The Final Passover and the First Lord’s Supper
Truth Taught- As Jesus and His disciples share the Passover Meal, our Lord goes from presiding over the meal to showing the true meaning of the meal.
Pastoral Prayer
God’s wonderful hand of providence is all over and around every occurrence but we see Him especially at work in events the crucifixion of His Son Jesus.
Let’s pause today and consider the great love God has for His people that He would give His only Son to pay for our sin debt. As we really begin the last day or two of Jesus’ earthly life, I’d like each us to bow in reverence and awe and pray silently before God. So, before we stand for the reading of God’s Word, let’s take a moment and thank God for His wonderful grace in our salvation and thank Him for Jesus dying on the cross for our sins. If you’re listening to this recording, I’d ask you too to take a moment in silent prayer of thanksgiving to God as well.
God’s wonderful providence is seen here with us today as we are going to study the passage where Jesus begins the Lord’s Supper and we are scheduled to partake of the Lord’s Supper today!!
Please Stand in honor of God’s Holy, Inspired, and Inerrant Word
Mark 14:12–25 (ESV)
12 And on the first day of Unleavened Bread, when they sacrificed the Passover lamb, his disciples said to him, “Where will you have us go and prepare for you to eat the Passover?” 13 And he sent two of his disciples and said to them, “Go into the city, and a man carrying a jar of water will meet you. Follow him, 14 and wherever he enters, say to the master of the house, ‘The Teacher says, Where is my guest room, where I may eat the Passover with my disciples?’ 15 And he will show you a large upper room furnished and ready; there prepare for us.” 16 And the disciples set out and went to the city and found it just as he had told them, and they prepared the Passover.
17 And when it was evening, he came with the twelve. 18 And as they were reclining at table and eating, Jesus said, “Truly, I say to you, one of you will betray me, one who is eating with me.” 19 They began to be sorrowful and to say to him one after another, “Is it I?” 20 He said to them, “It is one of the twelve, one who is dipping bread into the dish with me. 21 For the Son of Man goes as it is written of him, but woe to that man by whom the Son of Man is betrayed! It would have been better for that man if he had not been born.”
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.” 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.”
1. Preparation for the Last Passover (14:12-16)
12 And on the first day of Unleavened Bread, when they sacrificed the Passover lamb, his disciples said to him, “Where will you have us go and prepare for you to eat the Passover?” 13 And he sent two of his disciples and said to them, “Go into the city, and a man carrying a jar of water will meet you. Follow him, 14 and wherever he enters, say to the master of the house, ‘The Teacher says, Where is my guest room, where I may eat the Passover with my disciples?’ 15 And he will show you a large upper room furnished and ready; there prepare for us.” 16 And the disciples set out and went to the city and found it just as he had told them, and they prepared the Passover.
I want us to see what is taking place here in this moment. Jesus greatly desires to share the Passover meal with His disciples. This will, in fact, be His last meal before His death.
What also is in the making is Judas who has been searching for a time to betray Jesus. This upper room meeting would be perfect for Judas to tell the Jewish leaders where they will be at a certain time so Jesus could be arrested.
Jesus knows all this. So, what does He do? Instead of telling everyone where the meal will take place, Jesus does it in a way to conceal the location from Judas. If He tells them the location then Judas would have gone to share that with the Jews. Jesus wanted to eat His last meal with His friends.
Now, during the time of Passover, Jerusalem swelled in population. The reason was that God had commanded the Israelites to only eat the Passover Meal within the walls of Jerusalem and not in any other place (Deut. 16:5-8). So, the population became so great that rooms would become scarce.
Just for comparison, the Passover that took place in 66AD there were 255,600 lambs slaughtered within the Temple. Estimates are that there were about 10 people per lamb…Josephus calculates 2.5 million people within the city.
Now, last week remember I said that Jesus was crucified at the time when the lambs were killed. So, how can that be true if Jesus is eating the Passover with His disciples? If the Lamb they used was one sacrificed then Jesus should also be dead.
There is a very interesting footnote, and I’m not going to drag it out because it’s a little bit of scholarly work. There actually were two different evenings when the Passover was celebrated. I’ll just leave it at this. The northern people in the Galilee celebrated it on Thursday evening, while the Judeans – the Sadducees and the people in the South – celebrated it on Friday evening. This is perfect so that Jesus can celebrate the Passover with His friends from Galilee when they celebrated it on Thursday, and still die as the Passover Lamb on Friday at the time that the southern Judeans were slaughtering their lambs for their Passover.—John MacArthur
So, Jesus can preside over the feast as the head of the feast and still die as God’s Passover Lamb when the lambs were slaughtered.
He tells His followers, probably Peter and John, go into the city and when you see a man carrying a jar of water, that’s your guy. Jesus knew the place and the two he sent ahead will discover the place and begin the preparations but Judas will not know until they get there.
16 And the disciples set out and went to the city and found it just as he had told them, and they prepared the Passover.
They found it just as Jesus said. Beloved we too will discover things are, in fact, just as Jesus said. I will never leave you or forsake you…that’s true, just as Jesus said. I am the way the truth and the life, no one comes to the Father except through Me…Just as Jesus said. I am the door…just as Jesus said. I pray we understand that when Jesus speaks in His Word we can complete believe Him and reacclimate our lives based on that truth because what the Bible tells us will always be just as it says.
2. The Last Passover (14:17-21)
17 And when it was evening, he came with the twelve. 18 And as they were reclining at table and eating, Jesus said, “Truly, I say to you, one of you will betray me, one who is eating with me.” 19 They began to be sorrowful and to say to him one after another, “Is it I?” 20 He said to them, “It is one of the twelve, one who is dipping bread into the dish with me. 21 For the Son of Man goes as it is written of him, but woe to that man by whom the Son of Man is betrayed! It would have been better for that man if he had not been born.”
In our timeline, it is evening which begins the next day by Jewish reckoning at 6pm, signaled 14 Nisan which is when the Galileans celebrated Passover. So, Jesus with His Galilean disciples sit down to the Feast of the Passover.
During the meal, our Lord tells His disciples that one of them will betray Him. What makes betrayal so difficult to process is that it was one who has dipped his hand into the very bowl of Jesus. It may as well have been His very heart.
This final gathering with Jesus and His disciples before His death while a special evening of celebration is tainted with treachery. Judas is still watching for the perfect time to divulge the location of Jesus.
The one who is eating with Me will betray Me.
Psalm 41:9 (ESV)
9 Even my close friend in whom I trusted,
who ate my bread, has lifted his heel against me.
This is the bitter irony of sin and the fallen world we live in. A feast is given among betrayal and deceit.
There was only one official traitor but the sad reality before morning, they would all betray Jesus…greed, weakness, fear and cowardice. Surely not I can be said by all of us. Every Christian could have been sitting there that night and by morning every one of us would have fled just like the eleven.
This passage is one of those texts where we see God’s sovereignty and man’s free will working together to accomplish God’s decreed end. Judas did what he did because he lusted after wealth. He was responsible for his own actions and also God is at work. Sinful man accomplishes God’s purposes as much as Christians do.
21 For the Son of Man goes as it is written of him, but woe to that man by whom the Son of Man is betrayed! It would have been better for that man if he had not been born.”
So, God used sinful, greedy Judas to accomplish the arrest of our sinless Lord.
3. The New Passover…the Lord’s Supper (14:22-25)
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.” 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.”
We are to see here that the elements of the Passover Feast have been overshadowed by Jesus, Himself. As our Lord institutes the Lord’s Supper, the Passover fades away along with the Old Covenant as Jesus fulfills all of it.
When the celebration feast began, Jesus presided over it now, He is the meal. The Lord’s Supper was given to the Church by Jesus, Himself. The drastic shift goes from remembrance of the Passover to the remembrance of the cross. As his followers broke the bread and distributed it, Jesus teaches them the new meaning of the bread…it is my body. As they drink of the cup, our Lord tells them that now they are to remember His shed blood.
The bread conveys the body of Jesus and the cup conveys His shed blood.
Mark tells us that they all drink from the cup. He tells us, they all swear their allegiance to Jesus.
Mark 14:31 (ESV)
31 But he said emphatically, “If I must die with you, I will not deny you.” And they all said the same.
But…all will fall away. They all fled.
Zechariah 13:7 (ESV)
7 “Awake, O sword, against my shepherd,
against the man who stands next to me,”
declares the Lord of hosts.
“Strike the shepherd, and the sheep will be scattered;
I will turn my hand against the little ones.
The Last Supper and the first Lord’s Supper is attended by Traitors and Cowards.
Mark 14:50 (ESV)
50 And they all left him and fled.
Beloved of God, the Lord’s Table is not a table of Merit but the Table of grace.
The Old Covenant was sealed by the blood of the sacrificial animal…
Exodus 24:3–8 (ESV)
3 Moses came and told the people all the words of the Lord and all the rules. And all the people answered with one voice and said, “All the words that the Lord has spoken we will do.” 4 And Moses wrote down all the words of the Lord. He rose early in the morning and built an altar at the foot of the mountain, and twelve pillars, according to the twelve tribes of Israel. 5 And he sent young men of the people of Israel, who offered burnt offerings and sacrificed peace offerings of oxen to the Lord. 6 And Moses took half of the blood and put it in basins, and half of the blood he threw against the altar. 7 Then he took the Book of the Covenant and read it in the hearing of the people. And they said, “All that the Lord has spoken we will do, and we will be obedient.” 8 And Moses took the blood and threw it on the people and said, “Behold the blood of the covenant that the Lord has made with you in accordance with all these words.”
Now, in the New Covenant, we are not sprinkled with blood of bulls and goats.
Hebrews 9:11–12 (ESV)
11 But when Christ appeared as a high priest of the good things that have come, then through the greater and more perfect tent (not made with hands, that is, not of this creation) 12 he entered once for all into the holy places, not by means of the blood of goats and calves but by means of his own blood, thus securing an eternal redemption.
Hebrews 10:4–10 (ESV)
4 For it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins.
5 Consequently, when Christ came into the world, he said,
“Sacrifices and offerings you have not desired,
but a body have you prepared for me;
6 in burnt offerings and sin offerings
you have taken no pleasure.
7 Then I said, ‘Behold, I have come to do your will, O God,
as it is written of me in the scroll of the book.’ ”
8 When he said above, “You have neither desired nor taken pleasure in sacrifices and offerings and burnt offerings and sin offerings” (these are offered according to the law), 9 then he added, “Behold, I have come to do your will.” He does away with the first in order to establish the second. 10 And by that will we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.
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