A Last Meal Together

We will have the audio uploaded shortly.

Mark 14:12-21.  This sermon was preached by Pastor Marty Bonner on November 01, 2020.

You do not always know when you are having your last meal with someone that you love.  Whether it is they who will pass on or you, the meaning of the moment becomes so much more important than normal.  Meals with loved ones can be simultaneously an intimate event and yet also an everyday occurrence to which we often fail to give a second thought.

Jesus knew that this was to be his last meal with his disciples.  However, it is more than just a normal meal; it is a Passover meal celebrating that night in Egypt when the Death Angel passed over those who had the blood of the lamb on the door-post of their dwelling.

On top of this, it was a troubling time for Jesus and would become so for his disciples too.  There was a betrayer among The Twelve, and Jesus would soon be put to death in an agonizing, excruciating way.  It is tough to have grace under pressure, but it is even harder when you know that someone plans to stab you in the back.

Let us not forget that we live in a time of testing.  We will stand with Jesus, or we will sell him out for 30 pieces of silver.  As we approach closer and closer to the end times, we will find that the spirit of Judas, the spirit of this age, is not done testing and seducing those who follow Christ.  I pray that you and I will be found as those who trust the Lord regardless of who abandons ship, and regardless of how difficult the path ahead may become.

Let’s look at our passage.

The last Passover with Jesus

The Passover meal commemorated the 10^th and last plague that had come upon Egypt over 1,400 years earlier than this.  God had sent the death angel throughout the land to kill all who were a firstborn of their families.  Israel was not to be exempted from this unless they had sacrificed a lamb, applied its blood to the door-posts of their house, and had eaten it in a meal cooked in fire.

Passover was one of the feasts of the Lord.  However, another word is used of them in Scripture.  They are also called moed (mow-‘ade) and the plural being moedim.  It refers to an appointed time of the Lord, but also has connotations of an appointed signal or sign.  Thus, it became clear to the early Church that the feasts or appointed times of the Lord had been enactments of prophetic things that pertained to the coming of Messiah, his great harvest in the Church, and his return.  The celebrations are themselves prophetic in nature.

It was fitting that this last Passover meal would be on the eve of the death of Jesus because, as John the Baptist said, he was the Lamb of God who had come to take away the sins of the world and spare us from eternal death.  Israel’s deliverance from Egypt had been a prophetic enactment of the salvation that Jesus the Messiah would accomplish for the whole world, delivering us from slavery to our sins and to Satan who is the Pharaoh of this world.

We are told that this is happening on the first day of Unleavened Bread “when the Passover Lamb was slain.”  This may appear to be a mistake by Mark at first glance.  Passover was to happen on the 14^th day of Israel’s month Aviv (later called Nisan).  Unleavened Bread was a seven-day celebration that started on the 15^th of Aviv and went until the 21^st.  I want to walk through some issues concerning the timing of these feasts because some think that there are contradictions in these accounts.

How can Jesus eat the Passover with his disciples one night and then the next day we are told that the religious leaders would not enter the Praetorium of Pilate, lest they be defiled and not able to eat the Passover?  Shouldn’t they have eaten it the night before like Jesus did?  Several issues are involved that add to the complexities of unwinding the timeline of what exactly happened: the way terms were used, the timing of the calendar year, and the timing of the Passover meal.  Let’s look at them separately, but quickly.

Passover would be on the 14^th of Aviv and Unleavened Bread would be another seven days (15^th-21^st).  This would be a total of eight days.  Over time, it became common to use the term Unleavened Bread to refer to all eight days.  Sometimes, even the term Passover was used for all eight days.  Though the events were clear to the original disciples and those to whom they related the events, the descriptions beg a greater context that we do not know.  By definition, it is clear that the first day of Unleavened Bread mentioned in verse 12 must be actually referring to Aviv 14, Passover.  So, though it may look like an error to say that the Passover lamb is killed on the first day of Unleavened Bread, it really isn’t because of the way the phrase was used in first century Judea.

The Essenes were a group that had separated from Jerusalem into the desert place we call Qumran around the 160’s BC.  Israel was dominated by the Greeks during this time and several High Priests had begun to adopt the Greek calendar.  By changing the way that the new year was calculated, the Essenes believed that Israel was no longer celebrating the feasts on the proper days.  Though the successful uprising of Judah Maccabee gave Judah a semblance of freedom, the priests continued to follow this Greek calendar.  We do not know what Jesus thought about these issues.  At least one group disagreed with the official date of the Passover and would perform their meals on a different day.

Another issue rose between the Pharisees and the Sadducees.  The Sadducees held to an older way of keeping the feast.  It is important to note that the Hebrew date switches when the sun goes below the horizon.  Let’s use the time of 6 PM to serve as a chronological way to speak of the beginning of twilight.  The old way would wait until the end of the day of Aviv 13 when it began to be dark.  During this twilight, they would sacrifice the Passover lamb, which would now be Aviv 14.  The lamb or goat would then be cooked over a fire and eaten that night.  Nothing could be left over to the morning, which would still be Aviv 14.

This is different than the Pharisees.  The Pharisees had slowly taken control of the majority of Israel.  It was their system that was the official system at the crucifixion of Jesus.  They believed that the lamb should be killed after noon (usually 3 PM) on Aviv 14.  They would also eat the Passover meal after dark, but for them it would be Aviv 15 now.  Though they officially observed the Passover meal on the 15^th of Aviv, there were some who would keep the feast the night before, Aviv 14.  Again, we do not know what Jesus thought about this.  It is possible that he is following the older model rather than the Pharisee-model, but we are not exactly told this in the Bible.

The point in going through this is to show that the issues are far more complex than we realize, and we are not given enough information in the Bible to clear this up.  Sure, the early disciples perfectly understood these issues, but it was not important enough to them to detail.  Was Jesus doing the Passover the night before, or was John talking about other meals that would happen on the High Holy Days of Unleavened Bread and simply using the term Passover meal to refer to any meal that happened during these feasts?  We may never know at this point.  However, we do know that these are not contradictions.

Jesus is asked where they are going to celebrate the Passover meal.  The answer that Jesus gives is reminiscent of his instruction to the disciples to get the donkey that he rode during the Triumphal Entry.  It may be that Jesus is being cryptic on purpose so that Judas cannot tell the religious leaders where they can ambush Jesus.  Regardless, Jesus tells them to go into the city and that they would eventually see a man carrying a water pitcher.  We are told by those who know the culture of this time that this would be an oddity.  This would be considered women’s work, and men carried water in animal skins.  So, this would stick out in the middle of a busy Jerusalem.  They were to follow this man to the place that he enters and then ask the master of the place to let them use a large room that he had already for the feast.  From the other Gospels, we are told that two of the disciples follow these instructions and prepare the Passover meal.  They would then go get Jesus and the other disciples in order to bring them to the place after dark.  It was very common for people in Jerusalem to rent out rooms during the feasts for those who were not from Jerusalem.  This owner appears to donate it to the Lord and his disciples, most likely as a follower of Jesus, or at least, a sympathizer.

From the other Gospels, it seems that Jesus references a betrayer several times throughout the night.  It isn’t entirely clear that there aren’t other disciples besides The Twelve, perhaps serving etc.  Passover was not a time that was about the temple compound.  It was a family or multiple family affair that happened at home.  It was to be prepared by the family, eaten quickly during the dark, as if ready to leave Egypt at a moments notice.  This represents how we should not take our duty to apply the True Passover, Jesus, to our lives by faith in him.  We are to live our lives trusting in his salvation, trusting in his commands, and ready to leave this world at a moments notice, whether through our death or the rapture.  This would be the ultimate rescue from the Egypt of this world.  This is an intimate affair, and Jesus is revealing that one of his closest disciples would betray him, one who was dipping in the dish with him, as if they were family.

This sets up a scene of being both flabbergasted and asking who it will be.  “Is it I,” they all say.  Jesus then teaches them a valuable lesson.  The death of Jesus would be a fulfillment of prophecy and therefore had to happen.  However, it is not the job of believers to try and fulfill prophecy unless the Lord has commanded it.  The horrendous betrayal of Judas cannot be excused or moralized by stating that he was doing God’s will.  It was God’s will that Jesus die on the cross, but it cannot be said that God wanted anyone in particular to be the one to do it.  In His wisdom, He knows that there will be wicked men that is why Jesus is there in the first place.  It is going to happen, but the question is will it be through you?  Judas would have no excuse.  He was doing what he was doing, not for righteous reasons, but for personal and selfish reasons.  Later in the Garden of Gethsemane, we are given another phrase from our Lord.  “You betray me with a kiss?”  True to life, those who are closest to the Lord outwardly are most able to betray him.  They do so first inwardly, but eventually it will also be outwardly.  Woe to the person who betrays the Son of Man.  It would be better for that person if he had never been born.  Friend, I warn you now that there are betrayals happening in the Church of Jesus every day.  Some of the betrayers are lay people, others are pastors, presbyters, superintendents, and even popes.  Woe to such people, and woe to anyone who will follow them.  God help us to cling to Jesus regardless of how bad the road ahead becomes because he has shown us once and for all that the way of the cross is the way of eternal life!

Last Meal audio

Your Personal End Times: The Millennium Part II

Zechariah 14:8-11, 16-20; Romans 8:18-25.  This sermon was preached by Pastor Marty Bonner on October 14, 2018.

We are taking time to see what the Bible has to say about the period of time that we call the Millennium.  This is the promise throughout the Old Testament that God would deliver Israel and rule over the nations of the world through His righteous, anointed King, who will sit upon the throne of David.  We are given a taste of this righteous King and his righteous kingdom in the Church.  Jesus is our King and we obey his commands.  However, the fulfillment of these Old Testament passages is about more than a metaphor for our current experience in Christ.  It truly is about an earthly kingdom that will occur when Christ returns to earth.  Thus, our current experience simply prepares us for that reality.

Now the Church has preached that Jesus is the coming King of kings for the last 2,000 years.  It is clear that, though many people within the nations of the world have embraced Him, the governments of the world have no interest in Jesus being King over them.  Not even the “Christian” nations in the West show any true desire for Christ to return and rule over them.  Instead we keep doubling down on our own human wisdom and looking for anyone, someone, who will come along with better answers.  In short the governments do not like the Savior that God has given and seek another savior, or an antichrist.  Eventually God will allow them to have their wish.  However, such a hope will be short lived.  Jesus is destined to reign over the earth and His divine wisdom will usher in a new time of peace that the world has never known.  Let’s continue our look at this 1,000 year kingdom and what it will be like.

The nations of the earth will worship the Lord Jesus

Our first passage today will be in Zechariah 14.  You will notice that the millennial passages in the Old Testament have a distinctive, Jewish flavor to them because the Israeli people will be re-gathered, and Christ will reign from Jerusalem over them and the world.  You may remember Jesus speaking to His disciples in Matthew 19:28.  He promised the Twelve, “In the regeneration, when the Son of Man sits on the throne of His glory, you who have followed Me will also sit on twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel.” (NKJV)   

However, the Millennium is not just about Israel.  It is also about the nations of the world.  Thus Zechariah speaks about the whole earth worshipping the Lord Jesus.  Now, we should not expect that we will have church services exactly as we do now.  However, neither should we expect that all cultures will have to adopt a Jewish-style service.  This passage is not saying that we will have to follow the Old Testament laws on worship.  Rather, it makes clear that there will be universal aspects of worship that all nations will do.  In this case, all nations will gather once a year to celebrate the Feast of Booths (The last feast of the 7 feasts of the Lord, which is in the Fall).  This is a super-corporate event.  It leaves the question of what worship will be the other days of the year.  I believe this passage leaves room for cultural differences, but also makes clear that Jesus will give some specific directions, much like Moses directed Israel in how God wanted them to worship Him.

We are told that there will be some big topographical changes to the area surrounding Jerusalem.  Most of the area will be flattened like a plain.  However, Jerusalem will be raised up above the plain.  This topography actually will occur, but it also symbolizes God’s decree.  All who approach the City of Jesus do so from a humble position and should have an attitude of worship.  In verse 4 we are told that the Mount of Olives will be split in half as the Lord stands upon it.  We are also told that water will flow out of the city of Jerusalem, some towards the Mediterranean Sea and some towards the Dead Sea.  This actual water flow is also intended to symbolize what God is doing spiritually.  His truth will flow towards the East and towards the West and fill the world.  He will lift up Jerusalem and dispense the Life of God to the nations.  Ezekiel 47 actually states that the waters that flow from Jerusalem will heal the Dead Sea so that fish swim in it and vegetation grows around it.  It also states that the water will flow all year long.  In the Pacific Northwest this may not sound like an important statement.  In the Middle East this is a powerful statement.  It will not just be a powerful spring river that is completely dry by the end of summer.  Rather, it will flow continuously, making the land a land of milk and honey once again.  Water shortage has been a big problem in the Near East for centuries.  The fact that this land lacks water and would be barren without modern technology, despite clearly being bountiful during the times of Moses, points to the judgments of God.  During the Millennium the land will be blessed and have plentiful water.

In verse 16 we see the worship of the Millennial Kingdom.  The passage uses the term “survivors” for those who remain after the devastations of the Tribulation, and the Second Coming.  Under the Beast and the False Prophet, the kings of the earth had gathered their armies against Jerusalem in order to destroy it, but now the nations will come up to worship rather than to attack.  The Feast of Booths is also called the Feast of Tabernacles.  In Ezekiel 45 we also see that the Feast of Passover will be observed.  However, it does not say that the people of the earth will gather for it. 

Some believers are bothered by the idea that at least some of the Jewish feasts will be reinstated and that sacrifices are described.  Let’s remember that they are not Israel’s feasts.  They were originally described as the Feasts of the Lord.  Clearly, we will not be under the Old Covenant of the Law of Moses.  However, there will be some symbolic rituals and memorial offerings that will function much like Christian Communion does today.  We do not look to the juice and the bread as our salvation, but rather a celebration of what Christ did.  Thus these feasts and their sacrifices will function the same way during the Millennial Kingdom.  They will point to the work of Christ.  We also should remember that there will be mortals as well as immortals on the earth in those days.  Thus the sacrifices will also testify and remind the mortals of where their salvation lies.  It lies in Jesus and His ability to atone for sins and to forgive them.   This snapshot of global worship doesn’t imply that we will worship only once a year, but that there will be an annual global, worshipful, celebration.

The last part of our section brings up a hypothetical situation where the nation of Egypt might choose not to come to the feast.  It describes the “blow” or punishment that Christ will give to any nation that refuses to come.  They will lack rain in their country until they comply.  This strikes me in two ways.  On one hand it is clear that Christ means business and Egypt will have to comply, if they want their country to survive.  However, on the other hand, there is no executing of rebels and military occupations either.  There will be no tactics of the Antichrist, or the empires of this world, in play here.  His response is both extremely powerful and yet extremely gracious.  It reminds us of the punishment of a Father who does not wish to destroy a child, but rather to help them learn righteousness.  This gives a picture of what the Bible means by the phrase ruling with a rod of iron.  His commands will be unyielding and yet they will still be gracious, as is his character.

It is the hope of all creation

This concludes the passages that we are going to look at, which describe the Millennial period.  However, I want to end today’s lesson by making this one last point from Romans 8:18-25.  In this New Testament passage it refers to the time when Jesus returns to earth as the “hope” of all creation.  Paul seems to personalize all of creation, as he describes its eager awaiting of this time.  It is referred to as the revealing of the Sons of God.  This is what the Apostle John spoke of in 1 John 3:2-3.  “Beloved, now we are the children of God; and it has not yet been revealed what we shall be, but we know that when He is revealed, we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is.  And everyone who has this hope in Him purifies himself, just as He is pure.”  You and I presently do not look like “Sons of God,” which was a phrase used in the Old Testament for the angels.  However, when we are resurrected and come with Christ from the clouds at His Second Coming, it will be made clear, or revealed, just who we really are.  We need this personal revelation from time to time.  Don’t forget what your destiny is and trade it for a bowl of beans in this life.  The whole creation is groaning for deliverance and crying for you and I to be revealed for who we really are, the Sons of God.

We can look at this groaning and travailing of creation in a couple of ways.  First the sentient parts of creation, angels and humans, literally groan and travail.  The righteous angels and righteous men long for the Lord to come back and deliver the earth from the bondage of The Rebellion.  However, there is also a symbolic groaning and travailing that we see in the earth itself, which is racked with quakes, tsunamis, and volcanic activity.  As we approach this blessed event, all of creation will groan more and more, louder and louder.

In verse 20 and following, it refers to the fact that the creation was subjected to futility.  This word has the sense of something that has been perverted and lacks truth, or is devoid of the ability for good.  This is the same word in Ecclesiastes used to translate the Hebrew, “Vanity, vanity, all is vanity.”  Some versions also translate it “meaningless.”  I believe that Paul has the curse from the Garden of Eden in mind.  There Adam’s sin causes changes to the ability of the earth to produce.  However, this curse was not intended to be forever.  God’s punishment was given in the “hope” that it would one day be removed.  Thus, we should not let the difficulties that we face today cause us to lose hope in the God who will one day lift this curse and celebrate the creation as it was meant to be with us.  This is His promise to those who trust Him.

The freedom of the Sons of God will bring freedom to creation, just as the bondage of Adam, the son of God, brought bondage to creation.  The Millennium is about Jesus, but it is also about His ability to bring forth the Sons of God.  The righteous of every generation are those who put their faith in God.  These will enjoy the glorious freedom of Christ as they are set free from death and this freedom will release freedom upon all of creation.  Thus the Second Adam brings life where the First Adam brought death.  May the Lord fill our hearts with faith even though we may not see these things now.  It is the same Lord, who rose up from the dead and ascended into heaven to the right hand of the Father, who will set creation free from the bondage that it is currently under.  Amen!  Don’t squander another minute without turning towards Jesus in faith and trust.  Give your life to Him and become a disciple of the greatest Master who ever lived, God Himself.

The Millennium Part II