Clean and Whole

Amen. All right. Another beautiful Sunday here at Hope North Lakes. Welcome to church. If we haven't met, my name is Paul Stiver. I have the joy of serving here as the pastor. I'm excited to continue walking through the Gospel of Mark today. We're all the way up into chapter 14 of this bad boy. I'm going to do things a little different today. Sometimes we'll read the entire passage, and then we'll start walking through it. Today, I'm going to just start off walking right through it. So if you want to be following along with the chunk of the passage, you can open your phone or grab a Bible from the back, or if you brought a Bible, and you can just kind of have it laid out all in front of you. But I need to tell you a little bit about me. You know, we say here at Hope North Lakes that we're disappointingly normal, and sometimes I'm just disappointing. And one of them is I am the king of just ruining shirts with grease stains. I just did it yesterday to a brand new gray shirt. I literally ate two separate foods that got grease on the shirt. Some of you are like, don't worry, bud. I got you. I know the hacks to get out the grease. Look, I already thought of it, okay? The Dawn dish soap, we know about it. Allison, as soon as I told her, I showed it to her. She goes, I can get that out. All right, we get it. Look, I... I'm... It's... The challenge with, like, even if you get the grease stain out of my shirts, is it didn't deal with the root problem, which happens to be me. I really am the, like, king of grease stains. I was like, should I just switch to all black shirts or, like, just wear an apron 24-7? No, but there is this reality of having to deal with the greater problem, having to get down to the root of the problem. Now, in the Bible, there are two main sections, the Old Testament and the New Testament. We're going to talk about those today because Jesus is going to do something that carries something from the Old Testament into the New Testament and actually shows us that the Old Testament, what it was doing was not dealing with the root problem, and he has actually come to do just that. So we're going to be in Mark 14, verses 12 through 26. We're going to take it chunk by chunk and see the implications. So I'm just going to jump right in. 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. So we get this just early scene. It's the first day of the Feast of Unleavened Bread. I think that went for seven days, if I remember what I read this week. And they sacrifice the Passover lamb. All Jewish people are going to Jerusalem at this time to celebrate the Passover. Now the Passover is something God commanded for them to do. We're going to talk more about it. And they gather in Jerusalem and they celebrate with this meal. So they go to the temple, sacrifice the lamb, and then they would go somewhere to eat it. And seemingly Jesus has already made some arrangements about where that's going to be because he just gives to the disciples this instruction. You're just going to find a guy holding some water, carrying some water, follow him. Now, the reason that would have worked is because that would have been an uncommon thing most of the time in that day. Wayman carried the water, but so to find a man carrying it, he was likely a servant and servant of a house. And that's what we find here is that he goes to his master's house. So they follow him and says, Whenever 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 just as he had told them, and they prepared the Passover. So Jesus has seemingly worked this prior arrangement with someone who's come to understand him as the teacher, maybe would be a disciple of his. And one of the things I read this week is actually you always had to carve out space if you could in your home for pilgrims. People coming to Jerusalem just for the Passover and trekking through and that's what happens here. Space is prepared for them. Now why did Jesus do this kind of clandestine, two of you go find this guy and then he'll take you to the master's house, and we'll have the upper room to ourselves. Well, if you recall where we left off in verse 11, Judas is going to betray Jesus. So this was a way for Jesus to control the situation and say, I don't want Judas to know where we're going to go. So Judas was not one of these two disciples. He comes later with Jesus to this meal. Now, what does this Passover meal look like? It seems like Jesus is building us up for this, and Mark's kind of set us up for this important meal. I grabbed a quote from the Africa Bible commentary. Takumba Adeyemo says this of the meal. He says, the traditional Passover meal was always celebrated in an atmosphere of worship. After the participants had taken their positions at the table, the head of the family pronounced the blessing on the feast and the wine. The main meal consisted of unleavened bread, symbolizing the bread of affliction for the Israelites in Egypt. Bitter herbs symbolizing the bitterness of slavery stewed fruit that looked like clay symbolizing the bricks made during the slavery in Egypt. And roast lamb reminding them of the passing over of Israel in the plague. So this meal, this food is done in the spirit of worship and a spirit of remembering. And God actually has established these kind of physical meal reminders of what happened as a part of their story. But what is the Passover? Let's get a little bit of a handle on this before we come back to Mark in the New Testament. In Exodus chapter 12, God is giving the people the Passover. He's laying it out for them. And it says this in verse 5, Your lamb shall be without blemish, a male, a year old. You may take it from the sheep or from the goats, and you shall keep it until the 14th day of this month, when the whole assembly of the congregation of Israel shall kill their lambs at twilight. So this is the command to the people. Now, how did we get there? If you're familiar with the story of the Exodus, Israel is God's people and they're in Egypt. And Egypt forgets Joseph, a previous connection to royalty that had connected Israel with the rulers of Egypt and now Pharaoh's ruling. And God has brought all these judgments upon Egypt to show, I am the true God. So every one of the plagues he brings is actually against one of the false gods of Egypt. But now the people have yet to be delivered. They're still in slavery. The Egyptians are making it worse and harder on them. So God takes this final act of the judgment upon Egypt with the killing of the firstborn son. Now, we're going to see that this is actually the final action that allows them to be delivered from their slavery. But we got to see something about this. A couple of things. One, the lamb is without blemish. And then something really compelling. Look at verse 6. It says, you shall keep it until the 14th day. A lot of people agree that this means that the lamb was actually brought into the home. Early in the month and spent time in the home. Possibly they named it. This lamb was a part of their family for almost two weeks. They developed an intimate love for this lamb in their home. And that was kind of the way it would lay out in homes. And then what do they have to do? They have to sacrifice it. They have to sacrifice this lamb that's been a part of their home. it. They kill it. The blood is drained from its neck, caught in a bowl, and then they are going to smear that blood on their house, and they're going to eat the lamb roasted over the fire. That's what is going to happen here in the Passover, continuing in Exodus 12. It says, it is the Lord's Passover. So now God is commanding this. He says, for I will pass through the land of Egypt that night, and I will strike all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, both man and beast, and on all the gods of Egypt, I will execute judgments. I am the Lord. The blood shall be a sign for you on the houses where you are. And when I see the blood, I will pass over you and no plague will befall you to destroy you when I strike the land of Egypt. So this unblemished lamb comes into the home. They sacrifice that lamb. They take the blood and they apply it to their homes. And look what it says again, verse 13, the blood shall be a sign for you. And when I see the blood, I will pass over you. The blood is a sign that God's righteous judgment will pass over you. Why does God pass over these households? Because the households are covered in the blood of the lamb. They're spared from his judgment. And so God does this. And this is the catalyst for the Egyptians to finally release the Israelites from slavery. We know they actually pursue them to the Red Sea, but then eventually God wins final victory there and frees them. And they go into the wilderness with God. The Passover, God then says here in Exodus 12, he puts this into place as something for them to do continually, that they should always have this meal, always eat this unleavened bread, always dress a certain way to remind them of how quickly they had to get out of Egypt when God delivered them. He sets this up as a memorial and it is that memorial that sets up our scene and our context because they're still doing it in Mark chapter 14 in Jesus' day. So back to Mark 14. It says, and when it was evening, he came with the 12. So Judas now with them. And as they were reclining at table 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 say to him one after another, Is it I? Now instead of pronouncing a blessing, the first thing Jesus does here is announce a betrayal. He continues in verse 20, it says, 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, Jesus' title for himself, 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 we know tragically last week that that is Judas that he's describing. He's describing. And this dipping bread into the dish, there's an intimacy here which adds volume, accentuates the betrayal. Listen to David Garland. He says, eating bread with someone barred one from hostile acts against that person. Table fellowship had more significance for Jews than simply a social gathering. So he's saying is back in their day, it was a very big social deal to eat together. He says, eating together was evidence of peace, trust, forgiveness, and brotherhood. To betray the one who had given you his bread was a horrendous act. Jesus had hosted another meal for sinners, but this time he utters a bitter woe for a betrayer. Woe to that man who betrays the Son of Man. It would be better for him if he had not been born. Only then does Jesus take the bread and the wine. Amen. Only then does he now confer the blessing, but he's going to give this eternal significance. Again, 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 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. And when they had sung a hymn, they went out to the Mount of Olives. Luke, in his gospel, expands on this later in the New Testament. We expand on this when he says this is the blood of the covenant. He's saying this is the blood of the new covenant. I'm establishing a new covenant, but that's kind of an older word. I figured it would be helpful to maybe look at what is a covenant. And one of the common ones we think of is a marriage covenant. The Bible has a number of covenants, but it's actually very helpful to look at two large covenants in the Bible. But before we get into it, what is a covenant? Typically, there's two parties, involved. It's a binding agreement. We're entering into this binding agreement, this contract or legal agreement. There are promises involved. Typically, there's some form of a blood seal. I was thinking about the old Huck Finn and Tom Sawyer with Jonathan Taylor Thomas. Shout out. But they were making an oath to each other, and they pricked their fingers to sign the oath. There's always some form of blood element. And the sacrifices, like we just saw in the Old Covenant, there is a Passover or there's sacrificial lambs. There's all kinds of blood elements to these, and they serve as mediation. Now, covenants can kind of operate in two ways. They can exist as blessings and obligations where I provide for you, and you then are obligated to do things for me. I've benefited you, and now you come back and benefit me according to what I ask, or so that'd be conditional or there are unconditional covenants, just royal grant, just I'm the king and I decided to give this to you. And finally, the covenants are typically accompanied with a sign or a sacrament. So we're going to look at the covenants. And actually, one of the things that's helpful about the Bible is it's broken in these two testaments. And it can be a helpful way to read them to say, okay, the Old Testament is talking about the old covenant. The New Testament is talking about the new covenant. Now, that's a helpful way to think about it. So we've got to look at what are these covenants? What is this old covenant? You're going to say that word about 80 more times, Paul. What is it? And what is the new covenant? Well, let's start with the old. So that's the Old Testament. And we get a little context of it from the book of Exodus because that's where it comes into play. Like we talked about, the people are delivered through the Red Sea. They're set free. They're now God's people. They belong to him in the wilderness. And he calls them to himself. And as we know, immediately they start sinning. It's not great. And then he gives Moses the big 10 and the 10 commandments. And he comes down the mountain. He finds the people sinning again and then further in exodus god calls the people to himself and he puts all the law in front of them and he says here's the covenant it says in exodus 24, 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 that the all the words that the lord has spoken we will do. So God's made some promises. He's given some blessings and he's put forward some obligations and the people say, all that the Lord has spoken, we will do. This is a conditional covenant. All that the Lord has said we will do, we're going to live on condition of this covenant. He goes further in Exodus 24. It says, 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. And Moses took the blood, the blood of a sacrifice, 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. That's quite a scene. He sprinkles the people who have agreed to this covenant with blood. That's intense. What is that? What's happening here? They are entering into a covenant with God. Where there's promises, obligations, or conditions, there's a blood oath that binds them. This is like signing an obedience contract for the people of Israel. But why all the blood? Why the blood? We're going to sing about the blood. We sing about it almost every Sunday. We see it in Passover. We see it in the Old Testament sacrificial system. Why all the blood? One verse in the Old Testament conversation that's helped me is Leviticus 17.11. That I think kind of frames up what is God doing with all of this blood and the sacrificial system. It says this. For the life of the flesh is in the blood and I have given it for you on the altar to make atonement for your souls for it is the blood that makes atonement by the life. Okay so what is all this blood doing what is it showing well the first thing it's showing is the severity of sin now when we talk about sin sometimes it can feel like a very church word what is it at the base It's breaking God's law. God has said, this is the way to live. This is what I've established as your creator. And we break it. There's sin of omission. We don't do things we're supposed to do. There's sins of commission. We do things we're not supposed to do. There's transgression. It's stepping outside of God's ways. There's idolatry, worshiping false gods. The reason they had sacrifices, one of the reasons is so that they would understand a life for a life. My sin causes death whose death will it be so it shows the severity of sin the second thing it shows is that life is in the blood it's the blood of the sacrifice that is what makes the atonement, that is what restores but it only does it here in the old testament temporarily they do the passover every year. Israel continues to disobey the law. I wanted to spend some time trying to think about what this old covenant or living under the law, what does that feel like? And the first thing I thought of was the leaves at our house. So I actually love the fall because I love raking leaves. But if I were, here's what living under the law is like. I can never get my yard clear of leaves. It is, we have a bunch of mature trees. They drop kind of phases where I get a little respite, but they're just dropping leaves. This is one pile. It's taller than chase. This is what I do all fall. I actually do enjoy it. But if I were to have to save my own life by getting my yard clear of every leaf, I'd be toast. I'd be done. Life under the law is like trying to clear every little leaf. It's like trying to make yourself clean and whole. It's not possible, no matter what we try. You know, I was thinking about this because it's not just for Christians or religious people, but we all feel the weight of that. We all have somewhere in our lives where we look at our lives and we're saying, I'm trying to make myself clean and whole. If I could just figure this out, I'd actually be okay. And we scrub our fingers down to the bone trying to make it happen. I was thinking about just recently, there's a commercial for a weight loss drug. And in the commercial, the woman says, I haven't gone a day my whole life without thinking about my weight. And feeling bad about my weight. That's what the law feels like. There's a standard accusing me. I can never live up to it, and it's what would save me. If weight and body image is the way that I need to save myself, then I'm accused every time that I fall short of that. Every time I fail on my diet or miss a workout. We all have something you can think of right now in your life where you say, this is that thing that I look at and I say, if I just could get that figured out, if I could just kick this habit or stop being that way. That's what it's like to live under the law. It's disheartening. We make all kinds of sacrifices to see things change. Now that's what it's just like to live in this modern world and try to live up to a standard we set for ourselves now we've got to take that further and apply that to a relationship with god the holy god of the universe, if we can't even live up to our standard like that we constantly fall short of our own standard whatever it is for you and those things now how can i ever stand before a holy god by keeping his law i can't do it, We can't make ourselves right with God Again, what they say to Moses All that the words of the Lord has spoken We will do and we don't. Far from restoring us The law reveals our sin It actually buries us Figuratively and literally It kills us, The old covenant doesn't deal with the root problem. We need someone to come. Dude, I could end the sermon there and we could just all leave and be just devastated. Thank God the Bible doesn't end with the Old Testament. We need somebody who can come, and once for all make a sacrifice that deals with the root problem of our sin, Somebody who can come and just give us atonement instead of saying it's conditional. Make us right with God instead of saying earn it. That is why the new covenant exists. That is what Jesus is inaugurating with the Passover meal. I just whipped, I just drew this up this morning, but thought I'd throw it up there. That is what Jesus is inaugurating when he says, take this, take, this is my body. And when he says, this is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many. Now, we do need to ask, is Jesus off his rocker for saying this? You can't just come in and establish a covenant. That's a big deal. Do we see the connection to Exodus 12, to the lamb, to the body being eaten, to the blood that covers? What do we see as Jesus establishes this new covenant meal of the Lord's Supper. Listen to Ken Hughes here. He says, This upcoming meal was easily the most important meal eaten in the history of the world. Why? It identified Christ as the Passover lamb par excellence who would deliver Israel. It would be the final meal Jesus would eat on this earth. The Passover would graphically explain the centrality of Christ, the salvation, His blood must be wine to us, and his flesh our bread. The final reason Jesus took such great care and preparation for the Passover meal was that it was a night when devout Jews were filled with hope of God's intervention once more. What he's doing when he establishes this new covenant is ringing all the bells and saying, something new has come and it is me. That hope you had for God's intervention is happening and it's about to happen on the cross. Do we continue to see the themes as we look in just the New Testament? John the Baptist, when he sees Jesus in John chapter one, it says this, the next day he saw Jesus coming toward him and said, behold, the lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. Here comes the unblemished lamb, Jesus. Back earlier in the chapter, it says, and the word became flesh and dwelt among us and we have seen his glory. Glory is of the only son from the father, full of grace and truth. When the people in the Passover brought the lamb into their house, it became a part of their home for 14 days. They named it, they knew it, they loved it, and then they saw it sacrificed. Jesus dwelt among us for 33 years. We knew him. Did we see him? Did we love him? We saw him sacrificed. We see this lesser, greater Passover lamb to Jesus, the ultimate and true lamb. We see this physical reality of flesh or of wine and bread become spiritual. Listen to Jesus in John chapter 6. He says, whoever feeds on my flesh and drinks my blood abides in me and I in him. As the living Father sent me and I live because of the Father. So whoever feeds on me will also live because of me. This is a metaphor. It's a metaphor for what all-out trust in Jesus looks like. To be so in on him that we participate with him and live in him like this. So when Jesus establishes the Passover, establishes an all-out trust in him for salvation with this new and greater meal, it undoes the old system of relating to God, how we would try to relate to God. There's no longer a Passover meal, but the Lord's Supper. He's undoing the old system. He's doing something that the old system couldn't do. The book of Hebrews in the New Testament describes it this way. For since the law has but a shadow of the good things to come, law lesser, good things to come greater, instead of the true form of these realities, it can never, by the same sacrifices that are continually offered every year, Make perfect those who draw near. Think of those things you try to just work yourself down to the bone to see change in your life. Or here, in a religious sense, the law can't do, over and over, year after year, re-offering those sacrifices, but it can't do what Jesus alone can do. Amen. But Jesus does offer himself, offers his body as a sacrifice to do away with the old covenant and establish the new. Here again in Hebrews verse 8, it says, When he said, Above you have neither desired nor taken pleasure in sacrifices and offerings and burnt offerings and sin offerings. These are offered according to the law. Then he added, Behold, I have come to do your will. He does away with the first to establish the second. And by that will we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all. Okay, so a little context here for these first couple verses. What is it saying? It's saying the law covenant had all of these sacrifices in place that could never take away sin. They were offered according to the law, and then Jesus comes on the scene and says, God, I've come to do your will, not by being like one of those sacrifices, the blood of bulls and goats, but offering my body itself, my blood itself, as a sacrifice to cover the people. And look what it says in verse 10. When it says he does away with the old to establish the new in his blood, look what it says in verse 10. It says, we have been sanctified. That means made holy. That means made righteous. That means able to stand before God without any fear of judgment and with full acceptance. He says, we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all. He makes us clean and whole. He makes us able to stand before God. He deals with our root problems so we don't have to keep running on a treadmill all our lives. It goes on in verse 11 and every priest stands daily at his service offering repeatedly the same sacrifices which can never take away sins but, when christ had offered for all time a single sacrifice for sins he sat down at the right hand of god waiting from that time until his enemies should be made a footstool for his feet for by a single offering he has perfected for all time, those who are being sanctified. The thing about the sacrificial system, the thing about those areas of our lives that we want to be clean and whole, is we have to keep bringing something year after year, offering something else, and it never sticks. But here's what the gospel says. God provides offering and it adores forever. The old covenant says, relate to God through the law, the law that condemns you. And it does that to pave the way for us to see the beauty of the second thing, the new covenant, where now we don't relate to God through the law. We relate to God through his son. His son who covers us. Listen to David Garland once more. He says, what do Jesus' statements, this is my body, this is my blood imply? Wine was considered to be the blood of the grape plucked from the vine and crushed. The blood of sacrificial animals was poured out by the priests on the altar as a sin offering to atone for the sins of the people. When Jesus makes his statements, he is saying that his death is a new sacrifice offered to God. No more sacrificial victims need be killed, only bread broken and shared, wine poured out and shared. The new covenant sacrifice is showing us that Jesus is the true and eternal Passover lamb. He's the son of God who died on the cross to cover his people with the blood of his sacrifice and spare us from judgment. And it is this then that when we take communion, which we're going to do shortly, that we commemorate. This is how we remember the last supper. The apostle Paul says it this way. For I received from the Lord what I also delivered to you, that the Lord Jesus on the night when he was betrayed took bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it and said, This is my body, which is for you. Do this in remembrance of me. In the same way he also took the cup, after supper saying, This cup is the new covenant in my blood. Do this as often as you drink it in remembrance of me. For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord's death until he comes. I actually learned this week, which I've learned at times. One of the things I learned was that the word souvenir means in French to remember. When we take the Lord's Supper, when we take these elements, it's like a little souvenir. We're remembering the Lord's death, proclaiming it until he comes. We're feasting on Jesus to be reminded that we are all in on him. And I love that God establishes this. One of the things I read said, this is a tangible act. That reminds us of a very real forgiveness that's not just out there in ideal land. That Jesus really covers us, atones for us, makes us holy, clean, and whole. And this was the thing that Judas missed. Jesus actually does something very powerful when he shares a meal with Judas. Listen to Kent Hughes again. He says, what an act of love. In the culture of the day, to take a morsel from the table, dip it in the common dish, and offer it to another was a gesture of friendship. For example, when Boaz invited Ruth to fellowship with him, he said, come here and eat some bread, and dip your morsel in the wine. Jesus was reaching out to Judas quietly. Intimately, he was saying, in effect, here is my friendship and forgiveness. All you have to do is take it. My old friend, will you? The cross is the ultimate moment of Jesus reaching out to us, saying, like the grape, I will be crushed for you. I will be poured out like wine for you. Reaching out to us personally, each one of us, and saying to us, here's my friendship and forgiveness. All you have to do is take it. There's no condition here except faith. Who can get in on this? Anybody. All it takes is faith back to the leaves. Now, I love raking these leaves, but there's a reason why. I have so much joy in doing the work of raking these leaves. Because when I put in all that work and make the big pile, my boys come out in the yard and they run and jump in the leaves. They delight in it, in essence I'm doing all the work so they can have all the joy, and then of course it messes it up and then I rake it again and, clean up their mess, when we look at the Lord's Supper when we look at the cross, Jesus does all the work for us He sets the table for us to belong to Him forever, We get all the benefit We get covered in His righteousness He always covers us And He always cleans up our messes That's what it means to be in covenant with someone, And He is in covenant with us And it is sealed by the blood of His cross, The only clean and whole person The only deserving person at the Lord's Supper Was Jesus And he's the very one Who qualifies us to belong at his table. He's the Lamb of God Who takes away your sin and mine And he has so much joy in it all he asks is for us to jump in, by putting our trust in him. So if you're in here and you've yet to trust in Jesus, here he is. He's offering you his friendship and his forgiveness. All you have to do is take it. Will you? You can make that first step of faith right now by taking communion with us. If you're in here and you have trusted Jesus, you have a seat forever at the table of Jesus. So take and eat. Remember his sacrifice for you. I'm going to pray the worship team is going to come back up and we'll move to a time of communion. Heavenly Father, we stand here in awe at the beauty of your plan that the Passover lamb, this memorial you commanded, was just teeing up for Jesus to come on the scene and be the true and eternal Passover lamb who doesn't just take away sins for a minute or a weekend or a year. He takes away all our sin, buries it in the grave, and walks out of the grave and invites us to his table. God, I pray for anyone in this room who is yet to embrace Jesus, yet to accept him and his friendship and forgiveness, that right now would be that moment that you come into their lives forever. And for those of us who have trusted you, help us to just remember you now that all you ask is for us to jump in in faith and remember you. And in that, you change our lives. We pray you do that work in us. In Jesus' name, amen.

Mark 14:12–26 Exodus 12 · chapter mention Mark 14 · chapter mention John 6 · chapter mention