He Gives us the Cup

All right. Well, even though it's kind of an interesting Sunday being our last time here, it's kind of business as usual as far as opening the Gospel of Mark. We'll be in this up until Christmas. And then next year, I think the plan is to start Genesis. So that'll be fun. All right, Gospel of Mark. I think this is week 45, believe it or not. So it's impossible to catch you all up if you've missed it. But going back to the beginning, this verse one, The beginning of the good news. Good news, where we get gospel. This is the gospel. Well, whose gospel? It's the good news about Jesus, the Messiah, the Son of God, the anointed one of Israel. That's who this is about. And this whole book then is the gospel, is the good news about Jesus. So it's the words he says of himself being able to forgive sins and that, but also that we should love others and care for people is the same, that's also part of the gospel. I feel like I may have shared this picture before. This was last year at a Christmas party for our staff, all of Hope Community Church. There's a gentleman downtown who is very generous and he like rented out a restaurant. It was crazy. And there's just something about when you go to a dinner party like that. Or just when you go to someone's house and you're their guest and they invite you in and the table's set, the food's cooked, and then afterwards you're like, hey, can I help with the dishes? And they're just like, no, no, no, I just want you to sit, just relax, right? There's just something that is honoring when this happens and when we feel that way. And we're going to see that in the passage today. And obviously I already read the text, So I'll reread a lot of it, but just kind of want to just set, Jesus is going to set this table. And yet he's going to do it for people who are going to betray him, that are going to abandon him. And so just titled this, He Gives Us the Cup. Jesus, he's not the victim here, right, in this passage. He's willingly doing this. He's hosting the party, if you will. He's hosting a Passover meal. And I know this, there was like a meme while that was kind of going around like, no offense, Jesus, but I would not in a million years attend an event called the Last Supper. Yeah, yeah, no. Nope, nope, I wouldn't either, right? I remember it being like the disciples, like, hey, did you invite Jesus to the Last Supper? And he's like, wait, what'd you call it? So yeah, he's not the victim though, right? He's willingly doing this. He's willingly setting the table and he invites guests to the table to share a meal with him that he knows are going to betray him. He knows they're going to deny him. And we see Jesus still now in the Lord's table, as we're going to look at, sets the table for us. And then we vow, no, no, no, not me. I would never betray you. I would never abandon you. And yet we do. And he knows we will, and yet he still shares the cup with us. Just one quote here from James Edwards. Jesus is not a tragic hero caught up in events beyond his control. There's no hint of desperation, fear, anger, or futility on his part. Jesus does not cower or retreat as plots are hatched against him. He displays, as he has throughout the gospel, a sovereign freedom and authority to follow a course he has freely chosen in accordance with God's plan. Judas and others may act against him, but they cannot act upon him. I love that wording of that. So we're gonna see in this passage in the first day of unleavened bread and when they sacrificed the Passover lamb. The Passover, we could really spend a lot of time on this and maybe someday we will. But the Passover lamb, it was a festival that God the Father enacts to say, hey, I want you to make this thing where you're gonna kill a lamb and then you're gonna eat it with your neighbors. If you have a big family, you consume the whole lamb. And if the lamb is too much food, then you invite your neighbors, then you all will share this meal together. There would have been men, women, and children that would have shared in this meal. And actually, I think that's what is actually happening in our passage as well. It would have been very standard because later on, Jesus is going to, like, it's very specified. No, it's one of the 12, meaning there might have been other people, most likely other people there present with them during this meal. And the whole point was that the Passover was to celebrate the death angel passing over the firstborn of Israel and saving them. So there was a sacrificial lamb and its blood was put on the doorpost. And so that's what they're celebrating. And so that's what they're celebrating. They're remembering the sacrifice of this lamb that's going to allow the wrath of God to pass over them. And his disciples said to him, where are you gonna have us go? Where are we gonna have this meal? And he says, hey, I want you to just go and meet this individual. And he's gonna say, hey, come up to this large upper room and it's furnished and ready and there prepare for us. And the disciples sent out, went into the city and found it just as he had told them and they prepared the Passover. over. So let's get into now the text a little bit more here. So in verse 17, just this not I, or surely not I. And when it was evening, he came with the 12. And the 12, again, remember, it's really significant. It's been a while since we've seen it in Mark. We just, we're so used to it. Oh, the 12 just means the 12 disciples. But the 12 was very significant in that they represented a new Israel. There were 12 tribes of Israel and he says, I'm going to have Jewish men be the leaders of this new Israel. But significantly, Jesus is not one of the 12. He could have said, well, I'm one of the 12. I represent the tribe of Judah. The kings came from Judah, but he doesn't. He says, no, I'm outside of that. I'm above even the new Israel, which is fascinating. And as they were reclining at the table, again, this Middle Eastern way of eating still is, that they would kind of lay down and lean on their left arm and reach into the middle of the table with their right hand. And as they're eating, Jesus said, Truly, I say to you, one of you will betray me, one who is eating with me. This idea of betrayal, this is insider language, right? It's one of the worst types of abandonment because you can only be betrayed by people who you love, or you only can be betrayed by people who you know and care for that's the whole point of betrayal it's not just some stranger or acquaintance you know hey get lost I don't like you well okay that's no sweat off my back, but when a loved one when someone I care about, someone I've poured into, treats me poorly, or spreads lies, stabs in the back. Those are wounds. Open sores that are not easily mended. But notice this, that Jesus still sets the table. So Jesus sets the table, says, we're going to have this Passover meal, and yet full well-knowing someone's going to betray him. Goes on in verse 19, they began to be sorrowful and say to him after one another, is it I? I read this question, but it's emphasized, surely not I. Surely it couldn't be me. I mean, James, maybe he's kind of whiny or whatever. Not me though. I would never betray you, Jesus, as we're going to see. Multiple disciples are going to say that and every single one of them is going to abandon him, except John. And he said to them, it is one of the 12 who is dipping bread into the dish with me. So that's why maybe there's other people there, women and children, because he specifies. But notice Jesus doesn't answer the question the way they want it to be. Surely it's not me, right? Jesus, is it me? And he goes, it's one of you. It's kind of like, oh, that's not how I would want you to answer that question, right? It's not me. There's no way I would betray you, Jesus. like thinking of me, of Brian right now. But I think the whole point that we can draw from this is that I do. I do betray Jesus. You do. I hate my enemies. I look down on those who don't work hard and haven't earned a good living. And in doing so, I betray my Savior. we think that this little sin that we hide in our heart won't hurt anyone but Jesus thinks otherwise. When Jesus tells us someone will betray him, we start to think of other people, right? Not ourselves, it's not me, James. Hopefully no one hears the name James. Picking on James. It's not me. I wouldn't do that. We immediately start thinking about somebody else. It's like when the boss tells everyone in a meeting, the ball was really dropped this last week. No one, at least I've never seen in a corporate setting or heard of it. I've not really been in too many corporate settings. But when you are in those rooms, No one's like, nah, it was my bad. I did that. No, everyone's like pointing the finger. Even if it's just in their mental, in their head of like pointing the finger, it wasn't me. I didn't do it. You start thinking about how we weren't complicit in the problem. The thing is though, that this isn't a job. This isn't a school project that we didn't carry our weight in. This is abandonment. This is betrayal. It is me saying, Jesus, this thing that you've created, my family, my job, my church building, my hobby, that thing, I actually love it more than you. It's betrayal. And I do it on the weekly. And then weekly I take of the bread and the juice. He constantly is saying, come. I know who you are. I see you. Come. And then at the end here, we see this, for the son of man goes and 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. I think you can just hear the pain in his voice. Three years that they've spent every waking moment together. These are incredibly close friends. When you think about your roommates, those of us who went to college, and it's like, but you probably had the same roommate for three years, right? You usually shifted it around and think about how close you are when you spend that much time with somebody. Then we see this for many. And as they were eating, he took bread, 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 when they drank of it, and they all drank of it. And he said to them, this is the blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many. He says, someone's about to betray me. In the previous verse, someone's going to betray me. Now here, I want you to take this bread and this juice, this wine that represents my body and my blood that's going to be broken for you, for all, including the one who's about to betray me. His blood is going to be poured out for many, the one who betrays and the one who says, no, no, no, not me. Surely not I. I would never. I want to just kind of maybe, again, maybe draw some points that are connecting the Passover with the Lord's table or Eucharist or communion, whatever you call it in your traditions. We typically call it the Lord's table or communion, But Paul, as we already talked about in Exodus chapter 12, this lamb that's going to be, its blood is going to be put on the doorpost and they're going to consume this lamb. And yet in the New Testament, 1 Corinthians 5, 7, the apostle Paul says that Christ is our Passover lamb. He's actually going to be the one and it's going to be his blood that's going to be spilled. It's going to be his body that's going to be broken so that the wrath of God will pass over us and it will be consumed and absorbed by Jesus Christ on the cross. It's wild when we think about this blood talk, right? If you've grown up in the church, we're so used to this, right? But I, you just can't even imagine, right? I mean, just try, just try to say, you've never heard of this thing called the communion or the Eucharist. And imagine you're at a dinner party and the host, right? You're all hanging out, having a good time, eating a meal. And the host goes, hey, everyone, can I get your attention? I'm going to take this glass of wine. I'm going to pass it around to all of you. And I want you to take a sip. And in doing so, that wine represents my blood that I shed for you. What are we talking about, right? That's super bizarre. That's exactly what Jesus does here. This is wild. And in the connection, because they're having the Passover meal, there would have been four different cups of wine that they would have shared. And he's saying, this is my blood. This is my blood that's gonna be poured out for you, not the blood of the lamb, that we've just consumed. This is my blood. This matzo bread that we're eating to talk about the bread of affliction, of we can't have any yeast in it and it's going to be made in haste that now my body is going to be afflicted. There was, this is wild and this is true. In the second century, I can't read his name, Thagonaris, he was writing to Marcus Aurelius. We don't know if Marcus Aurelius actually got the letter, but it's a plea for the Christians. There's some ups and downs of persecution in the early church. And this guy, he writes Marcus and says, because they've been accused of cannibalism. They've been accused of weird relationships because everyone's a brother and sister in Christ and we're all united as a family. And it's like, you guys, an outsider looking in, you're like, what's that all about? And they're eating a body and they're drinking blood and they actually kick people out that aren't members of their church and they haven't been baptized. It's super bizarre. Are. And so this guy writes Augustine and he says, hey, if these accusations are true, if you think we're eating people, then you have every right to destroy us. You should eradicate the world of Christians if that's what's happening. And then he goes on to obviously very clearly articulate, yeah, we're not doing that. So they're accused of this. So this has always been weird. For thousands of years, this is weird. It still is weird. But what it represents is the love of Christ for us. Again, we see this bread of affliction, where again, he's going to say, this is my body, which I already mentioned that. I want to mention this real quick. This is a little nerdy, but I think it's really important. This is what is called the criteria of plausibility, of historical plausibility. And it's called multiple attestation. Meaning that we have multiple writings from the first century. We actually have seven from the first century and four of them aren't even in our Bibles that are writing about the same story. Meaning the apostle Paul, most likely got it from Peter, then you've got Mark and you've got Luke and you've got Q and you've got L, you've got all these different books. And basically what multiple attestation is saying is there are the same account, written at relatively the same time in geographically different areas and none of them are copies of each other. We know it because we have Mark uses Q and we can see and do the analysis on it. But we have in, so when people are like, I don't know, you can't trust your Bible. It's all just made up. You can say, actually, the Lord's Supper is proof this isn't made up. Unless seven people independently came up with the same story at the same time. It's implausible. And so here we have this in the Lord's table in 1 Corinthians, Paul says, this is a new covenant in my blood. Mark chapter 14 is the blood of the covenant. And then in Luke, this is a new covenant in my blood. But then we go back to this Exodus 24 passage. Moses then took the blood and he sprinkled it on the people and said, this is the blood of the covenant that the Lord has made with you in accordance with all these words. The disciples, everyone who's sitting at the Passover meal, they're reading this story of the Exodus. And they say, this is the blood of the lamb. It's the blood of the covenant. And then Jesus says, no, no, no. This is my blood of the covenant. This is a new covenant that I'm establishing now. We've been doing this for thousands of years. we're doing it different now changing it up. What I love about these, I don't know, the analysis or looking at the Passover versus the Lord's table is that God calls a shot in both of them, right? Passover, he's like, hey, I'm gonna teach you how to have a meal together and you're gonna remember this annually to remember how I set you free from bondage, right? So I'm gonna teach you how to have this celebration meal every year and then I'm gonna set you free from Egypt, right? It doesn't do it backwards. It doesn't set them free. And they're like, oh, we should remember this. No, no, no. God says, you're gonna remember this. Now let me show you. And then Jesus does the same thing. Jesus says, hey, this is what we're gonna do. And every time you get together, I want you to remember me. And I want you to remember the sacrifice I'm about to make. He just calls a shot. He says, I'm about to do this. And then he does it. He sacrifices himself for us. And then we get this idea of the new covenant in my blood that we see in 1 Corinthians and in Luke. And this is gonna go back to Jeremiah 31. The time is coming, declares the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel, with the house of Judah. So if you're an Israelite and you're sitting there and then Jesus says, this is the new covenant. I am enacting the new covenant now here in my blood. This is the covenant I will make with the house of Israel at that time, declares the Lord. I will put my law on their minds and write it on their hearts and I will be their God and they will be my people. No longer will a man teach his neighbor Yeah. Or a man, his brother, saying, know the Lord, because they will all know me from the least of them to the greatest, declares the Lord, for I will, here we go, forgive their wickedness and remember their sins no more. So Jeremiah says that's what's going to happen. There's going to be a new covenant that's going to forgive the wickedness and remember their sins no more. And Jesus says, that's me. I am the new covenant. This is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins. This isn't just some nerdy facts. I really am not trying to go, what is going on? Multiple attestation, blah. Okay, I get that. I'm not just trying to just nerd. What I'm trying to explain to you and highlight the fact that Jesus knew what he was doing. Jesus full well knew he's gonna set the Passover meal. People are gonna betray him. And he's doing all of this to be broken and to have his blood shed for the forgiveness of sins, for their sins and for our sins and my sins. When I constantly say, not me, never me. I would never do that. And then finally, I just want to look at this last point until that day, verse 25 through 26. See this, 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. And when they had sung a hymn, they went out to the Mount of Olives. I love this. Jesus is saying, I want you, every time you gather together in my name, I want you to remember me. I want you to remember the sacrifice. I want you to take this bread and break it that represents my body that's broken for you. I want you to remember and drink this juice that represents my blood that was poured out for you in this new covenant. I want you to do it every time you get together in my name, but I won't. There's this vow here from Jesus saying, there's going to be a huge celebration someday and you're all welcome. And what's wild about this is that he knows us. He sees you. He knows your thoughts. I just was, when I was down at school, one of the guest lecturers, she was talking about this and I feel the same way. And she's just like, if I just had like a running ticker, you know, like a ticker thing, everyone could just read every thought. She's like, it would probably take all of 30 seconds before I would lose my job, right? It's just, it's just, but Jesus sees that. He knows you. I mean, deeply knows you. And he says, God, I wanna die for you. So in gospel application, come to the table. Jesus knows who you are. That's love. That's love. There's not really even a comparison I could make or an illustration or anything like that. Other than just knowing that people are gonna hurt me or hurt someone else and say, no, I'm still going to go out of my way to care for them and love them. That's what Jesus has called us to do. He says, I know you and I still love you. And I've still prepared a meal for you. What I don't want us to do is to think when we come to the table, I'm fine. I'm good enough. It's not me. Surely not I. I want us to come to this table and say, it is me. I do betray you. I do stab you in the back. I do choose the creation over the creator on a daily basis. And so when we take these elements, we do it to remember the sacrifice of Jesus full well knowing how sinful you are and how gracious he is to forgive us of our sins so that the wrath of God will pass over us. All we have to do when we come to this table is to say, it's me again. Here are some things that I need to confess to you this week and I know that you are faithful and you are just and you are good to forgive me of those sins. I'm going to have the worship team come back up. They're going to play two songs. And as we take these elements, again, talked about bread representing the body of Christ, the juice that represents the blood of Christ. And that sounds weird. It's weird. But we remember, we remember what he's done for us, full well knowing who we are. Just would ask that you'd be a follower of Jesus. If that's you, if you're like, yeah, I want to start a relationship with Jesus or I have had a relationship with Jesus, but I need to be reminded of this over and over. Come to the table. Jesus knows who you are and he still sets the table for us. I'm gonna pray and then the worship team's gonna play two songs and feel free to grab those elements as you see fit. There's a gluten-free option on my left. You're right, that's a restriction. Let me pray. Help me, Father. Thank you for this time. Thank you again just for the time that we've had in the space and this building. But this isn't your church. The people here are your church. The assembly, the gathered. And so even as we move into a new building, I pray that that wouldn't become an idol. I pray that it wouldn't become something that we hold on so tightly to that we take our eyes off of your son and the sacrifice that he's made for us. We thank you for our time here. As the sun sets on this space that we know it's gonna keep rising somewhere else, that you will build your church. The gates of hell will not prevail. And so would you give us boldness and courage as we go into the kingdom of darkness, as we tear down those gates and we preach the gospel of Jesus Christ, that he was crucified and he was buried and that he rose again for the forgiveness for the sins of all who believe. We love you and pray now that you just be honored and glorified as we take these elements and lift up our voices to worship your risen son. And it's in the name of Jesus I pray, amen.

Exodus 12 · chapter mention Mark 14 · chapter mention