GLAD TO SEE GOD

(Luke 22:7-13)
June 18, 2017

Read Luke 22:7-13 Unleavened Bread. Deut 16 required the Israelites to

observe an annual Day of Passover followed by seven days during which they
would eat only unleavened bread in memory of their hasty departure from
Egypt which did not allow time for normal baking. By the time of Christ, the
Feast of Passover and the Feast of Unleavened Bread had merged.

Now, this passage shows Jesus and His disciples eating the Passover meal on
Thursday before Jesus was killed on Friday. But John 18:28 and 19:14
indicate Jesus enemies were planning to eat the Passover on Friday. So was
Passover on Thursday or Friday? Seems like a contradiction. Well, many
explanations have been offered. The most likely is Jews in Galilee, where
Jesus was from, days were reckoned from sunset. Jews in Judea, following the
Romans, reckoned a new day at midnight. Thus, Jesus and His disciples
celebrated Passover (14 Nissan) on Thursday. But for the Judeans, 14 Nissan
started Thursday midnight so they celebrated on Friday. This system allowed
for thousands of lambs and goats to be sacrificed over 2 days instead of 1.

Does this contradiction damage the credibility of the gospels? Just the
opposite. If the disciples had been faking it making it all up, they would
never have seemingly contradicted each other in this way. Its there because
it really happened that way! It actually argues for the credibility of Scripture.

Here, we see Jesus in total command of His own destiny. He was not a victim
but went willingly to a purposeful death. His omniscience and omnipotence
are on full display. Perhaps He made prior arrangements for the Upper Room,
but more likely, He sovereignly arranged it. V. 13 suggests wonder at His
ability to bring it all about without planning: 13 And they went and found it
just as he had told them. Jesus is in full command of the situation!

This passage also revolves around our Lords desire for fellowship with His
followers. Thats why He came to seek and to save that which was lost.
Luke 1:68: for he has visited and redeemed his people, some of whom were
these 12. At this most trying time of His own life He desires to be with them
He desires them to see the basis for redemption and continuing fellowship.
This passage gives us a beautiful picture of what it means to part of Gods
family and experience fellowship with Him.

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 I. The Petition for Fellowship
8 So Jesus sent Peter and John, saying, Go and prepare the Passover for us,
that we may eat it. Jesus is seeking fellowship. Passover was a family affair
in Israel. But here Jesus assumes a position above family. On one occasion
when His own mother and brothers sought Him, He said, My mother and my
brothers are those who hear the word of God and do it (Lu 8:21). Earthly
relationships can be treasured. But they take a backseat to Him. When we join
Gods family, priorities change. Fellowship with Him becomes top priority.

If we wonder why theres no spiritual fruit in our life, we look no further than
our devotional life. We may be like the guy hired to paint white lines down the
center of the highway. After 3 days the foreman fired him. They guy said,
Why? Well, the first day you did great 3 miles. The 2nd day, not bad 2
miles. But today you painted less than a mile. We have to let you go. The
guy replied, Well, its not my fault, you know. Every day I was further and
further from that paint can! Distance from the source is a killer, with Jesus,
too. He wants to live every minute thru us; we want to include Him on rare
occasions. But the further from Him we are, the more hopeless we will be.

II. The Price of Fellowship

Fellowship with God isnt automatic. Imagine showing up on Gods doorstep

on day and announcing, Well, Lord, ready or not, here I am. We may be
enamored of our own charms, but He decidedly is not. Oh, He loves us more
than anyone else, But what people must get is He can love us, and still not
accept us with our imperfections. That would be to deny His character. So
fellowship comes with a price tag. Acceptance requires payment for sin.

That price is the point of this meal. Go and prepare the Passover -- the Pascha.
What is that? Turn to Ex 12. The Israelites have been slaves in Egypt for 400
years when God sends Moses to the rescue. Moses requests release from
Pharaoh who refuses to give up his free labor. So, at Gods command, Moses
stretches his rod over the Nile and it turns to blood a horrible plague which
soon compels Pharaoh to promise to let the people go. But as soon as the
water is restored, he reneges. Eight more cycles of plagues follow, each with
the same result a promise of release followed by a broken promise.

But God is not surprised. This was all leading up to the greatest object lesson
in history plague #10. God announced that the firstborn of everyone in the
land would be killed Israeli and Egyptian alike. Phase 1 of the object lesson
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-- no one is good enough to meet Gods perfect standard. No one. BUT
pardon can be obtained by the blood of a sacrificial lamb. Ex 12:5-7: Your
lamb shall be without blemish, a male a year old. You may take it from the
sheep or from the goats, 6 and you shall keep it until the fourteenth day of this
month, when the whole assembly of the congregation of Israel shall kill their
lambs at twilight. 7 Then they shall take some of the blood and put it on the
two doorposts and the lintel of the houses in which they eat it. Phase 2 of the
object lesson -- Israeli and Egyptian alike could be spared through this
sacrifice. The angel of death would pass over any home where the blood
was found. As far as we know, only Israelites obeyed. Following this plague,
Pharaoh let the people go their deliverance purchased by blood sacrifice.

In Deut 16 God instructed an annual observance on 14 Abib (Nisan) to remind

them of the price of redemption and fellowship with God. Thats what Jesus
sent Peter and John to prepare. They would celebrate Gods deliverance based
on a price. But Jesus also knew the truth of Heb 10:4: For it is impossible
for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins. The Passover in Exodus
was only an object lesson. The blood of Passover lambs was symbolic. It all
anticipated some ultimate sacrifice one that would actually pay sins penalty
the sacrifice of Jesus on the cross. That is the price of fellowship.
Forgiveness based on Jesus death in our place.

But remember, it was not enough that the lamb be slain. The blood had to be
applied to the doorway. And it is not enough that Jesus has died. The gift must
be applied personally. Fellowship requires we place the blood figuratively
over our life and accept His death as ours. The price He paid must be applied
by faith. No one is too good not to need it; and no one is too bad to receive it.

The wife of Lloyd-Jones attended church all her life. But she later said she
never understood the gospel until she began to sit under the regular teaching
of her husband. I was for 2 years under Martyns ministry before I really
understood what the gospel was. I used to listen to him on Sunday morning
and feel, Well, if this is Christianity I dont really know anything about it.
On Sunday night I used to pray that somebody would be converted; I
thought you had to be a drunkard or prostitute to be converted. I used to
rejoice to see drunkards become Christians and envy them with all my heart,
because they were full of joy. I recall sitting in the study at 57 Victoria Road
and I was unhappy. I suppose it was conviction. I felt a burden of sin.
Shortly after Mrs. Martyn Lloyd-Jones applied the blood of Jesus to her own
life. Thats the price of fellowship, Beloved. His blood; our acceptance.

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 III. The Place of Fellowship

A large upper room furnished. The disciples were far from home, yet there
was a place for fellowship. And all arranged by Jesus. They are to find a man
carrying a jar of water normally a womans work in those days. They were
to follow until he entered a house. They were to ask the owner for a guest
room. But instead of a guest room, he would provide a large upper room,
completely furnished (spread), all miraculously arranged by Jesus.

Now, obviously, we dont meet Jesus physically today. But is there a place for
fellowship with God, completely arranged by Jesus an upper room for us to
eat and commune with Him? Heb 4:14 Since then we have a great high priest
who has passed through the heavens, Jesus, the Son of God, let us hold fast
our confession. 15 For we do not have a high priest who is unable to
sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been
tempted as we are, yet without sin. 16 Let us then with confidence draw near to
the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time
of need. Yes, our great high priest has arranged a place for us to come in our
weakness and absorb His strength a place to come boldly tho we have
absolutely no right to be there, because we are clothed in His righteousness.
It is all spread before us, this place of fellowship. But question have you
been there lately? I mean really been there? This is one of the most amazing
truths of the Bible. Disciples got it one night; we can have it all the time! The
throne room. We need to learn to live there -- our Upper Room of fellowship.

IV. The Preparation for Fellowship

So far weve seen that providing fellowship with God is all on Jesus. But to
begin and sustain that fellowship one thing is required of us. Its subtle, but
its there. Note the repeated command Go and prepare the Passover (v. 7).
prepare it there (v. 12). And v. 13 and they prepared the Passover. How
must they prepare? Buy supplies? Set out wine, bread and other food? Yes.
But that is not what they mainly had to do.

What they had to do between 2:00 and 5:00 was take a lamb to the temple.
They approached two long rows of priests, each holding basins of gold and
silver. The presented the lamb and the priest killed it, right? Wrong. Each
Israelite slaughtered his own lamb. The priest caught the blood in the basin
and tossed it at the base of the altar. This was an indication of his personal
repentance and symbolic transfer of his sins to the sacrificial victim. This is
what it meant to prepare the Passover. It meant to symbolically confess ones
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sin, accept the provision of the sacrifice and on that basis begin or continue
fellowship with God. Repentance. Thats what Peter and John were up to.

And thats exactly what we must do. We enter Gods family by repentance,
and we sustain fellowship by ongoing repentance not to get re-saved not
to be accepted by God acting as Judge but to renew fellowship with God as
Father. Confession is the way to the throne. Thats why John tells believers
in I Jn 1:8-9: 8 If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth
is not in us. 9 If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our
sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. You say, But havent
believers already been forgiven and cleansed? Arent all sins, past, present
and future forgiven? Yes. Rom 8:1: There is therefore now no
condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. Judicially acquitted with
charges never to be brought again by God as Judge. But as Father, the cycle
of confession and forgiveness is constant! not to get back in the family
but to renew the joy of the relationship. Heartfelt confession is required.

We dont understand confession well these days. We used to be afraid of

being caught doing something sinful in front of our friends and leaders. Now
we are afraid of having low self-esteem in front of our therapists. True
confession takes self in hand, cuts the throat of the sin and places it at the foot
of the cross. Thats confession. If you lack fellowship with God, its not on
Him! Theres a throat somewhere that hasnt been cut a denial, a holding
back that must be cut out and placed under the blood of Jesus.

V. The Prevention From Fellowship

As a final note, there is a chilling aspect to this text. Did you notice the spy-
like arrangements here just to get a room for Passover? Find a guy carrying
water. Follow him to where he enters a house. Talk to the unnamed owner!
What is going on? Ill tell you. Jesus is excluding Judas. He knows Judas is
already looking for an opportunity to betray Him. It is Judas choice, but it is
also the Fathers will predicted hundreds of years before in Psa 41:9. But
the timing must be Gods. The Passover must come first. But that would be an
optimum time for a betrayal if Judas knew the place. To make sure he does
not, Jesus sends Peter and John on this mission with enough detail for them to
succeed, but without enough information for anyone else to know. He will
take the others there when the time is right.

All of which shows Jesus and His Father are in absolute control of everything.
While Jesus is about to suffer what seems a humiliating defeat, He is actually
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in charge of every detail. Do you see that? You must see that. And because
Judas has made his decision against Jesus, he is cut off from the possibility of
fellowship with God. Judas thought he was his own man. He cut his own deal.
He thought there was a third option between God and Satan. He thought there
was a third door labeled Self. But there is no third option. You are either with
Jesus or, as Jesus told the religious crowd in John 8:44, You are of your
father the devil, and your will is to do your fathers desires. All Satan wants
is for us to follow our own desires, because then we are automatically his.

Conc On the evening of the 2nd inauguration of Pres Lincoln, Frederick

Douglas arrived at a White House party at Lincolns invitation. The guards at
the door denied him entrance because of his color. When he protested that he
had been invited, they informed him that they had no such orders. Eventually
Douglas spotted someone he knew, asked them to inform the president, and
soon word came back to let him in. He said, "I walked into the spacious East
Room, amid a scene of elegance such as in this country I had never before
witnessed. I spotted Lincoln, who stood like a mountain pine high above the
others in his grand simplicity, and home-like beauty. Recognizing me, even
before I reached him, he exclaimed, so that all around him could hear him,
Here comes my friend Douglas. Taking me by the hand, he said, I am
glad to see you. Thats fellowship. Imagine having that with God. All thats
required is that you confess yourself to be the sinner you are and ask for His
pardon. He will say, I am glad to see you. Question is: Are you glad to see
God? Dont be like Judas and let love of money, or some relationship or
worldly ambition keep you away. Come to the Father thru the Son. Lets pray.