The Last Passover

Take your Bibles this morning and open them, starting really with the 37th verse of Luke chapter 21.

So our text this morning will kind of start there, taking up the last two verses of Luke chapter 21, and then we'll move on into chapter 22 and take up the first 13 verses there.

So go ahead and if you've got that open in your Bibles, listen as I read Luke 21, starting with verse 37. And in the daytime he was teaching in the temple, but at night he went out and stayed on the mountain called Olivet.

Then early in the morning all the people came to him in the temple to hear him. Now the feast of unleavened bread drew near, which is called Passover, and the chief priests and scribes saw how they might kill him, for they feared the people.

Then Satan entered Judas, surnamed Iscariot, who was numbered among the twelve. So he went his way and conferred with the chief priests and captains how he might betray him to them.

They were glad and agreed to give him money. So he promised and sought opportunity to betray him to them in the absence of the multitude.

Then came the day of unleavened bread, when the Passover must be killed. And he sent Peter and John, saying, Go, prepare the Passover for us, that we may eat.

So they said to him, Where? Where do you want us to prepare? And he said to them, Behold, when you have entered this city, a man will meet you carrying a pitcher of water.

Follow him into the house which he enters. Then you shall say to the master of the house, The teacher says to you, Where is the guest room where I may eat the Passover with my disciples?

Then he will show you a large room, furnished upper room. There make ready. So they went and found it just as he had said to them, and they prepared the Passover.

So ultimately, as we think about this text, and you've heard it as I've read it, you know ultimately that we shall see in this passage that Jesus is going to instruct two of his disciples, Peter and John, two among his kind of inner circle of disciples or apostles, instruct them to make the necessary preparations for the Feast of Unleavened Bread, or the Passover.

The Passover. And it's important to note that this will be the last Passover. The very last one.

Now, not the last Passover of Jesus' life, though it will be that as well. Not the last Passover that Jesus will observe during his ministry, though it will be that one as well.

But I'm not talking about that. John records three Passovers that Jesus observed. Others say that he must have observed four Passovers. That's really not my point.

The point is, this is not Jesus' last Passover because the next day he's going to die. But rather, it is because of his death the next day that this will be the last Passover.

It's important to know that. The last meaningful Passover is about to take place. We actually should say it this way, the last valid Passover is about to take place.

Not only just for Jesus and his disciples, but indeed for every single Jew. Though, of course, after this point, Passovers were continued among Jewish life and continued on into our day.

But the last meaningful one, the last valid one, is about to take place here. Because by the end of the day on Friday, the sign of the Passover, that's what we need to understand about the observance of the Passover in this day.

It was a sign. It was a shadow. It was something pointing to a future event. Now that event has come. Let's see. And so the sign of the Passover is going to be completely fulfilled in Jesus.

Because Jesus is the true Passover lamb. He's the true one. To whom, to Jesus, all previous Passover lambs have pointed over the last 1500 years in Jewish life, up to that point.

All the Passover lambs have been pointing to Jesus, and now Jesus has come, and so this is the last Passover. So this is a very significant night, isn't it?

For Jesus and his disciples, really for all of us. This will be the night that they will observe the last Passover. It will be the night of the last Passover, the last valid one.

This will also be the night that Jesus institutes the Lord's Supper, which will take the place of Passover. Passover, in effect, will be transformed into something brand new.

So we're not, you know, when we come together and take our Lord's Supper, we're not taking the Passover. It's something brand new the Lord's Supper is, but it will be instituted on this very night, significant night, in the life of Jesus and his disciples.

This will be the night when he explains, not only through the observance of the Passover, but also with other words, Jesus is going to explain, like he has not explained before in detail, the meaning of his death.

And ultimately his resurrection. And this will be the night, of course, that Jesus will be betrayed. He will be betrayed, not only in some sense, by the most highly respected and the spiritual leaders of his day, but also, of course, by one of his own beloved disciples.

And the next day, on Friday, Jesus will suffer and he will die for the sins of the world. Now, getting right to the text, there are basically two parts to it.

Though I have more than two points, as you shall see. Really, you could divide this text into two parts. And these two parts are really standing stark contrast to one another.

And we could define it this way. First, we're going to see those who have a religion to kill for. And then we're going to see the one who has a gospel to die for.

Those are the two parts of this passage. The chief priests, the scribes, the captains, the Sanhedrin, the religious leaders of the day, and Judas, they all have a religion to kill for.

To kill for. The Jewish leadership plot to have Jesus put to death. That's what it says in verse 2. Though we've already been introduced to that activity among the Jewish leadership. And then Judas is going to seek an opportunity to betray Jesus.

He's going to make a deal with the Jewish leadership. And that's what it says in verse 6. So, we have these people who have a religion to kill for.

Then, Jesus has a gospel to die for. And that's what we are going to see in verses 7 through 13. Indeed, really, that's the theme that will carry us on to the end of chapter 23.

Jesus dying and a gospel to die for. Now, the best way, I think, to see these things unfold in our passage is to focus on the key characters in the story.

Those who, on the one hand, have the religion to kill for and then the one, on the other hand, who has a gospel to die for. And the first of the key characters to consider are the chief priests.

The chief priests, the scribes, the word captains used here in the passage. We could just sum it up under this category, the Jewish leadership, the religious leadership of the day.

Verse 2 says, they sought or literally plotted how they might kill Jesus. That's the first group.

So let's call this group the sinister plotters. Okay? The sinister plotters. They had a religion to kill for.

Now, the Jews were about to celebrate the holiest time of the year on their calendar. It was the greatest of the three official feasts that they observed every year.

It is the feast of unleavened bread. And it's a celebration, of course, that dated back almost, as I've already said, 1,500 years from the date of our story.

1,500 years ago, God delivered 2 million plus of their forefathers from bondage in Egypt.

Remember? We'll talk more about that as we go along, even not only in this passage, but in the next one. And so, to celebrate the Passover, literally, and I mean literally, hundreds of thousands of people, of Jews, traveled to Jerusalem, all those who were able to, and all from the surrounding area, hundreds of thousands of Jews crowded into the city of Jerusalem.

And, for the past several days, as we've already been studying, from Monday through Wednesday, many thousands of these people, these Jews, have been crowding into the temple area to hear Jesus teach, sit at His feet, and to listen to His teaching, to hear Him teach.

That's what verse 38 says of chapter 21, then early in the morning all the people came to Him in the temple to hear Him. Now, they did not come here to have Him perform miracles.

That's not what they had, why they were crowding around Him at this point. Now, no doubt, I think many of these that had come into the temple to hear Jesus teach, many of them had been recipients of the miracles, the incredible miracles of the Lord Jesus Christ over the past three years.

Yes. And yet, they had not come, they were not coming into the temple to have miracles performed, to have healings done, or demon exorcisms, or anything like that.

They had not come just simply to hear His stories. They had come into the temple to hear Jesus teach them about God, who God is, really is, who they are, and what they must do to be right with Him, what they must do to be saved.

They had come for that. And this really is an amazing thing when you think about it. The popularity of Jesus the very day before He would be crucified.

Amazing response to the teaching of Jesus. Every day this week, as we've seen, starting early on Monday morning, and starting early every Monday, every morning, the people were flooding into the city and into the temple to hear Jesus.

And all the while, what else was happening? Well, their spiritual leaders, their religious leaders, those they highly respected, those they honored and revered and obeyed, their spiritual leaders, what were they doing?

They were looking for some way to get Jesus destroyed. Kill. What a contrast. I mean, the height of Jesus' popularity among the common people of Israel, I think many of them thought He was the Messiah.

They were certainly hanging on every word that they had to teach. He was highly popular. And yet, at the same time, the religious leaders were looking for some way to get rid of Him. And that's what it says in verse 2.

And the chief priests and the scribes sought how they might kill Him. You see, there's no longer any question in their minds about why He should be killed or that He should be killed.

The only question that remains is how. How to get it done. And that was not going to be an easy question to answer because it would not be an easy task to accomplish.

And why is that? Well, verse 2 tells us, right? It says, they feared the people. Now, we've already talked about that, haven't we? We had the same thing, had the same thing stated back there in chapter 19, verse 47.

It's been a few weeks back since we've looked at that passage. But here it is again. He was teaching daily in the temple, but the chief priests, the scribes, and the leaders of the people sought to destroy Him, it says, and then this phrase, and were unable to do anything.

I love that. They weren't able to do anything. Why? Again, for all the people were very attentive to hear Him. They were crowding around Him. There was not a moment of time in the daylight when Jesus was not alone, when He was not surrounded by a crowd of people, a crowd of very devoted people, a crowd of people, many of which were beginning to believe that He really was the Messiah.

How could the scribes and Pharisees do anything with that going on? And again, I don't want to spend a lot of time on this because we've already covered this ground, but the Jewish leadership, you need to understand that the Jewish leadership, even though they were the spiritual leaders, the ones who were the presumably experts on the law, the ones who could interpret it, and also not only interpret the law, but also show you how you could obey the law, the highly respected religious leaders of the day, they were really committed to God, but only so far as it benefited them.

They were all self-centered. You know, their prestigious positions of leadership, they loved that and did not want to lose that. And not only that, but their lucrative opportunities for financial gain, it kind of sounds a lot like some of the, quote, spiritual leaders of our day.

You know, you can turn on the TV and watch some of these guys. All they're really interested in is in their leadership, their influence, their being revered by the people and even more than that, their financial gain.

And so it was really a religion to kill for. A religion to kill for if anyone threatened to take away their position, their influence, and their prestige, and their financial gain.

And really, you can boil it down to two groups of people who could take their positions away from them. you have the common people of Israel, and you have the Roman Empire, those two groups of people.

And that all comes together to make it nearly impossible for the scribes and Pharisees and Sadducees and the members of the Sanhedrin and the high priests and all the leaders made it nearly impossible for them to do anything about Jesus because the popularity of Jesus at this point made killing Him problematic with the people.

and we want the people to take away their position. And not only that, but you put that together with the fact that getting rid, getting the people upset with their leaders would have made killing Jesus problematic with the Roman Empire.

They could not get away with it. In fact, Mark tells us in his account in Mark chapter 14 verse 2 that the Jews were afraid the people would riot and the leadership of Israel could not risk that.

Not with Rome because they knew that Rome would not stand for any upheaval or any unrest in any of their territories especially there in Israel. So these men had a religion they were willing to kill for.

Sinister plotters. And that's what they were doing. And you know, we still have sinister plotters today, don't we? Have all throughout time. because whenever and wherever there is a work of God, true work of God, the people are responding to it and touched by it, you can guarantee that there will be opposition to it.

There will be those who will plot against it. The sinister plotters. Second, second, the satanic pawn in the story.

And of course we know who that is. Judas. Judas. Alright, so think about this. Here they are. Late one Wednesday evening. That's how, that's where we are when the text opens, the first part of our text.

It's Wednesday evening. The eve of the Feast of Unleavened Bread. And these Jewish leaders, they're having one of their clandestine meetings to, you know, behind closed doors because they feared the people, they didn't want the people to discover what they were planning and plotting to do to their beloved teacher, Messiah.

They're having one of these meetings and they're kind of plotting and trying to figure out how to get this done. Caiaphas, the high priest, no doubt is in charge of the meeting, maybe leading the meeting. His father, Annas, the former high priest is very likely there.

The entire Sanhedrin is there and I can imagine that they brought in other key leaders among the scribes and Pharisees and others and they're all in this kind of closed door meeting trying to figure out a way to take care of Jesus to get him arrested without the people knowing about it and maybe they could just hold him somewhere until the Passover is over, you know, and then they could deal with Jesus, you know, in some way.

And so, you know, you can kind of imagine, just imagination, perhaps scribe so-and-so. We'll just call him so-and-so. I don't know any of their names. Scribe so-and-so suggests that they just simply arrest Jesus when he's alone.

And so, Pharisee, what's his name? I don't know his name. What's his name? Pipes up and he says, we've already talked about that. I mean, this Jesus is never alone because everywhere he goes there are people crowded around him.

You know, that's not going to work. We've got to come up with a better idea. Well then, says priest, who's it? Alright, we'll call him who's it? He says, well, let's just get him at night time after the people go home and after he goes home, let's arrest him then.

And how can we do that? Ask scribe, what's it? Okay. It may have been their names. I don't know. How can we do that?

We don't even know where he goes at night. You know, we know he's not staying at any of the public hotels here in Jerusalem because we've checked that out. We've been watching those places.

He doesn't stay there. And we've had people watching the home of friend Lazarus over in Bethany. He used to go there at night, but now apparently he has stopped going there at night time.

And we've heard rumors that he and his disciples are camping out on the Mount of Olives somewhere, but who could ever find him there in that wilderness? Of course, it was by design.

And so they're talking about they're coming up with different ideas and they can't come up with anything. Every idea that is suggested by a member of this unholy group is shot down because it just won't work.

And some of those things they've already tried. And what are they going to do? See, they're seeking a way how to have Jesus rested. And so while they're discussing this and going back and forth with various ideas in my sanctified imagination I can see one of the temple servants entering in, begging his pardon and saying, you know, there's someone here, a visitor here that wants to talk to you, this group.

Who is it? Asks Caiaphas. Well, he says his name is Judas Iscariot. Perfect.

I mean, it's made to order. Now, I don't know if it happened exactly that way, but I can just imagine that they're all meeting and in walks Judas Iscariot.

They don't know what to do. And man, it just kind of laid right there in their lap. And verse 4 says, and he that's Judas conferred with the chief priests and captains how he might betray him to them.

He made a deal with them. And get this, the Bible says and they were glad. You bet they were. This is exactly what they needed. They needed someone who knew where Jesus stayed at nighttime.

Because that's the only time they could arrest him and get away with it. They needed someone on the inside to betray him. So they agreed to give Judas money, what the Bible says.

That's what he wanted. That's what he wanted. Now, here's the question. And perhaps it's been your question over the years. Why would Judas do this? I mean, why would he do this?

Well, you know, in the first place, he's an unbeliever. I mean, clearly. In fact, Jesus at one point in one of the gospel accounts even says so. Son of perdition.

He's an unbeliever, so he's a fake, he's a phony, he's a fraud here among the twelve disciples. In the second place, it's obvious that he was a greedy unbeliever.

Greedy. He was just in this thing for personal gain. He'd been one of the followers of Jesus for his own personal self-centered gain, and I think mostly financial, or at least he thought so, ultimately.

He thought that would bring him some kind of windfall financially. Remember, Judas was the church treasurer. he held the bag, the Bible says, and he was robbing from it.

He's greedy. But now he can see, you know, that this whole thing is falling apart. It's about to come to an end, and his expectations have been unrealized.

He's wasted three years of his life following this Jesus, and now there's nothing in it for him, so he's going to have to get out while the getting's good, and cut his losses, makes a deal, financial deal, with the Jewish leadership.

I mean, all that's very obvious. Unbeliever, a greedy unbeliever. And yet still, it doesn't answer the question for me, why would Judas do this?

I mean, you know, how could the past three years of his life have had no effect whatsoever upon him spiritually? You could not find, outside of the twelve disciples, you could not find a person who had more spiritual privilege than Judas.

Think about it. Three years of constant exposure to Jesus, the Son of God. Three years of seeing one miracle performed after another at the hand of Jesus.

Bonafide miracles, not tricks. He's on the inside. He would know if this was a facade or a trick or something. He witnessed these bonafide miracles at the hand of Jesus for three years.

And we just have a small sampling of them in our Gospels. And for three years, he saw Jesus' power. Power over every single disease and illness.

He saw blind people come to sight. He saw lame people walk again, withered hands suddenly be restored to real hands.

He saw lepers made whole. He saw all of this. He saw Lazarus raised from the dead. And not just Lazarus.

There were other instances. And I think even outside of the Gospel accounts, I think Jesus raised many people from the dead. We have an account in Luke, earlier in Luke, of Jesus stopping a funeral procession coming out of Nain.

And Jesus raised the corpse to life. He just kind of canceled the funeral. Judas saw all that. He was there.

Judas saw Jesus feed upwards to 15,000 people with a little boy's sack lunch. Judas saw Jesus command the winds and the sea and they obeyed him.

Judas saw Jesus command demons and they all obeyed him. and more significantly, for three years, Judas had sat under the teaching of the Son of God.

The Son of God teaching the Word of God. And Judas sat under that. He was mentored personally by Jesus as were all of the twelve.

For three, so he put it all, for three years, Judas was literally, his life was literally immersed 24-7. Immersed in the holy character, the righteous nature, miraculous power, the authoritative teaching of the Lord Jesus Christ for three years solid.

not just on Sunday, but every day, and all day. So I ask you, how's it possible? I mean, think about it.

How's it possible that Judas could not be a believer? And how's it possible that he could then betray Jesus? Why would he do this?

Well, as I've said in the first place, spiritual privilege has never saved anyone. never. I mean, along with the other 11 apostles, again, I say to you that Judas had a spiritual privilege above anyone else who has ever lived on this earth three years with Jesus.

Spiritual privilege, though, is not what we need. I mean, you could make the same argument about this Christian nation.

you know what that means, quote, end quote. You make the same argument about it. Think about it.

The exposure of Americans, even still today, even though we spiritually and morally are just becoming almost bankrupt.

Think of those who have sat under. I mean, here's a scenario. Here's someone born into the church, in the sense that born into a family in the church.

So from the cradle roll, all throughout Sunday school, vacation Bible schools, church camps, children camp, youth camp, and sitting under the teaching of God's word.

And I grant you, you know, some scenario, a lot of scenarios where maybe that teaching is not what it ought to have been, but you could find many examples of solid churches, people have grown up in solid churches where their Sunday school teachers teach the word of God and they sat under the preaching of the word of God all throughout their lives and yet they are lost.

Lost. Spiritual privilege. never saved anybody. Didn't save Judas. And he, again, was more privileged than anyone who's ever lived outside of the other eleven disciples.

But what we need, what Judas needed, and what all of us need is salvation in Christ through repentance and faith, something Judas was unwilling to do.

We never saved. But more importantly, and more immediate to Judas unique situation, this is a unique situation. Verse 3 gives us the answer, how Judas could do this thing.

Verse 3 says, then Satan entered Judas, surnamed Iscariot, who was numbered among the twelve. He's not just one of the many disciples that followed Jesus and there were a hundred at least or more, but he was one of the twelve.

Okay, remember, handpicked by Jesus. But through unbelief, persistent unbelief, and greed, personal greed and self-centeredness, he became Satan's pawn.

He became his pawn. It's really kind of interesting to see the progression. First, Satan mentored him. We don't have an account of this, but we know from certain statements in Scripture that Satan had been bringing him along, preparing him for this time.

Satan had mentored him. Satan also motivated him to take some action, and then in the end, Satan moved in to him. It all began earlier with Judas.

We don't really know when. Perhaps early Wednesday sometime. I really think it was earlier than that. Maybe Tuesday of that week. Maybe Monday.

I think even earlier than that, Satan mentored Judas to be the betrayer. Kind of allowed him to begin to entertain that thought, that scenario.

John 13 verse 2 says, and supper being ended, the devil having already put it into the heart of Judas Iscariot to betray Jesus.

Already put it into his home. He had mentored him. He brought him along. He had set him up for this. And then sometime late on Wednesday, perhaps, Satan motivated Jews to make a deal with the leaders, Jewish leaders.

Make a deal with them. That's what Luke 22 says. He conferred with them. That means he made a deal with them. And then finally, sometime during the supper, the actual supper, that Thursday night, Satan moved in, moved in to Judas.

John 13 verse 27, now after the piece of bread was passed to him, remember that was the way Jesus indicated who the betrayer would be, indicated that to John, after the bread was passed, Satan entered in, entered here, that's what it says, entered here.

So he mentored him and motivated him and eventually moved in to Judas heart and his life. Adrian Rogers used to say, give Satan an inch and he will be a ruler.

That's true, very true. Or how about this axiom of life? Sow a thought, reap a deed. That's what happened with Judas.

Now who sowed the thought in there? In this case it was Satan. Judas was already primed for it, he was an unbeliever, persistent unbeliever, and he was open to it.

And so, sow a thought, reap a deed. Sow a deed, reap a character. Sow a character, reap a destiny.

Fits Judas to a T. But it really cuts both ways, doesn't it? So be careful what you sow into your life. Because what the Bible says, whatever you sow, that is what you are going to reap.

So the sinister plotters, the satanic pawn, those who have a religion to kill for. third, the sovereign planner, the sovereign planner, everything is now in motion.

It's all moving in a certain direction now, moving toward the cross eventually. The wicked working of Satan involved in this thing, hypocrisy of the Jewish leadership, the personal greed, unbelief of Judas, all part of this movement.

And they're all guilty, they're all culpable, culpable in this crime perpetrated against the Lord of glory. They're all guilty.

and yet, who is really the power behind it all? Everything is now in motion, but who is moving everything?

I'm not trying to say that Judas, no responsibility, no guilt, he's just simply a pawn of God. But God is moving this thing in the direction that he is foreordained.

and it's going to happen. And, you know, far from ever being able to thwart the purpose of God, Satan, the Jews, Judas, they're going to eventually bring the purpose of God to pass.

That's the amazing thing that we can see between every line of scripture, really. Especially as we read the Gospels. See, God's work, God works all things according to the counsel of his own will.

And yet, to the superficial reader of scripture, don't be one of those, okay? To the superficial reader of scripture, it might appear that the architects of all of these events were either the hypocritical religious leaders or Judas the betrayer or, of course, Satan himself.

In fact, to the superficial reader of this passage, it might look like this is Satan's plan. Far from it. Far from it.

Now, I think it's Satan's plan to get Jesus killed, but to get him killed before he gets to the cross, okay? In fact, I think you see an indication from scripture that when Jesus finally got on the cross, Satan was doing everything possible to get him off of.

You know, using the people who walk him by, he said, come down from the cross and we'll believe you. It's like Satan's on his knees, but please come down for the not this way, Jesus.

No, it's not his plan. Not his plan. Acts 2, 23, Peter says that Jesus was delivered, delivered that God is in the sense to be crucified by the determinate purpose, counsel, and foreknowledge of God.

It's God's plan. And you can see this all throughout the Gospels. It's evident. And I know that all throughout our study through the Gospel of Luke, I've brought this up many, many times.

You can see it. It's just so easy to see. God is behind this, moving this, moving history, moving people, even wicked and sinful people, to accomplish his purposes.

And his purpose will be accomplished, and nothing will be able to stop it. And we can see, I think, this in a number of ways right here in our passage. Because, clearly, Jesus is in charge of his destiny.

He's in charge of it. He's going to, even down to the time and place of his arrest. And it's not going to happen before.

It's going to happen according to his plan. Look at verse 37 again. In the daytime, he was teaching in the temple. So all day, and I've already mentioned this, but all day he's teaching surrounded by people, crowds of people, hundreds, maybe thousands at some point, of people.

Verse 38 says, And early in the morning all the people came to him in the temple to hear him. Luke is including this information for a reason, because he wants us to understand that this thing is being manipulated, that Jesus is never alone from the earliest time in the morning all the way through the day.

And so the scribes, the Pharisees, the religious leaders, they can't get to him. They can't get to him. They can't arrest him. Too many people watching.

And where did he go at night? Well, verse 37 tells us, and there's a reason why it tells us this. But at night he went out and stayed on the mountain called Olivet. Undisclosed place on top of this mountain somewhere.

No one knows, except his disciples. Judas. And so Jesus has made sure that no arrest is going to take place during the daytime, and Jesus has made sure that no arrest could be made at nighttime until the appointed time.

The time that he has chosen. And so to set the timing up for his arrest, verse 3 says, then Satan entered Judas, and verse 4, and then Judas conferred with the chief priests and captains how he might betray him to them.

So he makes a deal with them. Judas knew where Jesus would be at night, that very night. He knew the place. That's the only thing you could make a deal with.

I can show you where he is at night. And in accord with God's foreordained timing of Jesus' arrest, Judas would then lead the officials right to him at that place on the Mount of Olives.

But from our story, we really ought to understand that Judas could have possibly betrayed Jesus before that, earlier.

When? When they're taking the Passover. See, all he had to know was where they were going to take the Passover together. That would happen before, earlier. And that would be a prime time to have Jesus arrested.

They're in a home when it's just Jesus and his disciples and they're observing the Passover together. Because what a perfect time. All the people, they're not around Jesus now because they are all in their respective homes observing the feast of unleavened bread, the Passover, and Jesus presumably would also be in some room alone and Judas knew that.

It had to happen that way. Because by the way, if Jesus was to observe the feast of unleavened bread, the Passover, he must do it within the walls of Jerusalem. Did you know that?

He couldn't do it out in the Mount of Olives. It was the! It had to be inside the walls. I mean, just like the people of Israel in Egypt, they were inside and took the Passover and God delivered them and they were able to go out.

They didn't take it outside, they took it inside. And so Jesus and Judas knew this, they must take the Passover somewhere inside the city. And so as soon as Judas could find out the location of that, perhaps this was out that we will do this on the Mount of Olives someplace.

And so if he could find out where he was and he could inform the Jewish leadership and then they could go to that house and they could arrest Jesus and hold him somewhere until the Passover is over.

That was his plan. But here's where we see the sovereign planner at work. Jesus knew all about Judas. Don't think that Jesus didn't know who his betrayer would be.

He certainly did. He knew from the very beginning. And Jesus would not allow his rest to take place until the appointed time.

And so look at verse 8. And he sent Peter and John saying go and prepare the Passover for us that we may eat. Don't just pass over that.

Jesus did not open it up for volunteers. to do this. Because if he had Judas would have raised his hand I'll do it. That would have fit very neatly into his plan.

Then I know where and I can tell them and they can rest him there. Jesus didn't do that. In fact Jesus selected the two to do it. Peter and John and what was their question?

Natural question. Question every one of us would have asked verse nine where do you want to prepare us to prepare where where is it? Where are we going to do it?

And you know as soon as they ask the question you can imagine Judas ears perking up find out Jesus doesn't give them the location does he?

Not even to Peter and John they're the ones to prepare and so how are they going to find! place? Jesus gives this strange set of instructions you ever wonder why this strange set of instructions well it's too obscure to hide the place of the Passover so that he could have the Passover this final Passover with his disciples teach them the meaning of it and then transform it into the Lord's supper and teach them many other things and he's not going to be arrested before that so he gives this strange set of instructions behold verse 10 when you have entered the city a man will meet you carrying a pitcher of water follow him into the house which he enters now this is strange not go into the city and look for some guy carrying water no actually the wording is that he's going to find you in fact as you enter the city he'll be there to see you to find you he's carrying a pitcher now you know he's not going to say anything to you nothing here about him saying anything you don't have any instructions to say anything to him in fact there's not even any indication that the man is going to even acknowledge you but as soon as you see him as soon as he finds you you follow him and when he gets to the house where he's going then go in that's what it says in verse 11 then you shall say to the master of the house presumably a different man now the teacher says to you

I may eat the Passover with my disciples then he will show you a large furnished upper room there make ready isn't this strange I mean the guy's just going to know he's just going to know the teacher who is that all this is being orchestrated then verse 12 says so they went and found it just as he said of course they did all of this because Jesus is sovereign over the timing of his own arrest and ultimately over his death not Judas not the religious leaders not even Satan if Judas had known in advance the location of where Jesus would observe the Passover!

Then it would have been an easy thing to simply pass that on to the religious leaders and they would come and arrest Jesus at that point but instead Jesus sovereignly obscures the place of the Passover and he manipulates this whole thing to keep that thing secure and keep it a secret I mean think about the speed and route of Peter and John as they that they took to the city of Jerusalem the timing of all of that and then the coordination of timing at these two parties you know Peter and John and then the man carrying the water the timing of that so they would meet exactly at the right time and so here's Peter and John and they're going in to fulfill their mission they don't really even know where it's going to be yet and then there's this man who's sent out by his master to go fetch the water which was an unusual thing because usually the women did that and he sends so he's just walking along getting the water and the two meet exactly the right time the timing is impeccable neither party is late for this thing

I mean this can just simply happen you brushed your hair this morning ladies you guys combed your hair most of you and a couple of hairs fell out you probably didn't notice it you probably did look at your comb your brush there's some hair in probably or in the sink or wherever and you should know then that God is sovereign how's that well very hairs of your head are numbered that's what the Bible says down to the very hairs in your head God is sovereign don't like that one well Friday night I was at prison ministry we were at prison ministry and I'm walking across the parking lot and I look down and there's a dead sparrow in the park really right there

I'd already thought about a dead sparrow because I studied and prepared what I was going to preach this morning and so you see a dead sparrow I saw that dead sparrow and I know that God is sovereign you say how because the Bible says no sparrow can fall to the ground without the sovereign knowledge and decree of God Jesus and his disciples must pay their taxes remember that story how are they going to do it they don't have any money and yet sometime before that God had already allowed and caused some guy to lose his money in the sea and caused a fish to come by and eat that money and then for the disciples that threw out their net and they catch that very fish and look inside the mouth and there's money and they pay the tax don't become fishermen because you think that's going to happen for you these are one time events alright can't duplicate some try to teach us otherwise some of these things it's for the time but it shows the sovereignty of God

Jesus is controlling all of these things God wants to save an adulterous Samaritan woman and so Jesus chooses to travel through Samaria rather than the normal route for a Jew to go around Samaria and he goes to a certain well and he meets a Samaritan woman who is lost and she is saved it's a divine appointment and neither party is late are you getting it the sovereignty of God the Lord determines that a group of women should be meeting together for prayer by the riverside in Philippi so that Paul could just happen to walk by and meet with them and share Jesus with them so that a woman named Lydia could be saved and become a great leader within the early church you think that just happened

John Wesley was returning home from the Americas where he was a dismal failure in evangelizing the Indians because he himself was not even saved he later discovered as long as returned home God placed some Moravian Christians on board the ship with John Wesley and God caused a great storm to rock that ship so that Wesley could then observe these Moravian Christians who were singing and praying and praising God in the midst of this storm and he saw the peace that they had that he did not have and eventually he wrote you know I went to Georgia to convert the Indians and discovered that I myself was unconverted and he was saved rest is history God's sovereign control but his sovereign control also over the plan over his plans even extends to the actions of wicked doesn't it plotting of the scribes the betrayal of

Judas the rejection of his own people ultimately when they cried crucify him they had the power to release him but they didn't were they responsible for their cries to crucify him yes were they responsible for rejecting him absolutely and yet God sovereignly moved all of these events I don't know how the two come together you have to figure that out yourself the sovereignty of God and the free will of man the decision of Pilate the Roman governor could have gone both ways there but it didn't did it and the world powers both Jew and Gentile combined to kill Jesus of Nazareth and yet they could only do this according to the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God someone has wisely said

I want you to think about this you may not agree with it initially someone has wisely said what God determines in eternity men will always choose in time God had chosen before the foundation of the world that his son would be our Passover praise his name the supreme Passover the end all Passover that's my fourth point this morning don't get nervous I'm going to end with this and then take it up again next Sunday as we move from the Passover on into the Lord's Supper the sinister plotters the satanic pawn the sovereign planner and the supreme

Passover supreme Passover verse 13 so they went and found it just as he had said to them and this phrase they prepared the Passover they prepared it listen long before the disciples prepared the feast that would remember would celebrate God's deliverance of Israel from the bondage of Egypt long before that God had prepared his Passover our Passover so that we could be delivered from the bondage of sin on Thursday night Jesus would eat the Passover meal with his disciples and while they are eating it Jesus will transform it into a brand new memorial

Lord's Son and we'll make that our subject next Thank you.