Tom Groelsema | The Last Supper/The Lord’s Supper

Sunday Morning, February 22, 2026
Given by Tom Groelsema | Executive Pastor, Christ Covenant Church

The Last Supper/The Lord’s Supper

Mark 14:12-25

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Transcript

Let's turn together to Mark 14. Mark 14:12-25 is our text today. Mark 14:12-25. Just call you to come to worship tonight at 6 pm. Again, we'll be celebrating the Lord's Supper. Blair Smith will be preaching for us, and next Sunday morning, we'll be returning to our series on the book of Romans. But this morning, turn to Mark 14, verses 12-25. Before we read this together, let's pray and ask for God to bless both the reading of his Word and the preaching of his Word. 

Father in heaven, we're so grateful, so blessed, so overwhelmed by the gift of the Holy Scriptures – that, God, you speak to us through your Word, that when your Word is faithfully preached, Christ himself preaches and speaks. And so, we pray, God, that we would hear your voice today. We pray, Lord, that you would help me to be faithful. Help me to be bold. And we pray, God, that, as Spurgeon talked about the Word of God being like a lion, we pray that you would unleash the Word of God upon us today so that we would both be encouraged by your Word, we would be drawn to Jesus to see him, and so to believe and trust and follow. And we pray these things in Jesus’ name. Amen. 

Mark 14, beginning at verse 12. 

“And on the first day of Unleavened Bread, when they sacrificed the Passover lamb, his disciples said to him, ‘Where will you have us go and prepare for you to eat the Passover?’ And he sent two of his disciples and said to them, ‘Go into the city, and a man carrying a jar of water will meet you. Follow him, and wherever he enters, say to the master of the house, "The Teacher says, ‘Where is my guest room, where my I may eat the Passover with my disciples?’” And he will show you a large upper room, furnished and ready. There prepare for us.’ 

And the disciples set out and went to the city and found it just as he had told them, and they prepared the Passover. And when it was evening, he came with the twelve. And as they were reclining at table and eating, Jesus said, ‘Truly I say to you, one of you will betray me, one who is eating with me.’ And they began to be sorrowful and to say to him one after another, ‘Is it I?’ And he said to them, ‘It is one of the twelve, one who is dipping bread into the dish with me. For the Son of Man goes as it is written of him, but woe to that man by whom the Son of Man is betrayed. It would have been better for that man if he had not been born.’ 

And as they were eating, he took bread, and after blessing it broke it and gave it to them and said, ‘Take; this is my body.’ And he took a cup, and when he had given thanks he gave it to them, and they all drank of it. And he said to them, ‘This is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many. Truly, I say to you, I will not drink again of the fruit of the vine until that day when I drink it new in the kingdom of God.’”

Dear people of God, the aim of the sermon this morning is preparation. You know, sermons have different purposes. They have different aims. The preacher, the pastor, has different intent behind sermons. All sermons, of course, should edify in one way or another, so that's an aim, the edification of God's people. But some sermons might have the aim of admonition. So, the preacher intends for us to be confronted by the Word of God. He's calling us to repentance, to new obedience for something in our life. Other sermons might have the aim or purpose of consolation. And so, they're meant to comfort us. They're meant to remind us of the promises of God when we're going through a trial or a hard time. Again, the sermon this morning, the aim is preparation, and I point that out because you might be wondering, Tom, you were asked to preach today and called upon sort of midweek to preach, and of all the passages you could have preached on, why are we dropping into the upper room and considering these words of Jesus as he celebrated the Passover with his disciples and instituted the Lord's Supper? Why this passage? And my answer is to prepare us. And the next question you might ask is for what? Why are you preparing us, or for what are we being prepared? Well, let me mention a few things. 

First of all, as I've already said, we're going to celebrate the Lord's Supper tonight. And so, I think this text says to us what is it that Jesus’ teaching would have to say to us about our celebration of the Lord's Supper? And how can it prepare us over the next five or six hours so that when we gather tonight, we receive all that we are supposed to receive when we come to celebrate the Lord's Supper? I don't know if you knew this, but the PCA Book of Church Order says that we ought to be instructed in the nature of the Lord's Supper and a due preparation for it so that we may come in a suitable manner to this holy feast. So, I hope this sermon helps us do that. 

Second thing that we ought to be prepared for is, not only are we celebrate the Lord's Supper tonight, but we're going to celebrate next Sunday morning, again. And I would hope that this sermon would help you throughout the week so that when you come to worship next week, it's not like entering the sanctuary, and you see all of the trays out here, and you say, "Oh, that's right. We're celebrating the Lord's Supper today." Instead, tomorrow and maybe on Wednesday or Thursday, Friday, whatever, you're just doing a little reflecting. You're thinking, you're preparing your heart to come to celebrate the Lord's Supper. 

And then let me give you one other reason or one other thing we're preparing for. We're approaching Holy Week. Maundy Thursday, Good Friday, Easter – about six weeks away. And I would hope that this passage or this sermon would help us to begin more and more to reflect upon those last events of the life of Christ, so that we worship him fully when we gather to celebrate those great days. There are four words that I want to base this sermon around, four things that come out of our passage here this morning. 

The first word is this: sovereignty. The word sovereignty. So, Jesus was preparing for the Passover to celebrate with his disciples. The Passover, of course, was a celebration of what God did in Egypt when he passed over every home where the blood of the lamb had been spread on the doorframes of a house. You can go back to Exodus 12 and read the account there. It was the tenth and final plague, the death of the firstborn. And God says, "The firstborn of every home will die except those who take a lamb, sacrifice it, take its blood, and spread it on these doorframes. Someone is going to die that night. Either it is the firstborn, or it is the lamb. The blood of the lamb was Israel's deliverance, and with that plague, Israel left Egypt. And God said to Israel, "You were to celebrate this year after year after year." This became the biggest feast to be celebrated in Israel, sort of like an independence day for God's people, a pilgrimage feast. So, sometimes they might celebrate in their home, but if possible, you're to travel to Jerusalem. You go to the temple to celebrate the Passover. And the disciples, they said to Jesus, "Jesus, where would you have us go and prepare for you to eat the Passover?" So, Jesus and his disciples are doing just as they're supposed to do, gathering together to celebrate this feast. And Jesus answers them and says, "Go into the city and you'll find a man carrying a jar of water." Well, that's different. Because in Jesus’ time this would have been an unusual thing. Usually women are carrying jars of water. But Jesus says to them, "No, you’re going to find a man carrying this jar of water, and you follow him and say to the owner of the house, “The teacher says, ‘Where is my guest room, that I may eat the Passover with my disciples?’" You notice what Jesus is doing here? Jesus is saying to disciples, here is what is going to take place. You're going to find this man, and he's going to lead you to a house, and you go to that house and say, "Where do we celebrate?" And there will be a room prepared for you. Jesus is in complete control of what is happening here. He knows ahead of what's going to happen. He knows the details of how everything is going to unfold, and he's orchestrating them. He's made plans. Apparently, he has already spoken to the owner of the house. So, Jesus knows where this is going. And when you speak to that owner, he'll show you where to go. And the plans, they unfolded just as Jesus had said. You see here, Jesus is in charge. Jesus is not a victim. Things are not just unraveling for Christ, but he knows what is coming and directs his disciples to the things that he already is sovereign over. Jesus here is already taking those steps of laying down his life – no one taking it from him, but him laying it down of his own accord. 

You see the same kind of thing in Jesus’ talk about the betrayal by one of his disciples. They're now at the table. They're in the upper room. They're celebrating the Passover. And Jesus says, "One of you eating with me will betray me." In fact, Jesus goes further than that. Verse 20, "It is the one who dips his bread into the dish with me. For the Son of Man will go just as it has been written about him.” Again, Jesus initiates. Jesus presses into this situation. Jesus doesn't wait and just see what's going to happen in the upper room, but he knows. In fact, what is happening is what the Scriptures said would happen. Jesus says it: “The Son of Man will go just as it has been written about him.” We may wonder what passage is Jesus talking about there? Well, maybe it's Psalm 41:9, “Even my close friend in whom I trusted, who ate my bread, has lifted his heel against me.” You may recall in Mark's gospel that one of the features of Mark's gospel is that Jesus repeatedly speaks about his own death and suffering. In fact, three times very explicitly Jesus says to the disciples, "This is what's going to happen." And two times in Mark 9 and 10, what Jesus says is that the Son of Man will be delivered over. He doesn't use the word “betrayed,” but same intent – he will be delivered over. Everything that's happening here is an unfolding of Scripture, and Jesus knows it, and Jesus enters it, and Jesus bows to the will of the Father, to the Scriptures’ prophetic word. His betrayal is not accidental in any way, but Jesus willingly enters in. He is sovereign over all the things that are unfolding in these moments with his disciples in the upper room. 

The second word is fulfillment. Fulfillment. And we see this in Jesus’ celebration of the Passover. The Passover celebration was a formal ceremony that occurred, again, annually. It would remind Jews of different aspects of Israel's captivity and deliverance. It was a detailed event. There was, as it were, a liturgy to follow in celebrating the Passover. And it all began with a cup of wine – a first cup of wine – wine that would be drunk before the Passover food started to be eaten. After this cup of wine would come the food, and there was a variety of foods. It was unleavened bread, for example. And the father of the home in which Passover would be celebrated, the father might say something like this: “This is the bread of affliction our fathers ate in the wilderness.” You see that unleavened bread, pointing back to God's people's experience in Egypt. Unleavened bread, not leavened, but unleavened bread to typify the haste with which Israel had left Egypt, how quickly they had gone and left. There were bitter herbs, a reminder of the bitter life that Israel had in Egypt; stewed fruit, which pointed to how Israel had been forced by Pharaoh to make bricks to build Egypt. And you see the story of the Exodus. While the meal is going on, the story of the Exodus, in a sense, is being told over and over again through the food that is eaten. The father of the house would share the story with the children that are around the table. After they ate, Psalms 113 and 114, they would sing those psalms, part of the Egyptian hallel. They would sing those songs along with eating the food, and then a second cup of wine would be taken. And then the lamb would be eaten. After the lamb, a third cup of wine, the most significant of the cups of wine that would be drank at the Passover. It's called the cup of blessing or redemption. And then Psalms 115, 116, 117, and 118 would be sung. And then to close it all out, a fourth cup of wine. 

And again, you see in this what was happening is that here's a reenactment. Here is a commemoration of God's gracious and powerful deliverance of his people from slavery and bondage. But people of God, the Passover that Jesus celebrated with his disciples was the most unique one that ever occurred. Passover had been celebrated annually for 1500 years or so before Christ, but this time things were different as Jesus celebrated this feast, because Jesus is out to point out how the Passover had been pointing to him. And what was different about this celebration is stunning interruptions of the Passover by Christ. And so, there's the bread of the Passover and Jesus breaks it and he hands it out as would have always been done at the Passover. But as he's passing out the bread, he says, "This is my body. This bread, it's about me. My body will be broken for you." Friends, this never, ever happened before at a Passover, somebody saying, "This is my body.” It's totally unique, totally new. And the same thing happens as Jesus takes the cup, the third cup, the cup of blessing or the cup of redemption. How do we know it was the third cup? Because when the Apostle Paul is describing the celebration of the Lord's Supper in 1 Corinthians 10, the Apostle Paul says, "The cup of blessing which we bless, is it not our participation in the blood of Christ?” We take the cup of blessing. Jesus took this third cup, the cup of blessing. And there again come his words, “This cup, this is my blood of the covenant poured out for many. This cup of blessing, this cup of redemption, it is about my blood – my blood given to deliver.” No one had ever said that before at a Passover. And then Tim Keller comments about this. He says, "Not one of the gospels mentions a main course." Not one of the gospels mentions the lamb. And Keller speculates. He says, "There was no lamb on the table, because the lamb of God was at the table, the lamb of God who came to take away the sin of the world.” I don't know if that's the case or not, but interesting, isn't it? 

The point is simply this, that at this Passover celebration, Jesus was fulfilling all that this supper was about. We know this from other Scriptures. In Isaiah 53, that great chapter about the suffering servant, describing the one who was pierced for our transgressions and crushed for our iniquities. At the very end of that chapter, Isaiah 53:12, the Scriptures say, "He poured out his life unto death." He poured out his life unto death. And imagine, maybe, what was going through the disciples’ minds as they heard the words of Jesus. And maybe their minds were taken back to Isaiah 53, “He poured out his life unto death,” as Jesus says, "This is my blood of the covenant, poured out for many." The Apostle Paul is even more explicit about it. There's no mistaking it at all to think about Jesus as the fulfillment of the Passover. He says in 1 Corinthians 5:7, "For Christ, our Passover Lamb, has been sacrificed.” He's the Lamb, our Passover lamb. And you see, friends, this was the Passover to end all Passovers. Jesus, the Lamb, ready to die in our place so that we would never be touched by the angel of death, but delivered once and for all from our bondage to sin. His death, our exodus, and there are no more Passovers to be celebrated, because Christ has come. He is the fulfillment. The Passover a shadow; Christ the reality or the fulfillment of it. And so, no more Passovers to be celebrated. Our Passover Lamb has been sacrificed. Fulfillment. 

Word number three: gospel. Because from the celebration of that Passover, Jesus instituted a new meal that is all about the gospel: the Lord's Supper. There are three things in this passage that I think point out to us, or reminders to us, of what is at the heart or what is happening when we celebrate the Lord's Supper. We could go to other places in the Scriptures and develop an even more fully orbed theology of the Lord's Supper, but three things that stand out to me in this text that point out to us what this supper is about or what's happening at the supper. Here's the first. The pastor says, "The Lord's Supper is a celebration of the covenant that we have with God through Christ." The Lord's Supper is a celebration of the covenant that we have with God through Christ. We ought not to stumble over that word covenant. We, of course, here at Christ Covenant probably don't do that much. Got Christ Covenant. We got Covenant Day School and covenant, covenant, covenant, right? We're hearing it all the time. But think about covenant as relationship. To enter a covenant is to enter a relationship with someone. In biblical times, covenants were ratified by a signature, and usually not just somebody writing down their name like we do on a contract or – we do that today – but rather a pledge, a pledge that often came through the shedding of blood. So, the covenant made through blood shedding, and you see this in the Scriptures. Genesis 15, when God makes a covenant with Abraham. We have that wonderful picture in Genesis 15 of animals being cut in two and their pieces laid on one side and on the other side and this bloody mess in between, and this flaming torch goes through the blood as sign of a pledge or covenant being made. Just after Mount Sinai, when God enters covenant with Israel in Exodus 24:8, Moses threw blood on the people and said, "Behold the blood of the covenant that God has made with you." Why blood? Because blood was sort of a statement like this when you're entering covenant: let this blood be my blood, or let me die if I fail to keep covenant with you. If I break my promise, if I do not keep covenant, let me be like these animals that are torn apart in two pieces, cut in half. What does Jesus say as he's instituting the Lord's Supper? It says, "This is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many." God enters covenant with us, and what is amazing about God's covenant with us and the ratification of that covenant is that it's the blood of his Son, God's own Son, that is shed. It's not our blood that is shed. It's his blood that is shed. And what's so striking about that, people of God, is we don't need a pledge from God. God is always faithful in keeping his promises. God always does what he says he will do. And yet, God offers his own life. God offers his own blood. Jesus dies, and through that God binds us to himself. And so, as we gather tonight to celebrate the Lord's Supper, remember this. It is a celebration of his covenant with us. God has entered a relationship with us. We, in fact, call the Lord's Supper sometimes a covenant renewal ceremony. God reminds us of his faithfulness. We express our faith to him. We pledge ourselves to him anew. The Lord's Supper, a celebration of the covenant we have with God through Christ. 

The second thing that it's about: the Lord's Supper focuses our attention on Jesus. And this is very clear, as Jesus puts it, of the bread. Jesus says, "This is my body,” and of the cup, “This is my blood of the covenant.” And we understand, as Reformed Christians, that Jesus didn't mean this literally. We don't hold to transubstantiation, the bread becoming his body or the juice becoming his blood. It's simply sacramental language. In sacramental language, the sign is called the very thing that it points to, so Christ can say of the bread, “This is my body.” It’s about the shedding of my body or the breaking of my body. But you see what Jesus is doing? Jesus is pointing us in the Lord's Supper to him. You see the bread; this is pointing to the body of Christ. When you see the cup, it's pointing to the blood of Christ. Don't focus on bread. Don't get caught up in the juice or the wine. Your minds are to be sent forward to think about Jesus, the breaking of his body, the shedding of his blood. Sometimes I think we can get a little confused when we celebrate the Lord's Supper or think that the Lord's Supper is somehow wrapped in mystery. They say that about the sacraments in general, but of course the Lord's Supper particularly this morning – like, you know, there's something weird going on. I mean, you know, we preach, and then we’ve got this table. Well friends, it's not complicated at all. It's really the simple gospel that God is proclaiming to us both from pulpit and from the Lord's table or at baptism. The preaching of the gospel is tuned to our ears. The sacrament, the gospel is tuned to our eyes. And what God wants us to behold, what he wants us to see, what he wants us to have in our minds is Christ, his death, the cross as payment for our sin, the gospel as our only hope. And the Supper, just like the preaching of the Word says to us, rest in Jesus alone. Salvation can be found nowhere else, but in Christ. 

And then here's the third thing I see in this text about the Supper – is the Lord's Supper reminds us of the importance of faith in order to share in what Christ has done. The Lord's Supper reminds us of the importance of faith in order to share, in order for us to share, in what Christ has done. We don't believe in transubstantiation, but we do believe that Jesus is here when we celebrate the Supper. In other words, we also do not – while we don't believe in transubstantiation, we also don't believe that this is just kind of some memorial thing that we're remembering something that happened long ago. No, we believe Jesus is present here, by his Holy Spirit. And when we come to the table in faith, we actually feast on him spiritually. And in fact, faith is what distinguishes the Supper from an ordinary meal. We'll say sometimes that the Supper is a means of grace. God is working through the Supper. God is feeding us with himself. Jesus is feeding us with himself, and he grants the grace of assurance to everyone who comes believing. Where do we see that in what Jesus was saying to the disciples? We see it in this simple word “take.” He says to the disciples, “Take.” Take. This is my body. You must take it. You must take the bread. You must take the cup. You can't just look at them. You can't just study them. Can't just consider them. Oh, that looks great. You have to take it. You have to take them and eat them. And that's something like faith. Faith is taking Jesus in. None of us can just analyze Christ. Oh, what a great man he is, and just stand there and look at him and observe him. No, you must believe and trust in Christ. Believing in Christ is like taking him in. In fact, John Calvin said this. He said, "Faith is the soul's taste.” Faith is the soul's taste. And the Lord's Supper reminds us that we share in his finished work if we come believing. Tonight, come believing. Because when you come believing, then you will experience union with Christ. Jesus will feed you with himself. In fact, this whole thing about faith is why we fence the table, because this table is for people of faith, for those who have trusted Christ, expressed that, belong to a Christian church, are eager to follow him. Gospel. 

And then here's the last word very quickly: glory. Glory. Verse 25, Jesus ends saying this to the disciples. He says, "Truly I say to you, I will not drink again of the fruit of the vine until that day when I drink it new in the kingdom of God." This is simply Jesus’ way of saying to us, "My kingdom is coming." The day is coming when no enemy will stand. The day is coming when every knee will bow, and every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father. The day is coming when there will be no more tears, mourning, crying, or pain, for the old order of things will have passed away. Behold, I am making all things new. The day is coming when we will share with Jesus in his glory. And you know what? The Lord's Supper reminds us of that. The Lord's Supper sends our minds forward. The Lord's Supper says, "Jesus is coming again." Because Jesus says, "I will not drink it until that day when I drink it new in the kingdom of God." I mentioned to you that there were four cups to the Passover. And that third cup, Jesus took it and said, "This is my blood of the covenant." But the Passover, he never got to that fourth cup. Drinks the third cup with his disciples. Won't drink it again until I drink it new in the kingdom of God. Doesn't get to that fourth cup. It's waiting to be drunk, and it will be when Jesus returns, when the Lord's Supper, in a sense, morphs into the wedding feast of the Lamb, and then the Passover will be – all the parts of the Passover – concluded as Jesus comes back again. And Jesus says, “Until that day, keep celebrating the Supper. Keep celebrating the Supper in remembrance of me. Keep celebrating the supper, and know that every time you celebrate the Supper, you proclaim the Lord's death until he comes again.” He's coming, but you keep proclaiming his death every time you celebrate it, until he returns. 

Tim Keller, in his commentary, he says, "Imagine that you were in Egypt just after that first Passover. And if you stopped Israelites in those days and said to them, ‘Who are you? What is happening here?’ They might say something like this: ‘Well, I was a slave and under the sentence of death, but I took shelter under the blood of the lamb and escaped that bondage. And now God lives in our midst, and we are following him to the promised land.’” Well, people of God, don't we say kind of the exact same thing? We'll say it tonight. We'll say it again next Sunday morning as we celebrate the Lord's Supper. I was and am a sinner, and I was under the sentence of death, and God set me free by the blood of the Lamb, the Lord Jesus Christ. And he now lives with me and in me, and I am heading to the promised land to glory. So how might you prepare? I would say, just reflect and affirm these simple truths. Number one, I am a sinner in need of Jesus. Second, I believe Jesus died for me, and I receive, and I rest on him alone. And third, I want to live my life for him, and I long to be strengthened by his Supper for the journey. If that's how you come tonight, if that's how you come next week, then know Jesus will feed you. He will nourish you. He will unite you to himself. And so, let's prepare ourselves. Let's pray. 

Lord Jesus, we thank you for being the Passover Lamb that was slain. No more Passovers to be celebrated. Now a new Supper. A Supper that points us to you. A Supper that points us to the covenant that God has made with us. A Supper that reminds us of how important faith is, that we are to take you in. And Lord Jesus, we are eager to come tonight to celebrate that feast, to have you feed us, not only with your Word, but with yourself. And so, Lord, help us as we prepare this afternoon, this coming week. We long to proclaim your death once more until that day when you come for us. And we pray these things in Jesus’ name. Amen.