The Lord's Table, Matthew 26:17-30

This is the main chapter in Matthew and this course of events in the last week of our Lord, where he institutes of the Lord's table. Our central passage morning is Matthew 26:17-30.

What we have seen already in this chapter in Matthew is that Jesus begins at the end of the day where he has had a very long day. It is part of the same day where He has opened to his disciples about end time events, and what we refer to as the Olivet discourse. That concluded at the end of chapter 25 and were told, "It came to pass, when Jesus had finished all the sayings, that He said to His disciples …" And there He announces that He will be crucified in two days. Then we are told in verses 3-5 that the religious leaders—the chief priests, the elders of the people—had conspired together. They met at the palace of the high priests who is Caiaphas, and they are plotting to take Jesus. They're afraid of the people, so they don't want to do it during this festival time. This is Passover; this is one of the most significant days in the whole Jewish calendar. In Christianity sometimes we talk about "Christmas and Easter Christians", while in Judaism they talk about "Passover and Yom Kippur Jews". You know, they just show up those two days out of the whole year. Well this is one of those two significant days, and feasts, because Passover will come and then what begins the day after is the feast of unleavened bread, and so the religious leaders are fearful of starting something during this time because they don't want to create a riot among the people; they know how popular Jesus is.

Then were told in verses 6-13 about the dinner that Jesus has that night, and I believe that this is an event that occurs that night. It doesn't make sense if it occurred earlier because it's intimately connected with what Judas does, and it is the occasion for Judas going to the religious leaders to bargain, to make a deal, to betray Jesus.

The way this is structured is in verse five. But they were saying, “Not during the festival, otherwise a riot might occur among the people.” We all know that's exactly when they did it. What enabled them to move up the timetable was that they had an inside guy who would betray Jesus so they could arrest him without it being in public. It would be a quiet thing. So this just doesn't make sense if this introduction of the anointing happens earlier, like on Saturday night before the entry. There is this episode where the unnamed woman anoints Jesus' head with a expensive perfume.

Then we are told in verses 14-16 that one of the twelve, Judas Iscariot, goes to the chief priests and bargains for a price of 30 pieces of silver, which was the price of a slave's life if he was killed, and that sets up the opportunity.

We are also told a couple things about Judas and about this event over in Luke. We are told is that what happens at this point when Judas goes to bargain, that he is entered into by Satan. We are told that there are actually two times that Satan possesses Judas. The first time is when he goes to bargain with the religious leaders. Luke 22:3-4 expands on what Matthew says. We are told, "Then", and that "then" is immediately after he is leaving to go bargain with the religious leaders. "Then just Satan entered Judas, surnamed Iscariot, who was numbered among the twelve. So he went his way and conferred with the chief priests and captains, how he might betray Him." So this is clearly a distinct event from the event described in John 13:27, which takes place in the middle of the Seder meal. Jesus is going to hand a sandwich—called the Hillel sandwich, an odd little sandwich—and He hands that to Judas. It is the third time He talks about being betrayed and it's the second time He identifies His betrayer as the person who dips with Him, or eats with Him, and that's in John 13:27.

We are told that after the piece of bread Satan entered him. That's a second entry. In both places He uses this word EISERCHOMAI, the basic word to go into or to come into. When you add the prefix EX, which means to come out of, it means to leave or to exit. If it has at the prefix EIS, that means to go into. It is the same word that is used in passages like Luke 8:32, 33, for example, of a demon entering into somebody. So it's a clear statement of satanic indwelling, taking over the body of Judas, which clearly shows that Judas was not a believer. We have studied in the doctrine of demon possession many times that a demon does not possess a believer; he does not indwell a believer.

Then the scene shifts to two days later, the Passover now, starting in verse 17, and this is the preparation for the Seder meal. It is covered in Matthew 26:17-19, Mark 14:12-16, and Luke 22:7-13.

What I am trying to do, especially over these last two days when Jesus is going to up to the cross, and after that, is to put together for us of what is going on in all of the Gospels. I'm not going to get into all of John 13. And Jesus also teaches the disciples in what is called the upper room discourse in John 14, 15, 16 and then his high priestly prayer John 17. I'm not going to cover all that; I'll just summarize a few things briefly so we can see how all of the Gospels fit together.

Matthew 26:17 ^NASB "Now on the first {day} of Unleavened Bread the disciples came to Jesus and asked, 'Where do You want us to prepare for You to eat the Passover?' ”

This is the second temple period. The first temple period was the temple Solomon built, up until it was destroyed in 586 BC. At that time Jerusalem was destroyed, the temple was destroyed, and the Jews were basically removed from the land. Not totally, but mostly and taken into captivity in Babylon. They returned in approximately 538 BC and rebuilt the temple, and it was dedicated in 516. That is the beginning of the second temple, it was the temple of Zerubbabel. Then Herod the Great came along to expand it and completely remodel it and rebuild it, but the sacrifices never stopped, so it was still the second temple.

During this period, there'd been a conflation of the two days that began this feast. According to Exodus 12:6 Passover began on the 14th of Nisan, and then on the 15th of Nisan, the next day, is the beginning of the seven-day feast of unleavened bread. By this time they just referred to the whole thing as the feast of unleavened bread. Passover is the first day, but they're calling it the first day of unleavened bread by this particular time.

What Jesus is talking about is the Passover. The word here is PASCHO, which is the word that is always translated Passover, and it can refer to the Passover itself, the day itself, or it can refer to the Passover lamb, which is the sacrifice of the of the lamb. There are different terms that are used in the Old Testament. Pascha is a transliteration of pesach. Instead of pascha it reverses it to pesach; from pesach to pascha as it goes from Hebrew to Greek. That's in Exodus 34:25. Pesach is used by Moses of the sacrificial lamb in Exodus12:21; and is also referred to as hag, a term for a festival.

As you look at the Passover meal there are two things that are necessary for preparation, and that really helps us to understand as background for what we see in the observance of the Lord's Table. There two things that speak of cleansing. One is the removal of all chametz from the house. Chametz is leaven. Leaven is anything that is going to begin to ferment. And then there's the washing of the hands, called the urechatz. That tells us through the ritual that before you can observe the worship in the Passover there has to be a cleansing from sin. Leaven always represents sin. So what happens prior to the feast of unleavened bread is that everybody in the house goes to the house and they find all the leaven that is there. And typically what they will do to symbolize it at the end is pour some on the counter, on the table, and then they'll use a feather—because they don't want to get anything corrupted by touching the leaven—and a wooden spoon because it won't infiltrate the spoon, and the scoop it up into the spoon and take it out and make a little ceremony of throwing it away or burning it. And that symbolizes the fact that the house is now cleansed.

What we do in the church age for cleansing is we confess sin. The failure to confess on the part of the Corinthian believers that they were coming to the Lord's table and they were abusing it, and that's why Paul said that many of them suffered. They slept, which was a euphemism for death, or they were sick and they were weak spiritually, because they were not coming to the Lord's Table in fellowship; they weren't convincing confessing sin. So Paul says to we are to examine ourselves. That's part of what is necessary confession so we can identify sin and admit it to God, so that cleansing represents for us confession. Overall Christ is our Passover. First Corinthians 5:7 says, "Therefore purge out the old leaven." It just borrows from that whole imagery purge. "… that you may be a new lump, since you truly are unleavened." As believers we are positionally cleansed. We are truly unleavened. "For indeed, Christ our Passover was sacrificed for us."

When we look at the Scripture, Passover refers to the Passover lamb, it refers to the day itself, and it refers also to Jesus.

Now there are a couple key elements that are part of the Passover meal. There is the sacrificing of the Lamb. In the original Passover they would sacrifice the lamb. They chose the lamb on the 10th of Nisan, and they evaluated it for four days to make sure was without spot or blemish, and then they would sacrifice the lamb. They would take the blood from the lamb, and at the Exodus event they went to the door and they spread it on the door posts—on each side of the door and at the lentil on top and if you connect the dots you get a cross. And then the lamb was roasted on a crossed spit, so there's a lot of symbolism there that foreshadowed the sacrifice of Christ. So the two key elements are the Passover lamb, the sacrifice of the Lamb, and then the eating of the meal, which is a picture of fellowship. It's a picture of reconciliation, a picture of community; all of these come together in eating. So this is a picture of our fellowship with God based upon that sacrifice.

The Old Testament origin of the Passover goes back to the 10th plague when God was going to take the life of the firstborn in every family. That whole event speaks of the redemption of Israel from slavery to sin. When it's transferred over for us and with the Lord's Table it is a picture of God's redemption for us of slavery to sin. So the focus is on God's grace.

Matthew 26:18 ^NASB And He said, “Go into the city to a certain man, and say to him, ‘The Teacher says, “My time is near; I {am to} keep the Passover at your house with My disciples'.”

Jesus knew this was the time that He was to die. He was crucified, the Scripture says, from the foundation of the earth. He knows what the timetable is and this is this is the time. So He sends them into the city. It's a lot like before the entry into Jerusalem just the just four days earlier where He sent the disciples in town just asked somebody if they could take a colt, so Jesus could ride into the city. But in Matthew He just says, "Go into the city". He doesn't tell us who of the twelve is going. Luke 22:8 expands on it: He only sends the two Peter and John, His primary go-to guys among the disciples: “Go and prepare the Passover for us, so that we may eat it.” He is a preparing them and He gives them specific instruction. He gives them specific instruction in terms of finding the place to meet.

Luke 22:10 ^NASB And He said to them, “When you have entered the city, a man will meet you carrying a pitcher of water; follow him into the house that he enters. [11] And you shall say to the owner of the house, ‘The Teacher says to you, “Where is the guest room in which I may eat the Passover with My disciples?" [12] “And he will show you a large, furnished upper room; prepare it there.”

Things we ought to note about this. First of all, in Middle Eastern culture, today as well as then, the primary person who's going to be carrying water into the house is going to be the woman of the house. You're not going to see the man carrying the water bottles and water jugs back from the 7-11 to get a get to the house. So it's going to be unusual. They are to be able walk in, and as soon as they see a man carrying the water they know that is him. That would be a very unusual thing to see.

Second thing we ought to note here is the question: Where is the guest room? And it's the furnished upper room in verse 12. Now the word translated "the upper room" here is the word KATALUMA in the Greek. That's the same word that is used for "there's no room at the inn" in Luke chapter 2, when Mary and Joseph went to Bethlehem. And for years we have conjured up this image of either a place where the caravans would camp out, or a nice little Motel 6 that didn't have light on anymore. Everybody has his own image of some kind of medieval inn. But the word there isn't the word for inn that is used in the story of the good Samaritan. It is this word KATALUMA. Every house had an upper room. People would go up there, go up on the roof. Some part of it may have been open so it was cooler in the summer.

This is where your guests would stay at the time of Mary and Joseph. They had other family that was already there, so Mary and Joseph went down and stayed in the area that was reserved for bringing in the favored farm animals. They wanted to go the upper room. This is where the a large group of large family gathering at the times of the Jewish festivals would occur. At Passover you didn't sit at a table you reclined so they would have had a low table set there and then cushions around it and so it was prepared for them.

Now they would have had to done some of the things in the process. They would have had to go to the temple; they would have had to get the lamb that they were going to roast. This going to the temple would involve going through a ritual bath. There were dozens of these on the southern steps going into the temple, and they would have washed, they would have immersed, they would be cleansed. We get this picture again and again of the necessity of cleansing before worship. They would have gone to get the lamb at that time because there were so many Jews in Jerusalem, many of them camped out on the hills around Jerusalem, that the Levites had the one of the original assembly line production teams. They had three long lines. There would be some who were designated for slitting the lamb's throat, others were going to scan him, others were going to disembowel him; and they would just do this very rapidly. About every 15 seconds there was another lamb that was ready, prepared to take home and to roast. And as they sacrificed the priests would sing from the Hillel Psalms 113-118.

So they would then take it home, and tradition tells us—there's nothing biblical that tells us—that this was the home of John Mark's parents. If you go to Jerusalem today you will be shown one of two possible sites. On a scale of 1 to 51 it's pure legend, five it's pretty accurate, like the Temple Mount and Golgotha and the Mount of olives. This is about a one plus, so nobody knows where the upper room was actually located. What's there is just pure tradition.

The disciples did as Jesus directed them and they prepared the Passover. Now the Passover has its origin in the Exodus event and coming out of Egypt, and that God one more time, tenth time, asked Pharaoh to let His people go. That's grace again and again and again—God giving him that opportunity. This time the threat was, if he didn't then the oldest, the firstborn in every family, all of all your herds would die. The solution was going to be applying the blood of the lamb to the doorpost. The blood of a perfect lamb, which was without spot or blemish.

God gave the specific instructions on the lamb to Moses. God always has one way. The world says they hate this exclusiveness of Christianity, that there's only one way. God has always had one way. There was only one way to get on to Noah's Ark; there's only one way to observe Passover; there's only one entry into the tabernacle; there's only one entry into the temple; there's only one way, and that's God's way. He is the one who defines it. So the way to avoid losing the firstborn was through a perfect lamb, which was to be sacrificed and his blood applied to the doorpost.

Also at that time the only thing they had additional was unleavened bread. The reason given for that time is because they were in a hurry, because God was going to release them and they need to have their backpack ready to go. They could eat the meal standing up, but from that point on they would eat it reclining and relaxed because they were looking back to that event.

And so they were ready to go. Not one Israelite died, and according to town but according to legend, not one dog barked. It was a quiet night as God passed over the Israelites and no life was lost. That is the Old Testament origin. They were to repeat this feast year after year as a memorial forever, and this is the focal point of Passover. It is fulfilled in the person of Jesus Christ. As John the Baptist announced, "He is the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world".

So now we come to verse 20 where we have the beginning of their Passover observance. This is a Seder meal. We are told, "When evening had come, He sat down with the twelve". According to a Passover tradition that the lamb was to be sacrificed and eaten between the two dusks, between the sunsets. As the sun sets and its dusk they would begin to eat. So He sat down with the twelve. The original Passover had a roasted lamb, bitter herbs and unleavened bread, but by the time you get to the second temple there are other things that are added.

Things were added after the Babylonian captivity. An egg was either added then—some people think it's added by Christians to represent new life. The origin of some of these additions is just murky and obscured in the fog of history. I have researched it; I have talked to a lot of other Jews, Jewish scholars that have researched this; nobody knows where this comes from, and one of the most interesting is the matzah tash. The bread that is eaten is the matzah. It is unleavened bread. Now the matzah tash is a container for the matzah and it has three compartments in it, so you have three different pieces of unleavened bread.

At the beginning of the meal they went into the middle compartment, and they take out the middle and break it, put it into another bag and wrap it up in a napkin. This is called the afikomen, which is the means "after" (it's the Greek word for dessert) and it was taken and given to a child, or someone, to hide it. Later on they have to find it.

Now the question is, where does this come from? We have this matzah tash; it's broken. It's called the bread of affliction, so it has to do with suffering and at this time they would start to rehearse the story of the Exodus. Matzah is made today. I've heard some Jewish messianic scholars say, it has to be pierced; it has to be striped. We are not sure if that's how it was at the time of Jesus. That's how it is manufactured today but I've had matzoh at some Seder meals in Israel. That's not quite like this. It's unleavened bread, but it doesn't look like our nice matzah that we pick up here today.

This is the matzah that is tin there, and this was the piece that the Lord broke and passed out to His disciples. We are not sure when this came into effect, but some messianic Jews think that it came into effect after Jesus, and was introduced into the Seder meal. Others think it was before; we are not sure. The way the Seder is observed today—you read it in the Haggadah, which is the book of instructions, and this was codified by a person named Judah the Prince of Judah around 200. So that's about 150-170 years after Jesus. But a) the things and changes much and as rapidly at that time as they do now b) be the Pharisees were fairly conservative people, they weren't introducing a lot of new things all the time. I don't think a lot of things had changed That they wrote it down and codified it around 200 but what they were writing down had been going on for several hundred years—so I just don't know.

But it's interesting that in the modern observance of the Seder you have these three compartments, and they come up with various explanations. Some people think that it stands for the prophets and the priests and the Levites, or they are the Levites and Israel and the prophets; different things like that, they have no real idea what it is. But it's interesting: why would you—if it is the prophets and the priests in Israel—take the priests out and break them. But if it's Father, Son and Holy Spirit, and Jesus takes the middle one out and breaks it, it makes perfect sense. This is my body; it is a picture of the Trinity. The piercing of the matzah reminds us of Zechariah 12:10, "they will look on Me whom they have pierced; and they will mourn for Him, as one mourns for an only son, and they will weep bitterly over Him like the bitter weeping over a firstborn."

So the afikomen is then taken put in a special bag, and removed. And here's the explanation from a most Jews: It is either Abraham, Isaac and Jacob or Levites, the Torah, the Nebiim, or could be the Scripture, the Torah Nebiim and Kethubim, but they don't explain why it's broken.

As He sat down to eat, they would have the first cup, and they would say the Kaddish, which is a prayer of blessing. It means, "Blessed are you Hashim, our God, King of the universe who has sanctified us with His commandments, and has commanded us to remove leaven." So you removed the leaven. That's at the very beginning. Kaddish means sanctification, and then they would drink the first the 1st cup of wine.

Some people say: Well, wait a minute; wine is fermented. No, wine is the result of a fermented process but the fermentation, the yeast, has gone; it has done its work. So it's not leaven anymore, that has been removed. And that's why Jews have wine at Passover. It's 4 cups of wine, not 4 cups of grape juice. I know that bother some folks but it doesn't fit.

So there's washing the hands, and Jesus adds a washing of the feet in John 13:1-18, and this is the first prediction of Judas is betrayal. And in that whole episode where He is washing their feet is a picture of cleansing again, and it's a picture of the need for confession, which is why He tells Peter, "If you don't let me do this, then you will not have a part—MEROS. It means you won't have a portion of the inheritance in the kingdom. It doesn't mean he won't be saved, but that there won't be rewards unless there's this ongoing cleansing. This is what Jesus is teaching and it is during the supper.

If you look at the text and got King James or new King James it says after supper, but it's during the course of the meal, at the beginning of the meal.

John 13:2 ^NASB "During supper, the devil having already put into the heart of Judas Iscariot, {the son} of Simon, to betray Him." Notice this is Satan's influence, but we learn from Luke that Satan has already indwelt him, has put this idea into Judas's thinking, and he is going to betray Jesus.

John 13:3, 4 ^NASB "{Jesus,} knowing that the Father had given all things into His hands, and that He had come forth from God and was going back to God, got up from supper, and laid aside His garments; and taking a towel, He girded Himself." This is when He washes the disciples' feet, which is a picture of forgiveness and cleansing. And the focal point of all His teaching is at the end in John 13:34, 35.

John 13:34, 35 ^NASB “A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another, even as I have loved you, that you also love one another. By this all men will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another.” Forgiving one another as part of loving one another. It's not a picture being a servant, which is often a misunderstanding that you will hear taught here, It is a picture of how the necessity of forgiveness and loving one another.

Then there's a second prediction of the betrayal by Judas. This is the first dip. There's a little cup down there on the Seder tray that saltwater and it is a reminder of the bitterness of the experience in Egypt, and so you would take a herb like he likes parsley or lettuce and you dip it. That's called the KARPAS, described in Matthew 26:21-25; Mark 14:18-21, and Luke 22:21-23. With this first dip Jesus is going to indicate that the one is going to betray Him is Judas, but the way they lie down in reclining, He is probably lying on His left shoulder and Judas is next to Him on His left, and when He does this and gives this to Judas nobody else really sees it. It's a private indication.

Matthew 26:20, 21 ^NASB Now when evening came, Jesus was reclining {at the table} with the twelve disciples. As they were eating, He said, “Truly I say to you that one of you will betray Me.”

Now they're just like a bunch of self-absorbed Christians today; you're not any different. Is it me? Nobody can think objectively, they just get sucked into subjectivity: It couldn't be me, well it could, but it's not.

Matthew 26:22, 23 ^NASB Being deeply grieved, they each one began to say to Him, “Surely not I, Lord?” And He answered, “He who dipped his hand with Me in the bowl is the one who will betray Me." He has already dipped, the first dipping. [24] “The Son of Man {is to} go, just as it is written of Him; but woe to that man by whom the Son of Man is betrayed! It would have been good for that man if he had not been born.”

Matthew 26:25 ^NASB And Judas, who was betraying Him, said, “Surely it is not I, Rabbi?” Jesus said to him, “You have said {it} yourself.” So that identifies Judas.

Then we come to the next event in the Seder meal, the breaking of the matzah. This is when Jesus broke the matzah, it's described in Matthew 26:26; Mark 14:22; Luke 22:19; and first Corinthians 11:23, 24.

Matthew 26:26 While they were eating, Jesus took {some} bread, and after a blessing, He broke {it} and gave {it} to the disciples, and said, “Take, eat; this is My body.” He identifies the matzah as His body. It is a symbol representing His humanity. His humanity is without sin, that's the focal point of it being unleavened. Leaven represents sin. There is no sin in the unleavened bread; it represents the sinlessness of Jesus Christ. If there had been even a little white lie Jesus would not have been qualified to go to the cross.

Think about what disqualified everybody. It was when Adam ate a piece of fruit. That's not a biggie on most people's list of sins. Most people identify huge things as sins but anything that violates the commandment of God is a sin. Jesus is sinless, and that's pictured by the matzah.

When Paul writes about this to the Corinthians, he says: "For I received from the Lord that which I also delivered to you, that the Lord Jesus on the same night in which he was betrayed took bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it and said, "Take, eat, this is my body which is broken for you; do this in remembrance of me." You can see that when Paul writes he gives the full statement. The Gospel just says, "Take, eat; this is my body", but it goes on to say, "which is broken for you".

Then we get to the third prediction of the betrayal by Judas. This is called the korekh. This is where you take this sandwich. And you take this mixture called charoseth, which is a blend of chopped up apple and nuts and honey, a little cinnamon, and maybe a little lemon juice, and you put it out the day before. It gets all Brown because it's supposed to represent the mortar that they would use in the bricks. But of course the Pharaoh took away the mortar. So that represents those bricks and the labor, and you combine that with some horseradish, and you put that into the sandwich. They would eat this Hallel sandwich because it's a little sweet. But it's also going to bring tears to your eyes, and so this is a reminder of also what is about to happen: that Jesus is going to be betrayed, as the Psalms predicted, by a friend.

John 13:21 ^NASB When Jesus had said this, He became troubled in spirit …" That means you he's having an emotional response to these events. I keep telling people it's not the emotion that's necessarily wrong; it's what you do with it. So he's going to be betrayed by close friend. "… and testified and said, “Truly, truly, I say to you, that one of you will betray Me.”

John 13:23 ^NASB "There was reclining on Jesus’ bosom one of His disciples, whom Jesus loved". That's how John refers to himself in the Gospel.

Simon Peter is also there at the head of the table and therefore he motions to John. He motions to John to ask who it was of whom He spoke. John 13:25 ^NASB He, leaning back thus on Jesus’ bosom, said to Him, “Lord, who is it?” He is not speaking in his outdoor voice. He is just quietly asking the Lord, "Who is it?"

John 13:26 ^NASB Jesus then answered, “That is the one for whom I shall dip the morsel and give it to him.” So when He had dipped the morsel, He took and gave it to Judas, {the son} of Simon Iscariot.

He's dipping the sandwich. He's made it with the charoseth and is dipping it in the horseradish.

Then they come to the third cup. The third cup is called the cup of redemption, and this is described in Matthew 26:27-29; Mark 14:23-25; Luke 22:20, as well as first Corinthians 11:23-26. He takes this cup and He gives thanks and gives it to them, and He says, "Drink from it all of you, for this is my blood of the new covenant, which is shed for many for the remission of sins". So He identifies His blood, that is, the shedding of blood, His death, that this is the sacrifice that is the foundation for the new covenant. He is not saying it begins the new covenant, but it is the sacrifice that establishes the new covenant. It will come into effect when Jesus returns to establish His kingdom (Jeremiah 31:31-33).

His blood is shed for the remission of sins (King James Version). That's the word APHESIS, which means forgiveness, it means to cancel a debt, and it's the cancellation of sin. So this is the third cup. In first Corinthians 11:25 Paul says, “This is the cup of the new covenant in My blood; do this, whenever you drink it, in remembrance of Me.”

So there's no set pattern given in the New Testament for the frequency of observing the Lord's Table; it's as often as we do this. Some people do it every week, some groups do it once 1/4. We do it once a month on the second Sunday of every month. The Passover, the Seder that Jesus observed with his disciples, not only looked back to the redemption from slavery in Egypt, and that original Passover and Seder look forward to the coming of the Messiah who would redeem us from sin, but Jesus also adds a predictive element to the Lord's Table. It's not just looking back and remembering what Jesus did on the cross, it is also a future focus, and that comes up in verses 29 and 30.

Matt 26:29, 30 ^NASB “But I say to you, I will not drink of this fruit of the vine from now on until that day when I drink it new with you in My Father’s kingdom.” 

So there were 4 cups that were taken in the course of the meal. He takes the third cup is the cup of redemption, but He doesn't take the fourth cup. The fourth cup is the cup that relates to the Messiah in the kingdom and He doesn't take it because He will not take it until He comes in His kingdom

"After singing a hymn, they went out to the Mount of Olives." They would have sung the second part of the Hillel psalms, probably Psalms 115-118, or some say 117 and 118. They did not drink from the fourth cup. And then it ended. But since that fourth cup was not taken, it leaves us with a future focus.

Now this morning we are celebrating the Lord's Table. The Lord's Table is a time of remembrance. It is a time of thanksgiving, a time of worship where we should not only look back, but we should look forward to the coming of our Lord. It is a time when we as the body of Christ are fellowshipping, it's a meal; we are fellowshipping being with God. It is a time for the believer to be in fellowship, which is why we prayed earlier. We make sure we are in right relationship with the Lord, and it is our time as a body of Christ—that is what is called communion—to look forward.

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