The Lord's Supper - Matthew 26:14-46

INTRODUCTION:

            This is the night that we remember the death of the Lord Jesus Christ on our behalf, He died so that our sins may be forgiven, so that we may be justified before God, so we can be reconciled to God.  Our tradition as a church on this evening is to remember the death of our Savior by participating in the Lord’s Supper.  Jesus Christ instituted this meal the night before He was crucified as a memorial of His death for us.  It was the bridge from the Passover meal of the Jews that looked forward to the cross to the church that looks back at what Jesus Christ did on the cross for us, but also looks forward to His return for us and our entrance into the heavenly home He has prepared for us.

            This evening I want us to walk through those few hours leading up to the arrest of Jesus Christ, that last evening spent with His disciples before His crucifixion the next day.  Let’s pray and then we will open the Word of God.

--PRAY--

BETRAYAL (Matthew 26:14-16)

            If you would like to follow along I will be in Matthew 26 this evening and I am going to just read through this passage beginning in verse 14 and going through verse 46.  I will make some comments as I read.

--READ MATTHEW 26:14-16--

            The chief priests had already determined that it was either them or Jesus and their decision was that it was them and Jesus had to die, He had to go away.  The question was, when do we do it, so that we don’t incite a riot among the people?  It was as if God answered their prayers when Judas showed up offering to hand Jesus over to them.  They willingly counted out 30 pieces of silver in exchange for Jesus, the price of a common slave.  It was not God that answered their prayer, but Satan.  Luke’s Gospel tells us that Satan entered into Judas, he sold his soul for 30 pieces of silver.  This is where the treachery of the cross begins, in the heart of men willing to sell the Savior of the world.

THE LAST PASSOVER (Matthew 26:17-25)

            Picking up again in verse 17.

--READ MATTHEW 26:17-19--

            It was the first day of Unleavened Bread.  This would be the day of Passover; the Passover meal would be observed followed by seven days in which no leaven was allowed to be in the house and only unleavened bread could be eaten. 

            The disciples want to know where they are to prepare and eat the Passover meal.  Jesus instructs them to go into the city and meet a certain man, Luke mentions that this man will be carrying a jar or pitcher of water.  This would be easy to spot because carrying water was usually done by women.  They were to follow him and ask the master of the house he entered to let them use his guest room.  This was a common practice in those days as everyone came to Jerusalem for the Passover.  From the other Gospels we know that it was Peter and John who made all the arrangements and prepared the meal.

--READ MATTHEW 26:20-25--

            As the Passover meal is being eaten, the roasted lamb is on the table before them and Jesus knows that this lamb is a picture of Him, that He is the true Passover Lamb and that this night He will be betrayed, arrested, condemned and crucified as the Passover Lamb.  Jesus, being God and knowing all things knows that one at the table is hiding a secret, one disciple at the table is going to betray Him.  During the meal He makes this known to the rest of the disciples that one of them is going to betray Him.  The disciples were very sorrowful over this news, to think that one of the twelve could betray Jesus and they each began to ask Him, “Surely not I, Lord?” Finally, Judas asks if it is him, the others called Jesus Lord, Judas calls Him Rabbi, or Teacher.  Jesus replied to Judas that he had said it himself.  Because he sold his soul to the devil, Jesus said it would be better if he had not been born.  From the other Gospels it seems that Judas left the Passover meal at this point and went out into the darkness.

THE LAST SUPPER (Matthew 26:26-30)

            Then Jesus instituted the Lord’s Supper or communion.  Picking up in verse 26.

--READ MATTHEW 26:26-30--

            The words that Jesus spoke must have seemed strange to the ears of the disciples.  What did He mean when He gave them the bread and said, “Take, eat; this is my body.”  It was not really His body, they could see Him there reclining at the table in His body.  Jesus wanted them to understand that He was truly flesh, just as that piece of bread was true, but also that He was truly God.  This bread was given as a memorial, a remembrance that God had truly come in the flesh, the incarnation was true, and this body of flesh would truly die.  The bread does not represent the beatings and the abuse that Jesus took for us leading up to the cross and on the cross.  Notice what He says, because this is often confused.  He does not say, “This is my body broken for you.”  It says, “Jesus took some bread, and after a blessing He broke it, (He broke the bread so that a piece could be given to each of the disciples) and gave it to the disciples, and said, ‘Take, eat; this is my body.”  The bread represents the flesh body of the Son of God, and body that could die, taking our punishment for sin. 

            Next Jesus took a cup of wine and gave thanks for it and gave the cup to His disciples and told them all to drink from the cup, and He said that the wine was His blood of the covenant.  Again, it was not truly His blood, but wine that represented His blood, it was given as a memorial, a remembrance of the blood that Jesus would shed the next day on the cross.  What does My blood of the covenant mean?  Jesus was instituting a new covenant by His death.  The old covenant was the Law of Moses which could save no one, that covenant when given to Moses it was ratified by a blood sacrifice, the blood was sprinkled on the people.  Jesus is saying His shed blood given as a sacrifice for us will ratify this new covenant, and this blood poured out or shed for many will result in forgiveness of sins.  No longer do we have to keep the Law and bring sacrifices for our sin, Jesus is the last sacrifice and when we believe that He died for us our sins are forgiven.

            The sang a hymn, most likely Psalm 115-118, these were psalms sang at Passover and they went out to the Mount of Olives.  Let’s read on beginning in verse 31.

--READ MATTHEW 26:31-35--

            As they made their way thru the dark city, out the gate and across the Kidron valley and began the ascent up the Mount of Olives, Jesus told them that they would all fall away because of Him.  Jesus uses a quote from Zechariah 13:7 that prophesies that the Shepherd will be struck and the sheep will scatter to speak of His arrest and the disciples fleeing.  But Jesus makes a promise that when He has risen from the dead that He will go ahead of them into Galilee and meet them there.

            Peter boldly says that he will not fall away even if everyone else does.  Jesus prophesies that Peter will deny Him three times before the rooster crows at dawn.  We know that this happens even though Peter says even if he must die with Jesus, he will not deny him.  Peter truly believed this in his spirit that he would not forsake his Lord, but the flesh was not as strong as the spirit.  All the other disciples made similar statements.

--READ MATTHEW 26:36-38--

            The arrived at a place called Gethsemane.  Gethsemane means “olive press.”  There is still an olive grove on the Mount of olives with olive trees that are more than 2000 years old and still producing olives.  Jesus often came to this place with His disciples.  He asked them to pray.  Taking Peter, James, and John with Him Jesus went further into the grove and Matthew says He began to be grieved and distressed, as Jesus knew what was soon to take place it begins to weigh heavy on His heart.  Jesus grieved and was distressed by the coming loneliness of One forsaken of God and despised by the very men whom He came to save. The grief and the distress that He, the perfect One, in whom God the Father had ever found His delight would soon be treated as an outcast, because taking the sinner’s place, was unspeakably horrible and appalling.  This is the reason He had come from heaven and had taken on human flesh, that He might die in our place.

            Jesus told Peter, James, and John that His soul was deeply sorrowful to the point of death, He asked them to watch and pray.  Let’s continue to read.

--READ MATTHEW 26:39--

            Jesus poured His heart out in prayer to His Father, He asked if it were possible, if there were any other way for sins to be atoned for, then let this cup pass from Me.  What is this cup?  It is the cup of God’s wrath against sin.  All God’s holy wrath against sin would come to bear on the holy One as He hung on the cross taking upon Himself the sins of the world, being made sin for us that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.  Jesus understands that this is the only atonement available for sin and He submits His will to have this cup pass from Him, to the will of the Father.  Let’s continue reading.

--READ MATTHEW 26:40-46--

            Jesus goes to Peter, James, and John and finds them sleeping.  He rebukes Peter who had said he would even die with Jesus.  Jesus asks them to watch and pray so that they do not fall into temptation.  Jesus acknowledges that the spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak.  Jesus recognized the devotion of His disciples, but also realized the untrustworthiness of the human heart.  So, He asked them to watch and pray that they might be on their guard and to ask God to help them so that in the time of testing they will not fail.  Jesus knew that in their spirits they desired to be true, but He warned them of the weakness as men still in the body.

            Jesus goes and prays again and His submission to the Father’s will, no matter what sorrow and agony this means to Him, for this reason He had come into the world.  There is no conflict of wills.  Jesus agreed with whatever pleased the Father.  No matter how bitter the cup, He would drink it if salvation for lost sinners could be obtained no other way.

            Twice more Jesus returned to Peter, James, and John and found them sleeping.  The third time the hour of His arrest had come which led to His trial, then the following day His crucifixion, it was on the cross that our sins were laid upon Him, and He endured the full penalty that should have been ours if God had not intervened in grace and sent His Son to be our sacrifice for sin.  On the cross the full cup of God’s wrath Jesus drank on our behalf.

CONCLUSION:

            As we partake of the Lord’s Supper in a few minutes from now and remember Christ’s death for us I hope that it will take on new meaning for you as you realize that Jesus Christ drank the cup of God’s wrath that we might drink the cup of remembrance, the cup of blessing that His blood was poured out for many for the forgiveness of sin.