Sermon Notes

March 24, 2024

Until He Returns

Luke 22:7-20

  Over the last few Sundays we have been extending a couple of different calls to the church, the first call that was given was to pray for conviction of sins (our sins first, then for others). Then last week we were given a call to “Hold the Rope” and I pray that you are holding the rope for the person whose name that Pastor Craig had you write down. This week our call comes straight from Jesus and it’s a call to “Remember”. Jesus’ call to remember comes when His time on Earth was almost over. It wouldn’t be but a handful of hours before He would be betrayed into the hands of the Religious Leaders, but even with His time winding down, Jesus still had some very important business to take care of. There was a Passover meal that Jesus wanted to share one last time with His disciples, but this wouldn’t be just any old Passover meal, it was a time when Jesus would present His disciples with the New Covenant God was making with all of mankind. It was a covenant that would be signed and sealed over the next few days.  It was during this revealing of the New Covenant that Jesus called us to remember. Let’s take a look at why we have been called to remember.

  Remember Jesus had all this planned. - Luke 22:7-13

  Now the Festival of Unleavened Bread has arrived, when the Passover lamb is sacrificed. Jesus sent Peter and John ahead and said, “Go and prepare the Passover meal, so we can eat it together. “Where do you want us to prepare it?” they asked him. He replied, “As soon as you enter Jerusalem, a man carrying a pitcher of water will meet you. Follow him.” At the house he enters, say to the owner, ‘The Teacher asks: Where is the guest room where I can eat the Passover meal with my disciples?’ He will take you upstairs to a large room that is already set up. “That is where you should prepare our meal.”  They went off to the city and found everything just as Jesus had said, and they prepared the Passover meal there.  

  The beginning of this passage starts with a statement that not only foreshadows the events that will shortly come to pass. It’s a statement that sets the stage for everything Jesus does during His time in the upper room, “the Passover lamb was going to be sacrificed”. The lamb was to be sacrificed both in a literal sense since old testament law stated a lamb must have been taken to the temple and sacrificed and then taken into the home to eat to observe the Passover meal. This act is what Jesus was referring to when He told Peter and John to go prepare the meal, but figuratively the lamb mentioned was Jesus because He was about to give His life as a sacrifice that very next day and this truth is the basis for the rest of our text this morning. Before we go any further, I want to point out that we need to always remember that Jesus had all this planned. Why would this be something worth remembering?  We can all plan things and hopefully we do. Jesus even talks about being wise and planning things. However when Jesus makes plans, what we need to remember is that Jesus’ plans can never be thwarted.  James 4:13-15 tells us that our plans can fail, because we don’t know what tomorrow holds or even if we will be around then to carry them out ― Jesus’ plans never fail. We see here in this text a seemingly odd interaction between Jesus, Peter, and John when Jesus explains where they will be having the meal. It's in this interaction that we see Jesus had not only the dinner planned, but the location planned as well. Why was it shared with Peter and John in this way?  Because Jesus knew about Judas’ plan. He knew that Judas was planning on betraying Him when there weren’t any crowds (The account is recorded in the first 6 verses of Luke 22) and the passover meal would be a perfect time for the Religious Leaders to capture Jesus without a lot of issues. Jesus had a plan for that meal that could not be stopped. It was a plan to equip the disciples with a few instructions before He died and that’s why He made these almost cloak and dagger style remarks to Peter and John. He didn’t want anyone else to know where they were going because there was still work to do. Luke 22:39 tells us that after Jesus' plans were carried out in the upper room, He went to the Mount of Olives to pray “as usual”. He went to a place that Judas would have expected to find Him and it was all on purpose. It was when Jesus' plan was finished in the upper room, that His plan to lay down His life was about to start and it would start at the Mount of Olives just as He had planned. Jesus was in complete control over the entire situation.  

  So again, what does this matter to us? Well it matters in a couple of ways. If Jesus’ plans cannot be stopped, then that means that Jesus' plan for us can’t be stopped. As long as we are following Him in obedience. It does not matter what Satan throws our way as stumbling blocks, what discouragements he brings, or whatever the issue is that tries to take your focus off Jesus. If God has called you to it ― He’s gonna see you through it, be faithful to Him. These struggles in the present are things that will only strengthen you in the long run because God will use it for your good and for His glory, but you know what else Jesus knows that won’t stop His plans? He knows your shortcomings, He knows how you're gonna stumble and He knows you're not perfect, but He still calls you and has a plan for your life. Now this doesn’t mean that you can continue in your sin. We still need to confess our sins to Him and repent of them, but God knows you and He still calls you. Trust Him, follow Him in obedience and praise Him that He uses us despite us and our weaknesses.

  Remember what Jesus’ body was given for. - Luke 22:14 - 19

  When the time came, Jesus and the apostles sat down together at the table. Jesus said, “I have been very eager to eat this Passover meal with you before my suffering begins. For I tell you now that I won’t eat this meal again until its meaning is fulfilled in the Kingdom of God.” Then he took a cup of wine and gave thanks to God for it. Then he said, “Take this and share it among yourselves. For I will not drink wine again until the Kingdom of God has come.” He took some bread and gave thanks to God for it. Then he broke it in pieces and gave it to the disciples, saying, “This is my body, which is given for you. Do this in remembrance of me.”

  Jesus tells them that this meal will not be eaten again until its meaning is fulfilled in the Kingdom of God (This is a reference to the Marriage Supper of the Lamb that is recorded in Revelation 19). The first few verses in this section layout how the traditional Passover meal was observed. The Passover meal was a carefully ordered ritual in which each element of the meal reminded the participants of their redemption from Egypt and God’s covenant with Moses and the children of Israel. At the end of the meal someone (usually the youngest son) was designated to ask, “Why is this night different from other nights?” The host of the meal (in this instance Jesus) would recount the exodus story. The story tells of God’s remembering His covenant; Israel's deliverance from slavery in Egypt; the blood of the Passover lamb; the interpretation of the elements of the Passover meal; and a call for the continual celebration of the Passover. It’s after the observation and explanation of the meaning of the Passover that Jesus presents the New Covenant, starting with the bread element. He says this is His body given to us and that we need to do that to remember Him. What does that actually mean? It means that we are supposed to remember His sacrifice for us.  It’s what happened on the cross. It's the fact that the wrath of God was poured out upon Jesus on the cross like it says in 1 Peter 2:24, “He personally carried our sins in his body on the cross so that we can be dead to sin and live for what is right.  By his wounds you are healed”. He took our sins upon us and the Father turned His back on the Son because our sins had been laid upon Him and Jesus cried out “My God, My God why have you forsaken me?”. It’s the fact that Jesus took our sins upon Himself that Jesus is calling us to remember here. Remember that He bore your sins on the cross and took the wrath that was meant for you.  

  Remember what Jesus’ blood did for us. - Luke 22:20

  After supper he took another cup of wine and said, “This cup is the new covenant between God and his people—an agreement confirmed with my blood, which is poured out as a sacrifice for you.

  We sing an awful lot about the blood of Jesus and it’s something that Jesus calls us to remember. Why is the blood of Jesus so important?  Well the Old Covenant required blood sacrifices, but those sacrifices could never provide a final sacrifice for sin. The Old Covenant required repeated, daily sacrifices of animals as a reminder of the people’s sin. But, as Scripture says, “it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins” (Hebrews 10:4). Under the Old Covenant, the same inadequate sacrifices were constantly repeated. For every sin, the process was replicated, day after day, month after month, year after year. The Old Covenant never provided a full, complete sacrifice for sin. “For if that first covenant had been faultless, there would have been no occasion to look for a second” (Hebrews 8:7).  Hebrews 7:22 tells us that Jesus came to be the guarantor of a better or perfect covenant. A New Covenant that was sealed with His blood and it’s His blood that takes away the sins of the world just as John the Baptist proclaimed when He saw Jesus, He’s the lamb who takes away the sins of the world.  It’s His blood that takes away our sin, it’s through His blood that we are forgiven (Ephesians 1:7), it’s through His blood that we are set free (Ephesians 1:7) and it’s by the blood of Jesus that our hope of a future comes from. It's easy to see why Jesus tells us to remember His blood through the imagery of the cup, because it’s by His blood that we are changed forever.

  We are not only supposed to remember this on a daily basis, but we are supposed to remember this as we participate in one of two ordinances that Jesus gave the church to observe. That is the Lord’s Supper and we will look at 1 Corinthians 11:17-32 as we observe this as an act of worship this morning.  We are first called to examine ourselves and confess and repent of any sins we have not. Then we are called to partake in each element and remember the sacrifice Jesus made for us on the cross. His body was given to us and His blood poured out. Church, remember what He has done for us.
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