Praise the Lord. God is doing a new thing and the presence of God is coming in like never before. When Pastor said to us yesterday, get ready for the change. What we thought we knew, what we thought church was like is not going to be the same. We don't know the presence of God the way he's coming now. We don't know the giftings and the blessings and the hand that He is going to have on the church like never before. He will rescue us.

What a perfect time to be in Passion Week to remember the passion of our Lord Jesus Christ. This is the week where we remember all that He went through, all the suffering that He had. And so with each day starting with the Triumphal Entry we remember the work of Jesus. Remembering that He willingly without being forced to do it gave His life for each and every one of us. This is the time that we reflect upon our relationship with the Lord. This is the time for renewal. This is the time to receive the new thing of God.

And it's so funny because during Easter and this resurrection week, we think about those basic tenets of Christianity. We think about our salvation and how Jesus died on the cross and how He poured His blood out. In the past we may have said, oh we're above that. We're beyond that simple fact. But today, we get to renew and enjoy the salvation and the love of our God. That it was by His hand, that it was by His arm that He delivered and rescued us. That He sent his one and only son to die for you and to die for me.

That is the joy that we have in the House of God today. That we could be with a Living God who manifests Himself in the presence of heaven. And we get to touch Him. The Lord Jesus Christ makes His way during Passion Week all the way to Jerusalem. He's on a journey and He knew with every intention in His heart where that journey was going to lead Him. No one coerced Him. No one forced Him to do it. No one confused Him. He knew well and fully what the end of the week was going to bring. And yet with every step forward, even riding in on Sunday on that donkey, He moved forward with every step to His death.

And He did it for you and He did it for me out of His great love, and we will always preach the love of God for us. He predicts His death to the disciples in Matthew 16:21. From that time on, Jesus began to explain to his disciples that He must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things at the hands of the elders, the chief priests, and the teachers of the law, that He will be killed and on the third day raised to life again.

He was telling the disciples plainly that this was the plan of God for redemption for all mankind from the very beginning written in the Scriptures about Him. This is the week of the fulfillment of all the prophecy of the Lord Jesus, that He would come and die, give His life for you and for me. Yet the disciples did not have ears to hear it. They didn't understand. They couldn't imagine a sacrifice so great that the Son of God would be given into the hands of sinners, into the hands of people who would falsely accuse him. Never would God do such a thing.

And Jesus is trying to explain to them that this is the way that God had, the suffering and the redemption that would cost Him everything. In fact, one of the days this week as they're leaving the temple, one of the disciples is just not getting it yet. He walks outside the temple and he looks in awe at the temple and its beauty and says, “Look, Teacher, what massive stones, what magnificent buildings.” Like he's at a museum, like he's in D.C. and looking at the monuments. “Wow, we're in Jerusalem. We made it, Jesus. We're really here.” And so he's so excited.

The temple was massive. It was laden with marble and gold. And it was humongous. It was acres and acres big. He was amazed by the building. And what is Jesus' response to him? He says, “Yes, this building is great, but the whole thing is coming down. Do you see all these great buildings,” Jesus replied, “Not one stone will be left on another. Every single one of them will be thrown down.” Church, there is a great change coming. And the building is coming down. The building of religiosity. The building of ritual. The building of not knowing the Lord. The building of being far from God and not knowing Him. Not coming face to face with Him. Not having Him live inside of us. That is done and away with. That is what Jesus has come to do.

His body was the new temple. It would be destroyed and in three days, God would raise Him up again. The new building to be built is the one that is built in Him. Living stones, the Church. His body being built up, doing His work upon the world, being His hands, manifesting His presence, and being that manifestation of His power.

So tonight, we're going to look at God's Plan as the rest of these days unfold in the last days of His life. We see that Jesus is about to take the cup of God's wrath on our behalf and I want you to remember throughout this night that He did it willingly. He did it with all understanding and intention that He rode into this place on the road to His death.

And so tonight is the night of the Last Supper that He gathers His disciples together that He had been with and had gotten so close with during those three years together in ministry. It reminds me of the verse in the Bible that says, “He longs to gather us together as a hen gathers her chicks.” He knows that they will be afraid. He knows that they will go running. And He wants to be able to gather them close, to tell them, “Remember my words. Stay close to me. Pray and remain in me. Wait for the Holy Spirit.”

He has shown them God the Father as He walked with them. He has shown them and demonstrated the power of the Kingdom of God. They have seen it as they walked with Him. This night, He invites them to share a meal. But it is not just a meal. It is the culmination of all they had done together. It is the culmination of the ministry of Jesus Christ.

And so today we will look at that Passover table, which we acknowledged yesterday, and Jesus took part in the Last Supper with His disciples tonight. I want to tell you, the disciples thought that they understood this table. You see, they were Jewish boys, and they had done the Passover for many years since the time of their youth. They knew all of the parts of the table and the supper that they would be partaking in. But the Lord Jesus Christ was about to give a new meaning to all of those symbolic parts of the table. They really didn't understand what was coming. The change that was coming upon the Church even this day.

You may not understand that God is doing a new thing. A new hope, a new joy, a new power, a new will in you, to be able to serve the Living God with a power that has never been in you before. For 1,500 years, the table was the same. And that's crazy to think about. When God instituted it in the Bible, like we read yesterday, for 1,500 years since the time of Moses, it had been done in the same way. That's why the young disciples thought they knew.

And so every element was a part of the Exodus story. The bitter herbs representing their bitterness in the time of slavery when they were working in Egypt. The pain that they endured in all of the hard work and labor that they had to do. The unleavened bread represented the urgency in which they had to leave Egypt and go where God sent them. He said the immediate time that I give the word for you to leave, go, do not hesitate, obey Me immediately, and you must go.

Yeast in the Bible represents the pride of man and that was not evident in the Israelites that night. They didn't have to think about how they were going to escape. They didn't have to make a plan. God said go and take the unleavened bread with you. They carried the bread that was not risen, the dough upon their shoulders, and they went as God had declared. And of course the most important part of that table, the Lamb of God, whose spilled blood, was the atonement for sin. And of course, they painted it on the doorposts of their house so that when the Angel of Death came, he would pass over them, and they would be free from that judgment.

You see, all of those things, all of those symbolic elements of that table would only point to the true Lamb of God, who is Jesus Christ. He who is your Passover. He who will keep the Judgment of God from your house. He who will make sure that we see each other in heaven when we leave this world. He is the one that makes us safe and unified in Him. He is our salvation.

"He will deliver us and liberate us from our chains of sin..."

During the time of the Exodus, God gave four promises to Moses. He said to him, “I will bring you out of Egypt. I will deliver you from slavery. I will redeem you with an outstretched arm, and I will take you to me as my own people.” These are the promises of God for He knows how to deliver each one of us. He will deliver us and liberate us from our chains of sin, from our old ways of going through the motions of being religious and not knowing God. He will liberate your mind from having that stinking thinking, not being able to understand the Hand of God wanting to move in your life like never before.

At the table, even in the time of Jesus, they would sing hymns after the meal. And just in Moses's days, they also would sing what is called, “The Dayenu”. It translates to mean, “It would have been enough.” And we sing a song here in church like that, “It Would Have Been Enough.” Well, I want to tell you, it would have been enough if God destroyed the gods of Egypt, but then He gave them their possessions. It would have been enough if God gave the Israelites their possessions, but then He opened and split the Red Sea. It would have been enough if He opened the Red Sea, but then He drowned their enemies. And it would have been enough if He drowned their enemies, but God brought them to the other side. And it would have been enough if God brought them to the other side and yet God led them through the wilderness. And it would have been enough if God led them through the wilderness, but then He gave them manna from heaven. And it would have been enough if He gave them manna from heaven, but He delivered them into the promised land. And it would have been enough if they went into the Promised Land and yet God made them His people.

Blessing upon blessing overwhelmingly the goodness of God towards us and towards his Church this day. This is the heart that the Lord has for us. And now Jesus is at the table of Passover with His disciples. He wants to show them that God delivered them then in a physical deliverance, but Jesus has come to deliver us from spiritual death, from spiritual slavery. The Lord has come for each one of us. Jesus said to them, “Very truly I tell you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink His blood, you will have no life in you. Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise them up in the last day.”

And you know this is after Jesus had fed the 5,000 that he says this to them. Truly we have nothing in common with Jesus Christ unless you eat His flesh and drink His blood. And this is what also describes the Supper Table of the Lord. You must take Him in. You must eat of His life. You must take in His Spirit. He must live in you in order for you to receive salvation this day. This is the new table that we as Christians eat of, to drink of the body, to partake in what He has done.

You see, these elements at the table, we're going to take on the new meaning of Christ. You look at the unleavened bread. It's no longer the same. Now it is about Jesus and His body that is broken for you. We can't ignore a sacrifice of somebody going to the cross, of someone enduring the type of pain that Jesus did. But let us preach the Word of the Lord and bring the Gospel good news that Christ has died for you. That His body was broken and He's laid His life down as an offering that you would be redeemed.

That is the bread, the unleavened bread that had no rise to it. It had no pride in it. Jesus did not exert His own will over the Will of God the Father. In fact, we learn that He did not protest. He did not speak. He did not defend himself. There was no exertion of His own will. He had complete obedience. And when we look at that bread, that is what we remember, the One who gave it all. The One who didn't have the ability to have an opinion. The One who wasn't going to disagree. The One who wasn't going to be a lone ranger.

And that's got to be us in the church. To not be willing to break the peace in this place. To not have our own ideas. To not have our own thinking. And to be more like our Savior, Jesus Christ.

The wine is the blood that was going to be poured out for the forgiveness of sins, freely applied to all who would believe. We know that in the past that the blood of animals was not enough to cover the sins of the world, that it was not a holy thing that was being sacrificed. So year after year, they would have to make those sacrifices again. But Jesus, the Holy Lamb of God, is the perfect sacrifice. He was not sinful. He was sinless before the Lord, completely obedient. Something that is beautiful.

You know, when we see our young children here giving honor to the Lord, you know, that was Jesus before His father, pleasing the Father. And yet He sacrifices Him for my sake and for yours. But Church, Christ has come to liberate us. You see, in the past, in that old Passover, it was to deliver them from their physical slavery. But today we tell you about a new table that is a deliverance for that spiritual remedy that all of us need to have our chains broken. And today that is what the table means for you, an offering of deliverance for you. New life, new joy, new faith, new hope is what Christ offers all of us today. So will you come to the table? Would you take the invitation? As Jesus gathered His disciples unto Himself, would you come in and partake of that table?

Now on this night, Jesus transforms the Passover into something that is completely new, something unheard of, something that they never expected. And God is doing something unexpected in our midst this day. He wants to bring in a new covenant, something that they never thought was going to happen. In the Old Testament, you know that covenants had to be ratified with blood. And Jesus was about to ratify this new covenant with His blood in just a few days.

You see, He was not just sharing a new meal, but He was ushering in a new humanity. This was a pinnacle, my friends. This was something that had never gone on before. All throughout the beginning of the world, since the time of creation, because of the sin of Adam, when sin entered in, the world was decaying. The world was in sin. The world was morally corrupt. And corruption was its future.

But when Jesus came, He broke that. He broke it to do something new. The old sacrifices and the way that people would go and wash and come and try to cleanse themselves, making sacrifices day after day, year after year, and yet they were never able to come close to God. That's unfathomable in my mind because they were never going to enter the Holy of Holies. They were never going to be able to enter into a place. Maybe Moses got to be close, maybe a few here or there, David or Joshua. But the average person was never going to know God. They were never going to be able to change their life or, you know, have Christ living inside of them. But what a wonderful covenant we have this day that God has made a way.

We see it from the beginning. It was God's great plan of redemption to show us that we had a great need for this Savior. And He has come to you this day. He has come for you. That this new covenant would be your hope in a fallen world. That you now have the ability to have a Living God inside of you. To change your family, to change your ways, to change your thinking. This new covenant is being introduced to us even this night.

It's so amazing that even in a secular way, history on a timeline is divided into B.C., right? Before Christ. And I know they're trying to come away from that now. They're trying to say, you know, “Before Common Era”. But they had it right the first time. They're right. That is the pinnacle. That is the moment. That is the separator and the divider. The Life of Jesus Christ when He came into this world. Because before it, everything was corrupt. Everything was dying. Everything was on its way down. And yet when Jesus was here on this Earth, then everything else changes. That's what He brought to the table that night. This is the moment.

Everything before this was one way and now it was going to be a new way. So I hope you can understand. These words that I'm coming with are profound. This is monumental. This is the groundbreaking. This is the pivotal moment. This is the pinnacle for humankind. The opportunity to have a Living God that would no longer be external to you. Not to see Him from afar, not to worship Him as something that you don't understand. But to have a God who will come inside of you, His living, breathing Spirit to empower you to do the work, to be new, to be transformed, to be born again of His Spirit. Hallelujah!

"Whoever would receive the blood of Jesus, whoever would believe in Him can be washed in the blood even this night. "

Matthew 26:27, “Then he took a cup, and when he had given thanks, he gave it to them, saying, Drink from it, all of you. All of you, please drink from it.” 28, “This is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for the forgiveness of many sins.” This new covenant was about to be poured onto all of you. Whoever would receive the Blood of Jesus, whoever would believe in Him can be washed in the blood even this night. If you would be washed in the blood of the new covenant of Jesus Christ, He promises to write His laws upon your heart. They were on stone and it was impossible to follow. You couldn't please God. You couldn't know God. You feared God and you would remain distant from Him. That's the way the relationship was.

But tonight, with the new covenant of his blood, He pours His blood out on the cross. It is poured out for you so that it would be written upon your heart. So that you could know Him. That you could live with Him. That you could eat with Him. That you could speak to Him. And that you could be His hands. The new covenant changes everything. It is now a direct relationship with you and God. Not just for the pastors. But for you to know Him. And for Him to live in your house.

We now know that what this means, the covenant, is that you will never be the same again. Your flesh is now overtaken by the Spirit of God, and you don't have to sin the way that you once were. You used to be a slave. You used to be in bondage. You used to be in captivity. You could not say no to sin. You could not say no to those old thoughts. You had no power against them. And now because of the Blood of Jesus Christ, we have all power and authority. Will you lay your life down to receive the new covenant that God offers us today and live according to this new Spirit?

The Spirit of God is here and He wants to come in, no longer just hovering around, but to come inside the hearts. This is a greater covenant that He gives to us this day. Now when Jesus offers us the cup at the table, it is a cup of forgiveness and freedom. It's a wonderful ability and it's a wonderful invitation to be offered to come to the table of Jesus today. Many of us will take this offering and say, “Yes, Lord, I want to know you. I want to have a relationship. I want my children to be free from sin. I want them to be free from the things of the world.” But this day, I want us to understand we have to remember what it costs Jesus.

You see, we have a cup that's offered in His hands with love. And it's forgiveness and salvation and goodness. But friends, I want to remind you, that is not the cup that He had to take that night. Jesus had a cup of God's Wrath that would be offered to Him. The one that we really deserve to be offered because of our sins. There was a cup that was prepared for you and it was a cup of wrath. It was a cup of anger. It was a cup of judgment and God was righteous in doing so because He is a righteous God. Sin, the wages of sin are death. And yet Jesus takes that cup this night.

And so as we move on with our story. We know that they moved from the Passover table and they went to the Garden of Gethsemane that night and we're hours away from His death. We're seeing the last hours of His life and He goes to the garden to pray and to be strengthened of the Lord. He is in agony. He is in agony and pain about what He is about to go through, but we remember that He did it for you and for me. Matthew 26:37, “He took Peter and the two sons of Zebedee along with him, and he began to be sorrowful and troubled.” Then he said to them, “My soul is overwhelmed with sorrow to the point of death. Stay here and keep watch with me.” Going a little farther, he fell with his face to the ground and prayed, "My father, if it is possible, may this cup be taken away from me, yet not as I will, but as you will.”

So we think about the cup that Jesus had to take. What is this cup? But it is the righteous anger of our God for the evil and the sin in the world. It is the suffering and the anguish that Jesus was about to go through on the cross. And if you really can think of it like this, and if you can picture it, think of a goblet in front of you. That with every sin that's ever been committed more of God's anger and His righteous judgment has been dripped into that cup from the beginning of time. For every sin, for every act of unrighteousness, for every murder, for every hand against God, for every evil thought, for every lie, for everybody who was killed unjustly, all of that dripping into that cup. Somebody has to drink that cup. Somebody is going to drink it because God is a righteous God and He cannot allow these unrighteous things to be going on.

"Jesus made a way for us and He took on the agony and suffered that of the cross."

And so Jesus willfully takes the cup of wrath on our behalf so that we would not suffer. Jesus made a way for us and He took on the agony and suffered that of the cross. He took on the hatred of the world for each one of us. He did it for us even when we were undeserving of it because while we are still yet sinners, Christ has died for you. When we remember the time in the Garden of Gethsemane, three times, the book of Mark says, he went to the disciples, would you pray for me? Would you be my friend if I just take a moment and spend some time with God to be strengthened in this time? Would you pray for me? And each time He comes back to the disciples, they had fallen asleep.

Why did Jesus keep going back? Why did He go a second and a third time? Surely I'm not alone. Surely there's got to be one person who loves me. Surely not every single person in the world has abandoned me, left me, hated me, is against me. Not even my friends. The ones that I've eaten with. The ones that I've slept with. God is looking and really comes to an understanding. He is alone. And the whole world is against him. There in that garden, He has not one friend. Not one that can stand.

And we don't point the finger out. We have to point the finger within because we understand this is the state of man. This is the state of every single one of us. It was my sin that He died for. It was my sin that held Him there upon the cross. This is the state of mankind. So when everyone is truly against him, the Lord is for us completely. But he understood our state. Romans 3:23, “All have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.” All of us are in need of the table. All of us are in need of the Covenant of the Lord, the Covenant of the Blood this day. For all have shortchanged the Lord. All have walked away from Him and betrayed Him.

We think of Judas who sold Him out for pocket change. And even Peter who denied Him three times. I don't even know that man. My son and I read it this week and it said even with a curse. He's like, I don't even, you know what, that guy. I don't know Him. And so we see truly that it took all of what Jesus did. He took away the fury of God's Wrath that was for us. 1 Timothy 1:15, “Here is a trustworthy saying, a saying that deserves full acceptance. Jesus Christ came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am the worst.”

And so when we understand the cup that Jesus had to drink and the judgment that was against Him, we see the dreadful Wrath of God, but it was truly intended for us. When He drank the cup, it was injustice against Him. When the rulers unjustly accused Him of lies. When they slandered against Him. When He felt their hatred. When they surrounded Him and wanted Him to fall. When Peter denied Him. When He was deserted and slandered and unjustly accused. When He was mocked and He was laughed at and He was beaten and He was stripped. And He was humiliated in front of the crowds. When they chose a murderer to be released over Him. The Lord drank the cup of the Lord's Wrath that was intended for each one of us.

God has a great love for us. And Jesus here is showing, even at that moment as He is drinking that cup. He is drinking it to the last drop. He is drinking that cup dry, even as we talk tonight about being in the garden. We see that His actions are completely for each and every one of us. Just as we said in the beginning of this night, Jesus did it willfully. He was not coerced. He was not forced. He knew exactly what would be at the end of the road when He went, and it led for Him to be on Calvary. The Lord this day took the cup of wrath so that you didn't have to.

2 Corinthians 5:21 says, “God made him who has no sin become sin for us, so that in Him we would become the righteousness of God.” Jesus became the sinner in God's eyes because he was willing to take our place. He truly is the spotless sinless lamb of God who took away the sins of the world. And so this day what a blessed church we are that Jesus takes away our sins so that God can bless us. So God can free us. So God can love on us because we have a Savior that gave His life for each and every one of us.

Matthew 26:40-41, as Jesus prays and the darkness closes in in Gethsemane this is what the Lord does. “When he returned to his disciples and found them sleeping he said to them, couldn't you men keep watch with me for one hour?” He asked Peter, “Watch and pray so that you do not fall into temptation for the spirit is willing but the flesh is weak.” The flesh is weak my friends and they could not stand for Jesus. They could not come and they could not stand against the leaders of the church. It led them to cowardice. Our flesh has no part in the church this day, for Jesus redeemed you and bought you so that you could have His Spirit.

The flesh is weak but the Spirit is willing. And that's the reflection that I want to have this night, that we would be willing to take on the Spirit of God so that you would not be like the old, but that you would come into the new. We said that there was a dividing point in history. It was the point that Jesus came. We cannot still live as though Jesus had not come. This day we recognize that Jesus has come to give you a table. To give you His new covenant of the blood. So that you would be delivered. So that you would come to know Him in a more powerful way than ever before. That you would receive the Blood of Jesus that was poured out for you, and that you would never be the same again. The covenant of His blood this day for restoration, for hope, that the suffering of Jesus would not be in vain, but that the new covenant would buy you and make you new this day.