INTRODUCTION:

1. Strictly speaking, “the feast of unleavened bread” (22:1) was distinct from the Passover (cf. Numbers 28:16, 17).
2. However, the two events occurred together and are often regarded as the same feast (22:1).
3. The last Passover and the first Lord’s Supper took place in “a large upper room” (22:12).
4. The fullest account of what took place in the upper room on the night before our Lord’s crucifixion is found in the Gospel of John, chapters 13—16.
5. Luke’s account is longer than those of Matthew and Mark, and Luke has some information not found in the other accounts.

1. PREPARING THE PASSOVER
2. OBSERVING THE PASSOVER
3. SUPERSEDING THE PASSOVER

 

I. PREPARING THE PASSOVER

1. The “Passover” is one the three great historical annual festivals of the Jews.
2. The name “Passover” comes from Exodus 12:13, 14. “And the blood shall be to you for a token upon the houses where ye are: and when I see the blood, I will pass over you, and the plague shall not be upon you to destroy you, when I smite the land of Egypt. And this day shall be unto you for a memorial; and ye shall keep it a feast to the LORD throughout your generations; ye shall keep it a feast by an ordinance forever.”
3. The word “Passover” afterwards came to denote the lamb that was slain at the feast. The Passover lamb was a picture and type of Christ, “the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world” (John 1:29).
4. First Corinthians 5:7 says, “For even Christ our passover is sacrificed for us.”
5. As they approached Jerusalem, our Lord sent Peter and John ahead, saying, “Go and prepare us the passover, that we may eat” (Luke 22:8).
6. Luke 22:10-12 reminds us of our Lord’s omniscience. Our Lord could see ahead at a great distance, and He knew what was needed for Peter and John to make things ready for the Passover.
7. Our Lord’s humanity is seen by the way He observed the Passover, and His deity is shown by His omniscience.
8. Perhaps our Lord had already made arrangements with “the goodman (master) of the house” (22:11). Tradition has it that this was John Mark’s house. In any event, everything happened precisely as our Lord had predicted (22:13).

 

II. OBSERVING THE PASSOVER

1. “And when the hour was come…” (22:14).
2. The Scofield Study Bible lists the order of events on the night of the last Passover supper (p. 1037).

1. The taking by our Lord and the disciples of their places at the table;
2. the contention who should be greatest;
3. the feet washing;
4. the identification of Judas as the traitor;
5. the withdrawal of Judas;
6. the institution of the supper;
7. the words of Jesus while still in the room (Matthew 26:26-29; Luke 22:35-38; John 13:3-35; Mark 14:1-3).
8. the words of Jesus between the room and the garden (Matthew 26:31-35; Mark 14:26-31; John 15:16, 17). It seems probable that the high-priestly prayer (John 17) was uttered after they reached the garden;
9. the agony in the garden;
10. the betrayal and arrest;
11. Jesus before Caiaphas; Peter's denial.

3. For centuries, the Jews have celebrated the Passover, commemorating their glorious deliverance from bondage in Egypt.
4. The Passover depicted redemption from God’s wrath through faith in the shed blood of the Lord Jesus, “the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world” (John 1:29).
5. “And when I see the blood, I will pass over you, and the plague shall not be upon you to destroy you, when I smite the land of Egypt” (Exodus 12:13).
6. Egypt is a picture and type of the world, under the judgment of God for rebellion and idolatry.
7. This Passover meal was the last meal Jesus shared with His disciples before He went to the cross (22:14-18).
8. W.H. Griffith Thomas said this last Passover “showed brotherhood” as our Lord and His disciples treasured their last moments (Outline Studies in Luke).

 

III. SUPERSEDING THE PASSOVER

1. By “superseding,” I mean that for Christians, the Passover has been replaced by the Lord’s Supper (22:14-20).
2. The bread represents our Lord’s broken body (22:19).
3. The cup represents our Lord’s shed blood (22:20).
4. Nowhere in Scripture is the wine ever said to be fermented wine.  Our Lord referred to it as “this fruit of the vine” in Matthew 26:29.
5. In other words, what we would refer to today as grape juice.
6. Here in Luke 22:20, and in Matthew 26:27, and Mark 14:23, and I Corinthians 11:16-28, it is simply referred to as “the cup.”
7. These are the only two elements in the Lord’s Supper: the bread and the cup.
8. Dr. Thomas Bramwell Welch was a Methodist preacher, who had to stop preaching because of throat problems that sometimes made it difficult for him to speak.
9. He moved to Vineland, New Jersey and opened a dental practice.
10. Dr. Welch was a staunch teetotaler, and he promised to provide his congregation with unfermented wine for the Lord’s Supper.
11. Dr. Welch wondered if Louis Pasteur’s breakthrough techniques could be applied to grape juice, and so he experimented to find a way to keep juice from fermenting.
    
12. In 1869, he perfected a juice pasteurization process in his kitchen and began selling “Dr. Welch’s Unfermented Wine” to churches preferring alcohol-free grape juice for the Lord’s Supper.
13. Unfortunately, the idea didn’t take off right away, and after four years, Welch gave up on it.
14. Two years later, his son Charles offered free samples of the grape juice to churches, and he published temperance magazines that advocated alcohol-free grape juice for the Lord’s Supper.
15. By the 1890’s, annual conferences of the Methodist Church began including ads for Welch’s grape juice in their published journals.
16. Charles Welch soon grew his new company beyond the church. He marketed grape juice as a health tonic, touting its medicinal uses. One advertisement recommended Welch’s for typhoid fever, pneumonia, and “all forms of chronic diseases.”
17. When Charles Welch offered samples at the 1893 Chicago World’s Fair, the popularity of Welch’s Grape Juice grew even more, and before long, it was advertised as “the national drink.”
18. Charles Welch summed up his dad and his life’s work in his last will and testament: “Unfermented grape juice was born in 1869 out of a passion to serve God by helping His Church to give its communion ‘the fruit of the vine,’ instead of the ‘cup of devils.’”
19. They don’t make Methodists like that anymore!
20. Our Lord did not roast the Passover lamb when He instituted the Lord’s Supper.  There was just the bread and the fruit of the vine.  The Passover lamb is not mentioned in any of the five accounts (the four Gospels and I Corinthians 11).
21. Yet in the book of Exodus, the lamb was the center of the Passover Meal. The lamb was taken to the Temple and sacrificed there, and its body was brought back and prepared in the home for the Passover Meal, but none of that is mentioned here.
22. There is a reason for this. Our Lord was not instituting a sacrifice; He was instituting a memorial feast.
23. The key word here is “remembrance” (Luke 22:19).
24. Exodus 12:14 says, “And this day shall be unto you for a memorial; and ye shall keep it a feast to the LORD throughout your generations; ye shall keep it a feast by an ordinance forever.”
25. Exodus 12:26, 27 says, “And it shall come to pass, when your children shall say unto you, What mean ye by this service? That ye shall say, It is the sacrifice of the LORD'S passover, who passed over the houses of the children of Israel in Egypt, when he smote the Egyptians, and delivered our houses.”
26. Our Lord did not roast a Passover lamb, because I Corinthians 5:7 says, “Christ our passover is sacrificed for us.”

 

CONCLUSION:

1. W.H. Griffith Thomas said the Lord’s Supper is –

1. A Retrospect – Christ died for us – for deliverance – we take the Bread.
2. An Introspect – Christ in us – for life – we drink the Cup.
3. A Prospect – Christ is coming back – for hope – we take the Lord’s Supper “until the kingdom of God shall come” (Luke 22:18).

2. First Corinthians 11:26 says, “For as often as ye eat this bread, and drink this cup, ye do shew the Lord's death till he come.”
3. I will conclude with this quote from W.H. Griffith Thomas: “Do we know all this experimentally? We may test ourselves each time we come to His table by meditating upon Union, Communion, Reunion” (Outline Studies in Luke).