What a Special Meal!

N.T.#430 "What a Special Meal!"

Nov. 25, 2024 

Mark 14-Part 8

LET IT GLOW 

Most of us will enjoy an abundant meal next week with our family. Jesus shared His last meal with His friends and disciples, a special meal. Read on to find what made it so special.

Judas was given an opportunity to repent and turn from his sinful ways as he and Jesus shared a final meal together. Jesus extended His love and grace, but Judas would not accept Jesus as His Messiah and Savior. Judas chose evil and God used it to accomplish His will. (Judas betrayed Jesus which led to His death on the cross.)

It was a predetermined and prearranged plan, God's purpose, and foreknowledge that the Messiah should suffer death for us. (Luke 24:25, 46) 

That Christ should suffer, and that He should be the first that should rise from the dead, and should shew light unto the people, and to the Gentiles. (Acts 26:23) 

Have you accepted Jesus' dying on the cross in your place for your sins?

LET IT GROW 

After Judas left, Jesus was alone with the faithful eleven disciples. It was then that He transformed the Passover of the Old Covenant into the Lord's Supper of the New Covenant, creating a new memorial feast to remember God's deliverance from sin.

Jesus gave a new meaning to eating the bread. The unleavened bread symbolized the severing of the Israelites from the old life in Egypt. It represented a separation from worldliness, sin, and false religion and the beginning of a new life of holiness and godliness. From then on, in the Lord's Supper, the bread would symbolize Christ's body, which He sacrificed for the salvation of humankind. (verse 22)

The wine represented the shedding of blood in a sacrificial way was always God's requirement in establishing any covenant. Christ's blood needed to be shed for the remission of sins (verses 23-24). (Heb. 9:22; 1 Peter 1:19) It was shed for many, all who believe, both Jew and Gentile. 

[Resource: The MacArthur Bible Commentary]

This was Jesus' last meal with His faithful disciples/apostles. He made it a New Covenant, a symbolic memorial. When we observe the Lord's Supper in our church, it is done with reverence, remembering that Christ Jesus gave His body on the cross as a Sacrificial Lamb and freely shed His blood for us sinners. 

Little did the disciples see the Messiah's blood flow freely from the cross. But that is not where hope ends. Our next study will give us hope for a future in paradise.

LET IT GO 

Your blood has washed away my sin, Jesus thank You.

The Father's wrath completely satisfied, Jesus thank You.

Once Your enemy, now seated at Your table, Jesus thank You.