#237 The Last Supper Series# 2, Passover “Celebration?”

#237 The Last Supper Series# 2, Passover “Celebration?”
By: Pastor Cheryl Thomas 

Loved when Glen shared about Fathers … I had a good one. My sister made fun of me a couple weeks ago when I was home and said “Daddy” 

I remember when dad died… wanted to make sure he knew that I loved him… I thought I will never again wait til one I love is on their death bed to tell them how I love them

The last meal that Jesus shared with his disciples is described in all four Gospels and became known as the Last Supper.
The three synoptic gospels include the account of the institution the Eucharist/Communion. The Gospel of John does not include this episode, but tells of Jesus washing feet, giving a new command and a detailed farewell discourse.  After the meal, Jesus is betrayed, arrested, tried, and then crucified.

In John’s gospel we never actually read of the Passover meal be eaten probably because John wanted to emphasize that Jesus was the Passover lamb.

John’s gospel been called the spiritual gospel and at times sharply contrasted the other gospels.

Material found only in the Fourth Gospel (John), not in the Synoptic Gospels (Matthew, Mark, Luke)

• Prologue (1:1-18)
• “Signs,” beginning with the Wedding at Cana (2:1-12)
• Dialogue with Nicodemus (2:23–3:21)
• Jesus and/or his Disciples Baptize People (3:22-26; 4:1-2)
• Samaritan Woman at the Well (4:1-42)
• Jesus Heals a Sick Man at the Pool of Bethesda (5:1-18)
• New Details at the Feeding of the 5000 (6:1b, 3-6, 8-9, 12b, 14-15)
• Bread of Life Discourse (6:22-65)
• [Woman caught in Adultery (7:53–8:11) – added later]
• Jesus Gives Sight to a Man Born Blind (9:1-41)
• Jesus Raises Lazarus from the Dead (11:1-44)
• Jesus Washes the Disciples’ Feet (13:1-20)
• “Disciple Whom Jesus Loved” (13:23-25; 19:26-27; 20:2-10; 21:7, 20-24; cf. 18:15-16?)
• Last Supper Discourses, incl. “Paraclete” & “Vine and Branches” (13:31–16:33)
• Great Prayer of Jesus (17:1-26)
• New Details at the Trial before Pilate (18:28–19:16)
• New Details at the Crucifixion (19:20-24, 26-28, 30-37, 39)
• First Resurrection Appearance to Mary Magdalene alone (20:11-18; cf. Matt 28:9)
• Resurrection Appearance to Thomas (20:24-29)
• Another Resurrection Appearance at the Sea of Tiberias/Galilee; Dialogue between Jesus & Peter (21:1-25; cf. Luke 5:1-11)
• First and Second Endings to John’s Gospel (20:30-31; 21:24-25)

I love that John took 5 chapters to describe the last hours of Christ with his disciples…
Actually eight of the twenty one chapters of John’s gospel is concerned with the last supper, his death, burial, and resurrection.

John provides us with an upfront and personal glimps` of the last hours between Jesus and his disciples.

I don’t know about you but for me looking in the last supper would have been an uncomfortable meal…the foot washing alone is enough to make me squeamish. And everyone is troubled, Jesus is troubled in his spirit (pnuema)…the disciples are trouble in their hearts (kardia)

Jesus was troubled which troubled His disciples… It was a troubling night.

A dinner invite one might want to decline.

In his book “Life Looks Up”, Charles Templeton remarks how ironic it is that the course of human history has been affected positively and negatively by events that have occurred in two small upper rooms. One of them is a drab apartment in London’s Westside, dirty, curtain less, with stacks of articles on the table and worn manuscripts. Seated at a table a man labors over a writing, a manifesto that would overthrow governments, enslave millions of people, and affect the course of history for several generations. The man: Karl Marx; his writing: Das Kapital, the handbook for the Communist revolution.

But there’s another upper room that also figures in the course of human history: this one located in one of the oldest cities of the world, Jerusalem, and here also there was a table. 13 gather at this table to share a meal and to hear the words of a man whose love and sacrifice would make an eternal impact on human history.

There are times in our lives and events created in pressure making it that we have limited time to say what we need to say.

In the movie My Life, Michael Keaton plays Bob Ivanovich, a young man with a pregnant wife. To his horror, he receives a diagnosis of terminal cancer. He may even die before his son even enters the world.

He records instructions for his son, so that the boy will know his father. In the videos, Bob shows his son how to shave, cook spaghetti, drive a car, jump-start a dead battery and shoot basketball. He records for his son the life skills he will never teach him in person. After he has gone, these videos will provide the only influence he will have on his son. Whatever he needs to tell him, he must tell him now.

When everything at is stake, how do we make sure our message goes through? If we want our children, or our students, or our spouse to really hear what we have to say, how do we say it?

Imagine what would a last supper with your loved ones look like/ what would your last instructions be?

Remind of a warm sunny September day when I turned 50 and decided to write thoughts from this side of 50…knowing and hoping that when I pass karly would find this and share with her brother.

DON’T JUDGE

Such was the case with Jesus in the final hours of his life. From John 13-17 Jesus is speaking to his disciples at a meal before His death. Whatever needs to be said now is the time.

In Chapter 13 we discover”

1. That he loved his disciples-Before the Passover celebration Jesus knew that his hour had come to leave this world and return to his Father. He had loved his disciples during his ministry on earth and loved them to the end.” (he showed, would show them the full extent of his love)
2. That His time had come
3. That He would return to His Father and leave them
4. That He instituted a new leadership style- servant leadership
5. That He instituted a new Commandment- love each other as I have loved you… the full realization of that love was about to manifest.
6. That Jesus was troubled
7. That one of the twelve would betray Him.
8. That one of the inner three would deny Him.
9. That he would leave them

Of them all the most difficult revelation had to have been that he was leaving them…

What would they have been thinking?

For three and a half years they had been with Jesus… life was good… they had seen countless miracles, healings, deliverances, walking on water, calming a storm, feeding 5000 people on a boys lunch, raising the dead.

For three and a half years they had been taught the word by the one who spoke the Word into existence, they had witnessed his keen skills of debate when confronted by the Pharisees, they had witnessed the most amazing transformation of life take place in those to whom he ministered.

Jesus had gained in popularity, crowds were flocking to him…they no doubt thought He would overthrow this brutal Roman regime, and dismantle this harsh religious system.

(I used to relate more with peter… And you’re leaving, leaving now its just getting good. but I have aged well I might be calmer and call myself the one jesus loved if I was writing the account)

• He would be gone and what would come of them?
• They left everything to follow him… they left their livelihood to follow Jesus, in Mark 10 Peter’s words ‘Lord we have given up everything to follow you’ is not an idle boast they had given up a lot.
• James and John were in the prosperous family business, they hired other fishermen to work for them. To follow Jesus meant to leave this behind.
• Now what will people say of us?
• What will my wife say, my father whose family business I left.
• Should I go back to fishing, being a tax collector?
• What kind of rebuff will we suffer at the hands of the Pharisees?
• What about the good works will they end/

They would be leaderless, betrayed, persecuted, perhaps killed, dispersed, lost and perhaps penniless.

They were emotionally troubled and for good reason… they were sorrowful, a kind of sorrow that can only be defined as bereavement… they were bereft, that the one they love is leaving and not only is he leaving but he is going to be killed.

• Denial
• Anger
• Bargaining
• depression
• Separation- He is leaving/ actually He is going to die-
• Loneliness- we have no leader, we have left all that was familiar
• Fear-what now?

Spurgeon understood the scenario when he said “The disciples had been like lambs carried in the warm bosom of a loving Shepherd. They were now about to be left by Him, and would hear the howling of the wolves, and endure the terrors of the snowstorm. They had been like tender plants conserved in a hothouse, a warm and genial atmosphere had always surrounded them; they were now to endure the wintry world with its nipping frosts, and so it was to be proven whether or not they had an inward vitality which could exist when outward protections were withdrawn. Their Master, their Head, was to be taken from them…”

I don’t believe the disciples had the capacity to fully understand what was about to happen … that in just a few hours all of their hopes and expectations would fall apart.

Which brings us to Jesus infamous words in John 14:1 “Don’t let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God and trust also in me.”

Troubled-to cause inward commotion take away calmness of mind, to disturb equanimity, to disquiet, make restless

The were troubled and the troubler in this scene is Jesus…

They were troubled in their heart in Greek is, Kardia (the seat and centre of all physical and spiritual life, the soul or mind as it is the fountain and seat of the thoughts, passions, desires, appetites, affections, purposes, endeavors… It is the inner man)

They were troubled to the core …

 Jesus who is about to go through an unspeakable trial, beating, and death but ever the LOVING AND SERVANT KING his is concerned about the welfare of His disciples. He has delivered difficult news (not new by any means) but he wants to be sure that he communicates all will be okay.

In the context of the evening and what was about to transpire Jesus was saying that they needed to strengthen your faith. Difficult days are ahead. I need you to be strong, to stand firm in your faith. You will need to trust me as you have never trusted before.”

Jesus in the midst of anxiety and troubled hearts Jesus Reassures his Friends, In the midst of our trouble we can like the disciples be reassured that:

1. We a place in God
2. That he would return
3. That we can know the father
4. That we have an advocate
5. That the work would continue
6. That he would answer them

1. They we a place in God (John 14:1-2)

Let not your heart be troubled: believe in God, believe also in me. ² In my Father’s house are many mansions; if it were not so, I would have told you; for I go to prepare a place for you. ASV
Caveat- if this where not so I would have told you…could be better translated “If there weren’t, I wouldn’t have told you that I am going away to prepare a place for you, would I?” International Version

So I wouldn’t tell you something that couldn’t happen, I don’t lie

Four key words here: house, mansion, prepare, place

1. House- Strongs -Oikia– abode, family, inmates of the house, the household family. This word does not speak of the structure of bricks and mortar but a structure of people, where Christ is the cornerstone and we are the living stones that God is building into a spiritual temple. Being built into a spiritual oikos…(the inmates of the house) This was never intended to be specifically about some house in the sky it is about being found in the Father

1. Mansions- Strongs G3438 – Mone – Used only 2 times and both are in this chapter in verse 2 and verse 23 where Jesus says, “and my Father will love him, and we will come unto him, and make our abode with him.”

The two words are interchangeable mansion is abode….

1. a staying, abiding, dwelling, abode
2. to make an (one’s) abode
3. of the God the Holy Spirit indwelling believers

1. Prepare- Greek he/toi/ma/zo—make necessary preparation, get everything ready, the term is drawn from the idea persons sent to level roads and make them passable. 

I go speaks of Jesus’ own planning and initiative. He wasn’t taken to the cross; He went there. “They thought that His death was an unforeseen calamity. Christ taught them that it was the path of His own planning.” (Morrison) 

1. Place- Strongs – G5117 topos
2. place, any portion or space marked off, as it were from surrounding space
3. 1. the condition or station held by one in any company or assembly
   2. opportunity, power, occasion for acting
   3. where what is narrated has occurred…

Jesus  prepared/ made they way for us to have a place in God- Hebrews 10:20 “by His death Jesus opened a new and life giving way.” He made a way for us that was once closed.

• Your place in God is not some afar off time but a present reality
• When I am raised you will know I am in the Father and you are in me and I am in you.
• I am not a motel I am a breathing living temple of the holy spirit
• I am not as David said seeking that I may dwell in the temple of the Lord I am the temple of the Lord.
• I cannot get any closer to God than I already am.
• In Romans 6:5 it says, “we have been planted together in the likeness of his death, we shall be also in the likeness of his resurrection.”
• Planted sumphutos – born together with, joint origin
• So I don’t just have a place in God I am from God…my origin is now the same origin as Christ.
• “For in your union with Christ you have become rich.” 1Cor. 1:5

Before Christ no choice, no way, no place. 

Before Christ I was separated, not a family member, without citizenship, an alien…with no means of making a way to God. 

Jesus is the way maker… He has by his sacrifice prepared a place in God for us.  

He is the way to the Father, He is the truth of the Father He is the life of the Father.

He reassures his disciples:

2. That he will return (John 14:3-6)

When everything is ready I will come and get you that you will always be where I am. And you know the way to where I am going. 

He will return but the way back is through the cross.

Jesus did return after three days and would be with them on several occasions after that to teach and instruct his disciples until just before.

Pentecost when Jesus was taken into the clouds… angels why you standing about he will return…

Jesus keeps his word… God can be trusted to keep all his promises.

Jesus reassures the disciples:

3. That we can know the Father (John 14:7-11)

When Philip said to Jesus, “Lord, shew us the Father, and it sufficeth us,” he was giving expression to the deepest, the most secret, and mysterious longing of the human soul.  We have been created with a God Shaped Vacuum with the capability of knowing God in that we are rational beings able to think, emotional and able to love. However, these capabilities were co-opted in the fall. But Jesus reveals to us that we can know God.  In Chapter 14 Jesus shows us how we can know the Father. From His teaching we learn that

He Dwelt in the Father. “Don’t you believe that I am in the Father” (John 14:10). The home of His soul was the bosom of God. As a Son He abode in the love of His Father, delighting in His will.

His Father Dwelt in Him. “Believe Me that I am in the Father and the Father in Me” (John 14:11). Being in the Father, He dwelt in eternal love; the Father being in Him, the love of God was thus manifested.
He is the Revelation of the Father. He said to Philip, “If ye had known Me ye should have known My Father also; from henceforth ye know Him and have seen Him. He that hath seen Me hath seen the Father” (John 14:7-9). He is the image of the invisible God (Col 1:15). Heb. 1:1-3

His Words were the Words of the Father. “The word (rhema) which ye hear is not Mine but the Father’s which sent Me” (John 14:24). “I speak to the world those things which I have heard of Him” (chap. John 8:26-28). Hear His words you hear the Father
His Works were the Works of the Father. “That the world may know..as the Father gave Me commandment, even so I do” (John 14:31). He said: “I have kept My Father’s commandments” (John 15:10).. “Believe Me that I am in the Father, and the Father in Me; or else believe Me for the very work’s sake” (John 14:11).

He is the Way to the Father. “I am the Way… no man cometh unto the Father but by Me” (John 14:6). He is the Way to the Father, because He is the Truth about the Father, and the very Life of the Father. 

I am the Way (the path), the Truth (true notions of God) and the Life (zoe)

We are not saved by religion or by the church, but by Jesus himself. Jesus didn’t say, “I know the way” but rather, “I am the way.” Jesus never gives us a formula to follow. Instead he calls people to follow him personally because he himself is the way that leads to the truth that leads to life with the Father in heaven.

We can be loved by the Father.  “He that loveth Me shall be loved of My Father, and I will love him and will manifest Myself to him” (John 14:21). The effect of this mutual love is a further and fuller manifestation of Christ Himself as the image of the Father to the heart of the loving one. Because  we love the Son we are being loved by God.: 

• “From now on you do know him and have seen him!” John 14:7
• “If you know me than you know the father.” John 14:7
• “Anyone who has seen me has seen the father.” John 14:9
• “Christ is the visible image of the invisible God.” Col. 1:5

4. That we have an Advocate (John 14:16-26) 

“I will ask the Father and he will give you another Advocate.”

1. Why do I need an advocate?-
2. So that you do not feel abandoned/orphaned bereft of father, parent, teacher, guardian. Vs 18
3. So you are never alone vs 16

1. What is an advocate?- The word use is Parakletos-
2. summoned, called to one’s side, esp. called to one’s aid, one who pleads another’s cause before a judge, a pleader, counsel for defense, legal assistant, an advocateThe Holy Spirit is introduced to us as paraklçtos (also used in 14:26; 15:26; 16:7).
   Para-kletos comes from a verbal root that describes someone “called alongside” and occurs in secular Greek literature for an advocate in a court of law, who comes “alongside” a person to speak in his or her defense and provide counsel.

2. think of a “legal counselor.” The best translation is “Advocate” (NRSV), so that Jesus is pointing to the Spirit’s judicial or legal service. [Burge, Gary NIV Application Commentary, John. Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2000, 395]  It referred to an official advisor, legal counsel, mediator or intercessor. The Holy Spirit is ready to help and guide, especially in times of need.

Illustration A few years ago, a 42-foot sailboat got caught in STORMY SEAS off the east coast of the United States. Waves rose higher and higher until a giant wave flipped the boat upside down. The heavy keel righted the craft, but damage was fatal.

A Coast Guard cutter quickly responded to the sailboat’s SOS. But when the ship located the desperate boat, no one could be rescued because of the violent seas. So the cutter drew as close as possible to the smaller craft, taking the brunt of the waves. The ship remained alongside the imperiled boat and led her into port.

The action of this Coast Guard cutter is an illustration of the ministry of the Holy Spirit. The word Helper literally means “one called alongside to help.” The Holy Spirit guides and protects us through life’s storms; much like that rescue ship escorted the sailboat.
The Spirit buffers us from the raging storms of life, whether those gales are emotional, physical, or spiritual.

He is there beside us to protect, encourage, counsel, and guide.

1. Who is the advocate?-
2. He sent from the father vs 26- Jesus said, “The Spirit of truth proceeds from the Father and will testify of me”
3. He is my representative vs 26
4. He is a spirit – The Holy Spirit vs 16

1. What does the Advocate Do?
2. He stays with you vs 16 “he will never leave, no I will not abandon you
3. Brings peace- vs 27
4. He will teach you everything and remind you of everything I have told you vs 26- Jesus is the focus of the Holy Spirit, in the same way that the Father was the focus of Jesus ministry
5. Leads into all truth vs 16
6. He brings you into union with Christ- This was something that the disciples did not know or experience until after Pentecost. “the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees Him nor knows Him; but you know Him, for He dwells with you and later will be in you” (John 14:17).

Romans 8:16 For His Spirit joins with out spirit

He also testifies to us that we are God’s children. Rom 8:15-16 “For you did not receive the spirit of bondage again to fear, but you received the Spirit of adoption by whom we cry out, “Abba, Father.” “The Spirit Himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God.” He prompts us to pray to the Father in the nature of Jesus

6. 6. He will be peace to us. Vs 27 – The Holy Spirit brings to us that sense of well-being, contentment and wholeness to believers whatever their outward circumstances. Peace is therefore an indication of the Holy Spirit’s presence.

Jesus reassure the disciples:

5. That the works will continue (John 14:12)

If I one of the disciples or one of the multitude who had been touched by Jesus I would be thinking if he goes than does that mean an end to His Works? 

“Anyone who believes in me will do the same works I have done and even greater because I am going to be with the Father.   

6. That we can ask for anything John 14:13-14

“you can ask anything in my name and I will do it so that the Son can bring glory to the father. Yes, ask me for anything in my name and I will do it!” 

And whatsoever we ask, we receive of him, because we keep his commandments, and do those things that are pleasing in his sight. 1 John 3:22 

The name is used for everything which the name covers, everything the thought or feeling which is roused in the mind by mentioning hearing and remembering the name 

Don’t let your Hearts be troubled-

Being a Christian does not protect you from having a troubled heart, nor does it protect your friends and loved ones.

“For all of us there are times of trouble similar to that sorrowful occasion which led the Savior to utter the words don’t let your hearts be troubled. Some form of tribulation awaits us, our own poet utter, “Man is made to mourn,” Job declared, “man is born to trouble as the sparks fly upwards.”

We have people we love get sick,  or  die prematurely, we loose people to addictions, we loose jobs, partners, wealth, and homes. We live in a world that since the fall has become a war torn creation, where the cosmos are at war with the God and his children, and humanity is ravaged.

So Jesus words uttered to his disciples 2000 years ago ring true and trustworthy in the midst of any trouble we find:

1. We a place in God
2. That he would return
3. That we can know the father
4. That we have an advocate
5. That the work would continue
6. That he would answer them 

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