Hope Has a Name: With Bible Study Fellowshipنموونە

Passover and Promised Land

So far, studying Stephen’s speech helped us identify with Israel’s history of hope in God for deliverance—and reminded us of God’s faithfulness. (1) For example, we can imagine how those longing for freedom found hope in God’s prophecy to Abraham: “ ‘For four hundred years your descendants will be strangers in a country not their own, and they will be enslaved and mistreated … and afterward they will come out of that country and worship me in this place.’ ” (2) In time, God revealed “that country” was Egypt and “this place” was His Promised Land.

The people who first heard Stephen’s speech and the Gospels knew this history—their history. Most early Christians were Jews who believed that Jesus Christ is God’s promised Messiah, the Deliverer. Their families had celebrated Passover for generations to remember God’s salvation of His people from Egypt. (3) On the first Passover, God commanded each Israelite family in Egypt to:

- choose an unblemished lamb.

- sacrifice it before sundown.

- brush the lamb’s blood on their homes’ doorframes.

- eat the lamb and other specific foods.

That night, God’s final plague on Egypt brought death upon the firstborn in the land. However, the Lord passed over the houses marked with the blood of the slain lamb. He saved the people inside. This is the backdrop and context that Matthew assumes as he describes Jesus’s Last Passover meal (or Last Supper).

Traitor At the Table

All four Gospels record the Last Supper. (4) Taken together, we see most clearly how Passover’s symbolism is fulfilled in Jesus’s life and work. He is indeed “the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!” (5) Matthew skips from meal preparations to Jesus’s startling declaration in verse 21: “Truly I tell you, one of you will betray me.” Jesus declares that it would have been better if this person had not been born.

Judas asks discreetly, “Surely you don’t mean me, Rabbi?” And Jesus, with equal discretion, affirms Judas is the one. John’s Gospel includes Jesus’s words, “What you are about to do, do quickly.” None of the disciples understood these words or why Judas got up and went out. (6)

Lord’s Supper

Verses 26 to 29 describe the new feast Jesus institutes with His eleven remaining disciples. Jesus took bread and said, “Take and eat; this is my body.” Then, He took a cup saying, “Drink from it, all of you. This is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins.”

At the cross, Jesus established this New Covenant. (7) His sacrifice provided forgiveness of sin for those who put their faith in Christ. Jesus supplies all His people need to abandon old ways for new life through faith. One day, Jesus will eat and drink again with those who belong to Him at the great “wedding supper of the Lamb.” (8)

Whether believers call this meal “Holy Communion,” “Breaking of Bread,” or “The Lord’s Supper,” we participate to remember what Jesus has done, is doing, and will do. When believers eat this meal, we affirm we:

- live with Jesus now and for eternity.

- publicly confirm our part in His body, the Church.

- trust Him as our source of strength for all areas of life.

- anticipate His physical, visible return.

Feast on Faith

For generations of Israelites, Passovers left them longing for the faultless and final sacrifice. Until that day, sin’s full penalty could never be paid. In Romans 3:25, Paul declares, “God presented Christ as a sacrifice of atonement, through the shedding of his blood – to be received by faith. He did this to demonstrate his righteousness because in his forbearance he had left the sins committed beforehand unpunished ….”

At the first Passover, God protected all who obeyed through faith in His justice and mercy. Now we know that, through Jesus Christ’s blood, God’s rightful judgment passes over us, covering us with His sweet mercy instead. This is something to celebrate!"

Questions

6. From what the Bible says about Passover and this meal, how did Jesus’s sacrifice on the cross fulfill Passover’s symbolism? (Refer to Exodus 12:1-16 and 1 Corinthians 5:7-8 or read today’s notes to expand your thinking.)

INSIGHTS: This meal was the Passover supper. This annual feast commemorates the first Passover when God delivered the Israelites from slavery in Egypt (Exodus 12). The traditional ceremony points to what Jesus fulfilled in His substitutionary death for sinners (1 Corinthians 5:7-8). Examples include: 1) Each Israelite household had to have a lamb without defect. Jesus, the Lamb of God, is sinless (without defect); 2) The blood of the slain lamb was applied to each home, just as Jesus’s perfect sacrifice must be appropriated to every individual through faith in Him; 3) The blood covered each home’s door frame, delivering those within from death. Those covered by Jesus’s blood, in faith, never see eternal death; They only receive everlasting life in Him. 4) Only those within these houses were protected from God’s judgment that struck down the Egyptians’ firstborn. God “saw the blood” and “passed over” the Israelites. Jesus Christ is God’s perfect Lamb. Likewise, only those who are “in Christ” are protected from eternal judgment.

7. Why do believers practice the Lord’s Supper (Communion), the celebration of Jesus’s New Covenant? Include Matthew 26:26-29; 1 Peter 1:18-19; 2:24; and 1 John 1:7 in your response. (Verses available in insights below.)

INSIGHTS: 1 Peter 1:18-19: “For you know that it was not with perishable things such as silver or gold that you were redeemed from the empty way of life handed down to you from your ancestors, but with the precious blood of Christ, a lamb without blemish or defect.”; 1 Peter 2:24: “ ‘He himself bore our sins’ in his body on the cross, so that we might die to sins and live for righteousness; ‘by his wounds you have been healed.’ ”; 1 John 1:7: “But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus, his Son, purifies us from all sin.”

8. How do these verses challenge your thinking or motivate you to worship? Write down or speak your response as a prayer to God.

Related Verses

1 Stephen’s speech: Acts 7

2 Prophecy about enslavement: Genesis 15:13; Acts 4:17

3 Exodus from Egypt: Exodus 12:14-20

4 Last Supper: Mark 14:12-26; Luke 22:7-38; John 13-17

5 Lamb of God: John 1:29

6 Jesus confronts Judas: John 13:27-30

7 New Covenant: Jeremiah 31:31-34; Luke 22:20

8 Wedding supper: Revelation 19:9