The sermon delves into Mark chapter 14, focusing on Jesus' preparation for the Passover and the significance of the Last Supper. It highlights how Mark uses literary techniques such as repetition, sandwiches, and cycles to emphasize Jesus' mission and identity as the King of Kings. The repeated mention of 'Passover' underscores its importance in understanding chapters 14 and 15. The sermon connects the events of Mark 11 and 14, showing how Jesus' triumphal entry and the preparation for the Passover meal reveal His fulfillment of Messianic prophecies. It also discusses the deep treachery of Judas' betrayal and the theme of hypocrisy, drawing parallels between the judgment on Jerusalem and Judas. The sermon emphasizes Jesus as the final Passover lamb, whose sacrifice enables the triumph over sin and the transformation of sinners into children of God. The Lord's Supper is presented as a celebration of this triumph and a reminder of Jesus' fulfillment of the Old Covenant.

Please turn with me in your Bibles to the Gospel of Mark, Mark chapter 14. If you have a pew Bible you can find that on page 1013 Our passage this morning can be find out found on page 1013 Mark chapter 14 and we'll be beginning in verse 12. I ask the congregation to stand, as we hear now from God's word. Mark chapter 14 beginning in verse 12. On the first day of unleavened bread, when the Passover lamb was being sacrificed, his disciples said to him, to Jesus, where do you want us to 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 will meet you carrying a pitcher of water, follow him. And wherever he enters say to the owner of the house, the teacher says, where is my guest room in which I may eat the Passover with my disciples? And he himself will show you a large upper room furnished and ready. Prepare for us there. The disciples went out and came to the city and found it just as he had told them.

They prepared the Passover. When it was evening he came with the twelve as they were reclining at the table and eating Jesus said truly I say to you that one of you will betray me, one who is eating with me. They began to be grieved and say to him one by one, surely not I. And he said to them, it is one of the twelve, one who dips with me in his bowl. The Son of Man is to go just as it is written of him.

But woe to that man by whom the Son of Man is betrayed. It would have been good for that man if he had not been born. While they were eating, he took some bread. And after a blessing, he broke it and gave it to them and said, take it. This is my body.

When he had taken a cup and given thanks, he gave it to them. And they all drank from 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 never again drink of the fruit of the vine until that day when I drink it new in the kingdom of God. After singing a hymn, they went out to the Mount of Olives.

May God bless the reading of His Word. Amen. You may be seated. This morning marks the 57th time that we've opened the pages of this gospel and that we've mined its depths together 57 times praise God beloved when you come to an author 57 times, you start to pick up on some things, don't you? You start to pick up on how the author writes, the ways in which the author emphasizes certain things.

What are some of the things you've noticed about the way Mark writes? Well he sure likes to use repeated words and phrases doesn't he? He uses those repeated words and phrases to help us understand the emphasis of a particular passage, a particular section of scripture. We pointed out in the earlier chapters of Mark, in the chapters 1, 2, and 3 of how Mark used that word immediately, time after time after time in the opening chapters of his gospel. In fact, that Greek word immediately is used over 40 times in Mark's gospel.

That's an emphasis. Mark writes that way in the early chapters of Mark's Gospel so that you can know that Jesus is on a mission. He's the King of the New Kingdom, He's the King of the New Covenant, He's come to conquer sin, He's come to bind and conquer Satan. He's on a mission and he will be victorious as the king of the world. He's on a mission and no one can thwart him.

No power in hell, no scheme of man can thwart his purposes. This Jesus has all authority in heaven and on earth. That's why Mark uses the word immediately. Disease approaches Jesus. What happens in the opening chapters of Mark?

Immediately it's healed. A paralyzed man is presented before Jesus. Immediately that man gets up and walks. Jesus speaks to a dead child and immediately she is restored. Mark loves to use repeated words and phrases to get your attention.

Does he use any repeated words or phrases in our passage this morning? What word in the first four verses of our passage this morning occurs four times? I see the word Passover. Passover, Passover, Passover, Passover. Four times repeated in quick succession.

Passover. I said it last week, and I want to continue to say it because Mark is saying it. You won't get this section. You won't understand chapters 14 and 15. You won't understand this scripture unless you keep the Passover in your minds.

The people of God's celebration, of God's rescue from their bondage in Egypt and into the promised land, You've got to keep that in your mind. This is about the Passover. The Passover. Mark uses repeated words. That's one thing that you notice in 57 times of reading Mark's gospel together.

But what else have you noticed in Mark's gospel? What else have you noticed about the way Mark writes? Sandwiches. Kayaks. The narrative begins, it's interrupted, and then the narrative resumes.

And the interruption helps you understand the narrative on the outside and we saw that last week didn't we? We saw how there was a narrative that began with the plot to kill Jesus, it was interrupted by the anointing of Jesus, and then the plot to kill Jesus resumed. You got that? Pay attention up here please. Plot to kill Jesus, narratives interrupted, plot to kill Jesus resumes.

And what did that do to help you? Well it helped you understand how it is only through the Savior Jesus who was anointed for sacrifice, it's only through this anointed one who gave his life as a sacrifice that diseased people, that leprous people, like Israel, like you. It's only through that anointed one that diseased people can be healed. You need to remember that. A cleansing of sin requires an anointing and a sacrifice, and Jesus is the anointed one who gives His life as a ransom for those in need of great cleansing.

Murder in the hearts of men on the outside of that passage. The Savior who makes murderous men new on the inside. You know, such were some of you. You think about that passage from last week. Such were some of you.

Leprous. Sinful. Full of sin. Hypocrite. But you were washed.

You were justified. You were sanctified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. Repeated words, chiasms, sandwiches. These are the way that Mark writes. But what else?

There's one other thing that perhaps we've noticed in our times of reading Mark's Gospel. What's another thing that you've noticed about the way Mark writes? Have you ever considered his use of cycles? Cycles. Narratives that are very similar that describe the same thing throughout Mark's Gospel.

I pointed one of them out last Lord's Day. You had the woman in the temple that Mark chapter 12 giving all that she owned to the temple And great was Her reward. And then last Sunday we saw in Mark 14 the same thing happened. A woman gives all that she owns to the new temple. Jesus the Christ as she pours perfume from head to toe.

Great was Her reward. You see that cycle? Same thing. The old temple. The new and true temple that's a cycle two things to narrative to be read together you know mark structures his writing so you can clearly understand what he's writing at, what he's driving at.

He does that a lot. And I want you to see that he does that this morning. We saw repeated words. We saw a sandwich last Lord's Day. We see a cycle this Lord's Day.

Starting in verse 12, I want you to notice what we see in Mark 14 verse 12. Jesus tasks two disciples to make preparations for the Passover meal and again You have that word Passover use a number of times And just these first five verses so that you don't forget the theme of the next two chapters Jesus is the final Passover lamb Passover Passover Passover. This is about Jesus. Jesus is the Passover lamb, the final one. But within this repeated word, you also have a cycle, a repeated narrative.

Do you remember another time earlier in Mark's Gospel that resembles verses 12 through 16? What does Jesus do in these verses starting at verse 13? What does he do? Jesus sends two disciples. He tells them, go into the city, find a man carrying a pitcher of water, which would have been really unusual in that day for a man to be carrying a pitcher of water.

Go find a man doing something very unusual. Follow him. He'll take you to the owner of a house and then ask that owner if you can borrow his house for the Passover meal. Oh by the way you're not going to know this man, he's just going to be carrying water. And simply ask him this request and he's going to grant it to you.

And not only will he grant you your request, you'll find that he's already ready in the room for you. He'll bring you to a room prepped and ready, furnished and ready for the Passover meal. That's what Jesus says. What happened? What does our passage say happened?

It says that what Jesus said happened, happened exactly. They came and they did and it all happened exactly as Jesus said it would happen. Does that feel, does that narrative ring any bells to you? Is there another time that Jesus sent two disciples from the same kind of mission into the city and if it was anyone else besides Jesus the mission that they were given would seem kind of wild. Does that ring a bell?

How about Mark chapter 11? Do you remember Mark chapter 11 verse 1? Let's go ahead and go there so you can remember. Mark chapter 11 verse 1. At the end of verse 1, What does it say?

He sent two of his disciples. What's the heading in your Bible? What is this all about? The triumphal entry. Say it again.

The triumphal entry. That's what it's about. The triumphal entry starts with he sent two of his disciples what does he tell him to go do verse 2 go into the village same command as mark 14 go into the village, find a cult that isn't yours, bring it to me. And when someone asks you, what on earth are you doing? Just tell them, it's for the Lord and they'll give it to you.

And what happened? What Jesus said would happen, happened exactly. And now in Mark 14, two disciples go into the city. They ask for something that isn't theirs, and they'll have it. That's a cycle.

Those are two narratives that are repeated in very similar ways, extremely similar ways. This isn't like some coincidence, oh, this happens to be the same. Come on now. They connect, These are two narratives that are similar so that Mark says you've got to connect these two things. You need to connect these two narratives.

They work together to answer the question that we've been asking since Mark chapter 1 verse 1, who is Jesus and what has Jesus come to do? So let's do that. Let's answer that question by putting these two cycles together. What was the significance of the triumphal entry in Mark 11. You remember?

Do you remember why it was so significant that Jesus came into Jerusalem on a call with palm branches before him and people yelling, Hosanna, Hosanna, and the highest? What was the significance of that? Well, it's significant because it's a fulfillment of Messianic prophecy. If the promised King is to come, he's got to come in certain ways. 1 Kings chapter 1.

1 Kings chapter 1 verses 33 through 35. Here's what David said the king would be like David decreed that the king of Israel would ride on a mule, on a colt He'd be brought down to Gihon which is Jerusalem The king would be brought on a colt into Jerusalem and there would be declarations made about this King long live the King here's the King and then this man would be appointed ruler over all of Israel that's what David said concerning how the king of Israel was to be recognized. And now Jesus, on a colt, is brought into Jerusalem with voices declaring around him, Mosanna and the highest blessed is the coming of the Son of David. Same guy that said what he said in 1 Kings. Here's the King.

Jesus is the promised King of Kings. And because Jesus is King, that's why it made sense in Mark chapter 11 that Jesus could send for a cult that doesn't belong to him. He could send for something that belongs to somebody else and get the cult for himself because actually he's the king and it does all belong to him. That's all review, right? I know it's been a while.

But now three chapters later in Mark 14, here is this same King of Kings asking to no longer have a cult but to have a house. It escalated. You need a house. A house that belongs to someone else for a place to celebrate the Passover, and Jesus gets the house for himself. Why?

Because he's the promised king and it all belongs to him. Here is the prophesied and promised King of Kings. Here is the fulfillment of prophecy, writing in on a cult in Jerusalem and in Jerusalem he's given a special room just as a king should be given, to celebrate a special feast. I need you to understand this. The instruction from David in 1 Kings chapter 1, which we looked at a number of months ago.

I'm just reminding you. The instruction was that the true king of Israel would come riding on a colt, he would be declared king of all the people, Hosanna in the highest, and then he would be anointed. The scriptures declare that a king would be anointed after all of those things happen and what do we see happen last Lord's day in Mark chapter 14? An anointing of the king. An anointing happened, Mary takes out a bottle of expensive perfume, a very expensive perfume, and pours it and anoints Jesus as the gospel tells us from head to toe.

Some gospels say toes, some gospels say head. What are you supposed to get? Head to toe. This is the King. 1 Kings chapter 1 is a prophecy fulfilled in Mark 11 and Mark 14.

You're supposed to connect the narratives. Jesus really is the King of Kings. And I just want you to think about it. When you are anointed King, and then proclaimed King among the people, what should come next? What do you see come next in narrative after narrative in the Old Testament?

A new king is appointed, a new king is anointed, and then a feast. A royal feast happens. What do we see on passage this morning? A feast. A feast for the king of kings.

But what's the problem? What's the problem with the feast? Not any ordinary feast, is it? Well, the problem with this particular feast is this feast isn't supposed to be for any ordinary king. This feast is supposed to be a memorial, a remembrance of who?

God. This feast is about God and how God in the Passover set His people free from slavery in Egypt. This feast of the Passover that this chapter is talking about is a feast unto the Lord God Almighty. But Mark, Mark is connecting all the fanfare about Jesus being proclaimed king in Mark chapter 11 to this feast in Mark chapter 14. This is a feast for Jesus, Mark is saying.

But it's supposed to be a feast for God. So which is it? Is it a feast for Jesus or a feast for God? Yes. Yes, that's the answer.

Because Jesus is God. Months ago when we studied Mark chapter 11 and the triumphant entry we also we did we did go to first Kings chapter 1 but we also went to Genesis 49 and in Genesis chapter 49 the patriarch Jacob prophesied about his son Judah and all of Judah's offspring there's going to be someone to come from Judah and he was prophesying about I want to remind you what he said this is crucial to understanding our passage this morning. In fact, let's go there together. We have time. Let's go to Genesis 49.

Genesis chapter 49. It's the first book of the Bible towards the end of the book. The penultimate chapter of the book. Genesis 49, I want you to look in verses 10 and 11. Genesis 49, 10 and 11.

Genesis 49, 10, and 11. Let me remind you, through reading this, what God said about the promised offspring of Judah. In verse 10, the scepter shall not depart from Judah. Okay, so what does that mean? It means the king will come from Judah.

The promised one, The promised ruler will come from Judah. The scepter shall not depart from Judah, nor the ruler's staff are between his feet until Shiloh comes. Who do you think Shiloh is? Jesus is Shiloh. The king will come from Judah, he will have the ruler's staff, and to him, to Jesus, shall be the obedience of the people's verse 11 He ties his fold to the vine and his donkey's cult to the choice vine Who wrote in on one of those?

Jesus did in Mark 11. He washes his garments in wine. What's the beverage in Mark 14? Wine. And his robes in the blood of grace.

You see the imagery there at the end? The King promised from Judah would come. He'd come on a donkey on a colt and in his coming this King would win the obedience of all the peoples. That's what it says there in Genesis 49. But what would it take to win all the nations?

What would it take to win the world? What would it cost for this king to win the world to himself? End of verse 11. His blood. He would take a sacrifice, symbolized by wine, symbolized by grapes.

He would take blood. Do you see what Mark is doing yet? I sure hope you do. The prophecy in Genesis chapter 49 was that the king would come riding on a donkey. He would have all authority in heaven and on earth.

He would have the obedience of all the peoples. He would wash his garments in blood, the blood of grapes, the blood of wine. Mark chapter 11, here comes that king on a call into Jerusalem to win the world to himself. Mark 14, and this anointed king has come to a feast, And what do we find at the feast? We find that the feast is the Passover, the feast is a lamb being slain, the feast is blood shed.

What we see in Mark 11 and 14 put together is that all of the prophecy of Genesis 49 is fulfilled. The promised king who will win the world to himself, the promised king who will secure your salvation, Christian, He will do so by being the sacrifice himself. He will do so by washing his garments in blood. The king who comes in triumph in Mark 11 is the same one who will hold up the cup of wine in Mark 14 and declare that it's His blood that is the way the triumph will be won. King comes in triumph.

Here's how the triumph will be won. That's Mark 11 and Mark 14. Best I could do. The shedding of King Jesus' blood at the cross is the way that He wins and rules the world in truth and grace. I want you to notice that Jesus is not a King who comes to be served.

No, no. Jesus is the King of kings who came to serve. How? By giving His life as a ransom for many. Friends, I wonder if you've ever wondered, I wonder if you've ever wondered in Mark 11 when we got there, why in Mark 11 it's called the triumphant or the triumphal entry.

If you ever wondered that, I remember as a young man thinking, why do we call it the triumphal entry? Why do we call Jesus riding in on a donkey triumphant when in just a few days that man who was treated like a king will be treated like a criminal and crucified on a tree. How on earth is that triumphant? Shouldn't we call the triumphant entry when he's walking out of the grave? Well that is triumphant.

Well why do we call that donkey business? Why is that triumphant? That's a legit question. I had it. Maybe some of you have it.

Maybe you're all very, just really smart and don't have that question. Come on now. How is that triumphant? I'm trying to get you to see how Mark 11 and Mark 14 answers that question. The promised King of Kings has come to triumph over sin and Satan.

He's come to do that. He comes to make his blessings flow as far as the curse is found. As far as the curse is found in your life. In your life. Indeed in the whole world, that triumph, that's what he's come to do to be triumphant.

He came for that triumph and that triumph can only be achieved. That triumph is only secured through this King's substitutionary death on the cross. This triumph is only secured through this King of Kings becoming the Passover Lamb, whose blood can make the foulest clean. His blood has availed for me and it can avail for thee. But if you think that Jesus coming in on a donkey in Mark chapter 11, that that is, that's the, You can't get the triumph apart from the cross.

You give up the cross, you give up everything. The triumph that was promised all the way back in Genesis 3 of the serpent crusher. The triumph promised again and again and again in the law and the prophets in the Psalms the promise of him who would redeem and take sinners out of the pits and make them new and give them new hearts and undo the curse in their lives. That triumph of the King in Mark 11 would only be achieved through his substitutionary death on the cross as the final Passover lamb described here in Mark 14. You have to connect the two narratives together.

The triumph of Christ as in his perfect life, substitutionary death and justifying resurrection. The lamb had to be slain. The lamb had to be slain. So that's why it comes as no surprise that he must then be betrayed. The text tells us in verses 17 through 21 that Jesus is with the 12 and that they are reclining together at the table, they're eating, and Mark is telling you through this verbiage that this is a very personal moment for these men.

As theologian Mark Strauss puts it, meals were rituals of social status in the Mediterranean world and to share table fellowship with someone indicated friendship and social acceptance. Listen to this, To betray a friend after eating with him was, and still is today, regarded as the worst kind of treachery in the Middle East. You're supposed to read this and go, oh this is big. This is a big deal. That's exactly what Mark describes as Jesus declares in verse 18 of our passage, truly I say to you that one of you will betray me, one who is eating with me." This is a deep treachery that Jesus is prophesying about.

And the disciples, they are grieved. We read, they begin asking him, "'Surely not I, surely not I.' one by one they do this. And we learn, not from Mark's Gospel, but from Matthew's Gospel in Matthew 26, that Judas is also asking that same question, just like all the other disciples. Surely not I. Let me read in Mark 14 one by one.

That includes Judas, Matthew tells us. Surely not I, he asks. And yet he knows, doesn't he? You know as the reader from last Lord's day, you know that Judas isn't asking that question in the same way that the other disciples are asking it, is he? That was an honest question.

One of you is going to betray me. Surely not I. Surely not I. Surely not I. That's an honest question from these disciples, but a fake question coming from Judas.

Judas, we learned last Lord's Day, was upset about the perfume being wasted on Jesus. And in greed he had gone and sold Jesus out for a bag of silver. And yet here he is pretending, surely not I with the rest. What's that called? It starts with an H and ends with hypocrisy.

Hypocrisy. That's what that's called. What was it that Jesus cursed the temple for? Hypocrisy. Jerusalem was promised judgment for its hypocrisy.

You remember that right? I sure hope you do. And now here is Judas and his hypocrisy is on display. Again it's not a coincidence these things are all the same thing. I want you to see it.

I just want you to see it. I'm doing my best. Jesus sends two disciples out into the village in Mark chapter 11 on a mission. They go and find it just as Jesus had said in Mark chapter 11. Jesus comes like a king into Jerusalem.

He goes into the temple and what does he see? Hypocrisy. He then goes back to the temple. He tells a parable about the tenants of the vineyard who will betray the owner of the vineyard by killing his son. They're gonna betray the owner of the vineyard.

That's Mark chapter 12. And then Jesus pronounces what? Judgment. That's a cycle. Mark now repeats the cycle.

Jesus sends two disciples out into the city and Mark chapter 14 on a mission. They go and find it just as Jesus had said. Jesus is anointed king by Mary and this king feast in Jerusalem with these men. Jesus knows the hypocrisy of Judas. He sees the hypocrisy and he knows he will be betrayed by Judas and so Jesus pronounces judgment.

I hope you see the parallels. They're right there for you to see. In both Mark 11 and Mark 14, two disciples of mission, they find it just as Jesus has said, he's proclaimed king in Mark 11, anointed king in Mark 14, and in both 11 and 14, Jesus calls out hypocrisy, Jesus calls out betrayal, and then there's judgment. On the temple at Mark 11 and on Judas at Mark 14. And that's what we find in verses 20 and 21.

20 and 21, Jesus says, the one who will betray me, he's pronouncing judgment now, he's one of the twelve. One who dips with me in the bowl, for the Son of Man is to go just as it is written of him, but woe to that man by whom the Son of Man is betrayed. It would have been good for that man if he had not been born. That's the judgment. Judgment pronounced upon hypocrisy, judgment pronounced upon betrayal.

You're supposed to connect Mark 11 and Mark 14 together. The old temple will be destroyed because of its hypocrisy, because of its betrayal of God. And now here is Judas receiving the same judgment. It would have been better had he not ever been born. I want to say it again, I'm going to keep saying it, because it's really important.

The reason the temple was pronounced judged was because it was hypocritical to God and it was betraying who? God. What's Judas doing? He's getting judgment pronounced because of his hypocrisy and betrayal towards Jesus. Who is Jesus?

God. Boy, I'm trying. I've got a lot of blank faces and I don't know sometimes it's hard look a lot like the seventh and eighth graders I used to teach and I mean as a compliment boy I love the new people I love more than you than them. Okay, I mean man, you kind of getting it? This is all day long we're seeing Jesus is God, Jesus is God, Jesus is the promised one.

I want you to consider when you think about Judas receiving this same judgment for his hypocrisy and this judgment it would have been better for him not to have been born I mean that's significant it would have been better for him never to exist than for this man to get what's coming. Friends I need you to consider the judgment of God upon disobedience. I need you to consider the judgment of God upon hypocrites. Are there some in this room today who are fake, who find themselves walking in the darkness while claiming to walk in the light? Friend, consider the judgments of God upon the hypocrites of Jerusalem and this man Judas, and as you consider, repent.

Flee away from yourself to the new and true temple. The new and true temple not built by hands, the Lord Jesus Christ. Fly to Him who is the light in the darkness. Fly to him who can take hypocrites and he makes them born again. Trust him.

Trust the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world, even yours. Repent and believe the Gospel that there is more righteousness in the Lord Jesus Christ than there is sin in you. Repent, believe, confess your sins and then be baptized. Children this is for you. Children this is for you.

Believe on Christ, little ones. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. Be baptized into membership of this local assembly and then come to the table each and every Lord's day and be welcome to Jesus Christ all the days of your life. God the Son, here's good news. God the Son takes hypocrites and betrayers and faithless men, And such is His triumph, such is His almighty power.

He can take men like that and make them holy and righteous. That's the triumph of King Jesus. This day it stands open to you, the invitation. Come to Him, all who are weary and heavy laden, all who have been walking in the darkness, and He will give you rest, and He will be your light, and He will make you born again. In fact, if you are right this moment in your heart and mind saying, I need Christ, I need to trust Him, that is the process of regeneration.

He is saving you now. Keep going. Trust Him. Now. Keep going!

Trust Him. God rescues sinners and that's what this supper declares. That's why, and that's what we celebrate here at this table each and every Lord's Day. The triumph of the almighty King of Kings, Jesus, who came to be the final sacrifice and conquer sin forever to the ends of the world. That's a significant table.

Don't you think that should flavor the way you take that? Do You think you should come to the table and just think sin, sin, sin, sin, sin, sin, sin, sin, bread, drink. No. You got it wrong. If you're going to think about your sin, fine and well, one thought about your sin and then a thousand thoughts of the Christ who conquered that sin.

That's how you take this table. That's how we're going to take it today. Lord will. I want you to notice in verse 21 that Jesus uses the phrase just as it is written in verses, in verse 21. Just as it is written.

Look at there in verse 21. Jesus would be betrayed by a close friend, even one who would eat bread with him. And that's exactly what David promised and prophesied in Psalm 41 verse 9. You can write that down, we won't go there. Psalm 41 verse 9 says this, even my close friend and whom I trusted who ate my bread he has lifted up his heel against me." Now that's really amazing.

You know what that's pulling from? And that prophecy, that's pulling from the Gospels, Judas eating with Jesus and betraying him, Hame who is eating the bread with him. It's also pulling from Genesis chapter 3, the promise that the head crusher will be bruised in the heel. It's pulling from both. This Jesus is the fulfillment of all prophecy.

So Jesus is the fulfillment of Psalm 41 verse 9. Jesus here, this moment of betrayal is the fulfillment of Zechariah chapter 11 verses 12 and 13. Being betrayed for 30 pieces of silver. That was a prophecy, a messianic prophecy to be betrayed by 30 pieces of silver. This was what had been written.

God had planned all of this from before the foundation of the world were laid. All of the goings on here, including the betrayal, were according to the sovereign work of God. None of this surprised him. The evil, God is so wonderful, He is so triumphant that even in the midst of evil that He has not done, He has sovereigned it for his eternal good pleasure and yours. Within the Godhead a covenant in eternity past was made between the Father and Son and the Spirit.

Jesus would come as the head crusher of sin and Satan. Jesus would come and win the world unto himself. Jesus would come and be the propitiation for sins, which by the way I've been told not everybody knows what that word means. I'm gonna tell you. Propitiation is the satisfaction of God's wrath due to your sin.

Propitiation is when Jesus drinks a cup called God's wrath for Grant Brown and he drinks it to the dregs so that there is not one drop left. When he sets that cup down, it's finished. There's no more left for Grant Brown to deal with. That's propitiation. The promise was that Jesus would come and be the propitiation for your sins.

And he would set prisoners and slaves free and make them a part of his family, the church. And all of that head crushing, All of that whirlwind, all of that propitiated, all of that prisoner liberated, all of that triumphant would be accomplished through offering his body and his blood as a sacrifice for the remission of sins. Alright? So it's for that reason, with all that we've talked about in mind, that Jesus institutes the Lord's table. And that's our final consideration this morning, the institution of the Lord's Supper.

I want you to look together with me at verse 22. Look at verse 22. While they were eating, he took some bread, and after a blessing he broke it, and gave it to them and said, Take it! This is my body! And when he had taken a cup and given thanks, He gave it to them and they all drank from 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 never again drink of the fruit of the vine until that day when I drink it new in the kingdom of God And after singing a hymn they went out to the Mount of Olives I need you to remember what our passage started out with this morning, a repeated word. What was that repeated word? Go ahead and say it. Passover.

Good job. Jesus is with his disciples in verses 22 through 26 and what meal are they eating? They are eating the Passover meal. And Jesus takes the elements there in that meal and says all of this meal is about me. I am the fulfillment of all that came before in the Old Testament.

All of the Old Covenant was pointing to me and your need for me. The Passover was ultimately pointing to Jesus Christ who would take Sinners like you and like me out of their bondage, not simply to physical slavery like they had in Egypt, but a greater slavery, slavery to sin and redeem them and rescue them and bring them to himself, bring them into the land of promise. The Passover was ultimately pointing to the Savior who would take men and women who existed and lived and had their being in the dominion of darkness and transfer them into the kingdom of light, the kingdom of the beloved Son. That's what the Passover was screaming at year after year after year for centuries. You need Jesus, you need the Redeemer, because you're a sinner and you need a Savior.

And so Jesus took the bread, he blessed it, and he broke it. This is my body, He said, it will take my body being pierced and offered on the cross for you sinner for peace with your God, with your creator to be finally and forever secured. That's for you. This is for you. Do you remember Leviticus chapter 2?

Probably not. Well Jesus is telling you in this moment, Jesus is asking the question, hey disciples, do you remember Leviticus chapter 2? Do you remember in Leviticus chapter 2 how God commanded a grain offering and how the grain offering would be made into flour and baked into a loaf and brought to the altar and broken there. It's the exact language in Leviticus 2. Broken.

And then given to the priests and they would partake in the loaf. They would partake in the loaf. What do we do? Partaking in the loaves. And then the rest would be burned as an offering unto the Lord." Jesus is saying, do you remember the breaking of the loaf in Leviticus 2?

Jesus is saying, that was about me. That was about me. Jesus says this morning, I am the final grain offering. I am the final grain offering that satisfies God the Father. In the bread.

What about the cup? Jesus took the cup, gave thanks, gave it to them. This is my blood of the covenant which is poured out for many. Beloved, in taking the bread of the cup and saying this is my blood of the covenant, Jesus, what did he just do there? I think we skim over that like nobody's business.

When you use a word, when you're an Israelite, and you start saying, this is my blood of the covenant, that's really significant. This is a people, this is a covenant people. They get the covenant stuff. We need to get it more. Jesus says, this is my blood of the covenant.

What's he done? He's replaced the old covenant standards and requirements with something new. With what? What has it been fulfilled? What has fulfilled it?

What has replaced it? His body is the bread and his blood is the wine. He is the final grain sacrifice. He is the final blood sacrifice. The Old Covenant is swallowed up in Him.

The promises and the signs of the old covenant are all fulfilled in Jesus Christ. And so he institutes a new covenant with new covenant signs, namely baptism and this Lord's Supper communion. And these signs are for His people. And they're really for all the peoples of the world, which Jesus was promised to win in Genesis chapter 49, and throughout the Old Testament in the Psalms and all of the prophets time and time again Jesus will have the obedience of all the peoples. These signs are for His people the church and that church will triumph.

These are for his people of the world which he has won, whom he has bought with his life. So I need to point out one more time, one final time, in the final point here. Who gets to talk like this? Who gets to say what the old covenant signs and promises meant? Who gets to say how the old covenant signs and promises are fulfilled?

Who gets to make a new covenant that swallows up the old covenant? Who gets to say that? The only one qualified to do all of that is the author of the covenants. Who's the author of the Old Covenant? God is.

Only God can designate how the Old Covenant signs and promises are to be fulfilled. Only the author of the prior covenant, God, can see that the old is swallowed up by the new. Only God can do that. And here in our passage, Jesus is doing just that. I am so tired of my friends who say that Jesus never said he was God you know I'm saying who is Jesus Jesus is God All of the covenants pointed to this one and in him you will no longer be a stranger to the covenant of prophecy.

So this is the last supper of the Passover. Right? This is the last supper of the Passover. The last supper of the old covenant. And yet it's the first supper of the new.

And beloved, here at this table of the new covenant we celebrate and we remember this King of Kings, King Jesus who came as the final Passover lamb we can really see his triumph here at this table can't we? You ever thought about partaking in this table thinking about his triumph, you should do. As you partake this morning in this table, look around at this church, a group of ethnic Gentiles, ethnica. We are really far away from the Middle East. The group of strangers to the covenant of promise.

And we should sit here and marvel and shout hallelujah, for we are all as believers in Christ, made by grace to be spiritual Israelites, sons of Abraham. How? How can God, how can God, how can God haters like you and like me, How can those of us who are unclean and uncircumcised, people like you and I who are without hope and without God in the world, how can we here in Erlem, Iowa find ourselves a part of this amazing story, a part of this amazing family, a part of this church? How can we find ourselves grafted into this amazing covenant of forgiveness and everlasting life? What's the answer?

Because the one promise to obtain the obedience of the people, the King, accomplished that obedience, accomplished the winning of the world to himself by becoming the final Passover lamb. And because the King who triumphed in his death also walked out of the grave. And so this Lord's Day, at each and every Lord's Day, we as a church partake in this table together. And we remember and we celebrate, you must get that word, It must be celebration. We celebrate as a church the reign and triumph of Jesus the Christ, crucified, risen, and reigning.

Elect from every nation, yet one or all the earth, her Charter of salvation, one Lord, one faith, one birth. One holy name she blesses, partakes one holy food, and to one hope she presses, with every grace endued. Mid toil and tribulation and too mult of her wars, she waits the consummation of peace forevermore, till with the vision glorious, her longing eyes are blessed, And the great church victorious shall be the church at rest. What a triumph. What a table.

What a Savior. And this triumph of that Savior must very much flavor that table. So let's pray to that end church, shall we? Pray with me. Father, we thank you for sending your son Jesus to be the propitiation for our sins and not just for our sins but for the sins of the whole world.

We ask now that we would approach this your table in a few minutes and partake in it right way. That we would yes consider our sins but then all the more consider the triumph of our Savior over them. We would consider how they have been finally and forever dealt with through your Son's shed blood. Remind these your people that in Jesus Christ you smile upon them. Remind them that they are yours, that they are your children and you their father.

Let them yes mourn their sin in this moment, let them mourn the insanity of their sin, but then make them to rejoice and be glad and to be eager to sing and celebrate that their sin does not get to have the final word. Oh Father, your son had the final word and he said that it was finished. Mission accomplished, victory won, sin conquered, Satan bound and crushed. The world bought this, your church, these individual souls bought with a price to glorify you in joy and delight. Oh God, remind us of these things.

And Lord, remind us all as we partake in the cup that not one drop of your blood that was shed, oh remind us that not one drop of that blood shed, not one drop of the blood of Jesus was shed in vain. Hallelujah. We thank you, Father, for the triumph of your Son, Jesus Christ. And we pray in his name. Amen.