Being Different Because We Are ‘in Christ’ is Seldom Easy
We are in Luke Chapter 22, and this week from verse 31. Jesus Christ is spending His last night on earth with His chosen men. That is significant.
Final words are always highly significant. They have been remembering the Passover, and Jesus has given new meaning and significance to the bread and the wine.
The Jewish holiday of Passover for 2010 begins at sundown on Monday and lasts the next seven days. It is the celebration of the Israelites coming out of slavery in Egypt.
A properly set Passover Seder table. The Haggadah book is in foreground.
The biblical event takes place in Exodus 10 through 13 in the Old Testament.
God instructed the Jewish people to mark their doorposts with lamb’s blood so He would “pass over” them when slaying the first born of Egypt (the last of the “10 Plagues” causing Pharoah to release them from bondage).
Would Jesus Christ Celebrate The Passover If It Were Not Historically True?
We are reading and studying in Luke 22 and we come to verse 24. What is the setting? Jesus and His disciples are in the process of observing The Passover Meal, and Jesus has taken the bread, and one of the Passover Cups which would have been on the table, and, Jesus gives them this new meaning and significance, for the Church, for believers, for His disciples.
When Jesus Speaks To His Disciples He is Clear And Specific
In Luke Chapter 22 at verse 7, Jesus asks Peter and John to go and prepare the Passover Meal. Jesus is aware of all that is going on, and the meeting place is to be kept as secret as possible. Jesus has to have one last evening with His disciples, and until the teaching has been given, nothing and no-one will be allowed to interfere.
Judas was not going to be informed; not too soon, just in case.
Imagine Being This Close To Jesus Christ, And Yet So Far
We are in Luke Chapter 22. It is the Passover, a most holy and sacred time for every Jew, for every Israeli, and we read that Satan entered Judas Iscariot. He was one of the twelve, one of Jesus men; yet, his heart is open to evil. The enemy of our souls needs only a very narrow gap through which to squeeze, and once he gets in, havoc follows.
When we left George in Part 1, he needed answers to ten questions as a way to improve his friendship with Simon. It’s just the tip of a huge iceberg of information, but it would be so helpful if Christians could know these things before springing the gospel message on their Jewish friends.
How good is my knowledge of the Old Testament compared to the New? I can relate a helpful story. My friend Betsy was raised in a “New Testament Christian” family. They believed the New Testament “overcame” the Old. But when she met and married a pastor, she discovered many Old Testament prophecies by comparing them to New Testament scriptures. The New Covenant between God and his people doesn’t overcome the Old; it enhances it.