LUKE 22:7-23 COMMUNION WITH JESUS2014 Teaching by Jerry B Simmons

Teaching Transcript: Luke 22:7-23 Communion With Jesus

Today we are going to be talking about communion with Jesus. And this is an interesting subject, it's an interesting passage, because...

So much of what we do at church is tradition that has developed over the years and has been carried on to us. There's a lot of things that we do as far as church is concerned that has a lot to do with our culture. If you go to church and

in a different culture, you'll find that, well, there's a lot of things that are different. There's slight variations in the styles of worship, in the styles of the message. There's different lengths of the worship and lengths of the message. There's different contents of a service. And the way that we do church today is,

has been kind of handed down and a lot of tradition, you know, you can think about the Calvary Chapel style and that's distinct, you know, from other denominations as well. And there's all these different influences and things that go in. And so the result is there's a lot of variety as far as church services are concerned. There's a lot of variety as far as

When believers are gathered together, what takes place? And what is the focus and the discussion? What's, you know, going on within the gathering of believers? And there's a lot of different traditions that influence that. Now, nothing wrong with, you know, many of these traditions, and I'm not suggesting that. But as we look at the subject of communion today, this is intriguing to me because, well, this is one specific thing that the Lord has instructed us to do.

A lot of what we do as a gathering of believers is subject to the Lord leading us individually, but it's not universally, you know, every believer, every church needs to practice this specific thing. But when it comes to communion, this is something that Jesus has given to the whole church. It's something that he has given to us completely. And so we look this morning at a very important institution that has been given to us by Jesus.

Here, Jesus is celebrating the Passover with his disciples. It's his final meal before his crucifixion. And in celebrating this Passover, he gives it new meaning. And as he passes this new meaning on to his disciples, we have today what we celebrate as communion as a result of that Passover meal that Jesus celebrated with his disciples.

And so from looking at this Passover meal with Jesus, we learn some things about communion that are very important for you and I as believers today. And so there's four points I'd like to walk you through as we go through Luke chapter 22 verses 7 through 23 and talk about communion with Jesus. The first thing we'll see in verses 7 through 13 is that we need to prepare for communion. The

There's a need for us to prepare ourselves to partake of communion. And we'll see this beginning in verse 7. Here's what it says. Now Luke starts out this passage giving us some time frame and some context into what's going on and when this is happening.

This is taking place during the final week of Jesus' life. We refer to it oftentimes as Passion Week. And during that week...

was the Passover as well as the Feast of Unleavened Bread. And these two things go together. The Passover and the Feast of Unleavened Bread are slightly separate but also happening at the same time. They go together. And you can look for the background and the origin of these things in Exodus chapter 12 if you want to look into it. But this was celebrating the time when God led his people out of Egypt. Right?

And so there was the 10 plagues that God brought against Egypt. The final plague was the death of the firstborn.

And God told Israel, listen, I'm going to preserve your firstborns if you follow my instruction. Take a lamb, examine it, hang out with it for four days. And then on the 14th of Nisan, kill the lamb, take the blood and put it on the doorposts. And then the angel of death will pass over Yom Kippur.

your home. And so your firstborn will not be killed, but whatever homes didn't have the blood of the lamb, the firstborn would be killed. This was the 10th plague as God was bringing these judgments against Egypt to deliver his people. And then from that, God says, now from now on, I want you to remember this and always celebrate the Passover. Have a Passover lamb.

and you know follow the same thing with it and it has to be a perfect lamb and then sacrifice it on the 14th of Nisan and then consume that or eat that. That's your meal for the evening. But that also began the feast of unleavened bread and unleavened bread was bread you know that was baked without the leaven or the yeast and God told them to do that because when they left Egypt they

It was in haste. And so he says, you don't have time to let the bread rise. You don't have time, you know, to wait for that to work. And so you just need to put it in the oven, bake it, and get out of there because, you know, you need to go out with haste from Egypt.

And so then he instituted that. And he says, so from now on, you eat the Passover meal that really begins the feast of unleavened bread. And then for seven days, you consume no leaven, no yeast. You, you know, get it out of your house. Don't own any of it. Make sure that you are not

any kind of leaven and it's a picture of sin. And so there was this annual cleansing for them as they would clean out the house and they would celebrate the Passover and the feast of unleavened bread.

And so this is what's happening. It's the 14th of Nisan on the Jewish calendar. Jesus is about to be crucified. He's going to be arrested later on this evening. But first, he's going to celebrate the Passover with his disciples. Then verse 8, it says, And he sent Peter and John saying,

Go and prepare the Passover for us that we may eat. So they said to him, where do you want us to prepare? And so it's earlier in the day, Jesus is sending his disciples and he's saying, go get things ready so that we can have this meal together, the Passover meal. Now, this would not really have been a very easy task, but

To go and find a place last minute, you know, to be able to have the Passover. Because remember that the people from all around the region, the Jews, would come to Jerusalem. Because this was one of the required feasts every year. And so they would come to Jerusalem to offer the Passover lamb and to eat this meal together.

And so he's sending them out, you know, into a midst of a city that is crowded, that is super packed as a result of all of these Jews who have come here for the Passover. So it would not have been an easy task, except they did something very wise. And they said to Jesus, where do you want us to prepare?

It's good to seek the Lord for specific instruction as he gives you things to do. He tells them, go and prepare the Passover. And they said, okay, where would you like us to go? Where do you want us to make this preparation? And so Jesus has already made the way for them and established the things that they will need to be able to do this. You can see it in verse 10. It says, and he said to them, behold...

When you have entered the city, a man will meet you carrying a pitcher of water. Follow him into the house which he enters. Then you shall say to the master of the house, the teacher says to you, where is the guest room where I may eat the Passover with my disciples?

And so Jesus has already made preparations behind the scenes. The disciples don't know about it. And we don't know if, you know, Jesus went and talked to this, the owner of this home, or if this was a work of the spirit that was happening behind the scenes. But Jesus knows what's going on, even though the disciples don't. And so they say, where do you want us to go? And he says, okay, here's what's going to happen. Walk into the region and then you're going to see a guy and he's carrying a pitcher of water.

Now, although Jerusalem was crowded at this time for Passover, this would have been something easy to spot...

Because guys would not usually carry pitchers of water. In that culture in that day, it was the ladies who carried the pitchers of water. And so seeing a guy carrying a pitcher of water would stand out. So as they went into the area, they would see, oh, there he is right there. That's the oddball. And so they would know, okay, that's the guy we need to follow. And he says, follow them to the house. And then go in and talk to the master of the house and say,

Jesus wants to know where's the room where he can celebrate the Passover. In verse 12 he says, And so there's going to be a large room. Notice that it's furnished.

And so it's already prepared in advance as well. Like it's already reserved and set apart. It has all the, you know, the couches and the table and everything that's needed for this feast. It's already set to go. And so there you can go and make preparations.

This indicates that the owner of the house was probably very wealthy because to have a large home in Jerusalem was costly. That was prime real estate. And then also to have an extra, you know, upper room where, you know, the disciples and Jesus could have Passover, to have extra space, especially at the feast of Passover, was, you know, an indication as well that they were really wealthy. And so this is

probably something that God was working in their hearts that they had it already set apart they knew God wanted to do something with the room even if they didn't know exactly what and so then when the opportunity presented they knew oh this is what God told us about this is what God has been working in our hearts and it's amazing how God always works that way well then in verse 13 it says so they went and found it just as he had said to them and they prepared the Passover and

Isn't it amazing? They are sent by Jesus. They ask for specific direction. He gives it to them. And when they go, they find it exactly the way that Jesus has said. Listen, that is always going to be the case. And so I want to encourage you to be hearing from the Lord and following his instruction. And as you do, you will find it the way that he says.

That's a guarantee because Jesus knows what he's talking about. So they find it. It happens. They meet the guy. They go to the home. They find the upper room. And there they begin to prepare the Passover. Now there was quite a bit involved in preparing for the Passover meal.

Not all of the things that they practiced regarding Passover were commanded by God in Exodus, but they had these developed traditions and these many different parts to the Passover meal that they would celebrate each year. And so there was 15 different steps that

or parts of the Passover meal that they would celebrate. Now, I'm not saying that was 15 courses. That would be a good meal, right? No, it wasn't 15 courses, but at this particular point, they would eat this bite. At this particular point, they would say this prayer. At this point, they would sing that praise. And so there was these different steps that they would go through following this order in order to celebrate the Passover together.

And so I'm not going to go through all 15 of those, but just to mention a couple things.

One of the things that they would need to do in preparation was a representative for the family would go to the temple to offer the Passover lamb and it would be, you know, killed, sacrificed, and then they would bring it back for the rest of the family. So that's probably one thing that they were involved in doing. They also had to gather a vegetable. Many times it was parsley that they would have and they would eat that at a certain point in the meal.

They would have to gather three matzah breads. And so it would be this unleavened bread that they would have. And so they would eat these at different times during the meal. They would also have to make the preparation for what they would drink. And there was four different cups that they would drink at different times...

throughout the Passover meal. And so there would be almost like a toast. It would be like, you know, they would say a blessing or say something specific and then take a drink during the Passover meal. Also during the meal, there'd be a particular time for washing. There was another time for bitter herbs. And then also, aside from all those things, there was an actual dinner. So there was all this ceremony stuff.

But then you would also have a meal, part of a feast. And so there would be those preparations as well. So as these disciples, Peter and John, go to prepare, they find the room exactly as Jesus says, and then they get to work. There's a lot to do to get all these things ready and prepared for them to celebrate the Passover together.

Now Jesus, at this meal, gives the Passover feast new meaning. And now we understand and we look to that as communion. And so as they had to prepare for the Passover feast this morning,

I want to encourage you to prepare for communion. You know, there's some practical things that are involved in preparing for communion. We have to get the bread and the juice and put it in the little cups and break the bread in pieces and have that ready and have the ushers available to be able to hand it out to you.

But I think more importantly than those kind of practical things is to prepare our hearts for communion. And I think that's what we need to be challenged in this morning. We're going to have an opportunity at the end of service to partake of communion. And I would like to encourage you, beginning right now, start to prepare yourself to partake of communion. Paul tells us in 1 Corinthians chapter 11,

to prepare ourselves. He says in 1 Corinthians chapter 11 verse 28, let a man examine himself and so let him eat of the bread and drink of the cup. Paul says you need to examine yourself before you partake of communion. There needs to be some preparation ahead of time. There needs to be an examination of your heart. There needs to be some reflection on where you're at in

In your relationship with God. And what's going on with you and the Lord. Examine yourself he says. And then he goes on to give a warning in verse 29 of 1 Corinthians 11. He says. And so there's a warning here. He says.

You need to examine yourself because if you do this in an unworthy manner, well, there's some judgment that results and you bring judgment to yourself for disregarding or being unworthy of partaking of the bread and the cup of the Lord. Now, worthiness has nothing to do with perfection. It has to do with our hearts and our relationship with God. And so there needs to be this examination.

this preparation of our hearts and again i would say start to do that now we're going to partake of communion at the end of service so start to examine your heart and allow god to reveal things that should not be there allow god to reveal issues and and things that are out of place and out of line with what god desires for you in addition to that we again part of our traditions right we

Partake of communion on the first Sunday of every month. And so I would encourage you to prepare yourself for that. I would encourage you not to just show up on a Sunday morning and go, oh, it must be the first Sunday of the month. I see the communion elements are there. But I would encourage you, even before you are coming to church,

that you are preparing your heart, understanding we're partaking of communion today. It's not a surprise. It's scheduled. We know it's the first Sunday of every month, and it's serious. There's some real significance here. Communion should not be a mindless ritual, but it's meaningful. And so I would encourage you to prepare for communion. And don't be caught off guard. Don't

Take it without consideration. But as Paul said, examine yourself. Check your heart. Are you walking with the Lord? Are you spending time with Him? Are you trusting in Him? Is there sin that you need to turn from? Are you valuing His sacrifice? These are some of the things that we can evaluate and consider today.

To prepare our hearts for communion. Where do you stand with the Lord? And are you right with Him as He calls you to be? And so there's this need. As they had to prepare for the Passover, there was lots of practical things. Paul says, you also need to prepare your heart. And check your heart. Make sure that you are in right relationship with the Lord.

Well, as we go on now in verses 14 through 18, we have the second point for this morning. And that is that Jesus fervently desires communion. Jesus fervently desires to participate in communion with you. We see this starting in verse 14. It says, when the hour had come, he sat down and the 12 apostles with him.

So Peter and John, you know, they go ahead, they make arrangements, everything's ready, and now it's dinner time. And throughout this dinner, there's different blessings that they share, there's different conversations that they have, and Jesus is talking with them and he says, you know,

I've really desired to have this last Passover meal with you. With fervent desire, he said, I have desired this. And I think it's interesting, he says, to eat this Passover with you before I suffer. And so trying to picture what Jesus is going through in that time, he knows the suffering that he's about to endure.

Just a few more hours from this point, he's going to be arrested. He's going to be on trial all night. And then he's going to be crucified early the next morning. And so there's going to be great agony and great pain and great sorrow over his separation from the Father as he takes upon himself the sin of all humanity.

And so this suffering he's about to endure is great. It is not great in a good way, but it's going to be awful. It's going to be very difficult.

But as Jesus is looking ahead at what's to come, and he knows that suffering is about to come, he has this highlight before that. He has this time that, oh wow, yeah, that suffering is going to be there, but there's going to be this great blessed time with my disciples at the Passover meal. As he considered the suffering he was about to endure, he said, oh, I'm really looking forward to

to this final meal with my disciples. It's going to be so refreshing. I can't wait. That gives us an indication of how serious Jesus is when he says, with fervent desire, I've desired to eat this Passover with you. Because the suffering that he's about to endure doesn't ruin his evening with the disciples.

I'm not sure if it's the same for you, but you know, whenever there's something that I'm dreading, you know, it's very easy for that to ruin the rest of the day, right? If you have something coming up in the day and you know it's coming and you know it's going to be horrible, you're going to have to appear in court or you're going to have to address that, you know, issue and have that difficult conversation or you're going to have to make it to that dentist appointment or whatever it is. You have something that you're dreading,

And the meals that day don't taste as good as they usually do, you know, because you're preoccupied. You're just distracted as this thing is looming over you. But for Jesus, although what he was about to endure is the worst thing that anybody ever could endure, he fervently desired. He was looking forward to this time with the disciples. That's how much Jesus wanted to spend time with them.

if I was Jesus, I think I would have been set, I would have been like, you know, you guys leave me alone. I'm bummed out. I'm discouraged. So, you know, I have, I'm preparing myself for this great trial that I'm going through. But Jesus says, no, I've greatly desired this. This is my final chance, my final opportunity to hang out with you at this time, to spend time with my disciples.

He goes on in verse 16. He says, Jesus is about to go to the cross and in doing so, he's going to fulfill the picture of the Passover. He is the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world. And so he says, this is my last chance to spend time with you guys in this way. I'm going to go fulfill this picture of

Begin the work of the kingdom of God in dying upon the cross and allowing people to have access to God by faith in me. And so he says this is that last opportunity. Then in verse 17 it says,

Now, I mentioned earlier, there's different times throughout the meal that they would drink of the cup. And so this is probably the third of the four times that Jesus is passing around the cup and he says, divide it among yourselves because I'm not going to drink of it again until the kingdom of God comes.

Jesus is now going to establish the kingdom of God, not the physical, literal one that comes later, but the spiritual one that is accomplished at his crucifixion.

At the beginning of his ministry in Matthew chapter 4, Jesus began his ministry by declaring, repent for the kingdom of heaven or the kingdom of God is at hand. And so he's saying repent because the kingdom of God is at hand. It's right here. And now at the end of Jesus's ministry, he's going to the cross and the kingdom of God will be established for those who believe in him.

Now the real fulfillment of the kingdom of God comes later. But for individuals, for his disciples, the kingdom of God is now because we have access to God by faith in Jesus Christ. And so he says, this is my last chance. Enjoy this drink with me. Enjoy this meal with me. Let's spend this time together. I fervently desired this time with you.

Because I'm about to go and suffer. And accomplish the things that God has called me to do. Now as we carry that on now. For you and I as believers. Again he's given this meal new meaning for us. In communion. And in the same way as Jesus fervently desired. To be with his disciples for that last supper. Jesus fervently desires to be with you. In communion. I am firmly convinced.

That we do not understand how much God wants to be with us. We don't understand how fervently he desires to be with us. We just don't get it. We still don't get it. God loves you more than you know. And I would even say it this way. God is more excited than you are about spending time with you this morning. I don't know how excited you were about coming to church this morning. But

Those who were most joyful over coming to church still don't compare to how God feels about meeting with you at church today. I don't know how you felt when you walked in today and you saw the communion table and maybe you thought, hey, is it the first Sunday of the month? Counting on your fingers maybe. Maybe Jerry's confused because he was gone and so he didn't mean to have communion out there. We did communion last week. Why do we have to do it again this week? I don't know what was going through your head. But I can tell you this.

God is more excited about spending time with you than you are about spending time with him. He fervently desires communion with you. He fervently desires this relationship with you. He says, with fervent desire I have desired to eat this with you.

The commentator William McDonald said, These revealing words invite all believers of every time and place to consider how passionately Jesus longs for communion with us at his table. Consider how passionately Jesus longs for communion with you. He loves you greatly. He desires to have time with you. He desires for you to share your heart with him.

to share your struggles, to share your life. He desires to give you instruction. He desires to enjoy some quiet time. He desires to be with you passionately, fervently, more than you know.

As I was thinking about this and kind of trying to get a glimpse of how passionately and fervently, you know, God desires to spend time with us, I was likening it in my mind as I was reflecting back, you know, we just celebrated, Kim and I, we celebrated 10 years of marriage and that's why we were gone this past week.

And that was great. You know, we're excited and man, 10 years has gone by so fast. But I was thinking about the night that I proposed. Now, the night that I proposed, it was a Wednesday evening and I did it at church. And so we had service as usual. And then Pastor Tom was here. He was teaching. He was still the pastor at that time. And he said, hey, if anybody wants to stick around, we have a little, you know, presentation that we're going to be giving, a little video that we're going to show. So

And so the lights dimmed. I disappeared and Kim was sitting there. And we played the little video that kind of, you know, told the story of our relationship. And then afterwards I walked up and I proposed to her. And that was quite an exciting time. But beforehand, Kim was a little bit confused. Because the other thing that we had going on that evening was it was opening night for The Matrix. And we had scheduled for a midnight showing. After service, a bunch of us, we're going to go to the midnight showing. And so before service...

I know I'm going to propose, but she doesn't know. Here's what she knows. He's all excited. He's all like antsy and giddy and he's got all this energy. And she looks at me and she says...

I can't believe how excited you are to see this movie. Like, she just can't figure out, like, why are you so excited to see this movie? It's, I mean, yeah, it's good, but it's not that good. I mean, why are you so excited about this? But I had this, this fervent desire because I knew what was happening. I was proposing we were going to get married. I mean, that's, that's exciting stuff. And that's the way that God feels about meeting with you. He is excited. He is fervent. He is passionate about

about you, about knowing you and about walking with you. Jesus fervently desires communion. Sometimes we kind of get the feeling like Jesus is kind of busy, you know, he's got a lot of people to attend to and he doesn't really pay that much attention if I don't spend time with him today or I miss out on church that day or I don't spend time with him that week, you know. We kind of almost think that, you know, Jesus doesn't really notice if we're

We don't spend time with him until he goes back and checks the logs. Like he has to do an audit. Like, hey, where were you back in March? You know, I'm just getting around to the records. And notice you haven't been spending much time with me. No, no, no. That's not how it is. He's fervent in his desire to be with you. And he's waiting for us. He's waiting. He...

We don't have to, it's not like we're bothering him. He's waiting for us. He's always available and ready. Whenever we're willing to make ourselves available and to connect with him, he's right there, fervently desiring, passionate about a relationship with us. And so as we prepare our hearts for communion this morning, understand how important and meaningful this is to him. He fervently desires this.

for this relationship with you. He fervently desires to meet you in this way. Well now as we go on in verse 19 and 20 we have the third point for this morning and that is to remember Jesus in communion. We need to remember Jesus in our time of communion. Verse 19 he says, "...and he took bread, gave thanks, and broke it, and gave it to them, saying, This is my body which is given for you. Do this in remembrance of me."

Jesus is now at the point in the Passover meal where the bread is taken and it's broken and passed out. Again, this was part of the Passover meal, but Jesus now gives it new meaning. And he says, this is my body which is given for you. Now, he's not saying this is literally my body because he hadn't been crucified yet.

Well, aside from other issues with that actually happening, right? So, but what he's saying is this is a representation. This represents my body. And it would make more sense to them as well because at this point in the Passover feast, they would hold up the bread and they would say, this is the bread of affliction our ancestors ate when they came from Egypt. Right?

And so they would pause during the feast that evening and they would say, here's the bread of affliction. Our ancestors were persecuted, they were afflicted, and God brought them out of Egypt. And so they would stop and remember that and they would say, this is the bread of affliction. So what Jesus is saying is, you understood the bread to mean this affliction. Now I'm going to give new meaning to it.

It represents, it signifies, Jesus says, my body which is given for you. And so as we partake of communion, we are remembering Jesus' body being given. How Jesus surrendered his body to be crucified. And so he says, do this in remembrance of me. I like this because what I see here is that Jesus recognizes our weaknesses.

Although he fervently desires communion with us, as we've just been talking about, on the other side, here we are, and you and I could testify how easily we forget about what God has done for us. Easily we forget the blessings, the miracles, the salvation that he offers. It's easy for us to forget those things, even though for Jesus, he fervently desires communion

communion with us. And so he gives us this command to help us remember him. I kind of liken it. I think it's not all that different from what we're celebrating today. Today is Mother's Day. It's the one day a year where you love your mom, right? No, you better not be. You love your mom every day, right? You appreciate her every day. So why do we have Mother's Day? Well, because, you know, in life,

We forget. We get busy. And although you love your mom, although you appreciate her, you don't always communicate that. You don't always take the time to express it. Because you got stuff going on. You're distracted. There's a lot of things happening. And so, you know, our culture has instituted these days to say, hey, stop and remember things that are important. Stop and remember mom. Stop and remember dad. We celebrate Easter. We celebrate Christmas. Similar kinds of things. It's to help us

Remember what's important and what's valuable. In the same way, we need to remember Jesus. He says, do this in remembrance of me. If he did not institute communion for us, well, it would have been pretty easy for us to get in our routine and to go about our business and forget about Jesus. Forget about what he's done and not think very highly or very much about what his sacrifice was and what it meant for us.

And so Jesus establishes this. He says, do this in remembrance of me so that we take moments to stop and reflect, to reconsider, to remember the meaning, the value of what Jesus has done for us. Well, then verse 20, it says, likewise, he also took the cup after supper saying, this cup is the new covenant in my blood, which is shed for you. So this is the final cup, the fourth cup.

And he takes it and he says again, here's new meaning to this cup. This signifies a new covenant that's in my blood. I'm going to the cross. My blood will be shed for you. And this is representing that new covenant that will be established.

The old covenant, that's the Old Testament. That's the covenant that God made with the people of Israel. They're with Moses and they had the law. It was by faith you had relationship with God and you express that faith by keeping the law. The new covenant that we have in the blood of Jesus is by faith as well. But you express that faith by believing in Jesus.

And so it's both are by faith, but this new covenant says the law is fulfilled. It's completed based upon what Jesus did on the cross. And so this new covenant is established by the blood of Jesus. Now notice that Jesus says regarding the bread and the cup, he says, this is my body and this is my blood.

Again, not his actual body and blood, but representations. But the point is, he says, it's my body, it's my blood for you. My body given for you, my blood shed for you. And Jesus here is emphasizing or establishing this understanding of substitution. Saying, you belong on the cross. You deserve the judgment that I'm about to receive, but I'm giving myself. My body...

I'm giving it for you in your place. My blood, I'm shedding it for you in your place. In the same way that the Passover lamb died in the place of the firstborn, right? The judgment, the plague that was coming on the land was the firstborn of every family would be killed, would die. But God said, I'll spare the firstborn, but there has to be a substitute, the Passover lamb. And so sacrifice the Passover lamb

Put the blood on the doorpost and then I will pass over. The angel of death will pass over. There's that substitution. And that's what we need to understand about what Jesus did for us. He took our place. It's not just that he was martyred. It's not just that he died. It's not just that his death was unjust. It's that he was our substitute. We deserve the judgment, but he took it and received it to himself.

And Jesus says, I want you to remember that. You need to remember that. You need to remember what it is that Jesus has done for you. That's why he instituted communion. So that you would remember Jesus. Remember his sacrifice. Remember that he, being God, became man. That he humbled himself. I mean, it's unfathomable. But we got to continue to remind ourselves about it.

As amazing as it is, and if you start to consider it, and you start to consider the value of his sacrifice, and why would a God, our creator, become part of his creation, then to die? I mean, it's really radical. But then we easily forget. And so we have to be reminded. Stir yourself up. Don't just kind of gloss over these things. It's easy for us to do.

Right? When you read a passage that you've read many times, it's like, oh yeah, yeah. You just kind of hit the highlight words, you know. Oh yeah, I remember that. I remember that. Okay. And you just kind of pass over it. But don't do that regarding communion. Stir it up. Stir it up in your heart. Reflect. Consider. Think about who Jesus is. The value of his sacrifice. What that means. The life that you have in him. He wants you to remember that.

So remember Jesus in communion. Well, the final point for this morning is in verses 21 through 23. And here we see that betrayers partake of communion. Now, this is probably not going to be, you know, the highlight of the message for you, your favorite point of the message. But it's one that we need to address because it's addressed by the Lord here at this Passover feast.

And what you need to understand about this is that communion does not save you. And what I mean by that is that eating crackers and juice doesn't bring salvation. The only thing that brings salvation is real communion with Jesus. So it's not performing some ritual. It's not, you know, performing this thing that Jesus gave us to do. The bread and the cup represent something.

It represents his body and his blood. And if that's not real to you, and if you don't have real relationship with God, then the bread and the cup can't take the place of that. You have to have that real relationship. So communion itself does not save you. And so as a result, there are betrayers who partake of communion. Look at verse 21. Jesus says, But behold, the hand of my betrayer is with me on the table.

And truly the Son of Man goes as it has been determined, but woe to that man by whom he is betrayed. Jesus says, you guys, I'm going to be betrayed. And the guy who's going to betray me, he's right here with us. Now this would have been very shocking because to share a meal together like they are,

It spoke of great intimacy. They understood it to be, this is like serious. This is meaningful. And for someone who shared a meal with you to betray you, that was the worst of the worst of hurts. And so Jesus says, my betrayer is here with me at the table. But then he goes on to say, listen, the son of man goes as it has been determined. That is, it's God's will for Jesus to die.

This wasn't unplanned. This wasn't accidental or, you know, he just made the best of a bad situation. This was the very reason that he came. That's why he decided, being God, to become man so that he could die upon the cross for our sins. That's the whole point. So he says, hey, I'm going as it has been determined. That's the point. That's the purpose. But woe to that man by whom he is betrayed. Woe to Judas...

Because although it is part of God's plan, that doesn't excuse Judas from his actions. And so he pronounces woe. That is a sorrowful judgment. A term of sorrow, a term of judgment. He's going to be judged and I'm sorry for it is what Jesus is saying. Woe to that man by whom it comes. And so God works all things together for good. And he works out his plan for Jesus to die upon the cross.

But that doesn't excuse those who are involved in the crucifixion, in the betrayal. In the same way, hey, God works out all things for good for believers, to those who love God and are the cold according to his purpose. But that doesn't remove the guilt. It doesn't remove the consequences from those who inflict harm or do wrong. Then verse 23 says, Then they began to question among themselves which of them it was who would do this thing.

So the disciples are shocked. Jesus says, my betrayer is right here in the midst of us. And they began to try to figure out, to question, who would do this? It's interesting because, you know, they didn't immediately point to Judas, you know, kind of all like all in unison, like, oh, we know who it is.

Sorry for whoever I pointed at over there. I'm not trying to say anything, okay? I pointed this side too. Yeah, we know who it is. No, they didn't know it was, he blended in very well. They didn't recognize it was Judas. In fact, in Matthew chapter 26 verse 22, it tells us there that they were exceedingly sorrowful when Jesus said this. And they began to say to him, Lord, is it I? And so the disciples, you get this picture, like one by one, they go around the table. Is it me, Lord? Is it me? Is it me? Is it me? Is it me?

This is how deep this rocked them because they didn't think, you know, well, it must be John or it must be James. It must be Judas. They thought, maybe it's me. Is it me, Lord? Am I the one who will betray you? They understood that they were capable. It's something that you and I need to come to grips with as well. Listen, we are all capable of betraying the Lord.

of denying the Lord, of walking away from the Lord. We're vulnerable. And sometimes betrayers partake of communion. They blend in really well. They're in our midst. We know them. But their hearts are far from God. And from our perspective, we can't always tell. Sometimes it's really hard to tell. And it's not our job to tell. Instead, here's what I would say. Our job is to make sure that we're not one of them.

Here's my responsibility. Make sure that I'm not one who will betray the Lord, but instead that I'm one who is pursuing the Lord. I'm capable of failing. I'm capable of running from God. I'm capable. I'm vulnerable. I need the Lord and you do as well. And so I think it's wise to really have the attitude in the heart of the disciples here and say, Lord, is it I? Is

As we prepare for communion, Lord, is it me? Am I in a condition that's not good? Am I in a condition where I'm set up to betray you, to turn from you, to deny you, or to walk away? Instead, we need to be focused on pursuing the Lord. Pursue the Lord.

Make sure that he's first and foremost in your life. Make sure that he is the supreme passion, that he's the one you're living for. As Jesus fervently desires communion with you, make sure that you fervently desire communion with him. And if that's not where your heart's at, then be warned and be concerned because there is danger for those who are not pursuing a relationship with God by faith in Jesus Christ.

I've been reflecting on this idea for a while, ever since we heard the news about Pastor Bob Coy, who, you know, great man, great teacher, we love him, and yet then we found out that he had fallen into sin. And there's great destruction as a result of that, and great devastation as a result of that.

And so I've been ministering or meditating on this idea and, you know, whenever I hear about these kinds of things, it always causes me to reflect like the disciples. Lord, is it I? Is there things that are out of place in my life? Is there things that you need to address in me because I'm capable of the same things? And what the Lord's really been ministering to me and I'll just share briefly with you is that two concepts. The fear of God and

and the love of God. I hear a lot about the fear of God when talking about sin. We need to have a fear of God. You know, we've lost the fear of God. That's a common phrase that's given out. And the fear of God is necessary. It is essential because He is our judge. And we will stand before Him and we will give account of our life. We will give account for every idle word. We will give account to the Lord and He is the one who has the power to cast us into hell. And so we need to have the fear of God.

But the fear of God just by itself is not sufficient to keep me from being a betrayer. Because if I don't love God, so the fear of God without a love for God causes me to stay away from God. Because I fear God, I'm freaked out by God, I'm freaked out about the idea of standing before God.

But if I don't have the love for God, then I'm not drawing near to God. The strength to stand fast and to be men and women of integrity comes from staying in close relationship with God. And so if I fear God, but I don't have a love for God, I'll stay away and I won't have the strength to not do what I'm trying not to do because I haven't been drawing near. I don't have this pursuit of God. I just have this fear of God that causes me to stay away.

And so I need to love God. Now, if I love God, but I don't have the fear of God, well, that's not good either because then I do whatever I want to do. No fear of destruction. And I just say, well, I love God. Without regard, I kind of begin to take the grace of God for granted. And so there has to be this combination. They have to come together. The fear of God and the love for God. Betrayers partake of communion.

John addresses this in 1 John chapter 2. He says, look, you know the Antichrist is coming? And he says, also, many Antichrists have already come. And he says, they came from our midst. They came from among us. We're all capable. We're all vulnerable. And that's why we need to make sure. It highlights for us, it reveals how much we need the Lord. We need to fear God and we need to love God.

Now again, our job is not to identify those who aren't right with God. That's not your job. Your job is to make sure that you are right with God. This is a warning to us, not so that we can find other people, but so that we can, well, prepare our own hearts to check ourselves out, to examine ourselves, to be warned. Say, Lord, have I grown cold in my relationship with you? Have I become lazy in my relationship with you?

Have I began to compromise? Have I allowed sin to creep in? Have I allowed Satan to fill my heart? Is there issues that need to be addressed? Because I don't want to fall away. I don't want to hurt you. And I don't want to hurt the people around me by involving myself in things that are not of you. Jesus here gives us a super important institution of communion. And he says, I want you to do this. Here's what it means. Do it and remember me. And so we want to do that this morning.

Partake of communion together. The worship team, you guys can come back up. And the ushers are going to make ready. And as they lead us in worship, they're going to pass out the bread and the cup. And I would say you can partake of the bread and the cup at any time during this song. As they lead in this worship song, partake at any time, but walk through these things, okay? First, prepare yourself for communion. Check your heart. Invite the Lord to reveal anything that's out of line.

Invite the Lord to give you any instruction that He wants to give you. Make sure that you are where you need to be with the Lord. That you have right relationship with Him. As you prepare your heart, also recognize that Jesus fervently desires communion with you. This is meaningful to Him. He's passionate about this. And so engage in this time. Don't let your mind wander. Don't get distracted and start thinking about, you know, the Mother's Day brunch and we've got to get out of here to get in line or whatever.

Come back. Come back. Jesus fervently desires communion with you. He gave himself for you. He desires to be with you. So really engage with him during this time. And remember Jesus. As you partake, remember, this is my body, he said. This is my blood. And if you've been far from God, if you haven't been walking with God, but you want to, you want to get right with God, this is the great opportunity.

As you partake, you say, Jesus, I believe in what you did for me. I believe your body was broken. I believe your blood was shed. That you, being God, died on the cross for my sin. And you can have full restoration in relationship with God as you call out to him and commune with him this morning. And so as they lead us in worship and the ushers pass out the bread and the cup, partake at any time as you worship the Lord, but engage with him.

As you prepare your heart, remember He desires this time with you and reflect on Him and what He's done for you. Let me pray and then we'll worship. Lord, we thank You for Your incredible sacrifice and what You've done for us and I pray, God, that You would help us to get a greater glimpse, a greater understanding. Although we can't fully understand all that You've done, help us to understand a little bit more Your great love for us

your sacrifice on our behalf and how fervently you desire to meet with us. And I pray, God, that you would help us to return and follow you with the same intensity that we would fervently desire you. Stir that up within us, God, as we worship you and partake of these elements that you gave to us to remind us of you. So, Lord, help us to remember. In Jesus' name I pray. Amen.

We pray you have been blessed by this Bible teaching. The power of God to change a life is found in the daily reading of His Word. Visit ferventword.com to find more teachings and Bible study resources.