Nepaug Bible Church - http://www.nepaugchurch.org - Pastor's Prayer Meeting Lesson Notes - http://www.nepaugchurch.org/pm/pm19990303.htm

LUKE: GOSPEL OF CERTIFYING THE CHRISTIAN FAITH
Part LXXIII: Certifying Christianity By Christ's Cross-Before-The-Crown Teaching At The Last Supper
(Luke 22:15-23)
  1. Introduction
    1. Throughout Christendom, the Lord's Table ordinance has been a distinguishing mark of the Christian faith.
    2. Thus, if any evidence exists in that historical Last Supper that validates the Christian faith as being of God, it would be crucial for all Christians everywhere to have that evidence exposed.
    3. Luke reveals such evidence, for he emphasizes Jesus' "cross-before-the-crown" theme teaching in His very institution of that significant ordinance. Thus, the postponement of the Messianic Kingdom because of the cross of Christ flows from this famous event, and further gives credibility to the idea that Jesus is the Messiah though that Messianic Kingdom is not yet come.
  2. Certifying Christianity By Christ's Cross-Before-The-Crown Teaching At The Last Supper.
    1. Luke's Gospel was written to give Theophilus insight on the credibility of the Christian faith, Luke 1:3-4.
    2. Luke gives significant evidence of that faith's credibility by exposing Christ's "cross-before-the-crown" teaching that He gave while in the very act of instituting the key ordinance of the Lord's table as follows:
      1. Luke's Gospel has the greatest emphasis of any of the four Gospels on Christ's anticipating the coming Kingdom while at the Last Supper's institution as follows;
        1. Unlike the other Gospel records, Luke's record alone shows Christ telling His disciples of His intense desire to eat the Last Supper with them in view of its being His last one before the Kingdom, Lk. 22:15-16 with A. T. Robertson's, A Harmony Of The Gospels, p. 190.
        2. Additionally, Luke's record alone among the Gospels reports Jesus twice referring to His coming Kingdom while instituting the Last Supper, Luke 22:16-18. Two of the other Gospels speak of Jesus then referring to His coming Kingdom, and then only once each (see Mtt. 26:20-30; Mark 14:17-26 and John does not record the actual institution of the Last Supper ordinance).
        3. Luke's Gospel is unique in placing Christ's prediction of His betrayal right after Christ's instituting the Lord's Table ordinance, Luke 22:20-22 with Mtt. 26:20-30 and Mark 14:17-26.
        4. Thus, the emphasis Luke makes in the arrangement of his material shows us that Jesus was promoting His betrayal and crucifixion as a necessary part of God's plan en route to the KINGDOM while Jesus was instituting the important Last Supper ordinance itself!
      2. In the midst of this "cross-before-the-crown" emphasis of the Last Supper, Jesus is reported by Luke as intensely desiring to partake of this meal as though He accepted the "cross-before-the-crown", v. 15.
        1. The phrase "With desire I have desired" in Luke 22:15 is a Hebrew idiom used in the Greek by those of Jewish ancestry upon whom Greek had been forced, Ryrie Study Bible, KJV ftn. to Luke 22:15.
        2. The Hebrew language uses such a repetition of an infinitive absolute with its associated verb ("desire" and "have desired") as an idiom to reflect an intensification of the verb's idea (better rendered "I have greatly desired". Since there is no infinitive absolute in Greek grammar, the Greek-speaking Hebrews used a dative case of a Greek noun to represent the Hebrew infinitive absolute and came up with very bad Greek, saying, "With desire I have desired." (Blass-Debrunner, A Greek Grammar of the New Testament, p. 106; Geldenhuys, The Gospel of Luke, p. 557)
        3. Thus, Jesus was certainly facing and accepting the "cross-before-the-crown" format en route to His Kingdom by His having made such an expression!
      3. Also, the fact that Luke, a non-Hebrew would record such an awkward Greek construction shows he wrote the actual words of Christ spoken in Aramaic, a sister language to Hebrew with similar grammar, and that this was not a general quote that Luke had edited! This was Jesus' actual phrasing!
Lesson: So, in Jesus' own words, we know He realized and accepted His "cross-before-the-crown" calling and PROMOTED that truth while insituting the key Last Supper ordinance. Thus, Jesus is the King though His Kingdom is yet to come as witnessed b y even events of the Last Supper.

Application: We can rest assured that Jesus went out of His WAY to emphasize His cross would come before He instituted His Kingdom! Thus, He IS our coming King though He suffered on the cross!