The King, Our Passover Lamb / Through Heaven’s Eyes

[0:00] Thank you, Vicky, for reading the Bible passage for us this morning. Good morning. My name is Benjamin Baru, and if you do not know me, I'm one of the elders here in BEMKEC, and it's my privilege to be able to bring God's word to us this morning.

[0:17] So as we begin, let's pray, alright? Father in heaven, even as I bring the message this morning, I pray that what I say and what I speak will be true, will be from you, and that will be edified through your spirit working in us, and it glorifies you in every way. In all this I pray, in Jesus' name, Amen.

[0:40] Now if you haven't been following us on our Sunday services, or are probably visiting this morning, we are in a sermon series in the Gospel of Luke.

[0:53] Now as I was preparing for this sermon, this passage brought me to my uni days. I was in Adelaide, Australia, and in my overseas Christian fellowship, we were preparing a musical.

[1:08] We decided to put on a musical on the Prince of Egypt. Now if you do not know this Prince of Egypt, it's an animated film, okay, basically about Moses and the exodus out of Egypt.

[1:21] So my girlfriend then, who is now my wife, was the director of the musical. My housemates, which were my sister, Amy and Robin, who is also here, supposed to be here in this church, were actors and singers in the musical. So that meant that the songs that we were singing were on replay in the house months before the musical.

[1:45] So one song that came to my mind straight away was the song called Through Heaven's Eyes. Now this song, if you don't know, was sung by Jethro in the movie, okay, who was Moses' father-in-law, to Moses at a point of his life, at the lowest point of his life, okay.

[2:06] And it encouraged him to shift his perspective, urging him to view life and circumstance from a divine rather than from a human viewpoint.

[2:18] Emphasizing the importance of seeing beyond the surface and understanding God's plan. So church, even as we listen to the sermon today, that is the perspective we will be taking.

[2:30] We will try to zoom out from what may seem to be going on and see what's going on through Heaven's Eyes. Now as the passage was read out to us, we find ourselves approaching the Passover, also known as the Festival of Unleavened Bread.

[2:49] Now, I did not talk about the Prince of Egypt musical randomly in my opener, as some flashback moment, but it is and will be important as we think about the Passover.

[2:59] Not just this Passover in Luke 22, but the Passover in the book of Exodus. Just like in the Prince of Egypt, the first Passover with Moses.

[3:10] Now I'll touch more in a few minutes, but first we will see what's happening here in Luke 22. Now from verse 1 to 6, we read that the Passover is approaching, right?

[3:22] The day of the Passover has not arrived. So this part, verses 1 to 6, happened before the Passover, and most scholars would think it happened between one week to two days before verse 7, or the day of the Passover.

[3:36] And what we see taking place is a sneak peek of the scheme of betrayal that will befall Jesus. Now unlike from the past few weeks, the story in Luke so far seems to be going very well.

[3:50] Jesus was captivating the crowds with his teaching, putting the teachers of the law and Sadducees in their place by his brilliance and counter-questioning. But like all the movies that we watch, when things are going well, we get a scene where there is a hint that trouble is brewing, that something bad is going to happen.

[4:10] Now from verse 1 to 6, we can see four plans, or four groups with plans in play. Firstly, we have the plans of the chief priests and the teachers of the law.

[4:22] Now we know as early as Luke 19 and 20 that the chief priests, the teachers of the law, and the leaders were seeking to kill Jesus, seeking to arrest Jesus. But it says in scripture that they could not find a way to do it because the people were listening to him.

[4:39] They loved him and they were afraid of the people. Now at this point, Jesus was some sort of superstar. To most Jews at the time, he was recognized as a great teacher or a prophet from God that did miracles all over Judea, healing the sick, casting out demons, and even had the gift of teaching the likes of which the crowds had never heard before.

[5:03] They were captivated by his teachings and they would come from far just to hear him speak. He was a modern day influencer, the type of person who gets invited to TED Talks and sells out.

[5:15] But because of his teaching that generally went directly against the teachers of the law, they didn't like him. They didn't like him at all. They wanted to kill Jesus so he won't rock their boat of self-righteousness.

[5:30] To get rid of him, they were looking for an opportunity. And their plan seems to be working because this opportunity arrived in the form of the second and third party.

[5:41] Now the second and third party come close together, but chronologically, number two is Satan. Now Satan seems to come out of the blue here in chapter 22.

[5:53] But in fact, he made his first appearance in chapter 4. Now you notice if you have been following our Bible studies in our home fellowship groups, and you know that his plan was always to derail and mess with Jesus' ministry.

[6:08] To hinder Jesus here on earth. So in chapter 4, Satan tried to tempt and test Jesus for 40 days as Jesus went into the wilderness.

[6:20] At the end of the 40 days, Satan failed in his temptation of Jesus. And in verse 13, it said that Satan left Jesus until an opportune time. Now seeing that Satan makes his appearance in chapter 22, it indicates to us that an opportune time has arrived.

[6:37] But this time, he's working through Judas. It says he entered Judas in verse 3. Now this does not mean that he somehow possessed Judas, and mind controlled him to betray Jesus.

[6:52] From the pattern of scripture, that does not seem to be how Satan works. Now Satan is known as the accuser, the deceiver, or the father of lies in other parts of scripture.

[7:03] He tempts, he fills people's hearts with lies. He prowls around like a lion, seeking whom he may devour. And he does so exploiting our weaknesses and weak places of our flesh, looking for opportunities to stir sinful passions in our hearts.

[7:21] Now he did it to Eve in the garden. He tried tempting Jesus in the wilderness. And I'm sure we ourselves today can understand this struggle with temptations of the flesh in our daily lives.

[7:36] So here in verse 3, Satan's plan against Jesus seems to have succeeded in tempting and stirring up Judas' desire in his heart against Jesus.

[7:47] This leads us to the third character, or third plan. The Judas is number 3. For Judas, there are two things to note for him right now.

[8:00] The first is that he was one of the 12 original disciples. In the sense that it's quite an achievement or position. We know from scripture that Jesus had more than 12 disciples or followers, so being part of the 12 was a privilege.

[8:15] He was there from the beginning of Jesus' public ministry. He was a direct disciple of Jesus. Part of the inner circle, privy to all of Jesus' explanations and teachings exclusive to disciples.

[8:31] Spending so much time with Jesus, listening to him directly, it is arguable that Judas would have been one of the handful of people who knew Jesus the best, who had the opportunity to know Jesus the best.

[8:45] Now the second thing to note about Judas is the fact that Judas went to the chief priests and officers of the temple guards in verse 3. He went looking for them.

[8:56] He went looking for them to betray Jesus. It was not a scheme of the chief priests to recruit him as someone who would betray Jesus, but he willingly offered his services to them.

[9:09] Satan definitely gave him the push, but it was Judas' plan in the end to betray Jesus. Now we will expand more and explore this character Judas a bit more later on, when Jesus mentions a betrayer later in the passage.

[9:28] Now so far it seems quite troubling, the plans and schemes against Jesus. It seems like Jesus is in a bad spot. Multiple parties are trying to get him killed, and we the readers may be wondering what happens next.

[9:41] But I mention here there are four plans, and we can see from this passage that there is a plan, number four, and it's a plan that is a long time in the making. A plan that spans thousands of years weaving in all of human history, all of Israel's failures and success, taking into account all our individual action and choices, and even the three plans that were made against Jesus.

[10:07] They are used and weaved in this fourth plan to achieve a desired outcome. The fourth plan that is also happening at the same time is God's plan. God's plan is in motion, and to see clearly we have to back out, we have to zoom out, and see history through heaven's eyes.

[10:24] Now so to see this fourth plan, we will split into three parts to go through today. Now the P, F, and C, two Cs of the fourth plan is in your sermon outline.

[10:38] I'm going to talk about the P. That's the other actor, Robin, from my musical. Okay, so the P, the F, and now we'll see how these two connect to the two Cs.

[10:54] From verses 7 to 21, we can see bits and pieces of the plan, but for these verses to make more sense, to see it much more clearly, we must start in the past.

[11:07] We must first go to the start of the festival in verse 7. The writer here announces again the day of unleavened bread, setting the time, seemingly indicating some sort of relevance to the story.

[11:20] But we will go back in the past to see the first Passover in Exodus, and the Passover depicted in the Prince of Egypt. Now remember when I said that the original Passover is important?

[11:33] And this is why the Passover is a huge theme here in the passage. Now the Passover is important to the Israelites because it commemorates the first act, or continuous act of God that is shown to the Israelites as a nation to break their bondage from Egypt and the start of their journey to the Promised Land.

[11:55] Now if you don't know what happened during the Passover, now this is a summary for you. Now the tenth and last plague that was to befall Egypt was the angel of death. Now Pharaoh, the Pharaoh of Egypt, refused to let the Israelites go.

[12:09] So God gave instructions to the Israelites. And by the way, all these elements of these instructions is going to be important. So God instructed that the Passover lamb or a young goat, without blemish, was to be slaughtered.

[12:25] The blood spilled was to be painted on the doorposts of the houses, and the sacrificial animal to be eaten by every household that very night. And this meal must be obeyed and passed down to every generation, down to their descendants.

[12:41] Now when the night came, the angel passed over the houses with the blood, and those houses who didn't have the blood on the doorposts experienced death of the firstborn.

[12:52] Now you can read this all in Exodus 12. Now this act was what ultimately broke Pharaoh's stubbornness, and he let the Israelites go. That was the background story of why the Israelites celebrated the Passover.

[13:06] The Passover was celebrated as a reminder of their past, a reminder of the mighty work of his outstretched hand, freeing them from the bondage of slavery and into the promised land.

[13:20] In reminding themselves of the past, they are also reminded of the promise of God's great king. Because of what God has done for them in the past, they would be looking forward towards a fresh deliverance, a liberation of Israel, so to speak, and the coming of kingdom of God.

[13:39] The Passover informs us about the past, but also the future, which is the second part of God's plan. The F. So the Israelites at that point have been waiting for a Messiah, God's great king.

[13:56] They've been conquered, overcome by so many foreign powers that it is no surprise that they long to be freed from foreign rule. They are longing for a new Israel, a new kingdom that the Messiah will usher in.

[14:10] There were many who were hoping that perhaps Jesus, the one who came, teaching wondrous things, performed miracles all over Judea, and even dead stand up against those teachers of the law and Pharisees, was the Messiah.

[14:28] Perhaps even the disciples could have been under that same impression. In some ways they were right, but in many ways it showed that they did not understand Jesus. Now in verses 15, 16, and 18, Jesus gives some insight about himself in the future.

[14:45] In verses 15, 16, he announces that his death is imminent. He will suffer soon and he will not eat again until it is fulfilled in the kingdom of God. Then in verse 18, it says similarly, that he would not drink again from the fruit of the vine until the kingdom of God comes.

[15:03] Jesus is saying that his suffering will be the means by which fulfillment for the kingdom of God will occur, and that the establishment of God's kingdom must take place through this Passover.

[15:18] Now we can't be sure what's going on through the minds of his disciples, but as readers today, and being able to zoom out, looking through heaven's eyes, we can know that Jesus is speaking to an eternal kingdom rather than an earthly kingdom that many were anticipating from a human Messiah.

[15:35] Earlier in Luke 14, Jesus spoke and said, blessed is the one who will eat at the feast in the kingdom of God. And we can read from Revelations 19, the Apostle John also quotes a similar phrase.

[15:48] Blessed are those who are invited to the wedding supper of the Lamb. Now the wedding supper is a feast that happens when the church or the bride is finally joined together with the bridegroom that is Jesus when he returns on his second coming.

[16:04] The marriage supper of the Lamb is a glorious celebration of all who are in Christ being united with him, where they will be all full of glory and full of peace. Now this is a future celebration that is to happen through the fulfillment of the Passover meal and also what is to come.

[16:22] So the second part of God's plan indicates that what is going to happen in this Passover festival is important and vital to be fulfilled for the hope that we can have in God's kingdom in the future.

[16:36] And what is to come is the third and last part of God's plan that is the coming cross. Now it's the coming cross because in chapter 22, the cross has not happened yet.

[16:47] I don't want to jump the gun. It will be something that will happen soon but not yet. But it's okay because the Passover meal here is in fact a picture or a shadow of the coming cross that Jesus will have to bear.

[17:02] It's like the final trailer for a movie that is about to come out. It is Jesus' last supper and he spells out what the Passover meal means for the cross.

[17:13] Now remember the history lesson I gave for Passover in part one of God's plan? A lamb without blemish sacrifice? Blood spilled? Passover lamb shed among the household and that death will pass over the family?

[17:27] Since the first Passover it is custom that the lamb sacrifice was a substitute carrying God's judgment and shielding from God's wrath all those who ate the meal.

[17:41] That was the first Passover. But looking here at verses 14 to 22 it's interesting to note that there was no mention of a lamb to be shed in this last supper.

[17:52] Instead Jesus says this is my body given for you and this cup is the new covenant in my blood which is poured out for you. Jesus is pointing to himself saying that he is the sacrificial lamb.

[18:08] His body will be broken his blood will be spilled just like the lambs of the Passover. and through his blood a new covenant is promised to us in verse 20.

[18:20] Now remember a covenant is like a deal or an agreement. There was one made in the Old Testament and actually we sung about it this morning during our worship session or singing worship session.

[18:34] There was one made in the Old Testament but because of people's disobedience and failures to uphold their end of the covenant God is making a new covenant with his people through Jesus.

[18:47] Now if this concept of covenant is new to you today and then perhaps the concept of blood being involved in covenant making may be new to you too. Now one aspect of the use of blood in covenant making symbolizes a vital commitment and the shared life and destiny of the parties involved in the agreement signifying that they are now bound together it is the most sacred of agreements.

[19:15] Now unlike the covenant in the Old Testament which was made with the blood of bulls in Exodus 24 he is making a new and perfect covenant through his blood. Now another aspect of the use of blood is the substitutionary nature of blood.

[19:32] As in custom in Israel when an animal is sacrificed it is seen as a substitutionary act for atonement of sin the animal basically takes sin for you temporarily.

[19:46] So his death is what the other sacrificial lambs or other sacrifice could not perfectly do. He will perfectly atone for the sins of the world the perfect and divine sacrifice that Jesus is going to make will genuinely satisfy God's wrath against human sin and bring about genuine true and lasting forgiveness.

[20:08] Just like the angel of death passing over the household of the faithful those who place their trust and hope in Jesus can stand before God in full forgiveness cleansed by the blood of the perfect lamb and they will have eternal life and can wait in future anticipation of the kingdom of God that is to come.

[20:27] So far I hope I've painted for you through heaven's eyes the picture of God's plan from past to the hope in the future from the remainder of God's faithfulness from the past that the Passover meal is a reflection of the cross that is to come and that through the cross he fulfilled his promises during the Passover and in scripture because of all this we have access to the kingdom of God that is to come now from this section we can learn one thing here we can trust in the faithfulness and wisdom of our God for our salvation remember the first three plans that were taking place those worldly plans may have been troubling or worrying at first but in comparison of how God could use man even Satan's own schemes and sin to bring good from a bad situation in Romans 828 it says and we know that all things God works for the good of those who love him I believe that in spite of evil schemes created by man or Satan

[21:29] God can weave good out of it so perhaps today you may be facing trouble from all sides you may feel overwhelmed by the circumstances of life it may not be easy and most times it may not be our first instinct but I encourage you to come to the father come to him who can bring comfort and peace trust that he is with you all the way and be encouraged that our eternity has been won for us already and our heavenly father wants you to come to him and he wants to hear from you so trust in the faithfulness and wisdom of our God so I want to move on and I want to talk about Judas a bit more now we went through a bit about Judas in the beginning of the sermon and now in verse 21 23 he is brought up again by Jesus verse 21 it says but the hand of him who is going to betray me is with mine on the table the son of man will go as it has been decreed but woe to the man that betray him and they began to question among themselves which of them it might be who do this now what can we learn from this segment of passage so far or this segment passage there are three things

[22:46] I want to glean from Judas and Jesus for us to think about this morning now Judas is infamous and synonymous with betrayal he's got a bad rap and rightly so but do you realize that the disciples couldn't figure out who the betrayer was sometimes we get the image that Judas wasn't good enough he wasn't like the other disciples but zooming out we see in Luke 9 something different when Jesus sends out the twelve including Judas he gave them power and authority to drive out demons cure diseases and heal the sick he basically performed miracles and there isn't reason to believe he didn't reach his KPI imagine if everyone else was performing miracles left right and center and when Jesus said the one who is going to betray me is on the table I would imagine all disciples would have very strong suspicions who it might be and Judas would have gotten rid of then so he must have done his part in

[23:52] Jesus ministry but Judas betrayed Jesus why there have been discussions on why he acted that way or acted the way he did and the general consensus could either be power or greed or a mix of both he perhaps thought through getting close to Jesus he would have had access to these things definitely Satan had a part to play in strengthening his desire for power and of greed but it is these desires that were already in Judas' heart that bore the fruits of betrayal so first may this be a reminder for those of us in ministry actually any one of us here but especially those in ministry be careful not to use our performance our works in ministry our successes as our measure of faith or do not let it get to our heads now Judas performed in his ministry but he still fell in the end we are all humans on the doors of our hearts so be sure not to be complacent in your faith guard your hearts against sinful desires flee from temptation when it comes for some it may be the allure of the cup for some it may be watching things that we shouldn't it may be chasing material things in this world and neglect our family and our ministry or it could be the self centered pursuit of

[25:25] God in our lives now I do not know your lives and the struggles you are enduring but guard your hearts be humble and turn to the one who has the power to help and that is Jesus turning to Jesus now is related to point two and three for us to reflect and think about now I've mentioned power and greed as the desires in Judas heart but what we can safely say is that Judas did not understand who Jesus truly was for if he did he would not have betrayed the son of God he perhaps believed also that Jesus was the Messiah coming to liberate them from the Romans but as time passed he probably realized that that wasn't the case he wasn't raising an army he was doing more teaching than inciting there was no weapons or plans to start a revolution Jesus was not who he thought he was from where we see today looking back we can say that

[26:25] Judas got it all wrong looking at God's plan the fourth plan earlier again that is not the kingdom that Jesus is ushering and he is not a conquering Messiah but he is a saving Messiah for mankind so the second point to think about for ourselves is who is Jesus to you just like Judas not having a clear understanding of who Jesus was do we have a clear understanding of who Jesus is is he an insurance plan a backup plan for you just in case things go bad is he like a vending machine where you come to him when you need something is he the god of your father or your grandfather but not truly yours is he the namesake on your IC which says Christian but not really or is he the promised messiah son of the living god and your savior here you today we have the privilege of witnessing members of our church being baptised there are going to be 11 of them this morning and it is with great joy as we witness them being baptised later when they are baptised they will be asked a few questions and they will answer them publicly and

[27:48] I'm sure many of us here have made the same decisions before to publicly! our faith so as we hear the declarations of faith later I encourage you if you have been baptised to think back of your own answers then and now and at the same time stand firm with your declarations that you have made once before this morning as we think about who is Jesus to you now the third point I want us to reflect this morning is what made the difference in like I mentioned earlier Judas is synonymous with betrayal right but you know Peter did the same thing yes the apostle Peter now I will just go a bit further into next week's passage from verses 31-34 about Peter's promises and what he did but Pastor Brian will expand more about this next week for sure right so I just quickly go in and come back now

[28:49] Peter declared he was ready to go to prison he was ready to die for Jesus but when we read later when Jesus was caught he ran when Peter was accused of being a disciple he denied Jesus three times to the rooster crowing Peter betrayed Jesus just like Judas in the end Peter and Judas were sinners just like me just like you we are all sinners we are all living in this broken world in need of Jesus and the beauty of the cross and the promises of the Passover meal was that when Jesus said this is my body given to you given for you and this cup is a new covenant in my blood which is poured out for you this you was a plural you meaning his atonement was for all of his disciples seated at the table Judas included when Jesus went to cross he died as a perfect sacrifice atoning the sins for everyone it says in 1st

[29:55] John 2 2 he himself is a propitiation for our sins not only ours but also for the sins of the whole world he became the sacrifice or the atonement for me and for you but for Judas and Peter the difference came in how they responded to Jesus maybe it was who Jesus was to Judas thought that Jesus was merely a teacher but to Peter after the betrayal Peter still believed that Jesus was truly the Messiah Peter came back to Jesus and Judas went away from him Jesus was the very person they needed to turn to at their lowest point and for that Peter was in the end glorified and Judas wasn't so hear this good news for everyone Jesus died for you and is eager to have you called upon him now if you have not heard this good news this morning or perhaps you have been distant from the faith because of sin or perhaps circumstance remember that

[31:01] Jesus sat down face to face with his betrayer fully knowing what was in his heart fully knowing that he was about to betray him but he sat there and said I will die for you I will spill my blood for you that is the serving saving love of our Lord Jesus Christ nothing you have done can keep yourself too far from Jesus love for you but what you decide to do today do not react like Judas turning away from the one who will bring you peace but just come to him humble yourself just like Peter did who is Jesus to you now as we come to the final segment of our passage this morning in verses 24 to 30 in verses 24 a dispute raised which among them was considered the greatest now it is clear what Jesus was saying or what was about to happen to

[32:02] Jesus maybe it was a bit of the earthly idea of a messiah seeping through disciples as to greatness and the gist of the question raised was what is greatness verses 25 to 27 onwards Jesus highlights two perspectives one from the eyes of the world and the other through the eyes of heaven from the world's perspective the answer seems obvious honored guests at banquets are great the kings who lord it over the other people and those who exercise authority over others this idea of greatness is not foreign to us at all isn't it most of the time in our society that we live in that is the concept of greatness but here Jesus is saying otherwise in verses 26 Jesus says but you are not to be like that the greatest among you shall be like the youngest and the one who rules like the one who serves now if you have watched

[33:04] Korean drama or Korean variety shows you know that the younger person they call the dong sang will do everything in the scene all the menial tasks the laborious tasks and that's perhaps how the world thinks generally but Jesus is saying to us like the younger ones the ones who serve is great in heaven's eyes in verses 27 Jesus says clearly in the eye of the world the one sitting at the table is great but don't you see that I am serving you this is indeed the case in the world but not in the kingdom of God Jesus is I am the Messiah then be like me be like the one who serves so this is my last take-home message this morning now we've seen

[34:06] God's plan for the beginning of time slowly revealing his plan and redemption through the Passover meal that points to the cross showing his great love patience and faithfulness throughout even with a betrayer on the table and hearing the promises we have in Jesus awaiting the wonderful banquet that we will feast on in the kingdom of God at the end of days and so for now how are we to spend our time here on earth in response to him our church has various ministries you can definitely serve in now children's church music ministry social concerns ushering we have many avenues for you to serve but we don't you can serve those around you from where you are being a good friend being a listening ear encouraging one another towards Christ praying for one another giving your offering bearing each other's burdens as simple as caring for each other is service how can we serve others in our lives now let's not get stuck in our bubble of greatness or in a human way of thinking of greatness that we become too good to serve now you can look at the back of the bulletin if you really desire to serve and if you are not actively serving

[35:31] I do pray that you consider and put some thought into how you can serve the body of Christ let's follow Jesus Christ example of greatness as a servant king in response to what he showed he did for us on the cross this morning come let's father in heaven we thank you for your plan of redemption so clearly depicted in scripture from the first Passover to the cross to the hope of your kingdom that is to come we thank you for your son Jesus and what we receive from him through his sacrifice on the cross lord help us to meditate on your word and to look inwardly in our lives help us to guard ourselves from temptation help us to see Jesus for who he is and what he has done for us and help us respond faithfully!

[36:29] As we live our life! live this life help us to adopt an attitude of service like Jesus in our ministries and in our relationships with those around us renew our faith within us as we firmly place our trust and hope in you alone in Jesus name I pray Amen