The last Passover, as described in Matthew 26, marked a pivotal moment where Jesus fulfilled the Old Testament type by instituting the Lord's Supper. The sermon contrasts the first Passover in Exodus 12, highlighting its protective and liberating significance for Israel, with Jesus' final Passover meal where he revealed his impending betrayal and the institution of a new covenant. The core lesson emphasizes that Jesus is the true Passover Lamb, whose body and blood, symbolized by bread and wine, offer remission of sins and a memorial of his sacrifice. The message concludes by urging self-examination before partaking in the Lord's Supper, reflecting on Christ's suffering and the new life it brings.
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move on in our studies we're calling the road to the cross and we'll be in the twenty sixth chapter of Matthew's gospel these chapters now twenty six twenty seven are very long chapters and we'd like to cover a lot of verses in the short time we have this week So let's read then from verse seventeen of chapter twenty six of Matthew. Now the first day of the feast of unleavened bread, the first day of the feast of unleavened bread, the disciples came to Jesus, saying unto him, Where wilt thou that will prepare for thee to eat the Passover?
And he said, Go into the city to such a man, and say unto him, The master said, my time is at hand. Remember yesterday it says, after two days is the feast of the Passover. After two days it passed, he says, my time is at hand. I will keep the Passover at thy house with my disciples. And the disciples did as Jesus had appointed them, and they made ready the Passover. And when the evening was come, He sat down with the twelve. And as they did eat, he said, Verily I say unto you, that one of you should betray me.
And they were exceeding sorrowful, and began every one of them to say unto him, Lord, is it I? And he said, He that dip his hand with me in the dish, the same should betray me. The son of man groweth as it is written of him. but woe unto that man by whom the Son of Man is betrayed. It had been good for that man if he had not been born. Then Judas, which betrayed him, answered and said, Master, is it I? And he said unto him, Thou hast said. And as they were eating, Jesus took bread, blessed it, break it, and gave it to his disciples and said, Take, eat, this is my body.
He took the cup and he took the cup and gave thanks and gave it to them, saying, Drink ye all of it, for this is my blood of the New Testament which is shed for many for the remission of sin. But I say unto you, I will not drink henceforth of this fruit of the vine until that day when I drink it new with you. in my Father's kingdom. And when they had sung a hymn, they went out into the Mount of Olives. May God bless the reading of his precious words. Shall we pray? Blessed God our Father, we thank thee that throughout the Western world at least, many of thy true people are gathered this week in various churches and cathedrals and wonderful buildings with wonderful ritual and music and and reverence adoration to think about thy sufferings on this week that they call Passion Week.
We thank thee that we are found doing the same thing, not that we are conforming to any of the rules of the the religious sects or denominations or regulations, but we thank the Lord that we do have an Easter Sunday, and we do have one day set aside in the year when the world recognizes that Christ rose from the dead. And we thank you for these days that lead up to Easter. We thank you for our studies this week as we've seen thy beloved son treading that path, coming up from the Jordan River, entering Jerusalem in lowliness and humility upon the cold, the fall of an hour.
We've seen him in the temple cleansing thy house. And we've seen him as he stood before the Sadducees and the Pharisees and the scribes, and they argued and they quibbled and they fought with him. We thank thee for his kingly demeanor and stature as he stood before those people and answered them as the king of Israel. And we saw him last night in that house at Bethany. And we watched as that woman broke the alabaster drops and poured upon his head.
And wretched Lord, we bow at thy feet this morning, and we would pour all we have upon thee and give ourselves to thee. As we contemplate this via Donna Rosa, this way of the cross, lead us on. And we pray, Lord, that during the remaining days of this week, If the Lord be not come, that thou lead our thoughts and lead our steps as we think about the road which led to the cross. Blessed this morning, Lord, as we enter the upper room and we sit around that table, as it were, with thy beloved son and his disciples, and hear his wondrous words.
May they do something in our hearts for thy glory. We ask it in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen. As I said just now, there's so many verses in these chapters in Matthew. In the twenty-sixth chapter, there's seventy-five verses. Seventy-five verses in one chapter. And in the twenty-seventh chapter, there's sixty-six verses. So we could spend days and days and touch weeks on these verses. we have to hurry along and we have to cover perhaps two or three subjects in one session it would be nice to spend some time on the preparation of the Passover and then about the Passover then about the Lord's Supper we'd have to squeeze it all in this morning because by tonight we'd have to be in the Garden of Gethsemane if we're going to get along by Friday to stand beneath the cross of Christ.
So our subject this morning then is the last Passover. The last Passover. And I think it would be very nice to go back to Exodus twelve and read a little bit about the first Passover. Exodus chapter twelve. Exodus chapter twelve, verse one. And the Lord spake unto Moses and Aaron in the land of Egypt, saying, This month shall be unto you the beginning of months, it shall be the first month of the year to you.
Speak ye unto all the congregation of Israel, saying, In the tenth day of this month, they should take to them every man and lamb, according to the house of their fathers, a lamb for an house. And if the household be too little for the lamb, let him and his neighbor next unto his house take it, according to the number of the souls. Every man, according to his eating, every man, according to his eating, shall make your account for the lamb. Your lamb should be without a blemish. a male of the first year, he should take it out from the sheep or from the goats, and he should keep it up until the fourth day of the same month, and the whole congregation of Israel should kill it in the evening.
And they should take it to the blood and strike it on the two side posts and on the upper door posts of the houses wherein they should eat it. And they shall eat the flesh in the night, in that night, roast with fire and unleavened bread, and with bitter herbs shall they eat it. Eat not of it raw nor subnaught with water, but roast with fire. His head with his legs and with the potency thereof, and he shall let nothing of it remain until the morning, and that which remains of it until the morning he shall burn with fire. Thus should eat it. With your loins girded, your shoes on your feet, your staff in your hands, you should eat it in haste, which is the Lord's Father.
Verse fourteen. And this day should be unto you for a memorial. And you should keep it a feast to the Lord throughout your generation. You should keep it a feast for an organ forever. Seven days shall you eat unleavened bread, even the first day ye should put away eleven out of your houses. For whoever eateth eleven bread from the first day until the seventh day, that cloth should be cut off in Israel. And in the first day there should be an holy convocation. And in the seventh day in holy convocation, no manner of work should be done in them, save that which every man must eat.
That only may be done to you. and ye shall observe the feast of unleavened bread. For in this self-same day, if I brought your armies out of the land of Egypt, therefore shall ye observe this day in your generation, by an ordinance forever. In the first month on the fourteenth day of the month of Eden, ye shall eat on leavened bread until the one-and-twentieth day of the month of Eden. And we should go on reading this so much. Let's go back to our chapter. We've read there about the first Passover. In Matthew, I suggest we read about the last Passover.
Now it is true that the Greek people observe the Passover still. But if I understand the Bible, the last Passover is the one we read on the friendship chapter of Matthew. Because after that the Passover didn't mean anything. The Passover was a type. The Passover was a picture of what was going to take place. The lamb had to be chosen and watched and cared for those four days of damning, inspected and then slain and the blood had to be sprinkled.
Oh, that's the picture of Christ. Through the three to four years he was there on earth, men observing him and watching him, God from heaven watching him, and there was found no blemish in him at all. Not one blemish. God said, my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased. And this thing was set up, as I spoke on, as I said, I'm showing you according to God, schedule, God's plan, God as a family teacher. And on the first day of evening, they had to do this. And sure it comes in our chapter, the first day of the feast of unleavened bread.
They had to prepare the Passover. Now, the Lord Jesus had no home on earth. He had no, he said, no place where he could lay his head. We talked a little bit about the home at Bethany yesterday, where he used to lay his head. Where could he find the place of the Passover? Because the lamb was a lamb for household. Each household had its own lamb. When we lived in Greece, we lived ten years, and Easter is the great holiday of the year in Greece. We used to finish work on Thursday and get back again on Tuesday, I think.
And we always made the rule that we get out somewhere into the villages, get away from the great city of Athens and go out into the mountains of some village or some resort place. And we watched the feast ceremony in Greece, very, very interesting, very interesting. But do you know what they did? Outside of every house there was a little land teller. tied with a rope to the gate outside the house. Every house had its own little lamp. And on the Saturday they blew the lamp. And on the Sunday, Easter Sunday, that's when they roached the lamp.
They put it on the spit and churned it. They all took the churn, on the charcoal fire, long charcoal fire, and they churned it. And they all ate the roast lamp on Easter Sunday. That is the main meal in the lamb, always. But they have little lambs, so small, not much bigger than the chicken. And they used to, it was the most tender, beautiful meal, lovely. And this is used to Sunday, but they, all through the week, they had the lamb tethered, they fed it, and the children prayed with it, but on the Saturday they threw the lamb. Now the Lord Jesus was the lamb of God.
As I say, they thought the song of him, but what it must have meant to him when he said, they said to him, where were thou that we prepare for thee to eat the Passover? They didn't know what it meant. They looked back to when the children of Israel came out of Egypt. That's what it was, a memorial. of how God brought their armies out of Egypt that wonderful night. So for the Lord Jesus coming all together this month, it was the fulfillment of all that that meant. It meant not only that the armies would come out of Egypt, but it meant that you and I were bound in sin and iniquity and wickedness that we'd come out as a result of this wonderful Passover.
And I said, he had no fair. There was no land, there was no gate, because he had no gate. But how wonderfully God over his rule in all these things. The Lord had good friends with him. They loved him. There were no people who loved him. And there were some rich people that loved him. Now, was this Passover? He's held in the house of John Ma's mother? I don't know. That's the... the land that keeps coming up in the absence of the apostles. It was a large upper room. He said unto them, Go into the city to such a man, you must have mentioned, who the man was.
And say unto him, the master says, My time is at hand. Now look at Luke twenty-two at one. Proverbs chapter chapter. Proverbs chapter. Then came the day of unleavened bread, when the Passover must be killed. And he says, Peter and John, saying, Go and prepare the Passover that we may eat. And they said unto him, Where wilt thou that we prepare? And he said unto them, Behold, When you are entered into the city, there shall a man meet you, bearing a pitcher of water.
Follow him. Follow him into the house, where he enters in. And he shall say unto the good man of the house, The master says unto thee, Where is the guest chamber? Where I should eat the Passover of my disciples. And he will show you a large upper room furnished there make ready. and they went and found, as he had said unto them, and they made ready the Passover. And when the hour was come, he sat down with the twelve apostles. See how God had arranged, although the Lord was homeless, God wonderfully arranged every detail in his pathway.
In those days, rich men, prepared for himself a sepulchre in which they could be buried when they died. There was no sepulchre for the Lord, but the Lord had it already, already. And where could he eat the Passover? God had it already. A large upper room. When you go to Jerusalem nowadays, they take you to a large upper room and they show you They say this is the room of the last of... I don't suppose it's changed it. Say, let me see. Last time I was there was forty-four, so that's over thirty years ago. Last time I was in Jerusalem, I went there several times during the war, but we used to go up into that large upper room, and they still have a table with all the dishes on it and so on.
Of course that's only a showpiece. But there was somewhere probably around about the spot where that thing is today. You must remember when they show you things in Jerusalem today that the Lord said, not one stone should be left upon another. So whatever they show you is something they built up because everything was destroyed in AD seventy when the temple was burned and the whole thing destroyed and done away with by the Roman armies. So whatever's been built since it's been built by other people. It's not the original. The only original thing I know out there some of the foundation stones of the temple, a great huge stone, and some of the foundation stones of the city wall near the Damascus Gate.
When I was there all these years ago, they had excavated near Damascus Gate and you could go down under and you could see the huge stones of where the original wall was. That set us a point in my mind because the Roman Catholics had built a huge church called the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. And that's built inside the city. And they say that's where the Lord was crucified. But the Bible tells us he was crucified outside the gate. Now Gordon's Calvary, we'll talk a little about that later in the week, is outside the gate. Is it the right place? I don't know. Who can tell after two thousand years?
Who can tell? But he does answer in every detail to the description in the scripture. But I cannot see how you can say that the place called Calvary was inside the city. Oh, yes, they say the city wall has changed. Where it is today is not where it used to be two thousand years ago. But I tell you that I have seen with my own eyes the foundations of the original wall where it was two thousand years ago. And the Church of the Holy Sepulchre is not in the place where the Lord was crucified. They say that was founded by... the mother of the Emperor Constantine, she had a dream, and she dreamed that if they went to a certain spot in Jerusalem, they dug down, they would find the remains of three crosses.
And that's where the cross was. They found these old remains of three crosses. But of course, thousands of people were crucified in Jerusalem. They say that during the siege of Jerusalem, the AD seventy destruction of Jerusalem, thousands upon thousands of people were hanging on crosses during that awful, awful character which they passed in those days. But there was a house in Jerusalem. It was an opera room. We talked about two houses last night. The Palace of Caiaphas and the House in Bethany is another house in Jerusalem.
I like to think of these houses. where the Lord went, and where he found a kind of home and a place to rest. And he says, Say unto him wherewithal that we prepare the classroom. He said, Going to the city to search a man, say unto him, My time is at hand. I will keep the classroom at thy house. And the man had the place already. And the disciples did as Jesus had appointed them. and they made ready the Passover. Verse twenty, now when the even was come, he sat down with the twelve.
I have to think of this when we come to the Lord's table. We had a man, his wife here, for several weeks this winter. And I rarely spoke to him, but he complained about one thing. He said, the assembly where I go, they never come early to the Lord's table. He said, one of the brethren that takes the leading part there, he comes ten minutes, fifteen minutes late to the Lord's table. And he said, it upsets me so much. I should think it would, didn't you? It says we read in Luke just now, when the hour was come, he sat down.
And it says here, now when the evening was come, he sat down with the trowel. One thing I love about, one thing I like about part of the palms here is that we're at the Lord's table in good times. And you've got to be here about ten minutes past nine to get a seat. This is how it should be. We'll wait all the week for this wonderful time when we can come to remember the Lord Jesus. We'll be talking about the Passover. This was the last Passover. They didn't know it. The Lord knew it. Because all that the Passover portrayed, and all that it spoke about was being fulfilled now.
The Lamb of God had come. The Lamb of God, God's Holy Son, spotless, blameless, without blemish. He is the one that's going to be offered now. Just as the blood was sprinkled, upon the two side posts and upon the upper post of the door, so the blood of the Lord Jesus with his hands outstretched would be on the two side posts. And the blood from his head on the top and the blood from his feet on the bottom. And he would be the true Passover lamb as he hung upon the cross. And only he knew that. Except as I said last night, I think Mary knew it. But of course, Mary wasn't at the Passover feast.
Only the twelve disciples were there. And he said unto them, as they did eat, he said unto them, Verily I say unto you, that one of you shall betray me. What sadness must have been in his heart? It says of Judas that he was my own familiar friend. It says of him in the Psalms, we went up to the house of God together. And he says, one of you is going to betray me. And they were exceeding sorrowful. And everyone, listen to these words, every one of them began to say to him, Lord, is it I?
Is it I? Can you understand? Judith knew who it was. But they even suspected themselves that they could betray him. It's amazing. After all those years and all the love they showed to him and all they learned from him that they could even ask their hearts, is it I, Lord? And yet we can hang our heads in shame. What can we say? If it came under great trial, would we be able to stand the trial? I don't think we'd betray the Lord for thirty pieces of silver, but we might be like Peter. He's glad to tell you I never knew him.
That's what Peter did. We've come to that, of course. How we need to test our hearts and test our hearts before the Lord Jesus. We love him. We've been saved by his infinite grace and love and mercy. We belong to him. Oh, may God strengthen our faith. Lord, is it I, they all said. And he said, He that did with his hand with me in the dish, the same shall betray me. And the Son of Man goeth as it is written of him. but woe unto that man by whom the Son of Man is betrayed. It had been better, it had been good for that man if he had never been born. Then Judas which betrayed him answered and said, Master, is it I?
And when he said that, he had thirty pieces of silver in his pocket or his bag wherever he kept it, because if you go back to verse fifteen, it says they covenanted with him for thirty pieces of silver. And from that time, he sought opportunity to betray him. Then the feast of the Passover came. So there he was, sitting at the table with his betrayal money in his pocket. And he says, Lord, is he dying? And the Lord said, and he said, Master, Master, is he dying? And the Lord said, thou hast said it.
Now we know, It's always a person in my mind. I know it is in yours. Was Judas present at the Lord's table? When the Lord instituted the presence of mind, was Judas there? Or was he not there? You say, well, John thirteen, verse thirty says, He then having received the sop, went immediately out, and it was night. Therefore you'd say he wasn't there. Yep, but he don't get the Lord's table in John. That's an amazing thing to me. John, that disciple of love, and the Lord's table means so much to us, but John doesn't mention the Lord's Supper in his account, doesn't mention it.
The others do. But if you read this, he says, as they were eating, Jesus took bread and so on and so on, and... You could think from this volume that, yes, Judas went out before the Institute of the Supper. But let's look a moment at Mark fourteen. Mark fourteen, and they will say verse Seventeen.
In the evening he cometh with the twelve as they had said and did eat. And as they sat and did eat, Jesus said, Verily I say to you, one of you which he did with me shall betray me. And he began to be very sorrowful and say unto him, One by one, Is it I? Another said, Is it I? And he answered the seven to them, it is one of the twelve that gibbeth with me in the dish. The Son of Man indeed bore it as it is written of him, but bore to that man by whom the Son of Man is betrayed. Good were it for that man if he'd never been born. And as they did eat, Jesus took bread and blessed. You'd think that Judas was there. I can't tell you.
I'd never be able to solve in my own mind, but I think that from John's account, Judas went immediately out then at that point. And he took this up, then he went out, but look at Luke twenty-two. Luke twenty-two. And verse seven. Let's probably further down than seven. Let me read from verse seven. No further doubt. Verse fourteen, when the hour was come he sat down and the twelve apostles went in, he said unto them, With desire of thy desire to eat this partial religion before I suffer.
For I say unto you, I will not any more eat thereof until it be fulfilled in the kingdom of God. And he took the cup and gave thanks and said, Take this and divide it among yourselves. For I say unto you, I will not drink of the fruit of the vine until the kingdom of God is come. And he took bread and gave thanks and break it and gave unto them saying, This is my body which is given for you. This too in remembrance of me. Likewise also the cup after supper saying, This cup is the New Testament in my blood which is shed for you. But, listen to this. But, behold, the hand of him that betrays me is with me on the table. Then you think Judas was there.
It's a difficult story. a very difficult thing to decide. Was Jesus at the supper? Was he there? From Luke you think he was. From John you think he wasn't. From Mark and Matthew, there is the opportunity for him to have gone out then. You know one day I can't settle it now, but I know the infinite grace of God. I have known men stand like two priests and lit the door. To see that no poor last trembling soul could come to the Lord's table if he didn't think he was worthy.
But in the infinite grace of God, it may be that Eve and Judith sat there when he instituted that feast, I don't know. But how infinitely gracious is God. How gracious and kind we should be to the Lord's people. I think we should emphasize over and over, as I seek to do, you know, a man has to examine himself. Let a man examine himself and so let him eat. I have to examine myself. You have to examine yourself. I don't think it's my business to examine you or your business to examine me. But it's my business to examine myself. Let a man examine himself and so let him eat.
And the Lord's table is for the Lord's people. Let's go on in our story. Twenty-sixth verse of chapter twenty-six. As they were eating, Jesus took bread and blessed it and bragged it and gave it to his disciples and said, Take him, this is my body. And he took the cup and gave thanks. and gave it to them, saying, Drink ye all of it. This is my blood of the New Testament which is shed for many for the remission of sin. But I say unto you, I will not drink henceforth of this fruit of the vine until that day when I drink it new with new in my father's kingdom. Now you see we have two suppers.
We have the Passover supper and then we have what we call the Lord. the one flowed out of the other. They took the Passover supper, and as they were eating it, then he took bread. As they were eating, eating the Passover, I suppose they were getting towards the end of the meal, then he took the bread and broke and gave it to them, and gave them the wine, and he instituted this new thing. Take, eat, this is my body.
Now, he didn't mean, like the Catholics tell us, that that bread was his body. It was a type of picture of his body. He didn't mean that when they drank that wine, if it was wine, that they were drinking his blood, was the Catholics tell us. But it was a picture of his body. It was to tell us about his suffering. It's an amazing thing to me, and you've heard me say this before, an amazing thing to me, that he took these simple things. Where can you go in all the world where you can't find bread and you can't find wine? And I like to think of it this way, and you've heard me say it before, some of you.
That bread is on the table when we gather to remember the Lord. Not long ago that was growing in the field. It was wheat growing in the field. And when it was ripe it was cut off. What a picture of the Lord. It says he was cut off in the midst of his days. Thirty-three years of age he was cut down. And then that wheat was taken to the threshing floor. because they had to divide the corn from the husk. Now there are various ways of doing that. I don't know how they do it in this modern age, but I know in the old day, and I've seen it out in the Middle East, I've seen it all spread out on the second floor, and I've seen the oxen blindfolded with a long pole sticking out and he goes round and round and round.
He can't go anywhere else because he's tied by that pole, he's blindfolded. and he's treading on the corn. And as he treads on it, the husk gets divided from the wheat. That's what they call treading the present. And the alchemy does. Others will do it with a flail. They beat it with a flail and divide the husk from the corn. And the Lord Jesus, when he stood before Pilate, and he handed him over to his soldiers. He commanded that he should discus when the Lord Jesus was beaten, that they beat the corn with a fail.
What a picture. He says, look, this is me to remember me. And then he took that corn after they separated the house from the wheat, and they put it through the mill. Now in those old days things were primitive and simple, but when I was a boy they were too. I had an uncle that was a miller who lived in a country place in Devonshire in England. He managed to a mill, a corn mill, a flour mill. And I used to watch him.
The corn was poured into the sheets and it came down And it came down and in the tree, two big flat millstones. Oh, they were steep. To me as a boy, I suppose they were four feet diameter in about probably six inches thick. And the one wheel was on the other. One was going one way and one the other way, run by shaft in the middle. And then they had to be dressed. My uncle used to put on a pair of goggles and with a hammer and some kind of a tool.
He used to kick it and dress it, what he called, dressing, dressing the millstone. And the corn fell between the millstones and it was brown, browned the houses, browned the flowers. And when the Lord Jesus Christ hung upon the cross, he was between the nether millstone of the wrath of men, and he was between the upper millstone of the wrath of God in this ground at the place called Christ. He says, Now take this rail in the middle and meet. And when they took that flower, it was filled with, and then they made it into a loaf.
And they put it in the oven. Now I don't know again how they do it today with all modern devices and the electrical heat and so on. But I remember when I was a boy, I had another uncle and he was a baker. And I used to like to go to his bake shop sometimes and look in a little door. And that's where they put the bread in and they spread it on a huge, huge area, a flat area in there. I think it was piled inside. And it was to paint with a long, almost like a long shovel. I think we call it a seal. A seal or a seal. And it was a good scrap wood with a long handle.
And they taped the bread in order. And then when it was all taped, then the heat was turned on and the heat came up around the side and over. And the bread was dazed. The oven door was shut. You couldn't see. And when the Lord Jesus hung upon Calvary's cross, God covered the whole scene in darkness. Shall I say whether it means the oven door was closed, and the flames of the wrath of God sent their fury upon the sun's door. He passed through the furnace for you and for me. And when the milk comes out, you can see the very marks of the fengis, browned and scorched.
And when you sit at the Lord's table Sunday morning and look at that there, you can see it being filled in. What are sitting people? The Lord Jesus took bread, and he broke it, and he gave it to them, and he tells us so clearly in the other scriptures, this thing in the memory of you. I want you when you gave it to think of how near. And then the wine. I was in the Middle East, I used to watch them in the harvest time. They used to go out for the downsides, to see baskets on the sides of the downsides, and gather in the grapes, buried bunches of grapes, and throw them into the basket and bring them in.
And there in the vineyard, there would be a trough, a stone trough. In fact, those old troughs or horses used to drink out of them when we were lunches down the road before the automobiles came in. And they throw them in there. And then a man would get in on them and trample them. These were news, maybe they always had about six pairs of stockings on these men, because the watch would come and sting them, so they'd have about six pairs of stockings, and they'd trample up and down on the base. And then the geese would flow out to a little hole in the bottom of the trough, and they'd catch it in a bottle.
But here, but the bottle was made of a goat's gin. and then they would take these goat-skin bottles of wine back to where it was prepared and put into the rats and so on. For the Lord Jesus was trampled at the very salt house. Crushed into the wrath of God through your sins in mine.