Matthew Pt. 97

Turn your Bible to Matthew chapter 26.

Matthew 26 · chapter mention

Give me 60 seconds, Matt, for my for my recap.

And then they cut me off. We've been walking through

Matthew verse by verse. We've been seeing the whole life

and ministry of Jesus day by day by day.

And you know, we've covered a lot of ground.

You know, we had 2320 about 23 chapters covered, three years,

and now from chapter 24 to chapter 28 we slow down to about

the period of about 7 days and things really slowed our crawl.

We're seeing all of the detail. Why?

Because all this detail is what's showing Jesus fulfilling

His mission. This is him fulfilling His

purpose to come. He came to seek and to save that

which was lost. This is Jesus accomplishing his

mission. This is not Jesus being a

victim. It's not the evil Jews who did

it to him. It's not the evil Romans who did

it to him. They have their part and they

have their responsibility, but Jesus chose this.

Jesus preordained that it would go down this way.

Why? So that I could be saved from my

sin. So that you could be saved from

your sin. Jesus was not a hostage who got

himself in trouble with the Romans or got himself in trouble

with the Jews. Jesus did exactly what he wanted

and everyone else was the cog in his wheel.

Now we have come all the way to the point now where we are at

the Last Supper, as it's often been called.

I'm finished my interest, I'm good, I'm good.

You don't have to cut me off now.

So now we've come all the way through to the Last Supper.

Things have been building up. Things have been preparing.

And this is this is the famous scene, right?

This is the the painting that we've seen before.

It's not an actual painting. That painter was not there that

night for the disciples and Jesus at the table.

I thought you would laugh at that, but you didn't.

It's OK. But everybody's familiar with

the Last Supper. But now, of course, we're going

to look more closely from the Scriptures.

We're going to remember what what was the Last Supper that

they were taking part in? Why was it significant and what

does it mean for us? We're going to see the betrayal

of Judas here continue to unfold and we're going to see the new

covenant being established by the Lord Jesus.

So in 20, in chapter 26, verse 17, we'll begin to read.

Now on the first day of Unleavened Bread, the disciples

came to Jesus saying, where will you have us prepare for you to

eat the Passover? He said, go into the city to a

certain man and say to him, the teacher says, my time is at

hand. I will keep the Passover at your

house with my disciples. And the disciples did as Jesus

had directed them and they prepared the Passover.

When it was evening, he reclined a table with the 12.

And as they were eating, he said, truly I say to you, one of

you will betray me. And they were very sorrowful,

and began to say to him, One after another, Is it I, Lord?

He answered, He who has dipped his hand in the dish with me

will betray me. 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

him if that man had not been born.

Judas, who would betray him, answered, Is it I, Rabbi?

He said to him, You have said so.

Now as they were eating, Jesus took bread and after blessing

it, broke it and gave it to the disciples and said, take, eat,

this is my body. And he took a cup.

And when he had given thanks, he gave it to them, saying, drink

it all of you. For this is my blood of the new

covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of

sins. I tell you I will not drink

again of this fruit of the vine until the day when I drink it

new with you in my Father's Kingdom.

Holy Spirit, help us now to receive the depths of the Word,

the power of the Word, the freedom of the Word, the clarity

of the Word, the encouragement, the correction, all that's

needed. You are the only one who is fit

to lead us and guide us into all of it.

So we welcome you now we ask for your anointing that there would

be a power on the preaching of your word that it would serve

your people, that it would help the hungry that they would be

fed, that they would be blessed, that they would be strengthened,

that they would be grown, that they would be matured by it all

in Jesus name we thank you, Amen.

A lot, a lot is going on here. So we'll give some quick context

just so you don't get distracted if there if there's a couple of

things that you notice here before we dig in.

One of the technicalities I want to to point out, so he says in

verse 17 on the first day of Unleavened bread.

So the Feast of Unleavened Bread, you might be going to

wait a second. I thought this was Passover.

They're kind of the same thing and they go together.

So the Feast of Unleavened Bread begins on the on the day of

Passover. So that part's pretty simple.

And then another thing, if you've been reading in John's

Gospel recently, you might notice there's a timing, a

seeming contradiction. This is where the biblically

illiterate love to come to Christians ago.

I found a problem in your Bible. Spoiler alert, no you didn't,

and all you do is make yourself just revealed your own

ignorance. But John seems to track the day

differently than Matthew does. John seems to put the meal at a

different time than John does. How could that happen?

What's the explanation? It's a pretty simple one.

Jews in the northern part of the Kingdom and in the southern part

of the Kingdom would keep time differently.

Some measured from sunrise to sunset.

Did I say that right? So whatever and some measure the

other whatever when I said they measure the opposite.

So John is recording with one method, Matthew records with

another method. Tada.

The Bible is still true. The Bible is still the anvil

that will wear out every hammer that ever tries to attack it.

So just a quick explanation there in case you notice it or

in case you thought about it. It's just a different time

keeping method. It's the same meal happening at

the same time on that Thursday night.

So it was on the Thursday night of Passover when Jesus is

partaking in the Passover meal. What is the Passover?

We go back to Egypt. Remember Moses, Remember he goes

to Pharaoh. Let my let my people go.

And Pharaoh's like, no, I'm not. And then the Lord brings a

plague. He says, all right, you can let

them go. No, I changed my mind over and

over and over up until #10 and the Lord says Moses, I'm going

to bring the worst one now. I'm going to kill the first born

son in every household. But everyone who kills and

slaughters a lamb and puts the blood of that lamb on the

doorpost of their house, when the death Angel comes, he will

what he'll Passover that house. He will not go into that house

and kill the first born son. The Jews have celebrated that

Passover for many, many, many, many, many many years at this

point. And they've continued to

celebrate with us when the Lord passed over.

So we celebrate with the Passover feast.

And the Lord commanded that the Passover would be kept

continually over and over and over.

What the Jews in the earlier days didn't realize, though, is

that that Passover, what happened that night, it was

foreshadowing. And there is a greater lamb who

is coming, not just an animal, but the Lamb of God would come.

And when the Lamb of God comes, everyone who takes the blood of

the lamb, the Lord Jesus Christ, and applies his blood to the

doorposts of their hearts, the death Angel now passes over us.

Jesus is always the fulfillment of all of the Old Testament

prophecy. Again, This is why the Bible is

super dope because everything you read in the Old Testament,

it's cool, it's true, and it happened, but even better, it

has a perfect fulfillment somehow and the life and

ministry, the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus always.

So whatever you see here, you're like, oh, where is Jesus in

that? And then you can study the New

Testament. You go, Oh my goodness, God,

you're so good in your wisdom, in your perfection, in your

power, in his fulfillment of his word.

So this is what's happening here.

Jesus has had the Passover meal with the disciples for the past

three years at least, and they've had this meal together.

And when they had this meal before, they said this is the

Passover meal. This is to symbolize what

happened with Moses and what happened with the people of

Israel. But on this night, Jesus said,

take the cup, not Yep, Yep, done this before.

And he said, this is the new covenant in my blood.

What? No one's ever said that at the

Passover meal ever. We're used to the Last Supper

and we're stuck in the Last Supper.

But if we don't connect it and understand this was a big moment

for the 12, Jesus says this is my blood.

This is the blood of the lamb, Jesus from the Passover meal

that happened a long time ago. But Jesus is showing them it is

the Passover, and the final Passover lamb is about to be

slaughtered. He's going to be betrayed in a

few hours. He's going to be arrested in the

middle of the night. He's going to be beaten

savagely. Then he's going to give himself

up to die on a cross. I am the final Passover lamb.

I was always the Passover lamb. And I'm the only one who can

save anybody. And I'm establishing a new

covenant in my blood, and it starts right now.

This is powerful. This is crazy.

This is shocking to them because remember, they still kept hoping

that Jesus was going to overthrow the Romans.

Jesus is here. I know he's the Messiah, which

means he's going to establish a political Kingdom where we

dominate the Romans because they've been kicking our butts

for a long time. And I'm so glad that Jesus is

finally here and we're going to take over.

And Jesus was always trying to teach his disciples, no, no, no,

don't misunderstand. We're definitely going to take

over. And we are also going to take

over politically, but we will not start politically.

We're going to do the thing that no one else can do.

He said I'm going to change the hearts of mankind and that will

flow into everything else. Political leaders have to start

with the edge of the sword, and they have to continue to rule

with the edge of the sword because that's all they have.

They cannot change the inside of us, right?

Somebody points a gun at you and I, They can make us do some

stuff, couldn't they? But can they change our hearts?

No. They can get compliance.

They can force compliance, which is one of the roles of the

government as established by God, thankfully.

But Jesus is saying I'm not forcing compliance.

I'm actually going to change. I'm going to do the miraculous.

I'm going to change a heart that doesn't even have the right want

to. I'm going to change a filthy,

sinful heart and I'm going to remove it and replace it, and

I'm going to save the entire life.

What about politics? Oh, absolutely, that's going to

affect politics. Absolutely we want his Kingdom

to come in, His will to be done on earth as it is in heaven.

Absolutely we want righteous laws in our nations.

Absolutely we want things that please the Lord and glorify Him.

Absolutely we want eradication of sin through the household,

through the church, through the governments.

Absolutely we want all that. But Jesus saying, I'm

establishing a new covenant. Back to verse 17.

We see the disciples here in their humility before their

master. They say, where will you have us

prepare for you to eat the Passover?

What we see here is a blessing of the disciples.

Often times we see the disciples.

The disciples were young men. They were probably teenagers.

This is not widely known, but it's very, very, very likely

because it was very common for rabbis to find young men,

trained young men, very well educated young men, and say, I

select you and like, yes, I got picked by the rabbi.

I select you. Oh my goodness, I got picked by

the rabbi. I've been studying so hard,

which is also why it's so wild what Jesus did.

He goes, you fisherman don't follow me.

And it was like, what? That guy hasn't studied like

these other young men have. And she's like, OK, OK, I'm OK

with that. So all the other rabbis looked

down on Jesus because his ragtag group is truly a ragtag group.

And he's got a tax collector who everybody hated.

Remember, the tax collector is the ultimate traitor to all the

other Jewish people because he's working for Rome.

He's lining his pockets while he's extorting all of us.

And Jesus says, you tax collector, you fisherman.

And Jesus doesn't call the same kind of young men that everybody

else calls these other rabbis. They're like, these young men

are going to reflect me, so I better make sure I pick the best

of the best so I look even better.

And Jesus, like I can work with anybody because I can change

anybody and I can grow anybody. And I can lead anybody if

they'll follow me. If they'll follow me, I can work

with them if they'll be humble. I don't need the best and the

brightest. I need those who will follow.

And here we see the disciples doing a great job just serving

the Master. It's been pointed out by many

who have preached and taught this passage.

We see meekness from the disciples.

We see humility from the disciples, wise obedience.

God commanded that the Passover be kept on a precise day in a

precise way, and it took preparations throughout the day

that they needed to care for. And they do that and they trust

the Lord. Jesus said verse 18, go into a

city, go into the city talking about Jerusalem to a certain

man. So he said, go to this

particular man and say to him, the teacher says my time is at

hand. I will keep the Passover at your

house with my disciples. And the disciples did as Jesus

had directed them and they prepared the Passover.

It's interesting because the disciples don't have a lot of

information. It seems like Jesus has this

mysterious thing already pre set up.

He's like just go in. Like whenever it was time for

the triumphal entry, he said go in and there's a guy with a

couple animals, tell him the master has need of them.

They're like, and we're just supposed to say that and he's

just supposed to let us have them.

He's like just do it. That's the life of a disciple.

Just do what I said. The life of a, of a reluctant

person instead of a disciple is well, just give me more

clarification. I just need more explanation.

I just need more detail. I just need more understand.

No, no, no, no, no, I'm totally willing.

Just here's what I require of you, first Lord.

Lord says that's not how submission works.

I'm given the instruction, I'm given the direction, and I just

want obedience. I just want you to walk it out.

The power will show up later. This is what it means to walk

by, by faith, not by. And that's what we're called to

do, to walk by faith and not by sight.

My flesh, I want understanding, I want clarity, I want detail, I

want explanation. And the Lord says that's not

your jurisdiction. He says this is another test of

faith. We all have this intellectual

inside of us. And it's not that the Lord

doesn't want us to be intelligent, but that

intellectual has to know its place.

It has a time and a place where it is supposed to function, and

it has a time and a place where it is supposed to shut up.

And there are many times where that intellectual will argue

against us walking by faith and say no, no, no, this is

illogical. Which is a lie, because the most

logical and wise thing any person can do is walk in

obedience to the Lord quickly. So the disciples are not

demanding more clarity. Wait, whose house?

How's this going to work? Does this guy know?

Have they made Passover preparations for us?

There's a lot to do today. They don't demand more clarity

or more certainty or more explanation.

They just move. Make sure that you're not one

who hesitates, who stalls and then calls it reasonable.

I've often been tempted to do that, to disobey the Lord and

call it wisdom. Well, I got to walk in wisdom

here as well. Well, the wisest thing in the

world I could do would be to obey the Lord quickly.

The Lord has already proven himself faithful to you.

The Lord has proven Himself faithful to all people in all

places, at all times. The Lord is not the one who

needs to be tested. I'm the one who's being tested.

You're the one who's being tested.

You're being given a command. Go do this thing.

I've done that sometimes even deliberately with my sons,

especially when they were smaller and even had rewards in

certain places prepared for them.

Hey, go do this thing. And I know they haven't done it

because they haven't come across the reward yet.

And they're they're wanting the reward first.

It's one of our values, a Clark family value.

We embrace discipline to then enjoy freedom.

I'm often tempted to mix that up.

I just want the freedoms 1st instead of realizing that the

Lord is leading me into that. This is an issue of trust.

Actually trusting and believing that the Lord is good.

The real question is not whether or not the Lord will keep His

word. The question is whether or not I

will keep mine. I said I'll follow him.

I said I'll be a disciple. But moment by moment I have

opportunities to show that I in either direction.

This shows up for us in everyday living.

God commands us to do all kinds of things.

God commands us to be a forgiving people, right?

Forgiveness is automatic in the Kingdom of Heaven.

Automatic. We don't have the right to

withhold it. God commands it explicitly, but

we delay it. We add rules to it.

We say we can't forgive until we fully heal.

We say we can't forgive until they fully, properly apologize.

We say we can't forgive until they prove their repentance.

But that's not what the Lord commanded.

The Lord's command is simple. Forgive as you have been

forgiven and we've already been forgiven greatly.

This shows up in our generosity. God calls us to be a generous

and a giving people. All of our resources belong to

Him, but we hesitate until every financial safety net is in

place. Let me get all this covered and

out of that overflow. Then, Lord, I'll go into

generosity. That person will never become

generous. The person who says when I have

enough, I will start generosity. I'm so thankful I have this

privilege. I had this advantage of a mom

and dad who taught me to tithe as a little boy.

So I got that lifelong habit. So I realized everybody doesn't

have that lifelong habit. But for me, it was just always

automatic. None of this money was ever my

money, ever. So money that comes now as my,

as the numbers grow, oh, you got to tithe on $1,000,000, That's

$100,000. It's just 10%.

It's always been 10 percent, 10% always just just has traveled

with me. I'm not tithing on 1,000,000 yet

and look forward to that day, but but 10% just keep travelling

with you. The Lord's tax code is not

complicated like our governments is.

It's not a scam, that's right. It's it's just an obedient LED

blessing that honors the Lord. But obedience comes first, trust

comes first. We're meant to live and act like

a people who actually have a shepherd because we're walking

by faith and not by sight. This shows up for us in disciple

making, in preaching the gospel. Or you could use the word

evangelizing. Jesus commands us to go and make

disciples, but we keep waiting. Waiting to feel bold, waiting to

feel called, waiting to feel confident.

But that's not how obedience works.

You don't wait to feel anything. The church is not meant to be

reactive or defensive. The church is meant to be on

offense. That is what Salt Church was

planted to accomplish. That was the purpose.

That was the primary thing as I sat in the living room talking

to my wife for a decade or longer.

I think it was 11 years from when I knew the Lord had called

me to plant a church to when I felt like he said go and

actually plant the church. Now, all the things that were

always stirring up of me is we are going to be a church that

makes disciples. And I don't mean I'm going to be

a preacher who makes disciples. I mean, the Saints will actually

do the work of the ministry instead of you got to hear

Pastor John Michael, you just got to hear Pastor Michael.

Well, I'm glad that you love hearing Pastor Michael, but most

folks don't care. Most folks who are not following

Jesus don't care about your preacher.

Like, yeah, but he preaches so good.

They don't care. You know what they do care

about, though? They care about you, and they

care about the fruit that they can see in your life.

And they'd be wide open to you inviting them over to open the

Scriptures together. They'd be open to that.

Hey, you ought to come over and start looking at the Bible with

me. The Bible's awesome.

You ought to check it out with me.

OK, I can do that. And now the rest is history.

Sure, eventually maybe they'll end up in Salt Church.

They'll end up in some church, whether it's this one or Pastor

Michael or Pastor whoever. But they're going to end up in

the body of Christ, being cared for, being loved well, but not

because your preacher did the heavy lifting for you.

You are a Christian who is called by God to make disciples,

and that is the starting point of Christianity.

That's not efficient. That's not a finish line.

That's not Navy SEAL level. That's kindergarten.

That's entry level. You're well able if you're in

Christ, to tell somebody about what Jesus has done for you, to

tell somebody about the goodness of God.

Well, I just think here comes the excuse.

Here comes the delayed obedience, which is also called

disobedience. We want to be disciples, quick

to obey, humble, and we want to be an aggressive church.

Not just salt church, but the body of Christ.

For those of you who are still looking too much at the news

cycle, there's only one answer for this world.

It is that people would be transformed in their inner man.

Our logic has not been sufficient.

We have airtight logic, we have scientific evidence, but people

still will argue with you red in the face and physically attack

you when you teach them about male and female and the

difference in God's design. Logic isn't working, is it?

And we are very logical and we can be.

It doesn't make any sense. Yes it does.

It is spiritual. That is the answer.

It is demonic. People are under oppression,

people are under possession at times, and people are

experiencing a weight of darkness.

Argumentation and more debates on stage and more one liners on

social media are not curing anything.

They're actually just making things even worse.

People are digging in their heels even deeper.

What people need to see is light.

What people need is the word of God because the gospel is the

power of God unto salvation for those who will believe.

So the gospel, as foolish as it seems, it's the foolishness of

the cross that can actually save somebody's soul when they

actually hear the gospel preached.

Instead of trying to take them to task on all of their foolish

ideology and flagrantly wrong beliefs just to bring them to,

hey, let me tell you about Jesus and the cross.

I don't want to hear all that because these Christians and

those Christians, hey, there's a lot to be said about a lot of

people, but let me bring you back to Jesus and the cross.

You got to hear this. You got to look at this with me

like it will, it will throw us out everything either of us have

ever experienced. So let's keep coming back right

here. And so this person I have in

mind, Pastor Jim Michael, they won't do that with me, all

right? But there's somebody who will

there. There is a person of peace in

your life who would be open to something.

That's the one that you're responsible for.

You don't answer for all the hard hearted people who you

can't do anything with, but you do answer.

For the tender hearted people who you've done nothing with,

you will answer. For the tender hearted people in

your life who you have done nothing with, you will answer.

For the tender hearted people in your life who you have done

nothing with, you've not done anything to move the needle

forward. You've not done anything to

broach that conversation. They seem to be a person of

peace in your life. They seem to be a person of

peace. You're responsible to move

forward with them. We're responsible to attempt to

with everyone. Once someone reveals themselves

to just destroy the pearls that we offer, we don't have to

continue to offer them. But there are many people that

were responsible for the point here we're making was disciples

are quick to obey. And we were given some examples

there. Let's keep going in verse 20.

And when it was evening, he reclined at table with the 12.

And as they were eating, he said, truly, I say to you, one

of you will betray me. And they were very sorrowful.

And they began to say, 1 after another, Is it I, Lord?

He answered, he who has dipped his hand in the dish with me

will betray me. 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.

Judas, who would betray him, answered.

Is it I, Rabbi? Of course he knows that it is.

He's already gone and made the plans.

He's already been paid the 30 pieces of silver.

Is it I, Rabbi? He said to him, You have said

so. So Jesus announces here that

somebody is going to betray him. The room fills with grief

because they know everything he says happens.

They're slow to believe on some stuff.

They're slow to believe still on the cross.

I still don't think they fully realize what's about to happen

over the next 12 hours. I still don't think they get it.

I think as it starts to unfold, they're like what he's told them

at least four times. I'm going to be crucified and

I'm going to be raised from the dead.

He's told them this. They've heard him say it.

And they're like, what? No, Peter's like no Lord, never.

He said, get behind me, Satan. You're not thinking about the

things of God. You're thinking about the things

of man and he was right, Lord, no, we're going to lead a

political rally and it's going to be like unlike anything the

world's ever seen and we're going to take over and Jesus

said we are going to take over the world.

You're right. And we're going to do it my way

and I'm going to send power from heaven and you will be my

witnesses in Jerusalem. And then it's going to expand

throughout the entire world. But they're grieved right now.

Surely not I Lord, let's look at the eleven who say it in a

humble way. This is self introspection.

This is a cautious port. Am I OK?

Am I with you, Am I safe? This is loving concern and

humility. This is self examination.

This is not self-defense. They're not being defensive.

This is a terrifying warning because we see here with Judas

that close proximity to Jesus, literally physically close

proximity to Jesus, did not guarantee salvation.

Walked with him for three years. He saw Jesus Christ raise people

from the dead. He saw Jesus Christ control

nature. He saw all of this.

But Judas was so locked in to the possibility of an earthly

Kingdom. And Judas is going, I'm the

treasurer. So when Jesus is ruling the

world as the Messiah was prophesied to do, we're going to

be in positions of power with him.

Which is true, just not the way the disciples thought.

Hey, when you come into your Kingdom, make sure that my sons

get to sit with you on either side.

They still didn't understand what they were asking.

There are 12 apostles of the Lamb who are appointed in heaven

because they replaced Judas later in the book of Acts.

There are 12 apostles of the Lamb who have prominent

positions in the eternal Kingdom, But it's not the way

that they thought. But Judas, whenever it's all

coming together here, I think in this last week, I think Judas's

disappointment is fully and finally realized.

I think Judas is still like, yeah, yeah, we're doing it.

We're doing this thing. It's going to happen.

And then Mary pours out the ointment, $80,000, maybe a

year's worth of wages, pours it out on Jesus's head and feet.

And Judas is like, we could have sold this and given the money to

the poor. Of course he's a thief.

He wanted to steal from the ministry that he was responsible

for. But he, I think he fully

realized then Jesus is really like literally about to die.

I think if anyone got it, I think Judas might have gotten

it, realized he's not going to. Every moment when he gathered

the crowd, every moment when Jesus had the momentum, as they

would teach a modern political leader, every when you get the

momentum, that's when you strike.

We got the momentum. Now's the moment to advance.

And every time they would have incredible momentum, they would

say Jesus is now the moment. And he'd just go walk with me.

Jesus. Look at the the whole world's

here, like now's the moment. And he's like, we'll see.

We'll see if they're really followers.

Just keep walking with me. And then he would try and avoid

the crowd. He would go away to pray.

The disciple was like man Jesus. He needs like he needs to read a

leadership book. He needs to like understand how

to like capture this momentum. Like we need to be on social

media. We need to be doing podcasts.

He needs to be going on news organization.

Like this is how we build this thing.

And he's like, I am building it. I'm building it through the men

I'm looking at right now. If you'll follow, they followed,

11 of them followed, but Judas didn't.

He witnessed, he heard, he saw, and he still lost his soul.

Paul later says, in your Bible, examine yourselves to see

whether you are in the faith. And this is exactly what we see

the 11 doing here. This passage, this passage is

meant to slow us down, sober us up, and then force us to take

our souls seriously. You have nothing better to do

than care for your soul. You got nothing better to do,

nothing more important than your soul.

If you lose it, you're not getting it back.

There's no ending to to a separation from God.

There's no ending to hell. People who died and went to hell

2000 years ago have been there for 2000 years.

They'll be there this afternoon as we have lunch.

They'll be there tomorrow. They'll be there during the

Super Bowl. And there is no hope, and there

will never be an end to their suffering.

But God, who is rich in mercy, made a way that all people could

be saved from their sins. I deserve that hell.

You deserve that hell. Caring for your soul is the most

important thing you could do. David prayed in the Psalms.

Search me, O God, and know my heart.

That's the opposite of a hard heart.

Search me, O God, reveal to me. I don't know of anything, but

instead of just ignorantly going along like I don't know of

anything, so I guess I'm good, he goes, God, I'm ignorant.

I don't know of anything in there.

Would you please search me and bring anything up?

That's the prayer of an actual disciple.

That's the prayer of an actual humble person.

That's the prayer of actual surrender.

Lord, is there anything you want?

Because maybe it's not even sin like we talked about before.

Maybe the Lord said, hey, I told you, I mean, it could be

anything, any example. I'm not the Holy Spirit leading

you here. I'm just saying I've heard all

kinds of stories of Christians that the Lord told them to do

something. But I've told you before, if you

have not obeyed the last obedience that you know the Lord

gave to you, don't wait for new commands, new instructions, new

directions and new blessings. Some people are stuck a decade

ago and the Lord and I've heard stories like that Christian men

who are like the Lord told me to give this watch away to this guy

and I didn't do it. I was like, I like this watch

and I just kind of dismissed it and time and time and time and

time goes on. Lord said you never gave so and

so that watch, Oh Lord, you know, I just it's a little

thing. It's just such a small thing.

I'm still worshipping God. I'm still reading my Bible.

I'm still praying, I'm still loving my wife.

I'm still discipling my children and the Lord's going.

What about that watch I asked you to give away years ago that

you never did, though. Remember that?

I wonder why you just don't trust me.

I just wish you would trust me and just do what I say.

Oh, Lord, I'm looking. I'm going to read the Word.

I'm going to memorize more verses this week.

I'm serving in the church. I just remember that watch.

I don't know why you won't give that to me.

I don't know why you're holding on to that.

That's not even a sin. A watch isn't a sin.

The Lord wants you to have a well.

You're allowed to keep time. There's not a crime.

There's no verse in the Bible against it.

And yet the Lord wants disciples who are actually putty in his

hands, who are actually clay and the Potter's wheel where he can

say, hey, we turn off TV. We just put away, put away TV

for a season until I tell you otherwise.

It's not standing to watch TV. Not necessarily.

But I asked you for it. And from this point forward, it

actually will be a sin because I've asked for it.

Now for you personally. We're not to put our convictions

in our personal personal commands from the Lord unto

everyone else that becomes Pharisee ISM.

That's whenever I say the Lord told me I need to do this and

therefore you all need to do this.

Now I might say this is a blessing.

I might say the Lord told me to do this and hey everybody, it's

been a huge blessing and I super encourage you to do it because

it's been all a great wisdom that's blessed my life.

Search me, O God, and know my heart.

That's the opposite of a heart heart God often rebuked in the

Old Testament. He rebuked Israel, He called him

stiff necked, stiff necked people.

A stiff necked animal won't be LED.

You're trying to pull the horse this way, bucking against it.

You stiff necked people, you adulterous generation.

That's what he called him, and he's got David, the man after

God's own heart. Search my heart, God, if there

is anything unclean in me. But a stiff necked people is

unwilling to be LED fighting at the bit and resisting his rule.

Judas stands in contrast to the humble David.

There's no repentance, there's no self examination, only

disappointed. He's disappointed with Jesus.

Jesus really let Judas down. Judas had high hopes.

Many people have tried and tested Jesus in the same way

that Judas did. They wanted a God who they could

make into their image. And whenever Jesus would not

comply to Judas's vision for God, Judas said well then I'm

done with you. Always revealing that Judas was

his own God. That's what that reveals about

every person. Whenever I want God to be like

this, I want God to be like that, or my Jesus with this, or

my Jesus with that. Slow down with all that talk.

There is the Jesus. He's the only Jesus.

He's the Jesus of the Bible, and he is.

He is who he is and he is the King.

And he's not changing for anybody.

He didn't get elected into that office and he's not getting

voted out. There's nobody storming his

castle. Nothing happens to him.

He wins, he rules, he reigns forever.

He laid down his life. No one took it from him.

But Judas wasn't satisfied, so he turned on Jesus.

People do this when they don't submit to Christ and instead

they evaluate him. They think Jesus is on trial.

Yes, me, the intellect, the intellectual, I'll make, I'll

make my determination as I study this Christ better.

Study quick. He's not that complicated, He's

glorious and there are many facets to who he is, but it's a

pretty simple story. It's the story and you have an

advantage because it's literally written on your heart already.

He is your master, He is the author of life and he gave life

to you. But Jesus doesn't serve other

people's agendas. People walk away and claim they

tried God. That is not devotion, that is

literally self worship. I tried him and it didn't work

out the way I wanted so I left him.

So you're worshiping yourself. It's not an insult, it's a

clarification. It is just an explicit clarity

for you to know. Hey, just so you know, you're

worshiping you, which is normal. Tons of people do it.

I'm just saying be honest about it.

You're worshiping you. You're the God that you're

worshiping. Your life isn't on an altar that

you would defer to, that you would surrender to.

Another point I want to make in this passage is that Jesus is

affirming 2 truths at once. As he talks about Judas in verse

24, he says the Son of Man. That's himself.

Jesus calls himself the Son of Man.

That's a messianic prophecy. Again from the Old Testament,

it's Daniel prophesying the Messiah.

It says Son of Man. That literally means like

Almighty. So it's ironic because it sounds

like he's saying he's just a son of another person and it's

actually the opposite of what he's saying there.

He's saying the Son of Man is the glorious eternal one, the

Son of man, me Jesus goes at his as it is written of him.

He's like, I'm going to be betrayed.

It has to happen because it said it was told it was going to

happen, but woe to that man by whom the Son of man is betrayed.

So this can bring some confusion folks, because sometimes people

can misunderstand God's foreknowledge with God's fore

design. So it God always knew that Judas

would betray Jesus and because God knew that he told his

prophets of old that that would happen.

That's how they were able to prophecy it.

It's not that Judas is in some prophecy trap that he can't

escape from and the Lord's like you must betray Jesus.

It's that the Lord looks ahead because the Lord sees in every

direction all, everything that's coming and he says Judas is

going to betray Jesus. Hey, my prophet prophecy that

this is going to happen. So Jesus saying, we know what's

going to happen, but I want you Saints to understand Judas is

not trapped. It's like, oh, poor Judas, the

Lord made him do that. No, the Lord knew he would do

that and that's all that's happening here.

So the Son of Man goes exactly as it is written of him and woe

to the man who betrays him. What does this mean?

It means yes, God is sovereign and man is responsible.

Both are true and neither cancels the other.

God is sovereign over all and man is responsible for his own

actions. Both are true.

I feel like there's maybe some some mystery there Pastor, I

agree, but I still say both are true.

How do you say that? Well, because we got the whole

Bible that reveals both in action all the time.

God is sovereign and God holds man responsible for his actions

all the time. As is appropriate.

Verse 26 Now as they were eating, Jesus took bread and

after blessing it broke it and gave it to his disciples and

said, take, eat. They're going, Yep, Yep, we've

done this before. And he says this is my body.

What? Then he took a cup and when he

had given thanks and gave it to them, saying, drink it all of

you. Yep, we've done this before.

This is my blood of the covenant which is poured out for many for

the forgiveness of sins. I tell you I will not drink

again of this fruit of the vine until that day when I drink it

new with you in my Father's Kingdom.

This is the moment everything's been pointing for towards the

true Passover. Lamb has arrived.

The bread of heaven has come down.

Jesus had already said I'm the bread of life, the living bread

that came down from heaven. Unless you eat the flesh of the

Son of man and drink His blood, you have no life in you.

He had said that maybe months, maybe years earlier in his

ministry. That was a shocking statement.

It was hyperbole, like when he said you got to cut off your

hand, He didn't literally mean it.

When he said you got to drink my flesh, drink my blood, and eat

my flesh. He didn't literally mean his

physical body, but he certainly meant symbolically, and he

certainly meant that he was the Lamb of God, but the disciples

didn't know what it meant. Remember when he first said

that? Hey, when when Jesus had a crowd

gather around, remember what Jesus always does when the crowd

gathers? Far from trying to capitalize on

the moment, he would sift the crowd every time the crowd comes

and Jesus goes. Let's test it.

Hey, everybody. Yes, Master.

Yes. Who healed us?

Who fed us? Who did all these things?

You have to eat my flesh and drink my blood.

The disciples, like, don't say that.

That's weird. And everybody leaves and he

goes. That's what I thought.

They don't actually love me. They just love the gifts that I

give. They don't actually want me.

They wanted a meal and they wanted healing, he says.

But I'm testing and I'm sifting for true disciples.

I'm sifting and I'm testing for true followers who actually love

me. The most important command to

love the Lord your God with all your heart and soul and mind and

strength. That's what he's testing for.

So it was once a shocking thing that the disciples heard.

They didn't understand. Everybody else leaves.

And he turns to the 12. That day whenever he had said

it, he said you guys leaving too.

And Peter says you have the words of life.

Where else would we go? It seems to me that Peter's like

I still have no idea what you're talking about and I'm not going

anywhere. That's a disciple that was a

faithful man all the way to his death.

They went to crucify Peter and he's years later and whenever

they went to crucify Peter, he pleaded with them and said I'm

not worthy to be crucified the way the Lord Jesus was

crucified. Please crucify me upside down.

And they obliged. And that's how Peter died.

So I guess if you could somehow make crucifixion worse, only

being upside down during your crucifixion might somehow make

it even more brutal. But that was a disciple who

really loved Jesus, a knucklehead who made many

mistakes. Praise God, we're all in good

company if we will be humble and continue to follow.

This is covenant language now that Jesus is using.

This is my blood of the covenant poured out for many for their

forgiveness of sins. I want you to know forgiveness

is not vague, it is not romantic, it is specific and it

has your salvation has an exact cost.

It's not based upon the feelings of the Lord.

I feel forgiving today. No, there's literally a

mechanism for your salvation. There's a way that you can be

saved in other religions. There is not a logical

mechanism. There is muddiness.

There is vagueness. How are you saved in this

religion? What?

You have to do all the things. Well, I didn't do it all

perfectly. Is it enough?

Yeah, we think so. The God that we made-up is

pretty merciful. So you're probably going to be

fine as long as you wanted to do the right thing.

Our God says none of you want to do the right thing.

Everyone's done the wrong thing. I have to do all the work.

I have to save you. I have to make you new, but

there is a logical and plain explicit mechanism for your

salvation. God said I will punish the

innocent so that all the guilty can go free and they will trade.

I will put the righteousness of Christ and the guilt of the

wicked will be swallowed up and they will be made holy.

That's it. It's all what Jesus

accomplished. It's not.

And if you do this, believe in Jesus, and then do these things,

you will be saved. No, you'll believe in Jesus and

then you will do things because you were already saved, because

he actually made you a new creation.

And if you don't want to do new things after you're saved, well,

you're not saved. Because if if you were, you

would have wanted to do new things because it's impossible

for the Spirit of the living God to make someone a new creation.

And then to be like, cool, I have no desires that are any

different. Did you say I'll never sin

again, Pastor? I didn't say that because you'll

still sin because you still have flesh and you still have the

temptation to put on the old man as the scripture tells us,

instead of putting off the old man.

The difference is when I put on the old man now it don't feel

right. It feels like the old man.

The Lord says, is that how you're supposed to think?

And I go, no, it's not who I am. The Lord says wow, is that

what's coming out of the Saints mouths?

And I go, forgive me Lord, and whatever, whatever actions,

whatever it may be, whatever sins I commit by my passivity

and, and inaction or sins I commit by action, that I take

the Holy Spirit's now in me. And if he's in you, then he's

going, hey, that's not who you are anymore.

And that is how we grow in our sanctification.

But there is a mechanism for your salvation.

It is perfectly logical and legally established in heaven

that God Forgives sinners when they put their faith in the

blood of Jesus. It is the new covenant and he

takes away our sins. Notice that everyone at the

table drinks, including Judas. It's interesting Jesus doesn't

chase him away, which this leads to all kinds of theological

debates throughout the body of Christ and saying how should we

handle communion? Should we let it be open to

everyone or should there be more oversight to limit those who can

approach the table and those who can't approach the table.

And I can see godly and biblical arguments from both

perspectives. But on this day, Judas is

allowed to drink. Jesus doesn't stop him.

Jesus let's Judas drink. Mercy is extended to Judas until

the very end, but Judas drinks without repentance.

And John tells us specifically that as soon as Judas took the

bread, Satan entered him. So that's the fearful

condemnation that we're terrified of.

That's why when we take communion, Communion, I give you

the warning, do not take the body and the blood of the Lord

Jesus Christ in an unworthy manner.

It's not snack time. It's not vain repetition.

So This is why Scripture warns us to not take communion

lightly. Paul says that some when they

take communion, they eat and drink judgement unto themselves.

So the table, as it's called, is not a casual tradition.

It is a holy law in the church. And This is why loving pastors

have sometimes withheld the table from people as an act of

mercy, as an act of kindness. And some would say, well, I

disagree with that perspective. OK, we'll disagree with you all

you want. But loving and godly pastors

have at times withheld the table from people to protect them and

to call them to repentance. It's a form of church discipline

that some denominations still use to this day when somebody is

in unrepentant sin. And we've gone to Brother Frank

and we're like, Brother Frank, man, I love you.

I want to see you restore it. And I'm confronting you on this

thing plainly. Frank's like, oh, it's not my

fault, it's not my problem, or you don't understand or blah,

blah, all these explanations or justifications.

Brother Frank, I'm praying for you, man.

I hope you reconsider. I'm going to talk with you again

in a couple of days. And we pursue Frank again.

We're doing all the right things.

There have been pastors who say, Frank, you're not to partake of

the table this Sunday. You're not to partake of the

Lord's table because you're an unrepentant sin.

I do not want you eating and drinking condemnation unto

yourself. I want to see you walk in

repentance and I don't want to see you condemn or judge

yourselves. Judge yourself.

Paul said This is why many have fallen asleep in death, because

they were taking the body and the blood of the Lord Jesus

lightly. So we call people to repentance

and that is an act of mercy aimed at loving and saving a

soul, not condemning it. Well, maybe that feels

embarrassing. OK, I would rather you feel

embarrassed than you be lost. The motive is not embarrassment,

but the motive is to call you to repentance, that you would feel

the separation. You want people to be separated?

No, the point is that they already are, but they don't

believe it and you're helping them to realize, hey, which is

why church, the scriptures also give us clarity around those who

are called in sin and unrepentant.

The church is to not even eat with those individuals.

So the church would bring to the the leadership would bring to

the church, Hey, we love Frank and we're praying for Frank.

But I as your pastor, and I am, I'm charging you do not give

Frank a false sense of comfort. So you can you can love him

well, but that should not include a meal.

That should not include a cheeseburger at the galley this

week, because we don't want to confuse Frank and bring a false

comfort into his life and think you're good, all is fine, all is

well. Why?

To shame him, to call him to repentance.

We do this. We do this slowly.

We do this with much weight and with fear and trembling for our

own souls as well. We're closing and then we're

going to sing together one song before we go.

Jesus then says he will not drink again until he drinks new

with them and his Father's Kingdom.

For the disciples, this cup is sweet, the sweet wine that they

were drinking. For Jesus, the cup ahead is

bitter beyond description. That very night he's going to

enter the garden and he's going to begin drinking the cup of the

Lord's wrath, and he won't finish until he gets every last

drop on Friday at about 3:00 when he yells out it is

finished. The whole cup was bitter.

The whole cup was poison, and the whole cup cost him his life.

He did it because he is the manliest man to ever live.

He did it because he is the greatest man to ever live.

He did it because he is the greatest man to ever live.

He did it because he is God, suffering for His people and

being the substitute, the righteous, the innocent Passover

lamb being killed and slaughtered on the Passover so

that the death Angel would Passover everyone else.

Somehow the author of life gives up his life to die, and yet he

gives hope to the disciples. I won't drink this cup again

until there's another day coming.

There's an eternal life coming. There will be another cup.

There will be a marriage supper of the Lamb where Jesus gets all

the glory. We will eat and drink with Him

and worship Him and enjoy Him literally, actually.

This isn't just a figurative idea of eternal life.

We are going to be people with bodies with God forever.

We will eat, we will drink, we will rule, we will reign.

There will be civilization, there will be society.

What's it going to look like? There's a lot of questions

there, but we know those things are true.

Verse 30 when they sung A hymn, they went out into the Mount of

Olives. Like I said earlier, this is

likely a Psalm somewhere between 1:13 and 1:18 as was tradition.

Those are largely psalms of praise.

Psalms of praise and worship. Jesus is not just completely

self focused. There's times where we go to the

Lord with our grief. We see David do that regularly,

and Psalm 116, out of the batch of those, probably does it the

most, the one we read for our magnification.

But Jesus was still directing praise and worship vertically in

this moment. He was not primarily centered on

his own emotions or processing his own pain.

He was just bringing pure vertical praise.

Worship is so important because God is worthy.

And now also, this is the selfish portion of it.

It's always a blessing to you whenever you get your vision off

of yourself and you bring your vision to the Lord and you

actually have vertical praise. That's not based upon here is

what I need from you, Lord, but it's based upon here is who you

are, so I worship you. Everything shifts.

Any of us who have ever done that can testify to it.

And you're like, Yep, that's the key.

That's the thing that gets me out of my flesh.

That's the thing that gets me out of my funk.

Your pastor did this yesterday. Had a rough week.

Anybody ever had a rough week? Happened to me, had a rough

week. It's having a rough day, caught

up in my emotions, caught up in my mind and I hadn't done what I

do a lot of mornings. Most mornings I worship loud.

My family will tell you it's loud.

My neighbors might tell you it's loud, but I'll worship loud and

I'll crank it, I'll blast it and I will bless the Lord.

I'll praise the Lord. It's not a woe is Joe Michael

session. It's a God is great session.

But I hadn't done that yesterday.

And as I was feeling everything heavy, finally in the afternoon,

I got around to doing that. Surprise, surprise, as I focused

on God instead of on myself and on all my neuroticism and all my

what about and what if and how come and why not and how will

eyes and all of a sudden I'm going.

There is a God and I am not him and he is worthy.

Lord, I love you. And all of a sudden my soul was

recalibrated again. I'm going and now I can face are

your all your problems gone? All my problems weren't gone.

Some of them were. Some of them literally were were

gone because a lot of my problems were just here.

But that shifted things for me. Jesus goes into the garden.

How does He go into the garden? The last thing He does before he

gets to the garden. He worships and praises before

He goes into that garden. And still he starts sweating

those great drops of blood and he starts heaving himself into

deep prayer as he starts to experience the heaviness of sin

being brought upon him. So you can bring your sorrow to

the Lord. You can bring your grief to the

Lord. But we also praise Him just

because He is worthy. So that's what we're going to do

now. We're going to close service

with praise. The joy of the Lord is your

strength. This is a heavy passage with

much warning in it. Repentance, betrayal,

faithfulness. Will I remain faithful?

The Lord knows. The Lord knows where every one

of us is going to be for all eternity.

Oh no, what is that Good news? You get to wake up and choose

what you're doing every single day.

Good news, like nothing's outside of your jurisdiction as

far as the rest of your life goes.

There's much we don't know about our future.

But there's one thing that you can also know about your future.

You can know that you know that you know where you're going to

spend your eternity. Well, how can I know?

Because you can trust in the Lord Jesus Christ for the

forgiveness of sins. He will receive you.

He will make you a new creation. And then guess what?

You get to keep making them choices all the time.

Judas got to keep making choices.

You and I get to keep making choices.

I'm going to choose to follow Jesus.

I love him, I want Him, I want to be with Him, I want to enjoy

Him, I want to know Him, I want to look more like Him.

So now let's worship Him together.

Stand to your feet.