· 17 Now on the first day of Unleavened Bread the disciples came to Jesus, saying, “Where will you have us prepare for you to eat the Passover?” 18 He said, “Go into the city to a certain man and say to him, ‘The Teacher says, My time is at hand. I will keep the Passover at your house with my disciples.’ ” 19 And the disciples did as Jesus had directed them, and they prepared the Passover.
· 20 When it was evening, he reclined at table with the twelve. 21 And as they were eating, he said, “Truly, I say to you, one of you will betray me.” 22 And they were very sorrowful and began to say to him one after another, “Is it I, Lord?”
· 23 He answered, “He who has dipped his hand in the dish with me will betray me. 24 The Son of Man goes as it is written of him, but woe to that man by whom the Son of Man is betrayed! It would have been better for that man if he had not been born.” 25 Judas, who would betray him, answered, “Is it I, Rabbi?” He said to him, “You have said so.”
A lot is said these days about “practicing gratitudes”
Title: Adding to Our Gratitudes
Practicing Gratitude(s) typically looks like sitting down regularly and listing the things that we have to be grateful for.
It can also be called “counting our blessings”
I regularly tell God “thank you” when I pull out of a parking spot without looking.
As we get busier, we’d certainly benefit from more of this practice, even for the little things
G.K. Chesterton once said,
"When we were children we were grateful to those who filled our stockings at Christmas time. Why are we not grateful to God for filling our stockings with legs?"
We’d all certainly benefit from being grateful for the everyday things we take for granted.
When it comes to understanding of the gospel, we should be grateful for God’s mercy - not getting what we deserve.
Or as one author put it -
"If you can't be content with what you have received, be thankful for what you have escaped."
AW Tozer wrote about gratitude -
“Gratitude is an offering precious in the sight of God, and it is one that the poorest of us can make and be not poorer but richer for having made it.”
My hope is that, by looking at the intentional work of Jesus, we can increase our gratefulness to God.
I think that we can be even more grateful to God as we witness Jesus hours leading up to our redemption.
As we observe Jesus Prepares for Our Redemption we should -
1. BE GRATEFUL THAT JESUS KEPT HIS APPOINTMENT WITH REDEMPTION.
· 17 Now on the first day of Unleavened Bread the disciples came to Jesus, saying, “Where will you have us prepare for you to eat the Passover?”
These statement simply gives us a timeframe for where we are in terms of the Passover.
It would’ve been Thursday, with Jesus planning to celebrate the Passover that night.
This would lead up to Jesus being crucified on Friday while Passover lambs were still being slaughtered.
The Feast of Unleavened Bread was originally after the Passover.
But it had come to expand into Passover season.
[Passover]
The Passover Feast marks a Jewish holiday that remembers when God saved Israel from slavery in Egypt.
It originally takes place in the book of Exodus - coming up in our reading plan.
To protect the Israelites from the death that would visit the homes of Egypt, God told them to do 3 things:
They were to Take a lamb without any flaws (a perfect lamb) and kill it.
They were also to Put the lamb's blood on the doorframe of their houses.
They also ate a special meal with specific foods.
The name "Passover" came from when God “passed over” the Israelites’ homes, sparing their firstborn sons.
As Jesus celebrated the Passover with His disciples, so much of it’s elements pointed to Him as Messiah.
· 18 He said, “Go into the city to a certain man and say to him, ‘The Teacher says, My time is at hand. I will keep the Passover at your house with my disciples.’ ” 19 And the disciples did as Jesus had directed them, and they prepared the Passover.
The gospels describe different details causing us to wonder if the location was set up ahead of time or if it was a miraculous arrangement.
I appreciate Ben Wilson’s opinion that the room was likely owned by the family Mark (the gospel writer).
This would also be John Mark of the book of Acts.
What’s distinct about Matthew’s account is that Jesus seems like “a man on a mission.”
Specifically, He states My time is at hand.
The term for time isn’t Chronos - like time that passes with the ticks of a clock
It’s Kairos.
This usually refers to an appointed time of fulfilment or consummation
Kairos Prison Ministry - the men are encouraged that God may have an appointed time of redemption.
The gospel of John gives instances when Jesus knew His time hadn’t come yet
Jesus’ brothers were pushing Him to make Himself known
* John 7:5 6 Jesus said to them, “My time has not yet come, but your time is always here.
At other times, people were desiring to arrest Jesus but couldn’t, and it’s explained as
* John 7:30b no one laid a hand on him, because his hour had not yet come.
John also gives greater detail on moments on this evening pointing to the appointed moment had come.
* John 13:1 1 Now before the Feast of the 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.
* John 17:1 1 When Jesus had spoken these words, he lifted up his eyes to heaven, and said, “Father, the hour has come; glorify your Son that the Son may glorify you,
We should be grateful for the fact that Jesus didn’t miss His appointed time.
There’s been some pretty strange excuses given for why people missed an appointment.
From the Reader’s Digest -
An employee couldn't come to work because she accidentally boarded a plane.
An employee didn’t show up to work because they supposedly got their arm stuck in a blood pressure machine at a grocery store
One person said the had to miss work because - "I had to attend the funeral of my wife's cousin's pet because I was an uncle and pallbearer."
?- Aren’t you glad that Jesus didn’t make excuses for why He just couldn’t secure our redemption.
In fact, we’re to approach obedience and suffering for Christ as Christ did.
As we’re told in -
* Hebrews 12:1–2 1 Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, 2 looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.
Rather than making excuses, Jesus was resolute.
We witnessed an inauguration of our nations new 47th President this past week.
But, we need to know that these weren’t always so easy.
1789 - When George Washington was inaugurated, he had a lot of reasons to miss being there.
After being unanimously elected as the first President of the United States, Washington traveled from his home in Mount Vernon, Virginia, to New York City, which was the temporary capital of the United States.
The journey was full with challenges:
Difficult Travel Conditions:
Roads were poorly maintained and muddy.
This made overland travel slow and grueling.
Washington's journey went by carriage and on horseback, often at the mercy of bad weather.
Health Concerns:
Washington was 57 years old at the time and had previously suffered from significant health issues, including smallpox and malaria
he persevered through the physical strain.
Political Uncertainty:
The new government under the Constitution was untested, and Washington understood the enormous responsibility and high stakes involved in setting a precedent as the first president.
Despite these challenges, Washington arrived in New York City on April 23, 1789.
He took the oath of office on April 30 at Federal Hall.
His determination to fulfill his appointment as the nation’s leader demonstrated his commitment to the new republic and its principles.
This event set the tone for the American presidency and highlighted Washington’s steadfast sense of duty.
Jesus shows the same determination to meet His appointed time - only more so and with exponentially more consequence
We should be grateful that Jesus was a “man on a mission” and that He wasn’t deterred.
?- Would make a regular effort to think on/list the unnoticed things you could be grateful for?
- things as small as your fingers?
?- How would you benefit from thinking about what you’re life would be like if Jesus had avoided the cross?
?- Knowing Christ as Savior, how does it impact you that God had planned every aspect of your redemption?
As we continue to learn of how Jesus Prepares for Our Redemption we should also -
2. BE GRATEFUL THAT JESUS WASN’T DETERRED BY BETRAYAL.
· 20 When it was evening, he reclined at table with the twelve. 21 And as they were eating, he said, “Truly, I say to you, one of you will betray me.” 22 And they were very sorrowful and began to say to him one after another, “Is it I, Lord?”
Before His betrayal, arrest, and crucifixion, Jesus informs His disciples of His betrayal by one of them.
Matthew uses the term, very sorrowful, in multiple places.
It reflects severe emotion or shock.
Notice, the disciples ask Him individually “Is it I, Lord?”
Jesus goes on to give them a clue, which Matthew doesn’t really seem to treat as a clue
· 23 He answered, “He who has dipped his hand in the dish with me will betray me.
It’s difficult to know if this was a hint or just furthered their confusion since they all were dipping in the dish
You see they would’ve been tearing bread from flat, unleavened bread (think pita) and dipping it in a common dish of sauce.
J - You gotta wonder who was known for double-dipping.
What we tend to miss here is the insult Jesus was referencing.
It was considered the very height of betrayal to eat a meal with someone before betraying them.
Throughout Matthew, Jesus, role of our Savior is proved by referring to His fulfillment of OT prophesy.
And His betrayal in this way is no different
Judas’ betrayal would fulfillment of OT prophesy.
Psalm 41:9 Even my close friend in whom I trusted, who ate my bread, has lifted his heel against me.
As Michael Card sings in his song, “Why”
Only a friend can betray a friend A stranger has nothing to gain And only a friend comes close enough To ever cause so much pain
· 24 The Son of Man goes as it is written of him, but woe to that man by whom the Son of Man is betrayed! It would have been better for that man if he had not been born.”
Jesus points out how His betrayer would be an example of the exact opposite path and eventual position.
Jesus would be betrayed, go through a horrible process of providing salvation for others and then exalted.
His betrayer would be “the man of the hour,” fall into a deep dark depression leading to suicide, and have an eternity of judgment and regret waiting for him on the other side of his death.
Quote - TNTC - “Here is the paradox of the whole passion story in a nutshell—the events must happen as it is written; but this does not excuse the deliberate betrayal.”
· 25 Judas, who would betray him, answered, “Is it I, Rabbi?” He said to him, “You have said so.”
Something I learned for the first time is that Judas never refers to Jesus as Lord in the gospels
Notice, the disciples ask Him individually “Is it I, Lord?”
The term Lord would mean they recognize Jesus as their master
But Judas asks “Is it I, Rabbi?” - only referring to Jesus as his teacher.
Jesus’ response “You have said so” basically means “You said it, not me.”
We have something in our American culture called “backhanded compliments”
"You're smarter than you look!"
"You’re proof that you don’t need talent to succeed!"
"It's amazing how far you've come without knowing what you're doing!"
"I love how you don’t care what anyone thinks about you."
"It’s great that you’re so confident despite.. you know… everything."
For some of us, these insults go right over our heads.
But Jesus knew full-well the significance of what Judas was doing.
Being a man who valued friendship like the rest of us, he felt the pain of betrayal by a friend.
We should be grateful that the hurt, the anticipated rejection, or the certainly of the pain didn’t dissuade Him from purchasing our redemption.
Without Jesus continuing on His path to the cross, there would be no redemption available.
The penalty of our sins wouldn’t be paid.
Death would not have been defeated.
Our destiny would be as dark as could be.
But Jesus would go to the cross and die and rise again to purchase our redemption.
Still so many Christians live with an ungrateful attitude as if to ask “What’s God done for me lately?”
Let’s not be those kind of people.
Let’s be determined to remember what we have to be grateful for.
We serve a wonderful Savior.
?- Can you be guilty of prideful self-pity (thinking that God owes you better than you’re receiving)?
We all can be guilty of this.
?- Can you see how Jesus could’ve rightfully felt this way - “I deserve better than this”?
Even when it might be true (I deserve hell. So I don’t know how it’d be true.)
But even if it were true that we deserve better than what we’re getting, it’d only be another way that we could identify with the experience of our Lord.
We’re told in John 13 that, Jeses, knowing His time had come, loved His disciples to the end.
We’re also told in John 17 that, as He headed to the cross, His thoughts and prayers were also toward us who would believe in Him through the spread of the gospel.
In fact, according to Eph 2, the reason why any of us are saved is because of the great love with which God has loved us.
=> I think back to the Michael Card song where he sings
Why did it have to be a heavy cross He was made to bear? And why did they nail His feet and hands His love would have held him there
So, let us be eternally grateful for Jesus as our Lord and Savior and worship Him for it.
Louie Giglio has said
"Worship begins with gratitude—a heart overflowing with thanks for who God is and all He has done."
Let’s worship Jesus now as we recognize just how worthy He is of our worship and gratitude
