In Matthew 26:17-19, Jesus sent His disciples to go into the city to a specific man’s house and to make preparations at the place that Jesus planned to celebrate the Passover with His disciples. When night came, Jesus ate the Passover with the twelve, sharing in table fellowship together.
In the midst of this meal, Jesus revealed shocking information: one of them would betray Him! In great distress, the disciples were filled with dread and even self-doubt, saying to Jesus in succession, “Surely I am not the one who will betray you, Lord?” In response, Jesus declared that one of them who had accepted His invitation to dine and who had shared intimate table fellowship would indeed betray Him.
The going of Jesus to His death would occur according to the divine determination of the triune God and as prophesied in Scripture, and yet God would also hold the man who betrayed Jesus responsible and thus deserving of judgment. When Judas Iscariot asked if he was the betrayer, Jesus affirmed that Judas was in fact the man. After Judas fled to complete his sinister deed of treason against the Son of Man, and within the context of the Passover meal, in Matthew 26:26-29, Jesus transformed the Passover into a New Covenant commemorative meal as He instituted the Lord’s Supper.
Taking the elements of unleavened bread and wine, Jesus consecrated these ordinary elements for extraordinary use in this special meal, telling His disciples that they symbolically represented His broken body and His poured-out blood, as He Himself would be the perfect atoning Passover Lamb who would voluntarily give of Himself as a perfect sacrifice for His people. After partaking together, the gathered men concluded by singing a hymn of praise to God.
We then closely examined what the Lord’s Supper means and how we ought to view it. What is the pattern and administration of it? How are the elements to be consecrated, distributed, and consumed? How is the Lord’s Supper a means of grace? What will bring its regular celebration to an end one day? As it pictures redemptive history, how does the Supper have significant meaning in the past, present, and future?
Listen to the teaching on Matthew 26:17-30 by clicking on the link below:
