Luke Chapter 22 Verse 1
• The Feast of Unleavened Bread follows right after Passover, and I’d like us to understand Passover specifically is not a week, its not even a day, it’s a meal that is held on the 14th day of the month of Nisan on the Hebrew Calendar. The Passover meal commemorates essentially the 10th plague that God brought upon Egypt for the enslavement of the Jew.
• On that night, God told the Israelites to sacrifice a spotless lamb, mark their doorposts, sides and top, with the blood of the lamb, and then the Lord passed through the nation of Egypt taking each first born from each home… But the Lord promised that if your home was marked as He had commanded and ordained with the blood of the lamb, that He would “pass over” and spare that home.
• Along with the instruction to apply the Passover lamb’s blood to their doorposts, God instituted a commemorative meal consisting of fire roasted lamb, bitter herbs and unleavened bread. Why unleavened? Many link this to how leaven is a picture of sin in the Bible and that is a correct picture, but the more substantiative meaning is found in Exodus 12:11 and Exodus 12:39.
• Exodus 12:11 God said to Moses of the unleavened bread, “And thus you shall eat it: With a belt on your waist, your sandals on your feet, and your staff in your hand. So, you shall eat it in haste. It is the Lord’s Passover.” And then Exodus 12:39, “And they baked unleavened cakes of the dough which they had brought out of Egypt; for it was not leavened, because they were driven out of Egypt and could not wait, nor had they prepared provisions for themselves.”
• And so, the bread was unleavened because they were to go now, go fast, go immediately, no time for the bread to rise, no use in using any yeast for that purpose at all. And so, the Passover meal and then the Feast of Unleavened Bread, often referred to as one event but truly two things joined into one…with all sorts of layers of meaning, but just one for tonight…
• The Passover is the receiving of the blood of the lamb in a permanent, public, obedient and trusting manner… Receiving and understanding and processing that it means life or death and it is the only way…knowing that God will and would be true to His word… And then the unleavened bread. Nothing being allowed to hold you back to delay you but just like a race horse charges out of the gates at the beginning of the Kentucky derby, when God says go, you GO!
• The delay is for the distrusting. For the unfaithful. We are to trust the Lord. Take Him at His word even if that means the cakes are flat. Its not how its supposed to be, or used to be or even how we like it. But man, we have made a decision and our resolve of faith is not my will but Your will be done, God! And we MOVE out.
• Maybe even exactly what Jesus was thinking on this day. Feeling in this circumstance as it will be just a matter of hours and those exact words will come forth from Him. And so, Luke tells us the Passover was upon Him…
Luke Chapter 22 Verse 2
• This is “inner circle” type stuff. They couldn’t publicly confront and lay hold of Jesus. He was loved by the people and they loved their position. So, they feared the people. And yet Luke tells us here that they “sought” how they might kill Him. How? Answer, not publicly. They’re too cowardly.
• So, what did they do? They looked for people that also might have a reason to hate Jesus and then they conferenced privately with them. That’s “inner circle” type stuff. Happens all the time today. I want to ask you to be inner circle explosives unto the glory of God!
• Someone has a problem with someone and they are talking to you about it…correct them! Either tell them to forgive, pray and get over it or tell them to go talk to the other person about it…the person they are complaining about. What happens is that more often than not people listen to others complaining and that stirs up complaints in their own hearts and then before you know it, there’s some sort of inner circle formed against someone and it’s not good at all. The commonality they share is immaturity, unrighteousness, cowardice and a common hatred for someone else. Not sure you can get any more sinful than that…
• Precisely what’s going on right here…let me just ask you, can you please not be a part of that and if you have the spiritual spine for it, please destroy as many inner circles as you can. All they are are sin-ships. You know what I’m saying, relationships based on sin…and all that does in a life is breed bitterness and destruction and all that does in a church is breed discord and division which by the way, all that put Jesus on the cross…why go back to it?
Luke Chapter 22 Verses 3 – 4
• This wasn’t some sort of hostile, surprise attack takeover by Satan, and its not so much a “devil made me do it” moment for Judas. Which by is by the way a debatable statement in the first place due to free will.
• First, Satan couldn’t get to Jesus directly. He tried. He tempted Jesus three time explicitly when Jesus was alone in the wilderness. And after Jesus resisted Him masterfully, Luke tells us in Luke 4:13, “Now when the devil had ended every temptation, he departed from Him until an opportune time.” Three years ago, the day of opportunity has come.
• This is why we can’t sleep. This is why we have to stay in the grace and love of Jesus, walking in the Spirit and trusting Him moment to moment, situation to situation, Peter says it this way in 1 Peter 5:8, “Be sober, be vigilant, because your adversary the devil walks about like a roaming lion, seeking whom he may devour.” He is opportunistic…you MUST know that…three years he’s been just fine waiting…
• And Judas, has not at all been vigilant. Nothing has happened yet, he has been grumbling, no doubt a negative presence within the 12, even stealing from the provisions of Jesus and the 12, and getting away with it…all of that is over. John tells us in John 12:4-6, “But one of His disciples, Judas Iscariot, Simon’s son, who would betray Him, said, “Why was this fragrant oil not sold for three hundred denarii and given to the poor?” This he said, not that he cared for the poor, but because he was a thief, and had the money box; and he used to take what was put in it.”
• This was no hostile take over of Judas by Satan. Judas had been waltzing with Satan for years… He just had never been caught, no price to pay, Satan had been lulling him to sleep this entire time for just this specific opportunity. Look, it really would be best for you to turn from your sin now…because sin doesn’t just end quietly, it wrecks shop, man. And you won’t be able to blame the devil…just as Judas will realize and eventually end himself.
• Now interestingly and encouraging, John tells us that when Satan entered Judas, we find this in John 13:27, “Then Jesus said to him, “What you do, do quickly.” Two take aways…one, when sin comes to call your debt, its like a whirlwind…be vigilant, be sober, because the Lion doesn’t nibble…he devours and the implication is it is fast, man….
• Second, and here is where we can be encouraged, who is in control? Let me ask it another way, who is commanding who? See that? Jesus is commanding His betrayer and He is commanding Satan. Do it quickly, loser. Yes, God is a God of justice and purity and perfection and goodness and therefore consequence must be ordained and allowed, but His heart is for it to hit quickly and be done…and then restoration. Within just a few days, all will be forgiven…even Judas…
Luke Chapter 22 Verses 5 – 6
• According to Matthew, the price paid for the betrayal of Jesus, essentially what Jesus was worth to His enemy, was 30 pieces of silver. Matthew 26:15, “What are you willing to give me if I deliver Him to you?” And they counted out to him thirty pieces of silver.” Now, that is significant, do you know why?
• This is not the first time we have seen that specific amount of money set as a price in the scriptures. Thirty pieces of silver, as defined by God Himself, is the price of a male or female slave. Exodus 21:32, “If the ox gores a male or female servant, he shall give to their master thirty shekels of silver, and the ox shall be stoned.” There’s a double price paid by Jesus in that He was priced as a slave and stoned as the burden bearer upon the cross…but that’s a topic for another day…
• The point is, prophesied 500 years before Jesus was even born in Zechariah 11:10-14, “And I took my staff, Beauty, and cut it in two, that I might break the covenant which I had made with all the peoples. So, it was broken on that day. Thus, the poor of the flock, who were watching me, knew that it was the word of the Lord. Then I said to them, “If it is agreeable to you, give me my wages; and if not, refrain.” So, they weighed out for my wages thirty pieces of silver. And the Lord said to me, “Throw it to the potter”—that princely price they set on me. So, I took the thirty pieces of silver and threw them into the house of the Lord for the potter. Then I cut in two my other staff, Bonds, that I might break the brotherhood between Judah and Israel.”
• We may have to revisit this for next week’s study but we end tonight with the prophecy fulfilled, and the statement of God fully revealed, that to secure my freedom and pay my debt of sin, Jesus Christ, God Himself, my Creator accepted the position and placelessness of a slave…because I was one…and that was the only way to buy my freedom…and yours…