Nepaug Bible Church - http://www.nepaugchurch.org - Pastor's Prayer Meeting Lesson Notes - http://www.nepaugchurch.org/pm/pm20100616.htm

THRU THE BIBLE EXPOSITION
Luke: Jesus, The Son Of Man For All Mankind
Part LXXIX: Christ's Identity As God's Savior Seen In His Kingdom Teaching At The Last Supper
(Luke 22:14-20)
  1. Introduction
    1. One of the great riddles of the life of Christ to many people was the cross: if He truly is God's Savior and Messiah, many wonder how He could have submitted to crucifixion versus ruling on David's throne!
    2. In His Last Supper, Jesus told how the cross was an essential part of God's plan to institute the Messianic Kingdom, and we view it to see that Jesus truly is God's Messiah, and to follow His example in our lives:
  2. Christ's Identity As God's Savior Seen In His Kingdom Teaching At The Last Supper, Lk. 22:14-20.
    1. Christ explained He had strongly desired to eat that Last Supper before the cross, implying He knew of His suffering, and of its importance in God's plan, Luke 22:14-15:
      1. When the time came for the final pascal meal, Jesus told His disciples that He had greatly desired to eat it with them before He suffered, Luke 22:14-15.
      2. The expression, "with desire I have desired" is actually a Hebrew idiom translated into the Greek language by Luke, and it emphasizes the great level of motivation Jesus expressed regarding eating the Last Supper with His disciples, Ryrie Study Bible, KJV, 1978 ed., ftn. to Luke 22:15.
      3. Thus, the cross was not a "mistake" to Jesus, but, in His mind, an essential part of God's plan that He had to face toward the fulfillment of the program of God.
    2. In addition, this suffering of Jesus was in accord with God's plan to present the Kingdom, for, right after mentioning His suffering on the cross in Luke 22:15b, Jesus noted He would not any more eat any passover meal with His disciples until He ate it in its fulfillment in the Messianic Kingdom, Luke 22:16.
    3. Jesus repeated the idea of the Last Supper being His final meal with His apostles until He ate it anew in the Kingdom, for, in Luke 22:17-18, He took the first cup of the passover meal and gave it to His disciples with the prediction that He would no more drink of the fruit of the vine until God's Kingdom had arrived.
    4. When it was time for the bread in the passover meal, Jesus shifted from speaking of the Kingdom to the giving of His body on the cross in preparation for that Kingdom, Luke 22:19. The disciples were to eat that bread as a memorial of Christ until that Kingdom had come, obviously directing the attention of His followers to hope in that coming time of Kingdom blessing until it actually arrived!
    5. In the same way, and thus with the same emphasis, Jesus took the second passover meal cup, and said it was the cup of the new covenant make in His blood to be shed on the cross to redeem His own, Lk. 22:20:
      1. The new covenant to His Jewish listeners referred to the Jeremiah 31:31-33 covenant when God would put His law in Israel's hearts, becoming their God and they becoming His people in truth.
      2. We know from the Jeremiah 31 context that this will be fulfilled in the Kingdom when Israel accepts Christ as Her Messiah and Savior (Jer. 31:34 with Zech. 12:10-13:1), but that we believers in the Church participate in some of that covenant's blessings due to our relation to Christ, Rom. 11:11-24.
      3. Evidence of this involvement of ours in those blessings is the indwelling presence and work of the Spirit (Acts 2:1-47; 1 Cor. 12:13) that will be normative in the Kingdom, Acts 2:17-21; Joel 2:28-32.
    6. Accordingly, throughout Luke's record of the Last Supper in Luke 22:14-20, Jesus tied His work on the cross to the arrival of His Messianic Kingdom, implying that its coming necessarily depended on His first handling the problem of sin in the Kingdom's subjects at the cross!
Lesson: Jesus clearly indicated in His words and actions in the Last Supper that He not only knew He would suffer, but that this suffering was an ESSENTIAL PART of God's PLAN for the INSTITUTION of the KINGDOM, for it was necessary for the redemption of the subjects of that Kingdom.

Application: (1) May we believe in Jesus as God's true Savior of the world. (2) May we consistently live, aim, work and long for that Messianic Kingdom of which we will be a part just as Jesus led His disciples to do that Last Supper before He suffered on the cross! (3) May we utilize the blessings of that Kingdom we already have in the Church era today, blessings regarding the Holy Spirit's work in us, to be productive servants as we use His gifting for effective service, Romans 12:3-8; 2 Timothy 1:6-7.