Mark 14:22-42 - The Lord’s Table and the Lord’s Prayer

Well, welcome back to Tabernacle Talk. We've got a great portion of scripture that we're going to be in today.

We are beginning in Mark 14 and verse number 22. We are now in the night before Jesus' crucifixion. It's the night of the Last Supper.

And on that, by Jewish reckoning, it would have been there using our terms for it. It would have been there Friday morning, that is Thursday after 6 PM. And we journeyed with Jesus and the disciples.

They go into this upper room where they are observing the Passover and that remembrance of what God had done for the children of Israel when they were captives, slaves in Egypt and how He had delivered them and shown His incredible power.

And that on that night, there was the angel of death, that there was a spiritual being that went through and exacted God's justice on the country of Egypt for all of their wickedness, idolatry and countless other things, disobedience to God.

And God had told His people, He said, I want you to know like you aren't just going to experience deliverance because of who your ancestors were. All of you are going to experience deliverance as you have faith in My Commandments.

And this specific commandment that He gave to them was that they were to kill a lamb. This was the sacrificial system, and they would take the blood from the lamb and they would place it on the doorpost.

And as that lamb gave its life, and what God said was, When I see the blood, I will pass over you.

It was a picture of what Jesus would do, that through His sacrifice, that the one who did nothing would, or rather did nothing wrong, he would experience all of the punishment and all of the justice he would give his life, and those that would have

otherwise experienced judgment, they got to go free. And here, as they observe this, Jesus institutes something brand new into the account. Verse number 22.

As they were eating, he took bread, blessed and broke it, gave it to them, and said, take it, this is my body. Then he took a cup, and after giving thanks, he gave it to them, and they all drank from it.

He said to them, this is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many. Truly I tell you, I will no longer drink of the fruit of the vine until that day when I drink it new in the kingdom of God. Here Jesus institutes the Lord's Supper.

It is that remembrance of the fact that his body was broken for us. As we will read about in a couple of days, perhaps tomorrow, perhaps two or three days from now, Jesus was beaten. He was hit.

He was insulted. He was whipped by the Romans, led through the streets of Jerusalem in shame, naked. He had his beard plucked out.

He had a crown of thorns placed on his head. He was punched and beat up by the Romans with taunting of, hey, if you're really the Messiah, tell us like, hey, who hit you? All of that would take place before he even got to the cross.

And then when you were on the cross, you would experience loss of oxygen, incredible pain, incredible blood loss, all sorts of incredibly violent things.

And Jesus says that when we observe the Lord's table, we remember that his body was broken for us, that the one that did not know sin became sin for us so that we might be made the righteousness of God in him, that his body that had healed others,

his body that had made it so that the lepers could be reunited with their families, those that had demons could be sane and be part of their families and communities again. He made it so that those who were blind were able to see their loved ones for

the very first time. And that was the body that was broken. The hands that had healed were pierced through with a nail. His feet that had walked to so many places preaching the gospel were pierced.

His side where he had embraced many that he had loved his own, it was pierced. It was not just a sad, unfortunate story. It was his master plan so that he would purchase our redemption.

Not only was his body broken for us, but his blood was poured out for us.

And even as we looked at in Leviticus, the phrase that often came up, that the life of the flesh is in the blood, that there is that correlation between if you have blood, you're alive. If you lose all your blood, you are not alive.

And Jesus gave his whole life essence for us. And the rest of the New Testament would have so much to say that we were not bought with silver and gold. We're not just like slaves of Jesus because he bought us with money.

It says that we were bought with the precious blood of Christ like that of a lamb without blemish or without spot. That you are so valuable to God that he gave his human life for you.

That as we think back to the book of Leviticus and think about the blood that was put on the altar, that areas and spaces and nations that were once tainted with sin were made completely clean through the blood. That that's what Jesus did for us.

The book of Hebrews would tell us that Jesus sprinkled his blood on the heavenly mercy seat.

That as this earth had its tabernacle and then eventually its temple, that was a picture of the heavenly designs of all of that with the Holy of Holies and the mercy seat, all of those things. That Jesus took into God's very presence his blood.

And that because of that, there is no need for recurring sacrifices. There is no need for you to bring your earthly confessions in order to garner God's forgiveness.

It was completely bought for us on Calvary, on the cross, that what Jesus did is complete. It's not that Jesus did 90% of it, and you've still got to get baptized in order to experience God's forgiveness.

It's not that Jesus did this much, and you also got to make sure that you say this amount of Hail Marys, or give this amount of money to the church, or you've got to do this many community hours, community service hours. That's not how it works.

Jesus paid it all, all to Him I owe. Sin had left a crimson stain. He washed it white as snow.

What an incredible thing that we are bought with the blood of Jesus Christ, that His very life was poured out for us. And who is going to tell Jesus that what His life accomplished was insufficient funds for the Father? It's why I love Romans 8.

It says, Who will lay anything to the charge of God's elect? It is Christ that died, rather that is risen again, and I love that verse. So, all this takes place, Jesus observes and institutes the Lord's Supper.

Even as we would read some of the other accounts of it throughout scripture, we would see that He would tell them, Hey, do this in remembrance of me. Do this exact same thing. Remember these truths until I return.

And so, this is one of two ordinances that the Church observes. These are things that help us to remember who Jesus is, what He did, what He accomplished, and remembering that He will one day return.

Even as we would read there in verse 25, Truly I tell you, I will no longer drink of the fruit of the vine until that day when I drink it new in the kingdom of God.

That we are going to drink, we are going to observe the Lord's Supper with Him one day, that marriage supper of the Lamb that we would read about in the Book of Revelation. Then verse 26, After singing a hymn, they went out to the Mount of Olives.

And here a hymn isn't like, My Jesus, I love Thee, or Amazing Grace. This would be a song of praise to God. That's what the word hymn means, by the way.

It's not like, okay, if it's in this red hymnal, or if it's in this blue hymnal, it's a hymn, and everything else, it's not really a hymn. A hymn is a song of praise to God. It's not a specific time period or grouping in a specific hymnal.

And this likely would have been one of the Psalms of Ascent. One of the ones that Jesus would have sung during the Passover week would have been Psalm 116. It's either Psalm 116 or 117.

Give me just one second. I actually preached a message on this last November. I will probably link it in the show notes because I love it.

Psalm 116, yep. And I will link in the show notes if you want to listen to that particular message. Just one of the Psalms, one of the hymns that Jesus would have sang that week because it was customary for the Jews to do so at that time.

So they go and they go to the Mount of Olives. Verse number 27. Then Jesus said to them, all of you will fall away because it is written, I will strike the shepherd and the sheep will be scattered.

There he's quoting from Zechariah 13 and verse number 7. He says, I know what God's word says and it will take place. He says, but after I have risen, I will go ahead of you to Galilee.

So he knows they're going to betray him. It doesn't stop him from loving them. And he even tells them, I'm going to rise again.

He said that every single time that he's mentioned it here in Mark's Gospel. And he says, when I rise again, I'm going to be in this location. So I know you're going to leave me now, but this is where we're going to meet back up.

Verse 29, Peter told him, even if everyone falls away, I will not. Truly, I tell you, Jesus said to him, today, this very night, before the rooster crows twice, you will deny me three times.

Here Jesus tells Peter, I want you to think a little bit more honestly about yourself. You think that you are a wonderful, amazing, loyal person, but I'm God and I know what's in your heart.

And I know that there is this flaw and I'm not holding it against you. I am here. I'm inviting you back into my presence in Galilee.

He says, but I want you to know what I say will come true. And just as surely as you're going to deny me three times, I'm going to rise again and you will meet back up with me.

In Galilee, verse 31, but Peter kept insisting if I have to die with you, I will never deny you. And they all said the same thing.

So here, Peter is leading the other disciples to disbelieve Jesus, which it's interesting to say, hey, we believe you so much that we would die for you. But we're not going to believe you that we will deny you.

And we all tend to think better of ourselves than we should. We need to realize that we are flawed. It's why we need the Lord, that we are not currently perfect, and we need to rely on His truth and on His strength.

If we think that we are perfect, then when we interact with situations in which maybe we would disagree with God, or when other people tell us, hey, like I see this thing that's wrong in you, we will become disillusioned because we go, I'm never

wrong. So therefore, if this thing from the Bible says that I am wrong about this opinion or this action, then that must mean the Bible's wrong because I'm never wrong. That's what Peter's doing here.

Or in relationship with other people, that we will shut out those that truly love us and want to warn us and help us not to go down a wrong path or not to embrace ill actions. We will cut those people off if we think, I can never be wrong.

No one will ever tell me anything contrary to what I already think or do. Be open to the fact that you can be wrong. That's something that I want to consistently remind myself of and try and guard against is, okay, do I think that I'm perfect?

Do I think that I'm right in every opinion I hold?

When was the last time that I changed my mind about something, either about an opinion or belief or one of my actions because I actually listen to those who love me and care about me and want me to become better?

So here, Peter and the disciples, they go, oh, we're never going to betray you. We're never going to deny you, never going to happen. Verse 32, then they came to a place called Gethsemane, and he told his disciples, sit here while I pray.

He took Peter, James and John with him, and he began to be deeply distressed and troubled. He said to them, I am deeply grieved to the point of death. Remain here and stay awake.

Here, Jesus, in his humanity, he knows what's coming.

I would say, in his humanity, he has the fear, he has the being troubled, he has being distressed and grieved, knowing that all the sins of the world are going to be placed on him, knowing that he is going to undergo incredible physical duress, all

of the pain and suffering that I talked about earlier, knowing that he is going to go through that, knowing that there is going to be this looming separation between him and the Father, that they had planned from before the foundation of the world,

is how John would put it in the Revelation, at the end of Scripture. But knowing all of that, what's his response? What did he say? Well, number one, he invites people into his life. He lets people know how he's feeling.

He says, I'm deeply grieved to the point of death. And he tells that to Peter and to James and to John. Who do you have that you are close with, that you're able to be open about?

Hey, here is this trouble that I'm having. It might be like a temptation or a sin thing. Obviously, that's not happening here with Jesus.

It's just a human thing. Hey, here's this emotion that I am experiencing. But who are you close to?

Who are you talking with about the times when you are going through struggles? If Jesus did this, then certainly it would be a good thing for us to do.

So Jesus, with this grief, verse 35, it says, he went a little farther, fell to the ground, and prayed that if it were possible, the hour might pass from him. And he said, Abba, Father. Abba is Aramaic for dad.

It would be something a child would say. Abba. He says, Abba, Father, all things are possible for you.

He has faith in God's ability. He knows what his relationship with God is. He calls him his father.

He says, all things are possible for you. He knows what God is capable of. He says, take this cup away from me.

He makes his request. And then he says, nevertheless, not what I will, but what you will. Here he says, God, I don't want to do this thing.

This is not like desirable for me. I have no desire to be put on trial and beaten and mocked and whipped and flogged and crucified. I don't have a desire for that to happen.

He says, but I don't care what I want. I care what you want for me. And verse 37, then he came and found them sleeping.

So he goes back to Peter, James and John, and they're asleep. And he specifically told them, like, stay awake. He said to Peter, Simon, are you sleeping?

Couldn't you stay awake one hour? Stay awake and pray so that you won't enter into temptation. The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak.

Once again, he went away and prayed, saying the same thing. And again, he came and found them sleeping because they could not keep their eyes open. They did not know what to say to him.

Then he came a third time and said to them, Are you still sleeping and resting? Enough. The time has come.

See, the son of man is betrayed into the hands of sinners. Get up. Let's go.

See, my betrayer is near. Here in Jesus' moments of anguish, in the last hour before, everything would take place. He spent it in prayer.

He spent it asking God, asking God for what he wanted, but acknowledging that he wanted God's will above his own. He says, here's my desire, but I don't want my desire above yours. If you want me to go through with this, that's what I want.

He says, my feelings say I don't want to. It's not my will. It doesn't align with my feelings.

He says, but what my ultimate desire is, what my want is, is that your will would be accomplished. Today, is that how you pray your prayers? Is it, Lord, I'm bringing you this thing.

Here is what my feelings would love to happen, and I'm going to bring it to you because I know that everything is possible for you. I know that you are my heavenly father, and so I can come to you.

And I know that if it is in your will, you will answer it. You will bring it to pass, and I have faith in that. I'm not doubting.

I'm not just like doing a shot in the dark and saying I really hope that this happens. But, God, whatever your will is, that's what I'm actually pursuing. I don't care just about my thoughts.

I don't care just about my feelings. I want your will to be accomplished. And Jesus models this for us in the moment of His greatest anguish and hurt and heartbreak.

I would encourage you to do the same. Let's seek God's will, not just our own. Well, tomorrow we're going to look at Jesus' betrayal from Judas' trial, his beatings.

We'll see if we get to the crucifixion. And then we're almost done with the Gospel of Mark. As we've walked all the way through, we've seen how wonderful Jesus is.

His truths that he taught, the fact that he told them who he was, and he showed it and proved it by his actions. But we have seen that we as humanity, we didn't recognize it.

And now we're going to come to the point where we fulfill the plan of God from all eternity past. But we miss out on getting to have Jesus as our King right here, right now, here on earth. What a sadness.

But can I encourage you and challenge you? We might say, oh man, if Jesus had done all those miracles, if he had said all those things, I wouldn't have let that happen. I would have had him be the King today.

Is he King of your life now? Are you obeying him now? Are you telling other people about his way and his love for them?

Are you telling them about it now? If you say yes, I would have loved for Jesus to be the King here on earth. Is he King in your heart now?

Thanks for tuning in. See you next episode.