[0:00] Well, good morning and happy Sunday. All right, we're a little bit mixed on that. It's been four years you guys had figured out by now, I thought.
[0:12] But anyway, before we get into Texas Scripture, I wanted to spend some time on a couple announcements and kind of a little bit of a pastor's chat, just kind of let you guys know what we've been thinking as a leadership, kind of where we're going, where we've been, and all that kind of stuff.
[0:30] So one of the things that we're working on is this thing called communication. You'd think we'd have it all figured out by now, right? But one of the hardest things in any church is how do we communicate everything that you need to know about what's going on, the events, opportunities, just about anything that you can see, right?
[0:51] We can send out an email. I actually thought about getting Steph and Dave to actually go visit you guys once a week and tell you everything that's going on, but there's a time element there.
[1:02] So one of the things is we need your email. That's one of the best ways to get. And if you notice at the welcome desk, there's a list. We're trying to update those things. We're trying to get targeted emails.
[1:14] So when we have your email, you can let us know what area. So we're getting this new updated kind of software. So if you have a kid, you'll get stuff that's generated just for the youth.
[1:26] If it's for children's ministry, men's ministry, just those type of dynamics. So it'd be really helpful if you were able to make sure that we have the right information for you.
[1:39] So that's the first thing is communication. Second thing I wanted to do is just update you on the Philippine trip. So Ryan's actually got a picture for you guys.
[1:49] So this is the book that we've been able to raise the money to have print overseas. So we've been very gracious to partner with a couple of other ministries.
[2:00] It's been a big undertaking because it's a real book that has copyrights. So I was just kind of going through the discussion with all the legal people. So we've been really blessed that I have really had nothing to do with it.
[2:13] And that these guys that are very smarter, knows what's going on over there, have been able to do this on behalf of us. So it's really gracious that God's been doing that just as we've been able to raise the funds to get there.
[2:27] So it's going to be in time for the conference, which is happening on the 11th of October. So we're going to be printing 1,000 copies.
[2:38] So 300 copies are for the conference. And then what we're going to do is donate the other 700 copies to various missions ministries over in the Philippines, which primary purpose of their existence is to train pastors.
[2:53] So they're going to use this as part of their curriculum to offer it as a free gift to the students there. So very grateful for those who've been able to give and to share of their resources.
[3:05] So anyhow, it's kind of cool that picture that Ryan just took down before I got to look at it again, but that's all right. So an update. Yeah, I'm leaving on October 5th. So I'm actually a guest preaching the first Sunday there.
[3:16] And then I'm going to be doing 10 sessions. So I'd appreciate prayer while I'm there. Last time I was over, I got violently sick. Bacteria infections. So my doctor's giving me a whole bunch of stuff to take with me.
[3:28] And the other thing is my voice, right? So speaking 10 times in that concentrated day. It wears. So some of my friends have recommended different types of lozenges.
[3:40] So getting all of that kind of stuff taken off. So my final thank you is just freeing me up for those two weeks just to go over there, teach. And then at the tail end, I have the opportunity to preach at another local church and just to be a blessing to them as we preach the word of Jesus Christ.
[3:58] The third element I want to talk to you, and it's something that I haven't talked a lot about since I've been here, which is roughly a little over four years, is this thing called church membership.
[4:10] Church membership. Some people get really excited about church membership. Some people are like, ah, I don't see it in the Bible. I don't want anything to do with church membership. But one of the things that we do believe in and we do have here at the church is this thing called church membership.
[4:25] Now, a couple things, the reason why I really didn't want to get into it is because there's a couple of elements in the church that I really believed needed to be solidified before I started talking about church membership.
[4:39] And I usually believe church membership is about two things. It's a gathered group of believers who espouse a particular set of teaching, but more important, I'm not going to say more important, but just as important, it's how we work as a church.
[4:53] So, you guys know we have a statement of faith. If you go online, it tells you everything we believe. It's not saying you have to believe everything that we say, but that's generally what we're going to teach. But the second element, which I really believe is important, that really doesn't really get talked about, is how do you act in accordance to what you believe?
[5:14] So, let me just tell you the bare bones. So, one of the things we want to have is a children's ministry, right? Because we believe in discipleship and evangelism. And the primary, easiest, lowest hanging fruit for us to evangelize is the kids that the Lord has blessed us with.
[5:29] Amen? And there's different ways that we can do that. We can do it through our children's ministry that's going on now. Sometimes there's outreach programs we can start doing during the summer.
[5:39] And there's other options which we're hoping to get is part of it's training you as parents in order to share the gospel with your kids and to grow them in the faith of Jesus Christ.
[5:52] Amen? The second thing that we wanted to solidify that I believe every church needs is a youth group. So, when I first came here, we really didn't have a youth group, but praise the Lord, there's a group of people that God's raised up who are really excited about the youth, the teenage years.
[6:07] And some of these are the most, how do I say it? These are incredible instructional years for teens. And we do it from grade seven all the way to the end of high school. They're going to learn things about how to defend their faith, how to think through the Bible, how to believe the Bible, right?
[6:22] There's just so many things that the world throws at them this time. So, we're very grateful to get that up and growing. Just many thanks to Chris and Lisa for taking that on. And another thing that I was, I'm going to talk about this in a section.
[6:35] I'm going to talk about a section called Ministry Partnership. But the other element is men's discipleship and women's discipleship. We're blessed with some BSF leaders that come from our church that are willing to take that on.
[6:47] And for the men, we've been largely doing this study called Every Man a Warrior. It's a three-part book study that I've talked about in the past. The reality is we are a church that's only so big or so small.
[7:00] And the reality is we can't do everything perfect as we would like to. Like, would we like to be able to address every type of ministry?
[7:10] I've been in churches where they're insisting on men's ministry who golf on Thursdays who are left-handed, right? They have the ability, the size to be able to do those kind of things. You know, there's a woman's ministry for women who drink tea but not coffee but only a little bit, you know, just that kind of stuff, right?
[7:27] We don't have that. So we kind of have to open our arms a little bit in order to get to this point where we can grow you in the faith that we really believe the Bible instructs us to do so.
[7:39] Even Dave has kind of started pulling in. I'm going to use that word college and career as you go post high school, just bringing some fellowship together, the ability to prayer, to pray with one another.
[7:53] You know what a big thing? And you guys know this. It's just to care for one another, right? There's a lot of singles, people in different times of life, and just starting to beginning to use that group or this group can come together, even as young adults as they're figuring out life to have friendships.
[8:11] So we really believe that those are the core discipleship ministries that a church needs to have. Future, I would like to raise up more leaders and elders and people who can start doing more growth groups, discipleship groups, just to reach out to the left-handed golfers of our community or whatever, right?
[8:32] Just those kind of specifics. But I do believe that there's a call for this thing called church membership where we identify with both the teachings and the practice of this church.
[8:47] So in November, I'm going to hold a two-part class if you're interested in kind of becoming a member. And there's a thing that the government gives us as a society act which we vote on things.
[8:58] And I always don't say membership is not about voting. Membership is about taking responsibility for the ministry that we kind of collectively agreed here to do that the Lord has called us to do, right?
[9:12] And so that's kind of how I view this membership thing. It's making sure we're on the same page with what we believe, but how we're going to practice this. So if you're interested, you've been new or maybe you've long-term and you've never made that type of display of commitment even though you've been here all the time.
[9:32] But there's certain elements and I'll probably preach a sermon on it. But please let Steph know, the office know, the welcome desk know that you'd like to attend these two-part classes.
[9:45] It'll probably most likely be right after the service. We'll have a lunch, get to know one another. But I want to use it as an opportunity for some of you guys that are new to know me better. Let me know you better.
[9:56] And we can talk about those elements of what we believe and what the practice is of being what it means to be a member at SBC.
[10:07] Because we really believe that our beliefs bind us together, but how we grow together is how we use our gifts together. Amen? Because I really believe that God has given each and every one of us an individual gift that he has blessed us with.
[10:21] And we are to use that gift for the furtherance of the kingdom of Jesus Christ. And I totally believe that it's God builds his kingdom through the saints that meet here and we get to be a part of it.
[10:35] You with me? More people are part of it. God seems to bless that. So just to tell you on an encouraging side, we partner with some of the other churches here in the city. I don't know if you know that.
[10:45] So the children's ministry, Church on 99, they've kind of taken the helm on taking some of the youth, doing some extra evangelism and teaching.
[10:56] We're really excited about that. We're taking on the part of the youth ministry. And in case you didn't know, Chris was telling me if just about every kid is here, there's almost 50 kids. That's a great opportunity for other kids in our church to get to know some of the other kids, to grow, develop friendships.
[11:12] And we're actually partnering. Remember Jeremy that was here a couple of weeks ago? He spoke really funny like he was from the South, right? No matter what he says, I still have my sense of humor. But anyway, we're actually joining him.
[11:25] And remember, Ernest, he's going to be leading from his church. So we're getting together with several other churches at Camp Luther. And they're going to be able to do a big youth retreat because usually smaller churches don't have that ability.
[11:36] So we're excited. And we're also working with The Rock to get an outreach going, right? Glenn's really passionate about outreach. And some of the things, that's where his gifting is.
[11:46] So we're working on something so we can all partner together. It was kind of funny. He said he did a survey at his church. And he said the survey resulted that people in the church thought we all hated each other.
[12:00] Competing churches. And that's not that at all, right? We have a real love and affection. So we're hoping to get together to organize that. Just as my hope is to see people grow and come to know Lord Jesus Christ here in this beautiful place.
[12:20] Which someone asked me, what's the biggest competition here? It's fun. That's the biggest competition to the gospel here in Squamish, right? We all want to have fun. And there's more things to do in this city probably than anywhere else.
[12:34] Well, maybe for you guys. I really don't like all this stuff. You know, I'm from Ontario. I break an arm or a leg doing something. I don't know. I like baseball. But anyway, that's besides the point.
[12:44] But there's just really great opportunities that we have here to reach others. And it is a tough, it is tough soil. So I'm really excited that we can be doing that together.
[12:56] So if you have any questions, please let me know. Not now, obviously. But always free to meet for coffee, lunch. Just talk about some of these things. So before I get into the main text.
[13:07] And yes, I've shortened the sermon up because of this pastor talk. So maybe by about two, three minutes. I just want to pray for us just as the Lord goes forward.
[13:18] And pray that you really, the Lord would give you a sense of his purpose and his calling for you here at Squamish Baptist Church and for Squamish. Let's pray. Dear Lord, Heavenly Father, just as we come as a part of this worship, we are just offering our gifts up to you, Father.
[13:34] And part of offering our gifts is just seeking to use the opportunities that you provide for us. And Lord, I pray that you would cultivate a desire in us to bless the saints that are here.
[13:48] Father, there's so many people who have so many gifts. And some of them aren't always using all of their gifts. And when they do that, they kind of, they're, we lose out on that blessing, oh, Father.
[13:58] And we really want people to be blessed by one another, to know one another. It is a privilege just as we get to know more and more of the families here and for some of the trials and blessings that they go through.
[14:11] We're both, we have opportunities to offer praise for the blessings that they have. But we also have the blessing of lifting them up in the difficulties of life that sometimes surround us.
[14:24] And there's people here going through everything all at once. And we need one another. That is why you designed the church the way you did.
[14:38] What's encouraging is we come out of the Old Testament in this creation of the church, which incorporated Gentiles and people from every land, nation, tongue, every skin color, everywhere everybody was able to come together in the faith of Jesus Christ.
[15:01] And we praise God for that. And just as we work here or tarry here in Squamish, I pray that you would direct our prayers and our interests and our blessings.
[15:15] I look forward to working with the other believers in these, in our city to, to continue to work with our kids and just the blessing that we have to take into the youth and grow these incredible biblical truths out of them.
[15:28] And we look forward to seeing what this outreach will look like. We pray that you will use that to save souls. The people that have been fighting you all their lives and some of the people have never heard of you in their whole life.
[15:44] So God, just as we go forward, we pray for your blessing upon this church. And just us as elders, as we just seek to do what is right before you and right for our flock that is here and just the privilege that we get to under-shepherd.
[15:58] And I pray that God, you would raise more shepherds in this church, this church to continue leading your people, oh God. So we thank you all these, for all these things and this opportunity we get to do to come and actually lift up your name and worship you.
[16:15] In your holy, just and wonderful name. Amen. Amen. All right. So as you may or may not have guessed, the outline that's in or the bulletin, the reading that Dave did is where I'm going to be preaching from today.
[16:29] So there's a couple of things that I'm hoping that you would see. But if you'll notice, the text is all taken from either Matthew 26, Mark 14, or Luke 27.
[16:40] And if you're new or visiting, we're actually doing a study of the life of Jesus Christ. We've been going through a chronological study of Jesus Christ, kind of drilling down on some of the more eventful aspects.
[16:54] And if you weren't here last week, I'm going to try to put together what took me 40 minutes into two minutes. But one of the things that I believe gets lost on people is that what we're seeing here in these final days of life of Jesus Christ is a true drama.
[17:13] There is words in the text that are said for dramatic effect. And it's because it's not a story or a fable, but these events are real life that happened to real people in real history that had a real culture.
[17:29] And the decisions made by people affected people. And last week I said, you know, every story, every drama has characters. And there was four characters that we're going to see as we go forward stand out in the story, right?
[17:44] So the first character I talked about was the crowd. It's the group of people who've been following Jesus. They're excited about Jesus. They've heard Jesus talk. They've seen Jesus do incredible miracles.
[17:56] They kind of, is he a prophet or is he really the Messiah? There's some type of ambivalence. But they love him. They follow him. And in fact, they provide a level of protection for Jesus.
[18:09] Because we've read in the text that the religious leaders hate Jesus. They want to kill Jesus. And all the decisions that they're making or the actions are based on whether they can do things outside of the crowd's influence.
[18:28] Okay? So God, Jesus Christ, just in his sovereignty, he's using this crowd to protect Jesus. Then we have this, the second group of people we talk about are the disciples.
[18:40] Now, Jesus Christ has told them, he's going to Jerusalem, he's going to die, he's going to be buried, and he's going to rise again. But they kind of don't get that. They're not seeing this.
[18:50] And part of us, we can't blame them, right? Like, look at all the power that Jesus has exemplified. He's got, he calms storms with the word.
[19:03] He's got power and authority over demons and diseases. Jesus, what could little old Rome do to him, right?
[19:14] They really believe he's the son of God. And I forgot to mention, remember there's this tension in the crowd.
[19:27] I really believe a lot of them really want to believe in Jesus. But the scripture tells us that they feared the religious leaders, right? And we're talking about a culture that is probably more unique in all of Christian history, where the entire culture is bound around this religion that happens in the temple and in the synagogues.
[19:50] And to fall away from that faith means you're out of your family circles, your social circles. You probably lose your job, right?
[20:01] So there's a lot of stuff that Jesus is acting there. Then, of course, the third characters, as I call it, be religious authorities. And I stated they had three goals.
[20:13] Their first goal is to arrest Jesus. Their second goal is to try Jesus before a court of law. And the third goal they have is to kill Jesus.
[20:24] And in order to accomplish this, they need to do so under the authority of Rome. And as we learned, they also have the help of a man named Judas, one of Jesus' disciples, who on that Tuesday night, after Jesus had ruled supremely in his temple for two days, decides that he is going to give Jesus up for 30 pieces of silver.
[20:50] And of course, Jesus Christ, our Savior. He's got two goals going into this last part of the week. The first goal is to die on the cross, right?
[21:02] We know that that is his mission, is to accomplish the will of his Father, to glorify the name of his Father. So he's going to die on the cross. But he's got the second goal that he needs to accomplish.
[21:14] And that goal is to prepare his disciples for what's going to happen. So the question I asked last week is, what do we think the mood of Jesus is?
[21:28] How would you feel knowing of all these things? And I talked about John 12, 27 says, My soul is troubled.
[21:40] Right? I use the word terrified, in fact. That for the first time, Jesus Christ did not fear the pain of the cross. Jesus Christ didn't fear death.
[21:54] But Jesus Christ was terrified of the fact that he'd be separated from his Father. The Father who he's had a perfect relationship for all eternity.
[22:05] So that is the biggest weight that he's carrying. But he's got this concern about the disciples. And we even read in John 12, 28. Even in the midst of Jesus' concern or trouble, a voice from heaven comes down and says, I have glorified you and I will glorify it again.
[22:26] Right? That's just the love and care of the Father. So today we are on the Thursday. And there's two significant events that happen on this day.
[22:38] One is the last Passover meal. And two, Jesus' visit to the Garden of Gethsemane. Now, there's certain things I thought I would rush through.
[22:50] But this morning I'm probably going to give you a little bit more historical extraction of the events. Because it really matters in this story. And I really want you to see the details that the Holy Spirit provides to us through the writers of the Gospel, keeping in mind all the drama that is going to or going on.
[23:11] So on this Thursday, it begins with Jesus giving two of his disciples, Peter and John, a simple set of instructions. You are to prepare the Passover.
[23:22] Now, the first question is, what is the Passover and why is it significant? So in case you're not familiar with the Passover celebration, I'm going to take some time to describe it to you.
[23:36] Because there's a wonderful fulfillment that we see on the cross of Jesus Christ that does away with the Passover. But the Passover for the Jewish people is the most significant festival for them.
[23:48] It is also known as the Feast of the Enleavened Bread. The feast finds its beginnings back in the book of Exodus, some 1400 years before Jesus' time, when God's people were still slaves in Egypt.
[24:06] They were slaves for 400 years. And God, and many of you know this story, raises up Moses. And Moses goes before Pharaoh, the head king of Egypt, and says basically, let my people go.
[24:21] Right? And Pharaoh decides not to do it. So God brings on nine plagues against Egypt. And each time, Pharaoh seems to equivocate, but then his heart hardens.
[24:34] And then finally, God's bringing out kind of the nuclear option on Pharaoh. And why did he have to do this?
[24:45] Exodus 11.10 says, Moses and his brother Aaron did all the wonders before Pharaoh. And the Lord hardened Pharaoh's heart, and he did not let the people of Israel go out of his land.
[24:58] And Exodus 12 tells us that the Lord instructed Moses and God's people to take this lamb for every household, an unblemished lamb, a lamb that could either be a sheep or a goat.
[25:13] And between the hours of three in our time, three and five in the twilight, they were to kill the lamb and put the blood on the post of their door.
[25:26] And as they slept that night, the angel of death went over all of Egypt. And if there was no blood over the doorpost of that home, God would take the life of every firstborn son or even animals.
[25:47] And after they took this lamb, they were to eat all of the lamb and then burn it so that there was nothing left of it in the morning.
[25:59] Exodus 12.11 says, In this manner you shall eat it. And notice he says, With your belt fastened, your sandals on your feet, and your staff in your hands, and you shall eat it in haste.
[26:14] It is the Lord's Passover. They're in preparation, right? Because they're going to have to run for their lives. For I will pass through the land of Egypt that night, and I will strike at all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, both men and beasts.
[26:28] And on all the gods of Egypt, I will execute judgments. I am the Lord. The blood shall be a sign for you on the houses where you are.
[26:41] And when I see the blood, I will pass over you. And no plague will befall you to destroy you when I strike the land of Egypt. This day shall be for you a memorial day, and you shall keep it as a feast to the Lord.
[26:58] Throughout your generations, as you statute forever, you shall keep it as a feast. He continues in verse 24 of Exodus 12. You shall observe this rite as a statute for you, for your sons forever.
[27:13] And when you come to the land that the Lord will give you, as he has promised, you shall keep this service. And when your children say to you, what do you mean by this service?
[27:25] You shall say, it is the sacrifice of the Lord's Passover. For he passed over the houses of the people of Israel and Egypt. And when he struck the Egyptians, but spared our houses, and the people bowed their heads and worshiped, then the people of Israel went and did so, as the Lord had commanded Moses and Aaron to do.
[27:46] So over 1400 years, the Jewish people had kept this promise, that this feast, and it kind of changes a little bit over history.
[27:56] And I'll explain the need for some of those changes in a little bit. But at every meal that you would have over the Passover, one of the children is supposed to ask, why do we do this?
[28:08] And it was a way of recounting the Passover, right? And we know we're going to get into it, what it would later mean for us as the church. So for over 1400 years, the Jews had marked this celebration.
[28:23] So take a look at the text that I provided for you. So we're going to read from that text, because it kind of combines. It says that Jesus instructs Peter and John to prepare the Passover meal.
[28:35] So there's two parts to a preparation. The first part is the food. The second place is where do you eat the food? But first I'm going to talk about the food itself.
[28:46] So what you're actually supposed to do is you were actually supposed to choose your lamb four days before the Passover. And you would actually bring that lamb into your home.
[29:00] And that lamb would live with you. And part of the purpose of having that lamb live with you is that you would develop a bond with that animal.
[29:11] So that it wasn't just nothing, blood that would be shed for you, but it'd be something that you would be bonded to.
[29:24] So after those four days, they would take the two. And it was supposed to be the head of the household or head of that group. And two people were allowed to come into the temple with that little lamb.
[29:35] And so this was the lamb. So we know from the text that Peter and John would take this lamb, and they would take this lamb to the temple between the hours of three and five.
[29:47] That's kind of the twilight hours. And they take it into the temple. Now, when I say that word temple, we usually think of something nice, right?
[30:00] A cathedral kind of idea. If you go through Europe or, you know, some of the old cathedrals that live in old places, probably the best word to describe a temple, and I'm going to have Ryan show you a picture of what the temple looked like.
[30:15] The outside area, which is the court of the Gentiles, that would pretty much look like a slaughterhouse. That would probably be the best way. Because hundreds of thousands of lambs would be brought in on that day.
[30:30] And what the thing would happen is, you'd bring on the lamb, and you're supposed to lean on that lamb. And then you would slit its throat to drain it of its blood. And all of a sudden, you'd feel literally the life going out of this beautiful little creature.
[30:46] And it was to bring into the memorial of what happened in the past. So then the priest, which would be a high priest, and by the way, I was looking at pictures, they always have the priests wearing these really nice white robes cutting up the lambs.
[31:00] They weren't. They were actually scarlet red robes because there's blood going all over the place. Right? So what they would do is they'd slit the lamb, they'd have a bucket, they would capture the blood, and then they would pass it back.
[31:12] And it'd almost be like a factory line going in. Because think, there's 250,000 lambs. That's what Josephus is a number that he gives us. So there's all these lambs.
[31:23] And you only have a couple of hours to kill these lambs. And in fact, we'll talk about this right now. It was actually two days that they celebrated on the Passover. If you were from Galilee, outside of Jerusalem and Judea, you celebrated the Passover on the Thursday.
[31:37] If you were from Judea and one of the priests, you celebrated the Passover on the Friday. You with me on that? A lot of different discussions on history over what happens. But we know they celebrated on two different days.
[31:50] For practical reasons, you can only kill so many lambs on a given day. So what they'd do is they'd take that lamb, that blood, they'd go into the temple and they'd throw it, sprinkle it on the altar and there'd be parts of the lamb they would put in.
[32:03] And then they'd put the other parts of the lamb in a basket. And you were given those parts of the lamb that you had to go home with and you had to eat completely. Okay? So they say that there was enough in that lamb to take back that you could feed probably anywhere between 10 and 20 people.
[32:23] So I think that's where we are on all this. So what's interesting, just like I said, on the Passover, Jerusalem would be swollen.
[32:36] Historian Josephus said there'd be about 250,000 lambs. And that would be accommodating probably one to two million different people who were there to celebrate. Now these priests are obviously well-trained.
[32:48] They say that this priest could completely butcher a lamb in probably about 90 seconds. So it's just this whole flow that's going on in the temple, all these assembly workers.
[33:00] And it's really interesting is around the temple, the altar when the blood would be sprinkled, there was this really cool system that drained all the blood, brought it down into the valley and eventually put it into the Dead Sea.
[33:14] And guess what that salt in the Dead Sea does? It's probably one of the best purification systems in the world. Kind of cool how God brings that all together, right? So anyway, so that's the first thing that they would have had to do.
[33:28] They would have had to go prepare this lamb and get the rest of the food. And some of the food that they would have had to be brought together was the unleavened bread.
[33:39] And unleavened bread is bread cooked without a yeast or something that makes it rise, right? And the whole symbolism is you don't have time to let it rise. When it's time to go, you're going to need to go.
[33:52] They would have had bitter herbs and they would have this paste. And I'll talk about the significance of those probably next week. So that's the food part of the Passover meal.
[34:03] It's not like you can go over like we do on Thanksgiving, on independent run over, right? Hey, I forgot the stuffing for the turkey or whatever else. No, no.
[34:14] You actually had to plan this out. You had to wait in line. You had to prepare the lamb. Four days of end. Like it had to mean something. There was significance to these things that were going on.
[34:30] But one of the most amazing parts of the story that I find here is that Jesus tells them to prepare a place for the Passover meal. And here's the thing.
[34:41] The Passover meal can only be eaten in Jerusalem. All right? So you had to go into the city itself. But as you can guess, not everybody lives in Jerusalem.
[34:54] So what do you do? So the rabbinic tradition was added that you could live in a place or be in a place outside of Jerusalem in a tent. I got Ryan's going to show you kind of what a tent would have looked like.
[35:09] And it had to be a place where you could see Jerusalem. But as more and more people grew, they stated that if you could see the smoke that was rising from the temple with the sacrifices that were going on on the altar, that is where.
[35:29] And you had to eat it indoors. So you had to come prepared. So it's not like you're camping in Squamish overnight, right? With your, what, three-ounce tent and sleeping bag kind of tent, right?
[35:40] It's a big deal. It's a big trip. So had to be out there. So otherwise, you could rent a room or, like I said, have a tent.
[35:57] All right. So they've been asked to, Peter and John are given instructions to prepare the food and find a place. But notice the question that they ask. And it's kind of an interesting question because it's recorded in Matthew, Mark, and Luke.
[36:13] It's a simple question. Why do all three of the Gospels have this question? Like, why is it so important that that question be asked?
[36:24] And it's, where do you want us to go to prepare that you may eat the Passover? Like, really, why, why, think about this. Why would he bother to go through? Because obviously, it's to find a room or go to a tent.
[36:37] But there's some other purpose that is going on here. But it's a very logical question, and I believe it's really important and a part of the narrative. So notice that it says, and this is reading from what I gave you.
[36:50] It says, Jesus' response. He says, behold, go into the city, and when you have entered the city, a certain man will meet you carrying a pitcher of water. Follow him into the house when he enters.
[37:03] Wherever he goes in, say to the master of the house, the teacher says to you, my time is at hand. Where is the guest room, and where may I eat the Passover with my disciples at your house?
[37:14] Then he will show you a large furnished upper room. There, make it ready. Now, when you kind of read this story at first hand, you almost think that Jesus is kind of using some kind of clairvoyant power, right?
[37:31] Like, he's got miracles, right? The guy can heal every disease. He can calm storms. So now he's kind of, like, doing this kind of, I don't know, like I said, clairvoyant power.
[37:46] And it's kind of like, you know, some people kind of, the way they present it, it's God saying, you know, Jesus kind of saying, wait, I see a man. He's going to be there. He's wearing brown.
[37:57] No, I think it's tan. No, it's beige. Ah, he's just carrying a pot of water, right? He's trying to tell them, like, some people actually believe that there's some mystical event that's going on.
[38:10] And when you see this guy carrying water, follow him in the house. And when you're looking, you know, he's going to say, what are you doing here in the house? And he's going to say, hey, I'm looking for a room. And this has actually been taught, like there's just some idea.
[38:22] Now, I don't believe it happened like that at all. I believe that Jesus Christ purposely planned it this way for a very specific person. Now, imagine this scene from this nameless man's perspective.
[38:36] Like, if Jesus was just using a miraculous power, he's just a guy walking outside the street, and all of a sudden he's feeling this urge. I feel like carrying a pot of water.
[38:47] Right? So he picks up this water, and he's walking, and then all of a sudden he has this urge to carry it into the house. Right? Like, did God all of a sudden turn him into this robot, or like he's in some kind of trance, and all of a sudden Peter and John are there asking for a room, and, you know, he happens to run an Airbnb, and he says, you know, it's all full.
[39:09] And then his wife shouts out the door, oh, we got a room, the Solomons just canceled. Right? Their kid got hit by a camel. So they're not coming for this Passover. So all of a sudden there's this room just happily to be at that one important time.
[39:24] I don't believe it's happened like that, and I'm going to explain to you in a while. But it's interesting that there is a sign that's been given. It's important to you to understand. For a man to be carrying a basin of water is like going back to the 50s and seeing a man wash the dishes.
[39:40] Okay? And maybe in your homes it still goes that way. But anyway, it would just be really rare because that was considered the work that the mother would have taught her daughters during the day.
[39:51] They'd be going to the aquifers, pulling up the water, bringing the water home so it'd be water in the house when it came to dinner time. Right? So it would have been one of those type of household chores.
[40:04] The point I'm trying to make is I don't believe that Jesus is giving us a miracle to prove his deity here. What I believe is that Jesus arranged for this room on this given day probably using the connections and contacts that he knows from Lazarus, Mary, and Martha.
[40:21] Because the question is when they say where do we prepare this home why doesn't Jesus just say I want you to go see my buddy Uri Cohen he's up at 5th in Cleveland he has the room all arranged.
[40:34] Like he could give them a more specific instruction but it's covered in this almost mystery. It's almost this cloak and dagger spy stuff.
[40:45] And I believe he does so because we get this first clue that I want to present to you is found in Luke 22 verses 3 to 6 and I read this to you last week it says when Satan entered it says then Satan entered into Judas called Iscariot who was of the number of the twelve.
[41:04] he went away and conferred with the chief priests and officers how he might betray him to them and they were glad and agreed to give him money.
[41:16] Verse 6 so Judas consented and sought an opportunity to betray Jesus to them in the absence of the crowd.
[41:28] Alright remember that's the greatest thing that the people fear. he knows when is the most logical time that you would want to arrest Jesus or when you know all the disciples would be together.
[41:41] Passover meal. They know they're going to be celebrated they celebrated it before as a group they're going to be celebrating again. So Jesus Christ has got to kind of throw off Judas about where this event is going to happen.
[41:55] And we're going to see it's got to be someplace new because we're going to see in the text when Jesus Christ is apprehended by the Roman soldiers it's in the Garden of Gethsemane texts specifically tell us Judas knew where he was.
[42:09] Right? He knew that Jesus routinely went to the Garden of Gethsemane but this new Passover place is something new because Judas doesn't know where it is. So you can almost imagine that day Judas kind of going around hey Philip Jesus happened to mention where dinner was tonight?
[42:28] You know what time I got to know I got to run some errands you know could you help me out? Right? You can just see him perplexed and don't forget Judas is torn about what he's just done he's just made 30 pieces of silver but we know after the death he kills himself he's so overwhelmed with the sorrow so what he's doing although he might think it's right we know that there is a tension that exists in his heart then I'm sure he goes over to Matthew hey my tax collecting friend you know what's going on?
[43:00] So you see this Passover and here's the point the Passover meal has to happen this isn't just a meal where he's saying goodbye to his friends but this has to happen for eternal significant consequences for Jesus to fulfill all scripture and all prophecy this Passover meal has to happen and I believe that Jesus Christ is going to do everything he can in his most human way to protect that meal at all costs which includes not letting Judas know and even the way he directs Peter and John in such a way that they're not even going to know the address until they all get there because of the water pitcher and everything that Jesus Christ had told them to do so let's take a look at the text again and it says in the evening in the evening
[44:05] Mark begins when the hour comes so this would have been after five o'clock after John and Peter had prepared all the food he came and sat down and the twelve apostles with him notice what Jesus said with fervent desire I have desired to eat this Passover earnest desire strong desire it's a fervent desire I have desired just look just even look at the way it's worded like this Passover has to happen and I have to do it with you men before I die so he's protecting this and he said I will no longer eat of it until it is fulfilled in the kingdom of God so you've got this fervent earnest strong desire that Jesus craved to be with this man and he moves the people in such a way for this event to happen so it's not going to get interrupted so what does it look like to eat a Passover dinner that is actually incorrect right that's not how they would have met as first century
[45:29] Jews it makes a great painting but this is kind of what it would have looked like next slide please that they would have used kind of a large you style so you got John and Judas both at Jesus' side and most likely Peter across the way and that's how Jesus set into that Passover meal you can imagine the discussions the whispers the talks what's going on what's happening and I believe one of the most beautiful things that could ever happen occurs in John 13 so please turn with me to John 13 there's going to be some incredible events not only is Jesus going to teach he's going to reveal that someone is going to betray him we're going to learn that I believe those men were actually fighting to see who would sit where on that table because they all wanted to be glorified as Jesus had presented himself you know they all talked later but I'm consumed with this idea of what would have Jesus felt as he prepares this table he goes out of this way to meet the man and the first things he does is recorded in John 13 and I'm just going to simply read this beautiful text now before the feast of the
[47:05] Passover when Jesus knew that his hour had come to depart out of this world to the father having loved his own who were in the world he loved them to the end during supper and there's this note this meal would take several this is a note to myself on your text this meal would take several hours I'm going to explain what would have occurred on the meal later so it would have happened but during the meal it says when the devil had already put it into the heart of Judas Iscariot Simon's son to betray him Jesus knowing that the father had given all things into his hands that he had come from God and was going back to God rose from supper just think of how loaded that paragraph is with emotion right he's leaving he's announcing that one of the guys he's love is going to betray him and he's going to across right this is the stuff that makes us want to nap right like you know when you've got so much emotional stuff you like you start to short circuit or some of you might just cry right we all have different ways
[48:18] I'm a napper when I get too much emotion when like my wife asked me to do the dishes oh I gotta go out you know we all have those certain things but this is what Jesus does he laid aside his outer garments taking a towel tied it around his waist then he poured water into a basin and began to wash the disciples feet and to wipe them with the towel that was wrapped around him he came to Simon Peter and said to him Lord do you wash my feet and he most likely would have been working on the inside of that table that I showed you Jesus answered him what I am doing you do not understand now but afterward you will understand Peter said to him you shall never wash my feet Jesus answered him if I do not wash you you have no share with me
[49:24] Simon Peter said to him Lord not my feet only but also my hands and my head this is the guy that's going to betray Jesus Christ or deny Jesus Christ three times in just several hours right like there's this weight of drama on this event Jesus said to him the one who is bathed does not need to wash except for his feet but is completely clean and you are clean but not every one of you for he knew who was to betray him that was why he said not all of you are clean when he had washed their feet and put on his outer garments and resumed his place he said to them do you understand what I have done for you most people would respond oh you washed my feet let me wash your feet like it's some kind of contract you with me on that that's how normally we would respond to that but that's not how
[50:34] Jesus responds he says you call me teacher and Lord and you are right for so I am if I then your Lord and teacher have washed your feet you also ought to wash one another's feet for I have given you an example that you also should do just as I have done to you truly truly I say to you a servant is not greater than his master nor is a messenger greater than the one who sent him if you know these things blessed are you if you do them what a picture of servanthood right even touching on church membership about our gifts and how we we give them not to receive but we give them because that is the example that Jesus Christ provides for us verse et I'm not speaking of all of you I know whom I have chosen but the scriptures will be fulfilled he who ate my bread has lifted his heel against me
[51:41] I'm telling you this now before it takes place that when it does take place you may believe that I am he truly truly I say to you whoever receives the one I send receives me and whoever receives me receives the one who sent me that's discipleship right there right when we go with the gospel to share and so it is with the love of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ it doesn't wash their feet expecting his feet to be washed in return he washes their feet so they may demonstrate the love of Christ to others just as he is now preparing to give his life for them it's an incredible picture isn't it I just thought I would pray at this point dear Lord holy heavenly father we're just getting into this last supper and the events that happen the first action that you do is moving and stirring to the soul you who knows that one of the close men that you have built into for over three years will betray you or actually has already taken the money to do so and is seeking to find you alone so that you may be arrested tried and killed these men that you have been training will go in and next Sunday we will see that they will even begin fighting about who is greater in heaven when you are here the son of God the creator of this world is before their feet taking this towel around your waist to wash their feet what example of true leadership this is to inspire us to know that when we share and we give we are representing the father on high the one who sent his son to save us from our sins so on this Sunday time of worship we just give thanks for this kind of simple story which stands out in all three of the gospels just a preparation of a meal a meal whose significance will come to an end within 24 hours that there will never be a need for another
[54:29] Passover meal once the perfect lamb of Christ dies on that cross and all sin is covered that all redeemed will be saved and all sin atoned for with the death of the perfect lamb so father as a body of believers we I just pray that we would think about these things and meditate on you just this past week I've just been so thinking about what it means to meditate on the truths of your scripture simple verses carry so much truth and power it can only be written by a perfect author through the power of the Holy Spirit we thank you Jesus for what you mean to us and the example that you did on that night preparing this incredible meal for these men who would go on to do what you called them to do in your name we pray amen to je to you my aunt
[55:44] I will I love to you that oh and I can I pray