SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 1/18/2013
9:06 AM
My Worship Time Focus: In the Upper Room—Betrayed
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: Mark
14:12-26
Message of the
verses: 12 ¶ On the first day of Unleavened Bread, when
the Passover lamb was being sacrificed, His disciples *said to Him, "Where
do You want us to go and prepare for You to eat the Passover?" 13 And He *sent two of His disciples and *said
to them, "Go into the city, and a man will meet you carrying a pitcher of
water; follow him; 14 and wherever he
enters, say to the owner of the house, ’The Teacher says, "Where is My
guest room in which I may eat the Passover with My disciples?"’ 15 "And he himself will show you a large
upper room furnished and ready; prepare for us there." 16 The disciples went out and came to the city,
and found it just as He had told them; and they prepared the Passover. 17 When it was evening He *came with the twelve.
18 As they were reclining at the table
and eating, Jesus said, "Truly I say to you that one of you will betray
Me-one who is eating with Me." 19
They began to be grieved and to say to Him one by one, "Surely not
I?" 20 And He said to them,
"It is one of the twelve, one who dips with Me in the bowl. 21 "For the Son of Man is to go just as it
is written of Him; but woe to that man by whom the Son of Man is betrayed! It
would have been good for that man if he had not been born." 22 While they were eating, He took some bread,
and after a blessing He broke it, and gave it to them, and said, "Take it;
this is My body." 23 And when He
had taken a cup and given thanks, He gave it to them, and they all drank from
it. 24 And He said to them, "This
is My blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many. 25 "Truly I say to you, I will never again
drink of the fruit of the vine until that day when I drink it new in the
kingdom of God." 26 After singing a
hymn, they went out to the Mount of Olives.”
In yesterday’s SD we saw that the event described there
was six days earlier than these events, and at the end of that event we saw
that Judas went to the officials of Israel to offer to betray Jesus to
them. Now we move forward to the event
described in verses 12-26 and this has been somewhat confusing to me as far as
the timing of all of this for I knew that Jesus had to die at 3:00 PM on
Friday, which is the time when the Passover lambs would be slain, but as you
read over these events you see that Jesus is celebrating the Passover with His
disciples, something that the Law required for all who were Israelites. The question is how can Jesus be celebrating
the Passover with His disciples and also dying when the Passover lamb was slain
less than 24 hours from this event? The
answer to this question was made clear to me when I listened to a sermon by
John MacArthur from these verses. The
answer, according to MacArthur is that the Jews celebrated two Passovers. Let me explain: The Galileans celebrated the Passover on
Thursday and those from Judah celebrated the Passover on Friday, so in this way
Jesus could celebrate the Passover with His disciples on Thursday and die on
Friday for our sins at the same time the Passover lambs were slain on Friday.
Okay since that mystery is solved let us move on to
another one and this one is not as difficult as the first one. Jesus was celebrating the Passover, which
would be the last Passover in the eyes of God for all Israel, for it was during
this celebration of the Passover meal that Jesus would institute the Lord’s
Table, or Communion. When one looks at
the celebration of the Passover they can see some things that are similar with
that of the Communion service, but the Communion service is new for with it we
have what is called The New Covenant.
This New Covenant was paid for by the blood of Jesus Christ as He
suffered and died on the cross where before going there He was beaten so severely
that the Prophet Isaiah writes that He would hardly resemble a man. When we observe the Communion or the Lord’s
Table we are to eat unleavened bread in remembrance of His broken body, and
drink from the fruit of the vine, which represents the blood that was poured
out for our sins by our Lord on the cross.
We do this to remember what Jesus did for us on the cross, let’s we
forget.
It was Peter and John who would locate a man carrying a
water pitcher, and that would not be too hard for this was mostly a woman’s job
to carry water and so to find a man carrying a water pitcher would be rather
easy. According to Luke 22:8 Peter and
John would be the ones preparing the Passover meal, and even though their names
are not mentioned here we know it was them.
Jesus seems to secretly tell Peter and John and not the others where it
will take place and this was probably so Judas would not find out about it too
soon. We mentioned in yesterday’s SD
that all of these things that were going to happen to Jesus were in the hands
and plans of God. The leaders of the
Jews did not want Jesus to die during the feast, but that was the plan of God
and nothing would stop His plan for this would be the fulfillment of many OT
prophecies and when one thinks about the cross we can see that this is God’s
Holy of Holies.
It is possible that this Passover celebration was held in
the house of John Mark. This cannot be
proved but we do know that his house was the center for Christian fellowship in
Jerusalem as seen in Acts 12:12. The
Passover meal and celebration was a time to look back at what the Lord had done
for Israel when they were slaves in Egypt.
The first Passover was celebrated in Egypt and the blood of the lambs
that were slain was put on the doorposts of the houses of the children of
Israel so that the death angel would Passover their homes. Again there was blood involved just as there
was blood involved in the New Covenant.
The announcement that Jesus gave that one of His
disciples would betray Him was very difficult for all of His disciples and they
had no idea who it would be even after Jesus told Judas to go and do what he
had to do. Judas would be sitting next
to Jesus in the place where an honored guest would sit and Jesus would dip the
bread into some kind of sauce and give it to him as a sign of who was going to
betray him. Jesus says of him that it
would have been better if he had not been born.
Judas was a man all about money and believed that the kingdom that Jesus
was about to begin would not include the cross.
Judas was so disappointed finding this out that he betrayed Jesus into
the hands of those who would put Him on trial and eventually on the cross. Judas walked with Jesus for three years. Imagine walking with the very One who created
the earth, who spoke and the worlds came into existence and then betray the
very Son of God.
We see from other Gospels that Satan would enter Judas
when he left, and when he left it was dark.
Did Satan really want Jesus to die on the cross? I don’t think he did for he knew the prophecy
that is written in Genesis 3:15. Why did
he do it then? Why did he possess Judas?
Perhaps like the leaders of the Jews Satan did not believe that the
crowds would allow Jesus to be crucified, but the crowds were fickle and
besides it was night and not many would be around, and the main reason that
Jesus would be crucified was it was in the very plan of God.
We mentioned the institution of the Lord’s Table or
Communion, and this would have happened after Judas left. This was a very long night, and would get
longer. At the beginning Jesus would
wash the feet of the disciples, and then the Passover meal where Judas would
leave and the celebration of the New Covenant would be instituted. After this was over they all would leave and
the teaching that Jesus did that is seen in John’s Gospel chapters 13-16 would
happen, and somewhere in there the High Priestly prayer would happen as Jesus
talked to His Father. The struggle in
the garden of Gethsemane would also occur, for these were two different prayers
that Jesus would pray than night.
At this point I want to quote a paragraph from Dr.
Wiersbe’s commentary: “What, then, did
Jesus accomplish by His death? On the
cross, Jesus fulfilled the Old Covenant and established a New Covenant (Heb.
9-10). The Old Covenant was ratified
with the blood of animal sacrifices, but the New Covenant was ratified by the
blood of God’s Son. The New Covenant in
His blood would do what the Old Covenant sacrifices could not doo—take away sin
and cleanse the heart and conscience of the believer. We are not saved from our sins by
participating in a religious ceremony, but by trusting Jesus Christ as our
Savior.”
He goes on to write “Our Lord’s command was, ‘This do in
remembrance of Me’ (1Cor. 11:24-25). The
word translated ‘remembrance’ means much more than ‘in memory of,’ for you can
do something in memory of a dead person—yet Jesus is alive! The word carries the idea of a present
participation in a past event. Because
Jesus is alive, as we celebrate the Lord’s Supper, by faith we have communion
with Him (1Cor. 10:16-17). This is not
some ‘magical’ experience produced by the bread and cup. It is a spiritual
experience that comes through our discerning of Christ and the meaning of the
Supper (1Cor. 11:27-34).
“The last thing Jesus and His disciples did in the Upper
Room was to sing the traditional Passover hymn based on Psalms 115-118. Imagine our Lord siging when the cross was only a few hours away!”
Spiritual meaning
for my life today: The last week of
Jesus’ life on earth has so much meaning for me, it has so much sadness for me,
and yet so much hope for me too. It was
the worst thing that ever happened on the face of the earth, and yet the best
thing that ever happened on the face of this earth. Hard to understand it but it is true. This is a very rich section of Scripture for
in it we see the institution of the Lord’s Supper, something all believers must
take very seriously when partaking of.
My Steps of Faith for Today: The next time that I participate in the Lord’s
Supper may it have a deeper meaning to me.
I desire to continue to learn contentment. I desire to continue to learn how to be
transformed in my mind by the Word of God in order to be more like Jesus
Christ, my Savior and Lord.
Memory verses for the
week: Psalm 121:1-6
1 I will life up my eyes to the mountains; from where
shall my help come? 2 My help comes from
the Lord, who made heaven and earth. 3
He will not allow your foot to slip; He who keeps you will not slumber. 4 Behold, He who keeps Israel will not
slumber nor sleep.
5 The LORD is your keeper; the LORD is your shad on your
right hand. 6 The sun will not smite you
by day nor the moon by night.
Turning Points Wisdom for
Today: “Nothing sets a person so much
out of the Devil’s reach as humility.”
(Jonathan Edwards) “Be clothed
with humility, for ‘God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble.’ Therefore humble yourselves under the mighty
hand of God, that he may exalt you in due time.” (1Peter 5:5b-6)
1/18/2013 10:22 AM
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