Jesus Draws Near at the Table: Mark 14:10-25

We are in our sermon series in the Gospel of Mark, the fourteenth chapter.

You'll find this in your chair Bible on page seven ninety-nine if you'd like to follow along there or in the bulletin.

Just give full attention to the reading of God's holy, infallible word.

Then Judas Iscariot, who was one of the twelve, went to the chief priest in order to betray him, that is Jesus, to them.

And when they heard it, they were glad and promised to give him money.

And he sought an opportunity to betray him.

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?

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.

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?

And he will show you a large upper room furnished and ready, there prepare for us.

And the disciples set out and went to the city and found it just as he had told them, and they prepared the Passover.

And when it was evening, he came with the twelve.

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.

They began to be sorrowful, and to say to him one after another, Is it I?

He said to them, It is one of the twelve, one who is dipping bread into the dish with me.

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.

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.

And he took a cup, and when he had given thanks, he gave it to them, and they all drank of it.

And he said to them, This is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many.

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.

This is the reading of God's holy and precious word.

And so we ask the Holy Spirit for his divine help.

Lord, we thank you, Father, that you sent your son on such a mission.

We thank you for the mission that was accomplished.

And now we pray for the application of this truth to our hearts, Holy Spirit.

Holy Spirit, would you please help us to understand what's going on here?

What Jesus did, what Jesus wants to do this morning in this room right now by His Spirit.

So may the Spirit enlighten every one of us for our good and for your glory.

Amen.

This morning we're looking at this most intimate of scenes.

Jesus coming nearer to his people at the table.

Jesus is marching to the cross.

We've seen that pick up since Mark chapter 8, chapter after chapter, we see the pace is picking up as Jesus draws clearer to fulfill his mission.

Mark 8 · chapter mention

Mark, and you recall, Mark is largely depending on Peter's eyewitness testimony.

Mark wasn't there, but Peter was.

And Peter is recounting to Mark what it was like to be there.

Do you kind of feel like you were you're there?

I mean, with the the writing, the description, the picturesque language.

You feel like you're there?

Here we see in the 14th chapter of Mark the great contrast, the striking contrast between the beautiful devotion of Mary, we saw last week, and the treacherous betrayal of one of Jesus' close friends.

It takes us back to Psalm 41, verse 9.

Psalms 41:9

I'm gonna I'm gonna I'm gonna read that verse to you and understand how this applies.

Psalm 41 verse 9.

Psalms 41:9

This is prophesied centuries later for Jesus.

Even my close friend, whom I trusted, he who shared my bread has lifted up his heel against me.

Boy, it doesn't get much worse than that.

The one that you share your bread with, the one that you share your meal with, the one that you share your heart with, lifts up his heel against you.

Note Mark's arrangement of the material, the betrayal of the disciples, the disciple, we're gonna look at more closely, the Last Supper, and then the desertion of the disciples.

It's not printed in your bulletin, but if your Bibles are open, you can see it.

I'm gonna read it in a moment or two.

The stark contrast between the fierce loyalty of Jesus to his disciples and the betrayal, not just of the one, but all of his disciples.

We read that in the text.

I'm reading verse 27.

Uh excuse me, in Mark chapter 14.

Mark 14 · chapter mention

I'm picking up in verse 27 that's not in your reading.

Jesus said to his disciples, and this is after he went out to the Mount of Olives, you will all fall away.

For it is written, I will strike the shepherd, and the sheep will be scattered.

But after I'm raised up, I will go before you to Galilee.

Peter said to him, Even though they all fall away, I will not.

And Jesus said to him, Truly I tell you, this very night, before the rooster crows twice, you, Peter, will deny me three times.

But he said emphatically, if I must die with you, I will not deny you.

And they all said the same.

There wasn't just one deserter that night.

The room was full of them.

This room is full of them.

This is what this is going on here.

Yes, Mark chapter 14 focuses on the body of Jesus.

Mark 14 · chapter mention

Mary anointed the body for burial, and at the Last Supper, Jesus offers his body, and the story unfolds right in front of us.

Look at the text, verse 12.

In the first day of the unloved bread, when they sacrificed the Passover lamb, his disciples said to him, Where do you want us to go to prepare for you, to eat the Passover?

And Jesus gives him directions.

He chooses two of his disciples.

He says, I want you to go, and I want you to find a man carrying a pitcher of water.

Now, Josephus, the Jewish historian, tells us that this time at Passover, there likely were more than a million people crowded, cramped into that little city of Jerusalem.

This was the highlight festival of the year for the Jewish people.

It's packed.

No, go find the man carrying a pitcher of water.

Does that seem like incredible?

Well, men didn't carry pitchers of water.

Only women did.

Or servants.

In that day and that time.

And yet, because Jesus was in charge of every aspect, every detail, there's nothing superfluous in this text.

Jesus planned every step of his march to the cross.

And Jesus knew what was needed every step.

And so they found this man carrying a pitcher of water.

Oh, this is the house that we're going to celebrate Passover tonight.

Jesus said, Go and prepare.

Prepare the room, prepare the place for tonight.

The preparation.

The story unfolding before their very eyes.

But then we come to verse 17.

And now we're several hours into the meal, the Passover meal.

We're not going to go into all the details of that, fascinating as they are.

But now they've been together for several hours, and the disciples and the custom of the day were reclining.

They weren't sitting in their upright chairs at the kitchen table.

They were laying on the floor, reclining in the reclining position, and they were eating, and they were celebrating Passover.

And Jesus had some news for them.

Truly I say to you, one of you will betray me, one who is eating with me.

They began to be sorrowful and to say to him one after another, is it I?

One of you.

As one commentator said, this does not limit the field of suspects, but expands it.

You see why?

Do you see the reason behind the words that Jesus chose?

For now it includes everyone eating with Jesus.

Jesus doesn't mention Judas by name, he doesn't call him out, but the ambiguity provokes soul searching in every one of the disciples around the table.

And that's a good thing.

It provokes soul searching.

Is it I?

Am I the one?

Well, we've already sung that, this worship service already, haven't we?

We've already sung and read.

And now we're preaching this truth.

One by one, the disciples are thinking, surely not I.

There may be only one traitor in the room, but in a few hours all the disciples will betray him.

Then he says, the Son of Man must go as it is written in the Word of God.

Nowhere in the Old Testament do we find the Son of Man suffering.

The only thing that we see of the Son of Man in Daniel chapter 7 in these classic texts in the Old Testament, prophetic language of when the Son of Man returns, when the Son of Man comes, on the clouds of glory.

Daniel 7 · chapter mention

But here for the first time, Jesus connects the Son of Man, his favorite self-designated title for himself.

The Son of Man here for the first time he connects with the servant of the Lord, which is sprinkled through Isaiah.

Well, we know the servant of the Lord will suffer.

And here Jesus is putting it together.

And they're thinking, they're probably confused.

How can you bring these two together?

The Son of Man, the ancient, the days, the glorious one, the great God.

The one who's going to suffer?

It did not make sense to them at this moment.

But they heard the words.

And they would ponder those words.

And it would soon come together in their understanding.

Jesus says, Woe to that man by whom the Son of Man is betrayed.

Woe.

Doom is what that word means.

Doom will surely come to the one who betrays me like this.

So what's going on?

Judas has a plan, doesn't he?

Judas has a plan.

But he wasn't the only one that had a plan.

God had a plan.

Here God's plan recorded in Acts chapter 4, verse 27.

Acts 4:27

Talking about the plan.

Who, through the mouth of our father David, your servant, said by the Holy Spirit, Why do the Gentiles rage and the people's plot in vain?

The kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers were gathered together against the Lord and against the Holy One.

They have their plan, they have their plot.

God has another one.

Listen to this, verse 28.

Everything that's happening on earth with the conspiracy plan by Judas and the scribes and the Pharisees as they're collaborating, plotting together for the death of Jesus.

Acts chapter 4, verse 28, verse 28.

Acts 4:28

God says, I have a plan to do whatever your hand in your plan had predestined to take place.

You see, God's plan, God's plan is greater than man's plan.

Man's plan was to bring evil against the only innocent one who ever lived, the Son of God.

Do you know that both are true?

And this is not a message this morning on predestination and election, but it's right here.

You see, God has a plan, and God's plan will never be thwarted.

God's plan will always come to pass.

But we have plans.

Whenever you sin or I sin, in this case when Judah sinned, God never creates fresh evil in our hearts to commit evil.

He doesn't have to.

The evil is already within our hearts.

All God has to do is take his hand off and let what a heart designed to do evil do.

No, Judas was responsible completely, 100%.

Judas was responsible for what he did.

It's like in the Old Testament, the book of Exodus, God says, it says in the Hebrew, God hardened Pharaoh's heart.

But it also says Pharaoh hardened his own heart.

Well, which is it?

Both.

Yeah.

God is able to do that.

God is able to bring out the very best from the very worst in our evil hearts.

He did that night.

And there was betrayal, as we say, by all of them.

The all, the word all, it's not, they're not all printed in your text, but they're all in the chapter.

They all drank together.

They all swear loyalty to Jesus together.

But they all fall away.

And they all fled.

All.

And you were there, and I was there.

In our sin in Adam.

We were there.

And this is why it's said of this table before us this morning, it's a table not of merit, but by grace.

It's all of grace.

And then we get into the paragraph on the institution of the Lord's Supper, verse 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.

And he took a cup.

And when he had given thanks, he gave it to them, and they all drank it.

And he said to them, This is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many.

And so Jesus takes the bread and blesses it.

There was the cup of blessing in the Passover.

And then he broke it.

And then he gave it.

Eating out of the same bowl with the one who would betray him to his death.

And he said these words, This is my body.

This is Jesus' last meal.

You know, you read and you hear about criminals' last meal before they're going to be executed.

Last meal.

This is his last meal.

We call it the Lord's Supper, the Last Supper, but really, in one sense, it was the first supper.

It was the first supper of the new covenant.

It was his last Passover, but it was his first Lord's supper with his people.

Which is why we take of it.

Then he said, This is my body.

He doesn't use the Greek word for flesh.

He doesn't use the word starks, but the word soma.

My whole person.

When he says, This is my body, he doesn't just mean just my flesh.

This is my whole person.

This is my whole being.

I'm giving to you my whole self.

Which, yes, includes my flesh.

It includes my physical body.

But I'm giving you my all.

The gift of himself without reserve.

I'm giving all of me to all of you.

And then he says, This is my blood of the covenant.

As the bread signified the body of Jesus, so the cup signifies his blood.

This is sacrificial language is being used right here.

Very deliberately, intentionally, this sacrificial language.

Let me take you back to the book of Leviticus, chapter 17, verse 11.

Leviticus 17:11

For the life of a creature is in the blood, and I have given it to you to make atonement for yourselves on the altar.

It is the blood that makes atonement for one's life.

This is exactly what's going on.

And yet the thousands upon thousands of animal sacrifices in the Old Testament could not make atonement for our sin.

But they pointed beautifully, graphically, to the one who one day would come, the Lamb of God, who would take away the sin of the world.

There's another fascinating passage you might want to turn to.

Exodus chapter 24.

Exodus 24 · chapter mention

It gives us a lot more context to what's going on in the upper room.

In Exodus chapter 24, verse 1, then God said to Moses, Come up to the Lord, come up the mountain, you and Aaron, Nadab, and Abihu, and the 70 of the elders of Israel, and worship from afar.

Exodus 24:1

Moses alone shall come near to the Lord, but the others shall not come near, and the people shall not come up with him.

So the people are down at the base of the mountain.

The seventy are allowed to go up so far.

Moses is the only one that can go all the way to the top before the face of God.

Verse 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.

You see what's going on here is a covenant ceremony.

They're making vows, they're making promises.

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 on Sinai.

Twelve pillars according to the twelve tribes of Israel.

And he sent young men of the people of Israel who offered burnt offerings and sacrificed peace offerings of oxen to the Lord.

And Moses took half of the blood.

Now, this is a lot of blood.

These were a lot of animal.

That were sacrificed.

And Moses took half of the blood and put it in basins, and the other half of the blood he threw against the altar.

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 to what we have heard.

Are you ready for verse 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.

This is sacrificial language.

The people would have understood who knew their Old Testament.

A lot of blood.

Moses collected the blood of these many sacrifices, put them in large basins, threw half of it against the altar of sacrifice in the house of God, and he took the other half and threw it on the people.

This is the way one scholar put it.

Making the covenant was a messy, bloody business.

It was.

Did he reach all the people?

Not even close.

But it was representative.

And so what the people were saying, may God do to us if we don't obey.

May God do to us.

May God cut us in two.

It actually goes back to the Abrahamic covenant.

You remember that in Genesis chapter 15?

Genesis 15 · chapter mention

You see the progression of the unfolding of this covenant throughout the Old Testament.

And now it's fulfilled this night in the upper room with Jesus and his disciples.

What they were saying that night is, God help me.

I will obey you.

God help me.

I will live for you.

I will be devoted to you.

And should I not strike me dead.

They made those oaths.

They couldn't fulfill that.

Apparently, the blood sprinkling ritual described in Exodus 24 was a substitute for the passing between the pieces in Genesis 15.

Jesus here is offering his blood as the basis for the deliverance from all of the curses of the covenant throughout the whole Old Testament.

Every promise that was made that was broken.

Every sacrifice that was offered that was not enough.

All pointing to this night, to the work of Jesus Christ.

This covenant.

Blood.

No, when Jesus had to sign off on his promise to forgive all of his people then and today.

For Jesus to sign off, it required all of his blood, all of his life.

But the blood wasn't sprinkled on us, it was all on him.

This is what's before us in this upper room.

The Son of God shed his own blood for your sin, my sin.

And then he says in Corinthians to the Apostle Paul, this do in remembrance of me.

When you take that bread, the body of Christ signified that the body of Jesus was put on the altar and devoured and sacrificed.

This cup, drink it.

This cup in the new covenant, and Jesus said, in my blood, there was no other way to do this.

Without his blood.

So there's two things as we close.

Remember, remember every time you take this table.

Every time.

You remember what was required for you to come.

You remember what was required for you to come to Jesus.

You remember what was required for you to be at the last feast one day when Jesus comes back and takes you to Himself.

Don't you forget?

It's remember, but there's another important aspect we must understand.

Receive.

As our Westminster larger, shorter catechism and confession say so well, as the reformers said so well, this table is a means of grace.

And this is where we differ in church history from Zwingli and others who mainly, and I think this is my opinion, I think in many, many churches today it's only a remembrance.

Because they don't know that it's also a sacrament.

What does that mean?

Well, this morning we're called not only to think hard and to remember and to remember our own disobedience and to remember our own betrayals, but to remember what Jesus did that He we might be forgiven.

This is not only to remember which we should, but receive.

Receive what?

Through this means of grace.

As we feed on Christ spiritually, by the working only by the working of the Holy Spirit.

You can't do this without the Holy Spirit.

You can't do this without the Holy Spirit taking you back to the promises of God and His Word.

You can't do this on your own.

And don't you dare try.

You don't come to the table this morning if you're not trusting in Jesus Christ alone as your Savior.

That would make a mockery of his blood, his life.

What happens when you take that bread and you take that cup?

What happens?

I can't tell you fully, nobody can, except our reformers got it right.

It is a means of grace that the Holy Spirit uses to strengthen your soul, to increase your faith, to encourage you that God loves you, that Jesus died for you, that the Spirit lives in you in a way that you cannot fully understand or embrace simply from this pulpit.

Or from the words of the preacher.

It requires both.

It requires the pulpit, the preacher, the word of God, but it also requires the table.

Where somehow mysteriously Jesus Christ ministers to you.

And he gives you what you most need as you come sincerely, as you come humbly, as you come in faith.

And you may say, but my faith isn't that great.

But you come with faith, and you say, and you understand that it's the object of your faith that's more important than the volume of your faith.

And you come in faith to Jesus.

Because it's a means of grace.

And it's more than just a remembrance.

This is why it's so important to come to the Lord's table.

But don't come lightly.

I went back and did a lot of reading this week and all the stand and all the confessions and catechisms.

Don't trifle with God.

Don't take this bread and take this cup and go out and commit the same sin.

And say, well, that's just the way I am.

That's just the way I am.

No, it's not.

Not if you've been united with Christ.

The old person has died in Christ.

The old person has died, was crucified with Christ on the cross.

The new person is alive until the Lord Jesus Christ, living by faith in the Son of God who loved Him, who loved us and gave Himself for us.

And so we come to remember and we come to receive grace because we all need grace.