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by Sandy Shaw
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.
Peter and John are such a contrast to Judas. They are in the right place going the right way, in the right direction, in the right company, doing the right thing, and most importantly, obeying Jesus.
They find a man in a most unusual way. This man is prepared to give his best room to Jesus. They got things ready. They knew what to do. They were Jews.
They were going to remember that night, when God visited Egypt, 1,300 years previously, and the first born in every house was slain, except for those in the houses marked with the blood of the lamb, as commanded by Moses. And GOD came down and visited that land that night. You will find the text of this incident in Exodus Chapter 12.
We never know when God is going to come down and visit us in a new way, and do a new thing, and speak again. We never know when God is going to move again. During the 1960’s and 1970’s there was this amazing outpouring of the Holy Spirit, and the risen Jesus baptised me and anointed me with the Holy Spirit, as I was about to resign from the ministry of preaching and teaching the Word of God. We never know when God is going to come down!
This miraculous deliverance from Egypt was no problem to Jesus. Men question this all this; the angel of death and the opening of The Red Sea. Jesus didn't. Jesus acknowledged and remembered that night and observed the Passover, because it was real and true.
These men had the living Jesus with them, but they were going to remember the significance of the past too. What we believe affects how we behave.
O, to keep the balance. Remember what is important, and also be led by the risen and living Lord Jesus Christ and guided by the Holy Spirit. It was in the middle of this significant meaning remembrance, that Jesus did something new, when He took the bread and the wine, and gave these men such vital teaching.
You will find much of what Jesus said and taught in John Chapters 13,14, 15,16.
Jesus comes and takes the ordinary. He takes what was routine and which had been going on for 1,300 years, and He saturates it all with new meaning and significance.
We are reading in The Word of God, and all of a sudden He reveals something and He speaks. Have we not found that to be true as we read and study the Bible each day? We are reading a passage, and all of a sudden a light shines and God speaks so clearly and specifically. I have been reading part of the Bible every day since I was eight years old, I can testify to this being so true and so real.
Jesus is Master of this situation. He planned it. He controlled it. Jesus decides when and how and where. Normally only women would carry a jar of water.
Go. Meet this man. Follow him. Peter and John are even given the words to speak. This is wonderful.
Verse 22. Jesus mentions that someone is going to betray Him, and they begin to ask questions. Who could do something as horrid as this? Who would do something as horrid as this? It is someone to whom Jesus had given the bread and shared the cup.
Notice, they had to partake. You must accept it for yourself. They had to be involved, filled, fed, obedient. It looks so little, but the significance is immense. They were symbols and signs, and no more than that. His real body was there in front of them.
Jesus invites us. He takes us into that room. What a privilege, not only to be present there, overhearing and listening and watching, but to receive, as they did.
This is the New Covenant, a new relationship, and all of this has a forward look, to that day when we shall eat and drink with Jesus Christ in the Kingdom.
Alexander 'Sandy' Shaw is pastor of Nairn Christian Fellowship in Nairn, Scotland. Nairn is 17 miles east of Inverness - on the Moray Firth Coast - not far from the Loch Ness Monster!
Gifted as a Biblical teacher, Sandy is firmly committed to making sure that his teachings are firmly grounded in the Word.
Sandy has a weekly radio talk which can be heard via the Internet on Saturday at 11:40am, New Orleans time, at wsho.com.
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