THE LAST SUPPER

This is the fourth day of HOLY WEEK and it is a day of Jesus' finishing the work His Father gave Him to do. His whole life as the Son of Mary has been leading Him to the Upper Room. He had told Peter and John, his disciples, to prepare the room where they would celebrate the feast of Passover. Jesus knew this would be the last time this Old Covenant Supper would be sanctioned by His Father. The New Covenant was on the way and Jesus made that very plain to those who had ears to hear.

When He drank of the cup He told them it was the CUP OF THE NEW COVENANT WRITTEN IN HIS BLOOD.. You can read all four Gospels and the message is the same....God is ushering in a New Covenant and a new covenant people and He was using the Blood and Body of the Lamb that was to be slain on the Cross the very next day. I know it is easy to look back and see the hidden meaning of Jesus' words that night, but it was not until Jesus ate and drank with the Disciples after His Resurrection that they got a glimpse of what was happening.

Matt 26:29
But I say unto you, I will not drink henceforth of this fruit of the vine, until that day when I drink it new with you in my Father's kingdom.
(KJV)

And if you remember, Jesus did eat with them in the Upper Room the night of His Resurrection, and again John tells us Jesus Himself cooked fish and was waiting on them to return from fishing. (Jn 21:12-13) Remember Jesus saying, "Come and Dine"?

Acts 10:41
Not to all the people, but unto witnesses chosen before of God, even to us, who did eat and drink with him after he rose from the dead.
(KJV)

Jesus had taught these people to pray every day that "The Kingdom of our Father who art in Heaven would come to the earth and that the will of the Father would be done in earth." Their prayers are about to be answered. I believe that John has a very good teaching on what happened that night after the LAST SUPPER was over. We see Jesus washing the Disciples' feet, and them He gives them A NEW COMMANDMENT.

John 13:34
A new commandment I give unto you, That ye love one another; as I have loved you, that ye also love one another.
(KJV)

He told them that they were to LOVE ONE ANOTHER AS HE HAD LOVED THEM. The Ten Commandments would be fulfilled in this one, new commandment. He did not tell them to love one another as they loved themselves as He had told them earlier. The New Commandment would be the Rule of the New Covenant and of life in the New Kingdom.
Just how did Jesus love us? When we were good and wonderlful? No, I know better than that and so do you. He loved us when we were still sinners, most of us before we were even born the first time, let alone born again the second time. The key to Kingdom living is in loving one another in spite of themselves. The love of God was shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost when we were born again in order for us to be able to love with the love of God.

Jesus leaves the Upper Room and goes to the Garden of Gethsame and John records some awesome teaching. Read John chapters 14, and 15,and 16. Then read John 17 and pray the prayer along with Jesus. I know the first three Gospels record the prayer of Jesus praying for the cup to pass if it were at all possible for God to save fallen mankind without Him having to go to the Cross.....but after He prayed that prayer three times, He then understood that no one could be saved until the Spotless, Sinless Lamb of God was offered as the sacrifice for the sins of the world.

If one person could have been saved without the Cross of Calvary taking the Life of Jesus, then all people could be saved. But not one person could get back into fellowship with their Creator without an Intercessor. It was more than having our sins forgiven.....Moses offered that with the scapegoat....we needed to receive a new heart ie a new spirit. That is what The Last Supper reveals. BEHOLD I MAKE ALL THINGS NEW.

Rev 21:5
And he that sat upon the throne said, Behold, I make all things new. And he said unto me, Write: for these words are true and faithful.
(KJV)

In John 14 we hear Jesus say, "Let not your heart be troubled, you believe in God, believe also in me. In my Father's house are many mansions, I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you I will come again and receive you to myself, that where I am, you may be also." I have so much to say about this. Jesus went away the next day and came back to them three days after that. He then received them to Himself on the Day of Pentecost when He raised us up together and made us set together in heavenly places, according to Eph 2:6.

Oh my oh my oh my. What a blessed day today represents. I will not take the time to say any more about this blessed night. But I pray you read the word for yourself and see just how powerful the New Birth really is. And it is just like Jesus told those Disciples that night almost 2,000 years ago.