Timothy Keller Sermons Podcast by Gospel in Life - Supper With Friends

Episode Date: March 10, 2023

Confucius, Muhammad, Buddha, Moses—they all died in old age, in comfort and blessedness, triumphant over their opponents. Of all the founders of major religions, Jesus alone died alone, young, stripped naked, stared at, mocked, while he died by inches in agony, crying out to God who had forsaken him. Who, hearing that story, would say, “That’s the spiritual leader I want”? And yet, the suffering and death of Jesus Christ transformed lives at a depth and on a scale that completely changed the ancient world. People’s lives were changed if they grasped the understanding of Jesus’ death that he gave at the Last Supper. So what did Jesus say? There are three things we see here: 1) the importance of his death, 2) the meaning of his death, and 3) how it can be a transforming power in your life. This sermon was preached by Dr. Timothy Keller at Redeemer Presbyterian Church on February 4, 2007. Series: King's Cross: The Gospel of Mark, Part 2: The Journey to the Cross. Scripture: Mark 14:22-31. Today's podcast is brought to you by Gospel in Life, the site for all sermons, books, study guides and resources from Timothy Keller and Redeemer Presbyterian Church. If you've enjoyed listening to this podcast and would like to support the ongoing efforts of this ministry, you can do so by visiting https://gospelinlife.com/give and making a one-time or recurring donation.

Welcome to Gospel in Life. Many religious teachers sought to live as good examples. Only Jesus explicitly stated that his purpose was to die. Today on Gospel in Life, Tim Keller is teaching through Mark's account of Jesus' final days and ultimate death on the cross and how that can change us from the inside out. Tonight's scripture reading is from the Gospel of Mark chapter 14 verses 22 through 31. While they were eating, Jesus took bread, gave thanks, and broke it, and gave it to his disciples saying, take it, this is my body. Then he took the cup, gave thanks, and offered it to them, and they all drank from it. This is my blood of the covenant which

is poured out for many," he said to them. I tell you the truth, I will not drink again of the fruit of the vine until that day when I drink it anew in the kingdom of God. When they had sung a hymn, they went out to the Mount of Olives. You will all fall away, Jesus told them, for it is written, I will strike the shepherd and the sheep will be scattered. But after I have risen, I will go ahead of you into Galilee.

Peter declared, even if all fall away, I will not. I tell you the truth, Jesus answered. Today, yes, tonight, before the rooster crows twice, you yourself will disown me three times. But Peter insisted emphatically, even if I have to die with you, I will never disown you. And all the others said the same. This is God's Word.

We're looking at the last chapters of Mark, for the next two weeks, next two months, and as a result we'll be looking at the last days of Jesus on earth. And when you do that, you actually are confronted with an empirical, historical question. And I mean, it's empirical. It's not just a spiritual faith thing, it's empirical. Confucius, Muhammad, Buddha, Moses, founders of major religions, they all died in old age, in comfort and blessedness, triumph and over their opponents. Jesus alone of the, all the founders of major religions, Jesus alone died alone. Young, stripped naked, stared at, mocked while he died by inches in agony, crying out

that God had forsaken him? Okay, now here's the question. Who's seeing that? Or even who hearing that story would say, that's the message for me. That's the leader, that's spiritual leader I want. That's the person whose footsteps, and whose footsteps I want to walk.

Who would say that? Who in the world, and yet here's the person whose footsteps, and whose footsteps I want to walk. Who would say that? Who in the world, and yet here's the empirical point. It's the simplest, article fact that the suffering and death of Jesus Christ transformed lives at a depth and on a scale that it completely changed the ancient world. Why did that happen? Why would you see someone end like that and say,

why the great spiritual leader? There's the message for me, why would anybody do that? And the answer is, people's lives were changed if they grasped the understanding of Jesus' death that he gave at the last supper with his disciples, and which has been passed down for centuries through the Lord's Supper. In other words, the Lord's Supper has changed the world.

Change the world. So what did Jesus say? How did he explain his the meaning of his death at the last supper that's what we're gonna look at? And there's three things we see here. One is the importance of his death, secondly, the meaning of his death, and lastly, how it can be a transforming power in your life.

The importance of his death, the meaning of his death, and how it can be a transforming power in your life. First, the importance. They're eating, right? While they were eating, what are they eating? They're eating the Passover. Because up in verse 12, when this incident begins in the intertext, we read Mark 14, 12, on the first day of the feast of unleavened bread, when it was customary to sacrifice the

Passover lamb. Jesus disciples asked him, where do you want us to make preparations for you to sacrifice the Passover lamb. Jesus disciples asked him, where do you want us to make preparations for you to eat the Passover? So this is Passover. And what was Passover? Passover was an annual meal that commemorated the defining moment in the history of Israel. Israel, the Israelites were enslaved to Pharaoh in Egypt, and they were in misery, they were in bondage,

and God delivered them, he led them into freedom. And the Passover was the meal that commemorated that every year, it commemorated the defining moment, the most important, in a sense, the most important moment in the history of Israel as a nation as a people was that deliverance. Now, the pastor of Miel had a form. There were four cups of wine. There were four moments in which the presider got up and said various things. And this is actually the third cup of wine. The fourth cup of wine, there was a singing of the halo, Psalm 116 to 118, which we see

here, it says, and after they were all done, they sang a hymn and went out to the Mount of Olives. But verse 22 begins at the third part of the Passover. And the third part of the Passover, the presider would get up. This was when it was mainly eaten or almost completely eaten. And he would bless the elements. And he would do so by explaining the symbolism of the elements, how they symbolize various aspects of the captivity and deliverance from slavery in Egypt. And the presider would use the words

generally of Deuteronomy 26. So the presider would get up and he would bless the various elements. He was the bread, the herbs, the lamb, and he would say, this is the bread of our affliction, which our father's ate in the wilderness. So he's explaining the meaning of this great deliverance through the elements of the food. Imagine the astonishment of the disciples. When Jesus gets up, he's the presider at this Passover. And he begins to bless the elements.

And he begins to explain the symbolism of the elements. But he begins to talk about something different. He says, he looks at the bread. And he shows in the bread and says, this is my body. What does that mean? This is the bread of my affliction. This is the bread of my suffering. Because I'm going to lead the ultimate exos

and bring you the ultimate deliverance in bondage. You know what he's saying? When he said, this is my body. This is my blood. Here's what he's saying. He says, just as once, this meal was observed the night before God redeemed from slavery to Pharaoh through Moses, tonight we eat it before the night in which God is going to redeem from sin, death, and evil itself, the world through me.

This is not just a salvation from social and economic bondages, bad as that was, through Moses. This is salvation from death and sin and evil itself through me. I'm the ultimate Moses, he's saying. I'm leading the ultimate Exodus. This is the ultimate salvation, and this is the ultimate suffering that will lead you out. In other words, Jesus is saying, all the other deliverances, all the other sacrifices, everything else was pointing to me. My death, it says Jesus, is the climactic event toward which all the history of the world is moving, astonishing. He says, my death is the central thing. My death is the most important thing that's ever happened. That's the first thing. Well, you say why?

That leads to the second point. What's the meaning of his death? What does his death actually accomplish? Again, we have to remember that Jesus didn't just, in order to explain the meaning of his death, he didn't just choose a knight and say, I'm going to have a lecture. And you know, everybody come and I'll tell you the meaning of my death. He chose the Passover. And therefore, if we would understand the meaning of Jesus' death,

you've got to look at the Passover. And here's what else we know about the Passover. Israel was in bondage, as we said. Pharaoh was tyrannizing them and enslaving them. It was an active terrible tyranny and injustice. God hates evil and injustice. So God comes, Moses says, I am going to bring down on Egypt the divine justice. For one night, we're going to kind of get a mini preview of judgment day. We're going to kind of scroll forward for one night.

And we're going to bring down divine justice on human evil. And it's going to come down on the Egypt. Now here's one of the most amazing things about that discussion. You can read about this back in Xs 11, 12, and 13. What does God say? Well, did He say to Moses, when the justice comes down, when my justice comes down on human evil, of course only the Egyptians will be hit. You guys will be fine.

That's not what He says. Because God's justice is justice. And we said last week that the line between good and evil, according to the Bible, runs down through the middle of every human heart. The world is not divided into the good guys and bad guys. The world is divided into the better guys and the worse are guys, but not into the good and the bad. Because basically, every human being, because of our sin, because of our self-centeredness, this is what the Bible teaches. We all participate heavily in what makes the world

a terrible, miserable place and broken place. And therefore God says, if my justice comes down for one night, it doesn't matter what race you belong to. It doesn't matter whether you're, whether you've tried real hard to be good or not. Everybody is subject to justice. Everybody's in danger. Nobody will be able to survive

because they're this race or that race, because they live like this or they live like that. You're all, the justice is going to come down and everything. It was very incredibly egalitarian. So he says, the only way, he says to Moses, your people will survive is if they kill a lamb and eat it that night and put the blood of the lamb on the doorposts. Because when justice comes by, only if you've taken shelter under the blood of the lamb, is there any hope for you? In other words, you're pedigree, you're life,

you're performance, you're morality. That's not your hope. The only way you'll be saved is if you have faith in a substitute. What do you mean a substitute? Yes. Because that night in every single home in Egypt, there was either a dead son or a dead lamb. It was one or the other because justice was coming down and either fell down on you or else you took shelter under the substitute, under the blood of a lamb. And if you did, then death passed over you. That's why it was called Passover and you were saved.

So you didn't want to save on the basis of your merits. You're only saved on the basis of faith in the substitutionary sacrifice. And you say, wow, that's amazing. And of course, it's very dramatic. And that's what happened. You can read about it in Exodus 12. It's amazing and very dramatic. But it leaves you with a question.

Does it not? And I answered question. So why does the sacrifice of a lamb give you exemption from justice? Sweet little lambies, you know, flopsie and muffie and all that. Why in the world would that... why would that pardon you from sin? Why would the death of a furry little animal, little white, woolly biped?

Why, no, it's quadruped. Why would you, why in the world were the bipeds? Why in the world would you, that exempt you from justice? And the answer, come and sense answer, and also the answer of Isaiah and John the Baptist and the answer, common sense answer, and also the answer of Isaiah and John the Baptist and Jesus' they didn't. The death of the lambs was not

what really exempted you from judgment. What did? When Jesus Christ got up to bless the food that night, it was the weirdest Passover in history, you know why? When he blesses the food, you can see what foods he bless. There's the bread and all Passover meals had bread and there's the wine. And all Passover meals had wine,

but not one of the gospels ever talk about their being present at mean course. There's no mention of a lamb being there. Well, that's stupid. What kind of meal is this without a lamb course? Why wasn't there a lamb there? And of course, you know why, don't you? There was no lamb on the table because the lamb of God was at the table.

Jesus was the lamb course. And that's the reason why John the Baptist saw Jesus Christ for the first time. He said, behold the lamb of God who take it the way of the sin of the world. Behold the Lamb of God. Why would he call a human being a lamb? Because Isaiah did. And Isaiah 53, the great prophet predicts the coming of a suffering servant.

Isaiah understands that an animal can't substitute for the sins of a person only a person can. And so he says in Isaiah 53, about the suffering servant, he was oppressed and afflicted, but he opened not his mouth. He was led like a lamb to the slaughter. He poured out his life unto death and was counted with the transgressors, and the Lord laid on him the iniquity of us all.

And when Jesus Christ says in verse 25 and 24, pardon me, this is my blood poured out. He is identifying. He is saying, I am the suffering servant. I'm the one that I say I spoke about. I am the Lamb of God, which all the other little lambs pointed, that takeeth away the sin of the world. Now, what happens at this point?

This is the meaning. This is the meaning of Jesus' death. Jesus' death is a substitutionary sacrifice. The meaning of his death is substitutionary sacrificial love. Substitutionary sacrificial love, without which we cannot be saved. He couldn't say it more clearly, couldn't say it more propositional.

He couldn't say it more narratively than to say, I'm the lamb to announce this at the Passover. Now right away, and we're gonna talk about this for the next two months, because we're gonna be constantly looking at Jesus' death. That's what these last chapters are about. And the thing that New Yorkers and modern people in general don't understand is, why? Why do we need a sacrifice?

Why do we have to have Jesus' blood shed? What's the matter with God? What's up with that? Why can't He just love us? Why can't He just love us? If He wants to love us, just love us. Why does He just love us? Why can't He just love us? If He wants to love us, just love us. Why does He need all that? Gore. What does it matter with him? Is he some kind of primitive ancient God,

bloodthirsty God that needs to be appeased with blood? Look, I don't have to say everything I need to say about this tonight because we're going to be talking about it for two months. But I'm going to say something that I want to hammer home in different ways each week. And so, you know, it takes a lot of different repetitions and perspectives for a pen-ted wrap and here's the penny or here's the thing I'd like to drop all love real love All real life-changing love is

substitutionary sacrifice You have never loved a broken person you have never loved a guilty person you've never loved a hurting person You've never loved a wounded person you never loved a broken person, you have never loved a guilty person, you have never loved a hurting person, you have never loved a wounded person, you have never loved a person in trouble. Except through substitutionary sacrifice. There's no way to see here. If you love a nice person, a person whose life is all pulled together and everything's fine and they don't need any changes, if you love a person like that, it costs nothing. It's wonderful, it's fun. And

there are four or five of these people in New York City, you ought to find them and become their friend. But if you ever try to love somebody who's got needs, who's got brokenness, who's got trouble, if you try to love someone who is in trouble or someone who's got brokenness, who's got trouble. If you try to love someone who's in trouble or someone who's persecuted or someone who's emotionally wounded, if you love anybody whose life need to change, it's gonna cost you and you can't love them and bring them up without you going down. You can't do it without transfer.

Somehow they're troubled, their problems transfer to you. It's them or you. Hi, I'm Tim Keller. You know there is no greater joy in hope possible than that which comes from the belief that Jesus Christ was raised from the dead. The apostle Paul says in 2 Corinthians 13 verse 4, although Christ was crucified in weakness, he now lives by the power of God. If you grasp this life altering fact of history, then even if you find things going dark in your life, this hope becomes a light for you

when all other lights go out. With Easter approaching, I want you to know the hope that stays with you no matter the circumstance, the hope that comes from the resurrection of Jesus Christ. In my book, which is entitled Hope in Times of Fear, the resurrection and the meaning of Easter, you'll find why the true meaning of Easter is transformative

and how it gives us unquenchable hope and joy, even when we face the trials and difficulties of this life, which can be considerable. Hope and times of fear is our thank you for your gift this month to help gospel and life reach more people with the hope and joy of Christ's love. You can request your copy today by going to gospelandlife.com slash give. That is gospelandlife.com slash give. Thank you so much for your generosity.

And as we prepare to reflect on the amazing love of Christ, demonstrated when he went to the cross to save us, I pray you will find renewed hope and comfort in the historical fact of his resurrection. Because the gospel changes everything. All real life changing love is those two secondary sacrifice. What do I mean? I can give a couple of examples. You know, there's a lot of emotionally wounded people out there.

There's a lot of people who are just emotionally syncing. And they're losing. They're hurting and they desperately need to be loved. But you know what? When an emotionally wounded person comes at you, you want to go the other way. Because you know I'm going to have to listen to him or her and it's just so draining. It's so draining to be a friend to an emotionally wounded person. But get this. The only way emotionally wounded people are going to fill up emotionally

is if somebody loves them, and the only way to love them is to be emotionally drained. They're not going to fill up unless you empty out somewhat. If you hold on to your emotional comfort and just stay away from those people, they will just sink. It's them or you. The only way to love them is through a substitutionary sacrifice. Some of their woundedness, some of their drain is going to have to hit you so that some of your fullness can go to them.

That's just the way it is. All real love is substitutionary sacrifice. Or second, let me give you another example. Think of how many movies are based on this idea. You're safe. You're an upstanding citizen. Nobody's out for you. Nobody's trying to assassinate you.

Nobody's trying to hurt you. You're fine. And then you meet somebody who's hunted, somebody who's there out to get, somebody who they're out to kill. And they say, I need your help, or I'm going to perish. And you realize that the minute you do anything with them, the minute you identify with them,

or you help them, suddenly your safety is gone. And you'll be in danger, and they'll be after you too. I mean, there's so many movies like this, you know? And they're great movies, they're exciting movies. But here's the point. If you hold onto your safety, they're gonna perish. The only way for them to come into safety by your help is if you go into their danger. Do you see that?

All of a substitutionary sacrifice. Maybe one more example. Let's just say you're one of the cool kids. And of course, since you live in New York City, you might have been because cool kids want to move to New York City. The Dorky kids stay home. Cool kids grow up and say, I want to move to New York City. Okay, so a lot of you are cool kids.

But you're in high school, you're at college, especially in high school. You're one of the cool kids, and here's a girl, and she's dorky, and nobody likes her, and she's isolated, and she's alienated. So you try to love her, you try to be a friend to her, you try to reach out to her. And next thing you know, the other cool girls are coming

to you and saying, what are you doing with her? What's happening is, some of that dorkiness is rubbing off on you. You know, you're not so cool anymore if you hang out with her. What are you doing with her? There is no way for you to diminish her isolation and her alienation

without you entering into it, without some of the falling on you. Look. into it, without it some of it falling on you. Look. All real life-changing love is costly subsidiary sacrifice where that person's condition comes onto you and it's the only way that you can get them out of where they are. In National Geographic some years ago I read this, after a forest fire in Yellowstone, forest rangers began their trek up a mountain to survey the damage.

One ranger found a bird literally petrified in ash, perched statuously on the ground at the base of a tree. Somewhat sickened by this eerie site, the ranger knocked the bird over with a stick, and three tiny chicks scurried out from under their dead mother's wings. What's sickened by this eerie sight? The ranger knocked the bird over with a stick, and three tiny chicks scurried out from under their dead mother's wings. When the blaze had arrived, the mother

had remained steadfast. Instead of running, she just stayed put, because she had been willing to die, those under the cover of her wings would live. And in Jesus' said, and this is from Luke, Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you that kill the prophets and stone those sent to you, how I've wanted to gather your children as a hen that gathers her chicks under her wings. But say he did.

And he was burned to a crisp. On the cross, you don't have a bloodthirsty God. You have God coming himself to love us, but the only way you love a guilty person, the only way you can love a broken person, the only way you can love a messed up person and really love them to change them is that you have to do it substitutionarily. He took our penalty upon himself. He got what we deserved. Our sins fell upon him. Our guilt fell upon him. Our brokenness fell upon him.

He took it in himself so we could be forgiven. On the cross you have God doing in a cosmic way for the sins of the whole world, what you and I have to do every day if you really know how to love people. And M. Scott Peck, the psychiatrist some years ago, in his book The People of the Lie, put it like this, he said, how is evil overcome?

It's mysterious. And then to my shock when I was reading it, he quotes the climax of the lie on the witch in the wardrobe. M. Scott Peck says, it is written that if a willing victim who had committed no treachery was killed in a traitor's stead, the table would crack and death itself would start working backwards. And peck added, we don't know how it occurs, but it does. The only way that evil has ever ever come is as

someone sacrifices for another. And Jesus says, that's the meaning of my death. Behold the Lamb of God, who take of the way this into the world. Now the only other thing to talk about is point three. And it's kind of anticlimactic, but maybe not. Jesus Christ reveals the meaning of his death at a meal. And then he says, I always want my death to be remembered through a meal. And one of the ways, and it means a lot. And John will tell you more about it. And he actually, we do the Lord's Supper.

But one of the things it means is this, you can have a meal piled high in front of you, cooked perfectly, cooked to perfection. You can still starve to death, right? Because you have to eat it. It being cooked doesn't help you. If you're not willing to take it up and appropriate it and take it into yourself.

And that's the reason why Jesus doesn't just simply say, this is my body, what does he say? In verse 22, take it. It's not, he doesn't just say, I'm dying for you. He says, you gotta take what I'm doing for you. You've gotta receive it, you gotta take it in, you gotta appropriate it. Now how? doing for you. You've got to receive it. You've got to take it in. You've got to appropriate it. Now how?

How do you appropriate the first time? How do you appropriate it constantly? And the answer is, let me just give you three ways, three things. Dependency, community, expectancy. All of which work through the Lord's Supper itself. Okay, first of all, dependency. What do I mean by that? All right. In order to receive the benefits of Christ's Okay, first of all, dependency. What do I mean by that? All right.

In order to receive the benefits of Christ death, you have to realize something. Verse 24 and 25, Jesus says something that's fascinating and you've probably heard it so much that, you know, I had a friend of mine who lived right next 10 feet from a train track. And the train would go by every hour, this is in Hope, over, Virginia.

He'd lived there for years and years and years. And the first time you would ever go to visit him, you'd be sitting in the living room. And the train came 10 feet from the wall. And so the first time you hear this thing coming and coming, you know, what is in the world, and next, you know, when it finally gets to about, you know, 10 feet from you, you just jump up off the sofa and

you say, what was that? And almost always the guy would say, what's what? He's been there for so many years and all that noise, it was just so used to it. After a while, you don't hear it. This is an enormous train. This is an eye-blood of the covenant which is poured out for many. I tell you the truth, I will not drink again of the fruit of the vine until the day when I drink it anew in the kingdom of God.

I say, well, I've heard that many times, yes. It's a train that you don't even know what it, you know, you just get used to it. Let me tell you what it means. When someone would say, I'm not gonna eat or drink till I get something done. In the old times, that meant you were making an unconditional oath.

So for example, in Acts 23, when there's a group of people that are so mad at St. Paul, they say they're not gonna eat or drink until they kill him. Now, when you say, I won't eat or drink until I accomplishes what you're really saying is I'm gonna do it or die, right? I'm gonna do it, if it kills me, I'm gonna do it unconditionally, I'm gonna get it done, I'm gonna do it if it kills me, I'm gonna do it if I'm going to do it. If it kills me, I'm going to do it unconditionally. I'm going to get it done. I'm going to do it if it kills me.

I'm going to do it if I have to die doing it. That's what you mean. And those kinds of blood oaths were often taken in the ancient times, even in the Bible. And they usually had to do with blood. It was very, very typical. It seemed very, you know, gory to us. And yet, it was also very, very vivid,

is what they would do if you were making an oath. You would kill an animal. And sometimes you would cut it in half and walk between the pieces as you made your oath. Or sometimes you would spill the blood and have it sprinkled on you as you made your oath. And you said, that's awful. But you know what it meant.

It was a way of saying, if I don't do what I am telling you now, if I do not fulfill my promise, may my blood be spilled, may I be cut in half? See, you're identifying with the animal, very, very vivid. And of course, it made the oath very binding. But you see this a lot in the Bible, and you see it a lot in the ancient times, but it was always those blood oaths,

those unconditional oaths were always assumed by the servant to the Lord. The inferior's made those oaths to superior. Superior's never made those oaths to inferior's. In fact, in Exodus 24, there's a fascinating place where the people of Israel make their oath of allegiance to God. And if you go back to Exodus 24, it talks about the blood of Israel make their oath of allegiance to God. And if you go back to Exodus 24, it talks about the blood of the covenant.

Moses kills an animal and sprinkles the people with the blood. And they say, oh Lord, we are going to obey you. May our blood be spilled if we don't obey you. It was unconditional oath. But it was always a servant to do it to the master. It's always the inferiority of the superior, except one weird place. There's one really weird place in the Bible.

Genesis 15, Abraham is saying to God, I, you tell me you're gonna bless me. But how do I know that's gonna happen? And God says, kill a couple animals and set the pieces out. Now you and I think that's really weird, but Abraham knew, a note was going to be made. So he kills the animals and he's waiting, he puts the pieces out and he's waiting. And suddenly a torch, a smoking torch appears in midair, and that's God. That's the pillar of fire. That's the offening, the representation of His presence.

And then to Abraham's absolute shock and to our shock, God goes between the pieces and begins to make an oath and says, I will bless you. I promise I will bless you. Now, the implications of Genesis 15 are really tough. It beggers the imagination if you know something about these things. Robert Alter, who's a Jewish scholar, expert in literature at Berkeley, is one of my favorite Bible commentators.

He's a Jewish Bible commentator of Old Testament Hebrew. In his commentary on Genesis, when he gets to Genesis 15, it says, it looks like God is taking the oath. It looks like God is making a blood oath. It looks like God is saying, I will bless you if it kills me. It looks like God is saying, I will bless you and I will do it if I have to die doing it.

And Robert Aldrich says, but it couldn't be that. It looks like it, but it just couldn't be. As ridiculous. How could God do that? It's unprecedented. But now we get to the Lord's supper. Now we get the last supper, and what does Jesus say? I'm gonna make a covenant between you and God.

A covenant is a relationship. But the basis of this relationship is my blood. This is my blood of the covenant. And when he says, I'm not gonna eat or drink till I get you into the kingdom of God, you know what he's finally saying? He says, I am not gonna eat or drink till I get you under the Kingdom of God, you know what he's finally saying? He says, I am unconditionally committed to blessing you. I'm going to bring you to the Father's Kingdom.

I'm going to bring you into his arms. I'm going to bring you into the Messianic banquet. But he's not saying, I'm gonna do it. If I have to die to do it, no if. He says, I am dying to do it. If I have to die to do it, no if. He says, I am dying to do it right now. But I am absolutely unconditionally committed to getting you home. And immediately after he makes this blood oath, he's making a blood oath. In verse 27, he says, but now you guys are all going to fail me. You're gonna fail me. And look it, Peter tries to make the oath.

He says down here in verse 31, I will not fail you even I have to die. And you know what Jesus says? Yeah, no you won't. And in verse 28 he says, you're all gonna fail me 27. In verse 28, but I'll pick you up on the way to Galilee

after my resurrection. How clear could God, how much more clear could Jesus say this? Your salvation depends not on your commitment to me, but my commitment to you. Your salvation does not depend on the quality of your faith or the quality of your obedience, or the quality of your commitment to me, it depends completely on my commitment to you

and my commitment is perfect. Now do you believe that? Maybe intellectually. In some cases probably tonight some of you have never heard that. But a lot of you have and you say, yeah, I believe it, but you don't. The whole point of the Lord's Supper is to work that into your heart till it changes you. See, we don't really believe that. We actually say, if I come to the church and if I read my Bible, if I'm really committed, then God will bless me.

And then when things go wrong in your life, you say, well, maybe I'm not really committed enough. And when you fail, you say, oh my gosh, I don't know why God would ever put up with me. What are you thinking? You're not listening. What is the Lord's supper about? What is salvation about?

What is the gospel? The gospel is you depend on his commitment to you, not your commitment to Him. And if you would do that boy, you would start to relax finally. Boy would that change your identity. It wouldn't be based on your performance would be based on His. You know, the best illustration still of all this is imagine you're on a cliff and sticking out of the cliff is a branch that is strong

enough to hold you, but you don't know it. And you fall. And you have just enough time. You're falling off the cliff, just enough time to grab that branch. Okay, class, how much faith do you have to have in the branch for it to save you, class? You say, well, you have to be totally sure. You have to say, I know that branch can save me. No, you don't.

You could say, I don't think it'll save me. I'm not sure it's going to save me. I'm afraid it's not going to save me. How much faith do you have to have? All you have to have, enough to grab it. You know why? It is not the quality of your faith that saves you. It's the object of your faith.

It doesn't matter how you feel about the branch. All that matters is the branch. And Jesus is the branch. Now, do you understand that? No, you don't. I don't. Don't tell me you do, because I don't. Okay?

I'm up and down of our criticism. I'm up and down over my performance. I'm upset when, you know, I need too much approval. When things go wrong in my life, I feel like maybe I'm being punished. Instead of saying, I know God loves me. I know He's got a purpose for me. I know in spite of the fact that I know that my, instead of saying deep in my heart, my relationship with God depends not on my past

but Christ's past, not on my record but Christ's record. Do you believe that? The purpose of the Lord's Supper is to screw that down deeper and deeper and deeper into your heart. That's why you take it and you say, this is the real food you need, his commitment to you, his undying unconditional commitment to you need, his commitment to you, his undying unconditional commitment to you, his dying commitment to you, his living commitment to you.

That's the food your heart needs. Then you wouldn't be so scared, then you wouldn't be so depressed, then you wouldn't be so upset. Second thing and third are real fast. The second thing is you need to do this in community. Do you notice that Jesus Christ tells the story of the Passover? What's that mean? A Passover is a meal for a family.

In fact, some people say this is very strange. You celebrate a Passover by going back to your family. Families did the Passover. So why is Jesus pulling together disciples out of their families and saying let's have a Passover meal? And the message is pretty strong, isn't it? The message is, you know, when you're raised with your brothers and sisters, for all your differences, that's still your brother and sister. And you've been through everything

with them and you, you know, we're raised together, you had so many common experiences, and there's a bond there, but Jesus is saying, if you believe in my death, that actually is so life-transforming that everyone else who also believes in my death is your brother and sister. There's a basis for unity there as strong as if you've been raised together. It doesn't matter your race, it doesn't matter your class, it doesn't matter your background, stronger than anything else. And here's the way it's cyclical.

Your belief in Jesus' death brings you into a new community, but then it's in the community that works down deeper into your life than meaning of Jesus' death. And that's the reason why when you take the Lord's supper, you're doing with brothers and sisters, you're doing it in a family. And that's the reason why one of the meanings of Jesus' death is what this one writer says, what binds us together is not common education or common race, common income levels or common politics, common nationality, common accents, common jobs or anything of that sort.

Christians come together because they have been loved by Jesus Christ. They are a band of natural enemies who now love one another for the sake of the cross. And last of all, expectancy. You know what's great about the Lord's Supper? It's looking to the future.

We are going to eat and drink in the kingdom of God. No matter how messed up your life is right now, these are the hors d'oeuvres of your future bliss. All the greatest longings of your heart are gonna be satisfied the day you sit down for that eternal feast. And every time you take the Lord's Supper, you're hearing God say in your heart,

I'm gonna get you there, no matter how awful your life feels right now. I am unconditionally committed to getting you there. It's not your performance, but mine, that will get you there, and mine is perfect. Let us pray. Our Father, we ask that through expectancy and community and dependency on you, through taking the Lord's Supper

and reminding ourselves of what it means and remembering your death, that you would reshape our lives on the basis of your dying love. And we ask that you would help us because of your substitutionary sacrificial love for us, that we would be able to turn around and give substitutionary sacrificial love to others and make this world more and more the

place you want it to be. So now, be with us and help us and renew us through the supper. We pray it in Jesus' name. Amen. Thanks for listening to today's teaching from Dr. Keller. If you're encouraged by this podcast, we invite you to consider becoming a Gospel and Life monthly partner. Your partnership helps more people access this resource. Just visit GospelAndLife.com slash partner to learn more.

This month's sermons were recorded in 2006 and 2007. The sermons and talks you hear on the Gospel and Life podcast were preached from 1989 to 2017 while Dr. Keller was senior pastor at Redeemer Presbyterian Church.