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[0:00] As we were singing that, it flashed in my mind of, number one, the resolve of the Lord Jesus Christ to endure the cross for us. And then I just thought also, through church history, the men and women that have, well, just been put to death, been burned at the stake, been tied up in ropes and chains and dragged around, and the horrible things that have happened to our brothers and sisters because they took a stand for what they believed in the word of God and the Lord Jesus Christ.

[0:37] And there's some resolve there. We read about the Apostle Paul going through and going house to house and hailing men and women and getting them to blaspheme the name of the Lord.

[0:48] And if he couldn't do that, he'd beat them. And if that didn't work, he'd have them imprisoned. And if that didn't work, he'd go all the way to death. He'd push all the way to exterminate those believers in Jesus Christ until he met him, until he met him.

[1:03] So we've got a heritage of some resolve in our family and church history from starting with our Savior. So I hope you were just as resolved.

[1:13] All right, so we're in Matthew chapter 26 this morning. And before we get there, I hope you don't mind. Allie, did you talk to your parents at all? I text with your mom a little that they were in Arizona.

[1:25] Did you talk to them all? They get to meet? Yeah, they were on the meeting. They got there Thursday. I got to see them. They worked all day, Friday and Saturday, cleaning out stuff, bringing homes and stuff.

[1:39] That's what I understand. And I guess the point of the trip was to go and talk to them. Good. Yeah, yeah.

[1:57] Okay. So that was Brother Don Pfeffer that they were spending some time with there. And he's not doing great, but I'm glad that they were able to meet with him. Yeah.

[2:08] And I got a text from Gary this morning saying he woke up still stuffy and his gout's acting up. And he feels like a train wreck. And yesterday he sent me a picture of him shooting his bow in his backyard.

[2:21] And he shot it right through a, it looked like an orange. I thought it was an orange. It was a sweet lemon. And I said to him, well, quit shooting your arrows through these citrus fruits and start eating them.

[2:31] But I don't know if that'll help. But all right, we're in Matthew 26. Oh, well, it's possible.

[2:47] All right. We got into this from 6 to 13 into this passage of Mary anointing the Lord Jesus.

[3:01] And she's just identified here as a woman in verse 7. But other places we understand she's, he's in Bethany. And the name's Mary.

[3:13] All right. So verse number 6, we'll read through this portion again. Now, just to remind you of the setting and the timing, we've come through verse by verse all the way up to this point through the Gospel of Matthew.

[3:24] And we've seen Jesus Christ offer the kingdom and lay out the constitution of the kingdom and even give them truths and doctrinal insight into this kingdom that God has promised to his people Israel.

[3:38] And they, of course, as we know, they reject it. They crucify their Messiah and the King of Kings. But as he turns and starts giving them these mysteries in chapter 13, it becomes more of a parable form, his teachings to them about the kingdom.

[3:56] And little by little, they lose light. And just those that have ears to hear get insight from the Lord Jesus Christ. And he gets to where he ends up rebuking and just going toe-to-toe with, especially in chapter 23, is very strong with the leaders of the Jews who are hypocrites and who are damning the nation in their own way by teaching against the Lord Jesus Christ.

[4:20] And so then he gets into those two heavy chapters of prophecy in verses chapter 24 and 25. And we just got through all of that. And now in the chapter 26, it's going to turn in these next two chapters into the events of his crucifixion.

[4:34] And so this passage here about in Bethany in verse 6 actually happened a few days to a week earlier than where he's at because he's here in Jerusalem in 24 and 25.

[4:47] But so Matthew places this, and I think it's placed perfectly because of just the layout of it. Now he's backtracking a little bit, but it fits with the events that's about to take place here in chapter 26.

[4:58] Because this is connected, as he says, to his burial. So let's read it again and start in verse number 6. Now when Jesus was in Bethany in the house of Simon the leper, there came unto him a woman having an alabaster box of very precious ointment, and poured it on his head as he sat at meat.

[5:14] When his disciples saw it, they had indignation, saying, To what purpose is this waste? For this ointment might have been sold for much and given to the poor. When Jesus understood it, he said unto them, Why trouble you the woman?

[5:25] For she hath wrought a good work upon me. For ye have the poor always with you, but me ye have not always. For in that she hath poured this ointment on my body.

[5:35] She did it for my burial. Verily I say unto you, Wheresoever this gospel shall be preached in the whole world, there shall also this, that this woman hath done, be told for a memorial of her.

[5:47] And now here we are in North America, some 2,000 years later roughly, and we know about this woman and the deed that she did upon the Lord Jesus Christ. And it is truly a thing that has carried on for years.

[6:00] Of all the events and the years of this ministry of Jesus Christ, so few things are truly recorded. It's just a couple of pages really in this book of those day-to-day events.

[6:14] And this woman got in because of something she did. Now keep your place here, but go to John chapter 12. We're going to cross-reference a few things because the gospel writers just give different details to these events, as always.

[6:28] And so get John chapter 12, and we'll get there shortly. What we read was that it said that she had poured it on his head.

[6:51] And John here recalls her doing it on his feet. And it's not a contradiction. It's a truth given by both advantages. And so here John says in verse number, well, we begin in verse 1.

[7:04] Then Jesus, six days before the Passover, came to Bethany, where Lazarus, which was which had been dead, whom he raised from the dead. There they made him a supper, and Mary, oh, you know what?

[7:17] There's the word supper, just in case you guys attack me for saying supper. It's in the Bible. A lot of you do it. I say supper, you say it's dinner around here. I'm like, well, I'm just biblical, so, you know, you can have a different version.

[7:30] There they made him a supper, and Martha served, and Lazarus was one of them that sat at the table with him. Then took Mary a pound of ointment of spikenard, very costly, and anointed the feet of Jesus and wiped his feet with her hair, and the house was filled with the odor of the ointment.

[7:47] Now there's the difference there, if you want to call it that. But look what transpires after this. We read it earlier in Matthew 26. I'll just catch this again. The disciples saw it. They had indignation, saying, to what purpose is this waste?

[8:02] Because this stuff is very expensive. But notice who incited that in John chapter 12, verse number 4. Then saith one of his disciples, Judas Iscariot. Well, what do we know about Judas Iscariot?

[8:14] Jesus Christ said earlier, back in chapter 6, have not I chosen you twelve, and one of you is a devil? And this devil, Judas Iscariot, which we're going to notice something about him if we get to it later on.

[8:29] Judas Iscariot says something. The one that should betray him, it's mentioned in verse 4. Why was not this ointment sold for 300 pence and given to the poor?

[8:40] Now, 300 pence, a pence is a day's wage. Remember back in Matthew that the guy went out and worked in the field for a penny? That's a day's wage for three. That's almost a year's wages.

[8:51] That's your salary this thing could be valued at. And they had indignation when they saw it being poured out and dumped all over. And this one, I believe it was Judas that incited the whole thing and said what he said to the others maybe first.

[9:05] I don't know how it came out. But before long, they all were on board saying, this is stupid. Why would you ever do this? You know what we could have done with that? They've just got done traveling all over Israel.

[9:18] All over it. Top to bottom. City to city. Town to town. Teaching and preaching and casting out devils. Healing and doing all this ministry. And here they are just watching this woman dump something down the drain that could have been used for so much more in their mind.

[9:35] Now, understand this about Judas. Verse number 6. This he said, not that he cared for the poor. But because he was a thief and had the bag and bear what was therein.

[9:47] Now, Judas Iscariot, we learn a little bit about him. He's a devil. He doesn't care about the poor. But he uses that as a reason to contradict what's happening right in front of his face.

[9:58] He doesn't care about the ointment, about the woman, about the Lord Jesus Christ, about the emotion of it all. Or he doesn't even understand the setting of the burial.

[10:11] He just says, look at that money. Look how expensive that stuff is. He probably spotted it when she came walking into the room with this alabaster box. He probably is like, ooh. He probably said, hello.

[10:23] How are you? What's your name? You got money. You got something very costly here. And to see her break it and to see what took place, that's just somebody who's in love with money. And you better be careful with money.

[10:36] Because money can make you do some incredibly stupid things and wicked things, for that matter. The love of money is the root of all evil. You know that. And this man had a love for money.

[10:47] As a matter of fact, in a little bit in this passage in Matthew, he's going to be chasing some money. And he's going to be going to some wicked men to get some money from him. 30 pieces of silver, as a matter of fact.

[10:59] Now, Judas Iscariot has an issue. And there's the devil using logic and reasoning in a subtle way to attack what Jesus Christ, come back to Matthew, what Jesus Christ said, she's done this for my burial.

[11:14] He said, why are you troubling the woman? Like, what's your problem with her, with what she's doing right now? What's she doing to you? Why would you stop her from doing what she's doing? Well, we know it wasn't because they cared for the poor.

[11:27] It was because of the cost of it, because of the money. It's hard for somebody to let that go. Jesus Christ saying, we could go a long way with this. Jesus Christ doesn't need your money.

[11:40] Or he doesn't care how much money you can ever outgive him. You can't pour something too expensive on him. And he's going to say, oh, no, don't do that. Don't do that to me. Give that to the poor.

[11:52] These humanitarian efforts, I don't want to speak against them and make you think that I don't have a heart. But using that as an excuse is what the disciples did, what the devil did.

[12:07] It's what Judas Iscariot did was used, could have been given that to the poor. But really, I don't care. It sounds like a politician acting like he cares for the poor, acting like he cares for the homeless. The truth is, God knows inside his heart he doesn't even rip about any of them.

[12:21] He cares about his position. He cares about the money that comes with it. And so to keep the position, I've got to save some face and start some projects and hold some hands, shake some hands, take some pictures.

[12:34] And there's Judas Iscariot. I don't want to get political. Oh, I hate that. So let's stay back in the Bible. And there's Judas Iscariot stirring up Jesus' disciples, the disciples of Jesus Christ, the closest to him.

[12:47] And they have a problem. And I want you to notice this. Back in Matthew, when Jesus understood it, verse 10, he said unto them, Why trouble ye the woman? She hath wrought a good work upon me. This was a good work being wrought upon Jesus Christ, and his own disciples had a problem with it.

[13:03] Do you have a problem with that? Do you see that's a problem there? That something good is happening to Jesus Christ. There's being authentic worship being offered.

[13:13] This woman at his feet with all that's probably all she owns or could come together with, putting this down at him and anointing him for his burial.

[13:24] And they have a problem with this woman worshiping him. That's a big issue there. And that shows you this subtle way the devil will attack, worship on Jesus Christ.

[13:35] The attention should be on the Lord Jesus Christ. And they're trying to defer it because of the money to, well, what about the poor? We're just going to let them all starve today out here in the streets of Jerusalem while you let this waste?

[13:49] That's religion there. That's religion looking to humanitarian efforts, to humanistic reasoning, and not worshiping the Lord Jesus Christ.

[14:01] Jesus Christ deserved the worship. And he said, why are you messing with this woman? Let her do what she's doing. She's doing something good. In verse 11, he tells him, you have the poor always with you.

[14:13] But me, you have not always. Me, your focus should be on me, Jesus Christ says. And it should always be on Jesus Christ. But Judas saw that money and it grieved him.

[14:26] It grieved him. So he interrupted a worship service, a spiritual thing going on because of his love for money. So now in verse 12, for in that she hath poured this ointment on my body.

[14:39] She did it for my burial. Now, did she know that she was doing this for his burial? Did she know? Did the Lord reveal this to her? I kind of doubt it. I think she just came with the best she had and she loved him.

[14:51] And this is all she knew to do. And she was led and moved in her spirit to do this. And she did it. And maybe the Lord was moving her to do this. Maybe her unwittingly. But he was thinking about his burial.

[15:04] As we've seen already, he's talking about it a little bit here, a little bit there, more and more. He just said it in verse 2. You know that after two days is the feast of the Passover. The Son of Man is going to be betrayed and be crucified. He's thinking on it.

[15:16] It is really starting to consume him. All right. So now verse, let's move on past this section then. Verse 14. Then one of the twelve, called Judas Iscariot, went out unto the chief priest and said unto them, What will you give me?

[15:31] And I will deliver him unto you. And they covenanted with him for thirty pieces of silver. And from that time he sought opportunity to betray him. Now, here's Judas again with the money.

[15:44] Come back a few pages beyond Matthew into the Old Testament to Zechariah chapter 11. And thirty pieces of silver is a prophecy.

[15:59] It's not a random number at all. Although I'm sure, I would assume that this was not a number that was on his mind going into this. Notice chapter 11 of Zechariah.

[16:13] And verse number 12 is where the prophecy is found. And this is going like almost maybe 500 years before the Lord Jesus Christ in this event. And Zechariah prophesied by the Holy Ghost, saying, And I said unto them, If you think good, give me my price, and if not, forbear.

[16:31] So they weighed for my price thirty pieces of silver. And if you know your Bible, that goes to the potter's field. And there it is in verse 13.

[16:41] The Lord said unto me, Cast it unto the potter. And thirty pieces of silver. Now, I doubt, I surely doubt that Judas walked in there thinking, I want to get thirty. I'm thinking Judas wanted fifty.

[16:54] Maybe more. And he probably went in there to negotiate with them a price. He said, What will you give me? I'll deliver unto you. And they covenanted with him.

[17:06] I don't know how this took place. I don't want to just kind of make things up. But if you know men and you know business situations and money exchanging hands, that's the way it goes.

[17:18] You start with a price. They start with a price. You haggle back and forth. And they settle on thirty. I'm sure he wanted more. And they said, Oh, we can't give the Lord's money to you.

[17:29] That much to one man. That's too much to give to you. And he said, You know what you're asking me to do? And he esteemed that price of what, you know, you want this man, don't you?

[17:40] And I can deliver him to you. And back and forth they went, I imagine, and settled on, what do you know? The prophecy, what the Lord God had already declared. Now, if they would have covenanted for fifty, the scripture would have said fifty.

[17:55] It's not a matter of the number that it had to be that. I mean, it did because of the prophecy. It's like God could see out into the future what took place and has it written beforehand. He declares the end from the beginning.

[18:06] And that's why prophecy, Bible prophecy is the greatest, without doubt, the greatest evidence that this book is not written by man. It is the greatest. It's historically proven that things were penned and they were fulfilled.

[18:21] And there's a lot more that's going to take place along those lines as well. All right, back in Matthew 26. And so they settle on thirty pieces of silver, just like the prophet foretold.

[18:32] We'll go to verse number 17. Now, the first day of the feast of unleavened bread, the disciples came to Jesus, saying unto him, Where wilt thou that we prepare for thee to eat the Passover? And he said, Go into the city to such a man, and say unto him, The master saith, My time's at hand.

[18:48] I will keep the Passover at thy house with my disciples. And the disciples did as Jesus had appointed them, and they made ready the Passover. Now, come to, let's try, we'll do it in Luke.

[18:59] Mark and Luke, again, they give a little bit more insight into these things. In Luke chapter 22, they went to the city to such a man.

[19:12] But there was another step that Matthew doesn't give us. Which I just, when I read these things, and if you remember, we read earlier in Matthew, I think it was 21, when he went to find the colt tied up, the ass that carried him into Jerusalem.

[19:30] And he said, Go into this town, and you'll find him loosed, and take him. And if somebody says anything, you just tell the master, you know. And how they probably felt like, Really? We're just going to walk into this guy's backyard and untie his beast and just start walking away with it?

[19:44] And that's what he told them to do. And there had to be, who knows how many times, things like this happened when they were following the Lord Jesus Christ. All right, Luke 22, and check this out.

[19:55] Verse 7 says, Then came the day of unleavened bread. The Passover must be killed. He sent Peter and John, saying, Go and prepare us the Passover that we may eat. And he said, And where wilt thou that we prepare?

[20:06] And he said unto them, Behold, you are entered into the city. There shall a man meet you bearing a pitcher of water. Follow him into the house wherein he entereth in.

[20:16] Now, this guy is a servant. And ye shall say unto the good man of the house, The master saith unto thee, Where is the guest chamber that I shall eat the Passover with my disciples?

[20:26] And the disciples, he shall show you a large upper room furnished. And so therefore, so interesting, they just go into the city and, Oh, there's a guy with a pitcher. He must be the one.

[20:36] Just follow him. Just stay behind him. Walk. Just stalk him till he gets to his house. And then when you get there, you look for the owner of the house and say, All right, where's our room at?

[20:49] And that's some interesting stuff. And these disciples were, Christ could have said it differently. He could have laid it out differently. Actually, they're learning to walk by faith, to obey his word, and do what he says to do.

[21:05] And when they do it, it always works out just like he said it would every time. And it still does today. We can still trust the word of God and exercise faith in it. And so these little things, they're all over the place.

[21:17] And it had to be interesting for them to see it. Could you imagine a similar situation today of saying, Hey, go down to, Tyler, I'll use Home Depot. Okay. Go down to Home Depot.

[21:28] And when you're there, you're going to see a woman with a red bag. Follow her out to her car. Follow her to her home. Well, this gets a little creepy today, of course.

[21:38] But follow her to her home. And there her husband is going to write a check out to you to give to the church. If I told you, go do that. That's some wild stuff to think.

[21:52] Yeah. And that's kind of a similar situation here. These disciples followed. You would be like, are you serious? The disciples, Peter and John. Okay. We believe you. That's walking by faith right there.

[22:02] All right. Coming down in chapter 26. We got to verse 19. Verse 20. Now, when the even was come, he sat down with the 12.

[22:14] Now, the timing here, we've got 6 p.m. That's the even. This is Tuesday night. And therefore, it's the beginning of Wednesday.

[22:26] Now, people get this so mixed up. And for some reason, the tradition of the whole layout of the days of the crucifixion are thrown off. And they're not biblical.

[22:37] Most places have a Good Friday. Like that's the day Christ was murdered. And then he resurrected Sunday. And that's just not true. And it doesn't wash with the scripture, little by little.

[22:48] Now, when the even was come, that's 6 p.m. Look back at chapter 25. And notice this in verse number 6. Now, we know what evening is.

[23:00] And that's a normal term for us. But understand, it's the timing of the 6 o'clock, as we call it, p.m. Verse number 6.

[23:11] Well, verse 5. Of when the, while the bridegroom tarried, they all slumbered and slept. And at midnight, there was a cry made. At midnight. What does midnight mean? It means the middle of the night.

[23:22] So that is for us 12 o'clock. That's in between 6 p.m. and 6 a.m. On the Jewish time of things. The way they lay up. And it's the middle of the night.

[23:32] That's pretty normal. It actually makes a lot of sense. It really is weird to say the middle of the night is the beginning of the day. That's what we say, whether you realize it or not. 12 a.m. is the start of the next day.

[23:44] That's midnight. The middle of the night is the beginning of the day? That doesn't make sense. For them, the right way is 6 p.m.

[23:54] Starts the eve of the next day. The evening. Remember the evening and the morning were the first day? And so God's layout starts at 6 p.m. The Jewish Sabbath starts at 6 p.m. Goes all the way through to 6 p.m. the next day.

[24:07] The evening and the morning. The 12 hours. And so the middle of the night from 6 to 6 is 12. And we have midnight right, but we don't know why.

[24:19] It's just a weird way of things that have become. And with other Gentile influences into the timing and the clock and whatever else. So when he says when even was come, it's the 6 o'clock hour.

[24:34] And that's why the Passover begins then. And, okay, so the evening and the morning. You know why we call it Christmas Eve? It's not about the day.

[24:46] Like you wake up December 24th at 4 in the morning. It's not technically Christmas Eve until the evening. Until 6 p.m. the eve of Christmas Day.

[24:57] And the same with New Year's Eve. It starts at 6 p.m. If we were on that Jewish setup, we would be probably celebrating it not at 12 midnight, but at 6 p.m. That would change things, wouldn't it?

[25:09] And then everybody would get home safely. All right. Matthew 26. We've got to hurry along here. Now, when the evening was come, he sat down with the 12. And as they did eat, he said, Verily I say unto you that one of you shall betray me.

[25:26] Now, let me make a point here. Verse 21 says, As they, plural, did eat. Who? The 12. Verse 20. He sat down with the 12.

[25:36] You know who's in the 12? Judas Iscariot. And he sits down and eats with Judas Iscariot. Now, here's why I'm making this point. Notice verse 26. As they were eating, they, Judas Iscariot, he took bread and blessed it and gave it to his disciples.

[25:52] And here comes this institution of the Lord's Supper, the communion. Now, some people, religions and denominations, call this holy communion.

[26:02] And they make such a fuss about this thing as if it's some sacrament that must be taken and observed or you'll never go to heaven. And this is a grace and God commends his grace to us in doing this.

[26:14] It's such a perversion of the truth. Here we have Judas Iscariot involved in it. It's not so holy after all. It's not.

[26:24] It never was. It's not to be. But man has totally perverted this thing. And so I just want you to understand that there's Judas Iscariot partaking in it. And he's the devil that's going to betray Jesus Christ.

[26:37] So we're not going to make a big fuss about communion. We do it as a memorial service to remember what Jesus Christ did for us. And we'll get to that here maybe in a second here. So they attempt, and some religions attempt, to exclude Judas from this moment because they make this meal some false doctrine and make it a holy thing that everybody has to partake of in order to be saved.

[27:02] And even so, some take it into this mass situation of receiving Christ. And that's even worse yet. Now, verse 22, And they were exceeding sorrowful.

[27:13] Why? Because he just told them, One of you, one of you twelve disciples that I picked and that you followed me and I taught you all these things. You sat at my feet. I made very close relationship with you twelve for the last several years.

[27:27] One of you shall betray me. So he says, They were exceeding sorrowful and began every one of them to say unto him, Lord, is it I? Lord, is it I?

[27:38] Now, look at John, I think it's 13 here. John 13. They didn't all use the term, Is it I?

[27:58] One of them, according to the scripture, asked it this way in verse 25, He then lying on Jesus' breast, saith unto him, Lord, who is it?

[28:09] And that is John, the disciple John in verse 23. Now there was leaning on Jesus' bosom one of his disciples whom Jesus loved. And so we know that to be John, the author of this gospel here.

[28:21] And while he's that close to Jesus Christ, Simon Peter, to his right or left, whatever way he's laying, Simon Peter therefore beckoned unto him that he should ask of whom he spake. And John didn't say, Lord, is it I?

[28:32] He said, Lord, who is it? And John has a confidence that we see that the others don't have. They're exceeding sorrowful. They're sad. They're upset about this thing. And they're probably feeling a little guilty or feeling a little uncertain, maybe questioning their own selves and their own potential infidelity to the Lord Jesus Christ.

[28:54] And their sorrow is an honest response. But John doesn't seem to have anything wrong with his conscience, doesn't seem to have any guilt inside of him, being that close to Jesus Christ, that fellowship and relationship so tight, he just says, who is it?

[29:09] In other words, which one of these guys is it? Because I know it's not me. And when your heart is right with Jesus Christ, and when you're devoted to him and leaning on him with all you have, like John was, beloved of the Lord Jesus Christ, you're not going to have those thoughts either.

[29:26] Or if you do, you'll cast them down because your fellowship's where it should be. You're not going to say, you're not going to assume, well, I'm guilty here. I did that because you're going to walk with Jesus Christ.

[29:37] When you're right with God, it, it, a defiled conscience can be cleared. And you can walk clear with a clear mind and knowing you're right.

[29:49] And I know you, there's things in life that you don't know the answer to, and you don't have perfect peace about everything. I know that. I experienced that too. But when it comes to being guilty about something, when I'm right with God, I don't have to put myself under and like, oh, I'm such a wicked person here because I know I'm doing right.

[30:07] And I know my heart's right with God. And John had that. And that's a good thing. There's peace in that and assurance in that. Now, back in Matthew 26, John has confidence in his loyalty and in his love.

[30:22] So he's not the one saying, Lord, is it I? Now, in verse 23, he answered and said, he that dippeth his hand with me in the dish, the same shall betray me.

[30:33] And so we understand by reading in John further, in John 13, all those details are there, that it was Judas Iscariot. In verse 24, the Son of Man goeth as it is written of him.

[30:45] Now, let me just mention this. We haven't seen this for a while. That all through this book, Matthew has continued to point out the prophecies. He's pointed them out so many times. Every time they happened, it was written that it might be fulfilled.

[30:57] What was written by the prophet. And here it is again. He's, he's reminding us, the prophets are all writing about Jesus Christ. He is the Messiah. The Son of Man goeth as it is written of him, but woe unto that man, by whom the Son of Man is betrayed.

[31:10] It is good, or had been good for that man, if he had not been born. Now, that's not saying that, that man would be able to get out of, fulfilling the word of God.

[31:22] It's just saying for that man, as a man, it would have been better for him not to be born, because he's going to get it. And the things with Judas, we could study this a lot deeper. He goes into some, some darker things here, and coming back in the future.

[31:38] Verse 25, Now this, this question was on behalf of Peter saying, Lord, who is it?

[31:53] Or ask him who it is. And Judas showed up then, and with a guilty conscience, I'm sure, he knew who he was. So let's move into this briefly.

[32:03] We'll start this next section here on the Lord's Supper. As they were eating, Jesus took bread, and blessed it, and break it, and gave it to his disciples, and said, Take, eat, this is my body.

[32:16] And he took the cup, and gave thanks, and gave it to them, saying, Drink ye all of it. For this is my blood of the New Testament, which is shed for many for the remission of sins. But I say unto you, I will not drink henceforth of this fruit of the vine, until that day when I drink it new with you in my Father's kingdom.

[32:33] Now, there's so much here, and every word of God is pure. And so many single words in this passage have bare meaning, and help us in the interpretation and understanding of what's being said here.

[32:49] And that's why we always study the Bible within the Bible. And there's things we'll have to, we'll not get to all of this today. But there are absolutely phrases and words that give us light to what this is, and keep us from making mistakes, and performing this wrong, or putting too much value, I guess, and worth on what is going on here.

[33:14] This is the institution of the Lord's Supper, what we call communion, or what's called the Lord's Table in 1 Corinthians. He says, This is my body. Take, eat.

[33:25] This. What is this? The bread. According to the text, he took bread, and blessed it, and break it, gave it to the disciples, and said, Take, eat. This is my body. Was the bread his body?

[33:38] Or was it bread? So somebody goes back and says, Wait, he blessed it. So there must be something taking place there. Because they want to teach that that bread is transformed, or transfigured into his literal body.

[33:54] They want to take the passage literally. Now we take passages literally as much as we can, unless it's obviously figurative. And if I took bread and broke it, and said this is my body, I don't see anything literal about that, but figurative of something else.

[34:11] When the bread was broken, was his body broken yet? Not yet. The bread being broken was figurative of his body being broken here shortly later that night.

[34:23] So the institution of this here, the body is figurative, and the blood, the same case, is obviously figurative. Notice this while we're here. Verse 27, He took the cup and gave thanks, and gave it to them, saying, Drink ye all of it, for this is my blood.

[34:39] Of the New Testament. Was what was inside the cup his blood? He calls it the fruit of the vine, in verse 29. So we know it wasn't blood.

[34:50] I will not drink henceforth of this fruit of the vine. So what's in the cup is not blood, but rather fruit of the vine, which we can study in the Bible easily, and prove that it's juice, grape juice.

[35:04] This fruit of the vine is what's in the cup. So they did not drink his blood, they drank the fruit of the vine. He didn't transform anything, any of those elements, in front of their eyes, into some other substance, particularly his flesh or his blood.

[35:19] Now, come back to John chapter 6. Or, come back, go forward. John chapter 6. This is the passage that throws everybody off.

[35:31] certain denominations, certain religions, come up with a perverted view of this, and they insist upon a literal interpretation, and in order to make it literal, then they have to insert their own views, and practices, which are not biblical, but their own practices, to fill in the blanks.

[36:06] So, John chapter 6, notice we'll start in verse 53. This was something spoken, at least two years before. 53, Jesus said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, except ye eat the flesh of the Son of Man, and drink his blood, ye have no life in you.

[36:23] Whoso eateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood, hath eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day, for my flesh is meat indeed, and my blood is drink indeed. He that eateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood, dwelleth in me, and I in him.

[36:40] As the living Father hath sent me, and I live by the Father, so he that eateth me, even he shall live by me. This is that bread which came down from heaven, not as your fathers did eat manna and are dead, he that eateth of this bread shall live forever.

[36:54] So because of this teaching, specifically this teaching, it has been perverted to, and attached to the Lord's Supper, and said, oh that's eating his blood, or eating his body, and drinking his blood, because he commanded two years ago.

[37:11] Now here's my question, just right away, is what about those two years? He didn't institute this breaking of bread, and drinking of the fruit of the vine, or the supposed blood.

[37:25] So what about those men that he told them to believe on me, and you have life in you? What about all those who believed on him? You read through the Gospel of John, people are believing on him all the way through this thing. Do they not have life yet, because they didn't get communion?

[37:37] If that's what it really is, if that's what is necessary for salvation, or for God to dwell in me, is I have to partake of his flesh? So there's an opening, a gap of time, which there's no evidence that this is being instituted, or is something that was ever practiced, or should be.

[37:55] Obviously it shouldn't be, it's not that hard. Now stay in this passage for a second. The reason Jesus Christ even spoke like this, was because these people showed up, with the wrong motives.

[38:07] Come back to Matthew, I'm sorry, John 6, and we've got to wrap it up here. In verse 26, so he had already fed 5,000 of them.

[38:19] This is right off of that miracle. And he took off, and then they came and found him. And he said this in verse 26, Jesus answered them, said verily, verily, I say unto you, ye seek me, not because ye saw the miracles, but because ye did eat the loaves, and were filled.

[38:32] You're hungry. You're coming to me for that. Then he turns into using that, and talking about manna, in the wilderness, and saying, Moses gave you not that bread from heaven, my father giveth you the true bread from heaven.

[38:48] And he's using this analogy, of partaking of something, for eternal life. And he's saying, it's me. It's me. I'm the bread, I'm the manna, but it's me today.

[38:59] I came down from heaven. And so as he continues this thought, he says some divisive words about eating his flesh and drinking his blood. And now look beyond that passage and look at verse 60 and the reaction.

[39:13] Many, therefore, of his disciples, when they had heard this, said, this is a hard saying. Who can hear it? Who can receive that teaching of being a cannibal?

[39:24] By the way, that's forbidden from cover to cover. Even by the apostles in Acts as they're trying to minister even to Gentiles, it's forbidden to be drinking blood.

[39:36] So Jesus Christ, therefore, in his teaching, if that's the literal teaching, is going against the word of God. So cross it out right there. But anyway, it's a hard saying. Who can hear it? That's something we're never told or taught.

[39:48] And he asked them in verse 61, Does this offend you? Is this something you can't handle? Notice this in verse 63. Very important. It is the spirit that quickeneth.

[40:01] That is, that makes alive, that gives life. That's what he was saying this whole time. That you'll have life in you. It's the spirit. This is a spiritual thing. The flesh profiteth nothing.

[40:14] The words that I speak unto you, they are spirit. They're spirit. This is not literal. This is not flesh and blood. You don't eat something and have eternal life.

[40:25] You can't order it at a restaurant. You can't order it in a church service. It's a spiritual interaction. The words are spirit and they are life. And he goes on, some of them take off after this in verse 66.

[40:41] And then Jesus says, Will you also go away? And Peter got it though. He understood in verse 68. He said, Lord, to whom shall we go? Thou hast the words. Thou hast the words of eternal life.

[40:52] Not the flesh and the blood. You have the words of eternal life. What Jesus Christ was teaching them was spiritual truth of receiving him. He likens salvation to receiving bread, to drinking water.

[41:07] And I've taught you on a Wednesday night, we went through, I want to say about eight or ten of these things that are simplified illustrations of salvation. where he says, Come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden and I'll give you rest.

[41:21] Come unto me. It's just coming to Jesus Christ. And one place is described as taking hold or laying hold, just like grabbing something for salvation instead of letting it go by.

[41:32] Take Jesus Christ. All right. We're running out of time here, so I'm going to stop with that. And then next week we'll get a little deeper into this passage on the Lord's Supper and make...