Sovereign Grace Baptist Church

Title: A Walk with the Savior to his Table
Text: Matthew 20: 17-19

Date: May 5, 2013

Place: SGBC, New Jersey

Each believer here has many blessings from God to thank him for:

·         Sovereign electing grace

·         Holy, unchangeable, unconditional love

·         Predestinating grace whereby the Father works all things together for good to them that love God, to them that are called according to his purpose, by which he crossed our paths with the good news of our Savior.

·         Effectual, irresistible grace by which the Spirit regenerated us and brought us to faith and repentance

·         Everlasting Covenant of Grace—exceeding great and precious promises to us, ordered in all things and sure.

·         Preserving grace

·         An inheritance incorruptible, undefiled, that fadeth not away, reserved in heaven for us.

·         Innumerable temporal blessings as he faithfully provides our needs.

But today, we are taking the bread and wine of our Lord’s Table.  Our Savior commands his saints, “This do in remembrance of ME.”  So it may be helpful for us in remembering him to take…

Title: A Walk with the Savior to his Table

Our Savior tells us where we will go and what we will see on this walk with the Savior:

Matthew 20: 17: And Jesus going up to Jerusalem took the twelve disciples apart in the way, and said unto them, 18  Behold, we go up to Jerusalem and the Son of man shall be betrayed unto the chief priests and unto the scribes and they shall condemn him to death 19: And shall deliver him to the Gentiles to mock, and to scourge, and to crucify him: and the third day he shall rise again.

Proposition: On this walk, we will remember the gracious person of Jesus Christ the Savior to teach and protect his people and we will remember his suffering and death whereby he accomplished our eternal redemption.

I. FIRST, WE GO UP TO JERUSALEM

Christ Saves Mercy Beggars

Even on his way to Jerusalem to lay down his life, Christ helped those in need. As they came to Jericho two blind men sat by the wayside begging.

Notice in verse 29, they asked, “Have mercy on us, O Lord, thou Son of David. Are you blind? Spiritually blind? The blind shall be made to see; those who say we see, there sin remains. (Jn 9: 41)  The blind beg for mercy.

Matthew 20: 32: And Jesus stood still, and called them, and said, What will ye that I shall do unto you? 33: They say unto him, Lord, that our eyes may be opened. 34: So Jesus had compassion on them, and touched their eyes: and immediately their eyes received sight, and they followed him.

The great Physician stands still for true mercy beggars.  “They that are whole have no need of the physician, but they that are sick: I came not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.” (Mark 2: 17)

Application: Sinner, come begging mercy. With one touch, immediately their eyes received sight—AND THEY FOLLOWED HIM.

Christ is the Fulfillment of the Law, Prophets and Psalms

Next, we come to Bethpage, near Jerusalem. Everything we see Christ doing—he is doing to fulfill the scriptures.  Christ sent two of his disiples ahead to retrieve an ass and her colt.  How did Christ know this?  He is all-knowing God. He said of the owner verse 3, “and straightway he will send them.” What made the owner send his own animals away with his disciples? Christ is all-powerful God.  He makes men “willing in the day of his power.”   Why did Christ do this? 

Matthew 20: 4: All this was done, that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the prophet, saying, 5: Tell ye the daughter of Sion, Behold, thy King cometh unto thee, meek, and sitting upon an ass, and a colt the foal of an ass.

The Spirit of Christ made the prophets write that Christ would do all these things. Every step Christ took was to fulfill all that is written in the old testament scriptures.  By him telling us beforehand in the scriptures then coming forth and doing these things—things he himself did and things others around him did even after he was in the tomb—by this he assures us with multiple witnesses that he is God the Son, he is the Christ, and he is the Savior who shall save his people from our sins.

Christ is the King Prophet and King High Priest

Then we follow Christ into Jerusalem.

Matthew 21: 8: And a very great multitude spread their garments in the way; others cut down branches from the trees, and strawed them in the way. 9: And the multitudes that went before, and that followed, cried, saying, Hosanna to the Son of David: Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord; Hosanna in the highest.

“Hosanna” means "Save me, I beseech you." They acknowledged Jesus to be the King, the Messiah, the Son of David promised by God, coming in the name of the Lord—we will see in a moment, the scriptures said they would. So God put it in their hearts to do this.  But they thought Christ was coming to set up an earthly kingdom.  So when God leaves them to themselves, in 5 days, the same people will be crying, “Crucify him! Crucify him!”

Matthew 21: 11: And the multitude said, This is Jesus the prophet of Nazareth of Galilee.

Jesus Christ is THE Prophet of God.  Moses wrote, De 18:15  “The LORD thy God will raise up unto thee a Prophet from the midst of thee, of thy brethren, like unto me; unto him ye shall hearken;’ 

Christ is THE only true Nazarite. “Nazareth” and “Nazarite” mean—“separated and given to God from the womb.” This too was written in the scriptures.  Matthew 2: 23: "And he came and dwelt in a city called Nazareth, that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the prophets, he shall be called a Nazarene?” It was spoken by Jacob of Joseph, but it was prophetical of Christ. We saw it in Genesis 49: 26: "The blessings of thy father…shall be on the crown of the head of him that was separate [Nezer] from his brethren." Moses also said the same thing in Deut 33: 16.

Christ is Lord of his House

Next, we follow the Lord into the temple.  He ran out the money changers, why?

Matthew 21: 13: And said unto them, It is written, My house shall be called the house of prayer; but ye have made it a den of thieves.

The blind and lame came to him. He healed them. Why? Isaiah 35:5: Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened,…6: Then shall the lame man leap as an hart, and the tongue of the dumb sing.  When the chief priests and scribes were displeased because little children were crying, “Hosanna” 

Matthew 21: 16: Jesus saith unto them, Yea; have ye never read, Out of the mouth of babes and sucklings thou hast perfected praise? 17: And he left them, and went out of the city into Bethany; and he lodged there.

Christ is the Judge of his Kingdom

We walk on with our Savior the next morning.

Matthew 21: 18: Now in the morning as he returned into the city, he hungered.

Our Savior who is God is also Man, touched with the feeling of our infirmities.  Spiritually, he hungered to find fruit among the children of Israel, but found none.  So our Savior is about to bring the earthly kingdom of Israel to its end: foreshadowed by him drying up the fig tree. This too was what Christ was written—Isaiah 5: 4-5 describes the vineyard being broken down. So Christ gave the chief priests and elders a parable, similar to Isaiah’s prophecy: a householder planted a vineyard and let it out to husbandmen.  But when he sent his servants to gather the fruits they beat them. At last he sent his son. They said, This is the heir, let us kill him, and seize his inheritance. Christ asked the elders

Matthew 21: 40: When the lord therefore of the vineyard cometh, what will he do unto those husbandmen? 41: They say unto him, He will miserably destroy those wicked men, and will let out his vineyard unto other husbandmen, which shall render him the fruits in their seasons. 42  Jesus saith unto them, Did ye never read in the scriptures, The stone which the builders rejected, the same is become the head of the corner: this is the Lord’s doing, and it is marvellous in our eyes? 43  Therefore say I unto you, The kingdom of God shall be taken from you, and given to a nation bringing forth the fruits thereof. 44: And whosoever shall fall on this stone shall be broken: but on whomsoever it shall fall, it will grind him to powder. 45  And when the chief priests and Pharisees had heard his parables, they perceived that he spake of them. 46  But when they sought to lay hands on him, they feared the multitude, because they took him for a prophet.

Application: Christ is the End of all that is written in the law and the prophets. This book is fulfilled by him.  Everything is written to teach us to believe on Christ. He shall save all those who believe on him.  These religious men hated Christ for telling them the truth, most of all, for BEING THE TRUTH. Submit to Christ sinner and thou shalt be saved.

II. LET’S WALK ON WITH CHRIST THROUGH THE EVENTS OF HIS BETRAYAL.

Men zealous for the law conspired to betray Christ who is the Fulfillment of the Law.

Matthew 26: 1: And it came to pass, when Jesus had finished all these sayings, he said unto his disciples, 2: Ye know that after two days is the FEAST of the passover, and the Son of man IS betrayed to be crucified.

In two days, on Thursday the Passover began. Christ will be betrayed to be crucified at that time for it is written.

Matthew 26: 3: THEN assembled together the chief priests, and the scribes, and the elders of the people, unto the palace of the high priest, who was called Caiaphas, 4: And consulted that they might take Jesus BY SUBTILTY, and kill him. 5: But they said, NOT on the FEAST DAY, lest there be an uproar among the people. 

Now, God’s law stated: in matters too difficult to judge, a man was to be brought to the High Priests, to the counsel, at Jerusalem—these men were supposed to be that judgment seat. If the man was found guilty, he was to be executed publicly, so “all the people shall hear, and fear, and do no more presumptuously.” (Deut 17: 13) “But they said, NOT on the feast day, lest there be an uproar among the people.”

No sinful man ever fulfilled the law—not even that one. But God is in control of these men and Christ shall fulfill his own law.  The matter of settling the sin of his people is a matter too difficult for men’s judgment. Therefore, Christ will bring himself to Jerusalem. Christ will willingly be made sin so that God can lawfully impute sin to him. Then Christ, who is the High Priest, who is the great Counsel, which the Sanhedrim typified, will, as it were, sentence himself to die, by giving himself to justice. And God the Judge will have Christ lifted up on the cross on the feast day because it is the time when the most people will be in Jerusalem. So Christ will fulfill his law. The effect will be exactly what God said it would be in his law, “all the people”—his elect--“shall hear, and fear”—by the power of his grace--and they shall no more break God’s law in presumptuous rebellion but shall believe on Christ and thereby be made the righteousness of God in Christ and establish the law by the obedience of Christ.

Now, let’s see God work all things together to bring about this counsel of his own will, even though those men said, “Not on the feast day”

Matthew 26: 6: Now when Jesus was in Bethany, in the house of Simon the leper, 7: There came unto him a woman having an alabaster box of very precious ointment, and poured it on his head, as he sat at meat.

Before any of this, the Spirit of God worked grace in this woman’s heart.  She’d been saving almost a year to purchase this alabaster box of ointment.  At this time, she comes to Simon’s house, pours it out on Christ to anoint him for his burial.  This caused the disciples—Judas Iscariot included—to murmur. They thought it a waste of money. So Christ rebuked them sharply, which was the last straw for Judas.

Matthew 26: 14: THEN [according to God’s determinate counsel] one of the twelve, called Judas Iscariot, went unto the chief priests, 15: And said unto them, What will ye give me, and I will deliver him unto you? And they covenanted with him for thirty pieces of silver. 16: And from THAT TIME he sought opportunity to betray him.

Application: Brethren, it does no good to fight against God. God’s will is always done. God destroys his enemies while teaching his people, while working everything for their good and his glory.  Don’t be like those men or like Judas Iscariot.  Don’t trade true righteousness and true holiness—for your filthy rags and that deceitful nature within you.  Don’t trade eternal Wisdom to wrest the scriptures to your own destruction.  Don’t trade your soul for silver and gold that perishes or eternal life for a vapor—“For what is your life? It is even a vapour, that appeareth for a little time, and then vanisheth away.” (Ja 4: 14)

Christ is the Believer’s Passover

Let’s turn to Luke 22. Christ sent his disciples to secure the place where they would observe the last Passover together.

Luke 22: 14: And when the hour was come, he sat down, and the twelve apostles with him. 15: And he said unto them, With desire I have desired to eat this passover with you before I suffer:

Through this whole walk we are taking with our Savior, Christ knew he what he was about to suffer.  But his disciples did not understand.  So Christ, having loved his own, he loved them to the end.  He desired to eat this Passover with them to teach them in type why he was about to suffer. 

Luke 22: 16  For I say unto you, I will not any more eat thereof, until it be fulfilled in the kingdom of God.

Christ said, “Until it be fulfilled in the kingdom of God” because Christ is the fulfillment of it. Christ is the end of the law; Christ is the anti-type of what the passover pictured. All the firstborn in Egypt died: those not under the blood, died themselves in judgment. But those under the blood of the lamb died in a lamb which took their place. When God saw the blood over the door post of the children of Israel, God passed over those who were under the blood.  Christ is the Passover Lamb sacrificed for his people.  All those for whom he died were purged of all our sins by his blood.  God shall bring each one to believe on Christ, to get under the blood, because justice has been satisfied for them.  And God shall Pass over every believer who is under the blood of Christ WHEN HE SEES THE BLOOD.

1 Corinthians 5: 7: Purge out therefore the old leaven,…

Purge out everything that turns us again to our flesh, our works and our will.

1 Corinthians 5: 7:…that ye may be a new lump, as ye ARE UNLEAVENED.

Believers ARE unleavened because of Christ’s work for us who purged our sin and because of the work of the Holy Spirit recreating us new in true righteousness and true holiness—ye ARE unleavened.

1 Corinthians 5: 7: For even Christ our passover is sacrificed for us: 8: Therefore let us keep the feast,

Not the feast of the Passover, but the feast of Christ, of the gospel, of this the Lord’s table.

1 Corinthians 5: 7:…not with old leaven,

Not looking to self for worthiness.

1 Corinthians 5: 7:…neither with the leaven of malice and wickedness;

Not as Judas who took the bread and the wine with malice in his heart, wickedly passing himself off as a disciple of Christ.

1 Corinthians 5: 7:…but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.

We discern the Lord’s body in the sincerity of faith, in truth.  Christ is our only worthiness for coming to his table, same as he is our only worthiness for entering into glory.

Christ is Lord of his Table

So after finishing eating the last Passover, Christ instituted the Lord’s Table.

Luke 22: 17: And he took the cup, and gave thanks, and said, Take this, and divide it among yourselves: 18: For I say unto you, I will not drink of the fruit of the vine, until the kingdom of God shall come. 19: And he took bread, and gave thanks, and brake it, and gave unto them, saying, This is my body which is given for you: this do in remembrance of me. 20: Likewise also the cup after supper, saying, This cup is the new testament in my blood, which is shed for you. 

The unleavened, broken bread is to remind us of Christ who knew no sin, who willingly gave his body to be broken for us by being made our sin and broken by the stroke of justice we deserved.  The wine is to remind us Christ ratified the new covenant of grace by shedding his own blood—the new testament in my blood—His blood is essence of the new testament which guarantees believer all the promises of God are yes and amen in Christ to the glory of God.  God will not execute justice twice.

Christ is Gracious Even at His Table

Even at the table another scripture was fulfilled.

Luke 22: 21: But, behold, the hand of him that betrayeth me is with me on the table.

In John’s gospel, the Lord said, Jn 13: 18, “I speak not of you all: I know whom I have chosen: but that the scripture may be fulfilled, He that eateth bread with me hath lifted up his heel against me.”

Then again we see Christ’s grace toward us for on the very night Christ is betrayed, he had to break up an argument between his disciple.

Luke 22: 24  And there was also a strife among them, which of them should be accounted the greatest.

Picture this: the Savior is their before them.  He has been teaching them what he is about to accomplish on the cross—THE hour for which all things were made, THE monumental event in history, THE accomplishment of redemption and the declaration of the righteousness of God.

Yet, like us, they were self-absorbed with their own interests. Doing so, they got into this huge argument over which of them which should be counted the greatest. The Master said,

Luke 22: 26:…but he that is greatest among you, let him be as the younger; and he that is chief, as he that doth serve. 

Let him that is oldest in years regard himself as being younger than his younger brethren. And let him that has most authority and spiritual growth be the servant of all.

Luke 22: 27: For whether is greater, he that sitteth at meat, or he that serveth? is not he that sitteth at meat?

In man’s thoughts, it is he that sits and is served by others.  But God’s ways are not our ways.  Christ says,

Luke 22: 27:…but I am among you as he that serveth.

Though equal with God—older than us, with all authority over us, with all spiritual knowledge over us, yet Christ took the form of a servant and served us. Brethren, let this mind of Christ be in you. Serve one another and do not exalt ourselves over one another. 

1 Corinthians 10: 16: The cup of blessing which we bless, is it not the communion of the blood of Christ? The bread which we break, is it not the communion of the body of Christ? 17  For we being many are one bread, and one body: for we are all partakers of that one bread.

Amen!