Background:
• Jesus was in his final week of ministry before He would suffer and die.
• It was a time of intensity, both in Jesus’ teaching and the religious leaders’ opposition, as we have seen.
• Judas Iscariot, one of Jesus followers, had already determined to betray Jesus and turn Him over to the religious leaders.
• Jesus and His disciples were all together for the Passover meal.
• Jesus had an important teaching He wanted to demonstrate with the Passover as a backdrop.
• Mark only includes three distinctive of the Lord’s Supper for his Gentile audience, and that is intentional.
• Let’s try to get to the heart of Mark’s message.
The Passover
• The Passover was an important holiday and celebration for the Jews.
• Early in Israel’s history, the nation was being held captive in Egypt.
• God raised up Moses to lead the Children if Israel out of Egypt, back to the land of promise.
• However, the Egyptians were too accustomed to their cheap labor and refused to let them go.
• That is when God sent Moses to Pharaoh to warn him of 10 coming plagues.
• The final plague would be the most severe.
• It would be the death of the firstborn.
• It would fall upon every household, every family and every livestock herd.
• The first born would die when the angel of death passed by.
• There would be a way to be the exception to this.
• Moses instructed the Jews to select a perfect lamb that had not been mated.
• It had to be without blemish.
• Each household was to kill their lamb, paint the blood on the doorposts of the house, and cook the lamb.
• That evening, they were supposed to eat the lamb, with bitter herbs and unleavened bread.
• Small families could go together in one house.
• That night, the death angel passed by every house.
• The ones that did not obey Moses’ directions, in those homes and in their livestock, the first born died.
• The death angel passed over those who followed the instructions.
• Pretty much, the Israelites observed the Passover instructions and the Egyptians didn’t.
• So many first born Egyptians died that night.
• Many first born of their livestock died that night.
• The impact was so great in Egypt, the Egyptians not only begged the Israelites to leave, they paid them with costly treasures to leave.
• From that time, even to today, the Israelites celebrate the Passover with a meal.
• Jesus and His disciples celebrated the meal every year, but there was a special atmosphere the third year of Jesus’ ministry.
• Jesus’ popularity had never been higher, as the disciples witnessed the triumphant entry into Jerusalem with people cheering, singing, and laying their cloaks in the road.
• But the religious leaders’ hatred for Jesus had reached a high mark also.
• Something would have to give, and it seemed to the disciples that it would be a good time for Jesus to continue to rise until He ruled the earth with the power they saw demonstrated throughout His ministry.
• But that understanding of the future was not what Jesus was going to teach during His final Passover of His earthly ministry.
Mar 14:22-26 And as they were eating, he took bread, and after blessing it broke it and gave it to them, and said, "Take; this is my body." 23 And he took a cup, and when he had given thanks he gave it to them, and they all drank of it. 24 And he said to them, "This is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many. 25 Truly, I say to you, I will not drink again of the fruit of the vine until that day when I drink it new in the kingdom of God." 26 And when they had sung a hymn, they went out to the Mount of Olives.
• This morning, I want us to look at the three things that Jesus emphasized in this meal and what He is saying to us today.
• First, I want to touch one item that Jesus did not emphasize.
• Moses instructed the Israelites to roast the lamb in an open fire.
• Yet Jesus did not mention a lamb roasted over a fire.
• Is there a significance? I believe there is.
• I believe Jesus didn’t include a lamb roasted over a fire because HE was the lamb.
• He was tried by fire every day of His life.
• We need no other lamb. Jesus is our lamb.
• He was once slain, and there is no need for another sacrifice of a lamb.
• Hebrews 10:10 tell us that “…we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.”
• Jesus is the only sacrifice for sin. He is the way, truth and the life (Ref. John 14:6).
• He was tried by fire before the eyes of the world, open fire, through His life.
• So, with that understood, let’s look at the three things Jesus did emphasize.
I. The Suffering (22).
And as they were eating, he took bread, and after blessing it broke it and gave it to them, and said, "Take; this is my body."
• Bread, without leaven, broken, and consumed.
• Jesus said, “This is my body.”
• This was more than poetry. It told of certain realities.
• Unleaved bread. Why unleavened?
• Jesus said, “Mat 16:6 Jesus said to them, "Watch and beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and Sadducees."
• The Apostle Paul also said, “1Co 5:6-7 Your boasting is not good. Do you not know that a little leaven leavens the whole lump? Cleanse out the old leaven that you may be a new lump, as you really are unleavened. For Christ, our Passover lamb, has been sacrificed.”
• You see, leavening represented sin.
• The spiritual bread that we must partake of must be without sin.
• Jesus said, “"I am the bread of life; whoever comes to me shall not hunger, and whoever believes in me shall never thirst.” John 6:35.
• The scriptures also tell us that Jesus is the bread without leaven, without sin.
• Heb 4:15 For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin.
• 1Pe 2:22 He committed no sin, neither was deceit found in his mouth.
• Why is that important? Perhaps Isaiah, an Old Testament prophet can tell us.
• Isa 53:3-6 He was despised and rejected by men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief; and as one from whom men hide their faces he was despised, and we esteemed him not. 4 Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows; yet we esteemed him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted. 5 But he was wounded for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his stripes we are healed.
• Jesus had to be without sin or He could not pay for my sin and yours.
• He had to suffer for our sins, not be punished for His own.
• Remember, He said, “Eat this bread. This is my body.”
• Jesus died for the sins of the world, but that redemption will not apply unless you partake of His death.
• That is not saying that eating this bread and drinking this drink will save you.
• But the eating of the spiritual bread and drinking of the spiritual cup must be a reality in your life, or it is meaningless.
• That is telling us that we must believe on Jesus Christ and call upon Him to save us, or death will not pass over us.
• We must apply His sacrifice to our lives, through faith and confession. Ref Romans 10:9-10.
II. The Substitute (23-24).
Mar 14:23-24 And he took a cup, and when he had given thanks he gave it to them, and they all drank of it. 24 And he said to them, "This is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many.
• Looking back to the original Passover, no one doubted what the blood on the doorpost represented.
• The angel of death was sent by a perfect, holy, righteous God.
• The angel of death represented judgment.
• No one of us could stand in the Judgment of a perfect, righteous, holy God.
• So the ones who honored this Holy God had to take a life, innocent and without blemish.
• This lamb would be a substitute for the penalty of being unrighteous.
• Jesus said, “Just as the angel of death saw that a substituted had died to atone for the sins of those in the house, my blood will atone those who believe and call upon me.”
• Heb 9:13-14 For if the blood of goats and bulls, and the sprinkling of defiled persons with the ashes of a heifer, sanctify for the purification of the flesh, 14 how much more will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without blemish to God, purify our conscience from dead works to serve the living God.
• Heb 9:22 Indeed, under the law almost everything is purified with blood, and without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness of sins.
• You are not doing OK with God if you do not have Jesus.
• Romans 3:23 “for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.”
• You see, none of us can measure up to God’s purity. That is what God calls sin.
• Rom 6:23 For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.
• Death in the Bible always represents separation.
• Sin, not being as perfect as God, buys us separation from God.
• But God provided a gift for us to bridge the separation.
• He prepared for us a substitute lamb, the Lamb of God, Jesus Christ.
• But if you believe that Jesus is that perfect sacrificial Lamb, sent by God, resurrected after death and returned to God, and confess Jesus to be your Lord, you will be saved (Ref. Rom. 10:9-10).
• Then Jesus sacrifice for sin will be yours.
• Then the ceremonial eating of the bread and drinking of the cup will have a spiritual reality in you.
• Have you been born again? Have you believed and called upon Jesus?
• That is the most important question in your entire life.
• Your eternity rests upon that. Look….
III. The Security (25).
Mar 14:25 Truly, I say to you, I will not drink again of the fruit of the vine until that day when I drink it new in the kingdom of God."
• Jesus was about to leave His disciples.
• They were asking themselves if and when Jesus was going to establish an earthly kingdom.
• He made it clear here that HE was, and when He did, He would celebrate with the fruit of the vine.
• This was stated to help fortify the disciples’ faith.
• HE was telling them, “It’s going to happen. Maybe not like you expect, but it is going to happen.”
• Wow, that is how my life has gone since I was saved.
• Nothing has happened like I expected, but what God has promised, it either happened, or it is going to happen.
• I have that security. I have that assurance.
• God shows me enough of His faithfulness that I can expect all of His promises to be fulfilled.
• Because God is faithful, He has called me to be faithful.
• I can be faithful, and I can be encouraged, because Jesus promised His earthly rule is going to happen.
• I must follow Him.
• He went to the cross. He went through death. In a sense, that is what He is calling me to do.
• Paul said that he died daily (Ref. 1 Cor. 15:31)
• He encourages us to be living sacrifice, in other words, a living death.
• Rom 12:1 I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship.”
• Isn’t that what Jesus said?
• Luk 9:23-24 And he said to all, "If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me. For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will save it.
• Taking up your cross is not your burden. It represents your death to self.
• Gal 2:20 I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.
• We must die to self.
• We must also die to the world and it’s passions.
• Gal 5:24 And those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.
• We must die to sin.
• Rom 6:9-11 We know that Christ, being raised from the dead, will never die again; death no longer has dominion over him. 10 For the death he died he died to sin, once for all, but the life he lives he lives to God. 11 So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus.
• That is what this celebration is about. It is an observance of our deaths.
• You should not take this unless you are saved, forgiven and adopted into God’s family through faith in Jesus Christ.
• You should be born again, or this observance is meaningless.
• You must be committed to your death to self, living only for Him, or this is an exercise in futility.
• You must be committed to your death to the world and it’s passion, or you are wasting your time.
• You must be committed to a growing reality of your death to sin and its power.
• If you have made these commitments and you want to honor the one who paid for these victories, you may come and celebrate your death and your life in Him.
• If you are wanting to commit to these afresh, and you want this celebration to be an illustration of your growing commitment, you are welcomed to come during our song and take the bread and the cup.
• If you want this service to be a funeral celebration of your death to self, the world and sin, you can take this bread and cup as a sign of your death and your unity with your Savior.
• For Christians who desire, this is your death celebration and your death meal.
• It is a demonstration that you die daily through your participation in His death: His torn body and His spilled blood.
• No one is compelled to come or expected to come. That is between you and God.
• If you need to be saved, I invite you to come forward so we can help you take those steps to be saved.
• It is all about Jesus. Jesus paid it all.
• The alter is open if you need to do business with Him.
• If you need someone to pray with you, come and we will have someone join you.
