1420 - "The Seder Meal, Cups 3 & 4, Part 2" Exodus 12; I Corinthians 11:23ff

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:01

Welcome to On the Way with Tony Crisp. Each weekday, Dr. Crisp will be discussing biblical passages, people, places, and prophecies. Tune in daily to start your day right and deepen your understanding of how to better walk the way and enjoy the journey. Here's your host, Dr. Tony Crisp.

SPEAKER_01 0:20

Welcome to On the Way. This is Tony Crisp, and this is Podcast 1420. Today we're going to continue with the second half of the Seder Meal and we're going to be in Exodus chapter 12. Now I want to encourage you to read over this material and read over it every year. Because this was to be an annual remembrance in the twelfth chapter of the book of Exodus, after all the details are given for the meal and what was to be the menu, how often they were to do it. In verse fourteen it says, So this day shall be unto you a memorial, that is, something to remember on a regular basis. It's a special day. And you shall keep it as a feast to the Lord, to Hashem, to the personal covenant name of God throughout your generations, that is forevermore. You shall keep it as a feast by an everlasting ordinance. This does never go away. Why? Because what God did in bringing the children out of Egyptian bondage should never be forgotten. It was such a monumental thing that God said, I never want you to forget it, so I'm going to give you a glorified object lesson to help you to remember. Now it's interesting because since I have been doing satyr meals and doing them for over the course of time, thousands of people, people often come to me and say, Wait just a minute, why are you doing that? Why are you as a follower of Jesus doing that? Well, Jesus did it. He was a Jew. I'm not a Jew, but I do it to help people who have never been around Jewish people, have never studied the Word of God in depth, they have never understood about the various Moadim, the appointed days, the special times of the year that God said, I want you to remember something about who I am or some aspect of who I am, or some deed that I have done and I never want you to forget it. You see, we're prone to forget, so God gave glorified object lessons to remember, because when we see something we remember it. When we hear something that we remember it, when we touch something, we remember it. When we smell something, we remember it. And when all of those are together and you're experiencing it, there's a good chance, if you do it every year, every twelve months, that there's going to be a remembrance. This is why Shabbat is weekly. Because we need to remember every week that God started something. He created everything, the heaven, the earth, everything. That's what Shabbat is all about, to remember that God is the creator and the sustainer of all of life, and because he created us, we are accountable to him. If you were the enemy, what would you want to do away with first? You would want to do away with the fact that we are created in the image of God. Yes, sin has marred us, but God has created us with thought processes. Are they fallen? Yes. Are they deteriorated? Yes. Are they depraved? Yes. But they are still, and so are we as the totality of being created in the image of God. And God did something so special that he said, I don't want you to ever forget this, so I'm going to give you a procedure to follow. And that's interesting. God told them what to do, but he didn't tell them how to do it. He told them to remember and that they needed to remember these particular things every year, but he did not give them a mechanism to do that in the sense of telling them how to do it. But he did give them a brain, he gave them a mind, he gave them knowledge, and so over the years, down through the centuries, those have become an order of service, a way to do something that would cause every generation to remember the same components that the former generation and the next generation. It's going to be consistent. And to do that, you have to have order. That's not just random, that's an order. And so a system was developed around a series of questions that the youngest in the family was to ask each successive year, and a certain menu would be that which was offered. There would be the centerpiece of four cups representing the four I wills of Exodus chapter six and chapter seven. And those I wills were represented in a cup telling the story of the redemption and the deliverance of the Israelites, the people that were the sons of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, and how they were delivered. And the story has never been forgotten. And so this is why it's so important. So yesterday I dealt with the storytelling and how that as they told this story, they used cups to have certain chapters or segments in the story of the meal. Now, a Seder meal is not get in, eat as much as you can, as quick as you can, get out. No, no, no. This is a big deal. This is not opening presents at Christmas time, then forgetting about what the whole meaning is. This is about the meaning of this to the Jewish people in particular. But it's important to those of us who are followers of Jesus because it was the Seder meal that Jesus was eating when he instituted what we call communion or the Lord's table or the Lord's Supper. I told you yesterday about the first two cups. The cup of sanctification when God says, I'm going to deliver you from bondage, in other words, I'm going to bring you out as my people. You're going to be separated, and you're no longer going to be in Egypt. You're going to be now going into the land that I promised to your ancestors, that I would bring Abraham back into the land. He promised that to him on more than one occasion, but specifically after four hundred years of being in a foreign country, which they had been in Egypt, that he would bring him back into the land he would bring his descendants. That's in Genesis chapter 15. That first cup says, I'm going to do what I said I was going to do and I'm going to separate you from the Egyptians. The second cup is a reminder of how he did it. He did it with a series of ten plagues. And so there is a graphic and demonstrative way to do that by taking a drop of wine and putting it on a plate or something to that effect, depending upon the household. But the idea is for the children and the adults together to shout out the plagues so that they would never forget that it was not by their might, nor because of their goodness that God did this, but it was because of his grace and his mercy and his kindness and his faithfulness to his promises, and so that is what that's all about. Then they had a meal. It was a special meal. It was a certain menu, it was prepared in a certain way. There were activities before the meal, during the meal, and after the meal. And we don't have time to go into those because I want to deal with the third and fourth cup, particularly the third cup. Now it was after the meal, after supper that Jesus took the cup. You say, well, how do you know that? Because the Bible tells us so. The Apostle Paul even says in chapter eleven of First Corinthians, verse 23, he begins to tell what happened the night that Jesus was betrayed, they were having this meal. And he said, After supper they took the cup. So that means the third cup. Why? Because that was always taken after the meal. Now what was that cup called? The first one was called the cup of sanctification or setting apart. The second one was called the cup of judgment because it told of the great judgments and the mighty hand of God with the great plagues that came upon the Egyptians. They ate supper and then they had the cup of redemption. Now the cup of redemption had this matzah as a part of it. It was the breaking of the matzah that was on purpose. That was to tell about the lamb and how precious it was, without spot and without blemish it was, that it was the best, that it was something that cost every family something. Jesus would have at this point changed the monologue of the meal. Because here's what Jesus said. He said, I want you to take this, I'm going to give this bread, I'm going to break it, and then I'm going to give it to you. While you are about to eat this, I want you to understand something. This is about me. Because I am the lamb. I am the lamb of God that was sent. I was wrapped in swaddling clothes as a sacrificial lamb was. The shepherds knew about that, and no doubt Jesus in his own heart and mind looked back on that day when the shepherds who were astonished at the appearance of the angels, the angels said, Don't be afraid, I'm bringing you the best news you've ever heard, glad tidings of great joy, for to you this day in the city of David is born a Savior, the Savior, the Messiah, they knew who he was talking about. And you will find this baby, said, I'm going to give you a sign, you shepherds alone will know. Because they were out there wrapping up the sacrificial lambs. They were Levites. They were out there wrapping up sacrificial lambs when they were born at night so that they could tend to them when it got daylight. They could make sure that they were not vulnerable at night and would not be scarred up and then not be able to be used for the sacrifices the next year at Passover. Because these were Levitical shepherds. And we know that through historical records, we know that through the teachings of the Bible. Again, that's not the purpose of this podcast, but what I want you to understand is the idea that Jesus was the lamb goes all the way back to his birth. He was led as a lamb to the slaughter. That was the prophecy of Isaiah chapter 53. It was a messianic prophecy starting in chat the last few verses of chapter 52, going all the way through chapter 53. So the people who were looking for the Messiah, they were looking for one that would be like a lamb. Jesus no doubt talked about that, and he said, I want you to take an eat and from now on I want you to understand this is going to be a remembrance of my body which is going to be given, going to be broken for you, just like this bread is broken, that represents a sinless, unleavened, leaven was a symbol of sin, an unleavened lamb, that is a spotless, sinless, innocent lamb. This is going to be my body, which I represent that lamb, and that lamb represented me, which is broken for you, not for me, not for something I've done, but what you've done. And then the cup would have been poured. And he would say, This wine represents, this cup represents my blood which will be shed for the forgiveness of sins. My blood is going to be shed so you can be forgiven. Jesus didn't need to be. And he said, As often as you do this, I want you to remember me. Think about me. Why? Because he was the Lamb of God that takes away the sin of the world. The very one that was sent to be his forerunner was none other than John the Baptist, who was born six months before him. And as he was baptizing, people were asking him, Are you the Messiah? Are you the one, or should we look for another? He said, Oh, I'm not the Messiah. I I don't even have the right and don't have the worthiness to even tie up his shoelaces, his sandals. And then about that time, in that time period, he saw Jesus coming toward him. He was in the river Jordan. And the Bible says that he pointed to Jesus and said, Look, behold, hey everybody, let me have your attention. I want to introduce you to the Lamb of God who is going to take away the sin of the world. So this cup, this third cup, is the cup of redemption. Finally the fourth cup. Jesus said, I will not drink this until I drink it new with you in my Father's kingdom. What was that? That was called the Hallel cup. It was a cup of hope. It was a cup of ingathering. It was a cup that would be celebrated when they get into the promised land and they see the promises of God that He is faithful, that He is true, that everything He said He would do He's done. And this was a cup of praise and it was a cup of celebration. It was Messianic. Because you see, this is when they would talk about Elijah, and every Seder meal of every Jewish family has an empty chair. And the door would be open to see if Elijah was coming. Because Elijah would come before the Messiah would come. I want to encourage you again, if you do not have a Seder and you don't want to look one up, I have put one together and I'll be glad to email it to you. I'll send you a PDF where you can look at it for yourself. All you have to do is send me your email. Email me at DRCrisp D R C R I S P at TonyCrisp.org and I'll email you a PDF. You can print it off and share it with others. This is so important. Aren't you glad that God has given us symbols to help remember that? Now that Passover meal was symbolic. So is the Lord's table. It is symbolic because it reminds us of something. It reminds us of the work of Jesus until he comes. The Apostle Paul said in that same passage in the book of First Corinthians, he said, For as often as you eat this bread and as often as you drink this cup, you are showing the Lord's death, his substitutionary death until he comes. You see, the Lord's table is not only remembering and looking backward, not only is it helping us to be cleansed and remember that we're eating unleavened bread and we need to get the leaven out of our own life, which is representative of sin. But we need to remember that one day Jesus is coming back. And when he comes back, he's not coming to die on a cross again. He's coming to rule and reign as king because he is. There is one king, his name is Jesus. He is the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords. And one day, the Bible says in more than one place, that every knee will bow and every tongue will confess that he is the King of Kings, He is the Lord of Lords to the glory of God the Father. May God grant you a great time this week of remembering what Jesus has done. This is a time we celebrate. It's a time when we remember that he died as a substitute for our sins. He was buried, and after three days he came out alive again. Gary Habermas has written four volumes that shows beyond any doubt whatsoever that Jesus really did rise from the grave and he did it bodily. That's right, he did it b bodily. And because of that and the witnesses that were around and the evidence that's there, we know that we are not following a fairy tale. The apostle Peter said we have not followed cunningly devised muthas myths. These are not Aesop's fable once upon a time. No, in the beginning God created the heaven and the earth and everything that's within, and he created you and me, and we are accountable to him. And the Son of God, the Lord Jesus Christ, came and in word and in deed proved that he indeed was the Son of God, is the Son of God, and forever shall be the Son of God. And he's coming again one day. I pray that you're ready to meet him. For on the way, this is Tony Crisp.

SPEAKER_00 17:39

Thanks for listening to On the Way with Tony Crisp. Tune in every weekday for information on biblical passages, people, places, and prophecies. Fridays are for your questions. Email your questions to questions at TonyCrisp.org, then just listen for your question to be answered on Friday's podcast. That's Questions at TonyC R I S P dot org. Thanks for listening and have a blessed day on the way.