- The Traitor Revealed (Mk 14:10-21)
- The traitor BARGAINS . (Mk 14:10-11)
- The traitor DELAYED . (Mk 14:12-16)
- The traitor CONDEMNED . (Mk 14:17-21)
- The End of Passover / The Beginning of Communion. (Mk 14:22-25)
The Passover:
God told Israel to celebrate in remembrance... remember what?
Jesus told the church to celebrate in remembrance... remember what?
Sermon Notes (PDF): BLANK
Hint: Highlight blanks above with your cursor for answers!
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00:00-00:04
If you have your Bibles, open them up to Mark chapter 14.
00:06-00:07
Mark chapter 14.
00:09-00:13
We're going to cover a lot of ground very quickly today.
00:14-00:15
And that's okay.
00:15-00:17
All of our messages are on the website.
00:18-00:26
So if we go over something quickly, I'd like to rewind and re -listen to that or study this again.
00:26-00:32
Go to HarvestPittsburghNorth.org and you can listen to it there.
00:35-00:37
But we're walking through the gospel according to Mark.
00:37-00:53
And last week, we were in Mark chapter 14, picking up in the first verse, we saw that the chief priests and the scribes said, "We've got to get Jesus." And their main motivation was Jesus was costing them money.
00:53-01:05
You remember turning the tables over in the temple and Jesus had this following, but He was anti their crooked business scheme and we've got to get rid of them.
01:07-01:13
But they said we don't want to kill Jesus during the feast because all of these people are here to celebrate.
01:13-01:22
And meanwhile, God was saying yes, we are going to sacrifice the Lamb of God during the feast because this is when The lambs are killed.
01:23-01:28
We saw that this last week leads up to the Passover.
01:29-01:31
This last week of Jesus' life leads up to the Passover.
01:31-01:33
The Feast of Unleavened Bread.
01:35-01:40
Because of our culture and geographical distance, it's easy to miss the importance of that.
01:40-01:41
And I was thinking about that this week.
01:41-01:45
To Israel, what is the Passover and the Feast of Unleavened Bread?
01:46-01:57
Just imagine taking the 4th of July, and Thanksgiving, and Christmas, all into one, and celebrating those holidays over the course of a week.
01:58-02:00
And that's a little bit what it was like to Israel.
02:01-02:03
This holiday was huge.
02:03-02:09
And I want to encourage you to take notes because I want to give you a little bit of the background concerning the Passover.
02:10-02:14
We introduced it last week, and we're going to be talking about it this week.
02:15-02:20
And there might be some people here that say, you know what, I think I heard of it, but I'm not really sure what the Passover is about.
02:20-02:22
So take some notes here.
02:22-02:34
The Passover is a Jewish tradition created by God to remember the deliverance of Israel from Egyptian bondage.
02:37-03:12
In a sense, Passover was a starting point nation of Israel. When you read your Old Testament, the book of Genesis, the book of Exodus, very long story, very short, you see that Israel, because of a famine, ended up in Egypt. And the Israelites were multiplying and the Egyptians were like, "We can't have these people multiplying so quickly because if another country comes to attack and the Israelites are like, 'We're really kind of sick of the Egyptians,' they'll team up with the other country and we'll be conquered. So the Egyptians' plan was to keep Israel as slaves. They enslaved them.
03:13-03:16
And the Lord sent Moses to deliver them.
03:18-04:06
I've got this reference on Exodus chapter 12. God was going to send the last of ten plagues on Egypt. You remember the ten plagues of Egypt? You remember that story? Shout out your favorite plague. What was your favorite plague? The frogs. Okay, how many people said that? You know what? We were talking about this in Chicago and did a similar poll and that was the first one that people think of is the frogs. Does anybody know any other one? The darkness and the, what did you say, the lice and you know, water to blood. Okay, so God sent all these plagues and why did God send these plagues? Because he didn't want Pharaoh to just say, "Okay, you can go." He wanted Pharaoh to say, "I'm gonna pack your bags and I'm gonna give you some spending money and I'm going to give you a good send off." He wanted Pharaoh to launch Israel out of Egypt.
04:09-04:12
Well, the 10th plague, the last plague, what was that one?
04:12-04:13
Bible students?
04:14-04:16
Right, that was the death of the firstborn.
04:16-04:19
God says, "Okay, here's the last plague," because Pharaoh kept changing his mind.
04:19-04:20
"You can go, no, you can't go.
04:20-04:24
You can go, no, you can't go." And he kept waffling.
04:24-04:26
The last plague, God says, this is it.
04:29-04:36
The angel of death is coming, and he is going to kill the firstborn in each household.
04:38-04:48
The Lord told Israel that the head of the family was to take a spotless lamb and kill it and sprinkle the blood on the doorposts of the house.
04:50-04:56
Then the lamb was to be roasted and eaten with bitter herbs and unleavened bread.
04:57-04:59
God says, here's how I want you to eat this meal.
05:00-05:06
He says, first of all, you have to eat with your loins girded, meaning your robes tucked into your belts.
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You have to eat this meal with your shoes on, and you have to eat this meal with your staff in your hand.
05:13-05:14
Why would you eat the meal like that?
05:16-05:18
What that signifies is you've got to be ready to run.
05:19-05:19
Okay?
05:20-05:21
This is an act of faith.
05:21-05:22
Be ready to run.
05:23-05:31
Tuck your robe in, get your staff, have your running sandals on, because when this last plague comes, you are out of here.
05:33-05:44
So when the Lord came, when the angel of death passed through, if he saw the blood of a spotless lamb on the doorpost, what would he do?
05:44-05:46
He would pass over.
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The firstborn child would not die in that household.
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The Lord would see the blood and pass over, and that is where we get the name Passover.
05:59-06:00
Okay?
06:01-06:07
So God told Israel to celebrate in remembrance.
06:09-06:10
Look at the bottom of your outline.
06:11-06:14
God told Israel to celebrate in remembrance.
06:15-06:20
And I don't know what Bible study tools you use, but here's one I encourage you.
06:22-06:29
In the Old Testament, when the Lord says, "I am the Lord your God who brought you out of Egypt." Do you know what I have in the margin of my Bible?
06:29-06:32
I draw a triangle with an arrow coming out of it.
06:32-06:35
The triangle represents the pyramid, which to me represents Egypt.
06:35-06:43
But that's just a signal for me because you're gonna find over and over and over and over and over and over and over again in the Old Testament.
06:43-06:44
The Lord says that, right, Derek?
06:44-06:45
over and over in the Old Testament.
06:46-06:50
God says, "I am the Lord your God who brought you out of Egypt." Like, why does he keep saying that?
06:52-06:59
Well, this is why he reminds, and this is why he says to celebrate the Passover every year.
06:59-07:01
What does he want them to remember?
07:01-07:02
Jot these things down.
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Number one, you were slaves.
07:05-07:10
Jot this down, this is gonna, we're gonna tie this back together here in a few minutes.
07:10-07:12
He says, "You were slaves." Remember when you were in Egypt?
07:13-07:15
Remember, you were slaves in Egypt.
07:15-07:18
You were ruled by another people.
07:20-07:21
And I want you to remember you were slaves.
07:21-07:24
Number two, I want you to remember that I delivered you by my power.
07:26-07:28
You were slaves and I delivered you.
07:28-07:30
Number two, I delivered you by my power.
07:31-07:34
Okay, it wasn't like Moses assembled this army.
07:36-07:37
You know that joke, right?
07:38-07:50
But the kid goes to Sunday school and he goes home and the mother says, "What'd you guys talk about?" And the kid says, "Well, we talked about how Moses got the Israelites out of Egypt." And the mother's like, "Well, how did he do it?" He says, "Well, he trained this band of mercenaries.
07:51-07:55
And when nightfall came, they snuck out undercover.
07:55-08:00
And when they came to the Red Sea, Moses called these engineers in to build this bridge.
08:00-08:02
And they built this bridge and they crossed the bridge.
08:02-08:17
And then when the Egyptians got on the bridge and chased the Israelites, Moses radioed an an airstrike and a plane flew through and shot rockets at the bridge that the Egyptians were on, blew it up and they all went into the sea.
08:17-08:26
And the mother says, "Is that really what your Sunday school teacher told you?" And the kid said, "No, but you'd never believe it the way she told it." So where was I?
08:28-08:28
Airstrike.
08:29-08:32
So number two, I delivered you, by my power, that was the point.
08:33-08:35
The way that God delivered Israel left no doubt.
08:36-08:39
It left no doubt that God was the one who delivered.
08:41-08:44
And number three, this is something God wanted Israel to remember.
08:45-08:52
Every year, every year, every year, if you are covered under the blood of a spotless lamb you will be saved.
08:52-08:55
Or you will be spared from death.
08:56-09:00
If you are covered under the blood of a spotless lamb, you will be saved.
09:00-09:02
Or you will be spared from death.
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However you want to write that.
09:03-09:05
And see that's why it became a holiday.
09:05-09:08
It's like our holidays have symbols and traditions.
09:09-09:10
That was Israel's holiday.
09:10-09:14
Every year, every year, every generation, every generation.
09:15-09:16
This is what God did.
09:16-09:19
We were slaves and God delivered us by His power.
09:19-09:20
And how did He do it?
09:20-09:28
Well, because if you were covered under the blood of a spotless lamb, death would not show up at your house.
09:30-09:33
Now let's get to Mark 14 and we're going to see how this all ties together.
09:35-09:36
as I said just a few minutes ago.
09:37-09:47
Remember last week, Mary, in a display of lavish worship, took a bottle of perfume that was worth about a year's wages.
09:47-09:49
Okay, calculate what you make in a year.
09:49-09:50
That was in a bottle.
09:51-10:01
And Mary was like, "I'm going to pour this on Jesus." And she broke the top off and poured it on Jesus as an act of lavish worship.
10:01-10:28
And you remember, that Judas was like, "We could have sold that and we could have given the money to the poor." And John's like, "Yeah, he wasn't really interested in the poor. Judas was pocketing money for himself." That's why Judas was mad. When he saw the perfume pour out, he saw money pouring out of his pocket. That's why Judas was mad.
10:30-10:35
And I really believe that that incident for Judas was the last straw.
10:37-10:38
This is the last straw.
10:39-10:42
And the reason I say that is I want you to look at verses 10 and 11.
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On your outline, "the traitor revealed." Here it is.
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"The traitor revealed." Major plot turn here in our narrative.
10:50-10:57
"The traitor revealed," letter A, "the traitor bargains." "The traitor bargains." Look at verses 10 and 11.
10:58-11:00
Remember the flashback?
11:00-11:02
actually happened on the Saturday before.
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So this is still part of the flashback.
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It says, "Then Judas Iscariot, who was one of the twelve, went to the chief priests in order to betray him to them.
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And when they heard it, they were glad and promised to give him money." Look at this last phrase, "And he sought an opportunity to betray him." OK, still part of the flashback.
11:28-11:30
This happened on Saturday.
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So Jesus was in Jerusalem all week, and your Bible tells you that Judas was looking for an opportunity.
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First of all, it says Judas Iscariot.
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Iscariot was not really his last name.
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That means from Kerioth.
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Kerioth was a city about 23 miles south of Jerusalem.
11:52-12:01
And after Mary dumps the expensive perfume out, And Judas rebukes her, and then Jesus rebukes Judas, remember?
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She's done a beautiful thing.
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Leave her alone.
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This was it.
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Judas was like, I'm done.
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I'm done, but I'm not leaving empty-handed, okay?
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I've been following Jesus around for three years because here's this promise of a kingdom, and he says he's a king, and I'm thinking if I follow the king and I get to be one of the right-hand men of the king, that I'm going to be wealthy and rich and famous.
12:29-12:36
And it's not happening that way when our king will let some foolish woman dump perfume out like that.
12:37-12:38
Okay, I'm out.
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I'm cashing my chips in and I'm done, but I am not leaving empty handed.
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So he goes to the chief priests, "I can get Jesus for you.
12:53-13:00
How much will you give me?" The Bible tells us in Matthew 26.15 that they gave him 30 pieces of silver.
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There is so much Old Testament symbolism.
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Exodus and Zechariah.
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Exodus says that it was the price of a slave and just so much symbolism.
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I'm not gonna go into today, but understand there's 30 pieces of silver were very prophetic and symbolic.
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People debate, what kind of coins were they?
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Were they Antiochian coins or were they Tyrian coins?
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People guessed that at 30 pieces of silver, how much is that?
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People guessed that that was equivalent to about four months wages.
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I don't know.
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I really don't know.
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But I do know this though.
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That's not the point.
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The point is this fulfilled Scripture.
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And the point is this shows where Judas' loyalties lie.
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It says he sought an opportunity.
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Why was he looking for an opportunity?
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Because of all these people in town and all these Jesus fans in town, like the chief priest in the scribes, Judas was afraid of the crowds.
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So Judas was like, "We'll find a chance.
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There will be some opportunity when he's not in the public square.
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He'll be close enough and available for you to grab.
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We'll make it happen.
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Don't worry about it." The traitor bargained.
14:18-14:20
Secondly, the traitor delayed.
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"The trader delayed." back at your Bible, it says, "And on the first day of unleavened bread," do you know what that means?
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The flashback's over, okay?
14:30-14:33
The previous verses and last week, that all happened Saturday.
14:33-14:38
Now Mark is saying, "Okay, now let's get back to Thursday." You with me on that?
14:38-14:39
Flashback's over.
14:40-15:00
He says, "On the first day of unleavened bread, "when they sacrificed the Passover lamb, "his disciples said to him, "'Where will you have us go and prepare for you "'to eat the Passover?' And he sent two of his disciples and said to them, "Go into the city and a man carrying a jar of water will meet you.
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Follow him.
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Wherever he enters, say to the master of the house, 'The teacher says, 'Where is my guest room where I may eat the Passover with my disciples?' He will show you a large upper room furnished and ready.
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There prepare for us.' And the disciples set out and went to the city and found that just as he had told them and they prepared the Passover.
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The trader delayed.
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Ok, what's with the tricky way of finding the room?
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So the disciples are like, "Jesus, we're reading the Passover.
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Why didn't Jesus just say, 'Ok, here's where you go.
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The address is 121 High Street.
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And it's owned by my good friend, you know, Scaly Simon's brother or whatever.
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I remember him from last week.
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This is the address.
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Here, let me write this down for you.
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Here's the address and here's the guys name.
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Why didn't Jesus do that?
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What's with all this secret agent stuff?
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Quite frankly, I mean, you find the guy carrying the water and then you get a like, the teacher wants the Passover room or whatever.
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What's up with that?
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Well, here's what's up with that.
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The Passover meal would have been the perfect chance for Judas.
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And what does your Bible say?
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Judas was looking for what?
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He was looking for an opportunity.
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That's what he was looking for.
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So they're like, hey, we're going to celebrate the Passover.
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I guarantee you Judas was like, ha ha.
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So it'll just be like Jesus and the 12 by ourselves in a room like in Jerusalem.
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Perfect opportunity.
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We'll be away from the crowds.
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And Judas was like, "Yeah, where are we going to be eating the Passover, Master?
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I'm curious." But this meal was so important to Jesus.
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Jesus wasn't about to jeopardize the timetable He was on.
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How important was this meal?
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I'll tell you how important this meal was to Jesus.
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John 13.
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John 14.
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John 15.
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John 16.
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That whole passage of Scripture is some of the most beautiful teaching of Jesus Christ about His ministry and about discipleship and about the coming Holy Spirit and who He is and what He will do in believers.
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That whole passage of Scripture, that whole dialogue took place during the Last Supper.
17:41-17:46
That whole teaching took place during the Last Supper, during this Passover meal.
17:48-18:05
So this way that Jesus had the disciples find the location - this way of procuring the room would have kept the location unknown to Judas so that Judas couldn't tell the chief priest and the scribes.
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Do you get that?
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It's brilliant.
18:08-18:14
Yeah, this is a way that we can all go there and meet up, but Judas has no idea where it's going to be.
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Judas doesn't know, Judas can't tell the chief priests and the scribes, and if he can't tell them, they're not going to stop this meal because Jesus was all about this meal.
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He says, "I've eagerly longed to have this meal with you." So you're like, okay, well, who was the man?
18:36-18:43
Part of the plan, I don't know the guy's name, but this man was obviously in on it.
18:44-18:46
Did Jesus reveal this to him supernaturally?
18:47-18:51
Did Jesus have something arranged with him prior to when he was in Jerusalem?
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I don't know, but I do know this, this guy was in on it.
18:55-19:02
It was a pretty clever sign really, because he would have been conspicuous, but not too conspicuous.
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Usually women carried the water.
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Usually women are harder workers than men, honestly, right?
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Right, amen?
19:10-19:42
Okay, so this would have been a really weird sight a guy to be doing manual labor, a guy to be carrying water, but it wasn't like he was walking down the street playing the trombone, okay? So it was a sign, but it was a little inconspicuous. So Jesus is like, "Just look for the guy carrying water." So the disciples were looking. You notice they didn't even use Jesus' name. They're like, "The teacher, the teacher." I think that was intentional. You know, this was kind of a covert operation.
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They weren't like, "Hey, hey, hey, hey, water guy!
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Jesus wants the room!" Like, they pull, "Hey, the teacher says take us to the room, you see?" Covert operation.
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Clever.
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Of course, if Jesus was going to plan something like this, it would be clever.
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But Jesus, again, on an exact timetable.
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"So this operation kept Judas from selling him out "before he could have the Passover meal." I just wrote down in my notes, aren't you glad that God's all about the timing?
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Aren't you glad?
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Aren't you glad that God's about the timing?
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God's never late.
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He's never late.
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He sold him early, but he's never late.
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And we see it right here in the life of Jesus.
20:28-20:32
You have this group of people after him and God's like, "Nope, nope, nope, nope.
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"Not till I'm ready.
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"Yes, I'm going to sacrifice the lamb, but it's on my timetable, pal, not yours." Love that.
20:41-20:42
Traitor delayed.
20:42-20:43
Thirdly, the traitor condemned.
20:44-20:45
The traitor condemned.
20:46-20:47
Look at verse 17.
20:47-20:59
It says, "When it was evening, he came with the twelve, and as they were reclining at table and eating..." This meal was several hours long, by the way, okay?
21:01-21:07
I know it originally started as staff, shoes, loins, right?
21:08-21:13
But over time, the tradition kind of changed a little bit that it was a several hours long thing.
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And that's why it says they were reclining at the table.
21:19-21:27
As they were reclining at the table and eating, Jesus said, "Truly I say to you, "don't lose the impact here, okay?
21:28-21:34
"In your mind, imagine Thanksgiving dinner sitting down with your family, and somebody drops a bombshell like this.
21:34-21:36
This is kind of what was going on here.
21:36-21:48
So they're enjoying this huge Jewish celebration so important to their people and to their heritage and so important for Jesus to make this happen.
21:49-21:53
They sit down and what does Jesus say during the course of these hours?
21:55-22:10
Among other things, Jesus said, "Every day I say to you, one of you will betray Me." Just so there's no miscommunication, one of you, you mean somebody in Jerusalem?
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Or what?
22:12-22:16
Look, He says, "One who is eating with Me." No ambiguity here.
22:17-22:23
Somebody sitting around this table is going to sell Me out.
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betray me." They began to be sorrowful and to say to him one after another, "Is it I?" They knew Jesus was a prophet and they knew that Jesus knew stuff that they didn't know.
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So you can imagine, this was a bombshell. Me? Jesus, is it me?
22:50-23:17
I mean, I wouldn't think that I'd be capable of that, but you know me better than I know me. Is it me?" He said to them, "It is one of the twelve who is dipping bread into the dish with me." They would take the unleavened bread and they had this like paste that was made out of nuts and made out of fruit, and they made this like paste out of it, and that's what Jesus was talking about.
23:18-23:30
He says, "Somebody that's sharing this bowl with me right now." And he says, "For the Son of Man goes as it is written of Him.
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But woe to that man by whom the Son of Man is betrayed.
23:34-23:38
It would have been better for that man if he had not been born." Traitor condemned.
23:39-23:41
This is unspeakable betrayal.
23:43-23:49
I want you to think for a moment of the things that Judas would have seen in three years of walking with Jesus.
23:49-23:51
Just think, we've been walking through Mark, right?
23:51-23:57
For those of you that have been with us last year and a half or so, we started Mark 1.1.
23:59-24:03
I want you to think of the things that Judas would have seen Jesus do.
24:03-24:04
Think about that.
24:07-24:12
Parents bringing sick children to Jesus, and Jesus heals them.
24:14-24:17
People bringing their lame friend to Jesus.
24:18-24:20
My friend can't walk, can you do something?
24:20-24:22
And Jesus heals them.
24:22-24:27
The blind and the deaf and the people with leprosy who have been shut out.
24:27-24:31
Judas is watching all of this over three years.
24:34-24:36
Jesus logging overtime.
24:39-24:43
Because remember, people were constantly after him, constantly after him, constantly after him.
24:44-24:46
Jesus didn't turn them away, did He?
24:49-25:01
All of the people that Jesus healed, all of the people that Jesus drove demons out of, one guy had a legion of demons in himself by himself.
25:03-25:05
Think of all of that that Judas would have seen.
25:05-25:27
These people coming, you know, he's out of his mind, he's got a demon and Jesus speaks the demon out and the person is restored. Judas saw that. Think of the love that Judas would have seen, the compassion, the prayer.
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Judas seeing Jesus get up very early in the morning, Mark 1.35, while it was still dark and he went to a desolate place to pray. Judas would have seen that. Jesus on his face.
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Praying for Judas. I'm sure at times.
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Thinking of the teaching that Judas heard over three years. I mean we have we have four Gospels but you remember what John said like the whole world couldn't contain the books that could be written about the stuff that Jesus did.
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I'm sure this you know God gave us what he wanted us to know but think over three years, the teachings that Judas would have heard.
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And grace upon grace upon grace upon grace upon grace.
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And he's willing to hand this man over to be executed for a pocket full of coins.
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Now Jesus said in verse 21, is prophesied as it is written. This was foreknown, but Judas, notice, was still held responsible.
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So we get into one of those issues, right? Well, did God sovereignly oversee this? Did God sovereignly use Judas? Yes, He did. Did Judas have a free will? Did Judas choose?
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Yes, he did.
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You're like, "Well, Pastor Jeff, how does that work?" The answer is, "I don't know because I'm just Pastor Jeff." Only God knows how that stuff works.
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Only God does.
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God has a sovereign will, but we have free will.
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The Bible teaches both, and the problem in the church is you have people on one side of the spectrum, and you have people on the other side of the spectrum arguing about two doctrines that are both found in the Bible.
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Look, He is God and I am not.
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Right.
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He is God and I am not.
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Okay, so Jesus made it very clear.
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This was prophesied.
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God knew this was coming and in His sovereignty He was going to use this.
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But Judas still had a choice.
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You're like, "Can you explain that?" And the answer is, "No, I can't.
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Thanks for asking." I do know this though.
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condemnation. Jesus said it would have been better for him if he was never born.
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And then finally, number two, the end of Passover, beginning of communion. So our first section here obviously all about Judas and his betrayal.
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We'll get verses 22 through 25 with me quickly. It says, "And as they were eating, he He took bread, and after blessing it, broke it and gave it to them, and said, "Take, this is my body." And he took a cup.
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When he had given thanks, he gave it to them, and they all drank of it.
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And he said to them, "This is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many." "I say to you, I will not drink again of the fruit of the vine until that day when I drink it new in the kingdom of God." So understand what's going on here.
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Jesus took the bread, and He broke it, and He passed it out.
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He said, "This is my body." In the Catholic Church, they teach something called transubstantiation, meaning that that bread literally turns into Jesus' flesh.
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I don't believe that. Why?
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That's not how the disciples would have understood that, right?
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Jesus didn't rip off a piece of his skin or rip off his finger and say, "Here, eat this.
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This is literally my body.
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Eat it." Obviously, the bread was symbolic.
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Right?
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Everybody gets that, right?
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The bread is symbolic.
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Right?
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Same with the wine.
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You know, in Catholicism, it's believed that the wine literally turns into His blood.
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That you're literally consuming Him.
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The disciples wouldn't have understood transubstantiation.
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They would have understood, "Oh, this is a symbol.
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The bread represents His body, and the fruit of the vine, the wine, represents His blood." But underline in your Bible, in verse 24, I want you to underline the word "covenant." I've got to be honest with you here.
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My problem in preaching every week is not trying to figure out what to say.
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The problem in preaching every week is trying to figure out what not to say.
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And I was sitting in my office this week, Bible open, staring at my notes and staring at my computer saying, "Where do I even begin here?" Talking about the New Covenant.
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In our men's group right now, we're going through an eight-week study about the New Covenant.
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And I'm sitting at my computer this week like, gosh, this is such a huge topic and how can I tackle it in one sermon and I can't.
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I'm gonna give you the overview.
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Men, you gotta go to the men's study and learn more about this.
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This is deeply profound and impactful stuff.
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Women, you can find a guy and borrow his book or something.
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Can I just say this?
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Jesus took this Jewish celebration called Passover, and He gave it a new meaning because He fulfilled it.
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Jesus fulfilled the Passover.
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Now on your outline, I have Jesus told the church to celebrate in remembrance, and we're going to do that here in just a couple of minutes.
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But remember what?
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What does he want us to remember?
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The truth is, he wants us to remember the same things that were true in the original Passover.
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You were slaves, number one.
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The Bible says you are slaves to sin.
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The truth is, as delivered in Jesus Christ, we are no longer slaves to sin.
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We are free and we are victorious.
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But we remember that we too are slaves.
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Number two, I delivered you by My power.
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Does that sound familiar?
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God stepped in to rescue in the most graphic way possible by coming to the earth Himself.
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And number three, if you are covered under the blood of a spotless lamb, you will be saved.
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And that's what the sacrifice of Jesus Christ the cross is all about.
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A spotless lamb shedding His blood.
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If I receive Him, and if you receive Him, if you are covered under His blood, you too are saved from death.
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But it was a once and for all sacrifice.
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I want you to understand that there were for generations and generations and generations of the sign of the Passover, and Jesus is the reality of the Passover.
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What's the difference between the first Passover and this new Passover that Jesus is celebrating?
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I was thinking about this this week.
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What's a way that I can tell you in one sermon what the difference is?
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I'll show you what the difference is.
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Wait a second.
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Can I take your picture?
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All right, smile.
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This is my wife Erin, for those of you who don't know.
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What's the difference between the old Passover and this new thing that Jesus was doing?
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I'm going to show you what the difference is.
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The difference is the same difference there is between this and this.
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Do you see the difference?
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This is a picture.
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This is reality.
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Ok? Do you see the difference?
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If you don't see the difference, we need to have a serious conversation.
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This is a picture.
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Now, do these things have some things in common?
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Beautiful, dark hair, dark eyes, beautiful smile.
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They have a lot of things in common, don't they?
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But they have a lot of things different about them too, don't they?
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If you don't believe me, how foolish would it be - think about this - how foolish would it be, Bob, if Aaron is sitting on one end of the couch, and I'm sitting on the other end of the couch looking at this picture.
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She is so beautiful.
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Wow!
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What a looker!
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And I'm just like...
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And you're like, dude, she's sitting on the couch with you.
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Why are you looking at the picture?
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That's the difference between the Old Testament Passover and the Passover that Jesus instituted in Himself, you see.
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The Old Testament was a picture to say, "You're slaves to sin.
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You need God's power for deliverance.
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You need to be covered under the blood of a spotless lamb." Repeated over and over and over this picture, this picture, this picture, this picture, so that the plan was this.
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Israel, you're going to get So used to this picture, that when the reality shows up, you're going to say, "This is it.
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This was always what God intended." He was just preparing us for the reality with the picture.
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Is everybody with me?
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He was preparing us for the reality with the picture.
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So as I close, Jesus said in Luke 22.20 that this is a new covenant.
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The book of Hebrews talks about this being a new covenant.
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I know we don't often turn to different passages.
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I just want you to turn over to Hebrews chapter 8 really quickly with me.
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Again this is one of those, I would just like to share so much with you about the new covenant and what it means and so much to say.
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for our purpose today. I want to share this with you. Hebrews chapter 8, actually verse 6, says that the new covenant is a superior covenant because it has better promises. Hebrews chapter 8 verses 10 through 12 actually quotes a promise from God through the prophet Jeremiah, Jeremiah chapter 31. I want you to just jot these down in the bottom of your outline.
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Three better promises of the new covenant. Three better promises of the new covenant.
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Let's read the text real quick and then we'll get to it.
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"For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days." This is Hebrews 8.10.
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"It declares the Lord, 'I will put My laws into their minds and I will write them on their hearts.
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And I will be their God and they shall be My people.
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And they shall not teach each one his neighbor and each one his brother, saying, 'Know the Lord,' for they shall all know Me, from the least of them to the greatest.
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I will be merciful toward their iniquities, and I will remember their sins no more.
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Three better promises of the new covenant, number one.
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It's not about conforming outwardly, it's about being changed inwardly.
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That's the first better promise, do you see it?
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I will put my laws into their minds, I will write them on their hearts.
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God says he's going to change us from the inside out.
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Gone are the days of the law is written down, and we need to strive to keep the law.
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God says, "Okay, that's old covenant stuff.
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"Here's the new covenant.
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"I'm going to come inside you "and change you from the inside out." That's the promise of the new covenant, and we live in those days.
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The Holy Spirit indwells His people.
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It's not about conforming outwardly.
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It's about being changed inwardly.
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Number two, it's not about religion.
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It's about relationship.
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It's about relationship.
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Do you see that?
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He says in the end of verse 10, "I will be their God and they shall be my people." It's about relationship.
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Many of the Israelites in the Old Testament were scared to death of God.
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Moses, can you go to God on our behalf, like scared to death of God?
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Because of the work of Christ.
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See, we're not a people who strive to get closer to God through our religious works.
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just recite these prayers, just repeat this, and light a candle here, and do these religious acts, and thinking that our works are somehow going to earn us merit towards God.
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God says it's not about religion.
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It's about relationship.
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That's New Covenant thinking there.
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God says I want relationship.
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This is the New Covenant I'm making with you through My Son.
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And number three, sin is not just atoned for.
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What does atonement mean?
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Atonement means covered.
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Sin is not just atoned, it is taken away.
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Like what's the difference between covering sin and taking away sin?
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If a raccoon crawled up on my porch and died, and Aaron said, "Do something about that." And I took a tea towel and covered the raccoon with the tea towel.
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Ta -da, problem solved.
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Is that what she wanted?
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Well, you said to do something and I covered it.
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What did she want me to do?
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Take it away.
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So is there a difference between covering something and taking it away?
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A little bit, a little bit.
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And see, that was the promise of the new covenant.
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Under the old covenant, God would cover your sins.
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But when Jesus came, what did John the Baptist say?
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There is the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.
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Jesus takes your sin away.
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So enough with this foolish thinking that God's up in heaven mad at me about my sin, because the truth is if you're a born again believer in Jesus Christ, your sin has been taken away.
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It's not an issue between you and God anymore.
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If you're still not convinced, look at the last phrase here.
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This is one of my favorite verses in the entire Bible.
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He says, "I will remember their sins no more." God is willing to forget your sin.
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You know, for those of you who think that you're gonna stand before God someday and you're gonna have to give this explanation, you know, explain yourself, explain your sin, if you're a born-again believer in Christ, that is not going to happen.
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And you're gonna stand before God and say, "Well, God, I really messed up." And God's gonna be like, "Yeah, I so don't remember that." But God, "I hurt these people with my sin." And God's gonna be like, "Yeah, I don't remember that." Like, how can you not remember your God?
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You know everything.
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God says, "I chose to forget.
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I promised you that I would remember your sins no more because my Lamb took your sin away." Jesus didn't just cover your sin.
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Jesus took your sin away.
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Isn't that awesome?
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Amen?
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So when we take the Lord's Supper, 1 Corinthians 11:26, we say it almost every time, we proclaim the Lord's death until He comes.
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In just a moment, we are going to be taking the Lord's Supper, but I want you to understand, this isn't snack time.
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Ok?
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It's not like this will hold you over to lunch.
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This isn't a religious act and God's happy with me when I do this.
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It's none of that.
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Why do we take the Lord's Supper?
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Well, we do it because Jesus said to do it in remembrance of Him.
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But furthermore, the Bible says that when you take the Lord's Supper, you are proclaiming the Lord's death until He comes.
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So I just gave a sermon.
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Now it's your turn to give a sermon.
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When you receive these elements, what you're saying is, "Jesus, I believe You are who You said You are." When you take these elements, you're saying, "Jesus, I believe You accomplished what You said You would accomplish.
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Jesus, I believe the promise of the new covenant that you purchased with your death on the cross.
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Father, I feel like I've barely scratched the surface on what Your new covenant is about.
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Father, I thank You that You've chosen to deal with us in the most gracious way possible.
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We don't deserve it.
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We are rebellious, wayward, stiff-necked, and hard-hearted by nature.
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But Your Word tells us We are deceitful.
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We are sinful to the core by nature.
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What you have chosen to do is to not just cover our sin over, but to take it away and to put your life in us and to change us from the inside out.
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To adopt us.
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To choose to remember our sins no more.
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Father, in just a moment, going to gather around your table again. We are going to remember the body and the blood again. And I pray Father that this is not some mindless act that we just sort of go through the motions. I pray that we would, each and every one of us in this room who received the Lord's Supper, I pray we would really stop and think about it. What does this mean that this is Jesus' body? What does this mean that this symbolizes Jesus' blood? What does he want us to remember about his on the cross and what it's accomplished.
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Glorify your name.
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In Jesus' name, amen.
Small Group Questions (Whole Group):
Read Mark 14:10-25
Why do you think Judas waited until this point to betray Jesus?
Explain the Old Testament Passover Celebration. Where did it originate? What did it mean?
If it was prophesied Judas would betray Jesus, how can Judas be guilty of committing that sin?
Explain what it means when we take the Lord's Supper at church.
Breakout Questions:
Has your testimony this week been faithful to the love you have for Jesus Christ in both your words and actions? How? Pray for one another.