Introduction: Welcome to Expound our weekly worship and verse by verse study of the Bible. Our goal is to expand your knowledge of the truth of God as we explore the Word of God in a way that is interactive, enjoyable, and congregational.
Skip Heitzig: Would you turn in your Bibles, please, to the gospel of Mark the fourteenth chapter. There are seventy-two verses in this chapter. We are not covering this chapter; we are covering part of this chapter that serves the purpose for which we gather tonight---to remember the sacrifice of our Lord Jesus Christ. So we're going to look at a portion of it, perhaps---well, hopefully half of it, because that's really where the action of the Last Supper takes place. Mark, chapter 14; let's pray together.
Lord, really this is where the action is in any service, any church gathering. This is when your Holy Spirit takes your inerrant Word and makes application to those who have ears to hear. We want to be among those whose ears are open to what your Spirit is saying today, tonight, to us in this place, in Jesus' name, amen.
The name Graham Scroggie is not a familiar name to any of you, unless you read Bible commentaries. But that man once said concerning the cross of Jesus Christ, concerning the Bible that, "If you cut the Bible anywhere, it bleeds." What he meant by that statement is that the focal point of Scripture is what we celebrate tonight---the cross.
What he meant is that all Old Testament history, all pre-New Testament history looks forward to the cross; all post-New Testament history looks backward to the cross. Cut the Bible anywhere and it bleeds---in the Old Testament: predictions, types, shadows, anticipation, direct prophecy---the culmination being Calvary---and then everything else relating back to that.
Oswald Chambers---now that's a name some of you are familiar with if you read devotion literature. He also made an interesting statement. He said, "All heaven is interested in the cross, all of hell is terribly afraid of it, but only human beings," he said, "are the only ones who pretty much ignore its meaning."
Paul the apostle didn't ignore its meaning. Peter the apostle did not ignore its meaning. It was front and center. "I am determined," said Paul, "to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and him crucified," he wrote to the Corinthians. He said he glories in nothing "except the cross of Jesus Christ," he wrote to the Galatian church.
The way I see it, we---God's people, the Christian community, the church of Jesus Christ---we are a cross culture. The very center of our culture, the very focal point of our distinctive as the people of God is it's about the sacrifice on the cross. We are a "cross" culture. Even our rituals bear testimony of that.
When a person comes to Christ, we baptize them. Baptism speaks of the death of Christ. Romans tells us, "As many of you as were baptized, were baptized into his death." The Lord's Supper we look back to his death, his broken body, his shed blood. First Corinthians 11, "As often as you eat the bread and drink this," it says, you show the Lord's death, or "proclaim the Lord's death until he come." We are a cross culture.
We come in chapter 14 to the Festival of the Passover, the very last Passover that Jesus would share with his disciples. The Jews always look forward to this feast. And when they would gather together for this meal, there were participants. There was the host, typically the father of the family. There were children who would ask a question, a question with four answers. It was part of the meal, part of the Passover.
They would sit down; they would recline. And one child would say, "What makes this night different from all other nights?" And the father would give an answer to the child out loud in the hearing of all who were there in the home. He would say, "On all other nights we eat leavened bread, but on this night we eat only unleavened bread. On all other nights we eat all kinds of vegetables; on this night we only eat bitter herbs. On all other nights we don't even dip even once; on this night we dip twice. On all other nights we sit or recline, but on this night only do we completely recline." It was a leisurely meal.
We open up in chapter 14, verse 1, at the Passover season. "After two days it was a Passover and the Feast of Unleavened Bread. And the chief priests and the scribes sought how they might take him by trickery and put him to death. But they said, "Not during the feast, lest there with be an uproar among the people."
I want you just in your minds to get an idea of what it would have been like, at least in part, to be at Jerusalem 2,000 years ago. According to Flavius Josephus, one of the foremost Jewish historians of that era, he said on one particular Passover right around this time, on one particular Passover in the temple complex a total of 256,000 lambs were killed.
It was typically required that there would be one lamb per household, a minimum of ten people. So, you would have your family, and if you needed to, you would invite others so there would be at least ten people. So, if you think of 256,000 lambs with a minimum of ten people, there were at least two and a half million people that had swarmed to Jerusalem.
It was packed. Can you just picture it? It was crowded. It was hard to move around. If you were moving around the city, as pilgrims were coming from all over---and by the way, if you were an adult Jewish person living within fifteen miles of Jerusalem, it was required that you were at Passover.
But whether it was required or not, it was everybody's dream, no matter where they lived in the world, to at least celebrate Passover once in the Holy City. That's why at the end of every Seder meal, of every Passover meal, toward the end they say, "Next year in Jerusalem." It's always the hope that, "Perhaps, next year we'll be able to make the pilgrimage and celebrate Passover in Jerusalem."
But if you were walking around the streets, there would be storytelling going on about the Exodus in little groups. Songs that had been recently written, composed about the deliverance out of Egypt were sung in little pockets around the streets, and people were familiar with them. Games were played by the children about the Passover. Even riddles were posed where people would answer them. It was quite festive, and as I mentioned, it was quite crowded.
Now you'll notice it says, "It was Passover and the Feast of Unleavened Bread." Let me just explain to you that there was a week called "Passover week." Passover was only one day; it was the fourteenth day of the month Nisan. The very next day, the fifteenth day of Nisan that Jewish month, began a seven-day feast called the Feast of Unleavened Bread from the fifteenth to the twenty-first day of Nisan.
So, there was Passover immediately followed by the Feast of Unleavened Bread. It was typically lumped all together, even interchangeably so, where if you said "Passover," it would include Unleavened Bread; if you said it's the Feast of Unleavened Bread, it would also include the Passover. So, sometimes those terms are used interchangeably because it speaks of an entire week of festivities, the Passover week.
Verse 3, "And being in Bethany at the house of Simon the leper." Now, it doesn't say it, but you might want to put a little caret over or in between the word "the" and "leper," and put the word "ex," E-X, because he was Simon the ex-leper. He's at a meal in a house. Lepers weren't allowed to do that unless they didn't have leprosy anymore. They were exiled; they were out of town. This is one of the people that Jesus healed, he cured. This is Simon the ex-leper who was healed by Jesus.
"As he sat at the table, a woman came having an alabaster flask of very costly oil of spikenard. Then she broke the flask and poured it on his head." The gospel of John, the twelfth chapter, identifies who this woman was. Her name was Mary of Bethany, the sister of Martha, the sister of Lazarus. This was a meal in which Jesus was at with his disciples and Mary and Martha and Lazarus, so at least seventeen people were there that night sharing this meal.
Mary in her heart wanted to show Jesus love, and she had something very, very expensive, something worth more than $10,000. An alabaster flask---alabaster is a soft form of marble. A flask in those days was a long-necked bottle. So, it had been hand carved. That isn't what made it so expensive; it was the contents. This oil of spikenard in those days came only from India. And spikenard is a plant that has a root between three inches and twelve inches long.
And a little plant grows up, but the fruit of it has these little, spiky fruits from which oil is extracted in minute measure and placed in this bottle. The smell of spikenard is sort of earthy, spicy, as well as sweet. A very, very fragrant, interesting smell, but it was very hard to come by, so it was very costly. And she thought, "I just want to show love to Jesus." She saved up for it, and she saved that for this event.
There was somebody else who was there that night, and that was her sister Martha. Mary's sitting around, can't wait to break that bottle and anoint the head of Jesus. Martha was also wanting to show love to Jesus; but how did she do it? Serving. So Mary showed her love by perfume; Martha showed her love by perspiration, working hard, serving the Lord.
Now, I know that we beat Martha up a lot. I've heard so many sermons about, you know, Mary's the good one and Martha's the bad one, because Jesus said, "Mary has chosen the better part and you're distracted." Now, that's wrong to be distracted with much serving, but it doesn't mean it's wrong to be busy and to serve. I think it's good to worship the Lord by sitting at his feet, and it's also great to worship the Lord by serving him in the right balance. That's going on here at this meal.
Just a side note: I love the fact that so often the New Testament describes Jesus eating. I'm always drawn to that. Jesus loved to eat. One of the reasons I love Jesus is that he loved to eat. [laughter] I can't wait for the marriage supper of the Lamb. I don't know about you, but it's, like, come on. I'm going to enjoy a meal with him.
How wonderful in the kingdom age, in the millennial kingdom to say, "Jesus, let's have lunch." Even the metaphor of intimacy: "Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone opens the door, I'll come in and sup with him, and he with me."
Well, it was a dramatic moment because it says, "But there were some"---now, Mark doesn't say who the "some" are---"who were indignant among themselves, and said, 'Why was this fragrant oil wasted?' "Now, let me just say that I'm sure the conversation that night was pretty cool. So, there was Simon, he was a leper, an ex-leper; there was Lazarus, he was a dead guy, now he's alive.
Can you imagine the conversation just between those two guys [laughter] as Simon told his story, "Man, having leprosy was a real drag. I was alienated. I was isolated. I started losing sensation in my hands. One day I looked in a mirror and I had no eyebrows. Another day I had three fingers that had fallen off as this disease started ravaging my whole body. And then Jesus touched me, and I looked and suddenly I had an entire hand, and then another hand, and I had eyebrows again, and I had a family again."
And Lazarus, of course, would be listening, going, "Well, that's a great story, but wait till you hear mine." [laughter] "Well, what happened to you?" "Well, I was dead, and I was in paradise, and there in Abraham's bosom I saw Abraham and I saw David. And I was entering into that state of paradise and suddenly I'm called back. [laughter] I hear a voice, 'Lazarus, come forth!' And suddenly I'm looking out this linen cloth, not very well because I was wrapped up in it. Then they loosed me and they let me go." I'm telling you, what a great---I wish that would have been taped. [laughter] Taped---I'm dating myself. [laughter]
"There were some who were indignant among themselves, and they said, 'Why was this fragrant oil wasted? For it might have been sold for more than three hundred denarii,' " about a year's wage or so, " 'and given to poor.' And they"---again, a nondescript "they"---"criticized her sharply." Mark was kind in not revealing who it was. John, on the other hand, when he tells this story in chapter 12 of his gospel, tells us who the instigator behind this conversation was.
It was none other than Judas Iscariot. He was the treasurer of the bunch. He wanted that money sold so he would have control of the money. And listen to his words. He sounds like the guy you want on every church board. Unfortunately, on many church boards there's a lot of people like him. "I just want to save some money around here that's all. I think that we should, you know, get three bids on this stuff. And this could have been used for something good."
He sounds great, but John tells us he was a kleptés; that's the Greek word---a thief. And the word thief there means: a measured thief, somebody who stole by careful design, who stole over time by thinking it out in advance and figuring out ways to skim off the top. That was Judas, and he brings this up.
Judas Iscariot was a faultfinder, a sin sniffer. Know any people like that? You know, they're just---in every group there's a few. Bring them in, it's like [sniffs] "I smell sin." [laughter] You know, they're just---they're just looking for it. Judas was critical and hypocritical. Critical of his fellow man; hypocritical before his God. Looking for things like this, and he found it with her.
Let me just---and we'll move on---but admonish, encourage; be generous with other people's faults. Be more critical of your own faults. Isn't that what Jesus said? Remember in the Sermon on the Mount? "Why is it that you can find a speck in your brother's eye, when you've got a telephone pole hanging out of your eye. [laughter] First remove the telephone pole"---I'm---this is the NSV, the New Skip Version. [laughter] "Remove the log out of your eye, so you can see clearly to remove the speck out of your brother's eye."
My brother is a golf pro, and when years ago when I was looking for golf clubs, he said, "Skip, try these clubs," his words, "they're more forgiving." [laughter] "Forgiving of what?" And he meant me. [laughter] In other words, "You are inconsistent at the way you hit that golf ball, this club a big enough." And he explained that the bigger the club the bigger the sweet spot.
So, you can make more mistakes and you're guaranteed of a fairly straight hit, unless you're really off, and I am. [laughter] But he said, "These clubs have a bigger sweet spot and are more forgiving." I wish more Christians had bigger sweet spots instead of this tight, little, narrow focus like Judas Iscariot. [laughter]
Jesus said, "Let her alone." I love that. "Why do you trouble her? She has done a good work for me. For you have the poor with you always, and whenever you wish you may do them good, but me you do not have always. She has done what she could. She has come beforehand to anoint my body for burial." Now by these words don't misunderstand our Savior; he is not endorsing poverty nor apathy toward those who are poor.
He is merely quoting Deuteronomy, chapter 15, which says in that particular text, "For the poor will never cease from the land the Lord your God is giving you to possess; therefore, 'Open your hand toward your brother, and toward the poor and toward the needy.' " In other words, "You'll always, always have opportunity for generous activity, but now she has opportunity for personal intimacy."
And so, too, you and I will always have opportunities for generous activity, but when you have opportunity for personal intimacy, take it. Jesus will be leaving soon. He will be going back to heaven for a couple thousand years until his return. She has an opportunity to show a kindness to him. In effect, Jesus says, "She's anointing me for burial."
Can I give it a modern translation? "She's giving me the roses before I die." There's some people who never get flowers till they're dead, then all the flowers show up. "Better if that person got those kind of tokens of love and appreciation before they die," that's what Jesus is saying. "She's giving me the bouquet before the funeral." Seize every opportunity you have for personal intimacy with the Lord.
Verse 9, I love this, "Assuredly, I say to you, wherever this gospel is preached in the whole world, what this woman has done will also be told as a memorial to her." And here we are tonight 2,000 years removed in time, thousands of miles removed in geography, and here we are in another culture, another language honoring this woman who gave, because the story is included in the gospel.
"Then Judas Iscariot, one of the twelve"---by the way, always mentioned last whenever there's a listing of the twelve, because of his betrayal. "He went to the chief priest to betray him to them. And when they heard it, they were glad, and they promised to give him money. So he sought how he might conveniently betray him."
Judas---his name means "praise," praise. Iscariot---identifies where he is from. It comes from a Hebrew word: ish means "man"; Kerioth is a village about twenty-five miles south of Jerusalem. So, his name Yehudah Iskaríotés/Iskariōth is "Judas from the village of Kerioth" in Judah. So, Judas Iscariot is from the south; he is not Galilean. He's not like Peter and Andrew and the rest of disciples. He must have heard about Jesus and followed him, but probably when Jesus was making his route once down south.
Now, it's my belief that Judas followed Jesus and was numbered among the twelve because he had personal ambition. He saw Jesus as the Messiah, but his view of the Messiah is: "He's going to be a politician, a political conqueror. He's going to overthrow Rome. He's going to set up the Jewish state as preeminent. Zion will be in charge. The Messiah will be reigning over the world after he overthrows Rome. And if I'm on his team, I'm going to have a high-ranking position in his cabinet."
But something happened, Judas' hopes rose high a few days before this when Jesus sat on a donkey, and from the Mount of Olives started entering Jerusalem, and for the first time allowed himself to be worshiped as the Messiah, for the first and only time. Every other time he said, "Keep it quiet." Now people are saying, "Hosanna! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!" Judas is thinking, "Hot dog! Hot dog! Hot diggity dog!" to quote Mickey Mouse. [laughter] This is it, this is what we've been waiting for. He's presenting himself as the Messiah. He's going to take over any day now."
Jesus goes into the temple, looks around, leaves. Judas goes, "Aw, man!" The next day Jesus goes back into the temple, overturns the tables, takes a whip and whips people out. Judas gets all excited again, thinking, "This is it." Jesus leaves and predicts his death. And as it gets closer to the cross, Judas Iscariot who started at such a peak, having such hope for a hostile takeover, his hopes are dashed.
As he's getting the idea that Jesus is saying he's going to die and rise again, whatever that means. "This thing isn't going down the way I thought it was going to go down." So now he's so bitterly disappointed. Now he looks for an opportunity to betray Jesus. "And so he sought how he might conveniently betray him."
Francis Bacon once said, "A bad man is a worse man when he pretends to be a good man." That's a hypocrite. "A bad man is a worse man when he pretends to be a good man." Judas was one of the twelve, the closest associates with Jesus. Why did Jesus even pick him? Hold that thought.
"Now on the first day of Unleavened Bread, when they killed the Passover lamb, his disciples said to him, 'Where do you want us to go and prepare, that you eat the Passover?' And he sent out two of his disciples and said to them, 'Go into the city,' " that's Jerusalem, " 'and a man will meet you carrying a pitcher of water; follow him. Wherever he goes in, say to the master of the house, "The Teacher says, 'Where is the guest room in which I may eat the Passover with my disciples?' " Then he will show you a large upper room, furnished and prepared; there make ready for us.' "
According to the gospel of Luke, the disciples that Jesus sent out---do you remember who they are?---Peter and John. And I love that it was Peter and John. They show up a couple of times together. Another time where they show up is at the resurrection of Jesus Christ when they hear the report of the women that the tomb is empty.
And so John, the author of the gospel of John, and the one who went to the tomb, and this John, it says, "Peter and the other disciple," referring to himself, "ran to the tomb"---and listen to what John said---"and the other disciple did outrun Peter and came to the tomb first." [laughter] That's what John wrote about himself. He just wants that in the written record, that "For the resurrection marathon, I, John, beat Peter." [laughter]
Peter and John they went into the city looking for an upper room. Now, typically women were the ones that would be carrying pitchers of water. Men didn't do that kind of a work. They were doing important things like eating and talking and drinking coffee and discussing news around the world, you know, stuff that men do. Women do the light stuff like carry the loads and cook everything and carry big pitchers of water.
So, the idea that a man would be carrying a pitcher of water means he's a lowly servant. It's going to be an unusual sight. "When you see that sight, go to the house and simply say, 'Where's the room for the Teacher?' "---not "Jesus," "the Teacher." So here's a question: Why is this so furtive? Why is this so clandestine? Why so hidden? Why this kind of code, almost code language?
Well, Jesus wants to have Passover with his disciples. He has death threats on his life. This is simply a security measure. I'm sure all sorts of people---because the word was out since they were looking, the leaders were looking for a way to kill Jesus and get him arrested, this was simply a way to kind of keep that under wraps.
So, "He'll show you a large upper room." If you go to Jerusalem today, there is an area they will show you called the "upper room." It's simply all by tradition. It's a long-standing church that was turned into a mosque, now it's turned into a holy site where you can go to an area, this room, and get the idea, at least.
I won't say it's the place, but I will say it's that part of town where Jesus shared the Last Supper with his disciples. And it's wonderful to go into this room, and get a group together and just sing, because it's all stone inside. And so you sing and it gets amplified by the stone walls and the curved ceiling, and it's just---it's just---it's a great place to visit.
"So his disciples went out," verse 16, "came into the city, and found it just as he said to them," according to his word, in other words, "and they prepared the Passover. In the evening he came with the twelve. Now as they sat and ate"---I know it says "sat," but that's because when this was translated in 1611 by the King James translators, that's how people ate, they sat. The Greek word, however, is different. It doesn't mean "sat," it means "to recline." Anakeimai: to recline.
Remember when those four questions that were asked, "What makes this night different from all other nights"? And the father would say, "On all other nights we sit or recline, on this night only do we fully recline." Passover was a leisurely meal. Leonardo da Vinci has done us a disservice when he painted his wonderful, magnificent work The Last Supper. Just look at it. It's great, it's a great picture, but they're all posing for the camera.
I mean, they're all on one side of the table. It's like Jesus said, "Come on, boys, we're going to take a picture of us for posterity, so kind of get over here." And they're all kind of leaning in. [laughter] And it's a great work of art but he's done us a disservice, because that's now how you picture the Last Supper. That's not at all what the Last Supper was like.
They reclined at a table shaped like a U-shaped table called a triclinium; a triclinium because it had three sides. And you would lean on one elbow, lay on your side, and your feet would be toward the side and toward the back, and you would recline. It was a leisurely meal. Lamb was roasted. Unleavened bread was there. Bitter herbs were part of the meal.
A mixture called charoset, which is the Hebrew word for this mixture of cut-up apples, dates, honey, nuts, that would be pasty and remind the Jews of the mortar that was used in building the treasure cities of Pharaoh and the rigor with which they fought or with which they served.
So they sat, or they reclined, and they ate. "Jesus said, 'Assuredly, I say to you, one of you who eats with me will betray me.' And they began to be sorrowful, and say to him one by one, 'Is it I?' And another said, 'Is it I?' And he answered and said to them, 'It is one of the twelve, who dips with me in the dish. The Son of Man indeed goes 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 never been born.' "
There's two principles at play. They're used together in the same concept though they seem contradictory. It's really something we talked about this last Sunday. On one hand you have the sovereign election of God in sending his Son to this earth to die on a cross. He's the "Lamb slain before the foundation of the world," it says in Revelation 13.
Peter in Acts, chapter 2, concerning Christ, said, "Him, being delivered by the determined counsel and foreknowledge of God, you have taken by wicked hands, crucified, and put to death." God sent him; you killed him. This was foreordained; you're the one's that carried it out. This is the will of God, but you are held responsible because you willfully engaged in it. Very interesting the way this all plays out together.
Now back to that question: Why did Jesus pick Judas? I mean, if Jesus knew everything like the Bible says he did, he knew things in advance, if he was that aware, and he even spent a whole night in prayer before he picked the disciples, why not just, like, leave him out, pick somebody else, if Jesus knew that Judas would betray him?
The answer is twofold: number one, to fulfill Scripture. Jesus lived in total awareness 24/7. He knew what was going to happen. He would often say, "This is to fulfill that which was written." It's to fulfill Scripture concerning Judas. Number two, because love to be true love is always vulnerable. Jesus knew that Judas would betray him, but he chose him anyway. He put his heart on the line, which you do anytime you love somebody.
I've had people after a bad relationship say, "Skip, I want to love again, but how can I love but make sure my heart doesn't get broken?" Impossible---to love at all in any capacity is to feel pain, is to hurt. I think there's some even song, kind of a weird song, "Love Hurts." How long ago was that written? Like, years ago, right? Some of you are going, "I don't even remember that song that's so old school." [laughter] Love does hurt.
So, a couple goes and they decide to get married, and they come to the altar and they share their vows. And it's "for better or for worse"---or for worse---they're not even listening to that. In their mind it's "for better or for best; for richer or for richest." [laughter] "The 'poor' part, I'm not banking on that . . . until death do us part and we live happily ever after."
When you get engaged, you get engaged to an ideal person, but when you get married, you marry a real person. [laughter] Am I right? You discover how human that person is. Any relationship is like that. You have to be vulnerable to love. And when you're vulnerable, there's going to be pain, you're going to get hurt. Your heart will, at some point, become broken.
I always like to tell couples when they get married that "You have come here to this altar to share vows with one another, and you have in your mind a picture of the ideal person that you're marrying. You're going to discover that you married a real person who's not at all like the picture you've been carrying around in your mind.
When you discover that real person, now you have a choice to make: tear up that picture and love the person, or tear up that person and hold to the picture." That's why there are so many divorces, because there's this ideal that they will not let go of, and instead of loving that real person, they hold on to the ideal picture.
Judas was chosen by Jesus, and Jesus knew all along this was going to happen. He even brought Judas close to him at the Last Supper, the Bible tells us. Let's read a few more verses and we'll take the Lord's Supper together.
"And as they were eating, Jesus took bread, blessed and broke it, and gave it to them and said, 'Take, eat; this is my body.' " The Passover was a meal that was centered around four glasses of wine. Now I have one glass that is a Passover glass. There would have been four glasses of wine in the course of the Passover setting, the Passover meal.
The first glass was the opening glass. It was the Kiddush. It was the cup of blessing where the host blesses the Lord and welcomes the people in and announces what this is for. The second cup was called the cup of judgment. It spoke about the plagues that God brought upon Egypt and releasing his children out of Egypt and into the wilderness. And as part of the display the host would even dip his finger in the wine and sprinkle the cloth and the meal in front of him to speak about the sprinkling of blood.
Bread would be broken, the unleavened bread. I have---I have a---we went out to get matzah bread today, and this is, like, monsta bread. [laughter] But it's pretty big. It might have been that big. But bread would have been broken---I'm going to get stuff all over; it's okay. [laughter] Okay, here's a little one---and passed around. And they would dip it in the bitter herbs. They would dip it in the charoset, speaking of all those elements, and the host would say a blessing.
Holding up the bread, he would say, "Baruch atah Adonai Eloheinu hamotzi lechem min ha'aretz." Translation: "Blessed art thou, Lord God, King of the universe," and he speaks here of the bread of the earth. That would be dipped, be passed around, the meal would ensue. After the meal there were two other glasses of wine. The third glass of wine was the cup of redemption. That's where they would speak of the death of the firstborn, the deliverance of the children of Israel.
It was the third glass of wine, the cup of redemption, where Jesus said these words, "Then he took the cup," this is now after the meal, "and when he had given thanks"---by the way, that word "given thanks" is eucharistos in Greek. You've heard that before. Eucharist means the "giving of thanks."
"And when he had given thanks [eucharistos] he gave it to them, and they all drank from it." Jesus held up the third cup, the cup of redemption, and said, "Baruch atah Adonai Eloheinu Melech ha-olam, borei p'ri hagafen"; "Blessed art thou, Lord God, King of the universe, who gives us the fruit of the vine."
The fourth and final cup was a cup of praise. Now, it's thought that Jesus---some speculate that he didn't even finish the Passover meal and finish with a cup of praise, because he was fulfilling the meaning of the Passover in what he was doing that Passover, going to the cross. But he does say these words, "This is my blood of the new covenant, which is shed for many. Assuredly, I say to you," listen carefully, "I will no longer drink of the fruit of the vine until the day when I drink it new in the kingdom of God."
In other words, "Boys, this is the last Passover I'm going to share with you on this earth. This is it." Truly this would be the Last Supper, the last Passover supper he would share. But by these words he is promising that in the future, in the kingdom age he will celebrate with them again and sit down and eat with them again. I can't wait for that. Until then we have a meal, this meal, this memorial meal. And Paul says, "As often as you do this, you proclaim the Lord's death until he come." We look back and we look ahead.
And then finally, and we'll close with verse 26, "And when they had sung a hymn, they went out to the Mount of Olives." What hymn did they sing? Was it "A Mighty Fortress Is Our God"? No, that hadn't been written yet. Was it "Joy to the World! The Lord Is Come"? No, that hasn't been written yet. It is believed that they sang Psalm 118. That was the last in the book of Psalms in that little book called the Hallel portion of the book of Psalms that portion of praise.
And so as we close our time together and pass out these elements, we're doing to do that. The words are going to be up on the screen. Why don't you, out of respect for the Word of God, stand. And I am going to read the first and odd-numbered verses of Psalm 118. The words will be up on the screen highlighted for you. You will read the second and even-numbered verses, and we'll work our way through.
Skip Heitzig: "Oh, give thanks to the Lord, for he is good! For his mercy endures forever."
Congregation: "Let Israel now say, 'His mercy endures forever.' "
Skip Heitzig: "Let the house of Aaron now say, 'His mercy endures forever.' "
Congregation: "Let those who fear the Lord now say, 'His mercy endures forever.' "
Skip Heitzig: "I called on the Lord in distress; the Lord answered me and set me in a broad place."
Congregation: "The Lord is on my side; I will not fear. What can man do to me?"
Skip Heitzig: "The Lord is for me among those who help me; therefore I shall see my desire on those who hate me."
Congregation: "It is better to trust in the Lord than to put confidence in man."
Skip Heitzig: "It is better to trust in the Lord than to put confidence in princes."
Congregation: "All nations surround me, but in the name of the Lord I will destroy them."
Skip Heitzig: "They surrounded me, yes, they surrounded me; but in the name of the Lord I will destroy them."
Congregation: "They surrounded me like bees; they were quenched like a fire of thorns; for in the name of the Lord I will destroy them."
Skip Heitzig: "You pushed me violently, that I might fall, but the Lord helped me."
Congregation: "The Lord is my strength and song, and he has become my salvation."
Skip Heitzig: "The voice of rejoicing and salvation is in the tents of righteous; the right hand of the Lord does valiantly."
Congregation: "The right hand of the Lord is exalted; the right hand of the Lord does valiantly."
Skip Heitzig: "I shall not die, but live, and declare the works of the Lord."
Congregation: "The Lord has chastened me severely, but he has not given me over to death."
Skip Heitzig: "Open to me the gates of righteousness; I will go through them, and I will praise the Lord."
Congregation: "This is the gate of the Lord, through which the righteous shall enter."
Skip Heitzig: "I will praise you, for you have answered me, and have become my salvation."
Congregation: "The stone which the builders rejected has become the chief cornerstone."
Skip Heitzig: "This was the Lord's doing; it is marvelous in our eyes."
Congregation: "This is the day the Lord has made; we will rejoice and be glad in it."
Skip Heitzig: "Save now, I pray, O Lord; O Lord, I pray, send now prosperity."
Congregation: "Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord! We have blessed you from the house of the Lord."
Skip Heitzig: "God is the Lord, and he has given us light; bind the sacrifice with cords to the horns of the altar."
Congregation: "You are my God, and I will praise you; you are my God, and I will exalt you."
Skip Heitzig: "Oh, give thanks to the Lord, for he is good! For his mercy endures forever."
You can have a seat.