The Lord's Last Supper

Songs in our song service:

1. I Will Sing by Albrecht
2. Sing to the King by Foote
3. Our God is Lifted Up by Smith
4. Thank You Lord by Moen
5. Let the Worshippers Arise by Farren
6. My Country Tis of Thee by Smith
7. Let There Be Glory & Honor & Praises by Greenelsh

Mark 14:22-26.  This sermon was preached by Pastor Marty Bonner on November 22, 2020.

Today, we join Jesus and his disciples on the evening of his betrayal, arrest, and crucifixion.  Jesus knows that this will be their last meal together, and uses it to be a special time of communion before he becomes the Passover Lamb for the whole world.

Let’s look at it together.

Jesus is the Bread of Life

The context of this passage makes it fairly clear that this is a Passover meal.  The Passover meal in the Exodus emphasizes the lamb, but there were other kinds of food that would be present.  One of these is bread.  In John 16:33, Jesus says, “the Bread of God is He who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.”  Then, in verse 48 of that same chapter, he says, “I am the Bread of Life.”

Bread has great significance within the Bible because it represents sustenance, that which keeps a person alive.  When you are hungry and starving, natural bread is extremely important because it can save your natural life.  Israel faced just such a situation when they went into the desert following Moses, who was following God’s instructions.  They quickly ate the bread that they had brought with them into the desert.  God supernaturally provided bread that would sustain them in the natural.  However, the Bible makes it abundantly clear that they had a need that was greater than natural sustenance.  They needed something that could give them spiritual life and sustain their faith during the wilderness march and beyond.

Jesus tells his disciples that the bread in the meal that they were eating represented his body.  Not just the body, but also what he was doing and going to do with it in the near future.  Jesus would use his body to produce eternal life for those who put their faith in him.

This is important because the items of the Passover meal would be explained in relation to the Passover and the Exodus from Egypt.  However, Jesus is giving a new, or contemporary, explanation.  We might better call it a parallel, yet higher, explanation.  His explanation gives the old explanation a greater meaning because of its connection to the greater Passover, and the greater Exodus.  Jesus is the Passover Lamb that had to be slain in order to be protected from the Death Angel.  Jesus is also the unleavened bread that they carried with them and lived upon in the desert.  In the Exodus, the bread was unleavened because there was no time to put yeast in it and let it rise.  However, calling Jesus unleavened bread is a reference to the lack of sin.  Just as yeast puffs up, so sin puffs up a man to make him what he is not meant to be.  This is fine when eating food, but not when living life.  Jesus is without sin and we are to feed upon him.  Yet, we also purge all yeast or sin from our lives as we follow him.  The temptation for believers is to feed upon the leavened bread of this world that is full of sin and feels like it gives life, but in the end, it delivers death.

The bread that Israel ate in Egypt is referred to as the bread of affliction.  This phrase is used throughout the Old Testament.  The bread in the Passover meal is a reminder of the bread of affliction they ate as slaves in Egypt.  In Christ, the same bread that the world despises becomes the bread of life.  On the same night that they were delivered, the bread they would eat on the road would represent the life that they were walking towards.  Isaiah says in chapter 63 verse 9, “In all their afflictions He was afflicted, and the Angel of His Presence saved them; in His love and in His pity, He redeemed them; and He bore them and carried them all the days of old.”  Wow, what an explanation of what God was doing when He brought Israel out of Egypt.

In Jesus, God takes on a body not just to join us in our affliction, but that we may feed upon His affliction.  My affliction by itself cannot produce life, but His can.  Even greater, when I have Jesus as my Savior, my affliction now has meaning and purpose because He gives me eternal life, and I am joining, identifying, with him in his affliction, just as he did ours.  This communion of suffering becomes Life because the Lord of Life has joined us in it and leads us through it.

Notice that Jesus offers the bread to them.  They had to take what the Lord was offering them.  Though it was natural bread, he is telling them that they are taking hold of something that represents him.  Now, Jesus is an interesting character.  There are things about him that even the world admires and gives up lip service.  However, they want to pick and choose what part of Jesus to consume.  This will not work.  You must take Jesus as he presents himself completely, not partially.  Yes, he is the bread of affliction in one sense, but that affliction will be filled with life because of him.  No matter what I may have to face in the future, though the way be blessed with freedom, or it becomes a valley of the shadow of death, I must take what the Lord is offering me.

More importantly, we must eat it.  Jesus tells them to take the bread and then consume it.  Feeding upon the body and work of Jesus is a spiritual thing in which we draw sustenance in our faith journey from the past, present, and future work of our Lord.  He has joined us in our affliction; he has won us the victory with His affliction, and now we have eternal life with him, a portion in the eternal kingdom that will one day be realized upon this earth, and beyond.

The elite of this world are talking about taking advantage of Covid-19 in order to create a Great Reset of how the world is ran.  However, they willfully ignore that God has declared a Great Reversal of His own.  The kingdoms of this world will soon be taken from the great ones of this world, and will be given to Jesus and those who have fed upon him.  This becomes our bread in this dark world.  It is a bread that produces light within us to shine out into that darkness.  We also feed upon the words of wisdom and life that are written down for us that they may shine light upon our path through this world.

His blood cut a new covenant with God the Father

Jesus also took the cup of wine and gave a different meaning to it.  Like Moses led Israel into the desert and cut a covenant with God at Mt. Sinai, so too, Jesus came into our desert of a world and cut a new covenant with God at the hill called Golgotha.  This is the new covenant that God promised Israel, especially through the prophet Jeremiah (31:31).

Just as with the bread, they all drank from the cup that Jesus gave to them.  This too is a phrase that is loaded with meaning in the Bible.  Jesus referred to the events of his beatings, humiliation, and crucifixion as a cup of suffering.  Drinking from his cup would allow them to show that they would participate in the new covenant, but also in the suffering that lay ahead.  In Exodus, the blood of the lamb had to be wiped on the doorposts of their house, signifying a household that had faithfully performed the command of the Lord.  Similarly, we must apply the blood of Jesus to our own hearts.  We are those who have heard the Father’s command to receive his son as our savior and lord.  We not only see his death as paying the price for our sins, and bringing us into the family of God, but we also see it as an invitation to join him in his suffering.  We join him in the things that we are to face ahead, though that be times of ease or times of difficulty.  I do not believe that there are many times of ease left in this old world.

There is an interesting contrast in this.  The disciples of Jesus drink of the cup of his blood representing his affliction and his agony, yet also his victory.  However, in Revelation 17, Babylon the Great, the Mother of Prostitutes holds a cup as well.

1  “Come, I will show you the judgment of the great harlot who sits on many waters, 2 with whom the kings of the earth committed fornication, and the inhabitants of the earth were made drunk with the wine of her fornication… 6 I saw the woman, drunk with the blood of the saints and with the blood of the martyrs of Jesus. And when I saw her, I marveled with great amazement.”

This is a spiritual prostitute that has led the world into a spiritual adultery against the Lord of heaven.  Notice that her cup also has blood in it, but it is not her blood.  It is the blood of the saints.  Yes, the kings of the earth are drunk on this cup of the blood of the saints, but so are the inhabitants of the earth.  We are headed into a time when the world as a whole, not just pockets here and there, will require mankind to enter into a “new global covenant,” but not God’s new covenant.  This is a covenant with death and will feed upon the persecution and death of the true saints of God.  This cup is already here in some regards.  The world is beginning to get drunk on the idea of removing the restraining influence of God’s people, who trust in His word over the top of the word of men.  What cup are you drinking from?

Jesus then states that he will not drink of this again until he does so with his followers in the Kingdom of God.  This is often called the Last Supper, but we should recognize that it is only his last supper in a mortal body.  At his resurrection, Jesus took on an immortal body.  In such, he will one day gather his people together for another great supper spoken of by the Apostle John in Revelation 19.  It is the Marriage Supper of the Lamb of God.  The picture is of Jesus fasting until he can drink and eat with us on that day.  Many believe that this marriage supper will take place in heaven before the return of Christ because it is mentioned immediately preceding the Second Coming.  Regardless of how and where it exactly takes place, what a day that will be!  The cup of suffering will have been drained to the dregs, and the world will enter into a time of righteousness and peace of which it has never known.  Amen.  Even so, come quickly, Lord Jesus.

We rejoice in the salvation of our Lord

Of course, there is irony in the fact that they sung a hymn before they left to the Mt. of Olives, in particular the Garden of Gethsemane.  In Washington State, we are currently in a 4-week decree of Gov. Jay Inslee that Christians in Church must not sing during worship in song.  The singing of the saints has always bothered Satan, not to infer that the governor is Satan.  He is following the spirit of this world, that spirit that hates believers.  Like the Grinch hearing the singing of the Who village, so the faith of God’s people in the face of his undeniable logic is maddening to the devil.  That said, many times Christians have found themselves in tight spots with the world clamping down on its freedoms.  Yet, no government can control your heart and your mind unless you let them. 

In Ephesians, the Apostle Paul told them,

“17 Therefore do not be unwise, but understand what the will of the Lord is. 18 And do not be drunk with wine, in which is dissipation; but be filled with the Spirit, 19 speaking to one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord, 20 giving thanks always for all things to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, 21 submitting to one another in the fear of God.”

Today, we speak to one another in psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs, but I pray that as you go home, the Lord will put a song in your heart, a song of joy, a song of deliverance.

May our songs spiritually prepare us for the challenges ahead.  These are not about great musicians and performers.  Rather, they are about the cry of the heart in the midst of the furnace, “Make me like Jesus!  Make me like you, Lord!”

Last Supper audio

Instructions on the Battlefield II

1 Thessalonians 5:16-22; 1 Corinthians 3:8-10; Jude 1:3. This sermon was preached by Pastor Marty Bonner on November 15. 2020.

Last week, we looked at how the real battle for believers today is a spiritual one, and how we must make sure that our character is shaped by Jesus, rather than the culture.

Today, we will look at the issue of prophecy.

What about those prophetic voices in Christianity?

There are some Christians and Christian groups that do not want anything to do with the idea of prophecy about the future, whether in the Bible or via a modern prophet.  Our church has always believed that God is not revealing new Scripture, but that He does gift some people to serve as prophets in His Church.  Let’s take a moment to remind ourselves some of what Scripture says on this matter.

In 1 Thessalonians 5:16-22, it is clear that the apostle does not advocate despising, or looking down on, prophecy.  He equates this to quenching the Holy Spirit, or putting out the Spirit’s fire.  Instead, believers are called upon to test everything and only hold on to that which is good.  To those voices that reject the reality of prophets and prophecy today, I would ask you to consider how you treat prophecy far different than the things that Paul mentioned before it.  He tells us to rejoice always, pray without ceasing, and to give thanks in everything.  No Church that I am aware of says that those things ended with the apostles of Jesus and the arrival of the completed written word of God.  No, rejoicing, praying, and giving thanks continue on in the Church Age.  Why is prophecy pulled out of this list?  Doesn’t it seem strange that the Apostle Paul would give strong instruction on how to deal with prophets and prophecy, if he knew that God would no longer use them after the first century?  Let’s look at another passage on this.

1 Corinthians chapters 12 through 14 are within a larger section in which Paul deals with problems in the worship assemblies of the church in Corinth.  Chapter 12 and 14 talk about the spiritual gifts that the Holy Spirit has given them and the proper use of those gifts.  Chapter 13 is given as a parenthetical instruction within this area of spiritual gifts.  Paul’s point is that all spiritual gifts must be operated out of love and the goal to build up God’s people.

Near the end of chapter 13, we have one of the foundational passages used by those who believe that true prophets and true prophecy ended with the death of the first century Apostles.  This passage speaks of love never failing (this is better understood as “coming to an end”).  The point is that when Christ comes back and we enter into the next age, love will still be practiced by God’s people.  However, things like prophecy and knowledge (i.e. receiving it) will come to an end because the perfect will have come.  “That which is perfect” is usually connected to the writing down of the First Century Apostolic witness in the Bible.  They believe Paul to be saying that prophecy will cease when the Bible is completed.  This cannot be what the Apostle was teaching.

Paul never gives the idea throughout chapters 12 to 14 that these instructions are only needed while he and the apostles are alive, and then will become irrelevant.  Rather, he tells the Ephesian elders in Acts 20:29,

“For I know this, that after my departure savage wolves will come in among you, not sparing the flock.” 

When the apostles were gone, it was going to be even more perilous and believers would definitely need the writings of the Apostles.  However, some of that writing is about spiritual gifts.    To believe that 1 Corinthians 12 and 14, and other such passages on spiritual gifts, were only relevant for 20 to 50 years of the Church seems to be special pleading.

Paul points out that we have prophecy because we are in a condition of having a partial knowledge of God’s mind.  The perfect has to be pointing forward to that time when not only Christ has returned, but we have entered into the New Heavens and the New Earth, where there will be no unrighteousness, and where God will dwell directly with us.  That seems to be a better “perfect.”  That perfected environment and perfected relationship with God will preclude the need of prophets and prophesy, like we have in this age. 

Finally, I would state that the Olivet Prophecy (that Jesus gave in Mark 13, Matthew 24, and Luke 21) warns of false prophets in the Church Age, both at the beginning and at the end in the Great Tribulation.  The presence of the false implies the presence of the true.  In fact, Revelation 11 has two witnesses who are clearly two prophets of God. 

Thus, Christians should recognize that prophecy did not cease with the Apostles of Jesus, and believers are called to the spiritual maturity of testing anyone who claims to have a word from the Lord.

This does not mean that such prophets can add new doctrine to the Gospel.  How can I limit it in this way?  Well, I can’t, but God’s Word itself states in Jude 1:3 (Yes, I know that there is only one chapter) “Beloved, while I was very diligent to write to you concerning our common salvation, I found it necessary to write to you exhorting you to contend earnestly for the faith which was once for all delivered to the saints.”

Jesus had revealed the faith, or teaching we are to believe, to his apostles.  It was their job to establish this teaching in the Church.  They did this by establishing Churches, teaching them the Gospel, defending against false teachers, false prophets, and heretics, and writing all of this down so that we can have an accurate account of their teaching.  This Gospel content is God’s “once for all” instruction to His Church.  Yes, we could want more, but we are told that this is enough, and that we must contend for it.  This does not cancel out prophets and prophecy.  Rather, it becomes the rule or means by which we can judge whether a prophecy contradicts Scripture, or not.  The Gospel becomes the grounds upon which we wrestle internally to take in God’s Word and trust it, and we wrestle externally with those who would pervert and twist its meaning, or add to it.

Not all are prophets who claim to be.  We are to use God’s Word to judge them as well as the character of their life and the success of the prophecy.

There are voices on both sides of this election

That brings us back to the question, “What about those prophetic voices on TV and on the internet, who are talking about the 2020 USA Presidential election?

There are some prophets who are saying that President Trump was God’s judgment on America and now that we are making the right choice of Vice President Joe Biden, we can move forward in healing.  Other voices are saying that President Trump is God’s help to America in order to get us back on the path of freedom.  Obviously, one of these sides is clearly wrong by the rules of logic.  God either wanted Christians to vote for Trump or not, and the same is true for Biden.

This kind of confusion should be expected.  Throughout the Bible, we are warned against false prophets.  In fact, there are far more false prophets in the Bible than true prophets.   I actually believe that both sides have false prophets.  A prophet is not a prophet because they say that something will happen, and it does.  They are a godly prophet because they have actually stood in the presence of God and received a message from Him for His Church.

Let me just warn us all against surfing the internet looking for the latest prophecy about this election and the future.  Some are doing this because they are afraid and have no relationship with the Lord themselves.  If God thinks that you need a prophet then He will send one to you, but be careful of going out to look for a prophet, or prophets.  That is not something that we are ever told to do in the Bible, and it will most likely get you into trouble.  However, over time, prophetic voices have risen up with a platform that became noticed by the Church at large.  To me, David Wilkerson is an example of a guy who was used to speak prophetically to the American Church beyond the church that he pastored.

These are chaotic times, and in chaotic times, you have to turn off the sea of voices and lean into Jesus through prayer and God’s Word.  We are not simply seeing a political divide, but there is also a huge division within the Church, and maybe even a division inside of you.  Too many voices in our heads are not good.  We have to learn to tune out the talking heads in the news media, the talking heads in the blogosphere, whether they are secular or Christian.  This is a time to go back into your prayer closet and seek Jesus.  This is a time to seek His wisdom.

It is not enough to come to church and have a pastor dish up a plate of God’s Word for you.  You have to want to know God and His wisdom enough that you are prayerfully reading through what His word says to you.

Scripture tells us that the end times will be perilous times, and we can see that happening today.  2 Timothy 3:1-5 tells us,

“1 But know this, that in the last days perilous times will come: 2 For men will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, 3 unloving, unforgiving, slanderers, without self-control, brutal, despisers of good, 4 traitors, headstrong, haughty, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, 5 having a form of godliness but denying its power. And from such people turn away!”

Does this not describe many on either side of this political divide?  This is a time that calls for those who will rise up and fight the battles of the Lord in the midst of great deception.  It is the Spirit of God who blows the trumpet across our land, even this world, in order to follow Jesus, not a man or a political party.  What will we do?

Battlefield II Audio

Instructions on the Battlefield

Various Passages.  This sermon was preached by Pastor Marty Bonner on November 08, 2020.

Today, I want to pause and speak to Christians within these United States of America.  There is a battle for the soul of the world that is happening, and the current election is just a skirmish in this overall battle.

Let’s start by looking at a passage in 1 Samuel chapter 8, particularly from verse 4 and following.

The greater battle is in the spiritual realm

We are at the end of a long line of human history.  While there are important things that have happened in the natural realm, we must never lose sight of the more important battles that have happened in the spiritual realm.

The battle in the natural realm has an individual aspect to it and a group or corporate aspect.  The issue has always been between tyranny and freedom.  Adam and Eve were free from tyranny in the garden, but they listened to the devil.  At that point, the world descended into a chaotic mix of sin and violence.

The individual loss in battle spreads out to the group losing the spiritual battle.

So then, God judged the ancient world and started over with Noah; “Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the whole earth.”  However, Satan found another individual named Nimrod to resist the plan of God and mislead the multitudes of humanity.  They refused to fill the earth in order to make a great name for themselves.

The prophets Daniel and the Apostle John showed us that history is basically a story of Satan’s attempts to raise up a leader that dominates mankind and harnesses it to do his will, in the name of greatness of course.  Each time he is at the brink of succeeding in his plan, God casts his beastly empire into the dustbin of history.  At Babel, God confused the language of mankind and forced us to spread into nations.  Our individual nations, language, and culture thereby becoming a barrier, more so a protection, against this global, tyrannical plan of Satan.

1 Samuel 8 shows us that Israel was being seduced to follow the same path as the nations around them.  They wanted a king who could help them be great and defend them.  Up until that point, God had been their king.  So, God tells Samuel in verse 7, “they have not rejected you, but they have rejected Me, that I should not reign over them.  When God rules over us, we are free because He is not a tyrant.  However, Satan promises freedom, but delivers a boot to the face every time.

There is always a seduction of tyranny before there is the brute force of tyranny.  Just think of what we could do if everybody did what we wanted?  Our founding fathers understood this tyrannical impulse within mankind.  It is not only that we want our will to dominate, but that we are fascinated with tyrannical men who make us feel potent by joining their side.  If we can’t be the star of the team then at least we can have the pride of being a part of the team. 

Even today, we are like Esau, willing to sell our birthright for a pot of beans.  We tell ourselves that we are dying and must sell it in order to have food, but we are not dying anymore than Esau was dying.  This is called freedom, and freedom is tough.  Freedom takes guts.  Freedom requires you to face the consequences of your decisions and find a way through them.

America cannot save the world, and no leader can save America.  However, if we toe the line in this battle, we can hold tyranny back a little longer from plunging the whole world into the final, global beast-kingdom.

In any battle, there is a side that you cannot see, the spiritual side.  We must learn to use prayer and God’s Word in order to draw life from Jesus, and thereby, the strength to battle the spiritual powers running roughshod over our world.  Parents do their best to teach their kids and train them in the natural, but the greater battle is the spiritual battle for their hearts and minds.  Our nation is not polarized between two human individuals.  We are polarized between two very different world views.  One looks to government control to save mankind, and the other looks to self-control to save self and as many others around us that we can influence.  Even then, self-control without Jesus is not enough.  It too falls short, and yet is better than tyrannical government.

When a child is grown up, a parent has very little to do in the natural realm, and so is left with mainly praying for them and continuing to be a good example.  The ballots of the 2020 presidential election have been cast.  It is no longer in our hands in the natural.  Over the next 2 months, it will be in the hands of investigators, lawyers, judges, legislatures, etc.  As Christians, we must never lose sight that the battle does not belong to whomever is the strongest in the natural.  It belongs to the Lord.  This election will go one way or the other at the command of King Jesus, not human beings.  We do not deserve mercy as a nation, but we serve a God who is full of mercy and grace.  We can pray for His mercy and not give up.

This reminds me of King David when he was praying for the life of Bathsheba’s baby.  God had decreed that the baby would die because it represented the fruit of David’s willful sin.  However, David knew that God was merciful.  As long as the baby was alive, there was hope that God would relent and heal the baby.  So, we also should pray and fast as David did.  We must fight the spiritual battle by appealing to the Lord Jesus for mercy.  The Lord’s answer will eventually become clear, and then we should wash our face and get back to the work that He has given us to do.  It is never easy bearing the consequences of our sin, whether as an individual or as a group, but, if we will do it out of faith in Jesus, we will find life on the other side.

Because Israel chose to be like all the other nations and have a man of the flesh that they could follow, they later found themselves facing the Philistine army with a Giant of a man called Goliath.  This part of the story is found in 1 Samuel 17.  The great Saul, who was head and shoulder above all other Israelites and very handsome- the kind of leader that lesser men love to attach themselves to- was suddenly faced with an even bigger man.  Now, they were all hiding in their tents, “dismayed and greatly afraid.”

This is exactly what Satan wants for God’s people.  He wants you afraid and staying safe at home while his forces take over your life, your family, your nation, and even our world.  There is a Goliath spirit loose in our land today.  The time of seduction is over and the time for brute force is here.  This spirit shouts out threats to God’s people and seeks to intimidate us.  It wants us to keep our heads down, and l et the forces of Satan take over this land.

Just as it was a critical moment in the history of Israel, so this is a critical moment in America.  The die has been cast.  There may come more opportunities in the natural for us to do something, but if you are hiding in fear, you will miss them through paralysis.  Until then, we need to go to war on our knees seeking God for wisdom and mercy.  Satan’s plan is that America reject freedom, embrace political tyranny, and, thereby, help the world raise up the final global empire.  If we will not do that then his plan is that we economically and politically implode, and become a symbol to the world of those who resist the “better path.”  We would then be the cautionary tale to any other nation that would dare oppose the global Goliath and its global empire under the United Nations or some similar entity.  You must answer this question for yourself, as a free child of God, and in response to the Holy Spirit, not because the religious leader tells you to do so.  At best, I can only be a fellow brother in the fight, saying “Don’t give up!  There is still hope in God!”

What Character do I display

Christians, we must always be aware that we represent Christ to the world around us.  Many people, who have already been captured in sin and plundered of freedom by the enemy, are looking around for hope.  We have a duty from God to walk in His freedom, not the false freedom of Satan.

There is no one character that falls short of Christ.  Worldly character can be many things from fearful hiding to angry rioting.  Israel was fearful and hiding before the Philistines.  There trust was in natural things, King Saul, and so they were made to fear by natural things, Goliath.  This is not the Spirit of Christ.  He was not fearful and hiding.  Neither was he angry and rioting.  Whose image am I displaying?

We are told by Jesus to be wise as serpents, but harmless as doves (Matthew 10:16).  Ultimately, we need to be like him.  To the worldly minded, the life of Jesus was full of hope.  He was a miracle worker and had an intellect that none could stand against.  Yet, to them, he wasted his life by getting himself killed.  Dying on a cross to save the world is not what most people want.  The way of Jesus calls us to repentance and spiritual maturity.  It calls us to responsibility.  It calls us to the freedom that belongs to the sons of God, not the infants of God.  If you are looking for someone to rise up and legislate all your problems away then you have already spiritually surrendered to the seduction of the enemy.

Just who is Jesus?  Let me just read the words of the Apostle Paul in Philippians 2:5-11.

5 Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus, 6 who, being in the form of God, did not consider it robbery to be equal with God, 7 but made Himself of no reputation, taking the form of a bondservant, and coming in the likeness of men. 8 And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself and became obedient to the point of death, even the death of the cross. 9 Therefore God also has highly exalted Him and given Him the name which is above every name, 10 that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of those in heaven, and of those on earth, and of those under the earth, 11 and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

Jesus was humble and lowly, yet also bold and courageous.  God is calling us to the bravery of serving people around us.  In order to do that, we are going to have to humble ourselves and die to things that we could have if we just kept silent and let them continue being lost.

Humble and lowly does not equal fearful and hiding in your tents.  Jesus was humble and lowly because he chose to be.  On the other hand, we are actually humble and lowly, even though we are full of ourselves, arrogant, and obnoxious.  There is a boldness and courage that can only be found in not pretending to be anything great, but simply being a person who has faith in Jesus, who knows that He is the King of kings and Lord of lords.  Because of this, we can rise up like David against a behemoth that no tour de force could defeat, except God Himself help us.  We overcome the world through our faith in Jesus, not through our natural abilities. 

Now, we know that not every story of faith ends with a dead giant, conquered enemy, or the shutting of the mouths of lions.  Sometimes our story goes the route of martyrdom.  However, at the Resurrection, Jesus shows us that even stories that seem to end at a cross are not over.  We can be bold and courageous because our victory is not just about getting what we want in the natural realm, but is about overcoming the spiritual seduction of tyranny.  It is about faithfulness to the God who created us and died for us on the cross.  We will be resurrected and reign with Him in the coming Kingdom of Heaven.  Which kingdom do you want to participate in: the kingdom of Satan or the Kingdom of Jesus?  Our choices and the character we display demonstrate which direction we are walking.

Next week we will talk about what those who claim to be prophets are saying about this time in the USA.

Battlefield audio

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