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[0:00] Good morning, everyone. Please open your Bibles to Matthew chapter 26. For those of you who don't know me, my name is Sean. I'm one of the pastors of Trinity Cambridge Church.

[0:14] We're nearing the end of our series in the Gospel of Matthew, which we started a year and a half ago. Matthew chapter 26, we're in verses 17 to 35.

[0:30] Let me pray for the reading and preaching of God's Word. Heavenly Father, you love your church. You love us and you gave your only Son for us.

[1:00] And Lord, I confess I don't feel that I am up to the task of conveying the depth of your love in Jesus pouring out his blood for the sake of many, for their forgiveness of sins.

[1:26] Would you please make that amazing spiritual reality come home and pierce your people's hearts this morning?

[1:46] Exalt your Son. And in Him be glorified.

[1:58] Speak to us in the reading and preaching of your Word. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.

[2:11] Please stand if you're able. Let's honor God together by standing as I read from God's Word. Matthew chapter 26, verses 17 to 35. Now on the first day of unleavened bread, the disciples came to Jesus saying, Where will you have us prepare for you to eat the Passover?

[2:37] He said, Go into the city to a certain man and say to him, The teacher says, My time is at hand. I will keep the Passover at your house with my disciples.

[2:49] And the disciples did as Jesus had directed them and they prepared the Passover. When it was evening, he reclined at table with the twelve. And as they were eating, he said, Truly I say to you, one of you will betray me.

[3:07] And they were very sorrowful and began to say to him one after another, Is it I, Lord? He answered, He who has dipped his hand in the dish with me will betray me.

[3:19] The Son of Man goes as it is written of him, but woe to that man by whom the Son of Man is betrayed. It would have been better for that man if he had not been born.

[3:32] Judas, who would betray him, answered, Is it I, Rabbi? He said to him, You have said so. Now as they were eating, Jesus took bread and after blessing it, broke it and gave it to the disciples and said, Take, eat, this is my body.

[3:51] And he took a cup and when he had given thanks, he gave it to them saying, Drink of it, all of you, for this is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins.

[4:05] I tell you, I will not drink again of this fruit of the vine until that day when I drink it new with you in my Father's kingdom. And when they had sung a hymn, they went out to the Mount of Olives.

[4:19] Then Jesus said to them, You will all fall away because of me this night. For it is written, I will strike the shepherd and the sheep of the flock will be scattered.

[4:31] But after I am raised up, I will go before you to Galilee. Peter answered him, Do they all fall away because of you? I will never fall away.

[4:45] Jesus said to him, Truly, I tell you, this very night before the rooster crows, you will deny me three times. Peter said to him, Even if I must die with you, I will not deny you.

[5:03] And all the disciples said the same. This is God's holy and authoritative word. Please be seated. We all expect our enemies to hate us, to hurt us.

[5:23] But we don't expect our family and friends to do that. And that's why it hurts more when that happens.

[5:36] Maybe you were falsely accused or wrongly blamed for something that you're not responsible for at your workplace. And a coworker of yours that you consider your friend, who knew the full truth, didn't come to your defense.

[5:54] Didn't tell the manager what really happened. Maybe you confided something in your friend, a trusted confidant, only to discover later that the deeply personal things that you have been sharing with this person is being gossiped about and whispered behind your back.

[6:17] And damaging your name and your reputation. Maybe you had a BFF or a brother, sister, someone that you knew would always be there for you.

[6:35] Until they weren't. You came upon some hard times. Financial hardship. Prolonged sickness, illness. Some public relations crisis, relational issues.

[6:47] And then when you needed them most, they were gone. Nowhere to be found. Maybe you had a boyfriend, girlfriend, fiance, husband, wife that you loved, you trusted, only to learn later that that person's devotion to you was a farce.

[7:13] They were lying to your face and cheating on you over and over again. Some of you have been betrayed like this. But perhaps more importantly, all of us have betrayed like this.

[7:33] Because we have all betrayed God. God says in Ezekiel, I was your God and Redeemer. I brought you into the promised land flowing with milk and honey.

[7:47] And yet you betrayed me and ran after every God you can find upon every hill. In Hosea, he says, I was your husband.

[7:59] But you left me and whored after other gods. In Isaiah 1, verse 2, he says, I am your father. I raised you up. I brought you up.

[8:10] But you have rebelled against me. Is it any surprise then that we humans backbite and betray one another? We're old hats.

[8:25] Old hands. Old hands. We're all experienced. We've all done this to God. When we have so betrayed God by turning away from him and sinning against him and being treacherous ingrates in our lives toward him, will he ever take us back?

[8:49] Do we dare hope for forgiveness, for redemption and reconciliation? That's what this passage is about. In this morning, Jesus predicts his betrayal by Judas, his abandonment by the 12, and finally his denial by Peter.

[9:10] Dramatically and comprehensively, Jesus is betrayed by those who are closest to him. But there's a divine purpose behind all of this, and that is this.

[9:21] Jesus' blood was poured out for the forgiveness of our sins. We're going to first talk about how Jesus was betrayed, and then we'll skip ahead to how he was deserted and denied, and finally we'll talk about how his blood was poured out for the forgiveness of our sins.

[9:38] Verse 17 tells us that this took place on the first day of unleavened bread. This is a reference to the feast of Passover or the feast of unleavened bread. According to Exodus 12, the Passover lamb was to be slaughtered just at twilight of the 14th day of the first month of the year in the Jewish calendar.

[10:00] So after slaughtering the lamb at twilight on that day, in Jewish reckoning the day stretched from sundown to sundown. So after twilight it would go into the new day, the next day, that evening they would eat, that night they would eat the Passover.

[10:18] And that would begin the beginning of the seven-day feast of unleavened bread. So in our reckoning it would be Thursday evening to Friday morning of, Friday afternoon of Holy Week, and that's where we're at.

[10:31] When it was evening it says in verse 20 that Jesus reclined at table with the twelve. But during this festive occasion, Jesus makes a startling announcement in verse 21.

[10:45] Truly I say to you, one of you will betray me. The disciples are probably staring back at Jesus, trying to figure out, is he joking?

[10:56] And then they realize, they see the sorrow in his eyes, and they realize, oh no, he's for real. They look around like, I mean, who's in this room?

[11:08] It's just us. The twelve. One of you will betray me. Very sorrowful they become, and they begin to say to him and after one another, is it I, Lord?

[11:24] Surely not I. And Jesus answered, he who has dipped his hand in the dish with me will betray me. If you have no idea what that means, that's because that's exactly the way it's supposed to be.

[11:41] They've all, they're all dipping their hands in the same bowl. It's one of them. But it's a deeply painful statement nonetheless. There are many things that we do with strangers, right?

[11:54] We will ride on the subway with strangers. We will watch a movie next to strangers. You know, some of you are more comfortable with doing things with strangers than others.

[12:07] But we don't usually invite strangers to our homes. We don't usually eat with them, invite them to our family meal.

[12:21] Eating together, especially in the intimacy of our own homes, goes beyond acquaintance. It signifies friendship, trust, fellowship. He who has dipped his hand in the dish with me will betray me.

[12:34] This is not a hygienic, sterile meal where everyone has their own dish, everyone has their own cup, and everyone has their own dipping sauce. No, this is, there's a lot of double dipping going on.

[12:49] It's a family meal. He who has dipped his hand with me. Can you pass that bowl over? David wrote in Psalm 41, verse 9, even my close friend in whom I trusted, who ate my bread, has lifted his heel against me.

[13:15] Those who eat your bread are close friends in whom you trust. Jesus is saying, my friend, friend, my confidant, my close advisor, my trusted disciple, one of you will betray me.

[13:35] But even this shocking betrayal is no surprise to our sovereign God. Jesus says in verse 24, the Son of Man goes as it is written of him. But woe to that man by whom the Son of Man is betrayed.

[13:49] It would have been better for that man if he had not been born. Hundreds of years before Jesus, even a thousand years before Jesus' death, in Isaiah 53, Psalm 22, Daniel 9, Zechariah 12, among other places, God's word prophesied that the Messiah would be killed.

[14:09] Zechariah 11 prophesied with remarkable specificity that the Lord would send a shepherd to care for his people with favor and union, but that his own sheep would betray that very shepherd and reject him and sell him for 30 pieces of silver.

[14:28] Which was what we saw last week. All of this was already written of him that he would be betrayed. The Lord God has already sovereignly ordained the betrayal of his own son and the death of his own son.

[14:46] It is written, but nonetheless, the man by whom Jesus is betrayed is responsible for his treachery. He'll be held accountable and his judgment so severe that it will have been better for that man to have never been born.

[15:04] There's no turning back for Judas. He plays a singular, unrepeated role in the death of Christ. Judas already knows, of course, that he is the one.

[15:15] He's already made the pact with the chief priest as we saw in the passage Ed preached last week. He's agreed to sell Jesus for 30 pieces of silver. But while the other 11 disciples are going around, surely not I.

[15:29] Is it I, Lord? Is it I, Lord? Judas can't just hang back. That looks really suspicious. Right? So he also approaches Jesus expressing his incredulity, protesting of his innocence.

[15:50] Is it I, Lord? Lord? I assume that this is happening on the side.

[16:01] It's a side conversation because Judas doesn't want to be exposed before all of the other disciples. And also because we know from John 13, 21 and 29 that the other disciples didn't know at this time that Judas was the one.

[16:14] They don't find that out until later. So Judas, his heart palpitating, probably his hands trembling and his voice cracking, but still with cold, hushed determination, asks, is it I, Rabbi?

[16:34] And Jesus' answer is in the affirmative. You have said so. It is as you have said. You said it. And don't miss the key difference between Judas and the rest of the 12.

[16:49] The rest of the 12 ask what? Is it I, Lord? Judas alone asks, is it I, Rabbi?

[17:03] Rabbi is the Jewish term for teacher. In the Gospel of Matthew, Jesus' disciples, those who truly know him and follow him and love him, never address him as Rabbi or teacher.

[17:19] It's the unbelievers, it's the scribes, the Pharisees, the Herodians, the Sadducees, the lawyers, the people who doubt Jesus and disbelieve Jesus and discredit Jesus, they're the ones who call him teacher or rabbi.

[17:35] The title teacher or rabbi in and of itself is not derogatory. The term rabbi in the original Hebrew means my great one. Apply to anyone else, it's an honorific, but apply to Jesus, it is woefully inadequate.

[17:56] It's deficient. It's even offensive. In fact, for us to consider and call Jesus merely our teacher is offensive.

[18:11] Jesus is the eternal son of God. He is the savior of the world. He's the king of kings and lord of lords.

[18:24] Some of you here are not yet followers of Christ. You might concede that Jesus is a great teacher. His ethical teachings about loving our neighbors and as we love ourselves, his teachings about forgiveness have formed the very foundation of Western civilization.

[18:42] You might even concede that he is a great prophet or a miracle worker. He healed many and prophesied of things that came true. You might concede that Jesus is a great man, maybe even the greatest human being that ever lived.

[18:56] He started the biggest religion in the world. He has the most adherence in the world. Billions have claimed to follow him. His impact on world history is unparalleled, but even if you admit all of that, that only gets you as far as Judas.

[19:14] It's not enough. Jesus Christ must be your Lord. Maybe you call yourself a Christian, but Jesus is nothing more than a great therapist.

[19:30] Someone to give you a pep talk and make you feel safe and comfortable and good about yourself. Maybe you think of Jesus as a great coach, someone who can help you fulfill your potential and achieve your goals and succeed in life.

[19:43] But that too will only get you as far as Judas. It's not enough. Jesus Christ must be your Lord.

[19:58] Romans 10, 9 does not say if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is a great teacher, you will be saved. If you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, then you will be saved.

[20:18] To confess Jesus as your Lord is to submit and surrender your life completely to him as the Lord of heaven and earth. It means to renounce every other person's claim upon your life as a claim to lordship and control in your life including yourself.

[20:35] It means to renounce your own control over your own life and to pledge allegiance to Jesus Christ alone. We fool ourselves into thinking that we can rule our own lives. We're capable rulers of our own destinies, but in reality every single person in the world, rich or poor, successful or failures, we have all, every single one of us made a ruin of our lives.

[20:58] We don't know how to rule ourselves. There is no one righteous, no, not one. Our spiritual hollowness, our spiritual deadness impeach us.

[21:12] We must stop masquerading as kings and abdicate the throne and submit to the lordship of Jesus Christ. To submit to the lordship of Jesus Christ means to deny yourself as Jesus taught earlier in the gospel, to deny yourself and to take up your cross and follow him, to lose your life for his sake, no longer living for yourself but for him.

[21:39] Later in our service, we have the privilege of baptizing four new people who are making that very commitment and pledging allegiance to Jesus today. That's what baptism represents.

[21:52] when you are submerged under water, you are baptized into Christ's death. You are being buried with him by baptism into death.

[22:04] And then when you emerge out of that water, you are raised to new life with Christ, raised from the dead with Jesus Christ to walk in the newness of life. All is gone.

[22:18] You're now a new creation in Christ. Then, afterward, we can say, as Christians, I have been crucified with Christ.

[22:29] It is no longer I who live but Christ who lives within me. The life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me. That's what Christian life is.

[22:39] That's what surrender to the Lordship of Christ is. And what is, then that means God can tell you anything he wants. God can tell you to go.

[22:51] He can tell you to stay. God can put you to prosperity. He can put you to poverty. He can ordain pleasure and comfort for you.

[23:04] He can ordain suffering and loss for you. He can set you on a platform. He can set you aside in obscurity. He can make you praised.

[23:15] He can make you criticized. That's what it means to confess with your mouth Jesus, not me. Jesus is Lord.

[23:31] Is Jesus Lord in your life? Is he your master? Or do you serve another? If Jesus is not your Lord, you will fall away.

[23:46] Judas' situation is unique, so this isn't an exact parallel, but Hebrews 6 speaks of those who, though they are not of the elect, ultimately, by their association and nearness to the Spirit's work among the people of God, they have had, in a certain sense, tasted of the heavenly gift and the goodness of the word of God and the powers of the age to come.

[24:09] And he says that those people sometimes fall away. such people, God says, cannot be restored to repentance. In other words, even now, there are people who resemble Judas in some sense, people who knew Jesus, people who walked with Jesus in a certain sense, who witnessed his power and wisdom and still fell away.

[24:31] most of us have heard of Billy Graham, the famous Christian evangelist. But back in 1946, Graham had a friend and a fellow evangelist who was viewed by many as being even more accomplished and effective and promising than Billy Graham.

[24:55] His name was Charles Templeton. But after the preaching the gospel internationally, as an evangelist, a decade later, Templeton in 1957 publicly declared himself an agnostic.

[25:12] Fifty years later, Christian author Lee Strobel got to interview Charles Templeton and he asked him, how do you assess Jesus? At that point, he says, Templeton's hard edge softened and he took on a much more melancholy tone and almost nostalgically he said, Jesus was the greatest human being who has ever lived.

[25:40] He was a moral genius. His ethical sense was unique. He was intrinsically wisest person. He was the intrinsically wisest person that I've ever encountered in my life or in my readings.

[25:50] His commitment was total and led to his own death, much to the detriment of the world. what could one say about him except that this was a form of greatness? Strobel didn't expect that from someone who had renounced and publicly renounced Christ all those many years ago.

[26:08] And so he pressed it a little further. You sound like you really care about him. And Templeton continued, well, yes, he is the most important thing in my life.

[26:22] I know it might sound strange, but I have to say I adore him. Everything good I know, everything decent I know, everything pure I know I learned from Jesus.

[26:34] Yes, yes, and tough. Jesus, look at Jesus. He's tough. He castigated people. He was angry. People don't think of him that way, but they don't read the Bible. He had a righteous anger.

[26:45] He cared for the oppressed and exploited, and the exploited. There's no question that he had the highest moral standard, the least duplicity, the greatest compassion of any human being in history.

[26:56] There have been many other wonderful people, but Jesus is Jesus. In my view, he is the most important human being who has ever existed. And if I may put it this way, he continued as his voice started to crack, I miss him.

[27:20] with that, his eyes filled with tears, and he turned his head and covered his eyes, and his shoulders started bobbing, and he started heaving and crying, until awkwardly he waved everything off and called up to any of you and said, enough of that.

[27:46] Templeton was a Judas. He died as an apostate and a betrayer of Christ because even though he spoke with such passion and emotion, such pathos about Jesus, even though he believed that Jesus was the greatest human being that ever lived, the most important thing he says in his life in a kind of way, he never confessed Jesus as Lord.

[28:30] I will return to the most important Passover meal in verses 26 to 29 later, but now skip with me to verses 30 to 35. After the Passover, they sing a hymn as was the custom, and then Jesus has still more surprising and sobering words for his disciples.

[28:50] He says in verse 31, you will all fall away because of me this night, for it is written, I will strike the shepherd, and the sheep of the flock will be scattered. The word fall away is the same word that Jesus used earlier in Matthew 13, 21, to speak of those who receive the word of God with joy, but when tribulation or persecution arises on account of the word, immediately he falls away.

[29:15] It's the same word that he used in Matthew 24, verse 9, when he said that many will fall away when they are delivered up to tribulation and are hated by the nations for Christ's name's sake.

[29:28] Earlier in verse 24, Jesus said that the Son of Man is betrayed as it is written of him in the scriptures, and here in verse 31, Jesus says that the way all of his disciples will fall away too is already written in the scriptures.

[29:43] And he quotes Zechariah 13, verse 7, that passage I mentioned earlier. The messianic shepherd come to shepherd his people, but he's rejected, and God himself strikes down the shepherd and the sheep of the flock scatters.

[30:01] And that too is a heart-rending betrayal. Jesus said to his disciples, the 12, in Luke 22, verse 28 to 30, you, you are those who have stayed with me in my trials.

[30:19] And I assign to you, as my Father assigned to me, a kingdom that you may eat and drink at my table in my kingdom and sit on thrones judging the 12 tribes of Israel.

[30:31] You are those who have stayed with me in my trials. But even these, he says, who have stayed with him in his trials up to that point, will desert him precisely at the lowest point of his life, precisely when he is the loneliest, precisely when he is the weakest, precisely when he needs their support and companionship the most, they desert him.

[31:01] He says in verse 56, then all the disciples left him and fled. Imagine his sadness, his loneliness.

[31:16] No man has ever known loneliness like Jesus. But Peter's bravado once again rears its prideful head in verse 33.

[31:30] I mean, he's saying this while all the other disciples are listening, right? Oh, don't they all fall away, Jesus?

[31:40] I, I, I, I will never fall away. Have you ever felt that?

[31:53] You know, sinful, prideful naivete. Oh, Jesus, I will never do something like that to you. Jesus, I'll never do that sin again, ever, ever.

[32:09] Jesus says to him, truly, I tell you, this very night before the rooster crows, you will deny me three times. But Peter does not back off. He thinks he knows better than the master himself.

[32:21] No, no, no, no, Jesus. Jesus, even if I must die with you, I will not deny him. I'll follow you to the death.

[32:35] But this very night before the sun rises, Peter will deny Jesus not once, not twice, but three times. And it's not even a simple denial. He denies Jesus with an oath.

[32:47] I do not know the man. I swear it. He invokes a curse upon himself saying, I don't know him. At the crisis point of Jesus' life, just when he needed his closest friend to stand up for him and defend him, Peter and the apostles are nowhere to be found.

[33:10] Peter, of all people, he was the first disciple that Jesus called to follow him. He's a leader among the twelve. Peter's house in Capernaum was the base of operations for Jesus' ministry in Galilee.

[33:20] Peter was the one who made the great confession saying, you are the Christ, the son of the living God. Peter's the one who had the faith, at least for a time, to step out and to walk on water and follow Jesus there.

[33:32] He's the one to whom Jesus said, you are Peter and on this rock I will build my church and the gates of Hades shall not prevail against it. Peter was with Jesus when he went up on the mountain and was transfigured in his divine glory.

[33:45] He saw all of that and he who should have borne witness to Jesus denied him. Thankfully, this is not the end of the story for Peter and the apostles.

[34:00] Judas never repents. He never had genuine faith in Jesus. He was a child of the devil all alone. But the rest of the twelve all repent of their cowardly and faithless abandonment of Jesus.

[34:14] And it's also important for us to remember that these disciples, they are falling away and denying Jesus before his death, resurrection, and ascension. That means it's also before the coming of the Holy Spirit in power at Pentecost, empower them for their witness, which we now have the benefit of.

[34:33] Once the Holy Spirit comes upon them, they are empowered, empowered, emboldened, and they never again deny Jesus. I believe this is the case for all true spirit-empowered Christians.

[34:48] Jesus said in Matthew 10, 32-33, So everyone who acknowledges me before men, I also will acknowledge before my Father who is in heaven. But whoever denies me before men, I also will deny before my Father who is in heaven.

[35:00] Those who deny Christ before men will not be saved. For this reason, I don't think true spirit-indwelled, empowered Christians ever finally deny their Savior.

[35:14] This doesn't, however, mean that we as Christians are never cowed by fear or ashamed of the gospel. Paul had to remind even Timothy in 2 Timothy 1, 7-8, God gave us a spirit not of fear.

[35:32] But of power and love and self-control. Therefore, do not be ashamed of the testimony about our Lord, nor of me, his prisoner, but share in suffering for the gospel by the power of God.

[35:44] Because it is normal, it's human to be tempted to be ashamed of the gospel when because of the gospel you preach, you are persecuted. And because of the gospel you preach, your closest associates and your mentors and teachers are in prison.

[35:56] And so Paul has to remind him, don't be ashamed of the testimony. Even Paul has to ask the saints in Ephesus to pray for him in Ephesians 6, 19-20 that words may be given to him and opening his mouth boldly to proclaim the mystery of the gospel.

[36:20] that he may declare it boldly. Why does Paul ask the church of Ephesus to pray for him to preach with boldness? Because sometimes it's hard for him to preach with boldness.

[36:34] Have you ever hidden the fact that you are a Christian who goes to church from your coworkers, peers?

[36:52] Were you ever part of a group where God's word was being reviled, ridiculed, God's people being ridiculed, and then you just looked away and fidgeted and didn't say a word?

[37:07] Have you ever been in an engrossing, deep conversation with a friend where there was a golden opportunity to share the gospel, it served to you on a silver platter, and then you just fumbled it?

[37:19] Didn't share the gospel. Do not be ashamed of the gospel. It is the power of God for salvation for those who believe.

[37:33] Do not be afraid of those who can judge you in this life only, but not in eternal life. Those who can kill the body, but cannot kill the soul.

[37:52] Caleb, where is Caleb? He's getting baptized today. There he is, Caleb. Because Lucas invited him to our church to Bible study and share the gospel with him.

[38:10] Andy, Sandy, AJ are getting baptized today. It's amazing. Their whole family, three of them are getting baptized together like the Philippian jailers family, which sometimes happens as units.

[38:27] Because David shared the gospel with him. How can people confess Jesus as Lord when they don't know who he is?

[38:40] When they don't know what he has done for them? How can they confess Jesus as Lord? And how can they come to know this wonderful Savior unless someone tells them?

[38:50] If we are honest with ourselves, all of our lives are marked not only by our evangelistic triumphs, but also by our tragic failures.

[39:05] We've all been cowards, haven't we? We've all been silent when we should have stood up for Jesus and spoken up for him. Like the 12 apostles.

[39:20] In verse 21, Jesus said to Judas, the 12th disciple, truly I say to you, one of you will betray me. And then verse 34, Jesus says to Peter, the first disciple, truly I tell you, this very night before the rooster crows, you will deny me three times.

[39:33] From the first to the last, from the greatest to the least, they all fail Jesus. Like we have all failed Jesus. But perhaps even more shocking than Jesus' prediction of their betrayal and denial is his prediction in this passage that his 12 disciples, minus Judas, will one day feast with him in the kingdom of his father, in the kingdom of God, in verse 29.

[40:00] Isn't that surprising? They all deserted him at the moment of his greatest need.

[40:13] How do you treat people who treat you that way? Betray you like that. Do you invite them into your inner circle again? Do you confide in them? Do you trust them? Do you celebrate them?

[40:23] Do you lavish them with gifts? Jesus promises them in this very passage where he says, you will betray me. You will deny me. You will fall away from me.

[40:35] You will leave me. I will drink and feast with you in the kingdom of God. How can you say that? This is Jesus' last supper before he goes to the cross to die.

[40:53] Moreover, it's a Passover meal which in Exodus 12, verse 3, it stipulated that you should celebrate this within your own household. It's a family affair.

[41:04] And yet, Jesus does not go back to Mary and his siblings. No, he chooses to eat the Passover with his disciples.

[41:18] And in a parallel passage in Luke 22, 15, he tells them, I have earnestly desire to eat this Passover with you before I suffer. Jesus is forming a new family, a new spiritual family, consistent with what he said earlier in Matthew 12, 59 to 60, when he gestured toward his disciples and said, here are my mother and my brothers.

[41:41] For whoever does the will of my father in heaven is my brother and my sister and my mother. And in this new spiritual family, inclusion is determined not by the blood of shared ancestors, but by the blood of Jesus Christ.

[41:58] Giving them a cup of wine, Jesus says, drink of it, all of you, for this is my blood of the covenant which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins.

[42:12] Jesus has predicted his suffering and death three times so far already in the Gospel of Matthew, but he never told us why he would suffer and die. He told us he would, but never told us why.

[42:24] This is the clearest explanation and the most direct explanation of the significance and the purpose of his death and it is this, forgiveness of sins for many.

[42:42] The phrase blood of the covenant comes from Exodus 24, 7 to 8 when the blood of sacrificial animals was sprinkled upon the people of God to consecrate them, set them apart for God.

[42:53] Now Jesus forms a new covenant community a new kingdom of his people and he sprinkles them not with the blood of oxen, with his own blood to make us clean.

[43:10] He takes this 1,500 year old tradition of the Passover and superimposes his own significance, his own person and identity upon it.

[43:22] He transforms it forever. This is why the lamb, which was the centerpiece of the Passover meal, is conspicuously missing from the dialogue in this passage.

[43:36] Because the real lamb, the ultimate lamb, the spiritual main course is not missing, it's Jesus. Jesus is a Passover lamb that will be slaughtered once and for all.

[43:50] that same very day. This therefore marks the last Passover, last biblically sanctioned Passover.

[44:02] Because after Jesus' death and resurrection, God's people celebrate the new Passover of the Lamb of God. This last supper was a Passover meal, but the Lord's Supper that Jesus is instituting in this passage is not meant to be celebrated once a year, only during the Passover.

[44:17] No, it's meant to be celebrated as often as we gather together. That's what Paul says in 1 Corinthians 11, 26. For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord's death until he comes.

[44:30] That's why he chooses the bread, which is a staple to institute the Lord's Supper. He says of the bread, this is my body.

[44:43] This doesn't necessarily mean that the bread is the literal, physical body of Christ any more than Jesus saying in John 10, verse 9, I am the door means that Jesus is a literal, physical door.

[45:01] Jesus is the bread that is broken. Its fibers ripped apart as we chomp and munch on it and eat it to derive nourishment from it.

[45:12] The bread, in a sense, dies so that we might live. Likewise, the fruit of the vine, the grape juice or wine, they're picked off the vine and then they're thrown into shallow vats where people literally walk on it and stomp upon it so that the juice pours out from it and then to get the squeeze, the rest of the juice out, they press it with heavy beams and stones.

[45:41] That's what Jesus has done for us on the cross. Pressed, squeezed, poured out every last drop.

[45:56] poured out, not dripped down. Poured out for many, for the forgiveness of sins.

[46:13] There's an echo here of Isaiah 53, 12, that he bore the sin of many. He was pierced for our transgressions. He was crushed for our iniquities. Upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace and with his wounds we are healed.

[46:28] And this is why Jesus can invite disciples who desert him and deny him into the kingdom of God. This is why sinners like you and me can join him at his family table.

[46:42] They mocked him during his life. Why does your master, why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners?

[47:05] Maybe you are very aware of your sins today, some of you. you feel so unworthy. How can I, who failed him yet again, how can I, who have sinned and besmirched his name yet again, how can I, how can I dare sin, demand or expect a seat at the table of the Lord?

[47:35] God, everywhere else in the world you need to pay something. You gotta attain a high enough GPA to enter the honor societies.

[47:50] You need to pay your dues to join your clubs. You need to, you need to find something. You need to do something. You need to meet some criteria. You need to, you need to, the family table of the Lord Jesus, your only qualification is the blood of Jesus Christ poured out for the forgiveness of sins.

[48:16] So cling to that today. Renew your resolve. Cling to that and that alone for your assurance today.

[48:28] Let's pray. Father, thank you for the blood.

[48:49] Thank you for the blood. Oh, there is a fountain filled with blood. Lord, we sinners plunge ourselves in it and find ourselves cleansed of all our sins.

[49:06]  We praise you, Lord. We thank you, Lord. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.