Luke 22:1-23
Please remain standing and turn
in your copy of God’s Word to Luke chapter 22, verses 1 to
23. I’ve been told that after last
week, I’m deducted some time. So maybe in light of last week
and the Lord’s Supper, we’ll be a little more brief. Remember,
we are making our way through Luke’s gospel. We have now made
it towards the end of the week. Jesus is preparing to eat the
Passover with his disciples. And then quickly, there will
be the betrayal, the fleeing into the night of all the apostles,
and Jesus’ arrest, trials, and death. Hear now the word of the
living God. This is Luke chapter 22, beginning
at verse one. Now the feast of unleavened bread
drew near, which is called the Passover. And the chief priest
and the scribes were seeking how to put him to death, for
they feared the people. Then Satan entered into Judas
called Iscariot, who was of the number of the 12. He went away
and conferred with the chief priest and the officers how he
might betray him to them. And they were glad and agreed
to give him money. And so he consented and sought
an opportunity to betray him to them in absence of a crowd.
Then came the day of unleavened bread on which the Passover lamb
had to be sacrificed. So Jesus sent Peter and John
saying, go and prepare the Passover for us that we may eat it. They
said to him, where will you have us prepare it? He said to them,
behold, when you have entered the city, a man carrying a jar
of water will meet you. Follow him into the house that
he enters and tell the master of the house, the teacher says
to you, where is the guest room where I may eat the Passover
with my disciples? And he will show you a large
upper room furnished, prepare it there. And they went and found
it just as he told them and they prepared the Passover. And when
the hour came, he reclined at table and the apostles with him.
And he said to them, I have earnestly desired to eat this Passover
with you before I suffer. For I tell you, I will not eat
it until it is fulfilled in the kingdom of God. And he took a
cup. And when he had given thanks,
he said, take this and divide it among yourselves. For I tell
you that from now on, I will not drink of the fruit of the
vine until the kingdom of God comes. And he took bread. And when he had given thanks,
he broke it and gave it to them saying, this is my body, which
is given for you. Do this in remembrance of me.
And likewise, the cup after they had eaten saying, this cup that
is poured out for you is the new covenant in my blood. But
behold, the hand of him who betrays me is with me. on the table. For the son of man goes as it
has been determined, but woe to that man by whom he is betrayed. And they began to question one
another, which of them it could be who was going to do this.”
Pray with me. Our Lord, we trust you that you
will speak to us by your word, with the power of your spirit,
And today, even through the sacrament of the supper, that you will
nurture your flock just as we need every bit. We pray all this
in the name of Christ. Amen. May be seated. We want to think of this passage
today, especially in light of our coming to the Lord’s table
from the perspective of preparation. The first preparation we find
in this passage is Judas’ preparation to betray Jesus. We see in this
passage that Judas has been taken by the devil himself. We often
speak of the three enemies of the Christian, the world, the
flesh, and the devil. The world being its ways, its
principles, its passions, Uh, it’s contrary to the word, but
we, we struggle with the world. We love it. We live in it. We
want to be of it. Uh, yet God calls us not to be
of this world, but of the next. We also struggle with the flesh,
our own remaining sin. The apostle Paul in Romans chapter
seven, uh, said that what the spirit is willing, but the flesh
is weak. I know the thing which I ought
to do, but that is not what I do. And I know what I ought not do.
Yet that is the very thing which I do. So we struggle with the
world. We struggle with the flesh. And maybe we don’t think of the
devil too often. We’ve got him separated over
this way. Maybe he’s not real in some of
our minds. But here’s a passage where we
see the devil using Judas, yes, to accomplish the work of redemption. It was written that Jesus must
be handed over and suffer and die. And so Judas doing his wicked
work, being used by Satan to hand Jesus over that he might
be the great sacrificial lamb is working under the providence
of God, but he is being used by the hand of Satan. There’s
a passage in Timothy, Paul to Timothy says to the young pastor,
be patient with people, be kind, teach them the word of God. I’m
paraphrasing here, but teach them the word of God. And perhaps
God may lead them to a place of repentance that they may no
longer be unwittingly used by Satan. And so don’t think here
as you sit today and we think of the preparations Judas is
making under God’s providence. Yes, through the influence of
the devil, for sure. Don’t think, oh, that’s Judas.
I would never do the devil’s work. But remember who Satan
is. He’s the father of lies. And
so he’s the father of gossip. He’s the father of slander. He’s
the father of injuring one another as we are prone to do as sinners. But we see here Judas preparation. He approaches the leaders of
the church who are looking for a way to trap Jesus. They’ve been doing this all along,
right? But now it’s time for Jesus to be arrested, for him
to go to the cross, for him to suffer and die for our sins. And so Judas makes those preparations. You can imagine that the chief
priest, the scribes and the Pharisees, when Judas knocks on their door,
what do you want? Oh, come on in. And it’ll only
take 30 pieces of silver. Every man has a price. Every
man has a price and he will do something for money. And so Judas
makes preparation to betray the son of man into the hands of
his enemies. There’s a second preparation
in this passage. And it’s Jesus’ preparation to
eat Passover with his disciples. Now, there’s a couple of things
to take notice of in this passage. Jesus earnestly desires to eat
the Passover with his disciples. And so he sends two of them to
an undisclosed location. It’s almost like he’s saying,
go find this place, you’ll stumble on it. And when you do, don’t
tell anybody the address because I am going to have this meal
with you. It’s the last supper. It’s the
meal of all meals with these apostles who in 40 days or so
will turn the world upside down from Jerusalem to Judea, to Samaria,
and to the ends of the earth. But for now, on this day, Jesus
earnestly desires, he is preparing to eat the Passover meal. For
the sake of time today, we won’t go into this whole Passover ritual,
but you understand from your Bible reading that when Israel
left Egypt at twilight on the night of Passover, they took
a lamb without blemish, they sacrificed it They cooked it,
they ate it in haste, but they also put the blood over their
doorpost and down the lentils of the door. received the protection of God
Almighty. Just as Noah built an ark of
safety, they painted their doorpost with the blood of the Passover
lamb so that the angel of death would pass over their house.
And so for centuries now, this meal commemorates God’s redemptive
work for Israel from Egypt. And so as he sits to eat this
Passover meal prepared, it’s loaded with meaning. Yes, they
remember, they recall Israel and Egypt. They recall Yahweh
rescuing Egypt through a redeemer, Moses. But here that redeemer,
the greater redeemer than Moses, the one Moses spoke of is sitting
before their eyes and he transforms this Passover meal into the Lord’s
supper. Remember, we’re a people of two
sacraments. We’re a people of baptism and
the Lord’s Supper. Baptism, a better ritual than
circumcision. It includes boys and girls. It’s
the sign and seal of entrance into the new covenant and God’s
promises. And then the Lord’s Supper, a
greater exodus. than from Egypt has taken place.
God in Christ has rescued us from Satan and from sin and from
darkness. Our bonds, our chains have been
loosed and we now walk free from sin and from judgment. And we
are no longer under the taskmaster of Satan, but we are under the
gentle mastery of Christ, the gentle shepherd. And so in this
passage, we see the preparation of Judas to betray, the preparation
of Jesus to sup with his disciples. There’s a third thought of preparation
we ought to consider today, and that’s our own preparation to
come to the Lord’s table. I encourage you to take your
hymnal out and turn to page 975, and there you’ll find our Westminster shorter catechism. And it gives
a couple questions and answers on the sacrament of the Lord’s
supper. And when you arrive at page 975
and your eyes find a question 97, which is towards the top
on the right hand page and on the right hand column, your eyes
will land upon this important question. What is required? for
the worthy receiving of the Lord’s supper? And the answer is this,
it is required of them that would worthily partake of the Lord’s
supper, that they examine themselves of their knowledge to discern
the Lord’s body, of their faith to feed upon him, of their repentance,
of their love, of their new obedience, lest coming unworthily, they
eat and drink judgment to themselves. And so what ought we do to prepare
to come to the Lord’s table? Well, to put it in other words,
first, do you believe in the Lord Jesus Christ? Do you believe
that he is the savior of sinners? And even more particular, do
you believe that you’re a sinner and that his obedience, his life,
his suffering and his death merited your salvation? Have you come
to faith in Jesus? Have you received him as he’s
offered in the gospel? And do you rest in him alone
for your salvation? If so, you are a Christian. You have come to faith in Jesus. You have been made a new creation.
The old is gone, the new has come. Yes, you struggle with
being tempted by the world. being unwittingly used by Satan,
and you struggle with the flesh, the old nature, the remnant of
sin in your body. Yes, you are a Christian. You are a saint. But at the same
time, you are a sinner. You still sin and need God’s
grace. And if you know and understand
that, the table is for you. But if you’re not a Christian
and you say, oh, that Jesus business, that’s for you people who need
a crutch. That’s for you people who can’t
live life on your own. That’s for you other folks who
aren’t strong enough. And to those of us who are Christians,
our response is, it’s bigger than that. It’s, I was dead and
he brought me to life. But if you don’t trust Jesus,
if you have not come to him in faith, if you don’t believe what
the Bible says about you and about your sin and your need
of a savior and the wrath of God, which is to come at the
last day, let these elements pass by. There’s a warning in
our shorter catechism here. It comes directly from Paul’s
letter to the Corinthians. Do not eat and drink lest you
be judged. And so we, Prepare to come to
the Lord’s table. Are we Christians? If you’re
a Christian, you may come, you may worthily partake as our catechism
says, but are you able to discern the Lord’s body? We at communion
use bread and we use the fruit of the vine. We use grape juice
here in our congregation. These are symbols, emblems of
Christ’s suffering and his death, the bread, the body, the cup,
his blood. They do not become the body.
They do not become the blood. But spiritually, when we come
to the Lord’s table, Christ in a real and meaningful and special
way, a mysterious way, one we cannot explain, but one we sure
can experience at the table. We know Christ feeds us with
his body and with his blood. We consider our faith, we consider
Not how strong is our belief is our faith-o-meter, right? Is it ticking positive, not negative? Our faith is weak. But do we
have the content of our faith? I’m a sinner. God is a judge. Jesus is a savior. Do we have
that down pat in our minds and in our hearts? Repentance. This is a critical word. A lot
of times we get caught in our sins and what do we say? Oh,
I’m sorry. Didn’t mean to. Or now it’s really
downgraded to I’m sorry if. You put an if in your apology,
it’s no apology at all. We should repent of our sins
and we should repent of our sins particularly, I am sorry that
I did this and I understand that it has offended you this way.
So put this in words before God. Oh God, I’m a sinner. Your word
tells me that I am a sinner. I have sought other gods. I have fashioned idols. I have
taken your name in vain. I’ve profaned your Sabbath. I’ve
not honored those in authority over me. I’ve committed murder
in my heart, adultery in my heart. I have stolen, I have lied, and
I have coveted. And you walk through the Ten
Commandments, you walk through the moral law, and you tell God specifically,
this is where I have fallen short. Yes, he knows it. But true repentance
comes from acknowledging our sin, turning from it and going
the other way. You drivers know what this is
all about. You’re going south and you need
to be going north. And your backseat driver is telling
you you’re going south and you need to go north and you argue
for a little while. And then you realize I’m going
the wrong way. And you don’t just keep going
that way. You stop and you turn and you
go. Repentance is just that. It’s
turning from your sin. It involves grief and hatred
and sorrow. It recognizes that our sins as
they rise to heaven are a stench in the nostrils of God. They
are not a pleasing incense. but they are a stench in his
nostrils, and that our sin before him is filthy, and our sin before
him brings judgment. And so we turn from our sins. And so in our preparation, we
think of the bread, we think of the wine, we think of repentance,
we think of our becoming a Christian, but we also think of our new
obedience. When God saves us, he takes away
our heart of stone and gives us a heart of flesh. Now don’t
confuse flesh there with a flesh of remnant sin. But this is Ezekiel
37. Can those dry bones live? Well,
of course they can if God raises them. He puts sinews and skin
on those bones. He takes the heart of stone and
gives a heart of flesh. And so our hearts beat for what
God loves. And that’s the way we ought to
get up from the Lord’s table. We ought to walk from this place,
walk from this table saying, I love the Lord for he has saved
me. I love the Lord and he has not
saved me just from sin. He’s not saved me just from his
wrath, but he has saved me to a disciple’s life of learning,
of growing, of serving and obedience. And so we endeavor at the Lord’s
table to live a better life for God by his strength for the sake
of others and for his glory. And so think of these three words
of preparation, Judas preparation to destroy Jesus, Jesus preparation
to sup with his disciples one last time, but our preparation
to come to the table. And as we close and do prepare
to come to the table, think of these important words from the
Lord Jesus in our passage. He was so eager to eat with his
disciples for it would be the last supper until he comes again
anew and his kingdom. And we remember that each time
we come to the table, this is a table that looks back to God’s
redemptive work. Yes, from Egypt, but especially
at the cross. It’s a table that looks at the
present. God is feeding his lambs and nurturing us in our wilderness
experience until we get home to the promised land. This is
our bread from heaven. But this meal also looks to the
future when God himself in the person of Christ will eat the
great wedding supper of the lamb with us, his children. Let us
pray together and prepare to come to his table. Our Lord and
God, we thank you for this table which you have spread. You have
spread a table for us in the presence of our enemies. We live
in the world that hates us. We live in the world where Satan roams about
seeking to destroy and to devour. And you have spread this table
in the wilderness to feed us so that we might make it on our
pilgrim way toward heaven’s gates. So feed us now, nurture us. Let
us lift our minds, our hearts, and our eyes towards heaven and
faith and feed on Christ, our Passover lamb. Hear us and help
us, we now pray in Christ’s name, amen.