judas is still responsible for his actions. He's accountable for what he did. He's judged for his motives and his reasons, his purposes, as well as what he actually does to betray Jesus. Then Jesus says, "It would have been better for him if he had not been born." I don't think we'll ever be able to probe the depth of that statement.  Judas is identified in the end as a son of perdition, a son of lostness, son of means characterized by hell, understanding the statements made about him and what he did. He's the only person we know, by name, in hell. Yet this very man, we are instructed, was knit together step by step in his mother's womb by the direct activity of Almighty God. No human being gets a body apart from that. Every moment that God was knitting Judas's body together, He knew very well what Judas would do. Very well. So why then did He make him? 

"Judas is still responsible for his actions. He's accountable for what he did. He's judged for his motives and his reasons, his purposes, as well as what he actually does to betray Jesus."

Why did He create him if it would have been better for Judas if he had not been born? Well, the answer is no, it wasn't better for Judas, but it was better for the glory of God and the plan of God, and it was better for us. Better for us, not better for Judas. And so he was born, and not only was he born, but he was sustained every day of his life. For in God we live and move and have our being. God fed him every meal that He ever gave him. He gave him lavish gifts of love. Jesus gave him above and beyond, the privilege of being one of the Apostles. So it is not true, in a simplistic sort of way, that God loves everyone and has a wonderful plan for everyone's life. It's not true. It wasn't a wonderful plan for Judas. It would have been better for Judas not to have existed at all. 

We also need to understand the complexity of Satan's motives here. What is Satan doing? Does Satan really want Judas to betray Jesus to his death? Does he not know where all that's going to lead? Earlier, he had been influencing Peter to tempt Jesus not to go to the cross. Remember? "Get behind me, Satan." Remember? So now Satan is in Judas orchestrating Jesus's arrest for the end of his death. And in so doing, he will destroy his own dark kingdom.

Praise God for what I call satanic confusion. "I don't know what to do with the incarnate Son of God. Do I let him live or do I kill him?" In the end, he did what his nature is. He's a murderer. There's nothing more that he could do except just kill him. And in so doing, by Jesus's death, it says in Hebrews 2, he destroyed Him who holds the power of death, that is the devil, and freed those who all their lives were held in slavery by their fear of death. Thanks be to God. Amen. There's Judas and Satan conspiring to destroy Satan's dark kingdom.

III. Jesus Symbolizes the New Covenant

Now we get to the Lord's Supper. Jesus symbolizes the new Covenant. Look at verses 22-24. "While they're eating, Jesus took bread, gave thanks and broke it and gave it to his disciples saying, ‘Take it, this is my body.’ Then He took the cup, gave thanks and offered it to them, and they all drank from it. ‘This is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many,’ He said to them."

Jesus uses the ceremony of the Old Covenant, the Passover, to declare the reality of the New Covenant. He gives the bread a new symbolism. The unleavened bread had been a symbol of the Exodus, and of their haste, as you remember, in eating it because they didn't have time for the bread to rise. Remember always you had to eat it in haste because you are fleeing out of bondage in Egypt. It's remembering that. But now He said, "This is my body." It symbolizes His body, by which they would be delivered from their true slavery. The true slavery is slavery to sin, and to the death sin deserves. By his body He would set them free. The bread is also a symbol of life. Jesus came that we might live. We need food to live. There's nourishment that comes from it. So Jesus said in John 6:51, "I am the living bread that came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever. This bread is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world."

In doing this, Jesus established a new pattern of worship in the New Covenant with the Lord's Supper. Then He takes the cup. After supper, He took the cup, He gave it to all of them to drink. He identified the symbolism of the cup with these significant words. "This is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins." Luke adds the word "new." Luke 22:20, "In the same way, after supper, he took the cup saying, this cup is the New Covenant in my blood, which is poured out for you." Very significant words here. The Old Covenant had been established and founded on animal sacrifice. It was the centerpiece of the Old Covenant, the blood of bulls and goats and lambs.  In this, in Leviticus, God made it clear that it was by the shedding of blood that forgiveness was worked, which is essential to our salvation. Leviticus 17:11, "For the life of a creature is in the blood and I've given it to you to make atonement for yourselves on the altar." It is the blood that makes atonement for one's life. But the author to Hebrews tells us that the endless annual repetition of these animal sacrifices shows that they are ineffective. They didn't really do anything. They're just symbols. Just symbolic. Hebrews 10:3-4, “But those sacrifices are an annual reminder of sins, because listen, it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sin.” That's a once for all statement. It never did anything. It never actually removed any sin. Instead, the New Covenant is established, also based on blood, but this is the blood of the only-begotten Son of God.

The Word became flesh, and that blood shed once for all for the sins of all of his people throughout all time. Hebrews 9:12, "Jesus did not enter by means of the blood of goats and calves, but he entered the most holy place once for all by his own blood, having obtained eternal redemption." This is the blood of the New Covenant and it shed once for all time, never to be repeated again. Again, by faith in the blood of Christ, are our sins forgiven forever. Ephesians 1:7, "In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins in accordance with the riches of God's grace." 

I just want to say something about the mass that the church has made of this whole thing since that time. This is a meal that should have united Christians, but instead it's been one of the most divisive theological topics there's ever been in church history and part of it centers on the conception of real presence. The idea that in some way the bread and wine, we now use juice, become the literal body and blood of Jesus or spiritual body and blood, in that sense, an actual body and blood. That's the doctrine of “real presence”. For Roman Catholics, they say this happens by the mystery of transubstantiation, leaning on some Aristotelian philosophy. That's a little hard to follow, hard to explain, which I won't go into here, but that's how they argued in the Middle Ages is how it happens. 

It all started with the statement, "This is my body and this is my blood." Martin Luther came along, rejected the link with Greek philosophy, but still believed in real presence. Believed it ardently, so much so, that he got into a very nasty argument with Ulrich Zwingli, the leader of the Swiss Reformation on this very issue.  Ulrich Zwingli didn't see any of this in the New Testament. He was just a simple Bible reading guy, and to him, the Lord's Supper was what we call a mere memorial. It's just something that we just do whenever we want to. He tended to very much downplay it. Zwingli did, so they had it about once a year. He went too far, very much so. But Luther was so ardent about real presence. He wrote in Latin, "Hoc est corpus meum," ”This is my body” in chalk on a table and then pounded the table, as only Luther could do, saying this is the text that will break you. It was not a nice interaction between two great men of God. They're getting along great now. I'm confident, absolutely confident. But it was a terrible dispute. 

John Calvin came along with what I call the spiritual presence view, which is what I hold to, which is that the ordinance is valuable in proportion to your faith in the word of God. That as the Holy Spirit's active and takes these words and presses them to your home, you take them seriously by faith, then this will be a meaningful participation, spiritually, in the death of Jesus Christ. I am troubled by the fact that with transubstantiation, the Roman Catholics believe that the priest is forever offering Jesus again and again and again and again and again. I find that incredibly problematic. Because the author to Hebrews tells us that Jesus died once for all time never to be repeated. So that's a part of the problem I have with their view of the offering being given up. Also, it's problematic in that when Jesus actually literally spoke what we know as the “words of institution”, “this is my body,” his body was there. There it was. There were his hands, and there's the bread. So you're looking at, if you had been there, his actual body, and the bread wasn't it. Jesus was very accustomed to doing metaphorical statements, like “I am the door for the sheep,” this kind of thing. Jesus isn't a door, but his ministry is similar to a door in that sense. Jesus then said in John 6:63, "The spirit gives life. The flesh counts for nothing. The words I have spoken to are spirit and they are life." 

IV. Jesus Symbolizes the Future Heavenly Feast

Beyond that, Jesus also symbolizes the future heavenly feast that we're all going to enjoy. Look what He says in verse 25, "I tell you the truth, I will not drink of the fruit of the vine until that day when I drink it anew in the kingdom of God." He makes two predictions here. First, this is the last supper, this is it. I'm not going to eat or drink with you again. This is the last time.

Secondly, Jesus is also predicting that in the kingdom of God, He will drink of the fruit of the vine anew in the kingdom of God, a prediction of heavenly feasting.  I love the word “new.” "I'm going to drink it anew with you." That's such a powerful word, isn't it? Revelation 21:5, "He who was seated on the throne said, ‘Behold, I am making all things new.’" The very thing we get with the new covenant, in Luke 22:20, "This cup is the New Covenant in my blood, which is poured out for you." Hebrews 8:13, "By calling this covenant new, He has made the first one obsolete. And what is obsolete and aging will soon disappear." All the new things are yet to come. The new thing, the new covenant is here, but there's a new heaven, a new earth, and a new Jerusalem coming.

That's where we're heading. "I saw a new heaven, new earth for the first time in the first earth that passed away. I saw the holy city, the new Jerusalem coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride, beautifully dressed for her husband." In that new world and in that new Jerusalem, we're going to have new feasting. We're going to feast with Jesus. It's the fulfillment of the very thing I said earlier about Jesus's eagerness to eat with us. "I've eagerly desired to sit at table with you and feast with you." So many times in the Gospels we have this future heavenly banquet predicted.  Matthew 8:11, "I tell you that many will come from the east and the west and will take their places at the feast with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven." How cool will that be to sit next to Abraham and the kingdom? What would you talk to father Abraham about or something like that? Or all these other great men and women from history. Or again, Matthew 22, "The kingdom of heaven is like a king who wanted to prepare a wedding banquet for his son. And he sends out messengers and says, look, the oxen are fattened, cattle have been butchered. Everything's ready. Come to the banquet." It's a heavenly banquet, a heavenly feast. Or again, Luke 22:29-30, "I confer on you a kingdom just as my Father conferred one on me, so that you may eat and drink at my table in my kingdom." Think about that. You may eat and drink with Me at my table in my kingdom.

Therefore, I love thinking about Revelation 3:20. I know it's for now, but I also think it's a foretaste of that heavenly banquet we're going to have. Revelation 3:20. "Jesus says, behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with him and He with Me." There is that yearning for table fellowship that He has with the people of God. How sweet is that?

VI. Lessons and Applications

First, the Lord's Supper. Look back and look ahead. Passover was a yearly reminder to the Jewish nation of their deliverance from bondage in Egypt. So also the Lord's Supper is a continual reminder for us, as Christians, of the blood of Christ shed on the cross for our sins. First Corinthians 11:26, "For whenever you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord's death.”  Whenever we do this, we're proclaiming Jesus died for us. Remembering that. It's vital for us to be forever mindful of what Jesus did for us, once for all time. Luke 22:19, "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." We need that, don't we? We need these reminders. The Lord's Supper, which we're about to partake in, is a reminder to us of the price that was paid for our sins. We need to think continually of the blood of Jesus shed for our sins, so we can be humbled. 

"Passover was a yearly reminder to the Jewish nation of their deliverance from bondage in Egypt. So also the Lord's Supper is a continual reminder for us, as Christians, of the blood of Christ shed on the cross for our sins."

We can also be thankful for our salvation. But we're also supposed to look ahead. I Corinthians 11:26, "For whenever you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord's death until he comes.” This causes us to look ahead with faith through the second coming of Christ when He will destroy all His enemies, and the last enemy to be destroyed is death. Then we will feast with Christ sitting at table with Him. So at the Lord's Supper, which we're about to partake in, and indeed every day, be mindful of your sins forgiven at such a high cost, the body and blood of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Be mindful and be thankful for that indescribable gift of grace. Be humble in reference to it. Be willing to forgive others because you've been given so much, and be expectant of the feast that we're going to enjoy when we finally get to heaven.

Beyond that, think about the deep themes that we've walked through today. God's exhaustive foreknowledge of all things.  There's no lucky events that happen in life. There's no chance encounters. The guy carrying the jar of water, God does that stuff every day. Sparrows don't fall to the ground and hairs don't fall off our heads without God planning it and orchestrating it. That gives us confidence about our lives in this world. 

We're going to close the time of preaching now with prayer, and then we'll go over to the Lord's Supper. Father, thank you for the Word of God. We thank you for the things that we've learned from it. Father, we thank you for feeding us by it. We're grateful for it. And we ask now that as we transition to the Lord's Supper, that you would strengthen us with its lessons as well. In Jesus' name. Amen.