Thursday
Night Bible Study
March
28, 2013
Introduction
Do people see Jesus? Is the gospel preached? Does it speak to the
broken hearted? Does it build up the church? Milk – Meat – Manna Preach for a
decision Is the church loved?
On Sunday we
talked about the grand parade that formed when Jesus entered the city of
Jerusalem on Palm Sunday.
Throughout the week Jesus would come into the city in the morning, teach in
the Temple, and then go back to the Garden of Gethsemane in the evening where
He and His disciples would spend the night.
We are now
somewhere around Thursday of that week…
Tomorrow at
noon we’ll look at the cross. At the sunrise service we’ll look at the resurrection. In the Sunday morning services
we’ll look at the Road to Emmaus.
22:1-28 Last Supper
:1 Now the Feast of Unleavened Bread drew near,
which is called Passover.
:1 the Feast of Unleavened Bread
The crowds were in Jerusalem for the annual celebration of the Passover.
But the Passover wasn’t just about having a three-day-weekend in Jerusalem.
The feast lasted
for a week after the Passover because it was followed by the Feast of
Unleavened Bread, which lasted for seven days.
That means the
crowds that were there to see Jesus crucified were also around when He rose
from the dead.
Even though the entire city didn’t see Jesus after He rose, quite a few
people did, and the word would have travelled throughout the city of what had
happened on Sunday.
:2 And the chief priests
and the scribes sought how they might kill Him, for they feared the people.
The religious leaders didn’t like Jesus. They didn’t like how the crowds
followed Him. They wanted Jesus put to death, but they were afraid that if they
did it too openly, the people would revolt against them.
:3 Then Satan entered Judas, surnamed Iscariot,
who was numbered among the twelve.
:3 Satan entered Judas
John tells us the actual moment that Satan entered into Judas. It actually happened at
the supper that would take place a little later in the evening. Jesus had been
telling the disciples that one of them would betray Him. When they asked who it
was …
(Jn 13:26–27 NKJV) Jesus answered, “It is he to whom I shall give a piece of bread
when I have dipped it.” And having dipped the bread, He gave it
to Judas Iscariot, the son of Simon. 27 Now after the piece of bread, Satan entered
him. Then Jesus said to him, “What you do, do quickly.”
Dipping a piece of bread into the sauce and giving it to someone next to
you was a sign of friendship, like sharing your French fries with a friend.
When Jesus gave
the piece of bread to Judas, He was extending friendship to the man, a last
gesture of friendship before Judas would betray Him.
It would seem that Judas’ intention to betray Jesus, along with the gesture
of friendship and love from Jesus, combined to open the door inside of Judas
for Satan to come in.
Lesson
The dangerous “no”
When we reject the love the Jesus offers us, we will find ourselves turning
to some pretty bad stuff.
(Heb 3:12–14 NKJV)
—12
Beware, brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of
unbelief in departing from the living God; 13 but exhort one another daily, while it is
called “Today,” lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of
sin. 14 For we have
become partakers of Christ if we hold the beginning of our confidence steadfast
to the end,
God gives us free will. We have the ability to say “yes” to God or to say
“no” to Him.
When we continue to say “no” to Him, we develop a hard heart, to the point
where we just don’t care anymore. And that’s a dangerous place because we open
the doors for dangerous stuff.
:4 So he went his way and
conferred with the chief priests and captains, how he might betray Him to them.
:5 And they were glad, and agreed to give him
money.
:5 agreed to give him money
Matthew tells us the amount,
(Mt 26:15 NKJV) and said, “What are you willing to give me if I deliver Him to
you?” And they counted out to him thirty pieces of silver.
:6 So he promised and
sought opportunity to betray Him to them in the absence of the multitude.
The plan for the religious leaders was to have Jesus arrested when He
wasn’t with the huge crowd. The crowd wouldn’t have taken kindly to Jesus being
arrested.
In a sense it was necessary for Jesus to be delivered to the chief priests
to fulfill the prophetic pictures of the Passover Lamb. The Lamb is put to
death by the priests.
:7 Then came the Day of Unleavened Bread, when the
Passover must be killed.
:7 the Passover must be killed
There is a lot of discussion as to
exactly which day things happened on.
Here’s one way of looking at things:
For the Jews, the day begins at
6:00 in the evening. In the preparation
of the Passover, the Lamb was killed and cooked before sundown of the 14th
of Nisan (see Ex. 12). The dinner would
be eaten on that evening, which would be the 15th of Nisan. The Passover day would last until 6:00 the
following day.
Jesus ate the meal with the
disciples on Thursday evening, and would be dead before the next evening on
Friday.
Here’s what would have been happening earlier in the afternoon,
foreshadowing what would take place on Friday … as practiced today by the
Samaritans …
:8 And He sent Peter and
John, saying, “Go and prepare the Passover for us, that we may eat.”
:9 So they said to Him, “Where do You want us to
prepare?”
:10 And He said to them, “Behold, when you have
entered the city, a man will meet you carrying a pitcher of water; follow him
into the house which he enters.
:10 a man will meet you
It kind of sounds like a rendezvous with a secret agent – “look for
the man with the red carnation” or something like that.
This has the same “ring” as when Jesus entered Jerusalem earlier in the
week and He gave
instructions to two disciples about finding a donkey for Him to ride on:
(Lk 19:30–31 NKJV) —30
…“Go into the village opposite you, where as you enter you
will find a colt tied, on which no one has ever sat. Loose it and bring it
here. 31 And if anyone asks you,
‘Why are you loosing it?’ thus you shall say
to him, ‘Because the Lord has need of it.’ ”
And when the two disciples entered the village, it all unfolded for them
just like Jesus said it would.
Lesson
Tragedy
We talked about this on Sunday, and the impact it would have on the
disciples later on when they might be tempted to think that Jesus’ death was
all some sort of a horrible accident.
Jesus’ death
wasn’t an accident, it was the very reason He came. He came to die. It had all
been in the plan, just like the donkey, just like the man with the upper room.
We too might tend to think that some of the tragedies we’ve encountered
have been huge, terrible accidents.
It might be that we just haven’t seen the end of it all yet. Paul wrote,
(Ro 8:28 NKJV) And we
know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who
are the called according to His purpose.
Joseph was sold as a slave by his brothers, and even ended up in an
Egyptian prison for something he didn’t do. He might have been tempted to
wonder what had gone wrong. But Joseph saw the bigger picture. He would explain
to his brothers…
(Ge 50:20 NKJV) But as for you, you meant evil against me; but God meant it
for good, in order to bring it about as it is this day, to save many
people alive.
:11 Then you shall say to
the master of the house, ‘The Teacher says to you, “Where is the guest room
where I may eat the Passover with My disciples?” ’
:12 Then he will show you a large, furnished upper
room; there make ready.”
:13 So they went and found it just as He had said
to them, and they prepared the Passover.
:14 When the hour had come, He sat down, and the
twelve apostles with Him.
:15 Then He said to them, “With fervent
desire I have desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer;
:16 for I say to you, I will no longer eat of it
until it is fulfilled in the kingdom of God.”
:15 With fervent desire I
have desired
Luke’s use of words speak of an
intensity in what Jesus is saying. (eipthumia
and eipthumeo, repeating the same
word in its noun form and verb form, a word that already speaks of an intense
craving)
Why has Jesus greatly desired this
Passover?
Because this is the moment He’s
been waiting for. This is the Passover
where He is going to die for the sins of the world. This is the Passover feast where He is going
to give a marvelous thing to His disciples, Communion, where they can remember
what He’s going to have done for them.
:17 Then He took the cup, and gave thanks, and
said, “Take this and divide it among yourselves;
:18 for I say to you, I will not drink of the
fruit of the vine until the kingdom of God comes.”
:17 He took the cup
In the celebration
of the Passover feast, there were certain things that were done during the
dinner.
When the group
was settled, the first cup of wine was filled, and a blessing was asked by the
head of the family on the feast, as well as a special one on the cup.
This is probably this first cup that Jesus is taking here. It was called
the cup of sanctification.
Then the bitter
herbs (like horseradish) were placed on the table and a portion of them were
eaten, reminding the family of the bitterness of their bondage in Egypt.
Illustration
With
Passover soon upon them, the Jewish community in Madrid found themselves in a
desperate situation. There was an acute shortage of horseradish. You probably
know that horseradish is the key, if not only, ingredient of that fiery
condiment for gefilte fish that is known as chrain. A hue and cry arose and the entire community was
mobilized in an effort to prevent this shonda (shame,
tragedy). All the European Union countries gave the same reply, "Sorry, we
have none to send. In desperation, the Rabbi phoned one of his Yeshiva friends in Tel
Aviv and begged him to send a crate of horseradish by air freight. Two days
before Passover, a crate of grade Aleph, tear-jerking, Israeli horseradish was loaded at Ben Gurion Airport onto EL Al flight 789 to Madrid, and all
seemed to be well. Unfortunately, when the Rabbi went to the Madrid airport to
claim the horseradish, he was informed that a wildcat strike had just broken
out and no shipments would be unloaded for at least four days. So...? As a result, The chrain in Spain stayed mainly on the plane.
After the bitter herbs, the unleavened bread was handed around
next. It is interesting that there was supposed to be three loaves of bread
kept in little cloth sacks. The middle or second loaf was to be broken.
After the bread was passed around, the second cup of wine was drunk, the cup of
“plagues”.
Then the son would ask the father the meaning of the feast in accordance
with Ex. 12:26. The Father would remind the family of the suffering in Egypt
and God’s deliverance.
A song of praise
was sung. The Hallel or “Praise” songs were sung
The lamb was
then carved and eaten, followed by a third cup of wine, the cup of redemption.
There was a
final cup of wine, the cup of praise.
:19 And He took bread, gave
thanks and broke it, and gave it to them, saying, “This is My
body which is given for you; do this in remembrance of Me.”
:19 do this in remembrance of Me
The bread
remains bread. It does not magically turn into the flesh of Jesus.
It is meant to
make us remember Him. It is meant to make us remember His body.
It used to be that the Passover feast would cause the people to remember
what God had done in Egypt.
Jesus now tells His disciples that they are to remember Him.
They will remember what He did at the cross as He gave His body for us.
:20 Likewise He also took
the cup after supper, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in My blood,
which is shed for you.
:20 the new covenant in My blood
God has now established a New Agreement between God and man. Keep in mind,
Jesus didn’t just come up with this idea, it was promised long ago. God had
promised that there would be a New Covenant:
(Je 31:31–34 NKJV) —31
“Behold, the days are coming, says the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of
Israel and with the house of Judah— 32 not according to the covenant that I made with
their fathers in the day that I took them by the hand to lead them out
of the land of Egypt, My covenant which they broke, though I was a husband to
them, says the Lord.
The New Covenant is contrasted with the Old Covenant. The Old Covenant is
the agreement that God made with Israel through Moses. It dates back to the
time when God took the people out of Egypt. When did God take the people out of
Egypt? At
the Passover.
33 But this is the covenant
that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the Lord: I will put My
law in their minds, and write it on their hearts; and I will be their God, and
they shall be My people. 34 No more shall
every man teach his neighbor, and every man his brother, saying, ‘Know the Lord,’ for they all shall know Me, from the least of them to the greatest of them, says the
Lord. For I will forgive their
iniquity, and their sin I will remember no more.”
The New Covenant would be something that happens on the inside. God writes
His laws on our heart. People know the Lord. And God forgives our sin.
In the Old Covenant,
the agreement was “sealed” with blood.
(Ex 24:8 NKJV) And Moses took the blood, sprinkled it on the people, and
said, “This is the blood of the covenant which the Lord has made with you according to all these words.”
This made the agreement binding. The people were sprinkled
with blood.
The New Covenant
is also sealed with blood. The cup is to remind us of this.
:21 But behold, the hand of
My betrayer is with Me on the table.
:22 And truly the Son of Man goes as it has been
determined, but woe to that man by whom He is betrayed!”
:23 Then they began to question among themselves,
which of them it was who would do this thing.
I always find it amazing to think that Jesus treated Judas with such grace
and kindness that the other disciples didn’t know who the betrayer was.
I, on the other hand, would tend to nod in the direction of Judas, or cough
while whispering under my breath “Judas”.
:24 Now there was also a dispute among them, as to
which of them should be considered the greatest.
I find it amazing that the disciples go from a discussion about who was
going to betray Jesus, to who is going to be the greatest.
It kind of goes to show you that the disciples were just
like us. Their eyes were on
themselves, not Jesus. They weren’t
worried about Jesus being betrayed, they were worrying about being the betrayer
and losing their place.
:25 And He said to them, “The kings of the
Gentiles exercise lordship over them, and those who exercise authority over
them are called ‘benefactors.’
:26 But not so among you; on the contrary,
he who is greatest among you, let him be as the younger, and he who governs as
he who serves.
:27 For who is greater, he who sits at the
table, or he who serves? Is it not he who sits at the table? Yet I am
among you as the One who serves.
:28 “But you are those who have continued with Me
in My trials.
:29 And I bestow upon you a kingdom, just as My
Father bestowed one upon Me,
:30 that you may eat and drink at My table in My
kingdom, and sit on thrones judging the twelve tribes of Israel.”
I’ll bet it was confusing for the disciples to have Jesus talk about
serving one another one moment, and then talk about sitting on thrones judging
the twelve tribes of Israel the next.
:27 who is greater
Lesson
Mature Servants
I think we have it in our heads that the more people we can “command” to do our bidding,
the greater we are, the better we are, the more “mature” we are (Like this
picture of Hitler speaking to a huge crowd, commanding his nation)
Yet I think
Jesus’ definition of maturity is simply that of “serving”.
John tells us
that earlier in the evening, Jesus started the evening by washing the
disciples’ feet (John 13), something that should have been done by a servant.
And to think that He did this, knowing that He was going to be betrayed,
tried, beaten, and put to death. Yet He
serves.
Jesus told the guys that He washed their feet to set an example for them.
(Jn 13:12–17 NKJV) —12
So when He had washed their feet, taken His garments, and sat down
again, He said to them, “Do you know what I have done to you? 13 You call Me Teacher
and Lord, and you say well, for so I am. 14 If I then, your Lord and
Teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another’s feet. 15 For I have given you
an example, that you should do as I have done to you. 16 Most assuredly, I say to you, a servant is not
greater than his master; nor is he who is sent greater than he who sent him. 17 If you know
these things, blessed are you if you do them.
We can get all confused thinking about the “thrones” we’ll
be sitting on in heaven, when what we ought to be focusing on is how we are to
be serving others.
Play “Skitguys – Last Supper
” clip.
We will all
fall. The important thing is to get back up again.
Maybe I’m
just deceived, but I’ve come to the conclusion that both sides are correct. I
see the Scriptures teaching both sides. How do I reconcile this? I don’t have
to, that’s God’s problem. I see the Scriptures telling me that I have been
chosen before the foundation of the world. I have been predestined to follow
Jesus. No one can snatch me out of the Father’s hand. And yet – I still have to
make a choice to follow Jesus. I must make a choice of my will to “repent”. I
must choose to believe in Jesus in order to have eternal life. I am commanded
to go out and preach the gospel so men might be saved.
Yet we also
need to learn to walk by faith. We need to learn how to “deny ourselves, take
up the cross, and follow Jesus”. Those things don’t come by being carried along
by some unseen force. They come from making a choice and putting our feet and
hands into action. We won’t always have a clear sense of “seeing God” or
knowing His will. That’s what it means to “walk by faith”. We are going to
trust Him, even if we don’t see Him. We are going to follow and obey Him even
when we don’t “feel” Him.
The Bible
says if you don’t work, you don’t eat.