U-turn (Day 13) Jesus’ final Passover with His disciples | Pr Hong Kah Jin

Good morning as church. This is pasta cargain from ex Karawachi. Today is

day twenty one of our u turn. We are almost coming to the end

of our second week in our fasting and prayer, and today the reading will

be from Matthew twenty six, verse seventeen to thirty, which you can see

in the top of your bible. There is a topic saying that this is

the Last Supper. So today we'll be sharing from this verse over here,

I'll be sharing in three parts, focusing on our attitude that Jesus is sharing

from here about the Last Supper. And as we can see the first part

here in verse seventeen to nineteen, Jesus had asked his disciples to go to

make preparation to eat the Passover meal. And we know the Passover Meal was

the biggest celebration in the Jewish calendar. It was a very important celebration and

many people gather from all around the nations to Israel to partic of the Last

Supper. And Jesus had sent his disciples to go to make preparations to eat

the Last Supper. And they had gone into town to meet up with a

person, a certain man whom Jesus had told them to prepare for the last

supper meal, and you can read from the verses in seventeen to nineteen that

Jesus told them and they had followed jesus instruction to go to prepare the last

supper. So the first point, as we our attitude with regards to the

last Supper, how have we prepared ourself for our supper? Jesus is asking

us on our attitude to prepare for the Lord's supper, and that's important as

we reflect upon this. Paul reminds us in risk Cointans eleven, verse twenty

eight, to prepare our hearts and examine ourselves before we eat the Lot's supper.

So how have we prepared ourselves and our hearts to eat and partake of

the Lord's supper. God has always asked us this question. God doesn't expect

us to be perfect, because we know we are in this world and God

doesn't expect us to be perfect. But God wants us to have an attitude

of a repentant heart and submitted heart before Him. Betoen we dig and as

aper. So that's the first point that we have to share today and as

we go on in our reading, we can see from verse twenty to verse

twenty five Jesus was having a time sitting reclining at a table with the disciples

preparing for the Lost Supper, and here Jesus talks about his betrayal, and

he was sharing that he will be betrayed by one of the disciples over here.

And there's a story going on here that there's disciples saying that it's not

me, and all of them will be dying that they would be the one

that would be betrayed Jesus. And it's very interesting here that Jesus is actually

prophesying about his betrayal. It would appear to be that Jesus is trying to

point out that someone is going to betray him to embarrass the first and to

make the person feel ashamed, but actually Jesus has a different reason for doing

so. The first reason he's doing so is the prophesying occurs so that those

disciples that are left will not be surprised when this happens. When Jesus is

betrayed to go to the cross on his death, he prophesies so that those

who are remaining will be strengthened in their faith because they know that he has

prophesied that this will occur and they will not be taken aback and their faith

will not be shaken. That's the first reason why Jesus prophesied his betrayal,

but also the second reason that Jesus prophesied is betrayal is to draw a person

back to him. You can see in verse twenty three that Jesus says,

the one who has tipped his hand into the bowl with me will betray me.

And this happens that passed over where customarily the father the family gave honored

guests pieces of bread or meat dipped in jews made from a fruit ball in

wine, which symbolizes the fruit of the promised land. So Jesus gave choice

morsel to Judas to show his love to action. So the second reason is

that while Jesus may appear to be hanging Jesus Judas out to dry and pointing

him out, but yet it's a call for Judas to repent and turn back

that it is not too late. So Jesus gave Judas a chance by telling

him that he could decide not to betray Jesus, and he gave him a

final opportunity to surrender his sinful, skiming heart to Jesus. This shows the

magnanimity of God's heart, that even as He's been betrayed, he didn't think

of himself. He still thought of Judas and offered him a chance to turn

back to him. So, even as we reflect on our second attitude,

when we protect and prepare of the Lord's Supper, we should ask ourselves,

how are we our attitude towards those who trespass against us? Because even as

Jesus focused on forgiving others, and on forgiving the trespass of someone who betray

him to such a cruel death, what is our attitude towards those who trespassed

against us? Have we also ah forgiven them in their hearts? In our

hearts as God has also forgiven us of our own trespass against him. So

as we particle the Lot's supper to remember what he has done, let us

examine our hearts in this manner as well, that we will remember to forgive

others as God has forgiven us, as how he intends for us to do

so. And as we see here in the last part here in verse twenty

is the last section here in verse twenty six to verse twenty seven, he

says, yeah. While they were eating, Jesus took bread, and even

when he had given tanks, he broke it and gave it to his disciples.

And he repeaces it again in verse twenty seven. Then he takes a

cup, and he had given tanks, he gave it to them, saying,

drink from it, all of you. We can see the final attitude

that Jesus had here as he prepared to take the lot of supper. Was

here an attitude of thanksgiving. He was thankful, He was thankful for all

that he's that he was partaking. And we see here Jesus does not only

give thanks once, but he give thanks twice, once for the bread and

once for the cup. So we know that when God says something once,

it is important, but when God says something twice, it is even more

important because he is emphasizing the importance of giving thanks. So here the application

here is in that our final attitude of thankfulness. As we approach the Lord's

supper, let us have a thankful heart for the body that is broken for

us, which represents the body of Christ, and for the wine, which

represents the blood of Christ. Our Salvasian and access to Jesus is freely available

because of what God has done, and God has done for us. And

sometimes we take for granted the availability of this and we trivilize the things that

are free. But let us be reminded that what was free for us cause

God everything, because his son died for us on the cross. And as

we approach the last section here in verse twenty seven up to verse thirty,

Jesus here says to them, drink from it, all of you, and

that gracious offer is to all the disciples, including Judas that was probably still

there during the Last Supper, I mean verse twenty eight he says, heah,

this is my blood of the Covenant, which is pouror from many for

the forgiveness of sin. And here in verse twenty eight he says, it's

emphasizing that this is the blood of by Covenant. And we know Jesus is

saying about his blood, and we all know the blood is the essence of

life. It is what gives life to all created beings. Without blood,

there is no way that something can survive. And God is asking us to

partic to be together, to be one together with Him, that as we

drink of his blood. We are together together in a covenant with him,

a covenantal relationship. So it's such a strong illustration of the covenant relationship that

we have with God. And when you think of this word, covenant is

a symbolized an unbreakable bond, and unbreak the relationship not of emotions, but

a decision that is clearly made, a decision that is symbolizing a commitment to

one another, like how a marriage is a commitment to one another between a

husband and a wife. We have a picture in Genesis fifteen where God made

a covenant with Abraham and where got cut pieces of animal into two and put

it on one side, on the left and on the right. And here

we have a picture of God walking through as a fire, walking through this

two sacrifices on the left and right. And basically in the Old Testament,

God gives a picture that if I do not fulfill my covenant with you,

this will be what happened between me, where I will be cut into two

like the caucus of the animal. So God's covenant is so strong in this

case that he commits himself to be with us and commits himself that he would

go to this length for us. And this is the covenant relationship that we

have, and God saying, I commit myself to be with you, that

we will be together as one, even as we partic of the Lord's Supper.

We will be together as one as a covenant relationship between you and me,

as you remember me. We are together as the partic of the Lot's

Supper. And here and what a lovely relationship we have God, as God

shows this picture of a covenant that we have with Him in the Lord's Supper,

even as withdraw from scripture. So even as we remember that, let

us have this attitude that we have just shared. The three attitudes as we

partic of the Lot's supper. The first one we have attitude of preparation in

our hearts as we partic of the Lot's supper. The second one, as

we partic of the lot supper, let us forgive one another as God has

forgiven us of our sins. And finally, let us have an attitude of

thanksgiving as we partic of the Lot's supper. Let us pray together Lord,

we pray in us even as we take this a lot of supper. Every

so often we pray, even as we do it in remembrance of what you

have done for us. Let us have partic it in the right attitude,

where we submit ourselves to you and we examine our hearts, that we prepare

ourselves in the right manner, that our hearts will be right, and our

hearts be set right before you in all areas of our lives, that we

desire to be repentant, and we desire to make ourselves right before you.

And we pray as well even as we partake the Lord, we will have

a heart that is always forgiving towards one another, and forgiving that we do

not bear any grudges or ill intent towards our brothers and our sisters, as

you have forgiven us of all our debts and all our trespasses. And finally,

that Lord, we will have a heart that is thankful and of the

right attitude, are always appreciating what you have done for us. As to

you, Lord Jesus, we brain us all this in Jesus name. Amen.