The Last Passover
By
Rev. Todd W. Allen
Communion Service Villa Rica 7/3/05
Luke 22:14-30
The Lord’s Supper signifies eloquently
and beautifully for us the mission of Christ. Christ himself is the
Passover Lamb. In taking the bread and wine set apart in the proper way
we by faith symbolically and spiritually eat and drink his sacrificial
body and blood.
The institution of the Lord's Supper on
that night long ago in the upper room signaled the end of the old
dispensation and the beginning of the new. The Passover has now become
the Lord's Supper. Our approach to God is no longer through the Old
Testament priesthood and sacrificial system. Why? Because he is the
Passover Lamb, because his blood cleanses from all sin so that even the
conscience is cleansed, which was never permanent and final under the
Old Testament types and shadows of the blood of bulls and goats. Under
the
Old dispensation
the Day of Atonement had to be repeated each and every year. But
Christ's sacrifice is to be once and forever. It Is Finished he
said on the cross.
He told the disciples,
“I have earnestly desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer;
16for I say to you, I shall never again eat it until it is
fulfilled in the kingdom of God.”
He had anticipated this moment and had
longed for it to come. Why? Because the Lord's Supper climaxes his
public ministry and marks the beginning of the series of events that
will put him on the cross by the next day. Before the night is over he
will be in custody and the Lamb will be led to the slaughter.
His whole ministry was moving toward
this moment. From the moment he was conceived by the Holy Ghost in the
womb of the virgin until this Passover, it was predestined that this
hour must come.
He must have thought much about it. He
says he did. He must have turned over in his mind the proceedings many
times, how he would be betrayed by one of his own select twelve
apostles, how he would be treated discourteously and roughly by the
highest Court of the Jews and then be taken and accused before the Roman
power of sedition and treason, and then the merciless Roman scourging
and mockery. But he knew he would survive that because he had to die on
the cursed tree. Then the long walk to Golgotha, the nails driven into
his hands and feet, and then the hell of the cross; the drinking of the
cup of suffering as he made his body and soul an offering for sin.
What holy ambition is this? Who has ever
desired such a thing before or since? Why would he desire it? Oh,
beloved was it not because it was the will of the Father. He had come to
do the will of God and this was his will.
He gave himself to this mission with all
his heart,
with all his zeal, with every ounce of
his strength. He pressed toward this moment. It was ever before him. As
he said,
“I have a baptism to undergo, and how distressed I am until it is
accomplished! Luke 12:50 (NASB)
He is strained, he is pressed, and he is
distressed to
come to this hour. Nothing else mattered
but that he be found obedient in this most trying moment. It is his
mission. It is his goal. It is his obedience to the one he loved
supremely, his Father. .
It was not that death was longed for. It
was not that death was desired; it was that his death involved so much.
Man's future was involved and his own obedience was on display. This was
what gave meaning and purpose to his mission. Without the cross there is
no salvation, there is no victory. There was no other plan. This was it.
And he is alone in drinking the cup, facing the awful blackness of being
forsaken by God even as he obeys God. What an hour! No wonder he was
glad to see it come in order that it might be over, in order that he it
might be tasted and experienced once and for all.
Doesn’t that grip you? Doesn't that
chill you! Isn't that sublime in its awful denouement? Who can behold
the Son of God on the cross of Calvary and remain untouched? What forces
touch each other here? Life and death meet each other. Heaven and hell,
God and Satan do their utmost to defeat each other and it is on the
Devil's ground. Hell is his domain. Death is his possession. No one has
ever recovered from his stroke before. Once a man under the sentence of
death for sin has sunk beneath its billows and waves there was no
return, no hope. He is the keeper of the bottomless pit.
There was another spirit of ambition
present at the
Last supper. No
sooner had Christ instituted the Lord's Supper than he declared that the
hand of his Betrayer was with him at the Table. They wondered about that
and asked themselves which one of them would do such a thing.
And then we read,
24And
there arose also a dispute among them as to which one of them was
regarded to be greatest.
The nature of man is ambitious. We all
want to excel in what we do. And even in the Christian life there is
this carryover. We might term this holy ambition. Christians who have
ambition ought to have it for the Lord. Our Lord did not rebuke this
spirit of ambition, but he did teach them the road to success in being
great in the kingdom of God.
If you want to be great in the Kingdom
here is how to succeed,
the one who is the greatest among you must become like the youngest, and
the leader like the servant. 27“For who is greater, the one
who reclines at the table or the one who serves? Is it not the
one who reclines at the table? But I am among you as the one who
serves.
This is
just the opposite of the world's method. He told us that the world
thinks that the way to be great is to achieve a position of leadership
and to exercise authority upon others, so that he be looked up to and be
privileged. It is to be accorded the place of honor and be waited upon.
But Christ's advice, and it is God's advice, is to assume the role of a
servant; to take the lowest station and be the server instead of the
served.
We each must be like our Lord, who after
he had supped girded himself with a towel and went from one to the other
washing their feet. This was the lowliest job of all, yet he gave us an
example of what we should be to one another, especially if we want to be
great in the Kingdom of God.
Let us come to the Lord's Table today
with
a sense of
thanksgiving, humility and gratitude for what our Lord has done for us,
and then let us consecrate our holy ambition. Let us resolve to follow
our Lord's advice. Let us serve one another, and thereby know greatness
in the Kingdom of God.
Beloved
in the Lord, hear what gracious words our Savior Jesus Christ says to
all who truly turn to Him.
Come unto Me,
all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take My
yoke upon you, and learn of Me, for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye
shall find rest unto your souls.
I am the
bread of life: He that cometh to Me shall never hunger; and he that
believeth on Me shall never thirst. Him that cometh to Me I will in no
wise cast out. Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after
righteousness: for they shall be filled
Truly,
truly, I say unto you, he that believeth on Me hath everlasting life. I
am that bread of life. Your fathers did eat manna in the wilderness, and
are dead. This is the bread which cometh down from heaven, that a man
may eat thereof, and not die. I am the living bread which came down from
heaven: if any man eat of this bread, he shall live forever: and the
bread that I will give is My flesh, which I will give for the life of
the world.
We invite all who repent of their sins
and who trust in the Lord Jesus Christ for salvation and desire to live
as becometh followers of Christ;
also all
communicants in good standing
in any evangelical church to participate. We also invite all
non-communicants to remain as well.
Hymn #254 “Alas and Did My Savior
Bleed”
WORDS OF
INSTITUTION
1st Corinthians 11:23-34
Let Us Pray
-- Most gracious Father, who
callest us to the Holy Table of our Savior, to show His death and to
receive His gift of life: enable us to come with earnest faith and
kindled devotion,. Help us to make the memorial of our Savior's
sacrifice with adoration and praise. Open our eyes to behold the vision
of His love, and pour into our souls the fullness of His grace. And
grant that, yielding ourselves to Thee, we may henceforth live as those
who are not their own, but are brought with a price; through Jesus
Christ our Lord. Amen
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The paper and sermon manuscripts from
Pastor
Todd W. Allen
are made freely available for review and
distribution. We only request that proper
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distributed for any reason. Please be
gracious to forgive typos and errors of
expression. These notes are faithful
approximations of what has been preached.
May God be glorified in the preaching of
His Word.