Luke 22.. Sunday morning Bible study- 9/19/21

 

 Luke 22 has seventy-two verses.

That's a long chapter.

It's like going through two chapters, so we need to get a move on. But in doing so I will hone our focus onto a couple of points…..The first , because the last supper took place here, communion was born here, and is the nature of the festival “Passover”….

Thank you Lord for our gathering and fellowship this morning. Open our minds and hearts so that we may more fully understand your word. We ask for your blessing upon our bible study and we ask all in Jesus’s name..

amen

A friend who had been in Galilee during the Passover said it was just astonishing.

Even today You couldn't even get a hotel room or a youth hostel in Jerusalem during passover.

They are taken sometimes a year in advance.

The full impact of the Passover meaning is as the Lord Jesus brings that meaning clear, to his disciples, in the story that is before us in Luke 22.

Now, like modern times, in antiquity Passover has always been a big deal. It is one of the three mandatory feasts that if you live within a certain parameter of

Jerusalem and you are an adult male, you have to go to Jerusalem to celebrate it. Its like Sinulog on steroids…

You have to go if you were male and lived within 15 miles of Jersulem….

But even if you didn't live within fifteen miles, if you were Jewish and you lived anywhere

in the world, if you were part of what is called the great Diaspora, the dispersion of Jews around the world, it was always a dream that "Perhaps someday, maybe next year you could make it, and could be in Jerusalem."

It is so inculcated into the fabric of the Jew that at the Seder Feast every year the statement is made, the prayer is made: "L'shanah haba'ah b'Yerushalayim!"

That next year they too will be in Jerusalem for passover!" It is Always the hope, always the dream.

But For this Passover Jesus is with his disciples in that great city of Jerusalem.

We know that Passover looked back to a great deliverance in Egypt, the death of the firstborn,

the deliverance of the people from under the oppressive bondage of a king named Pharaoh,

one of the pharaohs of Egypt who had a tight grip of those people and wouldn't let them go.

So it would look backward to an oppressive king, but it would also look forward to a coming kingdom.

And here Jesus gives a totally new meaning to it, a fulfillment, if you will.

Now, in the Exodus--the redemption, the deliverance, the Passover--which is written about in the

first few chapters of the book of Exodus--

During that redemptive process, the Exodus, God acted as a judge, he acted as a Savior, and he acted as a Father.

First of all, as a judge.

He was judging the false gods and the religious system of the Egyptians.

He was judging the Pharaoh who thumbed his nose at God.

So God acted as a judge by killing all of the firstborn people and animals of that land of Egypt.

Second, God acted as Savior, saving his people, whoever by faith applied blood to the lintels and doorposts of a home.

And, third, God acted as a Father, bringing these people unto himself, to a place where

they had to be totally dependent upon HIM.

And God was creating a new nation, "His own peculiar people," the Bible says.

Among other things, the overarching truth of the Passover is, first of all, there can be no redemption or aversion of divine judgment without death.

Blood has to be shed in order for divine judgment to be stopped. that's the basic kind of no-brainer of Passover.

For there to be redemption, for there to be the stopping of divine wrath, blood has to be shed.

The second great overarching truth of the Passover is that there can be a substitute.

Some thing, some life can be substituted for your life.

In that ancient case, a lamb was slain and its blood applied, and God passed over the people of Israel and brought them to himself.

Two great truths that will be fulfilled with Jesus Christ.

Chapter 22, verse 1, "Now the Feast of Unleavened Bread drew near, the “ Passover."

Now you'll notice two things in that verse: "Unleavened Bread" and "Passover."

There are two feasts that were lumped into one.

First was the feast of Passover.

It lasted one day.

It was the fourteenth day of the Hebrew calendar month Nisan.

Then immediately following that day from the fifteenth to the twenty-first day was the

Feast of Unleavened Bread.

And so often you find those terms interchangeable and lumped together because it is an eight-day

festival essentially: one day followed by seven more days, the Feast of Unleavened Bread.

Now, the idea of unleavened bread was simple: they had to get out of Egypt in a hurry.

They didn't have time to put leaven, to put yeast into bread and let it rise, so they

were on the move, and they would remember that.

They would remember the Passover.

They would also remember the provision of unleavened bread in these two festivals.

It says, "The chief priests and the scribes sought how they might kill him, for they feared

the people."

Notice, not "if they should kill him or not."

They didn't debate, "You know, should we stop the life of Jesus? They were determined to put him to death.

And the other Gospels tell us they wanted to do it after Passover, and here's the reason: a riot could break out in Jerusalem. Tensions were high at Passover. Because the Romans occupied the land, right?

And the Romans understood that Passover had political overtones. They were celebrating the redemption from an oppressive power, Egypt.

Well, now they're under another oppressive power and all sorts of riots could be started.

In fact, history is replete with riots in Jerusalem during this time, before, and after.

So that is why Pilate was in town. And that is why Herod was not in Tiberias, but he was in town, because they understood that things were at fever pitch during Passover. Well, they want to kill Jesus, but they also know that the people love him, so they're trying to figure out "What's the best plan here?

What's the right way to get him and kill him?"

And Judas was their answer, because he agreed to betray Jesus.

It says immediately in verse 3, "Then Satan entered Judas." It's quite a statement.

We find that statement made of Judas twice: once in his plotting, and once in the doing of the betrayal of Jesus Christ. "Satan entered Judas, surnamed Iscariot, who was numbered among the twelve."

So, finally, their lucky break.

There are so many people gathered.

By the way, how many people gathered in Jerusalem? Well, we can't be absolutely certain, but good guesses have been made.

In a city that at that time had 400,000 people, perhaps, in the environs of Jerusalem, and

then take the fact that Josephus said on one of the years no less than 256,000 lambs were

slaughtered; 256,000 lambs were slaughtered.

Now, keep in mind that they were slaughtered in a two-hour period, between three and five.

So there was about two lambs being slaughtered per minute during that slaughtering time in

the temple, 256,000 lambs.

The average meal serves ten.

That was the minimum.

So around two and a half million people during that particular reference point of Josephus

crowded in and around Jerusalem.

So you can understand how the Jewish leaders would feel very, very antsy about how they're

going to get ahold of Jesus.

"So he went his way," verse 4, "and conferred with the chief priests and the captains, how

he might betray him to them.

And they were glad, and agreed to give him money.

So he promised and sought opportunity to betray him to them in the absence of the multitude."

During the Passover and the Feast of Unleavened Bread, there could be no leaven in the house.

And so there was a little ceremony before the Passover called the search for leaven,

It's where you tell the kids, "Go around the house and look for leaven."

You take some yeast and you actually put it in some conspicuous places.

And sort of like an Easter egg hunt, you know, you put it right there in the bush, so when

they walk out they're going to say, "Oh, look what I found!"

And so the kids would find it and they would bring it and they would rid the house of leaven.

But what I find fascinating is during the Feast of Unleavened Bread you have a leavened

betrayer who leaven has been growing inside of his heart for a long time.

He doesn't truly believe in Jesus.

He doesn't believe in the claims of Christ that he is divine.

And so he looks for a fast way to make some cash and he agrees to betray Jesus.

"Then came the Day of Unleavened Bread, when the Passover must be killed."

A couple things you should know.

The month Nisan, that's the first month in their calendar, Nisan, on the tenth day of

the month a lamb is selected.

You will select the lamb on that day of the month that you are going to take to the temple

to be slaughtered.

On the fourteenth day of the month--so you have it for a few days.You take the little lamb home and all the kids fall in love with it for a few days. You see, you see the dilemma you're going to have come the fourteenth day? That cute little lamb is going to take your sin and its blood is going to be shed on your behalf. And you're going to look at that, you're going to bring it to the priest in the temple.

On the fourteenth day the lamb was killed and on the fourteenth day the lamb was eaten.

So, "It's the Day of Unleavened Bread, in that festival when the Passover must be killed.

And he [Jesus] sent Peter and John," and by the way, Luke is the only gospel account that

tells us the name--the names of two apostles that were sent to find that upper room to

have Passover in. The other ones tell us they were disciples, but we don't know which ones until we get

to the gospel of Luke and they are identified, "Peter and John."

Now, Peter and John were a logical choice. They were part of the inner circle.

We often read about Peter, James, and John.

Peter and John were the two apostles that when the women said Jesus was raised from the dead, they ran to the tomb to see if it was so.

Jesus knows there is a plot afoot.

He knows that Judas was looking for the first possible opportunity to betray him, but Jesus

is on schedule. He has a schedule to maintain to fulfill the Scriptures, to fulfill the Prophets..

Jesus has to be killed on Friday.

He has to be killed on the day when the lambs will be killed in the temple.

When the lambs are slaughtered between 3:00 p.m. and 5:00 p.m., that's when Jesus will

die on a cross fulfilling the types, fulfilling the prophecies of the Old Testament.

So he said, "Go and prepare the Passover for us, that we may eat."

Now there's a lot to that, because they're going to find the room, they're going to find

the place.

The lamb has already been selected on the tenth, a few days before this.

They, Peter and John, have to go up to the temple and watch that lamb slaughtered, then

take the slaughtered lamb, the bloody lamb back to this place that we'll read about and roast it, get it ready for the meal. They also have to make sure that the table has all the necessary things for the Passover: unleavened bread, bitter herbs, the wine.

"So they said to him, 'Where do you want us to prepare?'

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.' " Now most people reading this will go, "Oh, my goodness, there must be hundreds of men carrying pitchers of water."

Actually No.

There will be no man carrying pitchers of water; that was woman's work. You'd find plenty of women who would be carrying pitchers of water, just like at the well in Samaria. There was a woman at the well in Samaria fetching water.

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In that ancient culture the women did that work, so to see a man doing it would be--would

be the flag to Peter and John because it's an unusual sight.

" 'And you shall say to the master of the house [verse 11], "The teacher says to you,

'Where is the guest room where I may eat the Passover with my disciples?'

" And he will show you a large, furnished upper room; there make ready.'

So they went and found it just as he said to them, and they prepared the Passover."

I've always been intrigued that the Lord Jesus, in order to be remembered, didn't say, "I

want you to build a temple with my name inscribed on the front."

Or, "I want a large statue built that has my likeness on it that you can look at it

and remember me."

Of course, that would not fit the bill in Judaism at all.

We know that.

But what he did say, "Here's one thing I want you to remember me by and my sacrifice by; and that is, a meal.

I want you to eat together."

Eating was sort of a sacred thing that happened.

It wasn't just to fill your body and have a nice experience with food.

The idea was to have a nice experience with other people, so that if I eat with you, you

and I are becoming one with each other.

"Remember me by this Passover meal," and with this he transforms the meaning.



But there's--there's something that seem odd as you read this text

in the Passover and the death of Jesus Christ; and that is, we have Jesus and his disciples

eating the Passover meal, and we can safely say it was a Thursday evening when they did.

So they're eating the Passover meal, but then John in John, chapter 18, which is the next morning after Jesus is arrested and he's incarcerated and he undergoes several trials.He is brought before Pontius Pilate. But it says "The Jews would not go into the Praetorium, lest they be defiled, because they wanted to eat the Passover."

And so here's what happens.

Sceptics say that this is another discrepancy and contradiction in the Bible."

Because you can't have the disciples in Jerusalem eating the Passover on Thursday night and then the Jews the next day wanting--not wanting to walk in and "be defiled, because they want to eat"--future tense--"the Passover."

So how do you reconcile it?

To make it very simple there was a different calendar used by the galantines than but the Jews in Jerusalem… So there is no contradiction here.. History has solved this puzzle for us…

When the hour had come," verse 14, "he sat down, and the twelve apostles with him."

Now, we know what happened besides a meal that night, don't we?

Jesus girded himself with a towel and he got down and his knees and he started washing their feet.

He took the role of a servant. He washed Peter's feet. Peter didn't want to have anything to do with it, remember?

He washed Judas' feet, the betrayer.

And he acted and he played that role of a servant, because they had--are arguing in

the upper room as to who would be the greatest. You'll see it before the chapter closes.



"And he said to them,"--and this has always astonished me.

It's been one of those breathtaking verses of Scripture.

"He said to them, 'With fervent desire,' " or with intense desire, it could be translated,

" 'I have desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer; for I say to you, I will no longer eat of it until it is fulfilled in the kingdom of God.'



" "I have looked forward to this meal for a long time.

This has been on my agenda on the forefront of my mind since I've been on the earth, since

I came from heaven to earth."

You got to understand, the cross loomed in the thinking of Jesus every waking moment of every single day. He referred to it, "My hour has not yet come"; "Father, the hour has come. Glorify your Son."



He was thinking about this moment.

Why this moment?

This is the most monumental next few hours in human history. He's going to die on a cross, and here in this Passover meal, this is the last Passover meal of any significance at all.



It's been going on for 1,500 years.

This is the last one that will have any significance from now on.

The meaning gets changed. It's the last Passover and the first Communion, because all of the Passover ends. It is fulfilled now.

They've been sacrificing millions of animals, millions of them for 1,500-plus years since the exodus.



And why millions? Because there was never a single animal that was enough.



You had to keep sacrificing over and over and over and over and over and over and over again . . . until now.



Now, a sacrifice will be made that will be once and for all.



It's Over and done...

He, on the cross, will say, "Tetelestai!" "It is finished!"



All of that rigmarole, all of that ceremony, all of that pomp and ritual is done.

The scriptures are fulfilled. You can't add to it.



And Jesus knew all of that was at this moment and he said, "I have longed with fervent desire

to eat this Passover meal with you," which shows us his love.

You know, we know he got up from the table and he washed their feet, but, you know, we're

talking about his disciples here: a doubter, a betrayer, a denier--all of them will flee and leave...

He knows every single thing they're going to do. You might think that Jesus would despair but instead he says…..

" 'It is with fervent desire,' " I have looked forward to, I have longed, " 'I've desired

to eat this Passover with you before I suffer.'

He took the cup, he gave thanks, and said, 'Take this, divide it among yourselves; for

I say to you, I will not drink of the fruit of the vine until the kingdom of God comes.'

"He took the 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.'

Likewise he also took the cup after supper," notice that there's not one cup.

"He took the cup after supper," he had taken one before, he takes one after.

"He says, 'This is the cup of the new covenant in my blood, which is shed for you.'

We know that John was sitting to the right of Jesus, because he leaned his head on Jesus' bosom.

In other words, he was reclining toward to left where Jesus was, so he was on the right.

To Jesus' left was Judas Iscariot, the one that Jesus could dip the bread and give it to Judas, hand it directly to him.

Both of those positions were considered position of honor and could only be granted by the host upon permission.

So, "Likewise he took the cup after supper, he said, 'This is the cup of the new covenant

in my blood, which is shed for you.'

I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel--not like the former covenant that

their forefathers enjoyed and had to keep.

I'm going to write my law in their hearts."

The new covenant, this night is the end of the old covenant, the Old Testament.

It's over.

This is the beginning of the new covenant.

Now, only God inaugurated the first covenant, and only God can annul it and start a new

one, and he's doing it at this meal.

Verse 21, " '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!'

Then they began to question among themselves, which of them it was who would do this thing."

What that tells me is nobody suspected Judas Iscariot. Nothing gave him away.

He was the guy that seemed so holy when that woman poured that expensive ointment and said,

"That could have been sold and given to the poor." He sounded like he cared for the poor.

He sounded so holy. He was such a good hypocrite.

It's probably a good thing that Peter didn't know it was Judas at this point.

We know what Peter will do in the garden; he'll take out a sword.

If Peter had known it was Judas, he'd of taken the sword on him.

But That wasn't part of the plan.

"Now, there was also a dispute among them, as to which of them should be considered the greatest."

Here's a question for you..

Jesus knew in advance that Judas would betray him, correct?

Before Jesus picked his disciples, his apostles, including Judas, he spent a night in prayer with the Father and he still picked Judas.



Why?

If Jesus is all-knowing, omniscient, and the New Testament has ample examples of how that's

true, why pick Judas to begin with?

Well, the first obvious and most correct answer is, to fulfill Scripture, to fulfill prophecy.

Psalm 41 for starters.

Zechariah 13, another one that predicted how Jesus the Messiah would be betrayed by a close

friend for thirty pieces of silver.

To fulfill the text of Scripture, the predictions, to show God is in control.

But here's just a second thing with that, maybe not a reason, but it just shows something,

36:10

and maybe it's a lesson for us..

Love, to be true love, has to be vulnerable.

Jesus knew he would be betrayed. Jesus knew that his love for Judas would be spurned.



Jesus knew all of the malevolence and hatred and unbelief that dwelt in the heart of Judas Iscariot, and he picked him anyway.



Now, I'm bringing this up because every now and then I talk to people who've had strained

relationships or just full on bad relationships--could be marriage, could be dating, could be friendships--and I watch people develop coping mechanisms to ensure that friendships or marriage relationships



in the future will be without hurt, without pain. "How can I get to a place where I won't be hurt by people?"



You'll have to go to the moon for that . . . alone.

But what astounds me is that Jesus knew in advance and still picked Judas and showed him his own love, put his heart out on the line for him knowing all this was coming…



This is true love. Almost beyond our understanding…

Anybody can love an ideal person. It's loving a real person that's the challenge.

That's real commitment.

And Judas with Jesus is a good example.

Okay, so here's the argument, the "dispute among them as to which of them should be considered

the greatest."

Now, this must have been a big deal to them, because this isn't the first time they argue about this.

This is on their minds.

And perhaps that night it was sort of refreshed because of the seating order in the Passover.

Again, they're expecting the kingdom to come now, to come soon.

"He said to them, 'The kings of the Gentiles exercise lordship over them, and those who

exercise authority over them are called 'benefactors', 'friends'.

" 'But not so among you; on the contrary, he who is greatest among you, let him be as

the younger, and he who governs is he who serves.

For who is greater, he who sits at the table, or he who serves?

Is it he would sits at the table? Yet I am among you as One who serves.'

It's not just, "I'm going to die and go to heaven."

There will be a kingdom upon this earth called the "kingdom age" or called the "millennium." It's going to happen. Look at the reference of Jesus just here, verse 16, "I say to you, I will no longer

eat of it until it is fulfilled in the kingdom of God."

Verse 18, "I will not drink of fruit of the vine until the kingdom of God comes."

There is a coming kingdom.

And when that kingdom comes, when it is set up, it is the fulfillment of the Passover.

It is complete deliverance.

It is total rest for God's people in an environment where Jesus is the King and rules over the

earth.

There is one last issue worthy of consideration.. One might ask, as I have wondered myself, if Jesus preached in that area for over 20 years and had tens of thousands of followers everywhere he went then who would not know this man? Why would Judas have to identify him with the kiss if he was so well known..

In closing I have 2 possible explanations for this…

The first….

A recently translated, 1,200 year-old text written in Coptic — an Egyptian language that uses the Greek alphabet — claims that Judas used a kiss to betray his leader because Jesus had the ability to change his appearance. Judas' kiss would clearly identify Jesus to the crowd. The four gospels, on the other hand, don't attempt to explain why a kiss was used to identify Jesus.

This text explains why Judas Iscariot identified Jesus with a kiss so that the Roman soldiers could arrest him, as related in three canonical gospels (Matthew 26:48; Mark 14:44; Luke 22:47). According to this late Gnostic gospel, that was the only way the Roman soldiers could be sure they had the right man. The reason was that Jesus could change his features: I quote… “How shall we arrest him,” the Jews ask, “for he does not have a single shape, but his appearance changes. Sometimes he is ruddy, sometimes he is white an so on…….. end quote

Copies of the text are found in two manuscripts, one in the Morgan Library and Museum in New York City and the other at the Museum of the University of Pennsylvania. Most of the translation comes from the New York text, because the relevant text in the Pennsylvania manuscript is mostly illegible.

https://www.nbcnews.com/sciencemain/1-200-year-old-egyptian-text-describes-shape-shifting-jesus-1c8831269

The second expiation is a simpler one..

With the exception of Saul, later to be Paul, Roman soldiers did not follow Jesus.. They tended to their duties as all military men must do.. Therefore it is plausible that the soldiers did not know for sure what Jesus looked like and they did not want to make a mistake and arrest the wrong person. Politically that would have been catastrophic. They would have looked like fools. So when Judas offered his assistance they jumped at the opportunity.. The problem was solved and the plan was firmly in place…

I will leave it to each of you to choose which explanation you are most comfortable with….

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